Post Christmas 2013

A couple of family activities kept us busy post Christmas.

Grady and Bryn's family tradition is to do gingerbread/graham cracker houses.

I have to admit, I am not a fan. I am not very good at sturdy construction and my house always falls down. And the mess of all the candy that seems to stretch throughout the house by the time we're finished is another deterrent. And it's so much candy, all the different colors, shapes, variety....

For me, I start to physically shake when I think about it. Luckily, in this family, I am free to voice my opinion and be accepted as I am. They know I'm not judging them, and they don't judge me. Bryn and I had a nice talk about it, interspersed with lots of laughing. It's a beautiful thing!!!

 

Little did I realize how intense this is at Grady and Bryn's house. They had drawn plans, like architectural plans. They were forming skeleton structure to build around. We're talking ships and treehouses. Rapunzel's tower. I was way out of my league, not being in a league to begin with. :)

 

Anyway, in support of family, I gave it a go. I tried to help Rachel, while Sterling helped Bryce. The second time the house started to collapse, I started sweating profusely and swearing (a lot) in my head. It's true. What can I say? I tried really hard to hold it together, my emotional reaction, I mean. AND I tried to hold the house together. Eventually we got something to stand and I spent the rest of the time picking candy up off the floor and trying to tidy up. Ridiculous. Why can't I just relax?

 

All in all, it was a fun time. Whenever family is together, we have a good time and that is what matters. I think Sydney's house is the only one that came home in one piece that hadn't been scavenged for food already.

 

Another day, we went to a lumber mill. It was freezing cold but really interesting to walk through the lumber operation.

 

Crazy Sterling without a coat.

 

Cousins 

 

One of my favorite things to do with the kids at Christmas time is to take the UTA trax to Temple Square and see the lights. This year we didn't take our trip until after Christmas. I won't make that mistake again. It really is the best way to BEGIN the holiday season, not END it.

 

 

This is the family waiting for trax to take us back home. Each picture is so funny, I couldn't leave any of them out.  

What in the world is Sydney doing?

 



Oh, the anticipation!

 



Bryce, testing the boundaries. How many times did I say to stay away from the yellow line? Oh yeah, that's right, like, a gazillion!

 

Christmas Day 2013

 

Christmas Eve Pajamas

 

So I didn't take very many pictures. Reason #1 - I was trying to enjoy the moment and relish time with my children. Reason #2 - Christmas morning made me grumpy this year.

Parker was pretty excited about his new longboard. Too bad everything is covered with snow.

Look at all those presents!!!! Looks like shopping went to the extreme until you realize most of those presents are socks, underwear and other essentials. At least it looks like a lot! :)

 

As always,, the kids wrote a litter to Santa and he responded in rare form this year. 

These pictures are all out of order, oops. This is before we went downstairs. Santa left our stockings upstairs with his letter.

 

 

After presents and breakfast, we went to the church to try out our new toys. Boy, was I grumpy. We finished opening presents and I thought, "What in the world did we just do?" Totally missed the point of Christmas. Anticlimactic. Pointless. Not as grateful as I had hoped. All the things important to me were washed over. Anyway, that's another discussion.

 

Spending time at the church, just playing and smiling and laughing really helped. The important thing is family and that is where I find my joy. Not things. It was just re-emphasized to me again.

Grandma and Grandpa Dewey gave the kids this fun marble thingamajig. After we finally got it put together we had a lot of fun with it. Thank you!

 

So, there's our Merry Christmas.

Are there any other mothers out there who get really disenchanted with Christmas? Is this normal? Do most mothers go through this when their children hit a certain age? What do you do to make it better? I'm open for suggestions and I have a few of my own ideas.

 

 

And now a little post script about the pajama pants.

Last year I purchased PJs for everyone. It was fun. This year I wanted to make them. So I bought some super cute flannel. (Not what is pictured). I remembered a cute tutorial on how to make your own leggings using a pair of old leggings. I couldn't find the post on the internet but I thought I remembered how to do it and tried to replicate it with their existing PJ bottoms. By the time I got to the waistband, I knew I had messed up big time. The waist was smaller than the hips. Sure enough, I had them try it on and some kids couldn't even get the bottoms past the hips. Soooo, I went to the store and bought yards and yards of more flannel. I still couldn't find a tutorial I liked (I don't know what my problem was) and I was sure I could fix it myself. Another disaster but I just plowed ahead. The leg length was off. The waist only came up to the hips, so I had to add an extra panel with the pattern going the opposite direction but there was just no going back, you know what I mean? I mean, I had to get this done and I had already spent so much money on two sets of material, I wasn't about to just go buy PJs. And so there I was, on Christmas Eve afternoon, sewing stupid pajama bottoms while the kids were out doing something fun with their dad. OK, so have a gander. You can't see the extra waist panel in this picture but you can see how messed up the crotch is and the length. But guess what, all the kids still wear them. They love them. And I love my kids. Soooo Much!

