We had a beautiful Christmas...a wonderful day filled with family, food, and gifts. Here's some of our highlights!

Welcome to the 2008 Holiday Edition of Getting to Know Your Friends! You know the drill. Highlight, copy, and paste (not forward) and change my answers to your answers.

Be sure to send back to me. Enjoy!! Everyone has time for a few moments of fun! Don't be a scrooge!!!

Name: Mandi
1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate.
2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?I don't think I've ever gotten a gift that wasn't wrapped
3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? The only colored lights are on the tree, white everywhere else
4. Do you hang mistletoe? Matt wishes :)
5. When do you put your decorations up? The day after Thanksgiving we put up our tree
6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Grandma's prime rib
7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: All of our traditions, used to annoy me, now I LOVE them
8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? It was never really an issue for me, I'll never forget when my brother found out though...mucho trauma!
9. Do you open gifts on Christmas Eve? Just one, it's usually new pajamas to wear that night
10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? Lights and family ornaments, I've gotten one every year since I was little and have done that with our kids too! We're gonna need a bigger tree soon!
11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Right now??? sick to death of it!
12. Can you ice skate? Sort of, I have balance issues :)
13. Do you remember your favorite gift? My bible from my husband with a beautiful inscription inside
14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Family and remembering why it is we really celebrate the holiday
15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Mom's cheesecake
16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Getting dressed up and going to the Christmas Eve service..standing in the near dark sanctuary and holding our candles and singing Silent Night
17. What tops your tree? Angel
18. Which do you prefer giving or Receiving? Giving, hands down
19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? O Little Town of Bethelehem
20. Candy Canes? no thanks!

It's all Emma's fault, really. You see, she was so upset that we didn't have a white christmas last year that she prayed that God would send snow. Boy, did He ever answer THAT request! We have so much snow. NAd guess who gets to shovel the driveway?? That would be me. UGH. I hate shoveling. BUt if I would like my husband to be able to get into the driveway tonight, which I do, it must be done.

Here are some shots out of my front door....













And the bright spot in my day...Thomas is learning to sing "Jingle Bells". Another Christmas crazy kid in the making :) I took a video of it...here it is.

And the interpretation...."Tinkerbell, Tinkerbell....fun ride, HEY!" Well he has to start somewhere right?

It's 1 AM.... I am awake. Now those of you who know me well know that I am NO night owl. In fact, promptly at 11 PM every night, I turn into a pumpkin. Simple as that. Yet here I am awake at 1. Why, you may ask? I was awoken to the tell tale barking cough of my youngest and I knew that croup was visiting yet again. Both of my boys have been so susceptible to the croup bug. Poor Thomas could barely breathe. So we bundled up and headed out into the snow. There's something cruel about going from peaceful sleep to standing out in the snow within a matter of minutes!!! But it seemed to help, for a while anyway. We've just come back in from our second trip out and are about ready to try the shower. Gotta love winter time.

Last half of the week in pictures

Here's the last half of my week in pictures....




I did a lot of my baking...here's some of my favorite holiday cookies!!!








Almost all of my presents are wrapped....he he, I am SOO excited!














The biggest SHOCK ever! Thomas is potty training!!!!















Which of course lead to the purchase of "big boy" Diego and Thomas unders!












My Jonah man, singing with the Battle Creek Boychoir! I am so proud! Noah liked it too!

Wordless Wednesday

Why you never leave your daughters in charge of your little son....

Well I survived. Molli had her sleepover on Friday night for her birthday. This is the first time that we have done a "friend" party for any of our kids. Usually, it's just a family bash. But Molli asked and we I conceded. Matt was not so sure. I told her she could invite three girls, making it four total including her. Well as we were sitting home one evening, a few days before the party, the phone rang. It was Maria!!! She was calling to ask if she was invited to Molli's party!!!! At first I was appalled...who calls and invites themselves to someone else's party???? Matt and I had a very long talk about whether or not she should be allowed to come. Did I really want the girl who dictates Molli's school life in my house overnight???? After some honest discussion and seeking some wisdom from the older and wiser parents, we decided that Molli could invite Maria to her party. After all, what a perfect opportunity it would be for me to witness her behavior up close and maybe get a better sense of why Molli worships the ground she walks on.

