Chase turns 4.

It is so hard to believe that my little boy is getting so big. Little Chase has grown up so much in the past year and his little personality is starting to come to life. We love little Chase and we're so glad he's part of our family.

4 things I LOVE about Chase...

* Chase has been the baby of the family for four years now, he knows it and we know it. He has definatly mastered the art of getting whatever he wants and that's all right by all of us.

* I love the way you get so excited over video games, and how much you love to play them.

*I love your random hugs. We all have times when you just come up to us lean your head on us and say "I love you".

*I love when you fall asleep at night with your thumb in your mouth. You look so sweet and peaceful I could watch you all night long.

Happy Birthday little buddy!

It's a Girl!

So we found out what we were having on Oct. 27. With this being our last one Jeff wanted to surprise me and tell me in his own little way. Any one who knows me knows this was very hard for me, after all I'm the girl who peeks at all her Christmas presents and cannot stand a secret, it almost kills me not to have my nose in everything. So without dragging it on any further I'll tell you how it went down.

We went into the Dr's office and told him that Jeff would be the only one finding out. The Dr agreed to do his best, and with that he had me shut my eyes. So I'm listening as they are finding out the sex of the baby, trying to get a hint from someones voice, or listening to the key strokes as he types it in to the computer but with no success, I just lay there with my hands grasped firmly over my eyes trying not to peek. We finish with the ultrasound and Jeff heads back to work and I head home.

At this point it's absolutely killing me knowing he knows and I don't. AAAHHH! As I lay around and by lay I really just laid around waiting for him to get home, and at 5:00 he walks in the door. I can't wait I run down stairs and he hands me an envelope...Clue #1. I think, oh this will be easy, a scavenger hunt.

WRONG! I HAVE NEVER BEEN SO WRONG IN MY LIFE.

The first clue leads me to my sock drawer, followed by the neighbors kitchen sink, which I know he did because the neighbors were just as anxious to find out as I was. The next clue took me to the church, and then to my other neighbors house. This is where it gets CRAZY. Clue #4 sends me to Trisha's house...in Provo. So I drive to Trisha's house and when I get there I have to bake a batch of cookies before she could give me my next clue. The cookies and milk are done and I head off with my next clue which leads me to Chris's house in Orem... this is getting weird. My next clue is easy all I have to do, is make a phone call to my father-in-law. That clue leads me back home, which I couldn't be more excited about. I pull in the driveway and Jeff's car is gone...WHAT THE CRAP! I find my clue on our Halloween guy and open it up and it says I have to get in my Halloween dress and head to my parents. Okay now you've got to be kidding me right!? I am not driving all the way to American Fork, I have already been clear to Orem, and I want to know NOW!
I take a deep breath and remind myself that this is "supposed" to be fun so just do it. I head to my parents house and when I arrive I have to sing a song for my final clue.

The final clue...
The clue said I would find the answer I was looking for at the core of the cake. Which just happens to be sitting on my parents table. I get a knife, and nothing is stopping me now, I am cutting huge pieces just trying to find something. Finally I stop cutting and dig in with my hands, the answer is here somewhere. As I dig through this cake finding NOTHING, Jeff is sitting in his chair just laughing until finally he says "ooops I guess this is the part where I tell you I didn't put the answer in the cake, we're having a GIRL!" AHHHHHH! CRY!!! CRY!!! CRY!!! SCREAM!!!!! HUGS!!! MORE CRYS!!!! I can't believe it, after all these years I'm having a little girl.

Jeff is the best husband I could ever ask for and I am so glad he loves to get so involved and do little things like this for me. I think this was the best way to find out, and I am so glad Jeff was strong enough to keep the secret from me, no matter how much I begged.

I am excited and nervous as can be to have a girl, but I know it's going to be great.

.

Happy Halloween.

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Girls night.

Chastina, Tami, Maurina, Jenn, Mere, Jolene, Michleene April
Nicki, Lindy, Shanna

Last week I went to a well needed girls night. I know all these girls from growing up, we were all in the same ward and luckily most of us still keep in touch. When we get together we have the best times reminiscing about who had saggy ta ta's (it wasn't me), why we all got showered with exclamation, and who are victims were for toilet papering. We all were so close growing up even though some of us came across a little shy and some of us were loud and crazy we all got along really well. The best of times growing up were all because these girls, and I am so lucky to still have most of them still in my life. So here's to you girls and the memories we will continue to share.

And to those of you who couldn't make it, we look forward to seeing you next time.

