Merry, Merry!!

As tradition has it, we spent our Christmas Eve with Dale's family, Gretchen and Steve. Steve is always such a great entertainer for the kids -- but, I'm not sure who the kid is!! What a great time they all had being pulled behind the four wheeler in the sled! Only at Gretchen's can you four wheel in your backyard!

The kids were so excited to open their traditional "Christmas jamies!"

As usual, Sid - Cole - and Rett - were spoiled rotten by Santa and everyone else!

Rett only cared about playing with his Tonka Trucks -- forget opening presents!

Briggs loves his cousin Rett!! They can't get enough of each other!

Merry Christmas to you all!!

Charles

Introducing Charles . . who receives so much love from Sidney, Cole, and Rett! He is very spoiled, Rett even lets him ride in his cars and on his motorcycles! (I am amazed he is still alive!) Welcome to our family Charles!

Tradition . . .

All of you know -- we LOVE to wait to get the tree put up! Yes -- today was the day!! With just 10 days left until Christmas, the kids could wait no longer. We did it! We loaded in the car -- mind you, it is about 20 degrees outside and the wind is blowing. As we arrive at the tree lot, Cole notices the trees are now 50% off (see it pays to wait)! We get out, tell the nice gentleman stoking a fire we need a beautiful, small tree. The kids went staight to the tree they wanted -- $20.00 later -- we are now the proud owners of a beautiful 5 foot tree! We were in and out of the car in about 3 minutes flat!! As you can see, Rett thought we were nuts for getting out in that weather!

One side note -- Dale is frantically working to finish his work in the Draper temple -- so needless to say, he is out of the house at 6:30 a.m. and gets home at about 9:30 p.m. -- the kids think he is out of town all week.

Back to the events of the evening. Sidney and Cole haul the tree in. After much discussion I had with the lovely tree stand to get it to work, I finally did it. I put the thing together "by myself!!" Cole then tries to help me put the tree in that darn thing. Just when I think we have it -- Cole lets go of the tree and there it goes -- leaning to the right. I had to call Ernie to the rescue!! Ernie stopped by and had that lovely tree standing straight and tall within 5 minutes! Thanks Ernie. Now -- thats not all. Cole and I check the string of lights we had to make sure they worked. All is well -- lets get to decorating! I string the lights around the entire tree -- plug those babies in and WHAM -- there are only about 20 out of 100 lights that work!! Just my luck! Oh well -- it looks beautiful! The kids put all the ornaments on this year, finished that tree and we are READY FOR CHRISTMAS!! Come soon Santa . . . Please bring us a new string of lights!

Santa!

We finally got to SEE Santa! Grandma and Grandpa Barton had a little Christmas party at the assisted living center. Rett was so excited to go and see Santa . . . . until we were next in line! Then he would only go and see Santa if he was with me! So there you have it, both Rett and I got to sit on Santa's lap! (of course, I was the only one doing the talking!) Then, Cole has this great idea that he would get out of sitting on Santa's lap and just steal some of Rett's candy cane -- WRONG! Rett was not going to share for anything . . . so yes, Cole had his turn and got his own candy cane!



This is the best part of the whole night -- while Cole was busy telling Santa about the DS he wants along with the DOGZ game, Rett was sneaking in for another treat! (Sidney was hiding behind the door! Who knows why my kids are frightened of Santa -- could it possibly be my threats to put them on the "naughty" list!!)

Now for the bad news . . . I know you were all waiting for the fun Thanksgiving photos, well, I went to post them last night and you wouldn't believe it . . . no photos on the memory card. I didn't get them downloaded and now they are gone! I have realized something this week and called Mom to tell her -- "Nothing is my own anymore!!" All she could do was laugh and tell me it will never be! So -- one of those kids must have got a hold of the camera and deleted all of the wonderful Thanksgiving photos -- the best photo that will be missed is one of Rett kissing Gretchen's sister-in-law's dog. The dog standing on his hind legs and Rett leaning in for a kiss! DANG! Yes, we had a great Thanksgiving. Spent the day with Dale's sister, Gretchen and her family. I baked my usual rolls, pies, and chex mix!

Other missing photos included those of our newest family member, Charles. After much begging and Dale finally telling me we are too hard on the kids and we should let them have a pet -- we found Charles, the hamster! (I will take new photos of him and post them soon!) He is a very nice little guy and rarely bites, but the other night -- he was up playing on his wheel ALL NIGHT long! The kids had left him in the living room. Needless to say -- both Dale and I were up all night with the noise of the wheel and questioned what we were possibly thinking in letting the them get a pet!! So -- last night, Charles slept in the bathroom upstairs (Cole wakes up with his running too --so he is banned from their room)! I went to check on the kids before putting myself to bed last night and there Sid was -- curled up on the bathroom floor with her blanket, right next to Charles! (She is protecting him from being thrown out in the shed!)

Last, but not least, Cole lost his second tooth! He was so excited and wanted me to take a picture for the blog -- yes, that too is now gone!

So there you have it -- the Gierisch happenings in a nut shell!

Random Thoughts and Updates

Hello everyone!! We're back!! I finally have a quite moment to update you on our family happenings! It has been a rough week at house at the winter sickness sets in. Rett had croup this week -- full on -- which included steriods and nebulizer treatments. Following three days of that, he then wakes up with a runny nose and cough -- A good old fashioned cold! Here we go -- Welcome Winter!! Rett's favorite towell is the "pink one" -- so here's to ya all!!

Congratulations Sid!! Yes -- Sidney won an award at the Reflections contest for those cute little clay birds! Happy Day! Cole was upset he didn't win anything but a pack of colored pencils and he believes Sidney won due to her photos of those little birds taken by a "professional photographer!" Thanks Ernie!

Leah, Jessica, and Brigham

Who's who?? Could they be cousins? A couple of weeks ago we had a great weekend when Dad, Lynnea, and Jessica all came to visit. But the best part of the visit was meeting that cute little baby, Leah. Leah is two months younger than Brigham. It was so fun to see them together especially since Brigham weighs about 10 pounds heavier than her. They are both such good babies -- I would forget they were with us!

Grandpa treated us all to a bowling game! We all had so much fun! Rett would "gently" roll the ball down the lane and then stand there with his hands up ready for a cheer -- as long as it took to hit those pins -- he was ready! We all tried to break the 100 score and Cole was excited he beat Grandma Lynnea!!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all --- Can't wait to hear about all of the festivities!

Happy Halloween!

Here the are!! The pizza factory waitresss, the bunny, and the firefighter! (My firefighter was a little sick of wearning his costume after having it on all day for school)! What an evening! Dale is the ward activities committee chairman and I am on his committee. We had this great idea to have a chili cook-off on Halloween with trunk-or-treat after. It was a great evening and we had a huge turnout to the party -- but boy were we tired!!

Sid and Cole ready to go to school!