SPT ~ Holiday Funge Shui ~ Hope

Tonight the girls got together! I love getting together with my sisters {and Mom} and even better when we decide to leave our kids home ~ just Mom's!!! Although every one couldn't make it, we still laughed too loud at the Olive Garden. We still enjoyed good food and good company. They still made me laugh so hard while I was taking a sip of coke that I spit it out across the table ~ sorry, again Becky... There is always a little peeing of the pants when we cackle like chickens!!! I know my husband doesn't think this is something I NEED, but I H.O.P.E. that we get together more often in the future. I think it makes me a better wife and mother!

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That First Christmas Night

This was the first year that we have had enough bodies to fill all of the major rolls. We got together on Christmas night, enjoyed a delicious dinner and then attempted to act out the nativity. Slayder read from the scriptures while the smaller kids were shepherd's, wise men, angels and Joseph and Mary. The still shots show them actually holding still but they never did. I loved that when the wise men brought their gifts to the new born king, Chloe wanted to open them for her baby doll!

Drake got the prize for finding the pickle on Grandma's tree and we all exchanged gifts. I think Josh's favorite was this Disney Princess puzzle:

What a great day that ended as soon as we realized that the storm those weather men talked about arrived. The big white flakes were really coming down. We all passed out kisses and hugs and thank yous as quickly as possible. We gathered up our dishes and gifts and scraped the car windows clean. It was a little treacherous but we all made it home safe!

Merry Christmas!!!

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Merry Christmas

This was definitely Chloe's year. She was so excited she told us that she was going to stay up all night long. She wanted to ask Santa Claus for a drink, like Cindy Lou Who ~ the Grinch is our favorite Christmas movie! This morning around 2 AM, I got up to go to the bathroom. She must have heard me because she stumbled into our bedroom and asked, "Mommy, Mommy has Santa Claus been here?" I tried to pretend I was still sleeping but Dan told her to go and check. We hear her ultrasonic squeals of delight, then her running to Seth's room, "Seth, wake up, wake up, Santa's been here!" She was so excited, she couldn't believe that the reindeer ate their carrots and that Santa ate his cookies. Last year there was a little mishap with her request for a turtle toy. This year she wrote Santa a letter and included a picture! She got just what she asked for!!!

Seth got a number of Motorcycles, just like he asked!

We have a horrible running tradition of buying ourselves something we want but wrapping it up for each other as a gift. I got Dan a much needed remote that I have wanted for a long time!
It seems unreasonable that in less than an hour we demolished a months worth of preparation!

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Christmas Eve Gingerbread

Dan's Grandma used to make this cake when he was a little boy.

It is served warm with a lemon sauce! Pretty Good!!!

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SPT ~ Holiday Funge Shui ~ Peace

Today I brought a little peace of mind to Chloe. This morning we had a long conversation about how Santa Claus will be coming into our house ~ We don't have a fire place. She was so curious as to what will happen if, like Cindy Lou Who, she wakes up and sneaks a peak at Santa. I told her that he would probably do what the Grinch did and give her a drink and send her back to bed!

Today we wrapped most of the presents, finished the baking and had The Talk! Last night I even went out with my friend Cindy and got a few things for Dan, who is on the naughty list! There is a certain peace or zen, if you will, about being done, being ready. Who am I kidding, I CAN NOT WAIT FOR CHRISTMAS!!!

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We finally did Thanksgiving right! I have gone on and on about how I missed out, but no more!!! Last night we invited Dan's parents over for dinner and I made a turkey dinner with mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, rolls, and Sue brought some asparagus and carrots. It was all so good. We had grandpa carve the turkey which I left the neck in... But Dan has decided that I need a double oven! The kids were loving all of the attention from their grandparents. They read stories and we played games. But I forgot to take any pictures. I get so caught up trying to be Miss Martha while entertaining that I forget to capture the sweetest moments... But before church I was able to snap this great photo of these two together.

We Wish You A Merry Christmas!!!