I'm back!

Well technically I didn't go anywhere, but I definitely was not blogging.
Summer came and went so fast this year I don't really remember doing much, except the constant trips to the bathroom due to ridiculously crazy morning sickness. Oh by the way I'm pregnant...but of course if your one of my friends on facebook you already knew that. For those of you who don't facebook (losers) I am due March 19. I am so excited I can hardly wait to find out what I'm having, which will happen at the end of this month (cross your fingers for a boy).

The kids started school and It's crazy to think I have a fifth grader. Am I really that old? Don't answer that! Matty started kindergarten and I am so proud of how well he is doing, he comes home every day and tells me what he learned that day. I love these times because by the time they hit second grade you ask them what they learned in school and they say nothing.

As for the rest of the time that has been missed for the last few months your just going to have to wonder what I was really up to...

I know this post was short and quick, but hey at least it's something.

Random Goodness

You know when you start scrapbooking and your all gung-ho about it and you finish your first book within a weekend, clean up all your stuff and put it away until next time which turns out to be um.....never!? Well that's where I'm at with this blog. My intentions are good but the actual doing part is lacking, but I'm trying to be better.

With it being summer vacation for the kids there have been alot of fun things going on. I won't bore you with the usual trips to the pool or days at the park, I'm just going to throw all the "worth writing about" stuff into this post.

~ Baseball ~

We signed both the boys up for city league baseball which was very fun to watch, Taylor's games were the serious ones where the Ump needed to be yelled at a few times, and Nick's were the laid back ones where we would just sit and talk about how cute it was that they didn't even touch the bases, they just kind of skipped over them.
Watching my boys progress and become better throughout the season was so fun and I can't wait until next season when we get to do it all over again, and again, and again,and again...you get the picture.

~ 4th of July fun ~

Tradition rules again. We started the day off at the Provo parade. Thanks to Jeff and his "willingness" to save us all a seat by waiting 10 hours and enduring tretourous rain pour (which was only a slight rain, just enough to get all the blankets soaking wet). All the kids loved the parade and spending tie with their cousins.
That night we went to Trisha's house for fireworks some legal and some not;) It was a great day just your usual 4th of July.

~ Carnival Time ~

Nothing like heading to the carnival for some good old family fun. I love, love, love the carnival, always have. We were lucky enough to be able to spend some time with My brother Kenny and his son Cedar. The boys loved the carnival and as Matty would say "the carnival is 80% funner than the parade" I know cute kid huh!? They had fun riding rides and I had fun going through he fun house to "save" Matty who was to scared to go down the slide once he got to the top. Little Chase loved the dragon roller caster and he would get off it say "that was so fun, did you watch me mom" Oh, there I go again having another "cute kid" moment. We also loved eating funnel cake, juicy hamburgers and snow cones, mm mmm mmmm the yummy days of summer.

~ Last but not least ~

My Matty is always saying the funniest things, this was his latest. We were sitting down to dinner one night and Matty holds up his sloppy joes and says "Hi Billy May's here for the sandwich." We all about died, man that kid is funny.

Oh Matty!

Matty is so funny and he is always coming up with something to make us laugh, this is the last thing he did.

Last Saturday when Nick got baptized we sat him down to give him his baptism "gift". which happens to be a set of Scriptures of his very own. We are all watching and Matty is getting so excited talking a mile a minute like he always does and he asks

"Does everyone in our family get a special present when they get baptised?"

I explain that they do, he gets excited again and asks

"will I get the excact same thing as Nick when I get baptised?"

Once again I say "yes". Nick opens the bag looks in gets acute little grin on his face and Matty can hardly stand it any more and starts asking

"what is it"

Nick finally pulls it out and as soon as he does and says it's scriptures Matty turns to Jeff and I says

"I don't want that when I get baptised, I don't want anything for church."

We couldn't stop laughing and all I could think was how much I love the innoncence of my children and how they tell things exactly how they are.
Matty now has 2 1/2 years to prepare for his "unwanted" baptism gift that he "WILL" get,I hope that's enough time for him to get excited about it.

Baptism

Nicholas was baptized on June 6. What a special day for him. The baptism turned out really well, and both of his Grandpas were able to talk at his baptism. Nicholas is such a sweet boy and we are so thankful he is part of our family. We love you Nicholas and we are so proud of you for all the things you have done.

