cookies, kleenex and bags of trash

New year's off with a bang :) We actually haven't been doing anything too exciting. Yesterday the littles wanted to make cookies so we spent some time baking...and eating.

Last night S and I went out for her birthday. She didn't want a party this year, instead she wanted to go on a date with her mom (lucky lucky me!!). We went to Olive Garden then to see "PS I love You" which was sad and good and a total chick flick. I think there were two men in the theater and when the movie was over they walked out behind their girlfriends sadly shaking their heads while the girlfriends wiped their eyes and with a loud sniff said "sorry I made you come...I should have made it a girls night"
We had a very fun time visiting and laughing and walking to the car arm in arm shivering from the cold and comparing the merits of the various hunky leading men.

We also spent a lot of time yesterday de-cluttering (can anyone shout out resolution?) and moving stuff around. The venturing crew is having a garage sale/fund raiser and the timing is perfect...we clean out, sort, throw away and take the good stuff straight to Tori's garage!

We have many, many rooms to go but I think this is our year!

Today DH had to go back to work. We had a nice long break with him and the kids still have a couple days off, which is fun, but his vacation is over. Brother had a lucky day, he was invited to go play with his friend C and then to his friend Mason's. So he had two play dates in one day. When the phone rang this morning he was so thrilled and said he'd been waiting for someone to invite him to play...and then the almost never happens but oh so lucky luck, two friends in one day call. AND he has a friend to play with tomorrow and Friday~ that might be better than Christmas :)

H had activity days today. They are making masks and the girls had so much fun. I went to pick them up but they weren't ready so I got to watch for awhile and I was glad to see them so gooey and messy and happy. Gretchen is the most awesome Activity Day leader EVER! Tomorrow she gets to play at Emmaline's and Friday she has an un-sleepover so it'll be pretty good week for her too.

Lu wants to have friends and to go play too. She didn't used to but now she's getting bigger. I need to find her a preschool or something. Once a week play group isn't enough any more. She always, always asks to "go to baby school".

I've been reading this book, it's not my usual type but I am enjoying it. It's the story of one woman's journey to "self discovery". So far I am through the Italy part which was where she ate a lot of delicious Italian food and described it in such a way that I had to make Spaghetti Carbonera tonight. (not as good as I had hoped but not bad) and made me long to spend a month in Rome. I am so glad that I know who I am and where I am going and the meaning of life, still it's interesting to read and she writes well.

Festivities

The girls had a good time getting ready for the dance. They helped each other with hair, make up and finding something to wear.

They danced, drank Dr Pepper, played the piano, ran around, laughed, went on line.....

Then they went to the dance.
Everyone had a good time. Some of the girls complained after that lots of people didn't dance. Which I don't get because when I was a girl....

After the dance was over a lot of the chikitas went to "sleep over" at Emma's. Lucky Tori :)

New Year's Eve

I can't believe it's time to say good bye to 2007 already. I don't know how many times a week I think "I can't believe how quickly time is going by"...but really I can't believe it! Every day seems to zoom. The list of things to do doesn't quite get checked off, but we still get a lot done. I hope we're packing a lot of love and a lot of fun into our days.
Today is the last day of another year. In many ways it was uneventful. We moved a lot of stuff in the house. Papa and Grandma are going to be moving in with us in about a week and we've been trying to figure out the best way to make everyone fit. Finally today we settled on a plan and moved E into the big room with the two little girls. They will share a bunk bed that has a double on the bottom and a single on the top. They are all every excited!
S will move into E's room and Papa and Grandma can have the upstairs.
Besides lots of moving S went to the stake center with Z to decorate. Then they went to see National Treasure 2, so now I am the only one who hasn't seen it.
We went out for our "traditional" Chinese dinner on NYE. It was very yummy and fun, even though no one remembers this "tradition of ours".

Tonight we had a house full of girls getting ready for the dance. They all looked so cute! Once they left we played Wii, looked at the stars (thanks to Dani and Greg) and now I just tucked in Lu and in an hour we'll watch the ball drop and then tuck the H and E into bed. There are tons of fireworks going off in the neighborhood so we'll probably head outside in a while to watch them whilst we freeze our buns off.

