Thanksgiving 2010

Ahhh, Thanksgiving. We started the day with my m/d, Jeremiah's m/d, and my 3 sisters & b-i-l doing breakfast at our house. It wouldn't be a holiday breakfast without my dad making egg sausage casserole. Jeremiah's mom got a recipe from her sisters & made the most delicious ever french toast casserole. It's definitely going to be included in future holiday breakfasts. And breakfasts in between too! We had fruit & oj also & gorged on our delicious breakfast while visiting & watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Later in the afternoon we headed to my m/d's. Jeremiah's mom made a cheeseball, I made a relish tray, my sister made shrimp dip stuff that we always have at the holidays, & I got chips & salsa from Chili's for snacking on between breakfast & dinner.

Callie made this sign for my m/d's front door & she was VERY proud of it!



We had a decent sized crowd at my parents' for dinner & lots of food! My 3 sisters & my b-i-l, my grandparents (mom's side), Jeremiah's parents, friends Kevin & Dawn & Dawn's son, and a couple from my m/d's ward, plus my crew. My mom did a turkey in the oven & Jeremiah smoked one (which was AWESOME!).

We had a billion desserts & I'd been looking forward to a sugar high for days, but ended up not even eating any dessert because I was having stomach pains similar to the ones I'd had when I went to the ER when I was 16 weeks pg. They weren't as intense or as often & thankfully I woke up Black Friday morning after a nap feeling fine. I guess it's better in the long run that I skipped the 5,000 calorie intake I'd planned for the evening.

Jack really wanted a turkey leg so we let him have one. Then my dad told Jack that if he could eat the entire thing in one hour that he'd give him $10. Jack was stoked b/c he wants to save his money to buy a new hunting game for the Wii so he went to work, but after about 20 mins hadn't made much progress. Uncle Ryan had finished his turkey leg so everyone at our table told Jack to give Ryan his leg & take Ryan's eaten leg to Grandpa to get the $10. My dad didn't believe that Jack had eaten the leg but everyone at our table was in on it backing Jack up so my dad gave him the money. Of course we were just messing around but Jack didn't understand & was upset when I said he had to give Grandpa his money back. Since he was upset about it I let it go & mentioned to everyone at my table that I'd sneak it out of his pocket later. My kids don't keep good track of their money so it wouldn't have been a big deal. But then Aunt Kayleigh took it upon herself to regulate & got the money from Jack & he was really undone. It was a big scene & Jack was bawling & when Kayleigh realized what my plan had been she felt really bad. Then the lady from m/d's ward that was there totally let us all (at our table with Jack) have it for doing that to him. She was completely out of line to be talking to us like she did but nobody said anything. It WAS nice of her to be so concerned about Jack, just not cool that she was telling us off - Jack's parents, grandparents (Jeremiah's m/d), aunts & an uncle. That was our dinner excitement.



I wish I had a picture of my 2nd favorite part of Thanksgiving (the 1st of course being the eats): pouring over the Black Friday ads & making lists of stuff to shop for. We do it every year. I think even if I were terribly wealthy I'd still do Black Friday shopping - it's so fun! My sisters & I always sit around for a long time passing the ads back & forth & planning our excursion. Almost every year I consider skipping the shopping since there usually isn't any one thing that we have to have, and every year I end up getting up & shopping.

And that was our Thanksgiving.

Black Friday 2010

And to think I almost decided to skip it!




I got up at 2:30 am (!) to put on fresh makeup (I didn't want to feel disgusting all day) & throw on some clothes & drive to Bullhead. Tara wanted a tv from Target (an hour away from us) & they opened at 4 am. We didn't get there early enough to get a good spot in line so she missed out on the tv. I got stuff I could have gone home without & waited in line for an entire hour to pay for it while my dad & Tara dropped Kayleigh off at Walmart & they ran to Sam's. I went to Kohl's & spent another 35 mins in that line, then met up with everyone at Walmart. From there we all went to Sam's (Tara's final tv place) & had complimentary yogurt & juice (the muffins were gone) while we finished our browsing/buying. After a sub-par breakfast at McDonald's & a quick stop in Home Depot we split. My dad drove back home & Tara, Kayleigh & I went to the outlets. 2 hours later (maybe?) we were on our way back to Kingman. I've been working on a top secret project that had to be finished by midnight tonight and although I went a little over deadline I still got what I needed to do done. Christmas is in the bag!

