Merry Christmas to all!!!

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

That's a Wrap

Every year I set a goal to complete my gift-wrapping before Christmas Eve, yet every year I am up until midnight finishing up. Well, not this year. I just finished wrapping the last present. Hurray!!! Now I just need to finish baking another 20 loaves of bread... I'll just be happy about the wrapping for now!

A Sneak Peek At Our Christmas Card Picture

Aren't they good lookin' kids?

What a Whirlwind

I've been absent from the blogging world lately, but I have returned.
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Don's family and then all gathered the next day for a family picture. Kudos to the folks at JaLynn Photography in SLC for getting all 44 of us into one picture without too much crying or complaining...
Since then, I have nearly completed everything for the Reflections program at the elementary school. We had a great awards assembly where Maddy, Kenzie, and Emma all received awards for their entries. (I was not one of the judges, mind you) Now I'm just trying to track down the last of the required parents' signatures so that I can get everything to Council by Friday for the next round of judging.
To add to the fun, I slipped on our driveway on Saturday, Dec. 1st and dislocated my kneecap. I was on crutches for three days, had a full leg brace for another few days, but am down to a smaller brace now. It looks like nothing was torn, and it's healing pretty quickly, but it slows me down alot more than I'd like.
Then last Wednesday I had a minor surgery. It was outpatient "girly" stuff, but again slowed me down for a few days. Between the IV, the two small incisions, and my knee, my body is very colorful right now. I think they are lovely shades of yellow, green, and purple, but the girls are totally grossed out by my bruises.
Amid all of this I am trying to prepare for Christmas. I have so much left to do, but I'm still not stressed about it. Maybe I'm just in denial, or maybe I'm okay with people getting our Christmas card in January.

Following In His Sisters' Footsteps

We just got back from Britton's 4-month check up and he is just like his sisters were. He only weighs 11 lbs. 12 oz., which puts him in the 3rd percentile. His height is in the 25th percentile at 24 1/2 inches long. So now when people tell me that he is getting so big, I can say "no" and not just be in denial.

I am frantically sewing this week so that the girls will have new dresses for family pictures on Friday. Luckily, I am doing a really easy jumper pattern, so I just might pull it off. But while others will be at the oven this week, I will be at the sewing machine.

Hope everybody has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

The Fun Is Over

It appears that the charm of changing Britton's diaper has finally worn off. This morning the girls had their first argument over who had to change his diaper instead of who got to change his diaper. Ahh well, I knew it couldn't last forever...

Reflections

I have been in charge of our PTA's Reflections program again this year. It has been very time consuming, but it's something I really enjoy. It has been fun to see what things the kids have come up with. This year's theme is "I Can Make A Difference By..." so you can imagine that we have gotten alot of entries on recycling. But we also got entries with Sponge Bob, dinosaur battles, german shepherds, and mermaids. One girl's entry was titled, "I Can Make A Difference By Spray Painting Walls." Her picture was of a girl, holding a can of spray paint, standing in front of a wall with a smiling sun painted on it. Hmmmm....

Halloween Pictures

The posse
Our gorilla with her giant banana

Halloween Pictures

Mack Daddy...aka Mackenzie

Maddy as a gorilla
Lil' "E"

Therapy?

This is Kenzie's jack-o'-lantern... should I be concerned?

Scooping Guts

For family night last night we continued the tradition of carving pumpkins before the teenagers smash them in the road. We usually only have one pumpkin smashed each year, and Sydni's jack-o-lantern is up this year. We'll see if the local hooligans follow the schedule.

Flying Beverage

I've had a couple of requests for the "Beverage Story" alluded to in my last post, so I'll fill you all in. They had a pinata set up in a corner of the cultural hall of our church, and had pushed all of the tables back away from it. The kids were supposed to stand "in the corner" and swing at the pinata. When Kenzie got up to take a whack at it, she managed to turn herself around so that she was standing in front of a table swinging at the pinata. Those sitting at the table were at the opposite side, so I'm sure they felt safe. But one of them had left a full cup of orange punch sitting in the middle of the table. When Mackenzie pulled the stick back to swing, she hit the glass and sent it flying onto those seated at the table. Luckily, they were good sports about it.

What Up My Peeps?

The famous rap group of Mack Daddy, Queen LaTiffa, Lil' "E", and B. Diddy were seen Saturday night at our Ward Halloween Party. Although they declined numerous requests to perform, they enjoyed watching Kenzie whack a pinata while sending a beverage flying, Emma and Maddy clean up on Ho-Ho's at the cakewalk, and my neice Brigitta discover a gift for darts.

Size Matters

I just finished putting away all of the newborn clothes that Britton has grown out of and "restocking" his dressing table with bigger clothes. He's just growing so fast! Can anybody tell me how to slow that down? Of course, he's getting longer alot faster than he's getting wider, so he's definately a Leavitt child.

We're cleaning out the garage today so that Syd can have a party in there tonight. It's the only room in the house that's big enough to hold fifteen 12 & 13 year-olds. We'll haul out a t.v., dvd player, and couch and hope that I can figure out how to hook everything back up again. Post-it notes will definately be used!

Kenzie, Emma, and Maddy are off track for the next three weeks, so we are trying to stay entertained here. They were excited when I told them I started a family blog, but then disappointed when there were no pictures of them yet. Syd hates having her picture anywhere, but as a member of this family, she's getting one posted too. I will have to sneak one of Don, though.

I'm going to give this a try. I've got to be honest - I'm not sure what to write about at the moment, so I'll just put on some pictures for now and work on the posts later.