Emma performed in the school's Christmas choir this year. It was an ordeal, but absolutely worth her effort. I am extremely proud of her courage and talent! But don't tell that to her face or she'll go into pout mode. Regardless, Em enjoyed this and continues to amaze me with her desire to be involved in the arts. She is definitely dedicated to her craft!

Choir/Lighting Ceremony

I am sorry about the poor quality. I took this with my dinosaur of a camera. Enjoy!

Olivia - the Philanthropist

This year Em joined a Christmas choir. It requires her to be to school at 7:20!!! So O has been going to daycare in the morning with Ada (neighbor). David sent her over there yesterday with cold pizza for breakfast (that should be a whole new post) but Ada made her french toast and put the pizza in the fridge. Apparently O went in and grabbed it and took it to school. But not to eat. The school is doing a food drive for the Food Bank. She put the bag of pizza under the "holiday tree" at school for...and I quote "I put the pizza there for the poor people who don't have any food." She was distraught though because they then told her that she needed to bring cans. Way to go O - She didn't even tell us that she had a school project like that!
Today, O had shoved money in her pocket from her money jar. She and Emma were fighting about taking money to school. O wanted to "give it to the poor people." You have to love a kid with a heart like that! I love you Olivia!

Lighting Ceremony

Quit schmooshing my cheeks mom!

Our goofy and awesome family!

Me and Steph

I told you there would be a lot of posts....

On Saturday, we went to our city's annual lighting ceremony. We went with the youngest of David's brothers and his wife (one of my partner's-in-crime). It was really nice, mellow and we had a lot of fun just hanging out. We haven't done that in a while, so it was refreshing. The kids all loved the lights and the fireworks show.

I personally love the holidays - and not for the presents. I love the feeling of charity and hope. The hope that maybe next year will be better, less sadness and more joy. I also love celebrating the birth of Christ and the hope that gives us all.

Enjoy this season!

Grandma Marion

On Friday, November 28, 2008, Grandma Marion passed away. She was 80 years old. I will say that the best thing she ever did for my family was be kind to our daughter. It gave Em a chance to be close to an older person. And Grandma Marion was loving to her. She will forever be the Matriarch.

Black Friday

Happy mom and son!

Yummy Brazilian food and cousins!

You can't see this, but they are standing on the part of the train that shifts (think MUNI bus). They thought it was hilarious.

My nephew's first time on the train!

On Black Friday, I went to SLC with my oldest girl, my nephew, his mom, my niece and her dad to see Body Worlds. It was for my nephew's birthday. We rode the train down, saw the exhibit and then headed to the Gateway for a delicious Brazilian lunch. YUM! My nephew was so kind and cordial everywhere we went. It was really a treat for me to be able to spoil him! Thankfully, he didn't want to shop....So I bought myself some nice boots! It was a wonderful day for us all.

Thanksgiving

Cousins... Top pic is the redhead trio!

*sigh* brothers....

First, I must state that I am extremely blessed. David and I have be fortunate to have our jobs, our health and a wonderful family! God has given us much! I usually dread family gatherings - David is from a big family (and I from a small one). I get clausterphobic and a bit overwhelmed with all the cousins. However, this Thanksgiving was a great one! Not only did the kids all play well together, but the adults were all in good moods.

My "married" family - well, we were all just thrust together. While we each fell in love with one of them (our spouse), there is no law stating that you have to like or even get along with your inlaws. And don't get me wrong, there are days where I don't enjoy some of them. But Thanksgiving was perfect. The conversation was upbeat and fun!

But my favorite activity was when four of the sisters-in-law escaped! We cornered our husbands and told them we were going to the movies - and then vanished. No time for them to discuss it with us. And yes, we did go see Twilight (loved it) and yes we had all seen the movie before. Yes, we are twisted and weird, but that was why it was so much fun! For 2 1/2 hours, we girls were, well, just girls! Giggling and laughing, dissecting the movie and the novel. I appreciated the bond of sisterhood that night. And I must give the men credit. They were patient and kind with us (I mean, we left ALL the kids with them).

