Merry Christmas 2010

Since we send Christmas cards this year, here is an electronic one. The sweet potatoes:

Midgie McDoodle:

C-boy:

We hope it's a great one for y'all!

(A girl in our ward wants some photography practice, so she took these for us)

Jenny Jr.

Notice the shoes . . .

And the womens' tube shirt she's made into a dress . . .

Not taking after me as I am now, mind you, but as I dressed up when I was her age with my BFF Lisa Williams. Thank goodness she had a stylish lady to get dress ups from, cuz them ain't mine!

P.S. Can you tell our Christmas rush is through with all the posts I've been doing??

Decisions . . .

The anal side of me thinks we should be doing school this week because we aren't halfway through our books. It drives me nuts that we aren't. That's why I should never be a real school teacher.

The fun mom in me is trying to break out and say, Let's take the whole week off! We have our monthly baptism for the dead tomorrow, Jon has surgery on Wed. etc. etc. Plus our doorbell just rang - at 9 am. The neighbor kids ready to play for the day. I guess that settles that!

December = BUSY!

All month I've been making lists and checking it twice so here is my list in pics:

1. Tree up (Jon trying to fix the top lights and the kids not being able to wait). Check.

2. Stockings hung by the chimney with care (ok, I thought they were in this pic). Check.

3.Gingerbread houses made. Check.

4. Annual picture of Collin about to "eat" his house. Check.

5. Visit fam. Check. Jons brother Dave and his family had a layover in Dallas on their way from Hawaii to Chile, so we rented a ginormous van and went up to spend the day with them.

6. Ditto on #5. We visited the Dallas Zoo. Very cool. Check.

7. Get Collin to test for the next rank level in Tae Kwon Do. Check.

8. Daily advent calendar. Definitely check. One of the highlights of the Christmas season when I was little and for the kids too.

9. Sunday Advents. Check. This is what happens when you go to make Peanut Blossoms (best Advent cookie out there) Sunday afternoon and realizing that even though you have passed bags and bags of Hershey's Kisses dozens of times in the last week, you forgot to buy some. Thank goodness I found a bar of Hershey's, some M&M's and some other chocolate.

10. Get a cold. Check. I thought I might as well put in on my list so I could at least check it off. So nice to have kids who are old enough to do most of the Advent readings when you're sick!

11. Daily orders. Daily errands. Check. This is from a slow day and doesn't include UPS orders or foreign ones. Sooooo looking forward to the Christmas Rush being through.

Things I haven't done:

1. Christmas cards. And doesn't look likely to happen this year. A first!

2. Watched our whole collection of Christmas movies. That WILL happen.

3. Made neighbor treats. Not sure what to do this year, but still most likely it will happen.

4. Decluttered the house. Probably after Christmas.

5. I'm sure a bunch of other things, but too worn out to think of them. Looking forward to sitting and relaxing next week!!

Thankful

photo found on zdnet.com.au

Today I am very grateful for something I always took for granted until lately. Today I am very grateful to live in this modern day and age with all the advances in medicine and technology. My baby girl went to the doctor yesterday and got tested for Celiacs Disease. In 3 years she had only gained 10 pounds from feeling "yucky" all the time. I'm grateful that doctors know about this disease and that she's getting tested for it while she's still so young. It's also SO much easier to be Gluten Free these days than when I was young.

Jon will be so glad to hear me say what else I am grateful for . . . my iPhone 4. I have griped numerous times that no one NEEDS movies on a cell phone or games etc. It just contributes to being "Heavily Dependent on Electronic Devices" (there is a GREAT story behind that quote). Well, I ate those words yesterday when I had the brilliant idea to have Grace watch a movie while they took her blood. It helped her be distracted and me to not be so nervous for her. And later when I was trying to find Sprinkles cupcakes so she could get a Gluten Free cupcake, I used my uber fast phone to find directions to it so I didn't get lost.

We can't wait to skype with our family this afternoon, and we couldn't do it without technology, so I am very grateful for the internet and to have a computer so I can see our families today while still being 1500 miles from them. Yay for technology!!

Sunshine Boats . . .

Bangers and Mash . . . kind of upside down Sunshine Boats

I grew up in the hick town of Springville. I don't know if Sunshine Boats were a Springville thing but no one else I ever tell about these (not that I tell a lot of people) has ever heard about them. Maybe the lunch ladies got the recipe from one of their ancestors or something. I like to think that. I'm sure they really just made it up after having leftovers and wondering what to do with them. But let me live in my own little world. At the beginning of every month when the new school lunch menu came out I would look for Sunshine Boats and count down the days. We took our sack lunches every day, but once in a while we got to eat school lunch (for 35 cents!) and I lobbied hard on Sunshine Boat day.

