Christmas Morning!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We spent Christmas Eve at my parents' house, eating pizza and watching movies and stuffing treats into our faces. We got home in enough time that the kids could open their Christmas Eve presents: matching pajamas! (Yes, we are that family now). We then put out Santa's cookies, read the Christmas story, and put everyone to sleep! Here is the Zaugg family Christmas tree, December 24, 2009:

Our Christmas tree is pretty eclectic...it is full of ornaments we have picked up from the vacation destinations we have been to, hand prints and pictures of our kids, ornaments I made when I was little, ornaments we have received as gifts over the years, etc. Maybe someday I will have a tree that is actually nice and coordinated and aesthetically pleasing to put in our front room, but I will always have to have a tree like this somewhere in my house. It is so fun for me to see each ornament and remember where it came from. I have to put a few ornaments back on the tree every day, but I am proud that Dax hasn't tipped the tree over (yet)!
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Anyway, after Santa filled up the stockings, put out the presents and headed on his merry way, Preston and I happily headed off to bed! We were wondering how early Arden would wake up because she has been so excited for Santa...but it was Daxton who woke up long before the sun. He was up around 6:00 a.m., but since he doesn't really "get" the Santa thing yet, we are not quite sure why he was up so early. We brought him into our room and tried to keep him quiet, but we gave up around 7:00 a.m. and went to get Arden, who was still fast asleep. Preston opened her door and quietly said "Arden...Santa Claus came!" Arden went from completely asleep to running down the stairs as fast as she could in exactly 0.33 seconds. Arden and Dax quickly dumped out their stockings and started going through their loot. Even Corbie was excited:

How cute is she???? Daxton, of course, was most excited about the Candy cane full of M&M's! But once he discovered he couldn't open it himself, he quickly moved on to the half-cookie that Santa hadn't finished eating:

It was a little stale from being out all night, but he didn't seem to mind! We decided after we finished opening our presents from Santa that we had better take a breakfast break. We ate some of Preston's famous french toast, along with some of the Olsen's famous syrup (THANKS JESS!). Yum!

After our nice healthy breakfast, we opened the presents from Preston's parents. They are on a mission to India, but since it was on Santa's way, he picked them up and brought them to us! Daxton's favorite present was a "Fur Real" kitten, or "MEOW" as Dax calls them:If you pet the cat, it says "meow," and purrs and moves its feet. Dax LOVES cats and so he was pretty excited to have his very own. And mom is excited that there is no litter box to clean :) The kids played with their presents for a while, and soon my family showed up at our house for some cinnamon rolls and more french toast. Then we opened some MORE presents! Arden and Dax, of course, had almost as much fun playing with the boxes as they did with the toys:

Arden got quite a few clothes for Christmas, and changed her outfit FIVE TIMES during the day. This girl LOVES her clothes. I was worried we were getting her too many clothes and not enough toys. Here is a conversation we had last week:

Me: Arden, would you rather ask Santa for a new toy, or some new boots?

Arden: (immediately) "BOOTS!"

Me: You would rather have boots than toys?

Arden: Yes!

Me: Would you rather have a new toy or a new dress?

Arden: (immediately) "DRESS!"

Me: "How old are you? 14?"

Arden: "No, silly mama! Three!"

I remember when I was really small and I opened up a present and it was clothes instead of a toy, I was disappointed. Not Arden!

After the last present was finally opened we relaxed and had some snacks and treats while Dax and Cora took a quick nap. We then headed over to my Great-Grandma Wilson's house for a visit and some MORE treats. It was good to see her and some of my cousins and aunts and uncles who we don't see often. But soon it was bedtime and we headed home. The kids were pretty wound up so it was hard to get them settled down to sleep, but eventually exhaustion overcame their sugar highs and they slept. It was a wonderful, exhausting, fun, memorable Christmas.

White Christmas

It is snowing outside now and I am so glad! I am so happy that we are going to have a nice, fresh, white Christmas!

