Christmas 2009

Christmas Morning


A few of the gifts





SMILIN'





I made these tutus for my nieces for Christmas.


Steve enjoying Morgan's Karaoke machine...




Morgan enjoyed playing with my sisters new horse...um... I mean her new dog, Shadow.

Christmas was really great. Everyone loved their gifts, we spent a lot of time with family and with each other.

Scholar of the Month

Yesterday Koby got an award at school for Scholar of the Month. Morgan and I attended the assembly to see his moment of glory. The gym was full with students, teachers and parents and it was noisy! Morgan said to me, "Mom it's really annoying here." But here she is saying, "YEAH Koby!"


Anyway we had to sit behind all the kids so I didn't get many photo ops. I think Koby would have been embarrassed if I had run up the aisle and then laid on the floor in order to capture this Kodak moment. Instead I took pictures after. (Am I not an awesome un-embarrassing mother?)

We are very proud of our brilliant Koby and it was not a surprise to hear that he was chosen as scholar of the month. Way to go, Koby, we love you!

Gingerbread house

On Monday night for FHE, we talked about how lucky we are to have a home that keeps us warm and safe and then we made a gingerbread house. No picture of the final product as the roof kept slipping down and then the kids got impatient and started eating it.

Busy December

Christmas is right around the corner! We are all so excited. We have done many fun things to remember what Christmas is all about, preparing for Christmas, holiday parties, playing in the snow and scout awards in addition to all of our normal everyday busy-ness. Here are a few pictures...

Koby received 4 scout awards (I can only remember the names of 3- tenderfoot, 2nd and 1st class). It was very nice for me because Steve helped Koby accomplish everything he needed to and I didn't do a dang thing! Hope the whole eagle thing happens the same way!


Morgan loves the snow and spends as much time outside as she can. She takes her snow pants, boots and coat to the babysitters everyday. When she gets home from the babysitters she takes Georgia into the backyard and they play in even more snow. She was thrilled when her big brother offered to take her sledding. This morning she was commenting that it was so sad that all the snow was melting. I told her it was supposed to snow tonight and then for two more days. She said, "YES! That is great news and great days!" Morgan also got to visit with Santa-look at how happy she is!


We took a few family photos. I think they turned out ok, even if our dog does look like she is possessed.




I was compiling photos for a couple of Christmas gift projects and I noticed that in the past year Steve and I only have a handful of pictures that have both Steve and I in the picture. So we took a couple with us both-this is my favorite.

Parental Failure

A few days ago I was talking to my friend Corrine about Christmas. She was telling me that her girls knew the true meaning of Christmas and I felt confident that my children also knew. So imagine my immense disappointment when I found out that wasn't the case.

Koby knows-which is good since he is 12 years old and knows all the 'secrets' about Christmas. He didn't ask for anything unreasonable for Christmas and he has asked if we could do secret Santa again this year. He asked if he could use his own money to buy a gift for Morgan. He seems to "get it".

That's the good news and now for the bad...

I asked Morgan if she knew why we really celebrate Christmas and without pausing to think she said, "Yes, Christmas is about the presents!"

In a calm, still hopeful voice I said, "Well there are presents, but what else?"

After a thoughtful pause, "Oh yeah, Santa!"

I wanted to cry! I mean we read the Christmas story from the bible every year, we even have the kids dress up and play Joseph and Mary. We try and do service through the whole month of December. When we set up our nativity set we talk about each piece. We have done secret Santa and yet Morgan doesn't know why we celebrate Christmas!

So rather than despair and give up hope that I will one day be a good mother and teach my children all that they need to know I have come up with a plan! (I always have plans for everything-just ask Steve!)

First I made a little 12 days of Christmas advent calender. I put pictures and suggestions of activities in 12 separate envelopes. Some ideas are: make cookies for the neighbors, read Luke 2, spend time as a family playing games, making a snow man and watching holiday movies, go see the Christmas lights and talk about how Jesus is the light of the world and how the star led the Shepherds to Jesus. That's a few of my suggestions.

Second, we are going to buy a 12 piece nativity set and give out each piece for the 12 days of Christmas to someone that we feel needs a special boost for Christmas. Each day we will talk about a different piece of the set and why they are important.

I hope that helps Morgan to remember that the most important things are not the presents but the memories, the feelings of love and unity and most of all our Savior's birth, his life and his sacrifices.

Morganism

Morgan: Mom, Rylynn gave me a piece of gum that she got at the trunk or treat.
Me: Cool!
Morgan: There is two places to get candy- trunk-or-treat and house-or-treat.
Me: Really? (trying not to laugh)
Morgan: Yeah house-or-treat is when you go to people's houses and they give you candy!

Ready for Christmas???

Last night we "built" our tree and began decorating for Christmas. I think Steve was more excited about it than the kids-but not by much. Here are some pictures...




Yes Morgan and Georgia both wore the Christmas tree skirt. Although only one of them had a choice.





So are we ready for Christmas? Mentally we are really excited and anxious for the season, physically we are still getting there. Here is the check list...

Tree up & decorated Check
Radio tuned to 24 hr Christmas music-check( 2 cks if we count the radio at work too!)
Many parties scheduled- check
gifts purchased- 3/4 a check (or a chec)
gifts wrapped-not at all
Stocked up on sugar cookie dough & hot chocolate- Check
sitting back and enjoying the holiday season-CHECK!

