Happy Christmas to all!

We are back home and can't believe how fast Christmas flew by. Before Christmas becomes a distant memory, and I forget some of the details, I better get blogging!



Leading up to leaving for Utah was very busy! Isaac's birthday party, Loraya's basketball games, meetings, caroling, baking, lesson preparing, packing, cleaning....



It was a relief to lock the door to our townhouse and look forward to being with mom, dad, Kristie and family as well as Shareen and family! We missed all of you that couldn't be there as well as Jacob's family!



The airplane ride there was pretty uneventful. Lo and Isaac are super easy to travel with. Macey is more difficult. To start with, right before take off, Macey threw up ALL over. Jacob was the lucky person to be holding Macey at the time. Macey was stripped down to her diaper for the short plane ride to Chicago where we changed planes. Unfortunately, Jacob remained in his bad smelling clothes the rest of the trip to St. George. He was a bit self conscious about his odor and very glad to change into clean smelling clothes upon arrival to Utah.



Macey fell asleep on the plane for a short while before switching planes in Chicago. New clothes were bought for Macey, happy meals for Lo and Isaac, and off we went. I remember at one point traveling from Chicago to Las Vegas asking how much longer until we arrive. Thinking we've already been on the plane quite a while, but was very disappointed to learn we still had over 2 hours left! Oh, I was happy to see Las Vegas! We rented a nice full size SUV in Vegas and continued to St. George.



Rain, rain, rain in St George!! Record rain fall! Jacob and I enjoyed afternoon lunch dates and last minute shopping for the kids. Baking with my mom and movie watching with my parents. It seemed Isaac was out of sorts a bit while we were gone. I'm not sure why he was so difficult and hard to please. Just the smallest thing would set him off, like not cutting his toast the right way, just for example. Macey was out of sorts at night, nearly sending Jacob and I into the looney house and my dad to Motel 6! Sickness also found myself, Isaac and Jacob. I heard later Elizabeth and Mia were sick as well! I'm not sure why someone has to be sick on Christmas!



Wednesday night it finally stopped raining and we went to Tuachan for train rides, to see the lights and the live Nativity as well.





We were among the first people there, but there was a pretty big crowd by the time we left.



I felt so blessed to share this Christmas with my parents. It has been a long time since we've spent the Holidays together.

bad picture, yet best I could get with all the kids.

This is the live Nativity. Macey didn't really enjoy it much, but everyone else did. It was fun answering the kids questions. Read from Luke and enjoyed beautiful Christmas music.

We took the kids to see Santa in the mall by my parents house. I don't seem to have a picture of them. Macey wanted nothing to do with Santa. To my surprise Isaac told Santa that he wanted a Christmas tree ornament, an apple and a refrigerator! That was news to me! What a funny boy! (check out my mom's blog to see the Santa pic of the kids.)

Before we knew it, Christmas Eve arrived!

Rather then decorate sugar cookies, we decided to decorate ginger bread houses instead. Loraya took her time decorating her house.

Isaac wasn't as careful as Loraya, but his house turned out great! He was very proud of his house and excited to surprise Grandpa Toolson.



Macey is a climber! Climbing up stairs, onto chairs, onto couches, ladders, and up the bunk bed ladders. At one point Grandpa found Isaac with the phone in hand. Dad asked Isaac what he was doing with the phone and Isaac told him he was calling 9-1-1 because Macey was stuck on the bunk bed ladder!! He had already dialed the 9 on the phone! Glad the call was intercepted before the cops arrived to rescue Macey from the bunk beds!!


Christmas Eve dinner was amazing!

Cheers!

Macey watching on.

After dinner we drove over to the St. George temple. Isaac was beyond grumpy and didn't understand why we were looking at all these 'dumb lights.' I still managed to get a few snap shots of him. All of us enjoyed walking around, minus Isaac, and didn't let his bad mood ruin the fun night.

a rare smile caught on camera!

I believe Isaac is saying here that we doesn't want his picture taken.

beautiful!

Ready for bed in our new jammies!

Welcome Christmas morning!

Santa visited us in St. George! Presents also awaited the kids at home in Morgantown. We couldn't bring much in our suit cases and had to pack pretty light.

I love watching the kids excitement and watching them open their gifts.

Yum!

Macey loved her baby doll.

Loraya was surprised by the Leapster Explorer

Later in the afternoon the Kindricks and Eberles arrived! We had very full house! We waited to play Santa Bingo until Christmas night. Here Lo is picking out her prize.

Kid table.

That seems to be the end of my picture taking. Kristie took all the kids to Jumping Jacks to get some energy out. Trips to Downeast, Costco, In-n-Out, Tai Pan, The Mall, were all taken. The only girl trip we took was to Downeast for a short shopping trip, but everything was 40% off, so the trip was worth every penny!

All the cousins played great together and was happy to see Isaac playing well with all the girls. Isaac is the only boy cousin, except Luke who is 13...

We took the kids to see Tangled again. I didn't mind seeing it once more, it's such a cute movie! Loraya was a big girl and sat away from Mom and enjoyed the movie with her cousin Elizabeth.

Shareen and I took the kids swimming at the local rec center. The kids loved going down the water slide and playing with their cousins. We stayed a few hours, the kids probably would have been happy to stay a lot longer.

All too soon it was time to pack up and make the journey home. Once we arrived in Vegas we noticed a horrible smell in the car. We thought it was Macey. So, we stopped to fill the car with gas and I went to change Macey's diaper. I was surprised to find her diaper poopless. What in the world was that horrible smell??!! I was a bit embarrassed to drop the car off with it smelling so bad. Once we left the car, the smell seemed to follow us! Finally we located the source of the smell. Isaac had a carton of opened chocolate milk in his backpack that had been there for at least a week!! Seriously, everywhere we went people were asking what that smell was! When we went through security they even started spraying oust odor remover! All the TSA employees were asking why it smelled so bad. So embarrassing!! I took the backpack and cleaned it out the best I could. It still had a slight odor, but it only stunk when you touched it. It seems we couldn't experience the plane ride with out some kind of bad smell!

It was good to get home. I have no desire to travel again, anywhere, anytime soon! Traveling to and from the East coast is just really hard with 3 young kids!

Christmas morning came again once we got home. The kids ripped through their presents really fast and seemed very excited with what they got.

Macey liked her choo choo train.

Loraya's favorite gift was 'Go-Go the walking pup.'

I thought this was a funny picture. Of all the presents surrounding Isaac, he is looking at his new book.

Another funny story.

We arrived home around 10:30PM. The kids went first to the tree to see if Santa had left anything under the tree while they were gone. The first thing that Isaac says is he wonders which present was his Christmas tree ornaments! Oh man, he still wasn't forgetting about the whole ornament thing! So, at midnight I went to the store and bought some of the ugliest ornaments ever. It was the only thing they had left at Kroger. Here Isaac is hanging the ornaments on the tree.

Now all the Christmas decorations are put away. The Christmas tree is down. Lo and Isaac start up school tomorrow (yay!). Jacob has another week of vacation until dental school starts up again. I think we have all recovered.

I look forward to 2011. I enjoyed 2010. Jacob and I enjoyed a nice quiet evening at home. Put the kids to bed. Made lil smokies, watched a movie, made chocolate chip cookies...and brought in the new year.

Here's to 2011! We love you our family and friends!!

Please know you are ALWAYS welcome to come and visit!!