Santa No No NO!

Our first visit with Santa took place at Middle Canyon Elementary. Emily went right up to him, sat on his lap, told him she wanted the Amercian Girl doll of the year, Mia, and smiled for my picture.

Brinley on the other hand, cuddled with dad the entire time we were in line. And then kept a death grip on my neck, lest I hand her over to the strange bearded guy.

She wouldn't even make eye contact with Santa, let alone tell him what she wanted for Christmas. Then I tried to get her to take a candy cane from him....any other time of year I would NEVER allow her to take candy from a stranger...Visiting with Santa is a strange custom.

Hodgepodge Tree

I love this time of year! I always have. As a teenager I would set up a mini tree in my room. (usually right after Halloween) I love that a radio station in Utah starts playing Christmas music on November 1st!

Being a home ec, crafty type gal, I love perfectly coordinating trees. You know the type where the ornaments all match, the ribbon all matches, the twinkling white lights, etc... The ones look like Martha Stewart herself decorated it. Strangely enough this has never been my tree.

As a child my parents would give each of us an ornament for the year. It usually represented something about us that year. There is a small pink Victorian hat box I got as teenager when I was going through a pink phase, there is a nutcracker from the year I saw the nutcracker, a homemade Strawberry Shortcake ornament from the year I was 7, I even have a Styrofoam ball with purple pipe cleaners that I made when I was 3! And if you know me you know there are a TON of snowmen ornaments!

I have continued the ornament a year with Emily and Brinley. Emily loves to look at her 10 ornaments and think back to the year that Barbie Princess and the Pauper was IT. Emily even has her own Strawberry Shortcake ornament (that year I tried it convince her Strawberry was IT) She has several princess ornaments and (of course) this year it had to be Hannah Montana.

Brinley doesn't have as many (she IS only 3) and naturally felt that the princess and barbie ornaments were hers. But she was so excited as we pulled her Elmo from last year out of the box. And she carried around this years ornament, Dora, till it broke!

So my tree doesn't match...its hodgepodge...a hodgepodge of all my memories...memories of childhood...when it was just brad and i...and now the collection of all the things Emily and Brinley cherish...I love my hodgepodge tree and all of the memories it brings...and I will take those over a perfectly coordinated tree any day...Take that Martha Stewart!

Title is fitting...

Yes...I have discovered that I am as lousy at blogging as I am writing in a journal. I think pretty much everyday that I need to update my blog...and then never get around to it. I missed posting our halloween pictures, going to Disney on ice, seeing Twilight, heck, Brad and I even went to our first Jazz game of the season!

We spent Thanksgiving in West Haven, at my sweet sister Jacki's. As we were leaving Jacki said she felt like it was chaotic. Well...with 11 adults...10 kids...and three dogs...does anyone expect it to be calm?! We have never been a quiet eat on china type of family and never will be. It was wonderful (Jacki I hope you read this) thank you for hosting!

Here is a picture of the cousins. Now, how hard it is to get 10 kids, that range in ages of 15 to 3 to smile at the same time...Impossible!

Friday morning came and Steph and I left at 4 am for our traditional Black Friday shopping. Oh how I love Black Friday...neither Steph or I were in a frantic search for anything. But I love that adrenaline rush as Target opens their doors! (Or it could be that I don't get into trouble for spending $100+ at Target on Black Friday. Any other day, I would have some explainin' to do)







Friday afternoon we promised Emily we would take her to (FINALLY) see High School Musical 3. Now when we made this promise the movie was still in Tooele...by Friday it was gone. So We all headed back into Salt Lake to see the movie. Now I liked High School Musical 1 and tolerated the overacting in HSM2. But HSM3 had me cursing Walt Disney! Come on...it was torture... Brad and I spent one and a half hours rolling our eyes and wishing the world was a safer place so we could just drop her off and go and watch James Bond! But then we looked down our isle and Emily is perched on the end of her chair...mesmorized. It made it all worth it (well almost).




Yes I realize my shadow is in the picture...don't judge me...this was the best one of Em doing her HSM jump.

One of the previews was for another Disney movie, called Dog Hotel, or something like that. I leaned over and said to Brad: "I don't care how many times her friends see it, we will not go!" It is not a threat...it is a promise!




