christmas with my folks~

each year we rotate and juggle the holidays between traveling to see different sets of parents and family. this post is going to show my visit to see my mom and george. we had a great visit and the boys were sad to go. cullan hid behind their couch when it was time to leave. sadly on christmas day there was an accident and the sweet dog in the picture is no longer with them. we will all miss her. she was a sweet puppy.(bailey-kael-cullan)

-bailey-

patiently waiting to open their gifts.

(kael and cullan tearing in)(my mom with the bag we got her. she was pretty surprised)(garran with his new awesome pillow! he got one for me for christmas but then as i tried mine out and went on and on about it, my mom went and got one for him too)

(my new warm slippers)

*please pay not attention to how extremely white my legs are, i know they are almost blinding*

(the boys got a play kitchen that they love)

(my sister sara and her boyfriend jeremy came over later in the day to visit)

(aunt sara and cullan)

(can you tell cullan is excited. maybe just a little. galloping through the room)(my grandmother nanny, laughing because she guessed what her present was before she even opened it)

we had such a good visit with my family and enjoyed being able to spend some time with them during the holidays. the boys are excited for our next visit. they are already asking when we can visit grandma and grandpa again!

countdown~

so as i have been celebrating christmas and visiting family here and there i was thinking about some of the things i love about christmas. i decided to do a count down of my favorites.

(they are in no certain order of ranking )

one:

christmas ornaments-each year we make a homemade ornament of some kind and we get a special one for each of the kids! i love looking at them and being able to remember christmas memories from years before.

two: our christmas manger-this has been handed down in our family and this year it was given to me=)

three:
christmas cards. i love getting them and sending them out. they look so festive on our door and i love hearing how everyone is doing.
four:
family-i love being with my husband and two kids, but also seeing our extended family. (sidenote, this picture was taken early in the morning =)
five:

christmas surprises-i love random little things. my visiting teacher dropped these off a few years ago when she came to visit and a i love putting them out every year!

six: mistletoe-getting sweet kisses never hurt anyone, right?
seven:

anxious christmas babies-watching the kids get so excited about christmas and seeing family. their little faces are priceless when they get so excited.

eight:

reading luke 2 as a family on christmas eve or during our own little family christmas!

garrans family used to do it every year, so we decided to continue it in our family.

nine:

new christmas decorations- each year i try to find a new christmas decoration for our house. this year i found these cute little trees.

ten:

christmas family traditions: one of ours is ginger bread houses!

hope everyone had a merry christmas...and that everyone will have a great new year!!

warning~

YOU ARE ABOUT TO BE BLOGGED LIKE CRAZY FROM ALL OF OUR CHRISTMAS ADVENTURES! SORRY THEY ARE ALL COMING AT ONCE-BUT HERE WE GO!!

wishing you and yours~

a very merry christmas and a wonderful day filled with family and friends.

we pray that everyone is safe and healthy tomorrow.

we also want everyone one to know how grateful we are to have each of you as part of our lives!

merry christmas!

from meg and all the fellas =)

frozen~

ok people this is what we have been living with for the last week. i love snow. but i guess i have discovered i only love it to a certain amount. after sliding off our back steps and almost breaking my neck i have decided i could do without for a while. unfortunately more is on the way tonight and again at the end of the week. good news is we will have a white christmas. sunday we were under a blizzard warning. it feels like a blizzard every time the wind blows when it averages 0 to 3 most days!! oh well when it gets warm enough to let the kids play outside in it, they will have a blast!

looking for~

some one who knows how to knit.

i was blog hopping one night and found these.

they look super cute and warm.

perfect for where i live.

i can just imagine a sweet new little one all bundled in one of these.

i don't think it would be to hard.

looks fairly simply but i am no knitter...

so if any of you knit out there, let me know!!

they look so comfy and perfect for a sweet new little one!

ps. if any of you knit..this lady has great ideas. super cute.

all on his own~

the other day cullan told me he had a knock knock joke for me.

i thought to myself that it should this should be good.

i had never told him a knock knock joke and neither has garran.

anyways i was impressed with the one that he came up all on his own.

for three years old, i thought this was pretty cute.

cullan: knock knock

me: whos there

cullan: hot

me: hot who?

cullan: chocolate

then just imagine him laughing his head off.

he is the funniest kid!!

a family tradition~

for the last few years we have had a tradition of making ginger bread houses (or graham cracker houses, depending on how my day went=). anyways we always invite the missionaries over because we think it is fun to have them but also something fun that they get to do around the holidays.

tonight was our big ginger bread house build off.

i have to admit that usually i am really into it and spend a lot of time on my house.

i don't know if i was just tired or what but this year mine did not come out as well.

oh well there is always next year to redeem myself!

