Out of the Mouths of Kidlets

Paige said something funny this morning, which is not uncommon, in fact it is the norm around here. I politely laughed and she then said, 'If I am so funny, where in the world did I get it from'?

I stood there with my mouth hanging open and one eyebrow raised clear to the top of my head, I am sure. A little stunned I think.

'I mean, dad isn't funny ALL the time, and you aren't super funny ALL the time'. Which was followed by a tender and loving pat to my arm, meant to reassure me that I was, indeed, still loved.

This was quickly followed by, 'No offense, mom'. She must have seen my face.

Rylie, wanting in on the action, quickly replied, 'I think you got it from Grandpa'.


Likely. Very Likely.

m E.R. ry Christmas

We had a great day today, all the usual morning festivities and then the afternoon lull. Finally a second to make those calls to wish friends and family a wonderful day, and then I hear this thud,tumble,tumble thud, then an ever so brief silence...then the shriek.

Rylie took a pretty good tumble down our stairs landing squarely on her pretty little face. At first (and second, third, and even fourth) look her split lip looked recoverable...but by evening she was fretting more about it and she kept telling me 'I can stick my tongue in my gums (meaning her split lip)'... so I looked again. UGH!

When I had looked before all I could see was the outside of her lip, I could not see the inside very well, and well, it was not pretty.

I called in my second opinion man, he glanced and nodded his head without me even asking a question, We discussed the options, did a little research, and then decided to take her to the E.R.

Christmas night in the E.R. is interesting. We were not the only ones there waiting for a stitch or two lets just say that.

Anyway, turns out they don't like to do stitches (they call them sutures, I love medical people) in the mouth because it heals so quickly on it's own. She gave us a really cool ice pack for her huge fat lip then Rylie did a little jig in her seat and before we knew it we were on our way home.

Everyone is now tucked snugly in their beds settling down for a long nights sleep. Just as it should be on Christmas night.

All's well that ends well, right?

Snow

So, Tori started praying for snow just before Halloween. I asked her to please not pray for snow until AFTER we were done moving. It would be miserable to move in the snow.

She agreed, but the instant we declared ourselves completely done with moving, she started again.

We have had a bit of snow with, at one point, a line up of snow every day on the ten day forecast. We love it!! When we know (or even just THINK) it will snow we run to the window every few minutes to check if it's here yet. When it ends we all sulk and become a little pouty.

We are supposed to get another 3-7 inches today and up here where we are they say up to TEN!!!

If you do not like snow I am sorry. If you love snow thank Tori. She has been very diligent in her requests.

Music to My Ears

The girls had their concert last night. It was OUTSTANDING! I have never heard anything more sweet and beautiful. I think any time that you can hear a child singing about our Savior it is a treat, but last night was something I will never forget. Thanks girls for all your hard work. It was beautiful.

A Christmas song has to be just right!

Hi! We are still here. The last couple years I have chosen a Christmas theme song, if you will, for each of us. This year Rich's song was The Elf's Lament" (because he loves it and he is a darling little elf) Mine is "Still, Still, Still" (Because I dream of a day that is Still still still) Tori's is "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" ( self explanatory, I think) Whitney's was "the Chipmunk Song" (the one where they are singing about all the things they want for Christmas...have I mentioned my day is full of her telling me what she would love to have for Christmas...there is not a long list, but we get to hear it a lot) Paige's is "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" (because, unfortunately, she had to have "the Santa Talk" this year...) and Rylie's is "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree" (because she loves nothing more than to blast the Christmas music and dance around our Christmas tree).


If you noticed, I said Whitney's was the Chipmunk Song. She told me we had to change it to "Where Are You Christmas". Every day Whitney asks me why it doesn't feel like Christmas. I don't know what to tell her. We are doing all the normal things that we always do for Christmas but honestly, I can't argue with her, it just has not felt like Christmas to me either.

Her and I have done a lot of brainstorming to see if we could come up with some reasons and what we decided was this...We are used to being in places that there is on overall grayness to the sky and air. Here, it is so sunny and even though it has recently gotten cold, from inside, it looks like it could be summer outside.

