Christmas

So we have made it through Christmas.  On Christmas Eve, we got a big snow storm lasting most of the day.  I will not lie, I was so excited to see the snow when I woke up!  The fun was that I started me having harder contractions throughout the day, that made me a little excited and scared at the same time.  We got up at a descent hour and ran down to Carl's Jr for breakfast.  We planned on going to a movie a little later in the day so we ran over and got tickets for that just to make sure they didn't sell out.  We then had 2 hrs to kill, so we went to go find dresses for Avi since she is in need of them right now, why can't kids stop growing?  We lucked out in Kid to Kid and found a great one for a great price.  The girls wanted to go see the mall and Santa Clause, so we went there.  The line to see Santa was much longer than we had time or energy to wait for, so we went to the play land instead.  I was so glad that I had absolutely no reason to step foot in any of the stores there, it was a mad house!  The girls literally ran around the play area for 20 min straight!  We then headed to our movie Arther Christmas.  By the time the movie started the place was packed, and I was glad I got our tickets early when only 10 had been sold before us.  After the movie we went home, had dinner, cleaned up a little, and generally got ready for Santa the next day.  We let the girls open 1 present which were the PJs they were going to wear that night.  

 On Christmas morning, Avi woke up at 6:20 ready to go, Dailynn was excited when we woke her up, but JJ didn't want to have anything to do with it, and wanted to go back to sleep.  The problem is we were too excited to wait for her to wake up causing a little distress for the first few min.

 The girls checking out what Santa didn't wrap for them.  Jeslyn needed a little help figuring out what was going on.

 As soon as she found her leap pad, there was no going back.  She loves that thing!

 When we open presents, each girl gets a turn.  Sometimes if they are the same thing, we will had it to multiple girls at once.  With Jeslyn, she spent the first half of Christmas playing her leap pad and only opening presents if they got between her eyes and the pad.  She would open it, look at it for a sec, then throw it to the side and get back to her game.  Eventually she realized she was getting some cool stuff and put the pad down and got excited about the presents.  Avi got a new camera, an mp3 player, a bunch of drawing stuff and books.  Dailynn got a DSI with games and  a case, books, drawing stuff, and a watch (she has been stealing mine like crazy lately, I wanted to keep it for myself).  Jeslyn got about everything under the sun, and she loves ALL of it so much!  They girls said they had an AWESOME Christmas!

2 days later we had Grandma and Grandpa come share a little Christmas with us.  They brought some puzzles, block, movies, and a great picture.  We gave Mom her gift of the flatware from us siblings.  They loved it!  We had a great time with them and the bobcat.  He liked climbing out Christmas trees, so Mom helped me put one of them away.  That was helpful, now I just have to finish putting the other one away and Christmas will be over and we can work on baby.

Room Mom

I was convinced to be the room mom for Avi's class this year.  I haven't ever done it before, so I didn't know what to expect.  Luckily I had a little bit of brain power to not sign up for too much with Dai's class too.  So my responsibilities have been to throw the class parties.  I have done 3 so far, so here they are.

We started with the Halloween party.  I have a great mom who gave me the angry birds set she used for the family reunion to use at the party.  It was such a hit!  We also did some pumpkin bowling, bobbing for donuts, and some other short games.  For it being my first party I think it went ok, I wasn't thinking clearly on the timing of things, so there were some bottle necks here and there, but the kids still had fun.

 You know Jeslyn can't be left out of the fun!

Then in November, the teacher wanted to do an etiquette dinner to try to teach the kids some manners.  Luckily all I had to do was arrange food to arrive, and there are some wonderful moms that did a great job with that!  They had to come to school in Sunday dress, and the boys had to escort the girls to the table after they got their food.  It was so cute to watch the boys fumble with trying to get the girls hand wrapped around their arms to escort them.  Before they were able to eat, they had to do a minute of silence.  I know those kids have never known a longer minute in their lives.  The teacher also insisted on them having intelligent conversation, but what I was hearing wasn't always that way, come on they are in 4th and 5th grades.

