O Christmas Tree

I hadn't had a real tree in YEARS (since I was maybe in grade-school) so I decided this year to get one! I've hated my artificial one for the last couple of years but we keep thinking "we'll be in a new house next year" so I haven't wanted to buy a new one yet, not knowing for sure the space & ceiling height. I'd even thought I wouldn't do a tree at all this year since we'd be going to WA for Christmas, but that isn't very fun when you have little kids! So while Jeremiah was out of town (hunting, of course!) I took the kids to Home Depot & got a $20 little 4-ft tree. I'm SO glad I did! It was fun having a cute little good-smelling tree. I almost want to do it every year, even after we end up getting a new artificial one. And another thing, I love a nicely decorated formal Christmas tree & I've been thinking about the hand-made decorations that are soon to come & I know I'm anal but it would just be hard for me to do that to a formal tree! So I think that the decorations we used this year (got them mostly on clearance after Christmas last year) will go nicely on a family tree with all our sentimental & handmade stuff. I predict that next year we'll likely be too house-poor to buy a big new tree anyway! The kids had a great time helping decorate the tree. And then after we were done the kids rearranged ornaments every day until we left for WA! I also kept finding toys stuffed deep in the branches (Jack), and one day even his shoe! And another day Jack showed me that his toys were swimming - in the tree stand! And to know that it'll still be years of trying to keep little hands out of the tree branches! I know some people just don't decorate the bottom, but that wouldn't stop my children! Almost daily I found them with stools or anything else they could find to stand on to rearrange stuff higher up! And the tree wasn't very tall in the first place!

good times

I took Jeremiah to the airport this morning (yes, he's out of town AGAIN!- hunting!), so the kids & I spent the day in Vegas. I really didn't want to spend the day in Vegas w/the kids, but I had a lot of returns I wanted to take care of- the downside of living in Kingman & doing online shopping. Well it turned out to be a GREAT day! First of all, did you know that it doesn't matter how old your return is at Kohl's as long as you have the receipt?! I was stoked since the stuff I was returning was seriously like 6 months old but I couldn't ever find my receipt till like a month or two ago! So I was already in a great mood when I scored this amazing parking spot at the mall! (I'm the red one in the 2nd space!) Obviously I was excited about it - I took a picture from the curb of the mall entrance!


I quickly made my returns & then took the kids to see Santa! I was prepared for a little wait but there was nobody in line! I paid for a dumb picture cause they won't let you take pictures with your own camera unless you also pay for one of theirs. I'd scan the one they took but that would take more effort than I'm willing, so here's the one I took. Although it's really not any better or worse than theirs. In their picture Jack has a super cute huge grin on his face but Callie is close to having those stoned picture eyes. Callie was SO excited to see Santa & tell him what she wants for Christmas, but she wouldn't smile once she was actually on his lap. She was definitely talkative though.




Oh, & I don't know if it's just because he figured my kids are small enough to get away with this, but Santa says loudly over the kids' heads, "She wants a doll, mom." Is that weird? I thought it was.

We went to Costco because I needed to get a few things so I'd told the kids we'd eat lunch there. We were getting out of the car & Callie goes, "I'm so freakin' hungry mom!" Oh my gosh! Where does she hear that stuff? Certainly not from me! The kids had done really well so far with the running around, but Callie had a bit of a meltdown when Jack took a bite of her hotdog! She actually said she had to have a new one! Yeah well she didn't get a new one! She sat & whined about it for at least 5 minutes though. I got an ice cream bar for us to share & I told her she couldn't have any until she ate more food so she shoved TONS of hotdog in her mouth, pulled about half of it back out, & still ended up spitting the first half onto the table after trying to chew for a minute & not making any progress. Then while eating some of the ice cream bar she said, "This crap is good!" Okay, that one is all Jeremiah! He's always saying it's good crap! :) Things were going okay again till Jeremiah's dad called. I was pushing the kids around Costco & they were getting antsy so Jer's dad told me to tell Callie that if she was naughty Santa wouldn't bring her anything for Christmas. That didn't phase her - she said she'd seen Santa & already asked for a doll. So he said (since we'll be at his house for Christmas) that if she's not good he'll take her presents from Santa & throw them in the fire! Okay, you're probably thinking is this guy psycho? But I'm laughing as I'm typing this - you have to know Jeremiah's dad! Well that did it for her - she started BAWLING! It was comical. She calmed down & I think Papa reassured her that he was just kidding.

