Christmas 2009

We had a great Christmas, with a full house! We had Matt's parents and brother with us for the week of Christmas, it was alot of fun! It came and went so fast that I realize now I did not get as many pictures as I would have liked of the kids and all the things we did together. I think I was just to busy doing a million other things. Christmas eve was a fun night, we had lots of yummy food, then it was time to play games. We played "Do you jingle", I changed the name, my family will remember it as "Do you teakettle". It was hilarious! Then we played LCR (left, center, right). Everyone really got into it.This game really changes with every roll of the dice! It was nearing the end and it looked as though Sadi was going to win the pot and then...

David won the pot of chocolate! He was kind enough to share it with all of us.

We read stories and before we knew it, it was time to hang the stockings. Sadi was so excited to get her stocking but didn't want to hang it, she wanted to wear hers to bed and was mad when I told her she needed to leave it out for Santa.

Santa usually stops by but like I said we were so busy he forgot! We also usually always decorate cookies for Santa but lost track of time and it was getting late so Chase left him some homemade chocolate chip cookies.

All to soon it was morning and all the kids climbed into our bed waiting to go see if Santa had come. Grandpa Denning was the first up and couldn't wait to start the day!

Sadi got the loving family dollhouse with all kind of dolls and furniture, she was in heaven!

She quickly removed every piece of furniture from the house (what was Santa thinking!). She loved the babies that came with it.

Chase got the big imaginext dragon castle with all kinds of new guys and weapons. I think now he has every one.

He was so excited about every single thing Santa brought even the orange in the bottom of his stocking!

Kelsey got all kinds of new clothes,

And a stereo/CD/DVD/i-pod system with new music and DVDs. She kept us jamming all day long. Her most favorite thing she got was a New Moon blanket (yes, somehow I didn't get a picture of that).

Soon it was time to tackle all the gift that were wrapped under the tree. This year the kids wasted no time tearing into their gifts.

It was fun to be able to watch Grandma and Grandpa open their gifts as well. All the kids had sent in photos that we had made into a blanket for them.

The kids played all day, it was so fun to watch. Matt left later in the day for work and I made a huge dinner for everyone. Ham, potatoes, rolls, etc. it was yummy! Al the kids got new jammies for Christmas but Sadi is the only one I could get to stop long enough to snap a photo of that night before bedtime.

It was a great Christmas! We are looking forward to 2010!!

Fourteen!

Kyle turned 14 yesterday! We got to have him over later in the evening for dinner and cake. We made up a huge batch of tacos....that boy can eat!! We played games and had a little cake (I don't know how many cakes he had for his birthday but I think he was about sick of cake by the time he got to our house. Here is the birthday boy trying to think of something to wish for... Today he is off with Matt on a shopping trip and out to lunch! Happy Birthday Kyle!

It takes a village..

Once you have more than a couple kids, you can't just get away with one gingerbread house, you end up with a village! Last night we all got to decorate our own gingerbread house, the kids had a blast. Sadi was in full concentration... The finished product was very..hmm top heavy?

I also had gingerbread men so they could eat some of what they made (because really those houses inedible).

Chase loved decorating his house, he definitely has his own sense of style. Who else is dying to have a square house?

Kelsey's took the longest, checking out every detail, and of course adding a little "Twilight" theme to hers with the gingerbread "vampire".

Here is our complete village...

It's beginning to look alot like.....

Yucky...I mean a white Christmas! Well it happened, years with just flurries always saying we were going to get snow and it never happened. The weather men actually got it right we got snow! A whole foot and it is still coming down!! For us this is highly unusual. Schools were closed and 6:50 a.m. Chase is in my bed asking to go play in the snow. Of course none of us have winter clothes (snow bibs or real coats). But before 9 we were all outside playing in the beautiful white wonder. This is Sadi's real look at the white stuff she calls lots of sand and would not call it anything but. I really did not expect any of them to last longer than 15 minutes, who can with non-waterproof mittens? Over an hour later we were still out there.

Sadi was in heaven with her "sand", and of course without watching anyone she knew just what to do.....

