Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2008

What a wonderful Christmas we had this year!! We were able to spend it in our new home and just kick back and enjoy the Holiday Season. There is so much to tell so here is a quick summary:

ChRiStMaS eVe DiNNeR.. One Word... YUM!! Great turkey Dinner, mash potatoes, funeral potatoes, stuffing and rolls!! Yes, I even cooked it all!! KyLee and Sawyer pitched in and helped while Cody was working.

ChRiStMaS eVe AcTivItIeS..One Word... EXCITING!! KyLee and Sawyer made the leaning Tower of Christmas Tree. It was a gingerbread tree that ended up leaning to one side. KyLee and Sawyer did it all by themselves. They had a great time and frosting was over every inch of their body! They made Chocolate Chip Cookies, sorry not from scratch, but from the Pillsbury tube. Mom ran out of time this year for cookies. We made Reindeer Food and they sprinkled it in the rain. We capped the night off with the annual opening one present gift... SuRpRiSe... PJS!!
The Kids were off to bed at 8:30 after putting cookies, milk, and candy canes out for Santa and pulled up NORAD one more time to see where Santa was... last check, Cincinatti, OH.

ChRiStMaS mOrNinG.... One Word... AWESOME!! We had such a great morning. The girls woke Cody and me up at 7:30 and we headed downstairs to see if Santa had come. The first thing they saw was the kitchen that Santa brought for Sawyer. The girls were having such a great time that I had to break up the fun and see if KyLee wanted to open up a gift fron Santa. She was so happy that Santa brought her a camera. The girls had a great time opening their gifts and playing with everything they got!! The girls got Cody a laptop table that he can use while he is watching T.V. and the girls got me a beautiful watch.

ChRiStMas AfTeRnOOn...One Word... RELAXING!! We called our family to wish them all a Merry Christmas and to see what Santa brought our cousins. Sawyer and mommy took a nap, KyLee took pictures of everything living and non living while jamming to her HSM songs on her new I-pod and Cody relaxed and watched movies, and even woke me up noting that Day's of Our Lives was on.....

ChRiStMaS Night.... One Word... WONDERFUL!! We talked to a few more family members and we played with Sawyer's kitchen, read our new books, built a house with Sawyer's blocks, voided KyLee and her non stopping picture taking, ate leftovers, and sat together cuddled up in their new Tinkerbell and HSM blankets as a family and watched a movie.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and Best Wishes to everyone in the New Year.

Christmas Eve 2008

Christmas Morning 2008

Santa Wonderland '08

Slowly but surely we made it to see Santa. We have been a little hesitant because Sawyer thinks Ho-Ho is "sCaRy" We have tried twice to get Sawyer to see Santa. The first time was at Bass Pro back in November and the second time was at the Mall in Texas. Both times she started throwing a fit so I gave up. This time I worked up the whole Santa idea and made it a big deal. I told her over and over again that if she would go see Santa that Santa would give her candy. In all my years of taking KyLee to see Santa she has always received a candy cane, what Santa does not give candy canes? So, yesterday we were off to see Santa at Bass Pro for a second time. They have a Santa's Wonderland and it is decorated really cute, very inviting to children. We didn't have to stand in line long, but as we got closer, Sawyer started saying "No ho-ho, no ho-ho" When it was our turn to "supposedly" visit with Santa, Sawyer didn't want to. I did coax her however and I participated in the fun event of sitting on Santa's knee or kneeling in my case. We took our pics with Santa and then when I thought it was time to "visit" with Santa so the girls could tell him what they wanted for Christmas he handed each of the girls tattoo Bass Pro stickers. You have got to be kidding!! No asking the girls what they wanted for Christmas, no asking if they have been good little girls, and as Sawyer puts it, no Ho-Ho candy. I was a little disappointed that after a couple of weeks to build of the excitement to see Santa, Santa was a dud. KyLee told me that he was definitely not the real Santa and he was actually kind of mean. I told her that, that Santa must have been on Santa's elf naughty list and he was just having a bad day!!! What else can you do?

