PHOEBE

How cute is she?

December 2008 - Part Deux!
I had a chance to post a couple of pics during the month of December but I didn't get to put up some pics of Christmas Day. This is our first Christmas in our new house and I believe the 7th Christmas spent somewhere different. In other words, we haven't spent Christmas in the same house two years in a row for 7 years. CRaZy! It is amazing that Santa finds us each year. This first picture is of Jantzen and his homemade gift to Kelsey. He made her a couple of journals and some flower pens. You can't see it from this pic, but there was a lot of leftover glue! He had so much fun glueing - I even let him take a crack at the hot glue gun! You can read about our homemade Christmas here:

Here are some pictures of the kids lists to Santa...with the exception of Josh. He didn't know what he wanted this year other than Lego Batman, so he didn't write a list. This is a picture of him with some art projects he did that month. I can't stand having crap - I mean "art" projects that the kids have made at school all over my house. So I let it hang up for a short time and then I take a picture of it and throw it in the recycle bin. Josh hates it, he can't let go of stuff. He keeps everything. The funny thing was when I started calling them in and handing them stacks of papers and putting them in line for a photo, Jantz was asking what I was doing and I downplayed the situation of course to avoid a meltdown from Josh. He casually said with a sad voice, Oh brother Jantz, she is throwing away all our stuff. He got in line and tried to muster a smile. He is getting better at this.....this time he even tried to look like the elf in the picture.

Abby's list to Santa - courtesy of the Toys R Us big book
And Jantzen - who hasn't quite grasped the idea of just asking for two or three things....his was two sided!

This brings us to Christmas morning. I have to put a bench in the hall so they can't go in and see before the other wakes up. This year was kinda funny. My mom and dad were coming over to see them open their presents from Santa this year, I told them to come around 7am. I thought that was about the time that Jantz usually gets up, but I figured they would all be up before that, but I wasn't willing to start any sooner so I figured I would just hold them off until 7 if I had too. Well Josh woke up at 5:45am. We sent him back to bed. Dayt and I set the alarm to get up and have a shower since we knew there wouldn't be another time during the day to get one. We were ready to go at 7am. My parents come. The kids still sleep. And sleep. We sit down and talk with my parents....still sleeping. So we finally decided to wake them up and get this show on the road. I think that morning was for the record books. I don't think that will happen again until they are non-believing teenagers! I put this bench in the hall so that noone gets up and views the goods before the other one...

Here are just a couple of pics....Abby opening her Nintendo DS. I think every kid her age asked for one of these this year.

Josh received a "surprise" gift from Santa because he didn't ask for anything. Santa did a good job - he knows Josh well - he LOVED his surprise - ROCKBAND!
Santa must also be crazy because I don't know how else to explain this shirt finding it's way to our house.

Rufus loves Abby's pink chair. It is HIS spot! He made Josh share the chair while he played a new video game on the Wii.

Abby took a crack at the drums.

Grandpa Donahoe stopped by and brought with him a crowd pleaser - Lagoon Season Passports!! Our family was sooooo excited! Now we can hang with the rest of the neighborhood all summer! Just look at these faces!

Jantz with his Batcave.

Derek and Mandi stayed for a bit to hang out. We were soooo happy they spent a little extra time with us because we don't get to see them very often.
Derek and Dayt played a little Rockband.

Abby and Jantz broke out the moonsand....Jantz has been waiting for this moment for months! He was so into it he wouldn't look up for a picture.

Josh worked for literally hours on his lego set - this is RARE for Josh.

After Derek and Mandi left Dayt decided to take a little snooze

Then Great Grandma Gibson stopped by. I am pretty sure she is thrilled to be here. LOL
I guess Christmas gets a little boring when you have lived through over 90 of them!!

Normally we head out to Great Grandma and Grandpa Jackson's for Christmas dinner but because there was a storm coming in, they had canceled Christmas dinner. We were really sad! I look forward to Grandma J's cheesy potatoes all year! Instead, we through something together that paled in comparison. Then we got out the rockband again. Rufus slept through all the racket on his fav pink chair! Check him out! He wouldn't let Abby have anymore of the chair than that. He would scratch at her or nip at her when she tried to push him off. Silly cat!