It was pretty foggy at our house for a couple of days earlier this week. I have a hard time with the fog. I don't mind a little bit of fog, and it can even be kind of fun to be inside of a good think, silent fog. Kind of cozy. But for me, it starts to get old pretty quickly, and if it lasts for longer than a day or so and blocks out the sun, it really can get me down. And Christmastime is supposed to be WHITE, not fuzzy gray!!! But fog or no fog, I have a couple of VERY active kids and they want to play outside no matter what the weather. So on Monday we headed outside into the smoggy fog to play.

Once we got outside I noticed how the ice crystals from the fog had started to stick to and cover everything. It actually looked really pretty. So I ran inside and grabbed my camera and took a couple of pictures in our yard:

I guess fog can be kind of Christmas-y after all. Merry Christmas everyone!!! Have a wonderful holiday!

Santa Claus Pictures

Santa showed up at our annual Haun family party this year. It was fun to see how different the responses of my three kids were.

Pure Wonder:
Excited Shyness:

Unadulterated Horror kept in check just long enough to get a "CANN-KEN" (Candy Cane):
Merry Christmas!

Daxton's First Haircut

Dax doesn't have much hair, but the hair he had was getting pretty long and scraggly-looking, so we decided he needed to go in for his first haircut. Preston wanted to take him to Cookie Cutters, since I took Arden for her first haircut. However, Preston forgot to bring the camera so there are no pictures of him actually getting the haircut. Preston says Dax was very brave and held really still. He would just look up and say "Dad-dy?" every once in a while to make sure Preston was still there.

Now here is our big guy with his new 'do!

Lock up your daughters!

Christmas Lights!

To me, going to see the lights on Temple Square is just one of those must-do Christmas activities. It was so cold these last couple of weeks that I was starting to wonder if we would make it this year. But last Saturday is was (finally) pretty warm, so we decided to take advantage of the balmy 30-ish degree temperatures and take the kids to see the lights.

Unfortunately, we didn't realize that BOTH the freeway and highway 89 going downtown were closed due to road construction. So, it took us at least half an hour longer to get downtown than we thought it would. But finally we made it, found a place to park, re-bundled the kids, and strapped them into the strollers. By the time we had walked the block and a half to the lights, Arden realized she really did need a hat after all, so she ended up wearing Preston's...not as cute as hers, but just as warm I guess. The kids loved the lights!

Even Corbie was enjoying being outside and seeing all of the colorful lights:

Dax was super excited, especially at first, and kept yelling "WIIITE! WIIITE!" (Daxton for LIGHTS!). When he wasn't yelling, he was busy pulling off his mittens and hat. Over and over.

After the group shot, Arden was toooo busy picking up huge chunks of snow to pose for any more pictures. I finally caught her holding up a snow chunk. I guess if you are three, snow chunks are even more fun than lights.

We walked all around temple square and then over to what used to be Main Street. We made it all the way to the reflecting pools by the Church Office Building:

Since it took us longer to get downtown than we anticipated, we decided we better head back to the car because the kids would probably be getting hungry soon. We were right. By the time we made it back to the car, Corbie was crying for her bottle. It wasn't a terribly long night, but we were there for about an hour, which is MUCH better than last year. (Last year, we lasted about 10 minutes before both Dax and Arden were crying to go back to the car because they were cold).

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I went to the Christmas Concert with the MoTab and Natalie Cole earlier in the week and loved it. Now that we have seen the lights it really feels like Christmas is in full swing! I am even done with my shopping, which is pretty good for me. Now I just have to wrap my brains out.

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I have been listening to the radio online while doing this post, and I have to whine about one song. Has everyone heard the version of "O Holy Night" sung by Michael Crawford a.k.a. the Phantom of the Opera? I know that he has done other things besides the Phantom of the Opera, but to me whatever he is singing he sounds like the Phantom. I can't help but picture the Phantom, mask and all, arms spread wide, singing "FAAALLLLL ON YOUR KNEEEEES! OH HEEEEEEAR THE ANGEL VOIIIIIICES!" It kind of creeps me out. ESPECIALLY when the children's choir joins in. It sounds to me like the Phantom is holding a bunch of kids captive down in the dungeon and is forcing them to be his backup singers. Poor kids.

