Christmas Morning

Luke woke up around 7:30 am. He didn't quite know what was going on, but he did know that Santa had left "gum and nuts" in his stocking so he was excited! Santa left Luke a race track for his cars (which he loved). He played with it for a bit, opened a present (some cars), and then went into the spare bedroom to play with some of Grandma's toys. We tried to encourage him to open his presents but he wasn't very interested. At one point he was over playing with the blinds on the french doors. We thought it was pretty funny. I'm sure next year will be completely different . Lily got a doll and some tights. We had a wonderful Christmas (except that Lily didn't sleep a wink). She was up 10 times in 8 hours. I'm not sure who was more exhausted by morning, me or her. Luke got a pack of gum that contained 5 sticks. Each time I saw him, he had a new piece of gum in his mouth. We couldn't figure out where he was hiding the pack of gum. We followed him and soon found that he had hidden the pack of gum under a bed. He then proceeded to pull out the last 2 sticks and put them both in his mouth. Needless to say, he had chewed and swallowed the whole pack within a few hours. I figured, it's Christmas, he might as well enjoy it while he can! I love Christmas time. I think my favorite part is being with family and the spirit of giving and thinking of others. Everyone is more thoughtful and willing to serve at this time of year. I really do wish Christmas could last the whole year round!

Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve we go to Kent's parents house and spend the night. Each year they reenact the birth of baby Jesus. For some reason Kent is, and always has been, the donkey. The rest of the parts are played by the children. This year Luke was Joseph. It was pretty cute to watch. They would tell him what to say and he would repeat it.

Here is a picture of Mary and Joseph (Lexi and Luke) riding on the donkey (Kent).Here is Luke and Hallie (the angel).

Frosty's Wild Night

So, last night we noticed that Frosty was swaying just a little bit. Then, this morning when Kent went out to get the paper he realized that Frosty wasn't swaying anymore...he was staggering! Yes, apparently Frosty had a wild night last night. We found a 6 pack of Bud Light, all of them empty, in Frosty's possession. We thought it was hilarious! Kent was concerned that the neighbors would think we put it there (honestly honey, if our neighbors don't know us well enough by now, we should let them think what they will). We have a pretty good idea of who assisted Frosty (after all, Frosty is underage). And we aren't naming any names (CAP and NAP), but we have your BBQ fork (aka Frosty's hand). However, I am curious...ALL SIX cans were empty....where did it all go??? Thanks for the laugh, an expensive one but a good one.

Here is the staggering Frosty with the six pack. Notice: two of the cans still attached to the ring.

Here are the four scattered on the ground at Frosty's "feet".

Here is a close-up.

Frosty The Snowman

Luke loves the snow. He LOVES it! But he doesn't really like to touch it or walk around in it. He goes outside to "help" Kent shovel the walks, but he always sticks to the sidewalks. So today I tried to get him to branch out a little bit and play in the snow. "We" built a snowman and made snow angels. He didn't really get the whole "building a snowman" thing. But he did tromp around and through the snow at least. When "we" were finished building "Frosty" I tried to get Luke to stand next to it so I could take his picture. He was terrified! He wanted me to hold him. So I took him over and helped him touch Frosty and tried to show him that Frosty was just snow. That helped a little, but not much. He still wouldn't get too close to it (as you can see in the pictures). After we made snow angels. Luke was a pro at snow angels!
NOTE: I couldn't find any rocks or coal for the eyes so I used broccoli instead!

By this time we needed to go inside for lunch. I told Luke, "Say goodbye to Frosty". So he said goodbye. Then he would get half way into the garage and turn around and run back out to Frosty to say goodbye again. This happened about 3 times before he finally made it into the house. Then as he was eating his lunch, Luke kept asking, "Frosty needs lunch?" "Frosty drinks milk?" And he kept asking for Frosty. When lunch was finished I told him to go look out the front window at Frosty. He stayed at the window saying, "Ohhh, Ohhh, I see Frosty! Frosty! I see Frosty!" Some days (or moments) are just perfect and I wish they could last forever!

My snow angel on the left and Luke's on the right.

A close up of Luke's snow angel.

"Santa Claus is coming to town..."

On Saturday, at our ward Christmas party, Santa came and let the children sit on his lap. Luke was terrified! Lily did just fine (she's too young to care). So we got a picture of Lily on Santa's lap and Luke sitting on Kent's knee next to Santa. After we asked Luke, "Did you like Santa?" to which he replied, "No". Then we asked, "Were you scared of him?" and he shook his head and said, "Yeah".However, Santa did give him this blue sucker that he LOVED!

An Update

Last night, for FHE, we put up the Christmas tree with the help of Luke (not so much help) and Lily. Luke kept trying to take the tops off of all my glass balls. However, he is doing pretty good at not touching the tree and not taking the ornaments off...so far (my fingers are crossed). After the tree was decorated, Kent played Christmas songs on the piano and we sang. Sunday night Luke discovered Christmas lights on houses and he proceeded to yell, "Christmas lights!" at every house we passed with Christmas lights. Trust me there are a LOT of houses with Christmas lights! But it was really cute to see him get so excited about lights.

Lily is finally eating baby food. I know...I know...she is 8 months and I am the worlds worst mother. She's been eating oatmeal since 6 months (my Pediatrician advised me to wait until 6 months to start her on food). She loves oatmeal and would eat it 3 times a day if I would let her. But that causes problems for her on the other end. I have wasted countless jars of baby food and a lot of time and frustration trying to get her to eat fruits and vegetables. She clamps her mouth shut and shakes her head back and forth when I try to feed it to her. She has even learned to giggle with her mouth shut so that I can't sneak any in. I have even tried mixing the oatmeal with baby food. Finally, yesterday I was so fed up with it, that I went to drastic measures. I decided to plug her nose. She couldn't breath, so she opened her mouth, and in went the food. I know...I know... I am a horrible mother. But she ate 1/2 jar of green beans and didn't even spit any out. This morning she ate 1/2 a jar of pears and 1/2 jar of green beans for lunch.

Lily is sitting, but not crawling yet. The last two nights she slept 11-12 hours each without waking up!She is still such a happy baby and just very content. Her two teeth on the bottom finally broke through yesterday (these are her first teeth).

Luke's new thing is "five minutes". If you ask him to do something he doesn't want to do, like take a nap, go to bed, put his toys away, etc. etc., he will say, "five minutes". Sometimes he's pretty funny about it, like he will say, "hoops downstairs five minutes please." The other day he tried to tell me that Baby George, his monkey, needed "mellows", as in Lucky Charms. I told him that Luke already had mellows with Daddy and that we only have them for breakfast. He replied, "No, Baby George mellows". He's a fast learner.

Luke and Lily getting out the ornaments.
Luke and Lily in front of the tree.Kent and Luke

Me and Luke. We didn't have anyone to take the picture so we had to take one of each other with Luke. Lily was asleep by this time.