Week of insanity...

I made it through, but man, it was quite a doozy of a week. Besides all the craziness of getting everything ready for Christmas and my inlaws to come Monday, most of this week was taken up by activities at school. Monday evening we started out at the 3rd and 4th grade music concert. Brandon is on the 3rd grade chimes team and they played 2 songs and then all of the 3rd graders sang a couple songs. I love the chimes! They are so neat and their sound is so sweet and pure. I'm very proud of Brandon for being in this group and doing so well musically. He loves it!


Tuesday morning I trudged back up to the school with all the kiddos to see the 2nd grade holiday sing. We sat and waiting in the gym for 1/2 hour to hear 5 minutes of songs, but it's so worth it to hear the kids and see how happy they are that you are there rooting them on. I am grateful that I can be at these events! After this I ran home to prepare a dessert for a visiting teaching luncheon my companion and I did for our sisters we visit teach. I dropped Megan and her friend off at school and headed over to the luncheon. It was soooo fun! It was a perfectly beautiful and warm day so the little kiddos all played outside while we ate and visited. The dessert I made is called Christmas Delight. It's really yummy and includes pistachio pudding so it's green. I took the leftovers home and my family (except my hubby who will not touch anything pistachio...) had some after dinner that night. Well, it was so cute and funny because when Brandon first saw it he said, "Is that Shrek pudding?" LOL! I laughed so hard. I will post the recipe on the sidebar. From now on in this house it will be known as Shrek pudding! Hee, hee.


Anyway, left the luncheo and had to run a couple errands before Ben came home early so we could pick up Brandon at school and go to his ADHD evaluation. Got hime just in time and got to the doctor. A friend picked up the girls and took them to girl scouts, which was at the same time as the evalutaion. We took Carli with us. By the end we were all exhausted by this day. The appointment went well and I'm so blessed to have such good friends to help out on days when life is just crazy with 4 kids needing to be in different places!


Wednesday was somewhat calm. I had to make cookies to take to Brandon's Excel party after school. That was fun, but once again, had all the kiddos with me so I was mostly chasing the girls around during the party. That night we had to make the Polar Express train car for Kate's Polar Express Day Thursday. I'll post pics of all this stuff eventually, but right now I'm just trying to right it all down! :)


Thursday morning brought us all to the school again bright and early for the Polar Express parade. The kids were all so cute in the pjs and box train cars. Man, some people are so creative! I, however, refuse to do most of the work because I believe the kids should do most of the work. It's not a contest between parents for whose train is the best. K, off the soap box... The rest of the day was spent making sure everything was ready for the kids' Holiday parties that were all the next day. Cookies, crafts, games, book exchanges, teacher gifts, etc. Then that evening we had a young woman from our ward come practice our song that we will be singing on Sunday at church. Ben and I have not sung together in some time so we are both very excited! Hopefully we can have someone sitting with the kiddos so we don't have a repeat of last time one of us was up at the pulpit...don't want to rehash all that.


As soon as we were done rehearsing Ben left to pick up a mattress set we found on craigslist. We didn't want Ben's parents to have to sleep on the sofa bed for a whole week so we found a bed to put in Brandon's room and they can have a bedroom to be in as well and not be in the middle of the family room. The evening was successful and we ended up with a nice queen mattress set for $50! Yeehaw!


Friday...Up bright and early once again to get all the kids ready to go as well as all the supplies for the parties. Dropped the two older ones at school, ran back home to finish getting ready, drop Carli off at a friend's house for the morning, and get back to the school by 9. We made it, barely. The parties were a lot of fun. I have some of the most hilarious pictures from Megan's kindergarten party. She has the funnest teacher. I like her so much. The morning was completely insane running from one party to the next (I was helping with all 3--no, next year I will not be doing that) and we finally got home and just completely relaxed. The day was so beautiful and warm, too!!! We played outside for a couple house and even got the garage cleaned up a bit (it needs lots more help, but it looks a ton better already). Pulled a late-nighter last night finishing a project for a gift. I'm so glad it's finished!


Today was busy running around, dealing with a "think it might be broken" leg (turned out to just be a contusion), getting last minute shopping done, and cleaning the house, which because of this crazy week, has been completely neglected and we have company coming Monday morning (of course).


So, sorry for the long boring post, but it has been one crazy week! I wish all of you a very happy and merry Christmas holiday. Enjoy the season. Enjoy the music. Enjoy the food. Enjoy the family and friends. Enjoy the gifts given and received. Enjoy the wonderful spirit, which is from our Saviour, Jesus Christ.