Christmas

So, here are the pics from Christmas!!! It was so much fun to have all these kids together!!!

Well, Aaron and Nate were supposed to be wearing some cute pjs... they at least went to bed in them...

The kids LOVED everything they got! Aaron got a bike, and an air hog. Charity got a pink leapster and some barbies, and Nate got a play guitar! they didnt get much else ;)

Funny story: Nate LOVES to play in the water - it is easiest to get to in my bathtub. He also LOVES his guitar. He walked around dancing with it ALL morning long - it was ADORABLE! Well, the two dont really go together... but nate didnt know that. We found him - he had plugged up the tub and filled it to the point of almost overflowing. he was also using his guitar as an oar!!! AGGHHHH!!!! oh well. i wrote the whole thing off - but then, my genious of a spouse fixed it. ;)

So Far

So, Cherry and her kids came out to visit from NJ. Dawn and the rest of the Howey bunch are here too!!! This has been so fun! Here are the pics of our little visit so far. We are hoping to get Cherry out here on a more permanent basis, cause we love having COUSINS!!!
We also went and met our friend Koya and her baby and her girlfriend for dinner. It was a really fun reunion!

ok, so the last picture is one VERY interesting story.

Sunday morning, I had to be at church early to do my THING... (singing, violin & piano)

anyways, just before my alarm went off... Nate walked up to me - with his hands full of YOU KNOW WHAT!!! he had climbed out of his bed, taken off his diaper, and smeared it ALL OVER THE CARPET. there was even a nice little trail to my bed. it took 45 mins to clean up. then i had a cold shower. and no time to really get cute or even get my kids taken care of before i had to go to church!!! it wasnt the best morning ever. Anyways, i came home from church, and still smelled the stink... apparently in my haste to clean the carpet, i didnt even look on the other side of the door!!! AGGHHHH!!!! Well, I have since done a more thorough job and tons of laundry... merry christmas from nate! ;)

under the tree

so, every year, we have a train under our tree. the nice one we had last year is out of commission....

so, we got this little one. the kids LOVE it. i LOVE it. HOWEVER... this is the state of the tree now. it is really hard to keep the ornaments on the tree when UNDER the tree is so much fun!

check out all the nascars that come and watch. sometimes they get to ride the train... other times, the nascars are hit by the train... they like to see the whole thing get de-railed... fun times ;)

notice the state of the nativity at the fireplace... i guess that is the whole purpose of the toy nativity - cant hurt (except nate LOVES to get into the fireplace rocks... and those are SOOO annoying to clean up!)

Saturday:

I took the kids to the ward Christmas party... but I left early to go to the work party... Thanks to my girlfriend, my kids stayed there and got to see santa... and i got to go out... ;)


Joe and I went to the work party. It was nice. They had great food and entertainment, and lots to do and see. we danced and ate and had fun. I didn't look my best, but it was ok. I SOOOO wish I would have gone shopping one more time... everyone needs the perfect little dress... but i just went with something old and comfortable. We got there at 9 and stayed till 10:30. (i expired)... all the young singles were ready to keep partying... MAN I FEEL SOOOO OLD!!! AND LAME!!!

A little explanation

So, you want to know how i get coordinating outfits?
How about I tell you how I get decent family pictures each year.
here is the original family picture:
I got rid of a few frizzy hairs and SOMEONE's unibrow. I also (very poorly) got rid of the crap in the background. But, i think it looks too fake, so i ...
zoomed in, and changed nates' green diamonds to red, and aaron's stripe to red.
then i overlayed sepia... and like magic, a picture emerges where we look kindof coordinated...
Last year, I morphed my kids heads in from other pictures (because none of them cooperated at the same time)!!! Basically, we always look like CRAP in our photos... but with a little magic, i can get something presentable. all i can say is YAY PHOTOSHOP!!! YAY for Spencer K. teaching me how to use the GIMP one summer while i worked with my dad - photoshop is just like it - YAY also for marrying a GEEK who loves computers and gets me photoshop and the cooresponding literature so i can read up and keep learning cool things!

SO - courtney, even if you dont match for your family pics this year, it can ALL BE FIXED!!! ;)

Shopping help?

So, Joe's work Christmas party (cocktail party at the 4 seasons) is coming up, and I really wanted to get a nice little outfit. (I am always looking for an excuse to get something new!!) So, I went to the mall today thinking I could find something. I got there at 10 am. By 1:30 (the time i had to leave to get Charity from school) I had successfully bought several things, AND returned them. I did manage to buy the new Glenn Beck book... ;)

What is my problem? 1. Chalky white legs. 2. The modesty issue. 3. The boyish build. 4. DO I NEED TO GO ON???

What do you guys wear when you go out? I tried so many different dresses, and combinations of strapless or halter or slinky dresses w/jackets or boleros - but jackets and boleros RUIN the cute ones...

Looks like I am wearing something old and boring... :( Does someone want to go shopping FOR me???

3 sweet things

Ok, if you are lucky, you will get another post from me later because my kids are playing in my little piano recital this evening...

Anyways, here are 3 of the SWEETEST things in the world:

1. Nate - he was being VERY quiet. I found him. He found the water bottle. What is with this kid and water? And honestly, I don't understand the whole squirting yourself in the face for fun thing...
2. Charity: I couldnt help myself- she is so STINKIN cute! 3. This is probably the sweetest thing ever. Yesterday, I walked out front to see this. I quietly watched for a minute, ran in and got my camera and Aaron was still GENTLY teaching Nate how to ride a scooter. Seriously, a tear came to my eye - what a sweet older brother! When he turned around and noticed me, he was just so excited and said: "Look mom! Nate is learning how to ride Charity's scooter!"
I am so lucky to have these kids!!!

hey look, an update!

So, I am updating again... this time with pictures from our little gingerbread making adventure yesterday.

I have always felt that adding more people adds more fun. I guess you could also chalk it up to my SHORT attention span? Anyways, I knew if I did gingerbread houses with only my kids, it would last 5 minutes and I would have lost my patience (or become side-tracked)... SO, we had the Branns and the Walls over to make AWESOME graham cracker houses. We actually had some fun. Even the moms got to do their own. Here are the pics from the event:

Ok, by next week my life should slow down a bit more and I will be more diligent with my blog...

Just have to get through my piano recital now... and finish decorating the school stage...

why am I decorating all these things? I dont decorate.

Last Week

Last week was pretty fun. I "got" to decorate the international room at our stake's nativity exhibit. It is pretty big and we usually get the local highschool choirs to come sing and lots of people come etc....

Anyways, back up about a month. My girlfriend called me and I told her I couldn't teach her kids piano anymore. However, since she had me on the phone (and I felt like I just disapointed her), I was softened and she was able to rope me into being in charge of a room for the exhibit this year. She told me to get a comittee together and come up with a plan for the international room. um... what just happened?

I got some girlfriends to help me. I also had some LATE night inspiration come to me when one of my kids was sick in the middle of the night.

So, here are the pictures of how it turned out. One of my girlfriends did the vinyl lettering for me in a couple different languages, and I did some other languages over the map of that country in the frames you see scattered through the room (i.e. over an antiqued Italian map, the same Luke 2 scripture was translated in Italian I did french, chineese, hungarian, and more...). I have to say I was pleased with the result. In previous years, they used the different country flags to make it international... BUT I liked how the Luke 2 scripture said to ALL PEOPLE and i just went with that. Anyways, thank you to Becky, Ruth, Susannah, and Amy and Kim for helping me. ALSO thanks to Carrieanne, Wendy R, Wendy W, Alicia, and Ruth for taking my kids!!!