Taking it easy

This week has been the quietest Christmas break we've ever had. Ashley didn't end up coming at all because of a basketball tournament on the 27th. That made the week much more quiet because we're usually doing things with her. Then, Megan didn't end up coming for the few days she was going to come, either, because she's been sick. That made it even more quiet! All three of us have just been taking it easy, relaxing and enjoying the break from work. I still wish we had the girls here, too, though.

Nathan's been spending lots of time just playing with his new toys that he got for Christmas. He had a sleepover at Grammy and Grampa's this week, too. Dan took him and Branson and Kaedon to see the new Alvin and the Chipmunks movie earlier this week. Then I took him to see the Adventures of Tintin yesterday. Last night, we drove to Auburn to use a gift certificate we had for Applebee's. That was really yummy. I've been craving steak lately, so that's what I got. Nathan got two mini cheeseburgers and he just loved them. It was so cute because he was just enjoying them so much. He kept saying, "I can't eat anymore. I'm so full. Well, maybe one more French Fry." On the way home, we stopped at Petco and got 4 new fish. We only had one fish left, and he was pretty lonely. Nathan chose 2 white mollies and one orange platy and I chose a cute, chubby little goldfish. Unfortunately, one of the white ones died already. Nathan was super excited to get some more fish, though.

Oh, another thing Nathan got to do this week is try out Dan's paintball gun. Dan just got it repaired, and Santa put some paintballs in his stocking, so Dan took Nathan out into the woods and showed him how to shoot it. Dan said he had fun.

Nathan's also been playing a lot with Branson and Kaedon. They played for a few hours inside today, and I overheard the funniest conversation while they were in Nathan's room. Nathan had recently got a picture of Maisey in the mail, and it was on his desk. Branson noticed it when he went into his room:

Branson: Oh, Maisey?
Nathan: Yeah, she sent me a picture in the mail.
Branson: I see why you want to marry her. (Reading what Kris wrote on the back of the picture, he sees she is in first grade) Uh oh, she's in first grade and you're in second grade, so you can't marry each other. You have to be in the same grade to get married.

I was cracking up!

I've been working on scrapbooking stuff a lot this week. I'm almost finished with my Project Life 2011 album. I'll probably finish it tomorrow. I also printed out little thumbnails of all my digital scrapbook kits and put it in a binder. It's awesome! Now I won't forget about all the elements and background papers I have.

Nathan and I have read a couple of books this week, too. We read a book about amazing animal tales and a Pony Pals book. He loves to be read to and I love to oblige him.

Resolutions

Here are my resolutions for 2012:

• Have date night at least 2 times a month


• Give more service and reach out to others


• Exercise at least 3 times a week for at least 20 minutes


• Have regular scripture study as a family

To do List

Okay, I thought it would be helpful to write down my list of things I want to accomplish while I'm on vacation.

• Organize school bag and pocketbook


• Organize new Franklin planner stuff


• Get digital scrapbooking elements printed out


• Make new Primary binders for Nathan and I


• Read Calkins book for school


• Finish Project Life 2011 book


• Catch up on Nathan's scrapbook


• Make a meal for Juli


• Plan 2 week menu

December pictures!

Olivia was in a car accident about a week ago. Some deer ran out in front of her, and she ended up swerving and going into a ditch. Mom and I went to see her that night at the hospital. She cut her lip and sprained her ankle. She also did some other damage to her lower leg, but they aren't sure how much yet. Poor girl!

We have five baby girls at church now! All of these little girls have older brothers, so our Primary is full of boys. In fact, these five girls have 10 older brothers combined! So it's so fun that we are finally getting some baby girls. They are, from left to right, Harper Smith, Eva Gay, Cambryn Rodriguez, Sophie Atwater, and Madeline Jackson. They are all so adorable!

These are some of the cookies I made for Nathan's class party. I also made presents and snowflakes. The kids seemed to really like them.

Here's Nathan and his teacher, Mrs. Stevens, at his class Christmas party. She is such a good teacher. She's very patient and calm. All of her students love her.

Here's Molly with her adorable Santa suit. She didn't like it. It fact, you can see her ears flying around because she kept shaking herself. She sure did look cute!

Christmas

Here are some more fun pictures from the past couple of days:

Santa came a night early because we had to have Megan back to her Mom's at 8:00 on Christmas Eve. Here is Megan with her $100 bill! She kept saying, "I've never seen a 100 dollar bill!" She was pretty excited. When we asked her what she was planning on buying, she said she didn't know.
Here they were after opening their stockings and their Santa gift. It was really strange to have just the two of them. Ashley didn't end up coming because she had a basketball tournament on the 27th. It was going to cost $500 dollars to get her ticket changed. We were all really disappointed.

Here's Nathan with all of his presents from Santa, us, and his sisters. He was super excited!

I got Nathan another LEGO advent calendar this year, like last year. He really enjoyed it. It gave him something to look forward to every day. Here he is with all of the pieces displayed.

