San Diego/Pheonix Day 4

This morning (January 4th ) we left our hotel around 5:30 in the morning. Our flight out of San Diego was at 7:30. We went and returned our car and then stood in line for security for an hour. It was so crazy. I guess everybody loves to fly with Northwest because your bags are free. I was shocked with how many Boise State fans we saw in the airport. Once we got to Phoenix the airport was full of Boise State fans. Our rental car that we had was a perfect car for our trip. It was this bright blue mustang. I hate mustangs unless it's the newer convertibles. Ours was not. It matched with our flags and magnets though. We brought our car magnets and flags for our trip. We got beeped at so many times and commented on it. It was fun to have it.

Once we got to Phoenix we went to breakfast because we were not able to check into our hotel. We ate at Denny's . There were so many Boise State fans there as well. I think that half of our hotel was Boise State fans as well.

After breakfast we were pretty tired from getting up so early. Enoch took a nap and I watched some movies on TV. We stayed at another pretty nice hotel. Nothing like our hotel in San Diego but still nice. We really didn't do much in Phoenix before the game. We have decided that there is not much to do in Phoenix if you have only a few hours to do something and no golf clubs. After we ate dinner we headed to the stadium. We got there around 5 PM. The football game started at 6:30. Wow it was amazing to see how many Boise State fans there were. I loved looking over the parking lot and just seeing blue and orange flags on the cars and the blue and orange tents everywhere. So fun.

So this year at the Fiesta Bowl I think that there were twice as many drunk people. I am not sure why people drink so much at games. I want to remember good football games instead of waking up the next day and not remembering half of the football game.

This year we sat in the same section as we did last time but 20 rows closer. They were good seats. It is so fun to watch football games because the noise and also anytime anything good happens everybody around you starts giving each other high fives. Our seats this year as well all had orange flags at them (purple for TCU fans in their seats) and some chips and Salsa. That was so nice. We didn't have to buy any food this year because of that as well the older couple behind us bought us ice cream. It was so nice of them. They were very friendly and we enjoyed talking with them. They were actually headed to San Diego for a trip after the game. They were doing the opposite of us.

I couldn't believe how loud it was this year. So many times the referees and announcers had to stop talking because they couldn't even hear themselves talking on the microphone. Of course this year we won again and so it was amazing. I was really worried before the game. TCU was a good team and was known for their amazing defense. I think that we showed them though because our defense was amazing and of course our offense is fantastic. Going to the football game was just the icing on top for us. It was so awesome. I loved everything about the game. It was not as intense as the last time because the score was not close in the end and we never went to double over time but man was it fun. I love watching football games. Boise State only lost one starting senior this year and so next year they are going to be amazing. Enoch has already told the kids that if they make it to the championship game in Phoenix next year we are all going. We will drive and go and see the Grand Canyon and stuff before the game. I would love that. I think the chances are good of us going.

I loved winning. We won 17-10. It was so nice to once again see them win the trophy. I loved watching all the orange flags as well. There were way more Boise State fans than TCU fans. I loved that it was such a nice upset for TCU. Not many announcers or critics thought that we could win so it was nice to show them just like we did 3 years ago when we played Oklahoma at the Fiesta Bowl.

After the game we got to our hotel close to midnight. We had to watch some TV though well ESPN actually to see what they said. Not much was said because FOX aired the game. We had to be up early again to catch our flight back to San Diego. We were not planning on going to Pheonix at first. We decided after our plane tickets were booked for San Diego to go. So we had to fly back to San Diego to then catch our flight home.

Today was a good day despite not doing much other than the game. I loved just spending time with Enoch and then of course watching once again another amazing football game.

San Diego Day 3

Oh I loved today (January 3rd) so much. We woke up late again and went down to the pier to the USS Midway. It is an old retired battleship on the harbor. We first went to a restaurant on the pier and had lunch. It was nice to sit and look out off the pier and into the bay. Also by the USS Midway and restaurant is a large statue of the famous war picture after WWII of the sailor kissing the nurse. I was hoping to get a picture of Enoch and I kissing like that in front of it but there was nobody around to take our picture. Oh well. All around the USS Midway are statues of military and war memorials. We paid $18 a piece to go take a headset tour of the ship. We were on the ship for almost 3 hours and would have loved more time on it but it closed and everybody was kicked off. I was so sad to leave. We loved all of it. Enoch and I had so much fun. I took so many pictures of the ship. We went and saw were all of the sailors slept, the kitchen, the captains cabins, flight instruction rooms, barber shop, hospital, jail, you name it we saw it. I really wish that we could have had 2 more hours on it. The whole flight deck has tons of planes and helicopters in it. It was so fascinating all of it. I will be honest that at first I thought that it would only take an hour or so to see it all. Not at all. We wanted to listen to everything we could about it. Loved it all. We also saw an amazing sunset on the ship. It was beautiful.

After the USS Midway we went and drove across the large bridge to Coronado Island. It is a pretty high and long bridge to the Island. It was cool to go over it and see the city scape.

