Merry Christmas

This year was very different for us, Jason came home from work on Thursday and felt awful.  He went to sleep and I was hoping he would feel better.  Alas he did not at least not until today.  So we spent the Christmas weekend at home.  We were suppose to be to my mom's house on Christmas eve for dinner and gift exchange with Myron's side of the family.  Then on Christmas there was brunch at my dad's house and a gift exchange there, then back to my mom's house for dinner.  We missed all of it, Jason said I could take the boys and go but that felt wrong, like I was saying "sorry your sick honey, you stay here and be sick and miserable and we are going to go have fun without you"  Jason finally went to insta-care on Sunday and he had some virus that there was nothing to be done he had to just wait it out.  The Dr did say that it is very contagious so most likely we are all going to get it.  That is just wonderful, because we haven't had enough sickness this year (ha ha ha). 

But we did have a great Christmas, the boys were really excited, Ashton couldn't wait he has been asking me for about a week when Christmas was going to be here so he could open his presents.  We just hung out Christmas eve, watched The Grinch, and read a couple of Christmas books, opened pj's that Santa left on the front step, and left Santa some cookies.  The boys went to bed really good, I told Ashton he had to go to bed and stay in bed, because Santa couldn't come if little boys were awake.  Don't know how many more years that is going to work, but I am enjoying it while I can. 


I wanted some cute pics of the boys, and for every cute one I would get then I would get one like

This, I asked him why he was sticking his tongue out, he said because he likes it.  Silly boy

Miracles do happen, I got one pic of Noah smiling, he wasn't looking at the camera but i still got it.  I tired to get one of both the boys but after about 20 tries I stopped it wasn't going to happen.

At least Ashton is at the stage he will smile on command

Daddy and Ashton, poor sick Jason he was feeling so miserable, but he was a good sport to smile for a couple of pics.

This was the best shot of all of us that I could get. Noah was not happy and neither was Ashton for that matter.

Santa came to our house!

Christmas morning, wasn't super early I was the first one up and it was 8:00am I got up and turned all the Christmas lights on then everyone started stirring.  Ashton was so excited to open presents, Noah needed a little if I started opening the present he would finish it.  We all stayed in our pj's all day and the boys played with there new toys all day.  It was a great day just really quiet and calm.

The boys didn't quite know what to do at first seeing all the presents.

Ashton with all his presents

Ashton has been asking for this backhoe loader for months, this was all he wanted.  He was pretty happy when he saw it, but then it was quickly pushed aside for all the other gifts.  I was quite surprised, that he didn't play with it more

 Noah had a momentary fit and threw himself into the wrapping paper.  Don't remember why, something silly.

He was pretty excited about this one, you can see the smile behind the bink

 He couldn't stop looking at this one, it was really funny to watch him.

 This sword was almost as tall as Ashton, he will have fun having sword fights with daddy

Noah trying out his new scooter, they would fight over the one that we had so now there shouldn't be any fights when they are riding their scooters outside, right!

This was the big hit with both of the boys

Ashton was trying out Daddy's new headphones

 The aftermath, the boys had so much fun playing with all their new toys all day.  I would like to say that there weren't any fights, but that would be lying.  But for the most part they played really well most of the day.

Ashton is so good about posing for me when I want to take a picture.  He wanted to be with all of his toys

We got each of the boys a Santa train, but they didn't like the ones that we gave them, so they switched.  It was actually pretty funny, they liked what they other one got and switched and then they were happy.  Noah stayed like this playing trains for hours.  I did make a bigger track for him to play on.

Poor sick Jason, opening presents wore him out.  It is no fun being sick on Christmas.

Another Christmas miracle, Noah actually looking at the camera and there is a smile hidden behind that bink.

Merry Christmas everyone.  We were so blessed and we had a wonderful Christmas, even though we were at home with just the four of us. 

Merry Christmas

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Holiday activities

I can't believe that it is almost Christmas, this month has just flown by.  Here are some of the fun things that have been going on around here. 

I found this idea online, you wrap all your Christmas books and each night a child gets to pick one and then you read it.  The boys have loved this, we read each night before bed anyway so this was a great way to read the Christmas books and we got to read some new books. 

Playing in the snow, Ashton loves to be in the snow.  Noah he is kind of not sure about it.  I did finally manage to get him to wear boots and some gloves, so that has helped some. 

If your going to eat the snow, then make sure it is clean, and isn't yellow or dirty. 

Ashton loves to make snow angels, he made about 10 of them while  I was shoveling the sidewalk.  Can I just say I hate having a corner lot, the amount of sidewalk we have to shovel is ridiculous.

We were invited to a neighbors house to make gingerbread houses, i had thought Ashton would at least want to help but they had a bunch of trains and so Noah and Ashton didn't want to do anything other than play trains. 

At Ashton's preschool they had a little Christmas program they put on, they sang songs and did a small reenactment of the birth of Jesus.  It was so cute Ashton was a little shy with all the people watching, but it was still fun.  Ashton loves being at preschool and he has grown so much since he has been going.

Ashton was a wise men, who came to visit the baby Jesus

I told Ashton to smile this is what I got.  Not sure where the tongue thing has come from and I am not sure I like it.

Ashton and Miss Gail.  She does a great job with the preschool and I am so glad that  we found her and that Ashton has learned as much as he has. 

