A tree, PJ's and stockings!!!

Pizza by the TREE!!! Christmas PJ's!!!!









Stockings from SANTA!!!

So Christmas has come and gone and whewwwwww I'm tired. On Christmas eve we read the Christmas story and The Night Before Christmas. We eat pizza by the tree and put on our matching Christmas Jammies!! (Yes even mom and dad matched) Well it was during all the festivities that we had an unexpected visitor. A young man we don't know came by with a LARGE bag of gifts. He said "Merry Christmas" and I asked "From who?" his reply was "I don't know, I was just told to bring this to you" Now Manila is TINY we know EVERYONE in town so this was interesting. But inside were some clothes for the kids, a game and DVD, and a Christmas Tree shaped box FULL of money!!!! Now I was shocked and a little guilt ridden. We are FINE, we didn't need any of what was given to us and there are certainly people who could have used this more. I called my sister and she explained that there was a book called "The Christmas Jar" Basically it's about doing exactly what was done to us. Save change all year, buy a few gifts and give it anonymously. But again we aren't in NEED!!! My sister explained that it was our of love, not need that we were chosen and that we should plan to do the same for another family next year. Well we defiantly will be doing that next year.

Christmas morning didn't start as early as we feared. The kids were stirring around 7:30. For us that's sleeping in!!! We all had a great morning. Then we packed up and headed the 3 hours to see the family. We went to the Bills' (my parents) for gifts and dinner. Stayed the night and then went to the Wolford's for gifts and snacks. This was AFTER, family pictures in the morning and a trip to Cabela's and we only spent 2 hours there!!

Then it was time for the trek back!!! It's always nice to come home. And it's also nice to spend time with family. Now I return (with the kids) to SLC tomorrow to spend time with my sister from Kansas!!!! As we all grow up I really like my brother's and sister's (don't tell them I said that)

I hope you had a safe and happy Holiday and may 2008 be filled with all the blessings you need and desire.

p.s. have you played the 20Q hand held game????? It knows.....

Bows, Bows, an Elf and SANTA!!!!!

Zach was an elf in the preschool Christmas Play!!!!

So this last week has been HECTIC!! We had our Church Christmas dinner on Wed. night. That's where the bows came from.

Then last night was the Elementary school Christmas Play!! It was also the debut of the HS Band and the 6th grade Band. It should also be noted it was my debut as a Band Director!! It was fun and I think it went well.

When it was the pre-school's turn to do their little Christmas Play they all got on stage and stood on the edge. My son took this to mean pretend to be too close, actually be too close and fall off the stage!!! YEP he fell, he was fine but the crowd got to laugh at our funny boy.

They girls did good in their play except when Jordynn left in the middle if a song to tell us she needed to go to the bathroom!! Then she left AGAIN and came to sit with us while they were singing "Here comes Santa Claus" I should mention that she's TERRIFIED of Santa. She had a bad experience when she was about 18 mo. old and she's NEVER liked Santa since.

For the first year Zach went all by himself to sit in Santa's lap. But if you look at the picture.. he never ACTUALLY looked directly at Santa.

And Michaela had a LIST to share. Such a funny girl!!!!

HAVE A GREAT DAY AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Snow, Parties, Candy and Pillows....

The Kids all dressed up for the snow
Pillows, pillows, and yep...more pillows!!!


So I have a lot to say this entry. First: Snow came, kids got dressed. kids played, kids got cold, kids came in. But it was fun while it lasted. Poor Zach had to wear PINK snow pants. I thought I had some for him in black but all I could find were pink!!! Oh well I'll pay for therapy later.

Last week Ben and I went to 2 Christmas Parties. My work and his.
The school district party (mine) was up the canyon at a lodge and was quite nice. The cool thing was they gave each of us a gift when we left and we got a Spiral Cut Ham and a 5 lb. loaf of cheese!!! I thought that was very cool.
Then we had Ben's work party in Vernal. Vernal is an hour away from our house so we got a sitter, left early and got some shopping done. We had to take 2 white elephant gifts to the party. I generally HATE white elephants. We took 2 boxes of cookies and we were the hit of the party. It was a late night but fun. Side note...DO NOT order a hamburger from a Mexican restaurant unless you want a touch of food poisoning.

