Christmas

Our Christmas Hoopla began with a great Family Home Evening about the Savior's birth with my mom and step-dad and siblings at my sister Julie's house. It then proceeded with Scott's family on the 23rd. We had a sibling gift exchange as well as a cousin gift exchange. Things started out really well...both of the kids were really excited to be getting and giving gifts to their cousins. Here is Annicka, holding her gift for her cousin Jake. She was SO excited...that was until she opened her present.Her gift was from her cousin Carter. The limit was $5. Apparently Annicka had her heart set on a "talking doll". The first time I heard about it was when she went BALLISTIC about the pom-poms she got instead. She had the meltdown of a lifetime. Scott said he had heard her talking about it before, but I had no clue that's what she wanted. Her expectations were not met. We had to have a long talk about being grateful for what we do get, and that we don't always get what we want. The next day, Christmas Eve, we had my mom and step-dad and all of my siblings at our house. Thankfully grandma Copple hadn't gone shopping until the night of the 23rd and was able to save Christmas with the present she bought for Annicka.Here are the kids with Grandma Copple and Papa Jim. They sure had fun with them while they were here!We also got a TON of snow over the last week or so. I'd say it all added up to at least 18 inches.We spent Christmas morning at our house with just the kids eating breakfast and opening their presents. Park was really funny! Every present he opened came with the exclamation of "WOW!" We got it on video. We then spent the rest of the day at grandma Chamberlain's eating a wonderful turkey dinner with cousins and had lot of fun making a giant snowman (which fell down before anyone could get a picture, apparently it was a little too big!). We wrapped up our Christmas celebrations with lunch at my dad's house on the 27th. We had some delicious Posole (a traditional mexican soup) and the kids had a great time playing with their cousins and aunts and uncles. We even got to go home with leftovers and some delicious homemade bread that my step-mom made. I need to get your recipe, Cynthia. We devoured it within hours of getting home. We hope everyone's Christmas was as good as ours!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Yesterday was my 26th birthday. When I was a kid I would wish for snow on my birthday. Well, I did get it lots of times, but never quite like it came yesterday. I think we got a good foot of snow.
I actually had a really good day yesterday despite the crazy amount of snow we got. Scott had gotten tickets to the Peter Breinholt Christmas concert for me. My mom is in town and she said she would watch the kids for us. Well, she picked the kids up at about 11 a.m., so I had the rest of the afternoon to myself before I went to go and pick up Scott from work. She took the kids to my brothers to decorate Christmas cookies and to play with cousins and then they went back to her and my stepdad's hotel and went swimming and had fun with Grandma and Papa Jim. I went and got my haircut and did a little shopping and just relaxed. It was great! The concert was amazing and we had such a good time. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!
This is a picture of the kids in their Christmas outfits.
On Sunday after church I walked into Annie and Park's room to see what Park was up to and this is what I found! He was having a tea party all by himself!

Winter is finally here!

We finally got some measurable snow last night and so Park and Annicka really wanted to play outside this morning. What did they do? They mostly munched on the snow. Can you tell? They sure had fun though!



Right after Thanksgiving we put up the tree and let the kids have a campout in the living room. They actually slept all night and had a lot of fun.This one is entitled, "Our Boy, The Plumber." Need any more explanation? Actually, this is what happens anytime he even has a somewhat wet diaper. Nothing will stay up with his tiny waist. He gets his butt and hips (or lack thereof) from his father.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Well, yesterday. We went up to my aunt Marcia's house for dinner this year. She is the BEST cook! Her food is always delicious. There's always good company too. They have a putting green in their backyard and Park was having lots of fun putting around with Daddy.We took these family pictures for Scott's family calendar this year. I think this is the best one, and it wasn't even photoshopped!
After Marcia's we went to Grandma Chamberlain's house for pie. Kaylene was awesome and made banana cream, just because I asked for it! Thanks, Kaylene. We had a great time just chatting and getting to know Emily's Mom and brother (who is a fabulous violinist/fiddler). We are thankful to have family so close! We are especially grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ that gives us guidance and direction in our lives every day. Especially with all that goes on in the world, the gospel has brought us so much peace. We are very blessed!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PARK!

