Christmas Bells are Ringing

Happy New Year, I can't believe it is already 2009. Christmas was so much fun. Having children really brings out the child in yourself. (Not that I need more help)I love seeing my kids cute faces, opening their gifts and laughing. It reminds me of when I was a kid and the excitement just builds up and gets me more giddy. Hannah woke up first and came into our room (It was 7 not bad eh?), "The milk and cookies are gone, The milk and cookies are gone"! Jon tells her to go downstairs so she wakes up Zach and of course we hear sleepy footsteps going into our basement and then screams and running back up the stairs, not so sleepy this time and of course I jump out of bed as they tell me Santa came, Santa came! hahah All of us run downstairs and grab the camera. Oh.....now people seriously. I am looking at everybody's pics of them while they open their presents and their kids are dressed, their hair is done. The mom has makeup on??? WHAT THE??? Not us! We come down in whatever we went to bed in, and start snapping the pics! Not so pretty but...atleast it's us.

Later that evening we got together with the Bean's and the Vest's. We had so much food, but no pics! The best thing about that night is we actually talked the guys into playing games. It was a great night! We've been pretty busy this season, Hannah had her Christmas program. She was so cute! She is growing up so much, it makes me sad. This is a pic with her teacher, Mrs. Binge and one of her friends Morgan.

For Christmas Eve, we decided to make, in Zach's words,"The Best Cupcakes in the world". Well, here are a few pics of them. Notice Jake's contribution when our backs were turned.

I know everything is not chronologically in order but, oh well. The kids had a blast playing outside in the snow. This was the week of Christmas, so yes we had a white Christmas. Zach was the only one to actually stay outside and "help" me shovel. Hannah and Jake lasted all of 5 minutes. Right now, if you are squinting or double clicking to see if Zach is wearing pink gloves and hat, yes he is. That's what happens when you have an older sister.

Our Ward Christmas party was tons of fun. I had to shoot a few pics of the kids on Santa's lap, Jake was as usual such a carefree child and hopped right up on Santa's lap! Gotta love that boy! The ward also put on a skit of the nativity and Jon was a shepherd. He wore my bathrobe and so of course I had to take a pic of him! He looked so cute.

One of the last things we did this year was have Aunt Jenny from New Mexico visit us. We have been having such a good time. We were a little too ambitious and decided to visit Lake St. Clair, because Jenny really wanted to see it. Well....after driving 45 minutes, we got out of the car and of course it's -4 outside. The kids are freezing, I am freezing, and thinking, maybe this wasn't such a good idea. We rush to get a few pics and jump in the car again. So much for dressing warm, so we could walk around a little. Notice how happy the kids look? Well, I am finally ending this post. I have to stop doing HUGE posts! I hope everyone had a great New Years and Christmas.

Warning! Long post...sorry!

WARNING: LONG POST!



I can't believe I have let time get away from me and so many events that I have not mentioned. Halloween was over a month ago and the kids had so much fun. For family home evening we carved pumpkins and tried to be creative. It was so much more work than I thought, and I wore out pretty easily, but the kids loved them! They had a ton of fun trick or treating and luckily they are still small enough to last one street and then be done. We had a ton of trick or treaters this year, and I ran out of THREE bags of big candy and had to dip into Jake's candy before I finally turned our light off to cut the treaters off. Jake actually LOVED the candy part more than Zach! Zach rode in the stroller asking me to push him up to the door because he was "SO TIRED" and Jake ran to every door grabbing the candy. Hannah was so sweet to take him up to the doors and watched out for "baby Jakey". She is such a little mom to him!

The next big event is of course.....TWILIGHT! I can't believe it's taken me this long to blog about it. I went to the midnight showing with Candace, Rebecca and one of Candace's friend Kelly. We had A BLAST! OH GOSH! I literally felt like one of the MANY teenagers there. We played games in the theater waiting for the movie to start, until the ushers told us it was against the fire policies to sit in the aisle. The movie began and...I was scared! I didn't have HIGH expectations because to be honest movies are NEVER as good as books. And was it? No, of course not! hahah But I LOVED the movie! There were things that I would have liked to have changed, I LOVED the actors, but on an overall I really enjoyed myself. Saturday morning I got up and went again with more people and had so much fun! After the movie, Candace and I went out to lunch and to the mall. I didn't get home until past 5 and it was a great Girls' Day out. While we were at the mall, we passed a Border's and they had lifesize cardboard cutouts of the characters and of course, us being the dorks we are, took pics with my camera kissing Edward. I accidentally knocked all the other characters over and the people who worked there came over and I just apologized and said, "Sorry, we just want to act like a bunch of teenagers for a little bit". He looks at me and Candace HOLDING her baby and laughs. I think they have been getting this a lot. Anyways, I don't know how to get the pics off my phone but if I do, I will just edit it in later.

Now, that Twilight is over, Thanksgiving crept back up. Jon's brother, Josh, came out from Minneapolis to spend it with us. The Beaners and the Kalcinich's (Sorry Ann, I know I spelt that wrong) came over and we had tons of food and fun. Josh was here for almost a week and the kids LOVED him, especially Jake. If you knew Jake you would know he HATES everyone. He took to Josh immediately and wouldn't leave him alone. Leaves me hope for when he sees the grandparents again.

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The day after Thanksgiving was so much fun! Shopping, shopping, shopping! I have so much fun and do it more for the experience and the hussle and bussle than the deals that I got. Although I do take that into account. I am finally going to end this post. Most of you have probably stopped reading and just took a quick gander at the pictures. Don't worry I do that myself at times, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Picture Time!

Here are our family pictures! Zach and Jake were NOT happy doing these, luckily we got a few smiles.

