Home for the Holidays

We were fortunate to get to spend time with both of our families this holiday season!

We spent Thanksgiving in Pocatello with the Nielsons, stuffing ourselves with my mother-in-law's amazing feast, snuggling all the babies, breaking up fights between the toddlers, trying to get the little ones to pose for photos...all the usual. ;)  It is always chaotic but oh so fun.

In the midst of the mayhem, we also managed a trip to Lava Hot Springs for swimming, a tennis clinic for the Nielson siblings and parents, and a couples' ballroom dance class that my in-laws scheduled just for us in the church gym (we didn't get any photos of this, which is too bad because we looked pretty awesome doing the cha-cha!).  Funnest!

At the end of the weekend, my mother-in-law gave me my Christmas gift: a beautiful quilted Christmas tree skirt that I love!  What a treasure!  When Noah saw the big wrapped present, he was convinced that it must be an electric train, and Uncle Derek of course encouraged this belief.  When Noah opened the box, his reaction was priceless.  He frowned in dismay and said, "A blanket??"  Pretty funny.  I love my blanket!

A few weeks later, we headed to my home in Colorado for Christmas.  It was equally chaotic and equally fun.  Lots of little kids, lots of mess, and of course a horrible cold which everyone passed around.  It wouldn't be the holidays without a contagious illness making its way through the ranks, would it?  Poor Noah got it the worst and had a high fever and was wiped out for several days.  You know he doesn't feel good when he takes three-hour naps and still starts sobbing at dinner that he just wants to go to bed.  He literally went to bed at 6:30 p.m. several nights in a row--such a bummer when all he wanted to do was play with his cousins! 

It's a unique dynamic being all together at my Dad's house because my mom isn't around to help with  meal-planning, clean up, or the kids.  Without a Mom running the show, we all really have to pitch in with the cooking and cleaning, and it's exhausting but also strangely bonding.  Laura will probably kill me for posting this flattering photo of her on the worldwide web, but I have to document it since it pretty much sums up what we did the whole week: dishes!  (She has horrendous eczema so she has to wear gloves when she does dishes, but she makes them look gooooood.)

It doesn't matter what I do with my family--I always love it.  Even cleaning the kitchen fifty times a day is fun when I am with my sisters!  And we did end up fitting in some legit fun, such as stories and crafts with the kids, a fancy Christmas Eve dinner planned by my brother-in-law the chef, a super cute Nativity with the kids, carols around the piano, and a trip to Granny and Grampy's to play with their car tracks.

 

 

Sarah indulged me by snapping a million photos of my girl with her nice camera.  I am obsessed with this baby.  She was so good on the trip and just kinda wandered around and played with toys and charmed everyone.  She has a major crush on Uncle Sam for some reason and wouldn't stop hugging him and sitting on his lap.  Bapa was jealous!  She really is a ray of sunshine.

 

Another highlight of the trip was spending a lot of time with my grandparents.  I love them both so much.  They are getting old (86!) so every time that I am home, I try to soak up my time with them.  They came for dinner several times, and they went with us to see the play White Christmas one night. I will never forget sitting next to Granny at the play, my arm around her frail shoulders, as she sang along with the performers in her shaky, high voice.  She is truly THE cutest.  I will also never forget how amused she was to show me her driver's license.  They made a mistake at the DMV and she is listed as being 8'0" tall! This is even more hilarious because she is actually 4'10"!  Cutest teeny Granny.

My grandparents really show individualized interest and care for each of their fourteen great grandkids--I love it.  Granny still gets on the floor and plays with them, and Grampy oversees all of the fun from his recliner.  He loves to have a little one on his lap for tickling and a treat.  Can you tell from these photos how much we adore them??

Christmas morning was magical, as always.  I just love the tradition of having the kids wait at the top of Bapa's big stairs until we give them the go-ahead, and then they run down together to see what Santa brought for them.  My sisters and I did this as kids, and I love seeing our kids do it together.

Noah had been hoping for an electric Polar Express train, but it was too expensive and he is too little to take good care of it, so I got him a plastic push version instead.  I was a little worried that he would be disappointed on Christmas morning, but I underestimated him: He loved his simple train, and he loved all of the excitement of the morning, regardless of what he got.  Good boy.  His favorite presents by far have been his "big boy" Legos from Santa and his Titanic ship from Bapa--both have gotten so much use already and will be beloved for years to come!

Miss Sally only got a cup and a candycane from Santa on Christmas morning (ha!) but she was perfectly content with both.  Her big present was waiting at home in Idaho: a play kitchen!  I worried that she is too young for it, but she seems to really like it.  She even cooked up a little Dirty Diaper for dinner the other night. ;) (She pulled it out of the trashcan when I wasn't looking--nasty!)

