Christmas Eve...

is my favorite day of the year. I LOVE it. Way more than Christmas Day.

I remember Christmas Eves' from a long, long time ago. Going to my Great-Grandma Staheli's house to play our little pipe chimes, eat food and having a little performance or two. Then going to my Grandpa Staheli's house and doing the same thing where my cousin and I always had some awesome performance going on and now to my Grandma Staheli's for soup, stories, the right-left game, and more recently the ugly sweater contest.

I have never been able to sleep on Christmas Eve in anticipation of what Santa was going to bring me. I will admit, up until recently (and when I say recently I mean this year j/k) I honestly loved getting more than giving! I would make sure I had plenty of snacks in my room to keep myself full when I was up at 3:00 AM hanging out waiting for 7:00 to come around... waking my siblings up to see if they were still up... They never were, but they always acted like they did... I LOVE it. Love love it!

I love wrapping that day, I love baking that day, and I actually love going to the stores that day. I must take after my Grandpa on that. Either way... I love it.

THIS year, we went to the Osborn's house for the party and that is exactly what it was! My Gma made this awesome cheesy potato soup (Grandma, I still need the recipe), eggnog for Brent, Gavin splitting his chin open, the sweet story that my Grandma Deni read, the awesome right-left presents we got, and mostly my ROCKING sweater. My sister thinks she won, but who wouldn't win when their sweater actually LIGHTS up. Thats right. My sweater had lights! That I could turn on and off whenever I wanted. It was awesome if I do say so myself. And I do. I gave the gift up to my sister so she wouldn't feel bad. But we all know that my sweater was the true winner. Although, my dad's shirt was great as well. But he won in the men's category!

Oh yeah, I should also blog about my kids. They loved it. I didn't see Kenna most of the night because she was off "performing" with Camryn somewhere and Gavin just hung around Brent most of the night! Good times. Later came the usual pajamas and slippers, getting the cookies ready for Santa (he loves snickerdoodles, but received chocolate chip ones instead) and got the kids to bed! This year Brent and I decided not to do anything for each other and all I can say is I LOVED IT! It was great just focusing on the kids and everyone else and not each other and what we want. I hope that continues... OK- WOW... long post! Here are pics of the night.

Hanging in their new jammies

You can't see my lights, but yeah my sister TOTALLY won the contest.

Aren't they cute!?

Not so happy...

Such the little poser.

A mothers worst nightmare!

Makenna had her semi annual dance recital on Friday and she did a great, great job! I laughed almost the entire time from her facial expressions alone. I believe she is the youngest in her class, so she was on the very end even though she did freaking AMAZING! Her class performed after intermission, so Brent, Gavs, and my parental unit decided to come late. I decided to go early so she could watch Camryn dance. Big mistake. Although Camryn did a great job, I swear I had a 1 1/2 year old right after she was done. Long story short. Makenna threw THE BIGGEST FIT ever. And I mean, EVER. We were stuck in the middle of the row, and it started out by her not being able to see, and then me covering her mouth to keep her quiet, and then her make-up coming off and it just escalated from there. She was trying to hit, yelling "MEAN MOMMY!", throwing elbows, you name it, she was doing it. To top it all off after I had tried to grab all of our crap, she goes running off towards the stage (mind you, the performers are dancing to a SLOW, QUIET song) and she is tromping her way up to the stage. I walked out the other way and she finally came up the right way, where I tried with ever fiber of my being to not beat her. And I mean that so lovingly. She screamed and cried for another 20 minutes and then she was fine. And did the cutest dance ever. Oh, I love her dearly. The End.

Yes, her costume is only half a tu-tu and ugly. (She is wearing it the right way)

Camryn's face is PRICELESS!

THIRTY.

Brent is finally on top of the hill. And what I mean by that, he is now THIRTY! He is getting so freaking old.... unless you are reading this and older than thirty, and then he is super young! He has had a few gray hairs, can almost grow a full beard, and is now acting the mature age of 15! We are getting closer and closer to his real age! Maybe by the time he is 100 he will act his true age. His family is known for lasting a long time, so he will probably make it that long, unless the world ends and he goes to hell. Then he won't.

Anyway, I am glad that he is thirty and I am not. I am glad I still have a few years until I am thirty. But this post isn't about me. It is about my man. I hope you had an awesome birthday B! How could you not?! You got to spend it with me!!! And I wasn't even ornery! :) Happy Birthday to you! Thank you for working so hard so that I could buy you birthday presents. Thank you for being sucha great dad to the kiddos. They love you so much. So do I. Peace out old man!

