Sleepytime Conversations

Oh how I love when Aaron talks in his sleep.

Me: Hey, wake up.  Let's go to bed.

Aaron (asleep on the sofa): Yeah, hang on. You want to make me some eggs, first?

Me: Eggs? Now? It's midnight.

Aaron: Cook up some butterflies too.

Me (realizing that Aaron is talking in his sleep): Ok. Will do. What do you want on them?

Aaron: Just some....some magnets.

November Happened

There was an election party with red, white, and blue dinner and dessert and disappointing election results.

There was a little boy with red, white, and blue jello and a pinwheel

There was a Relief Society Luncheon that I made decorations for

There was a kid with the stomach flu and a Quetzalcoatl blanket

There were natural trails and caves and springs and bluffs and creeks explored

There was another round of the stomach flu

There were several gourmet quiches made and frozen (delicious! Recipe soon)

There was a giant pumpkin cheesecake with a gingersnap crust

There was a turkey buried in fresh herbs (and butter) and roasted to perfection

 and there was an abundance of gratitude for the good life we have.

October Happened

I found my camera so I thought I'd add some pictures to go with all the photo-less posts.  Not sure why blogger is letting me add photos again, suddenly, because I didn't subscribe to more space, I'm not paying anything each month, and I didn't delete any old photos, but whatever. I'll take it! 

October Rewind: 

There were Halloween movies

There was a Crazy Cat Lady

There were Jack o Lanterns

There were pumpkin guts and really big hair

There was a new phase of posing with a funny face for every photo

There was a boy with a big fat goose egg on his forehead and candy on his face, who slept in his halloween costume for 3 days straight.

There were hundreds of garden tomatoes harvested and roasted with red peppers to be made into soup

There were green pumpkins and scary excitement over getting to use a knife.

There was a cute baby who liked to kick and play in his bouncy seat

 There was a crazy ward Halloween party and the Scooby Doo Gang

There was a baby who liked a paci until he discovered his thumb (greatness!)

And there was another Terrific Kid!

October was great. November and December coming right up...

Merry Christmas

We hope your holiday was full of love.

Make these. Make the dip, too.

They're soft and delicious.

The Best Gingersnap cookies
3/4 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 molasses (by syrup in Walmart)
2 cups sifted flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves

Combine shortening, sugar, and egg and beat until fluffy. Add molasses and beat well. Add dry sifted ingredients and mix well. Shape dough into balls and roll in granulated sugar. Bake at 350 for 10-11 minutes.

Pumpkin dip
4 oz soft cream cheese
1/4-1/2 cup pumpkin pie filling (not pumpkin)
2 cups powdered sugar

Beat well and chill until thickens.

Quincy's Letter to Santa

Quincy's letter to Santa was published in the newspaper yesterday, along with letters from all of the children in her kindergarten class.  Some of them are pretty funny. Here is hers:

Dear Santa, 

Thank you for bringing Chippy.  Bring me the movie of Barbie the Pop Star and the Barbie that goes with it.  Bring my little baby Soren some toys.  Bring my brother Corbin one car. Bring my dad a new TV. Bring my mom a burp cloth.  Bring my sister Reese the Barbie and the Christmas carols.  Bring me a candy cane and some Reese's pieces in my stocking. 

I've been good so well.  I do not want coal in my stocking.  I got money every year to buy an American doll and I've been doing chores to make my Mommy happy.  Me and my sister have been good when a babysiter is at our house. 

My chickens want treats. I have five chickens. Their names are Eleanor, Penny, Goldie, Scout, and Nugget.  When we go to get the eggs, they go in the coop and try to stop us so we don't get the eggs.  Chickens are hard work!  My dad has to sweep the poop.  Do you have to sweep reindeer poop? 

I want to ask the elves why does my elf hang upside down on the shelf by my brown table? The elves at the North Pose have to go to the workshop. They have to do a lot of work. I think it would be fun to be an elf.  

When you get to my house on Christmas Eve you will have to open the thing where we open the fire.  You can put the presents on the gold mat under my tree.  I will leave you a mint and a candy cane and some milk and cookies. 

Love, 
Quincy Willardson  

Will it ever stop? Yo, I don't know

I failed to mention yesterday that I found two adult lice (louse?) in Reese's hair when I checked her head after school.

"Lice is back with a brand new edition. Somethin' got a hold o me tightly..."

I talked to the school...more on that later. It is sort of ridiculous.
I did laundry all day. ALL DAY. Re-treating the kids and coloring my own hair tonight. Just because.
At least now I know that checking heads 100 times a day does pay off.  I caught it before she even walked in the door.

But did I get ALL of them?
#notsleeping
#readyforwinterbreak
#atleastthelaundryisdone

revisit.

For all you last minute shoppers out there, go here for some tips.

In this little house.

No photos, but I suppose that isn't a reason to not update the blog.  Give me a week and we'll be back to regular posts around here.

In this little house, Miss Quincy had a birthday. It happens every year and there's nothing I can do to stop it.  Little Q isn't so little anymore. I love her so much, even when she's being a little stink...which seems to be daily as of late.  She just LOVES being six, and loves that she's "almost seven" (because that's what being six is all about) which is how old Reese is, so "basically they are the same age right now".  We had a little family dinner with s'mores brownies and presents, and she had a Polar Express friend party on Saturday.  It was a lot of fun and I am really tired, but there is no time to rest, because we are all aboard the holiday train!