YoU HaVe GoT tO bE kIdDiNg...

It is official, I feel like I have seen it all. It is snowing in Vegas! My friends that I have talked to today are loving this white, fluffy, wet stuff. I will officially go on record and say I can't stand it. I have never liked snow and then one thing that I was so happy about when we moved to Vegas from Tooele was no snow!! Or so I thought. Cody was supposed to fly into today from Dallas at 5:00 and then at 7:30 and then he called a little bit ago and had said all flights into Vegas were cancelled and he will be in tomorrow morning at 8:30. Needless to say he will be spending the night at the Dallas/Ft Worth Airport. I went to KyLee's Parent-Teacher Conference at 3:30 and while I was there the principal came over the inter comm and instructed all teachers who had evening appts to call the parents and the cancel them because the Clark County School District did not want parents driving in the snow. The snow also cancelled my plans today to go to Wal-mart and the Dollar Store, bummer! =D I guess we get to curl up with our blankets and watch a movie while it.. yes SNOWs in Vegas.... =D

Reception Prep

Our Trip To Texas

On Thursday our family left to go to Texas to attend my nieces wedding in Anderson, TX. I was so excited for this day and was counting down the days. I had been talking to my sister and nieces the whole week prior on Facebook and I was so excited when the day finally came that I got to see them all again. It was about 7 years ago since it was the last time I had seen them. Ashley and Justin were just entering high school and Amanda was was still in elementary. Rhegan and KyLee were three years old. Trevor was just a baby. Needless to say our trip to see my family was long over due. We got into Dallas late Thursday night and still had to driver two hours to my sisters house in Hearne, TX. We got to her house around 2:30 Friday morning and we were all ready for bed. Later on in the day we got up and headed to Anderson, TX to see my family. They were all at the reception center setting up decorations. When we soon arrived we were put to work helping with the set up. Later on we went back to the hotel to check in. My mom and I snuck away for a few minutes and went to Wal-Mart and then to this cute little antique store. We have a good time shopping!! We were in no hurry to get back. Later on that night we headed over to the church for the rehearsal and then off to the fairgrounds for the rehearsal dinner. I loved seeing my family and spending time with them. The 4 days sure went by fast. I miss them tons!!! We cannot wait another 7 years!!

Dinner

Rehersal Dinner

The Rehersal Dinner was held Friday night at the Fairgrounds where Leon and Ashley were holding their reception. The dinner they served that night was wonderful. They served Chicken Fried Steak (Leon's favorite, it was requested :) ) green beans, and bread. It was wonderful to sit with my family that I have missed so much and just visit. I have a wonderful family and I wish we could see more of each other. At the end of the night Teresa gave all her nieces and nephews a little thank you gift. KyLee, Rhegan, and Jenna got the iron on beads so they were so excited to go back to the hotel and starting creating their master pieces. Sawyer was very happy with hers. What we thought was just a play cell phone turned out to be a little make-up case. We didn't find out however until she had opened it and put the make up all over her face. She was absolutely beautiful and we gave Aunt Teresa a make over with Sawyer's new make-up!!

A girly thing....

Saturday morning before the wedding, my mom called our hotel room and asked if I wanted to go with my aunt Marilyn and aunt Evelyn to get our nails done. I only had to think a minute to say "Of Course" So, I left Cody with the girls and I was out the door to spend some time with some wonderful ladies!! I really enjoyed taking a quick break and enjoyed the adult conversation. I love the opportunities that arise when I get to spend some time with my mom. I wished it would happen more often. We seem to enjoy getting our nails done when we are together, I think we have found a tradition!!! Something to look forward to every time we get together. Thanks for the great time ladies.... I love you all......!!!!! You have some sexy feet!! =D

A girly thing.....

