SNOW!!!!

it's snowing!!

looks like it will be a long cozy weekend of watching movies, eating, and playing outside!

Lu and Millie sharing a snooze in front of Julie&Julia. A movie I LOVED! It was so sweet and fun. LOVED it!!

cookies

after school today we decided to make cookies. The kids love to roll the dough and cut out the cute shapes. We made trees, and snowmen, and gingerbread men. Also the traditional Christmas pigs and goats and horses.:)

Then came the decorating.

When they were done there were no sprinkles left in the bottle but plenty on the cookies to add a little crunch:)

tree

After I dropped off Jenna at seminary this morning I came home to sparkly tree lights and a still quiet house. It was so pretty.

true confessions

Shhh! this is a secret but a part of me hates Christmas. Okay, hate is really a strong word and not the right one but doesn't "heart" really doesn't do the trick either.

I am not Mrs Scrooge. I love Christmas music and movies and treats. I love the feeling excitment in the air, the good will that abounds, the emphasis on the Savior. I love decorating the house and buying gifts and sending cards. I love getting cards and all the ho ho ho.

However, in the midst of it, I don't like the clutter...and I don't like the "I wants..." and I don't like the stress of staying on budget...or not staying on it. I want to give gifts that are loved and that make the recipient feel loved but it seems impossible sometimes. And I know from experience. When I was a kid I never got what a wanted. Of course what I wanted and asked for for as long as I can remember was a horse and that is a difficult gift to give.

Every year we went to San Fransisco and spent the holidays with extended family and that was so fun. I appreciate it even more now that I am grown and they are gone, those precious memories and fun times. I remember the huge pile of presents under the tree and being so excited and getting nice things. I remember sitting by Baba Olya at dinner and sneaking my unwanted food onto her plate:) It was a cheerful, fun time.

The first year that Dani was born we went up and spent Christmas there, that was the last time...I wish I knew then. It was fun to show off my pretty babe to my grandmother and to be with everyone.

Here she is crying with me and Papa . I needed a hair cut.

It's kind of stressful to have everything decorated and shiny and nice. Lights outside and tree inside, cards to everyone, gifts for neighbors...searching and hoping to make the family happy.

I also want to teach the children to give, to serve others and the true meaning of the season. It almost gets swamped in the glitz...thankfully we have all year for that too. Sierra and I were talking yesterday about how the Christ part of Christmas isn't that different for us than the rest of the year. We always try to think of Him, worship Him, serve His children, read His words, sing His hymns...the only kind of different part of December is the glitter and glam of Santa and the Christmas symbols you see all around.

So while I love it, I also don't from time to time. That's it....next I'll confess that I don't really like kittens either! Who am I?

friends

Lucy has a little friend who lives two streets down from us, her name is Julia. The girls like to play together each week. Yesterday it was Lu's turn to host JuJu. It was a very ADHD play-date, they ran from activity to activity, snack to snack in a frenzy of fun and frolic. When the day was over our house looked like a tornado struck it, but they had fun. (two weeks before that they were here and played quietly ~dress up and dolls.) Julia's mom is a vet and her dad flies c-130s.

Last Saturday Brother had two friends over to play. Here they are waiting for lunch (nothing broke). They mostly played wii and ran in circles until Beloved took them outside and set up a soccer goal, then they played soccer with him for a good hour. yea! for Beloved.

Justin's dad (the boy in the striped shirt) is a Col . He works at the Pentagon now, used to fly Blackhawks. John's dad is also a pilot, but I don't know what he flies. It seems like half the people we know now are pilots aviators.

How many pilots does it take to change a light bulb? One. He holds it and the whole world revolves around him. Ha

When you are on a date with a pilot how do you know it's half way over? He says "enough about me, now let's talk about my plane". Ha Ha.

I was told those by another pilot friend this weekend. Took me four days to think of how to work them into a post:)

H was invited to a friends house on Saturday. Here she is with Julia and her little sister Maria. They made a cute gingerbread train.

Julia's dad is a contractor ( the other half the people we know here ) everyone is in defense.

which brings me to how many engineers does it take to change a light bulb??

None, they are all too busy trying to design the perfect light bulb.

or only one but he needs an instruction manual.

or 5. One to design a nuclear powered light bulb that never needs to be changed, one to figure out how to power the US with that one light bulb, two to install it, and one to write the computer program that controls the wall switch.

at our house it's one, he does them all. I don't think I've changed a light bulb in 11 years! One of the many nice things Beloved does for our family.

