embrace the chaos

InstaFriday

2012-01-27T14:01:00.001-07:00

My poor blog has been so neglected the last few weeks. Thank goodness I carry my iPhone everywhere I go, so it’s easy to participate in Insta-Friday.

The Apple store drives me crazy, but there isn’t a better store to wait at with 5 kidlets in tow.

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It was a ramen noodle kind of week. But I justify feeding my kids crap by using really cute bowls…and adding a little protein.

Don’t worry the GF child ate something different…but he did use a cute bowl.

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It made me nervous when I found Maggie here:

I didn’t have to look far…another pair of shoes. grrrrrr

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I really need these…for everyday life.

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Big J and Einstein were in the District Spelling Bee together. Hopefully I will get the story of the day posted soon.

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Back to the Apple store to pick up the replaced iPod.

Finally after hearing all the stories of Apple replacing broken iPod they came through for me and replaced Big J’s shattered iPod touch.

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Moments That Matter Most

2012-01-15T09:50:00.001-07:00

lds.org

A Whole Hand

2012-01-14T20:56:00.001-07:00

Today my Hammie turned 5.

He was excited to be a “whole hand” old.

He brings so much joy to our lives.

I sure love you Hammie!

Do you recognize his shirt?

InstaFriday

2012-01-13T14:20:00.001-07:00

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Roo has be begging for a new pair of shoes. Not just any shoe, a new pair of Pumas.

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On the way home from Costco we saw 2 of these.

One was really low and I was getting nervous that is was going to land somewhere it wasn’t supposed to. And sure enough it landed in a grocery store parking lot. Right where they had a little landing spot.

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Big Daddy and I got a gift card to Red Lobster for Christmas. We finally found a night to use it. And soon we had a plate like this.

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Maggie waits impatiently for bedtime.

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It was Miss T’s birthday and Roo rocked the Pin the Tail on the Donkey.

Big J played too. He completely missed the wall.

My Favorite Things

2012-01-12T10:43:00.001-07:00

I recently discovered Urban Decay’s 24/7 Glide-on Shadow Pencil. I freakin’ love these things.

The color I use the most is JuJu. How can you miss with that name?

On the days when I am trying to get my make-up done in 5 minutes these are my go-to eye shadows.

Starting with a bare eyelid.

A few quick swipes of the pencil and a little buffing and you’re done.

Add a little eyeliner and voila…

Quick and easy.

This isn’t the only way I use these when I have time to really “do” my face they are great. Using a pencil gives you a little extra control. And they really last and don’t crease.

I found mine at Ulta and I know Sephora carries them also.

Note: I wasn’t paid for my opinion. I purchased these items and really use and like them.

Wordless Wednesday–Things To Come

2012-01-11T14:02:00.001-07:00

Out of the Mouths of Babes

2012-01-10T10:16:00.001-07:00

After a very trying morning of trauma and drama I had the following conversation with Ham

Me: Ham what is your problem today?

Ham: I don’t know. I am having issues.

Really? I hadn’t noticed.

Thankfully things have calmed down considerably now that Ham is the only kidlet still at home.

Menu Monday

2012-01-09T21:48:00.001-07:00

I almost missed posting our menu for this week.

Monday – Pancakes
Tuesday – Tacos
Wednesday - Chicken Noodle Casserole
Thursday – Pizza
Friday – ???
Saturday – It’s Hammie’s birthday. It will be interesting to see what he picks
Sunday – Roast and Potatoes & Carrots

When I decided we were going to have pancakes tonight I realized we were out of syrup. What the what?!?

I found this quick recipe for syrup

2 cups Sugar
8oz Evaporated Milk
1 TBsp Butter
Boil Sugar and mil, stirring constantly until all sugar is dissolved. Cook over high heat until the mixture starts to boil. Remove from heat and add butter. Let sit 5 minutes. Stir.

It was so yummy, but VERY sweet. I think it would be better as a sauce over a cake or cheesecake.

InstaFriday

2012-01-06T14:32:00.001-07:00

Since starting the new blog and this:

I feel like I don’t take very many random pictures. So here are the few that I have.

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I have documented my OPI obsession here. I bought “Rainbow Connection” weeks ago but I just couldn’t bring myself to use it. It’s just so dang pretty and glittery.

But finally I broke down and glittered all of us Girlies.

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While we were looking for something in our garage I rediscovered this train set. It is about 7 yrs old and it’s been in storage because it is so big and we really don’t have a good place to play with it. Since we got it out Ham has played with it almost non-stop.

I am not sure how long I can handle having it literally in the middle of everything. But as long as he is having fun I guess I can just keep stepping around it.

