Christmas Day 2013!

So Christmas Day came! My kids were so excited, but they still slept really good. Abbi woke up first at 6:45am. Everyone else slept in till just after 7:00am. Which I was fine with! The kids were super excited. Richard and I were getting up and trying to wake up. He sent the kids out to look at their stockings. We came out while they were going through their stockings. So fun to watch. They were all excited and loved everything they got in their stockings.

Abbi helping her dad open up his stocking.

DJ showing me his "moustache" pen! He thought it was funny!

Cute Cadence cuddling her new Care Bear! She loved it!

Then we started opening presents. We always have the kids open a present at a time. We give them each a present and then they open. They check each others presents out and we usually end up opening up the boxes. Then on to the next present. It was fun to see them super excited.

All the kids opening their presents from Santa.

DJ showing me how much he liked all his Ninja Turtle stuff. He got a sword too!

Brianna opening up her present from Mom and Dad.

Abbi loved her Lalaloopsy dolls from mom and dad.

Cadence LOVES her stuffed teddy bear. She takes it everywhere!

I was excited to watch Richard open his present from me. He was very surprised that he got an automatic skeet shooter. It was fun to see him surprised. It doesn't happen very often!

Richard opening up his gift from me. The girls were excited to see what it was too. It was super heavy!

I got all the attachments for my Kitchen Aide. I was surprised too. I am excited to use them. I love using my Kitchen Aide. It has been the best buy ever! Now I can use it even more!

I made the girls each a decorative pillow. I had sewn on buttons into their letters....A, B or C. They all loved them. I thought they turned out super cute. Richard made DJ a car racing ramp. He loved it too. I love doing home made gifts too.

DJ playing with his car ramp. Richard did an awesome job making it. Thanks hunny!

DJ went and got dressed up like Leonardo!

It was a fun morning. The only bad thing was I still wasn't feeling the best. I was so tired after all that. Richard made us some yummy breakfast. Then I went back to bed to rest for a little bit. Richard got a call by one of our neighbours. They had water everywhere and needed help. So he ran over to help them.

We went downstairs and tried out our new game, Infinity, on the WII. DJ was so excited to play it. The girls all took a turn playing it too. Then we sat down and watched one of the new movies we got for Christmas too! It was a relaxing morning!

DJ figuring out the Infinity game!

Then we got ready and headed to Cardston. My kids all got these crazy animal toques in their stockings. So I had them all put them on so I could get a picture of them. It was kind of funny. DJ decided that he was going to be grumpy and didn't want his picture taken. But I got one real quick and then he was so mad at me!!

My 3 cute girls!! Love the toques!

DJ with his pouty face!!

We went to Richard's parents first. We got to open some presents up there too. The kids were excited to open another present. We hung out there for a bit. Then we headed over to Grandma Spencer's house for dinner.


DJ got a log cabin kit. He was laughing at this crazy singing puppy!

Abbi was very happy with her scrap booking kit.

Cadence got a scrap booking kit too and she loves it!

Brianna with her kit. They were all different!

DJ building a house. He loves it! Has had so much fun with it!

Everyone watching a funny Elf thing on Facebook. Everyone thought it was so funny!

We had a yummy Christmas dinner. The kids had fun playing downstairs and just being crazy!! Ha ha! We had fun visiting and playing games. I brought my new game that my parents gave me, Ticket to Ride Europe. It was a fun game to play, even though I think we played by the wrong rules. Oh well! It was still fun! Then we loaded up the kids and headed for home. We got home before 7pm. So we let the kids play with their new things for a while. Then it was bed time. Everyone was super tired. We had a real good day.

Grandma Spencer handing out her gift to the kids. They all got $20. Thanks Grandma!

DJ came home and started building his cabins again. He loves it!

The girls got busy and started to scrapbook some pictures. So cute!

Richard was relaxing and watching some tv with his new blanket!!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!!













Then

Christmas Eve!

The past few days have been a little insane......to say the least! I mentioned that Brianna and Cadence were both sick on Friday. Well we just went down hill from there. Friday night, Abbi woke me up and she was saying her stomach really hurt. I got her a bucket and set up on the couch and 10 minutes later, she threw up. She did it again about 2 hrs later. So we all stayed home Saturday and I cleaned while the kids layed on the couches. I needed them to feel better. By that afternoon, everyone was perking up.

