Second Christmas

My parents arrived for a "late christmas" on the 28th after spending Christmas with my dad's family in Seattle. I'm jealous - they actually got a white christmas! The snow didn't stick, but it still snowed! This is my mom with Megan and Ian - she LOVES her hugs!!!! We've crammed a lot of fun into 3 days! Saturday night, the 4 adults went out to a dinner theater and saw "Anything Goes". The men planned this which blew me away because this is NOT Eric's kind of thing, but he knew I would love it and he actually enjoyed himself. We had a FABULOUS buffet dinner, dessert and even good seats near the front! This was our anniversary "date" and we had fun celebrating with my parents who also hit their 35th year this week too! Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Sunday, we took them to the temple to see the lights - they were really impressed. I think my mom's favorite part was the room inside with the nativities from all over the world. The display from France was incredible!

I shouldn't be blogging right now - I still have suitcases to pack, food to prepare, and bedrooms to clean, but just wanted to wish you all a happy new year! We are leaving in the morning for the "Happiest Place on Earth" and I'm so excited!!!! I also can't wait to see the looks on my kids faces when we "accidentally" bump into their cousins in the hotel lobby! There are 18 Wanlass's converging on the city of Anaheim tomorrow - so watch out Orange County!!!

Happy Anniversary!

Today is our 15th Anniversary! Can you believe it??? Sometimes I don't know where the time has gone! We were married on Decmeber 30, 1992 in the Oakland Temple - our favorite temple in the whole wide world!

15 random things about Eric that I wanted to share:

1. He's a wonderful father - he loves babies and loves taking care of them - if I had wanted 8 kids (which I never have), he would have said, "Bring it on!"



2. He's a handyman, which has saved us a lot of $$ going to repair guys



3. He does a really good job of keeping in touch with all his siblings (all six of them) and checking in with his parents on a regular basis.



4. He stubborn - but always stubborn for the right causes



5. He knows how to work hard



6. He loves spending time playing with the boys and wishes Megan would let him fix her hair every once in a while



7. He' a fashion dude (guy version of diva) - he never hesitates to tell any of us if we are walking out the door wearing a "fashion faux-pas", and he's always dressed nicer than I am... I'm the queen of grunge....



8. He's a perfectionist - sometimes this is good and sometimes it's bad..... :) (in my opinion... he never sees a problem with perfectionism.....)



9. He LOVES super scary roller coasters



10. He served his mission in Madrid, Spain.



11. He always comes up with funny "one liners"



12. He insists on making sure that we are financially stable enough for me to stay home with the kids



13. He took me ice skating in Sacramento for our first date



14. He's a die hard sports fans - his favorite teams are BYU, 49ers, SF Giants, and sometimes the Golden State Warriors... when they aren't in the mix, we do cheer for AZ teams, though!

15. He loves me still after all these years and has patiently put up with all my "weirdness"!

Happy Anniversary Sweetie! Can't wait for the next 15... and the next 15.... and the next 15.....

Random Acts of Cuteness

Look at that behind.... right when I went to get the camera, he ran down the hallway and his diaper fell to the ground around his ankles... everybody (but me) saw it and was laughing like crazy! He got to the end of the hall, and pulled his diaper back up, but obviously he didn't pull it up far enough....

Megan wearing lots of lip gloss... and looking VERY grown up!

Brayden sleeping the day away.....

Ian taking a self portrait.... when I saw this picture I laughed so hard... his hair is flattened from wearing a Santa hat all day and I think the look on his face reminds me of Jim from the Office....

Ian and Brayden watching TV in my room using my computer chair (which doesn't belong in my room - they are so close to the screen that Ian is resting his feet on the TV cabinet!

Pre-Christmas stress - At first I thought maybe he was praying, but Eric fell asleep at the computer trying to get itunes set up for Taylor's new ipod.... look at all that mess on the desk - no matter how many times I clean it, it always looks that bad.

Taylor showing off his new ipod....

Brayden with a "grape julius" mustache... yum!?!

We watched Evan Almighty the other night and at the end they all do this funny dance - when Brayden (and the other kids) heard it they all started dancing - it was so cute!

