Perfect Winter Break

Ah, can I just say how wonderful and needed our winter break from school was??  Stanton took the whole week of Christmas off and we spent it enjoying one another.  After our crazy few weeks before Christmas, it was a joy.

 We went sledding. (The coats my parents gave the kids and the coats Stanton gave me for Christmas made this so fun - as well as the awesome new sleds that we bought at CAL Ranch).

 The kids made up gymnastics routines, Stanton enjoyed his new (and insanely sharp) knife that I gave him.  We loved on Henry, read books, and enjoyed our Christmas decorations for a few more days.  (That photo on the top right was a Christmas card from the Neighborhood Gents - a group of boys that I thoroughly love - most of them are leaving on missions soon - they're awesome and so funny).  Check out Brigham's muscles!  Gymnastics is such a great sport.

 I finally let the girls sew on my machine.  They were the perfect ages to do a first project - blankets for their dolls. I love Lily's intense look on her face.  It describes her perfectly.

 We went to Temple Square with the Farleys.  It was stinking cold, but so fun to be with them.  Such great friends.

And we giggled over how adorable our little Henry looked for Church on the last Sunday of the year.  :)  He is too darling for words.  The boys have matching ties.

Christmas Day!

How perfect is Christmas morning with young children???  Especially young children who don't wake up any earlier than normal on Christmas morning?!  The kids came in about 7:15 (so, in the case of Brigham and Cannon, they actually slept in on Christmas morning!) - 7:30 and snuggled with us for a few minutes.  We woke up Henry and lined everyone up behind the ol' sheet.  Stanton rigged up his best one yet this year. 

Shirlene got there just as the kids were looking through their sacks and Dave & Judy came not much later. 

 The kids went into the living room and looked through the bags that Santa left.  They were all so excited for what they received. 
Chloe got a skateboard, soccer ball, a stack of Katie Kazoo Switcheroo books, and some science kits from Santa.
Lily received rollerblades (she's only been wishing for them for 2 years!), the Dork Diaries books, doll clothes, a dream light unicorn, and a Bop It game.
Brigham got new Legos, a dog dream light, and a new baseball bat, a book (can't remember what right now), and a toy motorcycle (just a small hot wheels-type motorcycle).
Cannon got a fire truck, a penguin dream light, and a toy Christmas tree (one of his funny requests).

Their stockings were full of socks, underwear, movies, knick knacks, a few treats, and the hit of the day, Flarp.  It is putty that makes a tooting noise when you push it down into its container.  It was pretty funny and we all enjoyed it for a half hour or so.  It wasn't so fun when it got in carpet and on Brigham's brand new jeans and tie.  Oh well, it was fun for a time!  :)

After they played with their Santa gifts for a while, we opened all the presents from Stanton and I.  They got more Legos, clothes, and goodies.  I can't remember what exactly, right now, and of course I didn't take a picture of each of the kids with their Christmas all around them.  My parents did that every year and I've done it zero years.  I've got to clean up my act!

After present opening, the kids played and Shirlene and I made breakfast.  We had hot cocoa, crepes, sausage links, and orange wedges.  It was delish!

We hung out for a while after that, then said goodbye to Shirlene.  We were so lucky to have her join us for our Christmas celebrations.  She is awesome.  And she looked so dang cute in her robe and slippers!

 The rest of the day was spent in lazy, messy bliss.  Skateboards and roller blades scooting around the kitchen floor, Legos all over creation, intense games of Bop It, and science experiments.

 Flarping. 

Just Luke and gang hanging out on the floor. 

We got a kick out of this part of the experiment.  Chloe used her retainer to complete the loop and light up the light.  Now she can say she has a smile that actually lights up a room!  Haha!

It was a blissful day.  We watched Hercules, ate our turkey dinner, and just enjoyed one another's company.

Christmas Eve!

As I mentioned before, we woke up in Blackfoot on Christmas Eve.  We had a yummy breakfast with Matt & Sara and family, Cindy & DJ and family, and my folks.  We all rushed out the door after breakfast to head to our various homes/destinations.

We got home and went to the grocery store to fulfill our hair brained idea for neighbor gifts.  It was totally last minute, took forever, we missed a ton of our neighbors, etc, but it was really fun and I think we might have a tradition on our hands.  We will certainly plan it out much better in the coming years, but it was a blast.
We made over 100 spring rolls with Thai peanut sauce and took them around to neighbors.  We have always wanted to find something that wasn't more sugar (which we totally love, but don't do anything spectacularly unique with at our house) and that would be fun and different.  Stanton's sister Julie brought these to our family party and we all devoured them, so we decided to give them a go.  They were a lot of fun to make.  Once you get everything chopped up and laid out, they go fairly quickly.  The kids LOVED delivering them to our friends.  There's something so special about giving and the kids caught that spirit doing this.

