Christmas fun

Chase was the first one up Christmas morning. We told the kids that when they woke up to stay in their rooms, turn on their lights and we'd come get them.

 This is what we saw when we woke up the girls, about 6:45am. Zoe really wasn't ready to wake up until we told her Santa had come. And Maeley was somewhere under her blanket.

Chase was ready to start opening presents though.

 Five Little Monkey's board game from Aunt Kari and Uncle Marc.

 Gifts from Tama and Papa.

 Always a fun mess to clean up.

We were done opening gifts by 7:30 and spent the next hour and a half cleaning up and putting things away.

The rest of the day was pretty laid back. We went for a walk to the park to let Zoe ride her new car and Chase his scooter. After lunch the kids just continued playing with their toys. Maeley loves her Leapfrog Explorer so much. We let her play however much she wanted that weekend and came Tuesday there were strict rules enforced. It's working perfectly. 

Chase's favorite toys from Christmas are his bucket of soldiers and a spider man action figure.

Maeley loves her Rapunzel dress and doll and Leapfrog Explorer.

Zoe loves her tent, Lotso bear.

 Daddy was so nice that she got to sleep in her tent Christmas night. She's actually taking a nap in it right now. She's been carrying Lotso around everywhere. She's loved him since we saw Toy Story 3 in theaters.

The kids have told us over and over again that they had a wonderful Christmas. Maeley continues to thank Heavenly Father for it in her prayers. I love my little family!

Traditions

Derek and I haven't set too many Christmas traditions since being married.  A tradition that we have now done for the past three years is on Christmas Eve we bake sugar cookies for Santa. This year be actually did it on the 23rd so we weren't in the kitchen all day considering we made a nice Christmas Eve dinner for just us.  We all had a blast. They are far from perfect though.

 Maeley wanted the reindeer to be Rudolph with his red nose.

Each of the kids got to choose one cookie for Santa.

Maeley chose the snowman,

Chase picked the reindeer and

Zoe picked Santa.

Maeley had to add a carrot for Santa's reindeer.

The cookies for Santa plate and milk for Santa glass Derek and I purchased at Disneyland when we were there for our first Christmas.  

As a kid my family always went to my Crandall grandparents house Christmas morning after opening presents and having breakfast. It was always so much fun. Their dining room table was filled with treats. In the center was a tiered tray usual filled with chocolates. Seriously ever kids dream.  So I got my tiered plate holder out and filled with sweets.

My favorite Christmas tradition when I was a kid was opening new pj's on Christmas Eve. The kids and Derek really enjoy it now too.

 There have been many pictures lately of Zoe closing her eyes when she smiles.

I'm making this a tradition getting a family picture in our new jammies. We did this last year too. Lola wasn't going to be in the picture but I think she wanted to be.

Projects

I would post pictures of Christmas but apparently I have hit my limit on free photo storage on my blog. I didn't realize there was a limit. So I had to purchase more storage and have to wait 24hours before I can upload any pictures. Lame.

This holiday season has been more relaxing than ever before. Mainly that's due to the fact that we had Christmas shopping done by the end of November and that we live away from family now. We have completed more projects the past two months than the previous months living here. Actually on Christmas day by the afternoon Derek and I were bored. The kids were playing with their new toys and we didn't want to watch TV. Instead we decided to paint our bathroom. That pretty much took the rest of the day.

Here's a list of what we have accomplished in November/December.

-paint balusters white (a couple more touch ups and we're done)
-paint some picture frames and hang in the family room
-hang shelves and pictures in the playroom & upstairs hallway
-paint girls bedroom
-paint the red trundle bed white
-paint two lamp bases white
-paint tree on wall in the girls room
-paint all trim and doors white upstairs
-paint master bathroom
-remove nasty "stained glass" mural on window in family room (oh happy day)
-move around some of the stepping stones in the backyard to be more functional
-fix benches to our kitchen table set
Projects we hope to finish soon
-paint half bath down stairs (same color as master bath)
-paint kids bathroom upstairs (white)
-paint kids vanity black
-paint laundry room (same color as Chase's bedroom)
-paint all trim and doors down stairs white

After listing all these things we've done I realize how much painting we do. In our defense an all beige house is quite ugly. Ceiling, walls, trim, carpet...its gets old...fast. Plus it looks dirty. We still haven't picked out a color for the family room. That's a big job as the family is open to the kitchen and the loft upstairs. Every time we go to Lowe's I just don't think about it.

