Happy New Year Everyone!

Just 5 more hours! Yeah us!

Confusion

Ok, I may have confused a few people. Three days from Sunday meant- 3 days left without Robert. He comes home on the 4th day (Thursday), but you can't count that day, because he will be home that day.
He made it to Kuwait. Now just a day to wait until he can board a plane to fly home. I am getting stir crazy and can't seem to occupy myself enough. I cleaned the cupboards in the kitchen- they needed it badly. That took most of the day, but I am still bored and restless. One more day to go with nothing to do, I guess.
Happy New Year's Eve everyone!

3 days and counting!!

We can't wait! We are very excited!
Now how are we going to get through those 3 days?

Merry Christmas and winners!

Merry Christmas to everyone.
I hope yours was fantastic.

My parents and youngest brother came. We went to the White house and shopped and bought hot chocolate from Starbucks (had to try it out, once), celebrated a 40th wedding anniversary with yummy Cheesecake, opened lots of gifts (but saved some for when Rob got home), and went to see the temple lights. It was a wonderful time. We did the traditional nativity play. This year Crash Bandicoot played the roll of the baby Jesus. He lay in a blanket on a bed of pom-poms. Emma was Mary and actually fit into a skirt that I had bought for myself, but haven't been able to get into since I had Max- scary. Joseph was obviously Joseph, Max was our sweet little angel, Dad/Grandpa was King Herod, Sam was all three wisemen, and Uncle Timmy was the Shepherd- note all the animals he seems to be taking care of.Traditional Christmas Eve PJ's

Our Secret Santa finished with some fun gifts for us. What a lot of work to do the 12 days of Christmas for a family, but how much fun we had trying to catch them- we never did.
It was a great Christmas, except that we didn't have a Dad. The count down has begun, though. 5 more days and counting!
Some of you didn't get our Christmas letter, but it had a code in it. My aunt Cheryl was the first with what the code said, but didn't give the answer. The code said, "if you haven't got a half penny then what?" My husband informed me that there was a mistake and the g was turned into an N, so that may have confused a few people. Anyway, the Burnham's from Nevada came up with the answer- then God Bless You! I guess I have to give 2 prizes! Congrats!

Christmas Tag

I was tagged by the grand Gretchen to come up with 5 Christmas things. Here they are:

5 Favorite Christmas Movies:
1. While you were Sleeping (I maintain it is a Christmas movie just like Die Hard!)
2. White Christmas
3. The Grinch
4. The Christmas Story
5. National Lampoon's Christmas

5 Things that happened yesterday
1. got antibiotics for an infected finger (Darn you Wal-mart beauty salon!!)
2. took the kids to do their holiday shopping
3. Ate Cheesecake for my parents 40th anniversary
4. Talked to my brother, briefly
5. Made cookies for Santa claus

5 things to look forward to
1. Robert coming home
2. Christmas eve
3. Robert coming home
4. Christmas day
5. Robert coming home

5 things on your wish list
1. scrapbook stuff (I collect it)
2. Robert to come home
3. smaller hips
4. bigger boobs
5. Peace on earth
(OK, I just couldn't remember any of the gifts I bought for myself- so I had to come up with other wish list items.)

5 things I love most about Christmas/Winter
1. snow on Christmas (not going to happen this year)
2. Hot chocolate
3. Christmas music
4. Trying to find the perfect gift
5. Saying Thank you to everyone and telling them how much they mean to you
And of course the treats!!

5 people I tag
Jamie, Rebecca, Jen L, Brittany, and Jodi

SPT- Comfort and Joy

Christmas Comfort:

St. Nicholas gave us girls these slippers. I think he found them here. They are fabulous! I am not a slipper gal for the most part, but these are so comfortable and very stylish. In fact, this is what the teachers are getting this year!

Christmas Joy:Love seeing my little ones enjoying Christmas. Here is Max helping play Jingle Bells on the Chimes at our Church Christmas Party.

Volleyballs done! Yeah Me!

Some of you may know that I volunteered at my daughters school to help out the volleyball program if they would extend it to the 6th graders- so Emma could play. Well, they took that and ran. I became the 6th grade volleyball coach. Some of you might also know that I don't know a thing about volleyball. I looked long and hard on the internet and got tutorials and videos and the new book of rules. I did a lot of reading. Unfortunately, reading doesn't do much for skill! And skillz is something I don't have! Very, very luckily for me, I found someone in my neighborhood that not only knew what she was doing, she had actually coached high school volleyball before. Hallelujah! She couldn't come all the time, at first, because of her son's soccer- those days were extra hard, but in the end it all turned out. We had a fun time, the girls had fun, they all learned something, and so did I! Thanks Donna!! We ended the season winning against the 7th and 8th grade team. The girls, of course, were ecstatic!

