Merry Christmas!!

I've had so much fun this holiday season planning and doing holiday projects with Hayden and teaching her about the birth of Christ. Our Christmas day turned out to be pretty wonderful, too.
We woke up and opened stockings first. Hayden was excited about her sleeping beauty barbie and wand. Then we ate breakfast and moved on to the presents.

Cole wasn't too interested in opening the presents, but was excited to see them once they were open. Hayden kept saying "WOW! Look at that", whenever anyone opened anything. Her excitement was contagious!

Hayden's favorite present was her playdoh from Grammy and Grampa. She also got Beauty and the Beast, blocks, candy land, Don't Spill the Beans, and a few other little things. We played Candy Land 3 times before noon :)

Cole's favorite was the Weebles Tree House from Grandma and Grandpa Woodland. Hayden loves it, too. He also got Toy Story 3, books, a musical caterpillar (which he opened and was dancing to a week before Christmas) new trucks, a tool bench, and other things. After opening his books, he kept giving them kisses. It was so sweet.

Ryan got Blackhawks tickets, aWii game, and a new dress shirt. I got a hair straightener, boots, and an apple corer (which I've used every day since). We also got food storage money and Bloxus, which is so fun. We were all very, very spoiled!!

I know, I'm brave to post this picture. I showered soon after, I promise. We had fun playing playdoh all throughout the day! We spent the day lounging at home, enjoying our new toys. We used the web cam with both sets of grandparents. Since we had the big ham dinner the night before, we had "Cafe Rio" pork burritos, complete with the rice, beans and dressing. They are heavenly!! I think they're my favorite meal these days. My mouth is watering just thinking about them. Let me know if you want the recipe, they're AWESOME!!

The next day, we headed off to church. The kids donned their fancy duds and Hayden even let me curl her hair.

We had such a fantastic Christmas Season and we are so thankful for our blessings and know we have so much to be thankful for, especially the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve, we woke up to some light snow falling. It snowed before and it is so cold it sticks and turns to ice quickly. Hayden has been asking to play in the snow but I kept telling her it was to icy and we needed to wait for fresh, soft snow. So, when she woke up and saw the new snow, she was ready to go.

I have to admit, I was excited, too. Cole was napping and Ryan was working on the van. So, it was girl time!

We had so much fun together. We tried to make a snow man but the snow in our "yard" was too icy. We did manage to hit daddy with a few snow balls. Hayden thought that was hilarious. Then we tried to sled down our little hill. It was a little too little and we didn't make it far. But Hayden liked spinning around on the sled instead. When we were done we headed inside for hot chocolate with marshmallows. We'll definitely have to head out again. I'm sure there will be plenty of snow in the next couple months.

That night we headed over to the Goates house for our annual Christmas Eve dinner. Every year we have this dinner with a bunch of the families in our ward who don't have family near by. Last year we had it at the church because there were so many families. So many people have been moving away recently that we were down to just three families this year, Us, the Goates, and the Dejas. The missionaries came, too. It was still so fun and we're sad the Goates will be moving in a few weeks.

The kids table was a little rowdy and not much eating happened there ;) Hayden ended up eating half a roll. Too much excitement, I guess.
Cole got to sit at the adult table and scarfed down plenty of food. I love that smile and the ever present drool ring on his shirt!! After the big ham dinner, the kids acted out the nativity while Steve told the story. Then we sang some Christmas songs and headed home!

While we were gone, the elves dropped off our new pajamas. Hayden ran up the stairs and freaked out. She was so excited. I wish I would have caught it on video...

Cole was too busy eating even more to care about his new duds.

After our jammas were on the kids headed off to bed, dreaming of sugar plums, or something like that ;)

6 Years

On the 18th we celebrated our 6th anniversary. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly time flies. There is a great family in the ward that was offering free babysitting for all of the families in the ward on the night before our anniversary. So, we took advantage of that and went out a night early. We decided to forego presents this year and go somewhere fun for dinner. Off to the Melting Pot we went. We've been wanting to go there for years. The food wasn't our favorite and I don't think we would go back there again, but we had a great time. It was a fun "experience" type restaurant, and as you can see the dessert was delicious! I was brave and tried duck. Yuck! I couldn't even swallow the one bite I took. We had a great night of laughing and just enjoying each other. It was a great anniversary. Here's to many many more!!!

More Christmas Fun

Hayden has been into doing projects lately. So, we've been working on a lot of fun things.
First, we had the McMillans over to make hand print wreaths. I think they turned out really cute.

Another day we decorated ice cream cone Christmas trees with the McMillans and Cottrells. We're glad to have such fun friends who are always up for coming over and playing with us :) I love Cole in the background eating his cone. He's not in very many of the pictures, but he's always around playing with the other little ones and usually snacking!

Preschool was at our house this week and the theme was the Nativity story. We made mangers with baby Jesus.

We also made graham cracker houses. The kids were more interested in eating the decorations than in actually decorating. I love that they are all making silly faces in this picture.

At the end of preschool on Thursday we put on the Nativity for the parents. Ryan was even able to come home to see it. With a few part changes, a few refusals to wear costumes, and a few uncooperative children (mainly Hayden), the play went off without a hitch. We ended it by singing Away in a Manger. Hayden was the shepherd, as mentioned, no costume. Sorry the picture isn't great.

We went to our ward party on Saturday and Santa was there. We've never taken the kids to see Santa so I thought it would be fun. We kept telling Hayden we were going to see Santa, and she kept saying that she didn't want to. She hadn't changed her mind by the time we got there, so I had to pick her up and carry her over.

