new beginnings and other things

I've been stalking a "new" blog lately.  She's wonderful and I love to read the things that she writes.  If you haven't heard of her blog, 71 Toes, you've heard of it now.  What an amazing woman (I want to be like her when I grow up).  She's written a book and Blossom on the Vine is giving it away. 

I want to win.

Given, I never win give aways, except that one time when a whole box of gum ended up on my door step, but other than that I never win give aways.  This one is worth trying for. 

If I don't win I'll just have to buy the book on my own.  I love reading her that much. And her story is incredible.

Over the weekend I learned that I need to be a better budgeter.  I hate budgets.  Loathe them.  Mostly because I'm sporadic and spur of the moment, and when I want to do something nice for someone, or buy something cute for my circus or my man, or if I want to start a project, I want to do it now, and not when I have a minute to sit down and fit it in to my budget.

How do you survive budgeting?  I need to figure out a way that this can work for me.

I've decided I'm not going to survive my girls being in Young Women's.  I have watched all four of my girls go to kindergarten with out a single tear, but our first New Beginnings and it's all I can do to hold myself together during Casidee's spotlight.  And all they did was give her flowers and a YW pendant...

I'm so proud of my circus and the choices they make daily, and the people they are becoming. 

The theme for Young Women's this year is Arise and Shine Forth.  I love it.  It's so full of action.  Check out this music video.

Disco cupcakes for New Beginnings:

They literally shimmered, it was the neatest thing.  The young women loved them.

Our three days of Christmas

With the swapping my ex Thanksgiving for Christmas it threw our schedule off.  Normally we have both exes on the same weekend and same holiday schedule, so we either have all our kids and can be together as a full family, or we get to be together as a couple.  We like it this way.  But with the switch it made us a little off.  So we had to have two Christmas Eve's and two Christmas mornings, one with Jayme and Sean, and the regular one with the other four girls.
Christmas eve eve:
Christmas eve eve started with lunch with Grandma KC and Aunt Jessica and her crew at Cafe Rio.  Grandma decided to come for a visit for the holidays and this would be the only day while she was visiting that we would have the full circus.  She'd been working for a year and a half on quilts for all her grandkids and they were finally done.  The kids got to tell Grandma what colors they wanted their quilts and they were super excited that they were finally done.  I didn't get a closer pics of Sean, his was done with Sponge Bob material:

That night we celebrated Christmas eve eve.  And of course, no Christams eve eve is complete without a family throw down while watching Christmas cartoon specials on TV:

And of course, the pajamas.  We just gave them comfy bottoms this year so that would be why they're all raising knees and legs.  They wanted to make sure their bottoms could be seen in the picture:

Christmas eve morning Jayme and Sean got to open all of their presents from us, and we let all 6 kids open the presents for the names that they had drawn with each other.

And Papa Mike showed up with his gift, sleds for the entire family:

Which will be awesome if we ever get any snow this year...
I made our traditional Swedish Pancakes for the kids and then Jayme and Sean went off the spend the rest of the holiday with their mom.  Sad for us.
The rest of us cleaned and cooked for the family Christmas eve dinner.
I love my family.  They make me laugh.  My mom was there, with my brother Bill and his family, and my sister McKell and her family.  As well as the world's most awesome father-in-law, Mike.  We laughed and giggled and ate a lot of food.  Thank you to pinterest for the cheesecake filled strawberry idea! Oh, and we had fun watching Sam-I-am and the dogs tease each other:

We also watched Santa's progress across the world with Norad Santa Tracker which was so exciting, even for me.  I think that's going to have to become a yearly thing.  Cali pleaded with me as she went to bed, "Mom, please don't stay up too late.  He's getting close!"
Christmas morning was as magical as it should have been.  Cas got her long awaited for camera and the other girls got their American Girl dolls, which of course, looked just like them. 

And being as Christmas fell on a Sunday this year Santa brought the girls Christmas dresses for church:

Santa also brought me the softest robe I've ever felt in my life *sigh* and Grisham's new book :).

And don't forget about the puppy boys who got a nice cushy new bed:

And although we certainly enjoyed the gift giving and receiving, we didn't forget about the true spirit of Christmas.  There was much love and gratitude expressed and their was a wonderful peace in our home.  As well as, for me, thoughts of my Savior Jesus Christ and not just his birth, but his life.  And his atonement for me.
I have been given much.

Of course I had to look up "malfeasance"

This weekend my Brent-Dad gave me this:

He said, "this is so you can look up words and terms and know what the lawyers are talking about when they say things like 'malfeasance'."
It now sits on my desk at work with the medical dictionary that my boss provided me with.  That's the beauty of working in Medicaid Fraud, I get to learn not only about the law side, but the medical side, and the police investigator side.  I feel like I'm getting the best of all worlds here.
The best thing about this dictionary is that it has my dad's name and address in it.  So it's a hand-me-down.  And if you know me, then you know I love hand-me-down stuff from my family.  I feel like I'm always saying to West that something belonged to my grandma, or great grandma, or grandpa... you get the picture.  Especially books.  I have a lot of old books from my grandparents.
And now I have one from my dad.
I think he's proud of where I'm taking my life.  I don't think I'll ever out grow wanting to make my parents proud.

The Help

According to my kindle, I'm 87% of the way through this book. And I love it. I love the characters, I'm drawn into the feelings and situations, and I'm not getting anywhere near enough sleep this week while I'm reading it. I want to finish it before I make West take me to the movie on Saturday. I can't wait :). Haven't read it yet? Maybe you should.

In case you were all wondering... (random, random, random)

So in case you were all wondering, it's grammatically OK to answer the question, "How are you?" with the answer, "Good." Check it (read #5).
AND... also in case you were all wondering, this is my new amazing toy that I can't wait to show up on my doorstep.
Hello waterproof (up to 10') digital camera. 10 megapixel, zoom, video and it's teeny-tiny! Now I just need a bullet proof case for it because cameras and phones don't seem to last long with my "gracefulness"...
Think my pics will come out as clear as they show they will? I'll certainly give it my best shot! Ha ha no pun intended but that was good :).
And since I'm on random topics here's one more:
This book was recommended to me by a friend and I love it. Very helpful, very practical. Whether your children are quite the handful and giving you a run for your money, or whether they're pretty good kids, but you just want help ironing out a wrinkle or two (which was my case), this book is awesome. Check it out (pun intended on that one!).