Getting ready for Christmas!

I've always been really good about not celebrating Christmas before Thanksgiving, and have even been annoyed with those who do.  But this year has been different for me for many reasons.

First, Thanksgivings in general have been difficult since my father-in-law died the night before Thanksgiving a few years ago.  

Second, I have found myself listen to Christmas music over the radio,because it's the only thing uplifting on the radio. I usually listen to a lot of news and talk radio, a spend the rest of the day depressed about what I am hearing. 

Third, I finally started my Christmas projects before Thanksgiving. Our family has a tradition on giving homemade gifts.  It started when I was in High School and our family visited Orchard House, home of Louisa May Alcott while on vacation in New England. During the tour they talked about how instead of giving bought gifts the sisters would give each other homemade gifts or did special things for each other and how much more meaningful it was. After that my mom somehow talked us all into starting this new tradition.  We've had some better years than others.  The first year we did this, my dad wanting to set a good example, traveled to Layton every spare minute he  had to make a special present for each of us in his uncles workshop.  I remember a lot of tears that year as we all felt my Fathers love for us in his gifts.  Since then we have had many memorable Christmas mornings, full of tears and love. Not all the presents are good, memorable or even finished, but even a letter seems to be more meaningful than a store bought gift. My favorite part of the tradition is that I find myself more excited on Christmas Eve to give my gifts than I am to see what I am getting. Every year I tell myself that I am going to start my projects early so I can enjoy Christmas instead of stressing myself out.  It isn't easy completing a present for all of my sibling and spouses.  This year I finally did it. Yesterday I finished my presents for all the girls. The boys will have to wait till after Thanksgiving, but at least I've started them. 

Back to my original thoughts, working on my presents has really got me into the Christmas spirit. Especially because I told myself it was okay to listen to Christmas music while making my presents.  

I feel like a little kid looking forward to all our Christmas traditions.

- Waking up way to early to shop on black friday.

- Putting up the many Santa's I've collected over the years from the DI.

- Spending a week with my mom and sisters in our chocolate factory, and making myself sick from eating way to many mint truffles and rum balls.

- Cutting down a tree a Schuster Creek.

- Hearing my kids sing carols.

- Drinking eggnog. 

- Opening up the twelve days of Christmas.

- Lots of family parties, and staying up way to late playing games.

- Fighting over white elephant gifts.

- Dressing my girls up in cute Christmas dresses.

- Taking Lydia to the Nutcracker.

- Hearing a bell ring when I open my parents door.

- Finding things to put in my siblings socks.

- Brunch with Santa.

- Skating with Santa.

- Eating more chocolates.

- Christmas Eve bowling.

- Making the kids act out the nativity.

- Opening new PJ's.

- Maryann's sticky rolls and breakfast casserole on Christmas morning.

- King Crab and creme brulee Christmas night. 

Sorry to anyone who doesn't like Christmas being mentioned before Thanksgiving. Maybe next year I will behave, for now I'll sleep at night with sugar plums dancing in my head. 

More of the Same thing!

Jared and I thought it would be fun to take the kids to see the New High School Musical. They were excited to see it, and I'll admit Jared and I weren't hating the idea. It was okay. I don't know why I was expecting something new. It really is just two more hours of the same thing. I liked most of the songs, but thought they had way too many slow cheesy love songs for Troy and Gabriella. It was still enjoyable to watch my kids smile and dance through the show. Jared loved having Lydia lean over a few minutes into the show and whisper, "Dad your my Troy."
At the end Jared said he didn't like the music as much in the third as the others. he said that the finally didn't have a catchy song. He said you should leave the theater singing the tune. Apparently the song was catchy enough because I kept catching him singing it all night.

A good Halloween

Captain Grayson 

The Good Witch

When ever anyone asked Lydia what she was going to be for Halloween she would respond with, "hee,hee,hee,hee." When they said, "A witch", she'd say, "You got it!"

Tinker Bell

Lydia in her dance costume. 

Carving Pumpkins

Grayson was excited to create his own pumpkin this year. Mom always seemed to take over in the past. 

Our getaway

We love to spend as much time as we can up at Schuster Creek. It is so relaxing to spend some time away in nature even if it's only for an hour or two after Jared work. We took advantage of a break in the hunting schedule and ran up last week. It was perfect. 