Ariel

It is 10:11 AM.
I have had 1/2 a Diet Pepsi already and haven't even brushed my teeth.
I don't even have a bra on yet!
My kids look white trash with their snotty noses and half-nakedness.
My living room is a disaster, and Kenna wants to play Little Mermaid.
So what shall we do?!
Be responsible, clean up, shower and get ready for the day?
Or should we not, "enjoy" the mess, so I can play Ursula, Eric, Max and King Triton
while Makenna is the beautiful Ariel?!
Who can resist her bright orange wedding veil?!
And Gavs, he is going to marry us!
Maybe by 5:00 we will be dressed.
If not. Oh well...

My talented cousin....

My talented, beautiful cousin McKenzi took these pictures of the kids for me the other day! It wasn't too bad actually. I opted out for no family photo this year, due to the fact thatI didn't want to deal with the stress of having all of us ready and trying to smile. Plus, Brent and I really haven't "grown up" all that much! Anyway, I didn't end up beating them so I consider the shoot a success! Here are some pics of my little monsters. Very adorable little monsters....

UGH.

SO! It has been a couple of weeks since I have updated everyone on my wonderful, unstressful, blissful life. I know that everyone has been DYING! and when I say dying, I mean stalking me, like every twenty minutes just to see if I have updated it. Well, wait no longer!!! I am here to blog my little heart out because frankly, I can!

The first sentence of my blog was supposed to be sarcastic (if you didn't get it in the tone I was using) but really, life hasn't been all that bad lately! Brent is home more (I still haven't decided if it is a good thing or not yet), the kids are sleeping again. Gavin stays in his new bed for the most part except for waking up at seven freaking o'clock in the morning, and I don't have to work. So I seriously can't complain about my life. I could complain about how many times a day I have had to vacuum recently in regards to smashed fruit loops, fruity pebbles, Christmas tree remains and every day grub, but really- I don't want to bore you and make your head hit the keyboard from falling asleep!

OK, enough of my ramblings. First on the list! (drumroll). Soccer.

Makenna FINALLY had her last soccer game on Saturday the 21st. Now, don't get me wrong. It was cute and fun to watch her play, but towards the end of the season, there was whining and crying that went along with it. And unfortunately, I am not that patient of a mom so I was threating Santa and everything under the sun to get her out there. Once she got out there, she ran (watching her shadow the entire time) and would sometimes chase the ball. She was really good however when she did get the ball. Her all-time highest score was FIVE goals. Three for her team and two for the other. We were just proud of her even though she is a little bit directionally challenged. :) She got a KICKIN' (get it KICKS soccer? oh never mind) trophy that she loves and places randomly throughout the house. The soccer was definitely worth the investment. FYI...

Gavin. Dear sweet Gavin. Or should I say, used to be sweet Gavin. I don't know what has gotten into him lately (well, I'm sure it has a lot to do with his father and the fact that he is a little boy) but man this kid goes. And goes and goes and goes.... and then just does naughty things for the heck of it. And then sounds so dang adorable when he says "sorry" after jumping on Makenna's head or throwing all of his food or something like that. And it is even cuter when he runs to the naughty chair as he laughs the whole way. I am not sure what kind of punishment is going to work for the kid. I don't think beating will even work. I will figure it out. He does really well with his accidents and stuff so I can't complaing too much. Even when he comes in at seven in the morning (I know that doesn't sound early to a lot of people, HEATHER) but I find that my best beauty rest is between 5:00 AM and 9:00 AM. Now, really, I don't sleep in the late. Just look at my broken out face and you will believe me! ANYWAY! The other night, I mean morning, Gavin came in around 7:15 and Brent lifted him in bed with us so we could turn on the TV (aren't we awesome parents!) and he decided to lay on my head and look at me and say "HELLO!" It was hilarious. Even that early in the morning. The only frustrating this was, I had FIFTEEN more minutes until my alarm went off for church. I would have pushed the snooze button twice and then been up. Now you wonder why we barely make it to church on time! Anyway, Gavs is awesome and cute and naughty. We love him though.

Thanksgiving rocked. We ate diner at my Grandma Hukill's three nights in a row which made it even better! Mexican on Wed., Thanksgiving fixings on Thursday, and the turky noodle gravy over potatoes on Friday (my fave). The kids were good. There were only 26 of us there, so it was a smaller crowd than normal. Dessert was the best though! She makes the best pies ever. I'm not even that much of a pie person, but they were delish. We went over to Brent's aunts house for more dessert and stuffed our faces there! It was a good day.