We were hosting a dinner for my parents 40th Anniversary at our house. I made arrangements with a really nice family in our ward, the Killians. I explained that the girls have been sick but were starting to feel better. She was fine with that and said they would have a movie night. So we got a new movie for them to take over. We took them over just before 6pm. My kids were super excited to go play at the Killian's.

Cadence was not feeling good on Friday. I finally told her she needed to take a nap. I layed down beside her and rubbed her arm and she was gone in minutes. She slept for a good 2hrs. What a sweetie!

My parents came over and were pleasantly surprised to see most of us here. We were missing Steve and Stacey, Cody and Emily, and Cam. My parents spent the night before with Shelley and Travis. Anyways, I didn't tell them anything, just to come to my house at 6pm. We had our dinner catered to us by Megan Orr. It was very yummy and filling. We just had a good time eating and chatting and laughing. We didn't have to worry about kids running around or going crazy. It was very relaxing. We just wanted to do something nice for my parents and I think they enjoyed it too. After dessert, I had everyone come into the living room and I had a slide show for everyone to watch. It was really fun! The evening was a success!

I went to get the kids at 8:15pm. My dad came over with me. We got there and found out DJ had thrown up EVERYWHERE. I felt so bad. But they cleaned him up and he was cuddled on a bed on the floor watching a movie, with a bowl beside him. We brought them home and I got him ready for bed. The poor kid was throwing up all night long. He even threw up in the morning. He was miserable. Richard woke up early Sunday morning throwing up too. So we all stayed home from church. DJ had a 3hr nap in the early afternoon. He was starting to feel much better by that evening. Poor kid. Richard slept all day and was feeling better by supper time too! Sheesh, what a weekend! Luckily, I haven't gotten sick and hopefully I won't.

By later Sunday afternoon the kids were so bored, so I pulled out the small gingerbread houses we had so they could decorate them. They all did their own!

So back to Christmas Eve! My kids are super excited and driving me a little nutty! I'm trying to keep them busy so I can get everything done that I need too. I made the girls' cakes today and I will wrap them and put them in the freezer. I will ice them on Boxing Day. I've finished wrapping gifts and I took the girls to the grocery store so they could pick out their Birthday cereal. They were excited about that. So I have things ready for their birthdays! Yeah!

I am waiting to go pick up parcels at the border. There is one more package that is coming in today. Probably later this afternoon. So I will probably leave here around 4pm and get all the packages. They are actually all of Richard's gifts. Hopefully they are all there! Talking about leaving things to the last minute!!

So we went to my parents house in the early evening. We got there and relaxed and helped get dinner ready. Megan didn't get home till 7pm. Then we all sat down to eat. This was her Birthday dinner. Poor Megan came home from work sick. So she sat with us as we ate. Then we sang Happy Birthday to her and my girls blew the candles out....that we she didn't spread her sick germs!! ha ha! Then she went to bed. I felt bad for her.

Us, singing Happy Birthday to Megan!

DJ, all of the sudden, decided that we were too loud! It was kind of funny!

My girls blowing out all of Megan's candles!

We cleaned up dinner and then got the gingerbread houses out to decorate. My kids were pretty excited. Each kid got a house and an adult helped them. It worked out perfect. They were crazy houses and things kept falling apart! I was having problems! Ha ha! But everyone had a blast and were happy with the results.

DJ loved helping his dad do their own house! Can you tell?!

Brianna and Grandpa worked good together and had fun!

Abbi and Jill made their house look super pretty!

Cadence and I did ours. It kind of fell apart half way through! But we fixed it!

By this time it was getting late. So we went into the Living room and I handed out the kids a present. They all opened their Christmas jammies. They all got slippers too and some new books. I always loved this part of Christmas. I was and am a book worm. I love to read. I hope my kids are the same! They were all super excited about their books. So that's good!

Cadence, Brianna and DJ getting ready to open their presents!

Abbi opening her present!

