You have to visit.....

You all have to visit my sister's blog. She has done such a great job of documenting this Christmas season. She has been here from Maryland since the 11th. So if you are interested in the goings ons of our family check it out. It's a lot of fun.

Merry Christmas

What a great couple days it has been. Right now in the background i'm listening to Chris eat some of the breakfast casserole we made this morning, Heidi and Krista are singing along to the High School Musical Wii singalong. It is a big hit here this morning. Earlier we were all doing Dance Dance Revolution on the Wii. That was a blast. The girls are happily enjoying their gifts and I'm enjoying lounging in my pajamas.

I have to mention our Sacrament Meeting on Sunday. It was so nice. I sang with the choir and it was a great program. It really filled my soul with the spirit of Christmas. It was a great lead up to yesterday- Christmas Eve. We watched "It's A Wonderful Life, had a nice dinner, read the Christmas Story in Luke and then read Rudolph the Red nosed reindeer right after. After the girls were asleep we went into action. Pulling out the hidden stash of stocking stuffers and Santa gifts. Makenzie loved helping. She has been helping for a few years fill her sister's stockings.

Well, i just wanted to take a moment to let all of you know that I am so grateful for the birth of our Savior. What a gift it is. My gift to him this year is to work on being more patient with my children and to have more dedicated personal prayer.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Girls Gone Wild...or at least the 7 year-old

Tonight we all headed to the mall to do a little Christmas shopping. Krista and I headed one direction and Chris took off with the girls to do some supposed shopping for mom. I say supposed because after a little while we ran into the girls in a jewelry/accessories store. They were all happily shopping for themselves. I was looking around thinking "where's my husband?" I asked our youngest one where dad was and she said that he was sitting down because he was tired. The youngest was also very excited to tell me that she had bought a cup that she had "ALWAYS wanted." Her face was beaming as she reached into her bag and brought out this:



Krista and I started laughing hysterically. Heidi didn't get it. She didn't understand why we were laughing. Her face kinda fell and we had to reassure her it was very pretty indeed. At this point the husband walks over and I point out what his daughter has purchased all on her own while he was resting. We had a good laugh over it.

I love my sister

I don't know how I would be getting through this week without my sister. For the past two days she has dropped me off at work and then taken my van to go run MY errands. She has addressed packages for me, mailed packages for me, bought Christmas gifts, made caramel corn, cleaned my kitchen 6 times already, made a cute little snowman gift box filled with goodies for a friend, mended a skirt of mine that has been hanging in my closet for 5 months because I didn't want to take the time to fix it, cleaned out two of my purses, wrapped gifts, returned items to Michaels and Target for me. And I'm sure there's more than that but I think you are getting the point. Without her my children would have no stocking stuffers. I am so grateful for her presence in my life at this moment that I just want to take a moment and shout for joy. Let's add on top of all this that I've gotten a terrible cold that has settled in my chest. So I haven't exactly been a bundle of energy. I'm behind on reading blogs so i'm going to go now and do some more of that. She can't do that for me.

Ah....Life

I have so much to post about that I'm not sure where to start. It's been awhile. My sister Krista arrived last Tuesday and it's been a whirlwind ever since. Our furnace stopped working last Monday and so we've been very busy trying to resolve that problem. Luckily we have a gigantic woodstove that heats our house very nicely. We have an emergency supply of wood that we used up and then the furnace guys arrived on Saturday morning to give us a new furnace. Chris and I couldn't believe that this happened to us 1 month after closing on the house. It's Murphy's law huh? But we have a new furnace now and just in time to enjoy the rebates and tax credits. (That's what we are telling ourselves to make it a little less painful) Upon arriving home on Saturday morning to find two men in my garage I wanted so badly to take a picture of them working for my blog. One of the men would put a plumber's crack to shame.


Yesterday my sister and I did some baking. We made these yummy cinnamon rolls from Pioneer Woman. If you have not checked this blog out then you need to. She is a fantastic writer and a great cook. I have been dying to make these little gems ever since Merilee gave me a pan of them. I ate the whole pan. The entire pan. Not a morsel left over for another member of the family. So last night when they were complete, i took my fork and a pan and settled myself on the couch. My sister said I couldn't do that so I sadly put them back on the counter and took the one little one she put on a plate for me. The funny thing is that Chris didn't even bat an eye at my attempt to eat the whole pan. Funny and sad. They are sinfully good. You will never want to share. We also made some great toffee that Krista found a recipe for in Sunset Magazine. You sprinkle sea salt on top along with melted chocolate and nuts. So you get that salty sweet taste that makes you want to run over and kiss the first guy you see. Luckily for me that person was Chris.





