Christmas Eve Fun Part 1!

One of the traditions that we love at Christmas is making something out of gingerbread. This year we decided to try a train instead of a house. It was fun and I do think it was easier to make than the house. But perhaps we are just getting better after years of practice?!?!?! After we make our gingerbread project, we leave it out for Santa and Elfie to enjoy!! (If you remember Elfie...... He is our adopted elf that comes to stay with us after Thanksgiving through Chrismtas Eve. He reports to Santa each night on wheter we are being naughty or nice.)

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While Visions of Sugar Plums!!

In this house we have a huge "game/teen" room at the front of our house. We use it as a bedroom for Jayson and Nathan as well as a big playroom. Well this year for Christmas Eve......... we decided to have one big slumber party and sleep together. We have a couch that pulls out into a bed in there, along with another couch and the bunk beds. We had plenty of space to sleep. So Cassie and Bryan slept on the top bunk.

Tanner and Daddy slept on the bottom bunk.

Hunter and I slept on the couch.

Jayson and Nathan and I slept on the pull out couch. (Yes, it is true I was in two different spots.) Twins did not do much sleeping so I had to move and sleep between them. :> The kids thought this was great as it was one big party! (We thought this was great because it was great kid control.) No sneaking out of the room to see what Santa brought or getting up to early. As a matter of fact...... finally at 7:00 when they were not stirring I had to start making noise. I could stand it no longer. They would have gotten up at 2:00 when they first woke up.... however, I just could not have my day start that early!!!

So while visions of sugar plums were dancing in their cute little heads.......... Busted!!! I manage to catch Santa after he got down our chimney!! I love all of the fun things that come with Christmas!!! Phone calls, Santa at the parties, emails with videos from Santa, tracking Santa on his journey!! And of course the catching Santa in the process of gift giving. My kids love, love, love it when I catch Santa each year and they wake up to a picture and a note. Christmas really is fun with kids!!!

Poverty by Orthodontist!!!!

Seriously, I remember the time we had six in diapers.(Granted I only had six in diapers for a short time, we were quick to finish potty training at that point :>.) But I must admit......... I thought that was expensive. Now we approach orthodontic care for six and well what can I say? Cars will be expensive?!?!?!? HAHAHAHA. I wouldn't change a thing actually.

But yesterday would have been known as "death by orthodontist." We had four appointments in one day. The first 2 were for Jayson and Nathan to get their braces. I must add here that we just love Dr. Buckley. He does one step at a time so the kids have a chance to get used to each step. So for six months the boys have had palate expanders and yesterday they got top braces. In six weeks they will get bottom ones and the palate expander will come out. Six weeks later we will start with the head gear. It works well for our group. Plus Dr. Buckley talks to the kids. He addresses them, gets down on their level and makes sure that they are aware of each step. No surprises. It is really what sold him to me!!! Great man!!! (As a side note, Hunter is currently in the palate expander, Cassie and Bryan are on monitor status. I anticipate Cassie starting after the first of the year. Luckily, Bryan has only lost two teeth so we still have about a year for him. :>) So as you can see the boys look charming with their red and green bling!!! They are a little sore today and a little nervous that kids will make fun of them when they go back to school. However, we have two and a half weeks to get used adjust, plus I say no one will even notice.

The next 2 appointments were for Tanner. He got an early Christmas present and got his braces off. Such a handsome young man. He also got fit for his clear retainers. So we did have to go back to get those and be reminded to keep wearing our head gear at night. He is so excited about his new smile and watching him run around with his huge grin..... Well what can I say, I am a sucker for those big brown eyes and it was worth every penny spent!!!

Merry Christmas Eve to all!!! Have a safe and fun night!!!

1st grade Christmas Program

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This might be a little long. So consider yourself warned!!! Enjoy and Happy Holidays to everyone!!!

1st Causality of the Holiday!

So we have had our 1st causality of our 3 week vacation. I had run to a speech evaluation with Nathan and returned home to poor little Bryan and yet another black eye. For those of you who have been with us for years....... you know that because of his hearing loss Bryan was notorious as a toddler for falling and getting black eyes. We were very proud that we had made it a couple of years without one. Unfortunately, one of his lovely partners in crime thought that flying binders were fun and clearly mom did not mean, "don't throw binders" when she said "don't throw toys." :>

Not too bad, really. All I could do was shake my head and wonder........ really all these boys for me? Couldn't I have had a few more girls that sit quietly like Cassie and watch TV??!?!!?!?

