Merry Christmas

We love the Christmas Season and we love our friends and family. Hope that you are all having a happy holiday season filled with love and cheer and reflections upon the Savior's birth. Here is our Christmas Card for all those who didn't receive it in the mail.

Flesh of my Flesh

While packing what I hoped would be one gigantic suitcase for our family of six for a nine day trip to Texas

- I'm like the world's best packer -

I asked Kody what he would like to bring along. He abrubtly left my room ran to his and came barreling back with none other than a jean baby quilt I made him at birth that he sleeps with and a huge

- by huge I mean more than three times his size -

teddy bear Grandma gave him that he sleeps with. He threw both items in the bag, closed the lid, and tried to zip it shut.

A boy after my own heart I laughed at his picks and recalled telling Travis before we were married that marrying me would be easy for him because my material needs for a lifetime were very low maintenance
-inclusive of a King size bed and Down Comforter-.

Everything can be accomplished with a good night's sleep and no one knows that better than Kody and me.

So Much

(So the baking began Saturday evening.) (Sunday Travis shoveled our driveway and thought piling it neatly around the mailbox would be funny. It is to me, but that's why I married him. It's over five feet tall there. Love you Mrs. Postlady.) (Sunday night we delivered cookies to our visiting/home teachees. This was a neighbor of someone we visit. Seriously a whole 'nother level. I love it. fab-tack-u-lous.) (People who know me well know I love puzzles. I'm a big fat nerd, but I love them. I started this baby over a week ago. 1000 pieces of pure pink. Took me forever and my eyes are mangled, but I needed to get it done to get to the serious baking.) (Serious baking commenced today. Just under 20 dozen cookies. All before 12:30. That doesn't include the chocolate cookies, fudge, or other goodies from Saturday. Now I just have puppy chow, one more batch of fudge and I am done. - Minus the actual Christmas day cooking/baking.)

Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you are feeling the holiday cheer and enjoying it.

Gingerbread Housemaking

Tidbits

Thank you Treila, my mother in law,

for the best Christmas gift of serving dishes.

It's exactly what I wanted.

Yeah I picked them out with the money she sent

because lugging these babies to and from Texas would be a pain.

I love the snow. Sigh.

I hope it snows several

feet this winter.

I hate Isaac's.

With all the free coupons

we seem to get for this place I keep revisiting it

despite never having an experience I'm happy with.

This food might look good,

but it never tastes good.

Church Christmas Program cancelled

because of snow. I don't know that I mind that much

even though I am the choir director and singing in two other groups.

Does that make me a bad person?

Neighborhood sledding so fun.

Despite being a country girl there are perks

to subdivision living.

Oh, and if you are totally clueless this area

is being pounded with snow right NOW.

It's Free For A Reason

Some people may argue that things that are free are for very good reason. Not being a participator in this particular thinking - I have gotten numerous awesome free deals including my fifty Christmas cards this year - I am a huge fan of freecycle. If you don't know it - well do your own research. This weeks find a bag of boys clothing 3-6T. Sweet clothes for all three boys in one bag.

(a peak view of my favorite find)

(full effect)

Oh yeah this is a nigh on to powder blue, seventies style, jean like leisure suit. This baby was free for a reason. It was destined to end up in my home on this child. Never was there a little boy with a better personality to don this apparel.

Holiday Wisdom

Today I had a visit with the Lady Dr. Another year come and gone and in the interest of no more children I have to do a quick stop in with her for a physical and pap smear to get more of my contraceptive medicine of choice. With that all set and taken care of she looks at me and says "Can we talk about your weight?"

"Sure" although there is a part of me cringing inside. She says when you first came here a year and a half ago you weighed four pounds less. My goodness who knew four pounds would initiate a conversation of this proportion. She says four pounds isn't a lot but if you start gaining it here and there it starts to add up. Well obviously. And what she says is nothing I don't already know and think.

But then she drives her point sufficiently home by adding and a year and a half ago when you weighed four pounds less you had a new baby, 6 months. Alright mental picture is sufficiently clear - I'm pudgy the whale. She asks, "Have you lost any of the baby weight?" Well no not really, but the truth is yes I mean at one point, nine months prego, I was tipping the scales at twelve pounds heavier than I am now. But after the initial 8 pounds of baby and a couple of accompanying fluid I guess the answer is indeed no I have not. Crap! How'd I miss that.

And she proceeds to question me about my eating habits, exercising routine, and lifestyle. In the end she finishes up with a healthy summary of the situation. Stop eating late in the evenings, take a couple extra laps on your stairs each time you scale them during the day, and park at the back end of parking lots, and open door manually instead of going through the automated ones.

