CHRISTMAS 2017 = Happy Kids!

We started our morning at the usual time, which is always good for mom and dad.  The kids were all so excited.  Megan came into our room and shouted, "Their are presents under the tree."  It was adorable. 
Tony and I then got up and got things going.  The kids opened their stockings and then we did presents.  I think that they were all very happy with their gifts and had a great time.

I then made us all breakfast and we enjoyed the morning at home eating, opening and playing with toys. 
About lunch time we headed to Margie's house to spend some time with them opening presents and eating lunch.  The kids were spoiled my Lloyd and Margie and loved their gifts.  After hanging out with them for a few hours we gathered our things and went over to my parents house for Christmas dinner with the whole family.

We were the first ones there at my parents (besides Teagan) so we were able to spend some quality time with Teagan and my parents before everyone else got their.  We opened gifts and chatted about upcoming events.  Other families started coming and we got everything ready for dinner. 
We somehow all fit and had a great meal with yummy food.  After dinner we all cleaned up and let the kids play until it was time for the cousin gift exchange.  The kids all liked their gifts and then us siblings exchanged our gifts (always fun).

We then had dessert and hung out a little longer before gathering our children and finally going home for the night.  It was a long and fun day.  We are so lucky to live so close to both sides of our family and to be able to spend quality time with all of them.
It was a great Christmas and a great year.  We are super blessed in many ways and are very thankful to our Heavenly Father for his loving blessings.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Jammies

We started our day by attending sacrament.  It was only an hour long for the holiday.  The kids got to sing a song and they all did good.  Tyler was feeling better from being sick the day before, so I was super happy about that.
After church we went to my parents house and visited with Wendy and her family before going to Tony's parents house for the Kresser party.  It is always so fun chatting with family and letting the kids play with cousins. 
When it was time we headed to our party.  It was another great one.  We had great food and lots of fun.  Lots of family came and it was nice to chat with everyone.
Following tradition, after everyone left we cleaned up the kitchen area and then the kids got to open up their Christmas jammies from grandma and grandpa.  Margie Skyped in Nate and Amy's kids and all the grandkids opened them together.  It is one of my favorite parts of Christmas. 
The kids all then got changed (except Landon, he's too cool).  I love when they all match. After we took pictures we gathered our stuff and took the kids home to bed.  We had a great day and we all looked forward to Christmas morning.

Christmas Eve Church

Christmas Sing Along

The annual Christmas sing-a-long went wonderfully.  It was later in the day this year, so Tony was able to get off early from work and see the kids for the first time.  Margie also joined us for the fun. 
This year Tyler was in the school choir so he got to sing extra songs.  The choir sang first and Tyler did great.  They did four songs and he danced and sang out proudly to all the songs. He also sang very well when it was his grades turn.  Tyler loves to sing and would practice everyday. 

Josh loved to practice his song too.  It was fun to see him get excited about something he doesn't usually get into.  He practiced and was ready for his class's turn.
Something went wrong with Josh's music so they were only able to sing half of their song, so that was super disappointing.  The part that they did sing Josh did very well.  He sang out and did the actions.  It was super cute!

Megan got to participate for the first time this year.  She did really good too.  She looked so cute on the stage.  She got to hold a bell and sang out proudly.  I really love going to the school and seeing my kids perform.  I am such a lucky mama to have such amazing kids and family.

Shopping With the Kids

I took Megan and Josh to Walmart to pick out presents for their sibling gifts.  They loved picking out the presents and hanging out with mom.
Tony took Allie and Tyler to pick out their gifts at Sam's Club.  They also had a good time shopping with dad.  What a fun tradition.

Ginger Bread House Fun

Margie spoils us each year with a ginger bread house kit from Costco.  The kids love making it up and couldn't wait to do it.  I made them wait until a Monday so we could do it for Family Home Evening.  This year I didn't do anything to help the kids.  I just let them do it anyway they wanted.  Tony helped them with the frosting and put it where they wanted it.  We ended up having a girls side of the house and a boys side.  Their goal was to get as many treats as they could on their side of the house  They had a wonderful time.  Josh's favorite part was eating the frosting right out of the bags.  Megan and Allie of course loved eating the candies.  Tyler liked being creative.  It was a fun night for everyone!

End of Indoor Soccer

Awe, the end of yet another soccer season.  Their is another round of indoor soccer available, but I am not signing up the kids.  We have a trip planned in February which would have them missing multiple games, so it's just not worth it to put them in. 
Both Tyler and Josh had a great time playing indoor soccer and we enjoyed watching them.  Tony was so nice to coach Tyler's team when they didn't have one.  Tony does a good job and it's fun to watch him coach.

It looks like Tyler still wants to play baseball in the Spring but Josh wants to stick with soccer.  Getting hit in the face really messed up Josh with baseball.  It's too bad, but it has made him more dedicated to soccer.  I guess that is good.  We love our boys and love watching them play their sports.

Happy Thanksgiving

Another thanksgiving has come and gone.  This year was a Clark year and Julie volunteered her house to host the festivities.
We headed to her house around 11:30. The kids were very excited to get to play with their cousins all day.
We got right to work when we got there. We helped get the tables and chairs ready. I helped set the tables and made them look super nice. The weather was pretty nice so we were able to set up tables outside for the kids to sit at.