We shopped & did errands the rest of the afternoon & ended up at McDonald's for dinner since they had a play place. The kids deserved it! 2 huge complaints about my McDonald's experience tonight - one, I had to wait like 10 minutes for my order to be up, but everyone else around me got their food! The girl at the counter felt really bad & had to finish getting my food together because the incompetent kid that was supposed to do it couldn't handle it. Seriously! Have you ever had to wait 10 minutes for food at McDonald's? And when it was said & done the guy had made 6 different Happy Meals! I only ordered 2! And he didn't get MY food either! And my other even bigger complaint is that there was no changing table in the bathroom! Okay, this McDonald's is basically brand new! It's a very nice McDonald's - one of the nicest I've ever been to. You have to ask the people at the counter to press a special button that will buzz you into the bathrooms. How could they not have a changing table?! Jack had pooped while playing on the toys so I had to take him into the handicapped stall where it has its own sink & lay him on the teeny tiny slim part of the counter in front of the basin to try & change him. He cried the whole time & it just happened to be a sticky poop that needed extra care! I was pissed! But what good would it have done to complain to a bunch of teenagers making minimum wage? I'm seriously calling someone. If I think about it during business hours.

On the upside of McDonald's the kids had a great time playing! The play area is separated from the main dining area by a glass window and there was a table of teenagers sitting on the other side of the glass from us. One of the girls had ice cream & would take her spoon & act like she was going to give Jack a bite, putting her spoon up towards the glass. I think he quit opening his mouth after the first couple times, but I was totally laughing! So were they! I wish I'd gotten a picture - it was so funny! I'd also told the kids they had to eat so much before they could go play, so after taking it slow for a while they decided it was time to play & shoveled the last required bites into their mouths! I love my kids!

Awesome!

I saw this guy while I was in the Jack-in-the-Box drive-thru a few months ago. I thought he was great! I only wish the picture were clearer.

Thanksgiving!

I was a little hyper around dinnertime. Don't know why since we didn't eat till 7!!! Too late for Thanksgiving dinner! So here's my sister Chelsea's acct - it saves me typing:

"Thanksgiving is such a fun holiday. Hillary was drunk on something and didn't make it through the prayer before she started giggling. She was almost as loud as her kids. And then she didn't want the rest of her sweet potatoes, so she plopped them on my plate. I flung them back to hers and decided I'd up the ante by tossing a kernel of corn in her ice water. Apparently that crossed the line. I got mashed potatoes in my ice water in return. Thanksgiving around here isn't a sanctimonious affair. "

We had a good time. Here are our best shots!

I forgot to bring an extra Pull-Up & Jack pooped in his. I told Jeremiah to just let him go commando, but apparently he'd got a little poop on Jack's pants when he went to pull them down so they were stinky.

zazzle me

Just wanted to pass on this deal I stumbled upon in case any of you are considering doing custom postage stamps for your holiday cards! Or if you've wanted to but thought the prices were crazy! Starting tomorrow (Thanksgiving Day), Zazzle.com has their postage on sale & it's a great sale! $10.99 for a sheet of 20 custom .41 stamps! Sure you can get normal sheets from the post office for $8.20, but for only $2.79 more (per sheet) you can get CUSTOM stamps! It's an awesome deal, considering that the normal price per sheet is about $17! Oh, & I don't know if you can use promotional codes on top of it, but if so there's free shipping on custom postage with code FREESHIPSTMP.

food for thought

I've decided I'm down with melamine! As far as kids' dinnerware anyway! Mostly. If you haven't already wasted your money buying your kids those cute matching character sets, save your money & just go with the less fun but much more practical tupperware-type plastic. Maybe a fun cup would satisfy them. I've had several of our melamine dishes crack & break recently & it's very frustrating - obviously this stuff isn't really meant for use with children! I'll still buy the cheap seasonal melamine dishes at Target, because it's not as sad when one of them cracks & breaks since I'd probably want to replace it the next season anyway.

