Christmas Traditions

Cute Kenna Marie in her Christmas Jammies

Hot Tamales!

Steaming the tamales (I must say, they turned out delicious for my first try)

Christmas Jammies 2011!

When I was growing up I was always jealous of families that had a mom around....especially at Christmas time. It seemed to me that having a mom at Christmas time was so important. Not for presents or anything, just to carry on traditions.
My dad (the greatest one ever to grace the planet)...always made Christmas special for us. We never had a lot of "things", but we have a lot of happy memories. He always made it fun for us and he always made us feel like we were each the only kid he had (there are eight of us). But, being by himself and always working two or three jobs...he just didn't have the time or the means to carry on traditions from one year to the next....Now that I see how hard my husband works and how much time he needs to devote to providing for us, I can appreciate what my dad must have gone through coming home and doing it all alone.
I am so grateful that Jimmy and I have each other and that we have the time to devote to traditions.
Our family has some that we have got from each side of our family and some that we have made during our marriage. This will be our eighth Christmas together!
Here are few of our favorite Christmas traditions:


~Choosing a needy family to gather things and money for
~Eating tamales on Christmas Eve
~Opening up Pajamas on Christmas Eve
~Having a little devotional where we read the story of our Savior's birth and teach the children about Him.
~Opening one present on Christmas Eve
~Daddy goes under the kids window a few min after they have gone to bed and shakes bells....(and then hurries upstairs to screaming children who think they just heard Santa land on the roof).
~Enchilada dinner on Christmas day
~Mommy buys everyone a special book every year
~Daddy buys something special just from him to each kid every year

Melted Crayon Art

Have you seen these on Pinterest?!?! I was looking at these one day and Sarah came over to see what I was gawking at...She instantly fell in love and thought they were so pretty, SO I just had to make my girly one for Christmas.

This was SUPER EASY to make. (Folks, I am severely "craft challenged" so if I can do it, anyone can do it). All you do is hot glue the crayons to a canvas, hold the canvas upside down and take your blow dryer to them...

They dry pretty darn quickly, so I hot glued silk flowers on about 5 min after I melted the crayons.

Most of the ones on Pinterest seemed a bit boring to me... They had all the crayons lined up on one side of the canvas and melted down, but I just felt like they lacked "character". I googled crayon art and saw one that a lady had made into a flower garden and so I sort of copied her idea :-)

Hopefully my baby girl will LOVE it!

A Servants Heart......

My sweet Sarah has such a servants heart. She is always going about doing good.

Names have always been important to us and so when Jimmy and I were choosing a name for her we really wanted her to have a strong, special name. The one we had picked out for most of my pregnancy just didn't end up feeling right. Jimmy came up with Sarah and we loved it, but then we couldn't decide on a middle name. We decided to name her after Jimmy's grandmother "Rosemarie". Thus we got "Sarah Rose". His Grandmother is always going about doing good and she cares so much for her family that she is always doing little things for them, just like my Sarah. They seem to have very similar personalities, they will do anything for you...just don't get on their bad side or you will have trouble :-) Ha ha ha! There is a scripture from the Bible that reminds me so much of Sarah and Grandma Rose....
1 Peter 4:10:
"As Every man hath received the gift, even so, minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God."
To me, both Sarah and Grandma Rose exhibit the Grace of God. I don't know how much things can get passed from one generation to the next, but I really feel that we were inspired to name her after her Great-Grandmother Rose.
She is always thinking about ways that she can serve other people...on any given day she can be found sweeping our neighbors porches, caring for her younger siblings, washing dishes for me, reading books to Luke, cooking special treats for people, doing special things for Seth and Daddy while they are at school, etc...
Yesterday she went next door and helped our neighbor clean her house and today she sat down with Luke to help him paint pictures to give out as Christmas gifts.
Jimmy and I have asked her a number of times what she wants from Santa this year and she always tells us that whatever he wants to get her is fine.
On the other hand, she has been working for weeks on gifts for everyone else in our family. The only gifts under our tree are presents she has made or bought and wrapped herself. She is definitely not concerned with herself at all.

Helmet Head

Kenna got her helmet. She hates it.
I can't really blame her, its huge, hot, and ugly. At least the little face sticking out of it is adorable.
(She cut her cheek trying to get it off)

This about sums up the way she feels about it.

