My Secret Obsession

This year the "family" (which really means Mom's) Lego gift was this fabulous set. Notice that it is for 16+. Too bad that the kids will not be able to help me out this year with my, ohhh I mean our family set. I did have Adam help me with the first 20 steps because they are double steps which means that you do them twice to make the same thing over again. Well there was a mistake made and now he doesn't want to help anymore, but I want him to know that I welcome his help if he wants to help again.

My only question is: Where is this one going to go? It will not fit on the shelf with the Taj Mahal!!! It is too long. I am going to have to get creative...

Christmas

On Christmas morning we were woken up at 6AM by four children jumping into our bed. Adam (the 12 year old) orchestrated the whole awakening. So as usual we had them sit in the hallway and wait for us to be ready. I took their picture and away they flew to the living room... to find that Santa had left us nothing. That is right. There was nothing there. The room was empty. That is when Adam started running upstairs. Either he had peeked(that is my guess) or he just needed to find the loot. And sure enough up there was a pile for everyone. Santa was good to us all for sure. Jason and Haley got I Pod Touches, Abigail got a doll the size of her, Adam got an automatic air soft something or other and a ghillie suit, Lewis got tickets to Linkin Park and a donut maker, and I got tickets to see Bon Jovi and a new Lego set to keep me busy during my week off of work. We were done opening our gifts by 7:30 and I made German pancakes. They were delicious. After that the kids spent the rest of the morning getting their devices to work, and downloading games and movies. Adam blew about 1000 holes in a picture of Justin Beiber, and a photo of the Glee cast (I wonder why he choose that one?). I went out to the store to get some last minute items, which is hard to do in Draper on Christmas. Not a store open for a hundred miles except for Walgreens. At least they had the plastic forks that I needed.

At 2pm my family came over for lunch and I made ham and homemade mashed potatoes. We were going to have a chocolate fountain for dessert but the consensus was that people were too full from lunch so we just had cookies and chocolates that we already had made. We had the white elephant gift exchange and I ended up with a $50 gift card for I-Tunes. I liked my gift. And the guy who ended up with the Lug-A-Lou was happy too. Oh yeah, Jason's contribution to the gift exchange was a port-a-potty. Very funny!!

By 9pm Lewis, Adam and I was very hungry so Adam and I set out to find something to eat. We hit up Taco Time which boasts 24 hours a day 365 days a year and guess what? They were CLOSED!!! Yeah, and we were not the only people out trolling for food either. There was a caravan of about 4 to 5 vehicles following us from fast food place to fast food place looking for food. We gave up and went home after the 4th place was closed and Lewis made frozen pizzas. I hope those other people found what they were looking for.

Christmas was great. I was exhausted but happy.

Merry Christmas peeps, Merry Christmas.

Christmas Pajamas

"Can we open just one more gift?"
"No! Not until tomorrow. And if you do not get your bottoms in bed..."
"Fine. Goodnight Grinch."
"Get back here.........!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we went to my parent's house for a dinner of appetizers and desserts. My dad read the story of the birth of Jesus, my mom read a children's story, gifts were exchanged and Mojito was scared and cold (as you can see from the picture). Really he had a great time but by the time Sam was singing carols Mojito had had enough and was ready to go home. We always have a good time on Christmas Eve. Maybe next year we can have a great Christmas Eve in a warmer climate...

Straight from the North Pole!

To All My Ladies:

Happy Holidays!

Abigail's Winter Program

Can you say ADORABLE? She did a fabulous job. The whole first grade had a program to end their Tradition's Unit. They spent a few weeks talking about traditions and ended with a holiday program where they talked about all of the winter holiday traditions. She sang all of her songs and did all of the actions. We were very proud of her. Can you believe that she is in 1st grade??? They grow up so fast!

Tubing in Heber

The Saturday before Christmas my family went up to Heber to go tubing. Usually we go to eat breakfast with Santa the weekend before Christmas but this year we all wanted to try something new. The breakfast with Santa that we usually go to is fun but it has terrible food and even worse service. So this year my dad suggested that we try something new and Lewis suggested the tubing. We looked into it and it was an okay price and looked like everyone would be able to participate. It is the perfect place for us to go because they have a tow rope that takes you to the top of the hill so that you do not have to climb up. This is great because all of the kids get tired so fast from climbing the hills time after time. Also we have Cris who can't climb because of his ankle, and mom who just would not be able to do it in general. But everyone was able to go up the hill and have a great time for a few hours. It snowed the whole time that we were there, not to mention the whole drive up there. The roads were horrible. By the time we left it had stopped snowing and so we made it back down to Orem in half the amount of time that it took to get up there.

