Winter Break

I haven't blogged much lately.  Adding school teacher to my list of things to do has added a lot of work and time to my days.  I love it, though.  I also always want to post pictures, and sometimes it's not easy trying to collect them from the various locations for the blog.  Anyway, it's late, but I still want to share some cool things that we did over the Christmas break.

First of all, we had the great blessing of having Zaily, our "other daughter," (actually our neighbor in Salt Lake) join us for the season.  It was so wonderful to have her here!  I hated to send her home again.

The week before Christmas was mainly spent in preparation for that special day.  We had a fabulous Christmas!

The boys with the little tree in their room

 The girls with the little tree in their room

Five Kendrick nuts

Hmmm, I can't find the pictures for Christmas day right now.  Well, moving on!

One of Zaily's Christmas gifts was a quick trip to Paris.  Ben, the boys, and Sarah stayed home while I took Zaily, Kayanna, and Molly on a whirlwind day trip.  We weren't there long, but we got to see the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame.

On Zaily's last day, we took a trip to Aachen, Germany and Maastricht in the Netherlands.  She came to Europe for two weeks and visited 4 countries.

Abe at lunch in Aachen. 

(My sandwich was amazing!)

Zaily, Sarah, Molly, and Kayanna in Aachen

 Ben and Abe enjoying afternoon snack in Maastricht

The girls eating ice cream

I was puzzled that they wanted ice cream when it was so cold outside!  I had a delicious waffle, and Ben chose hot chocolate.

It was pretty miserable weather, so we didn't wander around much more than to find a warm place to eat.  It was still great.

Life these days is pretty busy.  The system at Ben's work went live, so this month is nuts.  He is working 10-12 hour days.  We live about 35 minutes from work, so he's gone a lot.  It's still better than being across the world from each other.  School is going well.  I enjoy being able to choose what and how to teach the kids.  Ben and I also go visit people with the missionaries when we can.  I love being able to help with missionary work.

Fantastic Christmas

Well, this week has been tough with a cold going around. It's not so much that the cold has been miserable, but it has prevented playing with friends and cousins. In fact, we didn't even go to my parents' house for the Christmas Eve program last night. We dropped by long enough to pick up the traditional pajamas and trade wrapped gifts to open today.

Today was really wonderful, though. Here are a few pictures from last night and this morning.

New jammies from Bama!

The girls' Santa stuff

Buster's stuff

Kandy has her new American Girl Doll in the cradle I fixed up. She has been asking for an American Girl Doll for 3 years.

And Sunny did get her Baby Alive doll.
Abel got a cool ride-on/push toy. I didn't get a good picture of it, though. He really likes Sunny's doll. I missed the picture of him snuggling it.

Buster and his "cute choo-choo."

We took things really slowly. We looked at stuff from Santa and unwrapped a few things. We played with cool toys from cousins.Then we unwrapped some more things.

Missy got "How to Train your Dragon" and a diary from Santa. This book is from Kandy.

If you're interested, there are tons more pictures in my Picasa album, Christmas 2010.

We managed to make Christmas morning excitement last about 5 hours. The kids have had a great time playing with all their new stuff. Now if we can just get over our sniffles and go play with cousins! I think it's one of our best Christmases ever.

Under the Toe

Kandy was singing "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" in the car the other day. In case you don't know the lyrics:

I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus
Underneath the mistletoe last night.
She didn't see me creep
Down the stairs to have a peep;
She thought that I was tucked up
in my bedroom fast asleep.

Then, I saw Mommy tickle Santa Claus
Underneath his beard so snowy white;
Oh, what a laugh it would have been
If Daddy had only seen
Mommy kissing Santa Claus last night.

Kandy suggested that I should kiss Santa! Sunny piped up and said, "She wouldn't want to kiss him under a toe, though!"

---

And speaking of the Man in Red, Sunny was talking to Ben the other day about what she wants for Christmas.

"Daddy, I want you to buy me a Baby Alive doll."

"Why do you want me to buy it for you? Didn't you ask Santa for one?"

"Yeth, Daddy, but Kandy hath been athking him for an American Girl Doll for three yearth, and she hathn't gotten it! I don't think he'll bring me a Baby Alive."

Given some of her comments lately, I'm not sure if Kandy believes in Santa. I think Sunny does, but she doesn't seem to have much faith in his actions.

I can't wait to see their faces on Christmas morning.

Merry Christmas!

I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas! Ben rebuilt a used computer to be a newer faster computer for me than my old one. It's so nice to push a button and get an immediate response!

The kids are having a great time. Buster got a T-ball set, which he loves to no end. He is having a blast hitting the balls over and over! Kandy got a nice jewelry box to corral her trinkets. Missy got a lamp to clip to her headboard so she can read better on her bottom bunk. Sunny got a new quilt for the twin bed we are going to get for her soon.

Anyway, we will get some pictures up soon. I just had to do something on my new computer!

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas!

We had a very merry Christmas. I think in our family history this will go down as the Christmas of The Littlest Pet Shop. All the girls got LPS sets from Santa which had 3 pets and lots of accessories! The older girls also got a Wii LPS game that they can play at Bama and Bamp's house. They also received LPS activity pads from my mom. Of course, Sunny got several Diego things because she loves "Go, Diego, Go!" Ben's big gift was a new laptop bag since his old one is falling apart. Ben got my hints and bought me a beautiful jewelry chest, which I love. My parents gave me a really cool cookbook full of 30-minute recipes. I'm really looking forward to trying a few of them!

We opened presents and then went to Ben's parents' house for breakfast and to hang out. In the afternoon, we headed to my folks' house, staying through the Smith Family Party in the evening. We managed to make it down the hill safely through the snow.

Today everyone is really enjoying their new stuff! The living room is the typical post-Christmas disaster area. We have tidied some, but I have decided not to be anal about it until tomorrow, especially since we were gone so much yesterday that this is the first chance to play with everything.

We hope you all had a very good Christmas, too. I am so grateful for my wonderful family and for our Savior, whose birth we celebrate at this joyous time.