Thanks Santa!

Santa visited and brought the children wonderful toys. Little Man received the Radio Control Hummer he wanted, Little Miss received the Littlest Pet Shop stuff she wanted. Randy received the range bag, and me a Laminator. What could be better? And then there was one more for Randy and I. I have to say this might be my favorite gift, and I am shocked. We got Guitar Hero for our Wii, with two guitars. Who knew it was so much fun? Not me. Who knew I liked to play Wii so much? Not me. Thanks Santa. This is one of the coolest real toys I have had in a long time.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Or the day. And I realized that the Christmas Jammies due that night were not yet cut out. I grabbed my scissors, I grabbed my fabric, and cut away. I cut some for Randy, Little Man, Little Miss, and me. I cut them quickly not wanting to waste anytime. I was rushing the clock to get them all done. I pinned and I sewed. And I hurried some more. I hurried so much that I cut them too small for my rear, and made them look like M.C. Hammer for Randy. The kids will fit but for now I will scatter. Off to the mall to fix this matter.

Merry Christmas from us. We hope it is well. Merry Christmas.

The Naughty Children

Today during Church we had gorgeous music. The Sunday before Christmas is one of my favorite Sunday's of the year. We get to listen to Christmas Music and feel the Spirit of Christmas, and remember the true reason for the season. I love every minute of it. This year I was accompanying the choir for two numbers. Randy joined in singing with the choir and that left my two sweet children to sit alone for two songs.

We talked about sitting quietly and reverently. We talked about how we act and what we should do. We talked about it a lot. I was sure I got it through their cute little skulls. And I think I had succeeded. The first song went off with out a glitch. I went and sat with them and they were sitting quietly and I beamed. They were so well behaved. I thought I could hear the angels singing and rejoicing with me. I felt like Mother of the Year. My five and seven year old were sitting so quietly, and they snuggled up to me and were so sweet, it was blissful.

And then it came time for song number two. I figured this song would go just as easily without a glitch and all would be well. I was wrong. Oh so very wrong. I sat on the piano bench only to have two adorable children join me. I looked at them told them to sit still and we started, what else do you do? And I believed they would sit there looking angelic, I mean they just wanted to be close to their dear Mommy right? And then I started to play, and Little Miss told me to scoot over, and Little Man said he was squished, umm sorry kids, I am in the middle, and my butt doesn't get any smaller. Little Miss wanted me to move, and I shushed her and kept playing. Then Little Man sat down on the floor. She quickly followed suit. And then the real fun began. (At home they often climb on me, and are trying to do it all while I play.) They grabbed my feet and tried to get them off of the pedals, and succeed at times, and tried to do the pedals themselves. They grabbed my hands, my bracelet, anything they could. They played the low bass keys, and the high treble keys. They undid their shoes Velcro growing louder by the second. The bumped and wiggled the grand piano and shook my music. They tried to get me to stop all together. I gave them the best discreet dirty looks I could. I told them to stop, and I even tried, but failed in my attempt to kick them to stop them. I wondered how the children who sat so wonderfully moments before could now be terrorizing me at this very moment. The choir sang almost a full page a capella thanks to my children. And Little Man took my shoes and stuck them at the far end of the piano where it was hard to find and reach.

When it was done, I gathered my shoes, I gathered my music, and I gathered my children and we sat as far to the side as we could on the stage. Little Miss sat on my lap, and I kept my arm around Little Man as the tears came. I can handle mistakes and screw ups when I play music. I am normally giggling all the way as I play when I make mistakes. And today would have been the same if it had just been me making the mistakes, not my children sabotaging the choir. As I sat there thinking of the drastic things I could do, crack their little heads together and knock some sense into them. That seemed just wrong. I could send Santa a letter telling him they were naughty. I could take away all of their Christmas presents. I could ground them, take away their toys.

I had all of these ideas and then our Bishop spoke. He spoke and I think it was just for me. To soften my heart, to open my eyes to see my children they way I normally do, and to see them the way our Savior sees my Precious Children. I am their Mother. They are my children. My children love me, and want to do everything I do. They are happy to follow me, to copy me, to spend all of their time with me. And today they wanted to be near me. And they were okay until they forgot where they were, because at home they do that and we play around. At Church however during a program is not the time to do such a thing. I am grateful for words to remind me how precious and sweet they are so quickly. For the Spirit to bring me back to a place to be able to see that. Grateful to be their Mother, and to have the blessing of having my two sweet children.

And tonight the children practiced being reverent. They sat quietly with their arms folded and learned what is appropriate behavior for Church. And amazingly everyone said it sounded great, and no one admitted to hearing the blunders provided by my beautiful children. And people didn't realize the drama my children were causing. They all thought they were being sweet and angelic, sitting with their Mother. They had them fooled.

Happy Birthday to my Daddy

Today my Daddy is 66. And I don't blog about my Dad often enough.

A few things about my Dad.

-He is a hard worker.

-He loves the Gospel.

-He can build or fix anything.

-He is one of my favorite people.

-He is always there when we need him, and will do anything he can to help.

-He will kill spiders that are scary.

-He taught me to water ski.

-He laughed when I got cow poop all over me.

-He is a wonderful Dad.

-He gave me my stubbornness, and strong-will.

-He is the best Grandpa I know.

-He can't carry much of a tune, but sings anyways.

-He is one of my heroes.

Happy Birthday Dad! I wish I could be there to celebrate with you. Love you!

