Christmas Celebrations 2008

What a whirlwind week we've had! So, where do I begin? Just a word of warning - this is going to be long!

On Sunday, after church we packed up the car and headed to Rexburg. I wish I had taken a picture of the car. We were full to the brim! Our car has never been so full. It's amazing how much stuff you have to take for a family of 4 for 7 days, not to mention bedding, snow gear, presents, etc. We had a decent drive to Rexburg with just a little rain that froze instantly to the windshield, but we made it.
We stayed with Natalie and Doug (Chad's sister & bro-in-law). The rest of Chad's family was already there, so it was definitely a full house, but there was plenty of room for everyone. We spent the night playing games and enjoying each others company.
On Monday, we piled on the snow gear and went sledding. Both girls went down the hill a couple of times, but refused to after that. They didn't seem to enjoy it too much, although I think they did like walking around and playing in the snow. Myra kept tackling me and pushing me down into the snow. She thought that was great fun. After that, we had lunch at a place called Big Judd's. They have this huge hamburger (1 pound of meat w/ toppings) and if you eat it all, they take your picture and put it on the wall. Chad was the only one out of our group to take the challenge and now he will probably never eat another hamburger.
It was a fun place to eat! I would definitely recommend it to anyone up in the area. When we got to Natalie and Doug's house, the snow had gotten so bad, along with the wind that the driveway was impassable. It's a pretty long driveway, at least a 100 yards. So, we had to bundle the kids up and carry them to the house. As I trudged through the snow carrying Lexi, who was quite upset over the ordeal, I kept thinking about the pioneers and how horrible it must have been for them. Anyway, we were worried we were going to get snowed-in. Some of the snow drifts were so high, the guys were able to jump off the roof into them.

It continued to snow the rest of the night and the next morning, it had mostly stopped. The guys had to go out early, clear a path to the cars - which were parked at a neighbors house. I wish Chad had taken some pictures because he said that the car was almost totally covered. Anyway, we were able to get out alright and made it to Salt Lake safely that afternoon.
We enjoyed a relaxing evening at my parents house that night. The next morning, Christmas Eve, Chad went out early to do some last minute shopping. Then we went to visit my Grandma Austin.
It was a pleasant visit and Lexi was especially sad to leave. She really enjoyed Great Grandma riding her around on the electric wheelchair.
With the daunting weather forecast for the evening, we decided to skip the Christmas Eve party at Chad's grandparents house and head right up to Snowbasin to the Townhouse Chad's family rented for Christmas. (Which I mention here really quick! The place was huge and very beautiful. Something like 5 bedrooms, 5 baths, 3 family rooms, etc. Our room had a King size bed and a huge bathroom with a jacuzzi tub and a shower with 2 SHOWER HEADS! The house also had a movie theater, complete with stadium seating, not to mention the foosball and poker tables. It was great. And get this, above the stove was a water faucet - to fill up those large cooking pots! I wish I had one of those when I was canning. Anyway...) I'm sure glad we did it this way. It turned out to be a very fun afternoon/evening! When we got there, the heater wasn't working, so we had to get a worker up to fix it. This took a while, so for the first couple of hours, we ran around with our coats on, trying to get luggage brought in from the cars and get things set up for Christmas. It was so nice once the house started to warm up! Our next dilemma was the Christmas Tree the owner had said was included. It was this teeny, fake tree. A terrible disappointment! So, with it being Christmas Eve, we thought we might be able to get a good deal on a last minute tree. Chad's dad and some of his siblings took off, looking for a tree. They came back with a beautiful tree they were able to find at a Christmas tree lot. They had also gone to the store and were able to get a bunch of Christmas decorations and items for discount. So, we made ornaments and chains out of paper and decorated the tree. It was a lot of fun and the tree turned out beautifully! That night, we spent some time playing games, eating lots of shrimp and just enjoying each others company. Myra was very excited about her Christmas pajamas and really enjoyed leaving out cookies, root beer and an orange for Santa and his reindeer. After we got the kids to bed, we had a little family devotional. Chad's mom had put together these beautiful Christmas books for us all, with several Christmas stories and a Christmas program, which we recited. It was very nice! After that, we headed to bed.

