Christmas Countdown

Putting up the tree: three weeks to go.

The ornaments are no longer so evenly spaced.  They are all clumped on the top third.  It's a good look.

The kids had to check the blog to see who's turn it was to put the angel on.  Libby also realized she was wearing the same shirt as last year.

Making gingerbread houses: two weeks to go.

Libby was kind enough to take pictures of the finished houses as I got distracted.  I didn't manage a single picture of the decorating process.

Everyone down with the flu: one week to go.

Hanging the stockings: just 12 more hours.

 And now all the children are tucked in their beds, ready for Christmas morning.

I'm a Princess!

Work Christmas Party/Winter Garden Aglow

Friday we shed the homeless look and and went to Michael's work party. 

 

I had a white Christmas tree growing up.  It never, ever looked this good.  I always wondered what possessed my mother to buy a white tree.  I guess she had visions of a tree that looked like this.  Alas, she had seven kids that may or may not have used the branches for sword fights in the warmer months.

Look at that.  A picture with the whole family and all the kids are even looking at the camera and not making weird faces.  Now if only Michael wasn't squinting.

Then we went next door to Winter Garden Aglow.  It was magical.  Or it could have been, but we have kids.  Instead there was a constant refrain of "I'm cold!" - um, you might want to put your hat and gloves back on.  Then, "Can we come back when it's light?" - that sort of defeats the purpose.  "I'm tired, I want to go to bed." - Arggg!

The view from above.  Don't we look happy.

We did see Santa's reindeer Prancer.  That was exciting.  Sam kept pointing and proclaiming, "It's a moose!"  We also learned that all Santa's reindeer are female, as the males lose their antlers in the fall.  (Insert comment about women doing all the work and men getting all the credit here)

We also saw Santa!  Of all my children Ethan was the only one willing to sit with Santa.  So glad I waited in line 10 minutes so Sam could sit on Santa's lap and proceed to scream at the top of his lungs and the girls could refuse to go within 15 feet of the man.  Santa is terrifying!

We finished the evening with hot chocolate and cider.  The kids were more than happy to crawl into their warm beds when we got home.  Maybe we should drag them out in the cold more often.

What I'm Thankful For

I'm thankful for the end of November.  Michael finally got rid of this thing

and went back to this:

Yay for the end of Movember!

Laundry Math

I do a lot of laundry.  Laundry is that one chore I can never get under control.  Actually there are a lot of chores I can't seem to get a handle on but laundry is the worst.

I've taken to washing and drying it all on Monday and folding it all on Tuesday.  This leads to mountains of clean clothes in the laundry room making it impossible to fully open the laundry room door.  By the end of Monday I am climbing onto a pile of clothes to empty the washer, and have to send part of that mountain into the hallway to open the dryer door.  I'm sure there is a better system out there, and I've tried plenty, but this is the only system I have found that even vaguely works for me.

So one day in the midst of my laundry pile I started counting.  If each kid wears a full outfit a day that amounts to two socks, underwear, shirt, and pants; five pieces of laundry per day per child.  Now sometimes they don't always change certain articles of clothing without express urging but it evens out with the days Grace changes her shirt four times.

So each day the kids create roughly twenty pieces of laundry.  Plus PJ's.  Let's say one piece per child, per day.  That takes into account footie pajamas, and two piece pajamas, and the occasional just underwear night.  So that brings my daily total up to 24 pieces of laundry from the children each day.

Michael and I also wear clothes (big shocker, I know).  That adds roughly another 10 items a day.  So now we are at 34 pieces of laundry, per DAY.  Multiply that by 7 days in a week and you get 238 pieces of laundry a week.  This is on a good week when no one has any accidents, no one pukes on anything, no one is playing in the kitchen sink and ends up soaking wet and needs a dry outfit.  Okay, so we don't have good weeks.  This also doesn't include the 15 or so wash rags and kitchen towels nor the same quantity of hand towels and wash cloths.  Let's not forget bath towels and sheets.  All these add at least 50 more items.  So all together we dirty 288 items in a perfect week with no extra laundry.  288.  That is crazy.  No wonder I can never get laundry caught up.  I spend all day Tuesday folding ALMOST 300 items.

I hate laundry.

