Christmas

Sorry, I dont know how to make my pictures turn, so you will have to turn your head.

Jason and Boe spent Christmas Eve with us.

What a wonderful Christmas we had. Christmas Eve we spent looking at Christmas lights. Then we watched Luke II and decided what gifts we would give to Jesus this year. As is our tradition, the kids all got new jammies that night.

Christmas morning was a lot of fun. The kids, except Emma, were up early. We eventually had to go wake up Emma. The kids are allowed to look in their stockings only before breakfast. After breakfast, which of course none of the kids have an appetite for, we open presents. The favorite gift was the last one. The kids opened a family gift with a picture of Disneyland. WE ARE GOING TO DISNEYLAND! I got the proper excited response I was hoping for. It was great.

After Christmas at our house, we took off to Grandpa and Grandma Standage's house. Oh my gosh, did my mom go crazy. Presents for 12 grandkids. It was a little crazy and so much fun!

After dinner at the Standage's, we went to Davin's cousin's house. They haven't seen each other in years, so that was fun. More socializing and food. Christmas was busy (the way I like it) and so much fun, and of course spent with the family which always makes it great.

Christmas Angels

I wish I had taken my shoes off. I look like a GIANT!.

We have had a nice weekend. First, Saturday night my parents took all of us out to dinner WITHOUT KIDS! (Merry Christmas to us). We went to Chareston's. Then they gave us all a nice gift - 100 dollars. After dinner, my mom pulled out more gifts...chocolates and candies from Sees. We tried to play the white elephant give exchange where you can open one or steal someone elses. That didn't work so well because they were all so good and not many people didnt want their gift. It was a lot of fun.

Sunday, my kids were able to open one gift, their Christmas clothes. The girls were excited about their dresses, of course. Grant, in typical boy fashion, looked at his clothes, threw them to the side, and went about his business. They all looked really great though.

my blog

I have had a lot of comments on how cute my blog is. I need to give credit where credit is due. I did not do this. My sister-in-law Kristen redesigned my blog. She is very creative and good at what she does. Please people, did you really think this was my doing? I didn't even know how to start this blog thing. Thanks Kristen for making me look good.

gingerbread houses

We actually made these houses last Friday, December 14. I'm just a little late getting them on. What a crazy night! I have seen the pre-made gingerbread houses in the store, but I thought "why would I spend $10 on one house when I would have to buy four? I can make them so much cheaper than that." (mistake). I had the recipe and cutouts already so I decided to make enough to make four houses (mistake). First the dough was so much and so thick, that I burned up the motor on my hand mixer. So guess what? I had to do it by hand! Then the mixture was too big for my biggest bowl, so I had to pour it out on the counter and knead/mix it. What a workout! Then it came time to roll and cut and bake. The only problem was getting each piece to be exactly right to make the house. Not so easy. By the time, we had all the pieces baked and the kids trying to put it all together, it was crazy (and a little frustrating) Most of the roofs caved in taking part of the house with it. I helped Grant with his and decided it would be "Santa Fe" style because I could not get the roof on right. Kaylee's house probably turned out the best because Dad was pretty meticulous in helping her. Overall, it was fun. The kids had the most fun decorating them anyway.

the big 4-0

Saturday was Davin's 40th birthday party. 40! So old. We had friends and family come over to celebrate (mourn) with us. Thanks to all you who came. Sheri put together an awesome slide show/video with music. It was really great. It was also fun to see some friends we haven't seen in a while.

I still think Davin is the handsomest man I know, even if he is old. Some things really do get better with age.

snow day

This last Sunday, we decided to play hookey again. Because of the weather, we decided to take the kids to the snow. We went up to the gravel pits by Strawberry. It was so cold! When we got there, the first thing I wanted to do was take a family picture before we got too wet and miserable (keep the smiles you know). Then after our family picture, we got a surprise. Up drives Jason and Vanessa and Boe. Evidently they wanted to take a snow trip too. So that was fun. Poor Grant didn't last long. He stayed out long enough for pictures and a the start of a snowman. then it just got too cold for him. He spent the rest of the time in the car. Kelsey on the other hand was the adventursome one. She was going down the hills. Emma just wanted to take long walks in the snow and Kaylee loved it all. We had such a good time.

hanging christmas lights

Finally today we hung our Christmas lights outside. I have been promising the kids that we would do this today. Then, of course, it rained. So as soon as it stopped today, we were out putting up the lights. It was cold and wet and muddy but we got it done! (Now I just hope we get them down before February!)

I'm BAAACK!

