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.

Our 9th annual Christmas Tree Hunt

It's a little early to get a Christmas tree, yes, but it was also the right time to do it for us.  Ben will be gone next weekend.  And I really wanted a nice scrawny tree this year - more Charlie Brownish than our trees have been the past few years.  And that meant we go on our hunt to the Grand Mesa, as opposed to a closer spot (that has the bushier trees).  Comprende?  So usually the Mesa can be quite snowy and quite cold and quite miserable for little kids and, thus, little kids' parents.  So if a trek to the Mesa was what I wanted then today was the day to go - little snow and very unseasonably high temperatues.

(Man, I don't know why I'm so wordy. . . )

It turned out to be a great day to go.  Yay!  In fact, as we were driving up there - and literally about 5 minutes from our destination - I told the kids, "Bummer, I don't think there will be snow."  Jonas replied, "Then why did you make us wear our snow pants?!"  Luckily there was plenty of snow to be played in.  Yay! And it was also very warm (relatively speaking - I think it was in the mid-30s).  Yay!  And we got a great "Charlie Brown" tree.  Yay!  And there were only a handful of tantrums!  Yay!

Pictures:

Thanksgiving in a Nutshell

So we had a pretty good Thanksgiving.  We were on our own this year and it was kind of nice.  It would have been great to have friends or family, too, but it just worked out this way this year and - like I said - it was nice.

I organized my friends (via facebook - thanks!) to run/trot the local Turkey Trot.  There were 8 of us that agreed to do it and that made me so happy!  We all met at my house and then headed out.

Here are all the trotters.  It was a beautiful morning and a great run.  I had a fantastic time and was happy to have friends do it with me, too.  I made us all some super-easy "Thanksgiving headbands" for our race.  What a fun way to start Thanksgiving!

When I got back the rest of the gang had done a lot of "Macey's Thanksgiving Parade" watching while I was gone.  Then the boys, mainly, headed out back to work on the ice rink. 

 Jonas has been super in to helping.  It's awesome.  And I find this picture completely amazing because it shows 2 boys multi-tasking!  What?!  Jonas is eating a sucker and drilling.  Ben is talking on the phone and helping Jonas.  Whoa.

 Emmy enjoyed some swinging time on our nice-weather Thanksgiving day.

 This was a favorite part of the day for our young boys!  In fact they declared it was the best Thanksgiving ever while painting (of course 30 minutes later when I told Jonas he needed to shower he declared it as the "most boring Thanksgiving ever!"  Kids.  Kids!).  They really had fun painting and it was the perfect thing for them to paint.  It was a little ironic working on the ice rink in almost-60 degree weather.  But Ben has high hopes for freezing temps soon. . .

Then we got cleaned up and got the food all out and feasted.  It was all pretty good.

Happy feasting!

We ended the evening watching our traditional Thanksgiving-day movie:  Jack Frost.  (The old one, not the new one.).  After that was pie and then bed-time.

Happy day.