Christmas #3 - Messy Reindeer

Christmas morning was filled with new jammies, books, toys, and treats. I think this was our latest start ever, though. We have so much fun on Christmas Eve that we are all exhausted the next day. We told the kids they had to stay in their room until we got them, and I checked on them at 8:30 thinking they would be beating down the door. Nope. They were passed out. According to my camera, the first picture I took was at 10:25am. V slept through the whole thing - I'm not even sure she saw her spread before we left for dinner. My favorite gift was a Momma Mia DVD. Santa always seems to know what I want.



Wii pants for my Wii boy with a Wii pocket for his Wii remote:

On Christmas Eve the boys had decided that instead of leaving cookies (since we didn't have any in the house anyway) that they would cater to the reindeer - they left a bowl of carrots and a bowl of water with a note for Santa. The next morning there was a note of thanks from the big guy but no bowls. We later discovered them on the front sidewalk, bits of carrots strewn around and hoof marks in the grass. We're glad the reindeer enjoyed their treat. :)

Christmas #2 - When Pigs Fly

Every year we have Christmas Eve at T’s parents’ house. Here is the collection of grandkids that gets bigger every year as well as our own crew:


We had a dee-licious ham and mashed potato dinner (we are still talking about how good that food was) with Julian pies for dessert. Mmm-mmm good. We had all chipped in to get T’s mom new Christmas dishes, and T’s sister had the bright idea for me to bring them over pretending they were mine and set the table. She then wrapped the empty boxes for her mom to open during present time. She was very surprised and happy to discover that the set was actually hers!

After dinner we sang Christmas songs and tried to convince the kids that we should just wait until the next day to open presents. There were no takers. The biggest hit for my kids this year was that they each got a Wii game from Grandma and Papa Butler. E was the most excited by this and told us that “Grandma turned my frown upside down!” We had rented his game, Boom Blox, before (fun game!), and it meant a lot to him that we can keep this one and not have to give it back. All night and the next day he sang Grandma’s praises.


I have to mention my nephew E. He is the coolest kid to have around at present opening time because he gets really excited about EVERYTHING! Even at our E’s birthday party he was whooping and hollering at each present like his team had just won the Super Bowl. We do a name exchange for the cousins and he was one of ours this year. We got him some blocks, but I also threw in this pj set even though I felt a little guilty because pj’s just aren’t very fun. But we all knew when he opened it because he started yelling, “Pajamas! Whoo hoo! Yeah!!!” I was so happy to see that I had caught the moment on camera.

A while back I saw these great toys at our friends’ house and knew that I wanted to have some, so I ordered one for each of the cousins to open last on Christmas Eve. They are Flingshots – animal slingshots that make noises when you fling them. Pretty soon we had barnyard animals flying all over the living room. Here is V holding a duck and a cow, and I love that you can see the pig in midair as it oinked its way from one end of the room to the other.

Finally, here is a montage of some of the other Christmas Eve photos. Feel free to skip it if you like, but hey, it's only 21 seconds of your time...

Christmas #1 - Apple Bottoms

My favorite thing last week was that my sister B and her husband and son were here visiting all the way from Okinawa, Japan. They stayed in town for about a week before leaving for Idaho to see their first grandbaby! My niece had a baby boy last month (Congrats!) so now I am a Great-Aunt. I mean, I was always a great aunt, but now I am a GREAT Aunt! Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Anyway, before they left, we exchanged presents with them at my parents' house. Among other things, they got each boy a cool Hawaiian shirt (from Hawaii) and a pink Hawaiian dress for V, who was asleep by the time we got to this point in the festivities.

I got this homemade snowman light-up glass block and (drum roll, please) a carpet cleaner!!! I love it! It was a total surprise to me and dwarfed the presents we got for them. She said she decided to get it after reading my blog a couple of posts back. So apparently I have a wishing blog. I think next year I will write about how V ripped up my million dollar bill and that I will have to borrow one from someone else. What would you write about?

Now to explain the title of this post: The boys were taking turns helping Auntie B pass out presents. When it was E's turn, he started talking to her about which one to hand out, then stopped mid-sentence to say, "Look, apple bottoms," then went back to what he was saying. It took us a second to figure out that he was referring to this box of mango cakes on the entertainment center that features a picture of two mangoes which together do, in fact, resemble an apple bottom, if there were such a thing. The funniest part was that he said it as though it were the most normal thing in the world. It's always interesting to get a glimpse into the mind of a five-year-old.

Cel-looo!

J and I started learning cello this semester through AWC and the Yuma Orchestra Association. J had wanted to be in band at school, but it just wasn't going to work out. Someone told me about this class, and when I saw that it was for all ages, I signed up, too! I always thought the cello was a gorgeous instrument with a sound to match but never thought I would have the opportunity to try it out. We recently had our final concert where we played some of the great masterpieces such as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," "Mary Had a Little Lamb," and "Jingle Bells." I'm still quite squeaky and a bit out of tune sometimes, but it is still fun to play. Thanks to EB for lending me his beautifully refurbished cello.

