Christmas 08

We had a Very Merry Christmas this year! We started our day at about 7:30 a.m. instead of the normal 5:00 a.m. so that was nice to get a little extra sleep time. I let each girls open two presents before Mike got home from work because the where dying having to wait, and once Mike got home at 9:00 a.m. we started our Christmas morning here are the "hit items" this year....

Ashley's favorite was the clothes, clothes, and more clothes, and then 3 gift certificates to her favorite place to get more clothes!!














Hannah's favorite toy was Buzz Light Year, which Mike was excited about, finally one of his girls wanted a "Boy Toy"!!














Emily's favorite was her Nintendo DS!!















Madisyn's favorite was her Nintendo DS too!!















The girls waiting for Christmas dinner














Shad, Jen, and their kids came up for the day.




















































































Mike's favorite gift would have to be the electric guitar he bought with all the money from the mom's and dad's, I think he's hoping to get as good as our friend Clint so they can jam together!!

I got some clothes and the Mama Mia sound track, which Mike is now wanting to return, but my favorite gift would have to be...... having my husband home till the New Year!!!
















Thank You everybody for all the cool gifts we sure did miss you this year!!

Twas the night before Christmas....

Well this Christmas Eve was a quiet one with Mike getting an early Christmas present "Qwest" style, he not only had to work is normal 10 hour shift Christmas Eve/Christmas morning he added another 4 hours to that because of lack of scheduling on Qwest's side, so with him out the door a little after 5:00 tonight it was just my girls and I!! We had a nice dinner of shrimp and pasta, made cookies for Santa, the girls did their gift exchange with each other, and then we watched Christmas Story, after all that it was time to get ready for bed, and for Santa. The girls put out the cookies and milk for Santa and carrots and celery for the reindeer and then Madisyn had a little extra stuff for Santa this year, a present she had made for him and a very nice letter that reads:

Dear Santa,
Thank you for the present, these cookies are for you (only you) if you can you can give a tiny to the reindeer and elves, and Ms. Claus, also the carrots and celery are for the reindeer, also the chocolate milk is for you, if you read this before you do the stockings then mine is the one that says Fa La La La, thank you and hope you come next year, I'll be extra good.
Sincerely, Madisyn H
4th grade Kolbs class

I enjoy Christmas more now, than when I was a kid, its so cool seeing your kids sooooo excited!!!
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

12 days of Christmas

One of my favorite Christmas tradition as a child was the 12 days of Christmas. My Mom and Dad ( okay I'm sure it was probably really just my mom!!) would do the 12 days of Christmas for my brothers, sister and myself, which consisted of each morning getting a small cheap present, and all though they may have been a little bit of dorky presents I loved it as a child and even as a teenager. Once I got married and had my own children this is one tradition with some nudging from my mom that I have tried to keep. Just as it was one of my favorite traditions as a child it has turned into one of my children's favorites too. Now their "Presents" are definitely nothing to write home about it can be anything from Christmas pins that I got for 6 for a dollar, ring pops, plastic ornaments that were four for a dollar, or candy bars from the gas station that Mike had to make a mad dash to get at 10 p.m. because I forgot to get the next days presents!! As you can tell nothing but the utmost quality for these gifts.... This as been a fun way to count down Christmas and help take away a little of the anticipation for what await them under the tree.
Thanks for the great idea Grandma Swenson!!

Happy Birthday!!

Happy birthday Mike!!

I thought I would share some "Fun Facts" about my Hubby and let everyone know why we love this man so!!

Mike is a little O.C.D.when it comes to anything electronic, example: He buys a laptop, but do you think we can use it on our laps... nope he says it's to much movement for it!

Mike is always cold you can expect to see Mike with his beanie and coat on from about the end of October thru the end of April, we do live in Minnesota, it was a little shorter time span when we lived in Utah, but not much!!

Mike loved me through all my CRAZY teenage years, and when I say CRAZY I mean CRAZY in the head!

Mike is a little bit of a hypochondriac, and so am I..... so it can be a scary combination at times.

Mike is a GREAT husband and father.

Mike was quite the hip hop dancer back in the day, and he likes to freshen up on his dance skills once a year in the basement when he thinks no one is watching.

Mike's dream job would to be a cartoon artist.

Mike is a little bit of a germ freak.

Mike is a great provider.

