Christmas 2009

On Christmas Eve the boys got to open their Christmas jammies.

Here they are sporting their new jammies in front of the tree.

Christmas morning we all got up and the boys opened their stockings. Then we had a great breakfast with beacon, eggs, sausage, oj, and blueberry muffins. After which the adults opened their stockings. Then we got ready for the day. Yes I know that seems a little weird, but in my family we were never early Christmas risers. We never rushed the whole present thing. So finally after everyone was ready we opened the presents that were under the tree. Then later in the evening we had the Fredins and other friends over for Christmas dinner. I just love being able to spend the holidays with wonderful family and friends.

The stockings all stuff and ready for Christmas morning.

The boys came running downstairs. Seth couldn't keep up and tripped. If you watch you will notice Tade dragging him a bit. Seth didn't quite get what was going on and saw a bowl of cereal on the table. He decided he was hungry and stopped at the table. Then he obviously changed his mind.

Each year my dad used to decorate grapefruit and put them under the tree. Then he just stopped doing it. Lately I've been wanting grapefruit so I asked him to start up with the grafefruit again. So this year there was once again a grapefruit family under the tree. Seth loved it! He played with them all morning. He kept calling them pumpkins though.

My little angel picked out a little angel for me for Christmas.

Tade's whole Christmas was pretty much a Bakugan Christmas. He was the happiest boy in the world that day.

Oh, and he got this dinosaur from his cousin. He has been asking for this forever. He's been carrying it with him evrywhere since Christmas.

For the past several months Jake has been dropping very unsubtle hints about wanting a blue ray dvd player. I kept telling him he doesn't need one. So he was VERY surprised on Christmas to get one from my parents.

The best present of the day was Seth's. He got a kitchen and man was he happy. I unfortunately was at the wrong angle to get a picture of the great smile on his face when he pulled the sheet of. He has been cooking nonstop. Some may think this is a girlie gift, but his future will be happy he has an interest in cooking. Plus it keeps him out of my way when cooking.

Seth's cousin, Amy, got his the cutest spiderman apron. It matched perfectly!

Temple Lights

Each year the Washington DC Temple decorates the grounds with tons of lights. Each night during the season they have Christmas musical performances in the auditorium at the visitor center, nativities from around the world and an outdoor nativity. My favorite performances are always the bell ringer groups. Last wednesday one of those groups was performing so we went down to see the lights and hear the beautiful music.


We of course met our good friends the Fredins there.

Snowed In

I rarely snows in December. We usually get our storms in January, February, and March. This year decided to surprise us and give us two December storms. This last one was a big one. We got over 2 feet of snow. Church was cancelled and the kids ended up getting 3 days of school off which gave them a full two weeks for Christmas vacation. We were lucky that the snow was on the powder side instead of the usual icy snow we get.





















This picture was taken a couple hours after we shoveled the first time. It looks like we didn't touch anything. Both of those cars were completely cleared off at on point.



The birds were sure thankful for our bird feeders full of seed.



This was the day two of the snow. It finally stopped snowing. Tade had a great time playing.

Benton Paul

Tuesday night we took Tade to a concert. I know he's only 5 and it was a school night, but when I found out my cousin was going to be touring with David Archuletta we got tickets. Tade loves Benton and was so excited to be able to see him perform back here. My cousin, Benton, is making his mark in the music world. This was the first time he was able to play back here and we were so excited. So Tuesday my mom, Shauna, Jake, Tade, and I headed to Baltimore. It was such a great evening. Benton has been opening for David Archuletta on his holiday tour. It was so fun to see him on stage singing with the lights and band. He did such a great job and we were very proud. After he finished he announced he would be signing autographs in the lobby during the intermission. As soon as he walked off stage a mass of teenage girls rushed the lobby. We couldn't help but laugh. This was our cousin who we have known forever and these teenage girls all wanted to see him. We watched as the girls in the massive waited their turn. They could have cared less that Benton is married with a baby on the way. At this point in the evening Tade was having such a good time. He was at a grown up concert and he had watched Benton sing his "Paris" song. He loved the lights and stage and people, but the highlight of his night was getting a Benton Paul shirt which he put on immediately after getting it.
After Benton was done we headed back in for the rest of the show. We wouldn't have gone if Benton hadn't been opening the show, but David Archuletta did a really good job. He does have a great voice, but the whole time I watched him all I could think was how young he seemed. We snuck out of that part of the show a little early to head back to meet Benton. We had to go outside and around the back of the opera house to where the tour bus was parked to meet up with him. It was fun seeing some of the behind the scenes stuff. We were able to head into a room and chat for a while. Poor Benton was so tired, but I think it was fun for him to see family. We were also able to meet his band and some of Archuletta's band. It was a truly fun evening.
Thanks for the great night Benton!

I wasn't able to take my good camera with me so I didn't get good pictures. I was able to take one of Tade before the show started.

Tade sporting his new favorite shirt with Benton.

