Where does the time go? I have been meaning to do a post for about two weeks now, but each night I am tired and exhausted and laying on my couch seems so much more tempting. Today, all my kids are home for the next three days and, wouldn't you know it, they want to just stay home and play. So with them busy, I thought I would make myself busy and actually post.
After the Christmas tree farm we continued with the rest of Christmas preparations. I won't do a big Christmas post, because...well it's kind of late for that. But we did put up the lights, attend Christmas school parties, enjoy our ward dinner, and appreciate days with no school. I had to include this picture of Emma. For church the Sunday before Christmas, we put Emma's hair in curlers and dressed her in her new Christmas dress. This was Emma's first experience with sponge curlers and the funniest thing was seeing her brothers' reactions to curlers. They found them amazing and fun, much more so than Emma.
But with all the Christmas preparations, the icing on our Christmas cake was Aunt Janae coming down on the 23rd and staying with us for the next ten days. The only downside was that her dog Max made the trip and came down with some serious health issues. To make a long story short, he required emergency surgery on Christmas Eve and then had to stay for the next three or four days. After he came home, he developed pneumonia and another trip to the emergency vet. But even with all the stress, we loved having Janae with us. The other exciting fun, was that my parents came on Christmas day, much to the surprise of my kids. Grandma and Grandpa wanted to keep the trip a surprise, so Troy and I did. Their reaction to the surprise was so cute. After the doorbell rang, they went and looked out the half glass door and saw Grandma and Grandpa. Instead of running to open the door, they stood their amazed and kept saying, "It's Grandma and Grandpa. Why are they here?" It was funny.
Needless to say, with family in town we had tons of fun. Emma's birthday was on the 2nd and Janae's birthday was on the 1st. We celebrated their birthdays with cake and ice cream on the 1st because Janae was leaving the following morning. It was so cute to see Emma open her presents because she was delighted with each one. It didn't matter whether they were shoes, clothes, or a princess dress up, her reaction was the same. Janae got a pair of flip-flops and vet bills paid, so she was excited too. We also did our weekly celebration like normal except that we celebrated the both of them together. We had a fun bowling trip, dinner at Texas Roadhouse, a trip to Chuck E Cheese right before Grandma and Grandpa left, and an enjoyable movie night. We also let the kids stay up until midnight for New Year's Eve and had a blast watching a movie, playing games and laughing.
After family was gone, things got back to normal. A less fun normal, but normal none the less. School started back up and kids got back into the swing of things. Report cards came home, with great results for both Zach and Josh. For that we are grateful and celebrated with ice cream cones at home. The rest of our days were filled with a full schedule of piano lessons, pine wood derby celebrations, Relief Society meetings, stake meetings, judo, playdates, preschool, judging the high school science fair, and basketball games and practices for both Zach and Josh. Life is never dull around here. But, Josh's biggest news was that he has lost both front teeth. We made him sit and take a picture so we could record this time. Now we can look back and wax nostalgic about fun kid times, when the biggest worry was how much money the tooth fairy would bring. You gotta love the simple moments. It reminds me of a vinyl quote I did the other day, "Life isn't measured in time, but in treasured moments." How true!
