Long time, no post

Sorry to neglect you, little bloggy...we've been having too much fun. Will fill you all in on the marvelously wonderful details when we finally get home to OR in several more days.

Despite all the fun, I feel terribly awful that one by one all our family members here have come down with that same awful stomach bug that we were plagued with in the week or two prior to our trip--I can't help but feel like we are responsible for all of the sickness as we are the one "common denominator" among all the family members. So for my dear family who may be reading this while recovering, I do apologize and don't blame you one bit for cursing us for bringing this upon you. I do hope you'll forgive us once your good health returns and welcome us back again someday.

We're driving to Utah tomorrow...hope it goes smoothly!

Made it! and Merry Christmas!!!

I thought I should just drop a line here to say we made it and in pretty decent time too. We saw the most gorgeous sunset over Las Vegas--I took pics but photos never do sunsets justice (unless you're a pro and not using a simple point-n-shoot....but that's beside the point.) And with the sunset was the most beautiful moonrise...and the moon was just amazingly bright and full...with what looked like a planet beside it but I'm not sure which...will have to check out the NASA site or something to find out. Going over Hoover Dam was as "fun" as ever and we were so glad to be heading south over it as there was a SEVEN MILE backup going the other direction!!! Anyway, it's gorgeous here--warm & sunny--we don't even need jackets!

I just got the car washed and I'm kicking myself for not taking a "before" and "after" pic of it--guess I could still do an "after" but there's not much impact there without the "before". You can imagine how filthy it was though after that drive through the snow and ice and all. Think dirty chalkboard...like 40 layers of chalk, only the chalk is salt and road grime.

Did you know you could track Santa as he makes his way around the world? Go to NoradSanta.com and see the Santa Tracker there. Pretty fun and the boys were impressed. : )

Merry Christmas to you all wherever you are! Sometimes I think Christmas Eve is more fun than Christmas day--both for the anticipation of the next morning and because it's the time when we focus most on the Savior and the glorious gift of His birth. Again, Merry Christmas!!!

On the road

We're on our way to AZ to spend Christmas with my family...we left OR yesterday and what a crazy trip! It was pouring rain in Portland, and just 30 miles outside of Portland the rain turned to snow. That cleared up for a bit until we hit Pendleton and from then on out it was all snow--and if there wasn't snow, it was ice. In Nampa, ID, the highway was closed, so we stopped to eat at McD's instead and by the time we finished, the highway was open again... Our usual 12 hour drive took 16 hours, and as is typical for us, we didn't leave home until 10:30am, so with the time change, it was 3:30am when we finally pulled into George's bro's driveway!

The bright spot in all our travels was how incredibly wonderfully Benno did! He didn't cry at all--at least not until we were stopped at a light after pulling off the highway at long last to Alpine, and we ALL felt like crying at that point!

We also are incredibly grateful to our Heavenly Father as well for watching over us as we drove--we saw so many spun out cars and several rollovers all along those treacherous roads. Today's travels should be a little kinder weatherwise as we head further and further south.

Wish us luck!

Holiday Joy

I did it. I got all 121 cards fully stuffed with cards, letters, and birth announcements (sorry not everyone will get those), personally noted (as necessary), stamped, and in the mail TODAY! A full SIX days before Christmas, HA!

And I must make a public display of gratitude to my friend April who gave me the BEST holiday gift ever: she saved me the biggest headache--there's a little known post office location just minutes away which I was unaware of until last night thanks to April!!! I walked in there today with 3 boys, 2 packages to mail, and 93 cards in need of stamps, and instead of standing in the usual dreaded holiday postal lines, I walked right up to the counter and was FINISHED in just the time it took to swipe my credit card. That TOTALLY made my day. THANK YOU APRIL!!!

Last night I went to an ornament party and came home with this little beauty:


I better be invited to next year's party because I'm already planning the ornament I shall bestow next year. Last night's ornaments were all TOO cute. We need to mix things up a bit to make it all the more fun. I'm on the hunt for the most hideous ornament the world has ever seen...I have a whole year to find it. (evil laugh....mwa-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaaaaah!)

