Guess what I got for Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Honey thinks gifts are better when you pick them out yourself and I think surprises are the BEST! During the few years of our marriage I have learned that if I want a surprise I have to drop more that a few hints. They have to be more like bomb shells.

Mr. Wonderful had a very stressful month... with work and other things. So I asked if there was going to be a surprise under the tree this year or if he needed me to pick up my own gift. (Hey, its better to be prepared emotionally if there isn't going to be something under the tree for you).The blank look and stunned silence was very reassuring. Ug. So I hit the dollar store and grabbed a couple stylin' necklaces for him to give me. (They were pretty awesome if you ask me. He has good taste).

A few days before Christmas, he was acting a little suspicious. Woo hoo! That means a surprise!!! Christmas eve rolled around and he was smiling from ear to ear. On Christmas morning he gave me a box and had all the kids quiet down "to watch Mommy". I opened a large box... filled with packing peanuts. Since all the kids were waiting anxiously I started dumping the stuff into another box to expedite things. Nothing.

"You must have dumped it out," He said with a grin. Right about then I was thinking this was one of his jokes. Sigh! The kids jumped up and helped me search through the Styrofoam. We found a tiny paper... So guess what the most wonderful man in the world gave me for Christmas!?!

Dang, I can't get the photo to upload. Anyway, he's taking me to see the Broadway show Wicked! This is me screaming with excitement!!!!!!!

I'll get to the pictures of the kids gifts later. We had an amazing Christmas!

Christmas Out takes

Brooke is STILL singing about RED-olph the RUDE-nosed reindeer.

The kids have done impromptu nativity re-enactments a LOT lately. Madi keeps saying: "And the angel said, 'I bring you good TITHINGS of great joy'."

Ben told me yesterday that the real Santa doesn't wear a wig on his chin.

The kids pulled the baby car seat out of the basement and put Connor in it. They plopped a Santa hat on his head. They tied themselves to the front of the car seat with scarves and pulled him around the front room singing "Here comes Santa Clause."

This is seriously the best time of the year!

Brooke's birthday and Madi's Special Day

Happy Birthday Brooke! Things have been so busy, I hadn't taken the time to load these pictures. Brooke's birthday was just one week after Madi's. She had a family party (with a surprise visit from Uncle Jared, Aunt Lindsay and Baby Trae).
Grandma and Grandpa were able to make it too!

We really enjoy it when our family can come to visit.

And we all LOVED meeting Baby Trae. Madeline's birthday was earlier this month and she made the decision to be baptised. She has been so excited about her special day for a long time. When it finally came, she was beaming.

It was an amazing day. Her grandpa's both spoke at her baptism. Madi leaned over to me afterward and whispered, "I made everyone cry."Her grandma's teamed up to do her hair.She felt like a princess.I am so proud of the choices my little girl has made. I gave her a hug the other day and lamented about how quickly she has been growing up. She smiled at me and said, "Yeah, soon I will be going off to college. It's a good thing I know how to cook." Cue a sob from mom. It goes all too quickly!

Warning labels

You know those labels that are on EVERYTHING for babies? They usually say something like, "Never leave baby unattended while using this product." I decided that they should issue stickers (or maybe washable tattoos) that are to be applied when the child turns two. They should say something like, " Never leave this child unattended... ever."

My sweet, quiet little Connor has just entered that magical stage, transforming from angelic to tornado over night. If you haven't gone through this with a child yet... it really does happen OVERNIGHT! I follow him from one room to another just one or two seconds too slow to stop the destruction. And as I clean up, Tornado Connor is busily wreaking havoc elsewhere.

I firmly believe that the Lord blessed these little ones with the cuteness factor for self preservation purposes. Because when my little weapon of mass destruction flashes his cheesy grin at me, all I can do is laugh and clean up again.

Mom's Motto

There was a crash this morning while I was upstairs getting ready. One of those glass shattering, mom-cringing crashes. As I ran down the stairs to investigate... I already knew what I was going to have to say. It is the same thing my mother has said over and over and over again as she raised a house full of eight rambunctious, very active children: "It's a good thing I love kids better than I love things."

Sometimes it was said with gritted teeth. Sometimes it was sighed with tears in her eyes... but she always said it. When I was the child that had just broken a treasured item, I was so grateful for my mom's "motto." She would say it as she looked down at the pile of shards, and I knew that she meant it. I would still feel horrible for causing the tears or the deep sigh. But I knew that my mother loved me.

As a mother now, I am even more grateful for her "motto." How easy it might be to shout or get after my children for their carelessness when something is broken. But because of my mother's example and especially her motto, I am ready with my response.

The crash this morning was one of my "somethings special". I'd received it for my wedding. It was pretty as well as useful. My daughter had the most crestfallen look on her face when I entered the room. She is a tender heart and a cross word can send her into the "depths of despair." I sniffed a little tear back, said the motto, and we clean it up.

I love you Mom!

Lets be on our best behavior

"Be on your best behavior" is something my kids hear a lot when we have guests, are at a restaurant, or entering a store. So when we invited some new neighbors to join us for dinner the other night, I admonished my little ones to dig out their rusty manners and polish them a bit. I was very pleased (and a little surprised) by how well they behaved. There was no arguing, lots of sitting quietly, and smiling and making pleasant conversation. I was wondering who had stolen my children and left these polite little clones in their place. That is until Ben's comment that reassured me my little bugs were alive and well inside these prim and proper kids.

Ben: "May I have some salt?"
Madi: "Aren't you missing something?" (Meaning the word "Please.")
Ben: "Yah, The salt!"

They never stop making me laugh!

Birthdays birthdays birthdays

This is a wonderful holiday season and even more so in the Bingham household. All four of my little sweet peas were born between the months of November and January. So it is birthday, Thanksgiving, birthday, birthday, Christmas, birthday. Whew!

Ben was really sick on his birthday,so we celebrated a little late. The girls made us all birthday hats. They made this special one for Ben. They wrote on it: "Hape Birsday Ben. We love yu."Ben loved helping decorate his cupcake. He would squeeze on the good stuff then lick it off... repeat. Don't worry, I was doing the other cupcakes... and I tried not to lick everyone elses.Ben said he wanted Cars cupcakes. I'm sure he meant the Disney ones... but he seemed just as pleased with my crazy creation. (Smarties and jolly ranchers) It's a poor picture, but you get the idea.Madi just turned eight, so that means a BIG "friends party" at our house. She wanted a storybook themed party. All the guests came dressed as their favorite book character. They were sooooo cute. I had three Fancy Nancy's, a Pinkalicous, a Alice in Wonderland, a Narnia winter queen, and a witch from Big Pumpkin. Madi was the Princess and the Pauper.

They made book marks in the Fancy Nancy room with a LOT of bling bling. And jumped on the bed in the Skippyjon Jones room (not pictured).

Dinner was food from all their favorite books: Parfaits from Fancy Nancy, Croissants from Madeline, Bean and Mice from Skippyjon Jones, Frobscottle and snozzcumbers from the BFG. It was really funny and the girls LOVED it. That is the UGLIEST cake I have ever made! But Madi just loved it... so I didn't go get another one from the store.
We had a giggling gaggle of girls!