The Christmas that Keeps on Giving

My boys were already happy with what they received on Christmas day but it just so happened that on Boxing Day they had a visit from one of their grandpas who gave them giftcards to Walmart.

This afternoon I decided to buck up and take all four boys to the store to go up and down the toy aisles.

No easy task - believe me.

Giggles spent 10 minutes alone just picking out and putting back Beyblade toys and then he ended up putting all of them back when he saw a DS game that he liked.

A toy lazer gun with lights and sounds was a quick pick for Wannabe. Thank goodness. And almost all of the boys wanted Pokemon cards. (Don't tell Brett. But really... a couple hundred more cards in the house won't make a difference now will it?)

But I was not surprised when Smiley, my Hulk fan, picked this...

Merry Christmas!

What a great Christmas. It was great because I survived and it was great because the boys enjoyed themselves.

Two days before Christmas we decorated homemade Gingerbread houses. I used my mom's old recipes and forms from the 70's. She made a house every Christmas along with dozens of different kinds of Christmas cookies. I'm not THAT ambitious but for the first time in my life I took on the task of making a gingerbread house. It turned out better than I imagined. Brett and the boys decorated one and I decorated the other.

Although my favorite "gingerbread" house was the one I saw in Smiley's class last week. When the teacher said it was time to clean up, one of the boys began dumping marshmallows and candy onto his plate...

On Christmas Eve at the family dinner I made the mistake of setting my camera down for a moment and walking away. My brother-in-law took advantage of the opportunity to photograph his and his brothers' bald spots...

On Christmas morning Wannabe woke Sheriff up at 4:00 a.m. and they didn't get back to sleep. Thankfully, they did not wake me up at that time.

Smiley LOOKED like he woke up at 4:00 a.m. (and acted like it)

But in reality he only cried twice during the day. Now THAT'S a Christmas miracle. I asked for no arguing on Christmas Day but that was rather unrealistic.

I didn't get that gift of course. But it was so much fun watching them open presents and see their expressions when they got what was on their lists.

I didn't really have a list for Christmas. Perhaps I should have...

To my sister I say... well done.

April definitely belongs on Santa's naughty list for the trick she pulled this year with the sock monkeys. She figured that by giving the sock monkeys to my kids I can't give them back to her. Her stocking is definitely going to be filled with coal next Christmas.

Then there were the gifts from her cruise to Mexico...

Brett played his shell whistle all day. Serenity now!

And the shell purse??? Even with my bad taste in clothes I still don't have anything to go with it.

Next time I think twice about buying her a monkey that sings Jingle Bells - I won't.

As I stood at the sink last night washing the dishes, Wannabe said to me, "mom, you've been busy all day." It was true. Christmas Day is a very busy day making a huge breakfast for the family, heading over to Grandma's house then great-grandma's house and then hurrying back home to begin on the dinner. I clean up the morning disaster before Grandma and Grandpa arrive and finish off the dinner preparations. We have dinner and then the post-dinner clean-up begins. I wonder if my mom was this busy on Christmas day and I never noticed? But I love spending time with family and I love the way we spend Christmas - it is the stuff tradition is made of. I'll recover later. :)

Out to dinner

Going out to dinner with my family has never been a relaxing experience. From the first time we went out to dinner with a baby in tow to the food-dropping/temper-tantrum toddler stage and now into the burping/"is that all there is?" older boy stage I simply gave up on relaxing.

Even going out to dinner with Brett I still worry about what the boys are doing to each other and to the house. For good reason sometimes.

Yet for some crazy reason I still persist in taking my family out to dinner despite the moans and groans over going to a sit-down restaurant instead of McDonald's. Or the pouting when I won't give a kid my breadstick and insist on eating it myself. How selfish, right?

But I love my boys and I am confident that one day they will successfully be able to eat in a restaurant with good manners.

Well... I hope so.

Time Out for Mom and Dad???

Last night we chose to go to a drive through a Christmas light display not too far from home. I thought it would be a great family activity because we could be outside yet in our warm toasty car oohing and aahing at the beautiful lights.

During the 20 minute drive there the boys watched Dr. Who on Brett's computer (I would have chosen a Christmas movie but as the designated driver I had little control over the movie choice). So we listened as The Doctor battle plastic enemies on our way to a pleasant family outing and the boys munched on salty or cinnamon popcorn provided by dad. (I'm afraid to look in the back of the car this morning.)

