Let Me Explain

So did anyone happen to notice that I sent out my Christmas cards literally on December 1st? At the time I felt fine about it but now that a few days have passed I am starting to feel a bit overzealous. I actually have good reason though so let me explain before you go all judgemental on me thinking that I am just Ms. Eager Beaver to have everyone see a moderate to poor picture of my 3 little darlings. Nathan has been gone for several months now for work and has only been able to come home some weekends. I find it funny how I wrote that last sentence like it isn't that big of a deal. In every way you can imagine it has been a big deal. Anyway, Nathan will officially be done December 20th and the kids and I are counting the days; literally, we made a paper chain count down so we could visualize how close we are getting. So this holiday season I am finding that I am really trying to hurry everything along just so that Nathan will be home! I have been irritated for weeks now that the Toys For Tots drop off were no where to be found (in November) for us to do our traditional FHE where the kids go and drop off a toy that they picked out. I am restraining myself from dropping off goodies to friends cuz it's so early they might think we are trick or treating...backwards. So this is why everyone got Christmas cards Dec. 3rd, because subconsciously I'm trying to check the things off of my list that need to be done before Christmas so maybe it will get here faster...it's not working. I feel like how you do when everyone is hiding with the lights off waiting to surprise the guest of honor, except for no one comes through the door -and so here I sit blogging when you can guess how much laundry is waiting patiently to be done (here's a hint: If I don't do it tonight it's going to look a lot like a nudist colony around here tomorrow). Anyway, I hope you will excuse how ardently I've approached this Holiday Season, this year we are excited for not so much Santa, as Nathan, to come to town.





In other news, it snowed yesterday. Kohen quickly proved that Wilcox (specifically Justin Wilcox) blood runs through his veins. There was no containing Kohen. Even when there was initially only a dusting he kept telling me in his most convincing voice, "It's nough mom, see? It's nough!" trying to make me let him out to play. He and Kennedy ended up spending about an hour and a half out back playing. Neither Aly or I knew what to do with ourselves. Kenna and Kohen playing out in the snow is good for all of us! Today it is melting away and Kohen is desperate to go out again. My excuse that it was 'mostly just water with a little bit of snow on top' didn't seem to dissuade him like it does me. I am feeling guilty now so I have to keep telling myself it will snow again and Kohen won't someday be laying on the therapist's couch saying, "and my mom wouldn't even let me play in the snow!" No, I'm sure we will have given him lot's of other things to talk about.

Latest Weapon

It mattereth not that I haven't really bought toy weapons for this child. Kohen's vivid imagination seems to be able to come up with endless options for homemade ones; the latest being the hanger/bow and arrow. Now how the hanger works with his chaps and pajamas ensemble, I don't really know.
P.S.- Tonight Kohen was running around playing with the girls with some sort of sword he had concocted out of building blocks. At one point he got a little overly excited and swung at an ornament which shattered everywhere. I think he was shocked that it would explode like that cuz he took in a really quick breath like, "oh no!" then before I could even get to the scene of the crime he is calling out, "Sorry! Sorry mom!". Let's hope this was a lesson learned and not just the realization that a decorated Christmas tree could be great batting practice.

The Empress

I found Aly playing with this tiara on upside down, but having recently been assaulted by an older sibling she was crying and the scene totally reminded me of one of my all time favorite characters. The Empress from the Neverending story. I so wanted to be her!! At an age that will remain undisclosed (though I will admit I was over 10) I actually wrote down all of the lines from this really intense and emotional scene between The Empress and Bastian, the main character. Then I would lock myself in my room and perform this scene into my mirrored closet doors. "Bastian! Call my name!!!.....Please! SAVE US!!!". I was pretty much amazing and imagined I was as plump lipped, perfectly complected and soft spoken as The Empress. I thought I wanted a head piece just like that someday when I got married and was bitterly disappointed years later when I realized that look was not so becoming on me, pretty jewel thing on your forehead or no. I have no idea what compels me to confess these things about myself on my blog.

STRIKE!

