A visit with Santa

Every year there is one main event for seeing santa in this town. Basically everyone who is anyone attends and that means hours in line. I figured I needed to go at least once so I thought this should be the year. After finding out 5 minutes before I was leaving that John couldn't come because of a meeting I loaded up the kids and went myself. The 2 to 2 1/2 hour wait is one thing but it happens to be outside as well. So I pressed forward and luckily had a few people around me that I knew that could go for hot chocolate runs and bathroom runs for me. Truthfully the kids were great. Collin stayed in his stroller up to about the last 30 minutes and Madison and Bridgett were pretty happy because they kept getting to eat cookies. Here we are standing in line after 2 hours.

All the kids did a great job on Santa's lap. I really love the progression of pictures of Bridgett. This is her whispering in Santa's ear that she wanted a computer and telephone. I have since found out she means a real one of both. A cell phone like mine that will actually call people. I don't think we'll be adding her to the family plan.



Madison wasn't sure what to ask for but eventually came up with a new CTR ring.


Collin wasn't scared at all. I think he was happy for a warm lap. About 20 minutes into the wait he grabbed Bridgett's cup of hot chocolate and spilled it all over his legs. Nothing like 30 degree weather and wet pants.

The best part was that John (due to no fault of his own) showed up literally as the people in front of us finished taking their pictures.

Our first real snowfall

This was our first significant snowfall of the season. It has been a really warm winter so far. This kids were so excited to go play in the snow especially Collin. He had never played in it so I got him all dressed up and sent him out.

He totally loved it until his glove came off and his hand was freezing then he quickly found his way into the house. Although about 2 minutes after being in the house he brought me a glove and wanted to go back out.
He was army crawling through it and well mostly eating it. I think he spent the entire 30 or so minutes just eating the snow.


I wonder where he learned to eat the snow?

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. Angela and my three younger brothers and their families all came. Plus my parents with my Aunt Ethel were able to come. It was so fun to see everyone. George and Melanee stayed at our house. Here is a picture of the 3 girls attempting to go to sleep. I think by the 4th night they actually all layed down and went to sleep. Madison was always the first to fall asleep, followed by Bridgett, and then a few hours later Samantha went down. She is the cutest girl! The girls were in heaven having her stay with us. Madison was so great to read to them each night.

Here is a picture of Aunt Ethel with Collin. I don't know if she quite knew what to think of all the kids running around. I think she was pretty worn out from being so stimulated the whole time. The kids were so happy to spend some time with her.

Halloween Finally

I know I'm a little late in this post but I thought I would get it out there anyway. We had a great halloween. Our friends hosted a dinner and afterward we went trick or treating with some of the kids in their neighborhood. The highlight of the evening was when we went to David Spade's mom's house. She was great. We were probably there at least 15 minutes while she went over and commented about all of our children. She held my nephew (4 mths old) the whole time and was really quite a delightful lady. Hilarious that she lives in our small town of all places. Here are a few pictures from the night. We have 2 witches and a bat - thanks to Aunt Ang for the great witch costumes this year! Sorry no pictures of our claim to fame but it would have felt a little silly asking for a picture.

Bridgettism

The other day Bridgett got on the topic of bad guys killing people (don't ask why, it's kind of her latest obsession.) Here is part of the conversation.

Bridgett: "If you died I would cry my head off."

Me (after many "If someone died..." scenerios): "Yeah, but that's not going to happen."

Bridgett: "Yeah, you're right, my head wouldn't actually fall off."

Shout out to Julia

Here's a little shout out to my sister-in-law Julia. She is an extremely talented artist and I just found out that her art will be published in the upcoming February issue of "The Friend". It will be featured on the inside cover of the magazine. I'm so happy for her! I have seen some of her work and have always thought she was amazing. Everyone look for her artwork this February!

We're taking special orders

Who needs Rainbow? We were looking into getting a swingset and weren't sure what we wanted or how much money we wanted to spend but then John decided he could just create his own swingset. Before I knew what was happening we had a swing, disc swing, and monkey bars in our yard. He did an awesome job and the kids love it! So if you happen to have 2 large pine trees in your yard just call JC Swings and More, Inc. and he'll get you what you want.

Family Pictures

We recently had some family pictures taken. Here are a few of the results. Overall I'm pretty happy. A friend in our ward took the pictures and I think she did a great job. Here's her link just in case anyone is interested in having their own pictures taken.
www.aprilwhitingphotography.blogspot.com

I want to move...NOW

Some people might really enjoy this kind of thing but not me. Not even slightly. In fact it had me in a bit of a panic. I came out from my bedroom to the living room (which currently had stuff everywhere thus adding to the problem) and saw this very large lizard scurry under my couch. I screamed and fretted for a few seconds and then went straight to the phone to call John. So what if he works 30 minutes away and can't do anything about it, I needed some moral support. As I was talking to him I see that the lizard has made his way out from under the couch and amazingly is in a clear spot. I quickly look around and grab my biggest Tupperware that I can find (to give you an idea of the size of this thing the box is about the size of a shoe box). I manage to trap him and then spend the next 10 minutes trying to figure out what the heck to do with him now. I contemplated such options as waiting 2 hours for John to get home and deal with him except that he could actually move the box around a good few inches at a time and that had me a little worried. Then I thought maybe my neighbor boys would enjoy him but they weren't home so ultimately after a few box jumps across the floor I got brave and stuck a book cover under him and carried him across the street.



During my 10 minutes of contemplation he pooped on my floor. Love it.


Does anyone have a guess as to what kind of lizard this is? Click on it to zoom in. Knowing nothing about lizards it seems that his plain colored tail is kind of unique? I'll have to do some research and see what I can come up with. I'm fairly certain though that he is very poisonous and extremely aggressive.
Do lizards eat spiders? Maybe we should have kept him as a pet.

