Ten On Tuesday!

I need to quickly get these things down before Christmas. We are running out of time!!

1. One Saturday morning the kids and I were being lazy and not doing much. They were watching cartoons and I went back to bed to snuggle and read my book. DJ came and crawled into bed beside me with his own book. He looked at me and said, "Ssshhh, mom I'm reading!" Ha ha! So cute. We had a fun time reading together!

My cute little reading buddy!

So cute!!

2. The girls have been skating with their class again this year. None of my girls were excited. I went almost every time to help them get their skates on and get on the ice. They now have some skate helper things that kids can use. That really helped Cadence. It was cute to watch them skate. Cadence was still really nervous and Brianna came up and grabbed her hand. It made my heart melt. So cute!!

Cadence skating around!

Here comes Brianna!

Abbi loved skating around!

Cadence with Brianna and Rachel.

3. DJ has always loved to play with cardboard boxes. He always finds a new thing to make with them. Well he found some pieces of cardboard and spent about an hour in our room creating something. He came and got me and showed me his stuffie hotel! He did it all by himself!

4. One Monday night for FHE we talked about the real meaning of Christmas and what we can do to help others. We told them that the local Home Hardware store had a program set up called the Giving Tree. You can buy some toys and put them in the box and they give it to families in need in our community. They all wanted to help. So they all took $10 from their allowance and we went as a family to buy toys for the Giving Tree. It was fun to watch them excitedly pick something that they really liked. We had no problems. We paid for the toys and all the kids went and put them in the big box. It was a perfect thing to do for our family.

They were all carefully selecting a toy!

Here's the toys they just bought.

In the box they go!

5. The kids had their Christmas Program that we went and watched. They all did so good. DJ got up there and sang his little heart out!! The girls did too. Plus this year, they were all standing together, which was so nice. Much easier to video with them together and to get some pictures. Thanks to Miss Doolittle. She went to bat for me. I went and thanked her!! We had to go get the kids at their classrooms afterwards. I had to laugh at Cadence and Brianna's classroom door. So cute!

DJ is on the far left with the cowboy shirt on!! The only red head!

Abbi is on the front far right and Cadence and Brianna are right behind her!

Find Brianna and Cadence's elfs on the door! So funny!

6. DJ had his last day of Kindergarten on Thursday. Each day this week he would come home and sadly tell me that Mr. Froggly wasn't coming back after Christmas. He loves Mr. Froggly. He was excited to come to school on Thursday and give a gift to Mr. Froggly!! DJ also gave gifts to a few of his friends. Earlier that week DJ kept telling me that he wanted to give a pretty necklace to Nikki because she  is so "Bootiful!" It was hilarious. He wouldn't stop talking about how beautiful Nikki is and he wanted to give her a beautiful gift. So we got her a bracelet and some cool lip gloss. He was so excited to give it to her! It made me laugh! What a kid! He kept telling me that he is going to marry Nikki when he is older, because she is so beautiful!

7. My last day driving bus was on Friday. I got a few gifts from the kids on the bus. It was so nice! DJ came with me on Thursday and he was so tired that day. I noticed that he fell asleep on the way home. He was zonked out! It made me laugh to see him snoring away!

A few gifts from some of my students on the bus.

He was super tired.

He was even drooling.

8.  So way back in May, Richard made a deal with the kids that if they saved $50 each that he would get them a electric scooter. Anyways, they all did. DJ didn't want an electric one but one of those three wheel wiggle scooters. So on the black Friday on line deals I got them for a good price. They were all super excited. Kind of an early Christmas I guess, but they had been saving for 7 months. So I've been taking them to the church parking lot so they can fly around and have fun with them! It was funny watching them. Loved watching DJ wiggle his cute little bum!!! So funny!

There's Abbi on her electric scooter!

DJ rocking it on his wiggle scooter!!

9. OK with all the wrapping I've had to do, one thing drives me insane. The fact that I can NEVER find the scotch tape when I need it. It has nothing to do with not having any either. Because I bought over 10 of them. It drives me crazy! The kids use them and they end up in crazy places. Oh well, I will have to wrap these last few presents with duct tape.

10. Abbi and DJ found a cat outside the other day. They were so excited. They went out there and were trying to catch it. They finally came inside to get a bowl of milk. That did the trick. They were petting it and it was sitting on their laps. They named it Rosie. The next day at the store they insisted on getting it a toy. So we did. I didn't think they would find the cat again but they did. They played outside with it for an hour. Crazy cat!! At least it kept them happy and occupied for a while.

