Christmas!

We had such a nice Christmas. And I took quite a bit of pictures, so I will let them do (most of) the talking.

Friday afternoon we closed down early and the kids and I went to Krave. Super tasty :)

We were rather bored, so we ended up at Krave and chilled out. I love that place. Seriously delightful. Afterwards, we went with Grandma to IFA and then to Payless for slippers (which they didn't have any for little boys. Seriously? Your a shoe store. You had them for adults and little girls...but not little boys?) and then home for a movie night. Saturday morning I was met with little boys jumping in my bed. We all sang a round of Happy Birthday for Nate and spent the day cleaning up for Santa to come, visiting Grandma and Grandpa, and shopping/making food/playing until the annual Carlile Christmas Eve festivities at Scott and Betsy's house. Nate was SOOO excited because he got to go shopping for his birthday present with Uncle Scott. He seriously had been talking about it for at least two weeks, thats his favorite part of his birthday I think. He got a shot gun with rubber bullets that he loved. And then got an awesome hat from the Tony and Valena clan, that he has barely taken off since he got it. He loves it. Grandpa and Grandma got him a super spiffy Sharper Image pocket knife with a light that he was also very excited about. Then we headed out. Dinner was delightful, delicious prime rib and crab. Also had a variety of sides that were super tasty. Then it was time for the birthday celebration. He got a Diary of a Wimpy Kid book from the Carlile clan and Hugo Cabret from me, both of which he has taken turns reading every night.


We celebrated Nate's birthday...he chose his cake and such. Loved it.

And this is him blowing out the candles. I missed the first part of the song dang it.



After the Christmas Brownie brought jammies, we wanted to get a photo op. I LOVE this picture because everyone is just being silly.



The boys wanted to make sure their bases were covered. Carrots and water (in the special rudolph cup) for the reindeer, pretzels and milk (again in special cup) for Santa. They ate them all gone :)

 

Ty and Ry opening their presents on Christmas morning.





Nate opening his present (and a blurry Ty in the background)



Breakfast at the Parents house. always delightful.



Ry LOVES his big wheel. I'll have to get a picture of the other boys, I just realized I didn't get them.



I slacked on pictures after about 11:00 a.m. Just way too sleepy I think. The boys and I made a good haul though. Nate got an awesome new bike that I will have to get a picture of. He loves it, and it is rather awesome. Ryder got his big wheel that he's in love with (as are his brothers, they won't stay off it) And Tyler got tons AND TONS of Legos and some new shoes. They also got spiderbots, some games and experiment kits and so much more.

We then went to church for the Sunday Christmas Program. It was a fantastic program, truly brought the meaning of Christmas to my heart. I had been asked to sing with a girl in my ward who I had never met, and we practiced once. But it turned out okay I think. We sang Silent Night a cappella because a pianist wasn't available. I think it went okay. I loved having my whole family (except for one that we missed dearly) in attendance as well. It truly was a great afternoon.

Nate and Tyler's Parowan family came by as well after church and brought some gifts and visited as well. It was nice to see them again and the boys look forward to spending some time with them this week. I'm going to miss them like crazy, but they have assured me they will take their cell phone and call me every time they miss me. If they can find the phone. Oy.

This Christmas was overall a great one. It taught me a lot about myself. On Christmas Eve, I ended up having a lot of anxiety over presents. We just didn't have a whole lot. I guess it seemed like a lot when we were buying stuff, but the boys had asked for specific things that were all expensive. Before bed, Tyler told me that he was really excited because Santa had told him he would try to bring a DS. My heart kind of broke a little as I had to explain that Santa wanted him to earn the money for one so he could appreciate it more, when in reality its because Santa is broke. Nate also had the same desires for some expensive gifts. Santa and I ended up getting them each 4 presents plus LOADS of candy and goodies. Which initially seemed like lots, but when I saw them all wrapped under the tree, didn't seem like much. Made me mad that I'm not making more money, that I'm not getting child support to help bear the financial load, that I'm just generally feeling like an epic fail of a parent for not being able to get them the stuff they really wanted. Luckily I have an amazing mom who helped me to come back down to earth (at midnight Christmas Eve) and realize that the holiday isn't all about the presents, and that I did my very best and do my very best to make sure my boys have what they need. I still couldn't sleep for fear my boys would wake up extremely disappointed. But I was wrong. They woke up and were soo very excited, thankfully. They were more excited about the notes that Santa and the reindeer left for them than the toys. I love my boys, they make me stop and pause....they help me remember whats important and what is not. And hopefully this time next year, I will have the ability to get them some things they truly want for Christmas. Hopefully I will have an awesome paying secure job, child support to help cushion things, or even better this divorce mess resolved and a new love to share the holiday with.

