Christmas Day At Our House

 Our Christmas morning was wonderful!  We got up to see if Santa had come in the night!  Lucky for us, all of our kids were on the nice list and they each got things that made them very happy! The dog however made the naughty list and got a lump of coal in her stocking!  Maybe next year Gidget!  Annalina made us each service coupons and placed them in our stockings!  Very fun!  After playing for a bit, we got ready and went to our morning sacrament meeting.  It was a very nice and uplifting meeting and it felt so good to be there with our ward family!  When we got home we changed and opened the rest of our gifts!  Fun!!!  We had a great hash brown casserole along with french toast for brunch.  It was a great morning with my family and I am so grateful to have them each in my life!

 Cool shades Jacob!

 Adrienne got a lot of clothes, but was extremely happy with this game she got!  I must say I had the best time shopping for her this year!  Originally I had planned to take her shopping before the big day and then wrap up everything we found, but I ended up shopping on my own, it was great and she liked the things I picked out!  Yay!

 Santa brought both of the littles playmobil!  Annalina got a vacation set and Joseph got a huge airplane and airport!  I love this brand and so do the kids!  They get hours of enjoyment playing and I love to hear them playing so creatively together!

The littles have wanted pillow pets for years now and were both so excited to finally get one!

Santa Loves Coconut Bread and Pumpkin Egg Nog...

A nice variety for Santa, don't you think??  Before bed Richard asked Joseph if he was excited for Santa to come.  Joseph had a very worried look and said he thought Santa would just leave him coal. Richard asked why and he said, "because I get in trouble almost every day, I try to be good, but its so hard!"  Oh the suspense...is Joseph on the Naughty List?  Or the Nice List?  Only time will tell....

StoryBook Lane

Cute Cousins!!

Crazy Cousins!!

Friday night Richard and I took little a and j to Storybook Lane with the Conser family. It takes much longer to drive out there than it does to walk though the display, but it is always worth it.  This is a tradition that goes back to when we were children!  The kids enjoyed it and then we came home and had hot cocoa and cookies. We enjoyed visiting with Megan and Jeremy while the kids played.  Fun evening!!

Æbleskivers

Christmas Eve morning Richard made us some Æbleskivers, something he learned from his paternal great grandmother when he was much younger.  They had cinnamon apples pieces in them and they were delicious!  Bit A&J were at their dad's house and were not able to have any with us, but little a&j loved them!  Yummy!

Once Again...BIG Change Is In Store...

Adrienne has been accepted to BYU-Idaho!  Woohoo!  Oh, and Richard has been accepted to BYU Idaho as well! Way to go dear! And Jacob and I are just waiting to hear that we have been accepted, although Jacob is not sure he wants to attend a school with his entire family!  He has also applied to BYU Provo.

Yes, we are moving to Rexburg Idaho next summer!  It is possible that two thirds of our family will be attending the Lord's Chosen School, as Bishop Stott's son so wonderfully phrased it on Sunday!

It is no secret that we have not been able to contribute much as far as funds go for Adrienne to get a college education.  We just do not have the money!  But for the past two years we have been able to offer her a free place to live and food to eat and little kids to keep her happy(we all know this is key to learning).  She has amazed me with her drive to complete her education.  She has paid her own way, no loans and will most likely graduate without ANY student loans, who does that these days??  My daughter, that is who!  When she decided she wanted to go to Rexburg for school, I jokingly said, its too bad we can't move with her and continue covering her room and board.  Hey, they have a nursing program!  Richard started checking things out and they have IT management degrees as well.  He discussed it with his manager at work and learned that he could indeed work from anywhere as long as he has a good broadband connection and a willingness to travel back to Beaverton every three to four months.

After much thought and prayer, we decided to all go back to school together.  Did you know that BYU Idaho offers scholarships for good grades?  Both Adrienne and I may have high enough GPA's to have our tuition paid for completely!  And with four of the six of us attending college, financial aid is a real possibility as well.  We will be vising in the Spring and checking things out.  The cost of living is cheaper there, so hopefully that will help us in our continued efforts to save for Jacob's mission.  You may ask yourself, is Adrienne on board with this plan?  I mean really, going to college with your family?  She is actually quite excited and I am thrilled to keep the family together another year or two! (Think I may have issues with letting go?)

For a while now, Joseph has said he does not like Idaho, because it will take Adrienne away from us.  He is happy with this plan.  Both the little kids are excited to live somewhere there is a lot of snow in the winter, although I am not sure they are quite prepared for the COLD that comes with that snow.  They are excited to make new friends and up to now, change has been a constant in their lives. They are ready for the next adventure! 

I am truly blessed with a family who is supportive of one another and willing to relocate to help one of us(or four) complete our education.

Three Days to a Full Freezer

It has been a whirlwind few days, but thanks to the help my husband and his mad chopping skills, and the older kids and their meatball rolling skills, we have managed to fill the freezer with over 40 meals!  Yay!  This is a beautiful sight to me!  We have Sweet and Sour Meatballs, Mozzarella Meatballs, Lemon Pepper Chicken, Stroganoff, Enchilada Casserole, Chimichangas, Peanut Chicken, Lasagna, Burritos, Split Pea Soup, Chicken Enchillada Soup, and more!  Now if I can just remember to get dinner out first thing in the morning, I will be set!!

Happy Birthday Annalina...You're 10!!!!

 We have been promising Annalina a friend birthday party for several years now and we finally came through!  She invited 6 friends over for some birthday fun!  They decorated cupcakes, played several fun games and then she opened gifts. It was a great party!

 In her new snuggie playing with her new DS game. Both gifts from her mom and dad!

 She was so excited about this gift!  So cute!

She loved this new outfit enough that she left the party for a couple minutes to go change! 

 Another filler activity was Richard flying his helicopters and trying to land them on the kids hands!  They really like this!

 One of our favorite party games is to have two teams and two of Richard's sweatshirts. The teams each try to cram as many balloons in as they can and when time is up, we count to see who won!  Fun times!  The kids all wanted turns to be the human grape bunch!

We had some extra time, so we walked over the playground where the kids burned off some frosting playing their favorite playground games. I love the way they all know the rules to each game. Nothing is ever explained, they just know how to play!

Annalina requested sushi for her birthday dinner, so Richard and I went to the Asian market and picked up what we needed and Richard spent a good long time preparing an awesome sushi meal for the whole family!  There was enough sushi supplies left over that the next night he made us another wonderful meal of sushi!  Thanks honey!!

I love how Annalina incorporates Christmas into her Birthday each year.  She talked about putting her gifts under the tree and wanted to play Christmas themed games at her party and she took Christmas cookies to share with her school class on the big day.  We have talked about waiting until after her birthday to get our tree and decorate for Christmas, but she would have none of that!

I have posted before about Birthdays near Christmas and how unfair they can be, but I have come to a new conclusion about that.  My only past experience with a December Birthday was my ex husband, who freely expressed how much he hated it, but he tends to have a more negative view of life in general.  So, I think it mostly depends on your outlook.  Annalina loves to share her birth month with Christ.  She doesn't mind that sometimes people forget her birthday completely.  I love so much her happy disposition and her ability to be content with the life she has!  She is amazing to me!  Happy Birthday sweet girl!

Its Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!!

We got our tree today!  We go to the same place every year. As is the tradition, we picked the first tree we saw as we drove in!   It is a bit smaller than we normally get, but we love it!  Also, my favorite lights we have been using for 20 years finally quit working!  I am sad since lights like this with the chaser and fading functions are harder and harder to find!  We put some red and green lights on for this year and while it is different, it is still beautiful!

Toys For Tots

We were running some errands when we noticed Star Wars had come to the Kohl's parking lot!  They were part of the Toys For Tots organization, which is very near and dear to my heart as Adrienne received a gift through them on her very first Christmas!  So we hurried home and grabbed a new toy from my stash and headed back.  The kids got to sit in a Humvee and meet some marines and pose with some Star Wars favorites! 

 We all thought Hans Solo was in charge of the Millennium Falcon?  No, its Chewbacca!!  Such a DIVA!

 Marine buddies!

Joseph just had to go ask the Marines if there were any Marines in Star Wars.  He was told yes, the Imperial army did indeed have an amphibious strike team!  Good to know!

Senior Pictures...Part 1

Sr Pics On Location @ Stub Stewart State Park
Starring Jacob Stafford
Directed by Mom and Adrienne
Photography by Adrienne