Just in time

We'd made it through the whole fall/winter without snow. We did have a few flurries one day in October, but that was it. I guess old man winter decided it was time. Whitney and I enjoyed the snow (from the inside), while Matt drove my sister and family to the Omaha airport. . .

Whitney snacking on some snow from my new boots!!

Snowed in, family is home now, and no church. . .sounds like cookie time to me!!

Lost and Found

So, every once in a blue moon, I lose it. Nothing in particular, I just LOSE IT! I know I'm not the only one to do this. . .my sister calls me everytime she loses it, just so I can confirm that she is not crazy and that everything is fine.

Last night was the night. I think the stress of having company and some a little "absent-minded" around toddlers finally did me in. It was a number of things but the main one involved the following:

1. Me upstairs trying to put away mountains of laundry
2. An open gate to the kitchen
3. A 22 month old crazy kid
4. Cat food and water

I don't need to expand, I'm sure you'll get it. It was a disaster and I came downstairs after finishing the laundry and completely LOST IT!! I will admit when all was said (yelled) and done, I felt better.

Oh, and it helped that I bypassed the "family dinner" and went out shopping, by MYSELF, to find these, and these (and I ate way too many and felt just fine about it!)

12

Dear Matt,

Do you recognize these people?

They look vaguely familiar. . . .

Love, your wife of TWELVE years!!!

Wendy

While visions of Sugarplums danced in their heads

My parents always snuck in our rooms and took a photo of us on Christmas Eve, so I've continued that tradition with my kids. . .

Madison and Molly have their quilts that Matt's mom made for each of the grandkids. . .they are those fabulous rag quilts and so cute. I think Whitney's was still in her crib, when she, of course, ended up in our bed. . . . . . . In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there. . . . .

And this is the best part of Christmas morning for me. . .

You'll shoot your eye out!! (aka Merry Christmas)

Merry Christmas everyone. We did actually get some cute pictures after this day. My sister and family are here from San Jose, so we're up to our eyeballs in video games--my bro-in-law let us borrow his new Nintendo Wii. (The boxing and tennis are total exercise workouts!!), and dress up clothes and socks and shoes everywhere. And we haven't even opened presents yet! Will post more soon!
p.s. I hope at least one of you gets a big pink bunny suit just like Ralphie!!

and that's ALL I need. . .

Whitney loves to collect things wherever she is. She always has an assortment of things she's hanging onto. (This picture shows her cute little haircut I gave her too. . .her hair was about 3 different lengths in the back) All I need is this pink fluffy magic scarf, and this binkie, and Daddy's old work shoes. . .and that's ALL I need. . .

and I need this phone. This scarf, this binkie, these shoes, and this phone, and that's ALL I need . . .
Oh, and this play camera. That's ALL I need. . .

Say cheese Mommy. . .she thought this was awfully funny, mirroring me taking pictures of her. Cutie pie.

CATS

So, my friend surprised me with a ticket to see CATS last Friday. Her parents ended up out of town so we had a girls night out. I've seen CATS once before, but I was in Jr. High I think?

CATS is an odd show. No real plot line, just several different story lines of characteristics and thoughts of cats. All very true, by the way. I actually got a little sad after seeing Grizabella. Grizabella cat is an old cat, past her time. They still call her Grizabella the glamour cat though. She used to be one of the big-time dancing cats I guess. Throughout the show the cats are excited about when it will be midnight and the moon is high and it's time for another cat to recieve their "new life", and there's quite a hubbub about who it will be. Of course it ends up being Grizabella after she sings her well-known "Memory".
I've had my cat, Smokey, for almost 16 years. Although I complain about her plenty, she really is a great cat. She definitely has slowed down the last couple of years, and just last year the vet said she was starting to show her age. We took her in last week and the vet said that she is loosing too much weight, so they did a blood test and found that her kidneys are borderline functioning. So, as I sat watching Grizabella, I wondered if that is how Smokey is feeling. . . .a little past her prime, slowing down, and waiting for her ride to the sky. . .

Stuffed animals roasting by an open fire. . .

Matt decided to start our first fire of the year. . .I came home and found that my little animal lover, Molly, wanted to make sure that EVERYONE could enjoy a little snuggle by the fire. . .See, even unicorns, horses, ducks (dressed like bunnies), little white poodles, big pink poodles and puppy golden retrievers like a little warm fire.

Perhaps, as mothers, we can understand a bit. . .