And now that I've been up for almost 23 hours & only 3 1/2 hours of sleep before that, I'm off to bed. I love the holiday season!

Hello, Santa

I just finished singing my kids songs & putting them to bed. On the request list tonight by Ellie & again in Jack's room: barking dogs jingle bells. And that's what they got. And then I sang up on the housetop & did the actions at the end for Jack. Afterwards Jack said, "I wish it was Halloween & you could be Santa, because Santa has a big tummy - it's fat. And your tummy is fat, huh?" Callie piped up from her room that I could be Mrs. Claus. :D

1 Easy Bake Oven, please

I noticed that Jack's Christmas list has an Easy Bake Oven on it, which seemed suspicious since it was in Callie's writing & Callie has wanted one since at least July, if not earlier. I said, "Oh really, Jack wants an Easy Bake Oven?" to Callie. Jack piped up & said, "Yeah, cause I like to eat pie. And cupcakes."

Well okay than.

Random Happenings

Here's what we've been up to the past couple of weeks:

• I made this super cute banner with my friend Katie. Thanks girl for letting me do this with you - I love it!
  
  
  
  
• Last weekend was Jack's last soccer game of the season. He so badly hoped he would get a trophy & Coach had mentioned something about scoring a goal & getting a trophy so of course Jack thought he had to do the one to get the other. The night before the game he was saying the blessing on the food so he blessed himself to score a goal. He also asked us as he & Jeremiah left early for the game on Saturday morning to please say a special prayer for him to score a goal. Well he didn't score a goal and although he wasn't acting all bummed out I don't think he was expecting a trophy when we went to his end of the season party at Pizza Hut with his team afterwards. It was so cute - he's number 10 & Coach started at the beginning & went in numerical order calling up each player & handing them a trophy. When he said "Number 10 - Jack!" my boy had the biggest grin ever on his face. He was honestly surprised to be getting a trophy & so elated. I wish I had the moment on camera. I almost cried seeing him so completely happy! Of course I tear up about EVERYTHING. Stinkin' hormones! :)
  
  
• The kids & I were listening to a Raffi Christmas cd (I know - it's not even Thanksgiving! I've broken my personal rule this year!), and there's an upbeat, Bible-belt, gospel song on there about baby Jesus & the kids just LOVE it! Throughout the cd they'd ask me to pause the music so they could comment on something so we listened to the baby Jesus song once through & then the second time through (they always ask to listen to songs again that they like) Jack asked me to pause it. He said, "Mom, if our baby is a boy baby I know what we should name him. Jesus. Because Jesus is a good name." They named the baby Jesus, oh my Lord, way down in Bethlehem!
  
  Good thing I don't let my kids name my babies!
  
  

  And by the way that was big of Jack because until then he'd thought we should name the baby Jack if it's a boy. Ellie's going strong with Jack in the box for a boy & Ellie for a girl.
  
  

• On Friday, after MONTHS (seriously) of waiting for our mantle to be painted (sprayed), Jeremiah brought it home & he and our friend Tim set it. And the guy who did the stone work on the bottom was able to come on Saturday to cut & set the stone on the top part of the face of the fireplace. In fact he should be here any time this morning to do the bottom part & grout it all! I can't tell you how excited I am to see this FINALLY getting done! We demoed the old one in JANUARY! I'll take a picture of the finished firplace as soon as it's finished - hopefully today or tomorrow! :)
  
  
  
  
• Jeremiah's parents are MOVING TO KINGMAN! Well, maybe Kingman, maybe Lake Havasu. We have been wishing for years that they lived closer & it's happening! They'll be here tonight & will stay with us for a few days until they can get settled into the house they're temporarily renting. Jeremiah's dad will be working in Havasu so I guess he'll have to decide if he can handle the commute from Kingman every day (an hour each way). If he can handle it I think they'd be happy living by family since they've lived away from all their family for the past 6 years. Before then they'd never NOT lived by family. Anyway, we're SO excited!

all in a day's work

Literally.

How lucky are our girls?! My sister Kayleigh asked if they make this in her size. It's so fun!