BTW, all the pilots, and engineers, we know are very nice...it's still funny though.

we put the "fun" in dysfunctional

Last night we celebrated J's birthday. She picked our dinner menu...it was random, but she loved it!
We had
steamed broccoli
steamed asparagus
monkey bread
African baked bananas
spinach/strawberry salad
cranberry sauce
white grape juice
chow mien
and for dessert,
lemon bars.

All her favs!

S came to the table and said "you no eat no meat?"

Here the kids are waiting to open presents.

and here we are "singing" to her.

Happy Birthday Jenna!

17 things I love about my 17 year old darling daughter:)

1. She is always cheerful.
2. She is good, and wants to do good.
3. She is athletic and has a drive to try new things.
4. She is musical.
5. She is hard working.
6. She is kind to others.
7. She reaches out and makes friends.
8. She is a leader.
9. She isn't afraid to sing out, speak out, act out, step up or take a stand.
10. She learns from her mistakes, and the mistakes of others and makes herself better.
11. She likes to serve.
12. She is fun to be with.
13. She is considerate.
14. She is respectful.
15. She cracks me up.
16. She reads the Book of Mormon every day.
17. She is my special angel girl and I feel so blessed to be her mom.

she is so cute!!

This is the cutest picture I've gotten of her yet. I just love her!!!! and even though I'd love to let Dani do all the posting I am her Mimi and it is my obligation in fact to brag.

Christmas Party

Last night was our ward Christmas social. It was so much fun. The room looked beautiful and festive and there was tons of yummy food!

We had a cute program, kind of a talent show. The little guys did "once there was a snowman" with moms singing. The activity day girls did the cutest number to "the 12 days of Christmas", the youth sang jingle bells with noise makers, Sister Mathias sang a beautiful number,Sister Cummings read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and then we had a special visitor!!

Jingle bells!

What do I wish for? Lots of electronics.

Star Wars Legos, a pocket knife, and wii games.

a long long list of things:)

even J is covering all her bases... just in case;)

Festival of Lights

Last night we headed down to DC to see the festival of lights. It was breathtaking. Just before we got to the temple we were admiring the city lights and different homes lit up for Christmas and the kids were searching for their favorites. We rounded the bend and with a collective gasp saw the temple grounds all lit up and glowing. It was immediately and unanimously declared the favorite!

We spent some time admiring the creche and listening to the story of the Saviors birth.

Or course no one could pass up the chance to sit on the life size camel!

I loved this shot through the window of the visitors center. All the people were waiting for the concert, or for loved ones, or enjoying the sights, and there was our Beloved Savior watching over us, inviting us to come unto Him.

Our little fam, minus the big girls, in front of the temple. (S had to work, J was at a YW party,and D and her family live in stinkin' Utah :) )

We saw a hand bell choir. They were really good and it was so fun. I think I could play a hand bell!, I might look for a choir to join:)

My favorite part was looking at everyone's shoes. The entire choir was dressed in all black and under the table we could see all these legs in black and then I looked at their shoes and it was so fun to imagine what those shoes said about their wearers.

The girl, 5th from the right, had on red shiny high heels. She was the only none conformist and looked fancy nancy cute in her sparkle shoes. I imagined that she had a personality as sparkly as her shoes, that her home and kids were color coordinated and lovely and that she liked to get pedicures (just a little dream of mine ~if I was a fancier girl)

The girl on the end with the biggest bells had very sensible shoes. Maybe she's a teacher. She was concentrating on the music and didn't smile much but she looked kind.

The two gals with the longer skirts had on black boots. That's my look, long skirt & black boots. Is it because they, like me, don't like to shave their legs in the winter? they don't want to be cold? they've chased little kids for so long that they have long outgrown the thrill and challenge of keeping a shorter skirt covering their parts while kids romp and play and squirm on their laps??

Number 3 from the left had on peek- a-boo toe, kissing my soldier good-bye on the dock, WWII, super cute strappy heels. In my head her boyfriend was watching in the audience and waiting to take her out to see the lights after the performance and to propose to her over a thermos of hot chocolate. I loved her shoes! (he had a sparkly princess cut solitaire hiding in his pocket~ in a light blue box BTW :) )

My favorite though was #4 from the right. Her's were flat and cute and black and looked comfortable and stylish in an LLBean catalog kind of way. She was thin and looked like she ran the jiggle bell jog that morning and then made her kids home made granola treats. I would want to be her, if I didn't hate to run and love chocolate. She looked all together.

I looked down the row and saw little Lu enjoying the concert as well :) Her warm black boots said "my mommy loves me and doesn't want me to be cold"

the end

o tannenbaum

yesterday while I was at 2nd grade doing reading groups, my Friday morning

service project that is as fun for me as helpful to them, Beloved went to get us a tree. He picked a great one. It is so tall and smells delish!