Holiday baking

So mom and I got together to do some holiday baking.  It was a long day but we got a ton of treats made and we had fun doing it.  The boys had a great time playing at grandma's house and were really good while we were in the kitchen. all day long.  We made poppy seed bread, cinnamon caramel popcorn, snickerdoodle cookies, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with a brown sugar icing, poppycock, chocolate peanut cluster, and cornpops with chocolate, and Death by Special K.  Everything was so yummy, it is a good thing it is all packaged up so I won't eat anymore of it. 

Temple Square Lights

So I decided tonight would be a great night to go and see the lights at temple sqaure.  It wasn't too cold, or wet so it worked out great. 

We parked at Jason's office and then rode Trax to temple square,  I actually think that riding Trax was the highlight for the boys.  Noah was so excited he didn't want to get off the train. 

As usual the lights were beautiful, We tried to get some cute pics but everytime that we pulled out the camera, Noah's hand went out and he yelled "STOP" so he was not in the mood to be cooperating.  As we were walking around I was carrying Noah, it reminded me of the last time we went.  Noah was only a few weeks old, and I carried him in the Baby Bjorn all bundled up, but he was much lighter than he was tonight.
 

Pantry Remodel

So a couple months ago I decided that I needed to paint my pantry.  After seeing a bunch of them in blog land.  
Here is the pantry before, it was a mess

 I pulled all the food out and pulled off the white contact paper I had put on the shelves when I moved in. I was too lazy then to paint it so I just covered the worn out shelves up.

I painted the shelves and supports white, and the rest of it was painted it the same color as the kitchen.  When I told Jason what I was going to do he thought it was a dumb idea and didn't like it.  He almost talked me out of doing it, but I painted it anyways, and I love it.  It has made a huge difference.  It looks so fresh and clean, I should of done this forever ago.

I bought a bunch of baskets and some jars and containers to hold our food.  I love how it turned out.  I do still need to put some labels on some of the jars, and baskets. 

So far after living with this for a couple of months, I still love it and it still looks like this at least pretty close to this.

Happy birthday Jason

Wow, this is such a busy time of the year in the span of two weeks we have Ashton's b-day, Noah's b-day, Thanksgiving, and Jason's B-day.  We were suppose to celebrate Jason's b-day this last weekend but then he got sick and wasn't up for the celebration.  So we have had to post pone until next weekend.  I did try to make the day as pleasurable as possible, I ran and got him an iced coffee, made him whatever he wanted to eat and then I made him a cake and some cupcakes.

In Honor of Jason turning 35 here are a few things I love about him:

1. I love his sense of humor
2. I love how he makes up silly song and sings them
3. I love how he is such a great father
4. I love that he works so hard to provide for our family
5. I love how he says I'm beautiful even when I know I am not
6. I love that he is so good with money, he has helped me a ton with this one :)
7. I love how he is such a good problem solver
8. I even love how he has to google everything
9. I love how he was the crazy cat man
10. I love how he can make me laugh so easily
11. I love how we lay in bed at night and talk
12. I love how he always seems to know what I am thinking (even though sometimes it can be annoying)
13. I love how he will watch chick flicks with me
14. I love when I have had a hard day with the boys, I can leave and know that all will be good at home
15. I love how he lets me decorate the house however I want as long as he doesn't have to do any of the work
16. I love how he rolls his eyes whenever I want to take a pic of the family or the two of us, but then he smiles and goes along with it
17. I love to watch him play with the boys
18. I love that he will eat almost anything I put in front of him
19.  I love how when he doesn't like dinner very much he gets up and has a bowl of cereal
20. I love that he knows about my obsession with designer purses and he indulges me

I hope he knows how much I love him and appreciate him for everything he does for me and the boys

Happy Birthday Babe!

Thanksgiving

Mom asked me what we wanted to have for Thanksgiving dinner and I laughed because I always give her the same answer.  It never changes, Thanksgiving would not be the same without: Turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, Shirley's Rolls, pickles and olives.  And everything else I just really don't care about.  Of course there has to be homemade cranberries for Jason and some kind of vegetable and a sweet potato, I just don't like those things.  I think that there would be a riot if we didn't have mom's stuffing, Shirley's rolls they are a staple every year.  And I was so bummed when I got home and realized that I had forgotten to bring home rolls with me :(

I was in charge of making dessert, I knew that there needed to be a pumpkin pie and I didn't feel like making one so Costco helped me out there.  I did make Jason an apple pie, I tried a new recipe one I had gotten from Pioneer Women, it turned out delicious I am told (Don't like apple pie, or any pie for that matter). 

After dinner was done and we were all sitting around talking Ashton, Aaron, and Jason were all playing Angry birds.  It is funny watching Ashton play he gets so excited when he gets the pigs.

I love being around family and spending time with the people that mean the most to me for this holiday.  We had a great day just hanging out and eating and I was going through all the sale ads, for Black Friday and plotting my course.  I was contemplating not going, but like Jason said this only comes around once a year and I actually kind of like it.  I do try to stay away from the really crazy places.

This is what I see almost every day from Noah, he is kind of a needy child. 
"Mom stop taking my picture and pick me up"

"seriously are you done yet I want you to hold me and stop taking pictures"
I don't know what it is but I do like taking pics of the boys when they are crying, am I the meanest mommy ever!

Finally a smile from the little stinker, Grandma has this growth chart for the boys and both boys love to look at themselves and see how tall they are getting.

This is what happens when I want to get a family picture.  You would think that I was torturing them, Ashton can't be bothered to hold still and look at the camera and Noah throws a fit and is carrying on.  Oh well at least I tried right!