A Mother's Christmas Wish

Christmas is less than two weeks away! I have been getting Christmas cards and I for some reason was thinking it was still early and I had so much time left before I had to start working on ours, but I guess I really don't! So a few days ago Preston and I dressed the kids up and had our annual Christmas Card photo shoot. We got some cute shots of Corbie and Arden, but we had a little trouble with Dax. He was smiling, but he was usually smiling and blinking, smiling and looking the wrong way, smiling and talking at the same time...you get it. And we didn't plan well and left the group shots for last. Big mistake. Here is a sample of what 99% of our group shots looked like:Atta boy Dax! But as you can see, Corbie was soooo done. Needless to say, there aren't going to be any group shots on this year's Christmas card. Oh well. Luckily, Corbie was much more cooperative during her solo photo shoot:

Awwww! I am so excited for this Christmas! I know that these magical Christmases while my kids are small and believe in Santa Claus are going to go by so fast. Even though things are crazy and I have to put Christmas ornaments back on the tree every single day, I can remember the Christmases of a few years ago when the only thing I wanted under my Christmas tree was something that looked like this:

I remember flipping through a catalog because Preston had asked me to circle some things I wanted for Christmas. There was a picture of a cute little blond baby modeling some flannel pajamas, and I circled the picture. I am so glad that I get to share this Christmas with all three of my little blond wishes come true. :)

I listen to a LOT of Christmas music during the holidays. The other day I heard a song that I hadn't heard before, and I must have been in a sappy mood (or sleep deprived...or both) because it made me a little misty and I liked it so much I went an downloaded it. It is called "A Mother's Christmas Wish" by Jim Brickman and Olivia Newton John and here are some of the words:

I wish you love; a life to share.

And that you find someone to care,

I hope that life is kind to you,

And that all your dreams come true.

This is a mother's Christmas wish

For you.

I wish you peace in heart and mind;

To use your strength, but still be kind.

To learn to give; to learn to lose;

To live the truth in all you do.

This is a mother's Christmas wish

For you.

And when you wake on Christmas Day

With children of your own;

I know then you'll see

What you've meant to me;

You are the greatest gift of all.

Now I better get to work on those cards!

Sleep in Heavenly Peace...(please?)

It has been a long week! Daxton and Corbie both came down with colds and fevers on Monday night. (I shouldn't have been suprised since I caught Daxton eating potato chip crumbs off the floor of Kangaroo Zoo last Friday. Yummmm) Since Preston left Tuesday on a business trip, there were some sick and grouchy babies around here who both wanted mom all day (and alllll night). Then last night Arden got hit with it too. But Dax was doing better today and hopefully Corbie will soon follow (we have discussed how much she loves the nose sucker thing, right?). I am soooo glad Preston is back home now! We all missed him. Every time Daxton saw a picture of Preston around the house he would say "Daddy? Daddy?"

I could really use some sleep tonight, so I am hoping that we can all stay like aaaalllll night:



Wish me luck in my hope for a Silent Night!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving! Corbie thought it was hilarious to wear the hat that Arden made in preschool, and she looked pretty cute:
This year was the very first year that we had Thanksgiving at my house. Preston's parents are on a mission in India and my mom had surgery last week, so we felt like it would be good to just have it here. My two sisters, brother, brother in law, and parents came over, and luckily they helped with the food a TON. But it was the first time we were in charge of the turkey.

We got a head start on the pies the night before. I was not too smart and picked a couple of pies that had directions like "stir constantly." Stirring constantly is almost impossible with three little kids! But luckily Preston and i tagged teamed and someone was almost always stirring constantly, but I must admit that things went a lot faster once we got everyone in bed. Here is Corbie helping me stir:
(Corbie is taking after Arden and LOVES to hang out in the Baby Bjorn. Dax was never a fan, but Arden used to live in it, and Corbie can spend hours in it as well. I love it!)

