One of these things is not like the other

Today is the last day of school for 3 whole weeks!

Weeaahapawhoee! (to steal Nash's latest saying)

At Dedan's Southern California elementary school (where the high is supposed to be in the 70s today) you'll find a wall full of snowglobe snowmen standing in their fields of snow with haiku poetry about snow. But look closely and you'll see one snowman who is a little more active than the rest....
That's my boy!

Dedan's poem:
Cold, white snow slowly
landing on the tree branches
under the gray clouds.

Cruisin

How do I sum up 5 days and 4 nights of fun?

art by my favorite neighbor, Mike Morris

I have 175 pictures to pick from (yes, that's an average of 35 pictures each day), and that doesn't even include those we purchased on board!

If I posted everything I want about this amazing family vacation it would be like your annoying neighbors who invite you over for cocktails and a slide show of their trip to Europe. Snooze fest! - at least for those of you who didn't get to enjoy our getaway.

Highlights and Things I Learned On Vacation:

• Party of 26. Wait! No. Make that 30.
• Rocking cruise ships will make me puke.
• If there's a water slide & a heated pool then it doesn't matter that it's about 50 degrees outside.
• $10 for me & the kids to have lunch in Ensenada includes a seat overlooking the gorgeous coast.

• Sleeping in a cave (cabin with no windows) is the only way to get all 3 of my kids to sleep past 8 am.
• When given the option my boys will choose chicken nuggets, french fries and chocolate milk over lobster, steak, ribs, and/or various delicious, high end menu items.
• Tressa makes even a busted (no pun intended) dress look good.

• Chocolate melting cake - mmmm.
• Papa turned 64 surrounded by the children and grandchildren who love him...plus a whole dining room full of unknowing party participants.
• Gary sucks at Karaoke, but is definitely the most entertaining!
• J.R. is turning into her mother - a program, really?!
• Auntie Tressa may be most of the nieces/nephews "favorite", but Riley loves me!
• Nash created a look we like to call Mexican Taxi Cab Hair.

• My kids cannot get all their homework finished on a vacation.
• I can survive without a cell phone or the internet for nearly 5 days.
• They may all be freakishly tall, but I love my three little brothers.

Why I'm Tired, a pictorial essay

Wednesday

Made 3 batches of homemade rolls and preped the turkey. I got the idea to brine my turkey from a blog I occassionally read. To sum up: cooler, ice, salty, sweet, spiced up water, overnight. Let's not forget the regular SAHM duties like making sure moments like this are caught for Nash's future wife to use as encouragement to get him to fix things.

Thursday
Kids were hanging from the rafters. Ok, so it was just my crazy brother, James (who drove in from Vegas unexpectedly) that would let his adrenaline junkie 18 month old do that. BUT we had plenty of kids who were so busy playing that they almost forgot to eat dinner...

...except Jackie. She wanted to go home. There was "nothing" for her to do at our house. The only thing she would eat was one of my homemade rolls. They are quite good.

We had lots of family and friends. Here's my adorable cousin, Shandra and boyfriend, Justin. She was my very first cousin...holds that special place in her heart.

Her brother, Phillip, and girlfriend, Jen are having a baby next summer! Congratulations!!!

Which will make these two GRANDPARENTS! Woohooo! And my mom will finally be a Great Aunt. She's still got a way to go to catch up with me. We've got 3 great nieces on Har's side....just saying.

My Great Aunt Joan protects her namesake, Emma Joan, with her karate moves because...

Uncle James is trying to give Emma her birthday spankings...a week late.

Papa fell asleep in a chair in all the chaos. Must've been from the morning of vaccuum dog hairs off of everything before company came.

Or it could've been from this good stuff. We had 2 turkeys totalling 40 pounds and this is all that was left. Enough for a couple of sandwiches this weekend!

Friday
This morning Emma and I were out the door around 5 a.m. for some Black Friday shopping - later than past years. We came home a couple of times in between locations, but when we came home for the night found Grandma had been working hard to get ready for the next holiday.

