So Sweet!

A couple nights ago I had been bathing all of the kids and as I was in Hannah's room getting her dressed and ready for bed, Wade was so kind to go in and clean up the bathtub from all of the kid's toys and dirty clothes, etc. He took care of everything and shut the light off and I never went back in there that night. The next day I went to get in the shower and found this sweet message written on the shower wall with the kids bathtub crayons! It truly made my heart melt! I thought it was so sweet and thoughtful of him to take time out from the everyday chores that he and I are endlessly doing to let me know he loves me! It was a very simple act, but it meant the world to me and helped get my day off to a better start that day! I love you Wade-thanks for all you do for me and the kids-you are the BEST!

Happy New Year!

New Year's Eve is usually very uneventful for us, with Wade's profession he is never home to celebrate with us, but we make the best of it! This year I was planning on going over to my sister's to help her throw a party for my niece and her friends, but Hannah wasn't feeling the greatest and she likes to cling to me when lots of people are around, so I decided to spare myself the irritability of dealing with her and stay home. Jakob ended up going over there for a sleep over with Ben, so I brought Andrew home so Mason would have a buddy! We ended up going over to my neighbor, who graciously opened her home to us! We ate some junk and more junk and talked while the kids played for a couple hours. When we came home I let Mason and Andrew go out in the backyard and do some poppers and yell "Happy New Year!" They thought it was the greatest. They had a little campout in the playroom and watched a movie, while I got Hannah to bed and turned on the news in hopes to see my hubby patrolling the crowded streets of the LV Strip-and guess what-I did (just for a brief second though)!

My little New Year Princess! (The hat barely lasted long enough for a picture!)

Mason and Andrew with the streamers from the poppers-cute, little buddies!

New Year's Day was spent hanging out at home, Wade watching football and my parents coming over for some yummy, homemade Baked Potato Soup in bread bowls and playing a couple games of Sorry Sliders! It was a fun, relaxing day, minus the fact that I started coming down with a cold, that Wade and Hannah also had-bummer!

So our New Year got off to kind of a bum start. Hannah started with her cold Christmas day and I finally took her to the doctor last week after almost 2 weeks of being miserable. She ended up having an ear infection. As her, myself and Wade were on the mend, Jakob came down with a bad cough and fever this past Friday and has had a fever off and on all weekend, so I finally took him to the doctor after church today and he has a yucky sinus infection. Hopefully he will feel better soon, so he can go back to school and hopefully we will have some luck in the New Year with Mason not catching any of this, I really don't want to make another trip to the doctor's office, if I can help it! Maybe when I don't have to play nurse anymore, I can sit down and make some goals for myself-I have plenty I need to work on!

Opa, Jakob, Oma and Mason playing Sorry Sliders!

Christmas!

Christmas morning the kids woke up around 7:30 and could hardley wait for us to get out of bed! I, myself, couldn't wait to see the looks on their faces-that is probably my most favorite part about Christmas morning-seeing the happiness and joy on their faces! Santa was pretty good to the kids-they all got everything they wanted and probably more than they needed!

Jakob with his pocket flyer! (not recommended for young children-they break easy). His favorite gifts from Santa were Guitar Hero for his DS and Sorry Sliders!

Mason was super-duper excited to finally get his very own cowboy boots! (Now he won't have to stalk his buddy Jack for his!) His favorite gift he got from Santa was the only thing he asked for and that was PBR-Bull Riding for the Wii!

Hannah's favorite gifts were the only 3 she got-she loved everything! Santa brought a very cute babydoll! She surprised both Wade and myself with the sweet way she carried her baby around and gave her hugs and kisses. It was so cute to watch her!

Her other gift from Santa was this fun, little car. It has a handle on the back and she doesn't mind one bit being pushed around, I don't think she would mind if that's what she got to do all day, she loved it. Spoiled little, stinker!

Later in the afternoon we headed over to my parents for Christmas dinner and let the cousins exchange their gifts! With 18 kids and 12 adults, it was complete chaos, but also lots of fun! Wade and I ended up staying there way to late playing my Dad's new Monopoly on the Wii-it was fun! We had a really fun and enjoyable day! The day after Christmas we packed up and headed to Panaca to visit Wade's family for a couple of days and have a yummy prime rib dinner with them. There was some snow on the ground, but it was so cold there that the snow was really hard and crunchy, but the kids didn't care-they had fun playing outside in the freezing cold with their cousins-I just observed from the window-once again, not a fan of being cold!

