Ewell-tide greetings 2009

This is a copy of our Christmas letter. I know most of you have already read it, but I wanted to have a copy on my blog, so I can throw the paper away. So skip this post if you've already read.

Hey there everybody. This is Sydney Paige Ewell. I was born February 9. Mom's been pretty busy getting everything ready for Christmas, and since I've been around for most of the year I decided I'd seen enough to be able to write the Christmas letter this time. So, like I said I was born about 10 months ago and I think I'm pretty darn lucky to have come to my family. They're crazy, but so great.
I love my brother, Hayden. He is 5 and very smart. We take him to his preschool 3 times a week, so he must be pretty smart. He's always practicing what he learns at school, especially writing his name. He makes me laugh so hard. He can make funny faces and voices to make me laugh. He also likes to carry me around. I love it, but mom is always yelling at Hayden to be careful when he does it. I don't know why she worries so much. I have a blast when he swings me around. She's such a worry wart. Hayden also played soccer this year and had swimming lessons in the summer. He's a pretty good swimmer now.
I also love my older sister, Rebecca, but between me and you she sometimes scares me a little bit. She's 3 and a lot bigger than me. She thinks it's fun to ride on my back, like I'm a horsie. That's when I have to yell and yell for my mom to save me. She does play with me though and I love her. She is also really smart and likes to sing songs all the time. She likes her story class that she goes to. She loves Cinderella and Snow White. She just doesn't like it when I'm playing with her preincess toys and sucking on them. But they're so yummy.
I love to suck on pretty much everything. Mom laughs and says that since I'm around she doesn't have to vacuum as much. I hat to brag, but I'm a pretty good girl. Everyone seems to be shocked that I started walking a month ago. there is just so much to see, and walking makes it so much easier to get into everything I want.
I love my daddy too. I love it when he gets home from working at Cintas. I think he does such a good job at work. And I'm glad he likes his job, but I like it more when he comes home. I give him big hugs then when he lays down on the ground I get to climb on him and play with his hair. He also lets me sit on his lap while he's doing his Fantasy Football.
My mommy is the best mommy in the entire world! :) She is pretty busy though chasing all of us kids around. And it seems like she is always cleaning our house. I don't know why she spends her time doing that, it just gets messy right after she cleans it. She likes taking us to play goup every week, and to the library. She is also pretty busy with chruch stuff. She loves working with all the women in our ward with the Relief Society.
Mom and dad say I'm pretty lucky because I got to go to Disneyland this year. I actually slept most of the time, but my family said they had so much fun. It was pretty cool because we got to be there with my Aunt Amy, Uncle Barry, Aunt Jennifer, and Uncle Brian and my cousins. We had fun. We also went up to Utah to see my other aunts and uncles and cousins during the summer. We even got to go to Lagoon and the zoo. We even went up to Utah at Halloween time to say good bye to my Grandma and Grandpa Roylance for their LDS mission in the London Temple. I love going on vacations with my family.
I'm so grateful my mom and dad have such good family and friends as you. Have a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

CHRISTMAS 2009

We had a WONDERFUL Christmas this year. Our kids are at such fun ages. Jerry was able to take Christmas Eve off this year and we went to the movie, "Princess and the Frog" in the morning. At one point during the movie I glanced over to see Hayden sitting on Jerry's lap smiling at the movie, Rebecca with a permanent smile on her face, fully captivated by the movie, and Sydney was happily sleeping in her carrier, and I felt like Ralphie from "A Christmas Story" when he says, "All was right in the world!" (Or a quote very similar to that - to lazy to double check) We loved the movie. I was also happy to see that when I silenced my cell phone I had a text saying that my sister, Rebecca just had a baby boy that morning. So congratulations to them, and to my sister in Law Sara that had a baby girl just the week before. Great Christmas presents for our family. After the movie we came home and relaxed and played a little bit. Then we started getting our dinner ready.
We had the missionaries over for dinner again this Christmas Eve. They are a great set of missionaries, and they were so nice. After we ate I checked my cell phone to see what time it was and saw that I had a missed message. I guess Alonzo Snodgrass called while we were at the movie, (but my phone was silenced) and he left a message saying that he brought us our presents, and since we were gone he left the presents somewhere in our house. The kids had fun searching for the gifts. We discovered who the presents were for.
Preschool Pete was Hayden
Tiny Walker Tina was Sydney
Princess Loving PollyAnna was Rebecca
I was Blog Happy Holli
Preaching the Gospel Paul was Elder Crane
And Far From Home Henry was the other missionary. (Sorry Elder, I forgot your name:()
And Jerry was Service's #1 Man, Sam.

