My Kids Make Me Laugh

I found this in the kids bathroom taped to the tiles above the bath tub. Graces' bed is right through the wall from the shower. Collin has his shower at night after Grace goes to bed. I guess Collin is the human juke box and they each have one of these lists, so Grace gets to request what song she wants Collin to sing by how many knocks she taps on the wall.

I laugh now every time I hear knocks on the wall because I know what it means. Although I do NOT know what songs 2-5 are. What are they listening to in Jons car??

I LOVE BEING A MOM!!

Better Late Than Never?

This was our year of Paul Frank "jaminas". I happened to find some for Collin and then me, and then I thought I might be able to find some for all of us and Voila! (My camera was on some wonky setting all day and I didn't know it, so the pictures aren't the best)

Some other highlights: My new bike from Santa that I didn't even have to put on my list. Notice it matches my new jaminas too?

Grace's bike basket. I forgot she even got it because it was on her bike about a half hour after this and I didn't see her bike until yesterday because she left it out of the garage. It was also a hippo Christmas for her - she got a hippo Pillow Pet and Hungry Hippos.

Collin with Legos . . . wait, this is actually NOT Legos! It's a Tech Deck set. (But yes, he did get Legos too - of course!).

Jon with some very red new shoes. He was also a very good boy this year and got a Lego set from Santa too.

Working so hard he had to take his shirt off . . .

The yearly Ris Ala Mande tradition. If you need a refresher in this, you can go here: Christmas Eve Traditions.

Grace has gotten the almond two years running. She has gotten it 2 times in the 8 Christmases she's been alive. If I had those odds I would have gotten it at least 8 times. Guess how many I've gotten it? 0! But I am happy for Grace. I really am. Oh wait! The best part of this story was that she was too full and had literally 2 tablespoons of it and STILL won!!

I even ordered a delicious Finnish Fazer chocolate bar - milk chocolate with gingerbread pieces for the prize.

My new strategy is to buy a nasty treat next year (maybe some white chocolate) and then I'll win . . .

2011= Good Health!! Or Else!

I was going to post these after our Christmas pictures, but Jon seems to have forgotten that this is our GOOD Health year! One year ago today I had my awful Gallbladder removal. One of the worst days of my life! The year seemed to go downhill from there health wise, for all of us! Our year ended with a bang too. Since we had met our deductible for surgeries, we decided to finally fix Jon's deviated septum right before Christmas. Here he is wishing, and hoping he was somewhere else . . .

And after. Seems the "margarita juice" the nurse gave him didn't help much.

He got his splints out - 3 inch long and 1 1/2 inches wide (I almost had to put my head between my knees when she took them out) a week later and has been sick ever since. We found out yesterday he has a sinus infection!!

I was too nauseous to take a pic of the splints so this is from the internet - his were also bigger.

Then, on the 30th, Grace had an endoscopy to check for Celiacs Disease. Luckily there was a TV in the waiting room . . .

But not in Pre-Op, so she was terrified and couldn't stop crying, even with Penny there for comfort. There goes another 5 years of my life! Jon got "margarita juice" and Grace got pink "princess juice" to take the tears away.

When it was finally over brother was there to comfort her . . .

And wheel her out. . .

She woke up a Chatty Kathy, so we stopped to say hi to dad at work so she could tell him all about it. . .

The good news is NO Celiacs, so tomorrow we go to an allergist to find out exactly what is going on.

Happy 2011!!

We had a great Christmas and New Year that I will share later. I'm backed up in all areas because I got the sewing bug and have been on a skirt making spree this last week. I found an easy pattern and so much cute fabric that I made a pile of different skirts for Grace.

Collin is a Renaissance Man in the making. He saw this Japanese print and had to have it - anything Japanese is good in his eyes. He wanted to make a pillowcase . . .

He only made one mistake he couldn't fix but you wouldn't know it. Good job bud!

When I finally get all the Christmas stuff put away, I will post Christmas pictures. Here's wishing you a wonderful 2011!!

Merry Christmas 2010

Since we send Christmas cards this year, here is an electronic one. The sweet potatoes:

Midgie McDoodle:

C-boy:

We hope it's a great one for y'all!

(A girl in our ward wants some photography practice, so she took these for us)

Jenny Jr.

Notice the shoes . . .

And the womens' tube shirt she's made into a dress . . .

Not taking after me as I am now, mind you, but as I dressed up when I was her age with my BFF Lisa Williams. Thank goodness she had a stylish lady to get dress ups from, cuz them ain't mine!

P.S. Can you tell our Christmas rush is through with all the posts I've been doing??

Decisions . . .

The anal side of me thinks we should be doing school this week because we aren't halfway through our books. It drives me nuts that we aren't. That's why I should never be a real school teacher.

