Christmas stuff!

Wow! It's been a busy week. I'm failing so miserably at the picture a day thing I think I've given up. Maybe I'll try later when it's not Christmas! Ack! Anyway, I spent all day last Wednesday (I think) baking and candy making. Here are some of the fruits of my labors:
Chocolate popcorn and pretzels

Peppermint brownie cups:

The finished plates- they looked so pretty this year! We delivered them to all the neighbors pluse a few people in the ward. We're trying hard to get to know our neighbors here better. So far I feel like I know a couple of them better then anyone in our old neighborhood.

Here are the girls all ready to open presents! We had church at 10am and I knew if we opened presents before church that we'd never get there on time. Especially since I was singing in the choir and had to be there by 9:30. Our Choir director was sick though so I ended up directing last minute. It went well though!

Here is another picture- but the lighting was funky. It's the best picture I got of Annika all morning though.

Here's Ashley in her Christmas dress ready to go to church. We let them open stockings before church. 'Megan decided that she was enjoying picture taking Christmas morning- which is strange for her. She loves the bubble baths they got and wanted to take them to church- for some reason I didn't let her.

Here's Annika looking drugged. She's not- I promise. She's also covered in chocolate- which she kept finding for days!

Corinne's dress is my favorite. I love it! She's playing with/eating her favorite Christmas toy- wrapping paper!
Here are all the girls in their Christmas jammies on Christmas eve. The Pajama Fairy/Elf (apparently the name is up for discussion?) dropped pajamas off on our doorstep during dinner. Ashley was certain that I was the pajama fairy but I was sitting next to her when the doorbell rang. (Remember that thing about knowing my neighbors?? Comes in handy!)

We had a great Christmas though. We went over to Steve's parent's house for dinner about 5 and visited with them and opened more presents there. It was nice to spread out the gift opening throughout the day. I also really liked having Church on Christmas day. Really added to the spirit of the day. I hope your Christmases were wonderful!

Sigh... time to relax, sort of

I'm officially (as of last night) done shopping for Christmas presents. I'm not sure why it took me so long to find stuff for Megan and Annika- but it did. It's nice to not have to go anywhere today. We all slept in and then Steve got up with the kids and I slept in some more. Woo! I've pulled a couple of late nights this last week and it's catching up with me apparently. I finally got up, ate a leisurly breakfast, played online, read my scriptures (I only need to read 25 pages a day to finish before the new year- I'm such a slacker) and then I took a nap. I think Steve should be home every day- I get a lot more done.

For some reason it didn't hit me that Christmas was coming so fast until like a week ago. So I decided we should get going on presents, cards, baking ect. I did all my holiday baking and candy making in one day rather then spreading it out over several days. Ashley 'babysat' for me entertaining her sisters one at a time (I napped them opposite) and Corinne decided to take one long afternoon nap so it worked out well. I've got pictures of all the stuff I made- but i'm too lazy to go look for batteries so my camera will turn on.

Our rug came two days ago! Woo!! It looks nothing like the picture- but I think I like it better (is that strange?) I put the coffee table together last night and it looks really good. Our house is looking put together! YAY! Now I just need to clean it. I'm not sure why it's so much harder to keep this house clean. It just feels like it's a never ending project that's not ever finished. Speaking of which I need to go get started on the kitchen....

Christmas pictures!

After 73 pictures and several cookies I got one that would work (after some editing). So YAY! Now all I have to do is write the darn Christmas letter... You'd think I'd be able to do it- but for some reason everytime I sit down to do it I draw a blank. What have I done this year?? Have a baby and move. That's it. Everything else is realated to those things, which sounds sort of boring. What has Steve done this year? Same as me (well, not exactly- but close). I don't feel exciting enough for a letter this year- maybe just the photo card with a change of address something inside?? Hmm..

Here are some that didn't make the cut...

TEN completely random things about me or people I know

1. I had bunyon surgery when I was a sophmore in HS. My foot was in a cast for a month.
2. I've never ridden on the subway, but my favorite sandwich is the sweet onion chicken teriyaki from the restraunt with that name.
3. My house doesn't have aluminum siding.
4. I've ridden the bus in Las Vegas twice- enough to know that I never want to do that again.
5. My sister Sarah just moved to Texas, I've never been there.
6. My favorite way to eat gingerbread is with lemon sauce and whipped cream.
7. I tried to read the book Wicked, I found it crude and boring... not sure what the hype is about.
8. I've not seen the newest Harry Potter movie yet- but I hear the dragons are cool.
9. 9 o' clock is my favorite time of day.
10. When Annika farts she grabs her butt and says, 'bum!' and giggles.

