Merry Christmas

This morning the kids woke us up earlier than we have ever been woken up before. Rachel and Jacob slept in Rachel's bed so I don't think that helped them sleep in. They were waking us up at 7 AM. I made them go back to their rooms till a little before 8. I was so tired and did not want to get up. We finally got up and just as we were getting up Kaelen got up as well. I had figured we would all get up and Kaelen would get up later. The kids were so excited. It was fun too to have them go down the stairs this year. So much easier to make them not to peek. We have always done Christmas upstairs in the living room but because we have our piano now and the tree won't fit upstairs we for the first year did it downstairs.

The kids were so excited to see everything. I love the magic of Christmas. Santa after he eats his goodies always leaves a note to the kids and a small gift to the family. He left an electric sharpener. It is so funny as to how excited our kids get with stuff like that. We then always open our presents from Santa that he places in our Santa bags and wraps as well. Everything from Santa is wrapped in special Santa paper. including the things in our Stockings. It is so fun to open all kinds of little things. This year I think the kids were excited to get their presents from Santa. Kaelen got a little broom and dust pan. After he opened it he right away started walking around the room trying to sweep everything. Jacob got an electric car and Rachel got "the biggest littlest pet shop kit." That is exactly what it is called. The funny thing though is that I think Rachel was most excited about the books she got from Santa. She got the Percy Jackson and the Olympian series. She had already read book 1 and 2 and was so excited to read the rest of the series. She is our bookworm. She reads till almost midnight most nights.



After opening all of our Santa presents and stockings we went upstairs for breakfast. I made a ham, cheese and french bread casserole. I make something like this every year because I can always make on gluten free for Enoch and I can make it the night before, have it in the fridge all night and then pop it in the oven in the morning before we start on presents. We once again opened some poppers. The kids liked them more this time because they knew what was going to happen.


Once we were done breakfast we went to open presents from each other and family. This year we really downsized with the gifts. The kids got one present from Mom and Dad, present from their cousin they exchanged with, a present from each other and presents from Grandpa and Grandma. This year when the kids exchanged presents they did it in pairs. Rachel and Jacob got a present for Kaelen, Jacob and Kaelen got a present for Rachel and Rachel and Kaelen got a present for Jacob. This year we really didn't have the overwhelming amount of presents like we usually do. I did though have way more presents than everybody else. Enoch gave more more than my one present. He always goes above and beyond for me. Also Enoch and I decided that since we were going to San Diego and bought a brand new bed that we were not going to spend a lot on each other. Really we shouldn't have gotten each other anything but I am not going to complain about opening some presents. Oh wait I did. Enoch bought me a $100 gravy boat. I wanted to kill him when I heard that. He actually only paid $50 for it but I was so shocked. It was beautiful though. I decided though to return it because after 2 glasses being broken eating dinner and 3 of my really nice home decorations broke recently as well I figured this would break the first time we used it. I love having kids but things break with them it seems. I don't have a place to store really nice stuff. I want to have stuff right now that I can use all the time.

Here is a list of the presents that the kids got and pictures of them opening their presents. I took over 300 pictures and so I have seperated them into pictures of just them.

Kaelen didn't get as much as everybody because he is little and really didn't need much. He loved opening his presents though. He opened them all by himself as well. It was so cute.

• His broom from Santa
• A bowling set from Rachel and Jacob
• A real vacuum that works from Mom and Dad (Kaelen loves to clean and help around the house. We figured if we gave him the real stuff then he could actually clean as well)
• Some really fun books from his cousins
• Books from Grandpa and Grandma Fisher

Jacob would kiss his presents or lay on them when opened them. I guess that he was excited.

• From Santa an electric race car that was broken before he even played with it. We returned it and got an even better one. The new one drives on the walls and floor. It is amazing.
• A disc jammer Frisbee from Kaelen and Rachel
• A bunch of wii games from Mom and Dad. Yes for Christmas we bought the kids a wii. They were so shocked. They had no idea that they were getting one. They screamed so loud when they opened the gift. It was so fun. They both asked for Nintendo DSI's from Santa but we had bought them the wii months ago and so Santa didn't bring the DSI's. They were not sad.
• A cool book that plays music from Grandpa and Grandma Fisher.
• From his cousin, Morgan he got an electric car.

