I Love You Darth Vader

Jimmy was so cute when I put on the Darth Vader voice changer mask. He came right up to me and gave me big kisses. Silly kid!

Dad on Christmas Morning 2006

Dad got a lot of stuff for Christmas too. He got 2 new ties, 2 new hotwheels, 2 new Star Wars guys, 2 new books, and a pedal for his guitar. He got lots of good stuff this year!

Mom on Christmas 2006

I got quite a few good presents this year too. I got a new CD stereo for my truck. I haven't had one for the past year, and those kids are pretty loud. I'm so glad to have music again! I also got a new necklace, new earrings, and 2 new lip glosses. I love them! Thanks Brent and kids!

Movies for the Hartys

We also got some movies this year. We got Star Wars Episode I, II, and III, Pirates #2, and Superman Returns. We have Harry Potter 1-4 on their way, as well as Barbie Fariytopia. I don't know if they'll make it before we leave on our trip. Too bad. That's why we wanted to get them. Should have ordered it earlier. A few of these were from Aunt Madi and Uncle Joe. Thanks guys!!!!!!

Gameboy from Grandma Ida

I thought that Jacob was going to hurt himself he was so excited. He was just telling me the other day that he wanted to save all of his dollars from now on to buy a GameBoy. Now he doesn't have to. He can use his dollars to buy a new game. The other kids thought it was neat too. Eme has a Dora game that she likes to play, and Tom likes to play a little bit. We used to have a GameBoy, but it was stolen earlier this year. We still had most of the games. We also got them a case to go with the GameBoy and Games.

Presents from Grandma Lyn and Papa Steve

Since we are going to North Carolina this year for Christmas, and it's 14 hours away from us, we decided that Portable DVD Players would be a good thing for us. Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa, we were able to get 3. Then we bought the kids cases and earphone to go with them. Don't they look happy. It was really quite funny. They didn't know what they were. But the forced a fake smile quite well! I think that when we leave tomorrow, those will be one of their favorite presents.

Jimmy on Christmas Morning 2006

Jimmy likes toys, but he wasn't quite sure what to do with all of this Christmas stuff. He didn't really get the concept of unwrapping the presents, but did like them once they came out. He got an interactive stuffed animal that teaches stuff, a zylophone, and a Lightening McQueen toy that is stuffed and makes noise when you punch it. Mostly he liked the candy. He walked around and ate everyone elses candy and had a blast!

Joe on Christmas Morning 2006

Joe got a lot of good presents this year. He got 3 new Thomas the Train trains, a Soft Touch LeapPad, designed for Infants and Toddlers, with a new book, a LeapPad train that teaches letters, animal sounds, numbers, and a few other things, a LeapPad little kid plastic book that teaches counting, a Thomas the Train carrying case, a Mater (from the new movie Cars), and a bunch of Rescue Hereos. He sure liked his presents.

Eme on Christmas Morning 2006

Eme got a lot of neat games this Christmas. She got 3 new My First LeapPad game, a new bigger kid LeapPad system with 2 games, and a whole bunch of My Little Ponies. Thank goodness for 1/2 price day at the thrift store!

Thomas on Christmas Morning 2006

Here's all of Toms loot. He got 3 Avatar toys, a Darth Vadar voice changer, and a Spiderman puzzle.

Jacobs Christmas Morning 2006

Here's Jacob on Christmas Morning. He received a Prince Zuku (Avatar), a Darth Vadar voice changer (50 bucks last season, but only 10 this!!!), and a Spiderman puzzle. He was pretty excited.

Christmas Came Early to the Harty House

The Hartys are going to North Carolina this year for Christmas, and rather than 'confuse' Santa, we arranged for him to come the day before we left. That meant that Christmas was today! Look at all of our loot!

Jim-below

Jimmy is so cute. I guess there a reason for that. If he wasn't so cute, we'd have gotten rid of him months ago!

He walks around the house getting into trouble. Grabbing things off shelves. Climbing onto tables and chairs. Climbing stairs. Eating homework. Breaking dishes. Emptying cabinets and drawers. Eating crayons. Drooling on stuff. Leaving slug like snot trails.

He loves kisses, but I don't like the "extras' that come with the kisses. Snot and teeth are not so cool for a kiss!

Today, I finally decided to do something about the snot problem. He's been green and drippy for a day or two. I grabbed the Snot Sucker (blue bulby thing) and a roll of TP. I laid Jim down on the couch, and grabbed his hands with one of my hands, and put my arm acrossed his neck. OK, don't fread out here. It wasn't in a bad way. I just didn't want him squirming away.

