Month: December 2009

around the time the first REAL big snow storm comes, this activity always comes out…SNOWY ROCKS, or white beans. (and often times in between too!)

I nearly forgot about it this year, but luckily, Tucker remember…

and the big boys spent the afternoon, lifting, scooping and dumping.

We make ornaments every year, together to hang on our tree.
Our Ornaments this year…
(This one’s Elliots)

Some of my favorites from Years Past (and a look at our non-traditional tree) 🙂
Dad’s -2003 (applesauce, cinnamon and glue–smells so yummy!)

Ours- 2002 (Dried oranges, lemons, limes)

Tuckers 2008 (Paper rolled up in clear globes)

And always topped with this star, a gift from some good friends, the first year we were married.

The day finally came, for over 2 weeks, the boys have seen our gingerbread house kit on the top of our fridge, and daily the request has been made, to create our own little village.

The day finally came, and the boys summed up all the creativity inside of them,

and working as a family, we created our own little town of Phillips-ville.

Elliot, with a little help from Mom, created the Sunny Side Center (notice the smiling face on the roof)

Truman, chose the Catholic Chapel, but since we’re not catholic, and Truman wanted to put something where the catholic cross should go, we put an M on the outside, for Mormon.

Tucker, liked the shape of his Chalet, and created a cozy place, with TWO Sidewalks, so there was a way for everyone to get there,

Every town needs a place for it’s villagers to live, I created a nice little home for a nice little family…

And finally Toph’s beautiful masterpiece, sprinkley covered and all…

It never got a name, but unfortunately, it’s shape lends to the idea of an ‘outhouse’. (sorry sweets) That’s one glitzy building whatever it is :).

The past few days after school Tucker has come home singing, “Jingle Bells, Batman Smells, Robin Laid an egg….”
Much has changed since I went to school, so funny to hear that some things are still the same…

The Christmas music is playing at our home and in our car.

The season is here, our tree has been hunted for and is up… Our home is full of Christmas lights, and smells, and decorations.

The nativity is up, and is a powerful reminder of the season.

Our neighbors invited us to attended a living nativity in our community with them, where the boys loved meeting the animals after (including a 1 month old baby camel)
.

And we’ve also seen the beautiful trees at the Festival of Trees.
The kids loved this paint brush tree…they’ve both talked alot about it since we saw it!

And in the kids village we made a few fun crafts, including Tucker’s Caterpillar!

Again, thanks to our neighbor for providing the pictures…and I won’t have to bug anyone else for awhile, because, we got our camera back today!
Hurray!

But this baby movie NEEDED to be posted…

Having a little one about this age, I am fascinated with all things baby, and excited to learn about the first year of babies in different places, and with beautiful cinematography, it’s on my very short list of movies I want to see! There is nothing cuter than a baby, and I am wishing I hadn’t seen this now, because it doesn’t come out for a few months. Now I have to wait.
Thanks Toph for sharing this link with me!

And now this is the view I frequently see of my boys.

Smiles and all.

Toys that a six year old, four year old, and ten month old all LOVE to play with.

This fisher price farm was one of the first toys Tucker got for his first christmas,

and a few sets have been added on since then…

but I love that all of my boys can play with something together.

It’s rare to find a toy that holds the interest of such a diverse group. But not a rarity to find them all enjoying it together.

Here are a few pictures of Truman Recovering after the surgery.

He had a pretty sweet set up. He ate his meals on the couch, had a laptop for movies, and lots and lots of gatorade in his special sippie.

After the surgery, we were told we had to keep him from bonking his eye for 10 days (therefore undoing the surgery), and to keep him down for the first few days following the surgery. Thank heavens for movies. We watched Ice Age 3 and Monster vs. Aliens quiet a few times.

And just for posterity sake, the following story.

The first Sunday following the surgery, I went to church, and Toph stayed home with Truman. Whilst they were cuddling and reading books, Truman got ahold of one of the knots/end of his stitches. Thinking it was an eye crusty or something caught in his eyelashes he pulled. (A Learning lesson for us as parents…we told him not to pull/touch the stitches, but never showed him with his hands (touching) what the stitches were. Duh.)

Pulling out part of his stitches. (see the really long looking eyelash? It’s actually a stitch.)

Thankfully, after Toph made a trip down to see the Doctor with Tru, we were grateful to hear that Tru pulled the right stitch (out of the four), and we wouldn’t have to redo the surgery, and there had been no bleeding or tearing.

As always, never a dull moment around these part.

For the most part Tucker still loves his school lunches chocolate milk and all,

and the other day he brought home a real treasure for Truman.

A spork.

Yep, they’d seen it in the movie Wall-E, but never seen one in real life (really?).

Tucker informed me it was hard to get it home.

Confused, I asked why? He said he thought he was going to have to smuggle it past the lunch guards (okay, he didn’t use the word smuggle, I’m paraphrasing 🙂 ), but when I questioned him further, he informed me he’s not allowed to take anything from the lunch room OUT of the lunch room. But he felt like it was so important to show this to Truman, he asked the guards (Yes, he did use the word guards, and apparently, they took pity on the poor sporkless children at our house, and delivered the spork for Tucker to his classroom, so he could show his brother.

These are the moments…such thoughtfulness that I love to see.