Saturday, December 20, 2008

Update!

Life has been so crazy busy and then the fact that it is this time of year doesn't help, because this time of year is always busy. Here is a little update on some of our activities the last couple of weeks.

Work is going GREAT and I am truly loving it. It is still taking some time to get use to the schedule and balancing everything, but I think we are slowly getting the hang of it. Jaycee is adapting well to daycare and doesn't cry anymore. She tells me everyday about her "friends" that she plays with and loves that her older brother Ori is there in case she needs him.

Ori is also enjoying preschool/daycare. We were trying to balance both of his preschools (the one we enrolled him in when I was staying home and the one he attends and daycare) It got too difficult and he started asking not to go the one he went to before I started working. He liked staying at the other one better. It didn't make sense to go out of my way three days a week to pick him up from one and take him to the other when he didn't even want to go. So we finally decided to get rid of the one and just go to the other. Then I get a phone call from the preschool he first attended saying they would help me do whatever they could to get Ori to and from school because they don't want him to stop going. After long consideration and talking to Troy about it we decided that we are going to continue both schools for now......crazy I know.

Kayden has been super busy in school and is loving it. I am AMAZED at how well they start reading in 1st grade and have really been enjoying listening to him read to me at night. He is getting so smart. He is signed up for winter basketball through the parks and rec and it should be starting soon.....and, his dad is coaching so he is super excited about that.

We finally, finally, finally, are getting over the stomach flu. My kids literally had it for 2 1/2 weeks and we are not talking just mild fevers and tummy aches, we are talking non stop vomit ting and diarrhea for 2 1/2 weeks. I finally had all I could take and took them to their pediatrician at the risk of her telling me exactly what she did......"It has to run its course". I am like yeah, but the course is taking TOO DAMN LONG!! :) There is still a little lingering tummy aches, but overall everyone is feeling much better.

Kayden had his Christmas program at the Roper auditorium. It was really cute and he did really well. Here are a few pics from that night.

Kayden and his best friend Dallin



We feel like we have been going a hundred miles an hour in separate directions, so we decided that it was time for family movie night. We put everything else to the side, each picked out a blanket, popped some popcorn, added the hot tamales, and watched Horton Hears A Who. It was such a cute show and the kids were actually laughing out loud. Our niece Katelynn came and watched it with us and it was such a fun night.




For those of you who have never heard of having popcorn and Hot Tamales together must try. It is YUM-O!!! Troy tried it one time when we were dating and he has been hooked ever since. It was something my mom and dad started a long time ago and since then we have got a lot of people hooked on it. Try it and let me know what you think! :)

Last weekend we had a big Christmas candy making day and Dave and Steph's house with Perry and Marcy, Dave and Steph, and our families. It was a lot of fun and work but well worth it. Dave and Marcy were the two candy making pros, the rest of us just filled in where ever we were needed. By the end of the day we were all tired but had a lot to show for it. Here is what we started out with...



We made white fudge, regular fudge, cinnamon walnuts, toffee, peanut rolls, peanut brittle, thumbprint cookies, pecan clusters, peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate, candy cane white chocolate, Carmel corn, popcorn balls, and chocolate covered pretzels.








We made several trips to the store (which is always an inside joke with this group anyways because we can't ever get together without making at least a couple of trips to the store to get stuff to munch on or cook). We all took turns stirring, stirring, stirring, and stirring the fudge until it looked good to Chef Dave. :) Perry made a roast for dinner which didn't end up cooking as fast as he thought so our last trip to the store for the day was to buy a bunch of frozen pizzas and it was amazing how well those frozen pizzas hit the spot.




Jaycee was so interested in the popcorn popping out of the air popper. She sat like this and watched it for a long time.

Troy was amazing and really got into it more than I thought he would. He was in the kitchen the whole time cooking and even took his turn at the dishes. This is Marcy helping me document all the time Troy spent in the kitchen. Love that guy!! :)

This was Perry's position for most of the day.....sitting on the couch under a blanket watching football. :)
Love Jaycee in the background of this picture watching Aunt Marcy.


Imagine that, Perry on the couch watching football again....lol. At least this time he was taking his turn stirring the fudge.


Love this picture of Steph and Jaycee. Jaycee was helping Steph unwrap all of the hershey kisses for the thumbprint cookies.

Troy and Marcy even made a snowman cookie.

This was us at the end of the day. Still smiling but exhausted.

Then this week Ori and Jaycee had a Christmas program for their daycare. I couldn't believe how well they did. Their teachers really had them practice because they totally knew every song and every action. It was a lot of fun to go and watch. Then they had a little gift exchange. Each kid had to bring a $5 toy and then they switched with another kid their age. The kids were thrilled they got to open a present before Christmas. It was so cute.

At the beginning of the program they had everyone stand and say the Pledge. Ori was asked to hold the flag for everyone and he was SOOOOOOOOOOO proud.




Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Sunday as a Family

I am working from home today, Kayden has officially come down with the flu that his brother had that last two days and his sister had last week. Troy also got the flu and stayed home with the kids yesterday, so today is my day to stay home. Hopefully now we will be through with this, it seems that everyone has had their turn but me.........which I really don't need a turn. :)

We had a great Sunday together as a family. We are always so busy on weekends going places, having people over, etc. This last Sunday we just spent the day as a family which was well needed after a busy holiday weekend.

The first thing the boys did after getting up was got dressed in their Bear's jerseys for "football day". We love football in this house! Then they went out on the front lawn and played for a little bit together.

Then we took all of our Thanksgiving and Fall decorations down around the inside and outside of the house and got all the storage tubs full of the Christmas decorations out. We took a quick break for lunch and then started hanging our Christmas lights up on the outside of the house. The boys each got to take a turn climbing up the ladder to take dad a strand of lights.

Then when that was finished we came inside and put the tree up and all the inside decorations. The decorations below have become a new tradition in our family. It is ceramic Santa and Mrs. Clause that my mom painted the first year her and my dad were married. A couple of years ago when she was going through her Christmas decorations she was throwing away some of the older stuff and adding new. When I walked by the garbage bag and saw these two figurines in the garbage I about died. My mom laughed at me and said they were old and not "in style" anymore. I didn't care......we had these figurines out every Christmas of my life, they had just become a tradition and I couldn't believe she was getting rid of them. So mom said I could have them and start a tradition on having them around every Christmas at our house. So even though they may not be "in style" they hold a much more important and special meaning.
The boys insisted on helping dad carry the recliner downstairs so we had room for the tree. They did it "all by themselves" and they were pretty proud.The kids had a great time helping put out all the decorations and trimming the tree.
Dad loving on Hummer......I got a big kick out of this picture. Dad is getting pretty close to the dog that "He didn't want!" :)
We got a lot accomplished and had such a fun day together. At the end of the day after all the kids were in bed. Troy and I were sitting on the couch watching the Sunday night football game together and I looked over at the tree and just started laughing. We got so busy earlier that I didn't have the time to notice, but all the decorations on the tree were in the same spot and at about the same height, where the kids could reach. Being the dork that I am I so badly wanted to go and fix it, but after Troy and I talked about it we decided that it couldn't be "more perfect". It showed that our kids helped us and we couldn't change something they were so proud of.