Merry Christmas Eve.....Eve!!!!

We spent the morning doing laundry and doing chores so that tomorrow we can just relax, or play, or do whatever we want.  We are still trying to come up with some good Christmas Eve DAY traditions.  The evening, we light our Christmas Candle and read the Christmas story and sit around the tree with the Christmas lights on.  Then we set out our treats and just have fun together.  We usually play some games, but tomorrow we may do a puzzle or two.  We have had the card table up all week doing different puzzles. 
For lunch we took the boys to Trolley Square and went to Rodizio's.  It is a Brazilian restaurant.  It is their favorite place to go.  They get to pick what they want and how much they want.  They once again ate more than Greg and I did.  We finally had to tell Noah that we were leaving and tried to convince him that he had had enough.

Then we spent some time walking around and looking at all the shops.  My favorite is William Sanoma, the cooking store.  I have hopes of being a good cook if I have all the gadgets....  nothing has helped so far.  The boys and Greg love Brookstone.  Greg couldn't resist and got himself a mini-helicopter.  Remote controlled, with lights. 
They had a big display set up for Santa - but Santa wasn't there, so we took our own pictures.

Yes, those are plastic spoons stuck to their heads and Noah is surfing on the sleigh.  And people did stop and stare at us.  Gotta love the crazies.

This evening we went and delivered the last of our Christmas gifts and realized that in all of our grocery shopping we had forgotten to get the Eggnog.  I was ready just to forget the whole thing, but I was informed that we just couldn't have Christmas without eggnog for our Christmas glasses.  So the boys and I braved a trip to Walmart for eggnog.  And we survived!!!!  Thank goodness for the self checkout lanes or we would have been in line for an hour.
We made it home safe and sound with the eggnog (and MORE sugar cookies???????)

So now I am taking a bit of a breather while Greg watches "Psych" - funny show by the way.
I should be sleeping and gearing up for a long night tomorrow night, but I have to admit that I am excited and can't sleep.
We have had a fun week and I am not ready for the fun or the excitement of Christmas to be over yet.
But it is after 11 pm, so I think I will sign off now and post more fun things tomorrow!

Good night!

Another fun day!

Yesterday the boys and I went shopping for gifts for Greg.  I thought it was pretty funny, that as soon as we walked into the store the boys headed straight for the toys.  When I reminded them that we were getting Christmas presents from them TO dad, they said ;"Yeah, we know, that's why we are in the toy isle."  It was fun to see what they thought Greg would like - and what they wanted to get him so he could play with them.

The boys and Greg all agreed to come with me to see "Tangled" the new Disney cartoon, with me.  It was GREAT!  One of my favorite lines was ,"You broke my "smolder"."  I love going to the movies and I love that my family does too!

The weather has been crazy - mostly rain.  The storms come in daily - and it has wreaked havoc on my head.  So last night I ended up in bed while the boys went to piano and watched Dirty Jobs with Greg for the evening. 

I also did something to the muscle around my shoulder blade and have had to be hooked up to the TENZ machine - basically shock treatment.  It really does help though.

So today Greg and I were able to go grocery shopping together.  Nathan had been a really good babysitter so we are leaving him with the boys a little more.  We got food for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day dinner and breakfast.  I am SOOO looking forward to that.  Every year Greg and the boys make a big Christmas breakfast after we open presents and I get to take a nap.  It's fantastic!

They decided to watch movies and do puzzles for the afternoon.

Greg had a great idea to go and see the U2 Laser Light show at the Clark Planetarium. I was worried about Nathan getting motion sick, but he did great!!  Greg and I left feeling light headed and dizzy.

Noah was on "Mars" and informed me there is no oxygen so he is suffocating.....

Nicholas was reaching for the stars..... "Mom - earth is a rocky midget NOT a star."

And of course - Nathan finds the one video game there........

We had a lot of fun and can't wait to go back for the Christmas music light show!

Christmas Vacation

Even though the boys have been of track most of the month, this week feels like the real beginning of Christmas Break.  Greg is off for the week and we have fun things planned and I "feel" like it's Christmas!!
Today we decorated sugar cookies and finished our neighbor gifts and most of our baking.
(Tomorrow - movie day!!)

Noah like his frosting...Nathan, not so much.

Here's the difference....

Nicholas made this one for Santa........

He informed me, " This cookie is for Santa!"  (pause)...  "Nah..... that's too much sugar for an old man.  Don't want to kill him....."

The kids cracks me up!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!



More lessons learned

I have spent the last little while trying to change the background on my blog.  Usually this is a fairly simple thing.  But I have done something to it that won't let me change it.  So I get frustrated and just turn off the computer.  So now it has been over a month since I have posted anything.  Lesson learned??  I have been focusing on the not important "look" of my blog instead of posting all of the great things that we have been doing. Time to prioritize my thinking - again.

Thanksgiving was great.  We decided to do things a little different this year.  We went out sledding as a family in the morning.  The week before and of Thanksgiving, we had some great snowstorms and had a lot of great sledding hills.  We had a lot of fun.  The boys loved it.  Noah was the crazy man on the hill.  He would sled down on the tube, backwards, with his arms out and eyes closed.  We would have stayed out longer, but it was only 11 degrees, and it was FREEZING!  So we came home and sat in front of the fire and had hot chocolate.  Then later we had everyone over for dinner.

I was able to take grandma Johnson back up to Idaho and stayed a few days with her.  That Sunday we got 21 inches of snow!  It was a good thing we stayed home and made candy! 

I came back and was able to do the Kindergarten Christmas Party with Noah.  Greg was wonderful and came and read the class a story and helped with the BINGO.

The boysgot off track on the 3rd of December and we have been playing ever since.

Nicholas was baptized on December 4th.  The best birthday present ever!!!  It was a wonderful day for him and all of us.

 We scheduled orthodontic and dentist appointments since they are out of school.  Nathan got his expander removed, and then promptly lost the baby teeth it was glued to.  He thought he would be funny and hide his tooth from the tooth fairy, to test and see how magical she really is.  Needless to say, the tooth fairy didn't appreciate this AT ALL.    I explained the magic is in the fact that she knew he lost a tooth and that she was being gracious in leaving him money even though she couldn't find his tooth.

Nicholas had to have his front tooth exposed because it wasn't coming through on its own.

 

Nathan and Noah both got sick with respiratory viruses, so we got to spend time at the doctors as well.

We spent some time making candy - caramel is the favorite around here.

 

The boys had fun making their gingerbread sleighs.  Although they enjoyed eating them even more!

 Greg has this next week off and we are going to have more fun!  Bowling, movies, cookie making.  It is going to be great!!!