Christmas 2008

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night. Whatever! Katelyn started to get up around 2 am and then around 4 am. I think they stayed up until 6am. We had told them that this was the earliest they could open presents. We all got up and opened up our stockings and looked at our Santa gifts. We then tried to settle down and open other gifts.

opening Santa gifts

I had found a bunch o f "I wonder why" books and gave these to the kids. Not a big hit. The kids each received a DVD. Not a big hit with some of us.

Blakely received a new mp3 player and lots of clothes.

Katelyn received High School Musical things . She was not very excited about it at all.

Garret received transformers and legos. Brady found a remote control truck just for him. It was a very nice Christmas. We made pancakes for breakfast. And of course, it is also MY BIRTHDAY. Shawn brought out a wonderful chocolate cake and sang to me for this special day. We relaxed and built legos, added songs to the mp3 player, and got ready to go over to Grandma Peterson's house. Shawn had scraped out our driveway once in the morning, but by the time we were ready to go it was blown and snowed in again. We only have the van right now, so no four wheel drive. I was ready to turn around by the end of our road. We kept trudging through. Katelyn squealed everytime we hit a drift. We made it to Grandma's house safely. We enjoyed a nice dinner and the kids were spoiled by Grandpa and Grandma. We headed home early enough to get home before almost dark. We watched a Christmas movie and played some more with toys until they fell asleep after their long day. Merry Christmas!!!!

Christmas Eve

The Fearless Trio

Underneath the Christmas tree

The last few years we have gotten together with my brother's family on Christmas Eve. We enjoy wonderful clam chowder and share the Christmas story. The weather looked bad and the forecast was not in favor so we decided we would stay home this year. We enjoyed Cafe Rio shredded pork burritos. We read the Christmas story and then watched the Living Scriptures The King is Born. Garret by that time had fallen asleep. The girls woke him back up to open the much awaited Christmas Eve gift. We quickly opened them and got into our new jammies. We brushed teeth and sent the kids off to bed. Shawn and I then started the real fun ......... Which included tromping out to the barn to bring in Christmas presents that I had hidden outside. The wind and snow detoured us only slightly.

BLESSED!

Garret's Stitches

driver's side

passenger's side

straight on

Well, this post is not a fun post to write about. Coming home from piano lessons Thursday night the kids and I were in a car accident. We were driving down the road heading home when a truck went through a stop sign. There was no way for me to stop in time with the ice and snow. We hit the truck straight on. When we finally stopped we had totally turned around. Kids were crying and in shock. Luckily, everyone was in their seatbelts and carseats. I jumped out and tried to assess what was going on. It was all very surreal. Garret, Katelyn, and I received the worst of the injuries. I had let Garret move to the front with his booster seat when we left piano lessons because it was such a short way home. (Stupid, I know.) So thankfully, the airbags did not deploy or else we would have had much more serious injuries. Garret cut open his chin. Katelyn has some whiplash. I have a sore and bruised knee from hitting the dashboard. Blakely kept her cool so well. She did so well trying to get Brady to calm down and to keep him calm. I had not brought my cell phone with me. So, I first sent her to the nearest house to call 911. The other driver was slow to get out. He was hurt also. The house happened to be a gal in the other ward. She was the first angel. Next, two ladies from the other ward bringing scouts home came right by and jumped right out to help. They helped me calm and cover up Garret. They let me borrow their cell phone to call Shawn and tell him to come. The first responder was also from our ward. He helped us assess everything. We then took all the kids into the house to stay warm. We got through the ordeal with lots of help from these wonderful people. After we had been looked at by the paramedics, I decided to send Shawn into the hospital with Garret. The rest of the kids and I came home. Katelyn was quite weepy and teary all night. We did take her into our doctor the next morning to get her checked out. She is doing fine and seems to be okay and then she starts to feel the soreness in her neck. It kinds of goes in cycles. Garret has been quite sober but is starting to get back to his normal self. We have been blessed by the concern of the members in our ward. We don't know the outcome of our vehicle yet. It sure looks totaled, but we will see. We are all bumped and bruised up, but doing fine. It is quite a thing when an accident happens. It really makes you stop and think.

