A Very Merry Christmas

A very Merry Christmas indeed. The kids were, of course, restless and decided to rummage thru their stockings at 2 am. After working a 13 hour shift on Christmas Eve, that didn't work out too well for me so I yelled for them to go back to bed. I heard them again at 4 am and then 6 am. At this point I decided there was no winning this battle so it was time to get up. It was a Red Bull moment for sure. Once we finished opening presents we took a little rest then went over to Nana & Papa's house for breakfast and more presents.


MacKenna was given many presents which were all iPod related but no iPod. I waited as long I possible to keep up the torture. This is her opening her Green Apple iPod nano.

Here is Garrett with his flag football set. Garrett got a Tony Hawk skateboard from Santa and a new set of golf clubs.

Well, apparently Sarah really liked the iPod Santa left for her. It's a pink shuffle. Sarah also got pretend food and dishes and a flower garden tent.

Christopher got his steel blue iPod shuffle from Santa. He was super happy and sang (loudly) around the house all morning. He also got a shake n go race track and a remote control quad.

Grandma Carol & Robert got them a new trampoline with a net. Great Grandma & Grandpa gave the kids each $50 to spend any way they choose. We are going to Target tomorrow! :)
We also got a web cam and gift cards from our Aunts and Uncles! Yay, more shopping.

Nana & Papa bought the kids a Wii, clothes, legos, dress up clothes, barbie stuff, shoes, snow stuff, etc... By this time a Red Bull is not doing the trick so I really need a nap.

Oh and just so you all know (because I know you're worried)...I got the one thing I wanted most and that's my super cool winter hat with the tassles, thanks Kenna. I have NOT taken it off but I will to take my shower.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I wish you all the best for 2009. May you find success, good health and the richest blessings awaiting you.

Merry Christmas to all...

Drowning!?

Am I the only one? I want to be enjoying this wonderful Christmas season but I feel like I am drowning. I have so many fantastic intentions to bake and be all Holly Jolly about life but I just can't seem to find the time...or the right spirit. Me, of all people...I can't find the Christmas spirit. I don't even want anything for Christmas...seriously...every year I can make a list a mile long of the things I want. Ok, I did ask for one of those winter hats that cover your ears and have the little tassles that hang down. But, I didn't get the real tree I wanted. I haven't sat down to watch a Christmas movie with the kids or even read them a Christmas story. I barely have time to cook, I can't keep my house clean, Christopher went in for oral surgery on Wednesday...which they only got half of his mouth done because the Anesthesiologist stopped the surgery because Christopher started having fluid build up in his lungs. We found out today that our insurance is cancelled on December 31st so we have NO idea when Christopher will have the second half of the surgery done! I just barely got my Christmas cards out, totally forget about gifts for the kids' teachers. I haven't had time to go caroling. Forgot to mail one of the envelopes for the big kids, now it won't be there for Christmas. I swear I feel a perminent crease in my forehead. ARGHHHH...What's my problem? I totally feel like I failed this holiday season. Am I the only one who can't seem to pull my head above water? Helllpppp! I'm drowning.

Grandma's Visit to Montana

Grandma arrived on Friday, December 5th and we have been loving every moment of her being here. We have had lots of laughs and shopping. The kids even got to open one Christmas gift from her while she was here. It's been a much needed visit and we hope there are plenty more to come. We love you Grandma, now let's go shopping!

Kids Christmas Chaos

This was a great time! I allowed approximately 20 9, 10 & 11 year olds to have a Christmas party at my little home. We had pizza, soda, ice cream punch, chips, cookies, a vegi tray and a chocolate fondue fountain. I was never so happy to see 8:00 come around and the first parent pull up!!! I'm just glad it was a success and that the kids had fun!

**Black Friday**

Happy Turkey Day

A Martha Stewart dinner table

Trusting Krista with a carving knife.....well, with any knife! It wasn't easy to cut the turkey with my Dad standing over me telling me I'm doing it wrong.

Bart and Garrett playing WII golf

Peace out my Brother!

The kids posing for a picture and trying to keep warm while doing so

I sure hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving! I know we did. We were thankful for Kelsey being here and the joy of spending the day with our family.

Pre-Thanksgiving Poker Game

Man did we have fun. This is our pre-Thanksgiving poker game. Loser went to Dairy Queen. We missed Rick and Jenny tonight.


This is Kelsey driving Papa crazy! Next time we won't sit them next to each other.



This is me on the other side of Papa...driving him crazy. He didn't stand a chance! Oh, and he didn't like losing to his Daughter either. Yes, that's right.....I took him down. I won the whole game.

This is Kelsey's handy work on the camera. Yes, it's a great shot.

This is Katie, I work with her on the ambulance. She doesn't always dress like Christmas, I made her come over straight from work to eat dinner and play poker. I think we may have scared her. It was definitely birth control for her.

Don't try this at home!

Look what I learned last week! Not really, this is my partner's handy work. However, this is a very scary picture.....would you like to be "Ted the head"? I think not. This is what we use to practice our skills and learn new ones. So last week, I learned a new airway skill with a Combitube. I learned how to shove a big plastic tube down your throat to help you breathe better. I had two fabulous partners this day teaching me how to do this and giving me great advice. **Note to friends and family of Krista** Please don't make me do this to you.. :) LOL

So in the fine spirit of Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for my job.....knowing how many people don't have one.

Flu Shots!

MacKenna was super brave and didn't even move muscle.


Garrett promised to be brave.....that didn't work out so well.


Does this even require an explanation?

How sad and pitiful is this face?

