Christmas Day 2011!

I was so happy Christmas was on a Sunday this year! What better way to celebrate Jesus Christ's birth than going to church! Our Church was at 11am and every year before the kids can open anything we always read in the scriptures about the birth of Jesus. This year we decided instead of being rushed on Sunday morning, we would have them open their gifts after we got home from church. We did let them open their socks before church and they were so good all day! It really was a wonderful day!
O ya, the Grinch came and tried to take our tree!

 This year my goal was to make each of the kids a quilt. Well I only got 2 done, so I also made them each a fleece blanket. I will finish the 3 others and blog about all of them at once.

 Their dad brought home a bunch of big boxes from work and made them a fort!

Merry Christmas!!
Thanks for reading!

Tis the season!

I know it's late, but here are some pictures of the festivities we had before Christmas.

We started the season off with a Christmas party with the Olson family. This is a picture of most of the little ones, 9 and under, waiting to play their games.

 Here is Aunt Relia reading them some stories.

 Then we had a Christmas dinner at my dads. All the boys got a neat flashlight, one of their favorite things.

 Morgyn got some smelly good stuff, one of her favorite things!

 We had our neighborhood party a few days before Christmas and Santa took time to come and visit!!


Isaac and Jared



Morgyn is the second one in on the left.

Jacob and John.

 My mom went to Texas for Christmas so she came by early to bring us what she gave us. Jacob and John both got Hex bugs. They love them!

Isaac got a phonics and writing toy. Him and Jared love this one.

Jared got two little singing things. All the kids love these. I got a carpet cleaner (yay) and Morgyn got money. 

 Instead of making gingerbread houses this year I decided we would just make little trees. It means a lot less candy in their little bellies!

Jared and Isaac.

 Right as we were getting started a couple of friends came by to see if the boys could play. Yay, less candy for my kids and plenty to share!

Alex and John

Jacob and Ian

 At pre-school Isaac got some magic reindeer food to sprinkle on the lawn for Santa's reindeer on Christmas Eve!

 He thought he heard Santa coming! So cute.



Chaos and Mayhem!

We survived the wind storm yesterday! There is destruction everywhere! I think we were probably one of the luckier ones. As our trees started to come down, we hooked them to a tow rope and pulled them down away from the house to prevent broken windows, that was our worst fear. We never really lost power, it just flickered all day. There are still some people without power and last estimate it could be 48 hrs before it is all completely restored. I have been brought to tears so many times yesterday and today. First because of the sheer destruction the 100+ mph winds we had made. It is just heartbreaking to see all of these enormous, beautiful trees down everywhere, and the damage to so many peoples property! And second because of the overwhelming help and generosity of others. Everyone helping everyone. It just amazes me how much destruction I saw yesterday driving through town, and how much clean up has been done already. I am so grateful to live in such a wonderful community and have so many wonderful neighbors!

OK now for some pictures. Our huge cherry tree sadly didn't survive the storm :( . Here is the video of it falling. You can hear my 2 year old begging the tree not to fall. We actually lost all the trees in our yard, the cherry tree in the back, a cluster of 4 trees near the property line, and two right in front of the house.

 I took these 2 pictures through the window yesterday after the trees came down. They aren't very good, but you get the idea.

 This is all that is left of my cherry tree. So sad!

 Jacob and our cute neighbor Kate helping take the tree trunks to the pile of firewood in the back yard.

 This is where the cluster of 4 trees was.

This is where the 2 trees were right in front of the house. There used to be 3 but one was lost before we moved in.

 Ahhh FIREWOOD! One good thing about losing the trees.

 The mass amount of branches that were hauled off this morning. The top picture is only about 1/8th of what was there. They came back for these after they emptied the truck and trailer from the bottom picture. O and our mailbox was found in the neighbors backyard to the west of us.                   

 Our neighbors to the east of us (bottom picture) lost their garage door. They parked their car on it to prevent it from flying away.

Our fence was damaged a little when the trees came down, but again with our van we pulled the trees to the front yard so they wouldn't take out the whole fence. 



 All my boys helped haul the tree trunks to the back for firewood. Such good helpers they are!

 Just a few of the many, many helping hands around the neighborhood helping everyone and anyone who needed it!

 If you compare these 2 pictures you can see the loss of the 6 trees in front. The only trees still standing in our yard are the 2 on the property line.

It's going to take some getting used to. Seeing my house without trees in front. And I am really going to miss the cherry tree! At lest no one was hurt and we only had minimal property damage! 

Maybe later I will get around to posting about Thanksgiving. We had an awesome Thanksgiving!

Happy Birthday Morgyn 2011

 Yesterday was Morgyn's 15th birthday. She was surprised to come home to the house decorated for her birthday. Her brothers shot off some confetti poppers over her head. She really liked that!

 She didn't want a cake for her birthday. She wanted brownies with ice cream and hot fudge sauce instead.

The hot fudge sauce was homemade from a friend's recipe. It was way yummy, but I think I cooked it a little to long because it was a little too thick. For her recipe click here.                             

 She was so happy to get a water bottle like mine. It keeps water cold all day. Even in the summer :)

 She also got a new pair of pants.

 Because she is 15 and needs to get her learners permit, we felt that it was fitting to get her a Drivers Handbook. She has to pass a written test before she can get her learners permit!

 She has wanted the Hymns on CD for a long time. Now she has them!

Her dad even burned all the songs she downloaded onto CD's for her.

All in all I think she had a fun day. She even went to young womens and made carmel apples! FUN!