O Christmas Tree

A few weeks ago, we went out to chop down our Christmas tree.  Sometimes we go on snowmobiles to get our tree, but you have to drag it out for so long that we decided to go before there was too much snow this year.  We bundled the kids up and had a nice drive.

 They got cold pretty fast and waited at the truck while Mike and I trudged through the snow and picked out a nice tree.  They always look so much better outside than in, but we were sure we had gotten a good one this time.

 Jake and Allie pulled it to the truck and I was surprised at how strong they are getting.

We waited until after Thanksgiving to bring the tree in.  It's beautiful.  There is a giant hole on one side, but if you turn it just right, it isn't too noticeable.  

We had our annual Christmas tree light rage.  We got the lights half way strung before realizing that we had the wrong end to plug in...even after checking to make sure we were starting it right at least 3 times.

We got it done though and the kids were happy to be able to add the ornaments.

 Jason wanted to touch them all.  Nate was pretty good.  He wanted to touch them, but knows that they are off limits when they are on the tree.

Allie took the picture of the finished product.  She did pretty good, considering that my sister Jenny taught the kids to photo bomb when we were in St. George together...

Walking

I think it's probably official that Jason is a walker now.  He walks more than he crawls, so I think we should count it.  The reason I am so hesitant to call him a walker is that he still gets carried more than he walks. :)

A newly walking baby can make anyone smile.  He's wobbly and falls a lot, but I love to see his halting steps making their way across the floor.  Then, when he makes it to the safety of the piano bench, or a couch, he looks back to see if I watched his feat of skill and bravery.  His smile and the anticipation of a cheer from me  is enough to make my heart sing.  Way to go Jason!  Walking is awesome!  I'm glad you can do it too.

My Own Fault

Today Nate cracked me up.  I was in my room and I heard the begginings of a mess making project in Jason's room.  There were the unmistakeable noises of cupboards being opened and diapers being pulled out.  I got in there quickly and gave Nate "the look".  You know, the look that says "NO!" without any words?  That's the look I gave him. 
He smiled and said "Mom, go get a camera and take picture of us."  Except he still doesn't say the "g" sound at the beginning of a word, so it was "doe det a camera Mom! Take a picture of us making a mess!" 

I guess laughing at the messes and getting pictures has backfired.  So, any messes from here on out are my own fault?

9 years old!

This cute boy is 9.

He wanted scrambled eggs for breakfast (smothered in lots of ketchup).

I wrapped his lunch up, so hopefully that was a fun surprise at school.

And, as soon as he got home from school, we let him open up his gift.  It is a remote control car and it's been pretty fun.  The others followed him out the door to try it out.  Nate brought the pink Barbie car and made it go driving in the mud.

Dinner was nachos and mangoes, so Jake ate every bite without complaint.  He also wanted a pinata cake with orange frosting, so that's what I did.

I think it turned out to be a wonderful birthday.  I sure love this boy and am so grateful to have him in our family.  He is good to do what I ask of him and is eager to please.  He likes playing with his siblings and feels bad when they are upset, so he tries to keep the peace.  I love his cute little face and am so proud of the kid he is becoming.  Happy birthday Jake!

More Thanksgiving

We went to Orem for Thanksgiving this year.  It was wonderful as usual.  My brother and his wife were there, as well as my sisters and their families.  It was fun to get together, for sure.
I can't believe I didn't end up with one picture of my mom working on Thanksgiving dinner.  I hope someone else took one with another camera.  I was busy wrangling children and didn't take many pictures.
The kids each made their own place mats for dinner.

Here's Nate's (Uncle Steve helped with his).

Jake's

(it says "he's a big one!!!")

 And Allie's

 Another one of Steve's drawings cracked me up every time I walked by it...

Dinner was great.  Mom's got this Thanksgiving thing down after almost 40 years of hosting it.

After dinner, the kids played in every corner of mom's house.  I got this mat out that we used to drive our cars on and Nate had a good time with it.

 Jenny, Steve, and I went out shopping that evening and came home with a pile.  Just so you know, most of this stuff is Jenny's.  It was really fun to do the crazy black Friday thing with these two.

We teased Steve all weekend for his mustache.  He grew it for Movember and is in the Army, so it couldn't accompany a beard or go past the corner of his mouth.  It was just plain strange to see him with that hair on his face. :)
We had a good time in Orem.  I got to re-visit all my childhood haunts as I drove Jason around for hours in the middle of the night.  He has had a sleeping issue for a while now and when he woke up, I didn't want my problem to become everyone else in the house's problem.  So I took my problem for a drive.  It was fun to go past all my friend's houses and see how much everything has changed.  I say "fun" because it was better than sitting in the house trying to "shush" a screaming boy.
The next day, we had a baby shower for my nephew's cute baby girl (still so funny that Jenny is a grandma), and the kids had fun playing at the park and on our old teeter totter.

We had a good time visiting and were sad to have to go.  I wasn't really up for another night of Orem night life though.  Our own beds are always much easier to sleep in.
It was a wonderful Thanksgiving break though and so nice to see everyone.  My mom is great to put up with us and our mess.  Thanks!

Happy Thanksgiving

Every year, I see cute "thankful" trees at people's houses and I think "I need to do that with our kids".  Then, every year, I forget.  Not this year!  I remembered when we were planning FHE and we threw together a tree.  

 I loved some of the things the kids put on there.  Here's one of Jake's "big red Ford" (our truck).

