Thanksgiving Weekend!

Well my goodness. What a whirlwind it has been since last Tuesday. I helped with Gavin's class for their Thanksgiving party. Tuesday night was Hallie's first ever piano recital. She did GREAT! After that we went to dinner and had cake and ice cream for my mom's 49th Birthday (forgot the camera, sorry)!!!
Wednesday we headed to Daniel's Summit to be with G.J.'s family. All was well besides Hallie throwing up all night-she is fine now though. We had a great time with all of my in-laws and nieces and nephews.
Thursday we ate a DELICIOUS Thanksgiving buffet with all the trimmings you could think of. We hung out with my family that evening after getting back from Daniels Summit. We went and saw "Four Christmases", and the kids saw "Bolt". Both were great.
Friday I went to lunch with Nikki and Nevie. I don't see them often enough, and it was so good to see Nikki and also how big and cute Nevie is getting. I was so mad that I took my camera but forgot to take a picture. Friday I also went shopping with my mom, sister in law, and Hallie. We went to the Holly Days parade and T minus 5 concert that evening. We then watched all the old videos of me and my brothers when we were kids. Taylor stayed the night with Hallie.
Then today (Saturday) I went with Janice and Mandy to the Santa's workshop, ate lunch at Don Pedros, got pedicures, went shopping, and had a wonderful time. It was so good to see Janice and her family, I had been missing her ever since the big move to Kentucky. It was fun for the 3 of us to get together-we always have the best time.
I had SUCH a truly wonderful holiday weekend. Nothing is better than the 5 "F's": family, food, friends, fun, & festivities. Not to mention I got to sleep in past 9 every morning...how lazy is that, but it felt SO good. So, instead of boring you with more details, here are some pictures!!!:
Helping with Gavin’s Thanksgiving Party



Hallie’s Piano Recital

The car ride to Daniel’s Summit-They were out in 10 minutes after leaving Vernal….so nice!

Swimming


Our Gift Exchange Party




The Lodge

Kayler investigating the tree

Our Family

Grandma and Grandpa Searle with all the grandkids. Good ol’ Kayler making sure Grandma was smiling.

The Buffet



The Whole Family

Thanksgiving at my moms, playing Guitar Hero World Tour with all 32 of my aunts/uncles/cousins

My Christmas Tree. Mandy Decorated it for me while I was gone. I LOVE it. I am SO bad at it, so I was so glad she did it for me.

At the Holly Days Parade/concert. Kayler was not happy.




Sweet Little Kolby at our house Friday Night. We watched all our super old family videos on a projector.

Hallie was thrilled to have Taylor stay the night and visit all the way from Kentucky. She had been missing her. We did their hair in curlers.

The next morning playing Easy Bake Oven. They look a little rough…..lol

Janice, Me, Mandy at lunch on Saturday

Getting our pedicures

Very festive

Gavin and his tree he decorated

Hallie and her tree she did

Writing our letters to Santa

Best day ever.

I had such a nice day today. Not only has the weather stayed absolutely beautiful for this time of year, it was the weekend, and I love weekends.
We got our Christmas Lights up, did work around the house, ran errands, played the new Guitar Hero World Tour on the Wii, Hallie and Gavin spent time with Grandma and Pa Searle, and I fit in a little pre-thanksgiving dinner with my great-aunt Venna.
Venna is my grandma's sister. She got kicked by a horse as a child, and as a result has been somewhat handicapped and suffered seizures her whole life. She has been in the care center for several years. My grandparents have been her sole caretakers her whole life, besides a brief marriage that she had when she was in her 60's. She has no children, and her husband who passed away has no children who care for her. That pretty much leaves our family. Since my grandparents have been so sick, they can't do much to help or visit her anymore. My mom and aunts take on that role the vast majority of the time.
Every year the care center puts on a nice meal for the residents and their families. My mom was going to be out of town, and nobody else wanted to go. I just brushed it aside, until last night. I lay there thinking of everyone else at the care center having their families coming and taking them to the dinner, and poor Venna sitting all alone. It absolutely broke my heart to think of that. I do know that she doesn't understand a lot, and that she is a LOT to handle. She is very physical, mean, and quite rotten to put it truthfully. She has thrown her false teeth so many times they are permanently taken away. That is just a small fraction of the things that she does….I won’t even elaborate.
Well, she was happy to see me, and she did remember me surprisingly. She was waiting at the door with her hair done nicely, and a pretty sweater on. The meal was delicious-honestly-it was. There were others taking pictures, and I saw her watching them. I only had my cell phone, but I snapped a few pictures-she thought it was great-even if she didn't smile!


