Christmas in Hershey...the sweetest place on Earth!

On our Christmas music station, the jingle "Christmas in Hershey, the sweetest place on earth" played all the time. It finally got to us and we decided to see if it was the sweetest place on earth. We met the Hershey man.

Chocolate...these bars are so big! The kids really wanted it, but there was no way we could eat all that. They got over it quick once the rides started.

We had a very fun day at Hershey, PA.

7 years!

Happy Anniversary to us on Dec. 26th

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

Now I am finally blogging about Christmas. We had a delicious ham dinner and some yummy desserts.

After our Christmas Eve dinner we acted out the nativity scene. Garrett kept saying we were playing it. So, we 'played' the nativity scene.

Then we opened one Christmas Eve present (PJ's)...

...and put out cookies and eggnog for santa.

Christmas morning...

Garrett got a drum set and trainig wheels for the bike we bought him at a yard sale this last summer. It didn't have training wheels so he couldn't even ride it. Now he can :)

Maelie got this kitchen and loves it.

On Christmas evening, we had a single sister over from our ward who wouldn't have any family for Christmas dinner. We ate and visited. On the way out, we gave her some desserts to take home with her. It was left on the edge of the table while she was getting her coat on and Sterling got a hold of it. He was enjoying it so we let him have the rest. She was okay with that and insisted that I take a picture. He was very happy as you can see.

We had a GREAT Christmas Eve and Christmas day. It was fun to spend all day with the kids playing with their new toys. Now we have to wait another year for Christmas.

Saying Goodbye

Our Ward mission couple, the Heymans, left our ward after serving for 1 1/2 years. They did so much for our ward. We'll really miss them!

Christmas Joys

We love Christmas and we love our traditions! One of our traditions is making gingerbread houses. DJ and I have made them every year since we've been married. Here is the royal mess we made making them.

Garrett ate more than he decorated!
Maelie always takes such care when making things.

DJ and I upgraded this year and made BIG gingerbread houses. DJ's house.

My house. I would live there :)

The back of my house.

Another Joy is Christmas dresses. This is Maelie's Christmas dress this year.

And another joy...our Christmas tree. It may be small, but we love it! We love to sit next to it and drink hot cocoa.

All lit up.

Meet my dentist!

I went to my new dentist the other day and he was much different from dentist's I've had in the past. He was professional, easy to talk to and kind. He actually cared about his patient (me), and I felt comfortable enough to move his hands out of my mouth whenever I wanted. Needless to say, I was not the greatest patient, but I had the greatest dentist!

Thanksgiving in Ohio

For Thanksgiving we traveled to Dayton, OH to visit one of my sisters and her family. Of course I didn't take any pictures on Thanksgiving Day, but I did get some on other days. It was really nice to be with some family on Thanksgiving.

My sister had a really nice setup for pictures so we were able to get some nice family shots.

The boys weren't as happy about pictures as the girls were so we got some really cute ones of the girl cousins. Very cute. Those two had so much fun together. I hardly saw Maelie at all. She was playing hard the whole time.

How do you get a 15month old to sit still for a picture????

Give him a stuffed animal and hold on tight!

While we were there we were able to go with their family to pick out their Christmas tree. It was tons of fun and very cold!

Sterling's eye peeking out.

The place they went to pick their tree was really neat. It was family owned and operated. they give you an ax, point you to the trees and say pick out the one you want, cut it down and take it home. So, we walked around and found the perfect tree.

Us in front of the tree.

Each kid got a chance to cut the tree.

Other pictures of the weekend.

DJ got to go hunting! He was so excited and had so much fun!

The traffic was bad on the way home, but the kids traveled GREAT! When we were about an hour from home, Garrett threw up. He had just eaten too much! He wasn't sick or anything, just ate too much food.

It was a FUN Thanksgiving. Thanks Jenn and Ned for all the food, fun, entertainment, and company! It was great.

