Christmas Video 2009

Ok, I can't get the Christmas video to upload properly for some reason, so here's the link. I started taking all of the pictures throughout the year and making a video out of them for Grandparent gifts. It's kind of long but it's cute.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlzbNUWAeGo

Christmas 2009

We had a great Christmas this year. The past few years we've gone to Escalante for Christmas, but this year we opted to stay here since it was our 1st year in our new house. Ya'll have no idea how excited I was to celebrate Christmas the way that my family does it. Chris got off work early, so we thought we'd go see a movie (he really just wanted to try to keep me occupied for a couple of hours HA!) but that didn't happen. We got there all excited to see Avatar (well I wasn't but the kids, Chris included, were ecstatic!), got the kids all settled in and the dang projector broke. So we went home and Chris made the kids pick the house up a little, cause Santa doesn't come to a dirty house lol.
Once the house was picked up, we decorated our Christmas stockings. I started this tradition when Shelby was a baby. Every year I get the cheap Christmas stocking and we decorate them as a family. I LOVE Preston's this year! Ha!
After decorating Christmas stockings, the girls and I started dinner. While it was cooking, we went to look at lights. This is, by far, one of my favorite traditions. I remember doing this with my mom and sisters for HOURS. We "Ooo and Awe" at every single house with lights and we alternate. One house gets an "ooo" and the next gets an "awe". It cracks my kids up!!!
By the time we got back, dinner was ready so we ate and then opened presents. Yes, we open our presents on Christmas Eve. The reasoning behind this is that Santa usually brings the big presents that the kids want the most, so the family gifts get ignored. This way, they have a chance to play with and enjoy the family gifts as well. I love this picture. They're all making the same face as they open their presents.
Once family gifts were opened, they played for about an hour and then it was off to bed. Poor Morgan fell asleep on the living room floor before she got to hear the bed time stories. Chris reads Luke 2 and The Night Before Christmas to them every year.
These are the Santa gifts. This year the kids had to share their present!
I have to admit, I'm far worse than the kids on Christmas. I was up half the night waiting for them to wake up! They finally woke up about 6:15. After they got their Santa presents (and Chris spent much of the morning "showing" the kids how the Wii worked HAHA!), we went to Escalante. It took us a few tries to actually get out of town, but we finally made it. We had a great time over there and the kids LOVED getting to spend time with Grandma!!! We were able to spend Christmas night over there before having to come home so I could work.
One of the gifts that the girls were most excited about were their new boots. It's funny how excited little girls get when they get stuff like their mom's. HA! Today, we all wore our boots to church and of course had to have a pic.
I'm trying to upload our family Christmas video right now. I'll post it when it's finished!
p.s. Andrea, all the single HA!'s were for you! lol

Neighbor Gifts

This year, our ward (our church congregation) decided to forgo neighbor gifts and have everyone donate the money that we would normally spend on them to the church and then the bishop would use that money to help needy families. Made my life much easier!! However, I made these little gifts for our friends that either aren't members of our church or wouldn't be in our ward.
I did 2 different gifts this year. One was a simple roll of wrapping paper with a little ribbon and a gift tag.
The gift tag for the wrapping paper says: WRAP yourself in the season. Merry Christmas, The Haycock Family
The other was a simple brownie mix. The gift tag on this one says: Christmas is jolly, Christmas is sweet. I'm stressed out, so make your own dang treat! Merry Christmas, The Haycock Family
The kids HAD A BALL helping me put these together and then delivering them!!! Simple, cheap and fun little family activity. Love It!

Planter Shelf

Well.... when I got home this morning, I walked in to find my Christmas tree laying on the ground. Yep...it fell over and squished all of out present under it... NICE!! So... i got to RE-decorate it today lol. On the bright side, Chris put my stuff up on my planter shelf today. Here are the promised pics.

Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

We finally have a Christmas Tree!!! This year we went with a real tree. I've only had a real tree once in my life and that was when I was about 6 years old. Chris always had real trees growing up and according to him, getting the tree was a horrendous experience lol. So anyway, this year we gave the real tree a try. The kids were so excited about it and I had a lot of fun decorating it (go figure). Chris took them with him to run a few errands while I decorated. When they got back, I had finished the tree AND had the presents under it (well the ones I have wrapped so far anyway) I would give anything to have had the video camera when they walked in the door. PRICELESS!!! I'm thinking this is going to be the last year that Shelby really believes in Santa and that's breaking my heart. So it was really fun to see her get all excited about the Christmas decorations.

