Kiersten’s Blog

Ever since our trip to the El Capitan theater in Hollywood to see The Muppets, my kids have been obsessed.  They’re constantly listening and singing and dancing to the music.  Their favorite song is Smells Like Teen Spirit.  Funny.  I played them the original.  They weren’t so impressed.  They just think the Muppet barbershop version is hilarious.  And it is.  Anyway, we had a great time.  Taylor’s mom took us as a Christmas gift.

None of us had ever been to a movie at the El Capitan before.  I would definitely go again!  It was all decked out in holiday decor.  Downstairs were two sets that were used in the movie, as well as a bunch of Miss Piggy’s costumes on display.

Much of the movie was filmed right there in the El Capitan so it was fun to really be there.  Before the movie started, there was a sing-along with Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog.

The kids showing off the jingle bells we all got for the sing-along

“Snow” even fell from the ceiling!

London loving the snow

The movie itself was quite cute, but I think the whole experience made it fantastic!  And it was even better that Ashton slept through half of it!

While in Sacramento, we did some fun things.  We took the kids to Fairy Tale Town.  They loved it!  I used to love that place as a kid and in going back, I remember why.  I have lots of good memories of time spent there.

We were also able to do some other fun things.  London has been asking to go fishing, so my dad took her and Preston out.  When they got back, I went next door to my Grandma’s house where they were, to ask if they caught anything and London said, “No, but we went to McDonalds!”  I’m glad she had a good time.  Once they were back, the kids sat outside and played with the worms.  When I said, “EEEEWWWWW!” to London, she responded with, “No, they’re cute!” as she watched one crawl all over her hands.  Funny girl.

While they were gone fishing, Kenton and Bree took Ashton and their other 2 boys to the Railroad Museum.  Ashton LOVED it.  He wouldn’t stop talking about it, he enjoyed it so much.

I had some old friends over to visit while we were in town too.  Some of them I had not seen since high school.  It was fun to see each other again.  Then, of course, we spent more time with family.  We took the kids to the park with Jana and Jordan and Mila.

London and her only girl cousin

The kids also spent some time helping Grandpa in the back yard, cleaning up the garden and building a fence.

Ashton dragged this thing all the way across the yard

They were pretty excited to have found a bird nest!

We had a great time and I can’t wait to go back again!

When new years rolled around, we were in Sacramento.  Kenton and Bree planned a little family party at their house for new years eve.  We had a great time!  It was just Kenton’s family, our family, and my parents.  Ashton fell asleep in the car on the way over (SUCH a blessing!) so he missed the whole party.  I didn’t care.  But London stayed up until midnight for the first time in her 6 years of existence.  Usually we watch the ball drop at 9 and then we all go to bed, but that doesn’t happen when my family is around.  I remember many new years eves being spent at home eating yummy food, playing games and watching movies.  This year reminded me of those good times and I was glad that London was able to participate this time.  We had a lot of food so we spent the evening eating and playing on the Kinect.  In case you’re not aware (I wasn’t), the Kinect is a video game system that hooks up with the x-box.  It senses you and when you move, it “sees” what you’re doing.

It was a lot of fun.  It was especially funny watching Jameson and my parents.  When the clock struck 12, we ran outside with noisemakers and hats and party poppers and made a racket.

London had a great time with the cousins and the rest of us had fun too!

It’s hard to believe Christmas was almost 3 weeks ago and I have had my birthday already.  Weren’t we just in the middle of the craziness?  Despite all of our setbacks this year, Christmas was nice.  Our plan was to go to Taylor’s mom’s house on Christmas Eve.  Santa would come Christmas Eve morning to our house.  That way we wouldn’t have to haul gifts up there.  It seemed easier.  But the week before Christmas turned into a crazy blur.  It started out on Tuesday when we drove up to Los Angeles to see The Muppets at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood (more on that later).  After the movie, we headed up to the valley where we had Taylor’s extended family Christmas party.  We got home really, really late, but we had a fun day.  The next day Kerri came to our house to stay a couple of days before picking up Holli from the airport here in San Diego on Thursday night.  Holli’s plane was delayed a couple of hours and in that time, we received a phone call from a hospital that Taylor’s dad had been in a motorcycle accident.  Kerri left immediately for the hospital and left us to pick up Holli.  Because of these circumstances, we decided to just go to Hemet a day early so we could take Holli and so that we could visit Steve in the hospital.  So we packed all of our gifts (that were wrapped at this point), all of Holli’s stuff, our stuff for a few days, and our instruments into our car and headed out.

We were packed tight.  It’s a good thing we didn’t have too far to go.  Even though Steve was in a lot of pain (with a shattered pelvis, among other things), thankfully he was alright.

Ashton stole my camera and took hundreds of pictures. I asked him if he was taking pictures of Papa and he said, "No, I take pictures of Papa's pee!"

When the kids got too crazy, we left the hospital and headed to Kerri’s house.  I spent all morning of Christmas Eve cooking dinner.  We had an early dinner and then went to the hospital again, but not before a stop at Build-A-Bear, where both kids made bears.

Kerri told us that this year would be different, as far as presents were concerned.  With many difficulties, there wouldn’t be many gifts.  Looking under the tree would suggest otherwise, though.

We were spoiled.  Everybody was spoiled.  We awoke early Christmas morning (thanks to young kids) and opened all of the gifts before Denver called from his mission in India.  We chatted with him for a while then headed off to church.  When church was over, we ate before going back to the hospital for another visit.  The next morning Holli flew home and we drove home to unpack and re-pack for our next adventure–flying to Sacramento.

