Party Central

We have had a party-ful Christmas week. It has been really fun.

Wyatt in Playmobile heaven




Yeah, these are some of Coopers legos that Cade put together for him. It was actually pretty complicated, Cade did a good job.



Of course we had the Christmas eve and Day get togethers, then Saturday we had a DeRusha mexican food lunch party. It was really fun. Bri and I cooked all the enchiladas and rice, I think we did a fabulous job! My sisters and I sang a cool arrangement of Silent Night for everybody, and my Aunt Del and my 2 cute cousins came over for a little while which was fun to catch up with them.

2 of my Cute sisters

Grandmas always bring the coolest presents!

This hook board is what my dad made me for Christmas. It is a real pieceof distressed barn siding. Mark put it up in the hallway by the laundry room for the kids to put their backpacks and jackets on after school. I covered the magnet board with fabric and will use it to help us be more organized on school days. YAY! Soon hopefully it will have a bench underneath it with cubbies for shoes.

My sister Bri was so sweet to set up her massage table and give all the kids real massages. It was a real treat for them. Then after we opened our awesome presents and ate dessert some of us adults went to see Valkyrie. Then my dad was so nice to take Cade and Dayton to Thatcher with him for the week. It Dayton was so excited to be a big kid and go without mommy on a trip. He really insisted that he would be fine and not miss me too much or cry. It has been so wierd without the little DeetDog around here. It has been cool to see Wyatt and Cooper spend some nice peaceful time together too.

Dayton all packed up and ready to hit the road with Grandpa. Fun times!

Sunday night we had Marks cousin Scottie and his wife over with their 2 cute little guys, Jones and Maine. I got to give Jones his first hair cut. We are so excited for them to move to AZ in the spring.

I've been working a lot too on top of it all, thank goodness. I will be really looking forward to New Years Eve and the rest of the week up at my parents where I don't have to do very many chores :D


HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

Movie Review-Despereaux,7 pounds and Valkyrie

Tis the season for great movies!! We have started a new tradition of taking the kids to a show on Christmas eve. It gives us something to look forward to, and it gives the kids a welcome distraction on the looooongest day of the year! And I get a chance to relax on a day that would be easy for me to work way too hard. This years choice was the Tale of Despereaux. It was really cute. I loved the little mouse faces. The humans reminded me of the people from the Last Unicorn movie. It was good. Cade said is was completely different from the book. He's read it 4 times so he should know. He thought it was good though.

At some point we went and saw 7 pounds. I seriously cannot remember what day that was. But either way, it was really good too. It was one of those where the first 20 minutes or so I was thinking "OK, this all better make sense later on because I am totally lost right now". Luckily, it certainly does all come together in the end. It was a very quiet movie, Mark thought it had some boring parts, but it was certainbly worth getting through. Bring Kleenex. Lots of Kleenex. I kept crying after the movie. I guess I was really invested in it.


Tonight my parents and 2 of my sisters and BIL and I went to Valkyrie. I liked it, it was kind of depressing though. It was also very suspenseful, especially for a story that we already know the ultimate outcome. I'd heard poor reviews for Tom Cruise but I thought he was fine. I wish they hadn't used the f word, seriously, did they even say that in those days in Germany?? I don't think so. There was nothing else in it, although a little violent. Sad. But still good and engrossing.

Movies coming up that I am looking forward to, Defiance and Wolverine. I will be looking forward to droooooling over Hugh Jackman. He so yummy and MANly. Leiv Shreiber is no slouch either and he is in both of them.

And I am watching Sleepless in Seattle right now, how great is that movie?? I just love it. LOVE it.

More Christmas posts coming soon :D We still are not done partying!

Awwwwww, its over :(

Another Christmas come and gone. We had such a fun time. Everybody loved thier presents, the food turned out good (except my rolls, dang it. stupid yeast) and it was pretty peaceful. Of course the kids were totally wired and spazzy but I got through it. Mark did have to work all evening, which was terrible but we survived it. He was home before midnight and spent all of Christmas day at home so it was good. We all got nerf guns and had a big nerf war Christmas morning and then since it was raining Cade had some of his friends over (who had nerf guns) and had another nerf war. My house was totally demolished!! It was fun though. My MIL put together one of Coopers Lego star wars ships and the little boys were busy all day making martians with Martian Matter. Sadie got bedding for her room and a cell phone so she was busy and played at the neighbors house for most of the day. I got the biggest present of all, a LAPTOP! This is my first laptop post!! Itwill be so nice now I won't have to go upstairs to the office to log on, I can just have it here downstairs and with me. The best part is that it has a DVD burner which our desktop did not have, so now I can download all the video I've been filming on little disks all year. And I love that I can transfer over everything that I want and have it all organized and backed up. Oh boy I am going to be busy on this thing. Now I can ignore my kids while I watch TV and play on the computer, instead of just ignoring them up in the office. There are all sorts of bad habits to start up now!! LOL just kidding.

