Christmas Picture Overload...

Christmas was quite eventful this year as always. It all started Christmas Eve at my sister Missy's house...

Here is Grandma and the grandkids singing Silent Night:) I learned that my kids don't know the words to Silent Night:) LOL.


Here are all of us that participated in the Ugly Christmas Sweater contest this year...and a few other little kiddos that decided they wanted to be in the picture, too. Mike had an ugly Christmas jacket this year, but decided he'd rather watch football than be in the picture!
And the winner is.....


My brother Matt! Isn't that hilarious:)

Mike and I...I had to let you see his ugly jacket...there was slim pickens this year at good 'ole Goodwill...Oh well there is always Ebay next year, right Lindsey?

Lukester in his new Christmas Jammies.

Madi in her new High School Musical PJ's and her cousins Taylor, Eliza and Alexa....Obviously they were looking at the other cameras!

Madison had to leave cookies and milk for Santa... and her pathetic mother forgot to make them earlier so instead of some fresh baked cookies, Santa got some EL Fudge cookies! (Come to find out, Santa will eat just about anything:)

Madison opening gifts Christmas morning!

Lukey opening gifts!

Madi's favorite gift from Santa...her kitchen!

Lukey's favorite gift from Santa...Rockband:) This was actually our family gift, which we've already had a blast with! I was only okay with this purchase because of the Wii fit... so far I love it:)

Our famous Christmas morning Orange rolls:) YUMMY!

We then headed over to Mike's mom's house to open some more fun gifts and eat once again:)

Madi got some cute Fancy Nancy books from Sean and Whitney and more fun toys from grandma and grandpa:)

As if they can't get enough at home they had to play Rockband at Grandma's house.

And we wrapped up the day at Grandpa Russell's house with lots more fun toys:) We were wiped out by the time we got home! Christmas was lots of fun...but I'm sooooooo glad it's over:)

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

The calm before the snow:)


Lukey enjoying the snow...I think he's going to be my little snowboarder!

Madison playing in the snow! (Thinking: Wow, it's really snowing!)

Our little itty bitty snowman!

What it looked like by the time we got home last night!

Madison's dream came true! Can you believe how much it snowed here yesterday? WOW! That was awesome! Madison said, "I'm so excited! I can't believe it is snowing in Las Vegas, mommy!" The kids had so much fun playing in the snow! I went to my parents house around noon and it had just started snowing. About an hour and a half later it was a winter wonderland! I was afraid to drive home, but finally around 8:00 last night we made our 20 mile an hour journey home:) (Hey...I've never driven in snow!) I just wish we could have a white Christmas...wouldn't that be awesome?

Family Traditions...

My friend Natalie blogged about some traditions their family has and I thought they were fun! I love having Christmas traditions! A few of my favorite are:

~Christmas Eve we always have the kids open up a new pair of pajamas to wear to bed. We've done this in my family forever. I remember when we were younger me and my cousins all had cute little matching pajamas.

~Christmas Eve we have also started the "ugly sweater" contest. We started this tradition a couple of years ago. You've probably read about it on a previous post. We basically find the ugliest Christmas/Holiday sweaters we can find and then have a contest to decide who found the ugliest one. It is a lot of fun! I didn't think the guys would go for it at first, but they did and they end up finding some hilarious shirts/sweaters:)

~At Mike's mom's house we play BINGO...sometimes at Thanksgiving and sometimes Christmas. It is so much fun. His mom buys lots of fun gifts and we play like 10 rounds of BINGO:) It's lots of fun!

~Every year we buy a new ornament for our tree. It usually has something to do with what went on that year...Like my first year of teaching we bought a teacher ornament, when Madi was born a new baby one, etc. (I think a lot of people may do this??)

Anyhow, I want to know what fun traditions any of you have...I just might steal them:)

Thanksgiving Day...

I cannot believe Thanksgiving is already over and the Christmas countdown has begun! This year has flown by! Thanksgiving Day Mike worked at the hospital until about 4pm. That night we went to my parents house and had Thanksgiving dinner. I think I've gained 5 lbs. this weekend:) Anyway, we had lots of great food and we all enjoyed (the girls of course) looking at the Black Friday ads. My mom is a Black Friday fanatic...she wakes up and is at the stores bright and early. I on the other hand would rather pay the regular price for something than to wake up that early and deal with crazy people who all want the same things. So I get the best of both worlds...I sleep in, and I give my mom my list of deals to get.


Mike and I


Madison and her cousins Taylor, Cadence, and Arielle.

Grandpa and Luke

Madison, Cadence, Luke, Arielle, Taylor, Chloe, and Christian.

