Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!  Can't believe it has already come and gone.  I sit here on the night of Christmas thinking about this day and feeling so blessed.  Tony and I both have such great families.  They are so generous and supportive.  It has been so nice to spend quality time with both sides of our families.  We have three great kids.  Busy, active, crazy, but great!
I can't help thinking that if my pregnancy would have stuck that I would probably have a new born baby now.  I think that my due date was like December 28th or something.  Mostly I am glad that I don't have a new baby with how busy Megan is, but a little part of me is sad.  Heavenly Father gives us so much strength to get though hard times, so I know that we would have been just fine.  It's just kind of funny how things work out.

We have been enjoying lots of family parties this past week.  It started on Saturday with the Big Steenblik Family Party.  They decided we were getting too big to have it in someone's home so they reserved a church and we had a nice lunch there.  There were a lot of people and plenty of food.  It was nice to see Tony's extended family that we don't see very often and the kids had tons of fun running around the gym with their cousins.
Then on Sunday we had the Clark Party.  We had dinner at my parents where we also did a kids gift exchange and an adult gift exchange.  It is always fun to play games where you get to steal presents from people.  We had a good turn out.  We had my whole family (minus Wendy and Teagan) plus some cousins with their families.  I love my cousins and am always trying to get more of them to move to Utah.  
The next party was last night, Christmas Eve.  It was the annual Kresser Family Party.  It was held at Tony's parents home and it was lots of fun.  We had a good amount of people come and it was nice to see them.  Since we haven't been going to the camp out the last couple years it seems like we only see some of Tony's extended family once a year, if we're lucky.  We also did a gift exchange for the kids and the adults. A good time was had by all.
After the party Tony took the kids home to put them to bed and I went to my parents house to Skype with Teagan from Japan. 
Not sure why, but they arranged for her to talk to us Christmas Eve here which is Christmas there.  The hour difference got miscalculated, so that is partly why we Skyped so late.  It was really nice to see Teagan and to chat with her for a while.  She seems to be in good spirits and is doing really good in Japan.  They even have a baptism set for this Saturday, so that is really exciting.  Julie and I were super silly talking with Teagan.  It made her laugh.  We sure do miss her, but she couldn't be doing anything better then she is doing right now.
Tony got everything all ready for Christmas morning so when I finally got home we were able to just go to bed.
Josh and Tyler came up at about 7:10 am saying, "Santa Came."  It was pretty darn cute.  They were so excited to open presents.  We made them wait to open anything until Megan woke up.  She woke at about 7:30 and the party quickly started.  They were all so excited about getting presents passed out and then taking their turn to open their gift.  At first Megan was a pretty slow unwrapper but she quickly figured out how to get to the gift quicker.  She LOVED opening gifts...and not just hers...any gift she could fine.  Adorable!
The kids all seemed to like their presents and started playing with many different ones.  We let the kids play for a couple hours and then we got dressed to go to my parents.  We ate breakfast there with my parents and Julie's family.  After we were done eating it was present time.  Grandma Kim and Papa G had a couple things to hand out.  The kids all got a gift from Grandma and one from the cousin exchange.  Then my dad had these huge blue bags that had fun "stocking" stuff in them.  Some of the stuff was for Tony and I and some was for the kids, they loved it.  My parents also gave me one of their old IPads.  It was a totally surprised.  It was very nice of them to give it to us since we are the only one of their kids without an IPad.
After we hung out there for a couple hours we decided to go to Tony's parents.  There we ate some lunch and then the kids opened their presents from Grandma Margie and one from Aunt Suzanne.  They loved their gifts and had a blast playing with their cousins.  My kids are so lucky to have so many cousins who live close to play with.  I didn't really have cousins who lived close, so I really understand how nice it is to be close and have those relationships.
After we were there for a couple hours we packed up our car and headed home.  We unloaded the mess and the kids went right to playing with their new toys.  Tony set up the new Wii and the got the new game going for the boys.  We pretty much just played and played until bed time.  We did a light dinner (since it felt like we had been eating all day) and watched a short holiday show before bed.  Megan didn't even take a nap today.  Too much fun to be had.  We feel very blessed to have been able to have this time with our family to exchange gifts and spend time together, but most importantly to remember the birth of our Savior.  I love Christmas!

Christmas Sunday Cuites

Our cute kids all ready for church on Sunday.  Tyler and Josh sang two songs in the Christmas Program.  Tyler did great and knew most of the words.  Josh...looked super cute on the stage.  He didn't want to go up, but once I mentioned cookies could be had once we got home he quickly changed his mind.
It was nice to see the kids come home with papers from their teachers about Christ's birth and how much they learned about the true meaning of Christmas.  It is going to be a fun Christmas this year.  The boys are so excited for Santa and Megan is loving opening the presents she has been given so far.  I sure love these trouble makers!