 For Christmas, we played a few games, decorated cookies, and the teacher let them play freeze dance.  We started with Christmas bingo, and Jeslyn thought it great to just eat the Swedish fish rather than play bingo herself.  We had a version of Taboo that we played and I was laughing my head of at that because the kids looked like deer caught in the headlights every time they got a new word.  They could talk and brag all they wanted, but as soon as they got the word and the timer, they couldn't say a word.  After that we let the kids decorate Christmas tree sugar cookies.  I was sick by the end of it when I saw what they had done to some of them.  The freeze dance competition was fun to watch, some kids are much more reserved, and others, just don't care what they are doing.  I got home with a super sugared up Jeslyn and a desperate need for a nap!

lesson from the BoM

So its that time of year again where everyone is asking for donations to the food bank.  At the school they are asking for 10 cans per kid and they get a ticket to go watch a movie at the high school next week. For some reason this year I'm just not excited to give food away.  I think its just that I have actually been using food from my storage this year and I guess I don't want to give it up, or I feel like Murphy has been attacking and I'm nervous to do so.  I express these feeling to Nathan last night, but when I was reading scriptures this morning this is what I got "I mean all you who deny the better, because ye have not; I would that ye say I in your hearts that: I give not because I have not, but if I had I would give.  And now, if ye say this in your hearts ye remain guilt less, otherwise ye are condemned; as and your condemnation is just for ye covet that which ye have not received" mosiah4:24-25.
I found it interesting that I read that little bit of scripture, and that its about the only part of the chapter that I paid attention to, on the morning after my comment and the last day of the school food drive.  I guess I get to go dig through the pantry and food storage before school today.

the score

I just got home from my test elated and over joyed to have passed the test!  The bummer part is that is all I know, they only will tell me pass/fail, not an actual score.  Oh well, I'm just so happy to have it done!

The test

As most of you know, I work for H & R Block preparing tax returns during the tax season.  The IRS has decided that anyone that prepares more than a few returns has to take a test to register with them.  I, like a crazy person, decided that life isn't crazy enough, and that I should get this test taken before this baby comes.  I have been studying for over a month straight to get ready, and the big day is fast approaching.  This Thursday at noon I will be taking it.  I was hoping that I could enlist your support through prayers for me that day to be able to think clearly and remember the information I have been studying.  I will try to post after the test, but I'm apologizing now if it doesn't happen in as timely manner, your always welcome to text me to ask how I did if I don't.  Thanks for your love and support.

November

I totaly Love November this year!!  The main reason is that October was so crazy for me.  Between Dr. appt., class parties, tutoring, fall break, halloween, .....  I got the girls off to school on Nov  1st, got the dishes done, and just wondered what to do.  Usually I would have taken a nap, but I wasn't tired for the first time in a very long time.  I didn't have to get something done before I started my tutoring marathon, I wasn't planning a party, or anything else.  It was so wonderful!!!  I had the same thing happen Friday afternoon.

So in October I had Dai's Dr. apt, Mom come for fall break, I'm room mom for Avi so I had her Halloween party, and then the crazy Halloween its self.  Again I have to give credit to my mom for helping with the class party.  She brought up the angry birds set that she has for me to use.  The kids (and helper parents) were shocked and excited to play with it.  Both Mom and Dad are amazing event planners, so I got some of there great talent and was able to pull something together.  We did a few games and competitions and pumpkin bowling.  I will get pictures of that later.

Halloween was a nightmare.  I only gave myself a day or two to figure out costumes, and I didn't get that one right.  On the day of, Avi went through 4 or 5 costumes before everyone was happy enough to be done.  Dai had a few costume malfunctions, and in the end really just looked like a school kid when all the makeup wore off at school.  Luckily JJ was just happy to be a princes, yipee!  We went to the neighbors house for a party, and luckily Nathan was happy to take over trick or treating ofor me. I started the trip, and after a few houses he kicked me into the car following the kids for medical reasons and he kept track of the kids.  JJ had skipped her nap (I had her in her room for 2 hrs and she didn't sleep) and then the sugar high from trick or treating and the party was not a good combination.  I got her to bed and she was still off her rocker hyper, so I pulled her down to fall asleep on my lap while I was working.  She did pretty quick thank goodness.

