Utah or Bust!

The day after Christmas, we said goodbye to Nana and Papa Z, goodbye to the great Northwest, and headed out on our journey to our new home: Utah! Considering the fact that we spent 15 hours of driving time in a very cramped (see below) van, I was amazed at how well the boys did on our road trip. Hank and Max watched movie after movie and were kept content with a disgusting amount of gas station goodies, while Ben mostly snoozed the whole way.

 Moving. It was total madness. End of story. Goodbye.

Unloading, hauling, and unpacking three 28 foot trailers full of boxes, pianos, furniture, and equipment in just two days. Sheesh! I was exhausted just watching the whole process from the sidelines!

A week and a half later and our house is beginning to feel operational, but we still have walls to paint, pictures to hang, closets to organize, and furniture to buy (ok, Aaron, if I must ;)

In one of our more adventurous (if not down right crazy) decisions, we bought our house in Utah sight unseen! Definately not my recommended home-purchasing method, but we did what we had to do, and I think our new house is starting to feel like Home Sweet Home!

Christmas Memories

Christmas Eve:
We spent our Christmas at Nana and Papa Z's house, joined by Uncle Adam and Aunt Brittany. Christmas Eve was a glorious day of relaxation, feasting and indulgence, and family time. Though perhaps a little untraditional, we began Christmas Eve at the bouncy house, knowing that the boys would go bananas if they didn't drain a little energy. Afterwards, the preparations for the feast began, and since there really was no good reason to hold off on partaking of our feast--we didn't! Luckily for me, I take the "eating for two" expression literally, so I ate my helping and this baby's helping of goodies. While the boys worked on a gingerbread house, last minute gifts were wrapped. We played games, the boys performed Christmas songs that we had been practicing together all week, the Christmas story was read, and then....Presents! As a compromise of our competing family traditions, the boys opened their gifts from each other and from Nana and Papa Z, having to wait until Christmas morning to open the gifts from Mom and Dad and Santa Claus.

Christmas Day:
The boys woke up on Christmas morning to find that Santa had left them exactly what they had each asked for: a Lightening McQueen scooter (Hank) and a new garbage truck (Max). Max was so happy with his garbage truck, he didn't have any interest in opening his other gifts, and was very annoyed at having to be bothered with unwrapping his other presents. Hank took the upwrap-first-assess-later approach and tore through his presents hardly stopping to discover what he'd received. Needless to say, they were very spoiled, and very happy. Hank's favorite present was his Lego Trio building set; Max most enjoyed his Pizza Playdough; and Ben was just happy to be in the mix.

Ben modeling his new firetruck jammies!

Max so happy that he hugged his new toy.

These pictures were taken, and this post is written, in the hopes of preserving our family memories during our Christmas celebration. But if the boys don't remember a single gift that they received, a single toy that Santa brought, I hope that they will remember that little baby that was born in a manger long ago, who offers us the greatest gift of all, eternal life through His great Atonement. 

Roseburg Fun

While I wouldn't really call the past few months a "vacation," per se, it has been FABULOUS to have Aaron at home. Except for the lack of income part, I could really get used to having Aaron around! During the week before Christmas that we spent together at Nana and Papa Z's house in Roseburg, we took the boys to the bouncy place/art center, went bowling and to the arcade, went shopping and ate lunch at Mickey D's (well, its a treat for the boys, anyway), visited the animals at the wildlife safari, played Bingo most every night, tortured (I mean "played") with my parent's little dog, played with Nana and Papa Z, worked on Christmas projects, baked treats, went to the park--even in the freezing cold, watched the Adventures of Tin Tin at the movie theatre, wrestled with Uncle Adam, and built a gingerbread house with Aunt Brittany. Boy, its going to be such a let down for the boys when Aaron goes back to work, we return to our everyday normal routine, and the boys are stuck with me!

Jolly Old St. Nick

If you don't look super close, it almost looks like Ben is really enjoying himself on Santa's knee and just laughing it up, right? Wrong-o! As soon as I placed Ben on Santa's lap, Ben instantly burst into tears. Initially, I tried to distract him with a game of "peek-a-boo" but he quickly launched into full on blue-in-the-face meltdown mode, so I knew there was no hope of getting a photo of three smiling boys. I had the photographer take the picture quickly, and then rescued poor Ben. Two out of three--close enough:)

"She's a beaut, Clark!"

