Our December

Please be advised: This post is going to be a long and boring one. If you just look at the pictures you will probably enjoy it much more!

We started our December out with Chris taking his first Physical Therapy finals. I will sum that experience up by saying the week before finals was full of long days for Chris. He would leave the house early and come home late. The kids and I had a lot of time to bond. Chris ended up getting great grades and I couldn't be more proud of him!

The Saturday before Chris's first finals I took the kids to my parents house so Chris could study at home for a while. We got there just as Grandpa and Grandma were putting up their Christmas lights outside. Of course Ethan and Katelee were very excited to help, or maybe just be outside. Here is my princess helping....

The kids demolished a pile of leaves my dad had racked up in the front yard. Ethan ran though them first so of course Katelee had to do it as well. They had a blast and were entertained with this for a while.

My dad let Ethan help him hand the last light. Ethan loved it and hated it all at once. He loved helping but I think he might be just a little afraid of heights! Now when Chris gets on the step stool at home Ethan will hold on to it and tell him that he's making sure it doesn't fall! Silly Boy!

Aunt Anjali, Uncle Matt and Madilynn invited us to their ward Christmas party, so of course we went. We got Katelee dressed in her Christmas dress I bought on clearance last year and even put her hair in a little ponytail!

I told Ethan to go upstairs and get a shirt. Halfway up the stairs I told him to turn around so I could get a picture and this is the pose he decided to give. Sexy, wouldn't you say? Watch out all you innocent little girls, Ethan is gonna get you! (and yes that pile of books is only a few of Chris's school books! Yeah)

We got to the Christmas party and Madilynn, Grandma and Grandpa Blackburn were saving seats for us. Isn't my niece just so stinkin cute? I just love this little girl.

And of course I think this girl is pretty darn cute too

Matt and Anjali had the privilege of playing the part of Mary and Joseph for their ward party. I think they did a pretty good job. They knew all their lines PERFECTLY and looked so cute up there.

The program went a little long so Daddy took Katelee home and I stayed with Ethan so he could see Santa. We were some of the first people in line and Ethan said, "Ma Ma can go first!" I'm pretty sure he didn't say this because he is so polite, but rather because he was still a little unsure of Santa all together!

So I had Madilynn and we went up to see Santa and this is the picture we got of her!

(notice what she has a handful of??? Yep, good thing they aren't very big or she wouldn't have been able to get such a good grip!)Ethan was unsure still when we went to see Santa but once Santa gave him a treat bag Ethan was good to go! And as always here is his "smile" when you tell him to smile! It looks as if he is in pain however I assure you he was not!

We put our tree up one Monday night with Grandma Nelson and Grandma and Grandpa Blackburn. (Thank you Grandma Nelson for taking the pictures for us)

Katelee and Ethan thought they were so helpful and it was fun to have them enjoying themselves but this is one of the few times when I will say I can't wait until they are teenagers. Decorating the tree took us about an hour longer than normal because we had to keep putting the ornaments on that Katelee kept taking off and throwing!

Here are the kids "decorating" the tree!

And here is Daddy putting the star on the top with BOTH kids.

Here is a classic picture of Katelee pointing. Every time we came home she would stand by the light plug and point at it until you plugged the lights in. She loved the lights on the tree and especially the lights at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Here is Ethan holding up an ornament he decorated this year with his Grandma Nelson. Thanks Aunt Lisa for bringing them down for him.

And here is Katelee showing us an ornament she just took off the tree. (my mother made this one. She makes all of us kids a new ornament each year just like my Grandma Stewart use to do)

The next week for FHE we went to a house in North Las Vegas that has tons of decorations and a train.

Ms. Katelee Snowman (picture above)

And Ms. Madilynn Snowman (below)

And Mr. Ethan Lou Who(below)

Here are all the kids and Tayler. They all just love Tayler and she is so good with the kids. I can't wait till she gets old enough to babysit! She will do such a great job, all the kids are going to love her!

These trees changed colors with the song that was on and Ethan and Katelee just loved it! They sat here for quite a while just watching them!

And then all the kids and Tayler went for a train ride. They all really liked it and would wave whenever they passed all of us!

For our ward Christmas party Santa came as well. Side story to this pictures, Ethan played in the hallway with all of him buddies for quite a while and his face was dark red the rest of the night. Katelee didn't mind Santa because he gave her a sucker, Ethan was more concerned about where his friends were than Santa, so this is the best picture I was going to get!

