Christmas Ornanments

If you remember last year, Parker ruined the Christmas ornament that he gave me in 2009 that said,"Merry Christmas mom and dad, love popper" I was devastated!! (mostly because I was extremely pregnant and hormonal) He still feels bad about it and when we were putting ornaments on the tree this year he brought it up and said how sorry he was for erasing the message. I'm still sad about it, but I know it was an accident and at least I wrote about it so it will never be forgotten. Well this year, my mom helped the kids, Paige and Parker, make new ones for me. My mom had watched the kids for me for a little while one evening and when I came back they had s surprise for me. I opened the presents and they had each recorded a message on an ornament for me. Paige's said, "I do love Christmas and presents, and I do love mom and dad!!" it was so sweet!! I love that it said that because that is how she has been talking lately and I always want to remember it. Parker's said, "Merry Christmas. I love you mom and dad." It was sweet as well. I was very excited about getting them and gave the kids strict rules on listening to them. I put them up high on the tree so no kids could reach them and have very carefully played them back. I am very sentimental and these ornaments melted my heart. I can't wait to listen to them next year when the kids have grown up and to hear how they have changed.

Paxten Sleeping

I am kind of embarrassed to admit this, but Paxten has been sleeping in my bed since he was born. I didn't intend for it to happen, but it slowly became the routine. He hasn't been a very good sleeper from the beginning. I tried over and over to put him in his crib, or the pack and play, but as soon as I would lay him down, he would wake up and be fussy. So it just became easier, especially at 2 in the morning, to have him lay right next to me. It was very convenient in the middle of the night to roll over and feed him and get him right back to sleep. Well I haven't had a good night sleep since before he was born and he still wasn't sleeping through the night at 10.5 months!!! Something had to change, I knew he was using me more as a pacifier, but it was hard to get out of the habit, and trying to do it by myself was hard too! So this week, since Parker is out of school, we have moved him temporarily into Paige's room so that we can put Paxten in the crib and his crying won't wake Parker. The first night I put him in the crib he cried for over an hour. I couldn't believe that he would cry that long and not wear himself out enought to fall asleep. But he finally did and he slept from about 10 pm until 9 am!!! Holy cow!! I could hardly believe it. I slept better, althought I kept waking up making sure he wasn't crying so I didn't sleep the greatest, but it was better to not have him in my bed. He did cry so hard that he threw up and I had to wash all the bedding in the morning. The next night he cried for 30 minutes and fell asleep at about 9:30 and slept until 4:30. Still pretty good in my book, at least it wasn't every 2 hours!!! Last night was the 3rd night and he only cried for about 15 minutes and slept from 10:30 untl about 9:00 this morning. It is so great! He woke up happy and so excited to see me. I love opening the bedroom door and seeing his smiling face. So hopefully this is the starte of a new routine and he will continue to sleep well. We are hoping that by the time Parker goes back to school next week, the routine will be established and he can have his bed back. After doing this and getting more sleep, I wondered "why did I wait so long to do this?" I don't know!!! Wish us luck!

Christmas Day

After Church got out we went to Matt's Dad's house. The kids each got new jammies. Kerry had also made each of the kids a pillow case and gave them a new pillow. Parker got Spiderman and Paige got a a Dora pillow. Paxten's pillow case has owls and monkeys on it. They are supe cute and the kids have loved having them to sleep on. Paige also got a My Little Pony and some Magnetic dress up dolls. Parker got a nerf gun and a Lightning McQueen book. Paxten got a tonka toy truck and a jacket. Then as a family gift the kids, along with Tara a Quentins kids opened a package that said, "Let's go to DisneyLand." In it was some money for each of our families to start saving for a family trip next fall. Also the kids got a new Disney shirt. I also got a new cookbook and Matt and I got a gift card to Texas Roadhouse. Matt's Parents always spoil us all as well. We are super excited to be saving for our trip next year and are super excited that we are planning on going as a family. It will be awesome!!

After that we went to Uncle Kendall's house, where were had the annual White Elephant exchange. But I think it has turned into just a gift pass around rather than a white elephant. We tried to split it into boys and girls, but it still ended up taking over an hour before the game was over. The hot items this year were a 12 pk Mt. Dew with a Dick's Sporting Goods gift card, a 24 pk Dr. Pepper with beef jerky, a 20 pk Mt.Dew 2 giant candy bars, a tin of popcorn with a gift card on it as well. Those items kept getting passed back and forth over and over, among the men. There wasn't very much stealing from the women, other than a $20 bill and some jewelry. It was fun and is tradtion! I ended up with a cool jar full of a treat and a magnet board that says "Every Picture Tells A Story", Matt ended up with a tin of Almond Roca and a buck knife. We were both happy that neither of us ended up with monkey butt poweder, or a Chia pet!!

The kids do a name exchange with the other little kids. Parker got a new Pogo stick and Paige got 2 little My Little Ponies. Paxten got a new outfit. They were all excited about getting another fun gift. We ate a great dinner, visited and then came home. The kids were all anxious to try out all their new stuff. We had a wonderful Christmas and we feel so blessed to be surrounded by so many great family and friends. We truly are lucky to live here!! We hope the new year brings joy and happiness, health and strength, and more lawn business!!!! Hahaha!!!

Christmas Morning Photos

 

My computer is being retarded and won't let me download the rest of the pictures, so here they are in a collage. Better than nothing!

