Christmas Day

We had a wonderful Christmas morning, spending it in our home. We kept it very simple this year, limiting it to a few presents for each other. Also, Connor had a little Christmas store at school and was given some money to buy each of us a present. Jeff got a tape measure, Klayton got a puzzle and I got a bracelet.

Favorite memories of Christmas:

1. When the boys put on their snow boots, left by Santa, went into the backyard and saw their trampoline. Because of all the ice and snow we haven't been able to play on it yet but we can't wait to have some fun once it warms up.
2. I got to surprise Jeff with a gift he had no idea he was getting. He always seems to surprise me so this was so much fun to be on the other end.
3. We got snow for Christmas. It started snowing Christmas Eve and lasted all night long making it a beautiful winter wonderland Christmas morning.
   

We spent lunch with Papa Choo Choo & Granny Deb and dinner with Papa Cliff & Grandma Teresa. Here are a few pictures I took to capture the moment.

Connor and Klayton with their soccer stuff from Papa Choo Choo & Granny Deb

Family picture at Papa Cliff and Grandma Teresa's house

Klayton's favorite toy put together in one, a train made out of blocks

Lego's from Uncle Roy

Boys having fun with Papa Cliff

These are a few of my Favorite Things

This Christmas, like many others, was filled with lots of fun and lots of things to do. So instead of posting several different posts about every event, I thought I would just give a brief summary in one SUPER LONG post. Enjoy:

The Nutcracker
Kelsey and I took Madeline and Sariah to the Nutcracker for a nice relaxing Sunday afternoon.

Sariah, Kelsey, Madeline and Me

Gingerbread Houses
Sharon had a great idea to make gingerbread houses with all the cousins and the kids LOVED it. They had such a good time placing the candy on the houses and in their mouths.

Group #1:

Connor, Zach, Tanner, Madeline, Sariah, Austin and Klayton

Group #2:

Nathan, Derek, Sora, Jessica, Caty & Meagan

Giving
Without going into too much detail, it's better to give then receive.

Christmas Caroling
Although it was pretty cold outside and only a few people answered their doors, it was fun to go caroling again. We passed out yummy Christmas cookies and sang a few Christmas songs. Unlike the previous years, all of the little ones joined in on the fun. It was nice to incorporate them in on the tradition.

Nativity Story
To remind the kids about the true meaning of Christmas they did a play, acting out the Nativity story (another one of Sharon's great ideas).

The cast before their big debut


Madeline - Narrator
Sariah & Caty - Angels
Tanner - Joseph, Jessica - Mary
Meagan, Derek - Shepherds
Connor, Klayton & Austin - Wise men

Sledding and Hot Chocolate
This year for Christmas we had an extra special treat - a white Christmas.

Klayton's free ride on our way to the hill

Time for some hot chocolate

Fun with Cousins
The boys had such a good time hanging out with all their cousins. Every morning Connor's first question out of his mouth was, when are we going to see our cousins today. We had a lot of fun doing so many things while everyone was in town, I just wish it could have lasted longer. Here are a few pictures of some fun times with all the cousins.

Maddie and Connor watching G-Force together.


Sariah built Klayton a choo choo track - what a girl!!!


Uncle Matt was a good sport letting all the kids attack him with all their snowballs.

Dinner by Maddie
On our last evening together, Madeline, made us dinner. She's only eleven years old, but she sure can cook.

Madeline's Specialty - Pork Chops

Wow, what a week. Can't believe it's over.
More to come on our Christmas Day Memories.

Pregnancy Update

Right now I am sitting at 27 weeks and there’s no question that I am pregnant. I look, feel, breath pregnancy.

I have to say this pregnancy has been very different then my first two times.

• With Connor and Klayton I was very anxious for them to arrive. Although I am anxious for our little baby girl to join the family, I also know there will be plenty of time to love her once she arrives.

• I have cravings. I never had cravings with the boys, nor did I ever get sick when I ate something. This time I crave pasta and sweets – not a good combination. I’m trying really hard to keep off those extra pregnancy pounds but she is making it very difficult.

• I’ll admit I’m a little moody… okay, I’m moody. I think the extra estrogen is messing with my emotions. I know that Jeff, Connor and Klayton will be happy when this passes – and so will I.
• This pregnancy has gone by so fast. I can't believe we only have three months before our little girl joins the family.
  

