Ehhhhh...

What's up, Doc?

Fourteen Has Never Looked So Gorgeous

 Fourteen and BEAUTIFUL!

I offered to sponsor an outing with friends but what Hannah really wanted was to have all of her family members who live close by to come over for dinner.  How can you say no to that?  Lisa and Cameron aren't pictured because they had to leave early.  She chose to have bread bowls and gourmet soups and salad and it was a yummy meal.

As for her gift...she put in half of the money in order to get an ipod touch, and ever since I have found her in interesting positions taking selfies.  

 Maybe it is the mom in me but I think she's pretty cute, even when she is being silly.

Dipping into the playdough ice cream that Aunt Mandi got her.

Happy day, girlie!  Thanks for making our home a livelier place.

Love is spelled P-I-E

Jacob assembled the place cards.  Callie made the chocolate satin pies.  Hannah was the cranberry salad maker and peeled potatoes for mashing. Drew made the peanut butter pie, and Camden unwrapped lots of caramels for the caramel pecan pie.  Tyler deep-fried our turkey in the neighbor's deep fryer, but trust me there was still plenty left for me to do.  All the help made it a lot easier and I actually spent some time sitting down on Thanksgiving Day - before we ate!

Emmie was missing from our dinner because she was asleep.  She wouldn't have stayed at the table very long, anyway.  Having Lisa with us was the perfect way to not have the stress of hosting but the fun of company.

Oh yeah, Hannah opened the cans of olives, too.

Maybe my tastiest spread yet.  The addition of pickles and slushy apple cider was brilliant - nod to Angie.

But the show-stopper?  The pies.

Apple and banana cream from my neighbor's home bakery.  Peanut butter with Oreo crust, razzleberry, pecan caramel, 2 chocolate satin pies, and a pumpkin ice box pie with a cinnamon graham cracker crust in an attempt to make pumpkin pie more appetizing.  It worked.  It was enough to let Tyler know how much I love him for the next little while.

Why I feel grumpy by 6pm

Or in other words, how I turn into a Momster.

Well let's see...after reading a ton of stories to two over-tired toddlers and feeding food to kids who eat like savages and then helping piano practicing for 40 minutes and making play dough and crafting with little ones and having the same person ask if he can go on the computer 25 times (and it is the same answer every time) and chasing down a 2 year old who escaped outside and cried to be with the boys who were burning energy in the front yard while listening to a salesperson at the door who had a good deal but was anything but brief and finding the kids throwing playdough balls in the kitchen (mopped for the first time in 3 months) and later hearing blocks being thrown in the family room...

It's enough to turn any sane, reasonable person into a MONSTER.  But I am a Momster, because I keep going back for more.  Right now I am listening to a please please please please refrain and it is time to go pick up Hannah so here goes another round.

Somewhere deep down I love my job.  I think.  But I do believe in its importance which is why I refuse to let the media raise my children.

Taken from a frustrated e-mail to my husband so that he can understand why I am usually quite grumpy by the time he gets home every evening.  Don't fret - it isn't always this bad, but today it was!

Our Thanksgiving Tree

We had a Thanksgiving tree this November.

We started one family night by having everything fill out two leaves with something for which they were grateful, and then I left blank leaves and a pen next to it so that we could add to it often.  I was very touched to see Drew returning to the tree several times to add more leaves, and I loved having a more grateful focus to my own days.

Here are a few of the things that made it on our tree:


Hot water
Mickey Mouse
Blankie
Warm cookies
Breathing well
My roller blades (J)
My cusins (D)
Good health
Brandon Sanderson (Callie)
Big sad puppies (Camden)
Warm house
Friends!
Holidays, cousins, presents (J)
Inspiration
My favorite authors (Cornelia Funke and Christopher Paolini - Jacob)
My parents and my family
Answers to prayer
Extended family close by
Physical strength
A hot wife
Minnie Mouse (2x)

Double Digits

Give this kid a long board and a couple of ice cream pistachio pies and he's happy.  I think he is one of the most helpful, skilled boys I know of this age.  He is getting very funny and clever as well and is a welcome addition to the "older kids" activities that we do in our family.

