Ward Christmas Party

Well on Friday Bryce could not handle it anymore and he opened one of the gifts under the tree.

That night was our Ward Christmas Party. The boys were to be shepherds in the nativity program that they were doing. Earlier this month we went to the fabric store and picked up some clearance fall fabric and I made them costumes.



We had invited our next door neighbors who are not members to come with us and watch the little boys. I have invited her to other functions with the church about 4 or 5 times before and this was the first time she said "yes." Her and her husband came and had dinner and watched the boys. It was very nice.

The boys came on to the stage and Evan just kept waving and saying "Hi, mom." Carson kept telling him to be quite and stop waving. I loved the waving and "Hi, mom." It was so cute.



I was filming the program and you can't see very well in the little viewfinder but I soon noticed Evan was not by his brothers. I stopped the camera and tried to figure out where Evan went. I then noticed that he had migrated his way over through the crowds of kids and was kneeling next to the manger with baby Jesus. I almost started to cry. He wanted to be right next to baby Jesus and was not just standing there but kneeling next to Jesus. He didn't want to stand with the other shepherds but be next to Jesus. It really reminded me of what Christmas is about. It is amazing that our little children can teach us so much.

Cold

This morning was 2 degrees outside. Yikes my heating bill this month.

Blessed

Yesterday I don't know if it was due to hormones or being very stressed but this was my day. It is Wednesday. Wake up. Exercise (because I have eaten too many holiday treats.) Try to watch the time so I can call the doctor's office first thing to get an appointment in the morning before they are all gone to get antibiotics for Evan's ear. Order the last christmas present online that I need to get. Feed kids breakfast. Get kids dressed. Get Carson's lunch packed. Somehow get something for me to eat. Call doctors office got appointment. Find book to go to the library to drop off on the way to the doctor. Get Doug's shirts to drop off at the cleaners as well. Get Carson on the bus. Drive to doctor's. Try to get the kids to stay in the sick waiting room and not in the other one which has a climbing gym. Go back to doctors room. Try to keep the kids from going crazy in a 5 x 5 little room while waiting for the doctor. Talk to doctor. Get prescription. Go to Walmart to fill prescription. Shop at walmart for household items I forgot to buy yesterday at Walmart. Go over to Winco since the pharmacy says they are behind since their computers went down. At Winco pick up the last minute thing to complete the Christmas Eve dinner. Give the kids doughnuts from the bakery. (Great lunch, huh!) Go back to Walmart and stand in line at the pharmacy again. Get the prescription. Go to cleaners and drop off shirts. Go to Smiths and pick up the rib roast since Winco didn't have one. Stop off at neighbors house to pick up dart guns for mutual activity tonight. She isn't there. Bryce has fallen asleep in the car. Evan has fallen asleep in the car. Get home. Try to get Bryce into his bed with out waking him since we did errands yesterday and he only took a half hour nap the whole day and I don't want a repeat. Got Bryce to bed. Yeah! Evan is screaming out in the car. Go get Evan. Get Evan chocolate milk to calm him down and watch Go Diego Go. Bring in groceries that I bought. Put away groceries that I bought. Make sugar cookies for Carson's Christmas party at school. Try to keep Evan from sneezing on cookies. Try to keep them from frosting them badly since these cookies are for others than our family. Finally keep them happy by having them just shake the sprinkle. Whoa too many sprinkles everywhere. Frosting is on the floor need to wipe that up. Call Doug to inform him that the kids are alive but that I am feeling very stressed and not very happy because it is 4:00 and I still need to make dinner. Finish my lesson for mutual and round up all our bullets and dart guns. Promise kids a candy for every 10 bullets they find and gun they find. Try to get Carson to do his homework. Try to get Carson to practice his piano. Hold Bryce for the hundreth time. Try to find the ingredients for dinner. Try to keep Evan from pulling out the guns and darts and using them. Try to get Layne to clean up the floor since we haven't cleaned anything at all today. Layne and Evan are having a spinning contest. Evan knocks over the sofa table. Clean up spilled pots. Sweep up floor. Make dinner. Call girls to make sure they will be at their house when I pick them up. During this whole time not trying to yell and get frustrated at the kids which I don't think I am doing a very good job. Call Doug tell him I am going crazy. He lectures me on trying to simplify and what am I doing that is not necessary. Tell him that I could have maybe made the cookies on Thursday but that is besides the point and that I just need help. Get suburban cleaned out since I know have 7 kids to pick up. Load suburban. Try to finish lesson. Oh know is dinner burning. Put dinner on the table feed kids. Finish lesson. Yeah Doug is home.

