Christmas Day with Family

We had a fantastic day at Jason's parents' house with his family. All of his brothers were home for the holidays and we all had a blast catching up and of course the brothers were well into flipping each other crap like old times!!

The boys!! Tyler, Chris, Jason and Shaun

Jase and Max getting ready for dinner.

The cousins. Hudson, Max, Emmy, Matthew and Tori.

Getting the kids settled before we eat!!

Everyone at Gram's massive table! It was an amazing meal :)

Presents at Gram and Grandpa's

After we opened up our presents here at our house we got cleaned up and went over to Gram and Grandpa's to exchange gifts and have some delicious dinner!

Jason got Max ready and tucked his pants into his socks and it looked so goofy that we had to take a picture!

Tori opening her present from Gram and Grandpa in her holiday dress.

Hudson and Max opening their presents. Max was having some difficulties and thought to bite it open!!

Grandpa came over to give him a hand!!

The kids in front of Gram and Grandpa's tree :)

Christmas Morning!!

This Christmas morning was wonderful!! I got to sleep in until 8am. It was heavenly. The kids were so worn out from the days before that they were exhausted. Anyway, Christmas morning brought some happy kids.

The loot!!

Max and his bike from Santa!

Max, Emily and her Nintendo ds, Tori and her pink scooter and Hudson and his red scooter

Max and his bear rug from his brother and sisters!!

Getting Ready for Santa

On Christmas Eve after we go to the temple we go to Sonic for some ice cream and then home so they can open their holiday pj's. Then they get the cookies and drink for Santa and now that they are older they write a letter to Santa. Tori made some Reindeer food at preschool so she went out onto the back patio to sprinkle it for them. Jason calls it "dookie twinkle food"...don't ask, haha.

Tori and her reindeer food!

Their Christmas pj's!!

Daddy and Max :)

Emily and Hudson composing the letter to Santa.

Christmas Eve Tradition

For the past five years or so we had started a tradition with Jason's parents to meet on Christmas Eve to go and see the Mesa LDS Temple all lit up for the holidays. This year it was wonderful. The lights were beautiful and we went early enough that it wasn't too insanely busy. It was even better because Chris and Steph and their family were there to spend it with us along with Jason's Nanna from Calgary.

The kids had a real kick looking at the lights with their cousin Matthew. They had been looking forward to his visit for a long time!

Emily, Gram and Nanna

Matthew, Hudson, Nanna and Emily

Steph and Baby Allison

Emily ~ Miss No I Won't Smile Nicely so I'll just be a dork!! lol

Nanna, Gram, Tori, Emmy, Jase and Max

Christmas Dance Recital

Today the girls had their Christmas dance recital. I wasn't able to take any photos of Emily in her costumes since she had them back to back and was changing in the dressing rooms and we were out in the audience. For the Christmas recital the costumes are provided by the dance studio so the girls put them on at the recital and then change back into their leotards or street clothes when they are done.

Tori on the other hand needed help getting ready since she was so nervous so I was able to get a quick picture of her in her costume. No she isn't smiling but the costume was pretty cute. Tori's dance number was to I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus in her tap shoes.

Emily had three dance numbers. Her first was a ballet number in which she wore a Christmas nightgown and danced to When Christmas Comes To Town from the Polar Express Movie. Her second number for her musical theater group was called Toy Sack by the B52's and she wore an elf costume. It was really cute. Her third number was for her tap/jazz class and she danced to Hot Chocolate also from the Polar Express Movie. She was dressed in a striped candy cane type body suit and wore a white apron and scarf above her bun and carried a bright red serving tray.

They both did very well and Jason's parents came with me to watch them. Jason stayed at home with the boys. We taped it for them (even though photography and video recorders were prohibited...)so they could see it when we got home and I made a dvd of all of their dance numbers. It was a great day to get us further into the holiday spirit. I can hardly believe that in less than a week Christmas will be here!!!

Deb Needs....

