Ho Ho Ho

I walked into the bathroom to check on Dalton and Delyla tonight and saw this. They had the bubbles piled onto their faces and they were saying "HO HO HO" and laughing soooo hard. It was adorable.

Breakfast with Santa

Every year the community center here hosts a breakfast with Santa. We always went when Darion was a baby and sorely missed it when we were in Houston. It was so much fun. They put out a spread of juices and cookies, breads etc. Santa is there to spend as much time with your child as they need. There is a puppet show and a craft. And...IT IS FREE!!! Beat that Houston;)

Delyla wasn't very comfortable with Santa, so I had to sit with her. She barely even looked at him. Darion picked up the Santa Dog of course and sat down with both of them telling Santa that he didn't really need anything...what a suck up! Santa said, "well, what do you want?" Darion replies, "well, a laptop would be nice..." Santa looked at me and smiled really big - thanks man. Dalton was adorable as usual. He was so shy, as you can see from the picture. Santa had to lean in to hear what he wanted. He said "a truck." So easy to please...for now.

The kids ate cookies and juice for breakfast and then we went and dropped them off at Gammy's to bake more cookies! Yea for Gammy! We went to Taos and shopped a little more. Bought some new vampire books so life is good! Missing all of my family and friends that are not here - and wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas!!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland... Oh Christmas Tree!

We had an amazingly fun and exhausting excursion yesterday. A quest....for the perfectly imperfect Christmas Tree. Where we live is a little bitty house situated towards the front of a 10 acre lot. Up behind the house is beautifully forested state land covered in newly fallen snow just itching to be ruined by our fumbling foot steps. WE all bundled up like eskimos and went out with chainsaw in hand to find our tree. We stopped for the boys to roll down the hills, and make snow angels. We stopped to take a few pictures of the scenery too - breathtaking! WE stopped a gazillion times to put Delyla's gloves on - again. She was quite the primadonna on this outing. She didin't want to ride in the sled or walk most of the time, so we alternated carrying her and most of the pictures with her in them, she is crying or frowning.

At the end of about a 30 minute trek, we found the prettiest, strangest Christmas tree! You can see in one of the pictures, Jon in his brown jacket is laying in the snow with the boys waiting for Delyla and I to catch up - my mountain man with his chainsaw....mmmmm. The trunk of the tree splits near the bottom and shoots up nice and straight with two stems. It is very full and just looks so Christmassy in the living room. Jon just finished putting up the lights and we hung decorations. The living room is so tiny, that you can't help but brush up on the tree when you walk around the arm chair, which frees up that delicious piney smell. What started out as an adventure, ended as a cozy day in front of some football with friends on the way. I love Christmas!

This speaks for itself.....

We had a family clean-a-thon this afternoon. While cleaning the kids came upon the stash of vampire teeth from halloween. Dalton distributed the teeth to all of us and we went on with our light work listening to the radio and picking up with our flourescent vampire teeth on. I went to check on the boys progress in their room and walked in to Darion biting Dalton's neck. I almost fell over I was laughing so hard. "They just wanted to see what it feels like" was the response to my "what in the world are you two doing???!!!"

A little later, Dalton and Delyla decided to pose for me. They attempted to bite eachother's neck, but I think Delyla was worried she'd get into trouble, so I didn't get much of the actress in her to come out. Dalton, on the other hand will put on a show at the drop of a hat. He told me how he would suck my blood and then I would suck his so I could be a vampire too.

Should I blame bad parenting, or Stephenie Meyer, Anne Rice, PC Cast? If my children grow up and become teenage goth vampires, I guess I can only blame myself. Jon claims no partnership in my vampire addiction even though he is very upset that the last couple of weeks of Vampire Diaries have been re-runs. Perhaps the entire family is in vampire withdrawal...I hope I get those Vampire Diaries books for Christmas or we are all in big trouble;)

The first hunt

Here are a few pics of Jon and Matt's first hunt. Here in NM, you purchase a lottery ticket for an elk hunt. If you win one, they tell you when and where to go. Matt got a tag this year, so Jon and Matt set out last Saturday, and every day there after until Wednesday, to bring home the prize. It was a horrible week for a hunt in my opinion. It was way below zero most mornings and a big snow storm came in that week too. But, in the quest for MEAT, Jon and Matt were whole heartedly invested in finding the herd. Luckily, the area that they were hunting in is near our homes, so they guys didn't have to camp out or anything. They hiked and 4-wheeled and drove. Jon said our Toyota Tundra could have been in a commercial with some of the terrain it went over. After all of their hard work, they didn't land an elk. Evidently there is quite a story that goes with the reasoning why, but Jon hasn't really shared it with me....... Beautiful place to hunt though, huh?

Remembering Thanksgiving

We had a really quiet thanksgiving this year. Just Jon, the kids, Carolyn and I. We baked a turkey that was way too big and enjoyed watching football and playing on the computer together. The quintessential black olives on the fingers is always my favorite. Delyla wasn't sure about it, but Dalton ate an entire can on his own. Thank heaven he's not in diapers any more. The weather was beautiful and we got to relax in a clean house with delicious food. What a great day!

