Christmas!

I thought I would tell you all about our Christmas. I'm not posting any pics except for the one below because my camera is a hunk of junk and the pics didn't turn out very good. On Christmas Eve Day, I took my kids to the mall to finish some shopping, eat lunch, and see Santa. As you can see, Maycie hated every minute of it. She was fine looking at him from a distance, even saying "Ho, Ho, Ho", but when I put her on his lap and she looked up at him well, this is what happened...

My poor baby! She kept saying, "No Mommy, No!" "Get down!" And yes, I'm a mean mom and made her sit there long enough for the picture.

After the mall, I took the boys to their dad's house. It was his turn this year to have them on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. I've decided that this was why my heart just wasn't into Christmas this year. It absolutely breaks my heart to wake up on Christmas morning and not have all of my kids there and to not be able to see that "Santa was here!" Christmas morning excitement. I understand that this is how it has to be and I know that Dan and Heidi feel the same way every other year when the kids are at our house, but it's still hard. However, it does have to be said that they had a very great Christmas at their dad's and got very spoiled! That's the great part about this for them...2 CHRISTMAS'S! Maycie is not old enough to know that you're supposed to wake up mom and dad early and then be sent back to bed until the appointed time. She couldn't care less. Maybe next year...

Cody, Maycie and I spent Christmas Eve at home by ourselves. I had gone to Papa Murphy's earlier in the day, so we ate pizza and wrapped presents. It was actually pretty nice, at least compared to last year. Last year, Cody got called out to plow on Christmas Eve afternoon and ended up missing his own family's party.

Christmas morning, we woke Maycie up at 8 and took her down to see what Santa brought her. It was priceless to see her little face light up at the sight of new toys. She got a huge Little Tikes playhouse (which will live in my living room until it's warm enough to take outside), a toy vacuum, some blocks, a horse that can plug into the TV and she can play games on it, and some balls (football, soccer, baseball and basketball). She loves to throw balls to people and she's got quite the little arm! We got ready and headed up to my mom's house for breakfast. It's always nice when my whole family gets together because it doesn't happen very often. The only members of the family who weren't there were my nephew who is on a mission in Brazil and my boys. After my mom's, it was time to pick up my boys and I was so excited! We went to our house and did Christmas with them. We got a wii as kindof a family gift and the boys got their individual things. We then went to Cody's mom's for dinner, more presents, and more wii playing. We came home right before the snowstorm hit. Cody got called out around 8:30 and didn't come home until after work the next day. Needless to say, he was exhausted!

We had a really great Christmas! I am already so excited for next year when I will have all 4 of my kids there. I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Cough Remedy

Maycie has been sick for the past couple weeks...ear infection, strep, croup, yadayadayada and so on, and so on...SO...I got this in an email and my cousin has also posted it on her blog. I asked her pediatrician about it and he said if it works, go for it. I tried it, and it was seriously a godsend! Maycie would cough her little guts out during the day, but not even one cough during the night. Just thought I would pass along the idea...

Vicks.............
During a lecture on Essential Oils, they told us how the foot soles can absorb oils. Their example: Put garlic on your feet and within 20 minutes you can 'taste' it. Some of us have used Vicks Vapo rub for years for everything from chapped lips to sore toes and many body parts in between. But I've never heard of this. And don't laugh, it works 100% of the time, although the scientists who discovered it aren't sure why. To stop night time coughing in a child (or adult as we found out personally), put Vicks Vapo rub generously on the bottom of the feet at bedtime, then cover with socks. Even persistent, heavy, deep coughing will stop in about 5 minutes and stay stopped for many, many hours of relief. Works 100% of the time and is more effective in children than even very strong prescription cough medicines. In addition it is extremely soothing and comforting and they will sleep soundly. Just happened to tune in A.M. Radio and picked up this guy talking about why cough medicines in kids often do more harm than good, due to the chemical makeup of these strong drugs so, I listened. It was a surprise finding and found to be more effective than prescribed medicines for children at bedtime, in addition to have a soothing and calming effect on sick children who then went on to sleep soundly. My wife tried it on herself when she had a very deep constant and persistent cough a few weeks ago and it worked 100%! She said that it felt like a warm blanket had enveloped her, coughing stopped in a few minutes and believe me, this was a deep, ( incredibly annoying!) every few seconds uncontrollable cough, and she slept cough-free for ho ur s every night that she used it. If you have grandchildren, pass this on. If you end up sick, try it yourself and you will be absolutely amazed at how it works.TRY IT THE NEXT TIME YOU GET A BAD COLD.

Too Funny!!!

Ok! You all have to go to this website and do this...then email it to me so I can see it! www.elfyourself.com
My email is bfurse@qwest.net
It's hilarious!
If any of you want to see mine and I didn't already send it to you, let me know and I will forward it.

Homemade Ornaments

Here is a link to Taste of Home that gives recipes for making homemade Christmas tree ornaments. I think it might be fun to have my kids make their ornaments for this year instead of buying them. There's even a recipe for edible ornaments...hmmmm...might have to try that too! :)

http://community.tasteofhome.com/forums/t/223434.aspx?pmcode=SL872VH04M&_mid=5008&_rid=5008.4900.30490

Christmas Light Parade

For quite a few years now, Kaysville has done a Light parade the weekend after Thanksgiving and we have been pretty much every year. I'm having a REALLY hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year...I'm not sure why. I hoped that doing this as a family might jumpstart my enthusiasm, but ....it didn't. Usually I am the "gung ho" one, getting the decorations out and tree put up the day after Thanksgiving. Well, Thanksgiving was a week ago and I have yet to get even 1 decoration out of the garage. I'm hoping I get excited soon. This is my favorite time of year...I love the magic, the happiness, the gift giving, the anticipation in my kids' eyes, and most of all I love celebrating my Savior's birth. Hope you all have a Happy Holiday Season!

Waiting for the parade to start

This pic is mainly just to prove that my girl does smile and is happy sometimes...but isn't she the cutest???

Gage being silly...

Can you tell we got bored waiting for the parade to start???

Maycie was more interested in playing in the back of daddy's truck

This one is one of the older firetrucks with a U of U flag on top.

Santa always brings up the rear "Ho Ho Ho" ing and wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!