CHRISTMASTIME

CHRISTMAS EVE

Christmas Eve, we had our friends, the Lundell Family and Bro. Avent over. Christmas dinner was ham, much to Jason's dismay--the turkey will have to wait till New Year's Eve. Then, "The Program" began.

CHRISTMAS CAROL CHARADES....

"I know, right?!?!"

"SILENT NIGHT"




"FA-LA-LA-LA-LA" ???

Christopher's got the Bling-Bling going on.

Ummm....?

"RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER" got run over by a bunch of kids


What Christmas Eve would be complete without the playing of the chimes?

Reading the Christmas Story

You can open just 1 present on Christmas Eve

Okay, so Jason had this idea to switch up the kids' presents for Christmas Eve. Jaden unwrapped some green flannel pants and a pretty shirt with a heart full of pastel mini hearts. Jaina got 2 shirts, definitely not her size or colors, and Cameron got some very pretty turquoise pajama bottoms and some red ones.

Well, Jaden started to cry as we laughed and helped them figure out who got what. It didn't help. With tears in his eyes and a sniffle when he talked, Jaden had to explain (while being cuddled) how wrong it was to mess with a little kid's presents. We still thought it was hilarious. Poor Bubba!




SANTA CAME!!!!







"NO MORE PEEKING......FROM SANTA"

Jaden got some "stupid old underwear"

A SKATEBOARD!!!!!

AHHHHHHEEEEAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

(MORE SCREAMING AND SQUEALING!)










Let's make martians....then we get to dissect them. Cool!

Is that a tear in your eye?

(Sniff-sniff)

"It's a Garden of Eden Apron!"

(from my mom, not what she intended)

The AFTERMATH

LATER ON CHRISTMAS DAY...


Trying out the new scooters and skateboard.

Did I mention it was almost 70 degrees Christmas Day?

Building the skateboard....

Go Cameron!

Woo-hoo, Daddy!

MERRY CHRISTMAS, LOVE THE SAARI'S!!!

Cubbies!

As you know, we have 2 Cub Scouts in our family: Cameron & Jaden + a Boy Scout Leader, Daddy Jason.

Here are some pics of their exploits this past year.

Scout Brothers!







Jaden earned his BobCat Badge










Jason arranged for Jaden's Tiger Cub Den to go to a basketball game at San Lee Middle School.





Better make that 1 Cub Scout, Cameron formally crossed over from Cubs to Boy Scouts this month.

Miss Sassafrass (aka "Jaina")'s Dance Weekend

So, I decided that it was time that I did some writing on this blog, lest anyone think this is all just Jason's doing.

Nov. 7-8th, Jaina went to the Carolina Dance Masters Convention in Greensboro, NC with her dance team, "The Mini's" from Dancers Workshop here in Sanford. Mommy Mindy was her chaperone, it was a 3-day thingy, we just did Friday & Saturday, though (no dancing on Sundays for Jaina, much to her director's frustration, but this IS her 4th year there, and they don't seem to mind). We stayed overnight at the Sheraton's Four Season's hotel in Greensboro, very fancy and bigger than any hotel I have ever stayed in. Jaina and friends got plenty of time in the indoor pool and got to "eat out" in the hotel restaurants and lots of giggly-girl time with each other. They managed to squeeze in there dance classes and performances. :)

The girls had a pageant to attend Friday night and a Banquet Saturday night, they were to be in formal dress, so Jaina got to get dressed up like never before and they giggles some more and had fun. Did I mention that parents were not allowed at the Banquet? Just the girls, their instructors, etc. So, we took a lot of pictures and sent my little girl off to have a "Cinderella Evening" with her friends.

She really had a great time and afterward, they all partied in our hotel room until the "hotel police" came and scared the girls quiet. We were only blasting her "High School Musical" CD and jumping on the beds. etc. There really should not be a quiet hour in a hotel hosting a bunch of girls for 4 days. Oh well.

It was a fun busy weekend. While we were gone, Jason and the boys went out and bought Daddy a gun. Hmm.

