Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas today! We have had a really good morning so far. We got up and kept the kids upstairs until we were ready to all go downstairs together. The kids were beyond excited, of course! They checked out their presents and stockings and then we had breakfast... can't go into a morning of opening presents without food in us! ;) Every year, before we open our presents, we make sure that we sit down together and read the scriptures, and read of Christ's birth. Then we also watched a Mormon Message on Christmas... love love love the Mormon Messages! We all feel the spirit when we watch them... perfect way to start Christmas morning. :) While Bryce was reading with us, I got the turkey in oven... I had a feeling that if I waited until afterwards it would be too late in the morning and it might not have enough time to cook. I was right, we just finished about 10 minutes ago! It took us until almost noon! (We each take a turn opening a present, this way it becomes an event, not just 5 minutes of tearing open presents and being done.)

It's been such a nice morning! The highlight for me was Bryce's gift to me. Going into this Christmas, we decided that we were paying cash for everything. Everything. We don't want to paying off Christmas for 6 months after the fact! ;) Anyways, I start shopping early in the year and buy all year long so that we aren't broke in December and January. We also decided at one point, when things were feeling 'lean' for us, that we wouldn't buy each other presents this year. So we went into this Christmas not expecting anything from each other. That was fine, we were ok with that. I had already bought Bryce a present (slippers... his old ones were old and falling apart... I knew he needed new ones, so I had bought them a few weeks before we had decided not to do anything.) I had also scheduled a wedding cake for right before Christmas ~ I knew it would help the finances and that I could use some of that money to give Bryce a little money so he could go to Cabella's and buy some hunting things. (I would have gone to Cabella's and bought a gift card but I knew that if I went, I'd have little people who would have just told daddy what his present was!) Bryce did give me a card this morning, with a wonderful note (I LOVE his notes!!) and he had rolled up some money so that I could have a little 'mad money' to spend. He had taken a little out of our account over the months so that I wouldn't notice and so that it wouldn't impact our finances and he stashed it away so he could give it to me. So sweet! I appreciate that he did that for me, it's hard to spend money on myself, I always feel a little guilty doing that. BUT then he had us all come to the office to give me my second present. Bryce made a slideshow of our whole life together, from 1995 to 2012!!! It was the BEST present I've ever been given! I have no idea when he found time to work on it, and I had NO idea he was working on it! He did such a great job! I don't want to loose it ever, so I'm posting it on here!! It was wonderful to look back over the years and to see all that we have gone through. So many memories, so many places we have lived, so many pregnant pictures of me (lol), Bryce with hair & Bryce with less hair, then Bryce bald (lol), all our children as babies, the first days of videos without any sound and video clips with sound. My little people are growing up (*tears*)... we looked so young... I see us aging... I'm happy to be getting older with Bryce... I love him. He's my favorite person in this whole world!! He knew what I  needed this year... I just wanted to be remembered this Christmas. I don't need stuff... stuff is just stuff. It won't come with me when I die one day, but my memories and my relationships will. This was such a wonderful thing for him to have done! LOVE YOU BRYCE!! I wish I could post it on here... it's too long to upload... I'm trying to post it to Facebook... hopefully it'll work there!

The kids opening their stockings. Dallin kept saying, "Mine!" He's a true 2 yr old. 

Happy boys!

"Now what am I supposed to do with this box?"

Dallin loves the candy that Santa brings. (Santa only brings candy & chocolate to our house.)

Bryce helping Dallin open his trains. (By the way, I save cracker, cereal boxes, etc all month long so that we can wrap our presents easily. Plus if a present 'accidentally' gets opened a bit, no one will know what the present is.)

Dallin is a happy camper!

June loves her head phones!

Noah's happy about his Transformer! Dad got a lot of hugs from Noah today!

Cute little Dallin. Love my little boy!!

Madi and her Zhu Zhu pet. Last year we bought one for her but Dallin threw it in the toilet. Nice brother! Madi still wanted one (she talked about them all fall) so I bought one from Ebay for her. It came here all the way from Hong Kong! (my favorite place to by things... that's where all of Dallin's trains came from. I think I paid about $26 for 7 trains, with free shipping. LOVE DEALS.)

Adam and his pjs.

June and her iTunes gift card. Happy girl!

Dallin playing with trains...

...and still playing with trains!

Madi opening her jewelry! 

Madi blinging it up!

June opening up her watch...

... she was surprised!

Madi still trying on jewelry. (see the theme of Madi's presents, lol)

Noah and his alarm clock. He starts seminary next fall... he'll get alot of use out of this present! (little does he know, lol)

Serious Dallin working on opening his present.

