Wednesday, January 13, 2010

There's still more!

After our Christmas brunch and naps we headed over to Jesse's sister's home for Christmas dinner.  Everything was beautiful, dinner was delicious, the company was sweet, it was a great way to end our Christmas day.

This is me with Jess and Uncle Alex, Jesse's great uncle.  He adores our kids and sure spoils them! :)



  New legos and a dolly stroller from Uncle Alex


 
Thanks Uncle Alex, we love you!!

We ended the night with a surprise grand finale.

 
No peeking!


Get ready....here it comes!


It's a "real kitty"!


Oh, the things you do for your kids.  Our kids are kitty lovers.  They play kitties and pretend to be kitties all day long.  I'm not sure where or when it all started but for a long time now they've wanted nothing but a "real kitty".  That's all Jack wanted for his birthday (obviously he didn't get it) and then when Christmas time rolled around, we'd ask him what Santa was bringing him and he'd say, "a real kitty".  Finally Jess and I just told him that Santa was NOT bringing him a kitty.   Then one freezing night a couple of weeks before Christmas a kitten showed up and was peeking in the window next to Jenny's front door.  She is very compassionate towards animals so she took him in but gave him plenty of opportunities to leave in case he was someone else's pet.  He always came back and finally made himself right at home, but Jenny already has two cats and didn't really want another one, even though she had fallen in love with him.

Jess and I agreed to let Jenny and Erica give him to Jack and Jayci for Christmas because we knew it was bound to happen someday, and if we were going to have a cat we wanted it to be this cat.   (They had previously asked us if they could give our kids a cat and we said NO WAY :) Jenny had invited our kids over to play with him and he was so mellow and just took everything they had to dish out.  Obviously they were ecstatic and a little over-excited, but the kitty was playful, let them carry him around like a sack of potatoes, and didn't scratch or run away.  At one point Jayci was carrying him completely upside down, with his bottom by her head and his head hanging down by her feet and he was just chillin and took it.   Still to this day he hasn't bitten or scratched at all (okay, except when I was holding him and Jess started the shower right by us, he kind of freaked out and tried to climb up my neck.  And sometimes he'll come up and bite Jesse's feet because he wants to play, but he hasn't ever done it to be mean, and hasn't ever hurt the kids even though their excitement still hasn't worn off a bit!)

So without further ado, here's our new addition.  He didn't have a name when he was living at Jenny's but he purrs like crazy so Matt would call him "Little Motor".  It kind of stuck, hence his name.
Meet 'Moe'.

He has been nearly maintenance free.  He's never had an accident or ruined anything in the house.  We can just let him roam when we leave and not have to worry.  For Jess and I, having a pet was part of growing up, but we weren't ready for all the work and maintenance of one when we still have babies who require even more work and maintenance, so I'm soooo glad that he is the way he is.  We all just love him!








Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Christmas Day

Christmas Morning


Little bedhead


Our gourmet breakfast: muffins and "blue juice" picked out by Jack (of course).

All the loot




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Brunch at Grammy's and Grandpa's house


Traditional cousin/jammy picture.  You've got a twenty-year-old, 1 six-year-old, 2 four-year-olds, 2 three-year-olds, 2 two-year-olds, an almost one-year-old, and a dog.  This is the best we could get!




Poor Allie just laid around and pouted because she had to wear this ridiculous santa coat.  It was hilarious.
 


 
Baby Kelton. I love him soooooo sooooooo much!


  More presents!?!?



Here's the cute girlies.  I'm so glad my kids have cousins close in age.  Still to this day my cousins are my best friends! 



Emma was quite the little diva with her new nails!

 

A bit of Wii

 

I love these boys!  They kept trying to steal each others gifts.



Allie is my favorite dog of all time.  I love her and she loves me!  And what kind of dog lays like that?  Seriously!



Did I mention I love Kelton?  (I love them all, Kelton's just at that adorable age where he sits and smiles at a camera). 



 
I thought these pictures were funny.  And check out Dallin's do. hmmmm....

 



More Christmas

I’m frustrated with Blogger right now because I can’t get my curser in between any of the pictures to narrate them.  I like the new way to upload photos, it’s much faster for me, but everything else is frustrating because I haven’t figured it all out yet.   So until I figure it out (if you know, please leave a comment) you’ll just get me talking, followed by a stream line of pictures.  Boring.

On Christmas Eve we had Grandma and Grandpa Elies and Aunt Erica come over to open presents from them.  Jack of course was ecstatic to  receive more Legos.  Jayci got a darling Bitty Baby and some clothes and accessories for her.   Jayci named her “Bitty Baby”.  So original:)

Christmas is magical with kids!   I love watching their faces light up with  joy and excitement.  I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again.  Jack is slightly OBSESSED with Legos.  He has so many now that we cleared out our spare room down stairs and he now has a ‘lego room’.  I’m sure it’s not a permanent thing since we do have plans to expand our family, but for now, yes, we have a ‘lego room’.   Jess spends as much time down there as Jack.

Notice the picture of Jess reading to the kids in their new pj’s from Grandma and Grandpa Bruun.  The kids love Jess as a storyteller.  He’s much more entertaining than mom.  In this picture they are reading “Where the Wild Things Are”, one of our favorites.  You know the “wild rumpus” part, where there are 3 pages of just pictures, no words?  Well when I read it we usually just look at the pictures and smile.  The kids used to wonder why I wasn’t reading on those pages.

“Do you see any words on the page?”
“No”
“So we just look at the pictures and use our imaginations”
….boring….

When Jess gets to this part he starts beat-boxing and bouncing the kids all over on his knees.   They laugh until they’re out of breath and then want to do it again.
….definitely more fun than mom’s way….

The last picture is a time I love: the kids are in bed, Santa has come, it’s quiet and peaceful, the air is full of anticipation, did I mention the kids are in bed?