Sharing the Christmas love...

I am still alive! Isn't that wonderful news? I think so. I agree with this blog in which she states, moving "is nearly as stressful and futile as trying to run away from lava in swim fins." It really is just mostly comprised of stress. Is it really hard to move things? Not the hardest thing, but moving them and cleaning and then cleaning and moving them in, and just all the change and adjusting and continued travel whilst trying to do all of these things is a little overwhelming. Regardless, we have survived and managed to have a wonderful Christmas.
Here are some highlights.
The boy got to meet Santa!




I wonder if this gets him on the naughty list?

Stealing Santa's glasses is probably not the best idea. :) I was sort of hoping for a freak out meltdown picture of Christmas awesomeness, but he was totally cool with it. That's good too, it makes me happy my child can manage a jolly man in a red suit...for now.

Santa and I also got to meet the newest addition, Kylee.


We had the annual Christmas pageant, The boy was supposed to be a wise guy, but he was napping.
We had some rockin inn keepers...

And I do mean rockin, as in rockin the do.



This guy was running from me, so I had to prove I got him, and no, this is not the only picture I managed to snap! Muwahahahahahahahahaaaa!



They were Jim, Bob and I don't know. They had fun with it.



We had some great shepherds. Nose picking pictures not included. Your welcome. :)


And Joseph.

We had a fabulous angel Gabriel.


But I have to say my favorite would be these sweet little angels.

It makes me wonder and think, if we all didn't have angels fussing over us when we were so brand new. I am pretty sure our sweet savior did. Hopefully they were a little more gentle than these sweet girls, but the love is there.


Here is an awesome close up of The boy's gooey face. Your welcome. :)

I bet you didn't know I was related to Mary Poppins, but it's true.


We spent the better part of two days saying Goodbye to her as she sang "Let's go Fly a Kite" down the hall. Her mother had to tell her that Mary Poppins just sleeps up in the clouds but would come back tomorrow because she gets upset at the end of the movie. So the rest of the time, she would exclaim "I'm Back!" and we all had to be happy to see her. J tried to tell her Merry Christmas but she sternly reminded him her name was Mary Poppins, not Mary Christmas!



Funny thing is, this hat was not originally a Christmas present. Her Auntie was Mary Poppins for Halloween and she found the hat. She LOOOOOOOOOOOVES Mary Poppins. J found her today laying on the floor stroking her hat. How could her favorite Aunt say no? I love it when a kid falls in love with a character like that.

They got a super fantastic dress up box of joy from their Grandma. I have to tell you, my inner little girl was jealous. I would've loooooooooved that when I was a kid. The fairy wings and the hats and the dresses. It was pretty amazing.





Hoooray for super creative awesome Grandmas!

The boy got a rocking horse. He loves it!





We borrowed a hat out of the dress up box of glory, and Great Grandma bought him his super cute outfit.

Thank you everyone for your kindness and love and for a wonderful Christmas! We love you!

Maybe I will be less stressed and can manage to be a little more interesting next time, but you can't tell me I didn't have enough pictures this time!
Until next time Y'all!

*Steps onto her soap box*

WARNING: POTENTIALLY OFFENSIVE CONTENT IF YOU SO CHOOSE TO TAKE IT THAT WAY AND LIVE A MISERABLE OFFENDED LIFE.

*Blows into microphone*

Ahem,

I am not sure about people. Seriously, who are these people who have decided that no matter where they go and what they do they should never EVER have anything around them that they do not agree with? Who the heck made you so special? I have to deal with things that could potentially offend me everyday. The difference? I choose not to allow it to offend me. I choose happiness. Seriously who has time for this crap? Do I throw a tantrum when people smoke? No. Do I freak out in grocery stores and demand they remove cigarettes because I cannot stand the sight of them and blood is going to shoot out of my eyes if I look at them? No. I don't. Would I go to the Middle East and demand they stop ringing the bells that tell them when to pray because it does not fit into my beliefs? Of course not. The fact of the matter is, we live in a Christian country, and you know what? That's OK. Being offended by Christmas music is among the most idiotic things on the planet to be offended by and I am sick to death of the loud obnoxious minority being catered to. The reason it works? Because the rest of us have a life, the rest of us are live and let live kind of people. The rest of us just go on in our lives, we don't want to offend anybody, but let be serious here. Who the heck are they to take away all of our joy and Christmas spirit?

Costco had the gall to play Christmas music at Christmas time. Surely you heard about it, all of those people dying on the floors of Costco with blood leaking out of their ears. No? You didn't see that in the news? Weird, because the way these people act, that must be what is going on. Unless your head is going to explode and blood is going to shoot out of your ears I think it's time for you to put on your big girl (or boy as the case may be) panties and get over it. Costco is a privately owned business that also sells, Christmas trees, and ornaments, and *gasp* Nativity scenes. They have every right to play Christmas music, just like you have every right to be offended, you do not however, have the right to force them to stop playing the music they choose to play. Maybe you should go home and shop on-line with your non-Christmas music and give the rest of us break already. If your delicate constitution cannot handle it, maybe you should just stay in your house where you will be protected from the big bad world around you. Go ahead and do us a favor and protect yourself from the vicious, Ho ho ho, or a fa la lalalala that is just more than you can manage to deal with.

