Is It Naptime Yet

With getting the girls to bed late on Christmas Eve, and since Eden did not get a nap, they slept in. Lilah was the first girl awake, Eden had come into our bed sometime in the wee hours, but she fell back asleep. Lilah woke up at 7:45 am or so and Jon was about to let her look through her stocking, but I woke up Eden so they looked together.

Jon wanted to open presents right away, I think in previous years we’ve had breakfast first, so the girls immediately started dividing the gifts. Lilah did just fine, but Eden kept looking at the ‘from’ name and putting presents in the wrong piles.

Lilah insisted that Daddy open the present they gave him first. It was too cute. After Jon opened the first present Lilah actually wanted him to open his next one, but he declined and we had the girls begin opening gifts.

Overall they did take turns watching each other open gifts. Then the gifts that were for both of them they opened together.

Eden’s gift from her friend Gracie.

Lilah opening her gift from Eden. (It was skittles and nail polish.)

An activity book for Lilah.

Opening the gift from Santa together. (I give one gift from Santa, and usually it’s that years Pixar.)

Wall-E

Jon wearing the Batman shirt the girls gave him right away. Batman is Jon’s favorite super hero. He’s just a regular guy with really cool gadgets.

Opening my necklace.

Showing off my new DVD.
I attached a video of Eden opening her gift. It was the most eventful video we took, and shortest, and in a way it’s also a good example of how our Christmas was. ( She offers her gift to Lilah at one point.)

A funny thing. I was opening my gift and it happened to be a necklace so Lilah says “Oh, he went to Jared’s.” it was too cute. My necklace is not fancy, just two circles with each of the girl’s names stamped on them. It’s kinda the new mother’s necklace, rather than having birth stones. I saw it on a blog a while back and decided I wanted one and sent Jon a e-mail with specific on-line stores he could get them.

After having our traditional breakfast of cinnamon rolls, sausage and eggs, or in Jon’s and my case fried tofu with veggies, I got dressed and then motivated my family to get ready.

We headed out the door to his parents house a little before noon.

The girl’s in front of the tree with Dara and Jason. Lilah was being silly and Eden was being bashful.

Jason, Jon, Lilah, Grandpa Blake, Eden, Grandma Blake, and Dara.

Dara and Jason waited to open gifts til we were there. The calendars I made for them via Costco were a big hit, they got here on the 24th, definitely cut that close, and Jon’s mom wants one and Jon himself wants one for his office. (I told Jon we should have made his parents one, but were were trying to conserve our money at that point and we had already gotten them something.)

So if anyone else wants a calender of my girls let me know. The first calender has a higher fee of $4 and something for shipping, then it goes down to like $1.50 shipping per each after wards. (I’m some what joking about people wanting a calendar of my girls, but serious at the same time, it costs less to get them all at once rather than see them and decide it’s cute and want one more. Each calendar can also be different, or personalized too, but if you don’t get one this year, you might get one next year. ( I could put wedding pictures for the month you were married or vacation pictures if we visited your family or went somewhere together.))

After spending some time at Jon’s parents we went directly to my parents house per the girls request. I just wanted to take a nap, so as long as I got one I didn’t care. The girls watched Wall-E while I slept and Jon tapped into some one’s insecure wireless network on his Mac.

Eventually some family showed up, while others left and we ate dinner. We stayed rather late this year to make sure we saw Derek, Carolyn’s husband. We wanted to make sure he felt included, or at least loved, since he had to work so late on Christmas, well not that late, but he arrived at the normal time we would have left.

A gift my dad got at a party and gave to Derek. Derek is a huge baseball fan and knows everything about baseball.  I took this picture because Derek was in a goofy mood and was actually smiling. (If you look at Carolyn’s blog he never smiles in pictures. )
After being at my parents for far too long we headed home with two slightly hyper little girls, though Eden was asleep before we even got to the freeway.

It was a Merry Christmas filled with family, fun, food, gifts and definitely silliness.

Christmas Eve Day we finally got over to Jon’s parents house to decorate the tree. Mom had put it up, but since the  girls love decorating we came over to “help” and to have Jon figure out what was wrong with her computer. Since they’ve been sick and we’ve been sick we waited till the 24th, otherwise it would have been done a whole 2 days sooner on Monday.

Needless to say the girls loved decorating the tree, but most of all getting on the step stool to decorate the tree. Lets just say that particular area was not lacking in the ornament department.

That evening we went to my parents for Christmas Eve.  It was just my parents,  Carolyn, and us, so it was a small gathering with way too much food, even if it was appetizer type food and cold cuts with rolls. I think Eden ate half the pineapple that night and Lilah was definitely on the silly side.

We read the story of Christ’s birth in Luke and then the girl’s opened their one gift, purple pajama’s that I had made them.

Lilah was being super silly. This was the first picture I took and I went on to take more, but she was even sillier in those with a wide open mouth and jumping in the air, I’m not sure what she was doing.
At one point in the night Lilah decided to sing Jingle Bells, and Eden followed in suit.

