Elise LOVES Her New Fishies!

Saturday, December 26th--Elise got a fancy fish tank from Santa. Along with it came some money for her to buy some fishies. As we headed to PetSmart, Elise's Papa handed her some additional cash and told her she could have it to put towards a fish as long as she named the fish "Papa". LOL! He's such a crazy Papa! So we got to PetSmart and the salesperson told us her tank should only have 2 fish to start with. Oh no! We expected to be able to buy at least 3-4. Elise had to make tough decisions. She kept her loyalty to Papa and picked a cute "calico" looking goldfish and said, "That's Papa!" The next one she picked was a goldfish with some black coloring on it's top. That one she insisted upon calling "Betty". I don't know where she got that name but she's loving both her fish. They are happily in their new fancy fish tank sitting on her dresser. Elise LOVES her new pets. She brings in a little chair and just sits and watches Papa and Betty. They have fun plants and buildings to swim around in too. Here's hopin' they stay alive for a while. However, we did have a chat about how easily goldfish can die so she understands that too.

Merry Christmas!

Friday, December 25th--What a wonderful Christmas! Elise and Brady were awake and ready to tear into gifts by 6:45 am. We brought them into our room and turned on the TV for a while as we waited for my parents to sleep a little longer and my sister, Alishia, and her family were driving to our house so we wanted to wait for them as well. By 7:30 Nate would like to say the kids were impatient and just wanted to look in their stockings but I think it was Nate that wanted to get things going. My sister was almost here and my parents slowly made their way upstairs to our family room so we let the kids look at their stockings. There was plenty to look at as Santa, Nana and Alishia went CRAZY with stocking stuffers! By the time Elise & Brady had gone through their stockings everyone was here and settled in. My niece, Samantha and nephew, Jacob went through their stockings next. I got the "Favorite Aunt of the Year" award by finding Jacob's much-coveted Barack Obama Chia Pet. He had talked about wanting one for weeks and he couldn't find one anywhere. I got lucky a few days before and found one at a Smiths Marketplace. The look on his face in the pic is priceless! I haven't seen him that happy in a very long time! YES! Alishia got the "Favorite Aunt of the Year" award when she found some hard-to-find Zhu-Zhu Pets. Elise had talked about wanting one for a while and I knew they were hard to get so I didn't even put forth any effort to look. They were quite happy to open their Zhu-Zhu Pets (wow, they're obnoxious little things! that's just my opinion!)

Alishia unloaded all the gifts she brought and, HOLY MOLY, there were so many gifts under and around our tree! Nate and I set a budget every year for how much we spend on each other and our kids. This year we found some really great deals so they had quite a few gifts. By the 6th or 7th gift Elise and Brady would unwrap their gifts and toss them into the pile. They almost seemed bored. So next year we will change things up a little! Brady got several Lego sets from Santa and Elise got some cute stuffed puppies and a fish tank. They also got clothes, movies, books, DS games and a few more toys. Elise & Brady had also bugged me to NO END for Snuggies. I found some on sale and so I caved and the looks on their faces were so worth it! They wanted them on right away!

Nate got a fancy toothbrush, some books, slippers, and a few other things. I got some Wizard of Oz stuff, shoes (yes, Christmas Shoes.....and they were just my size! ha ha ha), As-Seen-On-TV stuff, a book about LDS Temples, CDs and a few other things. As a family gift we got Disney's Dance, Dance Revolution for Wii and some movies. At the end of our unwrapping my sister and her husband, Shad, had two more gifts to give. They were for Nate and my dad. They each got a...........Speedo! LOL! Both were great sports about it. My dad even put his on over his pants. It was quite funny! Of course they better wear them next time we make our way down to Lake Powell or Bear Lake---just like Shad did!

After we cleaned up all the wrapping paper and messes we fixed up a huge, delicious breakfast. Shad made his famously delicious cinnamon pull-aparts and then we cooked up waffles, bacon, eggs and sausage. It was filling and none of us wanted to eat again till dinner time. Alishia and family left to go have dinner at their house. We cooked up a ham and taters for ourselves and my parents. Our Christmas day was laid-back and stress-free......just what I wanted!

