Santa

A few days before Christmas we took the boys to the mall to see santa. It went surprisingly well. Last year Neither of them wanted to talk to him, and Christian screamed the whole time. This year Nicholas gladly told Santa that he wanted a Hot wheels race track set, and a play kitchen with food. Christian was shy as always but he did manage to squeak out a request for a train without looking a Santa the whole time he sat on his lap. They got what they asked for, and they were so excited!


In fact Christian didn't want anything else. We tried to give him another present to open, and he absolutely refused it. He thought he had to trade his train set for the other presents, and there was no way he was going to do that! It was probably 1/2 an hour before we could talk him into opening any more presents, but I think he was glad when he finally did!



Nicholas was happy to see that the hot wheels race track he got attached to his trick-tracks sets for even more fun!




They both really love the play kitchen they got from Santa too. They have been cooking up all kinds of good food for us to eat. Yesterday morning I woke up to Nicholas with a plate full of pretend french fries. "Here mommy! I made you a wonderful breakfast, eat it up!"

"Should I call the doctor?"

I went on a field trip with Nicholas and his preschool class. The whole time Nicholas kept pushing on his crotch. I asked him if he needed to go to the bathroom. He said that he didn't, but he kept pushing. Then he started adjusting his underwear. I asked him if it itched down there. He said "No, it hurts." "It hurts? Are you sure it doesn't itch?" "No, It hurts." Hmmmm. What could make it hurt down there? He continued to push throughout the morning and afternoon. Later we were outside playing with my neighbor who also has a little boy. I asked he what she thought it might be. I wondered if boys could get a bladder infection? She said they could, but it's rare. I told Nicholas that if it didn't stop bothering him, then we might have to take him to the doctor. When it was nap time I told Nicholas to go use the bathroom before he went to bed. A minute later I heard him in the bathroom shouting "Hey Mom, come look! I got it out! Now I don't have to go to the doctor!" I hurried into the bathroom very curious about what "It" was. I walked in and he pointed to the floor and happily said "See! I got it out!" I looked down at the floor, and there was a little sprig of pine needles on the floor! I burst out laughing, just as relieved as Nicholas that I didn't have to take him to the doctor!

"Hey, Napoleon! Give me some of your tots!"

So, we were walking through the mall and Nicholas slowly reached into his pocket, pulled out a cracker, and discreetly put it in his mouth. Nicholas is totally Napoleon!

Williamsburg,VA

While Sam's parents were here we took a little trip 3 hours north to Williamsburg and Jamestown Virginia. We went to Jamestown one day, and Williamsburg the next. I was a little bit disappointed in Williamsburg, not that the city it's self wasn't fantastic, but the day we went it was very cold, my boys were sick with colds, and they certainly didn't want to stand and listen to people talk about the old colonial days. It really wasn't as kid-friendly as I thought it would be either, and you had to pay extra for everything. Overall it was still fun to see what we did. The Governor's Palace (extra money) was very fun to see. After the tour you could walk around the gardens, and they had a real hedge maze to walk through! We also saw the Fife and Drum parade, which was short, but the boys loved it! Grandma even bought them each their own tin flute, and the whole town got to 'enjoy' my boys beautiful music. We toured as many houses and shops as we could before the boys begged us to take them home.

Jamestown

JAMESTOWN



If you have kids, I would have to say Jamestown is the better of the 2. It is the historic town for the early pilgrims and settlers here in america. They had a museum there with so many fun hands-on activities. There where 3 main areas. The first was Pocahontas' village. We could walk through the huts and see the way they lived. Nicholas got to grind some corn into corn meal, and we learned how they made made rope from the stuff that is inside of a stick.




The next area was the water front with real ships that you could climb on and look around. I think this was one of the boys favorites! Nicholas kept calling them pirate ships!





The boys also learned how to make a canoe by burning out the center and then used seashells to scoop out the ashes.



Last there was the pilgrim's village. The boys helped fertilize the farm with ashes. They got to walk through all the homes, and buildings. Nicholas preached a sermon in the church. They wore armor while they listened to the gun demonstration, Nicholas didn't want to be shot! but even with all that fun, the thing that Nicholas was most intrigued by was the nail making. He stood there and watched the guy make nail after nail without making a sound.

