Well, it's just about finished....

Been working on Jade's school work binder... remember the other day it started out like this...

Here's all the stuff I weeded out, I tell ya, it was kinda painful to take so much out, but I know that's way too much stuff to keep, and way more than she may want to tote around. She's not getting it right away tho, I want it for awhile to look back and remember how sweet she was when she was little.... (next to that pile is Kent's bin of school stuff, but I think I'll work on his closer to his graduation)

And here's the final product... she's still in her senior year so there will be a few more things added to complete it....

My only concern is.. do they make a 3-ring binder that big? I have seen some pretty large ones at work....Okay- I know you want to see the inside... this definitely will be out at her graduation party... here's a preschool page, her teacher got a picture of her and Kent. Kent was there alot cause I volunteered once a week, he loved going, too!Some of her amazing artwork in preschool... alot of this book has her art work in it...More cool stuff.... that picture on the right is a picture Jade drew about her and her friend building a snowman, then dreaming about snowmen... how cute is that???Some spelling tests from elementary school... notice the "A's"!!!More art work from her drawing class in high school...Another paper she wrote and a comic about herself that she doodled....I'll get the big binder soon, I also want to get dividers to section off each grade level! Super cute..

Now I'm just waiting (im)patiently for my mom and dad to show up with those cinnamon rolls-- er.... I mean to visit with them.... and to eat yummy cinnamon rolls!

One more day till 2010!!!

More stuff...

Well people, I'm just going to put it out there... I don't know how much I gained this holiday season, and I don't want to know. I ran this morning, and I could only get thru 1.5 miles before I said that was enough. I need to stay on my 3 mile regimen.

KYLE- I need some inspiration!!! I AM going to do that half marathon even if I have to crawl to the finish line... I am going to do it!

I did run the 1.5 miles at 5.3 mph. And I will see you this saturday morning Kyle, at our church's running club time!!!

Still working on condensing/organizing Jade's school year papers. I've finished up to grade 8, I still have 4 more years to go thru... fun to look back at all the memories of stuff she's made, accomplishments and awards she earned, and her teachers recognizing her shear brilliance in the "comment" section of her report cards.

She's the greatest daughter! Love you Jade. Even tho we "abandoned" you tonight while Jeromy and I went to the Red Lobster for dinner. Thanks mom for the Christmas gift card, we even had enough to share a dessert!

Jade was teasing me when we got home, and I asked her if she could get something for me cause I was so full from dinner and the warm apple pie and ice-cream for dessert.... LOL... that's how we roll!

Everybody getting ready for the count down? Only 2 days left.... then it's 2010!

Stuff.....

Well, those chickens took a little break, but now they are working overtime! Jeromy went out today and there were 14 eggs!! Now he hasn't checked in 1-2 days, but still 14 eggs- AWESOME!!!

With some left over Christmas ham, of course trimming off all the gross stuff... we had ham and onions with scrambled eggs for dinner- oh ya and some toast- yummy!!Now with all this time I have off from work, I thought I should be productive and do some organizing around the house--- I can see you smiling right now mom!

Well, I've been keeping the kids school work they've done from preschool till today. And I know I'm a crazy mom but it seems like I've kept everything. But really it's just there most special stuff. I've tried to keep it somewhat organized by grade. And I thought it would be cool if I thinned some of it out, and made if fit into a nice 3" binder. Most of us have stuff from school that our mom's have kept. Just a pile of stuff, or stuffed into a box. So I thought it would be nice to have it all organized in a binder for them to enjoy when they get older. And I know they are not going to want to tote ALL the stuff I've kept, hence the thinning it out to fit nice and neat in one binder... in chronological order... with dividers.... labeled dividers... colorful labeled dividers... you know!Each one of those envelopes is a grade level of stuff I've kept. See that pile in the bottom right hand corner where there are 3 folders stacked on top of each other? That's all first grade stuff! Man, I have my work cut out for me to try to thin all this stuff out to fit into one binder!

This is project #1, this might take more then one day tho...

Good night!

Another Christmas party...

.... the day after Christmas.

