Wednesday, December 28, 2011

"The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a happy family all wrapped up in each other - Burton Hillis

All the stockings were hung by the chimney with care....well at least they were until today when I took all the pretty Christmas Decorations down.  I always hate the feeling of the house the week after Christmas decorations are packed away, it always feels so bare.  There seems to be a certain magical feeling with the house adorned with lights, garland, trees, frosty the snowman, elves and baby Jesus sitting in the manger scene.  Not to mention the Christmas music, which to me, is the best part of all!  I LOVE Christmas music.  I take FULL advantage of playing it ALL month long!  Although the house feels bare now, we had a fabulous Christmas this year!  I figure I had better get this post done now because the kids are decorating a cardboard house and that might be the only chance I get to sit and type now that they are on Christmas break and they keep things very busy around here.  Never a dull moment when they are home all day.  :)

I had the chance to go to 3 classroom parties this year!  Luckily none of them were scheduled at the same time, which is usually the case.  So I got to stay the whole time and help out.  Let's just say, I am grateful for the kids' teachers this time of year because the kids were wild, excited, and all on major sugar highs.  I bet they are taking full advantage of their Christmas vacations!  

Olivia's Preschool class party.  
They opened gifts, made desserts with candles and sang Happy Birthday to baby Jesus, played some Christmas games, made ornaments, etc.  


Jack's class played games and made gingerbread houses.  Jack LOVED decorating his house.  It had candy piled as high as he could get it.  :)  It was also Pajama day at the elementary school and Jack was thrilled to get to wear his Super Mario Galaxy PJ's and slippers.


KJ was also excited to get to wear his Oregon PJ's.  They had a reindeer toss off their teacher's head, made gingerbread men, a parent's gift, and had a yummy table full of snacks.  He has a good group of buddies.


We also made Sugar cookies for Santa.  That is always a mess.  Sprinkles ended up everywhere.  And Dan and I couldn't help but laugh at Jack.  He just ended up pouring the whole bowls of sprinkles on top of one cookie.  Would you like some cookie with your sprinkles?!



On Christmas Eve we had the Gilley's over!  Britt and I tried to re-create mom's traditional Christmas Eve dinner.  Even though it wasn't quite the same as Christmas Eve at my parent's house, it was pretty darn close with lots of yummy food, and some pretty excited little ones running around. Shawn was a trooper to come as he had only had surgery a few days prior on his shoulder and I know he was hurting.  Thanks for sharing our Christmas Eve with us Gilley's!



We also made some gingerbread houses.  Even little Lucy got in on the action!  She loved the squishy icing on her fingers!



And then it was the traditional Christmas Eve Pajama time!!!  We read the Christmas story, put the cookies and milk out for santa, and tried to get the kids to go to bed cause Santa was on his way!!  The holiday's are so much more exciting with little ones around.  It gives us adults an excuse to act like kids again!



I think everyone got exactly what they wanted!  Jack, of course, wanted anything that had to do with Mario and he got the Mario Brother's Bed that he's been wanting for months now.  Jack wanted a picture on the stairs with all his new mario stuff.  He lined it all up so carefully. 
KJ got a Nintendo DS and a flying helicopter, both of which have already racked up hours of use.  
And Olivia wanted a Belle Doll and Baby Carriage.  She carefully puts her baby dolls in there every night and we all have to whisper because her 'babies are sleeping'. 


There is a quote that I read a few years back and I just LOVE it!  It says, 
"One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day.  Don't clean it up too quickly."  ~Andy Rooney

How true that is.  
Merry (belated) CHRISTmas Everyone!!!  
We love you all!



And in case you didn't receive our family Christmas card this year, here you go~


 

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

My little one...

My sweet and spunky little one turned FIVE last week.  5.  A Whole Hand.  She just doesn't listen to me when I tell her to slow down!
Where in the world does the time go?  

                                She went from this ......                                                to this.....

          in the blink of an eye. 

All I can say is that this little girl has changed our family.  She is the best of both worlds.  She is sweet and loves to dress up and play with dolls, yet she doesn't mind going out and playing football with a bunch of the neighborhood BOYS.  Seriously, she wears her princess outfits and gets right in there and plays like it's totally normal to wear pink and plastic high heels to play football.  


I love it.  I love her.  I love having another little girl around here.  She is my buddy, my other-half and my best friend.  We love Olivia around here and she certainly loves us right back.

I will list some things off the top of my head that I've observed over that past year, feel free to skip the list.  I'm sure it'll be too long, there is lots to love about cute Liv.  But I want to remember them when she's older.  I really should keep a piece of paper handy to write stuff down as the year goes on because I always forget so much.

