Sammy's take on primary...

Sammy came out of church yesterday very excited about the lesson she had just had. She announced that when Jesus comes back to Earth "hippopotamus' won't kill the Africans anymore". Oooookay. And then she was happy that the jails and the hospitals will be out of business. Sounds good to me!


*Who knew she was so concerned about the poor African people and the hippotomus epidemic?*

Christmas Day

AT 7:00, while in a deep slumber, my bedroom door was flung open and I was assaulted by a very loud and excited 8 year old. "Wake up! Wake up!" I can't complain, this is the earliest we've ever had to wake up. In fact, a couple of years, we've had to wake Sammy up. Here is what our house looked like at 7:02:00
Here is our house at 7:05:22
The first gift the girls opened were from Grandma Puppy. Megan cried when she saw what it was!

We had a tragedy that night when Megan was combing her doll's hair. Her head fell off! Megan was completely devasted and couldn't stop crying all night and the next day. We had to ship her back and poor Megan has to wait 3 weeks for her to be shipped back to us.

The girls were thrilled to open the family gift of Rock Band!


We've had a lot of fun and I'm realizing that I'm really not very coordinated enough to be good at the drums. I'm sure I just need lots of practice!
Nate made us belgian waffles for breakfast and then I headed back to bed for a nice Christmas nap. Ahhhhh. We went to see Bedtime Stories later that afternoon. Cute movie! It was a very nice day and I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

We thought it would never get here! We finally got to hang the last ornament on the advent and eat the last chocolate.

When we moved here three years ago, we needed to make our own family traditions. Making gingerbread houses seems to be a favorite and the girls have a lot of fun using their creative juices. This year we had Claire and Alli from across the street come over and join us.






We spent the rest of the afternoon helping our neighbors with a Christmas project that involved a lot of painting and we were happy to have something to pass the time!
That night we let the girls open one present. I had purchased pj's for both of them, but they chose to open their gift from Grandma Kitty (my mom) instead. They had fun opening all the fun individual packages and getting serious money too!

(And true to form, Megan and I spent all of our money on pedicures, and Sammy bought a churro at Costco.)

The girls put themselves to bed by 8:30 and Nate and I were all proud of ourselves and patting ourselves on the back. "Older kids are awesome!" we kept telling ourselves. Little did we know. We stayed up watching a movie, and when the time came to do "the Christmas thing with the presents" we realized that Sammy had been lying in bed in the dark for 4 hours!!! The poor thing couldn't get herself to sleep. We went to our room and watched tv for a little bit and she finally went to sleep. At about 1:30 we were putting things under the tree when Megan came stumbling down the hall for a drink. Now, she isn't a believer, but still! I hustled her back to bed where she couldn't sleep until 4:30.

Tingly

Do you know what today is? Christmas Eve Eve. That's right. Sammy is all tingly inside just thinking about it;) We are getting ready to bake cookies and make our gingerbread houses, and then tomorrow....tomorrow we get to open a present! The girls have it in their minds that they get a present from us, and both grandma's tomorrow. Ha! They wish! Merry Christmas everyone! Thanks for all the gifts and cards! We love them!

Lazy Girl

I've been battling, and winning, a head cold. I wasn't feeling very good yesterday, bad headache, pressure in the face. We didn't get much done around here. I did some laundry and made the girls clean up the family room and kitchen. I set my alarm for church this morning at 6:30 but I still wasn't feeling so hot, so I decided to stay home. I wouldn't want to infect anyone else of course! You know how it goes, mom doesn't go to church, no one goes to church. Heehee. I woke up at 10:30 and Nate had made a nice crepe breakfast. Not only that, all four of us had slept in. Nate even slept until ten. That is unheard of. He wakes up at 6:30 everyday, no matter what. Meggy was the first one up at 9:30. Guess we were all worn out! Not only that, we all took a nap too! (Except for Meg.) Nate made a yummy spaghetti dinner and now we are watching Elf. I'm still in my pajamas from last night. Aside from not feeling good, a pretty great day!

Christmas funny

Make sure you pause my music at the bottom first.

Blockage? or Busy?

