Christmas traditions

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is going to the Christmas display in downtown Ogden. There are lots of little buildings all decked out in holiday splendor. My kids love running to each one to see what wonders it stores, and of course, the high light of the night is a visit to Santa Claus. This year I forgot my camera!!! Roo's first visit to Santa and no picture! Nate took some with his phone, but it just isn't the same.



Other traditions I love are making Christmas candy. My sister Trisha came and we spent hours making all the yummy treats my Grandma Ruth used to make... golf balls, English toffee, peanut clusters, peppermint balls, Chex mix, and I could go on and on. It reminds me so much of my grandma and the hours I spent at her house making treats. I'm amazed at her patience, because I have a very hard time letting my kids help. I want it done just a certain way. Mr. T loves to help and so does Boo. I can't wait until they are old enough to really help.

Every year we go to my dear friend Carolyn's house for a lasagna dinner and gift giving. We look forward to it all year long, and so nice to visit with her, Allison and James.

I also love putting up the decorations and shopping for the perfect tree. Putting the lights on the tree, not so much, but I do love decorating the tree. Especially since we inherited an artificial tree for the downstairs that the kids can decorate any way they want.

Christmas Eve is just magical! I love our traditional soup dinner in bread bowls followed by the Nativity scene done by all the grandkids. After that we have a talent show where EVERYONE from the babies on up to Grandpa all participate. It is full of laughter and tears, singing, stories, jokes, and piano.




Then there is the magic of Christmas morning. I have to admit, I'm the last one to bed and the first one up. I have to wait and wait for the kids to wake up. I've even been guilty of waking them when they didn't get up soon enough. This is usually around 6 or 6:30a.m.

Of course there are lots of tears and lots of yelling this time of year. The excitement is crazy and I get stressed right out, but through it all I love it! This year I'm especially loving the "If you don't be good I'm going to call Santa..." It is working like a charm for Mr. T and Boo. I'll be very sad when I can't use that one any more.

I didn't send Christmas cards this year, so to everyone who reads this have a very merry Christmas and the happiest of New Years!!!

I love Christmas

I love Christmas! Which would explain why I have fallen off the blogging world for a while. There are just too many fun things to do like shopping, shopping, shopping!!! I've spent way too much but had a great time doing it. I've also discovered the joys of shopping online. Then you get the shopping high twice. Once when you order the present and the next time when it arrives.

There are many things I love about the season, and if I can slow down for 2 minutes, I'll share more, but for now I've got to run!

Day before Thanksgiving

I know this not a the typical way to spend the day before Thanksgiving, but I found this great deal on green beans yesterday. So The kids and I spent several hours yesterday trimming beans and then I blanched them and got them ready to freeze today. I got 14 bags of beans and have enough for my entire family for Thanksgiving and two additional meals of fresh beans. All for $10.00!!! I was pretty excited.

When you spend that much time working with beans, sooner or later Roo will find one or two or twenty...


Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I bigger now!

Boo just called me Heather.
I said, "Why did you call me Heather"
"Because I bigger now"

Not big enough to call me Heather!!!

Eye rolling

Jman has discovered the unique talent of rolling your eyes. Never realized quite how irritating that one could be. It is even doubly nice when you know you are being irrational and probably deserve it! I'm so excited to be able to experience this for the next 20 plus years ;)

When do you take you baby to the doctor?

As many of you know we have horrible insurance so I won't get into that here. So I struggle taking my kids to the doctor unless it is really serious. Roo has been sick for several days now. No fever, just runny nose, not eating much, and fussy. Just when I think she is better, she gets worse. When do you decide your kids need to go in? (And pretend it will cost you at least $75.00 when you go.)

Milk on Roo's head...

Thank you for the nice comments about my bad day. A few of you asked how I poured milk on Roo's head. Well... my nice friend had given us a plate of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (one of my favs! Okay so the day wasn't a total bust) and, of course, you have to have milk with those right? So Boo wanted some milk. She held the glass while I poured. When she had enough milk she took her glass away. I kept pouring. Poor Roo!
By the way, she wasn't crying until a second before I snapped this picture.

