A Very Merry Christmas

We had a really good Christmas. We started out Christmas Eve with Savannah's 1st birthday party. She is such a cutie! We went all out on the Christmas Eve program this year. The costumes were awesome.

When I got the costumes, Gavin really liked the Star costume.
So he got to be the star in the pageant. He was pretty happy with himself. We were able to find Dylan's grave marker really easily this year and sang some songs there.
It was really nice. The girls got a HUGE doll house from Santa (that took Santa 3 1/2 hours to put together and the elevator is still backwards!), and Gavin got a train set that took Santa a very long time to figure out as well! I don't know who keeps buying these toys that are impossible to put together because the instructions have no words!
They really enjoyed all their gifts. It was nice to just have a break from work and school. We went to Ihop for breakfast with everyone on Christmas morning.
It was really good! Nice not to have to do the dishes. We went over to Great Grandpa Bullock's house to sing carols with him. It was a crazy busy time! Then, to top it all off, my sister Natalie moved into her first home.
It was finally done, so we moved them in over the Christmas break as well.

Not one, but two!!

She didn't just lose A tooth, she lost two of them! One of her teeth was a little loose about a week ago, and then the second tooth came loose shortly thereafter. We noticed that the one tooth was coming in behind, so we needed it out. We had a dentist appointment anyway, so it was convenient. He agreed that the one tooth needed to come out, but I asked him to take both out. It was a good thing to, because the other tooth was coming in behind as well. Maya has been asking for months when her teeth will be falling out. "Everyone has lost their teeth but me!" She was not excited about the dentist pulling them out either. Can I just say that it was DRAMA at the dentist. She was screaming and crying before he actually even did anything. He told her to raise her arm if it was painful and he would stop. Her arm was raised before he even touched her mouth! So Maya is screaming, then Gavin starts to scream and cry because he doesn't know what is going on, and Kaitlyn is standing over the dentist yelling, "EWWWW that's gross!" It was a very fun trip to the dentist needless to say. Then all the way home Kaitlyn is singing, "All Maya wants for Christmas is her two front teeth, her two front teeth, so she can wish you Merry Chrisssssmas!" It was the lower teeth that were missing, but Kaitlyn didn't care. She must have sang that over and over for an hour. Maya wouldn't close her mouth or talk normal for several hours either. She just let drool fall out of her mouth. I sure hope the next teeth fall out on their own!

Born Clown!

This kid was born to entertain! He lives to make people laugh. His new thing is putting on Maya's swim goggles. He is so stinkin hilarious. He looks like the young Carl Fredrickson (from UP). He is constantly looking for something funny he could do to make his family laugh. He continues to keep our spirits light no matter what!

It's Fun to Get Dressed Up Sometimes!

Brian's company Christmas party was on Friday night at The Grand America. It is a more formal event so I got all dressed up. I decided to have my hair done for the occasion since I am not good at doing my hair up. The girls were ecstactic about all of it. They went around telling everyone that I was going on a date for two days! (We decided to stay the night since it was our anniversary week.) When we got all dressed up, we both felt like we were going to the prom (especially since he had a room for after!). The girls wanted to take lots of pictures of us. They gathered up their friends so they could see me all dressed up "like Cinderella!"
It was a fun party. They had Kurt Bestor as the entertainment. We got to sit by my brother and sister-in-law because Sara works with Brian! The company always does a good job on their parties. It helps that it is an amazing dinner, plus we get our Christmas bonus and a gift. You don't want to miss it! It was fun to get dressed up and go out with my husband for the weekend. We really needed the time away together. Especially since he has been working lots of hours at work!

Seeing Santa: a success!

We went to the Muscular Dystrophy Association Christmas party on Saturday. It is always a fun party for the families. We had a good Christmas dinner and got to visit with some other families. We were discussing with another family about their's and Brian's types of Muscular Dystrophy, and Kaitlyn chimed in with her own description. She described Brian's limitations as him falling over if he runs, and not being able to run. Then when she was all done describing him, she looked very intently at the man and said, "My Daddy is very special!" He smiled and agreed with her while Brian and I just laughed. It was pretty cute!
They all got to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. Even Gavin thought it was pretty cool!