To sum up my thanksgiving post: I am thankful for my family, my husband who puts up with me, but still manages to be my best friend and lover. I am thankful for my daughters and their excitement for the little things in life. I am thankful for my sisters and their husbands, for making me laugh and providing myself and my kids with a sense of family and knowing that whatever happens they will be there for us. and I am thankful to my parents, even though things haven't turned out as I pictured, it all started with them.

Who gets the best of you?

A few years ago at a FACS summer conference the keynote speaker was asking the women in the audience "who gets the best of you"? The question wasn't about who makes you angry, but who gets the best parts of you. That got me really thinking, after a long day at school, running errands, church obligations, etc... it seems like my family gets the least of me. I try every day to make sure my children get the best of me and sometimes (more often than not) I seem to fall short. Somedays by 5:30 I have had IT and just can't deal with one more complaint and I do not respond in the best way. Here is an incidence that happened just last week. The girls and I get home and I start making dinner. Emily comes in and asks me why she never gets to take home lunch to school. Apparently she is the ONLY kid in her class that has to eat school lunch! When I question this "fact" she assures me it is true. Now every year since first grade we go through this home lunch argument. I explain that there isn't time for me to fix lunch in the morning and since Emily is a picky eater, she will not eat peanut butter and jelly-which she would get three or four times a week if she took home lunch. *By the way, I think the home lunch argument comes up when a friend has a new lunch box*



Anyhoo, she is still complaining about the home lunch thing, and I start to feel guilty that I don't have the time to make her cute little boxed lunches...you know the sandwiches cut into shapes and homemade cookies...with a beribboned love note tucked inside.



The complaining goes on... and I point out that she doesn't like sandwhiches...at which point she says that she doesn't have to take sandwhiches...she will take a can of spray cheese and some crackers! At which point I turn to her and yell, YOU ARE NOT TAKING CANNED SQUIRT CHEESE AND CRACKERS FOR LUNCH!!!!! I know, not my best..she leaves the room crying...guilt kicks in immediately. Guilt that I can't make the home lunch she longs for, guilt that I yelled, guilt that I can't understand why this is so darn important to her.



After we have both calmed down, I try to get her to tell me why she wants to take lunch so bad. I don't even think she knows...She needs something to tell her therapist in 10 years or maybe by some fluke EVERY kid in her class does bring sandwhiches cut into cute shapes and homemade cookies with beribboned love notes tucked inside.

So today, I picked up somethings for her home lunch. I told her she could do it three times over the next two weeks. Now I just have to remember to pack the lunch before I go to work...and add my beribboned love note

We're off to see the Witches!!

Today we went to Gardner Village to see the witches. It was Wee Witches Weekend (and UEA) so EVERYONE in Northern Utah had the same idea. It was very crowded, but we had a great time. This picture about sums up how my girls felt about the witches...

Seriously, Em you are 9! You should be able to sit close to a STUFFED DOLL!!!

where do I find the time

Sooo...after months of stalling...not because I didn't want to start a blog...I just couldn't come up with a clever name for it ( I know seriously dorky, but a blog name should mean something about the person).. I have bitten the bullet and started a blog. Now I won't feel left out when people at recipe club are all chatting about their blogs. And I can give shout outs to the blogs I already "stalk".

Sooo...why "where do I find the time"? Well, people ask me this all the time. I am not sure if it is because I work full time and have two girls or what. I think that if something is important to you, you find the time. Like it is 3 am and here I am...making time...typing away at something I am positive only my darling sisters (and maybe my husband) will ever read! But Darcy said one night (at recipe club) that her blog is like her journal. And I am so crappy at keeping a journal I thought this might help.

For years I have had the same journal. I am not kidding, it incompasses about 6 years and is only 30 or so pages long... I usually write in it once a year...usually after General Conference...ok so maybe twice a year. It's just sad. I have justified my crappy journal keeping by reminding myself that I scrapbook. Now that is where you will see EVERYTHING Emily did from birth on. Brinley's are not as full, but still manage to fill 3 1/2 volumes!

But there is very little ME in my scrapbooks. I need a place to ramble about our lives and keep track of day to day events.