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.

Three.

This little cutie-pie turned three today. 

He ran circles around the kitchen singing "Happy Birthday to you!" at the top of his lungs.  He had whip cream on his cake.  He blew out candles and opened way too many presents.  He finally understood that he was three by the end of the night.  He talked on the phone to Auntie Debbie telling her that it was his birthday and he was opening presents.  Only Dad was allowed to help him open presents. 

He played with all his new toys.  He got diggers and firetrucks, tools, crayons and coloring books, playdough and paint, firetruck undies and new clothes, a DVD about diggers and fireengines and a big dump truck too.  Phew. 

He blew out three candles on his melted cream snowman cake.  (Mental note, don't put cream on until right before.)  Three candles flickered back on.  So he blew even harder making some great puffer lips that made Mom laugh.  We all laughed.  We all love him so. 

Mia decided to drive a truck on her hair and got it stuck.  Jake played with all of Sam's new toys.  So did Mia.  And um, so did Mom.  :)

It's hard to believe three years have already passed when the fresh memory of the craziness I felt to have him born.  Each day passing creaping closer to Christmas brought on new emotions and breakdowns and one fat baby that was determined to stay put.  He wasn't interested in joining a crazy lady.  :)  A whole week passed and finally he was born.  He came quickly.  It was painful.  Grandma Sharon was invited to witness his birth along with Grandma Desse.  He was worth it.

Already three years old and happy and content.  Loves to be with Dad and plays late at night in Mia's room when they should be sleeping.  He loves gum and classifies it as either spicy (mint) or by it's color (purple gum).  He'll eat a whole pack in a day and leave chewed bits in places that I don't want to find them but it makes me laugh because it's Sammy.  My Samalicous who calls himself "Sam'l ".  Who requests that we drive past the firehouse everytime we go somewhere.  (Good thing we live close.)  Who hid under the table when Stephanie's family sung to him this week and snuck pieces of steak of the other children's plates when they were not looking.  Who was throughly thrilled that it was his birthday.  If we all could all be so happy. 

Happy Birthday my little man!  I refuse to believe that you are growing up and will be a Sunbeam in just a few short weeks.  That you'll be big enough for Preschool next Fall.  That you were brave enough to sit on Santa's lap and tell him that you wanted a garbage truck for Christmas.  That the dimples on your hands and wrists will soon be gone.  We love you with all of our hearts!

xoxo,

Mama

Captain Rex

Jake, of course, was Captain Rex for Halloween.  We took a two year break from the Star War's costumes but was back in full force this year.  He was one happy kiddo! 

We thought the costume looked best when he wore it with his clone trooper voice changer helmet.  He really looked like a clone but that helmet was not fun to wear. 

Jake loves that helmet so much, he will wear it to bed.  Until one night, he realized that he could trick me by placing the helmet and pillows in the bed.   This is how I found him sleeping. 

This was the first year that he went off with friends to trick or treat.  They had a blast running around as fast as they could.  Got quite a bit of candy too.

The three kids who started out the night like this:

Ended the night like this: 

We tucked them in one by one and kissed their chocolate covered faces goodnight. 

It was a good Halloween for all.

Padme

My little girl is growing up.  She wanted to be Padme.  From Star Wars.  What??  Not a princess in a fancy dress, not a cute witch, not a ballerina or a beautiful bride.   She did say that she wanted to be Repunzle so I found this best gold sparkly dress for her to wear and was sure that she would love it!  She did, until she put it on and it itched.  So Padme is was and a cute Padme she made.

Super simple costume with a old blanket wrapped like a shawl, cool hair (Thanks to Steph for the late night, hands on tutorial!), boots and some silver paper and she was set. 

Her poor bruised eye.  She had a accident on the play ground   This cute girl and her tangled up and knocked themselves down.  Mia took one for the team.  We kept telling her it was perfect a battle wound to go with her costume.

When asked why she liked Padme so much, she replied "Because she gets married and has twin babies."  She's still a romantic girly girl!