So Friday night arrives, the three girls are happily opening presents and eating cake. I thought I was being oh so crafty by getting plain raw wood frames, taking a pic of all four girls, having them printed out and letting them paint the frames and then take the pic home as their "party gift". They all thought that was pretty cool. I was keeping a close eye (and ear) on Maria and her interaction with the girls. She's clearly the ring leader, all the girls defer to her. She almost reminded me of an 8 year old version of the chick from "Mean Girls". SERIOUSLY! So after all the festivities, they headed up to Molli's room. I sat at the computer and eavesdropped. All of a sudden, all the girls were crying. I went running up the stairs to see what was wrong. They told me that Maria had started the crying by talking about her Grandma dying and that they were all crying about a grandparent that they had lost. WHAT??!?!?!?!?!? Apparently the girl who cried the most was the best....holy cow. Then there was the inevitable, "She doesn't want to play that!" "She said mean things to me!" UGH I will certainly reconsider before doing it again. I cannot believe the amount of girl CRAP that was flying in this house. AND THEY ARE ONLY 8!!! I'm never going to survive.....

I knew it. I just knew it. I knew all of the torturous years of watching Dora would pay off. I had a hint when Sydney was 2 and hanging from the top bunk and yelling "Ayudame! Ayudame!" (help me in Spanish). But I realized this morning that all 4+ years of watching Dora has taught my daughter a very significant gift....one that not many people possess......






The video doesn't quite do it justice....she was dancing around this morning singing Feliz Navidad but trilling her r's..I was so proud. It sounded like this, "I wanna wish you a Merrrrry Chrrrrristmas..." It was hilarious!


In other news, my oldest daughter turned 8 yesterday. Pics are below but, in her honor, here are 8 things about her:

1. She is the most like me out of all of my children, God help her!
2. She can sing...I've been told often by other people that she has a natural ability to match pitch which is sometimes hard for kids.
3. She's a pack rat...grrrrrr.
4.She wants to grow up way too fast. Wish I could convince her that it's not that fabulous!
5. She was born underwater....I had a water birth with her, it was AMAZING!
6. She has a good sense of what other people are feeling, she doesn't always pay attention to it however :)
7. She is my only child to have had major surgery. It was so tough for me!!! She was a trooper!
8. I wouldn't change one thing about her.

Not again

Well once again the bugs have returned...and by that I mean the sickness bugs. Late Saturday night Sydney got sick. She was followed a few hours later by Emma. And then, despite all of my very best efforts, I followed Emma. Now there is NOTHING in this world that I hate doing as much as I hate vomiting. NOTHING. I would rather give birth, three times in a row with NO medication than throw up. It's just that bad for me. I haven't thrown up in 8 years!!!! 8!!!! But I lost the battle. It was awful. So suffice to say, I spent the rest of the day in bed. Molli came down with it last night and Jonah came home from school with it today. So only Thomas and Matt remain. At least it's a quick bug...but there's really just no great way to handle vomit.

Moving on to happier topics :)

This week is busy as Molli Louise turns 8. Good Lord, how did this happen??? Her birthday is Wednesday (expect a sappy post with pictures) and then she is having her party on Friday. I've, excuse we've (Matt had to be convinced) have allowed Molli to invite three friends over for a sleepover. I've farmed out all of her other siblings to family members as to give them the run of the house. Well....sort of. At least the girl's room. So I intend on sleeping little that night as I am kept awake by girly giggles and silly games. Man, I can't believe I did this to my mom!!!

Still no resolution with the school situation. I'm tempted to let it be for now and see what happens.

Our Thanksgiving was lovely. Fairly low key and full of food. What else? The kids got to spend the night with my mom as I got up at 4 AM and dragged my Aunt Carol and my 80 year old Grandma out shopping on Black Friday. We hit Wal-Mart first. Thankfully, none of the things I was looking for was in electronics so we were in and out in 45 minutes. It sure was crazy. We hit Target next which, I am happy to report to my Wal-Mart hating friends, was CRAZIER than Wal-Mart!!!! I watched two ladies fighting over the same package of something...I quickly got out of the way as the police arrived. YIKES! But all in all, it was a successful trip and some fond memories were made.

Now we launch into Christmas...man am I excited! I woke up to 6 inches of GORGEOUS snow outside and cranked up my Christmas tunes!!! WOO HOO!!!