Pre and Post Christmas, Wrapping Party, Christmas Presents Gone Bad....

 We actually got around to taking a picture of all the kids in their Sunday clothes with them all smiling Sunday morning.  It was a Christmas miracle--haha just joking:

Daniel started basket ball last week.  For some reason they thought he was in 4th grade so they assigned him to a 4th grade team.  Too bad he's only in 3rd grade and a whole head shorter then everyone else.  Daniel is the short boy standing toward the left side of the picture wearing the blue tank jersey: 

The Wednesday before Christmas break Matthew had his Life Skills field trip with his class.  They first went to lunch at Wendy's and then over to Dollar Tree to pick out gifts for everyone in his family.  When they got back to school the teachers helped all the kids wrap all their gifts.  Matthew was so excited to come home and put all his wrapped presents to us under our tree:

Also Matthew's old 6th grade teacher and her aide sent Matthew a note through the Davis School District's Pony Express Mail service.  It was a sweet note and I am thankful she still thinks about Matthew.  The note said, "Matthew We miss having you in our class.  Hope you are doing really well.  I saw you on the news!  Merry Christmas!  From, Mrs. Draper".

 I am so glad Matthew really gets to know his teachers and they get to know him.  That's one nice thing about having Matthew in special education.  The teachers really get to know all the kids personally and really try to help them.

Sarah is really into drawing and art.  She spends most of her time just doodling.  She wrote Santa this cute note before Christmas:

 It said, "Dear Santa I will be so good!  I will even be one of your elfs.  by Sarah to Santa.  can I be on the good list?  Mark yes or no by srckl (circle) it."  I love it!

Matthew's Sunday School teacher is a recently returned missionary.  He does really well with Matthew.  A few Sundays ago the teacher asked Matthew to help him in his lesson by finding an appropriate church video to go along with the lesson.  Matthew was more then happy to help (with Aaron overseeing him).  Afterward the teacher sent Aaron this text about Matthew.  (Aaron texted it on to me so that's why it says Aaron at the top):

 It was so sweet.  I love that Matthew is able to find awesome people in his life!

In all the preparation for Christmas Aaron and I realized we hadn't wrapped any presents by the 23rd.  Doh!!  I had been gone most of the afternoon since we met up with the Einzingers to go to the dollar theater to keep the kids busy.  It was fun for everyone.  When the movie was over I came home to one of the best presents ever--Aaron had gotten off work a few hours early so he could finish up his Christmas shopping and to clean the bathrooms for me as a surprise.  What an awesome surprise!!  That was one of the best presents I got!!  Later on that night we had a wrapping party.  We grabbed some take out, sent the kids to bed a bit early and then got started.  We watched Arrested Development while we wrapped.  We have had a wrapping party for the past two years.  Even though I HATE wrapping having a wrapping party makes it a little more fun....

The next day we hosted the Christmas Eve dinner at our house.  My brother and his family as well as my sister and her family and G&G T came.  We had a yummy ham dinner and had a nice time visiting with everyone.  The cousins played and watched a movie together while the adults visited and played a few games.  It was a nice afternoon.  We missed having my sister Jennifer from Ohio and her family here, though.  Here's everyone (all 20 people) at dinner:

 When it started getting dark G&GT and our family headed out to look at the Christmas lights in Ogden Village.  We also looked around Clinton at some of the pretty houses.  Here we all are at the Ogden Village:

 This was the first year we have been without a stroller.  Makes me a little sad that my kids are growing up, but it was nice not having to navigate the huge stroller through the crowds of people, though.  However, it would have been easier to have Noah strapped in a stroller.  He was a flight risk every where we went.  We almost lost him a few times.  He also thought walking in his knees would be a good idea, too.  When he did things like that I wish we had brought the stroller!