Don't Cry Over Spilt...

Last night I went to the grocery store to take advantage of some 10 for $10 deals, such as cream cheese, butter, ice cream, cake mix, etc. When I got home, the boys helped me bring in the bags and V "helped" T put away the food by pulling it out of the bags and carting it around the house. Every time he thought he had all the cold stuff put away, she would show up with another item. (I found what I'm pretty sure was the last can of breadstick dough near her room this morning .)
At one point she had a single-serving size container of Blue Bunny ice cream in her hands - I think she liked feeling how cold it was - but I wasn't too worried because I like melted ice cream so I figured I would let her play with it and then share it with her later when it was nice and soupy. So the boys went to bed and T and I went back to work on our computers while V played. Several minutes later I heard T shout something and turned around to see V sitting in a pool of ice cream on our carpet! We had no idea she could open the container, but boy was she happy with herself! She was eating up as much of that stuff as she could and did not appreciate being pulled away from the sweet gooey mess. My first instinct was to take a picture, of course, but neither camera was close by and we had to get her out of there before she started walking through it. She had Bunny Tracks all over her hands, face, hair, toes, and her second clean jammies of the night. I took her right to the bath and T cleaned it up as best he could. We had to put our rocking chair over the spot so she wouldn't go back and smush it more into the carpet. Luckily T's mom has a carpet cleaner - you can guess how I will be spending my morning tomorrow!

Party at the Treehouse!

For E’s actual birthday on Wednesday, he got an Indiana Jones whip (it makes a whip-crack sound and plays the theme song) and movie in preparation for the big event on Friday-
We had a great party at the Treehouse Kids Club with cousins and friends. They dug for dinosaurs in the sand, went on a treasure hunt, had cake, and played whatever they wanted. It was a blast! The bakery had a picture of an Indy cake but didn't have the figures to go on top in stock, so I had them do the base and we added a Lego Indy set to the top.
Thanks to Renelle, Edna, and staff for the great party.

T, V, and E's Birthdays!

First of all I need to say what a good time I had at the Twilight premiere party Thursday night. Many thanks to Lemmon & Lines and crew who put that all together. They rented out a theater for the midnight showing and did a pre-party with food, trivia, and prizes. It was great! Totally worth getting home at 2:30am and being useless most of the day on Friday.

Back to our birthday celebrations…
Since T and V’s birthdays were on the 3rd and E’s on the 12th, we celebrated all three of them at T’s parents’ house on the Sunday in between. I have a thing about taking a picture of birthday cakes no matter how plain or whatever, so here is the creation I came up with for them. One big cake with glaze for the grownups and individual cakes for the cousins using the rest of the Halloween frosting – and sprinkles! I know the picture of the three of them is out of focus (and I call myself a photographer!), but it is still a cute reminder of the moment.

T and V's Birthday

T’s birthday gift last year was a baby girl, born at 10:03pm. This year he got an ice cream maker. Almost as good, right? I actually gave it to him a month in advance, mostly because I found it on clearance and wanted to make sure he liked it, and also because I had a hankering for homemade ice cream. Notice that he is most excited about the fact that is makes frozen cocktails. Party at the Butlers'!

Their actual birthday was November 3rd. Since I have my backdrop up, I tried to get some pictures of the birthday girl. Most of them were out of focus because she was toddling all over, but this one captured her pretty well. Her current stats: She is around 20 lbs and 2 ft tall, which are both rough guesses. (She wears 12-18 month clothes so she must be pretty average.) She has 8 teeth. She walks pretty well but still stumbles a lot and likes to point at everything and babble. For the first few months of her life she had a single long hair on her crown (her “antenna”) but now she has a few tufts at the crown and the back – just enough to look messed up after she’s been taking a nap. She has been both my worst and my best sleeper. For the first two months she cried nonstop from dusk till dawn every single night. Was it colic? I’m still not sure. She slowly grew out of that and into a night owl, going to sleep between midnight and 2am but then sleeping for a good 12 hours. None of the boys would sleep that long at that age without waking up to eat at least once. Now she typically goes to sleep between 10 and 12 for up to 12 hours and takes a good nap in the afternoon. I love that if I catch her at the right time, I can even put her down awake and she drifts off to sleep without a fight. She is a happy, fun girl, and we love her a bunch!

That evening, all four grandparents came to our house for cake and presents. T made V her own little pink cake (notice the V in the frosting) which she enjoyed thoroughly. She got a singing purse and a Baby Alive doll, both of which she has been playing with a lot. Of course, she had to test out the baby's bottle first thing. We have already noticed that she seems to favor baby dolls more than the boys did even though they had dolls to play with and she has all of their old toys at her disposal. We don’t feel like we have especially encouraged it, but maybe we have without realizing it. It’s the old debate of nature vs. nurture, I guess.