Mr. and Mrs. Kimich

I now pronounce Mr. and Mrs. Kimich

Ashley and Leon's wedding was held at the Catholic church in Anderson, TX. It was a beautiful church and the decor turned out real nice. The wedding ceremony was a full mass and the wedding portion followed. I was so nervous about Sawyer. This wedding was scheduled to last about two hours and I worried the whole day what I was going to do to keep Sawyer occupied. When the ceremony started Sawyer was a little fussy. She fused a few times, but thankfully she feel asleep for the entire ceremony. My prayers were definitely answered. Ashley was a beautiful bride and Amanda looked absolutely perfect in her bridesmaid dress. My nephew Justin was one of the groomsman and my niece Rhegan was a junior bride. Jenna was the flower girl and Trevor was the ringer barrier. Everyone was really proud of them and they did such an amazing job. They all looked so grown up standing in the front with Leon and Ashley. They ceremony was wonderful and they are a great couple. I am so happy for them.

Ashley and Leon's Reception

Ashley and Leon held their reception at the fairgrounds in Anderson, TX. It was a really neat building and it turned out to be a perfect place to hold their reception. There were a total of 400 invitations sent out, so needless to say this was the event of the year for this town. There were tons of people there and everyone seemed to have a great time. They started the reception off with a great dinner of brisket and sausage. We were in Texas, you couldn't expect anything less. They had also had potato salad, and bread. After the dinner was over the band began to perform and the bride and groom made their "Grand March" entrance something I had never seen before. After the bride danced with her father and the groom danced with his mom it was very cute. Soon after they cute their cake and I have to say they were to nice to each other. But, Ashley is such a sweet girl that I don't seriously think she had it in her to shove cake in Leon's face, although it would have been quite a scene and nobody would have ever guessed she would do it. Following the cake cutting the auctioned off the bride shoes. They ended up with $2200 and even though the last bidder (which was Cody by the way) is suppose to get the shoes, Ashley and Leon gave one show to Leon's grandmother and the other show to mom and Glen. I thought that was so sweet of her and very thoughtful. Everyone ended up dancing and had a great time. It was fun to watch my family out on the dance floor. I am so glad we made it to the wedding and reception. I would have been sad if we would have missed it.

Ashley and Leon's Reception

Playtime with our Cousins

After the wedding and reception was all said and done, we were able to spend some time with my sister Teresa, my brother-n-law Gilbert my nieces Amanda, Rhegan, Jenna and my nephew Trevor. We had such a great time kicking back and talking with a little relaxation to go along with it. Gilbert got the 4-wheelers out so the kids could take turns riding. Cody and I even went for a quick turn. They live in such a beautiful area that it was so nice to just "stroll" around on the machines and take in the scenery. It is so quiet and out of the way of everything, what a beautiful piece of land they have and what a great place for the kids to just run and play. I'm glad KyLee and Sawyer got to see their cousins one last time and we enjoyed every minute of it. It was hard to say goodbye........

Playtime with our Cousins

KyLee's Choir Performance

KyLee's first choir performance of the year was last Wednesday. It was a wonderful program and definitely more then I expected. It had a combination of choir, instrumental, and drama all in one. The program was based upon how different countries celebrate the Christmas season all around the world. KyLee performed in all three. She sang songs, she played the xylophone, and was in the Quanza portion of the program. It very well put together and a wonderful way to sit and celebrate the season.

KyLee's School Choir Performance

What? It's over? Oh, and my feet hurt!

For anyone who knew as they listened to me complain, stress, and cry that the PTA at KyLee school had our first "Holiday Craft Fair" today. For the past 3 weeks, my children have been orphans, cody has done a great job being a single dad, and my computer printer is out of ink! But, I did it!! I was told that there is no way we could pull off a craft fair, and I was set out to prove them all wrong! Along with myself and the other PTA Vice President (Tory), we were able to pull off 50 vendors, lots of food, yummy treats, entertainment, and a pretty decent turn out for our event. The gratitude that I felt when I saw the clock turn 4:00 was like a child walking down stairs on Christmas morning and seeing thousands of presents under the Christmas tree. I was a little happy to see it come to an end, but a little sad to see it over. We did a lot of hard work and It was a great time. I have to thank all my friends who bailed me out and purchased a booth to "help me prove a point". Stephanie, Kolleen, and Ashlee you chickie's are my hero's. I love you guys thank you, thank you, thank you!! Along with these girls, I did a booth also with my friend Jenn. My booth was not the most profitable, but I was able to pay for my booth and grab a much needed Diet Coke on the way home! And I still have some great gifts for the ladies Kolleen and I visit teach. We're set girls, probably for the next few years :) As I mentioned we ended up with 50 vendors. We only had one crisis, we could not get the lights in the school hallway to turn on. We tried everything!! We ended up calling our principal and we still where not able to turn them on after he arrived. I felt horrible!! But our vendors understood and as the day went on the hallway lightened up a bit. We did the best we could with what we had and as I mentioned that was the only problem we had for the entire 6 hours.

