A Very Merry Christmas at Home!

We had a great time celebrating Christmas at home this year. The kids woke bright and early (5 a.m.) and rushed for their toys! I actually tried to keep them upstairs so David could sleep a little longer, but that didn't end up working out. As soon as David was awake, the kids hurried to the fireplace to see if Santa had eaten the cookies they left him. Then they opened their stockings and presents from Santa. Then we all went into the living room where the tree and the rest of the presents were. Our living room doesn't have any furniture yet, so it was pretty cool to have an empty space for the kids to open all their presents. Emma wasn't interested in anything other than the rocking horse Santa brought her, and the Ariel phone that was in her stocking. But after a little coaxing, she finally got the hang of things. Isaac, of course, tore through his presents at lightning speed, and was very excited that he got a Wii and LOTS of Webkinz. Noah enjoyed opening his presents (slowly) and examining each one carefully. He was most excited about the Scooby Doo "Mystery Machine" car that Santa brought him.



After presents, Stefani, Quentin and Haley joined us for blueberry pancakes and sausage cooked by David. It's become a tradition for David to cook a yummy Christmas breakfast. We then spent the day playing with new toys (we all LOVE the Wii!) and enjoying each other's company.

After the kids went to bed, David and I rushed madly to get get the house cleaned up and everything packed for our flight to California the next day. I wasn't sure if we were going to get it all done and be ready in time, but somehow we did it. :) It was a great Christmas and I'm so thankful for my beautiful family and all the blessings we enjoy!

Holiday Party!

All of the classes at Isaac's school had holiday parties last Friday at 2:00 (right before school let out for Christmas break). All the parents are invited to come to the party with their kids. It's nice that David works from home, because I was able to leave Emma and Noah with him (Emma was napping and Noah was watching TV, so he didn't even have to stop working) and go to the party. About half the kids in Isaac's class had parents at the party. I enjoyed it because I haven't had the opportunity to volunteer in the classroom like I did when Isaac was in Kindergarten, so it was fun for me to just be in the classroom and see all the kids. For one of the activities, Isaac made an edible snowman. I snapped a picture before he scarfed it down! :)

At the Park...

The Wednesday before Christmas the kids' Advent Calendar "treat" for the day was that we would "go somewhere fun". I didn't specify where it would be, because I didn't know what the weather would be like. As luck would have it, it was a beautiful day, perfect for playing at the park. So, after I picked up Isaac from school we headed to Frisco Commons (which I think is a really cool park). I brought my camera with me, and formulated in my mind what was going to be my blog entry that day. It was going to be something about how blessed we were to have such great weather, and how much fun the kids had at the park. What I must have forgotten as I planned my perfect little blog entry in my mind, is that half the time (or maybe more) when I take my kids to do something "fun", it doesn't end up being much fun at all! This was one of those times. Let's just say, it ended with all 3 kids crying as I dragged them to the car. I know they did have "some" fun at the park, but why does it always have to end with someone (or everyone) being sad? December can be a REALLY frustrating time. I feel like I spend all month trying so hard to make my kids happy, and NONE of it is appreciated at all! But someday they'll look back and appreciate it, right? Please say they will! I even have pictures to prove that I'm a nice mom. See?

I LOVE this card!

We got this card the other day from David's cousin Kristina. I just think it's the CUTEST idea! I seriously LOVE their snowman! I thought I'd throw it out there as an idea for next year for all you Californians!

Santa (x2)

Last Saturday our neighborhood did a toy drive for Toys For Tots. They collected the toys at one of the model homes. They advertised that Santa would be there during the toy drive. I didn't plan very well, and we were still at Target buying toys when the toy drive was supposed to end (2:00 pm). By the time we got back to the model home, it was about 2:15. The boys and I decided to run in and see if we could still drop off toys. To our surprise, Santa was still there! He invited us to come over and visit with him. Noah was scared, and would only go on Santa's lap if I was with him (that's why I'm in the picture). They took a Polaroid of us on his lap (did you know those still exist?). I wish I had planned better, gotten the kids dressed up, and taken all 3 of them. I could have taken a picture with my camera and it would have been FREE! Oh well, if they do the toy drive again next year, I'll be prepared.



