Merry Christmas

Our Christmas was very fun. The kids really got into this year and we left out cookies and milk as well as some food for the reindeer that Christopher got in his kindergarten class. Here's a funny and sad story. After we put out the cookies and milk I heard Annie crying in the dining room. I went in there and she had one of the cookies in her hand and she had taken a bite of it. She was so upset she actually kind of choked on it and spit it out. I just thought she was choking on it, but soon realized that she was upset that she had eaten Santa's cookie. I think she wanted the cookie, but had second thoughts after she took the bite and was really upset that Santa would be upset with her. She said, "I ate Santa's cookie, he'll be sad." I assured her that he was nice and wouldn't care at all. But she wanted to put a new cookie on the plate. It was so cute.

On Christmas morning when they went downstairs and found their stockings on the stairs Christopher was so excited and said, "He is real!!! He did come!!!" It was so cute. I'm so glad I caught it on tape. We read Luke 2 and opened presents and just had a day full of fun and eating way too much candy, which we are still recovering from. :)

We were up till 2am finishing up the last wrapping. Jeff got quite creative when we were running out of paper. He had to use a bunch of small pieces.Annie and I beading her new necklaces.

The boys love their new basketball stand that Aunt Tatia gave them.

Our cute little Christmas baby.

First trip to the ER

I guess I was about due for a trip to the ER, but I always thought it would be one of the boys. But no, it was Annie. Long story short, her finger got shut in a door by a brother, who didn't do it on purpose, but felt bad about it. :) It bled really bad and I thought the nail was ripped off and might be broken. But turns out it wasn't broken and it wasn't the nail, just all the skin. It was pretty swollen and still looks kind of bad, but she'll be okay. This is my bandage job because the one they put on didn't even last a whole day with Active Annie. But she got a ton a gifts at the hospital...get well bags and then Santa showed up with his friends (Winnie the Pooh, Elmo, Big Bird and Rudolph) to hand out gifts. I tried to only take one but she ended up with a huge My Little Pony stuffed animal, a doll and coloring stuff. It was kind of crazy. But I guess at least she had a good time. She also enjoyed the blood pressure cuff. :)

Do not open until Christmas...

First snow of the year was a big hit!!! My mom is visitng and enjoying lots of kids time.

It's hard to wait for cookies to finish baking.

It's also hard to wait till Christmas to open presents. So far, nothing has been opened though. :)

Jeff, the photographer

I usually take most of the pictures, but sometimes I turn on the camera and find pictures I don't know about that Jeff has taken. These are the ones I found most recently. It looks like we were mostly asleep during this photo session.

Annie is going through a typical band-aid phase. She likes to put them on her face though. Note to anyone who's child has not done this yet. Don't let them stay on overnight...or it might leave two nice little red marks where the sticky stuff is. :) Or maybe that just happens on really fair skin like Annie's.

I guess Michael must have been really tired, or figured out the perfect way to get out of eating his dinner.

Lunch with Christopher

On Friday they had a Holiday Bazaar at Christopher's school so I got to go have lunch with him. I think it's so silly how everything is called "holiday" now. It's like you can't even say the word Christmas without offending someone. The boys started saying, "Happy Holidays" to people and I told them that we should say "Merry Christmas"....okay, I'll quickly get off my soap box and get on with the story. It was really fun to spend some one on one time with Christopher (plus Jacob cause he goes everywhere I go). We ate pizza and ice cream and he got to buy a few little toys from all the stuff they were selling. He is always so nice and wants to get something for Michael and Annie also. He was so excited to show me more of his friends and the library and his class. This first picture is him sitting at his table. He is such a cute kid and I'm glad he enjoys school so much. They got to see Santa and give him the Christmas letter they had written. I was bummed I wasn't there for that to take a picture, but oh well.

Here is his first letter to Santa. It's hard to read in this picture. It says; Dear Santa, How are you? I like you and your elves. I was good. I will be nice to my family. Please can I have a Mack truck. Love, Christopher

He had to take it to school but I wish I could have kept it. But it's in good hands now....Santa's hands. :)

Joy....

....Is laying on the floor staring at the Christmas lights. Jacob has already discovered this joy.

Family Visit

Some of our family came to visit the week after Thanksgiving. Jeff's sister Karen and her husband and kids, Rhett, Sage, Henry and Wilford got in to town first. It is so nice to see family since we don't get to very often and the kids really had a blast playing with their cousins. They keep asking if we can go to their house. Jeff's mom and dad came into town a few days later to see us all and meet baby Jacob before they leave on a mission to Arizona where they will be working on the Navajo Indian reservation. We are so excited for them.

We went to the Natural History Museum and the kids really loved it, especially Michael. There is so much to see there that it is impossible to see it all in one day...or even a week. But we hit the highlights. I need to take Michael back by himself some time because he was the most fascinated by everything. He loved all the animals and for some reason he kept calling all the animals that looked like a deer or gazelle a "snow harnbark". I have no idea where he got that, but I must have told him the name of some animal and that's what he thought I said. It was so cute and funny.

The kids had to see Gum Gum (if you've seen Night at the Museum you'll get that).

The dinosaur in the entrance was a big hit as well.

Here are the cousins. Karen and Rhett's kids are so cute and I missed them all when they left.

Crazy kids!!!

Aunt Karen was a big hit with Annie. She gave her a candy princess wand and then Annie was her best friend. :)

Don't ever....

...try to catch a curling iron if you drop it. Just let it drop!!

Jacob's Blessing

We blessed Jacob on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. It was a nice day and we were even surprised and had my Aunt Allyson and Uncle Tom there at church. Jacob is such a good baby and I am really enjoying his "babyhood", even though he is getting to be quite the big boy and doesn't feel like an infant anymore.
Our friends the Christensen's blessed their baby Leila on the same day. This is Maile and me with the future sweethearts. :)

The handsome boy. He's a Sutherland isn't he. If I didn't have dates on my pictures I think I might even confuse baby pictures of my boys. I love Jacob so much!!!!

He enjoyed his blessing day too!!

Thanksgiving recap

We had a fun Thanksgiving with our friends the Reeds (Sean, Shannon and Ashlynn). We did dinner at their house and cooked together which is much more relaxing than doing it all yourself. Unfortunately, Jeff had to study for the last CPA exam most of the day and only joined us for dinner for a few hours. But our Thanksgiving blessing is that he is now done with the tests and is home with the family more. We all missed him during the 4 months he studied for and took the tests.

Annie and Ashlynn are good little buddies

You always have to watch a good movie after dinner.

The crew getting ready to watch 3-D Polar Express.

And what would Thanksgiving weekend be without going and buying the Christmas tree. We found a real winner this year and this is Jeff and the kids getting it put up in the stand. I love real Christmas trees...the look,the smell, everything about them.

The kids helped decorate the tree a few days later because we got the tree so late at night. They enjoy deciding where to put the ornaments. I'm a mean mom and go back later and move them around a little so they aren't all in the same spot. ;)