Christmas 2010

Christmas was wonderful!

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Isn't it always though?!

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It was a different year for several reasons:

 First off EVERYONE is now married. This made is unique for many reasons, but it was fun to see each spouse spoil  each other.

Also, all of them seemed to need to rush through presents to get to their inlaws...which is new. Kinda weird to have to share everyone...we haven't had to have that before.

Change is hard but good...and this was no exception.

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The other notible difference was our Juddie. On the 23rd, while at a store, Judd choked on his HUGE scab falling off his tonsils, threw it up and had a 2 inch masterpeice spewed right outside BigLots.

 Joy for all...

but then his throat hurt REALLY bad and it kinda tanked him for a good 3 days...Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and the day after...poor guy. He just felt really run down and tired and didn't wanna eat...PERIOD. That is SO not my Judd, so it was hard to see him miserable. Happy to report that the day we hit the 2 week mark, he is good as new and a happy boy again!

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Ok so now that we have the dry heaves and gag reflex going...here is our Christmas Morning! :)

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Santa was, as usual, quite generous...someone should really stop him from being so OVERLY generous...he just can't seem to help himself anymore with these cute kids!

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Here is Mr. Cooper's stuff...

 And our Miss Madysen's loot...

 The entire room is filled practically...these crazy kids couldn't have asked for ALL this could they?

 A few years ago Santa must have visited us VERY LAST because he left his special Santa Bag. Each year he leaves just a few presents wrapped up for the kids to find in his bag...

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But this year was a lil different...

Here are all the presents wrapped and waiting for morning...

 I took this picture for political reasons

I would like it to be known that our family

IS NOT

the reason our country is in recession.

CLEARLY

we have done our part! 

The kids flew down the stairs the second we had them all up...Madysen of course was up at FIVE A.M. and I made her wait all the way till 6:30 since Juddie had been having a rough night and needed atleast a few hours!

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They bounded down the stairs and found a huge trampoline which lights up as you jump on it!

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Coop's reaction was "cool"

Then he headed for his stuff

 Madysen, our drama queen, put her hand over her heart, gasped and went on and on about how awesome this gift was.

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Atta girl!

 Juddie was only partially awake, his throat was on fire, one of his pant legs was still up around his knees...

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In other words...well he gave it all he had on the excitement scale! :)

Then he looked over and saw what he had been dreaming of...

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His very own

BUZZ LIGHTYEAR TOY!!!

 The other two dug right in....

 So about that Santa bag...

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A few days before Christmas, Hollie, our family's elf...was asked in secret by the kids to PRETTY PLEASE ask Santa to bring them each a pillow pet.

 If you don't know what these are by some random chance, they are basically glorified twenty dollar pillows shaped like animals.

Mom said no...so they took their question to Hollie.

WHO DELIVERED!

 Each of them was THRILLED to have the pillow pet of their dreams.

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PLEASE oh PLEASE tell me this was a must at other people's houses and that you were sucked in as well by this marketing ploy?

 Hollie made a tag for each child to let them know she had listened and delivered on that extra special request. Thanks Hollie...Mom and Dad owe ya one!

As sad as this picture is...as my Mom says...this marks the year

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Poor Juddie...this was the most joy he could muster! He had some lortab and got more involved a while later! 

 Judd got some rockin cute Toy Story slipper boots that he put on IMMEDIATELY

 He also got a toy story tent...

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Which Austie couldn't resist playing with...just goes to show that men always remain kids :)

After the lortab kicked in, Judd found his bowling set and got pretty excited about that 

Then we let other people open presents

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After all, I needed to cleat out my living room :)

This year my Dad has all the sudden become almost obsessed with trains.

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Ya know,... the fake ones you set up on a track and they do all sorts of neat things.

Like go forward

And backward

And...

yeah, nope that's it

Ahh Dad...

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Well my lil sista Nan gave him a conductor's hat which I thought was quite darling! Go Nan!

 The other highlight of this Christmas for me was my sister Nan's presents!

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She is way more practical than me, except in clothing and shoes, and didn't wanna waste money on ribbon you just throw away.

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So THIS is what you get!

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I laughed so hard I think I felt a pee dribble down my leg. Oh Nan! Gotta love ya!

