2012 Review

2012 was a good year for our family, I feel guilty saying that, hoping I don't jinx it. We had so many years with tumultuous things happening on multiple fronts that I find myself holding my breath at times. Instead I think I will focus on the positive things that happened for our family in 2012.
Our biggest event of the year was Mckenzie and Tim getting married. She had a fairy tale wedding, one that I could not have done for her by myself. We worked hard on making sure even the littlest details were going to be just right. I worked hard but Tim's mom really out did herself and made it the perfect day for them. She is an experienced wedding planner and I learned so much from her. She was/is kind, giving, patient and talented. Hopefully I will be able to go to her in the future for advice and maybe some help. She continues to be a huge blessing in their lives, and in ours.
Getting Katie off to Hawaii was another big event and blessing.  I will not go into the effort that it took to get her there that was 2011 stuff, but she was able to blossom while there. She was able to tackle some big emotional stuff and get back to the person she was always meant to be. She also had some fun adventures, met some wonderful people and made some life changing decisions on her own. It was also really fun for us to take her there and hang out with some of our favorite people. We have had her home for about 2 weeks and she is leaving again for another adventure in 3 days, I have loved having her in our home she has been kind, gracious and grateful, but I think she has yet to do any dishes.
This Summer Scott decided to go work in Utah, there were many things up in the air about his current job and this seemed to be the right thing to do at the time. He was gone from June- Oct coming home to visit twice. Although this was hard on both of us we knew it was what he needed to do. It answered a lot of questions we had and he was able to come home to a more stable job situation, and sometimes things that don't always work out how we anticipated turn out to be blessings in disguise. I was grateful for family that fed him and friends that treated him like family. I was grateful to some pretty awesome kids that helped out a lot and friends that let me be a 3rd wheel, that didn't forget about me being home with no social life!
We have enjoyed good health, something I am grateful for everyday. We have enjoyed serving others outside of our home and inside. I am grateful for my job it is the perfect thing for me right now.
2013 is still up in the air, there are some things brewing on the horizon that will bring change to our home, some good some not so good. But today I am thankful for a year that was full of grace and blessings for our family. One thing I know for sure, at least in my experience, the waters remain calm for only so long so I am enjoying the moment and taking nothing for granted.

Christmas

I was so happy that my kids slept in until 8am, we were actually woken up by Tim and McKenzie knocking on the door.

Avrie was really happy right out of the gate, she asked Santa for a writing book with a lock and Santa came through for her.

It was fun to have Katie home it has been a long time she brings a lot of light, laughter and music into our home. We will be enjoying the next 10 days with her before she is off on a new adventure.
Christmas was so relaxing, the kids played with their stuff I actually sat down and read a book for an hour or 2 during the afternoon. We had our yummy french toast croissants for breakfast and cinnamon rolls for lunch and a ham dinner. Later that night Scott, Katie and I went to the movie, we went and saw Les Miserables it was wonderful, I kept thinking that my mom would have loved it. There was not a dry eye in the whole theater when it was over, there was a couple of parts when a lady down front was actually sobbing really loudly.
It was a great day, all the kids were happy, they were grateful, and we enjoyed the Christmas Spirit all day long.  

Christmas Eve Festivities

Nothing like packing it in, I have been trying to find a day when all 10 of us are available for family pictures but it seems like there is always one or two people missing. Finally today was the day, the ski resort was closing early,  so there was hope that Ryan would be home before dark!

 He had a great day and the sun was shinning I guess to see the sun we must drive to the mountains,

 As soon as Ryan walked through the door we headed out to get our family pictures taken we had about 15 minutes of daylight to accomplish this. I was just glad it wasn't raining. Here is a sneak preview:

I was trying to get one last group shot and everyone was being silly, luckily the other ones turned out pretty cute.

Next it was time for the annual gingerbread house contest. This year I had the kids team up and actually work together, I was a little nervous because I thought this might cause fighting but it went amazingly well. They actually worked together. (Please VOTE) One child said that it isn't fun if it is not a contest!

#1

 #2

#3

#4

The little girls decorated gingerbread men they worked hard.

After making gingerbread houses and seascapes it was time for our Grinch Dinner!  This is the first year that I have done this, don't know if it will be a tradition or not, not sure I can sit through the Grinch movie EVERY YEAR so we will see. And since I have not been a cool mom and done elf on the shelf I thought this would make up for it.

So we had Who-Pudding

 Who-Punch

Roast Beast

Who-Hash

  

 The girls loved the meal and then it was movie time! Now the little girls are asleep and as soon as the teenagers go to sleep Santa can come!!

Christmas Song

Merry Christmas!!

Cookie Day and Early Christmas!

