Naughty Sheldon!

 

Well the kids LOVED Sheldon!  All the letter's to Santa were all about him, questions about him, thanking Santa for him....  we are SO happy he got to come to our family this year.  Some of the shenanigans he got into......

 

 Playing in the hamster ball!

 Drawing funny faces all over Austin's Family drawing.

 Fishing with our fishy crackers!  The kids were amazed that he found our floss.

 Making snow angels out of rice.

 And this was his last night here before his magic was gone.  I think all his new friends had a party for him and it looks like he won at cards.  Poor monkey looks mad.

One cute part of Jocelyn's letter..... Is this what you look like, yes or no?  :)

Spirit of Christmas

 

Santa Clause!  My girls keep asking questions..... some kids at school don't think there is a Santa.  Jocelyn asks "well how ????" about EVERYTHING Santa does!  So I realized having the older kids we have slacked at making Christmas special for Jocelyn and Avery.  When my older kids started asking SO many questions like this I sat them down and told them all about the spirit of Christmas and the spirit of giving and how Santa is just a way for kids to understand it all..... They were ALL furious with me when I told them.  So I have decided Im not telling the girls anything and I stick up for Santa no matter how hard it is for him to visit EVERY house on the earth with flying reindeer and fake Santa's at the mall, we don't even have a fire place this year!  It is funny to see Jocelyn question everything and doubt, as soon as I say "I don't know how he does it he just does" she instantly is happy and satisfied.  They want to believe and so do I!   So we went to Beaver Bark and saw Prancer and Dancer, we went inside and they have it ALL decked out so beautiful, its like a wonderland in there!  My girls loved it.

 

We have joined in the Elf on the Shelf club.  It has been so fun, Sheldon the Elf got delivered to our house to keep an eye on the kids until Christmas.  He pretends he is a toy but is letting Santa know how good they are being..... the only problem is at night he gets into trouble.  Every morning the kids love waking up to see what naughty things he got into that night.

 

Getting into our cupcake sprinkles

 Toilet papering the tree!

 Making ramps with the presents!

And he snuck into the doll house and was flirting with Pocahontas!  Naughty Sheldon!

WE WON!  We won!  They had a competition at the apartments to see who has the best lights.  We had heard about it but didn't think much of it, but we won and it was A 100$ cash gift card!!!!!  Wow!  We were excited to get money for being our normal obnoxious selves!  :)  

December

 

Jocelyn:  Do you think Jesus and Santa Clause are friends?

Mom:  What do you think?  

Jocelyn:  Yes, they are both so kind.

 

Austin's seminary teacher showed him this, Moses: the first water bender.  Made his day!

 

WHO has the best Christmas lights at the apartments?  What?  People don't put lights up at Apartments?  Oh, Scott and Eric didn't know.... They put more up, this was taken before it was done.

Last Sat. we got to go watch the ROBOGIRLS!  Regan and Kennedy made lego robots that were programmed at girl scouts and got to come compete!  They got second out of everyone and are going to state!  Whooohoo!

Avery:  Well that was rude of Goldy Locks to just barge into the bears house and eat their food.
Mom:  She was lost in the forest and scared, cold, and hungry.
Avery:  She should have just ordered a pizza.

Don't know if Im becoming less stubborn but I read this and found it to be true more often these days than I remember.
"Nothing feels worse than that moment during an argument when you realize you were wrong".

Hypocrite! That's me!

 

I am having a hard time loving myself as a hypocrite.  It seems like every other day something happens with raising kids that makes me feel this way.  We try to make rules and then keep them, no gray areas, all black and white, NO exceptions..... unless it's something really important like "Ashton Extreme Sports Night".  My kids wanted to go to Othello for the movie on a school night starting at 9:00 pm.  The family rents out the whole theater and it's super exciting so of course the older kids can go...... but NO EXCUSES other school nights, absolutely not, are they to go out or do anything that will interfere with their much needed sleep on a school night.....  

Everytime Scott says, "if I ever catch you speeding"  (I think with a giggle, really?) or "if you don't get that hair cut, Im getting out the razor" (really?  do we remember your hair growing up).  I just gave the kids a lecture when one brought home a report card that said "is a pleasure to have in class but talks too much".  TWENTY minutes I lectured on this, when the whole time in my mind I was thinking of my many report cards with this same note on it.  

