Merry Christmas!

So...you know you're doing your Christmas post a little late when Sunny 106.5 isn't even playing Christmas music anymore. Oh well! The fun started early this year as the empty boxes started piling up in my living room. (Gotta love shopping online!) The kids had a blast playing with this train/car/boat/spaceship/airplane. I don't know why I even bother buying toys in the first place. I should just get in touch with a box manufacturer and save a few $. Just in case you're wondering, Carter's not practicing to be a cheerleader in these pictures, he's just pulling the horn for the train. Ü

We spent Christmas Eve at my Grandpa Jensen's house for the last time, and it was so much fun. Tara borrowed some nativity costumes from her ward primary and they looked awesome. Much better than the towels and baby blankets I would have come up with. I wish I had pictures, but I videotaped it instead. Meleah and Lydia were angels and Carter was a wise man. Of course, Meleah only wore her costume for like .05 seconds but it was kind of an inappropriate costume for her to be wearing in the stage that she's in right now anyway. Ü They all opened up their jammies from Grandma, and were so excited to put them on right away.

We opened presents on Christmas at around 9:00 am. I know the day will come when my kids will wake me up at dawn, but my tired pregnant body was really grateful that they slept in this year. They actually woke up around 8:30, but I held them off reading stories upstairs until Grandpa, Jana, Rachel, Laura, and Dalton could get there. Carter asked Santa for a real motorcycle with hundreds of spots (don't ask me where he got that from) but he was still very happy with the Leapster that Santa actually brought him. I tried to explain that he doesn't have a drivers license yet so he wouldn't be able to drive a real motorcycle, but he just figured Santa would bring him that too. Maybe next year.

Lydia and Meleah also loved their presents from Santa. Lydia got a wooden dollhouse, and Meleah a Dora sofa. Santa must have known that the girls are constantly fighting over the Dora chair that we already have, and hoped that this would help prevent some of the hair pulling and hitting that has been going on. Meleah seemed perfectly content to sit in her Dora sofa and eat Pez all morning. Well, at least until her dispenser ran out, and she had to go on the hunt for someone else's stocking.

We had a nice, relaxed day playing with all our new toys. Thanks go out to Laura, Dad, Jana, and Rachel for making the day more fun, and helping undo all those dang twister ties they put all over the toys!

The Stewart family gathering was put off until the next day due to bad weather, so we got to extend our festivities until Friday. We all had tons of fun, and are a little tired and sad that Christmas is over. Lydia keeps thanking me for bringing Christmas and asking if we can have Christmas again. As tired as I am, I would still be okay with that! Luckily, we have something else to look forward to in the very near future. Now we just have to decide if we should spell the baby's name Cameron, Camoran, Camran...any ideas?

Winter is Here!

Well, I can't let all the Vegas people show me up with all their awesome snow pictures, so here are ours. We've hardly had any snow at all this year (thank goodness), but my kids are SO happy to see it finally coming down. We made snow angels, had a snowball fight, and even made a snowman. I'm sure we could have made a larger snowman, but I am 8 1/2 months pregnant after all. Besides, the kids wanted the snowman to be baby Mikey. Okay, okay...I might have given them that idea, but it's really hard to bend over when you're as large as I am right now! Carter was disappointed when I informed him that we don't have a magic hat to make baby Mikey come alive, but not quite as disappointed as Lydia was when I informed her that it wasn't Christmas yet. Apparently, she thought that if it's snowing, that means it's Christmas Day. We also made Gingerbread cookies and once again...there was disappointment that our cookies did not come alive. They recovered quickly however, and we've had a really fun week fulfilling all the standard winter traditions. Carter and Lydia keep saying, "Winter is our favorite season!." We'll see if they still say that when they have to drive in this mess!

Another Family Update

I know I just did one of these a couple of months ago, but there are a few things that have happened lately that I want to remember.

