Thanksgiving Weekend

We’ve hosted Thanksgiving dinner for my family for the last eight years (really just the even numbered years). This year, we decided to shake things up a bit and have Thanksgiving at Jody and Kevin’s new house. I had the great idea to make it a cousin slumber party, but I almost bailed at the last minute. It is a lot of work to pack up stuff for an overnighter for six people. Add the folding chairs and roasting oven and cooler full of food, and it almost seemed like too much effort. I’m glad I didn’t wimp out. We had a good time. The kids were so excited about staying at Jody’s house and they had tons of fun playing with their cousins. Kevin’s sister and brother-in-law and his niece and her husband were there and his brother came on Thursday. It was a full house. The best part was that Jan (Kevin’s sister) likes to cook and is good at it. She didn’t get any complaints from this house when she volunteered to cook the turkey. We had a yummy dinner and a pseudo nap (there isn’t much sleep to be found in a house full of 22 people) and got some quality deals online. I felt a little guilty afterward for being glued to my laptop for so much of the time. I’ll be more social next time.





Nate and I did all of our Black Friday shopping online again this year (except for a couple of quick trips to Walgreens . . . and that was after 11:30). After years of getting out of bed at 4 a.m. to brave the crowds and the cold, I have to say that I am completely converted to this new way of doing things. Instead of shopping, we spent most of the day Friday putting up our Christmas decorations. I love that the kids are old enough to do a lot of the work and that they are genuinely excited about doing it. Luckily, their eagerness to decorate compensated for my lack of enthusiasm (I’ve lost my holiday spirit; I’m working on getting it back). They finished up the day with a little sledding in the front yard and then we watched the new Karate Kid movie as a family.


We’ve been on a purge and organize kick lately. Our little laundry room remodel triggered something in me and left me with little tolerance for clutter/poorly used space. Last weekend we made the kids take EVERYTHING out of their bedrooms (closets and all) and did a major clean. This week we defrosted the freezer and cleaned out the storage room. One of these days we will just relax on a weekend and not feel like we have to be productive 24-7. We did let the kids have friends over to play on Saturday afternoon and that night the four of them had a slumber party in Ben’s room. Just because we can’t use the weekend to relax and have fun doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t get to.

2010 Gratitude Turkey

Color Code: Abby = Blue, Elise = Purple, Emily = Yellow, Ben = Green, Malinda = Orange, Nate = Red

And to top it all off . . .

It’s been a crazy couple of days at our house. Yesterday morning was the reflections assembly (not a big deal except for the part where I had to get an extremely non-cooperative Abby dressed and ready and in the car before 9:00 a.m.). It was also the day I volunteer in Elise’s classroom. I finished there just in time to check Emily out and take her and Abby to the doctor for their checkups. That turned into a 2 ½ hour ordeal. Trying to get Abby to pee in a cup was a definite highlight. I got home 15 minutes after scouts had started (good thing Nate was here to take charge). I helped teach some knot-tying. Then it was time to take Abby to dance. Then dinner. Then Family Home Evening. Then having the introduction to the birds and the bees talk with Emily (I did great except for one laugh out loud moment . . . I’m going to be great at that talk by the time we get to Abby).

Today was less busy, but just as exciting. I was making lunches this morning when I thought I saw a little grey furball scurry across the kitchen floor. I called Nate to tell him that I might have seen a mouse when another one shot out from under the entertainment center and made a mad dash into the kitchen, behind the dishwasher, out again, and under the stove. Trust me when I say that my scream was impressive. The kids were pretty excited about the whole thing. I spent the morning setting traps and ridding our house of rodents. Two sightings. Two kills. I hope that is the end of the story.* I had a PTA meeting in the afternoon. We took the kids to get flu shots after school. Then Ben and I headed to the orthodontist/dentist/orthodontist again. He had to get two teeth pulled. It wasn’t as much fun as he was expecting. It took lots longer than I was expecting. I stopped at the store to get some Children’s Advil on the way home. Ben felt lousy and didn’t want to go in, so I left the heater running, locked the doors, and let him wait in the car. I was only in the store for about five minutes. When I came out there was some lady walking away from our car talking on her cell phone. Ben said that she kept looking in the windows at him. I came home and told Nate that I bet she was calling the cops on me for leaving him in car. He laughed. Thirty seconds later there was a knock at our door and a police officer was standing on our front porch. The lady had called and said that there was a young child and an infant left in a car in the parking lot. In the real world, it was a nine-year-old and an empty car seat. We explained what had happened and the officer was really cool about it, but I’m pretty sure that I’m on some secret “unfit mother registry” now.

