Christmas 2010

We had a fabulous Christmas this year! I am happy to have it be over and done with and get back to the normal routine tomorrow, but we really enjoyed being with family and laughing a lot! We started Christmas Eve going out to breakfast at Ihop with the fam, then met at 4 at my grandparents house to carol to them. We then went to Aunt Mary's for dinner followed by our 22nd year of caroling at the hospital. One man we sang to said his wife needed us to carol to her. He begged us to go down there and said it would make his Christmas, and gave my parents the address. He called his wife and told her his Christmas gift was coming. I didn't end up going because the kids were ready for bed, but I heard she was so touched and had tears rolling down her face. There is always someone at the hospital that make every year worth it, and help you to remember the reason for the season. We came back to my parents house to get into our new Christmas jammies.

My camera was fogged up but Claire's jammies say "Baby's first Christmas". Awwww.

Chase and Claire--Chase thought he was Rocky Balboa and took a shot a Claire's face

Baby Chase

Carter and Kale-Carter loved his new Bakugan jammies!

The cousins had their annual gift exchange and Carter got a cool spiderman bionicle which he loved. Kale is the master and is showing Carter the ropes to bionicle building.

My mom got my dad a dog for Christmas! He has been asking for one for awhile so she decided to give in and get him a jack russell terrier just like the dog we had growing up. He decided to name him Rocky since our family is obsessed with that movie franchise. Isn't he adorable? Now my mom is trying to get him potty trained, yikes. It's like she has a baby!

On Christmas day we had our white elephant gift exchange, and this is Mike wearing part of my present. I accidentally ordered adult size Christmas pajamas from Children's place online last year on a great after Christmas sale. I decided to keep them for this occasion. They didn't disappoint! Mike looked like Tommy boy--fat guy in a little coat. We got good stuff-a cute beaded watch,scentsy cubes, a recipe book, and a calendar! Both of our gifts were from Melanie, she gave good stuff! Mine was more of a joke. We may have to change the rules next year...

My grandparents came over for a yummy Christmas lunch of turkey, stuffing, and all the fixin's.

Later on we played Phase 10 and opened Christmas crackers. Preston looks cute sporting his crown and showing off his compass. I love fun traditions like this.

Carter got a magic kit from his Auntie Helen and Uncle Ian. He was so excited to use it, he wouldn't stop hounding us until he did. His first potion was making his magic wand. Pretty fun!

My mom gave all of the kids this huge poster size photo collage of pictures she had of our family. It was so neat and something I will cherish forever. I love looking at all the photos and am looking for the perfect place to display it in my house.

Another magic wand making photo-not sure why it's out of order, but too tired to swith it! Cute boys I have that is for sure!

And last but not least, I found these kids snuggies on the 23rd of December at Ross and had to get them! Preston got Elmo and Carter got Spiderman. They love them! We all now have our own snuggie (except Claire). Our Christmas was great and I feel so blessed with all the material things we have. The best gift this Christmas was spending time with my family and kids and getting to see their little faces light up with all the fun things that Christmas brings. Christmas with kids makes it 100 times more fun. I can't wait until next year!

Parties and other Christmas fun

We had the annual Stephenson adult Christmas party on the 12th and then the Tenney family Christmas party the next week. Here is a cute picture of Claire my Uncle Richard took.

We also had the ward Christmas paty on the 17th where the boys got to meet Santa and tell him what they wanted this year. Preston wanted a wind up mouse (which he didn't get). Not sure where he got that from??

Carter asked for a bakugan (He ended up getting one from Grammy).

The boys both got presents from our friend Ann Woods from England. She is so sweet to always remember them every year. They got iron man figures that I let them open a day early that they loved! We went to see Tangled and they wanted to bring their ironmans in the car. I had to catch a photo.

After watching Tangled, James and the boys made gingerbread cookies for some of the neighbors. I had made homemade caramel a few days before with my sisters too so we bagged it all up and delivered the treats to some friends. Christmas is almost here!

