Christmas

Not only is Christmas Mauri's favorite time of the year, but it is mine as well. This year we had a lot of fun with family and it all started a week before Christmas Eve when we hosted an Allen Family Christmas party at our house. My brother suggested a few weeks ago that we get together as a family and have a Christmas party. We did just that, as Dustin and Cassidy with their kids, Tammy and Chris and their kids, and Jimmy and Meagan with Braylee all came to our house for a fabulous party. We ate delicious finger foods, read Christmas stories, watched the nativity and a couple other Christmas movies, had a gift exchange with white elephant gifts, and went and saw Christmas lights at Layton city. We really had so much fun with everyone and spending time together.

Mauri reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas". It appears to be a very interesting read for the older kids, the younger ones thought otherwise!

Pile on uncle Jimmy

Tanzi getting bundled up to go look at lights!

Christmas Eve was a lot of fun and as a family we have started a few traditions that we really enjoy. Here are a few of them:

We delivered Christmas goodies to neighbors and friends during the day and the kids loved taking the treats to the homes and wishing them a Merry Christmas. We had clam chowder in a bread bowl for dinner. It was so delicious and tasty. We watched read and watched "Twas the Night Before Christmas". We read Christmas books throughout the holiday season and this is one of the kids favorites. They nearly have the whole thing memorized. We read the Christmas Story in Luke, and then watched a couple of short Christmas clips put out by the Church. For Christmas Ever, the kids get to open one present each. It is always pajamas, but the kids are always so excited for them. We then put out cookies for Santa and then went to bed. It was such an awesome Christmas Eve!

Christmas Day was so fun too! The kids woke us up and were super excited to go down and see if Santa came to our house. He did, which made the kids super happy! After we opened gifts, we ate some yummy breakfast casserole and then got ready and went to Church. After Church, we left for Pocatello to spend a few days with Mauri's family. We had a blast relaxing, playing games, and eating really good food! Being able to be with family is truly the greatest part about Christmas time.

The Kids on Christmas Eve with their new Pajamas they just opened!

Santa found his way to our home!

Christmas morning before we opened presents.

This was too funny. Graysen had to try on his new shoes he got for Christmas, but he had to take off his footie pajamas to put them on. He was just in his shoes and diaper and I thought it was hilarious. He didn't like that I was taking a picture of him in just his diaper so he was running away. Silly boy!

Dressed and ready to go to Church.

While at Mauri's house, we made sushi for the family. It turned out really good and we think everyone enjoyed it. There wasn't much left after all of us got to it.

I love this picture of Tanzi in Grandma's sleigh.

Christmas was just perfect this year, now we can't wait until next year!

Winter Swimming

Well, you can see how good I am at updating the blog when Gary is not out of town.

It's been nice to have Gary home the last few days. We've been busy, but we've had a lot of fun.

Saturday morning was our ward Christmas party. It was "Christmas Around the World". We had a Mexican casserole for breakfast, along with a variety of sweet breads.

Then, I helped out in the Australia/England room. While the cultures of the two countries are similar, there is one very big difference during Christmas. Weather. It is right in the middle of summer in Australia during Christmas. It was fun to see people's reactions to learn this. They also have their own "12 Days of Christmas" song, involving animals native to Australia. Australians also believe that Santa's reindeer take a break when they get to Australia. They are tired and definitely can't handle the heat. So, Santa's sled is pulled by six white kangaroos. In fact, they have a song called, "Six White Boomers" that all Aussies know. It was a lot of fun talking about Australia and their Christmas traditions.

Gary took the kids to the other rooms.

There was a Germany/Denmark room...I'm not exactly sure what they talked about in that room, but the kids said they enjoyed it.

And, of course, there was a room with Santa!!

Graysen wasn't even scared of Santa this year!!

Kyri and Gray have been waking up around 6am lately. Ugghh!!

So, needless to say, we had plenty of time before church at 11:00 on Sunday.

Graysen came running in and said, "I'n goeen simmeen wiff Tywee!!"

Hahaha!!

Then they changed swimsuits.

Apparently Gray thought Kyri's swim shirt were pants...

...and her swim skirt was a shirt?

Silly kids!!

Yesterday I took all 3 kids to ROSS to look around for a few things.

