Splitsville

Me, Amanda, Nicole, Angie, Sara, Andrea, Mekael, Mindy, Cindy, Stacie & Nichol

We went out to celebrate our friend Andrea's birthday last night. We stopped at her favorite place, Farr's frozen yogurt in Clinton. Then we went to Denny's and talked the night away. Our ward was split in two on Sunday and I am going to miss most of these fabulous women so much. The new ward is even meeting in a new church house so we wont even be able to pass them in the hallway... I have loved working along side these sisters and am so glad to have been given the opportunity to know them!

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Christmas Morning

Dan spent at least an hour setting up the covetted nascar race track! We have had so much fun playing with all of the toys we got for Christmas! If you look really closely you can see in the back of this picture the two boxes that are my presents ~ a new computer!!! I am so excited to spend the next couple of days transfering all of my files, music and pictures to my sleek, new computer!!!

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Traditions

Just a few more things to do before we go to bed with visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads. Chloe got some reindeer food/sparkles to sprinkle in our front yard to attrack donner and blitsen so they won't miss our house. I also made Dan's favorite breakfast ~ oven baked french toast. They soak all night long, YUM!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

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Christmas Eve Party

We got together with Dan's family at our house on Christmas Eve. We had dinner and each family shared a favorite story, song or game. These boys had so much fun dressing up in Seth's super hero outfits. They are so wild and crazy together, it is fun to watch them!!!

I was so glad that Dan's Grandpa could come. He is missing Grandma Rita so much during the holidays. He wrote each of his grandchildren a lovely note and shared one of Grandma's Owls with us. This is the one he chose for Dan:

She loved to collect little owl figurines and liked the simile "wise as an owl".

She wants us to be wise and to remember that "wisdom is much more than knowledge"

He then passed out gold dollars to all of the kids. I think it was Jared who chuckled under his breath that when he was little he thought Grandpa made these in his basement!

Uncle Jared gave the kids the Spongebob Operation game ~ I really wanted this!!!

Dan was really excited to give his mom a red rider bb gun this year!

It is always fun to get together with family. Everyone had a few more Christmas Eve things to take care of so the night ended just when it was starting to get a little dangerous... Grandma and Grandpa had given each family two round sleds and Seth started the craziness by going down the stairs on them. Echo got some great pictures of the kids and one of Drake really flying (I will need a copy of them soon)!!!

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Snow Ball Fight!!!

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Family Portrait

Dans family is very hard to gather together if there is a portrait to be taken! I know most families have a hard time planning a time, date and place but this is getting ridiculous! The last group shot that I have is at Josh's Eagle Scout ceremony; years ago! We made plans, we set a date, a time and a place and got all of the husbands to agree to the torture. Sadly some of Jenn kids were sick with strep throat and the weather was bad. So we were scrambling to find something to give to Dan's parents for Christmas instead of the canvas portrait we planned. I got a smart alecy idea last minute and had Chloe color grandma and grandpa this picture!

