A quiet Christmas

This year all of our relatives that live in our same town were getting out of dodge except for Jesse's brother Sam and so it was our first Christmas with it just being us. I was pictureing myself just hangin out with the fam, making some goodies to have stocked on the table for us to graze on and just have a nice family centered Christmas. Well, the Sunday before Christmas I woke up from a 3 hour nap with a horrible sore throat that wasn't going anywhere no matter how much apple cider vinigar or collidial silver I drank. Tuesday Jesse had to work and couldn't reschedule patients and so I was stuck at home with the kids feeling like death's door was knockin. All morning I tried to lie down with Bella, but she just wanted to be held while she jumped in my arms. Meanwhile the kids were done watching TV, it was way too windy and cold to go outside and from the way they were treating each other I could tell they were hungry for lunch. I could barely stand up straight because I was freezing from the fever. I still had some Christmas gifts to deliver and so I thought, "how hard can it be to drive while your sick?" It was way hard! I fought to keep my eyes open the whole time and my throat was just raw. Luckily I had started taking antibiotics that morning and by the night I was seeing an improvement. By the time Christmas came I was able to get dinner made and get myself dressed and presentable and not the monster mom I was becoming! The whole time I was sick I kept thinking how much I wished that I had a family member near to ask for help from. I'll never take my in-laws for granted again!

Christmas Eve traditional PJ's For dinner we had Ham, corn pudding casserole, deviled eggs (which I taught Sam how to make and he put his own spin on them; they were very good) and salad. Not your everyday traditional dinner, but it was great. All in all we had a good Christmas that I think the kids will keep in their minds as a great one to remember. Even though they already had some cheap little star wars light savors we got them the "spring" loaded ones and bought an extra one for Jesse so that they could "train" together. They spend a good amount of time Christmas afternoon fighting on the trampoline. It's so funny to watch because Cameron is just ruthless with Jesse. I think he believes that Jesse is just unbreakable or something. They have a pretty good time pretending to be Jedi's.
Helping momma fold clothes!

My dad playing Bryce's new guitar. Of course next to him, the never ending laundry that I still haven't caught up on.

A mess worth making once a year.

Of all of the traditions I've tried to make since becoming a mother this is one that is always consistent...the Gingerbread house. Last year we bought a huge one from Sams club that survived the building process, but ended up with a collapsed roof and ended up staying outside on our back porch. (I don't know why it just never made it's way back into the house after the "drying of the frosting" process) This year we just went with the graham cracker approach let the kids do their own thing.

Edible Art!

She's so proud!

Do you want Steak with your cake?

So this year Jesse turned 34! I always want to make Jesse's birthday special no matter the age, but sometimes it's hit and miss. I kept trying to get Jesse to go somewhere and go skiing, but he was fighting a horrible case of the flu off and on during the whole month and so this year he wanted me to cook either sun chip chicken or steak. I decided to give him both, although I can guarantee he's never had a steak that tasted so sweet! :) Love you honey! I'll soon be joining you in the 30's crowd! ha ha.

Jesse's so animated! I made him close his eyes so that I could surprise him. (Thanks for humoring me Jesse.) :) You know how sometimes when you see a cake your mouth almost starts watering you can't wait to dig into it? Even though the cake was decent it felt like I was cutting into a raw steak and that's not too appetizing. ha ha.

You've accomplished many things in your 34 years of life Jesse. It's been fun watching you fullfill the role as a father. You're an amazing father and husband. I love you.

Christmas Countdown

I know, horrible picture, but you get how cool it could've been right?!

Ok, so it looks like I skipped Thanksgiving, but it turns out that I may have accidentally erased all of the pictures from the event! It's driving me crazy because I had some important pictures and we worked so hard transforming our messy garage into a nice dining room fit for 14 people. O-well, such is life.

Bella...what a cutie-pie!

Cameron is in there somewhere!

Last Friday we made it to the lighting of the luminaries in the downtown mall area of town. They've revamped the place and had carriage rides that took you around some parks that were lit and then onto the train station to meet up with Santa. The line was going to be about a two hour wait so we opted to just drive in our warm car to see Santa the miniature trains instead. The kids were so excited to see Santa. By the time we got there he was done sitting and was just walking around probably about to leave, but when the kids saw him they each gave him a great big hug and sort of in a shy way told him what they wanted. Santa made them promise to help out with the house work by picking up their toys and cleaning their rooms and so when we got home Cameron went right to work in doing that. I thought he was a changed boy, but the magic didn't last long. :( Kids constantly need reminders don't they. Anyways, we finally got our tree up today and will decorate it tomorrow. Too much to do and sooo little time. I never could understand as a kid when adults would tell me that there is not enough hours in the day to get everything done. Oh, how I'm living that phrase. But, it's too bad that there's not enough hours in the NIGHT to catch up on your sleep.