Christmas highlights

Wow! Christmas is over. The anticipation builds for at least a month and then in a matter of hours, it's all done. I love Christmas but there is such a sense of relief when the day is over. Especially when it starts so early. Our children waited until 5:25am this year before they went downstairs. That was so nice of them! Here are a few of their favorite things this year. Things with wheels played an important part of our gifts this year.

G-man really wanted a snowboard but had to settle for Shawn White snowboarding game for the Wii.

Sweet Pea loves her very own scooter! No more hitching a ride with her brother to school.

Mr. E with his new in-line skates. Happy day!

Little A is very happy with his Iron Man suit!

Before Chaos insued.

Of course, we cannot forget, hubby's ambitious State to Gate ride. He started downtown at the state capital and rode his bike all the way to The Golden Gate Bridge. 117 miles (I think) It took him 8 1/2 hours. He even had enough enery to walk halfway across the bridge when he was done! Wow! I'm afraid to even ask what's next???

Merry Christmas

For those that may be new to our blog, welcome! You see, I just sent out the bulk of my Christmas cards last week and with it, I attached our blog address. I just wanted to welcome anyone visiting for the first time. I hope that you enjoy keeping up with us. Feel free to stop by any time and don't be too shy to say hello. (hint, hint, Em)
We've been receiving lots of Christmas cards. It's always fun to check the mail to see who sent us a card. I love to see pictures of family and friends that we haven't seen in a long time. I enjoy reading the Christmas letters and catching up with you. This blog is as close as I will get to writing another Christmas letter. As my children grow and get busier, I find myself looking for ways to simplify my life. Cutting out the Christmas letter was top on my list. I'll try to at least keep a card coming each year. Thankfully, because of our blog, I feel no guilt over that decision whatsoever. I realize that it may be a lazy way of communicating but it's definitely better than nothing! Until next time, enjoy.

Are you kidding me?

I happend to be coming home the same time as Sweet Pea today. As usual, she was walking in the gutter. She hopped in and I asked to see her "treasures." Would you believe me when I say she found yet another one of those unmentionables.!! I'm not kidding. (sorry no picture today, one was enough) She picked this one up because it was "cool." This one was pearly and the center piece moved up and down. Yikes! I now see that I did not give her enough information yesterday as too why we don't pick up someone elses garbage! I'm so glad it's Friday.

"Treasures"

Every morning Mr. E and Sweet Pea scooter to school together. The problem is we only have one working scooter. The solution is a compromise. Mr. E does the scooting while Sweet Pea squats down in front and holds onto the bar. It's very cute to see them scootering along. Although on occasion they have hit some bumps that have sent them crashing to the ground. On one such occasion, Sweet Pea had her sweater tied around her waist. On the zipper are these two cute little pom poms that hang down. Well, the pom poms got caught in the wheel and down they go. There was a little road rash that went with that crash. Another thing they enjoy doing on their way home is to look for "treasures" in the gutter. They come home with all sorts of things, rocks, nails, nuts and bolts, broken toys, paper, pens, pencils, hair bands all sorts of fun things. Today I happened to be waiting for them outside, and I see Sweet Pea riding the scooter in the gutter, as she gets closer I can see she's holding something in her hand. As you can imagine I was really excited to see the fun "treasures" she found today. Note to self, remind kids not to collect treasures after garbage day!

