Christmas Day

We started the day EARLY. Eli was up before 6 o’clock. We tried to keep him somewhat quiet so he didn’t wake the whole house but, we weren’t too successful. I think everyone was opening presents by 7:30. Micali and Eli’s Christmas lasted about two weeks because they opened a few presents the day of and then when we got back home we slowly got out the other presents for them that Santa left here in Monticello. You may notice that they don’t have wrapping paper on a lot of them. We decided not to bother with that here at our house. Maybe next year we will be stocked up with that stuff. Quietly waiting for everyone to wake up.

   

Cute cowboy hats from Kendra and Austin. Going with their stick ponies they got later when we got back home.  

 

Aunt Kendra and Uncle Austin opening presents was also fun to watch we were happy they invited us over Christmas night to share in the fun. They totally surprised each other. I missed getting a picture of the biggest surprise for Austin a  44 inch Flatscreen TV that Kendra hauled up the stairs and into the closet all by herself.

Micali “helping” Austin FIX the TV.

It was nice to be able to share this special day with family and to see the excitement on Micali’s face!

Cookies for Santa

Micali and her cousin Justin worked hard cutting out cookies and frosting them for Santa. Good thing Santa really likes sprinkles. They also put some sparkly oats on the front lawn for the reindeer.

Christmas Pajamas

We went up to Lehi to spend Christmas with Luke’s sister Beth and my sister Kendra. Here are the kids excited about opening their presents from Aunt Lois and Uncle Steve on Christmas Eve before going to bed. They were so excited to get PJs and couldn’t wait to try them on. Micali is totally in love with her Monkey jams. It is hard to get them off of her. They are totally cozy warm and adorable. Eli’s “Here comes trouble” pjs are absolutely fitting. It doesn’t take him long to find a way to cause trouble!

     

“Remember Tape”

Micali with the help of her mom and dad has decided to she wants to stop sucking her thumb. I read several different things online about how to help a child to stop sucking their thumb. Interestingly I found a lot of posts by grown adults saying “I am a proud thumb-sucker for life” GROSS!!

I did however find one post that was helpful. They suggested putting band-aids or tape on their thumbs because if they try to suck the thumb with tape it just doesn’t have the same effect.

Micali has a serious fear or hatred of band-aids so I knew I couldn’t tell her I was putting actual band-aids on her. The first night we all put on our “remember tape” (using athletic tape) on our thumbs and had a little, “Where is Thumbkin?” sing – along. I was glad when Micali finally fell asleep so I could take of the tape. It was super sticky and very annoying. Micali did great—it took her a little longer to fall asleep but she only woke up once in the night.  In the morning she seriously wanted the tape off and wasn’t about to let me put anymore on her.

So, we went to the store in search of new “remember tape.” I was hoping for Disney princesses, or Hello Kitty or something but the only girlie band-aid there was Barbie. Micali thought it was wonderful and totally bought into it all over again. She slept through the night last night without waking up so I think we are getting somewhere.

Here are some pictures of her, all smiles,   excited about her thumbs being taped up! 

Best of Friends

Micali and Eli get along so good. I am always amazed at how long they can entertain each other.  I stopped in the middle of my cinnamon roll marathon last night to snap these shots of the two of them.

They were going for a hike to do some exploring! ---at least that is what Micali told me. (Micali had been doing a lot of taste testing. Her face isn’t always this dirty!)

 

 

My mom, a country farm girl…

It is always fun to go home to Kansas and enjoy the wide open spaces. My parents live on 40 acres so there is plenty of room for everyone to spread out and enjoy the fresh air.

Throughout the years, we have had at some point and time, pigs, goats, sheep, cows, chickens, ponies,horses, cats and dogs. Right now the farm count is 3 chickens, 2 cats, and a dog. Micali and Eli totally loved chasing the chickens around the yard. Eli even treed a cat all by himself. I don’t think he was being very nice to it.

My mom is an amazing dutch oven master and loves making food over the fire. The grandkids love hotdog roasts and smores while she has the fire going.

Over Thanksgiving we were able to get these pictures of my parents on the 4-wheeler. They make me smile. They are still so young at heart and I am sure totally enjoyed their turn to have a ride.

 

Our sweet Micali girl

Micali is LOVING everything Christmas this year. She is just an awe at any lights she sees. And can’t help but go look closely at any Christmas tree she finds. On the 1st of December we helped her decorate her little tree for the dresser in her room. She couldn’t stop looking at it and kept saying over and over again, “Thank you for my Christmas tree, I LOVE IT!”

She is also really enjoying our new snowfall from yesterday. She even talked daddy into buying her, her very own snow shovel so she could help him.

After she warmed up from this little adventure she turned into a model and insisted that I take more pictures of her. Here are a few of them hot chocolate stains and and all.

 

Elijah Update…

He is feeling much better and is sleeping most of the night now. I never did start him on antibiotics since the Dr. wasn’t sure if it would help. I decided to just give him Tylenol for the pain and was planning to take him with me to my appointment and have our regular Dr. check him out. Monday was a great day for him so I never even had to take him in. Not sure what caused the ulcers but so glad he is feeling better!

A picture I just have to share of one of the days he was sick. He was grumpy so I just let him watch his favorite show, “signing time” and this is how I found him a few minutes later:

 

Here is a picture of him from yesterday:

 

And a blessing came from all of it. We don’t see Eli doing this anymore:

It actually kind of makes me sad. But glad I have this picture to remind me how cute he was doing it. Now, we are working on Micali to see if we can get her to stop. ----not having any luck so far.