Does anyone want 3 maybe 4 kids???

Yes it has been one of those days.

Jman lied about doing his homework the DAY after he promised me and his teacher he would do it. He then spent 3 hours sitting at the kitchen counter in which time he managed to complete about 10 problems. (They each take no more than 30 sec. tops!)

Mr. T was supposed to clean his room (How can it go from being completely clean to a tornado hit in less than a day?) Anyway, after a while he asked me to come check it. He had picked up ONE pair of pants (that were clean) and put them in the dirty clothes. That was it.

Boo was asked to pick up the videos and DVDs she and Roo had taken out of the shelfs. Two hours later, not done, but beautifully rearranged several times around the room.

Roo can't decide what she wants. She must not feel very good, because she cries over everything. Beside the fact that she fell down the stairs by pushing the gate over and the minor fact that I poured milk on her head. Hmmm, I wonder why she is having a bad day???

I'm not sure which of the three I'm giving away, and which one I'd keep at this point, maybe they are all up for grabs. Any takers?

I have a primary meeting to go to tonight. I wasn't really looking forward to it. I feel like I have a pretty good handle on my calling. But now I'm counting the minutes until I can escape the madness!

Bad mother of the day award goes to....

Today while I was reading blogs, and surfing the net. Just having finished my life support system of my daily Diet Coke; Roo was getting fussy so I gave her my Diet Coke can to play with. (Can you see where this is going?) So being a eight month old she plays with it and has a lot of fun until she sticks her finger in the top and cuts it. Good thinking Mom!!! Someone give me a gold star for the day please?

FRUSTRATED!!!

How many times have you had the missionaries over for dinner and they have ended the meal with a message about finding people for them to teach? Always, right? Well, I finally did it. I invited our great neighbor Kerry over for dinner last night with the missionaries. I even talked to the missionaries a week before so they knew what I was doing and asked them to schedule some extra time after dinner so we could talk.

Well I stressed about it all week and was really kind of excited about it too. The night finally came and dinner went really pretty well. (I burned the rolls, but, oh well, not much I can do about that.) The missionaries didn't bring up anything religious during dinner, which was fine too, because I knew we had extra time after for that. As dinner was getting over Nate asked what time they had to leave and it was right then. I was shocked, but didn't want to say anything in front of Kerry. I asked them for a spiritual thought even a 30 second thought before they left and they wouldn't even do that! I was lucky to get a prayer before they left!!!

After they left my plan B was to watch the "Testaments" DVD so we had something religious to talk about. Well, I guess we watched it on Nate's laptop at some point and he accidentally took it to work. So we couldn't even do that.

Talk about frustrating!!! I had really worked hard to set this opportunity up, and it is not something that comes easily for me at all. Now, I'm back to square one and have to come up with another opportunity to talk about the gospel.

Kerry, if you ever chance to read this, please know we really enjoyed your company and are very glad you came.

Oh so sweet...

On Halloween night I was sitting next to Mr. T while he was eating his candy.
He said, "Mom, do you like Twix"
I said, "Yes."
He said, "You can have this one."
I said, "Thanks Mr. T."
He said, "Having lots of candy is nice, but sharing it is even better."

Does that just melt your heart or what???

Thanks Bonnie

My great friend Bonnie came over today to help me with several things on my blog that I couldn't figure out. Notice the fun changes? THANKS BONNIE!!!

Check out these great costumes on my friend's blog.

The election.

I voted!!! I have to admit I really truly struggled with who to vote for this year. I went back and forth several times, and although I am a registered Republican, Obama got my vote. I like him. Plain and simple. I like him. And for the most part I like what he stands for and what he wants to do. I'm in disagreement with my husband who now thinks this is the beginning of the end, I some how think we will survive, and hopefully be better for it. Now before all my staunch McCain friends and relatives fall off their chairs and disown me. Remember I live in Utah so my vote didn't count (most red state in the nation), and my husband and I cancelled each other's vote anyway. I'm just so amazingly grateful that we live in a country that allows us the opportunity to vote and be a part of this great event.

