Christmas 2010

I love this time of year! After all the hustle and bustle, it was wonderful to have a few days away from school and work to celebrate our Savior's birth and just be together. We invited Grandma & Grandpa Styer for Christmas Eve dinner. We had clam chowder, rolls, veggies & dip, little smokies, and Peppermint dessert. We watched a little football, opened one gift (pajamas from Granny & Grandpa Tew), read the Christmas story from Luke 2, and got to bed at a pretty decent time. The kids forgot to leave cookies & milk for Santa so it's a good thing their mother remembered.



Cam was the first to wake up on Christmas morning...at 5:40! He was so excited because he is sure that he heard Santa during the night. The boys really wanted a Wii for Christmas so they decided to ask Santa to bring that to the whole family. I told them they needed to ask for a back-up gift, just in case Santa didn't want to bring a Wii. Cam asked for a Millenium Falcon (which is a remote control Star Wars toy that flies), Gavin asked for a bike, and Owen asked for a Leapster. Santa decided it would be best to give them their back-up gifts...because both sets of grandparents pitched in to help us buy a Wii! We had the Wii be the last gift we opened and the kids were thrilled. We played and played and played with all the wonderful gifts we received. I'm sorry to say that I neglected my camera the majority of the day. Here are the few pics I took before the unwrapping began.

Cam's 9th Birthday

Cameron turned 9 on December 20th. We started his celebration by attending the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert featuring David Archuleta & Michael York on Sunday morning, Dec 19th. Our home teacher, Chris Metzger, is in the MoTab and got us the tickets. We felt extremely lucky as they had been sold out for quite some time. You have to be 8 years old to get into the Conference Center so Spencer, Cameron, and I left the other kids (including the babies) with our good friend Rebecca Bateman. We were told that we should be there 90 minutes early so we left the house at 7:15 am! It was pouring rain and we had to wait outside the Conference Center in a very long line. Although we parked the car around 8:00, we were not seated until 8:45! Everyone was soaking wet but happy. We got to watch the "Music and the Spoken Word" broadcast first. Then they continued singing for 45 minutes. Words honestly cannot describe how fabulous it was!!! The Spirit was so strong and we were grateful to have had this opportunity.

On Cam's actual birthday, he invited 8 friends to go to the movie, "Despicable Me." We loved the movie! So, so funny! He got some lovely gifts from his friends. We went to dinner as a family + Callie & her friend, Mike. We ate at Applebee's and Cam got his own birthday dessert and the waiters sang, "Happy, happy birthday from Applebee's to you...We wish it was our birthday so we could party too!"

Cam is growing up way too quickly! He is a good helper and big brother and we all love him!

Styer Family Christmas Party

We celebrated Christmas with the Styer Family on December 17th. We arrived first and took a few pics of the babies with the Grandparents before everyone else arrived. Doesn't Harrison look like his Grandpa with their matching Santa hats?



Dave & Tisa (okay, mostly Tisa) prepared a beautiful meal. We were missing 2 of Spencer's siblings as Tom was in California for his annual trip to Disneyland and Kate lives in Washington. But Dave (Uncle Dude), Doug (Uncle Chopper), and Niki were there. The boys really love their uncles and aunts on both sides. Since we see my family more often, it seems that they get a little out of control when they see the Styer's...they're just so excited and can't keep it inside!

Dave has a lot of tattoos and Gavin was fascinated by them. He wanted to see and touch them. He kept saying that he wanted one. I was worried that it may be getting a bit annoying to Dave so I told him to grab a pen and draw a tattoo on Gavin's arm. My only stipulation was that it could be covered up by a t-shirt. So Dave went to work...and before you knew it all 3 boys had at least 2 tattoos. They were in heaven. The downside? They were drawn in Sharpie Marker so we're still seeing the remnants. I hope these are the only tattoos my boys ever get!






As a side note, Dave & Doug/Niki give the best gifts! They always seem to know what little boys want. Dave gave them a large paper roll that was like a giant coloring book all rolled up and a huge box of crayons and a DVD of Star Wars: the Clone Wars. They started coloring with Aunt Niki right after they opened it and haven't stopped coloring since. They love it. Doug and Niki gave Cam a Star Wars Sea Creature tank where you get to hatch sea creatures and watch them grow. Cam checks their progress every morning and thinks it is great. They gave Gavin walkie talkies...what could be better? (Ten-four good buddy.) They gave Owen a bucket of plastic sea creatures. All the gifts have given the boys hours of joy! And we got an electric back massager...aaahhhh!

The Decision

Thank you for voting on our poll regarding the piercing of Madi's ears. Thank you for the comments as well. You brought up some very legitimate points that we hadn't even thought about...specifically that her piercings may end up looking lop-sided as her lobes continue to grow. We will be waiting to pierce her ears.

...that is the question!

To pierce or not to pierce...that is the question. The topic is now open for discussion and there is a poll on my sidebar. I'd love if everyone who looks at this blog would vote. (You don't have to sign in and there is no way I can track who voted so it's totally anonymous.)