This past year she has grown so much:

She's tall for her age, she wears a size 6.  She's solid, she weighs exactly 42 lbs.  
She wears a size 12-13 shoe. She LOVES shoes, just like her mom.  
Her hair grows like a weed (I've given her several big hair cuts this past year and it is still as long as ever).  She likes her hair best when it's curly and always loves a bow in her hair.  She loses at least one hair bow a week.  
She can hold her own in a fight with her brothers.  
She's very Independent.
She's tough.  
She's sensitive.  
She still runs to the door every night that dad comes home and yells, "Daddy's home!" 
She rarely cries about things, but when she does, it can break your heart.
She's our 'salty-and-sweet' one.  
She used to want to marry Justin Bieber but the past few months she said she doesn't want to get married anymore because she wants to stay a little kid forever and live with mom and dad.  That sounds good to me.  ;) 
She got her ears pierced and was very brave.  No tears.   
Sometimes she thinks she's in charge of the 'boys' as she calls them.  She really likes telling them what to do, they, on the other hand do not.  She's in a tattle-tale phase, we are working on that.
She's great at making messes.  Our house is always a mess with her dolls, barbies, tea sets, toys, play food everywhere.
She always wants her toes and fingers painted with glitter nail polish.  Aunt Heidi gave her the cutest little sparkle nail polish kit for her birthday, you would have thought she opened $100.  :)
She loves big bubble baths with mom.  She likes to spike her hair with shampoo bubbles, and give us bubble beards, she thinks it's so funny.  She loves it when I let her finger paint with the shaving cream.    The baths with me will have to stop soon, very soon, but I love them too.  
She likes to style and blow dry my hair.  She preferres my hair curly.  She tells me if she thinks my outfit is 'weird'.  
She is not shy at all.  She will go up to anyone and talk to them, she always has a lot to say.  After a minute with them, she has a new best friend.
She likes to take pictures.  Every time I download pictures on my computer, I have tons of pictures of feet, or stuffed animals and barbies, or the ceiling or even silly faces of herself. 
She learned to swim, roller skate, pump on the swing, and ride her bike without training wheels this year.
She rides her pink princess bike on the dirt bike track with all the boys.  She's always the only girl out there and she's always the littlest one on the track.  She has no fear. 
She always wants to go running with her dad.  He usually takes her around the block and she will come home and give me a high five.  Then she waits for him to finish his run.
Her and I have a secret handshake.
She is learning her letters and numbers, and she LOVES to draw and color and really loves her preschool class.  She's made some great friends there.  She brings a card or picture to give to someone every day that she has preschool.  Her teacher said she will get down and wrestle with the boys one minute, and the next minute she's playing kitchen with the girls.
She has a cute/full/round rear-end that Dan and I love to pinch!  She hates that.  Especially when we pinch her on the way up the stairs.  She says, "ugh, that drives me crazy!"
She really wishes she had a little brother or sister to take care of.  For now, she will have to take care of little Lucy and Russell her newest niece and nephew.  
She loves to catch Rolly-polly bugs and spiders and make houses for them.  
She has discolored front teeth from a fall she had as a toddler.  It reminds me of her adventurous toddler years when she climbed on everything.  I have a feeling by her next birthday she will have lost her front teeth.  She had a couple of cavities filled this year (oops) and wasn't scared one bit.
She wishes she could wear her swimsuit or her disney princess dresses every day.  
She changes her clothes multiple times a day which drives me nuts.  But her tutu and leg warmers eventually get 'itchy' so she has to get a new set every few hours.  I told her to wear a certain pair of tights for church one day and she did NOT want to and told me, "I'll Do what I Want!"  Oh boy! 
She loves to sing and dance.  She is so cute when she plays Just Dance.  She knows how to shake it!  We love dance parties in our bedroom on Sunday nights.  Last week we had a Muppet's soundtrack Dance party.  (great new soundtrack by-the-way)
She will skip everywhere she goes.
She LOVES her stuffed animals and has WAY TOO MANY in her room. 
She asked Santa for a pink teddy bear with a pink bow in it's ear. 
She makes sure that she always has 3 animals in bed with her and always makes sure that they have a pillow and blanket covering them so that they don't get cold.    
She has a couple of boys in her class who have mini crushes on her and we love to tease her about that.  She brought home her first 'love' note/picture last week from Luke.  Keaton did not like that, he is already protective of his little sister.  He wants to meet the boys and tell them to stay away from her!  
She has a crush on Justin Bieber and asked for his perfume for her birthday present.  
She thinks she's old enough to dress herself and she is very sure about what she wants to wear every day.  It's almost impossible to change her mind once it's made up about something, and her outfits rarely include jeans.    
She eats her lipgloss because it tastes good. 
She still loves princess movies and cartoons.  
She is drawn to anything with glitter on it.  She loves to wear it, do art with it.  Anything.  It's so 'BEAUTIFUL' if it's shiny!
She will spend hours playing with playdoh.
Her best friends here are Shiori, Lilly, and DeLorey.  
Her favorite family activity is going to the movies or to the library.  
She loves to go shopping with mom.  Her favorite store is Target.  
She has the cutest little lisp when she talks.  She doesn't always say her L's right, they are usually W's.  So it's Wuke, not Luke,  I Wuv you, and Wittle Wucy.  We had her speech tested and she passed just fine.  She will outgrow it, she's already starting to, but for now, I think it's pretty cute.
She memorized her Christmas program line for school and her Primary Program part.  She loves to perform and doesn't get scared at the microphone.
Her favorite food is lettuce wraps.
She sings with me in the car.
She looks out the window every morning in hopes for a big snow storm.  She loves the snow.
She says the sweetest prayers every night.  She always prays that she hopes Jesus is happy and that she was glad he was born.  She loves church and Primary.  She NEVER lets us forget to bless our food.
Her favorite song for me to sing at bedtime is "You are my Sunshine".  
Her favorite song to sing to me is "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star".   
Her favorite color right now is purple.  But that could change next week.  
She loves to help cook in the kitchen.  
Her new favorite word is 'absolutely'.  Or absowutely! 
When she grows up she wants to design clothes.  A fashion designer.  I think she's watched the Barbie Fashion Fairytale movie too many times.   
She is anxious to be in Kindergarten next year.  I am not.  I will miss her by my side all day.  But she will be a great student and friend.
She is really, really good about giving hugs and kisses.  
She is really good at holding grudges.  
She is my only 'morning' child.  In fact, she's the only 'morning person' in our house.  She's always the first one to fall asleep at night and the first one up in the mornings and I love it when she comes and cuddles in bed.  She always scratches my back.  It's very sweet.
She eats her cereal dry.  No milk.  But her favorite drink is steamed milk. 
She loves watching football with her dad, she also loves going to sporting events, especially baseball games. 
She really wants to go to Disneyland this year and meet the princesses.  Her favorite is Ariel.  
Her goal this year is to get a new puppy.  We will see about that one.    
We just love that little bundle of joy.

