Merry 2 days after Christmas everyone!!!

So how did we all do? Did we have fun this Christmas? It was crazy busy for me. I was dead tired Christmas night. We had a huge storm and it took forever to get out to the in laws and forever to get back. If we were smart we would have just stayed over. It was heck!! :) Well the kids had a blast. They got enough presents and are all very happy. McKay's list: Batman Legos for playstation 2 Thomas Train Gameboy Advanced Sp with a game a Compond nerf bow and Indian Jones the movie. Star Wars creepy crawler type maker. Spider electronic toy. Tyler: Little Mermaid doll Geo Trax airplane set and main station. A bounce on ball thing that is spiderman and a Ben 10 toy. Elmo blocks toy. Spider electronic toy. Ashlie: Cinderealla princess doll. Blocks Tea Tray on a cart. Two tea sets. Tinker Bell movie. Cinderealla Nightgown. It was a good stormy Christmas for us. The weather was awful but we did make it to Blackfoot and back and got home really late. I got to talk to Alex last night in Armenia it was nice to talk to him. We also had a get together with high school friends at my house it was fun!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX!!!!! I have pictures I will post later since I left my camera in my car.

Our Christmas Chains.

Becky made Chains with the kids when she babysat when went out with our friends. It was nice to get out and be able to do something without the kids but its always wonderful to come home to wonderful children. They did some crafts and had fun with Becky. These are their countdown to Christmas chains! This is something I really want to do next year. They had a lot of fun making these and ripping them down every night before bed.

Tyler's Christmas party!

Today was the last day of school before the Christmas break for both Tyler and McKay. McKay took presents to his teachers at school and was excited to enjoy the day. We got ready after dad and McKay left and we went over to Tyler's school. I had a game and some treats for his party. I did Help Frosty Find his Hat maze. The kids enjoyed that and also did a coloring page. In the other room they played bingo. We put their treats in their bags. Then they all went back into the class and sat down on the rug and Ms Jen talked to them about Santa Claus and the kids were so excited. Ms. Amber started reading them a story and then all of the sudden there was a knock at the door. Who was it?? Santa himself came walking in. He read them the story of the Littlest Angel. Its a cute story I have heard it before and I love it. So after that all the kids got to go up and sit on Santa's lap and tell them what they wanted. Of course Tyler told him that he wanted a mermaid doll. My boy!!! Then they each got a gift to open. After everyone had their turn with Santa they sat down and he passed out some bells. They all sang Jingle Bells and shook their bells. Then after they gave the bells back to Santa. We counted 1-2-3! They tore open their gifts. They enjoyed that. They each got a little activity book they can work on over the Christmas-New Year break! So that was the party. Tyler had fun and it was nice being there and even better that I actually brought my camera. So I got a bunch of pictures and some of the parents asked for me to send the ones I took of their kids. Good thing I took pictures of all the kids! I just sent some to Ms Jen. Anyway! So begins the Christmas holiday!! I do have my shopping done and some packages on the way still but then I will be all done. Here are the pictures from Tyler's class party!

Hello!

Have not posted for over a week or so. I thought it was time to say hello. :) Not much new is going on around here in our house. Tomorrow is Tyler's birthday! He will be 4! Happy Birthday tomorrow to my Tyler. I am so happy to see my wonderful kids growing happy and healthy! I really love my kids and Tyler is one of my favorites. :) Three favorites. He is such a good kid and loves me so much. I am glad I have him. Well last week Lorraine and Tommy where able to adopt a new little baby boy. I am so excited for them. Its been a long process for them to get another one and I am so happy they made. His name is Dylan and he is just so cute. We had a family birthday party for the December birthdays and he was able to come and I got to love on him for a few. I hope I will be able to babysit him a bunch. Anyway other than that no new news. Just glad that this is the last week of school for awhile. I love Christmas time!!!

SO!

Today I got nothing done at all! I am such a slacker! Oh yeah! I did go to McKay's school and do the parent reading thing. It was nice to be able to read with McKay and then be able to bring him home. We got to see their pictures from Halloween. McKay said his teacher really liked him as a pirate so she got a lot of pictures of him. Does she have a thing for pirates? haha! He was funny about it!

