Christmas Time

Oh the catch up game. Here we go: Got a tree. Cooper was the star hanger this year. Had to take it down (all the decorations and lights) and do it all again because we let the tree run out of water again. Seriously contemplating a fake tree. I think this is the 3rd year we've done that. But... it did survive until Christmas.

Finally put the train under the tree. had it for like 2 years, but this year it made it out of the box. The kids loved it. It was fun and magical to watch them by the tree just enjoying it so much.

No matter where Charlotte was in the house, once she heard the whistle blow, she was right at that tree. Amazingly enough, she never messed with it.

I think she, like myself, feels trapped in the house. One day I threw on this cute little coat and took her out and even though it was freezing, she was so happy to be out.

She's a little ham. She knows what gets reactions and makes us laugh. Sticking her finger up her nose is one of them. I might have to tone down my reaction so it doesn't become a habit! 

 Just can't get enough of her big brown eyes. Love them!

Found Isabelle like this in her room one day. So funny. I had to take a picture of it of course.

 Made the ginger bread houses again this year.  It actually was more fun this year since they're 2 years older and can do most of it themselves. They all really enjoyed doing it. Especially Caroline.

 She stuck around for at least 10 minutes after everyone else was done to put the finishing touches on hers.

 Finally had an adult Christmas party. I've been wanting to do it with my family, but it just never happened.  It did with Bri's family this year and it was so nice. We went out to dinner then came back to our place, had some treats, played the pipe chimes, had a white elephant DVD exchange, opened presents and played a game. All without the kids. And it was enjoyable! For everyone. We could actually pay attention when others were opening their presents and just enjoy being together. Loved it.

Christmas Eve we had a get together at Suzanne's with everyone. The cousins all did their presents there and then we came home, had dinner at our place with Mom and Dad C. and Julia. Afterwards we read the Christmas story and as usual, had the kids place the pieces by the stable as they were read. They seem to enjoy that. 

After that, the kids got to open their presents from Grandma and GranChud and they were quite surprised and thrilled. Even Cooper let out a scream about the doll house. He got his own presents though, Spiderman and Batman. Couldn't have been happier.

After that, they all got ready for bed and thanks to help from Brian and Julia, I got my magical tent set up for them. I had been planning this for a few weeks. It didn't turn out quite as big as I had pictured in my head, but the day just got so crazy and this was what we ended up with. I still thought it was great and they seemed to be thrilled with it too. All the kids slept under there, well, not Charlotte, and actually, we ended up taking Bella out and putting her in her bed. Cooper found a bulb that had blown, but the fuse was still in and he got quite a shock, but other than that, I think it will be a fun memory for them and we'll see how it turns out next year.

Love these people!!!

 Christmas day was great. I actually don't have any pictures 'cause I just took video, but they were so happy and excited. Especially Bella. She was so fun to watch. They actually woke up at 6:20, but only Santa had his present out and their stockings. We decided to wait and do the rest after church, which unfortunately, was at 9:30. They didn't get upset though which was nice. After church we came back and opened presents and then headed up to Bri's parents house for the day. It was fun to be with everyone and play game and just enjoy the food and each other. Holidays are so fun. Merry Christmas!