I picked out one to bring for last night that I just thought was really pretty--little did I know that it was the fabulous kissing ball that became one of the hits of the evening. Now I want to go back to Target and buy my own kissing ball. I'm sure George would not object. ; ) It was similar to this but smaller and cuter:

The Woes of Stomach Flu

My friend Laura posted this on her blog a few days ago...hilarious! And I need a bit of humor now with 2 boys home from school today with nasty cases of stomach flu...
At least George doesn't have the stomach flu, or ahem, "man stomach flu." Then we'd really have trouble. : )

Blogging for Church

Hey all my fellow LDS bloggers--did you see this news story on the church webpage:

http://www.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/apostle-urges-students-to-use-new-media

I can understand the need for it too--with Mitt Romney running for president, I can't believe some of the things I'm hearing being said on all kinds of programs from TV to radio to internet...

I even caught Dr Dean Edell, the self-proclaimed "America's Doctor" of the airwaves, spouting off about how he needed to examine religious beliefs of the candidates because, paraphrasing his words: those Mormons believe that if God tells you to do something you do it, so Romney could say "God told me to bomb Iran..." and we couldn't have that. First off, why is Dr Edell talking religion and politics on a medical show? But secondly, Mormons have been in positions of power all throughout the government and since when has any of them gone off and done something irrational and claimed that God told them to do it??? And of course, wise old Dr Edell does not have a website or an email address available to contact him directly so he can get away with saying anything he pleases out over the airwaves with no repercussions...I could call into his show but the screener would only let you on with a health question. Real brave guy, that one. I don't admire Dr Edell too much as it is.

Did you all hear what Huckabee said of Romney last week too? He actually said, "Don't Mormons believe that Jesus and Satan are brothers?" Maddening! Supposedly Huckabee apologized to Romney but I heard him make a remark that alluded to the fact that there was more he could say (disparaging the Mormon faith) but wasn't going to--I emailed the Huckabee campaign to kindly remind Mr Huckabee that supposing he became the Republican nominee, there are a good number of voting Mormons that he'd need votes from....not too smart to go attacking our faith.

Ok...sorry, I could go on and on. On a more positive note, I've heard lots of really great things said of the church too by people who are not Mormon in response to this crazy religious mudslinging that's going on.

Top Secret Project in the Works

I've been absent from the blog for a little while because I've been working madly on my Christmas card!!! No, you won't get a sneak peek here right now...you're going to have to wait and see it just like everyone else in the mail. I think you'll agree that the wait was well worth it though--I'm pretty happy with the way it's turning out. It'll be on its way soon enough (and it better be, I can't believe we're less than a week away from our trip already...YIKES!)

L'il Standing Man

So, those who've been regular readers of my blog saw my announcement not too long ago that Benno had learned to pull himself up to a stand...and experienced parents know the dreaded result of that new-found skill: Benno's been pulling himself up in his crib only to find himself stranded there and screaming for help because he can't get himself back down again...which means he's been up regularly through the night screaming his head off because he's pulled himself up AGAIN... Ugh, just when he was starting to sleep better again...good thing I love these little babies of mine because I tell ya, the sleep deprivation KILLS me!



Just for fun, this is my boys' all time favorite photo of Benno. He looks so incredibly and lovably fat in this shot that it cracks us all up! This was from October on a pumpkin patch visit...

Gingerfun

What's better than getting to build and decorate with sugar? Last year I bought 3 of the kits for the big houses but that was too much and I ended up having to do most of the work myself...then we were left with these giant houses that weren't really edible anymore after Christmas...so this year I was only going to get one for the boys to do together, but that idea was met with much distress and threats of mutiny so I relented and added the train and thankfully found an itty bitty house that Christopher could decorate "himself" (I still ended up doing most of his!) Anthony did the big house and Aaron the train...both did a pretty good job for doing it themselves!