--------------------------

-the fixings-

-daddy helping cullan-

-cullan getting the hang of it-

-kael figuring out that the candy is for something else besides eating-

-cullan even did his own frosting. what a big kid-

-the boys getting in on the action-

-does it look like he is enjoying himself? maybe just a little-

-kael, daddy and his finished house. what a ham!-

-cullans finished house-

-my finished house--garrans finished house--elder erikson & elder folkmans finished houses. pretty impressive-

all in all we had a lot of fun. it is always fun to have family traditions around the holidays!!

he can hardly wait~

i am posting this a.) because it is cute b.) because i want to remember all or most of the cute things that my kiddos say!

i know i have said lately how much my kids love polar express.

they love to watch it and dance with the hot chocolate guys etc.

well there is a little boy on the movie that has not always had the best christmas.

while at the north pole he finds a present addressed to him and states that he has waited his whole life to get this particular gift.

so last night we were sitting in the living room.

cullan and kael were sitting in front of the tree talking about some of the presents we have under it. basically reminding each other not to touch anything.

(it is an automatic time out if the touch the presents)

so..cullan asked when we were going to open presents and we explained that there were a few more days until it was time to open presents.

cullan then picked up a present from under the tree and brought it over to us and said

"open please, i have been waiting my whole life"

garran then responded.."you have been waiting your whole life to open this gift"

cullan smiles and says "yes"

garran smiled and said " but this gift is to daddy "

that did not seem to bother cullan. he proceeded to tell us that he could hardly wait to open presents.

luckily it was then time to go to bed.

now to get through a whole other day without opening any presents!!

its the thought that counts~

RIGHT?

recently we have been working a lot with the boys on manners.

things like saying excuse me, sorry thing like that.

my new thing is trying to get them to throw things away when they are done.

usually i just clean up after them, however i decided that it is time for them to start doing it.

so on nights that we use paper plates, i ask them to put their silverware in the sink and throw their plates away in the trash.

as we have been working on that, i have noticed that our utensil count has decreased.

tonight kael slept through dinner. when he woke up later, he asked me to make him a hot dog.

i made him a hot dog, put it on a paper plate, gave him a fork and set it on the table.

i then went into the living room.

i heard kael enjoying his hot dog. then i heard him get down from the table and run to the trash.

this was very exciting for me because i did not have to prompt him at all.

he ran to the living room and yelled.. "TRASH"!!

i said "did you put you stuff in the trash?"

kael replied "YEP!"

so we gave a high five and i walked over to the trash.

sure enough there was his plate in the trash and his fork right on TOP!

guess i know where my silverware is going.

oh well its the thought that counts right?

but now i have a new project..making sure we are just throwing away disposable things!

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side note: for those of you that do not live near us, GUESS WHAT!!

today we got at least six inches of snow and there is more coming from what i hear!

i am all for a white christmas, but this is to much white stuff for me!

christmas party~

today was cullans mom school christmas party. the kids seemed to have a pretty good time. although they seemed more interested in playing than anything else.

first we read a story..the polar express!
then we played a fun pass the hat game.
next was snack. cullan brought yummy cupcakes and carrots.
(who knows why that combination, but that is what he wanted to bring)
i had brought a reindeer ornament that all the kids made & then it was off to play.
the kids had fun delivering their secret santa gifts as well..
cullan was very excited to finally be able to finally open a gift.
he has been patiently waiting to open some of the gifts under our tree!
here are just a few shots of the kids listening to polar express.

merry christmas mom school friends!

what a sweetie~

tonight i was watching jon and kate +8. this episode was about them taking gifts to saint judes. i can never watch those commercials or specials because all i ever do is ball through them. however i stuck it out and watched this one. it was very sweet but none the less i did cry a little.

as i was sitting in the chair, crying, kael goes and gets a shirt out of his room. he brought it out and climbed up on my lap. he patted my face with his shirt and said "stop it mommy".

what a sweet little boy i have!

happy birthday nanny~

this weekend we went to my moms house to attend my grandmothers surprise 80th birthday party! she was definitely surprised.(you can click HERE to see a video of her walking in) when she walked in she just kept saying things like "oh my goodness i can't believe your here". family had traveled from all over like florida and oklahoma to attend, so it was really fun to see her reaction.

i also enjoyed seeing some of my cousins that were there. the last time we had a large family gathering like this was when my grandfather passed away. i think that was 13 years ago. i was a sophomore in high school.

