Christmas Evening

We did a lot of traveling on Christmas Day. That afternoon we headed up to my aunt and uncle's house to spend a few hours with them. 6 of their 8 children were home for Christmas this year (minus the one in CA and the one on his mission.) It was fun visiting and catching up with them.

These were our closest cousins growing up (we even went to school with them in Jr. high for a few years), so we spent a lot of time with them and it is always fun to get together once again.

There were plenty of cute kids and lots of chatting, catching up and just plain Christmas fun. Once again, there was food galore and always yummy treats.

My cousin's little girl being cute

My niece, Celeste being cute too
My cousin Katilyn and her family
My cousin Larissa and her family

My cousins Stefanie and her husband

My cousin Natalie and her husband

Christina - my youngest cousin

Here is my sister and I with 6 of our cousins.

Christmas Day

Christmas morning is always a delight when the kids are involved. They didn't wake up super early, yet still early enough. They got to go down and look in their stockings and play with those toys until the rest of us got out of bed.

We had a nice morning of opening gifts, it was nice that all the kids were able to open their own gifts this year. Ethan read the names and handed out gifts to everyone (well, ok, really just tossed gifts that weren't his out of the way to get to all of his own gifts.)

I had to look through all their gifts after we took their bags of stuff upstairs because they opened their gifts so fast I didn't really have a chance to see what they got.

My mom always does a wonderful job of Christmas for the kids and this year was no exception. The 4 boys got several toys that were the same and they were entertained by those few toys for the next week and a half. (While the older boys, Nate and Shawn, were entertained by the new Deer Hunting Wii game.)

Linz and Celeste
My mom and Santa, I mean Richard
Nate and I bright and early on Christmas morning, remember the morning part...

My little, ok younger, brother Mitchell came by. The kids always love uncles.

Christmas Day after lunch, we headed down to our house to celebrate Christmas with my dad. The kids got more presents and we had fun hanging out here with Grandpa and uncle Mitchell.

We even got a REAL game of Pounce in. It has been WAY too long since I had played a real, fast game of Pounce and it was TONS of fun. (And not only because my dad and I won.) We'll have to do it again sometime SOON!!!

My kids were in heaven with Celeste. Linz absolutely adored her and wanted to do everything with her and follow her around. Ethan and Luke also loved to hold her and play with her. My kids were constantly fighting over Celeste, while Becky's boys didn't really pay too much attention to her (but they get to see her all day every day.)

The boys had fun helping Celeste play the piano.

Linz got this gloworm from Grandpa. She LOVES it. She actually saw it before Christmas and threw a HUGE fit when Nate took it away from her. So, we knew she would like it when she opened it.

Grandpa opening his gifts.

2008 Newsletter

Here is our Newsletter from this year.
Here is a brief recap of our 2008. We have had a fun and blessed year.

December -Mon 12/10 - found out we miscarried*Tues - Nate drops Melinda off at hospital for D&C surger on his way to take National Boards*Wed - Nate finishes second day of boards/ Melinda recovering from surgery*Thur - move to Boise for 3 months (36 hour car ride)* Christmas with ALL of Nate’s family*START OF CRAZINESS
January-2008 Ethan has new K class*Ethan turns 6*swimming lessons*ride in G-pa Huckstep’s HUGE motor home*visit family in Utah*homemade ice cream w/ G-pa and G-ma Huckstep (no complaints)
February -LOVE g-pa Noakes’ cabin(in mountains-TONS of snow)*snow caves* Linz finds best friend, cousin Makall*visit McKees in WA
March -Linz turns 2*starts to talk more*loves babies*home to Columbus*Chris, Kristal and Makall visit*Nate starts last 1/4 of school*Linz in big girl bed
April -Ethan back in first K class*Luke learning to read*Nate takes LAST set of boards*look for employment*boys REALLY into Star Wars
May -Accept job in Springfield*Luke graduates preschool*house hunting* Ethan soccer
June -Ethan “graduates” K*Nate GRADUATES Optometry school*Nate’s parents, sister Corinne, &Melinda’s Mom come out for graduation*baby #4 on way*trip to Hershey, PA, Sesame Place, visit Potters in New York* squeeze in 1st visit to Kirtland*pack*camping
July -Close on our 1st house*unpack for 3 days then trip to Boise(Jennett & kids too)*meet cousin Rylee* unpacking*Nate finally gets to play doctor
August -Nate adjusts to working life & to being called Dr*Luke starts K on 5th b-day*Ethan starts 1st grade*Linz lonely all day*having a boy*kids LOVE neighborhood pool*Linz potty trained
September -Luke has hard time w/ school( get on bus @ 7:20 for 40 min. bus ride)*Enjoy being 1 hr from Melinda’s parents*Ethan loses 1st tooth
October -Melinda called to Primary*Nate adds new title to name–President (YM President)*Nate’s brother Jarom visits (Simpsons too)
November -Nate’s parents visit (Simpsons come again)*spend our first Thanksgiving in Ohio-at Simpson’s-Cincinnati*Jet’s famous sushi turkey recipe*celebrate 8th anniversary*Melinda helps in kids’ classes
December -Going WAY too fast*looking forward to the New Year and new addition to our family…due February 2
We wish you all the best, and what would life be like without craziness!!!

