To Refinish...or Dump

This dresser has sat out in a shed on Rus's parent's property for years. Hence the stink of mouse droppings. I think it has beautiful lines and I love the design on the door. All the drawer bottoms need to be replaced, the top needs new veneer (I just removed the old crumbling veneer this morning), and of course everything should be sanded down and refinished. But the joints are still very sturdy (despite the fact that it's been holding tools for years), and the wood on the drawers is in very good shape. I do have all the drawers, I just didn't replace all of them for the picture. Apart from what I just told you, I really have no idea how to go about refinishing this. Any tips?

Jolly Ol' St. Nicholas Got Robbed

Blind.
At our home.
I think the only person that had a hard time sleeping the night before Christmas was me. My mind would not shut off...Lyrics to Breath of Heaven kept floating around my head, along with the recipe for turkey marinade and the tracking number for Rus's missing package.
Jacob was the first one up at 6:51 am...What can I say, my kids are still amateurs. He helped us wake up Bekah and Beau.
Rus and I got a new camera from Santa. Yipee! I could just kiss that fat old man!
Bekah got the orange she wanted.Jacob got a gun from his uncle Jacob. (They're buddies.)Beau got chocolate. And more chocolate. And then bacon later for breakfast. And then he threw up. Yum.I got a vessel handmade by my brother James. It is made out of walnut and it is completely and utterly stunning. I love feeling how smooth the wood is and smelling the finish on it. He turned all the wood himself, of course. This is the top/lid/whatever (I forgot the name of it)...I was holding it upside down in the previous picture. Mmm...James did such an amazing job! I will admit that I originally had no idea what it was. Now I do. It is a vessel, for decoration. It came in a kitchen scale box and I was originally pleased/disappointed just to get a scale. Then I opened the box and pulled this out and I was struck. It really is beautiful!
I also received a beautiful, amazing scrapbook from my sister Amy documenting our St. George trip back in August. It was a gift of love, and I love it!
And then Santa gave me an armband for my ipod. The thing is, the stupid thing went black the night before and never came back on. So now I have an armband, but...
Here are Beau and Rus, already tuckered out from a morning of presents and chocolate.And here are some of the gifts Rus and I were able to make and give. Rus spent at least twenty hours making this longboard for his sister, Emilee. I did the painting on the underside of peacock feathers, and I cut the grip tape to look like these flowers. We both thought it turned out great, and Emilee about died when she got it. She loved it. :)We also framed this picture of Rus's dad on a bicycle when he was a kid, calling it "Roger Knievel".Here is Rus's nephew Russel. See the resemblance? Well, actually, um, hopefully you can't...Oh, here's a better shot of them...And the girls painting their nails.My favorite part of Christmas was going to the hospital Christmas eve to visit Rus's grandma. Grams was not able to get out in time for Christmas, so we took Christmas to her.
All of the Roger/Louise Payne family came to the hospital, took over the grand piano, set up a live nativity scene, sang songs, drank hot chocolate and ate cookies. My awesome friend Sarah (from high school) volunteered last minute to play the piano for us and she did a wonderful job. **Side note: Sarah came down Christmas Eve to hang out and practice the songs and wound up driving Beau and I to the Quick Care. Beau stuck his finger in the rabbit hutch (our friend's rabbits, ours would never do this), and the rabbit thought it was a carrot and gnawed his middle finger to pieces. So, so so sad! He could have used stitches but in the case of animal bites they just glue the wound shut in case there's bacteria in the bite. Poor Beau. His finger should be okay, though. And whole. Phew. :)
I hope you all had a very merry Christmas, and I hope your new year is pleasant and relaxing!

Jacob the Four Year Old Funsucker

That's right. Funsucker.
Take all of the joy of a birthday -
presents, whatever you want for dinner, cake, candles, friends, presents, presents -
and imagine putting it all in a big beautiful santa-like sack and then stomping on it,
jumping, squishing, smooshing everything.
That's what the anticipation for Jacob's birthday felt like. He whined so incessantly before, during, and after, that it was like he was jumping on the whole sack of bday goodness. Funsucker.

I'm moving on.Jacob at 1-1/2.