When we got there we switched over to Christmas tunes, slowed our speed and entered the light display. Brett asked me to turn the car lights off to respect the cars in front of us. I attempted to turn the lights off but unfortunately I could not find a setting which would completely turn them off.

That was when it started. As the kids excitedly talked back and forth noticing the moving t-rex and the tin soldiers' popping guns, Brett and I went back and forth (a.k.a. arguing) over the lights. He insisted that they could turn off all the way while I told him I tried every possible setting and they would not.

The funny part was that when I had planned this activity I thought we would have boys arguing in the car - not parents. When we got home my sister told me she thought she was going to have to send Brett and I out to the garage for a time out. That's what we tell our mom and dad when they start arguing... "do you need to go out to the garage?" Because we don't want to listen to their arguing.

After we got home Brett checked the lights on the car and discovered... I was right.

The lights don't completely turn off. Hmmmmm.

The other day my son went to play some tennis in the back yard and I took a step back when I saw him.

Well...

I took more than a step back.

Creepy right?

When I told him he looked creepy he said, "heeeeyyyyy!!!" As in, you hurt my feelings mom.

So I showed him his picture and he agreed. Creepy. He ran outside like that anyways.

Almost Done

I am so close to being done for this semester and then I will be taking a break. With my new calling and kids needing some extra mom-time, I realized that I don't have as much me-time for school as I thought. In the beginning I did but the last month and a half has been waaaaay too stressful and that isn't why I went back to school.

It was supposed to be fun.

Fun.

Crazy right?

But I only have one more presentation to go. Next week I will present five photos on architecture. It was really hard to narrow it down when I could have gone in so many directions. I finally just had to pick an avenue and just commit to it.

Would You?

Brett had another trip to Hawaii and while there visited a glass beach.

That's right. A glass beach. Apparently at this particular beach different beer bottles and other glass items have been discarded and tumbled by the waves to create this unique beach.

Would you dare to walk on this beach?

Brett did.

Thankful yet Frustrated

Can you be thankful and frustrated at the same time? I am. I love my kids.

Love, love, love, love them. I am so grateful for them because it took so long to create our family. At the same time they do things that make me go... huh? What in the world were you thinking? I look at what they do sometimes and listen to what they say and wonder why their mother isn't teaching them better... oh wait... that's me.

I watched my boys at the dinner table tonight and knew that if it was a table full of girls it would be sooooooo different. Then I thought back to our dinners growing up and took that thought back.

Of course my parents are enormously amused as I phone them with tales of what my boys are up to. Personally I don't think it is fair that the universe has seen fit to send me boys who talk back, sneak out of their rooms at night, have messy rooms with everything stuffed under their beds, tattle on their siblings .... okay scratch the last four... now that I think about it, that actually seems fair.

But the talking back part... SOOOOOOO not right.

Take Smiley for example. He hears only what he wants to hear. He had the flu last month and instead of throwing up in the bathroom he ran to tell us that he was going to be sick and threw up all over the carpet. I believe I mentioned it earlier. Well, he was sick again on Thanksgiving evening. He actually made it to the bathroom and I was soooooo proud. I thought, "finally he is growing up."

It was a fluke.

Last night before bed he said he had another stomachache and I told him, "if you have to throw up do it in your bathroom and then come tell me." He must have heard, "if you have to throw up come tell me," for at 11:00 pm I heard the splat outside my bedroom door.

Nice.

So I'm still dreaming of the day when he will really hear me when I talk to him. He is my kid who tells me the most that he loves me but he listens to me the least. Still, I love, love, love, him - even if I do not always understand him.

November Fool's Day?

I'm sure you had no idea that you missed November Fool's Day. In our home we celebrated it by accident. The salt shaker was running low and as I am the only one who ever fills the salt shaker I went to the pantry and refilled the shaker. At dinner the following night Brett cooked hash browns which as I'm sure you know needed salt. I sprinkled some salt on it and tasted it. Nothing. I sprinkled more salt on and still couldn't taste the salt. At this point I was questioning Brett's shopping skills because he was the one who bought the salt on Saturday. But I wasn't going to shake salt on my hashbrowns a third time because I knew I would get a lecture from my kids. After all, I'm always lecturing them on too much salt.

