Christmas day!

Christmas morning was exciting for me because Ryan actually really surprised me!  I usually have a clue of what my gift is about to be because he usually has me make a list and then he always asks me the specifics on the gift and by his specifics i usually figure out what it is.  Don't get me wrong, I love the gifts I get from him because it is usually exactly what I want! Well this year he didn't have me make a list and I figured with all of the construction projects I have made him do, that would be my gift which would have been great because he finished the roof over the hot tub and the soffit and fascia was finished and it looks fantastic.  He also hung the TV in our bedroom and because I have such a difficult time seeing cords running up the wall he put an outlet behind the TV and also an HDMI outlet so there is no cord going up the wall from the blue ray player.  It is awesome because it looks like just a picture hanging on the wall and there are no cords and you can watch TV or a movie and it is magical! Thanks Ryan, I really like what you can do!

So when I found this huge gift under the tree, I was really surprised!  I have a treadmill that I have used for almost 25 years and believe it or not it still works! The screen doesn't work anymore and the tread is pretty worn but you can get on it and do a work out. ( by the way if anyone would like it, you are sure welcome to it, otherwise it will probably be going to the DI, just let me know.)  Well, I guess you guessed what my gift was and it is fantastic! I love it and technology has come a long way in 25 years!

Here it is and Mac and Ryan even set it up in my exercise room, I tried it out before leaving and it is so great!!

Mac and Jess stayed overnight and it was so fun to have them and Caitlin at our house to spend this exciting holiday with there boring empty Nester parents. Thanks for coming it was so fun!

After seeing my gift I felt like I should run to the store and buy Ryan some more gifts!

I had to take a picture of this gift that Ryan wrapped, it is functional and it works, he couldn't find the clear tape so he used duct tape. Do you see why I love him so much!

Guess what Mac found? Yup, he found the pickle!  It is a lot more fun when Caitlin has some competition in the finding.

Here are the two that didn't find the pickle!

This was a cool gift that Mac found at an antique shop, and antique scale! and this is one gift that Jessica was sure Ryan would never guess before he opened it. ( he did not guess what it was!) It is really cool, he loved it and so do I!

Okay, for the rest of this beautiful Christmas day we traveled on a plane to Papillion Nebraska to see these cute kiddo's!

They were asleep when we arrived but in the middle of the night I heard these little footsteps coming down the stairs and then in a minute little Olivia climbed over Grandpa and snuggled between us. We were going to be a surprise and Jon had told Jaedon and Livy that in the morning there would be another Christmas surprise down in Jaedon's room.  I think Livy had that in her head when she went to sleep and woke up in the middle of the night and came down to see what the surprise was. She may have been sleep walking because she acted surprised in the morning when they came down and found Grandpa and Grandma hiding under the covers!  It was a nice gift for me though to have her snuggle in the middle of the night.

As you can see by the picture above, Jaedon got his roller coaster and it is very cool!

Livy got her baby that "poops".

She can feed it baby food.

and the food comes out the same color it went in! this is what she really wanted and she is so cute to watch as she mothers this little pooping baby and changes her diaper.

Sofia has loved these beads that Olivia got from Tydon, I think she has asked many times a day to open the jar and make some creative jewelry.

I had to take this cute picture of her in the cupcake hat. she has the most beautiful eyes! I felt bad though because when she came down to see Grandpa and Grandma surprise she snuggled for awhile, she is the best snuggler and I love it! After snuggling she climbed off the bed and was playing with Olivia's doll and sitting on her new chair and she kind of moved around on the chair and fell over backwards and hit the back of her head on the shelf.   Ryan grabbed her and sure enough there was blood. I took her upstairs with my hand around her head and by the time I got upstairs it was full of blood. Jon helped wash off her head and was looking for the gash and he was wearing his brand new white Christmas dress shirt and got blood all over it.

Dr. Jon was sure wishing he had some suture!  We kept some pressure on it with a towel and I remembered that I had some dermabond in my bag, I always love to have that stuff.  When I am working in the OR if something is opened and not used, we can take it home because they can't re sterilize it or I should say that they don't, so I had put it in my bag while at work and remember seeing it while on the plane looking for some gum in the bottom of the bag. It worked great and saved a trip to the ER. Needless to say Jon didn't get to wear his brand new Christmas shirt to church!

