Christmas is coming

Santa Clause is coming to town... In China!
The paper chain said to mail Rich a Christmas package today.  Luckily we were prepared!  The post office said we should mail a package to China by Thanksgiving.  Well, after tonight it is all ready to grow wings and fly to Shanghai.  Sophie had fun wrapping these little gifts with me.  Bet you wish you knew what was in them??  Just thought you should get a sneak peak!  Especially since we aren't exactly sure if it will get there!  Cross your fingers and keep your eye out for Christmas fun!

And wish me luck at the post office tomorrow.  I wonder how much it weighs, and ultimately how much it will cost to mail this little package around the world.

Happy Thanksgiving

The paper chain said to eat lots of turkey and boy did we. It was a feast. I made 90 rolls and there are probably 30 left. Mmm. And the nutter butter pie was gone in minutes. I barely snagged a piece. And I'm glad we made extra pumpkin pie. I know what I'm having for breakfast tomorrow! Sophie and Shelby ended up being twins with the same sweater tonight. Steve's wife Cyndi had her sister and her husband for thanksgiving and his name is Seth. Seth is a real magician and did an awesome show for us. He borrowed my wedding ring and made it disappear and it ended up in a zippered pouch in his back pocket attached to his key ring!!! We were all amazed at his tricks. Peter and Gavin got to help with some of the card tricks. He was a show stopper! He could make coins disappear from one persons hand and reappear in another persons hand in the same instant. You would have loved it!

So we hit a few black friday sales tonight. I got a pair of tall dark brown boots for $19, regular $70. And Sophie a really nice blue dress for $30, regular $80. I got a few things from The Children's Place, including a Micky Mouse Moustache shirt!  We headed to Walmart at 10pm and it was cleaned out! They started at 5pm which is crazy to me... and there was nothing left for us. But I didn't really need anything 

anyway.

And the real kicker of the day was the drive home from Kim's house in the little blue car.  There was not a minute where they were getting along at all.  They were teasing, touching, yelling, copying and annoying each other the whole time.  How is that possible?  it is only a 45 min drive...  Those kids...

Pumpkin Pie

I worked all day and then came home and ate dinner. During dinner we spontaneously decided to go to the movies to see Catching Fire. Linda and Matt hadn't seen it yet. Blaine said he'd fall asleep so he stayed home with the kids. And the big kids were all out. Sophie Peter and Justin went to the trampoline park with the neighbors. But before we left I did the paper chain by myself - making pumpkin pies. I made 6 pumpkin pies. Linda made the crust for me while I was at work, so it was a group effort. Only 3 weeks left at work I think!
Tomorrow I have to make cranberry relish and rolls. I think 37 people will be there so I think I'll have to make like 75 rolls or something! Each batch makes 18 or 24. So I'll have to make a batch x 3 or 4. That's a lot of work! !

But bring on the pie.  I know what I'll be eating for breakfast for the next few days!

50

It was a short and simple paper chain tonight.  50 jumping jacks.  And I had 3 willing participants...  You'll never guess who my little bench sitter was?  He tried to sneak down the stairs - like I wouldn't notice...  Maybe tomorrow, if it suits him.

Down the track

Tonight our paper chain was to build a domino track. We did it up in my bathroom so no one would bother us. And the pictures are deceiving because they make it seem like everyone had fun and all got along... Nope. It was mostly screaming, throwing dominos and even of course destroying the others creations. It was a dream come true. I don't know how to get them to be nice to each other and stop being angry or snippy or mean and rude. I am banking a lot on this China thing. That removing ourselves from this house and living with so many people and having so many parents and having to rely on each other will really help. If it doesn't, so help us...

A quiet day

Well. Kind of a quiet day. Max threw up a lot of the day. He would throw up and theb run around and play. Then do it again. All day. So he was sick. But not sleeping or resting. Peter and Gavin had tummy aches and Sophie said her back really hurt and her tummy a little. So we all stayed home from church.
Then tonight we did our paper chain and I wad glad it was easy. The kids had to write real letters to Richard. They did and we will mail them this week and test out the China address and the mail system. Cross your fingers :)

Saturday Surprises

The house got cleaned, and we went to IHOP for brunch. Our paper chain said to go out to breakfast, so we compromised. We all ordered breakfast and it was so yummy. But they don't have my favorite anymore! Cinnamon swirl french toast! So I had to settle for regular. But the worst part was that I forgot to take a picture!! First time in 30 days of paper chain that I didn't take a picture for it. .. but I did take one for the postponed one from past night. We built this awesome fort with a secret entrance and a secret room. They got settled to watch a movie on the ipad when max just couldn't do it. It was too hard for him. Something he's never done before or seen done before. So he is watching a movie in my room on the tv instead and everyone is happy.