Elly Jelly

Meleah has been so funny lately. I shouldn't say that, because usually what makes me laugh is the stuff that she's totally not supposed to do...like hitting for example. If I should dare to tell her not to get into something, she'll come from all the way across the room to give me a good whack. This is a new experience for me, because Carter and Lydia have very rarely hit anyone and especially not me. Even when I have witnessed Carter hitting someone, I've noticed that he does it as softly as possible. Not so with Meleah! Don't think I let her get away with it, though. I may smirk when she's not looking, but she gets in big trouble for hitting or pulling hair (her other favorite attack mechanism). Meleah can often be found in the kitchen scooting a chair around so that she can reach all the interesting things that Mommy puts up high to keep away from her. She also still loves baby dolls, and will kiss and hug and put them nigh-night over and over again. Dora is still the ONLY acceptable television programming according to her, much to the dismay of her older brother. She loves to make silly faces, and her signature pony tail on the top of her head (the only hair style she'll allow me the time to do), is usually crooked and fuzzy because she still loves to twirl her hair. Some of her most common sayings are: ut-oh, doooon'T, out, ow, opf (off or on), miiine, and a really grumpy form of uh-uh. That list makes it sound like she's grumpy all the time, which isn't necessarily the case. She's just a lot quieter when she's happy. Ü She does everything full-steam ahead. I can't tell you how many fat lips and bruises I've gotten from her flailing herself around. One minute she'll be sitting on my lap, the next she's up and running. She LOVES her Da-da and is usually the first one to greet him when he gets home. He then has to carry her around for half an hour or so before she'll let him out of her sight.

Lydia DeOn

Lydia was given a baby doll from her aunt Susan a few days ago, and has been obsessed with it ever since. She takes it everywhere with her, and always makes sure she's wrapped in her blanket. She's been doing really well with her walker lately, so we've started taking it with us to some gatherings. She was so funny at my Grandpa's funeral because rather than going around the groups of chatting people, she would plow straight through, knowing full well that they would separate to let her pass. That had the added bonus of everyone looking at her and saying how adorable she is, you see.

Carter Cutie

Carter was student of the month last month (the purpose of blogs is to brag right?). He got this nifty certificate and FOUR free ice cream cones from Arctic Circle. We have yet to use all of them. I felt really bad because he was sick for almost a whole week, so we missed his little assembly ceremony thing, but he was still pretty excited about his free ice cream. He's been really fascinated about my Grandpa's death, and keeps asking me if Grandpa's been resurrected yet (we learned about resurrection in Primary the same week Grandpa died). I know he really loved him and misses him, but sometimes I'm surprised how often he thinks of him. I made home-made bread the other day, and I lifted up the towel to show him how it was rising and he said, "It looks like Grandpa Jensen!" I think he was referring to how his body was white after he passed...??? I don't know. I'm sure Grandpa would have gotten a good laugh out of that. His latest line that he uses when I tell him to finish his dinner or clean up the playroom is, "I'm too shy to." I didn't know shyness affected people's eating and cleaning abilities, but you learn something new every day.

Randall just fininshed his first semester of school yesterday and is looking like he's going to get straight A's (I know...I know...enough with the bragging!). I'm just so proud of him. He's really taken school seriously and spent a lot of time making sure that he does well. I'm sure it hasn't been easy, because the poor guy has 3 kids and a pregnant wife to deal with. I've been known to be a bit on the needy side when I'm pregnant. Ü He puts the kids to bed every night, and they love to have that special time with their Dad. I love you baby!

This is where I'm supposed to put a picture of me, but I haven't taken any since I was like 3 months along, so it wouldn't really be accurate anyway. Just consider yourselves lucky. I'm getting so excited to have my little baby boy that I can hardly stand it. It seems like by the time you're on your FOURTH child that you wouldn't be as excited, but I just ache to hold him in my arms. This has been a pretty good pregnancy so far, and it has gone by so fast. It definitely helps to have the holidays to distract me during the very end. I'm really looking forward to Christmas, and I'm sure that Randall will be very happy to see that I spent my time writing this post today instead of shopping online!

Well, that's the latest on us. Hope I didn't bore you all to death!