Merry Christmas!

We had a FUN Christmas day! The kids woke up at 6AM and we opened presents.  They all said Santa brought everything they wanted and were very happy.  We do 3 gifts each: a gift of Love, a gift of Fun, and a gift of Learning. We had found that this keeps things simple, and we put a lot more thought into gifts rather than just buying whatever their whims are at the moment.  They also exchange names and buy a gift for their sibling, so that is a lot of fun as well. 
So Tink got roller blades for love, watercolor set with easel for learning, and a music creator for fun.  She got a Fur Real dog from Goofy.

Bucko got roller blades for Love, a lap harp for Learning, and remote control car for Fun.  He got a dinosaur thing to dig for the dinosaur and then put it together from Tink.

Minnie got the Leapfrog Tag with 3 books for her gift of Learning. She also received a princess suitcase with a Minnie Mouse lunchbox for her gift of Love, and a doll for the gift of Fun.  Bucko bought her a Fur Real baby panda.

Goofy got a Toy Story 3 suitcase with a Mickey Mouse lunchbox for his gift of Love. He received the Leapfrog Tag system as well for his gift of Learning and a remote control car for his gift of Fun.  Minnie bought his 2 books and a little basketball game.

After opening presents, we quickly ate breakfast, bundled up, and headed up to Sandringham.  We waited to watch the Royal Family head to church.  I got a few decent snapshots.  After the church service, the kids were allowed to give flowers to the Queen.  Mine even made it onto the BBC news!  Here are a few of my best pictures.



A friend took this one and it was by far the best one we have of Tink giving the Queen her flowers! Oh what memories!

All in all, it was a very fun day.  Yes, it was cold, but well worth it.  Who knows when/if I'll ever see them again! Maybe if I can make it down to London for Will and Kate's wedding.  Hmmm....we shall see.  



This one actually came from a news site, but since it had two of my kids in it, I saved it!



Santa Claus 2

The "real" Santa Claus didn't make it to our ward Christmas party today. Obviously he wasn't the real one this time because he didn't have a real beard. (This is all told to me by my children. I think he was actually supposed to be Father Christmas.)  Goofy didn't have any problem this time though.  Total pro!  We told him it was our turn, and he walked right up to him and climbed in his lap!! I was astounded!  Amazing what a two-year-old will do for a candy cane!

So I love our ward. I have met some of the best people in the world here.  So many great examples.  And most of the time I enjoy ward activities.  It is crazy here because we have the smallest building compared to amount of people who attend. It can sometimes be just outright madness to have an activity where 250-300 people are packed into our cultural hall which isn't even a full size basketball court. Not even a half size either really.  But it was a lot of fun and well planned out. 

We stopped at the Lynford Stag park on the way home. I wanted to get their picture in front of the reindeer.  Someone gave them these balloons as we were leaving the party.  They LOVE them!



Here they are getting ready to slide down the pole out of the large stag.



Soccer Finished!

Tink and Bucko had their last game today.  Well, their original last game.  Last weekend no one came to open up the gym, so we waited outside for a long time only to find that no one could open it and then they just canceled all the games for the day.  Since that happened, they decided to have a make up day for next Saturday! I am not taking them to that.  It's too close to Christmas and wasn't in the original plan.  We have other things to do that day.  So we had Tink's soccer party today. She got her first trophy! She was so proud!

Santa Claus

On Friday we went to a Christmas lighting (Well, we got there late and the lights were already lit) and to see Santa Claus.  It was SO cold, but we waited in line for a long time.  And I guess it was a good thing, because according to my oldest, this was the real Santa!  Apparently because his beard was real and he had glasses, he must be the real Santa. He was a very nice Santa and even Goofy sat on his lap! I was amazed, but when he was tempted with the candy cane, he went right up to him and then Santa picked him up and sat him on his lap. Amazing!

After Santa, we went over to the movie theater and watched Tangled.  We loved it!  We saw several other friends there and the kids were even able to sit with some of them. Bucko was the cutest (well, they are all cute, but I sat next to him and could hear his comments!).  He would say things like, "Boy, sing!!" when the boy would sing and when he died, he was so sad and made his sad face where he frowns really big and pushes out his lower lip, and said, "Boy dead?"  He was happy when he came to life again.  (Sorry if I just ruined the ending for anyone.  But it's not like you wouldn't have guessed it from a Disney movie. But I will say this was different than most other Disney princess movies! I liked it!)

We all got stamps to show we had paid. The kids love getting stamped, so we took a picture!



My House continued...

I bought a dresser for Minnie today. She ripped the drawer right off of her old one. It was super cheap. Storage drawers that we bought at Lowe's years ago. So it was time for a new one.  I found one for 30 pounds at the "Junk Lady" in our village. Moving all of Minnie's clothes into the new dresser was a major process, though.  We had to clean the entire room. The good thing, though, was that I was able to take some decent pictures!  I've been trying to get my room clean for a few days now. I moved some furniture around too.