Cooper taking a break from Lego making

Making Martians with the neighbors

Daytons Jungle playset from Santa

Christmas Eve Jammies. The Robes were a huge hit!

We still have one more big Christmas party to do here on Saturday, all my side of the family with an aunt and some cousins I haven't seen in a long time so that will be really fun. Plus my sister is here from HI who I haven't seen yet so it will be a fun party. Luckily my parents are having that catered so I'm off the hook there! :D I have to add that the kids were SO sweet and conciencious about always remembering Jesus and his birthday all the time we were celebrating the last few days. It was really cute and I was so proud of them!

I hope everyone had as wonderful a Christmas as we had! I'll post more pictures soon.

Merry Christmas!

It's Vacation!

We have been so busy doing fun things. The kids had fun the last 2 days of school. and I am so glad to have a break from the early morning wake-up calls.










Wyatt made a silly sock for his class. This is what a silly sock looks like when mom forgets about it until 8 pm the night before. Whoops! He loved it anyway. It had lots of glitter.




There is more candy on the plate that on the house, but hey. I don't even want to think about how much candy my children have consumed this week.

Daytons Kindergarten concert was really cute. And I was bummed to realize that this gym is just as bad as any other gym for picture lighting. I did the best I could with it. :D He was so cute but he got sick of singing the last song. I dont blame him, it kind of went on and on. So cute though. Don't you just love that worried look where they come out and are searching the crowd for mom or dad and then they finally see us (in the front row!) and the look of relief and the cute smile? Its so precious!

Friday afternoon I took all the kids shopping for Marks presents. They were so excited and it really wore me out. I very rarely take them all anywhere with me by myself. All together they are very draining. I needed a nap by the time we got home, desperately. So I took one and geared up for shopping phase II where Mark and I took them all to Walmart to get little gifts for the ones they drew names for. As Wyatt and I were walking to the car to put his present in he informed me that he loves Christmas so much and this is his favorite part (buying a secret gift for Sadie)Awwwww.

Friday night we went to the ultimate Christmas light house. The guy and his wife know my MIL through work. We even got to go inside and see the Santa collection they have. Holy cow it was amazing. So many big and small gorgeous Santas. I've never seen any house that crazy decked out. He sits out in front of his house giving out candy canes and taking toy requests. That was fun.

Then we drove around my MIL's neighborhood because it has 3 streets of really good lights. One person even had a movie projector in their yard playing the Grinch. Its a really good light neighborhood.



We were totally exhausted so we all went home and crashed. Then this morning Cade and Mark went to play flag football with the Elders quorum. They had so much fun.......until I get the call that Cade broke his arm. Bummer, dude! He was tough about it and its not too bad of a break but it will still need a cast. I really feel for him because it puts all of his awesome plans to play guitar and violin all break up in Thatcher on the backburner. He might be able to play a little by next week some time, it will just be a small cast, so we're keeping our fingers crossed.






I think his new nickname will be X-ray boy. :D So after all of this put me behind a few extra hours, I had to bag out on the Ward Christmas Party, which looked super fun but I didn't want to leave X-ray boy home alone, I didn't feel like showering and getting all ready and I got nothing done around the house today so I'm behind schedule for next week now. Gotta get crackin now!

Weekend festivites wrapup

I had such a fun weekend! Thursday I had a progressive dinner for enrichment and it was really fun. I met a lot of new people and ate some yummy mexican food. Then when I got home I was surprised to see Mark there, he had gotten the night off! (he had already worked a lot of hours for the week, so they sent him home. That is both good and bad. ) so since we had a good nights rest, Friday we were able to go finish up the Christmas shopping for the kids. I feel so lucky and blessed that we were able to do that! Friday night ended up being a little crazier ( well a lot crazier) I let Cade have a sleepover and ended up with the brother and the sister as well! It was a lot of kids and they stayed up pretty late, but I think they all had fun. Cade misses his friend Cole. Since all of the TV's were in use I used the time to clean up the house and then I got to wrapping. I ran out of boxes and tags but I managed to finish. It took me until almost 2am to get everything done and cleaned up and decide what to put out and what to keep back. The kids are loving having presents under the tree, I hate it. Mark insists on puting some out though. I'm sure they've guessed what half of them are by now.

