Christmas Fun...

Just checking in here with an update... Jim is giving me grief for not blogging in so long. What else is new?

My brother Zack got home from his mission last month, just before Thanksgiving, so that was really nice. Christmas was fun. The kids (and Jim) got a wii and I'm pretty sure they aren't meant to be used 22 hours a day. We'll see how long the thing survives. I swear Caleb didn't eat or even blink on Christmas day. He's ALL wii, all the time. It's fun. It'll get some rest when the kids go back to school (so will I for that matter).

I'll have to take some pictures of the antics. They are pretty funny dancing around sword-fighting, skiing, wake-boarding, ping-ponging, bowling, golfing, etc. And I'm trying to work my tail (polite version) off on the wii Fit Board. It's really fun. Seriously.

Anyhoo, my brother Andy broke his ankle while he and his wife were in town which was bad. But that meant I got to watch my little nephew while my brother had surgery (5 pins in his ankle) and that was good -- for me-- very selfishly good. Little Pete is a-dor-a-ble. What a doll. I think I'm in love.

Sooo... what else? Hmmmmm.... the kids are all doing well. Jim is less busy at work, which is very nice. I'm busy with my work, but not more than I can handle. And life generally keeps rolling along.

We missed Jim's family during the holidays (alot!) but Jim's mom sent us a really cool gift: she had a ton of old slides turned into prints and filled two whole albums with pictures we've never seen... pictures of Jim's parents on their missions, pictures of him as a baby and growing up... old Christmases... Eliza was particularly disgusted by the old mullet pictures. That was fun.

It was a really neat gift. Jim LOVED it.

The post-Christmas crash was particularly hard on Sophia. She had a hard time going to sleep for 2 nights after Christmas, she was so hopped up on toy-induced goof-balls. Stocking candy didn't help, I'm guessing. She's coming down off the excitement now, though. Already asking how many days until next Christmas. Our 2 oldest are no longer "believers" and I'm pretty sure Lydia's entertaining some serious doubts. But Caleb is a HUGE fan of the fat man in the red suit. Sophie loves him too, but isn't really all that worried about being put on the 'naughty list' apparently. She really should have had a lump of coal by the time the big day arrived she was such a turkey the week before, but her Daddy is a big old softie (when it comes to his girls).

Oh, BTW, Jim made me a gorgeous picture frame for a signed print my mom gave me years ago. I've been toting it around for years, waiting for the magic time when I'd have a couple extra hundred dollars lying around to have it properly framed (yeah, right). But he made the perfect frame for it. I love it. I'll post a picture of that, too.

I felt kinda bad because all I got him was a PA system for his truck so he can drive around his work-site yelling at people from inside his truck. It also makes animal sounds and plays some tunes. I'm betting he'll either get himself arrested or beat up because of this thing. But he's pretty excited about it, so I don't feel THAT bad about not hand-making a thoughtful gift for him.

Anyway, that's the haps. We're just all wii'd up and having fun here. I need to upload the pictures and post them on here for you... right after one more round of Mario Kart... :)