We stopped at Fudruckers for lunch on the way back home. Everyone was starving and ready to eat. I think this might become a yearly activity for us as a family. We all had so much fun. As one of the kids said, " This is WAY better then breakfast with Santa!" I totally agree.

Grandpa's Tree Decorating Party

Every year all of the grand kids in my family go to my parent's house on a designated night to decorate the Christmas Tree. Last year the tree was less then desirable, think Charlie Brown's tree. The girl's had a great time decorating the tree while we sat and watched. I am not sure the boys even put one ornament on the tree this year. As you can see in the picture Jason was having the most fun ever! This year Lewis put the star on the top, not only because he is the tallest but also the parental favorite. Isn't it funny how the favorite child is not even one of the biological children? Anyway, we had crepes for dinner and brownies and pie for dessert. Always a good time.

"What is that child doing?"

After the family party on Saturday we stopped at Cabela's on the way home. It was only 4pm and we did not have any other plans for the evening. Cabela's is not a place that we frequent at all. We went when it opened and then maybe once after that for the kids to look at all of the stuffed dead animals, but there is really not much there for me so we do not go often.

Abigail found this giant stuffed moose and I said that I would take her picture with him. When she climbed up and started to get under his lap this older lady walking by said, "What is that child doing to that moose?" in a most disgusted way to her grown daughter. I could not help myself from taking a picture, and laughing along with the daughter. Abigail was very embarrassed but was not sure why. I took a normal one of her SITTING on the moose's lap so that she would stop crying. Oh the life we lead!!!

Sigman Christmas Party

This Saturday we had the Sigman Family Christmas Party. Even though Lewis' mom doesn't live in Utah all of her sisters do. So every year they have a party and invite us to join them. For most of the family it is the only time each year that we get together. We had a fun time eating soup with veggies and rolls. Then we played "Minute To Win It" like they have on t.v. Haley blew cards across the table, I fanned an ornament with a gift, and Lewis had to juggle balloons and keep them off of the ground for 60 seconds. We had some good laughs, and Abi ALMOST got her tooth pulled out by the grown men cousins, but chickened out at the last minute.

Who is the cutest?

So here is a sneak peek of the girls in their clothes from our picture session last Friday. These are just some shots that I took after our photographer left. The girls looked so cute in their clothes. And yes, these are their Christmas outfits so all of you might see them in these clothes at some point during the holidays. We dd all black and white with red accents. Oh how cute!!! I am so excited to see the real pictures when they are done!

Lump

Do you see the lump? That is not a knee. It is Jason's shin. He hit his leg on the playground at school last week and it is all swollen and bruised. When you realize that it is his shin and not his knee it looks pretty gross. Maybe I should sue the school since I was never called and notified about the injury... just kidding. But really Jason asked if we could sue, and if we did could sue and if we won he asked if he could keep half of the money. Isn't he a funny guy?

Here is the wall...

Here is the picture of the wall of children. The pictures will be changing out very soon because we just had new pictures done on Friday.

A few thoughts:

Alright! I guess the only computer that my video doesn't work with is my own!! I have had 3 people tell me that the video works for them. Oh well. I hope that it looks good because I can't see it! I will never be tech savvy!!!

On another note I started my Christmas cards yesterday. Ha! I am about 3 weeks behind. I like to have them done by Thanksgiving weekend but this year I have been running behind on everything. In fact my boss just gave me my AUGUST credit card statement to turn receipts in. I am about, what is that, 4 months behind? Good thing there is only 5 items on that month.

On yet another note I have been feeling very stressed. Between work, home, kids activities, and life in general I am just feeling drained. This evening in fact, I had Jason in tears about homework, Abigail telling me that she thinks that I hate her, and Adam yelling at me because he thought that I was mad at him, but really I was worried that he was hurt. All the while Haley was doing homework in her coat while eating a giant piece of chicken... at the same time! This is so not what my house is usually like at dinner/homework time.

Good Grief!!! Is it Christmas Break yet???

PS. Did you like that? This is my first impromptu blog post in like a year!! And I feel better!

What Do I Do?

Who can help me make this video work on my blog???

Christmas House

Take a look. Let me know what you think...

Sneak Peek

More Snow!!

Abigail spent a day outside playing with Mojito. They had fun jumping into trees and chasing each other around the yard.

HA!

These are the ladies that I work with at school. We had to have a picture taken for a special gift for someone and I bet these ladies never would have guessed that the picture would end up on my blog! Surprise!!!