Straw

Shelby:  "Mom, I ate all of my lunch and my pickle.  Can I put two strings into Jesus's bed?"

(I let her do it once.  It was just so cute.)

This is how it's going!  The kids are finding every reason to put a string into Jesus's bed.  We're halfway done with the string I'd cut.  As in a whole skein of yarn!!  I'm going to get more today.  The house has stayed cleaner, the lights in the house have stayed off, the kids have been helping out faster with my requests, and they've been in great moods since we started.  It's been so nice.  I love this new tradition that took us 7 years to get started!

Silent Night

A car in each hand makes for one Silent Night!

Away in a Manger

For years Randy and I have talked about building a Manger for our Christmas decorations.  This year instead of hoping to make one, we bought one instead.  For Family Home Evening tonight we talked of making a soft bed for Jesus by adding "straw" for every good deed we do between now and Christmas Eve.  We'll then have a ceremony and place baby Jesus in the Manger on Christmas Day.

Here's how we've done in one night.  The kids were flying around the house looking for things to do for one another.  I hope this keeps our minds on things we can do for others rather than things we hope to get on Christmas morning.

May we always remember to keep Christ in Christmas.  He is the reason for this wonderful season!!

Jenga

While down in Utah, we got to stay at my cousin, Natalie's.  She has the most beautiful house!  She has such a gift for decorating.  She has 5 boys and keeps that house in such great condition.  The kids loved the youngest boys' room with the 4 shelves full of toys.  It was like Christmas morning watching them go from toy to toy to toy!  They were squealing, saying stuff like, "Look at this.  No, look at this.  Can you believe they have this?" and other proclamations.  After a few minutes, Keilie said, "They must be rich.  They own Jenga."  I had to laugh.  With all of the toys, and movies, and video games, and electronics she'd seen, she thought they were rich because they owned Jenga.  I had to laugh!

Black Friday

We didn't really care to make it to any of the early-morning sales.  We never do.  I personally think it's ridiculous that they started opening at 10 PM Thanksgiving night in some stores.  They are totally overriding Thanksgiving.  Soon we won't even have it.  We'll move from Halloween straight to Christmas.  However, I wanted to see if I could still find a good deal on some boots from Kohl's. I ended up finding some boots, a Christmas dress for Keilie, some dress pants for Caden and a killer coat for me.  I've been wanting a Columbia coat for years.  I found a knock-off brand that was better quality for 75% off.  So instead of buying the Columbia for $119, I got my coat for $50.  Then when you figure the $15 Kohl's Cash I received, it's as if I got 84% off.  Awesome.  However, this isn't the best deal we found.  While I was shopping, Randy took a screaming/crying Shelby to the car.  Ty wanted to run all over, so he ended up joining them.  Randy drove next-door to Lowe's and was looking at the sheds.  Where people were bringing home big-ticket items like TV's, iPods, iPads, and other such things, we brought home an even bigger item, a shed!  We had to rent a Uhaul 4x8 trailer to get it home.  They had two in-stock and after they were sold would then move to special order status.  The price would go up substantially.  We got a steal!  We even noticed the 8x10 sheds were $600 more than our 10x10!  Randy can't wait to get started.  Although, he's going to be putting it up in the "windy" season.  Blah!  Maybe Black Friday isn't so bad after all!!

Yesterday

Shelby was trying to convince me that she'd eaten her breakfast and needed a snack.  Caden was saying that he hadn't fed her and that she hadn't finished her food, she hadn't even eaten!  Shelby said, "I did finish my food.  Yesterday.  Re.mem.ber?"

Cold?

While driving home from Utah from Thanksgiving Vacation we stopped off in Rawlins, Wyoming for gas and drinks for the last leg of our drive.  This is the longest part of the whole drive for me- both ways- even though it's only 1.5 hours of the 5.5-6 hour drive.  Nothing to see.  65 MPH.  Nothing in-between.  Long!  While in the c-store, I heard the worker explain how she'd been cold during her Thanksgiving getaway.  I hadn't heard the first of her story, so I'd assumed she'd gone somewhere in Wyoming since it's already hit the negatives many times this season and it's been blowing non-stop for a few weeks now.  Nope, she'd been to ARIZONA!  Here was her explanation, "I'm just so used to it here that I freeze when I get to warmer temperatures."  I laughed as I was walking out.  We'd been in Utah where it got up to 56 with a slight breeze and felt it was warm enough to send the kids places without a coat.  We THRIVE in warmer weather.  As long as it doesn't get above 95 degrees that is:)

