Yesterday, we put up the Christmas decorations and the tree. As I was putting out the decorations, and the boys were trimming the tree, I thought how nice it was that I didn't have to decorate half the tree, or worry that little hands would break my nativity. I could put things where I wanted them and not worry that they would be played with or moved.
Later that evening, I noticed the cat was very interested in my tree. She smelled it and nibbled it a little. But I would hiss at her (hey, she used to hiss at me all the time!) and she would run away. Lesson learned, right?
Well, no. When we got home from church this afternoon, I found a string of ornaments littering the floor. One was in the front room where the tree is. The next was on the stairs. I picked that one up, and as I did, I noticed there was also an ornament in Kaleb's bedroom doorway. Great. My cat thinks there are toys hanging on the tree just waiting for her to play with.
Zach suggested that we dilute some lemon juice and spray it on the tree last night (he's been reading the book about cats the vet gave us). Apparently, cats hate lemon juice. But I'm not doing that. I don't want lemon juice all over my Christmas decorations! Sigh. At least they weren't breakable ones. :D
The boys, trimming the tree. I let them put most of the ornaments on this year. And by most, I'm pretty sure I only put two on. It's really the best way to go. :)
Yesterday was Thanksgiving! I got up and made my world famous artichoke dip that everybody loves sooo much. Then after getting ready and asking everybody to get in the car nine hundred and sixty two times, we piled into the car and drove up to my parents' house. I wish all of my siblings and their families had been there, but alas. Minnesota is a little far to drive and the other two had to spend the day with their in-laws. I'm sure they all had a lovely day. I did!
We ate, we played Pandemic (we all died!), pigged out on turkey and mashed potatoes, watched Brave, played Smallworld (I conquered all!), and ate too much pie. Oh, yeah. And I also argued with my dad about the Big Bang Theory. He he. I'm such a rebel-rouser. So much fun. I also reminded him that even though we believe God created the earth, we don't know how he did it, and therefore, he very well could have created order out of chaos.
Any way. I didn't get many pictures, but here are the few I did take:
Ben has grown a beard. Because it is "No shave November."
Rodney and my mom wrestling with the turkey.
Still wrestling. I guess it was heavy. Maybe just awkward.
My little sister is getting married! I'm so excited for her, and to show her all about how excited we all are, I decided to throw her a shower! Party time! Woot! Woot!
Apparently, I throw a good shower, too. My sister told me that her friend told her that it was the funnest shower she had ever been to. Yeah. I know that's not proper grammar, but I'm not changing the quote. I'll take compliments any day of the week.
So we ate taco salad and my aunt made cupcakes and my cousin decorated them. They were so cute. My mom took a picture, and I'll show it to you later. After lunch, we played Pictionary with a bridal theme. Then we did a Bridal MadLib. It ended up being pretty funny. Then I asked Emily a bunch of questions that I had secretly already asked Joel and taped his answers. We let her answer the way she thought Joel (oh, Joel is her fiance) answered them. Then we played back his answers to see if she got them right. It was so fun to listen to Joel answer the questions and get to know him a little better. He's such a nice guy and I'm really happy for my sister and excited to get such a cool new brother. After the games came presents! Emily got a pretty good haul if you ask me. :)
First of all, I have to show you the awesome invitations I made. Aren't they cute?
Then, I shall show you the decorations I made. I made this garland that says Emily and Joel. I would have put up the picture that shows all of the garland, but it really mostly shows off how badly I need to dust my blinds, so you get part of it instead.
Another part of the garland. These are her wedding colors.
I made big medallions with these cute owls on them. Emily's favorite shape is a star, so from star, I went to night time, and that kind of became my theme.
We also wrote on date night ideas on craft sticks and stuck them in this awesome jar I decorated.
These are the owl cupcakes. They were delicious and so cute!
Lili, Grandma D., and Aunt Kathy joined the party.
Mother of the Groom and Mother of the Bride
Bridal Pictionary! Alayna got the word "cumber bun".
I made everybody play! Even my mom! I was the Shower Nazi! Muwahahahahaha!
We played for a long time.
Bridal MadLibs.