Dad helping Dalllin. (I love Dallin's cute little hands!)

Adam opening his big present

June's such a beautiful girl!

Dallin opening up a new pair of mitts from Grandma Rogers.

More Madi with jewelry... 

... great expressions!

Adam and his new fishing stuff :)

Boys are never too old for Nerf guns ;)

Dallin in his new hoody

Madi opening up her new mitts... she's pretty happy about them. She kept wanting me to put my hands in them to feel how nice they feel. Thank you Grandma Rogers!

Dalllin playing with one of those mechanical bugs. Adam's friend gave it to him for his birthday a couple weeks ago. Dallin loves them... he's pretty cute to watch play with Adam's bug. :)

June and her new slippers and orange nail polish. (her favorite color) 

Dallin's getting the hang of opening presents

Dallin LOVES Thomas the Train. I found some pjs for him...

... Bryce is helping Dallin put his new jammies on. I just LOVE his little toddler legs and diaper. So stinkin cute! Love you Dallin!

Madi's outfit just gets more interesting as the day goes on, lol. She's such a girl! Love it!

June & Dallin are buddies!

June is a natural with Dallin & little kids. Love this pic of June & Dallin!

WOW. Now that's a pair of sunglasses! She totally loves them!

Woo-hoo! Madi's having a great time!

Adam's happy that he got a little more Ninjago stuff (and not more clothes, lol).

My handsome boys :)

Think June's having fun yet?!? ;)

Bryce and the kids :)

Adam, June & Noah... oh wait, and Dallin in the mirror! The kids are holding their presents from Grandpa Rollins. It's apple TV, the cable you need to plug the apple TV in & a schwack load of iTunes gift cards. This is the gift that keeps on giving! Happy children & happy parents too!

We had one more BIG surprise. My parents surprised us with a new piano! WOW!! SOOOO nice! We are still in shock! THANK YOU mom & dad Hogg!! Love you lots! We are loving playing every day... I am loving hearing June play every day! It's absolutely wonderful!

Life is good. We have so much to be grateful for. Somehow we never go under & we never go without. I know this post may look like it's about stuff, but for me, it's about my children being happy. I am grateful for Christmas. For the time we can be together as a family, so recognize the blessings we have and to remember the experiences we have had. I am grateful for the Savior Jesus Christ. I am so grateful that He was born, that He lived and died for us. I am grateful for the example He set for us, to teach us how to live so that we can return to our Heavenly Father. I'm looking forward to the rest of this day... to watch more things about the life of the Savior... and to spend more time with my family.

Merry Christmas!

What Shall We Give To The Babe In The Manger - Mormon Tabernacle Choir H...

This is my FAVORITE Christmas song! 

Additional info from Grandpa Hogg re:Adam's Turkey trot run :)

Grandpa Hogg sent this email to me back in September... Thanks Dad-e-o for your email! Love you!! :)


Here is another part of the story of Adam's run... Adam literally flew by me as he ran toward the finish line. What a great young runner! He did very well in the standings as well finishing 19th in a field of 67. But that is not all. He stopped along the way to help another boy who had a problem before carrying on with the run. 

So proud of Adam!

Grandpa

I love living close to a zoo!

After living in Shilo, Manitoba for so long... land of nothing but the army base, fields and way too many deer... I am loving living close to amenities.

Things were so busy this summer that I have slowed things down as much as I can (and for cakes, down to a halt... need a break) and I am finding opportunities to do things with my kiddies. I don't want to miss out on actually living life and enjoying some moments with my children. I've watched/felt like too many moments have passed by. So I'm making a point to actually do something so that I don't feel that way as much. This week I took Madi & Dallin & 2 of my dayhome children to the zoo! Love it... only takes 20 min to get there, about an hour and 1/2 there and 20 min back. (In Shilo, it would've been an all day trek to go to the zoo and back.)

 Madi & Dallin sitting on a seal statue.

Madi is posing with an arctic squirrel statue. Can't really tell, but she really wanted me to take a picture of her with it! It turned out to be a really sweet picture of her! Love you Madi!!

Dallin missed his nap to go to the zoo... he fell asleep on the way home. So sweet! I even drove around the block a few times so that he could keep sleeping. My dear little boy, love you Dallin!!

Adam is my runner!

So every fall the kids school has the 'turkey trot' run. This month he has been looking forward to running the race... he wanted SO BADLY to get first place because the prize is a turkey. (The turkey is really one of those little chicken/cornish hens, but to him it's a big bird, lol.) 

