Christmas

So, Christmas was perfect. We decided to stay home for the actual holiday, which was a little lonely, but mostly fun. We are used to having big family parties beginning Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa Fullers, breakfast at the Holyoaks, lunch at our house, and dinner, movies and munchies at my parent's house. This year it was all us. We did continue some of the traditions ourselves like the baking of Santa cookies and writing a note to Santa, Reindeer milk, and movies and munchies. It was fun to just be able to have time alone as a family as we have not had much of that for the past few months. We did miss the family terribly though. Troy had to work (Or chose to, however you want to look at it) for the rest of Christmas week, but the kids and I made the journey down to LaSal the day after Christmas. It was fun, and much like having Christmas all over again. We spent time with my family, worked with Papa (Pushing snow in the backhoe. Ethan actually drove it, and did a pretty good job! Adia just fell asleep as usual. She is just like me, there is something about being in the equipment that puts us right to sleep.) Tried to Kill Kalista's fish (Long story, probably another post) and opened TONS of presents. Here are a few pictures of Christmas, and the rest of the week. Adia got a bike, but decided that there wasn't enough room to ride it in the house, and it was too cold outside, so she just wore her pads around the whole day while she played with everything else.

The excitement finally caught up to her at my parents house. She lounged out in a crazy position and snoozed for a good three hours. It didn't look comfortable to me, but she must have liked it.

Isn't this the worst Santa picture you have ever seen? We have never taken a very good one, but this year beats them all. Even Santa looks unhappy. We would have rather had the old drunk Santa from last year. He dropped Adia, and slurred his words, but at least he seemed happy doing it.

Ethan doing his signature smile. Believe it or not, this is one of the best pictures of him from all of Christmas.
"Cheese!"

This is a pretty bad picture of everyone involved, but it is also probably one of my favorites. Kalista is playing with Adia! Engaging, and eye contact! If you know Kalista, or much about autism you will realize what a golden moment this is. And to have it caught on film...A Christmas Miracle!

Snow Fort Snack

The dad at our house finally came home for a visit. He is way awesome, and he helped us build a snow fort in the front yard. The kids loved it. In fact, all the kids in the neighborhood loved it. We even had some that came from -I don't know where. I didn't recognise them at all. Anyway, as much as everyone loved it, I don't think anyone loved it as much as Adia. She kept getting hungry, and would take a little chunk out of the wall. Watch the video, it's great!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

Well, it finally happened. It snowed, and it stuck in Brigham City! We are so EXCITED that we can hardly stand ourselves! The only thing that made our kids stop crying when we told them that we were moving to Brigham City was when I told them that it snows a lot there. No, I had never actually been to Brigham City, but I knew it was sort of close to Logan, and I had heard that it snowed a lot there. Anyway, we moved in May -no snow. However, that didn't stop my kids from asking when it was going to snow every single day. All summer long they would wake up and say "Mom is it going to snow today?" They would hear me say that it wouldn't be snowing that day, and they would tell me "But Mom, you said it snowed here." And I had said that, I just should have been more specific when I said it. So I started telling them in the Fall it would snow, then it didn't, so I would say, After Halloween (Surly by then right?), Then it was at Thanksgiving, now the kids just tell people "Mom said it snows here, but she wasn't telling the truth." Always, anyone we see knows that Mom didn't tell the truth. It has snowed a little here and there, but nothing that stuck. It snowed everywhere around us, but never here in Brigham. It hasn't been looking too good for me. Until tonight! It started to snow around four this afternoon. It was starting to get dark a little, and the snow started to fly. By five it was covering the ground enough that the kids decided I wasn't a liar, and it was time to head outside. I was a little reluctant as it was already dark, but then I realized that if it never snowed again at least I could say"Don't you remember that time..." and it would prove I hadn't lied about the snow. So, we packed on our snow pants and boots, coats, hats, gloves, and trudged outside to have fun. And boy did we ever have fun! We caught snow on our tongues, we had a snowball fight, we did a snow dance, we made snow angels, we built a snowman. It was great. All of the things we had wanted to do for the last two and a half years when we didn't have enough snow to do, we packed into this one night, because who knows if we will ever have this chance again. Yes, it was dark and cold, and we will all probably be sick for the next few weeks, (What kind of mom lets her kids go play in the snow at night) but the fun we had was well worth it. It is a different kind of snow then I ever experienced before. It is so WET! I'm used to light airy wispy snow, not heavy wet splattering snow. It is crazy! We could make a snowman right as it fell, I have always had to wait until it started melting a little so it would pack enough to stay together. And when you throw a snowball at someone, it doesn't shatter and blow away the second it hits them. It SMACKS right into them and splatters. Anyway, enough of that, we took pictures to document the experience, so I have proof, and I am going to share just a few of those here. The first one was Ethan, putting the finishing touches on our little snowman. We had just cooked the last of our carrots for dinner and we are fresh out of coal, so we used grapes for the whole face.
This one looks like Ethan is pouting but he isn't. Really he is just saying the "OW" part of "snowball" I thought that would be more festive than "Cheese". Adia stuck to the classic though, and it looks like it was the right choice. Doesn't she look like a marshmallow in those snow pants? They crack me up.

