A Few Days after...

MERRY CHRISTMAS AFUALO'S!

We had a lovely Christmas. The kids were pleasantly surprised by what Santa and their family had given them. The morning was relaxing and then we went to see family. We came home late that night. Saturday we did nothing. It was the best day after Christmas. We played with all of our new stuff and had together time.

Every year we have our picture taken by the tree. Usually we do it at night. We look much better then. I think we were just happy to have happy children.

Favorite Christmas memory this year... I have two. The first came a few days before Christmas and we were watching BYU in the Las Vegas bowl. All 7 of us were sitting on the couch enjoying the game in HD and cheering on the cougars. It was nice. The other one was hearing my ever not satisfied child yelling, "this is the best Christmas ever." Can't have a better response than that.

Sunday after church was more of the same. I am surprised that the kids even ate that day. They were so enthralled with the Wii. Lily put on a ballet show for us with all her new ballet stuff.

Monday we woke up early and headed up to Los Angeles to see two more missions. Mission number 10 and 11. We have now seen over half and have two more trips planned to see the rest. (Yea!) We drove up to Missions Hills (on the north side of LA) to see San Fernando de Espana. It was a beautiful mission and to our surprise it is where Bob Hope is buried. The next mission we went to was San Gabriel. This was a simple mission, but set up nicely for touring. They gave us a map that had numbers on it and then there were numbers found around the place that we read about on our map. It made touring much faster.

It was a long drive home. I had 3 girls in the car. My sister took the boys and I got her girls. We have been having fun playing Wii, feeding ducks, having movie time and running errands. We are headed up to Mortensen Manor for the New Year. After that I get to put my cruise director hat back on and entertain the troups for two more weeks. Stay tuned...

The Night Before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the rooms, not a creature was stirring, only a broom. A broom that swept up wrappings and crumbs from all the clutter called Christmas fun. The children were nestled all snug in their beds and I, (of course it is always I) was running a muck trying to find my head. The Christmas Program was delightful the food was so yummy. Now everything is full, stockings and tummy. Were excited for Christmas and full of good cheer as we celebrate Christ's birth again this year.

We have had a lot of fun this week. We went to Sea World on Monday and had a relaxing time there. We had to come home and get the house ready for Nana and Papa's arrival. Tuesday we started having some fun. We made cookies, had a girls day at the spa, went last minute shopping, went carolling and went to the movies, where they started showing Sherlock Holmes instead of Princess and the Frog. Hopefully Lily won't have nightmares. The movie people fixed it after 5 mintues.

Tonight we decorated cookies for Santa and had our Christmas Program. The kids did a great job performing what they had practiced. Lily decided at the last minute to throw in a manger scene. Our dinner was provided by Chin's Chinese Restaurant. I believe that will become a new tradition. Everyone had to try chop sticks. That was funny.

All is ready for tomorrow. And now I say, "And to all a good night!"

Christmas Happenings

Yea!! School is finally out. We are all very excited to be on Christmas break. I can't think of a better gift from my kids then to not need to be anywhere early in the morning. Sleeping in will become the new norm.

We have been having some Christmas fun this past week. We delivered Christmas cheer to friends, had parties at school and I had my first piano Christmas Party. That was a lot of fun and a stress free activity. My students are so funny. No pictures from the party.

Friday Damon and I went to Lily's Christmas party at school. It was very funny. The kids had fun. The gift exchange was a little rough. All the kids got books, games, toys, coloring books and the like. Lily got homemade cookies. I tried to contain her sadness, but it was rough. I was a bit disappointed for her. I told her how exciting it was because she got to bring them home and share them with the rest of the family. That seemed to help, but she was still bummed.

That night we went to the place called "Christmas Card Lane". All the houses have gigantic Christmas cards in their front yards. We looked at lights and decoration in this 5 block area. The whole neighborhood comes out and people sell goodies and there were horse drawn wagons to ride. We even got to meet Santa and Mrs. Claus. The kids had fun but were tired of walking around after an hour.

Today we are getting the house ready for our company. The kids will have plenty to say about that I am sure. I think tonight we may stay in and watch Christmas movies.

