Christmas Slowdown

Well....Christmas is all and said and done. It's hard to believe all of the shopping, all of the eating, all of the hype is already over for the year. It seems like we hopped off the plane from Cali, hit the ground running, and the next thing I knew it was Christmas. During the month of December we tried to fit in as many Christmas activities as our schedule permitted. We baked a little, watched quite a few Christmas flicks while sipping our new fam favorite hot cocoa w/ vanilla ice cream, decorated our house and tree, looked at lights, hung out w/ friends and fam, shopped a little, celebrated a few b-days, decorated a gingerbread house w/ friends, attempted to read the Christmas story every night before bed, and attended Christmas parties. Amongst the craziness we all got sick, Chris had oral surgery, Doug took his final and wrote a paper for his Masters program, and everyone but myself practiced and performed in, "Simply Christmas" at church. Trev also had his first orchestra concert, which surprisingly was very kind to the ears. I am so proud of my little man! We were also able to spend a little time w/ my Dad who was in the hospital in Boise for a shoulder replacement. The kids had so much fun playing with his hospital bed. We all absolutely adore that man, and hope he doesn't have any more surgeries for a LONG time.
We are currently spending time w/ Doug's family for the holidays. We are enjoying relaxing and spending time just the 5 of us. I already took a peak at the January calendar and am trying to savor every moment w/ the fab 5. I love these peeps so much! It is nice to just slow down and be able to cuddle with them and actually carry on a conversation w/ them with out having to say, "Hurry Up!" Amongst the hustle and bustle of life I find myself saying it quite a bit. We are making the most of the Christmas slowdown. The slowness has given me a chance to reflect upon just how incredible this past year has been. God has truly poured out his blessings upon our family in so many ways. I am humbled to sit, think, and thank Him for the love, grace, faithfulness, and mercy He has bestowed upon us during these past 12 months. I am looking forward to many great Fab 5 adventure to come in the next year. For now I am going to go snuggle with the kids.

We were so blessed to spend Thanksgiving in California with my family. There were 12 of us in all that made the trip including my parents, brother Will, brother Drew and his wife Christa, sister kati and her adorable almost 6 month old Rhyse, and of course the Fab 5.

We stayed right on the beach in a great house. The kids had so much fun playing in the sand, boogy boarding, playing volleyball, looking at dolphins, seals, crabs, starfish, and finding shells. They also spent a lot of time in the pool and hot tub.

We spent two days at Disney and had an absolute BLAST! We would send G-ma Kiki and Baby Rhyse to get us fast passes for the rides that we wanted to go on. We hardly waited in line at all. We found out that Cassi and Trev are roller coaster maniacs along with their Dad. Chris and I, well lets just say we did a few, but we don't like as Chris says, "That throw up feeling." We were able to see some great parades and lots of characters.

We also spent one day at Sea World. It was a fun day and so much more relaxing than Disney. The kids loved seeing the sharks, and Chris is still doing the Shamu wave. The guys and kids all sat at the bottom of the splash zone on purpose and stayed dry. They were a little disappointed.

The other days of our trip were spent on the beach, exploring Huntington Beach Pier area, shopping, and going to Bolt.

It was a great vacation and we were SO blessed by my parents to take us all. We made so many fun memories together! I am not sure if the sour dough turkey is going to be a yearly tradition for us, but we did not miss real turkey this year. We were having way too much fun to worry about a traditional meal. In fact, we spent Thanksgiving in Disney and stopped at one of the few open restaurants on our way home, Del Taco. Yes, we had Del Taco and various other snacks at about 10 p.m. for our Thanksgiving dinner.

Thank you so much Mom and Dad for a wonderful trip! We so appreciate your generosity! Thank you so much for making this a very special time for our family. We love every minute that we get to spend with you. You are the BEST!

Teeth

My little man was so brave today! He had to go to the oral surgeon this morning and have a tooth pulled that was fused to his bone. He did not even flinch when they stuck in the I.V.(maybe the nitrous oxide helped out a little)! They ended up having to cut the tooth into 4 pieces, and that included the double root that the tooth had. It was HUGE! They said it was a bigger extraction than most adults.

I kept him nice and doped up most of the day so he did not feel any pain. I am a little concerned with how tomorrow will go! There is a huge hole in his mouth that is VERY deep! We are just praying for no pain!

You may notice from the above picture the huge gap in the front....yeah Chris is missing his 3 front teeth. Too bad there is not a song about that! Poor guy he is in for it when it comes to TEETH! Only seven years old and we are already starting with the orthodontist. The list of to be pulled is long....one down many to go!