Until today that is....

SNOW!!! That is what we decided was missing. And we got it today! Not tons, but enough that now I think we will start to feel a little bit more Christmasy. I hope she lets us change her song back to "The Chipmunk Song". That's how i'll be able to tell that all is well in her Christmas world.

more Randomness

It is interesting to me that there can be so stinkin' much going on, yet nothing really to post about. I can't make my brain write in a way that would be pleasing to read, but I have to at least document my life in some sort of way so that someday I will be able to remember that it happened...so it gets to be a list.

1. We moved in our new house and boy oh boy...we have a lot of stuff. We had a local moving company help us cause our stuff is heavy (and we are old) and those sweet things worked 'till 5 AM! yes, you read that right it was after five in the morning when the finally left. They didn't start until 4 in the afternoon, but still that is devotion. Nevermind that they get paid hourly and have had very little work lately. We still had a basement full of things like food storage and all our school stuff (that had a beautiful school room to call home in Omaha...sniff sniff...)that Rich and I had to get this past weekend in a U-haul. Will it ever end?


2. We had Thanksgiving in our new house with Rich's sister and her family. IT was great fun and the food was delicious and it was fabulous to be with family once again.

3. We cant' wait for Christmas!

4. The girls are in a choir and they have a concert coming up and we are super excited!

5. We love our new ward!!!!!!!!! That is huge. We are so happy to be here and know that we are not leaving (I say ever, but Rich will not promise me anything...I know he thinks so too, you just never know though, I guess.) and can make some roots and live happily ever after.

6. I guess thats all. I thought there was more. Oh, I thought of another, we had to buy a 12 foot Christmas tree! That thing is huge. We love it, but we only had enough decorations to do the front so if you stand just right you can see the back is bare. If you come to visit, please dont climb behind the tree or you will be really sad.

7. I love this time of year. I am delighted every day to find something fun to do with my kiddos to make it special. I have collected Christmas books for a long time now and the girls are so happy when I get them out. We have a little tradition here, we read our scriptures and then we have this book that we read every night called the 24 days of Christmas (it is actually a binder we made at Enrichment once )that has a song, a scripture and a story. We read that then we open a door on our big advent house thing, and then we read a couple of the books from my collection. We are loving doing that each night.

So I guess that abour wraps it up....What are some of your Christmas Traditions?

Tori and I went to see this last night, well this morning I guess, at 12:03 AM...we LOVED it! It was such a blast to be there in the crowd with all these die-hard fans! Everyone was cheering and whistling (yes, during the movie) and laughing and, well, having a super great time. It was great. I thought Tori was going to bounce out of her seat she was so excited and just about every ten minutes she would lean over and say 'I LOVE THIS MOVIE' Good times!

The characters were believable and, I think, perfectly cast. I loved the music and the way that it was filmed was interesting to me.

Let me know what you think. I can't wait to hear everyones opinion of this much anticipated film.

Signed, Sealed, OFFICIAL!!!

Today's the day! We are moving into our new house and we are so stinkin' excited it is crazy. We are taking a load over this morning so we can be there to meet the delivery guy that is bringing the new fridge. Then the movers (just a local company, not the kind that pack for you or anything fancy...) are coming to get the rest. YIPEEEE!


Happy Days!

Moving

We are moving. I am up to my arm-pits in boxes and it has been its very own special kind of fun. We are super excited to be in our own home and start making some roots and staying put forever and ever and ever.

Crazy stuff...

HSM3

WE LOVE IT! WE went to see High School Musical 3 last night and it was wonderful. I think this one is by far my favorite. The girls loved it and we bought the soundtrack on our way home and they are already enjoying singing along with it.

How have all of you out there liked it? Was everyone as excited as we were for the new one to come out?

and one more thing

I know I have posted three things today, but I had to tell one last funny story...

