"Bo Alli!"

Allison turned 2 yesterday and it was the most fun I've had at a birthday party in a long time! Typically kids this age are not at all into the fun birthday spirit; they are tired, cranky, awnry and just plain miserable. Well, 'twas not the case with our Alli yesterday. She took a late nap (which is always dangerous, in terms of a cranky child), but when she woke up to find her daddy home, she was in high spirits. She pranced around the house (literally) helping me make dinner and clean up toys and then she happily ate her entire dinner! Yes, we were beginning to think it was too good to be true! Then when I brought out her cookies...and she was in heaven! She oohed and aahed over those babies while we waited for our family to come. She was so good not to touch them, she would just get her finger as close as she could! When the doorbell rang and it was Ladd, she ran to the door and started screaming with joy! She was hilarious! She just knew something great was about to happen! We just got an Apple TV (which I absolutely love, by the way) and so I had all of her pictures rotating on the TV to music. We were all watching and talking about the pictures while she would run back and forth between dancing and watching the movie to looking at those pretty cookies! Finally grandma came and we started opening presents. No words for that! But she had a comment for EVERYTHING! And then it was off to the cookie! She was so sweet! So after the cookies and cake were eaten, we were back watching pictures and out of nowhere, she comes running into the living room, doing a victory dance of sorts! She was yelling, "Bo Alli! Bo Alli! Bo Alli!" (Go Alli!) She did this for about 20 minutes, took a little break and did it for another 5 or so. It was just precious, but also a prime example of what happens when you let a 2 year old have 2 big sugar cookies! It was such a fun night with our little spit-fire! I absolutely love this little girl and truly know she is a remarkable little girl that we are all going to have to work very hard to keep up with!
The puppy that Heather gave her! She loves it!

This year I was smart and made cookies instead of cake! They are Alli's favorite anyway and they were so quick and easy to make! This was her GIANT cookie.

And the little cupcake holder full of cookies...for the rest of us!

Watching Apple TV together! (I am so glad Michelle showed me how awesome this could be!)

The little goof ball! We were trying to get just one "normal" picture!

After Alli took the first bite of this giant cookie, she pushed the plate to Brandon. (She's no dumby! That thing was huge!) So....we all took a bite while she clapped! She was very careful to make sure that each of us got a bite!

And so...around the table it went. Thankfully it was big enough that we all got to bite off of a new section!

Yes...it's scary! I sat there posed for quite awhile (with Cole laughing, but not taking the picture) and then when he finally took the picture...this is what he got. Grrr!

She had so much fun blowing out the candles the first time, she grabbed the candles and stuck them back in the cookie and grabbed the lighter and kept trying to light them again. So, we did..over and over again!

CAUGHT...finishing up ANOTHER cookie!

Playing with the princess block set that Ladd and Krystal got her (and not liking that her brother wanted to play with them, too!)

"Yee-Ha!" Enjoying the tiger from Grandma and Grandpa!

Tackling the tiger

While we were all over watching the pictures, Allison was putting EVERYTHING into the sink! It was cute to watch! She had no idea we were all watching, she was in her own world of cleaning up!

These videos are a little crazy. The really cute ones were too long to add. It is so loud in the background and believe it or not, I was actually talking softly. I hate the way I sound on camera and we all sound a little pyscho...but, welcome to our life!

Christmas Crafts

Since we are leaving for our 10 year anniversary next week and leaving the kids with my mom and dad for the week, this week has been CRAZY trying to get a few things ready. I have had the stuff for the kids' friends presents for 2 months, but realized, "Aaahh! I've got to get those done before I leave since the kids will be out of school on Friday!" So this week has been filled with fun as we have spent evenings making these magnets and coloring pictures for a coloring contest. I have just loved this week, spending time together with the trees lit up and the fireplace going and Christmas music on and the smell of my Spiced Wassail candles filling the air...it just doesn't get any better!