We made it

I feel like I've used that title a few times too many. But we did. We made it to PA.... barely. Truly! I should start at the beginning. A very good place to start. :) So Brian ditched out on us on September 27th. He drove himself out to PA to start his new job while the rest of us stayed behind to wait for the house to sell or rent. I was dreading being a single Mom. I could only image the worst, but it actually wasn't bad at all. The kids were surprisingly well behaved, we got along well, the went to bed like good children and I had a few hours at the end of the day to do whatever I wanted. We may have been unorganized in getting homework done, but I actually kept up pretty well on the house because I knew I could get a phone call at any minute saying someone wanted to come look at the house and that is the worst when the house is a mess, that and I didn't want to take out my stress of that on the kids. I wish I could keep the house that clean when Bri is around. I try, but for some reason it doesn't work as well. So the house had been under contract (sale) until about a week before Brian left. We weren't surprised it fell through. The couple was really a pain in the butt! We had a hard time deciding when the rest of the family should go out if nothing happened with the home, but we stuck with our plan and kept our moving truck and long story short, things worked out getting the home rented and moving on the original date. It wasn't without some frustration and uncertainty, but it all worked out. I know my strength was due to many who were praying HARD for me! I know I couldn't have done it without all the prayers. I had much more patience and was a lot more calm with the kids than normal. It was a nice feeling while it lasted. JK.  Getting the house all packed up and cleaned was NOT easy! There was a lot more to it than I was remembering, even though it was only 1 year ago. We did it in shifts then, so it was hard to really remember how much stuff we had. I had lots of help from my family and amazing ward members. There were people cleaning everything in my home and helping with kids. Of course, when I was in the last 2 days of it all, 2 of my kids got pink eye. I swear my kids get sick every time we move. I truly had angels helping me get everything done. Bri didn't come out until it was all done, and he's my work horse, so a lot of help was needed to get it all done.
 The truck showed up with not enough space, so they had to send a second truck, which didn't show up until about 11:00 at night. We ended up having to sleeping at a neighbor's house because our expectations of them being done were completely off from the actual time they took. Thank goodness for my neighbor Sue, who let us sleep at her home, watched my kids, took some to the movies, picked up prescriptions and rounded up the women who came and helped get my house clean. So glad to have been surrounded by wonderful people who would sacrifice time, money and energy to serve my family. I hope to be aware of situations where I can bless others lives as mine was.

UPDATED:
 I've had this post in draft for like 3 weeks. There were so many things to add and no great pictures, so I've dreaded putting it up, but I have to move on with my life. :) So here's the bullet list run down:
*  moved into house without anything. Borrowed kitchen stuff, clothes, air mattresses, blankets, etc.
* had issues getting kids into school since all documents were on the truck, but finally did and they both LOVE it. Yay.
* quite a bit behind in the school curriculum from our Utah school. So far, just Liz is in a math tutor class after school, but I think they may start Caroline. Grateful for that though to help them get caught up.
* car transmission blew up, no lie, as we pulled in the driveway of our new place. Only went about a week without a car. Went from SUV to van, but it's a lot easier with all the kids and it's a great car. Thanks to Bri's parents for helping us with that!
*Had a leak in the ceiling about 2 days after we moved in. Not a major big deal, but annoying.
* Have an awesome landlord/neighbor who not only supplied us with tons of blankets, soap, sheets, towels and such until our stuff came in, but replaced the new carpet he put in the dining area with laminate to our request because of our children and they're not so clean eating habits. Truthfully though, I spilled on it too.
* Great neighbors who are so kind and welcoming.
* Walking distance to the library which was a saver on the days with no car.
* Reoccuring pink eye at least 4 times
* Lots of time with Bri's family. The kids love playing with all of them.

There are just a few of the things I can think of off hand. All in all though, we are doing well and the kids have adjusted beautifully. It's a bummer we move in when it's winter and can't get to know the neighbors, but we'll have time for that in the spring I guess.

Weekend fun

So it ended up being the last hurrah with the family in Salt Lake. The kids had UEA break and I thought we should go down to Sandy 1- 'cause I didn't want to have all the kids home all day for a week by myself, and 2- 'cause I thought it could be the last time we had to get down there to play with everyone before we possibly moved. We had a family we were working with to try and rent the home to, but it was taking a little bit of time to get it finalized, so I went down there not knowing for sure. Well on that Thursday they said it was for sure and then I got a call from the trucking company saying they were going to come on Wednesday. I wasn't planning on going home until Sunday, so that was only going to give me 2 days to pack everything. I thought that would be a little hard, but doable. So, we stayed and played.
 Elizabeth didn't want to just go hang out so I told her we'd do something fun each day. I asked her to tell me one thing she wanted to do. She said Chucky Cheese, so we did. Thursday we went to Chucky Cheese with all the cousins and Mom and hung out for about an hour. I can't stand being there much longer. It's too noisy and chaotic, but the kids love it. We noticed there that Mellie's kids had pink eye. I wonder how many got it from us being there. After, we went back to Mom and Dad's and just played all day.It was great weather and the kids had so much fun playing together. We went to Draper Park later that day to do an updated cousins picture. This time Mom and Dad were in it. It was crazy to see all the little kiddos. There have been 4 since the last picture. Cute group of kids.