Those are the rolls on the top left - stacked in the background are many of the plates we delivered.

While Stanton and I made the spring rolls, Chloe was busy making orange rolls for our Christmas dinner.  We ate them with ham and they were delicious.  She honestly did all the work herself (and let Cannon make snakes from the dough that she then tied in knots).  She rolled them, knotted them, placed them in the pan, zested the orange, sprinkled the sugar...everything.  I put them in the oven and pulled them out.  It was so cool to have her take on such a big project!

Continuing with the food pictures - the top right it our dinner table on Christmas day.  I decided to cook a big turkey dinner.  Yikes.  It was a ton of work for just our little family, but it was fun to have a nice dinner together.

Bottom right - since I completely ruined a batch of caramels and two batches of fudge, I had to take a picture of the beautiful lemon-pistachio wreaths I did have success making.  They were awesomely delicious and so pretty. 

 After our orange roll and ham dinner on Christmas Eve, we opened jammies, had showers, read my favorite Christmas book - Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl S. Buck

and did the Nativity.  Stanton had had enough of my Nativity costume box being pulled out and scattered by Christmas Eve, so we stuck with puppets.  I think we had Chloe be Mary.  :)

Right as we were finishing the Nativity, our friend Shirlene Shaw came over.  She brought fun little gifts for the kids (Nerf guns for the boys and an awesome 20 questions game for the girls - it's incredible and addicting!).  She read them  'Twas The Night Before Christmas, which the kids totally loved.

After she read the book, we checked Santa's progress across the globe and then headed to the music room for ------  CAROLING!!!!  Have I mentioned that Shirlene is an amazing pianist???  She's the girls' wonderful piano teacher.  I have always wanted to sit around the piano and sing carols on Christmas Eve.  It was so fun to do it with her!  We sang hymns and fun carols and everything in between.  That bottom right picture is the boys shouting out "in a one horse open sleigh, HEY!"  Oh, how totally fun this was.  It was the perfect way to end our Christmas Eve.  

The kids got to bed happily and we said goodbye to Shirlene.  A perfect night.  Casual and fun.

Family Christmas Parties

We had our extended Rose family party in early December.  It was great to be together with all of my cousins and especially to have Grandma Rose there.  It's amazing what a difference a year will make.

I didn't snap really any pictures except during the Nativity.  Lily was Mary (again), Brigham and Cannon were shepherds, Chloe was a wise man, and Henry was baby Jesus.

I had to chuckle/eye roll as the parties went on over the coming weeks, because Lily was Mary in Dave & Judy's nativity, too.  It just kept piling on poor Chloe.  She said to me, "Mom, it's not that I even want to be Mary...it's just that Lily was Mary last year and she's been her twice this year!"  Hahaha.  It was a bit much, but hopefully it meant something to Lil.

I pulled the kids out of school on December 20th to head up to Blackfoot for the afternoon.  We had to - Matt & Sara were home from China!  It was a fast trip, but so worth it.  

I didn't take any pictures at our other 2 parties, but they sure were fun.  We had Dave and Judy's on the 22nd.  We had delicious food, we did the nativity program at Grandma Allen's care center, we shared our milestones for the year, and we had a program.  Oh, and we all opened a bajillion presents, too.  Emily spoiled me with a cast-iron skillet (yay!) and Stanton received an electric shaver and gravity car (it drives up the wall....cool!).  We had Ann & Don and it was fun to shop for them.  We got them a waffle iron, some new slippers for Don, some nice church shirts for Ann, a table tennis set, and a few other surprises.  The kids loved exchanging gifts with their cousins (one of my favorite memories growing up).

We had my mom and dad's party on the 23rd (Sunday).  That was also the date of our choir sacrament meeting program.  It turned out beautifully.  I'm so thankful for our choir members - they honestly make my calling so great.
We left immediately after Sacrament meeting and drove the motor home up to Blackfoot.  My brother and his family just moved back home from China, so it was ALL of us squished in my parents' house.  It was crazy, but fun.  And can I just say how totally awesome it was to have Matt & Sara home????  I have missed them and their kids SO much.  It was the best to all be together. We had clam chowder and breadsticks, we visited, we opened presents (again with the cousin presents - SO fun), my parents gave the kids a neat gift this year - they chose a scripture that reminded them of each of their grandchildren and made a little collage for each of them.  They are really special.  I know the kids will treasure them.  We also did the Nativity (I made sure Lil wasn't Mary again - ha!) and had a program.  I actually learned a song this year and sang it in the program.  It was a lot of fun.  I sang "I Need a Silent Night" by Amy Grant.   It perfectly expressed every emotion I felt this holiday season - I felt so rushed this year and hardly had one minute to just sit and soak in the beauty and message of the season.  We had parties to attend nearly every night leading up to Christmas, which meant we left our precious little ones home with babysitters.  I missed them every single second and wanted to be with them instead.  I will make it happen next year.  Because I worked so hard to learn the song during the month of December, the kids heard it a million times - they all know the words by heart now, too.  I hope it sinks into their souls.

