Merry Christmas!!

And happy New Year! I know... How lame am I?? December 9th?? Okay... so I found my camera probably 2 days after I posted that it was misplaced. And I have a whole new set of pictures since then and still haven't posted any. Sorry. I never sent out Christmas cards either. Nor did I finish the gifts for my parents or Jeff's. I'm just all around lame this year. I'll work on that...

On another note, here are some of my favorite pictures from the holidays:

Here are all my sweet children watching Elmo's Adventures in Grouchland together. Audrey was sad, and Sarah decided she might feel better if she could sit with everyone on the chair. So she lifted her up there between the boys and covered everyone with the blankets. This is how I found them.

I waited until after church to get the pictures of all our cute Christmas outfits. Since church is from 1-4, and the kids haven't had naps or lunch... well... you get the picture. This was the best one of Alex and Sarah. I was laughing too hard at them to get a really nice one. And Sarah insisted on wearing her headband like a "Nephite."

Here is Jeff and Lucas. You might recognize Jeff's vest from a certain Halloween a few years back...

Mama, and poor little Audrey. She was so hungry and so tired. But ever so cute! And I think my face is starting to look a little better. What do you think??


Sarah helped me wrap a present she got for the boys one night, and as everyone was getting ready for bed, she kept asking me for things. "Can I have some ribbon, mom?" I gave it to her. "Can I have some tape, mom?" A little frustrated at this point because she was supposed to be getting ready for bed, I asked her why. In her semi-embarrassed and shy way she has when she's doing something cute, she told me she couldn't tell me. I gave her a piece. A few minutes later, she came smiling to me looking like this. She called it her "Santa mustache."


On Christmas Eve, the kids all get to open their Christmas Jammies. Here's alex trying to find the pockets in his. They all had ones similar to these and actually all kept them on the whole night! Our Christmas morning video had fully clothed and cute kids!

We had a true White Christmas this year. It snowed through the morning until about 11:30, then politely cleared up so we could all go sledding and play in the snow. Then it snowed when it got dark again that night. It was a lot of fun, and the kids all had a blast sledding down the hill at the high school with the tubes Santa brought, then making a snowman in our back yard. Here's some of them eating the freshly fallen snow on the little mini-hill Jeff made with the snow he shoveled off the driveway.

Here's Sarah trying to catch some snowflakes that began falling before we went inside.

That night, we jammed on the new Guitar Hero: World Tour game we got from Jeff's mom for Christmas. Everyone really likes the game, and these pictures are not posed! Sarah is actually playing the drums here, and Lucas is actually singing! He REALLY likes that part. He insists on having a turn with the mic every time we get it out. And we can't forget little Audrey. Every time she hears the game start up, she comes running and giggling. Then she'll stop in the middle of the family room and start dancing. Jeff let her have one of the guitars the other day, and she seriously thought she was playing. I love that my kids love music!



These ones are a little more random, but I really liked them. They're all from the last week or two.

I couldn't just give the boys a bath this day. First came Audrey, trying to climb in fully clothed. What else could I do but put her in? Then Sarah just wouldn't be left out. She insisted on bathing with everyone. They had a lot of fun splashing each other. They always love the bath.

This one is fondly reminiscent of my post called "Boys will be... boys?" from earlier this year. I just don't understand why they can't leave their clothes on! We always go in to check on all the kids right before we go to bed, and this is what we found one night. They fell asleep right by the door like this.

And this last one is from tonight. The boys both really love their two blankets they've had since they were born. They take them pretty much everywhere. Tonight, they had these two sippy cups full of water right before bed. They got two washcloths from the drawer in the kitchen, and were found walking to their room together with their "babies" wrapped up in their "blankets" all ready for bed. When Jeff was getting them ready for bed upstairs and one of them dripped toothpaste on the floor, Jeff took Alex's washcloth to wipe the spot up. Alex freaked out saying "No! Blanket!" Jeff then very apologetically helped him wrap his "baby" back up in his "blanket." That's not all. Alex named his baby cup "Bluie" (because his favorite color is blue) and Lucas named his "Greenie." Sometimes they just really surprise me. They're so cute!