I used to be a pretty good blogger. Now that I'm in school I'm having a hard time finding things to write about. Not because there isn't anything to write about, my focus has changed. I constantly have anatomy terms running through my head. I wake up in the middle of the night and run through them. Goes to show what an exciting lady I am to be around these days.
I am looking forward to this Christmas Break. It will be nice to sit around and enjoy my kids without worrying about anything else. Nate has three days off next week, so I'm sure we'll have lots and lots of togetherness. I hope we will still like each other after next week. I'm all ready for Christmas. I have received word that my UPS packages made it to Utah, and I'm all done here. Now we can sit back and watch the advent calendar fill up. Sammy came to me last night and asked if she could open a present. After all, there was less than a week to go and it was cold outside. Nice try. Remember all those feelings of anticipation? Watching my kids this time of year is one of the best parts of being a mom. We got a gold star from a friend at church, and when you do something nice for someone, you put it on their pillow. Then they do something nice for someone else. It's cute to see what my kids come up with.
All of our rain has gone away. We had about 4 days of rain here. I could go for some snow though. Don't know if I'll ever get used to having a tropical-like Christmas. I love the warm weather, but it makes it hard to realize that Christmas is here.
Hope you are all enjoying the season and not stressing out. Enjoy your families and hug your kids.

Happy, happy birthday, Nathan dear

Nate turned 34 years old today. He just gets better and better with every year. I want to wish him a happy birthday! We had a fun day today. We woke up early for church and presents. Megan bought him some candy canes with her own money.
Sammy gave him a bag of Reisens Chocolate Chews.
And I gave him a shooting stick. It's something he can use on his Javelina Hunt coming up in February. He had asked me to get him nothing for a present, but I got him this instead.
For our fun and adventurous birthday extravaganza, we headed to Chandler to the roller rink. Really and seriously. Nate and I have already realized that we are going to feel this tomorrow. Hahaha. I love people watching at the roller rink. Some people take their skating really seriously. I used to back in '82, but not so much any more.
I took these action shots while we were there. We were skating as I took these. How bout those skills? (That is why I have that slightly manic look in my eyes)


And speaking of skills, Nate pulled these moves out before we left.

I hope Nate had a great and fun day, he certainly deserves it! We love you honey!


I hope all of your wishes come true!

Christmas Dresses

Yesterday I took the girls to get their Christmas dresses. This can be a difficult task. Sammy really likes those really atrocious ones, and Megan is at that in-between size where the girls dresses make her look like she is 3 years old, but she's only 11, so don't want to go to juniors. We headed off to Kohls to realize that the selection isn't that great. Lo and behold, they both find a few dresses they like. And the miracles continue. Both of them like the first dress they tried on. And so did I! A completely pain free process. Since it didn't take very long, and they had more dresses to try on, and no one else was in the dressing room, they decided to do an America's Next Top Model fashion show. Runway and three way mirror at the ready. Frankly, it was hilarious watching them walk like models. Finally they were done with that and they changed back to their street clothes. But before we could leave, Sammy had to vacuum the entire dressing room with the manual vacuum. She does it every time we go to Kohls. If only I could get her to vacuum at home.

Yo Yo Meg

This week we had the exciting opportunity to go to Megan's very first cello concert! It was fun to see all of her hard work pay off with the fun music that was put together. I'd like to applaud her teacher who was willing to teach 71 fifth graders how to play an instrument. If that won't get her into Heaven...Anywho, Megan was very excited and she did just great! (She was told to wear a skirt and was just horrified at the thought of playing the cello in a skirt. She asked her teacher's permission to wear dress pants. Hahaha!)

The next day she had another concert, this time at her own school. Luckily it was in the afternoon so I was able to go and see it again. I'm telling you, I thought my heart would burst open with pride. At these moments, the job of being a mom is the only thing I can imagine being. I love my kids so dang much. Seeing her up there concentrating, and then after each song, she would glance at me and her whole face would light up in her famous smile. Great job Megan! We are proud of you!

Light and Life of the World

I really loved the Visiting Teaching message in this months Ensign.

Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: “Jesus Christ is the light and the life of the world. All things were made by him. Under the direction and according to the plan of God the Father, Jesus Christ is the Creator, the source of the light and the life of all things. …

“Jesus Christ is the light of the world because he is the source of the light which ‘proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space’ (D&C 88:12). His light is ‘the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world’ (D&C 93:2). His example and his teachings illuminate the path we should walk. …

“Jesus Christ is the life of the world because of his unique position in what the scriptures call ‘the great and eternal plan of deliverance from death’ (2 Nephi 11:5). His Resurrection and his Atonement save us from both physical and spiritual death”

The day after I went visiting, I walked into my backyard and saw this:

I love the thought that Jesus Christ "is the source of light that proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space". Easy to see God's hand in this light.

