Christmas 2007

We had a wonderful Christmas. The fact that both our children were really anticipating it and understanding what it was all about, made it even better! We had Christmas Eve dinner at Lynn's house and the kids were able to work off SOME of their energy.

Grandma and Grandpa gave all families some nice presents. We got a Grandma Christmas quilt, a nice metal Family sign, and a nice rectangular piece of paper.

We were glad to make it back alright because of the snow coming down and the slick streets.


When we got home, we were able to get the kids settled down for a moment to read the Christmas story in Luke 2. Maybe we'll try acting it out next year, but they were a little too wild this time. We also read The Night Before Christmas. Emily & Ella each got to open one present - Emily got Ariel PJs and Ella got Dora PJs. Ella also opened Tanna's present - a baby and water pen book! Emily opened Sloane's present - a "popcorn" doll and carnival game box. After that, we all basically watched them run across the living room about 100 times with their new dolls. Better let them get their energy out, we thought. They actually slept pretty good. (However, mom wasn't so lucky. I think Grandma had a hard night too, surprise, surprise!) I heard Emily playing in her bed around 6:30, so I went to keep her company. When 7:00 FINALLY came, I went to check on G&G. Grandma was waiting at the bottom of the stairs! We all watched as E&E came out of their room to see the loot! Santa had come, left presents, filled stockings, eaten cookies and milk and the reindeer had eaten the carrots. Emily & Ella were excited for each of those discoveries! Santa had left an unwrapped bike for Emily, but I don't think Emily quite understood that it was for her, we had to coax her over to it! They loved their stockings filled with toys, candy, breakfast foods and toothbrush and toothpaste. We let them pick which Santa gift they wanted first, and of course they each chose the biggest! Ella got a doll set with twin dolls, twin stroller, twin highchairs, twin bassinet, etc.
Grandpa was in charge of putting it all together - and by 9:30 Ella was able to finally play with it!
Emily got a folding princess doll house. I think each of them could have just played with those two gifts the entire day, but we eventually talked them into opening the rest of the presents! They started the day off with wanting to play with each gift, but later on, just got excited opening them. We finally finished around 11:00. They got a ton of loot!! Steve and I each got each other some little gifts, but our big gift was the new flooring in the kitchen and the carpeting. We got G&G an Asp family calendar and a 2007 Family scrapbook that all the kids contributed to.



After G&G left to visit others, we just let E&E play until naptime. They were very worn out! We had a nice Christmas pork chop dinner that night with G&G. We even got G&G to play Rook with us that night! It was a very nice Christmas and we were glad to share it with Grandma and Grandpa!

(Fortunately for you, we do more video taping than pictures on Christmas!)

Christmas fun

Christmas anticipation has been so fun this year with a 2 & 4 year old! Everything we've done has been to their delight! We finally got some presents wrapped on Sunday. When the girls woke up from their naps we video taped their reaction when they noticed the presents. Priceless. Since then, they've rearranged the presents about a dozen times. Here they are completely under the tree searching for presents.



Emily likes to read the tags...


and Ella likes to stack them in tall piles.


(Emily took these pics - I thought they were cute.)



They know the rule about not opening them, and I'm glad I don't have to worry about that!

On Monday night we made our traditional family Christmas ornament. We've made one every year since we've been married. One side always has a family picture, and the other always has a picture of a main event. This year we put a picture of our family in front of the Nauvoo temple to represent our family vacation. We took down all the past family ornaments and the girls had a blast looking at them and seeing the important events in our lives. They especially like the year when they were born, because their baby pics are on it.

Steve got our yard sale snow blower up and running the other day - so I thought I'd let you all know not to expect any more snow this year.

Can't wait for Grandma and Grandpa to come visit tomorrow! Guess maybe I should go find the buried guest bed. So far it's been a great place to store junk!

My handsome hubby

I realize that I haven't written in awhile. Sometimes life is just same old, same old. But I did take this cute picture of Steve the other day when he was working in the garage. You have to admit that he's pretty adorable, right? Anyway, he's a wonderful husband & father. I'm grateful he works so hard for us.

It's beginning to FEEL a lot like Christmas

Because it's been yet another crazy weekend! Here's pics of the girls gingerbread houses they made at the children's museum!

Then yesterday, after attending an Activity Days activity and primary stake meetings, we rushed to the mall. First we visited Lynn and picked up a couple of shirts for the girls. Then we went to check the Santa line. It wasn't too long, so the girls got to tell Santa what they wanted again!

We decided to go to Enchanted after that. We thought maybe Ella would sleep through it. She didn't, but they were actually pretty good. That's the first movie we've taken them to - ever, I think! Very cute movie!

By that time, there was over a foot of snow on the ground and it was still coming down heavy. It took us about an hour to get home. We just watched Christmas movies together after that!

This morning was stake conference with Elder Quintin L. Cook - newly called apostle, and Elder Jay L. Sitterud - of the 70. Once again, my girls were the cutest ones at church - thanks to mom!!

Afterwards, Steve went out to shovel the walks. The girls went out with him and they ended up making a snowman! I went out to help them make 3 more - a complete Asp snow family!!

So we keep busy. We still haven't put all the toys back upstairs, but Steve did take the toy boxes up a couple of days ago. Emily said, "Toys! They are so awesome and lovely!" She had a lot of fun discovering all her toys again!

Ella was cute the other day. I walked in the kitchen and she was backing up and had a very guilty look on her face. She quickly explained, "Just one, mom! Just one!!!" That's when I discovered she'd eaten another chocolate out of her chocolate advent calendar!! Too cute! She also is picking up a lot of new words lately. We passed a large flagpole one day and she told me, "Giant, giant flag, mom!"

Mason and Tanna were here the other day. Mason was trying to play the computer, but Tanna kept bugging him. Mason was being so sweet to her and trying to share and take turns and make her happy. I asked him how he learned to be so sweet. He quickly responded, "From you, Kimmy!" Aaahhh!!

Emily borrowed an Ariel doll from her babysitter on Thursday. She promised her she "would never put it down out of her hands." I think she's pretty much kept her promise so far! That girl loves mermaids and make-believe!