Christmas

 Christmas this year was awesome. It was the first year I did Christmas church clothes and I was pretty excited for Edyn and Lucy's matching dresses. They wore their clothes for 3 weeks straight and you can bet I tried to get a decent picture out of those three every time. It actually went better than I though, minus the robots in the second picture.

 We spent Christmas with Kevin's family this year and his sister and brother were able to come up from Idaho to spend it with us. They came up a few days early so we had plenty of time to bake and get ready for Christmas.

 Lucy and I have matching gingerbread aprons that my mom got us a few years ago. We wear them often and Lucy wore hers all day.

Christmas Eve pajamas. Edyn and Lucy have matching princess ones. I was trying to get them to look all festive with Christmas lights and it didn't quite work. Isak had fun shoving the lights in his pj top and making it light up though.

We put out cookies for Santa and carrots for the Reindeer and set out some corn cobs at Nana's on the back porch for the Reindeer as well. Isak was also following Santa on the Nordic Tracker all day on the computer to see where in the world he was. When he went to bed he was somewhere in Florida. Christmas eve we acted out the nativity, sang a song, read about the Christmas story and watched the Nativity video made by the church.  During the nativity only my kids wanted to participate so Lucy was the angel, Mary, and the shepard while Isak was Joseph and the wise man. Lucy sported a sheep hat and an angelic tree skirt around her shoulders and shouted for angry birds to come to the manager half way through. It was interesting to say the least.

I love setting out the gifts and stockings for Christmas morning. Its one of the best parts of having kids in my opinion. Isak asked for a robot and Lucy asked for a princess castle. Isak came in our room about 630 all ready to open presents and we went and woke up Lucy. She was very excited to see her princess castle.

She was also very sleepy. Isak couldn't figure out what to play with first. I scored some zhu zhu pets earlier this year for about $12...it included 6 pets, a track, ball and some other accessories. I found them each a new pet earlier this year on clearance at Walmart in addition too so it was a pretty awesome set. 

Lucy has played with her castle nonstop since she got it and Isak will even play with her with it, he just has his robot storm her castle or does something else involving his "boy" toys. Each princess plays her own song and I think I might love it as much as Lucy does.

The kids also got some new books, puzzles, games, DVD's, and a Wipeout kinnect game. Lucy got her beloved Barbie Camera that she's been asking for which she also carried with her for 3 days. Edyn got a vtech turtle thing to sit on and she was still sleeping so.. she played with it later.

Isak and Lucy also got a new bike which we had waiting for them at Kevin's mom's house that morning. They both really needed a new bike and I'm excited for when its warmer they can ride them outside. Conner also got a new one and Jayden scored a little battery operated 4 wheeler. That all the kids ended up loving, especially Edyn, and they all took turns riding it around the basement.

Edyn was a tad sleepy still Christmas morning.

Isak got some very cool hulk hands from Uncle Nate and Aunt Lindsey while we got some very cool Boise State gear and Lucy scored herself angry bird pj's and slippers.

Edyn took her first steps on Christmas Eve! She doesn't love walking but she took about 4 or 5 steps and then later did it again. She still very much prefers to crawl but will take a few steps here and there. I am just fine with her taking her time, I have a feeling once she starts she will get quick fast and then I will be chasing her everywhere.Christmas was wonderful other than our family being sick. We all had various forms of a cold bug and on Christmas morning Kevin's mom didn't have a voice and I laid on the couch with a fever and the chills. Luckily I felt better after falling asleep for a few hours and I was able to enjoy the rest of the day. We even got snow on Christmas!

Stoneridge

 Stoneridge! Kevin's parents have a timeshare up at a resort called Stoneridge, about 20 mins from Couer'd Alene. We went last year and had a blast and Isak has been so looking forward to going again. We picked up Isak a little early from school and went on our way. I gave the kids some new pajamas when we got there and the kids quickly changed into their swimsuits. They were so excited to swim! There is a HUGE pool there and hot tub.

 There was a little kitchen in our room so we made pizza for dinner in the mini stove. We also had a movie night with popcorn and then the kids crashed. We were able to shove Edyn in her pack in play in the bathroom and she slept pretty well in there where it was nice and dark and quiet.

 Edyn had lots of fun crawling around the room and taking the phone off the hook repeatedly. In the morning there was plenty of snow to go sledding and we found a perfect hill that was close by.

Lucy's favorite part of sledding was being pulled back up the hill.  Isak really loved going down over and over and even Edyn enjoyed sledding.

 I love sledding. I would've kept going but the kids were done.

After sledding Edyn went back for a quick nap and Kevin took the kids to play racquet ball. They also thought this was awesome. I had to work Saturday night so we just stayed one night but our kids were exhausted. So much fun packed into such a short time. It was great to be able to great away with our kids and spend some quality time with them. They are already asking when we can go back.

Gingerbread Houses

 We made gingerbread houses tonight for family home evening. I have such great memories of making these every Christmas with my family.  We always used graham crackers and my mom would make this cement frosting so everything would stick. Isak and Lucy were really excited and loved helping me pick out all the different candies.

 Isak was old enough this year that I hardly needed to help him. He was able to stick all the crackers together to make a house and then I helped him decorate it like he wanted. Lucy was more interested in eating the candy and Kevin did quite a bit of hers.

