Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas actually started on Christmas Eve when the kids woke up to a piece of paper in the advent calender instructing them to open their gifts from Canada family. 

 The day before the day before Christmas Eve (Dec 22), I decided that I wanted to make our faimly some stockings.  I knew I wanted to make them out of felt since that's such an easy fabric to work with so I google imaged "felt stockings" and got some ideas.  When I told Jaron that I was going to make myself a "high-heeled boot" stocking, he requested a Sorel boot.  The kids' are just supposed to look like socks.  I don't love the colors of theirs, though - there's a very limited selection of fabric left in the stores 2 days before Christmas!  But it was fun to make them anyway.

 On Christmas Eve Jaron's siblings all came over and all the cousins (9 of them age 4 and under) decorated gingerbread cookies.

 I couldn't get a picture of Alden without his mouth full!

This is what our tree looked like on Christmas morning:

 A lot of our kids' gifts this year came from garage-sale-ing or from thrift stores but they certainly didn't seem to mind.  Thank goodness for young, easy to please kids!  Christmas is the best with kids old enough to anticipate Santa's coming and to be thrilled with simple, inexpensive gifts.

The boys were quick to "help" Gracen open her gifts.

 Genny bought my kids a Zhu Zhu Pet with a little car for it.  I'd never even heard of the darn things but apparently they were all the rage last year when, between Saba and a newborn baby, I was quite out of the loop.  Gracen is soooo funny when she toddles along after it, trying to mimic it's wobbly little strut.  I love the idea of a "pet" that we don't have to feed or clean up after or know where it's at at the end of the day. :-D

Christmas was so fun this year!  We discussed the Nativity several times, at family home evenings and during bedtime stories.  I don't think they quite get it yet, though, because as we talked about Jesus' birth and why we have Christmas on Christmas Eve, I asked Alden what gifts Jesus had given us.  Alden replied with, "Ummm, toys?"  Hahaha, guess we'll have to keep working on it!  Next year I think we'll get into the tradition of acting out the Nativity on Christmas Eve.  I also think I'll start my 2nd favorite tradition as a kid (next to the advent calendar): the making of a "bed" for Jesus.  When I was little we used to have a family night lesson on the nativity.  Then we would put out a bag of straw and a basket and all throughout December, every time we did an act of kindness for somemone we got to add a piece of straw to the basket.  The idea was to give the baby Jesus a gift of a nice, comfy bed by the time we acted out the Nativity on Christmas Eve. 

Being at Grandma and Grandpa Brunson's this year allowed us to participate in some of their Christmas traditions.  We participated in pixie-ing for the 12 days of Christmas and had candied cereal on Christmas morning.  Alden and Eli loved the Nerf guns tradition on Christmas morning.  Tomorrow we will do the last Christmas tradition of the year: going swimming with the Brunson family at Green Canyon Hot Springs.

We hope everyone had a merry Christmas!!

Happy Birthday Eli!

This year Eli turned 3.  He said he wanted a train cake and then the day before we celebrated his birthday, he saw a "present" cake instead.  So I made both.  The train is out of a set of shaped silicone cupcake holders that my great friend Rachel gave us.

Jaron's brother Ben, his wife Melissa and their two daughters Katelyn and Jenna came over to help us celebrate.

Even Gracie got some cake.

We had cake and presents on the Sunday before Eli's birthday so he could have almost a whole week to enjoy his gifts before Christmas came.  Jaron and I gave him a Fisher Price Little People train from 1973 that I scored at a garage sale this summer.  The on Wednesady, Eli's actual birthday, we went to Blast Off, an indoor playground and arcade center.  It's inexpensive and the kids LOVE it....but I forgot to take my camera.

At three years old, Eli is happy, sensitive, and fun.  He is often the peacemaker with both of his siblings and shows them a lot of love.  He still likes to snuggle, especially with Mom.  He won't let me out of his sight to go to nursery, something I hope we can work on when he starts preschool in a few weeks.  Eli loves to laugh.  His laugh is deep and long and hearty and always makes me smile when I hear it, which is often.  Eli love, love, LOVES trains.  He also likes airplanes and trucks.  Eli likes to run, especially naked when he gets away from me between clothes and jammies in the evenings.  We are sure grateful to have Eli in our home!!

Christmas Letter 2010

Dear Family and Friends,
Looks like I took the easy way out and did a Christmas letter electronically again this year. I'm never sure how to summarize our whole year on one page so I guess I'll start at the beginning.