Armstrong Christmas Eve Party

Thursday, December 24th--We started a wonderful tradition last year! Nate's parents, Dan & Rosemary, reserve the clubhouse by their home. The clubhouse is perfect for holding most or all of us (when we're all together we total 22). It has comfy couches & chairs, a kitchen, tables and the family favorite.....a hot tub! Yes, some are crazy enough to make the cold, snowy walk to the hot tub. Some of the crazies even play in the snow making snow angels and whatever else! Nate also brought a new game that was an instant success. He bought Simpsons Scene-It. The Armstrongs are HUGE Simpsons fans so they had a great time playing. For the kids, I did the same thing I did last year and ordered some fun crafts & activities from Oriental Trading Company. There was plenty to do, including some gingerbread houses my SIL, Jenny, brought for the kids to decorate. Everyone brought yummy snacks to munch on. For dinner we always have a big pizza feast. This year many of us were still full from the snacks so there was plenty of pizza that didn't get eaten. Thank goodness for leftovers! After pizza we all gathered to open presents and listen to the Nativity story. It was a great party, as usual. Something we look forward to all year. We are truly blessed to have family close by and to be able to have these wonderful get-togethers.
We left in time to get the kids home to open their Christmas Eve pajamas and do a few things before bedtime. My parents got back to our house and we sat down to watch the Nativity video and then talk a little about the story of baby Jesus. After that we went on-line to find out where Santa was--he wasn't quite in the US yet. Elise and Brady rounded up some cookies, carrots and milk. They have a special plate for Santa and a special Christmas cup for him to drink his milk out of. The kids went to bed willingly, quite excited for the next morning!

Blackburn Family Christmas Party

Saturday, December 19th--OOPS, I'm back tracking a little! We held our annual Blackburn Family Christmas Party at a building my Aunt Manya works at in West Valley. It has a HUGE meeting room along with a huge kitchen, places to keep our meals hot and places to keep it cold. There is just everything we need without anyone having to host at their homes and put tons of work into it. We love it! It was my sister, Alishia's, turn to host and she decided to do a theme for our white elephant gift exchange. Normally we are all given a dollar amount and we all just buy something unisex then play the white elephant game. This year Alishia asked everyone to buy As-Seen-On-TV gifts. Oh my goodness! It was crazy! We all thought someone would buy a Snuggie so NO ONE did! Too funny! There were 3 of those brownie pans with dividers, 2 or 3 Touch & Brush's and quite a few other things. I decided to pick the gift I brought, something I usually don't do, and so I got the brownie pan and the Touch & Brush. Nate got some dryer balls, Magic Putty and a windshield cleaner-type thing (I wish I could remember the names!). So far we've tried out the dryer balls and they work okay and put the Touch & Brush in the kids bathroom. It would be a great thing for adults but my kids still manage to get toothpaste all over! Ug!
All the kids under 16 we draw names for. My niece, Samantha, had Brady's name. She and my sis, Alishia, had been told by Brady a while back that he wanted a remote control dinosaur. They found a huge remote control dinosaur after Thanksgiving, it's pretty cool, I must admit. When Brady opened it the first thing he said was, "This is nice but it's not the one I wanted." Wha' what?!?! Whatever one he wanted was not nearly as cool as this one and we had to spend time explaining this to him. It was the hot item of the night as plenty of the adults played with it too! My cousin, Catherine, had Elise's name. She, and her mom, my Aunt Maureen, got Elise some bead sets to make necklaces and bracelets out of. She loved them quite a bit and would have been happy to open them up and start making some things right there but I told her it could end up being too messy with beads everywhere so she was happy to take over the remote control dinosaur! We had Catherine and Samantha names. Catherine had given me a specific request a while back. She complained her mom never buys junk food so she just wanted me to get her some junk food. So I did and she was the happiest person in that room! For Samantha, we got her a Toys R Us gift card and some As-Seen-On-TV hair clips she had wanted (not those crazy Bump-Its! ha ha ha).
We had a delicious dinner of spiral ham, funeral taters, salads and delicious desserts from Costco. It was, as usual, a wonderful night! We don't all get together that often but when we do there is plenty of fun to be had! Next get-together is a baby shower for my cousin, Carly. Baby Chandler is due in March---hoooray!
When we were done we packed up our car and went to a residential street in Taylorsville where all the houses are decked out to the story of "Twas the Night Before Christmas". It was a spectacular sight! There were about 20 homes that participated and all of them had lights galore and plenty of decorations in their yards. (I SOOOO wish we could do that on our street!) Once done with that we headed home and went to bed shortly after. It was a long day but VERY FUN! We look forward to next year and being able to host! Any "theme" ideas for our white elephant gift exchange are greatly appreciated! ; )
***I'm totally bummed we forgot to take photos! If anyone else did, please email me some so I can post 'em here! Thanks!