Nothing

These last two weeks have been so nice.  Randy's been home getting things returned to Medtronic and has just been able to spend time with us.  We've got our Christmas shopping done- almost all wrapped.  We've got projects done around the house.  We've been lazy other times.  We've watched movies, laughed, played games, and just been together for two weeks straight.  He started with Boston Scientific yesterday.  What did he do?  Signed a few papers and ran errands with me.  How wonderful.  I know things are going to be busier starting next week, but for now, I love having nothing to post because we've had nothing going on.  However, all this togetherness has left no room for laundry.  So, I'm going to have tons to do when he's gone.  Pun intended!

Pie Night

Last night between the hours of 6:00 & 8:00 we invited our whole ward and friends to our home for Pie Night.  Everyone brought a pie to share and then mingled while enjoying delicious pie.  There were many good ones to choose from, although I didn't have any.  I was just too full from dinner.  Serves me right for having dinner in the first place!  Randy, however, didn't have that problem.  He ate 5 slices!  There were 29 adults and 29 kids that braved the negative 7.8 degree weather to come.  We had such a good time and plan to do it every year!  I made a pie that although extremely good, was way too rich for the size of slices we made.  Many people ended up taking a bite or two and had to brush their teeth:)  Here's the recipe if you'd like to try it as well...

• Crust:
• 9 graham crackers, crushed
• 1/3 c. butter, melted
• 1/3 c. sugar

Mix all and press into a spring form pan or a 9" pie pan. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes. Set aside.

Fudge:

1 (14 oz) can Sweetened Condensed Milk

2 c. milk chocolate chips

1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/4 tsp. salt

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 (8 oz) bag Reese's Minis

Mix all but the Reese's Minis in a saucepan and heat over medium low, stirring until melted and smooth. Be careful not to burn it. Spread over the crust. Press Reese's Minis into the fudge.

Peanut Butter Mousse:

1 c. creamy peanut butter

1 c. powdered sugar

8 oz. room temperature cream cheese

1 1/2 c. Cool Whip, thawed

1/4 c. melted chocolate for drizzle or use chocolate syrup

Mix peanut butter, cream cheese, and powdered sugar with a hand mixer until creamy. Fold in the Cool Whip. Spread over the fudge.

Drizzle with melted chocolate or chocolate syrup, if desired.

Chill at least 1 hour.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Too Good

Do you know when you hear a deal that seems just too good to be true, but still feel the sense of hope that it is that good?  That happened to me yesterday.  We are in desperate need of new dining room chairs.  I mean, dire.  The kids have ripped the vinyl off of most of them and the cushion went out of 5 of the 6 before the first year was up.  We're not fat people and we don't jump on the chairs, so that tells me that we simply bought cheap chairs to begin with.  So, when I went into the furniture store and found FOUR chairs for SIXTY dollars, as opposed to one chair for sixty, I jumped on the offer and counted my lucky stars.  Even the owner and her husband thought I was getting a stellar deal.  However, after calling the manufacturer to order them, they found that, no, the chairs are indeed sixty dollars a piece.  I felt such a deep sense of let-down.  Now the real dilemma comes in.  We need one chair only so that Ty can finally join the family at the table.  However, I don't want one chair to be different.  We already have arguing over the one chair that has cushion, the "Comfy Chair."  I don't want them to have any other excuse to argue over who gets to sit on which chair.  So, we don't need to buy all 8, but I want to buy all 8.  I just don't want to spend that much money.  Especially since the whole table and 6 chair set only cost us $600 to begin with.  Decisions, decisions! 
It's true.  When it seems too good to be true, it most always is!!

Prude

Prude (prood)
noun
A person who is excessively proper or modest in speech, conduct, dress, etc.

