The New Year

The first Sunday of each new year at our church is always a bit chaotic. This is when, as a child or youth, you're considered a year older and go to a new class. The Primary room (children's Sunday School) is always the loudest place in the house on this day, as the now three-year olds leave the comfort of nursery and join in the fun. There was no exception today. Lots of crying and howling and general feeling of anxiety, no matter how well prepared the teachers and leaders and parents were.

I'd mentioned to Bode at least a week or more ago about this change. That he'd have a new teacher and some of the same classmates (his age group is so big, there are two classes so i had no idea if his main friends would be in his class). He was cool with it. Didn't seem bothered. And then today came and he decided to be a "little bit scared." Which i told him was fine but that he still had to deal and go.

Doug took him into the madhouse of a Primary room and found his class. Very happily, his two best-buds-of-late are both in his class (yahoo!). He was still dragging his feet and anxious but managed to sit between them (after one of them moved over since Bode told him he had issues sitting next to a girl on the other side. What the?). I peeked in on him during sharing time and he was great.

I had to teach the Young Women today so Doug picked him up from his class. And he was all smiles, both hands full of drawings, wearing a little "Bode" nametag and having positive things to say about his class and his teachers (they have two since the class is still well over 10 kids).

Keegen has one more year in the nursery before he moves on to Primary. Nursery was loud and chaotic at drop-off as well. Keegen briefly covered both ears with his hands before i handed him over the gate to the nursery leader, who seemed relieved to have at least one child who was happy to be there! It's been really fun to watch him in there. He seems to love it. He drew some lovely pictures of his family today and was very proud of that fact.

Christmas Additions

the bell posse

We had two fun additions to our family for Christmas this year--namely Trevor and Bethany. They made the drive over the mountains and through the plains (BORING WYOMING) to spend their Christmas with us.

The boys anticipated their arrival with such excitement. We should have had a Christmas Countdown just for that! Daily reminders were given by Bode of how-many-more-days-until-Uncle-Trevor-and-Aunt-Bethany-arrive...

And they were not disappointed. They arrived and Trevor was the new favorite playmate. He very kindly obliged and played nearly constantly with the boys. I'm pretty sure they wore him out.

The weather was super-cold, so our favorite visit to the Garden of the Gods was out. But they made it to the zoo. And we spent a morning at Pump it Up (an indoor inflatable playground of sorts). There was a huge amount of food consumed--cheese and chocolate fondues, cheese soup in bread bowls, spiral ham and rolls, gingerbread waffles, eggs benedict...Gotta love the holidays. A nice excuse to truly "indulge" (our family motto in the kitchen).

The boys LOVE their new light sabers gifted by Trev and Bethany and play with them a ton. Doug had to go get one of his own to join in the fun! (Hey! That rhymed!). They go nicely with the SuperBode and SuperKeegen capes we got them, too.


As a send off on their way back to Utah, we had a marshmallow gun war at the playground and a meal at Chili's. Hugs were given and away they went.

Thanks for sharing your Christmas with us!

Christmas Favorites

My favorite tradition this year? Hands down, the Christmas book countdown. It was a wonderful addition to our usual routines. Everyday after lunch and before Keegen's nap, the boys would take turns opening that day's book. It was so fun to have new books and i was really happy with a lot of the selections. I tried to have a balance between fun, Santa-type books and those that talked about Jesus and the reason we celebrate Christmas. I loved it. The boys loved it. It will definitely be a tradition in our house from here on out.

My favorite books of the 19? Mortimer's Christmas Manger. Loved it. Follow the Star was wonderful. And Santa's Favorite Story was a pleasant surprise. The classics we loved? Merry Christmas, Curious George. Olivia Helps with Christmas. The Polar Express. And, the Grinch. There were four that i will most likely replace before next year.


This was a neat year in that it was so easy and fun to teach the boys about Christ's birth and the Christmas story. All of the wonderful books we read fostered their learning. We'd drive through the neighborhood looking at lights and Bode asked about Joseph and Mary when he saw a nativity in a neighbor's yard. It was fun to have peppered through everyday conversation teachings about Jesus and why we celebrate Christmas. It was a more natural way to continue laying the foundation for the boys to better understand that Christ is their Savior. It wasn't forced or planned in any elaborate way. It just happened easily.


Grandma Alicia sent the boys a Christmas advent she made that we "opened" every morning. She had a stuffed animal at the top and hanging down from the animal were an assortment of treats, each individually wrapped in green plastic wrap for each day. Little candies, toy cars, Christmas pencils and erasers. So the boys got to start their day with a treat (when it wasn't a piece of candy, they got the gift from the advent and then got to pick a candy out of the candy bowl). It will be a rude awakening when they realize that eating candy before breakfast will not be a tradition we will continue throughout the year. We will have to continue some sort of fun advent like this for next Christmas, though.