Yummm! Chase dove head first in, only got one picture of him, the little booger couldn't stop throwing snowballs at me.

Kyle was content to lie this one out! (of course after getting a few good snowball whacks at Dad)

And Kelsey the true snow lover lasted more than two hours (way beyond all of us). She shoveled our whole driveway for us.

She even outlasted the Eskimo dog!

I have to say it is pretty but I am already ready for it to melt! Get ready Utah we are sending it your way!

Trimming the Tree...

I know it is not even officially December yet, but our REAL tree is up and it looks amazing! We put on some Christmas music and started trimming the tree (literally). The first thing Sadi did when we got it in..... She could not stop smelling the thing. There is just no duplicating that aroma, I love it! Every time you go out of the house and come back in Pow! You get that beautiful smell. After we decorated the big tree it was time to bust out the kids trees and all of their ornaments.

A few years back we decided to let each of the kids decorate their own tree with their ornaments. Hey with 4 kids that is alot of homemade ornaments! Here is Sadi's tree..

Chase's which he was mad that he didn't have more ornaments so we had to find some extra for him.

And Kelsey's which has mostly all Rudolph ornaments, she loves Rudolph! It is always fun to see the ornaments they have made and picked out the previous year, it is like opening a little Christmas early!

I think it is time to get the cookies in the oven to complete that "Christmas" smell!

Gobble Good Turkey Day!

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving, we had a nice relaxing day at home. The kids made these turkeys using their feet/hands to make them. They turned out pretty cute. I made the whole dinner myself this year (yea me). As soon as you could smell the turkey cooking here was Sadi saying she was hungry and wanted to see the turkey. She wanted to sit in front of the oven and watch that big boy baking!

I guess my kids were super hungry by the time we ate and asked the kids what they were thankful for Chase immediately yelled "THE FOOD!!'" It was delicious!

Hereditary...

Ever found yourself watching your kids being weird or okay let's just put it out there "dorks"? And you of course blame it on your spouse's side of the family? You know you have...well for once I have hard evidence that my kids dorkiness I believe is hereditary. The other morning while sitting eating breakfast I look over at Sadi who is quietly eating her breakfast....with the bowl on her head!! I immediately started laughing but also remembered a photo my mother in law had showed me some years before. This is Matt when he was a kid about the same age.....

Need I say more? Of course it is a Denning Gene!!!

New Moon

Alright as much as I want to tell all about the "New Moon" premiere last night, I will refrain from spilling anything for those of you who did not get to see it yet! It was to be a fun night out for both Kelsey and I, she has been waiting forever for this movie and has had a countdown in her room for 100 something days so I knew I wanted to make it an extra special day for her. The morning began with a little surprise. I had made wolf tracks that led from her room out into the kitchen.There waiting for her was a photo of Jacob (below) which I added a title for her that read: "I'll see you tonight...".

She needed a good breakfast as she would be facing the Voltori later that evening, one last warning as she left for school on the outside of the front door I left one last footprint she would see that said "We'll be watching you". (You will get this if you have read the book). She was soo excited to get home and then the waiting for time to go. I had planned to take her out to dinner and a little shopping before the movie so we got ready to leave. I told her she didn't look quite ready to go and that her outfit just seemed to be missing something but that I had just the thing to complete her outfit. I had found this cute charm bracelet for her that has all the cute charms to represent all the things in the movie/book.

I then told her to check her purse to make sure she had everything she needed before we left. I had hidden one more little surprise in there. Some chocolates for the movie that were individually packaged in Edward and Jacob wrappers! Finally we were off!

We went to Chili's for dinner..yummy! A little shopping and then to the theatre to join the madness. They were playing the movie in 10 packed theatres, I chose smartly and walked to the very end theatre to find it less packed than all the rest. Then we waited anxiously!

Finally Movie time, this girl smiled I think the whole movie! As I promised I won't spoil anything, I will just say it was Awesome!!!

Sowwy is that my dwool?

