Kids' Christmas Parties

Natalie and Drew had their class Christmas parties yesterday, and Trevor had his today. Here are some of the pictures I took from each party.

Maryann and Andrew at his party. I got to take all the pictures for the party for his teacher.

Here is Drew on Santa's lap. He had a nice little chat with him. He told Natalie later that he got to talk to the "real" Santa at his party.Natalie with her Rudolph nose.This is Natalie's table. They were eating their snacks, having a ton of fun.This is the craft I came up with for Trevor's class. I'll post instructions on my craft blog in case you want to duplicate it. Natalie made the first one, I made the second one, Drew made the third one.Drew, Natalie and me at Trevor's class party. They were my assistants for the craft... when they weren't too busy playing with Trevor and his classmates. Brooke, Rachel and Cheyenne... some of Trevor's cute classmates.

Trevor, Mercedes and Tristan during the Left-Right gift exchange.

Whew!

It's over. What a relief. I didn't feel drugged or sleepy by the Valium during the exam, but I didn't freak out like I had before. It helped calm my nerves, and my heart didn't race like it had in previous exams. I did have to have the lady pull me back out for a couple minutes because it felt like I was lying in a coffin. But once I talked to her for a minute, I was able to go back in and was fine for the duration of the exam.
When I was done I went back out to the waiting room to await Kent's arrival. During the 30-40 minute wait I read my library book, and until I couldn't concentrate any more. Then when Drew came running in I stood up I realized that my legs felt as heavy as rocks. I felt okay other than that.
I realized that needed a jolt of sugar to wake up enough to get home and get myself into the house. (I'm probably a little too big for Kent to get out of the car and into the house while I'm unconscious.) We stopped at Starbucks where I got a peppermint hot chocolate with whipped cream (again the one and only time I will actually ingest whipped cream- yuck), and got Drew a child's hot cocoa. He was happy. I was happy because I made it home still awake, and I was able to make it to my bed before I crashed for an hour and a half. My head still feels HUGE, but I think I'll be okay in a couple hours.
I'm glad that I had the foresight to make tonight's dinner last night. I made a freezer meal for a family in our ward, and since I was making one for them I thought it would be a good idea to double the recipe and put one in the fridge for us for tonight. Dinner's done! Yay!

Sleep?

Here it is, nearly 1:00 a.m., and I'm still awake.
Why, you ask?
2 reasons...
First, Justin's school project that is due tomorrow isn't quite dry yet. He had to make a clay tablet using cunieform writing. It's the second one we've made because the first one didn't turn out after he added too much flour while trying to make it not be so sticky. We used bristle brushes to remove the excess flour, but the images started flaking off while we brushed off the flour. The second one looks a lot better, but it won't dry! Yikes! I'm doing my best to get it dry in the oven, but it's taking a lot longer than I expected. So far it's going on 35 minutes at 350 degrees. According to what I've read online it's only supposed to take 20 minutes at 250 degrees so I don't know why it doesn't want to dry! Second, I'm worried about tomorrow. I'm trying really hard not to think about it by keeping busy. Wanna know what I've done? I'll tell you because I'm sure you're dying to know. I've started reading a library book, tried to learn new songs on the piano for next Sunday's Christmas program; I finished editing our Christmas letter, and am ready to print it. It will take a while to print all the copies I need so I won't start tonight, but it's ready to go as soon as I get to it tomorrow. I officially and reluctantly decided that for the first time in many years I am not sending out homemade cards this year. Since I bought all of the stuff to make them I have a great head start on next year's cards, right?! I'm sending out a newsletter and family picture. I'm hoping that I'll find time to make treats to take to the neighbors this week. I purchased the ingredients that I need to make the treats so that's my motivation.
The other thing I'm doing is trying to convince myself that I will have "me" time during my MRI tomorrow. Now this is not the kind of "me" time that I typically enjoy, but that doesn't mean I can't make the most of it, right? If the MRI machine cooperates and doesn't pound the eardrums too loudly, and my Valium really renders me nearly unconscious (as the Target pharmacist promised me), it might work! LOL!
Okay... I think the clay is dry! Yay! I can finally go to bed! Tomorrow is going to be fun! I'll post a picture tomorrow... assuming that I'm conscious enough to do so.

Sunday ramblings...