So, what are Sunshine Boats?? Think Bangers and Mash with cheese. Or think a split hot dog (Art City Elementary used these long, skinny, spicy, red hot dogs) with 2 ice cream scoops of mashed potatoes, sprinkled with cheddar cheese and broiled till browned. Mmmmmmmm. Every few years when I have some leftover mashed potatoes I need some and today was one of those days. If you feel like making some, here's what you need:

Hot Dogs (Oscar Meyer is the best)

Leftover (or new) Mashed Potatoes,warm

Sharp Cheddar Cheese

I like to brown the hot dogs on the outside, split them and brown the inside. Put 2 nice sized scoops of potatoes on top and sprinkle with cheese. Broil until cheese is browned.

Homesick . . .

Exactly a year ago I went up to Utah so my sisters and I could kidnap my mom for the weekend to celebrate her birthday.

Can we make that a new tradition? I know it was for moms birthday, but it did wonders for me. My family are my best friends and I miss you guys! I miss our lunches, family dinners, running into you at the store and honking every time we drove by moms house. Thank goodness my "little" sister Ems is coming here next week! We can't wait!

Silk Road Mummies

Did you know I was going to major in Archaeology at "Uni"? I subscribed to Archaeology magazines in High school and studied all I could. Then I got to BYU and realized that my lifelong desire wasn't really what I wanted. I wanted to study living people, not dead ones, so I switched to Anthropology, but I still have a love of artifacts and especially mummies.

At our Natural History Museum there is a really interesting exhibit called Secrets of the Silk Road. We are one of only 3 museums in the US to be getting this exhibit and it was really interesting. I couldn't take pictures and didn't even think of taking any of the kids before or after, so you'll have to do with these pictures of a couple of the mummies. This one is a baby but the main one, The Beauty of Xiaohe (this is a link with pictures and good info) was too scary for Grace to look at so I won't put it on here either.

The kids favorite part was the 4,000 year old mummified spring roll, wanton, and flower cookies. Ok. I liked them too.

Flashback Monday

I found this a few weeks ago and keep chuckling about it, so I thought I'd share. Where has the time gone??? When I showed this to Collin he said, "Oh boy . . . who is that?" His jaw dropped when I told him it was him. Wasn't he the cutest chub o' love??

Hello November!

No, this isn't what it looks like where we live. It's suppose to get to 88 today and set a new record, and leaves don't turn colors here, but I can always dream right?

My Christmas shopping is 3/4's done, a "cold" front is coming this week and Grace has a cold, so it feels almost like fall should! Have a happy Autumn.

Hmmmm

I little thought when I saw this movie for the first time what impact it would have in my life. Jon and I saw this movie on our first "official" date and I remember thinking, "What in the world is this and WHO would like this movie???". Well, Jon did . . . a LOT. Hmmmmmm.

Now, it's 17 years later, I'm married to Jon, and my 2 kids are watching this movie. I still don't like it, but I do like the thoughts it brings back for me to reminisce on!

My Guy

Where has this month gone? I really thought I had posted my last blog last week. It's been a busy, great month though!

Yesterday was my Bday and boy, did I get spoiled! I have the best hubby in the world. You know it's going to be a good day when you see this waiting for you! Nothing bad comes in a bakery box!

I KNOW you want to see inside the box!! Jon wanted to drive all over Houston to all my favorite cupcake places, but I finally talked him into going to one place. Remember I don't like to shop?

We also went to the mall to upgrade my phone to the iphone 4. I told you I got spoiled! Then he dragged me over to Rocky Mountain Chocolate for a caramel apple fix. Mmmmmm . . . I have to clarify right now that all of these treats were NOT just for me! Not that I couldn't have eaten them all . . .

Some of you may know that my honey is a Renaissance Man. Well, his skills are multiply'n, let me tell you. A few weeks ago Grace got invited to a 50's party where the girls were going to dress in a poodle skirt if they wanted. I made a mental note and then quickly forgot until the invitation was in my hand the day before the party. Well, I had a full schedule that Friday and Saturday so I asked Jon if he thought he was going to be able to do it on such short notice. He took Gracie to get fabric Friday night and the next day when I got back from my meetings this is what greeted me:

When it was time to go to the party Grace came down with all sorts of new things on her little body. If it was me, I would have thought getting the skirt done would be a great accomplishment. Jon on the other hand got the skirt made AND accessories for the outfit: a belt, a bow for her hair, and made a baby blue monogram G (heat transfer) for her shirt!!

All the other ladies there were SO amazed that Jon had made the skirt that they were inspecting it and telling their husbands about it etc. Yeah, I got to brag about him!

PS As I write he's in there on the sewing machine adding pockets etc. to his camel back. I love that guy!

Fall! Finally!