Oh, yeah - it was T's birthday, too. Happy birthday, honey!

Freaky Week

Last week was all about Halloween. Tuesday night we sat down and carved pumpkins. I have to say that I have not carved a pumpkin since my college days (remember that, Stef?), but I thought the kids should have some memories of doing it for later in life. See – I’m thinking ahead. It started out as a family project and the kids picked the designs, but soon it was just T and I carving with J doing the occasional commentating. We ended up with a dragon and silly face on one pumpkin, and a super-cool chiseled design of Darth Vader on the other. We also used LED lights inside which I highly recommend (because I’m such a pumpkin carving expert now!). One flickered like a candle and the other had color effects.

Wednesday was the Trunk-or-Treat at church. Mom came with me to take our bat, pharaoh, grumpy ladybug, and vampire to walk around. If you can’t tell by my expression in the first picture, I went as a deer caught in headlights. :)

Friday, of course, was Halloween. I think this is the first time that we have trick-or-treated on our block here because we have always been at the Trunk-or-Treat in the past. We made the loop around our street and the one next to us and then we were done. For those of you not living in Yuma, it was in the 90s all last week and still a little too warm for comfort during the witching hour. We changed V into a cheerleader because the ladybug costume was too bulky and the hood thing just wasn’t working. Saturday we had a party with the Butler-side cousins at Aunt G and Uncle J’s house (thanks for hosting!). Our bat turned into a mouse for this one. The kids had a great time playing games and eating deeee-licious food. Grandma B put in a lot of work to make it fun for the kids. T made a cake from scratch, which he carved into the shape of a pumpkin and covered with fondant that he made from scratch and topped with a real stem. Impressive. Most impressive.
(Warning: Long but entertaining slideshow ahead!)

P.S.
I tried Photobucket's slideshow feature for these pictures, so they include all the fancy transitions that I wouldn't normally do. Are they too obnoxious? Be honest! If so I'll go back to making my own.

Big Strides

Here are a few things I wanted to include before time got too far away from me.

Last month, N was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was a special day for him and we were especially grateful that T was able to baptize him and confirm him. After the service we had ice cream sundaes at the house. Yum!

This is by far the girliest non-church outfit I have put on V. I still have a hard time dressing her in girl clothes after having three boys. Her bald head doesn’t help things, either. I put it on her almost as a joke because it is so different from how I usually dress her, but I figured she ought to wear it at least once. I’m going to try not to impose my blasé sense of style on her as she grows, but it might be inevitable. 

Here is a video my mom took at her house of V walking, falling, and walking again as Papa P and I look on...

That was taken about two weeks ago, and she gets better and better every day.

Finally, here is photographic proof of J trying ketchup… and surviving! If you know J you know that this is a big deal, especially since his brother N is the self-proclaimed “King of Ketchup.” He didn’t decide that he likes it, but at least he knows that it’s not poisonous. Now to get them to try ranch…

Back Again

It's been a while since I added a post and am determined to put one up today, even if it only says that I am determined to put one up today. I feel a need to give a shout-out (Am I allowed to do that as a thirty-something, white, incredibly unhip stay-at-home mom? Probably not.) to those of you who are so good about posting on your blogs and letting the rest of us peek into your worlds - and you know who you are (SK!).

I'll include the recent pictures of V since she is the one who changes the most. A couple of weeks ago I realized I hadn't heard or seen from her in a few minutes. I was sitting on the couch to the left in the picture and couldn't see from there that she had fallen asleep half-hidden under the rocking chair. Yes, I did take the bottle out of her mouth after the picture. I don't want her teeth rotting out either.

Here she is in her goldfish robe fresh from the bath. I got this robe as a present at my baby shower for E back when we thought he was going to be girl and held on to it till I had a cute girl to put it on! Totally worth the wait.

Finally, here she is doing her weekly chores. It's about time she started pulling her weight around here! She actually was doing a good job of pushing the broom around until it got stuck under the stove. I would be embarrassed about all the stuff on the floor, but those are things she pulled out as she did her daily rearranging of my cabinets. In the last picture she is saying that she is done with the kitchen and will be moving on to the bathrooms. It's so nice to have help around the house.

N's Birthday

N turned 8 at the end of August. For something different, we decided to take some friends to the bowling alley. I got pretty ambitious (for me) and made bowling-themed invites, matching T-shirts for all the kids, and a bowling ball-shaped cake. We played one game, had a pizza, then went back to our house for cake and presents. It was a good time! E's ball rolled so slowly that we weren't always sure if it was going to make it all the way, but it did every time. Thanks to cousin C for helping us out. 

The next night we celebrated with cousins at the Butlers' house. I have to post this first picture of N with cousins E and J because it makes me laugh every time I see it. It's just one of those odd moments that happened to get captured forever. The next picture is pretty good, though, and makes up for the absurdity of the first.

Happy birthday, N. We love you!!!