Christmas Time

The kids were pretty generous with sleeping in once again this Christmas. I thought for sure this would be the year Kayla would wake us up at 5:00. But instead we heard them giggling in their rooms around 6:30. Here they are coming down the hall.
Kayla just heard the sound of a little dog whining in a box. This was the best and most exciting gift of the morning. So those of you who are wondering, do we now have two dogs. Nope, we ended up getting rid of poor T-Bone. He is almost 2. You could say he is potty trained, except for when a neighborhood female dog goes in heat. And then we would find signs of his markings around the house, even on people that smell funny (Seth). So Jared gave him to a lady at work. Getting a dog to begin with may not have been one of our best decisions. Because getting rid of him was one of the hardest things we have ever done. I have never ever seen Jared cry. But this may have been about as close as it gets. We went to bed every night feeling remorseful about breaking Kayla's heart. So much that we dared try this again. She is a girl (which we have heard will be much easier to potty train and will not mark her territory), and she is adorable. The girls named her Cassie. We have had her two days now, and she is doing rather good at potty training. Kayla has barely let her down.

Parker basically opened up cars and cars and cars. The girls went to the DI and were amazed at how many little box cars they could purchase for $2. Grandma Hoy dropped presents off a few days before Christmas. One of the boxes had a car that you shake and it makes sounds. So it was on, and it was roaring. Parker couldn't wait for Christmas to open that one. All he could say was, "Oh My, Oh My." That is one of my favorite phrases of his. Even when we got Ramon (from the movie Cars) out of the box, Parker sat with the box in his hands looking at the pictures saying, "Oh My."



Kayla performed "Up on the Housetop" - performing even for her family is quite embarrassing - while Livvy wouldn't stop prancing around, though we tried to ignore her. :) Livvy spent the day in her TinkerBell PJs playing with her new Island Princess, a fairy from TinkerBell, and Mariposa. Shopping for her is as easy as shopping for Parker, cars for Parker and Barbies for Alivia.

Alivia Lost Her First Tooth

A few weeks ago, Livvy came running up the stairs screaming and crying. Her mouth was bleeding (her tooth was very loose - which she had been waiting excitedly for this day until it actually happened). Jared was at work (he is usually the tooth puller around our house) so I pulled my first tooth. It came right out. BUT...I pulled it out with a tissue over the bathroom sink and that was the last we saw of the first tooth. How sad. Jared even tore the sink apart when he got home hoping it was still in there. And to top it off, the Tooth Fairy kept missing our house for about a week. But then one morning we were making the bed, and we found it underneath the bed. She's not sure how long it had been under there - so maybe the Tooth Fairy didn't really forget. What a sneaky Tooth Fairy. I should be relieved of all tooth related duties. It is a good thing that this pregnancy is our 4th and final child. By the time he is 5 we probably will forget to even mention that a Tooth Fairy exists. At least I remembered to get pictures.

Thanksgiving Dinner

We spent Thanksgiving weekend at my sister Kim's house in Kaysville. The weather was beautiful, and the dinner was wonderful.

I think Parker found the jello scoop on his plate.

My cheerleader nieces practiced cheerleading with Parker and Livvy. Which of course, Livvy loved the attention and doing something that made her feel big and girlie! While Kayla spent the day outside playing by the creek and looking for anything that moves. She came back in with a hole in her pants and grass stains all over. My two opposite girls. :)

Friday night we went and watched the movie at Temple Square and looked at the lights. Never before have we enjoyed such great weather while looking at the lights. It was beautiful.

Car Thrashing

Some sort of family tradition?? The boys in my family try to get an old beater and beat it up even more. This little Nissan had quite the day, the day after Thanksgiving. It was jumped (until smoking) bashed in, and driven through every mud puddle within shot. Then it needed a few bullet holes and some extra "smooshing," monster truck style, by the Jeep just to make sure it was dead. Oh - Justin, your little Dodge Aeries started this tradition, you know. Umm...rednecks??

Twilight Party

So, I read the Twilight series. I had no intention, but my friend brought it over, and I finally took it on a camping trip. I don't know if I would say that I loved the book, but it was fun. I felt like I was 16 again. I read all 4 books in 4 1/2 days. Yes, I had the "addicted to Twilight symptoms" (messy house, bloodshot eyes, deprived children, and Jared was cussing someone named Edward). So my friend Teresa and I decided to throw a Twilight party on Friday, the 21st. It turned into about 50 people - luckily her mom has a huge room. We were able to go to a decorating store and pick out whatever we wanted to use. It was so much fun, I'm sure it is a taste of what it will be like when I get the chance to decorate for a wedding reception.

Some of our wonderful husbands served us a seven course Italian meal. We then went to the movie (major let down) and came back to a bloody red chocolate fountain and games. And then I was LUCKY enough to have almost all of Jared's family here at my house for the weekend for an early holiday celebration. :) 13 adults and 13 kids - 9 of those 13 under 5! By Sunday afternoon, Jared and I had the house back to acceptable :) and we did nothing else. It was a lot of fun, but I think I heard Seth volunteer to do the big family get together at his house next year. And I'm sure that 9 will be doubled to 18 by then - Jared's family is crazy:).