Josh showing his skills at singing and playing guitar at the same time - so talented!
Then Dayt and I went out to shovel the snow.
My cute little friend London brought over her son Kenyon's old Power Wheels for Jantz. It was sosoooosooso nice of her! She told me Kenyon doesn't really use it anymore because he got a mini quad for his birthday and she offered it to Jantzen after the whole Power Wheels story. You can read about that here. I think she was just doing a sweet thing....she is VERY sweet and thoughtful. She made Jantzen's day! He had a BALL cruising up and down the streets. Thank you so much London and Kenyon! He put all sorts of stuff in his "trunk" in back and took off all over the place. Look how excited he was....

The storm brought about 6 inches of snow and lots of wind. I thought this picture was a great way to sum up Christmas day 2008. You know how sometimes different images just stay ingrained in your mind? Well this picture will stay in my mind forever I hope. Our first Christmas here was picture perfect. We hope it is the first of many "consecutive" Christmases. I love the way the snow blew up against the house. I loved listening to the wind throughout the afternoon. I thoroughly loved spending time with all the family members that stopped by to make the holiday special. I loved sitting inside my house warm and cozy by the fire as the snow softly fell. I loved listening to happy children talking about all the magical things about Christmas and so many other wonderful memories. It was a perfect white Christmas Day!

Coming soon: Update for January 2009 - I am cruising right along!

Dear SANTA:

So this is what the kids asked Santa for this week:

Josh
Acoustic guitar
Lego Batman for the Wii

Abby
Nintendo DS
Cupcake maker

Jantzen
Moon Sand
Pixos
Power wheels (keep reading...)

Funny story...Jantz has been asking for a power wheels VERY consistently for many weeks now. Dayt and I kept trying to talk him out of it by telling him that Power Wheels are very big and probably MUCH too big to fit in Santa's sleigh. But no mater how often we told him that, he continued to tell everyone that is what he wanted. We have spent the last couple of weeks encouraging him to stay on track with the moonsand and pixos. We figure we have him brainwashed because it has started to work, he has been telling everybody that is what he wants Santa to bring. Success! Ok, fast forward to just a couple of days before Christmas. I tell him that I can't believe we haven't had the chance to go and see Santa yet and that we need to go. He asked me what we would do, (this is the kid who thrives on the play by play of the day) I told him how we would go to the mall, stand in line, sit on Santa's lap, ask for presents, tell Santa he's been good, get a candy cane - you know the whole works! I know with Jantz it has to be very detail oriented and very specific. He says to me. Oh I know just what I will say to Santa. I inquire of course with much interest. He says, I am going to ask him if power wheels can really fit in his sleigh! Drat! I am hoping Santa will come to my rescue!

Christmas Eve
FUN Christmas Eve this year! This year my brilliant sister came up with an idea to do a homemade gift exchange. We drew names and the rest was history. Everyone was thrilled with excitement and anticipation to see what the gift giver had come up with. It was great! Everyone got really creative and the gifts turned out to be awesome! Here are some pics....

This is my dad's feeble attempt to get thrown out of the stake presidency...ha ha ha
Nice KEG dad!

Ty drew out Dayt and made him a microphone stand to play guitar AND sing at the same time when playing Rockband! We ALL love it and have put it to good use! You can't have a cool mic stand like that without guitar hero Aerosmith! We better go get that!

Brady had Jantzen. He took Candyland and recreated all the characters to be people in our family - so clever! The players in the game are not green, yellow, red and blue, they all have pics of Jantz, Josh, Abby and Hailee! All the characters on the board and playing cards have been replaced with all of the members of our entire family - even baby Jake. SOOOOO cute! The kids LOVE LOVE LOVE playing with it. I will have to take some more pictures of the actual game.

