Christmas Day!

I'm finally on my last catch up post from Christmas. Christmas morning was fun for almost everyone. Alice was NOT ready to be woken up. If you read the previous post, then you know she didn't fall asleep until about 1 AM. We woke her up at 8:30 and she was not very happy about it. Should we have just let her sleep in and miss all the Christmas morning fun? (Maybe) The girls were really excited, but didn't wake up until about 8:00, then patiently waited while Tom and I laid in bed for 30 minutes not wanting to get up.

We made our short trip down the hall and the girls pounced on their presents. It's amazing how quickly Abby can rip through everything! Everyone else took a little bit more time, but it worked out okay. The girls were happy and, of course, totally spoiled.

We went to a delicious brunch at my grandparents' house at 11:00. The best thing had to be the deep fried french toast. SO YUMMY!! I can't wait until I'm done with my diet so I can make them for my family. (Or just for me!) We went home for naptime and then over to my parents' house for dinner. It was awesome having everyone there. My brother and his family came up from Texas, so it was especially nice. The kids play together so well and just love to be together!

Christmas was a success this year, that's for sure!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was fun and crowded, with a little drama mixed in. We generally spend Christmas Eve with my husband's side of the family - and this year we all piled into his Grandpa's semi-empty house for our annual dinner and Nativity "play". (I'm using the word PLAY loosely here.) We ate lots of food and the kids ate way more candy than they should have since their Grandpa kindly set out dishes of it. There was a pretty steady flow to the M&Ms and Skittles.

I don't usually put myself in here, but what the heck!

After dinner, we got the kids dressed up in their Nativity costumes and attempted to get them to re-enact a bit of Luke 2. We're not particularly organized, and there's never a great place for a stage - so it's usually interesting. Sophie got to be Mary this year, she was very excited. Abby was an angel and Alice was a dog - or some sort of barnyard animal that wears a dog costume.

After the play was declared finished, there were presents galore - with children fighting over toys and wrapping paper strewn about the room.

Snuggies all around for the grandkids!

It was a good evening, just crazy as usual. Tom's brother, at some point, announced to the room that his wife had peed on something that morning. We knew where he was going with it, but isn't there a little bit better way to announce to the family that you are expecting your first child? Now we have another thing to tease him about. ;)

That's about it for Christmas Eve. The kids stayed up way too late - especially Alice. I put her to bed sometime a bit after 9 and she was too worked up to fall asleep. I think I stopped hearing noises from her room sometime after 1 AM.

Temple Square Christmas Lights

We've never taken the kids to see the lights at Temple Square before - so we decided to give it a go this year. It was SO busy. If we go again, it'll need to be way earlier in December. Little kids + crowds = frazzled Mom. The parking was awful, and everywhere was super crowded. But, the lights were beautiful and it was fun to get together with my sister's family. Here are a few of our pictures:

Christmas dresses

I attempted to take pictures of the kids after church in their Christmas dresses yesterday. Why can't they just cooperate? And really, should Abby be the hardest one to get good pictures of? She can't seem to look at the camera most of the time.

Sophie's party

We had Sophie's "friend" party on Monday. Which was just cousins this year, since she doesn't get out much to make any other kinds of friends yet. We went to Chuck E Cheese and let the kids roam around for an hour and a half attempting to get as many tickets as possible so they could spend them on really lame toys. They had a blast and Sophie seemed to think it was pretty great. She was scared of the big mouse, so I didn't get a picture of her trying to give him a hug or anything. (She told me she was just shy.) The mom of one of the kids having a birthday had Chuck E bring out a crown for Sophie as well. She really liked it and I think it helped her not notice the fact that I went the cheapie route and didn't pay for the official birthday package.

We were especially excited that JoAnna, Jared, and Ember could join us since they are here from Texas for an extended visit. Yay!!! We just wish AJ could be here in Utah for the whole time too. I guess a month is a little bit more vacation than he should ask for at this point. (He's worked at his job since March.)

Here are some pictures of the event:

Ember is getting SO big!! And I'm jealous that she has so much more hair than Alice.

Alice had fun on some of the rides and generally just wandering around the building.

Sophie and Alice both freaked out and got scared on this ride. Wimps!

Sophie was VERY serious while we were singing to her.

Alice decided to cut out the middle man and just skip using her hands altogether.

I think the cupcakes were a hit.

Here's the party crew. At least Abby was looking in the right direction and smiling at the same time for once!

Chopped

Abby got a haircut. She LOVES it! I think it's pretty cute too. :)

Christmas cards

So, I've never really been one to send Christmas cards. I think about doing it every year - but somehow I haven't ever gotten around to it. Wait - I take that back. I think I sent Christmas cards one year before I was married, and that was just because I found some funny cards about snowmen and yellow snow. Funny, right?? I think I might have a couple floating around here somewhere. Maybe I could use those somehow . . .

Since I have three adorable girls, I need to start sending out cards or a letter or something to brag about how awesome they are. I at least need to reciprocate all the cards that get sent to us so we don't seem like such slackers. Shutterfly is having a promotion where I could get some Christmas photo cards to send. (these cards, these other cards, or maybe these) They look super easy to make and wouldn't require too much actual creativity on my part. It can't be as much work as thinking of and buying Christmas presents, right?

Anyway, maybe Shutterfly can actually pull me out of my Christmas card slump and I can send some sweet pictures of my little family around for everyone to see. Of course, then I'd have to choose from all of their cute layouts. Too much work for me? I guess we'll find out!

