snippets

That's all you're getting 'cuz I can't for the life of me coerce my brain into decently describing the last seven days of our holiday.

(I've always liked how the English say "on holiday" rather than "on vacation". It just sounds so much more fun, and more celebratory in a way that "on vacation" doesn't convey. I'm adopting it from here on out.)

(I just realized I said "the English" rather than "the Brittish" or "the European". I've been reading an Amish series lately and have picked up some speech habits I think)

So, yes, snippets.

• Hubby worked the 24 hours of Christmas Eve leading into Christmas Day, so he got home around 7am. The present opening was quick but meaningful. All of us had asked for things that were a bit on the pricey side (relatively) so the presents were few but hopefully what everyone had needed or wanted.

• I was surprised with diamond earrings--small, but perfect. The kids all got electronic gadgets that saved us on our holiday excursion to my parents 7 hours away.

• There: presents and presents and presents and more presents. Attention Grandma: next year, reign it in a few dozen notches! (and thank you!) We ate out, ate junk in, crafted, watched movies, read books (I think I finished two and a half?), did some after Christmas shopping, visited the St. George temple lights

• Pirates Island--think Peter Piper Pizza. I think we were there nigh on 3 hours. Fun. And loud.

• I did not sleep well. Still haven't, in fact. Too hot, too cold, too uncomfortable, too many thoughts, too much heartburn from too much crappy eating, whatever. Sleepless night makes me grouchy--just ask my best friend whom I kind of got in a fight with last night (not really, but probably the closest we've come in all the years we've known each other)--I'm not a peach to be around right now. And, sorry Friend.
• Went through the temple with a sister-in-law for her first time. That's always awesome.
• Gained approximately ten pounds. Maybe. The batteries mercifully died on my scale the day before we left--call it a preemptive strike on it's part?--so I don't now. I just know that I feel 'fluffier' than normal. Grr.

• Hubby's back to work and actually working 4 days straight--24/12/12/24. That makes me Grr too. Two of those are OT days and will not interfere with New Year's Eve, so that makes me happy. Thanks honey.

So there's some snippets of our holiday for ya.

Somehow blogging holds no excitement for me at the moment, so hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things and soon.

(Today's the last day to enter the $100 Visa card giveaway as sponsored by BlogHer and Hershey. I have a couple more coming up so keep your eyes peeled. I don't think I've ever had a friend randomly win one of these big ones but wouldn't that be fun?)

merry christmas, friends!

on the third day of christmas break, my true love gave to me. . .

. . . football, caroling at a nursing home, and cookies cookies cookies.

We spent the morning running errands together and then played at the park a bit, working on Ethan's bike riding and my horrible football-throwing skills! Can I help it if I dodge every ball that comes my way? Those suckers hurt when they slam into your fingers! Or onto your bare forearms? Youch! I'm not built for contact sports!

We then joined a dozen other families from our ward and visited an old folks home nearby, to bring some gifts, goodies, and Christmas cheer. We sang and talked and Sean played a few songs on his clarinet. (He did great! I was so proud of him!) This truly needs to be a staple for us at Christmas--it's the third year in a row we've done it and we always feel so good spreading some Christ-like love this special time of year!

And since there are just not enough cookies around our house (every day this past week we've gotten at least one or two new goody plates from friends and neighbors) I decided to cook two new batches of cookies to hand out to my kids' friends, Dan's home teaching families, and oh yeah, it'd be nice if we got to eat some of them ourselves, right? I tried out a new recipe that uses butterscotch chips along with the chocolate chips and oatmeal. YUMMMM.

How are you keeping busy this Christmas time?

on the second day of christmas break, my true love gave to me. . .

. . . snow, my last kiddo to get rid of his training wheels, and vomit.

Our neighbors brought back some snow from their Polar Express trip.  So fun!  I distinctly remember the last time they did this, last year--happened to be on the same day as the infamous weirdest vacuum cleaner experience ever incident.  It's forever imprinted in my mind!

                                    

 

We really should have started this a year or so ago, but we were too lazy.  Ethan can ride pretty well once he gets going, but it's the starting and stopping that trips him up!

 
And lastly, Cameron has started with the vomiting and flu.  Ugh.  We only pray we either all get it in the next day or two, or that it starts here or else we'll have to cancel our Utah vacation.  :(  (We made him stay away from the kids and in the back of the truck during the snowball fight-too hard to keep him away entirely!)

on the first day of christmas break my true love gave to me...

The ability to sleep in until around 9:30.

=)

Mostly due to the fact that I could not for the life of me fall asleep last night. It was about 2:30 the last time I checked, so when you put it like that, 9:30 doesn't sound too bad. It felt sooo good to sleep in a bit though!

It was a great day in the valley, perfect weather, and probably the last of the sweater-less days being that the temp's gonna drop about 20 degrees this week and we're due for some rain tomorrow. Since we knew we might not have many opportunities for outside time after today, we spent three hours at the city park. We ran into some of our current and past neighbors there so that made it even more fun. :)










Then this afternoon, collectively we watched Elf, finished a really good book, and caught up on the Survivor finale online. I then put together some homemade pizza (yes from scratch!) that turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.

It was a nice start to the break!

i guess it was worth the mess

What do you think?

$100. one hundred. cien. one-zero-zero. a clean crisp benjamin. a c-note. one large.

