Santa Claus Came to Town!

We have this super sweet set-up for Santa in our town.  It's a cute little cabin that is all homey and nice inside.  It even comes with Santa and Mrs. Claus.  You can't beat that!

 Lucy's first picture with Santa!  Yes, she got a little nervous, but Mrs. Claus told her to sit on her and so I plopped her down and she was okay.  When asked what she wanted, she told Santa, "A sleeping bag and a dolly."  Santa knew exactly what she had said and was quite impressed.  :)

The whole gang.  So super cute.  I love it.

Jonas' 7th Birthday

We "lucked" out and were able to have Ben home on Friday morning for Jonas' birthday (he had already put in 43 hours by Thursday night).  I don't have a "classic" picture of birthday kid walking through his/her crepe paper door because Lucy or Emmy or someone ripped it down "accidentally" before I had the chance.  And by the time it was put back up, I had forgotten to get the picture.  Oh well.

 Here is Jonas opening his one present in the morning - a very cool Star Wars Yoda watch.  Yay!  He loved it.

 Jonas sitting in his birthday chair with his special birthday cereal.  Yum.

 Jonas showing off his new watch and the cool star wars snowflakes on the widow.  Cool, huh?

 Here are the girls "helping" me make the cake.

 The boys can earn a coupon for a free personal pan pizza for every month that they read every day.  Both boys had gotten their 2nd coupon and we decided to go out on Jonas' birthday.  It was fun - though Jonas gulped down his root beer (his "special treat") so fast that he was freezing for the rest of the time.  He also chomped down his pizza pretty quickly and then he felt sick.  Ha.  He ended up having a good day at school - it was the December birthdays celebration in his class that day and so that was extra fun.  He had asked me to make some carrot/spinach puree brownies (since the school requires only "healthy" snacks - blah) from a cookbook he had looked through.  As soon as he walked through the door from school he declared, "No one liked your brownies mom!"  Hahahaha.  No duh.

We then opened presents.  He got a lot of fun and great things and spent a lot of time with a bunch of his toys.  He really liked the big Star Wars lego set he got and spent most of his time working on that.  We had dinner and then started watching Spy Kids.  Half-way through we had an intermission and had cake.  Too bad Jonas didn't feel like eating it then - perhaps it was the huge chunk of "sugar bread" (as Jonas called it and was given to him by an "older" friend) and spaghetti and meatballs he ate for dinner. . . (He did eat his piece of cake before bed.).

His cake was the Millenium Falcon, from Star Wars of course.  Awesome.

After cake we finished the movie and then the boys played for a bit and then slept downstairs in the playroom in their sleeping bags.  A fun night and a fun way to end a special day for a special boy.

Happy Birthday Jonas

Dear Jonas,

I will most likely (hopefully!) come back later and write you a real, decent letter.  But, sadly, I'm so tired.  So, so, so tired.  It's been a long week for me (and your dad).  But don't think I've forgotten you, because I most certainly haven't.  You and your birthday have been on my mind for a while.  I hope you like your gifts and all the little special things we'll do to make it your special day.

You are really a fantastic kid.  There is only one big fault you have - that of whining.  In fact tonight Miles came up with a great nickname for ya :  Monas.  Like moan-as.  I thought it was pretty clever.  (But, I can't blame you for whining so much - your big brother has pestered you since you started becoming more than just a lump.)

With only one big fault, I would say you're pretty awesome.  Even with all of Miles' pestering, you still are best buddies with him.  And best enemies. . .  Every day (yes, I'm pretty sure I'm not exaggerating) you come crying to me about something that Miles has done.  And every day I tell you "Then don't play with him."  And every day you go back and play with him.  I wish you wouldn't, but you do like your brother and I guess I shouldn't complain too much about that.

Truly, though, you can play with pretty much anybody.  Any age.  Young girls, old girls, and any boys.  You're adorably sweet with little girls.  You always want to have your best-friend Jake over.  Every Wednesday we have 2 boys (brothers) walk home with you guys and you love that (and Jake usually ends up coming over, too - double perfect for you!).

Okay, well that's not much nor much of an ending.  But I'm looking at about 6 hours of sleep again already, so I better call it a night.

I love you.  I'm thankful to have you in our family.  You're a blessing to us all.  (Unless you're whining. . .)

Happy birthday,
mom

The Little Things

Sometimes it's just the little, insignificant things that make me smile.  Like this Christmas decor I finally got finished and put up:

I got the pictures for free last year from some blog, I think.  I can't quite remember.  But I love them so!  We didn't have any frames for them nor a place for them (my husband is anti-nailing-in-things right now).  But lo and behold I found these frames at Salvation Army for $4 (for all of them).  Yay.  And this was the perfect spot - we already have pictures that hang there year-round, so no new holes!  I smile every time I walk by.  And sometimes I just walk by for no other reason than to smile.

Dear Santa, from Lucy

I was reading "Curious George and the Toy Store" to the girls.  Emmy had to go and wipe her nose or something and so there was a break in my reading.  We had stopped at a page where George is inside the toy store and so I asked Lucy, "Do you want Santa to bring you a toy?"  Lucy:  "Yes!"  then "A doll. . . (in a whisper) for Christmas."  "Oh," I said, "a pretty doll?"  Lucy:  "A big doll.  With boobs."