I love these pictures of the girls because it looks like they like each other. Kate doesn't care much for Lydia and screams if Lydia even touches her. Lydia is always trying to hold her hand and Kate won't have it. For some reason Kate decided to let Lydia finally hold her hand. Maybe there is hope for a house of three girls. 

Grayson has spent way to much time listening to uncles talk about hunting. He is always talking about when he grows up he's going to have a real gun so he can go hunting. When we told him we were going to Schuster he ran and got his gun saying he needed to practice while we were there. We did see several deer while up there. This is him practicing shooting a deer across a the way from us.

On our way out of Jeremy Ranch we saw THREE moose eating their dinner at this house. It was pretty crazy. The family inside was filming the whole thing.

UEA Break in Georgia

I know UEA was a while ago, but we don't really have internet right now. (I can't wait to live in a normal house.) Anyways, with a long break from school we decided to take one last trip with the kids, because who knows when we'll be in the mood to fly with four kids, not to mention we'll have to start paying for Kate soon. Somehow Tami committed Jared into going out to Georgia at least once while they lived there. Luckily we had lots of sky miles saved up so Jared could follow through with that promise. I love that I have a husband that appreciates and respects the close relationship Tami and I have.

We all had a blast. The kids were so happy to see each other and not only was the trip relaxing we got to do a lot. In addition to visiting their home in Augusta, we visited Savannah and Tybee Island (Savannah's beach). Tami found us an amazing beach house that has been featured in a few magazines and a book.

Here are a some pics from our trip.

SAVANNAH

We had dinner at the famous Pirate House. It's been open since 1753 where they served seafarers and real pirates. Parts of the famous "Treasure Island" story are thought to have happened in the Pirate House. The kids LOVED this, especially hearing about it's history and the ghosts that haunt it today. 

TYBEE ISLAND:

 

This is the cute fish camp cottage we got to stay in. 

FORT PULASKI:

I told the kids to look sad because they were locked up, this is what I got. 

THE BEACH

We had perfect beach weather, it was so nice. Grayson LOVED the waves.

THE CRAB SHACK

After dinner, we fed alligators. I my have killed one. I dropped a plastic bag full of gator food into the pond. One got the bag before we could get it out. Some of the workers spent a while trying to get it away from him without any luck. I felt so bad I had to stop watching. 

TYBEE LIGHT HOUSE

AT THE KAMERATHS

We loved just hanging out at the Kamerath's, especially roasting hot dogs, making smores and carmel apples. 

Thanks Kamerath's, we miss you so much. 

"Do you want to Hear the BAD news"

This is Grayson's way of announcing that we are having another GIRL. To be honest we were all hoping we would be having a boy. Grayson desperately needs and wants a brother. All he's been talking about for the last few months is how soon he would have two brothers, our dog Max and the new baby. I didn't want him to get his hopes up, so I was always quick to tell him it might be a girl.
Jared was sure it would be a boy. He told me on several occasions, that he felt like it was a boy. I told him, I wasn't going to play that game again. We were so convinced Grayson was a girl, I bought clothes and started making plans for decorating the nursery. We were even calling the baby Kate. After that ultrasound I morned the loss of my Kate for over a month. It wasn't fun. I tried my best not to set my heart on having a boy this time, and thought I was doing good. I wasn't happy going home yesterday.
Jared dropped me off at home and went to pick Grayson up from a friends. When Grayson got in the car, he saw the pictures from the ultrasound and got all excited asking if it was pictures of the baby. When he asked if it was a boy, Jared said read this pointing to the picture labeled GIRL. Grayson started screaming "No" and crying hysterically. When he came home and walked in with tears rolling down his face it broke my heart.
I don't want you all to think this new baby girl wont be loved. She will. Lydia was happy to get another sister. I am looking forward to having lots of lunches, shopping trips and girls weekends with my three girls. I hope Lydia, Kate and new baby girl have as much fun as Tami, Shelly and I have had over the years. Grayson can continue to enjoy his dad and Max on many, many trip to Schuster Creek and such.

Moving, Construction, and Strep Throat

We finally moved and are living at our new home. I wish we could say our home is done, but we still have a long way to go.  With our friends waiting to move into our old place we decided we needed to move as soon as possible. Of course we made sure we had a few things before moving in.  Some of the things we had when we moved in were:

-a toilet

- a shower

-a kitchen sink 

- a bedroom

The first few nights were interesting. We used the kitchen sink for brushing our teeth, washing hands, and shaving. Most of the rooms didn't have lights yet so we had to walk around with a lamp to plug in each room. It was a step up from camping.