That is IT! I've had it! If all of the Writer's of the world think they can just go on strike then fine, I am going on strike against their strike (Take that, Kablam! right to their Solar Plexus!). If you haven't heard or noticed, well first of all, good for you. You have a life. But some of us are acutely aware that the Writer's Guild has gone on strike and they took with them all of the good TV! Hello!!!??? Could they not have waited another month or two until my husband was home so I would have something to do with myself at night other than disassociate in front of the boob-tube? And it has been weeks now, all of the shows have gone into reruns and I am left sitting here thinking, 'how long does it really take to solve this problem?!' I mean really, where is the Mediator to tell the Writer's Guild to 'Use Their Words' and get back to work!!!
Surfin' through the channels and I got nothin here...what have I got? I've got reruns of MASH* (The theme song alone makes me feel suicidal) I've got Deal or No Deal...NO DEAL! And I've got all manner of sports which = all manner of wasted channels.......I need something to get my mind off of the reality of my days. I don't know if you guys know this but I have a tumor on my leg. It's bad. It's big. It comes and goes all day but it is always at it's worst between 4-6pm when I am desperately trying to get dinner made. I call her Aly. She makes it difficult to get anything done and someday, Allah willing, I hope to have her removed. Not far. Just off my leg....I think I need a break. Maybe the spa. And I don't mean the facial I get when I open the dishwasher in the middle of the cycle. The real deal. Or maybe I just need tv.
Seriously, how long could this strike last? Where are all the "scabba's" like from Newsies? I'll be a scabber, but I am warning you now- I'm going to draw from my life experiences. Take the show The Biggest Loser. I will implement a fool proof plan to 'Eat Less and Exercises More'. It goes like this: The contestants will have the opportunity to feed my children a meal. In one half hours time they will have worked up a good sweat and will have had only a bite or two to eat. They can enjoy a chorus of 'Can I have a drink? Can I have ice? I need ranch! I spilled my ranch! I need a napkin! I dropped my napkin! Can I have more cheese? Kohen ate my cheese! Aly's making a mess! I spilled my drink! Can I have more drink?'....I'm sweating just thinking about it. And hungry. Yes, if I wrote for TV, shows like The Office would be about a stay at home mom, Desperate Housewives would be about women who try to just get out of their pajamas before their husbands get home from work and the Amazing Race would chronicle the mad dash to the Restroom with your respective 2 yr old who 'has to go' just as soon as you get to the opposite side of Costco.
See, if I had an hour or so of good TV at night I wouldn't have to go all rage-against-the-machine on my blog. I would curl up on the couch and I wouldn't bother anybody. But since I am officially 'striking against the strike' I am off to go read a book.

Oh Christmas Tree...

About as soon as Thanksgiving dinner was over we were all pitching in to decorate the Christmas tree. One of the highlights was when for the 3rd year in a row Nathan and I rediscovered that the single sprig at the top of the tree is too impotent to hold a star no matter how light the weight. Kind of silly that we were just as surprised and irritated as the two previous years- Grrr! Poor Nathan was struggling with a new star I bought -thinking for sure it would work- while being overrun with little people climbing up the ladder desiring to 'help'. Anyway, I decided that I would go and find a beautiful Tree Topper Bow like the one my mom has. I went to Michael's and they have them alright but to get one that was big enough for our tree would be $30-$40 plus the cost of the ribbon- umm, I don't think so. So I went and found some ribbon half off and a little thing that helps hold all of the pieces of your bow and made my own. I am pretty proud of my handi-work, though if I go the cheap route on something I convince myself it's great rather than face the possibility I may have been wrong and should have just paid to have something done nicely. Random: Can you tell from our tree how far Aly can reach?

The Real Rainman

So here is a classic story from my past. In 1996 I lived in Omaha Nebraska and that summer for our church Youth Conference one of our guests was 'The Real Rainman' Kim Peek. Kim is actually LDS and is who the movie Rainman was made about, starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. I can't get the link to work but just google Kim Peek to see some of a clip of the recent documentary they did on Kim and you will see very quickly his 'Mega-Savant' abilities and nuances. Anyway, despite the incident I am about to share with you, to witness his amazing mind work is something I will never forget. They told us beforehand that we could ask Kim any question- he knows dates of literally everything- he knows zip codes (all 42,000 of them), addresses and phone numbers etc. He does not, however do Math so they told us to steer clear of that. So, recently in my math class we had been given the chance for extra credit for each number of Pi we memorized. You know, 3.14159.....and the numbers go on forever since it is a circle right? So I thought, wow, this would be great if he had memorized the numbers of Pi because he would never run out of numbers to memorize. So my 16 year old self waits for my turn to ask a question and I asked, "Do you know Pi?" and to my horror Mr.Peek, eyes characteristically on the floor, raises his voice and says, "I DON'T DO MATH!!!". I wanted to DIE! In front of all my peers the Rainman yelled at me! I've never really recovered. :) Looking back I should have known better. Even though I wasn't asking him to do math, it really kinda sounded like it. If you watched the clip, can you just see him shout at me? Ahh, good times. One of the highlights of my teenager-hood to be sure.

