December Pictures

So, here are our December 2009 pictures from end to beginning - well end till Christmas time anyway. Too many to make individual posts out of. At least they are getting on this way.


Fun brothers on New Years.

Rich and I sipping our bubbly to bring in 2010.

All our plastic cups set out ready for the ball to drop.

Rich was grateful to be able to tune out the kids with the MP3 player on our drive. Especially in the fog. It was so thick you literally couldn't see 5 feet in front of you...

We were packed so tight on the way home. All those extra presents fit in somehow, and the kids had some great foot rests.

Me and my mom packing up for the big drive home. Too bad we had to do all that big packing on Chrsitmas day.

Me and Mike. I have the best brother. We had such a great time together over Christmas. Thanks for letting us take over your house Mike!!

It was hard for the girls to say goodbye to each other. Hopefully we can get them together again soon.

Gavin would NOT sit on GG's lap for a photo. He'll regret that later! What he really wanted to do was chase the cats around with Peter and Max.

The girls kept stamping down the wrapping paper for recycling, but we still ended up with 3 HUGE bags!!

Merry Christmas Grandma! I'm glad we could all sqeeze into my mom's basement for the festivities.

What could this one be??

Presents are so fun!!

Max thought every present was his and proceeded to open any present he could get his hands on. Sorry everyone!!

Digging through the mountain of gifts was fun for everyone!

Gavin loved Christmas this year and was caught up in the excitement of everyone else that he didn't get to open many presents. But no worry, Max helped him out with that.

Wow!!! The presents kept going and going and going!! You can buy a few more I guess when you aren't worried about the cost of shipping everything to another country. Everyone did way too much in the gift department this year.

Santa surprised us all by leaving us with a Wii for a combined family present, and a Wii game in each of our stockings. Peter couldn't have been more thrilled. And so were the rest of us. I am sort against video games, but Santa thought it would be fun for everyone. I guess he is right.

Sophie and Sam loved having a sleepover every night on the top bunk of Sam's bed. They were the best of friends. Like they were together all the time.

Christmas Eve gatherings. They sat like this while we tried to get ready to read the Christmas story.

Christmas Eve dinner at Mike's club house. It was the only place big enough for all 10 of us to sit together around a table. My family of 6 sure makes the family grow!! Dinner sure was good:)

Max and Rich all bundled up for the live nativity pageant that my ward puts on for the community every year. It is one of my favorite parts about Christmas in Canada. Do you love our new Canadian touques??

Yummy hot chocolate after the nativity.

At the movies on Christmas Eve. We saw 'Where the Wild Things Are'. We had the whole theater to ourselves and the kids got to sit all alone way up at the front and they thought that was awesome!!! Max kept running back and forth between us.

Rich hard at work peeling potatos...

The girls loved making the stuffing with grandma Cananda and GG

Mike took the kids for a ride on his scooter. Sophie loved it, Peter was a little unsure about the whole thing.

Can you see the 'excited' face Peter has??

Merry Christmas in 2009

Merry Christmas World! Listen to what an amazing year, full of love and wonders we each had.

Gavin. I grew up a little more this year. I started out not being able to do much of anything, but look at me now! I finally like to walk. I took my first steps at 15 months old and at 16 months I have finally decided to take on walking full time, though I am still a little shaky on my feet (which are so chubby I only have one pair of special shoes that fit). I can talk too. My favorite words are cracker, banana, mama, uh-oh, and ho-ho-ho... I am a great sleeper for my parents (12-13 hrs/ night), and love grandma to pick me up when she walks in the room. I think I am such a big boy and want to do everything my brothers do, and although Sophie likes to help me do a lot of things, I wish I could do them by myself. Meal time? Bring it on! I am not a picky eater, but when I am full I love to throw everything off of my tray onto the floor, and I really mean throw!! It always makes a big mess for my mom to clean up. And if she doesn’t get things like kiwi or peaches right away it can dry like glue on the floor!