Okay, off that tangent.  It was so wonderful to be all together.  We stayed the night and just had fun visiting, watching movies, and being together.  We got up Christmas Eve morning and headed back to Logan.  It was a perfect weekend.  Tons of family, music, and fun.

Various Items - Days Before Christmas

 Chloe had a big report on koalas due the day they got out for Christmas break.  It was time-consuming, but nothing compared to what is to come, I'm sure.  She enjoyed learning about koalas.
That day, we also had class parties for the kids.  We had Brigham's first - the moms were awesome to help and come up with games.  We had pictionary, minute to win it games, we made ornaments with their pictures on them, and they decorated sugar cones as Christmas trees.  The kids were great (hyper, but great!) and it was fun to get to know the other moms a bit better.
I didn't even go to Lil's class that day, but they had a Polar Express party.  She got to wear her jammies to school, which she loved.
In Chloe's class we made origami Santas, decorated Rice Krispie treat ornaments, had a minute to win it game, and learned a Christmas toast from Argentina, along with some of their traditions.  The kids wore their jammies to that party, too.  They love little things like that! 

 L to R - I ordered new stockings this year -- I just had to come to terms with the fact that I was never going to finish making the ones I started before Brigham was born.  It was a relief to just have them delivered to my door!  :)
Stanton had pajama week at his office - he got these Rudolph ones at our office Christmas party.  The kids loved them.  (We had the ABC Ped Christmas party at the Coppermill this year.  It was nice to not have to worry about dinner, but I missed having everyone at our house!). 
Oh my, how the laundry suffered during December.
Stanton playing foosball with our friend Angie Francis.  This was at the English Learning Center Christmas party - Stanton serves on their board of directors.
Santa visited before midnight this year.  I sure appreciated that!
Our Christmas tree at night.  It was so pretty this year.
Cannon digging in his Santa bag - too cute!  (okay, so these last 3 were all Christmas Eve/Day...that's what happens when I do a mass update!).
Lily put together this outfit at my mom and dad's when we went up to visit.  I was surprised at how totally darling she looked as a hipster.  :)

Chloe wrote these two little journal entries during church one week in December.  I was really touched by them.
Brigham's Christmas letter to Santa:  Dear Santa, How do you get around the world at Christmas.  I whould like... a toy motorsikl, alsso a book, finnlye to see you.  And a picture to go with each part of the letter.  So cute!
The girls composed this song one day when they were off school (after Christmas again...whoops).  Written in 4 different keys and with perfect timing.  Unfortunately, they didn't ever finish it, but it sure gave me hope that maybe some of their piano lessons and practice are sinking in!

As I mentioned before, we had parties and activities on what felt like every night in December.  I'm exaggerating, of course, but in the 10 days leading up to Christmas Eve, Stanton and I were gone 8 of those days.  It was ridiculous.  We had office parties, board parties, dental parties, our formal party with the Lows (which was so fun, but we ended up leaving early so we could finish editing our Christmas movie), a pre-viewing of The Hobbit (a gift from my eye doctor - he rented out the whole theater for his patients and referring doctors), and on and on and on.  It was insane.  Fun, yes, but insane.  The kids were troopers through it all - they had babysitters left and right, different people taking them to and picking them up from gymanstics, etc.  They were awesome about it all, but boy did we enjoy our week together after Christmas.

Newtown

My heart has hurt so deeply over the last week.  I send my children to school with sorrow in my heart and my gut for those parents who aren't able to do it anymore.  I can't comprehend what leads to events like this.  I can't process what grief the parents must be feeling.  I can't come up with any logical solution or thoughts about what could prevent something like this.  It's so complicated and messy and tragic.  I have avoided extensive news coverage because I just can't keep composure as I watch.

There are a few quotes that I have encountered that have brought a measure of comfort and peace.  I suppose there will be other tragedies like this one.  There always are.  I will turn to these words of peace in those times, as well.

The Ship:  A Parable of Immortality

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean.  She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch until at last she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other.

Then someone at my side says, 'There she goes!'

Gone where?

Gone from my sight ... that is all.

She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of destination.  Her diminished size is in me, not in her.

And just at the moment when someone at my side says, 'There she goes!' there are other eyes watching her coming and their voices ready to take up the glad shouts 'Here she comes!'

