We wish you a Mer (oops, no, wait, watch out, I'm gonna puke!!)

Our Christmas celebrations started off great, with a fun filled night at Grandma & Grandpa Babycakes with the whole Hughes clan. We ate, we played, we opened lots of presents, and the kids were all happy and very excited. Joshua was especially excited, and asked no less than 100 times, if it was time to open presents yet. He was very happy to get his CARS racetrack from Jake, and he carefully guarded it all night long.

Bear, lovin on her new baby

Alex in Star Wars heaven

Hannah Montana

A very Happy Bear

Bruce making love to the camera.

And a little holiday nose picking, just for fun! (and unfortunately the gross doesn't end here)

After the fun party at Grandma's, we headed home, got everyone all tucked snug in their beds, and layed out the Santa gifts. Keep in mind that no one had showed even the slightest hint of any illness up until this point.

Santa gifts

Let me start this paragraph by stating that when 5 of the 6 people in your house have the badooks, 2 bathrooms are just not enough!! It all began at 3am when Alex sauntered into our room moaning and saying he didn't feel too well. Within 10 minutes he was in the bathroom barfing his guts out. 2 hours later, Joshua was crying because he had puked all over his new Diego pillow, and his PJ's. Shortly after that, I went in to get Bear up, and let's just say, it hit me as soon as I opened the door. Bear had puked all over her crib, and leaned over the side to puke into and all over the toy box at the side of her crib. She then continued to sleep and roll around in it, so as to get the maximum amount of it into her hair. It was FABULOUS!!!!

So instead of tearing into Santa gifts, we spent the morning bathing kids, and pulling chunks out of bedding, before it hit the washer. We didn't even start to open presents until 10am, and by then Bruce had started having tummy troubles (which have had him homesteading the Jon for 3 days). I know, I know, we have no secrets here. At least Bruce doesn't. :) But none the less, we managed to fake our way through present opening, even though Joshua was continuing to puke every 5-10 minutes, and looked near death all morning. The poor kid could barely keep his head up, and continued to be sick the whole day.

Bear was very happy to get her own Basketball. She is obsessed with Bruce's and will hold it, and talk to it for hours.

Bruce & Alex were excited to see their RC helicopters. Too bad they were not as easy to fly as the box said they would be. But cool anyway.

Hannah got lots of games this year, Connect four, Disney Yahtzee, & High School musical dance, to name a few.

Joshua looking GREEN, but putting on a happy face for the camera.

Love this picture of Bear, feeding her baby.

New Scooters for Alex & Hannah

The CHAOS of present opening

Happy, albeit sick kids, posing with their Christmas loot.

The really great part of my Christmas story is that I was hosting lunch for Bruce's family that day. We warned them that there had been some puking (but we were'nt as elaborate in the details as we probably should of been) but they chose to take their chances and come anyway (a choice that Bruce's dad is regretting today, as he has taken to his deathbed, thanks to us), sorry Sam. I was really glad they all came and we (meaning everyone other than Bruce & Joshua, who were getting worse by the minute) had a good visit, ate some good food, and opened some fun presents.

Bruce with his "Hot glow of electric sex" lamp

Bruce, Karen, Jeni, & Sam

Within an hour of the family leaving, I was in the bathroom puking my guts out, as Bear cheered me on, by saying, "oooh momma, yucky, bye bye, ooooohhhh". Later that night Hannah was complaining of a hurt tummy, but she was able to hold it together, unlike the rest of us. What we really wanted to be doing all day was lying around moaning in our blankets. And that is exactly what we did for the rest of the day.

Merry Freakin Christmas!!!

Luckily we kept ourselves quarrantined all day Friday, and the kids played hard like it was Christmas morning. The Badooks went, as quickly as it came, except for Bruce. But he was well enough to accompany me to see BodyWorlds on Friday night, which was way gross, but really cool, all at the same time. And today we had lunch with the whole Gines family at Chuck-a-Rama, and I'm happy to report that everyone has kept it down thus far. :)

Things that made this Christmas Season memorable, other than the puking of course:

The Fairly Odd Parents Christmas (the kids love this cartoon, and we have watched the Christmas episode, laughing the whole time, at least 50 times, per their request).

Changing all the Christmas carols to somehow include the word "Hotdog" in them somewhere. Not sure who started this (probably Hannah), but Joshua has kept it going. We wish you a Merry hotdog, etc, etc.

Watching Bear scream at Santa, & listening to Joshua tell us all month how Santa is "really scary".

Watching the kids excitedly open all the Christmas cards from our family & friends.

Discussing Boobies with Hannah everday, and trying to explain to her that they don't really come from the Northpole.

Spending time with Family & Friends.

FHE's focusing on the Savior

Latest Christmas FUN!

