Christmas in Utah

We were very excited to go to Utah for Christmas and see family and have a "vacation." Here's our top ten from Christmas 2007 in Bountiful!

10. Roadtrip! Staying in Rawlins, WY due to I80 closure. Luckily, we were able to get a room at 1st Choice Hotel; however, their cinderblock walls and moldy tubs weren't really our first choice! Yikes! I just kept telling myself, "pretend your camping!"

9. Cousins! There is something special about cousin relationships. We used to go camping with our cousins and I have great memories of riding on the back of our family suburban down dirt roads and giggling until my stomach hurt. My boys are now making their own cousin relationships! Andrew had a blast hanging out with all his sousins. One afternoon Andrew and Clayton wandered down to the basement where they slipped on snowboots and wandered out into the snow together. I found them playing happily in the snow wearing only their pajamas and snowboots!

8. Christmas morning! Mike and I decided that Christmas morning is much better once you have children. It makes me giddy to see all the kiddos literally bounce into the room and see what Santa brought them.

7. Sisters! I love all my sisters and sisters-in-law! I was excited to have breakfast with the Hasler sisters. We gabbed and gabbed and I didn't want to leave. I also enjoyed a classic shopping trip with all the Christensen sisters. As a result of the Double D days (Double Discount- a Hallmark store where we got 75% off because of Ralph's employee discount), I am conditioned for crazed shopping when I'm with the Christensen gals. We had a great time!

6. Snow fun- including sledding, snowman building, igloo building, and more! Mom and Dad C. have a fantastic sledding hill on their property. First, the guys built a great track for sledding. Next came the snowoman and then Mike and others spent hours building an awesome igloo and a tunnel to go through while sledding! Mike was nominated as "father of the year" for building the coolest igloo for all the cousins.

After watching a movie one night, a group of us decided to go sledding at midnight! I've recently been feeling like a boring, responsible mom and welcomed the senseless spontaneity! Camie and I had a great run down the track together and took a chunk out of the tunnel with our heads!

5. Mountains! I miss the mountains terribly and it was like coming home to drive up the mountain to get to Mom and Dad C.'s house. I beg Mike to take me back to mountains!

4. Eating! The Christensens love good food and this holiday was no exception! We enjoyed lots of delicious treats (I think I single-handedly finished off the sugar cookies) and loads of hot chocolate because of Adam's Cocoa Latte machine he got for Christmas. Note: I think most of us went home and found and excuse to buy a Cocoa Latte machine!

3. Haircut! I left all our boys with Mike and got a great haircut, such a treat!!

2. New Year's Party! On New Year's Eve we let the kiddos dance to music and ring in the new year, then we put them to bed and the real party started. Matt and Camie did a great job hosting games and we ate ourselves silly. It was fun to have the Martin's come join us for the evening too.

1. Being with family! There is something so comfortable about being with family. We let our hair down and have a great time even though we're dog tired because our kids aren't sleeping and we keep staying up late to play games, talk, watch episodes of The Office, and Brian Regan on YouTube. Thanks to all our family for making our Christmas vacation so great! We love and miss you all!

Christmas highlights...more to come!

Wish you were our neighbor!

One of my favorite parts of the Christmas season is turning on my Christmas music and making my goodies to take to neighbors and friends. This year it was a little more challenging to make the time to stand over the stove, as it seems there is always someone who needs a diaper change or some other need that must be met. So, I made my lists and scheduled it all out so I could do my annual baking. I'm behind on my house cleaning and laundry, but I've had so much fun and I really love doing this!
Today I made the last batch of fudge and assembled 22 plates for neighbors, visiting teachees, friends, etc. and six tins for Mike's team at work. We felt like this was the perfect Christmas gift for his team, as they all have super busy lives and don't get much home cookin'. Each tin is packed with ginger snaps, fudge, caramels, and English toffee...yum!
Happy holiday baking!!

Cold afternoon

I recently read on my friend Ada's blog about keeping it real with blogging. Often we paint this perfect picture of our perfect lives, but we all know there is more to life than that. So, here's to keeping it real!

