Christmas 2011

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. It was full of family time and busy with projects that I stayed up way too late to finish (pajamas).
I got sick a week before Christmas and lost a week's worth of time to sew, wrap, and finish shopping.
Thankfully, Burke took most of the week of Christmas off of work and we were able to get things done.
We woke up Christmas morning, checked out our stockings, and headed to church. I was a meanie and made the kids wait until after church to open the rest of the gifts.
It sure made it last a lot longer than usual, and we had an opportunity for the kids to focus on the real reason for the season before the gift mayhem commences.

Christmas Hair

Yep, I know I haven't done much with my blog, but I did these cute styles as the kids were headed out the door for their Christmas program at school. The bus was coming down the road as I took these shots, so forgive the blurriness.

We tried some new things, some worked; some not so much. But they were fun.

We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year, and I resolved to exercise more and blog more, so check back and I will try to catch up and keep it up to date.

Halloween, At Last

Yes, I know I am finally getting around to posting the Halloween fun, but it is worth the wait.

Right?

Nathan, after much consternation about Kohl's not sending his much needed accessory, was a Doctor for the school Halloween party (we improvised using the scrubs I work for work when I was pregnant with him, with some tailoring, of course).
Annika borrowed a costume from her friend again because of Kohl's late shipment (not my fault, I proclaimed as I clicked purchase on October 21). Annika was very cute as an Asian princess, or as Mulan, whichever she decided was more glamorous.

Kade was a mummy. Which I sewed. With lots of cheesecloth bits flying up my nose as I did it.

Adrienne was a cute little red witch.

Once the Kohl's shipment came (the day after the school parties) Nathan was Albert Einstein and Annika was still the neighbor's Asian girl costume because I got the wrong size. In my own defense, I ordered the size it said was for kids 8-10 years old. When it came, I said 8-10 years old= size 12-14. GRRR. Oh well, maybe she can wear it in 3-4 years.

I had the opportunity to plan the parties for the 2nd grade and for Kade's class in third grade. It was very stressful for me, but we got it done, and the craft and the games turned out to be lots of fun. Adrienne got to come and hang out in the second grade and the third grade parties, so she thought she was pretty awesome.


The weekend of Halloween, we headed up to the library for their annual party which is usually pretty fun, especially for the younger kids.
Nathan won the costume contest for the "Smartest" costume and was able to pick out a book.

Kade won too for the all around best costume! It validated all of the tacking of cheesecloth that took many more hours than I thought it would.

After the library party, the boys went trick or treating with their friends, and the girls got to go with their dad until a friend's mom picked them up and took them out for a little while.
They were soooo excited and felt like they were big like their brothers to be out without mom or dad.
Adrienne got separated from the group though, because the house they went to didn't give her candy fast enough and the other kids left her. She was a little upset at that, but seemed fine once she sat down to munch on her candy.

Burke and I were home alone on Halloween night.
He got to fulfill his fondest wish (next to getting his truck).
He wore a horrendous mask and scared the bigger kids who came to the door.
His chuckles and comments of "They screamed like little girls!" Were pretty funny.
Love that guy!

Irish Eyes Were Smiling

We had a fun St. Patrick's Day.
For breakfast I made green french toast, green smoothies and gave them green vitamins.

Then I went all out for dinner:
Green mashed potatoes, green bread, green asparagus, green limeaid,

and this fancy schmancy jello that took all day to make, and was not eaten until after dinner because I forgot to get it out of the fridge (grrrr, I hate it when I do that). I hade made stew as the main course, but that isn't very Irish-y so I didn't take any pictures of that.
But I made cute little shamrocks with kiwi on the plates. Nobody recognized what they were, but I felt very imaginative anyway ;).
For dessert, I made some chocolate cookies filled with mint ice cream.
MMMMMMM.....
They turned out well. I was excited for that because it was a new recipe but now I can't find it.

Nathan informed me that I was the coolest mom ever, and Adrienne said it was the best day of her life.

I wish it only took a little green food coloring to make everyone so happy.

Um, Better Late Than Never?

