Christmas Eve Part 2 (The Adventures of Lily & Trey!)

For the last ten years we have spent every Christmas Eve Evening at Tad's Mom's house! We look forward to it every year...we know exactly what to expect...wonderful food spread out on the counter in the basement, a roaring fire, Christmas movies, laughing and teasing, opening jammies, exchanging gifts and chocolate fondue!!! The only thing that changes is the new spouses and the new kids!

It was so much fun watching Lily and Trey this year. They are only 9 months apart and we could not separate them. Wherever Trey went Lily followed and vise versa! They were caught under Grandma's tree several times (shhhh Grandma doesn't know :)), they locked themselves in the bathroom (both just recently potty trained) claiming to have to go to the bathroom, they were hiding under Grandma and Grandpa's blankets, both clinging onto either end of a slinky and chasing each other around, going up and down the stairs ten million times and when one wasn't with the other they would look around and ask where they were. It isn't just Trey that adores Lily ( & Kylie), Cutes and Lips want to be with them all of the time! They want to hold, hug, snuggle, and play with them all of the time! Obviously I couldn't put my camera down! They were all so cute!

The kids all loved their PJ's and slippers! This year I made all of them Quillows and "snuggies"(which are heatable rice packs!). Grandma and Grandpa spoiled them with an art computer game from Fisher Price! Tad got his very own cotton candy machine! Anyone that knows Tad knows that he loves candy. Thanks everyone for such a wonderful night! It was a blast! By the time we got back home the kids were fast asleep. Cutes woke up for a minute to tell me that she was so excited that she couldn't get her heart to stop beating! I swear when they were all soundly asleep, I could picture the sugar plums dancing in their heads!

Christmas Eve 2008!

Ever since we moved to Cache Valley we have been getting together with all of our families on Christmas Eve day! Our new tradition is getting together with Grandma Debbie and Grandpa Mitch for breakfast! The kids couldn't wait for Grandpa's Mickey Mouse pancakes and Tad couldn't wait to get a hold of Grandma's yummy student gifts! Uncle Alex and Uncle Dustin were there too (we missed you Aunt Becky!).


After breakfast comes the presents! Everyone had so much fun exchanging gifts! I got spoiled big time!!! My mom got us Wicked tickets for in April! I am so excited, I was just telling her the other day that they were all sold out and that I was bummed that we couldn't go. Wow, is she good!!!





Uncle Dustin was awesome at teaching 3P how to Gator Golf, and Uncle Alex dazzled his nieces with jewelry and hats and gloves (you New Yorker you!).After all of this and a quick game of Pictureka you would think that they would be worn out...nope! On to the movies!!! We went and saw Desperaux! The adults liked it, the kids said they liked it, but 3P and Lips were ready to leave halfway through. It was such a fun morning!

What a great day!

What a great day! Tad just got home Thursday from California and we were supposed to go down to SL for moms Christmas party...but we got snowed in :(. We were bummed yesterday that we didn't get to go to the party, but today was such a nice day just being able to all be at home at the same time and not have to run anywhere! My house is clean, clean, clean...such a great feeling! My kids played together all day...we practically had to rip them apart tonight to put them to bed! We made a gingerbread train! I was going to make the gingerbread houses this year from scratch...but I waited too long into the season, now I am just trying to fit in wrapping gifts, taking around neighbor gifts and all of the other little things there are to do this time of year! I had to settle on just making gingerbread men! The kids don't care weather it came out of a box or mom made it, they just want to decorate it with candy and lick the frosting! The train really turned out cute though! We spent the rest of the evening dancing around the kitchen to Christmas music and playing Hi Ho Cherry O! Tad is off for the next two weeks!!!Ypee! No school or work!









I had the kids pictures taken a couple of weeks ago. Trey was hilarious. After each shot he would say, "Ok, we're done here". Poor kid... you could read it all over his face. It was like puling teeth to get him to smile!

Oh...the POWER of the BLOG!

So when I took the picture below of the ladies party at the rest home...two things went through my head...
1. this is going to be me when I am older
2. I hope that no one reading my blog know this person, no of course they wouldn't.
Well, they did. Turns out Tad's dad (Hi Gaylen!), was reading my blog and called Tad...Jean Pugmire just happens to be his older sisters (our favorite Aunt Karla!) best friend. They have been friends for years! How random is that...! What a small world moment!