 By the time we got home we were all pretty cold.  We had some hot chocolate/cider and I made a quick batch of cookies to leave for Santa:

 Then Noah got to put out his reindeer food that he had gotten from preschool.  The package said, "Merry Christmas Love Your Teachers.  Reindeer Food.  Sprinkle on the lawn at night, The Moon will make it sparkle bright, As Santa's reindeer fly and roam, This will guide them to your home."  It was a package of oatmeal with glitter mixed in with it.

 Noah made sure he put it on the grass:

 When Aaron and I had had our wrapping party I wasn't quite done sewing our Christmas jammies so they didn't get wrapped.  I did finish them right before we handed them out though.  Here's our family in our matching Christmas jammies:

 I can tell the boys are growing fast because I definitely needed more fabric this year then last year!

After getting our jammies on Daniel read us the Christmas story from the Bible:

 Then everyone went to bed.  Matthew, Josh and Daniel could choose to sleep in Sarah or Noah's room that night.  All three boys chose Sarah's room since Noah can't sleep unless the light is on.  Sarah's room was crowded, but Noah enjoyed his solitude.  The next morning Santa had come:

 We made the kids hide behind the hall until we were ready for the craziness to begin:

It went from youngest to oldest in the opening of the presents.  Here's Noah:

 Sarah:

 Daniel:

 Josh:

 Matthew:

 Aaron--I made his jammies a bit on the long side, but nothing that rolling them up can't fix:

 My turn:

A few weeks ago Sarah noticed we didn't have any presents under our tree so she wrapped some up for everyone.  The present from Sarah to me was a bunch of used crayons taped together with a used pencil.  Everyone else's presents from her were similar items as well.  We just smiled and told her thank you and she was happy.

 Josh saved up his classroom money and bought presents for everyone.  It was pretty thoughtful.  Daniel did the same thing.  Only Daniel wanted to be sneaky about it and not tell anyone what he'd gotten.  As Josh was emptying his stocking he found a moldy donut.  Daniel had bought the donut for Josh with his classroom money and snuck it into Josh's stocking a week earlier.  Daniel didn't realize that a donut wouldn't last a week without going bad.  When Daniel saw the moldy donut that Josh pulled out of his stocking he was pretty upset about it.  Poor guy.  Josh told him thanks for the donut anyway.  I told Daniel I would take him out to get Josh another donut the next day to give to Josh to help him feel better.  Here's the aftermath of the crazy morning:

 One of Noah's presents was tall and he took it over to measure it against the wall we measure all the kids before school to see how tall it was.  What a funny boy:

 G&G T even got in on the action:

 As we were opening presents I saw Daniel had a nice fat lip.  I asked him how he'd gotten it (the picture doesn't really do it justice).  That's when Josh told us that Daniel was snoring and Josh had tried to hit his forehead to get him to stop when he accidentally hit his lip.  Judging by the fat lip it looks like Josh meant some serious business when he hit him.  Poor Daniel:

We got a white Christmas.  After all the presents were opened all the kids wanted to go outside to play in the snow instead of playing with their new things--Crazy kids!

Of course we kept up our traditional Christmas dinner at Burger King.  I had spent the previous day cooking so a Christmas present to me was getting the day off and eating dinner at Burger King.  We have done that for many years now and it's great!

A few days after Christmas we went to our bank to change in a jar of coins that we had received for Christmas.  Everyone had to come along and watch the machine count the money:

 Then on the way home Noah fell asleep just like this:

 He'd been partying a little too hard it looks like.

Saturday night we headed over to see the lights at Temple Square.  It was so pretty despite the cold temperatures!  Again it was the first year we didn't bring a stroller, but there were a few times I wish we had.  Noah really is a flight risk--haha!

 It was so pretty!

 Of course Aaron and I had to stop by the fountain where Aaron proposed to me 15 years ago:

 The other day the kids were watching a show where one of the characters was eating a sandwich.  After watching the show Daniel announced that watching the character eat the sandwich it made him want a sandwich, too.  We talked a bit about the power of suggestion.  A few minutes later Aaron thought it would be funny to post this video in the middle of another show they were watching.  It popped up on the TV and interrupted the show they were watching.  This power of suggestion wasn't so well received, though.   Hey it was worth a try, right?!

