Christmas 2007

Our first Christmas not at home in Boise with family was...different. The Bells included us in all of their traditions and activities so we ended up having a great holiday. Christmas morning Nathan and I quickly realized we usually have 3-5 other adults around to help us keep things under control so when it was just the two of us things got a bit chaotic and in about an hours time we were both pooped. But Christmas is so fun again now that our children are old enough to really enjoy it and get into it. It is magical again and I am so grateful for that. The pictures are pretty self-explanatory but the one of Kohen is him in his pirate hat and patch reading his treasure map making a goober face. Then we have Kennedy trying on the cutest outfit from aunt Natalie but the tights that are supposed to fit a 5 year old went from Kennedy's neck to the floor and we all had a good laugh about that. Don't worry Nan, I exchanged them for a smaller size :) And check out the paper doll Kennedy made- my mom sent the coolest book full of clothes and hair etc. you put on the paper dolls, my Aunt Sheila and Kathy make and sell them and Kennedy loves them. Merry Christmas to all!

Shake It Like That

So this is the song where AlyCat got her nickname from the line 'Shake it like that Alley Cat'~ of all of the genres of music and different songs we listen and dance to around here this is Aly's favorite. In the second video you will see my favorite trick (well, first observe Kohen being a goober with his cowboy hat on in the background) no matter where in the house Aly is, when she hears those first few counts of the song she literally comes running! Sometimes for fun Nathan and I will take turns taking Alyssa to different rooms and then start the song just to see her race in so she can get to her moves. I don't know, this may just be fun to Nathan and I but oh well :)

All I Want For Christmas

All I want for Christmas...Is to get the heck off Santa's lap!

It's the age I think. Everyone seems to have a picture of their little one trying their hardest to escape the maniacal grip of this 'Jolly Old Fellow'. Aly was suspect from the moment I tried to set her on his lap; she did this whole monkey thing where my arm was outstretched trying to shake her off and it was like she had all four limbs clinging to my arm trying to avoid touching that red polyester at any cost. A lot of parents pine after that perfect picture of their children with Santa but I get a kick out of the more candid ones.

Traditions

Here are a few of our favorite traditions:

1- First is the Family Home Evening where we go to the store and the kids each get to pick out a toy to give to Toys For Tots. Then we go to a Fire Station and drop them off. This can be difficult with little ones who don't understand that the toy isn't for them, so this is the first year the children got to choose. Before I just found a good deal and brought it home for them to then drop off. This year the firetruck had just come back from a call and 2 Firemen invited us in to see the trucks and gear. Kohen was in awe. It made this years trip there even more special. On the way home I asked the children if they had a good feeling in their heart when they gave that brand new toy away to someone who needed it more and when they answered 'yes' I explained that that good feeling was the Holy Spirit telling them that they had done a good thing. Never one to leave good enough alone I prattled on for a few moments before Kennedy interrupted and politely asked, "Mom? Can you be quiet? I am trying to listen." Confused, it took me a minute to realize she didn't mean me but the Holy Spirit.~

2- I had this idea a couple of years ago but didn't think the kids were old enough until this year. Since they are going to be getting new toys at Christmas we spent an FHE filling up a trash bag full of their toys that they decided they were done with and ready to donate to someone who might need them more. This went so much better than I expected- after I assured Kennedy it was completely up to them what they did or didn't give and we cleared up that they couldn't donate their siblings stuff ("I think Kohen is done with this" Kenna said as she tried to donate Kohen's favorite truck) it went really smoothly and they were so excited to give their toys away and I feel great cuz now we have space for new gifts, everyones happy.

3- Then we have Mr.Peeps. Sound creepy? Well, to me too at first but this is the best tradition so far. We heard this at a parenting class and they gave us a poem about Peeps explaining how he works. So the story goes, Santa sends Peeps to watch the kids and he reports back every night to the North Pole how the kids have been that day and so he is then in a different place each morning. This works so unbelievably well I wish Peeps was here all year. All I have to say is "Peeps is watching" (which would sound creepy under any other circumstance) and the whining voice is swallowed back or the toy is relinquished or a whack turns into a pat on the back, it is hilarious to watch. But I have had my eye out to find a smaller elf to take over so Peeps can retire (the only elf I could find is about a foot long and has a porcelain face and hands, too big and fragile). My friend April alerted me to The Elf On A Shelf and I am all about it. A book to explain the tradition, a small movable Elf to hide in lots more places more easily- perfect. Same tradition, same results- but easier!