Oh. And jammies. I do love our Christmas jammie tradition. They don them and we get cute shots of them in front of the tree. This year we actually got a picture of the whole family reading our final Christmas book in front of the tree. I meant to get a pic of all of us in front of the tree Christmas morning, but i forgot.

Christmas Day

I was awakened at 5:30am by a yelling, screaming 2 1/2 year old--"Mommy, I'm a-waaaaaake! Mommy, I'm a-waaaaaake!" 5:30am? Not too bad on Christmas morning, really. There have been times in our marriage, pre-children, that Doug hasn't slept AT ALL due to his own excitement. He's mellowed a bit and this year fell asleep around 2am and got up at 6. Why 6? Because that was when Keegen started ringing the huge jingle bell after saying, "I want to wake everyone up!" RING RING RING! "I want to wake everyone up!" RING RING RING!

And, not so surprisingly, that did the trick. Doug came up. Trevor next. Then Bode. And last, Bethany.

Keegen asked for popcorn when he woke up, so i was busy making that (in my Whirly Pop. Yum) as everyone descended the stairs. We started the day with popcorn and orange julius, power-food to get us through the opening of presents...

This was a really fun year for Christmas around here. The boys are both old enough now to be super-excited about EVERYTHING. Gift opening was no exception. They were thrilled with it all--the GeoTrax airport (an addition to their remote control trains) (OH! the GASP they let out when they saw it!), the light sabers, the Hot Wheels set Bode's been asking for , the Duplo firestation and helicopter. The adults were spoiled too. We finished off with my favorites, the stockings. Growing up, stockings were my favorite, too. My mom, er, uh, Santa, always filled them with fun little gifties--pads of paper, earrings, lip gloss; etc. Santa filled the boys with markers, a coloring book, Hot Wheels trucks and cars and, of course, candy.

We then made our traditional eggs benedict breakfast and settled in to play with the new toys. We went to an early showing of Despereaux--a tradition in my family to see a movie on Christmas. The boys enjoyed it although Rat World was uber-creepy and Keegen wailed, "Mommy, I'm SCARED!" on two occasions. But it was a cute flick.

We enjoyed hanging out the rest of the day. I got a brief but lovely nap. And then we ate tasty ham and rolls in the evening. Perfect.

Winter Fun & Christmas Wishes

We got about a foot of snow earlier this week. Doug and the boys got out there yesterday to build snowpeople in the very heavy, wet, melting snow. Perfect for snowpeops. (Oh. And no worries. We're getting DUMPED on as i write this. Never lacking in the white stuff around here). I especially like the snowman with two carrot noses. Nice touch.

We have an ornament that holds letters for Santa--a cute little red, cylindrical thing. We had the boys sit down and write what they wanted most from Santa. Can you read what Bode wrote? We're still trying to decipher Keegen's request...

O Tannenbaum

We got our Christmas tree last night. When we moved to Colorado, i had intentions of taking advantage of the cut-your-own option in the national forest. I thought that would be a stellar tradition. But. In reality. It just hasn't happened yet. Much easier to head to the little family-owned and operated tree farm that's about 10 minutes up the road.

We got there and Bode stated his intention to find the tallest one EVER. He did. We looked at the price tag and decided we didn't have enough ornaments to fill the tree. So our search continued...
We stick to the frasier firs, so that limited our options and made it an easier decision. We found a lovely 7-footer and called it our own. The guys working there made a fresh cut and loaded it on top of Doug's car. We enjoyed a little cider near the firepit and called it a success.

This morning, Doug was kind enough to get the lights on the tree. Did you know rubbing olive oil on your hands takes the sap right off? That was a happy discovery. Then the boys decorated the tree. And even though they did a great job, we will be redistributing the ornaments later tonight...

My Monkeys

We picked up a swing at IKEA last April when we were in Utah. And it has sat in the packaging in the basement ever since. Doug decided to hang it up last night and oh what fun they are having!

I don't think we'll ever want to finish the basement at this rate. Where would we put the bounce castle? The tents? Tunnels? Punching bag? And now the swing? (and for that matter, where would i put all of our miscellaneous crap? Where would i throw the stuff i don't know what to do with blindly down the stairs?). Not to mention they can ride their bikes and scooters down there in the winter (which is fast approaching!).

Our old king-sized mattress has come in handy (and the nicely padded walls!). Now if Keegen could just remember to NOT stand up right after he falls off since the swing is still swinging...