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Thursday, February 26, 2015

Bonus Christmas fun


Chuck's parents came up to see us the last few days of December, so we got to fit in some extra Christmas fun with them! Unfortunately, Clyde and Will were pretty sick - it was a pretty rocky couple weeks for Clyde especially - hence his extra bright feverish eyes...
(spoiler alert: I got a Dyson vacuum from them for Christmas, a much-anticipated and wanted gift... which is why the Dyson man is in these pictures. He'll probably be in all of our family pictures from here on out...)

We stuck close to home and played lots of games, including Blokus. Here's a twist on that game: let an almost three-year-old do whatever he wants in one whole corner of the board. I think it added a fun extra challenge... but of course, I was just watching haha!
Gingerbread houses (and now trains!) are a fun Grandma and Grandpa tradition; this year they were done in stages as the boys felt up to it.

Seriously, most of those three days you'd walk into the living room or the boys' bedroom and find this sight, either Clyde or Will (this one's Clyde) asleep under a blanket. Ahhh, sick kids are so sad!
Carma was a sweetheart and snuggled so well with Grandpa. She'll be a Words with Friends champ in no time under his tutelage...

And of course we opened some presents:
Lots and lots of fun stuff, including the kids' gifts from the Izatt extended fam cousin gift exchange - Clyde got a super cool frisbee from Courtney that I've yet to be bonked with in the head so I love it too, Will got a super cool puzzle from Mallory that got put together twice in the first week of ownership, Jack got CARS duplos from George and I'm pretty sure immediately forgot any other gift he's ever received in his life - he was so thrilled, and Carma got a sweeeet no-leak, no-permanent tooth damage sippy cup from Lily. Thanks kiddos!!

Oh, fun story, in the middle of opening gifts the doorbell rang and we found an awesome fruit basket on the doorstep! It was all delicious - thanks so much to our generous, anonymous friends! [well, mostly anonymous. I'm not saying Chuck and I should quit our day jobs and become a stealth private investigating duo... but with the help of chatty teenagers, we solved this case pretty quick ;) ]
The boys got a cool building set, so Chuck was recruited to help with the engineering - they ended up with an igloo and a rocket ship!

 New Year's Eve found us around the table playing Phase 10, rallying to make it to 9pm, haha - I think we did? 
 Chuck worked the next day (430am wake up call, lame as always) and Dave and Terri left that morning as well - after Dave very obligingly made Will (and the rest of us!!) biscuits - and he got up early to pack Chuck's lunch, leftover steak with ALLLL the fixins :). 

Thanks again for coming, Grandma and Pops! We are very resolved to be in better health the next time we see you!

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Weekend after Christmas


Friday we spent an awesome afternoon with my dad and Quinn and Eden and co! First we hit up Jabbers, a cute indoor play place that I had never been to despite the fact that it's like six minutes from my house:
Obviously all the small children were in heaven... and some of the big children as well (cough, Quinn and Chuck going down the slide, cough).
I got talked into entering the little play structure and then immediately remembered my semi-immobilizing claustrophobia, yiiiiikes. I sucked it up and went down the little slide twice - the things we do to see our kids smile!!

The rest of the time I hung out in the nice, open, happy baby area:
At one point we had a pretty sad Willy boy on our hands (there may have been a brotherly collision on/around the rope swing) so to cheer him up, Chuck put on a puppet show. #cutestthingever

Grandpa spent some time snuggling with his little granddaughters:
while Isaac and Jack gave us a glimpse into the future: won't these little cousins be the cutest college roommates pre- and post-mission??

Sometimes I look at Quinn and can't believe my little brother has grown up so much - amazing wife, two beautiful kids... and then I see his cute, goofy smile and I know the little goober that wore the same 49ers jersey almost every day of his second grade year is still in there somewhere :).
After Jabbers, Grandpa treated us all to a delicious lunch at a nearby cafe. I'll have to put together some more of the pictures we took there sometime - the service was excellent; we were very well taken care of! ;)

Sam and Terri's travel plans were a bit back and forth based on sick kids, but they made it to town and we got to spend a few hours with them and their super cute girlies over the weekend. We had a great time talking and they lovingly choked down my subpar Mac and Cheese (alas, usually one of my finest dishes) and I randomly only took one picture... but it's a good one - Uncle Sam telling Leila about how she should continue to keep men at an arm's distance until she's 30, haha:
And that was our merry post-Christmas weekend!

