Christmas is Over

The day after Christmas always fills like a let down to me. It did not help that it was 83 today....a record high. We went to the mall today and the boys were all in shorts. It just seems so odd to me to be in shorts in December. That is just not right. Christmas is the only time of the year that I wish we got snow. I wished that it snowed here on Christmas Eve, and stayed through the day or two after Christmas and then it could melt.

When we got home the Christmas decoration felt like they didn't belong either. It almost felt like it is was May and we still had the decorations up, so I am not taking the decorations down. Christmas is over for another year. :(

Merry Christmas

Tyson came into our room about 6:15 this morning and said "I think that it is morning, but it is still dark. Can we go downstairs yet?" I child after my heart. Up until this year I have been the one waking up early and getting everyone out of bed to go open presents. I love Christmas morning!

Last night when the kids went to bed, Miles was still asking for a guinea pig. I told him, I did not want a new pet, we already had a dog (this has been my answer for the last month every since he started asking for this). So we will see who Santa love more, me or him. When we got this morning we found out who Santa loves....our boys. We were left with 2 additions to our family. As soon as Miles saw them he said, I knew that Santa made animals. And Troy said, I guess Santa love Miles more than Mommy.

This is Optimus Prime with Troy.
This is Mater. He has longer hair than Optimus and it is wild just Miles hair...although it is hard to tell in this picture.

The guinea pigs are cute, and I think that if they can survive today with dying, They may get a chance to grow on me. Drew has tried to lay on them like he does Tipper, and Miles wants to carry them everywhere. Tyson is scared of them, and doesn't want to hold them, but will pet them.

Tyson had a very Transformer Christmas, and couldn't be happier. We spent the whole morning trying to learn how transformer....wish me luck.

Drew is all about monster trucks with trailers, and trains.

Miles got a good supply of Lego's. He and Troy had been building all day.

There is still a few remnants of wrapping paper here and there, that will stay there until tomorrow when the holiday is over and clean up. Everyone is been busy playing with their new toys, watching new movies and tormenting Mater and Optimus and eating cookies. I have had a great Christmas. I loved watching all of the boys get so excited about everything that we did this season. They all got this this year and it made it so much fun for me. I have enjoying going out for drives to look at lights almost every night since we got back from Nauvoo. I have the sweetest family and love them so much and so happy that we had such a good Christmas this year.

Christmas Eve

Tonight we spent Christmas Eve at Troy's parents home. We have a good time, good food and of course good company. The boys have been so excited for Christmas to get here that we have been bouncing off the walls all day. Luckily it was a nice morning so Troy took them to them to the park this morning and got some of the extra excited energy out.

Linda always has a fun project for the kids to do when we all get together, tonight the kids made Christmas trees.

Miles loves to craft projects, so he loved to do this.

Tyson...not so much. This is about all that he did, and then I finished it for him.

Drew surprised me and did a great job painting his whole pine cone by himself. I am glad that I took his shirt off though. After seeing that he painted his chest and arms.

Anna putting the sprinkles on her trees. They really did turn out cute afterward, but I forgot to get a picture of them all done.

We also got to open presents from Grandpa and Grandma. We started tracking Santa this morning as soon as the boys got up, and as soon as they saw he made it to Canada, they were ready to leave, and we couldn't get home fast enough for Miles.

We quickly sprinkled the reindeer food on the front yard, set out our Santa cookies, opened up our Christmas Eve present and off to bed were the boys. One thing that I do enjoy about Christmas Eve is that there is no fighting about going to bed, reminded to back in bed, 100 excuses for why there should no be no bed time...instead I have three little boys begging to go to bed. I really love my one night a year. :)

Grandma gave the boys their Christmas Eve PJ's this year, and I made them a new blanket.

One cute story about Miles. Our friends the Turner went to their Grandma house for Christmas and Troy has been checking on their house. On the way home Miles told Troy that he needed to leave a note at Braxton's house telling Santa that he went to his Grandma house, so not to leave present at their house, and go to his Grandma house instead.

I didn't know it could listen...

