Merry Christmas!!

How about this?!  I am posting BEFORE the actual day!  We celebrate Santa's Day on Christmas Eve...and celebrate Christ's birth on Christmas Day.  We felt they needed to have their own separate days so we have been celebrating that way since 1998.  Santa comes sometime on Christmas Eve while we are out of the house doing some kind of service.  When we get home, the big man has been to the house and we open all our gifts and enjoy our evening.  Here are some of the photos of all the loot!

Jeans, Uchtdorf book, Learn the guitar book and DVD, and Clockwork Angel book

Socks from Gammy, Minute to Win It, a pillow, and hair pretties from Auntie Jody

Slacks/Jeans/Running shorts, tie made by Auntie Jody, socks from Gammy, and an iPod Nano with  watchband.

An Erector set, Harry Potter Legos, AirHog, a Witch and Wizard book

Nook SimpleTouch, Eeyore, Apple TV, King-size quilt from Melissa

Oahu hiking guide, new fins, a book from Gammy, and Ticket to Ride

Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, a Yeti, a monster sewing kit, socks from Gammy.

Tiger latch hook, AirHog, a tie made by Auntie Jody, and bionicles

Pictionary Man, flower latch hook, a music stand, and socks from Gammy.

A sketch book, yarn and a crochet book, her very own flute, and hair pretties from Auntie Jody

A yarn ball winder, an iPod arm band, headphones, and a book from Gammy

A sewing machine (with lessons from Mom), Photoshop CS5, a Pennsylvania piggy bank from Cody/Jody, and a Skylanders Wii game.

Kids' Christmas Lists

I will be fully cleaning off my desk in the next two weeks, so this entry will change as I find the rest of the lists.  ;)  I'm afraid I will loose these, so I'm breaking from tradition (only posting in chronological order and backdating) and making a real official post today!  Here goes!

10 December 2011
**So, I found the other two kids' Christmas wish lists.  They do not disappoint...hahaha!  Brooklin actually texted me her wish list this week! She came home from school and  Caleb told her that Darwin and I were out Christmas shopping, so she thought she better get something to me while we were out!  What a funny girl!


Brooklin

• Big fluffy pillow
• Juneau shirt
• Jeans/capri/shorts
• Gutair
• CD's
• Gun
• books
• Piano music

Caleb

• Black iPod clasic or iTouch
• New DS (mine isn't working right)
• Pants
• Small R/C hellecopter
• Phone?
• Smallish laptop
• Shirts
• Steel drum
• Lots of duct tape
• "Lego Champion" board game
• A nice chessboard
• Books
• A nook
• Another warrior head
• Lego sets (big ones if you can manage)
• A puzzle book
• New running shorts
• Tan slaks
• Super Mario Galaxy 1+2
• DS Games

London

• iTouch
• Laptop
• Guitar
• Phone
• New book
• Booklight
• Petshops
• DS Game (any)
• CD's
• Yarn
• New crochet book
• Earrings
• Squinkies
• Clothes
• Candy!!!!!

Isaiah

• Wii game
• DS game
• Net Book
• $20.00
• NOOK colers
• 3DS
• 3DS game
• DSi XL
• $10.00
• Zuzu arena
• AR books (books that he can read and take a quiz on for credit at school)
• Byonikols (I think this is Bionicals)
• Legow sets
• Rumaut cuntroll helicopter (remote control helicopter)
• Pokiy Mon
• A phoun / iphoun
• A ipodtuch
• ATV (which when I asked him about he clarified it was a TV, not an ATV)
• An ipad
• Temprpetic bed ajusibol (really?!  he wants a Tempur-Pedic Adjustable bed?!)
• A book

LASIK!

I have worn glasses/contacts for the past 28 years.  Friday I went in and had LASIK surgery!!  I can't believe that I can actually see without any glasses or contacts.  I was pretty nervous going into the surgery.  Darwin tried his best to keep my mind off of it while we were in the waiting room by being silly...

The first thing the doctor did was to dilate my eyes.  Next, he took a pen and drew dots on my eyes!  It was the most painful part of the entire procedure! 

Next they put antiseptic around my eyes to clean them...I look like an owl!

After that we went into the operating room...wait...I took a valuim sometime before this to help with my nerves...

This was the weirdest thing I have ever done!  The procedure lasted only 15 minutes.  First he put this suction cup thing on my eyeball and my vision went completely black.  Then I could hear and feel the pressure of the "buzz saw" as he cut the flap open on my cornea.  He opened the cornea flap and positioned the laser.  At this point, I could see red and green blurry lights...it was pretty freaky!  Then he turned on the laser and it smelled like burning flesh and sounded like electricity crackling!  I had to stay so focused on something else so I didn't jump up off that table!!  I sang "I Love to See the Temple" over and over in my head.  It was really weird because I couldn't remember all the words to the song...only a few of the lines, but I just sang them over and over and was concentrating really hard to remember the words so I wouldn't think about the procedure.  It worked!!

After the laser did it's job, the doctor put my cornea flap back over my eye and put lots of drops in my eye. He used something that looked like a small foam paint brush to make sure all the air bubbles were out from under the flap.  Then he moved over to the other eye and did it all over again.  I had a metal hook type of thing that stretched my eyelids open and out of the way, and the doctor taped my eyelashes to my face so they wouldn't be in the way either.  I came out with several less eyelashes than I started with!

 Done with the surgery!

  In recovery (and on valuim) 

24 hours after surgery!  I only had a hemorrhage in one eye.  The doctor said it would go away soon.

Things will be hazy for a few days/weeks until my eyes have a chance to heal, but it is the most awesome thing to be able to see when I wake up in the morning!!

Home Ethics

At the school open house tonight, Caleb was explaining to me why there were ovens in his leadership classroom. He said, "This used to be a home ethics classroom or something." hehehe! They should have a home ethics class!!

Finding Happiness

‎"Happiness does not depend on what happens outside of you but on what happens inside of you; it is measured by the spirit with which you meet the problems of life." ~Harold B. Lee

Fun at Old Navy

Darwin had 24 hour duty today, so we drove downtown to have lunch with him and then made a stop at Old Navy to get in on the $5 jeans sale.  We of course had to have some fun while we were there... =)

Posing with the creepy mannequins at Old Navy 

A MILEstone

We bought our van brand new in August of 2003.  Today, after living in several places with very few roads, we finally hit 50,000 miles!  hahaha!  It only took us eight years of driving in enclosed/remote areas for this to happen...lol!  When we bought the car, it came with a 7 year/70,000 mile warranty, which ever came first.  So, our warranty ended at the 7 year mark but it still hasn't made it to the 70,000 miles!

First Days of School 2011

C, L, and Iz all started school yesterday!  Since B is a sophomore, she gets one extra day off (the freshmen start today without all the upperclassmen).  I took her to the mall and we had lunch together.  It is L's first day of middle school and C's first day of 8th grade.  Iz is the lonely-only left in elementary this year!

 August 1, 2011

 The fun little restaurant we ate at!

August 2, 2011

Scout Camp

Caleb had a lot of fun at scout camp.  They all camped out at Bellows Beach and had a huge paintball fight on the last day!  I "borrowed" these pictures from the troops facebook page.