M&M Party Bag

Calling all Blanchards

2012-01-17T06:00:00.000-06:00

While out looking for "little treasures" at our local Goodwill today, I spied something that made my heart go pitter patter and I took a little stroll down memory lane.

Brothers and Sisters!

I give you:

I know... right?

I was powerless to stop myself, and for the 25 cents apiece, I am now the proud owner of our plates from the past.

You may eat off one if you come and visit.

And say "please".

Where gratitude is due

2012-01-16T06:00:00.000-06:00

I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank the bigwigs at Walmart for making all those little toys so accessible to my tired, shopped-out little kids. I really think that is so thoughtful of you to set up a little miniature day-care for my little pups while I load my groceries and what-nots onto the belt.

It's customer service at its finest.

And to show their gratitude, they always make sure to give all the toys a quick "spit-shine" before we tidy up and go on our merry way.

It's the least we can do.

Four things I love about my husband

2012-01-15T06:00:00.002-06:00

1. He spent the ENTIRE DAY in the cold garage changing the break pads and rotors on both cars. This is a very awesome thing to do, but even awesomer is the fact that I will no longer announce my arrival at any given event by the SKREEEEK of my brakes. That's 3 years of skreeeking I would like to forget. Now all I have to do I make all new friends and it will all be in the past.

2. He has very nice muscles and sometimes he wears these glasses that remind me of when we were dating. Back in the 20th century.

3. He never gives up. Even when the bolts are rusted on. Even when the caliper is ruined and needs to be replaced. Even when he has to drive to AutoZone for the fifth time and then has to go one more time to the store all the way up by Legends. Even when the kid at Autozone forgets to give him half of his break pads and he gets to go back.....again.

4. He likes it better when I am there to keep him company. And he doesn't mind if I just read and keep warm by the space heater.

A shift

2012-01-14T08:00:00.000-06:00

Something weird happened last night.

We were all laying on the floor of the boys bedroom around 8:30 pm and taking turns reading chapters from "The World According to Humphrey". I say "chapters" because we forgot to read for 3 nights in a row and therefore we had 4 chapters to read in order to get caught up. Sunnyside Elementary has blessed us with ONE MORE THING that I am now barely remembering to do: reading a book all together, as a family, as a school, at the exact same rate.

Seriously! Seriously?

So there we were...Mathew had read his chapter (with voices and expression). Megan read to 2 pages and I read as fast as humanly possible and polished off that chapter. Then Ethan started reading his and.....

I fell asleep.

Drooling on the carpet.

Then....

They sent me to bed and finished the rest themselves. I did not argue.

Because I'm absolutely beat by 8:45.

They gave me a quick rundown of what I missed as we drove to school this morning. And I realized that before I know it, they are going to be shielding me from "sexy" things on television and trying to decide if I'm still capable of driving.

Busted.

2012-01-13T18:21:00.000-06:00

I walked into the bedroom tonight...innocently putting away a stack of laundry.

Then I realized that Mark had discovered my secret stash.

Horror struck my heart and a chill ran up my spine.

The Nutella has been compromised.

We partied like it was 2011

2012-01-12T18:22:00.000-06:00

I do believe it is 2012!

We went to my favorite kind of party:

Hanging out in our socks:

Perusing the food table. Going back for more....and more....and more.

Little groups and conversations going on everywhere....all you have to do to join in is pull up a chair.

Kids are downstairs playing Wii.

Little girls are asleep in their future babysitter's pink fluffy bed:

This is the night that being born into a loud family of 7 really pays off. Even when the clock struck midnight and the noisemakers were blaring, she didn't make a peep.

I get a kick out of all these Mormons and their sparkling grape juice...

It looks like it's going to be a fantastic year.

Happy New Year!

Twinners

2012-01-12T13:31:00.002-06:00

On a scale of 1 to 10......

How embarrassed is Mathew going to be when his friends notice He is wearing the same shoes as his mother?

On the other hand, I can't resist Converse in grey. It's not my fault they're located in the pre-teen boys section.

Medication

2012-01-09T18:00:00.001-06:00

Do you ever have one of those days where you feel like you might head straight for the refrigerator and take a swig of the baby's whole milk just to take the edge off?

I'm having one of those days.

And I'm going in for seconds.

We love to see the temple

2012-01-09T06:00:00.000-06:00

We love to make temple building a competitive sport.

Although in all fairness...the Provo is much easier to make with the big boys that the Kansas City is to make with the little girls.

Oh...and sugar cubes are fun to use in smoothies.

We have alot of them.

Geocaching

2012-01-08T06:00:00.015-06:00

We have a new favorite thing to do.

Have you heard of Geocaching?

