December, Part 2: Washburn Christmas Party

Mike and Debra put together such a fun Christmas party this year. We had games and then dinner at Thanksgiving Point. We also had an amazing magic show. After the magic show, we rode on the trolley to look at the Christmas lights. Then we went to another room and opened up Christmas presents. Everyone had such a wonderful time.

Above: Daniel was all smiled out after our little photo shoot at home, but he still looked sweet!

Above: Just waiting for everyone else to get there. Surprisingly, we were among the first ones there.

Above: I love when babies and toddlers connect with each other.

Above: Peyton brought out the smiles in Daniel.

Above: Mimi brought some styrofoam balls for the kids to use as snowballs.

Above: Peyton giving her Uncle Jeremiah some snuggles.

Above: Waiting patiently while our first organized activity is explained to us.

Above: Logan is such a pro at walking around these days!

Above: Playing some more with the "snowballs."

Above: We played "Pin the Star on the Christmas Tree."

Above: Angie snuggling Peyton.

Above: Peyton sure is sweet!

Above: Piling on Cameron. Apparently, that was the best seat in the house!

Above: Playing a musical game that was a mix between "Hot Potato" and "Musical Chairs."

Above: The kids passed the present/box until the music stopped. The person who had the box when the music stopped got to unwrap/open one layer. The person who opened the final layer got the candy that was inside at the center.

Above: Peter assisting our magician during the magic show.

Above: He was really good! He used to tour with his magic act during his college days. He toured for about four years before moving on in another profession. He hadn't lost his touch though. The kids were entranced.

Above: The adults were pretty mesmerized too.

Above: For one of the magic tricks, Peter gave up his dollar bill to act as a prop.

Above: Pete's dollar bill got burned to ashes!

Above: Everyone--especially Pete--was concerned about the fate of Peter's dollar bill.

Above: Then we cut open a lemon and...voila! There was Peter's dollar bill safe and sound inside. It even matched the serial number that we had written down prior to burning the dollar bill to a crisp.

Above: Everyone was thoroughly impressed, as you can see by Mimi's reaction.

Above: Peter was pretty dumbfounded...but he was relieved to have his dollar bill back...smelling lemon fresh!

Above: Poor sweet sleepy Dan had to take naps in the Baby Bjorn on me and in Dad's arms to get the rest he needed, but he was a good sport.

Above: After we rode the trolley to see the lights at Thanksgiving Point, we went to another room to exchange gifts.

Above: The boys both got some cool money counting jars.

Above: Peter got night vision goggles and a bow and arrow set as well. Johnny got a cool little teepee tent.

Above: It was such an awesome party. Mike and Debra put so much work into it. Everyone had so much fun. Thank you so much, Mimi and Papa!

December, Part 1: Gingerbread Houses

One yearly Christmas tradition that we have is to decorate gingerbread houses...and for my boys to pretty much eat them almost instantly after they have been completed. These gingerbread houses were luckier than most...they made it almost 24 hours before being dismantled and devoured!

Above: Seriously, how did Dad finagle these boys into giving him a neck and scalp massage before decorating gingerbread houses?

Above: My silly guys.

Above: Perhaps one of the reasons the gingerbread houses survived 24 hours is because the boys each had their own decorator bag full of icing. With a little "taste" of icing here and there, they probably got their sweet fix taken care of.

Above: I love how he is wiping off his sticky frosting covered fingers onto his shirt as I am taking this picture.

Above: Dan needed a bottle while the boys were decorating their gingerbread houses. After he had a full tummy, he was as smiley as can be.

Above: Proud of his handiwork.

Above: Johnny's turn to snack on some icing.

Above: Johnny's gingerbread house.

Above: Peter's gingerbread house.

Above: Daddy's gingerbread house.

Above: Didn't they do such a good job?

Above: I loved how their houses turned out.

Above: Even if the houses never last very long, I love this tradition (except for my boys begging me constantly if they can do it until we actually do...I need to find a better place to hide the gingerbread house supplies until we're ready to decorate them). The boys always have so much fun though and I would rather that they are so excited for one of our traditions that they can't wait to do it than to have them not want to spend time together and do something fun like this. I will for sure be getting them separate houses with separate bags of frosting from now on though. That factor, alone, added a lot to the success of the night!

