She'd been drinking too much egg nog....

This post could have been about the Bearden Family's wonderful Christmas. It could have shown pictures of the kids opening their presents or dressed in their Christmas jammies or having fun with family. But... no, this post is going to be about the memory that will always be in my mind when I think about Christmas of 2009. This post is about The Christmas Incident.

My side of the Story:

What I hear from the living room:
Ding Dong...."She's here!" "She's Here!".....(Children running to the door)...(door opens)..."Merry Christmas!"....Thud....silence.
I run in to see my Mother-in-law face down in my entry way with blood spilling from somewhere on her face.


My Mother-in-laws side of the Story:
With two bags full of presents in her arms she carefully walks up the icy steps toward the front door.... Carefully....Carefully....Carefully...."Oh good, I made it without falling"....Ding Dong..."Merry Christmas!" Suddenly......falling...falling...falling...toward the tile...can't catch myself....SMACK!!!...pain...blood.

Ellie's side of the story:
Watching...waiting...watching...watching....out the window. Grandma will be here soon! Ding Dong..."She's here, She's here!" Run to the door....fling it open...."Merry Christmas!" JUMP onto Grandma wrapping arms AND legs around her which causes the falling, falling, falling......Thud...Grandma's bleeding. Ellie's fine.

This is not going to be my most favorite Holiday memory of all time, but I'm sure it will be the most talked about for years to come. I felt absolutely HORRIBLE! My sweet and good natured Mother-in-law was laughing about it before the blood stopped flowing.

Aside from the smashed up face and mega bloody nose, she also has a black and blue knee and a skinned knuckle. Not to mention the overall soreness that comes from being tackled to the ground.

We are signing Ellie up for football.

Eventually I'll stop being amazed

Here are a few more pieces of art from Annie the Amazing! (that's her new name:-) The first two were done at art lessons. The teacher puts an object in the middle of the room and the children sketch them. Usually it takes Annie about three lessons to complete one. (Each lesson is 2 hours long) The third picture I found in her back pack. She told me that she drew it at school during some free time. I will sell anyone these pictures for $10,000. Come on, this is a steal considering she is sure to be famous some day. :-)

She was embarassed to get her picture taken infront of EVERYONE!

Annie is not the only ULTRA talented child in the family. :-) We had fun watching Ellie in her First Grade Christmas program this year. The funnest part was hearing her practice at home. She regularly performed for us while I cooked dinner, before scripture study and after family prayer. Boy did she know her songs! She told me her teacher wanted her to know the songs so well that she could sing them in the shower. (Yes, she performed there too.) My personal favorite was called "Pablo, the Reindeer from Mexico. " At one point in the song all the first graders yelled, "Ay, yi, yi, yi!" I loved it. :-) I also loved watching Ellie look at me during the program. Because she had sung her songs so much for me at home, she knew what my favorite parts were. Each time the first graders got to one of those parts, Ellie would look at me and give me an adorable knowing smile. What a cutie she is!

Another of Ellie's gifts is her ability to make friends. Here are a few of her BFF's doing a very sassy "handshake".

Annie and Ellie are not the only SUPER ULTRA talented children in the family. Casie tried out for Aladdin Jr. last week. She did a great job, and got a small speaking part. (That's pretty good considering the cast is over 80 kids!) Casie is also an amazing babysitter. She is so sweet to baby J, and actually gets her sisters to go to bed. ( Although I don't know what she will do when Christmas is over and she can't threaten to take away presents from them) She is such a good girl and is learning patience and self control....she also learned to curl her own bangs!!! :-) I wish I would have taken a picture of her first successful bang curl. Luckily there was no blood, but it took a lot of long suffering, sweat and even a few tears to achieve her goal. We ended up laughing and cheering when she finally got it right!

Jack is as adorable as ever! We all absolutely ADORE this little guy. His new trick is finding places to hide. He loves to crawl under Mike's desk. It's so funny to see a mischievous little smile creep across his face when he hears me "looking" for him. ( "Dad, have you seen Jack? I can't find him...Jack...Jack...where are you?") It's funny because he just sits there as silent as a mouse with a huge grin. I love it! (I should mention that when I do make eye contact with him and he knows he's "caught" he pats the floor and invites me into his secret little club. We've had some good little times under Dad's desk.) ( I should also mention that Mike is working during all of this....sorry hon. :-)

With Christmas in the house, he has a whole new set of hiding places. See if you can find him!!!

Caught ya again Jack!!!

Wait....

Annie: Mom, can you buy me another Tamagotchi for Christmas? (she has gone through about 6 of these digital pets in the last two years. They ALL ended up lost or broken)...and then if I take care of it this time, could you give me three bucks?

Congrats girls!!!

After knowing the dead-line for reflections had come and gone, and after not hearing anything about Casie and Annie's entries, we figured they hadn't moved on in the reflections program.

BUT...in actuality.....

BOTH were chosen to represent their school in Council! Good job girls!!!!

Second chances

So this time I steamed them, buttered them, salted them, sour creamed them, AND put some fresh bacon on them....They weren't too bad. Next time I am going to try it without the Brussel Sprouts.

Busy..but not too busy for thoughts....

Tis the season for BUSY me! The vocal group I am in has officially started it's holiday mayhem so I might not be the best at updating my blog, but I did want to record a few things that have come to my mind this week.

