Christmas Day 2009

It' so fun to be a parent.
The magic of Christmas is awe inspiring.
We had a wonderful Christmas Day.
Kimball was the first one awake. (Well, besides Chris...he was up early just like every Christmas of his life). Kimball escaped and went and checked out his presents. He loved his Little Tykes car. We drove him into Kathryn's room where Carter and Kathryn were having a sleepover in the "sleepover bed." The kids were excited to see what Santa had left them. We spent a really enjoyable morning opening presents and being together. Carter was excited about his Darth Maul lightsaber. Kathryn changed into her each of her dress up dresses throughout the morning. Kimball really loved the Dora and Diego figurines that we gave him. Chris got me 3 bar stools for the kitchen and 2 new pair of boots. He really spoiled me. I'm sure he spent way more money than I wanted him to. I got him a new wii remote and lego rock band. (which he is playing as I blog). My favorite part of the morning is when Carter gave Kathryn two presents that he had made and wrapped by himself. It was just two pieces of paper decorated, stapled, folded, and colored, but he had wrapped them himself in tissue paper and a gift bag, tied a bow and wrote KA for Kathryn. It was so sweet that he wanted to make something special for his sister. That is the spirit of Christmas that I just LOVE!
My parents came out bringing gifts and I made breakfast. They (like always) spoiled us rotten. Carter was thrilled with his lego star wars, Kathryn liked her new doll we named "Gretel" but her favorite (of course) is the Dor-la puzzle, Grandpa helped her put together.
After we had an enjoyable breakfast (ham, eggs, potatoes, fresh fruit, and pancakes) we went and visited the Coombs. We got some lovely things from them and money that we are going to spend wisely! They had got a wii for Christmas and we had a great time playing with them.
This evening has been really relaxing. The kids were so tired and yet they were determined to play with their new toys. I've spent the evening reminiscing about this holiday season by blogging.
I love the build-up to Christmas. I love all the preparation, the pre-parties, the wrapping. I'm sad to say the day is over. I hope to keep this Christmas spirit in my heart year-round. Maybe by writing about it I can remember. I'm grateful for my family and how they make this day so special. Being a parent was my favorite part of this year.

Merry Christmas 2009

Christmas Eve

Dinner and Talent Show with the Coombs

Dinner was delicious. Way too much good food. We counted that 11 bricks of cream cheese were used in the preparation. Good thing there was a lot of left overs! The cousins LOVE to be together!

Our Talents:

Chris - the big man!

MJ - a supportive, energetic audience member

Carter - Singing all 10 versus of "This old man"

Kathryn - repeating "Little Bo Peep"

Kimball - playing ring around the rosies with the cousins

im, Sueann, Josh, Jodee - Potter Puppet Pals

Josh and Jodee - doing the Crazy dance!

Kurt - trumpet solo

Ashlee - piano solo

Austin - singing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth"

Emilee - singing solo

Everybody - playing the chimes

After the party, we went up to my mom's for their talent show. My camera was dead so I didn't get any pictures. Their party was small this year, just Ryan and Kelly and Grandma and Grandpa. We're glad we were able to make it to a little bit of it.

Finally...

Christmas Eve, we tried everything to get Kimball to settle down and have a nap. This is how it finally happened. Tim Bereece lives across the street and is Kimball's nursery teacher. He and his cute wife, Randee came over to bring us a treat. Kimball reached up to Tim and within minutes he was snoozing! It's so endearing to me when other people take an interest in my children. I really feel that it takes a village to raise a child, I'm so glad that we have such good neighbors and friends!