Secret Santa

We've got a Secret Santa. This is what they brought us yesterday. It was such a cute idea- 12 brownies (I think a few may be missing in this picture. LOL) with 12 reasons they like us stuck on toothpicks in the brownies. It made us feel so good!

Holiday Daze

W e are in full Holiday mode here at our home. We had our second Christmas party on Friday. This one was with Emma's soccer team. We have only been a part of this team for 2 seasons, but most of these girls have been playing together for years. The one requirement was that the girls come in a dress. After the picture they were allowed to change into anything they wanted. The soccer coach just really wanted to see his girls in something other than kick butt gear!
We have shopped, cooked, and decorated. The kids did the Christmas tree this year. I kept it that way for a week and then just had to change it. All the gold ornaments were together in one spot, all the big balls were at the top of the tree, etc.
Poor Max has had a hard season so far. This is his second cold so far and this one came with a fever.
I am also in the middle of Christmas cards. I don't know what I was thinking, making the cards this year. Why can't I just be like normal people and buy them? And to top that all off is the stress of writing The Letter. A Christmas letter should be interesting, informative and a little fun, not too long and not too laden with praise for ones own off-spring. Tricky! But I love letters. Some of these people I never hear from except once a year. Don't just send me a signed copy of your holiday photo! Ok, well if you must, but I much prefer a note saying what you are up to!
I must admit, with all this going on, it is mostly me that is doing it all. I sometimes worry that I don't do enough with my children to help them enjoy this time of the year and think about Christ. This year I am giving myself a pass, but I will be very glad when we have the advent calendar next year. I want to really celebrate with my family and enjoy the whole season!

How do you make this time of year with all the things that you want to get done a family affair and how do you help them all enjoy the real reason for the season? Do you like Christmas letters and cards too?

Diverting Santa Questions

Things heard lately:
Child: Aren't Santa and St. Nicholas the same thing?
Me: Of course not. (Of course they are, but we aren't saying so!)
Child: But I thought they were
Me: Nope. (note: no other explanation! More would just get you into trouble)
Child: Why doesn't he come to everyone.
Me: He only comes to people that believe in him. Our next door neighbors don't believe in Santa, because they are Jewish. St. Nicholas is the same. He is mostly a German guy, but we brought him back from Germany, so he has to come to us too.

Joseph: Mom is Santa Claus real?
Me: What? (Fiend deafness!)
Joseph: I said, "Do you know if Santa Claus is real?
Me: Yes. (again, do not expand on the Yes. Child #2 and 3 have no idea that you are answering the question of whether you know if he is real or not, but think you are answering the ultimate question!)

Sam: Mom is Santa Claus real?
Me: What do you mean? (Darn, no way to get out of that one!)
From here, I can't remember how the conversation went, but it ended up with something I could answer truthfully without giving any real valuable information out! Lucky me!!

And by the way, I am going to have to check out that nursery. #4 has started saying "Dern- it!" a lot lately. And today he came out with "What the Heck?" I don't know who is teaching my child these kinds of things, but 3 is a little young to be cursing already, don't you think? LOL

SPT- Season of Love

I am cheating. Take a look at the previous post. This is my Season of Love. It fit perfectly and it even has a self portrait in it- all be it one I have already used!

Revealed

Ok, finally it is the 1st of December and I can reveal what I have been doing. I made quite a few people curious when I posted this picture.Well, here is the finished result. One person guessed it right. It is an advent calendar. I sent one to my husband in Iraq and the other went to a family member for Christmas. Inside the mittens there are rolls of paper that have activities on them. There are gifts in the package that I sent that had corresponding numbers with certain of the activities. Like one day was "Enjoy the sounds of the season." That day there is a CD made by my daughter Emma and I with our favorite Christmas songs on it. One day it says to "Enjoy the taste of the season" and there is some yummy hot chocolate to go with that.
Some of our other ideas:
Go see the lights at the temple
Do a good deed
Family game night
Do Christmas cards
Make snowflakes
Bake Christmas cookies
Watch a holiday movie
Read a new Christmas book
Decorate Gingerbread houses
Go around the neighborhood looking at the decorations and give a prize to the one your family votes as the best decorated.
#1 in my husband's was "Decorate for Christmas". I sent him a little Christmas tree and all his activity papers are tied with a little ornament to go on the tree. He says he has the most festive cubicle in the area! I love how excited he is to open up number 2 already and see what it says! He said he really wanted to peak at all of them, but restrained himself. Now he has something exciting to look forward to every morning- exactly what I was hoping for!
The kids were really bummed that I didn't make one for us, but getting two completed and off was enough of a challenge for one year. Besides, I expect Rob to bring his home and we will use that next year.

