Traditions continue...

I always love to go see the lights downtown and this year was no exception. Of course it was freezing cold but beautiful as usual. The kids didn't last very long. All right, all right! I didn't last long either... let's be truthful!!! I was cursed with poor circulation despite my northern origins which SHOULD prepare me for cold winter temperatures. I really prefer milder weather (in other words I'm a wimp).
So we very quickly circled around at a brisk walk (run)... ooohed and awed and then booked it to the car to go home and have a treat and cuddle up in our warm beds.

New Traditions

Christmas is full of traditions and this year is no exception. We decorated our tree as soon as was socially acceptable. We visited Santa to tell him all of our wishes for Christmas gifts. We have made neighbor treats and delivered most of them. We are in the process of watching every Christmas special imaginable (and enjoying the neighbor treats delivered to us).

This year I'm hoping I have started a new tradition... we'll see how it goes. My sister and I went to The Festival of Trees and after bidding and failing to obtain a few items (one I lost by $5.00 in silent auction). I moved on to the gingerbread section of the festival and got this wild idea to buy a GIGANTIC gingerbread house. To my surprise I won the bid. I wish I had a picture of the house but I failed to bring a camera with a charged battery with me to the festival... and in my wisdom I decided to keep the huge gingerbread house at my mother-in-law's house.

Having the house at her place inspired her, however, to revive her tradition of making graham cracker houses with the grandkids. My kids went over on Monday night and this is what they have to show for their efforts....

Back to life

We spent a week in November in California at Laguna Beach and Disneyland with Brett's brothers and his parents. Thanks to Brett's mom and dad our hotel costs as well as 3 days at Disneyland/California Adventures were covered. When Brett was growing up his Grandpa would treat his kids to a trip to California every other year and this created some great memories for their family. We even stayed in the same hotel.

We had a fantastic time and it was the first time at Disneyland for Wannabe, Giggles and Smiley. They all love Star Tours which was no surprise as all my boys are avid Star Wars fans (especially Wannabe). My older boys LOVED Tower of Terror but the younger boys "did not wike it".






Churros were also a quick favorite as a treat. I remembered that food was expensive at Disneyland but I was still shocked when it cost me almost $7.00 for one slice of pizza. ONE SLICE. So I made sure to bring food with us the next time we went to Disneyland in a cooler.

Of course you know you are getting older when the Ferris wheel gives you major motion sickness to the point you almost throw up. It took me two hours before I could get on another ride. Pretty pathetic!!!





I couldn't believe that the kids spent so much time in the ocean when it was sooo cold. Kids are resilient though and will play in the water until their lips are purple.





They just can't wait to go back. Of course it helps to be distracted right now from going back to Disneyland with Christmas coming up.

So Happy to be Done

Should one be sooooo glad that a holiday is over? I am. I happy because I survived the month of October not just that I survived Halloween. Frankly I was disappointed with Halloween this year because I ended up staying at home with two sick kids. (colds with fevers precluded them from trick-or-treating). You don't have to feel too sorry for them though because we went to a Dinosaur Park that had trick or treating the week before and the night before Halloween our ward did a trunk-or-treat so the kids had plenty of candy for their buckets and lots of opportunities to wear their costumes.




Staying home on Halloween night did mean that I missed out on the fun at my brother-in-law's. I look forward to going to my brother-in-law's house every year to see what new spooky things he has come up with. This year it was a new costume. He went all out with this year's costume.

Keep in mind that Jeff is approximately 6'3. His head is where you see the black tear in the costume so that he can look out of the costume. Smiley was so scared of the costume he ran away so fast that he face planted on the ground. I'm sure his feet were still moving but he wasn't going anywhere.

Of course now I have to survive November and then December. Hand me a Diet Coke... make that a case!

Ghostly Dip

I haven't been very ambitious lately in my cooking but when I saw this idea in October's Family Fun magazine I just had to give it a try. Their recipe called for a humus dip which I wasn't so keen on. I decided on more of a 7-layer dip idea instead. Just choose your favorite 7-layer dip recipe and be sure to end with guacamole dip on top for the graveyard "grass". Then add crackers for gravestones using edible marker to write on some of the tombstones. Hardboil some eggs, peel them and cut slits for eyes and push in some olive slices for eyes and mouth. The trees are broccoli and celery and the graveyard fence is made of pretzels.

Fall is Here

I can't believe that October is already half over and Halloween will soon be here. I need time to slow down a little!!! Frankly I'm so tired from the day that I can't believe I'm doing a post right now but life has been so crazy that I have been posting rarely and I can't see it slowing down anytime soon so I'm just pushing through tonight.

Today we took some to enjoy the beautiful day and go to a local festival for some fall fun. It was packed!!! We had a great time despite long lines and we didn't even have time to half of the things there.







Next year we will have to go much earlier in the day to take it all in.

You're Supposed to do what???

Conference Sunday has come and gone. -sigh- I love Conference weekend especially Saturday when I can listen to the talks in relative peace. There were some really great ones this weekend that really hit home for me and of course will be totally highlighted in with highlighters when the Conference Ensign comes in and I read the talks again.

Conference Sunday, however, is an entirely different animal than Saturday. In the morning I try to have different "stations" for the boys in order to help them get through the two hours of talks.


There is Conference bingo set up at the counter with cards and Fruity Cheerios. When different words are said in talks you put a Cheerio on the square. When you get bingo you eat your Cheerios. At the table are crayons and activities from The Friend magazine as well as coloring books and pages. On the carpet are Friend magazines and children's church books to look at. Despite this kids keep trying to sneak out to go to other areas of the house to play. When you have 4 boys and 3 exits out of the room this is pretty easy to do and you have to keep doing a head count and inevitably have to call someone back.


Sunday afternoon is even harder with the session spent at Grandma's house. You're supposed to WATCH conference with 16 grandkids in the house running around with princess and spiderman costumes on while having a tea party in the background and riding cars over your feet and asking for refills of lemonade and more cake and pickles and chips and so and so knocked down what I built etc. etc. etc. Thank goodness for the modern age and the ability to tape conference on my dvr!

Then there is the family photo I take every fall. Count how many are in the family now. (thanks to Carin for her advice on camera settings by the way as this year's picture is an improvement over last year's). Carin has no control over the goofy faces in the picture however or the fact that the remote control only works up to a certain distance and I had to RUN to get into the picture. The first few attempts were unsuccessful...


The little ones were quickly showing their funny sides as the rain started coming down...


But I think this is the best one of the lot (there is a little editing to achieve this mind you)...


Can't wait until next year to do it all again!!! hahahaha!!!!!