Christmas!

HO HO HO! Merry Christmas!  I hope everyone had a fantastic week last week!  Things were great for us.  Monica got matching pajamas for the whole family that we opened on Christmas Eve!  The girls were very excited to get to match with Mom and Dad, as that doesn't happen very often.

Over the weekend Winry got a pretty bad sounding cough, so I took her in to the pediatrician on Monday.  She did a great job, and was very happy and interactive the whole time. There was a little crying until I took the sucker out of my pocket that Monica gave me to bring.

On Christmas Eve we had some friends over for dinner.  There were 20 of us in total.  I hope everyone had a great time that came.  While we were getting ready for everyone to come over I found out about Winry's secret hiding spot...  Jelly used to climb in the couch back there when she was little too.  After dinner some of the kids acted out the nativity and it was really cute!

That night we also had a few special presents.  One was the pajamas we were all sporting in the first picture.  In addition, both of the girls got a new super soft blanket!  They have been loving them ever since!

On Christmas morning the girls had an amazing time!  We had a few moments where everything almost stopped because one present was just TOO exciting to move on.  I kept a bunch of pictures, but don't have a lot to say about them.  I just wanted some cute Christmas morning pictures.  In addition, I'll drop my Christmas videos here too.  There's the girls coming down in the morning, Brooke opening Jelly's stocking,  Brooke getting a Pokemon shirt, and Winry getting a T.O.T.S. carrier thing.  I don't necessarily have pictures of all of those, so there's all the videos up front.  Also, a huge THANK YOU to everyone who gave us something.  Christmas was fantastic and the girls LOVED their presents.  Monica and I loved our gifts too.

Here's Winry finding her new squishy from Santa.

The kids examining what Santa left.

Winry on the new tricycle.

Jelly in her new cat house/hammock thing.

Winry riding her new bouncy triceratops from Jerusha.

Brooke and Winry looking through one of their new books.

Me learning that Christmas isn't about the presents you get... ;)

Winry pushing a TOTS baby in it's cart.

Monica finishing making Christmas morning breakfast.  We had french toast made with Kneader's cinnamon bread!  It was super great. 

We headed to Tyson and Tina's house a little after breakfast and spent the rest of the day with them.  They got a big ice cream maker for Christmas, so of course we had home made ice cream!  We had a lot of fun, and the girls had a great time playing with their cousins.

After the kids went to bed, Monica and I spent some time with our new gifts, and Jelly got to meet Dobby our new robot vacuum.  The next day was mostly spend playing with toys.  We also played a new dragon game the kids love that Monica gave them.  The dragon game wasn't a super hit when it was opened because the kids didn't know what it was, but once we played it... oh man.  It's the first thing Winry has asked for every morning when she wakes up.  It used to be breakfast, now it's a dragon.

Speaking of Winry, at dinner on the 26th she decided one water bottle wasn't enough.  Good thing she got a new one for Christmas.

On Friday we finally made it to the zoo.  We were going to go on Monday, but Winry was up a ton coughing the night before, so we decided not to go then.  We had a good time, and got to see some new things.  One such thing was the giraffe trying to operate that hand crank that moves the zoo keepers cart!

The fishing cat was out and walking around, which was great.  They're nocturnal, so a lot of the time when we go we either can't see them, or they're sleeping inside a log.  I think a keeper was maybe getting food ready or something because he kept pacing around and going back to the door to the back.  The fishing cat was also walking right up next to the glass in front of the kids.  I'm not sure I've ever seen it that close before.

The penguins were loving the cold weather, and I've never seen them so excited and happy.  We of course stopped by the flamingos and saw that there's a baby there!!!  The glass there is always good for a reflection or two, but Monica was still able to get a picture.

After the zoo, I ran to Home Depot and bought some wood to build some shelves in our basement.  Monica took all of our food and stuff off of our storage shelves to clear out the room.

