Merry CHRISTmas

 

family pic at my parent's house

car show t-shirt quilt

Nile's big present - a 3DS

Hayden got some great new Wii games

the aftermath of our Christmas eve candle lite service

 

Christmas morning

Cousins!

I hope everyone had a happy and healthy Christmas this year.  We are so blessed to have most all of our family close and be able to see everyone for the holidays.  We still have to more Christmas get togethers to go.  One Sunday night and another in January.  Then the weekend after the kids start back to school we will be heading to a hotel/indoor water park with Jeremy's family.  The kids are very much looking forward to this!
On Christmas eve we went to my parent's house to open gifts and eat dinner.  Hayden was asked to read some scripture for the Christmas eve service - which starts at 11 PM.  The boys didn't think they needed to rest so you can see by the picture above neither one made it till the end of the service.  Pretty much right after Hayden was done Nile fell asleep and Hayden follow 15 mins later.  Aubrey had been running a temp and was at home in bed asleep with Grandma Cathy staying with her.
Christmas morning we slept in til 8 AM and everyone was feeling much better.  We opened gifts and stockings and had a nice morning of playing with our new things and getting ready for Jeremy's family to come to our house that evening.  I was very excited to host this year since we finally have a house large enough for all of us!!  We opened gifts after Aubrey woke up from her nap and then we had dinner and the kids and adults played.  My children are so lucky to have two set of grandparents that they are very close to and love them so much!  Jeremy and I received a luggage set - just in time for our big trip to Florida in a few months!

From our family to yours - Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Snowpocalyps??

Well yesterday I spend a lot of the day running errands in preparation of the "blizzard" that was supposed to start late that afternoon.  The fridge, freezer, and cupboards are well stocked and we were ready.  Unfortunately it didnt start doing much until well after the kiddos were in bed asleep.  We didnt get too much snow but just enough to slow everyone down and cancel school.  The kids and I bundled up after a late breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes with homemade syrup.  We headed out in the snow for less than an hour I would say.  The wind was blowing pretty good and the snow didnt stick together so we couldnt get a snowman made.  Our neighbor boy came over and offered to shovel the driveway and I happily accepted.  I scooped the front walk to the door and that was enough for me.  After coming back inside we decided to watch The Grinch and I made some chocolate chip cookies for us - plus a plate to take next door as a thank you.  We had a yummy lunch of grilled cheese and tomato soup.  I got a griddle at Wal-Mart on black Friday and I love that thing!  I think it is impossible to burn something on it and I can make more at a time than I could on the stove top! 

Today after lunch the boys both helped me do some vacuuming and I got all the laundry caught up while Aubrey napped.  They are now happily playing Wii while I blog and think about starting supper.  I am very excited to be able to host Christmas with Jeremy's family at our house this year since we finally have enough room for everyone as well!  Nile has been coughing a lot these past few days and Aubrey has a little cold but I am praying that we will all be healthy for all of our gathering the next few weeks!  Hayden was asked to recite a passage of scripture at our candle lite Christmas Eve service so we have been working on that as well.  Blessing to all during this wonderful season - remember that the true meaning for our celebration is that our Savior came to Earth as a little baby to die for our sins!

First snow of Christmas 2012

Christmas program 2012

Last night was our church Christmas program for the kiddos in the 3 year old class up to the 2nd graders.  This year was bitter sweet because it was Hayden's last year.  The 2nd graders get to do the "acting" in the program and wear cute costumes.  Hayden was the "start".  I also was in charge of the music and actions this year and I have to say the kids rocked it!  You never know how it is going to turn out after watching them fidget and complain in practice but they always do a fantastic job at the final performance.  The kindergarten class, which I teach, also got to be involved this year.  They took gifts that God gives us and gave them to baby Jesus at the manger during one of our songs.  They were super cute!  Next year Aubrey will get to be in the program!  That is a scary thought to me too!  She talked through the whole program and gave Jeremy a hard time because she wanted to come up and sit with Mommy.

Goin to the Chapel...

Today Aubrey was looking at my rings and asking which one was my "married" ring.  I showed her and told he she can have one when she grows up and gets married too.  She proceeded to go get her play jewelry and find a ring.  She said she was getting married and I ask who she was going to marry.  She said Mommy.  I told her she has to marry a boy.  So she picked Daddy.  I reminded her that I am married to Daddy.  Then she said brothers.  I asked which one and she said Nile.  And then after she marries Nile when they get home from school she is going to marry Hayden.  I suppose it wouldn't help to explain you marry someone you love - who is also not from you immediate family!  Oh well.  It was a fun conversation I want to remember!  She also has her "Tangled" wand to help her marry her brothers.  Too funny!