Right now, I hear her singing along with Dora The Explorer.  She makes me happy.

Here are some pictures of her big 5th birthday.  

She was very specific on what she wanted for breakfast in bed.  Bacon and LINK sausage, Eggs, and Strawberries and oranges.




The one activity she wanted to do on her birthday was go to Build-A-Bear.  She made a bear and named her 'Heart-y'.

She was completely spoiled!  Thank you to everyone who sent gifts.  She loved everything!


Her 'party' day was on a Saturday.  We made a whole day out of it.  Britt and Shawn came in the morning and we went to her Preschool program at school.  We had lunch at Red Robin.  We went to see Santa.  Then we ended the day at Chuck-E-Cheese.  It was a fun-filled day full of all things Olivia.  

Here is her Preschool Christmas Program.  She was a lamb.  


Red Robin and Chuck-E-Cheese.  Notice the bottom right pictures on the collage.  Olivia got some tattoos from Britt and Olivia wanted matching tattoos with Lucy on their cheeks.  :)  


I still can't believe my baby is 5.  What a big milestone.  We love you little one.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Let us be thankful...

I love this time of year.  It seems as if everyone really ponders the good in their lives and everyone seems a bit more friendly and grateful.  I think Thanksgiving time is a blessing for me in my life because it really makes me reflect on my life and when I do so, I feel the overwhelming feeling of gratitude for my life and all that I've been blessed with.  It's a great way to feel when entering the holiday season.  It's also a nice reminder to remember what really is important and not to get too stressed about the business of the Christmas season.  Things can tend to get overwhelming when you continuously see the ads for 'stuff' on TV that your kids 'have' to have, when you are busy trying to organize class parties, decorating your house, making it to the Christmas programs at school, spending hours addressing Christmas cards and making holiday treats, standing in super long lines at the post office, spending your spare time wrapping gifts, just to name a few.  But last night as I was snuggled up on my couch with the temperature right around 1* outside, I was mostly grateful for the simple things.  I was grateful that we are all healthy.  I was grateful that we had a warm house to come home to.  I was grateful to have the glow from our Christmas tree light the room and I was grateful to be sipping on hot cocoa while watching my favorite TV show.  The other day I was complaining to Dan about our teeny-tiny pantry, fridge, and freezer after coming home from the grocery store and then it hit me...I had NOTHING to complain about.  Complaining about not having enough space for all our food???  Are you kidding me?  Then I felt embarrassed.  What would a family struggling to keep food on the table think of my attitude?  From that moment on, I realized that I needed to always try to have a better attitude.  So, that night at karate, we donated food to the food drive they were having.  
It was a good reminder for me of what really matters.

