Holiday « family4ever

The Lamb and the Wolves (Happy Easter)

09 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment

Yesterday was a haphazard sort of day, doing everything at the last moment, including an Easter egg hunt with the Rosso cousins. It was fun and I am so glad we managed to pull it together at the last-minute. The one thing we did not do this year was dye Easter eggs, partially because we have around a thousand brown eggs as our hens have sprung into action and we can barely eat/give them away fast enough. Brown eggs, we discovered do not dye well.

Today was Easter Sunday. I went to church, which was just all around odd, but the children were beyond excited that I went and that made me kind of sad. I had to go though, the Easter bunny does not arrive at our house unless you go to church. Chantelle was excited because she got to ride in the truck, her obsession with riding in the truck is beyond normal. Everett, after a song, turned to his dad and said “Isn’t Sunday the best day of the week?!” Felicity was very excited to turn in her conference notes and receive her prize, because she really worked hard to pay attention both Saturday and Sunday of Conference weekend. Frankly she did amazing, listening to each two-hour session and trying her hardest to figure out what each person had to say. Most of the time I wonder how these children are even mine, they are such good kids and despite my usual bad example on a daily basis they are managing to do what is right, heck, they even manage a reprimand for me on occasion:)

Joff was supposed to go into work this afternoon, but did not end up going and that made the kids even happier still, so we sat around munching on candy and talking. It is wonderful to just have a day as a family once in a while and for us it does not happen nearly often enough. The Rosso cousins came to play for an hour before dinner, even little Dan, although he really just came to read our giant book of animals, still it was fun to listen to him talk about the awesomeness of cats while I readied for dinner.

We were supposed to eat the goose for dinner, but Joff worked too much to get around to butchering the poor guy so he was spared once again. We had crock pot chicken noodle soup instead and I am glad we did not have a large traditional dinner this year, chicken noodle soup was perfect after all those jelly beans and chocolate eggs.

I feel so sad for that goose, he is so lonely, but my attempts at finding him a home are proving futile. I really do not want another goose, but I am now thinking maybe I will just buy a female goose for the poor guy. What is a little more critter poo around here anyway?

All in all a very good day. I am thankful for my husband and children, I am thankful for my nieces and nephews. I am thankful for the opportunity, to try again each and everyday to forgive and to be a better person, no matter how often I fail at both.

Happy Easter.

Annnnnnd Christmas

30 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment

by Kristal in Holiday, house Tags: chocolate factory, new years eve

I have a list of Goals. That I made way back in August (Waaaaay back when it was warm and sunny). I usually re-evaluate my goals and resolutions (hate, hate that word) In August.

August for two reasons:

1. My birthday is in August and that is when I am starting a new year, a brand new age that will never come again and I need plenty of time to either screw it up or make it awesome.

2. I don’t need some bossy, drunk Holiday to dictate when I should resolve to eat right and make nice with the relatives, you know, just in case.

New Years eve is like a mob boss, but instead of breaking your legs when you have not lost 26 lbs by the middle of next week, he cripples you with agonizing guilt. I don’t run with that kind of crowd. No sir.

But this year, given new circumstances, I find myself pulling out my notebook and looking over my goals for year 28. And scratching out half of them. Scribbling in new ones. Amending others. Like:

1. Shower at least once a month.

2. Breathe deeply.

3. But not too deeply, if the shower is a still a few weeks off.

4. Buy a chocolate factory and move in.

5. Wash all the socks.

Wait, wrong year.

WoW! I did not do too badly that year…….

Ahhh okay here it is.

1. Buy a 15 passenger van and play chicken with at least one semi.

2. Stain and finish the floors in the new house. (Amendment, don’t get high on the fumes, dratted pregnancy.)

3. Teach the children something over the course of the 2011-2012 school year.

4. Eat more avacodoes.

5. Buy a pair of really cute boots.

6. Adopt a puppy and try not to cry when he chews up said cute boots.

7. Buy a chocolate factory and move in.

8. Be nice. At least try.

A brand spanking new goal is a post a day for the next week. I miss my blog. I don’t have to be civilized here.

There are of course a whole slew more. But this post is about Christmas . Or something.

Too old for naps.

16 Dec 2011 Leave a Comment

by Kristal in Holiday, house, Kids

Chantelle, at the ripe old age of five months and five days has decided napping is for three week olds. Oh dear Lord, I pray it isn’t so. We are due for a Rip Van Winkle style nap now. Now. Amen. Chantelle has been awake since 6:30 AM, she had a 20 minute nap at 4:00 this afternoon and at 10:58 PM she is wide awake and going strong. People, she isn’t even cranky.

Chantelle wants to crawl, walk, run and start stuffing all those teeny tiny toys my children collect into her mouth, but her legs and arms have different ideas, thankfully. She is five months going on three years. We love her.

