Traditions

This was the first year we were away from family for Christmas. We usually spend the days leading up to the Holiday with family doing the usual Christmas traditions. This year we decided to start a few of our own traditions.

The Saturday before Christmas we had a "Christmas Extravaganza" Each person put 5 dollars into the pot (20 dollars total). Then we teamed up Daddy and Taycee vs Mom and Kaden. We played 9 different games and whatever team won each game got to take some money from the pot. 

Graham cracker towers. Using 3 graham crackers and 1 baggie of frosting each team had to try and build the tallest tower. Daddy and Taycee won that one, mom and Kaden couldn't quite get ours to stand. 

We had a Christmas Card blow one person from each team took a straw and had to be the first one to blow their card off the end of the counter. Kaden won that one and got a dollar from the pot.

Pin the nose on Rudolph

How many ornaments are in the jar? Taycee guess right on. 9.

Christmas Memory. Each team had 30 seconds to memorize the contents of the box. Who ever could remember the most items won. Both teams tied with 6 items.

Build a snowman. Each team had 1 roll of toilet paper, 1 pair of scissors, 1 roll of tape and 4 pieces of construction paper. Using only these materials they had to turn one team member into a snow man. We face timed grandma and grandpa to be the judges. It was a close vote but Kaden won. Taycee thought wrapping daddy in toilet paper was pretty much the greatest thing ever.

We also played "do you see what I see" where both kids had a piece of paper and using the shapes I described had to try and draw the same picture I was drawing. I drew and Angel and Kaden won.

Christmas ABC- each team had 5 minutes to come up with a Christmas word that started with each letter of the alphabet. - Mom and Kaden won.

We had a marshmallow toss where the kids each had a bag of large marshmallows and had to try and get them in their partners bucket that was attached to our waste. Chris and Taycee won that one. 

We ended with a quiz about the events of the Saviors birth. 

In the end Taycee won 11 dollars and Kaden won 9. After the games were over we took the kids to the store and they got to use the money they won to buy a present for each other.
It was a fun day and a great tradition to start!

Seperation

Warning!!

This post is just about a very large wart. It is kind of gross and there are bloody pictures. 

About 3 months ago Kaden got a sliver in his foot which went unnoticed until it became infected. I was living in St George at the time with the Claytons and grandpa pulled it out for him. A few weeks later a wart started growing. It grew and grew. It was the biggest wart I have ever seen. We kept putting wart remover on it but it wasn't making much difference. It wasn't bothering Kaden at all so we didn't take him to the doctor but in December it was so big that it was starting to worry us. Kaden really didn't want to have it removed by a doctor but we told him that if we couldn't take care of it by January he had to go in. One day while he was playing with Taycee she kicked the bottom of his foot while they were playing and caught the wart ripping it off a bit. He panicked and there was a lot of tears and blood. I did my best to bandaid it back on but the next day he caught it on the carpet and it ripped a little more. Chris decided it was time for it to come off. We sat Kaden down and talked to him, Chris was honest and told him it would probably hurt, but that it would be quick. We told him that if we didn't pull it off the doctor would have to and he would probably give him shots to numb it up. That was all the convicing he needed. He layed down with his head in my lap turned on Netflix. I think Chris might have been just as anxious about it as Kaden was. He didn't want to hurt him, but he knew that the wart was ready to come off, Kaden had just gotten out of the shower so his skin was soft and the wart was basically peeling away. Chris grabbed onto it with some tweezer and with one good tug and a minor "ow" from Kaden. He was finally separated from his little friend.  It was gross,  here was lots of blood, I was queasy. Kaden thought it was super cool. Chris had to take pictures. 

Sisters

Every girl needs a sister. It is a right that no female should be denied. Taycee is one of the best big sisters around. She loves to nurture and mother both of the babies. She is one of my biggest helpers around the house and is always quick to pick up a fussy baby or grab a binki. One day I was doing a few household chores. I had heard Brie fussing in her room a bit but it stopped and I thought she must have fallen asleep. I went in to peek on her and this is what I found. Taycee had put her in the bumbo, dressed up, turned on the swing so the music was playing and was dancing around to make Brielle happy. The best part was that Brielle was grinning ear to ear watching her big sister spin and dance around. I stuck my phone in and snapped a few pictures before they noticed me. 

Later I came back and snapped a pic of he beautiful entertainer.

Booster and Brie and pretty lucky to have such an awesome big sister.

Plan to fail

I had a goal, it didn't seem like an unattainable goal, I had a plan in place for everything to work out just so. But there is a Murphy's law somewhere that says this "If you plan and prepare for pictures, somehow something will go terribly wrong." And plan and prepare I did, and terribly wrong it went. All I wanted was to get a good Christmas shot of the family. I had plans to make Christmas cards (okay, maybe more of a Christmas email) all the kids had new church outfits and the house was decked out in Christmas decor.  Saturday night I said to Chris before we went to bed. "I want to take pictures tomorrow before church. We all need to be ready by 12:00." It was such a do-able request that he didn't even bat an eye at the word "pictures" I stayed up an extra hour fashioning the perfect hair pieces for each girl. I laid out clothing and everything was as ready as it could be.