Birthday Party

On May 30 Nicholas turned eight. He was so excited and me well I was excited too but really I was feeling old. Turning eight is one of those lanmark ages makes the mom feel old like, holy crap how is it possible I have kid that old, and in my case two.

Nicholas decided to have a "carnival" party. I love, love, love throwing parties,and I knew as soon as we decided what kind it would be that I would have a blast planning it, just imagine, cotton candy, popcorn, bounce houses games ooohh the possibilities are endless.

About two weeks before his party, Nick informed me that he was inviting 100 kid...really? I asked him if he knew 100 kids and he said "yeah the whole second grade". Well we were able to compromise and I let him invite 35 figuring that the "usual half" would show up.

On the morning of his party we got everything ready, and waited for his friends to arrive. They soon started trickling in and by the time we got the activities underway there was a total of 28 kids. Yep that's right, 28 seven and eight year olds.

The kids had a blast getting their faces painted, bouncing in the bounce houses, plaing games and winning prizes. This actually turned out to be ne of the easiest parties because the kids were entertained the entire time.

The party was a huge success thanks to my friends and family who were the man power behind each game, you guys are all awesome.

Hold on

For all you die hard fans I will be updating my blog on Wednesday night with super exciting stuff like, a Birthday party, Baseball, A Baptism, a trip to Thanksgiving Point and maybe even more if something else happens in the next few days. Thanks all for being patient once again with me.

Life flys by

Since I have received harsh words and e-mails about me not being so "awesome" because I haven't kept up on my blog I thought I would sit down and take a few minutes to entertain my fans:)

Life has been busy and there have been a lot of things I haven't blogged about, but my intentions have been to blog about all the excitement but when it comes right down too it I just don't, I know I'm a big slacker. here's a run down of the things you have all missed out on.

Easter:
Easter was really fun this year. I had my Easter party on Saturday which I think turned out great I'm a little biased, but I must say it was awesome. Even though the rain was worrying me like crazy it all turned out good, with the exception of the prize table which needs a little rethinking.





Spring Break:
What can I say, it rained and rained and rained. Jeff took Thursday off, which was supposed to be our zoo day but the rain quickly turned it into a bowling day. So we headed to good old Jack and Jill's oh the memories ahhhh. On the very first time up to bowl, Jeff crossed the fowl line and yep you guessed it, he fell right on his butt. Oh man I swear that's one of the best things about him, his clumsiness always leads to a good laugh. Although that was funny it wasn't the best thing about it, so what was your wondering right? Well when I was little I used to go with my dad to watch him bowl with his league, and they had the best fries, well guess what, they still have the same fries and they are the best fries ever talk about delicious. The fries were definitely better then our scores, I actually won a round with a score of 118 don't worry though, I will remember all you little people when I go pro.






Hogle Zoo:
We went to the zoo a couple of Sundays ago and it was so fun. The kids had fun looking at all the animals, and I had fun watching my kids get so excited about the animals. You can only imagine how exciting this was for them because they still get excited when we pass cows or horses, so these animals were amazing. Once again though Jeff was there to entertain, and he sure didn't let us down. While we were in the reptile house which has a big sign "please leave strollers outside" we are wandering around and I look over and see Jeff pushing a stroller, I look behind him and there is a guy trying to get his attention to tell him that he's got his stroller but Jeff doesn't realize until I stop him and pull him away...needless to say I made Jeff hold my had so we didn't have any more mishaps.








Baseball:
Well he season just started which I am very excited about, I love baseball and it's one sport I can practice with my kids and they will actually benefit from my help. I will post about that as soon as games get underway.

Well your all up to date so please stop leaving mean messages in my inbox, and I will honestly try to keep up from now on.

I am too awesome

Brace yourself folks, your in for a real surprise. I know you all thought this would never happen, but it has. What your wondering, "what has happened"? I will tell you...two posts in one week. I am too awesome.
After skipping out on my blog for a long while, things happened and never got mentioned so with this post I will run through a list of things I have felt guilty about not posting.

First I'm going to start out with a BIG welcome home for my friend Mike. Mike has been in Afghanistan for the past year leaving at home a wife and three kids. That had to be one of the greatest sacrifices for him to leave his family, and go serve our country. I love their whole family very much, and am so happy for them to be back together again.