'Da Bears

Jon and I were able to go to a Bear's game this last Sunday. If you know my husband you would know he is the the world's biggest Bear's fan. He has loved them since he was a kid, and even when they were horrible. We had so much fun together! The Bears won, of course, and the fans were so wild! Never having gone to a professional game (I have gone to MANY Lobo Football games in college though), I had a ball! Between everyone calling each other names and the screaming I was exhausted! We went and picked up the kids from our friend's house, THANK YOU ANN, and went home. Just wanted to share a few pics from the game.

Do you like Urlacher's butt?

And just because they are cute, this is what I found this last week when I went outside to check on the boys. Yes, I had just given Jake a bath!

I just realized I haven't taken any pics of Hannah because she has been at school. Oops! We took family pictures last weekend, so for my next post I will have my new family pics! YEA!

First Days of School and Birthday fun!

Hannah's first day of school was on Tuesday and she was so excited! Now that the first week has passed, we are happy to report she loves her teacher and is loving school! I did tear up on Wednesday because it was the first day of ALL DAY school for her. I didn't even get sad when she started Kindergarten, but I did for 1st grade. Zach also started a little pre-school on Thursday and he LOVES it! He didn't want to come home on Thursday, and I had to pick him up and carry him out. hahah

School started which means, Zach's birthday! He turned 4 on Wednesday and Darn it! He's just so darn cute! Jon took the boys to Home Depot on Saturday morning (Zach's birthday party day) and they came home in these cute Home Depot aprons! I about died, they looked so cute! For months he has been talking about either a Teletubby cake or a Diego cake. So when we finally sat down to pick one, he ended up wanting a ball cake! hahaha Go figure! He got a new baseball glove and ball for his birthday, so it worked out that I had planned a sports theme when in reality it just so happened what I had! Here are a few pics of the cake and kids!

This last week has been so much fun but already it's getting busy! Soccer has started, school has started, and free time has been cut. I hope everyone is doing well and I'll update soon.

Campout and more!

This last weekend we went on a campout with our church and the kids had a ton of fun. I mean, WE ALL Had fun! haha I swear, the preparation it takes for only ONE night seems like such a big ordeal for such a small amount of time.

Okay, and the best picture of all....are you ready???...okay...here you go.....

Okay, so this was no make-up, the day after camping....but do you notice anything? Why is it that we (women in general) look like crap and Jon (the men) look great! Doesn't seem fair does it? Oh well! This is me in all my glory! hahaha

Okay Candace and Rebecca do you remember this? We were trying to just take a picture and I didn't realize the movie was on. This was Candace's baby shower! It was just us three and we went to the mall and had California Pizza Kitchen and just looked through stores and then we shared A HUGE caramel apple. IT WAS GREAT!

Alright, not much going on because we are boring right now! Jon is working a lot. He is starting his last month (September) in Ortho and I CAN'T WAIT! It's not horrible, but he is working a lot and he is tired all the time. Hannah starts school on Tuesday, so I will post the first day of school pics next week.

Too obssessed

Can I tell you how obssessed I am with the Twilight series? My good friend Candace and I pre-ordered a copy in February so we could secure ourselves a copy. At the time, Candace was trying to talk me into going to the midnight release party, and I KNEW that when the time came, we would be so tired, that sleep would be more appetizing than actually going at midnight to a teen release book party. hahaha How little I know myself. Last week we began preparations to...go to the release party and BUY the book that we had already bought off of Amazon. We were THAT desperate. Thursday came (The party was Friday), and I received horrible news. My husband had to work, he had to do his 30 hour shift, so he would be gone at night and couldn't stay with the kids. My heart broke, and then I remembered a few weeks ago one of the young women in our ward begging to spend the night at my house because we had "cool" movies and I was just like one of the girls. This got me thinking. What if I hired a babysitter to just stay and sleep here with the kids? Who cares that this book is going to cost me $100.00 after buying two copies of the book, paying the babysitter and getting dinner for her and US because I sure wasn't going to COOK anything, but I WANTED it that bad. Jon was all for it, Candace was all for it, I had to talk myself into it. I couldn't believe I would spend that money on a, what Hannah refers to as "just a book mom!". Candance, who just had her baby mind you on Monday, got home from the hospital on Wednesday and was GOING to attend with me with her 4 day old baby in tow, is as obssessed as I am. Then the reasonable Bella surfaced. I checked our delivery day, and most likely it would come on Monday. Could I wait two more days? TWO DAYS? That's it! Yes, yes I could. So, no I did not call the babysitter. No I didn't go to the release book party and yes I was in AGONY. Saturday came and Jon got home. We took the kids out for lunch and then put them down for naps. I proceeded to get online and check out...guess? Yes, more Twilight stuff. By about 6:30, Jon had HAD it. He told me to get out of the house and find the book and DO NOT COME HOME WITHOUT IT! I'll put the kids to bed, just Go! Please! I ran...Literally ran out of the house and went to Barnes and Nobles. Guess what? Sold out. Yup! I knew it! Serves me right. I casually went to Borders across the street because I was a glutton for punishment and walked in the doors and low and behold a shining beacon of light caressed my face as my eyes found what they had been looking for. Copies of Breaking Dawn ON SALE 40% off, if you are a Borders member. I, of course was not a member but I am proud to say that I am now! That's right I bought the book. I gleefully skipped, yes skipped people, out to my car and called my friends, Teri and Candace, that I had the book in my hand and I had to go because I was too excited and I had to drive safely home. Now, some of you are wondering where I am going with this story that could have been summed up in 4 words, "I read the book". I stayed up until 1:30 am and didn't sleep the rest of the night. I am not going to go into details because most SANE people haven't read the book in its entirety, so my thoughts, opinions and yes, discussions will have to wait for another post. But I HAD to blog that, "I READ THE BOOK".