Friday, I was going a little crazy because we hadn't left the house in three days because of a winter storm. I was determined to get out! So, I loaded up the kiddos and went to Target (yes, Ann Marie, your post pardom theory about Target is absolutely correct!), then I stopped by a craft show, and picked up a gourmet vegetarian pizza from Papa Murphy's (if you haven't tried it you must!). I was finally headed home and decided to gas up the van for Mike, as he was headed to Omaha with the youth the next morning. As I stood at the gas pump I have to admit that I had this swelling pride in my heart-- I had gotten out!! Not only did I go out, I made four stops and did it with all three kids! My prideful heart didn't last too long because I quickly realized that I had locked my keys and my three children in the car! After standing in 25 degree weather for an hour, listening to crying children I couldn't reach, I finally got in my car and went home. Funny how I was dying to get out of my house, yet when I returned I was so happy to be in my little home!!

Andrew update

Andrew has been cracking us up lately! Mike plays this game with him where he pretends to walk into the wall and bangs his head. Andrew gets laughing so hard he can barely breath! The other day while playing the game Andrew decided to join in and walked into the wall with his head! We laughed so hard and then taught him how to pretend to walk into the wall! What a crack up! Also, we just started subscribing to The Friend magazine and Andrew loves it! He knows it's for him and carries it around the house and pulls it out to "read" it often. Yesterday he woke up from his nap and it was the first thing he went and found. I think it's so cute to see him sitting in the couch reading his magazine!

My life with three boys!

Every once and a while I have these moments when I think to myself, "Oh my, I have three boys!!" I'll admit the thought comes often when I put everyone in the minivan and I'm out and about at the grocery store, Target, or the doctors office. There's something about the minivan that still gets me!

Another moment happened a few days ago when was I was playing catch with Andrew, rocking Reid in the "animal chair" with my foot, bouncing Tanner on my leg, and eating my lunch at the same time!

I also laughed at Andrew's adjustment to our new life when I got back in the car from dropping something off at a friends house and Andrew was calmly reading his library books while both boys were screaming!! It didn't phase him, it's just the new normal!

Who wouldn't want my life with these three boys? Tanner, Andrew, and Reid.

Happy Babies

Tanner and Reid are such happy boys! They melt our hearts with their smiles and coos. They really are happy, easy going and sweet, can't you tell?Reid left, Tanner right Happy Reid kicking on the ground.
After Tanner's bath yesterday he cooed and smiled for the longest time. I had a hard time getting him dressed because we were having so much fun together!

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving weekend was a much welcomed few days together as a family. Mike played football with the ward and we had a great Thanksgiving dinner with our friends. I love Thanksgiving because it's a holiday where take time to reflect about all that we are grateful for. This year we have been blessed abundantly and it was sweet to consider all the blessings we've been given.
After all the eating was over we spent the rest of the weekend getting our house ready for Christmas. Friday, we bundled up and headed out to a tree farm to cut down our Christmas tree! We rode out to the farm on a tractor with other tree choppers (much to Andrew's delight) and everyone thought we were nuts for dragging our kiddos out for the occasion. Andrew loved tromping around looking for trees! Once home, we got our tree all set up and put all kiddos to bed. Saturday we decorated the tree and Andrew was in heaven! he would get ornaments off the table and find a spot on the tree for them and then excitedly run back for more!
Unfortunately, Sunday morning at 5:45 a.m. we woke up to a crash! Our tree tipped over! Ha! We had noticed the night before that it wasn't real steady, but Mike just said not to lay the babies underneath it! We realized that our tree stand isn't meant for a nine foot tree! Ha ha! We stood it up and tied it to the wall with fishing string with full intentions to get a new stand, but then we thought of all the work involved and just decided to leave the tree how it is! Classic!
We LOVE our Christmas tree! Andrew rearranges the ornaments for us and loves it when we turn the lights on. Our home feels so cozy- we love this time of year!