Christmas in Houston: New Year's Eve

Originally we'd planned on leaving on New Year's Eve, but David was so bummed when he found out because he'd thought we'd be there for New Year's Eve that we decided to stay an extra day.


Since Tom no longer had to study for boards, there was lots more Halo playing. This is the face that Tom ALWAYS makes when he's playing Halo. I guess if I had stretchy skin I'd make a lot of faces too. This is actually what he does when he wants to plug his nose up, too.

David was nice to build with the girls. They have a lot of fun building shapes and things with these blocks. Shelby, at one point, came to show me what she'd built. She'd been really creative and built a ton of stuff (which I can't remember at the moment). It was fun to see her using her imagination to make these things with the blocks.

Here's Declan getting a little tummy time.

Like always, as soon as I put him on his tummy, his sisters flock over to him.

Unfortunately, most the time he just ends up putting his face in the ground and crying. We'll keep trying; hopefully one of these days he'll do something other than get mad and cry.

It was such a nice day that we decided to head over to our favorite park.

Papa had repairs around the house to do, so David ended up being Payden's best friend while we were there.

For some reason every time she got off the slide, she'd walk over to the stairs with her hands in the air, pointing them and waving, and telling David, "Do 'gain." We laughed over that.

Here she is again . . . "Do 'gain."

Poor David. Once she decided he was going to be her friend for the day, he had no choice. She just bossed him and made him do what she wanted. Here she's pointing out the slide that she wants to do next.

Shelby's so funny on the swings. Whenever she gets pushed high, she starts squealing and asking to stop being pushed, but you can just tell she's loving it.

Declan even had a turn on the swings. He really didn't seem to care.

After playing we went home to make dinner and to await all the people who were coming over. Angela and Scott came first, and so Scott got asked to read some books.

David asked that we make donuts for the night. He invited some of his friends over to enjoy the donuts (and to go outside and make a lot of noise doing fireworks).

Here we are making the donuts . . . so yummy!

The Milligans came over for a bit that night, too. We've known them for a LONG time. My parents have been in this ward for almost 30 years. The Milligans have been there for a lot of this time. Elma was my Beehive leader, and Tim and Elma were the first people from back home to meet Tom (even before my parents met him). We were so glad they came!!!

The girls were soooooo excited to help out with the donuts, especially Taylor. I think she was in the stool from the moment they started making them to the very end.

Of course, Payden had to join in like her sisters. Fortunately, she didn't come til the end.

We also played "Apples to Apples," as requested by Shelby, and watched Kung Fu Panda. By the time midnight hit, it was just me and my mom awake. David and his friends were off at a friend's house, and everyone else was in bed. Oh well. I'm just glad I didn't have cranky kids to deal with the next day.

Unfortunately, the next day it was time to pack up and go. It was so nice to be there. Nice to have fun and be with family. Thanks so much Nana and Papa for letting us crash in your house for awhile!!!

Christmas in Houston: After Christmas

The morning after Christmas everyone else slept in while I was up with the kids. Payden, of course, immediately asked where Papa was. After I told her he was sleeping, she then asked, "Where's Abee (Avery)?" I thought that was too cute.

The days after Christmas were filled with Tom studying for his boards while the kids and I just relaxed and had fun. We left most of the toys downstairs in a corner in the family room for the kids to play with. They had lots of fun playing with everything.


We discovered the Littlest Pet Shops had magnets in them, so the girls had a fun time putting them on the door.

I caught Payden with this backpack on and thought she looked too cute.

Of course, you can see why she was in the kitchen . . . Papa was there.

There was a moment where Payden didn't listen to Papa, and he had to get after her. She got SO upset, but immediately got hugs to make it all better.

On day I decided to sit Declan up in the bend of my knee to see how well he'd sit. He did an awesome job and had a blast being able to reach his toys. Now we just need to keep on working on this.

Again, Payden with her papa.

Christmas day was exactly 2 weeks before Taylor's surgery. Since she was just getting better from being sick, we decided we would work really hard to not let her get sick again so that her surgery wouldn't be postponed. We decided that since she ALWAYS gets sick from church that we'd only go to Sacrament meeting at Nana and Papa's ward and then come home. Since the house was clean, the kids were in the Christmas outfits, and the kids were in good moods, we snapped a few shots of them in front of the Christmas tree.

Each girl insisted on having their turn holding Declan, so here's Taylor holding him.

And here's Payden holding him.

Payden kept finding the candy all week long. Unfortunately, all that candy eating resulted in a red bum, but I can't blame her . . . it is delicious.

On Monday the 29th, Scott and Angela came over. They'd been in Wisconsin for Christmas, so it was their turn to open gifts.

Since Sunday had been Angela's birthday, we also celebrated with cake and ice cream.

Of course the girls had to help pull out the candles (and lick the chocolate off of them).

Another gift that turned out to be a big hit with the girls was these pop beads. It was a last minute gift, but they have had tons of fun (actually we all have) making bracelets and necklaces and rings. Papa played with Payden once and from that time on, every time she wanted to play with the pop beads, we'd hear, "Paaa-pa." He was so good to play with her and the girls . . . and to wear the things they'd made for him.

Of course no day is complete for my girls without some book reading. I thought this was a great shot of them with their Nana.

Amen to Christmas vacation and to being at Nana and Papa's house!!!

Christmas in Houston: Christmas Day

This is what we came down to on Christmas morning. We got to open presents with Nana, Papa, and David, so it was a small and quiet morning.

