Ward Christmas Party

Ok, I know it's ridiculously late to be posting pictures of our Ward Christmas party, but it's for my journaling purposes.

Our friend Leanne was nice enough to set up a backdrop and her lighting and take professional pictures of families at the Christmas party. She has a successful business and has done some amazing pictures for families that we know. Would you believe this was taken in the Primary room? The theme was pajama breakfast and Trent has been asked why he wasn't in his pajamas. His reply was that this was nothing that you would want to see. TMI maybe? I figure not in my circle of friends :)

Nathan is of course in the I like Santa, but not up close phase so I had to be with him in order to get him in the picture.

The guy in charge of activities dresses up like Buddy the Elf, and yes, he sounds and acts exactly like him when he is in character. The kids love it. Tyler thinks that Elf the movie is so funny. His friend Ryan apparantly goes around saying, "Son of a Nutcracker!!"

Hansen Family Pictures

Taken by Desiree-November 2008

You can probably tell that it was very difficult with 3 boys, they didn't give us much to work with:)

A conversation with Tyler

Tyler: Mom, we have a boy in our class named Nathan like my brother.

Mom: Yes, I've seen him before.

Tyler: Have you seen his dad before?

Mom: Probably.

Tyler: He must eat a lot because he is big.

Mom: What do you mean big, like tall?

Tyler: No, he has a big belly like Santa. Remember how we sang He's too fat for the chimney?

Mom: Yeah

Tyler: Nathan's dad is like that he would be too fat to fit down the chimney.

Mom: (Laughing) Well, we shouldn't say that at school, not to Nathan or his dad ok?

Tyler: Ok, but he really is big.

I have to address Katherine's comment on here because it really is true!! I was complaining about this a few weeks ago. One day I went to pick him up and the teacher motioned me up to the door and said she needed to talk to me. She told me that Tyler had said that one of the parents picking up a student was fat. I was baffled as to how he knew this word. Trent and I don't use it or talk about people this way so we figured one of the kids at school had said it or something. Well, a few weeks later I learned that they were singing this song called, "He's too fat for the chimney," about Santa Claus. It finally clicked. Here they taught these 5-year-olds this song and Tyler had not been introduced to the word fat yet. How was he to know that he couldn't use this word outloud to describe people as a fact when they hadn't talked to them about this word other than teaching it to them in a funny little song? I had NO problem with the song, but if they don't want these kids going around using the word to describe people shouldn't there have been a discussion that it wasn't appropriate to use this word other than in this funny little song? There, there's my rant about a contradictory teaching in the schools. So yes, Katherine, you are absolutely right, it is ALL the school's fault in this situation!! :)

Nathan's tooth

Ok, finally Nathan's tooth. So New Year's Day brought on a lot of sadness for me for my little baby Nate. We were at Neil and Shelly's house (Trent's dad and stepmom) and they have tile in their kitchen and 3 tile steps that lead down to the tile in a family room. Shelly and I were standing inches from Nathan with our backs turned when all of a sudden he was face down at the bottom of the stairs. We have NO idea if he tripped on his feet, pajama pants, or just simply the second stair. I picked him up immediately to a mouthful of blood and at first just thought that it was his lips. Upon further inspection Trent found out that his top left tooth was hanging by one root. He did his best to shove it back into place and hope that it would grab on. My sister in law Jessica's cousin who is a dentist came over and said that was the right thing to do and we just had to wait. So I took Nathan to the dentist after we got back and without looking at it she said that they don't save baby teeth and that it needed to be extracted immediately. She took an X-Ray and said that he had broken a root. She wanted to do it that day, but I wanted a second opinion and some pictures. So Trent called one of our old dentists and he said that we did the right thing by shoving it up there and we should wait it out. So we did and unfortunately it started to get infected. So we started him on antibiotics until she had an appointment open on Monday. I wasn't able to get professional pictures done unfortunately with all the drama we have had this weekend, but I did get a few snapshots.

