December 2008: Catching up with Christmas

First off: if you have a second, please take my poll and read "You are needed!". I would really appreciate your feedback! Thank you to all who have participated so far, I would love some more personal experiences:-)

To the post at hand: Hola Amigos y Familia! I'm playing a little catch-up, sorry, be patient with me, I'll get to present tense soon I hope:-)

I love that my kids are still in love with good old fashioned toys, of course they want the flashy, expensive kind too, but they are just as happy with some standards.

Owen wanted a pogo stick. We're still unsure how he even knew what a pogo stick was, but he is pretty good on it. Of course he wanted books too. He loves the Magic Treehouse series (thanks Jared!). He is currently reading Tale of Despereaux. Our goal was to have Owen read it to me before the movie came out, but...#1 the book is 240+ pages and #2 now that he is almost done, neither of us want to see the movie. We have about 20 pages left and I keep telling him that its got to get happy at the end. Its a super sad book, I'm not sure how they could make it into a kid's movie without seriously altering it. Anyone seen it? Owen also discovered his new favorite new building toy, Kinex (thanks Jackson). He constructed a motor bike by looking at a picture-no instructions, crazy!

Eyan wanted roller skates. He is generally the happiest, smiliest (is that a word?) kid. He was so excited to try out those roller skates (thanks Mom) and did a pretty great job. It was fun to try to teach him how to use them. He was so excited to receive Monster Jam ( you have to say it with a low, bellowing voice) trucks (thanks Stockton). I'm not sure if any of your kids or husbands for that matter are into Monster Jam, but it is hilarious to watch my 3 boys and Mike lined up on the couch completely mesmorized by these ginormous trucks catapulting themselves into the air and onto cars. Tate makes these hilarious "whoop whoop" sounds when he watches. Eyan will tell you his favorites are 1, 2, 3 (counting on his fingers): Batman, Grave Digger, and Maximum Destruction. Mike will have to suck it up and wear his sleeveless jean button-down to take the boys to an event.

Tate just loves to do what his brothers do. Both Eyan and Owen have bike helmets and Tate always wears Eyan's "hat". Santa brought Tate his own "hat" for Christmas. Santa couldn't get the elves to make one in Tate's size, but he doesn't seem to matter that it is huge on his head. Tate also loves choo-choos (thanks Savannah and Olivia) and biu-bius (be-yoos), which is Tatese for cars-its obviously the sound they make:-). He lines up his biu-bius and choo-choos and pushes them all along saying with pursed lips "chiga-chiga-chuga". He's pretty darn cute!

I love Christmas p.j.s. Here are all the little cousins. It is so fun to see them all together. Aren't they a cute bunch?

This year I decided to make the boys capes. They were an absolute hit! The blur you see in the last photo (I had to put this in) is my little nephew Jackson. He kept his cape on all day. I wasn't really prepared for the consequences of giving him a cape. One of the first things he did was jump off the stairs in it. It scared me to death but he landed with cat-like agility. We had to try to convince him that it wouldn't make him fly (sorry Nes).

This photo cracks me up. I am guessing this is the first my Mom will hear of this (sorry Mom). What good is a brand new custom made leather ottoman if you can't go sliding off it? Great idea Uncle Lukie! My dad said that that was the reason they picked out this kind of ottoman, so the boys could slide around on it. I think my Mom had a little bit of a different idea.

Isn't my grandma beautiful? Her and my grandpa celebrated Christmas with all of us. I hope they enjoyed all of the noise:-) I just loved this photo of my Grandma trying on her new "peace" earrings from my Mom. "World peace" would truthfully top my Grandma's Christmas list. She is a harmonious soul who is the quintessential "tree hugger" - she'll proudly tell you herself.

My Dad was thrilled that his office was beginning to resemble just that, an office, instead of a storage room. He wanted Tate to be his first interview. Mike is so jealous of his library shelves and the kids all love Grandpa's moving ladder (I have to say it was a little more scary than I thought it would be).

Here's Liz in her new first edition Polka Dot Square Full Apron, she'll be the envy of all her roommates.

Here's Jes looking debonaire in his plush Laker's robe. Watch out ladies!

This has got to be one of my faves! Mike was thrilled to receive these awesome onion goggles. Yes ladies, I am sure you are all jealous, but sorry, none of you would look this good in them:-)

Well we've come to the end of our family Christmas 2008 and after going through all of our photos, I was not in a single one, typical I guess. I'll have to documented another year:-)