(Does that count Linsey?)

Merry Christmas- here's the flu....

Well- I got two gifts yesterday, new furniture and the flu. So this will be a short picture essay.
This is my new bedroom set- I think it's Walnut? I don't remember- but it's heavy! There are two night stands- but one is still in that box you see in the bottom right hand corner of the picture. The dresser knobs are also not white- those are just protective Styrofoam that's still on.

Here is the entertainment center. There are shelves on top too- we just haven't put them in yet. It's going to go in that nook behind it- but I haven't painted it yet (that will happen Monday or Tuesday) and don't want to put it in just to pull it out (it's also heavy). You can't really see the details of it very well against the white wall- but the back is 'planked' looks sorta like beadboard.

Here is the other benefactor of my gift of pukiness (the other one is standing by the entertainment center):

This was earlier this week when she was still feeling pretty sick. Steve and Ashley are next in line. I'm pretty sure Steve's getting it since he's feeling 'weird' like I was yesterday. I hope Ashley and Corinne avoid it! Deep thought of the day- how come Megan can make it to the toilet to puke- but not to poop?

We also got and end table and a cocktail table (square coffee table) for the living room. I haven't taken them out of the boxes and put the legs on them yet though. Our area rug will come this week or next. Yay! I finally feel like we're starting to get it together.

We got the furniture from a guy here in town who orders from the same catalogs as the big stores (Rc Willey ect) but only marks it up 50% rather then 200%. So we got great deals. It's all solid, real wood- not pressboard or anything. It's nice to have 'real' furniture!

YAY!!!

I got my ON stuff! I went by and they were home and they had it. They were out of town when it was delivered and it got sprinkled on and the box and label were destroyed so they weren't sure what to do with it. So YAY!!

Because I'm so smart

We have Christmas jammies every year. EVERY YEAR. It's important, it's tradition. Currently our Christmas jammies are at our old house. That's right- I didn't change my shipping address with Old Navy so they were shipped and arrived to my old address on the 13th. I think I'm going to puke. Here's to hoping I can get them from the new owners.. (well, the renters of the new owner). I'm seriously kicking myself!

and the stockings were hung

Here are our stockings, I purchased them because they look possibly homemade- they are not. I did however make the board that they are hanging on. I didn't really have a good place in our last house to hang it- I had a spot- but not a good one. That's no longer a problem here, I have the perfect spot- which makes me happy.

The other night Ashley asked what stockings had to do with Christmas- I scrambled- I didn't really know. I told her about how a long time ago in the winter when people would come in from the snow they would hang their wet socks by the fire and on Christmas eve then they would get filled with candy. I also told her about wooden shoes and those being filled with candy as well. She then asked- yeah, but what do stockings have to do with Jesus? Um, good question. I told her I wasn't really sure- maybe they were to remind us of swaddling clothes? Just to satisfy my couriousity I looked it up. For the answer go to: www.grandtimes.com/customs.html

The tradition at my house growing up is that anything in your stocking was fair game. You could get up as early as you wanted (usually 4am or so) and open your stocking, but you couldn't open any other presents under the tree until mom and dad were awake and everyone was in the living room. The first time we woke up in anticipation of Christmas morning (because Christmas Eve is a long, restless night) we'd go upstairs- open our stocking and then go back to bed. There was always an orange or tangerine in the toe, some candy, maybe some chapstick or jewelery. My favorites were the Andes mints that my mom would put in (because they were her favorites too).

Now that I'm the mom and I get to do the stockings I like to put some fun things in there. I've done oranges but no one seems to care- so last year I started putting juice boxes and individual cereals in the stockings- that seemed to be a big hit, so I'm doing that again this year. I'm also giving them fun toothbrushes, princess/Barbie bubblebath, candy (of course), and Ashley's getting a CTR ring. I usually pick up other random things as well.

Last year we started the 'three gift' tradition. Rather then have gift overload between what we give them and grandparents and aunts and uncles we just give them three gifts. Three because that's how many gifts Jesus got (and it's a good number). So they get one gift from Santa and two from mom and dad and then get tons more from family.

Now I've got to figure out what to do with all the extra toys we already have...

