one week till christmas

Juan’s School Program:

He was a Kwaanza Candle with  a speaking part. Actually, if you ask him to recite his part he’ll recite the entire program. Just ask his tias. :) He’s our never ending chatterbox right now.

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Making our goodies:

Oh, the pressure! The Penning’s traditional applesauce bread in our new Bosch. And the McCracken’s traditional peanut butter popcorn.

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Gift of Lights:

Complete with Reindeer Hats and a stop at Winchell’s.

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Shopping is done. Gifts are wrapped. Groceries anxiously sit on the counter. Tonight we begin turkey and pie preparations. Tomorrow night is Christmas Eve Dinner. We are so blessed.

Is it possible that time can slow down a little these next few days. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

two weeks till christmas

Everything is bigger this year.  Imagine? :)

Bigger family. Bigger shopping list. Bigger rolls of wrapping paper.  And it is so fun. Raising seven is just like raising four…just bigger. Right?

The best part of this particular season is continuing to go and do, even with the larger number. There is so much wonder in the little ones. It has been neat to add their joy to the ninos’. Last week we…

Trimmed the tree:

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Enjoyed a Christmas concert at UNLV:

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Viewed the Live Nativity (so glad it’s back):

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Attended Zoe and Miranda’s Christmas Programs:

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LOVING THIS SEASON!!!

thankful thanksgiving

We didn’t think we would have the new children in time for Thanksgiving….so grateful we did.

Thanks for hosting another amazing holiday…Hirschi Family.

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They were perfect little travelers. Seven kids, no movies, and only two stops. I think they were made for our family. :)

funday friday, 10-15-2010

METRO PIZZA

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PUMPKIN PATCH

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Family Date Night was that much more fun because of the company that joined us. We don’t see Tio Rob’s face as much lately because of his MBA program schedule so we were grateful to have a few precious moments of fun with him.

We have yet to carve our $20 pumpkin for fear it will rot before Halloween. I guess I really have learned a thing or two since moving to the desert. Although, I suppose it is finally time to break out the knives and scoopers!

Easter 2010

79227943Easter with the McCrackens…..4 April 2010: Las Vegas, NV. They didn’t have fun at all!7946————————————————————————79037913Easter with the Pennings………28 March 2010: Logan, Utah.
Uncle Brian surprised the kids with an early Easter egg hunt.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5AcSiM9jOY

bombs away

Here’s some awesome sledding video from our trip to Washington. Where it gets really interesting is at about 1:50. Adam’s true colors shine through. I love being married to this guy!!!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yuklsai0Ps8

Adam uploaded all of our sledding videos here.

White Pass

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Tio Brian and I took Danny, Ezzy, and Brooklynn up to White Pass on our Christmas vacation. It was the first time for the whole McFamily. It was Brooky’s 2nd time and about the 10,000th time for Brian :) We had a blast. Danny was a natural – he went with Brian and Brooky on a longer, higher run, while Ezzy and I got lots of practice on the lower slope.

Brian got some pictures also that can be seen on the Hirschi’s blog. Stay tuned for more Christmas adventures!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ebWNCYhmtI
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03CXBcRK_nM

i heart felt too

Felt. Felt. Felt. That is what I am up to these days. I don’t have a cool picture of felt like Jaime, but I did buy 28 yards of it. At half off, I walked out of the store only spending $60. Why felt you ask? We are making felt playhouses for Christmas. See Here

I don’t sew, but my girlfriends do. They are determined to teach me. So far, I have kept myself busy with cutting, stuffing, and pinning the pieces. Jaime and Jena have helped me with the sewing. Adam also sews so we borrowed a machine from a wonderfully generous someone. We are excited to finish the project together for the kids.

My kids are a little too big, and our space is a little too small, to make use of our kitchen table. So I came up with the idea of making panels that will hook onto the kids’ bunkbeds. Two for the girls and two for the boys. My panel themes are: Cupcakery, Grocery Store, Stargate, and Buried Treasure. The ninos are great at imaginative play, and playing together in general. So this is the perfect gift. They can pretend to walk through the stargate–ready to conquer another world one day, and then go shopping pastries and tea at the cupcakery the next. So Cool. I am planning a beauty parlor for Nikki’s birthday in February. So many ideas. So little time. I will definitely post pictures of the finished project.

The best part about this project is that I have been super productive while spending wonderfully abnormal amounts of time with my girlfriends the past few weeks. We could quite possibly never stop crafting for that reason alone.

halloween 2009

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This Halloween was soooooooooo much better than our first. What a difference a year makes! No meltdowns over the food. No confusion over people dressing in strange costumes. The kids knew what I meant when I asked what they would like to be for Halloween. They knew how to say trick-or-treat. They didn’t freak when I took their candy at bedtime. It was AWESOME!!!!

Just for the record, I made both tutus. Ezzy wanted to be a bee and Nikki wanted to be a fairy princess (go figure). I even broke out my scrapbooking glue dots to adhere the antennas to the head band–genius! Thanks, Jena and Jaime, for helping with the tutus and the “bee wing” crisis.

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The boys were good sports to go as superheros. Danny wanted to be Harry Potter, but I refused to pay $40 when all said and done to get everything I would need. Wompy wanted to be a chocolate chip cookie–so that people could eat him. But that didn’t work out so well. He became Superman at the last minute. Actually, the costume fit him much better than it did Danny last year. Oh yeah, I also made Danny’s shirt. Well, I bought a plain red t-shirt and sharpied the design.

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We trick-or-treated at grandma’s. Took pictures with the Demarco’s. Won first place in our church’s chili cook-off!!! And brought home more great candy than any one family needs for the year. Seriously! It was a great Halloween.

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