Now to top it off, I have had fun with my body lately.  I had about a week that I couldn't hardly walk.  I have the round ligaments on my stomach that have been pulling  and hurting.  I found a belt that helps hold the ligaments tight, and I haven't been hurting since, YIPEE!!!  Now I just have to get the rest of my body to agree.  The things we do for these kids.

I'm just looking forward to November and hoping that I can use this simple time to study for a test I need to take sometime soon.  Wish me luck!

"I'm 3"

So a few weeks ago (it has been a crazy few weeks) Jeslyn decided that she was going to act like a 3 year old.  It started out that while I was in the shower she thought that my phone needed to be cleaned with chap stick.  I got that cleaned up, and since taking a shower takes all the energy I have left after kicking the kids out for school, I laid down to rest.  I told Jeslyn to go get dressed.  A few minutes later I see her laying on the floor in my room still naked.  I asked her why she wasn't dressed and she said she had pooped.  I hate those words out of her mouth.  I ran into her room to find poop all over the floor in her room.  I scramble to get it all cleaned up before I had to tutor in 5 min.  Luckily the student was late and a mom herself, so she let me take a few min to get things taken care of.  While I'm tutoring I hear Jeslyn playing in the living room, not more than 10 feet from me.  I figure that we try to keep that room clean so she is probably just coloring and not getting in trouble.  As the student is leaving Jeslyn is asking if her hair is pretty.  I just brush it aside since I am so exhausted.  I sit down on the couch and see a chunk of Jeslyn's hair sitting on the couch and start thinking "huh, that's weird".  I look at the piano bench and see a few more chunks.  My eyes keep going around the room seeing more and more chunks, and finally land on Jeslyn holding scissors and asking if her hair is pretty.  I jump up like a crazy woman and run over to see what she has done.  The damage, She cut most of the hair on the top of her head down to 2 inches.  I sit there and just about cry. Luckily it was a Tuesday, so I ran down to the hair school where they have really cheap hair cuts for an emergency haircut.

 I walked into the school and request either a senior student or an instructor to come help me. The lady in black is the owner of the school, and she did most of the repair.  The ladies were asking her questions and just talking to her, and right then was the very first time she said she was 3.  I have been trying to prime her for her b-day for a few weeks now, but she decided she was 3 then.  The following days she said she was 2 again, and acted like the nice 2 we have been enjoying.

So what haircut did we end up with?  A modified mullet!!!  Ug it looks so gross, but the other option is to lose all the length that we have been working on for 3 years to get!  It almost looks ok in this pic, but that is the typical walk out of the salon look where it looks great until you get home and try to style it yourself.  We have found out that if we pull it up into a pony tail it doesn't look so awefull.
So we get home, have some lunch, and chill for a few min before I put her to bed.  I am so exhausted at this point that we both lay down and take a nap.  I started tutoring again at 4, and I had to wake her up.  I went and did the start to wake up process.  I go tell her to wake up and she comes to enough to look at me, then she falls asleep again.  This is what I expected, but that is not what I got.  She jumped right up and went to my room.  (my room is officially off limits now)  The whole time I'm tutoring she decided that her legs needed lotion.  Then she thought that not only her legs but her belly and arms and everything needed it, so she stripped down to her under ware (thank goodness she had at least that much on) and proceeded to spread lotion all over her self.  But of course how does a "3" year old keep the lotion confined to only herself?  I came up to find that it was spread over half of my comforter as well.  I ran it down to the wash immediately, and got her dressed.  While I was making dinner and just trying to keep myself from exploding she ran up to my room again and found our swim bag and started finding things.  All the small pockets with random things got emptied and in there was my prescription sun glasses since the only place I wear them is swimming.  She comes down the stairs a few min later with the rims on her face and the lenses were who knows where.  At first I wasn't sure what was going on until I found one of the lenses and the swim bag.
This little girl got to go to bed early and mom got to go get some ice cream after.  It was a hard day!!!  Luckily that was the worst, and the next day she wasn't nearly as awefull.