November, Part 6: Preparing for Christmas

Above: Our tradition in our family is to put up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. So, that's what we did. We took down all of our fall/Thanksgiving decorations and put up our Christmas decorations. It's hard for the boys to be patient during the time consuming process of spreading the tree branches, putting on the lights, and putting on the beads before they can put on the ornaments. Daniel was also not cooperating today. He took very short naps and wasn't very happy to help with the Christmas tree while strapped to me in the Baby Bjorn. In fact, I would say that he didn't like the Christmas trees one little bit.

Above: The boys did a good job and were happy to decorate the tree. Notice that nice grouping of candy cane ornaments all at Johnny's height?

Above: Didn't they do a great job?

Above: Look at that grouping!

Above: I have a bit of OCD in me, and as a teenager, having this many ornaments on this few branches would have driven me crazy. However, in this case, it just makes me happy. My sweet boys who were beyond excited to put up the Christmas tree were the ones who decorated the tree this way. I didn't do any changing or rearranging to the placement of their ornaments. The tree looked great and they did a really good job.

Above: On November 30th (the Monday after Thanksgiving), we went to eat dinner at the food court at the City Creek Center. The boys didn't slow down at all...that's why this picture is so blurry. This is the best picture I could get under the circumstances!

Above: These wild cousins kept doing their best to run off, but thanks to me, and a very swift footed Aunt Emily, we were able to keep track of them.

Above: Three crazy boys...each boy is his own kind of crazy.

Above: This is the best picture I could get of all of them...silly Johnny and his silly expressions!

Above: On our way back to our cars, we stopped to see this model of The Night Before Christmas.

Above: What a sweet, sleepy guy. His only defense against the cold was to take a nap while attached to the Baby Bjorn.

Above: Nighty, night!

November, Part 5: Happy Thanksgiving!

Above: This is how we lounge around at our house on Thanksgiving.

For Thanksgiving, we decided to have dinner at our own house. Jeremiah took Peter and Johnny to his parent's house on Thanksgiving in the morning to play with their cousins. I had spent the day before making pies and doing all I could in preparation for dinner the next day. When everyone at Jeremiah's parent's house were ready to sit down to Thanksgiving dinner (at around 1 p.m.), Jeremiah brought the boys home. I had some appetizers (cheese, crackers, meat, etc.) for them to eat for lunch.

Jeremiah watched the boys while I finished up the last of the dinner preparations. This was a little stressful to Jeremiah because Daniel wasn't cooperating as well as he could have, and he was a little cranky.

However, in the end, I served up a fantastically delicious meal that consisted of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, South Cottonwood carrots (my grandpa's specialty), sweet potatoes, homemade rolls, salad, homemade pretzel pie (faux pecan pie since Peter is allergic to pecans), store bought pumpkin and apple pie, homemade lemon "meringue" pie (that was a good idea, but not a great pie, so I made it again a few days later with some changes and it turned out awesome).

Peter would only eat rolls, and mashed potatoes and gravy. Johnny would only eat rolls, turkey, and gravy. However, they liked their respective meals and Jeremiah and I had a ton of leftovers and ate like royalty for the next few days (and froze a bunch of individually portioned meals for the future). They all loved the pie. Once dinner was over, Mom and Emily came up to watch A Christmas Story with us. It was a lovely day, but a crazy busy day too. I think if I ever have a little baby on Thanksgiving again, we will take someone up on their offer to eat at their house! I love having Thanksgiving at our house and having all the leftovers, but with Daniel being a sassy napper and how much work that dinner is, I couldn't ever do it again by myself with a little baby. Even so, it was a wonderful day.

Above: I got some alone time with this cutie pie while the boys were visiting Mimi and Papa. Oh, I just love him so much! Look at those eyes, cheeks, mouth, nose, etc.!



Above: The Monday before Thanksgiving, Johnny had his preschool Thanksgiving Feast. His friend, Eli, got to come over for a play date on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Johnny was in little boy heaven. Johnny and Eli have so much fun playing together.



Above: Here is Johnny'se preschool Thanksgiving feast.



Above: Johnny's teacher took this picture and shared it. I'm so glad she did. Johnny looks like he is having so much fun.





Above: Sometimes my pilgrim can be a little grumpy, but I sure love him!




Above: My happy little Indian (they made Indian headdresses and Pilgrim hats).



Above: Johnny apparently likes being an Indian more than a pilgrim.



Above: See? My happy little Indian.



Above: Happy Indian.



Above: Sad pilgrim. Ha ha! Well, I guess we know whose side Johnny is on.

Peter had a school Thanksgiving feast too, but I didn't go to that and I don't think his teacher took any pictures. Peter came home very happy though and had a really good time.