So, since I still didn't have a picture of all my kids with Santa (all dressed cute), we trekked over to the mall today to see Santa. He seriously was the NICEST Santa! When he came back from his break (while we were standing in line), he totally worked the crowd. He walked along next to all the kids in line, waved, and hugged them. He was dressed in his "workshop outfit", and was really cute. The only problem was that we had to wait in line almost an hour to see him! YIKES! By the time we got up there, I completely forgot to make the boys tuck in their shirts. Oh well, they still look cute. Luckily, this time Noah wasn't scared (I think the first visit warmed him up a little). Emma, of course, had the typical 18 month old reaction to Santa, but he talked so sweetly to her and even kissed her.

P.S. My scanner didn't do to well with these pictures. Sorry about the cloudy!

Christmas in the Square

Tonight for Family Home Evening we drove down to the Frisco Town Square to see the light show. They have the whole place decorated, and the lights are synchronized to music (that you tune into on the radio). It's really cool. We sat in the warmth of our car, talked about how Christmas lights are a reminder of the star shining in the sky when Jesus was born, and enjoyed the show. Actually, everyone except Isaac enjoyed the show. He came home from school today with a stomach bug. He threw up once around 5:00, but we thought he was feeling well enough to ride in the car and see the lights. Apparently we were wrong, because he threw up again in the car on the way home (luckily he brought a bowl with him in the car in case he got sick - so it wasn't a big mess). Poor Isaac. Maybe we'll go back again when he's feeling better. :)

By the way, the pictures I posted (from the Frisco Square website) aren't current. They planted more trees in the "square", so there were more lights this year.

Decorations

The kids always enjoy all the Christmas decorations. Pictured are two of our "new additions" this year.



Isaac and Noah requested a Santa for our yard. I bought the cheapest one I could find at Target, and they couldn't be more thrilled. Noah, especially, really loves it! He points to it and says, "there's my friend Santa". And the kids also enjoy their new 4 foot tree. We used to have a really small tree (18 inches or 2 feet or something) for them to put their own ornaments on and play with as they please, but their ornament collection had outgrown the tree. So this year, I got them an upgrade. They enjoyed decorating it, and it's fun for them to have their "own" tree. The ornaments on it are all ornaments they have received as gifts, as well as some from when I was a kid, and some soft ornaments I inherited from my mom (that she made when my older sister was a baby - to give her something to play with other than the breakable ornaments on the big tree). :) Thanks Mom!

Another Typical Attempt

Last Sunday I once again attempted to get a nice picture of Emma. She looked so pretty in her red Christmas dress. Of course, she won't sit still for ANYTHING, so it never goes quite as planned. I snapped two pictures of her while she was playing and those turned out much better than the ones I tried to take "staged" in front of the tree. When I put her near the tree, she just wanted to play with the ornaments. Noah, of course, was jealous that I was taking Emma's picture, so he had to get in on the action. :)

Dinosaurs Alive!

Isaac had no school the entire week of Thanksgiving, and David's mom was visiting from Utah. I didn't want to sit around in my house all week, so I decided that one of the days we would go to the "Dinosaurs Alive" exhibit at a nearby museum. I'd seen an advertisement for it (below), and it looked like something the kids would enjoy.



David had to work, but Isaac, Noah, Emma, Stefani, Haley, Grandma Hubbard, and I all went.

It turned out to be not quite what I expected. First off, I don't know what they mean by "Life-size", but aparently they don't mean the size the dinosaurs actually were when they were alive. I was expecting some really huge animatronic dinosaurs, and most of them weren't very impressive. I think 2 of them were actual size (because they were dinosaurs that were only 8 feet tall or something like that), but the rest were defnitely scaled down. The other thing I was completely NOT prepared for, was that Noah was totally freaked out! He fell asleep in the car on the way to the museum, and sometimes when he wakes up, he's really crabby. This was one of those times. He didn't want to see the dinosaurs, and when we forced him to see them, he was completely scared! Emma was fine until we would get close to one, and when she heard the sounds it made, she would cry, too. Haley was tired and basically hid her head and acted indifferent the entire time. The only one who actually enjoyed the dinosaurs was Isaac. He had a great time! I would also definitely say it's a better excursion for kids who can walk the trail by themselves. I was so worn out after pushing the double stroller on the hilly, rocky trail. The one redeeming feature of the outing was when the kids played in the "dinosaur dig" area. Basically it's a giant sandbox, and they got to dig for dinosaur bones. They ALL enjoyed that part, and the rest of us enjoyed sitting down watching them.



