Nativity

Every year my mom pulls out the nativity costumes and dresses up the grandkids. Some are more happy about it than others. This years big protester was Ollie. In case you can't tell here's the casting: baby Jesus- Tag, Mary- Emma, Joseph- Gabe, Three wise men- Damien, Chandler and Abby, Shepherds- Tailynn and Lex, Camel- Carson, Donkey- Ollie, Angel- Ginny.
Ginny was really excited about being the angel until I fashioned this headdress for her. I figured it's not a real nativity scene without a star- oh well.
Abby loved being a wise man at the time. Now that we are looking at the pictures as I write this post she is requesting to be Mary next year.
The big joke was that I need to hurry up and have another baby so that we'll have a baby Jesus for next year. Not gonna happen. Jesus was around two when the wise men finally showed up, right? I figure he's good to play Jesus for at least 2 more years.
This is my random photo of the post. It was just too cute, I had to stick it in somewhere. Tag has recently discovered how fun it is to chew on his bottom lip. He also really likes to blow bubbles now.
Driving to Utah was an interesting endeavor this year. We got trapped in Wyoming. Michael was about 1 1/2 hours ahead of us and he made it through. It was drizzling rain and we saw that I-80 was closed 35 miles ahead. Brian got a little upset toward the state of Wyoming. He began a rant about how they close the roads for no reason (a month before Michael had the same experience because of the legendary storm of 2010 that never happened- Salt Lake Valley dwellers know what I'm talking about). Brian was eating his words once we turned around. We barely made it back to Little America- couldn't even see the sides of the road it was snowing so hard. On a happy note the girls loved staying at Little America because their bed was "jumpy". They wanted to call Grandma Betty to come meet us in Wyoming so that they could practice being little monkeys a little longer. It actually was nice to have a night with just our little family. A blessing in disguise.

Christmas for Ginny

This is my little girl. Last year she got trains and dinosaurs, this year army men. She also got polly pocket sized Tiana because she is obsessed with "The Princess Frog" and the favorite toys right now are the polly pockets. The army men should fit right in, possibly they can wage war on the princesses. You can see what Tag got in the background and Abby got everything she asked for (see "letter to santa").

Abby and I went to see the Nutcracker on "our" Christmas day (December 18). She loved it! At the beginning she was saying that she wants to be Clara. By the end she had changed her mind, she wants to be the dew drop fairy because she's the prettiest and has the prettiest dress. She also requested that we sit up at the front next year so that she can "see the color of the ballerina's eyes". I told her that if she wants to sit up front she has to be quieter and not ask me questions every five seconds. Her response: "I just can't help myself."

ChRiStMaS eVe

Each of the kids decorated a gingerbread (graham cracker- still looking for a good gingerbread recipe that tastes good too) house. They used a sugar cone for the tree in the yard. We listened to Christmas music to bring in that Christmassy feeling. Hopefully the kids appreciated it. My mom helped a lot. I was running here and there trying to get everything ready for Christmas which was made possible by my parents visit.
Ginny carefully placing "ornaments" on her tree.
Abby's house looked really cute and then she made a huge mess of the yard. She dumped purple pink and green sugar all over. It was a huge mess, as you can see. Oddly enough the biggest mess was under the seats of Tailynn and her friend who had come over.
I lined up all six houses but you can see them much better close up like this. (I am a little biased towards my own children. If Michael wants equal time for his kids he can create his own blog. Not likely.)
My mom read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" just before "bedtime". They all stayed in Abby and Ginny's room and it took hours for them to nod off. This was despite our constant warnings that Santa wouldn't come until they were all asleep. He was too eager to wait and Emma caught a glimpse of us moving out the old TV when she got up to pee. We were still up until about 2 am. Some things are inevitable.

Letter to Santa

Abby wrote a letter to Santa this year. All on her own. I wish I had gotten a picture of her list. She asked for a Baby Sleeping Beauty (she got Belle last year who needed a friend), a yellow horse (for her Polly Pocket sized Belle), and a Strawberry shortcake with a scooter (also polly pocket sized). When she was finished writing out her list she drew a picture for Santa (herself giving him a bouquet, a word she has learned from Fancy Nancy). Then she informed me that I needed to get her an envelope and a stamp. She started to draw Santa instead of writing his name as you can see (unfinished it looks a little like a VW bug). And when she was all done we took it to the post office with the last of our Christmas cards.
I am so happy that my kids don't ask for big expensive toys yet. I really like an idea to simplify Christmas that was posted by a friend from my old ward to only buy four gifts for each child:
1- something you can read
2- something you can create with
3- something you can wear
4- something you can play with
I may be implementing this next year.