For the first time, Tanzi sat in the front of the shopping cart, out of her car seat.

She loved it!!

For dinner last night we went to Olive Garden for soup and salad.

Perfect for the snowy weather we are now experiencing.

Gary is now working from 1pm until 10pm.

We loved having him home all morning!

We are looking forward to a busy, fun couple of weeks before Christmas!

We (mostly me, probably) are SO excited!!

Happy Friday!!

Well, the day didn't actually start out so happy.

Kyri and Graysen both woke up at about 5:45....

and never went back to sleep.

So, our day started with fussing and fighting!

Awesome!

Before breakfast Kyri even had a time out for telling Graysen to "shut-up". Gary and I don't say that word, so I'm not sure where she heard it from. Toy Story maybe? They do say it on there. I guess it's not totally safe to let our little ones watch "kids shows". I have never heard Kyri say that before so I asked her what she said (to make sure I heard her correctly) and then made her go to time out. We then had a little talk about how that it not a nice word. So, when she apologized to Graysen she said she was sorry for saying "that word" to him :)

We made some pumpkin bread this morning for our ward Christmas party tomorrow morning. I've never tried this recipe and I'm not sure how it's going to be. I made some changes according to the reviews. And I thought about putting chocolate chips in it, but since Gary hates chocolate chips in his breads I decided to leave it out. However, I had a little extra batter and made muffins with it and I did add chocolate chips to those. And now I'm thinking that I definitely should have put them in the loaves too! Oh, well. I also think if I make this recipe again I will only do half the cloves it calls for. That's mostly all I can taste :( Oh, and I have 2 loaf pans. One is bigger than the other. When I checked the smaller one the toothpick came out clean. Spotless, in fact. The middle fell!! Totally not done. And then I think I may have overcooked the bigger one!

Sad!

We met some friends for lunch at Arctic Circle.

The kids had a lot of fun. We stayed for nearly 2 hours. But towards the end Graysen was just SO tired and started crying about everything!

I knew it was time to go.

But we had to go to the store before coming home.

The kids were actually really good at the store. Tanzi even took a little nap. By time we got home it was 3:00 and even though Kyri and Gray were both exhausted I told them it was too late to take a nap and they could just go to bed early.

I then made some banana bread, because I'm not sure about the pumpkin bread and I KNOW the banana bread is fabulous!

And, yes, I put chocolate chips in them.

Graysen helped me make it while Kyri watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas and while Tanzi played in her crib (I put her down for a nap, but she never went to sleep).

Then we had pumpkin muffins and cheese for dinner.

YUM!

As soon as I put the kids in the tub both Kyri and Gray started crying...about something.

At least Tanzi was good.

All the crying and screaming didn't seem to faze her one bit.

She LOVES bath time!

I told both Kyri and Gray that if I counted them to 3 they would get out of the tub and go straight to bed with NO privileges.

Kyri only got counted to one.

Graysen got to three.

So, he went to bed at 5:30....and I think he was actually happy about that. He was so SO tired.

Kyri and Tanzi were both in bed by 6:00.

Let's hope for a later wake up time!!

The reason I am most happy it's Friday is because Gary is coming home tonight!!

YEA!

As excited as I am he's coming home I don't think I'll wait up for him.

He should be here around midnight.

Thursday

Today was a fun, relaxing day!

This morning, after making messy muffins for breakfast and putting Tanzi down for a nap, Kyri, Graysen, and I did some fun projects.

First, we put cotton balls on Santa's beard (Kyri got it at preschool) to start counting down to Christmas!

Then the kids colored (barely) this Nativity and Kyri helped me cut it out and glue it together

It is now being displayed in their bedroom next to their miniature Christmas tree

This afternoon Kyri and I watched some of the new videos about baby Jesus on lds.org Unfortunately, we were having technical difficulties and we didn't get to watch them all.

We played with the train set

And the kids ate popcorn while watching Dr Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas

We ended the evening by reading Book of Mormon Stories and Christmas stories, as usual.

All the kids went to bed really good tonight.

As I was leaving Kyri and Graysen's room Gray was climbing up onto Kyri's bed so he could lay by her while they looked at books :)

Today they told me that they're best friends.

I LOVE my life!!

