Happy Birthday Katy!

Katy had a birthday while we were at Disneyland. We celebrated the next day so Grandpa could be with us (he had to stay home to work). My little girl turned eight! It still feels like last year when I brought her home on Christmas Eve. My little Christmas present. (this is the part that gets sappy so stop reading if you don't want to hear it) Katy loves to help out around the house and help care for her younger siblings. She can be a bit bossy, but that happens to even the best of us "oldest" children. She loves to read and learn. She can read a chapter book in hardly anytime, but also enjoys non-fiction books. She is learning to play the piano. Her true loves are soccer and swimming. Katy is very excited to be baptized. She is also looking forward to Activity Days. Katy truely is a joy to have in our family. I love you sweetie! HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATHRYN ROSE!

There are a ton of pictures from Disney. I'll get around to posting those, but I'm going to finish the rest of the trip first.

Trains and Plates

We learned how to make candy trains from Grandma this year. The kids loved making them! We found out they don't travel very well. Oh well! (Weston- I promise to help you make one sometime).

Jared didn't have stockings growing up. One of his family traditions is to decorate plates Christmas Eve. After everyone is done, a tablecloth is placed over the empty plates. Santa fills the plates with goodies and small presents under the tablecloth. We didn't do this when the kids where younger. People have laughed at my stick people before, I'm not exactly oozing with hidden artistic talent. Face it, no one wanted to see me try to decorate multiple plates. Now that the kids can mostly decorate their own it was a lot more fun this year. (I did need to make Jacob's, but I learned a new trick from watching the pros- cookie cutters!) P.S. don't let my plate fool you. It was a fluke!

We made the trains before Disney and decorated the plates Christmas Eve, but it was easier to combine them into one post.

The Jacobs

This is Jacob and his little cousin Jacob. "Baby Jacob", as the girls call their cousin, is 6 months younger than my Jacob. Notice they look the same size. Yep, my Jacob is just as little as his sisters always were. Funny, since he started so big.

Jacob loved Grandpa and didn't take long to warm up to him.

Cougar Spirit

The kids got BYU shirts for Christmas. We wore our blue for the bowl game. Jared ended up being glad he hadn't spend $50 on a ticket to freeze when they lost. I know it was still hard for him though, since we haven't been in the same town as a BYU game in 8 years. Click on the picture to see a bigger version and check out Katy and Bella's shirts. They're my favorite!

On the 18th of December...

the weather gave to me:

12+ hours of travel
11 carry-on items (including stroller) to get through security
10 trips to the bathroom
9 laps around airport to tire out the toddler
8 people awaiting our arrival
7 hours waiting for plane to arrive
6 pairs of shoes and coats to remove and put back on
5 hours on the plane
4 sleepy children
3 checked luggage items
2 exhausted parents
1 eventful flight to Las Vegas for Christmas


Waiting for our plane to come...




who would've thought there'd be snow and ice in Vegas??????? (the snow was actually mostly gone before we got there. Our plane was late due to ice on the wings. These pictures are courtesy of my sister-in-law Amanda)

An early Christmas Eve

I love Christmas Eve! It might actually be my most favorite day of the year. I love all the anticipation and excitement that reaches its climax the day before Christmas. I love all the last minute preparations as people hustle about, listening to carols, and making sure that everything is "perfect". As fun and exciting as all that is, its not why I love Christmas Eve. I love the traditions of my family associated with that night. My great-grandparents were born in the Ukraine, and although they died even before my Dad was born, we have always continued their traditional Ukranian dinner. Before the table it set, hay is laid on the table to symbolize the manager. Then a white tablecloth (white = pure) is placed over the hay (being as I only have one white tablecloth and its techincally cream,and my children are still young, I substituted with a Christmas tablecloth this year). The dinner is eaten by candlelight and everyone must speak in soft hushed tones. This part proves a little difficult with young children, but hopefully they'll eventually catch on. There are supposed to be twelve courses (for the 12 apostles), but we've simplified the meal with time. The first course is split pea soup which everyone must eat, then we move on to Pierogies, Halupki, Fish, Greenbeans, Bread, and Christmas punch. We finish with nut and poppyseed rolls.

I don't believe I ever missed this meal in the previous 29 years of my life. Even when I was living is Rexburg and I had Katy on the 23rd of December. I still had the meal. Its funny the crazy things we do when we have our first children. Katy was born at 5:30 pm on the 23rd. I was released from the hospital 24 hrs later, and came home and prepared the meal with the help of my sister-in-law, Rachael. Jared and his mom had gone to fill my pain med prescriptions which I can say I REALLY needed after being so dumb!! I had prepared some of the food in advance but still I can't believe I did that. Now I would kick and scream if they tried to release me a minute earlier than the maximum time my insurance will cover. And even if they succeeded in dragging me home, I would not be preparing a meal for anyone, especially nothing more than Peanutbutter and jelly sandwich. After all her hard work, I don't think Rachael tried anything but the punch. As I side note, being a new mom, I didn't stop to consider the side effects of eating cabbage when nursing a day old baby. I can still see Jared's face incredulous with disbelief out of the sounds leaving his newborn daughter's body that night. I really won the smartest mom of the year award that year. Back to the main point, we are going to spend Christmas Eve with Jared's family this year. I am very excited that we are finally going, its loooong overdue. But, part of me was sad to be missing this special meal. So, we had Christmas Eve early. Sunday after church, while Jared was hometeaching, the girls helped me prepare the meal and table. After the meal, we continued with more family traditions. We read the nativity story out of the scriptures and acted out the parts. This also proves difficult with a shortage of males in the family, especially since Jacob isn't in to cooperating with acting yet. We had a female shepard, and Katy played the role of Joseph.

