Christmas

Christmas morning came early. Especially after the late night, but we were all giddy as we headed down the stairs and the squeals of surprise and delight made the late night hours more than worth it. We spent the morning lazily opening presents one at a time and enjoying each one as we went. It was perfect. I had all the best intentions of taking pictures but honestly I was kind of in a haze sitting on the floor trying to stay awake after only 2 hours of sleep. 

Santa and grandmas and grandpas made sure these kids had more than enough to enjoy.

I did capture a picture of a few of the favorites, 

Taycee and Addison got this doll house. ( Which may or may not have come all disassembled and was the main culprit for the ridiculous bed time the night before)

This was far and away The Boost's most favorite present. She lived in it for the next week. 

Brielle loved her new baby toys and was quite content in the high chair playing with the crinkle letter A

Kaden's favorite present was actually a present that Chris wrapped and put under the tree to me. A Wii U. Which is ironic considering that I had vetoed that present idea for Kaden. I guess next year I need to be more specific.

All was merry and bright, the kids were happily playing with their new gifts and then the big Christmas surprise showed up at the door....

Darn that Christmas Magic that swoons me and convinces me to do things that I would never in my right mind do in any other circumstance. 

I am not a dog person. Or I guess I more correctly should say I *wasn't* a dog person. I HATE fur on anything, it disgusts me. I HATE the smell of dog it makes me gag, when my children come in from playing outside and have that lingering twinge of dog smell I make them sit opposite me in the room. And I love a home that smells of warm vanilla or baked apple pie. I didn't see that happening with a dog in the house. Chris on the other hand insists that it is cruel to get a dog you never intend to let in the house. He insisted that if we ever got a dog it would be a house dog. He also insisted that for a dog to be a dog it had to be at least 10 lbs otherwise it was just an oversize rat. There was NO way I was having a large dog in my house. Which is why we decided a dog was never in our family's future.

Kaden had been begging for a pet. I had said no, over and over. I have a severe cat allergy Chris has a dog allergy it rains too much here to have bunnies.. yadda yadda.. you get the idea. Kaden is a good kid who has a very tender heart and about 2 weeks before Christmas he very sweetly but sadly ended our pet discussion with this "Okay mom, I understand, I guess I will just have a fish." And that night I started researching puppy options.

Did you know there is such thing as a dog who doesn't shed? I gather that is common knowledge but I didn't know. Ha. Also, if you bathe dogs regularly they don't have that yucky dog smell I loathe so much. A dog and a yummy smelling house can coexist. Who knew? After lots and lots of researching we were leaning towards a Havanese, but their price tag made that a hard purchase to make so it was back to the drawing board and we finally settled on a Morkie. (Maltese Yorkie Hybrid) I was so back and forth, one day I would say lets do it, the next I would say absolutely not. I was driving Chris nuts, I think he secretly was more excited about a dog than the kids were. I had talked him into waiting til spring, maybe Kaden's birthday. The kids had no idea we were even considering it so it wasn't like anyone would be disappointed. And then 2 days before Christmas I broke down and Chris came home from work to find me frantically looking at puppies online. The next morning (Christmas Eve) Chris made the 2.5 hour drive and picked up our newest family addition. 

 

We kept her in our bathroom upstairs and made an effort to keep the kids downstairs the rest of the day. We did so good, they didn't suspect a thing until right before bed when I asked Taycee to grab me a comb (thinking she would go in her bathroom) but she ran into my bathroom. The poor girl got the fright of her life and she ran down the stairs saying "HOW COME THERE IS A DOGGY IN YOUR BATHROOM!??!" I paniked and ran upstairs to intercept her before she could give the suprise away to the other kids. I am not sure how much she saw or if the dog was just barking at her before she opened the door. But  when I came upstairs saying "shhhhh"she said "Oh is  that just a surprise toy doggie for daddy?" so I went with it and said "yeah" so don't tell anyone. And she didn't. 

We were relived when we made it to Christmas morning without any other discoveries. 