We had a bit of an usual Thanksgiving this year.  We originally planned on going to Dan's parent's house for the holiday and then got a letter from my mom telling us that Jesse's mission farewell had been scheduled for that same Thanksgiving weekend and also my little nephew's baby blessing would be on the same day since family would be in town.  So, after lots of thought we decided that it was still important to try to do both.  KJ and I went up to Boise and Dan took Jack and Liv to Grandma and Grandpa Howard's house in Illinois.  I just couldn't miss my only baby brother's mission farewell.  My brother and KJ are extremely close and it was important for KJ to be there for one last good-bye.  Jesse leaves in exactly one week and will be down in Brazil serving a mission for our church for two whole years.  Which feels like forever in KJ's eyes.  We knew this day was coming as he's always planned on serving a mission when the time came, so we shed many tears, both happy tears and sad tears.  We know he will do great and the people of Brazil will be lucky to have him!  I just hate good-byes.
Dan had a great time visiting his family.  Jack and Olivia loved seeing their cousins.  And since Dan was in charge of pictures, we don't have any from their trip.  :)  BUT, my cute niece Emily did take a few pictures of some of the cousins together.  Thanks Emily!  Here are all the pictures she sent me.



But as for me...I always go overboard with pictures.  Let's just say, I had plenty from our trip.  


It was actually really nice to have some alone time with KJ.  To just chat one-on-one, it doesn't happen very often anymore.  We had to leave our house at 3 am (I went to bed at 1am) to make it to the shuttle on time to make it to our 'way-too-early-flight'.  I need to remember that around the holidays, flights book quickly.  Needless to say, I was exhausted but KJ was wide awake and excited to go on an airplane.  It was kind of nice to see the sunrise over Utah. The pilot let him sit in his seat and he thought it was awesome to get to push some of the control buttons.  :)  


We also FINALLY got to meet my new nephew Russell!!!!  I was so anxious to meet him, he was already 6 weeks old and I couldn't wait to hold him for the first time!  He is an amazing baby.  He already smiles and is so happy all the time.  AND he already SLEEPS THRU THE NIGHT!  He got a lot of love from all of us, he was a sweetheart.  I miss him already.  


We enjoyed our Thanksgiving with a lot of the family.  We stuffed ourselves full.  

Dan also said he had the best food at his mom's house!  They had ham and turkey and all he kept talking about was how good his mom's roasted ham was.  Thanks Judy for feeding my family so well!!!  Dan always misses his mom's cooking.  


We were some of the crazy people that decided to attempt black friday shopping at 
Toys R' Us.  It was actually a lot of fun.  Most of the others stayed out all night and also went to Kohls and Target.  I was done after the toy madness.  But it was fun.  Just so you know, we were #884 in line to get in.  We were tired and got a little creative while waiting, hence the huge pet store window decal stickers.  Although it was madness, it was fun hanging out with my mom, brother, cousins and aunts.  It's also fun to people-watch those who are really in to the whole thing.  We were just there for fun, but some of those people are just plain crazy. 
(Bottom middle picture is all of us all looking thru the ads after dinner)  



The next couple of days we just enjoyed being around everyone.  We had a nice Just Dance party and KJ enjoyed his time with some of his cousins.  


Our last day there was very bitter-sweet.  Nicole and Jason's baby was blessed.  It was a beautiful blessing and very special.  Then we had Jesse's farewell meeting where he gave a wonderful talk and my cousin Bradley did an amazing musical number.  After the meeting we went to my mom's house for a big going-away party.  We are sure proud of Jess and the man that he has become.  He is a great example to my little ones.  I'm grateful for that too because my kids really look up to him.  He will do great!  I can't wait to hear about his adventures over the next 2 years.  He will be an awesome missionary!



We also had Dan's Birthday the night before we left for our trip.  
HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLD MAN!!!
We are sure GRATEFUL for you!  You are the best!  We LOVE YOU LOTS!