Christmas Euphoria

I love the excitement on their faces when they come down the stairs Christmas morning. It reminds me of when I was young and the only thing that mattered was how good Santa was to me this year. Life was a lot simpler back then. I used to get up at the crack of dawn every Christmas morning. I made a pact with my sisters and brother to make sure which ever of us woke up first woke the rest of us. We would all sneak downstairs and look at the loot. After checking out the loot and trying to guess what was inside, we would commence the second phase of our mission; wake the parents so we could dig into the gifts. We had a plan and each year it went off without a hitch. I think that Christmas day was probably the only day of the year we were not fighting with each other, we were too focused on teamwork, See we could not open any of those presents until mom and dad handed them out. It was a ritual, dad sat down in front of the tree and we waited and waited and waited until he handed out each gift. Then we had to watch them open it and well you get the idea, it took forever. So the sooner we started the better. We tried every year to get them out of bed earlier than last year. It was my favorite christmas tradition. I love watching my kids now on christmas morning. We did not make them wait this year. In fact John and I decided to do it a little different this year. We did not wrap any gifts. We told Santa not to wrap his either. I certainly did not miss the wraping paper mess; but I am still undecided about rather I will do it again next year. There faces were still excited but then it was over too quickly and they were into playing with all the toys. I am still undecided on it but we had a great christmas. Tristan had the best reactions. He was so excited that he got everything he asked for and a little bit more. He is opening a train set in the picture and with each piece of train, and there was a lot of train in the box, he kept saying Look look it is a ........ I never had one of these before, how did Santa know that?

Christmas gingerbread houses.

Well we try each year to make something different for our Christmas treats. We are still trying to figure out some of our family traditions. This years "cookie" came about by accident. I had planned to play it safe and make sugar cookies. Chase's first grade class sent home a letter asking parents to donate candies and essentials for making gingerbread houses. Really they were graham cracker houses. Chase was sure to point that out to me whenever he saw the opportunity, he keeps me in line.

Well as we were picking out the candy to send to school with Chase the boys decided that we should make our own at home. I fear making gingerbread house's cause i can't make them stick together, I ended up with gingerbread flops every time I attempted to make them with one of my preschool classes. I really stress about making them. But yet how can I say no to those cute little faces. If you know me I am not afraid to get messy so that is not the issue. The issue for me was all the disappointed faces and the "why is mine not sticking together Miss Tonya?" I clearly did not know why they did not stick together. I had a bad experience with them and vowed never to do them again with children. I almost bought the gingerbread kit when they boys asked if they could make them at home this year. But my wallet and my "need to try again" attitude stopped me from buying it.

Well as it turned out, Miss "O" (Chase's teacher) needed parent volunteers to help assemble them. I thought sure I will go and help. I had a great time helping Chase's friends put theirs together. But the best part of the whole experience for me was that I learned the lost (to me anyway) art of making the right kind of icing for gingerbread houses. I had always just used cake frosting. Oh No There is a recipe out there for the best gingerbread icing, I mean this stuff is like edible glue. It truly is awesome. I am sure many of you are laughing right now but for me this was the answer to all my frustrations. Next year I am going to make an entire gingerbread village. I may even make it out of real gingerbread instead of graham crackers. I made real gingerbread cookies last year and they were yummy, totally easier to make than I thought. So armed with a recipe for edible glue and gingerbread I am going gingerbread house crazy next year.

Needless to say the boys had more fun eating the candy than actually getting it on the house but would you expect anything different from boys? I did manage to get a picture of each of the houses before they gobbled them up.

note: they have not fallen down!!! Yeah I love this icing.

Pie day at Grammie's house

We have an old family tradition we have adopted in my new family. As a kid we set the wednesday before Thanksgiving aside to make the pies. I do not remember if it was planned intentionally, I think it was one of those accidental things. All of us kids would "help" mom make all the pies for thanksgiving dinner. We would make tons of pies together, We had tons of fun. Well when all of us girls started having kids and coming together for thanksgiving we just gradually started making pies on Wed. again. But just those who wanted to come over early, to help. Well I guess this is what I would consider the first of many (I hope) more grammie pie days. All of grammies babies were gathered in the kitchen helping with everything. They peeled the apples, made the crust, rolled it out and filled it up. It was a lot of people and kids in grammie's kitchen that day but whoa what a great time. I took a moment while I was designated photographer to watch everyones faces, just priceless. Everyone was engaged in helping, the kids were haveing a great time and the grown ups were enjoying the satisfaction and fascination on their faces as they made their very own pies. I only wish now that i had taken more pictures of the grown ups. It was a great day and I look forward to doing it again next year.

Proud moment

Chase is learning how to use the computor at school. He is in first grade and I think he knows more about computors than his mom. In his class this year he is making a portfolio of all his written work. After he writes a journal entry they take it to the computor lab where they get to type it into a computor. Chase typed the following blog all by himself, he chose the pictures he wanted to post. He wrote the story by hand. This is all his work. We are so proud.

chase made a pie

chase nuttall

first i roLLED THE DOUGH.


THEN I PUT THE DOUGH IN THE PAN.

I PUT CHERREY FILLING IN THE PIE.

GRAMMIE HELPED ME PINCH THE TOP CRUST TO THE BOTTOM CRUST.

Spencer's first hair cut

Spencer's curls have been my favorite, combine his little chubby cheeks and his blue eyes he breaks my heart. I have very straight hair and all of my sisters and brother have very curly hair, well Jenn has straight hair too. I love curls I have always envyed my sisters curls they are so beautiful. I know they are a pain to manage but they are nonetheless beautiful. When Spencer's hair started curling I was so excited. I secretly hoped they would last and it was not just because the hair was long. We have put off cutting his hair for a long time for fear that we would cut out all of his curls. Well he was starting to look like a girl, so with a sad heart I got the scissors. Dad held him while I clipped. (I only trimmed the bottom) I hope the curls come back. Chase was the photographer on these shots. He's not a bad shot is he?

Just lovin my boys today

I love these images of the boys. I think they capture their personalities the best. Chase loves life and he takes it in stride. He is a monkey sometimes and rarely sits still. He has developed some reverance since starting school. The world is his classroom though and I do not see him settling for a desk job. He has adventure in his bones.
	Tristan is a bit more serious. He is timid and takes time to test the waters before he will try new things. He has a great sense of humor though, quiet but lethal this one. I think he will be the wisest of the three. If his brothers trust in him he will lead them on their adventures.
Spencer is just a clown. He wants to do everything his big brothers do . He also loves to tease as much as he can. Oh boy they are in real trouble they come running to me all the time yelling that Spencer has taken a toy or pinched them or something. I go to investigate and there is Spencer with a huge grin on his face and laughing. He knows he has won that round. We love him.
I love these boys they are the best thing I ever did. I look at them everyday and thank my Heavenly Father for allowing me to be their mommy.