Next on my list of "things" is the chicks. That's right y'all we are farmers again, or at least as close to be a farmer as you can get without alot of work. Let me guess you all are thinking how many chickens could we possibly need right? Well if you remember the "lasts years" chicks, they are no longer with us. The were found in various places such as Zeb's mouth, Ellie's mouth, and in the hands of Jeff (the rooster) lifeless, lifeless as can be {{fake tears}}. Yeah there finally gone was my thinking but Jeff was quick to prove me wrong when he went out and bought more this spring. The chicks, I'm not sure exactly how many this time, are all alive and I guess growing so big. That's really all about that I just thought I would let you know we are back in business.


Well then there was St Patricks Day. During the night a little leprechaun came and sprinkled confetti shamrocks down the stairs to the kitchen table where he (she) left surprises for each kid. The kids thought it was so neat that the leprechaun actually stopped by, and Nick swears he heard him.

Last but not least I will update you on my aerobics class. One again let me say I am too awesome. Not only have I kept going to this aerobics class, but I have not stopped for a single pink cookie since my first time. Also, I am getting these dances down like mad... Just don't ask Mercades or she'll tell you I dance like a "bear" whatever!

Whew it's nice to have this done, and I promise I will post more frequently so you won't have to read another jumbled mess like this one.

Anniversary

The other day My honey and I celebrated our 11th anniversary, holy crap eleven years. It seems like I have known him my whole life, and being with him is the only thing I know.
Here's how my day started. I had to work so I got up at 2:30 and headed out the door, YUCK. As a get to my car, which has been conveniently parked behind the truck that I usually take, I see flowers on my dashboard and a card taped to the steering wheel. Oh how sweet, I have the best husband in the world. Then I turn the car on and "our song" is playing on the radio, how is this possible, my radio in my car doesn't automatically come on, you have to turn it on and then turn it to the right station first...I take a closer look, and he has had a brand new radio installed in my car. See I told you I have the best husband ever.

Then thanks to my mom watching the kids we were able to go up to Park City and spend some time together. We started the day by shopping on main street, who am I kidding, we were window shopping, we all know we can't afford anything in any of those shops. After a couple of hours we decided to eat lunch at Flannigans, an Irish pub...not a good idea. It might have been the fact that I ordered a sandwich that consisted of eggplant, squash, and peppers or that Irish food just sucks. Either way not a good idea. After lunch we did some more "browsing", and had some ice cream (which was not eggplant).
That night we went to see the play "something strange happened on he way to the forum" which was very funny.

The next day we hit the outlets for some great deals and then headed home...but not before taking a detour through Kamas (Jeff's big idea).

Thanks Jeff for eleven amazing years you are the best most supportive person, and I am so lucky to have found you. I love you!

Taylor turns 10!

Last Friday Taylor turned ten...Holy cow. For his party Jeff took him and his friends to play laser tag, then it was back to our house for cake and ice cream. They all had alot of fun.
T. is such a good kid and a joy to have in our family. He is the best big brother and is so patient with all his brothers and he is always willing to help.
We love you T! Happy Birthday!


T's new bike!

Thyme vs. Poop

Making a dinner that the kids like isn't always the easiest thing to do. Here is the last episode we had at our house.

Jeff says- "Chase eat your dinner"
Chase- "no...it's yucky
Jeff- "it's really good"
Chase- "It's got poop"
Jeff- "theres no poop"
Chase- "YEEEES see, little poops"

Jeff looks at what he's pointing at, and it just happens to be thyme. Jeff tells him again that it's not poop, and takes it off his plate. Chase looks at his plate again and sees more "little poops" and starts crying. Needless to say he didn't finish his dinner, which I don't blame him for, I wouldn't eat food that contained "little poops"

Dear Skinny girls...

Dear Skinny Girls,
Yes, you know who you are. Your the girls who wear a size 10 or below pants, and who I actually see jogging around town, or I see as I peer through the windows at the gym, yes you. I have a dream, and that dream is to be just like you. This has been a dream I've had since after my first baby,and I've never really been able to make it come true.
So with the peer pressure from Angie I joined a aerobic/hip-hop class.
Picture this...me and Angie on the back row of aerobics class with a full mirror in front of us so we can be reminded of just why we're there. Trying not only to do the moves, but to keep up...I know funny huh. Well I did my first class and went home feeling great...until two days later when I felt like I had been hit by a mack truck. Great this means I did good right?
Well we went back for our next class, and this time we started warming up and then came the jumping jacks...Oh crap I knew I couldn't jump on a trampoline, but jumping jacks really? I made a mad dash to the bathroom and got back just in time to see the last few jumping jacks being completed. I was able to do the rest of the workout with no interruptions, and I was feeling great again kind of like I accomplished something great.
As we leave I decide to stop for a diet dr. pepper. What? Don't give me that it was diet okay. Well I go to pay for this "diet" soda but you have to spend at least two dollars to use your debit card, so what do I do? I grab the first thing I see which happens to be a pink cookie. Oh yeah you know the ones with 24 grams of fat, with a thick layer of pure crisco frosting on top, those ones. I get in the truck and Angie feels like she should give me the exact run down of whats in it, and I do my best to tune her out.
I make it home with the pink cookie unopened and think to myself, I will just pass it up this time...who am I kidding, I opened that cookie as soon as I sat down on the couch.
So my dear friends, Now you know why I am not skinny like you, it's all because of one pink cookie. Please wish me luck at my next aerobics class, not only that I might hold my bladder, but that I will be able to pass up that delightful crisco covered cookies

