Dear Santa,

Charlie dictated this letter to me word for word before we delivered it to Santa's mailbox at the UPS store today. I had a little trouble keeping up with him but it's really cute!

"Dear Santa,

This is Charlie and I live in Utah and I want you to bring me some presents. Lots of them!

I want a new toy air plane that is blue and yellow because I lost it at a store and cried. Nobody called the police for me (true story). I'd also like a toy cash register and a work bench with mechanic tools to fix cars when I'm a grown up. And a hard hat. I'll leave you a lot of cookies and I love you. I wish I could see you because I've never seen you at my house before. Merry Christmas!

Charlie Barnes (4)"

Then, in the lower left corner it says:
"This is a picture of a mustache factory (with a little slide for the mustaches to come down) and these are all of the people going to get their mustaches."

I just shoved a handful of marshmallows in my mouth.

'Tis the season, right?

Thank you, Michelle! The boys were thrilled to find such an awesome present on the steps when we came home last night!!!

No Steve Buscemi for me...

Hey... it beats making dinner! You can do the same thing here.
Kat did it first.
And here is Ruth's.
Theirs are hillarious.
Mine is a little boring but I always knew I had a little Gilmore in me.

Jackhammer man to the rescue

I was so excited to be getting out the door at 9:05 this morning. I was actually going to be early to kickboxing - completely unprecedented.
I put Charlie in the car and ran around the back to put Jack on the other side.
BAM! (I think it actually made that sound)
I'm staring up at the carport and Jack is looking at me in shock. But at least I was still holding him and he was on top of me.
The jackhammer stopped (they're working on the road right in front of my house).
"Miss, are you okay?"
They ran over to help me up and gather my cell phone, keys, sunglasses and everything else that exploded from my bags and hands when I biffed it on the ice.
I informed jackhammer man that I'd changed my mind and I was not going to kickboxing. I'm sure he appreciated the information.
I got Charlie out of the car and made it back inside. Jack had landed right on my elbow - lucky for my super human motherly instincts - and it killed. A few other scrapes and bruises, but nothing traumatic.
I took it as a sign and went back to bed grateful that the sound of jackhammers is loud enough to drown out expletives.

(PS - I just noticed this is my 200th post!)

kazooing carolers

Last night we, as the Young Women's presidency and teachers, decided to go deliver a little Christmas gift to each of our Young Women. We also wanted to carol... but to make it even more fun... we caroled with kazoos (really, we can't sing)! Nothing says Christmas like a caroling kazooer.

The great frozen water balloon experiment

Charlie likes to randomly put stuff in the freezer... you know, to see what happens.

Well.. being as cold as it is.. the whole outside has turned into one giant freezer.. thus the commencement of new outdoor experiments.

On Saturday, after getting dressed in his gear. He convinced his dad to fill a water balloon for him. He made a bed for it in a huge snow pile and sat down for exactly 30 seconds and stared at it. Realizing it was going to take some time, he left it there... to freeze. He monitored it's progress from the kitchen window then after a day or so, sent his dad outside to retrieve it for him.

He was delighted to find that it was flat on one side. The air inside quickly expanded though so that he couldn't see the flat part. He told us to cut the balloon off for him.

He found that there was a thin layer of ice on top of a giant air bubble in the middle. So he cut it off to reveal a giant ice bowl. Jack verified it's temperature.

Finally, it was time to see what this ice bowl could really do.

Unfortunately, the ice expanded too quickly and did not hold the milk for very long.

Don't worry, it is safely in my freezer awaiting phase 2 of the experiment (and I must admit, I'm a little nervous what the "Frozen Cereal in an Ice Bowl" experiment may entail).

Pants schmants

This is a picture of Jack convincing me that he is completely ready to go play in the snow with Charlie... after all he does have his snow boots on.

Merry Christmas!

Have you seen this yet?
It's the hardest we've laughed in a long time.

Did anyone else...

... just realize Christmas is only 2 weeks away???

