• The house is now refinanced with all of the time I spent finding documents and scanning
• Common days are now over (Jason’s school was 11:25 instead of the normal 12:38. These early days just about killed me.)
• Parent teacher conferences are finished
• Scouts were moved and took over Thursday night
• YW was a larger activity then normal
• Mom, I need to to a 100 day project
• Mom, I need 100 pieces of Jolly Ranchers
• Sierra has a field trip tomorrow (these early days are killing me)
• Having Jason read to me is just about as much as I can handle
• Trying to keep the house in decent shape
• Trying to come up with dinner every night
• Trying to work out. No I really don’t want to, especially while the kids are fighting or crawling under my legs while I am doing it.

My list goes on, but I won’t bore you. I know that it is silly, but I am over whelmed right now. I think my last straw was tonight. I hit the point of, I can’t think or plan anything else, to early in the week. I was in charge of book club. I read the book a year ago and really enjoyed it. So I decided that was the book. I was just very disappointed in myself. It was not my best effort.

• I didn’t get enough copies of the book for the ladies to read. Because of that, there was a smaller turn out then usual. (Yes I do understand that people could have been busy)
• I couldn’t get motivated to read the book again, so I really could not lead a discussion.
• I had all of these plans to make smoothies for the ladies before they came, but I pulled out frozen cookies instead. (Yes, frozen cookies were fine. I just wanted to do something not so boring)

Those were the only things that I had to do and I failed in my mind. I was just not prepared. Embarrassing to admit… There were only 7 women that showed up and while I was introducing the book and author I was shaking the whole time. How on earth do only 7 women make me so darn nervous. I hate how I can not just talk in front of people. I hate how shy I am. I hate how panicked I get when I know that someone is actually listening to me.

I guess that is why I joined the book club to help get over this anxiety I feel in groups. I just wish it was not so hard. I wish that I could be that fun bubbly person that everyone wants to talk with. All in all tonight probably went fine for the ladies that came, I just wish that I could have made it better.

So whenever gets Fruit Snacks for herself and/or the kids, she’ll do something interesting.  Most people would give a pack to each child and be done with it.  Not Kristin.  She’ll open every pack and make sure that everyone has an equal number of each color (or as close to it as possible).  Only then are she and the children permitted to partake.  She’s Kristin and she’s weird.

On a related note, Target Fruit Snacks are the best, no question!

In other news Elena said the dinner prayer the other night. It was the cutest thing. I started out and waited for her to talk. She did! She would “repeat” what I said. So cute. I wish you all could have been there. She is awesome at folding her arms and listening when we pray.

Now on to pictures… After church we opened presents. (Jason wanted to get more comfortable and got into his pj’s) Elena got a lot fo help from the kids opening her presents…

Sierra was actually very excited for the Lion King!

Jason was thrilled to get a nerf gun!

Hey look at that. Will and Jason can now have nerf gun fights. I know I am the best

Grandma opening up her traditional dollar store gift. This year she got a bath pillow. 

Grandpa now is opening up his dollar store gift. Haha! Airhorn! Side note: Last year he bought all of the grandkids, Yes I said grand kids, these. Sierra was 3 years old running around blasting the airhorn. And let me tell you they are very loud and last for about 15-20 minutes. We called grandpa when the kids were using them last year… Our neighbors probably thought we were crazy!

Elena, enjoying her very large pillow pet!

We had to test out the new guns!

Jason, Uncle Preston is winning. 

Then we did the usual Christmas tradition of watching a few of our Christmas movies. (In style this year)

Christmas Eve was spent making dinner and enjoying it with my Grandparents (Bragg) and Carolyn. It was a great dinner. We even had the chance to do a little crafting and make some feather earrings. Super easy and fun. I think it was a fun day all around!

We all sat around while Will read the birth of Jesus…

The kids enjoying there Vanilla protein…

We said prayer and then they were off! Jason got a Dagedare set…

Sierra got a remote control my little pony car… She is just so excited!

So easy to please!