Park joined our family two years ago, yesterday at 4:05 p.m. His sweet disposition has been a great addition to our family. We love you, Park!
His party was really low-key. He had an awesome racecar cake and Grandma Chamberlain came, as well as Uncle Ross, Aunt Emily, Uncle Ned and Aunt Rachel.
Park got a bunch of cars and a couple of board books. He wouldn't even come and eat cake and ice cream because he was too busy playing with his cars.
Who needs cousins or friends for a party when you have uncles Ross and Ned?
Yes, the frosting on the cake turned teeth blue. Although it doesn't help that all Annicka ate was the frosting.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ANNICKA!

Four years ago yesterday at 8:24 a.m. a beautiful little girl was born into our family. Annie, we just want you to know how much we love you, and how glad we are that you are part of our family!I would have posted yesterday, but it was a crazy day trying to get things done and then cleaned up afterwards. So here are a select few of the pictures that we took yesterday at Annie's party.
Aunt Emily made Annicka's birthday cakes for her. Thanks, again, Emily! It was that much less I had to worry about and they turned out beautifully. Annie loved the real flowers on it.Tricky Aunt Emily gave her trick candles and it took blowing them out several times before they quit!

Getting Birthday kisses from Grandma Chamberlain.

Crazy Uncle Rob.
Even crazier Uncle Ross and Aunt Emily
Cousin Carter...he's SO mad!
Birthday presents! Oh, the excitement!

Out with the Old, In with the New

Well, yesterday we officially sold Scott's Grand Prix. Today we found a Kia Sedona for what we think is a great deal.It's a 2004 and has 36K miles on it. Thanks to Scott's job we were able to find a dealership in Ogden that had one and we were able to make an offer and had it accepted over the phone. They were trying to sell it for $12000. We said we could pay $8000 cash, out the door. And they did it! There's something to be said about buying large items when the economy is slow. When we got there this morning to go buy it we found that it had no seats and instead there was a wheelchair lift on it. They were as surprised as we were and they said they would get seats put in on Monday. We took the van home today and they'll deliver the seats on Monday to Scott's work. They still only charged us the $8000 so we were HAPPY!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

The kids had a great day yesterday. In the morning they got to go trick-or-treating at aunt Maureen's work with their cousin Aaron. As you can see, Park was superman and Annicka was a fairy princess.



Last night they got to go trick-or-treating with their cousins, Mason, Matthew, Carter and Avery and uncle Rob and aunt Lori. As well as uncle Ned and aunt Rachel. They had lots of fun. It was surprisingly warm (for Halloween) despite the rain.

OUCH!

So, we were driving in the car on Sunday over to Grandma Chamberlain's house for her birthday. We were trying to decide what Annicka should say for her Primary program in a few weeks. Her part is "I am trying to be like Jesus by...(fill in the blank)". So I asked her, "Annie, what do you do to be like Jesus?" Her very matter-of-fact reply was, "I don't want to talk to you right now, mommy." OUCH!

Cornbelly's Maze

Well, yesterday Annicka had her first field trip! We went to Cornbelly's Maze at Thanksgiving Point. The kids had a BLAST. All for $3 a child we got to go on a "cow-ride", play on all kinds of playground equipment, including a giant jumping pillow, play in a "corn box" (which was basically a sandbox but instead of sand it was full of corn), do a corn maze (which we ended up skipping due to lack of time) and pick their own pumpkin from the patch to take home. We even took our neighbor Sam with us. He had a blast too.Here they are at the entrance.
All the kids from the preschool group, including everyone's siblings.
Annicka and Park with their pumpkins.

The "cow-ride".
The giant jumping pillow.
Playing on a train.