Date Night

Last night, I had a date...not with my husband...with my 4 year old. It was SO fun. We went to Wendy's for dinner and then went to see our little community production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I knew it was risky taking him to this, BUT he loved it! He was still as could be...except his little feet tapping to the music.

As soon as it began, the tears came. I was taken back in time about 11 or so years. I was taken to a time when I went with my mom and dad to see the Donny Osmond verson in Salt Lake. I remember my mom whispering to me when Joseph was in jail (and in only a loin cloth), "I thought I was over him...I'm NOT!" Then, just 3 and a half short years later, I listened to my dad listen to the music all night long...longing for something to keep his mind off losing the love of his life. My heart was full of memories. I couldn't keep the tears back.

Carson was sitting on my lap and noticed that I was crying. He said, "Mom, are you sad?" No, Carson, I am not sad. Carson: "Then why are you crying?" I am just remembering Grandma Elaine. She took me to see this in Salt Lake when I was a girl. I just miss her. Then I got one of the best hugs ever. He is such a good boy with a very tender heart. He could sense my ache and did what he thought would make it better. He could have ignored my feelings, after all, he is 4 and life is all about him, but he didn't.

Now, today is a new day, and that is another memory I have tied to Joseph. I have to smile when I hear Carson singing at the top of his lungs, "Jaaaaaaaacob, Jacob and sons..."

meandNate

This is pretty funny. Carson and Nate are always together. In fact, they may be a little codependant. They, for the most part LOVE each other. When ever Carson asks to do anything or to eat anything, it is always, "Mom, meandNate..." Always. One hundred times a day.

Well, now when nate wants something, it is, "Mom, meandNate..." It cracks me up. They are 2 funny little boys.

Thing 3

Why is it that I can spend hours cooking a fabulous meal and my baby won't eat it? But a few minutes later he is eating a Crayon? Go figure...

That leads me to my next question...why do babies grow up so fast? When I was pregnant with Logan, it seemed like my pregnancy lasted about 3 years. Now only 11 months later (which seemed like a blink), he has turned into "one of them". Let me explain what this means.

When I found out that we were having our third boy in about 3 and 1/2 years, I was fine. In fact, I was excited. I love my little boys. I had just found out that Logan was a boy when I had one of those days...the type that make you wonder if anyone survives being a mom. It was on this day that I said to my dad, "I don't know if I can have another baby boy." He asked why. I responded, "It is like Heavenly Father tricks us. He sends us a sweet little baby. But, dad,he is going to turn into one of them." I could only think of the chaos he would add to our already crazy home.

Not long after this incident, my brother told me that he figured out who Carson and Nate reminded him of…Thing 1 and Thing 2 from Dr Seuss's The Cat in the Hat. He said that I better hope that this new baby was NOT Thing 3. I was hoping for a fish in the pot…that would keep a watch over the other two and tattle tell.

No such luck. Sometimes he doesn't want to nap. He doesn't want to eat (unless, of course, it is Crayon or some dried up piece of food he found on the floor). He enjoys shoving popcorn in by the handful, spilling it everywhere. He pulls all the toys out. He pulls all my Ziplocs out. He throws hand fulls of flour all over...the list could go on and on. Good bye to my sweet little baby. Now it is official...HE'S ONE OF THEM/THING 3! YIKES!

The Holidays are Over…

On Christmas day, I heard a whisper at about 6. "Court, are you awake?" I am now. Then a few minutes later… "Court, I hear Logan…" Go get him. Logan woke up at about 6:30. Robbie had been awake off and on all night. He was too excited. At 7, we'd be up about a half hour and decided to wake up the big boys. They were so excited. Mostly, they loved the candy. Maybe that is all Santa will bring next year. He could save a lot of money.

NEVER AGAIN! Santa brought the kids nerds…What was he thinking? They both ripped open the box and poured them all over the floor. Logan was happy…it was an all you can eat buffet for him.

We had Robbie's parents over for breakfast and also had the missionaries. It was yummy…I always love Christmas breakfast…hot chocolate, orange juice, yummy egg/sausage casserole, crème brule French toast, fruit…YUM! After breakfast, we played Hungry Hippos and Cootie bug with the missionaries…they stayed for 3 hours! Finally, a little after 12, Robbie said, "Isn't it time to go call your moms?" Trust me, it was. Christmas day was pretty relaxing. Naps, games, movies…we loved it. It was just the way Christmas should be.

New Years, we went back to my dad's house. We, again, had a feast of Prime Rib, coconut shrimp, and hot wings. YUM! Our holidays are all about the food. I consider myself successful…I only gained 3 pounds during the holidays…ya….the week of Christmas and New Years! Yikes. Anyway, we went to bed early on New Year's Eve, and then on New Year's Day, we stayed up late and had a rowdy game of hearts with Marsha and my dad. We laughed so hard, I almost peed my pants about 4 times.

Now that the holidays are over, I do feel a little sad. I love seeing family and have fun with them. Why do we wait until Christmas to make things special? Meals, extra time spent together, doing thoughtful things? Maybe, my lesson learned this year is that time with my loved ones should be spent in abundance, not sparingly. The house work will wait…the relationship won't. I want to do better at this throughout the year this year.