Our First Holiday Party

I thought the kids might get bored over the long holiday weekend, so I decided to throw them a little party. We made it a count down to Christmas party. We decorated cookies, drank hot chocolate and made an advent chain with all my scrapbooking scraps. It was tons of fun!

Thankful for fire alarms, sometimes

Joseph's Indian costume he made for his little Thanksgiving day lunch at school

I haven't been keeping up very well, lately. I have been working on a Christmas present. I can post about that on Monday! It took so long to finish that I didn't start baking for Thanksgiving until 4 pm. We were invited by a very nice family in the ward. I was getting a little nervous that we might be doing it alone, but then they asked. They aren't big turkey lovers, so they were going to have Prime Rib. In the end the store was out of prime rib and so we had turkey and ham. I was a little disappointed, because what an experience- it could be the prime rib Thanksgiving! Everything turned out really well. I made the pies and the rolls and some jello. The traditional rainbow jello. We love it. I let the kids choose what colors went at what point, though. They chose, red first, then orange, then purple, then yellow. You know how that turned out- sort of brownish. The layers didn't mix, but looking through the jell-o sure made it look a little brownish. Taste great, though. The rolls were fabulous, and so were the pies, except for the whole baking situation. Like I said, I started at 4 pm, which means that there wasn't a lot of time to do Jell-o, rolls and 4 pies. I was up until 1 am doing pies and had to still do one today. Since it was a little later than I was used to as far as baking goes I forgot a few things- Ok one really important thing- some tin foil or a catch pan below the pies. Right around 12 midnight the fire alarms alerted me to this forgetfulness! I then sat in a freezing house as all kinds of windows and doors were open while the fire alarm went off for 20 minutes. The pies had 20 minutes left and I couldn't exactly stop them or they would be ruined! It smoked the entire time and the fire alarms let me know that nothing had changed! About 5 minutes into the fire alarm screeching Sam came down with his ears covered with his little sock hands. (Sam has bad eczema and has to soak his hands in bag balm every night. He puts socks on his hands so that the bag balm doesn't get all over.) He curled up in a ball on the floor with his little sock hands over his ears and just sat there like that. Eventually he came up to me and asked if I could do something. Nope, sorry. Emma came down a little later. The little boys never woke up, thank goodness. At the end of the 20 minutes, I was very Thankful to call it a night and go to bed without anymore screeching.
I am thankful for lots of things.
The number one is my husband and family. I am so thankful my husband is coming home soon- a little more than 30 days!
I am also thankful for wonderful people in our ward- so ready to help us out and invite us to be part of their lives. I even had a guy ask if he could take my burnt out light bulbs out for me and come back with new ones. What a great guy! I have been sort of letting them go. They are all burning out en mass.
I am also thankful for 2 good cars. I smashed the 11 year old one into a fire hydrant the other day and broke out the taillight. Sorry car! It has been a faithful thing for 11 years- nary a problem.
I am thankful for friends- can you believe a bunch of high school friends found me the other day. It was so good to see what they were up to.
I am thankful for my health and the health of those I love.
I am thankful for a wonderful nephew that served an honorable mission who just arrived home last week. What a great example for my children.
I am thankful for traditions. I started a tradition a few years back where I wrote people thank you notes around Thanksgiving time. This year I decided it was just too much and I needed to cut out somethings. That was one that went. But, I received 2 from people I had given them to in the past. What a wonderful thing to get. It made me feel so good! I will have to continue that tradition next year now that I know how good it makes you feel.
I am thankful for my kids nagging me to get them in bed. Got to go!

Spt- Look What Came in the Mail the Other Day!

Thankful

One of the things I have been making lately. This one was for Rob's birthday and he will be getting it soon. Hope he likes it.

