Christmas...

Was a big success.  Everyone was happy.   We were up by 6:30, the kids tried to get us up by 6 am.  But when you stay up until 2 am wrapping presents you just don't feel like getting up.  and we had to wake up Drew but as soon as we woke him up and told him santa came he said in a very grogoly voice "Santa come my house!"  He was awake. 

After breakfast of yummy breakfast cake and homemade cinnamon rolls (thankfully all prepared the day before.) we went off to see the Chipmunk movie.  It was really cute.  I liked it.  Than we just hung out for the rest of the day...well I made dinner I did most the stuff the day before it was pretty easy.  Later we watched some movies.  It's been a relaxing weekend.  The biggest hit has be the Littlest Pet shop wii game.  Who knew.  Michael has built all his lego set.  So glad he loves to build them.  Here's some highlights...   I failed to mention that the living room was a mess until the day after Christmas.

Twas the night before Christmas...

When all through the house not a creature was stirring,
Not even...My Husband! 

It's 9 pm and all the kids are tucked all snug in their beds,
While visions of wrapping presents... by myself swim through my head.

So the question is how hard to I try to wake my overly exhausted husband?  I feel bad yet, I do not want to spend the whole night wrapping presents.  All I can say is I'm glad their is nothing to put together! 

We opened our ornaments tonight and new Pajamas.  Let me just say Drew was a little disappointed.  He excpected toys.  He of all our kids had been the most excited child about christmas.  None of our kids have been quite like him.  It's all really cute.  He likes giving gifts too.  But for the past few days he has been really disappointed that Santa hasn't come yet.  He'll say something like this, "santa no come."  All sad.  He saw some cartoons about a clock counting down until Santa comes so every night he would say..."Tick tock, tick tock, Santa come."  It's so sweet and he loves to try and sing "Santa Claus is coming to town."  He mumbed the verse and blurts out..."Sana Caus coming TO TOWN!"  He loves Christmas.  I can't wait to see his face tomorrow. 

Since I figured I had some time to spare why not blog right?  I've been baking all day, made breakfast casserole, cinnamon rolls, pie, and a pumkin dessert and refridgerator rolls.  So glad we orderd Mexican. 

Oh and only in California can you be outside, shootting hoops, working up a sweat and have the ice cream man come all on Christmas eve!

Here's some pic's from tonight!  the kids loved thier pj's Drew isn't sure what to think.

We always read Twas the night before Christmas and the story of the Birth of Christ from the Bible, but we have a beautiful book with the scripture verses with art work.  This year we also did an Mad-lib of Twas the night before Christmas we did it last year and the kids loved it, and we did it again it's a lot of fun. 

I was really happy to hear Michael say such a sweet prayer tonight to help us remember the true meaning of Christmas, him and Savannah are the only ones that really know the Jesus is the reason for the season.  How thankful I am for the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ, His life, and sacrafice for me.

Another crazy Week!

If you dont' want to read the whole thing at least scroll down for the big reveal by Michael...

I can't believe it's only 6 days until Christmas. I think I am mostly done now but that's what I started the week with, trying to finish my shopping. And between my crazy week it took me all week to get my laundry put away that's just sad.


Monday wasn't too bad, I did some running around, started the laundry.

Tuesday we had walking group, which I can't miss it's about the only exercise I get lately. Right after I went to speech, at this time I also have my friends Daughter because it was my turn. Later after school my friend and I decided to run to the mall. I'm learning if you see something you want for $5 get it now, don't keep looking! I was gone for about an hour. Came home, and had to run Michael to scouts, and than off to do the verification for Baseball. Let me just say that was crazy, it was dark, and very cold. I had the other 3 kids and no one was dressed for the cold. WE had to wait 1 hour outside before we finally got up there. Turns out since I paid online I could of verified residence after the new year! That would of been nice to know. They weren't very clear I wasn't the only parent who didn't understand. So we got home managed to make something to eat. I need to go to the store very bad. So when I was at the mall I stopped at Pat and Oscars and got some yummy breadsticks to eat with our leftover soup, plus Michael needed something to go to scouts for a pot-luck.

Wednesday was a very busy day, I volunteer at the school that day. We'll once again I was trying to get some shopping done before so I headed to Kohl’s with no kids (my friend had Drew.) Got some great stuff. Headed to school. spent some time in Taylor's class and than off to Michaels. Now this is the fun one. I have been working with the kids on their A.R. (accelerated Reader) I was having a hard time getting Michael to do his reading. So from Talking with my mom (who's a 5th grade teacher if you didn't know and an awesome one at that! I wish Michael was there.) I copied her idea and we set goals with the kids and those who reached their goal by a certain date would be able to participate in a Wii party. Michael was really excited and I am happy to say his reading level has gone up from a 4.5 to a 6.7! Well the party was Wednesday I went in got everything’s set up had some time to spare and ran to Target. Got back to finalize things and found out I needed my remote control to change the input on the TV I brought in. So I ran home, came back to a little confusion. The remotes for the Wii wouldn't sync that fast but once we got it all going the kids had a blast. And the ones who didn't get to participate came in later and saw all the fun going on. I really home more kids participate next time. WE had 17 out of about 30 kids. Each goal is individualized so it's great. I think it was a great success.

