Happy New Year!!

I hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year! Party hard people! (but not too hard, ok? :) I know I've been a bit of a slacker with blogging lately, but I plan on being back to full-time blogging in a couple of days. Until then, enjoy the rest of your vacation with your kids(for those of you with kids at home), enjoy your day off(for those of you who work and have tomorrow off)and have a great week! Happy 2009! Heres to another awesome year! I always wonder at the start of a new year, what the coming year has in store for me. 2008 was great and I hope 2009 will be fine! (The words rhyme! Gosh, I'm cool.)

HILARIOUS Elf Yourself

My sister put together this little diddy a week or so ago. I've been meaning to post it! It is soooo funny--she picked the most hilarious pictures of our family. Check out our families dancing skillz and crazy faces....

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone has had a wonderful Christmas Day! I'm so grateful for this time to be with my family and most of all, to remember our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Christmas goodies

One of the MANY things I love about Christmas time is the yummy treats! I love to give them and I have to admit I also don't mind receiving them:) This year I decided to do something very simple, very pretty and very yummy for my neighbors and some friends. Chocolate covered marshmallows rolled in crushed peppermint sticks(thanks Natalie for this great idea!) First I had to find the perfect packaging....I love these little boxes. I found them at Hobby Lobby at a really great price(1/2 off baby!)

And then it was time to make the tasty treat. I decided to do some milk chocolate and some white chocolate. Aren't they cute? And of course, I taste tested one...or a couple...okay, a few! :) All I can say is YUM!

Ella is 5!

Happy Birthday to our sweet little Ella! We can't believe she is a whole hand now! :) 5 just sounds so old. In just a few months she'll be starting Kindergarten. Its so hard to believe! It really does seem like just yesterday we brought her home from the hospital. Here is a trip down memory lane.....our family the week of December 22, 2003.....

Just a day or two before delivery, Aubrey thought of this all on her own. A bouncy ball under her shirt=I have a baby too Mommy! We were so excited to meet her little sister.

Ella arrived! December 22, 2003. 12:54pm. 7 lbs. 15 oz. 20 1/2 inches long. She was beautiful and still is. Just ignore the picture of her mother...

Big sister giving a kiss. They had a really special bond from day 1.

Family photo right before Christmas

This one just makes me laugh.

Here are pictures from this week....crazy how much 5 years changes things!

Ella was so excited to take cupcakes to school a few days ago. Her request, "White icing with rainbow sprinkles!" Mission accomplished.

She came home from school beaming. Her teacher had given her an "Its my birthday!" sticker, a book and a pencil. Ella said she had a great day at school!

Since we are celebrating Christmas at home early this year(we are traveling Christmas Eve), we bumped up Ella's birthday celebration to this past Saturday(which she didn't mind at all, the sooner the better in her little eyes:) We had a little family party at home with a Tinkerbell theme. I was still not feeling well, so Joey baked and decorated the cake(and we had to postpone iceskating, the activity she chose, until today. Darn this sickness!). It turned out awesome Joey. Thanks for helping me so much!

The beautiful birthday girl with her beautiful fairy cake

Yummy!

Cali hamming it up for the camera. I was taking pictures of Ella and then Cali started smiling with her nose scrunched up trying to get me to take her picture too:)

Lined up for presents. I had put the presents against the wall and the kids just walked over and sat in the empty spaces. It was cute.

The first present Ella wanted to open was the present from her big sister, Aubrey. Aubrey used her own money to buy little Polly Pocket pets for Ella. Aubrey was so funny shopping at the store. I heard her say things like, "5 dollars for that?! What are people thinking?" It was an eye opener for her as to how much things cost:) Ella loved her gift and immediately gave her a big hug. It was the sweetest.

Ella's grandparents from both sides sent her awesome gifts. She loved them all! Thanks everyone!

She opened our gifts last. Here she is with one of her most favorite things: tattoos. Start 'em young. Thats what we say:)

And she got what she wanted from Mommy & Daddy: a real computer! Its one of those V-Tech learning laptops. She is having lots of fun with it.And here is a picture of Cali, just being Cali:)

Happy Birthday Ella! We love you so so much! Our family wouldn't be the same without your cute little personality in it. We hope you enjoy ice skating today!

Snowmen for Breakfast

Earlier this week, we had a "Snow Day" which was really an "Ice Day." The streets were deemed unsafe to drive on, so school was cancelled! The kids and I were so excited! I looooved not having to get out in the cold. We stayed nice and warm all day long. I had already bought some donuts to make this snowman craft I had seen on the This Mama Loves To Cook blog, so I busted them out that morning to make our own little snowmen for breakfast. The kids had fun making them and eating them. Me too actually:) Nothing like donuts and candy for breakfast!

Aubrey and her snow man creation

A close up of him. She decided to make his hat "snowy." :) She worked really hard on this little guy and he turned out pretty cute.

Here is Ella with her snowman

Oops! He lost his balance!

And Cali just shoved donuts into her mouth the entire time and watched:)

And today it is freezing cold! It looks like its only going to get colder overnight. Maybe it will snow and we can make some real snowmen soon! Probably not, but we can hope!

Aubrey's got a new smile

Aubrey came home from school yesterday with one of her top teeth missing! Now she just has to lose the other front tooth and she will be able to sing the "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth" song:) Its very wiggly, so we'll see....