On Christmas morning, Myra was so excited! Lexi was a little tired and grumpy as this photo illustrates VERY well.
She jumped out of bed and started to head downstairs. We stopped her, because we wanted to make sure that everyone else was up. Myra was just so excited to find out if Santa had come. Finally, we got everyone gathered and let the girls come out. Santa had left Myra a little note, that she was so excited about and of course she immediately wanted to start playing with the stuff in her stocking. We took a short break to have a little breakfast before going downstairs to open up stuff under the tree. When Myra walked into the room, she started running and dancing around the room and sang out, "Santa did come!" Her happiness was so infectious. It took quite a while for 13 people to open up all of the presents. Especially since everyone wanted to just watch the kids. Myra was very excited about the camera Santa gave her and the doll house she received from Grammy and Grandad. Lexi loved her new baby doll. For the rest of the day, we played games, the kids played with their new toys, we relaxed and worked on preparing dinner. Chad and Myra went out to play in the snow. All of the guys and Jordyn had gone out and were building a large snow fort. Myra called it her castle. She had a fun time. We had a very yummy dinner that night and spent the rest of the evening playing games. This video is of Lexi and her cousin James playing together. It was so cute.

The kids were exhausted, not to mention the rest of us, and we headed to bed fairly early.

The next morning, it was quite crazy and hectic as we all hurried to pack up and head out of there. It was a very sunny, beautiful morning and we were quite shocked that the weather was so bad once we entered the Salt Lake Valley. We stopped at Chad's Grandmother's and Grandad's house to visit them for a while. It was good to see them again.

We made it back to my mom and dad's house just in time for Lexi to take a little nap, then we headed out again to go and visit my Grandma and Grandpa Newman. My Grandpa has Alzheimer's and is at an assisted living center. He remembered us just fine and it was a very nice visit. After that we headed over to my Grandma's house. We got to have leftover Christmas pie and another nice visit. We also visited my Great Aunt Gay and Great Uncle Dick. They are always fun to see. It was a busy day, full of visiting! We were glad to get home and relax.

On Saturday, Chad and I went to Cabela's early in the morning, then went back, gathered up the kids and went out to visit his Grandpa and Grandma Keyser. We were so happy to see his Grandpa doing SO much better than when we last saw him. It was quite a relief. After that, we headed back to my parents house for Lexi to take a nap and to get ready for my reunion/party that night. There didn't end up being too many people there, just 5 of us that went to High School together, but it was great to see them again! And seeing Lisa and Chris made it worth it, anyways. (Lisa and I worked at camp together and have been the best of friends since. I rarely see her anymore, so this was great!) Thanks so much Kailey and Nate for hosting us! It was so great to see you both again! So, after a fun visit, we packed the kids, the car and the dog up and headed home! Our house was freezing cold, but we were home. I'm so glad that Chad gave me an electric blanket for Christmas! It really came in useful!

It's hard to believe that Christmas is over already. We are spending New Years with my family and will have "Christmas" with them as well. I've already packed up Christmas at our house since we are going to be gone for a while with visiting my family, going to Colorado and then to California. Everything has happened at once this year!
We had a wonderful Christmas time seeing all of our family, friends and loved ones! Sorry this was so long, but there was just so much to tell!

Here are a few more random pictures from the week!

Christmas Letter

Is it really December 19th? Yikes! I'm so behind in my Christmas preparations this year! Just 2 days ago, I went Christmas shopping for the first time this year. The advent calender I got supplies to make 2 months ago just got finished today. The wreath I planned on making is still sitting in a bag in the corner next to our fireplace. The Christmas present I was planning on making this year is not done. I thought I had plenty of time, but apparently not. I could blame it on being busy, being lazy or not feeling well last week, but mostly, I just procrastinated. How did Christmas get here so fast? So, for all of you that have been eagerly running to your mailbox every afternoon in hopes of our annual Christmas letter arriving, I'm sorry to disappoint. Just be glad I blog, or you wouldn't even have this much. :-) In all reality, our lives haven't changed much this past year, so there's not much to report. But, this is what we've been up to:

Chad is still working at Utah State University. He is almost done with his thesis - he should be done within the next couple of months. Work and his studies have kept him extremely busy this past year. He still enjoys what he is doing and hopes to find a job that closely relates to his current studies. Chad has also had fun this past year playing on the ward Softball team and a city league Football team this fall. And of course, he's busy being the best dad and husband ever!

Shannon is still busy being a mom, and LOVING IT - I might add. I spend my days changing diapers, wiping runny noses, cleaning up spills, calming fears and giving hugs. It's great! I am still running my online business, CuddleBaby Boutique. It really took off this past year and has kept me extremely busy, especially this past fall. It's been a great learning experience.


