Leading Up To Christmas!

Hey it's March and we are finally talking about Christmas. It seems that there are always so many events leading up to Christmas, so I decided to put all of those is a separate post from Christmas itself.

First off, we had Jason's work Christmas party. They had a Santa come in for all of the kids. This was the most impressively dressed Santa I have ever seen in my life. Tab must have noticed this too because he insisted that this was really the REAL Santa.
Benton was a lot happier about it than he appears in the picture.
Paisley was much more understanding this time around about Santa not handing her Strawberry Shortcake and Zoobles the second she sat down. Perhaps that is because he did in fact give presents to all of the kids.Hobbes even got to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas. Santa was a bit nervous about holding him because he was so tiny. (He was the only nervous one, at the end of the night I had to track Hobbes down. Some random single guy, one of the residents was holding him and swooning over him.)Jason and all of the residents in the intern class.Next up and pre-Christmas festivities, was Benton's preschool performance. They acted out "The Night Before Christmas". They also sang several Carols.They especially loved singing Jingle Bells and they got to shake bells while they sang. Benton shook his right by his ear the entire time. Silly boy.At our ward Christmas party the Primary acted out the Nativity while singing the "Nativity Song". Benton and Tab were shepherds.
Last, but not least, a few days before Christmas the local volunteer fire company brought Santa through the streets of our town. He drove right by our house as he wound through the neighborhoods. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE the town we live in? The firemen walked along beside the fire truck handing out candy canes to all of the kids.

My Dad Rocks!

For those of you who don't know, my dad can do wonderful things with wood. And he has taught my husband quite a bit. One of these days I should go around my house taking pictures of all of the things that he has made for me or has helped my husband make. The purpose of this post is strictly to brag about the cubby/locker thing my dad built for my tiny "mud room" back in the Fall.

I was desperate for something to keep a hold of all of the coats and bookbags and shoes and hats and and and... So my dad built this for me to fit in my tiny space. Though my dad is a natural finish kind of guy, I painted it. I'm sure it broke his heart, sorry. My only disappointment was that the brown turned out much lighter than it was supposed to.

Oh, To Know You Are Loved

Hobbes will have no doubt growing up that he is/was loved by his older siblings. Paisley has a thing for stickers. Nobody is really allowed to touch her stickers. She however was feeling like sharing with Hobbes. She actually came and got me from another room to show me that she had "decorated" Hobbes for Christmas.Tab is such a big helper with Hobbes. He helps with him in the bath, holding him when my arms need to be empty and running to give him his pacifier. Tab just loves playing with his baby brother.

Yummy Dinner!

I'm a bit crazy, so try to follow along. I LOVE to cook. I absolutely love trying different types of foods and all sorts of crazy flavors and such. I especially love trying new ingredients that I have never used or even heard of. I really enjoy learning new techniques. This is good because I am not one of those sorts of people who could handle a spaghetti Monday, Pizza Friday or what have you. I get bored WAY too easily. So I usually try a new recipe for dinner about 60% of the time. Trying new stuff for dinner is kind what keeps me going sometimes.

Now, that being said. I hate making dinner. Sigh... (I told you I'm a bit crazy). By the time dinner prep time hits, I'm exhausted. I'm usually trying to get my oldest to finish his homework or get Paisley to stop hanging on my leg whining for who knows what reason, or trying to get Benton to stop begging me for snacks while I'm trying to make dinner. For this reason, I regularly groan about making dinner. It always pays off when I hit the jackpot with something new and yummy, especially when Jason happens to be home for dinner and clearly likes it too. Better yet is when I don't have to ask the kids to eat their dinner even one time because they are horking it down of their own accord. This just happened to be one of those evenings.I should have known. If I throw just about anything into a tortilla, this one is bound to scarf it down.And this one... well, all she needs is a good sized dollop of sour cream and guac and she'll eat it.

Baby Man!

Despite whatever Jason may claim, he is totally a "baby man". He loves to get him some good baby snuggles. This is a regular occurrence when there is a new baby in the house.
Which gets interrupted by big sister who wonders why her spot on top of daddy has been taken.Daddy loves a good nap with a sweet smelling, soft, snugly heater.Can't get enough of it.He loves to mess with the babies too. He thought it was funny to hold Hobbes out like this when he was a newborn and watch him struggle to hold his body rigid. I apologize that your first super man experience was so cruel.
But he makes up for it by snuggling a cold baby right out of the bath.
I think what Jason must love the most about tiny babies is that they can sleep anywhere; even when cast down upon a pile of blankets waiting to be folded when someone else required "urgent" attention. Poor kid.