I have a crazy week ahead. Don't you all? Family get togethers, meals to cook, work, delivering gifts, shipping gifts. Yep, you heard right, I still have to ship a couple of things. I'm a little behind this year. But hey, i got all my Christmas cards out. I'm feeling pretty good about that.

Dear Ponytail girl,

I see you. Every time I'm on the treadmill at the gym, I see you. With your pony tail flipping back in forth in front of me. You are probably a size 0 and it's as if you are saying, "Don't hate me because i look fabulous in these short, tight, black shorts and skimpy matching tank top." Yes, ponytail girl, I DID notice they were matching. And I did notice how hard you were working. The sweat said it all. But do you have to swish that hair of yours on purpose? Can you not just do your thing on the elliptical without bringing all this attention to yourself? The guy next to me couldn't take his eyes off you. I thought he may trip on the treadmill but he didn't. I used to do the same thing with my long locks. I remember when we had to do this long run in JR. HIGH and I would run and swish my ponytail at the same time. I felt that certainly I was the prettiest girl in gym class. But since you are at least 25 would you please just STOP? I can't stand it anymore and I may bring my machete with me to the gym next time and before you know it those locks of yours will be gone. I'd be in jail too but at least i wouldn't be in there with you ponytail girl.

Photo Shoot

Recently while at dinner with a bunch of friends my friend Mahina mentioned she would love to start a photography business. I volunteered myself to be her first customer. So last Saturday while it was snowing many places and was freezing cold I made my family go out and endure the weather. Let me add here that i wouldn't let them wear coats. Mahina is standing at our door and the conversation inside our house goes something like this:

Mom: Hurry girls! Get your shoes on, Mahina's here!

Mom to Heidi: No, put your coat away, you are not wearing your coat.

Heidi in a whiny voice: I wanna wear my coat.

Makenzie: Mom, it's freezing outside.

Mahina: It's pretty cold out there.

Mom: I don't care, you aren't wearing coats. You can endure it for the amount of time to get a few pictures.

Heidi starts to cry: I want to wear my coat!

Mom losing her patience: Just go get in dad's car!

So this is how it started.



Makenzie was so mad at not being able to wear a coat that Mahina had to say something to get her to laugh.



When it's in black and white you can't tell how red our noses are.



I love this one.



And this one.



This was the last one she took. See how red our noses are? It was really cold. But we endured it and only one of my children got pneumonia from it. Sadly it was Heidi who wanted her coat the most.

I love the pictures and Mahina did an incredible job. Our families will be so happy to see someting recent of us on their walls and desks!

Why only my whites?

I had a weird dream last night. One of those dreams where you know it's crazy but just can't wakeup or don't want to because you are enjoying it too much. In this case i was probably enjoying it because I had a laundry lady that was dying to do my laundry. But she only wanted to do my whites. Maybe it was our lovely underwear she wanted to admire. I'm not sure but she REALLY wanted to do my laundry. She kept approaching me over and over asking me to hire her. I kept telling her no until Chris steps in dressed like a medieval knight and says it might be a good idea. Maybe he figured he would have his clean underwear quicker if i wasn't doing it. I then ask her if she has a special way of washing our whites. After all, that seems to be her specialty. She says, "No, i just wash them in the washing machine." Hmmm, interesting, and then my alarm went off. I really wanted to ask her what was so special about her washing technique but I just didn't get the chance.

Outta here

My mom just called a little bit ago and said that my stepdad was in the hospital. He went to dialysis this morning and during it, his blood pressure went so high and his heart was racing so fast that the nurse called 911 and had an ambulance come and get him to take him to the hospital. He is in alot of pain from a lot of different things. They don't know exactly what is wrong. I'm going to go down to be with my mom. I decided to post about this because i don't really have time to call different people and tell them I'm leaving. Keep him in your prayers. He told my mom yesterday that he is ready to pass on. He has been so sick for a long time and is just ready to be done with it all. It's hard on my mom. I need to wait until Chris is done hanging our Christmas lights outside before i go. I mean, what if he fell off the room while i was driving and we had an emergency at home? My brain is working like this today. On a good note however, we had our family pictures taken this morning. They are going to be so fab. It was so cold out and I wouldn't let the girls wear their coats. They were complaining and I was laughing. I can be such a brat sometimes.