These are the fun little gifts we made. They were so easy! I let the kids browse the internet clip art for fun pictures and then we printed them off in bulk, drew circles around them, cut them out, and modge podged them on! We also cut some out of some old scrapbook paper I had. Super simple! It was fun because there was a job for everyone - well, until the boys got tired and went outside to play basketball instead! Oh my am I grateful for my sweet little girl who stays right by my side in crafty things! All in all, we made 180! Now, if you are ever interested in doing this project, know this. The stones themselves were 5 dollars from the dollar store. The paper and printing was free. (So here I am thinking I had this super cheap project!) Well, the magnets are EXPENSIVE! The cheapest deal I found was at Roberts for 1.04 for 10. Obviously, the magnets made this super cute and super cheap project not as super cheap as I had initially thought! Nonetheless, they turned out darling and we had so much fun making them!

And here's the finished product, all ready to go for next week! We made 75 - enough for everyone in both of their classes, school helpers, and their friends and teachers from school and church! The bags say, "Hope you have a very, merry, "MAGNET-ificent" Christmas!" A little silly, but I had to come up with something!

Ward Christmas Party

Kaitlin decided that this one WAS NOT the real Santa because he had glittery paint on his eyebrows. The Santa we had last year was so real-looking that he's going to be hard to beat, especially since he brought Mrs. Clause with him!

Perfectly content with her daddy! Especially since he already gets her everything she wants anyway;)

Our ward likes to have the Christmas party early each year, which I love because it gets us all in the Christmas mood! This year we had it on the 3rd. The past couple years we have even gotten to have Santa come visit the kids! Now this may not be a big deal to some, but for us...it's a miracle! Our bishop has been adamant that Christmas only be about the Savior. For the first several years, we had Christmas nativities only, then magically, something happened and now we get Santa - so trust me when I say...THIS IS SO COOL! So of course the kids all sat on his lap and told them what they wanted! I was so surprised when Kaitlin said she wanted a cell phone?! Huh? What is she 16? Kids don't get cell phones! And apparently no one gave her the memo! Brock wanted a cotton candy machine and Brandon wanted a Dragon War set. I always think it is funny what one item they pick to tell Santa they want. Anyway, of course Allison wouldn't step near him, which I don't blame her! In fact, when we saw Santa in the mall yesterday, she yelled, "Santa!" She was so excited to see him and I thought she would've gladly marched right on up to him. Well, we walked by and went into a store just around the corner and all of the sudden she started trying to escape through the fire door. She was cowed into the corner and whimpering and everything. I couldn't figure out what was going on until she said very sheepishly, "No Santa." :( Poor thing! So I held her as we escaped from the scary guy in the red suit!

My New Favorite Place

Today as I was planning tonight's FHE, I was desperately trying to pull together something that would inspire my family to remember the true meaning of Christmas. I wondered what the church would have on their website, so I drifted there after trying a dozen other links or so. And the church website is where I have now stayed for the past 2 hours. I've read every story, listened to a dozen songs and watched all of their Christmas movies! And I've figured out exactly what I am doing for this week's family home evening! In fact, I've figured out the rest of the month's family home evenings. Through my tears and emotions as I read the various articles and watched the movies, another feeling emerged. PEACE. And HOPE.

I am so grateful to belong to this church that fills me when I'm empty, that's strengthens me when I'm worn out and that inspires me and reassures me when I'm trying. I know it's true. I looked at dozens of stories and poems and other Christmas things on the internet and nothing touched my heart. Within a few minutes of being on LDS.org, I had felt the Spirit so strongly and had found exactly the message that I had wanted to convey. I am grateful to have help in this journey that I'm on and grateful for the sweet reminder today that my Heavenly Father does care what I teach in Family home evening and that I am never alone.

