Christmas Eve Eve

I planned to get a lot done this week.  Nothing doing.  I got the kids to school and got Kira's teacher's present made:

I'm getting as much sleep this week as during my classes!  Which is saying a lot!  I felt bad that I hadn't made anything for Ben's or Leah's teachers/helpers.  Kira actually brought it up though, so it was easier to figure out!  I enjoyed the three days the kids had school, because I was able to get a few presents done:

 I just stitched out Josh's name using the sewing machine, so it's not that good.  Luckily he can't read!

 Here's Tony's.  I was sticking to KU colors.  It has the crinkly stuff in it!

Here's the Minky Dot backside.

I tried to make a Dinosaur stuffie with tags, but I didn't follow directions well and the ribbons are on the inside.  Whoops!  It might be a later project!

On Wednesday I went in and helped with Kira's class party.  I was in charge of the cup stacking game.  

Sam went to Leah's Party for me.  Leah was sad about her last day of preschool, but she loved all of her presents!

On Thursday was a snow day!  

I stayed up super late working on my newest project.  I finished the one for Scott's mom, but not anyone else.  I also forgot to take pictures.  Oh well!  I'll take some of the next ones.  Cecilia helped me!  She handed me pins.  At one in the morning.  That's why it took so long.  

We had our heater pilot light go out in the early morning (or in the middle of the night, we don't know) twice this week.  Luckily I'm a crafter and have lots of lighters!  Especially since Scott lost my favorite one!  Poor Josh was so cold the first time!  I was worried about my baby, and then our landlord never called us back.  We have called him several times now with no response and it's dangerous to have a heater that has a pilot light that doesn't stay lit.  What if we go out of town and it goes out?  The pipes will all bust!  Or the gas may build up and blow up our house.  Who knows?  Either way I'm not impressed!  Now Josh is sick.  Poor lil' man!

The good news is that I won a rug on Monday (or Tuesday) and I got to pick out one that I liked.  It was hard work!  It was my very first rug that I got to pick out.  Usually I just get to pick some from Bulky Item Pickup, so I'm lucky if I get one I like!  It came in yesterday!  Look at how beautiful it is:

Josh loves it!

On Friday was the make food like crazy!  Plus I had the opportunity to make lil' bracelets for my nieces from my daughters.  They're so sweet to make me do something and then take the credit.  I wouldn't have done it, so it is their idea!  I made a cheesecake dip that is super yummy!  You use the Jello cheesecake mix and add cool whip to it.  Yummy!  Then you have graham crackers (or cinnamon pita chips) to dip into it and fruit toppings (and white chocolate chips).  The kids had a blast with their cousins!

Saturday was our 11th Anniversary!  We cleaned the girls' room and the hallwayMy sisters took most of the kids and Josh, Scott and I went with my sister, parents and missionaries to Zio's (where we went on our first real date)!    Then we dropped Josh off with my sister and went to Wal-Mart to finish off my gift card and buy everything for Christmas dinner!  We got the kids and came home to find more presents at our doorstep!  We already had 3 men from church drop off presents.  Kira's super excited about her giftcard.  Whomever it was is a sweetheart!  They forgot Leah, but we're going to use one of Scott's giftcards that he got from his students to buy something.  Pshew! We may be super poor, but we're very blessed to have people who love us!  

I got to sing in the choir today!  It's been awhile!  

I got a lot done!

I get the chance to be a mom for reals (all day long) for a whole month!  The excitement is contagious, yes?
First thing on Monday, I had to go take a class picture of my daughter's class (for a teacher present) and eat lunch with her.  She was so excited!  She wanted to show off her siblings!  They were pretty thrilled to see her too!

See that happy face?

Then I had to rush Leah to school.  Fun times.  My brakes sound horrible, so I drive as slowly as possible. Afterwards we went to Lowe's to pick paint.  After the kids got to bed I went over to my parents' house.  I spackled and taped off everything I could before the tape ran out.

Tuesday wasn't too bad.  I made cookies for RS, went to RS where we went out caroling.  Then to Danyelle's to help her out with her Believe banner, I knew it was crazy hard, so I couldn't explain it over the phone!  Then I went over to my parents' house and did something there, I can't remember what, maybe cleaning the wall?

Wednesday I cleaned some before Danyelle came and we crafted.  We made:

Two onesies for her future nephew/niece and a birthday shirt for Cecilia (although I might add on to it)!  Poor Danyelle kept expecting a pattern.  I make them up as I go.  I felt bad for her!  My kiddos are so fantastic during Quiet time!  I'm super impressed!  My visiting teachers visited, so I cleaned a ton!   I started painting at my parents' house.  I also got to go grocery shopping!  Hurray for fresh fruits again! 

Thursday Elyse and I went to visit with one of our visiting teachees.  She's one of my visiting teachers, so it's fun to turn the table!  I painted a ton more and we went to get family pictures at Picture People.  I had a Groupon, so it was cheap.  They did such a fantastic job with my sleepy/cranky children!

