Christmas in the Snow

We spent a week up in Utah in the snow for Christmas! It was a fantastic vacation full of rest and relaxation! Did I just rhyme?


My friend Tina. She's 5 months prego here but you can't even tell. No fair!


Shiloh misses his friends. Here's Clint. Each time we get together with any of Shiloh's friend's from Utah he is just bursting! I think he would've even foregone any gifts just to have some time with his buddies. Lucky for him, he got the best of both.


We attended the MD Diet party at "Bouncing off the Walls". Here's me and Shiloh going on the BIG slide.


The aftermath of the BIG slide. Yes, that's Shiloh underneath me.


My boys.


Oh the places we'll go with Dad as our horsepower!


Have you seen anything so cute in your whole life?


Eliza's uncle (only 8 years old) kept saying, "I can't make a snow ball, it's too hard." Eliza turned around and replied (showing him the ball). "Look! It's not hard. You just do this!"


This is Ezra's first experience with snow. It's amazing that he can still look so devious! :)


Eliza loves her Grandma so much! She spent a many happy moments decorating the tree and hanging stockings with her. Grandma may have passed her love of decorating on to this one!


Ezra is a shoe-in for a video game addict. Which is why we don't let him play any. :)


Four generations! Ashlyn, Eliza, Me, Grandma (Shiloh's mom), and Great-Grandma (Shiloh's grandma).


The night before Christmas we have a tradition to open one present (new jammies) and read the Christmas story. I love that Eliza is old enough to understand the story. She and I talked a lot about what Christmas is and why we celebrate. She just soaked it all up! In fact, all my worrying about Santa were really unfounded. Since I didn't talk about him much, she didn't talk about him much. She really does associate Christmas with Christ and it is really sweet. Although I must say, she loves all the festivities that go along with it--decorations, the tree, presents, food, and family! And, I'd have to agree. :)


Christmas morning. I know it looks like Eliza is mad in this picture, I can't remember what was bothering her, but after we got upstairs and she remembered that it was Christmas morning and there was a large pile of presents under the tree, she was all smiles! (Yes, she had forgotten... How can you forget Christmas morning?? Apparently I didn't give this part of Christmas enough hype or something??)


Ashlyn's first Christmas. Isn't she just a cute little ball of joy?

My little darlings

It has been very difficult to get all three to smile that the same time lately. How hard can this be? Well, I have several more of these pictures and I'm not pleased with any of them. Sigh. At least I have captured Ezra's personality. ;)

Okay, I know this is completely "Bah humbug" of me, but I don't teach my kids about Santa. Really. I have never given them a gift "From Santa" and I don't intend to pretend each Christmas that Santa comes down our non-existent chimney to give them gifts. To me, Santa is a wonderful example of a jolly fellow who loved to give and this is what I plan to teach my children: That Santa was a giving person and so we should admire his example and give to others as well. I suppose there is a part of me that resents Santa a little for taking the spotlight away from the Savior. Perhaps this is why I refuse to enable the Santa Propaganda. Sigh. Okay, I am not as angry as I just sounded. In fact, my attitude is really more apathy than anything else. I have no problem with other people who choose to teach about Santa and I'm not going to ruin it for any of the other kids who believe in him.

That said, somehow my 4-yr old daughter believes in Santa. She told me that he was going to come to Grandma's house (since that is where we are going for Christmas) and he would have a great big bag and leave presents for her. I just sort of looked at her after she told me that, not knowing what to say. Do I ruin it for her because of my own "issues"? Or allow her to believe? For the time being, I just sort of said, "Oh yeah?" So this is something I am going to have to ponder further. Until I make a good plan, I think I'll let her go on believing. Still, I don't plan on getting her presents from Santa (I'll let Grandma take care of that). :)

Artwork

Junie B Jones!

Yesterday we took a trip to the Theatre!  Eliza's friend is a fan of Junie B books and so Eliza has gotten into them as well.  It just so happened that the local Theatre was putting on a show called Junie B in Jingle Bells Batman Smells so we decided to make it a girls night!  I'd never been to a kids play before this and I was quite delighted.  It was quite funny and the Junie B character was played just as I imagine her when I read Eliza the books.  She is a VERY silly 1st Grader.  Eliza loved the play and looked at me with that look of, "I love you so much Mom" as the play ended and joy and laughter flooded the auditorium.  I think I'd do pretty much any legal thing for that look so it was well worth it.

Bathtime

I decided to try an experiment. Ashlyn technically can't sit-up yet, so Eliza had to hold her slippery body still while I took these pictures (no easy task mind you). Looking at these pictures a little closer, I started humming to myself, "One of these things is not like the other..." What a chunky, white baby!

Just finished these ballerina silhouettes for Eliza & Ashlyn's room. They are oil on canvas. I actually really enjoyed doing these. It took me awhile between sessions so they are several months in the making, but the overall time actually painting was probably 3-4 hours. I am really loving oils!