Christmas Pajamas

Every year the kids get new pajamas on Christmas eve. Since they always know that they are getting them and it's not really a surprise, this year I let the kids pick out their own fabric. Josh loves monkeys, Rachel loves cats, and David picked sports. We just all picked out a cute giraffe print for Emma.




The kids laughed and laughed at this one with David's funny face. He said that he was about to sneeze!

The kids love getting a new set of fun pajamas. Last year I didn't have time to make them so I bought them all some. This year I planned for time a little better and was able to get my sewing done. They seem to love them so much more if they are homemade!

New Christmas Clothes

Here are the kids new Christmas clothes. I think Josh has grown out of a 4T. He still wears size 4 but the 4T outfit I got him from JC Penney is a little on the small side. It was the only one left and I thought I could make it work. I don't think this outfit will last him very long :) Anyway, my kids are always excited to wear new clothes - even the boys. I only made Rachel's dress. This was due to a extreme lack of pretty dresses in her size. There were racks and racks of holiday dresses for sizes 6 and under. As the mother of a "tween" it is very difficult to find clothes that look half way normal. I guess it is good that I can sew.

Gingerbread Houses

The kids had fun building houses out of graham crackers, frosting, and candy. Every year I forget that it is easier if Mom makes the houses the day before so that the kids don't get extremely frustrated when their house keeps falling down. But, any activity that involves large amounts of candy leaves my kids smiling.






It is fun to use these graham crackers - they really do taste like gingerbread! If nothing else, it makes it feel more authentic and less like you are cheating, because you didn't bake your own gingerbread.

Christmas Card Smiles

Most of you that read this blog will be getting a Christmas card in the next few days. It will have a cute picture of my kids. Here are the ones that didn't make it to the card. My kids consider this a form of torture - having them sit and continually smile while I snap pictures - hoping to get one with all of them smiling at the same time! Maybe someday I will get someone to take a picture of the whole family. Unfortunately, it's almost as hard to get my husband to smile for a picture.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Christmas!

Lost Shoe

You wouldn't think that a shoe could be a casualty of the winter weather. Gloves, maybe a scarf, but not really a shoe. But that's what happened today. I went to pick my kids up from school. I park on the street across from the school rather than waiting in the long pickup line. Lots of other parents pick up their kids where I do. I pulled into an empty spot. There was room in front of me and a car pulled up behind me and honked - they wanted me to move forward instead of them driving around in front of me. It was annoying, but I moved forward. In retrospect, I never should have done this. In between the sidewalk and the curb there is a huge pile of snow created from the snowplows clearing the streets. My kids have to step over this pile to make it into the car. By moving forward, I had unknowingly parked right next to a storm drain. Josh stepped over (and into) the huge pile of snow to get into the car. He was suddenly up to his knees in snow - he had stepped right into the storm drain. I got out of my seat and reached out to pull him up and into the car. Unfortunately his shoe never made it out of the storm drain. I laid down and reached my hand down the drain to see if I could feel anything (I wasn't wearing a coat or gloves). I couldn't see or feel a thing. I even went home, got a flashlight, and went back. Still, nothing. I don't know how deep the drains are or if retrieving the shoe was even possible, but I had to try. Next time I'm parked to pick up my kids, I think I'm staying put.

Snow Dance

Tonight my kids all put their pajamas on backwards and danced around the house chanting "snow, snow, snow!". Well, maybe their little snow dance worked - school has already been canceled and it hasn't even started to come down yet. Unfortunately for them, I don't think it's going to be fun to play in. The first couple inches of precipitation is going to be coming down as ice. Maybe they accidentally did the ice dance :) I think that's the main reason that the schools are already closed. It's not really the 3-5 inches of snow they are worried about, it's the ice that makes things so dangerous. So, we get a day off tomorrow. I'm glad I know now so I can just let the kids sleep in if they want to. I just hope that our power stays on and that the bad weather only lasts a day or two - at least until the next storm. Last year, we didn't have any snow or ice until after the 1st of the year. We have already had 3 significant storm systems. I think it's going to be a long winter.

Thanksgiving shopping nightmare

I am a creature of habit. I always like to shop at the same stores. I even park in the same general area so I always know where my car is going to be. I know where everything is at Walmart and it is about 2 minutes from my home. Plus, Walmart will price match other stores ads. I didn't used to take the time to do that, but recently I have and you can save a lot of money. Anyway, Thanksgiving is a different story. I look at all the ads and I usually end up going to the store that has the best Turkey price. You never know if Walmart is going to match something like that and when it comes to big holidays, they never have the best prices. This year, the best price for Turkey wasn't even printed in the paper, Super Saver just printed that they would beat the best Turkey price by 2 cents per pound. So, I decided to brave a new store, one that was easily 20 minutes away, so I could get a deal on a Turkey. I left early Saturday morning. Rachel came with me and that came in handy because she added things up on the calculator (I was trying to follow a strict budget). Before I went to the store, I stopped and got gas (I'm pointing it out because it is an important part of the story). Then we make our way to Super Saver and got through our list. It was pretty busy, but not too bad. We finally got all our shopping done and made our way to the checkout. I had some store coupons and a couple price match items that I had to keep track of (Super Saver also matches ads, but you have to have the ad with you and they are a little more strict about it than Walmart). Anyway, as we are nearing the end of checking out, I realize that my wallet is not in my purse. I start to panic. This has never happened to me before. At that moment, my brain froze. I totally forgot that I had stopped to get gas and therefore my wallet had to be nearby. I just thought that I had taken it out of my purse at home. I was so flustered that I wasn't thinking straight. I did have my checkbook with me and I tried to write a check. Of course I didn't have ID and I'm not a pushy person demanding that they take my check. I quickly offered to go home and get it. I still had to bag up all my groceries, have them set them aside, and then come back and do the whole checkout procedure again. I was mortified. The store acted like it was no big deal. I rushed to the car, still not thinking that I had purchased gas earlier, and rushed home as fast as I could. I ran inside and started looking for my wallet in the usual places. When I couldn't find it, I started to get worried, where could it be? That is when it hit me, I had it with me the whole time. After I got gas, I set my wallet on the seat of the car. It was in the car and if I hadn't been so flustered, I probably would have noticed it when I got back in the car. So, I drove all the way back. Part of me just wanted to leave my groceries back at the store and never come back. But then I would have to do my Thanksgiving shopping all over again. I went back, they rang up my groceries again, and they were nice enough to put my cart in the cold dairy section because I had some frozen things. But, hold on, it even gets worse. When they rang up the turkey, it came up as .67 cents a pound. It was only the Norbest Turkey that was .44. The poor cashier just gave me the lowest sale price. He was probably tired of dealing with me. I still can't believe I went all the way to this special store and I didn't even get the turkey that was on sale.

Anyway, despite my shopping troubles, we had a lovely Thanksgiving with another family from Church. We had lots of good food and since the other family was bringing the rolls, yams, and mashed potatoes, things did not feel rushed on Thursday morning. I think next year I'll just go to Walmart.

The soccer star

I am very late in posting about this but Josh had a great time playing soccer this fall. A dad in our ward was the coach and they contacted all the boys that were Josh's age to see if they wanted to be on the team. Josh loves soccer! He even scored a few goals. He would practice kicking the ball around at home. It was fun to watch him be so excited about something. Hopefully he can play next year too.