Enjoying

Oliver's sitting here next to me singing the cutest song to his new stuffed pet pug:  "Puggy I love you yes I do, I love you, yes I do, I-I-I-I-I loooove you."  Now he's reading Puggy a story.  I think Santa brought a good gift.  And Silas is eagerly awaiting his chihuahua while Oliver lets him hold Puggy every time he asks. They'll both be so excited when the chihuahua shows up (today hopefully).  I can't get enough of these cute little kids lately!

We're back home and it's like Christmas all over again as the kids play with the fun presents they only had a few hours to play with before leaving them behind and heading up to Ashton for more presents.  I love the day or two after a Christmas trip when the kids are so totally enjoying their new toys and I can get caught up on some work in between some nice games and stories with the kids.

We're all a little sick and that's getting old.  Oliver came and slept with us last night.  He woke me up to tell me "I think I just swallowed some germs because my head is hot and my throat hurts."  Even at 4am, that was pretty funny.  I don't sleep well with a kid next to me - their squirming makes it hard to sleep and makes me worried about whether Jared's able to sleep because he's been going on very little sleep lately.  I love the idea of snuggling up and sleeping with a sweet little child but somehow it never really works out.

I'm so grateful for these few days to enjoy time together in our cozy new house.  The tree's still going strong (I think I'm a Home Depot tree convert - we got the most beautiful, freshest tree there this year!) and we've still got plenty of Christmas books to read together.  I'm with the Europeans - Christmas should go through the beginning of January at least.  We're doing a little outing each day to keep us all sane (the art museum down the street yesterday, the library and a few present returns today).  But mostly we're just enjoying each other and our home and our fun new things.  I've got SO much that needs to be done on this Power of Moms book and I was able to get a post done for our Motherhood Matters blog at the Deseret News.  But mostly, I'm trying to put off and delegate all that I can to enjoy this time with my kids - this time that will never come back.