My Grown Up Christmas List

Our 2nd Christmas was with Stuart's family. As mentioned previously, everything got shifted a day earlier. We like to spread the Christmas fun :)
Although we were all adults (with the exception of Kohen) we were like little kids opening gifts and just having a good time.

Kohen decided one picture wasn't enough so he decided to take one with
Shaun and Marta as well.
What's funny is that no one coordinated their outfits yet every "family" was matching.
(We missed you Tim, Shane/Lina & fam, Junior/Lillie & fam and baby Michael)



Kohen was a pro by Christmas morning at opening gifts.
He had to check out a few by climbing on them too.

Christmas Eve we had dinner, games and lots of laughs.

Cuddles with Nanny and Grandpa Rupp

Kohen's cool tool set from Uncle Junior and Auntie Lillie they sent all the way from North Carolina. So glad they might be moving back! :)

Have A Holly Jolly Christmas!

As soon as Stuart was done with the semester the Christmas fun began.
We wanted to have a Holly Jolly little Christmas of our own so
We delivered Christmas goodies to friends....

Technically the decorating happened before Thanksgiving

Saw the awesome Christmas lights at the park (pictures don't do it justice)

He was excited about the penguin lights since his favorite movie is "Happy Feet"

As you can see Kohen LOVED them! Most of my pictures were just of him running around checking everything out.

This is actually the park that Stuart proposed at exactly 3 years ago.
Little did we know we'd be living here and have an adorable little boy that would run around in that exact same park.

Gingerbread houses
Well ... sort of. See the picture of the ONE gingerbread house? Apparently I didn't see that side and thought there were three little ones. But when we opened it up we found out otherwise.
It worked out fine though (other than they were hard as a rock and not worth eating).
Stuart wants to start a new tradition of decorating letters for Santa but we'll let the kids vote :)
The picture with the candy-less cookies were compliments of Kohen. While Stuart and I were busy cleaning up, Kohen was busy sneaking candy off of the cookies. I don't think he cares which tradition we choose as long as there is candy involved. haha

The top right picture is mine. The middle two were Stuart's. (Just clarifying)

Christmas Morning
Kohen was great at not touching the gifts (or the tree except for a couple intentional episodes haha). But as soon as the present unwrapping began he kicked it into gear.

Side note about the blocks above: We had wanted to get Kohen blocks since he's at the age where he likes to stack and build things but I knew better than to get hard blocks that could be used to whack someone like a younger sibling further down the road. I didn't really care for small ones either even if they were soft because they would be more of a mess than stacking material. I saw online some cardboard ones that were exactly what I was looking for BUT I did not want to spend our whole budget of $30 on cardboard blocks (and not very many either). So I decided to find boxes around the house and wrap them in fun duct tape. I got three different kinds because I was having fun (nerdy) and I think it cost less than $10 bucks tops! Sweet! Except for when Kohen stood on a few. But hey, at least I didn't pay $30 on them :)

We knew we wanted to get Kohen something sport-wise since he LOVES playing soccer, catch... but went back and forth as to what. I have to admit, Kohen was a pro from the start at his new T-ball HOWEVER

..it apparently wasn't challenging enough because shortly after he began getting creative. Haha
He'd play with a tennis racquet, eyes closed, two balls, or any other ball he could find.

Stuart and I had gotten Kohen some dvds at the pawn shop for like a buck (sweet) when he was sick the week previous so we wrapped up the cases so he'd have more gifts to open. :)

Although Christmas is never the same as when you are a kid, it's a new kind of fun shopping for your kid, watching your kid open presents and of course have fun!

Four Christmases

This year we did not have an ordinary Christmas, although, we did get to technically have it 4 times! (More detailed posts to come). We decided to have our own little Christmas at our apartment a couple days before we left out of town. It's fun watching your child get excited to open his presents and experience all the fun parts of Christmas. Kohen seemed to be somewhat oblivious to the presents until it came time to open them. Then he was everyone's helper...whether they wanted it or not. Haha

The 2nd Christmas we had was a day early since Stuart's parents were leaving to Hawaii Christmas Eve to meet up with Stuart's other brother and his family.
Kohen was in heaven with all the gifts and attention. And as you can see, he had to test everything out by climbing on it.



Christmas day was very low key. We went to Stuart's brother's ward and just hung out.

And the 4th Christmas came a couple days after Christmas where we had more presents to open and give once we reached CA.

The Best Is Yet To Be

As much as I enjoyed our vacation I have to admit I was excited to get home and write my New Years Resolutions. Call me a nerd, graphomaniac, ...etc. but I love writing lists and goals. Frankly, I am actually fairly good at completing my daily "Things To Do" lists and achieving my goals too.
Although I am not going to write my goals here, I thought I would share a brief over view of them to help hold myself that much more accountable.
I have 40 goals separated into categories such as:
Physical
Health
Spiritual
Mental
Home/Family
Marriage
Personal/Other

I've been feeling in a rut lately. Feeling very unimportant because I don't have a real job, any worthwhile talents, a formal college education (degree/completed), "The American Dream" (house, car, dog, ...), a looming dental school debt about to hit us with a lot of uncertainties about the economy and our future....etc.
I try not to let others views and worldly pressures effect me but I have to admit I get weighed down by it more often than not. I have sooo SO much to be grateful for. SO, to help show my gratitude to my Heavenly Father I've decided that I am going to take advantage of this new year by bettering myself in ways that I can actually control and keep working on being the best "Home-maker" (wife, mother, cheerleader, caregiver, teacher, uplifter, ...sometimes slave haha....) because that's what really matters.

