another layout!

If you like the papers and elements of this layout check out one of my favorite blogs: Summertime Designs . Sorry I can't remember where I got the template but if you want it let me know and I will recreate it for you!

This has been the snowiest Christmas I can remember. Of course my long term memory isn't all that good. It is certainly snowier than any that Lance had as a kid- growing up in LA! Christmas Eve we spent at my mom's house. This has been our tradition for many years. Charlie's family came over too. My mom was not feeling well at all but was a trooper through all the noise and chaos. We made pizzas and then read the Christmas story from Luke 2. JJ and Hannah played the parts of Joseph and Mary. Then Charlie read our family Christmas story - A Christmas Dress for Ellen. The Ellen in the story is my aunt. We had made it a tradition to read this story on Christmas Eve long before President Monson retold it and the popular children's book came out. I have many memories of my mom reading this story as my dad openly wept. He didn't have any memories of that particular Christmas but of many similar ones later on in childhood. I think this year the story made more sense to JJ and Hannah. They are old enough now to realize a little bit - how blessed our family really is and that not everyone has what we have. We are certainly not wealthy by any means but we do have what we need as far as basic necessities and then some. After the story time was over we opened a few presents. The hit as far as the kids were concerned was Chloe's gift to Dan. A set of nerf guns! Before long nerf bullets were flying everywhere. We found one of them in our stuff later after we got home!
Christmas Day was bitter sweet. Lance went to pick up my mom first thing in the morning so she could see the kids open thier presents. She was not feeling well by the time he got there and decided not to come after all. Lance got back and the kids were disappointed not to see Grandma. They were excited to open thier presents though so that is what they did and had a great time at it! Our main gift was the Wii. The kids have been playing it pretty much non stop since we got it hooked up. Hannah had asked for a microphone so she got Disney Sing It for the Wii which came with a microphone. But the game that really is the funnest for all of us to play (except for Asher) is the Lego Star Wars Wii game. It is addicting! I am the first to proclaim that I am not a gamer in any sense of the word - not even good at card or board games! But I have enjoyed the few times I got to play the Lego Star Wars and the Sing it games. Yesterday I came down with some kind of stomach flu and spent the entire day in bed or in the bathroom. Today I am a little better but still feeling a bit weak and blah so I missed out on the Madigan family get to gether today. I didn't think it would be nice to share this with the family if I am still contagious. Hannah's birthday is coming up on Monday and I am totally stumped on what to do for a party. I have had her presents for about a month now but I just can't figure out something fun and somewhat inexpensive to do for her party. I really don't want to have it here at our house if I can find somewhere else to do it. Ideas are alway welcome!

Snowed in = scrapbook time!

Due to the fact that I couldn't get out of my driveway yesterday I was able to get a little scrapbooking done! These pics are from Christmas 2003 - now you all know how far behind I am. In these pics JJ is the same age as Asher is now. Kinda fun to look back and reminisce though!

Our Christmas Miracle!

Ok so we consider it a miracle that we were able to take a half way decent family photo with the timer on our camera! Merry Christmas to all!

Be good - no coal

Hannah has been so funny with her prayers for the last week or so. She always adds the same thing ...

"Please, Heavenly Father, help everyone to be good so they don't get coal in their stockings."

Wisdom from a child ... if we could all pray with that kind of faith and sincerity.

Blog Security and other December Happenings

One of the highlights of this month was Hannah's dance recital. I believe the term "a born dancer" fits her well. She loves to perform and is able to pick up and remember her dance routines easily. I hope that she continues to love dancing and performing. Her teacher is just a high schooler, herself, but she teaches three age groups of girls and she put on a wonderful program. We are so impressed with her!





Today the kids both had Christmas concerts at thier schools. Since they were within a half an hour of each other I was VERY lucky to get to both. Lance and Asher saved me a place at JJ's school and I jetted there as soon as Hannah's class was done.





We had our annual visit to Santa. We are always surprised at what the kids have to say to Santa. It is quite hilarious at times. As expected Asher didn't want to have much to do with Santa but this year Hannah got over being scared of him and had quite a long chat with him!



One of our family traditions is getting the kids each a new ornament for Christmas. This year we had three small trees that the kids got to decorate with thier ornaments from years past and of course this year's ornament. I try to get an ornament that represents something that each kid did or liked that year. Here are the photos of this year's ornaments from oldest kid to youngest.


It has been great to hear from so many family and friends this season. While we are very grateful for the technology available to help us keep in touch we also understand the need to be careful with what info we put out into cyberspace. Therefore, we are considering locking down the blog and only allowing people we invite to view it. I really hate do because it makes an extra step you readers but for children's safety we think this is best. We are keeping the blog open until January so that those who found out about our blog through the Christmas newsletter have a chance find us. Anyone who wants continue to read our blog can e-mail me at: sarey@hotmail.com.

"NO WAY!!"

That was the theme of this year's Christmas card photo session. Asher was being about as "two" as he could possibly get -- absolutely, positively without any shadow of a doubt refusing to cooperate with Sara and I when we were trying to take pictures of the kids. We tried bribery. We tried threats. We tried distractions. We failed miserably.