Valentines Day and the BIG 30!

Well folks, it's official my husband is an old man. He turned 30 on Friday the 13th(imagine eerie music in the background;) This year for his birthday the boys and I thought we would surprise him by decorating his office. We "borrowed" the keys to his office, which are conveniently on the key ring with his truck keys, and we set out to do the job. We got balloons, confetti, banners, cards, and a special treat and decorated is desk. When he got to work on Friday morning he was so surprised, at first he thought maybe the people at work had decorated it and then saw the cards from me and the boys, and he asked his boss "how did they get in here?" and his boss said "I don't know, I was hoping you could tell us" HA,HA,HA! Luckily he works for great people(scoring brownie points for him just in case they stumble upon this some how) and they didn't really care.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY HONEY! I LOVE YOU!


My accomplices



For Valentines day this year I thought it would be a fun idea to have a little Valentines dinner with the boys. I set the table with a valentines theme, which included wine glasses, red plateS, and confetti hearts.
For dinner we had a family favorite, with a little twist of "love" which consisted of heart shaped ham slices and pineapple, red rice, pink white sauce, and broccoli and cheese. The kids thought it was so neat and they love the idea of wine glasses with martinellis.
It was was fun night, and I am so lucky to have such a sweet family to share days like this with. I love you all!


Me and my boys getting ready for our dinner(just ignore how crappy I look)


Valentines dinner.

Man's best friend ...

This story actually begins back in July when I was at girls camp with our ward. I spent a full week up there and was excited to get home. When I walked in the door there was my family all looking at with guilty eyes and I had the feeling that I knew why. Yep, sure enough I look out the back door and there is this UGLY black puppy staring at me. The only thing I could think of was, "get this dog out of here". After much coaxing, and promises I knew would never be kept, I finally agreed to let the dog stay. I never really liked "Ellie" she was big and just so STUPID. I'm not kidding, she would come up to you and just plow into you with her big ugly head, and I just never grew very attached to her.

Jeff loves Ellie, and thinks she is just the greatest dog ever, and she is for the most part if you like BIG, STUPID dogs. The last week or so I had noticed Ellie was starting to be mean to Joey, and Jeff trys to tell me that all Ellie is trying to is play and Joey is just to ornery. Whatever!

So on Saturday night Matty was petting Ellie, and she just turned and snapped at him, WHAT! STUPID DOG! Luckily she just got the tip of his finger, and didn't break the skin. So back outside she goes and Jeff trys once again to justify this, but is having a hard time. So on Sunday morning Jeff gives STUPID,oops I mean Ellie another shot at coming in the house. Everything is fine, and the bam out of the blue she snaps at Taylor, and unfortunately gets his face. So Jeff knows what he has to do with his best friend, and it make us all real sad (Except for me of course, I was so happy however I was able to hide my happiness and put on a sad supportive front for Jeff:)

I know, this sounds like such a sad thing, but on Sunday before Jeff got rid of Ellie, just to make sure I would let him still have a dog, he went and bought a new one and let me just say, she is precious. We named her Sophie, she is a ten week old yellow lab and she is just super cute. I hope that she will be a good pet for us and that we will get to enjoy her for many years.

The answer is...

Okay, so I guess you guys want an answer to my poll right, you all want to know my final decision, and how much influence you all have on me!? So I guess I'll tell you...drum roll please(brdrbdbrbbdbrbbbdd) the answer is YES! Yes I'm still debating {sigh}. I'm not sure what my problem is but I feel like with my baby being so old already, have I already missed the "right" time to do it, or do I need to just plan on having two more... NOT! Either way thank you all for your votes and kind words of encouragement, and thank you Angie for the honest truth, I know I can always depend on you for that.

