Friday, December 26, 2008

Christmas at Mimi and Hobby's!

After a short moment of rest at home, we headed over to Mimi and Hobby's for Christmas with them plus Gigi and The Woods Gang. I plopped into a chair for the day and enjoyed simply watching the hussle and bustle around me. The boys all received RC Cars from Mimi and Hobby, DS Games from their prospective Aunt & Uncle, and my three kiddos were given Guitar Hero World Tour Band from Gigi. The girls received gift cards to go shopping and a cool hoodie from Mimi and Hobby, blankets from us, and a Game for Brooklyn from the Woods.It was our first Christmas with Miss Adiah, and we enjoyed watching the delight on her face as she opened each gift! This is a progression of her opening our gift, a collection of Clifford toys, a cross for her room, and a luxorious Swankie Blankie! What a blessing!

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Christmas at Nana and Grandpa's

Merry Christmas!
We flew in from our wonderful trip to Utah and drove straight to Nana and Grandpa's on Christmas Eve. We settled in for the night, opting to skip our traditional service at their church since I wasn't moving too well. Christmas morning was amazing. Santa had made stocking cones out of some wrapping paper we had laying around since I forgot to bring the kids stockings with us, he is quite ingenious you know! The kids got gaming chairs and new games for their DS's. Brooklyn received a magic Santa coin, redeemable for one mattress of her choosing at any store in town. I guess it would have probably taken up too much space in the sleigh, so the coin works much better! They also received Heeley's from Nana and Grandpa and fun games, toys, and books from their Aunt Becky & Uncle Kevin, and Uncle David. It was also our first chance to give presents to our soon to arrive baby nephew. Even though he's a Graham, he's got good Roots, so we outfitted him with Roots clothing, and a shirt and stocking set that I had embroidered to read, MY ROOTS ROCK! Becky is that perfect cute stage of pregnancy. Still comfortable, and oh so adorable! She's having a great pregnancy and we're all thankful for that. Can't wait for his arrival in April!!!
We had a great day playing their new games, Brooklyn especially loved Rumikub! It was a wonderful, Vicadin induced pain free day!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Wordless Wednesday

A Financial Snapshot

Ok, I can't do it. . . three words:

PRAISE THE LORD!

Monday, December 8, 2008

Home for The Holidays

October through December is such a busy time for us, we had all agreed that we wouldn't put up Christmas Decorations in the house because mom was gone at my shows so much, we have a new destructive kitty in the house, and we were going to be gone to Utah, and then at Grandparent's houses the majority of the time anyway, so it was decided it wasn't worth the trouble. But, you know, it just doesn't feel like Christmas when things don't "change" around the house, and I was feeling guilty about robbing the kids of a little bit of that holiday magic. So one day, I found myself with 2 hours where I didn't absolutely have something that had to be done immediately, (A RARE Thing this time of year) and so I decided to pull down just the essentials and decorate. Since I couldn't put out anything breakable thanks to Miss Meow Meow Julia, I decided to only go fun and funky. If it wasn't Lime Green, Black, Red and sparkly it didn't come down out of the attic! When the kids walked in from school, they were thrilled to death! Nathan goes, "WoW! It's MAGIC!" Score one for mommy, Mission accomplished!
The exception to the Lime and Sparkly rule was of course the kids areas, which I'll let Brooklyn blog about on her site. It didn't take long, as you can see from the pic of the tree, for Julia to be intrigued. Despite the water bottle spraying her down, my attempts at using tin foil as a deterrent, and all other extreme measures, she still managed to scale the tree daily and methodically remove each ribbon, and then each ornament from the tree over the next couple of weeks. She would grasp a Christmas Ball with both front paws and fling it backwards over her head until it would fly across the room. She would then leap out of the boughs and chase it across the room until I could catch up to her and retrieve it! Little Stinker! That's ok, I got her back. When we left for Utah we boarded her at the Vet and removed those claws and her girl parts too! No more tree climbing or couch shredding in her future! Score Two for Mommy!