Christmas with our Little Family

Christmas Eve

Boondocks-
Mat and I lucked out and popped in some tokens on a game that never ends-(the snowmobile game: located in the right front corner of the fun park.) We also played laser tag as a family. I like to think I'm way stealthier than I am and I always get a tad disappointed and surprised in my performance. It doesn't help when Micah stands right behind you and keeps shooting like a pesky insect that won't leave you alone.




-Indian Food (Becket has brains in his hands not good quality Indian food. I didn't want you to be fooled)
-Christmas Eve program with Glen and Pam at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church-the candle lighting was spectacular.
-Retiring on the couch to try and catch Santa.






Christmas Day

In my opinion, the best thing about Christmas Day is lounging around the house tinkering with new stuff, trying to figure out how it works. Endless. Oh! And, just the pure excitement in the kids to get us up and get going.






We also saw the movie Frozen and headed up to Honeyville to swim in the hot springs.  We had the whole place to ourselves and the steam gave off this erie coolness.

Birthday and Family Party

The gals took me to the Blue Plate Diner for a birthday breakfast.



Later on we partied! Mat was coming back from St. George from having to work, so I was so excited when he was able to walk in the door, making the party complete.












The Christmas Party always has a talent show planned for anyone willing to share....

Mat rocked the First Noel



Good times. Good food. Too much food. Good family.

The next day, I unfortunately ended up with the flu.  I was hoping for a 24hr bug, but I was lucky enough to have it last an extra 4 days. Definitely the flu. Glad it is gone, and no one else has had it. A Christmas miracle.

Joseph Experiences Sledding

When Paul and Susie traveled to Ethiopia to adopt Abbie and Lincoln, they met Berhane, who was teaching a Relief Society lesson at the local church. Berhane and the Augenstein family had an instant connection and have ever since been family. Since then, Berhane married Joseph. Together they have worked hard for our church in Africa and have recently had the opportunity to study in America. This is Joseph's first time sledding.



Later that night the kids crashed at grandma's house and I had to laugh at the uncomfortable night Becket was going to have trying to sleep.

Christmas in 1:43

The silent pause in the middle of the video was us getting ready for our nerf gun attack on each other per my brother Casey's instructions.

King Size Bed

Merry Christmas Eve! Enjoy the Spirit and your Family.

It's Christmas Movie TIme

Pop the Popcorn
Get your Pj's on
Get  your animals comfy
And push play
Action

Say Nicer Words!

Micah has always been one to always give me sweet little notes and tape them to my wall by my nightstand at night. It makes me smile and her notes are all about, "I love you mom." "Want to play with me tomorrow?" or "You are the best!" and it is always signed "love, Micah" Brings a smile doesn't it?



Well, apparently I ticked her off when I told her to go to bed for the 3rd time THIS PARTICULAR NIGHT and she wasn't happy. She actually startled me the way she came from behind sneaking up on me in the kitchen, which made it even worse.  Disclaimer: At night, parents sometimes want to watch their British shows. The Brits get away with a lot more on TV than Americans do. I don't know what they're going to throw out there and so I get a little mad when the kids come down because I can't screen them from it, especially if I've told them several time to rest their weary eyeballs. Anyway, she went upstairs crying because she couldn't get an elastic for Ears hair (her stuffed dog) and wrote me this little note.



Let this serve as a reminder to us all to use nicer words.



Yes, I did make her cry tears. Did I feel like crying when I first read it? Uh, yeah. But she can be a tad dramatic and persuasive for a first grader---AND should she have been in bed? Yes. And now this note is funny and will serve as a reminder to use nicer words! Thank you for your teachable moment Love, Nicer Words, Micah. Let us all use nicer words. Looks like you got an elasti for Ears ears after all.

Most Awesome Idea for Christmas Gift

Our secretary, Amee, dropped by to give us a family gift. Check it!



Say what?! It's a Cold Stone Par-tay! She had ice cream, frozen berries and cookie dough, which I put in the freezer, but look at all the details. Marble slab, scooper, sundae bowls, waffle bowls. Even cute little tags on the baggies.



She brought it in a cute drawer she refinished too. Yes, we're keeping her!

Teacher Gift

I had my kids make their teacher a gift to say thanks.  I screen printed something about that teacher onto a flour sack towel and had the kids cross stitch around the design.

Becket's teacher-duck dynasty
Gretchen's teacher- rock climbing
Micah's teacher- Boston

They weren't perfect, but I think that's what makes it even better.

Christmas Mix 2013

It's been our tradition since we were Napster lovin', bandwidth hoggin' bootleggers at SUU to compile the best (IOHO) new and alternative Christmas songs. We used to spend days burning them to CD's, making sleeves and mailing them out, at great expense. Well, since we don't own a CD player anymore, except in our cars (which we have yet to use) we will henceforth distribute said playlist by digital download. It can be downloaded by right clicking on this link and choosing "Save Link As" or however that works on your particular computer. It is a .zip file with 23 tracks in some particular order.  We hope you enjoy it.

PS- If you missed last year's mix, it can be downloaded here. The songs are nearly as fresh and always satisfying.

Dear Deer

For a straight two weeks now my house has been the hub for scoping out deer on the nearby mountain. I think next year I'll make them daily refreshments in exchange for some yard work. There's one in that truck now!

Little recipe for Christmas happiness

ingredients:

gingerbread
royal icing
old Halloween candy
Elf the movie

Happy quoting Harrises with gingerbread wafting. I'm home Santa.





Eat one. Place one. Eat one. Place one.  Eat one. Place one.  Eat one. Place one.  Eat one. Place one.













Cheers!

My Personal Body Guard

Becket decided after the primary program that he needed some sunglasses to be a bodyguard.  He's awesome.