My friend Sarah found my blog site and so in turn i popped in on hers and read her latest post. It sounded like fun so i tried it...You are supposed to go to Google and then type in your name and then add needs after it to see what you need for the holidays. (make sure to put your name and needs in quotes ~ makes results a little easier to decipher - ie. "Deb needs" )I did it and got a good laugh about my results :)

Deb needs to work to be free.

Hmm, you mean what I do every day with four kids isn't considered work? And if I worked outside the home I could be free? Wow...let me consider this one, hehe.

Deb needs a desk.

Hmm, nope, I really, really like my desk that I have.

Deb needs healing.

Well my body is feeling kind of old and any healing to take away those early morning aches and pains would be welcomed :)

Deb needs help-got in trouble.

Well...I sure hope not. At the moment the only trouble I have is trying to remember if I did all I was supposed to do today and if i did forget something I hope it won't be too serious, lol.

Deb needs our prayers.

Well I am always up for help from any source. No I haven't been good about attending church this year and yes I will fix that in the new year. I promise!!

Deb needs a professional evaluation.

This might be a tad scary haha. I know I have many faults but to have someone who is certified to tell me what they are? Nah...i'll pass thanks :)

Deb needs a revelation when a grisly axe murderer kills a man and demolishes his computer.

Umm...ooookay.

and last but not least...

Deb needs a gun.

Hmm, well if you say so. We are in the USA, lol. I'll admit I have thought from time to time about wishing I had one while I followed one of those out of state cars on the freeway going 1/3 of the posted speed limit. I'm sure my kids have picked up a few choice phrases from me which i certainly hope they forget...nope not gunna happen, lol.

Well that was fun and educational at times hehe and I only listed the first few. Give it a shot and see what you need for the holidays.

Honor Choir!

At the start of the school year Emily's music teacher asked her if she wanted to be in the honor choir at school. She came home very excited and we were very proud of her for getting asked. Of course we said, go for it! I don't call the melodious harmonies(yeah right!!) that come out of my mouth as singing, so she couldn't have gotten this from me. Jason on the other hand does have a very nice voice but doesn't sing that often.

What really makes us proud is that she is deaf in her right ear and yet still has a beautiful voice. We found that out when she had her kindergarten screening tests. It completely blew us out of the water and apparently it was herditary and she has had it since birth. She is the only one of our kids born in Canada and up there they don't check the hearing like they do down here in the US. Anyway...she hasn't known any different and you wouldn't know it to talk to her and it's pretty amazing listening to her sing.

The honor choir practices early in the morning on Tuesdays before school, much to Jason's joy, lol. (he is the one who takes the kids to school in the morning~luckily we only live five mins from the school)

The honor choir had their first concert of the year for the parents/families this past week and they sang Christmas songs and some others which were some of their favorites.

They ordered the kids choir golf shirts and they came in the day before the concert and as you can tell from the photo Emily's was a tad too big :) (Better too big than small in my opinion.)

Long and short, it was a beautiful concert and she did a wonderful job!!

Smores!!!

Last weekend Jason suggested that we make some smores with the kids. I got our smores maker out of the garage that we had gotten as a Christmas gift from the Corbett's many years ago when we were watching JD when he was a baby. Our kids have never made smores before so we thought it might be a fun activity and surprise.

To say they had a blast would be an understatement. Actually we all had a lot of fun. Jase and I included! Hudson and Tori jumped in from the get go and started roasting their marshmellows but Emily was nervous about what would happen if your marshmellow caught on fire. I explained to her that the BEST marshmellows are the ones that get pretty toasted :) I showed her by putting my marshmellow in the flame and letting it catch on fire and then doing the only thing a mom can think of...peeling the outer layer off and then eating it....yummm!! Then putting it back in the fire to roast the next level. Brings back memories from my childhood, haha.
That was all it took and she joined in on the fun.

Max loved that he got all gooey and sticky! He wasn't allowed to roast his own but he sure loved it whenever anyone else would make one for him.