It's Finally Looking Like...

CHRISTMAS!

Due to all the rain we kept getting, going out to get our Christmas tree took some time. Then bringing it in the house took some time. Then decorating it took some time. So after almost a week of having our tree it is finally up and decorated. No ornament casualties this year. We were pleased about that and after the kids went to bed I spent some time rearranging the tree to give it more balance. Most of the decorations were on the bottom half. We are thankful that the tree is up and looks nice.

Last Friday I took the kids to Disneyland one last time for the Holiday Season. I love Christmas there. We noticed that depending on what part of the park you are in is what type of Christmas music you get to listen too. In Frontierland you get lovely bluegrass versions of it. Main Street has big band sounds and California Adventure has more of a rock tone. So fun. We took our babysitter with us and had lots of fun. It rained a little, but we were prepared so it didn't bug us. There were hardly any lines which is always nice. I went on Tower of Terror with Adam and honestly that ride terrifies me. I leave that ride with a cold sweat. So pathetic I know. We went to Rainforest Cafe for dinner. We watched the Christmas Parade and Fantasmic. We were pretty tired Saturday.

All Saturday morning I was at the church with the choir that I was in and then the choir that I was directing. Both choirs performed on Sunday at separate events. So stressful and now that it is over I feel so relieved. My parents came down for both performances. The kids loved having them around. They think Grandma is the best because she told them that they could eat cake for a snack before dinner (I swear the woman who raised me would have never said that). The choirs, apparently, sounded great. We weren't any silent monks, but I was told everything sounded good.

I am so happy that there are only 4 more days of school.

Some of this

Christmas cheer has been getting in the way of life lately. We have been busy busy bees this week thus far. Here is some of the stuff we have been doing.

Noah had his first band concert. He is playing trumpet. It was a fun concert and the kids did as well as was expected.

Tonight we went out to get our Christmas tree for the house. It was super cold today and we didn't want to search to long. We found a great tree and brought it home. stay tuned for decoration pictures.

Have a great day!

Our week in Review

We had a lot of fun all last week. So much I haven't really recorded it. Here is our week.

We celebrated Damon's birthday on Monday. He stayed home from work and we just relaxed and played. We are so thankful for Damon and all that he contributes to our family. He is a great dad and husband and we all love him dearly. He didn't want cake for his birthday so we made rice crispy treats with butterscotch chips in them dipped in milk chocolate. Way yummy!

Tuesday marked a momentous milestone for our family. Our Honda reached 100000 miles. This car keeps ticking through all we have done to it. It has gotten us through snow storms, rain storms, moves, camping, various trips to visit relatives, survived one car accident and day to day stuff. She has been our family car for 5 1/2 years. We hope to have her for another 5 1/2. Congrats for reaching the big miles. No other car of ours has gone that distance.

We drove to St. George, Utah for Thanksgiving. It was an uneventful drive. We really enjoyed seeing all of Damon's family during that time.

The day after Thanksgiving, after I did all my crazy early morning shopping, we headed out to Zion's National Park. It's about 30 minutes from Damon's parents house. We have never been there before. We loved it. We went on a few small "hikes". We saw wild turkeys, deer, reindeer deer, sheep, horses, cows and ostriches. We hiked up to Weeping Rock and also to the view ramp of Court of the Patriarchs. We can't wait to go back and go on some real hikes.

On our drive home we had traffic and rain. it took us 7 hours to do a drive that normally takes 5. We stopped at Mortensen Manor to take a break from being in the car. We had dinner and got to listen to the last part of the BYU vs utah game. That was the last treat of the weekend. BYU beating the arch enemy, utah. Sure, it wasn't pretty, but a win is a win and I never doubted that they could pull it off.

This is a picture of George catching the winning touchdown in overtime!! Go Cougars!!

It was a great week! Now bring on CHRISTMAS!!

A day of Thanksgiving

What a turkey day! It is a day of thanks as well. We had a great day with Damon's family. All his siblings were in St. George for Thanksgiving dinner and it was so much fun to have all the noise of the cousins running around. They had a great time together. Lily really enjoyed having someone younger than her to run around with.