Maxwell. This year brought big changes for me! I started the year in a crib, booster seat at the table, 5 point harness car seat, and with a binki. Just look at me now! I sleep on the bottom bunk in my room (although I like to get out occasionally and that drives my mom and dad crazy!). My dad cut the ends of my binkis off a few months back and since then I haven’t wanted them. I know I grew a little because I don’t need/or want a booster seat at the table. I like to sit on the bench between Sophie and Peter at the table. And I have noticed how cool Sophie and Peter’s car seats are and since then have refused to sit in my old baby 5 point harness seat. I will be 3 yrs old in a few weeks so my parents bought me my own booster seat for the car. It is so cool and I feel so big riding in it! I am also speaking so much better. My speech therapy earlier this year must have really paid off. I am finally catching on, and starting to form sentences in my broken English. It makes it easier to communicate with everyone, but I still rely on my mom a lot. She is really good at speaking ‘Max’. And don’t forget to hug and kiss me when you leave, it is very important to me.

Peter. Wow. I am so cool! I can’t believe that one year ago I was afraid to ride on any of the rides at Lagoon, I am mostly – ok partly – over that now. I have always loved drawing and my teacher says I am so good at it she has to remind me to stop and do my work, or stop talking to my friends – take your pick. And a year ago I couldn’t read at all, and now I am reading simple books (with big pictures) from kindergarten. But it doesn’t really matter to me, what I like is to play with friends 24/7. And I love to play the Wii at everyone else’s house. I am begging Santa for a Wii of my own for Christmas. Good thing Santa doesn’t have a budget!!! I got a bike for Easter – with training wheels. I think I will try to ride a 2 wheeler in the spring. I love to pick out my own clothes and don’t understand it when my mom says my clothes don’t match. It makes me mad when she makes me change before school. And you should see my hair. I have started doing it all by myself. And my mom doesn’t even redo it every day. Sometimes she says it is so good I can wear it like that to school! Knock, knock? Who’s there??? I can tell some great jokes. They always make sense in my head!!! I am an awesome soccer player and go after the ball with vengeance. I was born to play!

Sophie. I am the boss of my family, right? I think so anyway… But anyway, as an almost 7 yr old I am ready to conquer the world! I love my new charter school and am really excelling there. I am in 1st grade, but 2nd grade math (which I love) and advanced reading which I say I don’t like, but secretly I do. I am a great reader and am making my way through all of the American Girl books. They are just barely above my reading level, but I push my way through and often fall asleep with a book in my hands at night. I am a speedy biker, and love to play with my older neighbors (they are 9yrs old) and act as if I am their age. I LOVE tumbling and jazz (I am in those classes right now). I love to cook and have learned how to make ramen noodles, mac & cheese, pancakes (from a recipe), toast, and scrambled eggs without any help from my mom. She is totally impressed! I am a sweet girl and am always quick to help others (except my brothers sometimes, but I am quick to tease them!).

Heather. I have enjoyed this year. Some highlights for me? Rich threw a great surprise party to celebrate the last year in my 20’s. It was so fun! It was a feat for him to keep that from me, he’s not good at keeping secrets! I started school in the fall. Just a community college and I am going to be a massage therapist and work in Rich’s office. It will take me some time to get through and I should be done by the time Gavin goes to preschool (that is a scary thought!). I have watched my children grow and have bitter sweet feelings about that, it is happening so quickly. I love my family and they make me smile every day. Especially that great husband of mine! He surprised me by taking me along on one of his business trips to California. We took an extra day and went to Disneyland! It was so fun and amazing to be just the two of us for a few days. We haven’t done that for years. I hope we can do it again sooner rather than later. I was excited to get passports for the family and plan our long awaited trip to Canada for Christmas this year. I was also excited to get a new dining table. Rich and I worked really hard to save for it and we love it. It is something I have wanted for a long time. I am serving as a CTR 5 teacher at church and love my little kids. It is Peter’s age group, but he isn’t in my class. I think we have like 25 5yr olds in our ward at church! I have loved going on family bike rides this year and staying on top of laundry! And I didn’t mention the fact that I was in a lifestyle contest in the spring where we had to exercise every day, sleep 7 hrs every night, and cut out ALL sugar from my diet – all for 3 whole months!!! And you got points for these things. Well, I tied for first place!! I lost some weight and inches, and I felt so great and wish I could keep it up, but it is hard work!! But now I can say that I did it!!

