Noooooo! Not the TREEEEE!

Ahahahhahawaaaaaaaaaah. Sob. My tree fell over. Picture it. A fifteen foot tree. Laden with ornaments both glass and cheap, and plastic and expensive all crashing to it's doom. Nobody underneath it, thank heavens, but crashing nonetheless. Sob.
I am on my way to scouts. I am just turning around to face the door when the tree comes crashing to the ground. Nobody pushed it. It just suddenly became possessed and fell.
sob.
IT TOOK ME TWO DAYS TO DECORATE THAT STINKING, WRETCHED, POKEY,
cough. cough. ahem. Deep breath. Toothy smile and girlish giggle.
So there is something to be said about seven foot fake trees........

Ornaments tradition:

Twinkling, sparkling, spinning, singing....we've got them all. Dave brought the tradition of keepsake ornaments from Hallmark to our family. Every year we go to Hallmark crown and choose an ornament. They are so clever and fun. This years picks:

• Dave picked a Peanuts ornament with snoopy and four or five woodstocks in a canoe
• Kirsten picked a soldier at his post, made entirely of plastic, but in the shape of a little gingerbread house (kind of looks like an outhouse) and he is made of gumdrops, and he is drumming away. It moves and makes drum sounds. So cute.
• Katelyn picked a retro toy-magic 8 ball that tells fortunes. Do you remember that toy?
• Scotty picked a cartoon style dog holding Christmas lights that sings "Bad to the Bone" when you push a button
• Kara Joy picked Hoops and YOYO, characters from Hallmark that she has loved ever since Sherrie forwarded me a happy Mother's Day ecard from Hoops and YO YO. In fact she has it starred as one of her favorite sites, and she goes there to watch the ecard previews. She loves them. On the ornament they have conversations of happy Christmas and such.
  
• Skyler picked a retro toy-Hotwheels car on one of those old orange plastic tracks they used to have

• Michael picked a Disney Little Einsteins rocketship with the characters inside.

So those are this year's picks! Last year I got a Madame Alexander doll ornament, Dave got a Peanut's choir ringing bells in a church, Katelyn got a fridge with Christmas dinner inside (it lights up), Scotty got Wile E. Coyote lighting the top of the tree with a star (in the position Tom Cruise takes dangling from a rope in Mission Impossible, Kara Joy got a rockem sockem robots toy ornament, and Skyler got a See n Say ornament and Michael got a naughty or nice meeter in a stocking ornament. Fun. Just a little look into that tradition for you.

WE GOTS DA FEEVAH

Boy is the Christmas fever running through our house. people are singing Christmas songs, wrapping presents, doing nice stuff for each other (once in a while. It isn't constant, so don't think it is perfect at our house) Anyway, the stockings are hung, the tree is done, the shopping is done, and I even made wreaths out of the tree remnants. Wow. We gots da feevah!

Do as I'm Doing...

Katie and Scotty were on the bed with Daddy as I was singing to Kara to put her to bed. Katie got this wild hair and all of the sudden began to roll like a steamroller while singing the primary song, Do As I'm Doing. Scotty for some unknown reason was on the same page, and began doing the exact same thing. They rolled over and over each other, singing that silly song. Do you know what they were immitating? Katie said they were being the arms that roll over and over when you sing that song. Random. Funny. Where do they get it?

Oh Christmas tree...

I have been so sickly.... poor me poor me. Okay enough of that. We got a really tall Christmas tree. I love it. We chopped that baby down from the woods and had to get a ladder to decorate it. But we used all our decorations this year, and it reminds me of when I was a kid. Mostly because the height from tree to person ratio is the same as when I was little. So it must be ginormous for the little kids at my house. but they loved climbing the ladder too. Come over and see it sometime.

Poor little waif...

A little background. This week has been less June Cleaver-ish and more Ritz crackers and easy cheese when it comes to dinner. (Not really that bad.) But enough bad to make me want to make sure I made a really nice dinner for the kids and dave tonight. SO I did.
After dinner, Skyler, who is three, walks in my bedroom and says in his
three year old voice, "Mom, I want ceeyal." Which is to be interpreted, Mother dearest, I would like you to pour me some cereal.