As I was getting ready for a performance on Thursday, Jack fell down a few stairs. Luckily he didn't get seriously injured, but he tore the flap of skin that connects his upper lip to the gums. I called the pediatrician, and she said those kind of injuries can't be stitched.
She said it would heal fast, but it will be very tender for a few days. She was right!! He had a very restless night to say the least. Lots of whimpering and full on screaming at times. I ended up holding him and rocking him for most of the night. It's so hard when someone you love so much is suffering. I just kept thinking about how innocent and sweet he was, and how he didn't deserve to suffer like this. It was then my thoughts turned to gratitude for my Heavenly Father. When I think about Christs sacrifice for me, I usually focus on what he was going through. The pain he felt. As I sat there rocking Jack and wanting so much to comfort him, I started to think about Heavenly Fathers sacrifice for me. He had to watch his precious, innocent son suffer. A son that loved and served others. A son that had no sin. A son that loved him and trusted in him. And the pain he had to suffer was greater than anyone can comprehend. It was such a powerful reminder of Heavenly Fathers love for me. It amazes me that he loved me enough to let his son suffer for me. After seeing my own son suffering just a little bit, it makes it even harder to understand. I don't think I will ever feel worthy of that kind of love, but I am so grateful for it.

Ellie: (with a ball in her shirt) Look, Mom, I have one big boob.

Mom: Ellie, let's not say boob.

Ellie: Look Mom, I have one big nibble!(she misunderstood me a while back when I told her that everyone had nipples....I thought it was cute so we went with it)

Mom: Ellie, don't say boobs or nibbles, say breast. That's what they are called and it's a nicer word for a sweet little six year old to say.

Ellie: Mom...look at my one big breast!

Annie: (approaching) Ellie, do you have a ball in your shirt?

Ellie: no, it's a boob.

Come on...don't tell me YOUR family doesn't sit around and sing songs about Cheese.

I thought Mike's enormous belch at the end was particularly special.

Learn to love what's good for you......

OR.....try to love what's good for you until you realize they are quite NASTY and give the rest to your hamster.

(Although these are very cute and we had fun pretending we were giants eating whole heads of lettuce, I just can't say that I am in love with brussel sprouts. And if I didn't like them, you can imagine what the rest of the family thought of them....Anyone have any ideas on how to make these babies taste good? I just roasted them in olive oil and added them to our pasta dish.)

But all hope is not lost............there's always dessert.

I like tall... men and I can not lie.........

One dirty,..dirty,..diiiirrrrty chandelier and one treacherously high entry way were no match for this one time Kleaning Kousin and his trusty Little Giant Ladder. Grime be gone! Let there be light!!!

After living with the dirty eye sore for over two years...(I am talking about the light fixture, not the one time Kleaning Kousin,) I feel words aren't enough to express my joy at having it clean. So here is a little song that just came to mind.....

(clear throat)...I can see clearly now the muck is gone!

I can see all obstacles in my way...(meaning the obstacles that occasionally crowd the stairs. like...toys,... shoes..banana peels)

Gone are the dark layers of filthy sludge....it's gonna be a bright....bright.....artificially lit daaayyyy....(that would be so nice for you)

ok, I'm done.

Jack Frost

Jacks first experience with snow

Family Pictures

Reflections

This year the theme for reflections is "Beauty is..." Casie took a picture, and wrote a poem, and Annie drew a picture. Ya, I know...my kids are amazing. :-)



Casie's Picture

Casie's Poem
Beauty Is.....
beauty is the smell of breakfast in the early morning
beauty is a rain fall with no kind of warning
beauty is spending time with a loved one
beauty is swinging in a hammock and having a lot of fun
beauty is feeling light like a feather
beauty is having wonderful weather
beauty is the garden just outside
or the sky that stretches blue and wide
beauty is having a nice clean house
beauty is Christmas Eve when your as quiet as a mouse
beauty is a soft comfy bed
beauty is feeling the white, soft, snow on your head
beauty is wild flowers as they dance in the sun
beauty is having all your homework done
beauty is cooking dinner with your dad
beauty is comfort when you're sad
beauty is a picture that an artist just drew
beauty is a baseball a picher just threw
beauty is when everything is fair
beauty is when all people care
beauty is you
beauty is me
beauty is everywhere as you can see

Annie's Picture

Refinement

Last night I was reminded how grateful I am to have friends who refine me and take me to a higher spiritual plain.

The sights and tastes of HALLLOOWWEEEENNN

Peanut Butter Eye Balls

Pumpkin Pancakes

Spooky Tortilla's with spooky cheese. :-)

Sadly, I didn't take a picture of my "Dinner in a pumpkin" I was too busy grabbing hot pads and spatulas and laughing my head off as our pumpkin fell apart in the oven. It was still yummy, but we re-named it, "Dinner in a huge heap,.... mingled with pumpkin"

Mysteries of the Universe

Ellie came to me this morning with a brain full of questions.

Everything from,

"How do they make it not hurt when you have a baby?"
to
" Are we just floating in space?"

She ended her inquiries with this final thought:

"How did Jesus even afford all that!?"

Crazy Hair day

Casie: Had her hair style planned out for weeks. Made me practice several times, and LOVED the way it turned out. (she also had a hard time fitting through door ways, and poked Annie in the eye at the bus stop)

Annie: Had no idea what she wanted, but as we started doing her hair, she wanted it more, and MORE, and MORE crazy. She had pipe cleaners hanging from her ears at the end, but I made her take them out. She went to school proud as punch with her look.

Ellie: Was going to copy Casie, but chickened out when it came right down to it. She barely let me do this! She DOES have an image to uphold people.

How to get your kids to eat left overs....

This worked like a charm! Add a little dinner entertainment...(me dramatically singing "You light up my life") And my kids didn't even notice they didn't get a fresh cooked meal.