My favorite Christmas Season of ALL, part 2

I LOVE Christmas break... we can sleep in and no hurrying people out the door, we can get dressed at 1 pm or just stay in our jammies all day and do whatever... no homework worries (I mean for me too, not having to listen to Kylie complain... haha)... we've been having friends come over to play with us, we've been going over to friends' houses to play.... meeting for group lunches and TAKING OVER places with our 115 out of school wild kiddos.... everyone is just enjoying company and having fun.  I love it!

********

Kylie is such a big girl, I look at this picture and I'm like "who is that child?!?!"  Oh yeah, she's mine...  it boggles my mind that she's grown up enough to go play in the cul-de-sac with the other kids.  (Emily, one of our favorite babysitters was there too)  Kylie's best buds with Emily's younger sister Isabelle, so they were skating with all the neighborhood kids, Emily took this picture and gave it to me.  So Isabelle let Kylie try her rollerblades... guess who wants rollerblades now?  Haha, Kacey's is thrilled, because she's going to inherit the rollerskates! 

 Disney Day Camp

This was really fancy... a girl in our ward, she loves all things Disney.  Her and her friends put on a whole show filled with skits and games and activities for the kids who want to come.  As you can see, these teenage girls go all out.  My girls were so impressed!  They really thought they were the real princesses.  They had such a blast, and in the car ride home................. silence.  They were so tuckered out after the 3 hour festivities; it was great.

This  next picture was from our Ward Christmas Party.  Notice only Kylie and Kacey were in it... by this time Kadyn and Kloey had retired with Matthew to the car.  This was the most fabulous ward party I have ever been too.  Every minor detail was thought out, I wish I had more pictures.  Besides the trains running everywhere, space for kids to color, write Santa letters and play games.... and besides the massive ham dinner with mormon funeral potatoes and costco rolls... the theme was The Polar Express.  There was a drawing/painting of the front of the train that must have been 10 feet by 10 feet.  Massive.  And at the top, there was a smoke machine so it looked like the train was chugging along.  There were snowflakes amid thin air... and singing programs and poems... and of course, a conducter of the Polar Express.  The YW were dressed special as the hopped around dancing to appropriate tunes, reenacting the hot chocolate scene from the movie and delivering hot chocolate to all the kids.  Then of course, Santa came... with nothing but BELLS for all the children.  By this time (4 hours later), the younger two were so exhausted from the food and activities.  They had to go out to the car with Christmas cupcakes... so we stood in line for Santa.  And let me tell you, this Santa knew the girls names.... oh no, he does not know my girls.  I know this for a fact... he's a husband to a lady etc etc etc.  But anyways, even people that know us forget which one is which, they know they are all K names but it's hard to keep up with it.  I inquired... they had him memorize a photo book with all the Primary children's names in it.  So he could acknowledge each and every child right as they sat on his lap.  You could have pushed me down with a feather when he said "Well hello there Kylie and Kacey."  I can't believe someone would go to such great lengths to make a little kid have a good night, we have a lot of kids in our ward!  I left with such a positive feeling and I know for the girls it made a long lasting impression.  Such an amazing night! 

***********

*DRIVE IN*

We took the girls to the Drive In to see The Chipmunks, Chipwrecked!

Super fun, we got McDonalds beforehand.  Kloey ate 5 nuggets, FIVE!  We all snuggled in our coats and sweatshirts, with our blankets and our candy and hot chocolate.  We played musical chairs the whole time; it was hilarious.  It was SO cold outside, but somehow all the hot air in our car kept us toasty.  In fact, Matthew opened the car windows a few times! hahaha 

 Big screen, great view right up front and center.

Disney commericial prior to the movie...

 As you can see, he's the most excited to go see Alvin & the Chipmunks!

 This is them prior to our comfy drive in seating arrangements... in fact, this is prior to food also... you can see the lack of excitement on Kacey... envision her saying, "I'm hungry...."  She ate through the whole movie, every candy and french fry, every last drip of coca cola... we were just praying she wouldn't say, "I've gotta go potty!"

 Aren't we cute!?!?!? :)

*** More fun times to come later***

My favorite Christmas Season of ALL, part 1

Dare I say that this has been my most favorite Christmas season of all! 

This year I think has been the best... I'm not sure if it's because the girls are older so there's alot of fun and anticipation radiating off of them that makes it more exciting for all of us... or maybe if the Christmas Spirit is just stronger in our house more than before because we adjusted ourselves with less focus on gifts this year and more focus on family and doing fun stuff together.  But this whole month has been fabulous... and it's not even Christmas yet and we still have more fun stuff in store for this month!!!

