My Very Own Christmas Miracle

Okay, I've been meaning to write about this for a while, but I have been so busy, that I haven't had much time. But we have had our very own Christmas miracle here in our house this year, and I would be very ungreateful if I didn't shout my blessings from the rooftops.

We moved into our house a little over 5 years ago when it was just the 6 of us. Since then we have had 2 children and my parents have moved in. Now there are 10 of us. When we bought this house it was at the height of the market. With the housing market crisis, we would have to stay in this townhome for a very long time. So we are walking away and starting over. We have been looking all summer for a house, with no success. Either I would call for an appointment and the would rent it before I was able to get in , or it was in the wrong area, or it was too small, or they didn't want 10 people living in their house. And then we found out we needed to be out in 3 weeks! Which wouldn't be so bad except there are not very many houses in the area we wnat to live in that would be suitable for us. And the ones that we kept finding were not working out. So we did the only thing we could think of and handed it over to the Lord. I had faith that not only would He lead us to the right house but that He would also soften the hearts of the owners to let us live there. The first house I found that was a real option for us had a death in their business, and it took forever for them to get back to us and tell us that it was a no. Thankfully when I figured it would take them a while to hear back from them I called a Real Estate agent to see if she knew of something I didn't know of...She didn't...I was very dissapointed. There were two houses that I was curious about though, the problem was that they weren't in our ward, they were in the San Pedro ward. I just got a new calling a month ago and I thought there was no way we were supposed to be in the other ward, if I had just recieved this calling.

But we kept praying and packing and looking for houses on the internet. As it turns out not too many people put their houses on the market right before Christmas, so we were getting down to the wire, and we go to see this house on a Friday. And it was perfect. Everything we wanted and needed in a house and more. So the agent e-mailed me the application. They needed one from all adults over 18 which means she needed 4, she wanted a couple of other things too, it was Friday, I had it ready at about noon on Sat. I called her and e-mailed her but I guess she was done working so I waited till Monday. Still packing, still praying that we would find a house the clock ticking till we needed to be out of the house. Monday morning first thing I handed over the app, and she told me that the other real estate agent was out of the country till Friday afternoon. I was so frustrated now I had a week of not knowing and then I still had to keep looking for a place. So I did, one day I saw three places, one of them might have worked for us but it was 300 sq ft less than our town home. It make me sad. I kept praying and packing. Saturday afternoon I heard back from the agent that we got the place, and that we could be in by the Monday before Christmas. I was so happy, this means we can have Christmas together in our new home. It is so perfect for us, it has a nice back yard, a big living room with a view of Catalina Island, one of the most gorgeous kitchens I've been in. And probably the best thing is an apartment for my parents. I think (know) they get tired of constantly being on top of us, so it is so nice that they can have their own room that the kids can't just walk into. They have a living room, kitchenette, dining area and a bedroom and bathroom. It will be wonderful for them especially since they have a storage unit full of stuff to put into it, that we have been trying to get them to get rid of for a long time. Not only did Heavenly Father hear our prayers He gave us something we didn't even know to ask for. I feel so blessed to have a loving Heavenly Father that looks out for us and provides for us and has pity on us in our hour of need.

Our Christmas miracle is simple, it's that we will have a Christmas in our own home together. Something that wasn't easy but it will be so worth it.

Felt Food

I think at the begining of this post I must mention I have become a little obssesed with Pinterest. It's wonderful and makes me want to be more creative and crafty. I saw that someone had pinned felt food that was really cute, and I thought to myself we don't need felt food, but then I realized it was my niece's birthday and she could probably use some of it. So after not being able to find the original post on pinterest, I googled it, I found a ton of really good ideas. After making them I have decided what I liked about what I did and what I will do differently next time. But I think that they all turned out cute anyway. Chocolate chip cookies and sugar cookies with pink frosting.

Bread Pizza

Strawberries, they are so cute.

Carrots, I actually made these at the doctor whilst waiting for my dad with 5 kids. Jamie helped sew up the top of them. I was quite impressed with her patience. She did a great job. And Kaylee loved the food too.

Disneyland

Here's one of all 6 of my sweethearts Thursday night, we had such a blast!

With a broken ankle going to Disneyland isn't so easy. I like to go in the fall, everyone's back in school and the lines are shorter. But we haven't been able to go...Thursday was the perfect day to go. We have no soccer practice, it's not too hot and there's no school on Friday. James wasn't able to get out of work early to go, so I set off with 6 kids all by myself. We had such a wonderful time. They were mostly finished decorating for Christmas, Jamie was so cute when she saw this tree she wanted to bring Grammie to see it.

3D glasses for Midway Mania. At first I had John's glasses on my head, but he was really excited to wear them and kept them on the whole time.

Josh was excited to go on the ride...can you tell?

Toby was such a good helper, going on the rides with some of the younger kids so we could all go on the rides.