Stay tuned. I am sure that we will have more "adventures". I have to say that Christmas song that we sang growing up, "Mom and Dad can hardly wait for school to start again" ...... Whole new meaning!!!!

1st Grade Program!

What a handsome group of kids!! Thursday was the 1st grade Christmas program. They were supposed to wear something nice and these are the outfits they chose. I was impressed to say the least. They do clean up pretty well!!!

If you notice that the blinds are open and it is still dark outside!! These poor kids have to get up way too early for their school day. The program was very cute and it is always fun for me to be able to watch them perform. They love it as well. We were lucky enough to have no homework last week , instead we practiced our songs and poems each day. So funny. I did get some video that I will try to post in the next couple of days.

We are on a 3 week Christmas break and we are taking advantage of sleeping in!!!!!
Well my friends, I am off to try and find the floor of my laundry room. It has been missing for about a week now, as we are running faster than our legs will go to trying to and get ready for the holidays. Have a great day!!

Favorite Picture!!!

So my brother got married a couple of weeks ago!!! He actually lived with us for many years when the kids were small. Cassie loves her Uncle Adam!!! When she was little she would find him every night and give him a hug and kiss and tell him how much she loved him. When he moved out, it took months before she would quit going from room to room looking for him in hopes that he would be around the next corner. (Heartbreaking!!!)

I love this picture of her dancing with him at the wedding. The way that she is looking up at him reminds me of their special bond when he lived with us. And the best part of the picture is that you can see that bond..... is still there!!!

Have a great night my friends!!!

Poor Natey!!!

I am bleeding!!!!! Please don't make me get stitches!!!! I am going to die!!!! These are the very panicked words coming from my son as he came running 100 miles a minute into the house this evening. Here is what I saw!!!

As it turns out....... head wounds bleed a lot!!! Now I know this from some previous head wounds. So I cleaned him up, trimmed the hair, rewashed it out and looked for my own super glue. Did not find the super glue but he is no worse for the wear. He was just relieved that I did not drag him to the ER. For those of you who are not familiar with our war stories, we have gone down that road before and many hours later, we usually end up with one staple or super glue and a very stressed out child. And rest assured..... if it had been bad I would have gladly taken him to the ER!!! I don't want anyone to think that I am a slacker mom. :>

Needless to say, my poor kids were not eating dinner until 6:30 tonight and we did, in fact, not finish homework. Oh well, there is always tomorrow. We needed cuddle, relax time more than we needed study for spelling test time. Have a great night my friends and rest well!!! (I hope to!)

P.S. And our motto is "chicks dig scars"

Happy Halloween

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What is going on at my house?

Alright, if the previous post was not enough........... I just found out that Woody has a girlfriend!!! (I am still unsure of her name yet, however they are hanging out on the bed together!) Are you serious?!?!?!? I knew that my kids were growing up.......... but I thought that 9 and 7 year olds still believed that the opposite gender had cooties. I think perhaps I have missed something. Furthermore, it makes me wonder what I am going to do with them when they are 16?!?!?!?! Maybe it is time to check into that nunnery now! LOL. Have a great night my friends!!!

Hmmmmm

Here is your Saturday laugh!!! One of my children (who will remain nameless, until he/she reaches 16 and I need bribery.....) brought this home from school last week.

Even though it is not the right answer, it is a good one. Sorry for the delays in blog updates, but as usual we have been so busy it is all I can to do keep up with the everyday things. However, we have had some fun and some great birthdays. I will update soon. Have a great weekend my friends!!!

My Little Gooberhead!!!

Gooberhead!!! That is the way my poor baby brother has been known for years by me. It is truly a term of endearment though and only used with the utmost love and respect. He was born while I was still 17 and just heading off to college. So there is a pretty big span between our ages.......... However, as you can tell by this picture our maturity levels were about the same. He is a great kid and we have some great memories. This was when I was pregnant with Hunter (kiddo # 2) in my favorite place, Disneyland!!!!

This was taken Sunday (a few years later), at his missionary farewell. To say I am so proud is really an understatement!!! He truly one of the most generous and compassionate people I know. (He got these traits from my parents, I only wish I could take the credit!) Not only did he help me a lot when I was pregnant(with the quads) and on bed rest and in the hospital, he helped take care of our grandmother and for the last two years has been helping my other sister and her daughters after the suicide of her husband. We are so proud of him for taking this step and I suppose we can share him with Halifax, Canada!!!!