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For more InstaFriday posts go here.

SPT–One Little Word

2012-01-03T15:03:00.001-07:00

When it came time to pick my One Little Word for this year I looked at back at some of the words I picked in the past.

Cherish

Live

I couldn’t believe that my favorite word wasn’t on that list?!? Well it’s time to change that.

For this year my One Little Word is:

Bliss

It's good to be just plain happy;

it's a little better to know that you're happy;

but to understand that you're happy and to know why and how...and still be happy,

be happy in the being and the knowing,

well that is beyond happiness,

that is bliss.

Do you have One Little Word?

Menu Monday

2012-01-02T13:04:00.001-07:00

It’s time to get back to menu planning. It shameful to think about some of the meals that we have eaten in the last couple of weeks. There may or may not have been meals that consisted of mainly cheeseballs.

I look forward to being a little more organized and eating actual meals.

Monday – Meatless Monday Baked Pasta
Tuesday – Tostadas
Wednesday – Breakfast for dinner. It will include eggs and bacon and who knows what else.
Thursday – Sweet & Sour Meatballs
Friday – take out
Saturday – ???
Sunday – Roast & Potatoes and Carrots

I think everyone has a baked pasta recipe. The one I have is labeled “Baked Ziti” but we rarely have gluten-free ziti in the house. I don’t think it matters what shape the pasta is in. Throw it together and bake it.

I haven’t mentioned it in awhile but I don’t usually plan anything on Saturdays. I never know what Saturday will bring so it’s just easier for me not to plan and who knows what will happen. The kidlets are so happy when I end up saying we are having pancakes for dinner.

And blessed Sunday…I don’t know what I would do without a crock-pot. We just changed to the 2pm meeting time. That means we get home from church after 5pm and everyone is starving. I just need something that I can throw on the table as quickly as possible.

Look Not Behind Thee

2012-01-01T05:52:00.000-07:00

mormon.org

Capturing December…One Day at a Time

2011-12-31T20:44:00.001-07:00

I just couldn’t choose one favorite this month.

Which is your favorite?

This is my last “Capturing…One Day at a Time”.

The challenge of finding a picture to take each day is fun for me. Maybe that shows that I have waaaaay too much time on my hands. So for the next year I have started a new blog and I will be posting my pictures there. That way I don’t have to worry about posting to Facebook.

If you want to follow the new blog it’s Embracing 2012...One Day at a Time. Clever title don’tcha think?

Or if you have Instagram you can follow me there at @embracethechaos.

Don’t worry I won’t be neglecting this little blog. I am committed to posting more than I have been. It’s been a comfortable home for the last few years and I want to keep it that way.

Where Did December Go?

2011-12-30T22:14:00.001-07:00

Well let me share a few pictures and I will tell you where our December went.

We had a delightful month and I think I checked every thing off my list that I wanted to get done.

So here is our month in a really long, picture-filled post:

Our first Christmas activity was Gingerbread houses. Yes we made Einstein participate under protest. I explained we were decorating them, not eating them. He was still a little freaked out.

I found this awesome little kit at Target.

Five little houses, five not-so-little kidlets. Perfect.

I started putting the houses together

and set the kidlets loose to decorate.

I tried not to get to involved and let them do their houses anyway they wanted.

Which is a little difficult for the control-freak that I am.

But you know I really held back when half of Ham’s house looked like this:

And the other half looked like this:

And that is exactly how he wanted it.

Big Daddy really enjoyed the decorating…maybe a bit too much.

The reason I didn’t worry too much about how their houses looked?

That’s right. After they all went to bed I decorated my own house.

And then we had a lovely little gingy village.

A gratuitous Instagram shot.

The next thing on our list was a visit to a certain jolly elf.

I am so happy that my teenager loves me enough to be willing to go sit by Santa. At least I don’t make him sit on Santa’s lap, because that would probably be a bit much.

After visiting Santa we went to pick out the yearly ornament for the kidlets.

I finally made the step to rely on my iPhone for pictures and I didn’t even bring any other camera with me. This is huge for me, but I do love my iPhone and Instagram. But silly me totally failed at taking pictures of the kidlets with their ornaments. Gah…

The next night was Big Daddy’s office party…and not a picture taken.

Later that week we had our ward Christmas party. The littles were excited to get to visit with Santa again.

All the kidlets had parts in the program, the littles sang with the Primary and the Boyz participated in a very funny “The 12 Days of Scoutmas”. Yeah no pictures of either one…but here is a great picture of the ward.

A few nights later we made our trip to the Mesa Temple to see the Christmas lights.