We'd been letting Ellie sleep in Callie's bed with her on the weekends for the past couple months & the bed sharing wasn't going well. Which is too bad for me since when we bought Callie's mattress & bedding Jeremiah thought we should go with a twin so we could eventually do bunks or 2 twins. I didn't ever want bunk beds since they're so hard to make & plus I thought it would be nice to have a full bed for our occassional guests (which I was also wrong about - a queen would have been better for that). And my argument was that I shared a bed with my sister growing up so our girls could do it too. Yeah, well what I didn't take into account was that my sister & I were a lot older than our girls when we started sharing a bed. Big difference. So after having problems with the girls sharing a bed we decided it wasn't going to work. Jeremiah has said "I told you so" several times! Enjoy Jeremiah - you don't get to say it very often! haha!

On Friday morning I was checking out bunk beds online even though I thought we'd wait another month to buy & officially move Ellie in with Callie, but after a lot of searching both new & Craigslist I came across the doll house bed by Tradewins. It was $400 from someone in Bullhead (45 mins away) who claims they paid $2500 in 2005. I checked it out a lot online & was able to find it new for $1100, but honestly if I'm going to spend that much on a bunk bed (which I realize is what you can expect to pay for a new set) I was going to go with a well made traditional set. I forwarded the info to Jeremiah who at first asked if I didn't think that seemed like a lot of money for bunk beds (he lives under a rock). I told him about all the bunk beds I'd found on Craigslist - metal or corral fence looking wood ones - & assured him this was a great find. He agreed to it & he was able to pick up the bed that evening.

So the all day part is because the guy we bought it from is a complete jack-a & totally screwed up & ruined the bed in so many ways! He drilled all kinds of holes all over in it that were completely not necessary. Not only were they not necessary, but he apparently didn't know how to use a tape measure either because in some places his first hole wasn't in the right place so he drilled a 2nd one close by. He also didn't know how to use a drill bit because he didn't pre-drill any holes before screwing stuff in. If you've ever worked with wood you'll know that that's a big deal because otherwise your wood splits from the screws. So yeah, total jack-a. Jeremiah said on Saturday night that if he'd known before we bought it how badly the guy had screwed it up he wouldn't have bought it. During the construction process he had to make 3 trips to town for supplies (because of course it was missing half the hardware). We also had to get creative for a lot of fixes. And I have to make a trip to Frazee (Paint store. That's not open on Saturdays.) with a part of the bed to get it color matched so that we can patch the billion screw holes from the idiot & do touch-up paint. I also have to call the manufacturer today to buy a new hardware set since none of the hardware stores here had a couple of the pieces we needed. (Don't worry, it's safe for the girls to sleep & play on for now.) So even though it's put together it still needs a bit of work. I think if we'd bought it new we could have had that baby up in an hour. For reals!

But the girls LOOOOOVE it! It's awesome! I just wish we'd been able to get it for $200 instead - it would have been more worth it. But I am stoked cause I found the matching bedding I need for the twin mattress that I have to buy on eBay. Not only is the auction for the quilt & sham, but also the exact sheeting that I have had a hard time finding. Yay!

bad mom

I was folding laundry this morning & didn't really feel like stopping to make Callie's lunch & since she was being a brat to Ellie & she hates hot lunch I got "creative" shall we say & told her if she didn't start acting nice (and this was after she'd already had a time out) & if I had to talk to her again about her bahavior I'd make her eat hot lunch.

She hates hot lunch because it's still a little scary for her AND she doesn't get to sit by her friends if she buys it. Because the school directs the kids where to sit & if her friends aren't in line next to her for hot lunch she sits by non-friends. Like this one little girl who she considers a "bully" b/c she is constantly messing with Callie's hair or pulling on her clothes or just being annoying & in her face. She even pulled the flower embellishment off of one of Callie's shoes one day. This girl seems to lack attention at home.

So after some more bratty behavior this morning I declared Callie was having hot lunch. You would have thought we were giving away her puppy. Not that she has one, but you know what I mean. She threw a crazy huge fit, acting like a total psycho and cried & cried and was stomping her feet & screaming that she wasn't going to school. I think Jeremiah had to carry her outside to leave. Then I felt bad because of the whole thing. My entire motivation for coming up with the punishment was not wanting to make lunch. But then again she did have a couple of warnings and punishments are supposed to be hard, right? But she already doesn't love school so maybe I should have thought of a different punishment instead of torturing her like this.

