I love Christmas time!

We had such a good Christmas this year, even with the uncertainty of not having a job. The holidays are just a special time. I made a decision a couple years ago that I wanted to always spend Christmas day in my own home. The kids are getting older and I wanted to make sure we have our own traditions. However, I love family at Christmas time and would not want to miss seeing all of them too! This year we had the best of it all! Christmas day we were in our home and enjoyed being our little family. Of course there were plenty of presents and the kids enjoyed it all. Santa even made it to our house and brought us a Wii. We enjoyed spending our morning playing as a family on the Wii. Then we had an extra Santa surprise with Wii rockband! Megan loves the drums and Katelyn loves the microphone...I should have guessed.

Christmas lunch was so much fun! We went to Chris' grandparents house and were completely surprised that the Utah family crowd were all there! We didn't expect them until Saturday, but they decided to do Christmas early in Utah and then come surprise us in AZ. It worked ! We were all very pleasantly surprised. We had another amazing spread of food and then enjoyed opening presents under grandma and grandpa's tree (Christmas take 2).

The party wasn't done there. We then traveled to Chris' parent's house for Christmas take 3. All of the kids opened their presents first. I don't know if I have ever seen so many presents under one tree, but I guess by the shear number of kids there are now in the family, it's just going to look like a lot. Once the kids were done, they were excused to the game room to watch a new movie so that the big kids could have their turn opening presents. We were all thoroughly spoiled this year. We then presented the Partridge parents with their present which was a home movie made by all the kids about our last Disneyland trip. These videos keep getting better and better. Chris works really hard on these with a lot of input from his siblings and they just improve each time. I think everyone enjoyed this one.

Saturday, we met again at Chris' parent's house for the kids gift exchange. Each year the siblings and spouses draw names and all the little kids draw names. When we arrived at the house, we found that the Christmas tree had been refilled. I guess it just didn't fit all the first time. :) So, I guess this is Christmas take 4. It was so fun to be able to spend the day with Chris' family. We thought the UT crew were travelling this day and that we wouldn't see them until late evening. What a fun surprise.

Sunday, my little family took the journey to my parent's house for Christmas. I have to admit, that that drive was not so fun. We left just after church and a normally 6 hour drive took us a little over 8 hours! We were stopped in Wikiup because of a car accident that involved a car fire. Next, Megan (who was probably starting to catch my cold) threw up just outside Chloride.  Then it took us an hour and a half to go through the check point at the Hoover Dam. Wow. And to top it all off, the cold I mentioned was a huge head cold where not even medicine was helping me to breathe. It was so good to make it to my mom and dad's house! We had such a good vacation there. My sister and her kids were already there along with my Grandma McFarlane. It was so nice to be able to visit with them for the week.

Monday was our official Chesnik Christmas for family night. We first went to Josh and Kristin's for dinner and exchanged our gifts. This would be Christmas take 5. Kristin found the most adorable Sunday dresses for the girls that had a matching doll dress. The girls loved it! Also, Adam had the most handsome Sunday outfit with a vest and tie. Everyone matched! We then went back to my parents house that night for Christmas take 6, the final take. We are so blessed! Again, there were amazing gifts that everyone loved. Thank you family!!

Tuesday evening we took grandkids pictures for my parents. Everyone was in their new Sunday outfits provided by Kristin. We did have an appointment for a picture studio, but they cancelled on us. We decided with that many kids and so many small ones, we would just take our own pictures and I think they turned out really nice. Adam was having a rough night, so he screamed through most of them, but we even got a few of those without screams. There was a request made that my mom and dad take some pictures with the grandkids. Not my mom's favorite activity (it's up there with going to the dentist...nope, she might like the dentist more) but she was a good sport. In the end, we got a good new picture of just my parents. What a handsome couple!

My Christmas present to my parents was to paint their bedroom dresser. It doesn't sound like much but it was a huge deal for them. This is a dresser that was my dad's when he was a teenager that my parents have always had. It was green. Green, antiqued, green, old, and yes, green. I remember as a small child trying to paint some of it with my pink fingernail polish. That mark was still there. But, this dresser is now brown! I wish we had gotten a before and after photo. It was a lot of work, but completely worth it.

The rest of the week was spent visiting and relaxing. The cold that I started with moved to my kids. So, we spent most of the trip on medicine. In fact, one night I slept in the chair holding Adam so he could breathe better sitting up (me too!). Even with the rough colds, we enjoyed our Christmas time. Then the New Year started out right, with a drive back home that was uneventful and took a little under 6 hours! Happy New Year!

Here's our movie of the season. Apparently we were too busy chasing kids, so I have no pictures of the Partridge festivities...we still love you so much!

