I am getting this update done a few days later than normal because last week was so insane and it is spilling over into this week.  Seriously, when I thought of having a bunch of kids I forgot that they would all have their little deals that they would want to be at.  Last week we had four festivals, a dance review, plus practices, a band and orchestra concert, plus we had the steer to deal with and I was helping a friend out with  her dog while they went to Disneyland.  This required some extra stops every day to her house.  It all turned out okay, but we were pretty scattered.  We also went and the kids participated in the Creche Festival on Sundee.  I was asked to fill in for Chloee's primary lesson, and I am trying to make sure that everyone is lined out for the Christmas Sacrament Meeting next week.  Ryan and I were in charge of that meeting.  Anyhow...hopefully it will all come together.
     Amid all of the chaos last week, Jamie caught Oak doing some boxing moves in the mirror when no one was looking.  He had his shirt off, and according to Wams, he was really letting someone have it good.  He is always way concerned about building his muscles.  I hope he won whoever he was fighting.  This reminded me of his Dad because Ryan's dreams usually consist of him vs. some formidable foe.  Ryan vs. the Mtn. Lion....Ryan vs. the ninja's to name a few.  It truly must be a guy thing. 
     The Christmas tree has been lovely this week and it smiles really fresh and pine-y.  However, it has become somewhat of a pain because Mo seriously will not leave the ornaments on the tree.  I am quite used to this to a large degree because the kids have never been good to leave the tree alone.  I understand that this is just too much to ask.  I think the difference with Mo has been the ball thing.  When the girls would remove the ornaments, it was usually because they loved decorating the tree.  They would remove all the ornaments and then re-decorate it.  It was a little annoying  because only the bottom half would ever be decorated, but I quit caring about how my tree looked years ago.  Oak never cared really either way about the tree as far as I remember, but Mo is all about taking all of the balls off and chucking them until they smash.  I am smart enough to buy plastic balls, but they do smash and get holes after so much chucking.  Chlo was examining the ornaments this week (what is left of them) and disapproved of one of them by claiming that spiders were smooshed all over it.  Oak scoffed at this idea.  He explained to Chlo that the ornament company is not going to smoosh spiders all over the ornaments that they sell because then no one would want to buy them.  It just isn't good for business was his explanation to Chlo.  I have to agree.  Smooshed up spider ornaments would probably never be a hot item.  I am glad that Oak has good business sense.
     The girls did great in their Christmas concert.  It was Rooshkie's first one and she was a cute little violinist.  Sager's band did not sound half as bad as she had warned me about, and Jams did great.  Sage also sang with the Choir which was a first.  The biggest problem was Moroni's attention span.  Someone from the school always gets up and gives a big long spiel about concert courtesy blah, blah, blah.  I understand that it is rude to get up and leave in the middle of a number, I understand it is rude to get up and leave at all, but I also believe in taking the whole family to these events.  The siblings need to be there to support each other.  Mo is a sibling.  The next time I hear a teacher, or in this case, it was a principal give this lecture I am going to go and hand them the Mo-ster.  It is hard enough to keep Chlo, Oak, and even Jazzerz good, but Mo is impossible.  I would like to see them keep the concert courtesy rules with Mo in tow.  He was bad from the start.  Ryan bought them all popcorn, which I was hoping, would keep him sitting still for awhile.  Mo finished his way too quickly.  He had gone around and demanded some other ladies popcorn who was not too excited to share.  I kept having to pull him away from her first thing.  After that, he just wanted to run and screech around the joint.  When I picked him up he would arch backwards trying to do a back bend to the ground.  I tried telling him to look for the cows/horses/spiders...anything that would stop him and shut him up for a few minutes.  He would look around all wide-eyed and try to find the mysterious animal.  It wasn't long before he figured out that there were no animals or spiders in the whole gym.  The last half was just a wrestling match.  The girls did well though, and I wrestled with squirming Mo as quietly as I could.  Finally Miranda, one of Sager's best friends came and got him, and he sat all nice and tall and still for her.  I just don't get it, but thank you Miranda!
     We also had been checking out other houses to purchase, and we found one that we felt was an awesome buy.  We got to work on putting offers on it.  This led to a bunch of errands and paper work too, but we feel if we get it, it would be a great blessing.  It would mean taking out a loan, though, which doesn't excite us too much.
     The girls had their dance review on Fridee in the Heritage center.  My parents came over for it, and I had the privelege of bringing my baby niece Madelyn with us.  She was a great little pal at the dance review!  They did a great job, and Mo was only restless through the second half.  I was happy with my girls.  They are really enjoying their dance classes.
     On Sunday, I had to get after Jazzerz over and over.  She was rolling around licking unsuspecting people, and she and Chlo got some game going where they would hug and roll around on the bench.  It was loud and raucous.  You would think that Jazzerz would be good, but no...not last week.  I was asked to fill in for Chlo's class at the last minute, but I was concerned about making sure people were ready to sing in the Christmas program next Sundee.  Luckily Jams volunteered to teach Chloee's class.  She did a great job.  We also went to the Creche festival, and Jazzerz was Mary, Oak was a shepherd in moon boots, and Chlo was an angel.  Oak was really clod-hopperish in those moon boots, but hey, he clunked all over the place and made quite a splash.  Jerusha was also an angel with a gal from her class named Danya.  Danya is one of those little angel girls with downs syndrome.  Jerusha is great with her, and Danya is sweet, spirited and fun.   I am the achievement day leader, and I asked Danya to pray for us in our last activity.  She whispered all of her family member's names over and over.  It was sweet.  Anyhow, I instructed Jams to go and get some pictures.  Every time she would try to get a picture of Jerusha, Danya would step in front of Jerusha.  It was funny.  Jerusha loves Danya and takes good care of her.  Anyhow, I always love the spirit at the crèche festival.  Everyone displays their nativities and it is great to walk around and look at all of them.  There are so many different versions of that same beautiful story.  There are always various choirs and orchestra's playing the back ground music too.  The Creche festival is one of my favorite Cedar City traditions.
     I went and accomplished a lot of my Christmas shopping yesterday.  This forced me to pull Wams out of school for the day, but this week is supposed to be pretty busy too, and I had to go try to get some things done.  I had an incredible experience in the temple, and I enjoyed my day shopping.  While I was gone, Chloee made a big ornament soup for the ghost that apparently lives in our home.  I was not aware of this ghost, but I am grateful that Chlo was aware of her, and was trying to see to her needs.  The ornament soup kind of made me frown because she had pulled most of the ornaments off of the tree (again) and she had pulled a whole bunch of fake berries off of the garlands that adorn my tree.  It was quite the mess and so I hope that the ghost, whom Chlo lovingly calls "Cupcake" enjoyed her soup.

     These two pictures are of Mo after his bath today.  He insisted that I put one of Ryan's grease rags on him.  I tried to explain to him that even though the grease rag had been through the wash, there was no real way to wear it.  He just insisted over and over until I tied it around his neck.  This seemed to satisfy him.

The last four pictures are of the crèche festival...the top one is of Oak, Chlo, and Jazz in the live nativity.  The next one is of cute Danya, Danya and  Jerusha are next and the last one is a nativity that someone made out of balloons.