My Jakey is four. I can't believe how quickly it went! Four years ago he came to our home as an early Christmas present. He wasn't due until January, but we welcomed him as our just-in-time tax deduction and prayed that he would survive Bekah's tough 18-month-old love. We had taken blue and pink outfits to the hospital not knowing which he would be or even which we wanted, but when we saw we had a baby boy we realized that is exactly what our home and family had needed. Jacob is my sugar and spice, I don't care if that's commonly used for girls...he knows how to give the tightest hugs and best kisses. He is always saying "Mom, I love ya!" and "How are you doing?" He loves to dig in the dirt outside, watch Spiderman, be Spiderman, eat treats, make treats, sneak cookie dough, call Bekah "Becker" because it makes her mad, wrestle with Beau...He also has the best defiant scowl and he will yell and stomp his foot when someone has irreparabley crossed him. Although he is getting faster and more competitive, he is still the slowest kid we have ever met, and he hates the idea of racing if he knows he's going to lose. He loves being a boy and doing a boy things, especially if it means a day out with Daddy to get milkshakes and look at motorcycles.Jacob I love you! Happy Birthday!

Foot Massages

Last night after dinner Rus laid down on the couch, distracting Beau while I did the dishes.
I just love doing dishes.
Beau was laying on top of Rus and was being mercilessly tickled.
"Keri! Keri - Watch this! Beau is ticklish on his back!"
I didn't need to look, Beau's bubbling laughter had me hurrying to clean the last of the counter tops while throwing a blind eye to the crumby floor.
I knelt by the couch, Beau's laughter gone but a smile on his face as he gave Rus a hundred dollar hug. (They're that good.) I leaned over and kissed his chubby cheeks, pinching of little pieces of chub and pretending to eat them. Beau watched amused and then pinched off a piece for himself and tried to eat his fingers.
We got interrupted by Bekah who was pulling off Rus's shoes. Rus is training her to massage his feet.
"Oh, yeah, Bekah, massage my feet for five minutes and I'll give you a quarter."
"How about ten minutes and then I can have two quarters?"
"Let's just start with five."
At the mention of "feet" and "massage", Beau climbed off Rus's belly and took up his position at Rus's right foot. He is also a masseuse in training, and his abilities have already surpassed Bekah's since she gets distracted so easily. Jacob also took a turn later on, climbing over Rus's legs to get to his foot. (oh! the tenders!) Jacob seems to do more hurt than good at this point and I'm sure Rus hopes he figures out how to be gentler. ;)
I just don't know how Rus or I can feel anything but spoiled to have three kids crawling all over us and loving us - tainted grownups that we are - so completely.

By the way Bekah thinks she's turning into an Elf. Her ears seem to be getting pointier everyday (despite her prayers to Heavenly Father that they don't), and she seems to be shrinking. We've decided that Santa must be recruiting extra Elfs to help with Christmas. Bekah is such a lucky girl!

