The Christmas Pickle

A few years ago someone gave my parents a Christmas Pickle Ornament. I have yet to win the special prize given to the finder of the pickle. We went to my parents house last night for the sole purpose of looking for the pickle this year (the tradition was put off due to illness, everyone has been sick and the whole family hasn't been together yet for Christmas). Syd was the lucky winner of $20 last night. I'm determined to win one of these years. I guess I need to go out and find my own pickle ornament and start the fun tradition with my own kids, because lets face it, kids that are 4 and under don't stand a chance of winning the prize when there are 6 competitive adults on the prowl.

It's Christmas!

We've had a great time celebrating Christmas the last few days. On Christmas eve day it snowed and since John had the day off work he was able to take the kids out and build this fantastic snow man while I got to be lazy and stay inside and keep warm. The three of them played outside for quite a while and had fun while the snow lasted. Unfortunately the snowman only stayed upright for a few hours, but what fun. (Notice Owen's scowly face. That is the face we get when we get out the camera and say "smile"!)
I spent the day mostly cooking and getting ready for our Italian feast! My parents and Syd and Merel came to our house this year for dinner. We decided to bag the traditional Christmas meal and we had all sorts of good Italian food. I made bruschetta, chicken and eggplant Parmesan, chocolate oreo cake (I'm sure that's Italian), and spinach salad. On top of that my mom brought over lasagna, bread, and two kinds of tortellini with 2 kinds of sauce. We ate until we were sick...it was wonderful. And even in the midst of all my cooking I still had time to take a nap. Ains and John were nice enough to cover me up so I wouldn't get cold.
After dinner the kids opened the traditional Christmas eve present, which always seems to be new PJ's.
Don't you just love John's holiday sweater! He pulls out his most festive sweater a couple of times a year for special occasions.
Every year Syd comes up with some sort of game to play. Last year it was Christmas Karaoke. This year it was a version of Singing bee. Since we made them come to our house this year and we don't have a piano Syd had to bring her flute to give us our hints. Ains ended up being awesome at this game and even came up with some lyrics to "Walkin in a Winter Wonderland" that no one else could.
Christmas morning we ended up having to wake up Ains at 7:30 because Owen had woken up early, seen the toys, and was not interested in waiting for his sister any longer. He is still sick and was a bit grumpy but we still had a good morning. For some reason We shot a TON of video and got very few still shots. This one of the kids in their capes was one of the few we took that morning.

Later in the day on Christmas we headed over to my parents to talk to Micheal (my brother on his mission) and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening playing their wii. It was a lot of fun. Even Ains got into it. She even beat John in a game of boxing.
I must admit that I am awesome at the wii. Here is a lovely shot of me boxing my dad. Awesome action shot huh?? By the way...I won! I also hold the current family record in bowling. I'm amazing!!! The saddest thing about the wii is that I think every one in my family had sore muscles somewhere on their body after playing. Sad, but true.
Owen spend most most of his day coughing and this picture proves it.
Isn't Ains cute as an elf???

Hope you all had a great Christmas too!!!

Movies Galore!

Tonight we watched White Christmas. It was the first time I have seen the whole movie in one sitting, and I really liked it. I can't believe I'm almost 30 and I've never seen it. Better late than never! Last year we tried to watch it on Christmas eve after the kids went to bed. We thought we would watch it while we did a bit of assembling. Unfortunately, Santa chose toys that came in about 5000 pieces and once we realized we were in over our heads we had to focus on assembly and not the movie!

I still feel like we haven't watched enough Christmas classics this year. We watched The Grinch, Elf (a classic in our home), and Polar Express, but there are still so many that we need to see and so little time to see them. I guess next year we'll have to make a list and schedule them in. I still want to see Miracle on 34th Street, It's a Wonderful Life, and A Christmas Carol (the Mickey Mouse version and the George C. Scott?? version). Oh, and, A Very Brady Christmas.....just kidding....I just don't think I could sit through that Steph! I either need a day in front of the TV or I'll just have to wait until next year, because it would just feel wrong to watch a Christmas Movie after Christmas.

And on a completely unrelated note.....yesterday we went out for our anniversary. We went here.....YUMMY!

And then we saw this....
This one was a lot like the first, but I liked the first, so I liked it. Plus, how can you not like a PG rated action film! It was such a nice night out! Dates are wonderful and not fully appreciated until you have children.