I had to feed her every bite. She was absolutely hilarious. If I wasn't doing it fast enough, she would wait until I wasn't looking and then hurry and sneak a piece of food, or a drink. Then she would chew it really really fast and spit it on the floor. More than that, she saw a little decoration on the table that she wanted SO bad. It was a little bag with some thanksgiving snack mix. Well before I knew it she had snuck it under her sweater...lol. She wanted dinner to be over right then, and she had me take her to her room so she could hide her snack. She talked to me for a minute, but then she was tired. She waved at me happily as I left, and it seriously made my day more than it probably made hers.
So even though I am dead tired, I really love days like this. I am SO looking forward to Thanksgiving. I really think that Thanksgiving day is my favorite holiday, because it is a day to be thankful for the wonderful life I have, and better yet a day to kick-off my other favorite holiday-Christmas!

My Fun Date!

So I love love loved all the Twilight series. Since I have super human scan reading abilities, I read each separate book in one night. I would start late afternoon, and read until like 3 a.m.-I know-I’m a weirdo.
When I first heard that they were making a movie, I had mixed feelings. First off, I did not want the movie to mess up this magical scenery and story that I had created in my mind. I also didn’t want it to ruin how good the books were. Second off, I refused to be part of all the hype. I am an anti-trendy brat sometimes...lol. I don't even know how to text message very well, that is how bad I am. When it came to this movie, I was NOT going to wait hours for tickets, scramble to be the first one who saw it, or dress up…well-that all changed with one little phone call.
Tuesday afternoon, my cousin/friend Heather called and said she was in line for tickets and wondered if G.J. and I would like to go as a group with some other couples. Well, since we NEVER do that, I said yes. G.J. will kill me for saying this, but he was even more excited than me to go. He hadn’t even read the books, so guess what he did. He went to Wikipedia, read the whole synopsis, and was good to go, he knew as much about it as me!
Well, Heather also reminded me that I had a “shirt” that our other friend Shauna had made for us a few months ago. I will admit, I was embarrassed, so I wore it but I had a cute vest to go over it. 10 years ago, I would have cared less what people thought of me, but in my older and wiser age, I know better than to draw attention to myself.
Anyways, we met up for dinner with Heather & Eric, Shauna & Travis, Erin and Brian, Liz and Derrick, and met Brooke at the theater-she was a sport and saved our seats. We got there, and ummmmm we were the only ones dressed up. There were people taking our pictures to go home and show their family and friends what crazies we were. It was only a shirt…..but still. Here are some pictures:



(Yes, I know. I am the fattest, oldest (besides Erin), have the most kids, and the frumpiest....oh well!) Liz is missing from this picture. She had "gasp" forgotten her shirt and had to run and get it.

So, I had been so curious about how our theater could show the movie at 8 p.m. last night, when our ticket said 12:01 a.m. and the rest of the world had to wait. I hope they don’t get in trouble. I was glad I didn’t have to stay up too late though. Most of all, I was SOOOOO glad at how the movie turned out. The scenery was perfect, characters were perfect, and the emotions it brought about were very similar to when I was reading the book. I am also SO glad to have had my husband there. He was there to snuggle me, something that rarely happens at home, so it was nice. I think he was really hoping for some vampire lovin’, lol, but by the time we were home the mood had passed...for me at least!
This is one VERY random side note. I had been thinking about the author, and how she is a member of the church. I find it so so funny how the rest of the world shuns us as WEIRDOS…yet a very faithful member or “Mormon” wrote this amazing series in a tasteful way, and now it is a worldwide phenomenon. Not so “weird” if you ask me...just a thought.
As for being trendy...I DON'T CARE! I had fun-and that is a rare occasion!!! So, I hope all you other Twilight lovers can make it to the movie and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Have a great weekend!
p.s. If you want to enjoy a piece of the movie...I added 2 of the songs from it on my playlist. It is the top 2 songs.