*************

So here are some random pictures taken in the past few weeks, I'm not sure if they are even in chronological order... but... the girls got to go to the Air Show at Nellis Air Force Base.  A friend in on ward is a Colonel, and he was able to take a group with him on for the family/friends showing.  The girls had a blast, Matthew took nearly 150 pictures of all the neat planes and their tricks in the sky.  As you can tell, it was cold!!!! 

 This is a quick one of the extended fam on Thanksgiving!  Which was of course followed by us (minus Yaya, Papa, and Kloey) going to see Arthur Christmas, which was SUCH a cute movie.  Kadyn's remarks were so funny through that movie, made Matthew and my whole day!!!!

 Thanksgiving Morning's CVS Couponing Excursion!  I got all this at a profit of $95.  My receipt was taller than my cashier.  It was magnificent!!!!!!!

 Getting our Christmas decorations up!!!  I'm so bad, I pretended to be busy the whole entire time so I didn't have to do any real work.  Haha, Matthew put up 3 trees... Although I did do my full Willow Tree Nativity, mainly because I don't trust anyone else to do it...

 And we had a wonderful visit from Uncle Aaron and Aunt Valerie.  My girls love them so much!  Aaron has always been a regular visitor, because when he was in BYU it was easiest for him to just come to us... so the girls are used to seeing him alot.  And Val is from Vegas, so we get to see them whenever they come home which is such a treat for us.  My girls ADORE Val, she's so good with them and she let's them climb all over her and play with her hair... you'd never know she just met them 2 years ago.  It's like she's been with us all along!

 AND THEN WE WENT TO DISNEYLAND!  We wanted to do Disney Annual Passes this year, but it just wouldn't work for us.  So we anticipate doing them next Fall, but we still had to do our traditional December trip to Disneyland.  We love it; it was freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezing cold but absolutely incredible!  Notice Matthew's goofball CARS hat.  He loves it, NO ONE else has it.  They don't sell it anymore, we get comments all the time.  He's such a big kid at heart.

 Jake, from the Neverland Pirates... Kadyn was smitten by him.  All the girls hugged him, and we moved along.  Kadyn wouldn't let go.  She just stayed there, and Jake made these hand motions like "Go on, I'll just keep her here." 

It was so cute.

 Family Santa Shot

(Do you see my husband in shorts and a tshirt?  I told him no shorts, I wasn't packing shorts... he snuck them in the suitcase! And even though it was 45 degrees, he wore them)

 Kloey Belle!  She was such a trooper at Disney.  Maybe we've conditioned her to be so... she ate whatever, she slept whenever, she played with whatever.  She is my perfect child, such a easy little thing.  At night, I'd take Kadyn and Kloey back for baths... They'd lay on Papa and fall asleep in the hotel... Daddy, Kylie, and Kacey partied it up in the park still.  Yaya and I would eat all the yummy munchies we bought that day... it was great fun! **this was Kylie's sweatshirt from '06!

 Now, we go to Kadyn's Preschool Christmas Program.  This is my 5th Preschool Program, and it was probably my favorite.  Kadyn was quite the little diligent performer.  She knew the words and the hand motions in her songs, and she had a speaking part and totally knew it---  better than her sisters at that age.

 Kadyn putting her "S" on the tree: "S is for the star, that shined so bright above."  ... which was her part.  And of course, this is my best friend Tate!  She does such a good job with her preschool kids.

 Sweet Girl

 AND we start the Gingerbread house making!  This is me, busting out my glue gun for GUARANTEED Gingerbread house stability and success.

 Matthew got a little possessive over Kadyn and Kacey's Gingerbread house.  HAHA!  But they just wanted to decorate it with the candy anyways.

 Kylie's Gingerbread House, she's such a diva.

 Kacey and Kadyn's house... what is Kacey doing?  As you can see, Mattthew is still very focused.

SUCCESS! 

 We have to do some "winterizing" of pipes and stuff outside.  When I saw him, I had to stop him and grab a picture... it is so cold here!!!

 A real special treat .... my 90 year old grandmother, Oma, she makes these special German cookies.  I remember them from Christmastime when I was little.  She'd spend days making them, and she'd pack them up in tupperware in her suitcases when she'd take the train to come up and visit us.  It was always special when she'd open her suitcase and take out all the boxes of goodies.  So, my 90 year old Oma, spent days making her cookies... and specially wrapped them and spent $40 shipping them to us.  THE GIRLS WERE IN HEAVEN!  They got home from school and knew exactly what it was and they dug right into the yumminess!
*Kylie does not wear glasses, the glass is poked out... she has 2 pairs that she wears as "accessories" to certain outfits... don't ask!  all in the name of fashion... but her teacher is cool with it, so whatever.....

