10 of My Top Reasons Why I should never shop the week of Christmas!!!

And when I say "shop" it is not for gifts because that has been done for weeks--I am simply saying shop for groceries.

1. My optimism is shot when I see the parking lot of Costco is full only after being open 10 minutes AUGH!
2. I have to take at least one child with me so that Kylie can babysit at home--EEW
3. I have to come home before making the last stop to make sure Kylie is ok, and that Tanner gets fed lunch (important!)
4. DREAD!!!DREAD!!! Going to Walmart for the staples DREAD!!!DREAD!!!
5. when I finally get there---I see a parking spot close to the front---only to have someone come down the wrong way AND BACK INTO IT!!! ( really?)
6. Have to park at the back just like everyone else crazy to shop at Walmart
7. At my age I have to have Eli remember what aisle we parked in, I dont want to have to click my alarm to find my way back.
8. I hate standing in line---then to top it off I get the person who is in "Holiday Training"
9. A round about is NOT a merge stop in the middle type of road---just keep on going--don't wait for us to have to stop because if I keep on going I will hit your front end of your car because it is sitting in my lane.
10. And last but not least why not to shop the week of Christmas.....You have to come home and put it all away---then put on a happy face because it is time to go caroling!!!!!!

Listen to our Favorite Song this year!

This is one of favorite songs this year. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do. Merry Christmas!

So what is next?

As if our lives are not busy, lets add something else. This coming Saturday, my piano students will be performing Mozart, and Christmas songs for their recital. This has been 6 months in the making. My goal was to have ALL students play Mozart, so in able to do that I had to arrange 6 songs for the beginner students. I am so excited to see them all perform.

Way to go Tyson!

Tyson joined a choir group this past couple of months. He has had many performances, but this is the first one we took our camera too. His group sang at the Annual Lacey Sing along! His group will be on t.v. this coming week. He did great! I will post them as soon as I can shrink the size of them.

Lets try a new tradition--A carmel popcorn house?

Ok, so I sound a little scared of this idea, well I won't say that, just scared of the mess!, and that it was! But is was very fun. Taking carmel corn, and molding it into Christmas trees, and a house, and Santa's sleigh. Then decorating it with candy. The kids had alot of fun. And it was fun seeing Tom as excited as he probably was when he was a kid.

THE DAY IS FINALLY HERE!!!!!!!!

So we FINALLY got my "Auctioned 26$ " Christmas Tree. I was so excited to go. What would I get? How many to choose from? What will it look like? So many questions, Come on family lets go!!!! Augh, we finally got there. There was 3 acres to choose from. SO many from short, tall, bushy, thin etc. There it was the tree that I wanted. Tom took out the measuring stick---to tall 15 feet. Well lets keep going. So as we walked the normal height just looked to short ( a weesly 8 foot tree) Tom looked at me and said " Dedra, you are limited to a 9 1/2 foot tree" Ok, well that eliminated alot of trees. Then as I walked up the hill there it was ( again) my tree. Come on Tom measure the tree!!!!???????? AUGH! It was 10 foot, but who cares that is the one I want. We can shave the bottom. So off to get the chain saw, TIMBER! It was ours. YIPEE! Lets get this small tree home. So when we got home I had to help get it off the car, oh man it was HEAVY! Now when you are not surrounded by 15-20 foot trees , our tree was a little big, you can say I had very very big eyes. In fact, we had to cut off the bottom to make it fit in our tree stand. My beautiful tree had a crooked stump, that it gave us problems for a while! What is the solution in the end? The tree is propped up with books on one side. So when you look at the pictures tilt you head to the left and smile. It was so fun we are going in July to tag our tree for next year! I can't wait!

The day after we got home from Coeur D Alene........

I was asked this year to put on our Ward's Christmas Dinner, which happen to be 5 days after our return for Thanksgiving. It was alot of work---and yes I am very glad it is over. It was well attended, we served 300 people, with food to spare. The Menu: Honey glazed ham, baked potatoes, rolls, Caesar salad, Spring Salad with feta, walnuts, craisons, and a Poppy seed vinaigrette, and ofcourse we can't forget dessert, it was a yummy Brownie bar with ice cream and all the toppings. Tom and I thought we would throw in a "Mormon Jello Contest" for fun. As you can see we had many jellos that came! Kylie wanted to make her own, she did great. She made a candy cane. She was chosen to be the winner for the night! (It was the bishopric who judged) And what was the grand prize? Ofcourse "A CARROT GRATER" would you expect anything else for a mormon jello contest?

TANNER IS WALKING!!!!!!

The day that we have been waiting for came Thanksgiving week! Tanner is walking. He does great. He definitely has balance issues, but he is walking without assistance. Way to go Tanner!

Thanksgiving---Ok lets play catch up!