Update on Kayler

So it has been awhile since I did an update on my little Kay-Kay. Things have been going ok. He meets with an occupational therapist once a month. He meets with his early intervention service coordinator once a month. He also goes to a group therapy/playgroup once a week. Along with what we work on at home, he is getting a lot of help.
He is talking SO much more, and that helps things immensely. It really lessens the tantrums that he throws. He is still doing the biting/hitting thing, but so far it hasn’t happened at church for a couple weeks, just at home.
He has done extremely well at home in other ways, almost to the point that I feel like there is nothing wrong. That is until I have days like today. Today was his group class, and it went HORRIBLE…. I mean it was a sight, it was so horrendous. I was a sweaty mess by the time we left. I even had someone ask, “What is wrong with him.” I had decided that I was not going to tell them, but I finally just gave a few details and left it at that. At least they will know that he is not a complete brat and that I not am a dead beat mom. He screamed literally bloody murder the whole class. I would just leave, but he understands that if he screams, I will go, and that is not helping him learn cope with being around other people.
I have read as much as I can about Asperger's Syndrome-and learned a lot. My friend Stephanie said that on Grey's Anatomy last week they even had a Dr. who had it. Ever since a few people from Hollywood have had their own children get Autism, it has become much more accepted, studied, and that helps a ton. From what I read, Aspergers's goes hand in hand with High Functioning Autism, even though they are a separate diagnosis. He has his second opinion appt. in SL on the 8th. We will see how that goes. I am curious to see if they will say Aspergers's or High Functioning Autism, or maybe that he has nothing. We will just see. I am not telling them that he has already been diagnosed, I want a complete evaluation just based on the facts, and not what other Dr.'s have said.
I am really nervous for Thanksgiving. We are going with G.J.’s family to Daniels Summit. We are staying the night there Wed. night, and then they have a big, huge Thanksgiving buffet on Thursday. I can pretty much plan on it not being pleasant, but we will try our hardest-I need to stay positive. G.J.’s family is really good to help, so I need to get over my pride and let them help me. I am actually excited to go now that I think about it, just a little nervous.
Anyways, other than that, things are going well. My visiting teacher told me something so sweet the other day, and I have really put it to heart. I told her that people kept telling me how lucky I was to be blessed with such a special little boy. Although I agree 100%, and I know for a fact that things could be SO much worse, it is still hard. She said to me, “It is o.k. to not want to be the lucky one, it is o.k. to cry, and it is o.k. to be mad…..as long as you thank the lord for and good, that is all that matters.” She used to be a PA (kind of like a Dr.) She is also one of the most spiritually rounded people who has dealt with a LOT in her life. For her to say that to me, it meant more than she will ever know.
Have a great day!

Christmas Drama

Well, it is happening again. I am already freaking out a little about what to have "Santa" get the kids for Christmas. I am so bad. I refuse to let the kids get stupid little things that will never get used. I also have the hardest time buying toys when they have SO many. Lets start with Kayler. He wants somethings like this:

But, it has to be much simpler, has to fold, and most importantly, has to be in the theme of this-because he is obsessed with him:

Gavin will be easy. He doesn't know it yet, but this is what he is getting:

He always steals Hallie's, so I know he will love it. The only challenge will be for me to find games that I approve of, that are educational, and that he will be able to do on his own.

Hallie....oh my sweet Hallie. She has never loved baby dolls, barbie dolls, or anything like that. She is still very girly, and loves dress up, makeup, jewelry, etc. She said she wants an "inventor kit". Well, what the heck is that, and what the heck is she going to "invent." Ohhhh the drama. I was thinking of having Santa see if he could put together some little building sets like these:



I think she will be able to invent and build to her little heart's content with all these, so we will see.
I hate feeling so stressed already. I swear every year that I will not do it. I think that it stems from the fact that my childhood was filled with very special memorable Christmases. Not only for the spirit, but for the wonderful gifts and special things that I received and that my mom helped me give. I just want my kids to have the same.

It never fails that around this time each year, our savings is pretty low, huge bills hit, the car needs repairs, etc. I HATE putting Christmas on a credit card, and this year I refuse to do so. I always get so worried, but something ALWAYS works out, and I guess I just have to depend on that this year too.

