. . .what we've been up to. . .

It's December alright, and we've been busy! I feel like I have so many things to blog about, and every night I say, "I'll do it tomorrow." If I didn't have so many pictures to deal with I would have done it by now. We have had lots of things going on and I've decided to just do them in one major post. Prepare yourself. Get a drink. Use the bathroom. Whatever you need to do. Okay, here we go!

Festival of Trees Substitute

Every year we go to the Festival of Trees. We usually try to go during the afternoon when it's not so busy. This year, we couldn't go until Friday evening and as we were driving up we decided to stop for dinner. It was on the drive that we noticed Ellery coughing/breathing kind of weird. My kids both have asthma so we're kind of paranoid when it comes to their breathing. Going to the crowded expo center, parking far away and fighting our way down each isle didn't sound like the environment for a quick escape if Elle got really bad, so we decided to forgo our plans. We stopped at the South Towne mall to ride the carousel instead. McKay kept asking if that was where all the Christmas trees were and we told him it was. He wasn't very impressed, but he did love riding the carousel.

Elf on the Shelf Party

A newer tradition that my mom started was her Elf on the Shelf party for all the grandkids.

She read the book and then talked about the elfs. Is it elfs or elves? Elfs looks better so I'll go with that.

McKay, of course, was completely enthralled. My mom gave each family the job of naming the elfs she had given them. Later, McKay chose "Grover" and "Olive" for our elfs.

Ellery was also very curious.




Afterwards Grammy handed out treats to all the kids. I don't know if you all know, but Brian is a pretty strict parent. While all these kids were eating all the candy they wanted, Brian allowed McKay only three pieces. My poor child.


Thanks Grammy, for such a fun party.

Baking Day

We did it again! We had our second annual Christmas Baking Day! It was so fun and I've eaten about six cookies today. And four yesterday. And tomorrow I'm sure I'll eat at least three. Shoot. I love Baking Day, but it's not easy on the waistline.

This year we did sugar cookies, oreos, cornflake wreaths, date balls, mint cookies, candied pecans, and toffee. We are still learning the ins and outs of our baking day and maybe we'll have to practice making toffee because while one batch turned out great, two did not. (Becky- we used your recipe!)

Christmas Light Drive

Another tradition we have is driving around looking at Christmas lights. Before we had kids Brian and I would rate houses based on their outside holiday lights decor. Now, we just look for the most brightly lit homes and are intensely looking for blow-up Santas and snowmen. I would never put a blow up item in my yard, but I sure do appreciate those who do, on account of my children thoroughly enjoying them. Thank you blow up decorators.

When we saw anything neat Ellery would say, "Woa" over and over and point. It was pretty much precious.

We had the kids already in their jammies for the drive since it would be past bedtime when we were done. Here's Brian wrestling them to bed.

It Snowed!

It was ten-thirty yesterday morning before I even looked outside. We had no idea it had snowed overnight. As soon as I showed McKay he was pulling on his snow pants and heading for the door.

McKay was the first one to walk through the snow on the grass and he had so much fun making tracks and going down the snowy slide.

Ellery doesn't really have proper snow attire. We did the best we could with what she has, but it didn't really matter too much since all she wanted to do was eat the snow off her mittens.

Brian and McKay stayed outside for over an hour playing in the snow and even making snowmen- one for Elle and one for McKay. I didn't get a picture because by then Ellery and I had gone inside.

But not before she ate some more snow. She even picked it off the ground once the boys came in.

So there it is! Those are some of the things we've been up to, along with the busy hustle bustle that is December. But I'm happy to report that all my shopping is done. Okay. . .not all. . .but almost all. Any ideas for my parents? Those parents are always the hardest to shop for. But after that I'll be done!

*update- spellcheck tells me it's elves, but I'm not buying it.

his DREAM party

McKay was invited to his cousin Ethan's (aka Eto) puppy themed birthday party last week.

All the other kids were totally into it, and having fun.

But my boy. . . my boy. . .

. . .was a real dog. He wore his dog shirt, naturally, but he also was the only boy/dog who kept his collar on. After decorating their own collars with stickers most of the boys took them off to play games. Not this dog. He kept it on nearly the whole time. He was in this position, shoulders hunched up like that, for about a half hour straight trying to keep his collar from falling off. Just frozen that way. It was entertaining for us adults to watch him stay in character the whole time. He really thought he was a dog.

He did take his collar off for the dog show. That there is "Dog" who he sleeps with every night. His name is just Dog, but when all the other boys were naming their dogs Spot, Spotty, Spotto and Spotter McKay decided Dog needed a little name sprucing. So Dog temporarily became "Housey" to be fancy for the party.

