Time with Dad

I came across these pictures on the camera...Ryan had some splainin' to do!

but I couldn't stop laughing, so we didn't get very far
These kids are lucky to be home with their Daddy! He is one in a million!

So this is Christmas...

And what have we done

another year overand a new one just begun... and to this is Christmas

We hope you had fun

the near and the dear ones

the old and the young

Have a Very Merry Christmas

and a Happy New Year

Lets hope it's a good one,

without any fear

And So happy Christmas

For Weak and For Strong

the Rich or the Poor ones

the Road is still long

AND SO HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

For black and for white

for yellow and red ones (and green)

help stop all the fight

Have a Very Merry Christmas

and a Happy New Year

Let's hope it's a good one

Without any tears MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

You will NOT Believe!!!

Santa came to see the boys!

okay, to lay it all out for you...

the boys were sitting on the couch to the left of the tree...

the room was dark, the window happened to be open-we don't know!

Paxton and Gauge were watching a movie, I think it was Rudolf the red nosed Reindeer

Shelby was in bed, the house was quiet and mom and dad were not in the picture...

As Paxton is trying to show you, it happened at this window.

Between all of us, this is what we have figure out had happened...

Santa's bells were heard outside THAT window. Gauge, walked right up to the window and said "SANTA SANTA SANTA" at least three times in a row.

Paxton, the good boy that he is, walked up to the window but did not see anything, then, because there was a chance that it could be a stranger, he went and stood behind the door as NOT to be seen.

Mom, heard Gauge yelling Santa, came out of the den where I may or may not have been trying to see Santa coming and missed the whole thing.

Saw Santa in the window trying to get Paxton's attention outside the door. Realizing that Paxton couldn't see him because the porch light was off, I told him to turn the porch light on and see who it was.

Paxton turned on the light, NO ONE WAS THERE!

So we all took off out of the door to see if we could catch Santa.

We didn't catch him.

We did find, three candy cane's, a letter that it looks like Santa accidentally dropped...and Santa's very own Hat, that I think he lost because he took off so fast.

THE BOYS COULD NOT BELIEVE IT!

they took turns wearing HIS hat
It even had his name inside...
When we looked closer we realized that Santa had dropped the same envelope that Paxton and Gauge had sent their letters to the North Pole in, but inside, the letters were gone!
SANTA GOT OUR LETTERS!
Then, on the outside of the envelope there was what looked like a checklist for Santa because it said "Santa's Check List" and on it were the notes:
Paxton and Gauge's new house (check)
Landing area for Reindeer (check)
How to leave Packages (check)
It then had both Paxton and Gauge's names with Good checked next to them instead of Bad
WE MADE THE GOOD LIST!
I can't even explain the magic that was felt in this house! All night, all we heard was "I can't believe Santa came to see us!"
Mommy, Santa came to see us!!
Let's go see if Santa is there again!!
Thank you Santa! This is a night these boys will never forget!!

a BIG day

Sarah's dad is known to my children as Farmer Steve. He is a well known farmer here in Idaho and on previous visits to the area has taken Paxton and his cousins on rides in his tractor while he harvested mint. It was a really awesome experience that I know Paxton has never forgotten. Any time we drive past a field and Paxton sees a tractor he asks me if it's Farmer Steve.

Well, like Sarah, Farmer Steve is a sweetheart. In fact, since we have been here her parents go out of their way to buy the kids gifts, hang out with them and they even had us over (at Sarah's) for their family Thanksgiving dinner. They are good people.

Sarah told me earlier in the month that her Dad had a Santa suit and if we would want to do it, he would be happy to be Santa for the boys. I originally thought about an experience I had when I was little about Santa coming to our house to find out what we wanted for Christmas. Really though, I was pretty old and it was pretty obvious that it was brother Doctor...and for a teenager to sit on his lap was way awkward...but it was great for my younger siblings.

Sarah had stories about hearing Santa's bells outside the house and seeing his sleigh lights take off down the lane as the sleigh took off. She told me that her Dad already had some idea's about how to do it and to let them know what we wanted to do.

After further discussion, we knew that it had better be a good idea to have the boys write Santa a letter instead of having him go to the mall to see him. Paxton is at that age where he catches everything, notices every detail and I didn't want him to wonder why farmer Steve Santa didn't look like the Macy's Santa.