In this little house, Corbin carries around a 2 foot Christmas tree and plugs it in wherever he can find an empty outlet. He shouts, "Ho Ho Ho! Merry Christmas" in his best Santa voice and tiny lights illuminate the kids bathroom, the hallway, or a bedroom. It's super cute and he looks like Clark Griswold carrying the tree all around our little house.

In our little house, Reese anticipates her birthday on friday and a Willy Wonka Party.

After the birthday festivities are over, we'll settle in and enjoy some more of our favorite Christmas traditions in our little house.  I love how big my parents were into holiday traditions. Every year when I make gingerbread men I am right at home.

Our funny little elf has been doing funny little things in our little house.

There are Christmas lights lining the roof of our little house and they will probably be there until April. or May.

In our little house Soren sleeps in the living room or in the only spot that a pack n play will fit in our bedroom.  There is a treadmill in the hallway of this little house and the live christmas tree is in the kitchen because that's where we could fit it.   If anyone fails to clean up after themselves, even for one day, it seems that our house very quickly goes from clean and orderly to looking like a tornado blew through. Not putting things away turns our living room into an obstacle course.  We need to get into a bigger place, or get rid of some stuff.

What a first world problem to have, I know.  You know you have too many things when you make decisions about Christmas gifts based on whether or not you have a place to put them.

There are many benefits of sticking it out a little longer in our little house.

For one, I can hear the baby from any room in the house, so I don't have to worry about him if he is in my bedroom and I am in the dining area.  I don't ever need a baby monitor.  Also, when we lived in Green Bay, our washer and dryer were in the basement, and our bedrooms were on the second floor.  We had a laundry chute to get the dirty clothes to the basement, but everything still had to be carried back up two flights of stairs after it was washed.  Doing laundry in my hallway does cause traffic congestion occasionally, but it also doesn't take long for the children and I to put everything away.  There are many many times when I've been on bed rest and recognized that our lack of a laundry room was actually a blessing because everything is so close I can use one foot to push the laundry baskets around on the carpet.  This little trick would never work in a large house :)
Reese and Quincy love sharing a bedroom in our little house, and would share a room even if they had the choice to have their own space.
Having limited storage has forced me to be creative about organization. There are baskets and storage bins lining every shelf and every basket has a purpose.  Everything has a place, or we do not keep it.  (hence, the treadmill in the hallway. We are trying to find it a home...looks like the girls' bedroom might be the winner.

In our little house, there is only one living room/family room/play area, so we are always together.  I think my children are good friends because they have never known what it's like to not have to share space.

Thanks to my little house being little, there were little bodies sleeping in a snug 76 degrees last night during 20 degree weather.  My wood burning stove was able to heat every corner of this little house.

There are only two bathrooms in our little house which means I only have to clean two bathrooms.
That's a lie. I clean zero bathrooms. My kids clean the bathrooms. But I bet they're glad they only have to clean two of them!

The opening of the garage door can be heard from any room of this little house, and the sound sends five sets of little legs to the dining area to welcome Aaron home.

There are only two smoke alarms in our little house, but everyone was definitely alarmed when I set it off the other day.

My whole home will soon be filled with the smell of freshly baked bread.

For everything my little house lacks, there is an abundance of something good that makes up for it.  I dream (constantly) about our "someday house" and all of it's spacious rooms and acre-y glory, but I do love my little house and I really really love the little people who fill it.  Who knew adding a tiny baby would require so much space?

I can't think of a better reason to be crowded.

stickin it to the man

So I'm thinking that this whole, "you're out of image space, please upgrade" is a bit odd.  I received this same notice 3 months ago, and then it went away and I never upgraded. Then I got it again a week ago and I ignored it, tried to post a pic a different day and didn't have a problem that time.  Now it's back, and apparently, most of my blogging friends have all also conveniently run out of storage at the exact same time as me. Does that seem like more than a coincidence to you? It does to me. The whole thing just seems shady. How did everyone run out of space at once, and how come I'm only out of space sometimes, and other times have no problem adding images?

Well listen up, I'm not paying $2.50 a month to blog. At least not without giving a few free options a go, first.  Yep. I am just that cheap, and just that suspicious. And how long after I upgrade before I'm "out of space", again?  What is this, a drug deal?  "The first hit's free, you know where to find me when you run out and need more?" No way man, I'm only here for the free samples.

Instead, I'm going to go back and delete some old video footage or something that is taking up a bunch of space, so I can finish up 2012 on this blog, and THEN, I'm starting a new blog.

I also still haven't found our camera cord and have pictures from before halloween to catch up on  I did buckle down recently and work on the blog books and did enough editing to order the 2009 book, and I'm sloooowly working through 2010.  I can't wait to be fully caught up and then I'll only have to print a book once a year. I really like Blurb. The program runs very slowly on our old laptop (can't get it to work at all on the mac), but the books are so much cheaper than any other program I've looked at and they send me discount codes all the time to make them even cheaper.  The books are well made and the children just LOVE flipping through the blog books and hearing stories about funny things they did when they were "little".

In summation: Right now, Blog books = awesome. Blogger = not awesome.

I'll post the blog address and send out invites for the new site as soon as I get it together enough to set one up. So stay tuned and let me know if you want an invite, cuz the new blog is where it's at. Or will be at, anyway.  Also, to the three of you who still read this blog, anyone have a title for me for the new one?

Toys are Boring.