I’ve decided that tomorrow, I am taking the day off. I’m not answering the phone. I’m not putting on make-up. I’m not leaving the house except to take the kids to school. I’m going to stay in my pajamas all day and watch Jane Austen movies. Oh, and do the laundry . . . the kids are out of clean jeans.

*Just to clarify, we have been mouse-free since last year’s little episode. It is a recurring, not ongoing problem. I guess that the cold weather just makes our house too darn inviting for the little guys. Nate is on a quest to find out exactly how they are getting in.

Procrastination Payoff

I distinctly remember telling the kids last year that if they wanted to do reflections again they had to start early. That didn’t happen. The night before the projects were due, Emily decided that she REALLY wanted to do one (really she wanted to do three, but I convinced her that one was plenty). We had 20 minutes of daylight between taking the scouts home and getting Abby ready for dance, so we all went out in the back yard and raked leaves while Emily snapped some pictures. She picked her favorites, made a collage, and sent it down to Walgreens one-hour photo. It was as low-effort as they come. I laughed out loud when I found out she had won. I’m a little worried that reinforcement like this will make her think it is okay to put things off until the last minute. I guess I shouldn’t worry. Procrastinating has always worked for me. I call it working well under pressure. :)



Trophies are big news at our house. Ben and Elise are suddenly very enthusiastic about doing projects next year. We’re going to start early. No, really.

I Wish I Had a Picture

Last night it was our den’s turn to put on a skit for pack meeting. We did a variation of the JC Penney skit. Ben got to be the kid that came in wearing nothing but a towel around his waist (and his Bear neckerchief). It was hilarious to see him standing there in all his skinny glory with a big grin on his face. I wish I had a picture. Our skit even got a real laugh instead of the typical courtesy laugh/groan at the end of most cub scout skits. Hurray.

I realized last night that Ben only has two months left in our den. I always dreaded getting a calling in cub scouts, but I’m glad I got to be Ben’s den leader. I’m a bit hard on him and I expect more out of him than I do the other boys. What can I say? I have a vested interest in him being a good kid. He’ll probably be excited to move on to Webelos where he can get away with goofing off, but I’m going to miss him.

Camping Out

The kids had a little campout in the garage this weekend. We had unseasonably warm weather last week, so Nate and I decided to give the trailer a good cleaning before we put it away for the winter. It must have gotten a bit of water inside at some point in its history and smelled pretty musty. Nate set it up inside of the garage so we could clean it. I scrubbed all of the hard surfaces inside and washed the curtains and mattress covers. Then we took down all of the canvas walls and scrubbed them too. I was a little afraid that we wouldn’t be able to put it all back together, but we did. I guess it was silly of me to doubt Nate’s skills. The kids (especially Abby) LOVED playing out there and they really wanted to have a slumber party in the trailer. Saturday night we set up my laptop so they could watch a movie and let them sleep out (inside the garage). They had a great time. We’re all excited to try it out in the great outdoors next summer.

Kaylynn Would Be Proud

Hil and Cyd came to play yesterday. The three of us are all that is left of the K-1 crew living in Utah. We had to step it up a bit and act like grownups without Kaylynn here to be the mom. It was all new territory. Hilary managed to find my house without Kaylynn in the car; Cyd provided the yummy homemade cookie dough; and I cooked the pizza and made the fazookies. We missed Kay-dog, but it’s good to know that we can still pull off a get-together even though she has left the country. We had a fun afternoon catching up with each other and learning new vocabulary. I am grateful for quality friends!

School Stuff

Environmental Center Fieldtrip

The fourth grade had a fun fieldtrip to the Environmental Center a couple of weeks ago. They got to do archery, rock wall climbing, ping-pong, Frisbee golf, and geo-caching. It was right up Nate’s alley, so I signed him to go. Ben loved every part of it. Fieldtrips have sure gotten cooler since I was a kid.


Zoo Fieldtrip

Emily’s fieldtrip was the same day as Ben’s. They went to the zoo and she had lots of fun. Her favorites were watching the baby elephant play with a little swimming pool, seeing the giraffe’s blue tongue (and seeing it pee), and watching a monkey squish its lips up against the fence. She had a great day and must have worn herself out because she fell asleep on the bus ride home. Luckily my neighbor was the parent helper for Emily’s group and gave me some pictures.


Crazy Hair Day

The last time the kids had crazy hair day at school was when Ben was in first grade. I put a bunch of gel in his hair and spiked it up.


He wanted that exact same thing this year. Unfortunately I couldn’t really spike ½ inch long hair. So, we broke out a can of green hairspray and went wild. The girls got all kinds of crazy stuff . . . their favorites were the ping pong balls in their ponytails. When we were done they wanted green hairspray too. It was certainly crazy. I love how Ben’s head matches the grass.


