Merry Christmas!

Christmas came so fast and soon was gone. I couldn't believe how fast Christmas crept up on us. I was so looking forward to the break. My sister would keep asking if we were ready for Christmas and I kept saying, "Nope!" But it came together just like it always does. The first Friday of Christmas break, Blakely and I went shopping for her Christmas presents since she only wanted clothes and didn't think I would pick out very good ones.(What!) It was a nice night, even though by 9:30 I was dragging. We enjoyed IHOP dinner and headed home. We had a whole week to enjoy off before Christmas day. We played and just enjoyed not having to be on the run. Christmas Eve, my Dad came down to spend the night with us. We had the traditional Manwaring dinner of clam chowder and I added in tomato soup(My Dad's). We watched The King was Born and visited about the Savior. The girls and my Dad played a game while I was getting everything ready and finished wrapping. I am sure the kids were dying to get up all night, but the rule is 6am. I am thinking maybe 7am next year. As soon as 6am hit we were woken up by kids. They got to open their stockings, but had to wait for Grandpa to wake up to open presents. Presents seem to be opened in record time, but I think everyone was happy with what everyone given. We enjoyed cinnamon rolls and juice for breakfast. We played with the new toys and new games all morning. We then needed to get ready to go to Grandma and Grandpa's Peterson for lunch. We enjoyed seeing cousins and yummy food. We returned home to play on our new Wii and clean up.





Saturday we went back to Grandma Peterson's for more fun. I didn't think we could handle more but we did. We still had a whole another week to play and clean until New Year's. We painted Grandma Peterson's hallway while Blakely and Katelyn watched 8 kids at my house all day. Wednesday we went swimming down to 1000 springs with Chelsea, Brandi, and kids. That was pretty fun. We then went to my Dad's house for hot dogs. It was a pretty long day. Thursday we went bowling in the afternoon and then Chelsea and kids came over for a wild New Year's Eve bash. We played games, ate, and banged on pots and pans. We banged on pots and pans at about 10 pm thinking the party was winding down but the kids kept it going until about 11:30 pm. We love it when cousins come to play. New Year's Day we went to breakfast at the bishop's house. This is a 3 year tradition so far in our ward, but we do have a new bishopric.? We knew it was coming but we had to get ready for school to start. So that starting the taking down of the Christmas tree that day. We had to make sure the house was ready for Mom and kids to head back to school on Monday. This has been a nice relaxing break and I am grateful to have been surrounded by family and friends as we celebrated the birth of our Savior and welcomed in a new year. Thank you for those who helped us do this. We love you all.

Oh, Christmas Tree

Tuesday night we got our tree up. Dad picked up a tree. Yes, it is a little short, but he did a wonderful job and we better not complain or else there might be TROUBLE!Garret has been begging for a tree for a week now, so he was more then ready to go. I actually had to stop him from dragging everything out. We put up sparkling colored lights and all the old decorations. The girls organized where they all went on the tree. So now our house looks a little more like Christmas.

Garret's Six : pick up sticks

Another birthday comes again. Garret turned 6 years old on Dec. 7th. Time flies when you are having fun. Garret has been just a fun little boy to have around. He is all boy and loves to be active. He lately has been into Pokemon which I don't know how that started. He wanted a cinnammon rolls and orange rolls for breakfast.Mom had to get up early to get that done to have breakfast in bed like a king. He wanted a Pokemon cake and spaghetti for dinner. Once again a birthday falls on a school day which makes me run for my money. We quickly came home and the girls baked a second cake for Garret.(i baked one to share at school)I made dinner and Grandpa Manwaring came and brought meatballs, little smokies, ice cream, and lemons(Garret's favorite). We ate birthday dinner without Dad who ended up working late. He showed up just in time to sing to Garret. Grandma and Grandpa Peterson came over to wish him Happy Birthday which was so sweet, even if he had his head buried in a new DS game. He got a Pokemon DS game and a new Pokemon Handbook, because the old one he found at DI and totally fallen apart because he looked at it so much. Garret's due date was on my mom's birthday December 14th. She was really pushing for him to come on that day. She wanted a grandchild to share a birthday with her. Garret decided he wanted to come on Sunday, December 7th (Pearl Harbor Day) instead. Shawn was to teach Elder's quorm that morning and my water broke. So actually Garret got him out of teaching that Sunday. Garret's delivery was the best I ever had. Dr. Jeppsen and Dad were watching football while it was going on. Garret was a beautiful baby and was loved by his sisters. We always were told, "well, you finally did it right." I hope that you continue to enjoy life and stand up with good courage. Be obedient and always know we love you.

Temple Square Weekend

I decided that it was time for our kids to see the lights on Temple Square. So we made plans to go with the Bronsons. We headed down after school and checked into our hotel which was a few blocks away from temple square. I was rushing around Firday after school and at the last minute (which shouldn't have been the last minute) tried to find my winter box, but I could not. So we went without a snowsuit for Brady.(first mistake)We walked over to temple square and looked at the lights. We took pictures, but about 45 minutes into this Brady was done. So we headed back to the hotel to swim. We swam in a chilly pool for about 1 1/2 hours. We actually slept pretty good until about 5:30. I got up and worked out and then took the girls and Brady swimming again. I think it was colder the next morning as we headed to Temple Square again. We went to the Distrubution center and let the kids pick out a poster. We then went to see the Joseph Smith film and enjoyed it. Brady took a nice nap. Yeah.I am glad we got to do this because I think it is very important that we can provide spiritual experiences when ever we can. The kids seemed to enjoy it and I hope it touched their hearts. We did a very quick tour of the conference center. The kids wanted to go to The Gateway Mall, so this where it started to fall apart. 9 kids hungry and cold. Did you know the Gateway mall is an outside mall? Blakely says she did tell us this. We ate at the food court when Katelyn really wanted Golden Corral. Then it started to snow, so the parents decided it was probably time to head for home. We bid the Bronsons farewell and hit the road. It was a little scary on the freeway until Layton. We did pull off and did some quick shopping at Plato's Closet for Blakely and of course grabbed Krispy Kreme doughnuts for the ride home. We enjoyed our quick weekend even if we didn't get everyhting fit in that we wanted. We are glad that we can have these family times together, so the saying Family First stays in our children's hearts and minds.

Who's that sleeping in my closet?

Well, it has now been 3 months since something scared Katelyn enough to prompt her to sleep in our closet. She is there without fail every night. We have hugged, threatened, and bribed until finally we just gave up. I don't know how comfortable it could be sleeping on the floor like that. This week we finally may have broken through because it is now number 5 of 7 nights that she is not in our closet. She has to sleep 7 nights in a row to get the weight room turned into her bedroom.(which we have offered before.)I don't like this plan because I lose my workout room. She has to sleep in there for 7 nights and then we will buy her a bed. So it looks like we might be bed shopping this weekend. We will keep you updated.

Thanksgiving time again

This fall has flown by and as we celebrated Thanksgiving we did it by the seat of our pants. That is just how we do it lately. It started with Brady and Garret's babysitter having her baby the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and my back up babysitting needing to help at the school. So we really had to search for someone to watch the boys. Instead of going right home after school, we played with our friends and then went home working late into the night to finish my assignments for dinner at my Dad's. We lazily drove to Shawn's mom to drop off Frappe and to say hello. We then headed to Buhl. My sister and Dad had everything in good hands as we walked in and got ready to sit down for dinner. As always dinner is wonderful and over way too fast. The kids had fun playing outside and tracking mud in. We made Indian headbands and gave everyone an Indian name. I won't tell you who they named Grumpy Bear. I didn't get pictures of them with all their headbands on. We got to visit with my Dad's lady friend Terri. She was very nice. The boys worked on the retaining wall until dark and then we enjoyed wonderful pies. Blakely and Katelyn stayed down at Grandpa's with the intent that I would pick them up the next morning.
I did not go out early shopping with my friend Jamie this year. But when I went to pick up the girls we went over to the mall and shopped a little. It wasn't too bad except for the 4 kids I dragged along. My sister Kim and her family came and spent the night with us. Kim and Blakely really wanted to go to the movies so off we went. We went and saw New Moon and then Kim said let's go to another movie. So I throw caution to the wind and we did it. We then went to see The Blind Side. We really partied it up. We cleaned and played Ticket to Ride with Kim and Lampee. Katelyn and Brady loves babies, so they took good care of Luke. Hence the picture of Luke and this really is the only picture I took all weekend. Soon enough it was back to reality. Monday started back to school.