Santa Came!

Well, Christmas has come and gone, and the kids loved every second. As usual we spent Christmas Eve with Adriana's family. We first went over to her grandma's for the traditional Christmas Eve get together. Afterwards Adriana's mom and sister came over and we opened up presents. On Christmas day the kids were kind enough to let us sleep in, but not too long. They tore through their presents, but were most excited about their bikes. We usually go over to my parents' house afterwards, but this year we invited my family over for Christmas dinner. We opened up more presents before dinner, and by the time we were done with our 3 sessions of unwrapping we had 3 big trash bags full of stuff and a garage packed with cardboard boxes. What a day!

One of Christian's favorites....a Venom mask with web shooter. He used up the entire can of "spider web" that day. The entire house was covered in it!

Here's Micaela showing off her new ride. Nobody gets more excited about Christmas than her....she's just as excited about her presents as others opening theirs, and she wants to help you open them!

Alina got a brand new baby doll.....one of many she actually got this Christmas. She loves babies and takes as many as she can fit in her arms whenever we go somewhere.

Rylee just enjoying her first Christmas. With that smile she'll be getting whatever she wants!

Christmas 2007

Well, another year is coming to an end. This has been a good year, full of ups and downs, but one event stands above the rest. In April we welcomed our 4th child into our little clan. Rylee Chanel has been a the sweetest baby we could've asked for. She has 2 older sisters and an older brother that love her and want to help her with everything. She looks just like her sisters but with dark hair. Christian turned 5 in October. He has loved going to preschool with his sister, and loves being in primary. His favorite thing right now is any transformer he can convince his grandma to buy him. Micaela will be 4 next March, and loves going to school with her older brother. Hard to believe this next Sunday will be her last in nursery, but she is Ms. Sunshine and makes friends with everyone she meets (scary for us as parents!) Alina is.... well, Alina. She is Ms. Mayhem, and chaos seems to follow her where she goes. But she makes us laugh with everything she does, even if it takes a while to stop being mad. And nobody gives hugs like Alina! Adriana and I just celebrated our 6th anniversary and we can't believe how fast time has gone by. Adriana is working with students at risk of dropping out of high school at Excelsior Education Center, and being personal progress leader in young women also keeps her busy. I will be testing for my insurance license to become an agent in January, and am in the Elders Quorum presidency. We're expecting big changes soon with us switching roles of who brings the bacon and who cooks it (although Adriana does more cooking than me, I'll admit). It hasn't been easy but we've grown to appreciate what each of us does for this large, young family of ours. We are blessed with more than we deserve, and continue to see those blessings daily. When all is said and done, we have our eternal family and can't ask for more. We hope all our friends and family have a great holiday season. Thank you for your love and friendships.
Love, The Redmonds (Jesse, Adriana, Christian, Micaela, Alina, and Rylee)

Wicked

My beautiful and my most favorite sister took me to see

Wicked last weekend.. It was amazing

Aren't we too cute!!

Thanks MJ for Wicked and the Spicy Basil Noodles.. Love you!

Decorating for Christmas

As usual the girls are goofing around while...

Christian decided we were taking to long to decorate the tree

So he rounded up whatever he could find and decided he'd do it himself

Finished project... I helped!

Getting Ready For Church

Having girls is so much fun... They love to primp and prep and it makes me laugh... To bad it never lasts long!!!

Unwanted House Guest

Well this week was pretty interesting for me, not only was I home the whole week but so were most of the kids. Usually Christian and Micaela go to school from 8-11 every morning but this week Christian had two dentist appt (he can thank his dad for bad genes on that one) and Micaela had a cold then Impentigo a very commmon bacterial infection that spreads when skin is broken, and since she had a cold and a very raw nose form her mom constantly wiping the snot off it, it spread. Everything under her nose her cheeks and a little on her foreheard was red and bumpy (I tried taking a picture of it but it didn't come out in any of the 100 I took)
Alina was Alina never phased, always active and kept me on my toes. Rylee had a cold and broke her first two teeth.
Busy, Busy. So needless to say I didn't get to decopauge Micaela's bed but I did manage to catch "the" mouse who I have to say was very smart but 8 glue traps and a complete spring (technically fall) cleaning later I suceeded, I also got to hang out with a good friend who is moving.. Chanel what am I going to do on Wednesdays from now on?