School Daze

Tomorrow will be the last day of my first three weeks of school. Have to say, I am LOVING it! I love everything about going back to school. Well, I don't like waking up at 6:15 everyday, but I can live with it. I just go to bed every night at 9:30.
I love my anatomy class and learning all the specifics on how everything functions. I'm pretty sure I learned this in high school, but 1-I am now going to school because I want to so I am learning more. 2-The teachers and material are so much better! And here is where I have to brag a little. Except for my first test, I have gotten 100% on all my tests! And we have them every other day. I thought I would blog that tonight since I'm not feeling too confident about tomorrows test. I have made several new friends and we have a lot of fun together. One fun thing we did today was volunteer our arms to the Phlebotomy class. Crazy, huh? But they were offering free Dominos Pizza to all the volunteers. Needles don't bother me, so why not?
I'm happy that I finally got the guts to make the call to go back. I want to thank Nate and the girls for all of their support! Love you guys!

Christmas Party

Friday night we were invited to a great Christmas party held at Tumbleweed Park in Chandler. There was plenty of hot chocolate for Sammy, and for that, we are appreciative.

They had a load of snow brought in for the kids. As we were walking up to the party, my kids saw the snow, dropped the food and toys that we had brought and jumped in. You'd think they had never seen it before.
You can see the big snowball Megan gathered up. She couldn't wait to lob it at her sister. She beans her right in the back of the head, and I am mentally preparing myself for Sam to have a meltdown. Instead, she picks up a 3 inch snowball and tosses it at Megan, hitting her in the ribs. Megan's eyes well up with tears and she starts whining about how bad it hurt. Once again, can you see the HUGE snowball she threw at Sam?
They had a toy drive and lots of great food. The best part? Santa, of course! Sammy let me know that he couldn't be the real one, because he was wearing rain boots.

It was a lot of fun to catch up with friends that I don't see on a regular basis. Plus, I got to hold all the new babies!!!

Fun Christmas Tag

1. Wrapping Paper of Gift Bag? I prefer to wrap presents because I would rather open gift wrap. But I will use both. Sometimes you just can't beat a gift bag.

2. Real tree or artificial? Sigh. Artificial. I love the smell of a real one.

3. When do you put up the tree? Me? Put up the tree? I don't. But Nate got it done the week after Thanksgiving. I prefer to do it the day after, but we were just too busy this year.

4. When do you take the tree down? I have taken it down on Christmas before! Usually a day or two after Christmas.

5. Do you like eggnog? I did as a kid, but not anymore.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I have two. One was my Teddy Ruxpin and then my Cabbage Patch Doll. I'm still not sure how my mom pulled those two off. Shopping is so much easier with ebay and the internet!

7. Hardest person to buy for? Megan. This kid has never been into toys, except for stuffed animals. She isn't really into clothes yet. I never know what to get her.

8. Easiest person to buy for? Sammy. She loves everything, plays with everything and uses everything.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes. My favorite one is my gold one that my mom gave me. It was the first one she bought after she got married. It was my favorite thing to play with growing up. It survived the four of us, and then all the grandkids. Now Sammy loves playing with it.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? MAIL!!! Hopefully I will get it done this year. If not, I'll take a picture of my kids and y'all can swing by my blog and take a look;)

11. Worst Christmas gift ever received? Not to speak ill of the dead, but one year my grandma puffy painted sweatshirts for all of her grandkids. Mine was yellow, the worst color I can wear and she tie dyed mine. I remember that my brother had planets going up the arms on his shirt. He was in high school.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Hands down, Christmas Vacation. I could watch it everyday of the year and still laugh.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I start ordering online before Thanksgiving. I don't like to wait too long for things to come in the mail and then worrying that it won't show up. I have waaaaaay cut back though, so I really don't have a lot to do.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I don't think so.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Ummmmm, I don't know. Not a good question for me.

16. Colored or clear lights? Colored! More festive.

17. Favorite Christmas song? Religious-O Holy Night. Funny-Rusty Chevrolet. Regular-Let it snow.

18. Travel or stay at home? Stay at home. We went back to Utah our first Christmas after we moved away, but it was really a big hassle. And you can't beat a relaxing day in the 70's here. Sorry mom.

19. Can you name all Santa's reindeer? You betcha!

20. Angel or Star? Star.

21. Open presents on Christmas eve or the morning? One on Christmas Eve, but save the rest for the morning.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Salvation Army bell ringers.

23. Favorite ornament or theme color? Whatever comes my way I will use. No themes here!

24. Favorite food for Christmas dinner? We always had french dip at my moms on Christmas eve.

25. What do I want for Christmas this year? Dr. Pepper.

26. White or Warm Christmas? Warm has a slight lead over white.

27. Favorite thing about Christmas? Children.

28. Favorite Christmas tradition? I always get my mom a Christmas story book. I love picking out just the right one.

29. Favorite Christmas location? Where Nate and the girls are.

30. Who do you tag??? Danielle, Kim, Diana, Lizzy, Pam

Oh Christmas Tree

Today my very wonderful hubby put up the tree and got the lights on. We've had this tree for about 10 or 11 years, and frankly, I've had enough. It takes hours to assemble, and last year as we finally were getting the lights on, the base snapped and the whole thing fell to the ground. And dinged up my beloved hardwood floors. I told Nate that we need to buy a new tree or he'll be on his own. Well, he is determined that this tree will take us into retirement, so today he took care of business all on his own. Thanks honey!
The girls were very excited to get home from school and start decorating it with ornaments. I have never bought a set of ornaments. All of our ornaments have slowly accumulated over the years. I've been part of an ornament exchange for years, so I get 15 new ornaments a year, plus the wonderful ones that the kids make at school. Those are my favorite:)
I love watching the girls dig through the box of ornaments and remembering who made it, or where we got it. It is a magical experience. I love to see their little hands putting them as high as they can on the tree. I love the memories that flood back as I see each ornament. It's a great time of year!

Last Days of our Fun Visit

On Saturday the boys got up early and went golfing. The girls stayed here and we headed to Joanns to get some crafting supplies for the girls. Joanns was crazy and we decided that we could get everything we needed at WalMart and we wouldn't have to wait in a 40 minute line. Believe it or not, we didn't have to wait in line at WalMart. Go figure. The girls got some foamies book marks and the four of them made them up cute for their friends to give for Christmas presents. We bought some visors for the boys so they wouldn't get sunburned while golfing. Since they were going golfing on Sunday, we made them a little bit religious so they would be spiritually fulfilled. Brett is the only one that would let me take his picture, but they were all really sweet. ;)
That little square on his hat is the Holy Bible. Can you believe they make religious foamies? We had dinner that night at Barros.

Sunday the boys headed off to golf. They forgot to take their visors though. Ingrates. We headed to Scottsdale to the HUGE mall they have there. We had a nice lunch, awesome people watching...and horror of horrors, they have a movie theater. And the girls want to see Twilight. Okay, I admit that I wanted to see it too. And I decided that it would be an awesome DVD to own on a day when I have bad menstrual cramps and a bowl of homemade soup. Nice fluffy stuff. After the movie we headed to the Mesa Temple and met up with the boys. I love seeing the Christmas lights at the Mesa Temple. All you need is a sweatshirt. Poor Megan didn't start off so hot. She was on her Heelys flying down a long side walk and totally face planted. She bit her lip, cut her upper lip and scraped up her cheek. (I was just happy she didn't bust her teeth!) So in our pictures, she isn't looking so happy.
Our usual self portrait that we take whenever we go anywhere.
Amy, Nate, Brett, Kristy, Jim, Me

Rachel, Lindsay, Sammy and Megan

Poor Megan! Her head was pounding!

We had a lot of fun. There isn't as many lights as the Salt Lake Temple, but it is so different to see citrus on the trees and the palm trees done up. It makes up for it.

We then headed to Chiles for our last supper together. All good things must come to an end. Thank you so much for making the long drive down and for the laughs and great times!

GG

Last night I had a very vivid dream about my grandma. She was called GG because she was a great grandma. In both senses of the word. She died almost 9 years ago when Sammy was only 2 months old. In my dream, my siblings were all together and she was having her garage cleaned out. She had very valuable treasures for each of us, and we were all picking what we wanted. I remember that there was several pictures there of her and my grandpa, and they looked very happy together. He died 25 years ago and I know she missed him terribly. It made me happy to see those pictures. I remember standing behind her and wrapping my arms around her and pressing my cheek to hers. I could smell her powdery scent that was so unique to her. I was filled with love and happiness as I held her and was sad when I woke up. I have my own personal belief that when I have dreams like this, it is a way for my loved ones to come and give me a visit. It's a nice thought.

It made me think of the treasures that my grandma gave to us as we grew up. She was an ideal grandma. Nothing could beat sleeping over at her house. She had a big cupboard that she would keep stocked with all of her grand kids favorite treats. Beef jerky for the boys. I liked those pink circle mints that taste like Pepto. There was always a Fresca in the fridge. She would buy our favorite cereal for us when she knew we were coming. And she kept the apple shampoo handy because she knew I loved the smell. She loved to show us her love in so many different ways.

And she passed that gift on to my own mother. She keeps Albertsons chocolate chip cookies for Zack. A large variety of cereal for Sam. Fruit for Kaylee. Special juice for whoever likes that flavor that week. She keeps a Dr. Pepper handy for me. I know that for my own kids, sleeping at grandma's house can't be beat. My kids have the extra blessing of having two spectacular grandmas.

I can't wait to see what grandmothering gifts I can pass on to my girls and to their children. And I hope to have my dream again.