This week I faced my biggest fear! I have been avoiding having my wisdom teeth removed for like 7 years. My top two came in painful but I endured it over the years, my bottom two were much more painful but I am so terrified to go to the dentist I thought I could deal with the pain. The dentist had assured me that although when I looked at the x-rays and one of them looked like it would be coming in crooked and push my other teeth that they would straighten out. LIE!! I woke on Tuesday and realized one of my front teeth had moved! Not drastically to anyone else but to me it might as well changed zip codes! I immediately called the dentist to schedule an appointment to just talk about what I could do (no need to get drastic right?). Well shockingly they said we could get you in on Thursday to have those extracted....I immediately panicked and tried to think of a reason why I couldn't make it..she then offered Friday as well! Well I managed to make the appointment for Thursday, I was confident something would come up and I would have to cancel, my tooth all the sudden didn't look as though it had moved that much. Came the next morning and I realized now they would not have 24 hrs. notice to cancel so I would be going. I knew it was very unlikely they would be able to remove them, it is unusual for a regular dentist to remove wisdom teeth. I made it to the appointment barely. First thing to do...get an x-ray the nurse said would feel like she was strangling me...okay now I am freaking out!!! She did tell me how rare it was for the dentist to remove wisdom teeth so that if he agreed it should be very straight forward. He came in took a LONG look...blah blah blah (I was paralyzed with fear so heard some of what he said) "Okay it looks like we can remove those for you today". FULL ON PANIC....embarrassing really, my whole body was shaking. "Okay let's do it!" Who said that? Oh crap it was me!! I knew I would not have the nerve to come back so they might as well strap me down. I did ask him "How skilled are you?". He laughed which I say as a good sign. They more than offered me nitrous oxide (AKA laughing gas), I have never experienced this before but they said it would calm me down...all I needed to hear, I was on board...crank it up!! It is the weirdest feeling....I LOVED IT!! I didn't hear alot after that, I had the I-pod blaring so loud even they could hear my music. Over an hour later DONE!! As I was leaving, I am pretty sure I was drooling, but sooo happy I felt no pain. I couldn't make complete sentences for many hours later, and was happy for a drive thru pharmacy to fill my pain meds. I am very proud of myself for facing my fear...By the way I purposely told no one of what I was having done, because if you have noticed whenever you tell someone what you are having done they automatically feel it their duty to tell you a horrific story they experienced. You know it's true right?

Straight A's

Yesterday was PTC (parent teacher conference) for Kelsey. Of course all her teachers raved about what a great student she is and how they wished they could duplicate her. She started off the year great...straight A's!! A few of her teachers admitted they don't like to give out A's at all but she really earned it. Matt told her if she gets straight A's for the next 3 years he will buy her a car. She is REALLY working for that. (Hey we never said it would be a new car right?..he he).
Way to go Kelsey one quarter down, only 3 quarters and two more years to go!

Happy Halloween!!

Trick or Treat!! Halloween was a really fun night. It was a loooong day waiting to go trick-or-treating. Finally the time came to get in our costumes and head out on the streets to collect some candy. My little ghouls in their costumes....Isn't this the cutest little scarecrow you ever saw? What made this costume so cute is watching her in it, she wobbled around just like a scarecrow. This is the first year Sadi really got to walk and knew how to say trick or treat. She did a couple houses and then was ready to sit in the stroller and ride around for the rest of the night.

My spiderific Spider man had the energy of an army...this kid went till his bucket was full!! I mean not one more piece of candy could fit in that thing. He was running to every door, he would complain his bucket was heavy but he was not going to stop until he had no more room literally.

Dr. Denning in her scrubs got some extra candy from the elderly people I noticed, I think they appreciated her costume....or else they had a lapse and thought she was their nurse!

When the night was done it was time to head home, light up our pumpkins and dive into the candy!

Chase sat patiently this year sorting and looking at every piece of candy.

Sadi couldn't wait to open her candy she wanted to eat everything! She wanted so bad to eat all these jaw breakers (I wouldn't let her have them...those things are dangerous!). She was watching Chase and every time he would look away from his candy she would casually sneak a little more of his into her pile...she ended up with quite a pile! What a little stinker! It was a fun night! Hope everyone had a nice Halloween!!