FUN FUN

I am getting way behind on my blog here. We are out of town visiting my sister and her family. Thank goodness for family that lives near by. We had a great Christmas. I will make a separate post about that once I get home and get the pictures loaded on to the camera.

For now we are just hanging out and having a good time. We have played a few games. We have sang on the Karaoke machine. We have taken some walks. We have read some books. We have watched some movies. We have stayed up WAY TOO LATE.

The kids have been pretty good. I have to say that they LOVE coming here and playing with their cousins. I only wish we lived even closer to my sister. There are so many things that we would like to do but because of the drive it keeps us away. But I am thankful for living this close so I guess I can't complain.

Now to get all geared up for the near year. WOW. I can hardly believe it will be 2010. Exciting times. Many memories to make for the new year. Many fun things to do. Many lessons to be learned. Many times spent with family. And resolutions to break. :)

No pictures yet. I have been so bad about even taking them since being here. OOPS.

And a LOUD SHOUT OUT to my sister in law to hurry up and have that baby. She is now 4 days past her due date. I am sure she is thinking the same thing. I know she wants that thing out. Can't wait to hear of the news. Just wish I were closer to see her in person. Love ya Lacey.

VERY WORRIED

Mayah and I are very worried that Santa lost his reindeer. Mayah was trying to figure out how Santa was going to fly without them. She was the only one that agreed with me that these were Santa's reindeer. Everyone else said that Santa's deer had HUGE antlers.

You can see the deer walking down our road here. It was SO COOL. The kids were very excited about it. I wonder if Rudolph and the other reindeer are helping Santa get his sleigh unstuck.

This just helped us get a little more Christmas spirit. It was so fun to see so many at once and they were walking in a complete line.

We are finishing up our Christmas eve preparations for tonight. We are making more candy and getting ready to play games tonight and have a lot of snacky foods. The kids are doing the Karoke machine now and then later on tonight we will all settle by the fireplace (electric...but it will do) and read the Luke 2 story and put baby Jesus in the Nativity Scene.

I am so excited to be together with my husband and kids. It is such a magical time that brings out the best in us. :) I am so thankful for my Savior and all that He has done for me. I am thankful for this time to celebrate Him and to reflect on the things that He does to make our life more meaningful and REAL. There is a purpose to us being here and because He was born and because He died we are able to return back to Him. Oh what a glorious day that will be......that is if I get there. I do love my Savior. What a wonderful time to celebrate.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE. WE LOVE YOU.

A big job

Today I went out with the boys to sled down our hill. It wasn't working so well so we decided to build us a snow fort. We piled and piled up a bunch of snow. It reached to about my chest. Then we hollowed it out to make an igloo. The boys were able to fit inside sitting down. While they were enjoying the nice igloo I was on the outside packing more snow on with the shovel. The snow made it just perfect to where I could scoop a bunch of snow and then smack it on to the igloo with the snow shovel. I was on a roll and making it bigger and bigger when all of a sudden it fell right on top. For a second I got scared thinking all of this snow would be on top of them. But their heads stuck out and we all began laughing. PHEW....all that hard work for that? We were out for more than an hour just making this fort. I made them stay like that while I ran in to get the camera.

Here they are after wiggling their way out a bit more. They had a lot of fun and I was hoping to build it really big so the other kids could fit inside. Maybe we will try again tomorrow and get everyone's help.

FHE

This post may not be interesting to others but it is a journal for our family and a documentation of the things we do. One day I will get around to making it a book.

The kids and I emptied out the family room and put up white lights. There is a reason for this. It isn't going to stay up but this was just for FHE. We had a very yummy smelling white candle lit and had soft music playing in the back ground. I made slips of paper with different examples on them. And then after it came a certain amount of steps they had to take. For example. One paper said....you remembered to say your prayers today. Move ahead 2 steps. Another example was.....you lied to your mom and dad. Move 4 steps. SO everyone of them had a different amount of steps to take. If the choice was good they moved toward this beautiful lit peaceful room. If the choice was bad they ended up in the dark, dirty room (pic below). Ethan and Caleb ended up in the dark room. Mayah, Rachel and Zach ended up in the nice smelling peaceful room. I went in the room with them and Don went in with Caleb and Ethan. We explained that the choices we make now will determine where we end up. The Ethan was NOT happy. He wasn't happy that he ended up in that dark room. Even after we tried to explain that it was a game he still had a very serious and upset look on his face. He didn't understand. WE all spent some time in the peaceful room closing our eyes and listening to the soft hymns play and trying to picture ourselves returning back to our Father in Heaven. I was very pleased with how quite all the kids were. They did amazing.

