Gone, but not forgotten

Somehow this just makes me feel better about throwing away Rik's ancient alarm clock.

Christmas Break Pictures

So far Christmas break has been a lot of fun (except for all that wrapping... which I did finish before Christmas Day....phew!) Here are a couple pictures from Christmas Eve at my parents house:


My brother Nathan and his family were here this year, and so was my sister Karissa and her family. The food was yummy, the pinata didn't break the first time through (in fact, it took several rounds through all the kids to break it, and even then it just kind of fell off the rope and the kids attacked it on the floor....whatever works!), the nativity went good (that's another one of those "reminds me of Christmas when I was little" things), and all in all Christmas Eve was a lot of fun! (Notice in the picture that Kayden, who was a wise man, is still holding on to his gift for Jesus.... looks like he's trying to hide it behind his leg or something... I'm pretty sure that's not how it went in the story....)


In my family we are a little short on boys (only 3 boys so far between me and my siblings), so Malia and Taisha were the shepherds... beard and all!

On Christmas Day we opened presents, stayed in our PJs until 5:30 (and really only got dressed because we had family coming over to have dinner, and we thought it would be nice to be dressed....) and just played all day. Here's how many gifts fell apart or just weren't right though:

-iHome for Kayden - not the right style, and his iPod wouldn't stay on the charger thingy
-Jeans for Kayden - missing the button
-CTR necklace for Taisha - fell apart when she carried it to me to put on for the first time, I put it back together, and it fell apart today at church in a totally different place!
-Jeans from Old Navy for Kayden - too short (sheesh he's getting tall, which is fine, if only his waist would keep up! They just don't make jeans his size...)
-Shirt for Malia - didn't fit
-Boots for Anaya - in a size 9 box, but actually size 8
-Clock radio for me (which I totally didn't need.... the 19 year old one we had was still working...kind of) - worked for one day, went down hill quickly after that, and I can hardly read the time now.... It's heading back to Sam's Club tomorrow.
-Wallet for Rik - couldn't fit all his stuff in the new one....I think he might need a man-purse.
-Extra Wii guitar for Rockband - didn't get the right one, so it didn't work with the game.
-Cute puffy vest for Malia - wrong size

So try and guess what I spent the rest of the weekend doing?! Everything except the clock radio has been switched out. Sheesh, you'd think that I shopped fast and furious for Christmas gifts and didn't actually look at the stuff I was buying... oh wait, that IS what happened!

I took the kids sledding on Saturday with Melanie and Trevor and their kids. The hill was really slick, and my favorite part of the day was sitting in the van (yes, I went sledding in the van....it's freezing in the snow, you know?!) laughing at the kids trying to get to the top of the hill, and slipping all the way back down to the bottom! Even better was when one of the big kids would try to help one of the littler kids, and they would both end up at the bottom of the hill. They loved it though (and of the several different types of sleds we had (plastic disc, flat rug-type, rubbermaid 2-person sled, and tubes), they said the tubes were the most fun.

Why every house needs a bannister:

Lots and lots of snow today... and lots of kids playing in it!

Tonight for FHE we watched the new youth DVD that they are showing on New Years Eve to introduce the 2009 theme. Jeffery R. Holland starts the whole thing out with an awesome message, I really enjoyed that. But then, I don't know if I'm just too old now or what (Rik says it's because I'm heathen.......... whatever Lamonite!), but it was just so cheesy. Rik had told me beforehand that it was going to be even better than High School Musical (also cheesy), and I guess I don't know what I was expecting, but I had to keep covering my eyes because I was kind of embarrassed watching it. Finally Rik told me to go make the rice pudding I had planned for our treat tonight, I think so I didn't have to watch any more. Anaya came up to help me. And after her help I decided that she has "future Relief Society President" written all over her.... except that she's kind of vocal and might offend occasionally. While I was starting the rice pudding, I asked her to get a bowl to put it in, and she went right for the festive red bowl, and told me it was because it was Christmas, and it needed to match. She then told me that we should get some Santa hats and wear them when we dish out every one's pudding, because that would look good, especially if we had Santa bowls. Huh, I'm pretty sure I wasn't thinking about proper presentation of the dessert at 4 years old.

So tonight is the night that I get all my wrapping done. Last night and the night before just didn't work out because I keep going to bed instead of wrapping.... but sheesh, I'm running out of time! (But Rik fell asleep on the couch downstairs watching that DVD, so I would have the WHOLE bed to myself........I could always wrap tomorrow right?!)

