A collage of Christmas

I have created a collage of the pictures I was able to get with my dear daughter's camera of our Christmas.  We have the tree, both lit and unlit.  The gingerbread houses-Sweet G's (she did 2 because Teeny Bopper admitted to not enjoying decorating gingerbread houses), Little Miss', Blondie's, and Dr. D's complete with lava coming out the chimney.  Nana with her fabulous purple glasses.  A few stocking opening pictures.  The kids lined up in the hall, youngest to oldest per tradition, as they await being released to find their stockings.  Our nativity table with our little glass set from years ago, the rock painted set my niece made last year, and the wooden block set I made this year.  Dr. D with his beloved slinky eyeball glasses.  Lastly, a few decorations around the house.  What a lovely Christmas!!

Happy Holidays Stuff

We have had a very full and wonderful December.  Why isn't much of it documented here?  Well, for one, I have been so busy doing things I haven't had a chance to write about it.  And for two, my CAMERA won't DOWNLOAD.  I am t.i.c.k.e.d.  So, I will have to grab Teeny Bopper's camera and take some after shots.

Here is a brief low-down of what we have done:
Bought a real Christmas tree
Decorated the house and aforementioned tree
Christmas concerts out the wazoo
The older girls got contacts
The younger girls got a bunk bed
Decorated gingerbread houses
Walked around the Temple and saw the lights
Ate lots of food
Gave out salsa to the neighbors
Lots of shopping
Lots of wrapping
Made a wooden blocks nativity set
Put lights on the house
Attended and hosted parties and gatherings (including a little bonfire in the backyard)
Cleaned the house and messed it right back up again, multiple countless times
Sewed
Played games with the kids (and hubby), especially Just Dance and Curses, our newest games-HILARIOUS
Watched movies
Dr. D learned how to ride a bike
Had Little Miss' tonsils and adenoids chopped out
Took our family picture

It has been a fantastic month!  Christmas was great because we were able to get many things we have needed for a while and the kids were so happy to get them.  Since we got the girls big things (contacts and bunk beds) most of the Christmas gifts were family oriented.  I mentioned the Just Dance game and Curses.  We also got some good jump ropes-individual ones and long ones for double dutch.  Also the movie The Help and books-the Fablehaven series and a Shannon Hale set.  DH and I got Kindle Fires for our Christmas gifts.  We have had lots of fun with those!

It's sad to see 2011 go, because it has been such a good year to us.  Kind of strange to think of the year almost being over.  Life is good!  Bring on the new year.

Family Picture

Phew!  We barely squeaked it in, but we took our annual family picture!!  We did it in 15 min from the call, "Everybody get dressed; let's go take our family picture!" to back home and done.  I had a pedicure to do but the sun was going down, so we threw some clothes on, brushed our hair, ran across the street to stand by the wall, and got 'er done.  I love them!

We had to use Teeny Bopper's camera, because mine won't download for some reason.  grrrrrrrrrrrrr   Oh well.  And the beauty of black and white is, you can wear whatever and don't need to match!  Yay for modern technology!  (and Picnik)  The only thing that bugs me is that I look like my eyes are closed.  I squint when I smile so I don't know if they are or not.  Whatev.  :)

Soooo tired

The Yearning

Another choir post.  I know, I know.  But I can't help it. :)
Tonite was our first Christmas concert.  One of my favorite songs isn't actually a Christmas song.  It's called The Yearning.  It is about our yearning for Christ.  My heart swells when we sing this song, it's so amazing.  I was bummed because I got a major tickle in my throat just before this song, so I couldn't actually sing it.  At all.  Or the next song, and most of the next song.  Gah!  It was so frustrating because if I started singing the tickle would come back so I had to just fake it until I knew it was gone.  I was kind of sad because my voice wasn't included in The Yearning, but it was nice to listen to it.
After our concert, we went to sing for one of the choir member's mother.  She has terminal cancer-breast, bone, brain, liver.  She slept all day just to have enough energy to come out and listen to us.  I spent 30 min. with her and her husband and could tell she is a gem.  The kind of woman that is gracious and loving to everyone she meets, even in her suffering.  Very much the heart of this family.  I could picture in my mind her husband sitting there thinking, "What in the world am I going to do without this woman?"  Though this family was face to face with this intense trial, and I could tell that though there is sadness at the prospect of being separated by death, there was not fear.  There was strong faith holding them together like glue.  My voice was fine and I was able to sing The Yearning for them.  It meant so much to me to be singing and sharing the beautiful spirit that was there with this family.