 Brady was pretty excited to find what was underneath THIS 2" ribbon curl!

 This present wins the cutest contest!

 Isn't she darling?!

Kiki got a rockin cute Vera Wang purse...don't you just love Vera

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And Kohls

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WAIT.

STOP.

Whole other post needed for that one

 Austin got some fabulous tools, which he is super excited about. He is married now and bysodoing will find the joy in honey-do-lists! It just goes with the territory right?

 Matt was naughty this year...

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Santa came to his store a few weeks ago to get his meds refilled while Matt was working in the pharmacy. Matt offended him and Santa retaliated by giving him coal this year.

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HOW'S THAT FEEL MATT?!?

My Dad gave my Mom a huge and beautiful gift.

He took a picture of the SLC temple and had it done on canvas.

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The he matted and framed it with their marriage certificate to put up in their home.

Good one Dad!

 Matt thinks he is funny.

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A few months ago, my good bud Tammy had me watch this hysterical movie with her. It is one that you love and realize is lame all at the same time. If you haven't seen it lemme know...I am now the owner and would love to spread the joy :)

 Nonna and Papa gave the kids a hot potato game to play together! It has already had tons of use! I just may take it to preschool...:)

This one has a story...but I'll shorten  it.

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There once was a sister named Kiki. She wanted a griddle. She bought one right AFTER the black friday sale ended and therefore didn't get the good price. She pouted. She got mad. She returned it. She wouldn't buy another grill out of principle. She SHOULD have been able to have it at a better price.

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So her WONDERFUL SISTER AMANDA got her one instead :)

 This present was a complete surprise to me. While shopping at the boutique with my Mom, I found this and tore myself apart not buying it. I was trying SOOO hard to be careful with my money and not buy for myself this year...

 But my Mom, the Christmas elf...called up Matt and told him of my agony and they teamed up and bought it for me! Isn't he so ugly he's adorable. My entire main floor is done up in red, green and elves! SOO glad to add him to my collection!

 Matt finally moved up in the world as an owner of a blu ray. Three hours later...

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YUP

He watched a movie :)

And btw...it was ten times better in True HD.

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Well...so I heard.

 Course I really couldn't have told ya, but apparently one of the selling points of HD is to be able to see so clealry you can capture sweat.

YUP...that explains why my interest wasn't on the same level.

Oddly enough, sweat gazing isn't one of my hobbies. I am weird like that

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But...

Matt was happy :)

 Last, but not least, the kiddies got TS3 on blu ray. No sweat to see but really bright colors!

Christmas!

WOW!

Is the day you spend a good 6 months planning and shopping for really, truly over!

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The answer is...

NOPE.

I already started shopping and stockpiling for next year!

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Hope you all had a very MAGICAL Christmas too!

XOXOXOX

Countdown to Christmas!

I can hardly believe its almost here!

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Are you as excited as we are?!?!

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Today I finished the baking for Matt's employees! This year for his Non-management employees I made them these darling boxes filled with butterscotch brownies, frosted sugar cookies, homemade oreos with crushed peppermint sticks and chocolate orange cookies! TONS of hours later...the house smells yummy and they look pretty cute don't ya think?!?

So...

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The baking is done!...

The Tis the Season candle has been burning!...

The presents are laid out, wrapped beneath the tree...

Each with a pretty bow...

And fun tag...

And this one is just too cute no matter WHAT is inside this darling bag!...

The neighbor gifts are deilivered!...(aren't I witty haha jk)

And that pretty much wraps it up!

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Now we play games and snuggle and watch movies and wait for Daddy to get home from working SUPER long hours!

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Two more nights till Christmas Eve...we are super excited!

Tough as Nails

I have never in my life known or heard of a 3 year as tough as my Judd. He is a trooper to say the least!

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Things went well Monday. The surgeon said Judd had the some of the biggest adenoids he had EVER SEEN, and so this surgery should really help and change his life for the better.

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He also underwent a full allergy test and we found out the following: trees, weeds, grass, cats, dogs, horses, milk, eggs and beef are on his list of things he is allergic to. Not really sure how he's even been functioning with all that going on.

Poor baby.