Rich. This year has been filled with continued challenges and great blessings! I have enjoyed continuing to help patients daily as well as my great job as a husband and father! In September I went to a training on allergy elimination and have seen amazing results with a lot of people! It’s fun to see people get the results they are looking for. I have enjoyed spending time with my kids every Friday for “Daddy Day”. It’s fun to spend one-on-one time with each of my favorite kids! I’ve also enjoyed spending extra time with them while Heather is at school. Bedtime reading is really fun. We’re in the middle of book 3 in the Harry Potter series. (I think I get more out of it than they do. Yesterday, Sophie asked me who Hermoine was.) I’m still busy, busy serving as the Executive Secretary in the ward. All-in-all, life is great and I love what I do!

All in all we are happy and ready to start another year. I am so grateful for our blessings. Everything can be a blessing if you look at it in the right light. I know that my Savior lives and am grateful for this time of year to celebrate His birth. What a glorious thing. And how amazing our Heavenly Father’s plan is for each of us and all of us. I am thankful for each of you and glad to share this season with you, if only in our hearts. Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year in 2010…

Love, Rich, Heather, Sophie, Peter, Max, and Gavin

Visiting Friends

We spent almost all of our time with family during our trip, but we did make one exception. We went to see Ivy Rose. She has been one of my grandma's best friends for years and years. She is almost like a second grandma to me and I was so glad we had a chance to visit one afternoon. I think the kids must have driven her batty!! My kids have so much energy! But Ivy Rose is so sweet and said they were just fine. Wish I would have taken a picture with me in it too...

Canadian Bowling

This is what I grew up on. Hand size, light weight bowling balls, and 5 pins, with 3 goes in a turn. So much fun, and I loved introducing it to my family. It is perfect for the kids. They didn't need any help, even Max loved it - though his bowling was more like shot put... And I think we all benifited from the bumpers on our lanes. We played boys against girls. Boys won... But Sophie was awesome and was the girl winner! Way to go girl!

Trip to Canada

This is not what we planned on!!!

Talk about a scary situation! I have NEVER had this happen to me before. There we were driving on the interstate at 70 miles/hour and we hear this loud noise that sounded like you are driving on the edge of the road, and the next thing we know we feel the tire go and we were veering off to the shoulder to a stop. We hop out of the car to see this!!!!! The tire was completely gone! How does that even happen? Well, we didn't know what to do. I took an auto class 10 years ago and learned how to change a tire, but have never had to put that knowledge into action. To be honest, we didn't even know where the spare tire was. It is under the van. Not under the trunk... We were fully loaded for Christmas and in the middle of nowhere. And we had our four kids tucked in the car, worried about what was going on. Sophie was bawling because she thought it meant we would not be able to go to Canada for Christmas. Poor girl. She thought we would have turn around and head back home. While Rich and I were standing in the cold and blowing wind, a stranger stopped and helped out. He was a mechanic by trade and did most of the changing for us, and he directed us to the next town (2 miles away thankfully) and to the closest tire store. He was such a blessing!

And buying the warrenty on the tires is a smart thing to do. $15 up front gave us the option to go to any tire store (if this happens) and replace it with a 100% refund of the cost when we return to home.

I am happy to report that this was the worst day of the trip, even though it was day 1. The rest of the time we were gone was smooth sailing. This took 3 1/2 hours out of our trip, but was welcome when we think of what could have happened in this scary situation. You never realize how thankful you are for tires until one blows!!