our little angel

Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus


After we had finished with the story of Christ's birth, we opened some presents. Growing up, we exchanged presents with our siblings on Christmas Eve. The kids exchanged presents with each other and opened gifts from my Aunt. I have always loved the idea of dressing up either for Christmas Eve meal or Christmas day meal, but the idea never caught on with my family. Since we had our little celebration after church, we were already dressed up and it made the whole experience seem even more special. Fun times!

Presents from Aunt Faye:

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We have still not had snow... I mean a real snowfall. We've had a light dusting a time or two. You know the kind where you have to really look at the ground to be sure it there is snow or the kind that resembles powdered sugar sprinkled on brownies? Even without a snow fall the kids had a "snow day" today. We had an ice storm blow through last night with winds so strong I dreamt I was in a tornado (no joke, I really dreamt that). As the wind blew through it took with it our beautiful 50 degree weather. Apparently, the roads were too icy for school buses and a lovely flashing message on my phone this morning informed me that my kids could stay asleep. It really turned out to be a pleasant day. We laid around in the morning before finally getting dressed. Then we ventured out on the icy roads to play with and eat lunch with friends in their new house. When we got home Jacob slept while the girls watched Rudolph and I read a book. I even managed to squeeze in a few loads of laundry.

His ears look wonderful....

After waiting in the exam room for over ONE HOUR to be seen, that phrase was not something I was happy to hear. You mean I sat here in this 4x4 room, trapped with 2 children under 4 for over an hour for nothing!!! I have read every book in this room twice to each child. I have listened to Bella's rendition of "You are the music in me" for the last 40 minutes. Although it is normally quite darling, I'm ready to cut my ears off if I ever hear that song again. Meanwhile, the bus has already dropped off my other two children to an empty house (good thing I had called the neighbor, or there would have been major trauma there). No, look again. That can't be right. He keeps pulling at his ear, and he screamed all night. I know something is wrong. Find something, find anything to make the last hour and a half worth it. I'm not leaving here without a better diagnosis and drugs. GIVE ME DRUGS to help him sleep tonight. At this point the doctor interrupts my silent ranting "Uh-oh, I'm going to have to do a strep culture, his throat is really red and his glands are swollen" (Open mouth insert foot). Please no! I changed my mind. I'm good with the "his ears look wonderful" diagnosis. Please don't let him have strep. I just want to go home! Let me out of here. Well, at least we got some drugs. I got a date with my pillow and blankets tonight. Sleep will not evade me again!

Little acts of Kindness

As I was running errands today, two random people went out of their way to offer small acts of kindness. As a mother who hurt her back at the beggining of the week, was carrying a sleeping toddler (aka dead weight) and was running on a less than ideal night of sleep (due to an ear-ache in the above mentioned dead weight) the acts of kindness were greatly appreciated. As I got back in my car, I felt more energetic and more "Christmasy". In risk of sounding trite and cheesy, I just want to remind us all that this is really what Christmas is about. The little acts - no matter how small-that brighten the hour, day, or season for another.

My little Linus....

The blanket goes everywhere he does. Dragging along behind him. Notice he even has a dirty face!

Budding chefs

We love...

CHRISTMAS PAJAMAS!!

(I couldn't decide which pic I liked best. The top is better of Jacob w/o the pacifier, but I love Bella's smile in the bottom!)

Ice skating to school

Monday when we woke up, the driveway and road were completely iced over. It had rained during the night followed by a dip below 32 on the thermometer. The kids had a blast! The parents were all on the verge of an anxiety attack. Visions of emergency rooms flashed through our heads as our children slid and skated down the street. By 9:30 when I left for the store, the ice was all gone and it was actually almost balmy outside.

A little girl with a big heart

As I was tucking Bella into bed the other night I asked her what she had asked Santa for. She said she was too afraid to tell him anything when she sat on his lap, but she knew what she would ask for if she got another chance. I asked her what. This was her reply: "I would ask Santa for a Dora toothbrush. Then I would ask him to bring Jacob a Diego toy like the Dora toy Mima got me. I think he would really like that. I don't know if Xandy would still like a Dora toy, she might. I would also ask him to bring Katy and Xandy a picture of Jesus holding them like I have a picture of him holding me. They would REALLY like a picture of Jesus holding them. (she has a picture of Jesus holding a young child hanging on her wall. She thinks the child is herself) I would ask Santa to bring you and Daddy something big. I asked "but what do you want?" She looked at me like I was completely stupid before adding "I already told you, a Dora toothbrush!" I kissed her and left the room but couldn't help thinking, " Really? You have a huge list for your family, but you are asking for a $2 toothbrush?" If only all people could be so giving and selfless. At that moment she had captured the true spirit of Christmas.

