Merry Christmas!

I know I need to finish my 12 days, and oh I will...... but in the meantime I just want to wish you all a Merry Christmas!

10th Day of Christmas

Today was our 10th day of Christmas!  It was such a busy day, so we had to sneak it in tonight.  We made our yummy cookies for Santa, so we can now check that off our list!  I sure hope he likes them :)

9th Day of Christmas

I know a little late, but yesterday we celebrated our 9th day of Christmas!  We made snowman pizzas and watch A Christmas Story (I had not paid attention to how much swearing is in that movie).  

The kids had a blast decorating their individual snowman pizzas though, and they were sure tasty!

A little peek............

Here is a peek at the kids' Christmas pics :)

8th Day of Christmas

For our 8th day of Christmas we surprised the kids with a ticket on the Christmas Express!

Which really just was our car with some hot cocoa.  It didn't start off well since E splashed some HOT chocolate on his face :(  Poor guy screamed so loud!  After we got him cleaned up and back in the car we were off.  We drove to a special street (in Magna) that decorates like crazy!  Then we went to Winder dairy street too (not nearly as neat).  The kids loved seeing all the pretty lights and thought it was so much fun!  

7th Day of Christmas

Yummy Addiction is always the perfect gift :)  

Today was our 7th day of Christmas and we made our neighbor gifts today!

Ethan ran them around to everyone who was home.  It is always nice to have little legs to do the sprinting for you ;)  

6th Day of Christmas

Today was our 6th day of Christmas!  We made good old gingerbread houses, and the kids of  course loved it.  Don't judge us too harshly, no one said we were experts ;)  

5th Day of Christmas

Today was our 5th day of Christmas.  Since we have a long night of dance on Monday's, we kept it simple.  Tonight we read our favorite Christmas stories!  I always do all the voices, so a lot of giggling is involved :)  Tomorrow is going to be a blast, so stay tuned!

4th Day of Christmas

Sorry I didn't get the chance to post yesterday.  All the same, yesterday we focused our Christmas celebration on the Savior.  We read the story in both Matthew and Luke and talked to the kids about the true gift we all past, present, and future received that day.  What a wonderful gift to know all is not lost at the end of our time here on earth.  The Savior saved us all, he was the greatest gift that has been given.  I hope we can all look to him this season for the true spirit of Christmas.

3rd Day of Christmas

Took some quick pics of the kids for the 3rd day of Christmas!!!  They are heading to my Mom's for a fun sleepover with Grandma and Grandpa and their cousin Lily :)  

They are so excited!

2nd Day of Christmas

Today was our 2nd day of Christmas at our house.  I surprised the kids with a WHO feast :)  

We had Grinch punch, Who pudding, who hash, and even roast beast!  We finished the night off with watching the Grinch :)  The kids loved it and had so much fun.

I feel extra blessed to have to beautiful children and am so sad for those who lost their little ones today in CT.  Such a senseless act of violence.  It comforts me to know all the children lost are with our Heavenly Father.  My prayers go out to all of those involved.  

Baptism Day

Just had to slip in a picture of Kylie and Bry on the actual Baptism day :)  

1st Day of Christmas

Excuse the crappy photos of our 1st day of Christmas, they want you to buy photos with Santa so they wouldn't let me use my professional camera.  They wouldn't let me step "on set either", so sad!  

Anyways...... on our 1st Day of Christmas we went and saw Santa!  The kids let him know what they are hoping for for Christmas, and I found out that Ethan wants $10 :)  I love how excited my kids were, they ran up to him and had huge grins.  

Blast from the past.........

Found this old photo, and I love it :)  My two greatest joys!

Baptism

Today Kylie is getting Baptized and Confirmed!!!!  I am so proud of the beautiful young lady she has become, she is a positive example in our family.  Poor Bry started passing a kidney stone this morning and is in major pain.  We have some meds for him, and he is determined not to let his baby girl down :)  

Kylie we are so happy for you on this special day, and love the you are taking the right steps on your pathway back to our Heavenly Father!

Congratulations :)

Yum.

These are photos from last year, but I love them so much :)  I love his dreamy catchlights!

