Have to Get it All In

I turn my blog into a book each year and I like to start out the new year fresh and be done with the old so I have one hour to finish out 2013.
For some reason when I pulled up this years Christmas pictures it gave me last years pictures, it was hard to tell which ones were which, we do Christmas pretty much the same each year. But as I looked closer I was shocked to see how much bigger the boys have gotten this last year, I watch they grow but I was surprised by how much they have changed in just one year!

 They still look the same just bigger!

Chritsmas Photo Bomb

I don't know where the week went, but it went by as fast as this last year. Christmas day was our last day with Katie and Jeremy, and we had a fun semi relaxing day. What mother of 7 really relaxes on Christmas day? We do have the kids trained not to come upstairs until Tim and McKenzie arrive which was 8:30 that is sleeping in for most people on Christmas day. Destina's friend started texting her at 5:30 in the morning to see what she got for Christmas.

WE always start out with the stockings and the Santa gifts, I have to get busy and sew  Jeremy's name onto his stocking before next year, it might take me that long. After the stockings are open the kids pass out presents and then we take turns opening presents until they are done. This year there were not that many presents to open.

 

 

 

Jayden opened his best gift first and i don't think he cared much about the rest of his stuff he was too busy figuring out his new Samsung phone and he spent much of the day just like this.

 Kelsie worked at Justice last year so we still had quite a few boxes and Ryan was pretty happy to get one of them because he only wanted one thing for Christmas this year, he started looking at it about 2 months before Christmas and it was the exact price of our Christmas limit this year so Ryan was pretty happy with his new jacket. He is so much like his dad wanting the expensive stuff, and figuring out a way to get it. Scott is happy because now maybe he will leave his expensive stuff alone.

 

It's Awesome right?

 

Rainbow looms were high on their list, thanks Dan and Lynn they loved them and Destina has painted her fingernails different every day since Christmas.

Destina just wanted new clothes for Christmas, she is the fashion queen at our house and is always dressed cute.

She got some new clothes too and a fun globe, our older kids had one when they were little and they loved it and wore it out, but her first priority was eating all her candy!

I made yummy french toast croissants, and I was planning on feeding 13 people, we had the missionaries at our house for the day, and when I opened the packages of croissants they were all moldy, and nothing is open on Christmas day except gas station stores. Tim, Ryan and Jeremy made the rounds to the different stores, I checked my freezer and found a loaf of Texas Toast, and they scored by finding a deli inside one of the gas stations that gave them a huge loaf of french bread, disaster averted there was enough food for everyone!

For dinner I made prime rib, and all the fixings it was yummy!
 

 

We played games and moved a piano, for Christmas McKenzie wanted our old piano and to have it tuned, so we had plenty of muscle to get it moved over to her house. 

  We got 2 puzzles for Christmas we all tried to put the 3D puzzle together but it just wasn't working out, so  at about 9 pm I thought I would at least start the other puzzle and work on it while Katie and Jeremy were packing their stuff, it gave me an excuse to loiter but not be in the way. Ryan and Scott helped, then Kelsie came out a little later and helped out, and when Katie and Jeremy were done packing they sat down and we finished that puzzle before midnight. 

I thought it would sit out all week and we could work on it a few minutes at a time but it was nice to have it done so fast that was record time for us! 

Katie left the next morning and made it back to her home safely.  I miss you! It was a fun Christmas, Avrie said she wishes everyday was Christmas, I can't even begin to imagine the work that would take to pull off! I love Christmas, but one day a year is enough, now to keep the Spirit of Christ in our home every day, that would be wonderful!

Gingerbread Houses

This year with Katie only being home for a week, we did not have time to do some of the usual Gordon traditions, the one that was nixed this year was the cookie baking and singing. There was just not time for baking all day and singing all night, we went shopping instead. But we did do our gingerbread houses, except there is not contest this year, it was just for fun!
Avrie was so excited she wanted to do hers all by herself, that was of course after her dad built the house for her. But she decorated it without any help. Not sure if she ate more than she put on her house but she had the best time.

These guys were excited master mining what they were going to do.

Destina wanted her house to look pretty and she took her time and did a nice job.

 They were well under way, Ryan spent the day skiing and was pretty tired so I think he just sat there and ate candy I am not sure what he even made.

Kelsie was really proud of herself, this was the first year that her little house didn't fall down before the night was over. She did hers all by herself too. She takes after me in the creativity side of things.