Say hello to my little friend

My boys have a very silly mother. This cracks me up! I offered to do one for Anthony too but he declined the offer.

Ward Christmas Party!

Tonight was the annual ward Christmas Party (and what a joy to not be in charge of it for the 2nd year in a row)! The line for Santa was insane but we survived & actually got a pretty decent photo out of it from the boys. The musical entertainment was the best we've seen at a ward Christmas party...way fun, the local high school musical group had us all singing & laughing.

Cookies

For tonight's ward Christmas Party, I'd signed up to bring cookies...and the boys have been begging to do the holiday cookie cutters, so my brilliant ingenious idea was to make holiday sugar cookies with help from the boys. It went so "well" that I ended up scrapping the whole thing, using pre-made peanut butter cookie dough to make perfect peanut butter cookies for the party. Why, you ask, what happened to the sugar cookies? Well, first off, the dough was all wrong...not sure what happened as I followed the recipe perfectly...it didn't taste too good and the consistency was all wrong. Then at one point, when we'd just about loaded an entire cookie sheet ready to stick in the oven, Aaron was counting them with Bub and somehow or other the whole thing ended up on the FLOOR! Finally baked them but baking didn't help the situation...then the boys were decorating and well... Peanut butter cookies allowed me to save face.

Zoolights

Well, there's a reason they call it ZOO-Lights, and it's not because of the animals...that place was an absolute ZOO!!! Regardless, we did finally find parking spaces (yes, silly us brought TWO cars, long story) and had fun seeing the lights Friday night.

The Day of Infamy

Well, it's Pearl Harbor day...and we had a minor catastrophe of our own here today as well.

I was finishing getting ready really quickly upstairs in my room while Aaron & Christopher were supposed to be getting coats & shoes on before we ran an errand when Aaron came running up the stairs saying, "Mama! Come quick! Christopher did something in the family room and it's REALLY bad!" At once, I knew it was going to be one of two things...either my precious nativity set or the Polar Express snowglobe.

Sadly, it was the snowglobe. I'm glad I got a pic of it because it's now been shattered, and as we bought that several years ago, I'd be surprised if I can find another one to replace it with...sob. Honestly, I'm surprised it hadn't shattered long ago...it was inevitable in a houseful of boys.

A moment of silence...first for Pearl Harbor, and again for our dear snowglobe.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We're all appropriately decorated here (and have been for a week or so but it's taken me this long to take & post these pics!)

Here, come with me and I'll give you a tiny tour around our house:

I really should get a nighttime pic as it's more festive with our lights in the windows...don't you think the leftover pumpkins from Halloween are a nice touch? (I've been meaning to harvest the seeds from those and toss 'em but who has time for that?)


Here is my Christmas gift this year--I got the first half of this set last year and I got the final pieces this year, yay! Note that this is safely beyond my boys' reach. There's a strict "No Touchy" rule for this one!


And this is the boys' to play with to their hearts content! You may notice that Santa & Mrs Claus and a reindeer are there to celebrate and worship as well.


Here is our tree. Nothing particularly special about this tree aside from the joy & excitement the boys had in decorating and building it. It's an artificial tree--which I've regretted from the moment George talked me into getting it a few years ago. I LOVE real trees...and I LOVE the fun of going to get the tree too...but somehow or other, George convinced me that this would be a good thing. I'm annoyed that the thing isn't pre-lit. As long as it's going to be artificial, why not be pre-lit and save the hassle of stringing lights? Oh well...the boys love putting it together and we don't have to worry about watering it or anything like that. The little train at the bottom has certainly seen better days...it's been well-loved.


This here is one of the boys' favorite Christmas decor treasures... When you tip the globe upside-down, it yells, "All Aboard, the Polar Express!!!" and the train's big steam engine huffs and puffs. Way fun and lights up so prettily in the dark.