Meet Lola

She is now part of our family. She's a four year old Cocker Spaniel. Getting another dog has been a long time coming. We've been to the animal control shelters here many times trying to find the right dog for our family. Derek and the kids have been way more eager for a dog than me. We've had a Cocker Spaniel before which I didn't think Derek totally cared for him. Until lately he has mentioned what a great dog Charlie was and how he would have been perfect with the kids. Unfortunately he ran away, it was a mistake on Derek's part accidentally leaving the back gate open and not noticing until the next morning. So then I said well if we're going to get another cocker I want a puppy because they are so cute. After looking and looking we never found any near by and some that were a few hours away were so expensive. Petsmart was having an adoption fair this past weekend so we decided we'd go check it out. Both of us weren't expecting to go home with a dog after all we had been looking for awhile and never got one. But we saw her, her name was Lucy. A couple reasons why we changed her name. One- because Derek's family had a pug named Lucy and two because I didn't want people thinking we were naming our Cocker Spaniels after the Peanuts cartoon. I hate the Peanuts cartoons, seriously. She is so good with the kids and the kids are so good with her.

Lola found one of Chase's bouncy balls and that is now her favorite one to play with. Chase is getting it out of her mouth to play some catch.

 Maeley giving some loves to Lola.

Sunday right after we got home from church I went upstairs to put Zoe down for a nap. I was trying to keep Zoe from waking up so I didn't close the garage door and apparently Lola nosed the door to the garage open and escaped. Maeley saw it happen and told Derek. Derek saw her running in front of our house ran after her. He was still in his church clothes but in dress socks no shoes. He finally caught her after about a block. Now we know she's an escape artist. Growing up I had a cocker that did that too, all the time.

Monday afternoon the kids wanted to take Lola on a walk. Maeley insisted on holding the leash. I showed Maeley the best way to hold it and told her whatever you do, do not let go. She knew it would be hard to catch Lola if she did. All was going well until Lola spotted a cottontail bunny. Lola ran so fast Maeley tripped and fell to her belly being dragged by Lola. Luckily to got a hold of the leash and helped Maeley.

Maeley says...

"Sorry, the snow is all melted."

She insisted that I add this to the blog. I love that little girl.

On a side note. I lifted both Maeley and Chase up on our balcony to see all the snow on the mountains. Chase sure felt heavier to me. I put them both on the scale. Maeley weighs exactly 1lb more than Chase. However Chase is about 6 inches shorter than Maeley. I just thought it was interesting.

Sneak peak

When Derek's parents were here we mentioned how we knew what we wanted to do to the girls room.  We weren't planning on getting that started until January though. They gave us the push we needed and Blaine and I painted the ceiling, trim and walls before the shutter was installed. This blue is not the color we chose. The color we chose was much lighter, this however was the color Maeley wanted. Lucky for her the lady at Lowe's gave me the wrong color and I didn't notice until we were halfway done with the first coat. On a blog months ago I saw a little girls room with a tree painted on the wall. I loved the idea. Derek hand drew the tree on the wall with pencil and then came back with the paint brush. After seeing how it was looking painted he made several changes. I was in charge of the leaves. We are still deciding if we want to add a bird to the branch on the left where there is an open space. We still have touch ups to do but we probably won't get to it until after Christmas now. I love how the girls room is coming together. The hardest part is waiting to get it finished.

Fun with a box

Derek's parents came to visit a couple weeks ago delivering Christmas presents. While Derek and I are enjoying the shutters in the dining room and the girls room the kids loved playing with the boxes and packing materials. It was Maeley's idea to prop open the top with the long pieces of styrofoam.

Maeley and Zoe rolled up like tamales.

Zoe is smiling so big her eyes are closed.

Winter Wonderland

Yesterday morning it was raining. The clouds were so low and thick you couldn't even see the mountains from our house like you normally can. While Derek was home for lunch it started snowing and didn't stop until after we went to bed. It's even lightly snowing this morning. I had a lot of running around to do yesterday and Albuquerque didn't get snow until late in the evening. But where we are its just covered. Its so beautiful. Yesterday was the first time in my life I have seen falling snow. How sad I'm almost 28.

This was about 4:30 in the afternoon. We had just got home after Maeley's dentist appointment.

Maeley is loving the snow. I wanted to take some pictures off the balcony but when I opened the door this is what I saw.

Maeley liked how we had icicles like our gingerbread house did.

After the girls woke up I got them dressed so they could finally go play. They are all wearing many layers as we don't have snow pants for them. Zoe was hungry and has a cracker in her mouth.

Long after Chase, Zoe and myself came inside Maeley was still having a great time in the snow. I would have stayed out longer but I had to help get Chase and Zoe out of their shoes and coats to keep it from tracking too much into the house.