Merry Christmas Eve.....Eve!!!!

We spent the morning doing laundry and doing chores so that tomorrow we can just relax, or play, or do whatever we want.  We are still trying to come up with some good Christmas Eve DAY traditions.  The evening, we light our Christmas Candle and read the Christmas story and sit around the tree with the Christmas lights on.  Then we set out our treats and just have fun together.  We usually play some games, but tomorrow we may do a puzzle or two.  We have had the card table up all week doing different puzzles. 
For lunch we took the boys to Trolley Square and went to Rodizio's.  It is a Brazilian restaurant.  It is their favorite place to go.  They get to pick what they want and how much they want.  They once again ate more than Greg and I did.  We finally had to tell Noah that we were leaving and tried to convince him that he had had enough.

Then we spent some time walking around and looking at all the shops.  My favorite is William Sanoma, the cooking store.  I have hopes of being a good cook if I have all the gadgets....  nothing has helped so far.  The boys and Greg love Brookstone.  Greg couldn't resist and got himself a mini-helicopter.  Remote controlled, with lights. 
They had a big display set up for Santa - but Santa wasn't there, so we took our own pictures.

Yes, those are plastic spoons stuck to their heads and Noah is surfing on the sleigh.  And people did stop and stare at us.  Gotta love the crazies.

This evening we went and delivered the last of our Christmas gifts and realized that in all of our grocery shopping we had forgotten to get the Eggnog.  I was ready just to forget the whole thing, but I was informed that we just couldn't have Christmas without eggnog for our Christmas glasses.  So the boys and I braved a trip to Walmart for eggnog.  And we survived!!!!  Thank goodness for the self checkout lanes or we would have been in line for an hour.
We made it home safe and sound with the eggnog (and MORE sugar cookies???????)

So now I am taking a bit of a breather while Greg watches "Psych" - funny show by the way.
I should be sleeping and gearing up for a long night tomorrow night, but I have to admit that I am excited and can't sleep.
We have had a fun week and I am not ready for the fun or the excitement of Christmas to be over yet.
But it is after 11 pm, so I think I will sign off now and post more fun things tomorrow!

Good night!

Another fun day!

Yesterday the boys and I went shopping for gifts for Greg.  I thought it was pretty funny, that as soon as we walked into the store the boys headed straight for the toys.  When I reminded them that we were getting Christmas presents from them TO dad, they said ;"Yeah, we know, that's why we are in the toy isle."  It was fun to see what they thought Greg would like - and what they wanted to get him so he could play with them.

The boys and Greg all agreed to come with me to see "Tangled" the new Disney cartoon, with me.  It was GREAT!  One of my favorite lines was ,"You broke my "smolder"."  I love going to the movies and I love that my family does too!

The weather has been crazy - mostly rain.  The storms come in daily - and it has wreaked havoc on my head.  So last night I ended up in bed while the boys went to piano and watched Dirty Jobs with Greg for the evening. 

I also did something to the muscle around my shoulder blade and have had to be hooked up to the TENZ machine - basically shock treatment.  It really does help though.

So today Greg and I were able to go grocery shopping together.  Nathan had been a really good babysitter so we are leaving him with the boys a little more.  We got food for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day dinner and breakfast.  I am SOOO looking forward to that.  Every year Greg and the boys make a big Christmas breakfast after we open presents and I get to take a nap.  It's fantastic!

They decided to watch movies and do puzzles for the afternoon.

Greg had a great idea to go and see the U2 Laser Light show at the Clark Planetarium. I was worried about Nathan getting motion sick, but he did great!!  Greg and I left feeling light headed and dizzy.

Noah was on "Mars" and informed me there is no oxygen so he is suffocating.....

Nicholas was reaching for the stars..... "Mom - earth is a rocky midget NOT a star."

And of course - Nathan finds the one video game there........

We had a lot of fun and can't wait to go back for the Christmas music light show!