Chloe loves singing and we have been trying to teach her all of the words.

Today we have been watching the snow fall from the warmth of our home. We have bundled in blankets and watched some of our favorite episodes of Charlie and Lola. Then Chloe decided to play primary and was teaching her stuffed animals a lesson, with a little singing time.

And Seth decided to take a break and I found him asleep in his closet! All together, not a bad day!!!

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It's A Christmas Miracle

My day started today were it should have left off yesterday! I was so tired after standing on my feet all day, baking. After dinner, Dan coaxed me into laying down for a minute to snuggle. I fell right to sleep and left out almost everything I had worked so hard on!!! The french bread and the fudge both ended up in the trash, so sad. My visiting teachers came over this morning and then my friend Cindy and her kids stopped for some present swapping and lunch. I want to know who started having their young children exchange gifts with their friends!!! Luckily I talked with Cindy prior to the purchase of said gift and we both agreed on a $1 limit. Chloe had a really good time picking our her gifts but has been really sad that I wouldn't get one for her as well!

Chloe got some play earrings and hair combs

but the best part was the fake fingernails!!!

It started to snow mid morning and Chloe and Seth were so excited. She kept saying that it was a Christmas Miracle!!! Notice the leg lamp lit up in all of it's glory!Here are some more photo shop projectsTaking turns pulling the sled.I was there waiting for this:

Good times followed by rosy cheeks and hot chocolate!

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Christmas Baking

And so it begins! I have every intention of making sugar cookies for our friends and neighbors. I made three batches of dough and they are chilling until tomorrow. I made some french bread to go with my Cheese Potato Soup for dinner tonight. I made some fudge, especially for Dan ~ with no nuts! I mixed up two cheese balls and they too are refrigerating as we speak.

I am planning to give away most if not all of the treats and just realized my favorite part of the day was when I added to my collection of glasses like my Grandpa & Grandma Mac had in their cupboard. They had these glass glasses at my level. It felt very grown-up to drink out of something other than plastic. I laugh because it wasn't until last year that I started saving these glass jars for myself and because Grandma & Grandpa came from a time when nothing was wasted and everything was used. Instead of saving these for novelty use they just saved them and used them.

I still have to make a Gingerbread Cake with Lemon Sauce, Carmels, Melt-A-Ways, actually cook the sugar cookies and make the icing... Why can't I spread this out during the whole month instead of all at once?

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It's Fun to do Fondue

Chloe was so excited to bring her best friend from our old neighborhood a little Christmas present that she picked out all by herself. The silly girl sneaked up to thier front door! We used to have so much fun with our friends and still like to get together, sadly, just not as often!
We started our morning at 9 AM, at Alphagraphic's, picking up a Christmas project. My good friend Tina works there and she helped me set up this fabulous gift project. I wanted to round all of the corners ~ all 1,728 of them. This would have cost a small fortune in labor costs, but Tina let me use their commercial rounder at no charge! They have a little Lego table and the kids were being so good. Sadly there were some items missing and had to be reprinted. They would not be ready until after 3 PM... I had to choose between returning to Bountiful, wasting valuable time or run errands in the area until the project was complete. I chose the latter and probably chose incorrectly! After visiting with Shannon I took the kids out to lunch at McDonald's ~ a reward for their wonderful behavior earlier. Chloe and Seth were playing in the kid land and when I brought out the chicken nuggets, Chloe ran up to me and informed me that a girl had asked if she would like to be her friend. Chloe replied, "No thanks, I have enough friends!" I told her that she can never have enough friends and that she should go find her and ask her to be her friend and tell her your name. She couldn't find her... Afterwards we went to the grocery store. I have really enjoyed using the grocery smarts web site to bulk up on my food storage and still spend less on my monthly grocery bill. This was the first week I have been able to use some of my three sets of coupons! It was a nightmare!!! I was able to get boxes and boxes of Kellogg's cereal for .67 but my kids were acting like monsters. They wanted the over sized whale grocery cart at Albertson's that is so hard to maneuver and they kept hanging out of it the entire time. I was able to make it out of there with little to no attention drawn to us. I called Alphagraphic's to see if the printer had reached our place in line. No. such. luck. We headed to Smiths for more bargains and it took all of the control I had not to pull down their pants and spank them in the middle of the store. I know, none of you out there who know my sweet angel babies will believe this, but it is true. They kept poking and pinching each other, like normal kids do. They kept whining and begging, like normal kids do. They kept pushing my buttons and pulling on my last nerve, like normal kids do. I made the mistake of opting for self check out ~ trying to hold on to the little composure I had remaining. Chloe kept sitting on the scale that measures if you have bagged your item. The fifth and final time I asked/pleaded/told her to stop trying to sit down there involved a little hair pulling. I was almost reduced to tears and finally demanded/threatened that they remain on their assigned square {on the floor} until I was ready to leave! We picked up the last of the project at Alphagraphic's and headed for home. I demanded and threatened silence on the trip home. I believe the smarter of the two fell asleep while the other just sucked her finger the entire ride home! Dan helped unload all of our frugal treasures and I had calmed down enough to make us what was on the menu: Fondue. We all had fun dipping french bread cubes and chicken meatballs into the hot and bubbly concoction!
I want to tell you all about this fabulous project but we are giving them as gifts to everyone in Dan's family. We did have a trial run after dinner and the kids just loved it!!!