The kids were in heaven. I think they said "Oh my gosh!" 300 times. Along with promises to take such good care of her. Kaden was quite concerned about Daddy's allergies and we had to reassure him several times that this puppy was hypoallergenic and daddy would be fine.

The Boost has a love hate relationship with the puppy, as in she loves the puppy and the puppy hates her. Can't imagine why...

The kids finally decided on a name, Phoebe. She was Sophia for a good part of the day, then she was Prancer (this pup prances around like no ones business) Lexi Bear entered the name game for awhile but in the end Kaden declared "her name will be Phoebe Sophia Christopher Clayton, but we will call her Pheebers for short." And so in a matter for 24 hours I had 5 kids (2 babies, and 2 potty training). Curse you Christmas magic.

* As a side note, we got really lucky with this pup. She has been awesome. She has had minimal accidents in the house and was going potty outside day 3 of having her home. She is very patient with the kids especially Addison, and leaves the baby alone even when she is laying on the floor. 

Here are a couple other pictures from Christmas day. 

Taycee is a puzzle lover, so we built the one she got for Christmas together.

These pictures are compliments of Chris's parents via facetime.

It was a very merry here in Virginia and a testament to the truth that "home" truly is wherever your heart is. 

xoxo- us.

Twas the night before Christmas

It's hard being away from family for the Holidays. Especially when you are so use to being surrounded by lots and lots of family. Chris and I wanted to make sure that we made our Christmas Eve fun and exciting for the kids so they didn't feel like they missed out even if we were far away from our usual fun family activities.

Our Christmas Eve started with a surprise breakfast from Jimmy. He got up early before the kids woke up (which in this house is earlier than he would have liked too) to bring special fixins straight from the North Pole.

The kids were pretty exited...

Especially when they saw that it was a breakfast full of sugar. ( No wonder Santa has a weight problem) He did manage to squeeze in some fruit.

They think that Jimmy is pretty much the bees knees when it comes to elfs. They were sad it was his last morning at our house. 

Addison didn't care at all for the doughnuts and went straight for the fruit. She is my kind of girl.

We made a last minute present decision and Chris spent a good portion of the day buying and then hiding said present. (which will be explained in the next post)

Christmas Eve we ordered pizza and had root beer floats. This was far from what my intended plan was, but after stressing about time and making "the perfect" dinner, Chris pointed out that the stress of it all was ruining the whole idea of our fun family day and the kids would prefer pizza over ham and Augratin Potatoes anyway. So Christmas Eve dinner was pushed to Christmas dinner and pepperonis were enjoyed all around.

After dinner we opened our new Christmas jammies and got to work making Santas cookies. Our grocery store was sold out of red and green M&M's and they were a must have for the cookies so I bought a bag or regular M&M's and Kaden and Taycee went to work separating the colors.

One of the most favorite parts of the night was the impromptu dance sessions to Pandora Christmas music. The kids were spinning we were all laughing and for a few minutes it didn't even seem like we were that far away from home.

My cute Boost

Cookie and Christmas Jammies what more could you want?

They also got slippers to go with the jammies.

After cookies we ended the night talking about the Savior and the Holy Night that it truly was. I was so impressed with Kaden and Taycee's sensitivity as we retold the wondrous circumstances that surrounded that silent night. Every year I am overcome with joy and wonder as I think of the thoughts and emotions that must have been in the hearts of us all as we watched our Savior be born that night. I am sure I was just as grateful then and I am now that he came to this earth to fulfill such a selfless and divine purpose.

With Kisses and Cookies the kids were off to bed so Santa could get to work. (and work he did til almost 3 am, next year all toys will come assembled) There was an extra magic to the eve as it was our first time being Santa on our own. We were giddy as we set up each new surprise and we imagined the look on faces when they discovered the treasures Santa had left. When we finally fell into bed exhausted from the day I felt content (even if it was for only 2.5 seconds before I passed out from exhaustion).

Christmas Eve had been a success.

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.