4- Christmas Stories- This is another favorite because my children seriously look forward to it so much. I have accumulated some great Christmas/Christ themed books over the last few years, my favorite being I Believe In Santa Clause because it compare Christ and Santa and teaches how Santa is a symbol of Christmas and so, Yes we believe in Santa Clause- it doesn't sound so special when I explain it but trust me it is simple in it's spiritual ties to Christmas. I think the key to keeping the books special is that I pack them away each year with the Christmas decorations.

So that is just a few of our favorite traditions that we have started over the years~ hope you've enjoyed~ I'd love it if anyone wants to share their favorite traditions in the comments!!!

Videos Are Back!

Oh my goodness I am so excited!!! There has been a glitch for months that has made it impossible to upload video and it is finally worked out and then I realized I haven't even been taking video. But I have one of Aly saying some of her words and then showing off her cough at the end...Enjoy!!!

The Perfect Solution

A few days ago Kohen fell and bit his lip. A scab has formed over it and this morning I was admonishing him not to pick at his lip when he told me, "Don't worry Mom. I not pick my lip. I'll just pick my nose."

Santa @ Preschool

Today was Kennedy's Preschool Christmas Party. She is still at the high school where there is a main teacher and then a bunch of H.S. student teachers. Check out the heights of the kids in her class; fun fact: Kennedy is by far the oldest in her class being 5. To put in perspective what a mini cooper she is, the little girl standing to her left just turned 3.

So Santa made an appearance but the highlight for me was how Kohen was so thrilled to be at Kenna's school. He brought his backpack in the car and had put a dinosaur inside for 'show and tell'- I had to do some fancy talking to get him out of the car without it. Luckily there was pizza and quite a spread of junk food to distract him.
Really all 3 of my little ones have cough/colds and Kohen and Aly probably shouldn't even be out but what are you gonna do? Aly was diggin the small chair and table but taking forever to eat a rice crispy treat. I knew I was in for a scene because she was feeling crummy overall but really content right where she was. So I tried to ease her into our departure but she was having none of it.
Eventually I had to just pick her up and she started screaming -though since she is sick it sounded more like growling- and she threw everything she had into doing what I call 'the bucking bronco'. I have no idea how she manages to buck her whole body like that- but I digress. As I struggled with a bucking and screeching Aly while herding Kohen and Kenna towards the door the whole room stopped to watch Aly's recreation of Chernobyl. I'm used to stares but what was killing me was the dozen or so high school students who just stood where they were, poised like they were still in conversation with a friend but everyone had stopped to watch. I probably looked really kooky cuz when one of my lovelies is melting down I just press forward with a smile on my face but for some reason the high schoolers really unnerved me. I considered shouting, "ABSTINENCE young people...ABSTINENCE!" as I struggled for the exit...
I will excuse Alyssa's outburst because she isn't well and it was my bad for dragging her out anyway. Kohen did tell me on the way home that he didn't feel well but that he thought popcorn would make him feel better. As I chuckled to myself he threw in that he thought hot chocolate would help him feel better too.

Snip Snip

So Kennedy was sitting next to me on the floor playing a matching game on her sick day when I looked over and noticed that a chunk of her hair was hanging down about 5 inches further than the rest. Oh boy. Upon further inspection I discovered Kenna had gotten curious with the scissors and done a little snip snip. I wasn't pleased but here is why I'm not coming unglued in my signature overreactive style: #1- Isn't this some sort of childhood right of passage? #2- Bless her heart she cut a chunk on the under side and not up at her forehead where many kids think it's 'prettiest'. #3- She didn't cut Aly's hair! Geez, Aly only has 5 pieces of hair and they've taken 18 months to grow so it would be a shame if Kennedy had taken her curiosity out on my hairless AlyCat.
Is it me or does Kennedy look awful in those pictures? She is usually my healthy one (minus her ears) and so I guess this round of cough/cold/fever were long since over due. She looked just miserable with red watery eyes and a hacky cough. And since we share in this house Kenna selflessly did so with Kohen and Aly. Last night Aly woke up with Croup and she and I spent a good portion of the night hanging out. Man, the Croup is scary. But I would much rather them have this crud then be throwing up ANY DAY.

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!