He didn't even cry. I fully expected him to be afraid of Santa, but he was actually excited about it. It was fun!

The Return of Flat Stanley

We got him back a few days ago, but I forgot to put it on the blog! For those who are unaware, Flat Stanley was from a book they read in Maya's class. The story is about Stanley Lambchop and his younger brother Arthur who are given a big bulletin board by their Dad for putting pictures and posters on. He hangs it on the wall over Stanley's bed, but during the night the board falls from the wall, flattening Stanley in his sleep. He survives and has one special advantage which is that Flat Stanley can now visit his friends by being mailed in an envelope. So Maya's class mailed Flat Stanley to loved ones and that person is supposed to take Stanley places and take pictures of their adventures. Maya chose her Uncle Logan and Aunt Shalee.



They were awesome and did fun things with Flat Stanley. It is a pretty creative project and it was fun for Maya to send and get mail.

Teaching Common Sense

I guess I forget what it's like to be a kid. You try to set an example for your kids, teach them right from wrong, and then let them experience life. Somewhere in there we forget to pass on common sense. There are certain things you just can't plan for because it's not even possible for you to imagine all the possible retarded things your children will come up with. Maya was playing in the basement with a friend. There was lots of giggling going on, but if you know Maya, that pretty normal. The next thing I hear is her screaming and coming up the stairs crying. She is holding her ribs and crying that she can't breathe. I asked her what happened and she said she fell on her chest on the chair. She was ok so I told her to not fool around and be careful. Later on Kaitlyn asked her what she was doing downstairs when she got hurt. Maya proceeded to tell her the following story.
"This if very serious Kaitlyn." "We tied the ends of my jump rope to the princess chairs." "Then I got up on the chair to walk across the rope."
The look on my face must have been classic. "YOU DID WHAT?!" I couldn't believe what she was saying. Common sense would tell you that if your arm can bend the rope surely it would not hold up the weight of your body! So naturally everything came tumbling down, thus the injury. SERIOUSLY?! How do you teach your kids that this kind of stuff is not smart? She thought it was a completely awesome and an original idea. At this point, if she makes it to adulthood, it will be a shock to me!

A Happy Thanksgiving

We have been so busy since we got back from Thanksgiving, that I haven't had a chance to post. We went up to Brian's parent's house in Idaho for Thanksgiving. We had a really good time. Thanksgiving dinner was yummy and it was good to see some family. We got to visit with Brian's grandparents during dinner. Grandpa Jack is really a very awesome guy. It is always fun to hear stories about Brian's dad when he was growing up and stories of Grandma and Grandpa.
Gavin absolutely loves the dog Mickey.
He loves to follow him around. Here he is trying to get into Mickey's secret hiding place!
Gavin got braver the longer we stayed. He was petting Mickey and letting Mickey kiss him on the cheek before we left. They got to be pretty good pals. Gavin was really nice to him which was a very good thing!
He really enjoyed that chocolate pie!
I can't blame him. I love chocolate!
We even got a little guitar hero in.
I have played Rock Band a few times with my family, so I was able to figure it out pretty easily. They are a little different, but basically the same. It was fun watching everyone concentrate so hard to play the songs! It was Rod's first time and he rocked it!

This is Maya on time-out AGAIN!
Our kids were really bad at Grandma's house this trip. I don't know what got into them. It might be awhile before we are invited back!
We finished out the week with a little shopping. Brian got to experience his first Black Friday! We went to Walmart at 4:30 in the morning! We got a lot of good stuff and even saw some friends from home! He says he'll never go again, but secretly he had a really good time and didn't really miss out on that much sleep! Plus, he got to go to Burger King for breakfast. It was a crazy, but fun weekend!