Jake also added "the gravel pit", and you can see Allie's "my begroo".  That says "my bedroom".

Allie also made one for "flowers".

...and I think we all made one that said "Sam".  I love that.

Mike's said "hot machines, derby's, beels, snowballs, my spot on the couch, my goody stash, teasing kids".
(he also had one on there that said "Sue and kids").

Some of the other things on there were the church, friends, our house, monster trucks, McQueen (Nate), and our family.
We have been blessed and we have so many things to be thankful for.  I sit here today in a warm house and I am so grateful for it.  I love my kids and I love my life.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Conversation at the dinner table...

I don't know how, but we got on the topic of ear wax.  I'm sharing some personal information about Jake, but I don't think he'd mind.
The boy makes an excessive amount of ear wax.  It's not normal, I tell you.  It's also not a normal color.  It's a deep marroon, and if left un-cleaned, it creeps out of the ear canal and into his outer ear.  When I say "un-cleaned", I mean every other day or so. 
Four years ago, Mike and I went on a cruise.  We left the kids with my mom for the week, and Mike's mom took them on the weekend.  By the time they got to Mike's mom, Jake's ears had been left un-cleaned for almost a week.  I hadn't thought it a necessary item of business when I was telling my mom how to care for the kids for the week.  So, when Mike's mom got them and saw Jake's ears, she took him to the doctor because she was afraid that his ear drums had burst.  Nope.  Just ear wax.
So, that's the back story.
We were laughing about Jake's ear wax at the table (a super good place to chat about the goo that comes from ears).  Jake (who can correct me on most scientific facts) turned to me and said (very seriously)"so, is ear wax something that your body makes, like snot, or is it the stuff that the ear wigs make."
I just about died laughing.  I really did laugh harder than I have laughed in a long time.  The boy really believed that ear wigs live in your ears and make ear wax...and it wasn't a gross thing to him!  It was just a casual question, as if it were completely normal to wonder what the bugs (who naturally live in your ears) actually do with their time.  I am getting creepy grossed out chills just thinking about ear wigs making ear wax.  Yuck.  NO, Jake.  They don't really live in your ears.

Bread

I got my Bosch 4 or 5 years ago.  I used up my Christmas and birthday money from all who gave it, and then threw in some cash of my own.  I came home happily with my purchase and Mike was sort of surprised at how much a mixer could cost.  I told him we'd be saving money in the long run because I would be making our bread.  He was pretty skeptical about it and thought it would sit in the cupboard and collect dust.  I decided to take it as a challenge and haven't bought much bread since then.  It does collect dust, but it's mostly dust from the flour that I use every few weeks when I make as many batches of bread as I can.  Then I slice it up and freeze it.  What's the point of this post?  Well, I've been making bread for years now.  I have had a few friends coach me on things and have failed miserably so many times that it's crazy.  You would think, that in all those years, I'd be a good bread maker.  Well, I'm not.  I've thrown out countless batches of bread that I forgot to put salt in.  Until recently, I couldn't ever give away a loaf of bread because they always looked like crazy mutated lumps.  I never had a full, tall loaf like the size you see in the grocery store.  Mine were about 2 inches tall...consistently.  But guess what!  I don't have that problem anymore.  When I delivered one of my midget loaves of bread to a friend, she told me that my problem might be solved if I made my dough balls bigger in the pan.  I was counting on the dough rising a lot more than it could rise.  Where I was getting 4 short loaves (because that's what the recipe said I should have), I made it into 2 long loaves and guess how they turned out...

 

 

Picture worthy bread every time!  I still don't have the knack of rounding the loaf off well, but that doesn't ever matter to me because I slice it and then freeze it.  My kids don't care that the bread was lumpy.  They don't even know the difference.

 

Another new trick for my friend Nate, was this...

 

 He usually likes to climb up on the counter and punch down the bread before it has had a chance to rise all the way.  He also likes to eat the flour and stick his fingers in the mixer while it's rotating.  All things that make bread making day more difficult.  So, even though giving him flour to drive his trucks on was a mess, it bought me lots of time.  Besides, I was cleaning up a messy kitchen anyway.

 

As for Jason, he is generally happy with some food in front of him.  The noise of the mixer keeps him lulled.  It's pretty nice.
I like that the kids love home made bread.  I like to hear Jake's excitement when he comes home from school and knows that he's going to get a warm piece with honey butter.  My days are sort of crazy sometimes and you might wonder why I even bother with the bread when I could just go buy it.  It's because I really do enjoy it.  It's beyond stubbornness.  It's just routine now.  I'm just glad that I can make a decent loaf of bread now.  :)

It Got Worse the Next Day...

I thought the boys made a mess the day before. 

They saw me empty the clothes out of the dirty clothes hamper and thought it was a clothes free for all. 

When I took the dirty clothes downstairs, I was gone 3, maybe 4 minutes.  In that time, I sorted some laundry and threw a batch in the washer.

 

In that same amount of time, Nate pulled the stairs out on the changing table, let Jason join him on the top and unloaded 3, almost 4 drawers of clothes while Jason took care of the diapers.  They were having so much fun that I just walked away for a minute and got Mike to witness the destruction.  The little stinkers...

Tag Team

The boys were playing so nicely together in Jason's room.  I checked on them a few times, then I left to clean up the breakfast mess.  This is what I came back to minutes later...