OUR YEAR in the rear view mirror

It has been a challenging and blessed year for the Naylor Family. I can't help thinking about last December and how much has happened since then. Brian had been out of work for about 9 mos., I had just lost my job and we discovered that we were expecting a baby. Somehow through that difficult time Brian and I were both filled with peace. We knew that these were circumstances that would be temporary and that it is through the hardships that we learn and grow the most. I also couldn't stop thinking about how lucky we were. Our little family were all in good health, we still had our home and we were able to provide a Christmas for our little ones. We are still struggling, trying to catch up from the time without a paycheck, but it could be so much worse.
Starting in January Brian had his old job back with Allosource as a tissue banking specialist. Unfortunately this meant that he had to move to Denver as the office in Salt Lake had been closed. The girls and I stayed with Grandma Betty waiting for our house to sell and Brian lived out of a suitcase at my brother Michael's apartment south of Denver. Brian would brave the winter weather and 8 hour drive to visit us about every other weekend. Abby, Ginny and I anxiously awaited his visits. We found it was easier to make the days go by with a rigid schedule. Mornings- Monday: Joyschool, Tuesday: Library story time, Wednesday: our ward playgroup, Thursday: Abby's ballet class, Friday: Joy School. In the afternoons we did a program called "Five in a Row" and Abby did "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons". Sometimes we got together with friends who lived in Kaysville, Bountiful, West Jordan, Ogden or we stayed close to home with friends in our neighborhood. On the weekends we planned fun outings with Brian, especially when the weather got warmer. We visited Colorado once in January and for Spring Break. Abby had her ballet performance at the end of May and it was spectacular! We spent a lot of time at Liberty Park playing in the water, riding the rides and visiting Grandma Betty.
It was nearing June and our house had still not sold. In a conversation at church I found a renter for the house and a week later, with a little help from Betty, we had all of our things out and a sister from our ward had moved in! We stuffed all of our things into Betty's garage. It was like a game of Tetris. I put off moving to the little apartment in Colorado until the fourth of July. After a few weeks my brothers kids (Damien, Tailynn, Emma and Carson) joined us after a visit to their mom and I started packing all of their clothes and toys. The plan was to move the two families into a house together. The closing date was pushed back (to my dismay) and my parents and sister Elizabeth with her boys (Chandler, Gabe, Lex, and Ollie) came to help us move and all 16 of us were staying in Michael's 3 bedroom apartment. Abby started kindergarten on August 5, Tailynn was baptized on August 7th and the morning of the 8th I went into labor and baby Tag joined our family (for the story of that wild ride you can look at my post in August). We moved into the house the following weekend.
We have all been settling in for the past four months. Our motto around here is "the more the merrier" and we love to have other families over for game nights or have the kids friends over. There are 10 of us and we have a blast. Apparently it's a never-ending party when you live with your cousins... we do miss Elizabeth's boys but we're not crazy enough to attempt that. There are plenty of opportunities to stay busy around here, that's for sure! Abby is absolutely loving kindergarten, Ginny is still trying to potty train (strike that, I'm still trying to get her to potty-train), Tag is rolling over and Brian and I are enjoying every moment! (some more than others, i.e. poopy diapers, puke, tantrums, etc.)
I am often asked how long we are planning on staying here. To be honest, I really don't know! Brian and I continue to pray for guidance. We are so grateful for the opportunity to live here in Colorado where my brother's family and ours can help each other out. My guess is that we will be here for at least 2 years. Brian joked that Michael could get re-married in 6 months and then we would have to move all over again. Whenever Michael finds a bride we will be overjoyed! And I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to make other arrangements. For now life is pretty good.

Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family- We hope that you will have a wonderful new year! (if any of you have a blog please let me know!!! My e-mail is shoelessmama@gmail.com)

Must be SANTA!!!

Once again it took begging and pleading to get Abby to sit on Santa's lap. The other two were fine with it. In the end she was so afraid that she wouldn't get any presents that she hopped on Santa's lap. In order to doubly make sure that Santa would not forget her she wrote him a cute little note. Update to follow...