Holidays

Today was Thanksgiving.... What a wonderful full of blessings and love! We had good friends come Tuesday and stay the night with their two kids. We went to the temple and out to dinner with them and another family in the ward. What a great time visiting with them! On Wednesday we went out shooting the GUN:) It's a 270 as mentioned probably previously... We each shot it 6-8 times. By we I mean Cameron, Ethan (11 yr. old), Johnny Davis, and myself. We really enjoyed it:) We shot 3 pumpkins we had left over from Halloween. They blew out the back pretty well. Hopefully now that it's sighted in we'll be able to go hunting. I've to get an old hunting license from UT to prove I've had one in the past. Then we'll hit the trail... Cameron is very excited about hunting, and convinced that he needs to hunt. He can't until he's 12, but very determined... Today Julie and BJ and girls, along with Ryan and Jenna came and stayed with us. They are Mindy's siblings and families for those who may not know... We had a fabulous dinner today. The highlight was jalapeno poppers. Julie cuts jalapenos in half, fills them with cream and cheddar cheese, and wraps them in bacon. Can't think of anything better! I ate way too many and know I'll feel it in the morning:( I'm feeling it a little now.... We played board games and the Wii all day and plan to have the ladies go shopping tomorrow and all of us watch movies of some sort. The girls want to go see Twilight while us boys/kids will probably go watch some kid movie. I told Julie they had to take the kids shopping. She got all flustered and said they wouldn't go before she realized I was kidding:) Played in the turkey bowl. I'm way out of shape. Still have jelly legs although the game got over about 12 hours ago. Cameron played for the first time and enjoyed it. He says he almost got his arm broken, got smashed in the head and a few other things. He stuck it out though and I was proud of him. We had 30-35 people show up. It was a lot of fun! Mindy has been still teaching... The only problem is that due to a civil war within the department, the Provost refuses to sign her contract so she can get paid. She hasn't received a check all semester:( There's a major power struggle within the sociology dept. that she is in the middle of, not because of doing something wrong, but just being there... She is a great teacher! I studied teaching, etc. but she is better at it than I was. She's just natural. The kids are doing well. Jaden now has three missing teeth! Front two on top and bottom front. His smile is awesome! Says, "Just brushing and it fell right out!" I told him the tooth fairy was taking the night off because it's a holiday. He didn't buy it. Ryan told a story about receiving two $10 bills one time for a tooth when he thinks the tooth fairy over paid in the dark. We had a good laugh about that one. Jaden's hoping for a pot of gold due to the fact that he's lost so many lately. He say $1 million. I said I'll give all my teeth for a million. I'll eat my dinner from a straw forever for the money:) No strings attached! Anyone want to pay out? Well, I'm looking forward to another fun day tomorrow. We hope all is well for everyone! We are thankful for family and friends along with the blessings of the gospel... Couldn't ask for much more!!!

blah blah blah

To All....