12 Days of Christmas

This year, Robbie and I decided to do the 12 days of Christmas with our boys. We thought of an activity that we could do each day until Christmas. A lot of activities were things that we were going to do anyway, so we thought that we would make it fun and special. I made 12 red and green boxes on my cricut machine and put numbers on them. Each day, the boys took turns finding the number and opening the box. Inside was a little paper with a rhyme on it..."On the first day of Christmas, my parents' went/did/made with me..." Here are pictures of a few things we did. We also did things like read Christmas books, watch Christmas movies, and make cards (complete with paint…that was a lesson learned for me) It was so fun. We opened box #1 a few days before it was December 13. This kicked off our holiday season.

Day 1: Temple Square and the Dinosaur Museum

We opened the box on Friday morning. There was screaming and jumping and clapping when they learned that our activity was our annual trip to Salt Lake to see the lights. Carson listed why he liked Salt Lake a few days before...they have a square like we do...they have big buildings...they have "that motel with that BIG pool and hot tub"...they have lots of traffic...and duh, "David Archuletta lives there". He's been paying too much attention to his Grandma Marsha. We headed first to Toys R Us. They got to look and play with toys for a very long time. Then it was in to the Marriott for swimming. The most exciting thing was on Saturday, we took the boys to the dinosaur museum. We were there for 5 hours. The only reason they didn't cry when we left is because we told them that we were going to see the lights and go swimming.

The lights were fun. It was pretty warm, amazingly. But, Carson was a pill. He was so grumpy, but magically, the grumpies were gone when it was time to put on his swimming suit.

Sunday, we had my cousin come and stay with the kids at the hotel while we went to the broadcast of Music and the Spoken Word with Natalie Cole as the special guest. It was the perfect way to kick of the Christmas season. WOW. Thanks to my friend, Karrie, for the tickets.

Day 5: Doc's Pizza and the Rupert Square

Our cute little Rupert square is totally decked out at Christmas, complete with Nativity and Santa's house. Little one's can go on Saturday afternoons to visit Santa. They also have Christmas music playing. It feels like you are walking the streets in 1960. It is one of my favorite things about Rupert. On the fifth day of Christmas, we took the kids to have dinner on the square at what Nate calls "Doc's Pizza Hut" and then we walked around the square and looked at the lights.

Day 8: Grandma Great's House

On the eight day of Christmas, we visited my Grandma Johnson...the best and cutest 88 year old ever. She has a massive village and we went to visit her and see it. The boys were SO SO SO excited to see her. She has a special way with little ones. It was priceless to see them love her village and sign her registry...CARSON...written in a big preschool way.

Day 9: Cookies for Santa

Call, me crazy...just look at the pictures. It took 3 washes to get the flour out of their clothes. Plus, I think I am still cleaning flour off the floor! The pictures explain everything. We also had a special visitor on this day. Erica, my cousin, and our favorite babysitter and friend came to visit. She's been working at Disney World, so we hadn't seen her for a very long time. It was so nice to have her help. We love her and are glad to have her close again!

Day 11: A trip to Grandpa Bob's

This probably brought the most excitement of all. To say that the kids love their grandparents is a HUGE understatement. They were more excited about this than all the other days combined.

Day 12: A Christmas Eve Party

Anything with the word "party" in it is so exciting for my kids. But, to have all the family there on Christmas Eve made it extra special. We had 7 out of the 8 kids there. It was wild.

We had a feast: prime rib, garlic mashed potatoes, rolls, Sarah's salad, apple/snickers/real yummy whipped cream salad (if that can be a salad), cheese ball, salsas galore, and raspberry ice cream dessert. YUM!!!

We dressed the kids up and had my dad read the Christmas story. It was fun. We had a little problem...2 girls wanted to be Mary. Victoria ended up as Mary, and Taylor ended up as the Angel...She was not too thrilled...

Marsha is the best party hostess. She had a fun game for the kids. She had a whole bunch of presents wrapped and then the kids drew numbers. Then they chose a present. After the kids were done, the adults did this too, but we got to steal them from each other. The HOT items were giant glass mugs and a glass bowl. All presents were from the dollar store, but they were awesome.

Then we traded gifts. I had Brandon. I was so excited to give him his present. When we moved to Omaha, I was cleaning out our car and found the notes from the talk that my mom gave when Brandon went on his mission. I framed the notes and a picture of him and her outside the MTC. She was looking at him smiling the biggest grin. When he opened it, let's just say there were tear...Brandon, my dad, Heather...I love that.

Then we opened jammies...boring after the other fun presents...like the trampoline the kids got from Grandma and Grandpa. After that, it was time to head for Rupert. We got home around 10:30. We got the presents out, made our breakfast for Christmas, and went to be around 1.

A special Christmas "thank you" to my friend Karrie... On Wednesday morning, I realized that Robbie's presents were at her house. Robbie had taken the car with the car seats to work that day, and so I had no way to go get them. At 9am, I called her to see if she would drop them by our house while we were gone. She said that she'd bring them right over. I also told her that I was busy wrapping and that I had ZERO presents wrapped. I was planning a Christmas Eve all nighter. Well, Kerrie brought the presents and said, "Carson and Nate, get your shoes on. You are coming to my house to play." She kept them for 3 hours. It was a Christmas Miracle. I got everything done in that time. That is what good friends do. I don't know what I would do without such good friends!

Next post...Christmas Day...it won't be this long, I promise!