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

We had an excellent Christmas holiday this year. On Christmas Eve day, Will and I slipped out for last-minute errands, namely the post office and Costco:
We knew the cousin gifts wouldn't actually arrive by the next morning, but it felt good to at least get them mailed, haha. And Will was sweet and patient and entertaining at the post office as we waited in a long-ish but very manageable line. We waltzed in and out of Costco as quickly as possible, mostly thanks to our short list: fun nuggets and muffins!

That afternoon we busted out copious amounts of flour for some sugar cookie fun. Thanks to my fantastic bfsc Courtney we used wax paper and it was amazing. Later she told me you can use another layer of wax paper on top and eliminate the need for the aforementioned piles of flour everywhere, buuuuuut where's the mess in that? If I'm going to bake something, I want to adorably look like I've been baking, with a smudge of flour on my cheek, ya know? ;)
Okay, isn't Carma's little Christmas outfit so darling? It was a Grandma Thomas find that she gave us over the summer, and I was so glad to see that Carma didn't outgrow it in the meantime :).

So last year our Christmas Eve was lame; Chuck worked until six and then stayed late to help a buddy with a flat tire. By the time he rolled in, the kids were donnnne and so we kind of rushed through everything. THIS year, it was perfect - we were able to have a really nice evening; we read the account of Jesus' birth aloud while the boys followed along with their little nativity. We set out the cookies... pushed them farther away so Carma couldn't get them... and took some pictures before tucking these sweet kiddos into bed!
And then we woke up to all of thiiiiis in the morning!

Clyde's main passions in life are Percy Jackson and legos, so he was a pretty happy kid when he found the final Percy Jackson book amongst his gifts. Aaaand an entire jar of peanut butter JUST for him!
Oh Willy boy, haha. For the school sing-along, each class sang a different song and Will's was "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas". Will LOVED it. He sang it constantly. Like, seriously. So naturally that turned into actually wanting a hippopotamus! Thankfully, Santa hit up Savers on the right day and found one for two dolla and Will is happy as can be that Henry the Hippo has joined our family.

And just in case you didn't personally encounter Will during the month of December and thus have yet to see/hear the song, here's a snippet from the program:


Jack had no real idea of what he 'wanted' for Christmas, but luckily I did: a kitchen! Clyde and Will had one at this age (that was eventually relegated to the backyard and then given away) and they loved it, and I knew Jack would follow suit. 
Carma crawled around and got in everyone's way and was totally content letting Will and Grandma open her stocking - which contained a cute onesie and some puffs AND a special doll named Ginger Christmas that I apparently failed to photograph, but fulfilled all the requirements that Will had dreamt up and then specified to Santa: a soft girl doll with red hair :).

We were very happy to have Grandma Pam celebrate Christmas morning with us! The kiddos loved the gifts she gave them: Clyde received new books and money for his bball camp, Will got an encyclopedia book and a special bank, Jack got super cool wooden food that can be cut apart and a monkey backpack (Clyde and Will have coordinating animals/backpacks from Grandma), and Carma June got the sweetest pink and green flower print bear ever.
Such perfect, thoughtful gifts - thanks Mama!

OH, and at some point in the still-early morning the boys opened up the front curtains and found this new addition to the front yard:
Say what? A trampoline! I had asked for advice on sizes, etc on facebook earlier in the month and got excellent feedback. This little 8 footer popped up on craigslist for $50 almost immediately, so we bought it with the plan to continue looking for a full size one after Christmas (spoiler alert: we found one. It's in the backyard. We now have three trampolines, if you count the mini exercise one in the living room...).

A few more shots of present opening...
 
Oh, Will brought home a present for us from school and the pictures on the gift bag were darling: on the left is me, Carma as baby Jesus, and Chuck... with the actual baby Jesus in a manger of hay above. On the right is a candy cane and an angel. Oh I love that kid.

 Quinn and Eden and co. came over that afternoon, which was super fun. Eden got roped into Jenga with the boys:
while Quinn was content watching the basketball game and taking creeper pictures of himself... and thus me... with my phone.

Carma and Leila made a darling pair of Christmas elves:
We ended the day with - of course - more legos (did I mention that Jack got his very first 'real' lego set? Just for him? #milestone). Such a great day being together and playing with fun stuff!

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Random December

Okkkay, here's a mishmash of December events leading up to the holidays (which will be probably covered in another post. Or maybe I'll skip it all together because I'd rather get a root canal than go through all those pictures. Well, maybe. I've never actually had a root canal, so maybe the picture processing is better in comparison. Probably so..)

Jack's complete obsession with Carma continues, as does his lack of comprehension about how exactly to gently handle a baby:
Oh man that middle picture makes me laugh - don't you hate it when your arms aren't quite long enough to open the book around the chubby baby you're trying to read to??

