Merry Christmas (in January...)

Yes, I'm a total slacker but at least I'm actually telling you all about our first Christmas on our own (even if it is a month late)! First off, we were invited to the home of one of the families in our ward for Christmas Eve. They had all of their family there so it was almost like being at home (just with a bunch of strangers). We went on a Polar Express train ride (using 4-wheelers and wagons) while reading christmas stories and singing Christmas songs. It was freezing cold but we had fun. We got back inside and listened to (and enacted) the Christmas story as told in Luke. Kristalyn and Nathan were both shepherds.
Didn't they do an excellent job?

Then it was Christmas day. Each of the kids got one present from mom and dad and a few others from our secret santas (big thanks to whoever that was), grandparents, and Aunt Krista.

Lyn got a doll that is almost as big as she is. Within the first 5 minutes she'd already amputated a leg and broke the rubber band that was supposed to hold it on better. It still works but it keeps falling off now at random times.

Katie liked the doll too. (Yes the doll came with two outfits).
Nathan's Christmas list was about as long as my arm. What he really wanted was a Buzz Lightyear and an airplane. So I got a Buzz with collapsible wings, kind of like two in one. He loves it!

Every time I take Katie into Walmart and we pass by the toys she always spots the babies. Then she'll yell as loud as she can "Baby Baby Baby!!!!" So, I got her a baby. It even cries (curse myself for that one).

This is our Christmas dinner. Basically, a dinner like any other night except I actually made funeral potatoes. We had extra of those for nearly two weeks because we got so sick of them.

Here's the unwrapping of Krista's gifts. They showed up on our doorstep the day after Christmas. Lynn loves her new bracelet (even wore it to church yesterday w/o playing with it too much).

See that green putty on the floor by his knee? It's noise putty. Don't let 1.5 year olds play with that stuff. Katie loved playing with it and never remembered to put the lid back on. I was scrubbing Nathan's laundry for an hour before I could even put it in the washer. And we also have a permanent green spot on his bedroom floor. Thanks Kate!

Katie's favorite toy from this lot was the slinky. She played with it all day and still screams when brother or sister try to take it from her.

Now, fast forward to last week. We had a BLIZZARD! The kids got to use their snow gear for the second time. The snow was 8 inches deep by noon and drifting. Schools were cancelled and we had fun. We even built a snowman in the likeness of Princess Leah (she got knocked down within a few hours).

This is how deep it got. Sure it doesn't look like that much compared to Rexburg, but for New Mexico? Definite snow day.

The next day schools were cancelled again, though it was barely snowing at all; it couldn't even be called a skiff. Oh well, double snowdays are okay by me.

Christmas song

Merry Christmas everyone!!! Here's the song I started writing in January and finished in August. It's called the Light of Christmas. I did make a few mistakes but didn't have time to make another recording so just grin and bear it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ol7eAVfL8k

Well, to start, here's Ben's graduation pics. Doesn't he look handsome?Each cadet chose someone special to pin their badges on for the first time. Lucky me I'm Ben's special person!

Getting the diploma...I'm so proud!

The kids were so tired (and hungry) by the time the ceremony was over it was a miracle that we lasted long enough for a piece of cake! After that it was home, babysitter, home again, then mom & dad went out to dinner with the other Jemmett adults.

The day before Christmas Eve we actually had snow again! The kids ate breakfast then went straight outside to play and throw snowballs at the fence.

One of my gifts this year was a set of bells that you can actually play songs with. The kids didn't care about playing in any order but we did get through Twinkle, Twinkle. They just liked the headache-producing noise it made.

Sorry it's sideways, I forgot to fix it. Lyn liked the stockings so much she had to wear them.

Opening presents at Uncle Kurt's house...

After presents, games, and all of the above the kids were all tuckered out but we didn't want them to go to bed just to wake them up an hour later to go home so they watched a movie.

On Saturday we went swimming at the aquatic center which has a water slide. On my first run down I had Kristalyn with me and we laid back the whole time down the slide. It was going so fast at the bottom that the water pulled me under so my butt was bumping against the bottom of the pool and I was trying to keep Kristalyn above water. I was under so long the lifeguard nearly jumped in after me but I got up before she did. On the second run I tried sitting up so I could get my feet under me easier. Well, you cannot sit up on this slide. Going around the third turn I got flipped over so I was laying on my stomach on top of Lyn. I tried using my elbows to flip over again but that only gave me a bruise. Then I tried my feet. However, I didn't know we were going into a new turn so my right foot smacked on the ledge of the slide right where it angles up to prevent people from falling out. Here are the results of that error:

see the bump on the inside of my arch?

and the bruise that came on three days later...

Lucky me it was not broken but it still hurts.
Finally, Katie had some cute hair that I had to show off.

Along with the after-hair-do hair-do.

New Song

Here's another quickie. I posted a new song on YouTube called "Hopeless." The message of the song is really to bring hope and I think that's a message that should be spread around, especially at this time. If you like it, please share it. Let hope find people far and wide (and close to home too). Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhGbVQB-ECg

Quickie

Hey everyone. This is just a quickie post letting you know that my newest song is on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p8WQc-Wnzc
The song is titled "Hopeless" and is actually meant to bring hope. I must admit I'm not thrilled with this video and plan to re-record as soon as my voice is completely non-scratchy. I still had a bit of a sore throat when I recorded this but it was okay enough. Also, my remote didn't work as it was supposed to (operator error maybe...) so the last minute or two is empty landscape and random noises as I cleaned up. I hope you enjoy it!

Winter art and early Christmas!

Well, we've had an interesting couple of weeks. The kids finally got over their colds a week ago only to get sick again today! So once again I find myself unable to work and feeling helpless in a house full of sickness. But amidst all of that, we still have had fun. I found our old Incredibles stickers and put them out for the kids to have fun with. They had a bit too much fun in my opinion; yes, that is the TV in Nathan's room and it still has stickers on it today (this happened about two weeks ago). Close-up:

Last Friday evening I decided the kids needed some good craft time. I'd been working for two days and they needed mom to do something fun with them. So I found this project on that blog I posted about below and we did it! We started out by making our own watercolor paint (not that hard actually).

After it was made we let it dry overnight (we'd made the paint Thursday night). Then I got out our painter's tape and we started making our trees.

Once our trees were on we painted over the tape with our watercolors. The kids had a blast, got water everywhere, and I had to have towels ready for the mass of colored water.

Then we let them dry.

Here's each artist's finished product the next morning.

Right after we were done with painting and started heading upstairs for jammies and bed, there came a knock on the door. We had gotten a big box full of early Christmas from grandma and grandpa Piper. The kids were so excited that we stayed up an extra hour unwrapping and trying stuff on.

Nathan didn't realize there were two zippers to unzip (it's one of those 4-in-1 coats) and got stuck until mom helped him out.

We had a great night together and the kids love their trees and new snow-gear. They came downstairs the next morning all dressed for the snow (snowpants and all) and were sad to find that it was going to be 70 degrees that day. I think that six (or 10) inches we got was a major fluke but I'm glad we are now prepared if it happens again.

Fun kid's craft blog

Hello everyone! I just wanted to post a blog I found on another blog (i know, it's that same ol' senario, friend of a friend...). It has really fun craft ideas for kids. I'm following it now and I think I'm going to have the kids do the winter tree silhouette painting. It looks fun! Heres the address:
http://www.frugalfamilyfunblog.com/

Have fun!