Christmas

I told the kids that if they came out of their room before 6:30 I would take away one of their presents.  At 6:30 on the dot Griz came and woke us up.  We got Brent and everyone awake (except Izzy, we let her sleep) and bleary eyed headed out to the tree.  We have video of most of it but here are some pictures:

this is her face that says... I didn't ask for this... what the heck is it...

This is my face after unwrapping the little hatchimal egg Sanna has been DYING to have me open for several days leading up to Christmas.

Griz's method of opening his comforter.

Checking out if he knows all the animals on his comforter.  He loved it!  We didn't get a picture of Chico checking out his comforter but he thought it was cool too.

Been begging for a lunchbox since he destroyed his Spider man one.

Acting surprised about the hat he asked for.

 Sanna got a new blanket too. She already had a comforter so we got her a velvet plush blanket we found at Ross.  I wanted to buy it anyway but then when we saw the eye mask we just had to. We couldn't stop laughing about it. We love when she wears eye masks to bed, it cracks us up.

Thor got some new toys too.

Izzy finally woke up and joined us. She was completely out of it for a while in a sleepy state. But then we started getting some reactions...

These fairy wings were so simple but one of her favorite things, probably because she specifically asked for them.

Santa gave him a gear ball.  We wouldn't let him look it up online how to solve it.  He figured it out on his own WAY faster than I thought he would. 10:30 a.m. is when this picture was taken.

 Izzy and Daddy were excited for him too.

Chico brought out all his cubes and was working on them. He re-scrambled his gear ball and was very frustrated for the rest of the day because he couldn't re solve it.

They got back out on their motorcycles pretty early in the day and started riding again.

These pictures however were taken that evening when it was starting to get dark.

This video shows how fast Sanna is learning to ride her motorcyle. Girl was on training wheels before this. Now she's riding! And her pure joy at exclaiming "best Christmas present ever!". It's how we all felt! The Harlows really knew what these kids needed to enjoy our property more!

We were getting ready to drive down to see our neighbors and then found out they weren't home so I took these pics as I was getting her out. She's too dang cute!!!!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eves (23rd&24th)

I had been kind of dreading church for the Christmas program on Dec. 23rd. I got asked to play a few duets on the piano with Tammy Aley, she's a really good pianist. She also asked me to do a few with Chico (a future amazing musician) for prelude. Many of you know how I freeze up when I play the piano in public. I’d much rather sing. This ward doesn’t seem to know I sing though so I keep getting called upon for piano. I have grown so much this last year in my piano playing. I don’t freeze nearly as badly. Today actually went really well, it was kinda fun even!!! It was a really cool music filled meeting. I do miss singing though, wish we had a ward choir.

One of her Christmas Dresses. We will have to take a family picture in our Sunday best another time with her other Christmas dress that matches Sanna’s. Brent had to work today.

Sanna needed in on this Christmas sunday selfies. She had already changed out of her dress however.

Pictures to come soon of the coolest Christmas gift ever! The Harlows brought their gifts to our kids Motorcycles!!! It took Sanna and Chico a bit to gain confidence. Griz took to it like a pro though. He's such a natural.

The kids have been over the moon excited about them, zooming all over our property. It's adorable!!! Even Sanna, who couldn't even ride a bike without training wheels has gotten the hang of it. We mostly have video but I'll have to post some pictures of them on here soon.

Christmas Eve finally arrived! They spent most of the morning riding their motorcycles.

I didn't get too many videos because I was busy inside.

It turned out to be a pretty busy evening with all the calling of family but still fun. Luckily our annual swedish meal isn't too terribly hard to make.  Open face sandwiches of ham, mustard, cheese on rye bread.

Cracker bread of course! 

And for dessert. The crown of the night. Is princess torta.  I forgot to buy chocolate for drizzling. Still tasted great without it, it's more for decoration anyway.

Ahhh, I love this stuff.