The children pray nightly that daddy will be able to finish there bedrooms soon. God, in his infinite wisdom, is either against construction or has a funky sense of humor, because every time Joff has more then three hours to work it rains. Pours. Not even kidding. It has become a sad, sort of joke around here.

Joff: Boss called, wants to know if I can work Thursday?

Me: Yea that would be great, it is supposed to rain Thursday, so no problems. You can take (insert any day of the week) off instead.

Thursday arrives, bright, clear, and beautiful. Day Joff chose to take off? Yep, it rains.

So work on the house is slow, but I have been taking pictures and it has been coming along, however slowly. Joff finished the framing for the living room and after checking it out, we both agreed it will be bigger then we had imagined. So okay with me. Joists go up for the second story next and then framing for the roof. It will be done eventually.

Christmas is in only 9 days! I am not ready. Mentally anyway, Christmas really snuck up on me this year. But we are having fun and the kids have been working hard earning money to buy each other gifts. It is fun to hear them give each other hints and beg for more hints. We have a tiny, but adorable fake tree this year, due to space constrictions, but we all love it. It is so much fun to see them sitting there staring at the tree, holding a present on thier lap, just wondering at the magic of the season. There is something more about Christmas presents. I generally am a giant grinch at Christmas time, but over the years the children have shown me what Christmas is really about. So I am learning to love Christmas. Another awesome part of having children:).

11:43 PM. Chantelle has finally gone to sleep. It is a Christmas miracle!

Made it this far…..

01 Jan 2011 Leave a Comment

by Kristal in Holiday

2011

I am so proud of myself, I have been holding my breath waiting for the overwhelming anxiety I always feel at this time of year to storm on in and nothing, I am content, happy and maybe even a little bored.

I am concerned that I might have been abducted by aliens.

I chickened out and went to bed early last night, well I tried to anyway, the kids insisted on staying up and to there credit they tried mighty hard to stay awake. Katie made it to 11:00 PM. So close. I woke up to let the dog out at 12:30 (ish) Since I have never actually rung in the New Year, I didn’t feel like I missed out:).

Today is good, house is clean. As clean as it will ever get without a maid service anyway. Sun is out, weather is perfect.

And I have Oreos. I have been obsessing over Oreos and I finally made it down to the store. Happy.

I found my Garfield comic strip!

Jon: We’re going to change the way we do things around here!

Garfield: Whoa…….We do things around here?

Hahahaha:D

Merry Christmas!

26 Dec 2010 1 Comment

by Kristal in Holiday, Kids, Natalie, Picture Post

We had a fantastic Christmas!

We had a Christmas story pageant at grandma and grandpa’s house Christmas Eve and it went very well, Katie was Mary and Piggybanks got to stand in for baby Jesus.

Christmas Eve the children opened there traditional gift of jammies from Grandma, who is now making close to 70 pairs of pajamas for all of her grandchildren! They gave me a beautiful set of butterfly earrings in memorial of Natalie. I love them.

We traditionally all pile into the girls room on Christmas eve, crashing on a few extra mattresses and chattering about trying to stay up and see Santa, never works through:P. Of course we all where up bright and early:D.

Sharyn and Gary came by nice and early to give the kids (and Joff and I) some presents and watch the kids open all there gifts. We put them to work trying to figure out how to get toys out of the packaging. Hard work that! It was nice having them come and share the children’s Christmas.

At one point Caleb ran and hid his face behind a pillow on the couch, when we asked him what was wrong he said “It is just too much!” he was feeling overwhelmed with all the toys and what to play with first! The soldiers or the dinos? Which one?!

Joff who has been working a ton of overtime, including working Christmas Eve and tonight, took a much needed nap. I baked up some bread and fudge and slipped Cindi’s ham into the oven.

We had dinner at grandma and grandpa’s house with Cindi and Dan’s family and of course ended the evening with a round of Ticket to ride.

A satisfying Christmas.

Especially as I got a ton of chocolate:D♥.

Merry Christmas

(Felicity lost The Fuzz, sadly she managed to escape her cage (still mystified on the how!) and although we do not know for certain we are pretty sure Wolfgang got her. It was a very sad day around here. Felicity is now the proud and somewhat worried pet owner of a male hamster, he is smaller, although not a dwarf hamster) He loves to burrow and his name is Squeakers, mostly because he looks slightly squirrely. We have taken extra precautions to ensure his safety. Mostly we are hoping his smaller size inhibits his accessing the top of the aquarium. We have a wire top, but The Fuzz managed to moved it somehow by climbing on top of her wheel and it had a lock on it! I give her credit for sheer genius! May you find a patch of carots and cabbage with lots of tunnels and live forever in peace The Fuzz.)