The Snow and Pancakes

This post was started long ago, but due to the craziness of the holidays, had yet to be posted. This dates all the way back to the week of the snow storm in St. George. In all my years living here, I have never seen this much snow actually stick! It usually snows at some point in the winter, but I can't recall it staying for more than a few hours. My sister in law called me the morning that school was cancelled in some what of a panic, because she had no idea what to do with her children since she had to work. Me, being the amazing sister in law that I am, offered to keep her children. I figured it would be a blast to play in the snow, and make christmas cookies. I was right. We had a blast. We made a very sad looking snowman, with rocks for his eyes and mouth, and little twigs for arms.

Bentley and Chloe had a blast.

The view from my back yard. I love the juxtaposition of the red mountain against the white snow.

Belle took off with Daisy's glove and it was so funny to watch her try to get it back.

Even Belle enjoyed the snow.

Jordan attemptin to throw a snowball at me. I think it landed like ten feet in front of me.

Sadly, there are no pictures of the cookie making, I was too busy trying to keep 6 children from destroying my house in the process, that my camera was far from my mind.

A few days later, we had Daisy, Jordan and Lexy come stay the night. It was another fun day. We woke up in the morning and Jesus made his famous Mickey Mouse pancakes. Bentley kept asking for a Donald Duck one. We are still trying to figure out how to pull that one off.

These were taken by Daisy. She's 8. Pretty good if I say so myself.

Picture Overload... new house and Christmas Decorations

Ok, I am warning you now, there are like a million and a half pictures on this post. Well, not really, but there are a lot. First off are some of the pictures of the new house. I am still working on the bedrooms and the upstairs tv room/play room, so I am not posting those yet. You will however, be able to see the living room, kitchen/dining room, and hall bathroom. YEAH!



Here is the view of living room when you are standing in the kitchen. After Christmas it will look different, obviously. I will move the book shelf into our bedroom, and there will be other decorations on the mantle.

This is the view of kitchen from the living room.

Closer view of the kitchen.

Dining room. This is just to the left of the kitchen.

Hall bathroom. I was standing in the bathtub here. :)

View from the door.Another view

This hangs above the toilet. If you ever come to my house DO NOT use these towels. They are decoration ONLY! I HATE when people use my decoration towels. (Fair warning!)

Now for the Christmas decorations.

Here is Jesus and an orphan child we found wandering the streets setting up the Christmas tree. Oh wait, that's Chloe....This is on my table in the entry way.

And on the bottom shelf is my Christmas Village.

Our stockings hung above the fireplace. (I need to get one for Mattix.)

This shelf is also in my entry way. I think I am going to move the wreath to the front door. I just need one of those hangie thingies.

Here is our milk and cookies plate and mug. There is also a special key so Santa can come in, since we don't have a chimney. (Our fireplace is a fakie)

My nativity. So cute! I was given to me by my mom last year.The shepherd and his sheep.

Mary and Joseph with baby Jesus.The Wisemen and their camel.

And finally... TA DAAA! Our beautiful tree!Chloe was so tired that she just passed out on the couch. Poor girl.

The Christmas spirit was complete with snow the next day. This was taken when the snow just started to fall. Can you believe there is STILL snow in my back yard. Amazing for St. George. Anyone who knows me knows that I HATE the snow, but I am actually enjoying it this year because my kids are entralled with it!

I'm Baaaaack!

Well, a whole weekend without Internet is over, and to be honest, I didn't even feel it. This was much too busy of a weekend to even notice. We are all moved in - well, let me rephrase that- our stuff is here. Most is still in boxes, but it is here! I will post pics of each room as I get them done. Chloe's room is all done, I just need to move her bed in. I love how it turned out! We also did the Christmas decorations last night so I will be posting about that soon.

