Merry Christmas!

We hope each of you have a wonderful Christmas
filled with love and warm memories as we celebrate
the birth of our Savior!

Love,
Daniel, Koreena, Matty, Jossy and Lacey





P.S.
One extra from the blooper reel just for my blog readers. :)

Hey, Santa!

Wednesday we went to the mall to take our picture with Santa. Getting 3 kids and a double stroller in a long line to see him was loads of fun, but even more fun than that was learning once we were at the front of the line that I wasn't allowed to take my own picture because of some new "photography policy" of the mall. Other malls I called now had the same policy.

So the kids talked to Santa, but I didn't want to pay to have their picture taken. I still wanted to find somewhere I could take our own picture since it's Lacey's first Christmas and I really wanted one of her with Santa. I asked friends on Facebook where we could go and thankfully they came through with a new location for us, so we went last night. Unfortunately it was outside and Santa didn't get there til 6 PM. For a baby who falls asleep at 7 every night, the car ride was too much rocking for her.

We woke her up just before our turn to see Santa so that we could help try to make her happy before a stranger held her. She did well enough.

Santa was super sweet with the kids. Matty knows that Santa has to have helpers dress up as him, but you never know which one is the real one. I told him I think this Santa might be it, but he doesn't think so.

Silly Santa

There were thankfully many fire pits to warm up next to since it was below 30 degrees. Jossy did NOT like being next to the fire even when Daddy held her.

But she changed her mind once she froze enough. :)
We got a caramel apple to share and enjoyed it next to a fire.

It was so beautiful walking around!
Besides utterly freezing, we had a great time together.

We found a tree whose lights were going on and off, so I showed the kids how I could blow on the tree and make them go off. ;)
They kept trying to do it and got excited every time it worked.

Dinner in Jerusalem

Before Thanksgiving, our Relief Society had a night were a few of us shared some of our holiday traditions. One sister shared all about their Dinner in Jerusalem tradition, and I loved it so much that we adopted it this year.


Our dinner was very simple, but we really enjoyed it. The idea is to eat foods similar to those that might have been eaten in Jerusalem at Christ's time and to do so by candlelight since that's all they would've had. We did the best we could with what we had on hand including cheese cubes, craisins, nuts, homemade bread that you had to tear with your hands, some beef soup, and apple juice to drink. We already have a list of things to change for next year.






We spent time talking about what it would've been like back then, what kind of toys Jesus might have played with as a kid, what foods they ate, stuff like that. I loved hearing what the kids thought.


We love our new tradition! Matty asked if we could do it all this week. He was bummed to hear that we want to just do it once a year the week of Christmas.

Dose of Dailey Chaos

I remember when we were trying to conceive Jossy how much I looked forward to Matty having a little friend to play with.

I just didn't think about the toll it would take on my throw pillows, furniture, and sanity.

At least they were getting along for an hour or so. Just 10 minutes later Jossy was hitting Matty over the head with a hardbound book because he didn't give her something she wanted. Such is our life.

The Most Important Tradition

Matty had an assignment from school to color an ornament depicting a special tradition from his family and then write about it on the back. His teacher asked that it be something unique (so not "we open presents" kind of thing.) I was giving Matty ideas of some of our traditions like visiting temple square or seeing Santa's reindeer, but he thought of one on his own. He chose to draw a picture of our nativity. I tried to get him to pick something more exciting but he really wanted to draw that so we let him.


He's very detailed oriented and wanted to draw every bit perfectly, but after a while we convinced him that he didn't have time to draw ALL the pieces, so he just did a few.


While Matty was coloring it in, Dan came home from work. I told him about the homework assignment and how I suggested things like seeing the reindeer. Matty then piped in and said, "But that's not why we have Christmas!!! This is!" That's why he was set on drawing the nativity, because we had drilled into him that Christ's birth is the most important part of Christmas. I felt my Mom heart grow three sizes and may have teared up a little bit. What a kid!! When he wrote on the back what his picture was about, we said that our tradition was to talk about the nativity and play with it all season.

I remember buying this Fisher Price set 3 years ago. (HOW does time keep going by so fast!?! ) Best money ever spent. :)

2/3 of a Birthday

Lacey turned 8 months old today! I usually do pictures in a onesie to be consistent and so you can see chubby baby legs, but it wasn't worth getting her in and out of her dress today when I needed her in it for later.

