Wrapping up Christmas and 2014

We missed our opportunity to get a picture of the boys in their Christmas outfits in front of the tree the Sunday before Christmas due to Hudson having the flu, so we took them this week. The boys were (shockingly) not super cooperative, but at least I can check this one off the list. 

 And just for comparison sake, here they are last year. I can't believe how much they've grown. Hudson grew hair!

The boys got a cute book for Christmas called "Mighty Dads" that Hudson requests be read several times a day. It's all about machines. I snapped this right before church, reading with daddy. I love these three so much.

 These were the pictures that were on our Christmas card this year. We just took them with our camera and it was stressful and makes me think next year we'll shell out the money and have someone more professional help us out.

 Aunt Heidi was here for 12 wonderful days. Chase anticipated her coming for a good six weeks before she got here. He made the cutest sign for her bedroom door before she came and even came to the airport super late at night to pick her up. He got all shy the second he saw her, but warmed up really quickly, and then rarely left her side for the rest of the time. She plays with him, makes cookies with him, and laughs at every single thing he says or does- he knows he's got a captive fan here. I found him a few mornings sneaking into her bed to watch shows on her iPad and he always wanted to be near her when she was home. It was pretty hard to send her back to Boston-we love this girl!

 Just a typical Hudson/Nora moment. He just loves her. Both of the boys do. We were all so grateful this Christmas to have Nora with us! She's a little angel.

 It was so fun to have our whole family together this Christmas! We were all together on Christmas Eve and then we had two separate dinners at restaurants with just the adults that were so fun. I love my family and I love that we have such a blast together. We have a tradition that right around Christmas we all go out to dinner and some cultural event like a play or concert. Well this year, due to many factors, timing, and the difficulties of leaving a baby, our "cultural event" ended up being a Parks and Rec marathon in the basement, and it was wonderful! We laughed a lot.

Wrapping up 2014 is kind of surreal, like new years is most of the time. I can't believe a whole year went  by. Last night Ben and I had a wonderful date to the Ogden temple (which is so beautiful) and a delicious dinner (thanks for the gift card Nate!) and we had a chance to talk about our year and the ups and downs and all that was accomplished. We were excited/relieved to have met most of our New Years resolutions from last year and set some goals for 2015 (mostly to buy a house and go on a few vacations!). We also feel so blessed- we had an amazing year with our two little boys and loved watching them grow and learn new things and explore the world with them. While we didn't exactly travel much in 2014 (Ben never actually left Utah) we did get to explore a lot of the beauty and fun of Northern Utah and had a wonderful time. Adios 2014- you were good to us!

Christmas Day

Our Christmas Day did not go exactly as planned, starting at 1:00 am when Chase woke up feeling sick. He spent the next several hours in and out of our bed, coughing, whining, and mostly just feeling sick. Then around 4:00 the throwing up started- and really didn't stop all day long. Poor Chase! I felt so bad for him. He was so excited for Christmas and it was such a bummer to be sick for it! I was super exhausted from being up most of the night with him- it just didn't get the greatest start. Chase is the sweetest kid ever when he's sick- so in between vomiting spells he remained pretty happy and excited about Christmas! He's such a trooper. 

When Hudson woke up around 7:30 we made our way upstairs to see what Santa brought. Chase rallied and was able to have a pretty fun time opening his gifts. He was really excited to see the bike that Santa brought him.

Side note: On Christmas Eve, Ray likes to call and pretend he's Santa and talk to the kids on the phone. When he asked Chase exactly what kind of bike he wanted Chase said, "One with training wheels and one that is my size." I love his sweetness! Then after the phone call Chase said to me, "Mom, if that was Santa, then why did your phone say Ray Hugo?" Busted! I made up a story about how Santa called Papa Ray first to get our number and Ray patched him through. Chase totally accepted it. Next year I'll remember to change his name in my phone prior to the call!

Hudson was so delighted to see his lawn mower. He didn't really ask Santa for anything, other than a candy cane, but we knew he'd be excited about this. And he was. And very protective, he got mad whenever Chase came near it. He was particularly excited that it came with a little gas can, so he can fill it up with gas every 2 minutes. 

