Christmas 2012

Christmas was very simple for us this year, since we still had boys that were vomiting straight up until Christmas Eve.  After a week or more of being sick we were all worn out, so we slept in and got a late start.  Notice they aren't wearing their cute Christmas pajamas...yeah, that should tell you something about the night before.  Poor boys.

They woke up with a lot of enthusiasm despite an interrupted night's sleep and were excited to see the balloons and the gifts waiting for them.

 Carter found one of the leftover carrots from Santa's reindeer...and a "just in case" bowl we had laying around.

 Trying out his new fork on the carrot

 After stockings we took a break for breakfast and found them in Carter's room reading books.  These kids love books.

 Time to dig in to some gifts!

 A favorite for the boys were their flashlights.  They immediately started "exploring" the house with them.

 Ethan is all business!

Honestly, we didn't do much else that day.  We had made plans to go to my parent's for dinner but Tristan was the only one with much of an appetite.  So we called it an early night and just enjoyed being together as a family.  Sometimes it's good when you are forced to scale back and remember what Christmas is really about.

Random November and December Pictures

Just when I think I've finished 2012 I find more pictures!  Some of the actual timeline is fuzzy for me so  sorry in advance!

Our elf, Penguin (named by Ethan), continued to cause mischief leading up to Christmas.  Here's one of Ethan finding him tangled in the christmas lights one morning.

 Just a cute little face...

 followed by a silly one!

 I'm pretty sure this is November, but we had some fun practicing one-to-one correspondence one day.  It was supposed to be with M & M's, but Ethan was just as happy with raisins!

 So was Carter!

 I can't remember if it was November or December, but we got snow!  It was just a dusting and never stuck around past lunchtime, but it was enough to get bundled up and head out for some playtime.

 This was Carter's first experience with snow other than when he was a little baby, so it was fun to watch him.

 Ethan making a snow angel

 Carter putting the sandbox toys to good use in the off-season

 And then....about 2 weeks before Christmas we caught a horrible stomach bug.  Carter got it first, then Ethan, then me.  Tristan was the only one who was spared (thankfully) so he was nursing 3 sick people all night one night.  I felt so bad for him.  This was our life for the last couple of weeks of 2012.  Pitiful, I know.

Family Pictures--November 2012

In November we managed to squeeze in a quick family photo session with our friend, Christie Marlatt.  She is new to photography and I had seen several of her shoots with some other friends of ours and saw her natural gift for it.  So we decided to ask her if she wanted to "practice" some more on our little family.  She agreed and did a wonderful job--as good as I would have expected from anyone.   It was chilly and the boys were rather shy and not all that smiley, but she captured some priceless memories for our family.  I was so appreciative that she was able to do it on short notice so we could have some new family pictures for our Christmas cards.  Thank you, Christie, for the wonderful memories!!!

Christmas Celebrations

We had a lot of fun leading up to Christmas, enjoying some of our favorite family traditions.  We went to The Barn to visit Santa again this year.  He is the best Santa!  When we got there Ethan was acting really shy, so Santa suggested we walked around the store for a few minutes to let them warm up to the place.  When we got back (there was no one else there yet) he spent about 10 minutes just talking to the boys and helping them feel comfortable.

 After a little talking, Ethan was ready to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what he wanted for Christmas this year:  a car ornament for the Christmas tree.

 Afterward, Ethan sat in the special chair and got his candy cane and toothbrush!

 This was the best we could get of both boys...the joys of multiple children!

 Carter did great, too.  No crying at all!

 We also built gingerbread houses.  This year we had a Snoopy set, so each of us had our own little dog house to build and decorate.

 We broke in the Christmas jammies for sure!

 We also put up the tree and put the lights on it.

 We had traditional ham dinner before Christmas, because my parents had invited us to have Christmas dinner with them.  Tristan was serious about his carving!

 Back to decorating!  Time for ornaments.  Carter did really well with the ornaments this year.  He loved to pull them off, but we had no major issues.

 Ethan hanging his favorite dump truck ornament

 Putting the star on top!  After we got it up there we found out it was broken!  I was hoping to find one on clearance the day after Christmas, but no such luck. So next year we will have to buy a new one.

And then the plague hit our home.  About a week and a half before Christmas Carter, then Ethan, then I caught a horrible stomach flu that was going around.  The poor kids were sick and throwing up for more than a week.  Luckily, I was only really sick for a few days.  Tristan was spared and was taking care of all of us through the nights of being sick.  He was wonderful and I was so grateful he was here to take care of us.  I can't imagine what I would have done if I had been on my own.  January kind of slipped through our fingers because we were just recovering, so we laid low a lot.  But despite being sick (even still on Christmas day) we still enjoyed celebrating the birth of our Savior and giving to others.