Christmas 2009

Christmas this year was a blast! RB and I were up waiting for the kids to wake. They didn't wake up till 8:30. MJ was the first to wake and the first words out of her mouth was, "Daddy, you said I could have a cinnamon roll when I woke up." She decided presents first was a good idea and so she went and woke up Lil. MJ didn't think Santa came because there were no presents under our upstairs tree. Then when she came down stairs she realized Santa came to the other tree. She and Lil opened Santa gifts first and then we open the gifts to each other that were already under the tree. RB got a Harry Potter book and CD, as well as two extensions to Race for the Galaxy. I got a new camera and am so happy because our old one was dying fast. MJ and Lil loved opening their gifts and true to our word we had cinnamon rolls after for breakfast before getting ready for the day.


Here are their Christmas Eve PJ's and we decided to give them their new blankets too since MJ already found them in our closet. We are going to have to hide gifts better next year from MJ.


MJ's face was so funny here. She was not happy that Grandma and pa Boyer gave her a garbage truck for Christmas. It is remote controlled but that did not matter until RB got it out and put the batteries in. Then her and Lil played with them and had a great time.



This year we went to RB's families home for dinner. It was a lot of fun. We ate a ton of food, talked a lot, and opened more family gifts. RB's sister and husband had us this year and their gift to me was awesome. It was a white elephant gift that they had gotten the night before but I didn't care. This gift was awesome and totally perfect for me!

I got a Rat Trap!!!


Dancing with the singing tree at Grandmas home.



After we went to the Roper household and enjoyed the company of friends while playing some games. It was a great day and a wonderful Christmas filled with family and friends! One of the best things about this Christmas break is the girls have been sleeping in till 8am every morning. It has been heavenly. Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Cheer

This Christmas season has been great. RB and I just finished our masters class and now have two weeks off before our 8th of 10 classes starts. We have enjoyed our time off and being together as a family. Lil is becoming such a tease. It is great. We also have seen many Christmas angels this year with people filled with Christmas joy and giving.


RB has finally convinced MJ that it would not be a good thing for me to kiss Santa. She heard the song "I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus" and told RB that I should do that. Pretty funny!

The other night my sister was talking. MJ wanted to talk too and so I passed the phone off. MJ was such a hoot I had to record her with her sass of an attitude. MJ kept telling my sister, "You don't know what I'm talking about do you?" She talked about decorating two Christmas trees and one falling over on her. She just went on and on until finally I demanded to have my phone back so I could talk. Here is a video clip of MJ on the phone. It's pretty funny how she has her hand on her hip and everything.



The last day of school for me was a tear jerker. I had a parent ask if the school was doing anything for struggling families because they were not going to have a good Christmas this year. I told her not that I know of. I talked to my principal and she told me to get the students clothes sizes and things. So I had a student help me out and get the sizes that I needed. My principal went out and bought a ton of clothes and other things for my student and their sibling that I had last year. I took the two big boxes into my room and set them down on my desk. My students were awed and were asking who they were for. I told them they were left in the office for this student. When this student heard their name their head popped up and they were amazed. They commented, "Every year I see kids giving presents to each other and I never get anything. But this year I get a big box." My student was amazed and would just stare at the boxes as the day went on. After school I walked outside with this student to help them carry the boxes and make sure their ride came like I called and asked them too. Mom was so overjoyed and threw her arms around me. She couldn't stop thanking me. Dad was very grateful as well. I wish I could take credit for buying the gifts. I can't, but I'm glad I was the one who got to pass on the presents and see the joy in their eyes for a Christmas they wouldn't of had otherwise!

Last night we decided to go see the Willard Bay lights. We needed cash back and so we stopped in at Walmart to get a treat and some cash before seeing the lights. While we were walking we went around a corner and a guy pushing a little boy in a chart stopped and gave RB a hand shake. We had no idea who this man was and was very confused at the whole exchange. When they broke the shake some money fell on the ground. The man goes, "Oh you dropped something," and was off like nothing had happened. It was a $10 bill. We were able to buy our Twizzlers and have the $7 to see the lights. It was awesome. While driving through the lights MJ kept talking about seeing Santa and sitting on his lap. So we got out and walked to where Santa was. Of course MJ would have nothing to do with him but I sat on Santa's lap with Lil. Lil did not know what to think but at least we got one kid on Santa's lap. Maybe next year it will go better. Lil didn't seem to like these lights as well as the other nights lights but that is okay. We had a great night.







I can't wait to read the Christmas story tonight in Luke, open the girls PJ's (shhh, they don't know) and wait for Santa to come. MJ has been a blast this year with Santa coming and her advent calendar with her special guest each day. Merry Christmas everyone!

My Awesome Weekend!

My loving sister informed me of how lame my last Sundays post was. I thought I was being clever and festive...I guess not. So I will try to do better this post! Love you Chel!

My weekend started on Friday night by going to the temple with RB. I absolutely love the Logan temple! I love being inside and the peaceful feeling I have while there, not caring about worldly things. My kids were in good hands and I had no worries. I also had time to ponder just how much I love my life and everything about it. I love my family, I love being with my family, and I'm love the fact that I get to be with them for all eternity. I love it!

