Christmas Pictures

Tyler and his leapster. Santa brought him a swimming pool, which will be a lot of fun in the summer...the kids are all very excited for that.

I had Rose and Jeff's name this year for Christmas. I made her a "Mr. Fritz Mouse Pad" in memory of her favorite cat that just passed away. She cried a little. I love it when you just know that you have the perfect gift for somebody.

Brooklyn gets a box full of candy! Need I say more?

Tyler and I have been playing this game. It comes highly recommended by us.

Chris and his double guns. I love that smile. He is really trying to hide the smile that is always on his face. I wish that everyone could see it in real life because it is so cute.

Brooklyn's Day Care Services

Brooklyn got a baby from Santa. She also got a baby from Grandma Jill and another baby from Grandpa Tracy. Tyler got two twister games and Chris got two Fisher-Price race tracks and I am making the boys take the extra toys back and exchange them for something else. Brooklyn on the other hand gets to keep all of her babies, and she has named them "Holden and Will and Holden." She takes care of them all and is regularly seen carrying all three of her new babies around the house. She has woke up two mornings in a row now at 4:00 in the morning and I clearly hear her talking as loudly as she can to her babies who are tucked in to the doll cradle in her room. (I might have to find a new home for the baby bed.) Anyway with all these new babies, one might think that the old ones were getting neglected. Nope. Brook is still taking very good care of them as well. Yesterday I found three babies on my lap which I was to hold until she came back to get them. If I put them down or let Chris or Tyler touch them there will be a major temper tantrum that follows. Every baby is named Will or Holden and occasionally Baby Lilly. This morning I actually got her to name a baby Nancy, but within two minutes it had a new name "Holden." It is so cute watching her play babies. And when Erica is around with the real Will and Holden she watches her to see exactly what Erica is doing. If Erica's babies need to eat, so do Brook's. If Erica is bouncing her baby, So is Brook. She just loves taking care of babies...as long as they are named Will or Holden.

Kirby

A man came to my door yesterday around 1:30 in the afternoon. The first thing that he did was ring my doorbell. Now everyday at 1:00 I put my twins down for a nap, so someone ringing my doorbell at 1:30 is not something that makes me happy. Anyway this man was not someone that I would describe as "clean cut," and he was an oldish gentleman. He wanted to sell me a Kirby Vacuum, and as a special offer he was offering a knife set which he pulled out and showed me. Now if you are a salesman, going door to door selling vacuums, in the middle of the day to stay at home moms (who are most likely home alone with their kids this time of day), and you are not really great at making yourself presentable...is pulling out a knife set the best way that you can think of to get in the door to make a sale??? He didn't make it in my door that's for sure. I also locked the door behind him and made it a point to go out and shut down both of my garage doors while he was still in my driveway. Idiot.

Christmas Lights

Brooklyn wanted her Baby Will to see the Christmas lights too.

(These pictures loaded in the wrong order, sorry)

On Sunday night we went with Shane's family to see the Christmas lights at Temple Square. It was around 5:20 when we got to downtown Salt Lake and the place was totally packed. Apparently it was the Christmas Devotional at the Conference center too that night. There was people everywhere, and there was also no parking. So we drove around and around looking for the place that Jill and Chelsey were parking in and by the time that we found it we were all separated. Thank goodness for Milo and Otis that was playing in the backseat the whole time because it kept the kids in a pretty good mood. Anyway we finally got on to the temple grounds and we were trying to find Jill and Tracy and Josh and Jamie and my eyes were drawn upward as a very tall man walked past me. As I looked into his face I realized that it was Todd! And I looked down and there beside him was Val and their kids! It was so fun. They almost just walked right by me. But we got to visit for a minute and we got to take some pictures by the lights with them. Anyway, you never know when you will see you cousin that lives 200 miles away. We did have a great time at the lights. They are pretty this year (as always). And despite the crowds that we fought actually getting to the temple, the devotional started at 6:00 and so when we were walking around there was no crowd because they were all in the conference center. We left just before the devotional got over and so it turned out to be the perfect time to go. On the way home we stopped in at McDonald's and bought the kids a quick chocolate chip cookie. Tyler commented "I didn't know that you could get cookies at McDonald's, that's pretty neat isn't it mom" I also got some apple pies from there which we split when we got home. They are pretty tasty too.

And now I'd like to say something about personal outside Christmas decorations. I've debated addressing this issue for a while, but while I'm on the subject of Christmas lights...When I was little there was a house that put up the best display in town. It was the house that we all looked forward to seeing. And now that all their kids have grown up, they have resorted to putting up two blow-up lawn ornaments and a strand of super-fast blinking lights! What a disappointment! I hate the blow-up lawn ornaments. They should not count as Christmas decorations. There is one family here who has something like Tigger driving a Nascar...What does that have to do with Christmas! and they think that it is ok because he has a Santa Hat on! They are so ugly!