I LOVE going out. We almost didn't go because Owen was still sick, but at the last minute we decided to be selfish and made Syd and Merel watch a sick Owen. They claim he did fine, and I needed a night out, so I'm glad it all worked out!

Budding Photographer

Ains loves to take pictures...here are just a few that she took this afternoon. She's got quite a creative eye!

Poor Guy

Owen has been a little under the weather the past day or so and today I found him exhausted laying like this on the floor. I picked him up and he let me rock him to sleep for the first time in...well I don't know, it's been a long time. He must feel pretty bad. Hopefully this bug will pass before Christmas.

Bye Bye

Owen has FINALLY let an official first word escape his mouth! We are so proud. It happened yesterday at Winco. As the kids and I were leaving the grocery store Owen turned and waved and said "bah, bah." I was a little shocked. He has tried to repeat other words but he has yet to talk on his own accord. If you asked what a lamb said he would say "baa" and if you asked where mom was he would put his hand to his chest and say "mom" but he never said anything on his own, and now he's gone and done it! I'm not sure why he felt strongly enough about the kind people of Winco to bother saying goodbye to them when he has never bothered saying good bye to anyone else, but I'll try not to be offended and just be grateful that he wanted to say something.

Now he likes to say his word all the time. This morning we were at my parents cleaning and as my dad got ready to leave for work he was saying bye to every one and Owen ran to him and said bye bye and then reached up like he wanted to be held. So my dad picked him up and Owen gave him a kiss on cheek. What a cutie!

It is a little ironic that Owen would chose yesterday to say his first word because we had an appointment with a lady from the Infant Toddler program set up for that morning (we had rescheduled for next week, so now I have to see if they still want to meet with us or not). I would have scheduled the meeting weeks ago if I knew a meeting would get a word out of Owen!

Notice Owen's growly face at the beginning...that's a face we get a lot lately because Owen is figuring out his eyebrows and scrunches them down like that and then will raise them up high.

Birthday Party

Ains went to her first "friend" birthday party on Wednesday night. Her friend Ellie was throwing a princess party and Ains had been excited to go ever since she got the invitation. I thought Ains looked particulary stylish for her first party. I made her wear the clashing pink pants because it was so cold outside, and she chose the red christmas socks because they matched the red on her Snow White shoes. From what I hear the party was a blast. There was a pinata, cake, and games. The girls dressed up as princesses and the two boys at the party dressed as batman and a giraffe. They all looked so cute, I should have thought to take my camera and get a picture of the group when I dropped her off.

Preschool Party!

Today I went to help out with Ainsley's Christmas party at school. My work included passing out cups and beads and taking pictures. It was so easy that I'll just have to volunteer again! It was fun to get to see some of the kids in Ainsley's class that I usually just hear about. The party was a lot of fun for the kids. They got to eat ice cream, make cute candy cane ornaments out of a pipe cleaner and beads, sing songs, open presents from a gift exchange, and even got a present from their teacher.

Ains seemed very excited to have me there and I liked to see how she acted at school. Although I'm hoping that my presence was what caused her melt down at the end of class. The kids were watching Danene, their teacher, open a few of the gifts some of the kids brought and there was a bottle of lotion given that Ains felt so strongly about smelling that she dove over 2 kids and knocked them down trying to get to it. I pulled her away and told her that she shouldn't push other kids out of the way and knock them over which brought about cries, mild screams, and her saying that she just wanted to go home. Her teacher was so sweet to her though because, after the rest of the kids had left, she pulled Ains aside and let her try on some of the lotion. What a nice teacher! (Too bad I totally spaced the idea of getting her teacher a little something for Christmas...Oh well, there's always next year.)

On a side note: I've realized that in all of the picture I have posted of me lately (not that I post many) I'm wearing that shirt. I promise that I do wear other articles of clothing. I might always wear the same jeans, but I do rotate my shirts. I just happen to take pictures of myself when I'm wearing that one. :)

A Little Holiday Cheer

I watched this after I was still fuming from my previous rant and it made me smile...hopefully it will make you smile too!

#$%&@)#%&#$

WARNING: Long and lengthy rant to follow...there is nothing positive or uplifting in this post.

My complete elation over my new table has completely faded, and I am currently left with only frustration. Apparently I chose to buy the most shabbily made foreign product ever. I have replaced all of my chairs (two of which the nice guys in the RC Willey factory had to piece together from several boxes of chairs in order to make the two nice ones). I had two other chairs fixed by a guy that came out to my house and explained that black wood is not the sturdiest because they use the cheapest wood they can find and then just paint it...the up side is that in order to repair any dings or chips you just simply paint the chair with spray paint from Home Depot (a great sign of quality). And to top it all off I am currently on table number FOUR. That's right, I have had 4 tables in my home and it will soon be FIVE!!!