Weekend in Omaha



Several months back I brought a Deal Garden promo for a water park hotel in Omaha.  It was a great deal including two nights stay, pizzas, and breakfast.  Not to mention the awesome water park area!  We headed out shortly after school last Friday.  Aubrey was asking me the entire day if it was time to go swimming at the water park!  The drive was fine, it was nice to see how they would do in the car for three hours, that will be pretty close to our flight to Florida in a few months!  Between the 3DS, laptop, and iPad the kids stayed entertained.  We grabbed some dinner to go and checked in to the hotel.  After we were done with supper it was time for a little swimming.  We had an hour till closing and that was just perfect.  Sorry I don't have any pictures of Hayden and Jeremy at the water park.  They were off tackling the big slides most of the time.  Nile, Aubrey and I hung out in the shallow area and lazy river a lot.  Saturday after breakfast and some fun in the arcade we went swimming again.  This time we ventured over to the small pool with basketball hoops.  The hotel had floaters to use for free so we suited Aubrey up and she had a blast "swimming" back and forth between Jeremy and me.  The hot tub was just the right temp and also connected to an outside tub so we had fun inside and outside in the water.  After a yummy lunch at Olive Garden we did a little Christmas shopping at a nearby strip mall then back to the hotel for a movie and naps (the kids watched the movie while I napped!).  We had pizza in our room for supper and then back swimming for the final time.  All in all it was a great mini-vacation!

  

Nile going down the smaller slides - he LOVED these!

SPLASH!

my middle man!  such a fish!

the little lady - she did not want her pic taken



Nile out cold - he was the first to sleep both nights - if you know Nile you know that isn't normal!

Aubrey pretending to sleep

Hayden hanging out watching some TV

Christmas Pintrest project

If you are like me you get a few Christmas cards in the mail starting this time of year.  I have not been able to find a "good" way of displaying them all in the past.  We still receive some traditional cards but more and more we are getting the photo cards, like I prefer to send - they come with our note already on them and no one has to endure my horrible penmanship!  I start out putting some photo cards on the fridge but in this house that is hallowed ground!  With our new house comes a new, smaller fridge due to how the kitchen is set up.  The boys bring home more papers than I can keep up with and between a few family pics, school calendar, and monthly meal menu there just isnt enough room to go around.  Then you have the traditional card which can be placed neatly on the kitchen table - until they have to be moved for each meal and then set up again.  Or on the tv stand but then moving again for dusting or when the kids knock them down.  You get the picture - everything just seemed like a pain...until I saw a pin on pintrest that I knew would work for me!  It was super easy, low cost, and with the new house I had the perfect location!!  Today I finally got some painters tape - Thanks Mom! - and put it all together.  It took less than 5 minutes to do and i LOVE it!
Supplies - Christmasy ribbon
clips or clothes pins
painters tape

The whole project

closer view - we havent gotten too many cards yet so I added some other pics - I suppose it is still November!

zoom in to the project on just one cabinet, and my beautiful goddaughter's announcement!

Layla's baptism

This past Saturday night we headed up to Pomeroy for my college roommate's daughter's baptism.  I had the honor of being a sponsor/Godmother!  The five of us first headed to DSM shortly before lunch to see if we could find any good deals leftover from Black Friday and get a few things from Costco.  As luck would have it we let time get away from up and were later than we wanted leaving DSM to head to Pomeroy.  Long story short, Jeremy drove fast and got us there safely and I changed my clothes in the car heading down the highway.  Luckily it was getting dark already!  We made it to the service just in time.  Then we headed over to another small town, Manson, to Pizza Ranch for some dinner.  My children were quite entertaining to the group since they were the only other small children.  At least they were relatively well behaved and didnt embarrass me too much!  They also all wanted to hold baby Layla and not share her!  Layla was born on October 2 and is my friend Jaime's first born and my first born Hayden was born on October 3!  I am sure we will be making lots more trips up to Pocahontas to visit and hopefully they can make it down to see up here in Pella too!

 

Their birthdays are one day apart - and 8 years!

Nile and Layla - as you can see they all wanted a chance to hold her!

First atempt of Aubrey holding Layla with Mommy's help

Aubrey was in love with her!

My daughter, my goddaughter, and me!

finally got one with both of them looking at the camera!

long ride home!