Some of our PTA board. Aren't we stylish in our Reed PTA shirts!! Those that are jealous, I will you sale you mine. From left to right Wendy (pta president) Me (vice pres) Jennette (secretary) Tory... the other VP who was in charge of this event, Amber (treasure) and Jenn (vice pres and my booth buddy) Our PTA board is coming along and we all took a vote, we are done with fundraisers!! We did really well on this one and decided we need a mini vacation. =D

Look how cute these two vendors are. How could you not resist buying from these ladies!!

I asked KyLee's dance studio to perform at the Craft Fair. Can I just say how much I love the Owner Donna and her admin assistance Kara. In this pic. Kara is on the left hand side of the poster board and the other girl is Michelle, she was with S&K Music Studio who also performed. The ended up sharing a booth, long story.... goes along with the no lights in the hallway... I did have one vendor who had concerns. Another story for another post.

On the left side this is my friend Ashlee with Ashlee Bailey photography. She is such a sweetie. I was teasing her that we were going to put her in one of her Tutu's and she was going to be the 1:30 entertainment. She laughed, but wouldn't come on board,hmmmm..... Her friend Alexandria sold Mary Kay. Such cuties. I love them.

These are my other friends, left to right Kolleen, Dana, and my best buddy Stephanie. Kolleen her newborn (hence the picture) and Dana sold hand made jewelry (which as I think about it, I never made it to their booth to buy...) and Stephanie sold her handmade girls hairbows. I owe you ladies lunch!!!

My job throughout the day was to MC the event. Who knew four years as a Communication Major and a degree is public broadcasting I would land my first gig as a MC at a school craft fair! :) It was fun and I even had one lady ask for my email address as she may want me to run her work Christmas party for the night. How much do people who do this get paid...... Also Donna with KyLee's dance mentioned me hosting her Dance Recital in July. Having a horse voice this evening paid off I guess. This is what happens when you are trying to find last minute entertainment in December. No one is available so you get to talk all day. Another lesson learned, search early for entertainment. One thing our vendors could not complain about, their business were plugged over and over again. Sitting here now listening to KyLee sing songs with the Karaoke machine, I was thinking about starting my Christmas cards. I must be nuts! My bed is whispering my name.....