I must give more of my gratefuls because I am thankful for all that I have been blessed with.

22- I am grateful for good choir practices. I am also appreciative of my fabulous pianist.

23- I am really, eternally grateful for my super spouse. We have been together for 13 years now and I still love him so much

24-I am really grateful that the CHP that pulled Damon over 5 minutes after we left our house for our trip to Utah, doing 79 in a 65 zone, did not give him a ticket. That really would have ruined our Thanksgiving.

25- I am thankful for the roof over my head and the food we have to eat

26- I am really grateful for those pilgrims, my ancestors, who braved the unknown and got on a little boat to seek out religious freedom.

27- I know I will be really grateful for the treadmill so I can burn off all the calories I consumed yesterday

28- I will be really grateful if BYU beats utah (yes it is lower case. They don't deserve capitalization) today in the football game.

What was the best thing you ate at Thanksgiving?

The activities keep coming!

We have still been having fun this week. So much that I am a little tired. Just don't tell anyone that.

Our field trip Thursday was another magical one. The kids have had a week of half days and I had about had it with them. (the half days, not the kids) We played hookie from school and went to Disneyland with our friends. It was a fun day for the kids. We took two of our babysitters to help with all the extra kids. It was work with such a big group, but the kids really did enjoy themselves. It is Christmas time at the park and it was fun to be there. The kids loved the Christmas parade. The park wasn't crowded so that was nice. I have such great kids. I love taking them there.

Friday was back to the grind with a bit of a Disney hangover. After school got out (early again) we spent 2 hours outside playing with the kids on the culdesac. It was our last day of school before a week off. So much fun. I was going out with some friends to celebrate a birthday. To celebrate we joined the throngs of screaming teenagers and a bit obsessed older women to see the movie, "New Moon". It was fun being out with the girls and the movie was definitely better than the first one. I know Damon is feeling like he is a single parent lately since I have been absent a lot. Thanks lovey for letting me have some fun. You are the best!

This morning we had Adam's last soccer game of the season (quiet excitement from parents). He tried so hard all season to score a goal. He had a couple of breakaways today, but couldn't quite get it in the goal. We are proud of him. He definitely improved this season.

Is it almost vacation yet?

More November Thankfuls...

17) I am thankful for kids who do well in school. Their parent/teacher conference rocked!

18) I am grateful for quiet evenings. This was the only one of the week

19) I love my babysitters. They are great!

20) Friends who help keep me young and like to act goofier than me

21) I am thankful for the end of soccer season

Fun times

The holidays are in full swing and it seems like there are more things going on then ever. I am feeling much better although my run today was slow and short and quite horrible. Apparently I need to take working out more slowly.

Monday I kidnapped a friend, who was having a stressful day, and went to Starbucks. My new favorite hot chocolate is caramel. Yum. I remembered how nice it is to take a step back and relax and that is what we did. We weren't even there for that long, but it was nice.

Tuesday a crazy friend of mine (yes you are crazy Heather) had a Five Favorite Things party. We had to bring 5 of our favorite things and share them and then draw five names from a bowl and those 5 got our 5 favorite things. It was a nice party and a great way to see what else is out there. I enjoyed myself. I got small tongs, hand lotion, fun lip gloss, a magic eraser and note cards. I thought it was about your favorite holiday things so in my cute little Christmasy container I put a sparkly ornament, some holiday scented lotions and my most favorite holiday thing, sugar cookies. I just put a mix of that in there though. Who has time to make sugar cookies?

So I have a question for you. What is your favorite thing? (Holiday or non holiday)

Sickness

Boy the past week has been very humbling and very frustrating. When a person is a busybody and doesn't like to sit still giving them and illness where they need to rest and recoup is way annoying.

After a week of not feeling good, but still pushing myself (not to hard. I haven't worked out since the triathlon) I finally went to the Dr. I had a sinus infection/head cold that was moving towards my chest. Yea. Not quite pneumonia, but still annoying.

