Christmas 2009 and Daddy is home

After 5 days of traveling and more than 108 hours Pat finally landed in Salt Lake City on Dec 23rd at 11:00 am. I couldn't wait to get to the airport. I took the boys to school that morning and had plenty of time to get the house straightened up and head to the airport. As I am driving to the airport I get a call and it's Pat. He landed early and was waiting outside for me. Yes, I do believe I started speeding at that point. It was GREAT to see him and wrap my arms around him. He was totally exhausted but glad to be home. We took advantage of a lunch for just the two of us. As many of you know I had been on the hunt for a box big enough to hold Pat. I got the box all wrapped and the letter done from Santa. I went to pick Sean and the boys up while Pat stayed home and prepared to get in the box.

The boys came in and I read the letter to them. They were very excited. The bad part is they wanted to unwrap the whole box piece by lil piece. I had actually made a door for them to pull once they got the paper, but I didn't think they would ever pull it open. Once they did they froze. Pat was recording from inside the box so we don't have pictures of their faces. They just stood and looked for a minute until Pat spoke to them and then they attacked him. They were so happy to see him. It was priceless for our family.

Here is the box that Pat was in for the boys to unwrap. Because Pat wanted to take the boys to see Santa we headed out to the mall on Christmas Eve day. The boys had to wear their Santa hats which we thought was totally cute.

Visiting Santa. They both told Santa they wanted a computer and teddy bear. They also thanked Santa for bringing Daddy early in his sleigh. Santa looked a lil confused and then Austin said from Iraq and Santa picked up on it and just played along. It was great and Austin and Colby were just in awe of Santa this year. I am so glad Pat made it home to share in all the memories.

Colby playing Santa and his elephant was Santa's bag of gifts.

Daddy helped put this year's ornaments on the tree as well as the star.

Colby's helicopter ornament

Austin's helicopter ornament.

My Daddy visiting and enjoying his grandsons

It was great to have my Daddy here for Christmas this year as well as Pat. They both flew in the same day so what a blessing. Stay tuned for more Christmas updates....we were very busy for two weeks.

Decorating for Christmas

We could not wait for Pat to come home but first we had to get the house all decorated and our Christmas tree put up. It took me 4 days to get the tree up and decorated. I had a lot of good help as you'll see. We did decide to wait and let Pat put the star on top when he got home. Our final product...we loved it.
I had to handle all the breakable ones and put them up top out of reach of the boys.

Colby trying to figure out exactly where he wants to hang his gingerbread man

Austin trying to figure out why we have a dress as an ornament.

Ok give me another one!

Cheese, now can I hang another one.

Sean was a HUGE help as usual. He helped the boys and also enjoyed hanging his own ornaments.

Mommy trying to control the boys from just grabbing all the ornaments out of the boxes.

Austin tried to hang all of his ornaments in the exact same spot.

Love my boys helping each other.

The final ornaments and now we are complete.

We are all done and just waiting to show Pat our tree. It's always so fun to see the older ornaments or to talk about who gave us each one or where we were when we bought some of them.

This is Colby working on our sports tree. Yes, we have a tree that is all Arkansas and Texas ornaments. We LOVE getting Arkansas ornaments...ok maybe it's just me that loves them. We have to make sure they are evenly hung around the tree so that everyone is happy.

Our house was all decorated and now we are just waiting for Daddy!

Holiday Greeting From Iraq

Although Pat was fortunate enough to make it home for Christmas, he still recorded a holiday message while in Iraq before he left. It was supposed to be aired on the local television station but not sure if it made it or ended up on the cutting room floor. It may not have made it because of his little shout out at the end...we do not live in Longhorn country you know! Happy Holidays.

School Program for lil shepherds

The boys had their school Christmas Program at the local library. We were told they were to dress like shepherds and because I do not sew I ordered two costumes. As luck would have it they did not come in for the program. The program started at 5:00, I picked the boys up at 4:00 and headed home to come up with two costumes and be back at the library by 4:45.

So I grabbed two Army brown t-shirts, a pillow case, rope and two of Natalie's headbands and got to work. I would say they were done in less than 15 minutes and turned out pretty good if I say so myself.

The boys were so excited to see Santa. It was healthy Santa who gave all the kids an orange. I didn't think we were ever going to get to leave because Austin kept wanting to talk to him. As we were leaving Austin told me to wait, he had to tell Santa a secret. I asked what he told Santa and he told me "No, it's only for Santa".

We all headed out to the car to leave and Santa was walking with us. I started to get worried knowing he had to go get in a car. Sean and I were putting the boys in the car when Santa hid behind a tree. Austin started looking and said "Mommy, Santa is gone, it's pure magic".

We totally enjoyed the performance. It was all in Spanish so we are not sure we understood everything that was said. The boys still sing their songs around the house.

First big snow and time to play in it....

We got our first big snow which was more than a foot and the boys had been asking for a couple of days to play. I am not sure if they were more excited to play in the snow or wear their new snow boots. All dressed up and ready to go.

Mommy, we are getting hot, can we go outside now?

Oh man, look at all this snow

"I can't believe it" Austin

"Hmmm, I am going to eat some" Colby

"It doesn't taste too good, Mommy" Colby

"I am going to make a snowball" Austin

"Look at my new boots, they have snow on them" Colby

"My gloves are wet" Colby

The boys lasted about 10-15 minutes which is what I expected but they loved it. They came in and got warm in front of the fireplace. They keep asking to go sledding but we are waiting for
Daddy to make those memories with us.

More stockings for Utah

The boys were so excited that we went and bought them stockings and glitter glue. Ok,they were most excited about the glitter glue. It was tough convincing Austin not to just make a big pile of glue on his stocking. He could always tell me what it was as he has a great imagination. Colby had to have a pirate Santa in a ship and a helicopter on his.

Working very hard and not wanting any help or disruptions

Not sure what kind of smile that is for Austin except he was happy

How does it look Mommy?

Two of the best Christmas Stockings I have ever seen. Maybe this will become a family tradition for us. They sure had a great time doing them.

They are hung on our banister with all the other stockings we've collected over the years to include several of mine from my childhood, college and the Army.