5 hours of baking
8 different kinds of treats
10 people "helping"
25 door bells rang
18 plates of cookies delivered
13 times we sang our silly song
3 hours of driving around delivering
3 pizza's consumed by hungry singers
2 kids napping while driving from house to house

We have been making and delivering cookies since Scott and I were first married. This is our 5th year of making up a silly song to sing as we deliver the cookies. (I forgot to record it today maybe I can get everyone to sing it one more time tomorrow)
 We (I) started early this morning (9 am) making yummy treats. The kids filtered in and helped out, Scott ran to the store twice. It is a lot of fun but a lot of work. We arrived back home at 8 pm tired and cold and a little horse ( I wasn't horse because I was asked NOT to sing so I just stood there and smiled and held the plate of cookies most of the time) with a dumb song playing over and over in our heads.

We didn't have very many left overs once we were done!

But we had a lot of fun!

The girls were a little tired all day long they stayed up far too late the night before, so when it was time to practice the song today Avrie was a little grumpy and didn't want to...Both of them fell asleep while driving from one house to the next and missed out on a couple of houses. I think Avrie finally sang the song good at the last house!
On Friday grandma and grandpa came to visit along with Scott's brother and wife and we had a yummy birthday dinner for Scott and a mini Christmas celebration. It has been a really busy couple of days but a lot of fun!

 We all had a good laugh when grandma pulled out Scott's high school pictures!

 Someone looks really tired already!

 Grandma and Grandpa and Mark and Cathlin!

Thanks for making the drive over the mountains to spend an early Christmas with us! We had the best prime rib dinner thanks Mark!

Too Much of a Good Thing Can Be BAD!

When the ski resort is closed because there is just too much snow and trees are blocking the road that is not a good thing. Having a teenage boy in the house that can't go skiing and has too much energy is not a good thing. Hopefully the rain/snow will let up and the roads will be cleared and the skiing can resume or things might get a little dicey around here!
This is Scott, the photo is not staged, he thinks he is still 20 not 46 (Happy Birthday) and he can not do the same stuff he did when he was 20 but he still tries, good thing there is a lot of snow to cushion the fall. 

Coming Home

Katie spent her last day full  in Hawaii, she has been there since April and she will be coming home tomorrow then heading to Utah to work and go to school there.  She has loved being in Hawaii and has done some pretty amazing things. She has made some great friends and has possibly met  "The One"!  He just happens to be going to school in Utah and that is why she is ready to pack up the beach gear and get out the winter clothes. 
One day she tried to tell me that living and going to school in Hawaii is difficult because it is always nice outside, but she has to go to school and then work and miss out on those nice days at the beach. I had ZERO sympathy for her.  But I am super excited to see her and spend 2 weeks with her, she has grown and matured and has become a great person, although still a little hyper,  I just can't wait to put my arms around and give her a great big hug! See you tomorrow night!

Where Did the Time Go?

Happy Birthday McKenzie!   It has been 22 years since she came into our lives. We were living in Monterey CA in a one bedroom apartment. We were so excited to welcome her into our home and she has kept us on our toes ever since. She has grown from baby to child to teenager and now is a full fledged adult. I treasure our relationship we can get together and just talk for hours, and if I don't see her or talk to her in a couple of days there is a huge void. I am proud of the person that she has become and can't wait to see what her future holds.
She is spending her birthday in Hawaii, her favorite spot in the whole world! Be safe and I hope the parachute opens!

In My Dreams... Almost

We have been Survivor fans since the first season aired a long time ago. Scott has been wanting to be on Survivor ever since he started watching. Last month Scott and his buddy drove 90 minutes to the open casting call. They left at 6 am and he was #295 in line out of 500 they stopped giving out numbers at 500, there were a lot of people there. He got to go in front of the camera for 1 minute and give his spiel, and he uploaded a 3 minute video to their web site. He had fun hanging out with all the other people some came from really far away. I wont even mention how long he spent making this 3 minute video but I thought it was pretty funny and maybe you will too.
Aliens? Conspiracy? I am such a lucky woman to be married to such a "special" guy!

In My Head

Today is Destina's dish day, we all have one and everyone is pretty good about doing their dishes. When I called Destina up to do her dishes she came up the first time I asked her to and got started right away. I could tell by the look on her face that she wasn't really happy about it, so I told her thank you for coming up and doing your dishes without complaining she looked at me and said, "I was complaining in my head!" Sometimes we are not happy about the things we have to do but it does make it easier if we keep the complaining in our head instead of making everyone miserable! I will have to remember that!

She even managed to smile while doing the dishes and she looked so cute today!

Lately Avrie has been coming home from school and acting really naughty and then getting in trouble and finding herself in timeout, and for about an hour we are having a bad time. So today I decided that I needed to change what was happening right after she walks in the door, I gave her a big hug and I took her aside and we sat on the sofa and talked about her day and we played a little game and we read a story and I listened to everything she had to say and it was amazing how happy she was and good and not naughty. Sometimes I need to remember that I need to change my behavior if I want the behavior of my children to change.  And look she is getting her 2 front teeth before Christmas!