CHRISTMAS PICS FINALLY!!!!!!

GRANDPA AND SANTA (HIS HAT LIGHTS UP AND SAYS 'MY FIRST CHRISTMAS'

WHAT A CUTE LITTLE SANTA!


GRANDPA AND POOH EATING CANDY

'WHAT IF I'M NAUGHTY AND NICE?'

EATING MY CHOCOLATE SUCKER FROM GRANDPA


CHRISTMAS MORNING

PRETTY GIRLS IN THEIR NEW JAMMIES FROM GRANDMA

CLEANING UP

POOH BEAR IN HIS NEW CAR(FAVORTIE GIFT#1)

POOH WITH HIS NEW WALKER FROM UNCLE MIKE AND AUNT SHERI (FAVORITE GIFT #2) (NUMBER 3 AND 4 DO NOT HAVE PICTURES:( )

These are all the pictures I have, as I began downloading them, I realized I did all of Christmas morning on my camcorder, and only remembered to do a couple on film:( But here are some of the main ones:)

CHRISTMAS

Well Christmas was fun! I am having technical difficulties, and cannot post any pictures right now, but I will as soon as I am able. We had a nice family dinner at our house on Christmas Eve, and then we went to a Christmas Eve candlelight service at our church that evening. Then we came home and opened presents from Grandma and Grandpa Tobin, as well as Uncle Mike and Aunt Sheri. The kids were extremely spoiled, and still had an entire day of presents to go:). That evening we had a nice night of watching kids Christmas cartoon classics on TV, in mom and dads room, and the kids fell asleep in there. And we were awakened to kids jumping on our bed about 7:30:) We opened presents, then went to Grandma and Grandpa Nadeau's for more presents. Then we took the kids to see Alvin and the Chipmunks. Which was really cute! Then we went over to my parents, for a nice Christmas dinner. We went home early to play with all our toys. WOW, I cannot even believe how spoiled our children are! It is actually ridiculous! But we had a very nice few days celebrating the birth of our Lord. And are looking forward to a new year. The kids have been off of school since last Friday and will be out till next Wednesday. Thom has had a week off of work so far, and will also go back to work full time (I say full time cause he has been taking phone calls on his cell this week), on Wednesday. So I am anxious to get back to life:) Hope you all had a wonderful and family filled, blessed holiday.

RYLIE'S BIRTHDAY PARTY

Sunday was Rylie's 5th birthday. We had a party, just a small gathering of family and close friends. (It is hard to do a big, all-out-there party being two days before Christmas.) But she had a great time, her best friend Zoe was there, and some family, and some of our really close friends. We had a nice evening, and Rylie got VERY spoiled! Her favorite gift was her new guitar, along with lessons, from a good friend of ours. I cannot believe she is already 5, she will be in school this year *sobs, sobs*. She is getting so grown up, and she is just a light in our lives.

FOLLOWING THE HUSTLE AND BUSTLE

Well we generally try to have some down time during the holidays to spend as 'family time', at least once a week during these busy times. But we have not had one single night off since Thanksgiving, and our family has been neglected (well, not really but you know what I mean) between the play practices, shopping, holiday parties, and everything else, we have not had any family time all month. But I finished the shopping up on Tuesday, so yesterday after Thom returned home from his business trip to Salt Lake, we took some time for the family. We wrestled, played around, played board games(Sorry and Trouble), decorated gingerbread men and trees, and just had an all around wonderful family night:) It was so nice and relaxing, and today you can tell the difference in every body's moods:) You can tell by the pictures everyone is having a good time, even Thom who NEVER smiles for pictures. THANK YOU JESUS FOR MY WONDERFUL FAMILY:)!!!

I AM TRAUMATIZED

Well I am very traumatized right now and thinking very hard and deeply(I know not a good combo:) ) We have spent the day recording our camcorder tapes onto VHS (we live in the dark ages, I am sure you can copy them onto DVD, but that is beyond me:) ) and we got to Feb. 24, 2004, and the kids were playing and everything was happy. But what the video does not show is that just 6 hours later is when I had my stroke. And then it pops to March 1, and Thom is feeding the kids breakfast and they are getting ready to come up to the hospital and see me, but since they cannot see me, Thom is asking them what they want to bring to me, Kaiden of course says flowers (he is famous for bringing his mommy flowers), but Thom says no, they do not allow flowers where she is at, they had already sent up pictures of them, so they were thinking of what else they could take up. Kaiden says how about a song, so he sings me his song (You are My Sunshine, which I used to sing to him every night at bedtime). And then I guess Thom brought the video up to show it to me, I do not remember this, but I saw the video today. And it meant so much to me.