" What the.... "This picture wasn't taken tonight, it was taken about three in the morning on Monday, but I included it because it makes me giggle. The look on her face is what I feel like this time of year-stunned:) AHHH! I don't know how it ended up here in the layout, but something is screwy, and it won't fix.
She finally figured out a way to get her hat out of her eyes and still keep her ears warm. She is pretty proud of herself.

Ethan realized that there is something different about this snow too. He is inspecting it to figure out what's up.

I wasn't lying when I said we did a snow dance. This is Ethan caught in the act.

She was so funny. She just sat down in the snow and checked it out for a while. She didn't really know what was going on. She was just taking it all in, and was like that for a good 15 min.

Would you like to take a survey?

Those of you who knew me in High School are probably laughing at the title. For those of you who don't get it, let me explain - briefly. I worked as a tour guide at the Hole 'n the Rock for four years in high school (it's this weird house that some old guy and his donkey carved into a house) and in doing so encountered many strange people who would do out of control weird things. In order to entertain myself and pass the time I used to write post cards. Some of them were crazy surveys involving beans and Richard Simmons, which I won't get into, but that is where the title of the post came from, and others told stories of the strange people who I dealt with on a daily basis. Anyway, the post isn't about any of that, so I will move on, I was just thinking about it, and know some of you would enjoy that little reminder, especially poor Levi, who was usually the one who got stuck with the crazy mail. So, the thing that made me think of that was my strange day today. I came across quite a few winners today. First thing this morning I had to go to Logan, and as I was headed out of town I stopped at a red light and glanced over at the car next to me. Inside, the driver was belting out a tune at what looked like the top of her lungs using an ice scraper as a microphone. Then when I got to Home Depot there was a guy with one of those strobe light/flashlights that strap to your hat-it was strapped to his head and turned onto the strobe setting. He was just walking around like nothing was out of the ordinary. I don't know if it was a fashion statement or if he had forgotten it was up there, but it was blinding the poor guy who was trying to help him pick out a new ceiling fan. After that we moved on to Deseret Book where we were trying to find a book for my Christmas lesson on Sunday (And Adia got her regular cinnamon roll and chocolate milk from the Lionhouse Bakery.-I love that it is inside Deseret Book, so she can sit and eat while I shop.) As we were leaving an older gentleman was walking inside. We held the door open for him. As he walked in, he turned to us and yelled "I am not that old!, I can open the door by myself!" Then later, we were walking down the sidewalk from one store to another. A guy was walking by whistling that "If I only had a brain" song from the Wizard of Oz. I don't care who you are, that is going to make you smile right. So I was smiling, it's not like I was heckling or pointing or anything, I was just smiling, I'm a happy person, I do that. He turned to me and snapped "do you mind, this is a private concert". Anyway, I'm not sure if it is just the time of year, or if there are just a bunch of odd balls up in Logan, but it made for an interesting day, and then helped me recall a few good memories from the past as well. So, do you like beans? Would you eat beans with Richard Simmons? If Richard Simmons were dressed up like a bean...

