Second Christmas

Last Tuesday we had my parents over for dinner and had our "second Christmas." We were in Midway and my parents were in Phoenix, with Leigh Ann, so they saved their gifts to us and Leigh Ann's gifts to us and we opened them Tuesday as a family. It was fun.

Ethan LOVES Legos, but he didn't get any until Tuesday when he got a bunch of Star Wars legos. He and Bryan spent the evening putting some together, although Ethan is getting really good and didn't need much help.

Courtney got some princess dolls and another crown (thanks Leigh Ann) to go with her princess dress from Grandma Pack. She got a Snow White bath doll that changes her hair color, etc. in the bath. Now Courtney is dying to take a bath!

Tuesday morning the kids were really bored and we had a Gingerbread Christmas tree, so we decided to decorate it. The icing didn't turn out very well (I think my bowl had some grease in it that I didn't see) but it looked okay. It was only put together for about an hour before they began picking the candy off it. So I let them have a free for all...but they only ate the frosting and the candy. Courtney's little mouth was all green!

Here are some photos:

Ice Blocking

I took the kids to the crazy park this afternoon. There were so many people there. One of Ethan's friends who had been in his kindergarten class was there, so they played together. Courtney wasn't interested in playing on the equipment so she went to a hill that was by the playground. She kept running up and down.

After a while, some of the kids joined her and they realized that there were some ice blocks with towels on them at the bottom of the hill. So they decided to do some ice blocking. What I think happened was that a bunch of teenagers went ice blocking last night at the park and left their ice blocks when they were finished. The little kids loved it and Ethan declared that "this is funner than sledding was last week!" He was going down on his belly, face first. I would have been worried, but he already lost his two front teeth so there isn't much to knock out now. Courtney even got into it and was sliding down on her rear end.

We only lasted about 30-35 minutes because Ethan was soaked through his pants and was really cold. But they had so much fun. Too bad I forgot my camera!

Back Home!

We packed up the van this morning and then we went to Midway for family photos. The man was really nice and the kids had a fun time...mostly. Courtney had a few moments when we were trying to get photos of her and Ethan where she just wouldn't cooperate. We had bribbed them with candy, but we ended up bribbing Courtney with McDonald's. It worked great and I think we got some cute photos.

When photos were finished, we said goodbye to everyone and began down the canyon. There was so much snow and I just couldn't believe how pretty it was. But the snow didn't really hinder our drive much. We made good time coming home with the kids eating all the snacks, watching movies and bugging each other. Of course, Courtney fell asleep about 20 minutes from home!

We unloaded and found that a nice neighbor had picked up our newpaper (which I didn't get a vacation hold on) and that someone had left us a huge sack of books and a princess night light. There wasn't a card, so I'm hoping that someone knows how much we appreciate all the books. It was so nice.

We had a lot of fun at Christmas, but are happy to be back home.

Sledding Again

Friday morning we woke up to more new snow. We ate breakfast and then went to a sledding hill to meet up with Dan & Karen and David & Debbie's families. This was a fun sled hill! There was a small trail already in the side of the hill, so we just had to make it a little more slick. And then it was really fun. It took a fun runs down for us to get it paved and for people to stay on their sleds, but once we got it nice and slick, it was so much fun!

Ethan found a friend in Tyler and they began going down together on a sled. They are the same size (Tyler is 10 and Ethan's 6) so they had a good weight distribution but they couldn't steer to save their lives. So most of the time they ended up on the side of the trail, but they were having so much fun. We finally had enough sleds, after some people went back to the cabin to warm up, that Ethan was able to have his own sled and then it became really hilarious! When he was on his own sled he just flew down the mountain and was having so much fun. One time he went down yelling, "Oh baby, oh baby, oh baby" over and over again. He would just giggle and giggle.

Courtney went down a few times and Bryan and a few times with me, but she was mainly content staying around Grandma with hand warmers in her pockets, or sitting on our laps while we sat in the cold snow. She loved watching. The last time she went down I scarred her for life. I was doing some really good runs and having so much fun. Courtney wanted to go down by Grandma and so I offered to take her down on the sled. Immediately after we began going down Courtney started yelling, "Slow down, Mommy!!" I tried to slow down by putting my hands down but I accidentally steered us off the trail and into the powder, where Courtney was just blasted by fresh powder. She didn't like that at all and began screaming. (Grandpa got a photo just as we were coming down that I'm going to post when I get it from him. It shows me with a huge smile on my face and Courtney looking like the world had ended.) When we got to the bottom Courtney ran to Grandma and told her, "My mom doesn't know how to sled!"

Bryan then walked Courtney down to where our car was and took her up to the cabin. Ethan and I stayed a few more minutes. I made a train with Andrew, Kelsi, Rachel and Spencer. It took a few tries before we actually got to the bottom of the hill. We couldn't figure out how to go straight and we took a few spills (I have the bruises to prove it) but we had a lot of fun until Ethan decided he was too cold and wanted to go back to the cabin. So Grandpa drove us back up to the cabin where Ethan and Courtney drank hot cocoa and watched movies with Brooke and Josh.

Then David & Debbie's family came back to the cabin and we all ate dinner and played games until it was time for bed. We had a fun day!

I'll post some photos when I get some!

