Christmas Eve 2011

 We always have pizza for Christmas Eve.  Homemade pizza.

The table was set :)

  Our cute Christmas dishes!

Marissa did these lovely artsy food blogesque pictures!

 The crust was looking good!

 The toppings were sliced and ready.

Yum. The cheese was grated.

And then.... sorry, we didn't get pics of the pizzas grilling.

Delicious grilled BBQ chicken and pesto with sausage pizza.

It was delicious.

However, it is a load of work. I love it, but I'm thinking it isn't the best choice for Christmas Eve anymore. Especially if I don't have all the presents wrapped.  I think working until the 23rd this year was a little much too.  I must be careful next year to not overplan!! :)  Hopefully I'll be able to enjoy Christmas Eve a little more. lol.

cuties

Although we have ALL loved having Jacquie home this fall, I think Andrea has loved it the most.

These two girls have laughed more than any two sisters in the world. They love watching movies and TV together.  They LOVE taking pictures (mostly of the two of them together.)  They like shopping, stealing sharing their clothes, and trying new things.

It will be extra quiet around here without Jacquie. Our kitchen counters will probably be really dirty. She's the best kitchen cleaner in the world.  Riley and Andrea will have to go back to doing some chores-- since they won't be able to rely on Jacquie doing them because she's sick of waiting for them to do it! (lol)

It's been a great couple of months. We are so, so glad it didn't work out at Disneyworld.

JQ. We. Will. Miss. You.

P.S. no silly. I didn't forget to mention the creeper in the photo. muhahahaha.

worthy tramp stamps

So Jacquie and her friend, Tyler, brought home a bottle of henna tattoo the other night.

They made a lovely bird on her wrist and a sun on his. I can handle henna tattoos because they wash off in 10-14 days.  Okay, so I know some would think this was evil and super bad.  I never had a problem with temporary tattoos when my kids were little either. So, as long as it isn't a permanent tat, I'm okay with it. Judge me as you will...

As for a henna tattoo tramp stamp??

I was a little more worried about that. Not that my girls regularly bend down and show skin. We have lovely camis from Shadeclothing.com that take care of that. Those camis are a staple in our house. I have kept these beautiful girls modestly covered in them. I wear one every day as well. They are awesome.

Anyway, back to the tats.  We settled on appropriate words for their henna tramp stamps.

Perhaps when they accidentally show a little lower back/upper butt... people will know that they are good girls.  ;)

Twins

Have you met my twins?

Triplets

Ever met my triplets??

ENGAGED!

Kevin and Jessica are ENGAGED!

Hooray :)

We are all so excited to have Jessica join our family.

Jessica is from Smithfield, Utah. She is the youngest of 3. She is an art/illustration major at BYU. Kevin and Jessica met last fall at BYU. They are planning a Utah wedding in June.

We can hardly wait :)

Congratulations!!

Guess who??

Can you guess who this is?

Bear Attack!

Some might think Riley got attacked by a bear....

Nope. Just soccer. Ugh! He has a nice slice on his forehead too. We know call him scar.

Tough game. Not for wimps. (Guess I'm out!- lol)

Dinner made the right way!

I'm loving this moment right here. All the Wagdog boys cooking up some good grub!! Hooray!

Playa of the Year

Oh ya baby. That's what I'm talking about.

Playa of the YEAR!!

Dude. This girls rocks.

Even though tennis season is over, the award ceremony was on Monday.  Andrea received the JV Player of the Year.  Awesome.  Totally Awesome.  This girl rocks. She was the only one on her team to win a match against the Stockdale Mustangs.  That team is filled with country club girls who've been playing tennis at the club for the whole lives-- lots of lessons, lots of coaching-- so winning a match against them is worth gold.  Their reputation didn't stop Andrea from playing hard. Her season was amazing.

Congratulations Andrea!

You rock!

Christmastime

The tree is decorated. The college kids are home.

