Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Christmas Day

Christmas is always my favorite time of year. I love to give presents! It is one of my favorite things to do. I can hardly wait to see my kids open their presents and see the excitement in their eyes and on their faces. I kind of live vicariously through them. We always get up extra early Christmas morning and open presents. Then we go to my mom and dad's for Christmas breakfast. This year it was Biscuits and Gravy, hash browns, and scrambled eggs! YUM! Then for lunch we went to Nathan's mom and dad's house. It was a great day! I am sad that it is all over (and I have to clean up the destruction left behind)! Logan loves his Mickey Mouse Chair he got from Nana and Papa! He has been obsesssed with Mickey for a couple of months now!
Steve and Rachael, Kaleb and Adrienne, Me and Nathan, Kim, Melissa (and Desmond), Hayley and Aaron, and Lonny.
Everyone is wearing the hats Amanda made for them. Except for me. I am wearing the stocking she made for me! Yeah, I am pretty special!

Isaac and Wes in their hats!


Nathan was really excited to open presents!


The kids waiting for Mom and Dad's okay to go and see if Santa brought anything. If you look close enough at Nathan's alarm clock you can see what time we were up. I can't even blame it on the kids. I was awake most of the night and got tired of laying in bed so I got up and woke them all up. I am awful, I know. In case you can't read it it says 5:45!





Monday, December 22, 2008

Snow Fun!

We got tons of snow last night and today and the kids were in heaven! We couldn't find McKenna's snowpants so she couldn't go out and play :( but the other kids did. Logan even did, without snow pants or boots that fit. We put an extra pair of thick pants on him, and he wore boots that were 3 sizes too big, but he had a blast.
This is the field behind our house. Nathan thought it looked cool in the sunset. I think it looks more like water than snow.
Tackle Daddy!!

Isaac wouldn't look up long enough for me to get a picture of his face. He was having too much fun. He didn't want to come in and when he did he asked to go back out a few minutes later!


It looks like Logan is kneeling down but he is standing up. I promise! That is how deep the snow is.



Emilee caked in snow! Amazingly enough she didn't mind it. She wanted to go back out with Isaac. They are already asking me if they can go back out tomorrow.





Christmas Pics

Every year on the Sunday before Christmas, the kids get their new Christmas clothes and I take their pictures in front of the tree. Here are this years pics. I don't know how we got them all looking at the camera at the same time. That will never happen again!






I just have to brag about Emilee's dress. It was originally $60!!! I got it last year, on clearance, for $4!! I know, right! Amazing!!









Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Tooth #2

When Isaac was opening up his presents last night, I was paying no attention to Emilee until she yelled "I pulled it out!" I looked at her and she was holding a bloody tissue in her mouth but she had a huge grin on her face. She had pulled out her other bottom tooth. If you know Emilee then you understand that I was in shock that she would pull her own tooth out! I have been telling her since the other one came out that it wouldn't take much to get it out and obviously mom was right once again! I wish she wasn't scared to go to the dentist because she needs the other two bottom ones out so her new teeth move forward. If you look close in the picture, you can see the new ones growing in behind the other ones. McKenna scared her when she said that the dentist was going to pull them out. Yes, he needs to, but don't tell Emilee that. That makes my job of getting her to go even harder!!

Happy 4th Birthday Isaac!

My little boy is now 4! I wish I had pictures from when he was born to put up here but I can't find the CD my husband put them on. :( Oh well. Isaac has been really excited about his birthday for a couple of weeks. If anyone tried to tell him he was going to be anything but 4 he would get mad and tell them "NO! 4!". He requested his favorite foods for breakfast, they are fried eggs and sausage. He ate 4 sausages but didn't eat the eggs. That is really weird. And for dinner he wanted mac and cheese and hot dogs! At least it was easy, even if no one else wanted it! He got to go out and play in the snow with Nana, Papa, and Ginger (I finally found his snow boots I have been looking for for weeks!) and that was a highlight of the day! He told me he threw a snowball at Nana!Yay! A new toy that he will sit and play for hours! And it's okay because it is educational!! Double Yay! He has a Leapster but I think he is getting bored with it. Now he has a V-Smile Pocket. We already have a V-Smile so we already had a ton of games for it and I got it on sale the day after Thanksgiving! Triple Yay!!
He loves new clothes! He must take after his mom!

Yes, he is a mess. This is after breakfast but before I got him cleaned up.


Eating the sausage mom made for breakfast! I don't know how many he has in his mouth!




Does It Get Any Cuter!?!

Logan wore the cutest outfit to church last week! It actually used to be Isaac's but Isaac never would wear the hat. Logan loves hats! He did not want his picture taken, however! Usually he hams it up for the camera but not on this particular day. He ran into the corner and tried to hide. Oh well, that made the pics cuter if you ask me!



Sunday, November 30, 2008

I finally posted!

Okay. So my excuse for not posting for a whole month is that life gets crazy sometimes! Okay, so some of the time I was just didn't want to wait for the pics to load onto blogger because sometimes that takes a while. Anyway, I am caught up now so there ya go!!