And lastly, here are some of my favorite things. I just bought these stockings this year after being on the hunt for stockings for years...I only wish I had a real mantel to hang them on. And on the wall behind is another new thing I'm excited about: a candy cane garland card display!!! I always get a bazillion Christmas cards (which I LOVE, keep 'em coming!) and never know quite how to display them, until now. I bought 2 of these garlands so at some point I'll pull out the second one to load up too.


Now you've had a glimpse into a bit of the highlights of our Christmas fun here. Along with the decor of course is the music (and the delicious scent of apple cinnamon in the air...love that Glad plug-in!) Music favorites include many that are favorites of yours as well, I'm sure: Harry Connick, Jr, the Nutcracker, Bing Crosby, Mormon Tabernacle Choir...we love our "Coolest Christmas" and "Edge of Christmas" albums too which feature some silly songs as well as a couple favorites by Cocteau Twins: their renditions of Frosty the Snowman & Winter Wonderland.

Who doesn't love Christmas?

Baby milestone

I've been waiting these last few weeks, knowing this moment was coming, and it came last night. Benno pulled himself up to a stand last night. He wanted to help me with the dishes, sweet, helpful child that he is.








What did he go for first?
A knife, of course.

Violin Recital

I'm a proud Mama (and wife, LOL). Last night my "boys" were first on the program to perform their outstanding rendition of Frosty the Snowman.





***On a sidenote, for anyone who's interested in the massive destruction of our ferocious NW storms: I-5 is shut down for 20 miles between Seattle & Portland because it's under water--anyone trying to drive between the 2 cities is being forced way out of the way toward Yakima! On the news last night they showed footage of some of the way out to the coast--highway 26, which is our main way out to Cannon Beach & Seaside is shut down with no estimate of when it will re-open--and in that footage, there are places along 26 where trees that once stood vertically are ALL horizontal across the roadway though not laying flat on the road itself, so the few cars getting by are driving as if through a tunnel! And speaking of a tunnel, next to one of the tunnels on 26, a large segment of road sunk by 1-2 feet! That more than the trees is why they've had to close 26 indefinitely! The coast itself has been battered to death with all kinds of flooding--our dear old Tillamook has been inundated.

The back corner of my yard is still a lake, but it's already receded today with our beautiful sunny skies. Other than that, all is perfectly fine at our house, thankfully. It's a balmy 59 degrees out...warm enough to pull out shorts almost, ha!

Sad day in the tree world

Near the coast along Highway 26 stands a historical marker pointing the way to the "Largest Sitka Spruce in the United States"...thanks to our wild windy storms, that 700 year old tree has met its end. It's a sad day for Tree-huggers and Tree-admirers of all shapes and sizes...

We've stopped there a handful of times to admire the giant tree with various friends and family. Here is a memorable occasion when we visited the tree with Granddaddy--I can hardly believe how little Anthony & Aaron were then! What cuties!





Read here for more info on the tree with video footage: http://www.katu.com/news/12043736.html

Please, a moment of silence for the tree.





Thank you. So long and farewell, dear old Sitka. Highway 26 will never be the same again.

Speak of the weather...

Weather is always such an exciting topic, isn't it?

The boys were SO excited Saturday morning--it SNOWED! Of course, the ground was wet and it only snowed for a couple hours so nothing stuck...but they were so cute running around begging me to get their snowpants and boots out. They did go outside to play but it pretty quickly switched to rain and they all came in the house soaking wet.

That was Saturday...Sunday and today it's been purely wild out there! Pouring rain and raging wind...I've had to keep our front door locked because the wind gusts keep blowing it right open. We had one big storm hit yesterday and the second is battering us today and by the end of it all, we're supposed to have gotten 6 inches of rain! I can believe it too since I had to take George to work this morning when his car battery was dead and we were dodging mini-floods all along the 3 miles to Nike & back.

So now that you've heard all about our fun weather here, what's it doing in your neck of the woods?

Update:

So I was making the boys chocolate milk (as usual) and happened to glance out my back window--the back left corner of my yard is totally flooded!!!