Christmas Recap

What a fun busy time. I love all the family parties and things that we do to celebrate Christmas. We had our Udall Cousin gift exchange. This is most of the married cousins... I just love them.

Then after the party we decided to look at light in a neighborhood and saw this set up where this sweet old couple totally decorate their house and sit outside and let kids come tell them what they want for Christmas. We were just going to drive by but both kids wanted to get out.

Then we have one of Shaun's family parties. I love this because Leann (Shaun's Mom) has all the nativity dress ups and the kids love acting it out each year. Ryker of course always wants to be an animal. This year he was the donkey.

Millie sitting on Santa's lap.

Since Doug is a fireman's and usually is on duty Christmas day we have always celebrated Christmas with them on Christmas Eve. We always get matching PJs then open presents. Well this year Nolan the Policeman (yes we are a very protected family with a cop and fireboy) and he had to be on duty at 4pm so we got in our PJs around noon and opened gifts and had a big Christmas feast. What a fun day.

Cute cousins. We love Rileybear

Amelia's favorite gift was her Dora doll. Once she opened it she didn't care about anything else.

Christmas Morning...Risen' Shine....Ryker woke up at 6:30. He was so excited and ran into our room "Mom, Dad SANTA CAME!!!!!" It took us about 30 mins to finally want to wake Millie up and she woke up with a smile.

Beautiful morning faces. =) I know I know you all wished you looked as good as me in the morning hu??

Rykers loot: Video watch, Buzz boots, Dragon thing, Alien game, Diego dress ups, Army guys and storage house for them, Buzz cartoon movie

Millies loot: Dora stuff, my little ponies, princess chair, kitty kitty, laughing elmo, little people, mini van

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Then after we got ready we headed over to my families house for a big breakfast. I didn't get a family picture =(

My parents got Ryker the ultimate Nerf gun...watch out

We thought this was funny....after they opened their gifts Amelia went and got one of her presents she got last year and she loves when my mom dances and sings with her...they were putting on a show for everyone.

Once again a great Christmas. I love the holidays and the time we spent with our families.

Ok time is running out .......

So I started another blog that will have my random thoughts and ideas on. It will not be private and It will let you know when I updated my family blog.

Also I'm going to make my family blog private in a few days so hurry hurry if you want to keep up with the family....my kids are really cute so I know you want to =)

www.cacklingleah.blogspot.com

Awe Man......

So in the words of Swiper the Fox (from Dora the Explorer)

Awe....Man......

I really didn't want to EVER do this but someone left a random comment on my last post and I have that site meter thing and never check it much but some random sites are coming to my blog and the last thing I would ever want is to have pervs or creepy people looking at my family. So it is that time to go private. I wish blogger would make it so if you find someones blog that you know and it is private, then you can like click a box saying please invite me. Oh well....so with that being said let me know if you would like an invite. Merry Christmas!!!!!

Sunday Christmas

Oh I love matching outfits.....nothing is cuter. It is a good thing I don't have twins because I would make them wear matching outfits till they are 18 yrs old =) Well I will dress my kids the same on holidays until then too.

Look at them a year ago....are you kidding me. My sweet bald Millie is now a sassy, piggy-tailed toodler. And Ryker looks like a boy now, not a little kid.

It only took 40 tries and LOTS of M&Ms to get this one sweet shot.

Yes, even Shaun and I match the kiddies. We didn't get a picture all together =(

And this is how it all ends!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

Early Christmas Present

Ok so this isn't really an early Christmas present because Shantay, my sister-in-law was actually due on December 12th....but at 9:10, Friday December 18th my first niece was born

Bristol Noelle Sellards

7 lbs 10oz

Her is a picture of my brother Abe and Shantay. Shannie was induced that morning so the whole day was just a waiting game.

Here she is......Miss Briss. I'm in love. She is so itty bitty with a cute squishy face.

Shantay did A-Maz-Ing and the best part was.....she let us all be their for the whole thing. Yes all 5 Aunties, both moms and her dad. It was a full house and I'm so grateful she let me watch this little thing we call the miracle of life....holy cow it truly is a miracle.

The whole Sellards gang happy to meet the newest member.

I had to take a picture to document my Millie who grows up more and more everytime I blink my eyes. She has been using utensils for awhile but watching her eat cereal is a fur-sure sign she is no longer a baby. Oh Millie PLEASE stop growing I BEG YOU!!

I'm sure most of you know I love teaching preschool because it gives me an excuse to make children's crafts....Here is my little red-nosed reindeer. I was freaking out over the cuteness of how all my preschools reindeer's turned out.