Eating Antics

The other day I was busily humming around the kitchen when Ginny told me that she was putting on some make-up. I turned around expecting her to have her plastic (and very fake) tube of lipstick... you, the audience, suspecting a surprise in store for me would jump to the conclusion that she had found some of my lipstick (or since I don't wear lipstick- lip gloss or chapstick). But, my child is much too square peg for that... No, she was smearing peanut butter all around her lips. Beautiful. Pucker Up!!! Why is there no peanut butter man? There's Cookie Monster and Winnie the Pooh with his honey and Yogi Bear's picnic baskets but who's going to show my little girl the love when she dons her peanut butter pucker?
Oh, yes, and you may have noticed that she is shirtless. I wisely made her remove her shirt when I gave her said peanut butter (on a spoon) having almost full knowledge (lipstick never occurred) of what she is capable of. Yet when she was finished in her beautification treatment her hands were covered, her arms, her mouth, her hair, and a dab on her forehead. Where did she manage to NOT get any peanut butter? Her torso where her shirt would have been.
This is Carson. Carson likes Green Smoothies. The green smoothies that I make for ME. They have strawberries, blueberries, bananas, oranges, apples, ice, water, a dash of fresh lemon and spinach (hence the green). This is what happens to Carson's smile whenever I am nice enough to share. I think it's well worth a slightly smaller smoothie for me, don't you?
By the way- I can't get my girls to touch these. Can you blame them? It looks like he's been drinking toxic sludge. I may be going a little heavy on the spinach. I'll have to cut back.

I have no image for this one. We were making sandwiches for everyone today and Emma said, "I want a cafeteria." Michael and I both said, "What?!?!" "One of those shells with the cheese inside." I was thinking mac & cheese but with shells, luckily Michael is better at connecting with Emma's brain than I am, "Oh, a quesadilla?" "yeah, one of those." Cafeteria? Close.

What I like (love) about you...

Tag hit a milestone this past Monday. He turned 3 months old. I can't believe my little baby is all grown up, ha ha. But seriously, he is getting so big! He is very smiley. We tried to catch it on camera but he was much to fascinated by the camera. We'll try video next. Here are some things that I love about Tag (for Brian and the girls opinions you'll have to ask them yourselves).
1. I love how he cries like the dickens until I stick my face in his and then he breaks out into the biggest smile.
2. I love when he laughs by sucking air in really fast and making a chirping noise.
3. I love how he'll pee/puke all over Brian and then smile really huge at him, as if he knows what he's done, even though I know he doesn't.
4. I love how he looks at the girls.
5. I love how he sees the bottle coming and throws his face into it like he can't wait another second.
6. I love how he looks very concerned, drawing his eyebrows together, when I put him in the bath. And also how he then relaxes but not completely because he's still not too sure about it.
7. I love how he sometimes can't keep the bottle in his mouth because he is so busy smiling and making eyes at me.
8. I love how calm and easygoing he is. It certainly is helpful right now.
9. I love how he stays asleep even when he comes out of his strait jacket swaddling (Ginny always woke up if she became unswaddled).
10. I may have alluded to this already but I LOVE LOVE LOVE the way that he looks at me adoringly and smiles and laughs as soon as he sees me.

I can't believe I forgot this.... I love it when he stretches for about 5 minutes, arms above head, after being unwrapped in the morning. It's the cutest thing. He really looks like he's enjoying every minute too.

Pumpkin Patch

There were several hay bales turned into animals. The pig was the most believable. I had to stare at the chicken for a while before I realized what it was.
This looked really fun... I should have tried it. When we got home corn kernels were coming out of everything: shirts, shoes, ears, underwear... I'm not too sad to have missed out on that experience
Petting Zoo. Ginny was afraid of the sheep but not the goats. Whose child is she?














"We're off to see the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz"
Tag really enjoyed the pumpkin patch. Next time I get to nap.

Enter at your own risk, especially when Abby is the leader. We sounded like the lost boys singing our way through the maze, "following the leader, the leader, the leader, tee dum, tee dee." After a while Brian decided he should be the leader. We had to get Abby to school sometime, after all.
Hay Maze!!! Abby went to the pumpkin patch with her kindergarten class. Carson and Ginny were a tidge jealous so we decided to visit our local pumpkin patch. Abby had taken our camera with her and had taken many pictures of the side of the road on the hay ride. I thought we could get some cuter shots. The kids also got their faces painted and got to choose a little pumpkin to take home.

