reality

i feel like the past month has been a dream & now i am back in reality. reality is NOT a bad thing... it is just life. i have literally put life on HOLD for a while to enjoy the season with my family & it was memorable! it really is the simple things in life that brings us joy! i so often get caught up in the hustle & bustle of life (especially around christmas it is 10x worse). i am so gulity of overlooking those simple priceless things. i take so many things for granted. the things that i think are "so important" on a daily basis- in the big picture are not so much. BUT those are the "things" that tend to consume my time. it was wonderful to not have any stress & what a different perspective i have had on things & life in general.

but, it is now time to jump back into the grind of things & get things done. i have to pay bills, get MY LIFE organized, place orders for 2008 product & close the books for the year ... & that ALL requires many, many, many hours. i struggle with this time of year because i am so eager to start on new projects & everything for 2008 but I have to close 2007 off first. it is like a battle going on inside of me & i get a little grouchy.

i got really frustrated today as we have had a month off work (kinda) & i have not done anything that i had needed to do. i wanted to ORGANIZE (or REorganize) so many things (photos, cd's, personal files, computer files, address book, my closet, kids clothes, playroom, grand central station (this is our phone center/desk in our kitchen that is the "catch all" - it makes me crazy). i look around & nothing has been done - if anything it is worse. i have taken more pics to organize, the kids have more toys, grand central station is overflowed, etc. i am frustrated that i have so much i needed to do & now i am running out of time. i feel overwhelmed & that i have wasted time ...

but then i have to remember that time was NOT wasted it was spent with my family making memories that are far more important than having all my files organized on my computer.

but now that we have made "those" memories - I better get my butt in gear & get things done!

christmas is over???

i can't believe it - it is over! i hope everyone had the best christmas ever & enjoying the post-holiday activites! this christmas was fabulous - by doing the 12 days of christmas around here we have been in christmas mode for a while (i know i left many of you hanging & i did not report the last days of our 12 days of christmas - SORRY! it was awesome - lots of fun times - i just couldn't keep up with the blog as we were so busy). i thought about trying to go back & post the other "days of christmas" activites (after the fact) but it seems so anti-climatic & i am really just needing to move forward NOT backward (in so many ways). so, maybe next year - i will better a better blogger - hey, i get some slack as i am new to the blog word - HA!

i tried to take christmas eve pics with the kids in their new pj's. A few comments on this traditional photo that we have taken every year: 

1. once kids get a certain size - it is hard to find christmas pj's that coordinate with baby sizes. 

2. toddlers don't do well taking a photo way past their bedtime when all they want is their bottle. 

3. mom doesn't care too much about this photo as she use to.

santa was very good to us - the kids were so excited with their wii (as we knew they would be after all the effort that thing took to get). we all had fun breaking in all the new games - guitar hero is my favorite. i was looking forward to playing it with steve once we put the kids to bed BUT i fell asleep on the couch watching them play before ANY of the kids went to bed (i must of been a little tired :) i knew we'd all enjoy the wii but didn't think brock would be so entertained by it. he LOVES it - when we play he grabs the tv remote & dances the whole time (it doesn't matter if we are playing guitar hero or boxing - he is dancing - so cute & so exhausting for him (which is a bonus in itself).

keegan got her PINK guitar - she wanted it to have crystals on it. So, i got some adhesive clear jewels & put them all around the edges. it is really cute. 

anyways, my house is a mess & i just want to do nothing but hang out with the kids. i should clean up & put all the christmas decorations away but that will just have to wait until i get the motivation to do it. we have had a house full of kids for the last couple days. it has been super fun & pretty loud. below is a pic of jake & a couple of his buddies. 