This has been his "PLACE" since he arrived home from the hospital, with the exception of naps and night time. He lacks energy to do anything still, including sit up to eat, but you better believe he is eating DESPITE the fact that his throat has to be KILLING him. He is eating Jello, deli sliced ham, ramen (only chicken now that we know he's allergic to beef), oatmeal, bananas, rice and many others.

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He has endured the entire situation with almost no complaining. Every now and again he will say, "Mom, I just don't feel good." and then cuddle up on my lap and snuggle. That is the extent of his complaint. What a good boy!

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He has to be on lortab round the clock which is the ONLY thing he has fussed about. Matt talked to the pharmacist and it has been ranked the 2nd nastiest tasting liquid drug they make, only after the liquid steroid Judd has had to take when his asthma gets out of control. We had it flavored...but still no go.

 POOR POOR kid!

My heart breaks every 4 hours when I have to force him to gag it down :(

On top of the pain of tonsils and adenoids, he also has this to deal with. Each mark you see is a needle/shot site from the allergy testing. When they first brought me into him after surgery I nearly passed out looking at him half alive from the anesthesia and then she pulled up his pant legs to reveal this.

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All for a good cause in the long run, but MY POOR SON. He is tougher than his Mommy that is for sure.

Thank you all for keeping us in your prayers. I know how much that has helped

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We are not done with this whole thing, but so far it hasn't been as bad as it could simply because Juddie really is

TOUGH AS NAILS

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I love that sweet boy! I am completely covered in snot and druel from constantly holding him. My shirt has pretty rainbows from amoxicillain, orange powerade and cherry, blueberry and rootbeer popsicles. I have gone through 3 full boxes of Kleenex since Monday. If I never see Frosty the Snowman again after this week, I will consider myself blessed. But whatever keeps him going, that's the plan. I am just grateful the surgery is over and he did so well.

Hollie Jollie Are We

WOW!

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We have had a whirlwind of a weekend! So much to blog...and really WAY too many pics to post...but here are some highlights!

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Friday night was the kids annual Christmas Party with my parents. They do different Christmas activities every year! This year, we left them to bake and decorate a gingerbread house. They did all that, went to the dollar store and had free reign, read Christmas stories and just had fun making Christmas memories!

Everyone got on their aprons just beofre we left. The kids were so ABSOLUTELY excited! They always have so much fun!

The next morning we woke up to find that our elf had tried to attack their cute gingerbread house!

This silly elf keeps us on our toes! I almost always end up cleaning up after all her crazy meses! She does have a good time during the nights while we are asleep!

Didn't they do a pretty great job! The memory is EVEN BETTER!

The next night we found our elf doing this...

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We awoke to cut up Christmas paper and a "fort"

Inside, we found her reading nativity books and wrapping presents for the kids.

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Inside was a fun Little People Nativity to play with and re-create the nativity at home!

While the kids played with my parents, Matt and I went to dinner, went to a fun dance recital (Go Taryn, Go Joelie!:) then we went and saw the Denzel Washington movie UNSTOPPABLE.

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OH MY GOODNESS!

I haven't seen a movie that intense in a VERY long time! You so gotta go see it!

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Saturday we did another family outing! We went and let the kids play at Discovery Gateway and then walked around temple square to see all the lights! We had a wonderful time. I just love watching the narrated nativity across from the Tabernacle!

Then we took the kids to see the Christus. Juddie was very inquisitive about the statue. He wanted to know why Jesus had "owies" on his hands and feet, why his beard had two chins, why his boob was hangin out, ya know...typical stuff like that! (yes I about died....where DOES he come from)

Tomorrow morning my little baby Juddie-boy is going in for surgery. He is having tonsils and adenoids removed and doing a full allergy skin test to try and help him with his allergies and asthma problems!

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I know he will do just fine, but it is still SUPER hard as his Mommy to let him undergo all that. He is only 3 and such a small little boy...but I just have to remember it is for his own good right :)

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I am prepared to be a total shut in for the next week atleast! YES I am done with Christmas, but I knew I had to be as I have NO idea how Juddie will do with all of this! I just hope it is all worth it ... and I am ready to be all done with this! Pray for him...and me :)

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Hope all is well with all of you!

XOXOXOX