Fine, you can have your way this one last time.  But that’s it.  I have rarely ever been one to be knocked down by a silly cold.  But you and your friends have hit me not once, not twice but three times in about the past month.  And frankly I am so tired of it!

I’ve missed another day at church, I’ve not been much company to my family and friends, you’ve kept me from doing my visiting teaching, I look and feel like I’ve been run over by a truck, everything tastes the same, I’ve gotten nothing done at all around the house, I have housekeepers coming in the morning and either Eric is going to have to straighten stray messes or I’m going to have to just suck it up and push through. 

So please let this one be the last one of the season.  Please!  I promise I’ll wear my coat outside when it’s cold, even though it makes it almost impossible to drive and it’s such an inconvenience to get off to get in the car only to put it back on to get out.  But if you will leave me alone, I promise I will wear my coat more often.

So after it had been unbearable cold for like ever, we had an amazing day yesterday where temps reached the high 60s!  Yay!  Had the door open down in the scraproom (while I was rearranging things) for the entire day.  It felt so good having fresh air in the house.

Should have known we couldn’t have had such amazing weather without consequence.  Nope.  Let’s see I think it was about 9pm when the weather radio went off with a TORNADO WATCH!  Are you seriously kidding me?!  In December?!  But yep, it was true.  Of course Ally and Erica were spending the night over at Grandma and Pappa’s, and you can’t hear the sirens over there, so I started freaking out begging Eric to go get my girls and bring them home to me.

Instead my level headed husband turned on the weather channel, where they weren’t report anything, called his parents and assured me it was going to be okay, that the cell was moving past.  Neglected to tell me we had more coming through.  When the second one boomed through, Erica called and wanted to come home.  So he went and got her. 

By the time I went to bed (which was much too late) all seemed to be calm.  Then the stupid weather radio went off again, but this time with a Thunderstorm Warning.  I didn’t quite hear the Thunderstorm part and thought Eric said Tornado and was about to head for the basement, but then was corrected and then I fell quickly back asleep.

This morning, don’t know what the temp is, but it must be cold out there.  All the trees and bushes and the edge of the railing on the deck have ice clinging to them.    Guess there won’t be any open doors today.

Okay, so the number of pictures we took was ridiculous!  But I was able to quickly pick some favorites.

The whole present thing was a mix of emotions.  We gave the girls money to shop for presents for each member of the family, and their budget was $10 a piece.  It was really fun watching them be creative and stretching it as far as they cold.  Such as I had a $25 certificate that Famous Footwear had sent me and Jackie claimed that and got Erica a pair of Dora tennis shoes, which Erica was ecstatic about because now they’ll have to sing her the new shoe song at preschool (again!).  Erica bought tons of yarn for Ally and it was all on sale, and Ally was ecstatic to open a box full of yarn as she is now learning how to knit.  It was so cool to see the girls get creative on how they spent the money and how thoughtful they were with their gifts.  We even had enough left afterwards from the budgeted money to go to Starbucks for Blended Cremes and Hot Chocolates.  Yum!

But it really kind of irritated with Ally this year when she opened most of her presents.  Maybe it’s just she’s being a teenager or maybe we overdid Christmas too much last year.  But it seemed like every time she opened a present there was something about it that wasn’t the way she wanted it to.  And how come Erica’s presents were bigger than hers and why did everyone get more than she did or is that all?!  First of all, her desk and chair were bigger than all of Erica’s presents put together, second I bought the same exact number of presents for everyone in order to avoid such an accusation, third I spent way more on her and Jackie than on Erica and finally, yes I think between what we gave her, she got from her sisters and what Grandma and Papa gave her, that was plenty.  Then when she found out Santa was only giving her three, whew!  I then explained to her that the baby Jesus only got three presents, which is the reason why we celebrate Christmas to begin with, and why did she think that she should have more?  Don’t get me wrong, I think she did in the end appreciate everything in her way, she even said it was a better Christmas than last year, but it just felt like she wasn’t as happy with her gifts as I thought she would have been.

Now Jackie and Erica on the other hand.  Nothing but gratitude with every unwrapped present.  Erica acted as if each present was the one thing she wanted the most.  It was wonderful.  And Erica cracked me up every time she opened a present.  First she would shout with glee and then pose for the camera.  Too cute.  And it was so nice to see a smile creep across Jackie’s face so many times in a 24 hour period.