When we got back to our hotel we went out to eat at this really awesome pizza place in the Gaslamp district that makes gluten free pizza. We got a BBQ chicken gluten free pizza and then an amazing Greek Salad. It was so good that we bought a jar of it to take home with us. We had to wrap it really well to have it fit into our suitcase.

After dinner we went to the Garibaldi chocolate store and have ice cream. It was so good. I loved the atmosphere as well of the whole place. It was really fun to sit and share a Sunday together.

When we got back to our hotel we noticed that the TV was on to a weird station and that our bed was not the way we left it with blankets. We started freaking out that somebody had been in our room. We kept going through the evening before we left for dinner and trying to remember if we moved our pillows and left the TV on. We finally decided to go downstairs and talk to the front desk. I was not going to sleep in the room if somebody had been there. Well we went down and told the front clerk that this might sound funny but we thought that somebody had been in our room. We told about what had happened and he right a way said he knew what it was. Earlier in the day we found out that if we signed up to be a club member for free we got free internet. It would have been nice to have had 3 days before and not had to call Chuck all the time. Well as part of being a club member they also have a pull down service in the evenings. They come in and pull down your blankets, take most of your pillows off, turn one lamp on and turn the TV on to soothing music. We laughed when we found out we laughed pretty hard and the front clerk said that we were not the first ones to come and think that somebody was in their room. We felt pretty dumb but were really happy to know that it wasn't somebody going through our things in our room.

After this ordeal we got ready to go swimming. They have an outdoor heated pool. When we left to go swimming we were wearing our robes (they had nice bathrobes in our room) and when we walked out of the room we realized that neither one of us had the room key. I laughed so hard. I told Enoch right a way that I was not going down to the lobby in my bathrobe. We could not stop laughing. I found a phone near the elevators that worked though and was able to call down. They called somebody up to bring us a key.

Once we had our key we headed to the pool. The hot tub had people in it so we just played in the pool. We had so much fun. The pool was a lap type pool. There were stairs across one whole side of the pool and then the pool was the same depth. We spent the whole time in the pool racing each other from one side to the other. We didn't swim though we did it where we could only use our arms and other ways. We also had a handstand contest. We laughed the whole time. I am sure the people in the hot tub thought that we had been drinking something.

I was sad to have to leave the pool because I knew that when we got back to our room we were going to have to pack up. We were leaving the next day to head to Phoenix to the Fiesta bowl. I was excited for the Fiesta bowl but I loved San Diego. If California wasn't so messed up and everything so expensive I would move to San Diego in a hear beat. Everybody needs to go and take their families. We already have talked about taking the kids eventually.

San Diego Day 2

(January 2nd) Today we slept in pretty late. We left hotel around 11:30. Took the train to Little Italy. Little Italy is a district in San Diego full of Italian restaurants and shops.
Went to the farmers market. The farmers market was located in Little Italy and it's a few blocks long. Had some really cool booths of food to sample and buy. The farmers market is on a road that runs towards the Ocean. It's on slight hill so you are able to look down towards the bay. It was really cool looking and beautiful. The sun was really hot and bright. Very nice weather. I loved it. We both did.

Enoch bought some blood oranges for Enoch. They were really sweet and sour. The insides are red. Enoch was so excited.

I bought this thick Head band that knitted and goes around your whole head on top of your hair. It looks like a hat. I love it and it looks great with my short hair. I am excited. Enoch had a tomalee. I never tried it but he liked it.

We then walked to a little Italian restaurant called Mona Lisa. I didn't want much so we shared a large Cesar salad. It was good and wow was it large. My favorite part of it was the bread and butter. It was a hard crusted banquette and soft inside.

After lunch and miles of walking we went back to our hotel to pack stuff up to go to the temple and the beach. We drove to Del Mar beach to watch the sunset. Aunt Elaine said that that was their favorite beach. On our way to the beach we were on the phone with Chuck asking for him to look up the address of the temple so we could find it after the beach and just as we went around the corner on the freeway there it was. What a pretty temple.

Our drive to Del Mar went good other than there is no parking anywhere. We drove around forever trying to find parking. We also were trying to find some wireless connection to use our internet. Our hotel we thought charged $10 a day to use the internet. This is another story though for later. We gave up on the internet and found parking. It is a really pretty beach. I am sure that it is even nicer in the summer months. We walked around for a bit, put our feet in the water (the water in San Diego is about as warm as the water is in Oregon in the summer, I think that it is even warmer in San Diego) and then watched the sunset. We also enjoyed watching the surfers. It was fun to watch the waves coming up behind them and watching them catch them. The sunset was really pretty until right as it was about to go down past the water on the horizon a cloud came over the sun. We were pretty disappointed. I got some nice pictures though.

After the beach we drove to La Jolla and ate at this awesome restaurant downtown. It was called the Crab Catcher. It was beautiful. We ate outside. All the restaurant have gas heaters outside so as long as it isn't raining you can eat outside and be warm. Crab at the restaurant that came from the boats off of the show the Deadliest catch were $65 a pound. When the waiter told us that I wanted to pipe up and say we really didn't like those boats from the show, we liked other ones so we weren't getting the crab. I re-framed though from saying that. I got some clam chowder which was amazing. Way better than Moe's. I didn't like Moe's in Oregon. I have decided that you can put up any sign out being world famous and people will show up. Enoch and I then shared this dinner that came with scallops, flaming Mignon and chicken. It came out looking like it was made on iron chef. It was also absolutely amazing. Enoch I think that after he ate it didn't mind spending what we did on the meal.

