Lessons

Learning new things can sometimes be fun, painful, scary, intimidating or all of them at the same time. Such is the case for Wannabe as he is currently enrolled for ice-skating lessons. There was only space for one child and I chose Wannabe because he needed something of his own and I wanted to see if doing this could build his confidence. It was a risk, I know, because he fell down A LOT. the first class (but the other kids fell down more).

He has really caught on quickly (not just a proud mother typing here). And is zooming along - as quickly as one can for having had two lessons - and he only fell down twice in the the second lesson. Quite an improvement!

Keeping Out of Trouble

Maybe you have been wondering why it has taken me so long to post something new... then again... maybe not. I, however, have been getting sick of seeing the same thing everytime I pull up the internet as Brett has set my blog as my internet home page so I know it is my cue to put up something new when I cringe at the same photo appearing over and over when I click on Safari.

But I haven't picked up my camera since Christmas so I didn't have any new pictures to share and I thought... what in the world HAVE I been doing????? oh right.... this....


This is my latest project (because we all need to take on at least ONE herculean task) of writing my family history.
I'm quite confident that my family hates me by now with the almost weekly assignments I have emailed them with (although I did take a break during the month of December). It isn't your traditional family history with old people, dates, deaths etc. This one has to do with collecting family stories, anecdotes, recipes, etc. Like the time my sister threw a book at me at church when I wouldn't share a treat with her that my secret friend gave to me, and the fact that our fridge was filled with food that had people's names on it and heaven forbid you ate something that belonged to someone else! Come to thing of it I still hide food from my husband that I don't want him to eat to be sure I get my share... I hope he doesn't check the Corn Flakes box!

Anyways, I've spent hours and hours at it this week organizing what everyone has sent me so far into some kind of coherent order. Not an easy task but I hope the end result will be worth it! I've decided that no matter how much you write of your personal history whether 2 pages, 20 or more, it is worth it to those you leave it for.


And hey... I'm already at 30 pages and that doesn't even include my dad's numerous poems or the photos that will be included.

Wish me luck!

Surviving the Holidays

Yes I managed to make it through Christmas and New Years'. The kids had a blast opening presents on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.


They were also able to dig into the Gingerbread house that I had purchased at a fundraiser. The size of the gingerbread house had all of kids eyes popping out of their heads (we had a big family dinner on Christmas Eve). I think they had more fun breaking it apart than eating though and it made a huge mess.
I might rethink buying the biggest house idea and go for something smaller with lots of candy on it. Food for thought.

We missed my sister and her family as she was sick with a deadly sinus infection. Can sinus infections be deadly? If not deadly then at least voice changing as she sounded like a man when we spoke on the phone. They were sorely missed for Christmas but she and her husband still made it up a few days later for which I'm grateful.

Now I just have to survive the kids being off-track after all the Christmas hype.

Help!!!!

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!