Christmas 2010

We had a pretty good Christmas this year! Joe had to work on Christmas day so we woke Porter and Adlee up at 5am so that Joe could see them open their gifts. Joe went off to work and I had the joy of coercing them back to sleep. We were not quite sure but maybe if we went back to sleep Santa might come back again and leave more presents. It ends up that it doesn't work like that but thank goodness for Grandma and Grandpa and their sack of toys.
The kids got way to much... as always! I look at everything wondering how in the world we are going to fit one more thing in to our home and then the toys are magically absorbed into the chaos that is our life.

Here the kids on Christmas Eve. Look at Hudson's little grin..melt my heart!



5am is super early!
Adlee loves her doll and kitchen!
Adlee helps Hudson unwrap his toy!
Porter and his new bike!

Hudson loves his Rex dino!


The kids were in their very first Church Christmas program a couple weeks ago! Adlee and Porter both had songs to sing and a poem to recite.
Porter played with Adlee's hair, Adlee yelled stop several times very loudly, I was sure their was going to be a brawl before it was over.
Adlee was always a bit behind on the motions:)


The kids with Santa and no one is crying!
Look, it's Melvin our Christmas Elf! Melvin spends the month of December with us watching over the kids and then he reports back to Santa each night. Every morning Melvin is in a new spot in the house and the kids have a Melvin scavenger hunt each morning. We ♥♥♡♡♡ Melvin and we are sad to see him go back to his North Pole home. Only 334 days until he comes back!
I love our chalk door!
I love our stocking sign!

Little one turns ONE!

Our baby turned one on the 19th! It's crazy how it seems that one year has been a very long time and a very short amount of time all in one. It seems like it was not very long ago that I was pacing the hospital wondering what in the world I was doing there for the 3rd time! But....I can barely remember his sweet little newborn cries and the tiny little guy we brought home from the hospital.
At one year Hudson still doesn't say much and only has 2 teeth out with 3 more ready to come through at any minute. He is a tough little guy who takes his fair share of torture from the bigger two. Porter loves packing him around while he screams to get loose and Adlee loves loving on him. He has rhythm like no other baby I've known. He is a comedian like his sister (only in the silent mischievous way).
He has many names: Hubs, Huds, Baby Hudson, Little Man, Diesel, Butters, and Hubba Bubba. He is our sweet little Hudson.






My self imposed rules that will be in place from this year on:
I will never wrap his birthday presents in Christmas paper.
His birthday party will take place on his birthday or at least before Christmas!
He will have birthday themed parties and cakes not Christmas themed!
Please help to keep me accountable to my rules!

Advent Conspiracy

They showed this at church last week. I love it!

McCall

Tim and Jenny in front of Payette Lake.


My cute little man at the ice skating rink.The cutest little ice skates on the cutest little feet in the whole world.
Porter,"I kinda hate ice skating"
Adlee did an awesome job with a little help from Uncle Tim.
Jenny's first time ice skating.
Tubing: Going up!
Tubing: Coming down!

Tim and Jenny bought Porter a book full of paper airplanes. Tim and Porter had a great time making them and even more fun flying them. Tim and Jenny with the kiddos!

Sledding with Uncle Tim

gifninja.com Create custom animated gifs at gifninja.com!

Yummy Treats

The kids made chocolate covered marshmallows today. The were so easy and fun! I need to remember this next year.

Cookies

The kids helped make cookies last night. I have decided it is a good thing we don't live by family that might unexpectedly drop by because 87.2% of the time we are home my kids are running around in their underwear. I have come to terms with it and have decided that it is our way of helping the planet by cutting back on laundry.



Today I decided to try my hand at royal icing. It is a lot of work to prepare but it is so pretty. Through this process I found out that my calling in life is definitely not as a baker/cookie decorator.

Pause the music on the right hand side first.

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Beautiful Girl

Oh, how we love this sweet little girl!




Facts about our two and half year old princess.
She loves the color purple.
She loves butterflies.
She is never clean.
She likes watching Christmas Barney, Dora and Diego.
She says her favorite food is spaghetti.
She likes giving her baby a bath.
She is tough.
She loves her brothers.
She is great at helping put the silverware away.
She is the funnest 2.5 year old I know.
She loves to dance with or without music.
She says "I wove you so much" at random times throughout the day.
Most of the time she listens better than her brother.
She loves to help with Hudson.
She is sweet, caring, helpful, loving and perfect!

Snow Day!

Starting Tuesday afternoon the snow started dumping on us and by Wednesday we easily had 9 inches of fresh powdery snow. The kids played in the snow throughout the day. I made the kids into life size elves! I finally got around to taking a picture of our steal of a Christmas tree. We got a 10 foot noble fir for $14.99. Now I hope we can keep it around until Christmas. It is the best tree we have ever had!

What fun it is to be 4!

This morning Porter was given the choice of getting in the bath or washing off by rolling in the snow. I thought I was being funny!


Can you guess which one he chose?

Gobble, Gobble, Yawn!

Yesterday we enjoyed a very symmetrical veggie tray. Symmetry is a very important life skill and makes me feel at ease. I could have stared at it all day:)


What is this? A fabulously symmetrical tray of plenty! Everyone was instructed to take one item from each side as to not screw with the loveliness.


Wait, did I mention that we had enough food to feed an army which is a great thing since there were four adults there and three small children.



We had just enough food to make robots with.


Adlee stood on her head for a while to help with digesting. She can eat as much, if not more, then an average four year old!


Hudson whined a little lot but at least he looked cute doing it.


This was our family at the beginning of the night. Not sure who the dude in black with the funky hair is but he looks like he just showed up from Club 7 or maybe it was work...hmm I can't remember now.


Look at all this cuteness. I absolutely did not have to raise my voice or threaten any of these sweet children in order to get this masterpiece. I promise.


Ahh... look at how Hudson is looking at his brother in awe.


This is how our family looked at the end of the night.


I bought the material to make Adlee's dress a while ago. So sad it did not turn out very cute. She kinda looks like a pilgrim though. I am not a seamstress and don't know how to use patterns so I thought I would be able to make it up as I go...and it did not work out for me. I used the extra pieces to make the boys ties so at least they matched. And look at the symmetry in this picture.....beautiful!