Unwrap The Fun!

We had a little Christmas "scrimmage" today...you know, practice for the big day!  We will be meeting up with my 'rents in Lancaster for Christmas, and we didn't want to be dragging gifts back and forth across the country, so my parents had some of theirs sent here.  We will be leaving here before lunch on the 24th so our Christmas morning will have to be earlier that day.  I decided to let them open their presents from my parents today so they could have a little more time to play with them before we leave...also it gives me a little more peace!  Both kids got chairs from Pottery Barn.  K seems to like her big brother's more than hers, so thankfully Riley said she can sit in his anytime she wants!  Right now they are both sitting in their chairs (side by side), eating popcorn and watching a movie...so cute!

Riley also scored a Matchbox Pirate Ship.  This thing is pretty cool - it goes on land or water and you can create 30+ ships out of it.  Riley loves to build and create things so this gift is perfect.

I've been working with Riley on showing thanks to others.  He's learned to look at someone in the eye to say thank you.  To act appreciative whether he likes the gift or not as well as whether he already has one or not.  He's also getting better at accepting compliments.  We've been practicing every week.  Today he asked to call his Nanny & Pappy right away to tell them how much he loved his new chair and his pirate ship.

Since we're heading out before Christmas, I told Riley that I asked Santa if he could bring our presents a day early for us.  After we viewed a personalized video message from Santa online, I told Riley that Santa must be willing to bring our gifts early since he said Riley was being a good boy.  The things you have to tell your kid just to keep the spirit of Santa alive!

I am happy that Riley has a very good idea about what Christmas is about this year.  My parents sent the kids the Veggie Tales movie, "Saint Nicholas: A Story of Joyful Giving" a few weeks back.  It helped illustrate that Santa is based on a real person and we should give to others because God gave us the best gift of all on Christmas.  Today after Riley came home from school, he told me that he knows the real meaning of Christmas.  I asked him what he thought it was and he replied that it's about baby Jesus not about presents!  My heart swelled with joy.  He was telling me without being prompted!  He also told me that at school he was offered a book as a gift, but turned it down because he has lots of books at home and needs to start to give stuff away to make room for the new stuff from his family!  I love the fact that he's not obsessed with having it all!  He chose to ask Santa only for 3 things this year.

I think living in the situation we've been in for the past 4 months has helped him be grateful for what we have.  I never once heard him complain that we didn't have a tree this year, or that we didn't make cookies, or didn't have a train running around under our tree!  He's just rolled with it...This past year has helped mold him into a more flexible person.  As long as he has his family, he's happy.  Isn't that what it's all about.  Being content with what we have and loving those around us?

Happy Early Christmas!

The Last Weekend Before Christmas

We had our second to last Friday with Daddy this weekend.  We ran some errands in the morning and then had en early dinner so we could check out the Candlelight Christmas event at "This Is The Place."  It is a park dedicated to the Mormon pioneers in Utah.  They have old buildings from pioneers days and for the holidays they had carolers, a live nativity, Father Christmas, crafts, dancing and the kids favorite...a train to take you all over the park!  We got to write a letter to Santa and then throw it in the fire so that it could get to him via smoke signals like they would have done before snail mail and email!

This is Riley outside one of the buildings...he got nervous to open each door because he didn't know who or what was inside each one.

This was Kendall's favorite part, seeing the reindeer.  We visited with Father Christmas (aka Fake Santa according to Riley) and she did well...maybe because we didn't force her to sit on his lap?  She did sign thank you when he gave her a candy cane and waved bye-bye to him as well.

Saturday was spent running some more errands which included a trip over to the house where we met up with Kevin and Cara.  Later that night, we all met up at the Hogle Zoo to check out the Zoo Lights.  They have TONS of lights all over the zoo.  Many are of animals which of course was a favorite of the kids.  K loves seeing all the animals!  Riley loves seeing all the lights!  And Andy loves seeing the tigers - especially the 3 young ones playing in the snow!