Thanksgiving was another fun trip to Coeur d Alene Idaho. Ever since Tom and I have been married I think I have missed 1 maybe 2 Thanksgiving with my family. It has been a tradition for the Annual "Girls" Black Friday shopping trip. This year was no exception. WE all agreed NOT to shop at the wee early hours--but we all settled for 4:45 am. (Yes this is late for us) All of us got what we needed and was a successful trip.



It It was fun to be with cousins for "Grandma and Grandpas gingerbread house decorating" I do have to say that my brother's wife Autumn put on a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving dinner. The children ( all under the age of 13) had a seperate room for eating, and the parents had to dish them up to make sure we would not be interrupted for our formal dinner. We ate with GLASS dishes (for us a big step) A champagne glass for a drink, a glass for water, a salad plate, a roll plate, and then the regular entree plate. We had many, silverware to choose from, and to top it off a beautiful napkin ironed and pressed into a design. The funnest part was yes no kids, but our place setting was a double dipped carmel apple with our name on it. Then we ate family style instead of the usual buffet style. We were all pretty stuffed at the end, and dessert was not necessary for most. But plenty of pies were available!

The lesson has been taught !

So Tom and I were really excited to hear that the VANDALS (UofI) are finally doing well in Football. So ofcourse we started singing I-D-A-H-O Idaho Idaho Go GO GO!!!! So Eli not familiar with the Vandals we went on UTUBE to show him the VANDAL Fight song, and we got cheerleeders singing and dancing. Well one of them had brown hair like mine, Oh Eli precious Eli, came in and said "Mom is that you?" Me being the jokester said, " Well yes, did you not know I used to be a cheerleader?" Really? So I started to dance and cheer like the cheerleaders (I know can't get that picture out of your heads!!) He looked at the cheerleader again, and said "Mom, you wore those short of shorts?, thats not good!" Yeah, Modesty checked off that long list of things to teach our kids. BTW---10 minutes later Eli came in and said, so Mom if that was you, then do the splits again! WOW can't put one pass him!

Should we go and Buy a Lotto Ticket?

Saturday morning started out early but the beginning of a very fun day. I went to the early JcPenny sale, and spent enough that I got $35.00 off at the register. WHoo-hoo. I then went to a girls day at a Army Craft Fair. We went in and paid $1 for admission and with that we also got a raffle ticket. I was there 20 minutes and yep you guessed it they called my number WHOO-Hoo. When I came home Tom and the kids went to JcPennys because they heard me talking about this cool SQUARE crock pot that it was on sale for $49, from $100, I thought it was a great deal, but definitely a luxury item. But they bought it for me and they got it for $39 because if you spent $50 you get an additional $10 off. WHOO-Hoo! So that night our family attended our old school Family Fair. We went with $20 for tickets and that went for everything. So ofcourse the first thing I wanted to do was the cake walk, my favorite, and something I have been donating money for atleast 4 years, and have not been successful. So as I was walking down, Eli beat me there and as I walked in they called out HIS number. I tried to be excited but I really love to win the cake myself. So Eli picked out a cake and we went on. After a half an hour I decided I really needed to try the cake walk. You guessed they finally called My Number!!! WHOO-Hoo!
Then to top it off, I put a bid on a $100 gift certificate in the silent auction for $26--I won WHOO-Hoo! I won a Noble Fir Christmas tree of my choice at their Christmas tree farm---December just can't get here quick enough. What a lucky day!!!!!!

TRICK OR TREAT

I know the pictures you have been waiting for ----So we sucessfully made costumes this year, or created them out of our costume box. So Mario and Luigi, my favorite, their hats SOOOO easy to make and so cute. Tanner was an easy tigger, and Kylie a beautiful Egyptian Princess? I think she just wanted to wear make up. Then there is Tom and I. Let me start in the beginning and how our costumes were created! One day I was doing my hair and I jokingly started to snarl it up, and Tom just looked at me and said I reminded him of when we first met ( please I had a perm and it never got that High, but that is a different discussion for another time) So I wanted to flash back to the 80s--so what does that mean? Well in my highschool it ment the highest hair in the school was the coolest, and ofcourse double polos, jeans, and shoes with different shoe laces untied. For Tom, well he is from the country, so it was cool long hair ( can you see where this is leading?) a FLANNEL shirt and a farm ugly jacket. (when we got married that was the first thing that he had to retire for everyday use, he could use it when he was doing outside dirty work) Tom and I had alot of fun on Halloween, our kids did not want to be around us. Tom had his pictures taken by alot of people at trunk or treat! I can say the 80s can rest in peace, trying to get the snarls out of my hair took forever, and Tom just had to put the hair to rest. Until next year----I am thinking something easier----like beach bums!

HALLOWEEN! Dinner

Yes another tradition---Halloweenies. They were yummy! Sorry no pictures. Boy it seems as though we have been eating all day and the night is still very young!

