The difference between a man and a woman...

I've been thinking about this a lot lately and the conclusion that I finally have come to is that men's lives are finishable. What I mean is, typically they go to work at a certain time. Their meals are eaten at basically the same time each day. Their tasks at work involve steps that, if followed, lead to actual completion of said task. When Brian worked construction, masonry, he had a visual reminder of the progress he had made that day and eventually the job would be completed and he would move on to the next job and never look back except to admire the beauty of a job well done! He is an accountant now and he has different tasks to perform. He must finish some, each day, others, each week, often they are only completed each month, and there are some that need attention only once a year or longer. But no matter what, he, at some point, finishes them. No one comes along and destroys what he has done. It's complete! He comes home at the same time each day and leaves his work behind until the next day or until the weekend is over. When he's home he gets the "honey-do list" and he will usually help me out with whatever I specifically ask him to. But if he wants to watch a TV show or a movie he can do that with no thoughts of anything that needs to be done around him. He is "done" for the night or whatever and can truly relax and enjoy the show. I know a lot of men's jobs are different than that. They are on call, or they work in varying positions that have varying hours or whatever but the main point I am trying to make is that at some point, most of them can feel like their job is "complete" and they can TRULY relax.

Women, however, live a completely different existence. Especially mothers with more than one child. Whether you work outside the home or not, basically your home life experience is the same. You start the day going a million miles an hour. You are lucky to eat whenever you finally get a sec to do that or, when your body finally threatens to revolt if you don't feed it, whichever comes first. This is true with breakfast and lunch and in a lot of cases, dinner, depending on how many sports and extracurricular activities your children are involved in, the varying ages of your children and the different levels of attention they require, whether or not you have a tiny baby to feed at their command, if you have an out of the home job or 2 in addition to your mom job that keeps you hopping from one place to another all the time and you wonder if that next meal is ever going to come, which calling you happen to have at the time among other variables to your life's equation. It's a given that dishes and laundry are just never going to be "finished". As soon as you finish vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, or picking up things you can bet money that someone is going to mess that all up at some point, usually sooner than later. You work from sun up to sun down and at the end of the day you finally melt into the couch, exhausted and look around the house and realize that there is absolutely no proof that you have done anything all day because it all needs to be done again, tomorrow. You sit there, feeling defeated, half watching the TV as you make a mental list of all the zillions of things that need to be done tomorrow. You get up during each commercial to switch loads of laundry, straighten up, add something to your calendar you are worried you'll forget, check on the kids, on and on it goes. Then you somehow muster up the energy to fold some laundry during the show, because....what woman can ever, truly, RELAX!!!!  Seriously!!! It's impossible. Our minds are always going. Always thinking of something we need to do. Planning something for someone or something. 'Complete' and 'finished' are rarely part of our vocabulary. This is why we all love scrapbooking, reading, sewing, needle work, crocheting, card making, crafting, creating, whatever it is you like to do on the RARE occurrence that you get the chance! When else do we ever get the chance to really, truly get something finished that will stay finished.

So...this is the difference. This is why when he is sitting on the couch completely enthralled in this show and is completely relaxed, without a care in the world...YOU WANT TO SMACK HIM!!! OR SCREAM!!!  We all just want him to see that there is a load of towels that you folded but you are too exhausted to put them away. We don't want him to step over them, or slide the basket out of his way, or use it as an ottoman, we want him to PUT...THEM...AWAY!!!

Or is it just me????

Ramble, ramble, ramble, ramble, ramble...

