Merry Christmas!

 Christmas Eve

Since the girls already had their PJs from last week as an early gift, only Adrian, Daddy and I opened the PJ gift from me on Christmas Eve. Adrian got the hang of ripping the paper off pretty quickly and was well practiced by Christmas morning. I had decided to get us matching styles with buttons and pockets instead of matching patterns this year and mine were really soft and comfy. The kids have fairly soft material too, but Daddy had a hard time liking is because they are thick and we gets too hot! He was still a good sport and wore it until he (spoiler) opened a Grinch t-shirt as a present and put that on instead. The preparation for was fun because the girls wanted to share the eggnog from our Christmas feast and we had made cookies the day before that we finished decorating. The girls set out notes from him to read and carrots for the reindeer along with the cookies before going to bed with loads of excitement. It's been so warm this year that we even got to go visit the park!

Christmas

We had a wonderful little Christmas here at home where the girls woke up early, but patiently waited until Adrian woke up to go down stairs. I brought breakfast muffins upstairs as they watched a show until he was ready and then we all went down together to see what Santa brought them. The girls wanted to open the present from each other before any other ones and it was fun to see them happy for each other. They spent a lot of time passing the gifts around and opening the ones to themselves before getting Adrian excited about his own gifts and opening them. He was distracted by each one as they pulled his attention away to open a new one as I tried to set up the one he finished and it was a crazy fun mess to clean up when it was all done! Some highlights was the new Switch gaming system and games each of us got for it, an obstacle course that takes up the half the room when set up, Shay's new baby doll, Claire's new Barbie, and Adrian's new balls that he can throw at me while I'm cooking...yay.

Travel

We were blessed with good weather that allowed us to take a trip to Blackfoot to see grandparents and a few cousins. On the way there, we drove separate cars so we could give my Chevy Impala to family and hopefully it will bless their lives and be useful. I felt lonely in my new car with the kids in the back, but Adrian took a few short naps and was happy when he was awake, and the girls, who like to sit allllll the way in the back back seat, were watching movies. Luckily, I had some podcasts to listen to and I got to figure out little features of our new car. Once we arrived, they got to open their gifts from Grandma and Grandpa and eat a bunch of candy and sweets that they have around the house. Then soon after, some cousins came to visit and they played the rest of the day with them! On the way home, they got a little time playing the switch in the back because they love the 'fighting game' which is Super Smash Bros, but playing with mom and dad who help them win because we play on a team is funner. 

On to Christmas Break

 Kids

Claire and Shay had a fun week of school dressing up for their spirit days with red or green for Santa vs Grinch Monday, Christmas Hat Tuesday, Fancy Wednesday, Christmas sweater Thursday, and PJ Friday. They participated in each one, and of course, I was terrible at thinking about getting pictures for the blog...oops, but they were wearing their sweaters when they came home to decorate present bags for their teachers, so you can see them at the table with Adrian, who pushed a chair over to join. On Friday morning, I let them open the gift from me, which was new PJs, so they could wear them to school, and we washed them again so they get to wear them for Christmas morning this week. They were a little long for my shorties and dragged on the ground a little, which made them sad, but dirt washes out easily! Then they got to wear them to a babysitting party at the church while I surprised Daddy with a date. Adrian likes to work out with me now that I did it a few times when he wasn't napping, and he lay next to me to do abs, which made me laugh and share with Chris. We had some fun making gingerbread cookies last night, as they picked that over going to see Christmas lights, which will be another night.

Date

The Young Women in our ward were fundraising in different ways and had a night with games, movies, and all sorts of fun, playful things for kids on Friday night. Chris knew about it, but I didn't plan anything with him because it started at a perfect time that I could drop the kids off and get to his work before he got off. I waited for him in the parking lot and tried to scare him as he walked to his car, but I'm not that sneaky, and it was just fun to surprise him and catch him off guard. We went to KPot, our favorite Korean BBQ that we have been wanting to go back to for a delicious meal. It was a wonderful date, and the kids were having a lot of fun when I went to pick them up. It was funny that Adrian was sitting in his own seat and happily eating popcorn while watching a movie, so I sat next to Shay and waited for him to notice me. When he did finally look over, he made a funny sound as if to say 'what the?' and got down from his seat so he could sit on my lap. 