After eating my peppery but saltless hash browns Brett started laughing. He had sprinkled the "salt" on his plate and tasted it. Apparently my powers of observation need a little fine-tuning.

Is October already over? Time to take down the witches, the spiders, the ghosts and goblins. Time to put away the slobbery vampire teeth.

But you know what that means right? The stores will be packed with Christmas paraphernalia and kids will be bombarding us with the "I wants". Already the store catalogs are arriving I have already dashed Giggles hopes for an iPod and more Legos to decorate the basement floor.

Halloween day was crazy busy and I didn't have time to dress up this year. But I still had fun going to the school to watch my boys in the costume parade. This was the first year that Sheriff did not participate as he is too old. :( But he is still young enough to trick-or-treat thank goodness. And he did wear a costume to his school which had his father a little nervous. He told Sheriff that he could take his costume off at school if he wanted and to be prepared if 9th-graders made fun of 7th graders. Sounds to me like someone has some middle-school memories they still need to deal with.

Smiley only cried twice and only dropped his candy twice (blaming it on Giggles once). I call that a successful trick-or-treating night!

Brett's brother Jeff continues to amaze and delight family and friends with his fantastic haunted Halloween yard every year.

By the end of the night this is kind of how I felt...

a little bit worn out. But it was fun taking kids around and watching how excited they were for their different treats. It was a beautiful night with great weather. Pretty soon they will be too grown up for trick-or-treating so I will enjoy these moments while I can.

The Grim Reaper

I can't believe that summer is over and it is already time for ghosts and goblins to make their appearance.

Speaking of making appearances... the flu has also appeared... more than once in our home. It hit Smiley first. Although somehow Smiley managed to run past the bathroom and decorate our carpet. Perhaps he was wanted to tell mom and dad he didn't feel well? Brett didn't feel well cleaning it up. I laughed as I watched him with Kleenex stuffed up his nose. Don't feel too sorry for him. He took the easy part. I took the bathroom when Smiley missed a second time. Was he even trying for the toilet?

Seriously.

Next came Sheriff a couple days later despite the two cans of Lysol I emptied in my efforts to sanitize the house.

More Lysol.

Yesterday Giggles' desk fell prey to the deadly flu. Ewww. I hope the janitor sanitized it well.

More and more Lysol. Did they just put water in these cans????

Needless to say my prayers have become more sincere... I hate throwing up more than I hate brussell sprouts (although throwing up brussell sprouts would then combine the two things I hate the most ... oh wait... I hate rice pudding more... Gross!!!)

So I am hoping we are seriously done with all the sickness as Halloween is almost here.

We carved our pumpkin just this week...

Maybe with all of this sickness the Grim Reaper wasn't the best choice...

A Little Bit Crazy

I love the fact that schools have a crazy hair day. The kids get to celebrate a day and legitimately do whatever they want with their hair. They can color it crazy, braid it silly, spike it wacky... do whatever their imagination dictates.

I would love to have an adult crazy hair day at least.. oh say... once a week. Perhaps then a little canned hair color could help cover up my many lazy hair days when I pony-tail it.

But all they give us is Halloween - sigh. It just doesn't seem fair.

Another Conference Weekend

Another Conference Weekend has come and gone.

We had fun with family...

April forgot her doll at our house. But don't worry April... I'll bring her with me the next time I visit!

As usual we had conference bingo, wrote letters to our current missionary - my niece Sierra, had a prophet word search and had a reading station with the Friend magazine.

Two hours of talks is hard for the attention-challenged. Bingo REALLY helps me stay focussed. Sadly I forgot to stay stocked with Froot Loops so we had to use the card-board cookies from the Sesame Street Bingo game. They weren't as tasty.

Of course we couldn't miss the afternoon session at my mother-in-law's with all of the food and a house full of kids.

No...I didn't hear much from the afternoon session. Thank goodness for DVRs! But my nieces and nephews sure are a cute bunch and I love seeing them play together.

With the announcement that young men can go on missions even sooner I realize that the time I have with my boys can end even sooner. They grow so fast and then they are off into the world. Every moment is to be cherished. Although I'm pretty sure I can do without the nightly jumping around that goes on in a certain 7-year-old's room after he goes to bed.