So, yesterday was Max's 5th birthday. I let him invite some friends for the first time. He was so excited and anxious for his big day. One really nice thing about having a birthday in January, in a small town, is that Walmart has some super sweet deals on toys they've marked down that were left over from Christmas. We got him a scooter for 15 bucks!!! We found some other great things too and he was happy with his loot. I had been running around like a chicken with my head cut off for 2 days. I had a Dr.s appointment and a dentist appointment and I've had to run Brian to work all month because we need to register his car but can't until February 1st (UGGHH!!!!), which means back and forth to take him, to get him at lunch, to take him back and pick him up if I need the car in the afternoon, if not he drives back after lunch. I had to run some errands, visit a new young woman in the ward (which was the highlight of my 2 days of crazy and turned out really well!!!!), run Max back and forth for preschool, wash a million dishes and clean frantically every extra minute I could find, all one handed while lugging around my adorable 20 month old little Gracie who is getting over a cold and NEEDED her mommy. Yesterday morning I made a batch of strawberry cupcakes (yes, pink, I know, I tried to talk him into chocolate but he's stubborn) and a chocolate cake. Of course my stupid pain was terrible all day both days because stress makes it worse and I was more than a little stressed! So, I'm at my dentist appointment that took an hour and a half and I get this phone call from the school saying Matthew threw up. SUPER!!! I go to pick him up after my appointment and I'm asking him on the way out to the car if he was sick to his stomach or what and he completely fell apart and says, through his tears, that he was choking on a piece of chicken and tried to drink to make it go down but it wouldn't go down so he started puking and it finally came out. SCARY!! He did that once at home and I had to do the Heimlich on him. He needs to chew his chicken better! I was sad for him that he was obviously so traumatized by the whole experience but relieved that he didn't have a stomach bug that would cause me to cancel the party or anything. So, it's getting down to crunch time. 2 hours till the party. I still needed to pick everything up and vacuum, make frosting in at least 4 colorful options so the kids could decorate their own cupcake, wash a bunch more dishes (they never end!!!), clean the bathroom, dust my adorable Ikea shelves, decorate for the party, wipe off counter tops and stove...I'm only ONE woman needing 14 more hands. I decide a prayer is in TALL order. I called the boys together and we thanked Heavenly Father that Matthew didn't choke to death at lunch and then asked that I'd be able to get everything done in time for the party. I was frantically trying to do my best at that and running out of time when my angel friend, Sherelle, drove up in her chariot (mini van) and offered to help me out. Bless her!!! She really saved my tail! And she stayed and helped me with the whole party too! Thank heavens! We didn't quite finish all the tasks on the list but we did get all of the really important stuff done and the rest didn't really matter in the end anyway. I don't think I'll ever do another midweek party again. It was fun but just too CRAZY!!! Once the party was over I still needed to make the chocolate cake I made earlier in the day, into a football. I was definitely channeling my inner Paula Deen yesterday with all the butter and shortening I used in making two kinds of frosting and a chocolate cake from scratch. And it...was...good!!! Sherelle showed me the super fun little comment thing I added to my blog. I am so excited about it! Then when Brian came home from work he made a pizza crust and homemade pizza (that's what the birthday boy requested) and I got to work looking for scrapbook paper for our little Y.W. activity. It was so fun! I'll post about that later! Then we ate and sang Happy Birthday to Max and then Zack and I were off to pack meeting at 6:30. His leaders were nice enough to give him his awards first thing so I could be there for it before I needed to go pick up a couple of the YW for our activity at 7:00. When I got home I CRASHED!!! I am exhausted today! Oh to have the energy, focus, and cleverness I used to have before my pain started sucking it all out of me. I'm starting a different medicine combination today and I'm really keeping my fingers crossed that it does the trick since the pain seems to be worsening and the ibuprofen doesn't seem to be doing anything for me anymore. Crazy days! Crazy life! That's what keeps it interesting, right! I hope you all are having fun with your interesting lives too!!! Have a good one!!!

 

 His cake that kinda, sorta looks like a football....I'm NOT a professional!!!  ;)

Sassy Style: “Mix Tape Monday”

Sassy Style: “Mix Tape Monday”

When I was combing Max's hair the other day I discovered that he had decided he needed a hair cut and cut a big chunk out of the front of his hair and the side of the top of his head. Like almost to the scalp in spots.

I used the clippers and cut it down as low as I dared go in the dead of winter. If you look closely you can still see spots that are lower than I went but oh well. Silly boy! I just laughed until it occured to me that he might try doing that to his sister's hair some time. I had a flashback to a story a lady told us once about how her mother had put curlers in her long, beautiful hair and she thought it would be cool to cut the hair off at the roller and unroll the hair on the bed and look at the pretty curls. Then she said at some point she realized if the hair was on the bed, it wasn't on her head, and she CRIED!!!  I decided to threaten unspeakable things to Max if he ever dared touch scissors to her hair.  Hopefully that works!!!