After the missionaries left we watched the Christmas Nativity movie. Then we exchanged "Christ Centered Gifts". ... Well, Ok, we usually exchange Christ Centered gifts. But the Deseret Book that used to be by our house moved, and everything is pricey there anyway. So this year we totally dropped the ball and we just got a regular little present. Still, the kids liked it. Then we watched Mr. Kruger's Christmas. Such a great movie. We watch that every Christmas Eve. Next we read about the birth of Christ from the scriptures and wrote our Gift we'll give to Christ this year and put it in our white Jesus Stocking.
Next we made our cookies for Santa and Hayden wrote his letter to Santa. He did such a good job.
If you can't tell, it says, "Dear Santa, I want a Connect 4. Love Hayden.

SANTA CAME!!!

Waiting on the stairs to go see the presents!

They are just TOO cute!

He Got It!!

After opening our presents we had our traditional "Big Breakfast" which turned out to be omletts this year. Yumm! It was fun hanging out and playing with gifts. We even got to skype with my parents over in London. It was great being able to see them and talk to them over the computer. Then we went to visit Jerry's parents, and then we went to his brother, Barry's house for dinner. Delicious!! We even got another surprise visit from Santa. He had forgotten to give them each a present so he came to deliver it.

Rebecca finally loved Santa

Once again, Hayden Loved Santa!

And yes, Once again, Sydney hated Santa.

Later that night Rebecca had fun with her older cousins getting a make over. She decided it was so fun, she wanted to try to do her own make up. What a funny girl.
Merry Christmas Everyone. I hope your Christmas was as great as ours.

Leading Up to Christmas

We got the Christmas Tree up at the beginning of November. (Sorry no pictures)

Went to see Santa in the mall. Hayden loved him, Rebecca loved him from afar, and Sydney hated him.
Went to see Santa on the Santa Train in Boulder City. We didn't realize how fast tickets went, but lucky for us some lady gave us 2 tickets in the parking lot, and some friends from our ward happened to be there the same time as us and they were SO NICE and let us use one of their tickets. So I went with the kids and Jerry hung out with James from our ward.
Hayden loved Santa, Rebecca warmed up a little and would at least get a little closer, and once again, Sydney hated him!

The kids with their friend, Emma from church.

On Santa's Sleigh at the Train Station

We also got to see Santa at our Ward Christmas party. It was very fun. Once again Hayden loved him, and Rebecca warmed up even a little more. She let him hug her! Sydney wouldn't even get close!!

The weekend before Christmas we also went to a "cousins" Christmas party with all of Jerry's "Ewell" cousins. Very fun.
Then the next day my brother and sister-in-law came to visit for the weekend. We had a lot of fun with them.

We made Gingerbread Houses

Exchanged Christmas Gifts

And we went to the Ethel M Chocolate Factory and saw the botanical garden all lit up. I have to admit even though this is my 9th Christmas in the desert, it was still a little odd first of all being without a coat, and also seeing the palm trees and cacti with all the lights strung on them. Very fun.

And of course there was school Christmas parties, and LOTS of eating and Shopping leading up to the big day!

Two Parties, Two Cakes, 1 Five Year Old!