6th day of christmas

pictures with santa

i can't believe that i have waited until now to get the kids pics with santa  - the lines are going to be insane. south towne mall has the BEST santa. my kids always refer to him as the "real" santa. i woke up this morning & decided we had to go today since it was thursday. tommorrow most kids don't have school or just have 1/2 day then it is the weekend. i do not want to be anywhere close to the mall the weekend before christmas. so, i knew that after 4pm the lines would be really, really bad. so , i decided to take jake out of school early so we could beat the rush. some may think i am a bad mom for taking him out of school for something so not neccesary. however, i think (or know) i would be a worse mom if i had to wait in line with 3 kids for several hours. we got to the mall & the line was nothing. seriously, i thought maybe 15 minutes at the most. well, it turned out to be more like 40 mins. but that was still OK. i talked to the gals working  & they confirmed how bad it has been at night- they said the line at night & Sat. went all the way down to Macy's. Now, for some that may mean nothing but that line would be 6x longer than it was today. so i honestly do not know how would ever wait that long, even to see the REAL Santa. 

we came home & one of our manufacturers came by the house. i was blown away by the tasteful gift they brought us. this picture does NOT do justice but they brought beautiful pewter serving bowl & a 3-tier platter that is goregous AND it was all loaded with: white chocolate- dipped cinnamon sugar apples (my absolute favorite treat), caramels & turtles, pecan logs, marshmellows dipped in caramel & chocloate (that's all i have sampled so far :) it was so unexpected & thoughtful! i love surprises especially when they are loaded with calories :)

7th day of christmas

neighbor, teacher & friend gifts

does anyone else cringe at the thought of what to get neighbors & teachers for christmas? it is something that i honestly love to do but also hate it. i love it because we have the best neighbors ever & am always wanting to give the perfect gift & it is so hard to decide on what to do. and teachers ... they are great & deserve more than they ever get. i always have GREAT intentions but time always seems to interfere. i was really excited about the project i was going to do this year - WAS being the key word. i can't tell because i will try to do it next year. anyways ... here is what we did for the kids class & friends:

i got these holiday suckers at costco with a ribbon bow & a little holiday greeting from the kids &  all their classmates & friends were done. they were yummy to0 - they look like peppermint but the flavors were strawberry, apple, grape & cherry. i just LOVE costco & this is just one of the many reasons.

for neighbor gifts, we did a family night bucket with popcorn, candy, rootbeer & a giftcard to blockbuster. kinda corny maybe but who wouldn't enjoy a movie night at home with the kids? the kids had fun helping write on all the tags, getting all the gifts put together, & most of all delivering them in the snow. 

8th day of Christmas

christmas shopping with kids

so we planned to take the kids & let them shop for each other & also for us. steve & i had it all planned that we would split up & then call each other then swap. well, i started with keegan & brock to shop for jake & dad. then we switched & i went with jake to shop for brock & dad while steve went with keegan (clear as mud??) anyways, it all went as planned & we were just thrilled that it was done. Jake, Brock & I went to load the car & were going to pick up Steve & Keegan in front of the store. Well, Keegan jumps in the car while Steve & I load the rest of the bags in the trunk. We drove down the street - literally down the street & realized that Keegan already had told Jake what she had bought him. UNBELIEVABLE - i knew they would have a hard time keeping a secret (that is why we waited this late to take them shopping). steve was pissed - i just laughed as i expected it to happen. 

it reminded me of this story when i was a kid:
my mom had boxed all of our presents & had the boxes all taped up all in stacks ready to be wrapped. there must of been 30 boxes in stacks in the office. one day my parents were watching the Memphis State basketball game upstairs & Sonya & I (my sister that is 14 months older which has always been NOSEY). Well, we went into the office & opened all the boxes - every single box. In those boxes were our entire christmas. we were so excited but could not wait until christmas to wear all those cute clothes we had seen. long story short: my parents found out. they put me in one room & sonya in another & asked us what we saw... they wanted to know exactly everything we saw. (we had agreed to lie & say we didn't see anything yet). so, we both stuck to our story & lied about it. then, my brillant parents waited about 15 minutes (which seemed like an eternity) came into my room & said that sonya confessed & I had one more chance to tell the truth. so, i did - i told them i saw it all. they did the same thing to sonya until she finally admitted to it. it wasn't until after (quite a while after since sonya was mad at me for giving in & i was mad at her for giving in) that we fiqured out what they really did. we were in so much trouble - my mom insisted that we were getting NOTHING for christmas & everything was going back. i can't remember what really ended up happening - i know we had a great christmas but my mom was livid. as a parent, i can't help but appreciate experiences like this. first of all, it helps me not get so ticked at my kids since i have done the same thing. secondly, i now have a genius way of getting the truth out of my kids when i know they are lying. thirdly, i allows me to relive those childhood memories. good times ...

so, we went out to dinner, came home & put the kids to bed. then steve goes back out & returns the gift keegan bought jake. he feels much better about it now. i am now a little stressed as to what else to get jake as it was not his fault keegan told him. i will worry about it tommorrow.