Rachel's Testimony

I love it when my children begin to write on their own and I find little notes and pictures and messages on scraps of paper around the house.

 

But this little note made my heart particularly happy!

 

 

Let the Christmas music ring

Our ward Christmas party was full of fun music this year. I was on the piano for two special numbers. So you can't see me in any of the videos, but believe me, I was there.

The first is a piano duet of "Sleigh Ride". It is one of the ultimate, you-know-it-is-Christmas songs for me. It was fun to play and to have Sydney ringing the jingle bells next to me. (And I love how, at the end of the video, you can see how Bryce snuck up on the stage behind me. It took quite a bit of coaxing to get him to come down.)

SLEIGH RIDE
  (Youtube won't let me imbed this video, so hopefully the link will work)


Another special number was "Baby, Its Cold Outside" with the Fugals. So I have to say, jazz music was a challenge for my classically trained fingers to pick up, but I really enjoyed playing it after I got the hang of it. Especially when there is a saxophone backing me up.

BABY, ITS COLD OUTSIDE

This was such a fun party to be a part of. Now I'm suitably ready for Christmas. Bring it on!

Happy Thanksgiving

 Wednesday, (Nov. 27), we filled our morning with a tour of the LDS Welfare Square. Young sister missionaries (from Mesa, AZ and Denmark) led our tour through the bakery, dairy, past the grain silo and Deseret Industries, filling our minds and hearts with all the good we can do for our fellowman and how blessed we are. We finished our tour with samples of cheese, chocolate milk, fresh bread, PB and jam, all made by the church in various capacities. It was a great way to start our Thanksgiving break.

Later in the afternoon, we started off for Blackfoot, Idaho, with Grandpa Brown, and the Grady clan. After dark we pulled into Aunt Audra's driveway and were welcomed with open arms and soft pillows.

Thanksgiving day was filled with lots of visiting, food and games.

 

After our feast, some of us slept...

 

...and some of us played.

 

We also spent lots of time playing around on the Ellsworth farm!

We are so thankful for such a wonderful family, who loves being together. I wish it could happen more often.

November 2013

Oh November,

What a busy and fun month you are...

 

November always starts off with Sydney's birthday. She was very disappointed that this year, her birthday was on fast sunday. What a bummer, to have to wait all day to eat on your special day.

 

 

Sydney is quite an extraordinary girl. She is attentive, happy, generous, talented, athletic, a dedicated student, receptive to the Spirit, a fantastic babysitter, a good friend, and very very funny. I love this girl so much! And now she's a bona fide teenager!!! 

 

 

For her birthday, we attempted my mom's red velvet cake, which is steeped in tradition in our family. But it is not easy to make. The amount of butter is breath taking, borderline disgusting but it tastes so good. And the frosting is a nightmare. It is made with a  white sauce that has to be cooled to a perfect temperature, blah blah blah. It took me 3 tries to make the frosting and it still wasn't as good as my mom's. But red velvet is what was requested and that is what I delivered! It tasted fantastic, even better for breakfast.

 

More November moments included Bryce sleeping. Here he slipped into bed with Parker.

Another day, he fell asleep while we were shopping. Must be a growth spurt.

 

And this didn't really happen in November but I thought I'd just throw this in here....

Sterling was called as Stake President and then released himself as Bishop a month later. Boy, was that month of double callings crazy.

We watched and watched the "Church News" for his name to appear. Sept, Oct and Nov passed with no mention. Then finally, in December, his name appeared! 

 

In November, the Utah Farm Bureau always has their annual convention. This year the retiring Lt. Governor (Greg Bell) and the new Lt. Governor (Spencer Cox) were both at the banquet. They are such great people and it was nice to meet them.

Spencer Cox and his wife.

 



Greg Bell and his wife

Incidentally, after the stake president notice in the Church News, Sterling received several phone calls, emails and texts congratulating him. Greg Bell was one of those people. Sterling was very honored that Greg Bell cared enough to send a text.

Quotes from boys

Bryce: "My racecar has 7 more seats...for girls."

 

Rachel: "Oh My! Look at that army guy. He is awesome!"

Bryce: "Is he naked?"

(now why is that the first thing that came to his mind?)

And one from Parker:

Mom: "I am putting my foot down. The answer is no."
Parker: "Can't you just pick your foot up and walk away?"