Messiah

One of my favorite events of the season happened last night.  The Messiah sing-along.  This year I was asked to be in the choir, which basically meant sitting at the front and standing up when it was time to sing so everyone would know when to sing.  But for me, it also meant that for the first time ever, I wasn't completely lost!  I borrowed the Messiah CD's from a friend, and practiced singing with them.  It was great!
Handle wrote the Messiah in less than 30 days.  That is utterly amazing.  I have enjoyed the sing-alongs in the past, especially the Hallelujah chorus.  That's everyone's favorite, right?  This year the whole thing touched me a lot more than it has before.  Maybe it will sound strange, but praising God has been on my mind.  We thank Him, we communicate with Him, but how often do we praise God?
As I was participating in this music, I felt like I was praising the Lord.  "Honor, power and glory be unto Him, be unto Him", "Glory to God!  Glory to God!  Glory to God in the Highest!", "Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.  Hallelujah!", "Wonderful!  Counselor!  The Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace".  These were the words, and the melodies were just as awesome.  My soul was happy.  Thank you, Handel, for the Messiah.  I believe you did hear the angels singing when you wrote this.  I am grateful for this season to celebrate our beloved Savior's birth, especially through music.

One year ago today...

We officially moved into our house.  (warning:looooong post ahead)

One year ago our family underwent a monumental change.  We packed all eight of us (and all our junk belongings) and moved.  To a new house.  A new ward.  For some of the kids, a new school.  For all of us, a new life.
For the past several years our family has been on a pretty intense roller coaster ride.  To sum it up, because it's not really possible to write all of the gory details right now, DH left a fairly comfortable albeit dead-end job to go into business with a good friend.  We had prayed about the decision, but never got a "go ahead" answer.  In spite of that, and contrary to the advice of friends and family, we took the leap into this business venture.  We sunk invested ALL of our retirement, savings, etc. into this business in order to fund the projects and plans.
OK-here's the big summary part:
Turns out, our friend and partner was doing many illegal and immoral things.  He ended up in jail and we lost everything.  Our money, DH's confidence and self esteem, and ultimately our home.  What we didn't lose was our faith, each other, and the knowledge that our Heavenly Father was very aware of us and our situation.  During these years, we received countless acts of service--from the prayers or others to $500 coming to us anonymously through our mail slot.  (what came through our mail slot deserves it's own post sometime)  This kind of thing happened more than once, especially around Christmas, and always at crucial times.
In April of 2010, a good friend and neighbor gave DH a job.  Very low paying, but a job nonetheless.  This job not only provided money, but gave DH a huge boost and was a life-preserver to him when he felt he was drowning.  We will be forever grateful to our friend for this opportunity.  From here, DH was able to get his current job (last November).
There were many months throughout this time that we couldn't pay our mortgage, so even though we were working with our bank constantly and trying to modify our loan-or do whatever we could-we ended up losing our home.  This was not just another house to me.  My grandfather built it and I grew up in it.  This was a tough blow for us to deal with.  My mom was also living with us and I had break the news to her.  That was no small task.


