A Very Merry Christmas

Hi everyone! Just wanted to let you know how our holiday went. Christmas eve was wonderful. We spent the whole day together as a family, well almost. I had a few last minute gifts to pick up that morning, ya ya I know I waited till the last minute, but you all know my motto...dont do today what you can put off till tommorrow J/K. In this case there was no tommorrow. After I got home we ordered in some pizza and sat down played some games with the kids. After Clark went down for a nap we all made gingerbread houses. I think me and Kalee's is the best, but Joel disagrees, he thinks his is far more structuraly sound. I just told him that is not something engineers really consider in gingerbread land and its all about the display. Later that night we had dinner, ice cream and watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Before the kids went to bed we let them open their traditional Christmas eve present. I dont think they have caught on yet that they get the same thing every year, pajamas. We wrote a note to Santa and left him some brownies and some carrotts for the reindeer. Joel told Kalee that Santa prefers brownies. You could tell the kids were pretty excited and it took them a while to get to sleep. Joel realized he did not wait long enough when Lily wondered in while he was watching TV and eating Santa's brownies. Joel just told her he was hungry and together they put some more on the plate and put it back by the fireplace. It was very cute.

Christmas morning was pretty much what you would expect. The kids were up an at em' at 0600 so we got a pretty early start on the day. We opened up stockings and presents and I made Joel his tradiotional waffle breakfast. Later that day we had Grandma and cousins over for our ham dinner. It was fun, but a lot of work. Don't you miss the days when Christmas was relaxing and all you had to worry about was what toys to play with in which order. We did webcam with Joel's family and the kids got to show off their toys. Kalee and Lily love their Geselle wedding dressups, karoake machine, Hannah Montana guitar, Easy Bake oven, and a whole lot more. Clark loves to destroy his train set and likes all his trucks and planes. We are considering Joel's lapotop he got for his deployments his Christmas gift and Joel gave me the sweetest gifts this Christmas when he did the 12 days of Christmas to me.

This morning we decided to get up early to get a new Christmas tree. We hit the stores early and found some good deals. I got my tree and Joel stocked up on a couple thousand more lights, and some lawn light up decorations. He is out of control. He told me he was going to buy more, but he is running out of outlets, so we should move to a house that has more. We are now just going to try and take it easy for a few days to recoup from the nonstop action lately.

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas, and have a happy new year!!!!

Oh, and the story with the video at the bottom is that when Joel's family came out and visited us recently, Joel showed them all his plane. Terry having the Bragg family...problem, had to use the restroom and couldn't make it to the building, so Joel opened up the bathroom on the plane. We thought it would be nice to get her something to commemorate the event.

Its the most wonderful time of the year!

You know, it just comes quicker every year that goes by. It seems like just a year ago Joel and I were celebrating our first christmas together, and now we have a bunch of kids. As you can tell Joel has a bit of a problem. If there were a christmas lights anonymous group, I would sign Joel up. We all love this time of year, even though we miss the snow and ambience it creates. Quite a bit has gone on since I last posted. Joel's parents and Lindsay came and visited us. It was tons of fun and the kids loved having thier grandparents and auntie come and play. Joel's best friend Grant also came and stayed with us for a few days. Those two are a bunch of goofs. We celebrated Thanksgiving at Grandma's house here in California, we all had a good time and overindulged ourselves as customary. A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to go to the midnight showing of Twilight with a bunch of friends. I didn't get home until 3 that morning...but hey, you have to make sacrfices for these vitally important events. The movie was good, but I think they could have made it better. Joel likes to make fun of me for it.

Here is a couple of pictures of us decorating our tree. After 8 years of dedicated service, I am proud to say that this will be the last year for this tree. Its been a wonderful tree and withstood many a batterings by overexcited children.

I forget to say that on the 11 of November I got to go up in a KC-10! The did a spouse flight and it was pretty cool...atleast when I was able to get in the cockpit and the sit in the back of the airplane and watch them refuel. I am amazed at what Joel does. I have no idea how he keeps all those buttons straight.

I found this in our camera...thought you might enjoy!

