Service Disney style

This year Disney World and Disney Land theme is on Service. They are giving anyone who live in the US a chance to get a free Disney theme park ticket for doing service in their area. I first heard about this watching the Disney Christmas Day parade. So a few weeks later I went on the Disney website to really check it out. And sure enough all people ages 6 and up can get a free Disney ticket for doing a service project that is approved by Disney. It is really easy to do. All I did was type in my zip code and pages after pages of service project opportunities popped up. There were about 7 pages filled with service project opportunities just in my area. A lot of them were already filled up or you had to be over a certain age and the others you had to send an email and they would respond back. There were only a few that took kids as young a 6 and since I have a 6 year old only looked at ones that were for ages 6 and up. The first one that caught my eye that I thought all of us would enjoy was Meals on Wheels. This one you had to fill out the form and it would be forwarded to them and if you didn't hear anything back in a week contact them directly. I let it go for just over a week and then emailed the lady directly and she contacted me right away and they had a couple openings for the next 2 Saturdays which I quickly snatch. We had to do 2 days of service with the Meals on Wheels since it didn't take very long and Disney wanted the service to be at least 4 hours. The first Saturday we had an hours worth of training and filling out paper work and then it was on to the delivery. The kids took turns going to the door and knocking on it a yelling out Meals on Wheels. Then we handed them the box and we were on to the next. Since they had had such a big response they shortened the routes so that more people could have a chance at this service project. The following Saturday we got to go straight to the kitchen pick up our food. We asked for the same route as last time and we were off. One person ended up not being at home and they didn't have a cooler out front to stick the meal in so we had to go back to the kitchen and drop that off. The kids had a great time and Hayden 3 weeks later still talks about it in his prayers. I contacted the director and told her to shoot us over an email when the whole Disney service madness ends and we would love to do it on a regular basis. This director has been swamped with over 300 emails for the Disney give a day. I just hope all these people once they do their service and get their free ticket end up looking for more opportunities to serve in their community. I was amazed at how many service opportunities there are just in a small area, pages after pages and that was just the ones registered with Disney I'm sure there are lots more out there.

Two weeks after our service our free tickets were ready to print out. It is funny how things work out because a week later we got an email from a person who sent out a batch of emails to people who had inquired of their Florida vacation houses before. They have 2 houses and the price was right and the times they still had available fit perfectly into our schedule. So we booked one of the houses for 13 days in June. Yeah, I know it is going to be hot. That's why we pack lots of cold water and go first thing in the am and take the afternoon off and swim and head back in the evening some of the nights. We are getting a 10 day pass so so we will be doing all the parks 2 days and 2 parks 3 days. We have been their so many times before that we have things down to a Science. It is going to be exciting to be able to ride more rides that have height restrictions all together since Hayden is now 4 and a lot taller than a year and a half (by the time we go) older since we last went.

I heard they only have a million free tickets to give away and they have been getting amazing responce (At least in our area maybe because we are a short 7 hour drive away. A great long weekend for free.) so if you are in the least interested act today. There are only a few black out days that you can't use your tickets on.

Happy Birthday Brenteen

Wow! I can't believe my oldest child is now a teenager. Where did those last thirteen year go. On January 21, Brenton turned 13. After all the kids were home from school, we let him open his presents. I've noticed that as they get older they get fewer and fewer presents because what they want is pricey.

For the past few months Brenton has been asking for my camera to take pictures with because it has an awesome zoom for such a small camera (10 X zoom). He has had his camera for about 3-4 years now and the zoom is only 3 times zoom so once he started using mine he was hooked. The only problem was that the camera I have (of course an updated version since mine is 2 years old and that updated one is a 12 times zoom)was an awesome price at Sam's Club but still way too much for what we spend on presents. We looked at Target and then Sam's and just couldn't find a cheap camera with an awesome zoom too. So Jon and I decided to buy me the new version of my camera from Sam's club and give him my old one which I love and works awesome. I was a little worried about giving my son a hand me down camera for a present. When he opened it, I told him the whole situation basically this awesome used camera which you love using or a new cheaper less zoom one. He was totally cool with it and loves it.