Oh you are such a nice husband. You thought of me today and picked me up my favorite box of chocolates. It made my day turn around when he came in with the box of chocolates and told me that he loved me and still reminded me I need to simplify. I said he was probably right and that I probably could have saved an hour and a half by doing the cookies later. I don't know what I did to deserve him but he often makes me feel fabulous and reminds me of what my priorities are. I love you Doug.

This week

Well, Doug finished his trial this week on Thursday. I was so overjoyed. You never know how much a person does until they are not around. It was amazing the relief and help he does give just the couple of hours he is home with the kids at night.

Some of the weird things that happened this week was that Thursday night Bryce was sitting in his highchair and had finished dinner. He somehow managed to get a binki and was sucking on it when he clamped his teeth down on the nipple part and then pulled his binki out of his mouth. He basically bit off the nipple part of the binki. Doug rushed over to try and get the nipple out of his mouth but when he got over there, there was nothing in his mouth. So yes, Bryce ate his binki.

I have included a picture of my tree. Hopefully you can see somewhat the decorations around it. The boys are so excited for Christmas but luckily no one namely Bryce has tried to open the presents.

The boys had their first snow yesterday so we had to dig out all of the snow clothes. Doug as we were getting the boots, pants, gloves, hats, and coat. Asked it takes us 30 minutes to get them dressed and then they will only be outside for 5 minutes before they say they want to come back in because they are cold. Well Bryce was the only one who didn't like outside, mainly because he couldn't walk around with all of his snow clothes on.

I have also been trying to get a hold of my Dad but no one will answer the phone. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!






Well, Doug finished his trial this week on Thursday. I was so overjoyed. You never know how much a person does until they are not around. It was amazing the relief and help he does give just the couple of hours he is home with the kids at night.

Some of the weird things that happened this week was that Thursday night Bryce was sitting in his highchair and had finished dinner. He somehow managed to get a binki and was sucking on it when he clamped his teeth down on the nipple part and then pulled his binki out of his mouth. He basically bit off the nipple part of the binki. Doug rushed over to try and get the nipple out of his mouth but when he got over there, there was nothing in his mouth. So yes, Bryce ate his binki.

I have included a picture of my tree. Hopefully you can see somewhat the decorations around it. The boys are so excited for Christmas but luckily no one namely Bryce has tried to open the presents.

The boys had their first snow yesterday so we had to dig out all of the snow clothes. Doug as we were getting the boots, pants, gloves, hats, and coat. Asked it takes us 30 minutes to get them dressed and then they will only be outside for 5 minutes before they say they want to come back in because they are cold. Well Bryce was the only one who didn't like outside, mainly because he couldn't walk around with all of his snow clothes on.

I have also been trying to get a hold of my Dad but no one will answer the phone. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

Gingerbread Train

Here is the gingerbread train that we made for Family Home Evening. The boys had more fun eating the candy then putting it on the train. They have continually asked when they get to eat it.

Reason for the Season

Well I started putting up the decorations for Christmas on Friday. The boys helped me pull them all out. They are totally wound up tight as can be, because we also went shopping with them on Friday afternoon so they could pick out their gifts for each other. Well I was putting up my small nativity set with the bear. I put them on one side of the shelf and on the other I put the small collection on snowmen. When I had come back in the room it looked like this

I looked at the shelf and some small boy had put the snowmen so they were all looking at baby Jesus and admiring him. I almost started to cry. Carson asked "Do you like what I did?" I told him Yes we all should admire and pay respect to Jesus. I told Doug that a child can really make you remember why we have Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving

Well, it was a great day. Doug took the whole day off and it was amazing how calm the house is with another adult to help. He put up my Christmas lights since if he didn't do it today they wouldn't be up until after the trial which is the middle of December. He fixed the roof. He played several games with the kids and he cleaned the house while I cooked dinner. Dinner was wonderful we had some wonderful friends over and lots of great food. I used my china. Doug wondered why I was going to all of the trouble and I told him I had only used my china once before in 10 1/2 years of marriage. I only remembered to get one picture. This is Bryce gnawing on the turkey leg. Carson ate a whole turkey leg by himself and Bryce wanted to get in on the action too.

Turkey Cupcakes

Well Layne instead of making crafts for Thanksgiving wanted to make craft food. We made pilgrim hats out of cookies and marshmallows and they were eaten so quickly I didn't get a picture in time. But then we made Turkey cupcakes. Layne was proud of them but likes to eat them even more.

