Merry Christmas!

As is tradition, we opened PJ's on Christmas Eve. This year the kids all got slippers as well (which, by the way, are not easy to find) - they LOVED them.

Olivia's were little monkeys with bows on their heads. She wants to put them on whenever she sees them.

We decided to go to the temple grounds, since we got snowed out of going last weekend, and we hadn't seen the lights yet. So, we threw the kids in the car in their jammies and headed over. We told them about the live nativity, and Noah was under the impression that the real baby Jesus would be there - and was very excited about it. And if not him, then at least the real Mary and Joseph. Unfortunately, the "live" nativity was not "live" on Christmas eve, but he didn't seem to mind too much. Either that or he was too cold to notice.

We did manage to get a family picture while there - one of the few we have of us all together. Next years Christmas card?

Here is everything waiting under the tree. Harrison and Noah got a Lego table, and Olivia got a custom built kitchen. Looks like Santa's elves spent many long nights building those in time for Christmas :)
Here's some more photos of the kitchen and fridge, just 'cause Santa did such a great job on it:


I'm thinking that the boys will also be able to enjoy this toy. Although, they haven't left the Lego table since they opened all the Lego's GG got for them.

Olivia got lots of accessories from us and the Grandma's. She got a set of food that chops and peels (velcro) with a little knife - she loves to pull all the pieces apart. Here it is in it's spot in the kitchen, with her new little tea set up on the shelf, and the apron I made for her hanging up. Amazingly, Santa got the same fabric for the sink skirt.
I think Santa must have gotten some ideas for this kitchen from here and here and here. He even put a little light inside the oven, which fascinated Livie as she figured out how to turn it off and on.

Okay, so there were some other gifts as well. The Lego table:

It looks like this was a much simpler project, just some bins to hold Legos, and some base plates to build and play on:
I'm guessing Santa got his idea from here. Very clever of him.

And Grandma Grettle (GG) supplied the Lego's. The boys LOVE the Star Wars sets. They have been standing at that table every spare moment since they opened the Legos. And Sam's had quite a bit of fun with it also. Personally, I've been busy with my new toy:

Sam got me a new iPod touch. And I love love love it. My palm broke a couple months back, and so it will be nice to have a new electronic organizer, but it's so much more than that. This connects to the internet, and has full web browsing capabilities, and automatically syncs all my email, contacts and calendar with my gmail account - something that had become a big frustration with my old device. Not to mention all the fun apps you can download. The possibilities are really endless. Needless to say, I've been tinkering and customizing this for much of today.

We've spent a lot of time lounging, and enjoying time together, and had a pretty relaxed enjoyable Christmas. Hope you did too!

Blizzard Update 2

18 inches baby!
You really can't even see the table anymore (our car is similarly burried).

Visit to the Capitol

We went to the Capitol Visitors center. Me and the boys went with the local scout troop, and had a great time. We saw the basics. Here's some photos of the visit. Here's a shot of the very top of the dome. It is tall enough to fit in the Statue of Liberty from NY, and still have 30 feet left over.



Harrison's Notes:
- I like the statue of Philo (Farnesworth)

- I like the statue of Freedom more than Philo


- The king of Hawaii


Afterward we also stopped by the Library of Congress - which is stunning.

Blizzard update

It's now 2:30. In the past two and a half hours, we got 5 inches. It is supposed to snow through 6pm, so that's like 20 inches by the end of the day.

The DC blizzard

They are calling this the storm of the decade. Last night, the radio kept saying, that we may get a few inches before noon, but at noon it would really start. We could see 10 - 15 inches.

It snowed the entire night. When we woke up this morning, there was enough to play in, perhaps 6 inches. Then we came inside, had hot cocoa. At noon when we sat down for lunch we measured 10 inches of base.

All I want for Christmas

Santa came to our Christmas party this year. It was fun to watch how each of our kids reacted to Santa.

Harrison was all business. He had to explain to Santa exactly which books he wanted, and also explain that some of them might not be released yet, and to just get him the ones that were out. And then when he was done, and Santa gave him a candy cane, he just sat there. Like it was his seat for dinner. I had to remind him to let someone else have a turn.

Earlier in the week, Noah had mentioned he remembered being frightened of Santa last year (he did not sit on his lap) but that this year he would sit on his lap so he could tell him what he wanted. But as soon as he saw Santa, he ran from the room. I coaxed him back so he could watch Harrison talk with Santa, and then he saw Santa give Harrison a candy cane. That sealed the deal. He was shy at first...

But then was all smiles. He asked Santa for some Lightening McQueen socks (which he had seen at the Target dollar spot the day before.) I think Santa will come through for him on that request.

And then there was Olivia. She burst into tears the moment I set her down, and just looked at me like, "who have you left me with?" She was very happy to get off of his lap, and clung to me to let me know I better not leave her with anyone else the rest of the night.

Snow Day!

On Friday night, on the way to a school function, Harrison and I overheard the weather report for the next day - 2 to 4 inches of snow! Harrison exclaimed, "Yay! No school!" I said, "You're right. It's Saturday tomorrow, there will be no school. And maybe no Christmas party at church either..." He explained to me that it was a win win situation. If it snowed we could play outside in the snow all day, and if it didn't, we had a party to go to. Well, it ended up being win-win-win because it did snow all day, and we still had a party to go to! We also decorated the much anticipated gingerbread house - we didn't do it on Thanksgiving this year, but the boys both remembered it being a new tradition, and I finally got around to making the parts, and building the house just in time for a fun snowy Saturday. Harrison and Noah had a great time in the snow, and Olivia and I joined them for a few minutes. Sam braved a much longer time outside, building a big snow fort with the two boys. It snowed all day long, and I think we had about 3 inches of accumulation. Here's some of the pictures/video I took while I was outside.