Car

Our need for a car moved up on our timeline by a few months because of a visit to the mechanics, and we bought a new car yesterday! We have been saving up for it for a few months, so luckily we had enough time to buy it fully out of our cash and a little from the emergency fund. I do think it is because we found a great price on what we needed, because I searched as thoroughly as I could, and went test driving this week with Adrian. I had a few requirements and knew about what they would cost us, so we were prepared with preapproval if we had to. I feel happy with our purchase, even though neither of us knows too much about cars. We are going to be taking it to get checked out on Monday to make sure there are no major issues, but since the dealer took off $3,000 from their sticker price, it would have to be really major issues under the hood for me to think we got ripped off.

We love Christmas time!

 Claire

There was a 3rd grade Christmas program for her class this Friday, and I was able to attend with Adrian to get pictures and videos for Dad and Shay to watch. She had one speaking part to help introduce a song, and even though she didn't remember to dress up, her shirt looked slightly winter-like. Next week, we have a full week, the school is encouraging them to dress up, which will be fun, and we even got them a new Christmas sweater for Thursday. The shopping was after our family dinner last night, and Daddy took Claire to the toy section first while Shay got a sweater, and then we were sneaky about hiding what present Claire picked out for Shay when switching, and Claire came with me to pick her sweater. She wanted a pink sweater, but the best we found was one that had pink on the words, and she is jealous of how soft Shay's sweater is.

Shay

She got interested in wolves for some reason for a day or two because she found one of our hats that looked like wolf ears. We found a video with information, and she wrote a book because Claire was making her own book, and she colored a picture to be the cover. I was impressed with both of their drawing skills because they focus and work really hard to fully color inside each section now. During shopping, she found a very soft Hello Kitty sweater and a good present for Claire, and I was happy to hear both of them were excited for the other to open the gift they were giving. They also like to guess what they are getting, but they've said several times how excited they are for their sister to open their gift. We've been reading Christmas stories that make mommy cry about giving and being Christlike during Christmas, so I'm hoping it rubs off.

Adrian

He had a really cute moment when sitting with Daddy after work! Chris likes to wind down in the evening on his computer game, and Adrian will come in to sit on his lap. This time, he brought his own computer and was laughing at the animal sounds that the computer was making when he pressed the buttons. I was trying to get a video, but he stopped laughing, so I at least got a picture. He is tantruming a lot today and was mad when I didn't let him bring his noise vacuum into church, then was mad about not being able to go into the men's bathroom with me, and then that I wanted to leave the girls' bathroom so we could go home. I'm just very confused because he has always been the happy boy, and when we visited the church during the week for some different things, he never whined about anything! Maybe waking him up from sleeping in made him extra grumpy, so now that he is down for a nap, things will be better for tonight and the Christmas concert he needs to sit happily through. 

Christmas is Coming!

Decorating

I've been adding to our decorations and getting things done outside during Adrian's naps and finally finished the lights in front that I wanted! I am very happy to see them done, but it is cold and next year I'm going to do some of it earlier in November on warmer days! We even bought a christmas tree permit so we could cut down our own tree in Boise National Forest this year. It was between doing the fresh tree every year and buying a fake one that would last a long time and the girls had final say. It went well and we were safe because there was only a few snowy places in the forest so we picked a good time to go. Now we have done it once and only got turned around and lost once, we are going to be experts next year! Everyone helped decorate when Adrian started to understand putting the ornaments one instead of off, but went back to pulling them off and since he already opened one present, its all behind the baby gate now. Also, the count down has begun and they were sad that only one of our calanders have a moving mouse, so I made a snowman for the other one we have.

