Christmas Letter

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!! This year has been very full for us. We began it in our new house. We have spent the entire year, and entire paychecks-:), fixing it up. We've changed nearly everything imaginable. Our big project this fall was our kitchen. We painted the cabinets, changed the hardware, put in new appliances, got granite countertops, and are now in the process of picking out and installing the backsplash. Does it ever end? Hopefully we'll have fewer projects in 2009.
ROBERT has had a busy year. He was short an attorney in his office nearly the entire year so he was loaded with cases. He was also put into the bishopric this spring. What a surprise! Although it's a lot of work, he has enjoyed it, and we are noticing the growth and blessings that are coming from his service.
HEIDI is like any other mom--crazy busy! She spent the first half of the year still in Young Women's. She went to camp with them and then was released. In April she competed in a half-marathon. She volunteers once a week in Adam's school class. She also started teaching piano again and is part of a small group teaching preschool to our 3 year olds.
ADAM is now 6 years old. He started Kindergarten in August. He loves it! He really enjoys the constant stimulation and busyness of it. He has worked very hard this entire year learning how to cope and manage his OCD. We're pleased he is doing so well. He loves Ben 10, playing on the computer and writing. He will make list after list just to write. He has about 10 Christmas lists right now.
MATTHEW is 3 1/2 years old. He began preschool this fall, which he enjoys. He has become quite shy in large groups; he would rather play with just one or two friends. He loves playing games and any sport. He is definitely athletic.
We wish everyone a Merry Christmas. May you see the blessings in your lives.

Love, Robert, Heidi, Adam and Matthew

Christmas Came Early

Christmas came early in our house. Since we will be in Cheyenne on Christmas Day we decided to have our family Christmas this morning. We didn't tell the boys about it until last night and boy, did they get excited. Adam, our night owl, was up by 6:30am--way earlier than he gets up for school. We had a great time. Everyone loved their gifts. In fact, both Adam and Matthew kept saying thank you and telling us how much they like their gifts. We played with the toys and games and watched the new DVDs today. Now we're heading out to McDonalds for dinner. They earned their Happy Meals this week by eating the dinners every night. Here's a few photos from our day. You can see that both boys are excited. I love Matt's cute, little face; he's so expressive. Merry Christmas!!!

Toddlers or Teenagers--which is better?

Yesterday afternoon I spent three hours at Adam's school helping the teachers with 45 kindergarteners. Normally I help for an hour and a half with about 22 students. So, I was a bit surprised when I was there double the time with double the students. Holy Hannah Montana!! I was so tired when I got home. I could never be a kindergarten teacher. They have the patience of saints and the stamina of the Energizer bunny.
Later in the evening, I heard Adam and Matt playing around in their rooms. I went to investigate and they were pretending to have big muscles. They had put on lots of shirts and sweaters; Adam had on nine and Matt had on six. It made me think of what they might look like as teenagers after going through puberty, and perhaps after a few steroids. Here they are showing off and flexing their "muscles". Matt calls this his "tough guy" look.

More December Activities

Adam and Matt made a ginger-bread house on Sunday. As you can see, Adam is very anxious to eat it.

December Activities

This past week we have done some of the typical December activities. While we were cutting out paper snowflakes, Adam and Matt each found a strip of paper that looked like a mustache. They quickly found some tape and wore them the rest of the evening.

We took the boys to sit on Santa's lap. As you can see, Matt was less than thrilled once he saw Santa. However, both were excited about the candycanes they received. Matt was too scared to say what he wants. Adam said he wants Magic Tree House books.

St. Nicholas Day

For as long as I can remember, my family has celebrated the European holiday of St. Nicholas Day. Children all over Europe put out their shoes on the night of the 5th, sometimes filled with straw and carrots to feed St. Nicholas' horse. St. Nicholas then fills the shoes with candies, fruit, and little presents. Since I was a little girl, we have put our red, wooden shoes every December 5th. For me, this represents the start of the Christmas season. In fact, lots of times I was more excited about St. Nicholas Day than Christmas. I think, because, it was alway exciting to see what St. Nick would bring that would fit into our shoes. It couldn't be big or necessarily extravagant, and we didn't put in "requests" or "write a list". It felt more like a surprise to me. I've continued this tradition with my boys. This year they were VERY EXCITED. They put their snowboots under the Christmas tree on Friday evening. Both kept talking about St. Nick coming into our house and filling their boots. Matt was very curious if St. Nick would come into his bedroom while he was sleeping or if he would see his pajamas. They woke up a bit early Saturday morning and rushed to look in their boots. Throughout the rest of the day, they both kept mentioning how St. Nicholas knew what they liked. Matt got a small Nerf football and Adam got a Crazy 8s game.

We put our tree up this weekend--well, three of them. I decided to only do one big tree. I hadn't intended to use all of the ornaments (300 of them), but they boys wanted to. I took my brothers' advice and allowed Adam and Matthew to decorate the tree. I didn't comment once on where they placed them, and I haven't moved any of them. That's a major accomplishment for me. And you know, it was more fun. I didn't have to stress about decorating the tree or the time involved, since the boys did it. Yesterday afternoon, after church, we decorated two small Christmas trees. One went into Adam's room and the other into Matt's.

Macho, Macho Man

Is it possible for a 3 year old to be macho? Matt has completely fallen into a macho phase. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. He does have latin blood coursing through his veins, thanks to his dad, however, I just didn't think it would start this early. He refuses to use or eat anything pink or purple--no pink plates, no purple vitamins, no purple jelly beans, etc--you get the idea. He wouldn't even touch some pink and purples beads he was using for a craft project the other day. And the words 'pretty' and 'cute' are off-limits now. Today he was showing me something he made and I said, "that's pretty cool." He said, "Don't say pretty. It's cool." Sometimes we like to tease him by telling him we're going to give him Bratz and Barbies for Christmas. He quickly reminds us that those aren't 'boy toys'. It will be interesting to see how long this phase lasts. Perhaps, only 70 years.

Christmas Packages

I've been a bit of a humbug this holiday season. At least that's what Robert says. I think it's because I don't want to put up all four Christmas trees like we did last year. I'm still tired from last Christmas. We haven't put up any trees or any decorations yet. I think I only want them up for a couple of weeks because I'm the one having to decorate everything and having to keep the kids from touching the decorations. I'm a tree-nazi. I love a beautiful tree. And when I decorate a tree I put each ornament in the perfect spot and I do not want it moved...EVER. So, it's very trying on my patience to not get upset when the boys want to look and touch the ornaments. Anyhow, back to being a humbug. I think I'm finally losing that feeling. I went Christmas shopping this morning while the boys were in school. It was fun--picking out some things that I know they'll really enjoy. I'm also starting to put together Christmas packages to mail out. To me, Christmas packages are my most favorite part of the holidays. I think it's because they were such a big part of our Christmases growing up all over the world. We never lived by our relatives, and quite often, were an ocean away. So, we always received lots of packages. It was always very exciting to see what goodies were inside. This is when we got to eat M&Ms. My grandma always included them in her packages. Since my dad is a dentist we RARELY got to eat M&Ms. Also, my mom would always put together such beautiful packages to send out. I remember seeing her assemble them on the dining table, usually 6 or 7. She still does great packages, and when I put a package together I try to think how she would do it and what she may include and how to make it fun and exciting. I'm still not sure when our Christmas tree will go up, perhaps this weekend. However, the Christmas packages are getting assembled and sent out soon.