Random Shots from December

I'm grasping at straws for things to post about because I haven't been taking pictures or doing much this week, so here are some random shots from this month that haven't made it into any other post.

I love this shot of our Christmas cards in progress.

Fantastic Lehi Roller Mills Raspberry Muffins courtesy of the case full of mixes given to me by Collette; these are like dessert.

Adam and Amy's girls slept over and had a pizza picnic while watching "Prep and Landing".

I enjoy this view of it snowing outside.

We gathered at Robyn's house to celebrate Austin's 9th birthday.

Andrew and my dad testing the temperature of Andrew's pizza.

I try to always get a self-portrait with Andrew.

**Do you like the look of your Christmas cards in progress?
Do you have pizza picnics?
Did you watch "Prep and Landing"?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I have spent the last few hours playing "What's that smell?!" and I'm not enjoying it. I must look completely mental as I wander around bent over sniffing around like a dog because something just isn't smelling right.

The Portfuleow

Whitney's illustrated Christmas list was a crack up to us. Luckily Santa was able to find many of the things she wanted even though they weren't exactly the right color. I assume he disregarded several of the items immediately as he knew she was clearly under the influence of the Target and Wal-Mart ads that had come her way.

**Thoughts??**

Comment Window Tidbit: You know that line from "It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas" where it says, "And mom and dad can hardly wait for school to start again"? I may have felt like that today.

The Past Few Days

I haven't been doing a very good job of documenting these past few days, even though I've taken almost 700 pictures. It's just that I had a photo shoot for a family of 31 on Saturday morning and then one this afternoon for a family of 13, so I feel like I've been taking tons of photos, just not of my actual family and life. It's exhausting.

Saturday:
--The big family photo shoot with Randy as my assistant. I had had Whitney pack a bag full of funny hats and items from our costume bin for him to use to help make the kids laugh. I love it that he was willing to do this for me, it totally worked.


--The four of us went to Chili's (I'm haunted by the fact that Ashley's husband hates that place) for lunch and then to the movies to see "The Princess and the Frog". We all loved the movie! Landon gave it 6 out of 5 stars!
--I spent the rest of the day reviewing, deleting and saving the 400 photos I'd taken that morning then burning 7 discs for the family--this took hours to do.
--I had to work on my Sharing Time lesson for Sunday and make labels to stick on the candy bars we gave all our primary teachers for the last Sunday of the year. Why did I leave all of this to the last minute?? Apparently I like the pressure, am a complete idiot or had a very busy week getting ready for Christmas...you decide.

Sunday:
--Sharing Time workout. I taught the kids the Parable of the Ten Virgins complete with them acting it out. It is no small feat to hold the attention of 60 kids ranging in ages 3-7, then do it again the next hour for a room of 60 kids ranging in ages 8-12. Sometimes when I finish I can't believe I've managed to do it again. We just hit our 2 year mark as a presidency so that means I've done Sharing Time 24 times!
--The rest of the day was spent peacefully on the couch with the family.

Today:
--I was finally able to sleep in and it was delicious!!
--Landon arranged a sleepover with Lucas, so I arranged lunch out for me and Michelle. We went to Chili's (again the voice of Tyler mocks me) then to T.J. Maxx for some successful shopping. (Can you believe I didn't take any pictures?!)
--I dropped Whitney off at home then went to take pictures for a family in our ward.


--Lori called right after I got home and invited us over for dinner. Randy was working late and Landon was at Lucas' so just Whitney and I went over to Lori's new place for a tasty roast dinner.


Whitney made herself right at home at Lori's house and immediately took over Lori's cute table to play dinosaurs (which she'd brought with her of course).

Our house is still in a huge mess from Christmas and I have yet to blog about Christmas (good grief). I have high hopes for a productive day tomorrow.

**Would you be willing to wear silly hats
to make people laugh for photos?
If so, will you work for free?
Are you too good for Chili's?
What's your favorite aisle at T.J. Maxx?**

Comment Window Tidbit: Woohoo to me for organizing a spontaneous lunch out with Michelle!

Sunday Thoughts

I love this video, and even though I've seen it multiple times it still gets to me. I often need repeated reminders, even when I'm clipping along in a happy state of mind (as I currently am). There's much to love about the lessons she learned through this experience, and I'm thankful that I've learned to rely on prayer no matter where I am. I also like how helpful and important the spectators were to her race experience, and know that we can make a big difference in the lives of others by the way we use (or don't use) our words.

**Thoughts**

Comment Window Tidbit: I fell asleep sitting up on the couch while watching Nacho Libre with the family this afternoon, I really hope my body doesn't think I took a long nap. I don't want to have any sleeping issues tonight.

Christmas Eve in Pictures

These are all the presents we took with us to my parents' house, wow!

Landon spent 2 hours taking the fort down!! It was a Christmas miracle!

I made a pecan pie and the Oreo Ice Cream dessert.

We had snacks upon arriving at my parents' house, which was a good thing because I hadn't eaten anything before then.

The crazy girls all together and calm for one moment.

I made Adam and Amy take a 20 minute power nap because they were yawning at 4:00, this is the scene I found when I went to wake them--Andrew was lying on the floor next to the bed (apparently he'd been tickling Adam's feet a bit as well, too funny).


Andrew was beyond excited about opening presents so he got to open one long before anyone else did. It was the "Tinkerbell" dvd, which he wasn't very excited about. (It usually takes him a long time to warm up to a new dvd, so that one may end up being his favorite 6 months from now.)


Apparently covering my dad's mouth is a game that they play, but I'd never seen him do this before.


I always like to sit and read the Christmas letters my parents get because many of them are from families we knew growing up. There's one letter that always makes me feel a bit suicidal (because the family is full of freakish overachievers) but it's also the one I look forward to reading most.

Ahh, the very loud kids' table.


The very loud grown-ups' table.

My plate of goodness.

These scene as we gathered to open presents in the basement.

Andrew ended up receiving all these dvds.

I gave him this photo cube.

The kids were very happy with their loot.

It was pandemonium for awhile.

Randy and I hunkered together on the couch.

The genius tags Amy made!

My parents got a few gifts too.

Amy made gorgeous gratitude journals for
my mom, me, Lori and Robyn.

She layed out all the pages complete with dates through 2010, and bound the books herself. She's so freakin talented that it bugs me, but in a good way since I'm sometimes the recipient of her creativity.

And yes, I love being the huge one.

My parents gave all of the adults gift cards, woohoo!

Phew!

**What did you do for Christmas Eve?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I really need to get a pedicure. It's been 4 months since my last one, and my heels look like I've been using them for brakes (ala Fred Flintstone). It's a good thing I got 2 pedicure gift certificates for Christmas!

He Came!

The cookies and carrots were a hit!

Santa made the kids' dreams come true once again.

I hope to return to my regular schedule of daily blogging, but am currently overwhelmed by the thought of covering the past few days, meanwhile I just did a photoshoot for a group of 30 people (can you say workout?) and we're heading out for lunch and a movie as a family. Good times. If only I didn't have to do Sharing Time tomorrow dang it. Any good ideas for that?

**Did you have a good Christmas?
Are you overwhelmed by the
thought of writing about all of it?
What was your favorite gift?**

Comment Window Tidbit: How can it be both a relief and a disappointment to have Christmas over with?

We're Ready

When I commented to Whitney that there were an awful lot of carrots on this plate she replied, "There are 9 reindeer!" How could I have forgotten that?

Our potentially very slim Christmas
has turned out to be rather abundant.

Merry Christmas!!!

Comment Window Tidbit: I finally found Whitney's present at 11:57pm! I had stuffed it into my church bag (what the?) and had been sitting next to it for days!

I Need Another Day

Since our family's Christmas is tomorrow at 3:00, I really should be more prepared than I currently am. I've been plugging along this month and haven't felt too panicked about things, but I had planned to get way more done today than actually got done (again!), so now I'll be finishing up my wrapping (not rapping...yo, yo, yo) and dessert making tomorrow instead of tidying up and relaxing the way I'd prefer to be doing. If only I could get some of Natasha's extreme plan-aheadedness (new word) then maybe I'd actually get to enjoy things more.


Today was spent...
--Doing laundry (bedding, which I hate doing because I have to have an unmade bed for all that time).
--Spent way too much time trying to get our cd burner to work, then finally got it working only to find that the photo cd is crashing (this is current) the recipient's computer (@#!#, I'm so sorry Cathy).
--Wrapped all of the kids' friends' gifts.
--Ran to Wal-Mart for some groceries and final Christmas items.
--Picked up Whitney from Robyn's house.
--Ran to post office to drop remaining Christmas Cards before 5:30 pick-up.
--Put gas in the car.
--Ran into Costco (which was crazy) for only 3 items.
--Stopped at Sonic for a bag of Pebble Ice (thank you gift-card givers!)
--Took kids to deliver all their friend gifts.
--Wrapped Michelle, Eva, and Max's gifts. I really wish I had better wrapping skills, I'm such a tape spazz.
--Ran to Best Buy to get new cds to hopefully combat cd burning woes I'm currently experiencing.
--Folded laundry.
--Finally got the kids to bed at 9:45pm! (I hate late bedtimes for them!)

I have been in good form and even felt a little bit excited today while walking through Wal-Mart (unprecedented), but the messes of the day are wearing on me so I was a little snippy at bedtime. If only I could combat that end of the day snippiness!


The really good news is that Landon will finally be cleaning up his fort tomorrow (it has been up for a month!) which will make the kids' room feel clean and roomy again and will most likely restore some sort of peace to my mind.

**Are you ready for Christmas?
Do computer woes make you mental?
Do the mess of bags and wrapping supplies wear on you?**

Comment Window Tidbit: I still haven't found that present of Whitney's!

Issues

I normally think of myself as a pretty efficient manager of time, but there are times when I miscalculate so severely that I end up in a most unpleasant panic and spend part of my frenzied state trying to figure out where I went wrong, thus making my problem worse. Today was one of those days.


I envisioned my day looking something like this: drop the kids off at school, come home for some enchanting holiday baking while it snowed outside, prepare teacher gifts, get ready for the day, go to school for the Christmas Sing, help at Whitney's class party, come home, the end.

Instead my day went like this: drop the kids off at school, come home to find the peanuts I needed for my white chocolate-covered chex mix expired in March 2008 (they were in my garage in my food storage) and were downright gummy in consistency, scramble to reconfigure teacher gifts, shower and get ready, leave house to pick up lunch at JCWs (I had to get change), then pick up Christmas gift I ordered (that's why I needed exact change), home to eat and try to figure out why my freakin cd burner isn't working right, refocus on teacher gifts, realize I only have an hour until I have to be at the school (what the?), make stationery for 2 teachers and 2 secretaries, hurry to package gifts, get dressed in nonlounge-wear, race to school and have to park far away due to my tardiness, meet up with Lori and Ashley, barely make it into the Christmas sing on time, then help with Whitney's class party, home to make muddy buddy chex mix with Lori, drop Landon at his friend's house so they can do their shoveling business, clean up mess from chex mix making, wrap presents, search for one of Whitney's gifts that I seem to have hidden from myself, Whitney goes to spend the night at Robyn's house, Lori and I go pick up Landon from friend's house (he made $10), go pick up Lucas for a sleepover, get Little Caeser's for the boys, get Taco Amigo for Lori, Randy and I, home to eat and relax but house is a mess and I still can't find Whitney's present!


Landon's version of something red meant wearing the ratty hoodie he wears every single day to school. Yes, he had nicer shirts he could have worn, but I lost that argument.

Luckily Whitney had a green shirt to wear.

Whitney was delighted to have Ashley there for her class party.

The game I had the kids do involved them running around chairs, putting on gardening gloves then unwrapping a chocolate mint, eating it, running around the chairs again, removing the gardening gloves and racing back. I think the kids' enthusiasm is obvious in this picture (taken by Lori).

Altered versions of this obstacle course involved the kids skipping and doing jumping jacks, both of which were very tricky for some of the kids. If you ever want a really good laugh just ask kids to do jumping jacks.


This post doesn't quite capture the frenzy of my day or explain why my legs are so achy tonight, but it's evidence anyway.

**Did you leave teacher gifts to the last minute?
Have you ever seen really old peanuts?**

Comment Window Tidbit: It feels like a Friday because it was the kids' last day of school, yet it's really a Tuesday, but Christmas is Friday and we're having Christmas with my family on the 24th, so that means our Christmas Eve's Eve will be tomorrow. Aye!

Happy Shmanniversary

Today is our 16th shmanniversary and I'm too tired to be witty or insightful about it. All I can say is, it sucks having a December anniversary, especially a late-December anniversary. The woman at the bridal store tried to warn me, but really what was I going to do reschedule?

We went to Los Hermanos for dinner and were happy to score a corner booth, but soon realized we would need to wear sunglasses or squint during our meal due to the insane amount of light being produced from one of those new, energy-saving light bulbs (oh how I hate them). It was rather hysterical.


After dinner we went to Wal-Mart and feared the worst when we had to park in no-man's land, but our experience there was surprisingly pleasant. We rarely ever shop together so it was more entertaining than usual.

This is usually how our shmanniversaries go if we do anything at all (last year we didn't), oh to have been a June bride or better yet an October bride. Ahhh.

**How do you feel about the new light bulbs?
Have you been experiencing distant parking spaces?**

Comment Window Tidbit: Almost all of our Christmas cards have been mailed! Victory!