The Crutches

One of Holly's nieces had crutches awhile ago.  She let Kyleigh play with them and Kyleigh loved it.  One day, about a month ago, Kyleigh found a cork on the road.  For whatever reason it reminded her of the crutches.  She drew up a set of plans and proposed the idea to Rusty that he build her some crutches.  The cork was to be used for the bottom of one of the crutches and we were going to try to find another one for the bottom of the second crutch.  We dismissed the idea with a "maybe we can look at the thrift store."  The very next day we found ourselves at the thrift store and Kyleigh reminded me of our plan.  We asked someone if they had any and they did.  It just so happened it was the right color of ticket so it was half off.  I paid $2.50 for these silly crutches and they have gotten more use than any other toy in our house.  Everyone loves them.  The neighbor kids think we are the coolest ever.  Maybe we are :)

Christmas on the Greenbelt

We spent a few hours on the greenbelt Christmas afternoon trying out the new toys.  The girls started catching on to the roller blades really quickly.  The ripstick is coming along a little bit slower.  However, that could be because Rusty kind of hogged it.  It was freezing cold, but with three blankets, Ridge fell asleep, and we had a great time.

Christmas Morning

Everyone was up early.  By early I do not mean Cook early, which is 3:00 a.m., but Graves early, before 7:00 a.m.  The kids were so excited and our pretty small living room was JAM packed.  Santa was very nice to us this year! 

 

Because this is only the second year we haven't traveled for Christmas we are still refining our own traditions.  I think we have come up with a pretty good hybrid.  On Christmas Eve we had an all out turkey dinner.  I was especially excited about the turkey.  We used a new recipe from the "Our Best Bites"  cookbook.  We soaked the turkey for 24 hours, then injected it before we cooked it.  DELICIOUS!  We had the nativity with the nativity gloves Holly and I made a few years ago.  Then we opened the gifts we gave to one another on Christmas Eve.  We had taken the kids to Goodwill and let them find gifts for everyone in the family.  We had a great time, the kids were so excited to find things to give, it was all things we really needed or wanted, and it all cost less than $40.00!  After we opened those gifts the kids decorated cookies and put them out for Santa.  We listened to GPa reading the night before Christmas on our record a book, then we put the kids in bed. 

 

On Christmas morning we woke up to the gifts that Santa left (not wrapped) and the stockings he filled.  We enjoyed those for a couple of hours. Then we had a yummy breakfast.  We ate sausage egg casserole, blueberry muffins, and grape juice.  After we were done we opened the gifts from Grandparents, and Aunts and Uncles.  Only group excluded was Mike and Holly.  We had already had a party with them a few nights before.  When it was all over Rusty had one more surprise for me.  He brought down my new Bosch mixer.  Do you know that thing can whip out 4 loaves worth of bread dough without even breaking a sweat?  He almost made me cry.  We spent the remainder of the day eating lots of stocking candy and playing with all of our toys.  When we were ready to leave the house we went to the greenbelt to play with our new toys.  I'll post those pics later.   Merry Christmas...

All the Stockings Were Hung...

All the kids had high hopes, but would Santa come?  Kyleigh was sweet enough to let us use her cookie kit she got at her class party to decorate cookies for Santa.  We laid them out carefully and got ready for bed.  We listened to GPa read the night before Christmas on our recorded book and went to bed, with visions of sugarplums dancing in our heads.  Santa came and boy did he come!  He even responded to Kyleigh's note.

Sugar Cookie Families

We made sugar cookie gingerbread people (if that makes sense).  Everyone had fun. Ridge especially enjoyed it.  He "frosted" one cookie then ate LARGE spoonfuls of frosting.  Lucky for us, our kids have a very high sugar tolerance. I think we can thank Grandpa Al for that. 

Gingerbread Train

I know we have done one of these before.  However, now we have a train/Christmas loving little boy and the candy won't melt into the mushy gingerbread that is falling on itself less than 12 hours after it is done.  We had a great time.  When we were done Ridge insisted that we were not done.  Every train needs a "train driver.''  Don't worry, Ridge took care of that for us with one of his army guys! 

Decorating for Christmas

Rusty's favorite day of the year.

Something new, we got a train to go around our tree.

Ridge's first year putting the hat on the tree. 

He refused to do it last year, but was super excited this year.

We have a hat on our tree because it was all we could afford in college.

We still have the same hat.  It's a happy memory for us.

Graves Family Pics

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was with the Graves family.  We had everybody there.  It is so fun to see the cute little cousins playing together.  Ridge has a train playing partner in Hadrian.  Brynlee has girls to color and primp with.  Tucker and Kyleigh find all sorts of adventures.  Katelyn and Payton spy on Tucker and Kyleigh.  Every single one of the kids adores Alma and she can show them all up with her Ipad games, which they love to watch her play.  My personal favorite was when Tucker, looking all sweet, put his arm around Alma, then coyly tried to take the Ipad away.  She would have none of that. GG and Gpa have a little crawl space type storage area that the kids think is magical.  They spend hours under there.  It helps that GG has stored some of our old toys under there to make it even more magical. 

 

Besides good company we had good food.  GG made the works for Thanksgiving dinner.  And that was just dinner.  We had dips, chex mix, and about a million other appetizers.  When it was all over we ate pie and then started again with leftovers. 

 

Thanksgiving day there was a backyard football game to get all the energy out of the kids (and Dads).  When all else fails there is always Gpa's helicopter to entertain the kids (and Dads).  We also went roller skating and to the outer limits fun zone, a new Pocatello favorite.  To top off the weekend we had an early Christmas with cousin presents.  They drew each others names and got to open the gifts when they were together.  Every single one of them loved their gifts. 

 

We ended our time together with family pictures.  The photographer did a great job.  I'll post those later.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!