Coloring Contest

Emily won her class Halloween coloring contest with this picture. She was very excited.


Box Tops

We had another Box Tops collection drive this month. My kids were AWESOME and helped me clip and count them to get them ready. The girls get so excited about the “bendy” ones and the “two-ies” (the ones with bonuses). I’m glad they love it because it saves me a lot of time to have them help. We counted 10,000+ Box Tops this time . . . that’s over $1,000 for the school. Wahoo.

Treehouse Fieldtrip

Tuesday was the kindergarten fieldtrip to the Treehouse Museum. Elise was very excited about riding the school bus for the first time. It might have been the highlight of the whole trip for her. Abby and I went along to help. We mostly had a good time. Elise was a little sad when she was one of five unlucky kids who didn’t get picked to participate in the play they put on. It was salt in her wounds when her fieldtrip buddy got to do that AND got picked to dress up like a princess at their next rotation. It was a good life lesson for her that things aren’t always fair. It was a good life lesson for me that I can’t/shouldn’t always try to make life fair for my kids. Kindergarten is hard! :)



We are having a great year so far. I’ve been really impressed by all of the kids’ teachers and they are all learning lots in their classes. Parent teacher conferences are next week. Hopefully we won’t have any surprises.

Halloween Fun

Halloween is a week-long celebration at our house. Most years I love that. This year I wasn’t really feeling it, but I did my best to fake it. We recycled our Star Wars costumes from two years ago. I was afraid that Abby would hate being Yoda since she is such a little princess, but she was totally excited about it. Hurray for not having to buy/make new costumes. Here were some of the fun things we did with the kids.

Treehouse Museum Enchanted Woods

We wanted to try something new this year, so we went to the Enchanted Woods at the Treehouse. It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting from the description, but the kids liked it and they got some fun prizes. On the way home they all agreed that the dinosaur park is more fun. (We haven’t been there in two years, so they might be remembering it being better than it really is.)


Primary Halloween Carnival

The Young Men and Young Women in our ward put on a Halloween Carnival for the Primary kids. They kept it simple and just had six stations that the kids rotated through. It is nice that our kids are old enough to do their own thing. Nate and I got to chat with some neighbors while they played the games. It was great. I was a lazy mom and convinced the kids that it would be cool to all just wear Halloween shirts so we didn’t have to do the whole costume routine.


School Parade and Parties

Thursday was the kids’ parade and class parties. We headed over early to see Ben and Emily parade through with their classes. Nate stayed and played Don’t Eat Pete with 12 groups of second graders. He’s such a good sport to do all of these things that I sign him up for. The kindergarteners had their own little parade in the afternoon. Elise’s teacher invited Abby to join them. She was a big hit with all the moms that were watching. After the parade, I got my turn to play Don’t Eat Pete with the kids in Elise’s class. Nate was done in Emily’s class, so he came down to hang out with us. It was a good fun time.




Friend Party and Ben Date

The girls got invited to a little Halloween party at our neighbors’ house. They played games, made crafts, watched Halloween movies, and came home with a bag full of prizes. They had a great time. Nate and I were happy to have some one on one time with Ben. We went to Arby’s for lunch and then watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It worked out perfectly with the movie getting over exactly one minute before the girls got home.


Family Party

Friday night my family came over for a little party. We ate good food and played fun games. The kids had loads of fun playing with their cousins. I was glad to find out that grass stains and green face paint washed right out of Elise’s all white costume.






Pseudo Halloween

Since we live in Utah, we celebrated Halloween a day early. It was great to have all day Saturday to play. We carved pumpkins in the morning. The kids were all very excited about making their own designs and, with the exception of Abby, they did all of the carving on their own. Ben was especially pleased with his 27 pound Star Wars masterpiece. It took him over an hour to finish carving it. He’s asked me 53 times if I have “put a picture of it on Google yet.” This blog post is as close as he is going to get to internet fame. :)

After pumpkins, we got the kids in their costumes and headed down to Lee’s for some trick-or-treating. It was pretty packed. Apparently everyone has discovered that it is a fun Halloween activity. The kids collected their loot and then we headed to Wienerschnitzel for lunch (had to use up last year’s Happenings coupons before they expired).

