Christmas Merriment!

We had such a fun Christmas morning! I woke up before the kids to put in our traditional casserole in the oven. Darin and I wondered what time the kids would wake up and Landon finally woke up at I think 7:00, then Jordan and they had to wake up Spencer. They were all really excited to get downstairs.

Having fun opening presents. I just love watching the excitement on their faces. They just love seeing each thing they open and get so excited. They each received the big things that they wanted. We now have new tools, a bunch of zhu zhu pets sqeaking around, new barbies, and lots of other fun stuff.

Here's Landon with the zhu zhu pets!
Yummy Christmas Dinner.
More fun pictures. I got a snuggie, which is used every night. Especially when it is really windy.
I am so thankful for the real reason of Christmas. I didn't take any pictures, but we did a nativity at bedtime. The kids really, really loved it. The wanted to take turns playing the different parts. Next year I would like to start early and gather costume items for each part. It is the reason for all the celebration and I want my children to never forget that.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Pajamas

We always had a tradition as kids to get new pajamas on Christas eve. I looked forever to find some I like and finally found these. Darin said they were prison uniforms, but the kids loved them and wore them for days after Christmas. I think they are so cute. So here we are when we got them out.

Oh yeah, in the above pic, Landon was not happy to put them on at first. He finally worn out later.

Jordan and Spencerr were so lovey dovey after they put their pajamas on. They kept hugging and saying "I love you" to each other.

Water skiing Santa?

Thanks to the heads up from Trish Martin, we decided to head to National Harbor on Christmas eve for some fun. We went to see some water skiers, then went and looked around the Gaylord Hotel and Convention Center. It was really amazing. It is HUGE!! All the rooms have a balcony and look out to a courtyard-or shall I say down to a courtyard. There are houses in there that are just shops that are bigger than my house.

The also had this massive glass Christmas tree suspended from the ceiling. It was pretty cool, but a little nerve wracking to stand under. Ouch if any piece of it fell. I guess it was is called "candy" glass. Pretty amazing.
There was a train set that the kids watched for a while and then there was a fountain that went along to Christmas music that the kids loved watching as well.
I can't imagine staying here. It was just so huge and probably costs and arm and a leg.
So, yes we saw Santa and the reindeer on water skis. Pretty funny. A couple of them wiped out-it was pretty cold outside, I wouldn't have wanted to be in the water even in a wetsuit. Hope the had hot chocolate waiting.
Jordan and Rayna. We lucked out because I went to take some pics across from where we were standing and ran into the Martins. So they hung out with us during the show.
See the guy doing the flip-on the left side of the picture.
An elf on a ski-doo-or whatever those things are called:)
Santa is multi-talented.
The kids thought it was funny when the grinch came out, but then were quite concerned that he was trying to knock Frosty off the skidoo.
Pretty fun day. Next year we know where the good spots are to stand, so we'll be prepared!!

Christmas Tree Ornaments and Good Ole St. Nick

Ornaments vs. Toys?
When we put our tree up this year I was a little worried about how Landon would do with the ornaments. He loved putting them up, and the first couple days he played with them, but the big problem was Spencer!! He would not leave the ornaments alone. We have a bunch of character ones-Dora, Diego, Sesame Street, etc, and he thought they were toys. Seriously, every day he would play with them. A few ended up broken. Ah well, just stuff, I guess.

Here he is when we got some Simpsons ornaments in the mail that Darin had ordered. He is a big Simpsons fan. Spencer loved them and played with them like they were little action figures.
What, ornaments? No way, they are toys!!

Bart Simpson? Don't have a cow man!!

Santa Claus

We had a couple visits to Santa this year.We saw him at our ward party, but the pics first are from Tysons Corner Mall. The santa there is pretty well known and loved. Last year it was big news because they didn't rehire him and the public made a huge uproar and he ended up with his job back. He makes around 30 K for the few weeks he works.

The boys tell Santa what the want. Spencer:Dragon Fortress Castle; Landon-giraffe toy.
Jordan told Santa she wanted Zhu Zhu pet and a baby doll.
Here's Jordan waiting in line. Just had to put this shot in:) I love my pretty girl.
We had Santa come to our ward party. It was pretty annoying, which is why we ended up going to another Santa. Darin got in line right when they announced he was coming. And from past years we knew we had to line up early. Well, when he sat down, all these kids came out of the woodwork and lined up without parents. The line took forever, and kids kept coming in. And I love the Santa, but he was talking forever with each child. I tried to give him a hint that there was a really long line, but I think he was oblivious. So when our kids got up there, I was stressed out about it and got the kids off before they could tell him all the thhings they wanted. I just took a couple shots to have them. Well, Jordan cried and cried. So that is why we went to the mall to see Santa again. Next year I don't even care to wait in line at the ward party again!!

fun on the steps

Lanny kept putting his hand up to his eye and I finally realized he was pretending to take a picture. Funny boy.