Noah was thrilled to give Bapa our personalized version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  They snuggled together and started to read it aloud, and then Noah said, "Stop, Bapa!  I have to tell you something important!  Any time you see a Grinch in this story, it's actually me; and any time you see a Lou Who, it's Wally!"  Ha!  So glad he clarified!  I must say, there is something about Noah being sick that makes him unusually sweet.  He was really cute the whole week, between hacking coughs and fits of fever.

We had a great time in Colorado, and the fun wasn't over yet.  We rested at home in Twin Falls for a few days, and then we headed to Sun Valley with the Nielsons for New Year's weekend.  It was a winter wonderland, as always, and we spent time tubing beside the cabin, going for walks and pulling the kids in sleds, and then warming up in the hot tub and making gingerbread houses with Grandma!

 

On New Year's Eve, my pyromaniac father-in-law put on a spectacular firework show.  He was so funny, lying in the snowy field and watching his beloved firecrackers exploding overhead. ;)  It was a fantastic end to 2015!

So the months of November and December were a blur of fun with family, but we made the most of it.  I can't imagine celebrating the holidays any other way!

The Halloween Grinch

Okay, so I still haven't blogged about Halloween.  Yeah.  Life just gets away from this busy mama!  Look for a new post each day this week to get caught up on 2015. 

So for Halloween, we were characters from How The Grinch Stole Christmas.  But you already know that because I already unveiled the book that we made for the grandparents and birthparents for Christmas.  Here's a little backstory on that adventure.

 

In the weeks leading up to Halloween, I noticed that I often call Sal "Sally Lou Who."  I'm not sure why--I think just because she's a tiny little nugget, and when I put her hair in pigtails, she reminds me of a Who. 

So I started thinking, "Wouldn't that be the cutest Halloween costume?"  And if she was going to be Cindy Lou Who, then Noah needed to be the Grinch, obviously.  He was on board, especially after Ryan agreed to make him a sleigh out of our bike trailer, so preparations for the kids' costumes began in earnest.  We take Halloween seriously in this family!  I'm so glad I have a creative husband.  When I came out into the garage and saw the cardboard cutouts for the Grinch sled, I actually burst out laughing.  Too good. Noah got to help with the sled as well, and he loved it.  I love seeing him and Ryan working together on creative projects.

It was actually just the day before Halloween when I decided that Ryan and I would join in the fun too.  I suddenly thought, "We should wear ugly Christmas sweaters and be Whos!"  Problem is, we don't have any ugly Christmas sweaters.  But when I brought the kids in their costumes to visit Ryan's dental office, I happened to ask one of the other doctors if he had any ugly sweaters, and he did, and the rest is history.

And my hair? There's an empty water bottle under there.  Ha!  I used to do my hair like this for spirit days and pep rallies in high school.  It takes less than five minutes: You flip your head upside down, stick a water bottle in there, gather up all your hair and smooth it around the bottle, tie it off with a hair tie, and hairspray the heck out of it.  Viola--Who Hair.

It was fun to walk around the neighborhood together to Trick-or-Treat and to hear people laughing at our Who get-ups.  It almost made all of the effort worth it (more on that in a minute), and Sally was hilarious with her independence that night.  She did not want to be carried, and insisted on slinging her trick-or-treat bucket over her arm like a little diva and walking by herself or pushing the sleigh from behind.  Anytime I tried to pick her up, she would shriek and go limp and flop around like a wet noodle and throw a massive tantrum.  So we let her stroll up to the doors by herself and take her time moseying down the road with her treat bucket. The cutest.

It was a really fun night and a great memory, but I just have to admit that as cute as these costumes turned out, the entire process was anything but "fun."  I'm sure you can all imagine that the only Grinch throughout the whole process was Mom: I turned into a complete monster trying to get all the photos for our Grinch book and such--snapping at the kids, freaking out when Sally tried to pull out her pigtails, threatening Noah when he didn't want to put on his green facepaint, and offering ridiculous bribes to get him to pose for photos.  (I actually heard myself say, "If you will just look at the camera, I will give you five dollars!"  Whaaaat? Hahaha!)

A few people who saw the Grinch book that we made for the grandparents have said, "You are the best mom."  Upon hearing those words, my mind flashes back to the way that I grumbled and scolded and threatened, and I reply, "Are you kidding?  A good mom would never put her children through that torture!"

The good news is, Noah loves the memory, loves the finished book, and seems to have forgotten about the trauma that accompanied the journey.  So we will call it a win.  But let me assure you, I will never, ever go to these lengths for a Halloween costume again.  So enjoy these photos because next year you are likely to see the Nielsons in mismatched costumes from the dress-up bin. ;)