Before

After

After Extraction

Our Hospital Visit

It seems like since New Year's Day hit we have had a lot of things going on in our little family. New Year's Day Nathan knocked his front tooth out of his head. (More on that later) Last Tuesday I took Nate and Cael to see Dr. Gifford because they were both very sick. They both had the starts of croupy cough and crappy breathing. Nathan had an ear infection and started antibiotics. They both got an injection to the leg of a medicine that was supposed to open their airways and help them breathe better. He explained that when kids are still little their lungs are very soft. He said that when they get sick like this their lungs sort of collapse and close the airway off so they need help getting it back open again. So this injection was supposed to help them both. Nathan got a little better, but even today still has a cough. Friday I took Cael back because he had just gotten worse. The Dr. ordered a home nebulizer to be delivered Friday night. He said not to worry it would be late at night before they got to it. So we waited until 11 p.m. I finally called the company who told me that they had no order for our home. He said that he could deliver it, but that I would have to give him a credit card number and sign a paper saying that if it wasn't covered being directly ordered from me instead of the doctor that we would pay it. It was $350.00!! I was in tears I was so frustrated. I tried our insurance company and of course they had no answers for me. So at 9 a.m. when urgent care opened I called in. Luckily our doctor, Dr. Gifford was the physician on call. I don't know how we got so lucky, but Heavenly Father was watching out for us. We went in and when he tested Cael's oxygen levels they were 90% and they are supposed to be 100%. He told us that he would have to be admitted to the hospital. I was supposed to go to a baby shower for Kiersten about an hour after he first told us so I called a friend to have her let Kiersten know why I would not be there. From there on we checked into the hospital and I was busy there for the next 2 days. Tests (tested negative for RSV, pneumonia and flu A and B, doctor says he had a common cold like older people would get, but a little baby just can't take it), blood draws, the IV insert (which took 5 tries, for anyone who has ever had an IV put in you know that this was difficult to watch) breathing treatments, oxygen, holding and rocking because he was so uncomfortable. Trying to sleep in a chair myself because the bed that was in there was off limits to parents. (At 2 a.m the first night I said forget it and used the bed. The next night I had the same nurse and she didn't say anything so I just used it again. I was SO lucky, no other rooms had a patient bed in them, they were all cribs. I also did not get a roommate which is unheard of. About midnight the second night a nurse came in and said they might move someone in, but again we were being watched over. I was praying so hard at that point that they would not do that because I was SO tired.) The first night I got 4 hours of sleep between feeding and people coming in to do the breathing treatments. Sunday his breathing improved somewhat, but he still needed continued breathing treatments and observation. He had to endure more blood draws that day and by 3 p.m. was so exhausted that he could not sleep. He cried and was just to tired to go to sleep or eat until 8 p.m. It was so difficult to feed him with all those tubes and wires that he had a hard time and was refusing. We finally gave him a bottle around 8 and he was able to get full and relax until about 2 a.m. We were up then and again at 4 a.m. and then he slept until 7 a.m. Dr. Gifford greeted us that morning (Monday) and gave us the good news that he could be released. I had not been out of that room in 2 days so this was good news. The whole time all of this was going on our kids were not allowed to be there so they stayed a few hours here and there with my friend Debbie. They ended up staying the night there Sunday night because Trent had a training that the district has paid a lot of money for on Monday. There are 5 trainings in this course and if he would have missed the first one he could not do the rest of them. So the boys had their first ever friend sleepover and Debbie took Tyler to school. So Cael is home now and doing better. He still has a horrendous little cough and I have to do the breathing treatments every 4 hours, but he looks better and he is able to rest better with no cords attached an no one constantly poking at him.

Our Great Dr. Gifford

(Notice Tyler hiding under the counter? He said he couldn't be in the picture because he wasn't sick:) Silly kid.