This morning we got up and ready for church. Natalie insisted on having sparkles put in her hair. (Her dance party was last night and she got a few gifts from her Big Sis. Among the gifts was 3 colors of sparkle hair mascara.) It wasn't worth the fight so I put it in her hair, and made her very happy. It did look pretty cute, actually.
We got to church, and Drew was a boogery mess. He went through an entire package of Kleenex so after sacrament I took him home so he wouldn't get anyone else sick. He was fine for about an hour. Then he got really dizzy, started crying and freaking out a bit about that. He put down what he was holding and said he was going to go to sleep on the couch. He said he didn't want anything so I went back to baking in the kitchen, then he started crying again. He threw up all over the couch and my pile of clean laundry. As gross as that was, it would have been so much worse at church. I cleaned him up, put the whole pile that had vomit on it directly into the washing machine. I got him a new pillow and blanket, and he slept for 3 1/2 hours straight. He just woke up a few minutes ago, and he still doesn't feel right, but he's feeling a little better than earlier. Hopefully this is only a 24 hour bug.
During Drew's nap I went to choir practice. Our choir pianist didn't come so I played the piano. I wish I would have had time to practice the other song. I'm playing "Baby, What You Goin' to Be?" and I sight read "Joy to the World." It's a really pretty arrangement, but it has 4 key changes so it was a little tricky to play. After choir was over I was asked to stay after and practice a song with a man in our ward who was asked to learn a song for next Sunday. He's a bass, and the song was a little high for him so we tried another song. The music director really wants this particular song to be sung by a man, so she called another man in the ward who can sightread. I ran over to his house to practice with him, but the song was too high for him too so I'm not sure if I'll be playing that song after all. I guess I'll have to wait and see if she can find someone else.
Lastly, I'm hoping to get a good night's sleep tonight because first thing tomorrow I have to get a new MRI on my lumbar spine. I've been having problems with my back for the last 3 1/2 months so I hope to get some answers. Did I mention that I'm claustrophobic and really hate getting MRI's? If not, now you know. I nearly had a panic attack the last time because I was so freaked out. This time I'm have some Valium to take beforehand, so I hope it works. I really, really hope it works. The pharmacist seems to think that if it doesn't knock me out that it will relax me enough that I just won't care. I hope he's right! Yikes!

Natalie's Dancing

Natalie is part of a dance company near our house. She goes 3 hours each week. She takes tap, ballet and jazz. Then on the times that she misses class she can go to any make-up class that she chooses. For those times she's gone to tumbling, musical theater and hip hop. She likes jazz the most because she has a lot of fun there. She was in a parade last week, but my back wasn't feeling well enough to sit on a chair and watch it because of the ward Christmas party the night before so one of our friends whose daughter is in company with Natalie took her for us. They had to dress up in Christmas pajamas because they rode on a float decorated with wrapped Christmas gifts.

Here are a few pictures of her all dressed up for dance followed by pictures of her dressed for the parade.

One more Christmas decoration

I always put garland on my railing, then colored lights (as per my children's' request), a few of those little decorations you get at Michael's or Joann's, and then the stockings. I've had everything inside to put those things up since I decorated my Christmas tree a week and a half ago. And for a week and a half I've been looking at those decorations and cursing myself for bringing them inside this year. I couldn't possibly fit one more thing into my schedule last week with the program prep and clean-up so I finally got to it today. My kids were very happy... and relieved. They thought that if I didn't get the stockings up that Santa would forget about them and not fill them this year. Mom saves the day, yet again! Crisis averted! (I know it's not much, but I guess that it means a lot to my kids to have it up. I guess I'll have to remember that.)

For some reason you can't see the colorful lights here. I promise they're there!

These are the little decorations I was talking about. Anyone know what they're called?Stockings. There are 3 more, but because of the hallway angle I can't get them all into 1 photo. Sorry!)
Gotta run. Cole's in my kitchen snagging leftovers. Stinking dog! He always eats my cooking. He won't eat just anything. He's picky. He once put his front paws on the counter, reached all the way to where my hot, fresh loaf of bread was sitting at the very back of the counter by the wall, carried it off and ate it all while I went to the restroom. I wasn't gone more than 2 minutes. He still tries. He also loves chocolate, peanut butter and meat.

Smokey and Cole trying to figure out how to get the food that I just put out of their reach.

Cole's old (almost 12) so he gave up after a few moments. Smokey's a lot younger and craftier so he thought about it for a while longer. Looking at these pictures I can see that he really needs a bath.

Sharp Dressed Kid

Drew got new church clothes this week because he's started outgrowing everything. He chose out his new outfit and was excited to show it off. It's a little bit, but the next size down was not going to last long.