Rachel screamed so many times opening presents. She didn't scream as much as I would have thought when she opened the wii though. She screamed the most when she got her books in her stockings.

• From Santa she got her littlest pet shop set
• From Jacob and Kaelen she got 2 Camp rock barbies that sing
• From Grandpa and Grandma Fisher she got a Webkinz and earrings. Oh yah I need to mention this. We made her close up her ears where they were pierced years ago because she kept tearing them. Well for months she has asked to get her ears pierced. Santa left in her stocking a gift certificate to get them done as well as professional earings for piercing. She was so excited.
• From her cousin she got this awesome rock band bracelet making kit. She was so excited to get started on that and make some large bands to wear.

Enoch didn't get much because I was spending a lot on his gift from me. I didn't even have the kids get him something. They didn't like that but I was trying to not spend too much. Also Enoch is not the easiest person to shop for because he really doesn't want much.

• He got from Santa much needed new garments.
• a pancake grill (well we both did) from Heather and Mike
• From me he got a gym membership. He had no idea about it and was so excited. He is running the Ragnar relay with me in June and so he really needs to get his muscle strength up so he doesn't injure himself like he did before. I am excited for him to go and exercise 3-4 times a week now.

I got more than I needed. Like I said before Enoch always spends too much and does too much on me.

• I got a GPS for the car. So excited to take it to San Diego with us.
• I got much needed garments as well.
• Some porcelain cooking dishes from my Mom as well as a poppy picture that matches my other ones downstairs. Thanks
• Some really awesome cooling racks that I really needed.
• Really fuzzy socks. My feet are always cold and so Enoch was so nice to think about that for me. I love them.
• I also got a bag for church. I am now teaching in primary and needed something for my stuff.

We had such a nice relaxing Christmas. It was so nice to have such few presents and to really take our time to enjoy hanging out together.

Around 5 we then left to go to the Heileson's. We always spend Christmas evening with them. We went up for dinner, open the rest of our presents and play games. We always have so much fun. For Christmas we got my favorite item. We got food storage. I ask for it every year. To me there is nothing nicer than opening food storage. Even if I know ahead of time what it is. It is so nice to have one less thing that I have to buy. We got powdered milk and rice. So awesome. Our kids got awesome presents but I think that Kaelen got the best. Rachel got a beautiful cardigan/shrug that she can wear to church, Jacob got a game for his leapster that he plays non stop now and Kaelen got a shopping cart. He has loved it. If anybody touches it he freaks out. That is his toy and he knows it. He loves putting his footballs and basketballs in it and pushes them around in it. Very cute.


Madeline and Brytton brought their wii and their wii fit plus so we played that. It was so funny to watch Gloria try to play some of the balance games. We were laughing so hard. We also played a bunch of card games together. It was so fun. I love hanging out with the Heileson's because of how much fun we all have playing games.

I really loved Christmas this year. I think that we all did. We all loved how simple it was but fun. We all enjoyed hanging out together as a family. We wish that we could have spent Christmas with everybody though too. We love you all.

Ears Pierced

Rachel for Christmas got a gift certificate from Santa to get her ears pierced as well as a pair of professional earrings made especially for piercing. They are her birth stone. They are a amethysts. A nice dark purple. She was so excited to get her ears pierced. She had her ears pierced before but she tore them and so we let them heal for the last few years. She has been asking every few weeks about when she could get them done. She was so excited that Santa helped her get it done.

She wanted them done right a way so today (December 28) I took her finally. She had to wait a whole 3 days after Christmas. :) She was so nervous when we went to get them. She got them done one ear at a time. They actually didn't hurt. She was more scared than she needed to be. After she got them done she kept looking in the mirror at her self. She was so excited. She looks cute. She is very excited to get them out a few weeks after her birthday. She is excited to wear different earrings. She has probably40 pairs of earrings that she finally gets to wear again. She is not aloud though to wear dangley earrings especially to bed. We are not ripping her earlobes again.

