Hello? Hello?

This was cracking me up this morning.  You would think he has a mom who multitasks or something.

I think all kids around this age find phones and pretend like they are talking on them.  However, I have never had a child who cradles the phone.  What made it even funnier was that if he wasn't doing something (like climbing up the chair in the last picture) he had to have his arm up in the air in order to make the phone stay.

What a silly little boy he is!  He got a much needed haircut yesterday.  After I finished, he couldn't stop smiling at himself in the mirror.  Such a handsome little thing.

Church stuff

I finally got around to doing a few posts.  I've been too lazy busy before now to do it.  But I have some time today, due to a new church schedule.  I know I probably won't remember this forever, so I thought I would document it, because it is a bit unusual.  We were made a stake over a year ago and we have just continued to grow.  When we moved here six years ago, there were only two wards.  We now have five, and from what I hear, we actually need six.  The holdup?  We only have one building and we just can't fit six wards in it each Sunday.  So yes, that means we have five wards in one, somewhat small, building.  I am in charge of all the RS Meetings (activities during the week) and I won't even go into detail about what problems this causes when it comes to trying to schedule the building.  But five wards in one building makes for some great church times.  We got lucky--in my opinion.  We go at 8:00 a.m.  It is early, especially since I play the organ and have to be there even earlier, but it's nice with kids as far as meals and naptimes.  Then the other wards start in two hour increments after us:  10:00, 12:00.... ending up with the last ward starting at 4:00 p.m.  I got home from church at 11:20 this morning.  We've had the whole day to ourselves.  I just glanced at my clock and realized that it is 3:47.  I'm seeing dinner and bedtime on the horizon.  The last ward hasn't even started yet.  Yuck.  Some of them won't arrive back at their homes until my children are in bed.  So, are you enjoying your new church time this year?  If not... just keep in mind that you could be going from 4:00-7:00 p.m.!

Oh, and by the way, in case you were wondering... we do have two more church buildings that are planned or very newly underway.  But it will still be a while.

White Christmas

Yes, we had a white Christmas this year.  We joke that it always snows for Natalie when she comes to Snowflake because she wants it to so badly.  It's funny because it doesn't snow all that much there.  But, in recent years there have been many occasions where it has snowed right at the time we had a trip planned.  This time was a little different.  We got caught in the storm while driving.  We had planned on leaving for Snowflake on Thursday night after Nate got home from work.  After a call from my mother-in-law around lunchtime, informing us that it was starting to snow, we moved up our travel plans and were able to leave by about 2:30 so we could hopefully get there before it got dark and roads got icy.  We started hitting snow in Globe and pretty much had it on the roads the whole way after that.  It was a bit scary, but it wasn't too bad because we ended up driving behind two different snowplows in the worst spots, and our Durango has 4 wheel drive.  Our slightly over four hour drive ended up being closer to six, but we arrived safely.

The next morning we bundled up our kids in their finest Tucson winter wear, which consisted of jeans, an additional long sleeve shirt, normal shoes, and--in the case of my boys--two lightweight jackets and socks for gloves.  However, they didn't care.  They had to be freezing, but they all stayed outside and played for quite a long time.  I might add that my shoes were...flip flops.  I forgot to change my shoes before we left.  It was awesome walking around in snow and slush.  Enough talk, cue the pictures...

This was Damon's first time playing in the snow.  He absolutely loved it.  He wanted to be able to make snowballs like everyone else.   He was excited about the idea of throwing something at his siblings and not getting in trouble.  It was cute to see him try.

All at once that painful cold seemed to hit Damon and he started just crying.  I went to get him to bring him inside.  That made him cry more.  It was funny that the very thing he wanted was what was making him so cold and miserable.

One by one, they all came back inside, completely frozen.  After they came in, I stripped them down and wrapped them in their blankets, which I had put in the dryer.

On to Christmas.  We had a fun Christmas morning opening and playing with gifts.  Natalie and Kelton have enjoyed their "new" DS's (thank you Craigslist for providing them for about $30 each) probably more than anything else. 

This one is from Christmas Eve.  I walked back in after I had put them in bed and found them like this.

I was able to somewhat surprise Nate with a new TV.  I left the TV at home and put an HDMI cable in his stocking.  So... we are no longer the only people on earth with a giant tube TV.  We have finally joined the flat screen revolution.  :)  Nate surprised me with some nice sunglasses.  I've lived in AZ all my life and have never owned a pair.  He also got us tickets to see Wicked when it comes to Phoenix in a few months.  We've never seen it so it should be fun.

So, I know it's January now, but Merry (belated) Christmas to everyone!

Stuff we made in December

Here are some other things we did in December.  Like every year, we made chocolates.  And I can say "we" because I had help this year from Natalie and Kelton.  I was a bit hesitant to let them help, but they wanted to roll the centers into balls and since that is the part I like the least, I figured, why not?  I thought I would have to re-do a lot of them, but I was fine with that.  I was really surprised to find that Natalie was truly helpful.  She was able to get the right amount of dough and roll it into a nice ball.  I handed Kelton peices of dough and he was able to make them into nice balls as well.  They ended up saving me time and it was fun to have the company.

Later on, I did all of the dipping.  While the kids were helpful with the centers, neither is quite old enough to help with the chocolate part.  The chocolates are long gone now, but they were very yummy.

Natalie also helped me make a Christmas gift for her teacher.  We made her a set of calendar blocks.  Natalie did most of the painting and I finished the rest.  Her teacher loves ladybugs, so we incorporated that in the design.  My photography skills need some help... the blocks looked much better in person.

I have been doing a playgroup/preschool co-op for Kelton with a few other moms.  He got to make a gingerbread house at the last one he went to before we stopped for the Christmas break.  He was very excited about it.

A little while ago, Nate and I painted his office.  We did one accent wall that is a darker blue (which doesn't come across in the picture below).  Nate has been wanting to hang some pictures on it.  So I made him some for Christmas.  The photographs are 12"x 12" and are Modpodged onto 1" thick boards (painted black), so they stand out from the wall when hung.  I thought they turned out very nice.  The one on the left is the Sacred Grove, the middle is the Snowflake Temple, and the one on the right is La Coca Falls in Puerto Rico (where Nate served his mission).

Oh, I made these too...didn't they turn out cute?

Didn't know they sold that

Tonight I was sitting at the table with Natalie.  We have this unusually large container of peanuts that had not been put away.  Natalie was looking at it when she suddenly asked, "where did you buy these?"
Me: "At the store." 
Natalie: "Yeah, but which store?"
Me:  "Walmart."
Natalie:  "Then why does it say Best Buy?"

What?  I was confused and then had to laugh when I realized she was looking at the printed expiration date... best by...

We only lack the tree...

I realized that I have never really taken pictures of our Christmas decorations!

I re-stressed the importance of this nativity set to my kids this year.  It was made by my Grandmother and me and is irreplaceable (sentimentally, at least).  My Grandma made ceramics, and every year, I always loved visiting her to make something new.  We both had a hand in making this set.  But she passed away when Natalie was only a few months old.  So, I am always a bit nervous to put it out each year with all my little crazies running around.  But I do anyway.  Because it is beautiful  And no matter how sentimental, I can't enjoy it from the inside of a box.

I bought these shelves (unfinished) a several years ago and painted them for our stockings.  The stuffed animals are actually from our wedding reception centerpeices.  Our stockings were made by Nate's grandma, who passed away maybe two years ago.  Damon actually has her stocking.  She wanted for one of the kids to have it, so it became Damon's.  Last Christmas, I took her name off and put Damon's on.  And notice the enormous size of Kelton's compared to the other kids.  We joke that it is due to a severe case of favoritism.  Nate's grandma's maiden name was... Kelton.

Thanksgiving

We had a really fun Thanksgiving weekend.  We went to Snowflake to visit family.  Chad & Erica and their family, and Rob & Tina and Christian were there too.  And we got to see Melanie's family throughout the weekend too. 

Chad and Erica and Nate and I went golfing with my dad on Wednesday.  We got a couple of carts and brought the kids along with us.  (We left Kelton and Damon at home sleeping.  Kelton was way upset when he woke up and found out we went golfing without him.  To make up for it, Nate took him golfing on another day.  He surprisingly lasted the whole time, without a cart, and in much colder weather.)  Natalie and Callie had a ton of fun on the golf course.  The loved riding in the cart and then jumping out at every stop to play in the grass, look for rocks, and whatever else they could come up with.

My parents recently bought a new TV that happens to have 3D capibilites.  So we got to spend some time trying out some 3D blu-ray movies.  I wouldn't want to watch every movie that way, but it was fun to do.  And, I think it looked better than 3D movies in the theater.  Here's Kelton and Kira looking super stylish.

On Thursday night, after our great Thanksgiving feast, Tina and I headed out to brave Walmart's early Black Friday sales.  We were both wanting to get a trampoline that was on sale, so we headed up an hour early.  The sale was supposed to start at 10:00, but when we got there at 9:00, everything was already out for the taking (except for the big electronics and stuff like that).  Tina was lucky to get the last trampoline, and had to jump through a few hoops to get it.  A lot of the stuff I wanted, I couldn't find.  So later that night, I stayed up until 1:00 a.m. (which was the beginning of Friday, Pacific time) when all of Walmart's deals went live online.  Chad also stayed up to get some of the things he wanted.  The online experience proved to be just as bad/frusterating as the in-store one, with the site crashing every few minutes because of the mass numbers and walmart only letting so many people go through check out at a time.  Trying to get to the checkout screens felt a bit like trying to win the lottery.  Then if you did get through and something in your cart became "out of stock" you would get kicked completely back out of checkout, only to try the whole process again.  Once again, I didn't get the trampoline, and neither did Chad.  Although, we both had it in our cart at one point.  We should have taken pictures of each other's angry faces from accross the room to remember the moment.  Or not.  I did, however, get everything else on my list.  But two of the items I got, Chad was also trying to get and because of the luck of the draw of getting into the checkout, five minutes later when Chad got to checkout, those items were also out of stock.  Stupid website.  Do you want to know the really stupid part?  I will probably do it all again next year.

Erica took some pictures of the kids.  Here's a couple cute ones of my boys.

I love those blue eyes.

And I love that happy little face.

Back to Natalie and Callie.  These two girls just had so much fun together.  They were always off somewhere playing together.

 It was pretty amazing that they never got upset with each other.  We did not hear of a single disagreement or fight in the 3 1/2 days they spent playing together.

I don't need to tell you how Natalie felt about Callie leaving.  This is Natalie watching Callie leave to go home, and the pictures say it all.

It's too bad we live so far away from each other!

I'm glad too

This was in my email inbox this morning--sent from Nate.

Natalie went to work with Nate on Saturday and made these pictures and hung them in his office.  If you can't read them (we are working on better handwriting...), they say, "I love you Dad."  "You are special to me!"  "You are the best dad ever."  "I'm glad that mama chose you!"  "Love Natalie!"

Brothers

Kelton finally figured out that we have given him a little brother and not (just) a little annoyance.  Something clicked in his mind that said, "hey, I can actually play with that little person and have fun with him!"  This really is a new idea to him.  Usually Damon coming anywhere near Kelton results in a lot of screaming, pushing, hitting, shoving, (Kelton) and crying (Damon).

But the other day, I sent both boys outside and they started pushing around these trucks together.  Kelton thought it was so much fun to have Damon follow him around with his truck.  They played together for a long time.  Then later I asked Kelton if he loves Damon.  His answer was, "Yeah.  I love him because he is my favorite friend."  A few hours later he said that Damon was his best friend.  His usual answer to my previous question has always (95% of the time) been a loud "NO!  I don't love him!"

That night Kelton practially begged if he and Damon could go play outside again.  Damon, of course, loves this change of events.  He has always wanted to play with Kelton.  And...I am now very glad that I bought two of those trucks on Black Friday a few years ago.  I thought at the time that it might be kind of pointless to buy two of practically the same thing, but the price was just so good.  But now I have two trucks and two boys--who will play together now.

Scrabble

Nate bought me the game of Scrabble for Christmas probably about three years ago.  It remained unopened until about a week ago when we decided to play it.  I lost by about 20 points, but only because Nate got lucky and scored 66 points on one turn.  We had a great accomplishment though.  We placed every single tile on the board without any cheating at all.  We didn't even have to skip any turns to do it.  We each just played until the end of the game when the last tile was put down.  I don't think that happens very often.   Here is our proof.

You can see Nate's 66 point play on the right hand side of the board in the middle.  He put "daze" onto the existing word "quote."  He not only got points for two words with 10 point letters in them, but also landed on a triple word score space.  I declare a rematch.

Time Out

I got to spend last weekend at Time Out for Women with my mom, sisters, and sister-in-law.  I had a great time and really enjoyed listening to the speakers.  I am ready to head back next year.


It was also nice to get away for the weekend and not have to worry about taking care of anyone else.  This was actually the first night I have ever spent away from my kids, not including being in the hospital having a baby.  (yes, I know, some of you did a little gasp at that news.  I really am not one of those moms who just can't stand to leave her kids.  An opportunity has just never presented itself before.  Next on the list... Nate and I away together from the kids for a night.) 
 

 Note to self: don't stand with part of your body turned closer to the camera.  It makes things disproportionate.  And it makes you look like a behemoth standing next to people who are already a lot shorter than you.



Candy overload (aka, Halloween)

(I am going to randomly post my favorite Halloween pictures throughout this post.)

As always, the kids had a lot of fun this Halloween.  Kelton and Damon got to dress up early and go to a special Halloween storytime at the library on Wednesday. 

Then on Saturday night we had our ward trunk-or-treat.  It was a combined tri-ward thing, and I was afraid it was going to be insanity.  But it ended up being okay.  The parking lot was almost completely full though.  So, the kids got a ton of candy.  It wouldn't be so bad if we only had one child, but multiply that times three buckets...it almost makes me sick just to look at all of it.

 Natalie got to wear her costume to school on Monday.  She ended up being Belle again this year, using the beautiful dress her grandmother made her last year.  She was going to be Tinker Bell (like she was two years ago) to match Damon, but we couldn't find the necessary leggings (dress was too short) to go under it.  I'm pretty sure they are hiding somewhere in her room.  Kelton agreed without hesitation to be a monkey again.  That's what he was last year too.  However, last year, he didn't want much to do with actually wearing the costume.  This time he was excited.  And I was glad.  For some reason this year I didn't feel like spending money on, or making, new costumes.  Damon got to wear the Peter Pan/Robin Hood costume of Kelton's from two years ago.  It was very cute on him and he loved wearing the hat. 

On Monday night I had planned to just have the kids pass out candy to trick-or-treaters.  They were super excited about that.  But Natalie realized on her own that if other kids were going to be trick-or-treating, then couldn't they as well?  So I said yes, and let them go to the houses on our street.  This resulted in way more candy than I would have imagined.  But the kids had a ton of fun going around to the different houses.  It's strange, because people here actually decorate for Halloween.  I would say that just as many, if not more, people decorate their houses and yards for Halloween as do for Christmas.  I find that strange.  But it does make trick-or-treating fun. 

When we got home, Natalie and Kelton perched in our doorway and handed out candy until bedtime.  I like trick-or-treating here because it starts at about 5:45 and it pretty much done by 7:00.  We get maybe 100 kids, which is a nice number.  It's a lot, but not overwhelming.  It was a fun night.  Now we have the aftermath of all this candy.  I'm still deciding what to do with it.  It has turned into a bribe and threat for everything though.  I can't tell you how many times I've found myself saying, "If you do this, you can get a candy from your bucket," or "I am going to throw away one piece of candy for every wrapper I find on the floor." 

Confessions of a perfectionist

Sometimes I think that being a bit of a perfectionist does not bode well with motherhood.  For example...

I decided it would be fun to make Halloween sugar cookies with the kids today.  I had this vision of us rolling out, cutting, and decorating these adorable, yummy cookies.  And we did.  However, I forgot about that perfectionist thing. 

#1. Mixing.  Natalie wanted to add all the ingredients to the bowl, which I let her do.  But I did find myself panicking on the inside a bit because she kept coming awefully close to spilling a bit outside of the bowl.  Heaven forbid.  I managed to calm myself down and let her work. 

#2.  Rolling.  Natalie wanted to roll out the dough.  She even had her own little rolling pin.  Sure, no problem.  Until I watched her start to roll.  She was trying so hard, but it was so lumpy and bumpy and getting paper thin in places while others were still an inch thick.  I couldn't handle it.  I very nicely told her that I would roll out the dough for her and she could cut.

#3.  Cutting.  Kelton decided to join in at this point.  I showed them how to wiggle the cookie cutter just a bit after they cut the cookies so that it separates the cookie from the dough a bit.  Well, Kelton got slightly carried away with the wiggling part.  Alarms started going off in my head because the cookies were getting a bit distorted.  Because everyone knows that you can't have lopsided sugar cookies.  Heaven forbid.  I tried to calm myself down.  Then Natalie placed a cookie cutter right in the center of a large area of nice smooth dough and cut out a cookie instead of placing the cookie cutter at the edge and fitting it in as closely as possible to the other cookies.  I think I actually gasped out loud a bit.  She didn't do it again.

#4.  Frosting.  I knew this one was going to be trouble.  So I prepared the best I could.  Frosting sugar cookies is hard.  I'm not even that great at it.  And I must say, Natalie did a pretty good job.  I was thankful that Kelton didn't want to try.  But I will say that when I would look over and see this...

it would take every ounce of self control to not reach over and smooth it out with a little more frosting.  But I never did.  I just took really deep breaths and, well... tried not to look.  Oh, and this cookie is a haunted house that Natalie wanted to decorate like a candy corn.

So there you have it.  I am crazy.  I need rehab for perfectionist mothers trying to raise kids who will hopefully not pick up their crazy mother's perfectionist ways.  :)

We really did have a lot of fun making cookies.  Natalie was very proud of her creations.  It is fun to see how much she likes to create things--just like me.  She loves making things and painting and things like that.  Which is why she had so much fun decorating cookies.  (And she had no idea that her mother was employing deep breathing techniques right next to her in the meantime. Kidding.  Sort of.)

Here are our finished cookies--which I may or may not have eaten like four of tonight.  We have spider webs, ghosts (which are sideways in the picture) moons that look a lot like happy bananas, candy corns, pumpkins, cats, haunted houses, and a couple of maple leaves.