HALLOWEEN! afternoon

I had a great idea for lunch---lets get our kids dressed up and take them to a restraunt---three were for it and one not so much. When we got there, not too many costumes, but our waitor was dressed up, and agreed to take a picture with Mario and Luigi---How cute!

HALLOWEEN - morning

Halloween started out this year like it does every year. PUMPKIN PANCAKE, but this year I was able to get everyone involved...Eli helped color the mix, Kylie turned the pancakes, and Eli and Tyson put the chocolate chips on for the faces. It was a fun morning. Even Tanner liked the pancakes ( well the chocolate chips)

No one called from this house.

So the other night Tom and I were sitting talking with his parents who are visiting from Burley, Idaho, when the telephone rings. This is what I heard listening to Tom.

Tom..Hello, Nobody from this house, Uh, just a minute ( he runs and asked Kylie something.) he comes back, I guess it was from our house, I am sorry, I will have a long talk with him. Thank you and I am sorry.

Any guesses? Well apparently it was Firefighter day at school. Eli learned of the importance of Police officers and Fire fighters. Eli and Kylie were sitting in the computer room and Kylie bent Eli's finger and he told her he was going to call 911........well he dialed and hung up quickly, but not quickly enough before the call was tracked. BUSTED! Boy that was a fun talk to have with him.

HELP........

So once again, this year I have been asked to do the dinner for our Ward Christmas party. The menu thus far is Ham and Baked potatoes, and of course rolls. I need your ideas for a good salad and a fun, easy dessert. Last year we had strawberry cheesecake, and believe it our not I saw alot of it go into the garbage, so I am not going to repeat. Also, another bit of information, it is 8 days after Thanksgiving, so no pies or festive jello from Thanksgiving. HELP, all you creative people out there I need your recipes and ideas.

YEAH...it is Fall.

This year we decided to finally make the scarecrow that I have wanted for many, many,many years. So Tom has been secretively researching how to make a scarecrow. He did a GREAT JOB! What do you think? Also, we went to a local pumpkin farm and loved it. It was free to get in, and free to park. The petting zoo was also free. Then to participate in some activities it was a dollar. Kylie and Tyson went into the hay maze and Eli with his one dollar decided to do the corn cob shoot. So we all watched him thinking that he was pointing the shoot too low, but we do we know? Eli made it in the bucket. The guy running it said he was the first of the season to get it in, AND he gets to pick ANY PUMPKIN in the field. WOW! So back to the pumpkin fields ( we had already picked our pumpkins earlier and paid for them. The Rule was if you can't carry it then you can't get it) So it was way too much for Eli to handle, there was 4 fields to choose from and hundreds and hundreds of pumpkins. Well Eli found his favorite pumpkin after a long wait. It was 35 pounds and he loves it. ( I can't wait until he has to clean it out, I don't think it will be as exciting!) WAY TO GO ELI! We are excited for Trick or Treat. This year we are homemaking all our costumes from what we have at home. Tanner is going to be a dog, that is one of his first words. Eli is going to be Mario, and Tyson is Luigi ( and yes I will be making them) and Kylie is going to be an Egyptian Princess. I have always claimed every year that I was dressed up as a mean mommy, but this year I think I am going to revisit the 80's. I can't wait to snarl my hair and color it different colors. But I can't think of what to wear, any suggestions? Maybe Tom will join me, but he really wants a mullet and I don't have the heart to tell him those days were long gone since we started having kids.

You know your day is great when........

Tom and I go to the dentist and we come out with great reviews. You know your day is great when you take your car in to the dealership because of a horrible noise, and it is covered by the warranty! You know your day is going to be great when your husband vacuums the entire downstairs. Thanks Tom! So far it has been a great day.

Alanna your wish has been granted

Alanna asked if we could show pictures of Tom when he had hair, so they could compare....well after looking through the ARCHIVE (heheheh) I found pictures of Tom. I really can't remember him with hair after Kylie came to our family. So that is really the last one. Boy does he remind me of Eli.

Whose--Who Eli or Tanner?

Tanner turned 1

Our little baby boy turned one. It was fun to celebrate while we were in Oregon with all my family. Tanner has learned to do many things.....but do date his favorite this is to get into things he is not suppose to such as toilet paper, his siblings suckers, dirt from the plant. He sure gets into alot of things but we love him tons. Happy Birthday Tanner, it seems like just yesterday we were at the hospital preparing to have him come into this world.

So what Have we been up to?

For the last part of the summer we were able to have my sister Melissa and her family come up and stay with us for 1 week. It was a blast. We went to Great Wolf Lodge. It was fun. Also, we went to Manzanita Oregon for Labor Day. We met up with my parents, and 2 of my brothers and their family. We were in a beautiful Beach house. Tom and the kids went skin boarding. They had a blast. Also, we visited the Tillamook Cheese factory. It was Great. We got home just in time to start school.