9th day of christmas

elf yourself

if you haven't done this yet - it is super fast & really funny!

dredge elves

10th day of christmas

seeing the lights

today was a good family day! we went to tyler's missionary farewell - he is serving a mission for the church in Austraila for 2 years. we spent the day with him & family. the kids love to go to the lynch's as they have lots of kids, toys & fun! we came home in the late afternoon for naps then went back. on our way back we took quite the detour looking at christmas lights. i love to look at christmas lights with christmas music playing in the warm car! after we got home tonight (very late), i took pics at some of our christmas decorations. i love christmas for many reasons - the music, lights & decorations are some of my favorite things about christmas.

the stockings were hung ... our stockings are my most favorite decoration of all. my mom made these by hand. they are very time consuming as each image/word is made of hundreds of sequins & beads. jake is waiting on one for his pet turtle "DILL" & doesn't quite understand why grandma doesn't like Dill enough to make him one - HA!

my entry piece is a little cramped but we love to decorate this piece for all the holidays. jake made a santa & tree out of legos & i insisted it go right in front so everyone could see them.

this snowman is on our porch outside. we found him in Seattle when we were there for a scrapbook convention & had to bring him home.  he is almost 7 feet tall.

11th day of christmas

gingerbread house

the ormond's (our great neighbor's) gave us a gingerbread house kit a week or so ago for christmas - the kids have been dying to do it. for those of you that have not seen or done these kits - it is totally the way to go. they are so easy & fun! the kids decorated it themselves. i was cracking up as they did not want to put "too much" candy on the house because they got to eat the leftovers. they are so not dumb!

brock just loves being in the middle of the action. he had no clue what we were doing on the countertop but felt the excitement in the air. he is such a happy little boy.

tonight steve & i went to a dinner party at the long's new home (beautiful home).  it was so much fun to see many old friends. we don't get together as often as we should  with this group of friends but when we do it is always a blast. we seem to just pick up where we left off no matter how long it has been. we always say we need to get together more often but with everyone's crazy life & schedules it is hard. silly me forgot my camera ... i will have to remember next time for sure! it is late & i am going to try to get through a CSI with steve.

12 days of Christmas

Today we start the 12 days of Christmas. The traditional 12 days of Christmas starts on the evening of December 25th and finishes on January 6 BUT we do things different here. We are going to start it today & END it on Christmas. This is a fun way to enjoy the holiday season & do a little countdown with the kids. Often times in the days leading up to christmas we are so busy it is hard to enjoy the season. we will do some activity everyday for the next 12 days :)

paper mache boxes

Today was super fun! Jake was Student of the Week at school so he had many highlights throughout the week. Today we all went up to school & taught his class a christmas project. We decided to do these paper mache boxes. We covered them with Christmas papers & they turned out super cute. jake felt so important teaching the class how to do it & was very good to explain everything step by step. keegan went around making sure everyone was doing it as jake had instructed. brock had a blast & kept taking the glue sticks off the desk. jake was so proud his whole family came up to his class for this activity.

jake & miss eliason (his 1st grade teacher)

snowed in ...

gosh - we got dumped on again this weekend. brock isn't feeling well today so one of us has to stay home with him so steve & i flipped a coin to see who was going to stay home ... and it was me! steve & the kids left for church & brock is asleep ... i'm thinking perfect nap opportunity!

we had a GREAT weekend. first of all, we had our church christmas party friday night which we were in charge of the food. it turned out great & we are SO glad it is over. We had:

black forest ham (Sam's sliced it for us - 135 lbs. of ham is ALOT of ham!)
fabulous potatoes:
8-10 large potatoes (grated), 2 cups cheese, 8 oz. sour cream, 2 cans of cream of chicken soup, crushed cornflakes on top. bake at 350 for 45 mins.
glazed carrots:
2 lbs. carrots - steam then add glaze (1/4 lb. butter, 1 cup brown sugar & fresh ginger root - boil then pour over carrots). SO delicious!
pineapple/cherry salad:
1 can cherry pie filling, 2 cans crushed pineapple(drain well), 1 can sweetened condensed milk, 1 tub cool whip. almost good enough for dessert.
yummy rolls (costco makes fresh daily - totally homemade without the effort)
pumpkin pie
choc. chunk brownies