I think that everyone that knows me, knows that I collect Willow Tree figurines. (LOVE THEM) Well, over the past few years, my in laws have gotten me the new Willow Tree Nativity. This is the first time I've actually gotten to put it up and I LOVE IT!!!! It's by far my favorite decoration this year!!

I'll post pictures of the planter shelf when Chris gets it done. Um...ya.... Jana doesn't do ladders so it's going to have to wait until he gets around to it.

My Three White Dresses

My mom bought me a white dress,

Not red or pink or blue.
She said it was a special dress
Like very other few,
There has been just one before,
A dress now put away,
That I wore some time ago
Upon my blessing day.
As a little baby clothed In my first white dress,
My dad held me in his arms,
There to name and bless.
So pure and clean was I just then,
With time to grow and learn
About the Father's plan for me.
My glory I must earn.
Now I've reached the age to judge
The wrong road from the right,
And I am here to be baptized
In this dress of white.
So once again I'm free from sin.
The path is clear to me.
I'll grasp the rod and hold on tight, I vow with certainty.
Just as mud would stain my dress,
Sin would stain my soul.
The key is to repent or bleach,
For whiteness is my goal.
And if I try my very best,
Then richly blessed I'll be,
Wearing inside God's holy house
White dress number three,
So today I make this pledge:
I'll strive to choose the right,
Through this sacred baptism ordinance
In my second dress of white. (Linda Gay Perry Nelson, 1993)

Merry Christmas Chris!

For as long as I've known Chris, he's always wanted a chocolate lab. Well this year he finally got one. This is "Bella". She's our new little addition to the family. (And NO, she is not allowed in my brand new house. She only came in for the picture. She's banished to the garage for now since it's too cold for her to be outside.)

Christmas Lights

I think tha tthe snowflakes in this one look awesome!!!

Black Friday

Well, Black Friday was a blast!!! Let me give you a little background on my addiction to Black Friday. For me, it's not so much about the sales (although I LOVE me a good sale). It's about keeping a memory of mama alive. When I was growing up, we had NO money. So, if mama couldn't get what we wanted on sale, we just didn't get it. Every year we would go through all of the ads, split our lists up and then a big group of us would go shopping. We had a blast. Being so far away from my family, I don't get to do a lot of my traditions anymore. This is one that I refuse to give up. There have been years when Chris and I were flat broke that I have gotten up and just gone and stood off to the side and WATCHED everyone at the sales. Crazy... yes!!!! But sometimes you do whatever it takes to get by!!! This year, there wasn't anything that we just HAD to have. This was one of the years that it was far more about tradition and "girl time" than anything else.
Celeste and I left for St. George at 2:30am. We got some INSANELY good deals. I'm almost completely done with our Christmas shopping. YAY!!! I haven't laughed that hard in a LONG time. You know.. it's never a good sign when you go to a sale and there is an ambulance parked outside of the store "just in case" hahaha
I posted this on Facebook too but Celeste and I laughed and laughed and laughed about this. Seriously?? We want to know who thought of this. Cruel joke or smart marketing?
I think we shopped for about 12 hours before we both crashed!!! When I got home, Chris went to a movie and the kids and I hung out together. When he got home I got to play with my new toy a little bit. (a new camera) I just love these pictures. He and Chris were leg wrestling and Preston was laughing sooooo hard!! Love it!Right now, I'm watching the Gators play FSU (yet another one of my family traditions) Chris put Christmas lights on the house today. I can't wait until dark to see how they look.
IT'S CHRISTMAS NOW!!!!

New Hair

Yeah I know it's lame to post this but oh well... Can I just say how much I love my new hair??? LOVE IT!!! Shanette freaking rocks! Not my favorite picture by any means but oh well.... after the week we've had, I don't really care!!!
It's been crazy! First Shelby got into trouble at school.... (I will say this though, it says a lot about her and 1 other little girl out of the crowd that they were HYSTERICAL , while the others couldn't understand why they were so upset because they all get into trouble all the time) Then that same day, Morgan had trouble on the bus. One of my favorite girls was pulled from the program that I work at and I didn't get to say goodbye to her. Morgan has strep throat. We're starting into the rush of the holidays, which quite frankly are really rough on me (homesick, missing mama like crazy)....... Needless to say, I've had it this week! But at least I have good hair damn it!! (Try to see the positive in everything haha)

