new year eve

Just wanted to wish everyone a great new year!

Hopefully all your wildest dreams will come true... or at least, you can keep your new years resolutions.

One thing about new years eve, i really miss going to my family's house.

it is chaos!

complete with food, tons of kids, party hats and noise makers, and not to mention the karaoke.

oh yes, my dad bought a karaoke machine a few years ago and it is a hit!

my sister in law (although, she will probably deny it) belts out 'love shack' that i have yet to hear a better rendition of.

my brothers (who also might deny it) sing out shania twain's 'man, I feel like a woman'

every year i look forward to it, hopefully someone records it and puts it on their blog.

happy new year everyone!

christmas

6:30 am, that was the agreement, right?

At 6:07 am, we hear the pitter patter of little feet. K comes in and announces that 'everyone in the house is awake, we might as well get up and open our gifts'.

Luckily-for the kids sake- we agreed.

It was a flurry of flying paper and packages.

They were delighted.

Three kids so excited and who froze for 2 seconds for a quick picture

J was SO funny! When she was opening her stocking, she would pull out whatever it was, fruit snacks.. bouncy ball.. lip gloss and say, 'oh yes! i always wanted fruit snacks for Christmas!' It was hysterical.

J opening her gift from santa... it has provided hours of play

I think this is the best picture EVER!

K had been begging me for a DS, I said NO WAY! Fortunately, Santa pulled through for him, he was beyond shocked!

I love this pic of J and G, both with HUGE smiles on their faces, they were in heaven

It was a great christmas!

We did miss not having family around us. Getting together with C's family on Christmas eve and then in the morning, and then going to my fam's house in the afternoon. Being with cousins and having chaos and tons of food.

We got together with some friends here it was a great day!

G said he doesn't really think it was Christmas because we didn't have any snow. and still dont.

lights at hershey

We took a trip to hershey. They have a 2 mile long light display that we drove through.

There were some really fun displays.

They did the 12 days of Christmas, these were the 11 pipers piping... although i only got 7 of the 11

of course, we had to stop for a treat afterward inside hershey... the kids were quite pleased with their cupcakes.

christmas duds

Sunday I got all the kids in their new christmas clothes.

they look pretty cute in my un-biased opinion.

C's mom sent J her dress for christmas-J LOVED the little soft jacket that went over, she wanted to keep it on the entire day.

things that have kept me laughing the past week..

These are a few things that my kids have said this past week that have just made me laugh. It might be just because they are my kids, so just a warning, you may not find them quite as entertaining as I did.

A couple days ago, J was playing and came down wearing shorts. I commented that she was going to be very cold. I glanced again at the shorts and thought to myself..'i don't remember her having a pair of shorts that looked like that'. I looked again and realized that she was actually not wearing shorts, but a pair of B's pants. They fit her perfectly...if they were shorts, i guess.

For her ornament this year she chose a ballerina that looked like glass, but is actually plastic. It broke in half, the torso and head one half and the legs the bottom half. She is constantly playing with them. She was playing with them the other day and walked the legs away from the body. Then in her best ballerina voice says, ' wait a minute, where did my body go.'

I was watching a byu talk by mark ellen edmunds, who just makes me laugh, she talked about being 'seasoned' in life. She mentioned the benefits of being over 65, the first one she said was,

1- Kidnappers are not very interested in you.

It struck a chord and I couldn't stop laughing. I really don't remember any of the others, i was laughing too hard.

G found this little green alien that he has been carrying around with him all day today. He kept making weird noises with his mouth and then saying, 'oh my alien thinks it's dark in my backpack'. He kept on making weird noises and then translating what his alien was saying, he keeps me laughing.

One thing about G is he ADORES little B. All my kids love him, but for some reason G just has a special place in his heart for B. One day he was looking at B very closely and said, "Mom, I think Heavenly Father spent extra time on B because he is SO cute!"

gingerbread

One tradition that C's mom has started with the kids and they ALWAYS look forward to doing is gingerbread houses.

They couldn't wait... but they had to.

I bought the house about a week before we actually got around to doing it.

They LOVED it!

Aahhh, of course the treats, which it seemed only J ate. She would pick up a handful and say, mmmmm... i love these and shove them in her mouth. She makes me laugh.

K loved doing the icing.

It got a little out of control when dad started 'helping' K and ended up with a handful of royal icing.

they did a pretty great job this year!

nyc

some friends and i took a fun day trip to nyc. c was so nice and watched the kids all day, and didnt even make me feel bad. he is s great,

i have always wanted to see the tree at rockefeller plaza lit up, isnt it dazzling! i went with a great group of girls, one of who has mad skills driving in the city. we ate in little italy and had some delicious italian. we shopped and even got a jamba juice.

it was such a fun trip and good break.

the back of the view at rockefeller plaza, and yes, that part of the city was busy. i have never seen people lined up to go in abercrombie, but i guess they say you can see stuff you've never seen before in nyc.

this was a cool cathedral, i dont remember the name, but i loved it

i love where we live. we have been able to see some amazing places.

our family recreated

J recreated these likenesses of our family. i love them. i am on the end with the lovely long locks. she is so sweet

a day late....

i dont know where to start.

this christmas season, i feel like i have barely been staying afloat, not even afloat, i feel like I have been sinking. i had grand plans to do stuff with my kids, get organized, christmas done, i feel like i am barely making it. i'm not looking for sympathy, and i guess 99% of it is my own fault.