Friday we went down to Provo to visit Nana and Grandpa. Grandpa just moved into an assisted place and so we wanted to go see it. It was good to see them again and I figured it'd be the last time before we moved and sad to say, possibly even the last time I see Grandpa. When I left I tried not to think about it because it made me want to cry. Nana was so cute and had brought the kids treats. She always has candy in a dish at her place and they had mentioned that when we were driving down there, but she just came to meet up with us at Grandpa's. I thought it was so sweet that she thought to bring some treats for them. She's always been thoughtful like that. I also had a photo shoot down there and Jill was kind enough to watch 6 kids by herself. She took them to the Bean Museum and hung with them there for a little bit until I finished. She actually stayed at Mom's with us all week which was lots of fun. It's fun to have sister sleepovers. I wish the others could have come too. We tried to plan a girls get away before I left, but it just didn't work out with all the schedules.

Saturday we thought we'd try Gardner Village and get the kids all dressed up. It was fun, for like 10 minutes. Then it was just wandering around with a bunch of kids. They looked cute in their costumes though.

Sunday we had Mom's bday dinner. Since we were going to be gone for Halloween and some of the others couldn't make it on that day, we had a costume dinner which was fun. It was a lot of work to get all the kiddos dressed up, but it was fun. I was trying to be Elvyra but everyone thought I was Cher. Either way, my wig was horrible. I didn't have any time to work with it, I just threw it on and it was just hideous, but fun to dress up. I wore that dress to a HS prom. It was nice to be able to fit into it again. :)

After that, we headed back for a whirl wind of packing up the house to get ready for the truck to show up in 2 days. It was a fun weekend and I'm glad we did it! I'm going to miss our sleepover get togethers. I have the best family!

The final 2

So round 2 done. It was pretty easy. Charlotte didn't give me the funny faces... not yet. Next year I'm sure.

Bella was sure up for it though. I love love love how hers turned out. Such a pretty little stinker. Glad we got these done so quickly and really, it was fun.

Grabbed a few of Cooper too. He looks sad, but he wasn't. This was his serious look. Funny kiddos.

It's that time again. Yep. Update the photo frames time. The kids are not the biggest fans, but they sure give me some effort. At first I was thinking I wasn't going to like how they were turning out, but after a little TLC, I think I just might. 

Of course we start out with a little attitude from Liz. She gives me these smiles sometimes and I say, "give me a real one, not that cheesy frozen one" and then she takes offense to it and gives me a glare. Then I say, " you still look cute, I just want to see your smile smile, when it's in your eyes." Then she acts goofy. After a few minutes of silliness, then she starts complaining about her jaw hurting from smiling so long. So funny. It's pretty much just like that every time I do a "shoot" with her.

I LOVE how these turned out of Liz. She looks just way too grown up though.... and gorgeous! I love this first one. This is a real smile. But her second one I think is beautiful too!

Kiki has no problems working the camera. She loves to put on a good show for me and good show she did! I love these of her being silly. So Caroline!
And then I love her for real ones too. She's growing up too fast as well! I love seeing her hair getting so long. A blondie.... who would have thought we'd have one of those!

 

Then there's Cooper. A man of many faces. There's his regal face, his "if I squint it looks like I'm smiling" face,  a few other typical faces and the last one is where I mention his "girlfriend" Jocelyn. Funny kid. When I asked him what having a girlfriend meant he told me, "it means I love her." Cute kiddo. He's a lover for sure!

We will have to work on his real one because this one is sweet, but it's not my Cooper. He got upset and said that he wasn't any good at taking pictures. The girls were good, but he wasn't. I had to reassure him that he was great at taking pictures, especially the silly face ones. We just need to work on getting the real deal smile while he's looking at me. Funny kid. 

 I'm excited to try and get Bella and Charlotte tomorrow. Got to get them done before a showing tomorrow. Then again, might be more enjoyable if it's after the showing!

Sad

I miss him. My:

face makin'

good lookin'

  

example settin'

 goofy actin'

 hard workin'

 love showin'

best friend and hubby.

What???

