It's Beginning to "Feel" a lot Like Christmas!

We have started our Christmas celebrations. I love that Christmas parties and activities go through all of December. It is so much fun. It started on Friday with our ward Christmas party. This year they did a family Christmas party, which I prefer, to a couple one. Christmas is all about the kids. Our theme was the Polar Express. We got to wear our jammies and we had breakfast for dinner. My kids loved it! Everyone got a ticket for hot chocolate and when the conductor brought the hot chocolate around he punched the ticket. It was yummy. Each child got to make a candy train, which my kids made and then promptly ate it right away! We had a short program that was very nice and then it was time to go. It was such fun, I loved it!




On Sunday we took the kids to see the Festival of Nativities. We go every year. There is a kids room where they can play with a big nativity, puzzles, little people nativity, and lots of other fun activities. While the kids do that we get to go look at all the beautiful nativities from around the world. It is a lot of fun. The kids also got to make their own baby Jesus in a manger.




We are excited for all of our other fun activities. I love Christmas time!

Family pictures

On Saturday, November 22nd we had our family pictures taken. My friend Lindsi was so nice to take them for us. She is very talented and she did a great job! Pete and I are so pleased with how they turned out. The kids were horrid while she was taking the pictures, so I was expecting the worst, but they turned out great! Thanks so much Lindsi! They are darling!



This picture makes me laugh!- They were just done!



This is my favorite! Pete says- we look HOT and I must agree!

A quick update

Shaylee is doing much better today. She is tired, but all the cankers seem to be gone or at least much less noticeable. She is eating and so she is much happier. As a result her mommy is much happier, too. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and well wishes for Shay. Thanks to my sweet Pete who was so helpful and supportive!

Update on my lovely week!

So to continue my complaining... Shaylee was very whiney yesterday and she kept saying "mommy my tongue hurts!" We have issues with cankers in our family, so looking at it I just saw a little canker on her tongue. They hurt and so I gave her sympathy, but really how much whining can a person take?

Last night she was still awake at midnight, so I asked her to stick out her tongue again and her poor little tongue was covered in canker sores! OW! I took her to the doctor this morning and she has a viral infection in her mouth. She has had a cold and so it is just the ending of her cold. She has been miserable! I know she doesn't feel great, but wow, can she scream! She has screamed ALL DAY!

Luckily, Pete told me he could get off early, so I was able to go to activity days. Thank Heavens because if I didn't get away from Shaylee I might seriously have gone insane! When I got home, Pete was like "I can see why you were about to go crazy! I only had her a couple hours and she was driving me crazy." I know we should be more sympathetic, but really try listening to a three year old scream for hours on end and the sympathy feelings just go away after awhile!

We are hoping for her sake and ours that she is feeling a little better in the morning. I also feel bad that she can't eat much of anything. She's had icecream and otter pops all day. Poor little thing! She tried to eat a granola bar and that sent her into an on the floor screaming, kicking tantrum for about twenty minutes solid. I finally just picked her up and cuddled her. It didn't stop the screaming, but at least I felt like I was doing something.

Hopefully my week goes better, so you all don't have to listen to me complain anymore!

POP goes the pop can!

I must complain! Please forgive me! Yesterday was the day from ?*#@! It was Sunday I know, but it sucked! (Sorry mom!) When I woke up, I went to get Jaron his morning sippy of milk. I opened the fridge door and see red liquid EVERYWHERE! On the top, down the sides all over other contents of the fridge, behind the crisper drawer, even inside the light fixture! A pop can of Diet chocolate cherry Dr. Pepper exploded! (BTW-That soda is disgusting! I love Dr. Pepper, but that one is gross!) AAAAAHHHHHHH! I wanted to scream! I didn't. I calmly had Brandon get Pete and together we cleaned up the mess. Luckily, it was a fifth Sunday and so no morning meetings, otherwise I would have been doing it myself. YUCK! (One good thing is that my fridge is now cleaned)

Later that day I was getting Shaylee dressed for church and as I am putting on her dress I noticed that her dresser and table are COVERED in stamps! Keep in mind that her dresser and table are WHITE! Again I wanted to AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH! This time I not so calmly tell Shay exactly what I think of her art work and proceed to clean it all off. When Pete asked her why she did it, she says, "Because mommy wouldn't help me clean my room!" What?! Did I make the mess? I don't think so! Ya little Stink!

After that I got to go to three hours of church with these darling children. Left Jaron screaming in nursery after sitting in there for twenty minutes. Surely everything will get better. Right? Not much else can go wrong.

Knock on wood. Jaron wakes up crying at 9:00. He's cold. So I get him all toasty and back to bed and then at 11:30 Brandon threw up. Yea! The cherry on top! I went to bed at 2 am and now I have a splitting head ache!

Complain, complain, complain sometimes you just gotta unload!

We have much to be grateful for on this Thanksgiving Day!

Thanksgiving Day is the one day of the year we take out of our lives to give thanks for all we have been given. So I will take a moment to let everyone know what I am thankful for.

I am thankful for my family- my husband who loves me despite my flaws, my beautiful children who give me such joy.

I love this picture!

I am thankful for my mom and dad and my sisters and brother.

I am thankful for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints.

I am thankful for my country, the United States of America.

I am thankful for Pete's job and all of his hard work to provide for our family.

I am thankful for my beautiful home.

I am thankful for my friends and the great support system that I have.

I have much to be thankful for, my list could go on and on.

I am also very thankful to have a sister who lives close enough to us that we can celebrate Thanksgiving together.

This year it was Gina's turn to host Thanksgiving. We got to Gina's for dinner right at 1:00. We were hoping to get there by 12:30, but it took us a half an hour to get the kids out the door and everything loaded into the van! I guess that's what happens when you have four small kids.

We had a yummy Thanksgiving dinner. I love turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, and green bean casserole.


We had a great time visiting and eating! After dinner the kids played while Gina and I visited.
This is Pete's favorite past time!

The guys took a little nap while they "watched" football. A couple of hours after we had dinner we dug into the pie. Gina made two pumpkin pies and I made a blueberry and brought a chocolate one. Jaron got his own slice of chocolate and devoured it! After it was gone, he licked the plated and then started eating the plate! He is so silly!





I always make a blueberry pie for my Pete because it is his favorite! It is his granny's recipe who was a blueberry farmer. From what everyone says it is excellent, but as most of you know, I hate cooked fruit, so I have never actually tasted it.

It was a very fun and yummy Thanksgiving. Thanks, Gina!

SALE AT SHAYLEESCORNER!

I've decided to have a Thanksgiving sale at Shayleescorner. Come look at my boutique bows!