Busy this week for all here at the Saari front. Lots of unpacking on Tuesday due to the holiday. It was nice to have a day off this week at home at least. Makes for a long week at school dealing with discipline. The students get out of sink and that's it. Had 7 students walk out of a class. For middle school that's a very bold thing to do. How do deal with such a variety of situations I'm not sure. The buses have been crazy as well. Students fighting, calling the bus driver names, and throwing things such as change at the driver! Crazy, crazy week with students... Today, being Sunday was a very fun day for us all! Just relaxed and truly enjoyed each other. We even got some pictures hung. Our home is starting to come together nicely. When we first moved in, I had the piano put in the wrong room. It is still there. I need to get some help and move it into the next room so then we can really finish things up. Mindy has done most of the work as usual. She seems to always make time to accomplish the important things unlike some others we know. The kids are enjoying having their own space. Jaden told me at bed tonight that he likes having his own place to hide and own bed to sleep in. He was of course referring to his room. Jaina got all hurt and offended yesterday when Mindy told her that her room is dirtier than the boys. She dumped all their things on their floors to remind them to put everything away. All of the rooms have a ways to go except so for ours. We got our 1st bedroom set last Thursday, and the room had to be cleaned for delivery. Mindy was surprised that two gentlemen, "grayer than my Dad" in her words, delivered the goods. They left a few souvenirs, including a 6-8 inch scar on our wood floor and a few new dings on the wall. I guess nothing last forever...... I took the boys scouts camping this weekend! We had a lot of fun... Cameron wasn't old enough to attend yet, but will be in January. We went to a place called Camp Durant which is about 30 minutes from here. It was a lot of fun despite gallons of rain. No rain during waking hours, but the heavens opened at night! We found 3 of our boys sleeping under the bathhouse overhands in the morning. Guess their tent parially collapsed during the night maybe with the help of a few scouts who they mad by singing loudly after midnight:) Young boy scouts.... They worked of 1st aid, rifle, and shotgun for the most part. One of our boys went on the ropes course which is wires about 20-30 feet in the air going from telephone poles in the forest. They had to climb on these from one place to another. The final hurrah being a zip 2-300 feet long. My job was to help them off at the end... At one point they discovered a wasp nest on a pole. My job was to hold a 30-40 foot ladder while a 300+ gentleman climbed to spray. He told me to hang on from the inside by pulling as hard as I could on the ladder from about the 4th or 5th step up. My reward was having him step on my hands on the way up, and being kind enough to go around them on the way down. I didn't say much, because believe it or not it didn't hurt at all. I did have to cling to the ladder for 15 minutes which was actually pretty exhausting to keep the pressure on the whole time to keep the ladder from slipping. There ended up not even being a nest. Last weekend Mindy and Jaina went to Winston Salem for a dance convention. They had a blast.
All girls activities. Mindy will have to share with you what all they did at another time. I've got to go to bed for now since I get up around 4:30 and am at work by about 5:30 each morning to make sure all is well with buses. I actually enjoy getting up this early. It's the best time for me to accomplish things for work... It's the only time I can really plan on... The best thing of the week that occurred for our family is I bought a gun. I got a 270 for deer hunting:) I've complained and whined about not having one forever and even had the money once or twice to get one but never did... Finally I bought one! It was only suppose to take 4-5 days to come in, but I haven't heard from them yet. I bought a brand new gun that's all black and has a scope mounted on it. I actually haven't seen it yet:0 They were suppose to call me and let me know it was in but haven't yet. My plan is to actually go hunting this year. The season is from Nov. 15 through January 1st. Nice and long and maybe I can find a place to hunt by then. We'll see. Anyways, that's it here on the home front from my point of view. Hopefully Mindy will give you all a different perspective within the next week or so... Have a wonderful week!!!

Home Sweet Home???

Well, in case you were wondering, we finally signed on our new home. It's about time!!!! I think they finally gave in when I told them it was Halloween and my name is Jason. I told the lawyer at the signing, that if it didn't occur then that I would probably be on the front page of the paper Saturday morning. Now that I think about it, he did one of those nervous little laughs as if he didn't know how to take me. Oops... I guess I forgot what type of world we live in today.

We began moving on Saturday at around 8:30am and finished at about 10:10am. We had about 15 people show up to help out. One of my friend's, Sean, and I went back to Pittsboro in the afternoon and emptied out our storage unit. It took us about 30 minutes to load it, and about 30 minutes to tie it down. Needless to say nothing moved on the truck or trailer. After we loaded the trailer, we began to head home. We decided to stop and get some ice cream since it was only about 3:20 when we finished. I said "man it sure seems later than it is". Then while we were eating ice cream Sean's wife, Stephanie called. He told her we were at urgent care which didn't go over well since recently he's spent quite a bit of time there due to a car accident and recent surgery.

Upon further examination, my watch had stopped and it only seemed early. Although my clock then said 4pm, it was really almost 5:30. My clock had stopped working:)

Anyways, we are now in our new home!!! It has so much space compared to our 900 foot apartment. We still have to unpack everything, but we're in our home and ready to enjoy it!