Free parent plate at each meal, but I had to ask myself if it was really worth it :)

So many grateful feelings came from this experience. On the way to the hospital I was telling Trent that I can't imagine living years back when parents had to watch their children suffer through these things and many watched them die because they could not get to a doctor or a hospital for the proper treatment. This was not a serious situation, but if we did not have the proper care and transportation like many in this world have not, it could have been so much worse. I am so grateful to live in a time where the doctors have advanced education, good medicine and we have good hospitals to care for our children. So grateful that Trent has a job in which we have excellent health insurance where we could spend a stressful time in a hospital without worrying how we were going to pay for it. We are so blessed, this is such a huge thing.

So grateful to have good new friends that helped us through this time with our children and with a ride to the hospital so that Trent could get my car to me. So grateful that our little Cael is starting to feel better and breathe better.

The rest of December and into the New Year...

December 26

We got a wonderful visit from Trent's Aunt Cindy. She has been kind enough to keep up with the grandchildren's birthdays and we love her for caring so much!! She brought Cars, Pajamas, pretty little keepsake boxes, etc. A Thank you shout out to Aunt Cindy, not sure when I will get to all the Thank you cards for the season. She brought her husband Kelly which for a little while we thought didn't exist. When we have visited with her he has stayed behind with his family to visit with them. I was a little nervous that the kids were being too loud for him at one point and yelled for them to calm down. Once I realized that he was hiding below the stairs egging it on I knew that he wasn't overwhelmed and was loving every minute of it. For most of the visit he had at least one of the seven children on his lap, if not three at a time. We had such a wonderful visit.

That night we took off to Yuma to stay the night and head to Tucson in the morning.

December 27

We headed to Tucson in the mid-morning. We thought that we had enough gas to get to Casa Grande and were a bit nervous when we got in between gas stations in the middle of nowhere on empty. We found one on the side of the road seriously with nothing around it with about 10 miles of gas left in the tank and about 27 miles from Casa Grande. Very lucky. We stopped in Casa Grande and hit Burger King which is always pretty gross and then headed over to the Wal-Mart behind it. We had wanted to get our little nephew Cason som U of A gear, but were not successful anywhere. All they had was Diamondbacks. We headed out and made it to Green Valley right outside of Tucson in about a half hour. When we got there Rebecca and her sister were hard at work preparing food for the blessing the next day. I HAVE to share her brilliance, I was SO impressed. She had borrowed crockpots and was putting together 5 crockpots of the lasagna recipe that I shared with most of you. It was so smart. The garage was so cold that we just put them out there overnight and brought them in and plugged them in in the morning. We had figured that it would feed about 50. I think there must have been about 75 people come through that house and we still had one full pot leftover in the end. She had Neil and Shelly bring salad and her parents brought rolls. Shelly made brownies right when we came home from church and there was enough food to go around. Pat on the back to Rebecca.
I mentioned her sister was there. Rebecca's sister Amy and her family are fantastic to be around. Amy graduated with Trent and yes they have kissed. I have to mention this because I think Trent has kissed every girl in his graduating class and I am the one that gets the hard time for being friends with boys from school? Anyway, we love Amy and Clay. They have six kids and still counting and it's disgusting how small she is after six kids. I told Rebecca that it is so unusual that we hang out with her siblings and her family when we are there because it doesn't seem like this is normal. I love it!

December 28

This was Trent's birthday. Unfortunately like all of his life it was overshadowed again...by a baby blessing. Sorry Trent. The big group of 75 did sing Happy Birthday to him thanks to his High School buddy Trevor (also Rebecca's brother and graduated with Trent). Unfortunately I was outside while they were singing so I didn't get to see him react with embarrassment.

We took family pictures that day since we were all finally together again. It was the first time since 2004. I love it when we are altogether with Trent's family. Things seem to go smoothly without a lot of drama.

