A Regular-Sized Post

Usually I wait too long to update this blog so when I do, it's miles long with weeks full of activity.  But this time, I didn't wait too long and we haven't done much so there's not a whole lot to talk about.  I say that now.  I may get a little long-winded before I'm done.

Sarah got this book from the grocery store full of kid-friendly recipes and crafts. While I was putting Henry down for a nap, she made this little paper plate creation just from looking at the picture.

I'm having to let go of some scissor issues and just let her learn.  She's been doing great. Here she's making a headband.

You could assume this is the same day because Sarah is wearing the same thing but I never assume that. One can't go by outfits alone with this girl since she likes to wear the same thing a couple of days in a row. Or she switches 4 times a day. But she has to have new pj's every night. Girls. She was still on a crafty kick so she made crowns for herself and Henry.

They sure can act like royalty.

What's the word for when you're a hoarder and don't even know it?  Hoarder? Great. So I decided allocating one of my few drawers in the kitchen to grocery sacks was a little foolish. I pulled them all out of the drawer then thinking a few might be stuck behind the drawer, I pulled the whole drawer out.  How right I was. There were more behind the drawer than in the drawer.  This is a lot of sacks and I was horrified. Or hoardified.

I took this picture to show Sarah's cute curls and to have evidence that she can choose matching accessories.  I worry sometimes.

When the kids won't put their coats on, we tell them to open the door, see how cold it is, then decide. Henry still runs from his coat.

In other news, we bought a new car. Justin found a great deal on a 4 Runner in SLC. Now I can drive through the snow with reckless abandon. Or take Sarah to school without major snow anxiety. And we can actually fit all our stuff when we go somewhere.  I can now pack with reckless abandon. I sure am throwing that phrase around with reckless abandon.

In the next 30 days, I'm looking forward to:
February. This month has been yucky.
Going to a play with Sarah.
Taking a cake decorating class.
Valentine's Day.  I love sweet things.
Going to St. George to visit my parents and sister. It's like 60 degrees there. That's triple what it is here.

Let's Party Like It's 2013

"I don't make resolutions, I make plans." I heard that somewhere and I like it.  So here are my plans.

1. Not eat treats until Valentine's Day. I'm 8 days into it and am going through all the stages of grief. Despair, anger, bargaining, all that.  But I've done 90 days, I can do 45.  It's not a no sugar thing...that would be impossible because yogurt and maple syrup are life sustaining.  No, the rule is, if it's something I wouldn't let my kids eat until after they finished their dinner, it's a treat and it's not for me.  

2. Put together 72-hour kits. Our water was off for 30 minutes on Sunday. It was a rude awakening to how quickly and without warning things can change.  I'm making a list of all the things I need in a kit and get 2 or 3 things a month.  So let's hope nothing happens before December or I'll have an incomplete kit. Wouldn't that be ironic? I've had no need for an emergency kit but when I start assembling one, wham-o! no electricity for a week.

3. Clean out the basement (so Justin can finish it). This was going to be January's big goal but it's super cold down there so I may wait until spring to really tackle this one.  January's goal is to get the Christmas boxes back in their spot and take care of the "to be filed" stack of papers on the desk.

4. Get up before my kids at least one day a week and get some things done.  This may sound pathetic to some of you but I think sleeping in as much as I can is a perk of being an at-home mom. Someday they'll be in school and I'll have to get up early so I'm going to enjoy this while I can. 

So let's back up several days to Justin's birthday. We celebrated the day before at his parent's house with his family.  He has a theme each year for his dinner and this year it was fried food.  He and his dad deep-fried anything they could. 

It was delicious and sickening at the same time. These are 3 kinds of wings and french fries. Not pictured are the turkey legs and coconut shrimp. 

What's this hockey puck Henry is chewing on, you ask?  It's not a hockey puck but a solid hunk of chocolate.  

For dessert, cheesecake and pie.  Sarah is all about photo-bombing my food photos.

I made this pie. (Photo-bomb Sarah again.) I'm not a pie person and feel it is a waste of my culinary time to make a pie since I don't want to eat it. But I love my husband more than I dislike pie so I made it.  He said it was good. It was raspberry chiffon, for those of you wanting to know.

We got smart and put Henry in the highchair so he didn't get hockey puck chocolate all over the house.

I'm pretty sure this chocolate was semi-sweet.  We got even smarter and took it away before he got sick. We gave him a bowl of ice cream instead.  Such nutritious parents we are.

 Cheesers.

 I love this picture.

The real birthday, December 31. Justin finally got to wear his coat he ordered over a month ago. Sarah and Henry got him a flashlight/lantern for camping. Then Sarah ran upstairs saying she had another present for him to open. She came back downstairs with her arms wide open.  Her gift was a hug.