Mike is a high achiever, and though I wish he would just stay at the same position and same company forever (because I don't like change!!), his choices have gotten us to where we are now and for that I'm very thankful.

Mike likes pretty much all music from hip hop to heavy metal and all the music in between!

Mike has went to bed with his shoes on more times than I can name!!!

Mike has given me my four beautiful daughters and a wonderful eternal companion what more could a girl ask for???

I LOVE YOU MIKE, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Baking, Baking, and more Baking.

Grandma Armour sent out the girls Christmas aprons and lets just say they have been used!! In the month of December we have a lot of baking that goes on in our house with two batches of sugar cookies and three pans of chocolate bars were only half way through with all of our baking. The aprons were a perfect little gift.






Emily and Maddy are at the age where it's still fun to cook!
























































Don't worry that is the left over cookie dough that's in Emily's hand.

Christmas Party

This year for our ward Christmas party our Primary children were our entertainment for the night. Linda Holt even made them each a choir robe to wear. It was a delight to listen to the "Primary Choir" sing and to feel the sweet spirit that they brought.















The Primary choir all posing for a picture.















Emily got to play Mary as they sang the Nativity Song, she was so excited when we got the call that she had been chosen. I must say she did a pretty good job at playing the part, although I may just be a little partial??










































All the Primary kids did a great job, and it was nice to step back from all the "hustle and bustle" of Christmas and to have the kids reflect on the true meaning of Christmas, the birth of our Savior.

The "JOYS" of winter.

When Winter comes it brings all of its " JOYS" with it!!















Slippery, icy roads and when your a person who's always late to everything, they don't help!

















Allowing an extra 10 minutes to put on all of the winter gear before leaving the house.

A collection of boots, hats, gloves, and snow pants that collect in my entryway every afternoon!

Not to mention the shovelling of heavy wet snow in negative degree weather, the covering of a salt packed car pretty much the whole winter, having to feed up our garage door because it doesn't like negative degree weather and gets stuck in the middle of opening???, and my favorite...... the negative 30 degree temperatures we get!!!

With all of the pains we get with winter we do have some real "JOYS"also, celebrating the birth of our Savior, family traditions, snowman, hot chocolate, Christmas cards, baking goodies, the gift of giving, Santa Claus, and ringing in a New Year!! Hopefully the real "JOYS" will help get me through this winter.

All I Want For Christmas

All Emily needs for Christmas is just a few of her front teeth! Emily has lost two teeth this week and is in jeopardy of losing some more. I am proud to say though that the tooth fairy has gotten to our house in a more timely manner this last time around so Kudos to her!! I actually had a few "Random Thoughts" of my own, Kristen while driving home today, I'll share just one, and then you'll all know why I don't share my random thoughts more often! Why is it that little kids look so cute when they lose their teeth, but adults look kinda scary when they lose theirs???

The Girlie Cafe

On Friday I had quite the long day, I started my day by waking up at three in the morning(which I had only gotten to bed the night before at midnight)to go out and catch some good deals with my brother and sister-in-law, then had to drive home from St. Cloud which is about an hour away, from there I had to go clean the house I clean every Friday which took me an extra 30 to 40 min longer than usual to clean. So by the time I was leaving that house I was wiped out, and bracing myself for the disaster that I was sure was waiting for me at home, with all my girls home and my two nieces there I was sure my house was going to look like a tornado hit it!!! So when I arrived home and walked in the front door my entry way was spotless, I then said to myself, " Okay this is looking good, looking good!!!" I then walked upstairs and my living room, kitchen, and bathroom were spotless as well, I said to Maddy and my niece Ashtyn, " I'm pleasantly surprised!" my niece then said, " Well don't go in Maddy's room because you won't be surprised!" One messy room out of the house I can handle that. They then let me know that they we having a restaurant and that they would be cooking dinner for the night!!! Does it get any better than this??? So here is the " Girlie Cafe."

Family and Good Friends

With the holiday weekend coming to a end it left me feeling very thankful for my family and good friends! I am so very thankful to have at least one of my siblings and his family out here in Minnesota to be able to spend the holidays with, and also for my husband and my four daughters who are the center of my life!! I am also very thankful for our ward family who have been a great strength in my life over the last 3 1/2 years and have opened up their homes and have helped make Minnesota feel like home.


The kids eagerly waiting for Thanksgiving dinner.

