CHRISTMAS and the likes

Oh my sass! When did this happen?? 

My adorable little girl, sassing around the house in my shoes. She does wear it well though....

Charlie had a 'Happy Birthday Jesus' party. 

Why not. 

Grandma and Grandpa Sanders were in town, and joined in on the fun. 

Checkers checkers checkers checkers

Charlie was a fantastic shepherd in his darling school production, and....

this was the best photo out of the lot...

Christmas Eve. 

Filled with so much excitement, anticipation, yummie food, fire and my favorite people! 

CHRISTMAS Jammies from Grannie!! 

Showing off their 'poochies' Thats been a thing lately. 

Making reindeer food. All the magic sprinkles, oats and glitter stars. 

Apparently it worked. Santa came! 

This certainly is a Chirstmas I wont soon forget! 

3:00am I woke up to the lights going on and off and on off on off on off...

I drug myself out of bed, to find Lucy, sitting on the stairs, expressing her worry that santa wont come. 

Fast forward, 5:00am. 

Woke up to whispering. Lucy and CHARLIE down stairs, digging into their stockings. 

(* I will mention Charlie looked like he had no idea what was going on, so, I'm blaming Lucy for this one) 

After a quick scolding, (really, am i the grinches wife?!!?!) I said it was NOT Christmas yet, santa MAY come if they went back to sleep, and we would NOT be doing Christmas when it was clearly not morning...

Fast Forward.....6:45am. to more chattering. (I'm not convinced they went back to sleep) 

I finally drug my sleepy, cranky body, down stairs. 

Excitement filled the air, as the kids were jumping, shouting, and ravenous with excitement 

( I do regret that I was the most cranky person EVER that morning, but, my goodness, I had to take my eyes open- sorry in advance children) 

Having said that, I think the children looked past all this. 

Lucy said 'Theres like thousands of hundreds of presents. this is the BEST Christmas EVER'

Charlie 'This was not the best Christmas. Santa didn't even give me the computer I wanted' 

Hank - had no idea what was going on. 

(This was MY favorite stocking stuffer! Ahhhh the memories. Thanks Jeff) 

Hanks favorite gift. He plays puppy, ALL.THE.TIME. 

Santa brought puppy toys, a puppy leash, and a puppy collar. 

(He already had the mask, that he's been wearing every waking moment.) 

As for our Christmas Day....we stayed in jammies ALL day, played around. Napped. Played with presents, played games, NEVER cleaned up, and, for our amazing Christmas dinner feast, 

pizza, from Dominos. Yep, open Christmas day. 

These were in the kids stockings. Those plastic bubble straw blower things. I LOVE these. How could you not? They are awesome! 

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

We went to a friends home to celebrate. 

Wish you could see my amazing glasses better. Complete with bejazzled disco earrings! 

Ringing in the new year right! 

No, we did not stay up till midnight. 

No, we did not even make it past 10pm, (as for the kids (8:30- and thats LATE by my account)

Little mother lucy, reading to Foxy the puppy and Maybe the dog. 

Hope this new year brings marvelous adventures and everyday enjoyment. 

Building, Birthdays and Bawling

 Ginger Bread Houses! We had our friends over to decorate these tasty treats! 

Not only was it a huge success (and by that I mean huge mess) it was also a tasty great time. 

(Note: Hank eating large amounts of the RAW egg white frosting. Still alive, so, not totally worried) 

Lucy had a darling Christmas Program. Beforehand, we were to gather up a collage of pictures, telling about the day they were born. Oh my heck!! Look at how our cute blossomed into a little girl!!

Charlie, at the Christmas program, diving mouth first into the cupcakes. Mmmnnn

CHARLIE TURNS 5!!!!! December 15th! 

This little boy, I'm convinced, will make some woman the happiest person alive. 

He has a tender, thoughtful, caring and gentle spirit. 

He is submissive and obedient to his ever bossy siblings and friends.

He LOVES to explore, climb and 'build things'. He is currently obsessed with building a 'ball factory'

He loves to think about processes, and come up with a different way to get a job done. 

For his birthday party, our theme was Ninja Turtles. 

All his darling preschool friends came over to celebrate.

We had a great, tame time, and so happy to celebrate this little man. 

I love you Charlie, and am honored to be your adoring mother!  

His cake! I LOVE the challenge of making cakes, and it turned out great.  Lucy for me, a ninja turtle theme, cake and pinata, were much easier to create then I originally anticipated. 

Charlie with the other boys in his preschool class. Stefan (who he called Stuffon) and Mason. 

 

 

 The GRANDE Finale!!!

It was in 2nd grade, at Carden Memorial School, that I met my equal, at the time.

 Both taller then all the other classmates, AND we both wore dorky glasses! 

We did EVERYTHING together! Jenna was adopted, and by chance, was born October 29th, the day BEFORE ME!! That could only mean one thing, we were twins, separated at birth!! 

We lived and breathed by each others sides!  She lived in Bountiful, and I lived in SLC, but you would have thought we were next door neighbors! 

Fast forward 24 years....and my dear sweet Jenna got married to David. (Funny twist, I actually know Davids family, as his sister and I sang together, and played soccer together. Small small world) 

I went to SLC- for the wedding. By. My. Self. 

It was bitter sweet. I missed my family, and was saying good bye to one side of Jenna, that was honestly hard to give up. I cried heeps that weekend, enjoyed an amazing wedding ceremony, delicious food, and made some incredible new friends!! 

Congratulations to the budding new couple! 

Two of the 'girlies' and I, doing puzzles, after sunday dinner. 

My NEW NEPHEW!!! 

Jeffs sister rolled the dice, on baby #4. She has 3 spirited little girls, and look what came her way! 

He was SO darling, and I was SO glad I could see him! 

My heart be still!! 

This amazing man has created a HUGE space in my heart! 

This is grandpa Floyd, Jeffs mothers dad. 

I knew from the first time we met, I would love this guy!! 

He is spirited, always has amazing stories to tell, is a laugher, and grateful for his life. 

On top of this all, you'd never guess some of his sorrows, not in the least, his inability to see.

His sight is very limited, and deteriorating quickly.   He's no longer able to make use of his left hand, 

and for the most part, is either sitting down, or in his wheel chair. 

You would NEVER know any of this, after talking with him, and, in fact, if you were able to be blessed by his presence, you'd know, immediately, by his radiating smile he is someone amazing!

Its not that he has had an extraordinary life, rather his outlook on life that makes him unique. 

He doesn't like to complain, simply because "others don't like to hear it". 

I was thrilled he couldn't see me in detail, as tears were streaming down my face while we talked. 

It was a magical time, as it always is, to just sit. be still. and visit with grandpa Floyd. 

Our goodbye was so tender. We both cried, said goodbye, then hugged. We repeated this about 4 times. It was so hard to leave this wonderful man! 

I'm truly so blessed to know and love such a treasure!