tooth-tastrophy

Last night Ethan bit into a Christmas cookie one of our friends had brought over, and his tooth started to wiggle. It is natural, I don't think it is due to the cookie (Although the cookie was pretty hard:) It is just one of those things that happens when you get to be five or so. But is was scary! There was no reasoning with him. He started running around and screaming and crying. He kept yelling that he was going to have to drink soup and eat pudding forever because he wouldn't have teeth to chew with (Thank you not smart nurse at the hospital for telling him that when we were in getting his teeth fixed a few weeks ago) It was a huge drama. When we finally caught him (No kidding, it literally took both of us to catch him, we had to corner him and then Troy did a running dive/tackle) we explained what was happening and that it meant that he was growing up, and that it was a magical thing, and a new tooth would grow in the place of the old one. It was still kind of scary until we got to the tooth fairy part. Now money is something that speaks to this little guy. He totally connected with that concept, and now it isn't so scary. I guess we really dropped the ball on telling him about this. We always try to let him know ahead of time, and get him prepared for things like this, and I knew that the day would come that we would have to have a talk about this, I guess it just surprised us. I will try to do better with puberty. If I forget about that one, can you imagine the adventure we will have?!:)

Christmas photos

Today we decided to take pictures next to the tree before we went to church. It didn't go so well. The kids were in a really cheesy mood, so that's about all we got out of them-just a bunch of cheese. After all was said and done, this is what we ended up with. Hope you enjoy.
This is the only picture of Ethan that didn't show his signature "I'm bored with this whole thing" smile. You can see it trying to poke out, but I snapped it just before he revealed it.
This isn't the best picture of Adia, but for those of you who know her, the look says it all. This is totally her personality. Trying to look sweet and innocent but just can't keep the mischief from peeking through.
These faces, especially Ethan illustrates how we all feel by the time we finished taking pictures today.

Our Grandpa is Really Tired

Troy's parents came to visit this weekend. They came up here to sign my Father-in-Law's retirement papers, then afterword came to Brigham to stay the night with us. We all went out to dinner last night to celebrate what Ethan calls his grandpa being "Really Tired". All night Adia kept saying "Good job being sleepy Grandpa" I have tried to explain what retired means, but I don't think they get it. I think they figured that the reason he isn't working anymore is because he is too tired to do it any longer. He is only in his mid fifties, so it isn't like he is that old, and he will probably get another job for several more years, he has just put in thirty years for the state, and it's time to quit. But I think we succeeded in making him feel old and tired, whether he is or not. Oh, well, Congratulations anyway Grandpa, now go take a nap!

Amazed

Last night the young women in my class came to my house for a class activity. We made cookies and then delivered them to people in out ward. The girls are so cute, and way fun, and I have admired each one for something ever since I started working with them. We had fun putting plates together and traveling around delivering them. Our last stop was at a sister's house who is a widow, and lives alone. She is 98 years old, and seems very lonely. Last time I went to visit her she had been on the phone with a telemarketer for an hour and a half. She had let him give her the spill, and then started asking him about himself, and then started telling him stories about her life. The only reason she let the poor guy go is because I came over. She is so cute, but when we took her cookies and she invited us in, I was worried that she and the girls would have nothing to say to each other. She made us come in and sit down, and gave us milk to drink with our cookies, which she also made us eat whether we wanted it or not. She told us stories of the places she had traveled, she used to be a performer about seventy years ago. She had been all over the world, and with every destination she told us a spiritual lesson that she had learned. She showed us pictures of her life, her kids, grandkids, and great grandkids. She told us that she missed them so much, but didn't feel up to traveling, and none of them were coming to see her for Christmas, so she would be all alone. She kept us there for over an hour, and finally we had to leave. As we were driving away the girls all started saying how sad they were for her to be all alone for Christmas. Most of them are staying in town, so they decided that as a group they would like to take Christmas dinner over to her and visit with her. By the time we got to my house again, they were making food asignments and planning everything out. It just struck me then what truly wonderful girls these were. They were willing to take time out of thier own Christmas to spend with a lonely old woman. And they came up with the idea all on thier own. It was pretty amazing to me, I think I could learn a lot from them. If they are our future leaders, I feel like we are going to be alright.

A new team member!

