Our Christmas

We stayed home for Christmas this year and it was nice. We missed family a lot, but had a great time spending time as a family. We woke up early, it was actually mom (Shar) and dad (Justin) who woke up first (6 am) and got the kids up to start the festivities. I was too excited for everyone so had to get things going. Remember, I am a morning person.
Anyway the kids saw that Santa left them Bakugans, Lego's, clothes, and treats. It was then on to creating Christmas carnage with the unwrapping of gifts that have sat under our tree for quite some time. We had through the month guessed what was in each package once or twice. We did this in order one at a time from youngest to oldest, next year I think we will do girls first. Anyway we thank family for the great gifts. There were transformers, a Play Dough Martian Maker, computer games, and the most exciting present of all was a box with a note in it. The kids went on a scavenger hunt to find the present from mom and dad which took them to the back yard to find a Trampoline. They were very excited! The rest of the day was nice and relaxing. We had friends come for breakfast and then just hung out the rest of the day watching shows, playing games, and building Lego's and other things that needed to be built. We also packed up the car to leave for Southern Utah and stay with the Turner Family at a cabin for a couple of days.

Me unwrapping gifts. Mackay gave me this lovely box to put treasures in. I also got an MP3 player and a gift card for KHOLS,
Justin got his favorite thing for Christmas - socks. He gets them every year and loves it. He also got a shirt and a new sleeping bag that will actually fit him.

I already mentioned what Tyler and Mackay got. This is them opening their Christmas PJ's on Christmas Eve. The picture above shows what their PJ's looked like so I won't add another.

Anyway it was a wonderful Christmas and the best part was talking to family later and also that everyone got along and there was great peace in the Turner Family for the day.

Wow time has flown...

Time has really gone by this last couple of weeks and there has hardly been anytime to do anything but just stay up with the goings on around here. A week ago we decided to take our annual trip to see the Christmas lights at the L.A. Temple. The pictures I took don't give it justice at all, but it was very beautiful and fun to walk around the temple and talk to the boys. We stayed overnight and Justin and I took turns going into the temple. It really is a great way to get some temple work done and the kids not getting too bored. We loved it and it was one great way to get the Christmas Spirit.
The next night we were suppose to go to our ward Christmas but Justin also had a work party so we made arrangements with a neighbor to have our kids to the ward party and we went to the work party. The work party was alright, but it is uncomfortable watching people get drunk and make fools of themselves. One of Justin's co-workers even fell while dancing I believe and hurt herself real bad, broke a couple of bones and will be out of work for a few weeks. It's not worth it people! We were able to talk to some friends their and that was nice.

This week was full of activities. Since Tyler is in a K-1 combo so he was able to do a lot of the things that the kindergartners get to do like: go on the Polar Express (his teacher got one in 3-D so the kids sported their glasses and had a good time watching the show), made gingerbread houses, and had a pizza party with the Student Body Officers at Burrows High School.

Both the kids also participated in their school Christmas program. They did a good job. Tyler's class sang "Do You Hear What I Hear" and Mackay class sang the song, "Let them Know It's Christmas Time".

Mackay's class had a Christmas Party on Friday and we made Rudolph Sandwiches. They were cute. The only problem we had is there wasn't enough bread, good thing I had cut out the shapes while they were in performing their song. Anyway I had walked to school so I ran home and grabbed the car and then drove to Walmart and bought bread and got back just in time to save the Christmas Party and have enough bread for everyone. Whew!

Now only 5 days for Christmas and it looks like we have a bit going on this week too. It will be a supper fun week, but I will write about that later...

Oh Christmas Tree

If there is one thing that I really love about Christmas it is a Christmas Tree. Ours has a lot of sentimental value. There are no fancy expensive ornaments, but all of them are priceless. My Grandma Mackay made us an ornament every year and handed them out to us at the Mackay family Christmas party. They now adorn our Christmas Tree. In addition to that there are many ornaments that the kids have made or that we have made over the years. So as I have mentioned before to me our Christmas Tree is truly priceless and this is what I will decorate our tree with for as long as I can.

Thanksgiving Break and Day and Weekend

After Thanksgiving we took off to Sea World and spent a day getting wet on rides and watching shows that have large sea creatures in them. It was so much fun. The kids loved being able to pet the dolphins, manta rays, and star fish. My parents joined us for Thanksgiving and went down with us to Sea World. We loved having them.
The day before Thanksgiving we took the kids over to the bowling alley and played one game. It was fun and the kids enjoyed it. I won with a whopping 99 points, but the kids did good too, thanks to those fabulous bumper lanes.

