Merry Christmas Morning!!!

So I know Christmas has been over for weeks but I promise this is the last post!!! Christmas morning was a blast!!! Santa thinking very highly of himself, was pretty sure he aced this years Christmas!! Will see by the kids reactions? Our family got a Nintendo Wii which as you can tell was a big hit!! And we love it, the girls played it nonstop for 2 days!! Now it is our favorite past time to do with the kids! It gets us off the couch and we are spending lots of time laughing and having fun!!
My little teenager was able to get what she asked for an "American Girl Doll" !! The one she got was named Kit and she hasn't put her down for three weeks now. She loves to change her clothes. She puts her pjs on when it is time for bed and gets her dressed in her fancy dress when it is time for church. Way to go Santa!! She also loved spending Christmas with her cousin Trey!

My little bugs first Christmas!!! After 4 children, I decided that letting her sleep in was a-okay with me. So she didn't get to open her gifts until about 11 am that morning. After she was fed so she was ready to experience something new. She only had about 4 gifts to open and one would have been plenty. Actually, all she needed was the paper and she was all smiles. Because that was all she was interested in. I don't think she paid any attention to her toys.

She did love her present from Grama!! A baby as big as her that felt like a really soft pillow!!!

My little boss loved her Christmas!!! She asked Santa for a Mrs Goodbee's talking house and that is what she got. And some of the stuff that went with it. She was so excited!!! She also got a little horse that she could ride on just like her big sis. Santa hit the jackpot on this kid!!

Here she is practicing her photography with her new Cinderella camera. Say Cheese!!! She always tells me how to pose and how to smile. She has been paying attention to mom all these years.

Last but not least, my little sweetie got was she has been wanting for 3 years!!! Smores the fur real horse!!! Santa splurged on this one. She also got some other horse stuff and what every cowgirl needs...................cowgirl boots!!! This kid loves horses!!! She will someday be our next rodeo queen.

But I have to say, it is not always good giving your children what they ask for for Christmas!! I was watching a program of new years resolutions for kids and it said to "Deny your Children"!!

What? We need to not give them everything they want so they can feel the feeling of disappointment. Well, I feel like I do that!! I don't give them everything they ask for, except when it comes to Christmas. I feel like because of Jolly old Saint Nick, I feel like I need to give them what they ask for. What parent hasn't gone to the store at the last minute when one of our children change their minds. Well, if you are wondering why I am rambling....Smores is since been taken back to the store!! When we got home my little sweetie only played with it maybe once!! What? That is not the kind of expense you want to be played with only once!!! After 3 years of asking for it, it wasn't that great after all. Deny, Deny, Deny!!!

Christmas Eve!!!

Christmas Eve day was just like everyone else's I am sure!!! The kids were bouncing off the walls with excitement, asking every 10 minutes "Can we open just one present today?". Trying to plan enough stuff to keep them busy all day!! Crazy!!! We made cookies for Santa, we had a big Christmas party with everyone there and ate Mexican food!!! After dinner the kids went caroling with grama to some cute little old people that live on her street. After they came back we had there gift exchange which was hilarious. I will tell about that in minute. Then Grama sent them on a scavenger hunt to find their Christmas eve pjs. It was a lot of fun, but the little ones were getting upset because they were getting left behind. We only went up and down the stairs at least 10 times!! But they loved it!! After they got their jammies on we read the Christmas story and let them act out the parts. Here is a picture of our Nativity!! We wanted to try and bring the real meaning of Christmas into our day!! Then off to bed they went............yea right!! Everyone can't wait for SANTA!!!

Here is our beautiful Mary, holding on to a crazy haired baby Jesus!! It was the only baby we could find. I told them to act out there part when I read about them in the story and my little sweetie did a very good job being so humble and loving. With a big thanks to big sis who gave up her part as Mary so you know who wouldn't be upset!! What a good big sister!!!
My little bug was just happy to be there and trying to keep up with all the commotion around her!!
This is a picture of our gift exchange that I was talking about. Grama read a story and every time she said "left" or "right" the kids had to pass the present in that direction!!! Well considering that most of the kids were 5 and under, needless to say they didn't know which way was right or left. So they kept getting mixed up!! For the first part of the story, they were laughing and having a great time and by the end all the little ones were getting mad because they just wanted to open a present already!!! So Grama had to cut the story down and they finally got to open their gift.

This was how excited my teenager was about her gift.................... a Cinderella Polly pocket!!! YEA! All is well, she traded with her younger sister who was thrilled with Cinderella!!!