This room we left dirty. You can see how it looks all cluttered. The lights were out and it was dark (can't tell in the picture). We let the kids know how amazing repentance is also. And that sometimes we ALL end up in the dark at one time or another and that because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ we are able to repent and move toward the light.

Caleb made sugar cookies today (all by himself) and then he cut each out into different shapes. For treats the kids decorated their cookies and had fun eating them.

Ethan is so intent on getting his frosting just perfect. He is so funny. He LOVES to do things like this but he isn't so much into eating them. So he will frost them and take a couple of bites and then throw the rest in the garbage. He does like eating the candy that goes on top.

Mayah kept using her finger to lick the frosting off the cookie. She spent quite a bit of time getting all that candy on her cookies.

And yes here we have miss shy girl. LOL. She always wants her picture taken and always has a pose. Rachel was quick on getting her cookies done. There was no fooling around here.



And a picture of them all. Caleb was tasting the frosting.

Breaking December records

I think we got 20 inches but we haven't actually measured it.

This area is not used to all this snow. In fact, when we got new neighbors they asked us how the winters were up on our mountain. I told them we sometimes get ice storms but it hardly ever snows.

Well our snow storm has made December record. How cool is that? I haven't seen this much snow since living in Idaho and I was young so don't quite remember it completely. But I do know that they never closed school down because of it.

Our road in front of our home was plowed early this morning. I was very surpsrised. All that snow just piled up at the end of our driveway and since Don has to work tomorrow we went out this morning and shoveled and shoveled and shoveled. Then we shoveled some more. Finally, Don was able to get the SUV down to the end but couldn't get back up so we shoveled some more.

We decided to take a break from that and do our neighbors. She has to work tomorrow too and she has a small front wheel drive car. Atleast Don can take the SUV tomorrow. We were able to clear her small driveway and around her car so now she can get out. They came out after awhile and were so happy. Then she asked Don and I, "which one of you told us it doesn't snow here?" I had to admit to her that it was me....saying....but isn't it beautiful? Do you want to go sleddin?

She didn't. :)

We then continued on with our driveway so we could get back up it. Finally, after our arms couldn't hold onto the shovel anymore, he was able to get back up. Don was out for 4 hours and I was out for 3. I think this should count as a whole week of my treadmill workout.

I am not too fond of snow but this is beautiful and it ins't bad being snowed in since we are all together as a family. The kids love it and have been outside a few times through all of this.

Atleast we will have a white Christmas. I don't think it snowed the last three years we were here. So this is cool. PLUS....Santa's sleigh can move so much better in the snow. And I am sure he will be happy about that.

A little sad

Here is Ethan working hard to help with the dog house. This project took quite awhile and still is not done but now our dog will not be able to use it at our place. We have to get rid of our dog and for personal reasons it is a bit sad. Mostly sad....because my older boys are a bit attached. The dog slept in Zach's room last night. I know he wants to keep her and they don't know yet that we can't keep her.

Here is the house closer to getting done. We used shingles from the basement that were left there from the builder. We put plastic on top first to keep out the rain and put it on all sides as well before nailing the boards on. We insulated the top of the inside. And we put some outdoor carpeting in too.

Before the shingles. I am not doing good putting these pictures in any order.

LOOK even Mayah is helping. She is drawing pictures on it for the dog. :)

Don and Rachel drilling the latches on.

Caleb and Don putting a vent on it. Oh what a spoiled dog. LOL.

Caleb and Don finding the right bit for drilling.

Here you can see the boards that we nailed on. It is almost complete except the boards that need to be put on the front.

Getting closer but still not finished.

A side view with the vent and boards.

And here is Nana. Someone is coming tomorrow to see if they are a good match with her. I hope and pray they are. I hope it will be a loving home that can spend alot of time with her and love her and treat her as part of their family. They are interested in buying the dog house too. That would be cool to have it go with her. We wanted to paint it and put her name on it but that didn't get done. Caleb and Zach went with Don to pick her out when she was only 2 months old. They will have to adjust to her being gone but I know it is for the best that she has a new home.

Our Christmas tree

Ethan wears his Christmas sweater almost everyday. The kids are helping make sugar cookies. They were so proud of their creations.

Ethan is handing Mayah a cookie that he had cut out and Mayah had the job of putting them on the pan. They switched after awhile and did an awesome job.

