Christmas Morning at our little house

Caleb and I were both awake by 6:30, so we turned on the tree, started the fire, and twiddled our thumbs until the kids got up at 7:15.

Christmases the first few years of marriage were great and all, but Christmas with kids is a whole new kind of wonderful. All the magic is back in full swing!

Opening presents took a long time. Not because there were a lot (there weren't), but because Jonah just wanted to play with the first one he opened and Emmy wanted to read every new book.

Which was perfect.

Jonah got a fisher price barn, with all the animals and trailers and farmers and... farm stuff. They already have the house and lots of people, so this goes right along with it. I found the matching School Bus at the thrift store two days before too, so that was an added bonus. Turns out that was his favorite toy.

I can't even begin to tell you how much I love this morning face! And this one too! Emmy got her very own pair of pink ski goggles - and she wore them all morning. This is Jonah deciding that maybe he can put the school bus aside long enough to open something else.

This book that she's opening just kills me. It's The Gardener by Sarah Stewart, and it's the most beautiful children's story on the topic of gardening that I've ever read.

We've checked it out at the library a dozen times, so it was time for her to have her own copy.

There's a little girl in the story that has a love of gardening that she learned from her Grandma, and she uses it to create happiness in the sad depression-era world.

It makes me cry every time.

Seriously. What is it about a bunch of old cracked pots bursting with flowers that gets me? I don't know, but it does.

This is probably my favorite shot of the morning.

Christmas morning is magic I tell you.

The Family I Married

The statement "When you marry the man, you marry the whole family" couldn't be more true. I feel just as much a part of this family as my own. It never ceases to amaze me that even though the differences between the two are incredible, I can love them alike and feel a part of both.

A fascinating part of marriage, I think.

This is Christmas Eve. Every single one of us was there, and that hasn't happened in a long time.

This one grew up with a lot of Brothers and no Sisters, so she learned early how to hold her own. That doesn't mean they don't mess with her, all I'm saying is she can take it.

And when it really comes down to it, there is no one else in the world that those boys love to care for more than her.

This one wonders why the kids are afraid of him for the first half hour every time they see him. They love him after that, it just takes a minute is all.

He needs a soul mate.

Or a dog.

A soul mate would be preferable of course, but dogs seem easier to come by these days.

This one thinks much and says little. But what he does say always makes me think.

This one married in. And she's a Mom. We can relate.

Plus she's always willing to drop whatever she's doing and read to the kids, and they will love her forever for that.

Here's this one again. This one needs a soul mate too, but Jonah is doing his best to fill the empty spaces in her heart for the time being.

This one is contemplating her place in the mixture.

We headed home just in time for the kids to barely make it to their beds before falling asleep.

But they did have a few jobs to do first - like opening their new Christmas Jammies!

I love this tradition. Do you do this? Look at those sleepy eyes:)Luckily Emmy remembered the cookies we had made for Santa earlier, and she made up a nice plate and set it on the floor by the fireplace.

They were both asleep minutes after saying "amen" and dreaming of sugarplums, I'm sure:)

Whatever those are.

Life is resuming

Maybe it's the being pregnant thing, but I was in desperate need of a return to my pre-holiday life. We got home from my Mom's the day after Christmas and the tree was the first thing to go. Un-decorating is always easier, and it was out the door in no time - leaving a trail of dry pine needles in it's wake:) Then the couch made it's way back to the living room from the kid's bedroom, and the new toys made their way to the kid's bedroom, and all the junk food I ate made it's way to my waist line.

I honestly love Christmas more than I can describe. This was an exceptionally great year in that we got to spend time with every single parent and sibling on both sides, which hasn't happened in a while.

It's going to take me a while to post all the photo's, so we'll just start with these beauties:

Playing outside Christmas afternoon

Apparently the drama doesn't end with school, work, and boys when it comes to these two. I promise Jonah was enjoying himself. You'll just have to take my word on that one. Although playing the part of the homeless was more to his liking. This is what Lainey thinks of the snow.

Luke lasted a few minutes.... he is a California boy through and through. He could not understand what we were loving about being outside.

Plus his boot fell off. Nobody loves that. Emmy was in her own world doing something... not sure what... And even though the sun went down (hence the darkish photos - sorry about that) these guys kept right on going. Caleb has decided that even though he loves snowboarding, cross country skiing, and all that stuff - his passion just might be sledding. He's always the first one out and the last one in. I'm so glad that our love of the winter outdoors has transferred smoothly to our kids. It's the only way to survive before we can start growing things again!

The trip to JoJo's and the exhaustion that ensued

The kids and I spent the last few days at JoJo's, since our little California cousin is here for the Christmas week and we never get to see him!

I strangely have zero photographic evidence of all the adventures we had in those 3 days. It was one of those times where I have the camera on hand at all times, and never turn it on. I'm weird like that.

But I stole some shots off of Diana's blog:)

Here is a classic example of how insane my Mom is. Who gives babies Paint? This may have something to do with why they love going to her house so much!

We all headed to the photo studio one morning (I think we inherited a bit of JoJo's insanity) and the photographer managed to snag a couple shots of all the kids with no one screaming (that blessed child would be Jonah, who was terrified of the sweet camera gal)

This is the miracle photo. We decided that this tradition is ending with 4 grandkids. There will be at least 6 next year, and we're not that brave.