It is leaves that I cut out with the letters that spell out Thankful on it tied to Jute. There is also torn fabric, pictures of us in little metal frames and scrolls from each of us telling why we are thankful for Rob. I hope it makes his Thanksgiving and birthday a little more enjoyable. See he has been a little depressed lately. He works from 7 am until 10 pm every day except Sundays where he gets the mornings off to do personal stuff and his coworkers still think he slacks off, because he leaves every day at 10 pm. He sits in front of a computer most days, until his eyes are fuzzy. When he does get to go on convoys or helicopter rides he says there is nothing to see except sand and more sand. Nothing to do, nothing to see, no fun stuff to buy. He sent us this, because he really wanted to be part of our trick or treating and because he felt bad that he hadn't sent us anything from there. When I saw the label of what was in the box, I thought, this has to be code. This can't be what is actually in here, but uh, yep, that was exactly what was in the box. He is too funny! He said he would stand in the lines where the care packages for soldiers come in and just take what looked good. He said that the guys really looked at him funny when he would say things like, "hey, that would be good, give me that Lady speed stick!" He told me he had like 6 more of them in his desk drawer and then he said, "oh man, I just ruined your next surprise!" He makes me laugh and he makes me feel bad, but no one is allowed to pray that he gets more excitement in his life! Got it?!

SPT- Pictures in the moment (no words this month)

Anniversary puts us over the Hump!

Yeah, we had our 2nd month anniversary and are now over the hump. We have less than 2 months left!
So here is a quick update. Rob is very excited that he has gotten the opportunity to fly in all kinds of aircraft while over in Iraq. This picture is in a blackhawk, which he has parachuted from, but he also got to ride in several other aircraft including an Ospry which changes from a helicopter into an airplane. He says that is quite the ride when it changes. Rob and a coworker all ready to go on a convoy run. He slept in these coffins as they call them- because if the bomb doesn't kill you all the sandbags falling on you surely will- while he was with the Brits on one of the borders. This picture was taken just as they got off the blackhawk. Everyone was really nervous because their security wasn't there and actually no one was. The other aircraft refused to land. Everyone started to get into a defensive stance and this is when Rob decided it would be a good time to take a picture. Turns out they had landed in the wrong place and the other aircraft could see the convoy hurrying as fast as they could to intercept them, so they decided to stay up to provide cover fire if it was needed. Apparentely it is a requirement that you have your weapon at the gym. It sounds a little dangerous to me, exercising with a gun on, but I guess war isn't suppose to be safe! We are making it at home and are very excited that we are on the downhill side, now.

SPT- Pictures in the moment (no words this month)

In Which we finally obtain White Trash Status

Joy would be so proud!

We went to the Pentagon on a cub scout outing. I took all my children with me- obviously!

We went to the bathroom just before we left, but by the time we arrived, surprisingly {{wink}} one of them had to go really bad. He held it all the way across the street, through the tunnel and up to the entrance, but then he couldn't hold it any longer. I ran up to the front of the line, but they wouldn't let me in without an escort and told me that they didn't have any public restrooms. We were going to take a tour at 1 pm and it was now 12:51. If I tried to make him hold it just a little longer we would have one pee boy on our hands for the entire tour, or I would have to leave and miss the tour and they would be down one chaperon. So I had no other option. I promise, I didn't. So I took him over to the side of the line by the grass and dropped his drawers. Yep, my boy peed on the Pentagon lawn while the security guard yelled at me, "ma'am, Ma'am, no." And I just yelled back, "Never mind, we' re good, now." Joy of course would have told them how much they deserved it and that it was all their fault that her kid had to pee right where the Generals were coming to check in, but I decided to avoid getting carted off by a guy with a really big gun!
BTW, the tour went really well, the kids were all good, no accidents happened and no one was carted off by a guy with a really big gun, but I think a couple security guards have a great story to tell about some white trash woman!

Halloween Fun

How was your Halloween? Ours was Spooktacular! A gathering of friends before the haunting began. Eating the stash! Sam wanted to pull the cart- sometimes a little too fast. Emma was the little Mama for the little fairies and princesses and one Indiana Jones

Apple Love

One thing I missed while having braces was eating apples whole. So it was one of the first things I tried after getting the braces off. It still sort of hurts, but after I smothered them in caramel and cut them up, I was able to down two of them all on my own. I feel so good about my fruit intake today!
I cooked the rest of the caramel until it was perfect for the first batch of caramels for this holiday season. Crazy, I know. You know what else is crazy- I listened to Christmas music today and yesterday. There is just so much exciting about Christmas this year that I just can't help myself! I couldn't help testing out my caramels either!