Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas! Like I've said a million times, this is the best time of year. We've been able to do fun things like drive through the lights at Willard Bay and then visited Santa and his reindeer. Well, I should say that Mckenzie and Carter visited Santa. The other boys announced that they're "too old."




We also took a wagon ride through the lights at Thanksgiving Point with our friends, the Fronk's. It was way cold but I had Andraia on my lap and she kept me warm.

A couple nights before Christmas, we went caroling with our neighbors. That was so fun. My kids did NOT want to go but once they got out there and started singing, they really enjoyed it. Hopefully that will be a fun tradition every year.

Christmas Eve was at our house. My parents, brother and his family and my sister and her daughter all came to our house. Doug, of course, cooked all day and made the best meal ever! The kids opened their presents from Nanna and Papa that night. All the grandkids got new jammies and really neat books. We also did a little nativity and sang Christmas carols. I have to say, my kids are so cute!



Christmas morning, the kids were so excited to open presents and then commenced to spend the rest of the day protecting their toys from their dad, grandpa and uncle. We had many a nerf gun war and robot wars... I'm still finding nerf bullets everywhere. Christmas evening we went swimming at my parents' hotel. My little nephew is a little fish. He's 13 months old and was determined to spend as much time in the water as he could, giggling the whole time! My kids had races across the pool. Chase is a mighty good swimmer!

Today is Doug's birthday. We just had a quiet family party and then Doug and I will have a hot date sometime this week. He's always a good sport. I love him to peices.

All in all, the Montrose's had an awesome Christmas! I'm bummed that it's come to an end!

Cutest kids!

My mom had pictures done of all her grandkids over Thanksgiving break. These are two of my favorites of my kids. The second one will probably be my all time favorite for years to come. It is a visual of every day life with my kids. However, I must say that Chase's expressions in both pictures crack me up. He was soooooo NOT into posing. It was like pulling teeth.

Garrett is Student of the Week this week! We are very proud of him. We're also extremely thrilled that he could reign in his energy long enough to get his school work done. He hasn't decided how he wants to celebrate, I'm just hoping it's not something too crazy!

Actually, Garrett is a very good student. He's good at everything he tries which is fabulous. The downside to that is that he gets very frustrated when things don't go his way.

Life would be boring without Garrett!

CHRISTMAS!!

I love this time of year! It's so exciting. I love all the family events and food and presents! I love bundling up in coats, mittens and hats to go to Temple Square to see the lights. It's my favorite family Christmas activity.

Last night we set up our trees and decorated our house for Christmas! We have a family tree upstairs decorated in red and gold and the kids have their very own tree in the family room decorated in EVERYTHING they can get their little hands on. It was so cute to watch them find their own little special treasures in the ornament boxes. The triplets found a couple ornaments that were given to them when they were born. One of them is three little bears sitting on a swing with their names written on a little banner across the swing. Ethan found M&M garland and ornaments that he bought a few years ago when he was tiny, and Carter found ornaments he made last year in preschool. Their little tree is chuck full of ornaments and garland but it's so cute. I'll have to take a picture.

My mom started a new tradition this year based on the book called The Christmas Jar. I haven't read the book yet, but my mom says it's about a family that saves their change all year to buy Christmas presents but on their way to the bank they meet a woman who is crying and their daughter ends up giving her their Christmas Jar. After that, every year the family gives away a jar of change they save all year. So my mom saved 3 jars of change (all silver) and gave one to my brother, my sister and me. She's hoping that next year we can save our change and give it to a family who needs it. I think it's such an awesome idea! Last night we took our jar to a coinstar machine and the kids made bets on how much would be in the jar. We were all pleasantly surprised that there was a lot more money in it than we thought! It was so fun. So, I'm excited about this new tradition. I think it will be a good way to get my kids involved in something that they can give to someone else next Christmas.

Obsession

When I was in middle school, I was completely obsessed with New Kids on the Block. I was unequivocally in love with Jordan Knight. I had posters plastered all over my wall and every teen magazine that published their pictures. That's normal for a pre-teen, I think every female out there has had a crush on someone.