Happy Birthday To My Hayden!!!

Hayden turned 5 on December 15th. (yes I know I'm a little late in posting this, but we've had a lot going on.) It's hard to believe that five years ago (from his birthday) I was in the hospital on bed rest, and had been there for over a week. Hayden was 4 weeks early and a TINY little thing. 5lb 9oz. With a head the size of a baseball. He had some respiratory problems so he had to go to the NICU, but we knew all along he'd be just fine.

1 Year Old

2 Years Old3 Years Old4 Years Old

5 Years Old

Now five years later he has grown into such a smart, handsome, fun boy. Happy Birthday! This is the first year that Hayden has had a friend party for his birthday and it was a hit. The morning before his birthday was went bowling with several of his friends. It was a little hectic in the beginning and the end, but overall it was GREAT! Hayden loved having all of his friends there to celebrate with him.

My Cupcake Creation. He's a HUGE Lego Batman fan, so I experimented and made a cupcake cake. It was fun.

Something learned for future use: Black frosting is very messy, especially when you have 11 5 year olds.

(Two little girls that came to the party aren't pictured here.)

The next day on his actual birthday we had a birthday party with family. So the theme of this party was Lego Indiana Jones. (Can you tell that he is a LEGO fan!!!) It was fun having family over and he was happy to have two days all about him.

Fives about Hayden at Five:

Five favorite foods:
Chicken Nuggets
Hot Dogs
Macaroni and Cheese
Chips
Pizza

Five favorite things to do/ play:
Batman guys
Legos
Star Wars
Color/ Write
Go to the park/ play with friends

Five other favorites
Color: Green & yellow (as of today)
Movie: Polar Express (is what he said today, but it's more like Home Alone, Toy Story, or Paul Blart Mall Cop)
Video Game: Lego Batman/StarWars/ Indiana Jones
Game: Connect 4
Candy: M&M's
Experience (for lack of a better word): Hanging out with dad. He LOVES to go on errands with Jerry, it makes him feel & act grown up.

Five and Five of my favorite things about Hayden:
* He is Such a good boy!! He has a desire to be good.
* Usually very obedient
* He loves learning
* He is a GREAT brother
* He gives wonderful hugs
* When he wakes up before everyone else he likes to come in bed and snuggle with me.
* His laugh is so infectious
* His darling smile
* Listening to him play with his lego guys or other action figures, the conversations he has are adorable
* Watching him get more and more independent (although this is a little sad too.)

Bittersweet Moment

Yesterday while Hayden and Rebecca were having a little down time just chillin' and watching tv after playing hard, I overheard this conversation.

Hayden: Rebecca
Rebecca: What Hayden?
Hayden: I love you.
Rebecca: (pause) Hayden move, I can't see the TV.

Lovely!

What is that???

Is it a carrot???

Is it a hot dog???

It's a tongue!!!

Yes, this girls tongue can rival the likes of Gene Simmons from "Kiss". (Check out the shadow behind her) She walks around with that thing sticking out all the time. It is too funny!!