Carter's Jingle Jam

I had a great birthday! I got surprised and taken out to breakfast at Ihop with Mel and my mom and then went out to lunch with Mel, my mom, Megan, and Bethany at Paradise Bakery. After that I was got to watch Carter perform with his school in their annual "Jingle Jam" Christmas program. Each grade gets up and sings a few songs. It was so cute.

The kindergarteners were last of course, and were all sooo adorable. Carter was so cute and started to wave and smile so big as soon as he saw me. It melted my heart! They sang about being elves for Santa's workshop. I thought maybe Carter only had one elf ear that stayed in tact.

Turns out he just had his headband turned around so you couldn't see it. This was him walking down going back to his class. I am so proud of him, he is just such a good boy. That little toothless smile is my favorite. What a great way to spend part of my b-day!

30th Birthday Amazing Race/80's Party

As usual, I think I have my camera for the party and it ends up that I didn't have the battery put back in it. I swear it happens every year! Here are the few photos I have, but I am still waiting for more from others who came. This year was SOO much fun! First of all, my favorite present of the year was my best friend Kate flying in to be with me for the weekend. She is so much fun and I loved having her stay with us. Her husband flew me out to be with her for her 30th in January, so it was only fair that she be here for mine too! James did so much work to make it all happen, and kept it a secret from me so that I could play too. He's the best. We had everyone meet at my house and then we split into teams and traveled down to Provo to eat at Slab Pizza. I love that place and James and the rest of my fam/friends had never tried it, so I thought it would be perfect. They even posted on their blog about our "loud and fun bunch." Yeah, that sounds like us! There were 25 of us in all! We had to dress in 80s gear and people did not disappoint! I wish I had more photos of everyone's attire, it was hilarious! James looked great in his Pretty in Pink/Weekend at Bernie's look. His white pants were high waters and he had on no socks with docksiders. I had on silver leggings with leg warmers over top of my boots and a ruffled skirt with a neon shirt, jean jacket, side ponytail, blue eyeshadow, and tiara to boot! Fabulous! The winner of the night was my bff Karynn who wore her ORIGINAL fanny pack and neon earrings from the 80s. So awesome.

Here is part of the gang eating at Slab. I think everyone enjoyed it.

More of the party goers/racers.

We got our first clue at Slab and were told to go to the Quarry rock climbing place. One person from each team had to climb the rock wall. Derek was the one from our team to do that task. We were in first place at this point. We also were given a CD to play in the car and had to write down the artist and title of song for each one. My favorite game! I had a little edge on that since they came from my cds!

The next task led us to BYU stadium where two people from each team had to do a 3 legged race around the stadium. Karynn and Kate did this task for us, I'm glad I didn't have to do it in my high heeled boots (bad choice of shoes for the race but I kept up pretty well). After they finished, our clue gave us 5 dollars and we had to buy something with it and trade it as many times as we could and each trade counted for 30 seconds off your overall time. We also were on our way to Cabelas. We had to do a whole sheet of tasks from taking a picture with an employee, to finding the most expensive thing sold in the store (it was a 32,000 dollar rifle). We also had to take a picture of something that would complete the sentence "You know you're a redneck when...". Our picture was of a camoflouged office chair. Wow. We took a little too long in that task and lost our lead. We were then led to Lehi Legacy Center where one person had to shoot 10 free throws blindfolded. That was hard! And we had to wait until the team before us had finished. My brother Kevin took FOREVER to do this task so it put all of the rest of us way behind the first team. My brother Greg did it for our team and actually did it pretty fast. We then had to go to 5 Buck Pizza (Kevin's pizza place) and answer trivia questions followed by eating hot peppers. We were so far behind we knew that we couldn't win, so we decided not eat the peppers. It gave a 30 minute penalty so we had no chance of winning. We ended up at my house to have dessert and chat about the race.

Chocolate fountains are so yummy!

The yummy treats-cream puffs, rice krispie treats, yellow cake balls, strawberries and bananas to dip in chocolate...my own personal heaven!

30 written in cake balls

Me "blowing out" my candles (really a sparkler which didn't blow out).

