Christmas '08

This year, Christmas actually seemed a little more relaxed than years past. Not exactly sure why since we still did the same routine. We open presents and have breakfast here at home and then sometime in the afternoon we head to Nana's house for more presents and dinner. My dad lives close to her so we usually go to his house to visit after dinner. Naturally, the kids had a blast and got lots of cool things. Emma is getting more into opening things and was trying to help Hailey with her stuff too. Anyways, here are a few pictures from the day.

The tree after Santa's visit

The stockings were laid out on the couch with care...we have a chimney but it is downstairs and we don't use that area!

Kayla's ultimate present....a gift certificate for Tangles Salon and Day Spa to get her hair done by my friend Sue

One of Eli's ultimate gifts from Darlin...it has this little alien with a UFO that sounds like the Jetsons vehicles!

Eli's ultimate, ultimate gift...a Nintendo DS. This is the first game system we have purchased for any of the kids!

Emma with her baby doll from Santa. Whenever you would ask her what Santa was going to bring her, the response was always "Santa's gonna bring me a baby doll"! So naturally that was what he had to do! The funny thing was that I went out one night to buy this thing and promptly showed JR and the big kids because I thought it was too darn cute. Eli is getting to the age now where he isn't sure if he believes in Santa or not. So he immediately looks up at me when she opens this thing and says something about me getting it but how can it be from Santa! Oops! And the really funny thing about this doll is that it says 5 different cheers and my 12 yr old has all of them memorized and moves to go along with them! I swear Kayla plays with this doll way more than Emma!

Hailey with her cool Peek-a-blocks from Darlin

Eli with his Nerf Vulcan from Nana....he also has a Nerf bow (he calls it his big, bad bow) so I have seriously been dealing with not just Eli playing with this thing....his father has been playing too! They love to have wars with them and we all get stuck in the middle! I even got ambushed one day by JR when I came in the front door.

One last little gift from Santa! This was at the end of the day when we finally got home from Nana's. Hailey under the tree with a portion of loot collected throughout the day!

Air show

So while the girls and I went to the zoo, JR and Eli went to an air show. Both of my boys love things that fly and it was a rare opportunity for just the two of them to go do something without the rest of us. JR called me to let me know that Eli was going to get to ride on a helicopter! I was super bummed that I couldn't be there to see it so I made JR promise to take pictures. How exciting for Eli because he has never even flown on an airplane. And at some point he had been promised a helicopter ride sometime in his lifetime and he had remembered it.

Look at that ear to ear smile....I just love it! This was where they had to stand to wait for the helicopter to come pick them up. They were the last ride of the day because of the weather.

This is just before boarding the helicopter. That is their pilot Sterling behind Eli.

This was right after. I can tell by Eli's face that the kid came right off that thing talking. I'm sure he had lots to say!

There were no pictures when they were inside because it was a bit squished. They flew over Memorial Park and over my work. JR said they were so low that he could read the words on the sides of our trucks at work! And Eli got a big kick out of the headphone/microphones that they wore. He talked the whole time to JR.

Busy!

It has been a while since I have had the chance to do a post because we have apparently been a little more busy than I realized!

On Friday the 25th was JR's birthday. We took him out to dinner and made him birthday brownies. Though his dad gave him a homemade cheesecake which tasted way better than our box brownies so that really ended up being his birthday cake!

In the meantime, my step brother and his family came home from Alaska (he was in the Army) and was spending the week here before moving on to Delta to live there. So we spent some time with them and went to a couple of parks so the kids could all play together along with his mom and my nephew. My step brother's birthday was the 28th so the entire family plus a couple family friends all went out to dinner. Was fun times for sure!

So now we are just going to take it easy for the next couple of weeks before school starts here. Kayla is very much excited for it, Eli, not so much!

Hailey is getting fatter by the day. I took a couple of pictures that I would have loved to share last night but for some reason my other camera is starting to act up so I lost the pictures! Ugh! She is still waking up twice a night but she is doing good on her routine/schedule. And Emma is still doing great with her. Hailey loves to lay on her brothers chest in the morning after her bottle while I eat breakfast with Emma. And of course Kayla is always a HUGE help with both the girls! I don't know what I would do without her!

Emma is pretty much talking in full sentences now. It is sometimes entertaining to listen to her try to form it. She will repeat the words until they come out sounding just right to her. It may take her 5 tries but until it's perfect she will not quit! And for the most part, you can understand what she is saying. Of course there is still the occasional word that you just can't make out though.

The Latest

Sorry it has been so long but the last couple of weeks have been, well, long. So here is what has been going on in our house....

Kayla - she had a school play and had a few lines to say. However, she had no voice because she was sick so she couldn't really SAY anything! I got her on camera but since you can't hear her it isn't very fun! Her last day of school was this past Thurs. She is now officially a 7th grader! Geez she is growing up so fast! I haven't seen her report card yet because they mail out the last one to parents.

Eli - Since finishing soccer his life has been able to slow down a bit. He had a field trip to the zoo on Tues that dad got to go on too. Actually, dad got to be a "helper" on the field trip because there weren't enough adults volunteering! And Eli's last day of school was Thurs and he is no officially a 3rd grader! He got good grades on his report card...he just needs to focus on focusing!

Emma - Her vocabulary is growing by the day. She continues to learn new words and it is fun listening to her try to use them like we do. She will try to repeat something and has to do it very slowly but it usually will come out as close to right as you can expect from a 20 month old! The best though was last Sunday Eli, Emma and I were all in the car and naturally had the radio on. The song Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis came on and all of the sudden Emma started singing it! It was too cute because her voice would go high pitched just like Leona's at the right time. Of course I have tried for a repeat performance so Kayla and daddy could hear it but she isn't cooperating!

As far as the pregnancy goes, my fluid level still continues to fluctuate. I have also been sick with laryngitis (along with the 3 kids) and now am sick again with what my Dr says is just sinus pressure but I suspect a sinus infection. I know that all of this being sick is not helping the rest of my body take care of itself. I had a regular ultrasound (as opposed to the quick fluid check) to see how big the baby is. She weighs approx 4lbs 11oz which apparently is totally average. The Dr. was concerned about size because I tend to have bigger babies. I don't think Hailey will be as big as Emma was especially since she will be born a week early. We did learn that she has flipped to be head down so she is at least obeying as far as that goes!

JR and I celebrated our 9th wedding (13 yrs total) anniversary yesterday! Since I wasn't feeling too hot we just went out to dinner and hung out at home the rest of the night.

Farewell Suburban

Yesterday JR traded in our Suburban for a full size truck so we must say goodbye to our beloved SUV. We actually only had it for less than a year but it sure came in handy this summer. I would trade it with Jess while she watched my kids 2 days a week so if she wanted to take her 3 plus my 3 kids anywhere they could all just pile up in it and I would drive her little Saturn. We even loaded that thing up with all of our bikes plus Emma's trailer and went up to Boulder to ride with friends.

Anyways, there were a couple of tears shed by a sweet boy truly loves cars and hated to see it go. He has done this with other vehicles too! But he is also very excited about the new truck. It is a 2000 Chevy 2500LS. The only thing we don't have is that 3rd row of seating because the interior of this thing is the same freaking size! The good news is that what made this trade-in necessary is that JR has recently signed a contract for 6 commercial properties in Denver! So this is a vehicle that can pull a load, and can also have a plow put on it (he already has 1 plow truck) to grow his business that much more. Now we just have to continue to pray for snow to come our way and we will be good!

Here is the Suburban....

And here is the new truck..........look at how it drawfs my poor little Blazer and you can see the corner of the current plow we have