Carly had Josh and must have slaved over this awesome Chargers blanket for many hours for Josh. He sleeps with it EVERYNIGHT. In fact, last week he hauled it over to the Erikssons for a sleepover!

This is the jewelry box that Josh made for Hailee. He even used his own money to put some cute earrings, bracelet, and a necklace inside!

This is the pirate mobile that Abby made for baby Jake (I wonder how old he will be before we start just calling him Jake!) He has a pirate room and no mobile above his crib so we thought we could melt the two into one. The little things that hang all have to do with pirates - chest, parrot, hat, sword, ship etc. It turned out really cute - I think Ty looks excited!

Kelsey used all of her old dress up and some of her dancing outfits and accessories to make this cute dress up box for Abby, Abby's friends will have a great time with some of those outfits!

Abby couldn't wait to try a little something on!

Krista also made a magnet board for me for my mudroom. I will have to take a picture when I get it all up on the wall. I know my sister likes to organize but more than that - she LOVES to organize others and I can always use help in that area!

I thought it was so much fun this year to make homemade gifts. I know that my kids as well as Dayt and I really spent a lot of time trying to think of something the other would love, or could really use - and isn't THAT really what christmas should be about. I mean, not necessarily about gift giving, but more about thinking about others and giving of your time more than just running out and buying something on their list? I don't know, I just loved the different feeling everyone had this year. I thought it was the best Christmas Eve we've ever had. Gifts just meant so much more this year! And that's my two cents - I say thumbs up for next year!

ABBles * BaBbLeS

I'm loving feeling like I am able to blog again!! Hopefully soon I can bore everyone with all the "old" pictures I have been dying to post. I absolutely adore these pictures of Abby in October. I just caught her in a cute moment but the pictures turned out so brilliant. She is the sweetest girl! Abby is such an angel. We are so blessed to have her in our family. She is always so willing to help. Tonight she wanted to help me load the dishwasher. Then when I tucked her in tonight she said, "Mom, tomorrow I want to help you do the laundry and help you clean."
HELLO! How lucky am I?

Here is a picture I took last week of her and baby Jake.

Some Jantz moments

I'm borrowing a laptop so I am using this opportunity to upload a couple of photos. Here is a picture with Jantz eating his waffle and toast and his latest obsession - the I-pod. He grabs Josh's "Off-pod" and rocks out. He talks SO LOUD when he is listening - and - it's funny to listen to him sing the lyrics to the songs. He comes up with the weirdest lines when he is singing, some of it doesn't make sense.

This was the other day when it was snowing. He came in dressed like this and asked me if he could go outside and shovel. LOVE the cowboy boots that are 3 sizes too big.

Josh's new comp disc list

Ok, so maybe this isn't cute for some of you - but because this is my journal, I have to write this down because one day I might want to remember it, and exactly how he wrote it.

1- Don't mater (Akon)
2- Chris Brown - Forever
3- Crush (David Archuleta)
4- Sweet Emotion (Aerosmith)
5- Sweet Child (Guns and Roses)
6- Scream! (HSM3)
7- With you (HSM3)
8- Through the Fire and Flames (Dragon Force)
9- Raido Nowere (Bruce Springsteen)
10- Comteirly Num (Pink Floyd)
11- Where the Streets Have No Name (U2)

Obviously, he is influenced by three things - Radio Disney, his father, and Guitar Hero!

Bob who?

All the kids were working on various projects at the table while I was fixing dinner. Out of the blue Jantzen sings/says "I got the working man blues." I say - "what?" He says, "that's what Bob says." I say, "Bob who." He says, "you know Bob." I say, "no, I don't know, Bob who?" He says -"the Bob that says you burned my barn and stole my horse!" Me - totally clueless..."what Bob is that?" He says loudly - "BOB - Bob Dylan!"