Anyway, without further ado, here are some of my favorite pictures…

The tree on Christmas Eve.  It was kind of sad watching all those presents that I spent a day and a half wrapping get shredded and unwrapped so quickly. 

I watched Christmas through the Canon while Eric watched it through the video camera.  Thank goodness he did, as it was lots of fun to watch back tonight.

Even though Jackie doesn’t think Edward was as cute as Carlisle, she was still extremely thankful for the Edward wall hanging from Grandma and Papa.

This Tag reading system was at the top of Erica’s list for awhile now.  Every time she saw it in the store, she would ask to buy it, but the answer was always “maybe for Christmas.”  So she was excited to unwrap it, and it was in pink as well!

One of the most excited expressions I saw on Ally’s face the whole time!  She had many art things on her list and was so excited that no, this wasn’t a Maj Jong game, but a bunch of professional art stuff.

I’m thinking the older girls must have stayed up later than I thought.  Erica was the first one up around 6am (yep she slept in her bed) and came into our room exclaiming Santa had come.  We were able to convince her to lay down with us and snuggle us until one of the older girls woke up too.  She woke back up at 10am and we couldn’t make her wait anymore, so we got the older girls up.  Doesn’t Jackie look excited to be awake?!

What could be more exciting than finding a paint brush in your stocking?!

Now we won’t be able to tell if she’s fallen back asleep or not. 

Santa put a Chuck E Cheese gift card in your stocking?  Off the hook!  Cheese!

Ally didn’t get excited about her hot pink Ipod Nano that she wanted until after she found the ear buds. 

Jackie has become one with her walkman over the past few months (one of those teenage characteristics I remember having as a teen) so she was ecstatic to unwrap her Ipod Nano!

And alas, the brown and white pony that she’s always wanted, the pony she promised Santa she’d sleep in her bed for, the pony that was no longer in two pieces, was finally there in “Fur Real” life right in front of her.  Sigh…  Just too precious.

So, you would think that now that the presents have been bought, wrapped, unwrapped, cleaned up after and put away that life would calm down now.  Ha!  I still have presents to mail that still need some finishing touches and Christmas cards to mail!  And then to top all the fun off, Jackie’s 14th birthday is in exactly 2 weeks!  Yikes!  Does anyone have any ideas on what to do for a 14 year old birthday party?!  Seriously, ideas?

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and you know how important you are in our lives.  Love you!

I’ve been really wanting to start a new tradition and bake cookies for Santa with the girls.  So I bought the sugar cookie dough mix, cookie cutters, a rolling pin and icings.  Then put it up in the high cupboard where it would be safe.  And of course out of sight, out of mind. 

But, I did manage to remember my project around 3 pm yesterday.  So in an effort to save time, I whipped up the dough and had Erica help me punch out the pieces and threw them in the oven.  Threw together a quick dinner and had it all cleaned up and ready to decorate cookies about the time Eric’s parents arrived.

We had so much fun decorating cookies!  And thank goodness my obsession with the camera is rubbing off on Eric, because it was him that picked it up and took the pictures!  It was so much fun to watch my girls be so creative.  The only thing that would have made it complete was sprinkles.  Oh well!  The girls still made some fabulous cookies for Santa!

To ease transport from store to home, we have packaged your pony in two parts.  To help ensure a magical experience from the moment your child first sees her pony, we suggest that you assemble the pony before presenting it.  Instructions for simple assembly are included.”

So said the instructions on the box for Erica’s Fur Real Friends Pony from Santa.  Can you guess what the two parts are?  First you pull out the head from the box, and then the rest of the body.  Of course we hadn’t read that part of the box before wrapping it and tucking it next to the tree.  Erica handled the whole thing just fine.  Eric and I had a good laugh.

He was somewhat tempted to not put the pony together and tuck the head in with someone tonight.  I think perhaps someone has watched the Godfather movie one time too many. 

Pictures and more about Christmas to come later.  On our way out to Chinese for Christmas dinner right now.  Trying to catch up on my blogs and reading friends blogs.  I’m about halfway down my list, so don’t think I’ve forgotten about you if I haven’t posted a comment yet.  I love you all!

This has hit me really hard today.  Actually, I don’t think anything has hit me hard like this since the passing of my Grandma on my Dad’s side.  I woke up to a phone call this morning that one of our Young Women had passed away in a car accident last night. 