Early Christmas Present

I went to a Christmas Bazaar a few weeks ago and had ordered our last name from Alphabet Photography. If you haven't seen these, they are amazing! And so fun!  I had the kids help me pick out which pictures to use, and then had to order it because I was picky.  They usually do longer words horizontally, but I wanted ours vertically. They didn't have a frame there vertically that was big enough for our last name, so I've been waiting for it to come in.   I think it turned out really well.  It came in the mail today and I had to put it up right away! I love it!  Happy Christmas to ME!

My House

I've been putting up Christmas decorations all week and realized that I still haven't posted any pictures of our new house.  So I took a few pictures of downstairs and the boys' room today.  

Living Room (Yes, I was watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade)



Family Room (In the floor plans, this is a formal dining room, but since it is attached to the living room, we decided to use that space and keep it all open. We love it! It feels so much bigger!)

The other wall and the divider between the living and family rooms.

Dining Room

Boys' Room upstairs. It is the smallest bedroom and therefore usually the cleanest. :) I'll get to the other bedrooms later.



Entryway:  Kitchen and dining straight ahead, living/family room to the left, bathroom and laundry room to the right.



Christmas Tree

We put up our tree today! 

Piano

I started teaching Bucko piano last weekend and Minnie wanted to learn to. So this morning, I taught her her first lesson. She learned quickly. Her form isn't great right now, but she learned whole notes, half notes, and quarter notes. So I video taped her playing her first real song! Reading the notes and counting the beats all by herself.  The song is called "The Train." Enjoy!

Myrtle Beach, SC

In October, I got to spend one whole week with my Prince Charming.  With no kids! This has never happened before, and I know it won't happen again for a long time to come.  My sister watched all four of our kids and I flew out to meet up with him.  One of the best days was when we drove down to Myrtle Beach. We actually went to North Myrtle Beach because we thought it would be less crowded. It was nice.  80 degrees in October!! I wasn't complaining!!    And a whole day of just relaxing and soaking up the sun.  It was a great time. The whole week was nice just to be together. The only bad part was having to say goodbye. And it was harder this time.

PC bought a hat to keep the sun off of him and we also bought this mat to sit on.  It was great.

Enjoying the cool water.

He's just so good looking, I could take pictures all day.

The two of us at the beach.

Here we are waiting for our food to arrive. We found a cute restaurant right on the pier.  It was very friendly and great food.

Tooth Fairy

Bucko has had a permanent tooth growing in, but his baby tooth in front of it hadn't fallen out yet. In fact, they weren't even very wiggly. Luckily, I asked the dentist about it at church and he told me that I should bring him in.  We were able to go in this afternoon and after looking at the x-rays and finding that the one beside it was looking about the same, he pulled both of his two bottom front teeth!  He is SO excited!  They gave him a cute little treasure chest to put his teeth in, and yes, the tooth fairy has already come tonight in case you were wondering. 
This dentist was amazing though.  The best pediatric dentist I have seen.  Bucko was so relaxed and calm. He had him giggling and enjoying the whole process.  He was very brave, but did cry at one point when he just wiggled it before giving him any medication.  Poor little guy. I felt awful for him.  I knew it was hurting, though, because I had tried to wiggle it for him and he would cry out in pain then too. I guess the new tooth just wouldn't let the other one have any wiggle room, so it would hurt when we would try to wiggle it.  But with some gas and localized numbing, Bucko didn't feel a thing and was shocked when he was told that he had not only lost one tooth, but two!!  He has been showing everyone his loss and his treasure chest with his teeth in it.  So sweet!

Haircuts

Minnie and I both got haircuts.  She has been wanting a short bob for a while now, so I finally let her.  Last year, Bucko cut her hair and she ended up having to have a bob to fix it.  She looked so cute then, so I knew she would look great with it.  My only reservation was that she used to be sad when we couldn't braid it or put it in pigtails.  She doesn't seem to care about that anymore, though.  We bought her some cute clips, so she is happy. And it really does look good on her.  Mine isn't anything too dramatic, but I did get about 3 inches taken off.  And it always feels so nice because I have them thin it for me as well. My hair is just so thick!  So this isn't the best picture, but it's all I've got at the moment!

Family Night Crafts

Auntie K taught a lesson about gratitude, so we spent about an hour making homemade thank you cards.  Kids love glitter.  We had fun quoting Alvin from Alvin and Chipmunks:  "It looks great. Just needs a tad more glitter." Then, he of course dumps the entire bottle on it.  We didn't dump the bottle, but we had fun. I was in charge of the glitter. The kids thought it was so cool seeing what they drew in glue become all glittery.  It has been fun to see them give each other cards that say things like, "Thank you for laughing with me" or "Thank you for playing with me."  So cute!

Hunstanton Beach/Castle Rising Castle

The kids had a day off today for teacher training.  We decided to go straight north to the closest beach. May not have been the best beach choice. Ok, it was the worst choice in beaches, but it was still fun.  It's on The Wash, so no waves. It's sand, then mud, then water waaaayy out there.  So we looked for seashells and rocks, played in the water, and took pictures.  Here are some of my favorites.

Then we went to Castle Rising Castle.  We had fun exploring there as well.  It is one of the most famous 12th century castles. The stone keep was built in 1140.

"There's something stuck up in the chimney and I don't know what it is..."  Yes, my kids are looking to see if Santa Claus is coming down the chimney!