Christmas memories

January 7, 2008

What did Sophia do for Christmas 2007?
I remember putting on my make up kit. Having fun times. 1/2 way going to the park in Snowflake b/c it was too windy. I got a Chinese fan and I was excited that I got to go to church when I got back. I got to drink hot chocolate with mint. Almost got to fly kites. In Eagar Grandma and Grandpa had animal toys, lincoln logs and crystals for us to play with. I got to go skiing.

What did Ellie do for Christmas?
I got a panda.

Kristy, James, Isaac, and Levi came to stay with us the week before followed by Sam, Sheila, Jenny and Fredy the weekend before Christmas. We then all drove up to Snowflake on Sunday and stayed thru the 25th. We drove to Eagar the day after. Lara, Matt, and Sophia went to Sunrise and Sophia took ski lessons.

Thanksgiving in Utah

Thanksgiving in Utah

(click the picture to see the full album)

We thought we'd be really smart this year and buy our plane tickets to Utah early so we could get a good deal. One by one, members of the family ended up not being able to come. Then Julia started having complications with her pregnancy and so Mom went out to stay with her that week. In the end, the only people there were Dad and Tim & Julia. We were a little sad not to have the family reunion we'd planned for but ended up having a great time. We got more one-on-one time then we would have gotten and it was actually a very relaxing trip.

Mathew fell in love with the cat and spent 90% of the time running around finding "soft" and trying to pet him. We went swimming a lot and went on a fun hike in rock canyon. Tim & Julia have an awesome setup in the basement with their X-box hooked up to a projector tv. The kids loved the Bean measeum...Mathew went crazy and was yelling "soft" at the top of his lungs--he really wanted to pet all of the animals.

The girls had a great time with Grandpa--he read to them, sang a lot, decorated the tree together, told stories, and just hung out. Mathew loved hanging out with Grandpa--the are two peas in a pod.

We found a very yummy Mexican restaurant that we went to twice. We spent Thanksgiving day at Aunt Rosy's house up in Alpine. It was fun to see cousins I've not seen in a long time. The girls really enjoyed meeting new cousins and petting the horse.

We really missed seeing Mom--the timing was unfortunate but we understood that she was needed elsewhere. The airplane ride home was pretty painful. Mathew is no fun to ride on a plane with. I think for our family the balance between flying and driving may be shifting. The comfort of flying no longer out ways the benefits of dri

Ellie's B-Day

Ellie's Birthday was a lot of fun. She really feels so grown up. She also loved everything she got.
We had a party for her at the local park. And although we only invited 3 girls, it still seemed big because they all brought siblings. I stayed up all night trying to make this cake. My Mom gave me the coolest set for a castle case--it had 52 pieces. I used 3 cake mixes and it was still too small to use all the pieces. It definitely did not look like the picture on the box but the kids loved it.

2007.11.1 ellie bday

October

A few days after Sophie's Birthday Party, Matt went on a business trip to England and Australia for 2 weeks. I took advantage of the time to get a firm routine and start a parenting system called "Accountable Kids". The girls took to it well but I had to have all my ducks in a row and coax them through it every day. I would get the kids down early and then spend the evenings organizing and cleaning the house. I must say it's the most organized the house had been in a while.

Matt got home just in time for the ward Halloween party. It was so good to have him back. He brought lots of fun gifts back including a little Wambat which goes everywhere with Ellie. Sophie wanted to be Pocahontas and Ellie wanted to be the "Island Princess". I found Sophie's costume for 3 bucks at Savers but it was way too short so I supplemented with a skirt I made--I bought Indian type fabric. I couldn't get the sewing machine to work so I ended up sewing it by hand at the last minute.

Halloween night was so fun. We stayed in our neighborhood this year which was nice. The girls had so much fun and Mathew slept through the whole thing. It's amazing how much candy they got. Our neighbors sat outside to hand out candy for themselves and us to that was nice.

Sophie's bday

Yesterday was Sophie's Birthday. It started out with breakfast in bed. She opened Grandma/granddaddy Nuttall's and Kristy/James' presents. Then of course, marking her height on the wall was very important.

Matt was able to take a half day off of work and came to the class to have cupcakes and sing Happy Birthday. The teacher pulled me aside and told us that Sophie is an angel in class (I was very proud).

Then Matt went and picked up two kids from their schools so they could come to the party since their parents work. I took a girl home with us to take her to the party and we went to "Pump it up". I was a little late since it was a mad rush from the school. There were a lot more kids than I'd thought--a lot of extra siblings came so there were 31 people. Everyone had a great time. Matt had Mathew the whole time so I got to talk to the parents.

The cake got destroyed on the ride over but oh well overall it was fun. I decided we will have one party a year--alternating Ellie, Sophie and Mathew. On other years, we will just have 1 or 2 friends over to celebrate. We brought 4 kids home with us until their parents could pick them up so the party really didn't end til about 7:30. Then Sophie (and Ellie) opened the presents. We were all so tired afterwards and crashed.

Here are some pics...

Double click on this picture to see the slide show

Sophie's 6th Bday

Quick Trip to Eagar

Matt is going to be out of town for a while so Friday afternoon we decided to drop everything and take a quick trip to Eagar. October is our favorite time of the year there. It was super windy one of the days but we had a great time enjoying the colors and the pumpkins.

2007.10 Eagar trip

Weeks seem to be flying. It's finally cooled down so I'm starting to walk Sophie and Ellie to school. Mathew is obsessed with screaming...that's all he does. I'm really trying to wean him. I've tried before but failed I'm hoping it works this time.