Christmas in Thousand Oaks

This year we spent Christmas with my family in Thousand Oaks. It was great fun except that Ryan had to work Christmas Eve, the 2 days after Christmas. We had a good time nevertheless. There were so many fun and funny events I am not sure how to even post about them all. I'll do my best. (This is assuming that other people aside from my own family look at my blog and care about what we are doing... If only my family looks at our blog, well then, you will obviously get a great re-cap of our adventures together!)

In no particular order... and definitely not in the order it all occurred...

We held the baby a LOT. He was just so darn cute! Plus all he did was eat and sleep so it was really easy to hold him. This is baby Camden (called Camden Yard by the cousins). He is Stacey and Heath's second boy.

Stacey and Heath blessed baby Camden on the Sunday after Christmas and it was so great to have everyone in our immediate family there plus extended family too!

Aaron and Jenn AND Tiff and Eric brought their Wii games. We played a LOT of Wii. Lots of Mario Cart, golf, tennis, bowling, pool, shooting, and so many more! After a few days of that Eric complained of "Wii elbow." We all had sore arms after all the fun games we played!

OH, and how could i forget ROCK BAND! We all took a turn at something. The little girls found flutes to chime in as well! Even Jace had a turn on the drums!

Of course we played a ton of other games like roof pong - (shirts made by Ryan)

Lego's...

Baseball... (Love the outfit Haylee! )

Frisbee Golf at the park...

And some climbed trees...

Most of all we had FUN! Although not pictured, we ate a ton and cooked a ton too! Jenn made the best rolls EVER and we were treated to all sorts of yummy dishes like french toast, pancakes, enchiladas, soups and amazing desserts! We also opened a lot of presents, slept a lot and laughed even more.

Thanks for a fun week in Thousand Oaks! We miss you all already!

All the Bells on Earth Shall Ring

Last night I went to a Christmas concert put on my the Orange County Mormon Choral Organization. It was amazing! Everyone is a volunteer, including the 2 brothers who lead the individual adult, high school, youth, children and sunbeam choirs, AND the orchestra! Such talented people! It was a night filled with Christmas music and some special arrangements of their own. They also performed the well loved MOTAB arrangement of I Believe in Christ.

One of my favorites was the song below which they did not sing in English. It was so sweet. I was grateful that the put the translation in the program because the simple lullaby is so sweet.

You should all put in on your calendars for next year because this year and last year it was fabulous! Something not to miss! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

O Magnum Mysterium:

O magnum mysterium
et admirabile sacramentum,
ut animalia viderent Dominum natum,
jacentem in præsepio.

Beata virgo, cujus viscera meruerunt

portare Dominum Christum, Alleluia!

Translation:

O great mystery
and wondrous sacrament,

that animals should see the newborn Lord

lying in their manger.

Blessed is the Virgin whose womb was worthy

to bear the Lord Jesus Christ. Alleluia!

I heart CHRISTMAS!

Since Thanksgiving is over, it is officially time to start celebrating Christmas! One of my most favorite things about Christmas is the music. Everyone - 3 cheers for KOST 103.5! They play Christmas music ALL day long from now until Christmas!

Thanks KOST. I heart you too.

Team Edward!

I did it! I was part of the group of fanatics! I stayed up until 12:01am to view the first showing of twilight! Ryan's mother and I were supposed to go with a bunch of other girls from various wards but she ended up not being able to go. SO, I invited my friend Sarah to go. At first I thought - what am I doing? This is going to be insane! I'll have to wait in line for hours just to get in, and then sit for hours waiting for the movie to start! Sarah felt the same about standing in line, plus she has 2 young kids so it would be hard for her to be away for so long during dinner and bedtime. So, we decided to go at 10:30pm thinking that would be fine - even if we didn't get the bests seats.

So, when we got there and saw the several lines, we weren't sure which one to stand in. Surprisingly they weren't that long! (There were showings at 12:01, 12:10, 12:20, and 12:30). That was a little encouraging! Then we asked an employee which line to stand in for our 12:01am showing. She laughed and told us that they had been seated over 2 hours ago! So, we made our way into the theater to find that in fact it was jam packed as we had originally suspected. We found some seats way in the front, although not the first row, and sat and waited. There were some crazy people in there! People kept shouting things about how they loved Edward. Someone started the wave like at a baseball game. Others started a count down which ended and 12:01am on their own watches, but apparently no one else's including the movie theater... It was amazing to see how excited everyone was to see the movie. I felt out of place since I didn't have any Twilight fan gear or my tattered book with me. Sarah and I thought that someone should have been up on the "stage" resiting lines from the books. It would have been entertaining...

So, finally the movie began. I was excited and I LOVED IT!! It started out a little rough for me, plus the angle was awkward since we sat so close, but all in all, I enjoyed the movie! I actually thought that maybe I should read the book again.

I am going with another group of girls to see the movie again Monday night and hopefully I'll have a better seat this time. I am definately team Edward, although the Jacob character was pretty cute!

New Carpet!

Last night we met with Empire Today and selected new carpet for our family room! It was an exciting event. They came out to our house and showed us all types of carpet samples. They have sample books they bring. There is a large piece of carpet on top and then when you lift the large carpet up there are several smaller samples underneath all of various colors.

Ryan and I felt each one carefully to determine which one felt the softest and most comfortable. When the salesman went outside to get some additional samples, Ryan suggested that I put my face on the carpet sample to feel how soft it was on face - or not soft. I complied and then suggested he did the same. The salesman came in as Ryan was lifting his face off the last carpet sample.

We continued talking and the salesman told us how he has to sanitize all the carpet samples after he is done for the day. He continued to explain how dogs sit on the carpet, cats roll on it. People put their babies on it... on and on he went. Ryan and I were just dying inside!! We had just rubbed our faces on that unsanitary carpet!!

When the guy went back outside we just about lost it! We were laughing so hard! We laughed and laughed and the poor sales guy had no idea what was going on.

Well, I guess the carpet wasn't that bad because we bought some... Being installed next Monday! Happy Thanksgiving to us!

CAMDEN HEATH REED

Welcome to my newest newphew! Camden Heath Reed was born last Tuesday - Nov. 11th. Congrats to my sister Stacey! Can't wait to see the new little guy!!

Cinderelly, Cinderelly...

"Cinderelly, Cinderelly
Night and day it's Cinderelly
Make the fire, fix the breakfast
Wash the dishes, do the mopping
And the sweeping and the dusting
They always keep her hopping!"

Do you remember that pudgy little mouse Gus, Gus in the Disney movie Cinderella? He was always my favorite. Which mouse was your favorite?

Since we've had the work done in our house, the entire thing has a fine layer of dust covering EVERYTHING! We had the ceilings painted yesterday and that was the last thing to do that would effect all of our house, rather than just the kitchen.

So, this morning, I decided it was time to "do the mopping." I felt like Cinderelly as I pulled my bucket of warm soapy water with me and hand mopped the dusty wood floors. It took forever! I barely finished 1/16th of the floor in our house, and then I had to get ready and leave for work.

Poor, poor Cinderelly... I was envious of her cute little mouse friends that helped her get everything done. Maybe if I had a fairy god mother and a fancy ball to go to I'd have mice to help me do the cleaning...