More Christmas Eve

We had a Christmas Eve stew for dinner on Christmas Eve. That was nice but I think our favorite part of dinner was getting our Christmas poppers to snap open and get our prize and crown inside. These were a regular Christmas tradition growing up and this year I found some. I was so excited to get them. The kids were so scared at first to pull on the ends because they were not sure what was going to happen. I had to keep reassuring them that it wasn't scary. They liked the crowns and toys inside. Rachel was excited as well because I put sparkling cider in wine glasses. Rachel for DARE had been on a no pop challenge for 3 months. Well she went a little farther and decided that she would go a week longer than everybody else and go till Christmas Eve. I think she drank 3 glasses full.

After dinner we did our Christmas Nativity story. The kids changed it up this year and were different characters. Jacob was still Joseph but I was Mary. I think that this was the first time that I have ever been Mary. Rachel wanted to be the angel and wise men. Enoch was the narrator and the shepherds. Kaelen was a shepherd as well as our entertainer. He found it more fun to jump off the couch and yell real loud and laugh oh and he loved to run off with baby Jesus as well. If you notice in the pictures we had no Donkey so instead we used a little train. It was old days meets modern days. It was fun. We usually don't do the pageant with so few of us but we had a lot of fun anyways.

Oh yah before the pageant and after dinner I ran to Walgreen's to get some drugs. Thank you 24 hour 7 days a week Walgreen's. Even on Holidays it's open. I have had a really bad cold and cough and nothing I was taking was working. I had gone to the doctors and they said that they weren't going to get me anything. I wanted to get better before we left for San Diego in a week. I got the strong drugs. Well as strong as over the counter drugs can get. I got a bunch of them. It was nice to sleep that night.

Anyways on with Christmas Eve. After the pageant we opened our Christmas Eve presents. Surprise surprise as to what it was. We always open pajamas. We love it. Enoch and I don't really buy pajamas through out the year so it is nice to get new ones. The kids really love having new ones to sleep in on Christmas Eve and then wear the next morning while we open presents. I got matching ones for Kaelen and Jacob. I love that I can buy matching clothes for them and they are still okay with it. I wish that I could have found ones for Rachel too.

After our presents and getting ready for bed we read T'was the Night before Christmas. Right after we were married my Grandpa sent us some money at Christmas and we bought this book for our family. I grew up with us reading it every Christmas Eve. I now have it memorized because of it. Rachel almost does now too. The kids really enjoyed it. Kaelen loved the moon. He kept screaming MOON and wouldn't let Enoch turn the page. He just wanted to see the moon. He is so funny. I am glad that the kids didn't mind looking at the moon on the page longer than normal. In the pictures Kaelen is screaming at the moon and yelling moon. So funny.

We ended the night with the kids by drinking their sleepy hot chocolate. We have hot chocolate with candy canes and chocolates that they throw into it. Everybody loves it. This year I added candy cane flavored Hershey kisses. They were so good in the hot chocolate. Yum. We of course after left our cookies, milk and vegetables for Santa and the Reindeer. One year we almost forgot to leave stuff out so now the kids really remember.

Enoch and I wrapped a couple of presents before we went to bed. Oh and we had to watch some of a 24 hour Christmas Story. A Christmas Story is on 24 hours on Christmas Eve. It is fun to watch it at starting at any point because when it is over you can start watching again. Still not sure why we watch it on TV though because we own it and we could just put it in and watch it with out the commercials.

We had a good Christmas Eve despite me being very sick and 2 Christmas glasses breaking. Oh yah my kids at dinner broke a wine glass that was a wedding present and very dear to me and then a beautiful Christmas glass that we have had since our first Christmas together. Oh well though after being very upset we enjoyed Christmas Eve together and hopefully our kids at one point remembered why we celebrate Christmas.

Santa Claus is coming..