I guess I will have to accept that being a parent is pretty much being a hypocrite, There is no choice.  Im not going to say "well I did it, go ahead".  (Im sure there are parents out there that were perfect growing up and don't ever feel this way)

Marinda is in the play, she came home when she got her costume and said, it's a tank top dress.  She said, I really want to be a napkin and I don't want to ask the director if I can wear a shirt under it because then he might just make me be something different.  We talked for a long time, Scott said sports team uniforms and plays are fine if they won't let you wear something else.  She decided in the end she did want to wear something under it.  So I thought I ordered it.  Didn't.  Opps.  The director told the girls they could wear a nude leotard under it if they wanted to, (which was awesome of him) but it never came in the mail.  Looked it up, never ordered it.  It was too late by then.

So we went to the first show, when she came out Scott and I were embarrassed.  Her entire back was showing, Scott about fell off his chair, he was not happy seeing his 15 year old daughter dancing on stage in that dress.  Sooooo we went home and ordered it, got the wrong color...... reordered it, we are hoping it will be here by (her last of 9 shows) Saturday!  :(  Bad Mom.  After all my lecturing on modesty.... what a hypocrite! 

Thanksgiving Weekend!

Scott got to speak at Tanner's Court of Honor, it was so great to watch the slide show and remember how much all the boys have grown!!!!  Brad is leaving for his mission this week, we went to his farewell.  Halfway through sacrament Avery said "when is the farewell?  This is just church".  :) 

 

 

We had Thanksgiving dinner with my family.  We spent a bunch of the time skyping with cousin's in New York.  Cathy, Todd and girls were there for 2 weeks.  They had a big dinner at Christie's, Marinda was carrying around the laptop showing them the dog and the dinner and everything we were doing, the kids there showed us some dances and silly things they were doing.  It almost felt like we all got to have Thanksgiving together!  It was a blast!

 

We had adopted a beautiful daughter, Kylie was here while her family went to ID.  Her basketball coach decided she needed to stay.  If she wasn't so fabulous she wouldn't be so in demand, but we enjoyed the weekend with her!

 

Ky didn't mind so much when we spent the day at Dena's (Carsten's) on Saturday!  We were glad to get in some cousin time since we didn't make it up to the cabin.

Family Pictures!

Well this year's Christmas pictures were easy enough, we just ran down the street and I set up the tripod and timer.  Handed all the kids their toys and they all sat still without complaining while my camera flashed away.  The girls were happy playing dragonville on the ipad.  Rin was texting.  Eric has earphones on (which you can't see) and was listening to music.  Austin was on his psp, and the minute he started playing it the batteries when dead, so him and Scott were talking to each other the whole time.  Scott was saying, "it's so fun to pretend to talk into my phone, I love taking Christmas pictures yay happy day happy day" and Austin was saying, "finally Im able to play my psp (been grounded) and the stinken batteries are dead".

 

Eric never sat still long enough to take a pic of him.

 

Rin took a couple pictures of me and Scott, most of them are him being a tard and ruining them ALL!   But the one below turned out cute, I was telling him to please not do anything gross for at least one picture and he said, "one day when Im gone your going to look at all the pictures I have ruined and think, man he was so funny".  So then I said something snotty and we are laughing, Austin caught the moment, my kids do a good job taking pictures, all those years of torturing them with picture sessions is paying off.

 

November

 

NINE!  Jocelyn turned 9.  She wanted a surprise party and I told her I couldn't have one when she knows about it.  I told her I would take her and a friend out somewhere that was a surprise and that way it would still be exciting.  So the day before her bday I had all the girls come over after AD and took the long road home and she was VERY surprised when she came in.  It was so much fun.

 

Avery made her heritage doll out of a clothes pin.  Marinda said I did much better than her's years ago when we made a Polish girl.

 

This is what Tubby looks like when he has his cheeks full of food.  Silly Tubby.

 

 We had a great time at Erica and Jacen's wedding! 

This snowman is about 7 inches tall, it was made with ALL the snow in the grass outside.  They hurried before it all melted when it snowed a tiny bit the other day. 

Fall Days

Sometimes during primary sharing time, me and McKayla do this.  I LOVE primary!  Im so glad they asked me sit with her each week, she is a free spirit..... like me.....  I don't think Im helping.  :)  But Im LOVING it!