The funny things kids say...

I just had to jot down a few of the funnies that the kids have shared over the last couple of days.

Delyla was getting into the bathtub tonight and said "look at my weenie!" We tried to explain that she didn't have one, but she is a child with an opinion and just kept saying "look at my weenie!" It was hilarious - I guess that's what happens when you have 2 big brothers!

Dalton was getting ready for church Sunday and came in to show me the hole in his sock. I asked if he needed help finding a sock with no holes and he said "No, mom, my sock is like the Holy Ghost!" Precious.

Darion told me in the car that he felt happy. I asked why and he said that Dalton told him that he was glad he had a big brother - that it helps him not have bad dreams. This was the most special thing. Dalton has been waking up with bad dreams alot in the past few months and he asked if Darion could sleep with him. Darion said he would and Dalton's sleeping way better now. Sweet big brother huh?

Although Jon isn't one of my children, sometimes it feels that way. LOL He mentioned that it is a full moon tonight. I said "oh really". He said I'd better watch out, that Jacob might come and get me. I said "one can only wish;)".

Darion also shared a great joke - Why did the toilet paper roll down the hill?
(Drum roll please...)
To get to the bottom... The Mahan genes are going strong in that boy. Wath out!

Sinnamon Rolls...

I heard a really poignant lesson today at church and want to jot it down to share.

In Relief Society, as you walked in, you were offered a delicious looking cinnamon roll to enjoy during the lesson. For every sister that accepted a cinnamon roll, a priesthood brother would pay the price of 10 push ups. As sister after sister walked in, the poor brother doing the push ups kept going and going. After a while, a few of the sisters, seeing his strain and discomfort and later, pain, tried to return the cinnamon roll, but the brother wouldn't let them until he had paid its price. After about 200 push ups, he was convinced to stop. Sisters were appologizing and offering him the uneaten cinnamon rolls that he gladly accepted, but would not eat.

They made a parallel statement matching the cinnamon roll to Sin and the brother doing the push ups to Jesus Christ. The eloquent teacher wove this into a Thanksgiving, Christmas message stating, what better present to give Jesus Christ this season, than our sins? He gladly accepts our burdens and lovingly gives us peace, joy and hope in return. I hope that we can all try to focus on this in the weeks to come. I was really touched and moved by it. If you're not sure how to do this, but are looking for happiness and peace, please visit www.lds.org and watch the video entitled Lifting Burdens. This web-site offers encouragement and direction in ways only inspired by Jesus Christ himself. Love to everyone:)

Random pictures

Here are a bunch of random pictures of us, Gammy, the Batchelders and friends. My computer is so slow to upload pics, that I don't have time to put any comments tonight, but enjoy looking at the cuties. There are pics from halloween, a birthday party for Darion, a party for Delyla, footbal in the yard and fun cooking at Gammy's house. We are having a blast in New Mexico waiting for more snow to fly. We're heading out hiking to find a Christmas tree this weekend - I'll post pictures of that escapade soon. Last time we saw a mountain lion! A little too much excitement for a Christmas tree hike. Happy holidays everyone;)

Jealousy will get you.......movie tickets!

After talking to Kareena and reading Karla's blog, I whined to Jon long enough to talk him into advance purchase of tickets to New Moon! We can't see it Thursday at midnight - imagine driving home through a snowy canyon 45 minutes at 2 in the morning with elk and deer in your headlights! - no thanks! So, we got tickets for Friday the 20th at 9:00. Dinner and a movie night! Now, it won't be the same as going to the movies with the girls and oohing and aaaaaaahhhhhhing over Edward (and Jacob, if you like warm bloods - traitor Kareena), but I'll be going with my own version of Edward (minus the bloodlust). It will be so romantic - watching werewolves and vampires and then driving home...45 minutes...in the snow...deer, elk....full moon....... romanitc or frightening? I'll let you know:0)

Halloween

So many adorable photos and not enough time to upload! Here's halloween. Delyla was an adorable pink bunny rabbit. We had the ears, bowtie and tail already and just bought her some pink sweats. Then...the amazing Alison made her a plush pink pancho which just made the costume. Thanks Alison!

I somehow didn't end up with many pictures of Darion. As usual he had 2 costumes. The first was terrifying - maybe that's why I don't have any pictures. The second is the dark masked figure. He loved it that no one knew it was him in there. He's pictured with Stanton -who was an exceptionally acted Inspector Cluseau. He's got the funny accent down - among his many talents. Darion and Stanton waited in line at the halloween carnival to enter the haunted house that the 8th graders do. Darion went in and promptly exited, requesting his tickets back. It was too scary!

Dalton was Bumble Bee from the Transformers. He wore his costume for weeks before halloween and suprisingly still wanted to wear it on the actual day. He loved it!

Jon suprised me by dressing up as a vampire...yummy... I can't really call this a family friendly blog and stay in this mind set, so we'd better move on.

I was a witch. Big stretch, I know....;)