Tag

So, evidently I'm supposed to write 7 intersting things about me. Here I go:

1. I am the greatest wrestler who ever lived (Thanks Nacho for the pointers)
2. I am the Dragon Warrior (if you don't know what I'm talking about watch the movie, "Kung Fu Panda")
3. The next good looking man you see on a Wheaties box will be me, for being the world's best wrestler dragon warrior.
4. I've climbed Mt. Everest 10 times without oxygen and the last time I did it the whole way backwards, with Debbie on my back.
5. I have a country in the southern horn of Africa named after my rear. "Djbouti". Get it!?! DJ's booty. HA! It should say Djnicebouti
6. I have an icecream flavor named after me. It's called "Whose Your Daddy"
7. And lastly, booger is my favorite word to say. I don't know why but it just is.

That about wraps it up for me. Who's next.
DJ

tagged

Tagged 4th folder, 4th Photo. I'm posting on our new laptop so my 4th folder of pictures were our Halloween pictures. So this is what you get. My 4th photo in my 4th folder. cool tag.

I tag all the sisters in the Logan Ward

tagged

I've been tagged. I am posting 7 interesting (or not so interesting) things about myself

1. I am the 15th out of 16 kids in my family. I love having this size of a family! I wish I could give my kids the same huge family that I have. I'm working on about 1/2 the size if I can. I'm glad my parents didn't stop at 6 which was their original plan because I wouldn't be here and I wouldn't have had the experiences and life that I've had.

2. I have really BAD eyes! My contact prescription is -9.5. those of you with contacts will know what that means. I would LOVE to get Lasik, but because my eyes are so bad, i'm not a candidate. The eye doc said that I could get a lens replacement which is what cataract patients get. No thanks, I'll wait for a new, better product to come along in the future.

3. I'm not a phone person. I'm an email person, but I don't have much tact when emailing, so if I sound strange or confusing in my emails, sorry.

4. I love to drive! If DJ and I are together, I'm the one that sits in the driver seat because I love it. He's so good to always let me drive. I didn't get my driver's license until I was almost 19 years old (not because I didn't want to drive when I was 16, but because I had to buy my own car and pay for my own insurance if I wanted to drive and couldn't afford it at 16 years of age) so I think that's where my love of driving comes from. I also like to go on long road trips (thanks to my parents who took us on so many trips in the car). If I didn't have a family, I might've been a truck driver.

5. I'm not in love with chocolate like most women. I would choose fruity candy or vanilla over chocolate. I'm not saying I don't like chocolate, i just like other stuff better, but I'll eat anything sweet and yummy.

6. I only dated DJ for a month before we got engaged and then we got married 2 1/2 months later, so we only knew each other for 3 1/2 months before we tied the eternal knot.
That was definitely not my style, ask anyone in my family, but the Lord doesn't always work in my style.

7. In High school I went to bed very early. Anywhere from 8-9:30, but now I can't seem to get in bed before 11pm and I REALLY need my sleep. DJ's favorite quote from my dad is: "sometimes I wake up grouchy, other times I let her sleep."

If you got through my 7 things, then consider yourself tagged.

Please, slow down!

My kids are growing so fast! I love the stages they are in now, but I just want them to stay in these stages forever! I look at Maelie and she already has two missing teeth, two growing in, she's in kindergarten (all day for that matter), and she's acting very grown up and learning to read! I look at Garrett and he grew so tall all of a sudden and he talks a TON! Then I look at Sterling and he's huge! I think he's Garrett, but then I look over and Garrett's doing 100 piece puzzles by himself (He gets mad if I help him) and he's only 3! Sterling is learning quickly things from his siblings. He no longer wants me to hold him, he wants to be on his own. Ohhhhhhh, time is going so quickly. My babies are so big! Everyone told me before you know it, they'll be gone and I'm getting a glimpse of that now. Adorable!

I am very grateful for these blessings I get to raise. I'm going to take the advice of my neighbor and enjoy every single minute!