We left around 7:45pm and got home a little after 8 pm. Then we watch the Mormon Tabernacle’s Christmas program on PBS and the girls got to bed at 9.

Jon wrapped what he had gotten the girls and me in our room and I finished wrapping in the living room. We had the gate up at the girl’s door so they would stay in their room. Some days I am so grateful for children that don’t climb and do crazy things.

Jon eventually fell asleep on the couch while watching a movie with me and I finished getting the presents around the tree, it’s too close to the ground to put anything under it and I filled the stockings.

I got finished around 10:30pm,  but I finished the movie and then watched a few things on TV and got to bed at 12:30. Luckily the girls slept in Christmas morning.

He has no will power to stay up late, and this was only at 10:30 pm.

See how only half of the white lights light up. It makes for an interesting picture.

Lilah had a stuffy nose last week that began on Monday night. Eden wasn’t getting it so we thought it was allergies or because of the temperature change we first experienced on Monday. Then Friday Eden got Lilah’s stuffy nose, or as Eden would say snuffy nose. (It was too cute and I had the hardest time not repeating it since we try not to baby talk to our girls.)

Since the girls were sick on Saturday we stayed home instead of doing some holiday festivities, like making cookies and going to a holiday dinner, we’ll I went to the holiday dinner since Jon was a sweet heart and stayed home with our girls.  Sunday Jon stayed home with the girls for two reasons. Eden still had a stuffy nose and he too was feeling sick.  I got some herbs from Sam and we made tea for him that afternoon and myself since I started to feel a little swollen in my throat. So much for Lilah not being contagious. ( I apologize to anyone who was exposed to our germs, it’s just hard to tell if something is a viruses or just due to freak weather like snow storms on Las Vegas. )

Jon’s taken the next two weeks off so Monday  we all went to the planetarium at CSN with our internet home school group. Jon and I felt OK, and the girls were both over their congestion problems. Then we went to Target for the girls to get gifts for one another.  Then since Smith’s was on the way home we stopped and I ran in to get sausage and cinnamon rolls for our Christmas breakfast, then to JoAnn’s because I needed some tear away to do the buttons for the girls pajamas.  (When I expressed we should stop at Smith’s and JoAnn’s after Target he was like, is this going to turn into a long morning of errands? )

That’s my final Christmas project. I’m making the girls matching pajamas.  I have buttons and buttons holes to put on both the girls tops and Lilah’s pajama bottoms to do. I waited till late, but I should get them finished and wrapped tonight so they can open them Christmas Eve. Even though they know they’re getting these pajama’s, I’m making them at night after they’re in bed and I’m hoping Lilah is somewhat surprised, I know Eden will be since she’s littler, but I’ve talked about them in front of them and Lilah remembers everything I say.

Anyways, Jon and I are both having some throat problems, but whatever we had didn’t get too bad and we seem to be on the mend. I’m just hoping it gets better and we can enjoy our Christmas without any illnesses.

Just one day till Christmas, or two depending on how you count.

I’m so excited.

Due to the record snow fall in Las Vegas yesterday, Jon was sent home early that evening. He wanted to make a snowman and play in the snow, so I got layers on the girls, found their hats and gloves and got them ready to have some snow evening fun.

First we built a double sided snowman/ snow teddy bear.

Having fun.

Acting like a kid. ( Isn’t he so cute though?)

Getting the head ready.

Patting the snow down.

Cute smile.

Getting more snow on the head.

Putting on the face.

Putting on buttons.

Lilah working on her side.

Final product on one side.

Eden showing me snow…

…and then starting a snow ball fight.

Lilah’s final snowman. (Mommy helped with the face since Jon’s hands were so frozen and he and Eden were busy having a snowball fight.)

The aftermath.

wet shoes

And wet clothes in both bathrooms.

The family warming up.

Jon didn’t have gloves thus he hands got a little too cold and were still not the same this morning. We think he may have suffered some nerve damage all for the sake of having a snowball fight with Eden and us. Eden was having lots of fun ‘throwing’ the snow. Since she can’t throw far and she knows it, she would gather it in her hands walk up to you and then hit you with the snow point blank by hitting you with her hand and a handful of snow.  Eden’s thumb also was hurting when she got inside, but there have been no complaints today so I imagine she’s fine.

In Henderson my sister still had about 4 inches on the ground and Clark County called off school for the day due to the snow. Oh how unprepared we are for snow in Las Vegas.

Our snow started melting in the night, we got rain after 8 pm or so, and we had a nice wet driveway this morning and afternoon.

We were thinking of visiting Mount Charleston over the break sometime, but honestly I think I’ve had enough snow for the winter.

We don’t have the proper clothing and it gets everything so wet and that’s just not that fun to clean up afterwords or be in.

As described in Eden’s dance class post, today was the day to bring family to the girl’s dance class and my parents were there for support.