This must've been a good book because Tyler couldn't take his eyes off of it

Soccer

We only have two kids playing soccer this year. Abby and Josh. Abby loves soccer, it's the only sport she ever wants to play. Josh on the other hand gave me a little resistance at first, but he loves it now a month into it. Abby is getting good at soccer, she is playing defense this year, but she wants to play forward. She wants to be in the action, but Saturday she got a little action on defense. Look at the determination in her face. She loves this game! She never complains about it at all.

See what I mean....defense! Go Lightning!

Josh's team doesn't really have positions. He's in U8 this year, but it's really just glorified swarm ball. He doesn't do well in the "swarm" but he does well when he's not around too many other kids.

At first he complained about all the running, but he's over it now, he loves running. It looks like he'll be first to the ball here! Go team Beast!

Sunday Evening Crafts

I have had way too much fun on Pinterest lately, there are so many cute things to do out there. Being able to put them all together is a great idea, I love it. So when Toby and James had to go to a fireside tonight and we had a little time before bed I thought we should take advantage of the time. Here's a cute one I found for Halloween...a bunting. I thought the kids would have so much fun doing this boy was I right. There were a few of these on the website, but Tyler, Abby, and Josh came up with some new creations.

From left to right: Tyler's own creation a wizard, Abby's candy corn, Joshua's ghost/vampire, Abby's cat, and Tyler's crazy face.

Jamie's pumpkin, Abby's vampire (it's supposed to be a girl, but to me it looks like a man with side burns), my candy corn, Joshua's spider.

My ghost, Jamie's Frankenstein, Jamie's owl, and Tyler's vampire.

The kids had so much fun creating their own pennants. When I was putting them to bed they were asking when we were going to do it again.

15 Years

Last week was our 15 year anniversary. I can't believe it's been that long. It sounds way longer than it feels. We don't get away every year but we try to get away at least every 5 years. This year we debated over where to go. The final decision was a day at Disneyland and a day at the L.A. County Fair, and a day to relax. When I broke my ankle I thought for sure we would have to cancel our trip, but we decided to press forward. My dad has a scooter so we used that so we would still be able to go on our trip. James was all excited because we were going to get to go on all the rides as handicapped.

We started off the day with a tour at Disneyland. It was very interesting to see how Walt Disney envisioned Disneyland. We got to learn alot about Disneyland and we got to see the lobby of Club 33. It was very nice, maybe someday we'll get to eat there.

This is us waiting for Star Tours.

We got on Tower of Terror so quickly we did it twice. It was so much fun. We took it easy the whole day, a thing that never happens with kids.

The next day we went to the L.A.County Fair. I think I've only been there once and James had never been there. There was a chainsaw carving demo first thing, so we hustled over there, it was really neat. In less than 10 minutes he carved a bear out of a block of wood. Then we watched the log sports show. The stuff they did was crazy.

James was totally caught off guard when we walked in and he saw frosting shots. That was all he could think about. So before we even got lunch he got it. He had to pick a topping, he ended up with gummy be3ars. He didn't like the gummy bears, but he loved the frosting. We ate a bunch of stuff that day, but nothing totally weird like the deep fried kool-aid, or the deep fried avocado. But we did have potato chip nachos, which were o.k. It was a nice day of shopping and eating. Another low key day.

Sunday we relaxed, we slept in (till Toby called asking where his church shirt was) and we had a leasurely breakfast. Watched a couple movies and had lunch before we came home. It was so nice to have some peace and quiet. Which it wasn't when we got home. So now it's back to the daily grind.

happy anniversary James!

First Day of Preschool!

Jamie started Preschool this year. She was so excited, I have to admit I was a little excited too. To only have one kid at home I was planning so much to do while she was gone! It was gonna be great! I had some PTO stuff to get done before we took her to school, so I totally didn't get any pics taken the morning of the first day, plus we were a couple minutes late. I hate that! Whenever I start my day out late I feel like the whole rest of the day goes bad and I'm running late to everything.

So we had our first board meeting before the first PTO meeting of the year. It went well, we got all the wrinkles smoothed out and then I looked at the clock, it was 11:54!! 6 minutes to get me and John to preschool 10 minutes away!!
So we got in the car and rushed to school, ran up the hill and was the last one there!!! UGH! not good thankfully Jamie didn't seem to care! There is a flight of stairs and a ramp and the kids wanted to take the stairs.

Well we took the stairs and I missed the last one, fell down and broke my ankle! It was super embarrassing, there were some mom that helped me out and all the preschool teachers came to investigate. Jamie's teacher even followed us home and helped me get the kids in. She was very sweet.

In the days that followed I have been (and continue to be) blessed with an outpouring of love and help. We had dinner brought in every night last week, and someone was here to help me with kids, they even helped with laundry and dishes. I feel so greatful to have people in my life that are willing to hlep me in my time of need. I can't drive for 6 weeks so this story is not over and I still have lots of people helping drive me to doctor appoinments, taking the kids to soccer, to and from school and preschool. It is really frustrating to be stranded, but at the same time I am so very thankful to know that I have friends willing to help.