God Bless Us Everyone!

Merry Christmas to all! What a happy holiday we have had, and we hope you have, too. Here are some shots of the action around here!
First things first, however, was Kwint's birthday... here he is making a wish...

The Robinson's came to help us eat Calzones....

The Miller's came to support the cause....

Brenny took this picture of me, not a bad aim. :)

Kwint had a great birthday and the party was super fun.

Next up, Christmas Eve at the Robinson's! Tam made chicken pot pie and Dave made his ever famous cinnamon rolls... Cinnabon has nothing on these...

Here is Brenny enjoying his cinnamon roll-- who needs a fork... or hands, for that matter!

After dinner and a couple good games of Mafia and Screaming Viking we opened our traditional Christmas Eve PJ's. This year the boys got bathrobes, per request by Kaeleb, who loved his so much he wore all the next day over his clothes.
Here is Brennan in his sports robe.

Kaeleb got pirates, to match his PJ's.

Sadie, Tam, and Jaiden (sorry, none of Kwint and I-- we give each other workout clothes, which just can't compete with tiger print PJ's.)

After a movie we went home to put out the cookie plate and reindeer oats, then settled into bed at the early hour of eleven o'clock. (Santa was up until one, however!!) Here is the result:

They started with their stockings, which provided their favorite presents, little Star Wars figurines! Kaeleb got Luke and R2D2

Brenny got OB-1 and Captain Rex

Santa was good to us this year and brought us all a Wii, which has been entertaining and helped burn a few holiday calories, which we needed.

The boys got scooter from Kwint and I. Bren on a Radio Flyer:

Kaeleb got a Razor:

Kwint and I got a masssage chair and foot massager from his parents-- When the Robinsons came over that afternoon we took turns playing the Wii and sitting in the massage parlor. :)

It was a very relaxing Christmas with our family. We went to the Robinson's for another movie that night and ate leftovers. They are the best brother and sister anyone could hope for, by the way.
Today we got up early and drove up through Parowan to Brianhead Resort where Kwint and Jaiden went snowboarding and the rest of us went tubing. It was soooo fun!! It was about 100 degrees cooler than we are used to (5 degrees, to be exact) but our snowclothes kept us nice and toasty as we sailed down the mountain. Kaeleb and Bren took one run and then both threw fits about how fast and scary it was, so we had to go to the baby sled area and Tam and I took turns tubing and babysitting.
Here we are on the way, being silly.

Here are the cute boys on the tubes they loathed entirely.

The part they did like was the tailgate party where we ate lunch. Tee Hee.

It is going to be hard to get back into the rhythm of life... but here we go anyway... Welcome 2010!

Oh, Santa!

Last night for FHE we went with the Millers to see the lights at the temple. So, maybe it's no Temple Square excursion, but hey, it was fun and beautiful, 20 degrees warmer, and only takes 10 minutes. The boys were happy to be running wild and free and we appreciated the beauty of the temple.

Gina and Mary Lynne

Brennan and Kwint

Kaeleb, McKay, and Nathan

Afterward, we came to our house for hot chocolate and you will never believe who knocked on our door!!

Kaeleb and Santa!

Nathan, McKay and Santa.

What a fun thing to have happen! Brennan fell asleep on the way home and if you know anything about Brenny's wacky sleeping habits you will understand why we did not wake him up for the big Ho, Ho, Ho event. He may use it against us later in his life, but someday he will have a son like himself and understand.

We spent last weekend at Grandpa and Grandma Kemp's. I forgot the camera so I will insert pics later when Gpa emails them to me cuz we had some serious fun!! Kwint went snowboarding with Kris and 3 of our cute nieces, and the boys and I built a snowman, a snow fort, and had a snowball fight. Oh, the fun!!! (What I will not talk about is the disaster of a shopping trip getting the boys outfitted for snow play. Let's just say that everyone in Layton had a good earful of just how mean a mom I am and just how naughty my boys can be. Luckily, we all redeemed ourselves in the nick of time before Santa rescinded Christmas for the whole lot of us.)

Parenting is not always peachy. Mostly not peachy. I always hesitate to write anything negative in my blogs, because who wants to read about that? But I use it for a journal because I never have time to write in a personal journal and if I don't at least allude to the difficulty, I will, on some future day, forget all the reasons for the mental and emotional breakdowns and wonder why I used to be so crazy and grumpy.

Saturday night at Grandma's we had a serious party. Well, not serious, it was actually quite silly. We celebrated the 5 December birthdays in our family (Tam, Coby, Dave, Kwint, and Jaiden, in that order)and had a little cousin to cousin gift exchange. It was really, really fun. Brennan got a punching bag from Romalyn. Oh, man, was that ever the most "fwavowite" thing he has ever received! Kaeleb and Talan both got the same thing from their cousins- a space police lego kit. Kaeleb was yelling "It's what I wanted! It's what I wanted! How did they know? How did they know!" Oh, what fun!

The boys keep saying the funniest things, and I keep forgetting to write them down. I will at least jot down a couple, but I know I am forgetting some really good ones...

We have been listening to a lot of Christmas music and Brennan has been singing all the songs in medley form, such as "Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way to the winter wonderland and Fwosty the Snowman and Wudolph the Wed-nosed Weindeer are baby it's cold outside!" He is sooo funny. He loves the song "Santa Baby" and has started calling Kaeleb "Budder Baby" all the time.

Kwint got a stuffed Yoda from his parents and Brenny was playing with it. I said "Brennan, Yoda likes to say "Do or do not, there is no try." Then, I heard him pretending with Yoda and saying "Der is no twy. I tan't twy! I tan't twy! I just wanna twy and I tan't!!" (I love the way he talks- he says T for the C,K sound- ie, Taeleb, Tutumber, Tan't" and D for the G sound- I dot it!, do away, I want a piece of dum, etc.)

Today's funny quote of the day tops the cake, though. We had Brennan's playgroup at our house this morning. Kaeleb is on winter break, so he was the ring leader of this big group of toddlers. The boys were all sword fighting and had ganged up on Brennan (a little taste of his own medicine, I'd say) and Bren was getting really mad. My friend went to check on them and said she saw Brennan sitting on his knees with his fists clenched and then she heard Kaeleb say, "Watch out guys, when you see his ears turn red it means he's GONNA BLOW!" The moms all got a good laugh out of that one.

More will come tomorrow... Happy almost 32 years to my sweetie tomorrow!!

Christmas Prep

Shopping, wrapping, singing, mailing.... ah, the hustle and bustle of the holiday season is upon us and we are having fun. We are officially (almost) finished shopping and well into the string of work, church and family parties which fill the month of December. Kaeleb is keeping a careful tally on how many days until Christmas and the kids are pretty excited. I think Kwint and I are even more excited. It is soooo fun to be the parents and experience the magic of giving. It's also nice to have a bit of leverage in the discipline department... "Don't you dare touch that... the elves are watching!" Here are a few candids from the week!




(The Kirby guy came and cleaned our carpet in an effort to sell us a 2500 dollar vacuum. This was the result. I appreciate my clean carpet, but I did not buy the vacuum, as tempted as I was.)

We worked hard all week, and had a really fun weekend. Friday night was the Christmas Party for the Biggest Loser Resort at Fitness Ridge. We had soooo much fun!! We left the boys with one of the two babysitters they like and headed off to wait in a frigid (yes, it was actually frigid here) parking lot to get organized in to teams where we departed off to a scavenger hunt of sorts. By sorts, I mean, they gave us clues that led us to 4 different stores where they gave us gift cards and sent us shopping. Huh? Wow! They were so generous and kind-- we were totally not expecting to go shopping, and it was fun because it was a race. There were about a hundred of us running through Best Buy and the mall and people were laughing at us. One of the employees was asked by a shopper "Are you from around here? I'm from out of town... and I just wondered, why is everyone running?"

We all met at a hotel for dinner and then played some silly games. Fitness Ridge is a great organization and we have come to love the people there. They went all out with the games and worked really hard to make sure everyone was having fun. We blew up balloons and shoved them into the legs of pantyhose, decorated human Christmas trees (of which, I was one-- not so fun as real trees-- hard to breathe while wrapped in paper), and we watched candles burn down through balls of ice cream.

On Saturday we shopped all day and spent the evening with our friends. We went to Olive Garden for Mary Lynne's birthday and watched a Christmas movie. We love our friends so much.

My brain is so full of all the Christmas prep yet to do... but instead I am sitting around watching "Santa Baby 2"

Thanksgiving Day

We have so much to be thankful for this holiday season and we enjoyed celebrating with our famly last week. We are grateful especially for our family and our health, and for the chance we have to work and serve. We have had a chance to learn some good lessons in the area of service recently, which will bless us forever... but first: Some random shots of Thanksgiving Day>

Grandpa Tom and Kwinten (I love this pic- they are the best of friends and we love our Pa very much!)

Krystal and Brennan eating grapes. Brennan had a huge one in his mouth in this picture.
As usual, the grown ups spent all day in the kitchen preparing and mostly eating... but the kids spent the day downstairs with their cousins!

Anna and Kaeleb- The kids drew and cut out paper Bazookas to blow up all the bad guys who came to Thanksgiving dinner. We were the safest family in the west.

We had a lot of fun together. In the afternoon, Grandma and Grandpa stayed with the littles while the rest of us went to see New Moon. Oh wow- we totally loved it, of course. On Black Friday we slept in... while everyone else went shopping, because our kids were up all night coughing. We did hit the stores after lunch when things had calmed down a bit, and had fun. We went to Bailee's 8th birthday party at the Parkers. We always love a good Parker party. :) Saturday we went to see a Christmas Carol, which was really well done by Disney.

So, it was a happy and fun weekend, which we needed, because we had a really long week after that...

The best thing that happened was that on Monday my big brother's new wife had a baby boy... Lucas Alan McDaniel. I was sad that I couldn't be there, but it was nice to get pictures and talk on the phone.

The week before Thanksgiving my friend Brynn had a baby boy and the week after, my friend Andrea had a baby boy, so I am feeling surrounded by new baby stories. It is fun to meet new little ones but I have to admit that I am not jealous. Brenny is still my baby. :)

So, here is the long story of the long week. The kids were sick, which makes any week a long one. Kaeleb had croup and Brenny had bronchitis. Then, on Thursday night I hurt my back and was literally leveled. I have never been injured to this extent. I layed on the floor completely unable to move, in so much pain that I started going into shock-- granted I am wimp, so it doesn't take much to put me into shock.

We have a friend who is a chiropractor, so after giving me a blessing, Kwint called Jon, my hero. They carried me to his car where he drove me to and they carried me into his office where he adjusted, re-adjusted and tractioned my back. We took him away from his family from 9 to 11 pm, and he brought his daughter to babysit our kids and he wouldn't let us pay him. Then, an hour later, I walked out. I couldn't walk alone, but I could walk.

That night I realized how lucky I am to be married to Kwint. The boys were coughing all night and I couldn't sleep at all. The boys and I were in the bed and Kwint slept on the couch, getting up every few minutes to walk me to the bathroom, bring us all medicine, water and extra pillows all night long. It was horrible to feel so needy and not be able to help. He was so tired but he took really good care of us all.

The whole experience taught me to let others serve me. I am pretty independent, and I hate asking for help, but I had to. I laid in bed worrying about how in the world I would take care of my kids on Friday. Then I remembered that I could call the Relief Society and I was filled with peace and gratitude. Kwint took the morning off and my neighbor Mindy came over in the afternoon to cheer me up and play with my kids. My niece came after school to do my dishes and play with the boys, and my visiting teacher brought us dinner. It was so wonderful!!

I went to the chiropractor again yesterday and I almost all the way better now, which is absolutely amazing to me. He said I can start exercising tomorrow as long as I don't do anything that hurts. I am so thankful because I really thought it was the end of me when I was laying on the floor unable to move 3 nights ago. It feels like a miracle.

I have been thinking about service lately, anyway. I have often wished I were better at serving others. I don't have the gift that some have, to see a need or feel a prompting and know what to do. I get so stuck in my routine and go about my life not thinking about much else. I admire others who are so thoughtful and giving, but it just doesn't seem to be one of my spiritual gifts.

So, a few months ago, I started praying for the gift of becoming more service oriented and to receive promptings of needs I can fill. I wish I could say that I am suddenly amazing at it, but I haven't changed much. In fact, I forgot that I had said those prayers. But I have realized last week that God answered my prayer anyway-- even though I am still unaware, I have been getting more phone calls from the compassionate service leader and emails from the Relief Society, so I've been able to provide dinners and babysit children, and help with Christmas projects. I love it! This church is so perfect, that even us imperfect people are given the chance and reminded to serve and do the things the Lord wants us to do.

And now, when I was in my hour of need, my giving was given back to me. And so I am thankful-- thankful that I can serve, thankful to have been served, thankful that I can walk, thankful for people who I love who also love me, and thankful for God and His perfect plan.