B-O-Y

This is Kohen on two separate occasions when out of coincidence he was wearing the same shirt. The top picture is of Kohen after watching Toy Story for the first time in a while. He ran around the house acting like he was flying with his arms straight out and his head down. It was funny but I just watched him zooming all over without looking carefully where he was going and I was praying his forehead didn't find a wall before his zeal expired. Then he was running around a few days later with his sword and that provided me with some more proof that Kohen is in fact a boy.

Black Friday Steal

Nathan gets the best deal of the day award for this screaming deal which was so good I'm gonna have to say it was more of a steal. He got up Friday morning and was at Best Buy to try and get a monitor for our desk so we could use that rather than the laptop we have heretofore been using. So he rushes in the store and gets to the screen he saw in the add and it turns out it is not on sale after all. Mildly irritated he asks an employee about another monitor "What are the connection options for this monitor?" and the guy looks blankly at Nathan and says (in a real dopey voice) "It's $75 dollars." Uh, huh. Big help. Then some saintly customer tells Nathan that there is a monitor around the corner for a great deal. Nathan rushes over and there was 22inch monitor regularly $300 on sale for $75. Nathan grabs one and heads for the register. Of course the guy rings it up and it says it is $199. The kid calls over a superior and the lady says- "That sign was a misprint, we just fixed it so key it in for $75 for him but that is the last person who gets it for that." WHAT!?! We still can't believe it. We got a $300 monitor for $75. That is worth getting out of bed for, especially since I wasn't the one who had to.

AlyCat Shirt

All I wanted was a picture of Aly in her new shirt but as you can see she was having some technical difficulties coordinating smiling whilst keeping her eyes open, and what not. Thank goodness for digital cameras because otherwise we would go through a whole roll of film just trying to get one decent shot of this kid!

Sunday Dinner

Tonight Kennedy was commenting how on Sundays we often go to the Bell's for dinner. She said, "I love to go to the Bell's for Sunday dinner cuz we always have Roast Beast!" I chuckled at that for a while until I realized, she wasn't really wrong...Ughhh...

Like Peter Pan

Okay, I know this picture looks a little odd but go with me here. The other day I was struggling to get all three children ready to leave (always SO stressful!) and in the middle of it all Kennedy shuffles in behind me and says, "Mom, do I look like Peter Pan?"- totally irritated that she is messing around I turn around and this is what I see. It totally lightened the moment and I cracked up at her cleverness (*cough* no biasness here, no siree). For any of you who aren't completely versed in the Disney collections- in the movie Peter Pan, Peter loses his shadow and Wendy helps him to sew it back on (below) hence Kennedy's 'shadow'. I love this girl...

Food Glorious Food

Okay. Bare with me. A few weeks ago I caught the Oprah where Jessica Seinfeld (Yes, Jerry Seinfeld's wife) was on talking about how she got tired of fighting her kids about eating vegetables and so she started pureeing veggies and hiding them in their food. She had a new cookbook she has made and on Oprah.com they had several of the recipes. Now, I have always made an effort to feed my children healthy foods and I already have a few things I make that I sneak some veggies into but I was really excited to try these new recipes.

