Christmas (eve) Day

We had a great Christmas, which we celebrated on the 24th since I work all day on Saturdays. First thing in the morning we did the presents at home with just us. Really it was just the kids having a ball, and Afa and I watching them have fun, because Afa and I don't do gifts for each other. It was a lot of fun watching their reactions to all the presents. I got some really good pictures of Ariana's facial expressions, but Gerry was just going "Oh! Awesome! Cool!" you can't really get that in a picture. Anela was just kind of in a daze most of the time. LOL!
This year I decided to save some money and have less waste and less mess by skipping the wrapping paper. It's kind of dumb to spend money on paper and 5 times as long wrapping as it takes to unwrap it all, and then you just throw it all away. So I just set up all their presents and put things together that required assembly. That way they just got to look over all their stuff and start playing with it right away. And they each had their HUGE stockings to empty out too. (We got the really nice huge stockings with all our names on them a couple of years ago from my mom)
After a couple of hours admiring their loot, we left for my dad's house. We had a fun time with Dad and Debbie and Genasee and Rich. My dad made some really good ham and funeral potatoes, and of course Genasee brought dessert, cookies, cupcakes and pie!! I didn't get many pictures there, but we had a great time. The kids got to open presents, but Anela only wanted to open 1. She liked the Cat in the Hat matching game so much, she refused to open any more! LOL! So we opened her other presents for her.
Gen and Rich made everyone Santa sleds out of wrapped candy and raisin boxes, way cute!

Gerry with his little "pet hamster" from gma and gpa. It makes noises and runs around on the ground.

Ariana with her "pet bunny"

Anela just wanted to relax and eat some chocolate, and watch the other kids have fun with their gifts. She's not a morning person, even when there are new toys!

What's gong on!?

Sharing her sucker with her new Dora doll from gma Bailey.

That's a good Christmas morning face!

Happy with her loot!

Happy boy

Showing Ariana his dinosaur book.

So excited about her box full of princesses. I was lucky to get the last one on the black friday sale at Target. 7 disney princess dolls.

Pajama Day

I got all the kids pjs to give to them on Christmas Eve, which for us this year will be Thursday since I work all day Saturday. Last night I decided that I would give Ariana and Gerry theirs a couple of days early, because they have pajama day today at school, and I thought that it would be fun for them to wear their new jammies. They both really like their new pjs. As you can see, Gerry's have lots of spots balls, and Ariana's have princesses and crowns. They still have new slippers that they will get on Thursday, and Anela will get her jammies and slippers then. We will be doing our main Christmas present opening on Friday morning, and then we will go to my dad's house around noon or 1, and spend time with him and Debbie, and my sister Genasee and her husband Rich.
I work all day Saturday, which I am actually glad about. I could have easily gotten the day off, but then I would have had to pick up hours some other day so that I don't go under hours. I figure that if I have to get the hours sometime, I might as well get them on a day that I will be getting time and a half pay the whole day! I don't really care about doing everything on the exact day, as long as we get to spend time together and have our holiday fun, and the kids
certainly are not complaining about getting Christmas a day early! I will also be working on New Years day, which is another paid holiday. I was very happy when I worked out this trade with my friend so that I would only work Saturdays. (I am at work for 15 hours, but only 13 hours are paid, but at least I get to stay home with the kids all week.) I was extra happy when I found out that both Christmas and New Years are on Saturdays, 2 days at over $20 in 2 weeks! It will help us save up for Afa's slow time. I am actually surprised that he is working all this week, and they don't look like they are slowing down yet, but you never know with his job. There have been times where he will go from working over time to no work at all from one week to the next. Usually January is his slowest time of year, but we'll see...........

Decorating Trees

Today I went and got 3 tiny trees for the kids to decorate for Christmas. I had decided that I didn't want to get a big tree because there really isn't room for one in our tiny apartment. I didn't even put up a tree last year, because the year before the kids had most of the decorations off the tree and lost before Christmas. I really wanted them to have the fun of decorating and having a tree this year though. I was going to go get a little 4 foot one that I had seen at Big Lots, but when I went back, they were gone. Then I saw these little 2foot trees, and decided that it would be fun for them each to have their own. And they are in really fun colors too! Anela's is purple, Ariana's is pink and Gerry's is red. They were really excited about it, and had a lot of fun with them. They aren't the prettiest Christmas trees ever, but they serve the purpose that I wanted them for perfectly. The kids love them, and are having a lot of fun admiring them with the lights off. It's nice to have something here to help us get into the holiday spirit.

