The BIG 1-2

Happy Birthday Alicia!
Fun Party.




What can I say? I can't believe that it was 12 years ago that I was watching a 007 movie on Christmas and thought I was in labor and freaked out the the lady in the concession stand! Seems like yesterday.... well, maybe last week. haha

Yummy Butter Cake.

Check out the awesome cake stand Sister Tanner gave me! Got to use it for the first time.

Regular Santa

Part 1:
Last night we had our annual Church Christmas social. It was a great night. Of course, the highlight for the kids was a visit from Santa. We've had a LOT of discussions about Santa lately at our house. After the party, I took Lily, our 3 year old, out for a drive. She asked me, "Mommy, was that the regular Santa we just saw, or...?" I told her yes, it was the regular Santa. (lol) She paused to think for a bit. "I didn't know he had hats and candy canes."

Part 2:
Today, Lily said,"Last night we saw the regular Santa, but I wanted to see the fake one." :( hahaha

Finally, we figured out it was because she was watching one of those Santa Clause movies with Tim Allen, and there was a fake robot Santa that she was hoping to see!

Rhyme in Time kept me in Stitches

Today, Parker was in rare form. Typically he has me pulling my hair out. We were on the way home from visiting a friend. The visit ended with me physically dragging him out to the van with a sleeping baby (actually 14 mo old, but still baby) in my arms. So, needless to say, when he kept "Mom--meee"-ing me, I wasn't sure if I wanted to hear what he had to say. To my shock and amazement, he showered me with compliments; telling me I am beautiful, funny and good at cooking dinner, etc. I thanked him and decided I should return the favor. I told him that he was smart, good at rhyming, and making up words. I said just be careful, because some times your made up words are really bad words. (We have this conversation on a regular basis!) He paused and said, "You tell me if it's a bad word." So he began to rhyme while looking out the window.

P: Truck, puck.
M: (phew!) Yep. real words.
P: Sign, Bign.
M: Nope. New word!
P: Castle, Hassle.
M: Those are real words too.
P: Hassle? What does that mean?
M: It's when you bother someone and try to get them to do something.
P: You do that to Daddy all the time.
M: How do you know that?
P: Because Daddy says that all the time.

The end.

Snow

So, yeah, we actually had a tiny bit of snow last week. Ya, in Texas! However, I would probably describe them as flying rain drops because it melted as soon as it hit anything and did not accumulate. Too bad. I love snow days.

Well, today I saw that it's been snowing up in Provo, so I miss my sisters. I wish we could build a snowman together and J, N, L and M could throw snowballs at me. So here's to dreamin'!

Hey Jonah! Can you throw a snowball to Texas?!

Love you guys!

The Grandpa Joke

My Grandpa is one of the best joke tellers I know. In fact, he is probably the most prolific joke teller I know... with one exception. Four year old knock-knock jokes. But that's another story!
THIS story reminds me of him.

Yesterday I went on my monthly shopping marathon at Walmart. While struggling with keeping my 14 mo. entertained in the basket, and my 3 year old in close proximity, an older fellow drove up on his scooter and said hello. He jokingly mentioned that you start out on wheels (like Zoey) and end up on them (like him). He proceeded to ask me if I had heard "the one" about Buddy and Edna. I of course, had no idea if I had, so I had the pleasure of hearing it! So, now for your pleasure and enjoyment, a re-telling of the tale of Buddy and Edna!

Buddy and Edna were a young married couple. Every year, they would attend the same fair. One year they noticed that helicopter rides were being offered. Edna was so excited and wanted to go for a ride. After inquiring about the cost, Buddy responded with, "Fifty dollars is fifty dollars! Maybe someday, Edna."

Each year it was the same thing. "Fifty dollars is fifty dollars! Maybe someday Edna." The years passed by and again they began with the same argument. "Fifty dollars is fifty dollars!"

"Well, Buddy. I'm 85, so if you're gonna let me ride that helicopter, someday better come soon!"

The helicopter pilot who had listened to this argument for years interrupted them and said, "Now that's enough. I'll let you both ride for free on one condition. Neither of you makes a peep for the entire ride." Buddy and Edna agreed and off they went.

Now, the helicopter pilot wanted his money, because you know... fifty dollars is fifty dollars. So, he was doing all sorts of tricks, flying this way and that, and practically turning the helicopter upside down trying to get Buddy and Edna to scream. He had no luck and finally landed.

The pilot announced that this was the first time anyone had gotten to ride free. Usually, folks are screaming right off. Buddy replied,





DRUM ROLL PLEASE










"Well, I thought about it.... back when Edna fell out, but fifty dollars is fifty dollars!"

Turkeys

Cool stuff about turkeys.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Books and Thanks

Two great links for ya here.

Like to read? Kids like to read? Still have Christmas shopping to do? Check this out. Volunteers earn $10 per hour towards books! Shopped here before, but I hope to volunteer this year. Register so you can print a coupon before you go!

Xerox is doing this cool thing.

Yay! I fixed the blog. & pics!

I think I like the way it turned out. Let me know what you think!


So here's a recent family picture or two. Which one is your favorite.



Hard to resist a picture with fingers up the nose. :)


I think Parker's about to sneeze.


Looks like somebody doesn't want be here. ;)


or here? I think Alicia was smiling mischieviously for a reason. hmmm.

Oh, and by the way, for my non-facebook readers....

Today I am humbly grateful that God answers our prayers whether we "want" the answer or not. Because of an answer I "didn't want", but followed, 14 years ago, I have Him to thank for EVERYTHING I now have in my life. Life is good!

A day in the life

So, one day in September I think, maybe it was October already... anyway haha... I decided to document everything I did with photos. I got off to a pretty good start, but left a few things out!

I started out with this ugly box in my kitchen that was holding all my baggies and kitchen wraps etc... Here's some pics of my project. I was inspired by the tin cans my mom used to cover with fabric bits when I was little.

I baked some 5 minute artisan bread. Yummy and easy... win, win.

I worked on "fixing" Lily's hair again. Now it looks like a mullet. Oh well. She's still a cutie pie!

I chased this little one all around the house. She sure looks like her big sister Alicia.


Then I gave Paul and Eli hair cuts.

Then I slept for a looong time. ;)

I broke the blog!

Alas, I tried to "cutiefy" my blog, but in a series of failed attempts, I discovered that I have no patience for that. So, somehow, my poor fishies have gone missing. If you see them, please send them my way.

Eventually, I'll get things back to normal, however, in the mean time please bear with my strange attempts to "improve".