Having Nathan away from home has turned out to be a good time to try making some of these new recipes cuz I'm not gonna lie- some of them were NOT so tasty-but I think I found a few that will become staples in our diets. If I was to write all of the fiascoes and reactions to each of the foods I tried you'd be reading all day so I will try to keep it short; prediction- I will fail. First I tried the Chicken Nuggets with Spinach Puree. I thought they tasted really good but I learned a lot from making them. Make sure your chicken pieces are small, don't get the puree mixture too thick on the chicken or the breading comes off and this green mixture is revealed...Kennedy was not okay with this. The picture with nuggets is actually spinach filled 'chicken nuggets' they sell at our Costco out here and a friend recommended them and my kids will eat them and I actually really like them. Next I tried the Scrambled Eggs with Cauliflower Puree. I liked these okay. Kohen eats them and Aly ate them once and threw them once, and Kennedy picked at them. What I learned: don't add any or much water to the cauliflower puree when blending it, and I didn't add the oil that was in the recipe either because there was all of this liquid that I had to drain out the first time I made it. Better the second time with less liquids. Then I tried the Quesadilla with Squash Puree- people, please. I hadn't bought a squash (or cauliflower) in my life before I tried these. It was so fun to cut open that squash and realize oh yeah, this is in the same fam as pumpkins! And Kennedy enjoyed spooning out the seeds. I thought making the squash puree might be a little more involved than I was willing to be but you just throw it in the oven and forget about it for 45 min and then blend it up. I have since been just feeding 1/2 Cup or so of the squash puree to Aly at lunch because she loves it- who knew?! Anyway- the quesadillas are a hit for sure, even for Nathan and I. Kennedy is not a meat lover so I took the precooked grilled chicken strips from Costco, out of the freezer and blended them into the bean mixture and she was never the wiser :) Love that. Again, we really liked these. I made the Italian Meatloaf, would have liked it better without the spaghetti sauce on top but that is just a personal pref, reality is most of it ended up going down the sink. The Macaroni and Cheese- for the first time that I can remember since I have been making dinners for my fam did I make something that I felt was not worth eating. It looked all creamy and good- we all dug in and I even took a couple extra bites trying to make myself like it but I really just DID NOT. So even though my children often don't like what is for dinner, it would be rare that they all don't like it. So I did something I had never done before, took away the M.C. and broke out the cereal. Now, if you are someone who likes the Velveeta Shells and Cheese (Kristin :) you used to love that!) then this might be more up your alley. Let me know where I went wrong. And now, the finale. The Brownies with Spinach and Carrot puree. I was doubtful ya'll. And really if you eat a lot of refined sugars this would take a little getting used to. I didn't obey the directions and served it while still warm. I took one bite and there was a hint of spinach and I was like, 'blech! Why are my kids eating this?!' But then I tried it again after it had cooled completely and I was a much bigger fan. I proceeded to eat the rest of the pan for several breakfasts which I don't think was the intended purpose. Note: one bag of baby spinach makes one 1/2 Cup puree which is what the recipe calls for so keep that in mind. Anyway, thanks for reading, if by some miracle anyone still is- if you have any other questions let me know! And check out the link to the recipes up above!

Readers Tag

Now that I have been tagged by both Kristin and Kristy for my top 10 reads I suppose I better quit procrastinating trying to narrow it down and just get it done! As you all know I love to read so here are a few of my favorites in no particular order:

1- Sotah by: Naomi Ragen
2- These Is My Words by: Nancy Turner
3- Gone With The Wind by: Margaret Mitchell
4- Pride and Prejudice by: Jane Austen
5- The Poison Wood Bible by: Barbara Kingsolver
6- Roots by: Alex Haley
7-The Time Traveler's Wife by: Audrey Niffenegger (this has several racy scenes between the husband and wife- you've been warned. But I loved the story so much I had to put it on the list)
8- Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by: Lisa Lee
9- Les Miserables by: Victor Hugo
10- Battlefield Earth by: L. Ron Hubbard

Oh, this has been so fun reminiscing about these wonderful stories. I hope you read them if you haven't before! Enjoy!!!
I tag:
1- Halaulani
2- Shayna
3- Sheila

Uh Oh.

This can't be good. Look what I caught AlyCat doing the other night- showing off her mad climbing skills on my oven. I seem to remember this type of thing not ending well for some little children in Hansel and Gretel. Our friends the Furni have a daughter who was quite the little climber at a young age and I remember being amazed by it. Now that Aly is showing some interest in climbing I'm feeling a little less amazed and a little more stressed. Don't you love the look on Aly's face in that first picture? Like, 'that's right. take a picture- might as well cuz you can't stop me.' What do you think the chances are she will just forget she has acquired this new skill? I know, I know...not good.

The Dreaded Bindi

Today I'm thinking the Amish are on to something with their shunning of technology. Last night I put my cell phone in the front pouch of my sweat shirt as I gathered up my cup, pen, planner etc. and got ready to go up to bed. At one point I leaned over to pick something else up and spilled about 1/3 cup of my water out onto the floor. I didn't realize until about 5 minutes later that some of the water had fallen into my shirt pouch and was giving my cell phone a nice bath. Turns out cell phones don't like baths. *Quick Flash Back* Last time Nathan and I were looking at cell phones the cell phone guy opened the back of Nathan's phone, pointed to a red dot and asks me with an accusing tone, "Has this phone been dropped in water?" I told him I had no idea because it was my husbands phone and he said, "Well, this red dot right here tells me it has been. It is white until it gets wet." He went on to say this helps the phone companies know if water played a part in someones phone suddenly 'just not working'. For some reason I came away from that feeling quite chastised and became determined to keep my dot white. I got the impression that if my dot turned red they wouldn't believe me or help me with phone issues. So back to last night. I get up to my room and discover that every crevice of my phone is soaked. I slowly slid the back off of it and popped the battery out and to my horror, there it was; the Mark of the Beast. I steadied myself on my night stand as I fought the waves of guilt washing over me (I would make such a great Catholic- I can feel guilty about anything) how could I have let this happen!? But after the initial shock that my dot had turned red, I realized I had a bigger problem. Phone no workie. As of this moment I have not had a working phone for exactly 12 hours...and it has been awful!!! I feel totally handicapped and cut off from the world. I wanted to text Rosie and see if she could watch Aly while I go to the phone store but then had the sick realization that I had no numbers written down anywhere except in my phone. What was I thinking putting all of my trust in a stupid flimsy little SIM Card that is the size of my thumb nail- to be my link to family and friends? So I drug my entourage with me to the phone store and they were so good for exactly 4.8 seconds and then each went into slow meltdowns. I was there long enough to learn that the SIM Card reader is what is not working and though I will still have all of my contacts, I will have to buy a new phone. Arghhhhhh!!! I am so irritated! Of course they aren't still making my phone and I do not like any of the new ones. You know, for as convenient as technology is supposed to make our lives I am feeling pretty dang inconvenienced. I guess technology gets the last laugh...touche.