On a side note... it has also given me hope that ANYONE can become president. I'd gotten to the point that I believed only the mega rich could run and be elected. It's nice to see a Hockey mom and someone from more humble roots be on the ticket!

I love Halloween! I know there are a ton of blogs today, but I've been too busy having fun to blog them as I've gone along. There are pumpkin walks, ward parties, city carnivals, picking pumpkins, carving pumpkins, family parties, school parades, school parties, and don't forget the all important trick or treating!!! This year we gave out hot chocolate packets and they were a huge hit! Anyway, we've had a fun week hope you all did too.

Jman's Halloween

Fun at the Boonanza.

Cute cousins in costumes.

Donuts on a string.

Counting the loot.

Mr. T's Halloween

Awesome Star Wars guys at the Boonanza!

Mr. T's class before the school parade.

Donuts on a string at our cousin party

Commander Rex at your service!

Boo's Halloween

Fish pond at the ward party.

Boo was so tired she fell asleep and we couldn't wake her up. We put her up to the table for dinner, and she fell fast asleep.

Isn't she a darling witch?

Candy anyone?

Roo's First Halloween!

Cute little black cat!

Crawling kitty.

Roo loves the swings

Roo spent a good deal of her first Halloween snoozing away! I'm jealous.

Pumpkin Walk

 
 
 
 
We went to the pumpkin walk with a thousand other people. The jack-o-lanterns were cool, but so was the night and everyone was ready to be done when it was not even half over. Oh well, we had a good time, it was free, and the kids got to wear their costumes; and in my world the more use of the costumes the better. Here are some of our favorites. (I excluded the BYU ones sorry Petersen cousins ;)

Wow! What an outfit!

 
Little Miss Boo decided to get dressed while I was cleaning out all her summer clothes. Doesn't she look lovely?

I love you because...

Mr. T and I played a little game last night. He'd just gotten yelled at because he was trying to be too helpful while dad was making a cake. So we played "I love you because..." At first he said he could only think of one reason he loved me, but as we kept going his smile got bigger and bigger and I felt better and better too. Okay, so it was kind of a gimmick, but it worked and everyone was happy.:)

Homesickness

Do any of your children suffer from homesickness? It is truly a miserable thing. Last week my kids got to go to their cousin's house for a fun, fun, day. They played video games, watched movies, went miniature golfing, drove go carts, and had pizza; in other words the perfect kid day. Until it was time to go to sleep. Mr. T and Boo went to sleep no problem, Jman, on the other hand, did not. I had to talk to him on the phone for an hour and a half before he could fall asleep and by then it was 11:30.

Not only that, he struggles everywhere!!! Even in his own bed. Last night he waited until I fell asleep and then slipped upstairs and slept in Boo's bed. (She was asleep with me on the couch because she was sick.) I need help! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I know he comes by this naturally, I got terribly homesick as a kid, but I still need some advice.

SLEEP FINALLY!!!

I got almost six hours of almost completely uninterrupted sleep last night!!! (Boo climbed in bed with us and I felt that and I was awake for less than 30 seconds.) But other than that I went to sleep at 11:00p.m. and woke up this morning at 4:45! It was truly heavenly. Small things bring me joy can you tell?

What were you doing at 3:30 this morning???

Yes, the saga continues... I got up with her a couple of times last night and she went right back to sleep YEAH! But then at 3:15 she was AWAKE! At least last night she wasn't screaming, she just wasn't going to sleep either. Roo stayed in her crib for a while, but she really just wanted to be held and not sleep. Finally after about an hour of this we went and watched Sense and Sensibility and that finally put her to sleep. She slept for about an hour and then decided it was breakfast time and time to play. I put the gate up let her play, and I slept. She is now sleeping peacefully while I try to survive another day with too little sleep.