I went with 4 of my friends, Kimberly, Raquel, Holly, and Shannon, to the midnight showing of Twilight.  It all started out so perfect with us getting great seats and being able to chat for a couple hours before the show started.  It could have been more perfect if we would have won either  a 1 year pass to the movies or an iPad 2.  Oh well, you can't win em all!  However, many times through the show I felt like it should have been rated R.  There was too much skin, too much sex, too much blood, nasty kissing sounds, extremely disgusting biting sounds, and terribly horrible want/need for Bella to show us her skin.  It's as if she couldn't wait to show us more.  I thought the movie was lame, as well.  There were so many ridiculous parts that had me laughing to myself while rolling my eyes.  I kept thinking how sad it was that I'd purchased the other three movies with intent to own the whole series and now I wouldn't because I would never own a movie like that.  I'm becoming a prude.  And I'm not ashamed to admit it.  Will I go to the next midnight showing?  As of right now, nope!

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I volunteer at the kids' preschool on Thursdays.  I tell you what, I LOVE IT!!!  The kids say and do so many cute things.  Every morning they start out something like this...
Mrs. G: "If yesterday was Wednesday, what is today?"
Yesterday, a little girl jumped up from her carpet spot and screamed, "I know.  It says on my panties.  See?  Look, it says that today is... Monday?"  Mrs. G kind of stopped in her tracks and then bust up laughing.  She then asked if they knew what two letters made the "th" sound.  This same little girl again jumps up, pulls out her undies as if giving herself a wedgie and said, "Let's look at my panties."  She was just so sweet and innocent.  As a side note, it was Shelby that answered correctly with "TH."  Good job, Shelby!

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I have been able to go with the Sister Missionaries to teach a man named Wendell.  We have gone two times, and each time I come away with a renewed testimony that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true.  He was so excited to tell us that he'd read 10 chapters of the Book of Mormon, that he'd struggled to have only one cup of coffee that morning instead of the whole pot, and that he wanted to come to church and be baptized.  As I sit and listen to his story, hear him bear his own testimony, say a humble prayer, and tell us he's been waiting for the gospel, I feel the Spirit burning in my own heart.  I know the church is true.  I know Joseph Smith was a prophet.  I know that as a 14 year old boy he was lead to that grove, prayed to our Heavenly Father, and received the answer to join none of the current churches.  He brought us the most wonderful gift, the true church, and sealed it with his own blood.  He gave up everything for this so-called "lie."  As the Sisters were challenging him to read and ask if the Book of Mormon was true, I took that challenge.  I will read it again with the intent to ask to know again for myself if it is true.  I challenge everyone to do the same.  Heavenly Father loves us.  He wants us to return to him again.  He answers our prayers.  He answered mine when he sent me with the Sisters to Wendell's home.  I thought I was going to help teach him, and came away with him teaching me.  How grateful I am for his sweet testimony and example.  He truly is an amazing man.  I know the scriptures are true.  I'm grateful to be a member of His church.  What a wonderful time to ask for ourselves and get the answers we're seeking or already know!

Serendipity

Two months ago Randy was on a flight from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas for a conference with a physician for Medtronic.  While on the flight, the man next to him simply said the word "case" which in Randy's line of work means "Stimulator/pump placed in patient permanently," as opposed to "trial" which means "Stimulator/pump placed in patient temporarily to see if it works well enough for permanent placement."  Randy leans over to this man, says the customary small talk things, and then asks him what he does for a living.  He is the Manager for Boston Scientific in the Neuromodulation Division.  Randy had been trying to find his number for a day or two after hearing that they might be hiring someone to cover Wyoming.  To make a LONG story short, this serendipitous happenstance two months ago has now turned into Randy's new employment with..

It has been quite the ride!  We REALLY liked his boss, Tim with Medtronic.  We had such a deep respect and love for him, so it was SUPER hard to give our resignation.  I'm so glad Randy made that call.  My friend, Rebecca, said it best, "It feels like you're breaking up with a boyfriend/girlfriend."  That is how it feels; you know it's for the best, but you still feel like crap.  Randy is really excited for this new opportunity.  He is bringing a lot to the table and will do great, as always, selling medical devices that literally save people's lives.  He'll still be able to hear the words, "After years and years of pain, it feels surreal to have none."  He technically starts on Monday, but has been told it will be a light week since it's Thanksgiving (paperwork, applications, etc.)  He'll ship out to start training on the 28th.  Who knows what this next year and beyond will bring, but for now, we're excited to start a new chapter.  Hoping to get past the hurt feelings- mine for Tim most of all!  Congratulations, Randy.  I'm so happy Heavenly Father has chosen to land yet another job in our laps!!  And that you're mine:)

Sewing Pictures

 I mastered my computer and found all of the pictures.  These are the kids' PJ pants.  We made them for the whole family.  We also made 7 more in another pattern, finished last night.