Myra is still as crazy as can be! She turned 3 in May and still talks about her birthday party. It must have made quite an impression. She is always such a happy and spunky girl. She loves playing with her friends, going to Nursery and being the best big sister ever! In September, she started “Preschool.” It was a little rocky at first, but she loves it now.


Lexi is still small, but she's growing! She turned 1 in March, started walking in June, started nursery in September and finally got to face forward in her carseat in November. It has been a joy to see her grow and develop this past year. She has quite the personality now and doesn't like to be pushed around. She is beginning to express herself with words and continues to idolize her sister.


A few highlights from our past year...

January: Chad went to Colorado for the National Grasshopper Board Meeting
February: Chad and I got to go to the Movie's for the first time in over a year, Lexi started crawling
March: Lexi turned 1, Chad took me to the Matchbox 20 concert!
April: Chad's birthday
May: Myra turned 3, Myra's first (and hopefully last) visit to the Emergency Room
June: New Carpet and Tile in the house, Lexi is walking
July: Playing outside, visit to the Draper Temple, Leave for England
August: Chad and I got to spend 10 days in England for a work conference. We got to see many amazing and wonderful things while we were there.
September: Trip to Yellowstone, Camping with the kids, Myra starts Preschool
October: Lexi starts Nursery, I canned peaches, tomatoes and salsa for the first time
November: 5th Wedding anniversary, Myra's tumbling performance, Novemberfest
December: Preparing (or not) for Christmas

We just want all of our family and friends to know how much we love and care for them. We hope that this next year brings everyone all of the happiness they deserve!
With Love,
The Keysers
Merry Christmas

Ward Christmas Party

Friday night was our Ward Christmas party. It's always such a fun time, being together with our friends. Myra and Lexi, of course, barely ate anything since they just wanted to run around with all of the other kids. But the food was pretty good, especially the desserts! :-) Then Santa made an appearance and everything went downhill from there. As we were standing in line, Myra's enthusiasm began to wane, until she was in tears. I asked her what was wrong and her reply, "Santa looks different. He doesn't look the same." I thought it was kind of funny. Very perceptive, since "Santa's" wig was on backwards and his white mustache didn't exactly cover up his brown mustache. Haha! I had to explain to her that he was just one of Santa's helpers, that's why he looked different. Then she was ok. Then when we put them both in Santa's lap, Lexi completely lost it. She wouldn't even look at him and she just howled. I wasn't exactly surprised, but still.

Yesterday, we had our first snowstorm of the season. Myra woke everyone up in the morning with her screams of, "It Snowed! It Snowed!" She could barely wait to get outside. She kept opening up the backdoor, scooping up handfuls of snow and eating it. After lunch time, Myra and Dad got some quality outside snow time.


Myra loved it. I'm sure that it's going to be hard to keep her inside while the white stuff lasts.

Elf Yourself

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Twilight

So, Chad's been pretty annoyed with me the past few days. Last Thursday, I went with my friend Janelle to see 'Twilight.' Even though none of the characters looked how I would picture them, some of the acting was pretty bad and the special effects were terribly cheesy (Edward running?), I really liked it. Ok, actually, I loved it. So much, I want to go see it again. If anyone wants to go with me, let me know! Anyway, back to my annoyed husband. First I must explain. I have a terrible memory when it comes to books and movies. I forget the words almost as soon as I've read them and often, if I wait a few months in between watching a movie, it will be like an entirely new movie to me! It's so annoying. So, after watching Twilight, of course I had to go and read them all over again! So, starting Friday morning, I began reading. I just finished the 4th book today. (I might have finished yesterday if I hadn't been sick.) Pathetic, I know! Now I just want to see the movie again. I probably won't read the books again for a while. I just have to ask though, why are they so addicting? I could barely put them down, even though I'd read them before. What is so attractive about a vampire love story? I'm sure if you are a guy and are reading this, you are totally rolling your eyes and saying things like "gag me" or "barf"! But, seriously, why is the story so engaging?

Anyway, back to the real world now! I've been neglecting my life! Now on to the laundry, dishes, cleaning, oh, and where did I put the kids? haha

I did take a short break during my reading extravaganza to help decorate the house for Christmas on Saturday. I love putting out my Christmas decorations. It really gets me in the mood for the Holiday season! Especially my Nativity scene! It's one of my most loved possessions. Lexi was so cute during the process. She was so curious about what we were doing. Myra was just exceptionally excited. She's been singing ♪Santa Claus is coming to Town♪ constantly. On Sunday, the girls wore their new Christmas dresses for the first time. They were so adorable! I'm actually SHOCKED that we were able to get a picture of both girls smiling. We had a hard time getting them to pose for the picture. Then, Lexi got her feelings hurt because I took her shoes off, and refused to pose for a family picture. :-( Next time, hopefully!

