christmas day

Christmas morning we decided we wouldn't come out of our rooms until 7:00. (we had a rule every other day that no kids could come out of their rooms until 8:00 a.m. it really helped keep the house quiet.)

My boys woke up at 6:30 Christmas morning. I had to post this picture because I think it is a funny one of Cortney. We were so tired on this trip...too many late nights and early mornings.

Because we had a half hour before we could get up I at least was able to freshen up a little...which was nice.

Each family had a different spot on the couch for their presents...we all came in and just started opening. It worked out real nice.
These are our families presents. I wrapped everything real cute this year (thanks to clearance IKEA wrapping paper and ribbons).

The kids lined up in order by age (youngest first, another earl family tradition)...they were dying to go down.

How cute are they??

It might not look like it but this is Rob's excited face. He could barely believe his eyes.



Just the reaction every parent hopes for. Legos!

A wonderful surprised Rob...Martian Matter, just what he wanted. (it turned out being a really fun toy too)


We got our boys a wii, it has been fun so far. I am so glad that is what we ended up getting too...because I honestly hate toys (except legos) my kids never play with them and they are always just making a mess. I agonized over what to get them and wasn't sure if this was the right way to go...I am sure glad I did now though.



Rob has wanted Lion King 1 1/2 for a long time.


Oh yeah baby...bang ga roos (actually known as bendaroos) Rob loves the infomercial for these and has been dreaming of them for sometime. I love how he has his hip popped in this picture.


Group shot (henry was upstairs sound asleep)


Cortney handmade me this nativity that is on the table, out of recycled steel...it is so beautiful. It amazes me how crafty he is.


Yum, Hickory farms...My favorite....from grandma Jones.


The kids played rockband all day. We heard a lot of Yellow submarine, Hard days night, and Lucy in the sky with diamonds. I love LOVE hearing another generation becoming obsessed with the beatles.

The adults played A LOT of the new super mario game. A lot.


This was my view for most of the day....unfortunatly I am no good at playing but luckily watching isn't too boring.


Joey on crutches.


Rob and Hens.

The kids also swam a lot that day.
Jack.


Cortney flipping into the pool.
Jason told me later that Cortney jumped off of the balcony into the pool...Crazy guy.


Gg.


Oli jumping in.


The group in our PJ's. It was so fun to all be together...I love my family.

simply havin' a wonderful Christmas time

hmmm....I am having the best time on Christmas vacation. The boys had a wonderful Christmas this morning. I will write more about it later but in the meantime...

How cute is my Henry getting?? I love that he is getting bigger

I love him.

cortney

Happy birthday to my wonderful husband. Cortney turns 33 tomorrow. Poor baby having a birthday next to Christmas...I think because of this he is always forgotten. This year however he bought himself a new racquetball racquet...so he made up for the past years of not getting anything.

Happy birthday Cort.

this sucks...

had to break out my fat pants today.

It is ridiculous how chubby I get when I am nursing. The day I had the baby I was my pre-pregnancy weight...today I weigh 9 lbs more. HELLO. That is crazy. I am honestly a bottomless pit when I am nursing...thankfully I can only nurse one more month. Then I have to start on my RA medications.

All I think about is Chili's two for $20 deal. Hmmmm. That sounds good doesn't it?

Oh...by the way, I guess another reason I am gaining weight (besides the 3 desserts I am baking and eating every day) is that I am on a pretty high dose of steroids right now...maybe that explains my roid rage too. hahaa.

I wish I had a awesome picture to post but I don't. Time is zipping past and I just can't get caught up.

Four days ago I realized I hadn't bought anything for Christmas yet. But now I think I am getting closer to being done. Plus I did my visiting teaching today (yay) and that is always a big relief. Neighbor gifts were baked today, now I just need to finish the tags. Oh...and I was late picking up Oliver from school today, the office had to call to tell me to come get him....CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?? How embarrassing. I really feel like having this baby took all of my brain cells. I have never been that great without sleep...that must be it.

Anyways...just a random post.

funny rob

Last night on the way home from Cali's house Rob said:

"Mom we've got to hurry or I'll be late for my dance class."

Um...what a weird kid, he isn't in a dance class. I don't know where he comes up with this stuff.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was the best. I love getting together with family...whether it be Boices or Earls. THis year we spent here in Utah with all of my brother's and sisters. It was great to Sam and Kyle and their kids. We really miss them being so far away.

The whole vacation was great, really all we did was sit around and hang out. The kids had a blast. It was so fun to watch them all running around...it really reminded me of my childhood and the great times I had with my cousins. It was fun to watch them but REALLY LOUD on my ears.

One of our few moments of quiet...here all the toddlers are watching a show on Cali's bed.

I can't get these pictures to go where they are supposed to go. Bahhhh...oh well. The day after thanksgiving the family loaded up and we headed to our favorite place on the planet...Costco. I love that place...anyways Oliver had my camera and took some random shots of us, I had to include them because I thought they were really funny.

In this one I love how you can see Henry's head poking out by rob's face. I had to carry him around that day...I don't know why he is usually really good at the store.

I had to include this one...because first off look at me chowing down in the backround. Don't even get me started on how much I can eat and how chubby I am getting...by far the hardest thing about being a new mom for me. Secondly I love Cali in this picture...here she is handing Oliver a sample. We have to hand out a lot of samples when we go to costco with our kids....it is pretty comical.

My mom reading to the little babies before bed. I love hearing my mom read...talk about nostalgia. hmmm...it puts me to sleep. I also love how grace is totally smiling at the camera.