I got so many great gifts and everyone was so awesome to get babysitters and rearrange their schedules to celebrate my birthday with me. It is not easy being born in December trying to find a good day for people is nearly impossible! James sent out date ideas in August, that's how prepared he was. He always does such an amazing job of spoiling me on my birthday. This was such a blast and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. We are all so competitive and were running and yelling at each other the whole time, just like I like it! haha
This last very unflattering photo is of me at Texas Roadhouse riding the saddle on my actual birthday. Claire was terrified when they were yelling for everyone to say yee haw. Isn't this picture classic? She seriously cried for a good 5 minutes after that. It traumatized her!
I am excited to be thirty and to start a new decade of life. I feel like I will just gain more wisdom and knowledge which can't be bad right? I'm trying to stay positive about getting older-there is no point in being sad about it. Here's to the next 30 being just a wonderful as my first 30!

Gingerbread House

The first of the Christmas festivities was of course the gingerbread house decorating. They decided to make it easy on us this year by having the house already pre built-genius idea! The icing is terrible and doesn't stick very well so our windows look pretty sad. The boys love this tradition and look forward to it every year.

I took this picture a little too late. Some of the candy had already been eaten!

The boys so proud of their gingerbread men. The more candy the better!

New floor

What a December we have had! SO busy! It all started with our downstairs bathroom toilet leaking and ruining the floor. Note to all those in the neighborhood-put a wax seal on your toilet because Sundance homes didn't put them on! We had talked about replacing our flooring anyway, so this was just our push to do it a little earlier than we had planned on. What a huge project!! I had no idea how much work it would be. Never again. I will hire someone if I ever have to do it again. We decided to put tile in our bathroom and fake wood through the rest of our main floor. This meant doing backerboard, grout, ripping up carpet, adding subfloor and lots of use of a miter saw! I am tired just thinking about it. My fingers were totally red and in pain for about a week! We are so happy with the results and are loving our carpet free main area. Picture above is of James doing the backerboard in the bathroom.

The "finished" tile job-we still need to go back and do more grout. I need a break though, so it won't be for a few more weeks.

The wood up close and personal-photo by Preston

kitchen view

All the way through to the family room and into the front room-so glad it's over!

Thanksgiving with the twins

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving this year with the Tenney side. We had fewer numbers with people going to inlaws, so we were all able to fit at my moms house. It was so nice! It was fun to see all of the family that came but the highlight of the day was getting to meet my cousin Sean's twins, Olivia and Sophie. They were born at the end of September and are the sweetest little baby girls ever. Here is a cute picture of Sean's mom holding her granddaughters.

Sophie Michael

Olivia Sean (I hope I am saying the right name for the right baby)

Uncle Jeff, James, Carl

We ate so much yummy food I was stuffed for the rest of the day! The men assuming their position of hand down their pants and relaxing. haha James doesn't quite know what to do!

Aunt Stephanie with Sophie

Grandma Tenney with her great granddaughters

Aunt Taffy, Grandma, Karen, Sophie, Olivia

Here is all 4 generations together. Doesn't Karen look fantastic?! She is also nursing the twins and going to school! She should win an award. It was bittersweet to not have Sean there to enjoy the girls with us, but I am so grateful that they are here and healthy. Happy late Thanksgiving!

First Snowman

We got dumped with snow last night! The first big snow of the season that has stuck. The day before it was 60 degrees. Crazy Utah weather! Although it has been pretty nice to not have any real snow until the end of November. The boys had so much fun helping daddy make their snowman.
They also had to help shovel the driveway. I told Carter to smile and he posed just like this. Snow pile in hand, head cocked to one side, and big smile on his face. Perfect. Notice Preston isn't helping at all and is just tromping through the snow. Typical.
James had a genius idea to give the boys dustpans to use as snow shovels. Perfect size for them!
James has now shoveled the driveway twice in the past 12 hours. He also shoveled a bunch of the neighbors driveways and the sidewalks. He's obsessed to say the least!

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!

Two happy boys with a job almost done!