We are having such a fun time watching the boys during my pregnancy. They are very conscious of my growing belly and very protective of me and their little sister.

• Connor asked if he could open up a package of noodles for me because if I opened it I might hurt the baby.

• Connor asked if he could throw a snowball at me the other day and Klayton told him NO because he might hurt the baby.

• Not a day goes by that Klayton doesn’t hug and rub my belly telling me how beautiful my baby is. (Everyone needs a little guy like him around – especially on those really rough days). The other day he ran up to me and gave my belly a hug. When I bent down to give him a hug back he said “I wasn’t giving you a hug mom, I was giving the baby a hug.”

Merry Christmas

Our Christmas Letter:

Wow, is it already Christmas time again? I can’t believe it. I remember making myself a deadline to have all the addresses and our Christmas letter ready by the end of October… Well here it is December 17th and I’m making my preparations right now. Better late than never, right?

Jeff is a very busy man. From working in Tulsa, to taking evening classes, to his calling at church, he is always on the go. In November he had his 5 year anniversary with Midfirst Bank and continues to like working there. This last year he took 8 classes at NSU, making his nights and weekends very busy. He is doing very well in school and should finish up all his classes in the next year. YEAH!!! He continues to like his calling as Elders Quorum President at church, again something that keeps him very busy.

Connor started Pre-K this year at Will Rogers and he loves it. He has told us many times how much he likes his teachers and all his best friends (which he says is everyone in his class). At his parent teacher conference we learned his teachers love having him in their class and love the good example he is toward everyone else. We sure do miss not having him around the house during the day, but we know he is enjoying his time at school. In the Spring Connor joined a T-Ball team and entered his first sporting activity. He is growing up so fast, can’t believe he’ll be five by the end of the year!

Klayton turned three in August and started going to a pre-school of his own 3 hours a week. He really likes it there. He’s the youngest in his class but seems to keep up pretty well with the others. Among so many other things, he is learning to identify his A,B,C’s . He told me the other day he doesn’t like the letter “U” so for now he’s taken it out of his alphabet letters. Hopefully he’ll allow it back in before he reaches 1st grade – might be a little hard to spell some of those critical words. He keeps all of us on our toes with his hyper activities and loving spirit.

As for me I’m busy with work, activities at the boys’ school, blogging and of course keeping our household going day-to-day. I continue to work part time at my dad’s store, Cliff’s Flooring and Windows, and am coming up on my two year anniversary at the beginning of the year. I never thought the boys being in school would add that much more to my schedule but all their extra activities have become my extra activities. It’s fun watching them grow in all they do and I’m glad I have the opportunity to be there and experience everything with them.

Perhaps our biggest news this year is learning that we are adding a new addition to our family towards the end of March. That is when we will welcome a baby girl to our family. The boys are so EXCITED about the idea of having another sibling, especially a sister, to our family. When the boys learned we are having a girl Klayton began clapping, and with excitement all over his face said "Yay Yay". Then with a smile from ear to ear Connor said "I'm so happy Jesus decided to send us a girl.”

I think that about sums up the year. To keep up with all our weekly news e-mail us at [email protected] to view our blog.
Hope you truly have a very Merry Christmas a great new year filled with happiness and blessing all year long.

Busy Week

It was really busy the week before the boy’s winter break at Connor school with all his activities. There was the Christmas Program, Pajama and crazy sock day, treats to celebrate Connor’s birthday and finally the week ended with the Pre-K ornament party.

Pajama and crazy sock day – He came home with his nose painted red with reindeer antlers on his head. Connor the red nosed Reindeer.

The treats and the bags

My favorite activity they have done this year is the Ornament Party. Each pre-K classroom had an ornament to making. That meant each child went home with 7 handmade ornaments – my favorite. Although the ornaments were fun to make, the best part was that Jeff got to join in on the fun. Since Jeff works in Tulsa, sometimes it’s a little difficult for him to make it to extra activities. So naturally Connor was so excited when Jeff and I walked in to his classroom together.

Jeff telling Connor the next step in making his ornament

Cheese!!!

All the ornaments!!!!!

It was a crazy week but it was also a lot of fun.

Christmas Concerts

Recently Connor started coming home singing Christmas songs. He was so happy to be singing the songs at home we decided to volunteer, along with a few other Will Rogers Students, at the ElderCare Christmas party .

Connor and his friend Hailey.