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas! We had a very relaxed Christmas morning since we had no family in town and no where to go. I loved it! We have a strict policy of not letting the kids get us out of bed before 7 am and amazingly they follow it! :) (I can remember 2 years in the recent past that we've been up til 3 am assembling something big, so on those nights, 7 am is still way too early!) This year I was awake 10 minutes before 2 of the kids - that doesn't happen very often. We started a new tradition this year on Christmas morning and I think we are going to "keep" this one too - a gal in RS talked about how her family would gather on her parents bed on Christmas morning and read the account in the scriptures of Christ's birth from Luke 2 and then have a family prayer before heading out to the tree (and ensuing craziness!) We tried that this year and loved it! It really helped keep calmness in the house while we were tearing through the presents. We also tried something else new this year - we all drew names and had to make a "homemade" present for that person without spending more than $10. It was challenging, but we all enjoyed it. Eric did his, plus helped 2 kids and I did mine, plus helped 2 kids. Everyone really liked the presents that we made for each other and we were all proud of the creative ideas we came up with!

For the out of town family, here's a recap of how it went for each one:

Taylor got accessories for his new ipod (this came a week before christmas due to an old mp3 player breaking - yes, we paid $25 for the extended warranty and was very glad we did, since they mailed us a refund check for the full purchase price that we could use for anything else we wanted ) He also got an xbox game, the guiness book of world records, DVD - Shrek the Third, and his partner present was a BYU themed corkboard for his room (made by mom, your's truly).

Megan's partner (Taylor) made her a lapdesk that was personalized with her name and pictures, she also got a snowglobe, new bike helmet, fairy books and an xbox game (Viva Pinata). The thing she seemed most excited about was the movie in her stocking - Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix. She is a HUGE Harry Potter fan. She became really obsessed with the snow globe after watching The Santa Clause 3. Now she plans to start a snow globe collection!

Brayden was so fun to watch this year. He's been trying to open up random gifts under the tree for weeks and gets really mad when someone tells him "no". Finally now he could open them and he loved it! But in reality, one gift would have been enough.... once he had one toy to play with, we had to coax him over to open up the rest of his gifts. Isn't that how it always works? His partner was Ian, who wanted to make him a wood car to play with. Eric and I had the idea to buy pinewood derby cars, cut them and paint them. It would be easy and cheap! Ian helped Dad sand and paint the car. He loves doing projects and working with tools, just like his dad! Brayden LOVED it! He also loved his disney story book, the mickey mouse clubhouse car, and the spiderman 3 wheel scooter! It was so fun to watch how excited he got with each box!

Ian loves everything about christmas. He loves giving as much as he loves receiving! He got a fun pinewood derby car from his dad, since he made one for Brayden, he decided he really wanted one for himself. Eric made a second one for him on the sly... he had no idea he was going to get one too! He also got Star Wars Lego game for xbox, a Ripley's Believe it or Not Book, Surf's Up DVD and a cool remote control car. His favorite thing was the spiderman web-blaster dart gun thingy...

Our big gift for the kids on Christmas morning was Rock Band for the xbox. This really was a cool family gift - all six of us have had lots of fun playing it! No one has mastered the vocals yet, but we all have fun with the drums and the guitar. If you think being a drummer is easy, think again! It's soooo HARD! Taylor seems to be the best at both guitar and drums.... figures... at least all those years on the trumpet are paying off! Maybe he'll decide to spend some more time learning how to play the real guitar we got him last year for Christmas. It's collected a lot of dust over the last year!

We didn't open any gifts from the extended family yet. My parents are coming into town Friday night, so we are saving them until then - then we get Christmas #2! Eric and I also have a big suprise for the kids that we will unveil Friday night - I'm so excited I can hardly wait!!!!

Favorite Christmas Recipes

One of the plusses to not having family close by is LOTS of free time on Holidays to blog... Yes, I should have posted these a week ago, but oh well - you don't have to wait until next Christmas to try these out - you'll love them!

For dinner on Christmas Eve, I made:

Chicken Cordon Bleu (this is not a low cal meal, but oh, so worth it every once in a while!)
2 large chicken breasts
2-4 slices of swiss cheese
2-4 slices of deli ham
1 c. milk
1 c. bread crumbs (I make mine by crushing croutons)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 c. heavy whipping cream
Pound chicken into thin "sheets". You can divide it up into 4 smaller portions, or keep it as 2 large portions. After chicken has been pounded out, sprinkle with pepper and garlic salt to taste and lay out a piece of cheese and ham. Roll up as best you can and secure with toothpicks. Dip chicken in milk, then bread crumbs and fry in oil. Cook in oil on all sides just long enough to cook the outsides of all parts of the chicken. Place in a baking dish. In separate bowl, mix soup and whipping cream. Pour over the top of chicken in the dish and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Serve over hot white rice! Delish!