A body part? Oh. Wait. Maybe I should have read the story before I printed it out. He he. No. It was totally clean.
Reading the finished MadLib.
That's only some of Emily's haul.
Emily and Joel are gamers, and yes. They really would love that PlayStation 3 on their registry. My mom found these Christmas ornaments and used stickers to put their names on the backs. So cute!
What's in here?
I think she likes it.
Who wouldn't love a toaster?
My Grandma S. gave this blanket to Emily. It was our great-grandmother's. It's really beautiful.
And Aunt Cherry (who had to leave early), this is for you. Emily loved those bowls. In fact, we all loved those bowls and want to know where we can get our own. Thanks! :)
I am so grateful to everyone who came to Emily's shower! This shower would not have been the funnest shower ever if you weren't there, so thank you for all the help and all the fun. You guys rock!
One of the questions I asked Joel was, "What is yours and Emily's song?" He said they don't have a song. They have an album. And this is his favorite one on it. But that's not what Emily said. I can't remember what she said. Maybe she will leave a comment and tell us. ;)
This just happened:
I made Riley some echinacea tea with honey, and told him to drink it because it would help his cold go away faster. Then I sat down at the table to drink my herbal tea as well. He took one sip and asked, "Do I have to to drink it?" "You don't like it?" "Not really." "Well, please drink it. It will help." So then he was all mad at me.
About five minutes later, I ask him what time it is as my back is to the clock.
"Can't you turn around?" He mumbled.
"What?" I asked because I didn't hear him.
"It's 11:40, but can't you just turn around and look yourself?"
Seriously? How did he get so mean?
When I was done drinking my tea, I went upstairs to finish getting ready for church. I told Kurtis what had happened while I was taking off my socks. He said, "Well, I'm sure we've said the same thing to him before."
I thought about this for a minute and then said, "No. I don't talk to my children that way. You do. But I don't."
"When have I talked to them like that recently?"
"It doesn't have to have been recent. That's why it's called learned behavior."
Then I pointed out the irony of what he just said and told him that he was being mean. I also told him when he talks to me like that, I don't want to stick around. Maybe that was going too far, but it was the truth. There was something I didn't say, but wanted to. It's gone, though. I can't remember what it was. But it might be for the best.
I got to go on a field trip with Kaleb today. It was pretty fun until he punched me in the face. We went to the Tree House museum in Ogden. It is a really, really wonderful place for children to play! I've heard of this place, but had never gone before. The kids get taken there in first grade and second grade, but I've never been able to go with them on very many of their field trips until this year.
First, we met in the theater, and separated into three groups. Then our group stayed in the theater and put on a play. It was the fairy tale, "The Golden Goose". After that, we went to this area that has houses of all the places fairy tales come from and learned about different versions of different country's fairy tales. Then they went to the Art Gallery and made magic wands. I think I will have to take my kids there another time, and I think you should too. Why, yes. I did take pictures. But Kaleb wasn't in the play, so I'm not going to post the pictures of it. I didn't take very many of that part any way because I switched my camera to video mode, but as I watched it in Movie Maker, the sound was all messed up, so sorry. :(
Loved this quote. I guess I should read to my kids again.
There is a giant tree house in the middle of the museum the kids can play on. It's awesome.
The Germany house.
We learned about creating conflict in a story. The Big Bad Wolf is the most common bad guy in fairy tales.
Then we learned about the hero. Here, we have Puss in Boots! In Ireland and a few other countries, Puss in Boots was not a boy. Puss in Boots was actually a girl! Girl power! :)
Then we talked about princesses. He called princesses transformers because they change throughout the story. He specifically mentioned Cinderella, Snow White, and the princess in the Frog Prince.
According to one version of this fairy tale (I can't remember which country), the prince didn't ask her to kiss him because that would break the spell. He asked her because he wanted her to throw him against the wall and when he hit the floor, he became a prince again.
Getting their supplies for their magic wands.
Kaleb is twisting his pipe cleaners together.
He drew a face on the top of his wand. Cute.
After making their wands, they got free time to run around the museum and play. First, we went to the tree house, and then we went to the music room.
Then we went to the doctor room. That's what the girl in my group called it when I asked her where we should go next. "Whoa, that's cool!"