I'm sure when we go downstairs in the morning the Christmas tree will be up and we'll hear Christmas music playing on the CD player.

THE BIG NEWS

It's not that these lovely Beehives welcomed Emma by "heart attacking" our house the night before her birthday, or that she was so delighted (that was a given);

It's not that Emma got to be with her very best friend, Caitlyn, exactly where she wanted to be at her actual birth time on her actual birthday: Pirates of the Carribbean;

It's not that there are reindeer at Disneyland (who knew?!);

It's not that Nash is already shaving (I love bathtub pictures);

It's not that we let Emma have 3 friends stay over Friday, so we could go to the earliest Saturday showing of New Moon OR that Dedan likes to act like a vampire OR that we loved the movie and all agreed it was better than Twilight;

It was something we discovered at the theater though: There is a movie coming out (The Lightening Thief) and one of the main characters has my name! Well, it is a great name.

Why is this so hard for me?

Emma, my baby girl, turns 12 on Thursday. The Primary sang a birthday song to her yesterday in church. I started crying. I felt like an idiot for crying but I couldn't stop...until Dedan came over to me crying. Poor kid got my crybaby gene.

"I never cried for my sister's birthday before, Mom. I'm just so sad that she's leaving."

"She still lives with us, babe. She's just going to Young Women instead of Primary."

"I know! But I'm so sad. I will miss her in this class."

Me, too, baby. Me, too.

Tween Scouts

This year I have the good fortune of being a co-leader for Emma's Girl Scout troop. Comparing them to their former selves of just a few months ago I can sense a something has happened recently. They've grown up. All of a sudden they're not the little girls they used to be. They're smarter, more thoughtful, and funnier (more funny?). Junior high has morphed them into....young ladies

Our meeting this month was putting together a package for a unit of soldiers serving in Iraq. They all brought excellent goodies to contribute to the package. The cards they made were creative and sincere. What a blessing for Emma to have such good friends!Chloe, Amber, Olivia, Emma, Lacey - Kaylie wasn't here :(

Pirates & Pooh & Buzz...oh my

Halloween was fantastic. How could it not be when we were hanging with our Vista peeps?! Har and I were pirates.......but compared to Knowltons we looked like cartoon pirates. Don't you love Har's unibrow?! And JP's pirate pimp hat! Dedan loved playing the blood thirsty vampire and he looked extra spooky on the dark street when he would glide by, cape flowing behind him thanks to his Heelies. Amy (a non-dresser upper) said he reminded her of Voldemort in the Harry Potter movie where he was sucking the blood from unicorns.
BFFs, Caitlyn and Emma were adorable. Caits as Abby from NCIS (genius, right?!) and Ems as witch...the good kind that smiles, says "please" & "thank you" and wears bright orange.
SIDE NOTE: SEE HER CUTE TRICK OR TREAT BAG? MY KIDS EACH HAD ONE THAT I TRICKED MY MOM INTO SEWING FOR THEM.
I love this shot of the pirates escorting Buzz (Nash) and Pooh (Calleya).

My favorite costume of the night wins bonus points because of his accessories. Nascar drivers can trick or treat super fast when they bring their race cars. Go Colby!

Spirit Day!

Do you know how rare it is that my kids are all up, ready, fed and on time - let alone downstairs, happy & together in the morning?!
R A R E.
Maybe it's their excitement for Spirit Day which wraps up Red Ribbon Week. I think it's Dedan's favorite week of school, because he wears his favorite color everyday. (Yes, he has enough red clothing to wear 5 different red outfits)
Happy. Pledged to be drug free. Love their schools. A little bit crazy.
It's a good life today.

Crazy Cute

Red Ribbon Week Crazy Hair Day

Double-Daring Book for Girls: Dye your hair (pink) with Kool-aid

Best Vegetable Ever

As we walked up to D-man's school with an armful of these fall veggies (teacher requested for an activity) we could see the kids eyes get as big as saucers and hear their excited whispers of, "Pumpkins!"

What other vegetable gets such a hallowed reaction?

We enjoy pumpkins so much that last Spring we planted our first garden. All pumpkins. 3 different kind of seeds. 15 square feet in Grandpa's backyard. A few months later we had this beautiful full vine with lots of blossoms on it. Our anticipation grew exponentially as the vines began to take over the side yard.

Fast forward to October. My dad brought the entire harvest from our pumpkin garden to our house on one of his weekly visits.

The white one is smaller than my fist. At least our one orange pumpkin has an interesting shape and a cool stem!

Do you know how hard it is to pay attention to General Conference* on TV at home when you're a kid? This year I had a plan, a knitting plan. Dedan loved making this cute little faux harvest guy on a loom. Emma used needles and started her own scarf (it's not finished yet). Something to do with their hands really helped my kids sit still. Probably the most peaceful Conference weekend we've had. Dedan was so proud of his crafty skills he took it to school and shared it with his class. Confidence building vegetable craft!

Come October who doesn't love pumpkin treats?....other than my husband, I mean. I found a couple of recipes for my Have To Try This file here and here. But my Chocolate Chip pumpkin bread is a must have in our house. I like you so I'll share my recipe.

2/3 c Butter flavored Crisco

2 2/3 c sugar

4 eggs

1 lb pumpkin, canned or freshly cooked (here's how)

2/3 c water

Mix it well!

Add:

3 1/3 c flour

2 t baking soda

1 1/2 t salt

1/2 t baking powder

1 t cinnamon

1 t ground cloves

Mix it up!

With a spoon stir in:

1 pkg semi-sweet chocolate chips

Divide into 2 greased bread pans. Bake @ 350 degrees for 70 minutes. Mmmmmmmmmmm.

Tomorrow Nash & I are headed for the pumpkin patch with our buddies. A whole activity planned around pumpkins! I haven't even mentioned jack-o-lanterns or my mom's famous Dinner In A Pumpkin....

______________________________

*that's Mormon for our bi-annual broadcast from church leadership in SLC. 4 different sessions. 2 hours each.

Headstrong...to say the least

My 3 year old, Nash, woke up this morning sick of his hair - like smacking himself in the head, angry at the world, sick of his hair. He wanted to go straight to the "hair cut place". I offered to cut his hair since it's Sunday and his "place" is closed. He immediately started riffling through the bathroom drawers looking for the "suitcase" that has my hair cutting tools.

We got him all set up in a chair with the drape around his neck and I pulled out the scissors. "NO! I want the big thing. I want a Hollywood haircut...like Emma said." Emma had no idea what he was talking about, but we figured out he wanted me to use the clippers. He wanted a H.A.I.R.C.U.T. Nash has beautiful curls and I didn't know if I had the strength to buzz them off, so I called Har for reinforcement. Har explained to Nash that his hair would be really short, shorter than Daddy's. "YES!" Alright.

Our favorite neighbors came over for Sunday dinner (again) and as after dinner entertainment pulled out their copy of Fortune-Telling Birthday Book. Every month/day has a description of the personality for people born that date. Nash's was pretty accurate:Your positive and headstrong ways will carry you over many obstacles to success. You expect others to step aside or be trampled on. You are influenced by praise and flattery, rather than by direct appeal or command. You have your family's respect and devotion.

As I type this Nash is chasing Har in circle around the kitchen island, screaming "I already ate my lasagna!" while Har carries his plate of untouched lasagna in one hand and the pan of brownies in the other and replying to Nash's screams with, "You can have a brownie if you eat your lasagna."

Respect and devotion.

Disneyland in {almost} October

I love having Disneyland passes. It's been great to run down on occassions when we can spare a day from school and life. Monday was one of those happy days!

The whole place was decorated for Halloween - gorgeously carved pumpkins everywhere, the Haunted Mansion was all Nightmare Before Christmas-ed out, the air was cool, Nash was dressed all in orange....great way to kick off my favorite month.It didn't hurt that our hour plus wait in line for Splash Mountain was rewarded with Mom in the front seat, taking the brunt of the water damage and screaming like a girl. (Nash is in the back with Har you just can't see him...he was screaming like a girl, too.)