Christmas Tradition

I have had several Christmas traditions since childhood. Some have stuck some haven't. These changes come with the change of houses, family, and ages. One tradition that has stayed over the years is cutting down our Christmas tree. This is something we have done since I was very little. I have the strongest memories of going with my parents and grandparents to the tree farm and cutting down our perfect tree. There was always hot apple cider and donuts to warm us up after the tree hunt. After Jake and I got married we continued this tradition in Utah. I must admit that one year we had to get a tree from Lowes when we were living in North Carolina. That was a sad year, but I've gotten over it. This year we once again ventured out to cut down our tree. We went back to the tree farm I went to as a little girl. The cider and donuts have been replaced by watered down punch and not so good ginger snaps, but the experience of walking the hill looking for the perfect tree was still there. We have to go to this tree farm and hour away because it's the only one that has affordable trees that are tall enough. You can't beat $20 for a huge tree. See we need about a 10-12 foot tree each year. This year we cut down a 15 footer. By the time we got it home and trimmed it down for the base it fit perfectly. I love my family traditions and I love that my children get to have the same experience I had as a little girl. They even get to do it with their parents and grandparents like I did.

Hunting for the perfect tree.

This is how Seth was most of the time. He could not stay on his feet with all the vines everywhere.

On occasion I was able to take a picture of him standing.

Tade brought his camera and had a great time documenting the trip.

There was a combine working the farm next door. Seth was fascinated. He kept telling me he wanted to watch Frank. Frank is the combine in the movie "Cars." So Seth and dad had some downtime watching Frank.

It took quite a while to get the tree tied to the car. This is not something you want flying off on the freeway on the way home.

Our annual Christmas tree cutting family picture. Puffy winter coats don't help with getting a good picture.

We got the tree home and decorated. Seth is under the tree to show how big it really is.

Our trees sure have personality. I much prefer this tree to the cone shaped ones you get everywhere else.

A Success, I Think

A week ago was our ward Christmas Party. In my snow post I mentioned that we woke up to snow the day of the party. It was very wet snow and we knew at some point it would freeze on the roads, but we took the gamble and held the party. There was absolutely no time to reschedule it. So Saturday evening came and we had a very good turn out. Maybe the winter wonderland outside put people in the Christmas party mood.

The evening started with Santa in the primary room. The kids had an hour before the party to see Santa and have their pictures taken. It worked out rather well because it made everyone be on time for the 6:30pm dinner. So our party started as scheduled.

We opened with the primary doing the Nativity. I have my Mom, Sean, and Carrie to thank for that one. They did everything needed to pull that off while I ran around and worked on other things. I think the Nativity was my favorite part of the night. It was a great way to start things off and the kids were perfect. It brought tears to my eyes watching them.

After the Nativity the feast started. Well not a real feast, but some pretty good food. My least favorite thing about feeding large groups is figuring out food quantities. This party was no different. The food was the main item I stressed over. Turned out that we figured perfectly for the meat. We did have rice pilaf and green beans leftover, but I'd rather have leftovers than not enough. We had set up craft tables in the back of the gym with Christmas crafts for the kids. Can I just say that those tables made this party wonderful. It was the calmest party I've seen. The kids were so happy with making crafts that the parents didn't have to chase them around and they were actually able to visit with the other adults.

Towards the end of the evening we had a short musical program. We had members of the ward perform then in between those numbers the ward would sing Christmas songs. Seth enjoyed this part of the evening. He went up front and tried break dancing while the music was going on.

The evening ended with dessert of course. I thought people were pretty full from dinner. Boy was I wrong. I have never seen dessert disappear so quickly. I guess it was seeing all the holiday treats that you only see out at Christmas time. After it was all over I had so many people come up and say how great it was. I know this happens with anything you are in charge of, but I know they meant it. It was a truly wonderful evening. I am so glad that the Bishopric called a co-chair and new people to the committee. This evening would not have happened otherwise.

Tade loved chatting with Santa. He asked him for maxus dragonoid, a puppy, and a blue ray dvd player. That last one was greatly influenced by his father.

Seth on the other hand wanted nothing to do with Santa. He stood by the door. That was as close as he got. After that he wouldn't even go in the room.

Our Bishopric ended the musical talent part of the evening with a very entertaining and impressive rendition of "Jingle Bells" on the water glasses.



This was my favorite part of the night. The kids did such a good job. Tade got to be one of the Shepherds.

Winter Wonderland

This past Saturday we had our first snow of the season. It hit quite early for Maryland, but was enjoyed all the same. Jake got up with Seth and let me sleep in a little bit that morning. I hadn't been laying there very long when Seth came running back upstairs and into the room saying "snow, snow, it's snowing!" A little while later I managed to make it downstairs to see that it definitely was snowing. Everywhere outside was already covered with a blanket of white. It looked beautiful. I enjoyed that thought for about half a second then started to panic. See we were supposed to have our ward Christmas party that night and the snow started to complicate things. I was in charge of the Christmas party and had spent hours the night before decorating. I didn't want all the committee's hard work to be wasted. Plus we had a ton of food already purchased. Anyway, the party will be the next blog, but for now lets focus on the beautiful snow outside. A little while later Tade came running downstairs with the same excitement Seth had had earlier. Tade took about two seconds to get all his snow things on. Seth on the other hand put up quite a fight. He wanted to play in the snow, but didn't want to get all suited up for it. So after holding him down to bundle him up they were both ready to go. Seth headed outside still in tears, but as soon as he hit the snow he was fine. I had too many things going on to join them, but was able to take a moment to snap a few photos.

Some Trimmings From November

Here are some of the November pictures that did make the cut in previous posts, but show how cute my boys are.

Tade had the great idea to draw on the walls then blame it one his brother. So we had the great idea to have him clean it off.

We made turkey hand cookies for Thanksgiving. Tade went a little heavy on the candy corns for the turkey's feathers.

So this one isn't of the boys, but the other day this fox was just hanging out in our yard. It was kind enough to look at the camera for the picture. I love the nature we get to see right out the window.