Joey had in his mind a pear dessert he wanted to make. Here he is with Cortney's blow torch brulee'ing the tops. He also had two different sauces for them and an almond brittle. It was cute that he had that in his mind to make.

Oh the food, the food. You would be amazed at how many rolls my family can eat. I wish I could have more of that food right now. You would be amazed at how many rolls my family can eat.I personally made 7 dozen orange rolls (just like grandma), homemade cranberry sauce (I don't know how anyone eats the canned stuff), and the mandarin orange salad pictured above (a boice family tradition and my personal favorite). Hmmmm....I love the holidays.

Getting ready to eat.

Dad carving the turkey

A beautiful picture of Cali...our hostess with the mostest.

Mom and Henry.

After dinner we sat around and looked at the black friday ads, and surfed the interweb...I think we had like 5 laptops going.

And of course there was a lot of this kinda thing going on.

Then there was the BYU vs. Utah game. How stressful...I nearly had a panic attack. All of our Husbands and Sam went to the game. Cortney got Angelique's ticket last minute and he was so happy. What a great game. STRESSFUL but great.

Here Henry was feeling the stress...Sweet Fiona on the other hand knew we were going to win and stayed calm the whole time.

Here is a picture Cortney took of Andrew George (the guy that caught the winning touchdown) when he rushed the field.

We had a great Holiday. Oliver said...

"I am thankful to be able to feel the gospel...that is really what it is all about"

I couldn't agree more Oli...well said.

back and faster than ever

Yay! I have the internet again. That was a long depressing week for me...I can't live without the world wide web.

I feel like I have so much to catch up on.

First a HENRY update.

Friday night henry slept 7 1/2 hours straight with out waking up. When I fed him that morning I felt so much love for him I didn't know what to do. Usually he is sleeping 4-5 hours at a time I can tell he is getting ready to start sleeping through the night (I can't wait). He is also finally on a better schedule of sleeping during the day. Meaning...I am not rocking him to sleep and holding him all day but laying him down in his bed, he is sleeping for good chunks of the day.

He has also started smiling like crazy. I love it.

I don't have any great pictures but I know I will love to look back on these someday...

Henry sleeping. What a sweetie...he has a little bit of a pig nose...just being honest.

Cali, Tiffany and I went to new moon on the night it came out. We tried to get a picture of all three of us...this was our first attempt...

Here is our second. Oh well. We had a great time and LOVED the movie. We were all nervous wrecks eating dinner before the movie started. We went to Jason's Deli...because we knew we wouldn't get stuck in there and that we wouldn't have to wait for a table. It was a fun night. I wish I had time to do stuff with my ladies more often.

Cortney and Henry...funny picture. But cute nonetheless. Henry always has that startled look on his face. He has some powerful eyebrows (just like me...Cali told me he looks like brother Moote...all my Moses Lakies will know what I am talking about there...hahaaa...he totally does.)

Hopefully tomorrow I will update a little about Thanksgiving. It was so fun.

My parents leave again for another mission in a month...sigh...I am trying real hard not to sink into the depths of despair.

Boo hoo

We are getting different Internet this week so right now I have none. It is really hard for me. I am posting this from a signal I can get if I sit in my front yard.

bk

whoops...the first time i published this i did it on cort's blog...anyways.

I just asked Oliver if he wanted to go get a breakfast sandwich from Burger king (I have been trying to wake up early enough to get one since the baby was born)...he said

"you mean barfer king that place has the worst food ever"

What a food snob...I can't believe it.

go cougs

I had to run this morning to Michaels Crafts to buy some iron on transfers so I could make Henry and Fiona a shirt for the big game. I am a nervouse wreck.

Polar Express

I have so much to catch up on...yikes.

My cousin Kristy is marrying a very nice young man named Trevor. Cortney did their engagement pictures a while back and Trevor called me up and to thank us wanted to hook us up with tickets to ride on the Polar Express. Trevor's dad works on the Heber Creeper. Anyways...of course we jumped at the chance to go. My kids couldn't believe it and counted down the days. Oliver started drawing trains everywhere and telling everyone we saw about our up coming train ride.

We got tickets for Monday so we could beat the holiday rush. Cortney came home and we were all getting ready to go on up to Heber, and somehow we lost track of time and left late. When we got in the car we only had 30 minutes before the train left. I don't know how it happened. I thought we were leaving an hour early but NO...we were leaving when we were supposed to be getting there. Cortney drove like a maniac trying to get there in time. I was about to throw up. The whole way up I kept telling the kids we might not make the train but if we didn't we would go for ice cream or something and we would still have fun. Oliver was a nervous wreck.

Trevor's dad called wondering where we were (embarassing...I know) when we were still about ten minutes away. He thought we would make it and I felt better after that. When we got there EVERYONE else was already on the train and they were closing the gates. I ran with the boys and yelled for them to wait for us. We made it....I was so relieved. Oliver about died. It was a great time. Such a cute thing. The whole way up Rob kept saying all cool..."the polar express isn't real". He couldn't believe when we got there and it actually was. It was so fun. A big shout out to Trevor and Kristy for making it happen.

We have some major red eye in these pictures...so much I couldn't even fix them. Our little camera sucks...maybe it is because we are used to a faster camera...I don't know how people do it.

Henry slept in his little sling the whole time. I had wanted the boys to wear matching pj's but they wanted these ones...I didn't think it was worth a fight.

Cort and I and Hen, finally we have someone to take a picture of us...Oliver is just old enough.

I wish I had captured Rob's face when he first saw Santa...his whole face just lit up. Here they are getting a bell, the first gift of Christmas.

THe only picture with santa and his eyes are closed.

Lastly the four of us in front of the train. How fun right??