Why oh why do I still have to go to work?? Ugh. Tonight I'm feeling sorry for myself since our schools don't let out for the break until Friday, the 23rd!!

Wish me luck!! (and luck to Riley and Andrea who have finals on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday!)

Our kitties love baby Jesus

This is Figaro last year.  He just loved laying right by baby Jesus.  Perhaps this will give us all a little comfort now-- since we all miss him.  

This afternoon I set up our nativity.  A few hours later I checked to see if the lights were on and I found this!! Noel, our other kitty (Figaro's mom) up near baby Jesus.

How sweet are our kitties...

No wonder we love them so much.

P.S. Please don't die Noel. We want you to stick around here with us.

Christmas Time...

It's that wonderful time of the year.

I've been a little behind, but I FINALLY have gotten my house mostly decorated for the season.  I seem to have a system to my madness:  First the tree, then the mantle, then the family room.

Our family room has a snowman theme.

Then comes my favorite part of the 'unpacking' of Christmas pasts.

Yep. I even had to take a picture of him. The posted picture is Kevin's little snowman.  He made this little guy in kindergarten.  Isn't he SO cute!  I laugh smile a little each year that I unwrap him from his 11 month nap in bubble wrap.  When he is placed on the table, I know that Christmastime has truly arrived!

we live and breathe soccer

It's that time of year again!

we live

we breathe

we soccer

I'm not even kidding!  Riley & Andrea both made the JV soccer teams at school.  It's still preseason-- but that doesn't mean they don't play a lot of soccer.  They just completed a two day tournament.  For me, that meant I watched 4 games on Friday and 5 games on Saturday. (NINE GAMES!!! but who's counting?)

I'm a dutiful mom. I watched every game.

Holy.

That was a lot of soccer.

I'm pretty sure I dreamt soccer last night.

It was a great tournament. Riley's team finally found their confidence and beat a team that had already beat them twice. It was wonderful vengeance. They were SO happy. It built their confidence and they won a few games. More than that, they started playing hard. It was great to see them pull it all together. I am sure next weekend's tournament will be great for them.

Andrea's team hasn't met much opposition yet. They tied one game on Friday-- so they were put in the 'silver' bracket for Saturday. They found success in every match and won the silver bracket.  It was fabulous.  Soccer is a relatively new sport for Andrea, but she is doing great.  The 'real' season begins in January.

Brrrrr. 

And we have get to go to more tournaments this weekend!!

Well played kids. Well played.

P.S.

I promise to take post pictures of Riley next week!

Grouchy Pants

I miss this guy. :(

He will be missed...

Our kitty Figaro has been missing for a couple of days. Unfortunately we found him today. He was Jacquie's kitty and the only son born to Andrea's kitty, Noel.  He loves to lay in the sun on our neighbors patio in the afternoons. He doesn't like our backyard because he isn't a big fan of Ella.  The two of them were like water and oil. They just love to fight.

He must have been sick, because he just simply passed away laying on her patio.  We are sad to have him gone. It just isn't the same walking up to our front door and not hearing him "greet" us in his own special grumpy way.  Even though he was rather grumpy and grouchy old soul, we loved him just the same.  He was an adorable kitty and usually won any neighborhood cat fights.

Rest in peace Figaro. We will miss you. You'll love going back to this POST to see a great picture of Figaro with his mother.  It's a great way to remember him.

Ha!

I couldn't resist sharing this.... :)

It makes me laugh every time!

The fun never stops!!

Recently we treated the kids to a dinner out. They chose I-Hop....

Baby Hazel

Today was Devyn's baby shower! It is always super fun to be there when one of our nieces gets to open her baby quilt. (I make one of these babies for each little great niece or nephew.) This was such a fun quilt to make-- mostly because this blue is my current favorite shade of blue!!

We are thrilled that Devyn loved Hazel's quilt and we loved being able to be there for the wonderful shower. We can't wait to meet you Hazel!!