Traditions

Tonight I attend the Progressive Dinner for our Relief Society. What a wonderful evening. It may be because I needed a moment away from craft fair preparation, work, and sick kids or just the fact that I have made some wonderful friends in our ward. Thanks ladies for a great evening and thanks Steph for the wonderful parting gift!! I'm ready to go shopping at your secret jewelry hang out any time you are!! =D
At the end of the dinner a lady in our ward briefly spoke about traditions and how families now more then ever need traditions. While she was sharing her traditions with her family I started thinking about traditions that my family had when we were kids. Funny enough, the other night when I was finishing up the Christmas decorations and listening to the radio there is a station here in Vegas that is now playing 24/7 Christmas music. Each night the jockey, Dilylia will have callers call in and tell her what they are thankful for this holiday season and then she will find a song to match their story. I am finding myself listening to her each night before I go to bed because I love to hear these stories that people want to share. There was one caller the other night that made me cry. She was explaining how her father was so adamant on how the tree was decorated. They didn't have a fancy tree, all the ornaments were mix match and they had the big light bulbs on the tree and the silver tensil that they were only allowed to put one strand on at a time. As I was listening to her story it was almost like my mom was telling the same story. This was exactly how it was in our home growing up. I truly believe that families should have traditions that can be passed from generation to generation. I believe that the Lord speaks to us in different ways, and after hearing the story of the Christmas tree on the radio and the talk given tonight, there is something hear that I am supposed to know about traditions. I thought it would be fun to post some funny traditions that we had as kids;
** Baking and more baking and more baking and more baking. We were always in the kitchen helping my mom cook something. Frosting sugar cookies. How I hated this job because there was so many. As I got older, I talked the neighborhood kids in to helping us. To this day, I hate frosting sugar cookies.
**Decorating the tree. I used to love hanging the tinsel and we were only allowed one strand at a time. I used to love opening the ornaments and finding the fun ones to hang on the tree. My mom kept every ornament that me and my sister ever made in school.
**I used to love Christmas Eve, probably more then Christmas. Back then at 6:00 o'clock the radio stations would start playing only Christmas songs. I remember waiting all day long for the Christmas song to come on. We would start getting ready to go visit all our family friends in the neighborhood and then everyone would come back to our house for a buffet of food my mom prepared every year.
**There was a radio station behind our home and they had three radio towers. Each of them had a red light on the top and I remember my parents telling us that it was Rudolph's nose.
**We opened up pj's every year on Christmas Eve.
** Christmas Eve, my sister and I would always sleep together in my room. We would lay there seeing if we could hear Santa coming.
** Christmas morning we weren't allowed to go to the front room without our parents. We had to wake them up and then we would cuddle up in our blankets next to the heater vent while my mom and dad would go and turn on all the lights and make sure that Santa did in fact come. =D
**Christmas day we would always visit Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was easy to do when they only lived 5 minutes from each other. I loved going to Grandma and Grandpa's house at Christmas time. It was always something different about that day then any other day.

This is just a few traditions that I thought about tonight. I am so thankful for my parents making traditions that I have been able to pass to my children as they will get older. I hope I can build traditions for my children to share as they get older.

A Group Effort...

Decorating our tree this year was a Group Effort. Most of the time it starts out with me getting all the stuff out everyone pitching in and then I end up getting left with the rest of the work. This year I decided to make it a little more fun so that everyone wanted to participate. Sawyer had so much fun with the lights. Every time we would plug them in she would get excited and "ooo" at the lights. Cody was not thrilled after a hard day at the office that he had to come home to find out that we were putting the tree up. Hence, the notion he is trying to come across with out coming straight out and saying, can't we do this another night. Sawyer wanted to play along....

With the intent of making this more of a family affair we turned on and up the Christmas music. Sawyer thought it was time to dance. Anytime music is on she is dancing. Counting down the day she turns two so she can start dance classes.

KyLee was a HUGE help this year. I admit I have a lot of stuff!! People tell me after all my stuff is up that my house seems like a Christmas store of such. I love Christmas and Christmas decorations so I tend to go overboard, but my kids are only young once. One of these days will condense, but until then I'll just buy another tote for the new stuff I bought this year!! =D

Merry Christmas.....

The excitement of Christmas

I have to admit, Christmas is definitely my favorite time of the year. I love decorating our house, baking cookies, cookies, and more cookies. I love to buy gifts for families and friends. When I was working in the office I used to love to decorate our office areas. It drove some of our other employees crazy but it was still fun and they only complained for the day. I used to love planning our floor Christmas Party and try to go "Above and Beyond" what we did the year before. This is the time of the year that I miss working in the office with all my friends and enjoying the holiday season with my co-workers. My goal this week was to get all of our Christmas stuff up, even with trying to plan for the Holiday Craft Fair I was able to do it. I still have some more to put up, but for the most part I am done. I decided this year that since we are in a new home that I was going to decorate my tree differently. I have been looking for months on different blogs and websites on different decorating tips. Thanks to my friend Heidi, she gave me plenty of web sites to search, and yes Heidi, after searching your list, I am still married! =D So after much late night searching I decided to throw a bunch of my ideas together and I came up with a Grinch/Santa Believe tree. Most of the decorations I either got at Micheals or the Dollar Store. The Dollar Store is definitely my friend. I also made some crafty Styrofoam balls for bulb decorations. It helps to have crafty friends, thanks, Steph. The tree is really bright (the pics don't do justice) with Red, White, and Green. I love the colors together and just all the different stuff I threw on there. When I say throw, I mean literally mean throw. I might add a few things here and there, but I love my tree. It is definitely different from the Country theme tree we have had for years.