The beginning of the year found us back on the island of Saba in the Dutch West Indies in the Caribbean. Jaron has been enrolled in medical school there since May 2009. Although there were many day-to-day challenges about living in a place so foreign, we really enjoyed our time there and got to know several students, faculty members and islanders who will be lifelong friends. I'm thankful to have had the opportunity to live outside the United States in a place with such a different climate, landscape and culture. Saba taught us to conserve water, to fight mold, to appreciate the ocean, and, in a place where it is difficult to obtain items, Saba taught us to live with less.

In September the kids and I left Jaron to finish his last semester on Saba and returned to Idaho. This enabled us to save a little money while also giving Jaron the opportunity to devote all his energy to completing his last semester on the island. Jaron joined us in Idaho just last week.

Jaron's schooling on Saba has taken up most of his life this year. Medical school has been demanding and has required 14 hour study days, 6 days a week. Jaron has worked harder this year than he's ever worked in his life but he is loving what he is learning. He likes what he's becoming and the opportunities that med school is giving him. The end of his time on Saba marked the end of the basic sciences half of his degree and after a national exam this spring we will be assigned to clinical rotations most likely in Kansas City or Louisiana.

I have stayed busy this year as a mom of 3. I had a lot of fun being involved in the significant others' organization on Saba. This fall I completed a couple of pre-requisite classes that I needed to start a master's degree in Applied Psychology in the new year. I plan on taking the Community Psychology emphasis and am excited for the doors this will open for me to return to work when my kids are older.

Alden is now 4 and growing terribly fast. He enjoys learning and has started reading a little bit. He's a very logical person. Alden loves Transformers, lego, trains, cars, and airplanes. Alden is very helpful and kind to his siblings. He's become quite a social person and loves to make new friends and have his cousins over to play.

Eli will turn 3 this week and is a very sweet kid. He is tender-hearted and generous. Eli lives for trains but also likes trucks, blocks, making things and bedtime stories. He says the funniest things and loves to make people laugh. Alden and Eli will both start preschool in the BYU-I preschool labs in January.

Gracen is 20 pounds of personality. At 13 months old she is cuddly, fun-loving and tenacious. Gracie loves stuffed animals and dolls and also, unfortunately, the toilet brushes. She is into everything she can push open, pull apart or climb onto. Gracen is quick to laugh and sings along to the radio and to hymns at church. She cannot help but dance to anything even resembling music.

In 2011 our family looks forward to progressing in school and the many more lessons we'll learn from our kids. We hope you all find the sweet peace of the Savior in your lives, especially during this season.
Love,

The Brunsons
Jaron, Becky, Alden, Eli and Gracen

Christmas Traditions

We've been busy lately enjoying the season with some of our favorite Christmas traditions.

Leaders in our church have encouraged us to do a weekly family night that we call Family Home Evening.  At our house we love to make "gingerbread" houses out of graham crackers so that's what we did the first family home evening after Jaron got back from Saba.

Not bad, eh?  From left to right is Grandpa's, Mom's, Alden's and Daddy and Eli's houses.

This week we also found time to go sledding.  The adventure didn't last very long.  It was cold and poor little Alden kept insisting to go by himself, which resulted in him losing his sled every time and sliding down on his belly instead (the hill was quite steep).  He got quite a scraped up belly but both boys had fun.  This is the perfect age to go sledding - you get to ride down and up the hill.

 Gracen and I waited in the warmish van.

 And, lastly, my favorite Christmas tradition is the advent calendar.  I patterned mine just like my mom's.  I used to love how the three strips of different colored fabric broke down the countdown into three "sections."  It was always exciting when we got past the "green" days and moved onto the "blue" days. :-)  It always frustrated me, though, that I couldn't quite fit my hands into my mom's so I made this one bigger and it ended up being ginormous.  Every night before I go to bed, I slide a few foil-wrapped chocolates or a candy cane or a Christmas trinket of some sort into the corresponding day's pocket.

One morning Alden brought the prize to Eli and said, "Look what Santa put in the calendar for us."  I told him that mommy filled the calendar every night, not Santa.  He told me, "You're not supposed to tell me that, mom."  I don't know what that means for the depth of Alden's belief in Santa, but I think he's still in on the charade - at least for a little while longer.  Boy, it seems like he barely started "getting" the whole Santa thing and the ruse may already be beginning to be over!