The first thing everyone says when I tell them how old she is is "She's so tiny!" I promise, she's growing! She's around 12.5-13 lbs right now. She just doesn't have the gift for packing on the pounds that her mommy does. Enjoy it while you can, Lacey!! She absolutely loves crackers. In fact, the only time she's quiet when she's eating is if that item is a cracker. Anything else and she's either humming or whining while eating it. She also likes bread and yogurt.

She is our wiggliest baby, just as she was when I was pregnant with her. She'll be content to sit on your lap sometimes for about 5 minutes and then she CANNOT HOLD STILL! She likes to be moving around, whether that's on her own or being held while you walk. She has a knack for finding the one thing the vacuum didn't pick up, and whatever the item is goes promptly in her mouth. She squeals when Matty gets home from school because she's so excited. Jossy still smothers her with love hourly. If someone else is holding her and she can see me, she'll usually whine and squirm until she's passed back. She loves her mommy.

Lacey can easily get up on all fours, but only once did she actually move an arm and leg forward. She's so fast army crawling, I don't think doing the real thing is to important to her. If we leave her alone in the living room, it takes her all of two seconds to high tail it over to the Christmas tree and start messing with packages and ornaments. The ornaments have slowly crept up off the lower branches thanks to Lacey happily demonstrated which ones are within her reach and thus need moved. It will be fun to see what she does with her Christmas presents in a few days. I'm sure eating wrapping paper will be her highest priority.

Lately when I look at her face I can really see how much she's changing. It makes me sad that my baby is growing up so quickly!

Vixen and Blitzen

We're all about traditions at this house. We made our yearly trip out to Thanksgiving Point last week to see 2 of Santa's reindeer. Matty asked which ones they were, but I didn't know since there weren't any names posted this time. So we just quietly said all the reindeer names close to the 2 there and figured if they looked at us to answer then that was the reindeer's name. Turns out we were visiting Vixen and Blitzen. :)

Matty fell asleep during the 10 minute drive there. I thought he'd be happier after that little catnap, but turns out it just made him a grump the rest of the day.

Because we went a little earlier this year than when we normally go, there was only one ice sculpture on display. (They add one every week.) Still pretty amazing though!

As always, we enjoyed some cookies inside while warming up.
Well, everyone except poor Lacey who desperately wanted to try one.

Lunar Eclipse

Saturday we got up a few minutes early to see the last lunar eclipse for the next 2.5 years. We started watching it just a few minutes before it was fully eclipsed and were able to see it from the warmth of our bedroom window. Unfortunately the sun was just coming up here (it was around 7 AM) so that made it very difficult to see the moon once it was covered by the Earth's shadow. And we didn't get to see it come out of the eclipse because it set quickly behind some neighboring mountains. Still, we and the kids enjoyed seeing as much as we did!

Having Fun

I got another studio light last week, and my little at-home test subjects had to "help" me set up for a newborn session. I don't really have anyone else to show these to, so here you go. If you're wondering why Matty doesn't get included often, he's at school when I do this.

The lighting on this one didn't work out great,
but in case you were wondering what a feather might taste like . . .

. . . you're not the only one.

"Pay it forward"

I can't figure out why this stuff keeps happening to us. It's really got me puzzled. First back in Rexburg with the $100, then at Smith's with groceries 2 years ago, now this.


This past Saturday Dan and I had planned to both go to the temple but take turns so one of us could be with the kids while the other was gone. I wanted to go finish up some Christmas shopping, too. The scripture that tells you to put the things of the Lord first and everything else will be added unto you came to mind, so I decided to go to the temple first, come home to nurse Lacey, then I could go do some quick shopping sans kids.

I had a great time at the temple and even met a woman who I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know as we quietly whispered. When I was finally out shopping, I was having terrible luck finding the things I had been out looking for. Everyone was out of stock of the things I wanted. I then proceeded to Walmart in a neighboring city, not even the one near my house. I NEVER go to that Walmart because it's always crazy busy. Again, bad luck finding the items I wanted but I was able to get a few small Christmas gifts and picked up some baby food for Lacey while I was at it.