Anyway, the next day we cooked the Turkey, stuffing, rolls and all of that good stuff. Arden was a great helper, and also was excited to help set the table:
She did a great job helping with the plates, but after that things got a little confusing :) I had to help one of the other kids with something before we got to the cups, so she got started on those herself (notice the big snowman mug and the sports bottle....heee.)

We tried so hard to have everything done at the same time, but of course the turkey gave us trouble. We ended up cooking it an hour longer than the longest time the recipe said we would, so everyone had to wait a little longer than we had hoped to start dinner, but other than that everything turned out great! I was too busy trying to get food for everyone so I have no pictures of the actual dinner. After dinner everyone was too full to do anything but lay around and watch football for a while, but after an hour or so, we were feeling like maybe we could shove some pie in:
My, my, my! I love pie! Here are some more pie-eaters and Grandpa providing some after dinner entertainment for the kids:
It was nice to have it at our house because we didn't have to leave early to put the kids in bed! I was starting to think that maybe we should have Thanksgiving at our house every year....until I looked around the kitchen! I wish I would have taken a picture of it before we started cleaning, but here is a picture of what we couldn't fit in the dishwasher:
Overall it was a great day, and as far as I know no one has food poisining! I love Thanksgiving!!

Thankful

With Thanksgiving coming up, I have noticed a lot of people doing posts about what they are thankful for. I am thankful for so many things that I am not sure where to start. I am thankful for my three beautiful kids, my wonderful husband, my nice warm house, my two hot water heaters, my treadmill, Cherry Coke Zero, online shopping....I could go on and on. But this week I am mostly thankful for my mom.



It has been a rough week for my poor mommy. She had to have surgery. A short while ago she went in for her physical and the doctor decided he wanted to do an ultrasound to check something out. The ultrasound quickly turned into a CT scan, which turned into a referral which led to another referral, and before long she ended up at the Huntsman Cancer Institute (where no one really wants to end up).
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She had a tumor in her uterus, but the doctors weren't sure whether it was benign or malignant. The oncologist decided it would be safest to do a hysterectomy and also check her lymph nodes while they were in there looking around. So, she checked in to the HCI and had her surgery on Tuesday. After the operation, the doctor said that the tumor "looked benign" whatever that means...we are still waiting for the official results of the biopsy. (How come on TV the results of biopsies come back in like 20 minutes, but in real life it takes DAYS? Just sayin'). They also said her lymph nodes "looked" clean too. It was a huge relief to hear that things looked good after the surgery, and we are hoping that the doctors are right and that this is the end of this little adventure.

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This week has made me realize how much I still need my mom. Even though I am an old woman myself now, I still need my mommy! I have no idea what I would do without her.
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My mom is THEE perfect mom. She was and is so patient and unselfish. She is such a great example to me. I can only hope to try to be a fraction of the mother that she has been. Even today she still takes such good care of me. She and my dad are always ready and willing to help me with whatever I need. She has taught me so much and having my own kids has made me realize how much she has really done for me. She is also an amazing grandma, and all of my kids adore her. I hope that my mom stays around for at least the next 30 or 40 years or so! :)
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I love you, mom!

Sick Days

This October was so crazy for us with all of the Halloween parties and other Halloween stuff, Corbie's court date, Corbie's temple date, Corbie's blessing, etc. etc. etc. that I was really amazed that we all made it through without anyone getting sick and having to miss out on something. So when Arden and Dax started getting runny noses right after the blessing day I was so worried they were coming down with the swine flu or something and then....WHAM! All of the sudden I was the one who was sick. It was just a head cold but it was a BAD HEAD COLD. Blech. I woke up one morning and I swear my head had swollen to four times its regular size and I think it must have weighed about 60 pounds. I was fuzzily wondering how I was going to get out of bed and face the day when Preston (my knight in shining armor) must have noticed my giant head and volunteered to stay home from work and help with the kids! I was so happy that I think I kind of smiled and rolled my huge head back over and tried to breathe.

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(Sidenote: Shouldn't there be some sort of sick-day program for moms? Maybe the government should supply a pool of highly-qualified and trained nannies that you could call to come over and take over when you are sick...for free of course. Maybe they could add that to the new health care legislation! Lets all call our senators...)

