Santa Stopped by....

On Christmas Eve, we had a surprise visitor before the kids went to bed. The kids were surprised to see Santa Claus walk in our front door, ringing his bells and saying, "Ho Ho Ho!" Olivia LOVED it, Tagen wasn't so sure. As you can see from the following pictures, their reactions are VERY different.

Olivia rushing to the door when she heard the bells...

Greeting Santa partway. She had nothing but HUGE smiles for him.

Tagen saw him and stood in that spot for the first 5 minutes he was here.

She didn't utter a word or make a sound the whole time.

Still wary and checking him out.

See her wringing her hands? Her poor palms were so sweaty

when I held her hand to calm her down.

She eventually left her other post to hide under the counter and behind Brad.

I guess she figured he's a safe barrier between her and this big guy in red.

I did eventually get Tagen to walk over to Santa to give him his Jingle Bells,

but she wouldn't let go of my hand, and wouldn't get closer than a foot from him.

As you can tell... there was no fear for Olivia.

She sat on Santa's lap and gave him lots of love and hugs.

Santa asked her if she knew why we celebrate Christmas.

I was so happy to hear her tell him,

"It's Jesus' birthday!"

Santa saying one last Good bye from the door, to which Tagen yelled, "BYE!" and waved.

I guess she figured he was safe once he was on his way out.

It was a great surprise and I love that Santa took the time to come visit our house before his big nightly present delivery began. It's a great memory for our girls too!

Cast Away....

Tagen was able to FINALLY get her cast off yesterday. It's so nice to have her hand and arm free of that thing. She was funny when it was finally off... She rotated her wrist, made a couple fists with her hand and then right back to the position that her arm had been in for the last 4 weeks. She kept it in that position (and actually elevated a little) for the rest of the day not really willing to use her hand. But... Today, it's like she never had a cast on. She's using it just as much as before the fracture and seems thoroughly happy. The best was bath time last night. Even though her cast was waterproof, she cried whenever it got wet, so we kept it wrapped in a baggie during her baths. She LOVED not having to do that anymore!

Olivia's Preschool Christmas Concert

Olivia attends a wonderful preschool with an amazing teacher. Mrs. Wing has taught preschool for over 30 years and she still LOVES little kids. Each year, she has the classes perform at a care center. She teaches them each a different little instrument and they sing lots of Christmas songs complete with actions. Olivia LOVES it. She learned to "play" the triangle. I have a video of her performance, but can't figure out how to get it to upload to blogger. Trust me... it's completely adorable. So, instead of an amazingly adorable video, I'm going to post this picture of her not even smiling to remember the event by.

Naughty or Nice?

Olivia told me the other day she wanted to make a naughty and nice list.

She informed me she was in charge of determining who was to be on each list.

So, after much debating, here is her nice list...

(Our names surrounded by a couple trees and a big present for Olivia.)

I know her "G's" look like "e's" but she's getting there. She made me laugh while she was writing down the names. She immediately put herself and Tagen on the nice list. I asked her if anyone else in the family had been nice, and she said,

"Well, I guess you and Dad are nice when I obey." Then she put our names down.

I then asked her about Gracie and if she was going to be able to be on the nice list. She replied,

"No mom. Gracie isn't nice because she kicks you all the time."

I told her that was Gracie's way of letting me know she's okay and that she really was being nice.

It took a little convincing, but little Gracie finally ended up on the nice list.

She hasn't made her naughty list yet and I'm wondering who she thinks needs to be on it...

Working...

I have been looking for a part time job that I can work when Brad is home that will help bring in some extra money. Well, I interviewed at Lakeview Hospital over a month ago for a clerking job in the Emergency Department. I haven't heard anything back from them even though they said it would be a ten day decision. Well, I just got off the phone with a recruiter from Lakeview Hospital. Turns out, the E.D. manager wants to hire ME! I'm so excited. Not just for the little extra income that I'll be getting, but also for the chance to be out of the home again, to be associating with adults on a more regular basis and to be using some of my medical training again. Granted, I won't be hands on with the patients, but just to be around it and hearing it again will be fabulous! It's a PRN job, so I'll won't be on a regular schedule, just filling in where they need me, but it's still great! I'm so grateful for answered prayers!

What's In A Name?

(Just so no one thinks I consider myself the bomb and have to talk about myself in 3rd person,

THIS POST WAS WRITTEN BY BRAD for his family's blog)

Since there have been some asking, I thought I would tell you we have a name for chica numero tres.

It will be LEGEN- wait for it -DARY!

It will be monumental! It will be unforgettable! Okay, enough drama.

Her name will be Gracie Pearl Morris.

We had tossed several names around. Carrie was leaning toward Payton, and I was liking Riley. Carrie had even thrown out the name Grace a few weeks back, it just didn't stick. But we went to the Temple on the Saturday before Thanksgiving to do a session. The name of the woman Carrie was doing work for happened to be Grace. She said, "I keep getting drawn to that name. I need to think about it." I half-jokingly threw out the name Gracie. Little did we know that all through the session both of us were being bombarded with the name. I swear someone was shouting it at me, because I couldn't even focus on the session. In the Celestial Room afterward, Carrie came straight to me and said, "I think we're supposed to name this baby, Gracie." I was like, "I know!! You got it too, huh?" It was just one of those moments that happens only in the Temple.

It's all very fitting, since Gracie was Carrie's nickname growing up, and Pearl is her Grandmother's name.

So there you have it - Gracie Pearl. A fitting namesake.

Carrie's due date is February 9th, but doc has already told her she'll most likely take her at 38 weeks, which puts us in the last week of January.

If all goes to plan, we will have this baby on mine and my Mom's birthday, (Jan 26th), to carry on a very special tradition.