Oh that blessed time of year when you take your kids in for a well check then spring it on them that the flu shots are coming! Mean Mommy! Anyway, my kids are healthy and happy and emotionally balanced and I'm still mentally unstable.....Happy day.

Where oh where have the people gone?

Where oh where have the people gone, where oh where can they be? That's me singing to you! It's better that way because if you heard it for real, you'd probably cry. Anyway, I'm just wondering where all of my friends and family have gone. Today is Thursday and it has been an absolutely wonderful day. I woke up, got ready, got the kids ready for school, dropped them off and headed out to Missoula with Deidre for a fantabulous day of spending money that I don't have. We began with the uniform store for new pants.....well, that's because I am tired of hearing from my co-workers how short my pants were....SNORE.....then off to Target, Best Buy for a new computer-hooray and then off to Wally World. Oh and we did stop by the Hostess outlet for some bread and sugary treats. I swear I was in a total sugar coma by the time we hit Lolo. Then I picked up the kids from school, unloaded the fully packed suburban and made a super yummy dinner and then headed off to a blogging class. This evening, I have colored my hair-didn't exactly turn out the color I had planned :( and now I am totally neglecting putting my kids to bed because I want to blog and play with Picasa. What a great Mommy I am!!! All in all, it's been an alright day. So I guess I better be responsible and take care of the kids then come back in here to feed my blogging addiction.

An Anal Moment

Ok, so everyone has bloopers at work or at home. Some people keep their bloopers hidden and some people find quiet humor in them and chuckle to themselves. Now, me.....I laughed my butt off and PUN INTENDED. I was rushing to get a set of vitals from an older man who was pretty darn sick. I grabbed my vitals cart, went to the patients room and began my initial assessment but realized I didn't have my thermometer. I went to a drawer where I knew there were extra thermometers and quickly took one of the older ones. As I was taking the patient's temperature, the nurse walked in at just the right time and grabbed the thermometer out of my hand and quietly said, "Notice the red top on this thermometer?" I really hadn't noticed the top of the thermometer because it was an older one and I didn't know what the older ones looked like because mine is nice, new and white and is the only one I had used since I had been there. Well, come to find out.....the red tipped thermometers are for anal temperatures and NOT oral!!!!! So there it is, my work blooper exposed for all to get a little laugh at. I stuck a probe in an old guy's mouth that was probably in another old guy's butt. YUCK.

Girls Temple Day

So, we made plans to have a girl's temple day in Rexburg, Idaho and here we are. I was up at 4 am and ready to go by 445 when Deidre said she wanted to be gone. We were at Tara's house in plenty of time then off to pick up Jen. Jen is NOT a morning person so kudos to Jen for being out the door in a timely manner. We stopped at the Lone Pine Conoco to get some drinks and snacks when Jen realized that she did not have her purse with her.....No money, license, recommend, etc...We turned around and trucked it back up Skalkaho to get her purse. We were 45 minutes behind schedule but it's all good. We were all sharing our stories about how, in our minds, we tried to justify why each of us shouldn't go. It's so easy to make excuses. I'm thankful we didn't listen to that inner demon and we all went.



And speaking of "went" this is a great picture of us putting up a makeshift bathroom so we could go. I got the best picture of Tara peeing and told her that it would be on my blog and then I had second thoughts when it came time to put the pics on here. Love her too much to post that picture. It will come in handy around Christmas, I'm sure.

This is Deidre taking pictures of us flashing our backsides to freeway traffic...but we had to go and there was no other place to stop.

This is Jen and Tara, they were putting their make up on in the car. We had plenty of laughter and silly moments on this road trip.

This is us outside the temple. We had a great time. It was a super experience with some great friends.

Halloween is gonna stink this year :(

Sunday Dinner at Nana & Papa's

Sunday dinner at Nana & Papa's house was delicious. We had a yummy chili soup and afterwards made turkey cupcakes. It was a great night with Nana & Papa!

Another Playful Picture

This is the kids in SLC during the summer
This is another setting I played with on Picasa

Cute Boys

This is in Nana & Papa's backyard.....again using Picasa settings and coloring

What do you think?

Alrighty.....I am trying to play with the settings on my camera. I am also discovering the art of Picasa (thanks my Jenny love) and so what do you think of this picture of the boys? I will post a few more and you have to tell me what you think of these totally raw, first time photos that I have taken. I want a super nice camera for Christmas because I think I have found a new love! Oh, but not to replace my Jenny love. LOL :)

General Conference

Today we started out our General Conference morning, honoring Grandma Passey and made conference cakes with homemade buttermilk syrup. So here we are enjoying general conference. The kids had little quizes to complete, word searches, matching games and the super fun.....conference bingo! That one is my favorite.....I get all intense, constantly shooshing the kids so that I can hear what's being said and I listen for the bingo words.

After the first session of conference we made indian tacos with chili, cheese, lettuce and sour cream. I made banana chocolate chip bread from scratch.....yah me! It was a great day.

My Friend Jen.....

Ok, this is a totally random picture but I had to post it anyway. This is a bunch of us at a digital photography class. I learned some really cool new camera tricks. I've been wanting to ditch my digital camera but now that i've had some light shed on my picture taking abilities.....I'm much more excited to use my camera and if you know me.....I love to take pictures. I always have my camera in my purse. Now I just want a bigger, fancier one.....SANTA!!!

What to do When There's Nothing to do

This is the ER.....no one but the nurses.....so.....

This is Kris and Chris making good use of their time....one defacing the white board and the other quietly observing.

This is me and Shirley....playing dress up??? Sorry about the blury picture.....retarded photographer!

This is Cory.....now this is truly a working picture. We are emptying out one of the ambulances to take it out of service. These are just a few of the supplies we had to put back into stock.