More Christmas Traditions

As December races by we have already experienced two more of our favorite holiday traditions.

My sister and I love attending the Festival of Trees each year on bid night and marveling at how much people bid on the various items from centerpieces to gingerbread houses to small, medium and large trees. We gasp in delight

(and sometimes shock)





at the items on display and every so often we place a bid. This year's shocker items:



Although truth be told I didn't think anyone would buy them and so I went back during the week to see if one was still available so I could purchase it for my sister to put under the tree for her for Christmas. Can you believe they were both SOLD? Go figure. I guess there really IS a market for trolls and bikini frogs. Who knew?

Most of the time we are outbid but once in a blue moon we come out the winner. This year I won a robot:


(if you are asking yourself "why would she buy a robot???? it was for Brett... I know my husband well.)

I also bought a gingerbread house for the extended family Christmas Eve dinner:

My boys love making their own gingerbread houses at grandma's. They went there this past Thursday. They enjoyed spaghetti dinner, decorated a graham cracker house (while sampling some of the candies just to be sure they were the right choices) and watched a Christmas movie with popcorn and pop. They were sufficiently stuffed and Giggles even complained of a tummy ache so I know he helped himself to plenty of treats along the way while I shopped for Christmas items. The result:




Thanks to Grandma the kids will be well supplied with treats for the next couple of weeks leading up to Christmas.

Tree trimming

I just don't know how we will make it until Christmas. The boys are already sooooo excited and it isn't even December 1st. That is probably my fault. I made the mistake of putting up the tree the day after Thanksgiving. What was I thinking? I was thinking... hey, take advantage of the fact that Brett has the day off. Have him get all the Christmas stuff out so you can put the tree up and decorate the house.

With all the wildness I am seeing in my kids I am seriously reconsidering my decision. Next year I'm thinking the tree will go up December 24th.

That being said, decorating the tree has become a favorite tradition in our home. I'm not sure why the boys get so excited about it but they do. Maybe they love seeing the ornaments they have made in years past being put on the tree, or the fact that they actually get to touch something that is named "decoration" (in our home the word decoration is synonymous with DON'T TOUCH!).
Our tree is not a fancy tree but a hodge podge mixture of decorations from my childhood, gifts from neighbors, and ornaments the boys have made.

But when the tree is trimmed we all stand back and admire its beauty and take pride in our work.

I take pride in the fact that we made it through the process without any bloody noses or time outs. Whew! Now if I can only get all of the stockings finished in time for Christmas....

She got me again...

Before I tell you about a couple of traditions that have generated between my sister April and myself I know that you will want to see the pictoral evidence of my Saturday "moment" with Smiley. Giggles came downstairs with a sheet of paper he had found in Smiley's room that had marker all over it. I knew at that moment that he had drawn on more than just the paper. The question was; how much more?


You have heard me sing the praised of the Magic Eraser before when an errant marker has made its way upstairs. The marker wasn't accidentally left upstairs in this case. Smiley went into the computer room to search a marker out. Needless to say it took him quite some time to clean his artwork off of his bed.

Now to my sister April. Some time ago April acquired a very ugly decorative Arizona plate. This plate has gone back and forth between our homes when we have visited one another. It is currently hidden somewhere in April's home (I dare not reveal where or she will bring it up to my home this Christmas and hide it). A few years back April thought she would be really funny and start gifting me sock monkey items. I think sock monkeys are really creepy. Our mother used to make sock monkeys and sell them for extra money (they were really popular years ago). The last time I visited April I left a sock monkey in her bed to surprise her. April's oldest son, Chase, just came up for the weekend to visit with friends. He left on Saturday and it is now Monday when to my surprise I walk into the room he stayed in and discover this:
Thanks a lot April!

Just wait until Christmas!

Precious Moments?

I've realized that almost on a daily basis I talk with my sister April and she laughs at me (not with me) at the moments I have with my children. She is laughing most likely in relief that she is not experiencing these moments herself with her own boys because they are now grown up. That, of course, is her challenge: to deal with the almost empty-nest syndrome. I'm a little green with envy on some days when I have too many "moments".

Just this morning as I was driving Giggles to school he said to me, "mom can I do THIS?" and raised his fourth finger to me. "No Giggles, you can't." "But it isn't my middle finger!" "The intent is the same so don't do it." I replied."
Now if you know our neighborhood you know that our street gets the bus. So you are probably wondering why I was driving Giggles (and Smiley) to school today. For that I would have to take you back to last week's "moment". It was a doozey. For many days I was hearing reports from big brothers that Giggles and Smiley were not acting properly on the bus. I kept reminding them that they needed to follow the rules of the bus. I even tried silly band offers and stickers as an incentive. Apparently, little plastic bands, stickers and the possibility of time out just weren't enough. Jumping OVER bus seats, "falling" into the aisle repeatedly, standing on the seats and hitting other kids was just too much fun. As I waited at the bus stop with the boys the bus pulled up and the driver honked at me. I came over and she told me that Giggles and Smiley were on the verge of - you guessed it - being kicked off the bus. Nice. Can't say that I blame her really. I followed my wise guru of a sister and voluntarily took them off before they could be kicked off. They are having "practice time" in the morning until they are ready to try again on the bus.


