Thanks to Amy

When I realized the year was almost over and I hadn't taken my kids to get their pictures taken, I panicked, I stressed out, I did not make an appointment (phone calls, sigh, that's another story) and after stewing and pondering how to ask, I finally asked her if she would PLEASE take some shots of them.

She very kindly said yes, and we set up a time, and something magical happened.

She got a perfect shot of each of them in less than 20 minutes!

I know!

Amy, that was the best experience we have ever had trying to get good pictures of them, you did such a fantastic job!

THANK YOU!

Amy emailed me the pictures the next day, I emailed them to Costco and picked them up and had them ready to mail the day after that.

I wanted to show you them all framed up.

Merry Christmas

I am sorry that I took so long to get these pictures on here Mom!

We had a fabulous Christmas this year. Christmas Eve was the best. We went out to eat at the Texas Road House with my friend Jodi and her family, where the food and conversation were both delightful. Then we went and walked around the Temple, looking at all of the light displays.

We came home and let the kids open some Christmas PJ's and a toy from each other. Sam enjoyed this, and since it was night time, he said, "So, do we get to open the rest of the presents on Christmas night?" To which I replied, "Sure, we can do that!" Then they all went to bed happy, and I didn't get woken up until 8:15 on Christmas morning (thanks to Sam's assumption that presents needed to be opened at night) to my cute little ones just looking at their stockings and not even peeking. Little angels.

Here are some highlights:

Henry loves this magna doodle.

One quick low point where Henry had to sit down for a minute for hitting his sister and I wanted to try out my new camera lens that Erik got me (by the way, this was well after all the presents had been opened and played with).
Kenzie rocking out:

Star Wars lego kit + a tiny MP3 player = 1 happy Sam.

They all loved racing cars on Sam's new race track.

He's got the makings of a secret agent.

Mackenzie and her beloved Barbie computer:

Henry got a little city complete with a working train, he loves it when Sam plays it with him.

The joke is on Erik and Sam, I cut out your bunny ears when your backs were turned, hahahhahahahhahaha...

Thievery Thursday, Christmas Edition

In search of the perfect Christmas tree, and Debbie Dee was down.

"I'll never find the tree for me, I've searched all over town."

"The first was too skinny, and it's needles were so sharp!"

"The second one was blurry, and was smaller than a harp."
Though the third had many branches and a trunk that was quite fit,
Debbie Dee said sadly, "It's too small if one man can lift it."
"Maybe Christmas isn't about the tree." Thought Debbie,
"Maybe it's something more."
Then she heard a rap tap tappy tapping at her door.
"I heard you were downhearted, that you needed a good tree,
so I chopped this down and brought it straight to you, Debbie."
"A tree like this belongs in the home of one such as you,
let us put it in your den and cover your rugs with pitchy goo!"
"Hooray!" exclaimed our Debbie, "Tis the greatest tree of all!"
She photographed that handsome woodsman, next to the tree so tall.

Thoughts, by Melissa

• There are only 2 days until Christmas. This means that if you haven't mailed your packages yet, it's TOO LATE for you, you're late, and now they will know it. You can try to make excuses and rush to the post office so that it is at least postmarked before Christmas, but that is the only advice I have for you. I may be smug, but that is only because I mailed my packages well within time for them to be received.
• I am getting my carpets cleaned today. This means that if you visit me tomorrow, my house will smell good and be a wonderful place to be and please take your shoes off or I will just be starring at your feet the whole time you visit, and that may be weird for you.
• I get to go out to eat on Christmas Eve with my friend Jodi and her family. How cool is it that they would invite us to share in their Christmas Eve family tradition? I know, it's SUPER COOL! I like this tradition. When I was a child, my family used to eat out on Christmas Eve, and it was always a good time.
• Sometimes if you are waiting in line, it's fun to start singing a song and see if anyone will join in. I have never tried this, I was just throwing it out there in an attempt to make it happen.
• I sure do enjoy this time of year because I have friends that bring me goodies. How magical is it to open your door and have someone say, "here, eat these goodies that I made." If this happened all year 'round, I would open my door more often.
• Have a Merry Day, and make each day merry and bright!

Sunday School

Today's lesson comes to you from Sam.
As we were sitting in church today, Henry was being especially squirmy and loud. Sam turned to me and said, "I hope he has a baby just like him when he grows up, so he can see what it's like!"
May Sam's wisdom be a lesson to us all, for we may struggle and toil and labor and be spit upon and hit and screamed at, but someday, it will happen to them and we will be there to say, "HA!"

Thievery Thursday

Why I haven't Posted In A While

We have been building a house:

We are moving in tomorrow and I couldn't be more excited. I have always wanted to live in a gingerbread house, and pinch me, my dreams have come true!

