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".

Yay! Go Frogs!

From Drop Box

The Truth Fairy | Overstuffed

This is really lazy blogging, but at (SPOILER ALERT)The Truth Fairy Overstuffed you'll see a nice entry that I feel I could almost have written myself. :D Reminds me of my little sisters somehow.

Good to Know, and Thank You!

So, a while back I broke one of my cards and had to request a new one. Unbeknownst to me, I had to select a new pin. When I tried to use it for the first time this morning on a basket of groceries, it did not take my old pin! Panic! Well, I figured that I just needed to call to select a new pin, but, of course, I left my cell phone in the car. The nice CSM at walmart suspended the transaction and I went to fetch it, fix the problem, and head back to the customer service desk to pay for my almost $300 of groceries. When I got there, the young lady who had been behind me at the checkout lane was waiting for me and asked if everything was ok. I told her I just needed to set my pin, and I thought I would be ok. I thanked her for asking and she left. When I got to paying for my groceries, the customer service woman told me that this young lady had offered to pay for my entire order! What a blessing to know that there are still people in the world that would do that for a stranger. So, this is my shout out to that nice lady, and all of you nice people who are willing to help strangers! You're awesome, and Thank you for being so generous and kind!

:D

Did I mention that I love my new shoes! (AND they were on clearance!)

Halloween 2

Not a vampire. This is the Vampiress. Just ask her if you don't believe me. ;)

The chef!

No, this isn't me, it's Ginny Weasley

Dinosaur hunter turned Dragon hunter when he saw someone in Dragon Costume.

Halloween

The clown

Tinkerbell... um sweet but sassy?

The nerd (or technically the 80s nerd, since the real nerds are super rich computer dudes right?)

The nerd's 80's girlfriend. (Ok, so really I bought those purple shoes for my costume, but I LOVE THEM. I want to buy a whole new purple wardrobe to go with them... It's the horned frog in me!)

Queen of Hearts and Alice in Wonderland Costume Set GIVEAWAY!!!!

Found this while blog trolling. Very talented lady made these Costumes.

Let there be light!

This past summer, there was a balloon incident where a balloon got wrapped in the light pull chain and caught in the fan. Then the chain got ripped off to where you could not reach the last ball of the chain inside the switch. I tried to get at it with needle nose pliers, tweezers, the little connector thingys, and who knows what else I tried. Eventually, I decided that once I got the kids room cleaned up (this was about 3-4 months agot) that I would bug my daddy and have him help me change out the switch on the fan. Well, the kids got their room clean last weekend. Yesterday, I went in to check on my nephews playing. I looked up at the light and was filled with sudden inspiration. I'm not sure if it was the lost tooth, short sewing stint at R.S., seeing dental floss in the hall, the Spirit, or watching Kung Fu Panda ;), but when I looked up at the light, I knew I needed to make a slipknot in a piece of thread and the problem would be solved! You can see the end result in this picture. (I'm pulling on the chain.) I was so happy to have figured it out I called Paul and told him I was allowing him to bask in my awesomeness! LOL

Mahala enjoying the light so that she can read a comic book.

Zoey enjoying the almost clean room, and picking up remnants and shoving them in her mouth! I say what do you have in your mouth? Then she spits it out and shows me! I hate that...scary.

He looks so sweet and cute and docile in this picture. LOL Just random I know.

Blog Rewind... Zoey's first birthday highlights

Cutie in her new outfit!

She loves this noisy train. It's like her own personal ipod. She likes to dance to it.

She enjoyed destroying her oreo cake!

Lazy Blogging...

Check out some pictures here to see what's been on my mind. (http://picasaweb.google.com/grandall74)

Also, I love picasa... It looks for faces in pictures and helps you identify them. Found some pics of people I didn't even know I had.

GinGin

Lily's party

My favorite artist (Paul) did a pretty good job on the Calla Lily at the bottom right, though he says he prefers using media that allows him to utilize value in a drawing. :D I did the rest, and found a great new frosting that's not too sweet. It's a Wilton product that mixes up from a powder. Love it.

Tinker bell ruled the evening.


Check out the awesome tutu Grammer made! Perfect for my little sassy girl. By the way, Rock Stars wear sunglasses, sing and dance, and they dance with weiner dogs.... Life according to Lily. So there she is with her weiner dog!

I have lots more pics, but they are still up loading. You can see them here.

Totally pooped!

Somebody fell asleep cleaning up his mess. (He and Lily flooded the bathroom floor from the sink!)
Daddy went to check on his progress and found this.

Lily's new laptop

We bought a new "green" carpet sweeper the other day. Part of the cardboard packaging wrapped around the bottom of the sweeper. You can see it in the picture. Lily brought it to Grandma Nancy today and told her it was her new computer while pounding away on the "keyboard". We thought that was greatness, so I added a visible keyboard for her with my "magic" marker.

Here you can see her sending an email for her Grandma.


Here she is showing it off for the camera.

Fake Camping

So we went Kamping last weekend at the KOA. Paul and I agree that it is fake camping because, well, for one there was no dirt. Look at that beautiful lawn we pitched our tent on. We had a little cabinet to lock stuff up and electricity for our fridge. It was a very nice stepping stone for our first official summer camping trip with 6 kiddos.



Zoey didn't really appreciate us setting her down in the grass to play... at first. So, to our delight, she decided that walking was preferable! She took more steps holding my one hand than she has ever taken holding two hands at home. Such fun!

This next photo is so that you can see the nice pavilion we got to use 1/6th of for our camp site. I'm thinking of haggling for a big RV site if we ever do the KOA thing again so we can pitch 2 tents. Also, you can see that it was awfully hot there and we decided shortly to pick up our tent and move it over to the opposite side. For some reason, I thought that was incredibly fun carrying a tent down the road. Moving all our other stuff was considerably less fun. Oh, and also, because it was so hot, I have NEVER seen my husband drink so much WATER before. It tasted fabulous because it was ice cold. :D


See those goggles Mr. P. Lee is holding? Miracles I say. We had access to a nifty little pool while we were there. The first day, there was quite a bit of grumbling about not being able to swim underwater and catch the pool torpedo, and no less sputtering from unwanted water in the mouth. The next day, we had picked up these little miracles and our children turned into fish. I love goggles! I just wish I had some pics from the pool for you, but I was afraid Lily would throw it in along with all the other stuff she tossed in the pool. :S


All in all, we had a great time, but are desperately hopeful next summer for REAL camping which apparently includes mountains, cold nights, low humidity, igloo water jugs, and lousy bathrooms. (I drooled over Amelia and Jordan's Flicker pics)

Webcam

So, my new computer monitor has a webcam and microphone built in, so if anyone wants to see my ugly mug and talk to me while my children dance in the background and stick their faces in front of me, feel free to let me know!