Hansen/Evans Family

(Back) Lisha, Clark, Ryan, Trent, Amber, Cael, Neil, Shelly, Rebecca, Cason, Nick, Adam, Jessica, Dominick, Alexa, Jackson, Cody, Tycee
(Front) Ally, Emma, Nathan Tyler, Kalee, Alana, Rylan, Cashton, (Bottom) Luke
Hansen Family

Trent Hansen Family

Ryan Hansen Family

Nick Hansen Family

Adam Hansen Family

Cody Evans Family

Neil and his Boys

Hansen Brothers

Hansen Sisters

Shelly and Neil

Alexa

Hansen Boys

Hansen Girls

Why does the girls picture look like it was so much easier to shoot? Girls are just so much more cooperative about photo ops :)

Principal Hansen

I am very pleased to announce that starting on Monday Trent's new title will be Principal Hansen. About three weeks ago the district called him in and asked him to consider accepting a position as Principal of the Alternative School. He was hesitant and a little reluctant at first not knowing how he felt about leaving his current position and staff and going to a school full of the kids that he has personally expelled and sent there. I should note also that there was a gun found on campus the week prior to this offer. It is a tough school. (When he told me this I asked him if anything were to happen to him would I get his retirement? I know, I am heartless. He told me that for $1000.00 a month there was a program that guarantees this. Don't think we will be doing that one anytime soon :) However, this is a big stepping stone in his career and a big promotion. He loves working with the "tough" kids and breaking them down. After a lot of thought and I am sure prayer on his part he decided to take this job. We had to keep this between us for the last few weeks and I have just been dying to share how proud I am of him. Monday night he was announced to the School Board as the District's recommendation. Most of his colleagues were in attendence because there were awards being given out. They were all shocked. The five board members voted unanimously to hire him as the Principal. He texted me that it was unanimous and that he was now a Principal. I asked him if he could now be content for awhile as this is a long awaited goal. He wrote back and said, no, time to start working on the next step. He has been looking into going back to school for his Ph.D. As much as I support this decision I dread the time away and the loan it will take to do this. But, his long term goal is to be a Superintendent and I know that with his drive and talents this will be a reality in the future. I am so proud of Trent and all that he does to support our family and continue working towards his goals. To be a Principal at 32 is rare and I am not surprised that he has achieved this goal. Congratulations Trent.

It's been awhile...

I have been so busy during the month of December as I usually am and my journaling has suffered immensely. Keep in mind if you are reading this a lot of it is probably going to be very boring to you. I am trying to keep up my blog so I can print it into a personal journal in the future so a lot of it is just for that purpose.

Please notice the fabulous picture quality. Ryan was kind enough to lend his very high quality camera and his talents during this Christmas break. We are so impressed that we are now looking into hopefully buying a camera like this sometime during the year. It makes such a difference to have such great pictures to tell our story.

December 5

This Friday turned out to be such a fun Christmas party. Everyone made the trip out to my house from Moreno Valley and Shannon from Hemet.

Photo Compliments of Desiree's fabulous professional camera.

From the top left to right:

Katherine, Kamalyn, Shannon,

Jennifer, Amber Kiersten,

Laura, Genni,

Cory, Desiree

(Ok, could I be anymore "look at me, look at me," in the dead center and in a bright red shirt?)

Some people came with projects and others just wanted to take a break and chat. We had a gift exchange in which there were fabulous gifts. I set the limit to $10 and because our girls are such bargain shoppers there were gifts that were up to $25.00 in value that they found on sale!! And, by the way girls, I went down to Joann's the very next morning and got that snowman that was stolen from me in the gift swap. I love it!! Good job in finding that Cory!! Such a fabulous group. Genni calls us the PMC (Playgroup Mom's Crew) which I think is absolutely hilarious. I have never had the privilege to be a part of a "crew" before. I have decided that at this time in my life I have the BEST friends I have ever had. This includes my hometown friends, my MoVal Friends, my Menifee Ward Friends and others that have moved all over the country. I am so blessed to have the circle of friends that surrounds me. So grateful for you!! I wish everyone could live so close to us.

December 17

Playgroup Christmas Potluck. Another fabulous day with the PMC. It was a packed house at Katherine's house with good friends and good food!! I have been lucky enough to be able to stay a little later these days thanks to my good friend Debbie picking Tyler up on Wednesdays. As I said, blessed to have such good friends.