Randomness

So either I'm WAY obsessed with my kids or I really like toys.....ok it is both. I finally finished my Ryker and Millie dolls. I'm in wuv with them. When I was done I was so excited and wanted to show someone....Shaun being the only other adult in the house was the lucky winner and he didn't share the same excitement. He just looked at me and said "You made my son a DOLL" then covered his face and sighed. It didn't burst my bubble.....I just said "Yup, and I don't care what you think....he will love it".

Ok so Ryker may not LOVE it but I'm always making things for Amelia, so it is more of a keepsake....or Amelia can just play with it. Of course mine are not as cute as the original...but I'm pleased none the less.

I got the pattern from this web site wee wonderfuls

Ok moving on to more important things. For FHE we talked with the kids about "giving" this holiday season and how their are many kids who don't have much for Christmas. Ryker has saved some money over the past few months...earning a dollar here and there. We were so proud of him for wanting to use some of his money to buy another boy a toy. We went down to the mall and Ryker looked at the tags until he found a little boy that was 4 -just like him. So we picked his tag and another little girl. I hope it is a great tradition we have started. Ryker keep asking if he could have the toy he picked out for the little boy but we keep reminding him he has lots of toys already. I think it was a great teaching moment.

It was a great night and I'm grateful for this wonderful Christmas season....it was so sad seeing all the tags on the Christmas tree....I WISH I had the means to buy all the kids something for Christmas. So if you have not ever gone and picked a Christmas Angel....PLEASE do. =)

Oh and I think we need to start a new family rule....no cell phones during dinner =) I love my pink lady. And yes she was having a full on conversation with....Dora the Explorer. "Hi Dora, Hi Boots"

A Great December Weekend

It doesn't get any sweeter!!!

Holy cow, I know all moms think their kids are the cutest ever and I'm no different......I just see pictures like this and want to hug and squeeze them all day long. Love Love Love them.

So since September I've wanted this apple fabric to make a dress for Millers. But with the economy the way it is, Shaun and I are really having to be careful and we end the month with not much (if anything) left in the bank. But when I was at JoAnns with Missy and Leann...Missy brought over this fabric that she thought was cute....it was the apple fabric. Thanks Leann for getting us this fabric and even though it is no longer fall I still had to make Millie a little jumper, with gold buttons to go with her gold shoes =) She sure is the "apple" of my eye. Thanks Millie for being my little model and letting me "try" out my sewing skills. Hopefully when your older you won't look back and say..."mom, what were you thinking".

We had a great weekend!! Our friends from Tucson came up for a visit. Kendra had some things she was selling at a boutique so they stayed with us and we got to hang out for a few days. Shaun and Dan meet 5 or 6 years ago while going to Scottsdale Community College. They were the only "preepy" looking guys in their classes (film/editing/video classes) if you could imagine what most of the others were like. They had to do a video project together and edit it as well so they came over and I met Kendra for the first time. We didn't have kids yet but they had sweet little Kyla who was like 4 months old. Ever since then we have been the best of friends. Dan and Shaun have so much in common.....they could quote movies all night long, while Kendra and I just roll our eyes.

Then we were both pregnant together. Jackson is one month older than Ryker. They played non-stop.

2 years later we were both pregnant again. Bryce is one month older than Amelia. Poor Bryce was just woken up from his nap.

And now Kendra is pregnant with her 4th....sorry to say I won't be having a baby one month after her. But we love you guys and can't wait to see you for New Years!!!

Happy Turkey Day, Trimming the Tree and Hobo Dinners

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. We went over to my Grandparents house and enjoyed some great food with some my moms family. Here is a picture of some of the gang.

When we got home that evening I was cleaning up the kitchen and noticed the kids were being quiet. I walked in and saw them both drooling over the big toy catalogue and pointing to all the toys they wanted. I remember when Abe and I would do this.

The next day I went shopping...no I didn't wake up at 4am but from 10:00am till 4:00 I shopped with Missy and Leann. Shaun had fun with the kiddos. Then that night we had a BBQ with Shauns family that were in town from Utah. So Saturday we got around to putting up the tree and hanging the light up outside. Amelia just like to make messes, but Ryker took it very serious and worked hard to help get all the decorations up.

Then Saturday night my brillamt brother thought it would be fun to have a bonfire and smores, well I added to the fun and wanted to make hobo dinners. My dad has a neat set up for cooking charcoal so we had 12 dinners cooking outside...it smelled delish.

It may not look beautiful but it was the best. Everyone downed their chicken and veggies...even Adelle who I don't think I've ever seen her eat a vegetable before...I think my mom needs to make these weekly so that we know Wuggie is getting some sort of nutrition. Potatoes, carrots, squash, zucchini, asparagus, onions, broccoli, garlic and marinaded chicken. My new favorite dinner.

Then out to the fire to get warmed up....it was cold that night.

