Dressing Up

Sadie got a little dress-up chest, with shoes and princessey dresses in it, from her Grandma and Grandpa Smith for Christmas. She hadn't shown much interest in it, except for the necklace:

But Dylan had fun putting on the princess shoes. Here he is, wearing his favorite pair, Sleeping Beauty's shoes. I love the look on his face. He's a natural born model:

This encouraged Sadie to try on a pair. She's wearing her Jasmine shoes in this shot:

Nat and Pete came over the day after Christmas, and Pete thought it would be hilarious to make his boys dress up in these princess outfits. He forced Troy to try on a skirt, which was too long, so he made it a sleeveless dress. Troy was not happy about it:

Pete could not get Jake to try a dress on. Jake got a Power Rangers costume for Christmas, and he's worn it basically every single day, all day, since he got it, and he was not about to change into girl's clothes. Pete asked Brock to try on a dress, and Brock was all for it. He wore this purple dress the whole time he was here! It's fitting, because Nat and Pete are always calling Brock a Princess. He loves to be served and coddled. But he is so dang cute and good-natured, so none of us mind it:

Dylan decided to put on a dress at this point, complete with his Sleeping Beauty shoes and a cowboy hat:

Sadie, after seeing most of her cousins dressed up, was finally persuaded to dress up. She hasn't worn any of the dresses since this day - as I type this, she is putting Hot Wheels in a tupperware bowl and taking them out again. I guess she's not much of a girly-girl:

Jake put down his Power Rangers costume for a moment, and Nat tried it on, since we were all in the trying-on mood:

And here is Troy, relieved to be out of his skirt:

Christmas Morning

Here's a picture of Dylan walking into the living room on Christmas morning:

He didn't even notice the puppy trying to lick his hands!! He was so intent on finding the radio-controlled car that he had asked Santa for. Luckily, Santa found a great deal on an RC car on Black Friday, so here it is:

Santa also gave Dylan and Sadie (to share - ha,ha, like that will happen!) a tent to play in. Yay! No more messy forts for Mom to clean up!!

Dylan with his stocking stuffers:

Sadie with her stocking stuffers (I forgot to take a picture of her "big" Santa gift - it was a little stroller, bouncer, and baby swing for her baby dolls):

Me with my stocking stuffers - I am THE MOST PHOTOGENIC WOMAN IN THE WORLD!!

Ben with his Big Santa Gift - a new Weimeraner puppy who is such a huge pain in the butt - and his stocking stuffers. Holy cow, Titan (what Ben decided to name him, because "he looks like Titanium") has grown so much in just a short week. Wow. He looks teeny here, compared to how he looks now. Ben is so in love with this dog. He really is cute, and he'll make a good bird dog:

We took a short video of Christmas morning, but I cannot get it to upload. Maybe I'll try adding it tomorrow. Sorry! Here's a picture of Titan snoozing on my lap. He loves to cuddle with me. His skin is so fun to stretch and play with. He has tons of it right now. We've discovered that he is a huge pain in the butt in the mornings, and then he gets tuckered out and sleeps for most of the rest of the day:

Like I said before, we got hit with an enormous snowstorm for several days during and following Christmas. This is my dad's Volkswagen Beetle that he lets us drive right now, buried in the snow on Christmas morning. It was really nice to have a White Christmas; we haven't had very plentiful snowy Christmases for several years:

Christmas Personality Questionnaire

I got this forward a couple of days ago, and I thought I'd put my answers on my blog. I enjoy reading blogs where people have put these kinds of questionnaires, and this one is Christmasey, so here you are!

Tis the Season to have a little fun!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Jeez, that's a hard one. If I have plentiful tissue paper options, I'll use gift bags, but since I'm usually out of tissue paper, I go with wrapping paper.

2. Real tree or artificial? I love the smell of real trees, but having an artificial tree is really easy.

3. When do you put up the tree? A few days after Thanksgiving.

4. When do you take your tree down? A few days after Christmas. I've already taken mine down, because my new puppy thinks it's a fun chew toy.

5. Do you like eggnog? No, it makes me yack. I prefer wassail.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I remember getting our Barbie mansion. That was so exotic and exciting.

