Keeping Up With the Joneses

Christmas Eve night someone was in our room every hour asking if they could get up. Myles and Mason both couldn't sleep and finally I told them to watch Minecraft videos on their tablet just so that I could get some sleep. Max came in many times and finally I told him not to get out of bed until I told him it was morning. About 6:30 AM I woke up to him screaming and crying in his bed. When I went into his room to see what was happening he said "I need to go to the bathroom!" He thought he wasn't allowed to get out of bed even to go to the bathroom! Marshall, on the other hand, slept peacefully the entire night because of his sleep machine. I think Grandma might have been just as excited as the kids, because shortly after Max's screaming, she was upstairs getting everyone ready. I woke up McKay who was confused but picked up on the excitement pretty quickly. When the kids came downstairs there were lots of squeals and jumping for joy. I was able to catch a few ...

Christmas Eve was a great hit again, and I felt like I wasn't quite as stressed about it as usual. We had Marshall's parents, William, Candi and her 2 boys, Eric and his 5 kids, and my sister Jessica and her husband and their 4 boys. I made most of the traditional treats, except for the chicken kabobs (found out too late that I was out of chicken), divinity, and shortbread cookies. Please excuse the poor quality pictures--I was pretty busy! The treat table. The first 2 layers of the jello salad set in the mold perfectly, but the third (raspberry layer) ruined it all. But luckily I had a back-up in a pan. Then at the last minute I ruined the aesthetics by just hurriedly squirting whipped cream on it. It tasted great though! The spread.  The kids all found something they loved to eat.  The nativity was especially cute this year. The kids were all really into it. Here is McKay being a shepherd.  Mason was a wise man. Max insisted he wanted to be t...

A few days before Christmas we delivered our neighbor presents. Myles had been learning some funny Christmas songs and wanted to carol, and so when we went to the home of the "other Jones" (Marshalls uncle's family in our ward), he sang one of the songs. They loved it so much that they invited us over a few nights later to have a concert and decorate cookies. Myles and Max had a blast, each performing at least 4-5 songs. McKay also liked to show off his "Jingle Bell" skills.  Myles decorating his ugly sweater cookie. The kids just love Marshall's cousin Spencer. He used to lead scouts with Marshall but since they were released they don't see nearly enough of Spencer.  I told the kids that Santa only comes to clean rooms, and they disappeared (I assumed to clean their rooms). Later I found this sign. I'm not sure if Max was involved or not.  This is one of my favorite things about Christmas. We send out and receive 50-70 Chris...

For the last 3 or 4 years we have thrown a kids' Christmas party for the boys and a few of their friends. This year it was Max's turn to plan it, and he decided he wanted a Rudolph party with "Reindeer Games." I allowed each kid to invite a friend and encouraged them to invite someone who usually doesn't get invited over. Mason invited a great kid in his Scout troop who other kids aren't always very nice to. Myles invited Caleb, who used to be in our ward and his best friend, but they haven't been able to play together much lately. Max invited this darling little boy in his Kindergarten class who moved here 4 months ago from Tokyo and doesn't speak much English. Ari also invited a friend, and then we decided that one 2-year-old was enough so McKay didn't invite anyone :) Each kid got antlers and these Rudolph noses.  I had all the kids "pose" for a picture. No one better ever doubt that I wouldn't do crazy things for my ...

The Christmas celebrations continue. Here are a few highlights. This is from Mason's class party "Photo Booth." He was pretty proud of himself for coming up with the antler idea. He has been such a good sport about Christmas. This is his first year without the Santa magic and he is really worried that it will "break his brothers' hearts" when they find out. Poor Max has been so excited to celebrate Christmas at school, and they had so many fun things planned in his kindergarten classes. But Monday he came down with a nasty eye infection and the doctor told him he couldn't go to school for a few days. He was devastated and tried bargaining with the doctor "what if I wear sunglasses?" Nope. But he and I stayed busy doing Christmas crafts and activities. By Thursday, Max's eyes looked a lot better and he was so excited to get to go to school for his Christmas program. He has been practicing all his songs and knows them all by h...

This morning was our church Ward Christmas Party and as always, the Edgemont 4th Ward throws an AMAZING party. Max was excited to see Santa and to show him the Christmas list that his stuffed animal "baby Panda" made.  McKay, on the other hand, was NOT happy to see Santa. He walks around the house saying "Santa Claus" and "ho ho ho" and pointing at every picture of Santa Claus he sees, but get him near the "real thing" and he's terrified. We all think its kind of cute.  Max loved the ride on the pony.  McKay LOVES horses and had a great time on his ride.  The brunch was delicious and McKay loved finishing off everyone else's plates.  The primary kids sang some beautiful songs. Myles and Max are at the ends of the first row and Mason is in the middle. 

Mason got the chance to start playing the trumpet in band in school this year and we've all been pretty excited about it. We quickly learned that if he was going to make progress he needed some one-on-one help and we found a great teenager in our ward who we hired to work with Mason an hour a week. In just 3 weeks he has made tremendous progress. The whole family went to his concert last night and his brothers were the biggest cheerleaders.