Speaking of obsessions, I may have a narcissistic streak that manifests itself in a ridiculous number of selfies - although my darling kids are in them too, so doesn't that make it okay?
 Although please note the absence of Clyde in any of these - he's cool now, yo. (meaning I guess that pictures with your mom isn't cool? We'll just have to agree to disagree there...)

More reading, this time a darling Christmas book authored by our own wonderful Grandma Thomas! What's that, you'd like an Amazon link? Okay: http://www.amazon.com/Mouses-Christmas-Cookie-Patricia-Thomas/dp/1477847049/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

 December girls' night! We met at Nicole's and missed getting a group shot (no waiter/husband/awake child to be found) but these shots sum up the night: Kara and Paulina vying over a baby's affections. Come to think of it, that pretty much sums up most nights where a baby is present haha.
 OH, and Paulina brought us all Christmas presents and our excitement levels were slightly ridiculous. Poor Paulina got super nervous at our pre-opening reactions and tried to temper our expectations by insisting, "Guys, it's really not a big deal..." And of course, our cute nail polish and LINDOR TRUFFLE CHOCOLATE BALLS were even more thrillingly received! Thanks Paulina :). 

 Cub Scout pack meeting: Super fun evening of Christmas activities, including this one - following directions one-by-one and drawing a Christmas scene on a paper plate on your head. (could I have explained that any more painstakingly? Sorry...)
Anyways, it was hilarious, as was the bit where we were sorted into tables by our mini candy bar preference and then given a corresponding personality analysis that was eerily correct, haha.

In other Scout activities, Chuck and the Teachers and Priests got to some really cool wood-working/glasswork in December, courtesy of Brother Fleshman's shop and expertise and generosity:
 Chuck made this super cool picture for his parents for Christmas.

Clyde and Will both love Minecraft, so we borrow it from the library every once in a while. And scenes like this obviously make it worth it, haha:
 
They love to work in 'create' mode and make special worlds - this is a pink and green one for Grandma Pam. (ps I don't really understand Minecraft, despite the long-winded, detailed explanations my boys readily provide at any opportunity. But it seems pretty cute...)

Two cousin birthdays in mid-December = wrangling the four kids for quick bday videos two days in a row = less than stellar results, but hopefully Hazel and Mallory felt the love conveyed in their greetings, haha.
 Oh, and speaking of cute girl-y cousins (with December bdays!) here is darling Leila hanging out with Carma during her family's quick mid-December visit to Idahome. I love how in the top left, Carma's super confident about this friendship and going hands-on and in the picture on the right Leila's kinda like "Really? This chick can't even sit up all that well on her own and I'm supposed to hang out with her??"

 Another early morning sibling xbox bonding experience; have I mentioned my kids get up crazy early? Like 630am is sleeping in? Nutcrackers.

 The boys' holiday parties and sing-a-long at school happily occurred on one of Chuck's days off so I merrily sent him to the school to represent our family. The boys love when Daddy gets to come and hang out in their classrooms:
  That night Chuck had a work Christmas party that was all sorts of awesome. Sean and his wife Melissa generously hosted (as they did two years ago, aka the last Christmas party) and everyone brought food and a white elephant gift for the traditional exchange:
 Some shots of the party 
(awesomely captured by Craig and his wife April and then stolen from facebook by me).
 Everyone thought we were awful parents for leaving the boys happily at home with a babysitter (and their nerf guns) and only bringing Carma buuuut getting to eat and sit and talk stress-free was pretty awesome ;).

Chuck's work team:
 top row: Marty, Mark, Chuck, Justin. Middle row: Craig, Roderick, Sean, Michiko. Bottom row: Sylvia. (ps this pose apparently was the same one they did the day before for a picture at work? who knows, hahahaha)

The next day we ditched the kids again (all four this time) with a babysitter so that Chuck and I could go to the temple. We had a really wonderful time and Carma only cried for Kiki and Stormi like half the time we were gone, so that's good!
 Speaking of Carma, let's focus on her holiday cuteness and not her crippling stranger/anyone-who-isn't-Mommy anxiety:
She started crawling in December, I think mostly to get to the tree quickly; girl was obsessed with those lights :).

And finally, the Sunday before Christmas I donned my best red and green for church and almost died laughing when I saw Maren's outfit! Totally fits: we're super good friends and visiting teaching companions, so obviously we're on the same wavelength for holiday-themed church attire :). And reason #1288 that I love Maren is that she put up with me summoning her from Primary to take this picture with me, haha!

OKAY NEXT UP IS (maybe) CHRISTMAS! Woooo!