Cuties in the Kitchen with the Camera

We needed to get some updated pictures of the kids for our wall so Steve and I had fun taking these pictures in our kitchen while the light was perfect.

On a different day, Steve and I decided to try getting some updated pictures of us. It's a lot harder to be your own photographer, but we experimented enough that we were able to get some that we like. Meanwhile, all three kids were upstairs having the time of their lives playing Wipeout with all the mattresses and blankets they could find.

Now all we have to do is narrow it down to our favorites, get them printed, and hung up all before they are out of date again. That's going to be hard to do since our kids are growing up fast.

Kylee Makes a Movie

I found this video on my phone from a few months ago. 

Kylee is so much fun!

Random Phone Videos

The first two videos are from today. Livy had her favorite friend, Henry, over to play. They just laugh and sing and dance the whole time they are together. It's fun to watch.

The next two videos are from last November when we took the whole family to the mall. I was on the hunt for a pair of boots and the mall was crowded. We stopped at quite a few stores with no luck. By the time we got to Nordstrom's the kids were checking out and I had to be speedy...luckily they had some spinning stools, no crowds, and boots with my name on them.

The last two movies are of Livy reading Mercy Watson books. These books were from the library (little did she know she would be getting her own set for Christmas just a few months later).

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!