Merry Christmas and o holy embarassing....

Friday night was our ward's Christmas party. The theme for primary next year is "My Eternal Family." We are going to decorate our bulletin board in the primary room with pictures of every one's families. I tried to get as many family pictures taken at the party as I could. This is ours (notice that McKay has food in his mouth.... I guess that's what happens when you take pictures at a dinner....)

Also on Friday one of the stores in the mall was having a one day sale of 50% off your entire purchase. I thought I would go see if I could find something to wear to church this week. I had Anaya with me (who loves to shop). I grabbed a few skirts and shirts to try on and headed to the dressing rooms. While I was in there, Anaya in her nice, loud, clear as a bell voice said, "Mom, why do you have such big chestes?" (And that's exactly how she pronounced it.... with the plural "ez" on the end.) I tried to quietly shush her, so she yelled "Why do I have to be quiet?!" Oddly, me and my big chestes didn't find anything at that store.....

We have 9:00 church, which I really like, and we get there on time just about every Sunday, but I have to cut some corners to get there sometimes. Like brushing teeth in the car, and putting on lotion and chapstick during the opening song.... stuff like that. I usually bring McKay and Anaya's breakfast with us (usually cinnamon waffles or Eggo muffin tops) wrapped in a paper towel and put in a zip lock bag. Today was no exception, and after McKay finished his waffle, I put the paper towel back in the zip lock bag and sealed it back up. A couple minutes later I had to switch spots with Anaya, so she wasn't sitting by McKay (which should just be the assigned seating rule every week.......) When I sat down though, I sat right on the sealed zip lock bag, which then popped, kind of gun shot-like.....nice and loud. I looked around to see who had noticed.... judging by the expression on Rik's face, they heard it on the stand..... the family behind me was laughing, and after Kayden passed the sacrament, he sat down and asked me if I was the gun shot noise..... so they heard it over there too. Sheesh.....

I had sharing time today, and we put on a nativity pageant. It was so fun! While I was getting all the costumes out, Anaya came in all excited because she wanted to be the princess in the pageant but was pouty and mad when I told her there were no princesses in the nativity story. I finally talked her into being an angel, as long as it was a pretty angel. On our way out to the car after primary, Anaya told me that she looked like an angel, but she was really the princess.....

Happy Birthday Taisha!

Here's a picture of the kids this year in front of the tree. They are smiling so good, because they just said, "Daddy's a ballerina!" Works every time!

We had Taisha's birthday party on Saturday, and it turned out pretty good (thank heavens!) Last Tuesday I had this thought: "HOLY CRAP-OLA! Christmas is in 2 1/2 weeks and I haven't started shopping yet!!!! AHHHHHH!" (Yes, I actually said "Crap-ola" in my head... how weird is that?!) So I hurried and put down my paint brush and started shopping that night, and then every day after that I have shopped 'til the stores closed. I just kept thinking that as soon as I got this and that done on the basement, then I would start shopping for Christmas. And then this and that took WAY longer than I thought, and all of a sudden I had all sorts of shopping to do in a short amount of time. Taisha's birthday was kind of right in the middle of my panic shopping, but she said she just wanted to go out to eat with her friends and then go swimming at the athletic club for her party, which sounded great to me. Taisha filled out her own invitations and got them delivered at school. Late Friday night, the night before the party, it dawned on me that the athletic club wasn't even going to be open the next night! So Saturday morning we changed gears and came up with a whole different party. We took the girls out to eat, and them came home and decorated gingerbread houses. I wrapped a chap stick for each person and made them unwrap them with gloves on their hands, and then had them pair up, link arms, and wrap a present using only one hand per person. For a last minute party, it went pretty good. Lots and lots and lots of sugar, all over everything, and everybody.... which I'm pretty sure means it was a good party.

Nice icing mustache....

I had to finish Kayden's house (the green plate), because apparently when you turn 14 you are too cool to make a gingerbread house.... he just wanted to throw the candy and try and catch it in his mouth, but missed about 1/2 the time, so then there was candy all over the floor, which matched the rest of the kitchen.

Taisha wanted dirt for her birthday cake....YUM! She turned 10 today.

Here's Anaya trying on Taisha's new boots:

Here's my stellar gingerbread making skills. Look at all the bread in the background! We had a primary teacher appreciation party Sunday night, and we gave them a loaf of bread. I also had a piano recital that night.....and Malia had to speak in church that day..... and I had to play the piano in sacrament meeting with a violinist.... and my visiting teachers decided to stop by after church. *sigh* Some Sundays just go like that.

