Christmas morning...

Rise and Shine....:)

Tanner was the first one awake this morning. We actually had to wake Mitchell and the girls...no surprise there. Look what Santa brought!!!

Presents galore... Mitch trying out his nerf gun.

Tanner's the only one that wants his picture taken.

I think Alli went back to bed after she opened her gifts. This was the only picture I was able to take of her that morning.

This is a picture of a bunch of Mitchell's favorite gifts. He recieved this t-shirt from Allison--his first Abercrombie, he says--, this is also a new sweat shirt. I don't think he's taken it off yet, and this is his new model pirate ship he put together. I think he'll take after his Grandpa Earl in the ship making. He LOVED it!

I hope that everyone's Christmas was as wonderful as ours. We are so truly blessed. Thank you, God, for Your infinite love and gifts.

Christmas Eve and COUSIN TIME

We went to Chuck's sister, Lynn's, house at noon on Xmas Eve. We decided to have appetizers instead of a big meal, which everyone loves. That way, it gave the Grandparents time to drive home while it was still light outside. Driving over an hour in the dark in the winter is not such a good idea for Grandma and Grandpa.

Grandpa Merril and Grandma Shirley with Mitch. Don't you just love his tie? He picked it out himself. :)

I love seeing the cousins having fun together. Especially when the college graduate cousins come home and still have fun playing with the younger ones. Something about Christmas brings out the kid in all of us, doesn't it?

Mitch playing a game of pool

Colin and Christopher building with the legos.

Good food, gift giving and picture taking followed...everyone's favorite part.

Tanner, Colin and Mitch Tanner, Colin, Shirley , Merril, and Chuck

Calie, Ashley, Kirsten Kirsten and Ashley

Allison, Ashley and Britta Mitch, Tanner,and Adam

Blizzard, fonduing, Wizard of Oz, cookie decorating...

Yes, that was done all on one day...whew! We were (kind of) snowed in on Sunday, and we were completely done with our Christmas shopping--yay! yay!--so we decided to make some memories. One of our favorite meals is fondu. It doesn't matter what we're making, we all LOVE it! Chuck and I love it because it allows us to sit and visit with the kids while our food is cooking. I'm telling you...our lunch lasted for an hour and a half! It was HEAVEN!! We laughed and talked about Christmas's past, and our favorite memories. We made plans for the future and talked about our dreams. It was priceless. It's amazing what a few chunks of meat, oil and different sauces to dip them into can lead to. They are now asking when can we do it again....

Our beautiful fondu pot. The best lunch ever!

After we ate and cleaned up, the kids and I rolled out some Christmas cookies and decorated them. I made some frosting that you had to use a paint brush to apply, and the kids all got into it. They turned out so cute!

THEN....We're off to see the Wizard...Ashley, Mitch and I cozied up to watch the Wizard of Oz and I knitted my life away...

Hope everyone was able to have at least one day of relaxation and fun with their families.

Allison made a blog!!!!

Allison has joined the ranks with all of us! Here is her new blog....
one-more-step.blogspot.com

Make sure you comment...she loves that!

It's official...

Ashley got the part of Ellen. Have no idea who it is, but she is happy! We'll see when she gets the play book. So excited for her! WAY TO GO ASHLEY!!!!!

Update on Ashley and the play...

Well, yesterday, she came dancing out of school to our car! I could tell right then that it was a good day for her. She said that she and a few other girls got called down to the office (at which point I thought, "Where is the good news here?") for a CALLBACK!! They each had to reread parts, and some had to sing again. She is up for one of the main parts. The character is Greta, or Gert or something like that...forgive me Ashley. I guess the character is very annoying, with a very obnoxious laugh, and she gets in numerous fights in the play. One of the fights calls for actually rolling around the stage. She is sooooo ecstatic, I can't even tell you! The best part, she says, is that she doesn't have to sing a solo! Way less pressure, I guess.

It's not confirmed yet, but it looks very promising. The performance isn't until March, so I'm sure you'll hear a lot about it in the coming weeks....or months.

I'm so proud of her, I could burst!

My week...in a chestnut shell

Is everyone getting excited???? For Christmas, that is! I'm trying to muster up some excitement--but, mostly, I'm just STRESSED!!! Why can't Christmas be like when we were younger? No worries about being "fair" in the gift giving, getting the perfect gift, making lasting memories that the kids will cherish, TEACHING them the true meaning of Christmas through all of the toy ads and commercialism. I get so overwhelmed this time of year at my huge responsibility to these four young lives. I constantly pray that I don't screw it up. The joy that they all have at this time is contagious, though. Seeing the pure pleasure on their faces as they dip pretzels in almond bark and decorate them with sprinkles, is priceless. And to see them sneak presents that they so carefully made themselves, under the tree for Mom and Dad is so heartwarming I could burst. Yes, the joy and excitement is still there...just in a different, more meaningful way.