 My boys stayed excited about all the things in their stockings- except maybe the clothes, which aren't that exciting when there are toys around. I felt like we cut way back on presents this year, but it still seemed like there were so many! Plus, our boys have doting grandparents and aunts and uncles who spoiled them as well. One of my favorite moments was probably when my mom gave Chase a wooden car carrier (a toy Chase has admired at different stores for awhile now- and tried to convince me to buy it for daddy for Christmas because Chase was sure he wanted it). Chase opened it and said, "I've wanted one of these for my whole life!" Every gift these sweet boys got was so thoughtful and perfect for them and their interests- they are lucky little boys!

Shortly after presents it was clear that Chase was feeling even worse and he couldn't even keep the tiniest amount of water down. He spent the rest of the day watching shows on the couch and throwing up. The only time he whined or cried was when Will and Katie and Nora came over and he wanted to be part of the party but couldn't.

We had a pretty chill day, which was what we'd planned anyway, thankfully complete with a long nap for me so I could catch up from the sleepless night before and be nicer to people in general. My mom made a beautiful and delicious Christmas dinner that we all enjoyed together- sans Chase of course- and a traditional Yulelog for dessert.

Christmas didn't go as planned, but we did still have some wonderful, happy memories. This holiday season I've been reflecting a lot about the Savior. I've been wanting to teach my boys about what Christmas is really all about. I don't know how well they get it yet, but with doing our daily service activities and talking a lot about baby Jesus' birth, it has really taught me something more about Christmas. Because of Savior every sadness in this life will be made right, every mistake can be forgiven, and we can have eternal happiness. I'm so thankful for His life and the gift He gave us all. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

On Monday we decided to make our traditional Christmas sugar cookies. I kind of put it off because it's so messy and takes forever, but I remember loving this tradition as a kid and Chase loves it too. Chase loves to help with every aspect of the process- and eats copious amounts of cookies dough along the way as well. 

 We frosted them for family home evening that night. Chase was cracking us all up by using "double shakers" for the sprinkles. This kid LOVES sprinkles and drowned each cookie in them! When we were done I stuck two cookies in the freezer to be Santa's cookies- knowing with all the family we have home now that they surely wouldn't last until Christmas Eve. I was glad because when I told Chase on Christmas Eve that we needed to go set out cookies and milk for Santa, he looked at me with a panicked face and said, "But Mom! I ate the last of the cookies!" I reassured him that it was okay because I had stashed a few in the freezer, and he quickly replied with, "Oh, but mom? Can I just have one of those first?"

 Christmas Eve is my wonderful mom's birthday and we always spend the whole day as a family. After a fun birthday breakfast, my brothers and I started working on our Christmas gift to my dad. A few weeks ago I mentioned to my dad that this year instead of buying him gifts (he rarely wants "things") that we would like to do some act of service for him instead. Since being Bishop he's been so busy that many of his projects have been put on the back burner. He quickly told me that would be a great idea and that what he'd really like is for us to clean up his shop (it's roughly the size of our first apartment and gets very dirty/cluttered). My brothers and I spent 4 hours working on it and can happily report we did it with no fighting and very little swearing :)  My parents took the boys and Nora to visit my grandparents for the morning so they were out of our hair.

After naps we headed to Christmas Village in Ogden! This place is so cute and magical at Christmas. We've taken Chase the last three years and each year he loves it more and more. We planned on going last week, but Hudson got the flu. We all went together (sans Nate who had a headache) and enjoyed the pretty lights and cute Christmas houses, but mostly enjoyed watching my cute boys take it all in. Chase ran from between houses and thoroughly inspected each one looking for trains, fire engines, nutcrackers and penguins (some of his favorite Christmas things). He wanted to look in all the windows and had a huge smile on his face the whole time. Hudson moved through them much more quickly, mostly just looking for houses with trains. My favorite moment of the whole night was when Hudson asked to hold Chase's hand and they walked like that for a few minutes!

