Christmas Day

Well, Christmas came and it was Awesome!

First thing was first, checking out the plate of cookies for Santa and, yup, all gone. There were even crumbs!
Stockings were no let down. Light Sabers?! Candy????!

When we settled down for presents we tried to teach Paxton how to be "santa" and pass out the packages. There was too much anticipation! He was so excited he wasn't even finding the names on the presents. That's when I decided to take over.

The boys had a blast opening presents. It didn't take long for Gauge to figure out what was going on here either. Something that was kind of a let down for me and Ryan was that his first present, quickly became his favorite and he didn't care to open anything else.

Rocket! He is rarely seen without it! He takes this thing EVERYWHERE now!

Paxton on the other hand, loved ALL of his presents. Santa even got him the black spider man costume. He has coveted this costume since he saw a picture of it on my sister in law's blog.

Ryan was really lucky this Christmas. An Awesome Santa pillow from Paxton and socks from me!

We had to MAKE Pax open the rest of his presents before he put on his spider man costume. So he sat there half naked opening the rest of the gifts

What a handsome Super Hero!

Gauge's most favorite thing these days is Little Einsteins

The rest of the day we didn't hear from the boys at all. They sat together and played

It was a really great Christmas! We have been really blessed. Now that Christmas has come and gone we may be making a count down for Shelby. Its the next thing on Paxton's mind, when does Shelby get here?! Its exciting to think that next year she'll be opening gifts with us!

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas this year!

Christmas Eve

Paxton waited for this day to come Forever! We did count downs, we watched movies, we made treats and still, every night it wasn't time for Santa to come until TONIGHT!

I had the day off from work so we used the whole day.

Ryan and I took the boys to the park and we ran around. We talked about Santa to no end. Paxton told me several times exactly what Santa was going to do when he got to our house.

"Mom, Santa is going to come in through the fireplace. Then he is going to go over to our cookies and eat them. Then he will fill the stockings and then he will put our presents under the tree. No wait, first he will come down the fireplace..."

Our sister Jennifer sent us pillow cases with Santa Claus on them which made the dreams that much sweeter!

When we got home to settle down for the night we got baking. Ryan has always had cinnamon rolls for Christmas that his mom made. I have tried to keep that tradition alive although I haven't quite perfected the taste to be like hers yet.

After the cinnamon rolls we made Sugar cookies to leave for Santa.

Thank goodness for Papa Murphy's pizza! When I went out to pick up the pizza I took Paxton with me. I decided that we should make sure to get a present for Daddy from Paxton. We made a quick trip to Kmart on Christmas Eve, not a trip I would recommend to anyone! It's a little busy! We walked around the store a bit and Paxton pointed out some spider man toys that he was sure Daddy would love. Then he found it. I can't believe I didn't get a picture, but it was a Santa Pillow, shaped like Santa Claus. It was the silliest thing I have ever seen! Paxton was so proud of it, it HAD to be Daddy's!

When we got home Pax tried to keep his secret from Daddy by talking about it all night with glee. He even told Daddy he was going to set booby traps all over the house so that he couldn't find his present that by the way, was hidden under his bed. Ryan played along and actually fell into some real booby traps on his way to find out what Paxton could be talking about. Paxton ate it up!

After dinner we made cards for some of the boys friends. Gauge colored his little heart out. Paxton made some for friends at school and one for Gauge.

We watched Rudolf the red nosed reindeer and we ate popcorn.
When it was time for bed we laid out the cookies for Santa and the carrots for Santa's reindeer.

At bedtime Paxton and Gauge asked me to sing some songs about Jesus and we talked about how Christmas is celebrated because of the birth of the Savior. Paxton's favorite song this season has become Oh Holy Night, it's my favorite too. I can't help but get a little teary eyed when I sing it to them either, mostly because it is so beautiful, but also because I know that it's my mom's favorite and my grandpa Helmick's favorite Christmas song too. Paxton has such an earnest love for Christ and asks about him constantly, especially lately. I am glad that he is getting a grasp of what we feel is most important about Christmas.

After the boys went to bed Ryan and I put on White Christmas and wrapped presents until late.

It was a great Christmas Eve!

I am afraid I was a little lazy this year and I didn't get any Christmas cards out.

This is mostly because I have hit that stage in pregnancy where all poor Ryan hears from me is the countdown until Shelby's arrival. I am pretty ready to have her and we still have quite a bit to go.

This has been a very wonderful year for us. We have been blessed in so many ways. We are finished with more school! I have had the most wonderful job (I know I have been here awhile) but I couldn't have asked the Lord for a better one and better co workers!