Thanks to Gary for putting the Christmas music on our blog...I only added a couple :)

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Today was pretty non-eventful.

Kyri had school and all 4 of Ms Kate's kids came over today, since they are off track.

We played SORRY and the kids all had fun on the bean bag.

This afternoon we went to Target and we picked up Wendy's for dinner.

I was highly disappointed.

I need to stop going there unless it's for a frosty :)

The kids all went to bed really good!

I put them to bed early and Kyri was sad because she wanted to play with her babies. So, I told her to take them into her room with her and play with them in bed. We always leave their lamp on (unless they do something to lose out on that privilege) and they can read books and listen to music, etc. Well, before leaving their room I told Graysen to get into bed so I could tuck him in.

He told me he wanted to watch Kyri play with her babies and climbed onto her bed instead :)

Silly boy!!

As long as the kids are quiet I don't care if they play in their room for a while.

After getting the kids in bed I cleaned the downstairs.

It wasn't terribly messy, but papers had stacked up enough on my counter to leave me little space for preparing food.

This is such a HUGE pet peeve of mine, but I have yet to figure out how to keep it under control.

My counter is ALWAYS a mess!!

One day.....

But oh how I LOVE a clean house!!

Then my friend, Keri, came over and I cut her hair.

She cut my hair back in July, so I was FINALLY getting around to returning the favor!

For those who do not know this about me,

I LOVE Christmas time.

LOVE!!

When Gary and I were first married I think he thought I was a little nuts.

He wouldn't let me put up Christmas until after Thanksgiving.

Well, now it is GARY who is always wanting to put up our Christmas decor after HALLOWEEN!!

LOVE!!

Gary has made it a tradition to get me a new decoration every year.

And I LOVE that!

I always wanted a nice, complete Nativity.

Well, when Gary worked in the Philippines (before we were married) he got this Nativity set.

I LOVE it!!

It is so different and unique!

It was stored at his parents house until last year....he is lucky I didn't break down and buy a Nativity set before that :) but I'm really glad I didn't!

I will soon need more shelving for my growing collection of decorations

The tree

(and I LOVE the Santa in the back corner....that's what Gary got me last year)

The village

(oops...didn't notice the falling snow until now)

I am SO excited for Christmas this year!!

For gifts we always do:

something you want

something you need

something to wear

something to read

one Santa gift, plus stockings

and

one new ornament for each child

I was done with all the kids presents at least a month ago (except the ornaments...we have yet to get those) and for a while I stressed about Gary's gifts. But now I am done with his too!!

And I can just relax and enjoy the spirit of Christmas!

I have always loved Christmas, but I think I love it even more now that I have kids.

I can NOT wait until Christmas morning!!

I get all of this from my mother.

Just the other day when I was talking to her she told me that she used to not even be able to sleep because she was so excited for Christmas....for us!!

And maybe we're bad parents, but everyone keeps asking Kyri and Gray what they are asking Santa for for Christmas. They both just shrug their shoulders and say, "I don't know."

We don't ever ask them what they want.

I don't ever want them to expect to get something simply because they want it.

I pretty much know what they will like.

But since people have been asking, then Kyri told me she wants to write a letter to Santa.

I think that will actually be a lot of fun!

We will probably do that in the next couple days!

Why does Christmas have to be 2 1/2 weeks away?!?!

We have a lot going on before then, but right now that seems like forever away!!

There is just something so magical about Christmas!!

No Pictures of Our Fun-Day-Tuesday

Why do I never remember my camera on fun days?!

But before I get into today I have to share a couple things from the last couple days that I failed to mention.

First, on Saturday, for the first time Tanzi went from the crawling position to the sitting position all on her own!!

She entered a whole new world!

And now she is SO much happier!

Not only can she get ANYWHERE she wants, but when she is ready to sit up and play....

SHE CAN!!

:)

My baby girl is growing up WAY too fast!!

:(

Also, I forgot to mention yesterday that Graysen decided it would be a good idea to write on my comforter with a permanent marker!

NOT a good idea!!

BAD idea!

In fact, he was really very naughty yesterday!!

But today was a much better day!

Despite the fact that Tanzi had a bad night after a few good nights.

AND despite the fact that Graysen woke up at 5 am!!