Visitors

We had family in town to visit and the girls were very happy to get more time to play with some of their cousins even though some of the days they had school. They had some fun games they created together and the cousin that is Adrian's age was fun to see them play together! I don't know if it was Claire's idea but he pulled Adrian around by the backpack for a while which was fun. There were also a few tantrums about sharing toys, but no big fights and everything was very fun, if louder than we normally have it here. There was even a cake because they have birthdays and choose to celebrate here with us! There was a small part of me that wanted to keep them out of school for one of the days to play with their cousins even more, but I didn't because they had a lot of time on Saturday and in the evenings to play. 

Party

Our Ward Christmas Party was on Saturday night with dinner, a shadow nativity presentation, bundt cakes, Santa Clause, ornament crafts, karaoke, and playing with friends. Shay was our crafter and made every single ornament that was available and Claire ran around the halls and didn't even do one! So fun to see how different they can be, especially since the very next day they dressed up for church to be twins and wanted to be exactly the same! I was running the karaoke for the night so I couldn't go see my kids see Santa and apparently Claire wasn't with them so Daddy could get her pictures, she went later I think. The girls did like all the bundt cakes that were available for dessert and I think mine turned out tasty if not a little sloppy. I didn't get a pictures though so you'll just have to trust me.

Thanksgiving

 Traveling

The kids and I left Monday morning and were the first to arrive at our grandparents' house for the week, so we could settle in and be ready for our cousins. They ended up getting in past bedtime, so they only got to say hi before everyone went to sleep, and then woke up at 6:30am to play loudly right outside Adrian's and my room. Luckily, Adrian is a great sleeper, except when he is sick, like the next night when he started coughing and waking up. Poor guy now has a runny nose and hopefully didn't spread it to the rest of the family we visited during the holiday. Chris rode a bus from Boise after work on Wednesday and made it to Blackfoot so he could help me drive home after visiting.

Family

We had many of the cousins in town and just missed one of Chris' siblings, who lives too far to come, but hopefully we will get them next time. We missed out on several important events when we lived in California, and I don't get to see my family because I live so far, so I understand. The girls were happy to play with their cousins for the time we had, and we attended the baptism and baby blessing we wanted to be here for. They played with toys, drove Mario Kart on the Wii, created imaginary games, and played outside on the trampoline a lot! There is always so much fun to be had at the Bell's house, and new toys for Adrian to find interesting and give me ideas for gifts. It didn't feel like it was a long time visiting because it ended so quickly, but with Adrian getting cranky from being sick, we were ready to come home to sleep in our own house.

Dinner

I did my portion of cooking for Thanksgiving dinner really early so I would be out of the way, but we still ate an hour later than planned. Being late makes the food taste so much better, and we all fit at the adult and one kids' table, even! Not that we all stayed sitting for the whole meal, because kids are first in line and then first to be done, and jump up and want more or ask for pie. There was turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, rolls, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, veggies, eggnog, sparkling cider, and a few pies for dessert. All the traditional yummy food to make your stomach stuffed and ready for a nap. The only thing missing is eating leftovers for a week since we didn't grab any on our way out the door!

A little bit of play and a little bit of work

Playing

It has been really fun to see how excited Adrian is to have his sisters come home from school and want to just do whatever they start doing. He got sad when they closed their door on him so they could do their laundry yesterday, and he stood at the door yelling in protest. He played a whole game of chasing Claire around the downstairs while she was trying to watch a movie, and she would jump over the couch to get away from him. His way of cuddling is jumping on people, so I know why she was running away, and it turned into a cute game of chase. We have a full week of playing coming up because the girls are off from school, and we are going to see cousins! I'll get more pictures for sure...

Working

Most of the time, I still have the mindset that I need to get things done while he is napping because more often than not, he is in the way instead of helping during projects. Sometimes he will just like to play in the same area, though, and I can work around him like piling the dishes on the counter and not opening the dishwasher until he is out of the kitchen. He is a good helper at unloading the dishwasher! After I've removed the knives, he will bring me everything one by one! If the work is outside, he gets really excited, and he was so excited to help with his own rake as Daddy and the girls were raking the small amount of leaves we have. 

