Ahhh - That Was GOOD!!

Oh, Ya! That is definately the sign that dinner was good - and Thanksgiving certainly was not a disappointment!

We had a great time up in Newdale with the Simper family. Dinner was fabulouse! The desserts were amazing! After we had eaten more than our fill, we all headed out to play night games with all of the Simper family. That was a blast, and even faced with the threat of frostbite on their sweet little toes and noses, the children were disappointed to have to go back inside!


On Friday morning, I was up and at 'em with all my sisters by 4:oo am, ready for the doors to open at JC Penny! We had a GREAT time - mostly just casual shopping and enjoying that we were all out enjoying a day of shopping together without any children - and no reason to fell guilty about it because all the children were at home asleep with the hubbies! By 8:00 a.m. I was able to have completed the remaining Christmas shopping I had left, and the kids were just barely waking up - GLORIOUSE!

Friday night, Chris and I totally wimped out, and rather than brave the weather with the kids for the light parade, we stayed home and played games with the kids and had chips and dip. The kids loved it, and we all had a great time.

Next, it was off to Debbi's house on Saturday night for more games and left over desserts from Thanksgiving. The kids all played with all their cousins, and the adults played some fun games. Chris had a research paper due for one of his classes on Monday, so I went with the kids, and Chris stayed home for some much needed quiet study time.

A fun weekend for all of us. I REALLY am not looking forward to the real world beginning again tomarrow morning! Oh well, a couple more weeks of school, and then a nice break for Christmas, Woo-Hoo!

Just Another Day At Work... a pretty grusome picture to follow - I won't feel bad if you skip this post :)

That is right - look a little closer, I really am holding an amputated FOOT!!
Ahhh, the joys of working in the grossing lab in the pathology department. This happened to be a particularly cool day! I was not kidding when I said that we take ANY tissue specimens removed from a patient. Amid all the gallbladders, placentas, and biopsies, this foot was on the line up for grossing as well.

The foot was almost a week old though, so it did have a certian unpleasant smell about it, but I still thought is was pretty awesome!

I TOTALLY love my job!! It is always a different day with new suprises waiting when I get to work. It's great!

"Mom, What is a Master?"

As with any mother of small children - I am constantly being asked question after question about the wonders of this life by my curiouse children. Though I am happy for their curiousity and their desire to learn - sometimes my least favorite word is "Why". Anyone who may not agree - just wait until you have 4 little ones, soon to be 5, asking an endless stream of questions. A lot of times, the questions come so fast and from so many different mouths, it is quite hard to keep up and remember which question I am answering - WHEW!
I do, however, like to answer their questions as fully and honestly as I can. I try to communicate the answers on their levcl without depriving them of the information and explaination they are seeking. So, the other day the kids were watching a show where one of the characters called another character "Master". As soon as I heard the word, I knew there would be a question to follow. Of course, the boys asked "Mom, what's a master?" So I tried to explain how a master is someone who is incharge of another person, place, or thing - the first object lesson that came to mind was the dog. I said "You know, like daddy is the master of Shilo (the dog), he tells her what to do, and she obeys." The kids thought that was pretty funny.
But Chris does a really good job with the dogs we have owned. He always takes the time to feed and walk them. He is a great dog trainer - the dogs we have had have always been very attentive and obedient to Chris, and Shilo is by far the best one yet. Dogs have become a sort of hobby for Chris. I am always impressed with the work he puts into them, and the respect and affection he receives in return. Anyone interested in a good breed of dogs - I would definately recommend a German Shepherd. We have never experienced a dog more willing to obey commands and quietly be a part of the family - Good Call Chris!

Night Out With The Girls!

Saturday night was an awesome night out with the girls! It was a night with the Simper sisters filled with laughter, food, and "Twilight"! We pre-ordered tickets for the Twilight movie for the late hours of the night (after the kids were in bed, so we wouldn't have to feel so bad about going). To get things started, we grabbed a quick bite to eat before the movie. Then, it was off to stand in line for an hour so we could get good seats - and it's a good thing we did, cause it would have been miserable to be the ones standing in the cold outside!

The movie was fun. There were a few hoky (?sp?) parts, but they did a pretty good job. Hopefully they learn from the mistakes made in this movie, and the next one comes out a little better... :)

Still - a ton of fun with the sisters, and a much needed night out!

My Current Obsession...

Between school, the kids, work, and other activities that might come up - night time around here gets pretty hectic, so we usually don't have time to watch some of our favorite shows. Wait - we are actually pretty good at making sure we get "The Office" worked into our schedule. That is a show that we will allow the kids to stay up a little later for, so we don't get stuck reading bed time stories while "The Office" comes on - totally worth it, and the kids don't complain either. :)

So I was catching up on a little bit of past "So You Think You Can Dance"on you tube, and I have become a little obsessed! I was usually at work through the summer when this would come on - so forgive me for being a little out of the loop. :) I made Chris sit with me a couple nights ago to watch some of the dances - and he was sweet to hang with me while I drooled over the amazing talent.
So here is one of my favorites. The dance is not super technical - but the dancers still totally rock it out! The kids think it is me dancing - and OH, HOW I WISH!! It is just the hair that throws them off - I am just lucky I can still teach pre-schoolers how to stand in first position! :)

So enjoy - it pretty much rocks! (I probably said that like 20 times through this post...)

Hurray For Ethan!!