I forgot to say this before, but I am way excited about it, so I am going to write an entire post just about this. All of you Mary Kay Haters out there, just skip right over it, but Mary Kay is a HUGE part of my life, and I am going to share the MK news along with all of the other news:) So, I have a new team member, and this is way exciting because she is my friend Kristene! She is going to be great at this business, and I can't wait to share this thing in my life that is so important to me with a person who is so important to me. She is already selling up a storm, and even though she is scared to death (can you blame her) she is headed up the path to becoming a ROCK STAR! Good job Kris! *If you are looking for a good way to become a rock star too, let me know, I would love to share this with you too:)

Fun weekend

This weekend our friends, Jeremy, Stacy, Parker, and Payton came up to visit, and to look at the lights at Temple Square. We met on Friday night at the temple and wondered around, looking at all of the nativities and lights. Boy, was it snowing! We had fun for a while, but then as the snow started to drench every inch of our bodies in freezing cold water, the kids decided that they had taken just about all the misery they could for one night. Ethan even said "It is way too cold out here, I know, I'm a very smart boy!" And he is the one who actually likes snow. The rest of us were complaining long before that. (We never would have lasted in the handcart companies) We found a carraige and rode around temple square in style with a heater blowing and nice warm blanket to cuddle up in. The kids had a blast, and I have to say, the grown-ups were having a nice time too. We kept waving at people as we rode past, and for the most part, they were good at waving back, I guess that's the spirit of the season. I kept wondering though, when did I become such a nerd who waves at strangers on the street like that? I think I can pinpoint it to the moment I became a mom. Maybe I will grow out of it as the kids grow up, but I doubt it. After our ride we went to a restaurant and had a bite to eat and some hot chocolate to warm us up. By the time we headed home it was almost midnight. What great parents we are to keep our kids up that long. It was a quiet ride home though, so that was nice. We had fun on Saturday too, and even got a babysitter so the parents could do some shopping and have dinner without having to say the words, "stop hitting your sister" or "quit dancing on the table" Sunday we went to church, and then the Mallorys had to go home. Then the kids as well as the parents layed down for a much needed nap. I have been thinking lately how lucky we are to have such good friends, and I thank each of you for being a part of our lives, and supporting us always.

Holiday Movies

So, let me tell you, I love Christmas movies. I can't wait for the day after Thanksgiving each year when all of the Christmas movies come on tv, and I dread the end of December when they finally stop showing the movies. I love the movie marathons on Hallmark. I love the countdown to Christmas on TCM. I even love Fa La La La Lifetime during the holidays. I love the cheesy storylines about santa being real, or the work-aholic dad, or the spoiled teenager who finds the way back to joy and happiness through the help of an angel, or a Christmas miracle. I love to say "Christmas Miracle" It is just so exciting to me. In fact, some of my favorites have been taped so I can enjoy them all year long. There is just nothing quite as comforting as cuddling up on the couch in your slippers with you favorite comfy blanket with a bowl of popcorn and a cup of hot chocolate (or hot water, or pepsi, or whatever thrills you) and watching a sappy holiday movie, I don't care what time of year it is. That being said, I have been thinking recently about my very favorite Holiday movies. There are a lot to choose from, but I have narrowed it down to my top five. These aren't in any special order (That really would be asking too much:)

1. Eight Crazy Nights - While technically not a "Christmas" movie, it still fits the holiday movie category, and I LOVE it! I love the songs which get stuck in my head. I love the ending- I have seen it thousands of times, and still cry every time. I realize it might be a little vulgar for some, (it is Adam Sandler animated, after all) but it still makes me happy.

2. Mr. Kruger's (sp?) Christmas. - This one makes me cry too. It has been a family favorite of ours as long as I can remember.

3. Christmas Story - Enough said. It reminds me so much of my own family, I feel a real connection to Ralphy

4. Off Season - I love the idea of Santa taking a vacation in the summer, and the funny one liners crack me up.

5. While You Were Sleeping - Again, the one liners crack me up, but I also love the little random moments that don't have anything to do with anything, like the part where the paper boy wrecks his bike. And the family in that one reminds me a little of my own family too, especially the grandma:)

Anyway, check them out, or don't, I'm sure they each will be playing over and over in our house this season, and most likely all year round as well.