Misplaced

So I've been meaning to post about our trip to AZ over Thanksgiving, among other things, but I seem to have misplaced my camera! Not to worry, though. I know it's somewhere in the house. I just don't know exactly where. When I find it, I'll post the pictures from the past month. We've been doing a lot of fun things lately. We put up our Christmas decorations, including the lights outside. We went on a long drive to Arizona to visit family for Thanksgiving. We made Christmas cookies, and ate them all before we could deliver them! And we've spent a good deal of time with friends. Sarah has been learning a lot in preschool and doing lots of fun activities. Sarah, Audrey and I went to the tree lighting ceremony for North Ogden and even got to see Santa! Sarah told him all the things she wants for Christmas. She and Audrey both got a candy cane from Jolly old Saint Nick. Unfortunately, that was one of the events where the camera was MIA. I'm hoping to find it before our ward Christmas party so we can get a picture of all the kids on Santa's lap. We also said goodbye to a very dear, very old friend over Thanksgiving. Big Red. The Durango. He was a loyal and reliable friend for a very long time, but it was time to replace him with a newer more "reliable" version. The newest addition to our happy family is a 2004 pearl white Lincoln Navigator. We have loved the comfort and ease of use the Navigator has provided so far and are hoping it won't cause us too much grief with all the bells and whistles it has. Two slightly less new additions to our family are a treadmill and stationery bicycle. We purchased those about six weeks ago and have thoroughly enjoyed having them in our bedroom for our nightly exercise dates. Can't hurt to try and stay in shape, right?? So far so good. It really helps to have a work out buddy and the extra motivation having two people on a work out schedule provides has proven very advantageous. Being able to run a few miles without having to brave the cold of winter doesn't hurt either. Happy late Thanksgiving everyone!

"Candy"

First of all, let me just say: When you get free stuff, take advantage! I got a small box full of apples from my neighbor, who got them from our other neighbor's trees. Free. Today, I made almost three quarts of applesauce. It would have been probably four quarts, except I waited a tad too long and had to throw away five or six of the apples. To buy that much applesauce at the store would be at least $10. More if I bought organic and unsweetened, which is what I get as a result of canning my own. As I was preparing to make the applesauce, I had to peel and core the apples first. I have a peeler that I can mount on the counter that peels, cores and slices at the same time. It peels the entire apple in one long strip. Sarah was fascinated with the whole process and was helping me on and off throughout it. When I was just about done with the peeling, she asked me if she could have some candy. I said, "what candy?" because there wasn't any candy out anywhere. Pointing to one of the strips of apple peel, she said, "This candy. Right here." She was obviously pretending that the peel was candy. She knew exactly what it was because she watched and even helped me get it off the apples. I said, "Really? Um... sure, I guess you can have some 'candy,' but I don't know if you'll like it." But she did. She ate two entire apples worth of peels! I guess that's good, right? Isn't the peel where most of the nutrients are in an an apple anyway? Go Sarah! She's picky and weird in what she likes to eat, but pleasantly surprises me sometimes.

Seriously?

Okay... I sweep the floor pretty much daily. I'm pretty sure I swept it at some point yesterday, and if I didn't, I did for sure the day before. Either way, it was completely dirt free at least once in the last two days. Well, I swept it again today. This is what I gathered up:Seriously? After just ONE day?? Please tell me I'm not the only one whose kids make this kind of mess in their kitchen...

By the way, this is my 101st post!! Hooray for blogging! Had I been more organized or observant, I would have done a nice "100th post" post. Oh well. I have other things to worry about... like cleaning the floors! ;)

What's For Dinner?

Usually, I like to make something yummy. I enjoy cooking, and usually like what I come up with. The rest of the family? Not so much sometimes. Tonight, though, I made whole wheat biscuits and the kids helped me cut shapes. They each chose which shape they wanted and we made peanut butter sandwiches with homemade banana jam and some raisins, pickles and goldfish. Nutritious, eh? They seemed to enjoy making these a lot more than eating them, unfortunately. I've been blessed with incredibly picky eaters in my children. Oh well. I love them anyway. Looks yummy, though, doesn't it?
So what did you have for dinner?

Pure Sweetness

Jeff and Audrey had the privilege of attending Kathy's 60th birthday party over the weekend. She had a sixties-themed party for which I made Audrey a retro little outfit to wear. I was hoping it looked the part because it was terribly hard to find any pictures online of sixties fashion, especially for babies. Here's the outfit.

And here's the cutest little sixties baby!


Earlier this week, the boys had a playdate with the neighbor boy. Apparently, this is what happens when I let them stay up to play instead of napping during the day. Alex fell asleep at the top of the basement stairs.

And Lucas fell asleep at the bottom of the entry stairs.I'm not sure what it is about stairs, but that's the cozy place they chose to rest that day.

Now, these ones aren't the best pictures because I was in a really bad spot for taking them. But if I had moved, I most definitely would have missed the opportunity. Alex was very upset this morning because Sarah let Lucas sit in Alex's chair at the table so he could color with her. Alex wanted his chair and refused to sit on the other side of the table in the other chair. He came over to where I was sitting at the computer and sat down on the floor to cry. Audrey came over shortly thereafter and decided to try and comfort him. These are the pictures I caught of her patting Alex on the head as if to say "It's okay, Alex." You see... when Alex or Lucas accidentally do something to make Audrey cry, that is exactly what they do. They pat her on the head and say "Sorry, Audrey." She was mimicking their consoling behavior! What a sweetie.