 Destina's turned into a snowed in little cottage it took a long time to get each marshmallow placed just right.

 These guys took forever I had everything all cleaned up before McKenzie was done with her single wide!

Jayden tried he gave a valiant effort to make something this year, he finally started killing the little gingerbread men, I think he may have been playing too many video games this Christmas break.

 They were really excited about the 4x4 truck they made that ran over a reindeer ...

She was ready to eat her house as soon as she was done!

 Scott always does the prettiest houses.

 They take the prize for the house that took the longest to make  but it was still standing the next day!

 They were pretty happy with the end result of their collaborating, the hitch from the trailer matched up perfectly to the truck!

It was a fun way to spend Christmas Eve!

It's Official

He did it! Jeremy proposed to Katie!  We knew it was coming he asked Scott last Thursday if he could have his permission to marry her, he said yes, so we were just waiting for it to happen.  Christmas afternoon they went on a walk to the waterfall by our house and he asked her there. She said yes and we are really excited and happy for them. They haven't set a date yet but either May or June.  Congratulations Katie and Jeremy!

Picture Day!

Today was a perfectly beautiful day, and on my list of to do's was get a new family picture taken when Katie was home. After work we had about 20 minutes of light left, yes the sun was setting at 4 pm, but it is all down hill from here on out the days will be getting longer! Tim couldn't get off work so we took them without him. (I am sure he was fine with it pictures are not his favorite thing)
It was great to have Jeremy here to take the actual picture so I didn't have to set the timer and run into position.  The light was beautiful off of the lake and it was almost 50 degrees today, which was why Ryan was home even he did not want to go skiing in the rain.

This was one of my favorites except "naughtylove" was being difficult again for pictures and her eyes were closed, Jayden always stands like that and Ryan really needs a hair cut but is refusing, but the rest of us look great!

 

Ryan always the trouble maker, it is a good thing Destina is a good sport and puts up with his constant teasing, and good thing he didn't actually push her in the water.

Of course I had to take pictures of Katie and Jeremy they are so cute together.

 

It is great to see her so happy, and no these are not engagement pictures they are just for fun pictures....

The Week Before Christmas

We have been busy around here, so glad that Katie came home for Christmas, our time is short but we are trying to pack in what we can.

She arrived home late on Wednesday night, Thursday was a busy day running around trying to get a long list of things done that she needed to get done while she was here, lunch with her sisters, and more running around.
On Friday the big kids went skiing/snowboarding and came home worn out tired and sore! On Saturday we headed down south to do some Christmas shopping and then movie night with friends. We had 2 basketball games for Tia thrown in there as well.

Avrie was all ready for her shopping trip she was so good and didn't complain too much that we didn't do any shopping for her!

 

Katie brought Jeremy home for Christmas, it has been fun having him around and getting to know him better, Jeremy, Tim and Jayden spent the day together going to the movie, much better than shopping, and Ryan went skiing again!

Happy Birthday

23 years ago, we were living in Monterey CA anticipating the birth of our first child. I was miles away from my family, my only friends were the military/church friends we had made when we moved there 11 months before. The hospital was a 3 hour drive in good traffic, and we were sure we would be having a boy. At 2:30 in the morning I woke Scott up and told him we better head to the hospital my contractions were about 10 minutes apart. Since it was the middle of the night the traffic was light and we made good time. Once at the hospital they checked me and wanted to send me home, but knowing how far we had to drive they told us to go out and get some breakfast and come back around noon to be checked again.
Since this was our first, and we were young and dumb we decided to go out to breakfast, of course, I could not eat anything, I had rug burns on my elbows from going through most of my labor in the car and around 10:00 am I told Scott that we needed to go back to the hospital. When we came in this time they admitted me and then they told Scott to get something to read it was going to be a long day. He took their advice and found some magazines, and while I was going through labor, naturally, no drugs, he would glance up from what he was reading and remind me to breath, so helpful. McKenzie was born at 2:37 pm, 8lbs 3 oz.  I fell in love with her the moment I saw her! I spent 2 sleepless nights in the hospital sharing a room with another lady who's baby would be awake and crying while McKenzie was sleeping and her baby would sleep when McKenzie was awake and crying, I couldn't wait to get home so I could rest. We stopped at our friends house that was about half way between the hospital and our house and had dinner, and we all remember how excited we were because McKenzie had her first poopy diaper there. They almost didn't let us leave the hospital because she had not pooped yet, so it was a big deal.  We enjoyed having a little baby in the house for the Christmas season, and we were so excited to be great parents because, of course we knew everything!

