Merry Christmas!
What a great opportunity to celebrate Christ and the wonderful blessings we have because of his life. I asked my beehives to memorize "The Living Christ" So I have been frantically trying to get my sloshy noggin to memorize it as well. Some of my favorite parts are:

"He instituted the sacrament as a reminder of His great atoning sacrifice. He was arrested and condemned on spurious charges, convicted to satisfy a mob, and sentenced to die on Calvary's cross. He gave His life to atone for the sins of all mankind. His was a great vicarious gift in behalf of all who would ever live upon the earth. "

"We declare in words of solemnity that His priesthood and His Church have been restored upon the earth—"built upon the foundation of . . . apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone" (Ephesians 2:20). "

"We bear testimony, as His duly ordained Apostles—that Jesus is the Living Christ, the immortal Son of God. He is the great King Immanuel, who stands today on the right hand of His Father. He is the light, the life, and the hope of the world. His way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come. God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son."

I made matching PJ's for everybody for Christmas Eve.


Lily had so much fun unwrapping. She helped everybody unwrap their presents. She got a little people house and a kitchen and some puppies.

Jensen of course got only trains and he was in heaven.

You know sometimes the box is more exciting than the thing that came in it:)

Charley started smiling. She is so fun to hold and look at.

I was wondering why this awsome kitchen was so cheap at Walmart. It was because it took my dad and the elder 2 hours to assemble. It should have said on the box "Monsterous amout of assembly required"

And Dave has been working on his miniature game Decent. He made this awsome 3-D game board. And he gets to play with his friends while I sit with the kids in the family room blogging and containing the kids. Merry Christmas Dave:)

Denver Zoo Lights

Dave won a year membership to the Denver Zoo at his work party. So we decided to go to the Zoo lights. It was really fun. The only unfortunate part was waiting in line for over an hour just to get in! It was a bit cold too. But we warmed up in the smelly zoo houses along the way. Grandpa was in charge of Lily. She is such a 2 year old. This is her pouting when we told her she needed to either hold hands or sit in the stroller.

Grandma had the idea of a leash and it worked remarkably well. Grandpa took off his belt and looped it around her pants.




JJ of course got to ride the train. He was a sucker for the train and the zoo map.

Rock on!
We went to a friends house for a party and it was tons of fun. It was a wing party and everybody brought wings to share. And we rocked out on Guitar hero. Here are some shots. Thanks Seth!

Over thanksgiving Celeste, my sister, performed an incredible feat by taking family pictures of all the fam with her new camera. She did a great job taking them and did a ton of work on the back end. The results look great. Thank you Celeste.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I love thanksgiving. It is a time to see family and hang out without all the stress of Christmas. But before I get to thanksgiving I need to catch up. We went to a model train expo where it was an all things train event Jensen went crazy. He literally was running from one table to the next. I love my little train lover.

Then It was Dave's birthday Happy 27th:)

He gathered his friends and played Decent then had a LAN party. He had lots of fun happy birthday Love.

News Blerb on Police Standoff

http://www.9news.com/rss/article.aspx?storyid=126388

POLICE STANDOFF!
CRAZY! So Dave and I are turning off lights and locking up at about 9 ( yes I know that is early but we are tired people!) And I heard what sounded like a radio. I couldn't figure out where the sound was coming from. I looked outside to see a cop car directly in front of our house. It was a police negotiator talking our armed neighbor out from the house. There were over 8 cop cars surrounding the house and a tons of cops with shot guns and other loaded weapons. YEAH SO MY NEIGHBORHOOD IS CRAZY! We turned off all our lights and watched the drama unfold from our bedroom. The cops kept flashing their flashlights into our bedroom to shoo us back. About 10:30 pm 911 called with a recorded message telling us to stay in our houses. Dave and I literally fell asleep listening to the negotiator talk to the gunman. They were preping for a forced entry before we nodded off. Unfortunately we fell asleep before the resolution a t 1 am when 911 called and said we could resume our activities. I'm so glad 911 allowed us to go back to sleep.

So this is the 2nd incident this year. At Easter a friend of our neighbor had a "domestic dispute" and a firetruck came to wash the blood off the concrete after investigators took pictures of the scene for like 3 hours.

Halloween!

I love Halloween it is so fun to make costumes and go out with the kids. I also love to check out all of your blogs and see what you guys did. It was especially fun because the kids TOTALLY got it and RAN from house to house. Jensen was a green, his favorite color, knight. And I converted a pony from Goodwill into a ridable pony. So she was a princess riding a pony. Of course it snowed 2 1/2 feet a day before so she only got to show off the pony at the church party . Dave made a kicking sword and we painted it green of course.

Lily excited for CANDY!

Lily got that candy was supposed to go into her bucket. So she started filling up at the first available spot. Our trick or treat candy. Sorry the video is dark.

Jensen learning to blow bubbles

AND YES JENSEN THREW UP LAST NIGHT! ALWAYS LISTEN TO THE "MY TUMMY HURTS" COMMENTS ON HALOWEEN NIGHT.

The McDonald's came to town!

Dave's parent's came out for a week to meet Charley. It was so nice to have them here. The kids miss their Grandma and Grandpa McDonald and they helped me so much while they were here.

Grandma stayed busy drawing pictures and reading books to the kids and taking Charley off my hands when I have to run to pull one of the older kids off the other before bones break.

Dave roped his dad into working for us while he was here. They went to Home Depot 3 times a day and kept busy sanding and nailing and constructing.

They finished this beautiful toy chest and completely redid the picnic table. I'm so excited for the stain to dry!

Pumpkin carving FHE!

I'm working on finishing Halloween costumes this week and we carved pumpkins last night. The kids are still a little young to get totally into it but we have fun.

Dave made a Thomas train pumpkin for JJ.

And I made a puppy for Lily.

JJ DID NOT like the feel of the goo and was flinging it everywhere crying for us to wash his hands :)

Welcome Baby "Charley"

This little beauty is the latest to join our little family. I was not feeling well so they were going to do an amniocentesis to find out if the lungs were developed enough to induce. This is one of God's miracles and great blessings. Because we were watching my health we found that my amniotic fluid had dropped from a 10 on Monday to a dangerous 3.5 on Friday the 16th. So we got to induce at 37 weeks and get Charlene Hazel. We are all doing well and my recovery is a TON easier and I haven't felt lightheaded or dizzy since about an hour after delivery. Another miracle!

The older kids are doing great with her and ALWAYS want to hold their little sister.