What a cute couple!!!!! Only a little over 2 more months and they will be hubby and wife.

The fire was way to big and way to hot to get close enough to make smores so we used the still hot charcoal to warm up the mallos. Gama helping Ryker boy.

Abeos and Shannie.....um this girl is due in like 1 week and she looks like she is only 4 months pregnant. Am I jealous.........YES!! Seriously, my sisters are bean poles then I have little Miss tiny baby bump here.......I hate being the "large" sister on the fam.

Well this is probably why I'm the "large" one of the group. I have no willpower or shame for that matter. We didn't make your typical smores.....we used cinnamon graham crackers and for the chocolate we had toffee chocolate and resses peanut butter cups....can you say sugar coma. So good but I wanted to throw up after eating 2 of these bad boys.

Ryker only wanted graham crackers and milk....of course. But Millers was eating all of Shaun's smores. Daughter like Mother.

Great weekend, oh we also had Thanksgiving with the Martineaus Sunday night....pictures to come soon. Love this time of year.

What are you Thankful for???

As you know Ryker is in my preschool class and I'm lucky if I can get him to finish one project each time. He doesn't listen to me very well and doesn't really enjoy writing, coloring or doing projects. But today he got this project sort of done...missing a few things but 4 out of 6 feathers isn't bad. I asked all the kids what they were thankful for and wrote it on their turkey. So when I asked Ryker this is what I got:

He is thankful for his mom and dad (good boy), his sister (so sweet), his CAT (um...we don't have a cat but he says we do) and himself (so we know we are doing a good job of teaching him to have self confidence)

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!!!!

I'm so Thankful for.......

*my hubby

*my kids

*the gospel

*to live in America

*that we are healthy and safe

*great family and friends

*and so much more!!!!

First Season of Soccer has come and gone

This past Saturday, Ryker had his last soccer game. It has been so much fun going each week and watching him play....well sort of =) He mostly followed the other boys around and while they tried to kick the ball he was doing karate chops in the air. It sure made for some fun games.

Millie got to come to most of the games and help cheer her brother on.

Ryker was very proud of his first trophy (Shaun thought it was LAME)

Of course you can tell we don't give our kids ice cream cones to often.....the poor kid doesn't even know how to eat them.

A few random pictures for journaling sake.

Amelia LOVES jewelry... and she sure didn't get that from me. The poor girl doesn't really have much so when she found these jar bands she put like 4 on and made her own bangles out of them. She only has one on in the picture, but normally she has 3 or 4. At least I know where she is in the house...they are noisy =)

We discovered Rykers love for puzzles a few weeks back. I bought him one or two several months ago but he had no desire to do them. He was so bored a few weeks ago so I got them out again and now he can put them together in his sleep. Nana has a huge disneyland puzzle and we are going to get it out to work on for the next few weeks....he is so excited.

This is my first and probably only post without a picture but I couldn't think of a picture to go along with my thought and not make it silly. I want to share my terrifying story that happened to me Friday night. I'm getting very shaking just thinking about writing it because the feelings I felt are all flooding back to me.

Friday evening I got together with Missy my sis in law and we went over to my mom in laws house to do some crafts. The boys all went to see a movie. I put Amelia to bed there a little after 7:00, then Missy and I needed to run to Hobby Lobby to get a few more things for our projects. So we go and get the things we need and the store closes at 8:00pm so we headed up to the front to buy our things.

The girl just got done ringing up all the things I was going to buy and tell me my total when I heard a man talking to the girl at the register right behind me say "give me all your money from the register" I turn around to see 2 men dressed in all black, with a ski mask and sunglasses on. I froze....staring at the gun the man was holding. For a split second I was in shock and thinking to myself ....this man could kill someone. I started walking backward to get away, as did everyone else. All I could think at this time was I have 2 small kids who need me. A group of us got to the back on the store near the emergency exit but we were scared to go out because what if there were others waiting back there (come to find out there was another guy out back). I had my cell phone in my back pocket and called 911 right away. In a time that felt like FOREVER, the police arrived in probably 3 mins.

NO ONE was hurt......thankfully and they grabbed the money and ran. I don't even know if they were ever caught. We stayed for another hour while the police searched all around and we had to write up statements.

I know this happens all the time and someone trying to steal money is not usually wanting to kill people, but during that time, seeing a man with his finger on the trigger is a feeling I NEVER want to feel again.

I'm SO grateful to my Heavenly Father for keeping not only me safe but all those who were there that night. Some might find this to be over the top but I'm a very emotional and sensitive person. I'm also very grateful for Police officers and those who risk their lives to keep us safe and feeling protected. I'm so excited this week is Thanksgiving and I can spend time with those I love. That is a night I will never forget but wish I could.