Christmas Day (part 1)

Our Christmas morning was so great. It started after Dave spent two hours shoveling snow, but at least it was a white Christmas! It was especially great this year since we actually had a tree and the boys are old enough to anticipate the day coming.

I took the boys to the dollar store and let them pick out presents for daddy. Taylor chose this grenade that Dave can throw at them while playing games. Derek chose a ninja weapon set. I asked him if he was thinking of Daddy or picked it because he wanted it. Derek said quickly "I picked it for Daddy." Then a few seconds later asked "but he can share, right?" Hum.

One of the presents the boys received. I found these ninja costumes half off after Halloween. Don't they make cute ninjas?

Derek's Kindergarten Christmas Program

Derek demonstrated his vocal talents on December 18th in his Kindergarten Christmas Program. He had been looking forward to this day for...well...days. He did such a wonderful job. He held still so well, even though the boy next to him moved constantly the whole 45 minutes. He even held his jingle bells still during the parts they had asked him to. When the teacher handed out the bells the kid next to him started jingling them wildly. However, Derek shook his head to remind himself that they were supposed to be silent. And the end of each song Derek grinned as if the whole audience were clapping for just him. Funny kid. Loves the attention.
He told me that the "biggest kids were on the top step and the little kids were on the bottom step". I asked where he would be and he said "the middle biggest". There he is right in the center.
This was a cute song titled "I'm the happiest Christmas Tree".

The "click click click" part cracks me up. I think I'm just a proud parent.

Remember me?

Okay, okay...so I've been a total blogger slacker this last month. Here are my excuses: I got so caught up with getting ready for Christmas that I let the blog slip, then Christmas hit and we had two weeks full of fun with our families (watch for future posts), one week after Christmas we moved to a new apartment, and now we are settling our stuff in, this week I've been at my sister's house almost everyday...so there you have it. And for some reason I feel like I can only add a post when I have a picture to go with it. We bought a new camera for Christmas and I haven't sat down to figure out the upload process for it yet. So here I am, adding a post without a picture just so I don't become an "inactive blog", as I call them.

We had a great Christmas season and loved hearing from and seeing so much family. I'll add pictures and write more about that soon. I especially loved the break from taking Derek to school early in the morning. It has been hard adjusting back to that schedule these past few days...especially with the tons of snow we've had!!

Like I previously mentioned, we moved the beginning of last week. We are now in a 3 bedroom apartment and LOVE the extra space. The boys have taken over the extra bedroom and it is "the Lego room" until the baby comes. And when I say "boys" that includes Dave of course. Taylor spends most of his day in there. I guess there are worse things they could be addicted to.

I am getting close to my due date, however my doctors think that this delivery will be like the rest....overdue and induced. YEAH!! I really hope so. I like how my last two deliveries went, so I would take the repeat. I like being in the hospital for the entire labor. It's a comfort to know that if anything were to go wrong the baby would be monitored and taken care of. I also love knowing that an epidural is only minutes away as opposed to suffering at home in pain. I guess I just don't know any different, so I am happy with my short painful induced labors. I am curious to see how this one will go. But I am at the point that I am just so curious to see my little girl and get to know her little quirks and personality. I can't wait! I am down to weekly appointments at the OB and that makes it feel so so close. I feel HUGE, but most people don't agree with me. It is getting harder and harder to move around...just the usual aches and pains of pregnancy I guess. I'll miss it when it's over though...sigh.

So I'll figure out our new camera soon and post tons of pictures

The First Real Snow

We had a little snow storm come through on Saturday. This was the first real snow of the season. We all had fun playing with friends in the snow. The snow makes it feel more like Christmas now.

Dave and the boys only built this huge snowball, since Dave quickly realized that anything else would be destroyed by the neighborhood kids. He was right...even this snowball was obliterated within minutes.

Christmas Traditions

Our family is growing older and family traditions are becoming necessary. I am not too creative in thinking of new things to do. I'd love to hear what traditions you had growing up or are currently starting now! Please post your ideas as a comment for this post. I'm hoping to get some great tradition ideas from all of you! Thank you and Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday to ME!!

Yes, I am one year older (for security's sake I won't say exactly how old on this blog)...but I am still in my 20's. Whahoo!! I had a pretty normal day, which is to be expected when you're an adult. But I really appreciate all the love and well wishes from my family and friends. I loved all the emails, phone calls, cards, and comments on this blog. I felt very loved. Derek decided that his gift to me was "to be nice all day". He did okay, but I had to remind the boy. :) Days ago Taylor said that he was going to buy me "an orange knife to carve pumpkins". I'm glad he didn't follow through. :)

I helped the boys make the birthday cake (provided by Scott and Traci...Thanks guys)!
Their technique may have been a bit unorthodox, but they had fun.
Derek came up with the great idea of putting the Transformer Optimus Prime on the top. How thoughtful huh? :) I think the cake turned out great! It was so so yummy.
Dave brought home Cafe Rio burritos and Snickers Ice Cream bars. My favorites! After dinner Derek gave a Family Home Evening lesson on "Mommies". Dave and the boys were so sweet with their love and compliments. That was the best gift of all. I love my little family!

Our Trip to California

As a very last minute decision, we decided to drive to California for Thanksgiving this year. We were able to visit with Dave's family and had a wonderful trip.

Grandma and Grandpa took us to their favorite little zoo and we ALL rode the train. Taylor was so lucky to be surrounded by his daddy, aunt Lindsay, and Grandma Judy.
A cute picture...but try to ignore crazy cousin Matt behind us. :)
Here are some pictures of the fun we had at the zoo's park.

One of my most favorite activities is just hanging out with family. So this week was so perfect for me. Thank you Grandma Judy and Grandpa David for letting us crash at your house!