This is the image I woke up to this morning. Just breathtaking. Is God trying to tell me something? :)

In the past week, we attended two beautiful Christmas concerts, Ashley's choir and Allison's band concerts. Both were very good, filled with many Christmas songs. I couldn't help but sing along. Grandpa Earl couldn't help but sing along, too, until I elbowed him to be quiet. :) We didn't want to ruin the song! hee hee! We also attended 5 hockey games, numerous practices, a spaghetti dinner, a piano Christmas party AND went Christmas shopping!! YIKES!!! It makes me tired reading it!

I was laid up yesterday, sick with a headache and aches all over. I couldn't stand lying on the couch and seeing all the Christmas commercials when I know how much more shopping needs to be done. Sawyer and I are off to hit the stores this morning!

Everyone say a little prayer for Ashley today. She's trying out for the school musical......OKLAHOMA! Doesn't it just make you sing that song? She wants a lead part sooooo bad. I'm really hoping she gets a part, that girl needs to get involved with something to get her through this long winter! :) I'll keep you posted!

Everyone have a great week ahead!

Our hockey-filled week

We had a very busy hockey week last week; hence the no-posting. In total, we had 5 games, not to mention practices, last week. It was a lot of fun, with some wins and losses. But, all in all, it was a good week. We got our fill of concession stand nachos--or should I say 'I' got my fill, Mitch can eat them at every meal, I think. No, I have not gotten ANY Christmas shopping done yet. I'm getting a little anxious. I hate it when I do this. I vow every year to be better, but, I never am! Go figure....

Tanner went to a friends house overnight on Saturday night to stay over, since we didn't have Sunday school the next day. And when he came home on Sunday afternoon, he told me that he didn't sleep AT ALL the whole night. Within minutes of getting home he was asleep on the couch.

Unfortunatly, we had to wake him after an hour to attend his advent worship at chuch. You would have thought we were sending him off to war with the way he was acting. Poor boy.....I finally got him dressed and to church, where he almost fell asleep during the program....no kidding! Afterward, we came home and he put his p.j.'s on and was, once again, asleep within minutes on the couch. That was at 6:30 p.m.! He is actually still sleeping as I type this--10:15 a.m. the following day. I tried my darndest to get him up this morning, but even with all my muscles, I just couldn't carry him to school. :) I'm thinking he may be sick. I don't think a 10 yr. old needs THAT much sleep, do you? My poor baby....I'll keep you posted....

BUT, with all this sleeping that Tanner's been doing, Mitch has been awfully lonely. :( So, it gave us an opportunity to play some games with him. After a riveting game of Battleship, Chuck and I played a game of Yahtzee with him. Yes, he even beat me!

He was in his glory!

Needless to say...we missed the sledding that occured for Family Fun Day. :(

But, here are some pictures of what I've been doing with my spare time....

Here is my first purse I have finished completely. It is dark green with brown straps. It's a little hard to tell in this picture. I have about 5 others that are done, but I either have to add buttons or finish felting them. I'll put pictures on when they are complete.

Mitchell's pick on Family Fun Day

Our family was the host of family fun day this past weekend. We had a snow storm on Saturday afternoon, so no more playing football or soccer outside for the winter, I'm afraid. So....Mitchell picked BOWLING!! We had a lot of fun--or should I say 'most' of us had a good time. The teenagers (the boys) thought that bowling shouldn't be considered a sport and thought it was lame. :( Oh well, the idea is to get us doing things we normally wouldn't do, so this fit the bill perfectly for them. We showed them that you don't have to be perfect at the game to have fun--it was just as fun watching balls be thrown down lanes that weren't even ours!

Here, some of us are getting shoes on.....

Here's half the clan. Sorry it's so blurry, I must have been excited.

Afterward we came back to our house for chicken lasagna, and regular lasagna. Absolutely no leftovers--so everyone must have gotten a workout! :)

Our Christmas Tree

This year we opted for a real tree to decorate our new home. We haven't ever had a real tree due to Chuck's, Allison's, and Mitchell's allergies and asthma. This year, and almost every year, Chuck begged for one, and so we decided to get a real one. Not just any real one....one from our own land. You see, underneath our beautiful 10 acres lies a pipeline. A very large, high speed gas pipeline. It's a little freaky thinking about it, but, like everyone says...the whole town has gas pipeline's running through it. Anyway, it runs diagonal from one corner to the next, and we can't build anything 50 feet on either side of it. That's o.k. with us, we love the wildness of it. Anyway--we received a visitor from the pipeline company during the week of Thanksgiving informing us that they were coming to tear down all the trees 25 feet on each side of the pipeline on our land. We were disgusted. They said that they have to be able to visualize the pipeline from the air for maintenance purposes. I've been so sad about it--and plan on NOT being here on the day they do it. All of our trees that block us from the road will be gone...sniff sniff. So, needless to say, Chuck and Tanner walked through the path that they will be cutting to see what tree would be perfect for Christmas. This is what they came home with.......

And this is what it looked like after a days worth of decorating! It was very fun...it even had pine cones still attached!

Here's some other decorations that we did yesterday....

This was just the beginning of the snow storm.