Our week of Christmas in pictures!

DISCLAIMER: Picture overload, and in no particular order...mostly this is for my immediate family to check out, so some pics might be boring to you, but here they are!! :)

Waiting to go open presents! Uncle Rocky, Philip, Mckay and Aunt Kiki
Uncle Rob showing Chase his new toy. I think this is so sweet!
Rocky playing Santa. Holy cow...look at all those presents! Well, there were 13 of us, but STILL!

Carrie, me and Rob. The only sibling shot we got all week. Carrie is 28 weeks pregnant, isn't she adorable???
Just the girls escaped and went shopping (sans kids!) at The Shops at Mission Viejo and got to park in Expectant Mother Parking. She was so excited! lol

Leda and Carter played school in Grandma's preschool SO well together all week. It was really cute.

The boys before they had to say goodbye to a fun week together :(

Spencer received so many fun games. We can't wait to play them!
Leda had a princess Christmas. Here she's wearing her shoes and backpack. She had them both on all Christmas morning.
I made a Savior of the World photo album for my mom and made her cry! hee hee!
Spencer and Carter hanging at our house. I made them quit wrestling for a moment to snap a shot!

Christmas morning. Santa delivers our gifts to grandma/pa's house so they were really less than thrilled to be posing for these pictures. They wanted to hurry and get to Grandmas!
Christmas Eve with my handsome husband. Man, do I love him.
Leda Christmas morning

Our family at the Fashion Island Christmas Tree. A stranger took our picture, which is why my kids all have this "deer in the headlights" look and we had just taken off Chase's hoodie-but his hair makes me laugh! I love it!

The tree at Fashion Island. We had such a fun night doing this as a family. We hit the food court, saw Santa but didn't pay for pictures (we are cheap) and hit the carousel on the way out.

It's been quite the week. To recap (aside from the pictures you saw) first, my brother arrived into town from UVSC, then my sister and her family arrived here from Pleasant Grove, UT. She has two boys (a third on the way) and the cousins have LOVED being together, and reminds me, once again of how much I miss the fact that these cousins don't live close to each other, but don't worry, I won't dwell on that in this post. The next thing we know, we all get sick. The boys (including Aaron) have bad colds, we find out the day before Christmas Eve (thanks to a 2 hour trip to Kids doc) that Leda has two burst ear drums even though her ear tubes had JUST fallen out the week before (how lousy do I feel as a mother to have missed that?), and I was diagnosed with a sinus infection the day after Christmas. Tis the season, I suppose. It was a rough few days, but we were able to squeeze in some fun in between sickness! I felt absolutely lousy on Christmas Day so there wasn't a family picture taken in front of the tree (I already regret that) but oh well, there were enough taken during the week...so here are more than a few for you to enjoy. We hope you had a Merry Christmas!

Our (well, my) new ride!!!

Yep, we did it. It was going to cost way too much to replace my old beasts (wink wink, cousin Em) transmission and it wasn't worth it. The only thing we loved about our old 97 Dodge Grand Caravan was the fact we had no car payment. Aaron and I have been lucky enough to have never had a car payment in our almost 9 years of marriage. Yep, we had a pretty good, long run. But it was time and Aaron found us a sweet deal.

Here is our 2005 Toyota Sienna with 42,000 miles on it and rides like a dream. We basically have bumper to bumper warranty for five years, so I can sleep at night knowing that we should have no car troubles for at least that long. Oh and we had a bluetooth installed since beginning July 1, 2008 in the state of CA, it will be illegal to physically hold your cell phone while driving. The bluetooth is SO cool and it's so fun to use! Oh and babe, I solemnly swear from this day forward to keep my new van clean and uncluttered! ;)

My sweet husband could sense that I was tense while signing all the paperwork (I do our family budget and yes, I was stressed) and leaned over to me and said, "Hey Marce, should we be celebrating this occasion or mourning the fact we have a car payment now?" and it just made me laugh out loud. I'm such a worrier and he's always the optimist. I chose then and there to be GRATEFUL for this opportunity to have a new car, thankful for my husband who provides and I choose to celebrate! So here's my way of celebrating in this picture. YAY we have a new car! YAY it's brand new to us and I'm excited! Whohoooo! Oh, and yes for those who might notice...it is just about the same as my moms...same color and everything. Yep, now we are twinners--the kids are so confused (hee hee). They climb in and are like, "Wait, is this grandmas car or ours?" It's pretty funny.