We headed over to Lacey, to Jeromy's aunt Diane's house. We had another Christmas dinner to go to. And more presents to open.

We headed over a little early cause we were picking up Aurora and Jeromy wanted to get a new DVD player, cause our other one just crapped out. Well, there was a serious multiple car accident on highway 16, and a stretch of road that normally takes 3 minutes to travel (we know cause we timed it on the way back!) took over an hour and a half to get thru... that is noooo exaggeration either folks. But I am proud of Jeromy and I cause we kept our cool and stayed calm and patient.

So we got Aurora and headed to Lacey. We made it to aunt Diane's house safely. Here's daddy and Aurora chillin'......

Jeromy's middle brother Bill, and 2 of his 4 kids... Haley and Jacob...Here's Haley again, she's 18 months old...

Here we are just visiting... that's Bill's wife Kat, Jade, Kent and myself...Here we are up close and personal: Jade, Kenton and me again...Some of the kiddos playing games...

Here's Kaitlyn- but everybody calls her Katie mostly, and Haley... they are sisters, one has tight curly hair and the other has bone straight hair....

Johnna and Aurora.... Jeromy's step-mom Joanne fills these stockings she made every year for the kids. They open their stocking presents before they get the big presents under the tree. And she really had those things stuffed full!Yes people- he's a party animal- I can't take him anywhere!Watching while the kids unload their stockings....Fun stuff for the kids...

Kent was picked to hand out all the presents under the Christmas tree BUT he picked just that time, unfortunately, to go to the bathroom, and that boy likes to take his time, so Jade was chosen to pass them out. Doesn't she look particularly cute in this picture? Ya, I thought so, too!!!Aurora got books, she loves to read ya know!These kids were having so much fun...Our 3 kids: Jade 17, Kenton 15 and Aurora 10.Jeromy and his dad were helping the little boys put their scooters together.Yaaayyyy, Jacob got his scooter!Next, they took family pictures. They took one of our family, but they'll have to email it to me cause my camera was acting funny so they couldn't take it for me. But I was able to make the camera work for the other pictures I took. Here's Patsy's family. Patsy is Jeromy's foster sister while they were growing up. Patsy with her oldest son Anthony 20, she also has 18 year old Zack but he couldn't make it, then Johnna, Oscar and Rosie. Her husband Redd had to work today....Here's Jeromy's brother Bill and his wife Kat and their 4 kids, it was impossible to get them all to look up, but at least I got all 4 of them in the picture. Cameron is 5 I think, the twins are almost 3- Katie and Jacob, and Haley is 18 months....Here's the brothers. Adam is 28- I think, Jeromy is 31- the oldest, and Bill is 30- I think.Here's grandpa Chuck with the twins...After everyone opened presents, we also all brought a gift for the white elephant gift exchange. Then it was dessert time. Joanne made real whip cream, and guess who got the beater....We noticed that Jade and Johnna both had the same pair of trendy shoes... see for yourself...Here's our new DVD player that Jeromy is setting up right now...

And last but not least, last sunday our church had the kids come up and sing some songs for Christmas. Aurora's mom and step-dad and little sister drove Aurora over so she could sing with her friends.... here's the kids, there's also some Trig kids and Smith kids up their singing...Aurora is in the back row with the white sweater on with red underneath.Ok last thing, when we got home tonight, Aurora had little presents for us, too! First her grandma sent her home with another huge tray of homemade cookies for us- including peanut butter fudge dipped in chocolate! And snow flakes she made herself with a piece of candy. She also had a couple presents to open here, too! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Drydale for her Christmas money!

Ok, good night!

Merry Christmas....

Or should I say: Merry CHRISTmas!!!

This blog is a big one... so get that ol' cup of coffee....

This blog is Christmas Eve and Christmas day....

Christmas Eve we were spending with the Trig family. Michelle had given me this homemade meatball recipe to try. It was my first time making meatballs from scratch. And I made them with ground turkey.... so yummy!

And you lucky people get to see how I made them.... here's my ingredients...

Here's 5 pounds of ground turkey, onion flakes, and grated carrots- Michelle says to sneak in the veggies where-ever you can, I like that idea...