And just a couple cute pics from the previous week:

Three Months Old

I know I say it a lot but I cannot believe how quickly time flies. The twins are already 3 months old! Seriously, how did that happen? They have finally discovered their smiles, their laughs, and their hands. They are such content, nice babies. They are starting to sleep for longer stretches of time...usually from 9:30-4:00 and then back to sleep until 7-ish or later. They are so healthy that we haven't needed to see the doctor except for well-child check ups. I wanted to know how much they weighed now, since it's obvious that Harrison is bigger than Madison. I just stopped by our pediatrician and put them on the scale (fully clothed.) Harrison is now 14 lbs 7 oz, and Madison is 12 lbs 11 oz. We are truly blessed.
Madi loves bathtime.

Harrison usually doesn't like the bath but was unusually okay with it this day.

Sitting in their bumbo chairs and loving every minute of it!

Ugly Sweater Party

My mom has worked at an Elementary School for 15+ years. Because of this, she has a lot of Christmas sweaters that are Elementary School appropriate. She's been collecting them for a while and she has some real "gems." Some of the ladies in my ward wanted to start a book club and decided that our first meeting would also be an Ugly Sweater Party. My friends said they were going to go to D.I., but I just called my mom! She admits some of her sweaters are U-G-L-Y and was happy to bring me a few to choose from. I loaned the two I didn't choose to my dear friends, Whitney & Kama. Yes, we are cute!!!


By the way, if anyone wants to know what we're reading at our book club, just ask and I'll send you the list for the year.

G's 6th B-day

Prepare for major picture overload because this is the post that never ends...I have SO many pictures! Gavin turned 6 on November 30th. He is such a happy, enthusiastic little boy. Before he opened his presents I told him that it would be nice if he would take a little time looking at each one, rather than ripping through each gift without really noticing what he received. Since he was being obedient, I ended up being able to take a lot of pictures of him opening gifts. He was spoiled! We gave him a new coat. His Styer grandparents gave him a tool set, tool box, flannel shirt, head lamp, and it all came in a huge bag that he could practically crawl in. Callie gave him new jeans, a hoodie, a puzzle, and a DVD of the Little Rascals (which he now quotes excessively.) The Tew Grandparents gave him some pants, slippers, and a Lego Robot game that gets played nonstop. Ryan & No'el gave him 2 Nerf guns that we used for a game at his birthday party.





Gavin loves ribs so when I asked him where we should eat his birthday dinner he requested Texas Roadhouse. I'm not usually the type to spend an arm and a leg on birthday dinner but we had a partial gift card and Cam & Gavin each had a gift certificate for a free kid's meal so I agreed. Our total bill was $17! You just can't beat that! When we got to the Roadhouse we found out it was Kid's Night. While we were waiting for our table they let each of the boys make a marshmallow snowman. Right after they brought our meals to the table the manager came up and told us they were going to be having an ice cream eating contest in 5 minutes. Gavin & Owen agreed to participate, Cam wasn't feeling very well. Although they didn't win the contest, they each got a Texas Roadhouse t-shirt, even Cam. They all wanted to wear them the next day so here they are in their t-shirts, fresh out of the bathtub before school...they're looking a little tired.





Gavin also asked if he could have a birthday party. I said yes. Then Owen reminded me that he didn't get to have a birthday party in October so we decided to let him invite a few friends too and have a joint party. We ended up with 11 boys and 1 girl at our house. Lucky for me, my friend Kama came to help. And even luckier (if that's a word), Callie was supposed to be at work but came home for a couple of hours because they were slow so she was able to help out too! We ate pizza and breadsticks from Little Caesar's, played a few games...Pin-the-nose-on-the-snowman, duck races, target practice with Nerf guns, donut eating off a string...then we had each child decorate a sugar cookie with candy, we called them "candy pizza", and Gavin & Owen opened their gifts. They got so many fun things from their friends and were happy to share. They played with the presents and watched Little Rascals until their moms came to get them. I'm glad we were able to have a little party but I was very relieved when it was over! I just realized that I have 25+ pictures from the party so I guess I'll do a slide show:

The Giving of Thanks

We hosted Thanksgiving this year with my parents, Emily & Jeff, Jeff's brother, James, Callie, and our family. (We almost got to have the Styer's join us at the last minute when Tisa's oven wouldn't heat up to cook their dinner. Maybe next year?) I'm a bit embarrassed to say that I only had 2 pictures of the entire day. Luckily, Emily took a bunch and I stole them off her blog. :) Because we had a smaller group this year than in years past, I wanted to eat off Spence's Grandma Christensen's china. Although we had to wash it by hand, I thought it made the table look just lovely.

Mom and I did the majority of the cooking. We had a lovely meal with all the traditional food: turkey, ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, yams, corn, beans, pretzel salad, veggie tray, rolls, pie, pie, pie, pie...



After we ate, Jeff & James took the boys outside to run off some energy. The girls stood around the piano and sang. Football & movies were watched. And every one was happy! A few pics from the day in a completely random order:










Thanks, Emily, for sharing your pictures.