The next day came, baths and showers were had all around, out came the gel, curling irons and hairspray bows were in place and shoes were tied. WE WERE READY!! With time to spare! Chris made the kids a little snack (that wouldn't ruin the pretty clothing) I sat down to feed the baby, things were going so well. Which really should have been my first indicator that things were about to go terribly wrong. About 5 minutes later Chris came upstairs and said "we have a problem, Addison just threw up." I asked if it was a choked on a bite of food throw up (our kids have killer gag reflexs) or a stomach bug throw up. He said he wasn't sure but he had wiped her down and sprayed her dress with Febreze. Pictures were still on.

I finished feeding Brielle and corralled all the children onto the piano bench in front of the tree. In a stroke of luck I snapped a picture right away that appeased my smile requirements and had minimum blur.

I set the kids free and started to shoot a few singles.

When did this girl grow long luscious locks?

When I got to Addison I noticed she was looking a little green around the gills. When I started shooting I noticed she seemed to be swallowing slightly. I decided maybe having her on the carpet wasn't the best of ideas so I would be happy with the pictures I got and move on to Brielle. Chris took Addi gave her a cup of apricot juice and sat with her in the kitchen.

After Brielle I set up the tripod to snap a few family shots. I was almost done when I heard that horrible sound that every parent dreads. The sound of the clenching of stomach and the projecting of liquid. My earlier question was answered, it wasn't a gag reflex problem. The Boost had a bug. But I had a plan, and I had prepared and I had spent an hour on hair pieces. So I did what every good loving mother would do, I stepped over puddle got a rag wiped off her dress and called the family for one last picture. Chris requested one more spray of Febreze so we could all sit by her and still smile. She got spritzed and I was kind enough to stand her in front so A- the smell didn't waft to anyone's noses too quickly and B- if she threw up again it wouldn't be on anyone. Now the real miracle of this whole story is that Chris didn't axe the whole thing. He isn't a picture taking lover, and this was a less than ideal situation. He must have been feeling extra charitable or maybe he saw the slightly crazed look in my eye as I was stepping over apricot spray on my carpet and grabbing febreze bottles and knew just to go along. He gave me 4 self timed clicks of the camera before putting an end to the slightly ridiculous situation. And our own little Christmas miracle occurred, we actually got a picture with all eyes up front.

Alas, even with all that effort there was no Christmas card, or email or shout out of any kind because for the next week we all took turns being sick and I just barely got around to taking these pictures off the camera. Looking at that little smiling girl you wouldn't guess she was 2 minutes post puke and about 2 minutes away from the next bout. But just looking at this picture brings back a slight pungent smell and a small roll of the stomach. 

Dear Addi Boo,

Please don't read this in 20 years and think I was a terrible mother. I promise I snuggled you and tickled your back for hours after this picture was taken. After I scrubbed the carpet that is.

xoxo- mom

First

Tasty Sweet finally got to have her long awaited first day of preschool away from home. She has been wanting to go to preschool since... well since Kaden went 3 years ago. Remember this picture?

 She grabbed her sippie cup and binoculars and charged to the door telling me she was ready to "doe to sool!"

Well now she's got a backpack, a headband and sparkly gloves and she really is ready to go to school.

Which means that I pack 2 lunches each morning

And send these 2 cute bodies off for fun filled days of learning.

After Taycee's first day her teaches said "She fit in like she has been her all year long". She loves it, and asks every day if she can go to school. Life goes by so quickly, it seems like a few days ago she was the chubby pigtailed toddler in the first picture and now she is this beautiful girl with big ideas and even bigger drive. 

Love you my Tasty Sweet, don't grow up too fast.

xoxo-mom

Ice Storm

We experienced our first Virginia Ice Storm last week, everything was frozen and we didn't stand a chance on the roads so Church was canceled. Instead we spent the day in pajamas and made a batch of Christmas sugar cookies. 

Last Sunday Kaden asked if it could be another cookie day. I think they enjoyed themselves.

Puttin on the Ritz

Chris has his first work party. He got the invite while I was still in Utah and called to ask me if I wanted to go. It was a "coat and tie" party and the kids were definitely not invited. We debated weather we would be able to find a baby sitter so soon after moving to an area we didn't know. I was banking on meeting some awesome young women in the ward and told him to RVSP yes. 

Finding a baby sitter was a little harder than I had planned. It turned out that our ward Christmas party was the same night and we couldn't ask anyone in the ward to miss it to watch the kids. Luckily I was told that the Stake Presidents daughters were great baby sitters and they were available for that night. So for the first time ever we left all 4 kids with a cute 15 year old girl and went on a date all by ourselves.

The party was at the country club of Virginia. It was a huge beautiful building. Every room inside had a buffet table with different types of food. Every room also had an open bar, we thoroughly enjoyed the free ginger ale. :) I got to meet a few of the people Chris works with and lots and lots of people he doesn't know. :) I think in all there were about 600 people there. He knew about 10. I think next year he might be a little better acquainted with people. They did have a dance floor with a really fun band playing and we danced for awhile. Towards the end of the night the open bar was starting to show on the dance floor and we decided to call it a night. 

All in all it was a fun time and I enjoyed the chance to get dressed up and do something different. I made Chris take "dance" pictures with me so that in 10 years I have proof that among the days of ponytails sweats and baby spit up there were still times I didn't look like bleary eyed sleep deprived mom.

And then we may have discovered this cool auto shoot setting on my phone where  I call out the word "shoot" and it takes a picture. And this series of pictures came about.