Then came our Christmas Eve party. Of course in the hustle to get every where on time I forgot our camera. Just know that Katelee was an angel and Ethan was a Shepard. At one point during the reading of the nativity I hear Ethan out of nowhere say "Go Cougars!" It was a proud moment for his father but all I could think was 'great, Ethan is going to be doing his Primary Presentation, say his lines and then shout GO Cougars!' But that is just my boy, he loves to do things he shouldn't and I love him for it! So anyways perhaps I will get those pictures from my mother or sister and get them on here some time

Next came Christmas!

This is what Ethan saw from Santa when he came downstairs....

And this is what Katelee saw from Santa when she came down......

And this is all of our stuff.....

We tried to video tape the kids coming downstairs but of course our video camera ran out of tape right when we pressed record. I guess now I know why it had that cassette flashing for so long! Oops....

So here is a picture of the kids after they had gotten downstairs.

And here is the after picture of our living room....

And the other side of the room.

The kids were excited to play with all of their stuff. Katelee did a good job unwrapping her gifts. She would tear a little piece of paper off and then hand it to me. Ethan finished opening all of his presents and Katelee was only done with about 7. But Ethan helped her finish the rest more quickly.

Ethan got a new scooter from Grandma and Grandpa Nelson, and he wanted to play with it right away. Once Chris got it put together he was outside and trying it out!

Of course Katelee wanted to do it as well.....

After everyone left we headed over to 7-11 to say hello to my friend that works there. She had to work on Christmas and I wanted her to know that we were thinking of her. She hooked us up with a free drink and Slurpee and lots of hugs. We then went over to Madilynn's house to see what they got and then later we headed over to Nelson's for lunch.

Little Miss Katelee loves to swing but usually gets on and off. But on Chrismas she just sat there with Grandpa Nelson for quite a bit. And he loved every minute of it!

Later we went over to Blackburn's for dinner. Our Christmas was great. We got to spend a lot of time with each other and our family, does it get any better than that? I think not!

I had the week after Chrismas off of work, which was great. Chris had it off as well so we got to spend a lot of much needed time together. My boss had given me two free tickets to the Springs Preserve so we deceided to go one day. This is the kids before we went. (these pictures were too cute not to share!)

The kids had fun at the Preserve and so did Chris and I.

I had a lot of things I wanted to get done while Chris and I were both off of work, one of them being getting the closet under the stairs cleaned out. I wish I had taken a before picture because it was a mess! But when we got it all cleaned out the kids just loved playing in it.

Aren't they just the cutest! I was tempted to move all of their toys into that closet and just let it be their play area. We almost did it but had nowhere else to store our vaccuum and knew they would just bring the toys out in the living room and make the same mess they make now so it just wasn't worth it!

On New Year's Eve day we went to the park in Boulder City for a picnic with Grandma and Grandpa Blackburn. Miss Katelee is our wild girl and loves to go down the slids. I love this picture, This is our typical Katelee-tounge out and not caring!

And here is Katelee and her humble servant Daddy... :)

When we got to the park there were about 30 Big Horn sheep just grazing in the grass. Ethan loved it and so did Grandpa Blackburn. I love this picture. My son does whatever Grandpa does, which as many of you know could be a good and a bad thing!

Just a picture of the oldest sheep out there, and the oldest guy out there. He He!

For New Year's Eve we had our parents over and Anjali and Madilynn. We played games and really had fun. I love to play games but Chris doesn't so we never really play any, however that night he played them all with me! Thanks babe, that made my Year!

The next morning Ethan and Katelee awoke to see that Mrs. Clause had been by and given them another small toy.

I'm pretty sure they both loved their new toys.

Our 2009 was full of lots of love, heartache, trials, lessons, firsts, stress, joy, pain, much support and every other emotion possible. We learned a lot this year and grew as a family far more that I ever expected us to. Katelee and Ethan have grown so much it seems like it couldn't have only been one year. We have accomplished so much and that makes me feel like 2009 was definantly a year that will never be forgotten. The lessons that came out of 2009 are lessons that will affect my life forever. I have a stronger testimony of the Plan of Salvation, of life after death and of the redeeming love of our Savior Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father. I have a stronger bond with my parents, in-laws and siblings because of the overwhelming amount of support that was offered to my family this year. 2009 brought a college diploma to our house and the start of another one. It brought a potty trained boy and a girl that no longer walks, but runs everywhere. This past year has been full of life lessons that sometimes take people years to learn and for that I'm grateful. So here is to an even better 2010, let it be full of much LOVE, learning and improving.