Christmas Eve

Nate had to work half day on Christmas Eve, so he got off around noon and we got things packed and headed to my mom's. My sister and her family got to my mom's a few hours before us. We had a nice evening. The kids were so excited to see each other and Linz had a blast with baby Celeste (she calls her Aleste - in fact she insists that we name our baby Aleste.)


These are my sister's three kids - Treyton, Celeste, Wade

Celeste ---------Linz

Grandma with her 2 princesses

We acted out the Nativity. The kids were very cute and they had fun. Linz was Mary and Wade was Joseph. We never had a pregnant Mary in our Nativity this year, Linz wouldn't let the baby out of her hands, so Mary carried baby Jesus into Bethlehem this year.

Ethan, Luke and Treyton were the 3 Wise Men

We even had a special visit from Santa. Santa stopped by as the kids were getting ready for bed and they got to come down and help Santa put the gifts under the tree. I got to take advantage of the Santa opportunity and get pictures of the kids with Santa since we hadn't visited Santa yet this year.

Ethan ------------Luke

Linz

Treyton -------------Wade

As soon as Santa left, Ethan said that he knew that wasn't Santa, it was grandpa. I asked him why he thought that and he said that he heard him talk and he could tell by the tennis shoes (Santa just had black flap things that went over his shoes.) I was impressed that Ethan noticed those things. He didn't make a big deal out of it and I told him not to say anything else about it. None of the other kids really heard or at least were scarred by what Ethan had said. I guess he is getting older and realizing more things.

Side Note: Luke made some reindeer food in his Kindergarten class that we were supposed to leave outside so the reindeer could find our house. We forgot until after Santa had already come. Linz noticed that Santa had forgotten to fill our stockings when he stopped by. She was VERY concerned about this (it was funny that she - being the youngest - was the only one who noticed that Santa forgot to fill our stockings.) She told grandma SEVERAL times while getting ready for bed about how Santa forgot our stockings and what were we going to do.

So, since Santa forgot to fill our stockings, I told Luke that we'd better put the reindeer food out so the reindeer would smell our house again and stop back so Santa could fill our stockings. It must have worked because we had stockings full of goodies Christmas morning!!!! Thanks Luke for saving the day with your reindeer food.

Luke's Polar Express Party

Yes, the date here is correct. The kids had school the Monday and Tuesday of Christmas week. They didn't go back to school until Thur. Jan. 8th though. Kind of weird, but it worked out. I actually really enjoyed the kids being home those few days after life returned to "normal" for eveyone. I felt like I didnt' really get to see them much over Christmas because they were too busy playing with cousins, that it was nice to have three day to spend with just me and them. And it helped that they were loaded up with new toys to play with, so they played really well together.

Once again, I got the opportunity to help out with Luke's "Winter Party."

We did a Polar Express party. The whole school wore their PJs to school the day of the parties, so it worked out well to have the Polar Express party. We made candy trains, ate train sandwiches, cookies and hot chocolate.

We made a reindeer craft and read, The Polar Express book. It was fun!!!!

There is Luke in the red PJs with some of the boys in his class.

Here is his whole class in their PJs watching their teacher read the Polar Express on the Smart Board.

An Update on the babe....

Well, just in case you are wondering how the babe and I have been doing, here is a picture of us at about 34 weeks. (Only 6 more to go.)
This pregnancy has been ABSOLUTELY nothing like any of my other three. The boys' were pretty similar and Linz was almost the opposite of the boys'. And just when I thought I knew what pregnancy was like, I got thrown for a loop. I cannot believe how many different symptoms I can have this time that I have NEVER experienced before.


I am doing much better now though, not sick anymore and getting excited and ready for a newborn to join our family once again.


It always amazes me how much I love my kids and how wonderful they are and then as soon as another spirit enters our home, I simply cannot imagine our life without them. I am getting very excited to welcome this new little one and I know we will fall in love with him more and more every second he is a part of our family.

Christmas Morning

We celebrated Christmas morning as a family a little early since we'd be at my mom's for the real Christmas morning.

It was a fun morning and it is always fun to see the kids get so excited and be SO happy.

Stockings all in a row

Our tree on Christmas morning...

Linz with her stocking
Luke with his stocking

Ethan with his stocking

The kids posing in front of the tree as Kung Fu Pandas

The kids being CUTE in their Christmas PJs

Linz loves her new baby

Luke with his favorite gift - his Webkin, Spikie

the boys with their NEW light sabers (can never have too many of these)

Linz LOVES her new stroller. She pushes it around EVERY day. She had to load every doll she owns into it right away. Here she is with her new dress up equipment - shoes and all!!!

Here is my best new chef. I just couldn't pass up this super cute apron and hat for her.

Gingerbread Houses

We invited a few families over and had a fun night of making Gingerbread Houses. Nate was the master architect and made all the houses last night so they would be ready to decorate today. He did a great job and we had SO much fun.

The raw ingredients... The kids being silly and ready to create
The finished houses.
My little cutie with the house she (Nate) made.
Here are the finished products of our friends that joined us for the night....

Jaina
Aaron & Lisa
Nate and my houses

Tammy & Brent

Ethan's house slipped off his plate RIGHT before we snapped the picture. So, here he is with his broken "house."