After it was all set up we got to hangout and chat while the rest of the food was being finished.  We started a little later then expected but it all turned out great. The food was yummy and their was plenty for everyone.
After eating we helped clean up and put things away. Once it was all cleaned we sat around the family room chatting until it was Thanksgiving Bingo time.
We played multiple rounds until most people got a prize. All who played had a great time.

After Bingo it was time for pie. It was still light out so the kids got to go back outside to eat their pie while we ate at the table inside. The pies were all delicious. After cleaning up pie time we got ready for the lip singing competition.
Averee worked with all the kids and got them all ready for their performances. I told her I'd do a number but then didn't plan anything.  I ended up doing "All the single ladies." It was silly.

After the show we sent the kids down stairs and then us Clark kids (and Betsy) started our fun singing time. We had lots of fun but then ended up singing really loud. It was fun times.
After giving Boyd and Tony headaches we decided it was time to go home. We got our things and our kids and headed home. It was a fun day at the Sutherland's and we were happy to spend the day with family.

Megan's Poor Tongue

Last Wednesday, Megan came home from school and went right for the bowls of candy on the counter.  I had separated out their Halloween candy into different bowls and she wanted to see them.  On her way off the counter she slipped and bit down hard on her tongue.  She started crying hard and tried to walk towards me in the front room (her eyes were closed from crying so hard so she kept bumping into things).  I noticed the blood right away and took her to the sink.  I had Tyler bring me a stool for her to stand on so the blood could go into the sink.  I then checked inside her mouth to see where all the blood was coming from...it was her tongue.  She had bitten down on it and had a huge hole in it.
I told Tyler to run across the street and get Max.  I wanted him to see her tongue and to confirm what I already knew (we were going to the ER).  Max came right away and said yes I did need to go.  He told me he'd stay there with the other kids so that I could take her to the ER.
I called Margie on my way to the hospital to ask her to come to my house and take care of the other kids and to relieve Max.  She, of course, dropped everything and came right away.  She is a saint.
Megan was being very brave on the drive to the ER.  It took me longer to get there then usual, which was super frustrating for me.  We finally got there and parked the car.  I took her in and got us signed in.  There were a lot of people in the waiting room, so that wasn't very good for us.  But they got us signed in and did her vitals pretty fast.  They then had us wait in a certain area where we didn't need to get another form of screening.
I had called Tony after Margie and he was on his way home from work.  He came straight to the ER and was there with us for most of the time.  Megan did so good while we waited to get called back into a room.  I let her play my phone and that seemed to help keep her mind off her bloody mouth.
They finally called us in and we waited for another 10 plus minutes for the doctor to come in.  He did come and he was really nice.  He said that they have a corn rule when it comes to holes in the mouth.  Since we could totally fit a few pieces of corn in her hole, the doctor recommended stitches.
He told us that he would have to give her a shot to put her to sleep and then they would put in the stitches.  She started crying at the word "shot."  She really was so brave through all this.  The nurse got us a room and we were able to start the process.
We got Megan changed into a gown and the nurse got her a warm blanket to get snuggley in her bed.  The nurse then put the monitors on her and showed Megan what all lines on the monitor meant.  She was so sweet to Megan.
Megan was so chill until it was shot time.  She started crying and actually moved while the nurse was doing it so she ended up getting poked twice.  She didn't like the oxygen thing in her nose so they left it out and watched her closely.
She went to sleep fast after the shot.  Her eyes were still open and she still moved around quite a bit while she was under.  The doctor put two tongue depressors sideways in the edge of her mouth to try and keep it open.  She is very strong and kept trying to bite down making it hard for the doctor to put in the stitches.
The doctor did a really good job stitching up her tongue even though she kept moving so much and it was so deep.  He did give her shots of pain meds into her tongue before he started.  The whole thing looked so painful.  I was so proud of her and how well she took everything that was thrown at her this night.
After they were all done they just let her rest.  The nurse watched her pretty close for a while and then just let her slowly wake up.  They said she needed to take a little drink and be able to stand up before she could go home.  It took her until 9:30 that night before she could do that and get discharged.
I stayed until about an hour after the stitches got put in and then I left to go get the kids from Margie's.  I took the kids home and put them to bed.  They were all worried about Megan and it was super sweet of them to ask about her.
Tony picked up some dinner for us on his way home from the hospital and got Megan a Frosty.  She thought she wanted it but really didn't.  She stayed up for a little while but then finally went to bed.  She was super tired and lucky got a good night sleep.
I thought for sure she would sleep in and then want to stay home from school.  I was wrong on both.  She woke up before me and then said she didn't want to stay home and really wanted to go to school.  I gave her some pain meds before school (just in case) and then let her go.
I told her teacher what happened and she said that she would let me know if she had any problems.  I then checked on her at lunch time and she was doing fine and wanted to stay (did I tell you how brave she is?)
Now it's over a week later and she hasn't complained one time.  She says it doesn't hurt and hasn't had any problems eating or drinking.  The tongue seems to be healing well and she is doing awesome.  The stitches are still in and doing their job.  I am so proud of my brave little girl!

Indoor Soccer

Another season of indoor soccer has begun.  Both Josh and Tyler are playing and are having a wonderful time.
Josh scored a goal in his first game and played goalie in his second game.  He loved it and did really good.
Tony is coaching Tyler's team and they are pretty good.  They have had three games so far and have lost them, but played well.  Tyler played goalie once and did pretty good and then had a really awesome assist in tonight's game.
The kids like playing on the rocks outside of the rec center and insisted I take their pictures.  They are pretty cute kids.