Merry Christmas!

For most of you, Christmas doesn't happen until the 25th, but for us, Christmas was yesterday! We always celebrate the Saturday before with our family since we go to Utah for the actual Christmas day. That being said, we had a great "Christmas"! We went back to downtown Parker on Friday night, "Christmas Eve," if you will. We went on a carriage ride and Ty got to see Santa again. We had a blast!

Santa was kind enough to stop at our house a few days early, too. Our kiddos got just what they wanted and needed.

Santa brought Ty these jammies and slippers, and his favorite toy of all- Handy Manny with his toolbox full of tools! He has been asking for Manny for MONTHS, and it basically has not been out of his sight since he opened it.

Merry Christmas, everyone! Hope yours is as good as ours was!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

For our family night activity on Monday, we decided to check out Parker's downtown. It wasn't very big, but they did have some great light displays. On the weekends, they do carriage rides and have a Santa Claus, too! We are definitely planning on going back this weekend!

And here are our boys with Santa at our ward Christmas party.

Have I mentioned that I LOVE December?!

Kids Say the Darndest Things

*Ty busted all of his golf clubs, so he uses his baseball bat as a substitute when he feels the need to golf something.

Yesterday I was reading a book on the couch, when I looked up and saw Ty bent over this toy, baseball bat in hand. This is a putting green that goes with a golfing Mickey Mouse toy.

He was saying:

"No, Ty Guy, don't hit that. It's for Mickey. No, Ty Guy, don't hit that. It's for Mickey."

WHACK!

The golf ball, along with the rest of Mickey's putting green, sailed across the family room. I guess his boyish desire to hit something overcame his own reminder that he shouldn't.

*I hear some variation of this conversation (with himself) at least once a day:

"I want to drive."

"You can't drive, Ty Guy. You have to be 16."

"I'm only 2."

*Ty picks at his fingernails constantly, and when he gets a hangnail, he calls it a "plug." No idea why. I can't tell you how often I hear this: "I've got a plug, Mommy. Let's clip it."

*We almost always listen to primary songs in the car, and recently a very obscure song came on. Ty, in the backseat, exclaimed, "I LOVE this song!"

*Whenever Adam hugs me, Ty immediately pulls at our legs, saying, "I need a hug, too!" When we pick him up and hug him, he always says, "Each person. Each person." ??? Ok.

*Recently Ty was saying his prayers and inserted this comment: "Thank thee for Mickey and thank thee for Handy Manny." We are supposed to thank the Lord in ALL things, right?!

*Two mornings ago, Ty woke up and jumped into our bed with us. Snuggled in between us, I woke up to this comment: "I LOVE my mommy and I LOVE my daddy."

We love you too, Ty. SO, SO, much. You and your brother make our lives so great!

Rub a dub dub...

...two kids in the tub!

Two SICK kids, that is. McKay was running a fever of 103.5 earlier this week, along with a runny nose and dry cough, and he was super irritable. I took him into the doctor and was told that he had RSV. Ugh. Ty had his turn just a few days later, but his fever was accompanied by vomiting, too. Now, their temperatures are back to normal and we are just trying to kick their dry coughs and nasty noses. 'Tis the season.

Christmas is Coming

Thanksgiving weekend was great for lots of reasons--the food, the shopping, the extra time with Adam. But my very favorite thing about Thanksgiving weekend is that it seems to kick-off the Christmas season. I LOVE this time of year. So, we spent Saturday getting all geared up for it.

We hung the stockings by the mantle with care:

Aren't those stockings great, by the way? I bought them on clearance after Christmas last year. I actually bought a football one, too. I guess that means we can only have one more kid!!

And we set up our Christmas tree. We have always had a real tree since we have been married, but we bought an artificial tree at a garage sale this summer. Once Adam had it all set up, we both missed the sight and smell of a real tree so much that we promptly put it back in the box and posted it for sale on Craigslist! Then we went out and got this beauty instead:

No, no, not the baby, the tree! But the baby is pretty cute, too.

