Christmas morning III

Christmas morning II

Christmas morning I

Enjoy!  We sure did.

Christmas Eve videos

So, we had 3 pairs of pajamas for the kids to open on Christmas Eve.  But Jeffrey was envious of Ben's Thomas the Train jammies and made a big stink about it.  Being the indulgent and linguine-spined parent that I am, I went out to Wal-Mart just before they closed on Christmas Eve to find him another pair of Thomas pajamas.  But they were all out!  Instead, I found dragon pajamas with webbing under the arms.  These were a big hit with the boys, until Megan wanted them and I had only bought two.  So around and around we went!

Merry Christmas

Ben gets his turn on the bungee trampoline.  He got to sit on Santa's lap later that evening and tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas.  The other two kids didn't last so long, as you can probably tell.  But it was all worth it. :)

A child's laughter at Christmas time

We went to the mall on the night before Christmas eve.  All of the kids got to jump super-high on the bungee cord trampoline.  This is a video of Megan and Jeffrey going on it at the same time.  See if you can hear Megan laughing; it's that pure, contagious laughter of a child that everyone loves.

We hope your Christmas is merry and bright.  I wish we had the time to send you all individual letters or emails, but please know that we love and appreciate each of you.  Our family is so blessed for having you in our lives.

With love and Happy New Year wishes,

Brian.

Daddy visits Elder and Sister Heaton (Gma and the Gpa)

I shot a quick video with Grandma and "the Grandpa" Heaton at their mission apartment in Oakland, CA.  It was too big to email to Shelly, so I just posted it instead.  Love you family!  Miss you.

MEGAN'S NEW "DO"

After unsuccessfully trying to make Megan's hair pretty with bows and ponies, I decided she needed a new "do."  So we chopped off the mullett and this is how it turned out.  It's been brought to my attention that she looks like a "blonde Shell."  I didn't see it until Grandma and Sharice pointed that out!  It's so nice to see the similarities your children share with you. :)

Yes, Ben is holding a vacuum cleaner

Ben sneaks up on his unsuspecting brother while vacuuming out the van.  Also, please note Jeffrey's incredible tan line.  Video of this encounter soon to follow!

Our Summer So Far

We went to Oregon (for a weekend!!!) to attend Grandma and Grandpa Nyberg's 60th wedding anniversary.  It was tons of fun and I discovered family I never knew I had!  Aunt Sue and Aunt Patty were absolutely amazing and so kind to help me with the kids!  It was very nice to finally meet Brian's extended family after being married for 5 years.  We are so glad we went.  The plane ride we weren't so happy about, but we made it.  We learned a neat trick in the airport on this trip.  We discovered that we could fit all 3 of our children onto one oversized wheelchair, genius if you ask me!  We finally swallowed our pride on our last flight home and begged the flight attendents to call for a motorized car to pick us up in Charlotte since we were so exausted and we were in danger of missing our connecting flight.  The guy took his sweet little time just driving slowly behind WALKING people until Brian quite firmly told the people in front of us to move out of the way and that we had a connecting flight to make!  Needless to say, the driver went significantly faster after that.  :)  The reunion was so fun and the kids loved it too, Brian was very excited to be able to ask his distant Swedish cousins about their family history.  Unfortunately I got pretty sick on Saturday night with a fever, luckily the kids fell asleep pretty quickly and Brian was able to go back to the party and spend some more time with his relatives.  The plane ride back home was nothing short of an answer to a prayer beings that I was sick still with a fever.  Benadryl is our life savor.  We timed it just perfectly so our kids slept for 3 1/2 hours on our last leg of the journey home. 

For those who don't know, we're putting our house up for sale (hopefully this week). We've moved out of it into a small apartment so we could make the changes we needed to get it sold and so we don't have to worry about the kids trashing the place right before someone comes to view it. The apartment is small, but it has a pool! This explains the other pictures we have, we've spent nearly every day swimming since we've moved here, it's been super nice and I finally feel like I'm getting a good workout.We've had some things we've had to adjust to, like living in a 2 bedroom instead of 3, having to go to the other house to wash our clothes until the house sells, living with limited furniture so we can stage the other house, and Brian and are are sleeping on the two couches put together at night.  So far it works!  It's actually nice having a more simple way of life here.  Downsizing right now has been great because we won't have to do it in the spring when everything is crazy.  This way when it comes time to leave all we have to do is load a few boxes (so to speak).  Yes, we will get a bed in here soon, so no worries about that.  :)   That's about it, enjoy the pictures!

I'll add captions to the pictures later and try to get them in order, blogger isn't being very cooporative at the moment.

 

p.s.  Yes, Jeffrey isn't wearing a shirt in the airport, he flew most of the flight there without a shirt on the little stinker.  We can't keep a shirt on him for anything!

Our Little Taylor Swift Fan

If she's this excited just listening to her at home, I'd hate to see her at a concert!

Happy 3rd Birthday Jeffrey!

Jeffrey is a happy boy.  He's been looking forward to this all day.

Mommy cuts the Dora cake.

Looks good.

Oh no, he's got Dora and Boots!

The carnage!

Let's eat some cake.

Ben isn't shy about helping himself.

Juliette got some cake too.

Yumm.

Yes, I was there too.  Just mostly behind the camera.

Time to unwrap presents.  Ben is all too happy to help.

The Little Tykes Classic Coupe was the big winner of the evening.  Jeffrey just jumped right in and made himself at home as we've seen him do at many other friends' houses.

Jeffrey gets a push from big brother Ben.

But little sister Megan got the last laugh.