Some of the hardest things to leave.  My board and batten wall!  And pretty light fixtures.  And granite counters. :)

Somehow, however, I maintained a feeling of peace through most of this time.  Don't get me wrong, there were those moments of panic and worry, but deep down I knew things would work out.  I couldn't see how, but tried to strengthen my faith.  At this point, we had to decide if we should just stay in the house without paying anything for as long as possible, or move on our own terms.  DH was very certain we should leave on our own terms.  The uncertainty of "is this the day we get kicked out?" was too much.  I was grateful for this decision, and looking back am even more grateful now than I was back then.
I began looking for rental homes.  I scoured Craigslist (we almost got totally scammed once, it was awesome!), worked with realtors, drove neighborhoods looking for rental signs, and spread the word that we were looking.
In conversation with a good friend one day, I brought up that we were looking for a place to rent.  She told me that her parents had just moved and were trying to rent out their house.
Another long story made short: it was the perfect price, perfect size, and great neighborhood.  And besides all of these positive factors, the moment both DH and I walked into the house we knew it was the right place for us.  This move was exactly what we needed to officially "start over".
Our biggest concern at this time was our two oldest daughters.  At almost 13 and 15, this was a hard age to uproot.  Fortunately, they were able to remain at the same school, so our biggest apprehension was the Young Women in our new ward.  Would they be accepting?  Stuck up and clique-ish?  Warm and inviting?  Who knew.

we were excited to have a basketball hoop

 and a tree house and high ceilings

Since we were moving on our own conditions, we began moving stuff over a little at a time over the period of a few weeks.  Beginning about a week or so before our bona fide move-in day, some of our new neighbors came by to get acquainted.  The Young Women leaders came by.  The Bishopric came by.  We had three families come caroling and bringing treats before we even moved in!  We just happened to be there when they came by.  This experience helped solidify in my mind that there is very little "coincidence" to life.  I felt the hand of the Lord very strongly in all these little things.
The Young Women turned out to be lovely.  They scooped up both our girls into their arms and carried them through that time.  They were wonderful!  There was really no pain involved with this whole move that wasn't completely overcome by they joy of our new situation.  We were so blessed!
Fast forward one year.
We have some of the best friends we've ever had in our lives.  Some of which are right next door!  We have just enough space.  (I'm not saying I don't want a bigger house at some point.  Maybe in a few years.)  All our kid have good friends in the ward.  Great new school for the younger kids.  We have an increased knowledge that our Heavenly Father is mindful of us.  I am a member of a choir that I ADORE.  This would have never happened if we hadn't come here.  I feel so peaceful about our life now, even though we are still in a fairly precarious financial state.  I guess it will take some time to totally remedy that.
5 years ago, I wondered if there would ever come a time that I could say, "I am grateful for this trial."  It has taken me this long, but now I can say with full sincerity, I am grateful for this trial.  We have learned SO MUCH.  Too bad it takes hard knocks to teach us sometimes.  (I don't much like hard knocks!!) :-)
Here's to at least another year in this house, hopefully more.  Thanks to a Father in Heaven that is watching over us, and for the comfort and peace this brings.  I love life!

Resonance

I have heard many women say that it's important to have something to do every now and then to help keep balance in our lives, that is separate from being a mom all day long.  Even though being a mom is the best occupation there is, sometimes giving of yourself 24-7 can get draining and leave one feeling in need of a re-charge.  I agree with this, and for me this has taken different forms at different times in my life.  I have done card making and scrapbooking, "Mommy's night" out with friends--things like that.
My newest outlet and re-charge is choir.  I was invited by a member of my ward, who is the director of the choir, to join and I LOVE it.  I love it so much!!  I always planned to join an orchestra at some point.  You know, when the kids were grown up a bit and I didn't have little babies at home.  I figured something like that would be much farther down the road for me, but then along came Resonance.  They are super family friendly, and though it is a firm commitment to attend rehearsal once a week they do understand when things come up.  It is affordable and close to my house--perfect, really.  (another big plus, the choir outfits are fairly attractive, not hideous like I was afraid of :)
And turns out I can not only sing in the choir, but they use my flute and piano playing as well, which makes me super happy!!!  I know it sounds like I am exaggerating, but being a member of this choir is one of the highlights of my life.  I am so blessed to be a part of it.
Last night we had the annual choir Christmas party and as a part of this, we went to sing for a lady who is homebound and terminally ill.  She was a sweetheart, and well aware that this was her last Christmas on this earth.  I felt a sweet Spirit with us as we sang to her in her home, and what a privilege this was for us.  THIS is the kind of group this is.  We are going to another similar woman's home on Monday.
I thank the Lord for putting Resonance in my life.  It's great all year, but at Christmas??  Wowzers.  Try singing Christmas songs with an awesome choir.  :)    It's a good life.  :)