Here are some of the cute layouts they have - now I just need to find a great picture of my kids where they are ALL looking in the same direction!

I wish we were photogenic (models) like THESE people!

Happy Birthday Sophie!!

My little Sophie is 4 years old today!! She is such a little blessing to our home. Sophie is adorable, funny, kind, smart, loving, sassy, snuggly, and naughty - all rolled into one. Sometimes she is more diva than I want to handle, but I just love her to pieces. She comes up with the best phrases sometimes. Her most used one is "You hurt my heart." So sad, even when it's totally unjustified. I was telling her to be quiet or share or something in church and she looked at me and said "Don't even think about it!" Little stinker!!

Anyway, Sophie is a blessing to all of us and I'm so glad to have a day to celebrate her. She woke up to breakfast in bed - pink pancakes with chocolate chips / blueberries and syrup and whipped cream on top. She was pretty excited to be old enough to get to participate in this little tradition. Sophie got to open a few presents this morning and has had a pretty great day so far. We're going to see Tangled together as a family later and she is really looking forward to it. Thanks for being a part of our family Sophie!!

Shopping with kids

I just got back from shopping at Walmart with Sophie and Alice. I am feeling SO frazzled!!! I can't stand it. I think just Sophie would have been fine - but Alice is such a nightmare to shop with. Now I feel like I need a nap. And some chocolate. Bleh. I don't know how this is supposed to NOT be difficult.

Thankful

I'm thankful for my wonderful family. I'm thankful for getting to have a pretty darned good Thanksgiving dinner - and that my Mom was able to be there and seem a lot like her usual self. I'm thankful that my family doesn't have conflict and backbiting, that we really do love each other. I'm thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and that I can be forgiven of my sins and live with Him again. I'm thankful for the potential to have Celestial glory and that my family is also striving to attain it. I'm also thankful to have lost 32 pounds these last few months so I can feel a little better about myself. I'm thankful that my husband has been willing to be on that journey with me as well.

I'm thankful for a good job for me and Tom - that it is a very stable company filled with some great people. I'm thankful to get to interact with the young women of my ward and learn from them - and also try to be a better person so they will have a good example in me. I'm thankful for three beautiful little girls and for their undying affection and love. I'm thankful for their father, my wonderful husband, and for his love for me.

I have a lot of blessings to be thankful for - and this is just a small portion of them.

Early birthday present

I got an early birthday present last week. (Birthday/Christmas/Valentine's Day . . . ) I got a new camera and I love it!! I just need more time to play with it and more cooperative kids to photograph. Not to mention the *perfect* outfits and hair. Anyway, here are a few new pictures of the kids. I'd like to take a photography class sometime so I can get the most out of this new camera.

A bit overwhelmed

I feel like I have too much going on lately. I don't think I have more than most people, it just seems like a lot for me and so things are falling by the wayside. Like my house. Bleh! Can't it just clean itself?

With Tom working again, I am working from home full time with kids full time and it's harder than I thought it would be. Maybe it's just because work has been really stressful lately. It's hard to say. Or maybe I really didn't realize how much of the kids' attention Tom really diverted. By the end of my work day, I just don't feel like picking up after the kids and keeping things neat. I'll figure this out eventually, right?

Fall Soccer Season

Okay, so soccer has been over for 3 weeks or so, but I didn't post yet - so here goes. Abby had a lot of fun this year playing soccer. Her coach actually knew what he was doing and taught the girls some good skills. Sophie liked dressing up as a soccer kid when she went to watch the games and Alice just like to roam around a lot and wander onto the field. Abby actually scored a few goals at the beginning of the season - she was SUPER excited about it. Somehow, though, the teams got pretty good and Abby wasn't able to score any more. Hopefully she'll be excited to jump back into soccer in the Spring.

Baby Po?

Sophie has decided that Po is now her baby. She carries him around the house. She chases him with a blanket. She dances with him. He avoids her.

Employment!!

Tom has been out of work for 15 months now, but not for much longer. There was an opening with my company advertised through our internal email and I thought Tom should apply. It was for software testing. He doesn't have any testing experience, but we figured it wouldn't hurt to try. After a couple of interviews and a bit too much waiting, Tom was offered a job with FPS GOLD. It's part of DHI Computing and I work for one of the other subsidiary companies. We're pretty excited and maybe a bit nervous. Things will be pretty different around the house without Tom around. I'll have to try to be more organized and scheduled to get everything done that I need to. And I won't have someone to watch the kids if I need to go somewhere in the middle of the day. But, this is a new chapter - and hopefully some good stability as Tom works for a great family oriented company. (It's been good for me for 11 years!)

Little Hike

For some reason Tom really wanted to go for a little hike to see a waterfall. He found some place called the Grotto up Payson Canyon. So, we headed out after I was done with work yesterday. Unfortunately, the car ride took forever due to rush hour traffic combined with construction combined with an accident. Ah well, at least we had licorice to keep the kids occupied. We made our way up there and hiked up to the funny little water fall area. There was a wet towel and some socks sitting on a rock there, so some weirdo must have been nearby. I was a bit creeped out by that part. We took some pictures and hiked back down the trail a ways and ate the sandwiches we had brought for dinner. The kids had fun and it was a bit of an adventure. Alice isn't great to hike with, but at least she wasn't too squirmy. There were some fun logs to cross over a stream. Sophie was scared of them and tried to fall off once. Maybe we'll try another little adventure sometime soon. :)