Christmas 2009

Christmas Eve dinner! We do our big meal on Christmas Eve, so we don't have to do much cooking on Christmas, but we have plenty of yummy leftovers. We always have an open invitation to Uncle Tyler. Jared made a delicious turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, cheesy broccoli, pasta salad, rolls, and a couple different pies! It was soooo good. After dinner the kids open their first gift...Christmas pj's. Then we watch "Santa Claus: The Movie" (old xmas movie Jared LOVES....with Dudley Moore and John Lithgow) and have egg nogg (diluted with milk!). The kids are usually in bed by ten. This year we had NO WRAPPING to do on Christmas Eve....yay! We told the kids they weren't allowed out of their rooms until 7, and they had to make their beds before they came out.

The picture above and below are of Kelsey & Emma opening their cellphones....yes, cellphones. I am one of those parents. Kelsey got one last year, and as you can tell from the picture, she didn't think she'd be getting a new phone this year, but boy was she excited! Why wouldn't she be, it was pink!! And it had flowers!
In this day and age, I LOVE that my girls have phones. Kelsey is old enough to tend (not Sophie, of course) so it's nice when Jared and I are out that she and I can text each other. She also had her first slumber party a few weeks ago and was able to text me all night, even at 2AM to let me know she was still up. Emma, on the other hand, had asked Santa for a phone. I was a little hesitant, but we got a great deal, so we did it.

Ashton with his "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" turbo tank...this was high on the list for Santa.

Oh, these two little ones are SO easy to shop for! Conner & Mallory got plenty of new coloring books, markers, crayons and puzzles. Mallory also got new Barbies, Cabbage Patch baby twins, and My Little Pony stuff. Conner increased his collection of "Star Wars: Galactic Heroes" toys with two new ships and new characters.

We started to loose Jared by 8:30, but he snapped out of it.

If you look closely at the picture below, you can see Mallory has a tear on her cheek. My 3 older kids had purchased gifts for everyone at their school's "Santa's Workshop". Ashton bought Conner a fake spider. I HATE spiders and some of my kids have inherited that (or have seen me freak out so now they freak out). Jared and I got worried when he was opening it because Kelsey (who helped wrap it) kept saying, "Don't be scared, ok? It's not real". Conner didn't freak out, but I wish I had video of Mallory when she saw it. She wouldn't leave Jared's lap the rest of the morning. We ended up throwing it away the next day after Conner realized it was fun to terrorize his sister.

Another fun story this Christmas: Jared found some great recipes for breakfast, that he put together the night before and then we baked it in the morning. One of them bubbled over and the oven started to fill with smoke. When Jared opened the door to slide a cookie sheet under it, it set off our smoke alarm, which is wired to our security system. LOUD beeping filled the house, Jared silenced it & the security company called to ask if they needed to send the fire dept. Ooops!
We hope you all had a great Christmas like we did! With a new baby, it was a great excuse to stay home and have visitors come to us. We got to visit with both of our parents, two of Jared's aunts, and have brothers, sisters and cousins come visit. We love this time of year!

More Sophie

Looking through my photos of her so far, and knowing how she looks today...her color is a lot better. She had her check-up yesterday and everything looks good, though her pediatrician thinks she may have fractured her clavicle during delivery. Her left shoulder got stuck under my pubic bone, and when her head came out her right shoulder came with it, which shouldn't really happen. My doctor had the NICU nurses come down and check her, and they said she seemed fine. But after we came home Jared & I both noticed that she didn't move her left arm much, and it seemed to hurt her when we moved it. So, we have to take her for an xray, but it will fix itself.
The kids love her, but they are driving us crazy. I think it's a combination of having a new baby in the house, christmas, christmas vacation and sugar. Conner & Mallory are the hardest. Today Mal kept taking toys from Conner & even Ashton, then she'd run around the house so they couldn't get it. I got after her and I said (mostly to myself), "I don't even know who you are...." But she heard me and with the saddest look on her face said, "I'm Mallory". I felt so bad....but seriously...what happened to my kids?! I'm ready for school to start....

Sophie Lin...December 17th

Here are a few pictures we took at the hospital of Sophie. Everything went well. We were all surprised by her size (even my doctor) at 8 lbs, 11 oz. and 19 inches long. She shares a birthday with Papa Kim, on December 17th, born at 6:15 pm. She's still not my biggest baby! Ashton holds that title. The kids all love her & were so anxious for us to get home so they could hold her. They were only allowed to see her thru the nursery windows at the hospital because of new visitor restrictions. We are so glad to be home!

Ko nichi wa

A couple of weeks ago we all went into a Salt Lake health clinic to get our H1N1 flu shots. We told the kids we'd go somewhere fun to eat afterward. To my kids, anywhere is fun for dinner. But they all particularly like Asian food, so we took them to a restaurant close by called "Asian Star". We were early, about 5:00, so we got an "early-bird" special. The funniest thing....the whole time Conner kept saying "Ko nichi wa" to everything. It was a "ko nichi wa" place, they were playing a "ko nichi wa" song, he kept saying "Ko nichi wa" to the waitress and the nice lady that would fill our water glasses. It made Jared and I laugh....and it was a little embarrassing.

Fun times around the dinner table

Dinner yesterday started with an irreverent prayer. Jared didn't mean for it to be, here's what happened......
(Jared saying prayer)"...blah, blah...we're thankful that we can be here together as a family...."
Ashton immediately chimes in with....."Mmm-hmm"....which made us all laugh and Jared started over. I don't know what made him think to chime in, but it was so funny.

While we were eating the conversation turned to Jared's childhood, the kids love to hear about the Smart dairy farm. At one point Jared mentioned his step-grandma, Devean. We don't see her a lot anymore, but a week ago we went to a party for her 80th birthday. So he says her name and Mallory sitting next to him at the table says, "I don't like her." Honestly, I really don't think she knew who he was talking about. But she was so serious and just kept right on eating, staring at her plate. Jared and I just looked at each other and laughed....which always makes Mallory mad. She crosses her arms and says, "It's not funny!!" She doesn't like to be laughed at, but she's just so stinking cute.

Mallory's trouble with "boots"

There are a few words that tie up Mallory's tongue. She says "pup-cakes" for cupcakes, and "slip-slops" for flip-flops....but the funniest is her "boobs" for boots. I've worked on the pronunciation with her, trying to get that "t" in there, but she can't get it. I bought her a pair of black boots (not snow boots) that are just like a pair Kelsey & Emma both have. She loves to wear them, and she talks about them a lot (such a girl). Here are some phrases we've enjoyed lately: "I got new boobs"....."I have boobs like Kelsey"....."I put my boobs on"....."My boobs are stuck"....."There's my boobs".

Halloween 2009

This year we had two Utes, a princess, and two pirates. Kelsey really wanted to be a vampire, but most of the vampire costumes we found were pretty inappropriate, so we nixed that idea & went with the same one we got for Emma. The boys didn't have a choice. I saw the Ute costumes at Tai Pan Trading and bought them, but they were very excited. Mallory was SO cute as Snow White, and everyone commented on what a cute costume it was. Another great creation from Aunt Amy....