Temple Square Lights

Wednesday, December 23rd--My parents, Cal & Colleen, drove down from Washington to spend Christmas with us. We decided to get in the Christmas spirit by taking Trax down to Temple Square to see all the lights and displays. It was a wonderful night! It was cold and it snowed but it all worked out and we had a great time visiting with everyone, including my cousins that decided to come along.

Brady's Christmas Concert

Friday, December 18th--This year we had a much better experience than last year when it came to Brady's Christmas preschool concert! There was no traffic, we got there plenty early and it was all great! The kids sang plenty of songs and Brady had a speaking part "Here at the North Pole, everyone is ready!" Nate was able to take the day off so he got to go too. They do the same program every year so the one I missed out on last year was done again---phew! There were plenty of times we could hear Brady's deep voice, it was quite hilarious! We got a pic with Brady and his teacher, Mrs. Smart.

Our Greatest Christmas Gift....

Friday, December 4th--I made my way to the Festival of Trees again. This time, to be able to meet with the families of the children we dedicated the tree to. I've mentioned it before but will do so again. We dedicated our tree display to Sadie Huish (age 6) and Lucas Nelson (age 8 months), both precious angels who passed away this summer from different forms of brain cancer. Both families live within a few blocks of each other and from me, in Eagle Mountain. After reading their blogs (http://sadiehuish.blogspot.com/ and http://nelsonsforever.blogspot.com/ ) I knew we had to dedicate our tree to their children. I knew the Nelsons already but didn't know the Huish's other than their daughter, Livi, was on the same t-ball team with Brady and I'd seen Tiffany at church meetings. I was so grateful when Dustin & Crystal agreed that we should dedicate it to them. Stories of Sadie and Lucas inspired many of the ideas we had, one of the reasons the design was child-like. Copies of Sadie's beautiful artwork were placed on a small art easel on the top of the tree and a large art easel to the side of the tree.

I gave each of Lucas and Sadie's siblings a Curious George fleece blanket and a stuffed Curious George. They seemed to love them a lot. We made our way through the crowds and went straight to the tree. It was very crowded but I told everyone to take their time looking at the display. We spent about 15 minutes there and took pictures. My friend, Sharee, just happened to show up while we were there so I got to introduce her and let them know she helped design the tree decor. My one wish was that I wouldn't be a cry-baby the whole time. I prayed it would be a happy experience and it was just that. There were only few tears but mostly smiles and lots of hugs.

I am still touched and honored that both families allowed us to invite ourselves into their lives and loss. Lucas had only been gone a few weeks when I asked his mom, Shannon. I cried many tears, and still do, thinking about each of them and how they cope and grieve on a daily basis. They are my heros and examples of courage and faith--faith to move forward and do what it takes to make sure they are reunited with their little angels someday. Sadie and Lucas are also my heros, what they endured as they fought cancer, I wouldn't wish on anyone, but they still found moments to smile and the sparkle in their eyes is priceless. I will remember them the rest of my life, I am sure of it.

This experience has truly been our greatest Christmas gift. I couldn't ask for anything more. I will hold the memory of this in my heart always. Thank you so much to the Huish (Zach, Tiffany, Livi & Sam) and Nelson (Aaron, Shannon, Kaden & Jonas) families--you are my friends and true examples of strength.

