Belated Christmas Post

Wow. I can't believe how behind I am on posting. We've just been so busy and sick in this stinkin house, but we had a great Christmas. We had lots of activities and Christmas parties. I'll start with pictures and then update what every one's been up to. On the first Monday in December our street has a 'K Street Christmas Party'. It was a lot of fun and we feel so blessed to live where we do. We have amazing neighbors and love the ward we're in. While we were at the party...Santa showed up:) Mady was super excited because when we saw him at Wal-Mart she was scared, so she really wanted to tell him that she wanted Jessie and Rapunzel dolls. :) Noah on the other hand...wouldn't even look at him. ha ha.



We also kept up with our tradition of making Christmas goodies and taking them to family and friends. Mady was quite the helper this year. She loved it. She was great at making sure everything tasted good and was ok to be given away!


On Christmas Eve morning Mady woke up kind of early, so I got up with her and let Daddy and Noah sleep in. We painted our nails in Christmas colors and watched the Flintstones Christmas. Then we made breakfast and woke Daddy and Noah up. It was fun to have that girl time with her.


Later on we kept with tradition and made our cookies for Santa.

It was so sweet to see the excitement Mady had this year for Christmas. I remember that feeling as a kid and it just makes the spirit of the season so much fun. We did have lot of talks about the real reason for Christmas and it was neat to see that Mady was actually understanding it some of it. :)
Our House all Decorated!

Our Christmas trees...all ready with presents to be opened! the kids were super excited!


Christmas is always busy for us! All our family is here so we have activities from Christmas Eve all the way until Christmas night. We get our breaks in between but we have a lot of fun. It's so nice to spend time with family. So Christmas Eve we went to Adam's Dad's house. Terri had lots of goodies and of course we had shrimp. YUM! then we all opened presents. it was a good night!



When we left we drove around looking at Christmas lights, then went home and saw that the Christmas Elves left the kids jammies again. :) Adams mom and Rick came up that night to stay with us. It was so fun to have them! So we left cookies and celery (yes...celery. because Adam forgot to get the reindeer food at Broulims, so Mady decided that would work. ha ha) We put our excited kids to bed and then watched 4 Christmas's.



Christmas morning! Santa came! :) (don't you love the commercial on the t.v. in the background? it's like a phone-dating thing! ha ha) Noah kept telling us that he didn't like Santa and didn't want him in our house! but Christmas morning he told us that he liked him again. :)



We had a good morning. lots of mess, but lots of fun! Does anyone else think it's crazy how they like zip tie EVERY arm and leg of every toy to the box! AAHHH. took us forever. Mady was very excited to see Jessie and Rapunzel and Noah loved his Buzz Lightyear. Mady also got a Dollhouse and pet shop stuff of course; and Noah got a Batman Cave and tool bench. And lots of others, but those were the favorites. We had a good brunch with Adam's mom and Rick and all of his sisters. Then we opened presents again. Mady loved that we got to open presents so many times!


That afternoon was a well-earned nap time! Then we woke up and went to Brigitte's to have Christmas with my mom and John and Craig and Brigitte. LOTS more food...are you seeing a theme here? way too much food!!! ha ha. but it was good. We ate and played the wii and opened presents again. it was a good day and filled with lots of family. the kids were totally pooped out by the end of the night and went to bed right away! ha ha.



However they were up bright and early and excited to play with all their new toys the next day! :)

I love Christmas. We are huge Christmas people. I think the season just puts an amazing spirit in your home. There's something very sad to me when we take our tree down and put all the decorations away. Mady had a break down last year when we did it, but this year she just asked if it could be Halloween again? :) Noah cried though. "We have to put the tree back so Santa can come!!!" :( that's kind of how I feel too. lol. But it will come again! I just feel like you don't have very many years that your kids have this excitement for Santa and it makes it so much fun! I love seeing the joy on their faces. I feel so lucky and grateful for my children and family! Hope everyone had as good of a Christmas as we did!
(Well this has gotten long...so an up-date will have to wait!)

Happy Holidays!

Winter has hit us hard in Idaho and with it has come the feeling for Christmas. :) We've had a terrible "blizzard" as they called it. Spots in our yard have anywhere from 8-10 inches. Monday and Tuesday were horrible with white outs and awful roads. Tons of roads and highways were closed. We just stayed home and decorated for Christmas! :) The kids are super excited for Christmas and I'm super excited for black Friday deals. I know, I'm crazy...but there's something about the craziness that is fun for me.
My kids are more then ready for the snow!


I am in love with the windows in our sun room because of the view I get of the beautiful weather.

Getting ready for Christmas:




We've painted Mady and Noah's rooms, finally! Mady's is done! Noah's is painted but is a work-in-progress at this point. Still fun, and they both love their rooms since we let them pick the colors. Well out of a couple choices anyways. :)
Remember Mady's awful room before without carpet, with the dresser all ripped out and horrible paint....


Well now...we love it!



Noah's room before...

and after...still working on it.


Other then that...we are doing ok. Feeling the stress of life right now, but trying to have faith that there is always a plan. Mady is still in pre-school and doing amazing. Me and Adam talked the other night about how she used to be and we can't even believe the progress she's made. All the fears we had are not there anymore and we are loving what she's becoming. We feel very blessed about how things have worked out with her. Her and Noah still fight a lot, but I'm starting to feel like that will be my life forever. They play good too; it just depends on the day.