Ward Christmas Party- A Night in Bethlehem

It is finally done. Our committee put in HOURS and hours of work. It turned out so well. We did "A Night in Bethlehem". Our wonderful leader, Kristen Seare, helped keep us all motivated and working well together. She has such a positive, upbeat personality that it keeps everyone motivated to do their best. Thank you Kristen! Shanna Johnson, also on our committee, did so much. We've been working on this activity since early September. When we started Shanna was just barely pregnant and so sick. She fought through it and really did so much to keep going. She helped round up people for parts and help. She's so sweet. I don't know how anyone could ever tell her no. Kaleen Godfrey, who is also on our committee, was kind enough to play the prelude music and all the congregational Christmas songs for the evening.
We started in the chapel to have an opening prayer, bless the food and give instructions on how the night would progress. We started off with Tyson Cook, the 2nd counselor in our bishopric, conduction. Julian Hawks, 1st counselor in our ward's bishopric said the opening prayer. Then we had a men's quartet made up of Matt DelBianco, Dave Sorenson, Mike McGuire and Floyd Godfrey sing "Come Thou Fount" and were accompanied by me... but only in certain parts. There were 3 key changes in the song so I just played a few measures at the beginning of each key change. Otherwise they sang a capella. They sounded awesome. Dave hadn't heard the song before our practice the night before, but he totally learned it, and did an awesome job.
After Tyson gave everyone the instructions he started dismissing rows of people so that they could go to Bethlehem and eat their dinner. We had several Inn Keepers at Pita's Inn (pita bread with chili and cheese), Fruit Market (fresh fruit), the Bishop's Winery (water and hot apple cider) and the Sweet Shop/Bakery Shop (desserts).
Here are the people who performed:
Derek Rudd and his sons Taylor and Conner were our tax collectors
Cole Greer filled in at the last minute as our Census Taker
Brad Cottle filled in last minute as our Centurion Guard- he got things started for us, and didn't even get his lines until a few minutes before the program
Gene Daniel was the Inn Keeper for the Manger
Kjell Anderson was our narrator
Matt Del Bianco sang "O Holy Night" and was accompanied by Chanda Evans
Brady Hall was our Angel Gabriel
Elena Yeager sang "Mary's Lullaby" and was accompanied by Martha Bigler
Michelle and Dave Sorenson were Mary and Joseph; their baby Christian was our Baby Jesus
The YM and their leaders were shepherds and sang "A Shepherd's Carol"
Our wise men were Joe Hernandez, Joe Zezulka and Dan Engel
Matt DelBianco, Floyd Godfrey, Tyson Cook, Rob Pickles, John Bigler, Spencer Lamoreaux, Mike McGuire sang "We Three Kings" and were accompanied by me (There may have been 1 or 2 other men, but I can't remember!)
The YW and their leaders were angels and sang "Picture a Christmas" and were accompanied by Kelli Broadbent
Here are a few pictures from the night... For those of you in my ward I can make you a CD with all the pictures if you want. Just let me know! I have 85+ pictures that my mom took.

The Pillions- Kendrick, Anderson, Clayton, Garrett and Cydnie

The Sorensons- Christian, Michelle, Taylor and Dave

Kristen Seare, Rob Pickles, Mike Jensen and Shanna Johnson

Joe Hernandez, Debbie McGuire, Scott Braodbent, Gaby, Taya and Brian Washburn

The Lines- Lily, Lucy, baby, Emily, Hudson and Troy

Julie and Gene Daniel

Sybil and Kjell Anderson

Tanner and Brady Hall

Me at the Sweet Shop

Chloe Seare and Natalie

Kiddos hair cuts! Yay!

The kids all got their hair cuts on Wednesday. My friend Jessi came over and did it. They all looked great when they were done. Justin, of course, hates his hair cut, but that's okay. I think it looks awesome.
Trevor likes his hair cut, but he thinks that he needs to stop wearing glasses. And he doesn't think he needs to do his hair anymore. But he wants to get a buzz over Christmas break. Why would he want to get rid of this cute haircut?!
Natalie is trying to grow her hair long again. We keep getting the layers in it, though, because her hair is wavy, and without the layers within just a few minutes it looks like we didn't brush it. So this really works well for her hair.
Drew Dog really likes his hair, but he would not let me get a picture of him being serious. He thought he was so funny. The other pictures were of him sticking his tongue out at me and making google eyes. So funny.
Now that everyone has haircuts we're going to get our Christmas pictures taken this weekend. FINALLY! I am so excited!