This is how I see and understand death.

Henry van Dyke (1852 - 1933)

I I love my children.  I love the public school system.  I love the Gospel.  I love the Savior.  I trust His plan.  My heart hurts.  I don't know the solution to this increasingly frequent problem.  I know I must be an influence for good.  I pray that Jesus will come again.  I know His spirit is already here.  I pray, sincerely, that those affected by this event will feel that spirit. 

It's Not Christmas Without....

Santa?  Christmas carols?  Elf?

Well, yes, all of those.  But what I really mean is...PICKLEVILLE!

We made our winter pilgrimage to the university to watch the Christmas show.  It was awesome, as always.  Henry stayed home with Grandma Judy and loved being the center of attention there.

The kids saw Santa and visited with him - well, all the kids but Chloe.  I don't even want to talk about why...it makes me too sad.

It's always so crowded afterward, so I didn't get any pictures of the kids with the cast, but here they are with Santa.  Too adorable.

 I love our little tradition with Pickleville.  It makes the kids excited for acting, the theatre, etc.  And it just warms my heart every Christmas.  I love it.

Hawaii - Marriott Ko'olina with Dave & Judy

We went to Hawaii with Dave and Judy the first week of December.  It was a great little getaway and break from the craziness back home.  Both Stanton and I missed the kids SO much during this trip, though...not like us!  :)  We're getting to that phase where we would love to experience a lot of these things with our kiddos instead of leaving them home.
They were in great hands with Adam and Angie, my mom, and Jim & Rachel, though, and did really well.  Thanks to them for helping with the kids while we were gone!

We didn't do a whole lot of new stuff on this trip, so I'm going to just throw up pictures without much explanation.  Of note - we stayed on the leeward side of the island - opposite of Lai'e, where we usually stay.  It was so different - a total desert except where they water (sprinklers...in Hawaii - crazy!).  It had its own beauty and it was really cool to see a different part of Oahu.  Henry started rolling over with greater consistency on this trip.  He was fun to have along - he changed it from a vacation to a trip, for sure, but I'm glad we brought him! 

We got a kick out of Dave & Judy's technology in the seats ahead of us. 
Henry had a rough flight out (he was a total gem on the redeye home - thanks to some awesome seat maneuvering from Stanton).  We ended up walking around with him for a good portion of the flight to Honolulu.  We met lots of nice people as we made the rounds....one was Nancy - in this picture with Stanton.  She was a doll and talked to us in her seat and at ours for a half hour or so.  Total sweetheart.
As you can see, Henry's ears were really bothering him as we descended.  Stanton sucked on them to help relieve the pain - I tried nursing him, but he had nursed so many times on the flight (just to try and keep him quiet) that he was just plain sick of it by then.

 Henry perusing the activities available at the resort.
Oh, Judy got stuck on the elevator for an hour at the resort!  That was an adventure for her.  :)

 The Marriott was a gorgeous property.  Totally different from the Hukilau house, for sure.  It was really fun to stay there.  You can see the Disney resort down the way - it's the all brown one in the back.  Really neat.

 Dave, Judy, Stanton.

 Dole Plantation for a whip (no more cinnamon almonds *sniff).  Haleiwa to visit Surf and Sea for a new t-shirt or two. 

 We drove to Laie to visit a friend of our neice Jessica's.  His name is Spencer.  We ate at Tita's and had garlic shrimp.  It was divine. 
While we were there, our battery died.  It wouldn't even take a jump from this nice cook's pickup truck.  We had to call the rental car company and wait for them to bring us a replacement.  It was a long afternoon.  Henry and I took a few walks to pass the time.

 We took a beautiful hike in the nice part of Oahu - the part that President Obama visits when he goes home.  :)  It was a great little hike and provided a gorgeous view from the top.  Judy stayed behind with Henry, which I so appreciated.

 Whoops, the two view shots are from that same hike. 
We headed to Honolulu to eat at Cheesecake Factory and walk around Waikiki.  I had to check in on the kids, of course.

 Flea Market (actually called the Swap Meet at Aloha Stadium), shave ice in Haleiwa (with a t-shirt, of course), and the Cheesecake Factory.  Oh, and we bought these fun hand carved musical frogs for the kids.  The wood echoes like a croak when you rub the ridged back with a wand.  They are really cool!

 Dave and Judy took 3 mile walks every morning.  I was up and going in time to go on a few with them.  Fun to be with them.  Stanton stayed home and did P90x most mornings while we walked.

 Playing with the underwater camera.  Not bad! 

It was a great trip.  We really appreciated Dave & Judy inviting us to go along.  They are SO dang fun to travel with.