A giveaway to tell you about!

I really don't want to post about this, because that means that I will have even more competition! But, because I'm telling you about this giveaway, I get extra entries :-)

So, over at this website

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they are having a giveaway for a fancy schmancy coffee maker! It's a Keurig! These things are awesome. I've been eyeing them for a little while, but simply can't justify the cost. I really hope I win! Head over and check it out!

Merry Christmas!

Wow, it sure goes quick, doesn't it? How does your family unwrap gifts? Usually, when we're with the whole family, cousins and all, it is a frenzy! You can't even snap a picture because you don't know where to point the camera! Wrapping paper is just flying and once the paper and bows settle to the ground, there are the kids with their respective gifts beside them. But this year, I was thankful that my in-laws decided to slow the process down a bit. And the kids did good! They actually enjoyed watching each other open their gifts. I actually got some pictures!

This actually on Christmas Eve, all dressed up for church

Christmas morning, all the cousins together

Emily, with her favorite person, her Nan!
Nan & Papa with all 5 of their grandchildren

The boys eagerly look as Casey opens the first gift
Since we had to be @ Nan & Papa's by 9am for breakfast and the boys didn't get up until 8am, we opened up the rest of our gifts that afternoon after we got home

Casey was soooo excited to get "Lego Mack"

Ryan was soooo excited to get this! He & Tripp spent the rest of the day and the next day putting all the parts together.

We got Emily a baby doll and she really liked it!

Of course, she had to have a stroller for her baby doll too! After 5 Christmases of shopping for "boy toys", it's so fun to shop for a little girl!

At the end of the day, we all curled up on the couch with popcorn and watched a Mickey Mouse Christmas movie.

We had such a great Christmas, the best part, as cheesey as it sounds, was being together as a family. We were just together and it was so wonderful. There was no agenda for the day. It was relaxing and I loved it. I thank God for my family. He has blessed us beyond comprehension. Thank you Lord, for coming to earth to be our Savior. We love you.

A Milestone Was Achieved Today!

It's one of those of those milestones that you look forward to and Ryan has finally achieved it!

Tah-dah! I know, he's 5 1/2, but I learned to ride my bike late also. But he is very excited and proud of himself. We live in this great cul-de-sac, perfect and safe for riding bikes. We just got a bike for Casey from one of Tripp's chiefs! We just need to find training wheels for it. They are going to have so much fun riding bikes together. I love that it is the end of December and my kids can play outside like this - without jackets, even! I am envious of my friends in Washington, though who may get to enjoy a white Christmas this year.

A Gingerbread House and a Crabby Girl

Trader Joe's had their gingerbread house kits on sale for $4.99. I thought the boys would enjoy decorating it. My plan was to do this with them while Emily was napping because, being the experienced mom that I am :-), I knew things wouldn't go well if we tried to do this while she was awake. But at nap time, Casey spiked a fever and didn't feel like doing anything but lay on the couch. So the boys had a "rest time" while Emily napped. Once the Motrin kicked in and Casey began to feel better we got to work. Unfortunately, Emily awoke shortly thereafter. But we continued. Emily is going through a clingy stage right now. She cries if she does not get my undivided attention when she wants it. It's lovely. Her cries are ear piercing. The boys were having so much fun decorating the house and I tried to hold Emily on my lap while helping them, but as you can imagine, she grabbed at everything and I had to set her down. And oh my did she get mad. I walked her to her room and told her stay there until she was done crying (yah, I know she's only 1 1/2, but I figured I'd try it anyway). And it actually worked! She stayed in her room! She screamed bloody murder the whole time, but she stayed in her room! So why the boys were doing this:

Emily was doing this:

Here is the boys' finished work:

Today, my girl is much less crabby. Of course, she's had my undivided attention most of the morning. Once again, as I sit typing this post, she is content in my lap with her thumb and her blankie. I guess I should just enjoy it while it lasts. I know that there will soon come a time when she will be rolling her eyes at me and telling me to quit hugging and kissing her all the time! I took these of her this morning:

How can I resist this sweet face?