Madi and Lukey

I'm so excited for Christmas. I love this time of year. Madi and Luke are both at a fun age and are looking forward to Santa coming. Madi keeps asking me when it's going to snow...Uh...we live in Las Vegas Madison...that happens like once every couple years on some random day where no one is expecting it! Poor girl...She was already to go outside and play in the snow like Caillou. Looks like we'll be making a trip up to Mt. Charleston.

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas Tag...

My friend Mindy did this tag and I thought it was fun! On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me....
1 embarrassing moment: I know this sounds dumb, but I can't think of a time where I was really embarrassed...I know I've made myself look extremely stupid before, but nothing that stands out!

2 best friends: Mike, mom and sisters

3 things you buy regularly: milk, cereal, Diet Coke (I know I haven't quite given up my addiction yet!)

4 places you want to go (and might actually really go): Hawaii, Japan, On a Cruise, Disneyland (again)

5 goals for the upcoming year (that you might actually do): work out 5 days a week, Be organized, Read my scriptures every night, Pay off debt, Get out of the house before noon.

6 things most people don't know about you: It takes me FOREVER to get me and my kids dressed for the day (I'm doomed if Madi has morning Kindergarten next year!), I love to scrapbook, I write down everything (otherwise I would forget), I love it when other people admit their faults (is that horrible or what?) I think I just like being reassured I'm not the only one that is not perfect, I'm a people watcher (I love watching the weird things people do, or sometimes great things they do!), I love to find a good bargain (but, I also have no problem paying money for something I want really bad!)

7 things you would never say: A curse word of course (hehe!), "I want a cat." (hate them), "I am so skinny!" (Unfortunately I love food too much!), "I hate you!" (to any member of my family, I have no problem saying it to other people. LOL), "No, I don't want that piece of chocolate!", "I hate living in Las Vegas!" (I love living in Vegas/Henderson...home sweet home!), "I hate shopping!"

8 things you love about the Christmas season: The smell, Being with family, after Thanksgiving sales,Christmas Lights/Decorations, Hot Chocolate, Ugly sweater contest, Seeing my kids faces Christmas morning, my dad's homemade fudge.

9 things you say to your kids: "I love you!", "Give momma kisses!", "What in the he*! are you doing?"(I know I'm horrible!), "Do you want to go in time out?" (as if they have an option!), "Which book do you want to read?", "Whose momma's baby?", "I'm going to count to three...", (Tucking them in bed..."As snug as a bug in a rug!"), (When they wake up..."Hi Sugars! Did you sleep well?)

10 things you do a lot: Laundry, Clean the house (which it never looks like it:), cut coupons (I'm getting good at this coupon thing!), change Luke's diaper (the kid craps like 5x a day:), Make dinner, Straighten my hair (it takes forever and drives me nuts!), grocery shopping, go to Target, Iron, blog.

11 things you would rather not live without: my family, the gospel, a hot shower, diet coke, my bed, my van, my cell phone, the internet, good health, a home, my scriptures.

12 people to tag: Tara, Mandy, Katie, Corey B., Heidi, Natalie J., Natalie L., Erika, Lindsey, Kristin, Nikki, Carly...or anyone else.

I'm going insane....

Mike left to Virginia yesterday morning. He is there until Sunday night for a continuing ed. course...I'M GOING CRAZY!!!! I miss him a ton, and I feel so sorry for anybody who is a single parent. He has only been gone 2 days now and my kids are driving me nutty!! I guess I just didn't realize how much Mike helps me out when he gets home from work until now. I love my kids a ton, but it is taking everything inside of me to be patient w/them. Tonight went as follows...Madi going poopoo on the toilet, putting too much toilet paper in the toilet, flushing the toilet, the toilet overflowing...ME freaking out!!!! About 20 minutes later coming in the family room to see that Luke was hitting our LCD TV with a butter knife, and in his words, "Playin' like Peta Pan!"ENOUGH SAID!!!!!There are scratches all over the TV but it could have been worse!I guess I should be lucky Mike isn't here....He has time to calm down once I tell him! Daddy, please come home before mommy loses her freakin' mind!

No more Binky!

I just had to update everyone with the pacifier drama...It is a thing of the past! We had one "NaNa" left and we accidentally left it at Claim Jumper. We figured that was a good time to get rid of it:) Luke has been binky free for a whole week. The first couple of nights were a nightmare, but now he doesn't even ask for it anymore! It's just one less thing we have to worry about bringing when we walk out the door:)

Halloween, Halloween, & More Halloween...