 St. Nicholas Day... we put our shoes out one night, and we got a special treat the next morning!!!

 And here's some more disneyland....

 Daddy with Kacey, Papa with Kadyn, and Kylie was FREE all by herself.  That was a first for her I think, and she thought she was all that!!!

 OH, and I forgot... Matthew, uhhhhh, I mean Kacey and Kadyn's Gingerbread house!!!

*********

A part 2, to follow shortly... still more December happenings to account!  Including (so I don't forget...)

- The ward Christmas Party, the best, most elaborate Christmas party I've ever been too!

- My birthday

- Skating

- Disney Day Camp

- The Drive In Movies

- Christmas Eve

- Christmas Day

.... etc etc....

Gratefulness

Since I know it will take me a while to get all the Thanksgiving photos on the computer, I figured I'd anticpate with a post.

I feel like a lot of things have changed this year, and we hadn't expected it all to change... We didn't expect anything to change.  But it all did!  And it has for the better.  For that I'm so grateful.

I feel like this year we just started to get things right.  Maybe it all started with the move to our new house.... I don't know what initiated it, but somehow it happened and it's been great.

I feel like this year a lot of things clicked for us, and while there was so much change... the change has helped us grow for the better.  We are getting back to the simpliness that life has to offer: focusing on our family.  I have dropped the things that I felt like I was doing for my girls, but really were monopolizing my time and energy (PTA, Girl Scouts, etc).  Getting back to old fashioned family playtime at the park, family home evening EVERY single Monday without fail, eating 2 meals with everyone in the family present every single day, setting prayer and chore charts, baking with my girls... such SIMPLE things have had such strong impacts for our family.  I am so grateful for little bursts of strength to keep our family love growing strong.

***************

Change leads to growth:  Matthew had so much stress and tension for years with his work.  He dealt with what I believe to be abuse, but he just took it and held his head high.  And he endured.  And endured.  And endured.  He kept taking the hits and standing back up.  No one knew.  He didn't whine or complain to the world.  He told me when it would happen, he held his head up and kept going... he did his job to pay the bills so I never had to work.  So that my kids could be raised by their mother and their mother ONLY.  He did what he had to do, sacrificed and it really just shows what a strong man he is.  And then with some miracle, he was offered sweet relief.  A wonderful opportunity at his same company came knocking, and it could not have come at a better time.  We have been blessed beyond description with his new position.  He gets to do something he likes, with a boss that he really, really likes.  And he travels, but it's not unbearable... and he is HOME more with us than with his previous position.  He is free from his phone at night and weekends.  He was on call more than a DR with the other job.  We have more of him, and he's not stressed out at all.  This change has been so good.

Kylie: she had an adjustment this year.  She lost a lot of friends from her old school and old ward.  She left from being one of so many LDS kids, to only having 1 other LDS girl in her whole grade:(  and try as we might, we couldn't even get them in the same class.  Day after day she would come home from school and tell me sad little stories, it would break my heart.  In fact, in a desparate attempt to fix her situation ... Yaya and I spent a ridiculous amount of money at Fresh N Easy (grocery store) to ensure HER the win for her class to be awarded a special party.  Would you believe, by the time she opened herself up, made a bunch of friends, and really started getting the hang of the new school and everything was perfect... then she wins the big class party!  Oh well!  I'm grateful for the sweet, little girl she is growing up to be.  Such a compassionate and GOOD girl.  

And pics of the rest of the group... growing up so quickly!  Kacey has changed so much.  She used to be my shy, introverted one.  Well, she's began kindergarten and she's blossomed into this whole new person.  She is the life of the party; the center of attention.  She is so outgoing and has so many friends... you can't walk with her anywhere without her saying hi to a handful of people.  Don't even ask me about the boy flocking around her, following her like a loyal little puppy dog.  I don't even want to talk about it!!!  (She is going to be my troublemaker!)

Kadyn has gone from a toddler to a little girl.  Something happens after the potty-training, I'm not sure what it is... but she's her own little person.  She may be the 3rd in line, but she's going to be the first one setting you straight!  I am not kidding.  She is all about fairness and getting what she wants (maybe that's the 3 year old in her).  If she wants it, she's bound and determined to figure out a way to get it.

Sweet little Kloey, so thankful for her.  She is soooo different from the other girls.  I feel like we bask in her stages more, maybe it's because she's the baby.  But we marvel at the new things she learns everyday.  With a good bill of health, and my solid feeling of "I'm sick of the dr's who just want my money when nothing's wrong"... we can say from her last ultrasound that her kidneys are good.  Had to spend $1200 for that 4 minute ultrasound (after insurance paid their part)... but we are grateful that all is well.