Here is Rachel and Mayah helping decorate the tree. Rachel has her apron on so she can help make the frosting for the sugar cookies. Zach and Ethan helping with the tree.

The kids under the tree. Caleb (11) Zach (9) Ethan (5) Mayah (3) Rachel (6)

Here is Caleb putting something on the tree. Don put the lights on and we let the kids do all the rest.

Caleb took this. He also spent a lot of time putting up each of the stockings. He has to hammer the tacks into the fireplace. :) WOW. Don and I both have a stocking up. Does that mean Santa will fill it? I have had that stocking since I was a kid and my mom gave it to me when I moved out. The other stockings don't even have the kids' names on them. We got them last year and never got around to it. SO SAD. Caleb also put the lighted garland around the fireplace and set up the nativity scene and put the candles at the end.

A close up of the no namers. I found that glass jar in the closet and just put some red and gold ornaments in there and put a bow around it.

The $22 dollar tree. SO perfect.

Was that torture?

Don out hunting. DIDN'T even see a single thing.

Walking back after HE decided we were done. Even though I was freezing I didn't say a word. I was going to let him call it when it was time to go.
Check out our matching hats. :) I am actually wearing one of the boys' hats.

So every other month Don and I get to have an overnighter to be alone and do something fun. Friday night was out time and our wonderful friends watched our kids. Don really wanted to go hunting and he has asked me to go with him before but all I could see was being out in the cold and never being able to talk. And for me and I think alot of women.....sounded like pure torture. BUT

because Don does alot of the things I want to do I figured I would go. We got up at 4 a.m. and it was pitch dark and super cold. It was supposed to be the coldest day yet. I was thankful to a friend for loaning me some of her ski stuff to keep me warm. As I was taking the kids over to their home to be babysat Rachel started crying. Finally she told me it was because she didn't want me to get cold while we went hunting. How sweet is that? I reassured her that I would dress very warm and we would be just fine.

So back to the 4 a.m. thing. I was tired but I didn't let that stop me from getting up and getting all my warm clothes on. I had some black ski pants and two pair of socks and a neck warmer thing. I also had some skiing gloves that were lined with fleece that my friend let me borrow.

I started walking down the stairs and every step I took was noisy with the ski pants rubbing against each other. I knew I wouldn't be allowed to wear them. It would be too noisy and I would scare away the deer. I was pretty sure from talking to Caleb and Zach about their hunting experiences with Don that I wouldn't even be allowed to cough or breath.

So I had to change. I wore a pair of my own exercise type pants and then put Don's pants over that. It worked.

We headed out and stopped for gas and a newspaper. I had made me some nice hot chocolate before we left and was going to take it with me until I found out there would be NO place to go to the bathroom. I drank just a bit and left the rest there.

We arrived at our hunting spot and as soon as we got out of the car I knew I was gonna get cold but I made a promise with myself that I would not say a single word. I just went along with it. There was snow everywhere and that was funny. Every step we took you could hear a loud crunch. HMMM I am pretty sure the deer were going to stay around for that. And where there wasn't any snow the gound was still crunchy.

Finally we got to where we wanted to sit. Every once in awhile I would try talking (actually whispering) and pretty much would just get a puckered up lip with a SHHHH after it.

We sat for about 30-45 minutes with NO luck. I was so glad when Don decided it was enough. WE had walked for quite a ways and now sitting in the freezing cold with red noses and my fogged up glasses he had decided maybe we should go. YES. I was really happy.

It wasn't as bad as I thought but it wasn't all fun either. I really enjoyed the peace and quiet in the mountains and just sitting together was nice too. But I can only do that once. I have to be busy doing 'something'. And sitting around looking for deer in the freezing cold isn't really my idea of 'something. BUT I did it and I can say now I have been hunting and it was nice to be alone for a night. We had a good time.

All you got to do is ask.......

Not sure what this is? READ TO FIND OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!

This morning Caleb missed the bus. This isn't new news. It happens more often than we would like. BUT I had to go in to town anyway to clean the car and go to the bank. It is REALLY cold too so Ethan, Mayah and I hurried as fast as we could to get all the garbage out of the car and vacuum it. Good thing it was cold. The vacuum cost us $3. If we hadn't been moving so fast who knows how much that big ole' dirty truck would have cost to get cleaned.