Dear Weatherman,

When we moved to Indiana everyone told me the winters were cold, and bitter. We would have snow, and a lot of it. I am feeling like I was lied to. Everyone I know has snow, even Las Vegas has snow, and three inches at that. Why can't we have snow? Please. Pretty please. I want snow, and I better have a white Christmas. (Demanding, I know.) And I guess technically we have snow, if you want to count the millimeter we have plus the ice on top of it. But I want snow I can build a snowman in, snow I can play in, snow we can sled on. Real snow.

Yours Truly,

Lee (Dying for some snow!)

Our Family Pics 2008

This is the picture we chose for our wall and for the Christmas cards.

And here are a ton more of some of my favorites.

And many of these are decorating my walls. And some are waiting for the right frames.

Have a wonderful Tuesday.

Girls Night!

In this picture we have Nedra, Tara, Jennette, Amy, me, Lyndee

And then Amanda, Kellie, and Beth! What a great group! And Nedra, you totally need to blog.

Last night we had a girls night. It was much needed and so much fun. I am stealing pictures from Amanda's blog, because I didn't take my camera. Shocking I know.

We have had several people move into the ward and we had just a fantastic time hanging out, visiting, and getting to know each other better. With the holidays upon us it is nice to take a little bit of time to relax, laugh, and enjoy one anothers company.

Hopefully we can keep this up every month and have an awesome time getting to know each other and just having fun. Good friends, Good food, Good night. I think I have a pretty awesome group of friends, and I cannot wait to get to know everyone even better. And next time maybe even more people will come! The more the merrier!

Let's be real..

There is nothing like those phone calls you get before surgery or a new doctor appointment from the nurse wanting to go over your medical history. The ones that go like this:
Do you take any medications?
You reply, Yes.. I do. Want the list, and then rattle off several medications spelling, explaining, listing the doses and frequency in jargon they totally get. Verifying that yes you do really take that many allergy pills a day.
Have you had any surgeries?
You rattle that list off and you hear a gasp and a slight oh every now and then.
And then the medical problems.
Cue rattling off the problems you might have.. say Lupus.
*Gasp* Which comes with a sigh, oh honey, are you ok?
To which you reply if you saw me walking down the street you wouldn't have a clue there was anything wrong. I look fine, I act fine, I am fine. I just like to freak nurses out and have them wondering what type of patient they might be getting.
So let's be real. On paper, I look like a mess. A total mess. But when you see me in 3-D you get that while on paper I am a mess in real, I'm me. The girl running crazy, doing the Mom thing, and not allowing anything wrong to define me. I am me.

Hmmm..

I remember when I first started blogging I had all of these things I wanted to write about. And now I am not sure. I sit down and I stare at the blank page and I wonder what should I blog about? Do I have anything interesting or worth while to say? Does anyone care? Do I even care? I keep thinking I could do some Photoshop Tutorials, but then I am not sure what anyone wants to learn. So I don't. And then I think I could show some pictures, but maybe people are over seeing my kids. I'm not, but maybe others are. Not that it matters, because this is my blog. Not theirs. And then I think I could divulge into some great topic. Or write something funny, but that isn't really me. I don't know how to be all humorous. And I think I could write about the fact that I went to my first Cub Scout Activity, and it wasn't bad. But maybe that is because all I did was sit there and chat it up with my girls, while we had Alan teach them basketball. And when it comes down to it you get me. Raw, pure, and me.

The Parents.. and the Sista

My parents wanted a new family picture. They wanted one that was outside, and with just the right look. I told them they could go somewhere in Washington, but it wouldn't be as spectacular as one would be in Indiana. Thankfully that idea persuaded them to come to Indiana just for this reason. They realized that Indiana would be the best place for their family picture of them and my gorgeous sister. And just their luck it even snowed lightly during their picture session. (I should charge extra for that!)

We had a delightful time the past week and a half shopping, laughing, visiting, and just being together. My parents went home today. We offered more pictures if they would stay longer, but something about needing to go home, feeding the cat, paying bills, not living here made them choose to go home. Rather than spend the rest of December here. The kids loved having their attention non-stop, and just having quality time. We loved seeing family, and we miss them already. And I am already planning the next time we get to see each other.

Seven

This boy is seven.

This boy looks like this when you talk about the girl he is crushing on.
This boy loves his sister.

This boy makes me laugh.This boy made me a Mother.
This boy made him a Father. Seven years ago I welcomed my son with great anticipation. He was my son. I became a Mother. My life changed. Happy Birthday Sweet Boy. I love you.

I Shoulda blogged this..

two days ago. But life has been busy. Tuesday we took my parents and sister with us to a Pacer game. My Dad saw an NBA game back in the 70's, and my Mom and sister had never been to one so they were excited, we were excited. The Pacers were playing the Lakers. Randy told me it was going to be a blow out the Lakers would beat the Pacers. I silently hoped that would not happen. I wanted to have OUR team beat the Lakers, and show my parents a fantastic game.

At the end of the third quarter I was sure the Lakers were going to win. And my heart was sinking. But then at the beginning of the fourth quarter something happened. The Pacers came alive. They took on the Lakers and rallied back. It was exciting to watch. My heart was racing, I cheered and jumped and whacked my head on the concrete wall. My kids cheered and were on the big tv four times with their great skills. The game intensified and my heart raced. And at the buzzer the Pacers won. 117-118. It was amazing. It reminded me of the NBA days back when the Chicago Bulls ruled the court, it was that kind of game for me. I was in awe. I was there, I watched them beat the Lakers. It was inspiring. It was the way the NBA was meant to be. Games that are down to the wire, where your heart races, you jump, you yell, you go hoarse from cheering, and your hands hurt from clapping.

Go Pacers!

Nothing says Christmas

Like snow on December 1st, and 2nd. And predicted for much of December. Here is hoping for a White Christmas.