Sunday Stew

You know how stew is usually just an attempt to throw everything you have sitting in the fridge together and make it look like it belongs together? Well here is my attempt at blogging stew. I've had several things to blog about lately, but my life just keeps getting more complicated. Here is my attempt to de-clutter my blogging "to do list"!
Yes, I'm and idiot and I glued the crazy glue tube to my finger. It took a razor blade and a steady hand to finally remove it. Perhaps I should rethink my strategy of gluing the cracks in my fingertips together. Any suggestions?


Here are some sweet notes Ella wrote to us last month. For me it was exactly what I needed that day. She wrote me another one recently that had BFF at the end. I laughed so hard, but was so grateful that she considered me her Best Friend Forever! Who knew she even was aware of BFF!!?Ella and Macy (true BFF's ) walking down the street together Christmas morning with their dogs!
Nora wanting to join the big girls!
They picked up Paris on the way and the three girls had a ball with their three dogs. I had forgotten that either of her friends even had dogs. How fun! They were getting a little tangled.
We went through a box or two of Duraflame logs in our fireplace. It seemed cold to us!!!
Watch out Ponch and John. The dollar store outfitted Jack and Max well. They chose the same gift for each other to open on Christmas Eve. Yes, Max is still wearing his clothes backwards on occasion (note the pants)!


Jack showing off his sweet moves on his new skateboard. He didn't want to take off the new golf glove all day!Max trying to get in on the action. For some reason the frog rain boots weren't helping the skateboard action.
Ella and my Mom making the traditional Santa cookies!
We had Christmas Eve with my Parents and my Brother's family. Here are all the kids (except 9 month old Audrey) at the Christmas Eve table!
Our Nativity cast. Andrew - wiseman, Audrey - sheep, Jack - Joseph, Lauren - Mary, Nora - Shepperd, Max - wiseman, Ashley - angel, Hannah - wiseman, and Ella - Shepperd! Don't they all look great?!
Okay, so I said on a previous post how horrible I am at birthdays. I talked about how I often think about the person all day, but often forget to call or send a card. Well, this year I hit an all time LOW!! I forgot my own Mother's birthday!!! Her birthday was November 16th and I never even called. It's funny because I was thinking about her a couple of days before, but then completely forgot on her birthday. So, to try to atone for this egregious sin, I threw her a surprise un-birthday party when she was in town for Christmas. It turned out to be so much fun! I got balloons, a cake, noise makers, and even made her wear a crown.
Here she is about to blow out the candles!
We played a rousing game of pin the nose on Rudolph. I was happy to be able to do something for her after dropping the ball. Luckily she is such an understanding and forgiving person. She also remembers what it's like to have lots of little ones using up the best parts of your brain. I love you Mom!I know what your thinking! I've been enduring the stares since Wednesday. I'll explain. I was over at my brother's house with my sister Heather who was in town with her kids. There were 12 kids in all playing on the swing set. Of course I was busy talking to my sister and my SIL Natalie and wasn't properly supervising my kids. Next thing I know my niece Sarah is carrying Nora to me as a rather large goose egg is growing on her forehead. I quickly try to put ice on it, but it continues to grow. They explain that she was climbing the ladder on the metal play set and somehow flipped off and landed right on the bottom rung of the latter with her brow bone taking the brunt of the fall. Needless to say she was beside herself and I started to get worried that the skin would burst, or worse that the swelling would damage her eye. I knew Paul was in a surgery so I decided to take her to the urgent care. Um....not a good idea. The waiting room was packed and I was informed that it would be at least 2 hours before I could see anyone. No good. I called Paul's office to see what hospital he was at so I could perhaps go to that emergency room. Luckily Paul had just gotten back to the office so I headed over. He checked her out and determined that luckily there was no swelling of the eye, just the surrounding superficial tissue. Poor thing looked SO AWFUL. She perked right up with Daddy though, and has been running around as if nothing is wrong since. So here is the progression of the eye. The above picture is about 45 min. after impact and was taken by my sister in the parking lot of the medical office building. Doesn't that just break your heart? It's hard to appreciate from this picture how swollen it was. Here she is on Friday. More purple, but much less swollen!
Here she is Saturday. If that's not a ragamuffin child I don't know what is!

Here she is today! I don't think it's possible for that girl to look anything but adorable! Church today was a constant explanation of what happened. I almost wanted to send her to nursery with a shirt that read "don't mess with me", or perhaps "you should see the other guy", but I refrained. She's my first kid to get an actual shiner. Hopefully it's the last.
Last but not least here is a picture of the key chains I made for the Young Women today. They are made from bracelets that have the theme for the new year "be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in good works." It was a bittersweet lesson today because I got released on Wednesday. It was shocking because I hadn't even been in for a year yet. Of course I've been in YW for 8 years of my 12 year marriage. I was sad to leave the girls especially with such a fabulous theme for the year. The other COMPLETELY shocking part is that I was then immediately called to be the first counselor in the new Primary presidency?! Yikes!! I've never served in the Primary! I was in the nursery for a couple of years in Kentucky, but I'm clueless about how the Primary works. I'm going to need a lot of help from any of you out there that have experience. It is going to be a lot of work, but I'm starting to get a little excited about it. I'm still trying to figure out why I never get the "Relief Society Newsletter", or "Visiting Teaching Coordinator" callings. I think it's because the Lord knows I have A LOT to learn. Well, that's it for now. I'm going to try to get some pictures from my sisters so I can post about how fun it was to have them down here to visit the week after Christmas. I love them so much and feel so honored to be their sister. More to come...