Well, the run was on Tuesday... and he came home after school grinning ear to ear! He came in first place!!! *Happy dance* And he had his turkey! And because he placed first, he was entered into the district turkey trot.

So yesterday was the district turkey trot. My dad went to watch him (Bryce couldn't break away from work and I was home with Madi, Dallin & 3 other day home children). Adam was thrilled, he loves it when Grandpa comes to watch him! I love my parents, they are so supportive of the kids and try to come to as many of the kids events/activities as they can (they are in the temple presidency, so they are at the temple for a good chunk of their week, busy people!). 

Adam came home after school and had a ribbon in his hand. He placed 19th... out of 67 runners! Which I thought was great! I was really proud! But then he told me that he would have placed better but one of the kids running fell and hurt himself, so he stopped in the run to help this boy get up and he took the time to make sure that he was ok. He only continued the run when the boy told him that he was fine and that Adam should keep going. *happy tears!!* SOOOO PROUD of my boy!! Who cares how he placed, my son showed great sportsmanship... Just can't express enough my love for my boy!! Great job Adam!!

Dad took a couple pictures for me... thanks Dad!!

it's been a long time since I've posted!!

Wow, I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted. Having said that, I can believe how long it's been since I've posted. This past year and a bit has been a whirlwind!! 

We moved to St Albert. Love it. It's been great for the kids and for us too. We are really liking living close to my family. The kids see grandma and grandpa Hogg lots and Aunty Lindsay & Liam too.It's been so good for our family to finalllly be in a house. Wow. Who knew it would make such a difference for us? Well, I did, lol. The whole having 1 toilet for 7 people in a teeny tiny bathroom, for 4 years was enough to drive us all crazy. It's funny though, the kids still line up outside one bathroom and get mad at each other bc they want to use the bathroom! I have to remind them that there ARE OTHER toilets to use!! Old habits die hard I guess. And my kids will always find something to fight about/over.

Hmm. What else? I taught cake decorating at Michaels for about 9 months, then I was tired of it... I like teaching but they kept screwing up my pay checks... or not paying me at all & then I'd have to chase down my money. Anyone who knows me knows that I expect to be paid when I am supposed to be paid. Period. Plus it meant that I was gone 2 evenings/week, which doesn't sound like much, but when I factor in going to Young Women's activities on a 3rd evening a week, I realized that I was hardly seeing my older, school aged children. At first it was a nice break not having to do the bed time routine, it was a treat for sure. But it didn't take long for me to miss being able to be the one to rock Dallin and sing to him (poor kid, lol) and have him fall asleep in my arms. So I quit. Glad I did. I don't miss it. I miss my students (some of them) but it's not worth it at this point in my life. Maybe when Dallin goes to school I'll go back and offer classes during the day. Maybe. I think what I'd really rather do though is be home so that if my kids need me, or if they are sick, I can help them at a moments notice. I think I'll just pick up the pace with cakes. I have gotten pretty quick at making cakes... let me clarify that... WHEN MY KIDS ARE NOT AROUND, I can make a cake fairly quick. 

So cakes... I have made sooo many cakes this year. Holy cow, I barely saw the summer this year. I was in the kitchen making cake after cake. I had no dayhome kids this summer so money had to come from somewhere. Thank goodness the heavens opened and I had so many orders that it got to the point I had to turn away customers. But now I am burned out. I'm taking a little cake break. Although, I was going to bake this afternoon... I still have the desire to create and to make cakes... it's an illness ;)

Let's see what else is new? Bryce had another med school interview this spring at the University of Calgary. We didn't expect that he would even get an interview invite. But he did and we were excited! Bryce did not get in... which we are all actually happy about that. I don't think it's the right time. Who knows if he will ever get in, but it's worth trying. What I'm really hoping for is that (if) by time he gets in, that the military will have more funding and that he will be able to keep his job and have them pay for university and that we won't loose our pay check and have to foot the university bill ourselves (and all the costs of living... OUCH... that's a lot to borrow!). We'll see. I trust that God has a plan for our family, and for each of us in our family. I know that we are where we are for a reason. I feel it deep inside, so that helps me find peace through all the craziness in my life/in my families life.

So we got together with Lindsay a couple weeks ago. We thought that we would try to do some family pictures. WOW. Insane thought. Good intentions, but really, kinda crazy!! We did manage to get a few good pictures. We were out a little later in the morning, so the light wasn't right (I knew that going into it) and I never ever know what I'm going to get with my kids. Happiness? Grouchiness? Who knows! Here's how our shoot went...

