Don't Tell Livy Santa's Coming to Town

Seriously. Even mentioning his name is a big no-no in our house now.

So last night we put the kids to bed early because they had been napless due to our 3rd viewing of Tangled in the movie theaters (STILL LOVE IT!). Anyhoo, so we put her to bed at like 6:30 and I told her that Santa will check and see if she's sleeping and if she isn't, he can't leave presents. Bad idea! I went back up there like a half hour later and Livy was no where to be found. I called her name and she came crawling out from under her bed almost in tears. I asked what was wrong and she said, "I don't want Santa to come in my room!!!" The poor girl was terrified! She was so nervous! I told her he wouldn't come in her room but that he'll just leave presents.

So I go back up another half hour later and she's still almost in tears. She told me to call him and tell him not to come in our house at all! It was so sad. So we told her she could fall asleep in our bed and that Santa had already come and brought the presents but that Santa said she couldn't open them until she fell asleep and woke up. Then when we said that, she asked, "Did he bring my big bike?" We started laughing - we couldn't deny it because we had already said the presents were here. haha So we told her that he did and that she gets to play with it once she wakes up. So around 10 she finally fell asleep!

After Livy finally fell asleep, Santa's little elves spent about 4 HOURS putting together this little wing-ding. Yes, it's a Barbie MANSION! It's ginormous. Liv was literally able to climb into it when she saw it. She loves it! Santana (Santa-Nana) brought it - along with every other gift they got (minus like 2)! They were spoiled this year for sure!

We were so excited to have our own Christmas here as a little family! We set our Christmas Eve traditions and learned some lessons. We want to go to a movie each Christmas Eve - but you have to go to an early one because this is apparently everyone else's tradition as well! Then we want to have brinner each year. After some delicious brinner - we're going to have a Christmas themed FHE where we read about Christ in the scriptures and discuss what a special person He was. After that, our treat/activity will be to make Santa some Rice Krispy treats! Because he get's enough cookies and because decorating cookies with little ones is just too stressful :) We also learned never to tell a small child that a strange old man will come peek in their rooms!

Here's Adam after the movie. He discovered his love for licorice!

So then Matt woke all of us up at 7:30 out of pure excitement! Adam and I weren't as pleased since we knew we could have gotten another hour of sleep but it was cute to see Matt hard at work getting every camera we own ready to capture Adam's first Christmas!

Christmas Pajamas from Nana

Livy was so freaking excited when she saw her Barbie mansion and bike that she said she didn't want to open any presents! Ha! And little Adam was obsessed with his Buzz Lightyear push thing. He LOVES it! He wasn't really into the presents thing. I thought he might be, but he was more interested in pulling Livy's bike streamers off.

Adam was loving Grandma and Grandpa Wiseman's gift. Pure joy on his face.

Cute face

Livy's newest baby named Baby. She took it around with her everywhere we went today.

After the presents extravaganza, we went to eat breakfast at my sister-in-law's sister's house. Her family has become like our family. Then I went with the kids to my aunt Susan's house while Matt worked (lame). But it was so enjoyable and Livy had cousins to play with all day which she loved! All in all, it was a good day!

Random Christmas-y Pics:Livy and Adam in their Christmas Sunday dress.

Here's Matt's present that Livy is loving. Yes of course, a sweet hunting game on the wii. Matt and I actually made it to like 3 days before Christmas before telling each other what we got! We were pretty proud of ourselves.

Livy and just one of her potential arranged marriage husbands, Skyler. One of our favorite friends, the Matthews, are visiting for Christmas and we scored some time with them!

Sweet bows I made for presents this year!

We hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas!

FINALLY Meeting Santa

So, we have attended TWO church Christmas parties this season and our kids had yet to see Santa! He was a no show both times! (Lame) ANYHOO, Matt's brother, Ben, had this community Christmas party thing and SANTA FINALLY CAME TO TOWN!

A couple hilarious things happened at this gathering. First, before Santa made his grand entrance - we were asked to sing "Here Comes Santa Clause." Quickly try to sing that song in your head. Do you know any of the lyrics past "...right down Santa Clause lane?" Because we didn't. Neither did all of the people there. It was so funny. So instead we broke out into "Santa Clause is Coming to Town." It was just like Elf. Awesome.

Then, Santa was so awesome. Before he sat down he went all around to the kids to say hi and to tell them to come sit on his lap. When he told Livy this she quickly blurted out, "I want a big girl bike!" Santa laughed and asked her to come sit down on his lap anyway because he might have a present.