Lukes Birthday, Uncle "Yance", and Cooper

Luke is two!
All he wanted for his birthday was a chocolate cupcake and his Uncle "Yance" to come to his party. (My sister got married in April and her new husband Lance has become Luke's best friend).
Anyhow, my sister Kathryn brought him a chocolate cupcake AND a chocolate cake! Aunt Nikki and Uncle Lance were there, so that made his party complete. I am bummed that I didn't get a picture of Luke and Uncle Lance at his party, but he did get to play catch with Uncle Lance, so that made his entire night. The present that made the biggest impression was a little stuffed dog, "Cooper" that Aunt Nikki and Uncle Lance got for him. It is seriously adorable how he has taken to the cute little dog. It goes everywhere with him, and he won't go to bed until he has Cooper by his side. So, so cute! I think every boy needs a stuffed dog :)

Opening his gifts from his brother and sisters first thing in the morning.



Spiderman!



Blowing out two candles. He had been telling everyone for weeks that he was turning six, but mom and dad wouldn't give in and let him have six candles.



Opening up Cooper dog.




This is how he looks every night now, cuddled with his Cooper Dog!

Terrible Twos

Luke is two. He has hit the ground running and now thinks he has to act like a "typical" two yr old. Yikes! (Please don't judge me for the following pictures. I am not the worlds worst mom, he is just quick and sneaky).


Sneaking into the cupboard. I had told him he couldn't have any more candy so he decided to take matters into his own hands.


He went into the bathroom and got into Daddy's hair gel.


Poured his own "plate" of cereal while mom walked out of the room for 2.5 seconds.



Falling asleep with the bat he just clobbered his sister with......

And the list that isn't pictured:

-Throwing eggs all over the living room
-Pouring his own orange juice and spilling it ALL over my kitchen
-Climbing into Kenna's crib to get her out for me

Even with all the craziness he brings into my life...
I LOVE MY SWEET BABY BOY!!!
He brings me so much joy.

Sarah's Fifth Birthday!

My sweet Sarah turned five! I am still in shock that she is that old. I always reminisce on her birthday about the day she was born. She came with such a strong spirit and I was so excited to have her!

Anyhow, enough of the mushy stuff.

Since Kenna was going to have her surgery a few days before Sarah turned five my oldest sister decided to come out here from So Cal to throw her and Luke birthday parties!
Being that Sarah is my little cook, my sister threw her a "cooking party". It was sooo much fun!
My sister is an excellent party planner/ craft goddess if you will.....so of course she planned the party to a T.
It was so cute! She had aprons for all the kids, rolling pins and cookie dough as party favors, and all the party favors were stuffed into cute little oven mitts!
The kids got to make their own pizzas, move popcorn from 1 bucket to another, and tell all about their best/worst foods.
Thanks to my sister Sarah had such a special day! Thanks Aunt Kathryn!

The Birthday Table! The tradition in our family is too decorate the table after the kids go to bed so they wake up to their presents in the morning.




Sarah opening her present from Seth.
I absolutely LOVE how much my kids adore each other!



I had "Doll Doll" hold her birthday sign this year. (For those of you that don't know Doll Doll, she was given to Sarah by her Uncle Brandon on her first birthday and as you can see is VERY loved).

What my days are made of......

Mornings filled with cuddles....

Four blessings that call me "mom"...
(One of them actually called me a "brat" the other day...bet you can't guess which one)

A sweet little boy that is already protective of his little sister...

A little angel that has taught me to just roll with the punches and Heavenly Father will take care of the rest....

My two oldest children who continually help me, make me laugh, (and occasionally make fun of my dancing abilities).