I haven’t had a chance to really get to know Megan as much as I had hoped to.  But I had such a soft spot in my heart for her, as each of our Young Women in our ward do.  She just had a way of lighting up a room and making you laugh!  It was just barely a week ago that we were all gathered in Sister Furnell’s house and she was just on a roll.  She is also the daughter of a friend of mine as well.  So it’s like it’s hit me twice as I’m sure it is for many others right now.

I feel so helpless.  I so just want to run over there and let her know that I am here to serve her and her family however I possibly can and yet at the same time don’t want to be in her way.  I know that she has family in from out of town and I don’t want to be in the way either.  Does that make any sense?

I know there is a plan.  I know that Megan is in good hands.  But I guess it’s easier to understand and accept it when it’s someone that has been in pain or very sick for a period of time.  But she was a 17 year old young woman so full of life.   It just doesn’t seem fair.

Please keep Lori and her family, Megan’s friends and the Young Women and Men in your thoughts and prayers during this very difficult time and in the months to come. 

First it started with an Enrichment craft night over at Cheryl’s where she taught us how to make bows for packages from two sided cardstock!  How cool and super easy.  Don’t know if I’ll make enough to top all of the girls presents, but definitely enough to put on extra special ones.

Almost finished with my projects for my Dad and Stepmom, my Mom, my Grandma Betty, Eric’s Grandma and even made one for us.  Just need to print out my pictures and do some stamping and I’ll be done.  My goal is to have them totally done my Monday.

I decided I wanted to make those tie fleece blankets for the girls this year.  I’ve wanted to the past couple of years, but never made the time.  Well this year with a nudge here and there from my good friend Paula, I took the girls to pick out their fleece and Paula came over this afternoon and taught and helped me.  I was totally impressed with how fast they went!  I’d say within an hour and a half we had all three of mine done. 

We totally had the perfect system down by the third one.  So we’ll work on hers one day this next week and get them done in no time at all.

On a separate note, I’ve become a facebook addict.  The worst part is I get sucked in for hours by the little games over there.  And before I know it, my house is a mess, hours have passed and I’ve gotten nothing done.  Threw the schedule out the window this week.  So I have not even made the smallest attempt to try to live by it.  Oh well, there’s next week right?

Went for cleaning today and Dr Pope went over my xrays and stuff with me.  More cavities in there, but none worthy enough of any serious procedures, such as root canals.  I kind of pretty much expected to have some.  It’s been several years since I’ve been to a dentist.  I think he has me about convinced to go forth with getting braces.  It would really help some dental issues I’ve been having.  I really wanted to get the girls in first for braces.  We’ll have to see if we can make it work without it hurting to just get all three of us in.  At least we’d all go through it together.

Okay, I have been procrastinating my laundry long enough.  If I don’t get any done tonight, I won’t be too pretty to look at tomorrow.  Ugh!  And I probably really should get my Christmas cards ordered and our annual family newsletter written…

Just found this in my inbox this morning.  Hope this doesn’t interfere with any one’s holiday plans. 

Please join me in remembering a great icon of the entertainment community.  The Pillsbury Doughboy died yesterday of a yeast infection and trauma complications from repeated pokes in the belly. He was 71.

Doughboy was buried in a lightly greased coffin. Dozens of celebrities turned out to pay their respects, including Mrs. Butterworth, Hungry Jack, the California Raisins, Betty Crocker, the Hostess Twinkies, and Captain Crunch. The grave site was piled high with flours.

Aunt Jemima delivered the eulogy and lovingly described Doughboy as a man who never knew how much he was kneaded.  Doughboy rose quickly in show business, but his later life was filled with turnovers. He was not considered a very smart cookie, wasting much of his dough on half-baked schemes. Despite being a little flaky at times, he still was a crusty old man and was considered a positive roll model for millions.

Doughboy is survived by his wife Play Dough, three children: John Dough, Jane Dough and Dosey Dough, plus they had one in the oven. He is also survived by his elderly father, Pop Tart. The funeral was held at 3:50 for about 20 minutes.  

If this made you smile for even a brief second, please rise to the occasion and take time to pass it on and share that smile with someone else who may be having a crumby day and kneads a lift.

It was a busy and crazy weekend, but we made it through.  I do have to say that as busy as the weekend was, it was a blast!