We’re home. I feel like we’ve been gone for two weeks. Wait, we pretty much have. So someday soon when we have internet again and I don’t have to blog via iPhone (yes, I got one for Christmas!), I’ll fill you in on the craziness around here and the joys of traveling with kids. Don’t worry, I won’t forget about the time that the old lady in the airport told me that I need to watch my kid, or how adventurous I was to take an escalator with a two-year-old and two suitcases. Those are stories to be told. And they will be. Just not tonight. I have some catching up to do with my own bed.

Merry Christmas! I hope your weekend brings joy and happiness. This Christmas holiday hasn’t gone exactly as I imagined it would 6 months ago. In fact, it hasn’t gone anything like I would have imagined even 6 days ago. Due to circumstances beyond anyone’s control, we came to Hemet yesterday to be with Taylor’s family. We are enjoying our time together. I do hope, though, that some year soon I will be able to have Christmas at my home with my own little family traditions. But that’s not what really matters. Christmas is a time for us to remember Christ and His miraculous birth. I have really tried to focus on Him lately and teach my children the true meaning of Christmas. Even with all of the commotion (and the sick kids) I hope that we can keep that focus (but we’ll see how that goes with all of the gift opening tomorrow).

Excited that Taylor didn’t have to work last Monday night, we told the kids that we could finally get our Christmas tree.  But that was before we looked at the weather.  Unfortunately, it rained all day.  By the time we were able to go out to get the tree, the rain had stopped so we figured we could at least get the tree home and under our dry car-port until we could bring it in the house and decorate it the next day.  When we got to Lowe’s, it started pouring.  We sat in the car with our one umbrella discussing our options.  We ultimately decided that we did not want to brave the rain for the tree.  Okay, the kids had nothing to do with that decision.  We convinced them that it was okay, though, by telling them that we would go look at Christmas lights instead.  They obliged and we ended up having a really fun evening.  The next day we went back to Lowe’s and picked out our perfect tree.

We told the kids they could choose the tree they wanted.  They chose a small tree that sat alone in the corner of the lot.

I was surprised with their decision, but they were both on board and really wanted it.  Perfect.  It was inexpensive and it was exactly what they wanted.  Once we got it home and set it up, we realized that it was also the perfect tree for our house.  It just fits.

We had a fun time decorating and then having a dance party with Neil Diamond.  That’s right.  I love Christmas.

P.S. Taylor made me a play list in Spotify called Christmas Music Only Kiersten Likes.  I’ll bet you can’t guess what’s in it.

We don’t have many Christmas decorations.  At least not compared to most people.  We do, however have more Christmas decorations than any other holiday.  Most of those decorations are nativities.  Every year the kids get a new one.  This year we got a number of new ones, my favorite coming from my Grandma Henrie.  She is a knitter.  A couple years ago she started a huge project, making a nativity set for each of her grandchildren.  She spent a lot of time on it and they turned out fabulous!  It’s something I’ll treasure forever.  She also wrote a letter to all of us about the project.  Her hope is that as we get this out every year, that we will remember how much we are loved by my Grandma and our Heavenly Father.  Of course I will always remember my Grandma every time I open the box with that special nativity in it, but she also wanted to add a part of my Grandpa, who died when I was a little girl.  When they were married, he gave her a string of beads.  Each Mary from the nativity sets she made is wearing part of that necklace.

When we got out our Christmas decorations right after Thanksgiving, this new nativity wasn’t in the box with the rest of the Christmas decorations so I forgot to get it out until today.  London set it up.  I told her that she could put it wherever she wanted.  She chose the floor below the piano bench.  I love the way she sets up the nativities, with everybody gathered around the baby Jesus, looking toward him.  Isn’t that how it should be?  Isn’t that how we should be?  I love this tradition.  In fact, on Saturday when I told Ashton we were going to see Santa, he didn’t even know who he was!  I was kind of shocked, but glad that he has more of a grasp on the true meaning of Christmas than a lot of people.  But even with that, Santa does visit our home, so we had to put the stockings up too!

Hopefully we’ll be able to get our tree tomorrow and finally finish with our Christmas decorating.

London is thankful for xylophones. I am thankful for x-ray technicians. When London broke her elbow back in June, I was so thankful for the x-ray technician who gently took the x-rays needed and no more. In fact, he got the pictures he thought the doctors would need and made a special trip to the ER to talk to the doctor and convince him that he really didn’t need 9 more pictures if the last 3 were taken properly, which the were. Thanks to a good x-ray tech, London didn’t have to be put through unnecessary pain.

And just because it’s Thanksgiving, we’re going to finish off the alphabet. London is thankful for yarn because you get to make stuff out of it. I am thankful for yesterday. I’m thankful that I can always look back to yesterday and learn from my mistakes ans successes.

And to finish it off with Z, London is thankful for the zoo. I am thankful for our zoo membership. Thanks to my parents, last Christmas we received zoo memberships. We have gotten a lot of use out of our passes this year. It’s nice to live so close to one of the largest zoos in the country where we can go whenever we want.

In conclusion, I have so much to be thankful for. I really enjoy November when I think daily about the blessings I have. Happy Thanksgiving! Until next year. . .

Today London is thankful for watermelon. I am thankful for water. More specifically clean water. I’m thankful I have clean water to bathe in and I’m thankful I have clean water to drink. I really do love to drink water. It is almost always my beverage of choice (as long as you don’t count that egg nog that I drank straight from the carton this morning, and this afternoon. . . ahem). I don’t drink water just because it’s cheap and good for me (although both great reasons to drink more of the super fluid), I drink it because I genuinely like to drink it. Try it. You might like it too!