So Sarah called me and told me that one idea they had would be for the boys to write Santa a letter and Santa could show up at our house with their letters...I thought it was a great idea!

So we had the boys write their letters to Santa. They were really excited about the whole idea

They colored pictures (Gauge did) and they wrote letters They addressed the envelope to the North Pole...they even stamped it and off the letters went

all the way to the North Pole for Santa to see.

It's all they could talk about. Paxton did realize that I had not taken him to "see" Santa and he tried to give me some tips that maybe he wanted to go see him, so I think this helped to put his mind at ease as well.

After the letters...we went to a Birthday party for Dan.

Dan and Sarah are crazy awesome at parties. We have them over to our house for dinners and I can't imagine what they are thinking because they are so amateur compared to these shin digs. Dan and Sarah have food out, (stuffed mushrooms) other snacks..they are rolling dough and all sorts of fancy. You just feel fancy being there. The kids couldn't get enough of the Christmas decor, especially Gauge. He loved their Christmas tree.We did homemade pizza's one of my favorite things! They all turned out really well.

Christmas Vacation was on, and all of Sarah's family was there to join in the celebrations. Its been nice hanging out with her family and getting to know them. Her parents are so much fun and they just eat up with kid stuff. They are so good to our children!

Shelby gets around pretty well these days! That walker only provokes the problem!

Dan being sung happy birthday. Its really cute, the Moody's have their own birthday song that they sing, and its really long. Paxton tried to sing the whole way through and Sarah and Beth laugh and yell and make the whole thing fun.

Poor Dan. He had two little boys on his tail all night. Paxton would barely let him open his own gifts. They were so excited for him!

Pax, waiting to hand Dan another gift

they are a pretty good team, even Shelby got into the mix

The kids had a lot of fun. I am not sure how much the Moody's really like having our crazy kids around, they can be a lot to handle. But if the kids do get to them, they never show it. They were so much fun the whole time.

During the party Steve, Ryan and Sarah got together to figure out what to do with Santa. With all of the experience Steve has had doing this he already knew it wouldn't be a good idea for Paxton to see him because he would probably recognize him. We handed him the letters that the boys wrote to Santa and he said he would be by. So, we planned on hearing some bells and leaving the rest up to Santa.

Dan, Happy Birthday Man! Thanks for letting us be part of your Day, we loved it! We love you!

Waiting for Christmas

Christmas, WHERE ARE YOU?

Sometimes for the kids it feels like Christmas is never going to come. We have the advent calendars, that does help.

We have been doing a lot!

There have been a lot of Christmas movies! Paxton's favorite movie last year, and both Paxton and Gauge's favorite movie this year is Caillou's Holiday Movie- which I love. I think its a cute show. The only problem that I have with this movie...is that every year after Paxton watches it he asks me for a space station...because that's what Caillou gets.

First of all, where do you get a play station?! Second I don't even know what you would do with it...how do you play with that? Third, don't mean to be rude, just a little too nerdy.

So every year I have to come up with a new reason not to ask Santa for it... This year, he simply asked too late- PHEW! Santa's letter was already out. Cute movie though, I recommend it.

I have been making Christmas cookies. The problem is that I love to bake Christmas cookies. I just want to be in the kitchen doing this during the holidays. The other problem is...its too much sugar! But they are good!
When I don't have cookies on hand, or sweets in the house, sometimes just to be sweet, Ryan makes me something sweet. Cinnamon toast and Christmas movies. I love it because it was a treat my Dad would always make when we were little.
Do you remember that Grover's? Only he used oil to be healthier... and a paint brush to paint the oil on. But my Dad would always make Cinnamon toast when there was nothing sweet to eat.
Then we play. Ryan plays with the boys like crazy. All I hear while I bake is laughing. They run, hide, shoot, hide, scream and laugh.

oh, and they hide...

Shelbs gets into the mix too, in fact Shelby pile drives the boys when Ryan has them piled up on the ground. She isn't afraid to get into the mix at all.
Poor Gauge, he is helpless when Paxton gets away!

I have totally slacked on my Christmas shopping this year. I tried to go the other day and all of the stores were packed. This morning I got up at 4:30am and headed out to Walmart. The store was almost completely empty. I got my shopping done in record time for the kids. Not sure I will wait so long next time, but it feels really good to be done. We are finally ready, we can't wait for Christmas!