Tori ended up getting some pink marshmellow in her hair at one point but that didn't slow her down in the slightest.

Hudson thought marshmellows on fire looked cool so he was constantly lighting his on fire just to watch it burn...should we be worried? hmmm
We picked up white and pink marshmellows and in the end the white ones got the most votes. Pink were good but not as good as the plain white ones apparently.
It was a fun time and since then they have been asking if we can make them again.

It was raining tonight so we weren't able to go out for our nightly walk to look at Christmas lights after dinner, so we made smores instead. Nothing like loading the kids up on sugar right before bath and bed. urgh.

Anyway, they seem to be a huge hit in our house. Just wish that American chocolate didn't taste so crappy. I would kill for some decent Canadian chocolate:)

Upgrading :)

I loved my car. It was my first new car I have ever owned. It had all the bells and whistles I could have asked for and more but my family had slowly started to outgrow it :( It did seat seven but the rear seats were stadium seating which meant that they had less leg room than the ones in the middle seats. As my kids got taller they started to whine about who sat in the back. Plus whenever my parents visited we had to take two cars. So....we started looking around for something larger to fit the bill for us and we ended up finding it. We test drove many different cars and I really liked the Ford Expedition but the one I really wanted, The Eddie Bauer model was just too expensive brand new. I couldn't justify going in debt again when my current car was paid off and I learned my lesson the last time about buying a car brand new...depreciation the moment you drive it off the lot :(

We ended up finding an Eddie Bauer at another dealership that was a 2008 with not many miles on it, the price was right and they would give us a great trade in on mine, so we took it.

I am so happy to have all the extra room and I am glad that I didn't settle for the other models that didn't have all the things I wanted. Leather is a MUST when you have kids! I was a little leary about having a black SUV in Arizona for our summers but I did okay with a dark blue one for three years so I figured it will work out okay.

I'll have to admit that I really like being higher up and surrounded by airbags, especially when I'm surrounded by snowbirds who don't have a clue where they are let alone where they are driving or that they are driving at all!! haha ~ urgh

Out with the old...

In with the new :)

A Visit With Santa!!

The kids have been asking for a few weeks about when they could go and see Santa. Jase and I finally decided that gift ideas should be 'locked in' so Santa wasn't running around at the last minute tracking down gifts . So on Saturday morning we got up and got the kids ready and off we went to the mall so that they could sit on Santa's knee and tell him what they wanted.

Max wasn't too sure of who this odd looking Grandpa dude was in the red suit but he was a sport and sat on his knee anyway, haha. Max likes everyone! We were in Costco on Monday and he pointed to this old guy with a whiteish beard and said "Santa". I couldn't help chuckling. At least he got something out of his visit!! Arizona is filled to maximum capacity with snow birds(old folks who come to the warmth for the winter months) and it makes shopping trips and driving anywhere take a little longer than usual.

Anyway, the gift requests were as follows:

Emily ~ Nintendo ds

Hudson ~ red scooter

Tori ~ pink Barbie scooter

Max ~ tricycle

Jase and I laugh over the monetary variations in the gift requests but at the present time they are too young to grasp that concept yet and we will revel in that fact for now. Later when they are older i'm sure they will compare gifts down to the last penny ( i hope not but i know i did, haha) Hudson originally wanted an Indiana Jones whip and we said, no to that idea. I could just imagine my lamps, the dog, his siblings and the tv being mistakenly(ya right when it comes to his sisters, especially Tori) hit by his whip. We told him maybe for his birthday, with us hoping that he will forget by then!! Hey! It's a while until August 30th :)

We had fun and then when we got home Jase put the lights on the house and I put up the lights on the palm trees and bushes and wreaths on the garage and the front door and then garland around the front door as well. We think the house looks pretty good. I'll have to take a pic tonight once it gets darker before our nightly walk.

I LOVE the holidays!!!!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a wonderful day at our house this year. Jason's parents and his youngest brother Tyler came and had dinner with us. Everyone ate too much food but Thanksgiving only comes once a year so its worth it!!