Our lights are up (thank you B), the tree is decorated (thanks Kenna) and now I just have to do the shopping (UGH). OK, thanks for indulging my thoughts... if you are still around to read them- if not, you probably have a nice checkered board forehead!

Big Boy....

Man, the past couple of weeks (since Daylight Savings) my lovely children have decided to take it upon themselves to wake up before everyone else in the neighborhood. And they are loud enough to probably wake up the neighborhood. Not the point though. Since the change my kids have hardly slept in their beds! We have a makeshift bed on the floor for Makenna and Gavin has been everywhere in the house. The couch, floor, extra mattress, our bed (that's right, MY BED!) and not his crib. They have been waking up in the middle of the night and it is driving me so crazy! Gavin wouldn't go in his crib for the life of him, so we decided to change it from his crib to a toddler bed. That lasted a whole 12 seconds before he was out and throwing his door open. We finally put him on the mattress on his floor and he slept. But sure enough he came wandering in my room about 3:00 AM... anyway, he finally has a big boy bed with a rail. He was excited until I turned the light off, and he scurried his little bum out of bed and out of his room.... FRUSTRATING! We now put his big boy bed together, got some bedding for it and now we are hoping he will stay in his bed!!! Please, for my own sanity! AHHH...

We will see how tonight goes. Either way, here he is in his new bed!

Bed #1
Current bed! Lets pray that he stays!

Pumpkin Time

I, along with Bonnie do not like Halloween. My reasons are a little bit more different than hers but still- don't like it at all! So on Halloween I thought I wouldn't deprive my kids from everything of Halloween so we painted pumpkins (our pumpkins were to small to carve). I didn't get a picture of the final product. Oh well, I'm a crappy mom.





Halloween night (or 5:00) Brent and I decided to take the kids trick-or-treating early because it was the only time that Brent could actually spend with the kids. We made it to four whole houses before Makenna got grounded from it. She got the candy and said "I don't like this kind!" And then threw the candy in the rocks/plants. I was MORTIFIED. I am so sorry Kelly again. I am raising a brat! Obviously she didn't understand that trick-or-treating isn't for her, but for her parents. Gavin loved it and ate all four pieces of candy before we got home... oh and the awesome sticky hands (thanks Dahls). I don't even have pictures of the kids (like I said, I'm a crappy mom), but Kenna decided to be Snow White again and Gavin didn't want to get out of his cowboy getup so he wore his church clothes he was wearing from the baptism and I stuck his boots and hat on and that was it...

Oh! And Brent is finally home again. He has sat tonight for an hour and it is driving him CA-RAY-ZEE!!! I love it. He even took his clothes off (TMI?!) and put on some shorts which is saying a lot! Welcome home babe!

Random Hats...

Gavin has been obsessed with hats lately... It must be a boy thing, but it is cute. Everything can be turned into a hat. Today it was a dirty muddy bucket that I didn't allow him to bring in the house. He is definitely becoming a little boy and getting into EVERTHING! He loves causing a ruckus and he is so cute, that I have to hide my smile so he doesn't think it is as cute as it really is!

Preschool Program

On Thursday, Makenna had her very first preschool program! It was so dang cute. They sang three songs: I'm a mean old witch (and I don't think they were singing it about me, but I'm not sure) Five Little Pumpkins, and Stirring Brew... she sang them pretty well for the most part. She loves going to preschool even though she says she doesn't feel good every time she wakes up. Her teacher rocks this world, the kids are great, and the learning is even better!

Right before school

The line-up

Makenna and her two cute boyfriends

Early morning conversation

It was my turn to do the pre-school carpool this morning and this is the conversation I heard. I was laughing my head off. And just so you know... Makenna wasn't in on this conversation. Just the boys in the car!

R to P: My dad is bigger than your dad.
P: My dad is bigger than your dad.
P: Your MOM is bigger than my mom! (no joke he said that)
R: My mom is bigger than your mom!
J: My mom has BIG arms!
J: My dad has bigger arms!
R: My dad is bigger than my mom.
R: My dad is BIG.
P: So is my dad.

I thought it was HILARIOUS.... and I didn't think kids actually had this sort of conversation! I guess I was wrong!

Martin Halloween Party

We had the annual Martin Halloween party this past Monday, and once again thanks to Gloria, Jill and Kengie it was a blast! I was assigned to bring one of the desserts and I thought they turned out pretty cute...


I decided for Brent and I that we weren't going to dress up this year. I wasn't really in the mood, plus I ran out of time and didn't know what we would be. So, I ended up being an ornery mom and Brent was Brent!!! The kids were cute though!