Well I am a aunt again! Woopie! Jade's brother Tommy and his wonderful wife Lorraine finally got a good birth mom and so they were able to adpot again. Lorraine can not stay pregnant when she gets pregnant so they have adoted all their kids. They are such a great family and I am so happy that they were able to have this special day and were able to be with the birthmom at the hospital and now they have a beautiful baby boy. I will post pictures when I can I just can't wait to see him and hold my new nephew. I love being a aunt the best part is you get to love on the baby and play with the baby and then give them back to their mom or dad and they have to deal with the feeding and diapers and the lack of sleep! :)

Anyway its time for bed so I am going to go to sleep in my nice warm bed with Jade! My bed's warm when Jade's in it! He is just so warm blooded! Sure isn't a vampire! haha!!!

I will get stuff done tomorrow! I need too!!! :)

So far

Ok so far here is my finished list.

Got McKay off to school.

Kids ate

Ashlie and Tyler and I had a shower and got dressed I did Ashlie's hair and took her potty. She ended up starting to have a accident in her pants. She is basically pee trained but not the other one. so we took care of that. Then I sat down at the computer for a few.

After that I found out Ashlie found some candy and now she is covered in red candy. Grand!!!

Anyway so now off to the kitchen to work on that for a bit.

:)

December 10th, 2008 To-Do-List

Get up around 7:00

Wake McKay up between 7:15-7:30

Get McKay out the door with Jade 7:56

Feed Tyler and Ashlie

Clean up from Breakst

Shower and bath kids

Get everyone dressed and ready for the day

Pick up bedroom and bathroom

Make bed

Wipe down bathroom

Clean up the hallway and vacuum that and my bedroom

Welcome McKay home sometime in there

Make phone calls

Make lunch and clean up from lunch

Wipe kids down

Relaxation time for kids and mom

Pick up Entry way and sweep

Pick up and vacuum living room

Pick up Family room

Wipe down bathrooms

Vacuum Stairways

Pick up and vacuum boys room

Make sure kitchen is done being clean

Start dinner

Have dinner ready for Jade when he gets home

Clean up from dinner

McKay set table Tyler clear table with dad's help

Mom rinse dishes and put in the dishwasher

wipe counters

sweep kitchen

Start working on Ashlie's room while the kids and dad play and watch shows

Get kids ready for bed

Read scriptures and say prayers

Tuck kids in for bed

Mom and Dad Relax time and then bedtime.

Let's see if this works.

I will make off the things I get done on both the lists I made when I get them done. Let's see how this works out for me. :) I will try to follow the top list in the way I get things done but I will prob just do it as I can do it so I will follow both lists.

>pick up living room

>vacuume living room

>pick up entry and sweep and vacuume rug

>clear kitchen counters

>wipe kitchen counters

>dishes

>sweep kitchen

>mop kitchen

>pick up family room

>vacuum family room

>wipe down downstairs bathroom

>sweep bathroom

>vacumm stairs

>pick up hallway

>vacuum hallway

>laundry

>pick up bedroom

>make bed

>pick up bathroom

>finish cleaning closet

>vacumm bedroom

>sweep and mop bathroom

>wipe down bathroom

> pick up Ashlie's room

>wipe down Ashlie's room

>vacuum Ashlie's room

>pick up boys room

>vacuum boys room

>wipe down second bathroom upstairs

>oragnize the rest of the kitchen

>start orgnaizing upstairs

Everything I finish will be in a pretty holiday Red Color :)

Snow Day.

So we finally had a decent snow today. Wow finally! Soon enough. Even though now the sun is coming out and the snow has stopped. Anyway so I promised the boys we could go out and play after everyone got home from school. So we all went out and built a snowman. Now we are back in having lunch. Our Snowman started turning into santa so it worked out and I think he is cute. Here are some pictures.

What a small world.

Well Jade had this guy in his district that lived in the same apartment with him for awhile. Anyway he got this message on facebook saying Hey Strickland my wife went to school with you. So this guy is from Hawaii anyway I guess this girl went to Hawaii for school and she met him and they got married. So they met back up on facebook him and this guy and now the guy lives in Idaho Falls. What a small world!!

The weekend is over.