Cole was fine at first but after looking more closely at Santa, he wanted to get away. This picture was snapped right as he was starting to get upset. Maybe we'll have better luck next year. I'm not counting on it.

Ryan's Aunt puts together an annual Christmas booklet. Everyone writes a little bit about their year and then we all get a copy after it's compiled.
Here's what I wrote for this year:

Cole- (16 months) Busy! Loves to run, climb, twirl, dance, anything active. Says a few real words, but jabbers a lot. Balls are his favorite! Copies his sister. Eats almost anything. Great smile. Usually very happy and playful.
Hayden- (3 years) Also, busy! Loves to dance and sing. Chatty Cathy. Enjoyed first year of swim lessons. Preschool twice a week and loving it. Attitude! Playing dress up and playing with barbies, ponies and strawberry shortcake. Always wants to be working on a project. Great stories and laughs!
Carli- Chasing kids. Homemaker. Food and preschool blogs. Baking. Teaching in Hayden's co-op preschool. Laurel advisor. Planning kid friendly projects. Get togethers with friends. Reading.
Ryan- Working. Three months worth of trips to China. Ward clerk. Finishing first year of Master's degree at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Playing Wii and guitar.

We are so blessed! We're thankful for this holiday season and the added reminders of our loving Heavenly Father and the gift of His son Jesus Christ. Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Love,
Ryan, Carli, Hayden and Cole

Tubes x 2

Hayden and Cole both went in last Tuesday to get tubes put in their ears. I was a little nervous. It's a super simple procedure, but still a surgery.
We got to the hospital and the kids got to play in the toy room for a while. Then it was into their lovely gowns and gigantic socks. They didn't mind, though, they had their balloons to make them happy.

Each of their surgeries took about 5 minutes. I went with Cole while he was waking up. He cried pretty hard for about 15 minutes. Ryan went with Hayden and she just woke right up without any fuss. The nurse made a comment to Ryan that he got the easy one ;)

Back in their room, they got to watch a movie and have jello, graham crackers, and apple juice. Then we were ready to head home. The kids were lucky to have this done during December, because the Child Life staff gave them each a holiday bag filled with toys, books and candy.

The Home Alone house is just down the street from the hospital, so we decided to drive by and grab a quick picture. We watched the movie last night and kept saying "I've been there." We're nerds, I know.

Our wonderful visiting teachers were nice enough to bring us dinner that night so I didn't have to worry about it. We had to put drops in the kids' ears twice a day for a few days, but other than that they were totally back to normal. The night of the surgery they were up and running and playing. It's amazing how smoothly and easily it all goes.

This picture was a few days ago. They love to play in this cupboard. Notice there isn't anything in the cupboard. Where could it be? Strewn around my house, that's where :)

Hopefully, we wont have to worry about any more ear infections, or at least not so many!

Sugar Cookies and a Christmas Tree

Last week we had our good friends over to make sugar cookies, to try to get into the holiday spirit a little bit.
Avery, Hayden and Zoe were great helpers. We got the cookies made. Then it was time to decorate. They had been playing dress up while the cookies baked. Hayden wasn't ready to be done being a princess, obviously.

There was some snacking going on, of course. A couple knifes were licked and almost double dipped in the frosting, but I was watching and anticipating that so I caught them before it actually happened!

Cole was playing while the cookies were being made. As soon as they were done, he came running. He sat in the kids' favorite kitchen spot and gobbled up a few of the finished product.

Here we are with our nicely decorated cookies.

Zoe's cookies ended up frosting side down on the floor as soon as I snapped this picture. Can you see them sliding, inching their way off the plate?

The next night, we headed to trusty Home Depot and picked up our tree. Hayden loved all of the decorations. She would pull something out of the box and say "Oh WOW, look at this." Over and over.

Cole's favorite parts were the mistletoe headband and the Nutcracker, which has a broken piece by now.

The tree was up, so the next thing to do is take our annual family picture by the tree.

We had to snap a couple of our adorable kids, too!

This picture is the Christmas card winner, after many many many retakes :) We actually took some before Ryan went to work, but none of those turned out. So, I made everyone change shirts, and then we tried again after dinner. Every year, the Christmas card picture causes so much stress and we end up so ornery and ready to just be done with the whole picture taking thing. We ended up with a decent picture, at least.

Giving Thanks

This Thanksgiving I was able to ponder a lot on the many blessings Heavenly Father has given to me. I taught the young women at church a lesson on being thankful, the next week I gave a talk in church about being thankful, and then came Thanksgiving day. I really am so blessed and thankful for all I have!
We headed down to Indianapolis for the holiday. We stayed with Ryan's sister Camille and her husband Eric.

Cole's favorite part of the trip was playing with his ball (a clementine).

We spent the day relaxing, cooking yummy food, and devouring yummy food!

Hayden loved the oreo turkey place cards. It was gone before dinner even started.

Eric's Dad and his girlfriend, plus two other families from their ward were there. It was a very happy day.

We were hoping to use this picture for our Christmas card but realized Hayden lost her hair bands sometime during the day and Cole's shirt is stretched and soaked from all of his slobber. Nice.

We did some shopping on Black Friday but didn't get out till later in the morning. Ryan and Eric went shooting in the afternoon. Then we all went to see Tangled that night. We headed home Saturday morning and Ryan and I were able to go to the temple that night.

Any time we have to spend as a family is fantastic, and this week was no exception :)