I survived my first time!!

Last night was the first time I had to be in charge of a combined YW/YM activity. I was scared to death! I don't know why. I just need more confidence in myself I know. As I thought about ideas for the activity I thought playing a game would be a lot of fun. There is a really fun sounding LDS Family Feud game idea online but I was a bit worried about pulling that one off. I thought about our 'Spiritual Pictionary' game we play for Family Home Evening and decided it would be perfect! It was pretty easy to prepare for. I wrote like 30 different clues or whatever you call them on the back of cute scrapbook paper strips for cuteness and just used sharpies to decorate a white sack to put them in. Not real clever looking but colorful and 'cute' enough to not be too boring. Then the YW leaders brought cookies for dessert. The kids LOVED it!!! We all did! We laughed a lot and had a really fun time! We put equal amounts of leaders and youth on each team. We had 6 youth there and 8 leaders. I couldn't play because I knew the clues and one of the leaders took score. We have a small group but they are a lot of fun!!! Now that I think of it it might have been fun to have kids against leaders. But it was really fun to watch them all play! The leaders AND the kids all said what fun it was and some of them even said it was the most fun they had had at an activity in a long time. I was SO relieved!!! I know some of you have Young Women's callings and thought I'd pass the idea along. Some of the clues I used were things like...Be strong and of a good courage, Pinewood Derby, for the strength of youth, Resurrection, Love at Home, Ammon, Samuel the Lamanite, Joseph Smith's first vision, Baptisms for the dead, Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam, Pearl of Great Price, Golden Plates, etc. I hope you give it a try!!! Please let me know if you do and how it turns out!!

Please google My Sisters Love at Home and listen to their totally awesome version of this great song! I can't figure out how to link it but it's so worth taking a minute to listen to it!! Have a great day!!!

I've fallen off the wagon...

So, most of you know that my 7 year old, Matthew, is SEVERELY allergic to all nuts. We pretty much kissed all nuts goodbye in our house because it's so scary to even consider the possibilities of accidental cross contamination and also he was so little that we were afraid he would accidentally eat something he shouldn't have. SCARY!!! Well, I LOVE peanut butter!!! I never cared much for it as a child but I can't get enough as an adult. It saved me during my first trimester when I was pregnant with Zack and NOTHING sounded good but peanut butter sandwiches or Arby's regular roast beef sandwiches. I used to gag over Reeces Peanut Butter Cups as a kid but now....LOVE!!! And who can get enough peanut M&M's?! I mean really!!! Sometimes I sneak some when he's at school but then I have to really watch my kisses with him. I can only kiss him on the top of his head on his hair after I've eaten anything with nuts or he breaks out in hives. Even if it has been HOURS since I ate it. So I usually just don't have any. Well, this week I've had 2 peanut butter sandwiches and Brian snuck me some peanut M&M's and I needed to make some cookies for YW/YM activity tonight so I did it...I made peanut butter cookies. I even licked the peanut butter spoon clean afterwards. I feel so guilty and like everything is contaminated but I've truly scrubbed and scrubbed and I think it's all good. And can I just say that these may be the best peanut butter cookies I've ever eaten. Could be that they are just so dang yummy because it's been like YEARS since I've eaten any but still.. YUMMY!!! If everything goes well with these and we can keep him safe since he's old enough to really understand the dangers and stuff then I'm going to have to make more peanut butter goodies. Oh, scotcheroos, how I've missed you!!!

Like a kid again...

So I have wanted some of the dark chocolate brown UGG-type boots for ever!!! I have either been too broke to get them or they don't carry them in my ginormous size 11!!! Brian tried to find me some for Christmas but ran into all the same road blocks. My mom and sister, Steph, were looking for some for me for my birthday at the mall and told me that they had once again ran into the same problems. Well, today Mom, Steph, Steph's kids, and Stan drove the hour through the canyon to take me to lunch for my birthday. Mom made me her special strawberry cake and they gave me a gift to open. You can imagine my surprise and JOY when I looked in the box and saw dark chocolate brown boots in a size 11 and everything!!! I was so THRILLED!!! I haven't been this excited over a gift in a really long time and it's really fun!!! I feel like a kid again! I was thinking about sleeping with them on tonight. Or hugging them while I sleep tonight. I am just so happy to have them! They are so pretty! And comfy! And the fur inside is so soft and fluffy and lovely!!! And I just LOVE them!!!! :)

Good for them!!

 http://ldsliving.com/story/63283-sister-missionaries-get-a-new-wardrobe
 I think this is great!