Then I cleaned up the floor and laid down some of the extra carpet we have leftover.  Here's the first shelf in the room.  Everything is much more organized now that there is a bunch more space!

And here are the final shelves with everything back on them.

Monica got out her new dehydrator to make some banana chips.  Turns out that takes a long time.  I think we probably ran them for... 9 or 10 hours and they weren't all the way dehydrated to being crisp.  I still really like them though, even though they're a little chewy. And Winry loves them!

Winry found our Dip Buddies on the counter and snatched them for use with her TOTS.  They're meant to clip onto a plate and be a place to put ketchup, etc.  Winry saw them and thought "baby bath!"  She was having a great time.  Also, she doesn't recognize her monkey toy, so she just calls it "little nugget." She also always says that her toys are sad when she plays with them, and always wants to cheer them up.

Today Brooke gave a talk in primary!  She did a great job.  And we fortunately practiced it in a Marco Polo to my family, so I can add it here for everyone to see!  She talked about the scriptures, and she did an amazing job.  She even helped write the talk last night with Monica. She even picked out that topic on her own!

I think that's all I've got for now, but stay tuned for next year because I'm sure stuff will keep happening!  Also, be so proud of me!  This is the first time I've gotten out a Christmas post the same year as that Christmas!  This is my most missed week of the blog!  Happy New Year!

The Basement is Finished!!

Hooray!  Our basement is finally completed!  There's still work for us to do, like painting the doors and building the rest of the shelves, etc.  But from the standpoint of inspections, we passed our final inspection last week!  Our final item to pass was putting in the air admittance valve under the bathroom sink, which I posted last week.  I also did the tour of the basement last week since everything was technically done.  Anyway, this week it's official!  On to the new, we took a family picture in front of our Christmas tree today!  It's hard to get the kids to stay in a picture when you run a 10 second timer, but we eventually got this one.

On Tuesday, Brooke had a dentist appointment.  I believe this is her second one she's had, but this is the first time I was there.  They took some x-rays, but the device was too big for Brooke's mouth, so they couldn't really get both top and bottom.  Brooke didn't like it because it was so far into her mouth, but she was a trooper about the whole experience.  Her teeth looked great, and she enjoyed getting her teeth polished!  All in all we had a great time, and her's and Monica's teeth were great!

Tuesday evening, Monica flew off to San Diego to go to her grandma's funeral, and I stayed home with the kids.  On Wednesday morning, we had cereal for breakfast.  We had a pack of little cereal boxes, and the kids loved them!  I let them pick what they wanted, and they decided to split the Fruit Loops and the Apple Jacks.

I got the Frosted Flakes and Cocoa Pebbles.  It was a wonderful breakfast, and even evolved into everyone taking turns pretending to be Santa!

Our final inspection was scheduled for Wednesday, and our time slot was from 10 to noon, so we had some time to kill in the morning.  We headed to King Soopers to grab a few groceries, and the girls got to take turns riding the horse.  Brooke rode to Philadelphia, and Winry rode to Utah.  We were there for a LONG time, good thing the store provides a bowl of pennies.

We wanted to go to the museum, but again, we were waiting for the final inspection.  That meant it was time to find things to do around the house.  Honestly, we have a lot of stuff to do around the house.  This morning stuffed animals were the top game, and Winry was helping Minnie Mouse get to sleep.  When did she get so big!?!  It's so cute to see our girls play mommy with their dolls!

After the inspector stopped by for at most 5 minutes, our basement was officially finished, and we headed off to the museum.  We got there around noon, so the first thing we did was have lunch.  After lunch we went into the kids area for a LONG time.  The girls played with basically everything except the sand pit.  They loved the lite brites, and I eventually had to ask them to move on to a new game so other kids could play with them as we were causing a line.

We eventually worked our way over to the animals, and stopped to ride the new half pipe on the way!  Look at these amazing tricks the girls were pulling off!