We finally took the kids to see Santa on Christmas Eve and I am so glad that we went when we did because we had the 'real' Santa. He only has been at the mall twice a week and I figured we had missed our chances. I was at the mall picking some pictures up and walked by and got so excited when I saw that the 'real' Santa was there. The kids were excited to go see him as well. Jacob walked right up and gave him a hug because he was so excited. As you can see Kaelen was not as excited. He was happy watching from a distance but anytime Kaelen got close he freaked out. We had to have all the kids in the picture though and you always have to have one kid at Kaelen's age right now screaming and crying. It just wouldn't be Christmas without the picture of the screaming kid on Santa's lap or in our case Rachel's lap.

Boys pretending to Sleep

I recently came across these pictures taken in the middle of November and I love them. Rachel must have taken them of the boys pretending to sleep on the kitchen floor. It's so cute. Kaelen loves to copy what Rachel and Jacob do. He also loves to lay down with Jacob. When we tell Jacob it is time for Bed Kaelen runs a quick as he can and runs to Jacob's bed and climbs in. Jacob and Kaelen will lay in bed together for quite a while but Kaelen is yet to actually go to bed in Jacob's bed. It is so cute though and fun.

18 month Pictures

I finally went and got Kaelen's 18 month pictures taken. I was 2 months past due but I was happy just to get them. I was worried about how he would act but he did good considering he is so shy and really doesn't like a lot of people. I brought him his favorite thing in the whole world, footballs, and he was then happy for most of the pictures. He loved just throwing the footballs at the photographer. He thought that it was so funny. He also loved throwing them at the curtain behind him because they would roll back to him after he threw them. My favorite picture is of him trying to pick up all of the footballs at once. He does that at home and will cry out of frustration because he doesn't understand why he can't carry 6 footballs at one time.

They asked me to get into the pictures with him. I didn't want to but did it anyways. I had zero makeup on that day. I was glad that I was wearing a cute sweater though. I actually ended up liking how they turned out. I actually ordered for me a picture of the two of us. I ordered the picture of him laying down facing straight up to replace the one in my room and then the picture of him looking straight forward as a close up got that to replace the picture downstairs. I also had to get ones of him playing with footballs. Like I said that is is favorite thing ever. He is so good at throwing as well as kicking them. All balls are now footballs and if you say touchdown he lifts his arms like the referees do after a touchdown at a football game. We love it. I still can't believe how big he is. It is so fun.

Our House Elf

Every year we go and look at Christmas lights and while we are gone one of Santa's elves drops by and leaves a present for the family on the kitchen table. It is wrapped as well. The kids have named out Christmas elf Buddy. So buddy is who comes and leaves a gift. This year we got a large gingerbread house kit. This is the 2nd year that we have gotten that. We love it and I am hoping that Santa has the elf drop one off every year. It is something we all have fun doing together. We didn't get back early enough from looking at lights to do it that night so we did it the next day for Family Home Evening. It was so much fun. The kids give ideas and decide how they want to do stuff. This year our steps to our house were peppermint candy's and we also put frosty on the roof like they do in the movie Christmas with the Kranks. We don't get to start eating it till Christmas Eve. We usually just eat the candy off and the throw way the gingerbread. We love it though and I am thinking that this has now become a family tradition.

Letters to Santa

This year we actually sent letters to Santa in the North Pole. North Pole Alaska. The kids really enjoyed writing their letters. I really liked them. In Rachel's she mentions having him help two families. These families are from our ward. They both have had cancer. The Caldwell's had their mom with it but last week was told that she is cancer free and then the Woosley's he has bone cancer so bad that really anything they do is to help by time. They are moving for 6 month to Boston to get treatment there. They have 5 boys. Two with behavior problems and one with Autism. It is really sad. I was so touched with what she wrote. We pray for these families every night and Rachel came up with this all on her own. Jacob's letter is so cute because he wrote it all himself. Kaelen's is very sweet because his sister wrote it but it is funny because of all the spelling errors. I have asked her 100 times how she got the words wrong that she did. It ads personality to the letter. Also on the back he didn't really want to draw. He wanted me to draw moon, star and football on it.

