::today::

Today we've got some nasty weather. Slick snow fell all morning, and at some point here it's supposed to be turning to rain--lots of rain.
Kris called me after he made it to work and he said the roads were so slippery. It took him over an hour to get to work when it normally takes about twenty minutes. I'm hoping not to leave anytime soon, though of course school isn't canceled, which is a bummer. I think snow should equal closed school all the time.

I do have lights on my tree, as you can see in the picture. Which means that we did get the tree down from the attic (I don't think it really counts as an attic, but that's ok. It's mostly exposed insulation), and it also means that we moved furniture out of the living room to make room for the tree. We still have to put the ornaments on though. I just got the lights done last night after an emergency trip to target because at least four of my light strings were totally dead. Argh. And then they were out of the cheap lights so I had to settle for less of the expensive lights. Oh well, it's got lights. That's what matters. Hopefull we'll be putting ornaments on today.

And lastly, I thought I was sparing in the addition of bubble bath this morning, but:

To the little man's delight, I guess I wasn't sparing enough. The jets take the bubble bath over the top. (literally) (keep in mind this is a big deep tub--really the only thing in our house that isn't tiny--and the bubbles are spilling over the top and sides, YIKES).
He's been enjoying a long winter's bath. I'm scared to see how the bathroom is doing. Wish me luck.

::more mama fish::

So, as if Max didn't have enough fish already, he put in a special request that I make him a mama fish. At first I thought the request was pretty ridiculous, but then it caught my fancy and I started working on it.
I found this pattern that I figured I could start with. I found about four different colors of yarn that I thought sort of matched up with the real fish. And then I went to work.
And then:



I'm really happy with how she turned out. EXCEPT that in trying to be smart I used some rice on her insides to give her some weight. Was I thinking about how if I ever had to wash her the rice would get all gross? NO. Oh well. Too late now.
The colors worked out well though, and my pattern modifications turned out great I thought.
Want to compare New Mama Fish with the original Mama Fish?


Not exactly the same, but pretty darn close.
And the verdict?


He likes her. And I like him. Good deal.

::post thanksgiving in Vermont pt 2::

After the lighting ceremony we headed back to White River Jct. Most of us stayed in the Econolodge there. And it was great! It was probably the nicest Econolodge I've stayed in. It had a pool and everything (much to Max's delight).
After the kids were in bed the grownups all played canasta in the lobby. It was really fun, but we had to quit just about when we got the game figured out which was too bad.
In the morning we got up and we all had breakfast together (accidentally) and then headed out to do different things and head back home.
I had heard about a cool gorge not too far from where we were staying, so I had looked up directions and stuff. We tried to follow them and ended up totally lost. So we looked up the town on the GPS and found it, but it wasn't anywhere near where we were really supposed to be. When we finally found the gorge it seemed that maybe it was just a bridge to drive across. There was noplace we could see to get out and check out the scene on foot. But then we found a little trailhead of the side of the road. So we decided to brave it. We headed out to see what we could find.

We didn't find the gorge. Of course.
We found a lot of other stuff though.
We found a dam. It wasn't a particularly cool dam, but the river was cool looking. It was scenic enough for us to feel the need to take some pictures. Pictures of ourselves in front of it that is.

(why is Max making that face? I'm not sure. He was pretending to be surprised about something. What I don't know.)

(could it have been the same thing that surprised me in this photo? could anything really be that surprising? Bigfoot sighting? And Max is way beyond being surprised by whatever it is at this point)


The rest of the walk/hike Max spent finding and picking up pinecones. There were some pretty impressive pinecones on the ground, that's for sure. We thought it was cute to watch him running around picking ones to stick in his pockets.

Cute little boy gathering pinecones.

He ended up with so many they were spilling out of his arms and he couldn't keep ahold of them at all.
So I helped him. I was carrying some in my hands, so I had Kris hold the camera for me.
With which he proceeded to take a picture. And yes, I'm only wearing one earring. Wardrobe malfunction?

Little pinecone boy was just adorable until we got down to the car and realized that each and every pinecone was covered in sap. And not just covered, crusted and dolloped with sap. Max's arms and hands were full of them, his coat pockets were full of them. We were in so much trouble.
We went in to the little giftshop where we'd parked, hoping to scrub our hands. They only had freezing cold water. I got most of the sap off of my hands, but Max was still as sticky as could be. We got in the car and he had to hold his hands straight up in the air and not touch anything--no easy feat for a 5 yr old. It didn't go so hot.
We finally found a little hardware store, bought some industrial strength handcleaner and scrubbed him down in their bathroom. He was clean. But his coat was useless for the rest of the trip!

After that little adventure we went to a nearby town and did some shopping at cute funky way too expensive stores. WE didn't buy anything but it was a really fun place.
After that we headed home--with only one puking scare on the way we made it in time to pick up Sultan from the kennel and watch the BYU vs UT game. Which I have to say ended up very satisfactorily (before the press conference, of course).
What a great weekend!