During the commuting days from grandma's to school in Layton it was one of the cd's that played in Dayt's car when he wasn't listening to Laura Ingraham. Josh's words exactly! I'm wondering-WHO is Laura Ingraham?? They other cd of choice was Pink Floyd. Josh said he was tired of listening to NPR every morning on the commute from grandma's to school so he didn't mind. It's a good thing that is over with - I wouldn't want to listen to NPR OR Bob Dylan! The only Dylan I can stand is Jakob Dylan - AKA The Wallflowers - and he is a MUCH better singer than his father!

You gotta LOVE Wal-Mart

Ok, at least I can text a picture to my blog. I HAD to share this one! Jantz and I were grocery shopping on Friday at his beloved Wal-Mart. Those of you who know Jantzen know that he LOVES Wal-mart. Don't ask me why...but at least on Friday I loved it too. When we started down this aisle this guy was bent over putting stuff in his cart...the picture would've been MUCH more graphic at that point. And trust me, the landing strip that he had about made me vomit! Truly! By the time I got to him this is what I saw. Only at Wal-mart my friends. Jantz and I laughed for the next 4 aisles. Jantz couldn't stop laughing. He kept grabbing my phone so he could see the picture, then he kept saying I hope we run into that guy with the bum again! Good times! I needed a good belly laugh so for once..thank you Wal-Mart!

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

Hamblin Family Christmas Party

I am borrowing a laptop so I can try and post a couple of christmas pics real quick. Here are a few pics from the Hamblin family Christmas Party at Kent and Cherie's house. Last year Grandma Gibson added a live nativity to the festivities. This year it was definately "lively" considering we had a real life baby Jesus thanks to baby Jake! Grandpa did an awesome job with props, scenery and costume design! Jantz and Hailee played Joseph and Mary. Abby was an angel and Josh was a shepard. There were wise men and even animals! Nice work grandpa! Katie played the piano and we sang some primary christmas songs to add to the ambience.

After dinner and the nativity we had a gift exchange. The kids of course love that. We even got to see some videos of the engagement of the newly engaged couples at the party - super fun! With all my "little" cousins engaged, I am starting to feel old! That seemed like so long ago for me! It will be fun next year to have several new additions to the Hamblin clan...Ashely, Kathleen and Kevin. The party was lots of fun. Thanks to dad for the pictures...I forgot my camera.
I just thought this one of Jake was cute.
Next up for the Hamblin family - 3 weddings!!!

Any Suggestions....My Journal/blog is severely suffering! I am going nuts! I haven't been able to post forever! After the move it took a week or so to hook up the desktop computer. Once we hooked it up we discovered that the power supply had gone bad. One trip and $30 later we (Dayt) installed the new power supply, only to find out that the power supply wasn't the only problem. Apparently our computer is finally on it's last life. It appears that the computer techies think that it may be the motherboard - bad news for me! This computer holds my life. My vinyl lettering, my pictures, my source to the information superhighway, online shopping, pay for school lunch, on and on and on. This computer has my entire life wrapped up in it. The older I have become the more attached/addicted/dependent I have become on my computer. You know what I am talking about. Everyone out there reading this (all 10 of you) are in the same boat - right? Ok, well maybe not. Regardless, I have no blog life anymore. It is really depressing to me. Before the move I was already behind on blogging because of the upcoming move. Now I am even more behind because of the move, and then this computer thing...well now I am really behind. Here's where I need some help. I am hoping that one of the ten of you that are reading might have some knowledge about blogger. Ty - I am counting on you....for some reason I can't get Dayt's laptop to upload photos. So although I am posting from his computer, I can't actually add my photos from it. I can link from other places online (like the above picture). However, I don't want to have to upload all my pictures every week to photobucket etc. I am hoping there is a simple solution, and that maybe it's something super easy to fix, and maybe it's just adjusting a few things here and there, and maybe it is just a simple search on blogger to find out. I just don't have the time...somebody help! I am desperate! Life without blogging is really no way to live!! Oh yeah, and I also tried to upload them from a jumpdrive on another computer and that didn't work either. So maybe it isn't necessarily the computer, but maybe my blogger account......anybody...anybody...Bueller!