They can look at x-rays there! That's flippin' awesome!
Future pediatrician.
There is a school room. Kaleb is practicing his multiplication.
Milking a cow! :D No. The cow is plastic and it milks water, but it's still awesome!
Kaleb didn't want to sit by me on the bus ride home, but I sat behind him and kept teasing him with the camera. He doesn't like to have his picture taken which is why he isn't looking at the camera in any of them, but this one. Because I sneak attacked him! Muwahahahaha! Then he was trying to fake punch me, but he actually swung a little too hard and hit me in the jaw. I'm fine. But it didn't feel good.
I meant to blog about Halloween a while ago, but I forgot. The kids don't have school today, so we are doing nothing. It awesome and I finally have time to blog while they are actually not fighting for a change. What's my secret, you ask? Ha. Well, I'm letting them play video games all day. And that is why I will never earn mother of the year.
So this October was really interesting. Zachary had a lot of missing assignments one week. Like nine or something. So I told him that if he had any more missing assignments the rest of the month, he would not get to go trick-or-treating. The next week, he had two. I was upset that he wasn't getting that he should have zero and he said, "I thought you would be happy that I only had two!" Yeah, well. Great. Thanks for the guilt trip kiddo. I told him he blew it and he couldn't go trick-or-treating. But he could pass out the candy. He even lost his Halloween costume to Riley who said that he would just wear Zach's costume (with no prompting from me). Ah, but this did pose a problem. The Fall Carnival in our ward came around and Zach wanted to wear his costume. So Riley wore an old costume that Zach wore a couple years ago. Then came Halloween and the Halloween parade at school. The kids get to wear their costumes to school for the parade and then they have to take them off for the rest of the day - except the kindergartners and the sixth graders. The sixth graders put on a Halloween party (complete with spook alley) for the kindergartners. All the kids get to go through the spook alley, though. I got to come and take pictures of the kids at the party. It was a blast! I'm only upset that I didn't get an pictures of Zach in the costume he put together for the parade/party. We have a spooky cloak that is grey and he used it to make an Assassins Creed costume. He said he got too hot and had taken it off by the time I found him. The spook alley wasn't very scary, but some of the kindergartners were a little freaked out. I had to help one little girl leave before she even got half way through. And it was really, really, really small. They have two temporary classrooms outside the school, and they put it on in one. Tiny.
After dinner on Halloween, Riley and Kaleb put on their costumes and we headed out. It was a beautiful night. Perfect for trick-or-treating. The kids didn't even need their coats. We came home after an hour and a half and their buckets were full. Kaleb said his was too heavy and I had to carry it for him the last little bit.
Here's the pictures:
Caramel apples!
My soldier.
That's Riley, in front of Mario.
Captain America! Swoon! :D
Oh, yeah, and Riley was awarded his Bear. He has many people to thank for helping him get this award besides me. ;)
Yep. He rocks.
We also painted pumpkins at this Pack Meeting.
Carving pumpkins! Riley getting out the guts.
Kaleb - designing his pumpkin.
Kurtis' pumpkin.
My second pumpkin.
My first pumpkin. His right tooth came off, so I had to reattach it with a toothpick.
Kaleb's creation.
Zachary's pumpkin. It's Equestria's flag.
Of, course Riley had to make his pumpkin puke.
And my third pumpkin. We had a couple pumpkins left over from Pack Meeting, so I just carved them right up.
All of them on the porch.
Don't feel sorry for him. He had 34 missing assignments Thursday.
My soldier and his Captain. He he.
This is Kaleb's Halloween program. He and his friends sang on the evening of October 30th.
This is the video I took of the costume parade at the school. Sorry about the quality. I thought my video camera was still in my purse, but it wasn't. I had to use my phone's video and it's not that great. I want an HD camera.
All the costumes were really great this year! See if you can spot my kids. Zach is near the beginning and if you blink, you will miss him. I did. I had to watch this to check that he was even in the parade. He was. Just behind somebody. Ugh. But Kaleb will come next. He waves at me and Riley does something weird like moves faster to avoid the camera, or something. I almost missed him that day, too.