So now I am on the right medicine and told once again to take it easy (grrrr). I am feeling much better now and am itching to get moving again. However, on Saturday night Lily started not feeling good and now she is sick. I was worried about it being the hini virus since some of the kids in her class have had it, but it turned out to be just a really high fever and nothing more. Once again, I need to slow it down so she can rest. She is on the mend, but is housebound for the next couple of days (grrrr)

I must do my thankfuls now that the month is halfway over and I haven't posted anything. I have a lot of gratitude in my heart so I feel that it should be expressed so here they are.

November I am Thankful...

1) That I was able to detox my body from all the sugar that was ingested during Halloween.

2) that a dentist in our neighborhood takes all the Halloween candy and sends it to the troops overseas so I don't have to have it in my house (my kids aren't to thankful for that)

3) for a free country. I really enjoy democracy even though it leads to bad choices sometimes

4) for my family. I really appreciate my sisters and brothers and my parents and Damon's parents

5) that I am all done working for the week

6) for my Lily. We spent some time just us today and I really do love her. She is growing up to be quite a young lady

7) for a really healthy body. I keep challenging it and it keeps doing everything I ask. The human body is amazing. I am also grateful for my triathlon being over.

8) for quiet sabbath days. In this busy world it is nice to have one day a week to slow down, reflect and to worship

9) for my piano students. They drive me crazy, challenge me and work hard. They are amazing.

10) for my Noah. He works so hard and is growing up so fast. It makes me sad to think I only have 8 more years with him living with us.

11) for Veterans. I love having a day off to reflect upon those who serve our country. I have such great respect and admiration for them.

12) for great friends. I didn't have any kids today because they were playing at friend's houses. It was so quiet all afternoon and I was able to rest from my illness

13) for Damon's job. It allows me to stay home and be with the kids. I am happy that he still has it. He works so hard for us.

14) for Adam. He works so hard and makes us laugh all the time. He is such a nut. I think he was sent to our family to help us take life less seriously

15) for antibiotics and urgent care facilities.

16) that Damon is such a wonderful husband. He has had to do his job and my job lately since I haven't been feeling well and I know that must be exhausting. He has done dishes, bathed kids, gone to soccer games, made dinner and taken care of Lily in the middle of the night so I can rest. I so appreciate that. He is wonderful, not perfect, but wonderful.

There is my list of Thankfuls thus far. I will try to be better about posting them so I don't seem ungrateful.

Field Trip Wednesday!?

First and foremost we need to send a shout out to all of those military who have served or are serving our country. Thank you for all you do!


Secondly, I am sick. A head cold which feels like it is quickly becoming a chest cold. Love it. If this is the only sickness I get this year I will be glad.

With a day off from school on Wednesday we decided to go on our field trip today instead of on Thursday. I rearranged my piano schedule so we had the majority of the day off. YEA! Today we decided to tackle two more of the California Missions.

We left around 9:30am and drove up to San Juan Capistrano. It was hard going all the way up to the OC and not going to Disneyland, but some how I survived. Actually, I asked the kids if they wanted to go to Disneyland and they said no, that they wanted to go to the missions (who's kids are those). We met up with my parents and my two nieces at the mission after we explored the area and found a park to play at.

The mission was huge. I don't even think we saw all of it. The gardens were beautiful and there were so many architectural cool things about it. It is a photographers dream. Unfortunately, Damon doesn't get Veteran's Day off so he wasn't with us. We enjoyed our time there. They had some really cool fountains with big fish in them that kept trying to nibble the kids fingers. They also have this 300 year old back wall in the apse area of the chapel that was sent over from Spain. Walking in and seeing it took my breathe away.

We ate a picnic lunch at a park that we just found around the corner from the mission. At the park there was a giant Christmas tree all decorated. That was kind of fun. It was a nice day for an alfresco lunch.

We drove back down to Oceanside after lunch and stopped at the mission, San Luis Rey. It is known as the King of the missions since it is the largest. Unfortunately the largest does not mean the most available to the public. The mission was mostly closed to the public and we were only able to tour the chapel and the cemetery. They also have the oldest pepper tree that was planted in the 1800's.

It was a fun field trip for the kids and for the adults. I am so glad that I am able to do this with my minions who I love so much. They are fun to be around most of the time.