Other fun things that happened today. No babysitting kids today so I thought I'd run a few errands. Not thrilled when Little A woke up with a headache. But feed him some breakfast, gave him some meds and tucked him on the couch while I got ready. I was pleasantly surprised when he fell back to sleep, which allowed me some uninterrupted getting ready time. He woke up singing the Star Wars version of Bye, Bye Miss American Pie. That's a good sign I thought! So we proceed to stop #1 not too bad, he was patient. Then on to a fabric store but it wasn't where I thought it was so I go on to Stop #2. Starting to whine. Just one more stop I say. Off to Staples, need ink cartridges, get the ink but, hey, I'm here so lets look around. Starting to get impatient now, he wants to go home. Head to the register, have to wait in line, the women in front of me has a little boy just younger than mine, that's running everywhere, touching everything, and I'm thinking, wow, glad mine's not doing that. Oh good, it's my turn, she turns to leave and I set my ink down and look at Little A, who is notably quieter now, and starts throwing up, all over the cart, himself, the floor! AAAHHHHH!!!!! ok, ok, think. AAAAHHHH, I have nothing! I'm out of the stage of having to carry around wipes, diapers, etc. I turn to the cashier who is completely helpless, "ummm, can you please get me some paper towels?" So I try to clean up the best I can, the cashier continued helping the other people in line after I moved out of the way. How nice. The only person who asked to help was the lady in front of me who went to her car and got some babywipes for me. Because, after all, she's a mother and understands these things happen. But as she left, I'm sure she said, Wow, glad mine's not doing that.

Today Mr. E got a retainer to help straighten a crooked tooth in the front. Here's a little clip, just in case you wanted to see.

Christmas Cards

It's always a happy day when it's time to take our annual Christmas picture! Some years it's just the kids, other years, it's the whole family. It just really depends on my mood that year. This year we ventured to do a family picture. Anyone that has children knows that this is a difficult task. It's really difficult to have happy children when it's cold outside and they're shivering, hence the turtle look from Sweet Pea, and you're trying to get them to be still and smile. Just the fact that we manage to take a picture, is all that I can hope for at this point.

I babysit a little boy, I'll call GiGi. Little A and him are one day apart, although you'd never know it, and best buddies. Yesterday, they were playing Alvin and the Chipmunks, and Little A says I'm going to be Theodore, the one with the A on his shirt. I guess I better start working on his letters with him!

Catching up

G-man had to make a pinata for his Spanish class over Thanksgiving break. This is the final project. His name is Snowball.

The day after Thanksgiving our Zoo and Fairytale Town are free. (just bring a canned food donation, or not they'll still let you in) We had a great time and we got there before the crowds. I guess everyone was still shopping at 10am.

Sweet Pea and Mr. E enjoying their turkey legs. It took them two days to eat them.

This year was pretty mellow. My sister and her family usually come up every other year, this was the other year so we invited Grandma and Grandpa to share in the festivities. Everything was delicious and we had a great time. After dinner, hubby's sister and family came up for dessert and we hung out and played Apples to Apples. The day went by much too fast.

What's Thanksgiving without football? On Thanksgiving morning our friends host a football game at their house. Hubby has gone for the past 8 years, as the kids have gotten older, they have joined him too, but this is the first year I've ever gone because I'm usually home preparing dinner. I tried to snap a couple pictures of the game. Hopefully you can pick out G-man and Mr. E. Hubby was somewhere else on the field. All in all a fun-filled day. Now, it's already December and it's time to look ahead to Christmas (I can only think about one holiday at a time) Now, I'm ready to put all my energy into Christmas. On Monday for family night we got all the decorations out and put up our tree. I have to say that I didn't do anything! My children are at the age where they want to do the decorating and being the nice mom that I am, I let them! Ok, Ok, the next day I did have to spread some of the Christmas ornaments around the tree so they weren't all clustered in one spot and I put some garland on my staircase. But I just watched as they unpacked ornaments and decorations like they were seeing them for the first time and listening as they reminisced about who made what ornament and when. It's wonderful. It might not be Pottery Barn perfect but I'm ok with that. Although, it's only been the last couple years that I've let that fantasy go. With age, I've come to the realization that my house will never look like a magazine cover. So there is no reason to stress about it. I used to get so frustrated and stressed out when the kids would rip open all the Rubbermaid boxes and start pulling things out and putting them up with no rhyme or reason. But now I just let them. I might have to move or rearrange later but that's ok because they are having fun and working together to create their own beauty and traditions that hopefully they will always remember. I love Christmas!

More Cinderella pictures

Vanna, I mean Liv showing off the Carriage that Hubby made for the play. (It was very cool)
When the play was over, everyone wanted their picture taken in the carriage.

Last night of the play. This is the other dress I made.

Trying on the glass slipper.

