Christmas morning.

Well, as usual Christmas has come and gone....but this year was a little different. We usually have one or the other of Mike's parents here, but this year with all of the changes here at the house everyone thought it would be too much. Maybe next year. The kids had a great time with the Sampson's here. It was complete chaos, which is what I love. Lot's of kids opening gifts. I think everyone got what they wanted. The Sampsons and the Ellsworths both got the wii, Hailey got a lot of princess stuff, which is what she loves. The one thing she asked for was a barbie cash register and she got it. But I think she played with it for about 10 minutes and was bored with it. I guess you can't win them all.

Sorry about the pictures, I don't know what happened this year. By the time the morning was over, I realized that I'd taken very few photos. I guess I was just so concerned with getting enough video footage. Candy!
The boys opening stocking gifts

Hailey and her crazy hair

Thoughts

Ever since I can remember I've looked forward to Christmas. When I was younger it was the visit from Santa that excited me....as I've gotten older, I've come to recognize the spirit of the season that comes along with the holiday. As Thanksgiving gets closer, I become more excited, cause I know that as soon as we are done eating the turkey, the official Christmas season begins. This year wasn't quite the season I'd hoped for. Complications with kidney stones, once again, threw a wrench into my plans. Not being able to get out of bed and do all of the fun things that I'd been looking forward to started to darken my outlook. Three weeks in bed gave me a lot of time to sit and stew about struggles that I'd been having physically, and I started to become angry.

Yesterday, on the way home from church Mike asked me if going through what I do, every time a kidney issue arises, brought me closer to the Savior? The question caught me off guard and I really didn't have an answer for him. I'd never thought of it that way. The more I thought about it, the more my heart softened causing me to repent for the anger that I'd felt.

I truly feel blessed, for all that Heavenly Father has given me. I know that the Savior, Jesus Christ has suffered, just as I have through every trial I've had. I am blessed with a wonderful, loving, hardworking husband, 2 fun, healthy children, wonderful parents who filled my childhood home with the spirit and taught me through example what the gospel is about, amazing siblings and in laws who treat me like I'm their own, and friends who I know I can always count on. How can life get any better than that?

I want to thank everyone for the help, well wishes, thoughts and prayers in my behalf. And I want to wish everyone a wonderful Christmas!

Santa Claus is comin to town.....

Braxton and a friend from our old ward, Rachel, working on their craft.

Braxton, just reminding us what a good big brother he his. Holding both Hailey and Gabby on his lap.

Hailey telling Santa what she wants....

Eating breakfast.

Another event I missed was the ward Christmas party. Mike took the kids and was kind enough to take some pictures for me. They had a pancake breakfast made by the bishopric, they did a holiday craft and then Santa came. Hailey sat on his lap and told him that she wanted a Barbie Cash register.....Braxton on the other hand refused to sit on his lap. He says he's too old to do that, but he still believes that Santa will bring him presents anyway.

Dance/Gymnastics

Hailey doing her "kick tap"

Had to make sure I was watching her.

Doing a leap...pretty good

Watching the teacher and waiting to be noticed.

Balance beam

Bars

Vault

Bars

Hailey is still doing gymnastics this year, but we've also added ballet and tap. The last class, just before Christmas break, the parents are allowed to come into class and take pictures. It's a lot of fun to see what she's learned. Although I have to admit, she does stand around alot in ballet and watch everyone else, until the teacher takes her hand and helps her. I think she enjoys the attention from the teacher. She's already working the system.

Another program........

Hailey's preschool class did a Christmas program. It seemed like I'd just been to her Thanksgiving performance..... I still wasn't feeling very well, but Hailey really wanted me to go and see her sing and dance with her class. Plus, I needed to get out of the house. So I went. It was soooo long and Hailey's class only had a short part at the very end. She did a great job! It was fun to see her sing and do all of the actions to the songs. They sang three songs, Up on the Housetop, jingle bells and Frosty the Snowman. Afterwards her class had a little Christmas party. She had a great time. As soon as we got home it was back to bed for me.Hailey decorating her stocking at the Christmas party.Hailey singing up on the housetop.