THEN, Santa finally sat down and no one moved except for Livy, of course. She ran up there (even though she was still a little scared) and hopped on his lap and quickly reminded him that she wanted a big girl bike for Christmas. Everyone was laughing. Here we are crashing their party, and Livy's taking full advantage of the situation. We were laughing so hard.

Then we put Adam on his lap and tried to take a picture. Here it is:

He was beyond terrified. So we rescued the poor boy and Livy got down from his lap and then immediately told me (in front of him), "He's going to bring me my big girl bike!" I mean, she really wants this thing!

Anyway, the kids sat back down and played with their sweet treats/gifts from Santa.

Then Santa gestured us over and wanted to try one more time with Adam. We were smart this time and popped some candy in his mouth. Best idea ever! Livy was hesitant this time, of course! Apparently, she was scared of his "big fluffy beard." Ha! So we did what any good parent would in a stressful moment - bribed her. She accepted and hopped back on his lap and told him, "Merry Christmas!" So cute.

Perfect!

Ward Party (Bust)

This year we decided to take our nephews to our ward party with us so that their parents could enjoy some alone time. (Side note: Not quite ready for 5 kids - 4 of them being boys :)) But, I was so excited for all of the kids to meet Santa and decorate cookies. Unfortunately, the party this year was a little bit disappointing. It was a SUPER SWEET party - but only if you are super old. It was Hawaiian themed and they had a lot of cool stuff, but it was all zero kid friendly. I mean, we have three nurseries - so the majority of our ward is children. Come on!

They had these sweet punch fountains that all of the little kids contaminated almost immediately. They had sweet tables with grass skirts around them that were torn down almost immediately. And they had awesome center pieces that were super breakable that the kids tried to attack almost immediately... And the most depressing part - no Santa!

Here's what our table looked like with the interesting food choice.

Aidan's expression says it all.

Our only saving grace was this little thing that covered only our table. The kids did a good job picking out table.

Here's my nephew, Dylan. He was the instigator with these weird things. He kept trying to convince me that something was in them, to which I replied there wasn't anything and stop touching them! So finally we gave in and told him he could open one and see and of course - there were little kid presents inside! Ha! Matt and I just started laughing. Only our table had these things and we decided to let the kids have at them - since they were constantly being told they could touch NOTHING that was there.

Here's Livy and Jake. They were LOVING the music.

Some sweet moves.

Cutest little bugger ever. At least he liked the party.

Temple Square 2010

Last Sunday we decided to venture out with my Aunt Wendy's familia to Temple Square to experience the awesome lights! I was so excited to take Adam and Livy!

Unfortunately, Adam was not sharing the same enthusiasm. After we got him all geared up - he was not the happiest camper.

I love Christmas lights. See this tree? When I have a million dollars and big trees like this in my yard - they are going to be this covered in lights. It's going to be AWESOME.

Since we last took this picture, we've added a new kid to the mix. Welcome, Adam.

We got Livy these little boots and she LOVES them.

And the boots have a see through bottom - how cool is that?

I'm not sure why we decided to bring the stroller - we had our human strollers, Wendy and Bob, the entire time.

It's been forever since I've gone up and seen this statue. Livy saw the giant statue from outside and begged to go see Jesus!

Matt and I were beside ourselves with excitement.

She was loving posing by everything - I didn't even have to ask. She would just tell me to take the picture after she got her pose just right.

She also only wanted to pose by the things that were always there. Ha.

The boy fell asleep for a little while and then woke up happier than ever at the end.

There's nothing cuter than baby mittens :)

Livy dropped the H bomb

This little one has had some interesting things to say lately! She seriously talks a mile a minute! I'm not kidding. And she NEVER STOPS! You'd think she would run out of things to say, but when that happens she then starts describing exactly what you or she is doing at that moment to keep the conversation going.

Yesterday, she woke up from her nap and I guess she had just had a dream that I was yelling at her (awesome - mom of the year award when your kid is dreaming about you being mad at her...) and in her dreamy state of mind told Matt, "I hate Mom. She's a mad guy." Yep, she dropped the H bomb. Luckily it has zero sting - I mean, with the way I was when I was younger - she was bound to say it MUCH sooner than later. She also calls the villains in shows "mad guys." It's so funny.