Killer Dolphins

The kids were all tucked snug in their beds and Michael and I were relaxing, watching a show and generally zoning out.  Then we heard heart-wrenching/terrified-sounding sobs coming from Sam.  I hustled back to see what was wrong.

I asked him why he was crying and he looked up at me with tear-stained eyes and said, "I'm scared of monsters...(deep sad gasps)...and...dowfins."

"You're scared of monsters and dolphins?"  I deserve extra mommy points as I didn't laugh out loud or even giggle.

"Yeah," a broken Sam eeked out.

"That's rough," I said.

Sam pathetically agreed, "That's rough."

Ahhh, the fears of childhood.  And no we did not watch a show about dolphins, read a scary story about dolphins, or visit a scary dolphin.  It was a completely random fear.  Always the best kind.  Some day I will share with him that he shouldn't worry about dolphins, because clowns are the only really terrifying things in the world.

Halloween

Two days before Halloween we finally carved the pumpkins.  The kids had been begging for over a week but I held strong.  I have a prejudice against moldy rotten pumpkins on my front porch.   I made everyone wait until two days before to do our carving.  Monday we pulled out the knives (and paint) and went to town.

Selecting just the right design.

No knives for these two.  They seemed more than happy with paint.

An hour and a half later we were done.  And I was ready for bed.

 

Two days later Halloween finally came and there was candy to collect.  We went trick or treating in a horde this year.  There were our four kids, our neighbors with their two, another friend with her one and Michael's mom.  We descended like a swarm of locusts.

We hit the ritzy neighborhood not far from our house (our house is definitely not part of it).  They have the best candy, mostly chocolate and none of the cheap stuff we pass out.  The kids each scored several full size candy bars.  When we got home with all the treats I debated the wisdom of our decision.  How much candy does one family really need?

Examining and "sampling" the haul.

Lots of candy.

Fully content.

Long Race, Long Day, Longest Post Ever

Our day started at the Farmstead Corn Maze at 8:30.  I signed up to run a 5K race and Michael, Ethan, and Libby signed up for the fun run.  My sister Heidi came to my house to watch the babies.  Above is my friend Caitlin and I before the race.  Nervous but excited.  This was my first race ever and her first since high school.  It was a costume race, hence my witches hat.  It lasted less than a quarter mile.

 Running with nuns.

 Still early on.  See how happy we are!?

3.0 miles later I am not smiling.  That brown blob covering her mouth is me.  I was trying not to puke.  I failed.  The race course was brutal.  Every time I thought I was coming to the end the trail doubled back on itself.  Plus we were jumping irrigation ditches, running through tires, crawling under tractor trailers and even traipsing through a giant lizard monster.  The jog was a lot harder than my usual one.  I kept thinking the end was coming but it wasn't.  So I kept pushing because I was going to jog the whole thing.   At mile 3.09 I puked on the hay bales.  As much as I wanted to jog the whole 3.1 miles I ended up walking the last 50 yards, then jogging through the finish line for the photo finish.

Finally done!  I was supposed to run across that giant trampoline thing behind me but it was the one obstacle I skipped.  Don't judge me.

 Yay!  I did it!

Then we played around.  The kids ended up in jail.  Michael cried and wondered where we had gone wrong.

 Then it was time for the 1/2 mile fun run.  Through the metal maze, through the giant monster,

 under the ropes,

 (Michael was in this position for 3 minutes before he was able to get back up again),

 over the hay,

 down the slide,

 and they emerged victorious.

 Then we went to play.

 I even felt more friendly toward the jump pad.

 Lots of picture ops.

 Who are those cute people?

Entering the corn maze.  Libby and I got incredibly lost.  Michael and Ethan beat us out by 25 minutes and they had to come back in and help us out.  I have no sense of direction and Libby seems to take after me.

 Going on a hayride

 to get some pumpkins.

 I told them to pretend they love each other.  They aren't very good actors.

 After naps and dinner we went to the ward trunk-or-treat.  Here is my beautiful fairy princess.

 And Poseidon (not King Tritan, you Philistines).

 Sam the dinosaur with pirate cousin Aubrey.

 Princess Libby and Avatar Korra cousin Kylynn.

 Rocking Libby's cowgirl hat.

And finally the end of a long day.  If you made through all the photos I'm very impressed.  Give yourself a little pat on the back.