Christmas Vacation

Even though the boys have been of track most of the month, this week feels like the real beginning of Christmas Break.  Greg is off for the week and we have fun things planned and I "feel" like it's Christmas!!
Today we decorated sugar cookies and finished our neighbor gifts and most of our baking.
(Tomorrow - movie day!!)

Noah like his frosting...Nathan, not so much.

Here's the difference....

Nicholas made this one for Santa........

He informed me, " This cookie is for Santa!"  (pause)...  "Nah..... that's too much sugar for an old man.  Don't want to kill him....."

The kids cracks me up!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!



More lessons learned

I have spent the last little while trying to change the background on my blog.  Usually this is a fairly simple thing.  But I have done something to it that won't let me change it.  So I get frustrated and just turn off the computer.  So now it has been over a month since I have posted anything.  Lesson learned??  I have been focusing on the not important "look" of my blog instead of posting all of the great things that we have been doing. Time to prioritize my thinking - again.

Thanksgiving was great.  We decided to do things a little different this year.  We went out sledding as a family in the morning.  The week before and of Thanksgiving, we had some great snowstorms and had a lot of great sledding hills.  We had a lot of fun.  The boys loved it.  Noah was the crazy man on the hill.  He would sled down on the tube, backwards, with his arms out and eyes closed.  We would have stayed out longer, but it was only 11 degrees, and it was FREEZING!  So we came home and sat in front of the fire and had hot chocolate.  Then later we had everyone over for dinner.

I was able to take grandma Johnson back up to Idaho and stayed a few days with her.  That Sunday we got 21 inches of snow!  It was a good thing we stayed home and made candy! 

I came back and was able to do the Kindergarten Christmas Party with Noah.  Greg was wonderful and came and read the class a story and helped with the BINGO.

The boysgot off track on the 3rd of December and we have been playing ever since.

Nicholas was baptized on December 4th.  The best birthday present ever!!!  It was a wonderful day for him and all of us.

 We scheduled orthodontic and dentist appointments since they are out of school.  Nathan got his expander removed, and then promptly lost the baby teeth it was glued to.  He thought he would be funny and hide his tooth from the tooth fairy, to test and see how magical she really is.  Needless to say, the tooth fairy didn't appreciate this AT ALL.    I explained the magic is in the fact that she knew he lost a tooth and that she was being gracious in leaving him money even though she couldn't find his tooth.

Nicholas had to have his front tooth exposed because it wasn't coming through on its own.

 

Nathan and Noah both got sick with respiratory viruses, so we got to spend time at the doctors as well.

We spent some time making candy - caramel is the favorite around here.

 

The boys had fun making their gingerbread sleighs.  Although they enjoyed eating them even more!

 Greg has this next week off and we are going to have more fun!  Bowling, movies, cookie making.  It is going to be great!!!

More to be grateful for

I have been trying to notice things throughout the day that I am truly grateful for that I usually take for granted.  Tonight I am grateful for dinner with the boys.  I love sitting around the table with them and talking about their days.  But it usually ends up with all of us laughing over something silly.  Usually some nasty bodily function - because boys think that's appropriate talk at dinner - or anywhere for that matter.  We usually do more talking than eating - no wonder Noah is so skinny! The sad thing is I can't remember what we talked or laughed about tonight - but I know we had a good time doing it!

Gratitude

I love Fall and I love November and I love Thanksgiving!  It reminds me to be thankful for everyone and everything I have in my life.  I have truly been blessed and sometimes forget to actually say "Thank You".
Today I am grateful for an amazing husband.  I keep telling him that I am the lucky one in our relationship.  He is more than I deserve.  I will spend this life and the next showing him how much I love him and how grateful I am to be his wife, his friend, his confidant, and the mother of his children.