Ashley and Ashtyn.

Just how many girls can we fit in a chair??

To retain or not to retain?

I've been teetering with the idea of starting preschool with Hannah, but not really knowing if she really would retain anything because she still is pretty young, but with some nudging from my mom telling me "You'd be amazed at how much they pickup on even at a young age." Then later in the week with Hannah showing me how much she really is picking up on things, bad habits and all when I heard her say to Mike, "Daddy is a stupid head" (you got to love older sisters) I thought if she can pickup all her lovely older sister's language I'm sure she can learn her ABC's and 123's! So I pulled out the preschool tote and starting our circle time and right on cue when I starting singing the ABC's song our cat O Malley joined us just like he did EVERY TIME when I did preschool with Emily. Which is I think is quite amazing for a cat most people don't even know we have a cat because he's never around, but to this day when he hears that song he comes running! So we did our first little circle time, Hannah had a blast and even sat still the whole circle time!

Love From Home!

Since we moved to Minnesota my mom has been great at sending packages to the kids, it may be little dollar toys, candy, preschool supplies, money for the dollar store, snacks from Keebler where my brother works and has lots of leftover snacks, or just letters. The kids love getting these packages and get sooo excited when one comes!! Well this last package she sent was books that she got at a yard sale, and the girls could hardly wait to get them out of the box and start reading them. I was excited to have some new reading material for the girls, it seems like Emily always chooses they same books to read for her nightly reading. So we all walked away pretty happy, they get to read new stories and I get to listen to new stories. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!!!



































I thought I would throw this picture in to show whose behind the book!

Tagged!

I am: happy to be a wife and a mother.
I know: my heavenly father loves me.
I want: a whole new wardrobe.
I have: a wonderful life.
I dislike: mean people.
I miss: my family in Utah really bad!
I feel: very blessed.
I hear: my children laughing and playing.
I smell: clean sheets.
I crave: Thanksgiving dinner.
I cry: at touching moments and sad movies.
I search: for Emily and Hannah's shoes almost every Sunday morning!
I wonder: if I'll live in Minnesota forever.
I regret: when I am ungrateful.
I love: my family.
I worry: about my kids all turning out in this crazy world.
I remember: the first day I met Mike.
I dance: not as often as I would like too.
I don't: think the gas prices are going to stay this LOW!!!
I argue: with close minded people.
I write: a lot of checks for school lunches.
I win: at Monopoly every time.
I lose: my patience over silly things.
I wish: I would get more comfortable speaking in front of a lot of people.
I listen: to our Primary children sing every week and LOVE it!!
I can usually be found: laying out rather than swimming.
I am scared: of losing anybody close to me.
I need: a vacation really bad!!
I forget: to call my extended family as often as I would like too.
I tag: anybody that reads my blog, and I'm looking forward to reading them!!!

M.I.A.

The tooth fairy is missing in action. Madisyn lost her tooth 3 nights ago, the first night I cut the tooth fairy a little slack but after the third night I am disgusted with her!! What kind of tooth fairy do my kids have? Each morning I have to come up with some reason why the tooth fairy didn't come: "Well maybe the tooth fairy is confused as to which pillow to leave it under because of the frequent switching of beds? Well that tooth was mostly filling, maybe she is getting picky these day? Well maybe it was just a really busy night there is only one tooth fairy right?" Good grief I'm running out of excuses!!! You'd think seeing the sheer disappointment on this child's face every morning that the tooth fairy would just remember and I not fall asleep while waiting for all of her many children to fall asleep so she can do her job. ( the tooth fairy does have some pretty long days!!!) So finally I talked to the tooth fairy's husband and he also works in the middle of the night and said he would be happy to call and remind the "tooth fairy" tonight after all the kids are fast asleep. So.... we shall see.

Halloween

The girls had a wonderful night on Halloween. They got enough candy to last them at least a couple of weeks ( o.k. hopefully longer) and even lucked out and had a fairly warm night!!! We had a lot of good food and great company it was a pretty good night.








Ashley dressed up as a teenager and even played the part fairly well by hanging with her friends for the night.









Hannah was a witch!




















Madisyn was "Laura Ingalls"



















Emily was little red riding hood.



















Our neighborhood had a lot of cool decorations out.














Trick-or -Treating.















The kids had it easy they got to ride on a trailer on hay bales.














Maddy and Bella.