We still have mosquitos swarming, and it is 80 degrees today, and no leaves turning colors, BUT here is why it's fall nonetheless:

1. We haven't used the AC for 3 days!!

2. We had to wear jackets when we went out this morning.

3. We had soup last night for dinner (and Jon wasn't sweating and complaining that it is TOO hot for soup!)

4. We had Apple crisp for dessert - yummo.

5. We started getting out the fall/Halloween decorations because it finally feels like we should.

I was talking to my sister the other day about how when I was younger, I HATED the fall. I hated summer ending, I hated the dreariness of it, I hated that I would have to rake leaves and sell pumpkins after school (aha! That's why I hated it!), I hated that I would have to start school again and put away my flip flops or bare feet for shoes etc. It didn't even excite me that my birthday was coming up, it was just too hard to see all the other stuff.

Then I grew up and moved to a place that has summer 10 months a year, and Spring/Fall/Winter for 2 months, but with no real definition of change. The first year we had the AC on till after New Years for heavens sake! And guess what? I love the fall! I can't wait to start layering clothes, eating cranberries and pumpkin dishes/desserts, wrapping up to watch TV at night, and most of all . . . the mosquitos die off!! I hope this cold front lasts for a while longer. Happy Fall! And if you have any great fall recipes, send them my way.

16 Years of Wedded Bliss!

See? It's been so long our pictures are getting discolored! Love you babe!!

Pre-teen eyes

I look at the world through whole different eyes now that I have a pre-teen male in the house. We took a trip to our neighborhood branch of the Houston Public Library last week, which isn't how you expect an adventure to start out, but that's how our life goes. After finding my books I went to look for C-boy, or Radical Dude as he calls himself these days, in the Manga section. I walked past the handful of "hobos" (the kids favorite word) trying to escape the record heat and humidity and bask in the AC. I turned the corner and was greeted by half of this girls back showing and half of her buttocks. This is after she pulled her pants up and her shirt down.

She looked up and saw Collin and me so, she sat up and we walked around her. I was glad to get on the other side of her, only to be greeted by this/these:

The only reason Collin didn't notice too much was because she wasn't blond. He's got it bad for blonds. He thinks they are H.O.T. I can sort of handle that, it's to be expected from boys and he's got a lot of Bybee genes in him. But then we went to the grocery store and I heard him start laughing like a 5 year old and yelling at me to come see this:

He laughed and snickered over it the rest of the afternoon. Repeating it over and over. So what is worse? Oogling over cleavage, or regressing into a 5 year old??? I waffle . . .

Girls Trip '10

Howdy folks. Grace and I had our first annual Girls Trip a few weeks ago. We went to San Antonio (we thought we'd better start out small) for the weekend and we had a blast! We stayed at a great hotel, ate good food and had lots of fun. We did all the fun things in San Antone that there is to do - The picture above was the river boat ride. We started the day out by trying to eat breakfast on our "porch" in front of our room. I went back inside to get the camera out of our air-conditioned room and this is what happened when I tried to take a picture. It was just a little hot and humid!

We went to the Alamo that was almost deserted compared to how it usually is! We almost had the place to ourselves.

We walked along the River Walk and had a great lunch. Just in case you forget you were in TX, there are flags everywhere to remind you (not unique to SA). I love Texas pride.

Grace and her new armadillo (she got one for Collin too):

I researched hotels in SA that were kid friendly and found a gem of a hotel. It looks like cabins surrounding a playground and a SWEET pool. I thought by the pictures on the internet that the pool couldn't be as big as it looked, but you know what they say, Everything is bigger in TX and this pool was huge! It had one end that was 1 foot and another end that was a hot tub and the middle was huge. Grace could have spent the whole day in here. It was also great because after around 8:30 pm, it was quiet because all the kids were in bed.

The next day we braved the record-setting heat and went to Sea World.

Our favorite part was the Shamu show. Ok, it's really called something like Believe, but we all know the main attraction is Shamu!! And she had a baby with her this time. It was so cute.

We got there almost an hour early and got front row seats . . .

And GREAT views!!

We also did get a little wet, but not too bad because we sat in front of the performing platform.

Very seriously cooling off with some Dippin' Dots:

Enjoying one of the other shows.

We had a great time. Grace was so fun to travel with! She eats what I eat, we like to go to bed early and get up early. We like the same things on TV etc. I can't wait for our trip next year!

Dr. Sholls Ruby Slippers

It's amazing what you can find at your local library! Collin spied this book and brought it home. . .

I had no idea where it would take us or what it would do to my house! We only have boring old silver duct tape around the house so we "had" to go buy some colored "DT" for C boy. He made a bunch of things - clip for Graces hair, CD case for Jon and flip flops for himself. ALL out of DT. Well, he figured that if he could make flip flops, he might as well try shoes. No pattern for them, other than a pair of his own shoes to go by. It took him a few hours, including all the pin striping, but every bit of these (minus cardboard for the sole and stuffing for padding) are DT, down to the laces. . .

I can NOT wait to see what this boy is going to do/be for a career!!