surprise!

this holiday season was strange from thanksgiving on.
right before thanksgiving, we had been told by an acquaintance that we would be paid for a painting that hasn't sold like it was intended to. that money never did arrive. as a result, we were not planning on having much of a christmas. when i mentioned it to my mother-in-law, she told me not to worry, and they would help us out.
i make jammies every year for the kids. the year they turn 2, daddy gives them a big blanket. so, i already had some presents planned, and the ability to make them. a wonderful friend let me borrow her serger to help make things go faster.

my in-laws came through with their promise of help. the kids got new boots and snow pants. those that needed them got socks, pants, and underwear. and the helped us purchase the gifts from santa.

as i mentioned in my earlier post, we had 3 different occasions of people dropping of presents. that nearly doubled by christmas morning. 

the first was last saturday when the gentleman showed up with food.

the second was last sunday when the bishopric brought the money.

the third was when they left the presents on the doorstep and ran.

then, christmas eve, the bishop showed up in the morning with more money. that night, when shaun got home, he asked me what the bags on the porch were from. i had no idea. someone had once again, left us gifts for christmas. there were 3 or 4 grocery bags filled with presents.

then when shaun went over that night to get the stuff from his parents house, there had been another drop off for us over there. i think my kids got more presents this year than they have any other year!

the lord works in mysterious ways

indeed, he does.

saturday night, 2 gentlemen showed up with 2 boxes. on of them chock full of food, the other one had a few gifts and more food.
sunday night, the bishopric showed up with 2 gifts and a hundred dollars.
monday night, there was a knock on the door. by the time we got there, there was only a bag full of gifts and a smaller one with snacks in, sitting on the porch.
this morning, the bishop knocked on the door, and handed me another envelope. he said that someone had brought a check by. inside was another hundred dollars.

the first 100 helped buy my meds that i had just run out of. this second 100 took me to the doctor to find out what was wrong.

i'm SO grateful that we pay our tithing and are able to receive these small blessings.

oh dear...

what can the matter be?

i have ANOTHER infection. seems like since being pregnant with ashley, i haven't been able to get rid of any of them. as it IS christmas eve, the doctors office isn't open (of course). and the less expensive place in st. anthony isn't open either. therefore, i had to go into the urgent care office. it took nearly every penny i had on me to pay the bill at the office. then i had to borrow a little money from my mother-in-law to get the meds.

hopefully, though, this will take care of it.

jammies galore!

wow! i don't think i realized how much sewing there was to make 11 pairs of jammies. now, don't get me wrong, i'm not saying i don't enjoy it, cause i do, A LOT. but, taking care of the kids, and the house, and food, and everything else that comes with being mom, it takes a lot of work.

oh, but i've had fun! a good friend in the ward (she's actually "adopted" the two babies as her grandkids.), told me i could come over and use her serger. we whipped out almost all of them yesterday afternoon. didn't get the sleepers done, cause there were some tight curves, but it helped immensely and made my life easier. (not to mention the fact that she did all the sewing)

i brought them home, and put the finishing touches on the ones we did, and started on the sleepers. i have only 1 left for my good friend that i'm helping out with christmas. and then my kids' to finish up.

on a slightly sadder note, my baby is colicky. i'm not sure what's going on. she's not nursing very well, she just devoured an entire 2nd stage bottle of squash. she's also not sleeping well. maybe 30-45 minutes at a time. heaven help me, she's trying my patience!

from the mouth of mama

ok, this was funny, but it didn't come from one of the kids. it came from me!

i just got elizabeth out the door for school. was telling her goodbye, i love you, the whole shebang.

the i said one of the most stupid remarks i think i'll EVER make. Drive safely!

more word games

one of the pizza shops in town has funny sayings on their marque out front. but, since i seem to be having troubles reading anything, my brain makes them funnier.

sign: xmas specail
me: i was special

christmas programs

the kids had their christmas programs this week. i must say, they were actually quite boring.
elizabeths was on wednesday, and i was not able to be there. shannon had the runs, and they were all over the place. so, the babies and i stayed home, and shaun took the older 2. he was able to video tape the majority of it, so i dind't miss a whole lot. taylors was last night. elizabeth was supposed to dress up as a toy, or other christmas related thing. and taylor was supposed to wear all brown or gray.

i saw some way cool costumes there. there was a rainbow brite, a stitch, a raggedy ann, a yo-yo, and a who from "the grinch stole christmas."

but, i think the best part of the whole program was the granny that did the jig!

sparse christmas

i had a friend yesterday ask me why we were not signed up for "toys for tots" or something like it. i told her it was because we had other options. i CAN make things. i CAN improvise. i HAVE other options. there are so many that don't have other skills that they can fall back on. if i take a spot in the programs, they are not available for those that have no other options.

christmas preparations

i'm trying to get things rolling on christmas presents. something that's not the easiest to do when there are no funds to help.
this year, we're helping out some friends that weren't sure if they were going to have a christmas. that sounds crazy now that we won't have much of one either. every year, i make pajamas for my kids. last year, i also made them for my brothers. well, i added 7 extra pairs to make on top of my normal 4. (yes, you did the math right, that's 11 pairs of jammies!) thankfully, i have entire cupboards full of fabric. not the kind that i normally use or would like, but it will work. after borrowing some money from my mother-in-law, and scrounging for a little more, i was able to get everything (i hope) i need to get all 11 pairs made. i was also able to get the stuff to make shannons quilt. except the batting.
the miracle is that i went through a friends line at walmart to purchase everything. when it was rung up, i was $2 short. she just happened to have $2 in her pocket she gave me!

now comes the fun part! cutting and sewing them all!!!!!
go me!