Dinner menu: Hot wings, potato wedges, salad, and fruit smoothies

It's a party year and we did my favorite one ever and probably Jacob's, too - an airsoft war with a handful of friends in a secluded place close by.  It was a hit.  Tyler ran the activity and I just had about 20 minutes of serving dessert while the boys showed off their wounds and told their glory stories.  AWESOME.  Looking forward to another great year with this guy in our family.

Haircuts

Callie wanted her hair chopped off.  I am slowly, ever so slowly, learning to say "go for it" instead of "trust me, you don't want to...".  

She's happy.

One night after buzzing three heads of boys I heard a little squeaky "my turn!"

I had to smile.  But this is one of those times that I staunchly said "trust me, you don't want..."

Random

Random thoughts:

We are having an adventure this morning.  Tyler discovered when he went to take a shower that we have no hot water - or 4.5 year old tank broke.  They are coming out to fix it this afternoon.  In the meantime Tyler will be showering at work, our bed wetter got a cold cleansing, and I am remembering how often I use my tap (we had to turn off the water to the house because the valve to just shut off the hot water heater isn't working).  Moms wash their hands many, many times throughout the day.

I made Emmie a sandwich this morning.  She gasped as I finished and said, "Good job, Mommy!"  I think she hears that a bit for the different achievements she does.  I like having a cheerleader with me.

Our beautiful, beautiful fall weather is tapering off.  This fall has been the first time in 7 years that I have not had time-consuming drives to multiple schools.  Alas, it is over now that it is getting rather chilly for the boys to bike.  It was fabulous while it lasted!

Potato Proud

My man grew potatoes this year in the garden.

Funny aside:  he tried a few years ago, but he kept digging up the plant to see how it was doing.  It didn't do very well.  I love to giggle about that.

He did his research this year, obtained some huge nursery tree pots, half buried them in our garden, and planted the potato starts in those.  He buried the green growth as they came up, and he didn't dig them up to see how they were doing.  At harvest time all he had to do was pull the planters up and dump them out.  And guess what?  We got some yummy potatoes!

Yukon gold and red are my favorites and that is what he planted.  I think he might have a crush on me.  

The huge potatoes were Tyler's pride and joy.  It was fun to see how crispy they were when I cut the fresh potatoes open.  The little baby fingerlings are always my favorite.  Potatoes are definitely on the planting agenda for next year!

Halloween Festivities

Tried some new cookies.  Super yummy - find the recipe here.  I didn't have an orange so I used 1/2 tsp of orange extract.  So yummy.

Ready for some pumpkin carving!

 Are there any Octonauts fans out there?  Camden chose to carve Kwaazi and he even got to help carve the straight lines!

 Jake did his own - start to finish.  Drew carved his the week before so that he could enter the contest at school.  He was excited to win second place, but we took the picture a week late when his pumpkin was getting a little saggy.

Surprise, surprise, Someone wanted a Minnie Mouse.  And it was love at first sight as soon as she was done.

 She even read Minnie a story!

It was a fun afternoon on Halloween Eve with my four little people eating cookies, carving pumpkins, a little homework, and some Monster Mash music!

 Treats to pass out at Jacob's Halloween party at school, plus a couple bags for my A-1 helpers, Camden and Emmie.  I underestimated how exhausting it would be to retrieve pumpkins and restack pyramids of toilet paper for Pumpkin Bowling.  Camden's help was invaluable!  Emmie - not so much.  Jacob was a big help running to catch her when she took off to go outside to the playground.

Our traditional treat of caramel apples

 One super tired geisha - staying up late jumping on her bed the night before and playing through naptime on Halloween makes Emmie a tired girl.  She got herself a snack of rotisserie chicken and milk from the fridge.  Too tired to trick-or-treat anymore!

Halloween Cuties