Blessings of 2009

Blessings in 2009
• A dishwasher that works, a laundry shoot, a warm home, a job, and a shelf full of bottled food.
• Watching baby robins hatch this spring and teaching our kids about the miracle of life.
• Chris finishing his Associate Degree in Graphic Design at Eagle Gate College. He started his own freelancing business – Custom Creation Design.
• Carter learning to swim, rocking it on the soccer field, and sounding out words and starting to read!
• After getting a haircut from her brother, Kathryn’s hair is growing back. She continues to make us smile with her constant gibbering.
• Kimball learning to walk, run (with a stumble every few steps), talk, and light up our lives.
• Celebrating Grandpa Coombs’ life when he passed away this summer. We are so glad he is now reunited with his sweetheart.
• Learning to rely on prayers to make decisions.
• Saying goodbye to a career as a public educator and starting a new adventure. Mary’s Little Lambs Preschool is doing wonderful. I love going downstairs to work everyday and LOVE teaching Carter and Kathryn.
• Mending relationships and starting over.
• Witnessing a miracle as my mother’s life was preserved. Her health is slowly improving. Our family is closer together after praying, crying, pleading, and hoping while holding my brothers’ and fathers’ hands.
• A grandma who has taught our family about forgetting oneself and helping the ones you love with 110% of your energy and facilities.
• Making new friends, playing with old friends, having someone to hang out with.
• Testimony of eternal families being strengthened after visiting the Draper Temple open house.
• Being together with the people we love!

We’re so grateful for YOU and the influence you have on our lives. May you reflect on your own blessings of 2009!
Merry Christmas and Happy Blessed New Year!

A new tradition

As a young girl, my next door neighbors, The Smiths, always went down to Salt Lake City for a sleepover at a hotel the week before Christmas. I always thought that would be a fun tradition to have with my family.

This year we did it! Papa Dan (Melissa's generous father) got us a rockin' rate at the Homewood Suites Hilton, so we could afford the splurge! We went and saw the Christmas lights at Temple Square, rode Trax, we walked around the Gateway and got some chocolates at Rocky Mt. Chocolate Factory, had hot chocolate in the hotel lobby, read Christmas stories, watched Polar Express, the kids had a "sleepover," slept in, went to breakfast and dinner, did some Christmas shopping at the dollar store and had a great time being together with our little family! I hope we will be able to continue this tradition!

We LOVE Christmas lights!

Every Christmas we spend hours and lots of gas driving around looking around at Christmas lights. I love this tradition...especially when Chris lets me keep the heater on full blast. This year, I had read about giving a special award to the best decorated house. We gave the award this year to a home by Cook Elementary School. Their lights were set to music. The kids were mesmerized! Thank you to all the people who put time and energy into decorating their homes with Christmas cheer for all to see!

One day, Chris would love to be the receiver of this award. He'd want our house to look like Clark Griswald's house...if I'd let him.

What's up with this?

Kimball found his old binkie. And hasn't taken it out of his mouth since! I've tried to hide it several times. Do you think he is lacking something in his life that he finds the need to suck on the "dummy" (that's what they call them in Australia)? It's kinda cute...but we'll have to break the habit before it becomes a habit! He's 20 months old for crying out loud!

Christmas Tree #2

Remember on Christmas Vacation how Uncle Lewis burns down the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve, and Clark is bound and determined to have a new tree and then have the "hap, hap, happiest Christmas..."

Well, our tree died. Brown as could be! I was scared to turn on the lights for fear that it would catch on fire. If we had an Uncle Lewis we might have had a visit from the fire department. So on December 21st, we took down the tree we had traveled far for, and put up my grandma's old fake one. Most people would have just suffered with a dead tree. Not the Coombs' Crew. We need a sparkly, lighted, fancy, alive-looking Christmas tree on Christmas Day. I don't think we'll be taking this one down anytime soon. We need to enjoy it for a few weeks.

Note to self and readers: my mother in law told me that Lodgepole pines do turn brown quicker than other trees. We won't be getting another one of those again!

Hours of Enjoyment!

Thank you mom and dad for the WONDERFUL new freezer. What a great Christmas present. Now we can store our 1/3 of a cow, 40 lbs of chicken breasts, and homemade bread in an energy efficient freezer. We really appreciate it!

Thank you also for the freezer box! It has provided our kids hours of entertainment. They have decorated almost every square inch, played house, had tea parties within it's walls, and it is a great place for hide-n-seek.

Cookie Exchange

Some girls in my neighborhood invited me to do a cookie exchange with them. I made 6 dozen gingerbread cookies, and then decided to decorate them all. They turned out so cute. I felt bad because some of them got a little overcooked...I really love them when they are soft and really chewy. These really are so yummy...but you have to only bake them for 10-11 minutes!