Abbi, DJ, Cadence and Brianna in their super cute jammies and showing us their books!

David and Jill look so cute together in their matching jammies!

Giving Grandpa a good-bye hug!

Saying good-bye to Grandma.

Then we got everything and headed home. When we got here, we sat in the living room together and Richard gave a quick spiritual thought about the real meaning of Christmas and we said family prayers together. Then the kids got Santa's plate of cookies ready with a glass of milk. Then they were all off to bed. I thought it'd take them forever to go to sleep, but they were all gone within 30 minutes! I'm so blessed with awesome sleepers! ha ha!

Putting the cookies and milk out for Santa!

Christmas is ready! I am off to bed!

Then the real fun began! By this time I wasn't feeling the hottest! But I had to run out to the trailer to wrap Richard's big present and then I lugged it into the house. It was HEAVY! Then we both went out and brought all the presents in and got the stockings all stuffed and everything ready to go. We were done that before 11:00pm. Then off to bed we went!

I love the Christmas season. It's fun to see the kids get super excited about things. We've had FHE lessons on the real meaning of Christmas and try to talk about it all the time. I really want them to understand why we celebrate and it's not just for presents. They always have fun helping me take treats and things to our neighbours and friends. I'm so thankful for my family and our Savior, Jesus Christ. It's through him that I can be with my family FOREVER and that makes me the happiest of all!

Blog to Book!!

I was very excited to go to the post office and get my 5th book that I've made! So exciting. It's my fifth blog to book. My kids love sitting down and looking through all my old blog posts. It's a perfect way to do my family journaling and get pictures into a book. So that's what I do. That is my whole reason for blogging in the first place.......for my family. I am obviously not doing for followers, since I have none!! Ha ha!

Lots of Christmas Fun!

It's been a bit crazy here and I am still struggling to catch up on the blog. I thought it would be fun to post pictures of all the Christmas things we have been up too. We have had a LOT of snow this year. It's a bit crazy how much snow we've had. The kids have loved it! They got to miss 2 days of school for snow days. That was a lot of fun. The first day we stayed in the house the next day we got out a few times and played in the snow. I pulled the kids behind the quad, up and down the road. I think I would of gotten stuck if I went off the road! They had fun though. We didn't last very long, because it was really cold out!

Abbi was stuck here. She jumped into the soft snow and her feet were way down there!

This kind of shows you how much snow we had. Look at the fence by DJ, they could walk right over it!

The girls and I went to church without Richard and DJ a couple of weeks ago. Richard was sick and DJ was being a pill, so he stayed home with his dad!! So the girls and I got a picture together by the Christmas tree before we went to church! Can't believe how big my girls are getting. Of course, DJ wanted his picture taken too! That afternoon it was a lazy day and we were all snuggled in DJ's room watching a movie. Fun times.

My cute girls in their Christmas dresses. No they are not matching. Abbi and Brianna's dresses were from Mikah and Shaylee. They all look super cute!

Me and my beautiful girls!

DJ in his Ninja Turtle jammies!

Watching a movie in DJ's room!

DJ found a Santa hat a while ago and loves to wear it all the time. He will be in bed and then be up looking for the Santa hat, because he wants to wear it too bed. He drives me crazy at bed time! He is always coming up with some excuse. Oh funny thing about DJ. I finally made a chart for him so if he goes through the night without getting up in the middle to eat, he gets a sticker. Yup, he's horrible for that. It's usually around 2am that he wakes up hungry. He's been doing really good. DJ has been saying some really funny things lately. He cracks me up. The other day, we went to the mall to see Santa. Oh that's a funny picture too! Anyways, as we are leaving the mall I kept hearing DJ singing. When I finally paid attention to what he was saying it cracked me up. He was singing, "I'm saxy and I know it!" So funny. He sang that all day long! Sheesh!

DJ, ready to go to bed in his Santa hat!

What a cute boy! He has a thing lately where he doesn't want to wear a bed to shirt! Whatever!!

DJ was getting ready to cry. He just got huge tears in his eyes! Santa scared him!! Ha ha! Love this picture!