This is the cute decorations we made for our Thanksgiving feast. Tyler made the place cards by making turkey's with his finger prints and then we cut a toilet paper tube in half and used card sock to make the body, feet, and feathers for our turkey napkin holder. It was a fun craft to do on Thanksgiving Day.

Also on Thanksgiving the men got to work and started cutting down a huge tree we have on the side of our house. We are tired of all of the pine needles and a pine cone fell on the Trooper and broke the windshield so we decided to get ride of the tree. The only problem is we didn't have a ladder tall enough so we just cut most of the branches off and cut a little around the tree to kill it. We will take care of the rest at a latter day.

Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!

Have you ever wondered...

Have you every wondered if ...
1) you sound like the grown-ups on the peanuts cartoons that say blah, blah, blah... (or that is what the kids hear anyways) to your kids and that is why they don't understand what you are saying unless you have them look you in the eye. There is that connection once you do that and a spark of understanding. I always wondered why that was.
2) why you never get a telephone call from anyone, just to say hi and wonder how you are doing. Well I know the answer to this (for me anyway) is because I never call anyone either, or I am never home, or I just get too caught up in everything else that I am suppose to do that time just goes by too quickly.
3) why we don't have magical powers. I so want a magic wand or to be able to wiggle my nose and have everything be clean, or have my kids behave, etc. I know that doesn't happen because then I would never learn anything and become very lazy.
4) why the State of California expects our kids to be geniuses by the time they are in 3rd grade. I don't understand why they have the math curriculum that they do. Algebra in 3rd grade, you have got to be kidding me. It sometimes takes me an hour to do my sons homework just to explain it to him. He then has that deer in the headlights look and says he understands it, but I know he has no clue. Curses to the State of California Educational Program.
5) why people aren't happy all of the time. I, for the most part, am a pretty happy person, but I would like to be happy all of the time. I want my family to be happy, my friends to be happy, and everyone to be happy. Can you imagine how the world would be if everyone was happy. No wars, no crime, etc... In this case I know the answer too. If we didn't have opposition in all things we wouldn't learn, eh!
Well there is my little thought for the week. Completely random, but that is generally how my thought process is.
Any way to all I wish you a happy and stress free week!

Going with the Tude!

I have decided that this month I need to have a TUDE.

That is an attitude for gratitude. So I made this sign and hung it up in our home to remind me to be grateful every day. We try nightly to all list something that we are grateful for. It is fun to see what the kids say. I would make a huge list right now of what I am grateful for, but that would take way to long. So we will stick to listing one a day.

I am grateful for Mackay's Piano teacher though. He had his first Piano Recital and played the sone Dancing with Frankenstein. He even dressed up like Frankenstein. The kids were told they could dress up, but Mackay was the only one who did. Luckily he wasn't embarrassed. I at first thought I was mistaken because all the other kids showed up in Sunday's best and there sat Mackay in a Costume. Luckily his teacher assured me that they were suppose to wear costume and her and the other teacher thought it was great that Mackay did dress up and hoped the other kids would see that it was okay to do.

This is a posed picture after the recital. I couldn't get Tyler to not be in it, therefore he is in the background.

The kids also had there Primary Program. They did a great job with there parts and singing. Mackay especially belted out the songs and sounded really good. He is a great singer.

Way to go Kids!

Here is the star himself playing his song

Halloween

It was a fun week with a visit to the pumpkin patch with Tyler's class and fun festivities for Halloween in both of the kids classes. Tyler got the better end of the deal with being in a K-1 combo. They partied all day on Friday. Tyler was in heaven with all of the crafts that they did. His teacher is super great and fun. She is in the upper left corner with Tyler and dressed as a Pink Lady. It was fun to make goop, make spiders, play bingo and do all other kinds of things in his class. Mackay's class had an afternoon party after the school parade. They played Halloween Twister and Musical Chairs. I was in charge of twister so didn't get any pictures of the musical chairs, but it sounded like a blast. On Halloween we finally got around to carving our pumpkins. They turned out pretty good, the kids designed them. We went to the Ward Trunk or Treat then did a little Trick or Treating. The boys got a good stash of candy that hopefully won't all be gone in the nest couple of days.

Our pumpkin master pieces

Trunk or Treat

Pumpkins final product