Having a hard time....

I miss this so much.  My heart hurts, and I really wish I could have these moments back.

Appreciate all the days and silly time you have with your little ones.  Eventually for us all those days will only be memories and I can tell you it is sad.  I wish with all my heart I could have more children, and it is by far the hardest trial I have ever gone through.  I am so blessed to have my two beautiful children, and I know that.  

Ghoul's Night Out!

We had Kye's Birthday party on her birthday a couple of weeks ago, and I wanted to do a quick post :) I designed the invites (it took me forever!), but Kylie was in love with it.  We had the girls come over for a Ghoul's Night Out, ate pizza, watched a movie, and opened presents.  The girls all had a great time, and I really lucked out finding some Monster Highish stuff around Halloween :)  Thank you TARGET $1 bins :)  We kept it small, because I have to also get things ready for her baptism this Saturday!  I can't believe it's already here!  

Annual 12 Days of Christmas!

Okay, I am so excited just like every year!  Our 12 days of Christmas are almost here :)

Here is our list this year, and I know it's going to be the BEST!

December 13th

1st Day of Christmas

Making A List 

we are going to go visit Santa and give him our lists!

December 14th

2nd Day of Christmas

Grinched

a day of green food, green treats, and of course watching the Grinch!

December 15th

3rd Day of Christmas

To Grandmother's House We'll Go

the kids are having a fun sleepover at my Mom's with their cousin!

December 16th

4th Day of Christmas

Christ Our Savior is Born

this is a day of remembering the true reason of Christmas and learning about our Savior's birth!

December 17th

5th Day of Christmas

Mother Tell Me a Story

a night of hot cocoa and our favorite Christmas tales!

December 18th

6th Day of Christmas

Visions of Sugar Plums

we are building gingerbread houses!

December 19th

7th Day of Christmas

Tis Better to Give

we are making and delivering our neighbor gifts!

December 20th

8th Day of Christmas

The Polar Express

 we will find a ticket on our pillows tonight, hop in the car, and see all the lights on the Polar Express!

December 21st

9th Day of Christmas

Dinner and a Movie

homemade snowman pizza and our favorite Christmas movie!

December 22nd

10th Day of Christmas

Cookies for Santa

we're making yummy sugar cookies to share with Santa!

December 23rd

11th Day of Christmas

Late Night

the kids get to stay up late and play a family game!

December 24th

12th Day of Christmas

Scrumptious Surprise

we are taking the kids to breakfast, SURPRISE!

I am so excited for all the holiday fun, and spending time with my family!  

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all!

A little business......

Happy Birthday Kylie!!!!

Happy Birthday to my sweet, funny, talented, and beautiful 8 year old!!!!

We love you so much and hope your day is amazing!!!!

Warning.... there are a few pics of E as well :) 

(If we go out, everyone gets their picture taken!) 

AWESOME E!

This seriously just made my crappy week a billion times better :)  Love this kid!

November Update 2012

Can you believe it's November?  I can't quite wrap my head around it, and I better get there soon because this is a crazy month for us.

Bry is doing awesome!  He has a 100% pass rate on all his tests thus far (knock on wood), and I really am so proud of him.  He studies so much and has to take in so much knowledge over a two week period it makes me dizzy just thinking about it.  He showed me a paper this week and said now you need to memorize this and 18 more of them before my test next week, lets just say I am glad it is him and not me ;)  We are looking forward to his Thanksgiving and especially Christmas break :)  It will be nice to see him a little more!  He also has a new calling teaching Gospel Doctrine, and everyone said his first lesson was amazing.  I wish I could have gone, but I was teaching sharing time in primary, so all I can do is wish him luck.  

