A Dash of December - A Pinch of Sugar...

I can't even believe it's "Go Time".  Like what the heck?  Basketball season ended last week, then we had a wrestling tourney, and now BAM - Fa-La-La-La-La - It's Christmas!!

Before I go into full on "powdered sugar, sprinkles on top baking mode" I must show you a few of the little moments we've been enjoying this past week or so...

Boone gives kisses.

His eleven-month-old bag o' tricks includes giving five, saying mama and dada, saying "ek" for the elk on the wall, waving hi and bye and now giving full on wet, slobbery kisses.  Well, and running from drawer to drawer to disassemble at an alarming rate.  He chucks all the things over his shoulder like a jolly old elf who is digging for something DEEP deep in the recesses of his big bag.  It's like he knows just what he's looking for and he knows it's in there but gosh-darn-it, per Murphy's law it must be the very last item in said bag.  :)  Cracks me up.

 Santa had to send an emergency letter to Dax & Ace this past week.  Things were gettin' sort of naughty up in here and Santa needed to offer some words of encouragement.... bless his heart. 

 Then Dax lost his first front tooth by tying floss from his tooth to Boone and the rest is history.

Look at that cute little gap!  

 It snowed!  And my eager shovelers were on it like blue bonnet.  I love that first significant snow of the season when it's all excitement and no dread!  It was bitter cold with the wind whipping around little crystal flakes, but that didn't matter a bit - they were all smiles!

 Also noteworthy - Dax had his Christmas party at school and scored a new blue snowflake stamp.

Boone found the stamp.  And nearly devoured it.  Thirty minutes of thorough scrubbing later and he was finally sans blue mouth but the tongue lasted a good while. 

 Christmas Jammies - Christmas T-Shirts - Christmas Santa Hats and Antlers are on the docket, especially this week.  We'll be attending school programs, and seeing lights, and delivering all the neighbor and friend gifts until we're fully Christmas-i-fied.  It's the most wonderful time of the year.

Here is the best we could get - sorry about that blinding flash boys.

 And here is one of the many outtakes - which should definitely be documented here since this is by and large the better part of my collection of digital images.

And Christmas duds for Sunday.

They sang the sweetest little medley of Christmas tunes with their friends in Primary yesterday and it was adorable.  I was grinning from ear-to-ear and craning my neck to smile at each of them from the audience.  When they came back I liberally offered hugs and high-fives and "good jobs" and then Kael said, "Could you even tell I was just saying 'watermelon' the whole time?  Cause I was!"

Oh the giggles and snorts.

We were a regular Christmas catastrophe and it was hilarious.

I love these darling little goobers.

Merriest Christmas week to you!

Wish Lists...

We took these little elves to see Santa on Monday night.

Turns out the Outlets charge a pretty penny to take a picture with the big fellow - so no actual pictures of them ON Santa's lap because sometimes, Mama gets a little annoyed and boycotts the whole dealio because - duh... It's Santa - at Christmas.  Sheesh.

(My one covert shot)

Anywho - not to sound all Scrooge-ish... it really was a great night and just look at their hand written, carefully thought-out letters to Santa.

Santa concurred with Kael that yes, indeed, a Coke would be preferred on the big night over milk.  Kael also asked if the reindeer liked the food he sprinkled on the lawn last year, to which the big guy replied, "Was that YOU that left that for them?  They've been talking about it ever since!"

Two thumbs up.

Dax is our little perfectionist and his note is nice and tidy - just like he like's 'em.

He fessed up to only being good "some of the time" but Santa gave him points for honesty.

He also said he would leave Oreos for Santa, and since then, he has been the Oreo gestapo.  Making sure we are fully stocked and writing them on the list when we appear to be running low.  Which is ironic because the only reason we would be running low is that he, himself, ingested 14 of them.

Ace Face threw Santa a curve ball (per usual).  There is some sort of specific Monkey thing that runs along on it's own and has "kind of weird eyes" that he has requested.  Oh.SNAP!  Good luck, Santa.

Also, last minute he wanted Santa to bid "Good Day" to Rudolph.  He's sweet like that.

Boone came along for the ride, and sported a trapper's hat like a boss.

He didn't cry when he saw Santa but he squirmed down off his lap and walked around his little workshop like he owned the place.  Typical.

I won't lie - Santa had to pull out the big guns that night and he left a letter reminding Dax & Ace to stay off the "naughty kid radar" because their names came up RIGHT AFTER THEY TALKED WITH HIM and he was pretty disappointed.  That's right - it was a rough night.

Since then everyone has been on their best behavior, so it seems the magic of the North Pole lives on.

I'll keep 'em.

Even on their naughty elf days.

Sweet little Contractors...

When it was just Ryan and I - pre-kiddo days - I had a whopping case of O.C.D.