Decorating the Christmas Tree

We usually put up the Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving but I was lazy this year and we didn't get it up until today. Now the kids will quit bugging me about putting it up. Yay! I can't say it is gorgeous, but it is up. I still need to go in and do some redecorating from Logan putting all of his ornaments in one spot but it is up. So, the moral of the story is, our Christmas tree is up!










Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving at Nathan's Mom and Dad's house!Isaac was excited to eat!
Kenna and Lucas. Lucas' hat is... uuummmm.... I don't know what to say about Lucas' hat.

The men! Steve wanted to deep fry a turkey this year so here is Steve doing all the work with the other guys supervising.



Finally!

Emilee has had 2 loose teeth for months now but she won't let us near them to pull them out. Well, she came home from school last Monday, and one of them had fallen out!! YAY!! She finally lost her first tooth and she is almost 7! It is about time! The other front bottom one is hanging on precariously!

Another Cool Do!

Nathan and McKenna sang in church last Sunday. They did an awesome job! McKenna wanted a cute hairdo for the occasion and she has been asking me for a heart in her hair for a while now so I decided that it was a good day to try for it. I think it turned out pretty cute!



Potty Training

Okay. So, we decided to begin the potty training process with Logan a couple of weeks ago. It is going very slow. He goes in the potty when he wants to but not consistently. I guess he is barely two so I shouldn't have any expectations but it would be nice not to have to change diapers anymore. If anyone has any suggestions on how to make it easier they would be appreciated. You would think I would be an expert by now but that is not the case.

Friday, October 31, 2008

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope your kids got lots of candy, and they eat it all tomorrow and are on a sugar high for 4 or 5 days! Just kidding. I just think my kids will be! I may have to ration the candy! I usually do.
McKenna is supposed to be Sharpay from High School Musical, but I think she looks more like Hannah Montana. It's funny because she hates Hannah Montana!!
\


Emilee the 49ers cheerleader.









Isaac is Pablo from The Backyardigans. If you have kids then you know this show. If not, well, he is a penguin!




Logan the Bat!! He loves telling people that he is a bat.






Thursday, October 23, 2008

Tag, I'm It!

Mindy tagged me. The rules are:
- link to the person that tagged you and put the rules on your blog
- share 7 random or weird facts about yourself
- tag 7 people at the end of the post
- let each person know they were tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

So here we go.........

1. When I eat Smarties (and I love Smarties) I can't eat them one at a time. I have to eat two at a time and since there are an odd number of Smarties in a roll, the last three get eaten at the same time.

2. I live next door to my parents and I love it! My kids love it too. Can you say babysitters? I can and do often. But I try not to take advantage of that, after all, they do have day jobs!

3. I married my best friend's (from high school) boyfriend! I know, what kind of friend am I!? Needless to say we aren't friends anymore. It's a long story. Too long for a blog.

4. I hate having pets!! We have a dog and a frog and I don't like it. My kids torture the dog, he sheds everywhere, and there is dog food all over my floor. I haven't figured out who plays with the dog food yet. The frog is just annoying because no one feeds it except for me. I am amazed it is still alive. We got it at Spud Day.

5. I am a horrible mother because I will admit that I play favorites with my kids. I don't know if they notice it but I know I do it. I don't get along well with one of them because our personalities are so different. Don't ask me which one is my favorite and which one I don't get along with because I won't tell. Although, some days the favorite changes.

6. I HATE camping. I know!! I came from a family that camped every weekend starting in May and lasting through October. We fished and waterskied and I hate fishing and I don't waterski. I am the oddball in my family and in Nathan's family. Except, in Nathan's family, Mandy doesn't ski either. I can't stand the bugs, dirt, not having all of my clothes to choose from in morning, not showering. I hate seeing my kids get so dirty. It drives me crazy!! I don't know what happened because when I was younger I loved it and now I avoid it at all costs. I go once a summer and that is it!

7. I love being pregnant. Most women hate the pregnancy part of babies but I love it! It is so amazing to be able to carry a baby. I don't get morning sickness but I do get some of the uncomfortable symptoms like headaches, heartburn (water gives me heartburn when I'm preggo), twice I've had gestational diabetes, and I have to have c-sections. But even with the bad stuff, I love it! What can I say, I am a glutton for punishment!! I guess the weird thing is, I don't mind having c-sections. My doctor schedules them 2 weeks early and my last one was so easy that even I was amazed! I had McKenna naturally and the other 3 were cesareans and I would have to say that McKenna's was the hardest to recover from. I do miss holding the baby as soon as he/she comes out. I don't get to hold them for about an hour after they are born.