Thursday, Bruce and I headed out with my mom and Brent for dinner and to see the Mo-tab's Christmas concert. The concert was magical, and we had great weather for strolling through the lights afterwards.

Friday, my friend Lauri and I braved the cold, and headed to the Zoo Lights! Bruce had a meeting and couldn't go, and I was so happy to have Lauri and her girls along to help keep track of the kids. In the daylight I'm good with four kids, but in the dark it's a whole nother thing to keep track of them. But I'm happy to report that no one was lost, or misplaced, and we all had a great time. And the Zoo lights were totally worth the 45 minutes it took me to get everyone pottied, booted, coated, mittened, hatted, and snacked so that we could go. :)







Saturday we got our first "real" (meaning the snow actually stuck around for more than a few hours) snow storm. And all I can say is, happiness is having a kid who is old enough to shovel the snow, and young enough to still enjoy doing it.

And yesterday I spent 2 hours addressing and stamping 114 Christmas cards. It was a huge pain in the butt, but it is one our traditions, that is totally for me, and that I am not willing to let go of, as long as I can afford the postage. I love to get Christmas cards. They just make me happy!

Christmas Card picture 2008 (this is the best of about 40 pictures taken over the last 2 weeks. It was pretty much the only one where all four kids were looking ahead, with their hands down, eyes open, tongues in, and faces booger free.)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Snow = Gingerbread houses

On Monday it SNOWED for the first time in FOREVER, and the kids were so excited that they watched it out the front door for almost an hour.



And then, since it was too cold to hit the Zoo lights, we dove into the Gingerbread house for FHE. The kids had so much fun, especially Josh & Halie, who put more candy in their mouths than on the house. It was pretty chaotic having four kids working on one house, but they did a great job! Note to self: Next year buy two




Every year I buy one of those pre-fab Gingerbread houses from Costco. I love them! It makes everything so easy, and fun, and there is absolutely no cooking or talent required. A perfect match for this bunch!

Christmas Festivities

We have been a busy bunch! Here is what we have been doing.........

Wednesday Dec. 3, We went to the Festival of trees. We had a great time, right up until the point where I lost Bear. I have never lost a kid before, so this was a new kind of panic for me. I was there with several of my friends, and so I have to admit that I was not watching the kids as well as I should of, while I yapped with my buddies.

So here's the deal. We had been looking at a Mechanical Santa, & Joshua was really into him, so when we all carried over to the next couple rows, I looked back to see Joshua still standing at the Santa. So I send Hannah over to get him, and I wait with the stroller. Hannah grabs Josh by the shirt, he screams bloody murder, everyone looks to see why he is screaming, and I have to go over to get him to stop screaming like a maniac.

We all get calmed down and begin walking down the next aisle at a liesurely pace, and I am busy pushing the stroller, checking out the trees, and giving Joshua a dissaproving mama glare all the way down the row, which is pretty long and took us at least 5 minutes to stroll down. All of a sudden I look down and realize that there is no baby in my stroller. I had been pushing it happily along this whole time, and Bear wasn't even in it. She had escaped during the screaming incident, and I, being the GREAT mother that I am, had not even noticed. And to make matters worse, it's not like Bear is a lightweight. She weighs a good solid 30 lbs., so you would think that I would of noticed the absent weight in the stroller.

Luckily when I ran back down the aisle like a crazy woman, a nice old couple had come across Bear, and were just standing over her, while yelling, "Did anyone lose a baby, is this anyone's baby". I was so glad that they had just kept her there, and not taken her to security or somewhere that would of taken longer to find her. I am such a loser!!! And to lose Bear, who is my best behaved kid. What was I thinking? Now if it had been one of the other ones, I would of still gone back for them, but their wouldn't of been nearly the panic, and I would of taken my time. Just kidding!!! HAHA!!!

Josh, Aja, Ashton, & Hannah, at The Festival of Trees


Thursday, I took my pre-schoolers on a field trip to the Church History Museum. I totally expected them to be ready to leave 30 minutes into it, but they had a GREAT time, and were so sad to leave, 3 hours later. They loved the kids rooms, where they each found a baby to take care of. We spent an hour in just that room, singing to our babies, and feeding our babies, and bathing our babies. It was really cute!

Emma & Hannah being "Angels"

Everyone taking care of their Babies. Joshua picked up this brown baby, and said it was his "Baby Haybear". He sang all the songs he knows to his baby, while he fed her and rocked her. So cute!

Josh, Hannah, Bear, Emma, & Allie

Friday December 5th, I turned 38!!!! Special thanks to all my friends and family, who sang Happy Birthday to my answering machine all day, while I was out to lunch with my parents, the light parade with Bruce & the kids, and a late night dinner, with Liz & Cindy. It was a GREAT birthday, and I don't feel a day over 37. :)

Light Parade
Freezing Family

My very own "Spider Monkey"

What I look like at 38. Hey at least I still have all my teeth, for now.