New Moon

Sunday, we went on a double family date with our good friends. We took these squealing, hyper little girls to see New Moon. It was the 2nd time seeing the movie for Sonda and I, but we sucked it up and tortured ourselves through it again.....oh the things we do for our families lol Anyway, the girls had so much fun decorating t-shirts before the movie. I swear they are growing up too fast. I can't believe that I've listened to my 2 little baby girls talking non stop about how "hot " Jacob was in the movie. hahaPreston wasn't exactly thrilled about having a "New Moon" shirt so he pulled out a "parkway shirts" (that's the name of Chris dealership and what we call their junk clothes) and had me write "Indiana Jones" on the front lol Poor little guy was thoroughly disappointed that he didn't get to see Indiana Jones even though his shirt said it on it. lolNotice all of the "_____ is HOT" on the t-shirts.... growing up WAY too fast!!! lol

Long Story!

If you spend any time getting to know me, you will quickly learn that I love to shop! I like to shop online, in stores, window shop.....you get the picture.... there is only 1 exception and that is GROCERY shopping. I hate it!!!
Today, I saw a glimpse of what hell must be like....Grocery shopping at Wal-Mart at noon on the Saturday before Thanksgiving with 3 hungry and tired kids. HELL!! ON!!EARTH!!!
Let me describe our adventure:
We’re driving in the car. All 3 kids strapped into the back seat. The radio blaring to try to drown out the constant bickering coming from the backseat. But for the most part things are going ok. We’re approaching WalMart when all of a sudden I hear:
“(BIG GASP) PUPPIES!!!! Can we get one?”
“No”
“AWE, PLEASE” (in unison)
“NO”
I pull into the parking lot, trying to avoid the whining and begging coming from the backseat. When all of a sudden this blue haired bat in a Cadillac decides she is going to make a U turn right in front of the General Merchandise Entrance. Have you ever tried to turn one of those boats around?? There’s no such thing as a U-Turn in one of those things. I swear she must have done a 400 point turn. Because of the way she was doing this, no one could get by her. No one could get in or out of the store. You couldn’t back up because cars were trying to get into the parking lot, and the cars trying to leave the parking lot couldn’t exit the aisles to make room for others. So after what seemed like an eternity, this woman finally gets turned around. And I’ll be damned if she didn’t park her car right in front of the store entrance and GET OUT!....
I should have just cut my losses right then and gone home, but NOOOOO! I had to actually go inside! I mean after all I’d just spent 10 minutes waiting in line so that I could find a parking space.
So, I drag all 3 of my kids into the store, telling them if they’re good I will let them get a SMALL treat of some sort. (No, I am not above bribery!!!) I walk in, grab a cart, and make it about 20 ft. before the jacked up wheel starts to drive me crazy. I make Shelby take it back and get me a new one. This of course starts the bickering and arguing over who wants to do it and how it’s not fair that Shelby gets to do everything. I give them the “look of death” and they calm down. I reach into my purse to get my list.....forgot my dang list. (Apparently, I forgot to put my grocery list on my list of things to take to town with me lol) Oh well, I’ll just wing it!!!
Have you ever been to Wal-Mart on the Saturday before Thanksgiving? No?!?! Well let me tell you: that is not the time to just “wing it”. I typically organize my grocery list by aisles, starting in the front and working my way back. I bet I made a hundred trips up and down those aisles trying to get all the things that I could remember on my list. Every time we would turn down an aisle one of the kids would say, “We already went down this aisle.”
Finally, I decided that I had everything (or at least that I'd had enough) and found the shortest lane that I could find. Now I don’t know how your WalMart is, but ours has 50 checkout stands but they only have about 10 open at any given time. So I’m in the shortest lane possible. I dig out my cell phone and text Celeste, “I’m stuck in Wal-Mart hell.” Oh little did I know........
Ok, here’s another little tidbit about me. I am extremely anal about how I unload my cart. I have to organize everything. I know I’m not the only person that does this, but it drives Chris crazy. So. I have all of my groceries organized on the belt, when the cashier begins scanning items. As he starts scanning the groceries, he starts digging through my little groups and organizing them differently. For instance he was sorting through everything and scanning all of the fruit together, all the veggies together, all of the BOXED pasta products separately from the BOXED RICE products etc. As I watch him I start to think that there has got to be a hidden camera somewhere because this cannot be for real!! Then he holds something up:
“What is this?”
“Its zuccini.”
(pulling out the produce chart to get the barcode) “What would I find it under?”
“Z”
“It’s not on there.”
“Try squash.”
“Oh. Oh. Yep. There is it!”
Holds up yellow squash. “Yellow...Y”
“That’s probably under squash too.”
“Oh yeah it is. Look at that.”
At this point my attitude has completely changed and it’s taking everything I have not to laugh. Throughout the whole process, Preston had been trying to get the guy to scan his Hot Wheels and then give it back to him. The guy kept picking it up and tossing it farther back, and Preston would go get it and take it right back up there and try to get him to scan it. Finally the guy says, “I’m not ready for that yet.” Well...apparently the look on my face was to much for Shelby to handle because she completely lost it! I pulled her over to me so that she was standing under the purse shelf (yes I know it’s supposed to be for writing checks, but really?? Who writes checks anymore) and she buried her face into my stomach while she laughed hysterically. I kid you not, we were in the checkout line for 1/2 an hour. This guy was the nicest guy you could ever meet, but my heavens........
When we got home, we started telling Chris about our experience. Once again Shelby was in tears from laughing so hard. When we told him about the toy car Shelby said, “Dad you should have seen Mom’s face. She looked like ‘Seriously?’” and then started laughing again. HAHAHAHA