They got to open quite a few presents on Christmas Eve because of face timing with grandparents.   Sanna was the only one we captured a picture of before going to bed.  We stayed up way later than normal.

I woke up all throughout the night everytime one of the kids or Thor would stir or Brent would snore. I was on high alert.  Sanna put out this "Santa catcher" on the tree that was supposed to alert her when Santa came.  I started hearing this high pitched whistle during the night. It sounded like an alarm. It was so weird. Finally I realized it was coming from Brent's nose. Sometimes I really hate being such a light sleeper. I was very tired Christmas mid morning.

December and Waves at Shore Acres

On Wednesday Dec 12th, we started to have some issues with our water system. When Brent got home he went out and checked and felt like the spring was dried up.  So on Thursday I had the thought to ask a ward member/friend up here in Allegany if there was drought in the area. She said no but insisted we come and stay at their cabin that they normally rent out but just happened to have free that whole weekend. It was nice to be able to still wash bottles, dishes, and clothes. Oh and to flush toilets and shower. The kids LOVED it. Such an adventure for them and they kept saying how much nicer it is than our place. Ha ha.  Nice remodeling definitely and it has a vaulted ceiling.  It was fun to have Eliza come and visit a few times too. She's such a sweet girl. That weekend was also kinda crazy because there was a random storm system that came through on Friday and most of the town lost power.  Allegany is usually last to regain power, luckily we had plans to go on a date that night. Debbie Gillis was tending for us. Our original plans were to go on a nice romantic walk on the beach.  That storm brought in some cold temperatures however and I didn't want to do that.  So we went to Cicarellis for their brick oven pizza, Brent liked it even more than Settebellos! Yay! Only bummer how much it costs. Gulp.

Anyway, so after lunch/dinner we decided instead of walking at the beach, we'd walk through the aisles of Big 5, the mall, and Walmart.  Exhausting. But very productive.  Debbie was so sweet to tend them extra long AND fed us all dinner at the end.  It was nice to hang out extra long in town since we knew there wasn't power.  It was COLD when we got home. Power came on around 10 for us.  Then in the morning we went back up to the cabin for longer while Brent worked on the water system.  After I got up there I realized that I forgot diapers. The kids were fighting and driving me crazy. So I locked them outside until they could be nice and they were crying at the door until Brent arrived with the diapers and took Chico home.  After that it was peaceful and they started drawing/painting and they had a lot of fun doing that. Then Eliza showed up and they played with her and I chatted with her. It was a nice afternoon.  In the meantime Chico and Brent had a good time working on things at the house. Brent found a guy to deliver 1000 gallons of water for $78 that day. Then bro. Gillis came up and helped Brent solve the water problem.  There was a clog in the spring turns out.

We slept there for one last night because the kids really wanted to and we thought we should give the water time to settle because pouring the water into the tank stirred up a lot of silt off the bottom.  We made it to church, then after church we drove over shore acres to see the big waves.  Apparently that week had the most consecutive days of the big waves.  It was cool to see it. Only wish I hadn't been wearing a knee length skirt. Brrrr.  Brent was able to spend longer out there and got some awesome pictures:

It turned out to be a long drive home, we stopped into Coos Bay on the way home and saw a friend.

They fight so often but look how sweet, falling asleep against each other like that?!

unfortunately soon after Griz woke up and started yelling at him to get off and the magical moment was lost.

Playing around with water colors and illustrating styles for when I write/illustrate children books some day. Painted this one and had fun doing it. Lots to learn still.

Sanna put me to work on these animals, copying a style we found online. We're going to get her room looking amazing one of these days!

We've been dealing with some sickness in the family.  Between Strep, coughs, and tummy aches, they all missed some school at different times.  It was fun to spend time with them and also have their help with Izzy.  This is the only picture I got of one of the sick kids.

I was busy writing out Christmas Cards. Izzy was busy trying to eat the cards. Any bit of paper she can get her hands on she puts in her mouth.

I was cleaning the windows at the church on Dec. 22. Such a cutie smiling at me through the glass.