The deep-freezer that we bought to store all of our hot wings has issues! It keeps our meat completely frozen solid, but that's about it! I noticed the other day that the ice cream that was in there was all soft (why I squeezed the containers I don't know) so I put it all in a different freezer. A little bit later I decided to eat some ice cream & was severely disappointed. First I tried some Haagen-Dazs. It was a brand new carton so after I peeled off the top wrapper I immediately realized it had completely melted & hadn't even had time to re-freeze all the way in the second freezer. So the top of it was total ice crystals & the center was soupy! Then I moved on to some Ben & Jerry's (I have expensive cravings, I know!). It too was unopened but unlike the Haagen-Dazs with the top seal, it was only sealed around the very outside of the carton. I took a bite & was very surprised to be tasting hot wing-flavored Cherry Garcia! Yes, my ice cream tasted like hot wings! To B/J's credit I have to say that their ice cream reset much better than the H-D. It still had the re-frozen texture but was on the whole much closer to it's original state (minus the hot wing flavor, that is). My dad was here so he tasted it & then declared it was the best of both worlds - hot wings & good ice cream at the same time!!! He would! I also took a brand new Sam's Club-sized bag of frozen biscuits out of the deep-freezer & was pissed when I discovered that instead of individually frozen biscuits it was a big doughy clump! So I don't know what the deal is, but I hate that dang freezer! I think whoever made it needs to send me a check for $25 to cover the biscuits & ice cream & a couple other frozen desserts that were in there!

Last night Jack fell asleep during dinner so we went ahead & put him in bed for the night. I think he'd had enough to eat at least - afterall he'd taken a "bite" of me earlier & said that I was "the most delicious I ever had!" :) Anyway, Jeremiah & I had to go to tithing settlement so my brother Stuart & his friend came over to play XBox & we took Callie with us for that & to go grocery shopping. We didn't get home till 9 and Callie decided she was still hungry. We'd had Panda Express for dinner and it was so funny to see when I walked into the kitchen that Callie, being such a big girl, had got herself some leftover teriyaki chicken & a fork & dug in! She just stood there & ate it like an adult might! When she'd had enough she put the box (and fork) in the fridge & got out the rest of the strawberry milk Jeremiah had let her get at the store & chugged it! It was so funny!

Well happy eating this weekend! I know it will be for me- especially since at my Dr. appt. yesterday I realized that I hadn't gained too much weight at all this past month! :) That's the great thing about being pregnant over the holidays- I can put on my holiday 5 & disguise it very easily! Watch out pie, here I come!

November 19

Today I'll start you out with Callie's joke that she made up all by herself! (& no, it's not funny enough to go around the office. Speaking of The Office, last week's episode was SO DANG FUNNY! Don't you think?!)

Callie: What goes hee-haw & has 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 tails?
Me: What?
Callie: A horsie! (then she giggles uncontrollably)
Me: Wow! That's silly!
Callie: I have a lot of jokes!

After a few more "jokes" like that I tried to teach her the difference between jokes & riddles. Don't you think that's more of a riddle than a joke? Plus Jack goes around demanding "Solve my riddle!" just like the Grumpy Old Troll who lives under the bridge (Dora), so I thought it was appropriate to tell her that the stuff she was coming up with would be more in the riddle category.

Jack is SUCH a goofball! For one, he does this Stevie Wonder bit a lot while we're eating. He'll squeeze is eyes shut tight & start moving his head around. And he's not doing it for attention - he does it & doesn't even realize that we're looking at him thinking "what are you?"! He does hilarious facial expressions a lot. Last night he was watching something with my dad & I noticed him making these really dramatic expressions, especially scared & surprised faces (it was a show about avalanches & volcanic activity). Again what's so funny is that it's not like he's doing it because he's trying to make us laugh or has any idea that we're even watching him - he's just an expressive little guy! I went to get my camera to try to capture some of his faces, but was unsuccessful since I'd forgotten to charge my battery when the camera had died the day before!

Here's some pictures I did get though! These are at the park a couple of Saturdays ago. Doesn't Callie look so tall & skinny in this picture? She really is! She's looking so grown up!







So last week for mutual I was in charge of a big Thanksgiving Feast for the combined (boy/girl) activity. So my 2 counselors & my secretary & I made dinner for 40 people! It was crazy! Not only was I at the church twice during the day to set up & put turkeys in the ovens (don't tell anyone that we cooked at the church!), I was also there from 5-9, and when I got home I put everything away so it was about 9:30 before I finally sat down. I was beat! Here are the little turkey favors we made for the dinner:



I thought they turned out pretty cute! We ended up having too many desserts so I brought home a few pieces of a Sam's Club pumpkin pie. I've only decided that I like pumpkin pie in the last couple of years & I was a little leery about a store bought pie, but let me say this was good! For $5.86 I'd rather buy it than make one this year! Callie & Jack have been talking about how much they love pumpkin pie & about making a pumpkin pie since the beginning of October when we read a Dora book about finding a pumpkin for Abuela to make pumpkin pie with! I'd been wanting to bake one for them so they could try it & see if they really liked it but just hadn't been able to justify it because it seems like lately we've had nonstop desserts & treats around for one thing or another. So it was perfect that I was able to bring some home & we had it for breakfast & I even squirted Reddi-whip into their mouths! I know! What kind of mother am I?! Oh, & they still love pumpkin pie, even after actually eating some!