I think that is the mantra for my life. I'm sure my mom would agree, as would Burke (although I haven't been late for Church for ages).
Life has been busy. I have been working on getting things ready for a new Primary year, including getting teachers, a bulletin board, and binders ready. I haven't gotten around to doing the CD's yet. In addition to that, I have had Christmas, New Years, a baptism, and a birthday. Plus, Burke was off of work for the whole week between Christmas and New Years, so we took time to enjoy his company.
I have fallen behind in blogging, so my goal is to cover everything this week.
Starting with Christmas:

We had a nice Christmas Eve with a dinner at my sister's. Then we met up with Grandma W and headed to the city center to look at the Christmas village.

Of course, when we got home, it was time to open the annual Christmas jammies.
The kids all had cute jammies, and some cute (if I do say so myself) robes I sewed with my new Christmas present.
After that, we read the Christmas story from the bible and went to bed. At least, I did.

I was unaware of Burke's nocturnal sneaky activities. He accuses me of being very snoopy, so he had to go around to the neighbor's and gather up the gifts he had hidden there....
There were more surprises to be found in the morning.

Christmas morning was a blast. The kids ran out to see the spread.
A new bike for Nathan, a karaoke machine for Kade, a Nintendo DS for Annika, and a CD player for Adrienne.
A new calculator for Burke (yes, Santa knew he was an engineer without a functioning calculator...sad, sad).

Santa is full of surprises.

Burke and Kade made me a new step for my bathtub. It is quite a reach for a shorty to climb in and I have almost fallen a few times while getting in and out. Therefore, I had casually mentioned a few dozen times over the last 4 years how much easier it would be to have a nice step to climb in and out.
Burke sneaked off a few nights and went to a neighbor who is an amazing carpenter and made me a beautiful, thoughtful, matching knotty alder step for my bathroom. I loved it.
Thoughtful (and handmade) gifts are the best!

After opening gifts and relaxing for a while, we headed off to see The Princess and the Frog.
Very cute, and a nice way to end the day.
Grandma W stayed with us through Christmas Eve and into Christmas Day. We enjoyed her company and the kids were so sad when she left the next day to head to Disneyland.

A Christmas Party

We had a ward Christmas party. It was a breakfast and turned out to be a lot of fun, and not just for the kids.

Burke had his fun as well...

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

I have been busy getting things ready for Primary, birthdays, baptism, and Christmas.
Our house is finally ready for Christmas.
Almost.
We got our tree.
It was free! (My favorite).
My parents thought the evergreen in their front yard was getting too big and offered to let us cut it down for our Christmas tree this year.
Of course, it looked a lot smaller when it was outside than it does in the house.
Burke cut another foot off of it to get in inside.
It was extremely pokey, so after we got it in the tree stand and all screwed in, and found it was leaning a little bit, we decided not to subject ourselves to torture in order to fix it.
Burke and I got the lights on and the kids decorated it.
Annika called the tree decorations "ordinances".
The "ordinance" ring-- where the kids hang everything gets higher every year.**Sniff**
Of course, it is bare in the back.
Adrienne helped with the stockings. And she made sure our famous singing and dancing Santa was put out where all could see him. We had to move him because not only is he obnoxious after about two days, he is also a little bit naughty.

Boo!

Adrienne was a spooky ghost:
Annika was a cute cowgirl (with a home-made costume I am very proud of, by the way): Annika's dance class had a party last Tuesday for class time. The kids got to wear their costumes over their dance clothes. Annika's vest and chaps over a leotard had a little bit of a "Prince" feel to it. I didn't realize it until I was walking behind her into class :)

Kade was an all-powerful ninja turtle:
Nathan had his first year of inviting his good friend over to go trick or treating together. It sounds like they had a lot of fun. They came back to the house and told me a tale about some girls...
Too funny. I love tween boys. They are hilarious, and easily embarrassed.
I neglected to get pictures of them, so this picture of all the kids at the ward trunk or treat will have to do for a shot of Nathan's Anakin Skywalker costume:

Happy Halloween!