What I did today or how I can be productive when I try

First of all we walked to school, came home and frantically cleaned for neighborhood playgroup. I decided rather then clean the whole house and let a bunch of 2 year olds play unsupervised upstairs I'd bring a few easy to share toys (blocks, legos, puzzles) downstairs and gate off the upstairs. Woo! It worked well. I'd forgotten that I'd offered to watch my friends two boys for several hours today- they showed up in the middle of play group. We had a great time, I'm really liking my neighbors.

They all left and I fed my kids plus two extra lunch- then attempted to start candymaking for taking treats to visiting teaching families tonight. Didn't work as both potty trained kids pooped their pants (gross) and all three kids in diapers pooped their pants. Lovely.

Just as I was starting on the poop fest though my friend showed up to pick up her boys (yay!) so I escaped other people's kids bodily fluids. (woo!)

I made a batch of almond roca, peppermint bark and chocolate popcorn just in time to go to my visiting teaching companions house. She was making cookies and we were combining to make up plates of each. Anyway, we hit some bad construction and had to sit through one light for three rotations before we could turn- the bad thing was that just as we pulled up to the light Annika puked. Fun. Lovely. We'd just had FIVE extra kids over to play today and now Annika's puking. I got to my companion's house and explained so she went without me and we turned around and went home. Annika puked twice more in the car- then continued in the house. Megan decided to join in on the fun. Sigh- being a mom is so glamorous.

Steve decided it was movie night and took all the girls upstairs (yay!) and I decided that I need to get cracking on my Christmas gifts. I cleared off my sewing table and set up my sewing machine and whipped out 7 hooded towels. YAY! Go me! I'm not sure why I kept putting it off (probably because I had to clear off the table) since once I got going it only took me about 10 minutes a towel. I'm giving them to my nieces and nephew for Christmas. I still have two more to do- but I'm not loving two of the towels I bought, I must have thought they were cute in the store- but here at home they're not so cute. So since two of my nieces live in town I can return those towels and get cuter ones and I've still got 9 days to do it. Here's a picture of the towels.

Cute huh? Katie don't tell your kids.









Speaking of 9 days- here is my list of things 'to do' before Christmas (with puking kids in the house, which ought to make things interesting- especially if I start puking).

Gifts to still purchase:
FIL gift
Grandma Haynes gift
couple of things for Steve
two gifts for megan
one gift for Annika
pjs for Ashley

Mail packages (must do on Friday morning)
take presents to girl in ward to wrap (totally bought that service at the service auction)
make goodies and deliver to neighbors (make them on Saturday and Sunday- deliver on Monday for FHE as a family)
we're supposed to attend a work party and a ward party this weekend- but I'm not sure that's happening unless there is no puking tomorrow. I need to make cookies, green beans and funeral potatoes for the ward party though.
clean my office (still)
I'm sure there are dozens of other things- but these are the ones that come to mind immediately.

Boom Baby!

Dear Annika,
Happy Birthday Baby!

You're two, you made it, now you can act however you want and the only explanation needed is, 'she's two.' For some reason I've not mentally accepted that you weren't already two. You act like a two year old in every way, you know what you want and how you want it (most of the time) and get very upset when someone tries to help you without asking if you want help. You're incredibly sweet when you want to be and you love to read stories over and over and over. But in my mind you've been two for ages- so much so that I wrote a 3 on the cake! I had to fix that (good thing Grandma noticed it). Speaking of cake, you quite enjoyed it and stuck your fingers in the icing about two seconds after Megan blew out the candles for you.


Speaking of the cake, here is how it looked:

We just had a simple party, we invited a Grandma and grandpa and Great Grandma Haynes and the Agamezes. It was nice to have a small, simple party. You were very excited to get clothes (see the first picture) and insisted on putting them on as soon as you saw them. You also got puzzles from Great grandma and Grandma Pechin and loved them as well.

You are our miracle of miracles. You weren't supposed to come, yet you did. I'm so glad that you're my child. You have a smile that lights up the room, and incredible beauty that makes me wonder how such average looking people like daddy and I could make a beautiful kid like you. You are so smart. You talk so clearly for your age and it's interesting to watch you think about stuff and figure things out. I'm surprised at how much you understand and comprehend. You're our little ka ka, and some day you're going to hate your sister for that nickname, but it's stuck, and now it's you.

Love you,

mommy

I sucketh and other news...

