Christmas Craziness

Ady has been really sick this week, so I haven't gotten a whole lot done. Each day I have done a little and finally its starting to look like Christmas around here, although I still have a lot to do. Yesterday I put up the Christmas trees and put lights on the porch, but we didn't have time to decorate the trees before bedtime. So as soon as the boys got home today we started decorating their tree. I have one tree in the family room that the kids get to decorate all by themselves. I put all the more colorful and non breakable ornaments in a box for the kids to use and on there tree they can use colored lights. Then I get to decorate my tree in the Living room by myself and have white lights and they aren't allowed to touch it. Last year we did this for the first time because we got a new tree and thought it would be fun to have two. It worked out so well to have the kids decorate their own tree. I can let go of my anxieties and let them do it however they want. And then I get to have complete control over my own tree. I am also planning to get two more trees, one in the office for me to decorate really nice, with all matching ornaments instead of the hodge podge of memento ornaments (although I love those too, thats why I need another tree!) and then a tree in the kids room upstairs decorated with toys and things. I had a tree in my room when I was a kid and I loved it. I love sitting in a room lit only by the Christmas lights on a cold winter night snuggled under a blanket. I will probably wait until after Christmas to get more trees when they are on sale. We will see.

The boys decorating their tree

Ady was so sick she didn't put too many ornaments on.

Here is their finished tree

(well, almost. It still needs the tree skirt and Tayden wants to build a train around it.)

The Family Tree. I mostly decorate it will snowflakes and snowmen, along with the ornaments my kids make each year and the ones my niece and nephew make. Also there are a few memento ornaments that have been given to us by loved ones.

The Miniature Tree in the Dining Room that Ady helped me decorate with the Mini ornaments. (There is a mirror behind it, so thats why you are seeing double.)

My Aunt gave us a Gingerbread Tree decorating kit, so we put it together tonight to be our Kitchen tree. Closer to Christmas we will bake gingerbread from scratch and make real gingerbread houses. Its a tradition that comes from Dave's family. But until then this was fun too. :)

Ady didn't participate in this either, she just layed her head down on the counter :(

Busy Thanksgiving Weekend

For Thanksgiving this year my side of the family all went to Ohio to my Aunt Debbie's House. We had a lot of fun. We all stayed in a Hotel and got to go swimming and the kids got to play with all the cousins. The moms had fun too, going shopping at 4 am on Friday. I got some really great doorbusters: a 7 qt Crock pot with a carrying case for $9.99 (this way I can make a roast and have enough room for lots of yummy vegetables.), I also got some other fun things for Dave for Christmas, so I won't mention them here since he might read it.

We played lots of games, did lots of shopping, ate lots of food, and had a really great time!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is orange and yellow,

Brown and red.

Thanksgiving sounds like families gathering,

laughing and talking.

Thanksgiving smells like savory herbs,

and hot fresh rolls.

It tastes like tender turkey,

Sweet pumpkin pie and tart cranberries.

Thanksgiving looks like families feasting on food and togetherness.

Thanksgiving feels like warm hugs,

Grandma's kisses and tender hearts.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our family and friends, near and far.

We miss you and love you and we are so grateful to know you.

Primary Program

 

Yesterday was our Primary Program at church.  I am the Primary Chorister, so it is a big relief to finally be finished with it.  All in all things went really well.  Kyler and Tayden both memorized their parts and did a great job when it was their turn to get up.  The nursery came up to sing one song with the Junior Primary and held up pictures of Jesus.  Ady sang along and stood their smiling the whole time.  I am so proud of them.

Over the past few weeks we have been having our practices, and those were a bit crazy, but the program came together really well.  We had a few kids who got up and said the wrong line, but for the most part they all did fine.  On one of the songs I had two girls singing solos and one of the girls (Courtney)  started crying during her solo.  I felt so sorry for her.  She said the part was too high, but she sounded great in practice so we thought it would be fine, but with her nerves her throat must have tightened up and made it harder so she got embarrassed.  It actually looked like she got choked up.  The verse she was singing was about mothers, so she easily could have been choked up by that.  Most people probably thought thats what was wrong.  The other girl, Briley, had a look on her face like "what should I do?" So I whispered to keep going.   Briley did really well and kept singing and at the end when they were supposed to sing together Briley did it by herself.  Oh well, whats the primary program without one glitch?  All the songs sounded great (even that one) and we got lots of compliments.  With that over now we can start learning a Christmas song and have some fun too.  The songs for 2008 are more familiar than the ones we were supposed to learn this year, so I am looking forward to that.  If anyone knows the song "I Am A Child of God" in any other languages, leave a comment for me.  I am hoping to do a few verses in a different language in January.