The following is a true conversation that took place during Sacrament Meeting between two young mothers. . .

It was, of course, all written on a note because they didn't want to be "irreverent".

Mother #1: "Can you imagine being 9 mo. pregnant, heavy with child, and riding 70 miles just to pay your taxes?"

Mother #2: (Without a second thought) "Yep. That's why Mary "rode" Joseph's "A_ _" all the way to Jerusalem."

p.s. I wasn't one of the mothers, but secretly wish I was.

The Quest (to take pictures with a 20 month old)

This was a great idea, but who knew that on such a cloudy day, the sun would seem SO BRIGHT!!! We could hardly keep our eyes open. Whitney would have nothing to do with laying down so we just let her try to look up at the camera. . .not working.


Now Whitney is actually smiling, but at someone over there. Look at how hard I'm trying to keep my eyes open. . .look at that muscle flex on the side of my face!!!

Good thing we always have Jordan there with Tiff to help return Whitney to us during takes.
We did one like this that was practically perfect when Molly was this age. . .Whitney is done.


OK, let me back up here. . . .


Every year I have a plan. Colors/outfits-check, haircuts-check, no major scratches/blemishes-check, teeth whitened-check. Ok, the Christmas card picture quest may now begin, and pray for good weather.

Thank heaven for Tiff. Matt's sis is a photographer and we take full advantage of this whenever she's in town. She does an amazing job of catching everyone at their best moment, or at least being brilliant enough at Photoshop to fix all the problems! Last year, she even moved Molly's face from a different photo to make things just right. She whitens teeth, removes bags under eyes, takes moles off, slims your waist. . .I mean seriously, she has everyone looking a lot better than they really do. This year our pictures were a little late getting taken, so she just sent off the photos without doing her hours and hours of adjustments (so NO looking too close!!)

I have dreams of fabulous photos since every once in a while it happens, but seriously, just look what it takes to get maybe one good shot. We did get a few good ones, that you'll see on our christmas card. . .but that was from about 300 shots! (Thanks, Tiff!)

It all looks so sweet and innocent at the beginning. .

No, honey, your sisters aren't pinning you there. . .The smile is fading and she's figuring things out fast. Look at how well Madison and Molly are keeping up good smiles and faces for the camera as Whitney realizes the torment that is occuring. . ."They're totally squishing me!!! Make them stop!!""Must. . . . . . . .get . . . . . . . out. . . . . . ."I have no idea why I need to be making that face. . .I'm sure I was in mid sentance saying something to Whitney to make her happy. . .

This is when an airplane was going by. . .see Whitney's airplane arm? And look at that face from me now! I look like I've had a few too many, and that I have a big upper denture!!!

Happy Holiday Picture Taking!!

Thanks for Chocolate

I had no idea that See's made these, but boy am I glad they do. They arrived in a Happy Thanksgiving box from my Dad with a couple other boxes of chocolate. Matt happened to be home the day they came and we quickly got into all of it ("Hurry, before the kids get home!!")It didn't take long for the kids to whittle it down. . .

It was really hard to get it away from them to snap a last picture!!

On the first day of Christmas. . .

SO, I found a fabulous idea for Christmas time here at Tales from the Crib. I'd love to do a 12 days of Christmas and have the kids open a book each night to read. (Although I may end up with the 100 days of Christmas will all the fabulous books out there!) I also think it would be a fun idea for gift giving. . .deliver 12 wrapped books to a family and have them pass the books on the next year.

I'm enlisting your help. . .tell me your favorite book(s) for Christmas time reading with the kiddos.

Want some?

This is one of my favorite memories of Thanksgiving. When I was young, about 4-5 families (including Oh Judy's) would all gather up at our friends the Stevensons in Omaha. We all brought our assigned food and drove up to their huge house to hang out for the day. And holy cow, the FOOD!! I remember Oh Judy's mom's rolls, and our friend Cimony's mom's homemade pies. (We always managed to snitch some LONG before dinner). The best part was we were always together about 2 hours before dinner so we would run around, play games, play on their piano, listen to the christmas music, and SNACK. My mom was always in charge of the relish tray. Now this is no ordinary, store-bought relish tray. It's the real deal. She definitely always made 2, because certainly one was gone before dinner even was served. I've tried the last few years to make one, and make things feel like home, but I know I still can't live up to hers. I try. Here's a sampling of what you get on Jill's famous relish tray.