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SPT ~ Holiday Feng Shui ~ Comfort

My Children bring me Comfort ~ Their love is endless!

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HOME!!!

We stopped at the dam visitors center and took this picture of a

Joshua Tree for Joshy {maybe he will have to come the next time)! Sue didn't want to be in the picture.
This was one of Seth's favorite Cactus'

This was towards the end of the long road trip and these troopers were almost over done. The two year old was a little worse for wear. He would fall asleep and wake up realizing that he is still in his car seat...

We got back to work to pick up our car and everything was frozen. The ground was frozen the gate locks were frozen, the car doors were frozen. EVERYTHING was frozen. This is not what I wanted to come back to... Chloe and Seth were out of the car faster than me and had a snowball fight without coats and gloves on. While putting their car seats in place they managed to get very wet and, you guessed it, frozen! No matter what, It is So Good To Be Home!!!

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Lifeguard on Duty

We had breakfast at the Village Baker again this morning and then waited and waited for the life guard to arrive on the scene. Eleven AM arrived, the sun was out and our swimming suits were on! We had to beg the life guard to let Chloe go down the slide with one of us, but she let Chloe go down twice! Temperatures were in the 70's and it was so nice!!! We borrowed noodles from the concierge. Chloe loved the whirl pool, fountains and having races in the lap lanes.

Chloe loved the citrus trees.

Oranges, Grapefruits, and Lemons were everywhere!

While waiting for me to get ready the kids went across the street to visit a stable of Ponies and Seth actually approached a black horse named midnight. He can be such a little fraidy cat. We picked up Grandpa and headed over to Sue's brother Roger's house that he and his wife, Kim had remodeled. They have such a beautiful home and two cute little doggies. Chloe was so excited to see their Chihuahua Freshy and their Pomeranian Fluffy {but they had to be shut away do to our fraidy cat ~ Seth}. After a short visit, we went in search for Organ Stop Pizza, a restaurant Bry and Sue had been to before. They have a Wurlitzer Organ that this man plays that is attached to organs all over the room. There were bell organs, bird organs, and drums of all shapes and sizes.

Seth thought it was so cool
And the pizza was pretty good, too!

We knew to sit at the upper level and Seth was too tempted

and threw straw wrappers to the guests below...

Chloe's favorite part was the dancing cats!

We said our good byes to Great Grandpa and he gave my little beggars

some popcorn and ice cream to take back to the hotel with us.

Merry Christmas Grandpa!

He promised to visit as soon as it warms up in Utah...

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