Wheelchairs or bust!

Ok, so Tad is always teasing me that I would throw a party any day of the week for no reason at all. Tonight the girls performed at a Retirement Home(they were adorable!!!) and I found this on each one of the tables in the dinning room. I had a vision of the future of Tad and I in our little retirement room and inviting all of our "buddies" over for a roarin good time! Scrabble or bingo anyone?

Ok...this blogging thing is addicting...and a major time waster...one blog leads to another and then another...ahhhhh! Ok, down to wrap some gifts and watch a little Mama Mia!

Tis the Season...

Goodness...it has been only a few days but there have been so many things going on!

* We went down last Friday so that the girls could have a "painting sleepover" with their Grandma Reta! Mom and Dad decided to go down too so 3P could have a sleepover with Grandma Debbie and Grandpa Mitch (then mom and dad could have a date!!!). Trey had a blast being just one on one with Grandma & Grandpa and even Grandma Kelly!!! He had them in stitches most of the night! The girls had a blast staying up late and painting all morning on Saturday! They painted a ton of cute tree ornaments to put on the little cute tree grandma got for each of them to put into their room!
Saturday we were planning on taking Trey to the zoo. He was so excited, until we walked out the door and it was snowing like crazy. Instead we ended up snowed in at Grandma Reta's playing the WII, making gingerbread houses and eating pizza!

* One of my most favorite people in our ward, Sister Blotter, requested that our November Enrichment be put in place of our 2nd week lesson! It went really well and a lot of people that weren't able to make it to Enrichment were there! I took the idea from here http://www.lilieslane.com/Resources/ReliefSociety/Lessons/lessonholy_silent.html and then changed some of the music and made it into a DVD. It was really nice to have a quiet moment to reflect on what is important, especially this time of year.

*Cutes had her first Christmas piano recital on Sunday! She was very first and did a wonderful job! She was so excited to play. All of the kids love listening to all of the other students play! It was a wonderful night of beautiful Christmas music!



*Monday was our second annual Christmas Cookie Exchange (thanks Nicole for the idea way back when!) for the kids! Wow...what a blast! We had 17 kids, ages 2 to 8! Each family brought 6 dozen cookies...I have never seen so many beautiful cookies! I made homemade oreos! They were great...just like the real thing...but softer. If you need an easy recipe for the holidays, this is it! The kids eyes popped out of their heads when they walked into the kitchen! I just used decorated shirt boxes and let the kids go around and around taking cookies until they were almost all gone! Cookies along with hot wassail...well needless to say, my house was pretty loud! Luckily they all were having a blast down in the basement and could run around as much as they wanted to! Cutes also got to bring home Kristy Bear from school so that she could be a part of her party! We took pictures of the bear eating brownies and drinking milk then of course helping us clean up! Cutes was excited to write about her adventures this morning with Kristy Bear!

Make a Smilebox recipe

*I really, really do not like getting cold. I think that I do, the thought of building the perfect snowman and sledding down the hill or even having a fun filled snowball fight, sounds, well perfect. But then...REALITY happens...let me explain...
I told the kids that we would go outside and play in the snow right after school...plan, at 3:30 go outside for an hour, come in at 4:30, do homework, get ready for dance by 5:30.
Reality,
round up all of the snow clothes, meanwhile 3P falls asleep on the couch.Get cutes dressed, then try to explain to Lips why she can't wear a skirt under her snow suit, and finally get her dressed. Wrestle the gloves out of the dogs mouth. Have Cutes take the dog outside. Try to get each finger properly placed into Lips gloves, finally give up and go for the gloves that have no fingers. Wake 3P up and realize that I am not dressed to go outside. While 3P is struggling to stay awake, I hurry and put my snow clothes on. I finally convince 3P that he really does want to go outside just so that he can wear his new light up spider man boots. Yeah...we are finally outside...it is snowing. Time...4:30. Was it all worth it...definitely!
We had a blast...even when I was freezing cold, I was the one wanting to stay outside! We went sledding in our front yard, built a cute little snowman (with our new snowman kit). We were having so much fun that we accidentally missed dance...oops!
We went inside and had hot chocolate and dinner! Then we decided to make the kids friends gifts!They are these cute bookmarks made with ribbon and buttons! They were so easy that all the kids helped even 3P. We had a blast today!