Highlights of 2009

I want to end this year of blogging with some of the highlights of this past year!

- Our Biggest one is Kahle Thomas joining our family!
- Haden graduating from kindergarten
- Haden and Grant both losing teeth
- Surviving unemployment and getting a better paying job


- Haden starting 1st Grade and Grant starting kindergarten, and surviving the first day, to only have them loving it!

- Delaney turning 2, Coleman turning 3, Grant turning 5 and Haden turning 7
- Celebrating our 8th wedding anniversary
- Mann Family Reunion at Williams, AZ
- Kahle gaining weight and not having to worry about that anymore

- Haden and Grant both getting start student

- Coleman started wearing underwear
- Delaney is talking sentences and is a cute little mother :)- Getting our family picture taken and having a ton of awesome pictures to choose from!!

Our year has been an eventful one, good and bad, but for the most part has been wonderful! We can't believe another year has come and gone, but are definitely looking forward to all that 2010 has to offer!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

What Happens When the Tooth Fairy Forgets?

We forgot to let the tooth fairy know that Grant had lost a tooth last night. Not only did he loose it, but he pulled it out himself!! Grant woke up this morning and came into our room crying, apparently the tooth fairy *forgot* to make her appearance last night to swap out his tooth...ACK! So we have since informed the tooth fairy, and are hoping that while he is playing she will come and maybe make up for missing him last night! Grant is so funny and won't let Jeff or I pull his tooth, he wants to do it! He wiggles and eventually pops it so it is barely hanging on and then pulls it. I LOVE that he does this and we don't have the drama of Jeff or I trying to pull it :)

Speaking of teeth, Kahle has 7!!!!!!!!!! He had 2 for so long and then eventually his top two started coming in, well it seems that 3 more decided to follow those teeth! He now has 4 on top and 3 on the bottom, with just a matter of time before the 4th one comes in. He is a dream teether, and there were a few days I knew he was hurting, but that was it!! And I definitely didn't know he had more coming in! He has caught up to how many teeth he has to how old he is in months just about, with him about to turn 7 months. All of my kids have done this, but we thought he would be different. He definitely proved us wrong!!

To Make You Smile!

Here is a short video of Kahle laughing at Delaney! This is a daily occurance, they adore each other and have a good time! **Sorry the quality is bad, it was taken on my phone**
Make sure your sound is on and Enjoy!

Just Some Randomness

You know it's a good toy when....


Kahle falls asleep in it while playing!! He jumps a ton and just has a blast, it is so fun to watch him!
Jeff and I got new glasses!!

His insurance covers a pair a year, so we thought we would get in before the year was up! Thanks to my parents for watching the kids while we went together. I am not a fan of picking out my own, and so glad Jeff is so willing to help me :)

Delaney being silly with underwear on her head :) Notice she is not wearing them!

Coleman was walking around with this on his leg, it looks like it hurts! Notice he is wearing his underwear! Santa brought him and Delaney underwear, and they both have been so excited! We haven't completely committed to the potty training yet, but have put them both in underwear. Cole has done really well, and loves being a big boy. Delaney likes the idea of it but isn't quite there! I think with some time she will pick it up and we will only have 1 in diapers. Oh we will be in heaven when that happens!!

Kahle got this cute hat for Christmas, and so we tried it on him. At first he wasn't so sure, but after a minute or so he didn't care. I have to say I think he is adorable in it!

I mean he is seriously cute!!!

Anyway, just wanted to post some pictures! We are slowly cleaning up from Christmas and getting things put back together! Life is crazy but oh so fun!

Santa was good to us this year!

Where to begin?! This year has been a fantastic Christmas! I love hearing and talking with the kids about the meaning of Christmas, and having them know it already! I have felt the spirit of Christmas many times, and I am so grateful for that! This year we have done so many things as a family, and I feel as though it has brought us closer together!
On Christmas Eve the kids (except Kahle, he is too little) went over to my parents house with all their other cousins that live here. They got to make and decorate cookies, eat lunch, watch a movie and play games. My parents were coming to dinner for Christmas Eve, and so they just kept the kids and brought them over when they were ready to. The kids had a blast!! Once they got home we had dinner, the secret elves brought jammies for all of us, they left them on the door step. We said goodbye to my parents and then we gave presents to each other (we draw names in our family). After that we tucked the kids into bed and waited for Santa! The kids woke up at about 6:50 which means we got to get some sleep :) Well Kahle slept in until about 9am, so his first Christmas started a bit later! The kids must have been really good this year, Santa definitely spoiled them! We have presents all over the place things from a kitchen, to dinosaurs, a fireman and firetruck to an air hockey table! As well as a ball that is big enough and built to have kids climb inside and be rolled around :) We went over to Jeff's Mom and Step Dads house, Trudy and Bobs, for lunch and to spend some time with family! The kids got to play bingo and had fun playing with their cousins! After that we came back home, played some more and had my parents stop by to see the kids' presents. The kids have loved every minute of today!! It has been a fantastic day, and we definitely couldn't ask for anything more!
We love you all and hope you have had a Merry Christmas!!
Here are our pictures, the ones from the cookie party with my parents were taken by my parents! I left them my camera and asked them to take some pictures, they definitely did and I am so grateful! Enjoy!!

Christmas 2009

It's Christmas Eve!!!

We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!! We look forward to enjoying this time with our family and getting to see everyone! Love you all!!