Articles of Faith

For the last few months the kids have been working very hard learning The Articles of Faith. For those of you who aren't members of our church, the Articles of Faith are thirteen statements of our beliefs. We started teaching them the kids in order to prepare Kyler for Baptism. In our church kids are old enough to be baptized when they turn eight. Kyler will be 8 in a little over a year, so with 13 Articles of Faith to learn, we thought we should get started. I didn't really expect Tayden and Ady to learn them as well, but we taught them to all the kids, one each month. Ady and Tayden learned the first one so easily that we decided to reward the kids each time we all get one memorized. So far they have learned the first four and we almost have the fifth one down. Some of the rewards they have earned are a new movie (Ratatouille), going to Chuck E Cheese, getting a new game, etc. Last month we recorded them saying the first three, but the videos were saved on Dave's computer so this is the first chance I have had to post them. Enjoy :)

[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7784343046994299607]

It took so long for that one to upload that I decided to just post that one for now.

More later.

Shrinking!

As many of you know, I have been very overweight for the past few (6) years. After I had Tayden I was put on a couple different medications that made me gain A LOT of weight. That coupled with having 3 kids in 4 years caused a big fat me.

Well finally I have been able to start losing big time. After I had Ady I was able to lose a few pounds right away (and I had only gained 10 during the pregnancy with her, so it was a good start) But I never can lose much weight while I am nursing, so no matter what I did I couldn't lose anymore after that. She nursed a long time, but when she finally stopped I started to see the weight steadily fall off.

Since I stopped nursing her about a year and half ago I have lost over 30 pounds, the majority of that in the last 6 months. But it wasn't until I pulled my winter clothes out last month that I really felt the results. All of my long pants and jeans were way too big and I couldn't even wear them with a belt! I was thrilled. I had a tote in the attic with some old pants that had gotten too small, but that I really didn't want to let go of. I was so excited that they fit now! When I see pictures of me recently I don't hate them as much.

Now for the best part! When I went to buy new jeans (which I had to pay full price for since its jean season) I just grabbed some that were one size smaller and bought them without trying them on. When I got home to try them on they were too big!! And not just a little too big, like really too big. I was really surprised! So I took them back and was able to buy pants 2 sizes smaller than I had previously been wearing!! Needless to say I have been wearing that pair of pants everywhere. I was also able to buy some shirts that were one size smaller. :)

So in order to keep myself motivated I decided to post my results here and keep a running total of pounds lost. Please realize this is hard for me. I never wanted to admit to anyone I used to know how fat I had gotten. I avoided showing pictures of myself to anyone or having pictures taken of me for that matter. But lately I decided that I don't want my kids to know that I don't like who I am, so I am trying to force myself to be honest and happy with who I am. I even hung pictures up in the house of me with the kids that were taken recently. I want them to know that I am not ashamed of me.

So there you have it.

So far I have lost a total of 40 pounds and 2 pants sizes (probably around 5 inches). As I lose it I will update my total on the fat tracker link on the right side of the main page. So please come back and be my cheerleader! I need all the help I can get.

School Pictures

The boys got their school pictures back a few weeks ago and they are not great.  Kyler's is almost identical to last years with the same cheesy fake grin.  Both boys have their eyebrows raised oddly like the photographer suggested to them that that might be a good idea.  I am surprised that Tayden's is so bad since he usually does a really good job smiling for pictures.  I think next year I won't buy school pictures.  It is too much of an unknown.  I cant be there to tell them to smile right or see and approve the picture before I am stuck with $30 worth of cheesy grins.

So here they are. Please post a comment to let me know what you think.  Are they as bad as I think they are?

Kyler

 Tayden

I took Ady to get her picture taken at about the same time so I would have nice portraits of her too.  Hers turned out excellent.  She looks so grown up.

I spent a little more than I had planned to on Ady's pictures, but I wasn't expecting them to be so great.  I couldn't pass them up. Doesn't she look so old?

Bigger

On the way from church yesterday, Ady was looking very sad in the back seat. I asked her what was wrong and she told me

"I wish I was like you and Daddy."

"You are sweety. You are just like me and Daddy," I replied.

"No!. I want to be JUST like you and Daddy!"

"You are honey."

"No I'm not! I want to be big like you and Daddy!"

"You are a big girl Ady! And did you know that you are getting bigger everyday?"

"Not big enough. I want to be bigger"

So I decided to try to change the subject and tell her how wonderful she is and how much I love her. She wouldn't let me. She pouted all the way home. When we got inside we told Daddy and the boys about our conversation. (They had beat us home. Dave has meetings before church so we drive separately.) Dave took the same approach I had and told her how big she is and what a good girl she is and we love her. That wasn't what she wanted, but she was pouting less. She reasserted her desire.

"I want to be BIGGER!"

So Kyler said "I will help you!" and picked her up. I thought that would be a disaster and she would scream, but it was perfect! She laughed and cheered and was so happy to be "bigger".

She let him pick her up and carry her around for a long time. They were both giggling and having so much fun. It is so nice when the kids get along! So often she just screams at Kyler and he pesters her. Tayden and Ady usually get along, but sometimes she gets mad at the boys so quickly. They play more rough than she wants to.

It was a refreshing change. There wasn't much fighting at all yesterday. I love to see the kids getting along so well and having fun together. Its the reason I wanted to have them close together in age. I never had that sibling comradery and I always longed for it. As an adult my sister and I finally have some of it, but as kids we didn't. As the kids get older I am seeing it more and more.

I hope it will continue and that they can always be Best Friends.