And I put him back in bed, but then he came back in my room around 5:30, so I let him get in bed with me.

He snuggled me...for a while...and I thought he went back to sleep (I know I did!), but then around 6 he started getting up and said,

"I going to play in the toy closet!"

I told him no.

He cried.

I gave him more snuggles.

And he finally went to sleep.

Kyri came into my room at 7

(she has gotten very good at waiting until her clock says 7, even if she wakes up earlier)

After snuggling with me for a few minutes she got up and turned the light on in the toy closet and started to play.

At about 7:25 I hear,

"But Kyri playing in the toy closet!!"

And he cried.

Haha!

I guess he saw that the light was on that was still on his mind.

When I told him it was after 7 now and that he could go play with Kyri he told me he didn't want to, he just wanted to snuggle me!!

Oh, I LOVE my kidlets!!

We went to Brigham City today.

We stopped and visited with some "old" friends that I worked with at BATC.

Then we met Tawn, Alyssa, and Baby V at Idle Isle for lunch.

It was yummy!

And not too busy or noisy.

But that wasn't long enough for play time.

So, we went to McDonald's and got ice cream and let the kids play at the play place.

It was such a strange play place.

It was a "musical" play place.

A piano that plays when you step on it, a piano slide that makes music when you go down it, drums that sound when you jump on them, etc.

The kids had fun.

The signs said for kids 3 and under and then there was a little basket ball area for older kids?

Strange.

They also had this little computer kiosk thing.

It was fun for something different, but I feel bad for people who live in Brigham and have that as their ONLY play place :)

I also saw a friend I went to beauty school with.

It was nice to catch up a bit!

After we got home the kids really wanted to take a bath....and they were in there for probably over an hour!

Nice!!

After their bath we had dinner.

I wasn't really hungry so the kids got to pick whatever they wanted to eat.

They had cheese, apples, and pears. With a trick-or-treat candy for dessert.

Perfect.

(I later had treats....for dinner?)

We read Christmas books before reading Book of Mormon stories and going to bed!

Now I'm going to watch The Biggest Loser, pump, and enjoy the quiet

Happy Monday!

Today was a fun day because one of my best friends, Rachel, came over to get her hair done!

It seems like the only time we really see each other anymore is when I do her hair.

And that is NOT nearly enough :)

(although, I do have to mention that she came and saw Tanzi at PCMC....she saw Tanzi before most of our family did!)

It was fun to just chat and catch up with each other.

And, of course, reminisce about the past.

She reminded me about when we lived together and her boyfriend gave her a bunny rabbit.

I honestly do NOT remember the rabbit, but I somehow have some vague memory of sawdust in the dining room.

Haha!!

And my kids LOVE playing with Rachel and listening to her stories!!

Thanks for a fun day, Rachel!

We made mac & cheese for dinner.

Then, after the kids were all ready for bed we had Family Home Evening.

I read some Christmas poems and just tried to focus on teaching them about the TRUE meaning of Christmas.

It was kind of disastrous.

You know, one of those times when you say to yourself, "Now, WHY am I having Family Home Evening with a 2 and 4 year old?!?!"

I was tempted to just yell at them that Santa is not real and that is NOT why we have Christmas!!

I refrained.

I will thank myself later.

And bedtime was just as awful.

If not worse.

Both Kyri and Gray went to bed crying.

After I put Tanzi down I was listening at the kids' door and through his tears I could hear Graysen say,

"Turn...my...lamp...on!! I....can't....see...my....JAFF(giraffe)!!!"

:)

All 3 kids were fast asleep by 6:45!!

Now you would think I would clean the house or do something productive.

I think I will just have some ME time instead :)

(sorry, love!)

Oh!

I nearly forgot!

This morning I was trying to clean up the house a bit before we had company.

The kids came to me and said,

"HURRY!! Come see what we did to our room!"

They were very proud that the two of them moved Gray's bed clear across the room!!

They also pulled a little rolling dresser and a few boxes out of the closet.

Kyri informed me that they would leave it like this for a few days....until they want to put it back (which will probably be never...I will have to put it all back, I'm sure)

Another reason Graysen was crying tonight was because he wanted me to move his bed back... and I wouldn't.

Nighty night!

