Christmas Day

On Christmas Day we were actually able to sleep in pretty late (likely due to someones inability to fall asleep quickly the night before) so everyone was waiting and very excited when we finally made it upstairs.



The best was right after Corbin woke up Caleb asked him what day it was and he looked all confused and said, "Saturday?"

"First of all... good guess, but no. Second of all, I meant what special day is it?"

"I don't know...?"

"Who came last night Corbin?"

"Oh, its Christmas!" he says as a slight grin breaks out across his face. What a fun kid.


We had a wonderful morning together opening presents. Corbin's big gift this year was a bike from Santa, which he wasn't as excited about as one would hope, but I think he will love it this summer once he gets a chance to use it.



Makelle was clueless the whole time, but despite her serious lack of understanding, seemed to love Christmas morning. First of all she just seems to always light up and sport a huge smile whenever we are all together. Second of all there was stuff everywhere to look at, poke at, and attempt to eat. She eventually secured herself a permanent spot on Daddy's lap. Corbin was really good at helping Makelle open her presents, I LOVE that they are all ready good little buddies.


By the time everyone got through the mountain of presents under the tree it was nearly lunch time and we all got to sit down to a delicious turkey dinner with the whole family, before people started to head home.



With all the other cousins gone Corbin was left alone the remainder of the day playing with all of his new toys, which kept him entertained enough for us to play a couple games and assemble the 'bad guys' puzzle that Corbin picked out for Caleb's Christmas present. Such a fun day full of great memories.

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve Caleb and I took all the little kids to see the new Disney movie, " The Frog Princess," leaving the adults some free time to get things ready for that night. Then when we got back we enjoyed the Miller's traditional Mary and Joseph dinner. We ate 'biblical foods' (dates, fish, rice, olives, nuts, avocados, etc.) out of wooden dishes under candlelight.


Then we all were assigned a role and helped reenact the story of Baby Jesus' birth. Corbin and Caleb were innkeepers/shepherds and Makelle and I got to be angels. Corbin had his, "sorry there is no more room, our beds are all full," line down solid, right up until it was time to say it, then he barely managed to whisper it when his big moment came. But that's okay, I think it helped him better understand and/or remember the story and that was the real goal so it all worked out.




Then we got to each open a present before heading off to bed where we attempted to "fall asleep quickly before Santa came." Attempted being the key word there. Celeste made cute knit hats for all the kids (Corbin sure did fall asleep with his on that night) and we opened a new game from Jenna, called Puerto Rico. So after the kids all got settled down we got a chance to play it once before heading to bed ourselves, with rapt anticipation!

St. George

We spent a day down in St. George with Caleb's family. We got to eat at the good old In-and-Out Burger. It was such a nice day that we even took our food over to a park and played football for a little while.

Then we all went to the St. George Temple Visitor's Center and saw the Reflections of Christ photography exhibit. It was done by Mark Mabry and he used models to photograph the life of Christ. It was pretty amazing. It was also nice to have a teaching opportunity and show the images to Corbin. Caleb went around with him and explained all the pictures. I think it helped set the tone for Christmas and remind us about the 'true meaning of Christmas.'

Gingerbread

Over the Christmas break we came down to Cedar City to spend the Holidays with the Miller family. It has been a lot of fun as all 6 siblings were able to make it into town and we've been spending a lot of time hanging out, playing games and watching movies.


On Monday we made Gingerbread houses. I found a kit at the store with some egg-free royal icing so Corbin got to go to town decorating however he wanted. Being the perfectionist, control freak I am, I was seriously close to a stress related anxiety attack when he started randomly sticking pieces of mismatched candy haphazardly all over the house, but after a few deep breaths I succumbed to the joy of 3-year-old creativity and allowed him to direct the decorating efforts on our house.




My favorite was when Corbin kept taking the licorice ropes and twisting and tying them up into little balls, which he called, 'timmies' he would then point out where he wanted to place his 'timmy' on the house and you would make a glob of icing for him to stick it to. He was so fun to watch.


Corbin's favorite was consuming a massive amount of sugar after insisting he taste every variety of candy in front of him. (Including a chunk of the house itself.)


