A White Christmas for 2010!

We had Adley and Ani's family over a few days before Christmas for pizza and a movie- A Muppet Christmas Carol- that we watched by the fireplace while eating popcorn and other goodies. We had such a fun time!Our 3 lb mahi-mahi that was made into our Christmas Eve dinner of fish chowder in homemade bread bowls. Because I bought it two days early, the butcher gave me a big frozen fish instead of the normal smaller chunks so that the fish would be thawed at just the right time. I just liked carrying home a fish longer than Jacob and thought how fun it would be to catch one of these! For Christmas Eve, we read/acted out/sang hymns for the nativity. It was our first year really attempting it, and it went okay. At least Nicole could participate, but the boys didn't understand much. After that, the kids got to paint a scene of the nativity and that was a hit.We got the kids Christmas Eve pajamas, and they really felt like the pajamas were something special-it was so cute! Christmas morning was the most exciting we have had yet! We ate breakfast and had the kids get dressed. We told Nicole not to come downstairs and see the tree and presents until we came up to get her. That totally did not work- she came down twice, but didn't really realize that she could go look at the presents. Still, when we all walked into the family room the excitement level went through the roof! Michael started trying to open every present and it took a lot of work to calm them all down and let them take turns :-)

Jacob was in heaven with all sorts of containers, wrappers, and boxes!

Michael got the leftover train tracks from daddy's office set and Nicole got a castle set. I have never seen them so content for so long. Even now, they are totally engrossed in their toys. What I love is that it didn't take some big gift, just some toys that spark their imagination! Jim totally scored with a surprise gift to me (we usually just tell each other what we want since gift giving is not our forte). He got me a book I mentioned I didn't have by a favorite author of mine. I gave him a surprise gift of a kit where you put together these wooden carolers that play the tune of here comes santa claus. Unfortunately, two of the carolers are somehow off by a half note so the song sounds hilarious. So much for my surprise gift-giving!

Christmas night it began snowing and we woke up in the morning to this!

I could stare at this amazing accumulation of snow for a long time! The snow was sticky/heavy so you can see how it piled up on the branches. I wish I had the skill to paint a picture like this! I just feel lucky we have these trees in the backyard (so maybe raking all of those leaves was worth it!)

Nicole is reading a dictionary we received for Christmas. She literally looked at every page, and tried to read it. I was amazed that she had that much attention and patience, it was awesome!

Jim had to get something out of the shed and you can see the deep footprints he made. The kids can't wait to get out in the snow tomorrow! I ordered snowsuits that came on Christmas Eve and I'm SOOOO glad because the stores have been all sold out here for a while even though it only snows a few times a year here. Michael might have to wear pink boots, but at least he'll be warm :-)

We could measure the snowfall by the play table. The last measurement I took was 7 inches and it's still a flurry out there!

Church was cancelled, so we watched the First Presidency Christmas devotional as a family. After spending all Sunday snowed in while other kids were sledding down our culdesac (which is perfectly inclined) the kids can't wait to go outside!! Me too!

Here's some video of the kids. We really missed seeing family this Christmas and hope to see everyone soon!!

Ho Ho Ho Little Jake-O

Jacob had his 9 month appointment this week! He is crawling, teething (3 teeth now and all he wants for Christmas is his two front teeth) and playing hide and seek with Nicole and Michael. He is by far the cuddliest baby, the kids care ladies at the gym say he is the cutest they've ever seen. I think it is because he is just so little and snuggly. He does need to be more beefy though...
Weight 15lbs 10oz (<3%)
Length 27.25in (25%)
Head 17in (3%)
Jacob has dropped down on the growth curves. The doctor told me to feed Jacob table foods since he is not a big fan of the puree stuff. The difference between Jacob and Michael is quite extreme in eating habits. Michael at this age would wolf down 2 of the Gerber puree and then go for whatever we put on his tray with vigor. Jacob will take a spoonful here and there and then pick at whatever we put on his tray. Watching Jacob casually pick up a Cheerio and maybe put it in his mouth can be so frustrating when I'm trying to beef him up. Jacob did have double ear infections a few weeks ago and that might have something to do with it, but anyways our goal is to fatten up our cute little Jake-Jake (as Michael calls him).

Let the holidays begin!

One evening we had Dustin over and made delicous completely homemade carmel white chocolate apples. We piled as much caramel and chocolate as we could and that was so tasty with the tartness of the green apples!

When I make dinner, I often see this accompanied by "hold me? hold me?"

After we finished off the whipped topping with our pumpkin pie, Nicole REALLY wanted to finish it off.

A very pleasant experience for her :-)

Our tree has only lost one ornament from Michael's attention! We blockade off the tree with a standup toy and bucket so Jacob can't reach it. The blockade has made this the easiest year ever for having a tree! We also didn't put on the too-tempting candy canes.

We visited the Apex Nativity this afternoon. There were about 700 nativities loaned by members of the stake and community. I let them use my Ecuador set, so it was fun to try and find ours. Nicole's favorite was the tiny nativity inside an egg from Mexico.

Last night Jim and I were Mary and Joseph in the live nativity. It was outdoors in 30-something degree weather or we would have brought Jacob to be the baby like we did with Michael a few years back. We've really enjoyed participating in such a special event each year. There is a children's room with activities and snacks. We played for an hour with the nativity sets, coloring pages, stickers, and Nativity books.

Michael probably wasn't reinacting the Nativity, but he was still enjoying all of the different sets.