Sunday had an interesting start...We got up and rushed to get ready for church only to discover we were there 45 minutes LATE or 1 hour early...depending on which service we were intending to go to...We were an hour early!  So we went back home and started over.  We made it to church, on time for second service, then headed out to lunch afterwards.  The afternoon was spent in front of the t.v. watching the Eagles secure a playoff berth!  Woo Hoo!  I then worked on some crafts that I'd been meaning to get done.  I still have a few pieces of jewelry I'd  like to finish, but we'll see.

This week will be busy with laundry, wrapping, and packing!  How I dread all three of those tasks!  It will all be worth it though.  We're hoping that the storm that's expected in the north east by the end of the week doesn't hamper our flight into Baltimore...Nothing like traveling with two kids across the country during the holidays with potential snow storms!  Oh well...I think we can handle just about anything at this point!

Made With Love - 2009

Today we finished our handmade ornaments for 2009.  In keeping with our handprint theme, Riley created snowmen on a plain blue (shatterproof) bulb from his handprint.  We may consider making them from Kendall's hand, but not too sure how she'd enjoy me painting her hand...she always wants me to clean them when they get messy.

This next one I got the idea from a blog I follow.  I took pictures of the kids' profile, cut them out with my exacto knife, colored them black with a sharpie and modge podged them onto painted white wooden discs.  Then I hot glued some ribbon on the back and they are ready to hang on the grandparents' trees.

Popping With Appreciation For R's Teacher

In trying to come up with something clever as a Christmas gift for Riley's teacher, I ended up creating this...I bought the bowl at Ikea, broke out the cricut and created the vinyl lettering, bought microwave popcorn, movie theater sized candy and a gift card to Blockbuster.  I'm also planning on having Riley make her a card to go along with it...I know that teachers need to feel appreciated more than anything else!

Merry Christmas Mrs. L!

Home Sweet Home...

I snapped a few pictures of the house today while I was there.  I couldn't get too many because I had both kids with me by myself, but you can get a feel for how things are progressing.  Right now they are telling us we should be able to settle between 1/14-1/24.  I'm hoping it's closer to the 14th because Andy is traveling for work during the latter part of that window.  Although it wouldn't be the first time I had to do the majority of the unpacking myself!

Here is the staircase from the front of the house - standing in front of the playroom doors.  The painters were there today prepping for paint and stain.  The railings will be stained a dark color as will the hardwood floors.  The walls will be a shade of tan as well as the carpets.  There is tile in the foyer, hallway, laundry, kitchen and nook.

This is an example of the trim on the top of each doorway.  This is going to look so beautiful, especially with the high ceiling in the foyer.

This is the fireplace in the living room.  It is concrete and will be painted white.  this is a wood-burning fire place...a battle I finally won with Andy.  I know they are inefficient and messy, but nothing can compete with a roaring fire on a cold winter's night.  The sounds of the wood popping and the smell of it burning...I can't wait!

This is looking into the living room from the dining room.  The wood floors are wider plank than we've had in our homes before and I can't wait to see how they look stained.  We've also chosen a darker stain than in the past...

Here is the fireplace in our family room.  This one is also concrete and will be painted white as well.  It is a gas fireplace and will help to heat our family room and kitchen area.

This is our kitchen from the family room.  I love how the tile looks with the grout - good choice Kevin!  The railing you see on the left connects with the foyer stairs and then upstairs from the landing.

Andy and I feel so blessed to be able to afford this beautiful home.  We spent a lot of time worrying about resale and making choices to help us when the time comes...but as in the past, if it's God's plan for us to move, he'll sell our house once again.  We've decided that since we're going to have this big home, we need to make the most of it and have lots of people over.  We both agree that this home is our most favorite one yet and is going to be the hardest to leave...

Hotel Chunko is currently taking reservations...The last week in February has already been booked!  We are so excited to have company planning to visit us so soon.  Let us know if you want to come out to ski, hike, mt. bike, kayak, sight see in the numerous National Parks like Bryce, Arches or Zion, camp, etc.  There is so much to do year round...and a plus is that it doesn't feel nearly as cold as the northeast in the winter time!