Gracen was kind enough to pose for me in front of the calendar. Long after I had gone to plug the SD card into my computer, she stood there saying "Chee!"  I can't believe how much personality is jammed into this tiny bundle of energy.  She adores her brothers and often gives them big hugs.  She has started calling Alden "Aldo."  She is one cuddly bunkin and I LOVE that.  She's a nurturer too - she's always hauling around a baby doll or a stuffed animal on her shoulder, patting it and saying "Shh, shh, shh."  What a sweetie she is.

Muscles

Jaron has only been here 1 week and his influence is already very apparent in our life.  He inspired the following "muscle" show the boys put on for me and Grandpa and Grandma the other night:

Hope you enjoyed the show as much as we did!  Sorry Eli lost his jammies in the process. :-D

Bathtub Paint

We at are house are in love with shaving cream finger paint.  Today we decided to try it out in the bathtub.  It's a really cheap alternative to finger paint - a $1 bottle of shaving cream and some food coloring goes a LONG way!  And, in the bathtub, it makes a really easy clean up!

Notice Gracen wasn't invited.  She managed to sneak in while I was taking a picture and got a mouthful of creamy "goodness" anyway!

Meet My Kids

In the past I've done posts that describe what each of my kids are like, mostly for the benefit of family and friends who are far away and either haven't met my kids or haven't seen them in way too long.  But this post is for my benefit.  I often wish I could bottle up a little bit of each of my kids every so often, and put it on the shelf to take down in years to come and have a taste of what it was like to cuddle 13 month old Gracen or tickle 2 year old Eli or celebrate learning to read with 4 year old Alden.  This seems to be the only way I have figured out how to do that so far.  So...meet my kids:

Alden

Alden is full of never ending questions.  He loves to learn and right now we've been starting to read the Dick and Jane and the Spot series.  I think Alden is determined to figure out the world before he turns 5.  He asks funny questions about things like how vans are constructed and how the earth moves around the sun to make day and night.  He loves the satisfaction of accomplishment and is easily frustrated when he can't do things he wants to.  Alden is a great example to his siblings and takes the things he learns very seriously.  A few weeks ago they learned about being a good example in primary and he came home with a "good example crown."  Alden wore that thing all week, proclaiming several times that he was being a good example. :-)  Alden loves cars and airplanes and his legos.

Eli

Eli is first and foremost fun-loving.  He loves to be funny and make people laugh.  And he loves to be made to laugh.  When I think of Eli, that's what I think of - the sound of his laughter.  Eli loves swinging and getting "rides" from mom and dad.  Eli is affectionate towards both his siblings.  He and Alden are best buds.  Eli is a big-time momma's boy.  He does NOT like mom to be out of his sight!  Eli is super cuddly with Grandma's cat.  When she comes in the house, her and Eli often cuddle up and share Eli's blanket.  Eli would play with trains all day, every day if possible.  He loves to construct elaborate systems out of our wooden train tracks.

 Gracen

I love this 12-18 month age.  Even though Gracen is so busy exploring (or, in other words, making a mess of) everything she can get her hands on that I struggle some days to keep up, I have definitely decided that I am in love with 1 year olds.  As my kids get older and I get better at differentiating between stages and actual personality traits, it amazes me how much of their personalities are apparent at such a young age.  Gracen is tenacious.  She knows what she wants and won't be deterred.  She's already figuring out ways to get what she wants and can turn on and off her "I'm upset!" face like a light switch.  Gracen loves to tease her brothers and I constantly suspect she's becoming more and more the ruler of our roost.  But she is a loving little soul. She still loves to cuddle when she's tired and she's become quite the little "mother" to her stuffed animals and dolls.  Gracen is also slightly on the moody side, but that might only be the difference of a girl to a mother of two boys.  She's a non-stop jibber-jabberer.  Gracen loves to cuddle stuffed animals and loves to take the old-school Fisher Price little people in and out of their holes in cars, chairs, etc.

One of the BEST things in the world is to see the love that exists between my kids.  It just melts me when Alden or Eli comforts Gracen after a fall or when Alden and Eli literally hug and make up.  I tell ya, family is where it's at.  I'm so excited to see how our family dynamics evolve as our kids get older.

P.S.  Thanks to my lovely friend Amanda for these great pictures of my kiddos!!

Santa Visit 2010

Yesterday we went and visited Santa.  This picture says it all:

 Alden sauntered up there like he and St. Nick were old pals and immediately started rattling off a wish list.  Eli wouldn't even go near the whole thing and it was all I could do to convince him to stand next to the mailbox instead.  Gracen, well, her pictures speak for themselves: "No thanks, mom."