Mia's drawings

Mia is very much into drawing and ever since she has learned to read and spell, she is always writing love notes to everyone.    They are the best! 

Her New Year Resolution is to get better at drawing.  It's very much her.  At night, she begs to draw in her bed.  "Just one more quick sketch?" she'll try and negotiate.

She'll often draw a picture of what I am doing.  Here is the magnet board project.  She's disappointed by the lack of pink in the rest of the house.  Here, she thought that it would look good to paint the hooks board pink and blue stripes.  As always, it's from loving Mia.

Or while I am cleaning the kitchen.  Her drawings of her pictures on the fridge is my favorite part.  As is the drawing of her drawing at the table.   I have it up in a frame in the kitchen.

These little things in my life really make me happy. 

Christmas 2009

Christmas is all about traditions and one of our traditions that we think is funny and is most definatley un-intentional, is somehow, someway the kids sleep in till 8am each year.  I don't know if it is because they were up late in the night trying to catch Santa (as Jake tried very hard to do this year) or if they are so excited that they exhaust themselves.  Whatever the reason, it's kindof nice for us sleepy parents that spent more time then they thought being excited for Christmas morning.

Mom & Dad came over and brought us some breakfast casserole and watched as the kids opened the few presents we had.  Santa had brought clothes and a baby for Mia, Star Wars legos and clothes for Jake and a great big garbage truck for Sam!  They were all happy with it.

Miss Mia was having a hard time and was quite grumpy through the opening of the gifts.   I ended up putting her back in bed, feeding her breakfast casserole by hand and getting some medicine in her to help her feel better.  It wasn't until after 11:30am that we got to the Sevy's house for the second part of Christmas morning.  Good thing those Sevy grandparents are patient, as hard as it was to wait.

We always start with our traditional breakfast feast of eggs, biscuits and bacon of course, hot chocolate, orange juice and milk and Grandma's famous cinnamon roll Christmas tree. 

After breakfast, the kids happily get spoiled with piles of presents for them to open and play with.  We get spoiled to and most thankfully for me, Ryan gets some wonderful presents from his family that he deserves but never will ask for.   Autie Dee-Dee made three afghans for the kids.  I can't imagine the time she spent on each one.  A zig-zag one for Jake, a striped one for Sam and a flowery one for Mia.  They are warm and special to us.

I let Jake go with the camera that morning.  He took some funny videos.  He is a silly one for sure.  Sam and Mia help Gram open her present from us.  We got her custom silhouettes oraments of the kids for her Christmas tree. 

Paper strewn about, toys being played with, treats being snacked on and family together, that time with the family was the happiest of our day.

Christmas Eve 2009

Christmas Eve was an exciting one for us this year. Poor Mia had just had surgery to remove her adenoids and put tubes in her ears just the day before. We had to have the surgery by the end of the year and unfortunately for us, the 23rd of December was the only day open. She was in a lot of pain from the surgery. More than we ever though she would be and therefore, she was not feeling very happy. Top that with the fact that I was dealing with pneumonia so the two of us just wanted to go to sleep.

Tradition dictates that you must get new Christmas Eve pj's to open. The kids knew what was coming. Mia was thrilled

But she perked up as soon as she got her new nightgown on. 

Sam was just as excited for his pj's!

And of course, as traditions go, you must get a picture in front of the Christmas tree in new Christmas jammies.  And as Sevy children traditions go, you must be goofy, goofy excited by this point.

Finishing off traditions, we read from the Scriptures about the birth of our Savior and also read "Twas the Night Before Christmas".  Then the children excitedly trotted off to bed in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

Temple Square - December 2009

While Sharmyn was here visiting, we got to go to Temple Square with her. Of course, I was mighty late trying to get the kids out the door after flute lessons, get through mounds of rush-hour traffic and find a secluded parking place that was more than a little scary to this small town girl. Still, that aside, it was fun to walk through and see the lights and listen to what the kids said. It was freezing cold good fun!

The classic posed photo. Oooo...such pretty lights!

A sweet moment between my ragamuffin kids.

The kids thought this guy was the best!

Of course, the reason why we went was to see the temple and the nativity. Jake took this shot.

Afterwards, we went on a hunt to find some hot chocolate and after much deliberation we ended up of with none. We were, however, lucky to be the ones to drive Sharmyn to her destination that night.