I said, "Skyler, how about some more chicken, or broccoli, or rice?"
to which he replied, "BUT MAAAHHHHMMMMM, I STARFING!!!!!"
So I gave him cereal. Just a funny.

What is your favorite home made candy?

Mine is a tie between caramel and mint meltaways (truffles).
Just curious.

I love you...I like you...

Michael and I have a fun little thing together. Every time I tuck him in for bed or for a nap, he says,
"I love you, I like you."
I think it is sweet. Even in the middle of every night, when he wakes up, for one reason or another, as I tuck him back into bed, there is a little whisper, "I love you, I like you." It is such a tiny little voice then, that it melts my heart. I love you, I like you; sounds like a children's book title to me. Or maybe a church talk.

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS ......

are supposed to be easy, fast, and not scary to put up. I have just decided it. So let it be written, so let it be done. Maybe I will figure it out before the snow comes-------- next week. Oh well. It is fun anyway. On the other house, I had a routine. I could do it all in a snap. Different house, different siding, different lights/hooks to figure out. Hmmm... tis the season to be jolly.... :-)

Just so's you knows;

• according to my boys, I am "Mommy Jaguar". Michael and Skyler are the baby jaguars.
• Scotty just informed Challis that he is hot.....in both ways.
• Turning off the tv at night may lead to fun family playtime; with Katelyn and Kara dancing together to big band music, Scotty creating marvelous war zones with his green plastic army dudes, Michael and Skyler sitting in front of the bookcase, perusing Thomas the Train and Cuordoroy, and me sitting quietly on the couch loving every second of it and taking it all in. Unless your kids' names are different. Then insert appropriate name.
• Setting up tables and chairs for den meeting can work wonders for cub control. And MnMs.
• Prayer has an amazing affect on the soul, and answers to those prayers are certain. In Doctrine and Covenants 98:4, the Lord swears that our prayers enter into His ears and are heard/answered. With my life I know this is true. He recently fought a little battle for me, that to me has been ongoing for a year. For me that little battle was as big as freeing the Hebrews from Egypt. What is neat is that although He knew my battle was little, He understood that for me it was huge. I love that. Key words, He understood. I love that. I love Him. He loves me. He loves you.
• Thanks to my beautiful Janet and Sherrie friends, I am learning that LESS is MORE.
• If you are reading this blog, you should KNOW that you are ultra importante to me. I mean it.
• I really don't like this color of green.
  
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I got powers.....

The boys got some new Superman suits for fun. After halloween, the sales are really great, so I got each of the boys a little superman costume. Skyler absolutely loves his. He wears it everywhere and flexes his muscles for us. So, I asked him, "Skyler, do you have muscles?"
He said,"No. I got powers!".....
Cute kid.

Grateful for.....

• I'm grateful for crisp snowy mornings when I am toasty inside
  
• I love the pumpkins and leaves on my porch. And the rusty basket with apples.
  
• I am thankful for the pioneers who settled Iona before me, and my ancestors who lived in really tough times (dugouts, no food, etc.) so that I could benefit from those sacrifices. I have a toasty warm comfortable home, and we have nice meals every day.
• I am thankful for knowing about the Savior's plan. It fills my life, and gives me hope and joy.
• I am thankful for the cute little kids playing at my house right now. We have Luke Bush, and Kaleb Hemenway and the Kelsey girls. They are all especially beautiful children.
• I am grateful for my free money that I get from plasma. It is so fun to just walk in a craft store and buy some cute crafty stuff for decorations. I love it. It gives me such a charge.
• I love my ward friends, and my near and far off friends. (if you can read this, you are definitely one of those.)
• I love laughing with my husband.
  
