Vomit and Poo and No Sleep, Oh My!

There is nothing quite the the quiet shuffling of little feet into your bedroom to wake you up.  Unless it's a little voice screaming, "Mom!  Dad!"  That is pretty effective at waking me up as well.  The shuffling of feet was Annie in the wee hours of Tuesday morning and the yelling was Maddie well before the sun coming up today.  We rolled out a make-shift bed on the floor of our bedroom (next to the bathroom) so we could help the kids.  Annie and Maddie both were sick last night.  And were still at it today, from both ends.  Let me tell you, it's tricky to get the timing right between bouts in the bathroom to take Emma and Elizabeth to school.

I had to take a step back and laugh a little at my life this afternoon.  I had brought all the remaining clean underwear to the downstairs bathroom (as we've been going through many a pair today).  So between the panties and the Lysol wipes- this is my day in a nutshell.

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I think we've turned a corner finally, and might be starting to get better.

Lighted Implement Parade

Yesterday night was our local Lighted Implement Parade.  Ryan went down early, and we joined him at about 6 pm.  The parade officially started at 6:30, and we were almost at the very end, so it was about 7 pm before we started moving.  But before the parade started, we took a tour of the parade floats.

Ryan's FFA float.

 The kids in front of the truck (which pulls the float).

The kids receiving the 5th candy cane of the day....

 Santa driving a... tractor?

If only this hearse was decked out in white lights.  They should totally get a smoke machine and have speakers with a mysterious voice saying, "Scrooooooooge."  hehehe

We all piled into the truck and got ready to go.  And eat.  It was a good thing I packed snacks.  We had a long wait.

Our view of the parade.  The weather was really nice, and I think it more people came to watch because of it.

Cookies with the Clauses

Yesterday was the annual Cookies with Mrs. Claus.  Every year prior to this one, it was hosted by Darigold.  However, Darigold closed their deli and visitor's shop this past year and so would not be doing the cookie decorating.  So, one day as Ryan and I were talking and throwing around ideas, we thought Ryan's FFA chapter should host this community event.  Of course back in June, it didn't sound like such a huge undertaking.  This last week, we really started to understand how much goes into an event like this.  But, we survived and have some experience under our belts for next year.  It's a good thing Ryan has "free labor" in the form of FFA members and students in class to get everything ready.  

The event started at 9:30 am.  When the kids and I walked in at 9:25, there was a bit of a crowd already.  Ryan and his FFA students had been setting up in the commons area of the high school since 8 am.  (Well, and a lot of Friday as well, for this and the Lighted Implement Parade.)  At the end, Ryan figured he had about 1600 kids come through, judging from the number of cookies left.

Ryan came over to say hi long enough to have a bite of Elizabeth's cookie.

 After decorating cookies, we got in line to say hi to Santa and Mrs. Claus.

We were very grateful that Santa came.  He blew out his knee Friday evening and spent all night in the ER.  So a HUGE thank you to him.  Incidentally, I now know the going price to hire a Santa for two hours- $300 for a non-profit event.  He was great though.  Mrs. Claus was a volunteer.

After saying hi to Mr. and Mrs. Claus, I walked around taking pictures.  Here is the food drive as you walked in:

 Some of our friends:

(The tall man below is Ryan's principal.  I don't know what they were saying exactly, but it looks something like, "How many kids are in here??!?"  And Ryan- "I told you we were expecting a lot.")

All told, I think about 400 pictures were taken, but I am not going to post all of them.  It was a huge turn out.  Next year, we'll count.

The kids and I left a little before 11 am to go to the park to run off some of that sugar.  We were back at 11:40 to help clean up.  We got home about 1:30 for lunch, with Ryan following at about 2.

Ryan, the Clauses, and (most of) the FFA helpers.

Christmas Cards

I've been asked for my address several times on facebook already this year for Christmas cards.  Geez, guys.  It's not even December yet.  Somehow or other, I am really behind already.  

Today is a teacher in-service day.  After a nice, relaxing morning with all the kids home, I determined I was going to get a picture of the kids for our annual Christmas card.  I picked out shirts, brushed 4 heads of hair and pointed to where I wanted my hooligans to sit.  I took no less than 57 pictures, most of which looked something like this:

 I got one or two that were decent.  I think I'm going with this one:

Betty Crocker is not a good livestock judge

For my birthday I got a new Betty Crocker cookbook.  The one this replaced looked like it's been well used/abused.  After the kids went to bed last night, Ryan and I sat on the couch drooling over the pictures and checking out the new recipes.  Then we flipped over to the meat section.  Ryan about lost it.  His monologue went something like this:

"Betty Crocker is crap.  What kind of animals are those?  There is no freakin' way those cuts of meat came from those animals.  Look at that back.  What's wrong with that sheep's legs?  Are they broken?  That is one poorly muscled pig.  That [piece of meat whose name I don't remember] would only be half that size, and have two inches of fat on it.  That's disgusting."

I was dying.  As if the general public has any idea what "lousy structural confirmation" is.  I don't, and I am married to a former college livestock judging team member, and current Ag teacher.  Ryan went on, and on, and on.  In between laughs, I was playing more dumb than I am trying to elicit more disgust from him.  It was hilarious.