The general idea is that you are given GPS coordinates in order to find a little container that someone else has previously hidden. It is usually about the size of a film canister, but can also be a big tupperware full of stickers! We now keep stickers or other little things in the car in case we find a big one. The rule is you only take something if you leave something.

You just download a geocaching app onto your phone and it will locate any geocaches that are near you. These things are everywhere!

Once you find one, you write down your name on the paper that is inside the canister and you post on the app that you found it. You can upload a picture of yourself with the geocache, but you have to make sure that you don't give away any hints to future geocachers about where it is hidden.

This isn't a problem for us because we have a way of taking up the whole photo.

They range in difficulty of terrain and how long it takes to locate them, but a lot of them only take about 15 minutes to find and it is the perfect way to kill a little time when you are waiting for somebody to get out of a practice or a rehearsal. It's way cheaper than a run to the store and it's better for us to be outside rather than idling somewhere in the van. People tend to get "accidentally" punched when we do that.

It's a never ending treasure hunt....and you don't have to write or hide the clues!

Next time we go on a road trip, we are going to try to find a bunch along the way.

Then we will be able to make a 18 hour trip last at least 22 hours.

That's the real treasure.

On the prowl

2012-01-07T06:00:00.000-06:00

She may look soft and pink,

but do not underestimate the sheer volume of chaos she can produce.

She's not taking a "stroll" at the library.

She's looking to empty a shelf in record time.

She'll make sure she's in the clear, then she moves in.

If I've stacked it, she will not rest until it has found a new home on the floor.

Have mercy!

Homemade snowglobes

2012-01-05T13:00:00.001-06:00

Here's another idea I stole from "Our Best Bites".

I am not ashamed to declare that 70 percent of my creative parenting is Google based.

My kids love snow globes, but I'm pretty picky about what kind of snow globes I am willing to part with my money over. No Disney characters allowed. We've already discussed my need for therapy when it comes to Santa. No princesses. No year dates.

That is why we have 2 snow globes.

Then I saw a tutorial on how to make homemade globes with pictures of your kids!

We loved it!

Just take photos of your kids in their snow gear:

Then print, cut out, and laminate. Glue the photo and anything else you want in there to the inside of the lid.

Then fill the jar with water, sprinkle in some glitter and lower the lid in and close up tight!

These were so fun to do, but next year I will make the photos alot smaller in proportion to the size of the jar. And I think the smaller jars are much better because they are easier for little hands to shake.

All I have to do is eat 5 jars of maraschino cherries between now and December 2012.

Piece of cake.

Maraschino cake.

Ladybug stars

2012-01-05T06:00:00.000-06:00

Never underestimate the power that a pink lady bug that glows blue stars and has buttons to push can do for a baby who finds herself cut off from her nightly milk supply.

It makes the entire situation infinitely less tragic.

The Daily Strange

2012-01-04T13:00:00.001-06:00

Do you ever find yourself sitting down to have a nice lunch on the bench by the bathrooms at Walmart consisting of popcorn chicken from the deli, free popcorn from the bank branch located just to the left of the bathrooms and a cup of yogurt dished up with a fork?

And instead of feeling ashamed, what you really feel is relieved that you don't have to make anybody lunch when you get home.

And you know there is a leftover enchilada in the fridge just waiting for you.

These are grand rewards, ladies.

Scenes from Christmas Day

2012-01-03T21:25:00.000-06:00

I love the tree in the early morning when it's full of small gifts and cards and the big boxes are sitting there all fat and impressive. There's so much anticipation!

Fat, bumpy stockings.

Early morning oatmeal with strawberries for my two little girls.

Look...but don't touch!

Hey! I said don't touch!

The kids sort through their stockings...

While Mark works on bacon and eggs.

Mathew takes his turn at the calendar. The star finally goes up!

A tube of pure chocolate joy. All to herself.

Even Anna knows that the contents are to be guarded.

Wrappers will be eaten if necessary.

Anna loves a good "Touch and Feel" book. She especially likes to lick anything furry.

Mathew will never disappoint when you need a good "I love it!" photo.

Ethan's collection of pegasus toys expands.

Everybody is interested in what kind of piggy bank Laney is going to get. Megan has grown wings...a Christmas miracle and a deep desire of her heart. Thank you, dollar store.

One of the favorite toys of the day: plastic fishing pole from the dollar store.

Large sunglasses....from the dollar store.

An "American Girl" doll! Not from the dollar store, but not from the American Girl store either! Hooray!

After presents and before I can scrape together enough energy to clean up the explosion in the living room.

Anna's future magnetic play area, to be mounted to a wall. Do you know how devastated I was to discover that stainless steal fridges are not magnetic? wah?

The "you'll get creative and share and play nice all together" gift (complete with LED tea lights to light the dungeon....ooooooh):

Our gift to each other: a framed photo of the Manti Temple. Married there over 12 years ago!