"Wax Museum"

Boy this month turned out NOTHING like I had planned. Three weeks in bed has really put me behind this season. So, I am trying to catch up on everything, including shopping for Santa!

Just before Thanksgiving break Braxton's class did a wax museum. Each student had to pick a historical person who changed America in some way, learn about that person and then prepare a three minute bio on that person to present out loud. Then they either had to dress-up or create a puppet that looked like who they had picked. All the parents were invited to come and hear about all of people who had contributed to history. Braxton chose Christopher Columbus and decided to do a puppet instead of dress up. He did a great job!

Thanksgiving Program

Hailey is front/left indian

I am quickly finding out that Hailey and Braxton's preschool's are completely different. Braxton's was more of a "hands off" experience where I would just drop him off everyday and that was pretty much it. Where as Hailey has programs and lots of parties for the parents to come to. Hailey had her Thanksgiving program followed by a "feast", which was made up of chicken nuggest, beans and green beans......Yummy! Hailey's class were indians. In the program they just sang different songs about being thankful and indians and pilgrims. The strangest part was when they announced the children would be singing the blessing on the food.....and after the song/prayer everyone started clapping....never experienced that before. (Hailey's preschool is run by the Methodist Church)

Hailey enjoying her "feast"

Hailey and Gabby showing me their indian princess costumes. On the back says "Princess Hailey"

Pumpkin Carving

Gabby, Hailey, Mike, Max and Parker.

With all that has been going on in our lives I completely forgot that I'd taken pictures of our pumpkin Carving. We usually do it early in the month, but this year we didn't do it until the week of Halloween. We let the kids design and carve their own this year....they love'd it!

Zach and Braxton proud of their combined design..

The girls not enjoying the gooey insides so much.

Zach and Braxton cleaning out their pumpkin

Too much CANDY!

Every year our kids get to go to a "trunk or treat" that is done by our ward, plus trick or treating. We always end up with a lot of candy. Now that we have 6 kids in the house we got three times as much this year! I think we are going to have the "great pumpkin" come and visit our house soon. So he can deliver all of the candy to needy children all over the world.... :) Kris and her little bee
Noah and Hailey

Braxton as Dracula

Braxton and Hailey on the way to the trunk or treat.

Kira and Hailey

It's hard being a "princess"

This is Hailey's first year of preschool.....and with preschool comes holiday parties. She was able to wear her costume to school that day and was so excited about it. Mike, the ever supportive husband, signed me up to help with the Halloween party. (I think as payback for making him go to "open house") anyway, when I showed up at her school she looked like she was having a great time. Then she saw me, and she immediately wanted me to hold her. When I finally convinced her to rejoin her class, she realized she'd left her princess wand at home. She was very upset and started yelling "I forgot my wand!" and begging me to go home and get it for her. I finally persuaded her to go on with the party without the wand. (threatening her with sitting on my lap) Soon the wand was forgotten and she had a great time. When we got home from school she and Gabby went through all of the goodies they'd recieved from the party and found a stamp. They both stamped themselves all over and Hailey got it all over her dress.....when I went to wash it, hoping I could get it out, I read the tag of instructions it said, "Do not wash, Do not dry clean, do not dry" Well that didn't leave me with many options, so we did away with Sleeping Beauty all together and she picked a belle dress from her "dress-up" clothes and she was Belle. Boy, I'd wish we'd done that earlier, it would have saved me money!

Hailey with her class
Hailey and Gabby being silly.
Party snack

Mickey mouse cheese, you can't beat that!

The unicorn and the princess....