Also, my lack of posts has been due to a bad case of Strep Throat. Hasn't been fun, but I'm on antibiotics and feeling much better than I did yesterday. Hopefully by Monday or Tuesday I'll be feeling like myself again. And I'm really hoping and praying that Joey or the kids don't get it too. I don't want anyone sick on Christmas!

Ward Christmas Brunch

This past Saturday morning, our ward at church had a Christmas Brunch. We had breakfast casseroles, pastries and hot chocolate followed by a Christmas message from the Bishop and the Primary children singing Christmas songs. It was a really enjoyable morning. So many people from the ward came out. Our ward had an "Angel Tree" out in the hallways of church for a couple of weeks prior to the Brunch where you could select something to donate to a family less fortunate. We brought all of the gifts unwrapped to the party and wrapped them together afterwards and took them to these families and sang carols. It was a neat experience and a fun way to do service together as a ward. I love how our Bishopric makes sure that we incorporate a service project in our Christmas activities. We did it this year and last and it really makes the activity more memorable and special. After all, thats what Christmas is about-giving and being Christlike. Here are pictures from the party...and from the marshmallow war that ensued...

Ella and her friend enjoying some hot cocoa together

Cali stroller-bound. We let her run free for awhile, but we got tired of chasing her, so we had to be mean and tie her down:)

The children singing their Christmas songs for us. They did a fantastic job!

While the adults were wrapping gifts, I helped with the marshmallow throw to keep the kids occupied(I'm on the activities committee). It was a HIT and the kids had a blast throwing marshmallows at the bishopric snowmen.

Heres Aubrey trying her hand at it.

Here goes Ella.

Then the adults got into it. The men in particular. They had more fun chuckin marshmallows at each other than the kids did:) Marshmallows were everywhere! I even got smacked by one in the head.

This picture just cracks me up. One of the wives is confiscating the marshmallows from her husband:)Katie and I were the marshmallow police. We tried to run the marshmallow game the best we could but it got a little out of control once the men got involved. Then is was an all-out marshmallow war. It was fun though:) Everyone was laughing.

The gift-wrapping scene

And this is just a really cute picture Joey took of a mom helping a little boy pick up a gift. Joey takes pictures of the activities for me to put on the church bulletin board(one of my activities committees jobs that I need to stop slacking on. I haven't updated the board in a while-oopsie! Sorry guys! I'll get on it.)

I love our ward!

Hands down,the BEST Knock-Knock joke ever.

"Knock, knock."
"Who's there?"
"Smell Mop"
"Smell Mop who?"
(Yell in disgust) "I don't wanna smell your poo!"

Thanks Christine for the best knock-knock joke ever:) We still laugh at it everytime....and we've said it about a million times. I don't care how old you are, poo is always funny.

Family Pictures 2008

A couple of weeks ago, we went to a nearby park and took some family pictures for our Christmas cards. Joey brought his camera and picked this beautiful wooded area with trees and a perdy little bridge. He snapped some adorable pictures of the kids and the one of me and the girls. I tried my hand at a few too and I think they turned out not too shabby(the one of Joey and the girls walking). I also dragged my bud, Melissa, along to help us get some family shots and they turned out great! Thanks Melissa-you are the best! We've tried the tripod/timer thing before and that just doesn't work out so well when you have 3 kids. Getting them to all look at the flashing light is difficult! So, you saved us Melissa! We actually have pictures where all 3 kids are looking and smiling-its a miracle! :)

I've waited to post the pictures because I didn't want to spoil the card for the family members I sent them too already:) We got some really great shots and I'm really happy with them! These are my 3 favorites..... Here are the rest in a slideshow(Because uploading to slide.com is so much easier than blogger.com! Blogger needs to figure out a better way to upload pictures...)

Journey to the Manger

Saturday night, we headed out to 18th Annual "Journey to the Manger" at St. Paul Lutheran in Plano. It is this awesome, free of charge, re-enactment of the city of Bethlehem back in the days of Christ's birth. There are animals outside for the kids to see and pet and then inside you walk through a "village" where there are merchants, potters, jewelry makers, basket weavers, etc. After you walk through the village, you go back outside to watch a 6-scene dramatic account of Christ's birth. We love going to this! I love how Christians from all around come to this and I feel a sense of unity with them all. Despite some differences, Christians all have one thing in common, a belief in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. It was neat to spend a night reflecting on the night of Christ's birth and what a significant event it was in the lives of us all. We went to this last year and decided it would become a yearly tradition. I would recommend it to anyone living in the area!

I loved how this chicken(or hen or whatever it is) was sitting on this goat. Just chillin.

Inside the village...

Dreidels! And Joey about to drop Cali:) She is a wiggleworm. We couldn't put her down because she is the type of kid that would run away and never come back.

The studly guardsmen keeping the peace in their studly uniforms. They looked at me weird for taking their picture. I wanted to yell at them, "Its going on the internet dudes and there is nothing you can do about it! Whahahaha!" But I kept the voices inside of my head this time.

A blurry picture of the camels outside(We couldn't use the flash. We didn't want to create a camel stampede.)

We finished off the night back inside with cookies and hot cocoa. Yumsters.

Sidenote: We go to this activity to remind the children of the real meaning of Christmas and how its not all about Santa and "getting" things. When we were driving home, we asked the kids, "What was your favorite part?"(expecting them to recall a specific scene or something fun they did). Aubrey said, "Getting cookies and hot cocoa." Then Ella said, "Getting stuff."(referring to the dreidel, rings, and jewels).

Soooooo, we have a long way to go. :)