A visit from Gramps & Grandma Jo!

Joe's parents are currently serving a mission in South America, but they were able to come back to the states to visit Joe's oldest sister who just had a baby, and on their way back to their mission they stopped in to see us! The kids LOVED it--they sure love Gramps and Grandma Jo!

Christmas Fun 2011

I have to say, I am enjoying the Christmas season more this year than I think I ever have in my life. I think one of the well-kept parent secrets is that it is WAY more fun to watch your kids getting excited over the holidays than it was to be a kid yourself! :)

Some of the happenings...

As we put up Christmas lights on the house a few weeks ago, Caleb ran around the front yard, yelling, "It's Jolly Christmas! It's Jolly Christmas!" (Not sure where he got that, except maybe from that song, 'Have a holly, jolly Christmas...') He was one happy kiddo :)

Getting a tree: The kids had a great time wandering around the "tree lot" in the grocery store's outdoor plants section that was converted to Christmas trees for the season.

They especially enjoyed taking a ride on the tree carts. And drinking hot cocoa at home afterward :)

Playing songs on the piano with Daddy and singing Christmas carols: The kids LOVE playing on the piano when Joe does, and they also love to dance around when he plays fast, happy music.

Some Christmas music fun - and Caleb in his pirate getup :)

We also took the opportunity to go Christmas caroling at a local rehabilitation center last week for our Monday night family activity, and the kids enjoyed shaking hands with the residents/patients afterward, and of course drinking hot chocolate with the friends who sang with us.

Decorating gingerbread houses: My mom made us gingerbread houses to decorate almost every year at Christmastime, so this year I decided to continue the tradition. My first homemade gingerbread turned out great, and it wasn't as hard as I thought it might be! We had Uncle Peter, Aunt Lindsay, and cousins Joey & Kimball over to our house for the traditional decorating and eating of the candy :) as well as watching movies & playing games. It was so much fun!

Daddy helping Caleb on his house

The finished product!

We've also put up decorations together--which started the day before Thanksgiving when I was desperate for something to do to entertain the kids while Joe was sleeping post-call; made Christmas countdown chains; made paper snowflakes for the kitchen window; decorated the tree (& re-decorated it, as the kids keep taking the ornaments down to play with... ha!); & played Christmas music as often as we can!

Family Movie Night! and Caleb's pretending

We are trying to start a tradition of having a Family Movie Night on friday nights--and from the picture above, it looks like the first one, Thanksgiving weekend, was a hit! Popcorn included :) We watched Bolt, and Caleb LOVED it.

He is at such a fun stage, where he likes to pretend he is a character from whatever movie he has recently watched; or even that he is whomever we have visited most recently, such as a favorite cousin. And sometimes he says, "I'm Daddy," and then gets some papers and either heads for Daddy's desk and says he is going to study, or heads toward the front door and says he is going to the hospital.

End of a crazy week

This week has been a stressful one. There was just a lot going on. But y'know, it still amazes me that putting my kids' well-being & happiness ahead of everything else--ahead of church responsibilities, specifically--makes everything work out in the end. And I am a happier mommy :)