Today I was running around all crazy like, you know, getting showered, doing hair, feeding kids, doing kids hair, getting everyone dressed (well, their clothes ready at least), doing dishes, ironing my skirt and Rich's white shirt ( and Paigies dress, but who's keeping track, really?) eating lunch, grabbing scriptures, and packing a little stash of chocolate (just in case it turned out bad) before leaving for church to visit our new ward...

I said out loud "I feel like I am running around like a chicken with it's head cut off...ugh"

To which Paige replied "Nope, your running around like a mommy who has someplace to go."

She was right, moms rock. Three cheers for all you moms out there.

OUR HOUSE---Hooray!

Okay, a long time has passed since I last posted about our housing situation. That is because it has been stressful and sorta hard, and I didn't want to say anything negative. We waited forever on that other house, and finally got to a point that we were ready to give up. They bank asked us to give them one more week. We said fine, but I think we had both resigned ourselves to the fact that we were done. We waited that week, and still nothing.

Anyway, long story short ( I know thats a first for me, but honestly my fingers could not even begin to want to type the entire thing out...just know it was a great story...)we found a new one, we put an offer on it and by some fluky chance of all chances they said yes.

So we are now going to buy this house, it is wonderful and we went to the new ward today to meet people and it was super great and, well, life has an interesting way of working out huh?

I know that there are a lot of pictures, but Rich's folks want to see...they are far far away on a mission and are missing all our fun...I guess if you have to be gone then thats a good place to be .




This is the front ( I know I have a knack for stating the obvious...)




Here is a photo from the listing this Feb. I had to post this cause the mountains are so incredible.





This is the front of the two sided fireplace the kiddos were rolling on the floor to get our scent on it... There is a sitting room sort of thing on this side and then a family room on the other side


here's another fireplace shot. I love this thing and the little shelves. The fireplace is really huge, it goes all the way up to the top of the house on the other side.




The living room where we will put the piano




The other side of the fire place and in the family room.


The sinks in the master bath. I just love them for some reason~ I guess I have a thing for sinks?



Kitchen




Pantry-a place for everything (and hopefully everything in it's place)




Windows in the family room




Windows above the kitchen sink, awesome view to wash dishes by I think. This sink has a built in soap dispenser...! Who knew?





Back splash




This is the sink in the powder room. I think it is so cool. I didn't even notice it until the offer was accepted and we went back to cheer and take photos...see, thing for sinks~




Another shot of kitchen, from another angle this time.




Whitty's room, awesome view huh?





Paige and Rylie have this little playhouse in their room. They are THRILLED!






Inside the playhouse We were thinking we would put their bunkbeds in there but now they just want it for a play room.




Tori's room (yes, we will paint it)




The view out her window





The upstairs family room




Looking over the rail at the windows







Everyone is happy...now we just have to pray that all goes well with inspections and all that and we close without a hitch....

Grateful Thursday

I know that today is not Thursday, and I did do this on Thursday but my blog was doing something tricky and would not let me post...so here it is a few days late.


These are the things I found to be grateful for this week~

Being able to sew


And having enough yellow fleece to make a pikachu costume


A girl that loves this dog so much that we had to make a special trip before church to see aunt Niki just because "Nilla" was there...she just likes to stand there and hold her leash.



WebKinz everywhere





Super Saturday SUCCESS!



A family love note that started with me writing I love you babe on a paper he was working on, then he wrote ditto, then Tori wrote 'rolls eyes' , then Paige wrote I love you mom and dad, and on it went till everyone in our house had written something on it...good times~




Kids that love to read and cant wait to open the book to see what happens next~



I love when the holidays come 'round and all the "special edition" stuff comes out...







Finding just the right pumpkin....



Finally meeting some homeschool friends. Here we are at a field trip to cornbellys at Thanksgiving Point~
We had a blast and after taking this picture met the most wonderful family with kiddos our ages and spent the rest of the time together playing and having a blast. It was an answer to my most sincere prayer.


and since you couldn't see it good the first time...





Creative kids~ They made these costumes for their webkinz to enter in a contest...aren't they adorable?




A gift of home grown tomatoes, nothing better in the world.


And best of all?


Hearing the words, "They said YES, you have a house!"
Awesome~