Christmas Memories

A fake tree pulled from the attic above our garage. Strings and strings of white pearls. White crocheted snowflakes. White ribbon angels. Tangled strings of white lights that made my dad irritable. Pink ball ornaments. Clear glass hearts came later, along with frosted white picks that my mom poked into the tree all over the place. Sounds like a hit and run from Martha Stewart, huh.
That was how our tree was always decorated. (I found it odd later when Rus and I shared our first Christmas that he had a box full of homemade ornaments dating back to his birth, and I had none. Not one. So he was a little surprised when I returned from Michaels with coordinating ornaments and ribbons to decorate our first tree. I didn't know any better...We didn't use his ornaments that year, but I love using them now.)
My family always got out the little porcelain nativity set and put in on the round end table (the one with legs that looked like baseball bats). We'd lay out angel hair first and Mary and Joseph would look like they were floating.
From some dusty shelf we would pull out Christmas music...Mannheim Steamroller and the well loved Chipmunks Christmas record. Yep. Record.
Then there were our stockings. They were white felt with felt people on them. My stocking has a drummer girl on it with blond pigtails and a tall red hat. The insides were lined with plastic. One year my oldest brother James left a piece of candy, chocolate I think, in his stocking all year long, just to see what would happen. He proved how wise it was of my mom to line the insides. I still have and love that stocking.
The final token piece of many of my childhood Christmases was the big blue Christmas lights that my dad would hang on our home in Sierra Vista every year. When a bulb would burn out he would somehow replace it with another, although the blues never quite matched. So year after year our pink trimmed home bore the disgrace of those blue lights. I think it was the invention and overwhelming success of icicle lights that finally made my parents retire those blue ones!
There were other traditions, though...Every year we had Christmas eve dinner with the Callahan family. We would have dinner at one home and dessert at the other. Marinated grilled turkey breast, golden ("yucky" because I hated them at one point) potatoes, green beans, clover rolls...pumpkin roll and pies for dessert...No one cooks better than my family and the Callahans at Christmastime. And we would have a special punch that we'd drink in special stemmed glasses. We would always dip our fingers in it and circle the rim of the glass, trying to make it sing. I still remember Erin Callahan breaking a glass that way. After dinner we would all pile into our vans and we would drive around, oohing and aahing at the Christmas lights and singing carols. My dad is famous for his Luff-language version of Jingle Bells, and I am proud to say I have also mastered it. Call me. I'll sing it to you. :)
My first very clear Christmas memories are from when we lived in Germany. I fell in love with the Kris Kringle Marts and advent calendars. I was six, seven, eight, and very much believed in Santa Claus. I remember creeping down the stairs in the middle of the night to try and catch him...I even thought I saw him in the shadows and ran, scared, back to my bed. Then another year I found a big black garbage sack in the front hallway and I peeked inside...it was filled with toys for Christmas and then I knew the truth about Santa. I still loved the anticipation though. On Christmas morning we would line up, youngest (me) to oldest and wait for my dad (who took an inexcusable amount of time) to turn on the music and make sure Santa had come. Then we would march down, bursting with excitement, and take in the sights of Christmas morning...Stockings scattered across the room with our "big" Santa present beside it, unwrapped. There was a barbie house for me one year, a small rocking chair another (I know, unusual, but I loved it), new scriptures, white and purple roller skates, a cd player and music, hmmm...I really can't think of many more...Other gifts I loved were from my brothers and sisters. Amy got me roller blades one year with her bonus money from work. Tyler bought me a globe one year and a yellow bean bag chair another. James sent me a real butterfly in a clear plastic case. Jared got me a puzzle ring one year. (I practiced for hours that Christmas until I figured it out.) I still have it and I can still put it together. Amanda made me a bunch of snowman ornaments for my tree a couple of years ago. Always there were clothes from my mom (she is still my best personal shopper!), reeses trees and snickers nutcrackers.
One Christmas we woke up to find that my friend Nathan had toilet papered our house to give me a "White Christmas." So Jared, Amy, Tyler, and I balled up all the tp, made it into a snowman, and returned it to him. I loved that Christmas!(Notice the blue lights. That was 1999, and they were long overdue for a landfill. :)
Well, while I should mention many more things, like how The Muppet's Christmas Carol is the best Christmas movie ever, I guess I've said enough.
I love Christmas because of the wonderful memories it brings me of being with my family.
I hope yours is just as merry this year!

It's a Feature

Last night.
Kids tucked in bed, Christmas lights unplugged, dishwasher humming
Prayers said, smooches given, our heads on the pillow
Dark, quiet, trying to will my mind to slow down


Rus: I think there's a hole in our sheets.

Keri: Yep, there is.
R: My foot just found it.
K: It should be up by our heads but when I was making the bed I put it at the bottom. Sorry.
R: It's a feature! Hot foot. Cold foot. Hot foot. Cold foot.
...And it's bigger now.

For some reason I found this incredibly funny at ten at night.
That's what our life comes down to at ten at night. Nice warm home, sleeping healthy happy children, holey sheets.
"Temperature Control Sheets."
Happy wife. :)

Dear Santa,

Thank you so much for sending us one of your elves to live with us. Bekah was absolutely thrilled to think that we have our very own! We named him Timber, and the very first thing that Bekah did after learning that Timber reports to you every night was show him her wish list for Christmas. The coolest thing about Timber is that he hides in a different place every morning when he returns from your workshop. Bekah and Jacob love to run downstairs and find him. Could you believe, this morning he was hiding in our plant?! And yesterday he was found hanging upside down from our dining room light. Crazy elf! We just love him. I especially love how well he reminds Bekah and Jacob to be good, even when they'd rather go play than help empty the dishwasher or pick up toys. You see, Timber hears and sees everything, even when we're at church or in another room. Smart elf.
Again, Santa, thank you so much!
love,
Keri

p.s. Could you please remember those snicker reindeers and reeses trees for my stocking? Mmmm, I love those!