I am grateful that he feels it is important for me to be at home with the kids.  So he works hard to make sure that I can.  I am grateful that he talks to me about work and asks for my opinion on things.
 I am grateful he drives carpool in the mornings on his way to work. We bought him a brand new car (Ford Escape) three years ago and he is now driving the mini-van everyday and I get the "new"car so he has room for all the kids.
 I am soooooooo grateful that he is a "hands - on" type of dad.  He is the project manager - which means I do the day to day homework with the kids, reading, spelling, vocab, math, etc., and he is in charge of all projects and book reports.  They have done some amazing projects.  I am grateful that he takes the time to show the boys how things work and answers their questions.
 I am grateful that he supports me and my "craft" habits.  He even is trying to show interest in things I make and do. (Not totally his fault - after 16 years of marriage I am realizing that Greg - and men in general - really do not care or have an opinion on anything cutesy and crafty.  Huh? - go figure)
I could go on for several pages, but you get the idea.
The thing I am most grateful for is that he loves me despite my moments of insanity (usually at 3 am), and despite my nervous laugh, my many character flaws, and my embarrassingly awful cooking skills - to name a few things.  He has loved me through thick and thin - literally. He is my best friend and puts up with me when I get "needy" and when I get all "emotionally girly" on him.  It doesn't happen too often thank goodness!
THANK YOU GREG!!!

Indian Project

Hmmmmmm.....  Didn't we just turn in a project last week?  Why, yes we did!  But Nathan came home Friday and said he had an Indian housing project due Wednesday, BUT he forgot to bring home all of the "stuff" he had to use to make it. Now the project had been assigned for over a month and this was the first we were hearing about it.  So Greg - being the project manager, started helping him Monday night.  We have spent the last 3 to 4 Family Home Evenings doing various school projects. They made good progress Monday, and Tuesday night (after scouts) they were finishing up his "Wikkiup" at around 8:45pm  when Nathan informs us that it was now time to make the "environment" piece of his project.  WHAT????  So they were up till 10 pm making a 3D "environment" for his Indian hut.  And the final result....................

We then found out that this was a "group" project and Nathan had volunteered to do the replica and the environment and the rest of his group did a poster.  

I am indeed grateful for Greg and his patience and his creativity.

Election Day

I took the opportunity today to vote.  I firmly believe it is EVERY Americans duty and responsibility to get out and vote.  I believe that everyone needs to do their research and know what and who they are voting for, otherwise - does it really matter who wins?
Now, my big beef for the last several years has been that I feel like I am voting for the person who will do the least amount of damage in the time they will be holding office - of any kind.
I absolutely loathe campaign commercials, at least the slandering ones.  Didn't your mother teach you that if you can't say anything nice, then ZIP IT!??  I don't want to hear you whine about what you think the other guy (or girl) did, or how unfair it is that they have more money, or whatever your advisors tell you to say.  I want to hear ONLY what YOU are going to do AND how you are going to do it.  And what consequences you will pay if you don't do what you promised if I vote for you.  Really, is that asking too much? (Rhetorical question.... I know.)  After the mudslinging is over - I feel that there really isn't a "winner" and I (we) are the biggest losers of all.  It goes back to the "lesser of two evils" thing.  I am waiting for the day when I get to vote for the "best of the best" not the "least of the worst".
I know that me sitting here complaining isn't going to change anything.  Nor is moving to New Zealand.  (Yes, we thought about it.)  I need to be more involved. I am just trying to figure out what to be involved in.  Getting involved in the "grass roots" effort of the Republican Party was very eye opening and frustrating.  People,~ talk is cheap - and so are "slogans" and those great catch phrases you toss out.  Answer the question with a real honest to goodness ANSWER!

 I am actually very interested in the Constitutional Party.  If  you haven't heard of them, you should look them up. Just weighing my options.
With all that being said -I feel a little better.

But without a doubt - I owe a great deal of gratitude to all those who have made it possible for me to even be having this conversation.... (with myself).
I am grateful to live in a country where I HAVE the opportunity to vote and to be a part of change.  I am grateful for the sacrifices of the men and women who believed and fought for my freedom and the freedoms of my family.  THANK YOU!