Saturday morning I killed everybody with chores and then Sadie had her last Sunshine Generation performance. My MIL came to that, and I took Sadie out for some Panda Express. I need Chinese food like I need another hole in the head but it sure was YUMMY. We ran errands and then I got to go to a FABulous ugly sweater /white elephant Christmas party. I wore a borrowed classic beaded sweater, but some people came in some truly hideous get ups. There was tons of great food and we had a blast. I was the only single person there, but it turned out OK and the kids didn't kill each other while I was gone. I really had a lot of fun, thanks you guys!!!

Sunday was just really typical, our choir sang and I think we did pretty good. We might of fallen apart in a place or 2 (unless that was just me....LOL)but the songs were really really hard and for the most part we sounded great. The primary was awesome! They did us proud. After church Cade and I had a practice for playing prelude with a little group for next week, I am so grateful for the opportunity for him. And I think I may have found him some direction with his violin playing. I'm so excited!!

So thats it. Now its a new week, new things to get done, and I'm hoping to just bust it all out in the first couple days and the coast through the holiday. We still need to make the rounds with the kids to all of the different lights and do the baking, mailing cards, that sort of thing. Calm, low key and peaceful is the theme for the week. I hope it is the same for you too!

I'll put it all on my to do list, OK?

I've seen people do this, but I never knew how they did it! Too funny!!... What Janel Needs (according to Google, to do this for yourself type in "your name needs" )

Janel needs to be coached a different way than other kids need to be coached.

Janel needs to be a bella. (does this mean I get Edward??)

Janel needs the ID numbers of those who helped at the Badger Game

Janel needs a nap!!!!!

Janel needs a better left hand, or at least a better one than she's shown in the games I've seen

Janel needs to go and eat some pie. it might calm her crazy mind down.

Janel needs to lighten up.

Janel needs an attitude adjustment-- MAJORLY!!!!

JANEL NEEDS to GET a LiFE!

Janel needs a good cockpunching (I hope they are referring to roosters.....! LOL)

And last but not least….. Janel needs to be a hell of a lot More fit to compete In the WNBA.

Gee, how did google know all of this?? LOL

Post #500!!!

I've been in a real blogging slump lately, I'm not sure why. I realized the other day that I had 499 posts, and I guess I felt like # 500 should be something really special, but nothing comes to mind, So it gets to be a regular old catch up post. :D

We had a fun weekend. Mark had a wierd schedule so he was hanging with us all day saturday and that was fun. Friday night Sadie performed at Rockin R Ranch and then Saturday at the Queen creek park festival (I don't even know what it was for) but she did SO good! I was so proud of her!!!! I finally figured out why I can't put the videos on the computer, it records onto disks and we don't have a dvd burner! So dumb. She has one more performance on Saturday at the new library and I will try to get her solo with my regular camera.

Saturday night was our middle aged mommies (Over 30, OK???LOL) party and ornament exchange. It was so fun to get to know more of the ladies, we really do have some fun people. The ornament exchange was fun, I really liked what I ended up with (although I was going for the one I had brought, but it got passed 3 times really quick!) Anyway I had a chance to visit with some new friends and new hair clients!

Sunday we made cinnamon popcorn, boy was it good. I don't remember liking it as much last year, holy smokes it was yummy. I will be making more more more of that. If anyone wants some let me know I will bring/send you some. We ate that and my newfound homemade hot chocolate and watched the Christmas devotional with my MIL. It was a pretty nice evening.

Yesterday was pretty low key, and we got to go over to Chandler for miss Bailey's 5th birthday party. The kids had so much fun hanging with all the peeps from the old neighborhood and so did we! It is nice to get together with people you love. So many things are changing though, it is kinda wierd. I guess that is life, right, always changes. HUGE congrats to all the new preggos!!! I'm glad its you and not me!! LOL I'm trying to dig up an ugly sweater for Saturday :D


Today, hmmmmmm. I'm thinking today will be a good day to try making chocolate truffles. Mabye the big yummy sugar cookies too. Delish!!! I'm even toying with the idea of putting up my other tree in the family room, it just seems a bit unfestive in there at night while watching TV. We'll see how the baking goes first.