Last thing. It is so cute when Brooklyn talks about Santa. She calls him Danna Dogg. At the ward party Santa showed up and was in the hallway waiting for his turn to come in and she saw him and was giving him fives and having a great time. She'd been talking all day about how she was going to tell him to "bring me baby, bad" So when I finally got her up to sit on his lap she cried so hard that she couldn't even tell him what she wanted. She did remember to at least nod her head when I told him that she wanted a baby. When Shane went in to get her out of bed the next morning the first thing that she told him was "Danna not bring me baby anymore, me cried and cried." It was so cute, but so sad too. Chris on the other hand was the first in line to talk to Santa. In fact, I was trying to get Brooklyn through the line to stand next to him and I knew that he was close to the front, but by the time I had pushed through the crowd, he was already on Santa's lap and I had to hustle off the stage to get a picture of him. He likes to remind me that Santa already brought him candy.

If only it were just a final TWO!

Well I just paid all ten of my online votes to ED! As bad as I hated to do it, I still think that Heba should have gone home WEEKS AGO! I also still believe that Ed should have never made it back to the ranch, but at least if he is in the final three we know that he won't even have a chance at beating the girls out. I am so sick and tired of those two and Vicki. What is it with Bob's teams lately? Remember the PRIDE gang of last season? Maybe we should get rid of Bob all together and bring in a fresh trainer...someone who won't turn the team into a bunch of whiners that make the rest of the country want to pull their hair out.
Anyway, I just want to encourage all of you to log on to nbc.com and cast your vote (for Ed). I'm going to have to skip my aerobics class next week for the finale.

Christmas Program Details

I forgot to mention. The Christmas Program is on Dec. 18 at 6:30 at the High School Auditorium in case any of you would like to attend with us.

Winter Wonderland

Tyler has been practicing Christmas songs for his school program. As we were riding home this afternoon he recognized a song and told me that it was in the program. So I started to sing Winter Wonderland after dinner and he started to sing along.
Me: In the meadow we can build a snowman. And pretend that it's a circus clown.
Tyler: No Mom. It goes In the meadow we can build a snowman, and pretend that it is parsley Brown.
Me: (Laughing) No, not parsley...Parson.

Later tonight...
Brook: Nap (wrap) up my baby daddy.
Shane: No, I don't like babies.
Brook: How bout this baby? (as she holds up a different doll)
Shane: No thanks Brook.
Brook: How bout this baby, Baby Holden? (as she holds up yet another doll)

I love it when Brook starts in with the "How bout..." I also love that every doll is named Baby Holden, Baby Will, or Baby Nilly (Lilly) depending on the mood that she is in. I had to wake up the twins from their nap today so that we could take some banana bread to my friend who just had a baby. I asked them if they wanted to go see a brand new baby with me and they both got so excited and then they both insisted that they bring a 'baby' with them. Chris brought Baby Will and Brook brought Baby Holden. I also was playing with them earlier in the week and brought out some old empty baby food jars and some baby spoons. They have played "feed the dolls fake baby food" pretty much nonstop since I did that. It is sure cute to watch them play together.

Good-Bye Diapers

I went to Wal-mart last night. I needed Pull-ups and Diapers. We were out. I had about 4 princess pull-ups left in the whole house and they are not good enough for overnight. I do admit that I buy the brand name pull-ups, but only if I have a coupon, because they are like $.20 cheaper than the White Cloud brand that way. I didn't have a coupon last night, so I bought the White Cloud brand. Two packs one for boys and one for girls. I also bought the mega pack of diapers. I used to get Huggies, then Luvs, now I go for the Parents Choice. I don't prefer them, but I am so sick of spending all my money on Diapers and they are pretty cheap. So I had three things in my cart. I picked up a $10 Christmas present and 3 $1.97 christmas presents and a chapstick. That was IT! The total came to over $60.00! I couldn't believe it. And that is the reason that I have decided that these are the very last packs of pull-ups that I am buying. When they are gone we are switching to full time big boys and panties. Now I've said it, the next step is actually doing it. I think that we are going to need to get the carpet cleaner back down here.

I don't usually allow myself the right to purchase any new Christmas decorations. I have so many that I can't put them all out. But when Jill came home from Tai Pan with this string of jingle bells, I really felt like I needed to have them. Isn't that awful. So when she said that she was going to go back, I had her pick some up for me. I have to admit that they look really good when the railing is all lit up at night. They really jingle too so I catch my kids running their hands across them as they walk down the hall.
Here are a few pictures of the kids that I took this morning.

I thought that this one turned out pretty good.


A while ago, I walked out of the bedroom for a few seconds and when I came back in Brooklyn was sitting on the floor and her eyes were watering. I asked what was the matter and she looked at me and said, "Sticker in my nosey." So I tipped her over and looked up her nose and indeed there was a sticker in there. It was too far for me to get it out myself. And too far for me to feel comfortable sticking a pair of tweezers in to get the sticker out. After several unsuccessful attempts of trying to get her to "blow the sticker out." I called the doctor and made an appointment (more of an 'I'm on my way down right now' kind of thing) to have the sticker professionally removed. I did give her several more attempts to blow it out and finally it did come out without having to go to the doctor. Whew. Well today we were coloring...and when I looked up from my crayons, this is what I saw. She's so naughty sometimes. She, of course, thought that she was hilarious. I've coached her several times about what is appropriate to put in her nose (nothing), and what is inappropriate to put in her nose (markers, stickers, marbles, food, fingers, toys). I don't think that it is working.