Baby Hazel

Happy Thanksgiving

mmmm. mmmmm. mmmmm.

gotta love thanksgiving dinner!

we were so lucky to get to have thanksgiving in napa at grandma & grandpa wagner's house. it is the yummiest place to go. everyone pitches in and thankfully aunt susan came through with her orange rolls. those are the best ever!

 i neglected to get any pictures at the adult table...

but here are the kids:

kevin, riley, and andrea

 paige, marissa, and jacquie

 dessert was served at mike & cathy's a little later... 

okay, after naps!

jim loves whip cream ;)

perhaps you noticed kevin's arm brace....  the turkey bowl. need i say more?  a little separated shoulder for him.  poor, poor, kevin. jim came up with this ingenious way to ice it. who knew that a target bag could be so useful, right?

thanksgiving was lovely.

being with family is the best.

i am so grateful for each and everyone of them. even the ones who weren't with us.  

even the people who aren't really family. but feel just like family.

TOSA

A few of you have heard and others are asking, so... I am now called a T.O.S.A. at work. I am officially a Teacher on Special Assignment. Starting last Tuesday I work at the District Office!! This is a temporary position-- so technically I'm a T.T.O.S.A. ;)

My new job will only last a month. I will return to my classroom-- and my awesome 3rd graders just before the Christmas Break.

So, what am I doing??  Well... I recently went to some specialized training. It is called Explicit Direct Instruction-- which basically means great first teaching. It's a lot of 'teacher language' but it is great teaching in a nutshell.  Myself and 2 other teachers are all preparing (like mad!) to organize a presentation that we will present to every teacher in our school district.  In simple terms I will be teaching adults instead of 3rd graders!!  That is no simple task-- sometimes teachers can be a tough crowd. But, hopefully they will listen and try to apply these good teaching practices-- and really a lot of them already do it :)

The perks?? A long lunch every day and I can use the bathroom whenever I want!! (You have no idea how wonderful that privilege is!! I do miss my little kiddos-- but they currently have the best substitute you could ask for, so I know they are in good hands.

Have a great Thanksgiving. I'm so excited to see all my college kids and have some pumpkin pie! I am sure lots of posts are headed this way.

Great book, great movie, great quote!

In August I went to see 'The Help'-- which I loved! I loved the book too! Not very often do I love a movie as much as the book-- but in this case I did!!

This quote is my favorite! It's a beautiful thing that we should all say to ourselves every day :)

Sweet 16

 Riley is 16!!

It's hard to believe he is that old already!  He chose to go out to BJ's Brewhouse for his birthday dinner. He ordered the Brewhouse Double Cheeseburger. Seriously that thing was HUGE.  It was mighty delicious says Riles.  Think he could eat it all??

He even got a free pazookie for his birthday :)

And yes... he ate the WHOLE burger along with all the wedge fries.  I couldn't believe he ate the whole thing. He didn't even struggle.  I couldn't help but look at these pictures and not remember back to the time when I had to beg him to eat an eggo waffle. (If you don't remember.... look back at this POST.)

He ordered his favorite chocolate champagne cake....

And he ate a big slice of it too!!

(along with that free pazookie!)

He got a great BYU keychain...

We hope that driving test goes well :)

Also a new BYU hoodie...

Since he's already outgrown last year's. Can you guess where he wants to go to college?

And what 16 year old boy wouldn't want a fancy new knife?? How great is that?? He got some other cool gifts too....  a fancy plaid shirt, new headphones, new golf glove, new shorts, a rockin' paperweight, some gift cards, and a soon to be treasured book of brotherly advice.  16 is turning out to be pretty good!

We all adore kid number 4 (great rhyme, ya?)  We had a real scare a few years back-- so we are always especially grateful that Riley is with us and incredibly healthy. He is a wonderful boy. He is an amazing student, a great friend, a worthy priesthood holder, and very obedient.

Happy Birthday Riley!

We hope this is a sweet year :)

Hello driving.  Hello dating.

:)