Christmas Lights

As a youngin' I used to go to Temple Square to see the lights. David doesn't remember ever going before meeting me. (Doesn't mean he didn't though) I want to make it a tradition to go with the girls every year. What better way to enjoy the season than walking around and admiring beautiful lights and seeing the different nativities. We went down on a Sunday evening because it was the best day to fit it in and Jeff came along with us. It was fun to see the girls get excited about all the different things.

During our visit, Kadence decided it would be funny to stick her tongue out in almost every picture.
Here's the family....and Kadence's tongue.
The girls admiring the nativity.
It took a while but I got a tongue-free picture

Then we FINALLY went and saw "Big Jesus" as Shelby calls it. Shelby has been absolutely dying to go see "Big Jesus" and repeatedly told us "You promised we would go!" It was so cute because you could tell it was everything she hoped it would be.

I didn't bring my camera, but we also went to Christmas Village which was a tradition for both David and I. Again, it was fun to watch the girls get so excited looking at all the lights and displays. Jeff joined us again too which always makes the girls excited! This was the first year that the girls didn't have to hold our hand the whole time and were able to run to each display. We skip Santa every year because the line is long and its a cold wait. I'd rather see him at the mall. (Which we did two or three times) After Christmas Village it is our new tradition to go to Starbucks and get a white chocolate hot chocolate with peppermint added in. YUM! This year I had gotten a gift card for free from entering codes from our Huggies so it worked out great! The girls haven't like hot chocolate before, but they LOVED the white chocolate. (Although they didn't want any peppermint added in) I love going to both places for lights, and I hope that the girls will continue to love it as they grow up.

Confessional

I CONFESS....I am overwhelmed by the idea of blogging our Christmas. It isn't that difficult, but it just seems like a lot of work. I do this so that I can have a more permanent way of keeping our memories so I'm sure I will get to it.

I CONFESS....I am so happy to be able to go back to school this semester. I am excited, yet nervous. I haven't had to balance being a mom, taking care of the house, school AND school drop offs/pick ups all at once before. I'm hoping I can balance it all and do well this next semester!

I CONFESS....Our basement used to just be a giant storage shed. I honestly just ignored the fact that it was part of the house to be honest. Our food storage room and laundry room were basically the only rooms that I used in the basement and I shoved anything semi crafty or decorative in my "craft room." That all changed this winter break! I had been slowly clearing out what would be a family room the past month and with David home, the holidays over, and two pretty cooperative kids we finally cleaned the room out....well, mostly. There are still a few things in there that don't go in there, but the girls can go down and play in there now. Because the girls now have somewhere to play downstairs, David and I have been able to spend more time cleaning other areas of our basement. I now have a downstairs bathroom. The girls were so surprised we even had another bathroom. (I'm telling ya, it was bad!) David and I are continuing to work on our respective rooms and are hoping to have them drastically improved before the new year. Of course my craft room and his office will never be clean, they will actually have a function now which is fantastic. This is an embarrassing little confession, but I'm glad I am working on fixing it. :)

Graduation and Gingerbread Men

We were SO incredibly proud to see Davids brother, Jeff, graduate with his Bachelors! I got Kadence out of school so that we could all be there to support him. I thought of getting the girls in their fancy Christmas dresses but then I realized that would leave me fighting them all day to keep their dress down, keep their legs closed, etc. That seemed like a few fights I would like to avoid so I decided to just put them in purple shirts for Weber State. The girls were so excited to see Jeffy graduate and Shelby even told me "I'm so proud of him." Kadence is excited to graduate Kindergarten now so she can be like Jeff.

Here's Shelby waiting for the ceremony to start

Here's Kadence waiting
Here are Dale, Connie, Elaine, and Judy

Shelby was a little bored by the graduation speeches.

Jeff getting ready to walk

I got a picture of what family was still there at the end

We are so excited to watch Jeff become the amazing teacher we know he will be and are so proud of this accomplishment.

After the graduation we were going to go to decorate gingerbread houses with the Joys. They do this every year and we love going. Unfortunately David wasn't feeling great all day so we didn't end up making it. His pain meds made him feel really woozy and disconnected. He didn't think that he would have a good time. He started feeling a little better toward the end of the night so we decided to decorate gingerbread men at our house. I was sad to miss the family decorating party, but was happy that our girls didn't miss out.

My finished gingerbread man

The girls decorating

Shelbys finished gingerbread man

Kadences finished gingerbread man

Jeff came to decorate too

Jason and Sage came to keep us company...and Brylee slept the whole time in Kadences room

Here's Davids finished project. Its Gingy, chained up, eating Santa (Did I mention he was on pain meds?)

Here is Jeffs finished project

We all had fun, but I'm hoping we can do it with the whole family next year.