Gymnastics, costume parade 08

So, I am quickly finding out that Hailey is much more "opinionated" than Braxton ever was. Every morning is a struggle for us to agree on what she is going to wear that day. If I let her, she'd wear a swimming suit over a pair of tights everyday.
Picking out a Halloween costume this year, proved to be just as difficult. We went to "Party City" and stood in front of the wall of costumes for about 20 min while she picked which of the princess's she wanted to be. It was so painful....She finally picked the Ariel costume, so we went to get some accessories for it and she spotted the Ariel wig. The picture on the package was hideous, so I can only imagine what it looked like out of the package and there was no way I was spending $20 on that! So we argued about getting the wig for another 15 min. She finally gave in and decided that since she couldn't have the wig she didn't want to be Ariel anymore. So back to the wall of costumes..... We went back and forth with every princess, because they all had wigs that she wanted. I finally got her to get the Sleeping Beauty costume, without the wig. I convinced her that she already has Sleeping Beauty princess hair. Next year I'm hoping we can do something a little more creative.

Hailey in her gymnastics class.

The costume is so cheap.....the crown looks more like a headband. But she loves it and that's what matters.

Doing her stretches....and she just couldn't put the sceptor down.


Gabby and Hailey.

My parents last visit.......

My parents made their annual trip out here. Although this time, now that my sister Kristine and brother Jarom live close, that would mean that half of the family would be together. So we were all looking forward to their visit. My parents flew out and drove down to Charleston to stay with my brother and his wife. Jarom had to work at the hospital while they were there, but was going to drive out here with my parents to stay with us. The first half of their trip went as planned. They got to see Charleston and where Jarom and Liina live.

However here in Atlanta, Kristines daughter, Kira had come down with the stomach flu. We all hoped that she would be over it by the time my parents and Jarom came out. No such luck, not only did she not get better quickly, my nephew, my sister and brother in law all got it. So Jarom and Liina decided not to risk getting it, and stayed home. My parents stayed one night with Kristine and decided to move to a hotel, when the rest of the family came down with it. The worst part is my mom ended up getting it the night before they went home.

So the trip didn't quite turn out how we'd hoped! Such is life, better luck next time! (the funny thing is, none of the Ellsworths got it and we'd all been exposed)

The one day that we were able to go out and do something before my mom got sick, we went up to Helen and to the pumpkin patch. Kira had started feeling better by this point, but you can tell in the pictures she's not quite herself.....

The bug house cont.....

The tenants had done so many odd things to the house....Like wall paper some of the windows, the cupboards, the bathtub? I don't know what the tradition is down in Mexico, but it just seems odd to me. If you notice even the windows are new. Mike was inspired by my Brother in law, Craig, who had replaced their windows himself. So, Mike did it all on his own and saved us a lot of money!

There is much more that we did, but this gives you an idea. I don't know what we are going to do with ourselves now that we are done! It will be nice to have a free Saturday.

The "Bug House"

Mike and I have had a lease/purchase home for a little over 4 years. The tenants that lived in there were supposed to purchase the home after 3 years. Well, the 3 year mark came and went and they were unable to get the loan. This past June we find out that the family had just up and moved, owing us 2 months rent. A few days after we found this out I went over to the house to see what kind of shape it was in. It was so......I can't even find the words that would do it justice. Definately not a place I would wish on my worst enemy! The smell was so awful, I could barely stand to be in the house. And the cockroaches were so bad they were falling from the ceiling.

Our summer was pretty much spent in fixing up the house so we could sell. We started in July and literally just finished on Tuesday. We worked on it every spare second we had. Even the kids helped out. Mike taught Braxton how to cut and lay tile, and Hailey helped with painting. (I'm still trying to get paint out of her hair).

When we first started working on the house, Hailey started to refer to it as the "bug house", because of all of the bugs.....so that's what we've called. Although now that it's clean and we had an exterminator come there are no more bugs. Here are some before and after shots.

the kitchen....there was caked grease everywhere! And roaches in all of the cupboards and drawers and crawling all over the floor. Who wall papers their stove?

The after shot. We did everything ourselves, we even taught ourselves how to lay hardwood floors.

Mike added on extra cupboards. I'm so glad I married someone who's so handy.

this is the family room. The carpet was so gross I didn't even want to walk on it with shoes on.....and they had taken the light fixture.....and it wasn't this color when we rented them the house.

amazing what some paint, new floors and a nice light fixture can do.

The Bug house

The house after some TLC