Christmas 2012

Christmas this year has been a little unique.  We started our Christmas parties this week on Sunday, the 23rd, out at my Grandpa Maughan's house.  Not everyone was at Grandpa's house.  Heck, we haven't all been together in five years (Grandpa's big 80th birthday party)!  It would be really neat to be all together.  My mom said my aunt figured there are 22 grandkids, 37 great grandkids and 3 more great grandkids on the way.  That's not even counting my dad, his five brothers and their spouses either.  Yep, we number many in that clan!  We didn't stay too long because we also had to head to the Snyder's house.  Usually it's my grandparents, my family, my Aunt Colette's family, my Aunt Nikki's family & my Uncle Stan's family.  In short, it's a large gathering (not as large as the Maughan's, but still a good size get together).  This year though we were short people!  It felt like we were short half our clan but we were only short Stan's family.  It was fun, it just didn't feel quite the same.  I'm thinking we should have a New Year's Eve Reeder party so that we can all get together for real!  The reason Stan's family missed is that they had the flu bug at their house.  We've been dealing with the flu bug too.  It came back and hit Caleb again about the Friday or Saturday before Christmas.  It's been really weird how it's effected the boys.  It will hit them really hard for several hours, they nap for a few hours and then they're good to go for another several hours before it hits them again. This nasty little bug hit Travis Christmas morning and Brookelyn the day after Christmas.  I'm crossing my fingers it stays the heck away from me!

At the Reeder party - kids were waiting for their presents.  

On Christmas Eve we had a get together at my mom's house.  We always do dinner and open gifts over there on Christmas Eve.  There's never a shortage of good treats to eat or presents to open.  This year my mom was a maniac and sewed most of the gifts she gave the kids.  I didn't get pictures of everything she sewed for my kids, but I'm thinking that I'll have to do that now....seriously, she's out of control!

Brookelyn was fun to watch.  She REALLY got into opening the presents.  She'd open one present and get excited about it and then set it down and go for another one.  It was fun to watch her get so excited.

My mom always wraps all the presents she has for the kids individually.  Then, she puts all the presents for each kid into one large box and wraps the large box.  The first year she did this the kids thought they were only getting one present each.  They went nuts when they opened the big box and saw a bunch more wrapped presents inside!

This was Brookelyn's favorite gift this year.  I wanted to get her a shopping cart, but all the carts I found had mostly cardboard food in them.  I knew they'd get destroyed really quick so I didn't buy any of the ones I found.  My mom found this one.  There is quite a bit of cardboard food but there's a good amount of the little plastic food too.  She loves this thing.  Every time I turn around she's dumped all the food on the floor and is pushing the cart across the floor as fast as she can.  She keeps trying to climb in it and sit too!  Cracks me up.  I'm just waiting for her to go out sideways and land on her head!

Sam got a skein of cute blue fuzzy yarn to go with her knitting loom thing.  There are several different looms and you can make hats, scarves, etc.  There are even directions for making a cute raffia flower. We bought some raffia the other day so we could try that one out.  She's excited to learn how to do this.  I have a feeling once she learns she's going to be a knitting maniac.

Christmas morning was lots of fun.  The kids each have a pile of gifts with their stocking next to it.  Brookelyn was funny because once we got her opening presents she'd try and go to a different pile to open a present each time!  The kids were really good about steering her back to her specific pile!

Caleb got this sucker in his stocking.  There's a real scorpion in the sucker.  He asked me what it was and when I told him he said, "That's A-sgusting!"  Now he claims "It's not a-sgusting mom.  It's cool!"  I will not be encouraging him toe at this.  Not even a little.  In fact, I'm going to have to watch to be sure his dad and brother don't encourage him to eat it!

Caleb gave Brooke her very first Barbie for Christmas this year.

Nash is now a more official LEGO maniac.  He wore this shirt today and kept trying to pull his legs inside his shirt and walk!  Goof ball.

Caleb's favorite gift this year - a spiderman fishing pole.  He saw a pole like this at Ridley's about six months ago and now every single time we go to the store (doesn't matter what store) he asks if we will buy him his spiderman fishing pole.  He is so, so excited to try this out.  Too bad his dad hates the idea of ice fishing - guess he has to wait until it's warm out to try out his pole!