Double Trouble

This is why we don't own any crayons that are not "washable." At least it's one of my many reasons. Audrey also likes to eat the crayons, so washable is great for the rainbow colored slobber that ultimately ends up all over her shirt.

This morning, as I was following my kids around picking stuff up and cleaning up after them, I found this:

I asked Lucas if he did it and he said "No." When I asked him who did, he said, "Alex did." As I proceeded to clean it up, Alex walked in the room. I asked him if he did it, and he said, "No." When I asked him who did, he said, "Lucas." Now, I'm pretty sure Alex is the real culprit judging by the guilty look on his face and the color of the crayon. I'm sad that he's learning to lie to get out of trouble already. I guess all kids learn that at some point, right? Better to get a handle on this bad habit early... not to mention the coloring on the floor thing.

Post-Trick-Or-Treating Fun.

**There are like six new posts here. This one is the last in the actual history of things, so if you want to see this week in the order it occurred, start with the post titled "Pre-Halloween Fun."**

Halloween day and night brought more trick or treating. We went to the locally owned grocery store where they always hand out candy throughout the store to the trick-or-treating patrons. We met with our neighbor friends there, then headed to the assisted living home (Emiritus Estates) down Washington for a visit with the elderly and more candy gathering. One of our neighbor's grandmothers lives there. It was fun to see the joy on the faces of all the elderly men and women as they saw all the cute kids in their costumes and handed each a piece or two of candy. After that, we came home to empty out our pumpkins, and get ready to stroll the neighborhood.

Once everyone returned home for the evening, the feasting began.

Here's Lucas saying "cheese" for the camera with a mouth full of candy corn.

"Mwah hah ha ha ha!"

On Halloween night each year, the kids are allowed to eat as much candy as they want... until bedtime. Then they place their pumpkins full of candy on the kitchen table as an "offering" to the "Great Pumpkin." Then it's upstairs to brush teeth REALLY well, and off to bed. In the morning when they wake up, there's a great new gift in place of the candy filled pumpkins that was left by the "Great Pumpkin" sometime during the night as a little "thank you" for the candy they so lovingly bestowed upon him. Here's what that looks like.


In the morning, the kids all came down to eat breakfast and found the gifts. Both the boys got new trains. Alex's pulls a car with a dinosaur skeleton on it, and Lucas's pulls a car with a bicycle on it. They were very excited about them. Here's Alex looking at his.

Lucas wasn't quite as thrilled with having a gift.

"Hey...

"Where's the candy???"

Audrey wasn't quite sure what to do with hers. At first, she picked it up and dropped it on the floor. She's been doing that with everything that she doesn't feel has a use to her lately.

Eventually, with a little help and guidance, she got hers opened. I think she likes it.

Sarah slept in quite a bit longer than the rest of the kids. Which is understandable. She did stay up quite a bit later than everyone else also. But when she finally did come down and see her new gift, this is what I got.

She got the Belle doll (from Beauty and the Beast) that goes with the princess horse she got for her birthday earlier this year. She was thrilled. Which is good, considering I bought it back in August because I happened to see it on sale and thought it would be smart to store it for an occasion where she might do something to merit a new toy like that. I'd say it worked out quite nicely.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Party Time!

Well, I survived the sewing machine attacks and we were ready to go for the party in the morning. There were about 20 preschoolers, a dozen or so moms and one dad. The kids all had fun decorating halloween cookies, playing musical chairs, and making footprint ghosts. They had their fill of cookies, pumpkin shaped sandwiches, chips, grapes and goulish punch (apple juice mixed with 7-Up in a punch bowl with a blue, frozen, floating monster head.) Later that night, we headed over to the church for our ward party and door to door trick or treating around all the kids' primary classrooms.

Here's my little mummies decorating their cookies.

I can just see the thoughts running through Lucas's head in this one. "Hmmmm... should I put more candy on it?" He decided in favor of that option.

Here's Audrey at our ward party. Unfortunately, she was feeling a little ill that day. She did have plenty of smiles at the party, but my camera takes so darn long to focus and take the picture that I missed every single one of them! She made such a cute creepy baby mummy, though, don't you think?


This is my "cool kid" Lucas. He was posing for me at the church before the costume parade.

Our little mummy family won "Best in Show." Which really earned us nothing but bragging rights. There was no actual prize. This was the only picture of our entire family on my camera. I think a few other people got some good ones. But I only have one.

Alex really liked his "scary clothes."

Here's Mommy Mummy with her baby.

Cutest, littlest mummy at the party.

And the sugar high begins...

Scary Papa Mummy!

Poor Audrey. She did so well despite not feeling very well. Then she zonked.

Here they all are on the ride home showing off their mummy growls.