carrots
celery
cumcumbers
broccoli
cauliflower
olives (black and green) --I'm not a fan of the green except on pizza, so it's just black for me.
marinated artichoke hearts
baby corn
dill pickle spears (Matt likes the baby dills because they are more crunchy)
sweet pickles (These have to stay in the jar, lest they be mixed up with the dills. ..ewh. . .and I really can't be a MAR and like sweet pickles. . .so it's just for Matt's aunt that actually likes them)

Not only all this but it is carefully displayed and balanced and there is certainly an order when creating such a masterpiece. Fresh greens on the tray then carrots and celery round about. Broccoli, and cauliflower toward the center. Pickles carefully laid to rest amongst the carrots/celery (some snuck underneath for a surprise find). Cucumbers and olives delicately nudged in with the broccoli and cauliflower. Just enough artichoke hearts and baby corn to those that are smart enough to grab them. And pearched in the middle is a fantastic crystal bowl containing the best Hidden Valley Ranch dip known to man!!!

***DANG it! I gotta go, I nearly burnt my first set of rolls because I was blogging!!!!! (Poor rolls, death by blogging. . .I guess I better eat all of those right now!!) Happy Thanksgiving.

Rashdance

No, I'm not making fun of Matt's chinese heritage in the title there. . . (come on, at least a courtesy laugh please. . .he he)

It's Whitney. Maybe we should have named her Mystery. This poor little allergy prone kiddo. First it was the MSPI, eczema, nasty colds/stuffy all the time gunk.

So, about 3 weeks ago, I take her in (you know the routine. . .she's a nightmare, not sleeping, please tell me something is wrong that you can fix. . .nada. . .strep test, neg.) A week or so ago, she wakes up (after being Mrs. Crabapple for about a month) with red, rashy, itchy feet. Turns out it's Coxsackie. . .aka Hand, Foot, Mouth. Alrighty, the older two had that, no problem. Until, last Saturday. . These pictures actually aren't so bad. . .they were REALLY bad earlier.

Honestly, she was fine one minute, and the next time I saw her she had hives. I swear.
"What DID SHE EAT?????" What the heck did she get into? Was it the nasty, wet leaves we were trying to rake outside? Did she get into the treat that Madison created??
A lovely "Turkey" plateful of peanut butter decorated with mini m&ms and butterscotch chips

Finally, I called the nurse to see if they wanted to see her. . .if it was related to the Hand/foot/mouth stuff, do I need to take her to the ER? After all that, I just shrugged my shoulders and said, "whatever." Not really, to the nurse I didn't, but to myself I did.

I have given up on trying to play the "What's wrong with the baby" game. I drive myself insane trying to do that. We kept her home from church on Sunday. Not because she was crabby, just because she looked so awful. I'm sure parents would have been snatching their kids from her presence and running for the hills.

Monday came, still a total rash, so off to the Dr. we went. Strep test. . .neg, proabably just a virus related rash that could go on and off for 2 WEEKS!!! Great.
So today a call. . .Oh, we sent off that other strep test to test for the rare types. . .yep, positive.

But don't worry, it didn't keep her from gettin' her groove on "Rashdance" style. What a feelin'.

How many times do we have to wear these things Mom??

Here's my little chicken! She was adorable (if I do say so myself), she also had a hat but usually ripped it right off! She has it on in the pictures below. The feet were my favorite. Just ignore the fact that it looks as though one is giving you "the bird" right now. By the third time she had to put this on she was finally used to it (Family dinner, Boo at the Zoo, and Trunk or Treat).

Hi cutie girls!! (This was the night we went to our Mar Family Monster Mash)
Here's my future Shirette (high school dance team) in action. Yes, that is my outfit. Yes, I used to be that small (I took it in a little), and no, I'll never be that size again. So many people looked at me in shock and said "that was YOUR uniform?" Yes, thanks.
Work it, Ariel, work it.
Here we are at the ward Trunk or Treat. I was the tooth fairy (I handed out toothpaste). Don't worry I handed out the best candy WITH the toothpaste! (I'm not that lame! The kids were actually excited to get the toothpaste!) Matt and some guys from work dressed up as another guy from work (always a tie and a sweater vest). I had to put this picture in so you could see the eyes from our car. (Apparently Matt thinks something funny is on the ground) The car was Matt's idea last year--I think it looks great. Next year we're going to drape the back of the car and do dry ice. OOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHH.