Graham Cracker Barns

Every few Thursdays Keresa goes to some girl party with her bffs. Who knows what they do or how it could be fun, but all I know is as soon as she walks out the door, the kids look at me and say, "What fun thing are we going to do tonight for Daddy-Daughter-Son-Son?!" Usually the fun has to wait until we put Carter to bed. So then it becomes Daddy-Daughter-Son.

I thought we were making graham cracker houses. But the kids let me know since we had no ginger bread guys, they couldn't be houses. We did have animal crackers, so they must be graham cracker barns.

Dad made one

Whistle while you work

This is harder than it looks

The whole setup

Jackson said, "I'm going to have some pets!"

"Doesn't mine look cool with all these sprinkles?!"

"DAD! Jackson used all the sprinkles!"

(but she cheered right up when I told her we would eat them)

She learned on Ratatouille to close her eyes so she could see all the flavors

"The milk melts the glue and the cracker!"

Trying to figure out why it tastes SO GOOD!

So go have your girl parties, and do whatever it is you do, because we have a so much fun at Daddy-Daughter-Son.

Yes, it's true!

There is a "babee in my belee".

I'm a little over 11 weeks along and almost past the "sick" stage.  I feel better every day...now if I wasn't SO tired!

Sydney and Jackson are very excited.  Jackson concluded that the baby lives in a dew drop in my belly.

My official due date is August 29th, but since I'll have another c-section we're planning on the 22nd.

I'm scheduled for another ultrasound a week from Wednesday and they will try to determine the sex.  I've never known this early!

Carter and this child will be 21 months apart and just one year apart in school.

Sydney and Jackson were 20 months apart and one year apart in school.

Yes, we planned it this way...crazy as it seems.  ;-)

Life will be crazy, hard, hectic, emotional, and tiring.

BUT

We're excited and ready for the challenge.

Now I need to go take a nap!

(I wish!)

Another one of Sydney's creations.

She had another birthday!

In January Sydney turned 6 years old.

It's a crazy feeling to be the mother of a 6 year old.  

How could it have been that long ago that I had her?

Weird.

The festivities started off a couple weeks before her birthday when we went to Disney on Ice with some cousins.  It was great, the kids loved it, and we had some yummy dinner before.

Jackson and Sage (below) were completely amazed.  They were asking questions the whole time. 

My favorite was during the scene from the Sorcerer's Apprentice where the brooms were skating/dancing.  The performers were wearing costumes where their heads were covered (and eyes) to look like the handle of the broomstick.  Jackson looked at me in amazement and asked,

"How can they see even though they are blind??"

Oh man, it was fun to watch the kids get excited about all the characters.

Then, those same cousins got to come have a sleepover at our house and they brought along a dancing game for the Wii. 

Even Carter would grab a wiimote and dance.  It was fun to watch.

The night before Sydney's birthday the boys went to pick up a new book shelf while I took Sydney out to shop for her birthday cake ingredients.  Before we went to the store I surprised her and stopped into Applebees for some dessert.  She was almost in tears with excitement that "just the girls...not even Carter!!" got to go out together.  She talked my ear off and had a great time.  

This will have to become a more regular thing.  We had a blast.

Carter and Jackson helped me bake her cake. 

Sydney made an invitation to her "party".  Jackson had been pretending to be her dog "roofy" that day, so it invites him also.

"Dear Dad and Mom and Roofee, please come to my birthday"

Grandma Gifford, Aunt Sherri, and Aunt Kelly surprised her with a visit after school.  They brought lots of presents.  She's at that age where she acts like nothing impresses her (what, is she 14??), but she loved her gifts.

Then of course there was the cake.  A cinnamon swirl/vanilla ice cream cake.  Her choice.

My camera went missing while she opened the gifts from McKay and me.  I think McKay snapped some pictures on his Droid, but I haven't seen them yet.  She got a Barbie that rides a bike, the books Goldalicious and Purplicious, and a razor scooter.  There was no hiding her excitement....she was thrilled.

Lastly, I walked in on this this morning.  Made my day.

Yes, we are still alive.

Where have I been you ask?  Let me just say three words.

New Primary President.

There, do I have to say any more?

Here's a quick conversation McKay and I had back in November:

Mckay : Do you think 25 is too young to be a primary president?

Me : Uh...YA!

McKay : Good thing you're going to be 26 tomorrow!

Me : (while punching McKay repeatedly) WHAT DO YOU KNOW?!?

So, yes, for my 26th birthday I was given the gift of being called as the new primary president in a ward that I know, oh, about 10 women, asked to find 8 new teachers, 2 counselors, and a secretary.....AND do all of the end of the year/beginning of a new year prep.  

