Ridiculously out of order...CHRISTMAS! #1

I just found and uploaded the pictures from my point and shoot, and boy is there some great stuff on here.

And since I lost ALL.

Yes, ALL.

Yes, A-L-L of the pictures on every blog on every post I've ever written in the last 4 years before January 2011 (it was my fault, and please, don't rub it in, or laugh. I will cry. Then I will punch you in the face. Then I will punch you again. Then we can cry together.) I decided, what the heck?
So here it is...Christmas 2010


First up, Ferrell Family Christmas Eve (actually held on December 22nd)
We have a ton of Ferrell Family Christmas Eve traditions. Some have been in place since I was born, and some have cropped up or changed since kids got older, and grandkids keep coming. One thing about Christmas eve never changes- IT'S THE BEST! It's so great to be with so many people who love and appreciate their family, and the special time of year that we celebrate the Savior.
We start with a delicious dinner, and then move to a kids game that involves lots of fun presents.

Jaxon and Oakley, (and mostly Brennen too!) Are best buds...and they sure love their grandma!

Jaxon and Oakley proudly displaying their matching presents during the kids game!

Let the games- BEGIN!

Here is Jaxon as "Joseph" for the live nativity. While, there is a chance that we may have missed the mark a little as far as "joseph" goes...at least he looks like a foreigner!!! :o)

Our crew as Mary, Joseph, star, angels, wise men, and shepherds!

Next Grandpa did his annual "Coin Grab." Each child gets a chance to grab as many quarters (With a few chinese coins mixed in) as they can and put in their bag. Every year by dad makes a number of rules, and has soon as the first kid has his hands in the bucket, he throws all the rules out the window, because the truth is, there is nothing my dad likes better than to be generous!

(Jaxon ended up with $111.62)

After that we have an adult game which is always full of great presents. Also usually full of very motivated people to get certain presents, and a generous amount of discussing what exactly constitutes cheating! (All in good fun of course!) Dave and I ended up with gift cards to Pei Wei, Tropical Smoothie, Red Lobster, Outback, McDonalds, and 2 massages! Now that's what I call a good haul !!
The night also usually includes a family candle ceremony led by mom, a parade with instruments while we sing Christmas Carols at the top of our lungs, and another round of carols while we do our best (which is not so good...) to read music while playing hand bells! It's awfully fun, and well...fairly awful!

PINATA!!!

Come on- Whacking something as hard as you can with a stick- That's ALWAYS FUN! So of course, the pinata was no exception. After all the kids got through twice and it still was not broken, we let the adults take a crack at it. Again, fun was had by all, but no more than me, as I was taking these hilarious pictures-

I'll start out with a couple cute ones of my little man,


and then move into Face close-ups as people hit the pinata. In a lot of the really great ones, the bat was covering too much of the face (ie- all my brothers...) but rest assured....THEY WERE GREAT!!!

I saved the best 4 for last....

...See what I mean?

PS- don't I have the best family for being there for this whole shindig???

BIRTHDAY GAMES!

The First game we played was "Don't Eat Pete" Seriously, this game is a KID PLEASER! It's very simple.

1. Get a game board/bingo board with different spaces. They can have letters, numbers, pictures, words, etc inside.

2. The child who is "it" has to go away, while everyone decides which space on the board is "pete"

3. Put a small candy (mini M&Ms for us) on each space.

4. The child comes back and eats one space at a time. When the child picks up "PETE" everyone shouts at the top of their little lungs, "DON'T EAT PETE!!!!!" and then the turn is over. So the point is to eat as many M&Ms as you can before you eat Pete!

Next was this funny one- Everyone puts a chocolate covered pretzel on their forehead. The first person to get it into their mouth, chew and swallow without using their hands, wins. The older kids took it pretty seriously. The younger kids took their pretzel off their forehead and ate it, and then wondered why the older kids were acting so weird!

This next one was a big hit- and I'm glad because I wasn't so sure how well it would work.

Everyone got a plate full of cotton balls and an empty cup. I went around and put a huge dollop of vasoline on the tips of their noses, and then they had to transport all the cotton balls from the plate to the cup only using their sticky nose! Everyone had a great time, and no one cared who won, but everyone really wanted to finish. Some went super fast and crazy, and some meticulously did one cotton ball at a time. Good times were had by all!