Meebos

Shelby and Chloe share a birthday. This year they each wanted the same thing, so they gave each other a Meebo. Here's how they work. They are basically a Tamagachi but inside of that cylinder is a Meebo. Once you complete all of the levels of care, the cylinder pops open and reveals your Meebo. There are 7 levels and it has taken these girls ALL month (plus some help from mom and Sonda) to get these things to open. And this is what they got.......Are ya kidding me????? Shelby said, "Well that's disappointing." when it first opened and she saw it. After a few minutes she held it up and said, "Mom, I feel like a mother that just gave birth to an ugly child." .......ok, I seriously thought I would fall over laughing!!! I have no idea where she came up with that.
Look at these things. Sonda and I decided that they look like a really bad Home Ec. project! I mean seriously.... $20+ plus a months worth of work and listening to the stupid music and beeping that these things make (there's no volume control on them either) and this is what you get???????? Sheesh! I will admit that we have laughed hysterically over these things all weekend, but I still don't think they are worth all of the hassle! haha

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

We love Halloween at our house. I think the reason is that it's one of the few holidays that doesn't have a "TRUE MEANING" that you have to remind the kids of. I'm sure there's one out there, but for the most part it's all about the fun, costumes and candy. Our holiday started out with a costume parade at the girls school and a carnival on Friday night (all I can say is THANK HEAVEN that is over!).

This is Shelby's teacher and her husband at the costume parade. How cute are they????? We absolutely love both of them. The school custodian put this out. I couldn't believe how many kids actually fell for it. Their little faces were hilarious as they walked by!!

Saturday, we started our celebrations by going to a Trunk or Treat. If you've never been to one, it's where everyone meets in a parking lot and brings candy. The kids walk from car to car picking up their candy. You get TONS in a LITTLE bit of time!!!! NICE!!! Then we went home and Chris walked around our neighborhood with them, while I stayed at home to pass out candy. We had a whopping 10 kids show up!!! Half of them were TERRIFIED of the 6ft. animated monster on my front porch. HA! (For the life of me, I can't get this stupid thing to rotate. Sorry. You're just going to have to turn your head!)

We got several comments on being "Like the Incredibles" because all of the kids were dressed as Super Heros. I thought it was kind of funny.

Don't even ask how long it took to curl her hair. Let's just say it took 3 times as long as the curls actually held!!

She really is quite a super little girl!!

She's definitely my feisty one! This was as girly as she was willing to go. haha

So cute!

At one point Preston closed a door that I honestly didn't think he had the strength to close and I said, "Good job I didn't think you could do that by yourself" he said, "Yeah, it's cause my costume has big muscles" hahahahaha Here he's straining to show the muscles on his costume.

Improvise

This week was Red Ribbon week at the girls' school, which means that they dress up for a different theme each day. Today was "Sports Day". Of course the girls wanted to wear Gator stuff, but good luck finding Florida Gator apparel at 9pm on a Thursday night in Cedar City, UT. Not gonna happen. So, we had to improvise. I made a mad dash into Wal-Mart on my way to work and got sweatshirts and iron on transfers. Then, I found a Gator graphic online, printed it off and made our own shirts. Yes, I realize that I broke every copyright law in the book, but oh well.. I had two happy girls this morning!!!! I have to admit though, I think Morgan was more excited about the fact that she got to wear her cleats to school than anything. I swear, she's all boy with a ponytail!

