Cookies For Santa

 After opening our pajamas and movies, we decorated cookies for Santa. I felt bad for him because of the obscene amounts of frosting and sprinkles that ended up on Marian's cookies. I think she ate just as much!:

Christmas Eve movie:

Way Back

Since the rest of our February looks pretty quiet (aside from Marian starting preschool!), I wanted to take some time to document Christmas and January happenings! I know it's so late, but if I don't blog about it, I won't remember it. I've got the worst memory.

A new tradition we've started is giving the kids jammies and a movie on Christmas Eve. 

 He's just happy to be up so late!

 I wish they were all in matching Christmas pajamas, but I knew Chris would think Transformers are way cooler:

 There's nothing sweeter than your kids in cute pajamas! 

Valentines

Dear Chris,
You have been the rock in our home lately. While your brother and sister seem to be having some growing pains with the move and everything new, you are the one to make them laugh or distract them during a tantrum. You keep talking about our new adventure and how excited you are to make new friends. And you're doing it! I loved watching you sit up so straight and tall and quiet in church yesterday, trying to be reverent. You're such a good example to your siblings and to me! I love that your favorite book is the Book of Mormon, and that you carry it with you wherever you go, and that you ask me several times a day to read to you from it. I hope you know that it makes a big difference in my day when I get to read a few verses with you here and there. I hope your love for that book grows as you grow! You're sensitive and caring. You know when someone needs you and you love to make your dad and me happy. And we are always happy with you, no matter what. I love you! Happy Valentine's Day!
Love, Mom

Dear Marian,
As always, you are my bundle of energy and independence. Sometimes I look at you and think, where on earth did you come from?! You don't do anything you don't want to do. When I ask you to do something, your automatic response is an emphatic "no!" Although I'm exasperated by it, I want you to know that secretly, deep down, I love it. I love knowing that your independence is a gift. That you won't be persuaded to do things that your friends might be doing because you don't want to and you don't care what they think. I know that once you've chosen to stay on the right path, nobody will be able to take you away from it.  As much as you are independent, you are loving and caring. You carry your squinkies and littlest pet shop pets around like they're baby birds, so delicately and dotingly. You love to play "doctor" so you can make all of us feel better (while your brother plays "bad doctor" and gives everyone shots but refuses to give us the bandaids!) I love watching you sing and dance your way around the house, which you've been doing much more of since you started Primary. I love seeing you be so brave in there even though I know you're scared to go- you love to look at Chris sitting right behind you and it makes you feel better. I love you so much! You are the apple of your daddy's eye (and mine too!). Happy Valentine's Day!
Love,
Mom

Dear JB,
If I have ever prayed for patience, you have been the answer to that prayer. There are days when you are the best little baby, and then you have other days that are so bad that they make me forget the good ones. I can see that you are growing out of your mood swings, though. (It doesn't help that we just pulled you away from all of your familiar surroundings! Sorry, buddy.) You haven't been banging your head on the floor as much, or trying to throw yourself out of my arms. I love that you're learning to communicate with me- maybe that was the whole problem in the first place! I just couldn't understand what you were trying to tell me. I'm a little slow on the baby talk...I love listening to you say "please" and "thank you". You are so polite! I love when you throw your little arms around me and hug me. You love to be cheek to cheek with me while I whisper and talk to you in your ear. I love to tell you over and over all of the things that are special about you. You'll pull back and give me the biggest grin-you have the best little grin!- and then go right back to squeezing and listening to me. Your brother always tells me he doesn't want you to grow up because you're so cute right now, and I agree with him. It doesn't get much cuter than you. I love you! Happy Valentine's Day!
Love,
Mom

Dear John,
I'm sitting here in our new house with boxes still unpacked and clutter everywhere, figuring out how to squeeze all of our stuff into a smaller house, and I'm still waiting for the moment to come when I feel like I want to turn around and go home. It hasn't come yet, and it's safe to say that it never will. I've been waiting to feel like we've made a huge mistake, like we were crazy to come here! But as soon as those thoughts come into my mind, they're replaced with a sweet feeling of peace- knowing that this is exactly what our family needed. It's amazing to me that even as we make the harder choice, we can have that peace. I love that you love your new job. I love that you're less stressed and you're home for dinner every night. I love when we talk at night and you tell me how happy you are. I love watching you be our kids' dad. You do such a great job. I wish you could see how excited they get when they hear you pulling up. I get excited too! Everything just feels right when you come home. It doesn't matter to me where our house is, because wherever you are feels like home to me. I love you so much! Happy Valentine's Day,
Love,
Em