P.S. Does anyone know what "de" means? Gracie keeps asking for it. Begging for it. And sometimes crying for it. It's not drink because she calls drink "me". I've tried EVERYTHING!! Usually she's pointing at the frig when she says it and yesterday I showed her everything inside hoping to unfold the mystery only to hear NO!!! over and over again!!! Wish me luck!!!

Here's Hopin'!!!

I've known for a long time I needed to get healthier but I just wasn't there mentally. Do you know what I mean? When you decide to get healthy it's such a mental change!!! It is for me anyway. If I haven't really done that it's not going to work!! Well, ever since I was thrust into this stupid world of drs and medicine and pain and CRAP I have felt such a lack of control. I really really hate having to take medicine. I really really hate drs appointments and wasting hours of my life in waiting rooms, on hold with receptionists, on hold with my insurance company, etc. Well, one of the stupid medicines I'm on causes you to gain weight. SUPER!!! As if all that elbow exercise I've been getting doesn't do enough damage on it's own I have to take a medication that makes me gain weight.When I was first diagnosed I was just totally grateful that my kids are healthy!!! I can handle having health problems better than I can handle having my kids have health problems!! I was also so incredibly grateful that I didn't have a brain tumor I didn't care what else they said. Now the realities of my "condition" or whatever you want to call it have sunk in and honestly it's HARD!!! It SUCKS!!!!!!! I hate it and I'm ANGRY!!! I'm not angry at anyone I'm just angry! It sucks and I'm angry! I can't help that! Probably natural to feel that way. I'm not living IN anger if that makes sense. I STILL feel so incredibly GRATEFUL for the kids good health and that I don't have a brain tumor I'm just mad about this stupid thing. I am trying to learn to function and deal with it to the best of my ability. When I bend over and my face explodes in pain I get MAD that this stupid thing effects me and the way I funciton and take care of my family. I am grateful for my freakishly long finger toes now because they help me pick stuff up! I knew there had to be a good reason for them!!! I'm hoping to get one of those little claw picker upper things for my birthday so that will help, too!! It's hard to not have control over my body. I may not be able to control the stupid medicine I take but I DO however have control over whether or not I get my fat @*# up and ride the exercise bike or what kinds of food I put in my mouth. Now that the medicines have gotten me back to a pretty decent functioning level (haven't helped pain but have helped dizziness and nausea, etc) I feel like exercising!! Brian asked for an exercise bike (see January 1st post) for Christmas and has been riding it faithfully for a couple weeks now. I've been trying to mentally be ready to do it. The end of last week I couldn't even button my fat pants. It's definitely TIME! I became mentally ready at that very moment!!! Seriously bad! Granted I just had that Essure procedure and there was some bloating and swelling but STILL!!! So, I have ridden Brian's bike twice so far. I feel fantastic when I'm done. Don't you just feel so good about yourself and your efforts after you've taken good care of your body and have exercised? And don't you feel so invigorated? It's the best! So I'm hoping that exercise and some food changes will help counter act the effects the medication has on my weight!!!

Here's hopin!!!!!

Back to reality.....

So, for the last 2 weeks our church building has had no power. We couldn't meet there or have weekly activities for 2 weeks. We met at the stake center with the 2nd ward for Sacrament Meeting and then we were...justifiably...with permission...even encouraged...

to go home!!! 