At the beginning of the month Makenna wanted to be Kate Hudson (thanks grandma!) but she wanted to wear Cinderella's dress.... then she changed her mind to Sleeping Beauty (which I didn't mind since she had the dress) and then she decided she wanted to be Ariel (which we didn't have). Luckily at the last minute she changed her mind once again (can you tell she is a girl?!) and finally decided to be Snow White (which thankfully we had the dress for).... Gavin told me he wanted to be a cowboy really bad, so we borrowed all of Bonnie's boys stuff (thanks Bon!) and he was set!

Our new addition...

I just found a real live mouse in the trash can sitting about ten inches from me. Just hanging out rustling the two pieces of paper in there. Lucky for me, my big strong husband came out to save it (or me)... I'm not scared of mice, but it sure startled me. And not only that, did you know that they can jump!? I about wet my pants when it started jumping, trying to get out of the can. Thank goodness it was in the office (which is on the side of the garage) and not actually in my house. For a second there, I thought I was back living at my parents house finding random mice in places. Brent wanted to squish it, but once he saw how "cute" it was, we decided to let him out in the wild (down the storm drain near our house). Hopefully I won't find one trying to make a nest in my hair tonight- could you imagine!?

Bored, random thoughts

This morning I turned on the computer and saw that Barack Obama had won the Nobel Peace Prize. I had no clue what the requirements were for the prize so I looked it up. If you don't know either, click{here}.

My thought/question is this. What the heck did he do to win it in the time he has been in office!? He was officially in office 11 days before the nomination should have been cast in. I'm a bit confused about it but whatever... more importantly!

The man that I love (and most of America) got married last night. He married his supposed soul-mate (since I was already taken) but I am OK with it. I cried myself to sleep last night, but Brent told me it was going to be OK... hopefully he is right. The Office was SO good last night. LOVED IT!

I am so proud of my little Gav-Man! He is doing so great with his potty training. He is almost completely trained! He wakes up dry from his naps and everything! Good boy Gavs....

I'm so over Halloween.

I'm glad that SYTYCD is on for the fall season! I am even more excited that the auditions are over and we can almost start the COMPETITION!

Five Guys Burgers is pretty good! They were fairly quick for how many people were there. You can serve yourself all the peanuts you want except they have the boxes on top of the trash cans which I thought was nasty. I would definitely recommend going there! It is better than Fazoli's!

Man, I lead a boring life.... I need a boyfriend or something since my husband isn't around to keep me entertained nightly. But then again- he just got married last night.

Her trash, my treasure!

My little sister has a major shopping problem, and I LOVE it! The best thing she, she has good taste and decided to start cleaning her closet out. Which means, that I got TWENTY, thats right TWENTY! pairs of pants, shorts or capris. I am so glad she decided to start purging her closet. I can't wait for the tops and dresses to come my way! The crazy thing is, I bet she still has at least 20 more pairs of pants at her house! Thanks Bree!

Potty time...

I am a very proud mother today! Gavs went potty THREE times today on the big boy potty! Or big girl potty according to Makenna. Whichever way you look at it, he went on the potty... on the floor... in his highchair.... and he also pooped once in his "diegos" as he calls them. So go Gavin! Here are to many more wet (hopefully just wet) "diegos" and shots in the toilet!!!

I can't get enough....

of this naughty little boy!

A kids dream...

BIG, GIANT POPSICLES.

Welcome back Whitney!

The first Whitney Houston song I ever heard was "I Will Always Love You" when I was dancing my first slow dance in the 5th grade at Brock Spilsbury's birthday party. I sang it for WEEKS after that! I love her. Glad she is back on top! Welcome back girl! (I know that sounded totally black)... or too white...

GO GREEN DRAGONS!

Makenna has been waiting to play soccer for a year and a half now (seriously, that is without me pushing it). Anyway, the day finally arrived yesterday at 11:30 AM. She wore her uniform as soon as she was done eating breakfast until after the game! It was about four sizes too big (as it was for all of the other girls) but she had a blast. None of the girls knew what they were doing except how to kick the ball. So the assistant coach (my dad) TRIED to show them what to do. It was HILARIOUS! Finally another mom and I stood behind the miniture net and yelled at the girls to say this is where the ball is supposed to go. Makenna scored the only goal on her team with about 1 minute remaining! I was so excited for her. Unfortunately, the Red Ladybugs scored three goals, but it was still fun. It was BLOODY hot so hopefully next week will be cooler. GO GREEN DRAGONS (and number SIX!)

Kenna and her coach

Practicing

Still practicing

Gearing up for the big game!

Zach (her cousin) and her during half time. Look how red their faces are! Pretty dang hot!