Silence.

Ah, what a beautiful thing!
Never mind the still-lingering bits of wrapping paper in my living room, hidden among the discarded but not-forgotten pieces of candy and less interesting Christmas toys.
Don't even think about the fridge overflowing with leftovers and counter overflowing with couple-days-old Christmas goodies (yuck for gluttony).
Push out of your mind the messy bedroom, laundryroom spilling out dirty clothes, and that small but ever-present pile of bills waiting to be paid.
And definately do not think about the gifts that didn't get made or bought or mailed.
It's quiet. Kids are taking naps. I'll just worry about all that other crazy stuff later. Right now I'm going to go downstairs and play with Beau, make him laugh, snuggle him and just have a lazy moment.
Even if I have a million reasons not to.

A Conversation

So yesterday my kids were tyrants. I know, it's a strong word, not normally associated with children under the age of four, but I think it's appropriate. And applicable to Bekah and Jacob right after naptime, a time that always has to be handled delicately because they are highly sensitive people when they wake up. Ugg. So yesterday the three of us were sitting on the couch and here is the conversation that went on:
Bekah: Mommy, Jacob's touching me! (Remember, I am right there. Only inches away. I can see what is going on, but Bekah still feels the need to wail at every injustice.)
Jacob: Poke, Poke, poking Bekah in the back.
Mommy: Well, tell him that you don't like it.
B: I can't! You have to do it!
J: Poke, laugh, poke
B: He's still touching me!
Mommy: Tell him!!
B: Jacob! Stop!
Jacob laughs, rolls onto his back, and proceeds to kick Bekah with his feet.
B: AAAaaahhHH!
Mommy: OKAY. Jacob! Stop bugging Bekah!
Silence for 17 seconds.
J: Bekah? Do you like green or purple?
B: Hmph
J: You like green?
B: NO!!
J: Yeah, you green.
B: No I'm NOT! Mommy, Jacob is telling me I'm green but I'm not!
Mommy: Bekah, Stop getting mad! Sometimes he doesn't make sense! You know that!
Bekah then climbs on my lap and hugs me, still sniffling here and there so I don't forget that she has been pestered beyond repair. Then Jacob climbs on top of her, she bucks him off, he does it again, she cries...remember I am under them through all of this...finally I yell ENOUGH and stand up and they both topple to the couch. Then...
Bekah: Mommy I need a snack. I really need a snack right now. If I don't have a snack right now the alligators in my tummy will eat me all up! Please!
So then we had snacks, the alligators were tamed, Bekah and Jacob started playing happily together, Beau woke up, and life chugged along just as well as it could.
And now some pictures just for fun:

Try this...take a tortilla, fold it in quarters, cut it like you would a paper snowflake, and then fry it and dust with powdered sugar. Yummy, easy, fun and festive! Here is Bekah with her snowflake.

Beau can sit up on his own now!!! Hooray! He's so happy to finally greet the world vertically!

Here I am showing off Beau's cute Christmas outfit. The word on the bum is naughty and the outfit is made like a pair of longjohns.

Till next time! Merry Christmassing!

Ashley's Make it and Love it Craft Blog!

Go check out Ashley's Make it and Love it Blog! She has such cute ideas for fun things to make for yourself and your kids. And for ways to occupy your time when your husband somehow finds more important places to be, like school or work or church. And for when your house is a mess, every toilet needs to be cleaned and your kids are cranky. That's all a signal to put in a movie, ignore the mess, and do something productive that won't unravel by the end of the day. (Hopefully. How are you at sewing?) So click on my cute new button to visit her craft blog, and if you really can't find the time to make stuff, go to her Etsy store and make her do all the work for you! (You'll find that link on her craft blog.)
Okay, run along now. Scoot. Skeedaddle. :)

The Grinch's Christmas Light Tragedy

The grinch hates Christmas lights. It may be his raising in a remotely located home that did not need lights, or it may be his heart is two sizes too small. We don't know. But as you can see in this picture, because he loves his wife, he put forth the effort to put up the Christmas lights. (His wife didn't take any chances...She bought the lights last year after Christmas, along with clips and extension cords.)
And then the next day, the New Mexico wind blew with fury and all the lights got blown off the house. Literally. Seriously. Off. Light clips scattered in the wintering grass. The grinch spent that day in denial, not even remarking on the odd fury of the wind or the fact that the lights scattered haphazardly on the roof would have to be re-hung. And now, a week later, the lights are still scattered and our Christmas spirit is looking as tarnished and redneck as ever. The grinches wife decides to approach this situation optimistically, surmising that since the grinch has denied her lights for years, now he has to hang them twice.