 And so I will continue to vote and be involved and work for the betterment of this state and country, and pray that good men and women (and common sense) will prevail.

On another note....

I have found my new favorite thing!  I know it may not excite most people, but it was enough to warrant a picture and a post.
I have been trying for years (5 to be exact) to get my porcelain kitchen sink clean.  Not just "clean", but metal scratch marks gone, stains gone,....really sparkly CLEAN.
I FINALLY DID IT!!!  I heard about a cleanser called "Bar Keepers Friend".  I got mine at Target, but you can get it anywhere in the cleaning aisle.

You wet your sink, sprinkle it on and then wipe it with a sponge or a cloth, and VOILA!!!

It looks BRAND NEW!!!!

Happy Halloween!

Technically it is the day before Halloween, but it is Saturday and we decided to go out tonight instead of Sunday for trick-or-treating. (As did most of the neighborhood.)  It was cold and rainy and the perfect night for football.  Greg took the kids out in the pouring rain and let me stay home and watch the U of U / Air Force football game.  Yes he is that wonderful!!!

Because it was so cold and rainy we convinced them to wear warm clothes, coats and the capes I had made a few years ago.  I will post pictures soon.

We carved pumpkins today and the boys had a good time.  They come up with their own ideas and Noah is not afraid to dive in and scoop some guts.

I decided to keep mine for a fall decoration, but I got to help Nicholas with his spider.

We made homemade pizza for dinner and then bundled everyone up to head out for trick-or-treating.

Yesterday for their school parties, Nicholas and Nathan went as lacrosse players that got beat up.  Nicholas had makeup that looked like a big black eye and a broken nose, with stitches.  Nathan had a broken nose and stitches and various bruises.  We were running late so I didn't get pictures of them.  They did look pretty good.  Unfortunately it wasn't that much of a stretch.  They come home with all kinds of bruises after every game and most practices.

I did however get a picture of Noah.  After an hour of changing his mind and trying on all the costumes we own (and there are a lot!).  He decided he wanted to be a Zombie.  So we made up his face and he was happy.  He did inform me that he just wasn't scary enough and needed more blood and a brain to eat.  I told him he would scare the other kindergartners - to which he replied, "Yah mom, that's the point!"  He is really only 6????

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Pumpkins!

 Noahs prized pumpkin.  He wanted a BIG one, but he wanted to be able to carry it himself.










Nicholas had to pick up every pumpkin to see if it felt right.

It's only 3 days till Halloween and we finally went and got pumpkins!  Yeah for us!

We had planned on going to a pumpkin patch, last week.  And it rained and snowed.  So tonight we decided to go after Greg got off work, but it was getting dark and the "patches" were closing.  So we ended up going to Smith's "pumpkin patch".  Things were pretty picked over, but we found some "original" looking pumpkins that will make some great looking jack-o-lanterns.


I "missed" while taking a picture of Nathan and got his feet as he was walking instead of his pumpkin. Nice flip flops dude!

 

And now for the next project......

It's book report time again for Nathan.  They have come up with some pretty creative "reports" for the kids to do,which is great - but it also means some pretty creative and time consuming tasks for mom and dad.  We have a very good system at my house.  I do the "day to day" homework - spelling, vocab, math, reading, piano, etc. ad Greg does the "projects". It is a beautiful thing!!!  I still help out on the projects if there is a "crafty" element to them.
So this time, Nathan had to read a mystery for his report.  Then find a container that represented something significant to the story.  He then has to fill this container with 5 items that tell the story.
He decide a "book" would be his container and he would fill it with relevant items.  The truly sad thing about it is that I don't even know the name of the book - but I know what it is about.
So the "book" falls in the crafty department.  We found a box that looks like a book and even opens like a book.  I should have taken a "before" picture, the "after" picture turned out pretty well.