On Christmas day, in the evening, we had our party with Mom, Dad, Olivia, Felicia, Emily, Gram, Mike and Hilda. Mike and Hilda also brought a friend of theirs from church. She is from Singapore, and we had a great time asking her questions and hearing about life in Singapore. It was super interesting. Anyway, the party was really fun. Emily gave Nathan these cute antlers. It was so fun watching Nathan open his presents. Mike and Hilda gave him a debit card with $25 on it, but his face was so funny when he opened it. It was like they gave him a card with unlimited funds. He kept saying, "I can't believe I have a debit card, and I'm only 7!" The other present he really loved was a Woody doll from Mom and Dad. He'd been wanting a Woody for a long time, so he was really excited.

Recent pics

These are the adorable cookies I made last weekend. I love them!

Nathan with Santa at the Cooper family party last night

All the children at the party last night. It was pretty wild, but fun!

Three brothers with their grandsons at the Record party today! All of the grandsons were born within a couple months of each other.

Megan with her cake today. Happy 13th birthday Meggie!

Parties, parties, parties!

This weekend was so busy! On Friday night, I went to a Stampin' Up party at Kathy's house. On Saturday, we had the Cooper Christmas party. Then today, we had the Record family party at the Silver Spur, then a birthday party for Megan. I love the Christmas season, but this was a little busy. Luckily, I'm feeling better. I'd been sick for a week and a half before I called the doctor. I was having symptoms of a sinus infection, so he put me on antibiotics. I'm still not back to normal, but I'm definitely feeling better. I have never had a cold like that one! I was completely stuffed up for over a week, with no relief in sight.

I gave a talk in sacrament meeting today on bringing the spirit of Christmas into our homes. I got a few compliments, so hopefully it was okay. I felt pretty good about it.

I feel bad for Megan each year when it comes to her birthday because it's so close to Christmas that we have to squeeze in a little party. I always feel like she's getting gyped. She seemed happy today, though with our little party. We had my mom and dad come, along with Gram, Emily, Felicia and Jake, and Mike and Hilda. She got $75 in all, plus some gifts from us that she picked out herself (she's getting to that age that is difficult to buy for). I can't believe she's 13! She was only 1 1/2 when Dan and I started dating.

Ashley called tonight to say that she has to fly back to Texas on the 26th for a basketball tournament. She's only coming on the 24th! I could tell that Dan felt really hurt (I'm hurt, too). I'm not sure why we just can't seem to get really close to Ashley. I don't understand.

The kids got to open gifts at the Christmas parties we went to. Nathan was super excited about some Lego Ninjago stuff he got yesterday. Today he got a Mater Operation game, which he was excited about too. After Megan's party tonight we put together the Lego Skull Motorbike. Megan got a couple of CD's yesterday and a Justin Beiber calendar today. They both seemed happy.

For the Cooper party yesterday we met at Russel Park Manor to sing to the residents there. This was Nathan and Megan's first experience doing something like that and they were pretty nervous. It went really well, though, and the residents seemed to love it. I was so glad that Megan and Nathan got the experience of giving service like that.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

I haven't written in a while, so I have a lot to catch up on. I'm just going to write about whatever pops into my mind.

We had two Thanksgiving dinners, which was really nice. We had one at my parents on Thanksgiving day, and then one the next day at Jeff and Sue's. They were both delicious and it was fun to visit with both sides. We celebrated Maddi's 5th birthday that night, which was fun. She's such a little cutie. She was so excited to open her presents. At one point, she handed me my camera, I think she was hoping that she could get things rolling. So funny! We gave her a LaLaLoopsy ferris wheel with a couple little dolls. She and Sydney both loved it.

We had our first snow day the day before Thanksgiving, so we had a nice long weekend. On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we went to see the movie "Arthur Christmas". It was so cute! We brought Emily with us, too. The week before, we had seen "Happy Feet Two" with my mom. It was cute, but not as cute as Arthur Christmas.

Dan put our Christmas tree up on Thanksgiving morning. It looks awesome. He let Nathan put the blue candy canes on. I'm happy to let them do all the work. I love the tree, but I don't like having to put it up or decorate it. Speaking of Christmas, Nathan started his Lego advent calendar on December 1st. It's the first think he does every morning. So far, he's gotten a robber, a catapult, a policeman, and part of the jail. Not very Christmasy so far, but I'm sure there will be some decorations eventually. It's a Lego City one, so there are all sorts of different objects from the city. I also have another advent calendar up, and it has a Lindtt chocolate for him to eat each day.

Mom has been really sick lately with a really bad cold and cough. She always has a hard time getting rid of coughs. I've been sick this week, too, although not as bad as her. Each day of the week I was feeling worse and worse. I was supposed to go to a workshop in Orono on Friday, but I was feeling so badly that I decided not to go. Luckily, someone got to go in my place. Anyway, I was feeling a little better yesterday, probably because I could sleep in and just hang around the house. I started feeling worse again last night, and now I feel horrible. I stayed home from church, which is really unusual. I could have gone if I could just sit there, but I had a class to teach, piano to play, etc.

Yesterday, when I was feeling better, I made the cutest Christmas cookies! I'm so proud of how they turned out. They were sugar cookies, decorated like penguins with big sweaters on. I'll post a picture soon. I think I may have just found a new hobby. I used a new sugar cookie recipe and an icing recipe and watched some tutorials so I'd know how to do it. It was so fun.