Brenton picked Peachtree Diner to go to for his birthday dinner. The kids have never been and they all loved it. I loved the fact that the kids meals were adult size portions at a way cheaper price. The kids burgers were huge. Leftovers for meeeee!! And what are diners famous for but their desserts. And boy do they have a selections of cakes, pies, cheesecake and others. I love their chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. The cake is more dense like a fudgey brownie and less cake like. It is the best.

That Saturday, Brenton wanted a friends party. I think this is the second time he has had a friends birthday party. He never really cared to have one before. We had it from 5-8:30 pm. He invited a couple school friends and all the deacons in his class. I think their ended up being 6. He wanted a video game party. Which is probably the easiest party to throw. They stayed down in the office playing the computer, Wii, Rock band. We ordered pizza, opened a bag of chips, some cupcakes, some cans of soda and there you go dinner. It was the easiest birthday party. All the boys had a great time. Oh, he scored on the gift. Everyone gave him cash or Target gift cards. Which added up to $95.00 (just from 6 people). He is saving up for a PS3 which I hope he changes his mind on. We have a Wii and he has a PS2 isn't that enough?

Then on Sunday we had the family birthday party after church. We also celebrated my dad's birthday too since his is 3 days after Brentons. We had plenty of cake Cheri made some bowling cupcakes for my dad and my mom made my dad's all time favorite cake, angel food cake with chocolate frosting. He has this every year.

So, I made Brenton an ice cream cake. It is made with ice cream sandwiches, whip cream, chocolate syrup, and caramel syrup. Supper easy and supper yummy.

Then Brenton and my dad opened presents from the family. Morgan, Taylor, Christa, and I went in on a present for my dad and an early birthday present for my mom. It is a helicopter ride over an area in Atlanta and dessert at a fancy place.

Brenton with his presents, 2 abercrombie shirts, sleeping bag (yeah, no more too small kids star wars sleeping bag to take to camp outs), and 2 i Tunes gift cards (you can never go wrong with that).

Snow day

The kids started back on school from winter break the first Tuesday of January. The teachers always have a workday that Monday I guess to get ready for the new semester. They had been back to school just 3 days when we had a snow day. This snow day wasn't very fun. It was way to cold outside. For the past week, it has been way colder than anything we have ever experienced since living here almost 12 years ago. The highs and lows were in the teens with the wind chill in the single digits. Definitely unusual for our area since our normal highs for this time of year are in the low 50s with the lows in the low 30s. We definitely broke some records. The only reason why we had a snow day is because the roads were very icy and would be for sometime because the weather wasn't going to get above freezing for quit some time. By the late afternoon the only icy spots were where the roads were covered with shade. This snow wasn't good snowball snow it was very icy and wouldn't hold not that there was much snow to make a snowball with anyway maybe our whole walkway would make one snowball. So not the best snow day but the kids didn't complain because it was Friday and there was no school!!

Kennedy and Brenton

A SUNBEAM A SUNBEAM

This is the most recent picture of just Hayden

and I already used this on the aquarium post

and he his not in his church clothes but he is still cute!!

It's official my baby, Hayden is now a Sunbeam in church. How and when did this happen. I can't believe it I guess he really is a big boy now. Luckily for me, about 2 Sundays before he was to move up to Sunbeams he said he didn't want to be in Nursery anymore and wanted to be in with Talmage. For the past 1 1/2 months he has done great. He transitioned better than any of my other kids. I think part of it is there were 2 nurseries and half of his preschool buddies were in the other nursery so now he gets to be with all of them plus his cousin who was in the other nursery. They have a pretty big class of I believe 5 boys and 5 girls and 3 teachers. Unfortunately, I only got to see him in the big Primary room the first Sunday (I was a sub) since I am no longer a teacher. Since I have connections (Christa being the President) she will inform me if he gets crazy and so far no reports. I think having them in the front row helps a great deal they aren't distracted from the older kids so they actually sit there and try and sing the songs and do all the hand motions. It is way cute. Last Sunday, was the first time he got to go up on the stand in Sacrament meeting and sing with the other Primary kids. He sang the chorus but was distracted with the little boy next to him who was bumping into him and then bumping into his sister who was on the other side of him. Luckily for me, he still lets me call him my baby boy.

