Wrapping It Up

Well, Christmas came and went without any blogging on my part. As usual I found myself scrambling at the last minute to get everything ready, but it was fun. I can honestly say I love the chaos of the holidays, and it is fun to have so many chances to see friends and family. I was cursing myself a few days before Christmas though when I found myself standing in a long line at Walmart at 11 pm picking up a few things for Luke's class party...sometimes prior planning is not in my vocabulary. In the last few weeks we've been to family parties for both sides of Jer's family, gone on our annual trip to SLC, and gone to school, church, and neighborhood events. For those who are local, we took our kids for family night to a live nativity at a farm in Nibley, and I thought it was really neat. It was about 2 degrees that night, but they had fires and a hay ride and the kids had a lot of fun. I slacked off the first few events but the last few weeks I've redeemed myself by taking about a million pictures...so here's a rundown of our Christmas season.


After the first few storms, sledding was big at our house. Now we're just waiting to get out of this deep freeze and get some new snow on the ground. Luke and his buddy Max sled down our back hill and off of the retaining wall into the "hole." It's probably not the safest, but they have a blast.


We headed down to Salt Lake with my parents for our annual shopping trip. We really don't do that much shopping, but we always make a trip to REI and this year my mom and I dropped everyone else back off at the hotel to hit the Gateway. (A highlight at REI was when the boys tried out the bikes, which were all chained together, starting a domino effect and taking out a huge line of them. As Jer would say, "that's why we can't have nice things.") We took Trax to Temple Square, and I feared death by trampling. We opted to walk back. Luke loved stomping through the snow. Seth by then was exhausted and fell asleep riding on Jer's shoulders.


I subjected the kids to lots of picture taking trying to get a few for our Christmas card. If you didn't get one I probably didn't have your address, or I'm just a flake.

Luke was in seventh heaven because he got to swim. Jer took the boys the first time and I thought maybe I dodged a bullet, but the second night he insisted I take him. I'll be honest, swimming doesn't have the same appeal it used to. Isn't there a rule somewhere that moms over 30 shouldn't have to get into a swimming suit in the middle of the winter?

Thanks for the fun weekend!

Luke and the other kindergartners did a cute program at school. He and his class were elves.

Luke and his kindergarten teacher. She is awesome. Don't let her grandmotherliness fool you...she's intense. I think she does a great job.

We have poles similar to the one pictured lining our sidewalk and driveway edges. Jer places them there so that once the snow gets really high he can see exactly where the borders are for snow removal. Jer is intense about the driveway and really lets his pickiness shine. He is well known in our neighborhood as a snow nazi, and the thought of anyone driving on our driveway with snow still on it is about enough to send him into fits. Just thought I'd note that.

Christmas Eve at my Aunt Tamra's house. These two were doing some last minute brown nosing when Santa showed up.

Ian has no fear when it comes to Santa.

Seth was an unwilling participant in the nativity this year. He disrobed and refused to put his wise man stuff back on, but I did manage to get this scarf around him last minute. He did like his prop though and spent quite a bit of time blowing into it.

Christmas morning. I tried to booby trap the boys' door with bells, but Luke snuck out like a ninja anyway. He didn't see the presents though. He just headed downstairs where my parents were. When Seth got up Jer and I wrestled him in our bed for about 30 minutes thinking Luke was still asleep (Jer claimed he saw a "lump and a head"). Finally it was time to get up and open gifts. Ian peed through his Christmas jammies, so I was glad I took some pics the night before.

Ian and his retro rocket. My parents stayed over and opened presents with us and then we enjoyed a big breakfast. Everyone was totally spoiled, and it was lots of fun.

We spent Christmas day with Jer's family. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins. I'm sure Tucker and Ian will be good buddies soon. Ian was quite interested in Tucker's hair and spent a lot of time slobbering on it and pulling it. Maybe he wishes he had some of his own.

One last bit of mileage out of those plaid shirts. The boys wore them to church the Sunday before and after Christmas.

I think Ian is telling me "enough pictures already." He did have a sweater vest on but covered it with spit up at church.

We wrapped up the Christmas parties last night with a Pickett get together. Most of the cousins and their kids were there, and it was really fun. Luke was so excited because it was at a gym, and they got to take their basketballs. On the way out the door, he commented that I wasn't wearing "very good shoes for basketball." It's nice when your son is still little and doesn't know yet how incredibly uncoordinated you are at pretty much anything involving a ball. He still thinks I have skills.

With the addition of Ian to our family, 2009 was a really great year for us. I am looking forward to more fun and chaos this next year. I was struggling and worrying a few weeks ago about a few things that were going on with the kids and Jer came home with some advice from an older friend. He said that his biggest regret with his kids was that he didn't "love more." I am really going to try and make that my motto this upcoming year. I think sometimes I need to put my worrying and focus on discipline to the side a bit and just let my kids know how much I love them. I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!