Grandma and Grandpa!

So, when Sam's mom was here last July, she told Nicholas that Grandpa would come to visit soon. That's not a good thing to tell a 4 year old. Everyday for weeks he asked if Grandpa was there yet. Finally He stopped asking. I decided not to tell him that they where coming this time until right before they got here. When I did tell him that Grandma was coming and that she was actually bringing Grandpa with her this time, He looked at me, laughed, and said "Silly Mommy! Grandpa's Not a PRESENT!". I guess it doesn't take very many Grandma visits for a kid to figure out that they come with presents. The boys where so excited to see them! And of course being this close to Christmas, they did bring presents. Nicholas got a guitar, and Christian a drum set. We had a whole band! Nicholas insisted that Daddy get out his guitar, and play songs with him. We had a concert rocking out to Nick's favorite song "Called to Serve"!

Thanksgiving and Tree Decorating

Here are a few pictures from Thanksgiving. We had some friends come over and we feasted for a few days on all the leftovers!





Then of course there was Black Friday Shopping. This has to be one of my favorite holiday season traditions. There is nothing like the rush of standing in line outside in the freezing cold at 5 am, waiting for the store to open, and hoping the entire time that the 200 people in front of you are not there for the same item you are! I got all of my Christmas shopping done in 2 hours, I got everything I set out to get, and I got great deals on all of it! What a great day! Then to top it all off, Sam actually asked if I wanted to put up the Christmas tree that day. This is exciting because he NEVER wants to put it up this early. He doesn't like fighting the kids off of it. In fact there have been several years when he has tried to talk me out of putting it up all together! So we put up the tree. Since then we have of course had several casualties when it comes to broken ornaments, but luckily most of them weren't worth much anyway. Except for when Christian knocked down the tree. The only ornament that broke was on that was given to me on my mission by a lady I taught. It was hand painted on the inside. Very beautiful. Sam said I should just leave it in the box. I put it at the top so that the boys couldn't play with it. I didn't even think about the tree getting knocked over on it. That was sad.

Update...

Don't you hate it when you get behind on blogging, and suddenly you have a million things to post about, but you keep putting it off because there is way too much? My last few weeks have been super busy with Thanksgiving, black friday shopping, Sam's parents coming to visit, a trip to Williamsburg, Virginia, Sam's birthday, and several trips to the doctors to try and figure out why Christian has been throwing up so much lately . So instead of trying to write about everything, I'll just post a few pictures, and let them do the talking.

Here it is folks....

You might be wondering what that 'special' dish is that you are going to make for Thanksgiving this year. You might be looking through all kinds of cook books, trying to find something to WOW your guests. Well look no further! I've got what you need, and it's a lot easier than you think. You see 2 years ago Christian was born the day before Thanksgiving. Sam thinks the Heavens were smiling down on us that day. Not because we were blessed with a beautiful baby boy who was delivered by an Angel-literally the doctors name was Angel. This was great, but the reason the Heavens were smiling down on us is because instead of the usual meals ward members bring when a new baby comes, several people got together and brought us a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner (which fed us for at least 3 or 4 days!). It was all so yummy that I hate to pick favorites, but the sweet potato casserole was something we will never forget. I had never before even liked sweet potatoes, but Sam made me try them. We found ourselves fighting over the last few bites. Of course Sam nagged me endlessly until I got the recipe from the lady who brought it. Since then we have made it several times, not just on Thanksgiving, but for just about any occasion we can think of, and I have yet to come across someone who didn't like it. In fact the most common comment we hear is "I have never liked sweet potatoes until this moment!" So if you are looking for that dish that will be talked about for years to come, here it is...

Sweet Potato Casserole

1-40 oz can of sweet potatoes drained and mashed
1/2 cup milk
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup melted butter
1 tsp vanilla

Mix ingredients together. Pour into buttered baking dish. Sprinkle with mini marshmallows and bake at 300 F until lightly browned, about 45 mins- 1 hour.

Please resist the urge to spice it up with cinnamon, or pumpkin pie spice. This is a typical southern recipe and it is perfect as is.