Liv and her dancing partner.

Happy Day!

I just paid 1.79 for gas today!!! Yipee!

Twilight Review

Friday night we had our Twilight Party. We had 6 kids ranging in age from 12-15. The night started with Pizza making, playing at the park, Twilight Trivia, glow stick wars and ending of course, with the movie. Here is my review of the movie. First of all, I did not allow myself to be excited or get my hopes up about the movie, therefore I was not disppointed. With that said. The movie did nothing to draw in the viewer. One of the things I loved best about the books was the class and maturity that Edward has. He is respectful, charming, classy, graceful, a true gentlman. I did not feel that at all from Robert Pattinson. I felt they put too much of a grunge twist on the characters which I did not envision at all in the books. He didn't have the "look" I thought Edward should have either and they went overboard on the makeup. The movie was choppy and I didn't feel like they developed the relationship between Bella and Edward as well as they could have. I did not care for Jasper either. He looked like Edward Scissorhands. (Although, I liked Johnny Depp as Edward Scissorhands) If you remember that movie. In fact, when he first appeared the audience laughed. I did however like Alice, James and Victoria. They were a good match. My friend that went with us said she felt like she was watching an after-school special. It definitely got the attention of all the teenie boppers out there and maybe the next movie will have a bigger budget and the acting will improve. I would like to watch it again but I'll wait until it comes out on video.

Movie Night!

11.21.08

Where will you be?

I'll be at the movies seeing Twilight! I go to this movie with much apprehension. Although, I'm excited to see it, I feel I will probably be disappointed and let down. I understand that certain things need to be cut out because of time contranst but I really dislike it when they change the story or events of the book. I'm just trying not to get my hopes up too much and then I won't be disappointed. I'm having a little Twilight party before hand and then we'll go see the show. Either way it should still be fun.

Cinderella

Liv was in a production of Cinderella this past weekend. She was a townsperson. She had a couple of lines and learned some ballroom dancing! She made a lot of new friends and had a fabulous time. She's measures almost everyday, She's almost as tall as me! I hope to get some more pictures from other cameras, but that will come later.

Liv and her BFF, Court. Court was the wicked Step-Mother and did a fantastic job!

Although you can't see it, they're posing on the platform that Hubby made and I made the flags.

He also made the pumpkin carriage but I don't have that picture yet.

Getting ready!

Defending our Values and Beliefs

I can believe I'm living in a time where supporting and defending our values and beliefs are criticized and intolerable to some. I'm posting the latest news that's happening in our local community. Please check it out and if you fell compelled to help, please do so.
Click on Scott Eckern to read his story and then go to this blog that has been started on his behalf. Thank you!

Our day off!

This truly was a rare day off for us. All the kids were out of school for Veteran's day and I didn't have any babysitting kids AND hubby had off too. So, to mark the occasion we wanted to get out of town and do something fun. We decided that we would head over to San Francisco and go to the Academy of Science. Liv and G-man were greatly disappointed last month when the little ones got to go without them. Unfortunately, everyone had the same idea and the place was packed! So much so that we only spent a couple hours there before we decided that we would rather spend the rest of the time at the beach, so off to the beach we went.

I think the beach is one of my kids favorites places to go. While everyone struck a manly pose, Sweet Pea decided to try out a new dance move instead. (I think) While it was still a bit chilly, it never stops anyone from getting soaked.

The war against Prop 8 still rages. Stronger than before the election it seems. I think the No supporters were actually surprised that it passed. So now all their energy is focused on overturning the vote of the people and their efforts have been directly toward our Mormon community. Statistically, we were but a small number that accounted for the passage of the Proposition but I think we're an easy target so the opposition is taking advantage of that. It's been extremely disheartening to see and hear that our Temples and churches are being targeted with bomb threats, and vandalism. We took the opportunity to wave signs on a corner one Saturday and saw a first hand account at how intolerant the opposition was against us. Rude remarks, rude gestures, inexcusable language (even in front of children)butI never felt our lives were threatened. I have to say after reading the above article (click on temples) I'm not so sure. What validates my stand on this issue is to just do a brief comparison of the two sides. One demonstrated peacefully, with sign waving, smiles, and honking, the other protesting with stealing lawn signs, fist shaking, destroying property, hateful language. And apparently, we're the ones being hateful. Members of our church are having to stand guard our buildings to keep them safe. Sadly, I never thought I'd see the day when our religious freedoms would take a back seat to sexual freedoms. So back to the courts it goes. Where I will not be surprised to see prop 8 overturned (again) Anyone ready to move to Missouri?

