Ok. So long since I last posted but life has been eventful for us. I've been keeping busy getting ready for Christmas. I've had most of my shopping done since the end of November, which has been awesome. The only person I hadn't shopped for was Dan. His is done now so all I have left are the stockings to fill. I've even accomplished all the wrapping and decorating for most of it too. I think I only have half a dozen left to do. I'm actually excited for Christmas this year. Usually I'm just stressed but since I'm not racking my brain to come up with gift ideas, things are a lot more relaxed this year. We have been passing around lots of colds. We were all sick around Halloween and now we have the colds again, although we are at the tail end of them now. Well. I went in to see a spine specialist cause I've been in so much pain lately. I wake up sore every morning and I don't sleep well. I think I need a specialty pillow but the don't do that kind of thing. The spine specialist scheduled me for an MRI so they can check some things out. MRI... Another word for EXPENSIVE. All well. At least I met the deductible this year so I only have to pay 20%. We shall see what comes of all this. Today is the MRI. I've also kept busy decorating the walls in our house. I've had lots of fun and spent a little too much money, but I rationalize cause it is stuff that I'll use for a long long time. Maybe not it the exact same place but somewhere in the house. Here are some pics.




Dan has finished his last semester for the year. WAHOOO!!! Only one left and he has a Masters Degree!! I'm so proud of him! He works so incredibly hard. I can't wait to have my husband back. He wants to go on a vacation when he gets done. Just the two of us. I'm a little paranoid to leave the kids for more than one night. I know we need it and it will be nice but I really don't want to burden anyone for too long. I'd like to go to Yellow Stone since I've never been there before and it isn't too far away. I just really worry about something happening to us or the kids. Hopefully I get over it soon. Now for and update on the kids.

Addi is still loving school and has been keeping us surprised with what comes out of her mouth. We were driving down the road one day and Dan had farted. He didn't say anything but all of a sudden Addi pipes up and says "Dad, I want you to roll down your window." Dan says "Why?" Addi responds "Cause I want you to get your stink out of here!!!" She just cracks me up. Although she has said some things lately that have been disappointing. The other day I was standing in front of the mirror and she says "Mom, those pants look gay on you, your butt is too big." I have no idea where she would have learned to talk like that. We were watching Funniest Home Videos the other night when a little girl, who had just caught a fish, was annoyed with her dad. She wanted him to turn on the camera (it was already on) so she tells her dad "Just turn on the Damn camera!" Of course everyone laughed and a second later you hear Addi.. "Damn Damn Damn!" ARGH!! She has been spending many a night on our bedroom floor too. I don't know what the deal is but she seems to be having a lot of vivid nightmares. Nightmares that she can remember and talks about. The latest was a dream that I had a baby in my tummy (she talks about that a lot but we are not expecting) and that it popped out (not sure if the way it came out was scary or if it was the next part of the dream that was the scariest) and that I had no face. Very strange. Her new thing is playing games on the computer on the Disney website. I'm hoping some new toys from Christmas will help keep her off a little bit cause she is on the computer way too much. She gets so addicted that when she gets interrupted by anything she gets very mad. At that point she gets booted off.

Xander. Well. What Can I say? He is learning tons and just cracks us up all the time. He can repeat just about any word you ask him to say. He is talking so much more. I watch a little boy named Parker a few days a week off and on. They live right behind us and Xander knows his name and says it constantly. He loves to read and rip up books. Drives me NUTS!! He has been working on his numbers. We will count with him and we say the number and he says the next one. I'm surprised how well he knows them. The other day I was playing around with him and I shook his had and asked how he was doing. He shocked me when he answered "Good!" He made me laugh so hard. He loves to play hid and seek and the other day he climbed into the lazy susan in the kitchen. Went behind everything and shut the door. I could hear him yelling "Mom!" but I couldn't seem to figure out where it was coming from and neither could Dan. We finally found him in there. He is pretty dang sneaky! He was so cute when we put up the Christmas tree. He stood there blowing on the lights telling me they were hot! I wish he still thought that but right after that he touched them just to see. Now he knows they aren't really hot. He is learning from watching me clean all the time. Now when he spills his drink or gets something wet he goes and gets a rag and wipes it up for me. What a big helper!

I forgot to update on Thanksgiving so... We had Thanksgiving at our place this year. We had Zenobia (a girl that joined the Church While Dan was serving in France) over for Thanksgiving too. It was fun and busy. I don't think I sat down for very long that day. It was fun and good to have family around except for Kristen and Walter since they went to Arizona to see Kristen's sister. We missed them but were glad they had a safe trip even though Walter was sick for most of it. It was nice that the kids had their own things to play with and kept busy. They had fun making apple turkeys. Something that we did as kids on Thanksgiving.