Such a goofball!

Now we are all set! Let the festivities begin!

Black Friday

I generally don't buy into the whole Black Friday thing. I value my sleep too much to fight the crowds at 5 AM! Last night Adam and I were looking through our ads and I was noticing there were a lot of super great deals at Target. Adam asked if I was going to get up early to shop. I said, "No way!" And then I amended my response to, "The only way I would go would be if McKay wakes up at 4:45 and I have to get up with him anyway, and even then I would probably still go back to bed!" Well, at precisely 4:45 AM, I heard McKay crying. It must have been fate! I got up and fed him, and then decided since I was up, I should go. I threw on a jacket and a hat and left the house, without even turning on a light to look at myself before leaving. Yikes.

Target was crazy. I was sure as soon as I pulled into the parking lot that there was no chance I would get what I was after. Without going into too many details (some of the things I bought are for family members who may well read this blog before Christmas!) I found EXACTLY what I was after, and I was in and out of Target in 20 minutes. It was unbelievable. So worth it. And I only had to hide from one person I recognized so she wouldn't see me in the state I was in!

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving! Here are three of the things I am the very most thankful for:

(I know, this is a terrible picture, but unfortunately, it was the only one I took yesterday. And, no, we did not plan to have them all in red and white stripes. It was purely coincidental.)

A Whole Lot of Catch-Up

I know, I know. It has been 3+ weeks since I posted. The main reason for that is that I haven't taken that many pictures lately, and I hate to post without pictures. And then, when I did finally take pictures, I had no desire to post them. Do you know what it's like when it has been forever since you wrote in your journal, and you know you should but you really don't want to? That's basically how I've been feeling about blogging. After a reprimand from my mother-in-law last night via phone ("Do I still have grandchildren in Colorado?") I decided to buckle down and do it. Here goes:

Our biggest news is that Adam has a new job!! We are both very excited about it. His new title is "Financial Planning Analyst" (what does that mean?!) and he is working for Kaiser Permanente. He is very excited about his new job, and I am VERY excited to not have to face any more busy seasons!! He just started one week ago today, and so far, he has been quite impressed with the people he works with and the work environment in general.

On the home front, we have two sick boys and one who is teething, as well. The last few days have been miserable, quite frankly. Ty hasn't been too bad, just more cuddly and clingy than normal. McKay has been an absolute BEAR. I can't say I really blame him too much--to be sick and getting new teeth at the same time couldn't be fun. But nap-time can't last long enough!!

Ok, now for the pictures. Last Sunday night, my Uncle Kirk and Aunt Kendra came down from Broomfield with their two cute kids and my grandma to have dinner with us. Kendra always takes cute pictures, so these ones are courtesy of her:

Shane, Ty and Chelsea on the back porch.

Ty stomping around in his daddy's boots

My cute Adam getting ready to grill kabobs. (We planned the menu before we knew about the snowstorm!)

McKay in the middle of his dinner. He is LOVING the solids now.

Shane and Chelsea with the boys

Our family

And here are a few photos that I took last week, before the boys got sick:

I think Mac's birthmark might be fading a little bit. Is that just wishful thinking?

Though our Ty Guy has always loved sports, he is WAY into baseball right now.

And last of all, we had some friends over last night who were visiting from California. Tami and I were good friends throughout our experience in the El Ed program at BYU, and her husband, Kevin, and Adam went through the accounting program together, too! Their little boy, Cody, is only 6 days younger than Ty, and they have a baby who is just a couple months younger than McKay. We sure wish they lived close! Ty and Cody had a BLAST together last night. I just love this picture of them riding the horse together!

Whew! It feels good to be caught up at last! I won't go that long without posting again!

Two Little Monkeys...

Happy Halloween from Colorado!!

Yep, this is a picture of our backyard taken earlier this week. Adam and a neighbor measured it, and we had 23" by Thursday afternoon. YIKES!! Luckily, it got up to the 50's on Halloween, but there is still plenty of snow on the ground.