November 2009

November went by way too fast. I still can't believe that it is over with already. Time seems to be speeding up. I am not sure what I think of that. In November we went to Salt Lake City where we took Jacob to Primary Children's Hospital to the Spina Bifida clinic. It had been 2 years since we had gone so we figured we should. It ended up being a really good visit. We found out that Jacob is needing surgery on his ankles. He will have surgery January 22nd on both his feet. They will go in and make a 2-3 inch incision in his ankle. They will then saw his bone's in half, turn them the way they should be and then place pins in them. He will be in casts on both legs for 6 weeks. After 4 weeks we go back and they take the pins out and recast his legs for another two weeks. It is going to be tough for him but afterwords he will walk straight. He now walks on his ankles and not straight on his feet. He is having a hard time having braces made for him and he is getting sores all over his ankles. This surgery sounds worse than it really is. Also this will help him so much in his walking. He will walk straight now and more upright. We feel really good about it.

After the hospital we went to the Mayan. The Mayan is a restaurant that feels like you are eating in a jungle. It has waterfalls, trees and birds around. It reminds me of Disneyland and the restaurant in the middle of Pirates of the Caribbean. Also every little while they will have a show going on and divers diving off 50 foot cliffs while you eat. We really enjoyed ourselves. Jacob was so scared at first and after a while of crying he was pretty happy. Rachel and Jacob would go up after and talk to the divers. We were eating at the front tables and so a few times we splashed and got wet. It was a blast.

Thanksgiving was fun this year. Gloria and Chuck went to Oregon and so we decided to have Rachael and Joseph and their kids and Gregorie come over for dinner. We were all going to go to Chuck a Rama to eat but the day before decided to have everybody come to our house. Before dinner Enoch and Rachel got on the house and put the lights up. Rachel loved being on the roof. Kaelen got to wear his winter boots for the first time. He didn't really like them at first but once he was able to walk around in the snow with them he loved them.

Rachael did the turkey and then I did the pies, sweet potatoes and other things. We all contributed something to the meal. It was actually really fun. We loved eating and many of us ate too much (cough cough Joseph). After dinner we went through the ads for after Thanksgiving shopping. We all were going to go and do it together. After looking at ads forever we all played Liverpool rummy including Joseph. Joseph is not a big fan of games and didn't know what he was doing but of course beginners luck he won. We played all rounds of it. We all wanted to be home early to go to bed since a lot of us were getting up to go shopping. Well that didn't happen. Everybody didn't leave till almost midnight. After we all cleaned up and everybody left I was planning on going to bed but instead stayed up till 1:30 watching a movie with Enoch. I was getting up before 4 to make it to JC Penney's. Yah I was stupid.

In the early mornings I got up and went and got some awesome deals at JC Penney's and then I went and picked Enoch up. We left the kids sleeping and then Enoch and i went to Sam's to buy one of my Christmas presents. We bought a 16 GB memory card for the camera and GPS monitor but shh it's a surprise. After Sam's I went to Target where Rachael and Gregorie were at. They went and waited in line and then ran into the store to get all the door busters we wanted and then stood in line. They were so nice because they got me my stuff I wanted. Also there was enough of us that if one of us wanted to get something we could then just leave while the others stood in line. We were done there just after 6 AM. Target opened at 5 AM. I actually had fun shopping with them. I was home and back in bed by 6:30. It is really fun doing that. I love the rush of it and all the crazy shoppers out that early. Only in the US will you find people up all night outside of stores in the cold waiting for good deals.

On Saturday we were able to see Noal and Wendy and their kids. We actually did see Morgan, Ainsley and Noal Friday evening as well. On Saturday we all hung out and then had lunch together. It was really fun to spend sometime together and the kids really loved playing together. Rachael Adams (Rachel's best friend who moved a way a year ago) came over to play too. Her family was in Rexburg visiting family and they brought Rachael to our house to see Rachel. They loved playing. They were so sad to say good bye to each other. They sure love each other and it is so hard to be so far a way. Rachael is actually moving to Utah in January. It will be hard for Rachel not to see her friend when we come to visit but at least they will now be an hour closer.