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Spreading Christmas Cheer

I'm having a hard time... Yesterday I had plans to go to the grocery store to get all of my families needs to last us through the insane crowds out there. Dan decided to take the car to work and I decided to make some of Grandma Rita's melt-a-way cookies and some carmel's for Dan. I was talking on the phone with my sister Wendy and she told me she was going to make some of her fabulous cinnamon syrup for her neighbors. The light bulb went on and I decided to do the same {I am literally a sheep ~ following anyone and anything}! Dan got home from work a little later than usual but I just rushed out without the kids and booked it to Costco to pick up the gift tags that I whipped up from the photo department and some milk for Dan ~ he'll only drink Costco milk. There were a few more groceries as well as having to stop for gas but then I was on my way to walmart to find the rubbermaid that Wendy called me about. They had a red lid, cost only $2/5 jars and she told me exactly were they were. I made it to the housewares department and the shelves were bare wherever there was supposed to be a jar or container that would hold 2 cups of Christmas CHEER! I got a call from Dan at 6:00 asking how much longer I was going to be. I hadn't even started to fill my cart and the amount of people in the Clinton walmart was insane. I left and went home! I had to go to a different store to find my syrup containers anyway... We had a delicious dinner of spaghetti and meatballs and then I raced back out to my Syracuse walmart. I was in luck, they had everything I needed and I got everything on my list!!! I started to make the syrup in the biggest pot I have as soon as I got home and quickly realized that I shouldn't have quadrupled the already Steeneck size recipe... I had to pull out my next largest pot and split the ingredients. There were sugary drips all over the stove, the pots and me! I planned to wrap the carmels, ice the melt-a-ways, and make a cheese ball before I went to bed and ran upstairs to get the recipe for the cheese ball of my computer {I made one two weeks ago from memory and added way too much sugar...} Laura called and we were giggling over some mail. I went back downstairs to the stench of burning sugar and brown thick syrup running over the pots, covering the flat top stove top, running down the oven door and into the drawer and pooling on the floor! Everyone else was already in bed by this time and I quickly mopped up the mess. I scoured the stove top in fear that I ruined the finish. I had a decision to make. I already had more than enough whipping cream to make more batches of syrup {I had calculated what I would need before I left but when I get to the store and am faces with quarts and pints I just loose it}. I already had the containers ready to be filled. I already had the gift tags. I had to go somewhere other than walmart because they were out of karo syrup. I raced to Maceys and scored big time. I walked out of the store and realized that I forgot to get more cinnamon. I was going to run out for sure. Even though I was parked in the 'expectant mother' parking spot and was really close to the doors, I just kept going and stopped at Smiths for the cinnamon. I got home and rinsed the pots that had been soaking in hot, hot water. I started it again and pulled up a stool and sat down at the stove. Stirring. Stirring. Stirring two pots of sweet sticky syrup! One pot started to boil first and I timed it and took it off the burner. The second pot was taking its sweet time and I {wait for it} turned my back to get the cheeses out for the cheese ball. It started bubbling over and I caught it before it went onto the floor! I set the covered pot aside to cool and started to clean the stove top again. I started mixing the cheese ball and really let it get good and combined on high speed. I started to pour the syrup into the Christmas jars and once I was done I started the process over again! One more pot of syrup to go. I started boiling eggs in the other pot. While the 5th pot of syrup was getting warm, I made the icing for the melt-a-ways. Without any other syrup problems, I started to wrap the carmels while the last batch was cooling. I got the last load of dishes in the dishwasher and the last bit of syrup in the jars. In 6 hours time I went to 5 different grocery stores, made 80 cups of cinnamon syrup and scrubbed burnt sugar off of my stove top 3 times. Now I just have to talk Dan and Chloe into delivering {fewer than planned} Christmas Cheer to our neighbors when he gets home from work.

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Aaaahhhhh!

I swear on my love for this little boy, I did not pose this picture! He fell asleep on the couch watching a movie and woke up all startled because he needed to go to the bathroom and wasn't were he thought he was. After I settled him down and helped him go potty, I thought he went back to watching the movie. I started making some last minute neighborhood gifts and Chloe went up to bed. I walked right past him and did a double take of him scrunched up on the floor underneath the Christmas tree.

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Up on the House Top!

Here she is singing her song!!!

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Chloe's School Sing-A-Long

Today we went to school for their sing-a-long this morning. Chloe's grade sang a rap version of Up on the House Top. After enjoying a few more grades songs, Seth turned to me and started doing the pee pee dance. We booked it out of their in search of one of the schools short little potties for him! He was so excited when he came out of the bathroom, he ran into Santa and got like five minutes of one on one time with him. {Again sad picture} but he was in heaven. Santa was telling him that he was such a good boy, he would bring him an extra toy!!!

All of the parents were in the back of the auditorium and couldn't really see much but they announced that the kindergarteners would be singing their song again for their parents!!! Got to love our principal! I am having problems posting her video... I'll keep trying.

Merry Christmas!

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Antelope Island

Something is wrong with my camera. I might have to have a little visit with my camera guru, Krista to see if my settings have been changed. I can't get a distant picture to come out in any lighting without being blurry...

We got to visit the Island today and it was so, so foggy you could hardly see the great salt lake... We did see some buffalo and that is all that really matters!

One of my Laurels' family lives on the island {her dad is like the ranger or something} and it is her birthday on Saturday. The young women leaders place a sign in each girls yard for their birthday and I volunteered to put hers in her yard. I guess I should have asked where her yard is... I drove near the visitor center and came to a dead end. I knew it couldn't be by the camp grounds. I started to drive towards the ranch and a house just appeared hovering in the fog. I took the next turn and lost sight of the house. No luck. I turned around and went back to where I saw it and continued on. I had tried calling a neighbor but before I found the house I drove out of range, but she did tell me they lived before the gate. Low and behold, just before the gate is a little dirt path that is a very long and windy, snow covered driveway! We found it, we delivered the sign, we saw the buffalo, we left!!!

On our way back over the causeway we saw this boat out on the water. Chloe asked me what they were doing because she knows there aren't any fish in the water. I thought maybe they were doing some testing or scientific study... And then we heard the shot guns go off in succession and then two ducks fell from the sky! Mystery solved, but now she wants to know what ducks taste like.