Yesterday Noah was pretty squirmy during Sacrament meeting.  He finally fell asleep during the last hymn of the meeting--DOH!  I had to give him over to Aaron because I had to teach that day.  Noah was so upset.  He is a bit of a momma's boy and was offended that I was handing him over to Aaron to hold.  Aaron had to hold him for a few minutes before Noah was ready to come into class.  When he did come in to class Noah got upset at me for leaving him with Aaron--poor guy.  Life's rough when you're 4 years old!  Here's a picture that Aaron took in the foyer when Noah realized I was leaving him with Aaron.  He's trying not to cry:

I got released from primary yesterday.  I am a little sad to not be in there with my kids, but it will be a nice break after teaching straight for 3 years.  I may be able to get to know a few more people in our ward since I have only been in primary ever since we have moved in :).

It snowed quite a bit in the last 24 hours.  Matthew has been waiting for Aaron to get home so he can use the snow blower.  You thought it was Christmas day all over again when Matthew heard the garage door open when Aaron pulled in from getting home from work.

Burnt Offerings, Recitals, Whoops, Owie, Wheezy Boy

Here's our comings and goings for the last 10 days:

Last Monday Aaron volunteered to teach an hour long class to the after school STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) program about the scientific method and how he uses it in his engineering work up on base.  The STEM class is offered to all 5th and 6th grade students who are interested in learning more about science, technology, engineering and mathematics.  It is offered after school twice a month until the end of the school year.  It is overseen by one of the teachers at the elementary school who gets volunteers in engineering, mathematics, scientists, etc. from the community to come and teach on different subjects.  Aaron chose the scientific method.  Monday afternoon I came along to help Aaron set up and to keep an eye on Sarah, Noah and Daniel while Aaron was teaching.  Aaron brought along the laptop, but the only backpack he could find to put it in was Sarah's old Cinderella backpack.  I am glad Aaron is secure enough in his masculinity to be able to walk around the elementary school wearing a Cinderella backpack :). 

 Aaron talked to the 60+ kids about his education and about his work on his old project the EFV (expeditionary fighting vehicle).  He also had the kids design their own way to get 30 marines from 30 miles offshore to 60 miles inland.  Some of the kids came up with some interesting designs.  Aaron was afraid he couldn't fill the full 60 minutes, but he did and kept everyone's attention, too.  He is glad teaching that class is over, but he got asked to teach it again at a different elementary school.  DOH!!  Oh well at least he has everything already prepared.

  Last week Josh and Matthew had their Christmas piano recital.  They did great.  It is fun to see them perform.  Josh went first:

 Matthew went next and was very enthusiastic in his introduction of himself and his song:

 Their piano teacher is a really neat person.  Despite fighting stage 4 cancer she is always upbeat and happy.  She loves music and teaching and it shows.  She has a ton of students and they all did fantastic:

The other morning all of us got quite a surprise awakening.  Sarah decided to get up early and fix herself some toast.  She unfortunately burned it which set off the house fire alarm.  That is not a pleasant way to wake up for sure!  Matthew HATES fire alarms and flipped out when he heard it go off.  It took a while to calm him down afterward.  Sarah ate most of her toast even though it was pretty burned. It looked like a burnt offering to me haha--MMMMMM yummy.

 Sarah came home from school the other day and was excited to show me her newly lost tooth.  She was trying to open a glue stick at school and knocked it out (it was already loose anyway).  I am just glad her teacher took care of it so I didn't have to.  I HATE teeth!!

She insisted on putting the tooth under her pillow instead of in our tooth jar.  The next morning she came out and said the Tooth Fairy had come and had brought $3!!  Josh and Daniel quickly looked right at me questioningly.  Then Daniel came over and whispered to me, "Why does she get $3 when we only get $1?"  Good question.  I will have to ask the Tooth Fairy that came that question.  He might need to recheck his wallet....Whoops!