Ok, so it has been awhile. I find I get so busy with life, that the thought of coming on here is overwhelming sometimes. But here I am again.

Last weekend (Thanksgiving weekend) we went up to St. Johns to spend some time with Davin's family. It was SOOOO cold! We loved it! We finally got a chance to wear the sweaters and jackets. I actually got down to 8 degrees at night! We sure did like the leaves, especially Emma! The kids love going up there and it is nice to get away and let somone else do the cooking too!

kaylee's pioneer performance

This is a little late. Last Thursday, Kaylee and the whole second grade did a singing performance at her school. They sang pioneer songs. It was very cute and Kaylee did a great job. She was in a song and dance number to "over the river and through the woods".

a day with Kelsey

So today was my day with Kelsey. We decided to hit Saver's half off everything day. Kelsey was able to find a skirt, dress, pants, and a pair of shoes. Then we hit the mall. Amazing how I took HER shopping and ended up doing a ton of shopping myself. It was a good day though. We were able to talk about friends, her life, and BOYS! I love these moments. They really are special to me and I love to be able to have that one on one time.

messy day at the park

This is how you make "angels" in Arizona

The strip down - can you say "white trash"

Kaylee dug a hole an filled it with water

this is by far my favorite picture. Emma can't do anything without getting her face dirty
Today Davin and I took Kaylee and Emma down to the neighborhood park by our house. Evidently, one of the sprinklers broke and flooded a corner of the sandy part. FUN! The girls had a ball! They started out making sand castles and ended up swimming! They were such a mess! The funniest part was watching Emma do the progressive strip down. She started off with her dress because it got wet and on the way home decided to take off her panties because they were too wet. She streaked the neighorhood on the way home.

Halloween

How "groovy" are we? Davin says he likes me as a blonde.

Grant was Darth Vader (could you guess?). What a character! This year we told Kelsey she was too old to trick-or-treat (I know, mean mom) so she stayed at the house and handed out candy (she still dressed up but missed out on pictures because she took off with some friends while we were taking them). Anyway Grant said HE was too old to trick or treat too and did not want to go. WHAT! I made him get dressed up for pictures (mean mom again) but he pouted so much, I didn't make him trick or treat (does that sound weird to anyone else?) He stayed home and played on the computer and was happy about it!

Kaylee is princess Juliet (Romeo and Juliet). Since her and Emma were my only trick or treaters, she scored pretty well. She was exhausted by the end and had a hard time making it all the way back home (down the street, she had a tendency for the drama).

Halloween

Emma was Dorothy, unless you asked her, then she was Christine (from the Phantom of the Opera). Dont ask why, I dont know. She had so much fun trick or treating. She made sure people told her she was pretty. We were at one house, and the people were talking to some other girls telling them how pretty they were, she got up in front of them and asked "My pretty?"

five love languages for children

Last night for family night, I decided our family could use a little more "love giving." I gave a small book report on "The Five Love Languages for Children" which by the way is a must-have as your children get older. The five love languages are quality time, acts of service, words of affirmation, physical touch, and gift giving. I explained each one and asked the kids some questions to find out what they thought theirs was. To my surprise, they all knew right off, without much help from me, what their love language was. Kelsey is torn between gift giving and acts of service, Grant is physical touch with a secondary of words of affirmation, and Kaylee is quality time with a little of physical touch. We were able to talk about what is important to all of us and how we need to share our love for each other in the way they need. We also talked about what hurts each of us the most, so that we can avoid doing that. It was nice. I really enjoyed having us all try to understand each other more. Later on we made caramel apple dip (we were going to do caramel apples, but too many people snuck into the caramels and there was not enough). Then we went for a family walk. It was my favorite kind of day. I love Sundays. We get to just focus on church and family and we don't have to feel rushed with all our daily activities such as work, business, errands, housecleaning, etc. It's nice to just take time and focus on what is importan.

Kaylee wanted to take these home. They were glued down too tight!

Kaylee is on tv! She's famous!

Kaylee's gold finds. She's rich!

Kaylee and I had our special day today. Every week I try to take one kid out for a "special day with mom". This was her week. First we went to lunch at McDonald's. Then we ran a few errands (I had to squeeze those in sometime), then we went to the Mesa Souhwest Museum a.k.a. the "Dinasour Museum". We had alot of fun together. Kaylee was a little nervous about the dinsaurs at first, but she got used to it towards the end and we were able to go look at them. She struck it rich in the gold panning (and got a little wet). She also found a giant piece of gold. I am hoping she will buy me a car! I love these days I spend one on one with my kids.