Remember Remember the 5th of November

I forgot to post these before Presto's birthday...we celebrated Bonfire Night! For those of you who don't know what bonfire night is, it is an English holiday on the 5th of November. It is the day that Guy Fawkes tried to blow up the houses of parliament in London. He didn't succeed, and was thrown into the tower of London. Now they celebrate by creating huge bonfires and putting a little "Guy" doll on the top. They also light fireworks, eat baked potatoes (or jacket potatoes as the British call them), and hot dogs. Above is a picture of our tree out front on that day. I think it had every color possible! I love autumn.
We had some left over sparklers from 4th of July that we lit in honor of Bonfire Night, complete with Preston's fabulous outfit he picked out himself.

Ode to Preston

I absolutely love this picture. This is TOTALLY Preston. He is my little dancing goofball.
Today is his birthday. 4 years old. Seriously.
He has absolutely no fear of anything or anyone. He loves to run away from me and anyone in charge of him. He thinks it's hilarious. I have learned that the only thing that will get him to come back is to get in my car and start driving away, that usually gets him coming back pretty fast.
He loves to tell jokes. His latest is, "What does a duck eat?"...Quackers! hahaha
He laughs at all of his own jokes. He is his biggest fan, besides me of course.
He has also made up his own little move that is a hip thrust to one side while saying SMOOOOOTH. If you haven't it yet, you need to. It is hilarious. He loves to perform for whomever will watch. Goes back to the no fear thing. He really has the best dance moves and rhythm of any kid I know. I need to get him in hip-hop. He would love it!
He also loves to change words and make up new ones for them. The other day he was saying goodbye to the bus. He yells out-Goodbye Hussy! I laughed as usual.
I think he likes to get in trouble. He wonders how I will react to things. He has cut the string on my blinds, poured jello, pectin, shampoo, and nyquil into my carpet, and other random acts of deviant behavior. If I don't see him do it, he will ALWAYS come and tell me. He is so proud of his work. Little stinker.
His older brother is his biggest hero. He thinks Carter is the coolest. He has recently decided that he likes baby Claire...but only when he feels like it.
He is my big helper. I can trick him into doing almost anything if he thinks he is "helping" me. He is a really good cleaner and is pretty organized.
He is still sucking his thumb. Is it bad that I still find it adorable? I promise I will make him stop before kindergarten, but he will have to think it's his idea or else it won't happen. He's stubborn like that. He also loves to have a single hair wrapped around his thumb while he sucks it. It is the grossest, weirdest, habit ever.
He has a tender little heart. If he knows someone is sad, he will always be right there to give them a hug or share with them. He loves to have me give him "squeezie tights." He will say he wants to give me 100 kisses and hold up his ten fingers. It is the cutest thing ever.
Preston is a night owl, just like me. When James and I go in to check on him at night before we go to bed he is 98% of the time not in his bed. It is kind of a game to see where he will end up. Usually he has his pillow over his head and is laying in the corner on the floor.
He is really into say "ya know" after everything lately. For example-"Mommy, I have school today ya know! " I also love when he says actually. Aaaactuawwwweee, no.
I could go on and on. I am so glad he is in our family. He really is the coolest kid I know. I am one proud mama. Happy 4th Birthday Presto. We love you so much!

Milestones

Claire tried rice cereal for the first time today. I have totally forgotten how LONG it takes to feed a baby rice cereal! What a mess too! She did love it though and ate almost the whole bowl full. She is almost 6 months old. Where has the time gone?
Carter lost his first tooth at my mom's house after trick or treating on the 30th. It had been really loose for about a week and I could not get it out! James is a wuss and can't stand to see loose teeth, so my brother Kevin finished the job. Carter was really brave and let him try to get it out like 5 times! The one next to it is very loose now so he has the billy bob hillybilly look on his bottom teeth. He can't wait for it to come out so he can get another quarter from the tooth fairy. Isn't the tooth fairy generous to give him a whole quarter? He doesn't understand the concept of how much things are worth, so he was so excited about it. I hope he doesn't compare notes with the other kids in the neighborhood. haha I have a kid losing teeth, how did the time fly by so fast?