December 22

Ryan and Lisha and their gang showed up at our house around 8 or 9 p.m. Ryan is Trent's oldest brother. They have Ally (7), Emma (5), Luke (4) and Clark (4 months). We are blessed to have cousins so close in age. Emma and Tyler are 2 weeks apart and Clark and Cael are 4 days apart!! I felt bad for Nathan and Luke. They are just a little too far apart and just learned how to push each other's buttons. They didn't really have playmate's over the break, but hopefully next time we are together that gap will become smaller and Nathan will have learned how to share. :)

December 23

Lisha and I got up and went down to Temecula to get snacks at Sam's Club for their big adventure, more about that later. We then hit the mall so that she could run into the Disney Store to get passes for her kids for Disneyland. This was their big present this year. The mall was of course packed and her baby Clark was with us so I just parked and waited for her. When she came out she was SO excited because when you purchase your passes from the Disney Store they give them to you in really nice Mickey Mouse Christmas tins for free!! This was the perfect wrapping for them. With a few other stops we had been out for four hours by the time we got home. By this time my husband was frazzled!! The kids were wild!! All 5 of the bigger ones. They had not seen each other in years so it was like making new friends! Many of you know how wild my boys are. Now add 3 wild cousins to the mix and it's a party. I am used to the noise and can fade it into the background, but for my husband who spends his days in a quiet office this is impossible. I thought he was going to blow his top. Now he knows what we go through every day right??

Trent had put a ham in for Christmas dinner while we were out so when we got home we got deviled eggs, mashed potatoes and a dessert ready. I think Lisha called it Dream Whip. When I asked Neil what the official name is he was a smartie and said, "cheesecake." Trent's mom used to make it and it was delicious. She did a graham cracker crust, cream cheese and dream whip and covered it with 2 cans of pie cherries. I can't wait to bring it to one of our potlucks. I want to put blueberries on it though. Trent's stepmom Shelly brought a pie like this with the blueberries later this week and it too was delightful. I can't wait to share.

So we had our Christmas dinner on Tuesday the 23rd. Ryan and Lisha had come to spend Christmas at Disneyland with their kids and we wanted to share Christmas dinner with them. It turned out that this was perfect as I will explain on my Christmas Day entry.

December 24

Christmas Eve morning began around 6 a.m. with gleeful screams from my nieces and nephew. I have to admit that when my kids woke up I was pretty miserable. I am definitely not a morning person though. You could tell me that I'd won a million dollars at 6 a.m. and you would still probably get a dirty look. So they were off bright and early.

We were not far behind them. We have never done any "California" things with Ryan and Lisha so we bit the bullet and paid the fees for Disneyland on a blackout day. It was definitely worth it. It was pretty dead. The longest we waited in line for anything was 20 minutes for Toy Story. We got fast passes for California Screamin' and the four of us went on it twice each in a half hour!! For the most part we were able to walk right on the rides. By the time we got there they had done a bunch of rides by 11 a.m.

Christmas Eve at Disneyland!! I would have never thought in my life that I would spend such a traditional holiday at Disneyland, but we did it.

My Favorite Picture
Poor little Clark and Cael didn't make a lot of our pictures this month. They were both sleeping in the stroller for this one. They were there though, I promise. I thought this was such a fantastic picture of everyone.

It rained during the Pixar Parade, but of course when you are at Disneyland you just really don't care. Even in the rain it is still the Happiest Place on Earth.
Towards the end of the night we came across Holiday Mickey and Minnie. Now for any of you that have ever been to Disneyland you know that time with the characters is limited. This was Ryan and Lisha's kids' first time at Disneyland and I have never seen a family allowed so much time with Mickey and Minnie. They each had their little books for them to sign and they talked to them for awhile. It was so neat that they took so much time with them. They were so excited. Before they got up there Lisha and I decided that someone had spiked Minnie's eggnog. Lisha said it must have been their holiday party before they came out. Minnie was acting so silly and weird. She kept flipping up her skirt and covering her mouth like she was being naughty. I have seen a lot of characters at Disneyland and I have never seen one act SO weird. It was hilarious.