I went to the checkout and got in line, but then remembered I wanted to pick up some Pez dispensers for stocking stuffers. They're always by the checkout, but of course this time I walked up and down in that area and can't find them anywhere. I had lost my place in line (on a busy Saturday) because I was looking for those Pez. Well, after 5 minutes of searching every checkout I gave up and started looking around for a short line. Low and behold, I found a line with just 2 people in front of me and hidden PEZ nearby! Double bonus! I was feeling a little happier by then but still just wanted to get the heck out of that busy store and get home to my baby who was surely ready to nurse again.

The young female cashier was talking to a young man (maybe 19ish) standing next to her as she checked out the couple in front of me. I figured the guy was someone she was training or just a friend visiting while she worked. The people in front of me paid their $78 total and left. The cashier rang up my stuff which came to a total of about $30. I swiped my debit card when suddenly the ongoing conversation between the cashier and the young man stopped. He said, "Can you cancel that?" I looked up because I didn't know who he was talking to. It was me. I hesitantly asked why, sure he had caught some mistake in price or something. Instead he just held up some cash. I looked confused so the cashier smiled and said, "He wants to pay for you." I paused . . . "Are you sure?" He said, "Just pay it forward," and gave the cash to the worker. I was stunned. It doesn't matter if it was $30, $5, or $100. It's just the fact that a stranger wanted to do something nice for someone else. He didn't offer to pay for the people in front of me. Or those in front of them. It was me. I clearly had young kids I was buying for. Is that why? Was my total the right amount? (Good thing I didn't buy groceries too!) Did I just look tired and like I needed help? I have no idea. What are the odds that I was in that store that I never go to and standing in a line that I didn't start out in?

I thanked him, promised to pay it forward, and left. All the way home I was wondering why does this stuff keep happening to us? Don't get me wrong, I'm SO grateful. I just don't know why we're blessed like this. I will say in one respect I know he chose the right person because I WILL pay it forward. It's like this debt right now that I need to pay off! It was in the back of my mind all weekend. "How should I pay this forward? What's the best way?" Still don't have a solid answer on that but I'm a firm believer that if I really want to help someone, the Spirit will help me know when the right time is and I'll have that opportunity to pay this forward. And hopefully it will be to someone else who will choose to do the same.

So please, it doesn't matter how much you have to give. Maybe's it's nothing monetary at all. But do something, even smiling and opening a door for a stranger, to make someone else's day a little better. I'm so thankful for that young man's kindness. What a great reminder he was to me to follow Christ's example and help lift others.

O Christmas Tree

Having the kids help me set up the Christmas tree is not my favorite thing. I would much rather do it all myself but they really wanted to help. I have a kid tree just for them in their room that they decorate, but they wanted to help with the family one still. Family memories are more important than the perfect tree anyway, right? :) A little rearranging was required here and there as they went since they can only reach the bottom half of the tree.

So proud of their work
After years of wanting to buy a big artificial one from Costco, we finally did it. (And no kidney stones buying it like last year. Wahoo!) We love how real it looks and greatly appreciate not having to string any lights ourselves. There's always something a little more magical about Christmastime once the tree is up.

Cheap Entertainment

I feel like I never get to blog any more, or do anything I want to really. It seems that every day I'm just trying to survive these kids, clean up their messes, attempt some form of dinner, run errands for Christmas or whatever, feed and carry a fussy baby all day, deal with photography stuff, and on and on. By the end of each day I'm exhausted and have no energy for anything other than snacking on the couch while watching a few shows so that someone else can entertain me for a bit. Sorry to complain. Such is life. Back to my post.

We've found a few ways to cheaply entertain the kids lately. Here are some examples.

Bunk Bed Messenger
Requires a plastic bucket, some yarn, and the railing on a top bunk.
Cost us: Nothing

My kids still have this up and use it frequently to pass stuff back and forth. They spent 2 hours playing with it that first day.

Living room car track
Requires masking tape and some little cars.
Cost to us: $0.75 for some cheap masking tape.

Saw this one on Pinterest. (My goal for that site is to not have it be another time-sucker, but to actually DO things I find on there.) The best part of this was the fun the kids and I had designing the track. We loved making it go up the couch and creating parking lots. Easy to pull up and make a new track next time. Highly recommend this!

Bath in the Dark
Requires a tub of water, dirty kids, and some glow sticks.
Cost us: Nothing (because we had sticks already.)

Again, I found this on Pinterest. I was saving it for a night when the kids didn't want a bath. Tonight was that night. I told them I had a surprise if they hurried and got in the tub. They LOVED it!