I called Jeremiah after he'd dropped her off. She had settled down because he'd talked to her about how embarrased she'd be if he had to drag her into her classroom screaming & crying. I asked if he thought I should drop off a lunch. We considered it because of the whole bully girl thing (who Callie's had to sit by a couple times when she's had hot lunch), but then again there's the thought that Callie needs to learn to cope with situations that aren't ideal. Not to mention that it would be a major parenting faux pas to renege on a punishment after such a huge fit was thrown! What's that saying? If you freak out enough over a punishment we'll change our minds? I'm not afraid to say sorry to my children if I've overreacted & there have been a couple times where we've rethought a punishment because maybe it was a little too severe for the crime, but like I said, she threw a crazy psycho fit & to go back on this one could be detrimental. I'm not dropping off a lunch. And I feel crummy. I hope she doesn't have a total meltdown at lunchtime. :(

It's hard being a parent.

Should we be saving our money to put our children through counseling as adults?

Halloween 2010

Halloween weekend was jam-packed with FUN this year! It started with a rockin' Halloween party hosted by some friends! It was a seriously great party! Lots of super delish eats, fun games, & good company.

We had our babysitter snap this picture before we left for the party. I have to add that Jeremiah didn't like dressing up as a kid & he has not once dressed up for the holiday as an adult. So he was pretty good with this "costume" - didn't take him too far out of his comfort zone! :) Thanks to my sister Chelsea for suggesting the idea. I thought it was so brilliant & after I started making it I was looking online to see how other people finished it & I found out it's a $50 mass-marketed vinyl costume. Who knew? Not this girl. In case you live under a rock our costume is "bun in the oven & the baker." And no Jeremiah wouldn't wear a white chef's hat - which is fine because what cool chef's do for one? And for two, he's a baker, not a chef! LOL

It had been a really busy week & here in the land of sun you can't carve a pumpkin more than a couple days in advance - it's just not cold enough so they get nasty & rotted very quickly. So on Saturday morning we finally let the kids get creative. This is the first year in I can't remember how many that I haven't gone all out & used a detailed pattern. I love carving pumpkins! But I just wasn't feeling it this year & I decided to let the kids have their own fun since when you do a pattern they can't do much more than pick it out & watch! To add to the simplicity of this year's pumpkins, Jack & Ellie opted to use the potato-head type parts on their pumpkins instead of carving. I wasn't going to try to talk them out of it - fine with me! :) They LOVED it!

Ellie trying to push & pound in the pieces


Both sides of Jack's creation

Callie wanted to actually carve a pumpkin. After we got all the guts out I let her draw on her own face. It didn't turn out quite like she'd hoped so she asked me to help her. She cut out most of it & insisted on using the bat pumpkin cutter to pound out a bat-looking hair bow!

After a late soccer game I brought the kids home & got them ready for a tri-ward trunk-or-treat. Thank goodness the wards skipped the chili & hot dogs before the trunk-or-treating this year. It's an insanely chaotic ordeal with canned chili & boiled fake meat hot dogs (blech!) and cheap buns.

I was happy that the kids had been happy to repeat last years' costumes (except Ellie since she's grown the most). I was glad because I worked dang hard on that mermaid costume last year! The devil cape wasn't difficult but it was still nice to see my labors pay off for two years & get plenty of use. Ellie wore a witch costume that Callie wore a few years ago. Each of the kids loved their characters.

The devil

The witch

The mermaid

The trunk. Thanks to my dad not being afraid to ask for stuff (his example has helped me score a few things too)! The giant inflatable spider had been over the produce section at WalMart but got a hole in it. He must have been there when they were taking it down. He asked if he could have it & then he took it home & patched it & borrowed a blower from a friend with a jump house business. He & my mom brought their spooky halloween trees too & we set up a great trunk :)

The great candy sort on Sunday morning

Since Halloween was on Sunday we didn't take the kids trick-or-treating on Halloween night. Instead they wore their Halloween pj's over to my parents' house who hosted a small get-together. We had 4 types of soup, homemade rolls & lots of desserts. We hung out & visited while my dad & the kids handed out candy to trick-or-treaters. Callie absolutely LOVED getting to pass out candy to everyone!

It was a perfect Halloween weekend!