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, I have two - a simple white one with just Mary, Joseph, and the baby, and then I have another "unbreakable" one that looks like it's carved out of wood. For the "unbreakable" story, see my blog under "Nativity Display." :)

8. Hardest person to buy for? Usually, my dad. But this year, he told us exactly what he wanted, so it was really easy!

9. Easiest person to buy for? Nat - she always tells me exactly what she wants, and I get it. Sooo easy.

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever got? Um... this new puppy! Just kidding! He's difficult right now, so I've contemplated sending him back to Santa, but I think I'll stick it out.

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Oh, totally Christmas cards!! There is nothing like the rush of getting a Christmas card in your mailbox. I love it. So that's why I send them.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Elf. I still laugh so hard when I watch that, and I've seen it a million times.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Like three days before Christmas. I always wait until the last minute, like waiting that long will magically make money appear in my wallet or something!!

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No. I usually get stuff that I like, so I haven't had to do that yet.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? sugar cookies.

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear.

17. Favorite Christmas song? "Mary, Did You Know?" Also, "What You Goin' Be"

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Staying home

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Yep!

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? I've never found an angel or a star that didn't look so cheesy, so right now we have a large bow that matches the small bows all over our tree.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Morning, definitely!

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Lack of money and time!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!!

Playing Loaded Questions

Another family tradition we have at Christmas is that we always open one game on Christmas Eve and play it. This year, we realized that we have a lot of games that we have only played once or twice, so we didn't open a new one - we played one that we got a couple of years ago, called Loaded Questions. It's a really funny game. So here are some shots from doing that. Pete:

Mom:

Dad:

Nat:

And Ben, re-enacting the scene from Seinfeld, where Seinfeld was scratching his nose in the cab, and his girlfriend was in the cab next to his and thought he was picking his nose:

The kids kept themselves occupied while we played. Sadie spent most of her time coloring:

Dylan and Jake, also coloring:

Troy, hanging out with the adults, as usual:

Jake and Brock were running around my parents' couches, and they ran right into each other and ricocheted right off each other. Brock ricocheted onto the ground - no harm done. But Jake ricocheted into the corner of an end table. You can see the beginning of a shiner on his right eye. It's nice and dark now:

Luminaires

Another tradition my family has always had is putting out luminaires on Christmas Eve. Our neighborhood just always did it, and my parents took the tradition with them when they moved into their new neighborhood a few years ago. Nat and I were just trying to figure out what luminaires signify. We've never thought about it before. She said she heard something once about lighting the way for the wise men? Anyways. Here are the photos of the sack preparations. Nat:

Ben:

Pete:

Dad:

Mom:

And, of course, Troy. Troy always wants to be in on what the adults are doing. The kids will be downstairs playing, but you can always count on Troy to be where the adults are, trying to get in on the action:

While we were busy with our preparations, Dylan and Jake had a little coloring fun with one of Mom's markers. They gave each other facial tattoos:

Then it was time to take the luminaires out. The kids were very careful and did a good job. Dylan:

Dad and Brock:

Ben:

Sadie:

Brock - it is sooo hard to get a picture of Brock's face. He always ignores me and ends up turning his head at the last minute. I have a million shots of Brock's head, but not of his face. At last, I got my shot. He wouldn't look right at me, but I'm happy I got what I got:

This is Dad, trying to unearth his snowman from the foot of snow that had fallen that day:

Sledding

On Christmas Eve Day, we usually always go skiing as a family, but because Nat and I are both preggars, we went sledding instead (don't worry - the hill was really, really mild - no jumps). We went to the Country Club to sled - I haven't ever sledded there before - I thought it was against the rules. But Dad asked permission and got it. They said we could sled there, as long as we didn't go near the greens. Here are Ben and Sadie. I love the look of terror on her face:

Here's Jake, Nat's oldest son:

Here are Nat and Dad:

Dylan:

Pete (Nat's husband) with all three of his boys at the top of the hill:

Pete with all three of his boys going down the hill:

Dylan:

My cute mom:

Pete with Troy, his youngest son:

Sadie and I:

Pete and Jake:

Nat holding Sadie (while I had photography duty) and Mom holding Troy:

Benny:

Eastern Idaho was hit with the biggest snowstorm that we've had in eight years, and it basically started while we were sledding. It started to get pretty nasty, so Mom and I took the youngest kids to the car while the others finished playing. Here's Mom and Troy:

And Sadie and I: