Thanksgiving break

I love the holidays.   Thanksgiving holiday especially.  Eat lots of good food, no shopping, no pressure, just family and lots of hanging out.  This was today- watching myth busters at 7:30 am by Isaac and Jacob, eating pies (we've finished off two since last night),  the girls have built 3 forts today behind the piano, under the piano, and in the toy room, playing the wii and computer, reading, and sleeping.  What a great day.  We'll top it off by going to my mom's tonight for dinner.  She told us we are not allowed to come early (we all love to hang out together and want to be together as much as possible.)  We are all supposed to bring an appetizer (I love appetizers!) Tomorrow is the in-laws.  Two Thanksgiving days in a row is awesome.  Friday we'll pull out the Christmas decorations.  I can't wait.

Beautiful weather

The weather has been so beautiful that I wanted to get out.  We called Athena and Tina to go to lunch.  We could't hook up with Tina so I met Athena at Kneaders.  It was fun to get out and go out to lunch.  Then we cam home and Bridie had to take her new bike for a spin around the block.  I pushed Eleanor in the stroller.  It was beautiful and I look forward to my kids coming home from school for the beginning of the holiday season!  So the pictures are of sweet Eleanor.  She and Bridie got matching dresses.  I wanted to take pictures of the two of them.  Bridie was in one of those moods and wouldn't smile for the camera so tis is what I got.

Hostess night

So with the sad news of Hostess going out of business we had Hostess night Friday.  Friday morning we stopped by the store and bought them out of their Hostess products (almost).  We had the little kids invite their friends over and they dined on pizza and Hostess products. Then we watched Brave.  I am really going to miss the raspberry filled doughnuts.  I only eat them about once a year, but when I do they are a favorite.  It was fun to have the little kid's friends over early and the big kids friends over later.  James and his friends stopped over after the school play and Matthew and his friends stopped over after hanging out at another friends house.  It worked pretty well.  It is sad to see companies struggling so much.  It is tragic to see companies close and people loose their jobs, especially so close to the holidays.  I wish fixing an economy was as easy as saying "If we had just elected so and so we wouldn't have these problems"  but things are much more complicated than that.  Gordon made a good point the other day.   He was saying that anyone with enough hard work and dedication could be in the same position as he is professionally.  So he wondered what allowed him to be where he is.  As he went back through his life he came back to the one thing that he was "blessed with" that has made all the difference in his life.  He was blessed with a stable home life he had as a child.  And a great mother that held the bar really high.  So his question was "If that has made the difference in my life why don't we have a government that supports that fundamental key to my success?"  We talked about how children's grade struggle as they see their parents go through a divorce.  If there is instability at home those kids have bigger problems than an F on their report card.  The solution to all our problems are in the home.  But the Billion dollar question is is that something you can buy?  I just hope I can create the best environment at our home for my children.  Boy, when I sat down to write this post I thought I might get off on how much I hate Unions (I do think there was a time and place for them, but you cannot tell me that a steel worker who is struggling to put food on his/her table and a roof over his head and is forced to join a union and pay $1,200 a year in Union dues gets $1,200 benefit.  I think there are better ways to prevent employee abuse that wouldn't be so expensive.)   Instead I got off on our societies assault on the family.  These are some of my thoughts take it for what it's worth.  And I can tell you it's not worth much.

All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth.

Jacob has been home sick all week with croup.  Today we did slip out and go to lunch with Athena.  That was so nice to get out.  Last night he came in and showed me another hole in his mouth.  Now his two front teeth are missing.  I was so proud of him for pulling it out himself.  He got a sack to put his tooth in and while he was trying to put the tooth in, it slipped out and under the stove.  Luckily Gordon pulled out the bottom drawer and they found the tooth.  He put it under his pillow and the tooth fairy forgot to come!  We are the worst.  So this morning he came in and told me the tooth fairy didn't come.  I felt so bad.  I told Gordon to go search under Jacob's pillow to see if he could find any money (wink, wink).  And lo and behold Gordon found some coins under Jacob's pillow.  Now everyone is happy.  I have loved having Jacob home this week.  It reminds me of last year.  I will miss him next week when he goes back to school full day.

Facebook: A necessary evil in my life

So I have been on Facebook for almost a year now and I am surprised how much I really hate certain aspects of it.  I love that I can get updates on people I love (like you Holly).  I love that people can post things they need on Facebook (the requests for the Downton Abbey season 2 DVD's make me laugh) .  But I really hate the narcosis tic people that post several times a day.  It drives me nuts.  Do you really think I want to know what you think about everything???  A couple of days ago I got a friend invite from someone I grew up with- holy smokes.  I need to unfriend them right away.  It puts me in such a bad position.  Do they really think I want to read filth?  I was discussing my feelings about Facebook with James.  His seminary teacher is also a counselor.  His seminary teacher said a suicidal person thinks one good thought to one bad thought.  They have done studies and have found that someone reading Facebook has 10 bad thoughts to 1 good thought.  Today I am planning on hiding certain people and unfriending others.  Facebook has been great, but I need to edit.  

Poor sick kid

Jacob is home sick today.  Last night he came in our room with croup.  Gordon got him a drink and sent him back to bed but I knew he wasn't going to school today.  Bridie also has had runny nose.  So we just stayed home today until lunch time.  For lunch we went through the drive thru at Burger King and got kids meals and Icee's.  It was nice to get out.  Jacob has been so bored because I don't let the kids play video games when they are sick.  They can sleep, read, and watch movies.  I try not to make staying home more fun than going to school.  It's hard when I have a sick kid.  My schedule gets all screwed up  which I don't mind if they are legitimately sick.  But I don't want anyone faking it.  I think Jacob will be thrilled to go back to school.  We are pretty boring over here when we stay home.  Lots of coloring, playdoh and other quiet, boring stuff.

Bridie got her ears pierced

Disclaimer:  I think that getting one's ears pierced is a silly thing we do in our society.  I would never pierce a child's ears without them wanting them for a very long time.

Bridie has wanted to get her ears pierced for a very long time.  She talked to Adaline about it and after hearing that it hurts, was a little less excited.  She kept bringing it up so I told her we could pierce her ears for her birthday if she wanted.  She eagerly agreed.  Her birthday came and went.  Two days later we were out at the mall and she said that she wanted her ears pierced and it was past her birthday.  So I took her over to the Claire's.  Then she started to get cold feet.  I knew if I let her chicken out we would be back the next day to get it done.  And I'm all about efficiency.   Luckily there was a 19 year old girl getting her ears pierced before Bridie.  She told Bridie that it didn't hurt too bad and that she could do it.  Bridie looked up at me with tears building in her eyes and said, "Mom, if you hold me on your lap I will be brave."  So I held her on my lap and she played my phone and they did both ears at the same time.  She hardly flinched.  She was so happy after it was done.  She shows everyone her ears.  She is so proud.  She even cleans them herself.  She is so cute about it.  I love Bridie.

Happy Birthday Jacob

Yesterday was Jacob's 7th birthday.  Note to self- don't ever have another baby the day after a major holiday.  Especially one that has enough sugar to send anyone into a sugar coma.  You will not want to make a birthday cake the day after Halloween and serve it with ice cream.

Birthday's are pretty basic at our house.  I get on the computer a day or two before the birthday party.  Print out some invites.  No clip art- just words in non-creative text.  Deliver a day or two before the party.  Day of party, ask child what they want to do for their party.  Blow up some balloons.  Bake a cake.  Buy some ice cream and anything else I need to pull the party together.   My parties are only 1 hour.  That is my limit.  Jacob wanted to play the Wii and do a piñata.  When I was at walmat picking up his presents I saw nerf guns that were cheap.  I bought some.  When the party rolled around the kids played Wii  for the first half hour then I passed out the guns and sent them outside.  10 minutes before I was to take them home I sent James outside to round them up of they could do the piñata and have cake and ice cream.  The presents got ripped open sometime before the guns were passed out.  I took them all home, picked up Adaline from dance and dashed home to get ready for Gordon's Work party.  The kids stayed home, had pizza, and watched Madagascar 3.  Bridie threw up while I was gone.  Poor kid.  Tonight we will go out to dinner as a family for Jacob's birthday.  And yes I did get pictures.  I'm just too lazy to up load them right now.

Halloween 2012

Last night as I lay in bed I realized I did not take A SINGLE PICTURE on Halloween.  Not one!  (I found these pictures when I downloaded my pictures.  I did get some pictures.)  I didn't get pictures as we were madly trying to scrounge up a costume for Eleanor because we couldn't find her china girl costume.  I didn't get any pictures of me helping at Jacob's class in the morning making totsie pop sucker ghosts or playing Halloween bingo with the kids.  I didn't get any pictures of us eating lunch with Jacob.  I didn't get any pictures as we dashed to Isaac's school to help in his class.  I didn't get any pictures of the chili or veggie trays I made for the ward Trunk or Treat that I was in charge of. (Yes, right after I just finished the primary program.)   I didn't get any pictures setting up or of the ward trunk or treat.  And I didn't get any pictures of anyone trick or treating.  Oh well, at lest we have pictures from my mom's party.  I can tell how crazy my life is by the amount of pictures.  Busy and having fun= lots of pictures.  Too busy I can't think= no pictures.  I just feel lucky things went smoothly.  We didn't run out of food and the kids had a good Halloween.  They will just have to remember the pictures in their head.

Potty training No. 7

I am still a failure at potty training, but my last child is fully potty trained.  The last two have been so easy!  I started to suspect that Eleanor was just milking the diaper system.  She just didn't want to be interrupted in all her fun play to have to go use the bathroom. So she loved her diapers.  I tried potty training the day before we went to Boise (I'm a failure, remember?)  so the timing was terrible.  When we got back I just thought 'This is too hard.  She is so young.  I should just put it off a couple more months.'  I just don't like the inconvenience.  I hate using public toilets again.  I hate having an extra set of clothes in the car "just in case".  But we did it.  She did it really.  I am so bad.  But Eleanor figured it out.  She did it without any treats because Jacob found the gummy lifesavers I had bought for motivation and ate the whole bag.  It is a happy and sad thing to not have diapers.  I love little baby diapers, but once they get big, it's not so fun.