Side note: I was reading some articles on goals/resolutions and stumbled across an article called, "The Best Is Yet To Be" by Jeffery R. Holland. It wasn't what I had expected but it was of course a great article and reminder of moving forward with faith.

Here's to MAKING our year a good one by choosing to better ourselves!

Thanksgiving 2011

THANKSGIVING

(Warning: This part is boring. This is more for our record because we find these parts funny.)
It's always an adventure when we travel but we are usually too excited to care.
(Not to mention just grateful we aren't having to drive the whole 13 hr drive)
This adventure started like this:
Stuart worked his 12 hour shift that night/morning as usual
(I couldn't sleep at all as usual)
We headed out on our 2 hr drive to Spokane at 6am even though our flight wasn't until noon in case we ran into bad weather or car problems.
We got there PLENTY early (grateful) but that left a lot of time for Kohen to "burn energy."
I have significantly cut back on the amounts I pack since I've had Kohen. But he makes up for it so we are back lots of luggage. I was excited for Stuart to be traveling with us this time so that I wouldn't have to be the one juggling all the luggage and chasing a restless, busy boy.
BUT Stuart got food poisoning. :/ Luckily it hit while we had our 4 hour wait in the airport.
Not on our drive there or on our other flight.
Kohen's usually a trooper for the most part. Don't get me wrong. NOT with out struggles.
But I'm so grateful for understanding people who chat with my friendly little boy.
(Probably not teaching my son stranger danger though. :/ )


Kohen LOVED the escalator.
Weighing himself.
And he tried his first potato chip.

VISITING GRAMMA & GRAMPA'S HOUSE IS SO FUN.
THEY HAVE LOTS OF THINGS TO DO.

TOYS & TENTS

I'm pretty sure he remembered the toys because he ran right in to play with them when he walked in the door.



HE OBVIOUSLY LOVED THE PLAYGROUND




PLAYING BASKETBALL

CHUCK E CHEESE
(That will be a post of its own)

I was trying to sneak a picture of the guys (all in black and all with the same stance) BUT they spotted me and ALL posed with a goofy face.

Once again I forgot to take a picture of everyone at the table

Kohen loved the attention he got and would show off all his tricks.
(Cheeks, Tummy, Nose, Mommy's feet)


VISITING WITH FRIENDS

AND OF COURSE THE BEST PART WAS JUST SPENDING LOTS OF TIME TOGETHER AS A FAMILY

Kohen and Uncle Ben had a fun time playing their little game.

Auntie Krista

Grampa

Gramma

Burning energy at the airport before heading home :(

My Dad got us first class tickets for one of the flights home. It was so nice and Kohen seemed to recognize that too. He loved feeding us the cheese and fruit platter as well as drinking out of the glass cups.
He also seemed to notice there was much more space and insisted on us making a pillow out of his blanket.

As you can see, it was a sweet flight!

Thanks again Mom and Dad!

Kohen's 5 "Laugh Languages"

Kohen got this Dove msg tonight.
(I'm a sucker for little messages and fortunes and obviously get excited about them.
Yes, call me a dork.)

But the truth is Kohen has a great laugh! Several actually. And I LOVE them all.
1-He has his regular laugh
2-His exaggerated "tough guy" laugh/
very similar to his SUPER excited laugh
3-His exaggerated "fake" laugh
4-His belly laugh
5-His "delirious, tired, anything can make him laugh" laugh
(which is so fun and makes me feel like I'm actually funny)

A good Mom would record each and save them (I'll kick myself one day if I don't)
Maybe a New Year's Goal??

Let There Be Christmas!

Kohen loved helping but thought he was the boss

Normally I am a scrooge about waiting until after Thanksgiving to get ready for Christmas or play Christmas music. Especially when Stuart (the exact opposite) asked if we could set up the Christmas tree before it was even Halloween (exaggerating...only a tad though).

I gave in and a week before Thanksgiving we set up our tree AND played Christmas music. I don't know if it was
-the practical side of me with valid excuses as to why we should,
-the CUTE ornaments we saw for an awesome price I couldn't resist,
-or the fact that I'm not looking forward to a doom and gloom winter and wanted to spend as much of it with holiday cheer as possible.
Christmas comes so fast as it is and then it's all over. So why not bring on the cheery music, gingerbread cookies, the happy and giving attitudes and everything else wonderful about this time of year?!

I love how our tree turned out and I can't wait to do more festive activities!