We discovered a large ding and a large scratch on the side of table number one. Table number two had a HUGE ding, in fact, I think it was even too large to be called a ding, in the top. When the delivery guys saw it they just gave me this look like, "Okay, we know this table sucks, let us get on the phone and order you a knew one right away." The third table had 3 spots where the finish was slowly chipping off. And now, table number four, won't close all the way. That's right, if I stand over the seam where my table should close tightly around the leaf I can see the floor and all the little mechanisms in the table. We had our second repair man over today who attempted to fix the gaping hole and failed. He then said that this particular manufacturer is just plain not good. They are Chinese, use cheap materials, and they don't even use a stain and a seal on the top...just paint, supposedly.

I would go buy another table but this was literally THE ONLY ONE in my price range that matched my house. So basically I was told that my table will need constant upkeep, probably even refinished every so often, and that my old K-Mart table was most likely a higher quality table! Our new table won't be here for some time because we decided that shipping another table was pointless and now they are going to attempt to piece me together a good table from the last 3 that were in my home. And then the repair guy had the nerve to tell me that the table had better be in pristine condition when they come to exchange it in the next few weeks or the exchange won't happen! I'd like to see them try to cross me!

Quiet Time

Over the past few weeks I have started a new event that takes place in our home every afternoon. We call it quiet time. I know a lot of moms that do this but it has never worked well for me. By that I mean Ains always refused. But when Owen started only taking one nap a day I decided that I needed some child free time, and so I made Ains start having quiet play time or rest time in her bedroom during Owen's nap. Ains protested at first and didn't want to do things in her bedroom (which is weird because she will play in her bedroom for hours on end if it is her idea). Ains usually works on her "art" due to the fact that I don't let her get her stuff out much now that Owen is such a terror, and I get some time to get a few things done. I got all of our Christmas presents wrapped one day, I got some cute cards made another, I get time to read, and occasionally I get to take a nap for a few minutes! I hope quiet time turns out to be something that lasts because I LOVE it!!!

Seven Years

Today is our seven year anniversary. It's interesting to look back over the last seven years and see where life has taken us together. From our dungeon of an apartment in Provo when we first got married, to Salt Lake, Law School, teaching job, two kids, 6 moves, and finally settled in a home of our own now. I love that each year we are married I come to understand John better. I think we get along even better every year too. Of course we have our bad days but it's so nice to know that I get to share my life with someone I'm so comfortable with and that loves me unconditionally. I really married a great guy! In fact, he even got up with the kids this morning and brought me breakfast in bed! I love you John!

The Nutcracker

Today was Ainsley's dance recital. They have been working on their nutcracker dance since September and today was the day that the girls got to show off all their hard work. Okay, maybe it wasn't hard work and it was actually a little bit more fun. Ains had a dress rehearsal on Monday and after that night I walked away quite skeptical about how the performance was going to turn out, but the recital today was really cute. Ains got to be one of the mice. Her costume was very cute! And luckily for us, Ains was assigned to have her "big girl" dance partner be the main girl in the show so she was front and center! Other parents weren't so lucky.
Ains came up with this first pose all on her own...what a model!
Sorry the next pictures are fuzzy. That was the best I could do for actual recital pictures.

Ainsley's class pictures.
The following video is super cruddy, but you get the idea. I shot this during the rehearsal, she's front left with the girl in the big white tutu. I wish I could have gotten an upclose shot of Ainsley's face during a lift or their little pose they did when they were on the big girl's knees. Each time she was up in the air her feet would kick out and every pose face included her tongue sticking out of one side of her mouth. Too cute! I could have taken the time to figure out how to put on the good video that John shot during the recital, but I'm lazy, and I just don't think I will. Also, sorry that you'll have to pause the music on the side to watch the video without having 2 songs playing at the same time, I know how annoying that is, and you'll just have to forgive me for the small inconvience!

Cookies!

We haven't seen Dan (John's brother that lives about 10 minutes from us) and Paige's family in a while so we invited them over last night to eat pizza and frost cookies. The kids had a lot of fun...maybe even a little too much fun! And I'm guessing that they enjoyed the cookies, there was a lot of frosting eaten in a very short ammount of time. Owen was so filthy that he needed a good hosing from head to toe. And I must say that we were quite impressed with Ainsley's detail on her cookie (this might just be because usually her artistic skill is weak at best because she doesn't care enough to take time to work on things carefully). What a fun and messy night!