My Favorite picture of S, she was almost 4

For Nana, more haircut shots

ready to go

remembering

See my Tabblo>

back to "normal"

I just got back from the airport. The family is all flying back to their homes.

Time to take down the Christmas tree, clean up the mess, start the diet...back to normal. It'll be an adjustment. We love when everyone is here.

Last Day

This was our last day with the family here. We did some shopping and hung out. Dani cut hair.
This evening we got Macey to come baby sit and the big people went to South Lake to do some more shopping and we met up with some friends for dinner.

It's been fun having everyone here :)

Last First Hair Cut

Having a hair dresser in the family has definite perks. We all got cuts this week.


When Lu was done she said "now I a big girl."

My last baby is growing up :(

Wii took a break and went to the zoo

This morning was the Lockheed plant tour. Those who went said it was interesting.
When they got back we headed over to the zoo. S and J didn't come. S went to the mall. J slept all day.

The zoo was great. It was cool outside and some of the animals were put away, but there was hardly anyone else there so we had the run of the place and the kids had a lot of freedom to look at what they wanted and to walk in front of or behind us.
The air was crisp and we had a lot of fun looking around. The hippos were very active.

Texas Wild was it's usual fun place.
Tonight H is off sleeping at the hotel with Nana and Abba.

The big girls are at scripture reading at the Petty's.

D&G went down town to see the sights.

The otters were very playful and cute!

So I don't forget

What have we been up to?

Going out to eat. We went to Salt Grass and Papasitos and Chilis.

Shopping. More excursions than I can count.

Goodies. Making them for us. Making them for others. Receiving them from other.

Cooking.

DH, Abba, J, E and H went to the movies.

D and I wrapped. Nana and I wrapped. I wrapped.

Poor Nana had the flu (crossing my fingers that it will be isolated)

Wii are so excited we can't stand it!!

Wii wish you a Merry Christmas!

Christmas was great. The best part, hands down, was having everyone here!!

The kids woke up EARLY Christmas morning. They opened their stockings and logged on to the computer to register their new webkins and played for awhile before waking us to join them.

After everyone was up we headed upstairs and opened gifts. We got a Wii! Which everyone wanted and everyone was SO excited about.

Greg wasn't arriving until 4pm and Nana, Abba and UB were sleeping in at the hotel so we had two stacks of gifts. One upstairs and one down.
After the morning opening we had breakfast, started playing Wii. Cooked (all day), hung out, watched movies.

After everyone was here, and we ate the hugest Christmas dinner ever, we opened more presents.

It was a very fun day. We were spoiled, like always. The kids ran around playing with all their new stuff all day, which was so fun. I loved having everyone here to be together.

Now, the morning after, DH is taking D&G, UB and Abba on a Lockheed tour. Brother is playing with his new train set and H is playing with moon sand (cursed invention) J is sleeping, S is watching a movie, Lucy is dressing her baby and I am taking a moment to blog.

Merry Christmas

It's 5 minutes to midnight and almost the big day. The stockings are filled and presents are wrapped (after a last minute oh no! where my biggest nightmare came true...I thought I had bought some stuff that I didn't, and I planned on doing some last minute stuff and between the flu and being busy with family, and I don't know what I forgot) and "some assembly required" is being assembled right this moment we are "ready". Or at least ready or not it's here. The big day.I expect tomorrow will be crazy, with lots of cooking to be done, and picking up of packing materials. I hope everyone will be happy and have fun. I hope Greg travels safely and no one else gets sick. I hope that some where amid the bustle and hustle and the stress and the joy of the day we will stop and remember the Savior whose birth it is we celebrate.

sleeping outside take 2

the trend continues, with more crazies. It's supposed to go down to 26 degrees tonight. BRRR! I guess it's good practice for their high adventure this summer.

I have all my kids together today

It's a good day!

oh, the weather outside is frightful...

it's coolldd outside! and it feels very Christmasy. Nana and Abba and Uncle Brian arrived yesterday. The kids were SO excited they could hardly stand it. We visited and then we to Chili's for dinner. It was yummy and wet, since the server spilt drinks all over the ground and it got on coats and purses.

