December...Christmas week!

What a fun week. I had most the week of and Scott was off starting Wed. We have been busy doing lots of fun things in the time we have had off. Here is a quick review:

Christmas Sunday (Dec 20th) -New Christmas Clothes

It was also my dad's birthday so we had dinner at my sister's

Mon (Dec 21st)
Painted Jade's room. No pics yet. I will wait to post them after we get all the vinyl up. That said....we love the new pink room!
That night we had the Sommer Family party. Mostly fun times. There were a few kid issues (not mine) that got a little irritating, but we survived them and still had a good time

The Fam.

Miss Jade opening a present

The hosts: Roy and Belve

Waiting to start the Candy Bar game

Tues (Dec 22nd) Quick run to Garnder Village. It was snowing so we only say a couple of the Elves. Good enough-next year we need to remember to go when it's not freezing cold. We spent the night cleaning so it could be done for the week. I went to bed at 4:00 a.m.

Wed (Dec 23rd)
Yummy breakfast from Kneaders followed by a day of Christmas movies. It was soooo nice to hang out at home-in a clean house-doing nothing. We try to do this every year.

Christmas Eve and Christmas posts to come

Sat (Dec 26th)
Call me Scrooge but first things first: Take down Christmas. Yep-the day after. I love having it all up, but it feels nice and clean to take it all down! That was followed by the annual swimming party. Jadyn could hardly contain her excitement to get to the diving board. Thanks to my grandma for doing this every year. My kids swam and were happy for 2.5 hours straight. It was so much fun! The pool was as warm as bath water which is so awesome! We eat pizza there as well so I don't even have to cook dinner! Love that too! :)

The diving board that she LOVES

Jade pouting because she wanted to take her Jacket off. I did let her and it is amazing to see how well she actually can swim-with her goggles. I was impressed!

Jax with his stuff. Gotta say again....I love this life jacket. He floated around the pool for 2.5 hours with no problems. It is freaking awesome! Maybe the best $15 I have ever spent!

December...Week 3

Monday Dec 14th: My mom hosted a little Christmas party at my sister's house. We ate lots of yummy food, the kids have a great time playing together, and then we had a suprise visitor. The kids were so shocked!

Tues Dec 15th: Our computer crashed in the morning. Blue Screen of nothing....so my Cher's husband Kevin...who is brilliant....came to fix it. He sat typing funny codes on a black screen for 3 hours while we played with the kids and went shopping. He then took it home for 2 days and when he brought it back it was good as new. Awesome! Thanks again to Cher and Kevin. Saved us lots of money!

Wed Dec 16th: Went and visited Josh, Tracy and the boys. I loved holding her little Colton. One day I just might be ready for another one. Maybe......

Thurs Dec 17th: Dinner with my Siblings and their spouses. I think it was the first year in the past 3 that we have all been there. Olive Garden was yummy and dinner with the 10 of us with no kids was so nice! Thanks to my mom for watching my little rugrats!

Fri Dec 18th: Ward Christmas party. It was nice, I appreciate these things more than I used to because I now understand the time it takes to plan them. That said....watching our kids run wild in the church with 30 other kids was a little exhausting and we were definitely ready to go when it was over! We had a good time though. I really like our ward.

Sat Dec 19th: Spent 3 hours doing cardio in the morning. It was awesome....I loved it. We then hit up Home Depot for lots of pink paint! Afterwards we took our first trip to Ikea. Cool store....but not a place to take little kids. Needless to say, there was not much shopping. We did eat there and Scott REALLY liked it. We took Jax home to bed while Jade, Brandee and I met Melissa and her kids at the movies and saw Princess and the Frog. It was a really cute movie. We completed the night by putting the first coat of pink on Jade's wall. I love the color!

As a side note: Cute Jade was dressed and ready to go by the time I got home from the gym. She told me she was "so Fashion" and was sooooo proud of her outfit. So-I didn't make her change!

Whew.....it was a busy week. Followed by lots more business. Next post!

December: Week 2

Dec 8th: (Tues) I had been looking forward to this day for a long time. It was our R.S. Christmas dinner that I was in charge of. My committee and I had done a lot of planning and preparing and I was just ready for it to be over with. We went to the church to set up at 9:00-with my kids in tow. We were there for 6 hours!!!! Yeah.....My kids did amazingly well for being there that long. I was so grateful for that. I went home for 2 hours and was back to the church by 5:30. The dinner started at 6:30. It lasted till about 8:30 and we cleaned up until 10:00. I had spent almost 11 hours at the church that day!!! But....in the end, it was all worth it. I loved the way it turned out. The decorations and feeling of the room was awesome! The food was good and the program was fantastic. We had 3 speakers and then a DVD. I was just so happy with the way it went and even happier that it was finally over! :) As much as it was stressful to plan, I am grateful to my calling. I have been able to really get to know a lot of people. I am soooo grateful to my Enrichment leader. She did soooo much for this activity on top of a VERY busy month that she was already having. Thanks Britt!