Uh-Oh Gavin...

Gavin thought it was great fun to smash the glass balls on the little Christmas tree in the hall. I am so glad they make plastic balls now. This is the last of our glass balls. It seems to have been a fun thing for all of our boys to do at this age...

California Dreams...

I was so surprised to find out that Rich bought me a plane ticket to go with him to California for the weekend while he had to go to a seminar. Wow, three nights and four days of just us. That NEVER happens! And he was gone for 2 of the 3 days so I got some alone time. It was heaven. I had peace and quiet that welcome. I loved it. And the 3rd day (ok the 1st day we were there) we went to Disneyland! We had the best time, well except for the fact that Rich had us go on Splash Mountian FIRST. It was a cooler day and I got drenched, and I got my hair wrecked! Oh well. Good disney day. NO lines more than 7 minutes and we could do anything we wanted without a diaper bag, stroller or crying kids...

This is a trip I want to repeat again!! I love my kids, don't get me wrong. But it was exactly what I needed to refresh myself and face the challenges of daily life with new energy, and maybe even love my kids more.

Going to the dentist

The little boys had a great time at the dentist. They were happy and calm and had healthy teeth. Good job boys!! Max loved the choo choo train out front. Smart marketing on the dentists part. It is what actually got us going there in the first place and we've been really happy there.

New Table!!

So Rich and I have been planning this for about a year now. And here it is!!! Some things are truely worth waiting for. We love our new table. It is really the first piece of furniture that we have owned as a married couple. Sure we have had a few things here and there, but it was bought as students (and you know how those things are!) and this is exactly what we want. And we saved and worked hard for it. We LOVE the two benches we got to go with it. We LOVE that it is a square that folds out to a large rectangle. We LOVE the dark wood. We LOVE the fabric 'grown up only' chairs. And we LOVE the new dishes, silverware, and glasses we got to go with it all! But we mostly love that we saved and saved and didn't go into any debt to get it!! Happy early Christmas to us!!

Giving Thanks

I am such a blessed person. My Heavenly Father knows me so deeply and loves me so fully. I am grateful for my family. And for all the strings attached with that. Even on those long, never ending, frustrating days I am grateful for my life. Not for just the beginning point or that never reachable end point. But for today. The here and now. I accept my life as mine and it is a blessing to go through my trials and live my joys. What an experience and journey I am going through. This season of giving thanks has brought me to much reflection as to what I really am thankful for and also the things I need to be more grateful for. So, this year I am truely grateful for an extra push to remind me to give thanks for my many, many blessings.

Thanksgiving left overs

What did I love about thanksgiving break this year??? Sleeping in!!! Gavin graced us with an 8:30 alarm for the long weekend, and until that we were in dream land. Sure we could hear the pitter patter of little feet down stairs and that was fine with us. The kids are big enough to take care of themselves for a little while first thing in the morning. They know how to turn cartoons on, get cereal and milk, and play!!! Well. Thanksgiving means pumpkin pie in our house, so Friday morning that is what the kids wanted for breakfast. They found a pie in the fridge, and Peter cut it all by himself (with a plastic kid knife). He got one for himself and one for Maxwell. They also got the coolwhip and everything!! How cute is that!!! They even put the pie back in the fridge! Gotta love that! I was so proud of Peter for a job well done, with the pie and with his brother!

New Moon

OK. So I saw it! Last night at midnight with my awesome sister in law. What a fun night! Even after we stood outside in the longest line ever in the freezing cold for an hour... And all those crazy girls?? The theater was full of them. I thought New Moon was just as good as Twilight, or better if you are a Jacob fan. He is shirtless in most of the movie! And I will probably see it again too! Good times...

Best Buddies Club

'Best buddies club' That's what they called it when they spent two days straight coloring a huge box we had in the garage! Peter, Josh and Josh...