We had one more game before the Pinata (Which I thought would be the big "hit" (get it?) of the party) and I almost skipped this last game. Good thing I didn't, because it was the star of the show, for kids and parents alike!!! (Let me add in here that I come from a ridiculously competative family. I mean- seriously. seriously!)

I had my brother use masking tape and make a big "target" on the sidewalk. Everyone got a piece of computer paper and got to make a paper airplane. The only rules were it had to be a plane (not a wadded up piece of paper) and you couldn't add anything else to it. You have never seen such serious airplane builders!
First we had the kids division and everyone got three throws. We kept track of the closest to the target and deduced a winner! The kids had a great time, and then went off to the sand and continued to throw their airplanes!

Next came the adult division, and I'm serious- IT. WAS. SERIOUS.

People were testing the wind, changing their throw stance, cheating was accused several times, and after MUCH MUCH MUCH Debate, we finally got a winner! (It was all good natured fun by the way~)

Then, everyone was so heated up (and the losers wanted a chance at redemption...) so we had an impromptu "WITH ONE THROW WHO CAN THROW THEIR PAPER AIRPLANE THE FURTHEST" competition. After everyone threw, the two furthest away were paced off (more than once) by several impartial judges, and another winner was declared. It was so much fun to have something the adults enjoyed!

I only got pictures of the construction of the planes and not the competition because I was the line judge, and in this game there was no room for error!

The next post will be Pinata Pictures...because they are so funny they deserve their own post!

Jaxons 5th Birthday- Post 1

I'm only a few weeks late with these posts, so all in all, I think I'm doing pretty well. So the morning of Jaxon's birthday he woke up in his amazing new bed. We played in there for a while, Then we hurried to Fry's for a birthday donut and a few brownie mixes! We made brownies, (Jaxon only wanted brownies, no cake or cupcakes..FINE BY ME!!!!) and gathered all our Spiderman decor, food, drinks, and games and headed to the park. I didn't get any pictures of set up, but it was great!

Jaxon had been asking for over 6 months to have a "cousins" birthday party. With no siblings, he really, truly, honest too goodness, loves his cousins as if they were his brothers and sisters. (And occasionally fights with them as such as well!) He was particularly concerned that is dear cousin from California might not be able to make it, but guess what? My brother and SIL and Aurora all came out for the whole weekend! Just one of the many many special touches that made the weekend perfect!

I will insert here, that I am very VERY grateful to ALL my brothers and sisters and spouses that gave up a whole Saturday to come celebrate with us. Everyone is privy to the fact that we sure wish we had more "immediate" family for Jaxon, and every single person does their best to show him immense amounts of love. It is not lost on this tenderhearted momma, and if it is possible, makes me even more grateful for my amazing family!

When everyone arrived we had pizza, breadsticks, chips, water, soda, veggies- the works! Here is cousin Jonathon in his sweet new wheels! And boy can he drive!

For about an hour the kids just played like happy little maniacs. Somehow, for this day, everyone got along! I'm serious. Every parent there got to sit and chat with every other parent. No tears, complaints, tattles (that I can remember, but I was feeling a bit euphoric...) One thing I just loved?! All the kids played in their party hats, it was SO FESTIVE!



After pizza and playing, Jaxon was ready to dive into his brownies and PRESENTS! Everyone was so thoughtful, and really couldn't have gotten Jaxon better gifts. We were truly so grateful at every one's kindness.

All the kids gobbled down their brownies, but none faster than Jaxon! Why? because he knew what was next...GAMES! He had hand picked all the games we were going to play, and he was so excited, but that my friends who again made it through this long post, is for another day!

SO instead I will leave you with a few of my favorite shots-

Jaxon and his best buddy Hailey-

Here is Jaxon showing off his two newly acquired and much acclaimed new tricks- the fireman's pole, and the monkey bars!

Come one- even with that missing tooth of his, and that cheesy pose and grin - he is a HANDSOME LITTLE DEVIL!!!

And lest we forget...Dad's like the swings too!!!

Now or NEVER!!!