I blame the hormones for this one

So, it hasn't been the best day.  I don't usually post things like this, but I think I will today.  :)

The day started with the realization that I missed the early registration for Blondie to start Jr. High next year.  Grrr  I called the school, and they said it's ok-jut get the application in asap and she will just have to do her entry tests in the spring.  Bummer, but ok.  She can still get in so it's all good.  But only after some worry and fret on my part.  Oh well.  Taken care of now.

Try to upload some pictures from my camera, and for some reason they won't upload.  I will try again later I guess, but this has never happened before.  Great.

So, I shower and take the time to remove my toenail polish and fuss over my cuticles a bit so I can paint them a happy red glitter later.  With white polka dots.  I get out, dry my hair, and get a phone call.  It's my visiting teaching partner calling to remind me of our very important appt this morning.  Yeah, of course I FORGOT all about it!  At least my hair was dry, and thank goodness she called!  I bet she was inspired to do that.  I yank on a horribly unflattering shirt; no time to change.  My toe nails are stained a slight ugly yellow, but gotta leave them for later.  (who's going to notice them, right?  I mean besides toe people like me?  gah-I have got to let these things go!)  Grab the boys from the table, faces and hands covered in jelly, and we jump in the car and go.  It turned out to be a very good thing we went.  Whew!

Next, I get a text from Teeny Bopper who has a ballroom concert tonite saying that the tickets are all sold out.  Um, EXCUSE ME?  So, I won't be able to go see my daughter perform?  I am ticked off about this one.  She may be able to get an extra ticket from a friend, so DH and I will toss a coin for it or something.  Or....maybe I could sit on his lap?  :)  So, after the registration thing and now this, I am feeling like Loser Parent of the Year.  Yep.  AND...there's more.

Well, I decide to take the boys to the mall for Kids Club and let them have their free carousel ride.  Even get a pretzel for a snack and play in the play place.  Sounds good!  We get to the pretzel place first, so I order and open my cute little purse to pay.  I stand there with it open while he runs my debit card.  When he gives it back to me, I go to put it back into my purse and there hanging out are my *ahem* feminine supplies, practically splayed out on the counter.  O.K.  I quickly stow things away, take my pretzels and run.
We go to the carousel--oh boy, the kids are psyched!  Yah, turns out there is no kids club in December so they don't get a free ride afterall.  Well, I don't have any money to pay for a ride, so we have to leave.  Lucky for me, the boys are totally fine about it and we head to the play place in peace.  I was expecting resistance with this one, but they were so good!  What a blessing.

SO...I decided I should look for the joy in my day after all this.  Having a good visiting teaching partner who is on the ball even when I am clearly not.  And taking the time for the appointment was a good thing.  I feel so glad we went.  I love how my Dr. D was so obedient (after a little talk about it).  He was truly so well behaved today.  Hearing Tail Gunner talk.  It's SO adorable!!  He's at that stage where people walk by and hear his cute little voice and can't help smiling and commenting on him.  He is such a smart little turkey!  It was fun watching Dr. D gallop around the play place like a horse (thanks to his cousin in Utah who taught him to do that) and watch the other kids show the funniest expressions at him!  Like, "What the?  This boy is galloping around here like a horse?  Huh?"  So funny!
And now, my toes are wearing a happy red glitter and await their polka dots.  Ahhhh.  Much better!  Now off to change my shirt, put on some makeup and relax.  For the next 5 minutes until the kids get home, that is...  :)

Not much Christmas

This post is not so much about anything Christmas-y.  Just random stuff.