No lie, I made Ryno jump over my new vacuum lines when he was home and everything was embarrassingly polished and sterile.

Think of what a weirdo I would have been if I never would have been blessed with these little fellers?

Well let's fast forward to present day.  I am a mom of FOUR boys and I have embraced plastic table cloths and homely looking gingerbread houses.  I've come a long way, people.  

On Sunday night I didn't even care a lick because Disney's, Frozen, was playing on network TV like the good old days.  Our tree lights were glistening.  I had a batch of homemade carmel corn to munch on.  And all my boys worked together to create the perfect gingerbread house - because perfection is in the eyes of the beholder.  

They didn't even argue about it (oddly) it must be Christmas time? They kind of just farmed out "duties" and worked like a little army of builders that could.  :)

And all hail the Christmas Gingi House Gods for Neccos!  For a while there, they were MIA, but we found 'em and the roof of this little gingerbread abode is legitimately cute -- crooked, but cute!

Boone got in on the action long enough to shove an embarrassing number of non-baby-friendly candies in his mouth and subsequently spit them out resulting in a rainbow of drool down his little chinny-chin-chin.  #winning  

At the end of the season we'll chuck it just to press repeat on this tradition again next year.  But for now, I'll look at my festive little imperfect tablescape and smile.  All thanks to my cute little contractors who built up something sweet together this Christmas.

XO

Christmas Time's a Comin'...

Let's just start off with a Christmas framer, for kicks and giggles, shall we?

Oh my heart.

He may undress the bottom foot of the tree on a daily basis, but he is one cute little deer.

And how about these skippy little elves?

Our ward had the opportunity to provide Christmas for refugee families.  My sweet boys helped me shop for goodies for little 2-year-old Brianna and 4-year-old Jesus and then we wrapped everything up and delivered it on the coldest day of the year, I'm sure.  

Ace told me his heart was feeling really happy and "com" aka calm.  Being able to give really kicked off the Christmas season for us all.  We are so very blessed and fortunate to have Ryan who provides such an amazing life full of blessings for us.  We have our health, our home, the gospel and wonderful family & friends.
Truly all one ever needs.

I imagine the faces of our little angels on Christmas morning and it almost makes me cry.  What would it have been like without the spirit of Christmas urging us to serve?  

So grateful to share this experience with my little family.

And speaking of grateful -- ugh, my photos and my transitional phrases are rusty - sorry for the over abundance of lame writing.  Alas, here are a few more shots of Booner Bear in action.  It's his first Christmas and I'm so excited to watch him.  

Maybe even more excited to watch his brothers WITH him.  Watching them love him and teach him has become one of my favorite passtimes although, as his face depicts, sometimes he gets over loved.

Finally, we celebrated in Logan this past weekend with all the Albrecht's at our family party.  This is all the grand kiddos and Grandma Gail & Grandpa Hooky after the white elephant gift exchange.  It was a hit and Kaelster is beyond thrilled he got a bowling ball in a bowling bag.  :) 

So much magic this time of year.  We cram a lot of good feels during this, the last month in the calendar, and I look forward to it all year long.  Let's do this, December.  We're loving it! 

Hey Diddle Diddle...

Oh gosh it must be the holidays.  Where have I been?  Certainly not blogging.  OH the guilt!

Anyway a few random-dandies to get us started:

Have I mentioned that at nine months Boone got two teeth and starting walking?  Then suddenly at 9.5 months he thought he could ride a bike -- a wiggle bike that is.  

Now he is 11 whole months, has four teeth, babbles like a brook, and I just want to strap him down to any inanimate object so he'll stay a baby forever and stop running around like a toddler.

 Ryan & I took him to Arizona this past week for his "only baby" trip which we have done with all the boys and he was such a love.  Just waving hi and bye to everyone, and playing peek-a-boo with every plane passenger, and toddling around the temple grounds flirting with the sister missionaries, and eating fresh citrus off the cousins' trees.  He makes all of us insanely happy.  

Now if you don't mind can we revert to Thanksgiving for a red hot minute?  We stayed here locally and celebrated all our many blessings with Ryan's parents, brother, and two sisters and their families.  It was so fun to have all the cousins together.

We saw the Luminaries at Thanksgiving Point, we took the boys to an archery range, we went to Lowe's Air and competed (internally) on the Ninja Warrior course, we ate, went to the movies, and basically loved life for the bulk of the week.

And Kael the caveman thoroughly enjoyed Grandma's turkey.  :)

Then whaddya know - mere moments after the Thanksgiving weekend, we had SNOW!

It seems no body around here was mad about it.  Not one little bit.

I got to get away on my annual holiday shopping outing with my best friend, and while I was away RyGar ran this show.

Good news - the kids all survived!

Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to another basketball game, wrestling tourney, or Christmas sing-a-long.  Phew.....

Merry Christmas, ya filthy animals.

:)