more catching up

Here are some pics from Christmas eve. We went to my mother in laws house for dinner, and when we got home something was waiting for us. The kids were so excited to find that Mrs. Claus had left us with some jammies.


Here are the tough boys in their hulk jammies:


and pretty girls in their jammies:


the family:



leaving cookies for Santa:



sadly going upstairs for the longest night ever...

Eternal Flame--not so much!

So our little thriving metropolis rarely makes the national news for being more than the meth capitol of Arizona, so I was a bit surprised when I started up the computer and went to check my yahoo mail only to see this fabulous piece of investigative journalism I'm not sure whether to be proud or embarrassed. Yes folks we are the town that extinguished our "eternal flame" when the first gas bill came. Sheesh!

Don't get me wrong I am so jazzed that my little town made yahoo news! and to be featured- I am just gushing pride. I'm just not so excited about why we made news. Anyways, I thought it was funny- so go check it out.

Making Gingerbread houses

A couple days before Christmas we had a bunch of friends over to make gingerbread houses. It was so much fun! And it was great to see how creative the kids got. There were no 2 houses alike It went a lot better than I was planning to be honest- not too much chaos. The really young kids weren't that interested, but that was fine. It might be a new tradition for us. It was great to be with friends and have a good time.
It cracked me up that the Baxter girls are the ones that got the messiest! They used their hands and ended up dirtier than the 5 year olds! But there houses were fantastic, so whatever works.

workin off the blackmarks

Growin up in the weeks before Christmas, the stinkin elves would show up and start watchin us. If we were caught being less than good we would get black marks. And if Christmas arrives and you have black marks- you don't get presents. Those stinkin black marks!!! We couldn't tease our siblings, or talk back to mom, or "forget" to clean our room. When december rolled around, we became angels. And, interestingly enough, now that I am a mom those stinkin elves came back, But they weren't watching me anymore. My kids learned about the elves this Christmas, and since I didn't remember how we got rid of black marks I made up my own way. My kids had to perform service to get rid of black marks. So here I have caught them in the act. I think this was just a day or two before Christmas so they were extra happy to do anything to get rid of the black marks. Now I know why Mom was so happy when the elves came!

kids christmas program

Okay so I haven't been the best blogger over the holidays. And now that they are over it is time to get caught up. We'll have to go back in time a little bit. There is a lot to report, here goes:

First the kids school christmas program. Zach and Hannah were so great. I have video, but as I have still yet to figure out videos on here you won't be able to see them. Hannah was a little reindeer and the entire kindergarten sang, 8 little reindeer. which sounded remarkably like 5 little monkeys,

so you can imagine that by the time it got to 1 little reindeer with 50 kindergarteners singing it sounded more like "yaa yaa yaa yaa" very loud! but still cute. Zach sang some country ho-down Santa song AND he was one of the 5 kids chosen to dance with a partner on the stage. He was way nervous, but way cute dancing with his partner. That's a cute video- I wish I could get that one on here. He even boogied off the stage! Here he is with his buddy, Zach before the performance started.


okay now i'm tired, maybe i'll blog more tonight later.

Slowly

So this week I have been mucho lazy! I am taking my time saying goodbye to Christmas and Hello to the new year. Christmas was a lot of fun, and I am behind again on posts, but right now I am enjoying being lazy so I probably won't catch up for a while. I really enjoy New Year's. As kids we were all given fresh notebooks on New Year's Day, we were to write our resolutions in them. I loved it! The chance to get a fresh start, to try to do it better than last year. There have been resolutions that I have kept, resolutions that didn't last a week, and resolutions that taught me about myself. I know that some people are anti-resolution arguing that if you are going to do better you just should. That there is nothing magical or special about New Years that will make keeping your resolutions easier. But I disagree! New Years is magical. In 2009 I can do whatever I put my mind to. I can be a better mother, a better wife. I can read my scriptures, have FHE regularly, and reinstate family prayer. To me, it is a fresh start.
My friend, Jenni, told me of something she did growing up. Instead of Resolutions they decided to give a gift to Jesus. After Christmas, they would choose something they could improve upon in the next year, write it down and put it in a box to be opened next year. I think it is a great idea, and I think that it is something my kids would understand better than resolutions. SO we might do that- but me I will go buy my brand new notebook today, and try to find some quiet time tomorrow and write my resolutions. What about you? 2009 is full of promise! What will you do better?

Forgotten Carols

So last Monday I got to go to Vegas with a bunch of friends to see Michael McLean's "The Forgotten Carols" I wasn't gonna go at first cuz I didn't think I would have time with all the business (that's busy-ness not business BTW) going on. But I changed my mind and I am so glad that I did. I had so much fun! I always have fun with my friends and I am so thankful for them.
Anyways, my friends Andrea, Jamie and I went up early to shop and on the way it was snowing!

I was so excited! I took tons of pics and then I made Andrea stop at a gas station so I could take more pics.

I know I am a total dork, but I love the snow! Even a little bit. Well the snow actually caused some major drama. The group that was coming later thought they might not get through cuz they heard rumors that the roads would be closed, and they had our tickets, so we almost had to make other plans. And I must say, they would have been pretty good plans, too. *wink* So we shopped and laughed and broke a couple minor traffic laws- then we met up with everyone else at Olive Garden.


Then it was on to the show! and what a fabulous show it was. I loved it! I seriously cried a lot, especially at the end- although some thought it was major cheese- I love cheese! AND it took me until intermission when I read the program to realize that it was actually Michael McLean himself acting on stage.

Yeah I'm kind of a dork! SO after I decided that I really wanted my picture with him (he is like a Mormon celebrity after all)!
But the line was huge so I was trying to get my friend, Tana, to stand close enough so that it looked like she was next to him.

He noticed us being silly and motioned to come on over and get a pic. Well, he didn't have to ask me twice!

All in all it was such a fun night! I think we should go every year- Thanks so much Wendi for putting it together.