I think I'll move to Australia

Have you ever read the book "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day"? My boys like to have it read to them and I remember it as a child. Throughout the story, Alexander states, "I think I'll move to Australia". That was my thought for a portion of my day today. It's been raining here for the past 2 days and I love it. I welcome it. But it just seems to throw people off, me included. I got up and showered bright and early this morning. I was dressed and ready for the day by 7:15. I was hoping to spend some time with my Bible, but Emily was ready to be out of bed. When I heard her at 6:30am, I was hoping she'd go back to sleep, but no such luck. So my daughter and I snuggled on the sofa for a while. Then I made chocolate chip pumpkin muffins (mmmm!!) but burned the middle section of my index finger knuckle. Ryan finally rolled out of bed at 8:15. Casey didn't get up until 9:15! (I'm telling you, next school year is going to suck when I have to have Ryan at school by 8am!). So with everyone up and fed, I decided to try to squeeze in a trip to Target before Ryan had to be at school by noon. I began at 10am. I didn't get out of the driveway until 11:15. What the heck? I somehow got caught up in the time vortex, that a friend of mine has spoken of. That black hole where time just disappears with no explanation. It's very mysterious and very common in the homes of families with little kids... I go to put Emily in her car seat and realize it's not in there. I hate strapping her car seat in! It's so hard to get that stupid 'H' clip on. I worked on that thing for 5 minutes but just couldn't get it on with my gimp finger. I was near tears of frustration when just then, our friendly mailman drove by. I caught him at our mailbox and asked for his help. What a nice man. I'm going to put together a little goodie basket for him for Christmas! Anyway, as I was backing out of the driveway, Ryan tells me that the garage door didn't close. So I pull back in the driveway and try again. It starts to go down and almost closes but then at the last second it goes back up. I got out (in the rain) and made sure nothing was blocking the sensors. I got back in the car and tried again. Same thing happened again. So I got out and stood in the garage and pushed the button it closed all the way this time. Okay, back to the van I go, but not before I catch the crown of my head on the bottom the garage door. Oww. I get in the van and push the button, start back down the driveway - but wait - AHH!! It still won't close!! What in the world is going on? So I get out AGAIN and close it from inside the garage then go out the side door to the van. Whatever. I don't know what that is about. Tripp said the same thing happened to him this morning when he went to work. So like I said, it's now 11:15 and I probably don't have time to stop in at Target but I head in that direction anyway (I have serious time management issues). But I come to my senses and realize that I'm not going to have time to get all the kids in and out of Target in 30 minutes. I'm thankful for this. From this point on, my day has been okay. It was just a brief moment today that I wanted to move to Australia. I feel ya, Alexader, I feel ya!

Ahh! Christmas is almost here?!

This morning the kids put up another ornament on our advent calendar and it was then that I realized there were just 2 weeks until Christmas. Crap! I know, I shouldn't say "crap" in the same sentence as "Christmas", that's why I put a period and made the "crap" it's own sentence.
Anyway, the anxiety I feel as Christmas looms ever closer is that I still have sooo much to get done before we celebrate the birthday of our Dear Lord. We just got our tree up yesterday and my WONDERFUL mother-in-law decorated it for me while she babysat the kids. Tripp and I went to a Christmas party. Doesn't it look so pretty?I didn't put up a tree last year because we were living with my in-laws. So the last time we had a tree we were still living in Vancouver. I love all the ornaments on our tree. A lot of them are from when I was growing up. My mom gave me a huge box of our family ornaments several years ago. There's also ornaments we've added since beginning our family 8 1/2 years ago. I just love to look at it. It makes me happy.

A couple of years ago, my dad and stepmom gave us a train to put around our tree. This is something Tripp wanted so bad when he was a little boy. It was so sweet to watch him and Casey put it together and then watch it go around the tree.

I still have some decorations to put up around the house. They are currently piled on my dining room table.I have a pile of our family Christmas pictures that I need to send off, first I need to write our Christmas letter to stick in with the picture. And, I should've ordered more pictures. I only got 30 and after going through my address book I realized it wasn't enough. Dang it.

Something else I still need to do is finish the calendar I make every year as Christmas presents. I fear that it's already too late to have them here by Christmas. I'm hoping that since I'm doing it through Costco, I can just pick it up, rather than wait on having it shipped.

My list of things to do goes on, but they aren't related to Christmas, so I'll spare you. I feel overwhelmed thinking about it. Thank goodness for blog-venting! But really, I should stop blogging and get some things done! It's just kinda hard with a clingy 17 month old who is currently sitting in my lap as I type this. I have to hit backspace every so often because she slaps the keyboard!

Is anyone else feeling the pressure like me?

Happy Birthday, Tripp

Today is my handsome husband's 34th birthday. He is the most selfless man I've ever known. We are in Washington, where we used to live. We came as a family with Tripp. He came to continue working on remodeling the basement of some friends he used to work with here. Today is his birthday and he is working, not at his regular job as a firefighter, but to finish a side job. He is a great provider.

For me, my birthday is all about me and there's no way I would have planned to be doing a side job on my birthday! I celebrate my birthday all month long :-). But not my husband. He is very selfless.

He's had a pretty crumby day today. Things aren't going well at his friends' house. Some pipes in their ceiling are leaking and instead of finishing up the basement, he has had to spend 5 plus hours fixing the leaks so the people could have running water in their house tonight. Another crumby thing about today being Tripp's birthday is that it is also the one year anniversary that his best friend, Cory's dad went to heaven to be with Jesus. How do you celebrate your birthday when your best friend is grieving the loss of his dad? You don't. To Tripp, it's just another day. He could not care less that today is his birthday. He is more concerned with how his friend is doing and how he can comfort him today.

My husband is amazing. He teaches me how to be a more selfless person just by his actions. I love him. I thank God that in His infinite wisdom, crossed our paths in Northern Arizona almost 12 years ago.

Happy Birthday, my sweet husband. I love you more than you know.