This past week has been filled with the Pumpkin Patch, Pumpkin Painting, Pumpkin carving, Trunk-or-Treat, Aunt Gloria's Halloween Party, Activity Days Halloween Party...I'm all Halloweend Out! (sp?) I absolutely love Halloween don't get me wrong, but man, oh, man do I need a break:) The one last Halloween Hoorah left is Madison's Preschool Halloween Party on Thursday:) WhooHoo we've almost made it! Friday, Mike and I decided we are just hanging out at home and watching movies w/ the kids! This year Madison was Jessie and Luke was Woody from Toy Story 2. Little Dominic (their cousin) was Buzz Lightyear! They all looked so cute together. Here is the past weeks breakdown...
Wednesday: Pumpkin Patch (Previous Post)
Thursday: Pumpkin Painting/Carving...their pumpkins turned out so cute!
Friday: Ward Trunk-or-Treat, lots of food, fun, games, candy!
Saturday: Aunt Gloria's Halloween Party...Every year my Aunt has all of us over her house for great food, and fun games for the kids! It's fun, and is the one time of year it seems I get to see most of my cousins and their kids.
Sunday: Primary Program...Madi did such a great job!
Tuesday: Activity Days Halloween Party at my house...the girls had a fun time! There was bobbing for apples, decorating cupcakes, mummy racing, mummy dogs, bat brew...you name it, we did it:)
Wednesday: I'm just letting everyone know right now I'm lounging all day long:)


Madison (Jessie), Luke (Woody), Dominic (Buzz), Jader Cakes (Ladybug...doesn't she look like a little doll!)

Good 'ole Trunk-or-Treat!

A little bit of Halloween Fun!

This was Madi's first Primary Program and she sang so good:) You could barely hear her when she said her part, but she did an awesome job singing! I guess listening to the Primary songs in the van over the past month was worth it:)

Pumpkin Patch...

Tonight we took the kids to the pumpkin patch w/their cousins. They had a fun time!


Madison, Arielle, and Cadence


Luke and Dominic (a.k.a. Double Trouble)


Our Little Family (Mike was thrilled being there.LOL)

Lukester...He was being a little stinker at this point
and did not want to look at the camera.

Madison feeding the animals...Luke wanted no part of this:)

All old Serene Ward Members...

For those of you that were in the Serene Ward with us before we split will probably remember Kristin and David Torres! I came across their blog yesterday and my heart broke. Their youngest little girl, Brinley, has Leukemia and she is going through treatments right now. The link to their site is http://www.sweetbrinley.com/. You can read the whole story about this cute little girl and all she is going through. My heart goes out to the Torres Family. They are wonderful people. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

Madison's First Day of Preschool...

Excited Madison for her first day!

Today was Madi's first day of preschool. I know we are a little late in the game, but I decided this year to put her in a different preschool than last year. She loved ABC etc. last year, but I just didn't feel like driving all the way out there again this year. Thanks to my friend Tara I found a new preschool, and she absolutely loves it:) She's a pretty easy going child, but I always get so nervous for her starting something new. (Kindergarten next year is going to scare me more than her:) She loves her teacher Ms. Lesly and has already started making new friends. She even let me do her hair in pig tails! (Can you believe it, Mandy?) A lot of you already know that my OCD child Madison has issues w/her hair. She usually only lets me do certain things w/her hair and it drives me nutty! I was in such a good mood this morning since I didn't have any "hair battles" with her! I know that sounds dumb, but if you only knew the struggles I normally have w/ her:) Anyway, she had a great first day, and Luke and I actually got some grocery shopping done! I do have to say 2 1/2 hours away from at least one child was so peaceful! Now...If I could only get rid of Lukester for those 2 1/2 hours! LOL.

Grandma Time...

Yesterday Mike's mom came over and we went to eat at Don Antonios (Yum!) Afterwards we made a trip to Target. I'm sure it was Madison and Luke's favorite trip to Target, because grandma bought them fun toys! Grandma loves to spoil them rotten! (Lucky kids!) Luke of course wanted a guitar... he is obsessed w/guitar hero. It wouldn't surprise me if he is in a Rock Band when he gets older. It is so cute watching him play w/it! He always wants me to turn on music videos and he rocks out w/his little guitar! It is so cute! I'll have to post a video of him in action later! Madison got a pink Barbie cash register and is super possessive w/it. If Luke even goes near it, you'd think someone was attacking her! She is so funny playing w/it...her true OCD comes out! She lines up her play food and one by one will scan them as she talks to her pretend customers. It was a fun day w/Grandma:)

Madison says...

My friend Natalie did this on her blog and I thought it was cute! This is what Madison had to say about me...

1. What is something mommy always says to you?

Do something for me. (Poor child...LOL)

2. What makes mommy happy?

When I clean my room.

3. What makes mommy sad?
If I don't clean my room.

4. How does your mom make you laugh?

When she says funny things.

5. What was your mommy like as a child?

She liked to play like me.

6. What is her favorite thing to do?

Playing school with me and do scrapbook stuff

7. What does your mommy do when you're not around?

Go run and go workout. (She really thinks this is what I do everytime I'm gone...that's my girl!)