A Day Later Than Friday Confessional

I CONFESS....I absolutely love my kids to death, BUT a great way to rejuvenate this mommy is to get a babysitter and take me on a date! David planned a date for me tonight and it is exactly what I needed in order to be able to show my kids that I do in fact love them. (I get a bit crabby)

I CONFESS....I really really don't like being in front of people. I don't know what it is. I can spill my guts to anyone about anything. I am NOT shy in that sense but I don't like being up there in front of people. It doesn't matter if I'm by myself or with other people, I just don't like it. Some people laugh at me because I was a cheerleader and that's kind of what we had to do...and I did...and I have no idea how I did it. Hmmm, its a mystery. If you want to get me completely embarrassed and uncomfortable just make people look at me. (But please don't because it seriously causes me anxiety!)

I CONFESS....I can't stand shoes/boots! I only like sandals and flip flops. I don't like when my feet are covered up, it freaks me out. I wear flip flops year round rain, snow or shine. People think I'm crazy and my feet DO get ice cold but I would rather that than wear shoes. Because I broke my knee I have been trying to figure out a shoe or boot that will work for me in the snow. I don't want to slip and re injure my knee so I understand that something more than a flip flop IS necessary. I have bought and returned boots because I just can't stand them and I have slipped twice already. Hopefully I can figure something out to get me through the season.

I CONFESS....I wear a tank top under every shirt I own. I like that it sucks in a little of the loose baby belly (YES, I have a yucky mommy tummy) and it also tends to make my boobs look more perky! Both of these reasons for wearing a tank top are thanks to having kids, and I think its a fair exchange. I can manage to wear a tank top for the rest of my life if I get to hug and kiss them every night.

Davids Boo Boo *GRAPHIC*

So yesterday while I was helping in Kadences classroom I received a call from David. He told me that he cut the end of his finger with a paper cutter at work. I collected the papers I was cutting at the time for Kadences class and headed out to be with him. Luckily Kadence's teacher is also our Aunt and was willing to keep both girls as long as she needed. (I'm SO grateful for that!) After being confused about where I was supposed to go, I finally arrived at Workmed. David was a little behind me. (The school cop drove him) We arrived and they got us RIGHT back to a room so he could lay down. The looked at him and decided they needed an xray because David thought he had gone through the bone. We could hear him stitching up the guy next to us, who happened to fall off a roof and opened his face pretty good as well as his arm. (GROSS) David was in quite a bit of pain, and all workmed is allowed to give is ibuprofen. David can't have ibuprofen because of his stomach, he had to just manage without anything. (I felt TERRIBLE!) After the xray the dr confirmed that David did indeed go straight through the bone, but that the piece on the other side was small. He wasn't sure what to do and sent us to the ER. (After a pee test of course) The ER did another xray and found the same thing. The piece of bone he cut off was too small to pin so the dr figured they'd just sew it up as well as they could hoping to leave David with a normal-ish looking thumb. Now here comes the graphic pictures....

Sort of self explanatory, but this is his hurt thumb

It cut the bottom part of his thumb, but it also cut almost through quite a bit more of his thumb
Thumbs up!

Here's the thumb unwrapped. You can see how he has thumbnail on either side of the cut.

Here they are cleaning out the blood clots and gauze fragments. Still have nail on each side of the Q-tip...Super gross!

Still cleaning but this is the angle from the tip of his finger

Cleaning it out...

Here's his thumb all cleaned and ready to be stitched.

Here it is after the stitches. 5 inside and 15 outside

After this picture they actually cut a piece of foil to the shape of his nail and put the foil in his nail bed. This will hopefully make it so that he can grow a new fingernail. All in all it was disgusting to watch. I felt terrible for him because he was in so much pain. Luckily the ER was able to give him pain meds and they numbed the whole thumb with a shot. He still hasn't been in much pain at all and can mostly only feel pressure. Now we just wait. Anytime you cut bone you are at an added risk of infection so they have him on antibiotics (also gave him some in his IV) and we will follow up with a hand surgeon on Friday. The hand surgeon will check for infection and will give his advice on the healing process.

David is such a stubborn guy that he insisted on going to work today. Not only that, but I didn't realize that his car was still at work and so he rode his bike. Not that I wouldn't have driven him, he simply didn't tell me. (UGH!) Kadence was already on her way to school, Shelby and I were both awake YET he rode his bike! I think I'm going to kill him before he heals!

Christmas Trees!

We bought the girls their very own trees a year ago and today was the day we put them up! The girls get SO excited to have thier very own tree in their room. Last year we put Kadence's up first and so this year we started with Shelby. Here she is helping daddy fluff her tree.