Isn't that totally awesome! We ALL loved it!!! Don't get me wrong I do enjoy church but it sometimes feels more emotionally and physically exhausting than it's worth wrestling 4 kids and all. I'm sure I'm not alone in feeling that way. And sometimes I dread it like crazy so having a nice little break was great.  The super nice bishop of the 2nd ward invited us to stay for all the meetings. But our bishop said we could go home so we did!!!! The other ward's members were very welcoming and kind to us and we appreciate them letting us steal their designated pews for 2 weeks! But now...sadly...it's back to reality for us. Our ward building has power again. It sure was nice while it lasted though!!!

Better late than never...I hope!!

I was finally taking my friend Tara B's advice and labeling my blog posts since I REALLY needed to sit down and ran across a couple of posts I was going to make over the holidays but for some reason forgot to actually push PUBLISH POST. Yes I'm a goofball! Here they are...

 11/28/10

So, I totally love the prices of Black Friday! I'm not a big fan of the crouds but I do enjoy getting in on all the sweet deals! My Mom and I decided to avoid most of the crazy loons by leaving around 7:00. No offense to any of you crazy loons! I am usually one of them but just wasn't up to it this year. Most of what we were interested in was gone but I got some super cute brown dress boots at Penney's for 30 bucks. We got a few other things but the best deal this year for us HAS to be the ladder we got!!! They had these 6 ft ladders that are usually $50 on for $19 at Lowe's. We haven't ever really needed a ladder much before. But since we've lived here we've needed one lots of times but they are so stinking expensive. So this was like HUGE for us!!! I wanted Christmas lights up and that was just NOT happening without a ladder. So we went on over to Lowe's and to our HUGE disappointment they were OUT of them!!! Brian used to work at Lowe's and he knew that they price match so we decided to check out Home Depot and see if they had the ladder and if they price matched and sure enough they DID!!! Not only do they price match but they also give you 10% off of the purchase as well!! We got a $50 ladder for $17.10!! So cool!!! It was so fun having our Christmas lights on the house and I'm sure we'll use it lots! I LOVE a great deal!!!

12/23/10

~Today I finally finished my Christmas shopping. I am so excited to have it all done and hopefully everyone is happy with what they get. I used to have all my shopping finished by October so having to wait until two days before Christmas to finish things up made me hyperventilate often but it was actually kind of fun being at the stores today. Walmart totally rocked today too! They had someone there to help the cashier bag groceries and put them in the cart and there was even an employee in the parking lot who offered to help me put my groceries into the car. It was the best customer service I've ever had there!!
~I checked over my list of all the things we have bought for the kids for Christmas and can you believe that somehow we managed to buy only gifts that don't require any batteries. Usually we spend between $20-$40 on batteries alone at Christmas time so I was so excited not to have to buy any!!!
~I made some projects at Super Saturday last month that were so cute. I made a cute, big, brown bracelt. 7 sets of blocks that say Family for me, my mom, and each of my siblings. One of the things I made was one of those fancy big watches that everyone is wearing. It has black, silver, and clear beads. I love it! I debated over giving it as a gift or making it for myself. I've wanted one for myself so bad for a long time and I rarely get anything for myself so I decided to make it for myself.  SO EXCITED!!! Today at Walmart while I loaded up the conveyerbelt I accidentally smacked it on the little metal edge and broke the cute little crystal cover. :(  Oh well. It was fun having something cute and fun while it lasted!
~I finally finished everyone's Family blocks on Christmas Eve. Yes I'm a procrastinator! They ended up cute and I was so sad I couldn't give them to my sisters and brothers and parents right that moment! I can't send them to Dana and Rob until February but hopefully they think it's better late than never!! :)

This one is mine and the others were a variety of dark reds, cream/tan, and navy blue or green. I have fun making them and learning to use Mod Podge and can't wait to find something else to mod podge!! I made a sign for Matty and Max's room using the technique that says I hope they call me on a mission. I need to make one for Zack now and I want to make one for Gracie's room that says I love to see the temple, I'm going there some day.

Can you see the broken crystal?  :(

A few of my favorite things...

So a couple weeks ago I took some pics of my favorite decorations around our house and I was going to post them on my blog but completely forgot until I was checking out blogs today and one of the blogs I follow had a post with all of their fun decorations on it. So now that I remember...here goes...I don't have a lot of fancy stuff and my camera bites and I'm not so good at using it anyway but whatever!