But it struck me so hard when I saw myself playing with my kids just hours before my life changed forever. It struck me how life can be cruising along just perfect and wonderful, and then BAM, your life can come to a screeching halt, and nothing will be as it was before. This changed my life immediately following my stroke, but in the 3 1/2 years since it has slowly slipped away. But tonight reminded me how fragile life really is. And I have so many questions, am I loving enough? Am I treating my family right? Will my children have good memories of me if I died tonight? am I doing all that God has for me? and the list goes on and on, and it is traumatizing me!

So that is all I have. Just live every moment as if it were your last, and thank God when you wake up to a new day! And Life is too short for drama and petty things, so kiss slowly, laugh insanely, love truly and forgive quickly.

CHRISTMAS PARTY

Well it is finally over!! We had a big 'family Christmas party' on Friday night. It was at our house, which I am still trying unpacked and organize. We had about 20 children and their parents attend. We made gingerbread houses, ornaments, read stories, sang Christmas songs, had lots of snacks, and had a special guest appearance! It was fun, but a HUGE mess the next morning:) The kids had a blast, so that is all that really matters, isn't it?:) What fun! But now I am looking forward to life calming down a little, things have been so busy and hectic around here trying to shop and make sure we get everything done as well as squeeze in all the parties:) Oh and the Christmas plays. We have been practicing one for our old church, (I know our OLD church, but I guess when God calls you to do something it does not matter where it is at huh?).

We are performing 'Christmas Shoes' you know the one where the mom dies of cancer? And her son gets her these shoes the night before she dies and changes one mans life forever? Yeah it is going to be good, but we have been practicing SOO much! I will be so glad when it is over. I am playing the dying mom, Thom is my husband and Kaiden is the little boy and Rylie is his little sister. It is really cute, but VERY emotional, it hits my family so close to home, because of my aneurysm issue. And we cry alot:) We are performing on Saturday night, and will try to get pictures posted, if I can, but being as how I am in it, I am not sure I can get them, but I will try to get my camera to a friend who will be there.

Ramble, ramble:) Just wanted to give you pictures of our party:)

MY POOR POOH BEAR

Well my poor little Pooh Bear has been real sick for the past 2 months, over 2 months actually. I have been to doctor after doctor with him, and trips to the ER and Instacares. He has had fevers around 104 and numerous double ear infections. After medication after medication and nothing working, I FINALLY got him in to see his pediatrician (see, he is so good, and popular, and WAY busy, that it takes months to get into him). And his pediatrician was so mad, he can not believe everything that has gone on the past two months. And he made me promise never to let this happen to him again, if need be call his office and demand to speak to him or get a message to him, so he can take care of the kids for me. So his ears are SO BAD, he has 'glue ear'(a jello-y like substance has developed in his ear) now that he is on this really strong antibiotic and the doctor says that if they are not cleared up by the day after Christmas(which he already scheduled me and appointment for) then we would schedule him for surgery. Now Nick had tubes put in his ears twice, but Will is so much smaller, he will only be 9 months old. I am stressed out about it. But all the doctors have been telling me for 2 months now that he cannot hear due to these infections(which I knew), but they had also told me that it will permanently affect his hearing(he is already struggling). But his pediatrician told me that we have caught it and will have it fixed early enough that it WILL NOT affect his long term hearing and he is still young enough that he will be able to rebound from this. THANK THE LORD!!!!!!!!! So we have had a really rough few weeks, but I think we are on the upward swing of things:)

A TRIP TO KIDDIE KANDIDS

William's 9 month picture


Rylie Noel's 5 year picture


My Beautiful Princesses


My Precious boys


My Beautiful children, I love them so much!!!:)

SCHOOL WOES

Well I did it:( I failed:( The kids started back to school today. The homeschooling has ended. But I do feel really good about this decision. Kaiden and Makayla both wanted to go back to school. Kaiden has been struggling since we moved because he left all his friends behind, and he has been real lonely. And Makayla has just hit a brick wall, and I have just been unable to break it down. So after a lot of struggling, I finally made the decision to put the kids back in school. Today is there first day back. And they were both really excited! So I am sure all is going well, and I can't wait for them to get home so I can talk to them about it:)