Too bad kids are so unpredictable!

My Most Favorite Christmas Tradition

The "Advent Calendar" is my favorite Christmas tradition. It's something my mom did every year while I was growing up, and now I do it for my kids. Each day of December (leading up to Christmas) there is something fun on the Advent Calendar for each of the kids. It can be candy, small toys, pencils, etc., and some of the days there is a tag that says something like, "today we will go see Santa" or "Today we'll bake Christmas cookies". It's so much fun. I remember looking forward to it each year as a kid, and my kids really enjoy it. Isaac has been counting down to the start of the Advent Calendar. He knew when he went to bed tonight that it would be up in the morning. :) This is my first year doing it for all 3 kids (last year Emma was to small to care), and I've gotta say, I think I need something with bigger pockets! :) It's so hard to find things small enough to fit!

Done!

As of tonight I am officially done shopping for my kids (stocking stuffers and all! ). Feels good. Now I just have to shop for everyone else on my list! :)

I've been tagged . . .

So, Rebecca tagged me to tell 6 random things about myself. Here they are:

1. I love getting packages in the mail. It's so much fun to look outside and see a package on the porch! I get excited every time (even when the package is something I ordered, and I knew it was coming). Today was a great day because I got 5 packages (one was stuff David's mom ordered for him for Christmas, one was something I ordered for David for Christmas, one was something for Isaac and Noah, one was a present for Emma from Santa, and one was a present for Emma from my mom). So, even though none of the packages were actually for me, they still made me happy!

2. I HAVE to go into my kids' rooms every night and check on them before I go to bed. If I get in bed without checking them, I always get up and do it. Sometimes it wakes them up when I come into their rooms, but I just can't go to bed until I know they are alive and breathing.

3. I LOVE to sleep! I would take a nap every day if I could (and a lot of days I do). I can sleep any time of day without any trouble at all (I think the only time I ever have trouble sleeping is when I'm pregnant). When I was in college I would sleep outside of my classrooms on the floor, in the library, and pretty much anywhere else. When I'm feeling sad or mad, the best medicine for me is to just go to sleep. If I don't get enough sleep, I'm a TOTAL crab. So, yeah, sleep is pretty important to me!

4. I love to browse around stores (especially when I have no children or just Emma with me). Whenever I go to Target after the kids are in bed ("just to pick up some dish soap or something"), David knows that I won't be back for a while. I just like walking all over the store looking at stuff. It's relaxing to me. I also LOVE looking through the ads in the Sunday paper, as well as any random magazines (Lillian Vernon, etc.) that come in the mail. I can't throw them away until I've looked at them (even when I know I don't want anything in them).

5. I really wish I had musical talent. I love to sing, but I'm horrible at it (my poor kids have to listen to me anyway). I also really want to learn to play the piano. When we can afford to get a piano, I really want to take lessons.

6. I hate making phone calls. I don't know what it is, maybe I'm scared, maybe I just don't want to bug people. Actually, it's easier for me to call people I don't know (like the cable company or something) than to call people I know (except for family members and people I feel REALLY comfortable around). I have a hard time doing visiting teaching because I'm nervous about calling my companion or the people I teach. I will almost always choose to e-mail someone rather than call them. It's not that I don't like to talk on the phone, because I do (if you've ever talked on the phone to me, you know that I will go on and on), it's just "making" the call that's hard. I never know if the person is in the middle of something, or maybe they don't really want to talk to me, and I'm wasting their time . . . whatever it is, it's hard for me to call people.

So, now I get to tag a few people! Amy A., Stacie, and Nicole - blog 6 random things about you!