They were as beautiful as ever.

And the weather was chilly so it really felt like Christmas.

We made a stop in the visitor’s center to visit the Christus to help us remember the real reason for celebrating Christmas.

That same week we fit in 2 different band concerts.

It was so nice last year when the concerts were together, but this year they were both pretty short and sweet.

Are you still with me? Only a couple more weeks to go…

A new tradition we started was to sit down and sing Christmas carols and read a story each night. It is a wonderful way to slow down and spend some quiet time together as a family. We have a nice collection of Christmas stories and found some great ones at the library too.

On the 18th we had most of Big Daddy’s family over for dinner and The Nativity.

We have enough kidlets to cover all the major parts including baby Amanda being a perfect Baby Jesus. (We could always use a few extra shepherds next year Steven and Christina)

LaLa was so excited to get to be Mary this year.

We only had to remind her a couple of times that she was holding an actual baby and not a doll. (We did put the stools on the carpet to avoid any serious accidents.)

The next day I meant to send a text to Big Daddy and accidently sent it as a tweet.

I just opened the last Dr Pepper in the house. How the hell did that happen?!?

@embracethechaos on Twitt · via Twitter

Oops!

I had a great friend and her daughter stop by to save me from utter destruction. So there are times when a mistake is worth making.

Good thing I had the extra fuel because my next morning looked like this:

LaLa got a citizenship award.

Roo was on the Principal list honor roll.

Einstein was on the Principal list honor roll

and the middle school advanced band performed.

Thankfully school was finally out for Christmas break.

And wouldn’t you know it Roo decided that it wouldn’t be Christmas without at least someone being sick and sacrificed herself to a nasty ear infection.

Her being sick didn’t stop us from going to see The Forgotten Carols.

It was the first time that we had taken the kidlets to see it and it was as amazing as always.

The next night my Dad and his wife had a family Christmas dinner. The group was a little bigger than usual since my brother and his family came down from Utah to spend Christmas in Arizona.

And as this picture clearly shows their lives revolve around me…ummm not.

But I did invite my self to a yummy sushi lunch with them and my beautiful SIL Karen.

Reading this post makes the month seem more stressful than it actually was. We had a good mixture of busy and family time.

And finally we made it to Christmas Eve. The night we had all been waiting for.

As we drove to my extended family Christmas Eve party Ham had already had enough for the day.

We only stayed a short time at the party since Roo had shared part of her illness with Big Daddy. This is a quick picture of the group waiting to be entertained.

When we got home Pickles had made an early delivery of gifts.

Who doesn’t love new Christmas Jammies?

I am not sure when or how the tradition of changing into the new jammies right then and there started, but it makes me laugh.

Roo tried to find a little privacy.

Now they can go to bed…

Well there were a couple more things that needed to be done before they could go to sleep.

We finally got around to decorating cookies for Santa…

and maybe some for ourselves.

And we couldn’t forget the reindeer.

Ham kept a look out for Rudolph and his red nose.

I love seeing the magic of Christmas through the eyes of a little one.

And finally it was time for everyone to go to bed.

The kidlets woke up to a “peeking deterrent”.

This isn’t a very good picture, but the look on Ham’s face is priceless.

We finally gave them the go ahead to break through.

And we had a very Merry Christmas.

And Santa had visited the Chaos.

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas too.

The Greatest Gift

2011-12-25T01:42:00.000-07:00

mormon.org

From Our House to Yours

2011-12-24T22:05:00.001-07:00

Christmas Spirit

2011-12-18T05:37:00.000-07:00

mormon.org

Menu Monday

2011-12-12T13:41:00.001-07:00

I am sure you were thinking you would see an actual menu…well not so much.

I am just hopeful that we eat a few meals that might include something more than cold cereal this week.

My question to you is what do you have for dinner when there is only a 2 minute difference between when people come home and you have to leave again?

Kids and Christmas

2011-12-11T05:43:00.000-07:00

mormon.org

Look to the Light

2011-12-04T13:48:00.000-07:00

mormon.org

I Love a Parade

2011-12-03T19:38:00.001-07:00

I love, love, love our little town. And today was just another example of why. It was our Annual Christmas Festival and Parade. Both Boyz were going to be in the parade so there was no way we were going to miss it…not even if it was cold and rainy.

We dropped the Boyz off early so they could get with their groups and went to find a place to watch the parade.

We found our little spot to sit and LaLa noticed this little asphalt patch shaped like a heart right in front of us.

How perfect.

We had almost an hour to wait until the parade got started and the streets were already lined with people.

Very cold people.

It was freakishly cold and rainy for us desert dwellers.