Singing "Jingle Bells"

On Tuesday night the entire Will Rogers Pre-k and kindergarten class preformed at the High School Fine Arts center. It was an amazing concert. The music teacher worked so hard to make sure all the kids knew their parts and the kids worked really hard to learn their part. Although I recorded the entire concert I'll only include a few pictures.

Klayton and I waiting before the concert.

Will Rogers Pre-K

Christmas Parades

Parade #1: Bartlesville
This year Jeff took the boys to the Bartlesville parade for a night of fun. It was very cold that night so they bundled up tight and headed out.

The cold weather doesn't bother Connor much, just like his dad. While Connor gather as much candy as he could Klayton stood close to daddy asking when they could leave. He gets cold easy, just like his mommy.

For the most part they had fun and enjoyed the hot chocolate that was waiting for them after the parade.


Parade #2: Tulsa
Our second parade we attended was the Tulsa parade. Except this time we didn't watch the floats, we were on a float. Jeff got the pleasure of pulling the MidFirst float, while we got to ride.

The truck ready to go just waiting for it to get dark

MidFirst Float

The other side of the float

That night was cold too but the boys insisted on riding the float no matter how cold it was outside. So we bundled up tight again and got ready to ride the float. Again Connor didn't mind the cold. He yelled "Merry Christmas" and waived the whole time. It was so cute watching him get so excited to be apart of the parade. Klayton on the other hand was....a little different. The second the float began going, the wind hit his face and he was done. However, once the float started we couldn't stop so he was upset the whole parade.

By the end of the parade Klayton was the first one in the truck ready to get all warm.

Picture of us before the parade. Connor is so bundled up all you can see is his eyes and Klayton was cuddled up nice and close.

Christmas Ornaments '09

Last year during the Christmas Holiday we decided to make ornaments for our tree. It was so much fun we decided to make it a tradition and do it again this year. Although I want to be, I'm not very crafty. So I bought a kit that had everything inside that we would need to make Candy Cane Reindeer ornaments.

String, ribbon, reindeer antlers, eyes, fuzzies, and colorful pipes.

Klayton showing us his progress

We're done!!!!

In case you don't have microscopic eyes, here they are close up.

Three down, nine more to go. It will be nice to pull the kit back out and finish the remaining ornaments in the next few weeks before Christmas.
Great craft on those cold days - and boy do we have some cold days right now.

Christmas Lights

This year we decided to put Christmas lights on our house. I can't say it was easy, or even fun at times, but it was well worth.

Merry Christmas


Santa and the Snowman


The boys posing for a pic.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Last year we finally did something we had been saying we would do for several years, we threw out our old, little, scraggly Christmas tree. So this year I was on a mission to find the perfect Christmas tree. The perfect Christmas tree in my mind would stand 7 - 8 feet tall, 4 feet around (on the bottom) and NOT be pre-lit. Well, after several hours and several stores later I gave up and bought a pre-lit tree. I have a problem with a tree with lights on it because if one strand of lights go out, the whole tree is ruined. But when there really aren't many options, what are you going to do? Now I will have to say, putting it up was great. I just hope I can say the same thing a few years down the road. So enough about my complaining - now to the fun stuff.

The boys and I twicking the bottom layer of the tree.


After we put the bottom layer on, the boys had to investigate and make sure everything was still okay under the Christmas tree.


Jeff opened up the totes with all our Christmas stuff inside and the boys quickly flocked to the Santa hats. I tried to talk them into keeping the hats on while we decorated the tree...but that didn't last long.


Connor and Daddy decorating the tree.


Klayton and me decorating the tree.

The tree is complete:

My brother taught me how to make bows, which I love. It's an easy way to fancy up a tree for an inexpensive price, especially when I got the ribbon half off. We also added candy canes, which are placed on the tree altogether. Connor and Klayton wanted them to be a "family" of candy canes.
However, my favorite part about our Christmas tree is, it's filled with memories of ornaments we've made together or have bought through out the years. We have a tradition, every year we each pick a new ornament. It's so fun looking at a tree that is filled with special memories from years past and I can't wait to add new ornaments this year.


Here's just one of my favorite ornaments.


Here's our stockings hung by the fireplace.


We've also started a tradition to watch Polar Express while we decorate the tree. The boys really love this movie, Klayton couldn't keep his eyes off the TV.


Kristi and Connor relaxing together. Thanks Kristi for sharing this special night with us.