Brookelyn got lots of babies this Christmas.  She loves them.  And, come to find out, she loves pushing them around in a baby stroller too.  I think sister is going to need a new baby stroller for her birthday....

Nash's favorite gift this year -- a new BB gun.  Yes, it scares me.  I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but how he got this gun still surprises me.  I was looking through the Black Friday ads when Travis saw this BB gun on sale for about $20 or $30.  He was dying to get it for Nash and I kept telling him NO!  Nash isn't getting a gun until he's eight!  Then, it hit me.  I told him, "If you brave the gray Thursday/Black Friday hoards with me, you can get him the gun for Christmas."  Anyone that knows Travis knows how much the man hates to shop, hates people, and hates people while shopping.  I didn't figure there was a snowball's chance in hell that he'd agree to this.  Turns out I was WRONG.  Not only did he brave the hoards to get the BB gun, we went to about 3 stores!  Now I know better!

Remember how I said my mom made a ton of the gifts she gave the kids this year?  One of the things she made was matching dresses for my girls and my sister's girls.  My girls wore their dresses on Christmas day.  They look so stinking cute.  Made me think back to when I was growing up and my mom would always make my sister and I Christmas dresses.

On Christmas day we went out to Travis's parents house.  We got out there around 11:30 am and were there until 11:30 pm!  The only reason we were out there so late is because I took my sewing machine and the things I needed so I could put the last of the binding on the last 2 I Spy quilts for my nephews!  I had two of the bindings done on the quilts, but I still had 2 quilts to finish binding.  I wasn't happy with how they looked because I did the binding on my machine rather than by hand.  Oh well, the kids won't care and I got them done!

Caleb opening his gift from his cousin Kash.

Brookelyn trying to make a get away to open someone else's present.  If you look in the background at Travis you can see he's hugging something.  Brookelyn had opened a baby doll from Grandma & Grandpa and was headed to open another present that belonged to someone else.  She was being onery and Travis was trying to get her side tracked by loving on her baby.  She didn't go for it!

Christmas Day naps.  Travis wasn't feeling too great and later in the day the yuckies hit B too.  This was a much needed nap.

Remember the flying suit my mom made Caleb for his birthday?  When Nash started reading Captain Underpants this fall it seemed like whenever she'd come up to our house Caleb would be running around in his underwear and occasionally  his flying suit.  So, my mom started calling him Captain Underpants.  Nash has since decided he wants to be Captain Underpants for Halloween.  I think that will be a bit chilly of a costume.  Anyway, my mom decided it would be fun to make flying suits for Nash and my nephew Jack for Christmas too.  Once she had them almost done she got feeling guilty about not doing one for Caleb too - even though he already had one from his birthday.  So, she threw one together for Caleb too.  This flying suit has a bat on the back and mom made the mask and belt that go with it.  Caleb loves it and has worn it quite a bit already!

Other than having the flu off and one for 2 full weeks now, we've had a great Christmas.  The kids loved their stuff and seeing all their family.  I feel like a total slacker because I didn't make any Christmas treats this year and I ALWAYS make Christmas treats.  I think I might break down and make something this weekend still.  It's killing me!  I also still don't have the fifth I Spy quilt done that I needed for a birthday present on Christmas Eve.  I'm working on it though.  I moved all my sewing stuff down to my office after cleaning out my office today.  I also took one of my 6 ft tables and set it up in the basement and moved some scrapbook stuff out there.  Sam got some scrapbook stuff from my mom for Christmas.  She also got some for her birthday the last two years in a row.  I'm a terrible mom and haven't let her do it despite her repeated begging sessions!  I finally found pictures she could have when I cleaned out my office in Oct.  Now, I can say that I've fixed her a spot to work too!  I think that will be on the agenda for tomorrow!  Guess regular scrapbook sessions with Sam will have to go on the New Year's resolutions!

And on a side note, for anyone who was privy to the toaster joke between Travis and I....I did get a toaster for Christmas.  Everyone but Sam & I have used it.  Travis said it burns stuff.  I told him he just has it turned up too high.  Guess I'll have to use it tomorrow!  However, he did redeem himself because he also got me a Cricket Expressions 2.  When I opened it Travis told me, "Now you can quit sewing and start scrapbooking!"  HA!  If only it were that easy!  Little does he know I have 50 things that I've either started or bought to start that I have to finish first!