Two Good Lookin' Kids!

Owen's hair looks ridiculous from about 2:30 on every single day due to his nap. Some days I attempt to fix the crazy looks we get and other days it's just not worth the effort. Usually his hair is just matted and fuzzy in the back but I thought that yesterdays "chunk of hair sticking straight out" look was particularly dashing!
Today Ains did her make-up while I was doing mine. I was talking on the phone and not paying much attention to what she was doing. When I got off the phone I just busted up laughing when I saw the incredible amounts of eye shadow she had covered her eyebrows in. By the way...I have no idea why she chose to make that crazy face for the picture. Aren't my kids cute!

Ginger Bread Houses

It has become a tradition in my family to decorate a gingerbread house every Christmas. Notice that I said decorate and not make gingerbread houses. I believe the tradition began when one year I got it in my head that I would make a gingerbread house and then we would decorate it as a family. I didn't have a pattern but figured that it couldn't be that difficult and so I just made my own. We ended up with a house that was the size of a small child (okay that might be a slight exaggeration but it was huge!) and all of the pieces were different sizes and so none of the sides matched up. We ended up hot gluing together the pieces and there were still gaping holes in the house.

From that year on we bought the pre-made Costco kits. They are great! They come with lots of candy, pre-made frosting, and lots of little ginger bread men and trees to decorate. The kids had a lot of fun this year. I could tell that they had a lot of fun based on the incredible amounts of frosting, sugar, and candy that were in my kitchen. Owen got pretty good at putting the candy on the house too. Unfortunately he was better at picking the candy off of the house and so his side was pretty bare. I think he ate more candy on that night than he has in his life. He literally couldn't stand still. The houses turned out cute, although ours is already starting to lose candy that just wasn't stuck on very well. I guess ginger bread houses weren't meant to last forever though!

Santa!

Ains had her first encounter of the season with Santa. He was visiting my sister's neighborhood event thingy Friday evening so we tagged along for a visit and a picture with Santa. Ainsley's cousin Bria wasn't too keen on the idea of sitting on Santa's lap or telling him what she wanted for Christmas this year (she later explained that she didn't want to because it wasn't the real Santa, it was Sarah's dad...I hope Ains didn't pick up on Bria's keen observations. I have to admit though, I think they could have found someone a little older to play the part, this guy wasn't the best Santa I've ever seen. Anyways, I digress). Ainsley on the other hand hopped right up and told Santa that she wants a doll house and a barbie, I have a feeling she won't be disappointed. We get to see Santa again at our ward party this weekend. Hopefully she won't notice any differences between the two. Maybe from here on out we'll have to just visit Santa once a year so as to hide the variances between Santa's. It's been so fun telling her about Santa and answering all of her questions this year. I think this is the first year she will be truly excited and captivated by the magic of it all.

Curls!

For a while now I have wanted to try some sponge curlers out on Ainsley's hair. We switch to 9:00 church in January and she always wants her hair curly for church and school and we usually just don't have time. So the curlers were going to be the solution to my problem. They didn't have the kind of curlers that I was used to as a kid in stock (the pink ones that would close kind of like a barrette) but they did have these ones that were a combination between a sponge curler and rags. So I thought we'd give it a try. Boy did we get curls! We had so many curls that we had to pull her hair up in a pony tail. I guess we'll have to do some experimenting to figure out how to get the look we're going for!

Christmas Cards

I decided in November that I was going to get my act together and send out Christmas cards this year since I didn't send out anything last year. By the end of November I had bagged that idea. I was getting stressed out about it and so I ultimately decided that I wanted Christmas to be more stress free. Therefore, cards were the first thing to go. I guess I was being cheap too. I just didn't want to put the money and effort into them this year. But I still felt that we needed to send something to someone. So the kids and I made 6 Christmas cards. Yes, just 6. My criteria for deciding who would get one of these lovely works of art were that the receiver had to be over the age of 50 and my children had to have a portion of their blood in them. And that's how I decided that these cards would got to grandparents and great grandparents (okay, I had decided that before we even started making them). It was very low key and easy. And I think that only grandparents and great grandparents can fully appreciate a card with a Santa on it made from finger and hand prints!

(hand prints courtesy of Owen, finger prints courtesy of Ainsley)