All Things Easter

We had a great Easter. It actually lasted for two weeks, and began with a birthday/Easter party at Grandma and Grandpa T's house. Of course, we had the annual Easter Egg Hunt for the kids, and the little kids too. The big kid (aka adult) hunt actually went a little better for me this year. First, let me say the adult hunt closely resembles Black Friday. There are elbows, pushing and lots of grabbing. And the worst offenders are the dads! It didn't descend to actual tackling as it sometimes does when my brother-in-law shows up. Somehow he really gets the machismo flowing in all the other guys and they have to race to outdo each other. When it gets that crazy, the ladies usually settle for pilfering goods from the children's bags when they are not looking.
The next weekend, we hit the easter hunt in our own city and then spent the day wasting time and finishing up our prep for our new Sunday callings...
Easter morning was beautiful. The kids found their baskets, all the eggs, and the goodies the Easter Bunny brought. I hurried and got the girls ready, did their hair and headed out to my first correlation meeting in our ward.
Burke finished getting the kids ready for church (by himself, hee hee--payback) and got there on time, despite having to spot clean Adrienne's dress on his way out the door. They all looked so cute.
It was strange to have an extra body on the bench with us. It really messed up the seating chart I have had for the last three years: Nathan, Adrienne, Mom, Annika, Kade. There are no exchanges or substitutions.
The funniest thing that day was when the sacrament was being passed, Burke actually bowed his head, acting like he was planning on actually thinking about the sacrament and all that stuff. What is up with that? I had to straighten him out by reminding him that down here in the trenches, we work on keeping the kids quiet and stop them from getting into the "quiet activity bag" before the sacrament is over. We all know that is what the Sacrament time is really for, right?
He has forgotten what Sacrament Meeting is all about. Or maybe that's me.
Maybe Annika's comment about needing some butter and jam for her tiny piece of sacrament bread brought him back to earth.
After church, and Primary (see post below). We headed to Grandma and Grandpa W's and then Grandma and Grandpa T's. It was so nice to be able to visit with them on such a beautiful day.
Here are the pictures of all the festivities and my cute girls in their cute Easter dresses.

Fun with the easter finds.

Coloring Eggs, Hands, Pajamas.

These are the eggs we colored. Burke is especially proud of the eyeball egg he helped Nathan with. Kade did the patriotic red, white, and blue egg.

We got to have another Easter egg hunt with Grandma while Grandpa rested inside.
Hope you had a great Easter weekend!

A Hairy Easter Basket

I found this really cute hairdo on one of the hair blogs I frequent. I adapted it to make it a "whole head" do. It reminds me of an Easter Basket- hence the silly title.
And no, this one wasn't a quickie, but it turned out to be gorgeous. I love it.

Party Hearty

We had a little family party for New Years this year. We wanted to do a party with some actual guests, but because of the infectiousness and overal crappy-feeling-ness of myself, we decided against that.
Anyway, we took the kids to our favorite Mexican restaurant, then went to 7-11 for a steamer (just learned about those, yummy!)
After that, we all came home to put on jammies and have Wii tournament and eat the goodies we made. Guess who helped with the frozen bananas? Adrienne helped with the sprinkles. They may not look so good, but they tasted great.

We did the puzzles that Aunt Brooke gave us for Christmas. The helpers for this came and went, depending on which Wii game was being played.

The girls made it until about 9:00 PM, then came and asked to be put to bed. The boys, especially Nathan, talked a big game. When it came down to midnight, it was only Burke and I who were watching the ball drop while sharing an alcohol-free toast.

Happy New Year!

Christmas Picts

I finally got around to downloading the pictures off of my new camera. Here are some of the pictures of the big day.

In the top picture Adrienne is modeling the pillowcase that Grandma W gave her. She really enjoys being naked. What a cheeser!

Annika actually got some roller skates and hasn't taken them off since... I can't believe we don't have a picture of it!

Kade really wanted a Mr. Fuzzy. If you have seen them at the kiosks at the mall, you know they look like they are lots of fun, but cannot be as great as they look. We tried to tell Kade that, but he wasn't believing it... Santa caved and got him one. Just another life's lesson... be careful what you wish for...

Santa also brought this really great book for all Star Wars fans/nerds. It is called Star Wars Guide to the Galaxy. It is a pop up book that we all really enjoyed looking at. The last page even has light sabers that actually light up. This is Nathan showing it to Grandma Christmas afternoon.