We were so excited to have Chuck's parents come visit us for a few days after Christmas. We opted for our usual plan when they come to town: the menfolk did some handyman projects, Terri and I did some shopping, we ate lots of good food and the kids were thoroughly loved and spoiled!
Chuck needed a second set of hands to do some raingutter re-routing along the back of the house, and Pops was more than willing to help (unlike Chuck's wife who repeatedly declined). Jack was also more than willing to help, but sadly didn't make it on the recruitment short list :(. Dave and Chuck also replaced the thermostat in the Saturn in our never-ending quest to get the dang vehicle to pass emissions, wish us luck!
Some shots of the fun: making pancakes, playing legos, cuddling up to read books, putting together the ol' marble fun, and enjoying ice cream during movie night.
Since we missed Chuck's family's traditional Christmas Day steak dinner, Pops treated us to one during their visit. Yummmm!
After dinner that night we continued with our 'belated Christmas' theme and opened lots of wonderful presents, including a Nerf gun shooting range game for Chuck (that the boys have already run out of batteries once!) and an awesome new car seat for Jack.
Speaking of Jack, this might be my favorite picture from the whole month of December; he was sooo cute as he slowly ripped off a piece of the wrapping paper. Unfortunately, although slow and steady usually wins the race, it actually gets you replaced by your older brothers when the task is opening presents - Clyde and Will were more than happy to step in and open all of Jack's presents for him!
I love Clyde's facial expressions as he opened these Star Wars action figures.
Melissa's family had us in the sibling gift exchange and sent our gifts up with Mom and Pops; the boys were SO excited to open them! I especially loved the 'add-ons' to each person's individual gift - the little boys each got a cool Avengers cup and Chuck and I got 'Best Uncle' and 'Best Aunt' keychains (they're on the present in the middle) that our sweet nephew George got for us at his school's 'Santa Shop'.
We understand that George was pretty key in selection the fun games we received, so these pictures are for him:
One of Chuck's favorite games is Sequence, so he was especially excited about 'Sequence for Kids' and the boys love it already. Hedbandz is a favorite already too; it's so cute to hear Will inquire "I is alive? I is a pet? I have two legs or four legs?" Thanks to George and all the Blues! We really appreciate your thoughtfulness!
More present opening! I must not have been moving fast enough either, because Will came and helped me out :).
As always, Chuck's parents spoiled me - an awesome sewing container (maybe I'll branch out beyond Scout patches and couch pillows!) and a super cute skirt that's already made its church debut and a way fun purse that I opened to find an iPod Nano inside, along with an iTunes gift card and running accessories, wooo! I went out on Jack's birthday last week to test it out, and it's amazing to run and listen to real music instead of awkwardly singing in my head :). Sadly it was FREAKING COLD that day and it has snowed quite a bit since then so I haven't attempted to go out again - but I will!
So it's probably horrible that this makes me laugh so hard, but towards the end of the present-opening fun, a big box for Chuck to open was pushed to the middle of the living room and Jack promptly saw fit to use it as his own personal stage, much to the EXTREME DISTRESS of Will, who was trying to get it to Daddy. Poor Will tried everything to get Jack down...
including calling in reinforcements (in this case, Clyde). Jack just continued to merrily clap and laugh and be adorable until I took pity on the older boys (notice Clyde's tired/sad/distraught face in the lower right) and plucked Jack off :). Luckily for everyone, bedtime soon followed!
The next morning, Chuck and I availed ourselves of two very willing and capable baby-sitters and went to the temple! It was lovely, especially since the stars aligned (aka we were late and then volunteered to sit out an overcrowded session) and my mom was able to finish her shift as a temple worker and be a patron with me in our session :). We ended up being gone quite a while so it was extra nice to know that the boys were happy and in such good hands at home!
Dave and Terri left Sunday morning, but left us with a cute back window (courtesy of the fun window markers that were also a part of our gift from the Blues):
We love you too!! Thanks so much for coming and spoiling all of us!
4 comments:
Looks like you guys had a great visit! Makes me miss my Mama! they spoil us too when they come! Love the sewing box! Thanks for Season 2, by the way! I have taught my kids not to answer the door when I am off feeding the baby- just glad it was you and not some scary person! I'll return it next time I see you!
Look at you! Out and ready to run in the cold. It's making me want to stay in this year, even though we went out on a nightly basis with the cold weather last year. I love all the pictures and the cute stories about your boys. They are such sweet kids!
You all look so great! It's been months since I've been able to get to my blog and check yours. Happy New Year!
Those games from the Blues were so fun I was thinking I might need them for my Kindergarteners. We had a GREAT visit. Love coming up to see you!.
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