We Shall See.

This weekend

We had a pretty good weekend if I do say so myself. On Friday we decided that a movie night was in order, so we went and got The Smurfs, Super 8 and Water for Elephants (my "after kids are sleeping" movie). We all absolutely loved The Smurfs. Super 8 wasn't all that great, honestly. I wasn't impressed anyway. Water for Elephants was good, not one I would ever watch again.
Saturday we had a full day planned. We were going to clean the house and shop in the morning, then go see Santa, attend the Storybook Cavalcade and see the Tuba players in the afternoon. Then off to our ward Christmas party. Well, we heard that the parade was cancelled so we took a bit longer to clean and get ready to shop. Next thing I know...Ry is passed out on the couch. It is RARE that he actually naps on a weekend, so I wasn't about to wake him up. Finally I had to do it because we had to go shopping before our ward party (I was assigned mashed potatoes and needed to go buy some). We eventually made it to our party with potatoes in hand a half hour late. But there was still plenty of food and our tummies got full. After some grubbing and a few Christmas carols/stories....Santa showed up! Oh how Ryder was loving that. I was wondering how he was going to react....if it was going to be a screaming thing or a happy thing. It ended up being a very VERY happy thing as Santa gave an early Christmas present of goodies. And he officially put in a request for a shooting gun. Cause there are guns that don't shoot apparently.



Not sure whats going on with Nate's face...but they were all happy :)

Speaking of Santa....you would think at a church function people would be civil in the line for Santa right? Well, we got cut in front of like 3 times. Seriously folks...was it really that important for you to see Santa that you had to push the rest of the line back.... by a lot? Since you all had 3+ kids. Anyway moving on.
Sunday we had a fantastic lesson about keeping Christ in Christmas. We have a fun activity planned for FHE which I will share tomorrow that came from that lesson. As a random tangent....I am also going to be working on being more grateful for what I have this week. I think I've been in a slump the last month and it needs to stop. I know if I change my attitude, things will be much better. So....I'm working on the attitude change. Back to Sunday....we made some goodies for our neighbors as well that we are delivering as part of our FHE tonight and then headed to family dinner.
After a yummy Chinese dinner, the family whipped out the Christmas tree and got to decorating. It brought up memories of being a teenager and refusing to use the homemade ornaments becuase I thought they were ugly. My mom so kindly let me go choose all new decorations. Our tree was very classic and fancy for quite a few years. I saw those ornaments in the box and funny enough, I leaned towards the homemade ornaments. Funny how as you get older, the importance of those little trinkets are realized. I think this year we did a pretty good mix of fancy and homemade. I think the tree looks great. 

I shoulda done a close-up...but I like it anyway

This is my last week of school before finals. Finals are next week. I am lucking out BIG TIME as I only have two and they are not going to be cumulative. And I get to use notes on one of them! Awesome. Funny enough I am actually sad to see the semester go. As stressful as this semester has been, I have loved having the opportunity to go to school. I am very much looking forward to next semester. So...thats all. Hope ya'll have a good week!

Tis The Season

This was an enjoyable Christmas I think. On Friday, the boys and I ate eggs and toast for breakfast (rare...we usually eat cereal) and decorated Nate's cake. Then Uncle Scotty took Nate shopping for his birthday present. That was fun of course. The boys played a little while longer until it was time to go to the annual Carlile Christmas Eve Dinner. The company was fantastic...the food was super tasty and it was nice being able to just be.