It was a bit stressful trying to purchase, prepare & have it hot all at once - but we pulled it off. We had planned on 275 & had lots of ham left over. i asked 4 different people how much ham should i get - everyone said 1/2 lb. per person. i questioned it because i thought that seemed like too much especially with all the other food. but, i went ahead & got 1/2 lb. per person afraid if i got less i would run out & it was way TOO much! next time, i would plan on 1/4 lb. per person. the carrots were everyones fav - even the kids came back for seconds. we also had the stage as bethlehem & had costumes for wisemen, mary, cradle for "baby", angels, etc. we had families come up & dress up & I took pictures. they turned out great & would be a fun christmas card picture (too bad i didn't think to get out family's picture taken - things were just too hetic for me to think about it). we also had santa come - he was the best santa ever. he did magic tricks & juggled for the kids - he was fabulous! all the kids thought he must be the real santa as he had christmas magic! we got home at 11ish & steve went out to shovel the driveway as we got about 6 inches of snow during the party. Dallin (our neighbor) had just got a snow blower earlier that day, came over & did our driveway for us - THANKS Dallin! It was very nice of him as it was late, COLD & our driveway is longer than it appears to be! We had both cars full of dishes, food, decorations, etc. from the party & no energy to mess with it. i was SO tired. we knew we had to get all the table linens washed & returned by noon Sat. we had 1/2 of them & our frineds the Park's took 1/2 of them. About 11:30, Steve & Bret decided to just take the linens to a laundrymat & just get them all done. i didn't want steve to go as it was a blizzard outside but i knew i didn't have the energy to do them either. so i loaded him up with detergent & lots of quarters. he did not get home until after 3 am! they had a hard time finding a laundrymat open & once they did i think they realized washing, drying & folding 40 table clothes took longer than they thought.
we woke up Sat. morning & the power went out. we had no power for about 2 hours. of course, the kids thought it was fun & i was just fearful of getting cold. Bryan came to help with our driveway & jake ended up going with him on his 4-wheeler to do some other driveways. jake thought it was a blast especially when bryan got stuck & had to push it. we asked jake if he helped push & he said no, but it was fun having bryan push him too (thanks Bryan :)

steve & i went to the byu/michigan state game. it was a GREAT game even with BYU giving the game away at the end- i love basketball! it has been a while since we've been to a game. we use to go the see the jazz play but i hadn't gone to a game in a long time!

we are heading over to mom's today - she had knee surgery on wed. & is doing well. we have lots of leftovers to take her & the kids want to see her. i had hoped of getting a nap squeezed in but after typing out our dinner menu i think i am ready for some leftovers myself :) i LOVE leftovers more than anything. in fact, when we go to dinner - i usually will order more than i will eat just so i can take home a box of leftovers for the next day.
have a great week!

snow + cheesecake = perfect day

today we woke up to everything covered with snow. it was beautiful! the kids were bouncing off the walls to build a snowman so they cleaned the house super fast this morning. steve is very good (ok, ANAL) about shoveling the drive, walkway & sidewalk before anyone can drive or walk on it. so he was heading out first thing this morning, when one of our neighbors came by with his 4-wheeler & did our driveway (thanks Bryan!) so, after steve shoveled the sidewalk & walkway he couldn't believe how heavy & wet the snow was - perfect for building a snowman. so, we went out with plans to build a snowman... but got distracted with making snow angels in the snow then a big snowball fight.





i am not sure who liked it more zoe or brock? it was great to see zoe running around like a puppy again - her arthritis medication has really made a big difference. the kids were running around throwing snowballs & she tried to catch them like a real ball then it would bust. everyone thought it was funny especially brock.



we had plans with 2 other couple to go to dinner at Cheesecake Factory... YES, we FINALLY got one in Utah it opened in Nov. Steve & I have tried to eat their with the kids several times for the last couple weeks & it has been a 3-3.5 hour wait every time. so, we got our name on the list at 4:15 & all went at 7. we only had to wait about 20 minutes - it was so yummy. the cheesecake factory is my most favorite restaurant EVER - in our travels, we have always tried to hit them whenever we can. it is great to have one just 15 minutes away!