Just a little update

I just wanted to do a quick little post since I get annoyed at others for not posting when I want to see what's going on with them. Since the whole reason for this is to keep in touch with people we don't get to see much, here is what's going on in our part of the map.

I am going crazy!!

I have had problems with anxiety and depression most of my life, though I didn't realize exactly what it was til after Gerry was born. The doctor gave me some medication at that time, but I really didn't like it, so I have been working on controlling it without medication. Most of the time I do pretty good, but of course there are good days and bad days (or weeks). Lately I have been having major flare ups of both. I have been having a hard time with my car, it seems like everything is wrong with it. I had to get it registered in October, but it took til mid November to actually get it done, because so much needed to be fixed on it. Luckily Kirah's husband Jeremy did a lot of the work for me. I am so grateful for what he did for me. He spent 3 days of a 4 day weekend working on my car! After it was road worthy and registered, it decided that it just didn't want to start anymore! The battery kept dying for no apparent reason. I would drive it to the store, and when I got back to it, it would be dead. And no, I wasn't leaving the lights on or anything else stupid. I took it to the mechanic and he said that he can't find anything wrong with it! So I just have to drive it around and hope that it starts when I need it!
There has been a lot of sickness going around, and we have gotten most of them, so there hasn't been much time that there isn't at least one of us sick with something. The latest affliction is a stomach flu, so I have been spending a lot of time cleaning clothes, blankets, rugs and the floor of throw up from kids who don't get to the toilet fast enough. (or in one case throwing up on the rug while sitting on the toilet!)
I feel stressed out because I have been going through all of this feeling pretty much like a single mother. Afa is working a lot which is great, but he has not worked in town since September. He has only been home about 24 hours out of every week, and half of that is while I am at work! I am grateful for his job, because it pays the bills so that I don't have to work much, or worry about who is taking care of my kids, but it is hard to have him away so much.
OK, I better get back to my job, of getting the kids to sleep and cleaning the house.
Hopefully I will have something better worth posting about soon.

St. George and Halloween

We just got home yesterday from St. George after staying there for 12 days. It was great to get away for a while while the kids are off track, but it is nice to be back now, and will be really nice when the kids go back to school next week! I am sure that mom and Bill are glad to have their house back too!
We had a good time in St. George, except that Anela had a major terrible two attack. She wasn't feeling well pretty much the whole time we were there, and she made sure that everyone knew how she felt! I got a couple pictures of her mean face that she makes. She crosses her eyes when she's really mad, I got one of that in Kirah's camera, I will have to get it from her and post it later.
We were there over Halloween, which was fun. My mom made Gerry's Harry Potter costume, I really like how it turned out. The kids had a lot of fun, but I was disappointed. It seems that if you want to do the traditional trick or treating from door to door, you are now in the minority, and hardly anyone is home. We do trunk or treat here with the ward, so I was excited to do the door to door down there, but it was kind of a bomb. Probably about 75% of the houses near my mom's were empty when we went out. The kids didn't seem to mind though, so I guess it was OK.
Aneal was very emotional while we were there, and would cry anytime anyone said "no" to her. My mom told her that if she acts like that she would have to go the the back room till she could be quite and play nice. One time when she was in the back, my mom when to get her and see if she was ready to come out. She was mad at my mom so she wouldn't come out of the room, so my mom just left the door open and left. Later we went to see what she was doing since she still hadn't come out, and she was asleep in the closet. I thought it was kinda funny, so I took a picture of her. The next day she got upset again and was about to cry, so she just ran off to the back room by herself!

A couple of examples of her mean face (with Ariana's sweet face in the back!)

Cute little back cat out trick or treating. She put her bag around her neck because it was easier for her to hold (even though it didn't get very heavy!)

At the mall trick or treating earlier in the day on Saturday.

I wish that I had gotten a picture of Anela at the store where the guy giving out candy was dressed as a gorilla. He was crouched down on the floor, and when Anela got to him and he reached over to put the candy in her bag, she jumped back. As we were walking away she kept looking over her shoulder giving him her mean look.

Ready to go!

Not so ready to go!!

Cute Disney fairy (love the Halloween socks!)