This little star was my Grandma Hazel's ornament she used to hang on her tree. I have another like it that is just white. I LOVE to see these ornaments when I'm decorating the tree and throughout the month. It makes me think of her and I miss her so much! And my other grandmothers too!

Zacky's little first 5 years Hallmark ornaments.

Matthew and Max both had the same little set for their first 5 ornaments.

Gracie's first 2 ornaments.

Mickey Mouse of course!!!

This is not how we hung these I just squashed them all together to take the picture of all the ornaments we've made the past few years. 2 years in a row we made mittens then last year we made snowflakes, and this year we made stars. The kids got really creative this year and last year their snowflakes were rainbow colors and covered in glitter. It is a fun part of our Christmas celebrations now. I just googled salt dough ornaments and used a recipe that popped up. I think they are really fun!!! And a little old fashioned which I like!

When my Dad was alive he would send us a hand carved and hand painted Santa ornament. I looked forward to getting these in the mail every year and cherish them! I love hanging them on the tree and thinking of him and including him in our Christmas celebration in this small way each year. They are hung as high on the tree as I can hang them for safety purposes of course! This one is my most favorite one!!  

Well, it's done...

I had that Essure procedure done Tuesday. No more babies.  :(   :)   Can't decide whether I'm happy or sad. I always wanted 5 or 6 kids but we couldn't have kids for like ever and now I have this stupid nerve pain crap that makes it impossible to imagine being pregnant again or caring for a newborn baby again and I live in constant fear of getting pregnant again under the current circumstances but still...I'm kind of sad. I officially can't EVER bring another life into this world. No more kicks. No more exciting ultasounds. No more teeny tiny clothes. There are a million negatives and a million positives. I am INCREDIBLY grateful for the 4 beautiful children we have been blessed with and thank my Heavenly Father every day for being blessed with the divine gift of motherhood. I'm totally feeling like it is the right decision for us. For me. The procedure only lasted about 5 to 10 minutes. It went super well. I watched the whole thing on a little screen and it was rather interesting. You could see the entrance to the one tube just as clear as day but the other one was covered with endometriosis which made it rather hard to find and then he had to put it through the endometrioses. I've had a lot more pain on that side than the other but the pain still hasn't been too horrible or anything. It's been a great way to go about this whole thing and I would definitely suggest it to anyone! Especially if you have Dr. Thorpe in Provo do it because he was AMAZING through the whole thing! He totally redeemed himself in my eyes! He delivered Zack and it didn't go so well and if I could have kicked him I would have but I couldn't feel my leg because of the epidural :) But after this whole experience I say he's WONDERFUL!!! I am glad it's all over now. Just 3 months until I have an xray with dye in me to make sure they are completely closed off and then it will truly be OVER!!! I'm blessed and grateful and everything but still...I'm a woman...and sometimes women can feel happy and sad at the same time and that's ok. For 16 years becoming a mother has been a BIG part of my life and thinking. Each child took time to come to our family and there were lots of hoping, praying, begging, pleading, etc. It's just kind of strange to think it's over. That that part of my life as a woman is over. That my mind has to switch. That we are entering a new chapter of our lives. I'm sure it will be a wonderful chapter as well, it's just going to take me a while to wrap my mind around it and accept the new realities of my life.

Christmas and ringing in the New Year

We had a wonderful Christmas this year even though I almost totally ruined the whole thing and we had a little change of plans.

How I almost totally ruined Christmas (for Zack anyway): I put Zack's basketball goal he wanted on layaway at Kmart early in November. I was going to get it off layaway December 23rd and it was going to work out perfectly! Well, lots of Dr's appointments, pain, festivities, callings, and craziness in general and apparently somewhere in there I was supposed to remember to make a payment on the thing at the end of November...big OOPS!!! Brian was inspired one day in December to check out the status of the layaway online...it was...CANCELLED!!! WHAT!!! WHAT!!!!!! Total heart attack city for me when I got that lovely phone call! Thank goodness Brian was able to find one on walmart.com that was actually like $40 cheaper anyway. There weren't any left in the stores here in our little town and we weren't planning any trips to the big city anytime soon so we were so LUCKY (blessed!) to find that one online! And it was delivered 2 days later which was awesome!!! Thank goodness Zack has a great dad!!!