This is a Tyson story (gross, but funny):

Tonight Tyson was in the bathroom for a long time.  He came out and said he needed help, so I went to the bathroom to help him.  I thought I would help pull up pants or something.  No there was poop everywhere.  He said, "I pooped my pants".  This was obvious, as the bathroom has never pooped itself that I know of.  As I helped him clean it up, I asked him why he pooped his pants, and he said, "I would have been to the bathroom faster, but my poop doesn't listen."  I just told him, no poop does not listen.

Polar Express

Last night we went to east Texas for the Polar Express.  It was a surprise for the boys, and they loved it.  Miles got to leave school early.  The boys were very concerned about why we let them leave the house in their pajamas and go on a trip.  When we got their they were very excited. Drew was shaking with excitement!  He was so excited that his stomach couldn't stand it and threw up on Kristin.  I (Troy) am really glad Kristin was holding him.

Other than that it was really fun.  There was hot chocolate, candy, the chefs, a conductor that punched the tickets and Santa Claus at the North Pole.  Just like the movie!  The only difference was it was 74 degrees outside.  It was a fun trip, a good surprise, and helped get us in the Christmas spirtit.

 

Christmas Parties

Tyson and Miles both had Christmas parties at their schools this week.

Ms. Lisa was Tyson's teacher on Wednesday so we got to go her house and have a fun party with the kids. We decorated Christmas cookies,

and made reindeer out of candycanes. It was fun party.
Today, Miles had his party. Miles teacher was nice and invited Tyson to come also. Miles got to have a pizza party

and make gingerbread houses.

Both parties were alot of fun. I am so happy that I able to go to both of them and get.

Buying Christmas Presents

I got this from a friend and really think that it is the funniest thing I have seen. I showed it to Troy and now he is nervous about Christmas. I guess if you can't find Troy on Christmas, you know that I got a vacuum for Christmas.

Doghouse Gifts

First Ice Storm

We had our first ice storm of the season last night and today. It wasn't a very big one, but enough to make a mess of everything. When we went to bed last night I told Miles, I am sure that you will have a late start in the morning, so just sleep until I get you up.

I got up this morning to watch the news and just see if we got cancelled, or delayed. Watched the news go through the whole cycle of schools, and Denton wasn't on there. I grabbed my computer and went to the school district website, sure enough we had school. On rushed mornings like today, I am so glad that I have boys and we can be quick.

I opened the garage and started to back up and slid all the way down my driveway into the street. Thankfully there were no cars coming. On my way to school I saw the school fishtail down the street coming toward me. We turned the corner and a firetruck was coming up the street, I think there was an accident at the side entrance. The whole way to the school, I am thinking did the person that decides the start time not look out their window this morning. It was crazy....it took me 15 minutes to get my house to the school. I guess that I can be grateful it was not a bad ice storm, and that we didn't have to leave the neighborhood today. I hate driving on ice.

Side note, it was in the 70's on Sunday. Never got out of the 20 yesterday and is suppose to be in the 70's again by Friday....gotta love Texas weather!

Primary Program

Today was the primary program at church. Both Miles and Tyson were in it, and it was so cute. Miles has been practicing all of his songs, and I think that he did sing everyone of them. The boys both had a part right at the beginning, and then they sang "I Am A Child of God." That was the end of the program for Tyson. For the rest of the program we had Tyson standing on the front row crossing his eyes, turning into a Power Ranger, pulling his tie off and swinging it over his head, doing his monkey face. He was really entertaining. Troy and I are dying....of laughter and embarrassment. Our efforts to make him sit down only encouraged him more.

After church I asked him why he was acting like that. Tyson's response "I was trying to make everyone laugh at me." All I can say is life is not boring with Tyson around, and he is most definitely Troy's son.

Twilight Movie

OK, so I finally saw the Twilight movie tonight. Troy and I had a date night, so we went to the movie.....and......I liked it. So here is what I thought....if you haven't seen the movie yet, skip the rest.

I still didn't think that Edward was cute enough, but did OK. Bella was OK also. I do think that there were a few parts in the movies that looked like a college project and amateurish. I did like Alice, Jasper, Esme, and Jacob. I also liked the other vampires that came in town. I am not sure what I thought about Emmett....I did not like Carlisle or Rosalee.

I thought that the baseball game was good. And I also thought the scene in the ballet studio was OK. I was glad to see that they followed the book as closely as they did.