Tiling

Well it has been almost 4 years since I had the countertops installed in our kitchen. We were going to tile the backsplash and have not done so because Doug and I could not agree on how high the tile should go. Doug would mention every once in a while that we needed to get that tiling done. Well since we could not agree I came up with a plan. I then called him at work and told him that I was doing it and he just went oh no. I told him he was probably rolling his eyes and he said he was. Well here are the before and after pictures. On Sunday night Doug was talking to some guys that we had over for pie night. He told them that his wife had done all the tiling herself and that his wife even did the rock wall in the backyard. The guys looked at him and said I don't know if you should admit those things out loud.

Before



After

Another week

Well, another week has gone by. There were a couple of things that I wanted to note. Layne one day was explaining something to me and he told me that he was wearing his "picnic" shirt in his story. I asked him about this "picnic" shirt because I did not know what it was he explained it to me. A "picnic" shirt is a plaid shirt. He calls it this because when you go on a picnic the tablecoths are usually plaid. So he told me that Grandpa Jones and Dad have a lot of "picnic" shirts.

The other thing was Thursday night I was talking to Doug our conversation went like this:
"Doug, this is your subconscious speaking."
Doug said "Oh, yeah."
"Yes, it is reminding you of something romantic you should do for your wife."
Doug said "Oh, yeah. What would that be?"
"Remember that your wife really likes James Bond movies and that there is a new James Bond movie coming out."
"Yeah."
"It would be really nice if you took your wife on a date. You would take her out to eat and then to the movie."
Doug said "Oh, yeah. When am I supposed to do this?"
"I am just your subconscious, not your intelligence."
Doug said "oh, yeah."
"Yeah, so you need to do part of this on your own to show some initiative."
"Oh, yeah."
"Yeah, your wife will love it."

We will see if he gets the hint or not. I am not sure if he follows his subconscious always.

The other thing that happened this week is that Saturday night I clogged the disposal with onion roots. I dug up my onions and washed and trimmed the roots off. ONION ROOTS ARE NOT MEANT TO GO DOWN THE DISPOSAL. So Doug undid the pipes and took out the clog. Carson was watching and said "Ewww, that is gross. Dad when I grow up will I have to do that?" Doug's reply was "When your wife put onion roots down the disposal and clogs the sink you will have to do this." Then Carson just shook his head.

Bryceman

Today we were reading a book about a little boy who for his birthday got to go to the animal shelter and pick out a cat. He learned that you should neuter your cat (his cat was a boy) to help so that there are not so many unwanted animals out there. Layne asked why you needed to neuter a boy because they didn't have babies. I told him that in order for the mommy to have babies that there has to be a daddy to help. Well Evan then looked at me and said
"We have a baby."
I said "yes we do."
"His name is Bryceman."
"I said "Yes, your right."
"And he is cute."

I then told him he is sooo right. Bryceman is super cute. I love what comes out of my little guys mouths.

My sunshine

Evan makes my day often several time a day. This weekend he has been Indiana Jones. We watched the most recent Indiana Jones movie and since then he wears his hat, boots, and has his whip and goes around saying "da, da, daah," the theme to Indiana Jones. What really made my day yesterday was he woke up in the morning and came down the stairs and came in the family room with his blankie over his head and said "Ooooo, I am a ghost." It was quite funny. Doug came home early since it was a holiday. We kept trying to get Evan to take a nap because he was grumpy. He didn't want a nap. He finally just passed out at 4:30. Well at 5:00 Doug went over and woke him up for dinner. Doug tried to do it slowly so Evan would wake a grumpy and crying. Doug did a pretty good job because he didn't wake up crying. He sat there and then he growled at Doug and said "You woke me up. Now I am a bear." We just cracked up.

A pain

Well Saturday morning we woke up and it was a nice day. Doug made us apple and cinnamon pancakes, eggs, bacon, and sausage. It is a nice treat that he does every Saturday. We went to unload the dishwasher which has been giving us trouble and the dishes were still dirty. We tried to get the dishwasher going but it would fill up with water sometime but would not start the drain cycle. We looked to see if there was something that we could fix, but no. It was the electrical that was having problems. We searched on the internet and found out that often times the electrical goes out on the dishwashers between 6 to 7 years. Some seem to go forever but it stated often this happens. Well to have someone to come look at it would just be $200.00 for labor. Well a new one was $300.00. I decided to put the $200.00 towards a new one and have new everything then dealing with a fixed old one. So we went to Lowes and purchased a dishwasher. We got the old one out without too many difficulties. (We only broke one thing which is amazing for Doug and I.) We took the new one out of the box. My first reaction was it is blue! Isn't it gorgeous that I now have a beautiful shade of blue dishwasher. Just like the new washer and dryers that you can get in different colors. I thought it would just make my kitchen pop with that blue color dishwasher in it.