Wow, that was hard. I am not gonna tag 7 people because alot of the people I link to have already done this tag. I've only got 5, I tag:

hayley (you'd better do it!)
monika
amy hunter
kim
christa

Monday, October 20, 2008

Kiersten's Funeral

Wow! Today was tough. Nathan and I went to Kiersten's funeral this morning. Well, actually, I guess it started last night when I took Emilee to the viewing. Emi wanted to go give Sierra, Kiersten's little sister, a hug. Sierra and Emilee are friends and Emi said she was sad for Sierra and she wanted to give her a hug and she also colored some pictures for her and made her a little card that said 'I love you'. Emilee is such a sweetheart sometimes. At the viewing there was a video slideshow with pics of Kiersten and the family. It was so fun to watch and heartbreaking at the same time. At the end of the slideshow they had a family picture with 'Families Are Forever' written at the bottom of it. It brought me to tears. Before we go into my feelings I will continue with the story. The closer I got to seeing Graig and Shelli (Kiersten's parents) the closer my tears were to flowing over. I mean, what do you say to someone who has lost a child? No words can change what happened or make everything okay. Anyway, Sierra wasn't there for Emilee to see so she gave the pictures to Shelli and she said she would give them to Sierra. Emilee was sad that she didn't get to see Sierra but when I explained to her why I thought Sierra wasn't there she understood and was okay. The funeral today was beautiful. The Young Women of our ward and some of Kiersten's friends sang 'Walk Tall You're a Daughter of God'. It was probably one of the most beautiful musical numbers I have ever heard! And, yes, it made me cry. Nathan even said it made him cry. It was gorgeous. Graig, Shelli, and Jason (Kiersten's younger brother) all gave memories of Kiersten. I can't imagine the courage and strength they had to get up and do that. That had to be really hard for them. I can't imagine going to bed one night with everything going fine and then waking up the next morning and having your daughter not wake up. I can't stop thinking about Shelli, and how sorry I am for her. I am not upset about Kiersten necessarily, I know she is in a better place. What I can't get out of my mind is her parents. I guess it hits hard when something like this happens to someone you call a friend. I know the Gemar's have alot of family and friends praying for them and I am proud to say that me and my family are among the ones praying. I just hope all of the prayers offer some comfort to them. To end this post, just one thing I saw at the funeral that broke my heart to pieces. At some point Sierra and her sister, Rachel, got up to use the bathroom. When they came back in Sierra climbed into Shelli's lap and buried her head into Shelli's neck. It made me wonder what Emilee would do and what Emilee would be feeling if she were in Sierra's shoes. It also opened my eyes and made me realize that we need to hug our kids and tell them we love them every chance we get. We never know what will happen when we wake up in the morning.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Gemar Family

Please put the Gemar family in your prayers. They are a family in my ward and their 13 year-old daughter, Kiersten, passed away this morning. Kiersten was a sweet girl. She was in my primary class last year and Nathan had her in his class this year. I actually sat by her Sunday in Nathan's class. From what I understand, she had a seizure disorder and that is what caused her death. I know she is still going strong on the other side of the veil but I am sure this is very hard on her family so please pray for them. Thanks!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

4th Picture (thanks Mindy!)

I got this off of Mindy's blog. You open your pictures file, go to the fourth folder, and get the fourth picture! Fun Stuff!This was Logan's exploits in the bathroom with the shampoo and conditioner. He emptied the bottles out into the bathtub and proceeded to slide down the back of the bathtub! The shampoo and conditioner made it extra slippery. Isaac joined him but got out before I got the camera!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

OUCH!!

Last night we were watching Dancing with the Stars and all of a sudden we heard a thud and Logan started crying!! He had been climbing on my kitchen counters (I can't keep him off of them, I'd taken him off of them too many times to count already that day) and either he fell off or else Isaac pulled him off. We don't know which. Isaac says he fell, but I am not sure I believe Isaac. Anyway, I ran to pick him up and try to calm him down but he just buried his face into my shoulder and cried. I let him do that for a couple of minutes and then I pulled his face out of my shoulder and there was blood all over his face and my shoulder!! It took me a while to figure out that his lip was bleeding but I couldn't figure out why it was bleeding so much. When he settled down a little bit and let me see into his mouth I saw that he had jammed his top teeth all the way through his bottom lip!! OUCH!! I thought he would be swollen and sore this morning because it was looking pretty nasty last night but it isn't swollen at all and he says it doesn't hurt! What a trooper!!
The cut on the inside of his mouth looks worse than the outside but you can't really see it in the pictures.


It's Snowing!! :(

Isaac and Logan love the snow!! They must be related to their daddy because I hate (and I do mean hate!) it. I let them go out and play in it on Saturday when they saw that it was snowing. They didn't stay out very long though. Logan said it was too cold and Isaac said his hands were cold. I didn't have their snow stuff out yet, it is still somewhere in the basement, so they went out without gloves on. They had fun for about 5 minutes anyway!



Thursday, October 9, 2008

More Bows!!



Nathan thinks that I am obsessed. I don't think so. He also thinks that I have too much ribbon. Who is right girls? Yeah, that is what I thought. If any of you would like me to show you how to make one of the bows I would be happy too. If you would like me to make you one just get me some ribbon and I would be more than happy to!

Ginger

This is my Dad's new dog. Her name is Ginger and she is a 2 month old yellow lab. Isn't she cute!?! My kids are in love with her. Isaac likes to ask me when Ginger can come and play!