Bring on the Holidays!

The ornaments are on our tree (starting about half way up due to a certain one-year-old). The train was up and running but is now unplugged and de-railed (again due to said one-year-old). I even strung a garland around our front door and wound lights on a tree trunk outside our house.

As for presents, Noah believes in waiting until the last possible moment to buy them (in his mind he's saving money) so we have one gift for Gabby (an expensive set of cups) and that's it. The big present this year is plane tickets to Utah. Noah originally wanted to drive but I welled up some authentic tears and he folded.

This year's homemade siblings gifts are on their way to getting done. Alex is just about finished stapling Gabby's fabric covered bulletin board. As predicted, the staple gun was a huge hit with him.I've re-thought what Gabby's making after realizing that I'm not really up to helping her sew a tent so instead she's making Alex a batman growth chart which she'll have more fun making anyway. For Oliver, Gabby and Alex are going to help paint a picture of monkeys to hang in his room. Over all I think I've spent about $35 total on the supplies for the kids' gifts to each other, which isn't too bad.

For our neighborhood friends, we made hot chocolate-on-a-stick (directions here). Unfortunately, they were such a hit in our own family that none of them made it out the door to our neighbors. Maybe next year. . .hot chocolate-on-a-stick's biggest fan:Over the weekend we spent the evening freezing at the city parade. There were fireworks too apparently but Gabby (who was with a neighbor friend) was the only one in our family willing to brave the cold long enough to see them. This week, my goal is help the kids finish their gifts so we can all veg in front of the TV on Friday night and watch A Christmas Story.

Letters of Christmas Past

Noah and I write a Christmas letter every year and if you've never received one from us, I'm not surprised. We've not once gotten around to mailing them. I came upon two of our old letters while cleaning up the hard drive for your enjoyment.

Christmas 2005:

Dear Family and Friends,

This is our third attempt at writing a Christmas letter, but hopefully the first one we’ll get sent out. (Last year’s letter started the same way).

This year has been pretty eventful for our family. The main event, of course, happened on June 10th with the addition of Alex Rafe, weighing in at 8 lbs 13 oz (though, as of November 18th, he’s tipping the scales at 19 lbs). Gabby was overjoyed, and announced through the halls of the hospital, “We have a brother!” He spends his days smiling and chewing on everything in his reach.

Gabrielle turned 3 this past July and has discovered princesses, the color pink, and that she doesn’t like being called “Gabby,” its “Gabrielle.” She recently started ballet and looks pretty dang cute in her leotard and pink tights. She had her ballet recital on December 12th, and was the cutest three-year-old on the stage. Gabby’s been a good help with Alex (most of the time), and affectionately calls him “[her] little squishy baby.”

Noah is finishing his second degree in school, at BYU in Manufacturing Engineering. He finishes in December (with about 190 credits) and is currently looking for a job--know of any? Also this year, Noah pretty much finished our 1000 sq. ft. addition, and the remodeling of the remaining 500 sq. feet of our house (see below). If that’s not enough, he is also finishing up rebuilding the engine of his “race car” that blew out a year ago. If anyone cares, in his spare time, Noah plays with CNC machines in our garage. If you don’t know what a CNC machine is, Noah now has the capability of making personalized key chains (I’ll finally get one with my name on it—says Kaila).

Kaila is also finishing her degree at BYU, in Vocal Performance, and had her senior recital December 6th. She really rocked the house (In an opera sort of way)—says Noah. She will have 5 credits left after this semester and will graduate in April (horary).

This past summer, our family took a trip to California where we visited the beach, and Mexico. We didn’t intend on driving in Mexico, but that’s the last time Kaila will be taking directions from Noah. We got out alive with an authentic Mexican Prada purse. Our $300 car made it all the way to Mexico and back. It died three days after we returned home, so we had to get another car.

This is such a fun time of life for us. We honestly couldn’t be happier. Merry Christmas everyone!

Love,

Noah, Kaila, Gabrielle, and Alex

And then there was Christmas '06 that we started but almost as a joke, knowing full well it probably wouldn't make it out either:

Dear Everyone,

We had another great year. It started out with a January, went on through several more months, and here we are at December. I guess you could say we faced 2006 head on and kicked its ass.