Anyway, soon after I was starting to feel better, Daxton started coughing. As yucky as it was, I would so much rather have me be sick than one of the kids. Nothing is sadder than a sick baby. Dax was tough and didn't act sick or lose his appetite, he just coughed on and off a little at night for a couple of days. Then one day he got a lot worse and was coughing constantly all day so I took him to the doctor who said he was starting to get the croup. Blech again. Poor little guy. Luckily we got him some medication which we had to grind up and hide in Halloween candy to get him to eat. But it was effective and he quickly started feeling better.

Than as soon as Dax started to sleep well at night again, Corbie got a runny nose. She has had it for a few days now, and luckily that is all she has (no coughing or fever or anything else thank goodness). But her runny nose has been WAY harder than either my head cold or Daxton's croup. Here is why: Corbie NEEDS her binky to sleep. NEEDS. And so when she can't breathe through her nose, she has to spit out her binky so she can breathe through her mouth to prevent....well, death. And really nothing short of the threat of iminent death would make her spit out her binky at night. And as soon as her mouth communicates to her brain that there is no longer a binky present, the brain sends a signal back to the mouth telling it to start SCREAMING. So down the hall runs mom or dad who tries to hold her upright for a while until she can breathe again, or (if worst comes to worst) uses the dreaded BABY NOSE SUCKING THING (sorry, I don't know what those are really called).

I think that the baby nose sucking thing is Corbie's LEAST favorite thing in all of the world. I am amazed that the cops haven't shown up at our house one of these nights because everyone within a 2-mile radius must wake up and wonder who is torturing a baby somewhere. It is the loudest I have ever heard her scream, and Corbie is by far the loudest screamer we have had. Anyway, we get her nose cleared out, we calm her down and plug the binky back in and go back to bed and wait for our ears to stop ringing. This repeats about 20 times a night.

Corbie seems perfectly happy (other than a little runny nose) during the day, but Preston and I are EXHAUSTED! We have elevated her head and humidified her room and all of that good stuff, but it doesn't seem to help...anyone have any brilliant ideas? I am sleepwalking. Last night was a little better so I am hoping and praying we are almost done.

Here are some pictures of our cute little screamer:





She is so cute, and is seven months old tomorrow. We love her so much and hope she feels better soon! Wish us luck!

Corbie Foreverized

We took Corbie to the temple on the Saturday after her court date. Both Daxton and Arden got to come into the temple too. It was really exciting to be able have all three of our kids with us in the temple, but also more than a little terrifying. I had visions of Corbie giving everyone a sample of her "supersonic" screams in one corner while Daxton had a melt down in the other corner with Arden helpfully yelling for them both to "BE QUIET!!" at the top of her lungs as she frequently does at home.

But everything actually went amazingly well! Corbie was really quiet and sweet the whole time. She wore the same dress Arden wore to the temple when she was sealed to us. We put the same shoes on her too, but she didn't even make it out of the car with those still one. Corbie's feet are constantly kicking almost all of the time she is awake. She rubs them together all the time and it is impossible to keep shoes or even socks on her little feet for long. But luckily her dress was long enough that no one could really tell she was barefoot. Plus, she is so dang cute, who cares?

Daxton ran around a little, but was pretty quiet...until one of the temple workers tried to pick him up. Dax isn't too happy when strangers LOOK at him, as anyone who has seen his "stranger scowl" can tell you. So needless to say he really doesn't enjoy strangers picking him up. Luckily he calmed down pretty quickly and was quiet during the rest of the ceremony. He was a little less than excited to go back to the youth center while we changed, but luckily, they were able to quiet him down with some chocolate chip Teddy Grahams (see brown slobber on Daxton's jacket):

(Sidenote: I am thinking maybe they should give white treats at the temple? Maybe marshmallows? or white bread? Just a thought. Anyway....)

Arden was an angel through the whole thing, and she looked the part:

We are so happy to have Corbie as part of our family...legalized and foreverized!