We've been making interchangeable watch bands a lot lately. The girls love them and we have so much fun making them together. These are the ones that I made for sports day. Shelby's is the basketball one and Morgan's is soccer.

Field Trip

Shelby had her first field trip for the year. We went to the Shakespearean Festival for a backstage tour and then to an art gallery. I was amazed how well the kids behaved in the art gallery. We were more than a little nervous about it lol. I love doing stuff like this with my kids. Shelby still likes having me at the school all the time and being very "hands on". I have a feeling that won't last much longer, so I'm going to enjoy it as much as I can, while I can.

My 2 favorite 2nd graders! (Shelby and Chloe)

Shelby and I in her classroom

I think they're both keepers! So cute!!!

H1N1

This week has been an adventure. One that I never really want to repeat, but an adventure none the less. We've spent a combined total of 9 hours and 15 minutes in the Dr.'s office. Morgan is feeling much better. She STILL gets sleepy several times a day, but when she's awake she goes full force. Shelby is feeling perfectly fine. Chris is sick, but ignoring it (imagine that). I think Preston is starting to come down with something. Not sure if it's actually H1N1, but we're giving him the girls Tamiflu until we can get him in on Monday, just to be safe. (Yes the Dr. said this is ok) The kids FINALLY get to leave the house tomorrow!!!! It feels like we've been on "House Arrest" since Monday. lol
We have a busy week ahead- Red Ribbon week, field trips, PTA meetings, school, work.........
I'll post pictures later.

Dress Up

Living Room

The living room is finally done..... for now. lol

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Eight years ago, I had the biggest "Oh Crap" moment of my life. I'll never forget it. I was sitting on the edge of a hospital bed, holding the most perfect 6lb (5 lbs 15.9 oz) baby I had ever seen, when it suddenly hit me that not only were "They" going to LET me take her home, but they were going to MAKE me take her home. I was officially responsible for raising another human being. That's a pretty overwhelming feeling, but a task that Chris and I both welcomed.

It seems like just yesterday that I went shopping for her tiny little blessing dress. Today, I began shopping for her baptism dress. That's just crazy to me. Shelby is truly a joy to raise. She was a great baby. Even through reflux and food intolerance's, she was always happy and pretty easy going. Today, she's still happy and for the most part pretty easy going (although she has her moments).

I love her little sense of humor. A while back, she started laughing about something. Well, her laugh was really loud and obnoxious and quite frankly sounded a little bit like she belonged in the Special Olympics. I said, "Shelby, do not laugh like that." Without missing a beat she said, "Oh, ok. Would you rather me laugh like this?... Or maybe I could do this one..." and went through an entire list of different laughs. I seriously thought I was going to pass out from laughing so hard. Even though she currently has the gnarly toothed 8 year old smile I LOVE to see it. Her smile is contagious and it brightens my day!

Shelby is also the sweetest and most tenderhearted little girl I've ever met. She shows so much compassion for those around her and will do everything she can to help someone. A couple of weeks ago, she came home from school so upset because a Teachers Aid in her classroom was having car trouble and had been crying about it when she got to work. Shelby overheard her telling the teacher that she couldn't afford to fix it. All on her own, she told the T.A. not to worry and that everything would be ok. Of course, she came home that night and asked her Daddy to help the lady out. She even offered to do extra chores around the house as trade for Chris working on her car. How sweet is that?????

She's incredibly smart. She knows more about American history and the way that the U.S. Government works than a lot of adults do. Last year, the school librarian came up to me and said, "I just have to tell you, I love Shelby. She came in yesterday and said, 'Mrs. Aiken, do you have any books about the Holocaust?'" We all thought it was funny coming from a 1st grader. She loves to read!!! She's also quite the little author. She writes stories and puts together books all the time. She's a math whiz (although that's not hard with the schools math program) She's also learning to play the violin and seems to really be enjoying it.

From day one, Shelby has been a "Daddy's Girl". The two of them have certain TV shows that they will only watch together, and even though Shelby is the prissy one of the family, she loves to hang out at the auto shop and gun range with her dad.

There isn't a day that goes by that we don't thank God for the opportunity to be her parents.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHELBSTER CHECKLES