No joking aside it is a stainless steel dishwasher and the protective film is blue. I haven't been able to convince myself to take it off because then my new look vanishes in 5 seconds with my 4 boys. (Doug said I can gradually start updating my kitchen to stainless, that made me excited.) So Doug installed a new dishwasher, then played with the boys, and then we had a date night and went to the temple.

Bryce

There are 2 things that make me laugh about Bryce. First is when Doug comes home from work and opens the garage door the boys hear that sound and scatter. They all hide and then Doug has to find each one them. Bryce understands now what is going on. He has found his hiding spot that he hides in each time the boys scatter. He sits in the blanket basket. I think one of the boys hid there once but they had put all the blankets on top of them. Well Bryce doesn't put the blankets on top of him but still thinks he is hiding. He gets a big grin and giggles when Doug comes over and says found you. Usually Doug has a real hard time finding Carson. Carson get a kick out of this.


The other one is that he loves to nest with the clothes when I am doing laundry. He sorts them into piles from one side to the other and then he makes himself a nest in them where he sits until I am done doing laundry.

Hot Dog!

Well, Doug thinks I am crazy and that this was a waste of money. The boys and I were at the store and we were looking at the half off Halloween stuff when we came across this:





Well it only cost $3.50 so I said why not. The boys were really excited about it and it was hard to get a picture where Tessa was holding still and the boys weren't touching her costume.

Happy Halloween

Carving pumpkins with Uncle Nate



Well my sons saw that my sister made ghost pancakes for her kids. So I had to make them for them they said. So we made ghost pancakes. As you can see they loved them. We had a great Halloween. We had bonesticks and jack-o-lantern pizza. They were then so hyped to go trick or treating. Doug takes them out while I stay at home to hand out the candy. As we were sitting down to eat Doug gets a call and had to leave to go give someone a blessing. The boys were so worried he wouldn't make it home in time to go trick or treating but he did. I spent the day being Betty Crocker or Martha Stewart. I made bread, bonesticks, and homemade pumpkin pie. I roasted the pumpkin, made the pie crust and the 2nd time it turned out great I don't know if the picture does it justice but I was very proud. Just trying to get ready for pie night.

The boys had a great time trick or treating. Bryce was so excited to dress up in his costume. He was just prancing around in it all night. They did half the neighborhood with Bryce and then he came and helped hand out candy. Carson had a plan that he talked to Doug about that I didn't know about. But before we go out I have the boys pick which trick or treat container they want. We have a bag that my mom made for me when I trick or treat the rest are the $1.00 pumpkin bucket types. Well he told Doug that he really wanted the bag because it could hold more and then he laid out where he wanted to go to Doug. They did it and he was very excited. And now there is more candy than I like in the house but what do you do it's Halloween.

4th of 4th

Well this is my 4th picture in my 4th folder. It was when they went lake trout fishing on Lake Tahoe.

Family Pictures

This time of year I usually get our family portraits and individual pictures of the kids. I have a lady in the ward who just got into photography a couple of years ago and does a few weddings. The first couple of times she wouldn't let me pay her. Last year I convinced her to let me pay her $50.00 and then she gave me a cd with the pictures that I could take and get printed. This year when I talked to her she wanted $200.00 to do our pictures. Well being the cheap person that I am. I told her no. So I said to my husband I can take our pictures. I have a nice camera and a tri-pod. So we got them all dressed and went to the arboretum (a tree park). It took a few pictures to get them all taken. The hardest one was Evan he wouldn't look at the camera. If I feel inspired a might make a slideshow of the 70 pictures it took to get just these few.

Saturday with a Grandma

On Saturday the boys loved it. They made Halloween sugar cookies with Grandma. Eating the gobs of frosting cookies!
We gave a cookie to Bryce to frost but all he did was eat the frosting off of the utensil.
Carved pumpkins.





And they built a fort out of cardboard boxes that Grandma got for the boys. (I forgot to take a picture of the fort.) They loved just playing with Grandma and were sad when we had to leave. Thanks for all of the fun. We loved being there and seeing Uncle Chad and Coco Crazy Coco.