Change

As of January 1 st I am no longer a Primary teacher at church. I loved being a Primary teacher but after 2 1/2 years am ready for a new change. Of course I can say that now knowing what my new calling is. I am an activity day leader and I love it. There are 3 of us leaders with about 15 girls ages 8-12. We meet twice a month during YM/YW and cub scouts. I love the fact that I can be with Primary age kids and still be able to go to Sunday School and Relief Society. I haven't been to Sunday School in yikes almost 6 years because being in the library before being a Primary teacher we were always busy during Sunday school because lets face it a some people skip it. When I was younger, I never thought much of Sunday School. I always thought of it as way boring. Now that I am back I love it and have come to the conclusion that it is the teachers that make all the difference of it being way boring to being and a great learning experience. We have 2 great teacher and I have enjoyed going so far. I can't wait until August then both my girls will be in activity days.

Happy New Years

New Years day we just hung around the house until dinner time. We went over to the Bugee's for dinner and game playing. Since my dad was watching football all day, he wanted hot dogs for dinner. We brought over our Wii so some of the kids could play on it since the big soft play toys are put up. They did have the toys to play with. They were moved to a corner in the basement. This time Morgan and Taylor were around to play games with us.

New Years Eve

I took absolutely no pictures of our New Year's Eve get together. We partied with the Bugee's and Tady's. We had it over at our house since my parents are moving the big soft play toys out of the basement and moving all of the back bedroom toys out of there to get ready for Cheri and her family to move in the middle of January since Preston has gone back to school and between his 2 classes a week and doing a non paying internship that he needs so many hours for for school money is well pretty slim for them. Luckily, he only has to go to school for a total of a year and only has 6 more months to go. Anyway, Christa bought some big cheese pizza's from Sam's that we doctored up a bit and added our own toppings to. We also had a green salad, fruit (I want to say strawberries but I don't really remember), and IBC root beer (Not so good when your recycling box is not usable because of all the cracks in it so we just had to place the bottles in their box on the grass next to the garbage cans and the box doesn't say IBC root beer in big print but if you drive by real slow and look real hard it does say soft drink on it. Our neighbor had to do a double take.). We also had ice cream sundaes later in the evening. The kids were scattered around the house playing Wii, watching movies, on the computers, and playing with toys. There were only 10 kids so they all played very well together. Morgan and Taylor didn't stay to long. Just long enough to grab a bite to eat and chat for a bit. Then they were off to their own church dances. The adults played board games. Then about a hour before midnight we lit off some fireworks. It was chilly outside so we were all watching from in the garage. By the time that was over we got out the fancy glasses (well cheap fancy looking glasses) and got the non alcoholic sparkling juice ready and watched the count down on TV.
Not too long after all the shouting and drinking everyone left. We threw our kids to bed and I stayed up a little bit longer to wind down a bit. It was fun.

Finally, something cheaper the more kids you have

Today, December 30th, we went to the Tennessee aquarium. It is about 1 1/2 hours away from our house. We haven't been there in years. Since the GA aquarium opened the Tennessee aquarium added a whole other building. The original building focuses on fresh water rivers and lakes from around the world. The other building has salt water things, a butterfly garden, penguins (I think they had penguins before). Why did we go there instead of the GA aquarium which is an hour closer? I can answer that in one word $$$$. We have all been to the GA aquarium within the last year. My parents, Morgan, Taylor, and the Tady's were able to join us as well. As I was on the Tennessee Aquariums website checking out prices to compare a year pass to a daily pass, it was cheaper for our family to get a family year pass than 8 individual day passes. A family pass consists of 2 adults and all your children. So in this rare case we saved money because of our large family. I love places that have family year passes because we almost always make out better than the daily rate. We used the Christmas money from my Grandma Bugee to pay for our pass. If we bought a year pass to the GA Aquarium we would be paying over 3 times the price since you have to buy individual year passes.