Sunday was Mclain's mission homecoming. He actually came home last Monday. I planned to do a long post about his arrival. I planned to post lots of pictures of us hugging him as he got off the plane. I was planning on posting pictures of him holding the sign we painted to welcome him home. This was a great plan but, since his plane was 20 minutes early, we missed his arrival. That's right, most of the family wasn't there to see him arrive, my mom included. He was a good sport about it, but I was fairly heartbroken. After leaving the airport, we had a family lunch at Olive Garden to celebrate. I do have pictures of that!

Sorry mom, I know its bad, but I love this look on Mclain's face. Typical Mclain.
Mclain finally getting to know his nephew.
Chloe is such a cheese!

Its been great having him back. He was such a help for me this week. He came over and raked like 30 bags of leaves at the old house. I was so grateful that I didn't have to be the one to do that!

On Sunday he spoke in church and since his last talk was so eventful, we knew we needed to be there. This talk didn't fail to impress. No borderline sacrilegious jokes, but he did liken his mission to the theme song of "Fresh Prince of Bel Air". I got the analogy, but I think it went right over the heads of some one the older members. Something will never change.... :)

apologies

After some nagging (ahem Chels...) I realized it had been a bit since I had updated. I do have a few posts in mind, but this week has been consumed with furiously packing, cleaning, patching and painting. We get the keys to the new place at noon tomorrow and I am so excited. I actually feel rather prepared for this move. Last week we cleaned the entire garage and I have been moving everything in there as soon as it is packed. Tonight we plan on moving everything but the couches and beds out there. Tomorrow, Jesus is only working half a day so we can (hopefully) be done by tomorrow night. Since my sisters are going to be in town, and Sunday is Mclain's mission homecoming, plus Saturday night is Jesus' work Christmas Party, I would really like to be done by Saturday afternoon. The cable people will be at the new house Monday to install, so plan to hear from me then!

P.S. I made Jesus promise me this was the last move for a LONG time! We shall see.....

Stay at home mommy

Jesus and I made a very difficult decision yesterday. When I got pregnant with Mattix I has resigned myself to the fact that working would be out of the question. It would be too expensive and way to hard to juggle the house and a full time job. Then the closer I got to delivering I had adjusted that decision to working part time. Nights and weekends, leave the kids with family, or Jesus, but then I would lose my health insurance. Then, weeks before delivering, my co-worker announced that she would be quitting to move up north. This opened up an opportunity to work full time mornings and keep my benefits. I would be home at night with Jesus and the kids and it was also supposed to mean a raise. Jesus and I discussed this at great length, and decided we would try to find a "nanny" to come be with the kids while I tried this out. I wanted someone to come to the house and be with the kids. I felt this would give them more structure and be less of a transition for them. I knew that a typical day care was out of the question. We had already decided that if it became too much "work" to work, then I would quit. While I was on my maternity leave I was searching for someone I trusted to care for my children. This was very difficult. I had several good leads through craigslist and other avenues, but none really panned out. I adjusted my schedule to work every Saturday and Sunday, and my amazing mom adjusted her schedule to work 4 ten hour shifts and be off on Tuesdays. This left me with only one or two days to find a sitter for. I eventually found a girl who would watch the kids for me and was a great girl who was wonderful with the kids. However, since her husband is leaving for the Marines, she needed a full time job. Yesterday she told me she had found one. It was in that moment, I knew I needed to stay home.

I have loved my job, and the people I work with. At the end of the day, I didn't make much more than to pay my health insurance and the babysitter, but it was worth it. I never did get the raise I was promised, and things were falling behind at home. Laundry was never done, I never had the energy to cook, and was always wanting to be in bed by 8:30, cutting out all the quality time I had planned for Jesus and I. I am at peace with this decision. I am actually excited to stay home more. To take my kids to the park, the library, put them to bed at night, and be there in the morning when they wake up. Plus, I get to see this everyday.....

Photo credit - Pixel Me Perfect Photography

P.S. Mattix has started to laugh! Not giggle or chuckle, but laugh! Oh the precious moments!