Now Thursday is the best day of All!!!! NOT (Right Candi?) We'll me and my friend made plans to go shopping at the outlets next to Mexico. WE planned on meeting right after speech. So I go to speech only to find out I missed my appointment it was a 1/2 hour earlier which I new because I planned on meeting my friend at 9:30 am and I was now at speech at 9:30. Don't know why I did that but I have been going to speech at this time for a month now. Nothing new. I felt so dumb and mad at myself. Well I rescheduled met my friend and off we go. WE had to hurry because we had to drop her daughter off and pick up mine for kindergarten. We'll one of the reasons we went together was so she could show me this cheap shoe store where she got some boots for her girls, and I wanted to get some. So we ran over there. There was no parking so we parked in Jack in the Box, ran to the shoe store decided it wasn't what I was looking for and ran back all under 5 minutes. A lady in the parking lot across from Jack and the box said, "Hey did you park a mini van over there?." We said yes (we took my friends car.) she said, "well it’ about to be towed." Are you kidding me!!!!! She runs over and I walkover with 3 little kids and yeap the car is hooked up and ready to go. If I would of bought something the car would of been gone. I'm not kidding. So she was able to talk to them and have them not tow it but she had to pay $75. I felt so bad. I'm going to make it up. So we where both pretty upset, and we both were shaking it's just crazy. Her daughter was going to be late and we decided we'll she did, that something good had to come out of this so we ran back over to the outlets and I picked up some boots their, for not that much more. but on the way back turns out her daughter was sick and had to be picked up form school. She was meeting friends and I was going to a lunch with her baby at a friends. Long story short I took both girls with me. Her 3rd daughter was supposed to ride the bus home with my kids....Well they didn't put her one so I had to run back and get her. I went to speech later that day with 6 kids. All in all it was a very crazy day. Thankfully I was able to have to great free meals. Lunch and a great Relief society dinner that night. So glad that day was over.

Friday wasn't too bad just a lot of running around but this is the big moment...Michael got a haircut, and has been planning this for along time....and her he is....

Before

After

A Busy Week

It was a busy weekend.  Especially on Saturday.  We made another attempt at pictures

Went to Michael's Soccer Party at this Laser Tag place, he had a lot of fun.  We didn't bring any extra money so the other kids "pretended" to play the other games.  It was pretty cool place.

ON Saturday Evening We had the WARD CHRISTMAS PARTY, I volunteered to make some funeral potatoes, and than we where also asked to participate in their skit.  We were the 4th day of Christmas  Someone read a poem and we acted it out this ist he poem:

Mother takes the rolling pin,

Rolls the spicy dough out thin,

Cuts the cookies out with care,

Some are round and some are square.

Cookies must not bake too fast,

Mother takes them out at last.

They are ymmy, warm, and sweet!

Oh, how good they are to eat.

We are such the actors.

The kids where also part of the Nativity which was the 12th day of Christmas, Savannah didn't go up, she was the one most excited.  Of course she didn't know when she was supposed to go up. But here's Taylor doesn't she look thrilled!

And of course Santa came...

I'm sure this probably the last year Michael will sit on Santa's lap.  Overall the food was good, and it was a late night.  Thankfully Sunday wa spretty relaxing.  I did make my own bread bowls and cheese potato soup, they both turned out pretty good, and the kids loved it.

The North Pole Kitchen

My mom sent me this link and thought it was really fun.  There are some really yummy recipes on there.  It's Mrs. Claus' cookbook.  Here's the link http://www.northpole.com/Kitchen/Cookbook/

Storm

We had a big storm yesterday and I haven't seen anything like this in California.  When I drove down my road it was like a wind tunnel the wind was really bad and than not blowing in other places.  Trees are down all over the neighborhood, leaves are everywhere.  One tree at the bottom of our street covered the whole street, and big eucalyptus tree.  My car smelled really good after driving over the tip of it.  This is some of the damage in our yard, well the biggetst, the rest is just broken branches that didn't break anything.  Our yard is a mess.  Thank goodness our landlords pay for a gardner, although I think we will be helping out.

Bargain Wharehouse

My friends just opened a store in Layton.  It has a little bit of everything.  It's located across from Sam's Club and next to the Bear Cafe.  Where the D.I. used to be.  Go check  it out.  It's opened on Thurs-Sat.

December Nights at Balboa Park

Saturday was a busy day for us. Mark the other residents come to our house to watch some football. 3 residents couldn’t come, so we had two and one of their families. It was fun to visit. And the kids had fun playing together.


After that our family took off to Balboa park for December Nights. I think all the museums are free, they all these food and shops up all over selling stuff. WE parked at the Hospital and walked up, lots of parking there.  WE went to the Reuben fleet science center and the San Diego Natural History Museums’. I’ve been wanting to go their for a while. It was very busy but a lot of fun. The kids loved the Natural history museum the most. Drew was scared of all the dinosaurs, but eventually got braver. The hard part is no strollers and Drew wanted to be carried all the time. He loved the whale skeletons the most. He loves whales.