Harry Potter. Yes I am dumb and for got to give him the scar! It's OK though, he said that he wanted to be a wizard, and I was the one who said that he would be Harry Potter.

Before trick or treating on Saturday we went to watch Grandpa Bill do some roping with his buddys. When they took a little break he gave Ariana and Gerry rides on my mom's horse Jazzy.

Doesn't Ariana look thrilled to be on a horse?

Gerry did a lot better, he wanted to go faster, and loved it when they got up to a trot.

Of course while we were there we had to go to the burger place. I think the kids love it as much as I do. They kept asking to go there. We went twice while we were there. I got the turkey guacamole BLT, it is SOOO good!!

Must Read!

For all of you Lord of the Rings fans out there who have not read the books, you HAVE to read them!! (Start with the Hobbit) Of course we all know that books are better than movies, and this is no exception. I have liked all the movies since they first came out, but it took me a long time to get around to reading the books. Most of the time I prefer to read a book before watching the movie made from the book, but if I had tried that with LOTR I don't think that I would have been able to get through them! J.R.R. Tolkien had an amazing imagination! Without the movies, I don't know if I would have understood a lot of the things that he described. At least not nearly as clear as they are depicted in the movies. I am not quite done with the books yet, I am almost done with The Two Towers, and then have The Return of the King. Even though I am not done yet, I am already planning on reading them again! I know that every time I read them I will get more out of it. Everyone I know who has read them, read them more than once. And I have never talked to anyone who said that they didn't like them, just a couple who said they were kind of hard to get through the first time.

I am a major book worm. I love to read, and hate it when I don't have a good book. Most of the time I will be reading a couple, or even several books at a time! I know that not everyone gets into books the way that I do, so you will have to forgive me for trying to push books on you if you feel this way! I am just really enjoying these and I could not keep it to myself.

Reading

I am so glad that my kids have inherited my love for reading. It is especially good now that Ariana and Gerry have both been assigned by their teachers to read at least 20 minutes a day 5 days a week. They all love to read, and love being read to. They are all showing progress in reading as well. Anela is recognizing most of the letters, Gerry is getting better and better at figuring out how to sound words out, and Ariana is just amazing at how well she is reading. I am very proud of all my kids!
Here are some pictures of them enjoying their books. Whenever we go to D.I. I let them each pick out 3 of the 50cent books (because they are 3 for a dollar) they love picking out there own books.

Babies

I didn't realize until after I did the post on Ariana's birthday that I left out the picture of the babies, and I wanted to put in the picture of Ariana's picture frame that she made, with the picture in it.

Ariana's frame and picture to always remember her 7th birthday. I should have gotten a picture of all the kids holding their frames, there were some very cute and clever ones, but I didn't think about it til it was all over. I should have gotten more pictures of the whole thing, but you stay pretty pre occupied with that many kids!

All the babies at the party. Anela, Dilyn (Lauren's youngest 1.5 years), and Kimberly

Birthday Party

Sorry this has taken so long. Ariana had her birthday party on her birthday, Saturday the 4th. It was a lot of fun, but not many of her friends came. Luckily my good friend Lauren was able to come with her 3 kids, and Kirah came with Kimberly as well. Otherwise it would have been terribly small. Of all the kids we invited from her old school, and her new school, only 2 came. Maddy and Zac from her kindergarten class. With my 3, Laurens 3, Kimberly, and Maddy and Zac we had just the right amount of kids for a fun party. The kids all made picture frames out of card stock and we took their pictures with Ariana to put in their frames. We had pizza and cupcakes, and let the kids play at the park. I think they all had a lot of fun, and consider my first "kids party" a success. Of course now Gerry is expecting to get a party, so I have to figure out what to do with him!

This picture is from this morning, I just had to take a picture when she came out in all this pink. It reminds me of myself at that age. I even had pure pink keds!

Ariana's 'abstract' artwork. She has been having a great time with her birthday presents. She got art kits from both Zac and Maddy, and I had gotten her some paint too. Since she loves art so much, she is definitely getting much use out of them!!

Ariana with her friends at the party.
Gerry, Camden, A.J. Ariana, Maddy and Zac

Pictures with each friend

Camden (Lauren's oldest 1month younger than Gerry)

A.J. (Lauren's 2nd, 4 years old)

Zac (The one she says she is going to marry, because he asked her to!!)

Maddy