A New Holiday Tradition to go with an Old One

Each year we read Little Wini's Special Christmas Gift at our house. (Ummmm, yep, I borrowed it from you, Mom). In this story, there is a tiny elf that hides in all the houses, and even around town, to find out what the children want for Christmas and also to find out if they've been good or bad, and then he reports back to Santa. I love that idea, so when I saw this blog talking about something so similar, I was very excited.
I must have the Elf on the Shelf for next year. It looks like it is sold at a Hallmark in Bountiful, and Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, and a few other places. Here's the web site.

Weather?!?

I hardly watch the news anymore, so this weather forecast is a little shocking.

Friday Morning

After looking at sunbeams for awhile...

Emily decided to exercise...

And then sing some songs.

A Recipe

Here's a link to another easy and good recipe--Baked Ziti--it's one of my family's favorites right now. (I usually make it in the morning and then put it in the fridge until I'm ready to bake it.)

Stop Waiting...

A craven hung along the battle's edge,
And thought, "Had I a sword of keener steel---
That blue blade that the king's son bears---but
this blunt thing---!"
And lowering crept away and left the field.
Then came the king's son, wounded, sore bestead
And weaponless, and saw the broken sword,
And ran and snatched it, and with battle-shout
Lifted afresh he hewed his enemy down,
And saved a great cause that heroic day.
---Edward Rowland Sill

Maddie and her Rice Baby

Maddie walked home from school yesterday carrying her 10 pound rice baby all the way--she was exhausted when she got home!
Last week in Maddie's first grade class they each took in a baby picture and their birth weight, and then made rice babies out of socks to match. They have been taking care of them in school for almost a week. Maddie had a lot of fun with this project. Isn't her baby the cutest rice baby you've ever seen?

Santa and a Snowman

Mack, Cambri, Maddie, Nicholas, Emily and Devyn with the leaning snowman of Syracuse.

Emily and Devyn
Right idea, wrong place

Darren tried to make his own, straighter snowman.

We could hear the siren of the fire engine all morning--sometimes it sounded close and the kids would get so excited--and then it would fade away. But finally he came down our street (and he had candy too)!

Temple Square

Saturday afternoon we met my family at the Gateway and saw "Enchanted". It was so good it left me wanting to sing and dance down down the street, "I've been dreaming of my true love's kiss..." Maddie didn't like this and said that I'd already had my true love's kiss when I got married, remember?
After, we ate at Rumbi and had a few Ben's Cookies (could use a few dozen more of those, by the way) and then rode the train to Temple Square.

Snow on Saturday

It snowed last Saturday, and Maddie and Nicholas spent the afternoon sledding down the hill in our backyard. After I took these pictures, Maddie's friend Lily came over with her older sister Cassidy, who is Nicholas' age. They claim to be sworn enemies, but I can't believe that's true since they went down the hill together at least 40 times (Maddie says she counted). Maddie claims she heard Nicholas ask Cassidy to be his girlfriend, but Maddie is also a good storyteller. Only time will tell...

Leonardo da Vinci's Home

No, I didn't take a quick trip to France--yet--but one thing I like about blogs is that you can actually learn interesting stuff. Like that Leonarda Da Vinci lived for three years in a house built in 1471, and it's still there. When I go to to France I'm definitely going to visit. Until then, these pictures will have to do. If you want to see what the department store windows look like in Paris right now, click here and here and here.

Easy Freezer Meals

It's almost the busy month of December so I am posting links to three great freezer meals today; I like them because you don't just make a mess and then put the food in the freezer, the recipe makes one for dinner that night and then one to put in the freezer for later. I have tried them all and LOVE pulling one out of the freezer and putting it in the oven for dinner on a busy night.
The following recipes are all from Martha Stewart. You know, I used to look at her recipes all the time, and then for some reason forgot about it, but when I was looking for a good pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipe a couple of months ago, I came across her website again and was surprised at all the good and easy recipes she has now. (I think that was the problem before, her recipes were great if you were in the mood to cook, but could be time-consuming.)

Chicken Tetrazzini

(This one has mushrooms and peas, two things my children do not like, but for some reason they love this. I make it after a trip to Sam's Club, when it's easy to pick up the rotisserie chicken. Buy the package of sliced mushrooms at Sam's too, you can put all of it in.)

Vegetable Lasagna

I think this is Darren's favorite out of the three. (When it says tomato sauce, it really means spaghetti sauce. Also, you can buy the ricotta and the fontina cheese at Sam's Club--they're cheaper there. You might as well buy the spinach there too, I used all of that big bag in this.)

Shepherd's Pie

Everyone has a recipe for Shepherd's Pie, but did you ever think to freeze one? (This recipe tastes great, except I substitute chicken broth for the water, and sometimes corn for the peas, to make Maddie happy. Nicholas suggested using corn and peas....hmmm....daring.)

Thanksgiving 2007

It hasn't been a week yet, so I think it's still okay to post about Thanksgiving. This year we all went (well, not Cindy, we couldn't even guilt her into buying a couple of $900 plane tickets, can you believe it?) to my Grandma's house in Oasis. We had a great dinner of turkey, mashed potatoes, green salad, fruit salad, stuffing, carrots, rolls and pumpkin pie. We stayed overnight and helped her put up her Christmas decorations the next day. We always love going to Grandma's house!


Here are 22 seconds of Thanksgiving this year (Jordan was behaving himself fairly well for a moment so I thought it was noteworthy):

The Children's Museum

Last night, we took the kids to the Children's Museum at the Gateway. They have a new robot exhibit...
Nicholas stacking blocks:

Dominoes:

Emily and the dinosaur robot:

Jazz vs. Nets

Nicholas and Darren went to the Jazz game after the Children's museum. They had a great time; the Jazz won!