I was excited to bring out my tall Santa and the Reindeer. I just love these two guys. I bought these at Maceys in Tooele and I miss not being there to get the new one for this year. They are just so cute and sell for a great price. The poinsettia was given to me by my grandmother who passed away 6 years ago. It is fake and it has been put threw the ringer, but each year I dust it off and fix the leaves and display it for all to see. It's my little reminder of her at Christmas.

While I was out on Friday searching for vendors for our Holiday Craft Fair, KyLee and I went to a Craft Fair close to our home called "Show and Tell" craft fair. The two ladies who were running the event were wonderful. They allowed me to bring in our flyer's to pass out to their vendors and they even passed out our flyer's to their customers. Since they were so helpful I kind of felt obligated to buy something while we were there. This is my excuse for buying something. But there was this nice old man who makes these tall lighted Christmas trees. He was so fun to talk to that I felt compelled to buy one. It looks real cute with all the other Christmas stuff and once we are done with it we can use it upstairs in Cody's "Man Room"

Many Things To Be Thankful For...

For Thanksgiving this year we went to Cody's parents house in Huntington, UT. This is where we have spent the last few Thanksgiving and we always have a really great time. Family traditions have been made over the years and its definitely something we look forward to every year. Now that we are in Vegas, the drive is LoNg, but it just takes something to get used to. In past trips we have learned that Sawyer gets car sick. Yeah, this is fun. It's is turning out to be not if she will get sick in the 6 hour driver, but when. The doctor gave me some suggestions for car sickness, but if anyone has great ideas, please pass them along. And to answer the lingering question, did Sawyer get sick?.. Of course. Leaving Vegas she got sick just right out side the city limits. Traffic was awful and all the stop and go got her going. On the way back, sure enough, 3 hours in to the drive she got sick again. We were prepared this trip with plenty of towels extra clothes, and baby wipes. I am becoming a pro at clean up duty!! Keep this up and the next time she gets sick we won't even have to stop!! =D One thing I am grateful for, is the safety of our family traveling during the holiday season.
KyLee and Sawyer were happy to be at grandma's and papa's house, and sure enough when we arrived it started to snow. Cody and Sawyer went outside to catch snowflakes while KyLee was wanting her Vegas weather back. On Thursday the rest of the family arrived and KyLee and Sawyer were sure happy to see all their cousins. Much kayos when everyone is together, but deep down I don't think anyone would want it any other way. Second thing I am grateful for is family and being together for the holidays and for the technology that we have today to call my family who live far way. (love you and miss you, especially on the holidays...)

The dinner that was prepared by Cody's mom was wonderful as always. The third thing that I am thankful for, the freedom to sit and enjoy all the many plentiful blessing of food that we have when others are fighting for my freedom and I pray for those who have gone astray from their family and are lost in the world. Also, for the Patriarch of our family who holds the Melchizedek Priesthood that can bless our family, our lives, and the food in the freedom of his home without worry or fear of persecution. What a great time we had sitting around eating wonderful food, talking, watching Dallas Football and Sawyer say "dah" and "really" over and over again. The more she said it the more sassy she got with a head bop and finger waving routine that had everyone laughing with tears.

The next morning the adult girls were off for a busy day of shopping while the men were left to tend the kids. Usually the guys go rabbit hunting, but it was pretty cold for Sawyer so they stayed behind and just let the kids play. Our shopping day was pretty productive and we stayed away from the mobs. We all still have our limbs attached!! =D We had such a wonderful time with everyone it was hard to say goodbye, but good to be home and Christmas is just around the corner.