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I last posted. It has been way too crazy 'round these parts. I thought that by now things would be getting less crazy, but in fact, the craziness has doubled! Where to begin.

We have enjoyed the warm weather. Bella and I have been getting a little 1 on 1 time with Coop in school and when Charlotte takes a nap. It's nice. I've been telling her how I love her new freckles and she wanted me to get a picture, so I tried. They're kind of hard to see, but so cute!

Caroline decided one day she wanted her ears pierced. Growing up, I had to wait until I was 8. I think only my sister Jill had to wait that long too. I decided it wasn't that big of a deal if she got them now. I was kind of surprised 'cause she had been saying she was going to wait until she was 8 or older. So we went down there and took the camera and everything and wouldn't you know that it recorded all the way up until right before they shot the earrings through her ear. Fortunately, or not, the girl was totally incompetent and we had to go back the next day to get one of them re-pierced because it was way too close to her head. I was surprised that Caroline agreed to do it. She looked at it and said in the most serious tone, " you're right Mom. We better do it again." It would have bugged me forever if we didn't. So..... this time we got the video. :)

We had the house under contract and it fell through. Quite discouraging. It wasn't totally unexpected, but still a disappointment. We went down to Sandy for Brian's last weekend here and my family helped to watch the kids so we could go to  a BYU football game and then have an all day date the next day. It was wonderful! The BYU game was so fun. I haven't been to one since we left there like 10 years ago. We met up with Jill and Paul and that was fun too.

So for our date, it was a surprise. We woke up and got breakfast at IHOP. Yummy! After, we headed over to the Jordan River Temple to do some initiatories. It's been a while since we've gone together. I think the last time was about a few months ago and I went alone. I was to our temple, through initiatories and back in my front door in 45 minutes. Amazing! Anyway, after the temple we had to run an errand for the car, then we tried to find some clothes for Brian. No success that try, so we headed up the mountain for a hike. For some reason I thought I liked hiking and just didn't do it because of the kids. However, I think I've realized I just don't like hiking. Even though I've been exercising for like 10 months, my lungs just don't handle it well. It was good we did it though. It compensated for eating out every meal!

 

After our hike we did site checking for a photo shoot I had the next day and then went to Pei Wei for lunch. We had a successful shopping trip afterwards for a pair of jeans for Bri and then quickly headed off to an IMAX showing of Contagion. It was really awesome on that screen. Good movie. Kind of made me even more paranoid. I really want a gun now! For reals! After that I met up with my sisters and Mom for the womens conference. It was a great day. We don't get time like that alone. Date nights are expensive with babysitters and all, so this was nice a little more carefree. It was a long needed time together!

Brian left later that week so we went down to Sandy for conference weekend. We had to be there for what could be our last penny walk. The kids love it and it's tradition. Here's the crew before we started.

Once we reach "the corner", each family takes a turn telling about what happened since the last time we did it. It's usually every 6 months, but we missed last time, so it's been a year for everyone. A lot has happened in that year. New jobs, 4 new babies, marriage, movings. Quite amazing the changes in 1 year.

Here are a few pics of the happenings. The kids were all very focused on the digging up of past pennies. We got the 4 babies all lined up and a few other shots of everything going on.

WeeMama had promised the kids a treasure hunt and the days kept going by, so she had to do it at the cemetery. Kind of creepy. The kids loved it though. She was off doing her thing and then we heard her saying something about someone being pregnant. We all kind of paused to think about it and then we all turned and looked. She busted up laughing and thought she was pretty funny.  It was funny though. It was a good time. Afterwards we went to a park and had a great meal and cake. Good times!

And last but not least, our baby girl turned 1. Crazy! I finished her bday video and watching the newborn in there it made me tear up. I love newborns! I love my babies and I love my kiddos. It was a pretty laid back day. We went to Chick-fil-A for lunch and a few errands. The kids had friends over and then we ate dinner, had her open her 1 present, a book, and then did the cake and went to bed. The kids loved watching Charlotte get into her cake. It was fun to watch. She seemed to enjoy it too. Bri watched from Skype. We're lucky to have that technology! She's a sweet little thing and we love her!

Phew! That should do for now. I'm sure I'm missing something important, but I'm tired and need to go to bed!