For Breakfast this morning we had:

Butterballs (This is our all time family favorite recipe for Breakfast!)
18-20 frozen rhodes dinner rolls
1/2 3 oz. box of Cook and Serve Butterscotch Pudding (no instant)
1 stick margarine (no butter and no low fat stuff)
1/2 c. packed brown sugar
1 t. cinnamon
The night before you plan to eat these (about 10 p.m.), spray a bundt or coffee cake pan with Pam. Put frozen rolls in bottom of pan. Sprinkle dry pudding powder evenly over the rolls. Melt margarine and mix brown sugar into the margarine. Pour evenly over the rolls. Sprinkle cinnamon over everything. Cover with saran wrap and let sit out on the counter over night. In the morning bake at 350 for 30 minutes. (I bake at 325 for 25 minutes because my oven is hotter than normal.) Flip over onto a plate and serve warm.

Saturday Morning Stir Fry
4-6 red potatoes (pre cooked and refridgerated overnight)
4-6 eggs
1/2 package of bacon, cut into 1" strips
1/2 onion, chopped
In a large pan (wok if you have one), cook bacon until it's about half way done. Add onion, and saute for a couple minutes more. Cut potatoes into bite size chunks and add to the pan. When the bacon is just about finished, mix eggs together in a separate bowl with a little milk. Add to the pan and stir and cook until eggs are done. I like to season it all with some garlic and salt.
If you want to cut some calories, strain out the bacon grease before adding the rest of the ingredients. You can also cheat and use frozen hash browns in place of the potatoes, but it's not as good that way! :)

New Christmas Eve Tradition

No, this isn't my house.....

We don't really have any cemented Christmas Traditions for our family yet - sounds weird I know, after 15 years of marriage, but all the years we lived close to the extended family was spent trying to cram in as many "family gatherings" as humanly possible in 48 hours time. So, this is our 3rd Christmas "on our own" and it's been fun to try out different things to see what everyone really enjoys.

For months, Ian has been begging us to go for a bike ride through the neighborhood on Christmas Eve to look at all the neighborhood lights. We all had a really fun time, so I think this activity is "a keeper"!

More pictures of Christmas Day to come tomorrow - tonight we have the monumental task of sorting through all the stuff, putting things away and getting rid of all the garbage!!!

Christmas Eve Fog

No, it's not foggy in the weather sense...


Saturday was a crazy busy day... so many things we were trying to get done since we couldn't go out shopping on Sunday, and didn't want to have to go out to the stores today.

Our Sunday Christmas Program at church was WONDERFUL. I truly came home from church with all my make up cried off and felt the spirit so strongly. I really needed it.

Then on Sunday, while making dinner, I developed this weird headache... for anyone who gets motionsick, you will know what I'm talking about - it felt like that weird headache you get right when you know you are starting to get car sick... it was weird because I was home and not doing anything unusual. So, about 9:30, I decided to take two Meclizine. It's an anti nausea pill that works really well to prevent motion sickness and it really helps with all things in this area. I normally take one pill as a preventative when I know I'm going to need it, but the bottle says you can take one or two, so I decided to take two in hopes that I would be able to get a really good night's sleep and wake up headache free. Well, for whatever reason it took me until well after midnight to get to sleep, but boy I really slept. Eric couldn't drag me out of bed today for anything. I finally drug(no pun intended) myself out of bed about 9:00 ish, and took a shower hoping that would help. It didn't help too much - so I went downstairs and tried to eat some breakfast, but really all I wanted to do was go back to bed. If it had been any other day of the year besides Christmas Eve, I probably would have just gone back to bed. But, Eric had 2-3 errands to run and so did I, so we set out to get everything done. After 2 diet cokes, I was more awake, but all day, I felt like I had a medicine overhang. It didn't really wear off until after dinner tonight. The great part about it, was that it totally relaxed me and when I would normally be stressed to the max on Christmas Eve, today, I just didn't care at all!