We headed from the museum over to Tyson and Tina's mostly because Winry has been missing Megan so much!  Since Thanksgiving, whenever we're in the car heading to church, Winry will ask "See Megan?"  So since we were kinda heading toward them I figured why not stop by after the museum?  We had a lot of fun, and Winry was very excited to play with Megan.  We were also invited for dinner, which was very nice since we showed up rather unannounced.  While we were there we also saw our great Christmas present in action!

Monica came back Thursday morning and things headed back toward normal.  That night we decided to go out for dinner to Indochine.  It's down on main street, and after dinner we went out to see some of the Christmas decorations.  We're going to head back to see more, probably tomorrow night.

Yesterday (Saturday) was the final day of my training plan.  A few months ago I decided that my running had been a little too loose in structure, so made a new training plan.  For the most part it worked great, though I did do a few tweaks toward the end that will roll forward into future training plans.  I ran a 10k about 4 months ago in 47:02.  After that I took a week off, and then started this training plan.  Race day was not an actual race this time, I just went out to the trail and ran it on my own, but I came in at 43:16!!  That's 6:50 a mile!  Looks like things really did work out great!

This morning we did some special getting ready for church, and the girls both got their hair curled.  This was Winry's first time, and she did really well, though her hair didn't curl very well.

After church, we read Luke 2 and watched the new "nativity" video from the church called The Christ Child.  It was really good, and everyone enjoyed it!  After, Winry took a nap and Brooke and Monica made cookies for Santa!! Monica told Brooke, show me how excited you are for Santa to come! This was the face we got in return.

That's all I've got for this week.  Have a Merry Christmas!

Seeing Santa Thrice!

What a week!  We're definitely into the Christmas festivities now!  We got to see Santa a handful of times this week.  The first time was at my work's Christmas party.  We had a really great time at the party, and both the girls were very excited to see Santa.  Winry didn't even cry this year!  Though I think she understood she was going to get a present this time.

On Monday, Brooke had her 4 year check-up.  She was SOO excited!  Brooke just loves going to the doctor, and had a wonderful time interacting with the doctor and getting her check up.  She wasn't bouncing around quite as much as when she was sick, but she was still in a super great mood.  She had to get two shots, and she cried a little, but maybe for 30 seconds at the longest, and then was back to being a super champ!

Monica and the girls were originally planning to go to Arizona this week.  However, over the weekend/start of the week Monica's grandma got really sick, and we were pretty sure she was close to the end, so Monica cancelled her trip.  Monica is heading out to California this week for the funeral on Wednesday.  That changed this past weeks plans quite a bit, and instead of being out of town we were able to go to a whole bunch of things.

Wednesday afternoon was my work's family Christmas party.  The kids enjoyed seeing Santa, and got to sit on his lap and tell him what they wanted.  Brooke said she wants a yo-yo, and Winry said she wants PEZ.  Then Brooke got a Cinderella wagon from Santa, and Winry got a stuffed Snoopy.

In fact, here's a comparison of their new stuffed animal hugs!!

After dinner we headed over to the craft table for some fun.  Brooke made some gingerbread men and an elf ornament, and Winry put together a jingle bell wreath!  We all had a wonderful time, and I am so grateful for the wonderful Christmas party that work puts together each year!  Thanks SEAKR!

This past week we called in for our final building inspection, and almost passed.  We needed a studor valve under our sink in the bathroom.  I installed it this past week, and the next inspection is scheduled for Wednesday, so hopefully our basement will be done NEXT WEEK!!  I put together a tour of the basement this past week, for those who haven't been here to see it in person.

Friday was Brooke's Winter Showcase at dance class!!  We had a wonderful time, and Brooke does so amazing at dance!  Monica got this really awesome animation from a video she took.  I think at this point all the kids were in a line and following the teacher.  Brooke and I looked through pictures and videos, and Brooke really wanted to put in a video from warm-ups because it was so much fun.

