My Boys

Tasha gave me some adorable pictures of the boys. As many of you know these are my nephews Rowdy and Danger. They are my pride and joy. Their papa (my baby brother Wyatt) has always been my baby since he was born. I use to carry him around and mother him like he was mine. People keep asking me if Danger and Rowdy are my Grand babies because Rowdy calls me Nana. It seems to fit because I love them like their Nana would. My mom had the joy of spoiling them in heaven before they came to earth and I feel it an honor to get to spoil them for her now. See for yourself...they are simply adorable.

Baby Danger

Big Brother Rowdy 

What a year...

What a year/month/week/day it has been.  

I am in shock that Christmas has came and went.  

I was saying on Christmas eve that I still needed a few more
months to get ready for Christmas.  

I was ready...just not ready for it to be over so quickly.  

However, I am ready to leave 2010 behind. 

It has been a crazy year in every sense of the word.  

I am worn out and tired of worrying.  

I just need a vacation from bad news!  

I will update the blog with all the details later but for now lets just say 

Christmas was incredibly fun and exciting.  

We had fourteen people staying in our house for Christmas

and

forty-one people came to our Christmas party on the 27th.

My baby Weston turned eleven years old on Dec 26th.

I love modern technology!
On Christmas morning we were able to open
presents with Tyler in Germany via "X-box Kinect."
It was just like he was here with us and it was perfect!

It has been a month of reflection.  

Or should I say appreciation. 

I am trying to live in the moment and not worry about tomorrow. 

Hence the reason I haven't been blogging.  

I have been playing with the two cutest little boys ever. 

Rowdy and Danger came to visit for a week.
I have been in heaven!
(Except for the eye infection that made me feel really yucky for
8 days
and made me look like a pirate too but more on that later).

The house has smelled yummy from cookies baking
and all sorts of Christmas goodies.

The cupboards are bulging with food. 

We broke the piggy bank and found enough money
to buy gifts for Christmas. 

That was a joke, but making 2 house payments was HARD in Dec.

(Good news!  We found renters for our rental house)! 

I have had my family around me.
They have showered me with love, gifts and positive energy

and

I feel blessed.

P.S.  I am back to work tomorrow after a 10 day break.
They say that all good things must come to an end.
I will post pictures and details about Christmas later.
For now, I wish you all a safe and
Happy New Year!!  

Christmas Fun

Torri's house

Saturday, we had our Primary breakfast and all the primary kids met their new teachers for 2011. I am happy they are leaving me with the four-year-olds. I just love this age and my new group of kids are simply adorable!

Afterwards, the girls and I decided to go Christmas shopping. Kate & I drove to Torri's house to pick her up and we saw her cute little Christmas tree. She had all kinds of fun decorations up. We had a blast shopping and we hit all the fun stores like Rod Works, Home Goods, Deseret Book & Kohl's. I'm still not done shopping this year because now that my kids are getting BIG, they are harder and harder to buy for.

Hanging out with Cathy

Wednesday, I drove Cathy to her appointment to have her fitted for her Radiation mask. It is quite a process.  They have a mesh mask that they dip in water and fit around her face/head.  The mesh hardens kind of like plaster.  Next, they did a CT scan to make markers on the mask. The idea is that the mask will hold her head in exact same spot each time she goes in for her radiation treatments. Their goal is to just zap the tumors and nothing else.  I forgot to take my camera but I told Cathy we need to be better about documenting her journey (or roller coaster ride as she calls it) through pictures.

Thursday, we went to get her hair cut and colored. Cathy's son Justin is coming home from his mission on Wednesday and the entire family will be in town for a huge celebration and family pictures. I remembered to take my camera on Thursday.  Here is Cathy getting her new hair cut.

Pixie Week

Last week was Pixie week at our house.  Each night for a week we took something to another family in our ward.  It was kind of like a secret santa for another family.  My kids loved it and each night we tried to hide and not get caught.  We have done this before in our other ward and the kids work hard at not getting caught.  Here is one of our goodies we gave on Thursday night. We also gave a Christmas frame with it but it didn't get in the picture.

In return, we also received some fun things from our Pixie family. Here are two of the items.

The stockings were hung & the tree is trimmed

After the movie & dinner we came back home to finish decorating the tree & the house.  We are officially done and we are ready for parties and fun. Thank heavens for Torri helping me get everything done.

Family Day

Saturday, we spent the day hanging the outside lights and finishing up the Christmas decorating. Part way through the day, we met Jan, Chris, Rachel, my Aunt Jane & Uncle Monty at the movie to see the long awaited Tangled in 3D. It was such an adorable movie. I love a good Disney movie that makes you laugh and cry. Afterwards, we met back at Jan's for dinner and pie.  I love days like this!

Kate, Khylee & Weston with their cool 3D glasses 

Torri, Kate & Russ heading into the movie

The newlyweds sportin' their cool glasses 

Some of the group lookin' hot in their glasses

Ward Christmas Party

Friday night was our ward party.  Russ had to work so I didn't want to go however, Torri & Bryce came over and went with us and since Jan & Chris are in our ward, we met them there too.  It ended up being fun and we snuck out before it was over to go to the movie.

Chris thought he would be funny and jump in our picture,
I hadn't noticed until I was downloading them. 

Jan & Chris

The lovebirds

Setting up the @#$% tree

Monday, Russ set the tree up and we were all supposed to decorate it for FHE. I heard a few choice words while he was putting up the tree but I didn't realize what a mess it was until tonight (when the kids and I were trying to take it down).

See Russell's grumpy face 

Earlier tonight, Torri came over to finally help me decorate the house and the tree. However, when she plugged the tree in, 50% of the lights didn't work. Torri, Jordan and Weston decided they didn't like that tree anyway and they decide to take it apart and set-up our other OLDER tree. The problem is...they couldn't get the first one apart and the older tree takes hours to put together and is NOT pre-lit (What? Not pre-lit...is this 1980)?  The kids worked and worked to get the older tree put together. We wondered if it would just be easier to go buy a fresh tree. If we lived somewhere that we could actually cut down a fresh tree than we might have chosen that option but we live in the desert...no fresh trees...and NO TREES period!

Setting up the tree is ALWAYS Russell's job. I do the shopping, baking and decorating. The family usually puts a few ornaments on the tree. This is the way it has always been. After tonight, I now have a new appreciation for setting-up these darn fake trees now. Trust me, I will be hitting the after Christmas sales to buy a NEW pre-lit tree for Russ. Call me crazy or whatever but I need to do my guy a favor.

The kids trying to put the pieces together

There are 1,000 pieces

This is how we all felt tonight

It took several hours but the kids finally got the other tree put up and most of the lights put on. Russ will have to finish the lights the kids and I couldn't reach. I'm not sure how happy he will be about having to take the other tree back down either (he's at work and he doesn't know we are throwing his tree OUT). My house is a complete MESS with two trees in my living room and boxes of decorations everywhere. We can't get to the front door so I'm hoping Russ goes through the garage when he comes home.

TWO Christmas trees

Torri did get a few presents wrapped for me

Thankfully, Torri is coming back to help me again tomorrow

Is it just me or did 2010 fly by? I am in complete denial that it is December 1st. I feel like Fall just started...I need a few more months to adjust to Christmas coming.  I have been playing Christmas music for 2 weeks and watching Christmas movies but I just need time to stand still for a minute. I need a minute to process everything going on around me. There are important things I need to concentrate on right now but I want this month to go slow so I can savor every minute of it.