Coleman hair

So Trent feels that hair is an expression of who you are. (Not that I totally disagree with him but he has taken a more extreme view of this.) Coleman has taken that freedom and created many looks for himself. These past few weeks we have gone from this:(Yes his hair is long enough to put into pony tails...and it only took him about 4 months to grow it that long....)
To this:

I actually didn't get a picture of the finished mohawk...it was a whole lot shorter. To finally (and thankfully) this:
I think I have him convinced of a "cute" boy haircut next. Hopefully I can continue convincing him of that!!! Thank you Ruthie for cutting it the way he wanted!
Today Coleman was doing his homework and I noticed him rubbing his hair (or fuzz) alot. I asked him about it and he said, "oh ya... I rub my head when I am trying to think."

My sweet teenager

So here is a post to my sweet teenager. I know that many parents of teenagers (including myself) don't usually use the words sweet and teenager in the same sentance. But today I will!! Even with this picture of her pants hanging too low!! I know Jayden is still young and we still have a lot of rough years ahead of us. But I am so grateful for the sweet girl she is. Jayden has two very different groups of friends at school. (Who as a side note hate each other.) One group of friends she has know for most of elementary school but don't have the best moral background. The other group of girls she knows from soccer. Yesterday she was invited to go to a surprise party of one of the girls that hangs out with the elementary school group. (Are you following? It's a little confusing.) I texted her about two hours after I dropperd her off asking how things were going. Usually when she is with her friends her reply is Great!!!!. This time her reply was good. I knew something was wrong but didn't push the issue at the time...thinking we would just talk about it when she got home. A few minutes later I got a text saying you need to pick me up soon. I texted back saying: Like when? Jayden texted back saying um....soon. So I hopped in the car and told her I was on my way. I was fully expecting her to be in tears or something when I picked her up. She got in the car and seemed totally fine. We started talking and she told me the reason she wanted to come home was because the people at the party were doing things that she didn't agree with morally. I am so proud of her that instead of staying somewhere that she felt uncomfortable she was strong enough to leave the situation. I love you Jayden!!! I hope you continue to make good choices and listen to the holy ghost that prompts you to do what you know is right.

Completely Mobile

I didn't want to post this with the whole Obama excitement. But we are now completely mobile!! Annabelle is now walking EVERYWHERE!!! She rarely crawls anywhere now. A few days ago she decided to try the stairs. At first she just crawled up one stair and thought she was pretty cool. Within an hour, she had climbed up the entire flight of stairs. Stopping at the top to turn around and smile at her accomplishment! Watch out world!!!

Oh Mr. President

So today being the inauguration of our new president, we along with the rest of the nation were watching the coverage on tv. Chloe was so excited to see Obama. I didn't think a four year old would be so intrigued. Well at lunchtime we went to lunch with my dad. Chloe was telling papa about what she had been watching all morning long. It is sort of confusing for these young ones because we talk about the president of our church (Gordon B. Hinkley was the first prophet Chloe can recall. Thomas S. Monson is still fairly new to her.) and the president of our country. (George W. Bush and as of today Obama.)
Me: Chloe who is the president?
Chloe: George Hinkley.
Me and Papa: Rolling on the floor laughing.....
Me: trying to explain the difference between our prophet and our president......
But the chuckles do not end there. After school we went to one of our favorite places....So cupcake. (So delicious!!!!!) Today they had Obama cupcakes so that is what the kids wanted. At the dinner table the kids were telling Trent about the yummy Obama cupcakes and talking about watching the coverage at school.
Chloe: Guess who our new president is?
Trent: Who?
Chloe: Rock Obama!
Everyone at the table: Hysterically laughing
So apparently...... Obama rocks!!

Funny Coleman

Yesterday while I was getting dinner ready, Coleman was busy "creating stuff". The dude is constantly "making" things out of paper, boxes, etc. In fact I got so sick of him using all the tape that I had Santa bring him some tape in his stocking. He was so excited to see that he got 6 rolls to himself! The sad thing is that three weeks later....2 rolls are already gone! Anyhow, Coleman was busy taping, stapling, writing, and gluing. I was busy making dinner so I didn't really pay close attention to what he was doing. (I was only paying attention to the mess he was making.) I walked into my room a little while later and saw this posted on my door. I am sorry they weren't better pictures, So I will tell you what it said.
In big letters it said:READ THIS!!!
The Moss Family Auction
Family Room (upstairs)
7:00-7:45 pm Jan. 11, 2009
Reminder: If you bring something for the auction you get $1.00 off admission.
Then he had made a little pocket with the tickets inside that said "Tickets here. You can buy your tickets at Coleman's bed $2.00 per adult kids $1.00) Trent's first reaction was so mom and I are supposed to pay you money to buy the toys we already bought you? To which Coleman replied, "Um... I guess." Apparently he hadn't thought of it that way. He was just looking to make a buck. Unfortunately we had to go to bed before the auction started....so I guess this post is to be continued. I will have to say this kid is creative!!