Notice the Happy Birthday button. If you have never been with someone wearing one you wouldn't know how funny it is. Everywhere you go all the Disneyland workers say, "Happy Birthday." For those of you who know Trent you will know that this was so annoying to him. It was pretty funny. His birthday was four days later. Lisha also wore one and I think she enjoyed it more than he did.

My First Time on California Screamin'

Look Very closely at Trent's face in this picture

I am not a roller coaster person, or so I thought, but I LOVED this so much. Trent and I were laughing so hard during most of the ride.

Ryan couldn't believe these pickles!!

At 7:30 p.m., we were standing outside of Small World, (for those of you who are frequent visitors, it is finally open again) and all the lights went out, music started playing and it started "snowing"!! It was so neat. This is why this place is SO magical. Like Trent said, they really know how to do it!!

It was a Christmas Eve we will never forget!!

December 25
CHRISTMAS DAY!!

On Christmas morning Trent found Tyler just wandering around the hall upstairs. No excitement, nothing. He told me that there was something wrong with this. We are not making a big enough deal of it. He said that when he was little he and his brothers would go get into their stockings bright and early and just be waiting downstairs anxiously for their parents. Apparantly Tyler is not to this point yet. Either he is too spoiled every other day of the year or we need to try harder to make Christmas exciting.

We went downstairs and opened presents one by one so that we could see what everyone got. This is how they used to do it at Trent's house and he really wants to do presents this way. Santa's gift to each person is left unwrapped so that they can see it right when they wake up.

Tyler asked Santa for a new Speed Racer backpack and Nathan asked for Handy Manny.

Tyler got a Leapfrog Tag from Grandma and Grandpa

Tyler got Rocket Bath Toy from Nate

Nate got a Rocket Bath Toy from Tyler

For all you moms with boys who bathe together, yes, I know, I am a genius. It was an accident though. Tyler picked out this rocket for Nathan at Target on the night it was raining so hard here. The power went out at Target so they weren't able to get it. The next day Tyler and I were at Wal-Mart and we picked up the rocket for Nate. On his way home, Trent picked up a rocket for Nathan. I told him it was ok because if Nathan had one, then of course Tyler would have to have one. I get a pat on the back for this idea because if only one would have gotten one there would be endless bath times of fighting. They both love having their own in the bath. Now if only we would have gotten Tyler Handy Manny also...

Cars coloring kit for Church from Mom
Car's Game Bucket


Nathan threw a fit to open this bodywash from Trent's stocking. He seemed pretty pleased with it, he obviously had no clue what it was.

Dinoco Lightning McQueen from Grandma and Grandpa.

Bolt from mom. Nathan loved this movie so much that I thought he would love to have Bolt. Unfortunately he decided that he doesn't want it and gave it to Tyler. :)
Tyler gladly accepted.
Handy Manny hasn't left Nathan's side since Christmas morning. He is hard plastic and he even sleeps beside him at night. Manny's leg fell off last night and Trent had to take him apart and put it back on. He adores this silly little Manny. They are best friends right now.

One very important lesson that I learned this year is that no matter how old a child gets or how many toys a child has, they always need at least one toy for Christmas. We got Tyler education things, movies, games, clothes and his backpack and when it came right down to it he played Handy Manny with Nathan all day. Trent felt so bad for him that he went to the Toys R Us after Christmas sale and picked up a Big Speedracer car and track for half off. This made everything better. He took his car to Grandpa's and has been playing with it ever since. Lesson learned as a parent.

The present"hander-outer."

Merry Christmas 2009 Hansen Family

Not preparing Christmas dinner on Christmas day turned out to be so great for me. Everyone is always so tired that day and being the one in charge of the food when you are tired is no fun. We had a big breakfast which Trent prepared and we snacked during the day. I think that this was a great start to a new Holiday tradition. Maybe Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve from now on.