On Christmas Eve, Shelby asked if I would wake her up at 6 to open presents. I told her the normal Mom answer, "We'll see." Of course, I was going to just let them wake up whenever. Fortunately, my kids enjoy their sleep and at about 8 they finally woke up. My parents actually had been awake since 7 and were patiently waiting for us to wake up. Once we'd gathered everyone, it was time to head downstairs. They were so excited.

They were so excited to see everything and to see what Santa had brought them.

Our tradition is that we always open our stockings first. Unfortunately that was one of the things we left in San Antonio (along with our camera). Fortunately, we thought ahead of time and decorated some brown paper bags for Santa to use.

When making her bag, Taylor was having trouble placing a decoration on because she didn't have much room. I flipped the bag over and it was completely blank, so I told her to put it there because she had plenty of room. She started getting really upset and told me she couldn't put it there. I was completely confused, but finally she told me, "It's not red. Stockings are red." She'd only colored the one side red and would not put any decoration on the other side of the bag until it was colored red. Ha ha! Funny girl!

Santa was so kind and brought all 3 girls a FurReal friend animal. Shelby got a duck, Taylor got a macaw, and Payden got a squirrel.

Also as is tradition, Papa always sits and hands out all the gifts to everyone.

Santa was also kind and brought all 3 girls dinosaurs. Shelby got a triceratops, Taylor got a stegosaurus, and Payden got a dimetrodon.

After all of Santa's things are opened, we head on to all the other gifts under the tree. Each year we draw names amongst the siblings and amongst the grandbabies. This year we had my brother David. Here is David opening our gift. If you're wondering about the wrapping job, it was the last gift that Tom wrapped the night before, and he didn't really care at that point.

With as much as the girls LOVE dinosaurs, I decided to get them each their own dinosaur books at their own level. They looked over these books with numerous people while in Houston. Of course now that we're back home, it's Taylor, our dinosaur lover, who we find carting the books around the house.

Every time we go to Houston, the girls always play with the old Little People animals that I had when I was growing up. The animals are now 20+ years old and the plastic is getting brittle. Lately every time we're there, at least one of the animals seems to get broken. Well Tom was feeling bad about that, so being the eBayer that he is, he got on and found someone selling the exact same animals. Now my mom is quite sentimental about stuff like this - stuff she's had for a long time - so she was completely thrilled to get these "new" ones under the Christmas tree.

This is Shelby getting her dinosaur book. It's from National Geographic, so it's got tons of information about tons of dinosaurs.

The girls have been wanting snow globes for awhile, but I wasn't too sure how well they'd last. Fortunately, Santa found some snow globe bouncy balls and put them in their stockings. What a perfect solution! Way to go Santa!

Here's Papa finding the kids gift from their cousin Jack.

In the gift were capes for each of the kids. As you can see, they enjoyed them. Payden had hers put on immediately and wore it for most of the day. Often it was a cape, and other times it was a super bib.

Declan's favorite thing from under the Christmas tree was . . . the wrapping paper.

Here's Taylor with another of the dinosaur books and wearing her cape from Jack.

Carlee did a really good job making the capes. The girls love them, especially as they're in their favorite colors.

Payden was so quiet about this, but she jumped right in on eating her candy. I don't think Taylor or Shelby had any at all because they were too busy opening gifts, but Payden couldn't resist and had eaten a lot of hers by the time we finished opening everything.

In recent years, my siblings and I have gotten together to buy my parents a gift. This year we decided to buy them picture frames filled with family photos of each of the families. Here's my mom with all of the pictures from everyone. We were also kind enough (thanks mostly to Scott and Angela) to make sure the frames were put on the wall; we certainly didn't want to give my parents another project as a Christmas gift.

From Grandma and Grandpa Orme, the girls got this Littlest Pet Shop Fitness Center. It was a well-liked gift, and even now that Christmas is over, it's played with every day.

Here's another shot with Payden and her papa. All day long while we were there you'd here her go, "Paaaa-pa," asking him to come play or to do something for her.

Once everything was opened, we did had breakfast and then just relaxed and played with our new things. Here we are on one of the many readings of the girls' dinosaur books.

David got an Eragon book, and this was what he looked like for the rest of the days. Tom decided that David needed a Transformer, so here he is proudly showing it off. In Tom's lap is the free book we got from Oprah . . . thanks Oprah!! We decided to make a photo album of our extended family. With 5 great-grandparents, 4 grandparents, a family of 6, 29 aunts and uncles, and about 31 cousins (I think), there's a lot of family for our kids to remember, so we were so excited to make this book for them.

Later on, Keith, Lori, Avery, and Addie came back over to open their gifts and play. Of course, there was some playing of Halo 3.

Here's Taylor with yet another of the dinosaur books . . . did I mention how much she loves dinosaurs?

Shelby got The Tale of Despereaux, a book she'd read last year, and, being the reader that she is, immediately began reading it again.

Here's Payden playing with Avery's Mega blocks. This is a similar pose she made for the silly Christmas Eve picture, just without the silly face.

Here are Avery and Payden playing together. Don't they look so sweet together? I think it was just a few minutes after this that Payden got mad at Avery, gave her a huge hug, and pulled her off the table onto the floor!! Yea, we don't know what happened, but were completely shocked that she did that to Avery. Like I've said before, it's like a roller coaster ride watching them play together - they have lots of ups and downs.

Here's little Miss Addie. She's about 8 pounds now, which is really good with as small as she started, but it was still so crazy to hold her. Declan was 8 pounds for probably a few days, and I've almost forgotten what it's like to hold them when they're that little.

Christmas really was a great day filled with family, relaxation, and good times. It's so nice to have a day where the only thing you really need to do is spend time with your family. Love it!

We were so grateful for all the gifts we received and the people who thought of us. Thank you!!!