You can see these boys all loved the party.

But maybe none as much as my little dog.

i've got a one year old. . .

All the sudden it seems like Ellery is this one year old spaz. I have to watch her every second.

Our toilet paper roll usually looks like this.

She washes her hands in the toilet water.

If there is anything tiny, anything delicate., anything dangerous, you bet this girl has got it in her mouth.

She's starting to climb. She's not very good at it, but that doesn't stop her. The other day I walked into the bathroom and she was frozen on McKay's stool. Just standing there like a statue. She couldn't' get off, and she didn't dare move. But she was sure proud; and relieved that I was there to see/rescue her. Why do all these things happen in the bathroom? It's like we're in there all the time.

I'm pretty much going to be holding her for the next twenty-five days. Because if I'm not, she's having her way with the Christmas tree. If you come over, please don't look at the bottom portion of it.

One year olds are funny. You can say no as many times as you want, as loud as you want, and- no reaction. At least not from my girl. It seems like that's all I'm saying to her these days. And she doesn't even care.

But. I wouldn't trade any of it. I love my one year old. I mean, just look at her!

Brian's favorite picture of her. First thing in the morning.

tree shopping

We put our tree up yesterday. I felt SO behind. Everyone we know had there Christmas trees up and decorated by the time Thanksgiving weekend was over. It was December third and I was panicking. Doesn't it seem like everyone was extra early this year? My mom was always a "it has to be at least December 1st" person. I could go either way. I guess it depends on the year. This year it was a December 3rd year. It works.

McKay was just a blur running through the lot. He was dodging trees. Weaving. Hiding. Running.



Ellery just kept saying, "Woa!" about everything. The trees. The big blow up Santa. The cars whizzing by on State street. "Woa."

We found one. McKay is jumping for joy.

The tree lady gave the kids candy canes. I wouldn't let Ellery eat hers in the car. McKay was tempting her the whole way home. Stinker.


These two monkeys climbed all over Brian while he set the tree up. But he managed. The tree lady told us to give it seven up and asprin- I guess it's supposed to be the best "first drink" for the tree. I guess we believed her because we did it.


McKay was totally into putting the oranments on. He put most of them on the same two branches. We had to disperse when he wasn't looking. But he sure was proud of himself. Ellery was napping, thankfully. I didn't need her seeing us touching the tree and all the fun stuff on it. I think she'd be even worse with it, if that's possible.

The finished product. The last couple years I've gone shopping the day after Christmas too. Mostly for all the discounted Christmas decorations. Brian will die when he reads this, but I think this year we need something BIG for the tree. Really big balls. Or BIG floral bunches or something. We have a lot of little things, but. . .I guess we'll see what I come home with later. You can almost always add to a Christmas tree, right?

so mature

When asked what he wanted for Christmas, McKay requested a lamp and a big clock for his bedroom. He told us doesn't need any toys because he has enough. He also added that he'd like some orange juice for Christmas, "because we're always out of orange juice" and he and dad like it a lot.

How will the train set that Santa's bringing compare to a lamp? I hope he's not disappointed.

Recovering

We are all recovering.

Brian is hobbling around like a ninety year old man. Hobbling. Lets just say that after playing Thanksgiving day football he can't believe he used to do it everyday. OLD man. It's entertaining for me to see him try to get up and down though.

Ellery is recovering from her Thanksgiving day tumble down a flight of stairs at Grandma's.

So scary.

Luckily all she has to show for it is a bruised nose. No harm done, thank goodness,

but- my poor girl.

I'm still very much recovering from this:

Five thirty a.m. comes mighty early after a holiday. My eyes are red, I'm yawning and I still feel sick. Totally worth it.

As for McKay. . .well, no major recoveries going on with him But I could still be recovering from the scary Thanksgiving pirate that hung around our house during the parade.

Brian and I are both recovering from the shock and delight of receiving this from his parents:

I am in love with it. From Israel, sent by Brian's sister Lindy who is studying over there this semester. I might want to keep it up all year.

Overall though, we had a great holiday.

Really relaxing. Really pleasant. Really fun.

Hope your Thanksgiving was great too!

Now, welcome Christmas. I'm ready for you!

nearly every day

These boys eat chips and salsa

These boys watch Arthur. I'm telling you, Brian likes this show as much as McKay. Maybe more.

These boys make green drinks together. McKay is the "flax man", meaning he dumps in the flax and as Brian chops the fruit and veggies McKay drops them in, making sure to take a bite out of each piece he drops. Little snitcher.

