santas workshop

our family tradition:

the kids draw names and make a homemade gift for each other. here is kai working on sadie's gift. we call it santa's workshop.

we drew names with dave's family this year and they wanted to make homemade gifts too. sadie worked very hard on a 'go fish' game for her cousins. we printed 3 copies of different pictures with cousins and created our own go fish game. sadie drew each of the cousins on the cover of the game. it was a real work of art. the funny thing is that they also made us a game with pictures. they took a real guess who game and made picture sheets with all our relatives to fit in the game. the kids love playing guess who's in our family....it was a great gift and super clever!

christmas 2011

christmas was perfect at our house. i really couldn't have asked for a better morning. the kids all slept in the same bed downstairs (dave's family tradition). when they woke up, sadie called dave on her cell phone:) to let us know they were ready to come upstairs. we took the traditional picture on the stairs and then they came up one at a time.

it was magical! the tree looked beautiful and it was exciting to see the kids expressions while they had their first look around. we opened stockings first, the highlight being the toilet fun dip candy with the sucker plunger. they thought it was gross. i thought it was funny. then we moved onto family gifts. they were each so excited to give their gift. i love it when they are more excited to give.

max gave to kai--he made a pokeball fall game and bought a pokeball toy to go with it.

kai bought sadie a little dolphin statue from the school store. he did an afternoon worth of work to earn money to buy it. he really wanted sadie to love it. we decided it could sit on her desk as a ring holder so he made her some rings using his marbles.

sadie made a long winter cap for abe and bought a sled to go with it. she made it in her school FACS class. she was excited with how it turned out and the fact that she had no help. abe thought it was, "awesome!"

abe painted a sign for max's own, new bedroom. max loves penguins right now. he also bought him a little round ball stuffed animal penguin. max loves the little penguin and his big brother abe.

max decided to buy abe a present too, just because he loves him so much.

the kids made me gifts and it was fun to see their excitment to give them to me. abe gave me a recipe book, sadie made four business card coupons for free babysitting, and kai made me a tile with a painting on it. (here i am very pregnant with baby #5)

santa came!!! he left magic dust so the kids could sprinkle it on dave and he could magically tell who each gift was for.

highlights:

max and his cool mini mini plus this awesome penguin hat

abe- a foosball table

kai-an awesome pinewood derby style racetrack

sadie- her own shampoo, conditioner, q-tips, make-up, straightener, and clothes. she LOVED it!

i gave dave some new skis!!! very brave of me. he liked them and he should!

low-light:

the gap bags that were scattered all around the room. the kids soon learned these were filled with new clothes. the boys thought that was terrible. in fact, max opened the first one and stuck the pants back in the bag. then with a scrunched nose, like it was a mistake, said, "these are not for me." i assured them santa probably gave them more as a gift to their mom so that when they leave in the morning they have clothes that fit and it looks like someone cares about them.

we finished opening gifts, ate a great breakfast prepared by dave, got ready and went to church, then headed to dave's parents' house for an evening with family. a great christmas!

christmas thoughts

(a journal entry)

i knew at the beginning of the month that i had a lot on my plate...building a house, being pregnant, relief society, pta, getting kids where they need to be and prepared for whatever they were doing, and christmas....then i found out that we have to be out of our rental two weeks after christmas. our house won't be done until february so now moving and finding a place to live was added to the mix. suddenly it wasn't just christmas, it was christmas and a move. my heart rate went up. then i went to church and we have been so lucky to be in elder holland's home ward. he comes every once in a while and when he does, he usually speaks. this day he spoke briefly and gave everyone there an apostolic blessing. it was amazing. he blessed everyone to have a season of peace, angels, and wondering awe and reverence like the shepherds. he promised that those that had things in their lives that they were dealing with (marriages, finances, parents struggling-- and i can't remember the rest of the things he listed) he promised that things will get better. he said, "whatever you are facing, you will be equal to it."