Eric Fowles (the pilot) flew into town the other day, he had a layover here in Pasco.  Him and Scott hung out Saturday, it's always funny to see them two together, like the old days.   Then we went out to dinner with the McDonald's and Iverson's.  Eric and Mick hadn't seen each other since high school.  It was a lot of fun, we might get to see him more often now that he is a commercial pilot, and not the bush pilot in Alaska anymore.

While Marinda was receiving her large amounts of money from another straight A report card (one B+) she was telling the boys, "I really would like you guys to get your grades up, if you can't get into a good college you are going to have to join the military and I don't think I could handle that". 

We went to the Iverson's on a Sunday night for dessert and their youth were having a fireside so my kids were getting their church clothes on so they could go with them.  Eric said "Are you sure we can go to THEIR fireside?"  MOM:  Don't you want to go?  ERIC:  yeah I guess...... but there isn't even a fire...
Closing prayer, Sawyer was super sweet to say thanks that the Ashton's could come visit.  

I have so many projects to get done, pumpkin pies to eat, Jocelyn's SURPRISE party to plan (at her request).  I saw an awesome slide show of Rochelle...... her passing is making my busy season slow down a bit.... We really don't need to do all the silly things we try to fit in.... I want to just have fun this season and sit back more and enjoy more of it..... it's lovely outside!  I was looking on my phone the other day and I have 4 peoples numbers that have passed away, Grandpa Yorgesen, Pam, Rochelle, and Jacksen.  I just can't delete them..... it seems rude. 

Keep Calm and Call Batman

Now Scott is talking of building..... building a house instead of buying one real quick and moving right in.  Yes, it would have been nice if we had started building 6 months ago.... but we are just so stinken excited to stay in this apartment for many more months.
Whenever the kids get sad thinking of their many boxes of stuff in storage that they haven't seen in TWO years, (yes, it has been two years since we have been in our own house) or about how they haven't been able to decorate their bedrooms, or have a tiny more space between them at those moments of hormonal imbalance, I say...... BUT lets think about all the good!
The warmth of body heat in small spaces all winter long.
The small kitchen floor, it takes me THREE minutes to mop the kitchen floor. Not kidding.
No yard work or Saturday projects, inside or out.
The hot tub, gym, and theater room.
Being so close to all the schools and church.
Our newest happiness is the lady two doors down who sells tamales for a dollar.... those crazy nights when we are running to and from school activities and dr. apts. and dinner isn't ready..... no McDonalds for us, I just send the kids over for instant delicious dinner!  YUM  Love that lady.
The list could go on and on, I really don't mind staying here.  Of course if a house comes up that I love and I could move tomorrow I wouldn't fight it either!  But it's all good. If things get out of hand..... I will just call Batman.

Rochelle

 

Death causes many emotions.  I can't believe how mixed up I feel everyday about Rochelle passing away.  It was always in the back of my mind that it could happen, four years ago when we all heard about how serious her cancer was I knew it was a possibility.  But then she got better, then she got worse, then she got better.... by the end many (including me) were looking forward to her suffering being over.  But now every day I wake up and think..... she is really gone.  Her family has to get ready for school without her.... have breakfast without her..... come home after school.... go to church.... go to the store.... do EVERYTHING without her.  She is really gone.  Im thankful that I know she will be with her family again one day, but thinking of Ryan and the kids makes me cry.   I wish she could have stayed.

 

2009 At dinner we had fun laughing about her hot flashes, she said she usually wears beanie caps to hide her bald head but she gets hot flashes from the medication. So when she would rip her hat off in public she didn't think about it and people all around her gasp with shock.   Ryan said he was so used to her bald head he didn't even remember her with hair.

Kamden's bday party.  

Halloween

 

The Halloween Party was tons of fun besides Scott ditching me for a snow show.  

 

Good thing I have good friends to be on my side!

 

Nicki's sister from Idaho was here so she was my date!  Thanks Tiff.   It was a great night, the Spurgeon's are awesome!  Debie fit the party in with their primary program the next day and her husbands first Sunday being Bishop! 

 

My Dad turned 74 the day before Halloween and we had a fun party.  I got lots of pictures for the family calendar..... now to find the time to put it together....

 

Our ward Halloween party.  So funny!

 

Marinda and Sarah handing out candy from under the plastic in the trunk. The kids loved it.

 

Ariana and Ellie were here for the weekend and went with us.  Ellie changed her costume about five times, she ended with a southern bell / fairy / princess / with pink hair.  Ariana was the Box of Shame from the movie "Despicable Me"

The big kids and Scott ended the night by going out to the Haunted Forest.