Christmas Eve

We have a couple of Christmas Eve Traditions.
1. We make cookies for Santa and set them out.
2. We watch the Nativity Story that the church puts out
3. We sing Christmas Carols
4. And We let the kids open one present early: which is pajamas. (Makes for cuter pictures the next morning)

As you can tell they are so excited.

Gingerbread Houses

Doing Gingerbread houses is one of our traditions. We get milk cartoon, graham crackers icing and lots of candy, way too much candy, and have fun decorating the houses.
This such a fun and sweet tradition. No wonder my kids were so hyper last night or maybe it could have been it was Christmas Eve and they were just excited about Santa coming.

Time with Family

Playing legos, playing on the computer are fun things to do with cousins.
Olivia with Aspen

Garrett with Toby and Isaac

Hazel

Here are a few pictures of the kids with Vickie and Earl.  Very typical pictures of my kids.

Thanksgiving Point Lights

We went to the Thanksgiving point lights yesterday. We road the horse drawn wagon again. It was nice but rainy and little cold.

Devin's favorite lights were the reindeer pooping.

Sledding with Cousins

Nothing better on a cold winter day with lots of snow and no school than going sledding especially if you get to go with cousins.

Garrett

Olivia

Devin

Jeremy and Olivia

Jeremy crashing

Aspen and Nate

Betsy and Hazel

Olivia and Devin

Isaac

Toby and Garrett

 We went sledding on the hill behind the school and everyone had a good time.  Then after a couple hours they came back for hot chocolate and ice cream.

Snowmen in our House

What are we making: We have rice, white tube socks, string, a funnel, ribbion and sharpies?

Snowmen of Course.

For Family Home Evening we made snowmen with kids and Vickie and Earl. Jeremy got the idea from one of his teachers at his school. The kids really enjoyed making them and they turned out super cute.

Festival of Lights

We took the kids to Spanish Fork on Friday to see the Festival of Lights. It is a great place to take the kids to see Christmas Lights. A lot of the displays are animated and look like they are moving. We like going here it away from the highway and you can drive around the lights more than once and it only costs 5 dollars per car.
As we were driving around, we let the kids out of their seat belt and let them sit up front with us. Jere rolled down the window and let Devin stick his head out the window. He would exclaim, "YEAH" "I LOVE IT" Then he would excitedly say everything he saw, "Santa" "Deer" Frog" "Horses" They loved every minute of it.
Jenn was supposed to come but she was unable to come at the last minute.

Next week we are going to take them to the lights at Thanksgiving Point.

Trip to Insta Care

Today at work I was in the Gym helping the Music teacher with the Christmas Sing. We had 6th graders at the time. The class lined up and I was going and writing down their names to give to their teachers to have them line up in a certain way on Friday. While I was writing down the names two boys started pushing each other. The next thing I know is that one of the boys comes crashing into me and and hits my bad leg. I crumple to the the ground. I have pain shooting through my leg and then I go into a panic attack. The principal came and got me into a wheel chair and got me away from the kids because I was crying and not having trouble breathing.

Then I got a ride to insta-care where Jeremy met me. I was in tremendous amount of pain. They took more x-rays and they didn't show any other injuries. But the pain is very intense. I have been putting ice on it and using my tens unit the rest of the day. I am taking the day off tomorrow. I am using my crutches. I can't put weight on it it is too painful. I will call my orthopedic doctor tomorrow to look at the the x-rays.

I just wish it would all end.

By the tree

So I finally got the kids to pose by the tree.

Devin being silly

Olivia with the perfect smile as always

Garrett loves Mario! And I finally got a good one of him smiling which is hard to do.

Brownie Boxes

For neighbor gifts this year I decided I didn't want to make candy. So we went and bought stockings and browning mixes and put the brownie mixes in the stockings and made a card with the directions on how to make the brownies that said, "I hope your Christmas is filled with sweetness and joy." We are going to pass them out tonight for Family Home Evening.

So we had 29 empty brownie boxes. The kids put them to good use. They used them to make towers, animal cages, and dominoes, and skates.

They don't want us to throw the boxes away. Jeremy and I said we should have just got them a bunch of boxes for Christmas.


It was Garrett's idea and then the others joined in.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

At Jenn's work party our kids got to see Santa. All three kids were excited and happy to see him. Olivia and Garrett asked him for DSs. I think they are going to be disappointed. We were worried about Devin at first because at first he didn't want to go and see Santa, but as soon as we saw Santa walk through the door, Devin was excited and happy and couldn't wait to go and see him.

Jenn's Friend

While Jenn was working at the Haunted Forest she met a new friend, Chimma. Who has recently turned into more than just a friend, he has turned into the boyfriend. He is a nice guy and Jennifer seems to really like him.

As you can see she is all smiles.

Check the Mail

Garrett likes to check the mail. So I usually wait for him to get home so he can go and check the mail. His new thing is this:

Mom: Garrett go Check the mail.
Garret: Yep.
Skips out the door. Comes back skipping with nothing in his hands.
Mom: Was there any mail today.
Garrett: Yep
Mom: Where is it?
Garrett: In the mail box.
Mom: I thought you checked the mail.
Garrett: I did check the mail.
Mom: So where is it.
Garrett: In the mailbox
Mom: Why didn't you bring it in?
Garrett: You said CHECK the mail not GET the mail.
Mom: Go GET the mail
Garrett: (laughing) okay

Almost Gave me a heart attack

I am terrified of falling. I am paranoid, scared, extra cautious. I went and bought boots with good tread on them to help me slip less. But I guess I am extra clumsy.

The other night, I fell asleep on the couch and I guess I woke up and tried to stand up all in the same motion. When I stood up, I lost my balance and fell over. Luckily I was right next to the couch and caught myself. But I went into a panic.

I was walking into Devin's extremely messy room, I can't keep it straightened. If I straighten it, it is messy again in two minutes. Anyway I stepped on a toy and slipped again. Once again I caught myself. But I felt my heart rate go up and the panic setting in.

This morning, I thought that we had not had snow for a couple of days that I would be okay to wear my tennis shoes. Well I guess our parking lot is still really slippery. I slipped on the ice this morning. Once again, I didn't fall but my breathing became rapid.

All of these near falls about give me a heart attack!
I can't wait until I am not living in fear of falling and not dealing with pain everyday.

China must be running low on scientific ideas...

manedbks

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