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Such a Lucky Girl!

Chloe came home from school today with a gift from her teacher. The scarf she is modeling has now been nick-named her happy feet scarf that she plans on wearing every year ~ forever!!! Thanks Mrs. Lawrence!

She also got a letter today. The post man delivered this letter to her from Santa Claus. She was so excited and tickled to get a letter in return after writing him a letter, notifying him of how good she is and what she would like. She also got to wear pajamas to school and bring a pillow and blanket for a Polar Express party day. They watched some of the movie and had treats, read stories and had a blast in their PJ's. Then as soon as she got home we rushed to the dentist for our 6 month check ups. Seth loves the dentist and will ask for bubble gum flavored polish. Chloe is still a little nervous to speak up and she gets stuck with mint ~ he likes to rub this in!

This was our first attempt in having a full x-ray on Chloe. She was too nervous and would not put her head in the contraption... Maybe next time!
Sadly, I was the only one with a cavity this time :( but Chloe does have a chip in her back tooth, on the back side. I am trying to think back of some time that she bit her cheek falling or something because it is a pretty weird place to have a missing chunk of tooth. But it is just a baby tooth, her first molars are almost to the surface and should be breaking through her gums soon. Is this as bad as when baby's cut teeth?

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Chloe's Retakes

I love this new picture!!!!

I picked these up yesterday with her book fair books. I love the $1 books they have. This song came from 'Where did they hide my presents?' a book of silly dilly Christmas songs:

Something in My

Brother's Underpants

(to the tune of "Winter Wonderland")

Doorbell rings

Gee, who is it?

Party guests

Christmas visit

The mood is so swell

But what is that smell?

Something in my brother's underpants!

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Now I don't

Like complaining

But my dad's

Entertaining

The guests and my mom

Don't smell the stink bomb

Something in my brother's underpants!

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From the basement we can hear the laughter

Parents sharing cheer while eggnog flows

Christmas songs are ringing from the rafter

How can I sing along

and hold my nose?

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Upstairs it's super-duper

This kid's a party pooper

Mom, please don't deck the halls

Come change his overalls

There's something in my brother's underpants!

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Ho! Ho! Ho!

Chloe has become even more creative since she started kindergarten. She made Seth this beard and decided that she could be Rudolph ~ because there can't be two Santa Clauses... I hope this puts you in the mood for a little Christmas Cheer!!!

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Ward Christmas Party

While waiting for everyone to arrive and the party to begin,

the children were invited to write letters to Santa:
Something was wrong with the combination of my camera and the lighting in the gym but these were the best shots of the night. All of the leaderships were asked to perform a skit and our Young Women's president asked me to be involved in ours...

I make a pretty believable snowman:

The primary presidency invited all of the kids who had lost a tooth or had a loose tooth to come up and sing along with "All I want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth!"

After dinner, Santa came to pass out treats for the kids and to pick up their letters.

Dan kept telling our tired kids that Santa really wasn't coming, lets just go home...

It was only 8:30 or so but they were very tempted to go home and go to bed, but as soon as the big man showed up they were wide awake and so excited that he came to our church!!!

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Wash Me!

I would write it on my car if I wasn't already

trying to avoid touching the slushy mess!

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The Christmas Senses

By Chloe Davis

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They're Not Just For Taco's...

Ever since it snowed Dan has been working to get the tri-zinger running. It needed some kind of fluid and he promised to bring some home from work today! The kids were waiting at the door with their snow pants on!!! We all love it when there is enough snow to be dragged behind what I now like to call 'The Fumagator'! First it is Chloe's turn:

Then Seth's:

He actually told me he felt like Ralphie's little brother,
Randy {all wrapped up in his snow clothes}!!!
I don't know if it was the fumes or not but neither kid would let go.
Dan tried to swerve and sway but they both held on for dear life:

Dan simply takes too much joy out of dragging them along:

Chloe ~ throwing a snow ball at ME!!!

So I pushed her in the snow!!!

When all of the sledding is good and done,

These boys just want to ride:

So long suckers:

For how much effort it takes to get all of the snow gear on

It sure comes off quickly!

There is nothing better than Hot Chocolate with a candy cane:

Unless you're Chloe and would prefer to drink the juice from the olive can... I was getting dinner ready. We're having tacos. She loves olives and didn't want me to drain the juice... What a gross girl!!! She actually only drank a little sip but she did talk

Seth into trying it and he confirmed her grossness!

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