Don't forget to enter the Hershey's $100 giveaway contest over on my review blog...you have until the 31st to enter by way of commenting, tweeting, or blogging about it yourself. You don't have to have a google or blogger account to comment--you can do so anonymously, just leave your name and email so I can contact you if you win.

I did recently make my Christmas goodies to share with my neighbors and friends, and got rave reviews from all the Hershey's recipes. Check 'em out! And check out the size of my butt as I walk away... cuz... dude. I have done nothing but eat goodies the last two weeks!! And there was much rejoicing in the land.

You have until Jan 15th to check out the Tom's of Maine $100 giveaway as well. What have you got to lose? Just leave a comment about how you get your kiddos to brush--or comment on anything really--and you'll be entered.

Good luck!

lately uploaded on my ipod

I must preface this by saying that although I downloaded these, not many have been Keepers. I'm sick of most of them for one reason or another.

"Bad Romance" -- Lady GaGa. I can't stand this woman. I really can't. But I do really like the chorus on this song. The rest of it annoys the snot out of me. Plus the video is disturbing as heck. Too disturbing to link to.

"Paparazzi" - Lady GaGa. Ditto. Just like the chorus. Though watching both these videos has, I think, cured me of ever listening to her again. She is one bizarre chick.

"Replay" -- Sean Kingston. This one gets stuck in my head and I can't get it out--like my ipod stuck on replay... Too many swimsuit scenes to link to.

"Tick Tock" -- Keisha. Does anyone remember the "We Like the Cars that Go Boom" song from the 80s, with Tigra and Bunny (we like the boom!)? When this gal 'speaks' her verses she sounds just like them. Watch the video and you'll find out how very white trash she really is. I can not in good conscience link to this one either. I do like the chorus though. What's up with the quality of music lately?

"Empire State of Mind" -- JayZ. All about New York City--I don't really care for the verses but I do like the chorus, just so I can belt out "The lights will inspi-yah you!!!" This song makes me wish someone would write and produce a song all about Phoenix. Think I should do my hair like Alicia Keyes does in this video?

"Whatcha Say" -- Jason Derulo. Another one I'm tired of. Yawwn.

"Run This Town" -- Rhianna & JayZ. I can handle this song for approximately 27 seconds, then I want to rip my own ears off.

"Vanilla Twilight" -- Owl City. Finally one that I still love, though it took a while to grow on me. Owl City also does "FireFlies" which annoys me, and the lead singer has a very distinctive voice. So when I hear one song, I think of the other. However the lyrics in this one really touch me. Soo sweet.

"Never Gonna Be Alone" -- Nickleback. Super sweet video. Check it out.

"One Less Lonely Girl" -- Jason Bieber. Even if you don't like the song, you gotta check out the video. It may possibly be the cutest thing I've ever seen, once I get past the fact that the kiddo singing is like eleven and he's singing to a gal clearly sixteen or over.

So yeah, out of this list of 10, there are three I still like and recommend. What are you listening to?

would you quiet down back there? we're trying to get spiritual, danggit!

We love heading out to the Mesa AZ LDS Temple each year to enjoy the Christmas lights.  Once again I was spouse-less, but I had many helpers along with me. . .which may or may have not cured me of ever taking my children out by myself ever again.  Ever.  Have I mentioned 'ever' ??

The beautiful solitude of the temple grounds is always something to enjoy, not just at Christmas and Easter time, but year round.  I love to walk the quiet grounds and enjoy the quiet, the beauty, the peacefulness of the temple, even if I am not inside.  Christmastime with all the lights is just a bonus. 

First I want to share with you a bunch of crazy outtakes when we were setting up our group photo shot.  Cuz they're just too fun not to share:  (you know I can only post these because I'm not in any of them. . .ha!)

 

 

And finally the winner:

 

The kids enjoyed the nativities, watching the "Luke II" movie inside (Cameron said, "Luke the Second" when it came on and Ethan said, "NO! It's Luke ELEVEN!" ) and the short Christus presentation inside the Visitor's Center.

 

Here's Caden, just loving the presentation of the Christus statue.  It was too cute to see him react.

 

 

For those of you who do not know, this is where Danny and I got married. 

 

Isn't it lovely?

     

Here are some shots of other people in our group.

Yes, baby Harley is tucked in there in Chris' sling!

The temple is a great place for quiet reflection, :)

 

good family and friend time,

 

 

But really, the silliness should stay at home.

Thanks for a fun night, my friends!

toothpaste and another $100 giveaway

Just in time to help pay off your credit cards in January!

Enter now on my review blog!

late-night visit from prowlers?

All was quiet...it was late, past 10:30. The kids had been in bed for hours and I was just finishing up some study-time on the computer...

Who are we kidding? I was likely chatting, blogging, youtubing, or otherwise surfing the net.

As I mentioned, all was quiet.

Until it wasn't.

I heard a noise in the kitchen. Someone was prowling around in there.

Being that my hubby works 24-hour shifts, sudden and surprising noises at night really startle me when I'm alone.

So I had an inner dialogue. Do I go out and check and risk getting shot by a prowler? Or do I just let the burglar take what he wants and hope that he ignores my sleeping children's bedrooms?

I took the chance, figuring 'if it's my time to go, it's my time.' I opened up my door slowly and walked out into the hall and towards the living room.

This is what I found.

My kids had been up and around, positioning their favorite stuffed animals in front of the tree. The animals were covered in a nice warm red blanket, decorated with ornaments from the tree, and had their Christmas list nearby, ready for Santa.



I guess I won't call the cops on the intruders...this time.