What a Girl!

Paisley is one stinking cute kid. She has hit the terrible twos which means there is A LOT of whining and crying for no reason over here. But we put up with it because she is so cute and quite the riot.

The other week Jason came out to the living room to find her sitting on the chair nursing her baby. After a minute she stopped and turned the baby and started nursing again. Jason asked her what she was doing and she matter of factly told him, "time for the other boob". Sigh....Baths are so much more fun when daddy is involved.
Reading in the morning with mom. I believe it was December in this picture. Um yeah....Benton is wearing shorts. And really do we need to go into what Pais is wearing. Let's leave it at, I'm just happy that they get themselves dressed.
For several days in a row Paisley was taking very short naps. I was worried that she was beginning to think she didn't need them anymore, which is far from the case. One afternoon I slipped into her room during naps to grab the dirty laundry and found her sleeping like this. No wonder she hasn't been napping well.

First Smiles

Once upon a time it took extreme effort to get these pictures. Didn't quite get the smile here, but I share this because the boy is so darn stinking handsome.
close...Success! He has been smiling for about 2 months now but golly day I can't get enough of it. I just eat him up. This boy brings our family so much joy!

Hobbes's Blessing

Together after Hobbes's blessing.
We attempted to get a decent family picture. Ummm.. yeah not so much.Attempt #2 was slightly more successful.We were lucky to have so much family be able to make it for Hobbes's blessing. My parents were able to come up.Jason's parents and siblings and their families were able to come as well.The little goobers. Love them to pieces. Jason may kill me for posting these before he could edit them at all, but lets be honest, it's been months since they were taken...

Christmas!...almost

The weekend after Thanksgiving the town we live in had a little "Tree" lighting ceremony. Note the that tree is in quotes. This is because due to snow storm that we had in October, the tree that they were going to light up was destroyed. So instead they lit the bushes that surround the fountain my the borough offices. The kids were waiting in front of the fountain for them to light the bushes.We met up with some friends there and waited in line for Santa.It is always funny when we get together with these friends because you can see other people continuously counting all of the kids. We each have four kids. Only three of each of ours are pictures below though.As we waited in line, Santa rode in on the fire truck. A few of the kids were a bit confused by this. We finally got in to see Santa. Paisley walked right up to him and immediately and very excitedly told him that she wanted Strawberry Shortcake and Zoobies (aka Zoobles) for Christmas. When he didn't immediately hand them over she was NOT happy and wouldn't have anything to do with him. She was one ticked off little girl. I guess we forgot to mention to her that just because she was telling him what she wanted didn't mean he was going to immediately hand over the loot.

After seeing Santa the kids got to explore his ride.

Thanksgiving

Hey look at that we have now progressed to only being ridiculously far behind in blogging. Thanksgiving was fun. Jason worked...boo! But my parents came up and brought with them my brother, Matthew and his wife, Erikka and their daughter Arya. Paisley made fast friends with Arya. They played and played and played. And snuggled...Tab was also a big fan.It probably had to do with the fact that she let him do whatever she wanted, unlike his little sister.Benton got in on the action too.A lot of the holiday was spent like this.
And this... (So crazy to see my brother as a dad. He is awesome at it!)And a fair amount of shenanigans such as this.I think the kids favorite part was this. Though it may look like they were wrestling, they were in fact holding on for dear life as Matt would muster all of the strength he had a would jump with all four kids attached to his legs. It was quite amusing and I dare say tiring, for Matt that is. As a matter of fact I think he went a took a nap after this was over.Don't worry, they came back for more. This time in the form of acrobatics of sorts, you know the kind where he throws them and swings them around like a crazy person. Mom helped to calm things down a bit by working on TP's with the kids.Matt joined in helping but I think that is just because he wanted to eat some of the yummy maple frosting and candy.Grandma and Grandpa took all of the kids to the park to get out of the crowded house for a bit.Poor grandpa got stuck in the trap that is pushing Paisley on the swing for pretty much the entire time they were there. Somehow, I don't think he minded. You see he and Paisley are good friends. She loves to snuggle grandpa. And play with his beard.I dare say grandpa has an affinity for little granddaughters in general.And now to it. The turkey!
And the feast, minus the pies.