Jenna was overly joyed to be partnerless and get to help Celeste and Josh make their house. By the end theirs' looked the most like a typical holiday wonderland with nice patterns, lamp posts, and overall well put together.


Jake and Ashley's house was half cutsie and traditional and half Catholic/Ancient Greek gummy bear wars. You can probably guess who contributed to each area of the house :)

The Holidays

Last night we celebrated the Holidays a little early with my family. We had dinner together and then drove up to Ogden's Holiday Village and looked at the festive displays. Then went and got hot chocolate afterwards.



I don't know what Corbin liked more, actually looking inside the cute little houses, all decorated nice, or climbing up onto the little platforms so that he could see in the windows. Either way he had fun.

Makelle sat there sucking on her little mittens and smiling the whole time. Whenever we leaned her in close to one of the Christmas displays she would stare mesmerized with her slight little grin. Adorable child.

It's a Christmas Miracle!

This morning I made blueberry pancakes for breakfast. I premix a large amount of the dry ingredients for a vegan variety for Corbin, so I can just make a pancake or two's worth at a time by adding some soy milk and oil.

Well, somehow when I was mixing my two separate bowls I messed up and made both batches with regular pancake mix, which has dry eggs and powdered milk in, and fed one to CORBIN!

I was freaking out, because I didn't realize it until after he had eaten almost the whole thing. The last time he ate something he wasn't suppose to he could hardly breathe and needed Benedryl treatments the rest of the day and threw up for hours on end. But today he didn't have any kind of reaction!!

Miracle!
I skin tested him by touching his back with a drop of milk and he immediately had a couple of hives pop up, so he isn't instantly better, but this is the first sign we have ever had that he might just be outgrowing these allergies. Or at least he may not be as severely allergic.

Needless to say... we're excited.

Nap? Time

Corbin stopped taking good naps nearly a year ago... far too soon in my opinion. So every day for an hour or so he goes in his room for "nap" time and plays quietly on his bed while I get some work done. I do let him get out a couple of toys, but he has to play with them on his bed.

So today I go in there to tell him quiet time is up and discover he has taken every single toy, book and game out of his closet and piled them on his bed. I guess that is one way to survive a whole hour on your bed, simply bring everything possible with you -- always be prepared, right?



Boy that was some productive down time... sigh.

Candy!

We decided to carry on what has become a new Lloyd tradition for the girls, and I spent Friday up at my parents' house with my mom and sister-in-law making yummy goodies to share with family and friends.

This year we decided to make a collection of candies from Peppermint Patties and Twix bars to fudge and caramels. It is always a fun learning and bonding experience!

Makelle's favorites were the peanut butter balls. (Who knew she could polish off that many Cheerios so fast? Plus, I could have sworn her arms were NOT that long!)



And once we got home, Corbin enjoyed helping me dip pretzels in chocolate so he could have a treat as well.

Snow Day

Today we awoke to our first real snowfall of the season. Which meant that it took Caleb 2 hours to get to work this morning, and a fun day of playing outside for us! Sounds fair, right? :)

All the little kids in the neighborhood got together and played in the snow this morning. The snow was too 'fluffy' to build forts and snowmen, so they took turns getting pulled on the dog sled, shoveling the snow into piles, and playing on the kiddie snowboard (which also just so happens to be Corbin's new favorite thing EVER).



Cute little Makelle got so bundled up, she couldn't really bend enough to crawl around, so she mostly just sat there poking at the snow, trying to figure out what was going on. She actually had a tiny grin on her face most of the time, until right at the end when the cold set in and she started to get tired.


Cute kids. Fun times. Good memories.

Christmas Parties

Last night was the annual Tanner, LC Christmas party. They changed it around a little this year, so we got to go to the Clark Planetarium for dinner and a show. We saw, "Mystery of the Nile" in their IMax theater, which was amazing.

Then this morning was our ward Christmas party at the church. We ate yummy breakfast, Corbin re-discovered candy canes, they put on a very impressive rendition of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," and of course Santa came to visit!