Back to Costco. A few weeks ago when we were in Costco we enjoyed the festive melodious sounds of Christmas music, this time it was gone because someone was offended. Tonight, Jason mentioned the lack of Christmas music to one of the workers, which in turn got people talking about it. The Costco workers even said that they missed the music. It made work and the shopping experience much more pleasant. We went and put our two cents in at the comment station there in Costco. One lady told us she would counter our complaint. Jason told her that was her right as an American, and it is, but I am pretty sure there are more of us than there are of her. We had about 5 others join us in our comment leaving Christmas music saving quest. The lady that did not appreciate the Christmas music did not leave a comment card.

So next time you are in Costco, maybe you could casually bring up the lack of Christmas music, strike up a conversation with the workers and then take whoever will go with you over to the comment table and join the cause. I am sick and tired of these squeaky wheels getting everything their way. I figure it's service to them, so that they can learn how to deal with the real world, in a mature and normal way. Think of it as therapy, not as offensive.

I am not a person who enjoys offending others, but for reals, get a life and get over it already! You live in a miraculous country that allows you the option to not celebrate Christmas, that's amazing and it was brought to you by a country of Christians so let us have our music and just be happy for Pete's sake!

This post brought to you by drool...

which was brought to you by these:



No, not his adorable dimple but those two little choppers on the bottom.

Ok and on a totally unrelated note, I had to sing in a recital, which made me want to cry, and I almost did. So since I was singing The Hills are Alive, I decided to put on the brightest happiest outfit I could conceive of. This is what I came up with.



So I may have just looked like a crazy person but, I figured maybe people would be dazzled by the colors they wouldn't really hear if I messed up.



The Family



And I have been a crocheting freak and this is but one of my projects that I have finished lately. Isn't he cute? Enjoy the picture because I can't get him to keep it on anymore. :( Sad day.

Oh and here is the fog in Williams, because you all know you were dying of curiosity. :)



The fog was thick we got out of it around 2:30 but only because we finally came off of the mountain. It was insane! Yay home! Now to move. Boo move. I have got to get a truck up to my house and rescue my stuff ASAP!

Oh yeah, I have a blog...

I find that I do not blog unless I have pictures, and pictures have a way of staying on my camera and not being downloaded lately. Who has time for that kind of stuff? So, I am just going to write and hope you all care enough to read, and even if you don't, this is for me and my family mostly anyway, so, there.

November was a crazy fantastic month for us. On the 10th the court declared us the official parents of the fabulous boy. That was amazing, but the next day on the 11th we took him to the Gila Valley Temple to be sealed to us, and that was the wonderful icing on a delicious cake that has taken a very long time to bake. It was really wonderful, it is always so wonderful to be in the temple with family. It's nice when you go as you should, but something about having a group of family with you just really drives it all home, and reminds you that you are lucky enough to be with these very people forever. The spirit was very strong and I bawled through the whole thing (You are shocked, I can tell.) We had joked before going, that the boy might be a little upset that he was sealed to us, it's not like he has any say, but the sealer told us that he was very aware of what was happening and the importance of it. He was so cute in his little white suit. I tried to time everything with grumpiness and food, but it still did not go according to plan. While we were in there with all of our family and friends waiting for the sealing to start, The boy decided he was hungry. Mind you, he had eaten only an hour before. Jason was up trying to hush him and rock him and make him happy with everyone watching. I had to run back to the brides room, Yeah, I got to get dressed in the brides room, and get another bottle. I didn't see it in all of the commotion but apparently the joy on the boy's face was evident as he saw that bottle. He's so funny.
I really do feel so incredibly blessed. I don't even know how all of this happened, but I do know that our Heavenly Father loves us and he is a God of miracles. Everything about this sweet little boy is a wonderful miracle and I feel so blessed to have been entrusted to be his mother. I hope I do OK. How amazing is it, that we get to be together forever? I will answer, super fantastically amazing!

I am going to use the pictures my super awesome cousin Jill took after the sealing. Thanks so much Jill for getting these.



The boy looks a little concerned about getting squished but, I am sure on the inside he is full of joy. :)

In other news, we are moving in with Grandma. I am excited and scared. I do not like starting over with new friends. I like the friends I have, I had a good thing going here. I had the Q to call up and go do with, and R stopping by and hanging out with me. I had the Shan helping me sew, life was good. It will be nice to have more space, and to have a fridge all of our own, and to have the time with family. I think mostly I am scared about making friends. I am awkward. Have you ever noticed the word awkward is awkward? It is. I am just not super good at small talk, I like to delve, I like to know what makes people tick and probably most people need more time, also, I am now on Depo. I get to have simulated menopause. (Did I mention I am not good at small talk? Over share much?) For the in-vitro process I get to go on this medication and I am only slightly worried it will make me a wacka-do. I have also had some not so neat experiences with moving into a new place when we first got married, and I know I just need to let it go, but I really would rather not have a repeat performance of that. It will all be OK, once we get there. Isn't moving the worst? It seriously makes me crazy.

We have been traveling a lot too. That has also made me a crazy person. In fact, we are leaving at 4 in the am to go to Flagstaff for the week. First of all burr and secondly, we just got home from Benson yesterday. Is it any wonder I am a crazy person who cannot seem to sleep anymore? Really? I am excited though, Jason is graduating from NAU and it's his birthday and I get to see J and I get to see M. Woooohooo! It should be fun. Hopefully I sleep and hopefully Sam is happy and good as ever, and hopefully we can come get some of my sorely missed stuff and hopefully we can get this moving thing underway. Living in the netherland of moving and moved is super special.

So, I am alive. You are a trooper if you have gotten through this, and if you live here and I am going there, I will miss you lots.

Love,
Me