Act of Kindness #4

Yesterday I took Sam to Logan and we ran several errands.  Our last stop was Sam's Club.  While Sam was waiting for me to finish checking out, she went and sat down at one of the tables by the food court thing.  When I finished checking out I went and sat down by her.  She looks at me and says, "Mom.  This lady dropped a whole bunch of her change so I went and helped her pick it up.  She told me she liked my shirt!"  I haven't even told Sam about the Acts of Kindness challenge.  I smiled and told her that was awesome.  Good to know I have kiddos that will do acts of kindness even if they aren't participating in a challenge!

26 Acts of Kindness

Things are crazy these days.  I finally broke down and talked to my kids about the shooting in CT the other day.  I was donating some pillowcases to a charitable cause for the effort and Sam kept wanting to know what I was donating for.  I finally broke down and told her.  She didn't seem all that surprised.  She had heard about it at school and I guess they've talked about it.  Neither one of the older kids seemed all that surprised actually.  Fortunately neither one of them seemed stressed or worried about it either.  Kudos to their teachers.

This morning, the school district canceled school at the high school in Hyrum.  Apparently, last night a student at MC tweeted he was going to bring a gun to school and "kill myself and possibly others."  The district and police department felt that since they didn't know who the threat came from, the safest thing to do was to cancel school at the high school.  I was surprised they didn't cancel school at my kids' school since it's DIRECTLY behind the high school.  What they ended up doing was stationing teachers and the principal at each door or lock the unmanned doors.  They were told that any student who was not a member of the student body at that particular school was not to be allowed into the school.  There were also 2 police cars at the school when I dropped Nash off.  The principal also took some other precautions.  The kids had indoor recess so they weren't out in the open.  The teachers kept their classroom doors locked all day and for the most part, the classroom doors were shut.  This prevented a lot of extra kids in the hallways and no one could come in or out without someone knowing who was coming in or out of the room.  I think they did a great job.  I told Nash that I was going to drop Caleb off at preschool and then I'd come to his school.  I had to be there at 11 to help with Sam's class party anyway, so I figured I would feel better being in the school with the kids for that extra two hours.  After I dropped Caleb off at preschool I went back to the school.  I checked in at the office and got an awesome fluorescent orange sticker that identified me as a visitor.  I then went to Nash's class.  His teacher was very welcoming of me in her classroom.  I told her I was just there to be an extra body/help for two hours.  I was able to help monitor while they took a spelling test, help with minor needs while the kids made Christmas cards for their parents and then help with m&m math.  At 11 am I went over to Sam's class.  We had her class Christmas party that lasted for an hour.  While I was in Nash's class I learned that one of the parents that was suppose to come to help with their class party hadn't sent her child to school that day.  I told Nash's teacher that I could come back and help.  So, after I finished up in Sam's class, I took a short break and then went back to Nash's class to help with his class party.  Turns out I was at the school for the entire school day although I had only originally intended to be there for about an hour!  I was impressed with the way the teachers talked to the kids about what was going on and I was impressed with how easily the administration was able to increase the security in the school.  Kudos Canyon Elementary!

A few days ago I read the article that has been circulating about the 26 Acts of Kindness.  I decided I'd join the effort.  Here is what I've done so far:

Act of Kindness #1: I donated 4 pillowcases to My Girlfriend's Quilt Shop.  I read an article online.  They had received a shout out from a quilt shop in CT that was trying to get 600 pillowcases.  They wanted to give one to each student, faculty and staff member at the Sandy Hook Elementary School as well as each of the first responders.  My Girlfriend's Quilt Shop had extended hours on Tuesday this week and at the end of that day they had around 400 pillowcases.  I stopped in on Thursday on my way to take kids to get their allergy shots for the week and dropped off 4 more.  I asked if they knew how many pillowcases they had and I was told, "Over 1,000 now."  That is amazing!