Let's hear it for Ethan! He is now our sweet little sippy cup totin', whole milk drinkin', no more crawlin' WALKER!!! Ethan has pretty much sworn off crawling and has become a full fledged toddler! He is absolutely thrilled with himself - and we are as well! He has been walking since about Halloween - and now he is gettting quite good. He has gotten past the point of total clumsiness, and now can stop, turn around, and crouch to pick things up then stand back up again. Muy impressivo! He will be turning 1 in a littel under a month now (Dec. 10), so we are working on weaning him over to whole milk, and so far so good.

Oh, and the bottle thing - that was SOOO yesterday! Only sippy cups for him now. :)

The little dude is growing up! And the kids are all excited to include him even more in their play - which delights Ethan beyond comprehension! He had dreamed of this day pretty much since he figured out how fun they really are and how much of a barrier his imobility was causing. :)

Good Job Little Bud! Can't wait to see what else you begin to do!

COUNT DOWN!!!

The tickets have been pre-ordered! The date and time have been set! The Simper sisters are taking the night off and heading to the movies!!

See you on Saturday girls! I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!

One Of My Favorite Moments Of Each Day...

This is one of my favorite moments each day. When we get the boys to school each morning and they are heading over to the playground to play until the bell rings. I can't take my eyes off of them until they have mixed in with all the other children to the point that I can no longer see them anymore and the mothers in the line behind me are about to see how easy it would actually be to push a mini-van out of the way with thier own vehicles...
I love to watch the boys walk away together, always looking to their side to be sure their brother is doing okay. I especially love it when other little boys come running up to them and engage in the "Cool Happenings Of Yesterday" stories. How nice that they get to experience this new phase of their lives with eachother. I know I always loved having Joanna just in the grade above me, and Stephen just two grades behind me.
Watching the boys in the mornings always reminds me of growing up with brothers and sisters always around the corner ready to play or help. For some reason, I always think of seeing Debbi standing in the 4th grade library line when I was in kindergarten, and thinking she was pretty cool. The fun memories of grade school through high school with Jo and Stevo (The Beef-Yo) and all the fun we had. "Hangin' with the friends" in high school naturally meant that those two were going to be the first ones invited! And Josh was always ready and willing to offer creative ideas on how to have fun in small-town Newdale. What fun we all had together!

Moments like this leave me feeling content that all our children were born so close to one another. It certainly gets crazy and tough at times - but I know they will enjoy the love and friendship I knew then with my own siblings and still enjoy now.

By the way chicas - Up for a "Craft Day" - I think we are far overdue!

Out With Halloween -- In With The Christmas Music Baby!

Ahhhhh, doesn't that sound absolutely wonderful! Absolutely GLORIOUSE!! I have been chomping at the bit waiting for the time to play Chirstmas music - I absolutely love it! I actually cheated a couple time, and I listened to Josh Groban's Christmas music after it snowed back at the beginning of the October. Now it is officially leagal - Christmas music is now allowed!

Mix a little Josh, Celine, Martina, and throw in a bit of Charlie Brown - it's like the voices of angels. And for any of you searching for the ultimate listening experience - Josh Groban and the Mo Tab singing "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" - that is basically like getting front row seats to the dress rehearsal for the cherubic chior haralding in the second comining! AMAZING! Now if only we could work in some of Handel's "Messiah" in there - that would blow anybody away!

Well, I am ready for the wonderful holiday season to get started. I have been asking the kids what they want for Christmas since the beginning of October - secretly getting them as worked up and excited about Christmas as possible! Christmas is like 10,000 times better when you have kids, and each year it gets better as their understanding and excitment grows - LOVE IT! Nothing can top bed time on Christmas Eve, and then Christmas morning when you have kids. To be honest - I have to admit I have to wipe some tears away every year when the kids let their innocence and excitment show. It is certainly a gift to be the parents of such sweet children!

Happy Holidays Everyone! We hope everything goes well this season for every body!

Happy Halloween!

The kids have been planning this Halloween for about the last month and a half. The boys have known what they wanted to be for a long time, and before they lost all faith in me - We finally got around to picking out some fabric to make the costumes. The kids all picked out their own fabrics (with some help from me...)

Ryan wanted to be a storm tooper from Star Wars, Jonathan wanted to be an indian, and the girls wanted to be ballarinas.

The boys wore their costumes to school and had a fun Halloween party at school. The girls, Ethan, and I all went to their school to watch the boys in their costume parade. Then they were off to trick-or-treating with Joanna at her ward trunck-or-treating where they had a great time. Next it was off to trunck-or-treating with our own ward and the other 2 wards that share our building. And then we were off to hang with the Horton fam at Jen and Jesse's house. Grandma and Grandpa Horton were there, and the kids all played and enjoyed the evening with their cousins. When the children had finally reached the point of exhaustion and were all Halloweened-out, we finally headed back home for a great night's sleep.
Ahhh, a big day, but lot's of fun. The kids loved every minute of it!

The Big Readers!

Hurray for Ryan and Jonathan! They both earned personal pizzas from Pizza Hut for reading 1 book a day all through the month! (How long has that program been running?... ) So we all headed out as a family to reep the rewards of their labors.
The boys were pretty funny. They wanted to talk to the waitress themselves and order what they wanted. They kept reminding us while we were waiting for her to come that they were going to do the ordering. When their big moment finally came, they both got very shy, and with a little bit of coaxing, they each ordered their own pizza and handed the waitress their free pizza ticket. They were both very proud of themselves.
Dinner was great, and we had the boys to thank!