Christmas at the Snotty Stotties

We had a wonderful Christmas. Santa slept in until 5:00 am, so the gifts were a little late getting wrapped. Merry came down stairs and watched me put together and wrap the last of the gifts. I told her Santa was too busy to wrap all of the gifts so I had to help him out. Maybe Santa will be on time to our house next year.
My favorite Christmas memories this year are as follows:
1. Merry's version of Ruldolph the Red nose reindeer. It goes something like this- you know cop-it and keep-it and blitz-it but do you recall the most famous reindeer of all, Rudolph the nose-red reindeer.........

2. Jacob jumping up and down screaming "we got a Wii, we got a Wii"

3. Little inchworm Gracie spending most of Christmas trying to eat her big toe through a hole in the foot of hand- me down pjs.



Brian surprised me with a router table and a cake decorating book among other things. I am not sure how these two gifts correlate. Maybe I could router a cake base to put my freshly decorated cake on.


Here are some pictures in Christmas finery.

My dad picked out this dress for Gracie. She looked so cute.

Merry is still so thin she was able to wear last year's dress. Lucky me.

We have been looking for Jacob's red tie for the past month. I finally found it today stuffed in the toe of his too small church shoes. I guess he really hates to wear ties.

We acted out the nativity with the Babcocks on Christmas eve. Merry was a little shepherd, Jacob was a wise man and Gracie was baby Jesus. I was too busy video tapping to take pictures.

We are sure going to miss the Babcocks next year.

Christmas in Tejas

In honor of Christmas in Tejas, Merry and I made tamales today.

I received all kinds of great info from the staff and patients at work.  

Some of the sage advice

1. slap the masa with the back of your hand- if it comes off shiny then your masa has enough     lard in it.  

2. drop the masa in a cup of water if it floats then the masa has enough fat.

We cooked the pork and chile sauce yesterday.  Today Merry and I rolled tons of tamales- fat ones, skinny ones, short ones, tall ones.  We don't discriminate and we don't roll even.

All the tamales in the pot steaming- or not steaming because I just took off the lid to add more aqua.
taste test 1, 2 or 3
add a diet Mountain dew to really celebrate.  Then sit back and watch your thighs expand.

Meanwhile in other parts of our house hold Merry is celebrating another holiday by being drugged up.  Over Thanksgiving she had pneumonia, now for Christmas she has ear infections and asthma.  We haven't been able to get her poor little lungs to function over 94 %.  Hopefully with some steroids and antibiotics she will be her Merry little self again.

ready for christmas

We are ready for Christmas at our house. 

The trees are up.

We have eggnog in the fridge.

I have already gained my holiday weight.

And the paper whites are blooming.

Jacob made Brian and I a special holiday card.  

It said "I hope santa brings my mom lots of money.  I want santa to bring my dad two treadmills but my mom already has one."  Thanks Jacob - I want Santa to bring me lots of money too.

Merry has some fancy footed pj's that she calls her "walkin pajamas."  Every time she puts them on she does a one footed hop that she calls her "walkin pajama dance."

Gracie may or may not have ate a penny today-  I guess we will find out in a couple of days.

Holiday greetings to all.

Here is one of the failed Christmas card designs.

And more cute cousins

Party with Santa

One of Jacob's friend's invited us over for a Christmas party.  We had such a great time.  The kids got to decorate gingerbread houses, sing christmas carols and see Santa.  

Santa was warming up Merry's hands because it was so cold.

Jacob has changed his mind about what he wants for Christmas.  He really wants a puppy but Santa does not bring live animals to our house so instead he wants a toy dog.

Merry still wants a pink train

And Gracie wants to know how he got all that hair on his face.

Santa came with a marine escort in a cool old car.  They took all the kids for a ride in the back. 

The tooth fairy was also there and brought this animal.  Jacob thought it was pretty great.  He tried to check his own mouth too.

Jacob and his friends.

Cousin #36

Gracie and I made the trek to Colorado to see little baby cousin #36. He is so cute-I think everyone will have to agree.