Savior of the World

Since August, I've been participating in practices for our Stakes production of "Savior of the World" that we presented last week to our Stake and community. It was an incredible experience. We've been practicing so much, and working so hard it was very rewarding to see it all come together and be a success. Thank you to my dear husband who was a single dad to three kids all day-EVERY Saturday (8am-3pm sometimes longer) since August and basically every night these past two weeks. I wasn't a main part or anything (those awesome, talented people worked longer and harder) but I had the chance to be a townsperson and an angel in most of the play and it was so much fun. The music is so powerful and we felt the spirit at every practice and performance.

"Savior of the World" is a 2 hour musical drama about the Saviors birth and his resurrection. This script was carefully reviewed and every single word and music/song had to be approved by the first presidency of our church before it could be produced. The play first started being performed at the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, UT and just this year was allowed to be released to stakes to allow them the opportunity to perform it.
My mom was the Producer and she's worked so hard. I was so proud of her and her efforts. It also allowed me to grow closer to others in my stake. But most of all, I felt I drew closer to my Savior. I am now more than ever, aware of His sacrifice for me. I felt His hand in this play and am so grateful for the sweet experiences that I am not able to even articulate on this blog. This was no small feat! If you click on the link, you can get a better idea of what was involved in putting this production together. A stage was built, sound system was rented, costumes were all hand-sewn, the list goes on and on. I can't say enough about all these people who worked so hard. Anyway, in all my ramblings, I do have pictures to share since many of you have been asking, so here they are! We performed nine times, with a live orchestra (all comprised of people from our stake-we have such great talent!) and they sounded so beautiful. I wish you all could have seen it! And thanks to those who did come to support our efforts. I'm so glad that I had this experience before Christmas. It has definitely reminded me of the true meaning for the season.

For those who are interested, here are more pictures taken by Mandy Bourne's husband. What an amazing photographer and I'm so glad to have them! By looking at a few of these professional pics, you can get more of idea of how the stage and the costumes looked. Pretty incredible, I think! Nah, I'm not biased! lol

LINK 1 to professional pics

LINK 2 to more professional pics

MY PICTURES:

This photo is bittersweet for me to post and write about. My sweet friend Ruth Ellen (far left) had a stroke a few weeks ago. She had practiced faithfully with us since August, and was able to perform for three out of the nine performances before she fell ill. Today I found out that she passed away. I'm so grateful for this opportunity to have met her. She lived in a different ward, and I know if it hadn't been for this production, I wouldn't have met such an incredible, sweet woman. I'm so grateful for my knowledge of where she is now. I'm sure she's happy, reunited with her husband, and I know she loved being a part of this production. She will be missed.

My "mom" and my "daughter" in the play. We had a LOT of fun together! Me and my GIRLS! Kristen, where were you when we were taking this one? I had so much fun with these women.

Oh and last but not least, I have to give shout out to my amazing mother-in-law. I seriously lucked out in the in-law department. I LOVE them and am so blessed! My mother-in-law flew out here all the way from Montana to see this production. She wanted to support me and my mom. Isn't that the sweetest? Thank you Shirley for your visit. I love you!

FHE: Our Gingerbread House!

For Family Home Evening last week, we built a Gingerbread House. Thank you Costco for supplying everything we needed so I didn't have to do anything from scratch. It was fun this year having Leda old enough to help Spencer. The two of them had a ball. Here are a few pics of our night. I think Aaron and I must have said, "Stop eating the candy" about fifty times. Then we looked at each other realizing what we were asking when bowls of candy were in front of them, gave in and just let them have fun and eat away. I saw Aaron steal a few treats too. It's a good thing I don't have much of a sweet tooth or I might have jumped in also--don't worry, I'm not a saint---just a salt freak. If it'd been a guacamole and chip house...it'd been ALL over! ;)

Stupid van!!!