 We came home for our traditional candlelight dinner, which was delicious and beautiful. We had birthday cake (imported from Vienna, because we are fancy like that) and then did the Nativity story with finger puppets (Hudson had gone to bed by then- poor kid was exhausted). Chase wanted to be like half the puppets, but allowed Nora to have a sheep, which she chewed on. We watched Prep and Landing and then got our Chaser to bed. I had all these grand plans of us all getting a great nights sleep so that we'd be well rested to enjoy our Christmas morning- but that was not in the plans! Christmas morning held more surprises for us...

More Christmas Fun

Oh the magic of meeting Santa Claus for a little kid! We had to wait in line for a bit and Chase couldn't contain his excitement, he was running around me in circles! When he peeked in the window of Santa's little house the first thing he said was, "Mom! At my two year old Christmas Santa was not wearing that hat!" I can't believe he even remembers last year. When it was finally his turn he was very chatty with Santa. When Santa asked what he wanted Chase answered with a question, "Santa, can you make flashlights?" and then "Can you make bikes?" Santa assured him he could. Then Chase launched into a very long explanation about how the front-end loader that Santa brought him last year is now broken which even had Santa laughing. 

 Then it was Hudson's turn. Hudson has been very clingy in just the last few days, so we weren't even sure if he would sit on Santa's lap. He cautiously hopped right up and checked Santa out. He wouldn't talk to him, until Santa asked what he wanted for Christmas and Hudson responded with "candy cane" and hopped right off Santa's lap to grab one.

On Monday night we got together with our friends from our BYU days for a fun Christmas party. We had a blast! The Bennetts hosted us in their beautiful home and the kids all got along so beautifully. We only get together a few times a year, but we all just pick up right where we left off (the adults and the kids) and have an amazing time. We were laughing looking at all these kids in this picture- when we all became friends Brooklynn was just a baby and we all just fussed over her. Now there are 7 kids among the three of us and just generally constant happy chaos. 

Drew and Ryder Bennett, Hudson, Kynlee, Brooklynn and Ella Virgin and Chase

We had great plans of continuing with our daily acts of service this week. Most of them happened, but a nasty flu bug visited our house and ruined many of our plans! Poor Hudson caught this terrible bug- it started late Monday night with sniffles, by Wednesday afternoon he was throwing up and it didn't stop for days! My poor baby was lethargic and cuddly(yay!) and so demanding(not yay). So we just stayed home and watched LOTS of Christmas movies/disney junior episodes. Some of the more simple acts of service still happened: we made Christmas cookies for our pediatrician and delivered them (pre-sickness), did an act of service for Papa (folded his laundry), and Chase really loved the idea of "give hugs day". I felt bad that a few of the service activities didn't happen, but I was too busy cleaning puke out of the carpet and couch. Chase was thrilled about the unlimited amounts of TV watching, but was clearly super stir crazy.

So Friday night Chase and I went on a little date! Ben takes Chase on little dates all the time, but I rarely do (other than you know, our daily outings and adventures, but we always have Hudson with us). I let Chase pick where we went to dinner, so of course we ended up at McDonalds so he could play on their fun indoor play structure. After an hour there we headed over to look at the Layton lights. Chase was so excited about everything we saw. First we walked through them, excitedly pointing out the dinosaurs and different animals and running through the light tunnel. Once we were done with that Chase still wasn't done with lights, so we drove through them as well to get a different perspective :) Chase just absolutely loves Christmas lights! And I loved having one on one time with my favorite three year old.

Preschool

December is my second and final month hosting our little preschool at my house. I was so excited about having it this month because there is so much fun stuff to do in December! Chase's class is the cutest little group of kids and he is enjoying preschool so much (i.e. he has burst into tears the last two times when all the kids go home). I wanted to document all the fun things we've done so that in a few weeks I can feel at peace with throwing the projects in the trash.

We are working this month on patterns and sorting. We decorated these Christmas trees, but first I made the kids sort their M&Ms into piles of red and green. I think this was their favorite activity.