The older McKay gets the more clear it becomes to me just how much impact we {parents} have on our little ones. He is already obsessed with chips and cheese, and he's only three.

Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

When McKay woke up and 5:45 a.m. I knew what kind of a day it would be. I have been staying up late doing various projects and my usually sweet son has been getting up early, ever since daylight savings, so we were quite a combination yesterday with an even earlier wake up call than usual. McKay usually listens. McKay usually is sweet. McKay usually doesn't do a lot of whining. But McKay was not here yesterday. It was some other boy. Someone I didn't recognize. And I'm afraid I was not very nice to this new boy. I was sleep deprived, and at times acting like a three year old myself. Why does a three year old not understand "If you stop whining and crying about every little thing I would stop yelling at you!"? The new boy didn't stop. And I had to give myself a time out so that I could stop. It was not pleasant. The boy just had specific ideas in his head- very specific- and I was running around like a crazy person trying to help him with them, but they very seldom turned out the way he wanted, so he cried. I did my best to build a barn in the family room, but it was just never good enough for this boy. And he had a horribly mean face on all day. And so did I. And poor Elle witnessed it all, wondering where her family had gone.

After a whole morning of going at it I decided to just go ahead and let him have a donut for lunch at 10:45am and as I slammed the donut onto his plate and said, "Fine. Have it." I knew something had to be done about us. But it wasn't until he repeatedly demanded crackers, denying anything healthy that I suggested to go along with the dumb donut, that things took a turn. As I grabbed a handful of wheat thins and crashed them down on his plate, planning on heading to another mom time out, that I saw how ridiculous it all was. Shock was all over his face and then he cried some more because there were cracker crumbs on his donut. I sat down next to him at the table and took my own advice; deep breaths. Then I watched him eat all the frosting off the donut in little bites and I saw that maybe this could be considered cute. I put my head in my knees and started asking for help. McKay wondered why my head was down and I told him I was saying a little prayer. I asked him if he wanted to say a little prayer for us to feel better and he was starting before I could close my eyes.

"Dear Heavenly Father.
Thank you that me and mom will be better in our minds.
Thank you that we won't give up.
(hiccups begin to start)
Thank you that my hiccups will go away.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."
Note, "thank you" is used for gratitude, as well as asking for things.

I was completely humbled by this little prayer. I don't really know why he said what he did, but it was precious to me because those were his words. He was feeling just as awful as I was and that is what he felt necessary to say. And it's true. We really did need to be better in our minds. And I'm glad we didn't give up. After this, it wasn't a great day, but it certainly started going better than it had been. I stopped yelling and he didn't stop crying. But I stopped yelling, and that's what counts, you know, because I'm twenty-seven, not three.

By the way, those of you who see McKay will probably hear all about the time when Mommy threw the crackers in the air. Don't judge me.

The Right Stuff

How many references to New Kids on the Block is too much for one blog?

Four? Five? Okay, I'm good then.

Several years ago my three sisters went to the New Kids concert at the Marriott center. I was overlooked and deemed "too young" to go and cheaply compensated with a book of paper dolls from Days Market. It was devastating. Yes, I was young, but I was a true fan. I had a Joey doll. I listened to the tape over and over. I had a NKOTB outfit that I wore proudly. And, all my friends got to go to the concert- we were the same age! It was tragic. Well, when we heard the boys were back together and were stopping in SLC, I knew it was redemption time. It was my time. So Krista, Jana and I went. Here's what I have to say about it:

Waiting in line to go in. When I left the house Brian was shocked that I was wearing that jacket. "It's going to get dirty," he said. "Brian," I said, "I'm going to a New Kids on the Block concert. I doubt it will get dirty." "Yeah, but it might get stolen." Me again, "Brian. I'm going to a New Kids on the Block Concert . . . with a bunch of women. It won't get stolen." I had no idea he was so protective of my white coat.

When we first got to our seats, there was no one sitting around us. Not a soul. We started to feel really bad for the New Kids for not selling more tickets. And we wondered how we would feel dancing and singing all by ourselves.

We were getting butterflies with all the waiting we had to do. The excitement was mounting. I felt like a little girl.

And then there he was. In no time I was listening to the sweet sound of Joey serenading me with the old classic "Please Don't Go Girl". It was a big moment.