On Friday we had a ward party. I'd signed up for a dessert so I decided to make this awesome looking cake I saw in a Paula Dean holiday baking magazine. Not only did it look great, but it tasted great too. I think I was the belle of the ball! :) The cake got lots of compliments & I don't mind saying that because it's not like it was my recipe! So it was 3 layers of white chocolate cake with strawberry preserves between the layers, white chocolate buttercream frosting, & shaved white chocolate on top. I'm not a lover of white chocolate, but this wasn't very white-chocolatey at all. Let me type white chocolate a few more times!



Here's our Arizona fall! It's been nearly 80 degrees out for the past week & a half! The bad thing is that Callie's gotten too tall for most of her short sleeved shirts but I'm not gonna go buy her any more when the weather could change any day! So I'm having a hard time dressing her lately. Anyway, the kids LOVE jumping in the leaves & throwing huge armfuls around!

And now I must go to bed! Hopefully I've stayed up late enough & am tired enough that when I wake up to pee in the middle of the night it won't take me an HOUR to get back to sleep! I'm getting a little sick of this! It's only been the last week or so that it's been an issue & I don't think it'll be a problem for the rest of my pregnancy, but it's a problem right now & it's so dang frustrating!!!

I knew I wasn't crazy!

Ever since I started wearing maternity clothes with this pregnancy I've been thinking what the heck happened? I know I started out a little heavier than with my last one, but not THAT much more! But none of my old shirts seem to fit! They are all too short! After deciding that I'd need almost a whole new set of tops I concluded that it must just be that the style has changed. I realize that it was only 2 1/2 years ago that I was pregnant with Jackson, but there's no way that almost every single top is now WAY too short because of the fact that I started out this baby with a little more weight! I decided that it's just more in style to wear longer tops now (pregnant or not). And then I was flipping through an old magazine & saw this! PROOF that I'm not crazy!

See how short her sweater is?! That's how all my tops looked on me- stupid (now that it's not in style)! I'm glad I'm not crazy (an arguable point, I know), but it's too bad that now I have nothing to wear!

Nothing new

Since Halloween I've eaten way more candy (chocolate mostly) than anybody should eat (pregnant or not) & my kids have been sick. So nothing good to report! I do have a bet going with Jeremiah about whether or not I'll get our Christmas cards out early or not this year, & I'm determined to win! Last year I didn't even get them sent. I got as far as purchasing the cards, but that was it. The year before I think I mailed them a couple days after Christmas. If I can get them in the mail the first week of December not only will it be an amazing accomplishment for me, I'll win the bet! Nothing motivates me like winning! My prize is that he'll take me to dinner - not a big deal since we are regular daters. But the fact that he thinks I can't do it is the push I need. I WILL do it!

This is our last weekend with nothing planned until NEXT YEAR! Actually, Jeremiah does have something to go to tonight so it's not a totally unplanned weekend. I can't believe how quickly our calendar is filling up & we don't even have school-aged kids! I used to be able to get by without a calendar (I'm still not carrying around a planner), but now we're busier than ever & I'm more forgetful. I love it though. It gives me stuff to look forward to.

So here's the latest from the kids:

On occassion after yelling at Callie I'll realize I was wrong so I'll apologize & tell her I'm sorry I over-reacted! Callie was sent to her room the other night because she was throwing a fit about something stupid and a minute later she came back to me & said (still crying), "Mom, I think you over-acted."

Jack has been telling me "thank you for the food" at meals. He also tells me a lot, "I wuv you so much!" And the other night when Jeremiah said his name he said, "Don't call me that. I'm Jackson." Jeremiah said, "You're Jack." And he said, "No, I'm Jackson." He's never cared before! He does however sometimes correct us when we say something like, "You're a hunter." He'll tell us then that he's not a hunter, he's just Jackson.