Maybe I had my expectations set to low, and was actually surprised that for the most part I liked the movie. I actually walked away from the movie hoping that they make the three books into movies. Does anyone know if that is going to happen? Troy also liked the movie.

Where's Drew?

Every night before I go to bed I check in on the boys. It is habit, I can't go to sleep until I go in and rearrange them back into the bed the right way, (you know, with their head instead of feet on the pillow) and tuck them back in. Drew has recently decided that he doesn't want to sleep with Tyson, so Miles is back in Tyson room, and Drew has been sleeping in Miles.....I know confusing, we play musical bed. So tonight I go to check on Drew, and his bed is empty. I am thinking to myself, I know that Troy put him in here. I already checked on Miles and Tyson there was not an extra child in that room. So then I start hunting for him. After I found him, I started laughing and made Troy come up and take a picture.

I am not sure if he rolled out of bed and just curled up under the chair, or if he just fell asleep there. He did get put back in bed and tuck in, just in case you were wondering.

Unexpected Santa Visit

When I picked up Miles from school today, he reminded me that it was story time at the library. So off we went to the library. The story time was really cute, all about Christmas around the world. Anyway, when we got the library to get a tickets for story time they told us that Santa was there. The library was doing a bookmobile in the back parking lot and Santa was there. Of course when Santa is around, you can not pass up the chance to talk to him. We were early for story time, so we hurried and ran out to say hi.

Miles was so excited to see him, and practiced what he was going to ask for the whole walk over. Then we got to Santa and he froze. Miles wants a guinea pig, but has been very concerned that Santa can't make animals because all the stories say that he only make toys. So I think that he got scared to ask.....they only get to ask Santa for one gift. So I asked Santa, can Miles ask for an animal? He really wants a guinea pig, but is scared that you don't make animals. Santa was really cute, and told Miles that he can deliver animals on Christmas Eve also. Then Miles was not shy and asked for a guinea pig.

Tyson asked for Transformers.

Drew asked for Thomas the Train.

Tyson's Songs

Tyson has become our little singer. Here are a couple of my favorites that he is singing right now.

Book of Mormon Stories
Book of Mormon stories that my teacher tells to me
Give this hand
Give this hand
Fall asleep
(think of the actions, it works!)

We Wish you a Merry Christmas
I wish you a Merry Christmas
I wish you a Merry Christmas
From the bottom of my heart

Drew's Bath

This picture is from a couple of week ago, but I thought it was so funny. Troy was bathing the boys, and when he went into the bathroom, this is what he found.

I don't know, maybe this would cut down on my laundry.

Rudolph

Miles got to go on his first field trip today. I think that he was more excited to go for a ride on a real school bus, than he was to go see the play. I was really excited that I got to be one Mom's to go and help chaperon....so I guess that we were both happy.

The play was Rudolph, and it was at the Casa Manana in Ft. Worth. I pulled up directions, (the Mom's have to take their own cars, and can't ride the bus) and it said it would take us one hour to get there. When I in the class working yesterday, Ms. Hopkins told me that the bus was going to leave at 9:00, and the play started at 10:30. I was thinking in my head....what are we going to do with all these kids for 30 minutes before the play starts. Well, that needed to not be a concern. The buses left at 9:00, but it took almost 2 hours to get to Ft. Worth. I don't know how this works, but I decided they must be given a route to follow, that route is minimal highways, and not to exceed 50 MPH. It was so frustrating to follow the poky bus, and know that we were late, and be helpless. Oh Well......we missed the first act, but I don't think any of kids noticed. They were still on the high from riding a bus. I honestly think that they could just drove the kids around the neighbor on a bus and they would have been thrilled.

I have never been to a play at the Casa Manana, but I think that I am going to have to start following their programs closer. The play was adorable! The costumes and set was great....I really was impressed. The kids all loved it, and the theater was a lot bigger than I was expecting. I was thinking it was going to be a community theater and we were the whole audience. When we pulled into the parking lot there was probably 30 school buses. The play was adorable, I wish that I could have taken the other boys I think that they would loved it.


I took a couple of pictures of Miles class in theater, but they are all blurry :( So this is the only picture that I got of Ms. Hopkins with her boys. They are a good class, I am so happy that Miles is enjoying school and making some good friends at school.