I got braver this month and let them paint, which Chase was so so excited about. We made these little candy canes when we were working on patterns. No clothing or furniture was ruined in the process so I will call it a success.

 I had some extra time to fill one day and wasn't quite sure what to do and my mom came up with this idea- have them put glitter on stars. So simple, but the kids loved it. I planned on having them sprinkle the glitter on a cookie sheet to eliminate the mess. Chase was the first kid to go and just as I was showing them that we were going to pick up one corner of the star to let the (huge pile of) excess glitter spill off, little Chase took a big breath and decided to blow the glitter away- GLITTER EVERYWHERE! The best laid plans...

 We learned about Rudolf one day (and had a little lesson on being kind to people/reindeer even if they are different in some way). I traced all their hands and feet to make these reindeer. I just love seeing these little projects come together. They don't look perfect, and I love it that way. I love seeing the messy learning process of a three year old!

Lastly, we made little ornaments for our Christmas tree. The kids really got into the pipe cleaner/bead activity I could have/should have planned for time for it and just let them really go to town instead of just making two candy canes. 

Preschool for the month was supposed to wrap up on Friday with a Christmas party. With all the holidays and craziness (and just a little bit of my general laziness) I hadn't actually planned that elaborate of a party- it was going to include a little gift exchange, a few simple games, some Christmas books and songs and then in all likelihood- some sort of Christmas movie off Netflix. As it turns out, Hudson came down with a flu bug (that has been nasty- more on that later) and so I just cancelled the Christmas party. I couldn't quite figure out how to manage my sick boy and the party at the same time, and I really didn't want to spread this awful bug around to 4 more homes. Luckily, I hadn't really told Chase much of the party, so I just casually mentioned to him that we wouldn't be having preschool that day and he pretty much accepted it (his Aunt Heidi is in town, so he had plenty of other excitement going on). I felt bad, but on Friday morning when Hudson threw up 3 times during the window that would have been preschool I was pretty thankful we'd cancelled!

Having preschool at our house in December ended up being so fun! I really love the little cuties in Chase's class and I've loved being part of their preschool experience. The other moms involved are awesome and really it has been the best experience for Chase. He loves going to preschool every single time- and he usually doesn't want to leave either when it's done. He just loves it! 

Christmas Spirit

We've started getting into the Christmas spirit around here! December is such a fun month that we start celebrating Christmas right away. Last week we took the boys on frontrunner to see the lights at Temple Square. The lights were, of course, magical. But the real highlight for the boys of course was frontrunner, Hudson almost refused to get off the train when we got to Salt Lake. It was a fabulous night!

We are starting another new family tradition this year. I have been trying to think of more ways to keep Christmas season focused on the Savior and less on presents and Santa- although that stuff is fun too. Ben and I have each participated in a few more grown up service activities, but I hadn't really come up with a way to extend that to the kids. A sweet friend told me about what they were doing with their young kids- an act of service a day until Christmas. Something small and something little ones can do. I loved the idea. Over the weekend I made up little cards with a specific act of service for each day. We had our family home evening lesson Monday night all about the Savior and how serving others is our gift to Him. I wish I could say that the spirit was there and that the kids totally got it- but they were both being totally crazy and silly during the lesson. But we are going to talk about it each day as we do our little act of service and hopefully over time the lesson will sink in. Our first day was leaving a Christmas treat for the mailman. We wrapped up some of these cute gingerbread men that Chase and I had made that day. The next day was taking a Christmas treat to a widow, so we used a few more of the gingerbread men to take to a widow on our street. 

 The day after that our service for the day was writing Christmas cards to the missionaries in our ward. The next day was making Christmas cards to mail to Chase's great-grandparents. We made a whole morning of it and Chase made 4 beautiful cards. I got brave and let him paint with a q-tip. Here he is making a snow scene (which we added a snowman to after it was dry) and then he decorated some darling Christmas trees with red paint and glitter. The finished products were SO CUTE! So I hope his great-grandparents enjoy them.