For my journaling purposes:

Trent is the WORST person to shop for. I love to shop for people and surprise them, but there are very few things that I have ever gotten him that he actually kept. I get him cologne and he takes it back because he says it's too much money, I can't buy him pants because he has to try them on, etc., etc. So he decided that the first weekend in December he wanted to go to Arizona for a football game with his brothers. He counted this trip as his Christmas present from me. Presents he received on Christmas Day were 2 Old Navy Shirts, a shutterfly calendar and snapfish mousepad for his office with his beautiful family on them. My family sent him some money because he is so picky and a football X-Box game. My sister sent him a Kohl's gift card.
I gave him cash for his birthday. He has since spent half of his earnings on a treadmill for his "home gym," in the garage. He can't wait until summer when the garage is a sweatbox to really make the most of it. The thought of working out in there makes me sick, but he will be so happy.

I decided in November when my brother let me borrow his Microsoft Zune that this was something I just had to have. The one I wanted was 120 GB which is huge, but I wanted to just start with the best instead of trying to work my way up. I decided that I was going to take the money I had saved for Christmas and ask my parents for a gift card towards it. Well, when their box came there was no gift card so I had a suspicion that they had just bought it for me. I was pretty frustrated because this was such a pricey gift and I did not expect this at all. I shared my suspicion with Trent. On Christmas Eve he found my present and opened it after I had gone to bed and sure enough it was a Zune. He wanted to open it up so that he could load it up with music for me as part of his gift. He had not bought anything for me to open because we had agreed that my gift from him was money towards it. He was so frustrated because he had nothing for me to open that he cut out CD cover pictures from a Target ad and cut this Christmas tree out of scrapbook paper and made it for me. He put it in a box and wrapped it up. When I opened it he was laughing and a little embarrassed and told me that the tree was all crooked because he was trying to do it at 2 a.m. He was feeling so badly that I didn't have anything to open from him because of our "plan" that he was up trying to brainstorm. I love these kinds of things from him because this side of his personality doesn't come out that often.

The day after Christmas he went out and got me the radio tuner to use it in the car and a little pink IPOD speaker box that I can set the Zune in to play it at home. As if my parents hadn't already done enough for me they also sent a Bazzill metal shadowbox, and 3 Pampered Chef items, the egg slicer, gravy separator and the pie shield. Spoiled I tell you. When I lectured my parents and told them they did not need to be buying all this stuff for me they assured me that they had extra money for Christmas this year and split it evenly between everyone and wanted to make sure that I got what I really wanted. It really was SO thoughtful, I loved it. The Zune was from my brother Brock also and my sister sent me a case for it.

Kids' presents:

Tyler: (Santa) Speedracer Backpack, (Mom and Dad)-Cars Game Box, Nemo Leapfrog Cartridge, 27 Disney Scholastic First Reader Books (My best ebay deal ever for $8.00), Cars Drawing set, Movies-Eight Below, Jungle Book and Herbie, Cars Jeans, shirt and sweatshirt, Cars pajamas. (Nathan)-Little Einstein's Rocket. (Grandpa Mike and Grandma Stacy)-Leapfrog Tag Pen and books, cars black marker book, Dinoco Lightning. (Grandpa Hansen and Mimi)-Cars Book and roller skate shoes. Kind of like the wheelies.

Nathan-(Santa)-Handy Manny, (Mom and Dad)-Bolt which he gave to Tyler, Handy Manny tools that talk, Dora Little Touch Leappad Cartridge, Cars shirts, pajamas, Movies-Cars, Peter Pan, My Friends Tigger and Pooh's Friendly Tales, Disney Books, (Grandpa Mike and Grandma Stacy)-Little People Nativity, Handy Manny's Toolbox, (Grandpa Neil and Mimi)-Sheep Book and Ambulance that plays the ER song.

Cael-(Mom and Dad)-Nike outfit, (Grandpa Mike and Grandma Stacy)-Leapster plush activity worm. We are all eventually going to get him a stationary jumper, we just haven't picked it out yet.

And that is our Christmas break in not so much of a nutshell. So much happens in this month. I am still not done, but need to start another post to share our adventures of Tucson and Yuma. So much more to come...