Well.... now I'm the 30 year old chubbalicious mother of five and I have found myself obsessed with the Twilight books. I've tried to keep in on the down low because it's silly, really. But recently my fabulous friend Kim took me to a pre-screening of Twilight and I have once again found myself identifying with crazed fans who profess their undying love for Robert Pattinson who plays Edward.

So now, I'm coming clean. I think I need something like an AA group or rehab. It's ridiculous. I have not gone as far as to have posters of him plastered in my room. My husband most likely wouldn't approve. Needless to say, I loved the Twilight movie.

Funny Kids

I live in a family of comedians. Chase is the funniest. He has a pretty quick wit and sometimes he just comes up with things out of the blue and we just die laughing! A couple weeks ago we asked the boys to turn off their bedroom lights and of course, they start to complain about having to go downstairs when Chase suddenly says "Don't worry! I've got it covered, I'm a professional!" I started laughing so hard at the way he said it because he was so serious! Now, whenever I ask him to do something, he tells me not to worry, he's a professional.

Every month before my monthly visitor invades, I tend to get a zit. Well, this month I got 4 huge ones. One night, Carter and Kenzie are cuddling me on the couch and Carter looks at me with this thoughtful look and the following conversation took place:

Carter: "Mom, you look like......"

Me: "A princess?"

Carter: "Um... no. Princess's don't have zits silly!"

Me: "Then do I look like a fairy?"

Carter: "No, fairies don't have zits either. Maybe you'll look pretty again when the zits go away."

Now, the conversation sounds mean, but Carter was so thoughtful when he was talking to me that it was hard not to laugh. He never did tell me what I looked like.

The cutest was the other night. Carter has had a really bad cough. I had to wake him up to give him medicine. I didn't know that he and his dad had struggles over the kind of medicine Carter was taking. Apparently Doug had to almost force Carter to take it. So, my baby is half asleep and he takes the little dosing cup from me and takes a little sip. Then he looks up at me with a pained expression and says "Cwap mom. Did Dad tell you to do this to me?" Doug and I cracked up.

I love my kids. Sometime I'll have to post a video of Garrett doing his belly dance and his booty shake. I'm worried the kid is gonna grow up and be a stripper.

Kids

So, we've been having this issue with Ethan. To avoid getting into trouble, he's been hiding stuff from us. Examples:

He hates math, so one week he ripped off the math pages from his homework packet and threw them in the garbage and covered them with bread. I have to sign this packet every week and as I'm signing it, I notice that there are pages that have been ripped off. I ask Ethan where his math is and he says he doesn't know. Then, he gets upset because he can't find the pages.... the kid is a fantastic actor. He had both me and his dad completely going for his little show. Then, as I'm walking by the garbage can I notice all these whole pieces of bread. Something tells me to investigate and low and behold, there's the missing math pages. Of course I made him complete the math pages during his free time and he had to go to bed early. I just couldn't believe he did that!

Then today, my neighbor comes over to see if her son can hang out with us while she and her husband go to Costco. Her son is in Ethan's class and we're chatting about that when she asks me about a "Stop and Think" paper that Ethan supposedly received for getting into a fight. These papers are given to kids who misbehaved, they have to answer some questions about their behavior and how they can make changes. They're supposed to bring it home, discuss it with their parents, have their parents sign it and take it back. (I think it's TOTALLY stupid and ineffective....) Apparently, Ethan got into this fight about a week ago. I didn't have a clue. So Doug and I sit Ethan down to discuss what happened. He explains that some kids were teasing him about liking a girl, they wouldn't stop so he pushed a kid down. Then he shows me the Stop and Think paper and he FORGED MY SIGNATURE!! Obviously the kid is in trouble and Doug and I are totally shocked.

I know my kids aren't perfect but Ethan has always been a good kid. I would expect this kind of stuff from one of the other boys because dealing with them is like dealing with comedic monkeys, but Ethan has always been so responsible. Honestly, part of me wants to laugh over this because it really is funny in a tragic sort of way. I'm just concerned that he feels he has to hide things. I always thought I'd be the mom that had open relationships with her kids. Apparently I was wrong. Any suggestions on how I can get my kids to talk to me?