Christmas update

So once again...I am terrible at keeping this thing up to date! It is on my LONG list of new year's resolutions.

Let me start with Christmas festivities. On the Sunday before Christmas we had the McDonald family party. It was fun to see all the cousins, although we missed Jack and Kate. Even Gabe was here and that was the first time the kids had seen him since last time he was here. They had a great time with Jeremy aka "Germ", probably my children's favorite cousin. We had a small gift exchange for the kids and they had a great time opening presents. Thanks to everyone (especially grandma and grandpa) who made it happen. Usually when we get together we each bring something pot luck. This time was no different but I decided to be brave and make red velvet cupcakes from scratch. So I had sent Trent and the older kids out to deliver neighborhood gifts as I made the cupcakes. (Terrible mother....I know.) Well unknowing to me after dumping in an entire bottle of red food coloring, the bottle did not make it into the garbage but landed on the floor instead. Annabelle crawled over to the bottle and started chewing on it. I looked over, saw the lid on it, knew it was empty and decided it wouldn't hurt her to play with it. A few minutes later, I looked over to see Annabelle's face and hands COVERED in red food coloring. Apparently she was somehow able to remove the lid. Here is her after I tried to clean her up.

I know it doesn't look bad here but it was EVERYWHERE!!
My parents are serving an inner city mission and were given charge of a family to watch over and check on frequently. As part of this, they were in charge of this family's sub for santa. Jayden, Kayli, and I were able to help them deliver the presents a few days before Christmas. Man it made the girls grateful for what they have!!! This family had seven people living in a one bedroom ghetto apartment. We think our family has outgrown our tiny house but man I got home and felt like our house was huge! It was good to have a reminder of how much our Heavenly Father has given us. That evening we, along with a few cousins, went to a family home evening group in my parents mission ward. We shared our musical talents (even though we forgot to bring the song that Jayden really wanted to sing.) and it was once again humbling at how much our Heavenly Father has truely blessed us.
On the Tuesday before Christmas we were able to go to Trent's extended family's annual Christmas party. What a treat it was to have Aunt Sherry there as well as cousins and family we only see a few times a year. We had a great time hearing Jenna sing "Latte Boy". Chloe is still singing it today!!
Christmas eve we spent at the Moss house. (aka Trent's parents). The highlight of the evening for the kids was singing karaoke with grandpa's cool eqiupment.

Fortunately for our children, Santa found our house....even after all the whining and arguing. Next year he might not be so nice if they are so naughty! He left some good presents and they were all happy after opening them. After a somewhat relaxing morning we headed back over to Trent's parents house for an evening of Christmas bingo. We also made a quick stop to Trent's grandmothers house. Although she lives only a few blocks from us, it has been WAY too long since we have seen her. I have no real excuse except for that our lives are busy... I figured because she is getting older I better take each of the kids pictures with her...just in case we didn't have another opportunity! (I am not sure why Jayden didn't have one.)

By Christmas night we were all a little familied out. This year the holiday break was extra long. We had a full two weeks of no school. Our original plan was to spend Christmas in San Diego so Trent had scheduled his vacation time for this time as well. With Jake's wedding and everything else we chose to push the San Diego trip to the spring. We were glad to have a few more days of vacation before the next festivities began. New Years eve we didn't want to do a whole lot of anything. We stayed at home playing a few new games. Coleman and Chloe had a great time. Jayden was a little upset that she didn't get to hang out with friends. At about 10 o'clock Kayli called and she came over to almost ring in the new year with us. (She fell asleep at 11:45 and was out cold!)

Next up for us was Jayden turning 13! Can you stand it! We have an offical teenager in our household. (Although she has been throwing teenage attitude for quite awhile now.) This year for her birthday party she decided that she wanted to rent out a hotel room with a bunch of her friends. They had a great time, even with the pesky mom hanging out too! I had a pretty fun time too, even with the lack of sleep and several calls from the front desk telling us to keep it down or get out! After all this, came the let down of going back to school. I was relieved in one way, but really missed the lazy days of winter break.

During the break we took the kids sledding, had lots of cousin sleep overs, went shopping, and slept in every day!! We went down to Temple Square to see the lights, something we haven't done for a few years.

We are so grateful for this time of year. Although it is busy and stressful, we enjoy spending so much time with our family and reflecting on all the many blessings we are given. Here are just a few random Christmas time pictures.

So here is Annabelle eating a candy cane. Apparently after she was finished she thought she might save some for later!!
Jayden being a dork at Grandma and Grandpa Moss' house.

This is one of Annabelle's favorite Christmas presents. She can even slide off on her own when she is done rocking.
Don't ask me why Chloe has such a scary look on her face. She wanted these Pixos so bad!

Chloe is really into posing as of late.....I wonder where she gets it from?