The wait is finally over.

Now we countdown to trash day.

Christmas Eve...a drama

2012-01-02T22:22:00.000-06:00

Christmas Eve.

1 pm.

I realize for the first time in our 12 years of marriage that if we want to have a roast for dinner, it will have to go in before dinnertime.

6 pm.

Just because it is Christmas Eve, it does not mean we don't get to use our fancy plastic lunchroom plates.

One more time...this time with Mom....and the top half of Anna.

Dinner dishes get cleared and kids get ready to go on our yearly "covert operation".

Details are classified.

The promise of covert operations do not make it easier to take a group photo.

Good enough.

Back to the house to open the jammies. This year we go "oldest" to youngest. Why am I only oldest when its time to do the dishes?

I start to see a pattern developing in the way we as a family behave when the camera is rolling.

See what I mean?

Ohp! There it is! The excited mommy face! "Whatever could this be?"

Ethan goes for the slow, painful "I'd like to save this lovely wrapping paper" method.

He starts to whistle. Just to pass the time. Then gets threatened with doing the dishes by himself if he doesn't get a moveon.

Mathew fancies himself a bullfighter.

Meggy finds out that shaking a box full of soft jammies is not at all satisfying.

So she whips out her opposable toes.

Laney is surprisingly still happy, considering she is second to last.

She is mightily reward with wiener dog jamies. (That is, jammies with wiener dogs on them...not jammies for the wiener dog.) (Are you starting to feel like I have said "wiener" and unnecessary amount of times?)

Anna takes a look.

Assesses what will be required to open this thing.

Realizes four teeth aren't going to cut it.

And does what any self-respecting baby would do.

"Open this, Daddy."

And...off to bed!

Ingenuity

2012-01-02T13:00:00.001-06:00

There comes a time in every baby's life when you realize that sooner or later you are going to have to take matters into your own hands.

Gingerbread Meetinghouses

2012-01-01T20:54:00.000-06:00

Each year we do some version of gingerbread house decorating. Sometimes they are great!

Sometimes they are lame. (No assembly required?) Lame.

Sometimes they end up looking like a train.

But always, always they come in a kit from the magical land of Walmart. Well, I say, no more! This year I planned to do the "I'm not quite ready to make actual gingerbread" version: Graham crackers.

I thought it was going to be cheaper to do it this way, but seriously, by the time you get the grahams, and then purchase enough red/white/silver Christmas themed candy to make it look presentable, the 10 dollar kit is feeling like the frugal way to go. (And you know that unless you are crazy...everybody get's their own portions of each type of candy. You give them one big bowl to share and you are asking for bloodsport).

Also, while I'm on the subject of presentation, I really thought that making little individual gingerbread houses was going to be so easy. I even saved up little milk cartons to help with structural integrity. Unfortunately the little cartons and the grahams didn't really match up and it looked all wacko. So then I went freelance and tried to make it work....and I ended up with....

Little LDS meetinghouses.

I also decided to go whole hog and let them control the icing this year. Which is why it mostly got sucked directly from the baggy into their sugared up little bodies.

Direct Quote: "Oh YEEEAAAH! SUGAR SUGAR SUGAR SUGAR!"

After awhile, I looked down and I realized that I was trembling from the sheer effort I was exerting in order to refrain from "fixing" anybody's creative processes. There was only one way out....

Make my own meetinghouse.

The glorious freedom of executing straight rows and miniature wreaths!

(I now include this photo Mark took of me to prove I have no pride and no access to a clean white shirt.)

Where else besides Utah will you find this many meetinghouses in one town?

Shepherd's Night

2011-12-31T21:26:00.000-06:00

December 23rd....Shepherd's Night.

The night where I make dinner of whatever I can pull together and I pretend that "I make this every year!" Last year I think was pizza. This year...sausage potato casserole and rolls that I accidentally switched the sugar for salt. Gag.

Then they get to put their sleeping bags by the tree and sleep "beneath" the twinkly lights all night.

They get excited. And pretty wired. The discover that lips look huge in the reflection of a bell.

Anna takes the opportunity to spruce up the tree.

Then I take a picture of them "sleeping".

Then I sneak in a couple hours later and take another of them really sleeping. All sprawled out, legs on pillows and heads on carpet.

That really is the same every year.

Joyschool nativity

2011-12-31T17:17:00.000-06:00

Laney got to be Mary in her Joyschool production of the Nativity this year. It was honestly so adorable. The entire class is little girls, so we had the sparkliest, fanciest shepherds and wisegirls you ever have seen.

I think it was a very good thing that we had this event at our house this year, because when we tried to do it as a family for FHE, the kids were CUHRAZY.

How crazy?