So it was a nice weekend with the Family I enjoy the time I get to spend with Jade and the kids. Everything runs smother whhen Jade's around. We had a nice saturday and we went to the ward Christmas party. That was nice! FREE FOOD! :) I enjoyed it. Today was church and we actually made it before the opening prayer!!! The kids did well in their classes. We had musical numbers in Relief society and the Primary kids came in and sang to us/ McKay sang and Tyler stood there with his arms folded looking around at the other kids and the women. He finally found me as they were walking out and he just waved at me. I was worried he was going to cry. He did great!!! Then we came home and just spent family time together. Did not do much other than that. I did do some dishes! haha! Lazy we are! More me than Jade. He just likes to relax on the weekends though and he has not had a lot of that so he made sure to get that this weekend. Jade got to talk to his friend Chris tonight online it was nice because he has not talked to him in awhile so he spent some time chatting while w were watching Supernatual. I wish that Jade has more friends around us that he could do stuff with and be able to have some guy friends to go out with. I guess I am just lucky to get my hubby to spend all of his time with me and being with our family!! Well its going on 11 and I guess its time for bed. Ashlie got to wear her princess to church today and she did some princess dancing during the song in Sacrament meeting! Just lovely! haha! She loves being a princess and dancing around and she loves singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Oh and her summersaults roock!! Tyler's been singing Twinkle Bells instead of Jingle Bells! She is getting it stuck in everyone's head. Welp the whole rest of my clan is out so I will say goodnight to my friends. Bye for now and bring on the new week. Well at least I will try to make a positive week!! Let's see if I can get stuff done! YEAH!! ;) Ashlie's pottry training is going well. Hopefully it just gets better and better. Only pretty much pee trained. Can't wait for the rest to fall into place. OK GOODNIGHT!

Last night we got all the rest of the lights on the tree. The Angel is on the tree and she is just so pretty. We have the ribbion on the tree also. Jade got the garland on the railing and he got up the wreath. He had to restrand lights into there but it looks really good and I love how the lights just look so pretty!! McKay had to help put the angel on that was the part he really wanted to be involved in. Before we even started he was talking about putting the angel on the top of the tree. What great memories we have of decorationg! Thanks for all your hard work on our tree and house Jade!

Christmas tree.

We decided last night to start our adventure in putting up the Christmas tree for this holiday season. Jade started getting the tree out while Ashlie was eating. She fell asleep in her chair and as I carried her upstairs she yells Christmas tree. Even though she only saw it in the box. I said Ashlie do you want to go to bed you are very tired. No!! Christmas Tree. I said Ashlie you want to help put up the tree? Its so fun when they get to the age to where the understand everything about it. So we had 3 little helpers and boy it was a pain but all worth it. So Ashlie was tired it did not help much at all. :) She did end up going to bed before we stopped working on the tree. So we only have the tree up and some lights on it but the hard part is done. It was about 8:00 when we started so we were working on it for just a little over 2 hours. It would have been a lot faster without the help from the kids. But They will always remember this time. I will post pictures when I get to it. They are on my cell phone. Yes some more Camera phone pictures. I have seemed to have misplaced my camera battery charger. :( We also got a tiny bit of snow in the night that actually stuck to the ground. Not enough for any fun in the snow but hey we have some!! Its enough to be able to see pretty snow and still be able to drive around without any problems. Its The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!!

Here we are! One more thing to get me more distracted! :) I am excited my sister Elisabeth did show this to me. Its pretty easy and its called Scrapblog.com. Its free and pretty easy to use and they give you templates and everything. Its a fun site! Here is my first real page I made I have been playing around with it and made this. She is just so cute! Its so easy to get a cute page made of Ashlie.

Ashlie's potty training!!! Come over to her blog and check it out. If you are not on that blog to read it please send me a email @ Strickland@q.com from the email address that you want me to send the invite to. I also wrote some new stuff on McKay's blog and I think Tyler has some new stuff also. So if you want to read any of them then email me and let me know and I will add you to all three of them.

Ok so I just can't seem to find my battery charger for my camera. Everytime I really want my battery charger its gone. :( I better find it soon I want to take pictures of my life. Isn't that why you have a Camera? Hoping to be able to decorate the tree tonight for FHE. Hoping to have my battery charger. Going to do a huge search for it while I am cleaning! I better get busy!!!

Done blogging for the night! :) I loved having the holiday time with Jade and the kids and the time to kinda feel more relaxed and have a little break with help. Jade got all the Christmas decor up on the house and its so pretty I will post some pictures later. Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!!!! Back to normal life tomorrow. Oh yippie. School, work, running kids around, cleaning house, being home without Jade during the day. GOODNIGHT

Private please.

Ok I made all my blogs private. If you are missing from one of them please just email me. I don't have anyone on the kids blogs to read them but I post to them at least 1 time every few weeks or so as long as I can keep up. So just ask!!!!

McKay had to share.

Well we were checking out friends blogs tonight and we were looking at our friends blog. Sarah. McKay loves her son and he is his best friend in the whole world well hopefully next to his little brother and maybe even his sister? They are really into exactly the same things and it works well and they just play well together and love talking with each other. I am so glad McKay can have such a great friend. So he saw a picture of Travis. I guess since our blog is now private McKay really wants to post a picture if his friend. If his mommy does not mind. If she does we can just take it down.

