Christmas 2008

We had a very Merry Christmas here at our house, and hope that all of you did at yours. My parents came in for 6 days and I loved it! Christmas eve found us doing last minute things like making cookies for Santa and wrapping gifts. The kids all got their traditional PJs and a new addition from my mom...she made them all new pillow cases too. We had a late night as we attended midnight mass with my parents and didn't get everyone in bed until 2. On the plus side they did sleep in until 8. The kiddos were all very excited to see Santa had come and brought them a new trampoline. During the night my sister had also arrived around 4am, so she was here for Christmas morning too. Funnest part of that was when she fell asleep and we got her with Addy's new makeup set:blue looks good on her right! As the day wore on the kids played with their new toys, Dave and I set up the trampoline, we all worked on the huge feast of a dinner, my cousin Eden came over, and we just had a good time. Christmas night Dave and the kids left for Dallas to visit with his family. Leaving me to a quite house and my family. It was fun! I went bowling with Laura and Eden, and very surprisingly won the first round! I took a picture of the score board because I couldn't believe it:

The following days I spent with my parents hanging out, reading the second book in the twilight series, making a day trip to Kingsville, and fixing things around the house (Thanks for all your expertise Dad!). All and all a very relaxing, calm, and quiet few days. Thanks for my break Davy!

A Letter to Santa

I just got this in an fwd email from my Mom and really liked it. So I thought I'd share.


Dear Santa,

I've been a good mom all year. I've fed, cleaned and cuddled my children
on demand, visited the doctor's office more than my doctor and sold
sixty-two cases of candy bars to raise money to plant a shade tree on
the school playground.

I was hoping you could spread my list out over several Christmases,
since I had to write this letter with my son's red crayon, on the back
of a receipt in the laundry room between cycles, and who knows when I'll
find anymore free time in the next 18 years.

Here are my Christmas wishes:

I'd like a pair of legs that don't ache (in any color, except purple,
which I already have) and arms that don't hurt or flap in the breeze,
but are strong enough to pull my screaming child out of the candy aisle
in the grocery store.

I'd also like a waist, since I lost mine somewhere in the seventh month
of my last pregnancy.

If you're hauling big ticket items this year I'd like fingerprint
resistant windows and a radio that only plays adult music, a television
that doesn't broadcast any programs containing talking animals, and a
refrigerator with a secret compartment behind the crisper where I can
hide to talk on the phone.

On the practical side, I could use a talking doll that says, 'Yes,Mommy' to boost my parental confidence, along with t wo kids who don't
fight and three pairs of jeans that will zip all the way up without the
use of power tools.

I could also use a recording of Tibetan monks chanting 'Don't eat in the
living room' and 'Take your hands off your brother,' because my voice
seems to be just out of my children's hearing range and can only be heard by the dog.

If it's too late to find any of these products, I'd settle for enough
time to brush my teeth and comb my hair in the same morning, or the
luxury of eating food warmer than room temperature without it being
served in a Styrofoam container.

If you don't mind, I could also use a few Christmas miracles to brighten
the holiday season. Would it be too much trouble to declare ketchup a
vegetable? It will clear my conscience immensely. It would be helpful if
you could coerce my children to help around the house without demanding
payment as if they were the bosses of an organized crime family.

Well, Santa, the buzzer on the dryer is calling and my son saw my feet
under the laundry room door. I think he wants his crayon back. Have a
safe trip and remember to leave your wet boots by the door and come in
and dry off so you don't catch cold.

Help yourself to cookies on the table but don't eat too many or leave crumbs on the carpet.

Yours Always,

A MOM...

P.S. One more thing...you can cancel all my requests if you can keep my
children young enough to believe in Santa.

Just for FUN

So Timmy's hair is getting kind of long, and I happened to have some wash out red hair goop sitting in the bathroom...I just couldn't resist. Here are the results:

What we have been up to...

The past 2 weeks since Thanksgiving have seemed to fly by! So much has been going on, another week seems to pass before I know it. So in a shortened version here's what we've been up to...

We've put up our Christmas tree, and most of our decorations. We decided to skip outside lights this year, so it made it a little quicker.

We made ginger bread cookies one afternoon:

We've done lots of stuff around the house, including a "clean out" of the toy box. We also hung up a new quilt rack shelf:

We went to the ward Christmas party and the kids got to meet "Santa" of course I forgot my camera, so no pictures. The next night we went to the stake Christmas music program. It was very nice, Dave and Rick sang a duet...very pretty if I do say so. They sang a song I hadn't heard before called Guard Him, Joseph. Again I forgot my camera.

I got these made up for some of our Christmas cards:

I designed a new header, which I'm printing up for some of the other Christmas cards.

We went fishing one afternoon, lots of fun, but no fish.

We did this ginger bread tree as a family project this week. We had the kit, but it would be very simple to do on your own. It was just star shaped cookies stacked from largest to smallest and then decorate.

Timmy went to the doctor for more ear infections, and his now doing much better.

We had friends over for a campfire and smores. Lots of sticky fun!

Jimmy recieved an award at school for showing citizenship in his classroom.

Addy somehow had an accident, she tells me she ran into the wall. Anywho, she split her lip in an extreme way. We went to the er for many hours and she got 2 1/2 stiches in her lip. I say 1/2 because they started on a 3rd and she flinched so they stopped. She took it very well, Dave says. Much better than her Mom. I panic in bloody, broken, my babies crying situations. So thankfully Dave left work to come sit at the Hospital with us. He then stayed with Addy for the stiches and I left to get Jimmy from school. She is looking much better today other than the fat lip.