Our Nifty November

Last week

It was brought to my attention that I forgot to write my blog last weekend, and that usually happens when I'm lazy and don't have a lot to share anyway. The only pictures I had were from when the kids were being cute right before bedtime because Shay convinced me to blow up her water floaty, and they shared with Adrian and cuddled. I know we had a very normal week and are remembering more often to pray right before the girls rush off to the bus, and both know how much we care about them. I usually pray about the same thing each time, so they remember the things they need to work on, which I know about at least. 

Swimming

We went on a family date to swim at Chris's gym, where they used to have their swim lessons, and they both had me blow up their floaties. I'm very glad I bought an electric inflating machine for it because it would have taken so long and made me winded! They were a lot of fun since we were the only people in the pool and didn't have to worry about taking up too much space. Since the girls didn't have spare clothes and we were all wet, I called in an order and we picked up yummy pizza for dinner. I'm glad we have the ability to go do fun things together every week, and when it is close, we have time in the morning to finish chores. 

Smarty Pants

The girls have been a little more responsible this week because they have the motivation of playing Roblox before bed. Claire has been the one to instigate packing her lunch and putting away her school items, and then she started asking to do homework and reading instead of getting distracted. We work on only needing mom's help when she isn't busy cooking dinner, so if they can read with Adrian while I'm cooking, it works great! Shay likes to read at the same time, so she is motivated to do her responsibilities too, after she has her snack, of course. Adrian is getting to be a smartypants, too! He not only likes to read with his sisters, but he is saying more words now, and they sound better as he practices. He has some fun play times around the house, including wearing my shoes, spreading toys all around the ground, driving cars, and his all-time favorite...throwing balloons.

Happy Halloween!

 Trunk or Treat

Our ward Halloween activity was on Wednesday night, and we had a great theme to decorate our trunk and dress up for. It was Shay who inspired our family costume this year, very early on, when she was shopping with me a couple of months ago. They first put out the costumes in the store when we were shopping for school things, and she saw Elphaba's broom in the clearance section, and we went to the costumes and found both Glinda and Elphaba's outfits. It was easy enough to match the Oz theme with the original movie, and I had a lot of fun getting Buttercup to be our cowardly lion. Most years, I usually try to DIY most of our costumes, but this year, we bought most of them. As you can tell, Shay was Glinda for the trunk or treat because Claire also wanted to be Elphaba, so they traded off for trick or treating.

Halloween

We carved our pumpkins very last minute on Thursday night so we could have some decorations for around our candy bowl! It was nice to have Halloween on Friday because we could stay up late and still be able to sleep in the next day. The girls' school parties and costumes parade was at the end of their school day on Friday, and we brought them home so they could do their reading before getting ready for the night. We started earlier than most in the neighborhood because it felt very scarce when we first went out, but we had our friends with us, so it wasn't too bad. Plus, the girls got tired right when we got to the next neighborhood after ours and struggled through the last 30 minutes.  Adrian stayed in his stroller for most of our walk around our neighborhood, and then wanted to join in after we went to the next area. 

Corn Maze

It wasn't planned, but we got 1/2 off our admission to the corn maze we went to because we went yesterday and it wasn't busy at all. It just so happened that we weren't able to go earlier in the season because of birthday parties and being busy with projects. The corn maze was fun, but the girls and Adrian only wanted to do the small one, and I ended up going on a race with myself to do the bigger one by myself. They were more interested in the slides, towers, corn pit, animals, and many things to see. They both got to ride a horse for the first time, and they liked it even though both horses used the bathroom while being ridden, and it was 'gross'. Then we went out for some pizza to end the day. We found this one because the corn maze we went to last year wasn't open, but it was a great day, and we will go again next year because it is a fun memory. 

Other

They also had Red Ribbon Week this week and wore red on Monday, brought a can of food on Tuesday, forgot to dress up as superheroes on Wednesday, were twins on Thursday, and did the Halloween costumes on Friday, of course.