Some things we are now enjoying:

- doors on our bedrooms

- a toilet and sink in the same room

- a working oven

- a washing machine and dryer

- a dining room with a table we can sit at

Things we look forward to having:

-lights in our bathrooms and kitchen

- a finished kitchen

- a family room

- a toy room

- no more construction worker in our home from 8am to 5pm.

I was trying to talk Jared into taking sick days from work for a couple of days before moving so he could help me pack up. He was so nice to do that. Unfortunately he actually got sick and was no help at all. After 2 days of a fever and sore throat he finally went to the doctor and found out he had strep (probably from Disney World). Luckily he got his meds. and was able to help on the actual move day. My family was nice enough to come and help, I just wish I could figure out what boxes they put what in. 

I thought I was safe from strep, but the next week, on Grayson's birthday, I woke up with a soar throat.  I was going to go into his school to take a birthday treat to his class. I thought I better get it checked before I went in. Unfortunately I was positive for strep and had to spend the day hiding from people while I was still contagious.  Luckily I caught it early and didn't have the horrible experience Jared did.

Even with all the craziness, we feel really blessed. We love our house so far and have been really comfortable. My only complaint is having more stairs to climb up and down. We can't wait to have everyone over when everything is done. 

Celebrating Six!

Grayson was so excited to turn six this last week. He keeps saying he can now do all kinds of new things now that he is older. He wanted a pirate birthday and kept inviting all his friends from school to "his party", forgetting that he wasn't going to have a friend party this year. I tried to make our little party with family as fun as possible. I had plans for making his pirate ship cake on his birthday, luckily the doctor said I could still make it as long as I was careful. I seriously wanted to cry at the thought of not making his cake. Making my kids a specially cake for their birthday is one of my favorite traditions. I am loving Grayson at this age. He is starting to be more responsible, and is a huge help. He's also a great friend, we have a lot of fun together.  

The Cake

Grayson and Lydia loved making everyone dress up and play pirates.

We survived Disney World!

Last week we were lucky enough to get a greatly needed break from reality and traveled to the Magic Kingdom with Jared's family.  One of the biggest things I worried about when we found out I was pregnant, was that I wouldn't be able to handle our  upcoming vacation.  When we left I seriously thought I was going to need to rent one of those carts. Luckily my body held up really well and I actually enjoyed myself.  Kate was also really good for the first three days, especially for not getting real naps. The last two days were another story, she developed a ear infection in both ears.  She was in so much pain we had to take turns staying at the hotel with her. On the last night both ears ruptured and she able to finally relax, making our flight home much easier.  Here are some Highlights. 

The Boardwalk Inn:

My favorite part of our trip was by far our hotel. It was a hotel on a 1920's boardwalk with restaurants and shops. It had the greatest atmosphere. I seriously could have lived there. The kids loved sitting out on the balcony at night to watch the fireworks show at night. 

The Lobby

Our view from the balcony. 

riding around the boardwalk

the pool

Aunt Abby surprised all the kids with new PJ's our first night. 

The Magic Kingdom:

We visited the Magic Kingdom on our first day. Since it was the middle of the week there weren't a lot of people. The longest we had to wait was like 20 minutes. Grayson's favorite ride was Pirates of the Caribbean and Lydia loved Splash Mountain. 

Ariel' Grotto

Animal Kingdom:

Lydia and I loved the Lion King show, Jared rode Expedition Everest 8 times, and Grayson loved the Dinosaur ride. 

Checking out the animals on our safari

Hollywood Studios:

We weren't big fans of Hollywood Studios it was a hot and crowed day. Grayson loved the Indiana Jones Stunt show and talked about it all day.  We also enjoyed a fun lunch with some of the characters from Playhouse Disney. Kate seamed to enjoy seeing the characters the most.  She wouldn't stop hugging JoJo.  

EPCOT:

We only spent a few hours at EPCOT. Most of the rides were for bigger kids so me and Lydia spent a lot of time waiting at the the ride exits. Grayson of course loved all the space stuff. 

THANKS GRANDMA, FOR ANOTHER WONDERFUL TRIP!