The aftermath...

Jaxon has so many fun new toys to play with.

His favorite new toys are his Bakugan Dragonoid and his stomping dinosaurs.

Kyah has a new chest filled with princess dress up clothes.

She also loves to carry around her new Littlest Pet Shop animals.

Both kids received hand made quilts from their Grandma Kristi and lots of clothes (they just keep growing). Harley and I were just grateful to get to watch their excitement. We were also grateful for Harley's new video games and my digital picture frame and camera.

What a Christmas!! It was fun to

stay up late and play games, hang out with the families and eat lots of good food.

I am thankful for this time of year and for the giving spirit. I am thankful to celebrate the Savior of the World, Jesus Christ, not only for his birth, but for his life, his perfect example and the greatest gift of love - the atonement.

T'was the night before Christmas....

So we made and decorated sugar cookies. We hung our stockings from the fireplace with care and we spent the night at Harley's parents and stayed up causing chaos until all hours of the morning.

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Kids say ....

I work downtown and it tears me apart to see people sitting in the very cold weather and begging. Everyone in my family is very sensitive to this situation. It has always been a concern to help those in need. We are always wanting to do "something."

This Christmas my family and I put together "gift bags" for the homeless. It was a bag with an array of food/snacks, socks, mats and mittens. It's not a lot, but we hoped that it would be something "nice." In preparation of the deliver and in explanation of what we were doing I tried talking to Jaxon what being "homeless" was, based on our conversation I thought he understood and he was happy to help.

Last night we set about delivering these gift bags. Because it was later in the evening and because my kids are both sick, my Mom thought that we should not take them out in the cold. While we were driving around a few questionable blocks of downtown, we came upon a man who my Mom thought might appreciate a bag. She rolled down her window and asked if he needed some food and Jaxon yelled "And a house?" He thought that in addition to giving them the gift bags we should have brought wood, nails and paint and then he could have built them a house so they wouldn't be homeless.

I love my sweet boy. He is always wanting to build something to make life better. He constantly tells me he wants to build a house big enough for our family and both sets of grandparents and all of the siblings to live together. I hope that he holds onto the desire to make the world better and the belief that he can do something about it.

Give away...

The Vintage Pearl is having a give away. Check out her blog and her super cute jewelry. I want to give a necklace to everyone on my Christmas list. Really as a mom, I think necklaces with our children's names on them are sweet.

Grandpa Z

As promised here... During Thanksgiving we went up to my Great-Grandpa Z's house and spent time with him. He is 97 and is very ill and I am afraid will not be with us much longer. We had a lot of fun visiting with him and hearing old stories. I love to take my kids up there - they are the 5th generation and my Grandpa always gets a kick out of that.


My Grandpa loves to collect cars and tractors. Here are a few pictures from Grandpa Z's "Museum". Enjoy! This is a Studebaker. I can't remember the year (I will have to ask), but this is the only Studebaker of this model and year currently rebuilt and running in the country. My Grandpa is pretty proud of that.

This is a 1915 Jeffery with all original 14,000 miles. This is one of my favorites.

This truck was gorgeous! It has inlayed wood in the bed. This is the exact same truck my Grandpa used to have on the farm, so he found one and had it fixed up.

The kids LOVED playing in the cars. They both fought over who got to drive. Jaxon was amazed and how many different cars there were.

Model T

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang anyone?? That's all I can think of when I see this car.

Some of Grandpa's tractors. He had a row of John Deeres, a row of McCormicks and a row of the Allis Chalmers.

"I can take you for a ride on my big, green tractor... as long as I'm with you, it really don't matter..."

Jaxon and his Great-Great Grandpa. Kyah loves to say "Grandpa Z" it sounds more like Granpa Zeeee. I love it!

Give away...

Half Baked is giving away a $100 gift certificate to Crate & Barrel. To enter click here.

Christmas shopping anyone?

Rubbermaid Puddle

While Black Friday shopping I purchase a Rubbermaid tupperware set similar to the one above. It's totally nerdy but I was excited about all of the matchy - matchy that was going to be going on in my fridge. The set I bought had a very large piece that all the smaller pieces fit inside (awesome). Last night the entire thing melted into a puddle at the bottom of my oven (not so awesome).

So, the other day in my hurry to pick up my house before someone came to look at it I threw my brand new set of tupperware in the oven to get it off my countertop. In the hurry of trying to put my kids to bed and make a killer cheesecake to hopefully win the church dessert contest - I preheat the oven to 350 degrees before tucking my kids into bed.

Guess what MORON forgot to take the tupperware out of the oven?!?!?!?!?!? As I walked into the kitchen to refill Jaxon's water glass I was assaulted by the stench of burning plastic. ___________________!!!!!! (This represents all of the happy thoughts that went through my brain at that moment.) After wishing I could kick myself 27 times I came to my sense and started the clean up. This is what came out of my oven (after it had cooled).

This is what was left of my lovely 26 piece set, well this and the giant piece of plastic that my dad had to sand off of my oven rack. Note to self - DO NOT USE YOUR OVEN AS STORAGE!!!!!

So... Behind...

I have things to post about, just not the pictures to back it up. I will try and get the pictures uploaded and some updating done this weekend.

But, until then ... a few things that we've been running around doing.

Thanksgiving baking - Yum, Yum, Yum! Pies galore all homemade of course (pumpkin, razzleberry, pecan). I made from scratch stuffing for the first time in my life.

Thanksgiving - Food Coma!! A day that celebrates Thanks and food - that's my kind of day.

Great Grandpa Z - he is sick, terminal pneumonia type sick, we spent a lot of time with him.

Super Awesome Cars and Tractors - Thanks to Great Grandpa Z's museum in the backyard.

My Aunt and Uncle visiting and staying over at my house - That's right 4 munchkins between the ages of 2 and 4. So much craziness and fun.

Renting and Unrenting my house in 24 hours - What an emotional roller coaster!