::post thanksgiving in Vermont pt 1::

The day after Thanksgiving we drove up to Vermont. We were told when we visited the Joseph Smith memorial in September that they have tons of fun christmas lights up. I read online that they would be lighting them for the first time the day after thanksgiving. So we thought it would be fun to go up there and see it. The best part was that we talked some of our friends into coming up too!
So we all met for dinner at a little pizza place in White River Junction. It was a place I had just looked up online and picked, hoping that it would work.
It worked great, luckily. When we got there it was empty, nobody else there. I'm guessing the teenagers staffing the place were really surprised to see a big party of 16 show up with six crazy kids!

The kids were thrilled to see each other, so far from home. And they had a blast playing around.



Before we left Kris gave Max his old camera. It's broken--the viewfinder doesn't work. So you can't see what you're taking a photo of. Of course that didn't stop Max. He took a zillion pictures on the little trip (wow, I wonder where he gets that). His friend Henry decided he didn't want his picture taken of course, so Max ended up chasing him around all night. Sillies.


We ate, and it was good, but then the kids starting having a little _too_ much fun. They were going crazy, teasing each other, running around, yelling, having a blast.

(like Lucy blowing in poor Peter's face)
So we decided we should take off and head out to the lighting. But the bad news was that we were early. Way early. We had been worried it would take us a while to eat, and take us a while to get up to Sharon. But in fact it took us hardly any time at all to eat, and we were only about 20 mins from where we needed to be.
So we showed up like an hour early.
And it was raining. It had been raining all day, but when night fell so did the temperature, and the rain was dang cold. And it wouldn't stop.
So there we were--16 of us, 6 silly little kids, trying to hang out in the Joseph Smith memorial for an hour. It was a little crazy.
We had one near accident--little Natalie fell down the stairs of the actual monument face first, but luckily no injuries (luck or blessing--it was really close).
Other than that the kids just tried not to go crazy. And we all tried not to freeze!

(waiting inside, looking around at the displays)

(Max checking out what he says is his favorite thing in there--a topographical map of the area in a big glass box)

Sillies!
Finally it was time for the lighting and such. We went out to the little porch area and all huddled together to try and stay dry. I had to try to warm Max's hands and face in my coat because he had taken a spill and soaked his gloves (of course). It took forever for things to start, but when they finally did it was nice. They had a live nativity (I felt so bad for all the people up on the hill in the freezing rain!) and the lights were glorious when they were switched on.
Afterwards we got to enjoy hot cider and doughnuts and go into their little theater for a showing of Mr Kruger's Christmas. The kids loved it.
So that's part one for you!
(Wildes, how did I end up with no photos of you?!??! Were you hiding from me?)

::hilarious::

Max I watched Elf today. The part where he's at the doctor is just so hilarious. Anybody that's spent any time with a little kid will appreciate this.

The rest of it's great too, of course. If you haven't seen it you'd better!

::busy::

Busy assembling advents calendars, addressing christmas cards, packing packages, sending packages, digging out decorations, listening to festive music, enjoying christmastime!

::ode to a walrus::

I made this little walrus:

He's a gift for a small unnamed relative.

Max said he was jealous. He tried to snag the walrus and hide him away so he couldn't be wrapped up and sent.
That didn't work, so he decided to draw some pictures of him instead.
And as usual, they're adorable.


I think I like the last picture more than the real walrus.

::thanksgiving report::

We had a peaceful low key Thanksgiving, just staying home together. It was really nice. We ate and relaxed and watched football and played games and sort of slept in.
We decided to just eat a few of our favorite dishes and try to make it simple.
Except cooking a turkey never is really simple. I don't think we needed to get a whole turkey, but we did. It turned out yummy which is a good thing because we're going to be eating it for a while.

I cooked a whole bunch the day before so that Thanksgiving itself could be a little more restful. The fridge was all full of yummy stuff waiting to be cooked.

Everything turned out really good except the rolls which I spent way too long making. They burned. Well the tops looked great, but the parts in the muffin tin all burned. That was a pretty big bummer.
But oh well. At least I had Kris get some frozen ones for a backup so we were ok.

We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potato casserole and rolls. I had corn too but I forgot to bring it out. Which was really ok considering how it was way too much food for us as it was.

I struggled with the gravy as usual, but it turned out pretty good. Not exactly how I wanted it but good enough. And seriously, any sort of gravy looks good in my favorite gravy boat ever (thanks Target!)


Max was pretty interested in how Kris was carving the turkey, and had some good questions.

He really wanted the wishbone, but we couldn't find it this year. He was pretty bummed about that. But that's how it goes sometimes. Besides, we make our own luck around here.

This is Max warming up for dinner by munching on a yucky plastic drumstick. Ick.


Happy Thanksgiving to all!
(and to Sultan)

::happy thanksgiving::

Happy Thanksgiving to everybody, we hope you have a wonderful day!

(gotta love kindergarten)

(and kindergarteners)