This is a video of Rachel and Rachael's hand shake that they do when they say good bye to each other. It is pretty funny.

November was a good month. Sad that it is gone but really looking forward to December.

Kaelen So Cute

Here are some really fun pictures of Kaelen taken in November.

I love these pictures of Kaelen and Enoch both sleeping on the couch. When I came downstairs and saw them like this I knew that I had to get pictures right away. Kaelen has not fallen asleep like this in so long. He actually never falls asleep like this. So cute.


I gave Kaelen a bath and then after the bath I got him out and in his diaper. I started to drain the water and then walked out. I came back into the bathroom and found Kaelen playing in the tub again. He was standing in the water (which you can see in the top pictures of him kneeling down). He also started to lick the water out of the soap holder. It's a good thing we don't put soap in it at all. It was so funny. He didn't want to get out even after the water was completely drained. He is so funny.

(Kaelen at almost 20 months old)

Veterans Day

For Veteran's Day today both Rachel and Jacob's school did something to celebrate it. Rachel's school did a flag raising outside and then we all went inside and had a program. Each grade presented something. I was not able to stay to watch Rachel preform her two songs because I had to run over to Jacob's school for his Veteran's day celebration. My friend was nice enough though to film Rachel's performance and gave me a copy of it. I was so glad that I could watch it.

Jacob's celebration was pretty amazing. They had a bunch of veterans come. Grandpa Heileson came. We all went outside and watched as a Helicopter came and landed right in front of us in the school parking lot. The students were so excited to see it land. Kaelen was even excited. After the helicopter landed three men in uniform came out of it and we all then stood for the raising of the flag. Grandpa couldn't stay for the rest of the presentation but Kaelen and I did. After that we finally got to go into the school (it was SO cold out and we were not dressed for the weather very well) and each of the men in uniform talked about things they love about our country and their thoughts on our men and women that have and fight today. All men and women that have been or are in any branch of the military got a really nice pin that said "Rimrock Raptors love our Veterans." It was a really good presentation. It was really nice to have Grandpa Heileson there for most of it.

I am really grateful for the men and women that have done so much for our country. Weather we all agree on the war or not you cannot love the men and women that continually sacrifice so much for us all. So thanks to you all. I always think of my cousin Steve on days like this. I am grateful for his sacrifice and his families as well. He's a good kid who works hard for what is true.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween to everybody. We had fun this year. On Thursday Jacob had a carnival at school that I took Rachel out of her school for it. It was really fun. Jacob this year was 3 different things. At his carnival he was Captain Jack Sparrow. In the evening we went to Rachel's school carnival and Jacob was a boxer and then for trick or treating he was a Ninja. Rachel with her friend Makayla was mad doctors. They looked like somebody had blown up on them. It was pretty good. They carried blood bags around that looked like real blood in it. They got everything for their costumes from a friend in the ward.

There was no school on Friday because it was the end of the term, that is why all of the activities were on Thursday. Thursday we carved pumpkins and then on Saturday we went to Grandpa and Grandma's ward trunk er treating. That was fun. They got a bunch of candy and then after we had chili. The weather was amazing as well. We woke up Friday to snow and then on Saturday it was in the 60's. It was great weather for trick or treating.

We rushed home after that to have Rachel and Jacob meet up with their friends Makayla and BreAnn to go trick or treating with them. They went the 4 of them with BreAnn and Makayla's older sister Ellie and her friend who took them around. They were gone for over 2 hours and had so much fun. When Rachel and Jacob got back they wanted to go again so Enoch took all 3 of the kids out to a couple of houses.

While Rachel and Jacob were trick or treating Enoch took Kaelen around to a few houses. His pumpkin was halfway full (plenty for him). Kaelen loved seeing all the pumpkins and was not sure if he liked all the costumes though. He would just stare at people. When he would get a candy from a people he would get so mad when we would take it out of his hand to put it in his pumpkin. He just wanted to hold his candy. We have so much candy now. Everybody has been really good though of not eating it. At the rate we are eating it we might have some for next year. I feel like I have had a headache for a week now with all the chocolate. Time to stop.