Friday December 22

Just sitting here, waiting for Cassi's friends to be picked up.

Also waiting for Madi to get home from playing games with friends.

Today the kids did a good job getting chores done.

I got to go to the DR office.

My tooth has been really hurting again.

But this time, I went the DR route in stead of the dentist route.....since we aren't really sure my tooth was ever the problem last time :(

Anyway, I am glad I went to the DR.

Apparently I have large polyps in my sinuses.......causing my sinus infections.

She prescribed me some prednisone to hopefully shrink the polyps.

Then some antibiotics to get the infection gone.

And also a nasal steroid to use every day, that will help keep the polyps small.

No fun

She suggested I go to an ENT to see how it looks deeper inside.

She can only see the first polyp in each nostril, but she assumes there are many more behind it.

So much fun......

But really, I am so glad that I didn't have to get more tooth work done.

It frustrates me to think that we probably didn't have to do the very expensive root canal retreat last July.

But, what can ya do :(

Oh well.

This evening, Cassi had her friends come over.

Then Vern invited us to go see the Caldwell lights.

So Madi, Elsie, Porter and I joined her and max and graham.

It was so fun and we got SNOW!

Which made it beautiful and perfect!

Now if the snow can just stick around for just a few more days it will feel more like Christmas!!!!!

Thursday December 21

I got a lot done today.

Lots checked off the to-do list.

All I have left is wrapping gifts!!!!!

And clean up the tornado in the house :)

I am feeling a lot less stressed now.

Got Elsie's class party done and all went great :)

Today was the kids last day of school for the year.

They are excited that Christmas is in just a few days!!!!!!

I think we are all pretty excited!

Wednesday December 20

Yay!

Another thing checked off my list!!!!!!

But first, I worked in the office this morning.

Then I helped in art smart for Porter's class.

Got home and had lunch with Dad and then he came with me to go set up for the YW/YM activity.

We got that set up and then went to the store to get Cinnamon rolls for tonight and also get the Christmas dinner stuff that he is taking to the station for his next shift.

Got home and then it was time for scouts and family dinner (dad cooked us chicken cordon bleu!)

I left early to get to the church to make copies and get the rest of the stuff set up.

Then the activity started.

We had 9 tables et up with supplies for the houses.

The kids had to do some kind of service at each table to get the supplies to decorate.

We tied a fleece blanket to donate, we wrote letters to he missionaries, gave a sincere compliment to someone, wrapped kids gifts for a mom in the ward, etc.

I had lots of kids come and tell me they had fun, and I don't always get that, so I think it went over well.

We also did a raffle at the end and kids got to take them home :)

It was a fun night!!!!

Tuesday December 19

Another packed full day!

After going to the gym, I got some more Christmas stuff done.

Dad and I made a run to Costco to pick up a cheesecake for this evening.

I picked Elsie up from school for PT.

Then right after PT, Joanne came over for speech therapy.

Today was our last time seeing her.

She is done doing home visits now, for sure.

She thought she would finish up a few months ago, but still wanted to continue working with Elsie, since she lives so close :)

And she just loves Elsie!

But she is realizing that things are just too cray with her son in high school and with her doing speech therapy online with schools in Pocatello.

I told her that it isn't the end!

We will see her around :)

11 years of seeing someone almost every week....sometimes twice a week!

They make a permanent little home in your heart :)

Then this evening we went and had dinner with the Morgan family.

Stacia made a wonderful Pork tenderloin.My sweet potato was a heart....so I had to take a picture of it :)

They were so generous with giving gifts to us!

She always spoils us!

Then we had a fun time playing in their hot tub.

It was a fun night....but also turned into another LATE night!!!!!

Monday December 18

Dad went and helped Drew pull one of their neighbors trees out.

Then when they were done with that, I met up with them all, and we went out to Costa Vida for lunch.

It was a fun time :)

Then we both ran separate errands.

But he called me from D&B to come and pick him up.

He was losing his vision and had a migraine starting :(

I brought him home and he went to bed and slept for a few hours.

He woke up feeling a bit better, but migraines take a lot out of him.

When Madi got home, I had her take me to D&B to pick up the car we left there.

For Family Home Evening tonight we took treats to our neighbors on the street.

Christmas is coming really quickly!!!!!!!

Sunday December 17 (add pictures)

I hate doing this....because I know how unreliable I am....

But it is late and so I am gonna post the pictures from today, later.

Church was great today.

The girls sang with the choir in sacrament meeting.

I love that they sing in the choir together.

Elsie is always up there with Sierra holding the music for her.

It warms my heart, and warms the hearts of many others :)

Porter gave a talk in primary today and he did a great job.

His topic was 'Jesus Christ is the light and life of the world'.

He gave an example of doing the animal chores in the dark sometimes.