Not exactly parade weather.

Soon the perfect small town parade started.

We had groups of dancing girls…that had to be freezing.

And marching bands.

But unlike big time parades we also had marching sheep

and goats. There was also a chicken, but I didn’t get a picture of it.

And our own little covered wagon.

And soon we had some unwelcome visitors in the shape of drops.

But that didn’t stop our rodeo queens.

You might have thought the weather was planned by this guy.

Good thing we had this guy to spread Christmas Cheer by singing loud for all to hear. (Okay he wasn’t singing, but he should have been!)

Einstein was happy to wave at us.

The jr. high band doesn’t march.

But they did sound great. Big J is in the back in the Santa hat.

Whoever did their float did a great job on the decorations.

And Macy’s has nothing on us.

We also had Santa to wrap up the parade.

And as we were walking back to the suburban I realized I didn’t get a picture of us.

Duh.

I knew how to fix that.

Friday Instagram Love

2011-12-02T12:32:00.001-07:00

Since I was a little busy last weekend I am doing two weeks in one post.

The weather had been glorious here in the southwest so there had been many hours spent outside with bikes and scooters. It has since changed, but I won’t whine about how cold I am. But 60 degrees is cold to me!

Oh this dog is old…and his talent to clear a room quickly is unbelieveable. And he doesn’t even care.

I lined the Boyz up and grabbed the clippers. I think I may have had enough hair on the ground to make a puppy.

Pumpkin. Chocolate chips. And gluten-free. Enough said.

I saw this cute idea here and then sat up until 2am sewing buttons and watching “Sense and Sensibility”. And then forgot to take pictures of the girlies and the cute hair-do’s we did to match. Duh.

Thanksgiving day…after.

It appears that we have pests…and I think he may be 13.

The downside of celiac is the blood work he has to have done. The good news is his iron levels are finally almost normal, so no blood work for another year.

I watch Mollie sleep and I get so jealous.

Pickles showed up and my kidlets are so much better behaved. I might need this little elf to stick around longer than just Christmas.

Our Christmas countdown has begun!

Join the fun with Jeanette here.

Capturing November…One Day at a Time

2011-12-01T12:36:00.001-07:00

Another month has come and gone. Can you believe it’s already December?

Here is a quick look at my month.

For some reason I missed taking a picture on the 24th…go figure.

I have no excuse for missing the 29th.

And did you notice that this month included 2 Dr Pepper pictures…

Thanksgiving Weekend Wrap-up

2011-11-30T18:09:00.001-07:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was full of family, fun and food.

Big Daddy’s family had a mini-family reunion with his immediate family of 2 parents, 4 siblings, 3 in-laws and 12 cousins.

We started the weekend out right…with a Thanksgiving Feast. It’s funny how this meal is planned and then so much time is spent cooking and baking and in mere minutes it is over.

After our Thanksgiving meal everyone took time to play and relax. And yes in Arizona it meant some of the kidlets took a dip in the pool…and others didn’t (because I am the meanest Mom ever).

Later that evening we shared our many talents. We had everything from jokes to music to poems to skits to songs. We are a multi-talented family…I use the word talented loosely. And I never thought I would associate my Thanksgiving with Jim Carrey, but from now on he will play a part of my memories.

The next day we all went to hang out at Grandma and Grandpa’s house to just play and have more fun.

Saturday morning started at Coons Bluff and involved ropes and harnesses and some very brave family members. I just watched and took pictures, there was no way I was going to climb up the mountain to come back down again on a rope. Other people were more daring, including a 5 yr old. Steven was the first to come down the mountain. Followed by Big J, who wasn’t too impressed by the whole deal. Henry came next…and yes he is 5! Nathan made it down and Thomas. Einstein came over the edge and at the last minute decided that rappelling wasn’t for him. Roo got harnessed up and started down the mountain then got hit by a gust of wind and luckily she was still close enough for Uncle Steven to haul her back up. Preston was by far the fastest down the rope. and I didn’t get a good picture of him. Big J decided to give it another shot and had much more fun coming down the second time. And my heroes are Christina and Julie who rappelled down like professionals.

After the rappelling we came back to our house for lunch and Minute-to-Win-it games.

Sunday was the one of the highlights of the weekend with Preston and Julie blessing their new baby girl. It was fun sitting in Sacrament together as a big group (because Preston’s family was there also) and watching the cousins sit together in their little groups.

After church we spent the afternoon together just enjoying being together as a family.

It was really a wonderful weekend. Thanks to Big Daddy, Sherri, Julie and Steven for all the planning and work that went in to it.

2011-11-24T03:16:00.000-07:00