Now if you don't like gross things please stop reading now and click on someone else's blog to read about pretty flowers or go to ebay and start your Christmas shopping. Otherwise please continue reading for my next "moment". This one actually had me laughing. It isn't really funny but it is the way my husband presented it to me that had me laughing. Sheriff and Wannabe share a bathroom downstairs (again... final warning...you may want to stop here and move on to another more pleasant blog or website). They have a terrible habit of not flushing the toilet. Because they are downstairs and Brett and I are rarely downstairs we don't often catch the problem unless we happen to go down for something: which again is rare. The boys had gone to bed for the night and my superhearing picked up the sounds of laughter coming from the basement. Brett went down to investigate and had them settle back down. He came back upstairs and described the downstairs toilet as looking like "Yoda's Dagoba system" and that he fully expected Luke Skywalker's x-wing fighter to rise up out of the toilet at any moment. His vividly accurate description had me laughing for two minutes straight.
Let's not forget doing homework with Smiley. Here is a classic example: "Smiley, listen to this pattern: circle, triangle, circle, triangle. What comes next?" His response: "Square?"

Or two days ago when Sheriff lost his tooth and Smiley took Sheriff's tooth and put it in his own mouth grossing everyone in the family out (I'm gagging right now).

Or just two minutes ago when I paused to take pictures of my nephew for his mother's Christmas gift (don't worry she already knows what it is... I'm not ruining the surprise or anything) and I walk back in the room to discover Smiley in the pantry standing on his stool trying to take Halloween candy without permission. -sigh-

I guess that means I'll be calling my sister again today...

You Know it's October When...

You know it's October when..

* the leaves are changing color and falling off the trees

* the Halloween decorations are in the stores (and in some stores the Christmas decorations are starting to come out...yikes!)

* summer tans are already fading or in my case the winter white is already here

*you are wearing winter clothes but your kids still insist on wearing shorts and flip flops

* you have already returned at least one Halloween costume to the store because your child changed his/her mind

* your kids have asked a million times how many days until Halloween

* you are already wishing it was summer again

That Time of Year Again?

I can't believe that September is almost over which means October is almost here and you know what that means.... Halloween. Yes, I have already purchased the Halloween candy (and hidden it not from my kids but from my husband!)

My five-year old decided months ago that he was going to be a knight due to the fact that the school mascot is a Knight and he has seen the life-size statue of the knight in the entry-way of his brother's school for a year now. Good advertisement. Thanks to Target I now have his costume.

Wannabe is still fascinated with all things Star Wars and keeps switching what Stars Wars character he is going to be every few seconds. I'm hoping to borrow my mother-in-law's Darth Vader costume. The kids love wearing all the costumes she has at the house. They play pretend in them, run around in them and play video games in them...
Sheriff seems to always want to be a ninja every Halloween but perhaps he'll choose something different if I can play some subliminal tapes when he's sleeping over the next couple of weeks.

As for myself... I never know what to be. The store costumes for women are never appropriate so you have to come up with something on your own and I'm just not that creative.

Brett has some options though... he could be a cowboy...

or a twilight character.

With all of the costume deciding I can't forget to choose a new creepy recipe to make.
I wonder which one it will be... Maybe spooky eyeball tacos?

Too Close to Home

Sometimes things happen that make you think about what your priorities are. Last night was one of those times. There was a fire on the mountain close to our home. As we watched the reports on the news and watched the fire from the street we wondered how close it would come to our home. Would we have to pack up and leave? What would we take if we had to go in a hurry. We did not have to evacuate thankfully, but the evacuation came to 15 blocks south of us. That's close. Four homes were burned in the fire sadly and I felt bad for the woman who said that she lost all of her children's baby photos.

I mentioned priorities right? Brett and I made a brief list of things to take if we had to leave. Baby photos were on my list. I was surprised by how small my list was as I mentally went through the contents of my house and realized that most things just were not important or could be replaced. Certain things I could not, however, and they included baby and wedding photos as well as my journals. From 2006 on I have photos on hard drives thankfully so those albums I could safely leave behind without crying over.

The weirdest thing I wanted to take though... my choir music folders. But that's just because I didnt' want to have to try and replace all the music before Sunday - I'm too lazy!!! :)

At Your Age...

I've always thought of myself as one who was not easily offended. A recent doctor's appointment however made me realize that I do have my sensitive spots. Let me backtrack a little however...

When I was younger I would get offended when someone would think I was younger than I really was. In fact my sisters thought this was REALLY funny. They would have people guess how old I was and of course they would guess 11 when I was in fact 15 or 16. Ouch!!! April and Sheri would laugh and I would go lick my wounds in my bedroom.

Even into my 20's while serving as a young women leader I would get mistaken as a teenager. REALLY? I thought. Oh to be back in my 20's now...