My kids have said the funiest things lately though... Mady the other day said..."Mom! My belly hurts." So I said, "oh yeah?" She said "yeah. I think I need chocolate to make it feel better." :) ha ha. She learns quickly. funny little girl.
Noah is doing great. Still the funniest little character. I can't believe the little things his mind can come up with. I just wish he would sleep in his bed at night. It never fails, we always wake up with him. Sometimes he doesn't come in until like 5 or so, but it's inevitable. And Adam is a sucker because Noah is RELENTLESS and he'll go to Adam's side and say, "Daddy. I just want to cuddle you" and in he goes! Breakfast is pretty much a fight every morning. Sometimes he is up for 2 hours before he eats because all he wants is candy, to which I say no and give him the list of things he CAN have...yogurt, banana, cereal..etc. I think he gets hungry enough that he finally picks something. However...he doesn't forget to ask for the candy later. He is so much like his dad. We joked about this the other night. I made a roast and potatoes in the crock pot. Mady doesn't like potatoes, she likes broccoli so I steamed some for her. Then she just wanted water to drink. So broccoli and water for her and meat, potatoes and pop for Noah. Just like his dad. silly kids. Some funny quotes from him lately:
-Every night he decides right before bed that he's STARVING! I caught him digging through the fridge and told him to stop and that he's not really hungry. he looked right at me and said, "But Mom! I'm just so sick with hungry!"
-And every time he wants something and I say no, he'll say with attitude, "But Mom! It's just for my want!" Well since it's for that he should just get whatever he wants right!?
-Then the other night after church we got talking about babies because he was very interested in one at church. Adam asked if he wanted a baby in the house (NOT announcing anything! NOT good timing. lol) Noah looks right at him and says, "No dad. I just want a puppy for me" We laughed so hard! Where does he come up with this stuff? Anyhow...he's a super fun little man.

Adam is doing good. His wrist is starting to feel a lot better and he should be wearing that brace more then he does. But then again...when has he really listened to the dr's or me? ha ha. We'll find out in a couple weeks how it's healed. Work is going ok for me. I'm keeping my eye out for another job. I don't want to leave...but I need something I can count on and we need better insurance. We'll keep praying and looking. Other then that...things are going well. We feel very blessed to have our house, our amazing neighbors (who, by the way, snow-blowed our drive way and sidewalk during all these storms) we have an awesome ward, healthy and happy kids. And of course each other. Not much more we could ask for. :) Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

! TRICK or TREAT !

So Halloween was tons of fun, with TONS of activities. The kids got to wear their costumes 3 times, which Mady thought was just great! Oh but first...

Adam had his surgery on Wednesday. He was pretty nervous but it went great. They did what you call a Bier block on his arm. His whole arm was numb so he was actually awake and got to watch Dr Lee put the pin in on a live x-ray. It was a good thing we did it though...the bone had completely separated again, after only 2 weeks without a cast. So it was inevitable. Anyhow, he's doing good now and on Wednesday they will take the temporary cast off and just put a brace on for about 4 weeks. Despite all the bills we are dreading, we are glad to see this come to an end.
We un-wrapped it and cleaned it up. Crazy how something so small causes so much pain.

Well Halloween started on Thursday for us. We took the kids to the Boo at the Zoo. We'd never gone before, and for anyone else who hasn't: It's awesome and the kids LOVED it. They go through so much work and the zoo looks amazing. It really got the kids in the trick-or-treating mood!
I really didn't like Mady's costume, but she's so cute that it turned out cute!



Then Friday, Adam's sister Katie had a Halloween party at her house. She did a ton of work and preparation for it and it was way fun. We seriously got our costumes together at the last minute, but it was kinda fun just throwing some D.I. stuff together. ha ha.

Mady won the doughnut eating game, although she did cheat a little, it was still cute! She shoved that doughnut down pretty dang fast!



I know...we're hot huh? :)

Then Saturday...well that was busy. We cleaned and cooked all day. Adam's mom and step dad came up from Twin (which it was great to have them here!) then at 5 we went to the trunk-or-treat, with Craig & Brigitte and the kiddos. The kids had lots of fun. Noah was a little crabby and hesitant at first but as soon as the candy started coming he was so in! Mady was ready that morning! lol.



We then took the kids to Fat Cats where they had some businesses there doing trick-or-treating for the kids. I don't know if I'd do that again though. Way too crowded.

We went home and I decided to let the kids go down our road and do the old fashioned door-to-door. I think they had the most fun doing that. However...most of my neighbors got there door bells rang 3 times at least as the kids fought over it. ha ha. We only did half the road and then decided I'd had enough. LOL.


Our House


Everyone came over that night and we ate lots of good food, played some guitar hero, cards and ate some more.


Kru just decided he would take the whole bucket home. :)

It was lots of fun to get all the trick-or-treaters at our door. We've never had that. Some times we would even race to the door! LOL! we got tons of cute kids! I was partial to Kaleigh and Kenzie though! (ha ha! Heidi and Brit-They were so dang cute!!) Anyhow.... it was a way fun night. It did end with a lot of crying and extremely tired kids but I think we all had fun!!