The fun mom in me is trying to break out and say, Let's take the whole week off! We have our monthly baptism for the dead tomorrow, Jon has surgery on Wed. etc. etc. Plus our doorbell just rang - at 9 am. The neighbor kids ready to play for the day. I guess that settles that!

December = BUSY!

All month I've been making lists and checking it twice so here is my list in pics:

1. Tree up (Jon trying to fix the top lights and the kids not being able to wait). Check.

2. Stockings hung by the chimney with care (ok, I thought they were in this pic). Check.

3.Gingerbread houses made. Check.

4. Annual picture of Collin about to "eat" his house. Check.

5. Visit fam. Check. Jons brother Dave and his family had a layover in Dallas on their way from Hawaii to Chile, so we rented a ginormous van and went up to spend the day with them.

6. Ditto on #5. We visited the Dallas Zoo. Very cool. Check.

7. Get Collin to test for the next rank level in Tae Kwon Do. Check.

8. Daily advent calendar. Definitely check. One of the highlights of the Christmas season when I was little and for the kids too.

9. Sunday Advents. Check. This is what happens when you go to make Peanut Blossoms (best Advent cookie out there) Sunday afternoon and realizing that even though you have passed bags and bags of Hershey's Kisses dozens of times in the last week, you forgot to buy some. Thank goodness I found a bar of Hershey's, some M&M's and some other chocolate.

10. Get a cold. Check. I thought I might as well put in on my list so I could at least check it off. So nice to have kids who are old enough to do most of the Advent readings when you're sick!

11. Daily orders. Daily errands. Check. This is from a slow day and doesn't include UPS orders or foreign ones. Sooooo looking forward to the Christmas Rush being through.

Things I haven't done:

1. Christmas cards. And doesn't look likely to happen this year. A first!

2. Watched our whole collection of Christmas movies. That WILL happen.

3. Made neighbor treats. Not sure what to do this year, but still most likely it will happen.

4. Decluttered the house. Probably after Christmas.

5. I'm sure a bunch of other things, but too worn out to think of them. Looking forward to sitting and relaxing next week!!

Thankful

photo found on zdnet.com.au

Today I am very grateful for something I always took for granted until lately. Today I am very grateful to live in this modern day and age with all the advances in medicine and technology. My baby girl went to the doctor yesterday and got tested for Celiacs Disease. In 3 years she had only gained 10 pounds from feeling "yucky" all the time. I'm grateful that doctors know about this disease and that she's getting tested for it while she's still so young. It's also SO much easier to be Gluten Free these days than when I was young.

Jon will be so glad to hear me say what else I am grateful for . . . my iPhone 4. I have griped numerous times that no one NEEDS movies on a cell phone or games etc. It just contributes to being "Heavily Dependent on Electronic Devices" (there is a GREAT story behind that quote). Well, I ate those words yesterday when I had the brilliant idea to have Grace watch a movie while they took her blood. It helped her be distracted and me to not be so nervous for her. And later when I was trying to find Sprinkles cupcakes so she could get a Gluten Free cupcake, I used my uber fast phone to find directions to it so I didn't get lost.

We can't wait to skype with our family this afternoon, and we couldn't do it without technology, so I am very grateful for the internet and to have a computer so I can see our families today while still being 1500 miles from them. Yay for technology!!

Sunshine Boats . . .

Bangers and Mash . . . kind of upside down Sunshine Boats

I grew up in the hick town of Springville. I don't know if Sunshine Boats were a Springville thing but no one else I ever tell about these (not that I tell a lot of people) has ever heard about them. Maybe the lunch ladies got the recipe from one of their ancestors or something. I like to think that. I'm sure they really just made it up after having leftovers and wondering what to do with them. But let me live in my own little world. At the beginning of every month when the new school lunch menu came out I would look for Sunshine Boats and count down the days. We took our sack lunches every day, but once in a while we got to eat school lunch (for 35 cents!) and I lobbied hard on Sunshine Boat day.

So, what are Sunshine Boats?? Think Bangers and Mash with cheese. Or think a split hot dog (Art City Elementary used these long, skinny, spicy, red hot dogs) with 2 ice cream scoops of mashed potatoes, sprinkled with cheddar cheese and broiled till browned. Mmmmmmmm. Every few years when I have some leftover mashed potatoes I need some and today was one of those days. If you feel like making some, here's what you need:

Hot Dogs (Oscar Meyer is the best)

Leftover (or new) Mashed Potatoes,warm

Sharp Cheddar Cheese

I like to brown the hot dogs on the outside, split them and brown the inside. Put 2 nice sized scoops of potatoes on top and sprinkle with cheese. Broil until cheese is browned.