You can no longer call me Bambi

I am pretty dang steady on the ice these days. If we continue to go once a year, in five years I might be awesome. Okay let's not get ahead of ourselves.

So as some of you may remember we took the kids ice skating for the first time last year. This year everyone was looking forward to going back. When we got there they were doing the zamboni.(we didn't know any of this at the time) Andrew saw someone fall in the crowd as everyone was getting back on the ice. Apparently she cut her hand on a skate. After that he was freaked out but wouldn't tell us why! He wanted no part of ice skating.

We tried to reason with him, not knowing why all of a sudden he wouldn't even try it was very difficult. He wasn't giving in. We threatened him with no I-Pod for a month. He said it would be worth it. At this point I was just ticked. We had just. gotten. there. We ignored him for a few times around the rink but then finally I had had enough. Paul and I wrestled him on the ice and practically carried him to the other side.

He made it to the benches and stayed there pouting for a long time. Finally we had a rational talk and I found out he was afraid of getting cut by someone's skates. I told him we would hold both hands, wouldn't let go, ever and that if something did happen he had on gloves so he would be okay. He decided to go around with us once.
After that we found him a walker and he perked right up. He had gotten way too tall to use a cone this year but the walker worked, barely. If he was any taller it wouldn't have.
Finally, after all the drama, we were able to skate around and have some good family fun. It's just dark enough in there that the "action" shots were really dark or really blurry.

Poor think looks like he's handicapped.


I think he was telling Paul he was having fun.
Emma amazed me again. She has no fear and does really really well. I was so proud of her.

Andrew on the other hand can't even stand on the ice for a picture LOL! Poor thing is just like me.
It was zamboni time again so we took a hot chocolate break.


We went around a few more times and Andrew even gave away his walker to a little boy who "needed it more than he did". How sweet is that? He went around a little bit on his own but preferred to hold on to someone. Toward the end I was feeling really good out there. It was so much fun. I was almost able to stop myself, I turned 360 degrees a few times (on purpose!) and I was able to dodge kids without my arms turning into windmills. I would like to go again a little sooner this time. I think it would be good for both Andrew and I.

Christmas 2009

Paul slowly started to lower the sheet. There were squeals of excitement.

Then came the demands "let us out!"
Then they were off and running. I look forward to this every year.
I think Santa did well. What do you think?
The kids dug around in their stockings.

Then played a round of Beatles Rock Band. That's Paul on vocals singing Yellow Submarine.
Andrew had said once while were were over at David and Nancy's that he wanted a Sock Monkey. Well Grandma Nancy got him one! We were all laughing. It was an awesome gift!
David and Nancy got Paul and I a Magic Bullet. Green smoothies here I come.
Marius appreciated his gift. A new blankie to lay on.
Paul surprised all of us by getting Emma a sapphire pendant. It's her birthstone and she always loves looking at the sapphires when we are in jewelry stores.
Paul proposed to me again, 14 years and 13 days after the first time, with a wedding band. I said yes ;)

He kept teasing me about how I needed to make him another gift this year. So I did. I made him a book, 101 reasons I why I loved him. I even added some bonus reasons. It isn't a BYU blanket but he seemed to be touched. I think he appreciated it.

The house, that I had been working to clean for so long, was a wreck.
A total disaster.
So I ate breakfast, homemade cinnamon rolls.

And went to bed for a much needed nap.

That evening we went to Joi's for dinner. We had fondue dessert.

Emma helped John get a couple of bites.
Then she put her gummy bears in a warm chocolate spa.
Paul and his sisters, Joi and Meredith. Red was the theme of the night.
John was loving the chocolate and all the goodies. I love how you can see his teeth marks in the chocolate on his chin.
All of a sudden he was in the chocolate! When he heard us laugh he went back for more.

He was really hamming it up.
Paul and Grandma Fern.
John loved his little toy we brought over for him.
Emma snapped this picture of us in our opposite outfits. I swear it was all Paul's idea!
I promise it was. That was our Christmas 2009. This year has been great. Christmas was great. Overall we feel very very blessed.

Christmas Eve

This year we got to host Christmas Eve. We invited both sets of parents and had a wonderful night.

Due to some conflicts, we were unable to have our traditional Christmas day fondue on Christmas day. We decided to compromise and have it on Christmas Eve and have our ham dinner on Christmas day. I also wanted to have a lot of what I call pre-eats. It's all the yummy stuff you can snack on before dinner and it just happens to be the food I like to eat best. I made a lot of stuff and then when my parents showed up they had a ton of stuff. All together we had enough food to feel a small country. Seriously there were so many different things to eat it wasn't even funny, but it was fun.

Paul getting started on some snacks.
Me with some of my hard work.
Dad sniffing my chocolate bourbon pecan pie.
Baby girl and I.
A picture with my parents.
At some point in the evening the kids got my camera. Most of their pictures are a little hard to make out but one of them got this and I was glad. It it a bunch of our Santa pictures throughout the years. It is so fun to look back at these. I don't even think we got them all out this year.
After dinner the Elves rang the doorbell and left us some packages.
New fuzzy Pj's!!!
Andrew stripped right down in the living room and changed.
After everyone was changed we acted out the Christmas story. My mom was the narrator and Emma was Mary.
Andrew was Joseph.

Here we all are in our costumes that my mom brought. Grandma Nancy was the Angel and the rest of the adults were shepherds or wise men. It brought a very sweet spirit into our home.

We talked about Jesus and Andrew got very emotional. It was a very sweet moment and then all the grandparents got to share their testimonies. I don't know if there was a dry eye in the house. This was the first time that we got to celebrate a holiday with both sets of grandparents all to ourselves. It was really special.

After that we took our traditional picture in our PJ's and then we opened some presents since we wouldn't be seeing my parent's the next day. My mom made me this blanket with some help from my day. I love it but hope they aren't trying to tell me something ;)
Paul loved his BYU windshirt. He kept it on the rest of the night.
Andrew got some stuff that he can use for scouts and Emma got a Lego set but their big gift was a box of Magic cards. They were so excited!
After we said good-bye we hung "the sheet" and Marius was not pleased. He wouldn't go under or around it. It laid next to it pouting.

Santa was hard at work while the kids were wide awake. Good thing we had the sheet!

Finally all the light were out and we tried to sleep. It didn't work out too well for us. Emma came in at 2:45 a.m. to see what time it was. After that Andrew came into our room and made a bunch of noise. I bet I didn't get more than 5 hours of sleep. Oh well. It was Christmas.