12-18-2011 Week in Review…

Monday we decided it was high time we got our Christmas tree!  My beloved SIL, Rachel is moving way too soon so we invited her over for the evening.  The night ended up going much to late to decorate but we did get it put up and a string of lights on!

Tuesday night Dade stayed home to work on a project and the rest of us headed to the library to see Santa!  There was a LONG line so while we waited the girls listened to stories and colored ornaments.  Both girls had their lists ready.  Sylvie’s only had one thing on it: A ballerina jewelry box.  Ella had already drawn this great picture for Santa.

    

Sylvie hopped right up onto Santa’s lap.  He said lots of very nice things to her in his deep southern accent. :)

Ella, however, was scared and it took Santa reading her list and complimenting her on her beauty and her picture for her to warm up to him.  She was then very glad to sit with him.  The girls were very excited about the entire night.

Wednesday the girls had early morning dentist appts where I was again informed that they have beautifully clean teeth (that they brush themselves) but that they are probably going to need braces due to how close their little teeth are together…sigh.  Dade had a wrestling match tonight. They have him wrestling up a weight class and it’s turning out to be tougher than he thought.  He really has too much going on right now and I think it’s starting to get to him.

Thursday my dad had early morning back surgery.  The girls have been praying for him constantly ever since to ensure his healing.  Dade had a speech competition today for The American Legion High School Oratorical Scholarship Program “A Constitutional Speech Contest”.  His speech was on not taking our right to vote for granted.  He worked long and hard on it and though he wasn’t sure it was going to happen, he actually had it memorized by speech time.  It was close (very close) at the end but Dade came out just 3 points ahead for a 1st place win!  He will be competing in January at the next level.  I’m so proud of this kid.  There really doesn’t seem to be much he can’t do!  I spent the evening with good friends at a Relief Society dinner centered on Christ.  It was so nice to be out and I actually found another Sister who’s a picky eater! She has no support so I told her I’d share with her the things I’ve found.  I left the boys at home while I went and let them have a brother’s night together watching Star Wars while I let the girls go to the nursery.

Friday morning I got an early morning call to inform me that Corben had a concert in the afternoon and had forgotten to bring his cello to school.  I grabbed the cello and headed out for some visiting teaching making sure to take close account of the time so I could get to the school in time.  As I left my visit I suddenly realized that I’d calculated the drive from my house, not from where I was which was an additional 30 minutes away!  I made it with seconds to spare and Corben grabbed his cello and RAN to the auditorium (hard to do with a cello).  The concert was fantastic!  Corben’s really come a long way.  I have video if I can ever get it off my phone… 

Music starts at 0:45.  Corben is the cellist sitting in the 2nd chair. You can see his head and his bow.  I can’t focus my phone very well.  sigh.  Oh, and the concert was longer than my memory card could hold…

My brother came and got Dade for the weekend.  They’re headed out with my mom to go visit her family out of state.  After Dade left the rest of us FINALLY decorated the Christmas tree! YEAH!  We also made gingerbread cookies and had eggnog!

Saturday was my BIL, Chad’s birthday! Happy Birthday, Chad!  My amazing sister made this cake which is an almost exact replica of his safe he got for his birthday (the real thing is a BIT bigger).  Check out this rifle.  Not only does it have little tiny bullets, and a perfect scope, but it even has wood grain!!  My sister is insane…

I spent the day attempting to get the rest of my gifts for Christmas! I’m so behind this year…

Sunday was the Christmas program for my Primary kids.  They sang Away in a Manger.  They did so great.  I really love these kids.  I have a feeling I’m going to be released some time in the next few months since having a baby is going to make 2 hours of singing time each Sunday almost impossible!  Sigh.  3 years is a long time and it’s had it’s bumpy spots but I’m going to miss those kids SO much…

12-11-2011 Week in Review…

This was a very long, very hard week.  There’s a lot being left out of this week but it has to do with one of my kids who’s asked that I leave it out and I’m perfectly okay with that. 

Thursday I had a long awaited appt. with a nutritionist! I’ve wanted to see one for some time but have been laughed at or scorned in the past so I’ve been a bit leery.  I handed the doctor my list of foods I eat and she asked if there was a list of foods I don’t eat.  I laughed and told her if it wasn’t on the list then I don’t eat it.  She paused for a  moment and then just moved on like it was nothing.  She was so kind and understanding to my eating issues!  She made me up a 6 day menu of things I love and showed me how to make them healthy and fit into my daily needs.  It was so great!!  I hope once this sickness wears off I can start trying it out.

Friday, Dade had a dr’s appt.  He hates doctors so as a pick me up we headed out to get his permit afterwards!!  I even let him drive us home (on the back roads!).  He did great!

Super Fama took all the girls that night for a cousin sleep over!  What a great time they had. These girls sure love each other!

Saturday morning she took them to have a super duper Tea Party with dress up hats and cupcakes.  What a great memory!

When they got home Fama took Corben for a sleep over.  She’s awesome.

That night was the ward Christmas party!  The girls were in the nativity.  Ella was a sheep and Sylvie an Angel.

