Happy New Year!

For New Year's Eve, we had J.C. and Mom & Dad Smullin with us.

We made the plan for the night; dinner, games, snacks, games, snacks, snacks, snacks and watch the ball drop with Dick Clark at midnight.

I made something new, Peanut Clusters (with crushed potato chips for that salty/sweet thing).

And we had something old, (or should I say traditional) a cheese ball or "Ball Cheese" as Rylee calls it.

We also purchased some firework poppers for when the ball dropped and the clock struck midnight.

We started the evening with a turkey dinner (Thanks for the turkey donation Clawson's. It was yummy!)

Then the gaming and snacking commenced. First up was "Apples to Apples". Much coercion and smack talking went on....all friendly, of course. Taylee was the stealthy, silent type winner, while J.C. was the loud, in-your-face LOOSER. (Just teasing you J.C.!) Then it was on to UNO...all the while snacking away.

When it was a few minutes til, we went upstairs to watch the New York ball drop. Dick Clark was there (along with Ryan Seacrest) to welcome in 2010.

10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1.....HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I'm excited to see what this year brings.

The Christmas Post

Ok, here's the Christmas post...

On Christmas Eve, we gathered at our house for a party with my dad. We had a white elephant gift exchange, snacked and played a game.

We also opened gifts from Grandpa Waite. Grandpa gave us a neat gift. He gave us "Our Family Home Evening Journal". It's a notebook with pages in it to fill out as we have our FHE's. Documentation that may become precious in the years to come.

Christmas morning, Jason and I woke up around 7:00am. We got the orange juice mixed up and the sweet rolls baked and then headed upstairs. We thought we'd find the kids waiting to pounce. Instead we found this......
sleepy bedheads!
We were shocked. We had to turn on the light and wake everyone up from their "visions of sugarplums". Then we were told the rest of the story.... Treyson awoke around 4am, woke everyone else up and then was told to go back to sleep, cuz mom and dad would NOT want to start the day that early. (They were totally right about that.)

The kids had slept together in the family room. We had our traditional sweet rolls, orange juice and milk for breakfast.

"Hmmmm, wonder what Santa brought????"

Then it was time for the traditional line-up... youngest to oldest. (Each year the older girls try to convince us to start a new tradition... oldest to youngest. They haven't convinced us yet.)

Treyson had a Bakugan-fest...everything Bakugan.

Rylee got the Nintendo D.S. she was wanting..... lucky.

Abree got her "D.S." a.k.a. V-Smile handheld game system.

Taylee said she was 100% POSITIVE that she would get a Nintendo D.S. from Santa.... she was right. How was she so "100% POSITIVE"???

Jason got BSU attire from Santa.... and some Utah Jazz (wooden) candy canes.

The "Aftermath".

I received a new camera from Santa, that I'm still working on figuring out. (The instructions were printed in a foreign language, so even if I wanted to read them I couldn't.)

In the evening, we went to my mom's house to celebrate and open presents. Each family received emergency preparedness items to put in our 72-hour kits from mom and the grand kids got cool kit type gifts. Treyson's was a model car kit and Abree's was a clothespin doll kit.

Christmas was a wonderful day of celebration and family.

Merry Birthday and a Happy Christmas to Jaime!

Jaime's birthday is on Christmas Eve. She usually doesn't get to spend time with friends on her birthday, because of the holiday and travel.

This year, Marianne and I wanted to start a new tradition. We decided to take Jaime to breakfast on her actual birthday!

After considering the usuals, we finally decided to try something new, "The Egg Factory". The restaurant it's self was nothing fancy, but had a variety of menu items that were reasonably priced.

Marianne and I decided on the "Oatmeal Cookie" pancakes, while Jaime opted for the good ol' standby, Buttermilk pancakes.

Avery (Jaime's daughter) decided to join us, leaving the boys at home. She chose the french toast sticks and mommy's lap.

The restaurant was busy and seemed to be a popular place to dine. As we left, several parties were waiting at the door to be seated. I think they were happy to see us FINALLY leaving.

If you have "The Egg Factory" near you, I'd recommend trying it.

It's yummy!

