Christmas At Home 2014

Since we had never done our own Christmas morning festivities I wasn't sure what to expect. Our children usually wake up early pretty consistently so I was expecting to be dragged out of bed at 6:00 am or earlier. They surprised me by sleeping in until 7:30am and coming in our room to say Merry Christmas.

The night before had been a little rough getting the kids in bed (whining and fighting). Steve and I weren't too excited about parading downstairs and showering our children with gifts that we had thoughtfully put together for them without first making sure we focused on what this holiday was all about. So that morning we all sat on our bed and had a little devotional with a story, some scriptures, and testimony.

m&m's

stencils

tape, tape, tape

(she calls them slices of tape in the video below)

And everything was fine for about five minutes until Kylee had a little meltdown. She initially got mad when she realized that Steve was videoing her instead of just taking pictures.

Here is the video...

I tried to keep Liv from eating everyone else's m&m's from their stocking. As Kylee would say, Liv 'chugged' her candy and then tried to snatch Cody's. Well, as usual, Liv was too sneaky for me. While I was in the kitchen getting the sticky buns ready for breakfast she was helping herself to mom and dad's stocking (which we hadn't emptied yet because of our little interruption). We had gum and tic-tacs in addition to our m&m's so she had found the jackpot.

Liv got a little doctor kit from Grandma Tammy and Grandpa Airplane. She immediately started nursing all of Mercy Watson's ailments.

Grandpa Airplane and Grandma Tammy woke up mighty early on the west coast to get in on the action. It was fun to have them be a part of the fun.

Cody was super excited to get another Lego X-Box game.

We gave the kids the Mercy Watson series, but we wrapped them all in different boxes. Once Liv had unwrapped a few of the boxes she lost interest in opening more presents. She just wanted to hold the books. Steve handed her a gift to unwrap and she said, "no, thanks," with her hands full of books. Then Steve told her that the box had more Mercy Watson books in it and then she promptly set her books down while she opened the gift.

What more do you need than all 6 Mercy Watson books and Mercy Watson herself?

Kylee got a rubberband loom for making bracelets. She's already made some pretty cool stuff. She also got the watch that she is wearing in the picture from Grandpa Airplane and Grandma Tammy. She loves that it has a stop watch feature so she can time her wall sits.

The other day we were eating stir fry for dinner (which the girls don't like). Kylee told me she was going to time us to see how long it took us to finish our dinner. I thought she meant she was timing all of us but then she told me that she wasn't timing herself or Olivia. I don't think either one of them ate a single bite of that dinner and I think that was her plan all along.

Sara drew Steve's name this year and gave him a cool Captain America t-shirt. Kylee took the picture. I think she forgot to get the shirt in there.

I love the Mercy Watson books and so does everyone else in our family.

Jeans!*

Steve and I scored some awesome jeans this year and what's almost better than the jeans themselves is that I successfully kept Steve from opening his jeans and wearing them before Christmas. I had to wrap his jeans in the same box with mine and only put my name on the outside, but it worked. It was a Christmas miracle.

*prices shown do not reflect the amount paid!

Maybe I'll actually have to buy a bundt pan to make sticky buns next year. :)

Another attempt at photographing the new shirt...almost there.

Steve was set on trying his hand at making tamales for our Christmas dinner and it was so delicious! 

When he cooks you can bet it's going to be Mexican food and we are never disappointed.

These family pictures below were taken to document our first traditional Christmas tamale dinner (with many more to come hopefully) and they both crack me up because Livy is giving us a look like we are complete lunatics.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Adam and Christmas Eve

Since it was our first year staying home for Christmas some new traditions were born.

First of all, Cody requested that we carry on the Cramer tradition of putting codes on the presents instead of names. This year Steve and I decided to do Arthur (based on the cartoon aardvark) and his family (the Read family) since Arthur is the oldest and he has two younger sisters just like our family. So Cody was "A.R." for Arthur Read, Kylee was "D.W.R." for D.W. Read, and Olivia was "B.K.R." for Baby Kate Read. We also had a few games and family presents so our family code was "T.R.F." for The Read Family. It was funny to hear the kids talking about what the codes might be. Especially when Cody was sure that "T.R.F" was his code because there were way more family presents than individual ones.

On Christmas Adam (the day before Christmas Eve) we made personal pizzas. Kylee had a Pizza Hut Book It! certificate from school for a free personal pan pizza. Kylee thought she was pretty hot stuff with her very own pizza in its very own little box. On the drive home she kept peeking in her box and smiling. We decided that the other kids would think it was fun to make a little pizza of their own too. The tradition is official!

On Christmas Eve everyone got to open one present (the ones that the kids gave to each other and to us). So, at 7:00 am on Christmas Eve morning, Steve rolls over in bed and says we should open our presents. You might be thinking it's a little early to be doing that. I was thinking that too, but then I realized that the fact that Steve had waited this long to open his presents was pretty monumental and that I should just go with it. Well, the kids had the same idea. A few minutes later the kids came in our room asking if we could open up our presents right away.

I'm really glad we opened them up early. We were able to enjoy our gifts all day long together. Plus, we had been invited to eat dinner with a few families so if we had waited to open them we wouldn't have had all that time to play.

Cody had to dig to find the gifts that we wanted to open.

Cody and Kylee made some "secret" gifts of their own for Steve and were so excited for him to open them the next day. They had each made some creations out of Legos (that we already owned) and wrapped them up themselves. It was all their idea and doing. On the outside of Cody's box he wrote "fragile". Too bad Steve would have to wait until Christmas to open them!