Sadly our ornaments haven't seemed to move with us and so far all it has is some candy canes hanging on it. I am sorely tempted to go and buy some fab-U-lous, coordinated, glimmery baubles to deck it out with.... or maybe we'll string some popcorn and have the world's largest and most grand "charlie brown tree". We'll see!

gingerbread

Christmas time is sooo busy, okay, who I am kidding? life with 5 kids at home is so busy:) but it is especially busy this time of year.

This week we literally had 2-3 choices of things we needed to do, or wanted to do, every night. That is too much.

Yesterday I took secret option d.)none of the above, and stayed home and made gingerbread "houses" with the kids and then watched Santa Clause is coming to Town.

(I did feel a little guilty about the things we missed ~ however it was a good choice)

bun-hawk

H's new hobby is her hair. Every day she goes on cute dos for girls websites and looks for fun ideas. Then she tries to get me to do them. If we have time I do. This one is probably the craziest so far but today is pajama day at school, and a minimum day to boot, so it seemed like the perfect chance to try it out! She wants a tackle box full of cute headbands and hair things so she can try stuff all the time, she's our little fashionista in training:)

daily dose of cuteness

Little Tate keeping warm in the Arctic tundra that she lives in.

random

Saturday night Beloved and I went to 5 guys for burgers. He loves it there. After we went over to the high school because I had seen a bill board for a concert by Elisabeth Von Trapp. The weather was awful; icy and snowing and COLD. We were totally bundled up and went in to see if there were tickets left. There were, then they told us it would be $25 each. Whoo. That was a lot more than I had planned on. We thanked them and headed back to the car. Before we even had the engine on a nice lady came running out into the sleet and knocked on our window. "would you be able to come for $15 each?" We agreed, more because we felt bad for her coming all the way out than that we thought $15 was a great deal, and went in and got our seats. It was us, 100 senior citizens and two families with kids in a half filled auditorium and I have to say it was wonderful.
It was a Christmas concert and her voice was very beautiful but what we liked best was her cello accompaniment. Erich Kory, was AMAZING. That cello made the most enthralling, lovely music.
I snuggled into Beloved's arm and just sat back and completely enjoyed it.
I love Christmas music.
She also sang some music from the sound of music and told some stories about her life in the von Trapp family that were so fun. Her father was "Kurt" from the movie.
When she sang Edelweiss it was so sweet and clear and beautiful and it reminded me of my own dad. Every night when I was growing up, all the way until I married and moved out of the house, he would come in my room to say good-night, and he'd sing to me. One of the songs he most often sang was Edelweiss. While my parents have been on their mission I haven't missed them, mostly because I have been so thrilled and excited and proud of them and their missionary service. But that night, during that song, I was a little home sick for my Papa.

This next paragraph I'd like to title "good deeds gone bad". At the beginning of the month we decided that each Sunday we'd make a treat and deliver it to a neighbor or friend. Yesterday we got home from church, quickly baked some cookies and set off to deliver them to a couple fo the kid's teachers.
At that point no one wanted to go.
We made them.
They cried.
We drove to the first place and hopped out, E didn't bring a coat and was wearing shorts and rain boots. How did we miss that?
They weren't home.
We left it on the porch and went to the next place.
Kids complaining all the way.
Next house.
No one home,
but we did leave a tire print rut in the grass (oops) and there was a hungry dog eyeing the plate as we left so hopefully he had a nice treat.

Do we have to go again next week??

Last night we had a friend and his son over for dinner. I thought I'd made some "pioneer woman stuffed jalapenos" since they are fellow Texans and that seemed like "man food":) I was a little scared because of the kryptonite quality of the peppers. The recipe had all kinds of warnings about wearing gloves and not touching the seeds. I actually did get a squirt of the juice on my hand, and it did burn me. Weird.
I got them all made and in the oven and about half way through the cooking time the oven was on fire from all the bacon grease, I opened it up to check and got a face full of jalapeno smoke that burnt my eyes and filled the air with it's toxic vapor. We had to evacuate.

Eventually dinner was served, and it was good, however it's a good thing I don't embarrass easily because having your guests standing around outside while waiting for the smoke to clear out of the kitchen is not on Martha's "how to hostess" list of things to do.