Las Vegas

Over the weekend, Darren and I went to Las Vegas to see "Phantom of the Opera". We had such a fun time! The show was wonderful, and it was great to spend some time together alone. (The kids stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Cullimore's and were spoiled to death. When we walked in the door of our own house last night, Maddie and Emily both burst into tears, and when I asked, concerned, what wrong, they both said, "I want Grandma." Happy to see Mom and Dad, obviously.)
On Saturday morning we went to Trader Joe's. Trader Joe--I love you--and my only, and it's a big one, complaint with you is that you do not have a store in Utah. Why? I would keep you in business by myself. Today I have eaten almost the whole package of mint cremes by myself, and I didn't mean too.
We also went to The Forum Shops at Caesar's Palace--my most favorite place in the whole city. Darren bought me a beautiful pair of earrings and a matching necklace, both with Swarovski crystals, at the Michal Negrin store. I want more of her stuff, and wouldn't you know it, there's another one of her stores on Market Street in San Francisco. One more reason to move there.
Saturday evening, after the show, we walked to the Bellagio and watched the fountains, my second favorite thing to do in Las Vegas. What a perfect weekend!

Christmas Letters

Last night for Family Home Evening, the kids wrote letters to Santa, and also made Christmas Wish Lists.

Translation: Dear Santa, I want a new horse, a new gear bike, a new Lego box, and a surprise.

Translation: a DS, a more Littlest Pet's Shop, and any present you want to give me.

Christmas Shopping

We've been having beautiful, warm weather and so I hated to jink it by thinking about Christmas, but with the rain yesterday and the fact that there are ONLY 43 days left until Christmas, I ventured out to go shopping today. I was surprised at how busy it was, and by how much stuff is already gone or picked over. So now I'm motivated and more shopping tomorrow. But to help everybody get in the Christmas spirit, I have posted a picture from last Christmas Eve:

Mary, Joseph and their donkey searching for an inn.

Darren's Grandma

Darren's grandma Lee passed away last Monday. On Friday we went to the funeral in Burley, Idaho. Darren has many memories of spending time with his Grandma and Grandpa at their cabin at Warm Lake in the summer, and visiting their home which was located on the Snake River. Darren learned to water ski off the dock in their backyard.
The last few years they lived in St. George, and we always enjoyed visiting them and eating her homemade cinnamon rolls and other great treats.
She served a mission, raised five children, helped her husband run a successful furniture store, and was kind to and accepting of everyone. Pearl Lee was a very sweet, loving person and we'll miss her very much.
Click this link to view her obituary.

Maddie, Nicholas and Emily with Grandma and Grandpa Lee last January.

Did You Notice the Hat?

If you are looking at this picture of Maddie and thinking, "Wow, that's an amazing hat she has on. It looks so cute and cozy and well-made. I wonder where she got it?"
Then wonder no longer, because I MADE it! This is especially cool because a week-and-a-half ago I did not know how to knit. Taught myself. Yes, you are in the presence of genius. But you already knew that.
Next I am going to knit Nicholas a hat that is knitted from the top down on circular needles and has two ear flaps. Sound complicated? I think so. I have been studying (staring at) the pattern for days now, and think I understand most of it, but I do not see where the second ear flap comes in. This is not so bad, though, is it? It's better to have one warm ear than none, right? Tomorrow I start.

Still Blooming!

This morning there was frost on the ground, but many of the flowers are still blooming. I hope they never stop! (Keep you posted.)

Walking the Dog

The weather was so beautiful and perfect yesterday that we went for a walk in the afternoon. Emily wanted to walk her dog.

We're THOSE Kind of Neighbors

These are our chickens:

This is not our front porch:

This is the new door mat on the aforementioned front porch:

This is the pumpkin next to the new door mat:

Our chickens (who have never once been on our own front porch) love our neighbor's front porch, a fact we were slightly aware of, but since we can't see their front porch from our front porch, we did not fully realize just how much they are really there.

Apparently, our chickens have taken to sitting on our neighbor's living room windowsill and pecking the window during family gatherings; they try to go in their front door when it's open, and have even carved their pumpkin for them (again, of course, never showing the slightest interest in our own pumpkins). And, oh, they make a mess spreading the neighbor's wood chips everywhere. (Should I mention, they never make a mess in our own wood chips?)

Luckily, our neighbors are very kind people with a good sense of humor. However, the chickens are grounded to their coop for quite a long while, since we do not want to test the limits of our neighbor's niceness.

And they seemed like such good chickens.

P.S. Their front porch is wet in the door mat picture because they just finished washing off all the chicken poop; wouldn't want trick-or-treaters stepping in that.

Halloween Night

Excited to start trick-or-treating on this beautiful, practically warm Halloween night!

Darren carved pumpkins with the kids.

Don't worry--Jordan is just dressed up for Halloween; he's really a U fan!!!

The Last Day of Lagoon for a Long, Long Time

Finally!!!

After months and months of waiting...we have EGGS!!!

Boo at the Zoo...

...a beloved family tradition. Since Darren was at a scout camp out last weekend, and the kids and I would be going ALL ALONE, my parents so nicely came with us. The kids trick-or-treated for stuffed parrots, lots and lots of candy, and even a little slime. We went to lunch after at the Red Butte Cafe, and then went shopping at the Basket Loft, where my mom bought the kids their own Christmas bubble night light, which they have already plugged in and started using, even to my obvious observation that it's not Christmas yet. We had so much fun!

Dad talking to Jordan (I don't think Jordan can stand to be left out).