Jumping Beau

See Beau.
See Beau try to jump.
See Beau's feet not leave the ground.
See Beau's face.
It doesn't matter to Beau. :)

You should also see Beau dance. For anyone who has seen Rus's amazing techno grooves, this kid is dancin' in his daddy's shoes. He's got some smooth groovin' toes and shakes! He's not a twirler in any way - he's a shuffler and it is pretty dang sweet. I'll have to try to catch that on video some time too!

Groovy Beau's Mom...over and out.

Thanksgiving Day Blessings

I can't remember ever having a Thanksgiving dinner outside in 80 degree weather! (That's Mesa for you!) The butter was melted into puddles by the time we finished eating...which incidentally only took about 30 minutes. It has always been amazing to me how quickly and thoroughly a crowd can ravage a table full of food, especially then that food has taken hours and hours to prepare! Although I shouldn't be surprised this time because...um, yum. That's all I have to say about our pit roasted turkey, my cousin Matt's prailine sweet potatoes, and my aunt Jeri's famous rolls and homemade jam. As always my stomach got full before my taste buds were done and I didn't really need to eat anything again until the next day. Except for my cousin McKenna's german chocolate pie and Jeri's pecan pie. There's always room for pie!!
So I really have to tell you more about this whole pit roasting thing. My uncle Casey makes the turkey part of Turkey day a neighborhood and ward affair. He rents a backhoe and digs out a long skinny portion of his one acre backyard. Then he fills the pit with whole tree stumps and limbs and branches. Under all of those logs was a pipe that was punctured with a million tiny holes and had two leaf blowers attached to the end. When the time was right he doused all the logs with accelerant and then another guy threw flares in to start the fire. Then when the fire was mostly started they turned on the leaf blowers to really get it going. We had a bonfire! All the neighbors came with their tinfoil wrapped turkeys and each turkey got its own metal tag so they could find it later. There were over a hundred turkeys! Someone brought hot chocolate and donuts and everyone just hung out and talked for a while. Then sometime later when the fire had died down all the turkeys were placed in the pit and roasted until mid-morning on Thanksgiving. I don't think any turkey is every really going to top that one! Cool, huh.
Now I am home, Rus on a work trip, kids a little crazy...they used up their "good kid reserve" on the drive home yesterday...and my home is a semi-wrecked mixture of fall/Christmas decorations. I can't help but wish it were still Thanksgiving day and I was still surrounded by so much fun family...
...like my cousins, many of them boys in their teens/early twenties, playing HORSE and beating the losers with a massive cardboard tube. (Hilarious.)
...Or that I was still in the car with Courtney, McKenna, Emma and my aunt Kim and my my mom headed out to see New Moon. (Not too shabby...loved Edward in the book, but loved Jacob in the movie - us girls are conditioned to love all things tan and muscular and Edward doesn't quite meet up.) My cousins were great to see the movie with; we all cracked up about the corny parts and cheered at the good parts.
...Or I wish I was sitting around the kitchen table with my sisters and mom and Jeanne and Courtney and my Grandma, making a paper "Believe" craft but looking like we were all dealing a deck of super chic cards. Jeanne got hers all glued together and then recruited me to embellish it for her. And then I did my grandma's. And then Amy copied me and Jeanne copied her and it felt like old times with my friends Taffy and Tara - they're always making me finish their crafts, too. :)
...Or I'd love to be in the crazy madness of Black Friday. What can I say, I love people, even crazy, flustered, obsessed spendy people who push and shove and buy all the good deals before you even show up at the store because you're not a crazy 12am-er. Amy, Tyler, my mom, and I all went to ToysRus and Walmart at 10am and we did just fine, thankyouverymuch.
What made it all work were the wonderful quiet moments at Rus's cousin's house where we stayed. His cousin James (and wife Silvia and three kids) was wonderful enough to leave town and loan us his house, complete with two twin beds in one room and another room with a crib and an amazingly comfy queen bed for us. And a gallon of milk which made breakfast easy. And a ton of toys that my kids loved. It was blissfully wonderful to be able to retreat there at night, put the kids in bed, and hang out with Tom, another cousin of Rus's. (So nice to see you, Tom.)
And to round out the whole family-seeing-adventure, we were able to go to Rus's cousin Jennifer's house to have dinner with her family and Mary and Clay, and to see beautiful Melissa who just got back from her mission and is gearing up for her next adventure, whatever that may be...
Okay and to really round things out we ate at Nielsen's right before we left. The Finer Things Grinder will always have a special place in my heart. And stomach. Mmm.
All in all it was the perfect Thanksgiving. The kind that just shoves all of your blessings in front of you so that you are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of it all.
See. Here are some of my blessings. (Superheroes aren't just for Halloween anymore.)

