Our exercise machine (Maddie)

Ben surprised me with an elliptical for Christmas. I feel very spoiled...it is wonderful! I no longer have an excuse not to exercise. It's actually a great family gift...take a look at Maddie going to town, who knew?

Overjoyed.

We had a wonderful Christmas at home...waking up at 6am, opening presents, enjoying a breakfast of Swedish pancakes in Christmas shapes, lounging around all day, and playing with new toys. Just what Christmas should be.

Cam checking out their new kitchen from Santa.

Ben woke up earlier than the rest of us to start a cozy fire. Here he is tending to it.

Maddie in her new jammies.

Cam showing me his new animals. Unfortunately he opened them first, and all of his other presents just weren't as exciting.

What a great Christmas!

Christmas Letter (double click to open)

Blessed.

I don't know how else to explain it, other than we have been extremely blessed in surprising ways lately. To begin my saga, I was having one of those horrible moments in public days with my kids at Wal-mart the other day and was so frustrated with them and rude "New Yorkers" in general. I ended up leaving the store, completely balling, with my kids worried and clueless in the back seat. When I got home I was pleasantly surprised with a call from my BFF, whom I was able to vent to (thanks Kimster). Then I received a phone call from my sister, who was calling to share her good news that she and her family would be getting sealed at the end of January and get this....wanted to help us (meaning my whole family) fly out to be there for it! What a generous and thoughtful thing to do! Needless to say, this came at the perfect time, when I was desperately wanting to go back "home." So, we are gonna jump on that offer and will be flying out there for the blessed event, new baby in tow. This will also give us the opportunity to bless our little one out there with family able to be there for it.

This is not all, to continue the story...just when I thought I would be on my own to adjust to 3 kids...I will be having not one but two people coming to help me out when I have the baby. First Ben's mom will be coming out the day before to help with the kids and will stay for about a week, then my oldest sister will be coming out a week later to help me as well. This will be a BIG blessing, especially since my mom hasn't been able to come help with post-baby stress in the past due to her work schedule. And I'm thinking it will be a little harder this time, with two kids already. So, my only dilemma was when I fly back from UT with all three kids and no hubby (he can't stay as long as I'm gonna stay). After talking to Ben's little sis, Ann, she's offered to fly back with me to help and stay for a little while as well. What could be better than that!

Then the other night our home teacher called and offered us some "Disney on Ice" tickets for free! We jumped on the chance. See what I mean? I would feel completely ungrateful if I did not stop to be thankful for all of these "tender mercies". Despite my kids going through a horrible phase of misbehaving and fighting, there is a brighter side to things. I am so blessed! So, a BIG thank you to all of you who have or will be helping me, I am SO grateful!

Since you all had to suffer through the above novel, here are some pics to satisfy your likely hunger.

Making a gingerbread house the other night.

Disney on Ice

Despite the generous gift of these tickets, our kids were not the best behaved children I've ever seen. There seems to be a trend with them....I'm tempted to give them coal this year for Christmas. I know, I'm so mean...this picture says it all on Cam's face:

And this one of Maddie...

Can you tell by her rosy cheeks that it was a little hot in the arena? When I say hot, I mean I think they were trying to cook us alive.

Before & After

Maddie got a little chop today. As you can see her hair was getting a little straggly looking.

Before:

After:

I realize the quality and poses are not great in either of these pictures (eyes closed, blurriness, etc) but you get the idea. Although they do show the new clips I've been making...

Ho Ho Ho.

In light of a day off from preschool, due to some icy roads, we decided to go see Santa at the mall. Maddie has been begging to go see him, so to the mall we went. She was bursting with excitement to sit on his lap. They had a nice little chat, while Camden watched from the sidelines. He opted to play in the pretend snow, saying that Santa was "naughty". Who knows where this came from. But this surprised me a little since Cam is our more outgoing child. Since I didn't want to scar him or create a scene, here Maddie sits alone with Santa.

And here is the letter she wrote to him a few weeks ago. Well, I wrote it as she dictated.

We're very excited for Christmas around here!

Morning hair

This morning when Camden woke up we went in to get Maddie out of bed for preschool and as soon as he saw her he said, "Maddie, like your hair...it's so beautiful!" What a guy!

I don't have a picture of her actual hair this morning, but as you can imagine it looked something like this...(or maybe a little more frazzled).