Christmas Morning

On Christmas Morning Matt and I woke up early and got ready since we knew it would busy trying to open gifts, eat breakfast, and get ready for church by 11:00. We ended up having to wait for the kids to wake up, which they finally did about 8:15. They were surprised to see that Santa had put together Paige’s new table and chair set and had set out her new tea set. They were eager to try it out. Then they realized that Santa had made it and couldn’t wait to open their gifts.




Parker got new Cars 2 toys that he didn’t already have and 2 Cars 2 lego sets to put together. He also got chocolate pop tarts, watermelon gum, pickle Pringles, Root beer, a new toothbrush and toothpaste, coloring paint book and a looney toones coloring pages all in his stocking.

Paige opened some makeup from Santa along with an Easy Bake oven, which she was exstatic about, and she got chocolate pop tarts, watermelon gum, ranch Pringles, root beer, a toothbrush and toothpaste, and some Hello Kitty crayons, notebook and coloring pages all in her stocking.

Paxten got an elephant ball game, and a fabric tool set. He got a toothbrush and toothpaste in his stocking along with apple cinnamon puffs and some cookies.

After the kids opened gifts from Sanata, they opened gifts that Matt and I had gotten them. Each of the kids got new socks, and a new outfit. Paxten got some new board books and Paige got her first set of scriptures. Then both Parker and Paige got a new 7" Android tablet. They are always wanting to play on my Dad's and Grandma C's IPAD, but we couldn't justify buying an IPAD for a 6 year old and a 3 year old. So we opted for something smaller and not near as expensive. We even downloades gamed prior to Christmas so they would be ready to use when the kids opened them. They were both excited and have played on them quite a bit this week.

Matt received mostly practical stuff; socks, a belt, new jeans, and some new cologne. Matt also suprised me with a new professional cutting board, some salad tongs, and a silpat. I was suprised and proud of the fact that he came up with the idea all on his own and he did in fact suprise me with it.

After opening gifts we went next door for the traditional Yancey breakfast. Per Parker's request we had French toast, sausage, cutie clementines, and juice. It was delicious.

We then went to Church for just Sacrament meeting. The kids were dressed in their new church outfits and all looked so adorable.

Christmas Gifts

Paxten had a fun first Christmas, he was even big enough to tear into some of the wrapping paper. He did get tired of presents being put in front of him to open, he just wanted to plat with his new toys! He got:
New jammies, blanket, book, pillowcases, fisher price fireman ornament, bath toys, Lion King movie, 3 outfits, church outfit, and a steering wheel toy.


Paige opened:
Church dress, church shoes, tights, hairbows, and a ring, Monster High dolls, holiday pillow cases, makeup, jean purse (my mom made this purse out of an old pair of my jeans when I was a little girl) table cloth, table and chairs, LalaLoopsy doll, blanket, jammies, book, Barbie clothes, tea set, crocheted hat, 2 outfits, and a tinkerbell ornament.


Parker opened:
New jammies, blanket, book, snow boots, sneakers, Cars trouble game, holiday pillow cases (my mom made each of the kids pillow cases for each holiday, they are so cute!), batteries –for all his toys!, cars walkie talkies, Cars ornament, Mcdonald’s gift card, 2 Cars2 toys, church outfit, church socks, and an Air Soft BB gun.


Erika opened:
I got a new Christmas tree after Thanksgiving, a jean jacket, Pampered Chef Large Lifter, 2 King Size sheet sets, Our Best Bites Cookbook, the game Scum, Edwards Gift Card (with babysitting), Itunes Gift Card, Amazon Gift Card, 2 hot pads, 2 king size pillows, set of 3 bowls, tile plaque of Family Rules (made by my Mom), scrapbook stickers, Scrapbook ink set, dish towels/dish clothes, dish scrubbies, and money to go towards our future Disneyland trip.


Matt opened:
an Itunes Gift Card, Cal-Ranch Gift Card, Famous Footwear Gift Card, an IPOD Shuffle, PS3 Controller, Walker Mower Blades, John Deere Hat, Family Logo Game, Truck Floor Matts.

Christmas Eve

 

This year for Christmas my side of the family got together on Christmas Eve, so that we could go to Matt's family on Christmas Day. (It was getting too hard to try and fit all the family in on one day) We got together about 3:00 and had potato bacon soup in bread bowls, chicken taquitos and homemade salsa, spinach salad with poppyseed dressing, veggie tray and dip and eclair cake for dessert. We were all stuffed. After our early dinner we opened presents. Parker and Paige were the designated gift organizers and separated all the gifts into piles according to who they were for. That kept them entertained for a little while. No matter what we say about cutting back and not doing as much, we still seem to have pretty big stacks of presents to open. It takes quite a while to get through them all when we are watching each person open gifts. But it is so fun. This year I tried to minimize my picture taking so that I wouldn't have 500 pictures of just Christmas (for some reason I hate scrapbooking about Christmas, probably because of the overwhelming amount of pictures) So I took a few pictures of the kid opening gifts and a picture of them by their "Pile" before they oepened and after they opened. We all got spoiled and received so many wonderful things. We have such a great family and wonderful parents that take good care of us. By the time we opened everything it was getting to be the kids bedtime and we wanted them to go to sleep early so Santa could come so we didn't end up playing any games, they will have to wait until next time we get together.