A Turkey for Turkey Day

It's that time of year where everything seems to speed up. Days are shorter, weeks fly by, and holidays attack at lightning speed. I love it all, it just makes me tired sometimes. :) And crazy busy. And crazy, crazy. There are just so many cute things out there to make! I decided to try Bakerella's cake pops finally. I thought the Turkey ones were adorable and that my kids would love them. Here are the three most famous of the batch:

Grandpa, Stud, and Sly.

Gobble Gobble!I should back up a little and tell you how wonderfully grateful I am for my children!
They are three amazing little individuals...
I drop Bekah off at school everyday and she has this little walk that just kills me! Full of purpose and confidence, hair swishing and her purple backpack making her look like a little uniformed turtle.
And Jacob is a wonderfully conflicted three-almost-four year old. A big boy sometimes, unable to be upstairs by himself at other times. He helped me make these turkeys and he did an awesome job. I see a budding chef/baker in him everytime he helps me cook. And he always wants to help me! He wants to see the pancakes as they are mixed, then he moves his chair to see them cooked...he sits on the counter by the stove (a safe distance away) and wants to stir things and sprinkle the salt and pepper (I don't let him.)
He is always right there when I'm making cookies (I know it's because of the cookie dough!), and Turkey making time was not different!

Bekah and Jacob were really good at crumbling my baked cake..."We've never done this before!" they said...And then while Bekah wandered off and did something else, Jacob stuck by and helped me shape each ball. I think his look like terds. Totally cracks me up. :)I can't forget to mention Beau! He was a helper, too. Not exactly the kind of helper I wanted, but I guess he tried. Beau is also at a conflicted age. A clingy, happy-then-sad-in-an-instant age. He loves to run in the kitchen and roar at me to scare me. Then he'll wave his arm and smile when I say "Bye"...then he'll run away and come back and do it all over again. He loves reading books with me, playing trucks, riding the rocking horse, eating treats, walking by himself, and he love-loves it when daddy gets home from work. He always beams at him and chatters away very excitedly. It's his job to put Rus's work badge away and he knows it!
I hope you all have a wonderful, simple, gratitude-filled Thanksgiving Day. I know I can't wait to spend time with my family! I am most grateful for them simply because they love and accept me and my kids and even Rus. :)

Sportin' a Shortened New Do!

BuhBye not even long locks...on to newer greener shorter pastures!

A Doozy.

Last week was a doozy. This is why:
Rus left town for three days, a work trip to Baltimore.

My mom was in town with her friend Deena, but then Mom caught the flu and they left early for home.

I went outside to cook steak for dinner Tuesday night, (while Rus was gone), and found that my bunny Polly had indeed been pregnant. She had, in fact had babies. Her lover had then killed them because evidently the male can't be in the cage with the babies. My steak didn't look so good after I cleaned up after that. Neither did Rus.