So, I say here that I am very Thankful for my family - ALL of them. NorCal, SoCal and Utah. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Plethera of posts

Just a fair warning that I am going to be posting quite a bit today and tomorrow. Why? well, first of all, I have just had 4 wonderful days to spend with my family. I was actually able to take pictures and have fun stuff to write about!
So, tonight I will post a few and tomorrow I will post what we did today - :)

My little monkey

Okay, so Olivia is too cute - She was watching some Disney show and perched herself on the end of my bed. She was absolutely oblivious to me taking a picture! Oh well, at least I know she can focus, right?

Family Portraits

About one month ago, the entire family got together to do a family portrait. There are a total of 8 couples with 17 kids. So if everyone showed up there would be 33 of us. Unfortunately, one of Dave's brother's didn't show, so the rest of us took a picture and then our individual family photos.

Finally, that brother took a "make up" photo and our AWESOME photographic essentially photoshopped them in. BTW, Masterpiece Images is the photographer. He can be found at http://mpiphotovideo.com/ But here are the ones I liked. We didn't necessarily get either of these for the huge family photo. Everyone else liked a different one. But luckily we all smiled and looked at the camera in every photo. EVEN Maggie! I love the sepia one. It is just more like us....

I love family photos though. I love sharing what we all look like and that we really are happy, not just on that day. (note: one of my niece's REFUSED to look at the camera or smile. and they are pretty happy too!)

Enjoy!

Let's Get Physical!

So my darling baby, Mags, is 16 months. And she STILL isn't walking. She has been in physical therapy for the last 3 months. As our PT tells us, "she's smart, and that can be bad." (Now, is that a compliment or not?) Apparently, the part of your brain that deals with speech and gross motor (walking) are right next to each other. So when a child begins walking you see a delay in speech. But once they have acquired the skill of walking, their speech takes off again. If you wonder why all of a sudden your 18 month old is speaking to you and making sense one day, this is why. I guess that adage of "some people can't walk and talk at the same time" is true.

Anyway, yesterday at Mag's appointment, the PT said "walk" and Ms. Mags firmly stated, "NO WALK." and then proceeded to plop her bottom down on the floor. Great. Sassy and stubborn. I wonder where she got those traits?

In the meanwhile, we are trying to get her to want to be a part of the walking world. Our daycare provider's and my back just can't keep picking up this hefty girl. I am hoping she stops talking one day and takes off running. But for now, I will settle for the best snuggles and hugs.

Halloween with the Fam

Brothers, cousins and friends

Awwww, doesn't Rob look so precious with that goatee, shaved head and a Daisy headband??

The girls at the care center

Nancy Drew and Wednesday Adams

Helping clean up

Grandma Great, Steph and Ethan. Cuties!

This is my youngest Brother in law - pretending to be the lead singer of either Nickelback or Hannah Montana...

This is my nephew - I love that he had an A's jersey!!! Nevermind the item pertruding from his head.

Okay, I just look old here. Me and Heather - the only adults who dressed up that night. Hmpf.

It's (S)Tinkerbell! Awwww. She was pretty good about being in a costume :)

Last Saturday we had a family Halloween party. It is an annual tradition now. We do games, crafts and Halloween Bingo. Everyone gets to play Bingo - we even have some cool gifts for the parents! It gets vicious. Ang and I were fighting over a seasonal sign - and I won!

Then, tonight we went Trick or Treating with the girls. We went to a nursing/assisted living care center. They were so cute with the girls! And then the kids went through the neighborhood. What a blast! My nephew who is getting to be "too old" for trick or treating (apparently 12 year olds don't go anymore), helped me pass out the candy. He was pretty cool about it. :)

I must say that there are some strange adults out there though. I know a few of the women that came to the door were mothers. Now, I understand if they were getting candy for their kids, but their kids were already there with their bags! Why would you want more candy in your house???? I guess if it was some decent chocolate or Nibs, I can see why. But really???

Welll, the door bell is ringing... must go off and get rid of the candy! Happy Halloween!