I love Christmas candy. But I hate that it's all "limited edition" the kind you can ONLY get at Christmas. Well I've solved the problem. I LOVE MINT M&M's!!!! LOVE THEM!!! So to help me deal with the "limited edition" issue I bought 7 bags when I went to the store. I would have got more but that was all they had on hand. This should get me through New Year's

Last but NOT least.....Today is Ben's Girls Basketball Christmas Party. So I decided I would make each girl a basketball pillow!!! I was so proud of myself. They looked SOOOO good and I got them all done a whole day early!!! Then when I got back from Church Choir practice I was informed that I needed 10 Pillows. I had made 9!!!! Well that wasn't so bad except I was out of material!!!! So after some naughty words and fishing scraps out of the garbage I pieced together pillow #10. Can you find it in the picture????

Let it Snow....O.K. you can stop NOW!!!!

Ben and his SNOW BLOWER!!!!

See all the snow on my deck?

Michalea in her class Cristmas play, she's an elf!!

So we woke up to a winter wonderland. And yes it's beautiful and yes it's Christmas time and so we should appreciate it. But I'M COLD!!! I don't mind the cold I come stand by the fire but I hate the WET!!! Anyway this was a nice serene scene in Manila this morning and Ben got to use his snow blower. That's always fun!! He even plowed a path for the neighbor kids to walk up to our driveway for the bus.

By the way I'm listening to "Grandma got run over by a reindeer" and Zach is laughing hysterically!!! He just asked me "How did Grandma get run over by a reindeer?" And he likes the line "Hoof marks on her back". It's fun to see his sense of humor coming through.
He keeps asking me to find the "Zachary song". John Denver has a Christmas song called "A baby just like you". This year he finally noticed that John Denver sings "Merry Christmas little Zachary" He of course thinks it's about him!!!

One good thing about the snow....it finally feels like Christmas!!!!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!

It's dark....let's hang up the LIGHTS!!!!

Ben hanging up the lights Zach "helping"

Ben started to put up the Christmas Lights today but had to go to Basketball Practice before he was done. By the time he got home at 5:00pm it was dark. But that doesn't deter the MEN!!!! All us girls (the smart ones) were in the WARM house but Zach and Ben (the men) needed to finish the job they started. They did really good and got all the lights up and they looked GREAT!!! Well...until a fuse got blown in somewhere in the 9 light strands. Well it is dark so that project will have to wait until oh I don't know......SUNSHINE!!!!

Turkey, Bingo and a Christmas Tree

Decorating the Tree!!!!

Zach is being,,,,well Zach!!!
Jordynn and her drum!!!

Happy Holidays!!

Yes, it's been a MONTH since I wrote last. But in my defense I've been SUPER busy. Thanksgiving came and went with lots of fun, we had dinner with the Wolford's at my FABULOUS sister-in-law's and it was fun. Then we went to my parents for dessert and BINGO!!! A fun Bills family tradition where mostly grown men and women play vicious games of Bingo for the chance at Happy Meal prizes brought by my Grandmother that she's been saving all year.

While playing Bingo one of my oldest friends Alice said, "Sarah you need to blog more". She does a GREAT job and is a good example to me. So this is for you Alice.

After Thanksgiving we went and got our tree!!!! I was so happy we went the weekend of Thanksgiving because this last weekend it was COLD and SNOWY! So the tree was in our house for quite a few days before lights and ornaments were on it. This was a HARD concept for Zach and Dani. Every morning they would come in our room and ask if it was Christmas. To them, if there was a tree in the house where where the gifts? It was sad to have to tell them that it wasn't Christmas...YET. But we decorated the tree and that helps them get through these agonizing days of waiting and waiting for Santa Clause!!!!

Jordynn and Michaela had a school program where they played really cool African Drums. They had a Musician come for 2 weeks and then they performed for the parents. If was great!! They did a great job!!

This month is BUSY and I look forward to the Christmas Break!!! Happy Holidays!!!!