We bought each girl a Nutcracker ornament since they went to the Nutcracker for the first time this year, here is Shelbys

Then it was time to decorate it
Ta Da! Happy girl with her tree!
Here's Kadence helping fluff her tree

Here's Kadence's 'Nutcracker' ornament
Decorating her tree

Admiring her work

Another tree finished...Another happy girl!

Silly Girls

Tonight Shelby decided to take all our Christmas toys out and make a game with them. She laid them in a circle with some Santa pillows through the middle and called it her "Christmas Round-up" game. There were lots of rules involved in this game. First, you had to pet Rudolph before starting. Then, you had to pick up a stuffed animal and hop across the pillows while saying "Ho...Ho...Ho!" Then once you made it to the other side you had to pet the moose, cup your hands around your mouth and say "Merry Christmas to all!" Here are a few pictures of Shelby playing her game. David and I played with her, but Kadence wasn't into it.

Next, Shelby made another game called the Pajama Twist. (Courtesy of the new jammies Grandma and Grandpa Joy gave them) She put everything in a line and would dive from the starting line as far as she could.

She convinced Kadence to try this game with her, but David and I politely declined. :)

I love that we have such silly girls that use their imaginations constantly to make things more fun.

Thanksgiving

This year we started our year off by making rice krispie treats. My family has a tradition of having them for breakfast on Thanksgiving and Christmas. I usually make them the night before, but I didn't feel like it so we made them Thanksgiving morning. I let Shelby help me make the ones to send to Grandma and Grandpa Green's house and Kadence helped me make the ones for our house. I of course had to let the girls lick the spoon when they were done helping.

David and I decided to try something else for breakfast. On pinterest a while ago I saw a way to make your own egg mcmuffin at home. I tried, but they didn't taste very good. At least we had rice krispie treats!

Right after breakfast we turned on the Macys Thanksgiving Parade. The girls loved dancing to the music and watching all the floats and balloons.

Then we got ready to head to the Joys for dinner.

We enjoyed dinner with the Joys and then we went to my moms house for desserts with my sisters. We enjoyed all the family time and the yummy food and best of all....NO family drama!

We went home and started our Christmas countdown. I decided that I would make my girls a countdown instead of buying them one. The one I wanted was Littlest Pet Shop and cost $50. I wanted each girl to get their own, so we would have been into it $100. Upon looking closer I realized that it only had THREE pets in the whole countdown and the rest of the days had accessories. (Which get lost or thrown away anyways) I figured I could make a great one for much less than the cost of one. I had already bought princess squinkies for the girls stockings so I figured that would be good toward the countdown. Then I bought a big pack of Littlest Pet Shop for $18 and it has 15 pets. Then we bought some Barbie squinkies, a few more pets and then some Walkable pets. WALA! I made some countdown blocks and each time we change it, they each get a prize! Totally worth the excitement!

As we sat there, David and Jeff were talking about great deals on the xbox 360. David decided to go see if he could get one from Hastings with some of the Christmas money his parents gave us and some money we decided we could live without....hopefully. :) Well when they got to Hastings at 9 they had just given out the last one. DANG! They then headed over to Walmart figuring it would be the same, but nope....they got a ticket! We thought David would have to sit and wait until midnight because that was when they were supposed to start the electronic deals, but they let them go at 10pm which was awesome considering I was keeping the girls up until he got home. The girls and I snuggled up on the couch and watched a few Christmas movies. I asked each girl their favorite part of the day and Kadence said, "Everything we have" and Shelby said, "The Pie!" David had another hour wait in the checkout, but still got home and got the girls in bed before midnight so it was better than we thought. Here he is with his prize...

Today we decided we would decorate a little more and cook my parents a Thanksgiving dinner. The girls LOVED seeing all our "new" Christmas toys. Each one made them squeal and it was so fun!

We enjoyed our 2nd Thanksgiving dinner and the girls were so excited to watch Frosty with Grandma. I told them that they had to wait because thats my moms favorite Christmas cartoon. After Frosty we watched the Lady Gaga Thanksgiving special. Kadence idolizes Lady Gaga. She asks constantly if she can change her name to Lady Gaga when she gets older. She tells me "I want to BE her" and loves to sing along to her songs. Well, Kadences grandpa also likes Lady Gaga so it was perfect. Kadence preformed the whole time and was so funny to watch. She pretended to have a mic and sang and danced along. It was a good little evening.

Thanksgiving is such a great time to remind us to show gratitude for the things we have been blessed with. We try to do it year round, but during November we make it a bigger priority. Remembering how fortunate we are is a great way to go into the Christmas season. It is so important for us to teach our girls to give to those who are less fortunate. My girls seem to genuinely appreciate what they have and I hope that they maintain their gracious attitude as they get older.