The kids watched Private Eyes when we got home and then we got ready for trick-or-treating. It was raining a bit, but Nate busted out the umbrellas and headed out with the kids. I got to stay home and pass out candy in my cool Darth Vader mask. Judging by the terrified expressions on a few kids’ faces, I must have looked pretty authentic. The plan was for Nate to make the rounds in our immediate neighborhood, and then I would take the older kids out for a while longer. Abby and Elise were still raring to go after round one, so we turned off the lights and all went out together to hit a few more houses. The weather turned out to be fabulous and we had a good time. The kids came home with a TON of candy . . . more than would fit in a gallon-sized Ziploc bag (each). Elise’s bag is significantly smaller than anyone else’s. She got just as much candy; she has just already eaten half of it. Her ability to consume candy is legendary. The quote of the day was when she pulled out a little bag of baby carrots that someone had given her and with an incredulous tone said “people think these are treats?!?!?” I’m pretty sure that is the only wrapper that won’t be opened in the next two days.






Halloween

We went to Nate’s parents' house after church on Sunday for dinner. The kids were supposed to wear their costumes, but they had pretty much had their fill of dressing up by then. The girls put on their dresses, but we skipped the whole hair and makeup part. Abby was done being Yoda and decided to go as a cute little butterfly.

Still Kickin'

I guess this new slacker version of me doesn’t blog either. Luckily Abby peed her bed last night, so I have some free time while I’m waiting at the laundromat. (We are in the middle of a laundry room remodel, so I am washer-free for a few days). I thought I would do a quick catch up post about some of the things that we've been doing during the past few weeks.

General Conference:

My attention to general conference was maybe the worst ever this year. I wanted to listen, but there were soccer games to go to and lots of other distractions that kept me from really paying attention. Thank everything for MP3 downloads. I spent the week after conference listening to every session over again. Elder Uchtdorf’s talk was my favorite. It was just what I needed to hear. My new goal is to slow down and simplify things around here (starting next week).

We went out to Jody and Kevin’s for priesthood meeting. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins and I had fun hanging out with my sisters. After all of the boys were back, we built a fire in their fire pit and made smores. Jody set up her new telescope and we were able to see Jupiter and four of its moons. It was pretty cool. Less cool was the fact that I may or may not have eaten a worm in one of the apples from their tree. I don’t think my mouth will ever be the same.



Handyman Nate:

We spent more time at Jody and Kevin’s while Nate was helping to install Kevin’s ceiling hoist in their bedroom. Nate got pretty filthy climbing around in their attic, but he got the job done. Shane was there helping too and tested it out after all of the bolts were in. It was funny to watch. The kids got lots more cousin play time. They love Jody’s new house. Since she and Holly live so close to each other now, we usually get to see them both in one trip. The kids love it. They have learned some quality things from their cousins . . . like how to play toilet tag and some song that has the line “That’s not all; that’s not all; then the baby starts peeing on the wall.” Fabulous. :)



Pictures:

We got our family pictures taken. It ended up being a bit of an ordeal. We went to Target, and our photographer was quite possibly the worst photographer in the state. The pictures were awful. So, we didn’t buy them. Instead, we packed the kids back in the car and headed to Kiddie Kandids to see if they had an open appointment. I knew that we were pushing our luck with making the kids sit through TWO photo sessions in one night, but I didn’t want to go through the whole hair/clothes hassle on another day (not to mention the fact that Ben will most likely get orange and black bands on his braces next week and I didn’t really want that look for pictures). Our photographer at Kiddie Kandids was AWESOME and managed to get some cute pictures even though our kids (especially Abby) were so done with the whole thing. Phew. I’m glad we don’t have to do that again for another year or three.



Activity Days:

Emily and I went to our first Mom-Miss party a couple of weeks ago. They did a Minute to Win It game night. We weren’t so good at doing some of the tasks (although Emily rocked at the “junk in your trunk” challenge), but we had a great time. There are lots of girls her age in our ward and she has loved going to Activity Days. It is kind of new territory for me to just send her off on her own, but it is good for her (and me).

UEA:

The weather over UEA weekend was beautiful . . . highs in the 70’s, lows in the 50’s. We did absolutely nothing fun to take advantage of it. Instead we started a big laundry room remodeling project. Our kids kept themselves entertained with movies and video games. I think they knew that if they bugged us we would put them to work, so they just had a lazy weekend and never once complained about being bored. We rewarded them by letting them have a slumber party two nights. Next year we’ll have to do something really fun. The good news is that it was also the last week for soccer this fall. Hopefully all of that free time on Thursday nights and Saturday mornings will let us get on top of things a bit.

(This picture is from six months ago, but it is pretty much what they always look like when they have a slumber party.)


Camping Trailer:

Our big excitement of the week is that we bought a new (to us) tent trailer from our next door neighbors. It is an older trailer and has lots of little issues that need to be fixed, but the price was right and Nate and I love little fix-it projects. It will be perfect for our little family. We can’t wait to test it out next summer. The best part is that all of our camping stuff can stay in there all the time, and we’ll never have to do a full pack/unpack for camping again. Wahoo!