Christmas 2010

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. We got plenty of yummy treats from our friends, we got to spend time together, and my kids didn't get too spoiled. :)

Here's Mason opening his new car toy. We hope it keeps him from screaming when we go in the car at night.Me and the boys opening up some fun books from Grandma Jensen.Jensen excitedly opening presents.Carson got his "Hamm" piggy bank.All the boys helping Mason with a new shirt from Grandma Brudnicki.Ahhh, some quiet Christmas coloring fun.This is Jensen and his prize winning catch. (Thanks Uncle Jason.)And lastly, Mason gave us all a Christmas present. He started making this hilarious face during dinner and we're still cracking up every time he does it!Thanks to all our family who sent us gifts. We love them all. Hope you had a Merry Christmas, too.

Baby's First Christmas

Mr. Mason is officially 4 months old. Yeah, I know he looks like a 7 month old, but whatev. We weighed him last night and he's now at a whopping 17 lbs! He really likes sitting in your lap so that he can see everything that's going on. He's also getting good at grabbing objects in front of him and trying to roll over.What he's not so good at- sleeping through the night. About a week ago he stopped nursing at night. Now, instead of sleeping for 5 hours before waking up to eat, I'm up constantly with him. Not really sure what this is about, but I'm hoping it's a short lived phase so that I can go back to getting SOME kind of sleep. Other than the not sleeping at night, he's great. Fat and sassy, I believe is the correct term. :)

Ho, Ho, How do you keep your kids busy?

I really love that Jensen and Carson both go to Mother's Day Out. It makes it possible for me to do so many things. Plus, they get to do all sorts of fun things when they are there. So since they're off for the Christmas break, I decided to step it up and do some fun things at home, too.

The boys helped me with a YW's activity by testing out some graham cracker "gingerbread" houses. I was my typical control freak self, hence the reason it looks like I did it, but as I said, I was working on an activity. We have plenty of leftovers, so making some more "free-spirited" houses are on the agenda for this weekend.I've also been encouraging them to actually play with their toys (instead of destroying everything in the house that is NOT a toy.) So we made Lego Christmas trees. (And I'm totally cracking up at this picture because Jensen is only wearing one of his socks!)This was a fun little craft that we stole from Aunt Stephanie and their cousin Ash. Carson helped me do the preparatory work like cutting out the hats, arms and noses. They also got to keep a few cotton balls out afterwards to play "throw the cotton ball in the bucket" and "cotton ball catch."Lastly, they've been attacking Grandpa Brudnicki.That's not something we typically do to keep busy, I just thought this picture that we took on Sunday was funny.

9 Years

I wish I was more technologically savvy, because then I might be able to figure out how to make my scanner work. I really wanted to scan a wedding picture of ours, just so I could laugh about how young and skinny we were. Also, how small our family was when it began 9 years ago. It was just the two of us. Now we've got these 3 little guys to call our own. This is how we spent our actual anniversary. Just the 5 of us. :) But dinner was nice and the boys were well behaved. And they really enjoyed the chocolate cake we all shared for dessert!

After dinner we had fun reminiscing about our wedding day. How I was running late to the temple that morning and when I got there he so romantically told me he thought he was off the hook. Our luncheon at the Lion House. My parents leaving us in the parking garage and us driving away in my little green Ford Escort wagon. The cool "castle" backdrop at our reception that night. How we had to stop at a gas station on our way home from the reception to buy beef jerky because we were so hungry. All the funny little things that made that day "ours."

And don't worry, Dustin and I are planning on going out to dinner tomorrow night, where we won't have to order from the kids menu and ask for extra napkins. At least I won't. :)

Christmas Card

So in case you didn't get one (or even if you did) we wanted to wish all our loved ones near and far a very Merry Christmas. I fully intended to send out a little note with our cards this year, but I never got that far. I was probably too busy kissing some cute, chubby, baby cheeks. Or cleaning up a mess. Or caulking baseboards. Whatever it was, I hope you'll forgive us for the less personal card this year, and know that we love you all the same!

Sleep, Trees and Teeth

First off, who doesn't love a big ol' baby grin?Mason's wearing this shirt because last night he actually went the whole night without waking up for a feeding! I'm not saying it was exactly "silent" but it was definitely nice not to be sitting on the couch for 45 minutes during the middle of the night. And as any nursing mother can sympathize, I was eager to feed this boy this morning! Who knows if he'll be doing this again any time soon, but it was a milestone worth documenting!

Carson was doing some coloring during the little boy's nap time this afternoon, and he asked me to guess what he was drawing. From the looks of his color pallet I guessed it was some sort of nature picture. A forest perhaps? Nope. When he got a little more drawn he asked me to guess again. I could see that his tree had circles in it, so I guessed an apple tree. Wrong again. When he finally got done, he showed me his masterpiece. "It's a family tree, Mom."Is that not the cutest thing ever?!!! I don't know where he came up with this, because I can't remember ever making a family tree with him before, but I was super impressed. He even spelled all the names by himself! (And we hope his cousin Drew likes it, because he sent it in the mail to him with a little letter written next to the picture.)

And lastly, Carson was complaining that his teeth hurt during lunch. I really didn't think too much of it, until that afternoon, when he complained about it again. I checked out his mouth and asked him which tooth was bothering him. Sure enough, his bottom right tooth wiggled when I touched it. He, of course, is very excited. :)

Lights

This year for Christmas, Dustin got me Christmas lights! We've never put lights up on the house because, well, I don't think Dustin is comfortable climbing onto our roof. So this year he got a guy he works with to come and do it for him! :) We all agree that they look great. Thanks Dust.And here's Mason with his "friends." The boys bought him the elephant before he was born. We named it "Snuffles." We've been looking for a second friend for months, and the other night we finally found one. A cute little bear, which we decided to name "Honey" because of his honey color and because, as Carson so cleverly noted, "Bears like to eat honey!"Mason, of course, loves them both.