the boys can ice skate now!

skating by themselves:

Katherine watching her brothers:

tricks:

a good dad:

"holy!"

We went on sesamestreet.com to let Katherine play a toddler game on the computer because she wants to play on the computer like her brothers. She made lots of stars on her game so Nathan said, "Holy!" Katherine repeated him and kept saying, "holy". It was so cute! I also thought her little hands were so cute on the keyboard:

guess who came to visit on Thanksgiving?

Mr. stomach flu.
He was rude and horrible and ugly and not allowed back! We're all feeling better today, though, and Todd is going to make a turkey dinner tomorrow for us.

Breakfast with ....?

At Thanksgiving Point they have a "breakfast with Santa" but we haven't gone because it was just way overpriced. However, they sent me an email saying that members get half off this Sat.! So Todd said we could go!

So I told the boys that we were going to go to breakfast with Santa on Sat. (waiting for cheers and shouts of joy).

Here's what they said:

(silence)
Alex: What are they serving?
me: (??) I don't know, probably like bacon and eggs and pancakes and stuff.
(more silence)
nathan: Why don't we just take the money that we would have spent on it and have Daddy make us a yummy breakfast.
me: But what about Santa??
(just silence...)

So I guess the boys would rather have breakfast with Daddy than Santa! They really love their Daddy!

ice skating

The boys have really liked ice skating lately. We went last night and here are pictures and videos. They have walker things to help them learn to skate.

the christmas tree

Cute girl!

Katherine loves her dolls. She wanted me to put a diaper on it. So cute!

Katherine's new outfit

Here's the outfit I got Katherine today-- so cute!!

I have a white shirt to go under this sweater dress:

puppy mittens:

It's a......

Dec. 1 at 4pm-- gender ultrasound!!
Merry Christmas to me!!
Two things for you to do:
1. make your guess (winners get a treat)
2. pray it's a girl (so Katherine can have a sister and they can share a room)

The Christmas tree is up!

It snowed today, so...
we put the Christmas tree and our few Christmas decorations in the house up! It looks beautiful, but I can't find our camera so you have to come visit to see it. But it looks like this (except the bottom half is sans ornaments):

(well, maybe not exactly)

The boys helped and did a great job. The lower half has no ornaments because we have a destructo-baby in the house! I got all the Christmas tree decorations after Christmas last year for really cheap because we didn't really have any ornaments. We also bought a new tree today because we were using the tree that Todd had during his childhood and it was shedding really bad and had seen its last day. We'll put it upstairs for the boys though. The boys asked if they could have it for their children. All that's left is getting a star or an angel for the top and I ordered some candles (we won't light them) to clip on the tree--hopefully they'll be here soon.

Todd and I went on a date last night and did some Christmas shopping. It was so fun looking at girl toys and not just all boy toys! I think you kind of re-live your childhood through them.

By the way, it is possible to celebrate Christmas and Thanksgiving at the same time. Christmas needs to be celebrated for at least two months!!

Being manly

The boys lately have talking about how to be manly lately. The first thing for being manly, is stuffing your mouth with food. The second thing for being manly, is fighting your brother with sticks. I overheard Alex ask Nathan what the 350th thing for being manly is, and Nathan said, "staring at something with your eyes open and not blinking." Wrestling without shirts on is another thing for being manly.

Thanksgiving and Christmas thoughts

This morning we read in Alma 27, when Ammon and his brothers ran into Alma. They were so excited to see each other, it says this:

Alma 27: 17. Now the joy of Ammon was so great even that he was full; yea, he was swallowed up in the joy of his God, even to the exhausting of his strength; and he fell again to the earth.
18. Now was not this exceeding joy? Behold, this is joy which none receiveth save it be the truly penitent and humble seeker of happiness.

We talked about being penitent and a humble seeker of happiness-- about taking the time to think about our blessings and being grateful even for the little things. If you can find joy in the little things, you will be happy. I told them a long time ago, Christmas was a lot different. Kids only got one or two presents, and they were probably homemade presents. Kids were used to this, and they were still happy and excited about Christmas and those humble presents. Now kids write long letters to Santa, and expect lots of elaborate commercial toys. Am I taking away my child's happiness by giving them too much so they can't enjoy the little things? It's hard not to want to give my kids everything they want for Christmas! I wanted to spend $250 on Alex and Nathan for Christmas, but Todd said he wanted to do $200 so we don't go overboard.

The only two presents I ever remember growing up, is the Christmas I got my flute and the Christmas Allison made me a soft purple scarf. Those are also the only two presents that I still have.

To help them be penitent and humble seekers of happiness, I can help them find joy in decorating the Christmas tree as a family, listening to Christmas music, doing fun Christmas projects together, etc. -- simple joys of Christmas.

Having Thanksgiving first, we can focus on being thankful for the little things we have and continue that into the Christmas season.