So, I held him down, and sucked the snot. Lots of green nasties came up. Gross. Then came the red nasties. It's so dry out here that we all have little nose bleeds now and again. So after the Christmas Snot, poor thing was pretty upset. Really, he handeled it quite well. He was sleepy, so he laid there and looked pitiful. Poor Jimmy.

The other thing you'll notice from these pics is how beat up the poor little guy is. He got a new goosegg today on top of where he had his stitches. Nice. Poor kid. We don't beat them, we promise!

Caillou

OK, so I"m really bored. Thats not right. I"m really advoiding something. Thats better. I'm sitting here one the couch watching Caillou with the kids. I'ts my most hated Cartoon that I let the kids watch. Anyway, it's the only show on at 1pm that I let the kids watch. So we're kind of stuck with each other. He's the bald kid in the middle. A really whiny 4 year old. Here's a copy of the theme song. We have our own version......

I'm just a kid who's four

Each day I grow some more

I like exploringI'm Caillou.

(I'm just a kid who's 4)

(Each day I'll whine some more)

(I like to whine cause I'm Caillou)

So many things to do

Each day is something new

I'll share them with youI'm Caillou.

(So many things to do)

(I'm such a baby too)

(I'll whine and cry cause I'm Caillou)

My world is turning

Changing each day

With Mommy and Daddy

And finding my way!

(I'm such a whiner)

(Whining each day)

(With Mommy and Daddy)

(Enabling away!)

Growing up is not so tough

Except when I've had enough

But there's lots of fun stuffI'm Caillou.
Caillou, Caillou, I'm Caillou...That's me!

(Growing up is not so tough)

(I need to get kicked in the butt)

(I'm such a whiner I'm Caillou)

(Caillou, Caillou, I"m Caillou)

anyway, thats our verion. hate the show. hate the song. hate everyitng about it. he's a whinny little kid, and his paretns totally baby him. enough about that :) I feel so much better!

A Night In Bethlehem

So I got a new calling. No more primary. I'm now Ward Activities Committee Chairman (not chairperson. they said so when I was set apart:) So this calling came 4 weeks before the Ward xmas party. And this year, they decided that it would be fun to do Christmas in Bethlehem. They'd done it 14 years ago here, but not since. 4 weeks. No problem.

I was told that I had 2 people on my committee. One of them had just gotten called into the Primary presidency, but she wasn't getting released from the committee. She's young. She should be good. The other one has had some family issues, and won't be able to help out this year. She'll be in Texas on the night of the party. OK, so my numbers are few.

Luckily, Mirko, Brother Polyak, the bishopric member over this, used to teach drama at his school. Well, he got a new job this year, and now he doesn't do it. I think that he is trying to fill the void, because he's been very helpful. Thanks Mirko.

So today I made money! 63 bags of 8 coins each. I already had 106 bags of 8 coins each. That should be enough. And if not, share people! I really admire my friend Mindy, who uses almost every waking moment of her day to teach her children. I felt so like her today when I let Eme, Joe, and even Jim help with the coins. I rolled out the dough, and I left them use the round cutter to punch out the coins. I didn't even get upset that they didn't make them perfectly round, or weren't making the most of the rolled dough. I was very proud of myself!

I have about 10 feet of cardboard city laying on the big kids floor in their room. How nice of me. I didn't like it in the living room. Jim-bo was attacking it, so we moved it into the other room. Unfortunately, now the big kids room is trashed. They are trying their best to step around it (or throw stuff around it), but its not really working. I need to take it to the church and finish building it. I almost did yesterday, but then had a brilliant thought. If I build it here, how would I get it to the church? That was close!

I still need to buy all the food for Saturday. I think that I'll go out on Thursday. Everything should keep, right? Bagels, cream cheese, grapes, apples, bananas. Nothing there going bad. So Thursday. Wait. Thats' tomorrow. Where did all of my time go!

Keep your fingers crossed for me that this turns out ok. I just keep telling myself. It will be dark. Everything looks better in the dark!

My Birthday

Here's my Birthday poinsetta. I sure do love plants. I kill them on accident regularly, but I do love them. I also got 3 nice candles from the kids, and a watch from Brent. We had my party on Monday night, because Tuesday (today) Brent had to work. Happy Birthday to Me! I'm now 31!

Jacob

Here's a real nice picture of Jacob. This was taken on Sunday the 1oth of December. Our kids are so awesome. We leave for church at 11:50, have choir at 12:15, church at 1:00, and then had a committee meeting for cub scouts across town at 4:00. We were about 20 minutes late (church gets out at 4:00). We got home at 5:30. So thats 5 1/2 hours of sitting quitely on Sunday. They really did very well. Thanks so much kids!