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Thursday, December 27, 2012

Naughty or Nice.

Christmas was so fun this year.
Jackson was a blast.
In a naughty sort of way.
He could not leave the Christmas decorations alone on the tree or anywhere else in the house.
I found the wise men hanging out in his castle in his room a few times.

And we could have used the tree as a growth measuring stick.
There were no decorations within his grasp.  Our younger parenting selves probably would have worried about teaching him not to touch the tree.  The older and wiser parents that we are now just made sure all the ornaments were not breakable.  And we smiled knowing that it is not often that a home gets to have a  half-decorated tree for Christmas.



I had such high hopes for my organization skills this Christmas.

Organization doesn't come naturally to me but I really want to be organized.  It's a terrible catch 22.
I have been doing so much better lately.  Mostly because of my new cyber friend the Fly Lady.  I don't think I have ever written about my recent discovery of the Fly Lady.

It is possible that the Fly Lady and her organization method may very well change my life.

This year, with the dear Fly Lady's guidance, I was determined to have everything completely done for Christmas by the first of December.  I was sure that this would be the year I would not have to wrap a single gift on Christmas Eve. I was totally planning on spending the day playing in the snow and watching movies while drinking hot chocolate.

If you are one of my sisters stop laughing.  I was seriously optomistic...

I did have most of the shopping done by my self-imposed deadline.  I had it completely done until some mean-hearted Grinch stole my purse at Wal-Mart.  Of course I had a couple of important presents in my purse. And cash.  I never carry cash...

Anyway, a couple of stops on Christmas Eve fixed the present problem.  But then I had to wrap.  I decided that next year I am going to have some boxes and bags and anything not wrapped by Christmas Eve gets a bag.

The kids favorite activity this time of the year is our annual shopping day.  The kids all trade names and we go to the mall where they pick out each other's presents.  It's a lot of fun.

Jenna is the official gift wrapper.  She's so cute.


She would not rest until every purchased present was wrapped with bows and under the tree.  She said to me, "Mom I want to have the red wrapping paper with the blue ribbon for my present.  Last year I had the gold paper but this year I want red."  

Austin employed his computer savvy-ness this year and he went in every morning and opened my computer browser pages to the gifts that he wanted.  We bought all his presents by the week after Thanksgiving so I just sat back and watched him sweat thinking  that I missed all the awesome cyber sales.

We are enjoying the giant snow storm that rolled  in today and we love all the time off from work and school.
We hope everyone is safe and happy!

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Monday, December 17, 2012

A birthday



Austin turned 13 on December 27th.  Having a birthday so close to Christmas has some benefits (if he doesn't get exactly what he wants for Christmas he just asks for it for his birthday...) but it also has some downfalls.  Most noticeable--we are almost never home on  Austin's birthday.  We like to spend Christmas in our own beds so we don't head out to visit Family until after Christmas.  We have spent Austin's birthday at the Hatch family Christmas party almost every year.  Last year we realized that Austin has never ever had a 'friend' birthday party so this year we decided to invite  some friends over a bit early.  They had a blast.  They played with Air Soft guns and practiced their tough guy poses and ate a lot of pizza  and treats dipped in chocolate.



We couldn't be happier to have Austin in our family and he is reaffirming our belief (and experience!) that teenagers are the reward for surviving toddlers.

Friday, December 14, 2012

Ho, Ho, Ho

I just read an article that made me laugh until my cheeks hurt.  
In fact my laughing made Jackson laugh right along with me.  
Have I mentioned that this child is attached to my leg lately?  
When the kids leave for school he stands by the door and cries pitifully "go, go, go..." then he runs into the kitchen and does his "hot chocolate dance."   
Once we get our hot chocolate we get to work recovering from the daily morning tornado.  
Except for the last two days when I have been running from one appointment to another.  Which means that today I have three tornadoes to clean up after.  
I am going to lock the doors, shut down the computer and go restart the pilot light on the water heater {again--hopefully it will get fixed today...} in preparation for the Mt. Wash-more pile of laundry that is ready and waiting for a long hot bath. 

Until then I highly recommend a visit over to the pioneer woman for a good hard chuckle.  

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Look who's grown up!



I kind of think it's awesome to be forty.  I can't really explain it except that it feels like a new beginning.  Maybe I only say that because I still have another year in my 30's...

I called Rustin's office and got his Friday afternoon schedule cleared and I whisked him away to the Sun Valley lodge.

It was beautiful.  So nice to see some snow!


 The lodge wasn't busy so we sat by the fire...
 And remembered one of our first dates--almost eighteen years ago!  We skated and twirled and held hands and laughed and talked for hours and hours without ever running out of things to talk about.  We can still do that today.  Except we aren't so good at the skating and twirling part...
 We went window shopping at all the little shops in the Village.  I'm serious about the window shopping part... This lovely coat and handbag cost over $6000!  Whew.
 There were lots of cute toy stores and fun Christmas window displays and Christmas lights in the Village Square.


 We ate one of our most memorable meals ever at the Ram at the Inn.  Delicious. Food. 
We climbed under the covers and watched Sun Valley Serenade which plays continually on the TV's in the lodge rooms.

.

It was a great weekend and reminded me of how lucky Rustin and I  are to have found each other. And how lucky we are to be able to do all the great things in life together.  With many more still to come!
Happy Birthday.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

non-verbal communication

It starts with a cute face and a little dance under the living room fan... 

 Then "up-a up-a up-a" (most words these days end with "-a-")...
 And he tries to throw the little dog...

 Then sweet siblings interpret the sign language/body language and put the dog on top of the fan for him...
 to watch it fly off...

 Which makes Jackson laugh like crazy which  makes his siblings happy!
That pretty much sums up our entertainment for the night!