Since she is missing quite a few teeth right now it is pretty funny to see her try and eat apples.  However, her and Noah seem to manage because they love their apples.  As soon as Sarah gets home from school she immediately goes over and eats an apple or two for a snack.  Since she is missing a quite a few teeth it takes her a bit longer to eat the apple, though. However, watching her provides some funny entertainment for the rest of us, though.  Noah loves his apples, too:

 

Wednesday Josh had his first unofficial violin concert.  It really wasn't a concert, though.  All the orchestra students went around the elementary school to 'carol'.  They played Jingle Bells.  Here's Josh waiting to start the song:

It sounds a bit rough, but the orchestra has over 60 students in it with only one teacher.  Some of the students have never had any music background either.  They also only have a 45 minute class twice a week.  Taking all that into account Jingle Bells doesn't sound to shabby after about 2 1/2 months of class.

Yesterday was quite a crazy morning for me.  The night before all the kids helped me get their teacher Christmas gifts ready which was some hand soap with a note from the kids.  When I had gotten the hand soaps they came with a cute bag to wrap the soap in.  Well that morning I first got Matthew ready with his soaps for his bus drivers, teacher and classroom aides.  He had a field trip in the community that day, too so we had to make sure he had his money and Christmas list.  He was going to Wendy's for lunch and then to Dollar Tree after to pick out Christmas gifts for our family and his secret santa student at school.  That was crazy getting him out the door on to the bus.  After he left I had to get the other four ready and myself since we all had places we need to go that morning.  I had to find Noah some matching pajamas since he was having a pajama party at preschool and actually needed normal looking pajamas instead of wearing one of Dad's shirts.  That took some time.  Then I had to help Sarah get dressed again since her first pick of clothes looked like she was homeless.  Then I had to pack school lunches for everyone.  Then I had to comb Sarah's hair, which took some time.  When it was time for Josh, Daniel and Sarah to leave for school Sarah couldn't find her teacher gift.  We looked everywhere, but couldn't find it.  She was pretty upset.  I told her we would take care of it the next day, but she didn't like that idea.  I quickly grabbed a hand soap, but I didn't have anymore cute bags to wrap it in.  I quickly wrote a note from Sarah, but I couldn't find our Scotch tape since Sarah had used all of it in making her books.  The only tape I could find was some blue painters tape.  Hey beggars can't be choosers so I taped Sarah's note on to the soap.  It looked pretty red necked, but I was hoping the teacher would look past the appearance of the red neck soap and see it's the thought that counts.  When I got finished with the soap I went to hand it to Sarah only to find she had already left for school.  Oh well.  I locked the front door and then I went and started warming up the shower and undressed to get in.  When I was stepping into the shower I heard the doorbell ring multiple times.  Awesome.  I quickly grabbed my bathrobe, put it on and went to see who was wringing my doorbell.  It was Sarah coming back for her teacher gift.  Doh!!  I tried to tell her just to wait until the next day, but she got pretty upset.  I gave up and grabbed the redneck soap with painters tape holding the note on it and sent it with Sarah to school for her teacher.  I hoped she liked her red necked gift.....I then got into the shower when the phone rang.  I finished showering and got out and listened to the voice mail.  It was the orthodontist's office calling to see why Josh and Matthew hadn't shown up for their appointment that morning.  Double DOH!!  I had completely spaced the boys appointment!  That's when this saying popped into my mind:

