Good intentions...

I had the best of intentions, I was going to catch up on all my blogs yesterday when it was still 2008. But....yesterday we were gone for most of the day and by the time we got home, got the kids fed, cleaned the kitchen, I was ready for bed. So here I am, starting off 2009 by re-caping the past few weeks of 2008.

Our Christmas was great! Avery and Zane had a sleepover in the den on Christmas eve. Cole was the first one up at our house on Christmas morning. Zane came wandering into our room around 7:30. We told him to go wake up Avery and then they could open their presents. The kids tore into their presents, getting more and more excited with each present they opened. Avery got a bike, a boom box, several games, little pet shop animals, a stuffed curious george, polly pockets, a new back pack and several other little things. Zane got a tool box, fire truck, woody, buzz, Thomas trains, a game and other misc things. Cole got the shaft this year! We already have too many toys at out house and he's too young to really care so he only got a few things including a set of cars, and a circus train. He didn't care about opening presents actually there was one that didn't ever get opened, so I rewrapped it and gave it to him for his birthday. Rob and I keep Christmas low-key for eachother, I got him a few movies, a CD collection and new jeans. He got me a necklace and slippers. I still need to wrap Shalyn's Christmas presents since she's still in CA (she'll be home Sunday night).

We did something a little different this year. Since Zane can't read, instead of doing traditional gift tags, my sister sent me a link to Wal-mart's photo lab where you could get photo gift tags. I ordered some for all the kids, and then had them laminated so we can use them again next year. It worked really well! Zane only opened 1 gift that wasn't his.

Avery went to bed on Christmas night saying her stomach hurt. The next morning she woke up still complaining of stomach pain and saying she felt like she was going to throw up. She set herself up a bed on the couch complete with a bowl. Not long after, she started throwing up. 4 vomits later, she pronounced herself better and was mad we wouldn't let her go play with her friends.

The next day was Cole's birthday. I already told you all what a great day he had. The only negative was that night, he started running a high temp. Finally, after 4 days later, the temp was gone.

On New Years eve-day, we went up to Salt Lake and had lunch with some friends who were visiting from CA. We had a great time catching up and our kids had fun playing together. After lunch we ran tons of errands.

We have a New Years eve tradition of having fondue for dinner. I make a cheese fondue with a mixture of gruyere and cheddar cheeses. The we have a variety of things to dip in the fondue, apples, bread, and veggies. After dinner, we have chocolate fondue for dessert. This year, we had bananas, pretzels, pound cake and marshmallows to dip in the chocolate. The kids love it and look forward to it all year.

We were party poopers this year for NYE, we put the kids to bed at their normal bed times, and then Rob and I were asleep by 10:30. Zane came and got in bed with us at 12:30am, Rob and I sleepily rolled over and said 'happy new year' before falling back to sleep.

This morning, the kids all slept in until nearly 8 (totally unheard of). When they woke up, they got their 'Baby New year' present. This year, they got a movie (Kung Foo Panda) and a huge box of microwave popcorn. Baby New Year is a
tradition that started when my dad was growing up. They were really poor and couldn't afford to do much for Christmas. My grandparents would hit the after Christmas sales and they'd pretty much have their Christmas on New Years Day. We continue the tradition but it's usually pretty low key.