They tried to dogpile the donkey.

So we called it off halfway through....somewhere right after Mary, Joseph and the donkey start their journey to Bethlehem. The donkey never would have made it.

Instead we wrote letters to Baby Jesus about the gift we would give him during the week and we put it in a little stocking and hung it on a tree. The idea was to take the letters out on Christmas morning and talk a little bit about them before going full tilt materialistic.

And.....

We forgot.

Poor little stocking.

But if there is one thing I have learned about Family Home Evening....it's this: there's always next week.

Santa...to be or not to be?

2011-12-31T06:58:00.001-06:00

Okay...could I get a little advice here?

What in the world do you do about "Santa Issue"?

I waffle back and forth between being honest with my kids: "Santa isn't a real person. He is a symbol of generosity and love and the spirit of giving."

Rough kid translation "SANTA ISN'T REAL! .....mwah ha ha HAH!"

Just when I think we've discussed it all very thoroughly and all of there fears and worries have been soothed and questions answered, I sit down to wrap those presents on Christmas Eve and I cannot stop myself from writing: From: Santa ** From: Rudoph ** From: The Ninja Elf ** etc, etc, etc

Megan turned to me as Christmas Day wound down and said, "I DO believe in Santa! Because he came to our house!"

Oy.

So...which role do you prefer?

Magic Crusher?

Big Fat Liar?

Sugar cookies...free version

2011-12-30T18:58:00.000-06:00

You know how when you download the "free version" of an app, it turns out totally lame and leaves you wanting to send hate mail and feeling ripped off, even though you haven't paid for it?

That's exactly how the cookies went this year.

We tried a new recipe. It had almond extract instead of vanilla and they were so good to eat plain, I didn't make any frosting. And the batch was small and I didn't double it. And I was kind of tired and what I really wanted was to roll these puppies out, cut them into squares with the pizza cutter, throw them in the oven and start eating them approximately 11 minutes later.

But we did the shapes...and here they are...this is all of them.

Lame!

What? We aren't going to put frosting on them?

Lame lame!

eh.

Don't feel bad for them.

They had the last laugh. When I went up to change the baby into her pajamas, somebody found the miniature chocolate chips and sprinkled them on top. It was a simple victory for the short people.

Tortilla snowflakes

2011-12-29T10:52:00.000-06:00

I saw this idea somewhere...probably "Our Best Bites"... and it sounded like a good alternative to the millions of little paper triangles that litter the floor under the table after we usually make snowflakes. You just warm up the tortillas so you can bend them, fold them in fourths and cut out shapes! Then you brush them with butter, go crazy with the sprinkles, and pop them in the oven. They were much tastier than the paper ones.

Also, I know I joke about it, but I'm starting to get alarmed with the amount of shirtless cooking that goes on around here.

Time to decorate

2011-12-29T06:31:00.000-06:00

So, as I have said many times before...decorating the tree, I feel, is one of the best things about Christmas. I love all the funky, school-craft ornaments that come home. The ones that Mark and I both brought with us from childhood and the kid's own ornaments that they have picked out each year. I try really hard to quell my inner coordinator and allow them to choose the ones that they love...which is why we have a sparkly brown armadillo hanging quite lovingly from one of the upper branches.

This is our first Christmas in this house, so we decided to put the tree up in the "dining room". For one, there is no dining of any kind taking place there...unless you count the contraban cookies I greedily consume when I cut through there at night on my way from the pantry to the computer after everyone goes to sleep. The floor in there isn't as squeaky and I decrease my chances of getting busted if I go that way. Also, it has a window that faces the front and I love a good sparkly tree seen from the road.

We tried to get the ornaments out in an orderly manner, but Anna wasn't really feelin it.

So then we started whipping them out and slapping them up all willy nilly. There were hands everywhere!

I think it took a couple years off my life.

Mark hurried up the step stool and secured the star.

In the end, Anna started to see the tree as her own personal plaything and she cheered right up.

I asked her very calmly if she would be gentle with the crown ornament..as it was a Three Kings gift from a good friend. I thought I handled the situation with finesse.

She very patiently replied, "Mom...I was only going to lick it. Chill."

And so it begins. (Is that a blue T-Rex ornament I see by her knee? Doesn't that look better up by the armadillo?)

Deck the halls....

2011-12-28T18:29:00.000-06:00

Mark climbed up on the roof to put on the lights and I saw his life flash before my eyes.

I think next year we are going to focus on the trees, door, garage, fence...anything with a low profile.

Maybe by then I will get used to the idea of neighborhood-coordinated colors for the trees. We fell in line this year, but I admit I chuckle to myself every time I drive by the house that did neon rainbow lights in a "green on the trunk/ white in the branches" neighborhood. Stick it to the man, good neighbor!