It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!!!!!!

I have been super excited! I love this time of year so much! I have my Christmas cards made, personalized, signed and ready for the mailbox! I was hoping to have them out by Black Friday but fell a little short. Regardless, I am determined to get/be organized!!! It's been two years since I sent cards out and it feels good to have my head in the game again. I also have my neighbor gifts made and ready for delivery Dec 1st. I love making time for these simple activies!!

My Dad has been in town and took us to dinner tonight for Christmas. We had a blast at Famous Dave's. Marky was busy rubbing Jazzy's back making him uncomfortable and I'm pretty certain our server thought they were together which makes me smirk and I'm sure that anyone who saw Marky smack Jazzy's backside on the way out thought the same!! Keep in mind that the Jazz man is a homophobe and my darling husband is quite the antagonist!

The children were home for a few hours today unexpectedly. Dayton was busy softly stroking my head. He innocently asked, "Mom is this the hair you had when you were a little girl". He really does make my heart smile. Beans snuggled up close to me as she drifted off to sleep and it doesn't get much better than that!!

We got the tree up today and it looks great! We'll decorate it tomorrow after church/dinner while the fam is here. We're having Prime Rib and the beauty of this is that I am not cooking ;)

I am all set for the children to come home tomorrow morning and I have my Sunday school lesson all prepared for the children. I duped my Dad into attending the 3 hour block at church with me last week and I must say I am quite proud of myself...although I am fairly certain he will not be in attendance tomorrow.

On the B Side: I am grateful for good feelings!

~Aye Carumba!

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!I made this a few weeks ago and the kids and I are still giggling about it!

On the B Side: I am grateful for giggles!

The Brady Bunch and then some!

Last weekend my Clancy Pants and her family came down to SLC from IF and stayed with us. Unfortunately Mark had to work most of the time but we all had a blast. I'm sad that I didn't take any pictures.

On Saturday I was babysitting for some friends so we had a total of 7 children running around our home (compared to just 6 the rest of the weekend!). My Dad is also here from PA and keep in mind that my brother lives with us... we literally had a party!

Here's a run down of activities. Keep in mind the the children ranged from ages 2 to 7 and we had at least 5-6 adults here and 2 extras Saturday evening.

Potty Accidents: 3 (and two of them were Ellie...which never happens anymore!!!)
Kids sleeping in my room: 3
Boys: 4
Girls: 3
Hoot-n-Nanny Pancakes: 2 nine by thirteen pans Saturday morning
Casualties: 1 (Poor Kayla biffed it on the sidewalk)
Trips to the Park: 1
Christmas Cookies Made: 2 batches
Late Nights past 11 for the Kids: 2
Late Nights past 1 AM for me and Clancy Pants: 2
Movies Watched: 2 (Madagascar both times!)
Tears: Only a handful when I put the tubby toys away (Sorry, RoRo)
Loads of Laundry: 7 (these were all mine!)
Gallons of Apple Juice: 3
Gallons of OJ: 2
Gallons of Milk: 2
Instruments Played: 2 (guitar and piano)
Waffles: I have no idea how many there were but man were they flakey (Bad Dad!)
Highlight: Clancy signing 'A Long Time Ago' with Dustin's crazy Kata

We had no real squabbles, no injuries on the tramp, no runaways and no time outs!! TV time was minimal and the weather was beautiful! The kids were really awesome and played so well together. We were late for Church on Sunday but at least I had my lesson prepared ;)

On the B Side: I am grateful for the best of friends!