For a FHE one Monday, I did a short lesson on the true meaning of Christmas. Richard had to work late that night. He has been working late most nights. He's been super busy. After the lesson they all sat up to the table to decorate their gingerbread men. They were so excited. I got everything ready, but they all did their own. I love that my kids are getting old enough to do this fun stuff with me just watching them! I help once in a while, but they all love that they can do it by themselves! They all turned out super cute!

Brianna and Cadence busy working on their gingerbread men!

DJ and Abbi hard at work. DJ had me help a little bit, but basically did all on his own!

Cadence made hers into a girl!

Abbi and her gingerbread man. She went a little crazy with the candy!!

Brianna with hers! She had the box in front of her and copied what they did. But she did the hair herself!

DJ so proud of his cute gingerbread man!

They all did so good!

The girls have been going skating with their school the past two weeks. I am sorry, but my kids are doomed in that department. We are not skaters here! Ha ha! Most of the time I go and help. Cadence has had a tough time. She doesn't feel confident to do it by herself. She finally got the nerve to skate on her own this week. I was so proud of her. She got a hockey stick and for some reason that helped with her balance. It cracked me up how she would shuffle along.  But she was able to go everywhere. Abbi and Brianna would skate everywhere. But they really don't like it. The skates hurt their feet and they never want to stay on the ice the whole time. I don't blame them. I tried going skating with them and my feet couldn't take it either. Ouch! I got some cute pictures of them skating around.

I talked Cadence into holding Brianna's hand so I could take a quick picture!

Cadence and Brianna with Alexa!

Brianna with their toothless grin!

Cadence skating around with the hockey stick!

Abbi having fun skating (for a little bit anyways!)!

DJ has been a little bit obsessed with Ninja Turtles lately. He found the girls baby bucket downstairs. He emptied it and brought it up to me to show me how he can be a turtle. It was hilarious. His dad helped him hold it on his back. Then he was like, see I go into my house, as he crawled underneath it and disappeared. Oh he makes me laugh!! Another time, I was reading with Cadence in my room, when I saw DJ try to sneakily come into the room. He was holding our bench cushion in front of him. When I looked up at him he froze with the cushion in front of him, so all I could see were his fingers. When I kept reading with Cadence he came right by the bed and froze again. I said to Cadence, "Do you know where DJ is I can't find him anywhere." Then he started giggling behind the cushion. He came out and said, "I right here mom, I teased you." He told me he was being a wall! Man, what a kid!

Here he is crawling around like a turtle with a shell on his back!

Now he was fighting like a Ninja Turtle. I missed him hiding in his shell!

Here's my "wall" sneaking into the room!

This is what he was doing as Cadence and I were reading! So funny!

This week, we were busily getting ready for school one day, when Abbi came upstairs. It was a crazy morning and she was trying to tell me something. I finally stopped and listened and Abbi said in a very dramatic way, "Mom, I think a sheep came into my room in the middle of the night and shed himself....he left white fluff everywhere." I looked at her and told her she's funny. Then away she went. Well, maybe I should of really listened to her and questioned her a bit. But I got everyone off to school. I was busy cleaning downstairs and talking on the phone. I walked into Abbi and Brianna's room and stopped mid stride. I was shocked. She wasn't kidding, there was white fluff EVERYWHERE! It was a mess! I guess Abbi and Brianna took all the stuffing out of Brianna's bunny the night before. I guess that was what all the giggling was about. I made her clean it up. What am I going to do with her. She can come up with crazy stories.

This doesn't look as bad as it was. It's a pain to clean up too.

Since I am telling stories about the kids I have to write down something Cadence did. Last night I went to their Christmas Concert. Brianna stayed home with her dad and DJ. She was not feeling good. So I took Cadence and Abbi. They did a really good job. I went to get them from their classroom and we were walking down the hall when Cadence said to me, "Mom my tummy keeps turning on and off. It's silly like that. But it's off now." Ummmm, ok. I asked if her tummy was hurting but she said it's off. She comes up with the funniest sayings. But maybe I should of taken her more serious. Because she went to bed so good and an hour later she threw up everywhere. Then I was up with her till past midnight. The poor girl couldn't stop throwing up and she had diarrhea too. She was miserable. I felt so bad. She finally fell back to sleep. She has been laying around today, but no more throwing up. Thank goodness. So I guess I should listen when she tells me her tummy keeps turning on and off.