The Holidays Begin

Where to begin? This was such a crazy, busy weekend, I have a lot to tell about. So, I guess I'll just start from the beginning.
We drove down to my parents house in Sandy on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, we went to visit Chad's Grandma and Grandpa Keyser. He's Grandpa isn't doing too well. It was nice to visit them. But, it is so sad to see all of our Grandparent's getting older and having more and more health problems. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of them.
We wanted to visit some of our other Grandparents, but we just didn't have time. We had to get the grumpy kids down for naps and we had to run a few errands.
On Thanksgiving, we got up and got started fixing food and we watched parts of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on Tv. I just have to say, between 2 channels, we saw very little of the actual parade. Just lots of blabbing by the hosts on both channels. Dumb!
Around noon, I drove over with my mom to pick up my Grandma Austin to bring her back to the house. She can't really walk much, so we were grateful for the guys to pull her wheelchair into the house. After some last-minute preparations, we sat down for dinner. Myra said the prayer. Probably the shortest Thanksgiving Prayer I have EVER heard! :-)
There was just my parents, my sister and her husband and my Grandma there, besides us of course, but there was SO MUCH food! All very good. I think the Sweet potatoes were my favorite. Yummy! After a very short amount of time, we were all extremely stuffed. So, we helped clean up and sat around chatting before having pie.
Unfortunately, Chad and I had to head back to Logan early. We left Myra with my parents. When we got back to Logan, we hurried and packed up the car and headed over to the Rec. Center to set up for Novemberfest. I had the hardest time arranging my booth. At 8, we went back home and I did some last minute preparations before heading to bed.
The next morning, my mom, sister and Myra showed up, we finished setting up the booth and Novemberfest began! It ran all day Friday and Saturday. It's amazing that after months of preparations, it culminated so quickly. I am SO relieved it's all over with. It was pretty fun and I did fairly well. I still have a TON of stuff to sell, so if you need Baby shower gifts, let me know! Or check out my Etsy shop. Sorry, shameless plug. :-)
On Sunday, we went to church and as soon as we got home, we got ready to go Christmas tree hunting. My parents and my sister and her husband all came up and we drove up Logan Canyon into Idaho all the way to Bloomington Canyon. (I use to go up this canyon when I worked at camp. There's a beautiful lake at the top with a fun rope swing!) Chad and I found our tree extremely quickly! I was so amazed! It usually takes us so much longer, but basically the first tree we saw, we cut down. There was a very small amount of snow on the road and the kids loved playing in it. They were so cute. Myra kept eating the snow and throwing snowballs at us.
We didn't have gloves for Lexi, so we put a pair of mine on her. She looked so adorable. She kept getting so frustrated though because she would want to pick stuff up, but couldn't.

Once we all had our trees, we headed back down to our house for dinner. Then, we had Cake and Ice Cream to celebrate my mom's birthday. Happy Birthday Mom!
Once everyone was gone, we put the grumpy kids to bed and Chad and I relaxed by watching a movie. I kept dozing off though, so I went to be early. Now, the weekend is all over and I have Christmas to get ready for. But first, I must clean the house. It has been so neglected the past couple of months, so it is quite the daunting task. Oh, one other thing I forgot to mention. Last week, Chad and I painted the cabinets in our upstairs bathroom. Ok, it was mostly Chad, but I did help a little. It looks so awesome! Now we just need to finish the rest of the bathroom.

Oh, one more thing. I kept mentioning our grumpy kids. Not a lot of sleep, late nights, early mornings, travelling, no naps, lots of junk food EQUALS Grumpy kids! Plus, I think Lexi was feeling a little under the weather for a couple of days. Anyway, I bring this up because most everyone thinks of Lexi as being the sweetest, calmest little girl. That's the way it use to be, but lately, WOW! Watch-out! She has such an attitude and if she doesn't get her way, it's the end of the world. If I tell her no, she'll throw things, fall down onto the floor, cry, scream, etc. Sometimes she'll do these things for no apparent reason! Anyway, to get to my point, on Wednesday morning, she was having a tough time. Lots of crying and screaming. I had laid her on the couch to change her diaper. She flipped over and scooted forward so that her head was in between two pillows and proceeded to throw a screaming/crying tantrum for about 15 minutes. Of course I just had to take pictures and a video.

Anyway, that was our weekend! I hope everyone elses was just as enjoyable!