SAY WHAT?

Ya, it's been insane.  I have spent endless hours, and hours, and hours, and hours (you get the point) preparing, learning, shopping, teaching, reading, etc. 

It's been crazy, but the first Sunday of the year is now 

OVER

and it can only get better from here!...right?  

I've ended up with some wonderful counselors/secretaries/teachers and I couldn't ask for better help.  

I've been the primary chorister since we moved into the ward back in May, so I already know most of the kids (phew!).

I don't have to work outside the home so at least I've had the time it takes to do everything.

Anyway, that's what I've been up to.  Along with the craziness of Christmas that we all go through of course!  

Christmas was WONDERFUL this year.  We got to spend plenty of time with our extended family and our own little family.  It was so nice to not be traveling and living out of suitcases for the 3 weeks during Christmastime.  We got to sleep in our own beds at night and that was great!

It all began with Santa visiting the primary Christmas activity.

Then, the week before Christmas McKay used some of his vacation time and we headed to a cabin near Brian Head in Utah.  I don't even have the energy to go into all the eventful events of that week.  But here are some highlights :

-We drove our minivan, at night, into a storm, to a cabin we'd never been to.

-We did not caravan with the 3 four wheel drive vehicles that came up the following day.

-We did not attempt to put our new snow chains on our van before we were stuck in a blizzard....and no they did not fit once we tried.

-We did get stuck in a ditch on the side of the snowy road for 6 hours in the middle of the night and made beds for the kids on the floor of the van.

-We did finally get unstuck and drove the final 2 miles to the cabin in record time (2 hours) arriving at 3:30am.

-We did have power for the first day, but then no power for the following 3 days.

-We did steal borrow fire wood from neighboring cabins to stay warm.

But most of all

-We really did have a blast.

I guess once I accepted the fact that we didn't have all the luxuries we thought we would have, it was ok.  We still played games, played in the snow, laughed, ate, and had a great time.  

I'm not positive but I think we got somewhere between 2 and 4 feet of snow while we were there....maybe more..?  In other words, it snowed the whole time.  Crazy.

Now for some pictures.

Kelly and Christie

Conner, Kelly, Sydney,Christie, and Jackson

Christie, Carter, Keresa, Sydney, and Sherri trying to stay warm inside.

Jackson catching snow flakes o his tongue.

Even Carter got to go outside for a little while.

But then we watched the fun through the window.

The boys built a huge snow man.

McKay made a mini sledding hill.

Sydney did some modeling poses as she slid down on her side.

Then we ventured down the road a ways and made a nice big sledding hill....and captured this picture.

It really was a great trip.  A snow plow came half way through the week so McKay got right behind him and got our van out before the next 2 feet of snow fell.  We parked the van on the highway that gets plowed all day and we picked it up at the end of our trip.

Now for Christmas!  

We went and saw Tangled on Christmas Eve and it was very cute.  We bought the kids a large popcorn and the only one who decided to have any was Jackson.  About half way through the movie I look over to check on him and he's shoveling handful after handful into his mouth while totally zoned into the movie.  The popcorn bucket was more than half way gone at that point....how in the world a boy that small could hold so much food...I'll never know!  He thought it was the coolest thing in the world to have it all to himself!

Christmas Eve night we spent at my mom and dad's house.  We had Costco pizza (super easy and yummy), did the nativity, had a little talent show, and all the grandkids opened jammies.

Here's an attempt at the 6 tired and ready for bed grandkids.

Jackson with some pumpkin pie.

The Nativity.

The traditional singing of "Green Eggs and Ham".

And a whole family shot right before heading home to wait for Santa to come.

Christmas morning the kids slept in until 7:00.  I was up and showered before they even made a peep.  We eventually had to wake up Sydney!  What?

Waiting on the stairs to see if Santa came.  (Don't you love Carter's cheese?)

Santa spoiled McKay!

The big kids got piggy banks in their stockings.

Carter loved rummaging through his stocking.

Sydney trying out Dad's new toy.  

In the background you can see the train table and trains the kids got from Santa.  I forgot to get a picture of it all set up...

That afternoon we headed back to my parent's house for our traditional breakfast (for lunch) and gift opening.  We spent the afternoon and evening chatting, playing with new toys, and relaxing.  It really was a great Christmas!

And yesterday we got some snow!  It was weird driving Sydney to school and seeing the while stuff covering everything.  These picture were taken after the rain had melted most of it away, but I'd say we got a good 2 inches at our house!  Pretty exciting for us Las Vegans!

So that's the very LONG recap to our last few weeks.  We'll see if I'm able to keep up with my picture taking and blogging in the coming months!