The Christmas Brownie brought jammies to all the kids as well.

On the way home, Nate let me know that this was the best birthday ever.

I'm glad.

The boys were happy on Christmas morning with what Santa brought them (Santa was a slight bit nervous about the presents this year) and even happier to get all the goods at Grandma and Grandpas house. Nate and Ty went with their dad in the afternoon to do Christmas there. Ryder puked like 12 times and had just about as many diaper changes.

Poor kid didn't feel well. He finally went to sleep and we were going to go to the movie but the siblings one by one dropped out...so me and Dad went to True Grit. That was a great movie. I'd recommend it to everyone. When I got back, Ry was awake with Grandma and ready to go home.

After cleaning up the house a bit (more like cleaning a place to sit down haha) me and Ryder snuggled up on the couch and fell asleep watching Eat Pray Love (another movie I highly suggest).

It was a good holiday.

I took alot of pictures on my phone but have no idea how to get them from my phone to here so....such is life. Hopefully I'll figure it out soon so I can post soon.

I hope you all had a great and filling Christmas Season!

Gingerbread Houses

So we attempted to build gingerbread houses last night. Yeah...kinda got off to a rocky start as you can see. Not so good haha! We got them all put together and then BAM! They all fal apart. This is why I despise making gingerbread houses, mine are always an epic fail. But...

We finally got them put together...granted they were leaning. But its ok. Until Tyler's fell again. Yet another epic fail. But....

We finally got it right with this one. It stayed! Woohoo! So we tore down Tyler's and rebuilt it like Nate's. It stayed!

Then it was time for the fun part. We started decorationg. Tyler was making his look like Christmas lights were on the roof. He thought it was hilarious.

Nate went for the more elegant path of putting sprinkles everywhere. EVERYWHERE! The table was sooo messy!

Tyler's gingerbread house. He's very proud of it. He loved the wreath, even though it slid halfway down the house.

Nates gingerbread house. A little less colorful but he thought it was funny to build a sprinkle mountain in his front yard. I thought it was cute.

So lesson learned, even though I really don't like making a huge mess to clean up, and it was a really hard thing to actually get these standing (I'm never going to go into the architecture field of work obviously) we had a really good time and I'm happy we were able to complete these houses. Merry Christmas everyone!

Upcoming Events I <3!

I love Christmas. There are so many things to do, and I'm super excited for upcoming events. First one is tomorrow, the Relief Society Christmas Party. I can't wait for the yummy food and good speakers. Only downfall, I've been asked to sing. I get a huge, enormous, massive case of stage fright when I have to sing in front of people, so I'm sure its going to suck rocks. But hopefully the feeling will still be there. Also, The Messiah concerts are coming up on Sunday and Monday night. I absolutely LOVE singing The Messiah. Last year was my first year and it was soo powerful and amazing. I highly suggest anyone who can to come see it. We are a huge choir singing with the Southern Utah Orchestra. And bonus...Its FREE!
Next up in the running, Nate really badly wants to have a friend party this year, which I think would be fun, except I don't know when to have it. I wanted to do it the 19th, but they will be with their dad. Nate wants it to be the 21st, but thats close enough to Christmas that people might already by traveling. So I'm not sure what we are going to do, but we will figure it out.
Oh yeah, the light parade is on the 12th too. I love the light parade, and am kind of sad Nate and Ty won't be going with me since it's a Saturday, but am excited to take Ryder.
I am really, really (!) looking forward to Christmas Eve dinner at Scott and Betsy's house. Its a tradition we started a while ago, and something that we now look forward to every year. And I get the boys this year! So even better.
Then of course Christmas Day. The boys are so sweet. They told me the other day that it's ok it we don't have a big Christmas, they just want one or two presents. Why? Cause they will have three Christmas's; one with me, one with Parowan family and one at Grandma Carlile's. Yeah.... I love my kids (and im rolling my eyes). But all the same, they are still sweet for saying I'm ok to get them a little less this year.
Anyway, that about covers it for my fun happenings. I'm sure I'll post after them with how awesome they were and hopefully even pictures too. Have a good Christmas Season everyone!