My Best Gift

I can't wait until Spring! Or at least, I can't wait until I can ride my new present! I've been wanting one of these since my mom got one three years ago. It must be the romantic in me that sees myself riding along to the market without a care in the world. The little basket on the front really does make my dream come true. Thanks, honey, for my best gift!

New Year's Fun

I've discovered celebrating the New Year is more fun with kids than not. Chandler loves the idea of getting together with others and staying up until midnight to say GOODBYE to the old and HELLO to the new. So, Scott and I hosted and played the part of having a HAPPY NEW YEAR with Chandler and most of his cousins.  All the kids (minus Tori, who is 12 and had her own plans, and Nicole, who is 3 months and wanted to be with mom) came over for dinner, games, and a little bit of fun. We started off the night with play dough and coloring and Shirley Temples. This was followed with mini pizzas or mac and cheese. Promptly after we all burned up energy with balloon volleyball and musical chairs. After a couple rounds of Red Light, Green Light and Simon Says the older kids played the Wii while the two little girls enjoyed a movie. We then ate yummy "Smith" brownies with ice cream and sprinkles and capped it all off with poppers and noisemakers at 10 pm. I'm still picking up confetti from the sidewalk. The kids got picked up by parents shortly after and Chandler got a little sleepover with Stratton. He did insist on staying up until midnight--and fell to sleep immediately after. It was a great night with fun for everyone. Thankfully Watson slept through it all.

Together We Can...

This year's Reflections Theme is "Together We Can..." Chandler decided to make another movie. He and Scott put together a little film about making work fun. They did a great job and Chandler was able to move on to the District level. He passed that and now his little movie is being judged at the Regional level. Great job Chandler for working so hard on this!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Every year we put up a fresh tree. Scott is finally seeing my way of thinking when it comes to tree selection. It needs to be full, but not too full, and have "shelves" for perfect ornament placement. This year, our tree was perfect! And, I remembered to keep water in it on a regular basis. Our living room smelled Heavenly for three weeks. Scott is such a good sport to take care of the setting up and lights. It is always so fun to decorate it as a family.

Chandler did a great job dividing the ornaments and checking the lights. He even hid the pickle (for good luck) this year. I didn't find it until I put all of the ornaments and lights away!  He loves talking about when and where we got each ornament and the special story behind it. When he put the Disneyland globe on this year he made it a point that we haven't been back.  Someday...

 Notice the lack of ornaments on the lower branches and missing presents? Yep, we had a curious 1 year old this year. Watson did a pretty good job leaving the tree alone--except for the little red basket light covers and one red beanie baby teddy bear. He loved to look at the lights and it seemed he knew the tree meant something special.

 Christmas Day came on the 27th for us. Chandler was at his other house until then so things were pretty relaxed.  He had a pretty big pile of presents and it was fun to see his excitement while he unwrapped everything. He got some big gifts from Santa and Mom and Dad--a new unicycle, a microscope, and a giant K'Nex roller coaster. The next day I didn't see Chandler until about 2:00 pm. He holed himself up in his room to build the roller coaster and "survived" on the candy in his stocking.

 Watson got a slide and scooter from Santa and some other fun trucks and toys from Mom and Dad. The candy was new and exciting and if you really want to be his best friend, just give him a ring pop.

 Nana Wood gave Chandler a telescope. He was so excited to use it! He put it together that night and set it up in the kitchen to look at the moon out the window. He did discover, though, it is best used outside.

 I surprised Scott with a gift for an introductory scuba dive at the Homestead Crater. He loves snorkeling and has always wanted to learn how to dive so I thought he could try it out in some warm water nearby. We stayed at the Homestead a couple of weeks later for our Anniversary and he did the dive then. He loved it and is planning to take additional courses to get certified. I may join him and then plan a trip to Mexico, or something.

It was fantastic to spend some quiet time for Christmas this year. We didn't have many places to go so we really enjoyed our time as a family.

We hope your Christmas was as nice as ours!

Something New

I am THAT mom. The one who tries to make sure her child is always clean, properly dressed, has everything in order. I know it inhibits my children some--I like to think it doesn't totally destroy all creativity. I also know it is something I need to work on. It is ok to let my boys get messy sometime. To really let them explore the world around them.  So, I tried it out with Watson one day last month.  Funny thing is, he didn't really like the dirty part of the playing much. In fact, once he realized he had slimy stuff on his hands, he couldn't wait to shake it all off--on to the floor, cabinets, counters, Mom. It was fun but I might wait to do this activity again for when he is a little older. At least he got some good dairy that day--I made the pudding with his whole milk!