Our Christmas Eve gifts!

Cody and Kylee couldn't wait for Livy to open her present. They wanted her to go first. 

Actually, I couldn't wait either. I knew she would love it.

She knew exactly what it was (but not many people would).

It's a pig named Mercy Watson from one of her favorite book series.

It was love at first sight and she still carries her around everywhere she goes. 

That night, when we were headed to dinner at the Clay's, there was a chilly wind as were getting in the car. I had my hands full with a pot of soup and everyone else was carrying stuff too so Livy (holding Mercy Watson, of course) had to wait a minute before we could put her in the car. All of a sudden she said, "Mercy Watson is cold!" It was her way of saying she wanted to get in the car quickly!

Steve and the kids surprised me with a game that we actually bought for Raquel and Brady this year for Christmas too. It's a fun one!

A few weeks before Christmas Kylee made a wish list. She wrote: girl legos, a pony, and a watch. This girl lego set from Cody and Livy included a pony. Talk about dreams coming true! That,  my friends, is a true Kylee smile.

It's a parent pay day when you get smiles like that.

Kylee loves the little tiny translucent legos (she calls them lights). When Cody and Kylee play legos together there is a chance that you will hear some squabbling about "lights" because Kylee tries to take them all and then Cody can't use them for his projects. Cody promptly picked out the lights in her new set here and she was happy to have her very own lights in baby blue.

Another winning smile.

Cody's sisters know that legos are the way to Cody's heart. This set looked awesome...complete with Superman AND Wonder Woman!

Liv loved Kylee's little lego princess.

Then it was Steve's turn.

Another great smile and X-Box Kinect Sports Season 2!

We pretty much played this the rest of the day and had a blast!

Wall Sits

The Saturday before Christmas Steve and the kids had fun doing a wall sit competition while I was out doing stuff for Relief Society. I kept getting texts updating me on the new record.

Kylee ended up winning with a time of 2:51! She beat Cody and Steve by a minute. She tried to show me when I got home, but her legs were so tired after doing it all morning.

Livy tries to do it too but when she sits her little feet slide out from under her and she plops on the ground. I love it because she laughs so hard.

The next week Cody lasted for 7 minutes!

Twinsies

One morning before school I talked Kylee into putting on her pink jacket and doing her hair like Livy's. She thought it was cool for a second, but when I pulled out the camera her smile disappeared. Before we left for the bus she lost the elastic and the jacket. :)

Goodbye with Hugs and Kisses

My grandma passed away peacefully today. She is one of my very favorite people that has ever lived. She was strong until the very, very end and I hope I can be just like her.

I'm thankful I got to talk to her on the phone one last time two nights ago. She said how sweet my little family is and told me to take good care of them. I told her I would. She said my children will enrich my life forevermore. Then we said "I love you" and she told me to tell Steve she loved him too and that was all. Shortly after that she slipped away. Now, after eight months, she can be with her sweetheart again. Forever.

These pictures are from the last time I saw her in person. They were taken this past summer the day after Aubrey and Jordan got married. We brought dinner, had her favorite chocolate cake, and played cards. Then we took pictures outside and tried not to think about saying goodbye. But, when we finally got into the car she stood on her porch alone and waved to us until we were out of sight. It was so different to see her there without grandpa...I remember thinking how brave and strong she was standing there without him by her side.

I feel very blessed that I am her granddaughter. There is no question that God loves me and knows me because he gave me her as my grandma.

Thanksgiving 2013

On Thanksgiving morning we woke up to all three kids searching the house for Lacey, Tyler, and Colton. When our kids had gone to bed the night before we told them that when they woke up the Bleazard's would be here since they were on their way and scheduled to arrive around midnight. Well, the roads and winter weather turned out to be a problem, so Lacey called to say they would be pulling off at a hotel for the night. We were glad they were playing it safe. But Cody, Kylee, and Livy were already beyond their waiting capacity by the morning. Cody had been counting down the hours for a few days by that point. However, we kept ourselves busy with Thanksgiving preparations and before we knew it they were pulling up to our house...

Livy kept out of trouble by washing dishes for me. It was either have her do dishes and get the floor all wet or have her snitching roll dough and pie. It's hard to keep this little monkey out of trouble, but dishes are one thing that she likes to help with that actually is a help. She loves wearing an apron too.

Kylee helped me make the rolls. This is the second year in a row we've made them for Thanksgiving...a tradition is born! They are so good that I want to eat them all so it is probably best that we only make them once a year.

Steve tried his hand at smoking the turkey this year out on our charcoal grill. It was delicious. 

Cody was excited to eat a drumstick and he ate the whole thing!

The meal was complete with Lacey's green bean casserole and yogurt pie.

Cody was in love with the crispy skin and asked Tyler, "Do you want to taste my skin?"

Steve, Livy, and I picked up our Christmas tree at Costco.

We even squeezed in some time for family pictures. Colton did great again for his photo shoot---just like his baby blessing photo shoot. He was born to be in front of the camera.

Tyler and Lacey had our name for Christmas this year and since we won't see them for Christmas they had us open up our gift early. They gave us the game Puerto Rico based solely on great reviews on Amazon (they had never played it before). It was fun to learn the game together and play it as much as we possibly could before the Bleazard's had to leave. (We also went to Cafe Rio-which is one thing Indiana definitely doesn't have!)

It was so fun to have a few days off to relax and play and especially to have the Bleazard fam stay with us!