Tyler just called him. Travis Strickland! HAHA!!!

Tyler thinks he is his best friend too. It works out. They all love playing together and they love playing with his little brother Trent too.

Here is a picture of McKay's best buddy!

Here are some pictures from our girls weekend with my sisters and my mom! It was fun!

Our Thanksgiving pictures! Enjoy!!

Well there are some of my favs as you can see.   Thanks again to our great photographer. Whitney Curzon rocks. You can find her blog @ whitneycurzon.blogsopt.com and then you can get her to take your photos too! GOODNIGHT!!

       

       

Photoshoot!

We got our pictures taken last Saturday. We got together for Turkey dinner since everyone was going to their inlaws on Thanksgiving. We decided it was time for a real set of pictures. :) Sorry to Alex that he was no in them. Hmmmm maybe he went away? HAHA!! The missionary missed out. I really like our family pictures. Here are some of my favorites!  

Thanksgiving!

We had a really nice thanksgiving yesterday. We were able to go out to the in-law's house. Its nice to be able to see everyone. Jade was very excited for his pie he made. It was awesome to see him get so excited over pie! :) I truly can say I love my husband with all my heart. He is the best guy in the world and he is just soooo cute! Oh soooo girly! Jade's outside putting up Christmas lights and its dark outsdie. He's been doing it for awhile. He's crazy but gotta love him! I guess I better get some work done on this house because that was what I was supposed to be doing when he was outside. Our house is not bad so basically do some dishes and light pick up and then my bedroom. I will post pictures tomorrow of Thanksgiving and other things I have been taking pictures of lately. I just need to run and do some work! haha!! Picture of the lovely pie. It tasted great!!!

Twilight!

I had a fun time last night being able to go see Twilight with Katie,Abby,Katy, and Becky. Thank you Becky for inviting me. I really enjoyed and I can not wait for the next one. I love Twilight! I really think Jasper is better looking then Edward but when Bella saw Edward for the first time I just had to scream! Haha! Its like it just hit us! its Edward! BELLA AND EDWARD FOREVER!!!!!!!!!! Thanks Jade for feeding the kids and helping McKay with his homework and taking Ashlie potty so I could go!!! Ashlie's potty training! WOW! Too big of a girl! She is doing awesome may I add!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well Its a new time to update and since tomorrow is Thanksgiving what a great time to post what I am thankful for. 1. For a loving husband who takes care of me and my children. Who loves me more than life and puts up with me daily and who is the best man I could ever ask for. He works his butt off for my family!! 2. My children: Who could ask for 3 better children. Well they are 2,3,6 so they come with most 2,3,6 year old issues! But for being those ages I am lucky for what I have! I am grateful for my big boy McKay who teaches me everyday what its like to actually enjoy school and to enjoy being a big brother. He really is a good brother and sometimes actually helps me out!!! My wonderful Tyler. He really is a big boy and has started in on this cleaning kick. He has helped me in more ways then anyone will know. He loves me more than anyone else ever should! He can't be without mommy! Then there is my princess! Ashlie! She is great. She is just a joy to be around and she is such a girl. She is actually doing amazing at this potty training thing and I can't believe how fast she has caught on to this. 3. My wonderful parents: They have taken care of me my whole life and still are helping out my family daily. Without them where would I be? They give us more than We ever expect from parents and grandparents. I am grateful to all they do. 4. My inlaws. They help us all the time. I have the best mother in law ever and my father in law is not too bad himself. :) He is great!!!! They have rasied such a wonderful boy into such a wonderful man!!! 5. I am thankful for the country I have to live in. Even though it bites right now I am in a free country. I am grateful for the place I live. 6. For a heavenly father that loves me no matter what I do. I seem to flub up daily. But the sacrfices made for me . Wow someone must like me! Thanks to my older brother!!! :) My life is really great and I am happy!!! Even if there are struggles and things that you know just are not always great!!! THANK YOU!!!

My thanksgiving present to those who read my blog!

