December 23rd & 24th - Hanging at Grandma's

Friday morning we woke up ready to play. Lucy and Max had slept in Grandma and Papa's room. They specifically went out and bought a new King Sized bed, just so grandkids could sleep with them. So that's what they did. Papa was tired, so he went to bed with the kids. When Grandma went to go to bed, there was no room in the king-sized bed for her. So she bunked with Janeen in her room, and Logan in his crib. The next night, we set up an air-mattress on the floor for Lucy and Max to sleep on, so Grandma could have her bed back.

Kari and Barrett had arrived late in the night and were excited to come up to the big house (they were staying with Sarah and Tyson in the Trailer) to see everyone. So there were more hugs and hellos and the traditional pancake breakfast that always accompanies the first day at Grandma's. Pancakes with of special shapes too.

Lucy and Max were both missing school to be at Grandma's and they were supposed to have a pyjama day at school, eat treats, do a Christmas craft and watch "The Polar Express", so we promised Lucy that she would get to do all those things at Grandma's. Therefore, the kids stayed in their jammies ALL day.


Except for a few minutes to try on the new suits that Grandma bought for each of her grandsons. Lucy and Baby Sarah got matching dresses, but somehow we didn't get a picture of those.


Papa and Grandma had also bought a Christmas train to go around the tree, which never did get set up around the tree, because there were too many presents. But they set it up in the music room and it was a hit for the entire trip.


The day was also spent putting a puzzle together. We ended up doing about 6 different puzzles over the course of our time there. It's a Christmas tradition.

Lucy got some fun crafts from Grandma and decided to start making a family tree. She was making each person's face. Unfortunately, her table space got over-taken and the project was never finished. But it was a nice idea.

Christmas Eve was supposed to be spent at Bourne's, but unfortunately, Logan was up through the night, upset, and ended up puking on Christmas Eve morning. He still had a major appetite, so we hoped it would be short lived, but it turned out that it ended up hitting a lot of people on both sides of the family, hard and fast. Tammy and her girls, my parents, Logan, Grandma Janielee, and finally Max, late into the evening. Bathrooms at both houses were well occupied most of the day.

Before Max got sick tonight, Papa and Tyler decided to set up the quad and take the boys out for a pull on the tube. They had a great time, and it was good for Logan to get some fresh-air. Soon after coming inside is when Max started to get sick. Poor boy. He was so chipper and pleasant through it all.

Logan ended up puking on me about 7 times within 45 minutes that evening. I felt like I was in the worst fashion show ever. Parading a different outfit every 3 minutes, only to have it puked on. I'm so grateful that my older two children are old enough to make it to the bathroom before puking. Logan, I will be happy when that day comes for you too.

Through all my hefting of pukey children, I ended up throwing my back out and was laid up on the floor, in the worst pain I have experience in a long time. Barrett and Papa administered priesthood blessings to me, Logan, Max and Tyler (who was starting to feel queazy). Janeen ran to town to get some ginger ale for all, some robaxacet for me, and juice. Thanks Janeen! Scott also gave me half a percocet to ease the pain in my back. I was shivering on the floor with pain when Logan came and cuddled up to me and fell asleep, face-down on the hardwood floor. Poor guy.

Max passed out on the arm chair.

After we got kids settled into bed (Lucy went with Janeen down to Sarah and Tyson's to sleep in their bed as they were at Merrill's, so they could avoid the sick people), we all started wrapping Christmas presents. The meds I was on helped a great deal. Then it was off to dream land with a prayer, hoping Christmas day would be better.

Logan slept all night. (HALLELUJAH!) and I was so dopey from drugs I don't think i could have been much help if it was different. In face, Max was up in the night 3 times. I heard him once but wasn't able to bring myself out of the drug-fog to do anything about it. Good thing for Grandmas! And an even 'good-thing' for the Priesthood. It saved me that day. It's hard to be a mom of sick kids, away from home, with a hurt back who can't do anything to help her kids who need her. It was especially hard that Lucy was well and excited for Santa and Christmas, and I had had all these plans to make the evening magical, and it just wasn't coming together. Again, thank goodness for Grandma and Janeen who created the magic for her. Cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.


Here's hoping for a better Christmas Day!

December 23rd - Travel

Today was a very exciting and exhausting day of travel. Of course, to prepare for this very long and exhausting day of travel we decided it would be wise to stay up well past midnight making JibJab videos of our kids dancing around like elves. Very wise. But, they were hilarious and we just couldn't help ourselves.

