Merry Christmas 2009

Sport loves his beads. I could have given him a case of Mardi Gras beads and he would have been happy all day long. Simple, keep it simple.

Merry Friggin Christmas

Just to keep it real...

This is my little bro tearing apart my mom's drain Christmas Eve.

We returned from my mom's party, had the kids pick up their rooms, did the PJ traditional gifts, and started wrapping.

Yup I hadn't wrapped a single thing.

About 12:30 am just as Santa was finishing, Master got out of bed with a stomach ache.

He was up every 30 minutes with explosive diarrhea yelling, "mom I need your help"

At one point about 3:30am he says like only a 9yr old boy can, "mom check out this moo in the toilet. " OH My GOSH! Can I shoot myself now?

Stinky Sport kept trying to sneak in my bed as well...four times! I put him back in his bed four times last night.

And all the angels awoke at 7:00am sharp to see what Santa had brought.

Merry Merry Christmas

Presents and more presents

For baby Noah and Baby ? Roylance

Princess Pie LOVES this baby doll!

Details details details.....

My mom has always been one for details (ya think?) These are the stockings hung behind each grandchild's chair. Each stocking contained a stuffed animal, McDonalds GC, their first initial (Z,C,R, etc.) chocolate letter, a 2009 signature ornament from Macy's, and a personalized ornament with their picture. You would think my mom was rolling in the doe, and had oodles of time on her hands...quite the contrary. She works full time and has to live on a budget (ok the truth is she can't budget worth a darn, but you get the idea). The thing about my mom is every gift she gives is reflection of her sacrifice and love for you.

Christmas Eve tables - no captions needed

Just a simple WOW Nana

12 Days

Going in....

Coming out......

Note: I need to learn to use my camera in the dark.

If you are going to make doing the '12 days' a tradition I would suggest sharing the duty. My neighbor suggested this and so far it's been great. My kids take the even days and her kids take the odds.

Princess Pre-School Program

BFF

Castles, Trains and Spy Houses

The castle

The Spy House - It looks like a traditional Gingerbread house thus it makes the Perfect Spy House..according to Master

Sport is here just for the picture he wanted nothing to do with this activity

Christmas porch

I'm a little behind...this actually happened the first part of December. It's a family tradition that we go to breakfast and then to Rainbow Gardens in Ogden to the Chirstmas porch to pick out our ornaments for the year.

Sports starts Karate

OOoost! is what they yell when they punch

I do have to brag that Sport is the most flexible in the entire class.

Those double joints help

Dancing Queen

This is Princess Pie's second dance recital. The first one she had been taking class for only 3 weeks and she hit the stage and froze. Tonight was a whole different story. We pulled into the parking lot and she yells, "Dance Concert, Here I come!!!!" She did awesome! I was a proud mama!

Do I need a new mirror?

Yesterday I woke up at 4am stressed that my RS lesson on the Martyrdom was not completely prepared. I managed to go back to sleep, only to dream that I woke up at 6am to prepare my lesson, but decided to go to the gym instead (I have never in my life been to the gym on Sunday). In my dream I arrived at church (after hitting the gym) and the ladies in RS were so upset with me for not being prepared they started taking off their clothes and covering themselves with hymn books. I opened my eyes and leaped (I never leap) out of bed. It was 6 am for real and I had two good hours to finish preparing the lesson. We arrived at church (late) and in the hallway I spied my visiting teaching companion (who I love and respect dearly) she asked me how I was feeling. I said ok. She said, "oh you can tell you don't feel well just looking at your eyes". I promptly went to the bathroom to see what was up with my eyes. I'd gone a little lighter than I realized with my make-up, but didn't think it was that bad; or was it?

I had worked like crazy to: get the bishop's permission, set up my lap-top, projector, and Internet card for this lesson. I wanted to show a LDS u-tube clip; for whatever reason my Internet card was not fast enough and the clip wouldn't play. Oh well, some things like, how my eye-balls look, are out of my control... the lesson ended up fine.

This evening I had to make a last minute run to the craft store for glue dots. I was already in my PJ's. I threw on my long wool dress coat and Brian's snow shoes for a quick run to the store. You know you really don't give a hoot if you're willing to go to the craft and grocery store in your PJ's, wool coat, and husband's shoes. As I exited the parking lot, I had a sudden craving for a banana shake. I pulled through the drive-through the lady at the window says, direct quote, "Mam you look exhausted! Are you all right? You need to go home and put your feet up." Slightly stunned my reply was, "I'm just pregnant."

Luckily I'm not in tears, I'm laughing my head off. I must seriously need a new mirror if I look that bad. Two days in a row, seriously two days in a row, people making the effort to tell me I look exhausted...SUPER!

Thinking back on today, I still feel icky prego....I had to pull together my Christmas gifts for my offices. This involved visiting 4 different Walmarts, Home Depot, Sams Club and Costco, all with my 3yr old in tow.....while I made the blackberry burn with work orders to be sent and emails that needed to be returned...took Sport to karate...did our traditional shopping for our live trees...put all three tree stands together, and got the trees watered...delivered the second day of xmas to the neighbor and now I'm sitting here giving myself a pause before I go assemble all the 'stuff' I bought today...OK that many Walmarts could make anyone look exhausted.

IT'S A .......

BOY!

I had a CVS test last week and got the results this morning!

We are very excited that Noah Brian will be joining our family!!!

I do need to mention long before we even got pregnant, Indy said IF, we had another baby it would be a boy and his name would be Noah.

The minute I found out I was pregnant, I felt it was a boy. I've had two dreams about him since being pregnant, so if the test came back and said girl; I would have been shocked. Princess Pie is still convinced it's a girl. I guess she will get used to the idea. Master did a happy dance. Sport just calls him baby no, no,no.

A quick word about Chorionic Villus Sampling (CVS) It is a prenatal test sample of the placenta tissue. It is the earliest and the only 99% accurate test to screen for Downs, trisomy 18, and cystic fibrosis. When I was pregnant with Sport my AFP blood work test came back on the high side, but still within normal range for my age. Therefore, we did not pick up on the Downs until my 18 week ultrasound. I remember that day, it was a rainy, dreary, awful day. People ask me all the time, "Are you glad you knew early?" Heck yes! I had 20 more weeks to prepare and educate myself and my family. When you get that kind of news there is a grieving process and I had time to get that out of the way before giving birth. I did the CVS test with Princess Pie and with this baby to get the most accurate information as soon as possible. I have had several comments from people stating they would never do a CVS test because if it came back positive they wouldn't abort. OK, but just for the record, FOR ME, it's not about abortion it's about being prepared.

411 Needed

I would like to 'publish' or turn my blog so far into a book. Has anyone out there done this?

Before - After - Before

This is Erik Chopin from The Biggest Looser. He started the show at 407 dropped 214lbs to become the Biggest Looser and has almost gained all of it back. I 've been thinking and thinking about this and I'm not sure what 'my take' on this is. What's yours?

Thought

When we look at a statue

OF SOMEONE GREAT,

we think they've got something we don't

We are trained to think that only a tiny percentage

of us have the stuff it takes to be a hero.

Not many of us will cure any diseases,

or slay any dragons, but every single one of us,

EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US,

is called to be a king, a queen, a hero in

our ordinary lives. We don't build statues to

worship the exceptional life, we build them

TO REMIND OURSELVES WHAT IS

POSSIBLE IN OUR OWN.

New pics

Thanks Nicole! This little family is not easy to photograph, and I think she did great!