Lists

I love that my daughter loves lists just as much as I do! Now on to my lists.

Thanks

We had a quiet Thanksgiving with family.  I was so happy my mom, brother and his wife, and aunt and cousin could come.  We laughed. We ate. We played. And, we caught up.  Thanks for a memorable feast.







The traditional Dixie Salad Preparations

Fall Fashion

For Fall this season, parents can not leave the house without a child scarf.  They are all the rage!

Skinny Man in A Skinny Coat

Domino Play

These entertained my kids for an hour








It's handy to keep a bowl of dominos in the front room.

Christmas Tree Adventure

Our Christmas tree hunting is always a fun tradition. It's typical, Mat does the hard work, the kids snack and play in and around the car and I watch and help pull the Christmas tree into the trailer when it finally falls. Things were going smoothly in the land of Co-op until it was time to climb out of the valley and go home.......



It had recently snowed and the sun was now shining on the land, which made the earth marshy and squishy.  We had three options to climb out of the valley.  Our first one had a tree blocking our path and it forced us to back down the trailer (not an easy task). The second, we made it up ten yards before peeling out. The 3rd, we tried several times to make it up the first hill with our engine burning only to realize if we couldn't make it up this one, the second hill was much steeper.  We were out of options, unless we decided to cut down the tree blocking path, which we didn't have a chain saw.  How unprepared we were! No chain saw and no winch tool.  We did have our goldfish crackers, which the kids were bickering about now.  I not so quietly turned around and said, "Kids, we are in a desperate situation right now and I don't want to hear about crackers or how bored you are.  You need to start praying that we get home tonight! So, pray!" With that, the kids silenced themselves and began to pray. Gretchen even climbed a tree to get closer to God. I didn't realize that until she called my name from up above.



We came to the conclusion that we were going to have to hand saw that tree blocking our path.  As we got the 1st tree cleared, we walked over the hill to find that 5 more trees had fallen across the road.  I tried to offer to help Mat to cut, but I could not get a rhythm going to even make a line cut in the tree. Mat ended up being our strong man and hero by sawing away all 6 trees.  It was nearing 4pm when we got out. We were passing the mighty fish-stocked lake of the Hoosier. It was that time of day where the rainbow trout start to bite and give you a ride.  Knowing we had a long ride home to Salt Lake, we just had to cast our poles in.









We then had to clean them---Quite the process





We were able to dissect the brain.

Utah's Dixie

You can always count on Southern Utah being nice for the Fall.  You'll get 70 degrees and sunshine.  It was a tad chilly while we were waiting for the sun to warm us, so we stopped for a hot chocolate treat and enjoyed the overview.

We later roamed the hills on the sugar loaf for hours.  We imagined they were our hotels with suites and roof topped swimming pools. I may or may have not checked in to one of their rooms for a quick nap while I basked in the sun.

Care free and frown free.

Moments

Sometimes you have to take time to breathe in these little moments because they exhale so quickly.

Sleeping Mask

Who and why would you want to sleep with this mask?

Greti gets pierced

Soccer is over and Gretchen stated that it was time she got her ears pierced. She was a mature woman now and she thought she could take on another responsibility.  I told her if we did this, she would have to be tough.  She couldn't scream the shops windows out like Becket and me predicted she would do. She lifted her eyebrows to show her elegance and composure and simply said, "I won't." And, she didn't.  Punch! Punch! Done!  She strolled around the store looking for a pair of earrings that would suit her.  I had to grin.  She was just like me at my age.  I wanted the super long, wide,  dazzling earrings. I remember one pair I owned ran down my neck and touched my collar bone. She caressed everyone of them, feathers, hoops, loop-dee-loos. Surprisingly, she went conservative and chose pretty flower studs that I may have to borrow.

Congratulations on your womanhood Gretchen. I'm glad you didn't complain and you will wear your earrings with such confidence and pizazz.

10 Digit Midget!

Scary to think we've been parents for a whole decade now.  Even scarier to think that Becket will be with us just 8 or so more years.  Sad.

Becket is a good kid.  He wants to do the right thing. His moral desire gets the best of him somedays. He solves many of the world's problems over and over in his head throughout the day.  These thoughts tumble around all day long like clothes spinning in a dryer. Lately, he's been stuck on why kids swear or make bad choices to be popular, over consumption of meat,  electric cars, trees being cut down in the Amazon, Boston bombers, snake haters and why magpies have to eat the robin's eggs.  Sometimes that is a lot of stress for one kid to take on, but he's always been a thinker. Maybe an over thinker. Yes indeed.  Don't ask him about how we left him stranded at my cousins baby blessing yesterday.  You'll be opening a 1/2hr conversation on the fear you have not knowing where your family was, why your parents didn't notice you were still in the church parking lot, and possibly how you may never trust your parents again to take care of you.

He's always been happy.  I like that about him most of all.  He goes with the flow and lives in the moment. He was an easy baby to chill with, sometimes so easy that I had to invent some new hobbies for myself because he just hung out and did his thing. He's content drawing for hours or thinking for hours. He's simple and complicated at the same time. He's got dimension.

We decided that being 10 lets him graduate to a big bed.  He's had the same bedding and bed since his younger sister came along.  We thought we'd fix it up a little and prep his room for his teenage years.  He was very gracious and loved designing the video game stickers and his clock.  His room gives him lots of room to display his art.





In the corner photo, you can see that he chose Pizza Pie Cafe for his birthday dinner. Grandma and Grandpa were able to join us too. Always a treat. Especially, the monster cookie.

We love you Becket very much and we're so glad you came to us.

PS

Another hidden talent, this 10yr old stack things! You should watch him with apples.

Halloween 2013

Candy Robber, watch out!



Spa Girl, don't break a nail!



Mad Scientist, run!



Even freakier when he twists his head