Dancing Queen

Katie will dance to any music these days. Here she is having some fun to Alvin and the Chipmunks on Christmas Day.

Christmas Eve

This year we had a Christmas Eve party with our friends, the Browns and the Johnsons. IT WAS SO FUN! Between us there are 13 kids and it was WILD!

We had a gift exchange for the kids. It was especially fun to see the little ones participate. My Katie got Kassi some markers that she would not let any other child touch! And Kassi got my Katie a doll.
Eric got this snap hand that is currently stuck to my ceiling. But he had fun with it until it got stuck!

J got this robot toy, which was great for him. He loves robots!

Next we decorated cookies. I have to say that my friend Denise is the bravest woman I know. She had the kids decorating over the carpet!

Next was the live Nativity. The kids were so good and so cute during this special story. Sadly my kids were not to interested in participating.

Josh, the Shepard, was stealing candy from the cookie decorating area.

My Katie was dancing to the music with Kati Brown. And Eric, the Wise Man, was hiding behind the camera.

After we got home we had the kids get into their nice, new Christmas jammies. We set out the cookies for Santa, and read "The Night Before Christmas." Then off to bed they went to wait for morning.

To our dear Family and Friends,

Merry Christmas to you all! We sincerely hope that this letter finds you happy and healthy and enjoying the spirit of this wonderful time of year.

This past year has had many blessing, but some trials as well. Last December we sold our house and moved just before Christmas. We felt so blessed to have sold our house. Just 2 weeks later Brandon lost his job. We were very thankful to have the money from our house to live on until Brandon found a new job. In April Brandon found employment at Comcast. Then in July he was able to secure a job at a hotel as the Sales Director. And finally we felt so incredibly blessed to have Brandon apply and be offered the job of General Manager of the same hotel.

Despite the trials that Brandon had with employment early in the year he now has a job that he loves. He is doing very well there and is anxious to grow more within the company. He is very busy, but manages to fit in time with the family and perform his church calling.

Becca is busy with three kids! Plus her part-time job and TWO church callings! There is little time for her to participate in her hobbies, although she gets in a few projects now and then. She has been sewing more this year and wants to take on some more ambitious projects soon.

Eric (9) is now in the third grade and is doing very well. He loves school! He had an excellent report card and we have learned that he is a very good writer! He was lucky to get into an after school program that helps him improve on his skills in math. Eric also enjoys Scouts and completed his Wolf this fall. He is really growing up and is a wonderful helper around the house.

Joshua (6) started Kindergarten this year. I am enjoying watching his mind grow and expand with all of the new knowledge that he is gaining. He too, likes school, although I am unsure how he manages to sit all day. He has so much energy! His report card was excellent and he is on his way to being a star student!

Katelyn (18 months) is our sweet little girl. She is a lot of fun, very happy and lovey. Katie loves to wrestle with her brothers and hug and kiss them when they are sad or hurt. She is always smiling. She loves to play and be with people. She has grown so much over the last year, from a baby to a busy toddler.

We are excited to see what next year will bring for us and our family. We have the same hope for ourselves as we do for you; a Happy and Wonderful New Year!

The Great House Hunt

After the adventure of house hunting in the snow this week, Brandon and I decided that we like this property. It is completely finished! No work needed! That makes it the perfect house for us with our busy schedules!

We will admit that every house that we have liked and tried to get has not gone through. We are frustrated by this and so we are not going to mention much else about this house until we hear something positive about it. Here are a couple of pictures. Wish us luck!

I am not sure why these came out so small, sorry.

Snow ~ day 1

I titled this "snow ~ day 1" because this weather is predicted to continue throughout the night. But my boys would not wait. They wanted to play, NOW! Thank goodness we had their snow clothes handy!

Their new obsession... SNOWBALL FIGHT!

Cute aren't they? They had so much fun playing outside today. I had to drag them inside!

This is our street. It has been snowing all day, but only started to stick in the afternoon. We already have a good inch + and I have no doubt that there will be plenty more by the morning.

The Great House Hunt

We put an offer in on a house back on November 11. It is a bank owned property and we knew that it would take a long time to get a response. The date came (it was this past Friday) and no word. Yes, you can assume that we are frustrated. So we are starting again. Tomorrow I am going to use some of my day off to look at these three houses. I will let you know how it all goes. Feel free to offer opinions.

B A D hair day

Katie had quite a day the other day. She learned to open the drawer that I hide the diaper cream in. She loves diaper cream. Why? Because she can't have it! Check out what she did while I was cooking dinner.

Bath time!

A retail employees' thoughts on BLACK FRIDAY...

As I sit at my computer in a stupor from the harried day that I just experienced, I thought that I should note some of the thoughts that I had on this busy day (not to mention I am procrastinating the housework that still has to be done).