Halloween

It's a wee bit late! I hope everyone had a spook tackler Halloween! We went to a Halloween party hosted by our friends they did a wonderful job putting it together. We are so glad we were invited. Thanks for all your hard work it was amazing they went all out with decorations and food prep it was very cute and creative. We had lots of fun and way too much to eat. Then the kids went trick or treating with about 20 other kids from the party it was Hilarious to watch. I don’t know where kalee learned this song but as she and a couple other kids were walking they were singing “trick or treat smell my feet give me something good to eat, if you don’t, I don’t care I’ll pull down your underwear. I thought it was very funny. We had to have a little talk about how we didn’t say those things. After I stopped laughing that she was singing that in the first place. Kalee was the silver mist fairy I glittered her all up and she loved it. Lily was a cutest witch I have ever seen, then again I am biased. Clark was a pilot just like his Daddy and a cute one at that. Clark wore Joel’s work patches he was so hansom.

JOEL'S HOMECOMING

Joel got back from his deployment. The kids and I were so excited to have him come home. He was just about the last one off the plane, I guess pilots get off last anyway. I barley recognized him, his hair was buzzed and he had lost some weight (not that he need to lose any) but gained some muscles! I was so glad to see him walk of that plane. It is amazing knowing that we have the missing part of our family back. He looked really good, and he had the biggest smile, which made it so much easier not to cry. It was so great to see how happy he was to see us. I had imagined just running and jumping in his arms but that didn’t happen, his squadron was there to greet him and they were all lined up. He was about to shake the someone’s hand when the girls cut them off and ran and jumped in daddy’s arms, it was so precious. He got back on October 21St, I made his favorite cookies and had all his favorite meals on hand to make. We have adjusted to him being home and vise versa. Clark went to daddy but was a little skeptical at first, however after just 2 hours of being with him he is now attached and has been ever since. He loves his daddy very much! We have just been spending time together as a family and that’s why no blogging has been done. I’ll try to keep up from now on.

BIG 30!!!

Happy Birthday to me! Yesterday I turned 30! Everything changed overnight I have to wear depends when I go to bed. I have days of the week medicine holders, HOT FLASHES galore! Oh wait that's when you turn 50. Ha!Ha! I so crack myself up. Really I don't feel any different maybe a little more tired. One of my friends took me to lunch at Johnny Carino's Yummy! Thanks Ginger. Another friend watched my kiddos why I did that Thanks Kim. It was a great day Until 6:00 when Kalee threw up all over. Poor girl I hate it when the kiddos get sick. Speaking a medical problems everyone just knows how I just love throwing up.... well I had to do a colonoscopy and also do the one where the go down your throat. The Doctors thought I had an ulcer. it turns out that I don't have a ulcer which is good, I also don't have colon cancer which is even better, however my stomach did have some problems and they are waiting for the test results the Doctor is almost positive that I have some kind of bacterial bug and it will only go away with a double antibiotic that you take for 14 days. So if that is the case the problem with be fixed no more pain and no more throwing up all the time! Horray! Anyhow if turning 30 means all these medical problems I sure don't want to get any older. Oh and did I mention the prep part I had to drink 84 ounces of this salty tasting liquid in 4 hours it was disgusting I honestly don't know how I did it, then the rest of the day your in the bathroom every 5 mins. It was a good thing it was conference. I hope I never have to do that ever again. The procedure was cake I was in an out in an hour and a half. I will leave on a good note Joel's wonderful Grandma and His Aunt Jan Had a birthday party for me since Joel wasn't around. They made a yummy dinner of Stuffed potatoes, tri-tip steak so delicious, and jello, broccoli cassrole, garlicbread. It was all very good. Aunt Jan made me Boston cream pie my favorite it was so yummy! Thanks ladies!


My little cuties playing in the leaves at Great Grandma's House.
I couldn't get them to look at me at the same time! This is the only picture I could get of Lily she wouldn't sit still long enough to even pose. They all had so much fun playing in the leaves.

DOUBLE TROUBLE!!!!