My sick Cadence sleeping with her head in the bowl. It was right in the bowl when I came in but she had moved a little by the time I got the camera!

Brianna is such a cutie to watch. She loves to make things and then hide little notes or messages under my pillow and Richard's pillow. We have many cute notes from her. She is also very picky about things. A couple of weeks ago she showed me that her tooth was really loose. I asked if I could wiggle it. There was no way. After I promised her I wouldn't pull (I never do that, I can never get a grip on their tiny teeth even when they want me to try pulling!), and sure enough it was barely hanging in there. I told her that she just needed to pull it out. I said if she didn't do it, then I was going to. She looked at me and walked away. Not even 5 minutes later she came up with the tooth in her hand! Ha ha! She was so proud. She had to write the "toof farey" a note too! What a cutie!

Richard and I went to Great Falls a couple of weeks ago to get all our Christmas shopping done. It worked!! We are finished and with birthdays too! Anyways, he found these batman jammies and he had to buy them! DJ was so jealous. When Richard came running out of the room flying around. DJ thought it was great. He asked, "Dad where's my batman?" We told him there wasn't one his size he was heart broken. The poor kid was sobbing! Then Richard went flying into his room and kept flying in and out and DJ was laughing. Then Richard slipped on a toy and almost hit the floor but caught himself. Oh boy, it was hilarious! DJ and I were laughing so hard! So that cheered him up!!

My good looking batman!! Ha ha! He had a cape attached to the back to that flew behind him when he was running!

We've had so much wind and snow, I've had to go out shovelling a LOT! DJ is already getting sick of it. He can be a good helper too. Well this week we were coming back from clearing sights and just came through Welling. As we were going around the big curve I saw a semi tipped over with a load of hay. It must of just happened too. We stopped to make sure the driver was OK. He had just gotten out. He was waiting with someone and the ambulance was on it's way so we left. But I had to take a quick picture. It was quite the sight. DJ thought it was pretty crazy too.

At least it tipped over into the ditch!

Kind of crazy looking! He must of been going too fast around the curve. The wind was blowing like crazy too!

OK, so this is a really random post! I think I am jumping around everywhere. But it's really helping me get caught up. So the kids wrote their letters for Santa. We finally mailed them this Monday. I kept forgetting to take them in the car. We mailed them on our way into Lethbridge for FHE. We went to Walmart and the kids did their Christmas shopping for each other. We had them draw names again. They always love doing that. It's fun to help them. Then we went out to IHop for supper. It was perfect!!

Here they are mailing their letters!

I mentioned that the girls had their Christmas Concert last night. Brianna was sick, but the other two went. They did a good job. It was just one number. They sang a song as they played different instruments too. I couldn't get a good picture of them doing it, but I took one of the two girls together afterwards. Then today their choir did a few songs for the school assembly. All my girls are in the choir but only Abbi went to school today. Brianna and Cadence were sad that they missed their last day before the holidays. Oh well, they really weren't feeling good.

Abbi and Cadence just getting home after their concert! So pretty!

The choir singing their songs. They were super cute. Abbi is right in the middle on the 2nd row.

DJ had his concert yesterday too. I dropped him off for school and then came back at 10 for his little show. Well, as soon as he came in the room and saw me that was the end of that. He has been so shy lately when I am around. He wanted nothing to do with it. Mom and Megan came to watch too. I finally talked him into participating if I did it with him. So I got to do the fun songs and activities with DJ! He did have fun!! Funny boy!

This was a colour song where he had to wave a flag around if he was wearing a certain color!

Another fun game. I was hanging onto his hand. He wouldn't let me go!

He was OK doing the game with a class mate as long as I was right there!

His big happy smile after he got his present from his teachers!

So that gets us mostly caught up! I've been busy getting our neighbour gifts ready and cleaning the house and taking care of sick kids! We are having a dinner here for my mom and dad's 40th Anniversary. It's just for the adults and should be fun. I hope everything works out! Well that's it for now! Ta ta!