Taking My Family to the Festival of Trees

Thursday, December 3rd--Today was the day I was, finally, almost 100% better after getting the flu on Tuesday. Nate and I took the kids to the Festival of Trees. He came straight from work and we met him there. It was horribly packed and trying to find a parking spot took quite a long time--even at 4:30 in the afternoon. We started at the gingerbread houses, so many creative ideas! Elise and Brady loved the ones that portrayed the house in the movie, "Up". The tree display we donated was quite close to the gingerbread houses so we went there next. The kids looked for a bit and seemed to love it. A few more aisles of trees were all they wanted to handle. They were getting pretty bored so Nate took them home and I finished looking around. There was a variety of different kinds of trees, some were quite elaborate and beautiful, others were plain and, um, not-so-beautiful. I was surprised to see so many trees still for sale. I wonder if the troubled economy contributed to that. I hope all of them sold. My SIL, Wendy purchased a beautiful tree with Beanie Babies all over it. I left and went to SuperTarget to get stocking stuffers (it's the place to go!). After that I stopped at Burger King to get some dinner. I regretted that decision as I got food poisoning and suffered for the next 4 days! UG!

Festival of Trees--Decorating Day

Monday, November 30th--(I will post pics when I get them) We showed up at South Towne Expo Center at 9:30 am to start decorating. My brother-in-law, Dustin and his wife, Crystal came with their 1-year-old, Danika and my mother-in-law, Rosemary, also showed up to help decorate and take care of Danika. We found our spot, aisle P-5, pretty quick and starting pulling everything out. The tree took a while to get up and stabilized--FOT rules are that a hollow trunk needs a PVC pipe in the middle and rebar around the outside of the trunk to secure the tree for transport. Being this was the first year we did this, we didn't know what to expect at all but we went with the flow and were very thankful there were spaces, surrounded by us, that weren't occupied till much later, when we were almost through. We needed all the space we could get!
We had a blast! It was so much fun decorating and seeing others create their masterpieces as well. We had so many miracles take place during the adventures of getting everything we needed to make this happen. I am still amazed as I look back over the last couple of months.
I need to thank those that helped make this happen, their input and work contributed so much: my cousin, Carly Bates--she helped me start the initial decorating of the tree and figure out how to connect all the lights on the tree (a nightmare! ha ha), Rhonda Pierson--she sewed 6 fleece blankets (1 to go with the display, 4 for the siblings of the children we dedicated the tree to and an extra for a Christmas present), Sharee Forsgren--she came over to my house to help us make the final decisions on how to decorate the tree, Rosemary, my MIL--she donated items and money and then came to help on this day. I appreciate so many that offered to help as well!
I'm thankful Dustin & Crystal let me help. Last year, they mentioned they wanted to do a tree and I asked if I could help. We worked well as a team and I hope I wasn't too much of a control freak!
The weekend prior to decorating day, Crystal, was contacted by a reporter from the Salt Lake Tribune to do a story on our tree. I was amazed at this request as they didn't even know what our theme was or anything about the children we were dedicating it to. A photographer caught us while we decorated and took pics. We were very happy to find an article, on-line, about us and the tree on Thursday, December 3rd. Here's the ">link.
After about 5 hours we finished up. It look much longer than expected but the requirements are that ALL things placed on the tree need to be wired on so that nothing falls during transport of the tree to the buyer. We are thankful the tree sold at the auction/gala.
As my family was dealing with so much illness the week before, I kept praying I would be able to stay healthy so I could decorate. I was thankful for that! The next morning I woke up with the flu. I had planned to go to the auction/gala to see if our tree would sell and just couldn't--I was pretty bummed. We don't know who bought it or for how much but that fact that it sold, and the money goes to Primary Childrens Medical Center, and so many enjoyed it is all that matters.

Day 8--I'm Thankful For My Health

Sunday, November 29th--I'm at home today, another week of no church. The family is sick. Elise was doing well and then started puking her guts out late last night. I have been faithfully taking all sorts of vitamins and herbal remedies in hopes of maintaining my good health--so far, so good (knock on wood!). I'm thankful for friends and family who have shared their secrets of staying healthy and I'm using those to their full extent. I'm sure eventually it'll all catch up to me and I'll get the mother-load of all illnesses but for now, I'm enjoying pretty good health and I pray it'll get me through this coming week as we do the Festival of Trees.