Here's me with June and Madi (such pretty girls!!) Love my girls!!!

Here I am with my boys!! (Dallin, Adam and Noah on the right) Love my boys!!!

Me and June

OK, so here's where the pics began.... see Dallin starting to squirm?

And see Dallin starting to strip down? Of course clothing is optional in family pictures!! lol

And the final result... Dallin in a diaper. Nice. Classy. lol!!

And here is Bryce and me. I like this picture... Lindsay caught it... I was feeling like this was a crazy idea to even try to take pictures... I had put my head on his shoulder bc I was just happy to be with Bryce. And what you don't see in the picture are all 5 of my children chasing around behind Lindsay!! Funny how we look at pictures and it's easy to think that all is well because everyone looks 'put together'. I look at these pictures now and I'm actually glad that the day was crazy, it made for some funny pictures and now it's a good memory. At the time, not so much, it was a little discouraging and I just felt like we would never have a nice family picture. BUT what I've taken away from this is that things don't have to be perfect and that I will try hard to remember that we should be trying to have fun and that that will make the best pictures... and memories! Lindsay and I at the end decided that it was really good that we didn't pay anyone, lol...

But because I'm a little crazy, I actually will be paying someone to do our photos next week. I made some frosting sheets for a lady last night and she had mentioned that her sister is a photographer. She showed me her site and I really liked the work I saw. And her rates are affordable, so I contacted her and we are all set up to have a session for next week. CROSSING FINGERS again! lol! I'm sure that the picture that will be the best will be the first picture she takes, lol... when everyone is still fresh-ish. (if that's even a word!)

OK, it was really nice to leave the world of kids. Dallin is melting down. Guess it's snack time... should be nap time... I shouldn't get so sidetracked so often. Although, being sidetracked often means I have a little Melissa time. So I take it back, I want to get sidetracked wayyyy more often!

And on that note, time to be a mom and settle my kids down/feed them ;)

The countdown is on...

Well the countdown is on & things are getting crazy busy around here. (as if they weren't already). It seems like every day & every evening is packed with either taking care of kids, move details, last minute church stuff (more of that for Bryce than me, although we both are speaking in church in 2 Sunday's) and it's just one thing after another. Ad I am just tired. I swear I feel sleepy just about every day. It seems like we are up late every night chatting About this and that... You know how it is, by time the kids are all finally sleeping, we finally can talk to each other & have real, uninterrupted conversations. So that just makes things worse in the end, I'm just more tired & still have as much to do, lol. Oh well, it is what it is.

Friday night I spent the whole evening folding laundry. Yup, that's right, the whole evening, and I still have 3 more baskets waiting to be folded! Bryce was at a work function so I was at home manning the fort. I spoke to Lindsay for a good chunk of the evening (I love my headset, I can talk & do whatever for a very long time. Money well spent!) Anyways, I spent the whole time folding and chatting, which helped the process along. By the end of my marathon folding session, I just kept thinking, I hate this laundry, it never ends, it only gets worse every week, it's tormenting to keep up with... AND I DID THIS TO MYSELF!! No one twisted my arms to have 5 kids. Sigh. I love having 5 kids, but I'm not going to lie people, the work that is involved is utterly exhausting some days. And I feel like a laundry slave. AND I MAKE MY KIDS FOLD & PUT AWAY THEIR OWN CLOTHES! and I still feel like a laundry slave after all is said and done. Sigh. I'm kinda hoping (but not really expecting) that when we move to the new house with main floor laundry, that I will 'keep up' with it. OK, stop laughing, get yourself up off the floor, I might actually keep up... LOL LOL LOL. I know, I know, it's just going to be in my face & I won't be able to hide it in the basement anymore. Instead people will stop by and see the mountain... Although maybe they'll feel bad for me & grab a basket & fold it, lol. Of course I wouldn't let anyone do that, I'm just kidding, kinda. ;)

So this is my last week of watching kids in Shilo. I'm very very happy to have a break for a bit. I've saved up money like a mad woman, we can float along for awhile without me working if we have too. But I'd rather keep it in savings vs. spending it on groceries. So I'll give myself enough time to unpack & get settled in & spend lots of time with my own kids. I'm looking forward to that. There are so many fun things I can do with the kids in St Albert & in Edmonton, I think it will be a nice break for all of us! And I'm going to take the time to 'rest up' (lol) so I can keep working & maintain feeding these 5 kids ;)

Well I think my blogging window is over. It was nice while it lasted. This is therapeutic to have a laundry rant. It didn't make the 3 baskets fold & put themselves away, but it was a good rant. Night all.