And here's a picture of the fort they built - I didn't get any action shots - it was cold out there, and I'm still a bit of a wimpy Californian when it comes to snow. But Sam got a shot of their hard work.

Our Little Joseph

In spite of the several (okay, like 3) inches of snow we received on Saturday, we had our ward Christmas party. It was a great night, and Harrison was asked to play Joseph in the Christmas Pageant they put on for part of the entertainment.

Here's Joseph with Mary as they practiced before they went on stage. Harrison was so excited. As we were getting ready to leave for the party, he was dancing around saying, "Hello, I'm Joseph!" in the deepest voice he could muster.

Here he is during the performance. Harrison did a great job walking slowly to the middle of stage as the narrator told of Joseph and Mary going to Bethlehem to be taxed. And then he stood on the stage the rest of the time, patiently watching as the other participants joined the stage one by one. After it was all over, and I asked him if he had a good time, he said, "Yes, it was fun, but I wish I could have been Mary." When I asked if it was because she got to hold the baby Jesus, he replied, "No. It's because she got a chair. I had to stand the whole time, I wish I could have sat down."

And here's a picture of Olivia, just because. She was pretty cute all dressed in red. I made a new poinsettia head band for the season. They took pictures of kids on Santa's lap, so when I get those, I will post them. Olivia burst into tears when I set her down, so I'm looking forward to seeing that picture.

Thanksgiving

We had a nice Thanksgiving with just the 5 of us this year.

Harrison and Noah provided the name cards, and did a great job making each one very individual. I think Olivia had 2 name cards because each of the boys wanted to make her one. They were decorated with turkeys, cornucopias, and lots of food.

This is us sitting down to eat. Notice something missing? The turkey. Just before dinner, after the turkey had been resting, and all the sides and gravy had been made and were hot and ready to go, we noticed the drippings from the turkey had just the slightest pink tinge to them. So back in the oven the bird went, and we started without him. I really hate cooking turkey. Every year I read all the tips and tricks, and get a new oven thermometer, etc., etc., etc. And almost every year I have to put the bird back in the oven when I thought he had finished cooking. The Sunday before Thanksgiving I cooked a 7 lb chicken, which was much faster than cooking turkey, and it turned out moist and delicous. I'm thinking next year I'll just do that, and call it a turkey.

When we sat down, we each said what we were thankful for. Harrison started us off with "All of God's creations, especially the whole earth." Noah was ready to eat, and not too excited that we had to talk first, but then grudenly said, "Soda," which was sitting in front of him at the table. Harrison responded, "No, Noah, you must be thankful for something important. Like all of Gods creations. I think that includes soda."

While the turkey wasn't the greatest, I did make a pretty mean pumpkin cheesecake. I followed Pioneer Woman's recipe, and it turned out super yummy. It was huge, though, so we invited some friends over for Pie Night on Friday. I think this will become a new tradition. I love making pies, but since we usually have a small gathering, we can't (or shouldn't...) eat all the pies by ourselves.

A Bouquet of Hair Accessories

I love having a girl. But, I must admit, after being so used to having boys, I'm not the best at coordinating accessories. I found myself pretty overwhelmed when first trying to shop for a girl. With the boys everything coordinated with everything, and a ball cap was as extensive as the accessories got. There are so many shades of pink/purple/red, and so many combinations of the above. My fun Aunt Cindy gave Olivia some adorable headbands when she was brand new. They were my favorite accessory. I kept meaning to make some for her myself, but I never found the right headbands, so it never got done. Recently I've been trying to figure out what to do with Olivia's hair. With my boys, I just trimmed it when it got unruly. But I figure that's probably not the right thing to do for her, if I ever want her hair to grow. And her hair isn't quite long enough (or thick enough) to hold a clip. A couple weeks ago she was wearing a dress that went really well with a hair clip I had, but it wouldn't stay in her hair. So I got the idea to clip it to a headband that she could wear. It worked great. And then I remembered my Aunt Cindy's cute head bands (I lost my favorite one!) and got an idea to make headbands that would be interchangeable. So I found a bunch of different colored headbands, in the hair aisle (I guess I was looking in the baby section - the ones for adults and little girls work great for babies too!)

And then I got some barrettes (I remember these from when I was a little girl):

And I hot-glued the barrettes to various fake flowers:

It was super fast to make, and I ended up making a lot:


And I love all the different color combinations that I can get now. With 14 clips and 18 headbands, I think I've got a combination for just about everything in her wardrobe. And I figure when she dosen't wear headbands anymore, she'll still be able to wear the clips. I even pondered clipping one into my hair the other day....

And here's Olivia modeling one combination. This was an outfit that was impossible to find a hair accessory for because of the colors. But now she's got several combinations that will work!And then to organize it all, I made this thingy to put on the wall. It's just got 4 rows of ribbon to put all the clips on, and a big pocket to put all the headbands in.

The Balloon Fest

In scrolling through some of our pictures, I noticed that these pictures never got posted in our blog. When David was here for the summer, he had some balloon skills. And our kids loved it!


Here's Noah with a huge flower.



Olivia with a flower hat/necklace



Harrison feeling extra strong with his Batman utility belt.



And Noah testing the rocket boosters on his utility belt.