On a fun note. My ambitious hubby has taken to some pretty exciting bike trips lately, his last one took him to UC Davis. Round trip he logged 67 Miles!! Wow! I'm so impressed. All this biking is in preparation for his ride to San Francisco next month. Just thinking about it makes my butt sore!

It's Over!

Yeah!, I am So glad the elections are over! I've had my fill of political endorsements of every kind. TV commericals, Radio ads, mail flyer's, lawn signs. Enough is enough. I do have to say how happy we all are that Prop 8 passed! (Although, I don't think we've heard the end of it.) I think it was a good experience for our family to have actively participated in supporting this proposition. Hopefully, they have learned that it's ok to stand up for what you believe in.
In the meantime, hubby has been busy building a pumpkin carriage for the Cinderella play that Liv is in. Of course, I didn't take a picture before we had to bring it to the set but it turned out very cute. I'll try to remember to take a picture at the next practice. Have a good week everyone.

Happy Halloween!

A quick Halloween photo. A viking, a witch, I don't really know what Liv was, and Yoda, gotta love the ears, hubby made them. G-man went out with friends, so he wasn't with us. We had fun even though we got rained on.

Getting back on track

For 3 weeks I did really well watching what I ate and going "sugar free". I was really starting to feel good about myself. But then, for the last 2weeks, I have been in a hormonal induced eating frenzy that is out of control! It's terrible. Next month, I'm going to have to be locked up and chained.

Last Birthday of the Year

Good Morning Birthday Boy! I'm having a hard time believing that I'm a mother to a 15 year old! I'm kinda thinking that I'll be feeling that way with each passing birthday from now on. To celebrate, we went to a place called Monster Golf. It's an indoor glow-in-the-dark mini golf. It was very fun!

They have a huge clown's face against one wall. For the last hole you have to hit your ball onto his tongue and into his mouth. Liv HATES clowns and had her back toward it anytime it was in view.

My boys!

Here we are TRYING to take a picture. The creature we were sitting in front of started moving and the little ones took off. I'm trying to tell everyone to sit back down when hubby takes the picture. That was the end of our photo session.

A New Addition!

We've been wanting a piano for years. But because no one plays, it's hard to justify the expense on a "what if". Luckily for us, someone in our old ward was giving this one away, and you just don't say no to a free piano. Obviously, it is very old. Early 1900's I'm told. But I love the oldness of it. It needs a lot work, new ivories, tuning, refinishing. But hey, it works! And since no one plays, we can't tell it's out of tune! (Don't worry, we will have it tuned soon) I have to say, I'm impressed with how the kids have showed an interest in learning. Years ago, I bought the church books on how to learn to play the piano and they have actually been trying to learn. G-man even played a simple melody for FHE! We Love it!

Yes on Prop 8

As you may or may not know, in 2 weeks California will be voting on Propostion 8. This propostion is about saving and defining traditional marriage as "only marriage between a man and a women is valid and recognized in Californina." The debate on this issue has really been heating up lately. With only 2 weeks left before election day, it seems both sides are hard at work to get their voices heard. I'm not one to usually take a stand and advocate any particular issue but this one, I felt like, is just too important. This issue is important to me and my family because we believe in traditional marriage and all that it stands for. I do believe that marriage is ordain of God and should be kept as such. It's people and government that have taken God out of marriage. This propostion will have far-reaching effects on our churches and schools. I don't want my children learning about alternative life-styles at school. That is a parent's resposibility. No on Prop 8 will tell you that won't happen, but in Mass. where gay marriage is legal, it already has. Even though you may not live in California this could very well effect you. They say that if this passes here, it won't be long before you will be seeing this kind of propostion on your own ballots soon. There are many good websites out there to get informed and I just wanted to pass them along. Get involved. We can use all the support we can get.
Go to Protect Marriage or WhatisProp8

Tolerance doesn't mean acceptance.

Off-Track Fun!

Another adventure for my off-trackers. This time hubby took them to Mount Diablo. They first climbed to the top of Mt. Diablo and then to a place called Rock City. It has cool sandstone formations. So the kids got to do their favorite thing, climb. It was probably a good thing I wasn't there or I would have been a wreck! Again, another memorable trip with Papa.

Recipes

I've been meaning to add some recipes to my blog for while, but I'm barely managing to post at all. I ENJOY cooking this time of year. Yummy homemade soups, fresh baked breads, pot roasts, turkey with all the trimmings, pumpkin cookies and muffins!! All those foods you've stayed away from in the summer because it's just too hot to cook anything! Makes me hungry just thinking about it. I just recently made a Southwest Chicken Chili, (my husband will debate with me that this is actually a chili, but I didn't make up the name, so you can call it what you want.) and these yummy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Yes, I did indulge, just trying not to go overboard. So anyway, here are the recipes, hope you enjoy them.

Southwest Chicken Chili (soup)

In a large pot add:

3 whole chicken breast (cooked)cut up into bite-size pieces

1 cup chopped onions

2 cloves of garlic

Cook in 2 tsp of oil

Then add:

2 cans stewed tomatoes (if you want some kick, sub 1 can for diced tomatoes with chilies)

2/3 cup mild salsa

1 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp salt ( I don't use this)

1 can ranch style pinto beans

1 can bush baked beans ( I usually use chili beans instead, I bet black beans would be good)

Heat through and serve with sour cream, green onion, shredded cheese, diced avocado, chips. MMmm good.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

4 cups flour

2 cups oats

2 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp salt

Mix dry ingred together.

1 1/2 cup soften butter

2 cups brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 16oz can Libby pumpkin or it's 15 oz I can't remember

a bag of chocolate chips, I prefer milk chocolate

Mix together wet ingred. then add dry to wet and mix all together, add chocolate chips and Bake at 350 for 10-15 min. It depends on the size of the cookie. I tend to make mine big so I bake for 12 min. This dough will be moist and sticky. Enjoy!

P.S. Liv heard this song and has been singing it ever since!

This week

This week hubby took Mr. E and Sweet Pea to the newly renovated Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. Hubby has been waiting a long for it to open. They had a great time and he even took pictures.


After visiting the Academy they made a stop at the beach. Always a good time.
Unfortunately I couldn't go because I still had daycare kids that I had to watch but we do plan on going again next month when all the kids are off for Veteran's Day. This week I've been making dresses for Liv. She is a part of a little Musical Theater group that a lady in our Stake started. This year they are doing Cinderella, the Rodger and Hammerstein version. She is one of the townspeople and needs two dresses. Luckily my dear friend, Ashlee ,helped me out and interpreted the directions for me. I have one finished and I just need to put a zipper in and hem the other. I've come to the conclusion that I don't like sewing dresses. Too complicated. I'll take a picture when I'm all done.
Oh, My sister did great in the marathon by the way, she was worried for nothing, although I knew she would be. She calls me when she's done and tells me it was her slowest marathon ever. Her and I have different opinions about what slow is. She still ran it in 3:45:45 and would qualify for the Boston if she wanted to. Oh well, I guess that's the problem when you run fast it's harder to beat your own time. Luckily for me I'm slow enough so I still feel like I have room for improvement! Although, this week I only ran once. It's getting chilly in the morning and it's hard to get the motivation to put on running clothes when you're cold.
I've done really well without eating sugar. I went two full weeks without cheating. (not bad, for me) Then I had a brownie and went another week or so without any sugar. This is a really bad time of year to try to go without sugar. With all the holidays coming up, I really like to bake this time of year. The kids and I made sugar cookies tonight and I couldn't resist eating one. Oh well, at least I know I can do it even if it's just for a couple weeks. I do feel better anyway.