• I love laughing with my kids.
• I am grateful for joy.
• If you are reading this, you can know I am grateful for you.
  

quiet and fun family time

Sometimes I am just so grateful for my family. Even with the screaming currently in the background. But this thankful moment I had on Monday night. For family home evening, we had a less structured evening, that started with Dave in the big chair just watching some funny stuff on Youtube with his lap top. Then one by one we kind of cuddled around him and started watching and just laughing. We really enjoyed just being together. The little kids, not that interested in the computer stuff, just played together in the same room as us. None of us fighting or struggling to get through family home evening. Nobody picking, pecking or pestering one another. Less stress. Always good. Anyway, it was an awesome together family time. We had fun. We laughed, played and ate pudding. Then towards getting ready for bed time, Dave started picking the kids and flipping them over. It was so funny to watch all these flying little leggs. As soon as one was done, the next was clamoring up to him for another turn. This family thing is definitely worth it.

Ho Boy.

I am gonna write this one in plain ol' black. Cause it was a BLACK moment for me at the time. Now it is kind of okay but I am still upset a bit. Alright. So. The night was Wednesday and I was there helping out my sister at the Halloween family fun night at the new elementary school inbetween Iona and the middle school. I was to be a fortune teller along side my sis, at six. Unfortunately I got there half an hour late and flustered, worried about being there so late. But there I am in all my fortune telling garb, and let me say, walking through a school hall filled with kids dressed up for Halloween next to their parents, I drew a lot of attention to my six foot self wearing a shiny silver do rag on my head and goth style clothes and makeup.
So there I am uncomfortable, and worried. THat should set my mental state. So then as I am just chatting with Jana out in the hall at our "station", an older gentleman and his beautiful wife (and she was very pretty) were strolling by with their kids kind of swirling and bouncing around their feet with excitement. He looks at me and slows down. He obviously recognizes me, and then does the same to Jana, but she talks to him first, so I figure she knows him already. Me? No. I do not know him, although he looks a bit familiar, and by his body language, I know I am supposed to know him. But I don't. Of course he stops to talk, and I try to play it off that I know him. But I am thinking wildly in my mind, "where do I know him? How do I know him? Is he a customer at the store? I just don't know. Be smooth and get through it without offending." Well, then the turn of events. For fun he decides to sit at my table to get his palm read. Oh no! I am supposed to know him. Don't know him from Adam. One slip and oblivion.

So first thing I say is, " you have a beautiful wife." Large reaction then ensues which I can't remember that well, but it is best described as kind of a wave crashing over me. But instead of water, it was more like energy from a gasp, chuckle, someone saying "Ohp!" all wrapped in one.
Oblivion.
They are now chuckling, I am red from not knowing what I just said, and trying to get through A STUPID FORTUNE TELLING ASSIGNMENT THAT I AM NO GOOD AT! Ahem.
The rest of the story.
After his reading, they still kind of hover around me and Jana just talking. A little girl walks up to them and starts talking. I recognize the little girl and figure out who the family is. Turns out the "wife" is a mom whose husband just died about a couple years ago. The "husband" is a guy in my stake, that visits our ward, and he knows my parents pretty well. Thus him knowing me, but me not knowing him that well.
But still, he knows I was just playing that I knew him. And that is embarrassing. Very embarrassing. It is important to me that people feel like I know who they are, and that I always get their name right (names are important) and that I don't make them feel bad in anyway. I hate to make people feel bad. So now he knows. And I feel very bad that I didn't recognize him.
I get through the night and meander home.
Oh it gets better. In bed later on that night Dave and I were discussing how it went that night. I tell him about my plight and how I was embarrassed. I said," They just looked so happy together, and all those little kids swirling about, I thought they were just a big happy family. They were just together." So he asks," Were they together?" And then it came crashing into my mind. He was single, too.
"Dave? Did his wife die?"
" Umm, yeah."
"When?"
"A few months ago."
Oblivion.
Remember what I had told him in his reading? First thing I said was " You have a beautiful wife." I was talking about the lady right there. But I was suddenly petrified that he thought I was talking about his recently deceased wife, because I was supposed to know who he was, after all. At anyrate. I was mortified. I get worried if I get a name wrong. Let alone a situation like this.
Well, it has a happy ending. I called a relative of the "wife" to get her number so I could apologize the next morning. She reassured me of there not being a problem, and that they were actually dating. They have people thinking they are married all the time, and that they weren't offended in the least. Thank heavens. So that was my embarrassing Kirsten moment. Thanks for enduring to the end of this blog! Quite a little saga. Ho boy.