And lately we've been talking about what Christmas is and at first when we asked she would say: "Jesus will open his presents and share with me!" Now she says: "Jesus' birthday. And he got a star. And he will share his presents!" Yesterday, in the car, she could not stop talking about Jesus. We were on a 45 minute drive to take something to Matt and she talked that whole time about Him. Here are some of the things she said:

"Jesus misses me."
"Jesus is my best friend!"
"Jesus is my brother and Adam is my brother and my best friend!"
"Jesus LOVES me!"
"Jesus love you too, Adam!"
"Jesus loves everyone!"
"I miss Jesus."
"Jesus died, but Jesus He's at the temple. I'm getting married in the temple! Jesus and Heavenly Father will be there!"
"I saw Jesus last week." (??? I think she meant church...)
This was only the stuff I can remember. But it went on for a good 45 minutes!

She also LOVES to call people on her pretend phone. It's usually one of her two grandmas or Cos. She will carry on the funniest conversations! Today she called Grandma Sherrie on her phone and kept saying, "Thanks so much for my snowman. I love it!" It's so hilarious. Then when she's talking to Nana she'll just keeping saying yes and no over and over like she's answering questions.

But seriously, this kid is so freaking smart. Life with her is going to get super interesting in a couple years. I don't know how we're going to keep up!

Anyhoo, lately these two have become the best of friends. I'm really trying to instill friendship status with these two from the get-go. I want them to always stand up for each other and have fun with each other so we're constantly telling Livy that Adam is her brother but also her best friend! Adam loves watching Livy and is always trying to keep up with her and Livy has taken on the parent/boss-head role most of the time to him, but she loves playing with him, too. It's fun to watch!

Best FriendsLove these crazies!

"This is the best movie EVER!"

That's what Livy said while we watched this, but it's totally true. This is my favorite Disney movie EVER! Liv and Matt went on a daddy/daughter date a couple days ago and saw this and Matt knew I'd love it. Then we realized we could go see it for free so we went yesterday to a matinee with both kids. Adam slept the whole time and Livy gave it her usual 45 minutes and then played musical chairs.

But anyhoo - best movie ever! I'm pretty sure I am the only person on earth who started crying 5 minutes into it. I guess I'm super hormonal, but it's a movie all about my biggest fear - having my kid kidnapped and raised by a mean lady - haha it's true. I'm terrified of this very thing. So I was crying through the whole thing HA! But I really did love it- great music, humor, and actors!

Livy kept saying hilarious things while watching it:

When the mean mom told Rapunzel that she would never get out EVER - Livy screamed EVER! and everyone started laughing.

"This movie is awesome!"

"This is so funny!"

Sick Eyes - For Real

Do you feel like you have pink eye now? The more we look at them, the more Matt and I are convinced that we ourselves have pink eye as well :) We're head cases.

Here's what we've been battling the last couple weeks. Last week it was Liv and we were worried because we're still waiting for Matt's insurance to kick in but then it went away after a couple days and we kept her away from Adam so he wouldn't get it.

But then yesterday we looked down at the boy and his eyes had started! The poor kid is in pain at night and absolutely HATES having his eyes cleaned. I feel so bad! So anyhoo, we've been confined to our home for another week now - hopefully it will clear up as quickly as Livy's did.

Tis the Season!

So I've felt like I've been in a rut lately dealing with depressing weather and separation anxiety from our last home, but I've decided to pull myself out of it because this is the coolest time of the year and my little family deserves better from me.

We started the season off the wrong way by losing to Utah... Not okay. Uncle Drewbee and Aunt/Traitor Megan came over for some football fun. SO CLOSE BYU! But whatev. We think Adam might be a traitor as well - he crawled to the red snowman instead of the blue one. It's okay, I've got 18 years to brainwash him.

So then we decided to wipe our slates clean and start the season off on the right foot by going to the Festival of Lights in Spanish Fork. It's just so cool! Livy thought it was awesome. She really got to enjoy it this year. And she'll probably get to enjoy it a couple more times because I freaking love it!

Livy was so excited to see the penguins.

Then we got to go enjoy my aunt, Wendy's, ward Christmas party where this interesting old lady told this really interesting Christmas story. Livy was so excited to go up on the stage with the kids.

Interesting lady, Interesting story...

Adam and Uncle Bob

Then Aunt Amy came to town for what felt like 5 seconds, but we were excited to see and spend time with her!

Photo courtesy of Livy

And then Adam had his first candy cane... HEAVEN. That's all I'm going to say.

He has an uncanny ability to suck things into extinction. It's so funny. He can finish a lollipop in like 5 seconds. No joke.

It was like the oreo - he kept looking at us and chuckling and then going in for more.

He was so gross at the end. He was even able to leave a hand print on my leg!

We also have our fresh tree up and decorated AND we have lights on our little home outside (blue and white, of course). So exciting! The Christmas tree just makes our home feel cozy - I love it! I'll have to post pics later.