 They had a lot of fun. And I fully expect them to be eating the candy off of them from now till Christmas. That's half the fun!

I have been having problems uploading pictures to my blog so I haven't written anything for a while. But so much has happened recently I need to start writing some things down so I don't forget!
Isak is loving Kindergarten and gives me great behavior reports everyday of all the kids in his class..who made their day, who didn't, who chased who on the playground, etc. The parent/teacher conference we had with his teacher went really well and Isak is doing great and exceeding all of his benchmarks. His writing and coloring could use some more refining but I already knew that! He is super chatty when he gets home from school and will talk my ear off. I've gotten to help in his classroom a few times and it was a lot of fun. He is great with Edyn and can now carry her (kind of) for me for short distances in our house. He's going through a "I don't want to go anywhere even the bathroom by myself" phase at the moment which is super annoying but he's started making Lucy follow him everywhere so when she complies it makes it easier for me!  He's really excited for Christmas and has been asking me lots of in depth questions about Santa, his Elves, and how he delivers presents. So far I've been able to field all of them to his satisfaction.
Lucy has entered a "princess" phase and loves all things Cinderella and Barbie. She got to attend a "Ball" with Kevin and have a carriage ride which she thought was amazing. She wants a Barbie Princess Castle for Christmas and a Barbie camera. She is a very complimentary child and will tell us multiple times if she likes our clothes or our hair and will tell us how nice we look. Its pretty funny. I hope that's a character trait that sticks, I think she will make a lot of friends that way!  Kevin got his haircut and when he came home Lucy petted his head and said, "Wow Dad, you're hair is so nice. I love it."  She LOVES preschool and wants to go everyday. She also loves to eat popcorn and lay in my bed and watch Cinderella.  She is fairly tolerant of Edyn as long as she doesn't touch her pink blanket and will get down next to her and say, "Come on Edyn, lets crawl. Go Edyn!" and proceed to crawl across the floor with her. She also has some major OCD tendencies that I'm really hoping disappear as she gets older.

Christmas Party

Our ward Christmas party was this morning, we had a breakfast and then a little program. Isak was a shepard and it was quite entertaining to watch him and his little friends up there spinning around . I think by the end his friend had taken the belt off of Isak's outfit and was lassoing it around.

 Lucy has a lot of really great little friends in our ward. We are lucky to have so many young families with kids our age that live around us. Above is Lucy's little friend Ashlyn who she often refers to as Adalyn for some reason and she loves to follow her around. Below is Eliza, Lucy's semi twin, who happens to also wear glasses and rock the zebra coat. They are very cute.

 So the kids picture with Santa this year wasn't exactly idea. Edyn is horribly scared of being handed off to strangers, rightfully so, and so Kevin is holding her but behind Isak so you can't even see her. And Lucy has her hands in her mouth and won't look at the camera. But checkout that smile on Isak! Way to go bud! Lucy told Santa she wanted a Princess Castle and Isak wants a robot. Edyn just wants to get the heck away from Santa.

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. Isak's kindergarten class had a Thanksgiving party/celebration that I got to attend with him. They went from classroom to classroom and did turkey bingo, ate a small thanksgiving dinner, and did some other crafts. It was a lot of fun. My brother Paul and his wife Amanda came up on Monday from Idaho and my brother Aaron flew in that night from Texas. Isak LOVES his uncles and was pretty excited they were coming to visit. 

 I made my first layered jello and it turned out pretty good! It takes all day and you have to keep adding layers so I definitely think its a once a year kind of thing. We had Thanksgiving on Tuesday with my family as that was when we could all be together. And we got to have it in my new kitchen which is almost completely done!

 Edyn and Lucy scored some early Christmas presents, these Reindeer antlers, which they wore proudly. Dinner was super yummy and afterwards my mom, Amanda and I went to see Breaking Dawn II while the boys saw Skyfall. Paul and Amanda had to leave Wednesday but Aaron was able to stay for almost 10 days. Isak cried when he left, he really loves his uncle, we will have to maybe make a visit down to Texas sometime..

Another great thing happened last week, The Cougars won the Apple Cup! It was a great game, wonders never cease. We also had Black Friday and I bought way too much crap and now I have my kids Christmas presents as well as bday presents for the next year. 

 I found a sweet deal online where they design an outfit for your kid and ship it to you and the first time its $8 total. I found this cute outfit for Lucy and then promptly canceled the service. I think its $40 a month normally...who does that? Crazy.

On Thanksgiving day we ate dinner with Kevin's family and opted for ham instead of Turkey. It was delicious and we had way too many leftovers. Kevin apparently had some too late at night and was up all night Thursday puking his guts out. Then I got some form of his disease and we took turns being sick all weekend. Good times.

Edyn started crawling the beginning of November and got fast very quick. She eats everything in sight..except bottles. She's super cute and we love her.

 Lucy got to go to a princess ball with Kevin. It was a fundraiser in our community to raise money for the junior miss program. She got to go on a carriage ride with him and thought it was the best thing ever. All her prayers since then have included wishes to go to a princess party .

 She was ready way ahead of time and has recently discovered Cinderella and started to show interest in some girlier things. Its been fun.