Christmas Day

Ethan was the first to wake up. He started stirring at about 6:30 and we kept him in the bedroom until 7 a.m. Courtney woke up around 6:45 and it was all we could do to keep them quiet until it was time to get up. They were so excited!! Jeff and Andrea were sleeping in the hallway area outside our bedroom and I didn't want to wake them up too early.

Then we let them loose! They were so excited to see their gifts from Santa. He had even left some footprints by the fireplace!!! Ethan got an MP3 player and a iCoaster. Courtney got a doll stroller and they both got movies in their stockings.

After everyone was up we began unwrapping gifts. We go from youngest to oldest and so everyone gets to see what the other people received. It takes a long time with 17 people (well, 14 when it was time for little Carter to eat...oh, I forgot to mention that Lisa had a little baby boy they named Carter on Monday, so their little family was with us) but it was fun. Courtney and Brooke received matching dresses from Grandma, along with shoes, crowns and jewlery. It was so cute to see them all dressed up. Ethan got some remote control cars that he begged anyone around to play with him. It was a fun day!

Oh..and it snowed 2 feet on Christmas Day. The cabin was up on a hill and was right at the top of a road. We took advantage of this and began sledding down the hill. It was so much fun and the road made a great sled hill. Ethan loved it especially and didn't want to stop. I haven't ever been sledding. We always went tubing when I was a kid. We would get huge tire intertubes, inflate them and go down hills on them. I loved it but was always freezing because we always went in jeans or sweats (no snow pants for us). I really enjoyed myself.

After a long time sledding, most people went in to get warm while Andrew, Ruston, Brooke, Ethan and I stayed outside. Andrew got the smart idea that if it was fun to sled down the road, it would be even more fun to sled off the side of the road down the mountain. So he tried. It was fresh powder and really deep so his slide down the side of the hill was slow and ended with him hitting down and being buried in fresh powder. Ethan decided he wanted to follow Uncle Andrew so he went down. His first run wasn't too bad, but the second run he did wasn't too great. By the second time down, the snow had compacted a bit and so Ethan went pretty quickly and was afraid he would be hurt. I ended up having to slide down on my rear end and then carry him on my back through waist-deep snow while Andrew and I trudged to find where the road was so we could get him back to the cabin. But he said he had a great time.

The rest of the day was spent playing with all the new toys and watching new movies. It was a fun day!

Christmas Eve

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I am going to split these posts up into days, so it doesn't get too overwhelming.

We went to Bryan's Uncle David's cabin in Midway for Christmas with the Pack Family! We were going to travel up to Midway on Tuesday morning and then go to the Polar Express with everyone (minus Jeff and Andrea, who were flying in Tuesday night, and Dad (John), who was picking them up). But, alas, the best laid plans always end up being changed.

Bryan woke Ethan up at 2 a.m. to go to the bathroom and while Ethan was in the bathroom he threw up. We had no idea he didn't feel well. We got him back in bed, gave him a bowl and went back to sleep. About 30 minutes later he threw up again. And then 30 minutes later he threw up again. In the morning he wasn't feeling any better and wouldn't eat or drink anything. We decided to give him the day to rest and then we could go up the next day. The weather was going to cooperate so we let him sleep all day Tuesday. I was so sad to miss the Polar Express and all the fun everyone was going to be having, but Ethan took precedence. Courtney was pretty upset too so Bryan took her bowling and then to "Old McDonald's" for lunch. For a 3 year old, this was just as good as a train ride!

Wednesday morning Ethan woke up feeling fine. I think he was bound and determined to get to the cabin that he was going to feel fine no matter if he really did or not. So we loaded up and took off.

We got to the cabin in time for Ethan and Courtney to paint some wooden reindeer and snowflakes that Julie had brought for the kids to do. Then they played with Brooke and Josh. It had been snowing at the cabin and there was still a lot of snow around, so Grandpa decided to take the kids sledding. We got Ethan and Courtney ready and then Bryan took them sledding. They had a lot of fun.

After they warmed back up, we decorated the Christmas tree with the painted ornaments, gingerbread men, bows, garland (made of marshmallows and craisens), candy canes and photos of everyone (we borrowed my parent's 7 1/2 foot fake tree and it worked great). We ended up only decorating the front of the tree, but you couldn't tell in any of the photos. Then it was time for the "program." We did the usual traditions of reading stories, playing the chimes (which we actually did really well at this year) and the doing the Christmas Nativity. It was a first for the Nativity and the kids loved dressing up. Then we opened the Christmas pjs and got ready for bed. It was a fun night! Ethan was so excited for Santa to come and was in bed ready to sleep. Courtney, on the other hand, was wide awake and driving Bryan nuts. She finally fell asleep but I was preparing myself for an all-nighter with the girl!

Cute Kids and Temple Lights

We decided to go to the St. George Temple to see the lights on Monday night for FHE. We tried this last year and the lights were turned off because it was rainy and they didn't want them to short out. It happened again this year!! We just don't have the luck. It has been snowy and rainy here for the past week and, I guess, the Temple crews don't want to short anything out. They did have the nativity set going and had some Christmas lights on trees right by the Temple stairs, so we got to see some lights.

We took hot chocolate and had that while we walked around. It was still a nice night.