Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Happy New Year !!! (pictures in post)

we had a wonderful Christmas!! julia kept saying, "this is the best Christmas ever!!" it was definately the busiest Christmas ever!! somehow everything got done and the day was nice. we went to pat's brother's house this year. we had a nice turkey dinner (the schneemann's are not big ham eaters) and then the kids( all of the cousins) gave eachother their homemade gifts. that was sooo fun to watch each of them open their gift. the gifts were very creative and thoughtful! of course there were "takis", sour candy and mexican candy involved in the gift exchange. the kids love that stuff and it is sooo available here in san diego!! i don't know how they eat some of the candy (if you can call it candy!) for those of you who don't know what "takis" are, they are rolled corn chips with this hot red coating on them. mexican candy is a large variety of different things. many of them are mango with hot, salty, sugar stuff on it. some of it... i am not sure what it is. but they all love it!!!

corey, aubrey and julia are finally done with the "Traditions of Christmas" musical. in 18 days they had 22 performances. they really had a lot of fun and corey would have done 20 more performances if they had let them!! i hope you enjoy these pictures. corey has several costume changes in the pictures, but you should be able to tell who she is. aubrey is the "little mermaid" with the red wig. julia is a "baby doll" in the red dress and blond curly wig. of the 3 baby dolls, julia is on the right. they looked so cute! the show ended with a live nativity with goats, lambs, a white donkey and even a camel!!




i am really enjoying this week we have off. it is nice to not have so much to do. i took julia to see "Bedtime Stories" and it is a cute movie! patrick and daniel are leaving tonight to go to the desert, camping with mike (pat's brother) and their cousins. they are really excited to go. they get to do a lot of motorcycle and quad riding when they are there. hopefully they will return injury free! i always worry when they go!

i truly have had a lot to be grateful for this last year. as hard and crazy busy as things have been, we have been truly blessed in many ways. i am so thankful for family. the support that we are to eachother makes hard times not quite as difficult. we have, for the most part all been very healthy and i know what a blessing that is. we have a new baby on the way and as much of a surprise as that was to find out, it is a great blessing from our Heavenly Father. we are so excited and the kids can hardly wait for the baby to arrive! we are especially grateful for the Savior and His birth, life, and atonement. i hope and pray that this next year will bring all of you a healthy, happy and successful year. we are grateful for each of you and recognize the great strength you are to our family!!

Monday, December 15, 2008

Finally!

I finally chnaged my background from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Gee it's only the 15th of December!! Life could not be more busy than it is right now. Corey, Aubrey and Julia have today off from performances for the "Traditions of Christmas." They then have performances for the next 8 days straight! Emily has a dance recital every day this week along with showchoir rehearsals and performances for her and Patrick. I am trying to enjoy the Christmas spirit...did I say I am trying!! I do LOVE to see all of my kids perform and the Christmas music is beautiful!! My mom was here for almost a week and she went home last night. :-(( It's always hard when she goes home and I can't believe that the next time I see her I will be holding brand new baby Michael!! Yes, we are definately going with the name Michael for the baby. I hope you are all having a safe, happy and healthy Christmas. We love you all!! PS...enjoy this song... it is one of my favorites!!