Edit: To make this post even LONGer! LOL

I had a little Christmas fun today.....Love these kind of days!



Tree lights fixed (a little jiggling, replacing 1 strand, and dispersing of plugs and some ribbon did the trick. I'm lovin it!


The stockings were hung on the staircase with care ~ wow that seems like a LOT of stockings!




MY first ever attempt at Truffles went a little bit TOO well! LOL Ohhhhh heaven!!!

16 more days!

The magic is taking a hiatus

Well after I thought I had everything under control......I don't. Cade pointed out last night the the tree lights were half out. GAH!! Only the bottom strand is working. Those are all new lights this year!! Am I seriously going to have to redo the tree and buy all MORE new lights?? Please NO!! I really hope I can get it working without a complete redo! Second blow, everyone is sick. Not terribly severe, but we are never sick so when it happpens, it stinks. Colds and sore throats. I have a bit of the throat thing but otherwise fine (not enough to get me out of working out, dang it!) but I let Sadie stay home yesterday and they are all home today. I'm going to try to take advantage of them being here and make them do lots of chores and get their hair cut. The trick is to not make it very fun to be home so that they only want to stay home from school when they are truly ill. I know, I'm diabolical. I never got any sick days or sympathy as a kid and I have now turned it onto my own children. Hey, it prepared me for being a mom! you don't get to be sick! Thats what they make DayQuil for!!!! Muahahahaha! I even making Cade go for a couple hours becuse he has 2 big tests and a whole bunch of stuff due today and Monday.

We have a pretty laid back weekend, Sadie has performances tonight and Saturday, but that is it. I'm bummed that I can't run the iron girl because Sadie is performing at noon Saturday, and theres no way I can do both. She would be so hurt if I didn't go, she sings her solo! I'd feel so guilty. :( I did run over 4 miles on wednsday, so I think I could have done all 10 miles! Boo! I will keep training for Londons Run, that one sounds fun too. On my holiday schedule today is Christmas cards/letters, so I am going to stick to that even though everything else is kind of messed up schedule wise. How many stinkin hours is it going to take to redo my tree?? Waaaaa!

Wheels are in motion!

Those big Christmas wheels have begun turning around here. I love it. I am about 75% done with Christmas shopping, which is nice. I even found that 1 really difficult gift for one of the kids on the cyber Tuesday deals, so I am really happy. Last night I got the decorating done and the tree up. The kids always want to help with the tree and it always ends bad. From now on, I am going to put it up and light it while they are gone, then they can help decorate it. They just could not be patient while I set it up and put the lights on. By the time I was half done there were ornaments from one side of the room to the other. I realize they are just SO excited, but after a few hours of begging them to leave stuff alone I had to kick them out and send them to bed. Oh well, it feels good to have it done. The tree is the same old tree I do every year, but I think this year I will add lots of ribbon or something. It needs something more.




Now I have to get the outside done with Mr. Christmas light scrooge. I usually have to promise some sort of "special favors" or bribes to get the lights on the house. All I have been hearing lately every time I casually bring it up are things like "I don't think lights go on our type of house" and "They don't make ladders big enough to get up on our house" and "someone told me we weren't supposed to do lights this year" and "call Brian Macnamara, he'll put them up for you" those kind of responses. H i l a r i o u s. Wish me luck.

EDIT: Mark went out to lunch with his cousin and when he came back he just dug right in and started putting the lights up. I think it helped that I was out cleaning out the garage. :D He even did the top layer on the 2nd floor! And he was so cheerful the whole time!! I wanted to ask what he had done with my christmas light-hating husband but I didn't even dare joke and accidentally break the spell! LOL THEN to top it off he came in the house after and hung my beautiful new station clock that my mom got me for my birthday. (I'ts been waiting so patiently since september!)


Can you see it in the background?? It looks like a Santa Clock, I LOVE it!




Thanks for offering up all the help but luckily the body snatchers came over for the morning and took care of business! LOL






He even made sure all the bulbs were pointed the right way! Now I still need to do around the doorway, but I think it looks pretty good, not too much but still festive. Its a Festivus miracle!!