I have a few more weeks of craziness of work, and then I can take a breath and enjoy my holiday :)  January and February are always slow months for me, so I have plans to get crap done around here.  I am busy trying to plan a birthday in the midst of the chaos and a baptism.  I did give myself a little pat on the back because I am done Christmas shopping!  YAY!  I am so not a procrastinator, so it really isn't that big of an accomplishment.  I had big plans to take some fun photos for our Christmas cards, but just ran out of time.  I just put photos throughout the year on them and called it good.  I didn't even get around to doing fun Halloween photos, but I promised Kylie we would get around to some birthday photos.  A promise is a promise ;)  

Kylie is busy with school and dance as usual.  She is learning her solo, and it is going to really push her this year.  I think she is up for the challenge though, and I've already started to design her costume EEK!!!  Sorry, but that is one of my favorite parts to all of this ;)  She is getting really excited for her birthday party, and her upcoming baptism.  She is a little nervous for the primary program a week after her baptism though.  She was given the part of bearing her testimony about her baptism experience.  It will be her first time bearing her testimony, but I know she will do a great job!  

Ethan is loving Kindergarten, and is doing amazing!  He has straight A's or I guess 5's ;)  He has a best friend who actually lives in the building next to us.  I am so happy he is getting big and doing so well.  Of course it also breaks my heart at the same time, so I am a hot mess most of the time.  

Ethan is looking forward to Christmas and has a very specific list of what he would like, good thing it only has two things on it ;)  

Well that is us in a nut shell, hopefully this month goes off with a hitch.  I just hope I can hold it all together and not get sick at least until January ;) (knock on wood!)

Tricks or Treats?

I had to take a few photos of the kiddos before we left for Tricks or Treats!  We obviously didn't go with any themes for our costumes ;)  We did however get lots of candy and had a lot of fun!  

Hope your Halloween was awesome too!

Happy Halloween!!!

October Update 2012

Hello one and all, October is here and I am uber excited about it!!!!  Sorry to say, but I can't wait for this year to end.  It has been a hard one, and I am ready to give it a little kick in the tush and send it on its way!
Bryan is non existent to us really.  We say bye Dad in the morning (that's really all the kids get until Saturday) and I say how was your day/ goodnight when he gets home!  Yep, STUDY is what Bry's life is at the moment, but that is what needs to be done!  No complaints, the poor guy dreams about pharmaceuticals now; UGH!
I have hit my busy time of year with business, and just about everything else too.  I have a lot of sessions this month, a ward party to plan, my birthday, reflections, class parties, Halloween...... oh yeah and no time to breath before the whirl wind of November with Kylie's birthday, birthday party, Thanksgiving, more sessions............ and right into December kicking it off with a Baptism on the 1st, Primary program, ward party, family parties, Christmas, and New Years!  If I make it out alive I will let you know.  Maybe I really will be able to drop 20lbs. with all I have going on ;)
Kylie is a busy bee too!  Dance is well under way, and she has also begun this years solo as well.  She has one more dance clinic this weekend (for 6 hours) to learn her jazz routine, and then it will be practice, practice, practice!!!!  Kylie is doing awesome in school.  She is in the highest reading group again this year, and is reading up a storm :)  She has also had 100% on every single one of her spelling tests so far.  She is turning 8 in a month and celebrating with a Monster High -- Ghoul's Night Out party.  She will also be getting baptized on December 1st!  I can't believe my baby girl is so big!!!  We are so excited and proud of her we could burst though ;)
Ethan just finished up fall t-ball, and was awesome!  The boy loves the game, and wants to start REAL baseball in the spring.  He is doing so well in Kindergarten, and is reading up a storm too!  Something just clicked and he is sailing right along now :)  We have almost finished his short vowel books and will be moving into the long vowel books shortly!  I have a flash back of Kylie asking me how to spell everything as he rights it down.  He writes the whole family notes and leaves them under our pillows :) He is so sweet (most of the time).  Everybody calls him a mama's boy though, and we are pretty hooked on one another.  He went up to my parents cabin a few weekends ago with just him.  I had a hard time, and apparently (since I got a phone call of him crying and missing me) he did too!  It is so hard to see your babies grow up, something that must eventually come to us all unfortunately.  I am determined to lap up the love and hugs while I can, I know soon I will become uncool!
That is pretty much it at the moment, hopefully the remainder of the year is fun and smooth sailing ;)

Some Early Fall Pictures 2012

My Mom wanted some picks with them and the kiddies for their Christmas cards.  So of course I always take the opportunity to get a bunch of my kids too :)  

Next up...... Halloween pics ;)