And as I was writing this post I got a call from the school nurse to come pick Jimmy up, he had a fever. When I got there they informed me on top of his fever he was complaining of a sore throat, and FYI 2 kids in his class have been reported with strep this week. So now we are off to the doctor to get him swabbed and tested.

Oh the joys of life!

Update the time is now 4:30 we have returned from the doctor and Jimmy does have strep throat...ick! Here is hoping the rest of us don't get it!

Thanksgiving Post 2

Thanksgiving evening we loaded up and drove to visit with my family for the rest of the weekend. The drive seemed extra long that night as the kids whined. But we got there and all was well. We had lots of fun with Mom & Dad! Addy baked cookies with Nana, and Jimmy built a fire with Papa. We met up with some old friends at fun "rocket" park. And I got to go shopping! All and all a very fun few days!

Thanksgiving Post 1

Better late than never...right???

The kids went up to spend time with Nana & Papa as soon as Jimmy got out of school 21st. I drove them half way and then enjoyed a quite car ride home by myself. The days they were gone seemed to go by so fast, I didn't get everything done I had planned on. But I did get a lot, so I'm happy with it. They had TONS of FUN! In fact when we went up on the 25th to see them, they didn't really seem to care that we were even around. Oh well. We then spent a few days there with Dave's family and had lots of fun! It was really neat to see their yard, it actually looked like fall there with all the leaves piled up. We had a good visit with everyone and really enjoyed our Thanksgiving.

My Little Pony

Feel free to laugh, because I know I'm silly...BUT it makes me happy. For those of you who don't know, I have quite a collection of My Little Ponies. For the last 2 years I've attempted to display them in my room on a low to the ground shelf...but with 3 small kids the display usually ended in a massive pile of ponies. So Dave in all his genius built me shelves that go up high on a wall for my birthday. This weekend I finally got around to painting them, and he hung them for me last night. Here is the outcome:

4 shelves full of happy organized ponies! I'm so excited! Oh and Dave do you think you could make 1 more shelf??? There are still 7 ponies without a home :)

Fishing

Sorry the pictures are so dim, but you get the idea. The kids have been on a fishing kick lately! Timmy says fish about 100 times a day no exaggeration. Monday evening we took them out to a local park so they could cast their lines.

Our Little Car

This past weekend we took a road trip back to my home town to help my parents clean out a rental property and go through some storage. It was fun to go back and see the old place, family, and friends. By the end of the weekend we had "inheirited" quite a bit of stuff. So it was a tight fit getting everything into our little car Sunday evening. Here is a picture of Dave in the front seat, he sat like that for 3 hours. The kids were pretty squished too, with no leg room and lots of pillows on them. I was driving and definately had the most space of anyone, but even I had bags behind my legs. On a brighter note, gas down there was in the $1.60's!

Fun Days

So in the 5 minutes I was in the bathroom he found and apparently sampled the markers, then moved on to rummaging through my purse hence the sunglasses.

Happy Birthday Addy!

I can't believe my baby girl is 4 today!

Happy Birthday to Me & Laura too!

So today is my birthday and it's been great so far! Dave took Jimmy to school and the other 2 along with him so I could take a nice bath and shower. When i came down this is what I found:I have the sweetest husband ever! So we had breakfast, went clearance shopping at target (75% Halloween stuff = lots of chocolate). Then Dave went to the doctor and the kids and I headed to playgroup. So like a said so far so good. A nice day. This weekend we were lucky to have LOTS of family come and celebrate with us. We celebrated my Dad's bday (3rd), my bday (5th), my Sisters bday (5th also, not a twin 6 years apart), and Addy's bday (8th). So all and all lots of celebration! Saturday night my parents, brother and sister and I all went to the magic time machine for a fun evening out. It was great!

Here is a slide show with more pictures from the weekend:

WooHoo!

The picture says it all. I filled up for under $20!

Halloween in a Nutshell

It's been a busy past week...here are all our Halloween pictures lumped together. We did a playgroup, a trunk or treat, and the zoo boo this year. All were lots of fun!!!

Random Project

So Saturday I went out to the garage to paint a shelf that Dave built me for my birthday. So I started mixing paint and ended up mixing way too much...but I loved the color. So I randomly decided to paint the 1/2 bath downstairs with the left overs. So what do you think?

I love my friends!

So I think one of the best things in life is good friends! And we are very lucky to have some! This weekend some friends from back home were here and I got to hang out with them on Friday night. It was great to chat and laugh with them! Thanks Jill! Saturday we had friends come by and brighten our day, thanks Rick & Desi. Then Sunday a very creative friend brought these adorable cupcakes by! I love them, they look just like my 3 little monsters :) and they were very tasty too! Thank YOU Nicole! Sunday evening a friend I hadn't talked to in months called to say HI! It was great, thanks Heather! And Sunday evening we played cards with friends, thanks Rick & Desi! All and all a fun friend filled weekend! I love friends!

My Soccer Stars

We had our last soccer practice yesturday, I can't believe how fast the season has gone by! Here are my kiddos (Addy wouldn't smile):

Pumpkins

I LOVE this pumpkin decorating kit that I got a few years back. It has these cute wooden pieces to stick in pumpkins that can be used year after year! Jimmy and Addy each picked a pumpkin last week at the patch and got to "decorate" them. So simple, and so cute!