Afton and Hannah hanging out and chatting on Afton's new Dora couch-aren't they cute?

Uncle Neil giving Jakob, Mason, Dallin and Afton a ride in the trailor of Grandpa's lawnmower. (I'm glad he doesn't mind being cold because the kids had a blast!)

Christmas Eve-Part 2

After we got home from our outting we let the kids open their Christmas PJ's! Jakob got Spiderman, Mason got Batman and Hannah got Princess. The boys were extremely excited and couldn't wait to put them on, Hannah really could have cared less. After that we finally got around to putting together our gingerbread house, we then laid all together in our bed and watched the Nativity. After that we got on the computer to track down Santa and found out that he was already on the east coast, so we hurried and got his cookies and milk ready, put his magic key on the doorknob and put out some oats for the reindeer and rushed the kiddies off to bed!

PJ Pals!

Dad getting the walls of the gingerbread house set up!

Mom helping the boys decorate! (looks like I forgot to take a pic of the final product-oh well, it turned out really cute and the boys did a great job decorating!)

Christmas Eve-Part 1

We spent the first part of our Christmas Eve with my family. It has become a tradition to go bowling in the late afternoon on Christmas Eve. We always have a good time and the kids enjoy getting together for something fun and different! After bowling we had some yummy dinner with my parents at the Olive Garden-yum, yum! After that we headed home for Christmas Eve-Part 2.

Jakob and Opa
Our Little Family! (We didn't get a group picture this year)
Mason watching his ball roll down the ramp and hoping for a strike!
Jakob also hoping for a strike!
Hannah just enjoyed watching the balls come out of the ball return and playing by the air vent!

Snow Day!!!

Well as most of you have already heard Vegas/Henderson received a "big" snowfall! The kids in the Clark County School District had their first snow day in almost 30 years! The boys were so excited when they saw the snow start falling, but it took over an hour for it to actually start sticking and they could not wait to get out in the backyard and play! Then when Wade woke up, he decided to run down to Big 5 and buy a sled so we could go over to the park near our house and take the kids sledding. It was a blast, minus the fact that by the time we got the park the snow was really falling and we could hardly see, but we didn't let that stop us! When we got back Wade went out and measured the snow in our backyard and we were at 5 inches-WOW! By the time it finally stopped we ended up with almost 8 inches! The next morning Wade got out his Rhino and hooked the sled up to the back and we headed down the street and pulled the boys (and myself and Hannah) around on the sled, then we headed over to the Water Tower hill for more sledding! We all had soooo much fun, but as you can see by the picture of the boys crying-we do not have proper snow gear living in Vegas-their feet and hands were wet and cold and they had had enough for the day. Luckily we had enough that it stuck around for a few days so they were able to get plenty of snow play in and now I am glad it's gone! I loved it while it lasted, but I realized why I love living in Vegas-I am not a fan of being cold at all (just ask Wade) and by about the 5th time I had to put on 3 sets of hats, gloves and coats, I began to wonder why people like to live where it snows-no thanks! I will take the heat any day over snow! But, I am glad we got to have some fun days in the snow-it actually made it feel more like Christmas for a change!

Santa Train!

A couple weeks ago we went out to Boulder City to do our 2nd Annual Train Ride with Santa! It was kind of a hetic morning. Wade left early with the boys to go out and watch a truck race and I was trying to tackle the task of getting ready with Little Ms. Busy Body (not the easiest thing to do, if you read the post below). Wade was planning on being at the train station early and waiting in line so that I wouldn't have to wait so long with Hannah. I left about 20 minutes before our scheduled train ride, thinking that gave me plenty of time to get there and meet Wade. I got half way there and realized I left our tickets at home-ughhh! I quickly turned around and raced back home and raced back to the train station and we barely made it on our ride with just seconds to spare. The kids were super excited-the boys both love trains and couldn't wait to see Santa and Mrs. Claus! We had a great time and look forward to this little Christmas tradition each year!