Yesterday I took a huge leap - I submitted my Grad School application. David didn't really understand why it was so scary to me. I either 1) don't get in and feel like a failure or 2) get in and then have to figure out how we are going to work this. I do know that if I didn't apply, I would regret it. So at least that's one thing I don't have to worry about. I did find out that a class that i remember taking (professors and everything, just not the semester) isn't on my transcripts. In fact they have me taking it from other people and then withdrawing. So I am now taking Statistics at Weber State. Good times. Good times.
I know that it will all work out how it should. So, now I need to enjoy my low stress weekend. :)

Bloody Noses

So Maggie has these bloody noses that are HUGE. I am posting this only so my family can see what I am describing. One morning she actually had blood all over her face as well as the WALL. It looked as though someone had hit her. Awful. We have an appointment with an Ear Nose and Throat Dr. in a week. We'll see if we can do anything else for her (other than a humidifier).

DC vacation

So I finally convinced my husband to go on a vacation (outside of CA or Utah). I had to go to Washington DC for a meeting and I was able to coerce him into going with me! Yeah! The only downside was that I was away for a full week instead of 4 days.

The best part of the trip? Watching David in awe at our first pro-football game (NFL). It was the Redskins v. Browns - and of course the 'Skins won. I would have loved to take him to a Steelers' game, but it is just as expensive to go to Pittsburgh as DC and I was already going there. We also were able to visit the Holocaust Museum. I have been to DC 5 times and this was my first time to ANY museum. Keep in mind that I go for work and usually don't get out of meetings until 4:30 or 5 and the museums close at 5:30.

We had a blast going through the National Archives, Air and Space Museum, and the Natural History Museum. I want to take Emma next time!

Snowy Sunday Morning

Unlike Friday night, where we were kept up by the howling winds ushering in the storm, last night the silent cold fell. We awoke to a blanket of snow covering everything. When the snow comes, you finally realize all the winterizing you haven't done! Such as removing the cushions from the patio set, or getting that new furnace filter. Oh well.

What I thought was gorgeous was the autumn leaves dusted with snow. The red still peeks out from under that cold, but it signals that winter is rapidly approaching!

So it is snowing right now. I like it and hate it at the same time. I love watching it come down. But I still have to go out to the store today and I don't like driving in slush.

Last night I went over to my friend Holly's house. Our kids are all just a few weeks apart - except for Kourtney, she is my oddball. I don't have any kids her age. Holly has 4 and I have 3. It really was amazing that the adults were able to eat and then have conversation at all! Maggie and Karli are 4 weeks apart. Mags is a bit bigger, but Karli is walking on her own. Hopefully Mags picked up some pointers from Karli. Holly really is a great friend and I wish I did more with her. This is the first time in a year that we have had everyone together (Husbands and kids). But we are all so busy and then a total of 7 kids???? It is difficult to plan activities. I get to see her one on one (or with half the kids) about 1-2 times every other month. It really isn't enough!

Fridays

Now that the State of Utah has gone to the 4-day work week, I am actually able to volunteer in the girls' classrooms. When I stayed home with Olivia, I didn't have anyone to watch her while I went to the school. Now that I have Friday's off I can still go in (Mags has to go to daycare at least two fridays a month). I get all emotional when I think of the great opportunity I have been given.

I can't believe how big (numbers) Olivia's kindergarten class is getting. There are up to 27 kids! And Emma's class keeps getting new students, but others move out. I just don't remember that many kids moving in and out during the school year.

Well, the photo is our budding photographer's desire to pose us and take pics. Emma is loving taking pictures and then she scrapbooks them. She gave Mags the hat to wear. :)

On to the weekend!

Ah, wednesdays

Okay, so I don't have a new pic for this post, but I am sure you will forgive me. Wednesday's in our household are crazy. Both Em and Liv have dance; plus Dave works at night (counseling). And then there is Mags - she is extremely curious. and thus HATES to be in the car when she could be crawling around.
I am attempting to write my grad school application. I am not succeeding. I am however, succeeding on my attempts to curb my spending. Instead of ordering the pizzas like I usually do, I am making a pizza. With fresh tomatoes from our neighbor's garden. YUM. I love to eat out and eat good food (although I do get cravings for McD's french fries). But I need to be better about it.
Any tips???

GOM sent this pic

My mom sent this pic of me and the girls. She (mom) came out in Sept and it was a lot of fun. We went to TOADs (think a mini-Scandia). Anyway, this is the photo she took as she was leaving. :(

Oh, and GOM = Good Ol' Mom :) Thanks GOM