Friday night Fun

Well, tonight we got to go down to Draper and watch Natalee and Sam Wright be in a musical at the highschool.  And before the play we decided to treat ourselves and go out to dinner.  I wanted to play nice and let them pick whatever they wanted.  Max and Gavin wanted McDonalds, Pete wanted Carls Jr. and Sophie wanted Panda Express and I wanted Cafe Rio.  So we did some drive through and take out and ended up with everything at Carls Jr so they could play at the play land.  Then we were off to the play.  Sam and Natalee were both in the chorus for Seussical the Musical. It really was a fun musical and the kids seemed to like the whole thing, especially the intermission when they got to buy some candy! Sophie was always quick to find and point out her cousins. Eyes like a hawk I guess! The set, costumes, hair and talent were all really good too! So it was worth the tickets and the drive to see it. So, when we got home at 10:30 tonight I was lucky to get the kids inside and in their beds! And no paper chain. They were so excited about it too, to make a fort and sleep in it. I told them we would do it tomorrow night.

Ahoy there!!

The kids liked making paper hats for our paper chain. I made promises to buy cool construction paper and tape and we were going to make such awesome hats, but I forgot when I was at the store. So we used lined paper we ripped out of notebooks. Max hate it because he couldn't fold his paper right to make these hats, so he hid under the blanket most of the time. And thus, no picture of Max.

All FUN!!

The movie last night was so good! We had free tickets to see it all the way down in Provo from the lawyer Rich works with, and we got to see Catching Fire before it came out to the public!!  And it was so fun to go on a girls night with JoAnne and Kaylee!  You have to go see it, and I can't wait to see it again.
And today we went rock climbing and it was so much fun!!  I got Rich a gift certificate for Christmas last year and he never wanted to go.  I thought it would be a fun and different activity for us to do together on a date, but Rich didn't.  I don't think Rich would have liked it very much, but JoAnne and I had a great day :) We're going to go again sometime before we leave.
Busy and great days around these parts!

How tall is it?

Well, our paper chain was to measure how tall the house was. I wasn't going to get on a ladder to measure, so we did it inside. We measured each floor and added them up to be 320 inches tall. And separately Gavin measured the kitchen and it is 166 inches tall. He was excited that his measurement was the tallest!

Who's playing games??

The kids couldn't decide what game to play, big surprise there, and then we decided on Apples to Apples. Max was the only one that said he didn't want to play because he didn't win last time. Well, guess what, he won this time! We all had such a great time. The kids were getting along and playing and laughing like a normal family! Max was laughing so hard he blew snot bubbles! I just had to get a picture of it for you! And that's life in our house...
It was nice to end on a good note tonight.

Turkey Treat

This one took a little more planning on my part.  Thank goodness for pinterest.  I am a good copier, but not always a good original creator.  These rice crispy treat turkeys were really fun and yummy!  A great FHE treat for everyone.  And it was a little easier having Sophie help me make plates with everyone's parts on them so no one was trying to grab for more or taking too much.  Smiles all around.

Scripture Stories

Max's final product.  I think it turned out SO great.  It is the 3 days of darkness right before Christ came to the America's.  He described every detail to me.  Lightning, rain, wind, houses on fire, weapons, no candles would light...  Everything is great.  He said everything was from the scriptures, except for the alien ship in the box, he was just trying to show Rich that he can also draw alien ships.  That made me smile.

Sophie is becoming the greatest artist.  It is Nephi and his family in a tent in the wilderness.  It is so great.

Peter loves the story of Samuel the Lamanite standing on the wall when the arrows were flying past him and they couldn't touch him.

Here is Max's first attempt at his drawing.  I thought it was pretty good, but in his mind it was unacceptable. And he crumpled it up and ripped it.  And was crying alligator tears.  It was so sad.  Even Grandpa tried to calm him down.  But Max wanted to draw the perfect picture for Rich...  he thought it would make Rich love him more.  And he thought that Rich hadn't called him for a few days  and that meant that he didn't love him anymore.  It was the saddest thing.  Max had been so busy playing and what not when Rich called that I let him and didn't think he'd mind not talking to Rich every day.  I had no idea it meant so much for Max to talk to Rich every single day.  He is always just making faces and goofing off every time he sits in front of the ipad. Now I know.

Gavin didn't know what to draw.  We kept saying stories, but he didn't think he could actually draw them.  Then Sophie mentioned when Nephi broke his bow.  She showed him how to draw an arrow and he was hooked.  I don't think he actually drew any people or animals from the story, but he did draw bows!!!

Tonight the kids had to draw pictures of their favorite Book of Mormon story.  I think they all did a good job!