One day Landon decided to play in the steps. I have always worried about the "open" steps we have in our house, but they haven't really been a problem. We have only had a couple moments where we worried about the kids falling through. They do like to drop things through them, but I have been happy they haven't worried me as much as I expected.

So here is Lanny having fun, then his big brother and sister decided to join him.

I love this shot.
the whole crew having fun.

What do you do with 2 feet of snow?

You go PLAY of course!!! All the neighbors were outside for the Big Dig, as I like to call it, so we decided to go play a little. The children were in heaven. Jordan thought it was wonderful that the snow was so deep. Spencer loved to roll around and crawl in it.
We were walking in the streets to talk to neighbors and Spence decided to do some snow removal of his own.

Here are some of the sights I liked around our neighborhood. I loved that the snow was up to the stop sign. I should have taken a pic of the huge mound of snow the middle of the circle. One lane for cars to get through is a bit tricky in the neighborhood, but at least we can get out.

I also loved the wiseman's head was the only thing showing in the nativity scene at a house down the street.
Some men trying to get snow out of the middle of the street left by the plow ended up making a brick wall of snow.

And our poor bird house...don't think any birds stuck around for this....well, we did see some birds in the tree yesterday-made me wonder where they found shelter in the storm.

We found this shovel at KB toys last year when they were going out of business. Should have got more-the kids all LOVE it.
Lanny busy at work-he loves shoveling.
Jordan thought it was so fun to just dive in and roll around on the snow banks. She loved getting stuck and having to crawl out.
walking around the neighborhood. The kids were having so much fun despite the fact that there mother kept yelling at them to not play on the snow drifts and knock lot of snow on the nice clean sidewalks. We eventually took to the streets-made mommy less nervous about angering neighbors who spent forever shoveling:)

notice the shovel-we could not go without it.
Having fun at the playground-well, the whole place is a playground! Landon was so funny-he tried to walk through the snow, but kept falling down. I would hear "a little help please...a little help please" over and over. So funny.
the kids thought it was funny that you landed in snow when you went down the slide.


Landon had fun in his little cave. This is where a car was parked next to my van during the storm.

the only thing we are missing is a sled-we'll be getting one. The kids will love it:)

A Winter Wonderland!!

I had to put this above picture of Landon in at the last minute. I remembered how the had kept going down over his eyes and I would hear "I can't see. I can't see."
We were so excited to see so much snow. We were actually driving home in it late Friday night around 9:00 but woke up to much more than we thought and watched it fall, fall, fall all day. It was quite a beautiful sight. The children of course wanted to get outside immediately when they woke, but we managed to put them off until about 9:00 or so. We were pleasantly surprised to find that Spencer and Landon really loved it. Last year they didn't last very long, but this year they really loved it. Lanny went in first, but the other two played much longer. Jordan probably would have stayed out even longer if Darin and I weren't ready to come in. Reminded me of when I was a kid in Wisconsin where gearing up to play in the snow was a much more frequent happening. We were used to winter where there was snow on the ground from December until April. I was glad the kids lasted as long as they did because it took half and hour to get everyone ready!!

A view of our neighborhood.

Having fun with the snow. Spencer and Jordan would dive and roll in the snow and just giggle. Landon was very into the shoveling.

Jordan had snowflakes on her eyelashes. She loves to eat the snow...probably not the best thing, but I did it all the time as a kid.
I love this picture of Darin! He spent a lot of time shoveling while I was holding and umbrella taking pictures of everyone:)Spencer's face when we came in.
The view from our living room window


more shots from the day
I went out around 6:30pm or so to do some more shoveling. It was still coming down-crazy! It snowed ALL day. I wanted to be able to free up the cars so we could at least get in the cars before it froze over during the night. It was a kind of work that I didn't really mind.

I do really enjoy being out in the snow myself-it is so peaceful and quiet. The snow blankets the earth and all is quiet. It reminded me of growing up in Wisconsin and then living in Utah-I've shoveled a lot of snow in my day:) I probably would have stayed out longer, but it was time to put the kids to bed.

Do you see our cars? My van is on the left and Darin's car on the right. Will we ever get them out of the two feet of snow?
Such a fun day!