Christmas

If I would blog more often I wouldn't think it was so time consuming, but lets be honest, probably not going to happen. Time just gets away from me. I can't believe I will have another baby in 3 months, it just seems like we found out we were pregnant and 3 months will be gone before I know it.


This holiday season was especially fun and will always be remembered. This is Cohen's 3rd Christmas, but this Christmas, he "gets" it and it was so much fun to be apart of his excitement.

This year we decided to buy an avent calendar that you fill with your own little treasures. We wanted to start buying Christmas decorations that our kids will look back on and remember every year just like we remember certain decorations from when we grew up. Cohen LOVED getting his "surprises" as he would call them every day. Among his surprises were Toy story and Cars stamps, stickers, rubber bugs, match box cars and candy. The bugs, candy and stickers were his favorite, but probably only the stickers because they always came with candy!

One of my favorite Christmas memories followed a not so great night. This particular night I was doing all the grocery shopping for a Christmas party Josh decided to throw for 40 of his fellow employees. Probably many wives know how this plays out...he tells everyone to come... and I do the rest:) Cohen and I had already been to Costco and were now at Walmart, and Co was a stinker the whole time. There was soap all over everything in the cart because Cohen had kicked a lid off one of the soap dispensers without me knowing, my pregnant body was aching, my high heel boots were long past hurting my feet and I choose the line with the checker lady who literally took 1/2 hr to ring one person up. I would have changed lines but my slimy soap groceries were already on the conveyor belt. I was so done by the time I was leaving the store. Then we walked out side. There stood a lady ringing a bell for Sub-for Santa. Co immediately looked straight up in the sky, gasps and says, "Mom, I hear Santa! He's up in the sky!" He stared into the sky the whole walk to the car, so excited he had heard Santa and still trying to catch a glimpse. What fun the innocent spirit of little kids bring the season. If anyone asked him what Santa was bringing him he would tell them "presents and toys" and sure enough that's what Santa brought him. One of my favorite things was listening to Co tell me what Santa says, "Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas!" in his sweet little voice.

Christmas eve was fun. We spent it with my parents and I was determined to let Cohen see Santa . Mainly because this year he understood what was going on, and I was never going to get the moment back when my excited 2 year old little boy sat on Santa's lap. The past 2 years he has seen him multiple times (and really could have cared less) but this year we kept missing him. We finally found him at Provo towne centere, just in time for them to tell us we were too late. The people in front of us were the last ones through. I was really disappointed, but there was also a train giving kids rides around Santa, so we opted for that instead. Cohen could have ridden that thing all night! He LOVED the train ride. Then after some persuading/arguing going on from a few people who came in after us about getting to see Santa we were able to go see him after all. Don't think I didn't voice my opinion though when the people who came right after us had 3 kids and were allowed to go through to see Santa. But it so happens a lady who came even after the people they let through was not about to go home without her kids seeing Santa, through a fit, and so they let us both in. Lucky for us! When it was Cohen's turn Josh set him down and he ran right up to Santa to sit on his lap. Of course I was still videoing while the best picture could have been taken with his huge smile so I have to settle with a half smile and a hand in his mouth. But at least he got to see Santa. After Santa we ate at Red Robin (yum!) and went to Thanksgiving point to see the Christmas lights.

That night when we were putting out Santa's cookies and milk, Cohen reached right over and had a bite of Santa's Christmas tree sugar cookie, and a swig of milk...sorry Santa! Then he exclaimed..."I ate Santa's cookies and Milk!" I use the word exclaimed because if you know our little boy, you know he is VERY animated and so full of life.

Since he knows how to open his door and comes to wake us up every morning we had to baby gate him in his room Christmas eve so he wouldn't see what Santa brought him with out us. Christmas morning as he let him out of his room he looked over the balcony into the living room and was so excited! And exclaimed "Santa brought me presents and toys!"

We had a good morning opening presents and enjoying his excitement. We had to help him with the last few because he just wanted to play with his toys. By late afternoon my 2 brothers and sister and their families arrived and we had a house full of kids and chaos. We had 11 kids and all but 1 are 5 and under so you can imagine the noise. They all ran around and had a good time and played really well together. We turned our unfinished basement into a little play room to help contain some of the noise just so the adults wouldn't go crazy. We kept talking about how even 5 years from now how different our Christmas will be because most of the kids will be at least 7 and up and 10 years will have a bunch of teenagers that will sit around playing x-box with all the dads. We had our big Christmas dinner that night and the next day we went sledding. Its always fun for me to see my siblings and their kids. For a few years we all lived in the same state, except for my parents but now we've gotten all spread out, so for all of us to be together doesn't happen very often. The 3 days after everyone left Cohen seemed pretty bored and kept asking where his cousins were. Next Christmas we will have another addition to our family, and Cohen will be able to share his excitement with his baby sister.
Don't think this is what I currently look like at 25 weeks...no, no, no...I'm bigger. This picture was taken at 20 weeks, I just haven't taken any more pictures. I'm always envious of the really tall girls with long torsos who look as big as this when they are about to deliver, but me, that's just half way, my stomach will get twice that big.