So on my way home from killing time at the mall, the transmission blew on our minivan. I was driving up a hill (on Oso) and all of a sudden I heard the RPMs rev up on my van but nothing was happening as I pushed my foot to the gas pedal. SOO scary when there are crazy california drivers going fast all around you and you can barely make the car move---nevermind three little lives you're responsible for in the backseat! I made my way over to the right hand side of the road (I didn't cry-lol) to call Aaron. Then I placed the call to my mechanic (yes, sadly I have Tim's number memorized) and he walked me through how to get home. I drove home in the bike lanes going no more than 20 MPH. Luckily my van allowed me to go at least that speed--but it took us almost 30 minutes to get home! With a bunch of prayers, we all arrived home safely, I threw the kids in bed for naps and began my phone calls. I've seriously been on the phone for almost 2 hours straight setting up a rental car (so much for a moms "break" today), coordinating towing and talking with Tim. To sum up, thank heavens for AAA and free towing---my van is now at Tim's Auto and will be looked at in the next few days.

Now comes the choice: Do we replace the transmission in a 97 Dodge grand caravan or put that money towards a newer used car? A brand new van is out of the question for the McLendon family budget. That's for dang sure!

Oh, and my mother in law (LOVE her) is coming into town tonight at 6:45---so I'm trying to get a rental before then. The kids were so looking forward to picking up Grandma from the airport and going to dinner, I hope we can still swing it. Too bad this family of five can't fit in Aarons car. DUMB cars! GRRRR!

Meanwhile, I'll be looking for a money tree....or a minivan tree. Let me know if you find one!

On a cute note, Leda could sense I was stressed as I was driving home and said, "What's wrong mommy?" I said, "Oh, mommy's car is broken" and she said, "Oh Mommy, I'm so sorry!" in this sweet little voice you'd had to have been there to hear. Melted my heart for sure...

Explanation behind my poll

So Aaron checked out the blog last night (for the first time since it's creation) and he said, "Man, that background is so boring--it's gonna make people not want to even read it!"

Ouch. A little harsh! ;)

Well, I see nothing wrong whatsoever with green and burnt red---especially for Christmas. So does my background make it so you don't wanna read me? lol

Of course, I do value my husbands opinion...and since he does design web pages for a living, perhaps I should listen to him and change it. And maybe I will, but just to spite him, I thought I'd see what y'all thought ---cause I wanna know whose on my side ;)

Who knew?

Who knew that emptying my pots and pans cupboard could be SO much fun and lead to so many fun things to do? I maintain that the absolute WORST time of the day with kids is between 4-6pm. I'm trying to pull dinner together, my kids are cranky and want snacks because they're hungry, Daddy is usually running late, and I'm trying my best to keep it all together to create dinner and clean up toys before Aaron comes home. This day was particularly difficult because Chase is currently teething, hadn't had much of a nap and was being an absolute bear! So, the kids were running around crazy-hyper, Chase was screaming hysterics at my feet, literally pulling down my jeans wanting to be held and I had HAD it. So the only thing I could think to do (besides running for the hills) was to open my pots and pans cupboard and let them go to town. The kids loved being allowed in a cupboard that is usually off limits and they got very creative!

Here are some fun shots. Chase is MIA in these photos because right as I was grabbing the camera, he slammed his finger between a pot and the lid (poor guy) and was in my arms being consoled while I snapped away:


Spencer said that he was being Uncle Rob in these :) For those that don't know, Rob is my 24 year old brother who, in his spare time, is a drummer in a band up in Utah. He had just been visiting for Thanksgiving and brought home their CD for us all to hear. They sound great! Rob, we think song #3 is the best!


Then in this one, they were pretending to go to sleep. That night Spencer BEGGED me to let him sleep in the cupboard. Uh, no...sorry buddy.