Originally it was a big black book with white pictures of Rome on it.  Greg spray painted it brown and Nathan and I made the "cover".

He needed it to look like a very old worn book. I think we did a good job!

Now I get to let him and Greg worry about what to fill it with.

I get to work on the Kindergarten Halloween party I am in charge of Friday.

A Day in the Life of........ME!

So today - the only thing on my "to do" list, my  "really really need to do" list was to "help" Nicholas and Noah clean out from under their beds.  Which means I drag everything out and "pre-clean" the garbage and then let them organize what's left.
Easy enough - well, "simple" enough ............ in theory.  It is 7:00 pm and it is still not done.  But, here IS what got done, and how it came about.

First - I got up and walked on the treadmill while Greg did the elliptical.  Good quality time with my hubby.  Then we got the boys up, read scriptures, got breakfast done and lunches made.  Sent Greg off to work and Nick and Nate off to school.  Things are going pretty well .......... so far.
And then, A.D.D. happened.....

Noah and I were on our way upstairs to start on his room ..........when I noticed their bathroom was pretty dirty.  So we stopped in to "tidy" up.  I started cleaning the counter and realized there was "drips"  (of what - I don't even want to fathom a guess) on the wall and down the front of the counter doors.  So I started wiping that down and realized the floor had toothpaste on it - so I scrubbed the floor.  Noah cleaned the toilet and "spilled" on the mat.

So I went downstairs to throw them in the laundry and figured since I was doing that I might as well throw in the towels from my bathroom.  As I was getting the towels from my bathroom I noticed the bathtub had a ring.  So I started cleaning the tub and ended up cleaning the whole bathroom.  Then finally took the towels to the laundry room and noticed the garbage in the laundry room needed to be taken out.  So Noah and I took out the garbages and then I realized the kitchen garbage needed to be taken out - so as I opened the pantry to get the garbage bags, I noticed the sugar bucket was getting low.  So I went downstairs to get some more sugar and found the oatmeal, and decided I would make No Bake cookies for Gregs scouts tonight. So we came upstairs and filled the sugar and started making the cookies when i realized I needed a measuring cup from the dishwasher - that needed to be unloaded.  So we unloaded the dishwasher and found the medicine syringes on the top rack, and as I was putting them away I thought I would check the expiration date on one of the bottles of medicine.  It had expired - so I figured I better check the rest.

 And ended up cleaning out the medicine cupboard ............and then made cookies.  Then did the dishes and then FINALLY took out the garbage.
Then Noah and I spent a good 20 minutes taking apart his Zhu Zhu pet he got for his birthday.  It had a run in with a massive dust bunny - well more like a dust rhino- under the computer cabinet.  It got "gunk" tangled in the wheels that we had to clean out.

Finally, I decided to take a shower before it was time to take Noah to school.
On my way to the shower, I noticed my room needed to be "tidied" up a little. So 15 minutes later, I finally get in the shower.
Now there is only 20 minutes till we have to take Noah to school.  So we fix a quick lunch and finally get out the door for school.
Needless to say - when I got home from taking him to school - I crashed and took some "personal" time.
Then I "prepared" myself for the kids getting home - homework, book reports, and reading.
Then I fixed dinner and got things cleaned up for scouts.  Put away laundry, wiped down the counter tops.

And now...................... I blog.
And tomorrow I will try to clean out from under their bed............again.

The "Graveyard" Cake

Today is Noah's 6th birthday.  When did my "baby" get to be so big????  That just doesn't seem possible.  One thing I love about Noah is that he always wants to make his own cake.  So today he helped me with his cake.   He informed me it wasn't scary enough.  I have a feeling his birthday cakes are going to evolve into horror scenes over the next several years.  It will be interesting!  As long as we can always do it together!
                                                                                                                                                                                                
So here we are getting ready to decorate.

The first layer of "mud".

    Crushing up "the dirt"

The final Graveyard!

                                                            What a cutie!