For the second Thanksgiving in a row my sweet daughter went to bed after midnight. Last year I was not working and so the lack of sleep did not bother me. This year I had to be at work at 5 am. Yes, 5 am. I needed to be up by 3:45 am to be on time. Kate stayed up until 12:30. Thank goodness for spell check because I am typing this on 3 1/2 hours of sleep.

Traffic was surprisingly heavy at 4:50 this morning. Apparently my stores 6 am opening was late according to this years BLACK Friday standards. People HAD to be places this morning! Wouldn't it be a great world if they were so diligent about their jobs?

Shortly after I got to my store and started to get the registers ready to open we noticed that we had an audience. The dozen people who had come at 5:30 to make sure that they did not miss one sale item, were watching me and a co-worker go about our business. I could feel their thoughts about me and I already resented these people.

Now, you are probably wondering why I would resent these people who help support my paycheck. Let me explain. At Burlington we run very few actual sales. Not what you would find at other retailers. In the Thanksgivings ad we published our current prices. We did have a couple of items that had some Point of Sale reductions, not anything that I would have come running into the store at 6 am for. Could they not shop on another day?

So here I am resenting these people who got me out of bed at 3:45, hoping that the day will be slow. Isn't that what those smart money/econ people on CNN have said? That sales will be down, not so black?

At 6 am we have approx. 50 people who are very anxious to get out of the cold and into our bathrooms. After they had satisfied their needs they come to get our "sales." By 6:20 we had lines, long ones. We had our three best cashiers there and they were struggling to keep up. So I open up, my other CSM co-worker opens up and we were able to relieve the lies. After the rush we thought for sure it must be at least 8am, but sadly we were wrong.

I have to say that the day went remarkably well. We had enough coverage and were certainly selling. But it dragged by, tick tock. 1 o'clock took forever to arrive and that is when I made my escape. But I fail to understand the need that consumers have to loose sleep and torture retail employees all for a good deal. I looked at the paper. There were some good sales, but literally, nothing to loose sleep over.

So please if you can help this tired retail manager understand the reason why she must loose sleep on this day, let me know. I would like to understand. And, if you are one of those who must go out each and every year, do not take offense. I mean nothing by it, and I am too tired to be nicer about it.

For those who maybe interested, when I left we were on track to not only make our goal for the day, but if our current pace kept up we would exceed it by about $30,000. BLACK FRIDAY indeed.

Happy Birthday!

My sweet little J waits anxiously all year for his birthday to come. It frustrates him that he has to wait longer than anyone else to get his birthday. Finally his "un-patience" has paid off.

My little bug has turned 6.

He was VERY excited. We had a family party this year. He picked a Transformer cake (super yummy cake from Sam's, by the way) with homemade vanilla ice cream (also super yummy.) He also wanted to have pizza for dinner.

He could not wait for his presents! It was killing him to be patient a moment longer while I took this picture of the many gifts he received.

This is the toy that he has been pestering us about for months. Bakugan. It his opinion, day over. "No more gifts please, I got what I wanted!"

As you can see it killed him to open the rest. He also received a Bakugan game board, a Darth Vader laptop, the game Trouble, and some Iron Man toys. Plus a couple of other really fun things.


What a spoiled little man! But he totally deserves it! You are a wonderful boy, J. We love you so much! Happy Birthday!

Not enough time...

As usual things have been busy. I have the wonderful opportunity to be home today with two children sick with the stomach flu, Eric and Kate. This started last night with Kate and as soon as she was settling down from everything (@ 3 am) Eric started with it. This was an experience I hope to never repeat. I had forgot how devastating a toddler with the stomach flu can be. We went through half a dozen towels, several rags, 2 pairs of pj's for me, one for her, crib sheet, one bed pillow, and a couple of blankets. Then we had Eric with his bed sheets, pj's, and bathroom rugs. And, amazing Josh, slept though most of the commotion.

My parents were here for the last 5 days. That was busy. We knocked out their Christmas shopping for the kids. Plus did some other stuff. They were here last night for the fun fest. Poor Grandma and Grandpa, I bet they didn't get much sleep.

So on the agenda for the day... L A U N D R Y!!! I have all the stuff from last night, the sheets and towels from my parents visit, P L U S the load I normally wash on Wednesday. I have already done three and I don't see how I can get out of at least two more. :(

Back to work today as well. Tomorrow I have to work A ND teach at Enrichment. And I need to hop back on the packing bandwagon. Interesting note on the move... it might be slightly delayed, but for a positive reason. Updates will be given when available.

Off to remake the beds.

Pumpkin Patch

Still playing catch-up.

One Saturday in October we went to a local pumpkin patch. They had a corn maze, a small petting zoo, and the pumpkins, of course. The kids had a lot of fun in the maze. Both boys went to the Maize Maze last year and so they thought they knew what they were doing this year. It is a good thing Brandon and I know better to not follow them!