Ward Christmas Party

In early November, I received a call asking me to be in charge of decorations for the ward Christmas party. (Okay, you can stop rolling with laughter on the floor now!) I quickly called my creative friend Rochelle, and tried to pull ideas from my years of watching Debbie, Robin and Gail decorate the church gym. We wanted simple but elegant without spending lots of money. I think it turned out pretty nice. I especially liked the tree. Even when the candy canes with needs were added to make it a "giving tree", I still liked the way it turned out. The centerpieces were gifts tied with sheer ribbon with ornaments and candy sprinkled around the gifts.

Santa came to the ward party. Some of my children were more excited to see him than others!

After the party we put all the gifts under the tree.

To close the evening the Primary put on the Nativity story. Katy and Xandy were both angels. It was beautiful, but then again most things are when the primary children are involved.

Camp Rock

So I'm not familiar with camp rock other than I know it is a hit movie from the Disney Channel. Katy took a seven week dance class at the YMCA. It advertised being the type of dance from HSM (High School Musical- for those of you with out young kids) which of course intrigued Katy. They learned a routine for I song I was told was from the movie Camp Rock. Katy picked out her own outfit to wear. I actually missed the performance since it was during the progressive dinner, but Jared went and took video. It was cute for having been learned in such a short time (especially since most of the girls missed at least one class- Katy missed two).

Holiday Dinner

We had a Progressive Dinner for our Relief Society Holiday Dinner. We all met for appetizers at one house, split up over 4 houses for dinner, and rejoined for dessert and another house. I hosted one of the dinner groups. Since my dining room was big enough to fit 2 tables I was prepared to handle everyone that couldn't fit at the other 3 houses. I ended up only have 6 people since a lot of people who RSVPed didn't show, but it was still lots of fun. I posted pictures so mom could see my table decorations I tried to describe.

5 in under 25

I ran a 5k in less than 25 minutes the other day. In High school I would have probably cried with a time like that, but 4 kids and more than a decade later I almost cried with joy! It felt great. Hopefully I can keep it up.

First Haircut

Jacob recieved his first haircut over Thanksgiving. The back of his hair was out of control, but the "before" pictures don't really do it justice. I could almost pull it into a ponytail or create quite a mohawk. Now it looks much better but makes him look even older :(

Before

After

Mistaken identity

Jared paused the new before leaving for work last Monday so I could hear the segment on Twilight and how it fared at the box office. I rewound back into the previous segment so I could watch from the beginning. The previous segment just happened to be Michael Jackson singing live. Katy, who knew I was watching something about Twilight, turned to her sisters and said "Sshh! That weird looking guy singing is mommy's vampire and she wants to hear this".

Uh, Not quite Katy, but I can see where you might think he's not a normal human being!

A Christmas Thanksgiving

We had Christmas with my family over Thanksgiving. My brother and I were both home for Thanksgiving but will not be there on Christmas. And, since we are both flying west to spend Christmas with our in-laws and were not excited to pay for luggage to take the presents with us, we had our own Christmas celebration. Mom even put up a little artificial Christmas tree since she hadn't gotten the live tree yet. It was lots of fun and will help spread the special season out even longer. Here is some of the loot the kids took home.

A new pair of Cleveland Indian PJs

Lego Dora Treehouse

Porcelain tea set in picnic basket

High school musical dance mat

First snow

We were hoping to return from Cleveland to the semi-warm weather we left behind. No such luck, we awoke this morning to this sight...

The kids had fun at the bus stop though. That is until Jacob starting crying because his hands were cold. Good thing I found his other glove today. The "extra" in the picture is our neighbor Baylea who spends the morning and afternoons with us.

Twilight

So after dragging my feet for so long before actually reading the books, the same can not be said about me and the movie. I went to see the movie the day it came out. No, I did not go to a midnight showing. I value my sleep to much for that! But I do believe it is the first time I've ever seen a movie on opening day. Not only did I see it opening day, but I also saw it twice already. I can only count a handful of times I've ever seen a movie twice in the theaters.
It was better than I expected it to be. I went in with poor expectations after seeing the trailers, but it wasn't bad, AND it got better the second time. The first night the theater was packed and we were in the second row (YUCK!!). It was hard to hear and enjoy with all the silly teenagers "oo"ing and "ah"ing and giggling every time Edward or Jacob came on screen. The second time I went on Thanksgiving Day and the theater was mostly empty which made for an enjoyable experience with Mom and Natalie. We were jealous that another family with 3 women got their male counterparts to go. No such luck here, but then again someone had to stay at home with the kids. I don't really see the draw for the actor playing Jasper. I guess he's just not my type, now Emmett on the other hand..........!!!
Here's a picture of some of the girls from the ward that went the first night. The other half had to sit on the other side of the theater since it was so packed.

I'm so glad when Daddy comes home...

Earlier in November, Jared went to a conference in Baltimore. The kids were estatic to see him when he arrived home just before bedtime. Jacob was very possessive after not having Dad around for several days. It was cute to see their reactions.