Paxton has learned his ABC's and their sounds. He loves school and so far he seems to love life! He MAKES our holidays around here because he gets so excited. He is always telling us jokes and trying to make us laugh. He talks his little head off and he has so much love to give.

Gauge has come alive. He is a lover and is always trying to find us to give and to receive hugs and kisses. He loves Little Einsteins more than anything and he loves to follow Paxton around whenever Paxton gives him any attention at all. He also talks his head off and lately we are realizing how much this kid can say, he can say anything we ask him to. He is a busy body who loves to tell Paxton "I too" whenever Paxton says "Gauger, I love you"

2009 is going to bring in a lot of changes for us.

Shelby gets here, that's number 1

Ryan finishes his needed school on BYU campus-that's a big one too (This one means he can finish what he has left anywhere else)

which leads us to number 3-We are moving to Idaho

number 4- I have a new job (well, conditional offer, we will see)

Don't worry, our list is going to get a lot bigger!

Bring it on 2009!!

We hope you all had a wonderful Holiday!

Merry Christmas!

Oh the Snow

What do you do when it just keeps snowing?! Seriously!
We can't drive anywhere, there is ice and there are people. We have been sick so hanging out with others isn't a good idea...that's when it hit us!

Time to go play in the snow!

We started out with a snowman. All of us helped with at least one snow ball. The torso was mine, notice its bigger than the bottom ball...Ryan

Then there was the predicament of arms and legs. Ryan came up with the first idea...
Paxton imitating his Dad. If you look close you can see his little arms sticking out from behind frosty.

It snowed the entire few hours that we were outside. Huge flakes all day long. It was a little crazy. I don't remember the last time it has snowed like this. Its been like this for a few days!

My boys!

We ended up finishing frosty pretty quickly so I thought that maybe we should make a snow fort. In my mind we would make some little fort that the boys could help out with. I ran inside and grabbed some bowls for the boys to fill with snow and lay out like they would a sand castle

the boys got into it pretty quickly

Ryan had another idea. In fact he was immediately picking a spot in the backyard where he would be protected from any snow fire from Frosty. He had the snow shovel and was piling and packing the snow. We decided that if we were going to have a cool snow fort, we better quit with the little bowls and join him. This is Gauge adding a leaf he found.

Paxton used the shovel and gathered all of the snow he could

Ryan worked fast! We all had to be fast to keep up with him. Gauge tuckered out early and so did the one whose great with child

By the time Ry was finished we had a snow fort taller than Paxton. He cut it down a bit so that Paxton could throw snowballs over the top

That snowman doesn't have a chance!

After we were outside for a few hours we came inside and turned on the fireplace. Then we all made hot chocolate. We made warm chocolate for Paxton...he's not a big fan of Hot

It was such a great day. I wish we had more days like it. Only two more days until Christmas!

Ode to Ryan

I came home from work the other night to find this. The boys were all laying together in the living room. They had had a camp out. Then I found these photos on the camera

These pictures were on the camera too.

Lately with work and my pregnancy I have been pretty out of it. Sleeping a LOT! Without ever saying a word Ryan takes care of these boys, the house and meals. Two different nights this week Paxton threw up all night and I never had to deal with any of it. He didn't even call me at work because it would have worried me.

He gets them outside during the day and every time I wake up he is feeding them again. The boys love him so much and I love the relationship that they have with him. He never complains and always supports me. I even get back rubs at 5am almost every morning.

We are a good team I think even though lately I really don't feel like I am pulling my weight. I couldn't have asked for a better husband and partner!

Thanks Ryan! I love you!

I love you!

Snow and lights

I am way late in posting this, but this last week the snow decided to come. Since this day that we went out we have actually had several days that have snowed and snowed! I think the winter is trying to make up for lost time!

After the first snow, we decided to take the kids to the park. The nice thing about going to the park in the snow is that you always have the place to yourself. We ran the boys out and the weather although FREEZING was so beautiful!Give him a break, its been a year since his last snow angel, he'll get it!

Some random pictures Whenever Paxton drops in the snow Gauge joins him Later we hit the swings. Ryan has to pull the swing in order for it to move
Later last week we went to the Festival of Lights

They were actually pretty cool. I thought it was going to be more like an area in the city where people's houses were lit up, and that it would be pretty lame. We were quite wrong however!
The lights were huge, and cool. Some were moving, there was a bear that ate a fish, a skier who would jump off a jump, a dog with a wagging tail. The boys loved it
This was Gauge's face the whole time:

Only a couple days left!