Reflections

Yes, it is that time of year again. Time for the annual Reflections contest. The theme this year is Diversity is...

My oldest son has opted out which makes me sad because I love seeing the pictures that he takes every year. But there is still a week and a half for me to try and strong arm him into it. :)

My younger boys usually draw something but this year they have discovered the magic of playing with cameras and have each acquired their own camera. I wish I could say that it has something to do with their mother taking thousands of pictures every year but actually I believe it has more to do with Sheriff's inane silliness with the video feature on his camera. Thanks to the magic of garage sales this summer each boy has his own camera to play with.

Giggles was the last to take his picture for Reflections so we now have all three entry photos to prepare...

This is Smiley's:

Wannabe's:

and Giggle's:

If only the theme was based on Roblox, then I KNOW Sheriff would participate!

Fall Tradition

It is that time of year again. Time to take our kids to jump on giant inflatable pillows, go down giant slides, ride the mechanical bull and get lost in a corn maze.

I wish that I had precious pictures of all of these wonderful events from this year.

But I don't.

Usually I haul around my ginormous backpack with my large canon camera and accessories so that I can capture all of the memories. In fact we even had this great idea for a Reflections picture that one of the boys was going to take. But I woke up Saturday morning with a killer lower back ache from standing at the ironing board on Thursday and Friday for too long working on Christmas cards. My bad.

I was not going to bring the big camera. No problem. I'll bring the point and shoot I thought. I checked the battery. Full, it showed me. Great. After taking a couple of pictures it was down to 2/3rds battery. No problem, I thought. That should last the rest of the day.

Wrong. I went to turn the camera on and it gave me the message to change the battery pack. What good is it if it goes from full to 2/3rds to empty after taking 6 pictures? I was mad. I still am.

But I do crack up over the fact that Giggles and Smiley still had the same reaction this year over going through the inflatable creature that they did last year. And it is one of the few pictures I DID get...

BEFORE:

AFTER:

New Station Added

Every year for Conference Sunday I have different "stations" for the kids to help them handle the two hours of Conference. It isn't easy for kids to sit and listen to an hour and 10 minutes of a sacrament service let alone tack on another 50 minutes of Conference. I have a coloring station:

a bingo station, and a reading station:

Yesterday Sheriff asked if we could add a sleeping station. (He probably got the idea from watching his dad have a sleeping station over the years during Conference). I didn't think he would actually sleep so I said why not. He brought a pillow and blanket and made himself comfy on the couch.

Sure enough he didn't sleep (he's just pretending) and he picked up a Friend magazine and read from it.

I couldn't find my Conference bingo cards this year and was running around the house trying to find them. Brett told me to stop looking because he would make me some. I think I should have kept looking....

Brett has a very different sense of humor. There were spaces like whining, Smiley crying, Sunshine screaming, and tattling. Of course Brett knows the kids well because these spaces did not remain empty. They were filled more than once.

This weekend we also had my niece Sierra visit from Canada. I wish she could have stayed longer but I'm glad that we were able to have her stay for a couple of days. The kids just loved having her here. Hopefully she comes back despite my mad crazy home!

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!