* My beloved SIL just went through a miscarriage.  It was sad and very surprising to us all.  She is a trooper, though, and handling it very well.  It has made me think, is all.  And try to figure out how to get me a plane ticket,  pronto!  :)

* I had to fill out the form to register my Dr. D for Kindergarten.  I am kind of freaking out!  There is a choice for full day or half day.  I canNOT get myself to check one.  In my mind I have reasons for both being ok, and all I can do is sit here and cry (yes, cry) because I am having a hard time letting my baby go.  What do I do?

* I really want a Kindle Fire.  Well, I want an Ipad, but a Kindle Fire is way cheaper, so I want one of those.

* OK, on a Christmas note, I made a Christmas craft, put up a few more Christmas decorations, hosted a Christmas party for my Activity Day girls, and started making a Christmas gift today.  Yay!!

I turned this:  (they were all out of  "J" so I had to be creative :)

Into this:  (inspiration via Pinterest, of course)

Christmas Tunes

I really feel like Christmas is in the air when my older kids start listening to Christmas music.  I LOVE hearing "Rockin Around the Christmas Tree" being belted out from their bedroom.  :)

Temple lights

I forgot my camera again so this pic is from the Church News.

Our family activity today was going to the temple to see the Christmas lights.  It was pretty cold out there, so we bundled up and I took some hot chocolate in a thermos.  We also took some "fireworks glasses" that DH brought home from work.  They made the lights look like they were exploding rainbows or something, it's hard to describe.  We saw the nativity displays inside and called it a night.  I love the temple!  (Although, I must say that as much as I love the lights, I like the temple better without them.) :)

The Ward Party

OK, no month of December is complete without the ward Christmas party.  This year the theme was "Christmas Around the World".  We had foods from all different countries.  DH signed us up to take empanadas, his favorite food from Chile, where he served his mission.  I should have taken a picture, because the platter of empanadas did look pretty cool, but I didn't think of it.  In fact, I was just glad to have finished them in time.  :)
Dr. D was Joseph in a little living Nativity that the primary kids did.  Oh my, they were so adorable!!

Insert picture here as soon as I get one emailed to me

What a nice evening.  Time well spent with family, our ward family.
(I have to admit, that I was feeling a little homesick for some friends in our last ward.  "Make new friends, but keep the old..."  So glad that is a true statement!)

Creating the "mood"

We pulled the Christmas decorations out of the attic the other day (meaning I crawled up there, bumped my head against the nails in the shingles a few times and got dust in my eye), and yesterday got the courage to get into the boxes and start the decorating!
Here is a little peak of my favorite display:

bad picture from my phone in low light.  sorry!

I love how the ornaments look in the gorgeous glass jar and a quote from my favorite Christmas movie, Elf; "the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear".  Let the fun begin!

Merry December!

our tree last year

Wow.  I had all kinds of thoughts going through my head about things to do in December, and then all of a sudden, here it is and I am unprepared.  (that's a shocker :)
Well, I do have some goals for this month.  I guess I will start off with those.

1.  No TV during the day.  The only TV I want on is sometimes in the evenings when my honey and I watch our new show "Lie to me" :), or Christmas movies on weekends.  This also includes no video games for my little guy.  He took the news surprisingly well, btw.  Whew.

2.  I want to only make dinner that includes meat maximum of 2 times per week.  If that meat is fish, I will be even happier.  We need to cut back on our meat consumption, and even DH is with me on that one.  I am also going to cut waaaay back on dairy products, except yogurt.  I want to make my own with raw milk.  That's the goal, anyway.  And then another food goal I have is to start eating "cultured vegetables"-a little with every meal.

3.  The LDS website has ideas for the twelve days of Christmas and I haven't looked through all the ideas yet, but I figure if it's on the church site, it must be good.  That 's my plan as far as "advent calendar" goes.  DH wants to teach the kids about Hanukkah as well.  We have a menorah, and are going to learn about it and incorporate this into our holiday celebrations.  (not all the traditions, just the learning about it)

4.  I want to make a lot of our Christmas gifts.  Note to self:  get on the stick!!  They aren't going to make themselves!!  :)

That's a good December 1 post, I'd say.  More to come.  Welcome, December!!!