Today DH and the men went on their traditional shopping excursion. The rest of us stayed home, did grocery shopping, wrapped presents, watched the kids run around. Nana is teaching H how to knit and they did that awhile. I think H is getting the hang of it, I am sure she will if she keeps trying.

When the men got back we met up for some early shopping. Now that the big girls are, well, big there are some things we wanted to get them but couldn't without them there. Not quite the surprise that is traditional but it is practical and needful...and I am sure there will be some surprises on Christmas morning to look forward to as well.

S has been wanting a new phone, hers was having some problems. So we went to sprint first and she picked a cute red one. Next we were off to hunt down some needed camping gear for J. She has several small outings planned with her venturing crew and then her big CO trip this summer. We went to backwoods and she got some boots, socks, a sleeping bag and a therma rest. She was very excited and so are we. There are still some things we'll need to get for her to be ready but this was a good dent :) Tonight she took it out on the porch and is taking it for a test drive. It's darn cold out and she says she's nice and toasty!

Then we went to Papasitos for dinner, it was so yummy and the kids were good. We ate early then sent the kiddos home with S and the adults did some more shopping.

Shop til you drop is the theme of the day. It was fun, there were lots of Christmas lights out and lots of happy shoppers.

this and that and a bah humbug thrown in for good measure

We've been cleaning and wrapping and baking and waiting.
You know that dream..the one where it's Christmas morning and somehow you forgot all about it and now there is nothing ready for the kids? I often have that one and wake up so relieved that it's not...and that I didn't.
I kind of feel like that right now. The floor project really slowed down some of our Christmasy preparations...yet it's still coming.
The kids are still excited and the family is still arriving and the tree is up even though the lights aren't working, it just kind of doesn't feel real Christmasy.

Last night we went to Marcy and Gary's Christmas Open House. We almost didn't cause there is so much to do, what else is new?, more to do then time and interest to do it in :) But then we did and I am glad. It was fun. They had a lot of people there and we left early so I imagine that even more came. The kids were happy to see some friends and visit, so were DH and I. Their house is very nice, not at all cluttery. We need to de-clutter. Big time.

Today was the kids parties at school. E's class all got together and bought a charm bracelet for Mrs. Torisk. Each child chose a charm that represented them. E chose a fighter plane. (because he loves planes, his dad designs/tests/what not planes and he wants to be a pilot) H took a Christmas candle to her sweet teacher Mrs. Miller. Both kids are bouncing off the walls and counting down the minutes until Abba and Nana and Uncle Brian arrive. I am chasing after them, trying to make sure that it at least looks like we made an effort...if not that we got everything done. Sadly effort gets undone super quickly so it's a full time effort to make sure things stay in place for another hour. (however saying "will you kids please stop playing and sit down and watch TV", I just can't do it. It might help, but I can't. I do have one TV addict and I'd rather have the mess...most days) Once they walk in the door and see that we swept, then we're good ;)

I have two lessons to prepare for Sunday and home/visiting teacher treats to make and many more presents to wrap. For the record.

I think everyone else is in the same boat...at least my friends~they are all crazy busy and scrambling to get every thing done. What does that say about us?

Fun news. J made the JV drill team for the spring. She is excited. I am too. It will be fun to go watch her dance.

Waiting

Floor

Before
After
Our lovely new floor.

One tip: when choosing wood make sure you match it to your dog. We have dark wood and a blond dog...lots of sweeping will be happening at our house to be sure:)

Oatmeal, cranberry, orange cookies that I made for Joy's party

1Cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups quick-cooking oats
1 cup raisins
1 cup coarsely chopped fresh or frozen cranberries
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
1 (12 ounce) package vanilla chips

1. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda; add to the creamed mixture. Stir in oats, raisins, cranberries and orange peel. Stir in vanilla chips.
2. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 in. apart onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 375 degrees F for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Cool on wire racks.
Yield: 36 servings

these are so delicious! I think they are a new family favorite and a nice change of pace from chocolate chip...not that you can ever go wrong with chocolate chip :)

more

Gingerbread Christmas