Before they arrived we figured we'd take some photos of the kids dressed up in their holiday clothes...and also before they spilled food and who knows what else on themselves!!

We decided to do some in color and others in black and white for a different look. We were pretty happy with how they came out.

Emmy, Tori and Deb

Hudson, Jase and Max

Emily, Jase and Tori

Emily, Tori and Hudson just hangin' out.

Hudson, Emmy, Deb, Max and Tori. Man its really hard to take photos with four kids. Trying to get everyone to look at the same time. It almost makes them more realistic when you get the goofy looks and frustrated faces and wandering eyes. It seems the kids hate photos as much as I do :)

The monkeys!

Hudson trying not to laugh.

Tori being cheesy.

Tori and Emm. I really love this photo which shows that they can be loving to each other when they want to!!!

Bike Riding 101

The kids have been asking...or shall we say begging for a chance to take their bikes out again after we bought them ummm....yeah about a year ago. Okay so we suck as parents sometimes but time just got away from us and I wasn't able to take them out myself and watch Max so we just kept putting it off and putting it off.

Well...we decided that we would take them out on Sunday to a local park and let them ride and crash a lot. The park was packed so we went to a parking lot a short ways away and let them have at it. They did amazingly well :) Emily caught on before Hudson which surprised both Jase and I since he is usually more athletic than Emm but I guess her dance is paying off. She was off riding around on her own a while before he got the hang of it and i'm sure it was ticking him off that she was doing it and he wasn't. Tori meanwhile was speeding past both of them on her bike with training wheels on, jumping off curbs and being her usual wild child self. All in all it was a great afternoon and it finished with everyone feeling pretty happy with themselves about their bike riding skills.

Yes yes yes, we know...Emily is almost 9 and is now just learning how to ride a bike. Our street just isn't set up for riding bikes like mine or Jason's were when we were kids and there is no way I will let them ride over to their friends like I used to do when I was younger. The world unfortunately just isn't the same as it was back then...man i'm dating myself aren't I? haha

One nice thing about living in Arizona is that its almost December and we are out in t-shirts, shorts and flip flops! Gotta love it :)

Hudson and Max...Max wanted to wear Tori's old helmet. Yep those are princesses on that helmet, it made Jase cringe a little when he put it on!! haha

Emily and Tori riding off into the sunset...well i guess it isn't into the sunset, maybe away from it??

Tori and Deb and her "hot mamma bike"


Jase giving Hudson some pointers.

Finally!!! They got it :)

Seaworld :)

On our final day in San Diego we went to Seaworld. We saw all of the shows and the kids thought the animals were pretty cool. Emily was dying to go on the Atlantis ride (the log ride, water fall ride) so we took the kids on it and it was extremely tough to get them to want to do anything else after going on it a few times. Once again there weren't any line ups at all and we were able to go on back to back rides. We even convinced Jason to go on it. He refuses to go on rollercoasters but he sucked it up and went on this one. On the back part of the ride, after you come down the big waterfall, you go up inside the ride and it becomes a regular rollercoaster. As we came out of the elevator part at the top I heard Jason mutter behind me when he saw the roller coaster, "Oh sh*t". hahaha. I couldn't help not laughing. It couldn't have been that bad, he went on it one more time after that! We were all pretty wet when we left that ride and were lucky that it wasn't too cold and we were able to dry off fairly quickly. My dad got pretty wet on one of the rides right at the end of the day and was shivering through the Shamu show. I'm sure on the ride home he had the heater on and the seat heaters on as well :)

Legoland!!

On our first full day in San Diego we took the kids to Legoland. None of us had been there before but many of our friends said that it was a fun place for kids our age. The kids ended up having a blast. I was amazed by the Lego figures/structures etc. Nothing I ever made out of Lego ever turned out that good, haha. It was a nice cool 80 degrees and there weren't any line ups which was very nice!