Craniosynostosis

The day before her surgery

Monday Nov 7th we took Kenna to her pediatrician for her two month check up, shots, etc.... As the Dr. was examining her, he realized that he couldn't really find her soft spot, so he started feeling around her head and then taking note of her head shape. He told us that he thought she might have some indicators of a certain birth defect, but not to worry, he would just check her again at her four month appt. After a couple of min he decided that he didn't feel comfortable waiting and had another Dr come in to double check what he had found. The other Dr. confirmed that she had signs of this birth defect and they sent us straight over to the hospital for X-rays. He called us back within an hour of the X-rays to tell us the bad news...all of the bones in her skull had fused prematurely, not giving her brain enough room to grow normally.
The next morning we were at Primary Childrens Hospital in Salt Lake meeting with a plastic surgeon and a neurosurgeon and discussing options for surgery. It all happened so fast that Jimmy and I were kind of reeling from it all. But, when they talked about the second option for a newer surgery we both felt peaceful about choosing that one.
Our first choice was to completely take apart her skull and reconstruct it with plates and screws, which results in a much harder surgery on the baby's body and a harder recovery. The benifit is that its only one surgery and once they heal there is no more treatments to be done, and the birth defect is corrected.
The second option is the one we chose. It is less invasive then the first surgery, but it means more treatment after the surgery. It is a newer surgery where they actually remove the top portion of her skull, giving her brain room to expand and alleviating the chance of more deformities developing in her head or face. It was scary to choose this one on two levels...first of all, agreeing to doctors removing a third of your babies skull is not an easy choice to make. And secondly, being a brand new surgery..there are no long-term effects to study. The idea is that if this surgery is done early, ( before three months of age) the portion of removed bone will have time to grow back by the time she is six and her bones stop regenerating as fast. She will wear a helmet for the first year after the surgery for two reasons: to protect her head and also to shape the new bone as it grows in.

The day of the surgery was scheduled for five days after the diagnosis and I think I cried more during those five days then in my entire life combined. The day of the surgery was hard. Handing her over and walking away from her was the hardest part. Thank heavens she is so young and didn't have a clue what was going on.
Her surgery was scheduled to take 2.5 hours and it ended up taking 4.5. So you can imagine how stressful it was sitting in the waiting room during that time. Nothing I ever want to do again! She came through surgery fine. When we first saw her she was pale and swollen. Over the next few days she was in so much pain. I think that was the hardest part of the entire thing. We could hardly bear to see our little angel in pain and not be able to fix it.
As I write this, it has been six days since her surgery and she is getting better every day. She isn't all the way back to her smilely self just yet, but i'm sure in a few more days she will be!This is in the infant ICU while she recovered.


Her Daddy didn't leave her side


This is about two hours after the operation


Going home! Poor baby was so bruised and swollen :-(

Masking Tape Fun

Today I became a very cool mom. I made a "masking tape city" in the boys room and my kids thought that it was the best idea since sliced bread. They even played for 10 min without a fight! I think that is a new record!

Best Dad Ever :)

My kids have the best dad ever. I have the best dad ever also. I guess luck just falls on some families and The Lord just sends all the best Daddys to one big family :)

Finding Balance = Struggle

Lately I have been struggling to find balance. Adding a fourth child to my already hectic life has just about done me in. For those of you that didn't know, I am a control freak (I wish there was a nicer term for that). Anyhow, I don't like feeling out of control. It gives me anxiety to feel like I can't control a piece of my environment. I like structure, knowing what is coming next, what I will be doing tomorrow...next week...next month..etc. This doesn't work when you have four children under six years old. For some it may work, but definitely not for me...yet.

I am determined to gain back the control in my life! The first thing on my list is my house. I realize that I can't control my children, nor would I want little robots...but my house will soon be in complete order! Ha Ha....ok, I am going to "try" and gain back the control over my house. I am on a mission and nothing is going to stop me (except for maybe four little people).

I recently came across an article entitled "The one thing you need to do to keep your house clean". So, of course I HAD to read it! If anyone ever needed enlightenment on housekeeping...it's me. The article was quite funny...the one thing needed to keep your house clean? CLEAN AS YOU GO ABOUT YOUR DAY! You mean to tell me that if I don't leave a mess, I won't have to clean a mess?!? Brilliant!

I love organizing....and it's actually something I'm good at (believe it or not). My house has a place for everything, it just doesn't have everything in it's place :)

Sooo....this week I am going to try my darndest to work on cleaning as I go about my day. Well see how much of a difference it makes. I'm also going to try to make a better schedule to help our days "flow" a bit better, but I will save that for another post. Wish me luck!

Popsicle Thief

This is what happens while mommy nurses the baby....a naughty thief invades our home......

First Grade

My baby is a first grader. I am sad and happy. I am sad because my heart keeps asking me "where did all the time go"? But, I am happy because I love watching him grow and change. We hadn't really made a big deal about Seth starting school this year...With Kenna being born only four days before, we were a little preoccupied. So, the weekend before school started we were rushing around buying backpacks and school clothes for our little man. I don't think it hit him that he was actually going back to school until we were walking there monday morning. He was happy and excited at home, and then he became quiet and subdued on the way there. By the time we got to his school Jimmy and I could tell he was super nervous (as you can see by the last two pictures). He had a great time and his teacher has nothing but good things to say about him. I think it is going to be a fun year for him :)