Good luck Santa.  :)

The Nativity

Our family was asked to do the nativity for our ward's Christmas party.  So for FHE this past Monday we went to the church, ate pizza, and practiced.  We practiced like 1/2 a dozen times - which seemed like a ton!  Then we got to "perform" it on Friday night.  It went pretty well.  I had the easiest part (although I did write the screenplay and came up with most of it. . .) and still messed up a bit.  Lucy, who had done her part perfectly (and by that I mean waiting to come out when I said, "and, lo, the star") at every practice, must had been to excited and didn't wait for her grand entrance.  Oh well.  The camera didn't focus when it should have, either.  But overall it was fun and people really enjoyed it.  So I share this mainly for our family (especially grandparents!) to watch.

Christmas decorating

On Saturday we put up our Christmas decoration.

I brought up our bag of Christmas books and Miles became engaged with A Christmas Carol.  He read the whole thing - it's pretty long, actually.

Ben and Lucy were out doing errands and when they got back, Lucy was pretty enamored with our musical snow-globe:

Emmy got to decorate her room pretty fancily, too:

And the boys got a funky little tree in their room:

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. . .

Happy Sunday

Sundays are looooooong around here.  For both Ben and myself.  He usually puts in anywhere from 12-15 hours at church (with a 1 1/2 hour dinner break at home).  So if your husband is home for more than 2 hours on a Sunday, consider yourself lucky.  Or at least luckier than me.  :)

Anyways, Jonas brought home some great writing assignments he has done in the past couple of months.  I thought one was pretty good to share for a Sunday post. . .

Some helpful hints:  "now" = new, "word" = ward, "iksitide" = excited

P.S.  After the kind words from my sister-in-law (in the comments) I thought I should let everyone know that  1.  I don't always have a good attitude and 2.  That's because my kids always aren't so wonderful!  :)  I have lost my patience many a times today and I had to cut short our walk (MY favorite part of our looooooong Sunday) because my children were horrible.  I support Ben fully, but not always completely joyfully.  :)  But thanks for thinking highly of me, Laura.  :)

Pinterest likes

I'm following my sister here and showcasing some goods and bads from Pinterest.  My likes and dislikes.  (I think, actually, this post will just be on my likes. . .)

Food likes:
1.  For a "healthy cookie" these are actually pretty good (despite Emmy's remark when I told her we can make a healthy cookie - "Oh no, then they will taste bad!")
http://thishomemadelife.com/pumpkin-trail-mix-cookies

2.  For our breakfast nite.  I think I was the only one who loved this.  But I did.  Even without the chocolate chips.  (We had chocolate chips that night but I didn't add any to my breakfast left-over meal.).  I did sweetened coconut and still sweetened it up a bit with some sugar.  Not as much as I normally do, though.
http://cookincowgirl.blogspot.com/2011/12/almond-joy-oatmeal.html

3.  Holy YUM.
http://www.thediaryofdaveswife.com/2011/09/daily-dose-of-delicious.html

4.  Probably my favorite soup ever.  I feel like I'm eating at a restaurant.  I 1/2 the "roux" so that I only use 1/2 the butter it calls for.  And it's still delish.
http://randomthoughtsandthrills.blogspot.com/2012/01/recipe-tomato-basil-parmesan-soup.html

5.  Best pre-Sunday-fast smoothie evah.  And we add a little bit of sugar - just a little, though.
http://www.makeandtakes.com/chocolate-peanut-butter-and-banana-smoothie

Craft likes:
1.  I haven't done this yet and am unsure about dowloading the acutal document, but I would love to make this for Jonas' birthday decor:
http://mattersofgrey.com/diy-star-wars-snowflakes/

2.  Totally fun!
http://www.curbly.com/users/chrisjob/posts/2252-diy-shrinky-dinks

3.  Best DIY rocket in the world!  This rocks.  It would make an awesome present for any child or child's friend.  Ben could shoot those rockets hundreds of feet in the air.
http://www.craftinterrupted.com/2012/08/fun-jar-friday-17-bottle-rocket-shooter.html

Christmas likes:
1.  I did this to my front porch and adore it.  I smile every time I see it.  I just makes me happy.
http://www.front-porch-ideas-and-more.com/images/grinch-christmas-2.jpg

2.  I made Emmy a Christmas tree out of some lights.  It was really cute - but didn't hold up with the all-I-could-find electrical tape (plus, she has "textured" walls).  I knew it wouldn't last and it didn't.  But Jonas then just made one on the floor that was fun.  Then, he just decorated her bed with Christmas lights and oh wow is that delightful for Emmy.
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/creative-christmas-trees-for-the-space-challenged-180516

And that's enough for now.  Because I have oodles to do - and, really, this was not a "must-do," but my mind needed a break from all my "must-do's."

Happy Pinning!

Introducing our tree, Mr. Willowby

Our tree got his name from this dandy of a book we have checked out from the library:  Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree.  And, like in the book, after Ben had cut off about 4 feet from the bottom and brought it inside, the tip was a little long for our ceiling. . . just like Mr. Willowby's tree.  (I like the book, by the way.)

I don't think pictures do our tree justice.  :)  Really, she's a beaut.  In the most Charlie Brown way, of course.