The class also prepares a dance for the Winter Showcase as well.  Brooke did great!  I really love watching their more organized dances.  Per usual, Winry LOVED dance class.  She is so excited to start herself.  She can start in about 7 months, so the start of the next school year!

Currently in Brooke's dance class she does dance, tap, and tumbling.  Here's a good action shot of a donkey kick!  Look at that girl go!

Brooke's dance teacher, Miss Mery, is moving very soon, and this was (probably) her last week at dance class.  After class Brooke gave her a big hug, and Miss Mery even teared up a little!  I'm glad Brooke has such amazing dance teachers!

We got a picture at the E&E backdrop after class, and grabbed some treats too!

On Friday afternoon, while Winry was taking her nap, Brooke and I were playing board games and I introduced her to Mouse Trap.  We didn't actually play the game (does anyone?) we just set up the trap and ran it over and over and over and over!  Brooke was having so much fun.  By the end she learned how to set up all of the parts and was running it all by herself.

This past week, a rather large box came.  What was inside is not the important part, but instead, the fact that Jelly LOVED this box!  She climbed into it all the time while it was out.

However, the box was large enough she had competition.  I caught Winry laying in the box with Snoopy once.  And another time Brooke was laying in there, and Jelly didn't know the box was occupied (we hadn't installed a sign yet...) and hopped right in... on top of Brooke's face...  Brooke started screaming and I ran and got her.  Fortunately Jelly realized what happened when she landed and didn't use her claws at all to get out, but Brooke got very scared.  Everyone was alright, but that was when we knew it was time to collapse the box.

Last week we found out that Brooke got accepted to start preschool in January.  On Friday night, the school was having a Christmas celebration, and so we decided it would be good to go see the school and get a little more familiar before class started.  Out front they had some face cut-out things.

And inside they had a whole bunch of activities.  In the gym they had these slippery shoes you could put on and "ice skate" around the gym floor.  Brooke really enjoyed them while we were waiting to go see Santa.

Mrs. Claus even came and was showing everyone a diorama of the north pole!

And the kids got to see Santa again!  The kids sat on his lap again, and Brooke was consistent with a yo-yo, while Winry asked for "hungry."  At the front of the school there was a fish tank with a big fish in it.  Brooke really liked the fish, and told Monica if she was ever late picking her up Brooke would just come watch the fish.  However, I'm pretty sure the fish is on the opposite side of the school from preschool...

When we finished up at the elementary school, we headed out for Kai's birthday party.  The party was pretty great for little kids with play-doh and special painting pages that only used water!  Brooke and Winry both had a fun time painting, and spent quite a bit of time over there. 

On Saturday we all decorated gingerbread houses!  Brooke did a great job, and was able to do a lot of it on her own.  Brooke did a double chimney and two paths from the house.  All her gumdrops were people that were working on decorating her house!

Winry showed Monica everywhere she wanted to put something, and then Monica would put down frosting for her!  Winry's design really focused in on stacking multiple candies on top of each other.

And here are all the finished houses.  Brookes, Winry's, Mine and Monica's in order left to right.

After dinner we had a sing-along with Winry on Brooke's guitar!  The girls really love music and singing.  They also love a song where you say things like "goo goo goo" and then everyone else repeats you (the song at the start/end) that they heard on T.O.T.S.  The person who sings the song uses a guitar, and so that's usually the default song when it comes out.

Saturday evening was our ward Christmas party!  They had a musical talent show, which was a lot of fun, and some snacks and desserts.  They also had a room of nativities set up in a side room should you choose to adventure that way, and after the party, Santa came!  I guess Brooke was a little Santa'd out because she didn't want to sit on his lap, but Winry hopped right up there and asked for "a sucker!"

At church today, Brooke got to go up to the front and sing some Christmas songs.  That was a really great surprise, and Winry almost went up with her but instead stood in the aisle and stared at Brooke while she sang.  Winry admires Brooke so much, and really wants to be just like her!  It's really cute to see.  And with that, have a fantastic week!