Man she just dumped on my holiday happiness. I love Christmas, the family, the friends, and most importantly the eating. Already I am worried does this mean I should start watching what I eat starting today, the week before Christmas. Because that is where we are at, one week till Christmas. And this is when the wisdom hit me. Perhaps next year I will be going to the Lady Dr. one week after Christmas instead of one week before. So that when she wants to talk about weight loss strategies I'm totally on board. Because truth be told after finishing at the doctor's office I go to take Travis back to the office - he was watching the boys in the waiting room - and he is telling me about this huge cookie tray some subcontractor had brought in.

It was huge and yummy. And I had a chocolate cookie, a chocolate chip cookie, and four chocolate covered pretzels- yeah the first one was so good I stole the rest of those babies. It is at this point that I may have sputtered to Travis over my cookie filled mouth "Screw the Dr." But in the interest of watching calories a nasty piece of chocolate candy that I didn't like I hoisted onto Travis instead of finishing.

It's all about the baby steps right???

P.S. This is largely satirical. I am not really looking for the "you look great, Mary" or similar sentiments. I am holding to the holiday wisdom from here on out though. Seriously Dr. visit after the holidays.

Priorities People

While helping in Wyatt's Kindergarten class yesterday I was helping the kids with their journaling where they are asked to draw a picture and then write two sentences about it phonetically spelling out the words as best they can.

Problem: The misspelling of the word "we" where both sounds are phonetically audible.

Common spelling: Wii

Seriously people if your kids think that this is the spelling of one of the most common pronouns turn off the video games and try a little academic lesson in your home instead.

My Grown Up Christmas List

I would like to think that I care about all the things that the song lyrics refer to

• "no more lives torn apart"
• "that wars would never start"
• "love would always win"

but really I don't. They seem sort of dumb and corny to me. The simple things make me happy. So call me crazy but these are the things that have been going through my mind lately that would make up my grown up christmas list:

• king size deep fit sheets
• a new down comforter
• a gravy boat and spoon
• some cool new high heeled brown shoes
• a black pair wouldn't hurt either
• pruning shears
• some comfy but cute non jean pants
• brown eye liner
• my own GPS
• some tiered serving party dishes

Call me a selfish cad if you must. It's probably true.

Favorite Christmas Lights

....so far.

(the gingerbread house according to my kids)

Yummiest, Fastest, and Most Foolproof French Bread

Due to overwhelming personal emails and requests here is the french bread recipe I promised over a week ago. Everyone enjoy.

Yield: 1 super large loaf or 2 small loaves
2 1/2 C. warm water (105-110 F)
2 T. yeast
Let it proof
3 T. sugar
1/3 C. oil
1 T. salt
6 C. flour

Mix it in a Kitchen Aid, Bosch, or mixer of choice till blended. Cover and let rise 10 minutes. Remix and repeat ten minute rise sessions for a total of 6 times and 60 minutes. This is a wetter dough. Instead of flour oil a counter and rolling pin. Take the dough roll it out, then roll it up. Seal edges, pinch seam. Put on cookie sheet,cover, and let rise 20 minutes. Use razor blade or sharp knife to make three decorative slits. Bake at 375 F for 20 minutes. Let cool for 5-10 minutes and slice with a sharp bread knife. Egg wash optional for yummy crispy french bread crust.

The Face of An Angel

Every day since his birthday, Dec. 1, this boy has woken up and asked: Is today the day Santa came?

And every day I have to tell him : No not yet.

And he replies: Oh Darn It. How long till Santa comes?

And I will give him the daily counter: 17 days till Santa comes.

And everyday he responds: That will take forever!

What a sweetie!

In My Absence...

Since dropping out of the blog world for six days, a record for me I think, I have been keeping a crazy schedule which includes five hours of sleep or less each night. But a lot has been accomplished.
I have in no particular order:
A. watched the Christmas Devotional weeping shamelessly on several occasions

B. tried to catch up on a weeks worth of laundry (about 9 loads)

C. carried out/baked for/attended a Relief Society Meeting which included Make-A-Mix jars and quilting

D. made four batches to donated and sold over 100 1 lb. boxes of cookies at the Manheim Auto Auction

E. resorted to listening to book on CD to get my reading fix despite being desperately busy

F. set up and decorated two Christmas trees and other indoor decorations

G. went to see the Nutcracker Ballet with Bella, oh my so good

H. took my perfectly acceptable living room, dining room, and kitchen and decided to paint them (before)

I. ate at Olive Garden with two other mother daughter duos before the ballet

J. finished painting, removed the tape, and reassembled my three rooms (after)

K. played in the first snow of the season with my kids, Kody held out the longest

L. and wrote my letter, addressed, and stamped 50 Christmas Cards which are to go out today.

The rest of the house may still look a tornado swept through but I told my friend last week that after Tuesday things would be back to normal. So that leaves me with today for more laundry, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, dusting, and bathrooms, oh and my desk is a bit of an issue, and outside lights, and --- oh perhaps I shouldn't think of all the things I still have yet to do.