So my little gooberhead!!! We will miss you but we will write to you every week and keep an eye on each other until you make it home to help us out again!!! We love you!!!

See you soon!!!!!

Favorite Things

One of my absolute favorite things about school starting ............ is that when I have appointments with the kids I get some really good and fun face time with them in smaller groups or individually. I just love, love, love it!!! So yesterday was our first adventure to the dentist of this school year.

They decided they wanted to eat at Chili's for lunch after the appointment. So off we went!!!!

And , of course, after getting our teeth cleaned and getting a great report of no cavities we have to celebrate with something horribly delicious and not nutritious. I promise they did eat some macaroni and cheese with salad before we dug into the wonderful mound of chocolate. LOL!!!

Then we were off to the school to pick up their brothers. It has been so hot here 107 the last couple of days. It is horrible!! I am not really sure how it is that we survived the AZ heat for two years when I cannot even begin to survive a week of it here. Bryan got this from the "dentist prize box" and had to pull it out to make us laugh and forget that we were actually melting away!!! Great kids, great times!! Have a fantastic day my friends!!!

1st Day

Happy 1st day of school!!!! My kids love school. I only hope that we are this lucky for the rest of our lives!!!! **** Important Notice******We have made it two weeks and no detentions!!! This is a record for us. Last year by this point we had all spent at least one recess or lunch period there and some of us were even on our second round. :>

However, trying to get them to all look at the camera and smile nicely when they are nervous and excited all wrapped up in one was not in the cards on this particular morning.

Hunter- 3rd grade genius

Cassie- 1st grade princess

Jayson- 1st grade clown

Tanner- 4th grade charmer

Bryan-1st grade ladies man
Nathan- 1st grade teacher favorite

Have a great night and rest well my friends. And here is to another successful week!!!!

Night Before School

Twas the night before the 1st day of school!! All the school supplies purchased, all the bags laid out. Lunches are made and nerves are high. :> Seriously, it is incredible to me the amount of stuff you need for six kids to just start the year of school. This is just a sneak peak at it..... as naturally after they attend the 1st day there are more things that need to be bought.




The kids were very nervous but also very tired. Which proved to be very beneficial to me!!! I was a little nervous that they would not sleep well. Luckily, they were out pretty fast.

There was also a peace about starting school this year. If you remember last year we ended up moving (which was a huge surprise) and there had been problems closing on our house........ So we were living on base, (45 minute commute), Jay was in AZ wrapping up some things, the van would not start on the morning of school and the kids were stressed because it was a new school. Needless to say this year was a lot better!!!




Tanner did not like the flash on the camera even though he was totally zonked out. I have to say they are so cute and peaceful when they sleep. I remember watching them sleep when they were babies. Where does the time go? Rest well my little ones, for tomorrow is the start of a whole new adventure!!!

Part 3 and Final Random

Well tomorrow we head off for our three week adventure. I would use the word vacation but I have found it is still work and a lot of it, just in a different place. Kids are so excited they do not know what to do. It is after midnight and I am just about finished packing. 3 weeks of for a trip for seven people is not an easy task. But we did it!!!

This is a picture of Bryan at Disney getting to play drums in the afternoon parade. He got to dance with all the characters and had a great time doing it. He really thought he had died and gone straight to heaven. Seeing Disney through your little ones eyes is truly a blessing and a blast. Thanks Bryan for making me remember what it felt like to only be six and there. AWESOME!!!

Jayson..... prepping to make our world famous Toy Story 3 Alien cupcakes. Move over Martha Stewart. We are on to something here!!! So cute and delicious. However a word to the wise...... extremely messy!!! Have a great weekend, my friends.

Part 2

Here are two more of the kiddos. Having fun and being kids. And in this case messing with the camera when she and is supposed to be in the shower. Little sneak.... she is usually the one that minds and never does anything wrong. Too bad for her I have photo evidence she was being naughty!!!! :>


We got season passes for Disneyland this year and I have loved it. I have so much fun at Disneyland. Besides there is something about knowing you can go and experience different things each time. No rushing to hurry and get on all the great rides that everyone else if waiting for. Instead, just knowing you can go back again is awesome. I am seeing parts of Disney I never knew existed. So this particular day we watched a High School Musical street performance. (my older boys love this, odd ) Tanner got picked to go and perform with them. By the look on his face it does it appears he loves Disney as much as I do!!!

So fun!!!! Back tomorrow with the final 2 kiddos!!