And Elena ended up with a crawl ball. this thing moves on its own. Kind of creepy if you ask me

Jason was just not impressed with Santa this year. Nothing got him excited. Come on, an orange is way exciting!

Sierra had just seen her brother and decided to emulate him… Santa left a rat in her boot. She took it and threw it on the ground. Yet it has been her favorite present! Rubbery is played with the most in this house right now. 

Rubbery even has a new car! Yes a my little pony is supose to go in that spot. 

After Santa came it was time for church. It about killed the kids that they had to wait until after church to open the rest, but it had to happen. 9 am comes early.

Will’s (I) jumping in now to tell the story of the Christmas rat:

A long, long time ago in the land of Orem the Wu Clan was invited to a birthday party in the neighboring Mauss-land for Lady Gwen.  Not wishing to go empty handed, we paid a visit to the Wal-mart.  There we travelled up and down each aisle searching for the perfect gift.  At this point, Wise Wildon suggested that the children could pick the gift.  It would teach them generosity and kindness which are important qualities for a future ruler.  Well, Sierra chose the rat.  Not a cute squeaky mouse, not a little white mouse.  It was a well proportioned, realistic black rat.  Queen Kristin rejected this gift and requested something else.  Sierra reiterated that this WAS indeed the appropriate gift but was rebuffed in the end.

So on another day, the King snuck away during a trip of shopping and put the rat in his pocket for purchase.  For shame, it stayed in his pocket for many a day until it was remembered and paid for weeks later.  Santa discovered the rat and decided that it would be perfect for Sierra on Christmas morning and so it was. 

So perfect that it was the chosen gift to attend Christmas Church services!  And that day we sat near the door.  Such a happy and well-behaved family until Sierra’s instructor appeared.  Suddenly a crisp, small voice could be heard exclaiming, “Look Sister Williams!!!!  I got a RAT for Christmas!”  And we have been explaining that rat to the rest of the congregation ever since.  It’s story has been a favorite throughout the land!

It only too Elena 5 days to get use to my mom…

Jason’s tooth hung on for dear life. It was like this for about 5 days!

My mom and I were trying to teach Sierra how to pose. This is the best that we could get.

She really needs to work on smiling for the camera. P.S. She asked for curly hair. So cute!

We did prep the kids this year for Christmas Eve gifts. They knew that PJ’s were coming first…

Elena got a little help from everyone

And yes my kids decided that they were not going to wear shirts this evening. 

Colton took a flight to CA EARLY Christmas morning, so he opened his presents a little early…

Can you find Will

It was a great Christmas Eve.

Now on to normal life for us. Busy, busy, busy.

Anyways here are some pictures from gingerbread houses this year…

Jason was testing the frosting. It was gross this year. I blame it all on the powdered sugar. It really was gross. How do you make gross PS? They some how managed to…

Here are all of the participants this year…

Suzanne really does put her construction skills into use every year…

Grandma Kay was great and helped the kids this year.

While I was doing my own creation… A royal icing house!

Finished products… And yes I missed Suzanne and Prestons

I was commissioned by a lady in the ward to make microwaveable potato bags. While I was sewing away all afternoon, my mom finished my house. She even added stained glass and a rock foundation. 

Finished product. This opens up whole new possibilities!

As kids were starting to come to the party we played penny pitching. You stand behind a line and see who can get there penny closest to the wall. If you are the closest you get to keep all of the pennies!

We couldn’t have a party without don’t eat pete. The kids have LOVED playing this game.

We played musical bad guys, and then we moved on to racing. There were sure some quick kids!

We bowled down the bad guys! Whatever bad guy you hit, you got to keep. 

We then had a great pizza dinner. The kids told very silly jokes the whole time. 

It was then time for presents. He was very excited.

Now on to super hero memory… Humm where is Spiderman’s match…

Who doesn’t love a good cupcake? I know I still have not made a cool cake for one of my kids. Some day…

Elena sure enjoyed the cupcake!

And last we did the punch a prize as the kids were leaving. I sure have enjoyed the punch a prize game. It is worth the time! The kids love it and the parents are always impressed.