Krissi

***This post is over due. I should have posted this several weeks ago. ***

I had BIG plans for us.... plans of crafting and making gifts 24/7... or at least most of the hours of the day.

My good friend Krissi (from Post Falls, Id) came to visit the first week in December and got to stay for a WHOLE week! ---We take turns going to see one another. We usually get to see each other about twice a year. Once at her house, once at mine. Such a fun, special treat our husband's and families are so sweet to endure.

We shopped a little, decorated a 13 year old's locker and bedroom, tried to go to lunch at "The Melting Pot" (but ended up going to dinner, when they were actually open), attended a family Christmas party, made yummy Christmas treat pretzels (of 2 varieties), taught pre-school, babysat, read a little, played a lot, relaxed, visited and actually DID get around to making a few Christmas gifts. ---Krissi took home 30+ cute bookmarks for teacher/friend/neighbor -type gifts!

This was my first time at "The Melting Pot". It was yummy and oh so very expensive. :)

Here we're painting canvases to go in the windows of Rylee's room.
These were extra yummy pretzels. Krissi cooked the carmel from scratch (a process that took WAY more time and patience than I have for cooking) which is why Krissi did it.
After the carmel started to set, we cut it in strips, then took the carmel and wrapped it around a pretzel. Next we dipped it in chocolate, then drizzled white chocolate on top for decoration.
Do they remind you of corn dogs.... or cat tails??? They tasted much better I assure you.

These were the second pretzel treats we made... I've seen them referred to as "bellybuttons". Bellybuttons are my kind of treat.... quick and easy.

Arrange the pretzels on a cookie sheet, plop a Hershey kiss in the middle of each one, put in a 200 degree oven for approximately 5-7 minutes, then take them out and press an M&M into the top of the kiss. Let cool.

Voila! A wonderful combination of salty and sweet. It's hard to eat just one. If you start, it's very hard to stop.... not that I would know. :)

Verdict: Second pretzel treat takes WAY less time/effort to make, almost equally yummy.

During the week, I felt that I wasn't being "productive" enough... that we weren't accomplishing what we set out to do. Now as I look back on the week, I see it differently..... many things accomplished, lots of fun had and many memories made.

Thanks for a wonderful week Krissi! And thank you Steve and Goodmansen Family for letting me take your wife and mommy for a week.

Krispy Kreme with Cousins

During the time J.C. (Jason's youngest brother) was working in the Boise area, his family came up to visit for a few days. J.C. and Julia have 4 cute boys ranging in age from 7 to 1 1/2. It was fun for Treyson to finally have some balance in the boy to girl ratio, in the house. Lots of time was spent with cars, bad guys and superheros.

For FHE that week, we went to Krispy Kreme. The "HOT" sign was on when we pulled in, but we were afraid that when they saw us coming they would turn it off and deny us a free doughnut. We were lucky to catch the last of the doughnut production of the night AND get our 12 free doughnuts!.... along with another dozen that we purchased. :)

Cool Cameron
Awesome Adam

Marvelous Matthew

J...J...J...Joshua!

(Sorry couldn't come up with a good adjective starting with J.)

The whole crazy cousin gang.

We were so glad to have them come visit. The kids shared lots of fun cousin memories.... and I got some good scrapbooking time in with Julia . :)

12 Days of Christmas

As a gift to my primary class this year, I gave them the 12 Days of Christmas. A fun way to count down to Christmas and remember the Savior during the season.

The original idea was to use a real nativity set and leave a new piece on the doorstep each night, along with a poem about the piece. I knew that wouldn't work for me since I have 12 kids in my class.... too much money and too much delivery time.

So I did the affordable thing. I printed off this cute nativity set onto cardstock, cut them out and put a magnet on the back (so it could be displayed on a refrigerator or magnet board.)
Then I wrapped each piece individually, with it's corresponding poem and numbered them in the order they were to be opened. I put them into a large envelope and wrapped the envelope with wrapping paper, so it felt like a "real" Christmas gift. (I secretly hoped they weren't disappointed when they opened it.)

I've had several mother reports that the kids DID like it and are enjoying opening a new piece each night. Whew. Maybe it's the mom's being nice... or maybe they really are getting into the "reason for the season".

Merry Christmas!!!