A White Christmas

The first few weeks of December were pretty uneventful.  I already had Christmas presents bought, wrapped, and in the mail so I was ready for Christmas.  We just did our school and work thing and waited excitedly for Christmas break to arrive so we could relax at home together and enjoy the Christmas holiday.

One exciting thing that happened was a fire at my school in my gym!  I was driving to school when I got a call that said, "Because of a fire in your school gym please go straight to the church across from the school." We got the all clear from the fire marshall that students could return to their classrooms but we could not use the gym.  The fire was not very big, started by a student, caught early and extinguished by our school Janitor but the smoke and the smell was bad enough I couldn't use the gym for PE till the next Monday so it had the weekend to air out.  Bummer but I had Health lessons ready so I just went around to all the classrooms.  It worked out and the students were so good through it all.  On the first Monday of our break Memphis and Kayzee were already driving me crazy bouncing off the walls so I decided to go let them run around my school gym.  Good thing I did.  The ceiling in my PE office was leaking from the roof and the janitor was there so good thing I caught it early and didn't come back to school two weeks later with water damage.  Fun times!

I am having an identity crisis.  I have now officially lived in Utah longer than I have lived in California.  Sad day when I realized that fact.  But I grew up in California from age 4-18 so I will always claim Cali.  BUT one thing I LOVE about Utah and always wanted growing up was a white snow filled Christmas.  Christmas is just that much more complete with snow on the ground.  At least for me.  This year we have had plenty of snow for a few weeks and I have loved it.  I don't even mind driving in it.  Memphis and Kayzee have loved it too.  We have built snowmen and tunnels and slides and have gone sledding have been on many 4-wheeler rides pulling a sled behind it.  It has been fun.  Here are some pictures of our snow filled fun.

Memphis digging his way through a snow tunnel

I have found a new love of shoveling snow.  Seriously I love doing it.  I won't let Danny do it and I have gotten to shovel our driveway and walkway 4 times now.  NO! I will not come shovel your driveway…only mine;)

 Sled and 4 wheeler rides!  You can't see it but Memphis has the biggest grin on his face.  He loves going fast on that sled behind daddy:)

Kayzee wouldn't go on the sled alone so Danny convinced me to go with her.  It was so much fun:)  I was actually surprised that little plastic sled didn't break once Danny had to start pulling all 3 of us.  AWESOME!

 Building a snowman and a slide in our backyard

The Sunday before Christmas I had to dress up Memphis and Kayzee in the Christmas outfits they got last year from my mom.  It was great they still fit a whole year later.  Aren't they the cutest brother and sister ever?  I think so;)

 Awww….

And while I am on their cute brotherness and sisterness here is another picture I caught of these two walking together holding hands.  They really do love each other and play really well together.  Best friends forever!

Here is Kayzee's letter to Santa this year.  Memphis wouldn't do one but this is what Kayzee said…

Dear Santa,

I want a reindeer, a princess doll, a snowman, cute dresses, snowflakes, make-up, princess book and a fairy.  I would like it if my family could get presents too because I love my mommy, daddy, and brother. 

Love, Kayzee

Awwww…so sweet Kayzee and so thoughtful!  We love you too.

Now on to Christmas!

Christmas Eve Danny had to work but he got off work early so we went outside to play in the snow while the sun was still up.  Then we had our traditional dinner by candlelight (I grew up doing this) and read a picture book about the birth of Christ and the true meaning of Christmas.  I also grew up opening up one gift from my Grandma and Grandpa Astle on Christmas Eve so we have continued that tradition because they are now sending Memphis and Kayzee (their great-grandchildren) gifts.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Astle!!!  We love you.  The gift is pjs so it is perfect for Christmas Eve.  Memphis and Kayzee ran up to change into their new pjs and then we all watched the cartoon of How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  Classic.  

This picture is our candlelit dinner but the flash doesn't help the whole scene.  My kids think it is so cool eating in the dark with a few candles.  Kayzee started screaming that her straw was hot and oops, her straw was melting over the heat from a candle.  

 Cute new pjs!

 Kayzee had a fight with the corner of the kitchen table and got a pretty purple yellow bruise on her eyelid.  Fun memories made tonight!

Christmas morning the kids woke up and came and climbed in bed with us.  We watched some Christmas cartoons and ate yummy homemade cinnamon rolls in bed.  Danny had made them the night before so it was perfect.  Finally we made our way downstairs around 7:30am to find that Santa had come.  Thanks to everyone especially our families who sent gifts for our Christmas.  We love you parents and wish we lived closer.  We spend Christmas day in our pjs playing with our gifts and watching our new movies.  What a great family filled day.

Mine and Danny's gifts

 Memphis' presents

 Kayzee's presents

 Memphis eating a cinnamon roll…yummy!

Memphis was spoiled as usual.  He was so excited to get all the fun Jake and the Neverland pirate stuff to go with his ship he got for his birthday. Thanks mom!

Kayzee was spoiled too.  She is obsessed with princesses so she was excited to get princess dress-up stuff.  Thanks mom.  Also that talking Princess Sophia goes with her everywhere.

 Danny has a lot to read now.

 Memphis and his new scooter.  There is too much ice and snow still outside so I have taken him to my school gym to ride his scooter around.  He loves it.