Sledding at The School

Megan on the tube.  She liked going down the hills.

Josh tubing down the hill.

Tyler super smiley after coming down the big hill and going off the jump.

Tony and Megan going down the hill on the tube.  She loved every minute.

Megan even went down the hill by herself.  She did pretty darn good for just a little one (20 months).

Tony and Megan at the end of their ride down the hill.  Too much fun.

Josh catching some air off the jump that some other kids made.

Tyler got some good air going off the jump in the tube.  The boys loved going off the jump.

Ginger Bread House

Tyler has been begging to make the ginger bread house ever since Margie gave it to us a while ago.  I told him we would do it during Christmas break, so today was the day.
We waited until Megan went down for her nap and we got started.  Josh was most excited about the candy and Tyler really wanted to decorate.  I put on the frosting and the boys did the decorating.  I ended up helping decorate, but Tyler did most of it.  Josh quit about half way into the decorating, guess he had enough of the treats.  This has been a fun tradition that we have done for the past few years and we hope to continue.  Thank Margie for giving us such a fun activity.

Four Wheeling and Sledding Fun

With all the snow we decided to go four wheeling and sledding at Grandma Kim and Papa G's house.

Megan road most of the time with Tony on the four wheeler while the boys had a wonderful time on the sled.

Tyler and Josh tipped a lot at first, but finally figured out how to lean with the turns...and then they learned that they had to lean the opposite way that dad was turning...tough lesson to learn.

They had so much fun.  Lots of snow makes it just perfect for being pulled by the four wheeler.  Really made me wish that we had one of our own at our house.  Don't know where I would put it, but would love to have one...or two.

Then Megan joined in the sledding fun.  The first couple of trips around the yard she laid down in the sled.  She sat up by the time I got the camera back out.  She really liked it until she got a face full of snow, then she was done.

Josh and Tyler laughed and had so much fun.  That is until they fell off and got a face full of snow and snow down their coats.  Something about snow down your shirt quickly turns the fun times into crying times.  They had fun coming in and playing with Grandma's and Papa's I Pads.  We sure do love playing in the snow!

Oh The Snow

Today it snowed, and snowed, and snowed.  It snowed so bad that we lost power for a while early this morning, but luckily it came back on at our house. It didn't come back at the Elementary school so Tyler and Josh both had school cancelled.  For some reason the school didn't contact me so I took all of us over to the school in the snow just to have some teacher tell me school was cancelled.  The boys were pretty excited to have no school.

After it had snowed a good six or so inches and when Tony came home I went out to shovel and then Tony got all the kids dressed and they came out and played.
Tony then helped me shovel and then we decided to blow up the tube and see if Koda could pull Tyler.
We don't have a pulling leash yet so we just put on Koda's harness and leash and told Tyler to hold on tight.

Tony just had them try in the driveway.  I think that I would have had them go in the street where the snow was all packed down.  Let's just say that Koda did not like it at all.  Tyler however thought that the short ride that he did got with Koda pulling him was a hoot.  I guess we need to invest in a pulling leash and start training Koda to pull stuff.   
After Koda tried pulling a couple times we let him free and Tyler tried sliding down the hill of snow that we had piled up from shoveling the driveway.  It didn't really work.  So we told Tyler that we would take him to the school tomorrow so he can sled down the hill there.  Maybe we'll even go to my parents to ride the four-wheelers and pull the sleds...maybe.

Breakfast With Santa #2

Tony and the kids singing Christmas carols while they waited for Santa.

Margie finally got Courtnie to sit down with the kids to see Santa.

Megan meeting Santa.  She was happy to get the candy cane.  It think it helped that Tony sat with her on a chair that was by Santa.  Megan didn't even cry, this time.

Santa, Tony, and Megan say "Cheese."

The Steenblik's with Santa.

Josh is telling Santa that he wants a candy cane for Christmas.  I don't think he understands how it's suppose to work yet.  So sweet.

Tyler and Santa.  I couldn't hear what Tyler told Santa he wanted for Christmas, I am hoping it wasn't a computer...he keeps changing what he wants for Christmas.  He told the Santa last week a yo-yo, much more doable.

All of us with Santa.  We enjoyed having the Schiess kids and Grandma and Grandpa at our Breakfast with Santa.  Grandma and Grandpa were so nice to have a sleepover the night before.  The kids LOVE sleepovers.

