Quote of the Day

Remember how Austin is in love with Infomercials and commercials and thinks of them as good as gold?? He in the past had tried to get me to buy the Aqua Globes, send in my old jewelry for cash, things like that. Well after seeing a Payless commercial, here is what he told me today in the car:

" Mom, if you love shoes, then you should shop BOGO!!"

Meet the John's

A coupla weekends ago we got to go up to Safford and we got everyone togother to take a family picture. Wendy said the last one they ever did was when Travis got home from his mission! Anyway, for those of you who have never met Travis's family, here they are. I will list names going from top left to right.

Wyatt(brother), Misty (sister), Me, Travis, Jayden (wyatt's), Bryant (Misty's), Keaton (wyatt's), Wendy (mom), Jace (dad), Austin, Zoe, and Jaxon (wyatt's).

We are so excited because Wendy and Jace's christmas present to everyone this year is to take the WHOLE fam up to Disneyland for 3 days!!!!!!! It is going to be so much fun!!! We have never been there with any of them and we are really looking forward to it. Thanks Jace and Wendy!!

PLEASE HELP!

Hey you guys. I got an email today from a friend who is trying to raise some money to help a relative pay to fight her newly diagnosed cancer. Below is the letter she sent, and I would like you all to read it and see if you would be interested in helping. She is a Massage Therapist, and will be giving massages for free, and taking donations for her relative in need. 100% of the donations will be given to the family. Please take a moment and read the letter! Get a massage and give to a good cause!

Dear Family & Friends,

I have recently been informed of my visiting teacher/my father’s cousin, being diagnosed with Breast Cancer. She is a mother of two adopted children, and foster children currently numbered at 5. She is a strong woman, faithful in her testimony, and is a wonderful example to me personally. Her husband was laid off, and they have no insurance. They are working on getting insurance through the state.
I stayed up thinking about her situation, and wished that I could do something. Then I thought about my talent for massage therapy. While this thought excited me, I began to have thoughts of doubts and every selfish reason not to pursue it. Nevertheless, here is my idea and I would like to invite you to participate: one, for a good cause, and two, this is a stressful time of year. A little relaxation will not only help us personally, but our whole family.

****January 17th: MASSAGE MARATHON DAY 9am-6pm******

I will be giving FREE massages, donations accepted. 100% will go to my visiting teacher. Simply call me with a convenient time for you, how long of a massage you would like, and show up (39 S Pueblo St Gilbert, 85233).
(i.e. 15, 30, 60, 90 minutes)

Feel free to share this with others. Thank you for taking the time to at least read this. Please know that I won’t harbor any hard feelings if you can’t participate. J I’m just trying to follow through with my “excited feeling”.

God Bless, Merry Christmas, & Happy New Year!!!!!

Alison Larson
480-202-4409
39 S Pueblo St
Gilbert, AZ 85233

Christmas Tag!

Shannon tagged me this year so here goes....

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? ... NEVER gift bags, just Wrapping Paper!! And I totally think Wrapping paper is a reflection of the type of person you are, so I take my paper selection VERY seriously.

2. Real tree or fake?... We put up our tree too early for it to be fake.

3. When do you put up the tree?... October 26.

4. When do you take the tree down?... mid January

5. Do you like eggnog?... LOVE IT

6. Favorite gift received as a child?... All of them. I remember Teddy Ruxbin and Grubby, roller blades. Tons of things.

7. Hardest person to buy for?... Travis. He will never tell you straight up what he wants!

8. Easiest person to buy for?... The Kids.

9. Do you have a nativity scene?... Yes thanks to Karen and Wendy.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards?... MAIL!!! I love sending and RECEIVING cards!

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?... Why I would never!..

12. Favorite Christmas Movie?... You know I can't answer "Favorite" questions. So here are the ones we watch all season.. Christmas Vacation, New Miracle on 34th street, One Magic Christmas, Xmas with the Cranks, Deck the Halls, Home Alone 1 and 2, Elf, all the Santa Claus Movies, Charlie Brown Christmas, Alvin and The Chipmunks Christmas, Polar Express, any of the classic christmas cartoons, any and all of them.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas?... Black Friday

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?... sure, but none of yours :)

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?... Rice Krispie Treat Christmas Wreaths with red hots

16. Lights on the tree?... always clear, never color

17. Favorite Christmas song? ... Again, can't name faves. Too much pressure. But seeing as how I ONLY listen to Christmas Carols from Oct 26 till whenever I can part with them, I love all of them.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? ... stay home

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? ... Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, Blitzen, and Rudolph

20. Angel on the tree top or a star?... red star on one tree, big bow on the other

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? ... Christmas Eve we open one present plus the pj's the elves bring us, the rest on Christmas morn.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? ... That it will eventually end and it flies by!!!!

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? ... I love all my ornaments, but every year we get a personalized family ornament from the mall

24. Favorite food for Christmas dinner? ... Turkey and Honey Baked Ham

25. What do you want for Christmas this year?... Christmas not to end

26. Favorite thing about Christmas? ... EVERYTHING!! The carols, the happiness, the lights, the fact that most of the world is just as excited as you are. I LOVE IT!

K, Ashley, Brenna and Cassie I want to see yours!! You have been TAGGED!!

Visit With Santa

A couple weekends ago the kids got to go see Santa and I totally forgot to blog about it! Austin wrote his letter to Santa ALL BY HIMSELF.... Can you read their letters? They are kind of hard to see... He would like Santa to bring him 4 Superhero Transformers (Spiderman, Bad Spiderman, Wolverine, and IronMan.)