Our next stop was the bank. I had to deposit some money. I looked in the back of my check book and had no more deposit slips. Thankfully, they always have extra. I asked the lady if she could please send me a deposit slip because I was out. After filling out the slip and getting the deposit taken care of she put in two suckers for the kids and asked if there was anything else I needed. I replied that we were good....but then she wanted to know if I wanted to take a few extra deposit slips with me. I told her that would be great. After thinking I realized that maybe there was something else we needed. SO I told her that she could just go ahead and send me some extra money so that I could actually use those deposit slips.

She got a good laugh but then I had an even better laugh when I opened the box and found two suckers and this little baggy. She said.....there's your money. HAHAHAHAHAH LOL. It is a bunch of shredded up money. It is very old worn out money that gets shredded and replaced with new crisp dollars. TOO FUNNY. That really made my day. I asked for money and got it. :)

Great experience

Both Ethan and Zach had things to do in Primary today. Here is Zach's talk. He held up the picture that would correspond with the poem which said this: He did a great job.

An exciting time of year
that we're all waiting to hear
of that special gift under the tree
always wondering what it will be.

waiting....waiting.....taking so long
and trying my best to remain strong.

so much time making my list
and hoping there wasn't anything missed.

Toys, snow and Santa were on my mind
but then I realized I was being blind.

I opened my eyes and wanted to shout
that this wasn't what it was all about.

It was about the Savior being born
long ago on that first Christmas morn.

I love the primary program. There is so much that the kids learn. I enjoy being in the primary and knowing what the kids are singing and learning and doing. I have four of my five kids in there and in January all my kids will be in there. How fun is that?

Our primary is pretty small compared to the other wards I have been in. So my kids have plenty of experiences to get up and give talks, prayers and scriptures. Ethan had his first experience today giving the scripture. We worked on it all week at night before going to bed. He had it memorized. It helped that I had worked with all the kids on this particular scripture one morning when we had our candle light breakfast. Toward the end of the week he didn't want to work on it anymore.

So this morning came and he got up there and stood there. I started him off and he said it. Then I helped him again. Then he said it but just stood there. Finally he did part of it himself but it seemed that he needed alot of help and I am glad I could be there to help him. Then tonight at dinner we asked him to tell us his scripture. He said it with no problem. I just think he was a bit nervous with those little faces looking at him. But what better experience is there to help the children learn and grow and become confident? I know he will just get better and better and soon be able to do it all on his own.

The scripture was Matthew 5:16 which says, Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven. When we were practicing Ethan was saying it fine but kept leaving out (which) and would just say glorify your Father in Heaven. So I tried to think of a way to help him remember that part. When he would get to that part I would make a loud witch noise. And he NEVER forgot after that. :)

You know you're a Mormon when........

your child uses books to build a food storage.

I was making some peanut brittle in the kitchen. As soon as I was finished the kids wanted me to read them a story. SO as soon as I finished the candy I went into the room and found this. Then Mayah say's, MOM....don't ruin our food storage. Apparently they have quite the food storage area here.

when you know Glenn Beck better than your own neighbors.

Don and I went out last night to see The Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck. IT was SO FABULOUS. We both loved it and both cried. You could hear sniffles and people blowing their noses in the theater.

We are listening to this book on cd with our whole family. Each night (when time permits) we gather on our big king size bed with all the kids and take some time to listen as Glenn tells this story. It is actually very fun to get all snuggled under the covers with the kids surrounding us. The little ones usually lose interest pretty fast but Caleb and Zach really like it. They were not very happy that they didn't get to come along with us. But they were excited to get to stay with their cousins.

I recommend going and seeing this if you can. They will be rebroadcasting it in certain areas on Dec. 10th. Go to www.glennbeck.com/content/events/ and you can click on the Christmas Sweater logo thing and can see if it is playing in your area. It is worth it. It is really good. If you can't go I recommend reading the book.

And a big thank you to my sister for watching the kids and helping them with homework and reading to them and putting them to bed. It was nice to have a couple of hours out with Don. THANKS.

People coming together

I love that people rally together and strive to help others when they need it most. I follow a blog that is trying to help a family that has suffered a great loss. This person has suffered a loss herself and is putting together an auction for a family that has lost their 26 year old brother/father/husband. The blog owner lost a daughter to drowning a year ago. She is dedicating her blog entries for the next few weeks to auctioning off some items to raise money for this young widow. It just about brings me to tears to see people helping total strangers. Please if you can spread this on your blog and facebook we can be a part of helping as well. Also if you have something that you could donate to auction that would be amazing. I know many of you are very talented and this would really help raise the money for this wonderful family.

You can check it out here: http://adailyscoop.blogspot.com/ If you go to the left handside of her blog you will be able to see each blog post so far and you can click on each and see what is being auctioned off so far. Such cute stuff.