Happy Halloween

Pictures before the ward Halloween Party, where they had a lot of fun and ate way too much candy.

Little Lady Bug.. also know as Bugaboo

Alina what does a cowgirl say, "Yeehaw cowboy"

Are you Miss Swan Incognito or Captain Jack Sparrow? "Umm just a pirate mom!"

He has a knight cosutme that he refuses to wear.. Like father like son!

Christian Turned Five!!!

Here are his Kiddie Kandid Shots, he got up on the platform and hammed it up...


Back in May Christian told me he wanted a Green Dragon Cake for his birthday. See for the past two years I have been experimenting in the whole cake decorating thing... and I think I do okay if I don't say so myself. So when he said Green Dragon I figured I would try, I found a picture of a really cute cake and was really excited. But then the Transformer movie came out and that was the end of The Green Dragon. He wanted a Transformer cake. So I did my best ...

So it's not exactly Optimus Prime

But Christian new exactly what I meant it to be

He was so excited, he kept saying, "Thankyou mommy Thankyou!"
Then when I was all done with the cake he said, "Okay now make a megatron cake."
Maybe next year.

I've been tagged

I've been tagged by Heather. The rules...player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves at the end of the post, player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read our blog for the rules!

1. I have a habit of playing with the corner of my pillow before I go to bed.. Been doing it since I was a baby.

2. Hey Heather I do the same thing.. Straighten my hair on Friday or Saturday and let it go for 3 to 4 days.. Then it goes back to having a mind of it's own.

3. I have unusually large feet for how short I am.... Size 9.5 in normal shoes but 10 in all the cute ones and I'm only 5'3.

4.I have what is called Myoclonic Jerks in lament's terms my leg twitches right before I fall asleep or if I'm tired.

5. I workout 5 days a week sometimes twice when I teach and I sweat like a man... Gross!

6. I'm a sucker for Teen Drama books like The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.. all four of them!



I tag: Ashleigh, Chanel, Jamie (aw.. this sucks I just realized I don't really have six people I can tag.. Chanel you'll have to make up the three for me)

Times Flies

Rylee Chanel Redmond is 6 months old. She's been crawling around for the past month as tiny as she is and what can I say.. She's a doll! She's growing up to fast trying to keep up with the big kids.

Times Like these...

are priceless...

but there are also times I would sell the kids on ebay!! J/K

Italian Que Bella

Spicy Eggplant

Apricot and Chocolate Biscotti

Braised Brussel Sprouts

I tried to take pictures of the pasta but it was all gone..

A few weekends ago we did a girls night and took a cooking class. It was really fun to cook,eat, laugh and eat... We took the Italian class where we made Spicy Eggplant appetizers, Braised Brussel Sprouts, Pink Pasta, Four different Fettucine alfredo variations and Apricot and Chocolate Biscotti..
YUM!!!

Apple Picking

We went to Riley's Farms this past weekend. The kids had a fun time picking apples and making their very own apple cider. We started off at the store where the kids each picked out a few things to get. Of course they went straight for the candy, but also got harmonicas. After we finished up at the store we went to the cider press so the kids could make the apple cider. Alina kept yelling, "No daddy, it's not your turn!" at Jesse. But she couldn't turn the press by herself, so she had no choice. We planned on taking a hay ride up to the orchards to pick apples, but it ran out of gas... not your typical hayride apparently. So we drove up and parked right amongst the trees instead. It was a really good family day!

Transformers

So Christian loves transformers as I'm sure most little boys do... But do all little boys beg their mom's to take pictures of them??


Funny stuff: I bumped into Christian the other day and he turned to me and said,
" Hey I'm walking here!"

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun..

First of all I love that movie.. I haven't seen it in forever...
Just wanted to post some pics of the girls being girls!