Sunday mom took Corben over to Tammy’s and took him bare back horse back riding!  Apparently he’s a natural!  Man, I’m going to miss her when she goes.  Her family is such a blessing to mine… Corben has talked about their day together for a week!

12-4-2011 Week in Review…

Tuesday was my brother, Adam’s, 30th birthday!  Can you even believe it??

Wednesday I decided to cut all my hair off and donate 13 inches to Locks of Love.  It was time for a change…

Dade also had a wrestling match and I stayed up late making a chocolate manger scene for the Community Creche display.  I almost didn’t do it and this one was kind of rough but I get a lot of complaints when I don’t bring one!

Friday I had another ultrasound and this time Ryan was able to come along!!  It was so great to see his smile while we watched this little one wiggle around.

Ella had early release from school and Dade was gone to a very late night wrestling match out of town so I decided to be crazy and get some Christmasy things done.  First we went and bought new shoes for Corben and the girls. Ugh.  THEN we rushed over to see the town Christmas tree be lit.  We didn’t get to stay long enough to see the lighting but we got to play in fake snow, meet Rudolph, and sing some carols.

Then we rushed over and picked up a friend before rushing over to see the Community Christmas celebration before it closed.  We had just under an hour to see hundreds and hundreds of nativities and do all the fun things. They had a lot of fun playing in the nativity dress up stuff and putting together manger scene puzzles. (Thanks to Gpa Schneg for the extra pics!)

I then came home and before crashing baked Dade’s birthday cake for tomorrow!!

Saturday was the CRAZIEST DAY EVER.  EVER.  Seriously.  To start off, it’s both Dade and Ryan’s birthday today!!  Here’s the list of the many wonderful things I’d hoped to take part in.  You’ll see how that worked out…

• Baby shower for my SIL who is moving out of state (shower is an hour away to the East).
• Wrestling match for Dade all day (one hour to the west)
• Nephew’s 5th birthday party with bounce house and fire truck and lots of family in town
• Year end Primary Activity
• Dade’s birthday party
• Spend time with Ryan
• Dade babysitting
• Service project for Ryan in the morning
• Something else I can’t remember…

Instead…I woke up early to make everyone breakfast!  I started by first taking Dade’s Resees Cup cakes out of the pans.  I’d meant to do it last night but was too tired.  Leason learned.  All the chocolate pieces sunk to the bottom and stuck to the now cool pan.  I was SO upset.

Then Ella came down to join me and as I was lamenting my cakes she handed me a drawing she’d just made for Dade…I kind of laughed but then just moved on to distract myself from the stress.

I’d had the oven heating up and a pan on the stove for pancakes so I threw the sausage in and began to pour the batter….nothing.  The pan was COLD!!  The stove light was on but there was NO HEAT!  I thought I was going to die.  At least there would be sausage, right?  Nope.  Oven was cold, too.  Luckily there was Eggo’s for Dade and Cinnamon Toast Crunch for Ryan.  I tried, I really did!

At this point my loving mother showed up to grab my kids and take them over to my nephew’s birthday party for me so I could finish getting ready for Dade’s party and spend some time with Ryan on his birthday.    Ryan discovered that the oven had come half way unplugged and so I didn’t have to worry about getting a new stove.  AND Luckily icing fills in holes in a cake rather nicely and I just put the peanut butter cups in the icing to make up for the lack in the cake.  Dade wanted a specific cake this year and I was quite happy with how it turned out!  This is the Portal Cake…The Cake is a Lie!!  (I had to go buy a white candle as my large one suddenly disappeared!)

Ryan and I spent a few hours together running some errands and then we split up to run some more.  I ran to the cleaners where I’d dropped off all the guys Sunday clothes only to find out that they’d lost Ryan’s very expensive favorite shirt.  Luckily they were willing to pay me for it but it was still a bummer.  Ryan snagged the kids from the party and met me at the pool to drop off Dade for his 16th birthday party!!  Ryan then took the girls home to play and Corben stayed with my mom for a few more hours.

Dade’s party was fun (and very inexpensive!!  We’ll be doing this again!)  Most of Dade’s friends were busy in the local town parade but the best ones showed and they had a nice time.

We rushed out after the party to get Dade to a babysitting job!  He’s really trying to save his money up.

After he got home Ryan and I ran out for a VERY late night of shopping for birthday gifts for the Schneg family!

Sunday was almost as crazy…

Dade was ordained to the office of Priest at church and we had a lot of family come to participate.  My dad came as did many of Ryan’s brothers.  It was a very wonderful experience.  I am so proud of my son and the kind of person he is.  After church my dad and the girls all headed back to our house for lunch and to help me get things ready for the Schneg family party.

Here’s the pie Linda decorated.  And here’s my cute baby sister, Terra!! It was so nice to spend some time with them!

After lunch we headed over to my SIL’s house for the Schneg December birthday party (no pics, sorry).  We had great food and great company and it was a lot of fun as usual.  Thanks, Jamie for hosting!!