Manheim Auto Auction Addendum

More on Letter D:
After sitting at the auction all day from 7:45 am - 4 pm I have decided this is the place to go if you are a woman in need of a self esteem boost. Top ten reasons are as follows:

10. The male to female ratio is disproportionately in your favor.
9. Any other female competition tends to be over the age of 50.

(Note: Beware of one female security cop who is fiercely hot, so that even the women who is 74ish I sat with said, I wouldn't mind doing something so that she could arrest me)

8. The majority of these men are the perfect age demographic of 30-50.

7. The men are some of the sweetest eye candy I have ever seen. Most are well dressed, a fabulously perfect length of scruff, foreign, and exotic looking. Yum Yum.

6. All of these men come with their own accent. Some will even try to seduce you by speaking in their native language.

5. They are generous with their money and bought lots of overpriced cookies for a good cause.

4. Most of these men are dealers and are rich to boot. Some have other homes in other countries since they are dual citizens. Brazilian men will offer to take you to their house in Brazil since you have never been. They volunteer to show you how beautiful it is.

3. These men whether through cultural differences or personalities conducive to the car trade are not afraid to take action and make blatant passes at a woman.

2. They use flattery. And it will make a girl feel fabulous. One will tell you that you are super pretty because in his country super is more than very pretty.

1. If it gets serious they might give you a free car or at least a really cheap one to buy.

Give a holla' for the Manheim Auto Auction Men.
Note: I am not responsible for any long term character issues encountered in these men as I cannot vouch for this type of man, but he sure does make a girl feel very good for a day.

And Four It Is

Today is Issac's birthday. Although he's a little confused on the topic since we celebrated yesterday due to conflicting events. Since the day Issac was born people have told me he looks exactly like me. It filled me with a sense of pride since the previous two kids had looked so much like "Whitings", people would mention to me that had I not just delivered these children no one would know they were mine. Along with his looks since the day he was born Issac has been more like me than all the other kids combined.
From two weeks old he started crying for what appeared to be no reason and didn't stop until this last year. Similarly my parents have told hundreds of times how I cried for no reason from birth to age two. I have hypothesized some possible reasons for all this crying after knowing myself and Issac. We both know exactly what we want, how we want it, and the time frame in which we want it done. When these things don't come together perfectly we are sooo distraught, hurt, or angry it leads to tears - although as we get older we learn to curtail them better. Issac is supremely sensitive. His feelings get hurt so often. And he responds much more to a firm talking to than a spanking. Spankings make him angry and rebellious. Verbalizing your disappointment hurts his feelings to the point where he will do anything to make it better and needs to be held post talk to reaffirm your love for him.

Issac is fiercely independent. He has always been old enough, big enough, and smart enough to do things on his own. Since two he could dress and undress himself. And just this summer he decided to teach himself to swim where he totally submerses his head and kick rapidly. He doesn't get very far but he is fearless in the attempt. He's very physically adept and has been mastering sports since he was three. Just this past Thanksgiving Day our friends were teaching him to shoot a hockey puck, they are serious ice hockey players. He consistently could get it in the top corner of the goal. He can bat right and left handed and is completely ambidextrous as diagnosed by an occupational therapist. He will cut, draw, play sports, and point using both hands equally. Last night while doing skeet ball at Chuck E' Cheese he alternated each ball from left to right.

His energy and smile are infectious. His laugh is amazing. He is the only person who thinks that being tickled relentlessly is a reward and often asks for it after doing something good. Sometimes he will want to be tickled so much but it then turns to crying all without him ever having complained once. I don't like this part, but it still doesn't seem to bother him too much as he continues to ask to be tickled. If you ask him for a kiss he will refuse you just to be a tease. Then later he will come like he is going to kiss you only to lick you. And finally when you have given up all hope and moved on to something else he will run up unexpectedly and delight you with one of the best kisses ever. He squeezes so hard when he gives hugs you can feel the intensity of emotion he is experiencing.
He is a little monkey and loves to climb, hang, and jump around. He doesn't hold still for very long. And often times if he is supposed to be sleeping you can go into his room and find him hanging upside down from the top bunk slats into his bed balancing precariously on his head. He loves the park and being outside. He thinks that alone time with mom or dad at night is about the best things ever and he adores candy and chocolate which is his ultimate motivator to do things he hates to do.

He is just perfect and I can't imagine our family without him.