I'm just going to go ahead and say it. It's a sad, sad little Christmas tree...if you can call it that. Sorry, Mom, but it's the truth. When we told the boys on Sunday that we were going to decorate the Christmas tree, I think they were a little confused when, instead of heading to the farm, tromping through the forrest, and chopping down our beautiful twelve-foot live noble, Aaron brought down a small dusty box from the storage room and proceeded to pull out a crumpled, artificial "tree." Looking at the boys' puzzled expressions while Aaron "built" our tree, and then exclaimed, "She's a beaut, Clark!" (name that movie), I literally burst into hysterical laughter. But, you know what? For the first time ever, I think the boys really did have a great time decorating the tree! Since I couldn't care less about styling the tree just right or making it look just so, we just let the boys go to town with it and decorate it as they please. Put a third ornament on that same branch? Sure! Go ahead. Now I'm not saying I'm going to convert to the artificial tree and let the boys go willy-nilly with tinsel any time again soon, but maybe next year I won't get quite so caught up in making the tree just so, and let the boys join in on the decorating fun, too.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Christmas may be my very most favorite time of the year...the much anticipated trip to the tree farm to cut down our tree followed by a family tree-trimming party, decking our house with Christmas decorations inside and sparkling lights outside, and all the cozy nights enjoying family time, creating memories and enjoying traditions. Well...being that we're entirely homeless this month (visiting our Nana and Papa before we make our way to Utah), all of our possessions are currently being stored in a trailer 1000 miles away, Aaron spent the past three weeks out of town (leaving the boys and I to make our own fun), and the flu bug has already circulated once...this hasn't been the most traditional of Christmases. Bound and determined to make this Christmas-time special, despite our unique circumstances, the boys and I have been busy all month long with Christmas festivities:

What would Christmas be without baking? The boys got to help their Nana Grover make Christmas sugar cookies--good practice for our day 'o baking soon to come!

Our family was visited this year by one of Santa's elves, whom we named Donald. Donald has the special job of watching the happenings around the house all day long, and then reporting back to the North Pole at night to help Santa determine whether or not the boys make it on the "Nice List." Each morning, we find that Donald has been up to some little antics while we've been sleeping: snacking on milk and cookies, reading Christmas books, or riding the kids' train.

Here is one of the many little Christmas craft projects the boys and I have been working on together: handprint-reindeer that we mailed to my grandparents for Christmas cards. I'm going to turn those boys into crafters whether they like it or not! Right now, its looking like not.

We cap off most nights with a little treat (brownie sundaes are the favorite) and a family game of Uno or Bingo.

We are soooo happy to have Daddy back home!

A few other fun things we've been up to:

• Carroling - Hank and Max LOVED going carroling!
• Christmas parties
• Polar Express Party with our best buddies....miss you guys already!
• Making snowflakes and painting homemade ornaments
• Service Project
• Reading Christmas stories every night before bed
• Watching Christmas movies - makes me laugh to hear the boys quote "Home Alone"

Ironically, I anticipated that I was going to have to work extra hard to make this Christmas special and create that magical Christmas spirit since we are without our home, our tree, and our belongings...but, it turns out, maybe Christmas isn't about any of those things after all! The perfect Christmas means simply being with the ones you love most, and that is what makes this my most favorite time of the year.

Hank's First School Pictures - Kindergarten 2011

And so it begins....the annual school pictures. Boy, I can think of some school pictures of my own that I wouldn't mind accidentally burning....say, like years 9 through 13. I cringe to think of some of my hairstyles (bangs?! really??) and outfits. But, nonetheless, those photos are priceless--humiliating, but priceless--as they capture my progression from childhood to adolescence. So, it is now Hank's turn to mark his journey with the annual school picture:

What a cutie! Hankie, I promise you, I will always do my best to send you to school on picture day in a clean outfit, with combed hair, and hopefully your school pictures will be more kind to you than they were to me:)