Thanks to all of our family who came, it meant a lot!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

It has been a Halloween Frenzy these past few days. On Thursday we had Arden's preschool Halloween parade, and that night we had the annual Zaugg Family Halloween party at our house. Each year we have a Halloween pinata. This year we made it ourselves:

Then on Friday, we spent a good part of the day carving pumpkins. Carving pumpkins has always been a big part of Halloween for me. Even though it is messy, Halloween just wouldn't be Halloween if we didn't have a few jack 0'lanterns on the porch:

Then on Friday night we had the neighborhood trunk-or-treat. It was great fun, and it is nice to be able to see everyone's costumes since we don't get many trick or treaters. Then today was the actual Halloween Day!!!!

This year, Arden was Tinkerbell. Her wings even had lights in them!

Daxton was a lion. RAWR!

And Corbie was a dalmatian puppy. She was NOT in a very photogenic mood today. Oh well.

I decided to join in the fun again and this year I was Cruella DeVille since Corbie was a puppy.

Preston took the kids trick-or-treating tonight, and they had a great time. Dax was pretty ornery and worn out by the time they got home, but there is enough candy around here to last us for a loooong time (or at least a week). Happy Halloween everyone!!

Our Day In Court

It has been a busy few days for us! October 22 is a day that I have been looking forward to for a long time....Corbie's adoption finalization court date! We have been through two of these already, so you would think that I would not stress about it anymore, but I still do. A LOT.

We got ourselves to the court house on time (yay!) and got all settled in and waited for the judge to come in. And waited. And waited some more. Luckily my parents took some time off work to come and watch (and help with the kids), because the judge was over half an hour late. My kids have very limited periods of time in which they can be quiet, and Corbie used up ALL of hers up on the period of time when nothing was happening. As soon as the judge came in, Corbie decided that it was nap time and started fussing.

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We had another adoption case before ours, so I took her outside of the courtroom and tried to get her to fall asleep. There were glass doors, so I could still see inside. I couldn't hear what was going on, but it didn't look good. The adoptive couple and their lawyer all had very serious faces and there was a lot of gesturing and paper waving. Turns out they were missing some paperwork that they needed, and so their adoption did not go through. AAAHHH!! (They still have custody of the baby, but the judge told them they needed to have that paperwork before the adoption could be finalized.) Yikes. Doesn't exactly calm my nerves.

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Cora had fallen fast asleep during that drama and stayed asleep all during our hearing, which was great. However, Daxton had used up his supply of quiet by now, especially since by then it was past his nap time too. So Grandpa took him to the adjoining sound-proof conference room, where they could still see and hear what was happening, but thankfully we couldn't hear Dax. The hearing went fine, but our judge was pretty talkative and so it lasted quite a while. Then after it was clear we had everything we needed (THANKS PAUL AND LDSFS!!), the judge talked to us for a while and gave us some parenting advice. It was all kind of blurry since I was worrying about trying to keep Corbie asleep and wondering how much longer Arden's supply of quiet would last, but I do remember one thing he said: "Don't prepare the road for your children, prepare your children for the road." Good advice.

Anyway, about an hour and a half after we got there, we were FINALLY done and Corbie was officially legally stuck with us! YAAAY! Here are some pictures of us outside the courthouse after we were set free (Corbie woke up as we left). It was by far the longest hearing we have had, but all's well that ends well!

Later that night we celebrated by going to the Pumpkin Walk in Syracuse with some cousins. So fun! Here are some of our favorites:

Preston always likes the "Pumpkin Pi" (get it?)

You can't really tell from the picture below, but someone carved up a bunch of pumpkins with scenes from "The Neverending Story!" When I was little we used to torture my mom by making her rent that video each and every time we went to the video store. She watched it so many times I think she actually started to like it on some level. So I had to get my picture taken in front of those (they were really good, but the picture looks like The Nothing got to them. Does anyone else remember that show?)

Even Corbie liked to watch the glowy pumpkins, but she kicked her blanket off about 74 times.

Stay tuned for our next adventure: The Temple sealing!!!!