Rex family Christmas party

Avery and her great Grandma McCardle snuggling on the sofa. We are so excited to have her here for Christmas
Avery loves to cuddle and her uncle Jimmy is her favorite. She idols the man. She gets jealous over his dates and insists on his attention. They bonded a long time ago and I can't see it changing anytime soon.
Our anual Christmas story. They are too funny.
Haven't you heard of the baby Jesus laying in the manger with the pigs???

The kid is funny

A few liners from One Carson Rex(picture in his 3 year old slurring):

Mom, I wonder why the Reindeers don't let Rudolph play in the reindeer games?


Mom, on Christmas Vaction, the guy says hey Gwiswald (translation Griswald) where you gonna put a tree that size, and Gwiswald says bend over and I'll show you.....That's a funny part.


Dad, it's a good thing that our Christmas tree isn't in the yard. Santa would have to jump off the roof to give us our presents.


And one from Halle I couldn't pass up, although she'll be mortified if she finds out.

Mom, you know that stinky smell I kept smelling at home? Well, I just smelled it (at grandma's house) so I think it might be me.


Oh how I am enjoying these last few years with preschoolers.

Your name should be in lights....Christmas lights

What an eventful week. My kids have kept us going this past week.

On Monday the girls had their anual Christmas dance recital. Avery is in 2 classes this year, and we were lucky enough that she performed in both classes on the same night. But it left me running around crazy changing costumes and hair. First Avery danced in her Jazz number where she is one of the younger girls, but didn't skip a beat. She has so much sass that the jazz numbers are right up her alley. She shakes her hips and does a mean shimmy. Then both girls perform a ballet number "Suzy Snowflake." What girl hasn't dance to that song. I did when I was their ages. Halle has so much fun on stage. She wears a truly happy face when she's up there. I am so proud of them both for all their hard work and determination.





On Wednesday, it was the preschoolers turn to perform. They were in a Winter program. They sang songs like, I'm a little snow man, and Jingle Bells. Carson LOVES to sing. He is by far the loudest one up there. He says he sings the loudest, but I'm pretty sure it's yelling, not singing, but who am I to tell him otherwise. Halle stands there a foot taller than any of the other kids, but with the most inocent smile on her face. She make look 9, but she's every bit of a 5 year old.



Thursday was the big performance of the Nutcracker by the first graders. Every year the first grade classes put on a condenced version of the Nutcracker. Aver was a lightstick dancer and a Pennywhistle. Don't ask what a Pennywhistle is, I have no idea. All I know is she dance around, jumped over another dancer and then they tied a ribbon around a pole. She did excellent and the ribbon thing. The lightstick dance is done in the dark with glow sticks. It's pretty amazing that these teachers can teach kids to read, but I was thoroughly amazed that they taught 12 of them to move in syncrination to music in the dark.




So, the Rex kids names were in lights this week and I'm proud of them all.

Love you guys!

Friday night at the Rex's

I wanted to take the kids out to dinner. Nothing fancy just the local Training Table for some greasy burgers and fries. I went upstairs to get ready and discovered a disaster at the top of my stairs. I called all 4 monsters up to clean it before we left. And the arguing insued. All 4 were yelling at each other that it wasn't theirs, blah, blah, blah. I finally told them to forget dinner. And the mess STILl needed to be cleaned up. They begged to still go and I said they needed to convince me they deserved it. I got on my computer today and discovered an essay from Avery explaining why they deserved to go.........

Dear mom and dad !
the reesn we shud get to go owt to dinr is beecos we will cleen
The house! And we will do oure londry!and we will cleen oure room we will do the dishis and we will shcrub top to bodum!


She is trying (with spelling and being good!)

AAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

So, today I threw myself a pity party. It's a fun time. I beat myself up over the things that I need to do vs. the things I want to do. The needs usually win, which doesn't help me to be in a better mood.

It's Christmas time and all I want to do is enjoy this season, but my "to do" list just keeps getting longer. For every one I cross off, 2 more get added. I feel like everything gets done half way and half a@# at that. I know that I'm not alone in this. I actually got a lot acomplished today, but at 9:15 pm when I went to work my paying job, I walked into this. I think I will quit calling it my office and start calling the half A@# room. There are about 7 half done projects in here. Under those is my desk and the headset that tethers me to it for 6 hours every day. There has become quite the pile up in the 2 feet That I can move while I'm working. I can't believe I'm showing these pictures. I only am because I did:
- 1 load of dishes
- 2 Christmas skirts
- 3 hours of girls dance rehersals
- 4 loads of laundry (folded AND put away)
- 5 wrapped Christmas presents
- 6 hours of my paid job
- 7 vaccummed rooms at the church

Sorry there got carried away. This just skims my day. Here's the pics



AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
That scream is for all the mom's out there that are at their ends with everything. I hope you take as much comfort knowing that I am falling apart at the seams as I do knowing you are too.

Where does the time go?

I looked at my last post and was shocked to see it was the middle of Novemeber since my last one. I don't think I've sat down since that day. So a quick recapp of the last 3 weeks.

I turned 31. Yipee. At some point birthdays became just another day. But secretly I love having a day that is all mine. This year I was sent to a spa for a wonderful massage. My wonderful mother in law took the kids for the night and JD took me to Five Alls for a quiet dinner. After that we went to see Couples Retreat, where I learned that I will definately rock my own baby. Then we stayed the night at the University Park Hotel. In the morning while I slept in JD went and go the kids. We had breakfast together than swam in the pool.

The next week was Thanksgiving and my marathon of days that ended about an hour ago.
I worked Mon, Tues, and Wed. Made Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, ate and cleaned up.