Mary and her sacrifice

The past week or so I have really thought a lot about Mary and the amazing person/Mom she is. So selflessly giving of herself to bring to earth our Savior, Jesus Christ! I am grateful for her sacrifice, and all that she went through from the birth to the death of her son! Having 5 special spirits in my home I can only sense a glimpse of what she dealt with bringing such an amazing baby into her life! Life gets overwhelming as it is, but to know you were to bring Jesus Christ to earth to raise him, I just can't even imagine! I am sure she wondered at times 'why her' but then again maybe she didn't, maybe she had that much faith that she didn't once ask that question. I believe I have a ton of faith, but I think the 'human' part of me would come out every once in a while and ask why. Such an huge responsibility for someone to take on and yet she did it, with Joseph by her side. And together they brought our Savior to the earth in a stable, such a huge act for each one of us! For them, for Mary and all she went through I am truly grateful!

My favorite song is 'Mary Did You Know?' I cry every time I hear it, it touches my heart. Here it is for you to enjoy!

Mann Family Christmas Party

Last night we all got together at my parents house for our family Christmas party! We have started doing parties to free up our day on Christmas, with the kids getting older it is nice to know we aren't having to rush too many places on Christmas and we can stay home for a bit and let the kids enjoy their presents! We got to enjoy a super yummy prime rib dinner (Thanks Mom and Dad!!), the kids had fun playing with their cousins, and then we played out the nativity (Thanks to Adri for putting it on!). After the nativity we went in and opened presents, the grandkids had all drawn names, and then we all got presents from my parents and gave presents. It was such a fun time!! I am sad we had to leave earlier than everyone else, Jeff got called into work for last night, so we had to head home to get him to work on time. But we had a BLAST with everyone! Thanks to all the cousins for the super fun gifts we got!! It's always fun to get together and have 12 of the 14 grandkids there (we were definitely missing Max, Kelly, Dana and Tyler!!!). The next time the whole family is together there will be 16 grandkids, all ages 7 and younger :)

Here are some pictures from tonight, enjoy!!

Mann Fam Christmas Party 09

A/B Honor Roll!!

I have to brag about Haden for a bit :) He is a very social child, he loves his friends and loves to make new friends! He also enjoys entertaining them and making them laugh and have a good time. We struggled with this last year in Kindergarten with finding a balance of being good and doing what he was suppose to along with having fun. Coming into 1st Grade he tested the rules, he had some rough spots at the beginning, but he has totally turned around and is doing so good in school. I was worried we would have to deal with this all year and throughout all his school years. But he has shown Jeff and I that he can be an awesome student and do his work and follow the rules! Well this past week he, for the first time, got Star Student! This is huge!! We promised him if he did (back when he was still testing out the rules) we would take him somewhere fun. So that night we took all the kids to Chuckie Cheese to celebrate that Haden and Grant were both star students!! It was fun, the kids had a blast and were awesome!! This past week I got to go see him get on the A/B Honor Roll! He was so happy and I was so proud of him!!

Getting his award! You can see how happy he was :)As each child after him got their award Haden would follow them along doing a thumbs up. It totally made me laugh!Such an incentive to do this again, was watching the kids that didn't get to go up. He felt bad for them but told me he didn't want to have to sit there without a certificate. I know he can do it, I have all along, but now HE knows he can. Love ya Haden, you are awesome!!!

More Christmas Fun....

Well we finally got our tree decorated this week, it has been set up for some time now, but we actually hung up the ornaments. Which I am wondering if it was even a good idea. The kids, mainly Grant, Cole and Delaney, feel they should take off the ornaments and play with them. There was one day when they had every single ornament off. Luckily we didn't hang any up that could break!

Also tonight we took the kids to the Ethel M Cactus Garden, the decorate the have the cactus all wrapped in Christmas lights. It is pretty and the kids love seeing all the different lights and decorations they have up. Delaney would crouch down and point to the different lights, it was too cute!

This week we had parent teacher conferences and I have to say how proud I am of Haden and Grant! They are on target or exceeding in everything!! They both love school and are doing so good it makes me so proud of them. Both teachers had nothing but good to say and you couldn't ask for anything better!! Love my guys and they make my heart happy!!

Here are some recent pictures...

Dec 09 part 2

Serene Ward Polar Express!

I helped to put on our ward party this year and I have to say I am truly grateful to belong to such an amazing ward! Everyone stepped in and helped to make our ward Christmas party a HUGE success! It was so much fun and just went smoothly! We did a Polar Express theme, and everyone who wanted to came to the church in their PJ's. We ate a pancake breakfast and then had some musical numbers, A family in our ward sang, the young men and young women and the primary. Then our Bishop talked for a bit, Mitzi in our ward read the Polar Express story and did an awesome job and kept ALL of these kids' attention! After that the kids got to ride a 'train' to the north pole to see Santa and then do a cute candy train craft. All in all it turned out great and was a lot of fun!!

Here are some pictures of the primary singing :)

I think Haden is about to sneeze in this picture, lol!
Kahle in his cute stripped PJ's!

Delaney was SO excited to sit down with all the kids, can you tell?!

He is seriously such a good baby!!!

Riding the 'train' to the North Pole

We were so glad it stopped raining and didn't start until we were all leaving!! Such a huge blessing!

Haden said to me later on 'Mom he is THE real Santa, I believe in him!' I am so glad that he can still believe and that he isn't too old for this stuff yet :)

Delaney would not sit on his lap, she was not going to have it!

We did get her to stand by Haden for a picture :)

Jeff was AWESOME and took care of all 5 kids by himself while I ran around and helped with other things! Since he works graveyard, he had only had an hour of sleep, but he didn't once complain or be annoyed with me!! Thank you so much Jeff!!!!