All I Want For Christmas is...

Kevin and I took the kids to see Santa at a photo studio nearby.  Riley came prepared with a letter for Santa.  In his letter, he included pictures of the 3 items he asked for.  How lucky am I that he chose to ask only for 3 things!  He included the pictures because he was afraid Santa would screw up like he did last year...he brought the WRONG Speed Racer car!  Who knew there were different ones?  He asked for Morgan's Mine for his Thomas tracks, a Tonka garbage truck and a True Heros playset.

Sissy was pretty scared of Santa...When I put her on his lap, she FREAKED out!  Just as I expected though.  The photographer did a great job of capturing the moment.  Here's a peek at her first visit with Santa (well, actually her second visit, but last year she slept through it!)

Snow Much Fun!

After three days of snow, I finally got around to buying us some new sleds.  There is a nice sledding hill at a park nearby so I bundled up the kids and myself and we headed across town.  Uncle Kevin met us there today which was a great treat!  Riley had a great time trying to go over a jump made out of a bale of straw.  He missed it more than he hit it, but he had a blast.  He and Uncle Kevin hit it together and Riley flew off and rolled and Kevin ended up going over him!  Thank goodness he got up laughing!

He and I went down together and spun around in a 360 then both went rolling down the hill together.  We also attempted the jump together and I held onto him and not the sled so we both launched off the sled and landed on top of mom!  I am thankful the snow made a good cushion.

I didn't realize that it would be so much work to carry a bundled up toddler and a sled back up the hill each time.  I think I need to tie a rope to the sleds so I can drag them back up with me next time!

Afterwards, we stopped at Artic Circle for a candy cane milkshake.  We split it between the three of us - Kendall hogging most of it and then snuggled up to watch Elmo's Christmas Countdown together.  What a great afternoon.  I am so blessed to have two wonderful children who bring me such joy!

Watch out!  Here he comes!  He can't steer!

Whew!  He made it down without crashing!

All Is Calm...All Is Bright

At one of the local stakes, they put on a live nativity.  We decided to take the kids to check it out.  It is similar to the Walk Through Bethlehem we did last year in Ponte Vedre.  This one you had to wait in line and walk by and through the scenes.  It was well done.  They had small fire pits through out the line to keep you warm and they had people dressed in costume walking around with their goats which kept Kendall's attention.  Riley liked the costumes and scenery while Kendall got most excited about the animals.  It is a great way to show the kids how people lived during the time when Jesus was born.

This is us waiting our turn in the very long line.  Thank goodness we got there early or the we would have waited longer!

Here are the wise men.  They also had a scene with someone writing while the Christmas story was being told via speakers.

They had 2 camels there and K went NUTS!  This one actually started to get close to her, but Andy got nervous that it would spit on them.  She was disappointed when Andy took her away from it!

She was in pure heaven here.  I have to say I was too - I love calves.  It was so soft and K loved to pet it.  She could have stayed there petting the calf all night.  There was a dog inside this pen with the calves and it barked every time kids tried to climb up on the fence!

She loved petting the goats as well.  Maybe she'll be a vet when she grows up?

All in all it was a great night.  Cold, but worth it for the kids to see what life was like over 3000 years ago and the type of world Jesus was born into.

She Can't Get Enough...

After our elf hunt today, we headed over to the house for our daily check in to see what progress was made.  It was almost dinner time and I didn't have anything prepared for a meal so we decided to go out to dinner.  So we headed over to Goodwood BBQ.  Kendall is rather picky at mealtime.  But they had something on the menu we knew she'd like.  Her new favorite is onion rings...

These were a hit, but a bit big for her little mouth!  She didn't give up though!

The Outside Is All But Complete

Now you can get a better look at our soon to be new home.  They have a little bit of work to do outside - like around the foundation, grading the yard, etc.  They should be finished with sanding the tape by early next week.  The tile should be started on Wednesday, then the hardwood goes in, followed by the finished carpentry/trim.  After that it should fly...I really hope!  Andy's even starting to feel cramped in our tiny apt. and he's not here for more than a few hours a day!  I'm thinking some flower boxes at the garage windows would look pretty...