Black Friday. Well it was a gray Thursday I guess, since I started waiting in line at Toys R Us at 10:30 Thursday night. The store opened at midnight. At 2:15 we left and headed to Old Navy that opened at 3am. Next was Target at 5, Walmart at 6:30, and a slew of other stores. I snuck a 4 hour nap in, then shopped until 8pm.

Saturday was the big Holy War. It wasn't pretty and ended in a see of overly happy blue people.

Then work, work, and more work.

Boutique, boutique, and another boutique.....when did my hobby become my job?

Tonight we had a blast doing a progressive dinner with our neighbors.

Now we are enjoying a quiet night in front of the fire.

Liver for Lulu Boutique

Please join us in helping this family. Raffle tickets can be purchased through me. Leave a comment or email me on any questions.
Thanks

Grab a tissue, trust me

I have been privledge to come across a family in need. Check out this blog liverforlulu.blogspot.com. Little Lulu is in need of a liver transplant. She is less than a year old and fighting for her life every day. The hospital bills are piling up.

I know how it feels to watch a loved one die, but can't even fathom watching a child suffer everyday as their tiny body slowly starts to fail. How would my husband or I even be able to leave the childs side to go make the money that is needed for the care to keep her alive? The answer? We wouldn't, as I imagine most of us would answer.

This young family has another healthy child at home that they still need to provide for. Both with their time, love and financially.

I, in conjunction with my sister-in-law are putting together a fundraiser to help this family. In the next few days more details will come about the big event; dates, times, etc. But, I couldn't wait for the details before I let everyone know about this little fighter.

In times when money is short and stress is high, we should all be thankful for the health and love of our loved ones.

Murray Black to play in the Championship game

I just can't get enough of those chubby cheeks in her cheerleading outfit. I didn't get her boots in the pic, but picture knee high black fuzzy boots. Adorable!!



This little team won't take no for an answer. They just keep winning. They are some tough little boys. They practice 3 days a week for 2 hours, plus their games on Saturday. Come rain or shine or snow they'll be playing for the championship. They are playing Kearns, which was their first game and first loss. These boys have some redemption coming and are so excited to kick some Kearns butt!

Easton football

Easton's little football team made a great come back from the beginning of the season to make the play offs. We're so proud of him and the whole team.

Halloween fun

I may be the biggest believer in Halloween out there, but after 8 parties I am ready to move on. What's next, not Thanksgiving.....Not New Moon....It's my birthday! mark your calenders....

Anyway, back to all the Halloween fun the Rex's had this year.

Halloween fun at shool. It's fun being a room mom and helping the kids enjoy the holidays. Lots of work, but well worth it. Avery's class made little crafts. I called them book marks. Popsicle sticks with foam stickers. Easton's class made these cool haunted houses and had spooky treats.




Here's the anual cookie decoration party with the kids friends. Lots of our friends were home with the dreaded swine flu, so we may have to do a repeat with Christmas trees of something.






The always fun pumpkin carving. This year we had no less than 27 pumpkins ranging in sizes. And guess who got to carve most of them :) It's a good thing I like Halloween. We had Mater, a witch, U of U, aliens, ghosts and faces. So much icky fun.





and Finally trick or treating. The big kids went off to the Utah football game with JD and I took the little one trick or treating. Carson was so excited and kept leaving Halle in the dust. There were a lot of people not at home, either the flu or the football game kept lights off, but they had fun anyway.

Leaves are falling all around.....

....on the tree tops on the ground.


When you have to shovel the leaves, you know you have a lot of trees.

The kids had so much fun gathering leaves, jumping in them and trying to drown each other under them. I love our home. Not too many places left where you can build your home and still have mature trees like these in your backyard.

And the winner is?????

JD's was the big block U and mine was the little white one with the feathers.....Tab, the one behid is Mater, from Cars. Not a monkey or dog, thank you very much.

Thanks for playing!

Things that made me smile

My 3 year just told me he likes me and the way I walk.

He said he knows why I like him. It's because I had him in my belly.

I love this age!

Utah Halloween Poll

In honor of the stupidest game time in Ute football history, JD and I carved some U pumpkins. I think mine is superior to his. We would like to put it out there for your opinion. Please take the poll on the side of the posts. I'll post who's who after Halloween.

I should be posting a poll of "should JD ditch me on my favorite holiday and go to the Utah game, or should he stay here with me for my anual Halloween party, which btw is just us because of said game and the wonderful swine flu that has hit my nieghborhood."

So, I will be here after trick or treating with my preschoolers, roasting hotdogs and watching the Utah game. All are welcome, that is, all that are not stricken with swine, bird or any other kind of flu.

Sunday Drive

This past Sunday was the perfect day to take a mini road trip. The kind of drive my parents used to drag me on that I would fight and complain the entire time...... My kids fortunately didn't fight us at all. JD thinks that's because we're much cooler than our parents were. I think they just haven't started to hate us yet. It will come I'm sure, but for now we enjoyed a very fun afternoon as a family.

We headed up Parley's to see the leaves and quickly discovered the dreaded frost line. For those of you not in Utah, that is the level of elevation that the frost/snow has come down to. The leaves were brown and dead. We were a little disapointed. We came down through Imigration Canyon and we relieve with the bright colors we saw. We ended up in Millcreek with our little picnic lunch.

We spread out a blanket in the middle of a grassy field that over hung with the brightest orange leaves. It was amazing.

(not sure how to fix this, so just turn your computer on its side)


After our lunch I made the girls try on all of my outfits so I could get some pictures of people in them, since they look so much cuter on. Well, we had a blast. The girls were born super models and I a professional photographer. Well, maybe not, but between the scenery, the outfits, and happiness the photos turned out great.














The boys meanwhile found a stream that they were determined to dam up. They threw every twig, branch and log in a 500 ft radius into the stream. Hours of fun.