i'm baaaack ...

you know you've been away a long time when people start calling to make sure you're alright "you haven't blogged in a while - i was just worried" and "are you ever going to blog again??" and "i'm tired of that same old picture of your family - post already!!"

ok. so no one said it - but i know you were all thinking it! {wink... only because i was too}!!

so here i am - i promised myself that i wouldn't watch tv tonight until i had posted/caught up! hang on to your hats cuz here we go! (i won't have hurt feelings if you just skim and glance at the pictures - it's going to be a LOT)

the highlights of my life since 12/23/2008 ... seems like such a long time ago. for the record i tried to post a video of the greatest Santa gift ever ... but blogger must have thought it was too big. i'm hoping to crop/splice/make it shorter so i can post it here - wish me luck!

as for Christmas - was it just me or did this year fly by faster than last year?? is the world starting to spin faster? the older i get the more i can't slow down time and it's kinda making me sad - i feel like i don't have time to enjoy things. but i did enjoy that we had a white Christmas!

12/25 - we woke up, did our stockings and loaded in the van to head to Granny's for present opening!! we spent the morning until about 3ish at Granny's and then loaded up all the loot/booty/gifts and headed to Grandma and Grandpa's. mind you, we were LOADED and we were headed to the other grandparents ... in a year when we thought we'd been fairly lean with gift giving ... we found that not only did we have enough - but we could have had half of what we got and been happy! i need to remember this for next year and stick to my 3 gift rule.


when it was time to load up and head home from grandma's house ... we didn't have enough room so we left all our gifts from Andy's family at his parent's house ... drove home, dumped our load, put the kids to bed and then andy went back and loaded up with MORE!!

12/26 - as in years past, i was up before the crack of dawn ... it was still very dark, i was out the door and waiting for the stores to open. this year though, walmart was NOT the firs to open - there was a death by trampling incident in the midwest during the 'day after thanksgiving craziness' and i think they were taking percautions. i started at target, made my way to kohl's and then back to walmart. i met up with my mom in kirkland at the hallmark in totem lake and we spent the day together in our yearly ritual of shopping the day-after-Christmas sales. it was 6pm before we knew it and i came rolling into my own home at about 8:30pm ... it was dark again.

the week between Christmas and New Years was snow filled and mostly quiet. church was cancelled due to the weather the Sunday before Christmas and we only had Sacrament meeting the Sunday after - the choir sang and the people that were supposed to speak on the 21st had saved their talks and were able to share their messages!

1/31 - last year we had a few friends and family over for a New Year's Eve party ... kinda ... and this year we bagged it! we took the money that Grandma Jenny sent us and went to Red Robin!

we all ate yummy food, had a little chaos, talked about the new year and the one just ending, tried to be polite and ended up getting a balloon for not killing one another! i think this will be a new tradition - i do realize that we need to take our kids out more often if we want them to behave like polite ladies and gentlemen in the restaurant ... baby steps.

it was almost time to count down to 10:00 pm when we got home and pj-ed ... i got out all our fancy glasses, we clinked and each had a sip of 'bubbly' (ie: martinelli's) and the kidlets were off to bed. as per usual - i watched the ball drop and the space needle blow up (toggled between the 2) while this was happening:

one day he'll stay awake with me ... but i'm not holding my breath.

1/2 - i got a call from my mom about some bunk beds that she knew of ... i called the owner (who happened to be francee - one of my YW leaders and a lady i used to babysit for) and she wanted to GIVE them to me! we are so blessed! andy was at his CNA class, so i loaded up the kids, went down to get my parent's trailer, didn't have the hitch, drove back up to get it, drove back to my parent's to get the trailer, drove over to get the bunk beds (my dad helped tie them into the trailer), drug the trailer home with the bunk beds, had my father-in-law come to help haul them in the house and help me assemble them, put the sheets and comforters on and put the kids to bed!! they are such nice bunk beds - the girls want them! (i'm on the hunt for another set to replace the bunk beds that we got 3 years ago ...)

fast forward to 1/12 - (i skipped right over my dad's birthday, but luckily i did give him something for the big day ... so i'm covered there) monday the 12th was the first of 5 dentist appts that i took my children to in the space of 2 1/2 weeks!! ya know - they really should train these front desk people at the dentist office to explain how much TIME is involved when one makes an appointment to see the dentist!! because i'm a glutton for punishment (or maybe just s.t.u.p.i.d.) i took all 4 of my kids to the dentist in the hopes that we could just get it all over and done with in one fell swoop. little did i know that it was going to take 4 hours and we only had 1. needless to say - i rescheduled and took them in 2 at a time, boys then girls! Ammon was so brave and got 2 cavities filled and sealants put on, Easton was not so brave and only after getting a prize did he even open his mouth for the good doctor to take a peek! Abi, the resident veggie eater and lover of all things healthy (mostly) had 4 - count 'em FOUR - cavities that needed drilling, filling and sealants. Elyssa, our candy/cookie monster - who would rather eat ANYTHING with sugar in it than raw and/or cooked vegetables any day of the week - had NONE. yet another item on the long list of reasons why life is NOT fair, and the list of ways Abi and Elyssa are completely opposite.

when i go in to have my 6 cavities drilled and filled, i'll tell you all about my own dental nightmare!! i saw on tv the other day that February is Dental Health Month! shouldn't there be some kind of discount if you get your teeth fixed in february then??

1/30 - Ammon's preschool had a field trip to the police station. since we are all 4 and 5 year olds there wasn't a lot to see except the awesome police car!! we walked through to the back of the building where we got to see the lights flash, sit in the front seat, sit in the back (where the bad guys have to ride) and hear ask the police man questions. when we had our fill of police car - we walked back through and in the lobby the police man asked the boys what they wanted to be when they grew up. one said, "policeman!" another "no, i wanna be a fireman!" cole said, "i want to be a zoo keeper!" i said,"that's what i am!" he looked at me sideways with a furrowed brow, "no you're not ... you're a mommy." "is there a difference??" i asked him!

1/31 - my mom's sisters and mom (Grandma Jenny) came into town! they were here until the 4th and i posted about it on our Leo Ford Reunion blog ... it was so much fun to have them here!

we ate at Ivar's without the kids monday night!

Grandma was a crazy driver in Fred Meyer on Tuesday!

2/4 - we left Easton's taggie on the ferry ... the Wenatchee ... we rode it from seattle to bainbridge island and back, somewhere along the way he put it down somewhere and we didn't discover it was missing until the boat was shoving off on it's next trip to bainbridge. we left a description of it and came back at 5:15 only to discover that it wasn't found ... "where's mine haggie?" i took a video of it ... he sounded so sad! i called the next morning and left another detailed description and my phone number and when we came home from running errands there was a message!! we couldn't wait and headed down to seattle! we parked and paid for only 15 minutes - went up to discover the lady was on her lunch break. she had mentioned that but obviously i hadn't paid attention! the nice HGIC (head guy in charge) tracked her down in the lunch room and found it for us! hooray!! we booked it back to our car and were only 2 minutes over - shhh don't tell the parking nazis!

2/6 - we went up to Ty's birthday party and ate pizza, had a piñata and played games!

2/7 - we met at Alfy's for papa shaw's birthday and ate pizza, played games and had ice cream cake!

2/12 - Valentine's day at school!

2/13 - 2/17 - mid-winter break!

i think i'll stop there for now ... i will leave valentine's day and the most recent week past for another post ...

thank you for your patience and if you're still reading - wow.