Gratitude journal

Anyone who knows me very well, knows that I love Thanksgiving. It is my very favorite holiday. I know that Christmas is great and the reason behind it (Jesus Christ) is much more important but Thanksgiving fills me with more love and peace than Christmas does. And because I love this holiday I am going to share a month of gratitude with you-30 items I am grateful for, representing 30 days of November.

1.Heavenly Father-he is always there for me, he understands & loves me unconditionally. He grants me all of the other blessings that I have in my life.

2.Jesus Christ-my loving older brother that has suffered for my sins and sorrows and has been the best example of what I should become.

3.Steve-my sweet, wonderful, loving, handsome, thoughtful, funny husband. I love him so much and am grateful for the opportunity to build a life with him each day. His love and patience for me is like a giant life preserver. I never thought I could be loved and cherished so much by one person.

4.Koby-the best son a mother could ever hope for. He is generous, handsome, loving, brilliant, thoughtful and deeply spiritual. He brings joy and love into our home. He saved me from a life of pain and sorrow. I am so glad that I get the chance to have him in my life!

5.Morgan-my beautiful, sweet, loving princess has helped me to find the long-buried 'girly-girl' inside of me. Her singing and dancing brings a smile to my face every time. Her contagious smile is always present and her warm soft hugs bring joy to my heart.

6.My mom and dad-they have always been there for me, helped me become a stronger and better person. Their love and support has given me the desire to be a better parent.

7.My brothers and sisters-I love and appreciate them so much more today than while we were growing up. I like each of them and enjoy spending time with them. I feel like they will always 'have my back'.

8.The in-laws- how lucky I am to have such a great extended family surrond me and my family. We are so deeply loved!

9.Church-I love that I have a weekly reminder of who I want to become. The LDS church strengthens and uplifts me daily!

10.Our home-I love the feeling of being home and the safety and security it represents.

11.Our jobs-we are blessed with the ability to support ourselves.

12.Education-I love how easy it is to increase our knowledge informally as well as in the classroom.

13.BOOKS-love, love, love books!

14.Libraries-since I could not possibly afford to buy as many books as I read each week, nor the space to store them all!

15.Friends & Neighbors-it's a great feeling to be surrounded by people who care for you.

16.Internet-I love having information at my fingertips (I google everything!) and being able to keep in contact with people who live far away from me.

17.Freedom

18.Technology

19.Good Child care providers-since I can't be a stay at home mom, I am glad that there are people out there who can provide the love and care to my children while I am away from them.

20.Teachers-one of the very self-less, unrewarding jobs that is important to the entire world.

21.Weekends-the chance to rejuvinate and spend time with my family

22.Holidays-a chance to forget the mundane and rejoice.

23.Music

24.Nature, changing seasons, beautiful scenery

25.Photographs-a visual reminder of a moment in time

26.laughter

27.Food

28.My health and that of my family

29.trials and challenges to help me draw closer to my Heavenly Father and to become a stronger, better person

30.My life-what a great blessing to be born in the right time, in the right place to have all the above blessings. Life is good and I am blessed!

And as a bonus-

31.YOU!

Morgan's 1st letter

Last night I helped Morgan write her first letter. She wrote to Zelia, her previous babysitter. She was very proud of her work. We will be dropping it in the mail today!

Elderly Mr. Zabriskie

For the past 4-6 weeks Steve has gotten a massive amount of mail from a particular group of advertisers. It seems as if they believe that Steve is in their target market. Here is a list of just a few of them...

1.AARP- now that he has reached the age of 65 they would love to have him become a member.

2.Retirement communities- he has plenty of options as he has gotten several invites!

3.Life insurance- it is not too late to protect those you will leave behind.

I keep telling Steve that he must have a secret "old life" that I don't know about. He doesn't find that funny...oh well. It serves him right-he often teases me because I am older than him-by 15 days! But I am not the one that advertisers think is 65! We did decide that if the government starts thinking he is old enough to retire we should go for it.

Fall 09 pictures

I have admitted it before but now I am showing you the proof, I am cheap!

A couple of weeks ago Koby was scheduled to get his school pictures done. I looked over the order form and figured that the package I would need would cost $39. WHOA! At that time I couldn't fork out 40 bucks for pictures of one member of our family. I told Koby that we would skip out on buying them this time but that I still wanted to get new pictures of him.

Days and weeks passed and finally we found a gap of time between work and a couple of activities and we made a mad dash for this beautiful spot located only a couple of miles from our home. I brought additional clothes, hair accessories and props and we spent about 30 minutes taking pictures. I think it was fun and they turned out pretty well. I will be selecting a few of the pictures and enlarging them for our home and a couple to share but even if I do spend $39, the pictures will be more than one pose and will have the whole family in some of them. So I think that's a pretty smart deal! The kids were great sports and let me take pictures until the sun almost dissapeared-so we rewarded them by letting them feed the ducks. It was a blast!

My beautiful kids...



Koby is 12 and Morgan is 4 1/2




More pictures



The whole family...



And yes the family picture was taken by me!

Halloween 2009

We had a great Halloween weekend. I didn't take too many pictures but here are the kids in their costumes this year. I was thrilled with Koby's because it was FREE-and of course he looked devilishly handsome as a man in black! Koby got to go with his friends, he is now way too old and cool to be seen trick-or-treating with his lame parents. Morgan enjoyed going with us though and she ended up with about 2x as much candy as Koby. Not sure if that is because Koby ate more or because everyone kept giving Morgan extra-she was an especially adorable little good witch. I hope you all had a great weekend as well...the holiday may be over but the candy will stay with us for weeks...or months depending on how much you ate and how long it takes to remove the extra candy bars from your backside!