And look. The stands filled up. . .mostly. And lets just talk for a second about Joey. Joey, is not a good dresser. Out of all the Kids he had the ugliest clothes. It was hard for me. I tried really hard to overlook it. But then I noticed that his dance moves were that of a Broadway dancer, and I looked over at Donnie, the one I hated back in the day. Donnie danced really cool. Donnie was cool. And Donnie didn't have his mullet/rat tail hairdo or his shredded jeans anymore. Then I looked back over at Joey in his v-neck sweater with a matching scarf around his neck and I kind of switched.

Okay, no. I didn't switch. I just added Donnie. Who would have thought? Not me.

At one point the boys took the stage all dressed in white, and we hoped for a second that they were going to get baptised. But then when Donnie got thrown a shirt from someone in the crowd that said, "I Love Mormon Girls" and he replied into the microphone for all us Mormon girls to hear, "Yeah. I do love Mormon girls! And I love American girls. And Canadian girls. . ." and so on, we realized that Donnie thought that being Mormon was a nationality. And we were really embarrassed for him. And we knew he was not getting baptised.

There were some scary moments like this one. When Jordan sang his solo. A wind machine was involved. It was not pretty. This was one of the times that we sat down and took a rest. No one needs to see that Jordan. It reminded me of Michael Bolton.

We rested quite a lot actually. This is Jana actually plugging her ears. The E-Center was filled with mostly a bunch of girls. Like us. But man, could those girls ever scream. It was as if the place was filled with a bunch of twelve year olds. It was loud in there. And the sound quality was awful. So we plugged every once in awhile. And sat. Mostly during all their new songs. We totally grooved to the oldies. And screamed. And all the words just magically came back to us and we sang along. But, overall, we felt kind of old.

I loved my first New Kids concert. There is nothing like seeing those boys do their little side kicking dance step all in a line to "The Right Stuff", you know the one? Oh, oh, oh-oh-oh. Oh, oh, oh-oh. I had to see that at least once.

So glad we went. So fun to spend a girls night with my sisters. So much better than paper dolls.

Apple Tree

Yesterday McKay had a huge idea. While we were getting ready in the morning he just kept spouting off his plans, "And we'll go outside. And we'll get a lot of sticks. . ."

I would humor him and say, "Mmm hmmm."

"And then, we'll make a BIG BIG tree. And we'll get sticks and apples and leaves. . ."

After about ten minutes of describing it to me, I figured it was something he was pretty serious about. It was a relatively warm day, and so when Elle went down for her nap we decided to get going on this big idea.

I did my best to help him create what he was describing.

And I even dug up some apples we had laying around.

He was so proud of the finished apple tree.

And I was pretty proud too.

You see, I've been doing "art" with him for a few months now. I try to have him do one or two projects a week. I got this idea from my friend Shannyn's blog. She did a post about a site she had found called No Time For Flashcards. I LOVE this website. I love it because the ideas are simple, they are easy, using basic materials. (I spent about $10 at the Dollar Store for supplies) I love it because these crafts, or "art" are not for parents to look at or admire, they are not to be"cute"- they are for the kids to create things. I sometimes find myself wanting to tell McKay the correct place to glue a googely eye, or that pumpkins should be painted orange, but because of the no-fuss, simplicity of these ideas I am reminded that those things don't matter at all. It's about him and how he wants to make them. That is what's most important. His ideas.

That's why I was so proud of this apple tree. He thought of it. It was his art.

And just because I really love this picture. Taken at 11:30 one night during one of Elle's private playdates with mom and dad. Every once in awhile she'll wake up after a few hours and want to hang out. And guess what? We totally let her. Brian is incredibly soft when it comes to this child. Like dangerously soft. It's a good thing I'm involved. Anyway, she walked around talking on the phone saying, "Hello," and giving us goofy smiles like this one. It's kind of nice to have some one on one time with her. She doesn't often get it, so we figure that 11:30 is as good a time as any. Love her.

Fourth

My friend Emily did this on her blog, and I decided to join in.

Fourth picture in your fourth file, with the story.

Oh I was excited that it was this picture. This is my family! This was taken outside the Timganogos temple when my Nonnie went through the temple for the first time (look at all Bri's hair and mine and Jana's chunky shoes! Haha.).

Both my parents are converts and joined the church a couple years before I was born. They were the only members on both sides of their families. But, that changed when my eighty year old Nonnie decided to be baptised. In April of 2003 we were all so excited to see her get baptised, and- kinda neat- she was baptised on the anniversary of my parents baptism day.

It was also neat because that meant that my dad baptised everyone in my immediate family. Mom, sisters, and then Non.

The next October my whole family was able to be in the temple with her and it was so wonderful. We were also able witness the sealing of Nonnie and Poppop and my mom to her parents.

Pretty cool day.

Tag, you're it.