After breakfast we drove to Logan for my family's New Year's party at my brother's house. Henry was pretty good at keeping himself entertained.

 We hit 144444 miles. Woohoo! And we are speeding.

So this is at Hardware Ranch up some canyon in Cache County.  Since 1949, some government agency provides food for the local elk herds to prevent them from migrating down into the valley and getting hurt.  For $5 you can ride out among the herd in a horse-drawn sleigh and get an up-close look at the elk eating and occasionally ramming heads and boxing.  Perfect birthday activity for Justin.

As our sleigh pulled into the clearing, another sleigh drove right through the herd, scattering elk every which way. I thought it was part of the experience.  But then the sleigh didn't slow down and continued to drive erratically.  As we got closer, I could see the driver was trying really hard to keep the horses in control.  The other 3 sleighs, including ours, were brought around to the run-away sleigh in attempt to control the horse and force it to stop.  But the corral attempt didn't work and the horse found a way out--right by us.  As the driver of the runaway sleigh came near us, he yelled "Get your hands in, we're going to hit." Then the right side of his sleigh hit the back end of our sleigh, sending us sliding to the side a few feet.  It was loud and jarring. The people on the crazy sleigh looked afraid. When the crazy sleigh came around again, they forced it to stop and another driver hopped down from his sleigh and freed the crazy horse from some strap that was not where the horse wanted it to be. The horse didn't have rabies, just an annoying strap.  I don't get horses.

I don't get elk either but I learned a little more.  Like that they expend more energy keeping themselves cool in the summer than they do keeping themselves warm in the winter.  Good thing too, because it was 14 degrees.

And when it's time for the baby elk to eat, the mama elk will call for them. That's not how it works with my babies.

 Happy birthday, babe.

 Love me some big blue eyes. Don't judge him on his pink scarf. It was 14 degrees.

Here's a picture of a bull elk so Justin doesn't get mad.

Sarah thought it was pretty fun.  

 This is inside the visitors center.

This is the elk herd as seen from the visitors center.  Go do it.  They do tours through March. Bundle up.

Back at my bro's, we ate a lot of food and played lots of games.But of course we stopped playing games to sing happy birthday to Justin.  This is not an over-baked white cake without any frosting. This is baked s'mores my friends, one of the best desserts you will ever have.

 Photo-bomb Matt.

 Cute kid.

I didn't see Sarah much the whole time we were there. She was in cousin-mode and didn't need her mom.  Here Kyra made Sarah into a mermaid. And yes, that is a gingerbread house in livingroom, complete with paper fireplace with candy-filled paper stockings for all the cousins. Lisa is a very creative mom.

Tuesday morning, the kids went swimming at the motel my parents stayed at. Then we made candy sleighs for racing.

 We did several heats to find the fastest but I don't remember who was the overall winner.

And that is my son walking around with his blanket on his head. And I don't know what Tyler is doing but I'm pretty sure if he was barfing, I'd remember.

We needed to start earlier in our celebrating because we didn't even get to this year's taste test: microwave popcorn. Sarah cried when it was time to leave; she loves her cousins Jaana and Kyra so much.

-----Back at home------

Remember how Sarah gets attached to biodegradable things?

In my purging of all things Christmas, I made Sarah pose with her gingerbread house she made at preschool. Then I threw it away.  She doesn't know nor has she noticed.

This is the balloon I got her after she let go of her birthday balloons outside. She's had it since October 30th and it was floating until a couple of weeks ago (Macey's balloons are long-term investments, apparently) and has been slowly dying the past few weeks. She asked to have her picture taken with it a couple of days ago. It's sitting on my kitchen counter breathing it's last breaths.

She just saw this picture and asked where her balloon was in panicked voice. We may have to have a funeral for this one.

Christmas Break Complete with Injuries

Today I took down the rest of our Christmas decorations despite Sarah's tears and protestations ("But I'll miss my Christmas stuff!").  I still don't know where to put some of their new toys but I'll get there. I'm writing about Christmas today so I can officially move on with my life.

Well let's get down to business. Or busyness. Justin had the entire week between Christmas and New Years off so we had him for 11 days straight. We made a list of all the things we wanted to do that week and accomplished 5 of the 9 (Sadly missed was seeing Les Mis. This weekend for sure!) A major wrench in our plans was spraining my ankle on day 1 of his break. But I did manage to eat all that was on my holiday food bucket list (I made and ate fudge on 3 separate occasions) so I feel accomplished...and resolved to eat no treats until Valentine's Day (44 days to go).