Happy Thanksgiving and Enjoy!

CHRISTIAN IS 2!!!!!!

Contrary to popular belief, Christian turned 2 today, and not 3. This was evident by the way he whacked me over and over as I sang "Happy Birthday" to him this morning. Oh how I love the terrible 2's! I have had a number of people guess that he was turning 3, which is in line with the fact that when he turned 1, people thought he was 2. I guess he is a tall 2 year old, and he does speak pretty clearly. The one that gets me though is when I am out shopping and I'll have the two boys in the cart, and people will ask me if they are twins! It's actually happened several times. This is funny because not only are they almost 2 -1/2 years apart, but I don't even think they look like each other at all! Anyway... He is 2 today and I am so happy we have him in our family. I love his sweet hugs and kisses. I love listening to him sing-his favorites are..Old MacDonald had a farm, Jesus wants me for a sunbeam, and twinkle twinkle little star. I love his wild hair with all his cal-licks, his fat little nose, and those eyelashes-long and black! He has a feisty streak that just cracks me up! Unfortunately I even adore him when he is being a beastly 2 year old, which makes it hard to discipline him seriously.




For his Birthday he got a pack of trucks, a Diego jacket, and a Diego trike-Yes, Diego is his favorite! We also took the boys to see the new Disney movie "Bolt". This is the first time we have taken the boys to a movie theater because they don't even sit through movies at home, but we thought it would be fun to try. The movie was great, and Christian really got into it. There were a few time when he stood up and was yelling at the screen! Of course about halfway into it, Nicholas got restless and started switching chairs all over the theater-luckily there was only about 20 people there, so he had lots of seats to choose from!

We had our traditional mini Cold Stone Ice cream cake, which was a perfect way to end the day. I love Christian and I'm so happy he was born!

I was so mad!

I had a nightmare last night that someone stole all my credit cards and went on a massive shopping spree. You know you are cheap when the worst part about it was the fact that they paid FULL PRICE for things! I woke up so mad that I couldn't go back to sleep!

It runs in the family...

In my home growing up, we were never forced to eat anything we didn't like. In fact it seems that my mother would go to great lengths sometimes to make sure there was always something everyone liked, which is a tall order when you have 7 kids. I remember many times having 2 main courses to chooses from at dinner. Usually one with and one without onions, because not everyone liked onions. This is why for Thanksgiving, we not only had a turkey, but also a ham, or a roast, because not everyone (Pam) liked turkey. We also had several kinds of pies. Now some of you might be wondering why my mother didn't just tell us to eat it or starve, or force it in until we learned to like it. The reason is because when she was a child her mother would make her eat peas. She HATED peas. She told us all about how she would sneak them into her napkin and then hide them behind her dresser. They disgusted her so much that she vowed that she would never make her kids eat anything they didn't want to. As best as I can remember, I don't recall ever being forced to eat anything, and we were never served peas. I couldn't help but think of this when we were having dinner the other night. I had made a chicken, rice and veggie casserole for dinner. A recipe that I had never tried before, and to be honest it wasn't spectacular. Christian didn't care for it in the least, and after eating only two bites, I looked over and saw him carefully scooping it up one fork-full at a time and placing it under his plate. Unfortunately for him his hiding place was a bit more obvious than my mothers, and he was caught right away, and forced to eat at least some of it. This of course caused him to come out in open rebellion against it. He gleefully grinned as he began obviously dropping it on the floor. So I made him get down, pick it all up off the floor by himself, and then I put him back in his chair with the plate and told him to eat it. He picked up the plate and turned it over and smeared it all over the table. So now with the ridiculous mess I have to clean up, and all the stress I went through trying to get him to eat it, only to have to feed him again later, I'm wondering if my mom's way of just making 2 different meals to begin with would actually be the easier route?

