My plan was to clean the house tonight after the boys went to bed.
My new plan is to go to bed now and clean at 4am tomorrow morning before the boys wake up.

A couple of the YW were in there school band/choir concert and they invited me to come listen to them. I was more than happy to go and really glad to be invited. The boys liked coming along too and sat pretty darn quiet for the most part.

Pops got to go on splits with the missionaries tonight...I think he was excited to go.

Dinner swap saved us from purchasing crap food tonight. Love dinner swap.

I got to reading a few past posts the other night and really liken remembering what took place over the last year. Part of me wants to continue to post every day and the other part of me longs for some privacy. I guess come January we'll see which part of me wins the fight...

Pops surprised us and got home shortly after 5pm so he could get the Christmas lights on the house tonight. The boys loved being able to help him and they also loved climbing up the ladder. I didn't want to watch that part so I came in the house with Crate. We had FHE together and then did one of our family traditions of lying under the Christmas tree looking up to the top and talking about our favorite parts of Christmas. Of course, Boss pretended that the lights were missals...not surprising. He had all the sound effects to go along with it.

Poor Crate still has a major red rear-end. So red in fact that it's bleeding. I feel bad for that little guy. One nice thing about Crate is that 90% of the time when I go to lay him down for a nap or for the night he lunges for his crib and then once I lay him down he waves and says "bye, bye." The kid loves to go to bed, he must be like his mother in that regard.

Buster stayed home from school today. We needed to help Marmie pack some more so I took the three boys and our little girl friend with me to help out. Four kids while packing could have been a disaster but they actually did pretty well and I think considering, a lot got done.

We got a sneak peak of some of the family pictures that were taken. I have to say I LOVE them so far! Can't wait to see the rest.







I love this one of the boys...


And Crate just melts my heart.


Since we have pictures now we MIGHT...and key word is "might," get around to doing Christmas cards this year. We'll see...

And if you're looking for awesome photographers I'll give you the contact number for Aaron and Shanan Durda, they are awesome!

We had Pops at church with us for the entire block today, it was so nice. He took Crate out when he got restless...I could get used to this!

Family pics got done today. I can't wait to see them!

Hung out with some friends and watched the First Presidency Christmas devotional tonight. It was fun to hang with them. I miss having them in our ward.

Poor Crate has something going on in his body...his diapers have been pretty bad today. OK...diapers are the only thing I can think writing about. It must be time for bed for me.

Why does Crate and Boss have bruises on their faces right when we're about to have our family pictures taken? This should make for lovely memories.

Found killer deals at Macy's today. Needed to return some items and found $89 jeans for $9.99 and a sweet coat that was regularly $100 I got for $20. Then I had a 25% off coupon. I was super excited. I now have more than one pair of jeans...it's about time. And it's killer to find the prefect jean. I wouldn't call these perfect but for 10 bucks they'll work great.

Ward Christmas party was tonight, a big success as usual. Buster got to be a Shepard in the manger scene...which he was actually excited to do.

We went to the Poinsettia festival today...I think we're good to not visit it again for 10 years.

We were happy that Pops spent a chunk of the afternoon with us, he did have to work this morning and in the evening but it was nice having him hang out with us in the afternoon. We all like to have him around.

Pops was off to basketball before the sun rose and the boys all slept in til 8am. That was a Christmas miracle! I stayed in bed until they came in the room and then we hung out in bed for a little while this morning. It's been a long time since I stayed in bed that late and I have to admit I really enjoyed it. I am looking forward to a little later start time for church so I can do that more often.

Went to bed way to late last night...like midnight. I stayed up and watched the ASU/U of A football game with Pops. Then got up to exercise and by the time I picked up Buster from school it had caught up to me. Luckily Crate was ready for a nap too so we both went down while the the two older boys played a video game. All of us at our favorite spots, perfect.

Then I braved a trip to Wal-Mart at 5pm with the boys...those workers on the Wal-mart advertisements must be good actors because the workers at our store aren't necessarily like that. We picked up a Christmas movie at Redbox and we're going to have a mother-sons date night since Pops is out working late tonight.

I think it's safe to say that if I took a nap every afternoon and I would be a new mother...I should some how fit that into the schedule...

The Christmas stuff is up. Except the lights for the outside of the house. Hopefully those will go up soon. The boys decorated the tree. Not exactly my idea of a Martha Stewart tree but they had fun doing it. Of course the bottom 24 inches are empty so Crate can't destroy anything. It's fun to have everything up.

We played outside a lot today. Crate would live outside if I let him. He hates when it's time to come inside.

Tried a new marinade for the chicken for dinner tonight. Everyone loved it except me. I was hoping it had more of a kick to it. Oh well.

Boss got Tabasco sauce in his mouth today for yelling. I haven't had to give that to him for about a year. I felt bad doing it but he knows better than to yell like he did. He cried and cried but I think he learned his lesson. It's sad to have to discipline the boys but I know it's for there good. Yelling in the house is one thing I cannot handle. It drives me crazy. Hopefully it won't happen again for a long time.

Our YW's progressive dinner was a success. This is the third year in a row we've done this. I wonder if the tradition will continue on when I'm released, the girls seem to really like it!

We have absolutely nothing "Christmas" up yet. I told Pops that everything is going up tomorrow with or without him here. If tomorrow ends up being like the last several nights, it will be without him. I just hope I am strong enough to move the Christmas tree into the house by myself. I'm confident I can get the lights on the house by myself.

I just heard an odd noise and when I went to see what it was I found Buster peeing in the hall closet. Gross...this is not one of those "fun" parenting moments. He is obviously asleep cause when I asked him what he's doing he replied "the people making the movie asked me to help them write some parts for it." What the heck is he dreaming? Our suitcases now smell like pee and Pops isn't going to be to happy to come home and see that Buster peed on our emergency light and radio. The closet door is right next to the bathroom door so I'm sure it didn't even click with him what he was doing. This is disgusting to clean up. I think I would have preferred for him to pee his bed.

I love taking the kids to the park and being there all of five minutes and hearing older kids use language that only sailors use. It's just wonderful and makes me want to return to the park real soon. Grrrrr......

Crate now says "Hi" as plain as day and waves his hand and says "bye, bye." Although when it comes out it sounds like "buh, buh." He's really into turning the light switches on and off and will push a chair to any light switch and try to stand on the chair to reach the switches to play with them. He can almost say "light." Man, he's growing up way to fast.

The boys declared they want a puppy for Christmas. I told them that wasn't going to happen. Buster then proceeds to tell me "fine, I'll just ask Santa for it." To which I replied, "I'll tell Santa not to get it for you." He didn't like that answer. I'm glad Santa and I are on a first names basis.