Twins for Sale

Twins for sale...................

Funny things kids say

Tonight I was tucking Skyler into bed when I noticed a big ding in the wall right over his bed. Ugh. Big ding. Well I didn't like that at all, and it was pretty visible on my face and in my demeanor. So when I asked Skyler if he did it, of course his natural self preservation mode kicked in and he said, "No....Michael did." Well, the chances of that were slim. And then it hit me, of course he is telling a lie, I am pretty imposing to him at this point. So, in an attempt to turn it into a teaching moment of how we should always be honest, I decided to call his bluff. So this is how the conversation went down:

"Skyler, did you do that?"
"No....Michael did."
"No...you did it, didn't you? It isn't Michael did it, it is I did it. Say I did it."(attempting to teach him to admit it and that it would be okay.)
He thought about it and sweetly and obediently said,
"Mommy did it."
At this point I burst out laughing. He was so sweet and pure about it I am not so sure he actually did do it. Anyway, all seemed to be instantly forgiven, whoever did do it. Kids are cute.

Walgreens

Have you ever noticed that there are like, what?...five billion Walgreen stores everywhere? Well Dave and I have. And that's okay, but out here on the East Side, we loyal Eastgate Drug friends are kind of peeved at them for putting out of business our mom and pop drug store of fifty years or so. Anyway, because of this we kind of joke about the Walgreens and poke fun at them.
Well, as we were driving into town, I looked over at Walgreens on the corner and noticed that some new construction was going on right next door to them. Laikin, my thirteen year old niece was sitting in the passenger seat and I turned and asked her," So what do you think they are building there?" I laughed so hard when she said matter of factly, "Another Walgreens." I guess Dave and I aren't the only ones who think there are entirely too many.

blue head cat

So I read this post on Janet's blog about the kids taking a blue marker and painting the whole of the cat's head with it. For Halloween, of course. And I must admit, as I was sitting in my sister's house holding her cat while she was at work, I seriously thought about coloring the cat's head blue. I was thiiiiiiis close. Maybe I still will. Maniacal laugh......

An unexpected visit from the birthday cake fairy

Yesterday was pretty fun! We had a day off of school. So Katelyn and Scotty thought it would be fun to have some cousins sleep over. Katelyn invited Laikin, and Scott invited Hunter. Well, the sleeping over went pretty well. It was fun. And when we woke up, we found that the "birthday cake fairy" had come in the night and brought a surprise cake for Hunter that morning. WOW! Mysterious. But you shoulda seen the look on that kid's face. He was smoldering inside with childlike excitement. I couldn't get enough of that. We then had a breakfast of french toast (much different than the usual cheerios) and decided a trip to ToysR Us was in order. Hunter got a gift card to toys r us from Scott for a birthday present, but we thought it would be awesome for all of us to go to the store to help him pick it out. What kid doesn't love to go there, even if it is just to look?
So off we went.
They had the best time testing out all the stuff on the shelves and finally decided on something. Hunter even got a crown and a balloon since he was the birthday kid. Wow. It kept getting better. By then we had rumbling tummies, so we all got a cheeseburger from Burger King. He said this was the best day ever. That is fun to hear!
Finally we left for home so we could test out some of that cake. It was green with a spider web on top, and a plastic spider over the happy birthday hunter part. We had our fill and then it was time for Hunter to go back home, so we packed up the rest of the cake and sent it home with him. We had a bunch of fun. And all of it unexpected! Low stress. Best that way.

Inspiration

I have a lovely friend name Janet. She is inspiring me through her great example of blogdom, and I feel like I should follow along and blog. So here goes.
We went camping over the weekend and it was so incredibly fun. Of course, no tents were involved. My kind of camping involves running water and plumbing. Also, refrigeration and heat are a big plus. So add that with some super awesome company and I am good to go! Isn't it amazing how a change of pace can jumpstart your whole outlook on life. I really had fun last weekend and I know my family did too.