Our plan was to leave the house at 9am so we could get to Ottawa before 11 and be well prepared to board our flight. We didn't leave until 9:30, but it all worked out. Driving consisted of the kids watching their make-shift DVD player and eating left-over pizza. And talking about how excited we were that the day was FINALLY HERE!!

When we got to the airport we had planned to park in the park-n-fly for the 2 weeks. Of course, there was a shuttle bus that would take us from our car to the airport that I hadn't even considered. Logan spends most of his days watching other people in our family getting on buses and begging me to let him go too. So as the bus drove up, Logan was still buckled into his carseat, so we could load luggage. I told him, "Logan, the bus is here!" He responded by saying, "Logan, me, bus!" And finally, I could say yes! I think that was the most thrilling part of the day for him.

I love the Ottawa airport. It's so clean and beautiful and quiet. They got us through security SO quickly and then we got to hangout by these GIANT windows to watch for our plane to come in.

They don't have things for the kids to play with, like they do at the Calgary airport, but it's just so beautifully spacious! And I had plenty to entertain with in my giant carry-on bag I had purchased JUST for this occasion. Plus, it'll be my church bag once we get home. It's so beautiful!

The plane arrived, and it was time to go! Again, boarding an airplane is much more exciting then the actual airplane ride. and airplane ride gets old after 4 hours.

We watched a lot of videos and tv. I brought crayons and colouring books. Logan played with a few toys. He got fussy for about 20 minutes when he was getting over-tired and the turbulence was too bad to allow for us to get up from our seats so I could change his diaper...it's hard to let a tired boy fall asleep on the plane when his diaper is soaking wet. So we waited it out. We were finally able to change his diaper, and then he had his bottle and fell asleep. It was a beautifully quiet 45 minutes.



I soon discovered that our plane ride was about 40 minutes too long. A movie takes just less than 2 hours, plus some colouring and tv shows gets us to about 3 1/2 hours. the last 40 minutes was difficult. But we made it. We purchased cashews and apple slices and pringles to distract the kiddos with food. All except Max...he was fully distracted by the movies and tv. I didn't hear a peep out of him for 4 hours. Pretty amazing.

Because Logan isn't 2 yet, we didn't have to pay for a seat for him. But then he always has to be sitting on someone's lap, which he doesn't love. There was a lady behind us who was acting RIDICULOUS on the flight, complaining loudly and obnoxiously when Tyler put his seat back a few inches. At one point, she leaned forward and angrily said, "Can you put your seat up!" Seriously. We have 5 people crowded into 4 seats. 3 of those people are 6 and under...give us a break! Anyway, we dealt with it. There was a little boy who threw up on the flight as well....thankfully not mine! I offered the mom some children's gravol that I had and then avoided that section of the plane.

Through all that, we finally made it! We landed in Calgary! The kids were giddy. Truthfully, so was I. Off the plane and down the hallway to be greeted by a huge crowd of family! Way more people than I expected to be there! It was so fun!


Hugs all around and time to get our luggage. It's never a good thing when you hear them page you to come to the luggage counter. Never a good thing. One suitcase didn't make it. They told us it was on the following flight and they would deliver it to us later that evening. Ok. We can deal. Of course, it was the one with Max's coat, all the pjs...and later, I discovered, the one with all the diapers! I had barely enough in my giant (awesome) purse to last me the evening. Phew!



Papa surprised the kids with a special visitor, strapped in the back of the truck.


We all headed to my parent's house for some dinner and visiting. It was a GREAT way to start the Christmas celebrating! It was a late night by the time we got to Williamson's and got set-up for the night, but thankfully the kids were seemingly resilient.







Yes, it is Christmas and not St. Patrick's Day...

Max kept saying, "I don't remember any of this" as we drove out to Cochrane. I was disappointed that his memory would fail so quickly. But when we got into Grandma and Papa's house, we took a quiet moment while he was in the bathroom. "Do you remember any of this, Max?" "Yeah, I remember this house. Look mom, they even got new soap!" Yes, after 6-months, the thing my son notices first is the new soap in Grandma's bathroom.

Tomorrow, it's time for hanging out at Grandma and Papa's and spending time with Kari, Barrett and Luke. They should be arriving sometime tonight too!

Tradition! Tradition!

It is a tradition to decorate some sort of Gingerbread creation sometime in the month of December. It's messy and haphazard, we never eat the finish product, it just sits for a few weeks and then we throw the rock-hard creation in the garbage (trying to explain to the children that it's ok and that these things can't be saved forever), and there is often a lot of stress trying to stop the kids from eating the candy that is intended for decorating. But it's tradition, so we keep doing it.

Last year, we decorated Santa sleighs. I believe the year before we did a house. This year, we decided to go for a whole village!