I wrote Zoe's for her... she asked for a Princess Vanity.They had these really cute Christmas Windows the kids could look at while we waited in line....

Zoe wouldn't even humor me with a smile. This is her "I am way to cool for this" face.

K so then it was the kids turn to sit on santa's lap. They handed him their letters, and he read them VERY CAREFULLY. Then Santa talked to them one on one. No idea what he told them though.

And that concludes our Trip to Santa for this year!

Digital Scrapbooking Help Needed

I totally want to start doing Digital Scrapbooking. I used to do actual scrapbooking all the time, but it has been 3 years since I have even touched it again! 3 years! Do you realize what that means?? That means that at least 3 years of both my kids lives haven't been scrapbooked!! TRAGIC, YES???? I feel like the worst mother of all time.

So I have come to the conclusion that Digital Scrapbooking would be a viable solution. It is cleaner, more convenient, and seems to be pretty easy.

But WHERE do I get all the crap to do it with?? Is it all free?? Will I have to buy most of the kits?? How do I print them and where (besides Shabby Princess) ?? And can I only make 8x8 pages, or can I still make 12x12 pages?? If I can make 12x12, then where can I take them to be printed at that size??? Are we talking a photo printing place or at home printing?? Prints on photo paper or real paper??

I obviously have lots of questions. I know of a few of you that have the answers. I really want to do this. Let's call it my New Years Resolution shall we?? To catch up on my kids scrapbooks. So anything ANY of you could tell me to get me started would be wonderful. Thank you!

Thanksgiving at the Dunes!! And BLACK FRIDAY UPDATE!!

This Thanksgiving we celebrated John style. We headed up to the Dunes just past Safford on Wednesday night, then spent Thanksgiving day eating, visiting, eating, riding the 4-wheelers, eating, and did I mention eating?? It was really fun to see everyone again from Travis's side. The kids had an absolute BLAST!

So we woke up on Thanksgiving day and had pancakes and bacon. Someone had bought a kids table at an auction and it came in very handy...

Then for most of the day, all we heard out of our kids was "I want to go on another ride!!!" Kyle and Travis took Austin out with Payten and Kaleb to go teach him how to ride the 4-wheeler himself. He did pretty good until he almost rode full speed into and through the camp. The second picture is of the kids playing Follow the Leader.

Around 1:00 it was declared Turkey Time. They had pitted the Turkeys in the ground the night before, and it was amazing how dang moist and yummy they turned out! Here is Jace and Grady digging them up...

And here are the kids at the Kids Table eating their Thanksgiving Feast. For some reason Zoe is protesting her feast- she is so dramatic.

We had to go home that night because Travis had to work on Friday. But it was all good because that allowed for us to get some Black Friday Christmas shopping done!!! I am going to try my best to give you the play by play of the night, but FYI, I do not have REAL pictures of the events that took place. This was too serious for fun and games, and a camera would totally slow me down.

So, we got into town at 9:00. I dropped Travis off at Toys R Us so he could wait in line to get it while I got the kids to bed at my Mom's house. I got back to the store around 9:45. So we waited until Midnight till they opened. While in line we mapped out the store and made a plan as to where and what we would get first. Good thing our friends Shannon and Jason came otherwise this would have been a very boring night. So they open, we get in, and this is basically what happened....

Somehow we try to quickly get our stuff, and get in line only to find out that IT IS WRAPPED ALL THE WAY AROUND THE STORE. We waited in line for OVER AN HOUR to check out our things!

After that, it was like 2:15 am. There would be no nap as we had planned in our Black Friday Itinerary. So we all went to Denny's to kill some time. We knew we had to be at Walmart by 4 am, so we had an hour and a half to kill.

I probably should have taken this ladies advice to heart....

But I didn't.

So at 3:30 we head off to the local wally world. This was the place I HAD to get what I wanted. I was nervous. And for good reason. At walmart they dont let you even grab what you want until 5 am on the dot. So you just have to HOVER around the items and hope you get it. Well, I was standing next the Leapfrogs (pink) for Zoe on sale for $30. I was there with about 2 other ladies. But by the time 5 rolled around, there were like 40 people there.

AND THERE WERE ONLY 24 LEAPFROGS PEOPLE.

Luckily I had formed an Alliance with 2 of the girls there and we were all looking out for eachother. That is not to say that I didn't have to put some people in their place though. A couple ladies tried to weasle in in front of me. Oh but trust me, they heard from me. They heard me loud and clear....

Anyway, thanks to my alliance I got the pink leapfrog for Zoe. So I went to check on Travis at his station and then Jason and Shannon at their stations. It turned out to be a success! Everyone fulfilled their missions.

After Walmart, it was time for Target. It opened at 6 am, and that is exactly when we showed up. I got in the back of the moving line and BOOKED it for one item that I can't mention. But let me just tell you. Those sorry suckers that waited in that line for probably 3 hours or more totally lost to ME! I got the ONLY ONE of the thing I came for and we were in and out of there in seriously 5 minutes. It was amazing.

So after a night of absolutely NO SLEEP, we went home around 7 and got some shut eye for a couple hours. Poor Travis had to go to work. But he was a trooper and I couldn't have done it without him! But as I lay there trying to go to sleep, this is all I could think about..... and I was so dang tired I wished I hadn't gone! But we really did save A LOT of money. ( I know Kristal had this on her blog, but it was so fitting I had to use it.)

It was sooooo much fun though. I spent the WHOLE night with our friends and with Travis, I felt like we were kids again. Totally fun!

Just a few pics

I know, I know. I need to blog about our thanksgiving and stuff still. I am working on it. In the meantime, here are some pictures of the kids being the cutest dorks EVER!