Evidence that I am the world's worst singer:
The other morning we got into the car to drive to seminary and I told J that the day before I heard a song on the radio that I loved and hadn't heard in awhile and wanted her to tell me what it was called. I then told her I would sing a few bars for her. Which I did And she identified the song. Then she said "I'm so glad I could tell what you were singing because when you told me what we were going to do I thought~ oh no, she's going to sing and it won't sound anything like a song and I'll guess something wrong and it will be awful (huge quiet sigh)"

Yesterday in church I was sitting next to S and singing the hymns so nicely and she looked at me with "the look", and I apologised then said to her, I really miss sitting near Tori and listening to her sing~ she sounded SO BEAUTIFUL, and then I could blend. And S said (with a very serious face) "you never blended."
Ouch.

And now it's Monday morning and I have things to do so enough rambling for the day :)

Sotterly Plantation

This morning Brother was invited to a skating party. He didn't want to go, because he doesn't know how to skate. I took him and promised to stay until he was comfortable. He ended up doing great and we had a fun time. He was skating by the end and I was the coolest mom cause I can skate backwards:)

When we got back it was time to go to the plantation Christmas. The girls got in their dresses and they looked very cute!

It was raining and cold. Of course, and there were tents set up so we dashed from tent to tent. They had crafts for the kids.

We got to visit with Santa! Lu asked him for something not on her old list,...or that I had heard anything about before.

We got to go on a cold, wet sleigh ride "Santa's Taxi".

Mrs. Claus loved the girls dresses and sweet smiles.

FUN!!

kids movie night

the kids invited some friends over tonight for a late night play date. We made spaghetti and garlic bread.

The boys played wii and the girls put on make up and dress up clothes.

We made cake balls.

Then we all headed to the basement to watch Santa Buddies, which they loved, and I stayed awake for...

After the movies the girls dipped the balls in choc late and ate them. The boys played wii.

A fun night :)

why I am not a crafter

When we first moved here I got some local calendars and did some searching on line to find fun things to do. Very near our home is the historic Sotterly Plantation. I saw that they had a colonial family Christmas day that sounded like fun so I put it on our calendar.
Eventually I got the great idea that it would be fun for the girls to dress like colonial girls when we went, which evolved into them being colonial girls for Halloween, which evolved into me making them dresses. That is where evolution should have stopped.

But no.

I got patterns and fabric and in October made H her cute dress. I have to say it went well and I liked how it turned out. Lu didn't want to wear hers for Halloween so I had time to put it aside.

Well, the Christmas event is tomorrow so yesterday I knew I had to get it done now. I got home from taking the kids to school and went to get started and couldn't find my pattern. Three hours later I still couldn't find it but for some reason I thought I could alter the one I used for H's dress. This was an insane idea, of course, because I can barely make something with a pattern.

I got my measuring tape and measured her (not for any useful reason but because it seemed like a good place to start), then I looked at the pattern...for a long time...and decided what needed to be done I thought I should do.

By dinner time, literally, I had a dress almost done that didn't quite fit, and looked a little crazy but she likes it. Talk about stressful and not fun. After dinner she told me she'd like Oriah to have a dress that matched, and I had fabric left (and as evidence that I have completely lost my mind) I agreed.

After the kids went to bed I went back down and made this cute dress, which I had a pattern for, and which took a lot longer than I thought but Oriah didn't complain about the fit so that's good:)

Then at 10pm, when I was done, I came upstairs to make blueberry muffins for J to take to seminary.

Then at almost 11, when Beloved got home from helping paint the Watson's house, I was ready for bed. The house is a disaster (because I sewed all day) and I vowed not to break out the sewing machine again for a long time.

today I clean.

i heart nativities

and so does Lu :) We have five beautiful nativities in our home. We used to have another one but it broke:( and I am planning on getting another soon, but for now we have five. A couple days ago we put them all out and Lu has been enjoying them very very much

Here are our stunt wise men, we find them doing tricks around the house.

Here a couple got together to surround one of the "baby Jesus'". Brother and Lu spend a lot of time rearranging the various sets. He feels they should face forward, with Jesus in the center. She feels they should all circle round and look at the babe. It's a bit like the fairy godmothers in Sleeping Beauty, when Aurora dances and her dress changes from blue to pink, pink to blue, again and again.

Here is a Deity summit, all the baby Jesus' got together to conference on the kitchen island.

Winter Concert

Tonight was the winter concert for both the school choirs and orchestras. It was quite nice. Originally Sierra and H were going to go to activity days together, leaving the rest of us free to go to the concert, only today S came home from school with a fever and threw up, and is now sick :( We had to change plans.

Beloved took H to church and took E with him, I took Lu to the concert. It was really fun. The kids did an awesome job and it was very festive!