After dinner we rushed to the temple. We didn't make it to the last session but they let us in to do initiatory. We both did 5 names each. We then were given temple whites and were given a tour of the temple. Everybody in the temple was so nice. We spent about an hour looking at everything. The temple has this amazing grand staircase that you walk up and down to get to the celestial room and sealing rooms. The guy giving us the tour had come home from his mission in the last couple of years. Enoch and him served in the same mission. Enoch enjoyed talking to him about how the mission had changed over the years. The Celestial room is very beautiful. It has a staircase that you go up and then out a door to the atrium and the sealing rooms. The room where the atrium has the sealing rooms all around it and then in the middle is the atrium. The atrium has glass all around it and growing inside and open to the outside is plants. It is really cool. The temple was amazing but I think that my favorite was the grand staircase. So cool.

After we left the temple it was past 10 o'clock. We hung out for a while taking pictures and then drove back to our hotel. It is amazing how tired you are after all that walking. We tried to watch a movie in our hotel room but Enoch fell asleep in 5 minutes and I watched most of it before I did.

I loved our day. I love San Diego so much. I loved just seeing things and hanging out with Enoch.

San Digo Day 1

On the 1st of January very early in the morning we left to Salt Lake City. I had not slept at all before we left. Enoch slept for about 4 hours. It was snowing when we left so we left at 2:30 in the morning. Our flight was leaving SLC at 8 in the morning. It is only a 3 hour drive but because of the snow we decided to leave early. I tried so hard to stay a wake while Enoch drove. I think that I got to Pocatello before I fell asleep. I woke up a few times while driving because the roads were so crazy I felt the snow pulling the car in different directions. Enoch said that it snowed up till about 30 minutes to the airport and then the roads were clear. I am glad that he was alert enough to drive because I was no help. Once we got to SLC we left our winter coats (no coats needed in San Diego). Once we got through security, gotta love taking off your shoes and stripping naked, okay it isn't that bad but a few times on our trip the lines were over an hour long. We found our gate and were only going to have to wait 30 minutes before it left but our luck had it that we waited an hour longer. There was something wrong with our plane so they had to get another plane for us. I was happy to finally leave SLC when we did.

Our plane flight was an hour and 45 minutes. It actually worked out great being late because we were able to go right a way to get our rental car. Oh and let me tell you flying into San Diego was amazing. You fly right in between down town and the buildings. First impression San Diego is beautiful. The airport if right in the bay so you see the ocean right a way. It was so nice too to walk out and be warm and not cold. When we got to our car rental place we were able for $10 more upgrade to a sports car. It was red and so nice. I loved being able to drive around with the top off. Very appropriate for our first time in San Diego.

We stayed right in the harbor at the Omni hotel. The hotel was really nice. We got it for really cheap as well. The one thing though about our hotel was that they had no parking. It was only valet. You pay valet or park your car in a parking garage. It was so expensive to park but we weren't going to park in a parking garage.

Once we went to our room which was on the 15th floor we left to go and see some things. Our room didn't face the ocean but we could see Petco Park (the Padres) baseball field. That was cool. Our hotel as well was right next to the gas lamp district. We left our hotel and took the train to Old Town. Old Town was so awesome. Old Town is the first town in San Diego. Many of the buildings are still intact. They have redone many of them. Old Town was so cool. We went and ate at a Mexican Restaurant that was outside. That was fun. There was also a Mariachi band playing. Very cool. We spent a couple of hours walking around looking at things. While in Old Town we went to the candy store and bought salt water taffy and caramels. Old Town was really neat but we found out after we got home that there was so much more we could have seen. So sad. Oh well. Also there was an ornament that I really loved and didn't buy. I should have and am sad. Oh well maybe I will go back and get it soon. Ha ha.


After hours in Old Town we went back to our hotel for what was supposed to be just a bit because we were going to go to the Gas lamp district and find a place to eat. We ended up falling asleep for almost two hours. Enoch laid down on the bed while I was watching something and then before I knew it I was asleep. We had only maybe slept 5 hours in 2 days so we needed the nap. Once we got up we went to this cool Thai restaurant. The Gas Lamp district is a few city blocks that is full of shops and Restaurants and tons of bars. It is crazy as to how crowded it is as night. Even at 2 in the morning you can hear faint music in our hotel room. The Thai restaurant we ate at was really cool looking. It had sheer curtains dividing each table and a large water fountain. What we ate was pretty good. All of it was gluten free as well.

After dinner we walked a few blocks to the outside mall to watch a movie. Because it was New Years Day all the stores we closed. We were going to see Blind Side but walked into Sherlock Holmes instead. We were just going to watch the first 10 minutes before our movie started but decided to stay and watch the movie. We really liked it.

After the movie we got back to our hotel around 1:30 AM. We were so tired from not sleeping and we walked so much. I think that we walked over a few miles. It was so fun and the weather was so nice.

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.