Scavenger

Today I made myself brownies instead of a birthday cake.  After I had mixed everything up and put the pan in the oven, I put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher.  I had been sneaky, and mixed up the brownies without the twins knowing.  (Or having their delightful help.)

Later, coming back in the kitchen, I found Annie scraping the bowl.  She'd even pulled the spatula out and was licking it too.

Oh Christmas Tree

Tonight for Family Home Evening we went out and got ourselves a Christmas tree.  We are so excited about our BIG house that we got a BIG tree.  (It would have half taken over our living room before.)

 Lights up.  Ornaments next.  Ryan and I took turns unwrapping ornaments, and the kids were off putting on the ornaments.  It was a whirlwind of activity, but the kids did a good job.  I only rearranged a couple of stacked up ornaments.  We were done in record time.

 Angel going up!

 And this is me playing with the settings on my camera.  I got my tree to "glow."  :)  Sometimes I feel like such a doof.  I have this fancy camera for a couple of years now, and I need the manual to figure out how how to adjust the "ISO."  But at least the picture looks cool.

Minute To Win It- Thanksgiving Style

This month while I was sick and good for nothing except lying around all day, I decided what we needed for Thanksgiving was an activity.  So while I was a blob on the couch, I looked up Minute To Win It party games online and decided on a few of the many out there for our gathering.  It turned out so fun.

We started with Breakfast Scramble.  This is a puzzle of the front of boxes of cereal.  Strangely, this is harder than it sounds.

 Then there was Face the Cookie.  Seriously, so funny.  You have to get the cookie from your forehead to your mouth without using hands.

 Next, we had Shake It.  This is where you have to shake 6 ping pong balls out of a kleenex box.

 Then, we had "This Blows" which requires you to blow 15 dixie cups off the bench with a balloon.

 Penny Hose had us try to reach pennies in each of the feet of a pair of panty hose without using your hands to help the other hand.

Smiley Faces had us use straws to move M&Ms onto a paper plate in the shape of a smiley face.  Two eyes, one for a nose, and five for the mouth.

 Lastly, there was Noodling Around.  This was using uncooked spaghetti noodles to scoop up penne.  6 for adults, 4 for the kids.  No hands allowed- for those of us 8 years old and up.

I had a lot of fun.  Judging from the laughs, I think our guests did too.  I think if we host Thanksgiving dinner in the future, we will do this again.

Once the games were done, I headed to the kitchen.  The turkey had been in the oven for a couple hours, and it was time to whip the rest of it up.  Everyone brought part of the dinner, but it still takes a while to put together.  This was quite a feast!  We drank a lot of Martinellis apple cider too.

 After we were good and stuffed, we needed a little break before digging into the pie.  We had lots, and lots, and lots of pie.

Thanksgiving Decor

Here are some of the projects we've been working on to get ready for Thanksgiving:

 For Family Home Evening this last Monday, we made "hand turkeys."  Always fun to see everyone's interpretation.

Thankful

I love this time of year.  We had some great talks in Sacrament Meeting at church today about being thankful.  Of course this topic was a no-brainer considering the holiday coming up this week.  But it got me thinking.  I am so blessed, and should take the time to remember to be thankful for what I do have.

Here are some of the things I am thankful for today.

I'm thankful that my parents raised me in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

I'm thankful for my Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.  With His help, someday I may become the person I want to be.

I'm thankful for my wonderful husband.  Ryan has been great while I have been sick.  He's cleaned the house, cooked dinners, and put the kids to bed without complaint.  And once that is done, he holds me on the couch while I cough.  No matter what I make, Ryan always says my food is better than anyone else's.  He doesn't complain those days I'm a lousy housekeeper.  He thanks me for the clean clothes I (usually, just not so much this month) get around to washing.

I'm thankful for girl friends who surprise me and take me out to dinner for an early birthday celebration.  I have wonderful friends.

I'm thankful for family friends who hang out with our craziness.  Even when some no longer live in town, they still call us up and want to see us when they are in the area.

I'm also thankful for family friends who have medical knowledge and let us pick their brains (and stitch up my husband- twice) on weekends.

I'm thankful we were blessed with finding the perfect new house for us.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE all the space.

I'm thankful for my girls.  I love when I catch them being kind and sweet to one another.  I love that they like each other, and want to spend time with their sisters.  (Ahem, but they still need to go to sleep when it is bedtime!)

I'm thankful for my in-laws.  I couldn't have married into a better or nicer family.

I'm thankful for bartering.  It was really nice to have free babysitting last night so I could go grocery shopping with Ryan- just the two of us.

I'm thankful for modern technology.  I'm thankful for email, phones, the internet (how did we find new recipes without it?), tv (to use the kids attention so I can get something done), epidurals, stand mixers, mp3 players, cameras, computers, washing machines, cars, indoor heating and plumbing, and dishwashers.

I'm thankful for a modern day prophet and revelation.

Once I got going, it was easy to come up with quite a list of things I'm thankful for.  I could keep going, but I think I'll stop here for now.  How lucky and blessed I am to have been born in this time and place.  I need to remember that, more than I do.