I have been waiting to start blogging about Jaxon's (RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME) birthday weekend until I had pictures of his bed, but I realized, I just gotta get going. So, for months now I have been checking religiously on Craigslist for a particular bed. It is a twin that is sort-of a loft bed, (about 3.5 feet high) with nice space underneath for playing, a ladder on one side, and a SLIDE DOWN THE OTHER! Ever since I saw one on Craigslist, I have seen them pop up every now and then. After seeing a few come and go I realized a great price would be $150. A good price would be $200, and anything over $250 was priced too high. I was hoping to have one for Christmas, but everytime one came up that was priced well, it was already gone when I called. And everytime I tried to talk someone down that was priced too high-- they thought I was nuts! (And were probably waiting for crazed mothers who needed it for Christmas!)
So, about a month before J's birthday I found one for $150 on Craigslist, and it was only about a mile away! We got it immediately and stored the parts and pieces at the warehouse. My master plan that I was SO SO SO SO SO SO SO excited about (seriously, GIDDY!) was to put J to bed the night before his birthday, and move him into our bed after he fell asleep. Then we would take out his toddler bed, put together his new bed, and put him back in bed to wake up in the morning.
Dave- not such a lover of this plan. He didn't love the idea of starting this kind of project so late, but I couldn't NOT do it! Seriously- how cool would that be to wake up on your fifth birthday in a new big boy bed WITH A SLIDE!?!?!?!?!
We didn't get J to bed until super late (Almost 9) on his birthday eve because of other family activities which means we didnt start until about 9:30. The bed was fairly simple to put together, but I forgot to take into account that fact that it would be SO MUCH BIGGER than his other bed, plus with a slide jutting out...woops! Long story short, Dave had to rearrange the bedroom furniture 3 times before we came to an arrangement I liked. He- NOT SO MUCH!
For underneath the bed I got a clip-on lamp, a rug with roads all over it, and several trucks, cars, ambulance etc.
We put J back to bed and I was so excited I could hardly sleep! I woke at the first sound of his rustling in the morning, and woke Dave as well. Next thing we knew we heard,
"uhhhhh..... uhhhhhhhh...... WOW!" Then lots of noises as he explored the room. When his clock turned to 6 and he was able to come out, he came shyly into our room and DIDN'T SAY ONE WORD ABOUT THE BED!!!! He was acting very secretive and sheepish, as if he didn't want to mention it in case we didn't know about it, and might take it away.
We said, "How does it feel to be 5? Anything new? Anything different?"
nothing. not a word about his bed.
WHAT THE HECK?
Finally after about 5 minutes we asked, "Well, do you like your new big boy bed?????"
Once he could see that it was actually his, his face lit up and he started talking a mile a minute!
"YES! MOM! DAD! It has blue covers, and A SLIDE!!! It has a REAL SLIDE! You HAVE to come see this! And there are toys underneath! COME ON, COME SEE!"

So of course, we did! We watched him race up and down the slide several times, and try out his bed. We played cars under his bed for quite a while, and it was JUST PERFECT!!!

There are some things that you really build up in your head. This was one of those moments, and one of those weekends for me. My little guy is really not so little anymore. I just wanted it to be perfect. And it was. The bed was just the tip of the iceburg to the birthday weekend I hoped and dreamed it would be for him. Does that sound cheesy? That's ok. With no siblings, he adores ADORES his cousins like nothing I have ever seen. They were all (except for Katie and Jane- boo!) going to be at his party, and I just wanted it to be the time of his life. AND IT WAS. But that story, my readers who made it through this very long post, is for the next one!

FREE!!!

The Chair is in a wonderful new home, but if you want the bed for free- SPEAK UP! Otherwise it's going to D.I. next weekend!

Come on, you know your little guy would love it!

Yes, I'm talking to you!

Yes you!

Any Takers?

For Sale-

1. Fisher Price Fire Engine Bed. (with toddler mattress!)

This bed has brought Jaxon two years of fun, but he is just getting to big for it now. It's in great shape, with a few dings and scuffs. It sells new for $228 at Toys R Us, and here it's a steal for only $75!!! First come first serve, and please feel free to make me an offer I can't refuse!

2. Cute Chair. (Cute children sold seperately...)I used this in my Christmas Mini sessions and loved it. The front of the seat cushion is a little scuffed up, and slightly sun-lightened. I got it for $50 on Craigslist, and it can be yours for $40! (Or go ahead and make me an offer!)