How the dark makes it hard to get the job done right.

And how using the flashlight helps him to see the things he needs to get done.

And that is what Christ is like, he helps shine light so we can make it through the hard times.

He did so good :)

He is working on the TH sound and so I highlighted all the TH's and it really helped him to remember where to put his tongue to make the sound.

He did great and looked so cute :)

Too bad I didn't grab a picture of him!!!!!!!!!!!

After church I had a meeting with the YW/YM class presidencies to plan out the combined activities for next year.

When I came home, Dad had made dinner.

Right after dinner, we hopped in the car and went to our neighbors music concert.

It is a music group of ladies and they asked Cassi to be an opening act.....

She has been practicing Pentatonix 'That's what Christmas is to me'.

Madi recorded it.....I will need to get it from her and post it here!!!!!!

So we got home a little late.

Dad is so tired...he has been working so much.

So I need to get him to bed!!!!!!

Saturday December 16

The first thing the little ones did when they woke up, was get bundled up and go out in the snow!!!!

They were so excited about it!

Then this after noon we had some fun visitors.

Andy and Katie and their kiddos were driving through on the way to Utah and stopped by to eat and play for a bit :)

It was so fun to see them!

They are in the process of moving to Arizona!

So Andy drove Katie and the kids to Utah to Katie's moms house.

Andy will fly back and finish up his last week at work, then drive back to Utah Christmas Eve.

Then they will be there for a bit before moving on to Arizona.

Pretty exciting for them!

But totally bummed that we won't get visits from them anymore!!!!!!

Elise had a playdate earlier today with her friend Malia.

Cassi had a babysitting job this afternoon and Madi had one this evening.

And Port just played with friends all day.

I got more stuff done on my Christmas TO-DO list.

Yay!!!!

But I just remembered that Porter is supposed to give a talk in primary tomorrow......so I guess that is what I will go and do now.

Friday December 15

I got my hair cut today!!!!!!

I am excited about it and I am happy about how the cut turned out :)

A lady in my ward cut it for me.

A few months ago the RS had an activity where we got to auction for items. 

Well, I won a haircut from her!

So I finally used it up.

I got a lot of things marked off my list today.

A few days ago I got really stressed out about everything I still need to do....so I wrote it all down and assigned each thing a day.

So I only worry about the things that are on the assigned days :)

It has helped a lot to focus on only a few items each day instead of ALL of them every day!

I had a meeting with my Beehive advisers to finalize the stuff for Wednesday's activity.

That was a huge stress because I was able to delegate some stuff to them.

Hip hip hooray for delegation!!!!!!

I also worked on stuffing envelopes and getting addresses printed.

I love how the card turned out this year :)

Cassi and Madi both went babysitting tonight.

When Cassi came home she let us know it was snowing!!!!!!

The little ones and I were watching ELF while I stuffed envelopes :)

I am still waiting on Madi to get home.

Should be here soon.

The people who she sat for are following her home to make sure she gets home safe in this snow.

How sweet of them to do that :)

The kids are really hoping to wake up to some major snow in the morning!!!!!

Thursday December 14

We were going to go on a date today, since we don't get a weekend date because he works Friday and Saturday this week.

We went to the gym first and got a good workout.

Then the movie we were gonna go to wouldn't get us back home in time to pick up the kids.

So we decided to just get a Redbox and watch here at home.

After the movie Brent helped me with a huge project I have been putting off!

I needed to make 5 life-size cardboard gingerbread houses for next weeks activity.

It was a big task.....and I tend to procrastinate things like this......

But thankfully, with his help, it wasn't so bad.

They turned out pretty cute :)

Then this evening we all went out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse.

It was a really nice evening with everyone being nice and teasing fun without making each other mad!

Elsie loved sitting by the Buffalo, which she named Tex.

We counted this as Porter's birthday dinner, since we never went out for his birthday.

So they did the Happy Birthday 'Yee Haw' for him :)

Wednesday December 13

Okay....I feel like the holiday stress has finally hit me today!!!!!

I sat down to write my to-do list of all the things I need to get done over the next week and 1/2.......and it's pretty dang long!

 Today, Dad and I went and did a return to Old Navy and then made a stop at Hobby Lobby.

Got home and started working on some of those list items.

Then we had to run to Walmart to get stuff for another thing on the list.

So a few things got crossed off the long list today, so that is good.

Tonight we had YW combined.

We did a gift exchange.

I think the girls all had a fun time :)

One of the big items on my list if planning and executing next weeks YW/YM combined activity.

Hopefully I can spend some time on that tomorrow!

After YW, we got in the car and went and delivered our 12 Days Nativity.

Porter and Cassi were our runners......and they got caught!!!!!

But it's okay, the family doesn't know our kids, so I don't think it really spoiled anything :)