Right now the big challenge in my life is to get the house cleaned up and stay clean. I mean normally that doesn't sound like a very big challenge. But I really have a crazy disorderly house. So yeah, I don't like that. If I could just stay home for an extended amount of time without having to start and stop for various things I have to help family with, appointments, or other things that i need to do, then it would be clean. I know how to clean and even enjoy it. If, that is, I can be rewarded by being able to admire my job well done before it gets messy again. Oh well. I am happy anyway. That is a good thing. And certainly I would be unhappy without all those people and things I am responsible for. So I count my blessings. I have noticed how especially cute my kids are. They are incredibly beautiful. I couldn't love them more. How did I get so blessed? I am thankful for my Father in Heaven. He takes care of our family. That is a great thing.

Just like Chocolate!

Yesterday Dave and I got to go preview some pictures of the kids. They were taken at Alyce's studio on seventeenth. Wow. She is good! The kids look like they should be advertising some sort of chocolate candy. You know like that Dove commercial where there is all the browns, silks and satins on the tv screen? Well it just reminded me of that. It was gorgeous and I am excited to show people the pics!

Last night Dave and I went on a date and introduced the Celner's to the art of SUSHI. They were highly skeptical of our choice in dinners. They are the anti-sushi. They hate the name sushi, california roll, or anything to do with seaweed. Well, SUCCESS. They enjoyed it. YEA! It was fun. We ate food and then had some icecream at ye ole' Leatherby's and did roll out the door larger than we came in.

Summer Fun

Well the end of the school year is here. Today we have decided to take a break from our chores (nothing much was happening there anyway) and we have redirected our energy toward a much healthier direction, WATERSLIDES! No grass? No problem! Head on over to grandma's, hook up the hose to the slippery slide Michael and Skyler got for their third birthday, add a few of grandma's cookies and grab a handful of the jelly beans in grandma's never ending jellybean tea pot and you are good to go for a wet and wild time in the sun. That was a really long sentence. But there are no English teachers grading me here, are there? My blog. I give myself an A.

Magic Strawberries

Every once in a while, Katelyn and her cousins Brianne, Nichole, and newest
"cousin" Amber like to get together to make cool recipes. They created their own new desert, Magic Strawberries, by boiling strawberries, mixed with melted white chocolate chips, brown sugar, and maybe white sugar. Boiled strawberries, hmmm. Well they tasted pretty good. What doesn't taste good with melted white chocolate chips?

Michael and his blankies

So as a baby, Michael and Skyler got blankies for a present from
the Celner family. Michael claimed both the green AND the blue
one. He loves it so, and when he is chewing on his blankie he is
most comfortable. In fact he has chewed right through in a few places.
I used to sew the holes, but then gave up as I saw it a lost cause. The
hole is now so big in the blue one that he can fit his whole head right
through it. Thus demonstrates the picture. But, he loves his blankie
more than ever, holes and all. I should talk. My baby blankie
looks like lace.

Our Gorgeous pullup models...

OOOH
AHHHH
OHHHH!

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful...

And here we have Katelyn, Kara, and Skyler showing off their gorgeous faces framed with pullups.

Kara and the apple tree

We don't have any trees or grass around our house, and I think that maybe the little ones are missing their nature. Kara Joy, our four year old, came up to me the other day and we had a conversation. It went a little something like this:
"Mom, do you like trees?" said Kara.
I nodded with a "sure."
"Is it because they give us apples and grapes and bananas?" she inquired.
"Yes."
"Okay," and she bounced off to play.
About a half an hour later, she burst into the room, telling me that I needed to follow her. Wanting to obey, I followed her to the front of the house where she presented me with a gift.
With pride, she beamed and exclaimed,"See?!" I looked to where she was pointing, and there perched on top of a single stick, stuck in the mud was a shiny round apple. It was our newest tree, an apple tree. And it will forever be my favorite.