Non-moving stage is officially over!!

So my little bug finally decided to start Crawling!!
Two days before Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!

I know that I was so anxious for her to start crawling and now I am trying to figure out why!! Holy cow!! She is into everything!! And once she started there was no holding her back! I don't know what got into her. She just decided to be big all of the sudden. She crawled and started holding her own bottle (ridiculous I know.....but she refused to hold it) all at once. Plus, she got her two bottom teeth in and now we are starting on the top two. Needless to say my life has totally changed. I can't just sit her down and know she will be there when I get back. Now I walk out of the room and when I come back I say "Where'd she go?" She loves the stairs...that is the first thing she went to. So we had to buy a gate before we came home from Christmas. She also loves the rock fire place.....you know all those fun places that if she falls, she will get seriously hurt. I know I am now just starting the phase of bruises and goose-eggs!! With all that said, she loves, loves, loves her freedom!!! She is a much happier baby now that she knows she can go where she wants to go. My video is a little dark, sorry!! Try to ignore the excited 3 year old that keeps running in front of the camera.

Christmas Cookies!!

This is the first of many posts to come about our Awesome Christmas at Grandmas!!! On Christmas eve we made our annual Christmas sugar cookies for Santa!!! A lot of mess and a lot of FUN!!! This year we got to do it with our two favorite cousins!!! We made the dough....some of it colored red, yellow, and green, we cut it out into our favorite shapes, we ate a lot of it, and licked a lot of frosting and in the end we had perfect cookies to leave for SANTA!!! Santa agreed too!! Awesome cookies!!! As my little boss would say "What a MESS!!"

Patty Cake

Here's my little bug showing off her patty cake skills. Which are really outstanding when she is not distracted by her sister. Don't mind my singing in the back ground or my little sweetie trying to get her sister's attention!!! My little bug loves to clap her hands, and wave bye bye. We are working on peek a boo and blowing kisses. And no she is still not crawling yet!!!

A HA Moment!!

So I have to say I have had my moment!!!
With grocery smarts that is. I have some
friends that introduced me to grocery smarts
and the huge savings that they have had. I
am talking like hundreds of dollars in savings
on their groceries. And before, they would tell
me and I would be thinking in my head.......
"Yea right!!! Whatever" Until this week!!! Not
that I want to brag, but I saved like $236
dollars this week on my shopping! Wahooo!!!
Maybe I will be able to build up my food
storage after all. Anyway, needless to say I
am not sceptical anymore!!! And I am
addicted! I have been to Albertsons 3 days in
row this week and I can't wait to go shopping
next week!!!!! Thanks to all my friends who
have been good examples and put up with my
whatever looks!!! I am not a grocery smarts
flunky anymore.

Gettin Old!!!

Happy Birthday!!!!
It is possible to stop having birthdays?
I would have stopped three years ago.
This week I had the great experience
of turning 33!!!! Holy cow!!! My sister
thinks I'm old. My body feels old too,
overweight, aches and pains,.......but
I mentally I don't feel old!!! Since
when do your birthdays have to stop
being fun? I don't know if it is a rule
that when you get older your birthdays
turn into just another day! It was just
another day but I did love spending time
with my kids and my awesome hubby
who for those who don't know......also
shares my same birthday!!! We
celebrated by going out to dinner to
my favorite restaurant. Thanks to all you
helped make my day a good one by
wishing me a Happy Birthday. I have
decided that I am going to start
having a half Birthday though. My whole
life I shared a birthday with my sister,
whose birthday is the day after mine. Then
I had to go a marry a wonderful man with
the same birthday. I still remember the
day we were talking on the phone and he
asked me when my birthday was and I
said "December 9th".......dead silence on
the other end. Then he said, "No it isn't"!!
Which I thought....why not!!! Then he said
"That is my birthday". Then I said,"No
it is not.......Let me see your drivers license"

So I continue to share my birthday, which
has its pros and cons. One pro is my
husband will never forget my birthday!!!

All I want for Christmas!!!

