Christmas family bliss

So I had every intention of keep up on this blog but life happened again and oops.... It has been to long.

We had a very nice Christmas at Ryan's brothers house. We went to Vegas on Wednesday and stayed with my parents. They made me the most unconventional Christmas dinner and I loved every bite. Shrimp cocktail, pita Christmas trees, salmon with cucumber relish! Yum. My mom even made me homemade sorbet. I could eat all of it and it was great. Then we opened presents. My mom labeled all of the presents with a phrase from "The Night Before Christmas" As she read the story and your phrase was read you could open one of your presents. The kids like it and it helped them to be excited when it was someone else's turn.

Before we left we opened a gift from the kids great-grandparents. 2 TV screens for the car. Yes! The car ride was so amazingly quiet. It was bliss.

We had a nice relaxing time with Ryan's family. There was not a lot planned and it was good to just visit. All of the siblings were there and I am so excited for our house to sell and to move back. Christmas eve was my favorite. We did the family gift exchange and then the kids acted out the nativity. Hope cried as she opened the present I gave her which made me feel so happy. I put a lot of time into her scrapbook. And it was good to see how much she loved it. My mother-in-law seemed to like her gift as well. The biggest bummer...I forgot my camera at my parents house so I have to wait for pictures from whom ever wants to send me some.

The day after Christmas we took A Huge family picture. That was interesting. There were 5 married couples, 12 grandkids, making for 14 adults and 18 children. Amazingly I think the pictures are going to be awesome. We all wore black shirts and jeans. It was taken at Escondio Lake and the view was gorgeous. I am hoping our individual family picture turns out good. They will cost at least $55 for an 8x10. Ouch!

Jared went to a birthday party on Saturday. As almost all boy parties at this age are star wars parties this one would be no different. He came home with this Darth Vader mask that Joseph instantly took as his own. He then stole Jareds light saber away and was try to keeawing everyone. It was hilarious. Jared was a great sport and encourage him all the way.So I have this great idea that we are going to go to the mall to get a picture with Santa. First I must say that I was at the mall about a week earlier and they had "The Santa" He looked so real. When we get there to take the kids picture I realize we have be tricked. This Santa was a very nice man and spent time asking the kids what they wanted and told them to be good and that they should clean their rooms when they got home. Which Emma did in the morning with out a word of complaint. Joseph wailed as soon as we got close. Ryan and I laughed because we had just been talking about the funny mom's who make there kids sit with Santa while they scream their heads off. Poor Santa, he must put up with so much.

This is the cutetest picture.
We were at our church Christmas
party
and Joseph was glued to his dad.
So Santa comes to our Ward party and Joseph is not so mad because I had Jared hold him and I didn't make him even look at Santa. To bad the girls are not looking.

Sarah is up on her knees. I think she loves being seen. The kids did a great job singing in the program. Jared is in the middle of both pictures. Kind of hard to see him.
So this week was crazy!!! I spent all week scraping the last of my Christmas gifts not finishing until.... Oh wait I'm not done yet. Hopfully by the end of the day I will be done. Then on Saturday I spent all day baking. I had this crazy notion that I had to make turtles. So after one failed attempt I had to try again. Turtles are so time consuming. Then I made fudge and two kinds of cookies I added after eight mints and I was proud of my goodie plates. I will say it beats the store bought pie I got last week. I love that people think of us this time of year. I am not complaining. The best neighbor gift I got was a bag of oranges. Yum. And I can eat them with out getting sick. My neighbor is very thoughtful that way. The other clever thing we got was some cookie dough that said on it... Just a little extra dough for this Christmas season. And she didn't have to spend any time in the kitchen. It was great because then I cooked those and gave them to the kids church teachers. Is that considered regifting?

Emma's big day.

Emma had her first gymnastics performance today. She was so adorable.
When the crowd would cheer her smile would go from ear to ear. Here she is on the beam. She was doing flips.

Walking the balance beam.

"I love this part"

"Ok! I'm Ready teach. Let me lose."

"Yeah I got it!"

A week of adventure

Christmas is only 13 days away? Wait, I'm not ready!!!
I have way more to do then I have time. I was hoping to be done two weeks ago. Morning sickness has messed me all up. We'll see if it all gets done.