Change of plans: We were planning to go to my parent's house for Christmas dinner but my mom and my sister Katie got sick with a stomach virus that morning that they got from my adorable niece, Emily. I feel so bad for them that they were sick because that would be a totally rotten way to spend Christmas. And my brother in law Chris who is married to Katie has his birthday on Christmas day. So he spent his big day watching Katie be sick. Fun stuff! Well, we obviously stayed home and it turned out to be an awesome day!!! I was worried how the kids would react to having a slimmer, but still, very nice Christmas gift getting experience this year compared to last years major over indulgence. They LOVED it! They were so happy with everything they got! They were disappointed to not be going to my mom's and we were too but it was SO awesome to just watch our kids relax and enjoy their gifts and enjoy the day. We haven't traveled for Christmas in several years because it just doesn't work for us anymore but we thought it would be nice to go for Christmas dinner. I'm thinking while our kids are still young enough to really enjoy the magic of Christmas this may just have to be the way we do it from now on. It was a great day! I had a lot of energy that day which is highly unusual for me so I cleaned a lot and accomplished a lot of things I had been wanting to get done so it worked great for me. I kept getting teary thinking about not getting to see my sister Dana and my brother Rob that day. I knew we'd see the rest of my family in a few days anyway but I was really sad to think I couldn't see Rob and Dana! We did enjoy just being alone for the day though and realize sometimes a change of plans isn't such a bad thing after all. We spent New Year's Eve with my family and had our belated wonderful Christmas dinner and exchanged gifts and had a great time!!! It's all good!
Here are some of our pictures from the fun and crazy month of December...

Gracie had so much fun tormenting our poor tree this year. Eventually we had almost all of our ornaments on the top of the tree and only indestructible ones down low. I gave up trying to rearrange them to look halfway decent. I took this picture on Christmas Eve. Poor pathetic tree!!! I didn't want to put the gifts out until Christmas Eve because of our sweet little tornado but Brian talked me into it on the Sunday  before Christmas and sheesh...we should have waited. She unwrapped like 6 gifts. You can see that Brian's exercise bike he got was unwrapped. Silly girl! P.S. I wasn't trying to send Brian a message by giving him that bike or anything! That's what he wanted!!! Just wanted to make it clear that I didn't say here's an exercise bike fat a.. USE IT! He would just have said ditto!!

Brian made us each a hat for Christmas. Love them!!! We usually do Christmas pjs for Christmas Eve but didn't this year. Oh well, we survived! !

Apparently Gracie agrees that being surrounded by presents and chocolate = pure bliss!!!

Cute little Lucy on our way to Spanish Fork. Thank goodness Katie and Chris let her sleep over at their house with Sam and Sia when it's too cold to leave her home!!!

We came to Spanish Fork for our New Year's celebrations a day early on Thursday so we could go on a date while my parents watched all the kids. What I won't do for a date night! Even driving through white out conditions in the canyon couldn't stop me from cashing in on that prize!!!

 So, 2010..not my favorite year I must say!! A lot of trials and bumps in the road! Also many, many blessings!
Great things that have come from this year:
~A stronger testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ and a greater feeling of closeness to Him, our loving Father in Heaven, and the precious gift of the Holy Ghost.
~A stronger testimony of the power of prayer.
~A closer family unit seeing as how we are so CLOSE in our tiny house. They say love grows best in little houses and boy are they right!
~The joy we feel in watching our children grow and enjoying the precious gifts of being their parents is truly a blessing!!!
~Our children have been really healthy this year and we are so very grateful to our Heavenly Father for that amazing gift as well!
~Our gratitude to our Heavenly Father for all He has provided us with in our lives has grown tremendously this year!!!
~Brian has a great job with great benefits. We have a roof over our heads. We have food on the table. We have clothes on our backs. We have cars to drive. We have the gospel in our lives. We have friends. We live in Utah in the United States of America. We have people to love. We are blessed!!! And we are grateful!!!

So GOODBYE 2010 and HELLO 2011!!!!!  Please be kind to us!!! :)