This next picture looks kinda gross, but it's all good stuff.... here I added the crackers, 4 eggs, and a whole bottle of teriyaki sauce

Here's the meatballs ready to start cooking...

And look at these mouth watering babies.... I just wanted you to know I rolled and cooked 159 meatballs... yes, I counted them, and all but about 15 were eaten... left overs for Jeromy...

Here we are set up for our family and the Trig family.... there were 15 of us in all... hence the 159 meatballs needed.... :o)

DIG IN!!!! We had the meatballs with rice and pineapple- soooo yummy!!!

After dinner we all sat around and read the story of Jesus' birth in the bible. We all went around the room taking turns reading a couple of paragraphs...

Then the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger."

Luke 2:10-12

Then we opened presents...

Jeromy thought it would be fun to get the 2 little boys styrofoam swords.... watch the video....

Bible bag for Beriah....

Organizers for Tessa, Nadia and Tae'.....

Iana really liked my red Christmas scarf, I had enough of the red yarn so I made her a matching one- so cute....

Then the Smith family came over.... here's Stormy and Laura- brother and sister... woops- I mean son and mother!!!

Hannah in her FANCY shirt....

The Smith family came over cause we had one final AWESOME present for Michelle, pictures taken of all 10 of her kids.... 4 boys and 6 girls....

Grandma Claire also stopped by with cards and Christmas $$$ for Jade and Kent...

Then we all watched a Christmas movie. What a great Christmas Eve...

*****

Now to Christmas day.... stocking stuffers.... did I mention Jade- my 17 year old- was knocking on our door at 5am this morning for us to wake up? Did I also mention that we all didn't get to bed untill 1am??? I told her to go back to bed!!!

Jade's presents...

Kent's presents...

Jeromy got me a gift card for a massage... WOO-HOO!!!

What could it be Jade???

A bean bag- just what she wanted...The kids each got a nano-ipod with video camera from their dad. What was really impressive that these little things get the radio, so Jade was listening to 105.3 (a Christian radio station) and it also said the artist and the song that was playing- that is so cool! Now it was time to start getting ready for Christmas dinner! My parents, sister's family, and Jeromy's parents were coming over for dinner. Grandma Cindy brought over another plate of wonderful cookies, which was awesome cause the other 3 plates she brought over the other day were down to slim pickings... thanks mom!!!Jeromy cutting the spiral glazed ham...Here's the family. Starting clockwise with Misty, Kelsey, Dennis, Katie, Jeromy, Jeromy's brother Adam, Jeromy's mom Teresa, Cindy and Lee... this was the adult table with Kelsey, too...And here's the super cool kids table: Jade, Mason, Kent and Denny....Grandma and Kent at the dessert side of the counter. Kent's wearing one of his new Christmas sweaters, he's getting so big, and he's so handsome!!! Love those sparkly braces!!!Ok, get ready for some serious Kelsey cuteness.... just take a few moments to take in all her cuteness... you can't look away can you, just try... you can't can you!!Your August grandbabies grandma!!!Cousins: Mason, Kelsey, Denny, Kent and Jade... were just missing Aurora, Savannah, Violet, David and Haylee....Sisters: Misty and Katie....This picture is a little blurry, but here's the Q family: Misty, Denny- who's almost 12, Dennis, Kelsey and Mason- what a great looking family- love you guys!!!Jeromy parents Chuck and Joanne also stopped by. I didn't get a picture of them, but I did get a picture of this cute ornament they got for us! You know I love anything with my name on it, and this has our whole family on it, how cute is that??Then Jeromy and I went and saw Sherlock Holmes at the movies. It was pretty good. Now we're all home.... full... tired... happy... and THANKFUL for Jesus' birth. He who made a way for us to be saved!!!

But the partying isn't over yet... oh no... tomorrow we pick up Aurora and head over to Lacey, WA, for another Christmas party with Jeromy's side of the family. We'll see Jeromy's other brother Bill who has the 4 kids, love seeing all the kids.

I hope everyone out there had a very Merry Christmas. And remember: Jesus is the reason for the season!