Act of Kindness #2: I measured out my long, blonde locks and got them packaged to send to Locks of Love.  My cousin Nat told me she had measured my pony tails at a little more than 10 inches.  After we chopped the pony tails she told me she took off another two inches.  Well, in measuring my pony tails I learned that they were actually just over 12 inches!  That means I cut 14" of hair off!  I did not think my hair was that long!

Act of Kindness #3: A friend of mine has a sister who was in a very horrible car accident the other day.  The accident left her mother in law deceased.  It also left her left leg in shambles, her 2 1/2 year old looks like he had a baseball bat taken to him and her 2 week old baby was injured as well.  They live in Montana and hadn't been able to go Christmas shopping yet due to weather.  She and her husband were going to go this weekend.  Now she's in the hospital along with the 2 week old and they are planning a funeral.  Meanwhile there's no one to do the Christmas shopping for their five kids.  So, we "adopted" the family and are sending some love.

 Not sure what I'll come up with for my other acts of kindness yet.  I did join Sunset Crochet on FB and am going to help out with their 12 days of Christmas challenge.  The challenge is to make 12 crocheted hats for babies in the NICU.  I hold a special spot for NICU because I've had a nephew and a niece spend time there after they were born.  This challenge actually runs Dec. 25-Jan. 6 so I know I should be able to get this one done on time!  Just crossing my fingers that the patterns aren't too complicated to figure out - I'm still very much a beginner crochet-er!

Merry Christmas!

Dance recital, funny girls, hair cuts & Santa

Sam & Kylee are so excited to be in the same class again.  They were in the same class for a year or so when they were just little and then they were in Dyna-kids together for a year before Sam moved up to Jr. Company.  This year Kylee moved up to Jr. Company too!

Brookelyn never ceases to amaze me.  This little girl is more like her big sister every day!  I caught her reading a story to the snowmen the other day.

And speaking of Sam, I found these notes on her door the other day.  I about died laughing.  Completely cracked me up.  I had to get a photo.

Nash has been getting festive with the LEGOs.  He built Santa for us.

Today I finally took the boys in for a hair cut.  I've been debating about chopping my hair off for awhile.  The first time I got the inkling to do it I just permed it instead.  The perm never did take too well so I still had the inkling to do something different.  My sister in law chopped hers over Thanksgiving and it gave me another nudge to do it.  So, while I was there with the boys, I cut my hair.

Before (the last time I chopped my hair was Jan. 2010 & I cut about 11 inches off):

After:

It hasn't been this short since I was pregnant with Nash.  When I chopped it off last time the back was a little longer and it was an A line so the front just about hit my shoulders.  My cousin, Natalee, cut my hair for me and I asked her if she thought it was long enough to donate.  I didn't think it would be.  I've never donated before but have always wanted to.  She put my hair into two pony tails and chopped them off so they were a little more than 10 inches each.  Now I just have to send them in!

 After we got our hair cuts I went and picked the girls up (I left them at my in laws' house) and we went to see Santa.  I worried B might freak out but she did really good.  I think it might have something to do with the fact that we put her on Sam's lap instead of Santa's lap!  Santa had held his hands out to put her on his lap and she turned around to run away!

Photo Catch Up!

Here are some pictures from Thanksgiving this year.  

I made the Thanksgiving turkey that has been Maughan Family tradition!

Little Sister and her goofy self.  Notice the plate just to the right?  Sister didn't have pie, she had whipped cream, whipped cream, oh did I mention whipped cream?

My sister in law made this.  How cute is it?  I so want to make one now.

Festival of Trees 2012 - Sam's Jazz costume.  I'm afraid we are going to have to beat the boys away with a stick before I know it!

Caleb making a Santa with a curly beard in the Kids Korner at Festival of Trees.

I went in to check on the girls before bed several nights ago and found them like this.  I told Sam now she knows how I feel when they all jump in bed with me!

Little sister is going to make Caleb look like an angel!  I had her pjs on and the boys were in the tub.  I had told them both a few times to keep the dang door shut so B wouldn't go in there and play in the water or the toilet.  Nash got out of the tub, got dressed and came out - leaving the bathroom door open.  A few seconds later I hear Caleb scream "MOM!  Brookelyn is in the tub!"  I walked in there to find her like this:

I had to take a photo!  She was so stinkin' happy to be in there!  Sippy cup and all!