Livy is quite the poser! or I should say O livia, because she corrects me when I say Livy.  She tells me her name is O livia!

It has been great to spend time with these cute little grankids and we are having tons of fun!!

Christmas Eve

We started Christmas Eve early in the afternoon.  We started out by making some kits for the soldiers in Germany.  It was fun to start out with a service project and I think we will have to keep this tradition. (Kace was even able to help out!)  I think he mostly came in to hear what we were giggling about, we had found an old gift that Nate had given me in Kindergarten and it was a cook book that the students had made up themselves.  We were reading the recipe's out loud and laughing at how funny they were.  I think Nate's recipe for chocolate chip cookies was a classic.  This was his recipe:

5 cups of chocolate chips

1 bucket of sugar

2 pours of milk

bake in the oven for 1 minute and then eat with milk.

some of these pictures are out of order but here we are waiting to open gifts, but it looks like Kace is already going for it!

Lincoln with his push button toy, ( he loves to push buttons.)

Here is the pinata that we had to find a place to break, this house really has no place conducive for pinata breaking.

As you can see, Nate and Mac are holding it on a big pole, I know this looks rather dangerous! (Ryan did not want to put a hook in the ceiling so we had to get rather creative.)

We thought it would be safer not to blindfold and besides it was one tough pinata to break. As you can see the biggest area we had to do it was in out bedroom.

Kace was finally the winner! He broke it and the bottom fell out!

Help, I need more or bigger hands!

Lincoln got one piece of candy and stopped gathering and did this!

Trevor was not sure what all of the commotion was all about!

Tydon was so fun to watch open gifts, I don't think anyone could be more excited than he was to see what he got. Everything he got was the best present ever, and what he wanted!

This was Trevor's gift from Sofia.

Even Millie was festive for the occasion.

Kace was excited about his treasure box and was able to put all of his treasures from the pinata in it!

We had a very fun evening and it was so great to have little kiddo's to watch, Christmas really is about children! I forgot to take pictures of our wonderful dinner but it was delicious and I ate too much!

Christmas parties!

I will first start out with what we did last night. It wasn't a party but it surely put me in the Christmas spirit.

We went to Temple square and looked at the beautiful lights.

 
Tried to stay warm and bundled up.

Watched the nativity story.

I love how lifelike this nativity is.

Then went to the Christmas concert with the Tabernacle choir. (Ryan really was more excited to be there.)

You can't see much ( I had my flash off, so sorry about the blurriness.) but it was beautiful and I loved how clear and beautiful David Archuleta's voice was.

It was spectacular!

Then this last week we celebrated a few things. On Saturday we had our Shaw party and we all got together and ate delicious finger foods. (foods that you can eat with your fingers, not food made out of fingers.)

Then the Hogge's brought a fun game. We all divided up into groups of three and were given the same ingredients, namely Symphony bars, peanut butter cups, chocolate and candy canes. We were also given a roll of tape and our instructions were to make a sleigh from the above ingredients. We just had to make sure we used every piece of candy.  We then raced them down some banquet tables to see whose was the fastest.

We are all pretty competitive. (I wonder who that comes from?)

Here is Kace and Kevin showing off their creations.

As you can see, Lincoln ate most of his ingredients.

Here is a better shot of Kace.

Caitlin is afraid she might eat hers before she races it.

 I think Kevin and Kace raced theirs several times. The winner seemed to trade sides.

Here is the winner side.

And here are the official winners. They even made tail pipes out of the wrapper of the Symphony bar.

Although Grandpa Shaw decided to race his sleigh against the winners and then he won. (I think I know where the competitiveness comes from!)

Then Grandma passed out some gifts. This of course was a big hit!

Thanks Mom, and Grandma and Great Grandma! and of course Grandpa!

Lincoln took several minutes to open his, methodically ripping off 1 inch by 1 inch pieces of paper.

(He's going to be fun on Christmas)

Thanks Mom and DAD!

Little Trevor.

Now we have moved onto the next party, which was held on Sunday for the December birthdays.

Happy Birthday to Ryan, Mac, and Jon!

Look how cute Trevor is, looking at his Aunt Caitlin.

Oh, Lincoln!

I got a bag to carry my cool gear!!

It has been a busy and fun week and the countdown now begins, watch out here comes Christmas!