Here is the family helping me put together christmas cards. I wanted to have them sent off no later then today. Again, we'll see.

This week was a long one. It is one of those weeks were you realize how much you really do love your kids. Joseph started us out with the flu on Tuesday. He was so sick I got really scared. He threw up over 15 times in one night. We slept with him in between us and when he started to stir we would prop him up to throw up in a bowl. We didn't make it several times and went threw every towel in our house. Two days latter Emma got sick. She was pretty good about throwing up in a bowl which was much nicer. Jared followed next but he preferred the floor, the cupboards, the trash can. He never once threw up in a decent spot. Then Friday night I got it. We had an adult only party that we were supposed to have that night but thankfully it got changed to Saturday. So Saturday I laid around all day just hoping I would get better. Sarah prayed at dinner that I wouldn't throw up any more. And I didn't. We were all good for our party. Then Ryan woke up really sick. Sarah woke up this morning around 4 and threw up. I must say though, she has been the most mature out of any of us about being sick. She threw up in a bowl took it to the bathroom. Should me were a little had spilled. Then she went right back to bed. She carries the bowl with her if she gets up. It is nice to end this wee with her.

Back to our party. It was so fun to have a get together with out having to worry about the kids. The adults were noisier then any children I have ever had at my house and Joseph slept right threw it. We played uno in rounds and kept score. Very competitive people. Then we played a game were you had four people go up and all tell similar stories and you had to guess who was telling the truth. We have some good liars for friends. Who knew?

This week I learned how much my children mean to me. I cried for them when they were sick. I missed them at our party. Emma cried when she realized she had to stay in our room during the party. We decided to surprise them with a party next week. I think they will love it.

Ryan was sick on Sunday I got to take all of the kids to church by myself for the first time. Our sacrament meeting is last and starts at three. Let me remind you that is after having been there two hours already. I was so impressed with my kids. They were so good. I came home and gave them all treats. I just felt so proud of us all for making it the whole time with no outbursts!!!!

I hope the pics make you smile.

I curled Emma's hair for church on Sunday. She had her first talk to give in primary and she did so good. She remember most of it herself.


This was on Friday when I was so sick. Ryan took the girls to see Narnia and I wasn't up for preparing food so this was Josephs lunch. I loved the way he played more then he ate. The raisins had to go inside the pretzels. Our little artist in the making.

This was the same day. He thought that the table was the only place to be. He sat there like a big kid for over ten minutes. He would swing his feet back and forth and drink his drink. Tap his fingers or just smile. Way cute when you feel sick. The kids were so good for me. Unreal kind of good.

The girls got new boots and had to try them out with some dance moves. You go girls.

We know we are cute. Mom needs to work on teaching us humility.

Funny little story

So for family night on Monday we decided to teach the kids how to answer the phone when a tele-marketer calls. We spent out 10 minutes going over this. We told the kids that when they call you ask them, "Do you want to hear the most annoying sound in the world?" Then they should proceed until the caller either gives in and says yes, hangs up, or asks for us for more then 3 times. The kids had the best time trying out this most annoying sound. Even the baby got into it. Ryan and I were rolling with laughter and we have been on pins and needles waiting for that first call. Who knew you could be excited for a tele-marketer to call?

Other news... We had to shave Joseph's head. He looks like an army brat. He started pulling out his hair more and more so we are hoping if we keep it short for awhile he will get over the habit. Good luck to us. It didn't work with Emma but we gave her a little furry to replace the hair pulling. Then when her hair came back in she started to pull all over again. But now with the retainer she has finally stopped.


Jared was invited to his first big kid birthday party. A kid at school invited his whole second grade class plus a few others. Jared was one of the others. They knew each other from football. I can't imagine throwing a party for 20 - 30 second graders and it is for 2 1/2 hours. I think it will be a mad house. Its to cold to send them all out side. I will pray for that mother.

I finally got Sarah's teacher to see the wisdom in letting her take home books at her level. They were sending her home with super easy books, 5 or so levels below her easy reading level. I am so frustrated with the school system. I want to take her out but she is loving the social.

She started a dairy this week and it is so cute to hear the things she writes. Yesterday she wrote about how funny she is. And the food I made.