My boys were both monkeys this year. Not nearly as fabulous as the golfer costume, but oh, well.

Here is monkey #1

And chunky monkey #2

And a couple of them together

We went trick-or-treating as a family around our neighborhood. Ty was really good at saying the right thing at the right time ("Trick-or-treat! Thank-you! Happy Halloween!"). He would not, however, accept any help carrying his treat bucket. As it got increasingly heavy, he was eventually dragging it, but still would not let us help. Stubborn kid. I wonder where he gets that from?!

Here he is with his loot

Score!

We also decorated pumpkins a couple of weeks ago, and I never posted pictures. We let Ty do his own little one with some stickers. He was VERY serious about it.

I thought it looked like something out of a Dr. Suess book!

And this is the one Adam and I did together. Adam gutted and I carved. We actually won my family's pumpkin carving contest this year--our first win ever! (The design is a barbershop quartet of ghosts, if you can't tell.)

When he's helping he's happy...

Ty has always loved to help me with chores around the house. He has really stepped it up lately. A couple of weeks ago, he set the table completely by himself:

Not too bad for his first time, right? Now he sets the table almost every night, and most of the time, I DON'T EVEN HAVE TO ASK HIM TO. When he hears me making dinner in the kitchen, he will follow me in, open the drawer that contains the place mats, and get to work! All I have to do is put the necessary dishes on the counter, and he will make sure they get to the right spots! He is a champ at picking up his own toys, emptying the dishwasher, throwing his diapers away, and putting his dirty laundry in the hamper. Since we now have the front loading washing machine/dryer, he will even load those for me! What a kid, huh? I am totally going to appreciate it now while he enjoys it. I guarantee that one day he will be fighting me about doing his chores!

I'm not sure how much "help" Ty was to his daddy in the yard, but he was sure trying!

Game Day

Five or six years ago, I never would have guessed that my future children would have ever been dressed like this:

I guess that's why we are counseled not to marry "outside the faith"! Seriously, though, thanks Grandma Marchant! The new toys and clothes are great, even if they are the wrong color! :)

A Wicked Fun Night

Adam and I saw Wicked last night. Yes, it was as wonderful as everyone says it is. I LOVED it! I wish I could see it again before it leaves town--alas, not in the budget. Too bad.

Priceless

Ty came inside from playing in the backyard this morning with a dandelion in his hand. He walked over to me and said, "A dittle flier (little flower) for you, Mommy." My heart turned to butter. It's moments like this that make me feel that being a stay-at-home-mom is unequivocally the best job in the world.

We are HOME!

We have lived in our new house for about a month now. It has taken a LOT of hard work, but it is really feeling like home! Here are some shots of the house after we have painted, bought furniture, landscaped and decorated it! (To see the before shots, click here.)

The exterior view. It may not look a whole lot different than it did in the before photo, but Adam has worked like a horse on the yard! He chopped several large branches off the front tree to open things up, laid sod and grass seed, pulled out the nasty juniper bushes, and fixed the sprinkler system with the help of a neighbor. What a guy!

Ty's room. In our apartment, our second bedroom was Ty's room, the office, food storage, and a catch-all for everything else. It is great he has his very OWN space now.

There isn't much in McKay's room since all the toys and books currently reside with Ty. It mainly consists of a bed and rocking chair. I'm sure it will get filled up soon enough!

We bought new bedding for the master bedroom, which I love!

Looking down on the living room from the staircase

The dining room. My friend, Kim, and I painted the red accent wall. It was scary, but I am happy with the way it turned out!

This is my favorite space in the house. I painted the alcove to match the wall in the dining room, and I made the curtains and pillows.

My favorite feature is the storage space beside the fireplace. As you can see in the before picture, it was just an open hole. Adam built in some shelving, and we filled it with toy baskets for the kiddos. Then I made curtains that match the rest of the room to cover it and give it a more "finished" look. I love having the storage without the clutter!

Of course, there is still work to be done and probably will be forever! But all things considered, we are happy with the way everything has turned out. It has been great to have more space to live in!