Kate got a little tired towards the end. So Daddy gave her the best seat.


The very small petting zoo. They also had an area to try and lasso a bale of hay. Brandon and the boys loved trying that!

It was the perfect day to do all of this. Perfect temps and bright blue sky. We had a lot of fun. There are a few more pictures of them getting their pumpkins on the side-bar. They are just so cute!

Extended family

We so lucky that we had a chance to spend time with Brandon's Grandma. She came for a visit in late October (yes, I am very far behind in my blogging). It was wonderful to have the opportunity to spend time with her, although it was not as much as we would like. I love that my kids get to spend time with their great-Grandma. She is such a neat person, so full of life, and very spunky! In this picture we have two of her Grandsons, Brandon and Aaron, with six of her great-Grandchildren. This trip was the first time that she had met Katie and Lauren. Thanks for the fun visit. LOVE YOU GRANDMA!

Halloween

As is our tradition, we went to the ward Trunk-or-Treat this year for Halloween.

The night was really fun. Josh got a T O N of candy! He kept going around and around. This was Katie's first experience with this. She liked the candy, but liked the running around the parking lot better. And then there was Eric. I am starting to think that maybe he is getting a little old for this. He went a round once and then came back to say that he had enough candy, could he play with Katie. It was cute to watch them together. He is a wonderful brother.

And now the fun part, the costumes!!

Eric was a skeleton this year. I love it when the kids want to be "tradition" things for Halloween!

Josh was the best looking Dash! I so so glad that he choose this costume because it really fit him!



Katie was our little clown. She was pretty cute, if I may say. I had her done in these min-bun type things, but she pulled them out.


My little Halloween cuties!

bear

Eric received his Wolf this month. He is now a Bear Scout. I am very proud that we reached the Scouting milestone. It is hard to juggle everything that we had going on this year and finish this too. Eric is awesome! Now on to this year!

Full Moon

This is the scene I came into the other morning when I went to get Katie.


Look closely at the picture. Do you see what is on the floor, next to the crib? It might be hard to see, but look hard and you will find a blanket, black pj bottoms, and a... D I A P E R!

Look again at this picture and you will see the full moon that was at our house on Saturday morning. What a cute bum she has!

Eric's Birthday

It would not be a birthday without a party! This was our year for a family party. Our theme was the DENVER BRONCOS, Eric's favorite team. I was really surprised that I was able to find him a cake and napkins that match our theme. Thank goodness for football season!

He is really into being cheesy for the camera. It cute, don't you think?

He got a lot of really nice gifts. He got an mp3 player and a Bronco's sweatshirt from Brandon and I. A *Bakugan starter pack and books from one grandma. Lego's, books, and clothes from another grandma. He also got MONEY!


We had a really nice night. We had Grandma and Grandpa Pinon, Uncle Aaron and Aunt Marissa with Gabe, Carly, and Lauren, PLUS, Marissa's mom Debbie here for his party. We had a yummy dinner of pizza (eric's choice), bread sticks, salad, the great cake from the first picture and ice cream. The big boys watched football while the kids played and the Mom's talked. It was a really fun night. We were especially thankful to have Marissa here with sweet Lauren who is still recovering from her heart surgery. She is doing sooo well and we are grateful that her prognosis look great!

Eric had a great night. Since our family has left he has been in his room playing with all of his new toys. He is excited to read his book and he hasn't taken that mp3 player our of ears since he opened it! He is really becoming a great kid. He is becoming someone that I can talk to about various things. I am sad that he is getting older because he is my baby, but happy that I am getting a new friend. I love you Eric! Happy 9th Birthday!

* NOTE TO ALL MOTHERS OF BOYS-- If you are yet unaware of what Bakugans are please educate yourself and QUICKLY! They are clearly the popular toy for boys 5 and up. They are very hard to find in the stores and many sites on the internet have been sold out. If you have a boy who likes these and wants them for Christmas please start shopping for them NOW. It will be a sanity saver. Good luck.

Eric's birthday song

Birthday Lunch

Every year on Eric's birthday (or the day closest to it) I go to his school to have lunch with him. And since I have done my time eating cafeteria food I also bring lunch with me. This year I decided to bring him Panda Express, a newly acquired taste for him.

Each year I pretend that I am not going. I either make his lunch, or offer him the hot lunch option. I also send the cupcakes with him to school. I tell him all the things I need to do that day in hope that I might have an element of surprise left. This year I did well, if I may say so. By accident Brandon ended up with my debit card. The original plan was for me to go get it from him, but then we decided to have Brandon join us for lunch instead. He has never been able to come for lunch before and so Eric was definitely surprised to see his Dad.

We had a nice time together. We ate outside away from the rest of the kids in the crazy cafeteria. The weather is great! Afterwards I took Eric to the book fair and let him pick out a book. I love spending this kind of time with Eric.