Here are their finished products-I'll bet you can guess which one was Chase's and which is Hudson's. Hudson sure was proud of his though! I kept these two to hang on my fridge, and I wish I had taken pictures of the Christmas tree ones before we sent them because they were darling as well.

Friday's service activity was making a Christmas treat to deliver to the fireman in Kaysville. Chase helped me make Christmas pretzels (meaning topping a pretzel with a hug or rolo and letting it melt in the over and then topping it with a red or green M&M). It was the perfect Christmas treat to make with a three year old- he could do so much of it himself and loved helping. While we did that Hudson helped by climbing on the counter to grab huge handfuls of pretzels and then worked on unloading all the kitchen cupboards and grabbing ornaments off the tree and throwing them on the floor. It was awesome. Chase went with me to deliver the treats to the fireman last night and he told them all about how he loves firetrucks and how he was a fireman for Halloween. It was very sweet. I am hoping Chase is getting the deeper lessons of service and Christlike love during this Christmas season. I've sure had fun working on these simple projects with my sweet boy! 

Out of the Mouth of Chase

Chase: Aunt Kate, guess what I want for Christmas!
Kate: What?
Chase: (Singing) All I want for Christmas is YOU!!!!!

Nana, guess what? I like to say dangit!

As he was finishing his prayers: In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. Help me Jesus please. Good-bye.

During the prayer on dinner: And please bless the food. And bless baby Jesus.  In the name...Oh wait! Please bless we can watch a movie tonight. Ha ha. I almost forgot to say that. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

A few nights ago I woke up in the middle of the night to Chase screaming out my name, which usually means he is really sick or scared. I went into his room-
Me: Hey Chase, what's up?
Chase: Oh! Mom? Can you turn on my light please? I have to go to the bathroom.
(He has been getting up at night to go to the bathroom-whether there is already a light on or not- for over a year.)
Then the next night he did the same thing. I told him that wasn't allowed, he can call for mom if he's sick or scared or really needs me, but not to turn a light on for him- he can get out of bed and turn the light on himself.
Chase: Oh mom, was that just a one time deal?

My mom gave Chase some new Christmas books and the first thing he said was:
Oh these are wonderful! These are making my wishes come true!

I'm going to ask Santa for a whole bunch of flashlights and only one bike. Like probably 10 flashlights.
(He does really love flashlights)

After talking about how his friend got a birthmark removed last week Chase said, "But me and dad, we like our birthmarks, so we keep them!"
(Ben and Chase have similar birthmarks on their ankles- something we haven't even acknowledged or talked about in over a year. Chase has an amazing memory!)

Our Kick-off to Christmas

Ben and I decided that one of our family traditions would be to do a kick-off to Christmas party with our kids each year. Decorating the Christmas tree seems like the logical way to start it, so that's what we did. Chase helped me decorate my mom's beautiful designer tree- he had an opinion about where each and every ornament should go of course. Then we set up a tiny Christmas tree in Chase's room and let the boys put all their ornaments on it. We give them an ornament each year. This year I found the cutest red and green airplane (for Chase) and helicopter (for Hudson).  Chase loves having the little tree in his room, so maybe that will be a tradition as well now!

 Then after dinner we let the boys open a Christmas present- their holiday jammies! As soon as Chase saw them he exclaimed, "These are JUST WHAT I WANTED!" and both boys were more excited about the jammies than I anticipated. We got them dressed in their soft new jammies and surprised them with one more present to open, the dvd of Polar Express. Then we cuddled up as a family to watch it. It was a perfect evening! Hudson was so excited to be included (we usually put him to bed before movie nights) and for the first 30 minutes he held perfectly still and snuggled with me. Then he kept leaning right into Chase's face and saying excitedly "Hi! Chase! Chase! Hi!"  then he got super restless and we put him to bed and just finished the movie with Chase.

It was such a fun night with our sweet boys and got everyone excited for Christmas! The next morning Chase asked if he got to open two presents again. I explained that there wouldn't be anymore presents until Christmas but told him about all the fun things in store and he was excited again. This is my favorite time of year!