Cover up and a cut

I also have a few stray gray hairs. The odds are not in my favor. My dad was totally gray before he was 30, and white by 50. (He says that I contributed to that, but whatever. I wouldn't do that.) I noticed a few grays trying to make their way into my dark hair so I had my good friend Jessi over to help me get rid of them. Then I decided that I also had to chop it a bit because it's just not cooperating with me. Here are the results. You can tell me if you like it. If not you are welcome to NOT let me know. I already get enough honesty from Trevor. (Such as, "Mom, you have lost a lot of weight, but you still have A LOT left to lose. Especially from your arms, your legs, your stomach, your butt..." He would have continued, but I made a move towards him, and I think he decided he valued his head on his neck...

Okay so I obviously I need to work on curling all of the hair, but it's a change for the better.

Decorating the House for Christmas

Kent, the kids and I decorated the house for Christmas today. Kent and the boys put lights up on the house, Natalie helped me decorate the Christmas tree and Drew loved watching it all. I haven't completed everything, but here are the pictures of what I have finished. I'll finish the rest of the decorations in a bit and post those too. I'm so excited! I love Christmas!

Ward Christmas party

I'm on the ward activities committee, and we're preparing "A Night in Bethlehem" for our Christmas party. Recently Shanna and I got together with her sister to sew 120 bags that will hold the gold coins that Kristen made. We decided over the weekend that we needed to make more bags, so I sewed them last night and this morning. I think that we're up to 160+. They're everywhere! Then I also sewed the covers for the canopies yesterday afternoon and night. I'm so glad Kristen and Shanna came over to measure and cut them. Some of them were 24' long, and really that's not so easy to measure when you're by yourself and have a bad back. And now they're finally done! Yea!

We also had our dress rehearsal on Saturday. It went pretty well. I feel that we have the right people doing the right parts and singing the right songs. I think it's going to be so awesome. I ended up subbing on the piano for the men's choir, and now I get to play for them. The song they're singing is "We Three Kings." It's TTBB, and it sounded awesome with the 5 men that made it to the rehearsal. I think it will sound even better when we get the entire group together.

Now I think we only have a few things to take care of before we go down on Friday to set everything up and have the program. I hope things go smoothly and that everyone feels the spirit we're trying to convey with this program. Wish us luck!

Twilight Movie! Loved it!

We saw it tonight! I loved it! I know they had to cut a lot out to make the movie, but I would LOVE to see the entire book played out. I don't think I'll ever get Kent to read the books, but I might be able to get him to see the movie. He wouldn't really understand it without reading the book so maybe that will help convince him that it's time to read the book! Loved it! So excited, but so sleepy. It's almost 3 a.m. and I have to get up to at least pick the little kids up from preschool in the morning.

I went with my sister Katie and Jenn DeTemple. We saw Julianne Ackley, Kristen Rayburn, Mrs. Rumore (she was a 4th/5th grade teacher at the kids' school until May), and several other people from church, school and various other places. I am definitely going to buy the DVD when it comes out. And I think I'm going to have to read the series again. And probably go see the movie again.

I wore my Team Edward shirt tonight. While I was talking to some of my friends in another theater when a flash snapped. I looked up and saw this girl aiming her camera at my chest. I momentarily forgot that I was wearing a Twilight shirt because I instantly felt a little strange about having someone taking a picture of my chest. But then I realized that she was taking a picture of the shirt so I was okay. (But still... a little warning would have been nice. It caught me off guard!) Julianne made my second shirt. I'll wear it soon and post the picture here. It's done in glitter paint (stuff... I'm not up on the lingo), and says OCD Obsessive Cullen Disorder. It's really cute.

Here are the pics from tonight. Katie and I are in the first one, and the second one is the best shot I could get of myself in the shirt. Jenn decided against being photographed...

Justin's got braces!

We have a new metal mouth in our house! And I'm happy to say it's not me! Here's Justin before. He's giving me his best "CHEESE" smile... (I thought he outgrew this when he was 5, but I guess not...)
Here he is during the procedure. Now he's a big scaredy cat! I did get some up close and personal pictures, but I know that some people are grossed out by that so I chose one that wasn't so close.

Here he is after the braces were put on, and before the pain set in. I warned him, but he didn't believe me. I love it when that happens. I hope that it makes him think, "Gee, maybe my mom does know something. Maybe she is smart." Is that wishful thinking? Even if it is wishful thinking, is it wrong of me to still hope that he thinks that? Now, if I can only convince him that he would look better with shorter hair. Oh, it's killing me...

