Christmas Dresses

Just had to post a few pics of the kiddos in their Christmas Sunday Best. We thought they looked pretty cute.




We actually got a few good ones of all 3 of them this time other than Sabrina's hand being in her mouth. Here's a few that reveal our new picture-taking strategy.




Mike would squirt water in each of their mouths with the squirt bottle and then do something funny like run into something. They thought it was hilarious and they actually sat still for a reasonable amount of time. What we won't do for a decent picture in this house!

Gingerbread Snowmen

For FHE on Monday we made Gingerbread Snowmen. For $5 at Wal-Mart you can get a kit with everything that you need to make the Gingerbread Snowmen, all you have to do is add a little butter and milk to the frosting mix. And since it's more for looks and the experience than for actual eating, you can't beat it! The kids had fun and ate lots of candy!








Last Saturday night was our Ward Christmas Party which was lots of fun. Tons of people, tons of food, and of course a visit from Santa. They had a nice little set-up for pictures with Santa but of course our girls would have none of it. So we have another picture of Benson with Santa.

No Consequences

Today the sun was out and shining brightly which was wonderful after this week of crazy weather. In Sacrament Meeting today our Bishop asked everyone who had been without power at some point this week to stand. There were seriously 10-12 people who didn't stand in our whole ward. What a crazy week. Our Wal-Mart was running off a generator for most of the week. Everyone has school again tomorrow after being out all last week and I think almost everyone has power again. We did end up losing power on Tuesday morning (most people lost it on Sunday and Monday). The kids and I loaded up and went to Bartlesville and Mike came and joined us after work to spend the night. Mike came over to check the house during lunch on Wednesday and the power was back on. Unfortunately we lost everything in our fridge and freezer and Mike had to clean up the big puddles off the kitchen floor. But we were grateful that we were only without power for a short time, many people were without for several days. And the benefit to having a new house with no trees is that we don't have branches to clean up out of our yard.

We had an interesting teaching moment with Benson tonight. We were trying to teach him that our family rules apply everywhere, not just at home. The conversation went something like this:
Mike: Benson, what are the family rules?
Benson: 1 - No hitting, 2 - Be happy, 3 - Share, 4 - Family prayers and scriptures, 5 - Clean up, 6 - No climbing or jumping on the couches or the rocking chair, 7 - Only use nice words (yes, he can repeat them back to you verbatim)
Mike: Now Benson we need to obey the family rules everywhere, not just at home - at nursery, at school, everywhere
Jess: So Benson do we hit in nursery?
Benson: No
Jess: Do we share in nursery?
Benson: Yes
(You get the idea)...
Jess: So Benson if we follow the family rules we get rewards like being able to watch tv, treats, maybe a special toy. But if we don't follow the family rules we have consequences like no tv or time outs. Do you understand?
Benson: Rule #8 - No consequences!
And the teaching moment is lost and we bust up laughing. I'm not sure we are going to make it through this kid.

And just to prove that I can be really random I'm also including a video of Sabrina eating her dinner tonight. She's 13 months old and she eats a million times more neatly than our other two children. We have been so impressed by her forking abilities of late. Please ignore the background noise, in fact, do yourself a favor and turn off the sound.

Ice, Ice, and more Ice!

I know I grew up in Oklahoma, but I really don't remember freezing rain and ice storms. I'm sure they happened, but I have no recollection of them. Yesterday and today Oklahoma has had LOTS of freezing rain, thunder and lighting, and below freezing temperatures. Brrr! When you look outside everything in sight has a thick coating of ice. Benson was excited to see so many icicles this morning. The weather here really is insane.
Mike went to work this morning and he said that the nice trees that line the road into our neighborhood have all fallen into the road (10+). I was really nervous about Mike driving, but he said the roads aren't that bad. There are many people who don't have power and we are so grateful that we still do, although our power has flickered several times today. The kids and I have just been hanging out at home trying to keep warm. Hopefully it will melt soon!

The tree in our front yard. The little tree in our next door neighbors yard didn't make, it snapped in half and is laying out on the lawn.


The icicles hanging from our porch.

Christmas is Coming!

Yesterday we met Mike at the mall during his lunch to play and see Santa. Benson was in awe, Grace would barely uncover her eyes, and Sabrina was indifferent. As you can see from the picture, it was necessary for both Mike and I to be a part of it for all the kids to be in it. We love being so close to a big mall again with a play area. The kids played for hours and weren't ready when we finally left.


In our new ward, Benson gets to go to the Senior Nursery for the rest of this year. They get to go into Primary with all the big kids at the beginning to start getting them ready for Sunbeams. They sent home a newsletter which said the song they will be working on this month is "Stars Were Gleaming". So we have been working with Benson to help him learn it. He's got the first half of it down pretty well. Notice at the end instead of singing "Shepherds heard it on a hill", he insists on singing "Shepherds heard it on a step hill". We don't know what a "step hill" is but he told us he learned about it at school.

New House

Ahhh, it is so good to be back online! The cable guy just left an hour ago after almost 5 hours of work! I felt so bad for him, it is so cold outside. We are officially settled in our new (rental) house and we couldn't be happier. We loaded all of our stuff in Bartlesville last Friday and unloaded in Broken Arrow on Saturday. It only took an hour and a half to load up and right about an hour to unload. We had lots of help on both ends, it was great! We finished unpacking on Monday and now all that's left is to hang stuff on the walls. The kids didn't miss a beat, it's like we've always lived here. And the best part is that we have seen Daddy so much more this week that we are almost sick of him - JUST KIDDING! He even came home for lunch today.

Here's a picture of the outside of the house:


Next is a tour of the inside of the house. Now I know you will all be amazed by my videotaping abilities, so try not to be too jealous. I did my best ok!