If you follow her blog far enough you will be able to read about this young man and how amazing he was. He was attending UVA (where two of my nieces are going) to be a Pediatric Cardiologist.

If you can just spread the word that would be great. Thanks so much.

Too fast

I tried getting Mohamed to kiss his wife. Didn't quite get to her face. She couldn't understand what he was doing. Still cute.

Sam and Sara....my niece and nephew. Looks like Sam is getting ready to eat some pie. Is that a fork I see in his hand?

Caleb purposely getting messy while eating chocolate cream pie.

Nadia and Don and Mohamed. Just sitting around gabbing.

The kids are getting ready to play some games. Or maybe eat. I can't remember. There is Zach, Rachel, Sam, Mayah, and Sara.



Zach got hurt on the trampoline and her is Sue helping him get an ice pack.

Rachel is so proud that she licked her plate super clean.

Here is Leila (niece) with Mayah.

My nieces and nephews. Sam, Sara, Leila, and Nadia.

And best of all....LOL....my sister and I. Can we all see how much taller I am than her. I love to rub it in. I mean she is the oldest sister and I am the youngest. HEHEHEHE








Here is the Thanksgiving crowd. All ready to eat good food and enjoy fun times.

Here is the 22 pound turkey. All the other food is still being placed a little at a time to keep it hot.

The baby pictures that were used for name tags. Going across the top from left to right is Sara, Nadia, Mayah. The second row is Rachel, Caleb, Zach. The last row is Leila, Ethan and Sam. SO CUTE.

Why is it that vacations go soooo fast? We had a blast spending time at my sisters house for 4 days. My kids have so much fun with their cousins. And it is so fun to get together and play games and eat good food and enjoy great company. It has been tradition at Thanksgiving and Christmas for us to play Pinochle. It is something my parents taught us when we were young and it is something their parents taught them. It is now time for us to teach our kids so that this tradition will continue on. It is so fun. We are crazy and end up staying up way too late. I think I only went to bed at a decent hour one night. The rest were 1 and 2 a.m. CRAZY huh? It isn't as easy to stay up late anymore. My nieces have no problem doing it because they can sleep all the next day. But WE have kids. And kids get up early no matter what time they go to bed. But....so very worth the late night talks with my sister and nieces. So worth the late nights playing games. So worth the late nights just being together. It was fun. Now have to get all ready for our Christmas games.

We played games with the kids. There was a little of everything. We played Spoons, Qwich, Picturequa, Four in a row, hide and seek and Kadub (Arabic for liar). SO FUN.

I failed to post on Thanksgiving and I missed the day before I think too. But I am most grateful for family and for my Savior/gospel. There isn't anything really more important than those two things.

I will post pictures of our fun times. I can't find my camera at the moment but will have hopefully have it tomorrow and I will just add the pictures to this post.

For our Thanksgiving feast I made some homemade name tags. I got a picture of all the kids (OK I guess Nadia and Leila aren't really kids anymore. You know when you get to be 18 and 20 they make sure you know they are ADULTS now. SO I made name tags for all the kids under the age of 20. I scanned pictures of them when they were babies. I then put the pictures on some cute stripey paper and then on some construction paper. I put all the pictures on a table and they had to find which picture belonged to them. It was pretty easy for most of them. It was kind of funny when Sara grabbed Mayah's baby picture and as she was walking back to her seat she said, "I am pretty sure this is me". Then she held it up again and took it back to the table. By that time Mayah had grabbed her picture. When Sara went back and didn't see any other choices she went and sat down. You could tell she was a bit confused yet she thought there was a chance it could be her. Finally, they worked it out and everyone had their baby picture.

We also went around the room a few times and said what we were thankful for. And then played a game where one person says what they are thankful for and the next person has to start their word with the last letter in the word that came before them. For instance....if I said I am thankful for the suN then the next person would have to start their word with the letter N. The kids loved that.

Now we are all reading to think about Christmas. Caleb brought out the boxes and has already started decorating. We normally save it for the first Family Home Evening right after Thanksgiving but we let him put up one of the Nativity scenes and some of the candles and garland. The rest we will save. Don is going to put up all the outside lights and I can't wait. Last year he was overseas for business and I eneded up putting some of the lights outside but Don didn't think me getting up on a ladder when he was gone was a good idea so this year we will be able to do more lights. So fun.

Man this year has just gone so fast. I can't even believe it is close 2010. Just seems that time flies by no matter how hard I try to stop it. :)