Dec 9th: Jon and Ash got free tickets to "The Christmas Story" play. They were nice enough to ask Scott and I to go with them. The night was a little crazy but ended up being fun. I will say that I like the movie more than the play, but it was still good and nice to have a night out.

Dec 10th: I was looking forward to today actually- No set plans! Tracy had her 3rd little boy-Colton- on Wed so I was able to go and see her. Colton is so cute! It makes me excited to one day have another baby. I will admit though-not quite baby hungry yet! We were able to watch her other boys later that night. Jade was so excited that they were coming over to play. They all had a good time and Jade even asked Easton if she could marry him. He wasn't as fond of the idea as she was! ;) It was pretty cute though.

Dec 11th: Christmas Lights in the car! I think this is probably one of the activities I enjoy the most at Christmas. Jade had been talking about it for days and had been planning how many pillows and blankets she could take in the car, and what movies we would watch. We loaded the pillows, blankets, and kids and headed out. We grabbed some drinks and dinner before we went to any houses. The kids ate in the car and watched a Christmas show as we drove to the lights. We ended up being able to see 6 houses. It was so cozy in the car and the kids were so good! Jade was so tired and ended up falling asleep on the way home-who can blame her with all those comfy pillows and blankets around her! It was definitely something we will do again!



Dec 12th: Today was our Sommer Sibling Christmas Party. I was a little stressed when it started-just ran out of time trying to get things done. But-after we were able to sit down and eat dinner, I was feeling much better! We had Cafe Rio for dinner and enjoyed sitting around and talking. Jadyn was DYING to get Bingo started-mostly because she knew there were presents to be had! Jade and JAx both loved getting Bingo prizes. After Bingo we decorated cookies. This year I tried using a glace icing and we all liked it better than the usual decorating. It was less messy and didn't take quite as long. The cookies looked good too! After cookies we were going to watch a movie. Lewis had....uh.....come across the new "Christmas Carol" but the quality was far from High def! ;) Oh well. The kids and Scott were asleep by that point anyway. We all had a good time. It's fun to get together with them

Our Awesome Christmas cookies!

Jade making cookies

Jax got this dinosaur that night so we let him take it to bed. This is how we found the dino-tucked in with a binkie in his mouth!

December....Week 1

I love Christmas time. It gets busy and a little crazy, but I love it. I like to do something related to Christmas every day if possible. We have done pretty well this year!

Tues Dec 1st: Went to dinner with the girls! We had a great time! I love catching up with them.

Wed Dec 2nd: Scott left to go out of town. The kids and I met a friend at Chick-fil-A. We talked and the kids played and made a cute Christmas craft!

Thurs Dec 3rd: Met Scott's family and the live Nativity. A big thanks to Roy for standing in the FREEZING cold weather for an hour so that we didn't have to. It was a good experience. There is something about hearing "There is no room here" and then seeing a real live baby laying in a manger that pulls at my heart. Jade was amazed that the baby at the end was real. The kids were pretty good and really loved the live animals outside!

Fri Dec 4th: We made the annual trip to Festival of Trees. It was fun....and crowded. Later that night we went to The Mayan. The kids were amazingly well behaved for an out to dinner place and liked the diving show!

At the Mayan

Crazy kid at the salsa plain!

Jade and "Moroni Ali Baby Shrek" who came with us all weekend!


Sat Dec 5th: The kids went to a Christmas Party with Scott's dad and Belva. Afterwards we headed downtown. We started at the Museum at the Gateway and met Ashley and her kids there. It wasn't very crowded and the kids had lots of fun playing. Afterwards we had dinner and then decided we would head over to temple square. Ash decided to take her kids home. Jade wanted to ride the train over to the lights. They seemed to like that, but by the time we got off the train (5 min later) Jade was tired and the kids were cold. We went to Temple Square. We walked around for about 2 min, went in to see the statue of Christ, and then decided it was time to go. 3 years ago we took Jadyn and we decided it is not something we loved to do. Cold, crowded, big stroller, kids bundled up so much they can't move. Yes the temple is beautiful-as our the lights, but we would much prefer the temple in the summer when the kids can run and play and the Christmas lights from inside the car! :) Needless to say our trip was short and it will be a few more years before we go back! Jade said it was "the worst night ever" but then said she just meant the cold and lights part. Whew....sure would hate it to be the worst night ever. We did have a great time at Gateway though!

Jax loved this

Jade the checker!

Jax playing in the water

Ummm....guess he likes the ketchup!

The kids looked so happy! ;)


Sun Dec 6th: Sunday nap....nothing better than that! And Scott came home which after 5 days I was pretty happy about!

Mon Dec 7th: Bishop's store house at the D.I. We let the kids pick out some gifts and then after Jade's dance we headed over to the D.I. They put the gifts in the box, got a few refreshments and they we headed home. I am glad that we had a chance to do this. Probably the first year that Jade understood we were giving to someone else.