Scary!

As alot of you know, Jeff has been trying to convince me to add to our family. Crazy, I know he must be out of his mind, that's my thought and has been my thought for the last year. I of course would say "no" as quickly as it would come out of my mouth. Then it happened, he asked about a month ago and I said "hmmm"... That's right, not a "NO" like it should have been, but a "hmmm" holy crap what am I thinking? I am blaming it on all my pregnant Friends and relatives. YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! I haven't been able to really decide if I'm losing my mind, or if maybe, just maybe it's an okay idea which leads me to the all to familiar "hmmm".
One of my concerns is if we did and it was a girl, would she be able to survive in this crazy family? Probably not, she would have no manners and actually try to out burp her brothers. Also Jeff asked the boys if we should have another baby and they all said yes, but they want another boy. Jeff asked Matty "what if it's a girl?" and he said "I will kick her", and Chase joins in and says "yeah flick her". Yep a poor girl would never survive. And if it was a boy, that would be okay too, I mean who couldn't use their own baseball team?
So my next option is to ask you the readers of this blog what do you think? Try not to vote on one answer more than 50 times (Michleene,Jeff, and Dad) I really want an honest opinion from the people I know. Hey and no name is required to vote so I won't be able to hunt you down for vocing your true feelings (lucky for you, to bad for me). Thanks to you all in advance.

Matty Moments.

Matty is so funny, and he is always saying thing to make us last. This is the conversation we had tonight....

Matty: Hey Mom, you see this, it's a camera( as he holds up the go-gurt and points to the picture on the front.)
Mom: Oh yep, it sure is huh!
Matty: Yeah you can win one.
Mom: Oh really?
Matty: Yeah, but this ones dumb.
Mom: Why?
Matty: It say's there's one in every box, but not this one...(thinking)... or maybe it's at the very bottom.


Wow the influence of commercials huh!?

Christmas Day.

On Christmas morning, Jeff and I waited in bed for the kids to wake up, trying to contain are excitement for the day. Little Chase was the first one up at 7:40 and when he came in it didn't take us longer then two seconds for us to convince him to get his brothers up. With all the kids up, we headed down stairs to see what the big man himself left.
The kids quickly went through their stockings and were ready for their presents. After we had all opened one present, my parents and Jamie came and spent the rest of the morning with us. Most of you know what great parents I have and we were so lucky that they came over and spent the day with us. The kids were all very happy with what they got. After presents the kids ate a traditional Newman Christmas breakfast consisting of...Christmas Crunch. What a wonderful day we all had playing with our new toys.

It all went by so fast.

I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted. Holy crap I need to get with the program, and stay caught up.
This Christmas season has been wonderful, but it seemed to go by so fast this year. I had been so worried because Taylor was making small remarks about not believing in Santa, and there was no way he would sit on his lap or write him a letter and it absolutely broke my heart to think I had a shhhh....non believer. It was almost harder than sending him to kindergarten...who am I kidding, I was so happy for him to go to school.

I'm going to start with Christmas Eve since the rest of December was a blur.
We had Jeff's family over for a Christmas Eve party, where we exchanged white elephant gifts this was the first year we tried this, and everyone seemed to enjoy it. Here's some of the gifts...
#1. A mouse (yes alive)
#2 Hot dog roller. I know you all could use one of your own.
#4 games
#5 And last but not least, a toilet seat filled with Mountain Dew and tootsie rolls. Yep you guessed it, Jeff brought that one.
We decorated cookies with the kids (no more gingerbread houses for this family) and played pin the nose on "Frosty".


After all that fun, the worlds best Santa stop by for a visit (thanks Jeff, you are the best.) The kids all loved him, and were so excited to see him and make their last minute request.




After all our company left, we went to the "festival of lights" the kids loved it. When we got home the kids all got in their pajamas and got cookies ready for Santa, and at this point, Taylor was acting just as excited as the other kids and suggested that they should leave some cookies for Mrs. Clause since she never gets any, so they wrote a special letter and left extra cookies. I of course was so excited that Taylor was a BELIEVER and of course I was an emotional wreck inside, but it was all good feelings... Yeah for Christmas Magic. The kids finished off the night by sprinkling reindeer food outside, and putting a special key on the door so Santa could get in. This was by far one of my favorite Christmas Eves in a long time, and I am so thankful for the innocence of my kids and the joy it brings to our family.