Just an update...

Christmas.....

We had a very nice Christmas! The X's made out like bandits...like usual! We enjoyed spending time with family and friends! We went to Daddy's house on Christmas Eve and opened gifts from his work's sub for Santa! The kids received a lot of nice clothes and ton's of toys! As soon as we got home that night Xander ran over to the neighbors house and they helped him put a plate of goodies together for Santa and the reindeer and Xander labeled the plate all by himself! Christmas morning I woke the kids up around 9:00...that was nice! We opened presents as a family and then Keara and Billy (Keara used to live next door, until she married Billy a year ago) stopped by with more gifts, Transformer's for the boys and a FurrReal Kitty for Xandy! The Steffensen's got them all clothes, which are greatly appreciated and badly needed! We gave Grandma Phillips a new kitchen utensil set and Grandpa a new hot water kettle. Uncle Duane and Aunt Heidi and girls came over next and we opened more gifts, played games and had Christmas Dinner! I made sure the boys knew why celebrated Christmas as they are old enough to understand...hopefully this year we will be able to start more family traditions that bring the real reason into our home!

New Years.....

New Years was fun in more ways then one! We started it off with a shopping trip with Grandpa to Wal-mart for goodies....more then we needed as it has always been when shopping with Grandpa! My cousin Collette and her family came over for a little while and played games with us...including Uncle Duane and family. We rang in the new year with 6 little ones 6 and under spraying silly string, popping confetti and my favorite the air horn! Xandria and my niece both got sick in the early seconds of the New Year and what started as having fun making a mess quickly turned to cleaning up an unfun mess! Luckily it turned out they had both had to many sweets because they were both fine when they woke up that morning!

New Years Resolutions...(even though some may not get done I just want to make a small list just in case I get bored one day! haha)

• Finish Julie's Graduation Scrapbook.
• Start and complete at least 10 scrapbook pages for each child of mine!
• Loose weight!!!
• Save Money!!!!
• go on lots of adventures with my kids! (Dino museum, Dino park, fishing, parks, matinees, museums, etc.)
• stop buying pull ups!! (unless they are for Xandy)
• get to bed earlier.
• be more prepared for lessons! (FHE, nursery, etc,)
• have more one on one time with each kid!
• buy a Wii!!! hehe
• and for Alyssa!! Spend at least an hour with some of my favorite cousins! Lunch in October what do you think?

(Left to Right: Natalie, Alyssa, Heather and Jessica.)

Current.....

Lately we have been trying to get back to our routine of AM Kindergarten, potty training and learning! I am enjoying the nursery, Xaden goes to his class without a fight, Xander takes himself to class and soon Xandria will officially be in nursery, she folds her arms and babbles a prayer, she shares with the other children and gets very jealous if I am holding another child!! Xander has recently picked up on reading and has started passing off the sheets he gets from school almost daily! He is reading his level books with very little help! I am really proud of him! Xaden has been wanting to do his 'homework' so I bought him a preschool book and he sits at the table with Xander and I and I help him with his 'homework' too. He knows and understands more then I even knew! Now only if I could find what will get him to complete potty training! Xandria is running, getting into EVERYTHING, looks thru books and babbles, newest word is 'emo' meaning the one and only Elmo although she loves Cookie Monster more by the way she recognizes and points to him! She loves to tease mommy with her "mine" or as she would pronounce it 'ma' game, she will grab something and say 'ma' and I will do the same and she will take what I have away and so I will grab her and tell her 'mine' and she just giggles her head off! She tells me when she is 'Ewwww'! Loves taking baths! Loves shoes, hand bags and makeup! Heaven Help Me! And unlike my boys at her age, she will eat almost anything!

I am loving every little bit of my kids and I am excited to see what 2009 has to bring us!