Christmas 2008--

I know I'm a month late, but hey, at least I'm finally posting some pictures from our Christmas!

MORNING AT HOME IN UTAH

Waiting to see what Santa brought. . .

AFTERNOON IN LOUISIANA

What an adventure! We were able to enjoy a quick Christmas morning at home and then the 6 of us with 10 pieces of carry-on luggage and coats boarded the plane for Louisiana (with one layover).

The majority of our stay was spent with these two great women, Lou's sister Kay and his mother. They must have planned a menu in advance because every day they knew exactly what they were cooking and got it ready for us! We were so grateful for the great meals and great company--and PATIENCE, as we added a LOT of action to a usually quiet home! Len & Lou

Cousins from twins. . .

(Len holding Damian, Xavier; Lou holding Isaiah, Emma; Gehrig (Jr.) & Gehrig (III)

Isaiah may not like that I posted this picture, but I thought it was too hilarious to pass up! We tried to get a picture of Xavier, Emma & Isaiah to show how they compare in size. This was the best I could come up with. Xavier is 3 months older than Emma (if I remember correctly).

I still can't get over how big Gehrig III is! He's only about 3 months older than Damian, but he's much closer to our Gehrig's size! Lou's nephew, Donnell, came to visit the night before we left. He's on the rapping scene (even has some radio time with some of his raps).

Lou's niece, Crystal, was so kind to do Emma's hair. There was a catch though--Emma wouldn't cooperate until she did MY hair! So. . .she was kind enough to do BOTH! We were excited to spend a little time with Crystal!

Lou's other niece, Erica. We were glad to see her the day before New Year's Eve.I love the expression on Xavier's face in the top left corner. It was fun to find Isaiah asleep with his little football, basketball or soccer ball (whichever he happened to have at the time).

The lemons were larger than the oranges! I love the bottom right corner where Gehrig III and Damian are visiting.


When Lou and I were first married, we would often go to the park to fly his airplanes. I loved to watch the children gather around him. I imagined his own children being as excited about it as the little strangers, but by the time our children came along, he was too busy with his career to repair his planes and fly them. So. . .I love the top middle picture with all our children gathered around him to watch him fly. Sadly, the battery wouldn't hold a charge, so they never got to experience, but at least they tried! Someday they'll get to experience what many little children got to experience 10-12 years ago!We chose a beautiful day to visit Papa's (Lou's father) gravesite. The top right and bottom left pictures were taken there.

Christmas Eve Morning

I am so glad that I decided to open most of our gifts a day early. It was pretty wild and I had a lot of clean-up afterwards that would have been hard to do before a flight out! Damian gave Isaiah a ball. After he opened it, they played together with it! So cute!

I painted and put matching stickers (to Emma's walls) on her new baby cradle. Looks like I should have given it to Isaiah! :)

I think next year I'll have to get Lou more involved in the gift purchasing so that he can take more pleasure in watching them open their gifts! :) We're glad he was there with us (at least in body)! :)

I love the expressions on their faces. It makes all the work worth it!

Isaiah and Emma got tired before we could open all the gifts, so they hung out eating Cheerios and watching the rest of us open gifts!

During "quiet time," Gehrig and Damian had fun playing Monopoly Jr.

Christmas Eve-Eve

If you're one of my siblings home for the holidays, don't read this until after Christmas--if some of the gifts are the same (like the pjs), I don't want to give away Mom's surprise!).

So. . .since we're leaving for Louisiana on Christmas Day, I decided that it would be nicer to celebrate a day early. So. . .last night on the 23rd, Lou and I went to dinner with his employees and their spouses (having an enjoyable evening at Famous Dave's Barbeque) leaving the children with a promise that if their babysitter said they were good, we'd open some presents when we got back. Hip, hip, hurray! They were good! My amazing mother, even though we aren't going to be there with the rest of the family this year, made the kids the traditional Christmas Eve pajamas! The kids were tickled with them! THANK YOU!!! They look darling in them!

Then, we let them open their gifts from Mimi & Papa. I love the way Gehrig loves to help his little brother.

Isaiah was thrilled with the ball!

Gehrig was excited about his Dominoe game.

Emma loved her puzzle!

. . .and was determined to put her Cinderella socks on all by herself!Damian was so excited with his jigsaw puzzle!

And then, they opened one of my favorite gifts to them from me. Power Tale books!! I love this picture with Emma in her new pjs, holding her dolls looking excited as she sees how excited Gehrig is!

Christmas Fun!

Neighbor Gifts: Each year I spend a lot of time trying to come up with a thoughtful, inexpensive gift for my friends and neighbors. I stew over it and stew over it because I always try to give to more people than I can afford to give to (should I say how many I made? 76). With things being so tight in our economy (and in my home personally), I really wanted to do something that would reflect frugality, resourcefulness or help in time of need (not to mention giving something that wouldn't add inches to the waist--since I'm trying to be weight conscious!).



So. . .I found this idea on http://www.everydayfoodstorage.net/ and decided that it met my requirements. It is made out of food storage items and used washed cans (eco-friendly!:)). There is a cup of wheat at the bottom and a bag of dry ingredients on the top (including powdered milk, sugar, salt & baking powder). Instructions are included to make Whole Grain Pancakes. I had never thought of blending wheat kernels in a blender with water to make a batter. Interesting. . anyway, I'm not sure if people will think I'm crazy or hate it, but at least I tried. (I tried them out of my family and my kids loved them--Lou didn't.) The kids have had fun delivering them with me. What a project!!




I let the children decorate this year. It was so fun to see Gehrig helping his little brother. If you look at the series, you'll see him showing Isaiah how to hang an ornament, helping him hold it, helping him hang it, Isaiah looking up to see how his big brother did it, etc. Aren't they cute?

Gingerbread Houses--I started out trying to help them, but when I realized that my perfectionism was getting in the way, I turned it over to them and left the room. They were much happier, and so was I. They did a pretty good job, didn't they?

Our Ward Christmas Party was a Saturday morning breakfast. We had a great time. The boys sang with a group that I accompanied (top left picture). Remembering her experience with Minnie Mouse, Emma refused to get anywhere near Santa. Isaiah slowly warmed up to the idea and did quite well. Notice the top middle picture where he's looking on. He inched his way closer and closer until he found himself in Santa's lap. Cute kid! Damian was saying that he wants a monster truck "THIS big!". I guess Gehrig was wishing for a real gun. I hope they're not too disappointed when Santa doesn't bring those things! Maybe if we lived in the country. . .

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