My new crafting blog

Just wanted to direct your attention to my new crafting blog http://craftingwithmaryann.blogspot.com/. My sisters and one of my good friends are contributors to it. I'm super busy right now with the Christmas program for church, but I am going to do some projects soon and I'll post those. Hopefully you can get some ideas. My sister just posted 2 great pie recipes with pictures. They're perfect for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I have a few projects that I never uploaded anywhere so maybe I'll put those up so it doesn't look like I've been slacking!

I love finding a great deal!

During a meeting today my friend Shanna told me about a great deal her sister found at Walmart earlier. She came across HUGE discounts in the girls' clothing area. Things were marked down to $1, $3 and $5. I had to go there after the meeting so I decided to check it out while I was there. Natalie, being the only girl, doesn't get hand-me-downs so I love finding a great deal. We found her a pair of Hannah Montana t-shirts for $3 (down from $10), a pair of HM denim capris and a matching gold belt for $5 (down from $16.92) and 2 beaded v-neck t-shirts (1 black and 1 white) for $3 each (down from $6).
On the chance they had made similar markdowns in the boys' department we went there. Drew is finally tall enough that we can get the XS and size 4/5 from that area. We found a long sleeve light-up skull t-shirt for Drew for $2 (down from $9), and a pair of denim shorts for him for $3 (down from $10.93). I think he's going to wear the shirt every day for a week if he can get away with it.
In total I spent $19 and saved $39.85- almost 68%. Yea!

Blogger issues?

For some reason when I switched to private some of you weren't able to leave comments any more. I think I have it fixed. Can someone that was having problems please try posting again to see if the problem is fixed? Thanks.

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My busy day/week

I am on our ward's activity committee, and this is a busy time for us. We are in the process of planning and preparing for our Christmas party. In recent years we have had a family that sang and had large puppets and ward breakfasts with visits from Santa. This year we really felt like we should have a more spiritual theme. We looked and looked and finally found an idea that we really liked called "A Night in Bethlehem."
I got the script from another website, and have used it as a basis for our program. We decided to use more musical numbers from groups and individuals. We also changed some of the songs to fit what we felt would better suit the program. We had to change the location from a local farm to the church building because so many people in our ward have asthma that the dust from the farm was going to prevent many people from attending.
This week the committee will be meeting almost every day. We met today to figure out exactly what needed to be done and to plan when we could do it. Tomorrow we're going to start making the signs for the "city" of Bethlehem, and for the bags to hold the "money" for each family. Thursday we're going to sew the bags, and hopefully assemble them. Then on Friday... well I can't even remember.
On Wednesday the other committee members are meeting. I cannot meet that day because I'm serving in my other calling at the cannery. I'm not canning anything for myself, but because I am the canning specialist I have to be there. I don't know what I'm going to do as this is the first time I will have gone since being put in this calling and with the new FDA regulations in place. I have no idea what to expect. Everyone has to can their own items, and no one can leave until it's all done. I guess I'll bring a book?? Am I allowed to do that? I have no idea. I guess I'll find out on Wednesday.
Well I need to take a break. I haven't eaten dinner yet because I spent the last 2 1/2 hours cleaning up the mess Natalie, Drew and their friends made today. I should have taken pictures, but it was so messy I couldn't make myself leave until I was done. I could barely get into Natalie's room because it was SO messy.

Every single item of clothing was taken out of her closet, and at least 2/3 of those no longer on the hangers! Underwear and her dress up clothes were scattered throughout the room as well. As we got that all picked up I saw that all of her regular shoes and Disney Princess dress up shoes (about 8 pairs) were scattered throughout her bedroom and closet. I don't know how she was even able to find her dance clothes in all that mess! Once all the clothes were picked up we were able to get the blankets and pillows put back on her bed, and then start picking up the toys. We made several trips to the game room to put the toys away. We also got toys from Drew's room to take back there. While we were there I found that there were about 30 children's books on the ground. Oh my!
After we got the toys put back and the bedrooms decluttered I had to put the books back. I decided that I needed to do some reorganizing because the 2 bottom shelves were in complete disarray. It's finally done, and I hope this new system will make it less prone to mess.
I sure hope so because this is how I feel right now.

...And hungry... Time for dinner!

My Meeting with John McCain

At the urging of Justin I am posting this. This was November of 1993 when I went to Washington, D.C. with some people from my high school for a yearbook competition. We went to Arlington National Cemetery, many of the memorials in the D.C. area, and on a tour of the White House. One of the people we met was John McCain. He was very friendly and spoke with us for several minutes, and mailed all of us an autographed photograph.