I know this makes me look like an old woman.... but I had to throw it in here :) I was asked to play the role of Mary for the Primary children and had the opportunity to say whatever I wanted, pretending as though I really was Mary. It was quite the neat experience to reflect on the feelings that Mary had as the mother of our Savoir Jesus Christ, and what she would want to share with the children if she were here. I felt the Spirit so strongly as I bore witness of the birth of our Savoir and the honor it was to be His mother. I truly can't imagine the feelings involved and as the scriptures mention, her feeling of "Why me?" What a humbling experience that must have been for her. It made me think so much of the honor I have been given to be the mother of my 3 sweet children. What an incredible blessing. I loved having the experience and have it help me start off the Christmas season with truly focusing on the birth of our Savoir.
The ward had a fun Christmas Breakfast. In addidtion to an amazing meal they had games, crafts, sugar decorating, and a visit from Santa! The kids really enjoyed Santa, although Marlee wasn't too sure what to think about the situation at first! Afterwards Casen was pretty concerned that he had left some of the items he wanted off of the list he had told Santa :)
Marlee ate way more topping and frosting then what ended up in her mouth, although she did decorate around her mouth quite nicely :)
We had a fun Christmas party at our house with some friends from the ward. Becky actually planned the party and then felt like she didn't have enough room in her house and so I offered to host. We had yummy treats and appetizers, ugly sweaters and a super fun white elephant gift exchange. Ryan and I wore UNLV sweaters for our "ugly" sweaters in honor of our friends the Jolleys who are the biggest UNLV fans around :)
Julie, Casie, Me, Rhonda, Katie, Sara, Becky, Kacie, and in the front, Jess, Lizzy, and Dawn
The boys and all there sweet gifts, it was a lot of work to make this picture happen!
My little brother Brett came to visit on his way home from school. He was going to BYU-Idaho and stopped by on his way to AZ. The kids love their uncle Brett and had a great time with him. We took everyone down town to see the Belagio Christmas display and the amazing water show! Something went wrong and they skipped one water show so we ended up having to wait 30 minutes, but it was till worth it :) I will miss that part of Vegas, my favorite thing on the strip! At least that is free :)
Poor Casen
ran into another kid at preschool and busted his top lip pretty bad. It was super swollen and hurt really bad. He has a hard time biting into anything, and then.....
Two days later, this happens! He was just doing a backflip off of a baby stroller, no big deal :) Poor kids split it right open and this thick flapof skin was just hanging... and tons of blood, ofcourse. We sent the pic below on the left to our friend who is a doctor and he said we better take him in for stitches. So since all the urgent cares were closed Ryan headed into the ER with him. Before leaving Casen asked for a priesthood blessing (a blessing that a worthy priesthood holder in our church can give in time of need, like sickness or for healing... you can click here for more info on the priesthood. http://mormon.org/searchresults#?query=priesthood%20blessing&filter=site). He kept crying and said he didn't want stitches. So Ryan gave him a blessing that he would be ok and his lip would heal. About 45 minutes later Ryan sent me he picture on the right. Can you believe those pictures are less than an hour apart!? It was pretty unbelievable to see how quickly his lip healed, and Casen's prayer was answered, the doctor said he wouldn't need stitches :) It was a neat experience and I hope he always remembers it.
Casen's mouth over the next couple days. Poor kids had such a hard time eating :(
At the end of a long day I look over to re-fill the toilet paper and see this perfectly heart shaped toilet paper roll looking at me :) Funny, but kind of what I needed, at least the toilet paper loves me!
My Brinley Boo and a picture she drew of our entire family and our Christmas tree. I miss her while she is at school... we don't get as many pics of her now that she is gone all day!
We were given the opportunity to do a little Christmas for a boy in need at Brinley's school. I tried to talk to the kids and involve them in the process. Each of them got to carry a present to be delivered... here is my sweet Marlee girl. I hope they can learn from a young age to love and serve others, especially those in need.
Brett reading one of our favorite childhood books "The Monster at the end of the Book." Seriously love this one!