McKay has already eaten all the candy off his gingerbread house, and asked if he could start on mine. Ew. Now I just have lots and lots of wrapping to do.... and a little bit more shopping.... and then more wrapping.

Just Breath

Friday night Malia's little singing group had a performance at The Gables. She said she was nervous... but I don't think she was as nervous as me. I started out really excited, until it was her turn... then my mouth got dry, I got all shaky, got butterflies in my stomach, I ended up handing the camera to Rik, cause I didn't think I could hold it straight, then got teary eyed cause she was doing such a good job, and then I just tried to catch my breath until she was done. Sheesh.. you would have thought I was up there performing.

We had an awesome weekend. I got McKay and Anaya's room re-painted. I went two shades lighter than before, and it looks a lot better. I started out only painting 3 out of the 4 walls with the new, lighter color, thinking that might look nice (no, I was not just being lazy, mostly.... well, maybe just a little bit), but ended up painting the fourth wall the next day. It looks so much better! We got the closet organizers in and all the toys washed and put in. I re-did the decorations in Malia's room (her room looked a little off to me... but looks much better now).

On Sunday we went to the handbell concert with a whole bunch of family (we were sooooo happy to see the Soda family that joined us!), came back and ate, and then went to the dancing lights in Iona (that's what my kids call them, cause the lights on the house dance to music.) One of the songs that plays is Carol of the Bells, which is Anaya's favorite Christmas song (one of about 20 favorites). Last year she called that song the DoDo song, cause there's usually no words just "Do dodo do, do dodo do..." So when Carol of the Bells started playing at the dancing lights house, Kayden told Naya that the DoDo song was playing, and she let everyone know that it was not called the DoDo song, but rather Carol Bells. Glad that's cleared up.

School Pictures for Taisha and McKay

Ya, I know, we are almost halfway through the year.... but here are Taisha's and McKay's school pictures from this year. They are still not quite what I was hoping for... but as good as they are going to get for now I guess!



Oh, I also wanted to let everyone know that there is an awesome handbell concert coming up on Saturday and Sunday this weekend. Here's the info:

Ring in the Season Handbell Concert, Dec. 6 at 3 p.m., Dec. 7 at 4 p.m., Dec. 7 at 7 p.m., Trinity United Methodist Church, 237 N. Water St., Idaho Falls, www.tumcif.org, jkarinen@msn.com, (208) 522-7921.

We have gone the last few years, and love the performance!

Gotta work on that HUMILITY thing

Anaya got her ears pierced yesterday, and she was so excited to get them pierced that she didn't cry, or even flinch! When we were leaving she told me that now everyone is going to say she is even more beautiful! Sheesh, we just got her re-trained to say thank you to a compliment instead of "I know" (like, "Anaya, your hair looks cute today." "Ya, I know"). But apparently we still have some more work to do. (Hehe... she's on the floor beside me, and just asked McKay if he wants to see her earrings again because they are GORGEOUS!)


We got the Christmas stuff up for FHE last night. I have a few more things I want to do, like put lights on the new tree in the front yard, but for the most part all our halls are decked! Notice that in the picture Kayden is wearing the stockings on his feet....he's also holding the Target ad that came in the mail yesterday... he was busy telling me all the things he wants from Santa.... festive!

You know how a smell or a song can take you back years and remind you of memories? Here's my weird Christmas thing that makes me feel all Christmas-y like when I was little: The Chipmunks Christmas CD...and we have two of them, and they both just make me all excited for Christmas. Rik can only handle about 30 seconds though, but for those 30 seconds, I feel all that anticipation and excitement like when I was little waiting for Christmas to get here.

All this lifting, painting, furniture rearranging, and stuff is doing a number on my back... so I haven't been sleeping all that well. Maybe I need to get into a Chiropractor, but the other morning (when my back is at it's worst), I was having the oddest dream. I was part of some reality show, kind of like the chef and designer shows on Bravo, only this one was for masseuses. I wasn't one of the contestants, but I was one of the judges, that had to judge how well the massages were given. So there were weekly challenges (I have no idea what they were.....) that involved my back getting massaged. I smell a million dollar contract deal with Bravo for this stellar idea (cause there's nothing more exciting than watching someone get a massage!) It's kind of like the Stephenie Meyer dream a bazillion dollar book thing. Or, maybe I just need to get to a chiropractor, and get a decent night of sleep....