Frog

This week was Children's Book Week, so each day of the week they did something special at Isaac's school (like a visit from an author, etc.). Today they had a literary character parade. Each child was asked to dress up as their favorite book character, and to bring the book with that character to school with them. Isaac decided he wanted to dress up at Frog from the "Frog and Toad" books (which he loves!). I had fun putting his costume together. He was really excited to wear it to school today!






It was especially fun because his class performed at Friday Morning Live this morning. David, Noah, Emma and I went to see him sing and got to see all the kids dressed in their costumes. Parents were allowed to stay for the parade, but by that time Noah and Emma were sick of sitting, so I didn't stay. :(

Soccer Trophy!

Isaac's main reason for wanting to play soccer was to get a trophy. Yesterday was his soccer party (at Gattitown), and he got his trophy for participating in the Frisco Soccer Association. He was thrilled!! Although, he was a little bothered that the trophy didn't look like a "traditional" trophy. It looks more like a plaque, and he thought that was pretty weird.

Soccer was a very frustrating experience this year. Isaac's team lost every game by a LOT of goals. It was usually probably 20 or so to 0. The coach and all the kids on the team were really nice, but I think the coach was probably TOO nice. He always told the kids they were doing a great job, even when they weren't trying. I'm not sure what we're going to do next year. If Isaac wants to play soccer again, we may not sign up for the same team. It was just so discouraging for the kids to NEVER score! I guess it all ended well, though, because Isaac got his MUCH desired trophy!!!

Outdoor Play and LOTS of static!

I really like Fall. The weather is great for the kids to play outside. The other day when Emma and Noah were playing, they went under the play structure and Emma's hair was "attracted" to the plastic above her head. Pretty fashionable! :)

Birthday Fun!

David's birthday is November 1 and mine is November 2, so it's always fun to celebrate our birthdays together!

On David's birthday, the whole family (David, me, Isaac, Noah, Emma, and Grandma Hoyle) went to Applebee's for dinner. Isaac made his dad a special birthday hat! He loves to make hats for birthdays!

Then on the morning of my birthday, I got a special treat - The First Grade performed at Friday Morning Live. Every Friday morning Isaac's school has an assembly/pep-rally where they sing the school song, awards are given, and one of the grade levels performs. Parents are always welcome to come to FML, but this was our first time attending. The First Grade sang two songs (In the picture, Isaac is on the top row, 3 over from the left). Then on Friday night, David and I enjoyed a nice dinner date at Olive Garden. All in all, we had great birthdays!

Halloween Night

So, I know I'm WAY late blogging this, but I didn't want to skip it! The kids had a great time Trick or Treating on Halloween Night. Grandma Hoyle came to visit and Trick or Treat with the kids. Haley, Stefani and Quentin also joined us. It was a fun time. Emma was really excited and ran after the "big" kids to try to keep up. Then both she and Haley got worn out, and I carried Haley while Emma rode in the stroller (Haley is just too heavy for pregnant Stefani to carry!). After we were done, the kids had fun laying out all their "loot" to see what they got! I love Halloween!

My Favorite "Toys"

Yea! A successful portrait session at the Picture People! The kids did so good! I went in to just get a group shot done (I wanted my free 8x10), but of course the photographer wanted to take individual shots as well, and they turned out so cute that I had to buy some of those too! The hardest part was picking which ones to buy because there were so many cute ones. I HATE it when I have to leave behind cute pictures of my kids! I'm happy with what I got, though! The photographer did such a good job, especially considering the fact that Emma kept running away (notice that Isaac is holding her in place?). When it was Emma's turn to be photographed alone, she literally ran back and forth across the backdrop and danced. I was amazed that the photographer was able to get anything of her alone. Isaac and Noah were champs and smiled and laughed the whole time (especially when the photographer said, "mommy has stinky feet". I guess that's pretty funny when you're 6 and 3)!

By the way, the scans aren't that great (I need a new scanner one of these days), but you still get the point.

Fire!

We felt kind of left out because we're not in California to experience the fires first hand this time, so we decided to make some fire of our own. Not really.