Curly or Straight

Sophie really wanted me to straighten my hair today and we had some extra time to kill so I did. First I blow dried it as straight as I could but it was still pretty curly, just bigger, and Gavin walked in and said "you look like Canada!" That's what he calls grandma Canada, just Canada. He was so cute! Anyway I guess my hair is a little longer than I realized and it was kind of fun to have a hair change for the day.

Paper chain alteration

We couldn't do the paper chain today because we were supposed to go on a bike ride. Well we woke up to an inch of snow and it kept falling till late afternoon. It didn't pile too high, but it was enough for the kids to play outside for an hour building a snowman and fort. So we changed our paper chain and went to lunch at Texas Roadhouse with the kids free kids meals from school. Max thought it was slow and likes faster resturants like McDonald's.

Movie Night

Tonight we got to watch a movie on the ceiling.  Well, we watched it on the wall in my room, and Max popped about 4 bags of popcorn for the event!!  Too bad that I was the first one who fell asleep for the night!!  The kids had to wake me up and tell me the movie was over...  At least we all got what we wanted, them a fun night, and me a few moments of shut eye!!!

Cold Day and Hot Chocolate

Brrr. It was a cold day today. Well, at least I thought it was. Peter still wears shorts to school almost everyday. I pick my battles, and that's one I don't want to fight. If he gets cold, he's cold - not me. But it is the cool thing to wear shorts with tall socks. I roll my eyes... And Max only wears a sweatshirt to school half the time. Sometimes just short sleeves. But if he WANTS to go to school and doesn't want the sweatshirt or jacket, then I just let him go. Sophie and Gavin are more sensible.

We had hot chocolate for our paper chain today. I even found those tiny freeze dried marshmallows sold separately. The kids loved that and Max said they taste like Lucky Charms marshmallows. Sophie likes her hot chocolate with milk warmed on the stove so she took over that part while I was opening candy canes to use as stir sticks. They already have Christmas candy out in the stores!! No wonder people gain weight over the holidays!

Bedtime Stories

Today we got to write a bedtime story for Rich.  Well, Sophie didn't like the one the boys came up with so she wrote her own version while I was gone with Matt and JoAnne watching Aaron in his latest play.  Stay tuned for the next chapter...

From the boys:
Once Upon a time there was a castle in a far away land. In the castle lived a wicked witch named Abigail, who had a pet sloth. She had a whole bunch of poison and could do whatever she wanted. She wanted more sloths. In order to do that she haad to go to a tropical forest on the other side of the earth. It took her one day to travel there on her broom. She got off the broom and had to hunt for the sloths with a net. But there was a prince guarding the tropical forest so no one could take animals. She tried to get past the prince but gets caught and taken to jail. She then cast a spell and turned the jail bars into long gummy worms. She ate her way out and escaped to find the sloths again. But then she couldn't find her broom...

From Sophie:
Once upon a time there was a witch named Florence. She was a young witch. She had a pet black cat named shadow. She had all of the potions that you could dream of. But she had been trying to make the best potion, to be able to fly without a broom. She had been working on it for years and she just needed one last ingredient. Which is, a dragons eyeball. There is only like four dragons left. But in the past few years they all died but one named Rudy. Rudy is very old and Florence needed to catch him soon or else he would die. So Florence goes on a hunt. She travels for a few days then she found him. Rudy!!!...

Ready, Set, Go!

A scooter or ripstick race got under way before dinner tonight with Max and Gavin.  Once around the culdisac.  Max beat Gavin, but there were no hard feelings.  We tried to find Sophie and Peter to race on their ripsticks, but Grandma had dinner on the table and I was feeling sick and not up to doing the race any earlier.  It was dark after dinner, so this is it.  Half a success today.

FHE dance night

For FHE tonight we followed the paper chain and played Just Dance on the Wii.  We pushed the couches back and had a lot of fun playing Just Dance 3 and 4 because they couldn't decide on just one.  The hardest part of the night was taking the picture.  Gathering everyone, posing and not standing in the way of someone and everyone smiling.  It was worse than taking professional family pictures!  But at least everyone had a good night.  Even Max, who didn't want to play the game to start out, but he got into it eventually.

Cookie's on Sunday

For a long while I have had the Sunday tradition of making cookies on Sunday with 1 kid at a time, each taking turns for their day to make cookies with mom (or Aunt, JoAnne's kids are in on the rotation too).  Well, our paper chain said for us to make cookies as a family today.  We finally decided on Gingerbread.  The other ideas floating around were chocolate chip, snickerdoodles, and gorilla poop.  I made the cookie dough ahead of time so it could chill in the fridge, and then after dinner we got the rolling pin and cookie cutters out and got to work.  My favorite are the traditional gingerbread boy and girl cookie cutters.  Gavin picked the lobster!  Well, using my Better Homes and Garden recipe you can never go wrong and they turned out so warm and soft.  There weren't any left when morning came!