Christmas Things!

I have to admit that I've had a hard time getting into the spirit of things this Christmas. But we've done a few things as a family that has helped. The beginning of December I took the kids to the Magrath Hometown Christmas. We have gone every year since we've moved here. It's always fun to go.

We ate supper then took off. We were a little late, because I had to do a few errands for Richard (get gas for the lift), and Justin. They were working late on our house. But that's OK, we got there and started to walk around. We walked to the Seniors Center where the kids all got to go fishing in the pond. That's always a big hit.

Then we went and waited in the LONG line for Santa. The kids were super excited to talk to Santa. So I'm glad we waited. Plus I got a super cute picture of all of them with Santa.

We didn't stay around long. After Santa we stopped at the big bon fire and got a cup of hot chocolate. I tested mine and told the kids it was fine. Because it was just warm. Well DJ took a sip and spit it every where and was so mad. I forgot he had really chapped lips, so it probably did seem really hot. Oh he was screaming that it burns and that I lied to him. So we called it a night! ha ha!

This was before he tried the hot chocolate!

My girls by the fire!

A selfie with all my awesome kids!

On Saturday Magrath was hosting a "Santa's Gone Loonie" days. It's just for kids to go shopping for their parents and grandparents. I gave them 2 loonies each and away they went. They were super excited. I wasn't allowed in the shopping area.....so I waited in the waiting area. They were so proud of themselves. They even got their presents wrapped before they came out. They were so excited!! Loved seeing how happy it made them!!

DJ was so proud to show me all his presents he bought with 2 loonies!!

The kids with all their presents.

The girls went to a friends birthday party in the afternoon. We had to drop them off at a place in Lethbridge. So DJ and I went and did some shopping. We were in Walmart and as we were walking out there was a Santa sitting in his fancy chair. There were no kids around and DJ stopped and stared at him. He told DJ to come sit on his lap. So DJ slowly walked over and got on his lap. It was so cute!! He told Santa that he wanted a new blanket for Christmas. Then he ran over to me and excitedly told me that it was the real Santa, because he had on the real black boots. It was so funny! He told everyone that he talked to the "real" Santa!

DJ with the "real" Santa!

Then that night we went to our ward Christmas Party. It was a very busy and long day. But the kids really wanted to go. We had a delicious roast beef dinner. The kids had some fun activities that they were able to do before the dinner. They had fun making snowmen out of ripping paper. It was a fun evening. Then there was a program and the kids sang a few songs. Then Santa came afterwards. It ended up being a long night, but a good one. It started at 5:30 and we didn't get home till 9:30pm. We were all tired!!

My cute girls at the ward party!

Brianna and Cadence made a snowman together.

DJ and Abbi worked together on their snowman!

The kids singing us a song!

Abbi and her friend, Brielle with Santa!

This year we went to my mom's to make chocolates again. I did it with Tiffani, Megan and Jill and mom. We got together one night and did the fondant. Then the next week we got together to dip. It was actually on Mom's birthday. So we had a birthday dinner with her too, and cake. It was a fun day. We got lots done too. My kids loved helping holding Emmett! That was a big help! I was telling DJ that I thought he was a cutie and DJ looked at me so seriously and said, "No mom, Emmett is cute. He is so cute. I'm not as cute as Emmett!" It was so cute. That kid just cracks me up! The things he says sometimes! Love him!

DJ loves holding Emmett and he does such a good job!

Abbi sat there for almost an hour holding Emmett. So cute!

Cadence enjoys holding him too but only for a few minutes!

Brianna held for about an half hour!

The newly weds holding Emmett!!

Dipping the chocolates!!

This was probably only about a 1/4 of the chocolates that we made! So yummy!

Mom's birthday cake!

Grandma opening all her presents!

Oh we finally got our tree up. I just got a few decorations from the Dollar Store, since everything is still in storage. The kids had a blast decorating it. I tried to get some cute pictures of them by the tree. Sheesh, easier said then done. Then on Sunday I took some pictures before Church. I didn't get any of the kids new outfits, but they all looked so cute anyway!!

My kids with our decorated tree!

And we'll try another picture!! ha ha!

My handsome boy ready for church!

My kids all ready....love them so much!

My girls and I!

So that pretty much gets us caught up on all our Christmas happenings. Crazy how fast time flies!!