Anniversary Get Away!

Shawn and I's 14th wedding anniversary is this next week. Since, we finally have a kids that are more self sufficient again I told Shawn that we were going away for the night. Grandma Peterson graciously agreed to watch the kids while we went away. We headed out after work Friday night and went to Odgen. We went out to Olive Garden and then did some holiday shopping until midnight. We found some great deals. The next morning we got up and went to the temple. We then hit the stores again. I felt that we found some deals that morning. We had lunch at the Texas Roadhouse. Good food! We walked around the mall not really finding much but lots of crowds. Shawn was a good sport shopping with me even though I know he hated every minute of it. He kept saying that it was my deal. He was there just for the food. We headed home. It was a such a nice night away. Maybe next time we will need to be gone longer. (I'm sure Grandma would love that!)

Garret's Birthday

Garret turned 5 on December 7th. The night before his birthday Shawn and I were going to go get his present. Garret decided he wanted to come with us. We took him out to dinner and went to Wally World to pick out his gift. He has been wanting a remote control motorcycle, but of course Katelyn was telling him what he wanted. He kept saying that he wanted a webkinz. He also has wanted a Superman cake, but Katelyn had him convinced he really wanted a Webkinz cake. So, we found a remote control motorcycle and a transformer sweatshirt. He kept hiding his eyes telling us not to show him what his present was. The next day we had a wonderful dinner of lasanga and a superman cake. Grandpa Manwaring came and Grandpa and Grandma Peterson came up for the celebration. We have so enjoyed Garret in our home. He is such a fun boy to be around.

No more!!!

Well, I think we have done it! Brady lost his pacifier at the babysitter's house on Wednesday. That was the last one we knew about. We decided to try the night without one. We made it through the night. Brady kept searching the diaper bag and underneath his crib for the pacifier. We haven't see a pacifier so I guess we are done with it. I hope...... He really has done pretty good without it. I was planning on waiting until this summer to break him of the pacifier, but I guess I will not look a gift horse in the mouth.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Things have slowed down a bit now. So, I can blog! We had a half of day of school on Wednesday. We came home to start the traditional frappe and salads. Blakely has a science and social studies teacher who is an avid Star Wars fan. He even puts extra credit questions on the test concerning these movies. So anyway, she decided we needed to have a Star Wars marathon. We borrowed Episodes one through five from Grandma Peterson. Wed. evening we started episode one. I think we enjoyed the movie watching. We finished episode five by the weekend. We will just have to find episode six. Thursday found us at Grandma Peterson's having a wonderful dinner. The kids played hard with their cousins. Katelyn made up a play about the Pilgrims and Indians. The cousins acted it out. It ended in a wrestling match between the Indians and Pilgrims. I will try to load some video of this. My battery died just a few minutes in.
I decided this year to join in the shopping festivities. I went with my good friend Jamie at 4am. Crazy, I know. We stood in line at Walmart for 50 minutes and walked fast with the rest of the them as we tried to find our bargains. We returned home tired. Shawn just shook his head as I pulled in and he pulled out. And no I am not done with my Christmas shopping.
Friday afternoon we went back over to Grandma's to hang with the partying Las Vegas cousins. We went to the firework display in Christmas City (Rupert) with them. Saturday, we cleaned up and then took the kids over to the movie, Bolt. I really enjoyed the movie. Shawn on the other hand got kicked out the the theatre. I know, I know. I tried to tell him to be quiet, but he would not listen. (Really he was asked to leave. Brady was wandering and he was following him. Brady was to wild and the attendant asked them to leave.) Monday brought us back to reality. But JUST FOR THREE MORE WEEKS. We get out Dec. 19th. Hip Hip Hooray!!!!