Two off things happened this morning. First I only brought one of Lilah’s dance shoes, so she performed barefoot, with tights that showed the dirt on the floor. Second our battery started to die and died about 10 seconds before Lilah’s song was over, but we got the majority of it. (I should remember to charge the battery before important events. It also died the night of my brothers reception.)

Since our battery was dying we didn’t video all of the warm-ups, which is what Jon did for Eden’s class.

So we just have one video.

For your viewing pleasure Here’s Lilah and her class performing Here comes Susie Snowflake and one of the warm-ups they do in class.

Today was a day to invite family to the girl’s dance class. My parents showed up, but my MIL was unable to make it due to the wet weather.

I have two video’s from Eden’s class. Both are very characteristic of how dance class goes every week for Eden, though the second one where the class performs the song is a little less characteristic in that she’s usually standing there, not sitting on the ground. It just happens she never got up from the ground exercises.

One of these things is not like the other. Part I

One of these things is not like the other. Part II

I will say it broke my heart to see her just sit there during the whole performance. I’m not sure if she’s painfully shy or painfully stubborn, but the one thing I do know is she is not searching for the spotlight like her sister.

With Sam’s break we’re going to try gymnastics again, which only Lilah has had a chance to do. Eden seems enthusiastic, but then again she was enthusiastic every week before we went to dance.

Also, I kept her in dance because she did like it and want to go each week and she’s never said she wanted to stop, even though she only regularly participated 60-75% of the time.

Saturday the 6th, was our ward’s Christmas dinner and program. Eden had a really hard time at practice that morning so that night I wasn’t too surprised when she just stood there while all the other kids were ‘dashing’, which you’ll kinda be able to see in the video, but our seats were on the wrong side of the stage since the seats on the correct side were all taken and the quality isn’t too good, but you’ll get the just of the cuteness.

Here’s a short video of the girls singing Jingle Bells.

The girls sat on Santa’s lap and they printed the photo’s out right there. Since we don’t do the Santa Claus thing, I’m not going to go out of my way to get a picture with a really nice Santa, and I’m just happy they were both so willing to take the picture.

It’s a pretty washed out picture. I tried to make it less bright, but that only gave them spotty skin.

I asked my sister Andrea how the whole getting digital pictures from Costco works and she told me how the whole thing works. With telling me she informed me that I can organize and upload them from the comfort of my own home.

We also talked about the great pricing on photo greeting cards and what not.

Well, as I finally logged on and starting looking I realized that I can make a calender for a mere $9.99. Of course is just 8×10 and not fancy, but I can make a fancy 17 x whatever that is laminated and fancy for $17.99.

Well, I’m not going to go fancy, but I think Dara and Jason would like a calendar of our family photos. It might sound narcissistic, but they love our little family and this way they get lots of pictures, rather than just one. So now I just have to figure out what photo’s I want on the calendar and I’ll ignore the groceries that need to get put away and eventually read my lesson for Sunday.

Well even though the semester is not technically over till the end of this week, Jon received his grade for his independent studies class he took this semester.

He got an A on his paper which means he received an A for the course!

Really I’m just so happy to have the semester over. It was hard to give him study time when I wanted to have my own time  at times. ( How many times can I say time or times in a sentence?)

We’re going to have a lunch date next week and Eden’s old nursery leader is going to watch the girls. I ran into her at the bank last week and she made the comment that she hadn’t watched the girls all year and would love to. (She watched them last year when we went for a celebratory lunch date after the end of the semester.) Since we’re no longer in the same ward I felt like I would have just been using her if I asked her to babysit, but apparently she wants me to use her and her daughter and watch my kids. Who am I to say no?

So next week we celebrate the conclusion of a good semester.

Yesterday the girls and I made pictures to decorate our front window. I cut out some snowflakes, Christmas trees and stars and they colored them.

Then last night we finally got to decorate the tree.

Lilah had been dying to decorate the tree since Jon put it up on Sunday and we finally got to it last night.
(Monday night we fixed the tree and it  got a little late to decorate so we just watched Shrek the Halls on TV.)

We had fun and Lilah loved decorating. Eden loved playing in the stockings.

Believe me when I say we don’t have enough ornaments to have 8 this close together.

It was Eden’s turn to put on the angel. Her mouth is full of a marshmallow that was in her hot chocolate, and it was a large one, not the small ones.

Since we only set up 2/3rds of the tree we had extra lights and I put some in our front window today. Lilah said I was the best at making Christmas fun.

Also, here are some pictures from us making a gingerbread house with Carolyn on Saturday so Jon could study.  She graciously let us give her company all afternoon, and into the evening,  at the house she’s watching since we had to wait 1 hour for the walls to dry and then another 2 hours to let the roof set. The girls played and watched Dora while we talked and took naps  waiting to decorate the house.

Eden eating candy.

Giving a big smile after eating candy.

Lilah eating candy too.

The girls also want to eat it right away, but I’m making them wait till after Christmas.