Thanksgiving Day!

We had such a great Thanksgiving Day. We of course started the day at my dad's house for breakfast! Knowing that we were just going to continue to eat all day long I headed over to my sisters house to get in a 90 min workout. The kids had fun playing and I had fun knowing I was working off a little of what I would eat! We headed home and got ready, cooked some food, and then went back to Meg's for dinner. The food was delicious as was the company! I love Thanksgiving-you get to spend time with family without all the craziness of presents and such. It's a good way to kick off the holiday season!

Not sure Jax wanted to take a family picture.

Jade loved getting to hang out with this boy all day!

The kids table!

Fried Candy bars. Nasty!

Jaxon...Jaxon...Jaxon

There are a few things about Jax I have been meaning to write about.

Fruit Snacks: Over the past month he has become hugely addicted to fruit snacks. For weeks I would open his door in the mornings and he would walk out and head down stairs with "I hungry. Want fruit snacks" And yes...I let him have them. He LOVES them. Shoves about 10 in his mouth at a time and can eat several packages in a VERY short time.

Gummy Bears:

He LOVES watching Gummy Bears. I owe my sanity to Gummy Bears. We realized a while ago that if we put it on for him in Jades room-and he has his binkies-he will actually sit down and watch for a little bit. I was amazed the first time it happened. AMAZED. He loves the show though. I love when I can hear him laughing out loud at whatever is happening. He LOVES Dukey and will walk around the house laughing and saying "Dukey fall in da waaaaaaaterrrrrr" It's hilarious. The only problem is now when we put him to bed at night he will cry and say "I watch gummy bears on JJ's couch" I'm just glad we found something he loves to watch. I try to get him to watch something else at times, but he only wants Gummy Bears.

Breakfast:

The past week he has changed from requesting fruit snacks in the morning to just saying "I want breakfast" and heading downstairs. He usually eats "monkey bars" (granola bars), yogurt or eggs. Last week I was getting dressed as he headed down saying "I want breakfast" I told him I would come down as soon as I got dressed. Two min later I walked down the stairs and could hear him say "MOMMY!!! I make eggs! I make eggs. See???" Yep! He sure did. He had a pan on the floor and had got the eggs out of the fridge and cracked them. I thought I'd find a HUGE mess but somehow he had cracked 6 eggs and only had 3 tiny shells in the pan and all the other egg shells were in the sink! I was very impressed. I couldn't get mad at him because he was so proud. So- I told him he did a good job but that next time he should wait for mom. And then I picked out those three shells and made them scrambled eggs.

All the cuteness aside, we do still struggle a bit with him. He can get angry very quickly. He still roars at me (which makes me laugh), has tantrums where he falls to the ground, pounds the floor, and will try to hit or kick whatever is closest to him. I took him with me the other day to take lunch to a friend. My first mistake was taking him when he was hungry, second mistake was taking him when he was tired, and my third mistake was taking him to a home where there were no kids (except the brand new baby we went to see) The three were an awful combination. It was pretty much a frustrating experience and I actually went home and cried. Yes...cried. And I don't cry. I look back at the situation and realize I was embarrassed. Good thing about looking back is I can realize I shouldn't have been embarrassed. I should just have left sooner or never went it-just dropped the food and left. Oh well....we got past it, I put him to bed as soon as we got home. He was asleep within 2 minutes and was so sweet when he woke up. Lesson learned for me! He can be so sweet he just REALLY hates to be told no (what two year old does). The problem is the anger that follows. We deal with it the best we can! No worries....I love ya Jax!

Short and to the point. Thankful: 5, 6, and 7

Yeah....a little behind. Still grateful though! :)

#5: Little things that make me happy: (I will list a few)
- Diet Pepsi
- My space heater
- My Favorite face lotion
- Good running shoes
- Candy
-DVR (even though I just cut out 1/2 of my tv watching)
- Having my Christmas tree right by my desk and working with the tree lights on
- A good book
- itunes

#6: House
I am grateful for where we live. We love our house, the neighborhood and the ward. It was a good move for us.

#7: The Gospel
It makes life worth living. The final goal is to be able to be with my family forever and that is awesome! I am grateful for the Savior. I am grateful to know he is aware of me and my family and that he loves us.

WAY Behind

I am way behind. Life is still crazy, busy, and stressful. But....we are all together, happy, and healthy so we are counting our blessings. I LOVE this time of year and stay VERY busy. I will catch up by the end of this coming week....In the mean time I will post a pic that makes me laugh Every. Single. Time. I look at it. We had family pics done this week. This picture of the kids is priceless to me. Jax yelling (probably roaring) at Jade-(I'm sure he wants her to go away from him) and Jade looking at him like he might be a little crazy. Love this picture and I'm so glad the photographer added it to my CD. Too many would have thought it was not a good pic and deleted it. :)