 10 boy diaper burp clothes.

 Keilie's Rag Quilt.  This was our first one ever.  We thought we'd like the bright colors, but ended up kind of hating them.  Keilie loves them, so that's all that matters, right?!

 Shelby's Rag Quilt.  I did this one all by myself.  I found a lighter color to tone down the brightness.  I made her a matching purse, but didn't take a picture before I wrapped it for Christmas.  Fun!

 8 girl diaper burp clothes.

 Caden's quilt made on Saturday.  This is the one that took us 2 hours to cut, sew, and tie.  Randy was the one that sewed and tied most of it.  He's amazing!!

This was supposed to be under the other photo of the PJ pants.  I thought the pattern was just so cute.  It's so soft as well.  The kids are happy, I am happy.  We're all just happy!

Last night I made a shrug for Keilie.  I bought material for Shelby's but didn't have a small enough pattern.  I'll have to go yet again to the fabric store.  I think Randy's wishing that Mom and Dad wouldn't have offered me the machine:)  I also made a hooded towel last night.  I simply wanted to try one, so that's all I made.  No occasion, just wanted to challenge myself.  This is just sew much fun.  I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself.  I'm such a dork!

"I not!"

Ty has been getting into things more and more.  He's becoming quite the little busy-body!  His new phrase is, "I not!"

Mommy:  "Ty!."
Ty:  "I not!"

For EVER.Y.THING!  Even if you're just calling him to come upstairs, his response is always the same, "I not!"  Man, we love our little two-year old. He's had such a speech growth spurt these last few weeks.  I can now understand about 95% of what he says in his cute high-pitched-Shelby voice.  It amazes me just how much he can say and how much more he can understand.  It's so much fun watching him imitate his siblings as well.  Brennon was showing me his mad jumping skills, so Ty did, too.  Shelby was showing me how she can jump on one foot, Ty can, too.  Keilie was showing us how she can yell out in frustration when the kids are making her angry, Ty yells right back!  He's so much fun to watch.  We're so blessed!

Black:)

Because today was our Primary Program in Sacrament Meeting, I got the girls all dolled up.  Sparkling hair and everything.  Keilie was even allowed to wear her baptism dress!  After church today I had a friend come up to me with a smile on her face.  "As I was looking at all of the kids on the stand, I thought, 'I didn't know we had a little black girl in our ward.'"  She then realized it was Keilie.  That's how tan she looks in her beautiful WHITE baptism dress.  She sure looked beautiful!  Again!  All of the kids were also able to stand up and recite their parts by memory.  Shelby was probably the loudest of all of the children.  No surprise there! :)

Mormon Mommy Moment

Sometimes it's hard being a Mormon Mom.  At my sister Danielle's wedding in November 2010, I weighed my lowest weight since being married- since high school actually.  I was down to 5 pounds lighter than I was when we got married.  I had really worked hard at the gym every morning trying to lose the baby weight from all of the kiddos.  Then, one of Randy's doctors told him about a diet, so we tried it.  We did it simply for the doctor to remember Randy's name more so that we could potentially get more cases added on for Medtronic.  So, I looked sensational for the wedding and couldn't feel better!  Then life happened.  I started teaching Keilie at home for school and found myself drowning in all that come along with that, and house work, and keeping up a house with 7 inhabitants.  Meals started to be more and more crap- as in frozen to oven kind of stuff- and I started eating more and more crap- as in delicious desserts and candy- and low and behold, by September I'd gained back the weight and then some.  Not a bunch, mind you.  I'm still dead center in the BMI calculator for healthy.  I'm only 8 pounds more than I was when we got married.  As in when I was a TEENAGER!!!  However, it still hurt to my very core when someone asked if I am pregnant.  They had noticed the weight gain.  And as many Mormon women do when their babies are a certain age, they start having more!  However, I have no excuse for my weight other than to say that I just don't care right now.  So, for those of you that have noticed that I'm not as thin as I once was, let me put your mind at ease.  No, we are not going to have another baby.  Ever!  Unless by some miracle Heavenly Father sends one to us in spite of the big "V" that Randy got 8 months ago!  Sometimes it's hard to be a Mormon.  We've been asked if we're going to have more when we'd just had two babies die inside of me.  And now I've been asked if I am pregnant simply because I've put on some weight.  It's never intentionally hurtful, but hurtful it is just the same!