Saturday December 6th, we started the day off with our ward Christmas Breakfast, and a picture with Santa. When I asked Hannah what she was going to ask for, she said, "Big boobies like yours, so I can rub lotion on them". (Don't you love that?)Sooooo, while I was flattered that she thinks I have big boobies, I told her it would be better if she just asked for Barbies. And, luckily, she went for it.

Alex, asked for Star Wars stuff, Big Surprise!

I'm not sure what Bruce asked for? But I bet Santa was glad when he got off his lap.
Josh was scared of Santa, and had been telling us all week that Santa was mean. We told him he would get candy if he sat on his lap, and so that's what he asked for, Candy.

And then there was the Bear, and since video speaks (or should I say screams) louder than pictures, please ENJOY!!!


We ended the day by stopping by the Genesis Christmas party, where we frollicked with friends, and the kids ran around until they were tired. So far a very Merry Christmas!!

Christmas has come to our house

I LOVE Christmas! The shopping is underway, Bruce put up the lights, (even though he hates to, and is deathly afraid of heights, love ya babe), and tonight all six of us decorated the tree. The kids actually did most of it, and I was really surprised by how well they did. We have lots of fun plans and are looking forward to a great Holiday Season.

Our house

Bruce and the kids decorating the tree

Good grief, they are CUTE!!!!!!

Thankful

This year I meant to be as ambitious as some of my blogging friends and write everyday about something I was thankful for, but today I am thankful to say that my life has been too busy to have the time to blog. I am thankful because of the time spent with these people who I have been busy with, family, friends, and my adorable kids.

I'm so grateful for parents who took care of all my needs as a child, and who still are there for me if I need them. We didn't have much, but we never wanted for anything, and I've always known They would do anything for me.

I am grateful for a home ward (and especially YW's leaders) that took me under their wings and taught me the Gospel. These people made a huge impact on my life and set me on a course that has stayed with me today, and has greatly impacted the person I am, and the one I want to become.

I am thankful for my Bubba. YOU are everything!!!!! My best good friend, my lover, my life!

I am grateful for the four woman who brought my children into this world. I love you all!!

I am so grateful for my sweet babies. Boogala, Sugar-butt baby, Bear, & Gump, I love you like the stars.

My lunch friends, playgroup friends, walking friends, old friends, new friends, best friends, I love you all. What would I do without you?

My three brothers, my partners in crime, the pains in my butt, the holes in my bedroom door. You guys rock! Who needs a sister when they can be stuck with you redneck hillbilly's forever?

A warm house, food to eat, sufficiant for our needs, and even a little for our wants.

A free country where ANYONE can be whatever they dream of being.

A cat who doesn't run away, even though she is the most neglected person in our family. We love you Xena!

I'm so thankful that we are all healthy.

To my extended family, you are all crazy and wierd, and I love you for it.

And so much more to be thankful for............



I am living an enchanted life, and have been very blessed. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for providing the way, the truth, and the life, that I am living. It is my hope and goal to someday be worthy of it all.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Twilight

Went to see the movie and out to lunch with Cindy & Liz today. I didn't really care for the books, especially the whining Bella, and the fact that they were definitely meant for a much younger audience. In fact I started reading the fourth one the weekend it came out, and still haven't finished it. But the movie was much better, probably because it was shorter, with less whining. I could actually probably sit through it again.

Thanks for the fun date girls! And thanks Bruce for always letting me go play. You rock my world, baby! Edwards got nothing on you.

Fun on the farm

Met up with some friends at Wheeler Farm today. It was a beautiful Fall day and we had a lovely time.

Josh & Bear had no fear of the ATTACK geese


Although Bear did keep her head tucked in, while in the midst of them. She got nibbled on more than once, but she just said "hey" and laughed.


Hannah & Aja kept a safe distance from the birds after both running away screaming hysterically. Apparently the hissing geese were really terrifying.


This picture just makes me smile. I love you Joshua!


This one does too. I love you Suga-butt baby!


Aja, Joshua, Bear, Hannah, Maya, & Sage. Don't you love how Sage is forcing Maya to look at the camera.


Beautiful Hannah


Baby Bear's got BACK!! and I love it!


The girls opted to feed the birds from a safe distance, atop a picnic table, while Joshua romped with the birds happily.


All the way home, we listened to Joshua singing from the backseat, "Farmer me has a chicken, eiei-ooooo. Cluck cluck there, and gobble here, & moo cows over there, eiei-oooooooo".

It was ADORABLE!!