Things I've Learned

If you haven't heard through the grapevine yet, in one week our family is moving to Denver, Colorado. John got a great job opportunity and we knew it was the right thing for him to take the job. Since Christmas, my life has been a whirlwind of tears, packing, cleaning, throwing out, tears, scavenging for boxes, saying some goodbyes, and more tears. Late last night I was staring at the ceiling (making a list of things I still have to do!) when I started thinking about everything I've learned since the day we decided to move:
1. We have way too much stuff. I've taken three carloads of "stuff" to DI and I've got another one ready to go. I just keep thinking, why haven't I done this sooner?! It feels so good to come home with an empty trunk. I thought I'd be more attached to our things, but I've become pretty heartless when it comes to what makes it into a box for the moving truck. 
2. Cleaning is way easier. Now that 75% of our things is sitting in boxes in the garage, cleaning my house has been a breeze. I had a hard time keeping up with a big house- something always needed to be cleaned/dusted/vacuumed. I'm actually excited for a downsize because that means less for me to clean. Plus, our family doesn't need the size we have now! The only downside: our rent in the new house is a lot more than our mortgage was here. It's a little disheartening to go back to renting for a while.
3. Kids need their dad (and I need him too). Since John had to leave right away to start his new job, the bulk of the move has landed on me. I like to procrastinate as much as possible....but I think that would have been a bad idea with so much to do. Anyway, I've felt really guilty about the kids because I am so busy with packing, etc. And trust me, Marian lets me know that she can sense the change in the air. She may not understand that we're moving, but she knows John is gone and it's like a switch went off. No matter what I say, her response is "noooooo!!!" and also includes foot stomping and crying and earsplitting screams. I love that girl so much, and the nicest thing I can say is thank you Marian, for teaching me patience!
4. You can never have too many boxes. I can't believe how fast we go through them! My mom and I  went to Macey's just about every day while she was here and got a cartload each time. It's getting harder and harder to park in the garage while they're getting stacked up.
5. I love our family. (This is where the tears part comes in). We are so, so, blessed by our family. I'm so grateful for the help and advice and support we've been given. We owe an extra big thank you to Jeff and Suz who flew John back for the weekend. You wouldn't believe how much we can get done when we work together over a quick weekend! Another big thank you goes to my mom, who got on a plane when I told her I needed her and stayed with me for TEN days. If she hadn't come I think my kids would have died of malnutrition, boredom, or any other accident that could have happened while I wasn't paying attention. She saved me!
6. I've had stuff of other people's for a LONG time. I'm so sorry if you let us borrow a movie or book and are just getting it back now, maybe 2 or 3 years later. 
7. I love my house. I had no idea how much I would grow to love my house. I brought all of my babies home here. We've knocked down walls, built new ones, replaced floors, redone our kitchen, added a fireplace, painted and repainted...I try to remember that the memories stay with me, but when I look around my emptying house it breaks my heart! We have had so many good times here.
8. Prayers are answered. When I knew for sure that we were moving, I cried all the time. I cried going to the grocery store, at night in bed, at church, dropping Chris off at preschool. I got on my knees and prayed and pleaded that I would feel good and excited about this move. I already knew it was the right thing to do, but it was still too hard. My prayers were answered so fast! I'm still sad that we're leaving, but I'm happy. I'm excited about a new adventure. I can't wait to explore new places and meet new people. (This doesn't even sound like the normal me at all!) I'm so grateful for the blessing of answered prayers. 
Here's to another week of packing, craziness, tears, and finally having our family back together!

Gingerbread Houses

We had our playgroup over to make gingerbread houses before Christmas. It's easy to get stir-crazy during the long winter here so I love having a group of moms I can call to get together! We don't get to talk as much as we'd like because of a dozen screaming kids, but we have fun and it's nice to have a change of pace. My friend had the genius idea of hot gluing the houses together beforehand, and then letting the kids decorate them. It worked like a charm! 

JB's job: pick up any dropped candy and eat it. He gets in A+.

Christmas Lights

We decided to forgo the temple lights this year and stayed local, going to the Riverwoods to see their lights and find something fun to do. With three little kids, we thought this was such a perfect place! They loved the lights but the night was so much better with stores to run into and get warm. We met up with some of our favorite people for the night:

Inside the fun toy store, Blickenstaffs:

Riding the carousel at the Provo Beach Resort:

They each got to play one game:

Eating Bluebell ice cream:

Chris was loving Molly that night!

Poor Chris- he had great smiles for the other (blurry) pictures and obviously not for this one:

Elza did us a favor and completely wore them out at the end of the night- they love her!

It's not always easy to bundle up three little kids and a wimpy husband for a night out in the cold, but I think they felt the magic of the season like I did :)

Nativity

I have such a hard time blogging while we're on vacation, and of course it just hangs over my head until I've gotten home, settled in, and then I finally get started again! I'm so excited to get caught up and write about all the memories we've made. Before I start on our road trip/Texas Christmas, I have to talk about all the fun we had before the holiday! 

First, Chris got to play Joseph in his preschool's Nativity. Can I say how grateful I am that Chris has a teacher who not only celebrates Christmas, but who teaches the kids about the Nativity? Chris was so excited to be Joseph. We read the story together and talked about the kind of man Joseph was, and how he acted. I think Chris felt pretty special. 

After the Nativity, on came the Santa hats along with some fun songs and poems. While they were singing "Jingle Bells" Santa came and surprised them! The looks on their little faces were so cute! I have a video  of the program so I'll post it soon.

Chris' biggest fans were there cheering him on:

I'm so grateful for a great preschool and the chance our family had to support Chris while he showed off his hard work!

Little Dancer

Marian's been taking dance lessons for a few months now, as anyone who has talked to her during that time will know! She tells everyone from family to the lady at Walmart that she's in dance class and learns tap, ballet, and jazz. On Saturday they had a little Christmas recital for family in their studio. It was so cute! Some girls were a little shy, some really enthusiastic, and Marian was about in between. In the first video below, you'll see she was a little hesitant with so many people watching her, but she warmed up by the end. She has loved going to dance. I hope it's something she'll choose to stick with!

She's the tallest one, in the middle:

I laugh every time I see this picture of Chris- love his bored, crazy looking eyes! He was done after about 15 minutes...