Apples to Apples

One year for Christmas when I was about 10 years old, my parents got Ashlee and I comforters for our beds.  We'd seen them hidden in the basement and "spoke" for the ones that we wanted if they happened to be ours.  She chose the hot pink/teal green one first which left me with the dark blue/baby blue one.  This comforter has become my favorite blanket that we own.  It is affectionately called, "Blue Blankie."  Randy and I talked about this last night.  He pointed out that it is no longer just a blanket, it actually has a name.  He then said, "I now know where Keilie gets her creativity.  Peach Puppy.  Grey with White Puppy.  Big Bear.  Blue Blankie."  He's right!  The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree:)

Peanut Butter

Caden came in this morning asking if he could get a haircut.  After taking him to get one just two weeks ago, we asked him why he wanted another one.  I had wanted him to go shorter, but he wanted it long, so I was secretly hoping that he saw the error of his ways and wanted to finally cut off a couple more inches of his mop.  Nope, he got gum stuck in it.  Not while sleeping, but while playing around with it this morning.  Even after we'd told him to surrender all of his gum from Halloween.  I remember hearing that you can use Peanut Butter to get it out.  Guess what?  It worked like a charm.  So, he's happy again to be keeping his longer locks.  I should have just told him he did indeed need it cut!  I now see the error of my ways:)  P.S.  He won't tell me exactly how he was playing around with it to get it stuck in the first place.

Overshare

I was standing in line at Walmart waiting for the people in front of me to get done loading their stuff onto the conveyor belt.  They were taking their dear sweet, which should have been the first indication that they were going to take half the night in that line!  The woman was showing off her newborn baby to everyone from a picture on her camera phone, which once again should have had me running to the next available line.  But no, I had to stay in that line.  They had the least amount of stuff, but took the most amount of time.  When they were done with their WIC purchase, it was time for their Food Stamps purchase.  Apparently, you need to wait until the transaction is complete before you pull your card out.  The man didn't know, so they had to go ahead and delete the whole transaction and begin again!  Yep, it was that kind of night.  As he's apologizing to me profusely, I'm trying to tell him it's no big deal, although I was ready to scream by this point.  He continues talking to me as if I would really care about why they need WIC and Food Stamps.  I listen, nodding at the right times, hoping Randy will call my cell, begging the ultra-slow checker to get a burst of energy and hurry them through, when the man tells me that he had a tooth pulled that day and didn't want to go back to work tomorrow.  It was at this point in the night where my day got better than I thought it could.  He reaches into his mouth, pulls out a bloody gauze, and shoves it in my face.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  Next time I'm not going to be so nice!  This time it "bit" me in the behind.  I'm sorry, I just couldn't help myself!  :)  Needless to say, it was the longest week of my life that 10 minutes!

What's wrong?

10 Points to the person that comments what is wrong with this picture.  We didn't notice until we got to the park that something about one of our kids was wrong.  What is it?

Missy, you are correct.  Shelby does have two different shoes on!

Cheese

 Just in case we forget what his cheese looks like...

Because he ALWAYS looks like this recently!!!

Art?

"Hey, Shelby, when we tell you to put your artwork on the table so we can look at it later, we don't actually mean this!"  Warning!!!  Small screwdriver scribbled all over wood table does not produce acceptable artwork!

Sparkle

 After dressing Shelby up in her adorable costume, she walked around for about 2 hours singing, "I'm so pretty.  I am beautiful."  There's nothing like getting all dressed up to boost your self esteem!

I put a bit of sparkle spray in her hair.  There was two benefits to this small act.  One, it added the perfect amount of the finishing touch to my already gorgeous Princess.  Two, my bathroom now has the appearance of actually sparkling because it's sooo clean!  Who needs sanitizer when you have spray sparkles?!

Dental Disaster

 1 hour after dental work on Thursday.

Friday Morning.  No, there is not a large gumball in her cheek!  Still incredibly swollen on Sunday.

Meeow!

 As cute as a Jungle Kitty!

Loveable Lion

And that was the two minutes of Ty wearing his adorably soft Lion Costume!  The End!

p.s.  We only got 6 trick-or-treaters!  I'm not sure we'll do it ever again!