Happy Birthday McKenzie, 23 years ago I was 23 when I had my first baby, now your 23 and I still love you as much as I did that day I first laid eyes on you!

The Saga Continues

So about 3 weeks ago we got a call from the "nice lady" telling us she just finished Avrie's green card paperwork and then she was going to start on Destina's. We got Avire's in the mail about a week later so we thought Destina's would follow shortly, when it didn't show up I thought it might have been held up because of Thanksgiving, and I would give it until Saturday then start calling. It didn't come so Scott called this morning and apparently they don't have a picture of Destina. Remember when we drove down to Seattle to have the fingerprint and picture taken back in July and we took Destina even though she did not have an appointment and the "nice man" helped us out and personally took us to his office, he was the boss guy, and took her fingerprint and picture and he even checked to make sure it went through and was on the computer, well they couldn't find it. So her file has been sitting on her desk, she had our number why didn't she call? She sent out a notice, that we have not yet received, that we need to go get another picture taken, 100 miles away, a tank of gas, and $20.00 bucks to park, plus another day off of work, at the Homeland Security office again.  So we will head back down this week and get her picture taken again and maybe we will get that green card yet!
Destina asked why is it always her stuff that is getting messed up?

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving was a first, the first time some of my family came for Thanksgiving. I was so excited to have my sister and niece come for the weekend.  We also had the missionaries over for dinner and they stayed most of the day. I was busy getting things ready all week long and my crazy kids convinced me that I needed to make ham and turkey for dinner since half of them don't like turkey so I caved in and did both. I told them I was off the hook for Christmas dinner since we usually have ham and I did it for thanksgiving....they didn't buy that but I tried.

 
Scott was nice enough to take a picture of his plate of food. We also had pie overload, McKenzie made 2 chocolate pies, she makes the best pies that her mother-in-law taught her, I bought a Costco apple pie and pumpkin pie, then later that night McKenzie brought 2 pies left over from her Thanksgiving dinner another chocolate pie and pumpkin pie, it was a good thing there were a lot of people at my house but I ate my fair share of pie this weekend.

The next day Destina had an indoor  soccer tournament her team was undefeated in 4 games and they were number 1. She had a great time but I was done with soccer by the 4th game.

I was going to bring my camera but forgot, I was glad Scott took another picture for me!

After the soccer game it was home for leftovers, we left the kids home and went shopping, found a few things convinced my sister to buy her first Lululemon jacket. When we got home we traded, I got her new jacket and she took my 2 year old jacket because it had a hood and she likes hoods, worked for me. 

 (Mckenzie was so happy when she came over dressed like her mom and aunt)

We came home and it was girls night out at the movies, my niece hadn't seen Hunger Games yet so we went to see that again. Kelsie came and met us at the theater after work and she sat down and I tipped over the whole bucket of popcorn trying to get a napkin most of it went on the floor but some of the popcorn landed on the 50ish lady sitting in front of me. I started apologizing profusely as soon as it happened, how embarrassing. But her son that was sitting next to her must of thought I did it on purpose, because I look like the type that buys overpriced popcorn just to dump it on the floor...anyway he turned around dropped the F-bomb twice as he was explaining how rude I was...his mother was telling him to stop, I was still apologizing, and now fearing for my life thinking I needed someone to get security.  He calmed down and we were able to enjoy the movie and get a free refill on the popcorn, I don't even eat popcorn.  Anyway he turned out to be a short hairy man and we laughed about that the rest of the weekend, I am going to leave out the part about McKenzie driving home after the movie and seeing him in the parking lot and honking as she drove past him.

The next day we took the little girls to the movie, lucky for me there was no hairy man sitting in front of me and I didn't spill any popcorn, to see Frozen they loved it and then it was more shopping this time we took the little girls because all they wanted for Christmas was a new outfit from Justice so the pain of going into that store while they wandered around finding the perfect outfits for 4 girls, but check that off their Christmas list.  That night we went out to dinner, adults only, and then came home and played games, my sister and niece left early the next morning and I was sad to see them go. But on the bright side for me is that my sister's husband was transferred to Portland and their house sold while she was here and she will be moving only 4 hours away, I am so excited!