 I have a lot to read now too!  So excited.  Thanks mom and dad Thorpe!

 Beautiful Angel Kayzee.  One new dress-up dress.  I was so nice and let her wear it to church today but just the dress of course.

 Cinderella dress!

 The dress lights up!

Memphis' new tent.  He has been so jealous of Kayzee's so he is glad to have one of his own that doesn't have princesses all over it;)

 Triple track twister=AWESOMENESS (according to Memphis)

 Loves crashing the cars

 Our new kitchen aid attachment holder…thanks mom and dad Royer!

MERRY CHRISTMAS to you all and we hope you have a wonderful NEW YEAR!

Thankful November

We have a lot to be thankful for this November.  We were sad we couldn't afford the gas to go anywhere to be with any of our family for Thanksgiving this year but we are so thankful for our families.  We love and miss you always!

We were very thankful to have a lot of days of beautiful sunny warm weather.  We played outside a lot and tried to be active after school every day.  We went and played at different parks all over Utah county.  We went to a pond and fed ducks and rolled down the hills.  We also went on a lot of walks and bike rides.  On the days the weather was too cold we tried to be active indoors.  We played dancing wii games and we also played running hide and seek.  We had to hide within 10 seconds and the person who was it had to run and find everyone.  It was fun!  Thank you November weather for being so nice:)

If you couldn't tell I was trying to be active this month.  At school I got the idea to do a Just Dance day with all my PE classes.  I worked with my friend the music teacher at my school and we downloaded a bunch of Just Dance videos from youtube.  We then projected them on the big screen in the gym.  We combined PE and music classes and we Just Danced ALL DAY!  It took 3 days to make sure every student in our school got a chance to do Just Dance.  Boy was I tired after dancing all 3 days.  But we had so much fun and the students loved it.  Some of the teachers came and danced with us and word got out so even some parents stopped by and danced with their kids.  I LOVE MY JOB and I am thankful for it.

After my active month I am proud to say I lost 7 pounds total this month.  I was worried about the week of Thanksgiving but I actually lost 3 of the 7 pounds this week!  BAM Take that Thanksgiving dinner and desserts!  To date I have officially lost 50 pounds since I was pregnant with Kayzee.  I am down 4 pant sizes and 1 ring size.  My wedding ring is too big;)  I am now only 30 pounds away from my goal of 80 pounds total weight loss.  I am so thankful for my health even though it has been a very rough year with all my health problems; I have come away fighting. 

We are very thankful for the riding lawn mower we got for FREE!  Danny has helped a coworker so much that he gave us the mower for free.  YAY!  It use to take us 2+ hours to mow our huge backyard so we are grateful for how much faster we get it done and we are not dying after ward;)  

Danny went elk hunting with his best friend and they got an elk.  Danny got half of it.  So now we have about 50 pounds of elk meat in our freezer.  We are so thankful for the meat that will last us all year.  We have yummy steaks and roasts for Sunday crock pot dinners.  

Memphis and Kayzee made thankful for trees at preschool and I had to share what they said...

*Memphis: my body, Jesus helping me not be scared, playgrounds, school, friends, teachers, mommy, shoes, food, helmets

*Kayzee: friends, mommy, daddy, markers, school, princesses, all my family 

I am so thankful for my kids.  I love them so much.  They always cheer me up and we have fun together every day.  I found a new way to get my kids to clean their rooms and help around the house.  We love to have dance parties and I have found that if music is playing we have fun dancing and cleaning the house as well:)  I am sneaky but it makes cleaning fun so the kids are more willing to help me!

Me: "Kids, go clean your rooms."

Kids: "No!" (whining and crying)

Me: "Let's go have a dance party in your rooms!"

Kids: "Ya!…wait there is no room because it's messy we better hurry and clean them."

(I have never seen them clean so fast!)

We are thankful for our house and all we have.  We love our little family of four:)

Thanksgiving this year felt really weird because it was only the four of us but it was very relaxing and fun and we had plenty of yummy food.  I have always been surrounded by lots of family and we have always traveled but I am thankful to have been able to sleep in my own bed and to have the chance to relax and have fun with my little family. 

This was the first time I have ever made Thanksgiving dinner and it turned out really well.  My mom gave me the idea to buy a bone-in turkey breast instead of a whole turkey.  It was perfect.  Not too much for just the four of us and it was a lot cheaper.  The food was yummy and I finally had a reason to use the really nice china I inherited from my grandma Thorpe.  Made the dinner that much more special to remember our families by.   

On black Friday we did not do any shopping.  I use to have to work it when I worked in retail and I hated the madness and I hate lines and crowds anyway so I will not shop it.  We decided to go out and have some fun as a family instead.  We found some coupons for bowling and for one of our favorite restaurants so out we went.  And we wanted to beat the crowds so we went early.  We first went bowling.  We got there right when they opened and had the place to ourselves.  Memphis did really well this time.  We also played some arcade games.  By the time we were leaving the bowling alley the line was out the door and all the lanes were full.  Crazy!  We also went to Pizza Pie Cafe for lunch.  Got there right when they opened so the pizza was fresh and they made whatever we wanted.  YUM!  We then went home and had a Lord of the Rings marathon and played Guitar Hero.  I am thankful for my family and all that we are able to do.

What a great thankful month!  Happy Holidays everyone.  Christmas will soon be here:)