The End.

And now, a few pictures from our sponsors:

The distended tummy snake wrestler The Christmas Tree Decorators

The I don't Want to Nap At All Ever Again...umm...whoops...zzzzz

and The Thanksgiving Day Tara's Cinnamon Rolls Eater

Have a great day and don't be a grinch. :)

A Laugh a Day

Check out my handsome Beau laughing...He is surely a heartstopper!

(By the way, I know you're checking out my yummy chicken resting there on the counter...Those became a tasty part of my Chicken Divan, a recipe from my Gourmet cookbook. Nothing like my mom's chicken divan, thank goodness! sorry, mom...Tyler, check it out!!)

Baptizing and Bowling

Amy, Jacob, my mom, my dad, Mike and baby Michael, Keri and Beau, Rus, Tyler

Luke, Bekah, Sarah, Joshua (gotta love bekah and sarah sticking out their tongues!)

Rus and I had the wonderful privilege of being at Joshua's baptism on Saturday. Joshua is my sister Amy's oldest boy. He is so fun and helpful and, as everyone pointed out, super shiny! My dad performed the baptism because Mike is not a member of the Church. But as you see he was there and was really supportive. Joshua really wanted to go bowling for his birthday, so that's where we went after the baptism and lunch. It was a lot of fun! If I remember right, Mike scored the highest, and then Tyler, me, Bekah, Jacob, Joshua, Luke, Amy, Dad, Rus, and Sarah. Bekah was very excited to beat everyone, but to be fair, she did have the bumper rails, and those pins fell down out of sheer intimidation, because the ball wasn't going that fast at ALL! I took a million pictures of us bowling and then I only included the following ones because the rest were of everyone's backsides. :) I'll put the captions above each picture...

My Dad and Beau...doesn't he look so big and grown up?! (Beau, I mean.) Tyler and Bekah and Jacob

I LOVE my brother Tyler. He is so much fun and so great with my kids, despite having a pretty strong aversion to messes, disorder, craziness, and kids that drool and sometimes smell.

Bekah and Sarah are very best friends.

Here they are with cute matching hair and Sarah's very unique display of fashion sense.
(What am I saying? It's not like Bekah's clothes even matched!)

Sarah and her ball that probably weighs a quarter of her weight. She was so adorable bowling.
After a while Rus just started yelling at the kids to

"Run really fast and throw the ball as hard as you can!"

Despite that wonderful advice, here he was giving Jacob's ball an extra push to help it get to the pins in under 10 minutes. In case you didn't know, you actually can gutter a ball on a lane with bumpers. It takes skill and the ultimate test of patience, as the ball has to be going very, very slow, but it can happen.

Here is my dad's super excited expression after getting a strike...Okay, so maybe it's the instant replay version, as I was not quick enough to get the original, but it is accurate.

And here is Amy and Tyler when my dad got the strike. Why all the excitement? Well, he had already endured the humiliation of several gutter balls and was being severely out-bowled by all of the kids, so to get a strike really boosted his morale. (But didn't really help his score. Nope, not much. Bekah still beat him.)
Michael giving Beau a hug.

Amy delivers big babies, but within a year of their lives they ultimately become midgets, whereas my kids become..umm..fat. That's why Grandpa (or was it Tyler?) held on to Beau. So he didn't turn Michael into a midget pancake.

And here is everyone relaxing after bowling. Ahhh...So we had a blast. I am blessed with such a fun family, and I'm grateful for the extras we've convinced to hang out with us for the rest of forever. (Thank you Mike and Rus!) Mike was funny... I guess after the baptism he was not super thrilled to go bowling, and Amy said,

"I guess today is full of things you don't really like to do! What could we do next that you wouldn't enjoy?"

To which Mike responded goodnaturedly,

"Scrabble?"

(Yep, that's another family tradition that none of the inlaws really like.)

Okay, I guess that is more than enough! Have a wonderful day!