Well, I guess I didn't make the 'picture a day' challenge. I'm going to keep trying though. I had a horrible headache this weekend that about did me in, staring at a computer screen seemed to make it worse- so I avoided the computer.

So we went to a birthday party for a four-year-old on Saturday. It was like the birthday parties you see in the movies- you know the ones with the petting zoos and pony rides?? Well, there wasn't a petting zoo, but the magician did bring a live rabbit and a dove. Um, yeah there was a magician. She also brought Spiderman! Ack! The girls had a great time though and as Steve said, 'well, at least they got to attend a fancy party- even if it wasn't their own.

Here are some pictures:
The magician (we need her to entertain at church- I can't believe how long all three girls sat quietly and attentively! She certainly was 'magic'! She also had live animals! Here's ashley petting the bunny.


Here is Annika in the jumper:

Here are Megan and Ashley sliding down the jumper slide:

here is Spiderman sword fighting with all the kids:

It was a totally fun party, the kids had a great time and so did the grown ups. Of course it was a party for one of our best friend's boys- so we were bound to enjoy the company. Annika's birthday is tomorrow- we're having a party (just barely) and it's a good thing she's two and doesn't know how little effort we're putting into it.

They're so young!!

So we fed the missionaries tonight. I swear they get younger and younger. I took pictures to provide proof. sorta goofy, but I don't think they had anything else to do tonight. Anyway, there you go.

Merry Christmas to me!

So we've had this list of furniture we've been 'meaning to buy'. Of course that means shopping for it, which means draggind 4 children to a furniture store. After finally finding out couches Steve was done- he had no interest in furniture shopping for the rest of his life. That's nice, except that furniture is a big purchase and one we both have to live with. Anyway, today I bit the bullet and went to see a guy that custom makes furniture (since we needed a pretty specific spot filled for our entertainment unit) and he gave me an estimate on what I wanted. Then he let me look through his (wholesale)catalogs and found an entertainment center that will be great, a bedroom set (bed, two nightstands and a dresser) a coffee table and end table and a random coat/umbrella stand. Woo!! The cool thing is that I got it all for about the cost of bedroom sets in the stores! So now we're pretty much set for furniture for a while (well, I'd like a new table too- but it's not as 'urgent' as the other stuff was). I hope Steve likes the stuff I got! It's coming in for pick-up in a week- so you'll get to see pictures next Saturday.

Today's picture

Okay, I'm cheating... Here is a picture of the rug we bought tonight (that should arrive in Jan I think).

Navy rug

It's the navy color. The 1 1/2 inch pile sounds comfy. We've been searching and searching. I'm just glad we finally found something! So yay!

Several things

First of all I got a call from the city manager's office this afternoon. They expect the sidewalks to be finished by tomorrow afternoon (YAY!) they will have patrol cops out there until winter break starts (double yay!) and they are going to complete the street and paint a crosswalk during winter break. Woo!

I woke up at 3 am with a killer headache. I've been woken up by headaches before, but usually I have gone to bed with it and it wakes me up later- never have I gone to bed fine and woken up dying later. I figured out what caused it though. I had a weight watchers frozen dinner last night that had bacon in it. After re-examining the box it was 'turkey bacon'. Good to know. I popped several dozen various pills and sat on the couch (for some reason that helps) until it was time to actually get up for the day. Thankfully my girls all went down for naps at 11:45 and slept until 3:30- so I did too! I love that my kids sleep well, I'm spoiled that way. My headache is gone and I'm still tired- but not non-functional tired (like this morning).

Ashley does 'vocabulary' journaling at school. The teacher will write a word and they have 10 minutes to write about the word. Yesterday's word was Christmas. This is Ashley's journal:

Christmas selbras Jesus brf a ange cum un to them and htey wr fritine and the ange sed un to them dot be ufrad there wus a savr hav bin born

(Christmas celebrates Jesus birth. An angel came unto them and they were frightened and the angel said unto them don't be afraid, there was a savior have been born.)

So I guess we're doing something right that she wrote about Jesus and not Santa right? I'll be back with the PotD later.

Hair and my city council meeting

There you go, you can stop holding your breath now. What do you think? She was trying to give me more body without sacrificing too much length (although I think she cut off several inches). I love how much healthier my hair feels after a haircut. I got hi-lights too, the pictures don't do it justice though.

