Christmas Fun

Every Christmas Eve the Mysterious Stranger rings the doorbell and leaves a gift on the doorstep.

On our way to Grandma's, Joe told me that he knows who the Mysterious stranger is. I was sure he had figured out the secret. So I had to smile when he told me that last Christmas as we were driving home from Grandma's he saw the Stranger leaving presents on someones door, and it is a girl.

The stranger did not disappoint. The kids all loved their pajamas.

I was not quick enough getting Valerie's on her, so she tried to put them on herself.


Christmas Eve is always great at Grandma and Grandpa's house. After a nice dinner and program we headed home to wait for Santa.




Christmas morning the kids were excited to see what Santa had brought. Usually Santa leaves their gift next to their stocking, so they were a little confused to come out and see all of the stockings lined up together. Then they noticed the note and Webkinz on the tree.

Santa had brought them a new computer, and because he wanted it all ready for them to use Christmas morning, he left a note on the tree telling them where to look for their surprise.




They were very excited and couldn't wait to adopt their new Webkinz and start playing with them on the new computer.

But first we had to open the rest of the gifts.

Valerie loved all of her new gifts and has been very busy with them since she opened them. Ryan's mom and I had to laugh though, because the two things she carries around with her are the $3 baby doll she got in her stocking and the $2 toy cell phone Grandma gave her in her purse. It is so nice when they are easy to please.

Ryan really wants to thank my parents for the rocking horse. If you push the ear it plays a song that gets stuck in your head. So all day we kept finding ourselves singing "such a pretty pony clippity clop, clippity clop." Valerie loves it.

The boys were happy to find Lego's and Zuzu's under the tree.
Emily got a few new petshop toys, clothes and a computer game she has been talking about for months.


The kids are now busy enjoying all of their new gifts.

It was a great Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Activities

December is always full of so many Christmas activities. I love participating in them and enjoying the fun at Christmas time.

Joe's first, and probably last, time at The Nutcracker.

Every year Ryan's dad likes to go to The Nutcracker. for the last few years Emily has gotten to go with him and every year Joe has asked when he will get to go. This year Grandpa invited Joe.

Grandma told Joe that it was very exciting because there are soldiers who fight with mice and let's not forget about the "Butcracker Sweet" in the second act. Grandma told Joe that when that song started he had her permission to sing out as loud as he wanted. "Please just say no to crack, when you see butt crack attack." (Grandma wasn't going)

Grandpa told Joe if he sang he wouldn't be invited back.

Joe seemed to like the first half. It was exciting with the annoying brothers and the fight between the soldiers and the mice, but the second half was a different story. Joe began to get bored and by the time the Nutcracker sweet started he was done. He didn't even realize it was the song until I pointed it out towards the end, but he was too bored to even sing. The third time the Sugar Plum Fairy came out to dance Joe looked at me and said "Oh come on!"

when the show was over Joe informed us that he never wants to see The Nutcracker again. Sorry Grandpa.

Even though Joe said he didn't like it he behaved really well, and I think he did really like the first half. As for Grandpa Emily and I, we really enjoyed ourselves and it was the perfect way to kick off the Christmas Season.

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir

The next thing I was lucky enough to attend was the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert. Ryan's brother and his wife had two extra tickets and I was lucky to get one of them. David Archuleta was the guest performer. I had not really followed him since his American Idol year, but I love his tenor voice and the concert was great. Thanks for the invite Kevin and Alisa.

My Little Soldier

While the other two shows were amazing and I enjoyed them very much I have to say my very favorite Christmas program I attended this year was Josh's Preschool program.

His teachers do such a cute job. They send home a little costume for each child. The younger classes wear the elf costumes and the older classes are soldiers and ballerinas. Josh was so excited to be a soldier that he wanted to put on his costume as soon as he woke up.

Valerie and Josh's friend Ben were with me so I found a good seat to get pictures from and also make a fast exit if one of the kids needed to. when the program started Valerie did not want to sit, but she was happy to stand on the side with me. As I was watching the first number I could tell Josh was looking for me, and he couldn't see where I was. I was holding Valerie with one hand and the camera with the other so I could not wave to get his attention. when the song was finished I stood up and as soon as Josh spotted me he called out......."Mom, Did you like that song?"

I think that was my favorite part of the whole show.

This song however was my favorite song because Josh was really into it and it has one of his favorite things to say in it. "I'm hungry" He says that to me at least once a day if not more.

At the end of the program Santa came. Josh was really excited to see him and Valerie was excited to get the Candy cane. When Santa asked Josh what he wants for Christmas Josh told him to give him a surprise.

I hope he likes the surprise Santa brings him.

On our way out the door Josh became very interested in where Santa's sleigh was. He could not see it on the roof of the building and he also did not see a chimney. This seemed to concern him quite a bit. He then started coming up with all kinds of possibilities of how Santa got there. I think he finally decided that Santa has a car too.

I love Christmas time and all of the fun things that go with it, especially watching my kids enjoy it.