Kaila went to school until April, at which time she graduated. Kaila then focused all of her efforts on finding a new house, buying it, decorating it, and then presenting it to Noah some time in the fall. She also raised two children and started a blog.

Noah found a job at a place called IntelliServ, he is a Quality Engineer. He began working on a master’s degree. He also started working on the new house.
Today I finished writing our 7th Christmas card. Maybe this year's our year!

Really Noah, You Shouldn't Have

Not to make you feel bad or anything, but my Thanksgiving holiday makes your Thanksgiving holiday look like a really long, boring business meeting. For example--did you see the Parthenon? Well, we did (and not the crappy ruined one either).

This is me with the Parthenon (below). But wait--it gets better!
Noah drove me to this really dumpy part of Nashville, Tennessee to show me something.

That's right readers--it's the Noah Liff Opera Center (always thrifty, Noah didn't want to fork out the extra money to finish spelling our last name, so he abbreviated with "Liff") For me??? Oh really Noah you shouldn't have!

So did your husband build you an opera house for Thanksgiving? I didn't think so.

I'll let you all know when I do my solo debut there but I'm afraid you'll have to pay your own way, we're a little short on funds right now after building an opera house and all...

P.S. Thanks to the Tennessee Lifferths who let us crash at their place and eat their food--we had so much fun! I wish I had pictures of Thanksgiving day with the cousins, but Noah didn't realize the camera was on manual so all those pictures look like they were taken in a cave.

Kids' Room

Alex's room is just about finished. I did his city skyline out of chalk board paint (a huge hit by the way), got curtains and finally got his bedding yesterday (still waiting on the batman sham which Alex will get for Christmas). When my decorating budget gets replenished I'm going to paint the remaining 3 walls light gray but for now I'm happy with it.
Here's Gabby's room again. Noah was worried that the Wayne's coating shelf he put in didn't show up well in the last picture I posted.

Here's a close up:

P.S.

I've actually kept my blog current this week so scroll down and make sure you're up to date.

Christmas '09 Preview

In my extended family, one of the Christmas traditions is for the kids to make gifts for their siblings (sometimes saves money and it's more meaningful). Last year Gabby made Alex a Superman cape.

Here's the plan for this year's DIY kids Christmas gifts.

Alex is going to help make Gabby a fabric covered pin board (similar to the one we found at the Utah Parade of Homes pictured below). I figure it will be relatively simple, inexpensive, and Alex will have a ball using the stable gun [with supervision].

I have high hopes for Gabby's gift this year. She's going to help make a hanging tent (like this one) for Alex.
Oliver is opting out this year for obvious reasons.

Does your family have this same tradition? If so, what will your kids be making this year?

Birthday Wishes

Yesterday I turned 29. I got everything I wanted which is what birthdays are really about anyway.

I got to have Alex's preschool friends [and moms] come over for Thanksgiving lunch.

Ollie happily ate more in one sitting than I have ever seen him eat before

My big gift: Noah gave me the funds and manly help to finish Gabby's room, after a considerable amount of asking if that's really what I wanted. Yes, it was EXACTLY what I wanted. One room down, ten to go!

side note: If you're wondering why Ollie is vacuuming, we've decided that he should start earning his keep, so have put him to work.

But perhaps the highlight of my day was the program Gabby wrote and directed. Noah and Alex each had parts.

Okay I swore I would never make fun of how my kids spell things because I felt constantly scrutinized for my terrible phonetic spelling as a child. That said, please take note of how Gabby spelled "daddy's" (above) This was the picture revealed when Noah followed Gabby's directions and turned the page over for me to see.

When I told Noah this was one of the best birthdays of my life, he didn't believe me. But quite honestly it was. I have everything I've ever wanted and more.

Lovin' Every Minute of It

Today is the 9 year anniversary of the best decision I EVER made. I snagged Noah. Or rather, we snagged each other.
Noah is my compliment in every way. And he's seriously funny.

If I could have any wish for my children, it would be that they are as lucky in love as I am.

Happy anniversary Noah!