******

This year Christmas is being run differently, which I'm so excited about.  And I really think we'll notice a difference from last Christmas on Christmas morning.  I have noticed a joy in our house from the simplier things: Christmas music and favorite cookies.  So much less conversations on what they want... Christmas is not about toys, and I'm so glad to be fixing this now than later.  More on that probably on Christmas!!!

But I'm so grateful for my family of 6.  We have our traditions, we have our little ways of things that we do... and when the holidays come around, it's just plain FUN!  I LOVE IT!  We may be crazy but we put our tree up early.  We watch a Christmas movie every Sunday night in Nov and Dec.  We have certain foods we eat on Eves of things... We go to the movies on Thanksgiving... so many things that make us 6 Boyds, US.  We love it, the girls love it and you can see the joy in their eyes that has to do with the Spirit of Christmas and not so much the gifts Christmas morning.... it just proves that family is all the fun you need.

******

With that also said and this ending, I have to say this.  There are times when it seems like someone has picked up your life, shaken it like one of the holiday snow globes, and set it back down.  And you are spinning at an endless rate.  It's times like those that you see who is there for you.  That happened to us.  Stress beyond measure.... and I'm grateful for the ones who came through.  Who stood up and said, I am here.  They were there in the tough time and came through for us.  We were not alone, and we will never forget that.  I'm reminded daily.  It undoubtedly changed the course of the rest of our life.  A thank you just isn't enough, but for now it simply will have to do.

All in Fall...

 A bunch of leftovers from the camera!

***********

Family Home Evening in our house, never a dull moment... from our dance parties and crazy running games, to our musical chairs extravaganzas!  Always good times... in case you are wondering, Kylie won.  She's a ruthless little competitor. 

********

Halloween!

Kylie was Ariel from the Little Mermaid, Kacey was Aurora from Sleeping Beauty, Kadyn in Snow White... and Kloey is a pumpkin... which was a dog costume... and it was hilarious!  Bless her sweet little heart, she kept that pumpkin hat on the whole time trick-or-treating.

Since we've moved, I've been kinda anxious about the trick-or-treating-- to see how good the neighborhood is.  It was amazing, Matthew took the girls out and they were gone for an hour and half.  The came home so tired with TONS of candy.  I stayed back to give out candy, and we got so many cute trick-or-treaters... I must have gone through 7 bags of candy... I was really pleased!

************

So when we got home from Cabo, our special present for the girls was a pinata.  I have a feeling this is going to be the first of many pinatas; they are so much fun!!!  And Matthew configured a nice little mechanism to make it work out back.

Kadyn got to go first, 3 hits.  She did good.

Kacey next...

It didn't stand a chance with Kylie.  We don't even have any other pictures after this point, she whacked it good once... and it exploded and they SCREAMED with excitement!

PINATA GOODIES

*********

So, I've been getting my craft on of late... the reason the laundry room is so big is that it's really supposed to be a hobby room, with the huge island and all the cabinetry.  Been having a fun time inviting friends over for the night and just doing fun projects.  Although most of the time, we are helping eachother battle our sewing machines. LOL

These were the cute little goody boxes I made for the girls' school teachers.  They are drink cartons from Sonic, I painted them and sewed on fabric... and we put orange colored goodies inside.

***********

Recent Winter Purchase!

A fireplace from Lowes.  For some reason that I do not understand, it is sooooo cold here!  I love this fireplace, and so do the girls.  It's on every minute of every day.  Really pretty too at night.... and goes nicely with my Christmas music that I have playing daily :)

********

Last but not least... the Preschool Field Trip to Gilcrease Orchard.  Yes, we have orchards (that grow everything from apples to pumpkins, and make special cidar) and even dairies to go and visit in Vegas.... wouldn't have gone to any of them had it not been for Tate dragging me along on the field trips over the past 5 years.  HAHAHA.

I actually let Kylie miss the morning of school for this one, she loves these things so much.  I felt badly going without her, so she missed a few hours in the morning to go with... and she had a blast!  We packed lunches to scarf down in the car ride back to school, she got into her classroom and sat down... and the little boy next to her goes, "you smell like outside." 

Kylie and Kadyn, they picked a pumpkin to take home.

Kloey in her Tater Tot Preschool shirt.  I've a lifetime supply of those, in all different colors. :)

Kadyn's Preschool Class

********

Now we are updated until Thanksgiving... which Thanksgiving morning, I will be getting my coupon fill at 7 am at CVS.  I'm sure I'll post pictures of my goodness!!!