We had a great week in Redmond and Newport this last week. One of the funnest things we did was go swimming. Jacob even built up the courage to swim on his own (with a life jacket). He kept swimming to one end of the pool, ask what time it is, say, "oh, I've got a lot of things to do, I better go home," swim to the other end, then start the whole thing over again.

When we got home last night, Rachel and Ethan were cuddling on the couch and Jacob was sitting on the arm of the other end of the couch. Jacob asked Ethan to go and get something for him (I can't remember what), Rachel said that he couldn't as he was cuddling her right now. Then Jacob said "it's ok, he'll be right back" and gave Ethan a nod (indicating that it was ok for him to leave his mom and go get whatever it was), and Ethan did. It was pretty funny, but maybe you had to be there...

Yesterday (Christmas eve) was about the most perfect day ever. I did a little bit of work until about 2, then we opened a family present, a nativity scene that the kids can play with. We had a Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus, but now we have a more complete set. We acted out the Christmas story with the little people, and I think we kept the kids' attention pretty well.

Next we opened up our family game, Go Fish. Rachel and Jacob beat Ethan and I by quite a bit :(. Ethan liked the fishing part (there is a fishing poll), but he's a little young for the rest of it. Jacob and I played again and he has it down pretty well.

After the game we ate delicious homemade soup and bread while watching one of the Charlie Brown Christmas specials. I don't think that Jacob or Ethan really understood much, but Rachel and I had a lot of good laughs.

Then we took off to deliver cookies to six families and to look at Christmas lights. Jacob, Ethan, and I ringed and ran them (Ethan skipped the first house, but went along for the other five). It was a lot of fun. The second house we went to was one that has a few dogs. Ethan really likes hugging these dogs, so he was a little mad after we ran back to the van. When I was putting his seat belt on he was yelling about not being able to be with the dogs ;).

Because a lot of the houses had dogs, I told the boys that we had to be quiet so that they wouldn't hear us. After a couple of houses, Ethan started saying, in not so quiet a voice, "shh, be quiet, dogs will hear us." Even after we put him in bed he was telling us "shh, be quite, dogs will hear us."

After we got home, we watched a movie of the Christmas Orange story (it was an illustrated narration, probably 20 minutes long). Rachel and I are kind of cry babies, so it got to us... after it was over we all ate a few small oranges (except Ethan, who refuses to touch fruit; though the look on his face after taking his only bite was priceless).

Next I read "The Night Before Christmas" and then Rachel read a book we got called "Christmas for a Dollar." Apparently it's based on a true story, and Rachel and I were kind of cry babies again...

Once the kids were in bed Rachel and I started watching a Christmas movie (it was a budget film, but pretty good). We started with hot chocolate and then had ice cream, what could be better? Near the end of the film we wrapped up the boys' presents.

It was such a great day!

Today (Christmas) was also fun. Ethan came down to our bed at about 7:30, but just wanted to sleep with us. Jacob came down a little latter wondering if he could open his presents. So we got up, and started opening our presents. Makaylin received a couple of dolls and a blanket with a little stuffed bear sewed onto it (from a great aunt). Ethan received a six wheeler truck (from his great aunt) and a soft bench that also folds out into kind of a bed. Jacob also received a similar truck and a backpack with wings like Buzz Lightyear (he's been wearing his helmet on his back pretending that it was the backpack for a while now). Rachel got screen protectors from Ethan, power cords from Jacob, and a GPS from all of us. I got socks from Jacob (Rachel...) and lolly pop rings from Ethan. My aunt also got us a sweet gift card ;). My parents joined us via web cam so that we could all show off our gifts.

For breakfast we had some chocolate flavored pancakes with bananas and whip cream. Then watched a quick Christmas video (an illustrated reading of "The Night Before Christmas"). The rest of the day was pretty much spent watching "The Santa Clause" (1, 2, and 3).

So, it was a pretty awesome Christmas.

So I had just put Rachel to bed (we'd said our prayers and I was off to write in my journal/blog and she was writing in her journal, then going to sleep), and not two minutes later I hear her coming up the stairs (ok, I wasn't writing...). What could she want? I met her half way up the stairs and asked what was going on. She said that she needed to have a few gram crackers and peanut butter (she has low blood sugar, so a little peanut butter gets her through the night).

So I offered to get them for her so that she could eat them in bed to which she responded that she'd get crumbs in our bed. So I let her up, and then watched her as she discovered wrapping paper on the floor (I hid her present when I heard her coming). She questioned me on the occasion (as we'd agreed not to get each other anything). It's true, I did get her a small gift, I mean, come on, after all the work she puts in, doesn't she deserve it?

What I wanted to do was to crawl into bed and have her ask me what took me so long, to which I'd respond, "I was just doing some last minute wrapping" and then pretend that I'm asleep... I guess there's always next year.

Merry Christmas!

Today Jacob and I had this exchange:

"mom said how many cookies can we make"

"three, one for mom and two for me"

"what about me and Ethan"

"Oh, it's no problem, you can watch us eat them"

"but how about we make seven" (as he's holding up ten fingers)

So I said ok and off he went. But I was wondering, why seven? he at least knows that 20 is a high number (about the highest I hear him count to anyway), so why stop at seven? Maybe we haven't Americanized him enough.

Celebrated my birthday this evening by watching a movie while eating pizza and cake. The pizza was pretty good (papa john's), the move was ok (corpse bride), and the cake was awesome (market of choice). We decided that there is no point in buying 15 square feet of cake if we don't really like it, so we went with about the smallest cake anyone makes (for the same price as the 15 sq ft), and we've decided that marked of choice is going to make all of our cakes in the future.

We also went Christmas shopping today, and even bought our kids a present each (normally we leave this to others, but as I have Jacob convinced that we should take all of his toys to goodwill, I figure they'll need something to play with...). Plus Jacob and I discovered his present a couple of months ago while wandering the toy aisle, and he hasn't stopped talking about it (and pretending that his helmet is it).

A couple of days ago Jacob asked me to blow on his mac & cheese because it was hot. I told him that he could do it, he has a lot of air.

Just a few minutes ago, Ethan was saying that his mac & cheese was hot, then he started saying "no Jaykey (Jacob)." When Rachel went to check on them, Jacob was blowing into Ethan's bowl and telling Ethan "It's ok, I've got a lot of air."

I should probably start blogging again so:

I'm the elders quorum secretary - I mostly try to get interviews scheduled

I got an 'A' in my distributed systems class - now the pressure is on to keep the new transcript perfect...

Nothing else to say.