It took 8 weeks, 68 dozen eggs, 1096 bags of sugar, 754 cups of flour, and 140 dashes of ginger to complete this project. Everything about this house is edible, from the roof down to the front walkway.

People have called us nuts. They have said things like, "When it rains the whole house will fall apart." or "Little children are going to eat it!" and my personal favorite, "It's going to get old and moldy." As if mold has never been a problem in homes before! Ha! Also, to respond to the issue of rain, we are prepared for that, we live in Arizona. The other comment about "little children" eating our home, is quite laughable. Of course we want the little ones to eat our home, because then they will get plump and we will cook them.

Just kidding, we don't care if they are plump or not.

Googling

You go on Google, and you type Melissa needs (but you would type Your Name needs, where "Your Name" is actually your name), and then you share the top 10 answers that come up.
Here is mine:
Melissa Needs
1. to take a break.
2. a very strong, patient adoptive family who will be able to accept that it may take her a long time to come to trust and appreciate them.
3. our urgent prayers!
4. to board the blob ship that is hovering overhead.
5. hydration after the walk.
6. a roof.
7. to find a new agent.
8. lots of guidance.
9. maintenance manuals.
10. to get on board with her new body.
That is crazy, so many of those are true, except #2, and #3, and I don't think I would do #4, and my roof is fine so not #6, #7 is out because my agent is perfect, unless they mean like a secret agent, and that would be totally fantastic! Moving on, I also don't agree with #9 or #10 (new body, Hahahahahahaha!), but the rest of them, wow, right on the spot accuracy! You all should try this, it's freaky!

My Favorite Christmas Songs

1. The Christmas Song
2. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
3. O Holy Night
4. Carol of the Bells
5. Hark the Herald Angels Sing
6. White Christmas
7. O Little Town of Bethlehem
8. Sleigh Ride
9. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
10. Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree
11. What Child Is This
12. I'll Be Home For Christmas
13. It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
14. Ave Maria
15. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
16. Silent Night
17. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
18. Good King Wenceslas

My Favorite Christmas Movies

1. It's a Wonderful Life
2. A Christmas Story
3. A Christmas Carol (most any version)
4. Mr. Krueger's Christmas
5. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the 1966 cartoon)
6. A Charlie Brown Christmas
7. The Shop Around the Corner
8. Scrooged
9. Those old claymation ones: Rudolph, Frosty, and the likes

Three of these movies star Jimmy Stewart. I love me some Jimmy!

Thievery Thursday

Notice anything about this photo?

Yes, it is a beautiful sunset, but look closer.

Let me give you a hint.

See the date in the bottom right hand corner?

It's the FUTURE!

Today is in fact 12/4/2008.

What can this mean?

I have a few theories:

a) Little microchips inside my camera are playing tricks on me.

b) I was transported one week into the future, and when I was sent back, my mind was erased, but I had snapped this photo to send my past self an important message. What is that message? The sky will be pretty on the 11th, go outside and enjoy the sunset. OR maybe the message is that something very very bad is going to happen on the 11th, so don't go outside or you will be burned up by this very orange thing orbiting over the planet.

I'm leaning toward that last message.

c) My camera has the ability to take pictures of the future. If this theory is true, then I must destroy the camera now. OK, I just destroyed the camera, now we don't have to worry about that whole "changing the future because we know what will happen and it will disrupt the spacetime continuum" issue.

I hope I haven't changed your future by posting this. We may never know what the image is trying to tell us. We can, however, know this:

"The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades."

Simplificationalism

I have no pictures to prove the following was done. You are my friends though, and you should trust me.
To de-clutter and make our home more of a haven, Erik and I did these jobs over this past weekend (and into Monday since he took the day off):
1. took down rickety shelves in garage (sorry for hitting them with the van Erik)
2. put up new shelves, and a lot more of them. Erik got some of that white wire shelving from his workplace because they were getting rid of it. He got so much of it, we did not have to buy any shelves, yay free stuff!
3. took down large wooden shelf in laundry area
4. put up two of the before mentioned shelves in laundry area
5. organized all of the food and tools and things we put on the shelves
6. hung up more shelves in office closet
7. measured out a spot in the backyard for a garden that we will be putting in
8. took everything out of our master closet (wow, there was way too much stuff in there that had nothing to do with clothing)
9. went through all of our clothes and made a "donate" pile
10. reorganized the closet so that we can actually walk into it now, it is so beautiful (you have to take my word for it)
11. went through all of the junk in our bathroom and reorganized it so that we can see what we have and STOP buying more mouthwash (Erik)
12. started working on the office. It has a long way to go, but we did slightly make it better in here.
Future plans include turning my small coat closet into a pantry (because it is right next to the kitchen, and because we don't need a coat closet), build a garden, finish the office, finish the garage (this means getting rid of more stuff), decorate Kenzie's room and organize her closet which still is full of office stuff, and that should keep me busy for the next 100 weekends.