I almost got my 3 Christmas presents that I was working on done.  Of course I have decided to do 2 more just like it.  And I want to make each of the girls a tie fleece blanket.  So add that to my to do list!  As if it isn’t long enough.

Erica’s little Holiday performance on Saturday was cute!  Of course I didn’t quite get to watch it in it’s entirety (as I was taking snapshots), but Eric videoed it and we’ll have to watch it back later this week.  But here are a few pics I took.  I took tons but not many turned out as the bald headed man in front of me kept moving his head in front of the camera almost every time I took a picture. 

Sunday night was an annual ornament/gift exchange that I had talked about last post.  I did try to take home my own gift, but another friend was able to out maneuver me.  The item was only allowed to be stolen 3 times.  But I did come home with a beautiful item that was made by my good friend Nora.

Here was the advent calendar I made (complete with chocolate in the drawers):

I’m half tempted to make another one, but I’m thinking I really have no business adding one more thing to my list.  So maybe next year.

Here is what I went home with:

Isn’t it beautiful!  I was so sure once I unwrapped it, that it was would have been stolen from me for sure!

Yesterday I went Christmas shopping while Erica was in preschool.  Of course ended up buying presents just for her with what I had budgeted to spend yesterday (more to come though, thank goodness).  Of course two of the presents she is wanting they were out of at both stores I went to.  So I’ll have to just stalk Toys R Us every morning to see if they got them in a shipment the night before.  But I totally lucked out at Target. 

She is wanting the Smores My Fur Real Friend Pony from Santa.  I found it for almost $100 off on sale at Target and only one left on the shelf.  I grabbed that up so fast you wouldn’t have had time to blink!

I’ve been saving our very ripe bananas in the fridge for the last couple of weeks.  And Eric finally questioned me about all the “rotten” bananas that were taking over an entire shelf in the fridge last night.  So this morning I woke up with a wild hair and went to using up those bananas:

I made Chocolate Chip Banana muffins, Chocolate Chip Banana cake and Chocolate Chip Banana Bread.  Needless to say my entire house smells like a Yankee candle!  Yum.  Oh and if you’ll notice there are already three muffins missing from the pan!  I’ll admit it, I had two.  Erica had the other and is getting ready for school as fast as she can so she can have another.  They are so yummy!

For anyone that wants to make some for yourself,  here is the recipe – http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/BANANA-CHOCOLATE-CHIP-MUFFINS-101020

I’ll keep you posted as to how the cake and bread turned out. 

And I so didn’t even live totally by my schedule either.  That’s probably the problem. 

However, I did get my item for the exchange on Sunday done!  It totally turned out way too cute and am wondering would it be tacky for me to steal me own gift?  Seriously?  I really so badly want to take pictures and post it, but I know there are some of the girls that will be there on Sunday that read my blog, and I don’t want to ruin the surprise.  So I’ll post pictures after I bring it back home.    Seriously though, I’ll take pictures before I wrap it up and post them Sunday evening.  I can say I used the K & Company Brenda Walton Christmas line from last year.  Scraps at that even!  Seriously, did I say yet that I want to keep it?!

I also started working on my Christmas presents for my Grandma, my Dad and Step mom, and my Mom yesterday.  I got the base part of my prototype done yesterday.  Now just need to pick pictures for it and embellish.  And I have to say that it is turning out so stinking cute as well, that I’m tempted to make one for Eric’s parents and one for us as well!  Ugh!  Like I need to add one more thing to my to do list. 

I still need to make a little Halloween album with pictures from the Fall party for Erica’s teachers, put together their gift baskets and I’m back to not being caught up again with my scrapbooking.  Not to mention I have yet to have bought one stinkin’ Christmas present!

Oh well.  I plan on meeting up with some friends later today and scrapping, so I’ll hopefully be able to get those three Christmas presents I’m making for family done and get some scrapping done this weekend.  And I need to look at what I have accomplished…  Dinner for Eric and the girls is in the Crock Pot, laundry is at a manageable level, the house is tidy and gas has gone done again.  And I got the Class Winter Party for Erica’s class coordinated with the exception of a game.  Woo Hoo!

Okay, off to wake up my personal tornado – Erica.  I think that girl would sleep all day long if I let her.  But then she would be ticked that I let her sleep through school.  Ah, but the peace and quiet for a little while longer would almost be worth it.