Connor

Talmage and Lorin

Hayden Looks like the camera focused more on the fish than the person

Otters boy are these things fast. I just had to keep pointing and shooting and hoping for one in the shot

Love digital for that reason

Little gator or is it crocodile???

Hayden

Payton, Sonoma, Lincoln, Kennedy, Talmage, and Lorin

When we finished the first building we walked across the street to a Mexican restaurant for lunch. It is a good thing we got there a little before noon because we had a large group and service was way slow. I think they were down by about 3 people that day. By the time we left, the tables were all full and they were waiting longer than we were because there were only 2 table filled when we got there. Then we headed over to the new second building.

Hayden He loved the butterfly garden and didn't want to leave

Probably because he got to hold a butterfly that was 1/2 dead sitting on the ground because it could barely fly

Hayden

After the aquarium, we headed for home. It was a great fun day and we will be heading back there I'm sure many more times during the year.

Sick to my stomach

The day after Christmas I went to a few stores to see if they had any good deals. Jon went with me again this year. I love having a babysitter right in my own home. We started out at Target. Target was a bit disappointing again. Halloween and Christmas they only had their candy 30% off. That being said there was tons of candy still on the shelf. I guess it was good so I wouldn't be tempted into buying it. They did have their non candy food 1/2 off so I grabbed some Christmas Oreos. We bought a few stocking stuffer items to throw in the treasure box. Then we headed over to Hallmark and bought a few ornaments and wrapping paper for next year. We also brought home some donuts for the kids for breakfast.

Later that day, I forgot I wanted to go to one more store to look at their ornaments for our 2 small trees that need a little sparkle. As I was driving to the store and was stopped at a traffic light, I looked down at may hands and noticed my diamond was missing from my wedding ring. That is when I felt sick to my stomach. When I got to the store, I looked in the car checked my pockets and nothing. So I said a quick prayer and went into the store and called Jon. I told him I was by the fireplace a lot today folding clothes by the fire and just hanging out keeping warm. Jon immediately gathered all the kids and told them mom lost her diamond in her wedding ring and then he picked up a popcorn kernel from the floor and told them it would be like this size. Just then Payton picked something off the floor and said do you mean this. And there it was my diamond and it was close to the fireplace. Jon immediately called me and when I heard my phone ring I thought no way they couldn't have already found it, but I hope they did. So when I got back into my car I said another quick prayer of thanks. Now I have to take it in a get it fixed. Add that to the list that never ends.

How could I forget

I forgot one last thing from my Christmas post. My Christmas present. I was fully prepared when Jon asked me what I wanted for Christmas. I told him I wanted my blog made into a book. I didn't even know you could do that until a few months ago. When I first started my blog not quite 2 years ago, my plan was to print out each blog entry and put it in a binder so I would have a hard copy. Well I only printed out 2. So I was very excited when I heard about blog books.

I love it. I only did 2008 and when I am done with 2009 (hopefully I will get done with this year already since we are into the first week of February) I want to make that into a book as soon as possible. It was very easy to do. They just import all your blog entries you choose. I checked off all the 2008 ones and some in 2009 since I am always behind in posting. Then they are downloaded in a book pictures and all one post per page/s. The only thing I didn't really care for was that they placed all the pictures on the side of the page and I usually type under each picture who is in it. So I had to tweek it a little. All in all it was very easy and didn't take a lot of time. It wasn't too expensive either. I chose a hard bound book with no dust jacket (Connor would rip that to shreds one of these days) and premium paper which was about $3.00 more. I had I believe just under 100 pages and with shipping it cost around $60.00. Which if I was to print each page out colored pictures and all would have been way more $$ just for the ink and it wouldn't have been on premium paper and stuck in a 3 ring binder. If I was more on the ball and would have ordered a week earlier I would have gotten free shipping. At least I got it before Christmas which is what I was shooting for.