Actually, it was just finally cool enough to justify turning on the fireplace for a little while. The kids were so excited! Fire is pretty neat to watch, and our fireplace is pretty cool. Once the pilot light is lit, we just have to flip a switch on the wall to turn on the fire. Of course, since our kids aren't old enough to be trusted, we have decided to turn off the gas and pilot light after each use. Otherwise I'd just be too scared that Noah would decide to have a fire while I'm in the shower or something. :)

So, my favorite part about these pictures is all the fingerprints and guck on the glass (highly visible in the second picture). I guess maybe I should clean it every once in a while . . . And, oh yeah, I also love how Emma's pants are rolled up with a HUGE cuff on the bottom (without shoes on, she just kept tripping on them) - it makes for a great fashion statement.

Pumpkin Patch!

I invited Stefani and Haley to accompany Noah, Emma and me to the Pumpkin Patch today. It was actually an Enrichment Activity, but the Pumpkin Patch was so crowded that it was just too hard for eveyone to stay together. We tried to get some "great" pictures again, but the kids were much more interested in playing! :) We had a good time, though. They had all sorts of fun stuff for the kids to do and cute places to try and take pictures. There were even all sorts of character cutouts sitting all over the place. Emma and Noah were excited to see "The Little Mermaid" and Haley's favorite was "the Backyardigans". Noah had a great time sliding down the big slide, and jumping in the bounce house. We wore ourselves out so much with all the activities, that we didn't have enough energy left at the end to pick out pumpkins. Pretty silly!

Failed Photo Shoot

Seriously, sometimes I wonder why I even try! I have this huge desire to take great pictures of my kids, and it NEVER works out that way. Last Sunday the three of them looked so cute in their church clothes, that I decided to take them outside and attempt to get at least ONE good picture. With all the effort of both David and I, and constant snapping of the camera, this picture is the winner:

Not too successful. For some reason, Noah is leaning forward in every single picture and neither David or I noticed (so we could have told him to sit up straighter). That's probably because we were using all our efforts to keep Emma from standing up and walking away! Oh well, the good news is that I didn't yell or cry or get extrememly frustrated during the photo shoot. A couple of years ago, on Easter, I got so frustrated with the boys because they wouldn't look at the camera and smile, that I completely broke down into tears and had a major meltdown (I was pregnant with Emma at the time, so maybe that explains it). It was so bad that we missed the better part of Sacrament Meeting while I tried to pull myself together and get over the guilt of being a "picture nazi" (as David calls it). So, I guess maybe this photo shoot wasn't a complete failure, because at least everyone stayed happy (including me). It's actually pretty entertaining to see the progression of pictures. It's just darn near impossible to get 3 kids to look good at the same time! What do people with 4, 5, 6, or more kids do???

Target!!

The new Super Target near my house is now open! I actually shopped there today! Now I don't have to drive all the way across town to go to Target! I feel just as excited as I was when they opened the Moorpark Target. I love Target!! Yay!!!

Math and Science Night at Carroll Elementary

Last night Isaac, Noah, and I went to the Math and Science Night at Isaac's school. It was a lot of fun! They had tables set up in the cafeteria and the gym with all kinds of math and science activities for the kids to do. There were tables where the kids could measure, do puzzles, sort, work on fractions, count money, look through microscopes, experiment with water and bubbles, and much more! The highlight of the evening was when Noah and Isaac each got to stand inside a bubble. It was really cool.

Lunch Time!

One of my favorite things about the Frisco School District is how family friendly everything is. One example of this is lunch time. Parents (and grandparents, siblings, etc) are welcome to come have lunch with their child. All you have to do is check in at the office and head over to the cafeteria. You can go through the lunch line with your child and buy lunch, bring food for you and your child (like McDonald's or something), or just sit with them while they eat. So one day last week when my mom was visiting and Noah was at Preschool we went on down to the school and had lunch with Isaac (Emma stayed home with David). The three of us bought "school lunches" and ate together at a table along with Isaac's friend Connor. It was fun, and Isaac felt very special that we came and spent time with him while he was at school.