8. What is your mom really good at?

Scrapbooking.

9. What is your mom not very good at?

I don't know mommy, you're good at lots of stuff. (Oh...my little sweetheart!)

10. What does your mom do for her job?

Doing scrapbooking, and stuff with me and Lukey.

11. What is your moms favorite food?

Pickles.

12. What makes you proud of your mom?

When you win stuff. (huh?? I never win anything...maybe she's wishes I did!)

13. What do you and your mom do together?

Play school.

14. How are you and your mom the same?

We're both girls.

15. How are you and your mom different?

When we don't do the same things.

16. How do you know your mommy loves you?

Because she says she loves me.

17. Where is your mommy's favorite place to go?

Target.

Anyone feel free to play along... I think it's funny to see what your kid(s) will say about you:)

Mission Organization...

I would absolutely love this whole living room set from Pottery Barn...but it's not happening anytime soon, so instead I've realized I need to become more organized while I patiently wait:)

As soon as I finally get off the blog, I'm going to start be more organized! Over the next month (yes it will take me at least that long), I'm going to re-organize every room! Today I'm going to start in the living room... any advice on what any of you do to do keep things organized in your living room??? Take in consideration that we are in a small condo, so any extra storage space ideas would be great:)

Top 5 reasons....

YOU SHOULDN'T TAKE YOUR KIDS WITH YOU TO ANY STORE!!!!!

5. You don't want to hear them saying "I want this!" "Mommy, "I want this!" Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!!!!

4. You end up spending more money, because you end up buying them at least one thing so you don't have to hear them whining!

3. You don't want to hear, "I need to pee pee mommy! I need to pee pee mommy! Mommy, I'm going to pee my pants, I need to pee pee right now!"

2. You don't want them pulling down glass figurines that will break all over the place and make you look like a complete fool!!

1. When you give them the look of death after this happens and explain to them in your nice mommy voice why they should have listened to me when I said not to touch... you don't need your sassy pants daughter to say, "Whatever, mommy don't look at me like that, Luke's the one that did it!"

That is what happened to us today. I had to go to the Dollar Tree to get some stuff for activity days. In my mind the Dollar tree is the best place to take your kids, because if they do make you mad you can easily just leave, and not feel so bad. (It's the dollar store). Anyway, I got everything I needed and went down an isle and I stopped for a minute, when all of the sudden...crash, crash, bang! Luke pulled a glass shelf down and about 20-30 little stupid glass figurines and the shelf fell over and broke to pieces! (he did all of this while sitting in the cart!)Ok, it is the dollar store, but I was so embarassed. Everyone comes running over asking if he's okay! (and the mean mom that I am thought...sure he's ok right now!) When I went up to pay I told the manager I would pay for everything and he told me, we'll pretend it was about $5 worth. I felt so bad because I know it was a lot more than that:) Believe it or not I had cooled down by the time we got to the van, but it just confirmed why I hate taking kids to the store!

Class of '98 girls...

Last night we had our own '98 class reunion. Our Class reunion was cancelled, so all of us girls decided we would get together at Claim Jumper and have our own reunion. (I actually graduated a year early, but I still consider myself a '98 girl!)It was an absolute blast! Much better than a "whole class reunion!" We laughed about everything & everyone! It was so much fun seeing everyone and picking up right where we left off! There was me, Holly, Michelle, Mindy, and Callie.

We we're laughing so hard, a couple sitting behind us asked to be moved...too funny! All of these girls will forever be great friends of mine! It is so easy talking with all of them. We had some great memories of too much kissing, fights (I to this day still feel really bad about), old boyfriends, pink underwear, regrets, you name it, we talked about it.

And sure enough, I was the last one to arrive and do you think I remembered my camera...NO! Oh well, I'm glad all of you remembered yours:) Thank you girls for a fun night! It was so fun talking about our pasts, and loving where we are at today! We need to do it again soon:)

Bonnie Springs...

Today we took the kids to Bonnie Springs. Madi and Luke enjoyed riding the ponies and seeing all the animals.




I'm glad the kids enjoyed it, because it cost $20 to get in, $6 per kid to ride the pony, $1.50 for a can of soda that tasted horrible (we checked the bottom for expiration date and it was January of 2008...it tasted awful!)! We parked and then took this little train ride over to the animals. We were waiting on the train when we were ready to leave and the "train commander" (if that's what you call him) Said hold on a minute, I'll be right back...didn't think anything of it! Well about 30 seconds later Mike says, "Look! Our driver is over in the bushes and he's peeing!" So needless to say he took a pee, zipped his zipper and troddled back over to the train! Literally maybe 15 ft. away! I could have lived without Madison whining every 10 minutes about how thirsty she was, Luke falling every 10 minutes, and flies and other unwanted insects surrounding me, but over all it was fun:)