Sat. was finally a lazy day for us. RB got sick last weekend and so it was not a good one for us. We did some homework, played with the girls, and relaxed. It was also good because I went to clean up the toy room and my AMAZING b-sitter had already done it for me the night before. It looked really good too!! Sat. night just got better. We went to Crystal Hot Springs (A giant hot tub) with some friends. It felt so good to relax in hot water and the girls had so much fun. It completely wore them out and they zonked out on the the way home.

Today has been great. Church was great and our Bishop talked about how their are two types of angels. Ones sent to help us from the other side of the veil, and ones living today. We need to be others angels! After church, naps, and a delicious dinner made by RB of roast and potatoes we made cookies.







The girls loved it and had a lot of fun! After we decided to go look at Christmas lights. After we had driven around for awhile we went home and as we pulled into the driveway Lil started to yell, "No mum go. Mum go." She did not want to come home yet and since MJ was okay with it we went and looked at more lights. At one house Lil goes, "Santa, ho-ho-ho." It was cute. When we got home Lil said her longest sentence yet, "Mini (which translate to Miri, since she doesn't say her r's yet) drink empty now." I wish I had cute saying from MJ too but she zonked out on the second trip of lights.

Now we are home and the girls are in bed. It has been a great weekend and one of the good things is only two days next week! YEA! Hope you all have a great week and a very Merry Christmas!!

My Sunday so Far

1- hour shoveling
2- school chapter still not read
3- family members sleeping in till 8:30
4- hours of church (with choir practice)
5- unread e-mails
6- village homes surrounded by snow
7- minutes to think of this
8- hours of sleep
9- potatoes boiling
10- freezing toes
11- aching muscles
12- ribs a cooking

Hope you are having a great Sunday!

Griswold's Family Adventure Continues

Sat. after we made it home from our tree cutting we put the tree in the stand. Sunday after church we started to decorate. We got the boards set up, the lights put on, the ornaments up, and we started to put out the village to go underneath. I had a meeting that night and was just getting my coat on when the tree fell over on MJ. MJ is fine and was just a little scared.



Needless to say with ornaments everywhere and some being broken I was not going to leave RB with two girls alone. So the girls came with me to my meeting while RB put reinforcing stakes around the trunk so it wouldn't tip over again.



When I got home we got to redecorate the tree and put the lights back on the branches. This picture is of the tree half decorated.



We have had no more tree incidences since then. YEA! And hopefully we won't have any more! We are still enjoying the holiday spirit. MJ and Lil have advent calendars with little chocolates for every day. Every day MJ says, "Who is our special guest today?" Then she gets really excited when she figures it out it's Santa, or a bell, or whatever it is for the day. They also enjoy taking turns to move the mouse closer in the countdown calendar hanging on the wall. Have a great day!

Griswold's Family Adventure

Yesterday was quite the day. After cleaning the church we went to cut down our Christmas tree. We got everything loaded into our jeep and off we went. We were headed up the mountain our jeep began to act really funny. It was like it was not getting enough gas and it wouldn't shift into gear. We slowly lost speed and decided not to go in the jeep. We turned around and BARELY made it home and into the driveway. I'm so thankful we did though.

RB decided we should go up in our Scion. You have to understand yesterday was a snow storm off and on all day. The plan was to head into town and we would see from there what we were going to do. So we unloaded the jeep and put everything into the Scion and we were off again. RB's parents live over the mountain and so we stopped there. They have a jeep that runs much better than ours. We once again unloaded everything into their jeep and left our Scion. Once again we were off into the storm to find a tree.

We were feeling very happy that we had made it and MJ was really excited that we were in the forest and almost there. RB suddenly exclaims, "We forgot to grab the saw at my parents home!" Sure enough we had no saw, but we did have a shovel. Once there we got bundled up (IT WAS FREEZING) and headed out. The girls did really good and loved making animal noises.

Finally, we found a tree that we both liked. Good thing too because by then Lil was tired of walking around and was screaming because her hands were cold. RB had already given his gloves to MJ because her gloves got cold, and so I gave Lil mine. After that was taken care of we began whacking the tree. I would have pictures of this too but my cell phone died. Oh yea, in the last switch over of vehicles I forgot to grab the camera out of the car. Anyways, RB gives the tree about 20 good whacks and I'm pulling the tree on the other side trying to get it to break. We switched and I give it some good whacks. RB then puts all his weight into pushing the tree and if gave breaking off. YEA, we didn't need a saw, even though it would have been much easier.


After we got the tree we headed back to the jeep. The girls rode in the sled for about 5 min. and walked the rest of the time. Hopefully next year they will ride in the sled more.








Once the tree was on the jeep and we were loaded up RB went to start the jeep. After what felt like about 2 minutes RB finally gets the jeep to start. We are so glad we were not stranded on the mountain and we headed home. Back at RB's parents home we had a decision to make. Take the jeep home and come back for the Scion, take both home and return the jeep another day, or the winner put the tree in the Scion and leave the jeep. Since we were with the Scion again I grabbed the camera to take a pic. of this. However, the camera batteries were dead. By this time I was so sick of trying to take pictures I gave up. So RB and I wrapped the tree up in a blanket and tied it up. We put down one seat and shoved the tree in the car. With the tip of the tree all the way up to the front RB only had to cut a little of the trunk off. We moved everything one more time back into the Scion, got the door shut with the girls buckled up, and headed home.

We definitely had a Griswold adventure and it was great to get home and the car unloaded AGAIN. Today we are going to decorate the tree. This will definitely be an adventure we will not forget anytime soon!

Have a great day!