Hunting...

Here are 5 things I've learned so far on this job search:

1. Neal was smart to frequently tell us to keep our resume's updated - glad I listened.
2. Employers hiring a developer position often see "tester" as a bad word.
3. I don't like going to outplacement services and talking to people, but I don't think I'll get a job without it.
4. My professional "network" is GREAT up in Utah, but really small here (so far).
5. I know at least one reason for my calling as Elder's Quorum secretary was to get to know the presidency and be near them during this transition period. They are a wealth of knowledge and comfort to me, as well as great network contacts.

I've had a few interviews over the past few weeks. One was with a company Brett worked for part-time/remote for a few months last year before deciding to stay in Utah with Drew Major's company. I'll say it was a good interview in that it gave me some good experience at going through interviews. I haven't had a real job interview since I hired on as an intern, so it's a whole new ballgame for me. I thought it was a tough interview, very academic-focused rather than practical or experience focused. They had a hard time seeing passed the "tester" role on my resume. I had another interview with a CEO of a small company in Phoenix. It was a job right in line with my experience, but they went with someone else. I've worked with a couple recruiters for different companies and pursued leads I got from friends or via LinkedIn connections. All good work, but so far no offers. Although I'm not the "support-group" kind of person, I've actually enjoyed going to the weekly meetings at Lee Hecht Harrison (outplacement service, part of my severance). It's uplifting and depressing at the same time, since some people have been on the hunt for 7-8 months. The techniques and tips I've learned through them have been great though, and I know it's made me a better job seeker.

Christmas time means dancing time

Each year the dance company dances at a neighborhood Christmas party. It was so fun to see the girls do their dances that they have been working on. It was actually a cold night for Arizona, but the girls both did a really good job. Their favorite part is seeing Santa after their show is over. Katelyn informed me this year that, "that is really the real Santa mom." Good to know, Katelyn.

Then later in the month, Jeanne's School of Dance does a Christmas show with all of their studios. I have to say that our Chandler studio by far were the best looking ones up there. And, of course, the girls did a great job again on their dances. The recital show was the best of both, so we'll show the video of that one.

Giving Thanks

We spent Thanksgiving this year in Mesa. It was nice to not have to travel, but I still missed my family. The big dinner was at Chris's grandparents house, and it was of course fabulous. I have to admit I don't feel bad at all that I have only ever cooked my own turkey dinner once. I love being with family at Thanksgiving time. It kicks off the holiday season for me to be around those I love. To start off the event, the kids read a couple stories before we sat down. Then Katelyn shared some of her school work that taught all of us about the first Thanksgiving. It was a great way to start off the meal. I'm not sure how much Chris enjoyed Thanksgiving this year. He had been complaining that his throat was hurting, so finally Thanksgiving morning I take a look at it and his tonsils were just huge with spots all over them. So Chris spent the first half of dinner at the Wal-greens filling an antibiotic so he could swallow again. I think he enjoyed the leftovers more once those antibiotics started working. After a wonderful meal, the kids went outside to play for a little bit (gotta love AZ weather!) while we cleaned up and started getting Christmas decorations out. Then it was time for the pie. The Partridge's kindly placed a candle and sang happy birthday to me (my birthday was on Friday this year). Mmmmm. Pecan pie for my birthday. Much better than my pregnant-diabetic-sugarfree birthday from last year. It ended up being a great day, even though the camera stayed safely in the diaper bag the entire time so there are no pictures to prove it.

Please pardon the dust

I'm starting to post some of the catch-up stuff. Except I'm going to put it chronologically as it really happened, so you'll want to scroll down or look at the archive to make sure you've seen everything since September.

The Dark Side

You should only be reading this post if you've accepted an invitation to our (now) closed blog.  Now that it's done, I'll go back and do a few catch-up posts for what's happened since the school year started.

Adam is 9 months

I can't believe we are already at 9 months. It's always a little bit of a milestone for me when my babies reach the point when they have been "outside" longer than "inside cooking." When I am pregnant it feels like the longest 9 months of my life. Then some how the next 9 fly by. Adam is doing really well. He is showing more of his personality. He is active but also sweet and cuddly. Here's his list accomplishments now:
-20 lbs! (it took my girls 15 months to get to 20 lbs)
-getting first teeth - 2 on the bottom - not such a happy teether...we can't be good at everything
-climbs up stairs like a champ, still learning how to get back down
-big belly laughs, high pitched screams (happy and sad)
-loves to cuddle
-babble talking and almost constant motor boat sounds
-light blond hair is getting longer and still sticks straight up!