And if one cute hat wasn't enough- here he is, ready for Christmas

Thanksgiving

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving. This is the 1st year I hosted. I had to purchase a gravy boat- boy am I getting old. We had my brother Dan and my sister Em and her family come. Dan smoked one turkey and fried two. All I had to do was make some sides. I think I will invite him back next year. Em brought delicious rolls, so she is invited back too.

Dan showed me how to properly position all the goodies for maximum plate usage.

Jacob set the table- you can't see the blue plastic knifes he put at some of the plates.

What am I thankful for?

Getting to wake up to this face each morning (and my other kids and Brian too- I just didn't have as good of pictures of them).  I am pretty blessed.

Grace is 7 months and more of the kids

Gracie at 7 months

Her favorite thing is wrappers - she scoots as fast as she can whenever she sees them

She can get from her belly to her bum to sit up but if you try to sit her up she makes her body completely stiff. Maybe slightly stubborn.

She is a big fan of golf balls - just the right size for a little girl.

Jacob wants a new video game, playmobils and a transformer for Christmas.

Merry would like a pink train and a pink chair for christmas.

Where would santa find a pink train?

Grace would like a new car seat for Christmas - okay so her mom would like a new car seat

Sweet kids -most of the time

Offical Holiday Card

Native American Names and Road trip

My kids had to choose Native American Names that represented them for their preschool's Thanksgiving celebration.

Jacob's name was very hard to choose because every time I asked him what animal he liked or what he liked to do he would say - I don't know.
Anyway one of our friends teenage son showed Jacob how to make paper airplanes. Now everyday he wants to me to make him a plane to fly down the stairs.

Merry picked her name by herself. Every time Gracie cries, Merry goes over and starts shouting Twinkle, twinkle little start in her face. Grace is sort of terrified by this, but I think it is pretty sweet so I haven't stopped her yet. Grace will probably always hate this song.

We also went to College Station to visit my brother this weekend. We had a grand time.
Highlights of the trip included passing through towns with great names such as
Old Dime Box and Hogg.
We also saved this fuzzy wuzzy caterpillar from certain death trying to cross the intersection.
I think it is the larvae of some sort of tiger moth. I used catch these all the time when I was a child.

Merry had a great time playing with my brother's dog Annie. I pretty sure that she was trying to lick her in this picture. Gross.

Dan took Jacob fishing at Lake Somerville. They caught 4 catfish so Jacob was pretty excited.
Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and we practice catch and release when
Brian has to clean the fish.
Dan is a way better cook then I am so I always like to visit him. He grilled some flat iron steaks and stuffed tomatoes with feta cheese. He is invited to my house anytime to cook.

Some pictures from Utah

I had lots of willing subjects in Utah

these are my sisters kids

2 of my handsome nephews

Three of my pretty nieces

Her horse is trying to get in the picture with her

It snowed a little in Utah while we were there

only enough to make a sad little snowman

he would have had buttons but most the chocolate chips were consumed by the hired help

Happy Anniversary

In celebration of our 8th anniversary I thought I would post some pictures documenting our courtship and marriage.

 PETA members please avert eyes

A girl who could work calves- this is when Brian fell in love with me.

A man who knows how to frost hair- too good to be true- this is when I fell in love with Brian.

A typical wedding day- complete with a snowball fight.

Showing good sense by holding my train.

The happy couple

About a year into marriage

Posing with a dead deer- what a good wife I am.

First marriage pictures - posing with my bridesmaid

Okay not really

This is from my bridal show days, in the Provo High gym.

Sorry  I only got about 2 years into marriage.  Then I got sick of scanning.  Any way we had a romantic anniversary dinner at Costco.  Brian bought me flowers.  I bought him steak.   All in all it was a fabulous anniversary and has been a wonderful 8 years.

Away

We are in Utah enjoying the fall weather.  We will be back soon.

I found this old wheel barrow at Brian's parent's farm.  I wanted to bring it back with me.

Cute little cousin-  I finally got to see him

Who does Gracie look like and the rest of halloween

Grace

Grace

Jacob at 6 months

Merry at 6 months

Me as Dorothy to go with our Wizard of Oz house

Gracie as toothpaste - an oldie but a goodie

Jacob posing for school in his skeleton shirt

Merry in her spider web tutu