So I even bought the big fancy thing!  It was $50 and we got it in minutes.  Awesome!  We got home, ate fast, and then went to Church for Cub Scouts/Activity Day Girls.  Phew!  I dropped the kids off, put all of the kids to bed and went to finish painting.  I got it done with plenty of time before my dad showed up!  The living room and Entryway mind you.  

Friday was Leah's "IEP" meeting.  She's so awesome that they can't keep her.  Which is good/bad news.  Leah LOVES Preschool!  Today was Superhero day, so I made her a cape (she picked the colors).

She was one happy Super Leah running around in her "case(cape)!"  The kids all loved visiting Leah's preschool during the meeting!  Cecilia was so excited that she peed on the floor.  They immediately went into action and got it cleaned up in no time!  Wow!  I didn't even get a chance to help!  I got home and started to check Facebook to discover I missed all the horribleness that was the school massacre.  I had teary eyes and Emma asked me what was wrong, so I explained about how a bad man had hurt a lot of children at a school.  She wasn't worried, but she was sad for the families.  I am not sure that I would have let Leah go to school if I had known beforehand.  I immediately started praying that my kids would all get home safely.  I know that sometimes Heavenly Father doesn't answer prayers the way we want Him to, but I got all of my kids back safely!  I cry for those parents who weren't as lucky as I am!  It's very sad that someone would do something to hurt innocent children.  I know that I would also try to protect my students!  I would try to be safe too, since I would like to raise my children as well!  My kiddos happily went with my sisters for their weekly outing.  Scott, Josh and I went out to use gift cards.  I still have a couple bucks on a Target card after shopping and only spent $17 at Old Navy after my coupon and gift certificate (from shopping on Black Friday).  At Old Navy I got seven shirts and two pairs of fleece pants.  Not bad at all!  After putting the kids to bed, I went with Kim to get Christmas presents for my kids at Toys R Us.  Fun times!  She was buying them stuff and I was getting toys with money from my Mamaw (she is awesome and sent my kids $15 each to buy something)!  I love buying stuff for my kids, although I promised I wouldn't buy them anything with my money for Christmas!  I'm making stuff this year, as long as I can actually find time between painting and flooring at my parents' house.  I think I'm going to craft during quiet time.  

Saturday I had the opportunity to watch my niece and nephew too!  I got some cute pictures and started my mom's present!  I think she's going to LOVE it!  She's all about homemade gifts!

Great times at the Westhoffs house!

Most of my kids have "snot coughs."  That's what they call them.  Only Ben, Josh and I went to church.  But they were mostly feeling better by the time I got home, so after soup (it was yummy), we went to my sister's Christmas music night.  It was fantastic!  We got a few refreshments there and more at my parents' house!  Yum!  And my littlest sister is back from BYUI for a few months!  She is so awesome that she agreed to watch my kiddos for the few months she's here, so they can be watched by the same person everyday!  Woohoo!  I'm so glad that she's willing to help out!  Hurray for awesome family and fun times with kiddos!

Awesome giveaway!

And I get four entries for blogging about it!  Since I'm desperately stockpiling ideas and worksheets and such, it sounds pretty awesome to me!  It's at:  http://youmightbeafirstgrader.blogspot.com.  You have to love the name of the blog!

This Semester is over!

Wow!  I'm still in shock that Friday was my last day with my Third graders!  They were so sweet and gave me presents and threw a little party for me!  I am going to miss my class!  I made something for my mentor, that I thought turned out pretty well, so I'm going to do it for my daughter's teacher tomorrow!

They even gave me cute cards that they made while I got kicked out of the class!  Seriously, awesome mentor, awesome kids!  They made my first full-time teach fantastic!  I got an A, so HURRAY!  I also got to observe my class for next Semester.  I'm looking forward to Kindergarten!  It will be lots of fun, in a completely different way!  I'm hoping to still see my Third graders!
I have the fun opportunity to help my parents at their house to change out the floors!  I love this kind of stuff! It was pretty hard work getting the sticky tiles off of the wood.  Ugh!  If I did this everyday, I wouldn't have to worry about losing weight!
My kiddos are doing fantastic!  Kira brought home a Spelling test with 18/18 and Ben had a math sheet where he got everything right!  They are doing a great job of learning through their weakness!  Their hard work is posted on my fridge, because I was pretty excited!  Leah is still in her extended eval at school, but is doing so awesome they say she doesn't need it.  She's going to be so bummed!  She LOVES going to preschool!

 Our Elf Magic Elf Alexandra.  She is a kick to have around!

 Decorating gingerbread pieces (the house didn't work out, so they broke all of the pieces in half)

 My yummy masterpiece

We had a fun Ward Christmas Party-a Night in Bethlehem.  I signed up to make the "shop" signs, so I worked on that.  I wasn't paying attention to how hard it was going to be, so I was surprised that it took a couple of hours.  It turned out a lot like the example they showed me online, so I'm pleased!  I thought the Party turned out very well!  It was a great way to celebrate Christmas' true meaning as we watched the Nativity scene play out and sang Christmas Hymns!
Then today we finally got to make our Gingerbread house, but the roof broke in two, so they broke all of the pieces in two and decorated them to eat.  It worked out just fine!
So, we're all doing well!  Hurray for weeks off!
We also put our tree up!