Tyler, Santa, Josh, Tony, and Megan.  So excited for Christmas!

Breakfast With Santa

Yesterday morning we went to my parents ward for their Breakfast with Santa.  Their ward had us meet Santa first before the breakfast started and then they had a big breakfast buffet for all the ward members (and us past ward members.)

Tyler met with Santa first and told him he wanted a yo-yo for Christmas.  Then it was Josh's turn and after Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas Josh told him a candy cane.  Lucky for Josh, Santa just so happened to have a candy cane full of treat to give each child.

Megan didn't like Santa so much.  She was fine at first when I first put her on his lap, but then when I tried to step away she started to cry.  I asked her if she wanted some candy and she said yes.  So Santa gave her a candy cane and she was happier, but still didn't want me to leave.  

The kids had so much fun meeting Santa and playing at the church with their cousins and other random children.  They didn't want to go home after it was all over so we took them over to Grandma Kim's house to play some more with their cousins.
We put Megan down for her nap at my moms and let the boys play with cousins until it was time to take them to Grandma Margie's.  We dropped the kids of with Margie and then Tony and I headed to our ward building to help set up for our wards Adult Dinner.
The dinner was a big hit.  All the tables were full and the food was abundant.  The entertainment was good and we got to sit by fun people that we love.  When the dinner was over Tony went to pick up the kids from grandma's and I stayed back to clean up the dinner.  It was a lot of work, but a fun night.  I am glad, however, that we don't have to do that again for another year. 

Christmas Decorations

It is always so much fun to decorate the house for Christmas.  Megan loves to un-decorate the tree all the time.  The lower half of the tree gets re-decorated daily and it kind of drives me nuts, but what can you do?
The kids have acquired my love for sitting in the room with just the Christmas lights on.  It is pretty awesome.  I love this time of year and I love that we have finally been getting snow...let it snow...let snow!

First Big Snow Fall

We woke up this morning to a couple inches of snow.  We were all pretty happy about it. It continued to snow throughout the whole day and it was super pretty.  I love the snow so much and so do our kids.
Right before Tyler got home from school Josh said he wanted to go out and make a snowman.  So I started getting Josh and Megan all dressed in their snow clothes and then when Tyler got home we got him dressed as well.  After we were all dressed warm we headed out to play in the snow.

I was worried that as soon as I got everyone dressed and outside then Megan would be done and want to come inside.  Lucky for me she loved the snow and played for a long time.  She had a hard time staying up when she would walk through the deep snow, but besides that she did pretty well.  She stayed out long enough that I was able to shovel all the driveway and all our sidewalks, so I was happy about that.  She got into her little car and Tyler and I took turns pushing her around.

All three kids liked helping me shovel our walks.  It was snowing pretty steady so it didn't take long for all our hard work to get covered back up with snow.  We have two little shovels and it looks like we need to buy another one for Megan.  She wants to do just what her brothers are doing.  I just love that my kids like playing outside, no matter the weather.  We love the sun but we love the snow as well.

Thanksgiving

We had a really nice Thanksgiving.  After Megan's nap we all headed over to my parents house.  The kids played while I helped get things ready to eat.  Tony took the kids for rides on the four-wheelers and they all loved it so much.  Megan would cry every time she had to get off to let someone else take a turn.  So cute.
The food was super yummy.  The kids ate quickly so they could get back to playing.  They literally played the whole time.  They would go from the back yard to the basement and back again.  Even when it was dark and cold they still were playing strong.
Tyler and Josh had their first sleepover at Grandma Kim's house.  Kevin and Betsy and their kids were sleeping their so my mom said my boys could stay too.  They did really good.  They shared the queen bed in one of the guest bedrooms.  They played so hard all day that all the kids zonked out by 8:00 pm.  I was glad to hear that they did so well, it makes having another sleepover a lot easier.
The next morning I went back over to my parents to make caramels with Betsy and Julie.  I picked up the ingredients on my way there and then we made the caramels at Julie's house.  It worked out really good because the kids all wanted to stay at Grandma's house to play and help her put up her Christmas decor, so we got to enjoy our adult only time for a couple of hours.
After the caramel was all done and cooling, we went back to my mom's house and Boyd brought over some pizza's.  The kids ate so much food.  I was amazing how much they all ate.  They had been playing so hard that they worked up a big appetite.
Even after playing half the day on Thanksgiving and then most the day Friday, my boys still didn't want to leave.  When I told them that we were going to go home to decorate our house for Christmas, they were more excited.  We all had a great Thanksgiving and I am glad that the boys got to spend so much time playing with their cousins.