Wednesday was a school holiday. Bekah was out of school and was determined to have a schedule, just like school. So we planned out the day, complete with a hike and folding laundry/putting it away. Laundry proved to be traumatic, Bekah folded her clothes in the rocking chair and then was trapped by them and couldn't get out. I didn't help her and she cried as though she'd been maliciously abandoned. Jacob pulled Bekah's hair, and then when I gathered all my clothes in both arms, Beau decided to hang on my legs, so I had to shake him off (my arms were full of nicely folded clothes, remember!), which he didn't like at all...I ran upstairs with the clothes, put them away, heard Beau's cries escalate, ran downstairs to find that Jacob was sitting on Beau. Lovely. Many tears ensued...mine and theirs. I laid Beau down for a nap, loaded the van with hiking essentials, realized Beau was not napping like he was supposed to, loaded everyone up and ordered them to not speak until the van stopped moving. We had a great hike.
See?Oh. I mean see?Rus got home from his work trip to a partially abused/neglected wife/mother. Dinner was a fight because my kids really don't like baked potatoes. The broken car in our garage had to be fixed because it had to be moved out of the garage that night because Rus was having the boy scouts over to finish making their skateboards. Fun again.

On Thursday I delightedly sent Bekah to school and Jacob to preschool and Beau and I played at Home Depot. Rus came home that night exhausted...I took the kids to bedtime stories at the school while Rus stayed with Beau. Somewhere in all that Rus decided that I was crazy. He told me I needed a break. He had Friday off and decided to give it to me while he took the kids. I would have felt better about the much needed break if it didn't mean Rus thought I was crazy. Turns out I got a half day...Rus came home at one thirty, gave me the boys, told me he needed a nap, went in his room, closed the door, and that was that. I explained that the difference between him and me is that when I need a nap and the boys aren't sleeping, I have to stay up with them, which apparently happens to equal crazy!

Saturday was fun...I went to a BYU game with Rus and a bunch of friends from church...we had an amazing breakfast beforehand...the game was closer than my BYU fan friends thought it would be...my favorite part, seriously, was when the UNM kicker hit the field goal post THREE times during the game. Wow. History in the making. My friend Taffy yelled at me part way through the game for sitting through the BYU fight song. She said that anyone she fed breakfast had to stand. I was a BYU mega fan after that, didn't want her to think me ungrateful. :) All of us got together again that night to congratulate Tara's husband Kevin on making it over the hill. Food, food, glorious food. And a fun decades trivia game. Anyone need a recipe for a cream cheese/chocolate chip cheeseball? It was divine. Or maybe Devilish. Take your pick.

And now it's Sunday. Day of rest. A day to go to Church, get straightened out, renew my determination, strengthen my resolve, fall in love with my kids again, wink at my husband, take a nap.

Speaking of...

Zoo Visit and San Lorenzo Canyon

Bekah had a short day at school last week and we wound up at the Zoo. Jacob and Bekah both had been dying to go and we were lucky to make it there on such a wonderfully, unseasonably warm Wednesday, where the first thing the kids wanted to see was "those stinky birds." Flamingos. Then it was the gorillas and monkeys, who were exceptionally fun to watch, it must have been play time, (Look! the missing member of our family!)We also actually saw the hippos...usually they are way too busy swimming...and we saw the polar bears get fed, where the glass is scratched and cloudy and the best views are from sitting up on the rock work, right next to the sign that says "Parents, do not allow your children to climb on the rock work." Whoops. Then it was the cats, elephants, and finally seals, where we knew it was time to go because of excessive grumpiness and laying down on the old gum-pocked sidewalk. I thought Beau would love all the animals, but I forgot that the fences aren't really set for his height, which really frustrated him. He loved the ducks, but enjoyed feeding himself their food rather than throw it.
Can I just insert in here that Rus is now labeling our home "The Petry Dish" because we can't all seem to be healthy at once. We've done the flu and strep throat, and we've had boogers, boogers, so many boogers, and I want someone to come fumigate my home, but with some sort of anti-germ vapor that instantly rids it of all its horrible contagious bugs. In trying to find the bright side of all this I'm reminded of what my sister said, that we'll just have it all out of the way before Thanksgiving comes so we can go visit them.
Anyways, another fun thing we did yesterday was ditch the ol' Petry Dish and head down to San Lorenzo Canyon, just north of Socorro. We took along our friends Scott and Lisa and their kids Austin and Allie and we all had a great time. Here are some pics from that...

Look we found fall!

Can you see Rus's head down there at the bottom? We got to hike through a hidden slot canyon.The entrance...it looks like a dead end, but there is actually a trail winding back through the canyon for at least a mile. It was really fun to go with friends and show them around one of the beautiful places that we love.