Howl-O-ween

This post is named in honor of Brian's primary class (7-8 year-old). They opened a Laffy Taffy in class today and it went something like this:
Q- What do dogs call the holiday on October 31st?
Brian asked me what I thought the answer should be when he got home. I said Howl-o-ween.
All of the 7 & 8 year old kids guessed Howl-o-ween. Makes sense right?
A- (according to Laffy Taffy contributor) Bow-wow-leen.
Yes. Because that is so close to the name Halloween.

Enough of that... here are all of our little trick-or treaters:
Left to Right we have: Buzz Light Year, Pea Pod, Indiana Jones, Princess Leia, a Bumble Bee, a Cat, and Funshine Bear (I think, it's been a while since I watched Care Bears). I told them to make faces.
My Three Cuties
Emma being mummified. Bzzzzzzzzzzzz
Tailynn, end result: mummification. Fortunately toilet papering at the high school event didn't include pulling her brain out through her nose. I spent yesterday feeling fake noodle brains. Morbid. The affect should wear off in a few days.

Pumpkin Parade

We carved pumpkins last Sunday. One for each child. I decided to put two pic's of Tag's on here since you can't see the puke in the darker picture. He's a pretty scary baby pumpkin!!! We cooked the seeds from every pumpkin (except for the few that Tag's pumpkin is puking up) and they were gone in 2 1/2 days. Yep. Three trays of pumpkin seeds: devoured.
Tag's Frightening spitting up baby Jack'O
Ginny's Dragon (I know, shocking that she chose dragon)
Carson's Kitty cat Jack'o'Lantern
Abby's Headless Horseman
Emma's Cat Jack'o'Lantern
Tailynn's Ghost in the Graveyard
Damien's Funny face Jack'o'Lantern
Damien carved his all by himself! His first year of doing it on his own. All of the other kids (except Tag) punched out the designs on their own. Abby, Emma and Tailynn helped Carson and Ginny when they got tired of punching.

The Stanley

Brian has this fascination with all things haunted and I am fascinated by anything old/historical. Add this to the occurrence of our anniversary in the Month of October = we usually have a rather "creepy" anniversary, which, let's be honest, is what most couples are pining for. Okay, we're a little odd. Our first anniversary since moving to Colorado just had to be spent at The Stanley Hotel.
On our way up to Estes Park (the quaint town in which you will find The Stanley Hotel) we chanced upon some car troubles. Our power steering pulley exploded and took out the fan. We spent 3+ hours in the parking lot of Checker Auto Parts. The people there were WONDERFUL. Plus a customer came back to make sure we were going to be okay and helped us for the last hour. When we finally got it road worthy we had missed our dinner reservation by a lot and we ended up getting Del Taco. So romantic.
We checked in just before midnight. This ended up being a blessing in disguise. We were able to roam the hotel with no other guests around and in the creepy wee hours of the morning. The desk clerk was named Virginia and I think she took a liking to us after I told her that was our daughters name. She told us to go ahead and explore. I took a gazillion photos hoping to get home and find an aberration. I won't subject the blog-viewing world to all of the pictures. The hotel is GORGEOUS though. Loved it.
Recognize these steps? Jim Carrey hands out $100's to the hotel staff here in Dumb and Dumber. He also stayed in the legendary room 217 during filming until the middle of the night when he came downstairs and requested a room change. He never explained why. (Yes, we had Tag with us. It's the first time we've had to bring a baby with us. Bonus= got creeped out by him being so entertained by the head of the bed. He stared at the same spot smiling and cooing for what seemed like a century. Of course this could easily have happened at home and we would have thought nothing of it.)
Lobby after midnight. To the right of this photo is the MacGregor room. It looks like a ballroom and has a stage which is a newer addition. To the left are the billiard room and a large music room which was set up for a wedding the next day. This place was seriously a journey back in time.
Original Otis Elevator from when the hotel opened in 1909. This thing was awesome. Brian looking ghostly in the mirror above. If you are a history fanatic like I am you can read more about the Stanley on wikipedia. Estes Park is the gateway to the Rocky Mountain National Park. We really wanted to drive up into the park but since our Jeep was being held together by blood, sweat and tape we figured it would not be wise. This means we'll have to make another visit!