Merry Christmas!!

Our celebration began Christmas Eve, not just the family game gift-thanks for the idea Jen, nor the annual Christmas jammies. But the boys were paid an early visit from Santa, with a note that read: "It wouldn't fit in the sleigh... I'll be back later."

Christmas morning was normal: Eric and I woke up around 6:30, got breakfast into the oven (I make it the night before and then pop it into the oven-this year, in addition to our normal farmers casserole, we tried something new: cream cheese-citrus pull apart rolls-we agreed, it will become part of our traditional breakfast from now on), opened one of our gifts, and then got the kids up at 7 (our kids are weird, if we need/want them to wake up early, they sleep in; if we can sleep in, then they wake up early), made them wait at the gate into the living room, and then released them.

We let them open their stockings and Santa gifts in a free-for-all. Although, we should have watched Eme a little better, she ate her 2 chocolates and then one from each of her brothers' stockings.

We make our kids sit down and open their first gift in age order. After that, we just hand them out, and let them have fun. They have to open their final "big" gift in age order again at the end. And just like Mom and Dad, Eric and I get to open ours near the end. I cracked up as soon as I opened mine from Eric, and made him open his. It turned out that we got each other iPod nanos, totally unplanned, but funny.

After gifts, we all ate breakfast, played with our new toys, and then got dressed and ready to go to Nana and Papa's house for lunch and more gifts. We maded sure that we were home for dinner this year, and finished off the Advent candles. It was a long, but fun day.

The numbers have changed

I just have to say how much I love my doctor, she is so great. I'm not sure if her always going the extra mile for me is part of her nature or if it's because I'm Dr. Jorgensen's daughter-in-law, either way, I love the treatment. I had my 24 week appt yesterday, and I had hoped that maybe we could do a quick check on the baby (I'm tired of not knowing, and of telling people I don't know yet). I didn't even have to ask, she saw that we hadn't been able to tell and since she had no one right after me, we went over to check. (here's where the extra mile fits in) When she saw that the ultrasound tech had someone in, she asked the tech if she wouldn't mind doing me next, just "for fun". I had to wait another 5-10 minutes, but I can now say very proudly, that I will now have a pair of boys and a pair of girls!! I am so looking forward to Eme having a sister to play with, I can only hope that they will be best of friends, just like Julie and I. So the grandchildren totals now stand as follows: boys-8; girls-9.

And now I can go and purge all of our old boy clothes, my sister-in-law is VERY excited to get them all.

Sorry Davin...

Davin's birthday was on the 2nd, I'm a little late blogging it for three reasons: 1) Davin took his turn with the stomache bug at 10:30 pm that night; 2) I've been called back into the YW's program, because I've got loads of extra time; and 3) we celebrated with Eric's family on the Tuesday after, it was my intention to put some of those pics up too, but I forgot my camera that night.

So, here are some of the fun moments from Davin's 4th Birthday, just at little late.

Aidan got to give him his gift first thing in the morning, a new playmobil guy (it took Aidan a long time to pick out just the right one-the toy he least wanted of the two he found)













All Davin talked about for the days leading up to his birthday was his castle cake. He was so excited to finally get his cake.
















Davin got his gifts from us throughout the day. We saved the two best (we thought) for last, two of the new Planet Hero guys from Fisher-Price (rescue heroes meets buzz lightyear), they are all Davin has talked about for weeks. Well, we soon found our that we were very, very wrong. As Davin is opening his final two gifts (Earth's "Ace", and Mercury's "Zip"), he declared rather dejectedly, "Oh, I wanted a playmobil" and "Not another one". He soon warmed up to them, when he saw how much Aidan liked them.






(end note: Aidan had to go to bed early, he threw a small fit because "Davin was ignoring me". Tuesday night Aidan said prayer for dinner at Eric's parents house, and in his prayer he asked that "no one ignore anybody else tonight")

Christmas is a commin'

Last Monday we put up our tree and decorated the house. Yes, I know it's a fake. But here in Arizona we like to refer to "live" trees as kindling. With humidity levels in the lower teens, a real tree is fully dried out in only a few days, and is thus a very serious fire hazard. But we have fun with our silly little tree, the kids love to literally help "put up" the tree every year, and I can leave the lights on all day long and not worry.

Thanksgiving Recap ( a bit late)

It was a wild and crazy ride having so many people here with us for Thanksgiving, but it was fun. Thankfully, the weather was perfect, and we were able to keep the kids happy doing lots of outdoors stuff.

Monday mom came in with Kennan and Austin, and we went grocery shopping (for LOTS of food). Davin and Eme enjoyed Kennan reading to them. That evening, dad, Bill, Tom and Heather got in (just in time for bed).
Tuesday, we all went to the AZ Science Center. They had the Titanic artifact exhibit along with a really fun new one-the science of matter, tons of new hands on stuff (in Feb they are doing a dino exhibit)

Wednesday, we hung out at home, took the kids to the park, and just geared up for Thursday. Julie and Justin and little folk got in really late.

Thursday could only be described as organized chaos, only mom could get the cooking to run so smoothly. Ilana and Kennan entertained us all with a lovely play: The first Thanksgiving, followed by our own parade-complete with balloons!

Friday, we all went to the zoo. Everyone had fun touching the stingrays, and seeing our animals, and even after 2 hours we only got through just under half of the zoo.

It's a...a...a...?

It may be a girl, or is it a boy? Baby was very uncooperative at its ultrasound on Monday. First of all, baby was rolled into a little ball; then every pic/measurement the tech took had the "limited view" code on it; then baby finally rolled over, and the tech had to re-take every pic. And, at the end, it REALLY does not help when the baby is straddling the umbilical cord to see if it's a boy or a girl, in addition to the baby being at a very bad angle. In the end, I blame myself for being impatient. All of our other ultrasounds have been done between 20 and 23 weeks, this one was at 18. But do not fear (I'm really okay with the uncertainty), I have a feeing that my doctor will pitty me next month and just do a quick check. And, at the very least, I always have another ultrasound at 34 weeks, just another 3 1/2 months away.

Happy Halloween

The following are pictures from before our bi-ward trunk-or-treat (the kids really hauled it in, over 200 pcs of candy!!), from Aidan's party, and then our regular trick-or-treating.

This was our goo relay-the goo was made of cornstarch and water, the kids LOVED this one.
I couldn't find a pinata I liked, so we made this one-it's a skull.
Two pirates and a little witch.