Elf Scavenger Hunt

We visited Gardner Village today.  We were there this fall to go on their witch scavenger hunt and had such a blast, we decided to return for their elf scavenger hunt.  Riley and Kendall enjoy looking for the different elves they have on display there.  We did some window shopping along the way.  They have some wonderful stores, but I behaved and didn't purchase anything other than some hot cocoa and a cookie for each of us when we completed our task.

Here is Riley with an elf selling candy canes

This was one of my favorites.  The elf is hanging upside down while trying to place the star on top of the tree.  Check out the ice on the old mill!  It's so cool!

This elf was privy to the "naughty" and the "nice" list.  We tried to see if Riley's name was on either one!

Daddy took this picture of Mommy and Riley kissing under the mistletoe.  Unfortunately he forgot to include the elf holding the mistletoe in the picture!

I forgot to mention that it was a balmy 27 degrees out today when we started out elf hunt.  The winds picked up and snow started to fall, but we just darted into some of the stores to keep warm.  The hot cocoa felt great as a treat afterwards!

Christmas Fun...

We took the kids to Thanksgiving point to see the Christmas lights they have on display.  It was the kind that you drive through.  The kids enjoyed seeing the display while listening to Christmas music.

Afterwards, we went to see the reindeer that they had in a small pen.  Kendall went NUTS over the reindeer.  She screamed when I took her away from them to go into the store to get some hot chocolate!  She reminds me of a certain relative who also loves animals...

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree!

Our original plan was to buy a little Charlie Brown type tree to decorate with strung popcorn and paper chains, but the more we thought about it, the more we realized we have NO room for a tree in our cramped little apt.  The other issue is even if we did make room, Sissy would find a way to destroy it!  So we had to compromise and this is what we did instead:

Riley painted a piece of poster board green and then we cut it out.  I then cut out the cute lights and Christmas balls with my Cricut and let Riley glue them on to the tree.  It's currently taped on to our wall in the family room.  Daddy's only issue with our tree is that there isn't a train under the tree...We've ALWAYS had a train under our tree, but Riley said "I guess we'll just have to wait until next year Dad!"  Seems like he's satisfied with our make-shift tree!  Maybe we'll give it a trunk yet...

Here it is...

They've been working on the exterior, but the interior seems to be moving incredibly slow. They should be putting up the tape and mud today, but I'm not holding my breath. We're meeting with the new project manager Friday morning to discuss the progress or lack there of...I can't wait to get out of this cramped apt and into our beautiful new home...

Our Visit With Santa

There is a photographer out here who has a studio in her house and has "Santa" come to visit.  She sets up two afternoons of photo ops.  She schedules 4 kids every 15 minutes and for $10/child, you kid gets to visit with Santa and get their photo taken.  You also get a 4x6 included in your fee.

Uncle Kevin went with us to see K's first real visit with Santa.  Last year at Kiawah, she was sleeping in his arms so it was peaceful...not the same today.  She played hard to get with him at first.  She only got close enough to touch his jingle bell bracelet and then go running back to the safety of Uncle Kevin.  I then held her next to Santa and she started screaming bloody murder!  It got worse when I put her on his lap.  Poor kid got traumatized today!  But I expected she'd freak out so no surprise there.

Riley on the other hand was very prepared.  He had a letter for him containing a list of his top 3 items including the pictures we took at Toys R Us.  He didn't want Santa to get it wrong!  He acted a little goofy, but it was because he was nervous.

I can't wait to see what the pictures look like.  We won't get to see them until Dec. 7th!

After seeing Santa, we drove over to a Christmas tree lot that had some reindeer in a pen.  K loves reindeer...well, she loves just about ANY animal.

Sissy and her "boyfriend" checking out the reindeer.

Riley sitting in Santa's sleigh while chomping on his first candy cane of the season.

It's Riley the Red-Vested Reindeer!