California Christmas - Part One

 ...And it was off to California for a much-needed break, help while I recovered, and lots of fun! We stopped in Las Vegas for one night on the way and liked our hotel with swans in the lobby, and a great breakfast included.

 

Wade got to sleep in a big bed with lots pillows around him!

 

 

 

 

First In-n-Out stop!

 Ahhh...so nice to be home in good ol' Whittier, at the old homeplace with Mom and Dad, and even Gretchen, Chris and the boys next door! This year Wade and Lars really interacted and enjoyed playing together.

 

Cute Ollie was getting around everywhere either crawling or with a cute beginner walk.

 

Anders came out and hugged the boys and they immediately started playing. Checking out the mailbox...

 

Playing in Grandma & Grandpa's backyard.

 

Doing fishy faces with Grandpa was fun!

 

Wade drinks his ice cream "soup." :)

 

Wyatt had fun putting this package together for me and even wrote some words on it (some of his first!)

 

I think it says, "Our Mom." :)

 

Here he drew a silly picture.

 

We checked out the best beach weather day - the day after we got there and got right down to Mother's Beach. It was nice to be in calm waters with the boys, and Jim did a lot of digging while I relaxed and read The Blue Sapphire.

 

There were some nice kids who came up and politely asked if they could join us, and we had fun with them. Afterward, talking to their mom, we found out they were also from Colorado, just as happy as us to be missing the snow storm!

 

Family picture time while we were all gussied up for Christmas Eve.

 

 

So fun to be at Grammy & Poppa's for Christmas Eve! We got the kids dressed up and they recited a few lines for a little Christmas play.

 

Little Rose was a cute baby Jesus. :)

 

Aunt Gretchen got a Happy Birthday Jesus cake for the kids - so fun!

 

Uncle Kirk holds Wade...

 

The boys have picked up on my Dad's "naughty" tradition of creating wrapping paper balls and throwing them at people... ;-)

Garrett's Wednesday School Piano Performance

Garrett took his first music class at Wednesday school this semester! It's his favorite class, and he played "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" for the open house. I enjoyed his little opening comments ("II might make a mistake, but I probably won't"...) and hearing him play confidently! (I'd never heard him until then...fun!)

Surgery & Colorado Christmas

When we arrived home from Indiana, we got our Christmas tree right away. Jim picked out a beauty, the biggest one we've had yet, I think.

 

A few days later, I was scheduled to go in for my surgery. The boys and I took a walk the day before around the lake and to the park. It was a gorgeous day, and I enjoyed trying to get some action pictures of them on the swings, and they loved chasing the geese.

 

The guys before I was admitted to the hospital. Jim did such a great job with them, and the boys were troopers through the whole day there!

 

The surgery went well, and I stayed overnight at the hospital. I think the Dr. felt a little sorry for me with 3 rambunctious boys to take care of post-op, because she told me she wanted me to stay overnight even though earlier she said I could choose. Ha! (We had been bringing the boys to the previous several appointments when we both wanted to be there to make decisions about surgery...they were actually really good and sucked quietly on lollipops. Well, Garrett did jump up a few times to see diagrams but Jim would quickly direct him back to his seat... ;-) )

 

A highlight for me was that after the surgery the Dr. came to check on me and said, in essence, "I just have to tell you that your kids are so wonderful. The nurses and staff have been talking about them and I've really hardly ever seen kids like yours. They're polite and easy to talk to...." She asked what we were doing for homeschool, what kind of curriculum we use, etc. Always nice to get encouraging feedback like that, especially after a surgery that takes away the ability to have more kids...it's nice to know that the ones I have are doing so well. :) God is so good. I need and ask for His help regularly, because this parenting thing is something I can't do (well) on my own! And how like Him to send those encouraging words at the right time!

 

Mom and Dad came for a week and it was wonderful to have them both there, hanging around and helping out where needed. Mom taught school for me, cooked, cleaned, etc....Dad helped a lot too in various ways and it was nice to have time to just sit around and chat and have him joke with the kids. :)

Here I came back to find Wade had slipped into my invalid spot! (See his wide open smile?? He's lovin' it!)

 

This was a cute one of Wyatt and Wade helping with the blender...

 

Wyatt took one of the hats Auntie Lisa made and tied it around his waist to create a carrier for piglet and penguin. So nurturing...

 

Ah, yes, here is Wade again sneaking in to snuggle with me. :)

 

Had to sneak this one in of Wyatt building a creation...

Garrett enjoying some extra attention from Grandma. :)

 

We had an early Christmas with Mom and Dad and Jim made an SCD version of Aebleskiver. So yummy!

 

We decided not to decorate the Christmas tree with anything other than lights this year, but Mom and the boys actually had a lot of fun making paper chains and snowflakes, pictures, and packets of candy to open on our little family Christmas. It was fun to see what the kids' idea was of decorating a tree.

Here we all are...

 

Wyatt got a bin of his OWN Kinnex!

 

Wade was really patient about waiting his turn to open things!

 

Jim had fun doing most of the shopping this year on Black Friday and got a number of great gifts!

 

Garrett got a joke book! (We're enjoying hearing some REAL jokes these days...) ;-)

 

Garrett had been really really sad earlier this year when his vacuum broke (his yellow stick vac he got for his 6th birthday...) He kept asking us if he could have another, planning how he could save enough money for one, and started bringing Jim little ads from the newspaper for vacuums on sale. Jim played it cool, and little did Garrett know he had one waiting for him in the trunk of his car! When Garrett opened the vacuum up, he was more excited than I think I've ever seen any kid with a new gift! He said, "Whoever got this for me MADE MY DAY!! This is the best Christmas gift EVER!!"

 

Wyatt got a bubble toy which he really loved!

 

Wade got a new race car which he was very excited about!

 

And Jim surprised me with the complete I Love Lucy collection.

 

Checking out the microscope with Wyatt...