Joe's 7th Birthday

Joe's 7th birthday landed on a Sunday, so we started the celebrations by having Ryan's parents over for dinner. Grandma brought the cake!

A few months ago when I asked Joe what he wanted for his birthday there were two things on is list. Lego's and a video camera to make Lego videos. I am very interested to see what kind of videos we get. (I did set a few rules like no underwear and things like that.) He got filming right away.

The following Tuesday, Joe had a friend party. As I said in a previous post we spent a lot of time at Classic this summer, and all summer Joe asked if he could have his party there. The more I looked into it the better it sounded to me too. Having 6 and 7 year old boys running around the house with the Christmas decorations up is very exciting, but not having to worry about it was even better.

The kids had a blast running around with all of their friends.

The groups two favorite things to do were Laser tag,

and Blaster Ball.

Two games where you run around and shoot guns. It was a boys birthday party dream.

One thing that intrigued Joe about birthday parties this summer was when the birthday kid got to go in the money tube. They stick the kid in a tube with crumpled paper money. Then they blow air into it and the birthday child has to try to catch as much as he can.

Joe did really well. He caught 35. So he got 35 bonus tickets to spend at the prize counter.

The party was a great success and everyone had a fun time. It was a perfect way to celebrate Joe turning 7.

Happy Birthday Joe!



And now for what you have all been wondering........

Joe's first video.

Decorating (and undecorating) for Christmas

This year I had lots of help putting up the Christmas tree. I wanted to try putting the lights on as we built the tree to see if that would be easier. I think it would have been if I did not have someone sitting on my lap and trying to do what she wanted to with the lights. We put the tree up Saturday night so that it would be ready for decorating on Sunday evening.

Sunday we brought out the rest of the Christmas decorations. The kids loved seeing their old ornaments and putting them on the tree. I was busy helping and forgot to take pictures so I had them stand in front of the tree when it was done.

Valerie was not happy. But when everyone went off to do their own thing Valerie took the Santa hat and started posing on her own.

So I had the other kids hurry and stand close to her. The picture came out a little blurry, but with a little photo shopping it is usable, and at least they are happy.

Valerie did not grasp the concept of hanging the ornaments on the tree. She liked looking at them, and playing with them.


We gave her a couple she could play with while we put the rest on the tree. When the tree was finished Valerie started looking around at everything and started undercoating the tree. The pine cones looked like balls to her and they were really fun to swing around.

She also really liked the train around the tree, but Josh was in charge of the train and he guarded it from Valerie like his life depended on it. He did not want his favorite Christmas decoration broken. Whenever she would go for it. Josh would run over to stop her.

Eventually Valerie spotted the Little People Nativity set and had a great time playing with it. It distracted her for the rest of the evening.

But the next morning she was back to the tree. I had forgotten about the rule with a Toddler in the house. All ornaments must be above the bottom two branches.

It is a good thing I loaded the bottom two rows with lights.

We are all decorated for Christmas, and can enjoy the festivities of the season.

Thanksgiving Weekend

This year for Thanksgiving we were given a special treat from Ryan's parents.

For many years it was a tradition for their family to spend Thanksgiving down town at the Little America Hotel. His Grandparents would come up from Cedar City and stay at the hotel. Some years Ryan's family would just go to the dinner, and others they would stay a night or two at the hotel too.

Then we lost Grandpa McArthur and the tradition did not seem the same without him, so the passed couple of years we have celebrated a nice Thanksgiving at Ryan's parents home.

This year his mom was ready to go back to the Little America, and she wanted to make it special so she treated us all to two nights at the hotel.

so Thanksgiving day we headed to The Grand America for our feast.

Ryan's sister and her husband were not able to join us this year and asked for lots of pictures and I tried to get enough for her. We missed having them with us.





Joe had been really close to Ryan's Grandpa and spent a lot of time with him, but Joe was pretty young when he did and I did not think he would really remember being there with him.

When we walked into the building Joe looked around and got really quiet and sad looking. Someone asked him if he was okay and he just said.

"I miss him."

The first time we went to the Gand America with Great Grandpa I took a picture of the kids with him in this sitting area. So Joe and Grandma sat together for a picture this year.



Dinner was even better than I remembered it, and it was nice to get to visit with Ryan's family.



The kids loved the food too. They have a little kids buffet set up in the corners of the room so the kids went there first. I knew it was going to be a good meal when all three of the older kids started their Thanksgiving dinner with a Carmel apple.


I think they only went to the kids buffet once. Then they discovered the shrimp and crab legs at the main buffet.

Last thanksgiving Valerie was too young to eat real food so this was her first time experiencing Thanksgiving dinner, and she loved it!

I started her out with a few things from the kids buffet, but she was more interested in the stuff on my plate. Her three favorite things were the Crab legs, the berries and of course the chocolate fountain. Luckily she did not discover it until she had eaten a good amount of regular food.

It was my nephew's first Thanksgiving, and he was enjoying it so much he didn't have time to look up for a picture.