**Update**
Angela emailed the science teacher from her work who happens to be a reptile guru. Here is what he said about this lizard.

"Its a Madrean Alligator Lizard. They are really cool lizards because they are not as common. I have only captured two in my whole life. They are usually real nice and fun to hold. The one in the blog has a regenerated tail. A normal tail is three times longer than that one."

1. I'm glad it was a regenerated tail and not the regular one. I had a hard enough time trying to find something to capture it in.
2. I have no desire to hold it let alone play with the thing!
Thanks for the info reptile guru!

Tri in the Pines

So John and Rob have been planning this triathlon for months now. It finally arrived and although neither of them felt overly prepared they both stepped up and competed in it. They did great! John beat his own personal goal and Rob finished in 2/3 the time he thought he would. The night before John's back was hurting so badly that he could barely stand up. We had no idea what was wrong but he decided that with a little help from some Tylenol and IB Profin he would be just fine. It hurt a little during the swim but was fine for the rest of the day. It was tons of fun to go from one place to another to try to catch them running or biking by and the kids had a blast because they got to play in the park. Overall it was a great day for everyone. Here are a ton of pictures from the day, feel free to skim over them or if you like click on them to zoom in on some bulging muscles.

Right before the start of the swim. The nervous energy isn't evident in the picture.

John's wave started a lot earlier than Rob's so John was actually finished before Rob started. So this is John after he finished and Rob right before he started. It worked out great for us spectators.

Rob with his family right before all the action began.

John and Rob on their last laps and flying high because it's almost over.

The kids enjoying the park which had been flooded the night before with rain. They were pretty much in Heaven at this point.

Here's John crossing the finish line. The girls were really concerned about him winning. We of course told them that he did.

Pretty much my favorite photo of the day. John rounded the corner for the finish line and Madison ran part of the way with him. I would love it if I had another photo in 30 years that looked just like this.

Great job guys! You've inspired us all!

Unearthing the crafter within

I don't know what came over this past week but suddenly I wanted to do little crafty projects. I have never been one to do homemade crafts and I can't say that particularly enjoy them but every once in while they are appealing to me. Probably to most woman these are normal everyday things but for me it was stepping out a little.

These of course are everywhere right now so I've been meaning to make these for my girls for quite some time. It's one of my favorite hair accessories now.

I've always wanted to try jewelry making and I have to say that I actually enjoy it. Thanks to Alice for finally getting me to try it!

I know how to sew but it is definitely not something I love doing. I get an urge and then as soon as I start I think "how can I get this done the fastest?" I bought a bunch of flannel almost 2 years ago and finally pulled it out and made something with it. These are some of my favorite kinds of blankets for babies and it was actually quite easy to do.

My new favorite thing

At DQ in Show Low right now Peanut Buster Parfaits are on sale for $2.49. I happen to love them although John claims there's not much a difference between them and McDonald's $1 sundaes. I couldn't disagree more but anyway I've treated myself to a few lately and so when I was in the store yesterday I passed the chocolate syrups and hot fudge I thought the hot fudge sounded yummy. I didn't end up buying it though and was regretting it that evening when I really wanted some hot fudge on my ice cream. Then I thought "I'm sure I could just make some." Sure enought 5 minutes later (literally) I was topping my ice cream with some really yummy hot fudge. I was surprised at how easy it was and it tasted soooo good so I thought I would share the recipe.

1 can sweetened condensed milk
3 heaping TBSP unsweetened cocoa powder
1 TBSP butter
1 tsp vanilla

Mix milk, cocoa, and butter in saucepan and stir continously until smooth about 5 minutes. Add vanilla.

That's it and you can put the leftover in the refrigerator and heat it up in the microwave for the next time you want some.

Madison's 6th Birthday

Madison is officially 6. Her birthday celebration ended up spanning out over about a week.

First she opened her package from Nana and Papa that came in the mail. She loved her new outfit and book and was so excited to work on her coloring thing. Then on her actual birthday we took her to Dairy Queen and let her choose anything on the menu. To our amazement she chose a cotton candy blizzard. Definitely not something either of us would have chosen but then again we didn't just turn 6. The next day I took her to see Space Chimps which she thoroughly enjoyed.

On Saturday of that week we had a family dinner and party with Grandpa and Grandma and Aunt Ang and Aunt Alice's family. She chose "Hannah Montana" for her theme even though she's never seen her show or heard her music. She was so excited though because she'd never had a "Hannah Montana" party before. She had a great time and was so happy to have family there to celebrate with her.

Walk (I mean sleep) like an Egyptian

This was Bridgett's little double dare physical challenge to herself. She slept like this for probably a good hour and a half. If there was ever any doubt that she is John's clone...

It's starting again

When Bridgett was about 2 she started doing this things where she would go in to her room and dump a bunch of toys into something such as a toy shopping cart or a bag and then she would take it around the house with her all day. Then it expanded to a place at the end of their bunk beds where she would just pile everything there and didn't want anyone to touch it or clean it up. It was very interesting to see that the pile of stuff is what made her happy regardless of what was in the pile. She would do this daily and only when I would insist would things get put back away. At one point John was really worried because he had lost $20. I wasn't worried at all, I walked into her room, opened a bag and sure enough there it was. Eventually she stopped doing this and I haven't seen her really do it for quite some time until last week. She rediscovered a little backpack of hers and the hoarding started again. She filled it up and took it everywhere. Here she is playing the piano and wearing her backpack. It went with us on every outing and rarely left her back.

She opened it and took a few things out so I snapped a picture before she put them back in. I really do find it quite fascinating and it shed some light on how just having stuff can make a person happy. I never realized that for some people it's just about having something not about what they have.