And the parties never end….

My mom and dad had their big party the Sunday after Christmas.  All of the kids performed a talent and we exchanged gifts.  As usual, the kids came home with a TON of stuff. 

For their talents Taylor played the violin, Mitch danced and Jordan shared a joke.  As Mitch would say “Comedy Gold.”

The kids all got their gifts from my parents and they gave them gifts.  The kids gave them each a photo of themselves that were matching.  It was really fun!  Thank you Mom and Dad for an incredible party and Christmas!

 

And one last party….  On Monday night we had all of our kids exchange gifts!  It was way fun.  This was only after we had skied that day!

Taylor is such a drama queen!

Here are a few photos from our little family party!

Merry Christmas to my cute little family! 

Christmas Day

Christmas Day was wonderful, as usual.  We started the day with Chase and Taesha opening all of their gifts.  They both got some really neat stuff. 

Taesha got a new guitar amp among other things and Chase got a new snowboard and camera.  Check out this Superman Snuggie that the Huskinsons gave him.  The funny things is this…  My sisters and I were trying to find one of those! Go, fight, win!  Chase got one anyway!

Jeff spoiled me as usual.  I knew I was getting old when I asked for a pressure cooker!  I recently got the canning bug and can’t wait until next summer when I have WAY MORE time!  Anyway, I got a pressure cooker, some new dishes, some clothes and my favorite surprise a Kindle!  I love it!  Thank you Jeff!  He is so thoughtful.  I had mentioned one time how I thought it would be fun to have!

I suck and didn’t get a good photo of Jeff!  He got clothes, cologne a few books and new pictures of all of the kids.  He also got that painting in the back ground.  It a painting he has loved forever.  I love it too!  It depicts Moose running out of YellowStone during the fire several years ago!

Taylor and Jordie came home later that day and Grandma and Grandpa came over to watch them open their gifts.

Taylor got a DSiXL, new Wii games, lots of clothes and an American girl doll.  Jordi got a DSiXL as well, play doh, clothes (we she cared nothing about) and an American girl doll. 

We had an excellent Christmas.  We missed Mitchell!  We spend the day together, visited my parents and our good friends the Huskinsons. 

I love this family!  Scott is the best cook and their is NEVER a lack of laughter in their home!  I am blessed to have inherited them as friends when I met Jeff! 

Special thanks to Jeff who made this Christmas awesome.  I am blessed to be able to spend my life with such a good man!

Christmas Eve

I love Christmas Eve.  I love the anticipation of the kids and the feeling of excitement all day.  This year my girls were with their dad during the day so Jeff and I decided to go skiing with Chase.  We are so lucky to have him here from school.  He couldn’t wait to hit the Beav!  On our 3rd run Chase hit a “box” a “flat box” (snowboarder terms) and feel very strangely on his head.  As soon as he fell I said to Jeff “that is not going to turn out well.”  Sure enough Chase had a concussion.  Or in his words he was Concussed!  We took him to the ski patrol shack and he got checked out.  It was clear he had hit his head HARD.  Mostly evidenced by him asking the same 3 questions in the same sequence over and over about 100 times!  Also evidenced by the fact that he had no memory of the day and didn’t know where he was. 

Bless his heart!  He was so frustrated that he really had NO CLUE what had happened.  Everything turned out well and by the next day he was feeling much better.  We knew we were in trouble when he had no idea it was Christmas Eve.  In fact when we told him he faithfully denied it!  So funny!!  So..  we called it quits early and went home.  The great news was…  I got a well deserved Christmas Eve nap! 

On Christmas Eve we went to my mom’s house for the usual and SO FUN party.  The kids did the nativity, we ate lots and Santa came.

We missed Mitchy!!  As usual Santa delivered.  Look at Santa with the new babies!  What a blessing to have MaeLee and Kyson this year!  They are both SO sweet!

He have all of the kids Hex bugs which they loved.

After Santa the kids did the Nativity!  It is always so tender!  It was Kendall’s turn to be Mary this year and Luke was Joseph. 

The top left photo is the mayhem getting ready!  Every year someone refuses, someone cries and there are several “this is lame.”  However they all feel the spirit of the nativity and the entire family looks forward to this part of Christmas Eve! This was the first year that Hunter was the narrator.

Hayden gave me this “Barney” video.  He brought it in on this dolly.  He totally cracks me up.  Barney is a nickname I got skiing and it will never die!  Here are a few more photos from the evening!

Concert & Skiing

This holiday season has been NO VACATION!  We have been so busy.  So, I am going to do a little catch up.  Before Christmas Taylor had a Christmas orchestra concert and we skied a couple of times.

These Orchestra concerts include all of the 4th and 5th graders in the Cache County School District.  It is always amazing and humbling to me to see that many 9 and 10 years old pull off something so amazing.  As usual Taylor had a lot of family support!

We were so lucky that Taylor happened to be seated on the end.  With 300 kids there the odds of that aren’t great!  Jordan was also there!  I have really loved watching Taylor bloom at playing the violin.  To be honest for the first year I thought we had made a terrible mistake.  But now… I love to listen to her practice!

Jeff and I also had the chance to ski one Saturday before Christmas.  I went against my better judgment because I had so much to do for Christmas.  However, I am SO glad that we went.  It was a beautiful day and the snow was incredible!!  My legs definitely felt it by the end of the day!  Another incredible day at the Beav!  Can’t wait for more to come!

 

A few more random items from the Christmas Season:  We baked, and baked and baked….

Jordan also went to a party at her Primary Teacher’s house.  She has the BEST primary teachers.  In Jordan’s primary class is Jordan (of course) and Samantha (most would call it quits with just the two of them) and about 6 other little girls who are equally as intense as Jordan and Samantha!  I  know.. WOW!  There is also one little boy.  Bless his heart!!!  The good news is..  The Sorenson’s are going to move up to CTR7 with the babies!  Yes!!

Tender Heart

My heart is always tender at this time of year.  This year it seems to be particularly tender.  I love Christmas, I love talking about the birth of Christ with my kids and I love the spirit that accompanies this time of year.  Jeff has the camera right now so I will update you with events soon.  We had our first day of skiing, Taylor’s winter orchestra concert and several other parties.  Look for posts to come.

As most of you have read in previous posts several weeks ago one of our ward members was in a severe accidents.  The girls have been persistent in praying for Brother Lindley.  And not just my girls..  all kids around here!  Last Saturday a family that had 4 kids at Mountainside Elementary were involved in an accident and two of the children passed away.  One boy in particular was in 1st grade and in Jordan’s class last year.  I don’t know this family, I know a few of their children at the school.  What a perspective building experience.  On Monday mornings I read in the 1st grade.  Today,  like every Monday morning I headed to school but this Monday was different.  Jordan’s teacher gathered the kids around and sat with them on the floor, looked at their little eyes and had the most faith promoting discussion with them I have EVER been a part of.  What a blessing to be the “Monday Mom” this week.  The school then had a sing a long planned and the Orchestra was playing several songs for the school.  Taylor’s orchestra teacher asked the children to think of ways to “love one another better” during the last two songs.  As I watched my sweet 10 year old play the violin for the school I was in awe. I can’t explain the feeling there but know that our Heavenly Father blessed the school today.  I know there were tender mercies all day.   When I publish my blog in a few weeks I hope to refer to this post when the following happens:

Jordan has beat the tar out of Taylor all day and I would like to throw her out the window!  Jordan has told me I am “not invited to her birthday party” OR used the word “stupid” numerous times.

Taylor has rolled her eyes at me 9 million times and has so much attitude it is oozing out of her pours!  Taylor has complained steadily about her lack of “privacy, computer time, tv time and/or everything else for that matter.”

Jordan and Mitchy have said “but that’s not fair” so many times that I quit counting 6 hours ago!

And when I am wondering about this role of motherhood thing and wondering who exactly signed me up to be a mom.

I will consider the following:

Our children are given to us by our Heavenly Father, we made a commitment to parent and teach with the spirit…  Where anger is the Holy Ghost is not.

NOTHING that has so great a reward as parenthood is easy.

Patience is NOT a virtue I was born with and must continue to work on developing. 

Where much is given much is required.  I live in an incredible community that is grounded in the Gospel. I live among people I love to serve. People who know me and I can count on.  I was given 5 children to teach and love.  Although not daily for 3 of them I still have a responsibility to influence.  I was given an incredible family who I am blessed to serve and love daily.  I was given the best partner (I hate the word Fiance, although partner has its own implications)  in the world who ever so patiently deals with my intensity and many imperfections.  Because of that I am required and lucky to give back.  I have learned that looking inward will never provide the blessings of looking outward. 

And finally:  The Atonement, the Plan of Salvation, Eternal Families, Tithing, Fasting, Prayers and love are all blessings of the Gospel that I take great comfort in!!

Merry Christmas and I promise the next post will go back to the norm!!!

I Have Issues

You all know I have issues.  I am always too busy, too crazy and have WAY too much going on.  The problem is:  I like it that way!  However, somewhere in the past several weeks I have missed my opportunity to stop and document what really matters. 

I love this time of year.  I love Thanksgiving. I love Black Friday. I love Christmas Shopping. I even love the 900 parties.  There are class parties, ward parties, work parties, family parties, primary parties and orchestra parties.  Given that it’s only December 8th we have already checked several off the list.  But first…

BLACK FRIDAY…

Need I say more!

Why yes I do..  What I hope to remember from this year.

Shopping from midnight until 9:00 a.m.

The less sleep I get the sillier I become.

Sleeping over at my parents house with my sisters.  There are some things that never change.  My dad still woke up at 3:00 a.m. to go on the tow truck.  He still turns on the same lights and sits in the same chair while he puts on his boots.  What an incredible comfort there is in familiarity.

Breakfast at Einstein’s with my mom, sisters, aunt and cousin. These are 5 of the women I love and respect most in the world.

Jill’s cartwheel in the mall.  I will leave it at that!!

What I missed this year:  No trip to IFA for Uncle Loyd… Girls you know what I mean!!

On the evening of Black Friday we took the girls to the Nutcracker.  We ate at the Coppermill first and then went to the ballet.  With the exception of auditions to the Chicken Bak Bak club at intermission on the stairs they were great! Thank you Grandma for a great evening.

One of Taylor’s best friends was Clara.  That was an added bonus to an already great evening!

Taylor and Mary after the ballet.

The Tuesday after Thanksgiving was the ward party.  It was my final event as activities chair.  My Bishop always tell me that I don’t need a committee because I have Jeff and the Watrins.  He is right.  Thank you to Jeff, Kim and Shea for all their extra help! We had a great turn out and even better… I am done!

The following weekend was our traditional “Salt Lake Weekend.”  This is one of my favorite weekends all year.  My kids talk about it the entire year and anytime they are asked to share a favorite family tradition they usually share this one. 

We shopped hard and ate a lot.  Jordan came home with a 2 foot tall Rapunzel doll with more hair than I have ever seen on a doll.  Taylor also came home with hair!  Seriously.. she bought some of those hair clip things to make you hair look longer.  Weirdo!  She is growing up!  Mitchy bought his usually assortment of tanks, helicopters and Star Wars Stuff.  Another great weekend for the memory books!  Thank you Mom and Dad!

All of that was wonderful!  However a few days ago I got a “payday” as a parent.  Often times as my kids stumble through life I wonder about my effectiveness.  A few days ago a ward member of mine was in a really bad accident.  The Ward did a fast and at breakfast I was telling my girls about the fast and to remember Brother Lindley is all of our prayers during that day.  I talked about how I was fasting but how I wanted them to eat at school and etc.  Taylor told me this “Mom, I will just not eat anything really yummy or like a treat or anything.  That will be the way I fast.”  Now, that probably doesn’t seem like a big deal to most of you but her spirit and intention was so strong.  My hope is that in a few years, if she is ever struggling I can refer her back to this post and remind her of her unshakeable faith when she was 10.  Her strong desire to do the right thing for the right reasons.  I am blessed to have children who have such a pure spirit!