How daring are we?

For Family Home Evening a few weeks ago, we went with the Barbers to a live Nativity scene. It was so special to see the scripture story of Christ's birth acted out with the shepherds, angels, Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus. It was super cold, we were sitting on hay, and the whole time Carter was complaining. But a few days later he mentioned seeing the wise men, and talked about how terrible it would have been to sleep on the hay. It was so worth it because he learned something!

Afterwards we took SEVEN (yes - that's right 7) children under the age of 5 to Applebees for dinner. I thought we were for sure CRAZY...but they did pretty good. I had to take pictures because I was so proud of the kids. We all just love the Barbers! They are so fun to hang out with. My favorite thing about them is the lesson Joann has taught me by example. Even if you have young kids...life still needs to be lived! I CAN do the grocery store with 3 kids if she can do it with 4!

Kathryn turns 3!

Happy Birthday to our sweet, spunky little girl. Three year ago we were blessed with our baby girl. Our life hasn't been the same since.

I still love getting her all dressed up. It's too bad she doesn't have more tea parties and special occasions to wear all her cute dresses. Her white hair is starting to grow in a little better, but she still has her little peach fuzz spot on the back. (sigh-one day it will grow!) She talks so cute. My favorite words she says right now are...."I tan't (I can't), Carger (Carter), Wager (water), I shirsty (I'm thirsty), "shanks" (thanks), 'I begotted" (I forgot).

For her birthday (3 weeks ago) we had a little family birthday party. She insisted on having a "Dorla" party. She is quite obsessed with Dora the Explorer. She got spoiled from her grandparents, aunts and uncles, and cousins! She got some beautiful dresses, darling outfits, new shoes, and lots of fun toys. We gave her a Dora backpack (which she and Kimball both love!), a Tinkerbell hoodie, and a pink winter coat.

I worked for about 3 hours on the most delicious cake. I also was so excited to attempt to make a "butter cream frosting transfer." My friend, Stacey, had explained to me how to make one. I had tried to call her, but she wasn't home. So instead I just attempted based on memory. (Now I know...I should never trust my memory!) I worked so hard mixing the right colors for the face, and painting it just perfectly. I then put it in the freezer and then tried to transfer it to the cake. When I did so, the picture just crumbled! I finally got ahold of Stacey and found out I missed one step of spreading base frosting all over it and then I would have used the mirror image. So for the cake I used the picture I was copying. Quite a disappointment...but at least I tried!

Kathryn loves her cousin Emma. They have become two little peas in a pod lately.

Thanksgiving at Jefferson and Melissa's House

Las Vegas

Good company

Brother and Sis

Pam and Danny

Cousins Playing

New House

Guest Suite

Yummy Food

Homemade rolls

Apple Pie

New Pajamas

Black Friday

Family Pictures

Night on the Town

The Strip

Long Drive

Love them!

The Chris Griswald Family Christmas Tree

The adventure this year to cut down our tree got more adventurous, less expensive, more drawn-out and more fun! We headed to Mt. View, Wyoming with the Barber family to purchase a $10 tree permit to cut down a tree in the Wasatch National Forest. It was quite the endeavor, and I'm not sure we saved much money after spending a whole Saturday and gas to drive past Evanston to Mt. View. But we had a wonderful time! The 7 children were a little cold and the babies were pretty miserable (take note of Kimball's face). We found a darling lodge pole pine and it might be my favorite Christmas tree ever. It's really different than any we've had before.

Chris and Justin showing off their prize. Our tree was much taller than Justin's so he insisted on holding the tree up with one hand.

Carter loves playing with the Barber girls. Especially Marianne. He can't figure out why he likes her so much, but we think he might have a little crush on her. (I'm surely not going to be the one to tell him about it! They have so much fun and I don't want to ruin their little friendship.) On this particular day, Carter had found an old cell phone that the battery was not completely dead. They went around taking pictures of the trees and of themselves doing silly faces.

Kimball and Kathryn insisted on being carried everywhere. The snow was not their cup of hot chocolate.

I LOVE this picture!

Don't you love Kimball's hand-me down PINK boots?

The finished product!