Thanksgiving Weekend

I'm in denial that Jerry has to go back to work tomorrow. Yuck! It's been such a great Thanksgiving break and I'm not looking forward to him having to go back to work, and even having to travel out of town for a couple days next week. And me having to get back into the routine of laundry and housework, but it's coming ready or not. So I'll live in the past for a minute and share our fun weekend that we've had. Thursday morning I did the east side 5K Turkey Trot. I did it with a couple friends from my ward. It was actually really fun. I know, "Fun" is usually not a word that I use to describe running, but just the race atmosphere is fun to me. I wasn't super fast, but I did it. My main goal was just to run the whole thing, not walk, and to do it in a semi reasonable time, and I accomplished both of those goals.
Here we are after finishing the race. It was the first race for most of them and I can't believe how good they did. It was fun being there with them. After the race we came home to get the turkey in the oven. The first thing I did after getting home was eat an oreo, so even though I did exercise that morning calories in definitely exceeded calories out on Thanksgiving day. I made my second Thanksgiving turkey. Yum! It turned out really good. Still took about 1 1/2 hours longer than we were expecting for it to cook. Same as last year. I'll just need to remember that next year. Sorry, didn't take any pictures. So we had a good meal and talked about things we are grateful for.
That evening we went to visit Jerry's family. It was good going over there, but a little more somber than other years. Jerry's uncle Larry, his dad's brother, passed away on Wednesday afternoon. He had been in the hospital for several weeks already, but it seemed that he was starting to get better, but because of excessive scarring in the lungs it made it almost impossible for him to breathe, and he died. We know he's happy and pain free, but still, even though he'd been sick, it was a shock, and it's sad. It's been sweet to see Hayden pray for Uncle Larry as he was in the hospital, even though we haven't really spent that much time with Larry and his family. Hayden doesn't really know him other than through pictures of seeing him at Sydney's blessing, but he knows we love him and he's part of our family. After he died we explained to Hayden, but since this is our first experience dealing with death of a family member with our kids we weren't sure how much he'd understand. But it was touching to hear Hayden pray for Uncle Larry's family last night. I feel for Jerry's Aunt Ginger and their family, and for Jerry's dad, losing his younger brother. I can't begin to imagine how they are feeling. It makes me so grateful, this Thanksgiving, for the temple and that through the blessings of the temple we are sealed to our families forever, even after death. What an amazing promise that is.

So, Thursday night we were beat, and I went to bed at 9:45!!! I don't think that has happened since I was 10! But I wanted to battle the crowds for Black Friday, and left the house at 1:45 to go stand in line at Old Navy to get a free Lego Rock Band game, but unfortunately I could have slept an extra 1 1/2 hours because I was too far back in line to get the free game. Bummer. I still did shopping at several other stores though and it was still kind of fun being out in the craziness. I know, I'm weird, but it's similar to the whole racing atmosphere thing, I kinda like the crazy black Friday atmosphere - well, when I don't hear people yelling and angry. It was all worth it after traveling to Target, waiting in line for 2 hours for one item, planning to do a price match, like they had advertised they would, then being told in the small print I wouldn't be allowed to price match Black Friday sale prices, then going to Walmart, finding the item I wanted was sold out already, and then heading to another Walmart just to try one more time and I GOT THE VERY LAST ONE!! I just about kissed the guy at the final Walmart! Then I headed home at around 8:00.

That evening we told the kids we would go bowling as a family, to make it a special, fun day. We went to the bowling alley and they said that there was a tournament that day and we wouldn't be able to bowl till 9:00 pm. The kids were sad, but we decided we'd go to a movie instead and that made the kids happy. So we walked all through the casino to the movie theater to see that there are really no good family movies out right now. At least not for families with small kids. Well, that alien one, but if I'm going to pay money, I want to enjoy the movie. So we left with devastated kids. So we had to do something fun with the kids to make it ok that we didn't go bowling or to a movie. So we watched a movie at home, in a tent. At first, Jerry thought I was talking about making a fort with blankets and that, but no, I meant setting up the camping tent. He assured me I was crazy. The kids loved it. Probably a little too much because they had a hard time settling down to actually watch the movie, but it was still really fun.

So, Saturday we figured we'd give bowling one more try. We went to the bowling alley again, and found out the tournament that was going on on Friday is part of a whole week of tournaments. So we couldn't bowl AGAIN! We did end up going bowling at another bowling alley across town though because we'd had our hearts set on it. It was so fun. The kids get so into it.



So, now the weekend is coming to a close, and I guess I'll deal with it. But tonight is the First Christmas Advent, (post on this to come later)so there is great things to look forward to. And I LOVE this season so maybe I'll be able to handle Jerry going back to work tomorrow. :)