i really loved it. i realized that many people were struggling with really hard things and i am grateful for the things on my plate, but nonetheless, it was a beautiful blessing and i looked forward to being equal to what i had to do and for peace and wondering awe. i am not going to lie, i was stressed. on christmas eve day i had a meltdown as i rushed to walmart for a few last minute things. i remember crying on the way thinking this is not wondering awe, this is crazy! it wasn't until i got to my mom's house that night for dinner that i relaxed. the kids did the nativity (max was a sheep and through the whole thing i could hear this quiet "baaaa" it was awesome). my brother taught about the atonement and it was in that moment that i felt the wondering awe that was promised. i will never forget it. i felt like here i am trying so hard to make my gifts so amazing and still falling short but the greatest gift was the baby jesus and the gift of the atonement. i felt like i was offering a penny and getting a thousand dollars in exchange. the atonement COVERS it all. i felt an awe and gratitude that calmed me. i had dave give me a blessing and he blessed me that i would be like the shepherds. they felt fear but then it was turned into testimony. he also said i am being prepared for what is ahead. i do feel heavenly help through all of this and i know as i watch it all unfold that my testimony has and will continue to grow. i know heavenly father keeps his promises and i was grateful for the promise of wondering awe this christmas. everyone needs to feel awe once in a while. it was a good christmas.

our day

i spent the day with sadie and her friend. we shopped for bedroom sets, made christmas returns, ate at the cheesecake factory (my fave), and did baptisms at the temple. they are cute, happy girls. fun to be with.

highlight: when the handsome waiter asked sadie a question as she was putting bread in her mouth. she was caught off guard, so she did what any reasonable person would do... she took the bread out of her mouth to answer him, but then started laughing and couldn't stop:) i love that girl!!!!

the twelve days

i am so excited today is the last day of school and we made it to christmas break!!!! my kids have had so many school assignments the last few weeks, i feel like it's been the twelve days of projects and now we can change our focus to christmas.

here's a glimpse of some of the things we've done the last few days:

(abe wrote and illustrated a book, made an info board, and gave a memorized speech about north carolina)

(abe made a christmas scene and had to figure out how to light up part of the scene with wire and a battery. he made a snowman with red glowing eyes. creepy.)

science projects have kept sadie busy...as a funny side note, she had ugly sweater day at school yesterday. she found a sweater in dave's closet and she said it totally passed at school as an ugly sweater and she giggled to herself a few times because dave still wears it:)

max and kai made candy lei's for their teachers and max's class

is that a giant tootsie roll?

when abe was little, anytime he made a wish, he would wish for a tootsie roll:)

too bad, it's actually a sled for his class gift exchange.

father christmas

father and mother christmas came to midway!

our kids have always hated sitting on santa's lap.

every year they say, "we will just send him a letter."

we had to bribe our kids to go and see him.

sadie flat out refused.

kai kept saying, "i am not sitting on some random guys lap!"

abe was slightly embarrassed

because a girl from his class was the escort.

max, on the other hand, did not want to

but made it worth his while. he said, "i just asked him for a nintendo ds."

this was not one of his three original christmas present requests, but i guess figured he could get a bonus gift for being brave and sitting on the big guys lap.

it was a fun family day. tim, holly and jade came and hung out. we went to the creche at the homestead. i have never seen so many nativities. my favorite--the one from africa with the hippo. i have never imagined a hippo in a nativity before. it was awesome!

move over mitt

abe ran for class president yesterday and won!!

they are in the middle of their 5th grade economy and they all have class jobs. abe's job was desk checker and it was pretty time consuming for not much money. we decided he needed a new job, so we made him a little business selling shrinky-dinks. when i picked him up on the first day of his business, he immediately told me, " i quit my job. my business is so successful!" he didn't waste any time deciding desk checking was not for him. anyway, the class elects a new president every four weeks and the president gets paid pretty well, so abe decided to go for it. they can't campaign, only give a speech. abe made up new lyrics to "jingle bells" and sang his speech. he said the class cheered when he finished and he won! on his presidential agenda- to give the desk checker a raise!