(And yes, I know the countdown on the LDS.org WIDGET is off! I just don't know how to fix it!)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Christmas is my favorite time of year for so many reasons, but I think most of them come down to the cozy, relaxed feeling that emanates around my home during the month of December. I literally dread having to leave the house! I would so much rather stay sitting on the couch in the shadows of the sparkly lights and cozy fire. I love the music, the movies, the smells, the slippers and the cuddling! Almost every night we all gather on the couch to watch a traditional Christmas movie with popcorn or cupcakes or cookies or candycanes! I also love the comfy jammies that I can lounge around in! This year, I was on the ball again and got my Christmas shopping all done right around Halloween, so I can just relax and enjoy the season. We finally got our tree up on Wednesday and it is the most beautiful tree. We were going to go up on Cedar Mountain to cut our tree, we even bought our permit. But then we went to Costco to buy soy milk and saw a beautiful fir tree on a stand out front. They don't usually sell real trees, but this year they brought some in. After tossing around the idea of just buying one of these instead, we decided that by the time we drove to Cedar and back we would have spent the same amount of money as just buying the one from Costco. Sparing all the details, the trees are all wrapped in twine so you can't tell what the tree will actually look like. You can kind of judge it by the trunk and the thickness of the tree, but otherwise, it's just a guess. So, Cole, trying to get the most fro our money - bought a big ol' tree that was absolutely a BEAST! We had to hack the trunk to pieces just to get it to fit in the tree stand. It was 10 ft tall with an 8 foot diameter at the bottom! (It was practically a square!) It took up my ENTIRE living room and overpowered my couch! (And my couch is pretty husky!) I tried being optimistic (since we'd just had a lesson on it in YW's) and just figuring out a way to make it work...but it was useless! I broke into tears! A tree is a BIG deal and it was soooo UGLY! (And yes I do realize how ridiculous I was being, especially since some people would do anything for a tree...but still!) So Cole and I loaded it back into the truck and headed back to Costco! The kid selling trees laughed and said he had NEVER had anyone return a tree! Yeah, well.....! So we picked a more normal sized tree (one who's trunk would actually fit in our tree stand.) and headed home. This tree is definitely the prettiest tree we could have gotten! It is just BEAUTIFUL...and it smells sooo good! I am in love!






Isn't it pretty?!
Allison is fascinated by the lights and the presents. She is really good not to touch it though!

Haha! Caught red-handed! Did I say she was really good not to touch them? I meant the presents! She moves the balls and the snowflakes all around!

The whole house transforms at Christmas...and I love it!

Wow, that's a lot of blood!

His entire right hand was covered in blood. It looked like someone had taken a paint brush and painted it red.
Not a great picture, but I was trying to show Brock what it looked like after it was cleaned up.

Thursday afternoon, I got a call from a mom in my neighborhood saying that she was with Brock in the field by our house (the route he takes when he walks home from school) and that he had been hit in the head with a backpack and was bleeding really badly. On the very brief distance to reach him, so many thoughts were flying through my mind. My initial thought was, "Who hit him?" However, thankfully I quickly realized that that wasn't really very important:) Then I was thinking, "How am I going to hold him and drive home." Followed by, "I hope it's not too bad." Followed by "Prepare yourself - head wounds bleed a ton!" I have to say, this is another one of those times that I was very grateful for my nursing degree. As I pulled up to the "scene of the accident," I took a deep breath, remembering that any fear or panic that I showed would make Brock 10 times worse and then I headed over to "survey the damage." It took me a second to snap out of mommy-mode and back to nurse mode when I actually saw him though. The blood looked much worse than I had imagined and as soon as he saw me, he lost his composure, wrapped his little arms and shaking body around me and started sobbing. I got him into the car and home and he went straight to the bathroom to look at himself. The tears started all over again. I got him up on the kitchen counter and began the process of clean-up while I tried to explain that he would be just fine! Sobbing, he said, "But won't I die because I lost so much blood?" I had to laugh a little and then I explained that his body was already busy making more blood so that he wouldn't die!:) After allaying all his vast fears, I finally got to the root of the story. Apparently the twins and a girl their age;) were playing "Backpack Wars" - a pretty self explanatory game. The girl swung her backpack and hit Brock in the head. He didn't even notice it was hurt until Brandon began to notice the blood. At first the three of them all thought it was ketchup! But then they realized it wasn't and Brock and Brandon took off back towards the school to get help. (Of course this would happen on the day that Kaitlin came home early!) Thankfully they ran into Danae who quickly called me. Needless to say, I didn't even need to lecture that "Backpack Wars" was NOT a good game! I think the lesson was quickly learned! I am just grateful that it was his head and not his cute little face or an eye and that someone did it to him, not vice versa! His greatest fear was that he was going to need stitches and I'm sure if I would have taken him in, he would have gotten staples, but I figure...it's his head - and a scar is just another character mark, right?! And I'm pretty sure he's gonna end up with a few more before this whole journey is over;)

1st Place for Kater

Kaitlin had her Reflections Awards Ceremony Tuesday night and she took 1st place for the 3-D category for grades 3-5. We are so proud of her. She worked so hard on her sculpture and we think she is amazing! Great job, Kaitlin! She was so excited that she actually got a trophy! It has been showcased on our counter for the past several days;) She also loved that we went to KRAVE just for her to celebrate! (KRAVE is a self-serve ice cream shop that always has dairy-free sorbet. They also have all kinds of yummy dairy-free toppings!)

This year's Reflections theme was, "Together We Can." Her sculpture is entitled "Together We Can ... Read." Yes, those are ants you see holding that rocking chair up. She did ants because ants always work together:) Sooo cute!

The Yummiest Treat Ever

WARNING: This post WILL make you crave dessert!

Monday morning, Krystal and I dubbed a "Cake Bite Day." After visiting the Sweet Tooth Fairy a few months back (after our workout:)), we became hooked to those scrumptious little desserts. Krystal found a yummy recipe for Pumpkin spice cake bites and we both made a batch of our own, but our imaginations began creating all kinds of variations, so we decided to set aside a day solely for experimentation! It was an amazing day; we created all kinds of different cake bites and ... if I do say so myself, they were every bit as good as the ones at the Sweet Tooth Fairy and much less expensive than the $1 per bite you pay there.

We made Cookies and Cream, Peanut Butter, Red Velvet, Mint Chocolate, Strawberry, and Pumpkin Spice - and they all turned out DELICIOUS, but Krystal and I both agreed that our favorites were the Pumpkin Spice and the Mint, followed closely by the Peanut Butter. Cole like the Cookies and Cream and Strawberry and Ladd liked the Red Velvet.

So here's how (in a nutshell) to make this delicious treats:

Pick any cake mix and bake the cake according to the instructions on the box. After the cake has baked and completely cooled, dump it into a bowl and crumble it with your fingers. Add 1/2 a tub of frosting (cream cheese frosting works best since it isn't as sweet as the others). You can use anything you want though, since all you really need is something to be a "binding" agent. After you have combined the frosting with the cake, you should be able to roll them into little balls. (They will be very moist and similar in consistency to cookie dough.) You want them to be about "two-bite size." Put them in the freezer for 2 hours and then dip them in your choice of milk chocolate, white chocolate or almond bark. Follow instructions for melting and tempering chocolate if you choose to dip them in that. (Almond Bark is much simpler for beginners.)

For the pumpkin spice bites I added 1 cup of pumpkin to a spice cake mix and added an extra egg. Then I mixed it with cream cheese and dipped it in vanilla almond bark or white chocolate.

For the mint bites I baked a chocolate cake according to the instructions on the box and then I crumbled the cake with vanilla frosting. Then I gradually added peppermint extract to taste. (It took a lot to get a strong minty taste.)

For the peanut butter bites I baked a chocolate cake and then combined peanut butter, powdered sugar and butter - making a thick, fluffy icing glob thing. I then mushed this into the cake and it turned out yummy! The peanut butter shows up looking speckled and gives it the perfect accent.

Use your imagination and have fun! Krystal and I had a blast and are already planning a bunch more variations for our next "Cake Bite Day."

Hint: a plastic fork with the middle prongs broken off works the best to dip with. Toothpicks are a pain! (I bought a chocolate dipping set from Roberts for $1.49 and it works great too.)

Have fun!