Our Sunday Afternoon

Gary left today for California, so I decided I better get going on our daily updates.

Before he left Gary actually came to Sacrament meeting with us.

He left after he took the sacrament and both Kyri and Gray took their turns having a mild meltdown.

There was something Kyri wanted to tell her daddy before he left

and Graysen just wanted his daddy.

After getting all tears under control Kyri had to go potty!

Which is a family evet when I'm at church by myself!

There was a few other rough moments during the meeting, but all in all it went pretty smoothly.

Today in RS they did a little Christmas lesson.

They had some people acting as though they were Mary, Joseph, the inn keepers wife, a shepherd, and the 3 wise men. They wrote their own parts, as if they really were these people, living at that time. There were some really great musical numbers too.

I loved it!

I just LOVE the Christmas season!!

It truly IS "the most wonderful time of the year!!"

After church I let the kids watch a Christmas movie (thanks Grammy and Grampy!) while I fed Tanzi. Gray fell asleep. I didn't want him up all night, so I only let him sleep for about 30 mins.

Then I woke him up and had him help me make dinner.

Spaghetti.

Then it was bath time!

Rub-a-dub-dub 3 kids in the tub!!

After their bath we got to Skype daddy!

But since he will be super busy with work this week, putting in extra hours, we will Skype him in the morning from now on.

The kids are already looking forward to tomorrow morning!!

After reading Book of Mormon stories we read 2 Christmas stories...then it was off to bed!

None of the kids went to bed very good tonight.

Let's hope that is NOT a sign of things to come in the middle of the night!!

I did one other post (make sure you check that) and soon I will be watching the First Presidency Christmas Devotional.

It is always a highlight during this season!!

Like I said, the most wonderful time of the year!!

More Catching Up

Apparently I wasn't done catching up.

Here's some more pics of what we've been up to as of late

Tanzi is STILL fascinated with her hands.

And I LOVE that!

(for some strange reason. I just think it's SO stinkin cute that she can just stare at her hands and be entertained...even after so many months of doing that!)

Whenever she is picked up she clasps her hands...

...like so

or sometimes like this

As some of you already know, I have an obsession with....

HATS!!

You have to admit she is pretty cute!!

Apparently my kids have the same obsession.

I often find Kyri and Gray with random hats on

In fact, they found this hat and brought it to me for Tanzi to wear

Perfect fit!

Dancing with hats on that are clearly WAY too small!

Sisters in HATS!

Another day, another hat

(can't remember why Gray was so sad)

Even Mama wore a hat on this day!!

On December 1st I gave the kids an early Christmas present

Christmas shirts!!

Snug as a bug in a

BOX?

I can't imagine that's comfy!

Catching Up Again...sort of

I obviously have a lot to catch up on. So, one (like myself) might think it would be nice if I updated the blog from the laptop while Gary was doing homework from our other computer. Well, think again!

We just barely loaded pictures on this computer and they were in absolutely NO particular order, so I just had to browse through nearly 800 pictures to find what I was looking for!!

But, on the plus side, I did find some random photos that I may or may not have posted in the past.

Well, since it took me so long to find and upload all the pictures (and there are many) now it is past my bedtime...and I'm really quite tired.

So, enjoy your imagination with these pictures until I get around to writing about them

OK, if you didn't check our blog in the last couple days you can disregard the previous paragraph on continue reading!!

I decided I better have the blog updated before Gary leaves for another business trip on Sunday so I can get back to our daily updates while he's gone.

So, here's what we've been up to....in no particular order.

We went to Denver for Thanksgiving and had such a FABULOUS time!!

It was great to spend time with family, eat lots of good food, and play lots of card games.

I even went Black Friday shopping for the first time.

But don't worry, it was not in the middle of the night for all the door-busters. It was later in the day....for a few items at Jo-Ann's.

I have been looking for material for Christmas stockings for years....and I FINALLY found some.

Yahoo!!

Anyway, while we were in Denver Tanzi got really sick.

She actually had a bit of a cold before we left, and she is teething, but while we were on our trip Tanzi had a fever for about 3 days!

I hate having sick babies :(

The day after we got back (Monday), she no longer had a fever, but she broke out into a terrible rash....and then she wouldn't sleep.