Well I decided to give everyone who actually reads and cares about this blog a present! Updates and pictures from Disneyland. Yep I added some slideshows!! Check them out. Disneyland was great! The first day we got there and just explored the house. The house was amazing in itself. We checked in with the owner over the phone and she explained a bunch of things to us. I would have loved to have been able to go swimming but at the times I wanted to go it was dark and cold. I guess in California you don't need to heat your swimming pool? HMMM! That might be something they want to add because who is going to be going swimming during the day when you want to be playing at Disneyland??? They even have a cool CD that you put into the CD player outside that plays the firework music. Its great and you can see them from there. We did not make it back in time to ever watch them. One night we watched them while we at dinner and that was fun. Even though we did not get to listen to the music we were away from the crowds and still enjoyed them. It was a busy time of year for them since kids had school off! It stunk. If I would have known that I would have picked a different time. Anyway we did have a blast. We enjoyed everything. The last day was a let down because someone stole my bag right off the stroller that had diapers and my camera in it! I was very sad. Then we left 3 hours before the park closed and I wanted to play more. Everyone was very tired so I guess I had to give in. I enjoyed seeing the joy on my children's faces. Its this once in a lifetime expereince. The first time your children see Disneyland. I guess growing up disney does that to me. I remember going there my whole life and the magic it brings and the joy it brings to me. I am so happy I got to share that with my children. Thanks mom and dad for this wonderful time in my life!!! You are great!!! Just check out the pictures and if you have any questions about anything on the trip just ask away. I did not want to post about every picture since I had too many! Well my dad. Thank you dad for taking pictures too or I would have been lost. When my camera got taken it had my memory card with well all my memories. :( Thanks for checking this out!!!!

You Think?

Do you think its about time for a update? I have been behind as always on this and everything else. That's life for me. That is how it goes and I don't think no matter how hard I try or anyone else tries that I am going to make it. :) Sorry. I am late to everything and behind on everything else. I guess you have to deal with me or just not. That's me!!!! Ok so let's get to it: Disneyland!!!!! We had a great time. I loved visiting it. My kids had such a great time and even though we missed some rides we went on a bunch and the kids had a blast!!!! The only thing that made me sad at all was the very last day. On the Last day someone stole my camera. It had my memory card inside with over 200 pictures on it. I cried. Then we got home to the house and I wanted to go back into disneyland. We had about 2-3 more hours till the park closed. No one would go back into the park with me. I was so sad!! Then you know when its the end its the end and I did not want this family trip to end. I was enjoying it a lot. So I don't have any of my own pictures to share with you guys but I am very happy my father had his camera. He took some great pictures. I have them on my photobucket and I will get those posted for you all to see our fun time.

Hello

So I am way behind. We went to Disneyland and had a good time. Halloween is coming up soon. We got some fun costumes. I will have to do a real update later as its getting late and I want to get some pictures up and get some good Halloween pictures.

So just to let you know I will post more later!!!

GOODNIGHT!

2 days! AHHH!

Ok two days to disneyland. What do I have done?? Not a lot! I am being so lazy and I know I will be rushing at last minute like always. What's up with me? The kids are so excited. We will be leaving from the Salt Lake City Airport on the 8th. I hope I have everything worked out right. Then we will get into LAX yes LAX I stupidly decided on that airport instead of the John Wayne! Don't ask me why. At least the days we will be heading to and from the airport are not rushed days so we have enough time to take the 30-45 minutes to get from that airport! What's up with me?????? Oh well no one hates me and we will be just fine! I am so excited and can't wait. There will be tons of pictures I know. Now let's see I did not forget any details and everything works out. I want my father to have fun and I want him to think I actually know what to do and I can plan a great vacation. So he will want to enjoy this time with us. My blessings today: My house! Its a mess but its my mess my family my love! Cleaning: My blessing is cleaning even though I am having a hard time doing it. Once I get it done I will get less stressed! Clean Melissa Clean!!! See ya all after Disneyland!! GOODBYE!! I might post a few blog posts while we are there depending on how well the kids go to bed and stuff. BYE!!!

Family Reunion with Jade's dad's family!

Jade's cousin got married at the Booth Barn on Jade's birthday. So everyone decided they all wanted to get together to hang because you know its not as fun to hang at a wedding in a formal setting then in a comfortable relaxed setting. They set up Sunday at 11:00 am to get together. I know that is during church but when you have not seen a lot of these people ever or in a very long time its nice to get together!!

Most of Jade's cousins where there and his aunts and uncles.

I think he had a good time. The kids loved it and it was nice. We had it at Jade's mom and dad's house and it worked out great.

You know me and with my new camera I had to take a bunch of pictures. I don't even remember every one's names. My names and faces together don't work. Have not ever. Never will!

So here are some pictures from the event!!!!!

Ok these are too cute to not post something about here. I just thought this was so sweet!!! Here is Braxtion pushing Ashlie on the swing! What a good big cousin he is!!!

He had to have his shirt off at the party. That's as far as we would let him go.

Happy Family Reunion to our family! It was great seeing everyone!!!!!

Sunday September 28th, 2008