20 Minutes before the insurance guy comes...

Finally after 5 and a half years of marriage, we decided we should get some life insurance on Sam-Thank goodness he hasn't killed over before now! The insurance guy was supposed to come over this morning at 9 am to drop off, and have us sign the policy. Since I could do that without Sam here, he went to work as usual. 8 am, I get the boys some oatmeal and hot chocolate for breakfast, just like they asked for. 8:30 they still haven't eaten any of it. Just sitting there staring at it. I start to feed it to them in an effort to get them fed before the insurance guy comes. 8:40, Nicholas announces he needs to go poop. I tell him to hurry and do it so he can finnish his oatmeal. 8:45, Nicholas comes downstairs with poop dripping down his leg. "Um, mom? I think I need some help wiping my bum." I hurry upstairs to clean him off, leaving Christian at the table. When I walked into the bathroom I was shocked. There were poop puddles and pee puddles all over the bathroom, his last pair of clean undies, the toilet seat, EVERYWHERE! Oh, it was gross! The smell was horrific! I hurry downstairs (still gaging) to get some things to clean it up with. Christian had, of course, dumped his entire bowl of oatmeal all over the table and was smearing it around with his hands. Great, one more disaster! 8:55, I finished cleaning and sanitizing the disgusting poop mess, and quickly showered off Nicholas. Just when I was about to hurry downstairs to clean up the oatmeal, I noticed Christian digging in his undies. No! Are you kidding me? He had, of course pooped in his undies, and now had it all over his hands. Of course it was his last pair of clean ones too. So I hurried and cleaned him up and cleaned out his undies. 9:00, I quickly run downstairs to clean the oatmeal mess, and threw the towel in the sink just in time for the doorbell to ring. Honestly, how many things can go wrong in 20 minutes?

Wax paper anyone?

So the morning after the ward trunk-or-treat Nicholas got up early and found his candy, and like a good big brother he made sure that Christian got some too. What he didn't do though is help him open them. We found several pieces of candy around the house like these pictured, with bites taken out, wrapper and all. Poor kid probably bit into the wrapper and decided each one wasn't very good so he just kept trying. I don't know how much of the wrappers he actually ate, but I don't think wax paper ever killed anyone, and I'm sure my sister has told me that she has found tinfoil in her kids poop before, so I guess he'll be alright?

Trick-or-Treating' Best Kept Secret!

We live in an apartment complex across the street from a well known neighborhood filled with big expensive houses. It seems like everyone in town drops their kids off there to go trick-or-treating because people assume that the bigger the house, the better the candy. The first year we lived here a neighbor told me about it so first we took Nicholas trick-or-treating to our apartments, which are mostly filled with retired people, or college kids. Then we headed over to the big houses. The apartments rarely get trick or treaters, so they went all out with the candy. Handfuls of little candy bars, and some older ladies even made little bags filled with candy. His bucket was mostly full after only 10 houses. Then we went across the street to the big houses, and boy were we surprised! The people were giving 1 tiny candy per house! A tootsie roll, or a pack of smarties. Since the houses and yards were so big, it was a lot of walking in between and we finally decided it just wasn't worth it. So every year since, we just hit our apartments and it only takes us about 20 minutes to fill the buckets! This year we went out with our friends who also live in our apartments and it was so fun to see the little ones! We had 5 kids ages 4 and under. Their Chorus or "trick or treats!" Started way before the door even opened as all of them pounded on it and sometimes tried to open it themselves. When the people opened it, they all ran in and bombarded the person holding treat bowl as they each tried to get to it first. Then of course there was a chorus of 'thank you's as they ran to the next door. They were adorable!

Nick's costume parade

Nicholas' school had a Halloween costume parade. All the kids paraded around the school, and all the parents came to watch. It was so cute! Nicholas waved to everyone and said "Happy Halloween!"!

If you give a child a pumpkin...

If you give a child a pumpkin,



He'll probably ask you for some seeds.
You'll cut it open, dig out the seeds, and cook them for him.



When you give him the seeds, he'll probably ask you to make a funny face on his pumpkin.



Looking at the funny face will remind him that it's Halloween.
And since it's Halloween, he'll want to decorate.
He'll make ghosts and draw spiders.




He might get carried away and decorate every room in the house!






When he's finished, he'll need a snack.
He'll probably ask you for some more pumpkin seeds.
And chances are, if he asks you for some more seeds,
He'll want a pumpkin to go with them!