This Dance

Look at this genuine moment I caught today! I put on some music and as usual the children all come running so we can dance a bit. But this time Kennedy and Kohen are spinning to the music in a circle together just laughing- and I caught it! Woo Hoo! The picture below is about 2 seconds later and gives you a better idea of each of their unique 'get down' styles. I would like to draw particular attention to Kennedy's outfit: Witch hat, Tiara, snow beanie, Witch dress, tutu, Cinderella shoes and wrist decoration. It is also really rare that Kohen is not wearing dress ups. I love our family dances so much, I start to get depressed when I think of them ever not wanting to have them. Pretty soon it will just be down to their lame-o Mom and Dad who are dancing like dorks. I am appreciating it while it lasts.

Reason #275 I Suck at Being a Single Parent

The other night Kennedy and Kohen were playing on the floor when Kennedy picked up a stick and said some phrase about how it was smoking. I honed right in on that and after asking a couple of questions realized she was in fact talking about smoking. This was my first opportunity to teach her about smoking/drugs and as I realized this my heart started pounding and the pressure was mounting as the seconds ticked by and I wished her dad was home so he could explain it perfectly like he always does- but instead the spotlight was on me…say the wrong thing and she may become preoccupied with smoking and have a subconscious desire to do it…don’t say enough and she may naively want to do it. The time had come. I had to say something. I opened my mouth and all of my sage words of wisdom and concern scattered to the far reaches of the desert that was my brain. So in a panic I gathered up the only 4 words I could find, put them in order and shoved them out of my mouth, “CIGARETTES WILL KILL YOU!” In the ensuing silence Kenna’s eyes got real big and I realized the magnitude of what I had just said to my poor 5 year old and back pedaled as quickly as I could. I did a little better on my second try but my first statement resulted in several difficult follow up questions. I think I got the buggy a bit ahead of the horse on this one. I bet a simple, “Cigarettes are yucky” would have sufficed for now *sigh*. Kennedy must have gotten some serious cosmic kudos for being willing to come down here and let me be her mom…at least she has Nathan as her dad…that should help even things out some, right?

My Missionary

So as you know my baby brother is serving a mission in Taiwan. I thought maybe you guys might want to see a picture or two of him. The first is obviously one of Justin visiting some gold Buddha on his "P-day" (prep day) and the second is him holding some part of of a turbo for a car??? I think? Some guy asked him for help with it and he was just totally put out to take a look ;) Anyway, I thought that I would leave this post open for anyone who would like to leave a comment for Justin-I am going to print off the comments and send them to him for Thanksgiving. He is in a new country learning to speak a new language and working every day to teach people about Christ so I know that it means so much to him to get mail and hear from family and friends! So go ahead, leave a comment!

Matching dresses

I found this adorable dress for Aly (at Carters) and when I got it home I realized I probably loved it because it is a similar pattern as a favorite dress of mine. And Aly even looked at the camera for a split second!!!

Our little artist

I know that just because a child likes to color doesn't mean they are an 'artist'. However, Alyssa's interest in scribbling has started much earlier than Kennedy or Kohen's ever did. If she finds a writing utensil she is occupado for the next 15-20 min which is saying a lot for a 16 month old. This has proved very helpful at church or if I am trying desperately to get dinner done amid the wide spectrum of interruptions 3 children are so apt at providing. In these pictures I found Aly coloring all over my grocery list with the pen that I had so thoughtlessly left out. So I traded her a pencil (though she came unglued when I took the pen out of her hand till she saw the pencil) and she happily scribbled away. Halaulani, the short mechanical pencils the girls sent with Kennedy's b-day gift are the perfect size for kids but Aly especially- thanks!