I am having a hard time keeping track of everything nowadays.  I don't know if I am just getting old and forgetful or if there is just a ton of things to remember with our 7 member family or both.....I knew they had appointments coming up, but I thought I still had a few days.  I called the office back and they could squeeze the boys in at about 10 am if I could bring them then, if not their next appointment wouldn't be until the second week in January.  Josh has had a wire sticking out and poking his lip so the sooner the appointment the better.  I told them I would bring them in at 10.  It was currently 8:50 am and I still had to get myself dressed, Noah dressed and to preschool by 9am.  It would be cutting it close, too, since Matthew was leaving on his field trip int he community at 10:30 and I was supposed to volunteer in Daniel's class at 10:40.  Anyway, I got Noah to preschool a few minutes late and then turned around to check out Josh and Matthew from school.  Matthew was in the  middle of art class so it took him a few minutes to come to the office.  He had made a clay bowl and the art teacher was letting Matthew eat some ice cream from it.  Needless to say Matthew wasn't thrilled to be checked out of school at that time.  Here's Matthew's fancy clay bowl:

I then went and checked Josh out of school.  We hurried over to the orthodontist's office.  Luckily, they were able to get both boys back at the same time.  They finished and I was able to have Matthew back at the school at 10:30 and Josh at 10:40 and I was able to volunteer at 10:40 as well.   It was a crazy morning!

Matthew loved going on his field trip and was excited to come home and show me the wrapped presents he picked out for all of us.  Because of that and the kids presents they have made at school we now have some wrapped presents under our tree (I am such a slacker and don't wrap anything until the last minute):

Boys will be boys....Noah and Daniel were wrestling on my bed this morning.  I was in the kitchen packing lunches when I heard Noah start crying and Daniel try to soothe him and tell him not to tell mom.  Hmmmmmm......Noah only cried for a minute and then was back to normal.  Noah came out and started eating breakfast and that's when I noticed a nice swollen black bruise by his eye.  I asked what had happened and Daniel told me.  They were wrestling and Noah hit the corner of my bed with his eye.  I didn't get mad, but wow that looks owie.  I think being kid #5 he's a pretty tough boy, though.  He's had 4 siblings to wrestle with and it has toughened him up.  Had this happened to anyone else there would have been much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

 Pour Noah has had a rough week anyway.  We have had to stay home since Monday because he's had croup.  Blah.  He finally felt well enough to go to preschool yesterday.  However, he has now spread the wealth and Daniel has a cold and his currently having an asthma flair up.  We had to break out the nebulizer last night/ early this morning to help with the wheezing. DOH!!  Hopefully, we can get it under control and not have to see the doctor.  I sent him to school with his inhaler today so hopefully he won't have a problem....

Yesterday Daniel got to build a gingerbread house at school.  Unfortunately, right after he brought it home he dropped it and it broke into pieces.  Poor guy.  He was bummed, but what can you do?!  Here's his gingerbread house after an intense earthquake--haha:

 Aaron needed some work gifts so he asked me to make some Mt. Dew and Coca-Cola jelly.  I made these one afternoon:

The next morning I was a little perturbed that Josh had opened one of them to eat on his toast for breakfast.  That's when I found this comic to applicable:

Oh well what can you do?!

The other night for dinner we had some dirty rice and corn.  With all five kids we have never had a problem with anyone sticking food up their nose until then.  Noah thought he'd try it out.  Before I could stop him he had a kernel of corn stuffed pretty high in his nostril.  He kept trying to pick it back out, but was unsuccessful.  I walked over to get a tissue to help him blow his nose.  He did not like the way if felt in his nose:

I had him blow his nose and thankfully it shot right back out.  It was quite disgusting.  Hopefully he won't ever do that again because it was really gross!

I love seeing all the cute crafts the kids have made at school.  Sarah made me this cute stocking note:

 The inside says, "to Mom I love [you]. I rily (really) like when you help with my hoamwork (homework)!  by Sarah".

 Josh loves cooking.  During his library time at school this week he decided to check out this beauty of a book. YUCK!!  Josh and I have yet to make a recipe from it, but Josh keeps asking....

 Daniel made this in art:

 I think Aaron has successfully brainwashed Daniel!!

Matthew made these ornaments:

  Last of all I got a feel good postcard from Locks of Love saying they had gotten my hair.  Glad I could donate!