next year i think i will start christmas shopping in january.

getting advent stuff for my kids in february.

and plan on being done by august.

i did a cookie swap. this was no small scale cookie swap.

i made these little delicious treats with caramel hershey kisses in them.

not just a few, but 14 dozen had to be brought by the swap.

i think i really made about 18 dozen cookies. i had them coming out my ears.

my biggest problem was not actually making the cookies, but really, what does one do with 14 dozen, 168 cookies, to be exact.

we ate a few

i sent the rest to work with my husband

this is what i came home with.

yummy.

i also did a secret sister swap.

it was fun, a little time consuming.

we had to make 12 gifts, one which had to be an advent.

this is what my table looked like for a week.

my poor husband, this was just the table,

not to mention what everything else looked like.

this was the advent i made.

my cricut came in very handy.

a few of the other gifts i made,

a little tote bag, initialized journal (something had to have their initial on it), journal jar, president monson quotes, homemade cards, hot chocolate, conversation cards, chocolates in a jar, ornaments, i also tied a fleece blanket... don't remember what else.

it was fun to think about someone else, just a little overwhelming.

but the night was really fun getting together with 30 other women and getting to open personalized presents just for you.

The Annual Tree Hunt

A tradition in our family is to cut down our Christmas tree, this year we kept with the tradition, but I think this was the 'pampered' way to cut down your tree.

We went to a local tree farm where we were outfitted with a saw, a handy cart, and a map or the various kinds of trees offered.

We were off, no snow, just a little cold.

The kids thought this was great to get a ride up the hill.

After searching high and low, okay, well, actually, after walking through rows of various kinds of trees, we found the perfect one! A fraser fur. Nice and soft, and practically perfect!

Cutting it down

G examining the tree, making sure it's just right.

Bringing it down the hill

G found this santa and thought it was great to dance with

At the bottom, they had a shaker to shake the dead needles and whatever else is in there out. Then they put it in a machine and it wraps it nicely up for you.

This was by far the easiest cutting down ceremony ever. We are used to hiking through feet of snow, in the freezing cold, searching all over for a semi-decent tree (we usually cut them down in the wild), and then using a tarp to drag it to your car.

A much different experience, by still so much fun. A great tradition for our fam!

The finished product!

A funny christmas decoration.

My mom gave us this carousel, she got it from her sister. Every year, the kids LOVE this thing. The horses go up and down and it plays music. They look forward to getting this out every year. It is so funny to me, but the music plays non stop all through december. What a funny little tradition for the kids to be excited about.

I hope it never breaks!

Gettysburg

On friday, we headed to Gettysburg. It was pretty neat to be in a place so rich in history. It was also FREEZING! I think this was one of the few times G was smiling for the rest of the day. Let's just say, it wasn't one of his favorite places. When his teacher asked him if he had a nice break, he said, well, not really, we had to go to Gettysburg.

Inside the museum. It had some really neat things there to see

This was the Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln's signature is there at the bottom.

G liked this flag and was flying his mcdonald's transformer toy in front of it.

This was the second highlight of the day for the kids. We were driving around seeing memorials and battlefields and then they saw this tower. They made us pull over so they could climb to the top.

The actual city of Gettysburg is pretty amazing. We pulled up next to this house. I loved the top of this window.

This is where Lincoln gave the Gettysburg address. I didn't know this, but the guy who spoke before him spoke for 2 hours. He stood up and delivered the address in less than 2 minutes, and sat down. Some critics, at the time, said it was a big blunder and it would never amount to anything.

How wrong they were.

What an amazing place and an even more amazing president!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a great day! Our friends from Buffalo came down and spent it with us. It was SO fun having them!

Amidst all the hussle of cooking, we had our first snow storm. The kids were anxious to get outside and play. We searched for their winter clothes and they were gone.

They had a great time, and the snow was short lived, so I'm glad they had a chance to enjoy it!

The table is all set

I think this was my funniest part of the day. The boys got up and played the Wii from when they got up until when they went to bed. They didn't even get dressed. I don't think I have ever had anyone eat thanksgiving dinner in their pj's, this was a first. They loved it!

Jeremy working his magic with the gravy

Two cute girls ready to eat

It was such a long day, G curled up in the computer chair and had a little nap, at 6:30pm. Needless to say, with 4 boys in the bedroom and a very un-tired little G bedtime was a little interesting.

We had such a great time and are thankful for so many things.

Happy Thanksgiving!

4 months old

How is our little B already 4 months old!

The time goes by so fast.

Here are some things about B at 4 months old.

He weighs 14 lbs. 4 oz and is 25 inches long.

He is SO smiley! AND loves to make spit bubbles (please notice his chin)

He is such a happy little guy!

He has cute little soft brown hair

He loves to look at and examine his hands. It is so cute!

He has rolled over once, front to back.. and yes, I missed it. K had put him on his belly and my back was toward him and he rolled over. I put him on his belly again, and he did it again, but I missed his first time rolling over. I wonder how is that is even possible. I am with him all day everyday, and the one time K has him, he rolls over. GGrrrrr.

He loves his brothers and sister. When he is in the room alone, he starts crying-he knows when he's alone.

He is such a sweet little man. We just LOVE him!