These are the towels Sarah gave away for Christmas.  She drew the pictures on regular paper using 4 colors. Then I traced her creations onto flour sack towels using Sharpie markers. I made sure she used the same colors I had Sharpies so I could capture her drawings just as she drew them.  I love how they turned out.  And according to pinterest, they can be washed (not bleached) and the picture will stay. She had fun making them and telling the recipients all about their personal picture.

Messy Henry. I don't remember what he was eating. Any guesses?

Friday, the 21st we frosted sugar cookies.  I love doing this.  I love eating them. Justin, not so much but he was a good sport.  Sarah could have done it for hours.  Henry just ate the frosting I gave him to spread on his cookie.  He's my kid.

The goods. They tasted so good. I know fancy decorated cookies are all the rage right now but nothing beats a soft cookie with a thick layer of homemade buttercream and crunchy sprinkles.

So as I mentioned, Saturday the 22nd we went up the canyon to go sledding. I hiked up to the top of the mountain and sled down a black diamond run, for sure.  Half way down my sled crashed into a tree and my ankle smashed into the trunk. I managed to reunite with my sled and slide the remainder of the hill to safety where I fashioned a stint with some twigs and pinecones and walked back to the car.

Okay, what really happened is I walked 20 feet up the hill, sat down on Sarah's sled, slid 10 feet into a shrub. I must have stuck my foot out to stop or steer but managed to slide over my foot at a horrible angle. I heard a pop and it went numb---like fallen asleep numb.  I couldn't breathe. It felt wrong, all wrong. A snowmobile was brought to my rescue and I was hauled back to the car where I sat while everyone else loaded up my kids.

When we got home, Justin carried me to the couch where I sat for the rest of the day with ice on my foot.  I couldn't walk on it until the next day. I still can't wear shoes. I bought a pair of slippers that I can actually slide my foot into with my brace on. Justin thinks they're ugly and if I wasn't so desperate for footwear, I'd probably think so too.

I can get around mostly pain free but I'm very slow and that's frustrating. And I have to take a lot of breaks. Listen to me go on and on like I'm the first person to ever sprain an ankle!  But this is the worst injury I've ever had and it's my blog.

I thought about taking a photo of my foot for proof of the severity but my pride won't let me.  I'm afraid if I post a picture of my swollen, black and blue foot, it's all you'll think about when we cross paths at the grocery store.

Christmas Eve we went to my Mom's house and ate what I call the holy trinity of ham, funeral potatoes and baked beans. Then the grandkids exchanged gifts, shared Christmas stories and songs then ate a lot of dessert. I didn't take pictures because I felt like an invalid and invalids don't carry around cameras when they need both hands free to walk. Then we took the kids home and put them to bed. Justin and I stayed up assembling things while watching Christmas Vacation.  Then we played Santa and went to bed.  I really felt like a parent.

Here's our tree just after Santa stopped by.

Christmas morning Sarah came in to get us up. She had already been downstairs. I asked her what she saw and she said, "I can't tell you. It's a secret."  Ah, I love it.

Henry left half-way through and came back downstairs with his blanket.  Then once he got hungry he wanted nothing to do with the rest of his presents.  I opened the last few myself and decided to keep the last one for his birthday since he seemed satisfied and my living room is too full anyway.

Sarah got a fishing vest, Cinderella and a Cinderella playset, wooden paperdolls, some art supplies, chutes and ladders, clothes and books. 

Henry got a slide, like 12 cars and trucks and this chime push toy, balls and books. The table and chairs and easel are for them to share and they actually do! It's great.

 Taking a break from all the unwrapping.

Justin got this awesome new hat, shaver, game, pillow and book. I got a new hand mixer, a stick blender, bedding, and a doughnut baking pan.

 Sarah is very good at reading all our names so she was our little elf.

We wrote these service gifts a few days before Christmas and then Santa delivered them to our stockings. We each wrote a nice thing we would do for everyone else in our family. They'll stay on the fridge until we do them, I guess. I owe Justin a pie, he owes me a homemade dinner including clean-up.

My parents came over for breakfast then we went to Justin's parents to eat some more and await the phone call from Dallin in Brazil.

After all the new toys, nothing beats his blanket.

Sarah's new outfit.  We also opened presents with Justin's family.  Sarah scored a pink sleeping bag (that she slept in on the floor for the next 7 days until I put my foot down) and Henry got more cars and new shoes.

Justin's dad deep-fried a turkey for dinner. I may never be satisfied by turkey prepared any other way. And they didn't catch anything on fire. Win-win.

 Isn't the day after Christmas almost as fun as Christmas day?

I love my little family.

We played lots of games, ate lots of food, went to an arcade, returned gifts, bought more stuff, played more games, ate at Bombay House and stayed up too late.

Next post: Justin's birthday and our trip to Logan with my family that includes a near-death experience in the middle of an elk herd.

We leave you now with a little Christmas cheer.