The 12 Days of Christmas

I forgot to put this up on my Christmas post. Josh did the 12 days of Christmas for me. Actually, him and Chloee did it together. They would make a list and decide what to get me, go shopping then Josh would put it in the drawer of her nightstand when he would leave for work in the morning and then she'd give it to me when she woke up. She couldn't wait every night for the next thing.

I wrote exactly what the notes said. I laughed every day at something new Josh had written on each one. Very repetitive but each time it was written differently.

- On the 1st day of Christmas, my husband and kiddos gave to me: a box of raspberries.

- On the 2nd day of Christmas, my husband and girls gave to me: 1 Martinellis (and 1 box of raspberries!)

- On the 3rd day of Christmas, my husband and crazy-little-people gave to me: Truffles from Lindt! - A bottle of Martinellis, and a box full of raspberries (sticks)!

- On the 4th day of Christmas, my one true love and beautiful little crazies gave to me: A pack of milky ways! -Lindt (yummy), Martinellis (can I get some more, please) and a (now finished) box of raspberries!

- On the 5th day of Christmas my husbando and kiddos gave to me: Another Martinellis! - Mars candy bars, Lindt truffles, the first Martinellis and a box of raspberries.

- On the 6th day of Christmas my true love (and Kiddos) gave to me: A gorgeous pair of earrings. -Bottle of Martinellis, pack of milky ways, Lindt (need I say more), 1st Martinellis and raspberry sticks, oh yeah!

- On the 7th day of Christmas my family gave to me: What? Martinellis again? -Wow, beautiful earrings, 2nd Martinellis, milky way candy bars, Lindt (ohhh Lindt!!!), Martinellis (I think she really likes this!) and raspberry sticks in a cute little box!

- On the 8th day of Christmas my daughters and true love gave to me: A gorgeous flower bouquet. - Martinellis, earrings (so pretty), Martinellis, Milky Way (Not the galaxy... duh!), Lindt (Ohhhh!), Martinellis and sticks of chocolate filled with raspberry jelly.

-On the 9th day of Christmas my wonderful little family gave to me: an old, classic, funny movie! - one bouquet of flowers, a bottle of Martinellis, a pair of stunning earrings, another bottle ofMartinellis, pack of milky ways, Lindt, Martinellis and raspberry sticks in a box!

-On the 10th day of Christmas, my younger selves and #1 Hubby gave to me: a chocolate symphony. - 3 men and a little lady, flowers, Martinellis, earrings, Martinellis, milky ways, Lindt (drops of heaven), Martinellis and raspberry sticks... not in a pear tree.

*I can't find my paper for the 11th day and neither of us can remember what it was. Then the 12th day was Christmas. I just wanted to document this so I could have it forever in my blog book and remember it for always.

It's All In The Beard

I love Josh with a beard. In fact, all of our married life he has had a beard except for a few times where he shaved it off and had a 5 o'clock shadow by night time. I think he's shaved it MAYBE 3 times in the 8 years we've been married.

He has started to grow it out more. It's getting thicker and more unruly. I love it. Well, he decided to trim it up last night for work so I took a few fun shots of it. There are quite a few, these are just my favorites. I even went in on his Facebook account and changed one of these to his profile picture.

Ok, so he looks like a serial killer here, but I like it.

Sometimes he'll just walk around with a comb stuck in his beard and think he's just hilarious. I admit, it does look funny. He compared himself to snoop dogg or someone. I can't remember, some rapper who evidently wore combs in their facial hair.

In some of these I think he looks like Ryan Gosling in The Notebook. You know, when he's gone all crazy and he's got that huge beard. Just my own personal opinion.

Sous Chef

Here is Josh's little sous chef.

Josh was making pies for a New Year's Eve party we were going to and Chloee LOVES to cook with her dad. I'm not joking when I say that she did a lot of stuff.

Her cousin, Isa, had her name for Christmas and gave her this cute little cooking set. It came with her apron, the chef hat, an oven mitt and a hot pad.

It must be genetics to not be able to keep your eyes open during a picture.

Christmas Morning

I took a picture of our tree before we went to bed. Those presents wrap all the way around the tree. They are all pretty much for other people, except for a few in the front for our girls.

I fell asleep at about 1:30 and I don't think Josh went to bed until 2:30. I zonked out downstairs while Josh did all the work.

Halle loved this shopping cart and "food".

I don't know about you but those shifty eyes freak me out. It looks like she's either going to smile or seriously pound someone's face. That girl is unpredictable.

Chloee's new little kitchen. They got lots of kitchen accessories like a blender, a toaster, a mixer and lots of new dishes.

Josh with his trust dusty knife. He's opening the girls' Zhu Zhus.

Awh, Halle loves her Zhu Zhu. Halle also got a little "big baby" from Toy Story 3, yes the weird, crazy looking baby that's the bear's sidekick. When she saw it she said, "Whoa baby, Oh baby, My Big Baby!" We laughed forever about that.

Wow, since this picture I've chopped about 4 inches off my hair. Josh gave me this plaster mold of Chloee's hand doing the "I Love You" in sign language. Needless to say, as you can tell from this picture, I cried. He also tried to get something similar out of Halle but that is an absolutely HILARIOUS story that I'll save for another post.

Yep, he's so excited about his baking goods. Josh LOVES to bake. That's a tart pan that he's so excited about.

Do you think she's a little excited? It's the simple things that make them so happy... How To Train Your Dragon, simple, super happy child.... check!

The note that Santa left.

The trashed front room.

My mom made the girls their own blankets. They love them. They sleep with them, take them in the car, use them on the couch. Yes, they have already been washed many times.

We had a fabulous Christmas and over the days went and saw all of our families. Yeah, there are 4 families we see on holidays, my parents, Josh's dad's family, Josh's mom's family and of course, The Allemans, who are just as much family as everyone else.

The one bad thing about Christmas was the obvious, no snow, but also I had kidney stones. Out of all of the 365 days that could have happened, it was on Christmas. Oh well, it's like some sort of Adams family tradition. I think from the time we've been married, someone in our little family has always been sick on Christmas. Granted, 2 of those years were me just because of pregnancy but still. Last year it was Chloee.

Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve we went up to my parents house. Since before I was born, my dad's side of the family does a Christmas Eve party. They sing songs, Santa comes to visit and have dinner, just to name a few. There's been talk about this being the last year since my grandmother passed away last year. After hearing that, we decided to go for the last year.

My dad is the MC, if you will and you can see who his little helpers were.

Chloee was "Blitzen" in the reindeer song.

My dad tells the story from MEMORY of the Christ child being born from the scriptures. As always, he did a superb job.

Yeah, we look a little drunk in this picture.

This is my dad's twin, Claudia. The little girl in her hands is her granddaughter who is the same age as Halle. Needless to say, they fought all night and Halle was NOT nice. Notice how Claudia is separating them?

The whole family looks a little tipsy. Yeah, I think this was at 10:30 pm.

Oh, Hals being.... well, Hals.

30 seconds later, back to her "I'm so innocent" face.


We all sat on Santa's lap when our name was called.

Santa asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I said, "If you could drug my kids up so they'll sleep, that would be great." Bam, mother of the year award for me.


Halle was so funny. She stood up there waiting for them to call her name and then when they did, she wanted NOTHING to do with them.

I don't really care for what I think he's asking for.

The sistahs, of course I had to have one of these taken.

Halle threw a fit because she didn't want to wait until everyone had their presents and Santa left for her to open hers. Josh whisked her away then she opened it, only to be so happy that it was Max from How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

Yep, you guessed it, Chloee's was The Grinch.

I think we left Cache Valley to come home around 11:00 or so. It was fun to be there for the last year. The girls had a blast. We normally do our own thing for Christmas Eve. We decided to maybe go around to nursing homes and take people blankets we've made. This year, since we were going to my dad's party, I had a grand idea. We went and visited my uncle who is in a nursing home in Logan. It was a fabulous visit. We laughed, we cried and it touched my heart immensely. I think it will be a great new tradition to start with our girls.

We Finally Got Snow

The girls were so excited on Saturday when they woke up and we finally had some snow. Granted, it was gone by about 5 pm that day but still. Josh and the girls made this nifty snowman or as Halle says it, "no-man".

While they were making good old Frosty, I took this little snow blower out for a test drive. My aunt and uncle gave it to my parents because they had bought a new one. It keeps jamming up if the snow isn't fluffy and my parents don't have sidewalks and their driveway is covered in cars, no need, maybe... Well, they gave it to us. Yeah, I was so excited. I love to mow the lawn in the summer and now there's something like it that I can do in the winter. I loved it.

Josh and Chloee started making another snowman in the backyard while Hals just had Josh push her in her swing with absolute bliss on her face.

She thinks she can do this herself. She can't, she always falls off.

Now, she simply swings on her tummy.

Wait, now the slide is calling her. This girl can't hold still for longer than 60 seconds. That mind is always going in another direction and she's thinking of something new before she's even started the last thing she was thinking about.

We went out on Sunday and looked at the lights. This house was by far the best one. That is an actual Grinch up there, stealing their Christmas tree with good old Max.

You probably can't read this but it's on the backside of a roof. It says, "Pucker Up Whoville". The only problem is that the P looks like an F. Yeah, you replace it and see what everyone else is reading.

While we were out, the girls saw Mr. and Mrs. Claus leaving someone's house in a car. Chloee was all sorts of worried about where that sleigh was. Listening to Josh come up with an extraordinary reason which just kept getting bigger and bigger and more embellished, I think she was a little overwhelmed. That ought to teach her to ask questions. :)