All I want for Christmas is my two front
teeth... That is want mommy wants too.
Holy cow, this little bug is miserable. Her
two bottom teeth are coming in together
and it seems like it has taken them over a
month. We are still waiting for them to break
through the skin, and going crazy while we
are waiting. She is so crabby!!!! Her nose is
just a runnin, she has got a cough from the
runny nose, and of course she can't sleep
with all that going on. She is still pretty cute
though!!! I am happy to report at almost 10
months that she is almost crawling. She gets
on her hands and knees and rocks back and
forth, she just doesn't have the motion yet. I
thought she would be trying to catch up with
her sisters, but she just sits back and whines
and her sisters take her everywhere. Maybe
by the time she is 1 she will be crawling!! She
is a litte lazy and ALOT spoiled. (sorry about
the red eye in the last picture, but it was too
cute to leave off)

Daxton's Box

Check out this blog.. I was doing some

blogging one night and I came across this

blog, it will definitely pull at your heart

strings!!! I read for nearly an hour and

sobbed the whole time. I want to make it a

link on my blog so whenever I am feeling

low and my kids are driving me crazy. I can

read this blog and remember all of the

blessings that I have.

The mother is amazing!! I admire her strength

and her strong testimony. She also has so

much good advice on how to go through life.

If you are looking for a way to make a

difference or donate this season, in the sidebar

of dbkunz.blogspot.com there is a list of things

that you can donate or you can give a money

donation to help those who go through the loss

that this mother and others like her have had

to go through.

Weekend Away

After the tree and all the decorations were
up like I promised the girls, the next day
I took off and went to my moms. I left
here at 12:00 pm and didn't get there until
4:00. I spent the night and got up and
came home the next day. It was a really
fast trip, but it was nice to get away and
take a break from being "mommy"!!! I
always enjoy spending time with my mom
and this time I got to have her all to my-
self. We usually stay up and talk to all
hours of the night, just like school girls.
I am so glad to have a relationship with
my mom like that. Thanks for the week-
end away honey!!! It felt great!

Puttin up the Tree

It is about time for a new post don't you

think!!! We finally got our tree up last

weekend. The girls were bugging me like

crazy, so Friday after school we got to work.

I love Christmas and I love my house when

it is decorated, but I hate the process.

Putting the tree up kills me!!! I apologized to

my kids before we even started, so they

would know that when I got frustrated it

wasn't because of them. I have one of those

trees that you have to fluff each branch and

put them in one by one.!! AHHHHH!!! It

drives me crazy, plus I am a perfectionist and

so the lights all have to be in the right place

and the ornaments in a certain order and

formation!!! Crazy I know, but that is the

reason setting up the tree makes me so

crazy! I will have to say that this year wasn't

so bad. I am surprised we even got it right

with following the directions from a 3 yr old.

And speaking of "fluffing", it was hilarious!!!

We told the little boss that we had to fluff the

branches before we put them on the tree, so

she grabbed a branch and squatted down and

made a lovely "fluffing" sound!!! Then she

handed it to me and said "Here, I fluffed it"

We all died laughing!!! My little bug even got

to participate!!! She didn't like touching the

tree so much but she did love dancing to the

Christmas music. She had to go to bed before

we got it all done, but she still had a lot of

fun. We started setting up the tree at 6:00pm

and we got done at 9:00 with a break in the

middle to eat some pizza and take a bath. We

all had a fun time. Here is a picture of the

girls before we started putting on the

ornaments.

For SALE!!!!

It is official!!!! We put the house up for Sale!!! I figured I
would put it on the blog so I can answer all the questions
at once......
Why? We are doing what we think is best for our family
right now. There is a possibility that my hubby will have
the opportunity for a promotion, which is wonderful......
but it will take him out on business trips a lot more
frequently. Even though I enjoy him being gone (ha ha we
all know that is not true), I told him that if he takes the
promotion I would like him to move me closer to my family.
It is too hard to be a single mom (somewhat) without any
help. Also, another reason is we have been taught a lot
lately in our ward and by our Prophet to be more provident
livers!!! This is our way to try to follow that counsel.

Where? We don't really know right now. We may stay here,
or we may be moving down south. It depends on what
my hubby decides to do with his job.

When? Who knows.............at the rate houses are selling up
here we may be here for a very long time. But if it is meant
to be it will happen.

We love it up here. I have lived here for 8 years now and I
will say that where we live it is a hard place to fit in. That is
my opinion and maybe it is me. It just seems like if you don't
have any family connections here then you are not accepted
very well. Granted it has gotten way better since we moved
in 8 years ago, but I still feel a little of that. I would love to
feel like it is home, but for me....I am not there yet. If we
end up staying I hope eventually I will feel that way. As for
the prearranged marriages that I have set up with Kendra
(Kolby & Karli) and Azuree (Jaron & Makena) in all fairness
if we move away I guess we will have to call those off. That
is a joke!!! Long distance relationships can work, right!!!!!
I know we are crazy!!!! I can't even think about packing up
another box!!!! But we will see what happens!