For the first time in my married life, I actually want/need something for Christmas. The past 8 Christmases I have just not wanted or asked for anything. This year, I guess I am being selfish, but here is MY wish list for once. I really want some food storage. My parents usually give us a gift card to Costco, so hopefully I can stock up. Next, a few weird things: new bathroom rugs, and a new kitchen faucet. I really really want a new sewing machine. My hand-me-down from Mandy has finally pooped out, and I am so sad. It's not like I sew that often, but I really like having one around.

So anyways, there is my first Christmas drama story of the year. If you have any ideas for Hallie and Kayler's finds, please leave a comment or email me-since I know that is what everyone is dying to do...help with my Christmas lists! Thanks!!!

A few thoughts...

I thought I better capture a few thoughts while I am “in the moment” so to speak. I just got back from ward choir. I am a slacker on choir, and I am what you call the Christmas only choir member. I just love the Christmas songs. This year we are doing a beautiful Thanksgiving one as well for next week, and I am so glad about that, because I hate how the rest of the world skips over Thanksgiving. Our choir director is amazing. She chooses the most unique not to mention beautiful songs. I had my first feelings of the true Christmas spirit that I crave all year round today. It made me get a little choked up, and more than anything, extremely grateful.
I have been so worried lately. I think half of it comes from our new president. I have to pray very hard that he will lead our country to good, and if not, I have to have the faith that we will be o.k.-even if the rest of the world crumbles. I think two-fold that are my worries about the direct attacks on our church. The proposition 8 protest clouds the news and lingers in my mind a lot. I guess I have always known that the rest of the world does not understand our religion, and judge us very unfairly. This is just another VERY public display of that hatred, and it makes me feel so bad. Along with that, I was watching the news the other night, and the holocaust survivors held a HUGE press conference, broadcasted it all over the world, and targeted our church directly for “unlawfully” doing baptisms for the dead for their ancestors. We have not done this for years of course after they asked us not to. They even sent church representatives before the big press conference to prove it, but they would not believe it.
These things, I truly feel, are just the tip of the iceberg. We are going to be put down even more, struggle even harder to prove ourselves, and I can’t even let my mind wander to imagine what will happen in these last days. I will admit, which I am ashamed to, that I am scared. It has been said that if you are prepared in every needful way, you need not fear. My food storage is just right in the middle, not enough, yet we aren’t necessarily lacking. I feel that my faith is the same way. I have a lot of work to do so I can truly not be afraid of what is to come. I need to be the strong one, along with G.J., so my sweet little children will never have to feel the fear that may come. Of course I may be getting ahead of myself. I know that there is still plenty of time. It is just the concept of not procrastinating, and truly becoming prepared.
Until then, I think I have to choose to not watch the news. It is just too hard. I love this gospel with all my heart. I truly do. I am so grateful for this time of year, especially Christmas music. It just makes everything else melt away. I hope everyone’s Sunday is great!

Tupperware and Books

You can tell my life is a little bit boring right now if I am blogging about Tupperware. I have been busy, but I have been a big slacker, so the things I should be doing are not getting done. Instead I choose to tell you a little story about the below picture.
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If you grew up in the 1980's, and you had a super cool Tupperware Mommy, then you have to remember these. I remember coming home from school on Monday nights and my mom would have layered pudding with homemade whip cream for FHE. Awww, such fond memories!
So how you ask, did I obtain such a treasure? Well for Enrichment night our ward had a "My Sister's Closet" activity where everyone cleaned out the junk of their houses, brought it to the church, and we took what we wanted. Well, I was probably a little bit TOO excited about ancient Tupperware, but it was a complete set in mint condition. So bring on the pudding kids!!!
Last night the kids had a Book Fair/Read-a-thon/pj party. I'm not sure what the title was. But it was so fun to take the kids in our jammies, eat some cookies, and read books for awhile. Kayler doesn't do well at all at activities like that, so G.J. took a turn staying home with him.
Aren't they so cute!! They were so excited to go!
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Gavin with his best buddy Oscar

Hallie with her friend Madison

So, for the next few days-I have 2 modbe parties(everything is still 30-40% off), a baby shower, lots of catching up to do, etc. G.J. is taking the kids to SL tomorrow for his nieces piano recital, and just to get away. So I get 2 days all alone with my sweet little buddy Kayler. Have a great day!!!