The next few are the unedited editions, but you get the idea.

This was an attempt to keep Jonah smiling. Is it frighteningly obvious that the Mom's were not planning on being in the photo?! On a side note, would any one ever guess that Diana is not a blood relative? Could she look more like us?

And of course Emmy needed the cameras to herself for a minute.

When we got home yesterday afternoon we emptied the van, cleaned the house, wrapped presents, and CRASHED.

This is where Caleb found us when he got home from work. We all fell asleep in Emmy's room mid-cleaning.

Visiting JoJo's is an exhausting experience, but it's worth it in a million ways.

Thank you JoJo, because I'm sure we exhaust you too:)

An Unexpected First

I posted on here once about the 'firsts' you have with your kids. Things like haircuts, scabbed knees, sleep-over at Grandma's, things like that. You know, the normal stuff.

We had a first today that was unexpected, strangely amusing, weird, and a whole lot of fun!

Emmy's first professional modeling photo shoot!

Haha! That cracks me right up, I tell you what.

I do realize that by calling this a 'first' I'm insinuating that there will be a second, but that's certainly not in the planned future. I'm not that kinda Mom.

Kate called and said they were putting together the new brochures for The Chateaux At Silver Lake at Deer Valley (she works for a high-end resort marketing company), and they needed a little girl model. She raised her hand and said "I know one!"

The room where they were... I want to call it base camp, 'cause I don't know the real word, was where we went first to remove coats and get Emmy ready. The make-up artist was adorable with her 7-months-along-first-baby-belly, and Emmy loved the lip gloss. This lady was packing the works.

This is a whole different breed of human from myself.

The first spot was in the children's activity room, where there was a beautiful model posing as Emmy's Mom, who was also very sweet. Emmy got to play quite a bit while they were setting up the lighting, so by the time they needed her to actually do something specific she was able to do it.

Thank goodness.

I was imagining her acting like she usually does in Sacrament Meeting and them kicking us out of the place. I was being very sneaky with my own camera:)

I asked. They didn't mind. She really wanted to zoom the cars all over the table, but she had to stay right there in the corner with 'her Mom' which I could tell was hard for her, but she kept on smiling and did what they asked.

This is why she will never do this professionally. She had to pretend to pretend! Do you know how confusing that is for a kid?

She did so great though, and had no complaints - I'm sure I was worried about nothing.

This is the relieved happy crowd after the shoot ended successfully! Aren't these girls cute? This is my poor shot of the other shoot, where she is accepting cookies from the bakery delivery man. These shots turned out really cute, she was way into the 'pick a cookie out of the basket!' idea. The "Okay, can you put it back and try it again?" had her a little worried the first few times. She got a nervous look on her face. But when she realized that in the end she was actually going to be able to keep and eat the cookie, she was good.

All in all, a great morning! We're always up for new experiences around here:)

Life is good.

Caleb has been shoveling all the snow from the sidewalk into one pile on the lawn, which has made a nice small Emmy-sized sledding hill.

That is until our favorite 8 year old neighbor boy easily convinced her to try out his insanity of a drop-off sledding hill of death, which she liked even more. Go figure.

I love this little girl, have I ever told you that? This is after a "crash". Snow is great for crashing in.

Life is so good. Playing in the snow is a daily happiness around here. Aw, fer cute:)

That evening we were all in the living room, Emmy and I were snuggling by the fire, Caleb had Jonah on his lap at the piano "playing duets" and I was so happy I could hardly stand it.

I did get a little teary, but I held it in.

Em's Girls

Forgive me, Mom and Kate - these photos need to be shared.

You must realize that you're never safe in front of a camera at my house.

Emmy has some serious affection for these two women, and with good reason.

I can't thank you enough for loving her back! It puts peace in my heart to know that she has such good women as her examples.

Heber Traditions

We got in on a great new tradition this year - by sneaking in with Caleb's parent's Ward Christmas Breakfast:) They hold it every year at the famous 'Dairy Keen, Home of the Train' on Main Street, Heber.

It's a great little restaurant that the kids LOVE because of all the trains. There's an electric train that runs constantly all around through the inside and they love watching it go by.

If you want me to be honest, we've probably only been there... 5 times in the nearly 3 years that we've lived here - not big eater-outers.

But today we bundled up, braved the storm, and joined them!

They close off the store to regular customers, and cook a big pancake breakfast just for the ward! Is that the coolest thing? You gotta love small towns, I tell you what. You just jump in line and breakfast is served.

Caleb was thrilled to be there.

No really, he had a great time! He had to admit it! My cousin and his wife were there with their little gal, and we're friends with quite a few members of that ward, so it was a jolly good time!

These pancakes were delish. They had the works to top them with - butter, syrup, blackberries, strawberries, whip cream - YUM.

This Santa was the real Joe Shmoe too! He actually grew that beard himself!

Emmy jumped right up there, told him exactly what she wanted for Christmas, thanked him for her bag of stuff and was on her way! What a pro.

Jonah, on the other hand, was much too busy with the train sets to be bothered by such silliness.

All in all, a great way to start the day. Maybe we'll be here next year to do it again:)