Sacramento Temple

Sunday after Conference, I needed to get out of the house. It was such a beautiful day and I needed some fresh air. So the kids and I took a little drive to the Sacramento Temple. I don't know why I have never done this before. It was so nice and peaceful to walk around the Temple grounds and the kids really enjoyed it. We saw the Temple turkeys that hang out there and even saw around 7 deer running around. It was very cool. We'll do this more often.

A little break

My two little elementary school aged kids are now off for the month of October. The benefits of year round school. The downfall, the two older ones aren't. Oh, well. Sometimes it's just nice to not have to worry about getting them out the door or doing homework. I'm looking forward to it.

Besides being General Conference this weekend, it is also the St. George marathon. Which means one year ago tomorrow, I ran my own marathon. It seems so out of reach now. Maybe, when little A is in school I may want to try again. We'll see. But my sister is running it! She isn't feeling too positive about it because she's had some problems with her hamstring but she's going for it anyway. Good Luck! I'll be tracking you!

A night out

A nice dinner out to celebrate my friend Ashlee's b-day. I made her little birthday crown and she was such a good sport she wore it all through dinner!

Ear Tubes

We arrived at 6:30 in the morning.
And they still have a sense of humor.

Before the surgery.
After.

Both the boys got these cute little teddy bears. Mr. E grew really attached to his.

All went well. Except on the way home when Mr. E threw up in the van. Poor thing he was so hungry from not being able to eat. He was able to drink apple juice after he woke up but it didn't sit well. We went for a follow up yesterday. Mr. E's ears are great but G-man has to return in 3 months. Part of his eardrum is resting on the bones of hearing which isn't good. If it doesn't get better he will have to have another surgery to fix it. =(

Week One

One week ago I started my "sugar free" eating habits. I thought I'd let you know how I did. If you're not interested skip it, but I told myself that I would blog about it to keep myself accountable for my actions. So I'm just following up. Day one was great, no problems. Day 2 was tricky as we had people over for dinner and dessert was brought to help celebrate a guests birthday. I couldn't be the only one NOT eating dessert so I caved and had a small slice of pie. Of course, not wanting to bring the temptation home to her house, my friend left it at mine! By Saturday night there was little sliver left that I was anxious to see go, so I had to eat that. By Sunday, with all the treats gone from the house, I was ready to start again. Now it is thursday and I haven't had any treats. Did I define my definition of treats? By going "sugar free" this means to me that I'm not eating cookies, cakes, a tub of frosting, pastries, ice cream, chocolate, candies, things like that. I don't drink soda, so that's not a problem for me. I will, however, still eat my Activa yogurt (9 grams of sugar) and my cliff bars, they help me get over that mid-day hurdle. So far it's worked well and it hasn't been that bad. I know it's not completely sugar free but I have to be realistic. Baby steps. Just in case you were wondering I didn't eat the Sees peppermints, but my friend did get her b-day present early! We'll see how I do this next week.

Yesterday morning was spent in the hospital with Mr. E and G-man. They both were getting tubes put in their ears, AGAIN. Mr. E's 2nd time and I think we are up to G-man's 8th. I got some cute pics of the boys with their hospital garb on but it's on my phone (because I never remember my camera) so I'll have to do that later when I figure it out.

Happy Fall!

I Love this time of year! Even though we live in California and we don't have the beauty of the East Coast foliage. If you look hard enough you'll find it. Even if it is man made. You can walk into any Joann's and purchase any variety of leaves you want! Growing up on the East Coast, it was as easy as going into your own backyard to pick up any color of leaves. It's a little harder to do that here. Just the same, the temps are cooling (in the 70/80's, 50's in the morning) No more air conditioning, windows are open, fans are on and it's beautiful. You can go outside during the middle of the day for more than 5 minutes and not feel like you are dying. Now is the time of year to stop sweeping your porch because it's chic to have the leaves blown up by your door, a little dust and some cobwebs. Even the smell of the air is changing. I just love it. Hope you, too, find the beauty around you and embrace it. Enjoy your day.