This year I turned the dreaded 4 0. No one is mistaking me as being younger than I am. In fact... I had the opposite experience happen to me at the doctor's office when I went to get my hand checked out by a specialist. I had slipped on the ice in my driveway back in January. I went in to have an x-ray back then which cleared me of any break or fracture so the primary care doctor said it was probably an injured ligament or tendon which would heal on its own. I wore a splint for a month and a half. Well here we are in September with my hand still bothering me. I decided to see a specialist. In the course of my appointment he used the phrase, "AT YOUR AGE..." three times!!!! I'm pretty sure my jaw dropped. HONESTLY??? How old does this guy think I am??? So his theory is either arthritis or a fracture (because doctor office x-ray machines aren't the clearest).

I'm hoping for a fracture because AT MY AGE I don't want arthritis!!!

Mother of the Year Again???

The title of this blog could also read "The non-toy toy sale." But I didn't want people accidently surfing into my site thinking there was an actual toy sale much like they drove into my neighborhood the other Saturday following the toy sale sign at the end of the road leading to our yard thinking there was an actual toy sale. They, too, were fooled. Most just drove around in a circle and drove away but a couple got out to glance and then got back in their cars and drove away. One kind family in a van actually bought lemonade and chips from the boys because really.... there weren't very many toys.

Why the title of "Mother of the Year Again??? The day before I spent hours going through the toys to get potential toys to sell. I had quite a pile. I even got a container out of the garage of toys that the boys hadn't missed for months ("extra toys" they were labeled) and thought this would be a great time to get rid of them....wrong. "I couldn't sell this"... "that is too special"... and so on and so forth. They wanted to sell lemonade. O.K. We went to the store and bought lemonade, chips, popsicles and suckers.

Saturday dawned and after setting up and sitting out with them in the heat for 45 minutes and no one coming (we live at the end of the neighborhood) the boys were complaining that not a single sale was made (I was relieved that no one was showing up to the paltry "sale" so I was saved some embarassment... I know... don't pass the halo yet.) After seeing their distress increase I just couldn't stand their suffering any longer. "I suppose.... " I hesitate "if we made a sign" I can't believe the words come out of my mouth...

So we make a sign and draw unsuspecting victims to the non-toy toy sale. Suckers! Well, maybe it won't get me mother of the year again but what mother isn't a sucker sometimes for situations like these? They were so excited to have customers.

Time to Say Goodbye

There are days when my kids pose such challenges that I tell my sister that I wish I had a fast forward forward button to bring me to the day that my youngest leaves on his mission so I can breath that sigh of relief - no more yelling upstairs to tell boys to stop messing around in the bathroom when I have given what I thought was a simple task of brushing their teeth, no more telling boys to give each other "personal space" at the counter, in the car, on the couch, around the house, in the pew at church, no more silly tattles like "he called me a Pootah!" when they don't even know what a Pootah is (neither do I for that matter).


My sister, I think, wants a rewind button as her youngest son is leaving next week for a mission. I can't believe he is already grown up enough to go but it is true. Two years he will be gone. I know my boys will miss him and miss his teasing. We will miss his funny expressions and his model poses for the camera.




He will do a wonderful job though in South Carolina and I'm sure that the two years will fly by. Lake Powell won't be the same without him but he'll be back in no time to show us more awesome moves on Pirate Island.
Good luck Broc!

Home at Last!

I can't believe I am finally back in my own bed. I had forgotten what it was like to get a decent night's sleep. Brett jokingly refers to me as the princess in the story of the Princess and the Pea but he is right. All conditions have to be just right in order for me to sleep... the temperature, lighting, sheets, mattress firmness, sound (meaning no sounds). Conditions must be optimal for maximum sleep hours to be reached. When I'm not in my own bed....Yikes! Needless to say I'm quite sleep deprived when I go out of town even though I LOVE to go on vacation.

We just returned from our trip to Canada and of course indulged in all things Canadian. Is it possible to overdose on Tim Horton doughnuts? I picked up Timbits every couple of days (I gained a couple of pounds thanks to the Timbits). Quite a few corners sported a couple of Tim Hortons as well as an additional doughnut store so 3 out of 4 corners had doughnut places.

I had the boys try one of my favorite sour candies called Fizz that I would eat as a child...




The boys were kept busy in my parents' pool for most of the trip...




I was kept busy listening to my grandmother tell me about all the family history stories and scanning photos and documents so I can work on another family history book ... hers.


We also had to eat at Swiss Chalet and our favorite Mandarin all you can eat buffet. I stocked up on my favorite sour key candies (and have a canker already in my mouth - ouch!). And of course brought back some chocolate bars that I love (I can't eat my all-time favorite anymore though because it has peanut butter in it and I'm allergic) :(

We also took a trip to Marineland this year (I haven't been since I was a child).










Summer is going by too quickly and I know that soon it will be time to return to school. We have created some great memories so far this summer and we have one more month to create a few more!