Sick baby :(

I remember Kyri getting a similar rash around the same age and when we took her to the doctor she had a terrible ear infection.

So, thinking this was probably the case with Tanzi I took her to the doctor at 11pm.

Luckily, no ear infection!

And the rash is common after a fever has broke.

But she did have a really red throat and still had a goopy nose, so they gave me a saline solution for her nose and a mylanta/benedryl mixture for her throat.

Why is it that I had to have 3 kids before finding an at home remedy that could have saved us a lot of heart ache over the years?!

We were grateful!

And on Wednesday we finally got our baby back!

We heard her laugh for the first time in about a week.

She didn't eat much while she was sick...and we are slowly getting back on track with that.

She decided she no longer likes baby food unless it's mixed with rice cereal. And before she was sick she was taking 6-7 oz of milk from a bottle every night and now the most she has taken is 4oz, but it's usually only about 2oz.

However, she is having plenty of wet diapers...and even more smiles, so I am one happy mama!

Graysen is pretty pleased with himself for putting on chapstick by himself

You can see where he learned it from

They are quite the pair!!

Since Tanzi was sick while we were in Denver she just wanted to be held ALL the time!

Which worked out well since there were so many people that wanted to hold her. Amber, Grandma, and Grandpa all spent a lot of time snuggling Tanz, which she LOVED.

And while she had her fever Tanzi really just slept a LOT....so of course Grandpa offered to hold her :)

Going...

....going....

...gone!!

Two peas in a pod

A highlight of our trip (for the kids) was staying at "the hotello"

This was Tuesday night, on our way to Denver.

As you can see, Tanzi had an obsession with her new-found tongue

On our way home (Saturday night) I was up in the middle of the night with Tanzi. And since the kids were sleeping on a pull-out bed right next to us I could see just how comfy they were...and I couldn't resist fumbling in the dark for the camera so I could capture this moment!

We really had such a fun trip!

Danny and Amber were nice enough to let us stay at their house and feed us yummy food.

And we had a great Thanksgiving dinner at DeAnne and Alan's house with even MORE family...AND fun, of course.

Jadan was baptized the day after Thanksgiving. It was such a nice service. And he is SUCH a great example to Kyri and Graysen (as well as his siblings, I'm sure)

And then we got a baby sitter so the adults could go out for sushi (kind of as a late birthday dinner for Gary, whose birthday was the day before Thanksgiving).

I wish I would have taken pictures at the sushi place.

Not only was it delicious, but it looked amazing...and they even brought it out to us on a big boat!

It was awesome!

And nice to have some adult time :)

I just wish I was better at taking pictures when we're all together!

I'm not exactly sure when this picture was taken, but I LOVE the look on Gray's face...and that he's wearing pink crocs...and that Kyri looks ticked.

It makes me smile!

Nothin' like mowing the lawn in the rain

My brother, Jared, came into town, from Singapore, for Grandma Dora's funeral.

We wanted to spend more time with him, since he normally only comes once a year.

So, my sister, Tawn, and I took our kids up to our parents for a couple days.

The kids had SO much fun with "Uncle Baby Jared"

AND a lot of fun with each other too!!

If one was sitting in the chair they ALL were sitting in the chair

Jared came to stay with us the night before he flew back home.

The kids could NOT get enough play time in with him.

Well, while we were all just hanging out in the play room Kyri disappeared for a while.

I never really thought much of it....

until she came back into the room, looking like this

I'm not sure what prompted her to get into my make-up and hairspray,

but it sure gave us a good laugh!!

(BTW, her hair was plastered with hairspray and very rock solid!)

This picture was taken a long time ago at my parent's house....and it still makes me smile.

These two are quite the crazy sleepers when they share a bed!!

Cute Kyri Girl

Apparently he's not just a crazy sleeper when he's sharing a bed

Baby feet

This must have been just after we cut Kyri's hair short.

Cute girl!

Crazy boy!

love, love, LOVE these kids!!

Tanzi started crawling with her belly off the floor last week.

This video really isn't anything exciting, but we just had to document this major milestone!

And now she is getting pretty fast...and getting into trouble :)

I have taken a few more pictures the last couple days and have found some more random ones...so expect more updates real soon!!