We all know how Lily gets these great ideas! well last Thursday after Gymnastic we got home about 6:15 we have a buffet night because we get home so late. Lily wanted top ramen so I put it in the microwave. while It was cooking I was helping kalee with her last math problem I hear the timer go off and before I could even go to take it out Lily tries to do it herself she starts screaming bloody murder. The hot glass bowl is broken on the floor with it's contents all over the floor and Lily I had every emotion running threw me I was worried, panicked, angry, terrified. this all Happened in about 2 sec I grabbed lily, Clark, and kalee took Lily to the bath filled it up with cold water and ice while she is shivering like nothing else she soaked in that for about 15 mins. It is a good thing I had the burn cream from what happend with Clark I covered her in that from shoulders to toes. the next morning everything looked cleared up except her knee which was black with blister ect. and the lower part of her leg was a burn mark but not bad. It looked like a 3rd degree burn. I put more burn cream on it and wrapped it and have been doing that ever since the picture that you see I took today which is almost a week later. she went to the Dr today and it's healing well she will have a scare of course however it is only a really bad second degree burn which is a good thing. On a ligher note She made the Doctors laugh because she really is a talker and when they would ask her quesions she would answer them in her most serious voice and say I am 4, I want a dog, I burned myself, I am in double trouble, I quess you had to be there but she really is a cutie. Oh and another thing I haven't blogged about the Primary program was 2 weeks ago and it went splendid! the kids did great! they sang all the songs even the ones I taught them. imagine that me helping people to sing who would've ever thought. Until the next accident.......I am almost certain we will meet again very soon.

Happy Anniversary

Wow! It's been 8 fantastic years with a little bump in the road every once in awhile. I just wanted you all to know how much I love my husband. There are not enough words to express all that this man means to me. Happy Anniversary Honey! I love you so much! This is our song by Lonestar it pretty much sums up how I feel and how he makes me feel. Joel emailed me 10 things why he married me I would post it but I would be in double trouble he is a very private person, anyway it was beautiful it made me cry and at the end he said that he should never make a list because there are to many good things about me isn't he sweet. To the many, many, many, more years to come. Pictures coming soon!!Today!!Hopefully!!

Haircuts

I just realized that I didn't post that kalee and I chopped are Hair off a couple of weeks ago. We donated it to the locks of love kalee's was about 14 inches and mine is 10 inches. I was so worried I wouldn't like Kalee's short but I love it and so does she.

Town Round up!!

So the kids and I went to Great Grandma Bragg's ward Round up there was so much food it was crazy. The kids had so much fun Kalee went on the hay ride about 8 times because it went through the sprinklers and you got all wet. Lily went about 4 times then she was off. they went fishing and got treats. Kalee and Lily couldn't get enough of the jumping thing. Clark was terrified to go on the Jumping thing however he did love the hayride. That was the end of the fun though as I was driving home I was about 3 mins from home and I had no time to react it just hit me I started barfing I tried to swallow it but couldn't there was know where I could pull over so I looked around my car to see if I had anything, all I found was a open empy water bottle so I tried to do the rest in there. this all happened in about 2 sec It got all over me and my car EEWWHH! DISGUSTING! and in the water bottle. Gross huh! I though I would share that SORRY. Among the other things which I will not mention that happened last week I had a rotten week but hey it could be worse.

picnic at the park

first day of preschool

Lily was so excited to go to preschool. she likes her teacher Mrs. Elizabeth well she calls her Mrs Elizaba for some odd reason. When I ask her to say Elizabeth she says it but then goes right back to saying Elizaba. what a funy little girl. she is slowly learning to do what the teacher says. she goes twice a week for 2.5 hrs. she comes home with a little less enery than normal so this is good. I love having her home when Kalee is at school it gives me some one on one time with her when clarks down for his nap. speaking of clark he is already acting like a 2 yr old, he keeps me pretty busy. the other day he did something super cute. He never lets me cuddle with him so this is a moment to remember. He went and got his blanket that Grandma Rudd Made him and his binky crawled up on my lap and fell asleep. It was such a sweet moment. That leads me to another moment when I dropped Lily off at preschool it started to get teary eyed realizing that it's just me and clark and both my baby girls are growning up.

First day of School

Kalee started school on August 18th she loves her new school and her teacher Mrs. Lara. she has her own desk that she can open and it has all her school supplies in it. she has made some new friends and really enjoys being a 1st grader.