Casen always wants to dress himself, and life wouldn't be complete with out orange basketball shorts and his spider-man hat :) One morning he asked me if he could have fruit snack on top of his cereal :) I just had to laugh and let him do it! My kids don't get a lot of sugary cereal so he kind of deserved it!
We had our friends the Deardens and Blanchards over for Sunday dinner. The Dearden's lived with us in Mississippi and recently moved back to Vegas (the lived here with us previously for just a year). We had a little lesson on service and made non-perishable food bags that can be handed out to the homeless. It is a great activity for kids to get involved in.
Everyone was so nice and watched as Casen sang/danced to Justin Bieber's "Baby" song. He loved it!
We have made a rule that if the bunnies come inside they need to stay in this corner of the kitchen :) Here Marlee is on guard duty :)
Watching Casen as his preschool performance!
Casen was so cute singing the songs and doing the actions, here is is doing "Ho, ho ho!"
After "intermission" he can back as one of the 3 kings that bring Jesus gifts :)
Brett hurt his thumb snowboarding and made it back just in time for Casen's program, Casen was sure glad to have him there!
If Casen could have a girlfriend this would be her :) Meet Ashley. Casen seriously talks about her all the time. She just married my cousin in December and Casen is VERY happy to have her in the family :) He has said so many funny things about her... here are just a few:
- One night while Ryan and I were talking we somehow said the word "crush". Casen instantly looks up at us and asks in all seriousness..." What? Ashley has a CRUSH on me??" We couldn't stop laughing, what is on that little boys mind!?
- The other day while at the doctor Casen was looking out he window and said "Look! There is Mark and Ashley walking down the sidewalk!" Ofcourse he was pretending, but I think it's because he wishes he really did get to see them all the time :)
- When Mark and Ashley came to visit they had to leave for a little bit to run some errands. Casen was anxious for them to get back and asked what was taking them so long. I told him I didn't know, and then he said.... "Oh I know! It's because everyone at the store realized what a pretty face Ashley has!" :) I haven't heard of that stopping non-famous people from leaving a store, but he was pretty certain that was the reason!
Mark is one of my cousin's on my Mom's side (Luebke). He is one of my favorites and now him and his wife are my kids favorites too! They were in Vegas for just 2 nights and still made the effort to come see us. They bought us lunch and then hung out all afternoon. The kids had a blast with them and we loved getting to chat.
Marlee... aka the little stinker! Seriously, who does this!? She is climbing on everything lately and it drives me crazy! Thankfully she hasn't really been hurt yet but she sure makes me nervous.
We made it almost the entire month of December with out Marlee taking all the ornaments off the tree, and then the day before Christmas Eve I walk in to find this... it's a good thing Marlee's so cute that she can get away with this type of behavior!
I got in my first "accident!" On Christmas Eve I was in a hurry to grab the mail and someone had pulled up RIGHT behind me. The kids always take their seatbelts off at the mailbox so they were standing up, needless to say when I turned around to look I couldn't even see the car behind me with it being so little and my kids in the way... it was even so close that my beeper didn't sound when I was backing up! Needless to say my bumper scratched the top of this sweet old lady's car. She was so nice and just got my name and number (she had just moved in two doors down) and we decided we would just pay out of pocket for the damages. Well I contacted her after Christmas all set to have an estimate done on her car, and she was so sweet and said not to worry about it. She said there was already damage on one side and it wasn't worth getting just that part fixed. We offered to just give her cash for when she did decide to fix it all but she refused. Such a kind lady, I hope I can re-pay the kindness. So glad there are still nice people like her!
Brinley and Casen dressed up Peter and Piper for church, Brinley thought it was so funny :)
I got to volunteer in Brinley's class at school during their Christmas party. They decorated snowman sugar cookies. Brinley loved her extra chubby snowman :) It was fun to get to be with her.
Our friends the Browns came by for a little visit the day after Christmas. We love their kids and my kids had a great time playing with them. Tia and Madi had fun with the bunnies too. I loved getting to chat with Mandi and Russ, we miss having them so close!