My meeting. It was interesting. I feel good about going down and saying my piece. I just hope the ball gets rolling. I did notice that they were prepping the empty sidewalk spots for cement today- so hopefully that'll be taken care of soon. I also asked for patrol cars catching speeders since the speeding is horrible and no one seems to obey the school zone speeds, and a crosswalk with a crossing guard. Now I feel free to complain and moan and groan about it since I've done my civic duty. Go me!

My new hair

Um, I haven't forgotten, pictures are taken and uploaded but apparently the server is down? Hopefully I'll be able to post them after I get back from city council meeting.

Today's Picture

Yes- it's still today! Today you're lucky to see a picture of me. I'm getting my hair cut and highlited tomorrow so this is the 'before' picture. Tomorrow you get to see the 'after' picture. I'm still not sure how I'm getting it cut though....

Naps make everything better...

We had a bad morning here. Lots of crying, kicking and screaming, tantrum throwing... and that was just me. I'm not feeling very well today which leads to a lot of laying around moaning and ignoring the middle children (lucky Ashley got to go to school). Finally at 10 I decided we were all taking morning naps rather then afternoon naps. Aaaahh, much better. Of course this means that they're already awake and terorizing- but having had a nap I feel much better equipt to deal with it. I still feel crappy (literally- and now you know more then you wanted to) but I can sit up and observe the destruction a little bit without dozing. It's amazing how much a little nap can help.

Of course I had some weird dreams. My neighbors had come over to hang my blinds (both the husband and the wife and a random single neighbor from somewhere else) and I was talking to them about our dog issues. I kept explaining that their dog barked every morning at 6 am- and they kept insisting that they didn't have a dog. It was quite frustrating, but I didn't want to make them mad because I wanted blinds up, especially the blind in the window between the bathroom and my bedroom. (I don't really have a window there). To make matters worse the single neighbor kept hitting on the married guy next door and distracting him from putting up blinds! Odd, but entertaining.

Megan is having a trauma apparently- she just walked up to me and said, "my cookie broke, the chocolate is all gone, Annika is a dog and my leg hurts." Life is rough when you're 3.

I'll post a picture later.

So I lied...

As sometime (okay usually) happens I don't get to do all that I intended on the day I intend to do it.... So- I didn't finish the office today... Can I post before and 'half-way done' pictures???
Here's before:

Looks bad huh? This is where I'm at currently (and we moved that desk- swapped places with the filing cabinet).

It just seems that it's the 'dumping ground' (well, that and the garage) and we've not 'gotten' to it since moving in. Anyway, I've actually done a lot more work then it appears, I've sorted and thrown out a bunch of stuff (I can't believe how much paper Ashley brings home from school!)

Joy

So I'm finally decorating and putting up pictures and stuff. Mostly I'm just starting with Christmas decorations though. Here is the shelf we made at Super Saturday- we made a bunch of stuff to go on it too- but I figure since I don't have much horizontal space downstairs I'll need to rotate through holiday stuff on it as well. Here it is set up for Christmas:

The shelf is straight- but apparently I'm not since I took the picture leaning to the right. I need to find something better to put on the last peg and I think I'm going to take the holly berries off the letters. I also need to make a holiday stitchery- but that'll probably wait until next year since I need to get cracking on Christmas presents first. Here are my stockings:

And just to brag this is what I did yesterday:

All neat and tidy. Around the corner is more food storage. I hung up a bunch of hooks in the garage for coats and bags. That closet was so bad that you couldn't even walk into it. I'm working on the office currently- which is also bad- but lucky for you I took before pictures.

We had two families over for dessert tonight (Lindsay and Corey Pam). It was a lot of fun. I made an ice cream cake that was super yummy. We're trying to be super social and get to know a lot of people in the ward and I've set a goal to have two families over a week for dessert. I'm also making more of an effort to get to know people in the neighborhood. There are tons of young couples and TONS of little girls Megan and Annika's ages. We had a 'neighborhood' play day at our park last week and had a great time. I love meeting new people and being social and Steve indulges me. There is also a family that lives two doors down that is in the ward that has three little girls. They couldn't come tonight but are coming for FHE (family home evening) tomorrow. Her husband is out of town with work and will be for a month so I'm hoping we can help her out some. That would totally stink, I don't know what I'd do without Steve to relieve me!

Church is so hard though. SO HARD. It's a good thing we know that's where we need to be on a weekly basis because it'd be so much easier to quit going. Anyway- I'm promising before and after pictures of the office tomorrow- hound me if I don't post them, I need to get them done!