Subliminal messages

While I was blogging this morning, Charlie asked for his usual... scissors, tape, and a hole punch, please. Jack asked for an apple with no peel. I turned on Super Why and when I was done found Charlie making letters. He could spend hours making things (and since we're just hanging around at home today he probably will).

It appears he has since turned his letters into roads...

tiny artwork

I found this little guy on my kitchen counter the other day.

I asked Charlie what it was.

"A guy wearing pants!"

Well, of course.

Decorating in progress... still...

Our Christmas tree is almost finished. We have the lights on it and have started putting up the ornaments (hopefully we'll be done tonight) but we're just enjoying it and taking out time. Charlie loves the tree skirt which functions well as a fabulous super hero cape. Jack is a huge fan of the Christmas tree (which was the first thing on his Christmas list). He keeps pulling his little chair up underneath it to just sit and stare up at it.

Yesterday was a GREAT day!

I didn't work yesterday. A day off is always sure to make a fantastic day.

Just after getting out of the shower I got a phone call from my friend Shayna who moved far, far away to the ends of the earth this past spring. SURPRISE! They were in town and staying just down the street at Michelle's house. She was able to bring her adorable kids, Zoe and Keegan, over to play for an hour so we could catch up. (The boys love Zoe so much they demand that if they ever have a sister her name will be Zoe.)

Unfortunately, I had to run to my appointment with my oncologist to get my CT scan report - BORING! But actually it ended up being a really great visit! The report showed "No mass is present. No significant interval change. No recurrent soft tissue mass is seen." AND!!! The best news of all is that I do not have to have another CT scan until after I have my next baby. AND my next check up with my oncologist isn't for another 6 months. I was a little surprised how incredibly happy this made me feel. It's a relief. I feel like I'm finally getting away from this thing.

On our way home from the doctors Greg and I saw a Christmas Tree lot and decided to stop. We picked out the most beautiful tree. It's our first live tree. I'm giddy about it. It's still tied to the top of our car but we'll get to put it up and decorate it first thing this afternoon. It had just been cut on Monday.. it's so fresh and beautiful.

And the funnest part of the day----- turkey dinner! Michelle did a turkey dinner for Tony and Shayna and they all came over to eat it with us. The kids played until they were crazy tired and we savored turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, spinach salad, corn, rolls, and cranberry sauce. Then we topped it off with some pumpkin pie, brownies, and ice cream. Jealous? I'm hungry again thinking about it.

I've been tagged!

Seven random things about me...

one- I want to learn how to play the guitar (and then the ukulele).

two- I love pit bulls.. friendly ones...

three- I love things that are really really big and really really small.

four- I like to go to classic car shows and can totally see myself driving an old classic ford pickup one day... if I ever learn to drive a stick.



five- All of my house plants have grown to monsters (some larger than my children). Except for ivy. I always kill the ivy and topiaries are my favorite.

six- I can fall asleep in 2 minutes but since having children have completely lost the capability to sleep in.

seven- It took me a ridiculous amount of time to think of this list but at least I found a whole shlew of puppies ready to be adopted.

Behind the scenes

What taking Christmas card pictures really looks like...

Who doesn't like to jump?

We bought a mommy pass this month to Jumpin Jacks. When I was little I would have thought this was Heaven. You can run, jump, and be totally crazy. I have a feeling we'll be spending a lot of cold days there this winter.

The big game 11-24-07

Cold. So long... but so worth it!!! If I could have just shown up for the last 2 minutes it would have been perfect. The boys fell asleep on me during the 4th quarter, and I was sort of stuck sitting, but it was great being there for the energy and excitement (and I watched the replay of the end of the game on the MTN). Go cougs!

Thanksgiving in Midway UT

We stayed for the weekend at a great house in Midway. We took the kids to the park to feed the ducks on Thanksgiving morning. It was really cold and the first time we got to pull out our puffy coats this season.













Jack really wanted to help make dinner. He stirred the gravy just long enough for a picture and then decided the enormous vat made him just a little too nervous... vat of gravy... yummmmmm.

Artwork

Charlie drew this picture for me.

He said it's a picture of missionaries in covered wagons.

11-26-07