Logan was particularly interested in all the "gummies"
Lucy "just couldn't help herself" when it came to tasting each and every drop of icing that fell off the houses.
And Max tried REALLY hard to finish his dinner so he could join us. He made it in time to help with the last 3 houses.


One of the houses was so overloaded with icing and candies that the roof piece kept sliding off. We propped it up and by morning the icing had solidified enough to keep it in place. That is one well candied house.

So there you have our tiny village. We got icing EVERYWHERE and on EVERYONE, but it was a fun time. Let's hope mom is still awesome at laundry after this one.

Christmas 2010

How is it that even when you get a good night's sleep before Christmas Day, that you still feel so sleepy on Christmas morning and it lasts until bedtime that night? Too much adrenaline I guess. Our morning started out fairly usual with Tyler and I sitting in bed feeding Logan his bottle while the other two slept. At about 8:30am we finally decided it was time to be up and at it, so we let Logan wake the other two. Then it was down the hallway to discover what kind of loot was left for us all. As we drove home from Grandma B's last night, we noticed a red light in the sky that we hadn't ever seen before. Lucy concluded that it must be Santa, and he must be getting close, so we had better hurry and get to sleep. The kid's first stop was at their stocking, as per tradition. Max found a totally awesome Iron Man mask with his stocking, while Lucy was surprised by a Littlest Pet Shop kitty cat. The question of the day was, "How did Santa know I like....?" What a genius that Santa is. They were very excited to discover a note left by the empty plate of cookies we had left out for Santa. He wished the kids a Merry Christmas and thanked them for the treats and for being so good. Then he signed it with his fancy signature, which the kids thought was pretty awesome. Lucy was also quick to deduce that the wrapping paper she recognized (green and white) was ours, but all the red wrapping paper must be gifts from Santa, because she didn't recognize the paper. Tyler winked at me and thanked me for my seemingly over-the-top efforts to keep the red paper and sparkly silver gift tags hidden from the kids. They're no dummies!
Max's next discovery was a whoopie cushion in his stocking. When Tyler showed him how it worked and what it did, he giggled in the way only a 3-year-old boy would giggle when talking about toots. He had to test it out for himself right away. Then, he tested it out on everyone else in the family at different moments throughout the day. Even the Elders, who stopped by for a Christmas visit, got a dose of whoopie cushion. At one point he exclaimed, "How does Santa know I love toots?!"
Logan was mostly content to play with his stocking and the wrapping paper tossed aside by the other kids.
Lucy received 3 stuffed kittens from mom and dad, which she was elated about. Kittens are her favorite. They were each wrapped separately and in cleverly disguised boxes. At one point she unwrapped a ziploc box and was mostly disappointed at the discovery. "Ziplocs?!"
Grandma, Papa, and Janeen came down to join us eventually and Auntie Janeen noticed that Lucy had a new signature on her cast that no one had realized previously. Somehow Santa had managed to sign Lucy's cast while she was sleeping and she didn't even notice! The best part was, it HAD to be Santa, because the signature on her cast matched the signature on the note he had left by the cookie plate. Whenever anyone asks her about her cast or about what she got for Christmas, she is sure to point out Santa's signature right away. And, when she heard that she might get a new cast in a few weeks, she got very teary and said she didn't want a new one, because she wants to keep the one with Santa's signature on it. It was a pretty awesome surprise.
One of the best parts of Christmas is watching the kids make an effort to think of something really special that they want to get for each other and then watching them open those special gifts. This year, Max and Logan got Lucy a special tote box full of nailpolishes and perfumes. 4 different colors. She was elated and has since painted her toenails all different colors. Lucy and Logan got Max the Optimus Prime transformer that completes his set. Last year for Christmas he received Bumblebee and Megatron, but had to wait a whole year for Optimus Prime. He snuck away immediately to have a bout playing with all of his transformers.
Dad got to go on a treasure hunt to find his last gift from mom. A 10-gun safe hidden outside in the back of the big red truck. It was quite a surprise and quite a large and heavy gift for me to hide from him for such a long time. Totally worth it. I guess this means I'm giving in to the fact that my husband is a hunter. Something I never thought would happen.
I was especially excited about my new Rachel Ray cookware. I've only used one pot so far to warm up a can of soup, but I loved it, just the same.




Once all the presents at our house were opened, we headed up to Grandma and Papa's to eat some breakfast and open more presents. The rest of the day was spent playing with all the cool new things that we got, eating good food and visiting with family. Jacob got a Thomas the Train set which kept the boys pretty occupied for hours and Lucy loved playing Tyson's new hunting game on the big screen. It was a fabulously exhausting day.