YIKES has it been that long??

anyways we all got to my moms house about an hour and a half before my grandmother was supposed to arrive. by the time she got there we were all huddled in the living room ready to sing happy birthday when she walked in!nanny walking in...being very surprised!!nanny with all of her kids

(steve, mo, paula, sue, nanny)(mo, michael, nanny)

micheal is one of the cousins i have not seen since my grandfather passed away. he was so much fun to talk with!(all of my unlce's sons- michael, mo, justin, marie, stephen)

obviously mo and marie not my unlce's sons =)

my cousins paula and kelly with their husbands frankie and jason.my uncle steve with his boys and nanny. he has a daughter also, but she was not able to be there =(

here is our group. every family tried to get a shot with nanny. so its garran and i with our boys. my mom and george and my sister sara! notice kael has a mouth full of meatball!!

last but not least, the big moment of the night. nanny having everyone sing happy birthday to her. we were all laughing because no one could find birthday candles so we stuck tooth picks in the cake and lit those. as you can see cullan was front and center ready to help her blow them out. i think he was more excited about the cake than anyone at the party. he even asked if he could have some for breakfast the next morning.

so after all that here are some reasons that DECEMBER 13TH is such a special day!!

1. nanny turned 80! woo hoo

2. it is my parents anniversary!!

3. garran proposed to me on december 13th 5 years ago.

4. they captured Saddam Husein. bet you were not expecting that one. but garran and i always joked about it happening on the day he proposed!

all in all we had a great time and hope that nanny had a very happy birthday!!

a special treat~

well i hate that i did not get a picture of the cute basket before the boys helped to tear into it, but thursday we got a wonderful surprise. some good friends of ours stopped by and dropped off a family fun night basket with popcorn, drinks, and one of my all time favorite christmas movies!! we were so excited. they are great friends and we are glad to know they will not be moving to far away from us! thanks friends for the basket. we are already on our way to wearing this copy of the movie out=-)

why it mayot be a good idea~

here is a story to explain why it may not be a good idea to

a) play with your kids christmas gifts

b) have a husband who is a big kid himself

garran and i were wrapping presents for the boys. we had got them these foam swords to put in their stockings. more garrans idea than mine. im not big into the boys having guns or swords. oh well i caved this once. so as we were wrapping gifts, garran grabbed one and started jabbing me with it. so i did the only mature thing and grabbed the other one and of course this lead to a sword fight in our kitchen.

(the kids were asleep if you are wondering how we were getting away with playing with their new toys) well i guess we took it a little to far, because we broke one of the swords.

BAD PARENTS ... I KNOW!

so now do i replace the dumb thing or just figure out something to do with the one we still have.

i have to admit they were pretty fun!

things i have accomplished~

• mailed the majority of my christmas cards.
• learned how to make my baby announcements from a friend.
• wrapped cullans mom school secret santa gift.
• watched horton hears a who with my family. (well most of it. i fell asleep for a little bit-im preggo, thats my excuse=)
• got a nice phone call from my sister in law

and now for something delicious!

hope everyone is having a good night!!!

my new favorite sound~

UH-OH .... GOTTA GO!

feet running ....

bathroom light fliping on...

then a sweet little voice..

"mom, i pee pee on the potty"

only two accidents in the last week and a half =)

i am so excited.

last night we even had a dry night!

snow day~

today we woke up to frozen roads and a white snowy wonderland. well since everyone has been sick i opted out of letting the kids play outside in the snow for a little while. so we have been busy trying to find fun things to do inside today.

(especially since mom school was also canceled today)

here is what we have come up with so far..... first we painted some pictures.

painting in our house is second nature.

if we can't think of something to do, there is always painting.

while the boys were working on their pictures, this is what garran and i were doing.
each year we get the boys a special ornament.
this year i found a wooden train and plain.
i thought it would be fun to paint them and give them to the boys.
my hope is by the time they grow up and get married, they will have a small collection of memory filled ornaments to start their own family with!

later cullan found this santa hat.

he came and found me and wanted me to take his picture.

this is some pose huh?

know what i like best about it.

no binkies-no diapers!!

of course when kael saw the action, he wanted in on it.

who does not have time for some silliness, right?

so now its almost two, and we are trying to think up some more fun things to do.

right now we are watching polar express.

my kids favorite.

(i had to rent it because cullan has been asking to watch it non stop)

his two favorite things 1)trains 2) christmas

it's starting~

so today it started.

i have been waiting. i always look forward to days like today!

can you guess what happened today....... we got our first christmas card in the mail.

i know this seems like a lot over a christmas card, but i just love getting them and hearing

about how everyone is doing!

this is my favorite time of year.

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so i usually never post pregnancy pictures. NEVER!! however garran snapped this one i thought that besides my hair and my old baggy yet comfy black sweats it is not a horrible picture. so here we are seven months into the game. look out i usually get swollen by month nine. i doubt that i will post those. time will tell!