The kids always finish before the adults at a meal like this, but they were given coloring books and were happy to sit and color while we finished eating. When Valerie was done she went over to check out her cousin to see what he was up to.

She noticed that he had her favorite blanket in his stroller and I think she was worried that he would not let her have it, because she tested the waters a little before she went for it. Then she carefully took it out watching what his reaction would be.



After dinner was over we went across the street to check into the Little America. It turned out that it was our lucky day because they had messed up on the reservation and did not have three rooms with two queen beds on the same floor. So they gave us 1 room with two queens and 4 rooms with king beds. Now looking back I see the only family this really benefited was ours, because we were the only group big enough to split up, but it made it a really nice weekend for me.

At first I thought we would just take one of the extra rooms for our family. the boys would stay with Ryan and the girls with me.

So Ryan and the boys took the room with the 2 queens. the boys thought it was great to have a boy only room.



Emily however was not too excited about having to share with Valerie and me. The original plan when we only had three rooms was that she was going to stay with her Grandma and Grandpa, and she was looking forward to that.

It turned out that there was an extra room, unless Ryan's parents wanted to have their own room, it was available. So the first night Grandma and Emily stayed in it and the second night Emily had it all to herself. I think she really liked that.


As for me I shared a room with Valerie. they brought up a port a crib for her, but she was not about to stay in it, and I figured sharing a king bed with her would be okay.

I didn't realize that someone who is only three feet tall can take up the whole bed if they want to. I did sleep pretty well. We only had to swap places a few time in the night.








The best part was after visiting the boys in their "boy room." going back to my nice quiet clean room with Valerie.




The little America is my favorite hotel. One of the things that makes it my favorite is the cafe.




The food is good, it is open late, and it is right in the hotel so when you are ready to eat you don't have to go searching for a restaurant at odd hours.





When I have stayed at other hotels I am always disappointed. Even if they have a restaurant it does not compare to the Little America Cafe.


And there is nothing wrong with grabbing a cup of hot chocolate and a couple of hot rolls before bed.

I was a little worried about how Valerie would do staying at a hotel, but I worried for nothing. She loved almost everything about it. Especially having Grandma and Grandpa around to spoil her.

The only thing she did not like were the elevators. The first time she got in them I let her stand, and the elevator made two quick stops right off the bat. She did not like the motion under her feet and started to cry. after that every time we got in the elevators she started to cry. It was not until the very end of our stay she decided they were okay, but still wanted to be held while she rode in them.

The first night I took the kids down to the pool to swim. The pool is half indoor and half outdoor. It was very cold outside so the boys thought it was cool to go out and see the steam rise off the pool. they never wanted to stay out too long though, because it was really cold, but the water was warm.



The next day to celebrate black Friday we took TRAX over to the Gateway Mall. Ryan's mom divided us into small groups and assigned us someone to shop for. We were given $15 for our person and we were supposed to find them a gift that would help them get into the Christmas season.


We had about an hour to shop and then we all met at Barns and Noble where we picked out books to donate to some school children.



Then it was off to the movie theatre to see Tangled. It was a cute show and the kids loved it. I loved it too.



We had put our packages in Grandpa's office while we were in the movie. So after the show we went over to his office building. Grandpa and dad went up to get the stuff while the rest of us waited on the lobby. While we were waiting Valerie and Josh started playing in the lobby and the next thing we knew Valerie had tripped on a rug and bashed her head into the corner of a table.



It didn't look pretty, and the way she was acting worried us. Not being familiar with down town we were not quite sure the best place to take her. So I asked the security guard if there were any medical facilities close by. They asked what had happened and called for an ambulance.



After the paramedics checked her out they told us that she looked okay but that we needed to take her to Primary Children's just to make sure. Because we had taken TRAX to get there the only real option they were giving us was a ride in the ambulance.


At primaries the Dr came in and looked her over and I knew everything was fine when the Dr turned to us and asked. "WHY did you come in an ambulance?"



The bump on her head was pretty big so they kept her for observation for a couple more hours. she slept most of the time. They released us at 6:30pm, and we were relieved it was nothing more serious than a bump on her head.



When we arrived back at the hotel we all got together to give our gifts to each other. The kids were really into it. Especially Josh. somehow he figured out that his Grandpa had him. So while we were shopping Josh's group ran into Grandpa's group and Josh told Grandpa exactly what he wanted. Then when we were opening gifts Josh turned to Grandpa and said. "Now can I open my wand."


The second half to this activity is, on Christmas Eve we have to tell how our gift helped us get into the Christmas spirit. It will be interesting to see what Josh says.

I loved this activity, because even though Josh was worried about what he was getting, the kids all had fun shopping for someone else. Joe told me later that one of his favorite things about the weekend was buying the gifts for someone else, and giving the books to the kids who need them, because it made him feel happy.



The part I loved most about this weekend was just spending time together as a family. We had such a great weekend together and I know my kids will always remember it.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!