Yeah for the holidays. . .being OVER!!

I am really not a Grinch, but I sure like it when things calm down and can go back to normal. No matter what time of year, when family comes to town it is always crazy. This Holiday season went relatively well with less drama than expected. Thank goodness!! I just hate the running around, the crazy schedules, lack of sleep and cranky kids. In the middle of all of this, Ryan broke his second front tooth through which was accompanied by a fever and not letting mom sleep all night. I am also glad I don't hear the phrase, "Is it Christmas today? Can we open presents yet?" Although they have replaced this with, "When is it going to be Christmas again?" This is mostly coming from Tanner. One thing I realized is that next year we are going to do even less. They didn't get a ton this year, but they really don't need more than one toy and a few books and clothes. I always try to throw in the necessities along with something to help them grow intellectually. The toys are the highlight for them, though. Karly didn't get an American Girl doll cause I don't trust her to take care of it and to not get bored with it after 6 months; so she got a Madame Alexander doll instead. It is basically a knock off of the AG doll but at less than a quarter of the price. She loved it and even said it was just as good as an AG doll. I plan on building on this gift with furniture and accessories over the next few years as long as she doesn't lose interest. Kaleb scored with a small pack of Lego's and about 5 new wii games-Lego Harry Potter, Lego Indiana Jones 2, Lego Star Wars, Sonic and something about rings and then Tanner got a Bakugan game which both will play. Karly also got a Hannah Montana game for the Wii. Tanner got about 8 transformers and Evan got 2 sets of hot wheels trick tracks and one came with a buzz lightyear. Ryan got a hoppy frog from Melissa and Doug and a wooden shapes stacking set. All in all, they got some good stuff, not to mention the DVD's, books and clothes. Grandpa Reid bought the boys remote control cars and a video game for the TV for Karly, which she informed me says bad words cause the characters on it say, "Oh my g-o-d". I am glad she recognizes that. At least something I am teaching them is getting through! We were supposed to go skiing on Christmas day but we were pretty tired and the kids just wanted to play with their toys. My house was such a disaster for four days. We finally climbed out of it and are now in the process of doing some much needed deep cleaning and organizing! Today we are concentrating on the playroom. We are doing a "keep or toss" game where the kids help me get rid of the toys and books that are broken, missing parts or they don't want anymore. If we don't have a place for them, they get tossed. It makes my life much more easy. Then we are washing down the walls, baseboards, windows and switches/outlets. I can't wait to get this room done! After this I am hoping to scour the bathroom since we are having a guest to our home tomorrow and they will be staying on the futon in the playroom.

I got my bedroom cleaned FINALLY!! I am almost done with the laundry and hoping to get back into a good rhythm of one to two loads per day so that it doesn't get this out of hand in the future. I am not wasting my kids vacation on cleaning though, we have already been to Trafalga twice this past week and have had fun with cousins coming over. Kaleb and Karly have been skiing once, and are probably going to go on Friday as well as Saturday. Friday night is our annual new years eve party with our friends, Saturday morning Preston is having his birthday party at Chuck E cheese's and Evan and Tanner are going to that and Saturday night is a surprise party for Grandpa Reid at our house to celebrate his 70th birthday! I think they have enough to feel like it was a good vacation!

Ryan is walking all over the place and very rarely crawls now. He made the nine month and walking deadline with just a week or so to spare before he turned 10 months. He is such a happy baby; always smiling and laughing. He loves his siblings and I love watching them with him-except Evan who seems to push him over more often than help him. Hopefully he will get over this soon.

Tanner just turned on my ipod to Beastie Boys and that makes me smile cause he loves to dance to anything with a good beat. I know it has a few bad words in it but they sing fast enough that the kids don't recognize it. I really should take it off but it is the only song of theirs that I have and I love to run to it. It's the "You can't, you won't and you don't stop" song. It totally pumps me when I run and makes me push myself. I don't know if any of their music is clean so I don't get to listen to it anymore. I had to get rid of quite a bit once the kids came in. It's a guilty pleasure to have a few on my ipod. He and Evan like to fight over picking songs. When Evan gets mad, he tends to get physical. Infact I heard him having a confrontation with his sister yesterday that went a little something like this; Karly tells him he can't have something and Evan tells Karly, "I goin to kick you in da leg. Like that!-that's what you get!" So lovely! Kids are great!

Quick shout out to my friend Lessley-CONGRATULATIONS!!! It's about time. You were becoming the black sheep of the group with so little in your posterity! Now you can catch up-maybe it will be twins;) (-that was my first smiley with symbols-yes, I am that behind with technology. I refuse to shorten words when I text just because it is more convenient. I write everything out because I feel it needs to be done.) Anyway-life is calming down a bit and hopefully that doesn't mean I am in for another test, cause I still feel like I am going through a couple right now. Love life, love my amazing husband and my wonderful kids, love the rest of my family, love my friends, love my home, love my beautiful view, love the snow and the awesome storms that keep rolling in and making winter bearable and love my calling and the gospel. SO fortunate to be here and have these experiences right now. I hope the new year brings us all prosperity, renewed faith, stronger testimonies, and a greater desire to help those around us and find ways to serve and spread the love of Christ to everyone. Happy New Year All! (on a more selfish note-I also hope the new year brings my body back to me that I had when I ran that marathon-I would love to have a "closest to flat stomach since before the kids" body again!)Thank you Ashly for making me sign up for that triathalon-hopefully it will get my butt in shape again.

SNOW!!!!!

I unfortunately got up today at 6am because Ryan was up and refused to be nursed back to sleep. So I decided to take him downstairs so Gary could sleep some more. He had lovingly taken him Sunday morning at 5:30 when he could hear that I was losing it after being awake for an hour and a half. Returning the favor, I slipped downstairs to the front room and turned on the TV. I was watching the news and the weather report and they kept saying that Utah County was going to be hit the hardest and was already seeing it. I looked outside but couldn't really see anything. Finally, I went to the window and peered into the black and could see that it was indeed snowing faintly. I didn't think much of the storm but was happy it wasn't rain. Being on the benches on the west side of the lake has the advantages of not only a beautiful view but also being a bit higher so the snow stays a while longer. As the morning wore on, I continued to check outside and my excitement grew. It is definitely a sledding day for the kids and even better, skiing in two days!!! The snow is still coming, and I was just informed that it isn't the same for all of Saratoga, but who cares! It is snowing here for me!!!! I love this white puffy stuff!

You thought yesterday was bad?!

So I woke up Friday morning with an attitude that all would be better today. I quickly got dressed after showering and even put on some make-up! Got my shoes on and went downstairs to get the kids ready and out the door. The morning didn't run as smoothly as I would have liked it to, but they got to school on time and that was a plus. I quickly started into my pile of work at my desk and turned the "babysitter" on for the kids to Diego. My sister in law, Allison, called to see if I wanted to schedule a time to get together with Gary's mom for dinner. (Side note-she had decided to cancel Christmas and sent an email out to her kids to let them know. She and her youngest daughter had an argument which ended in her "dis-owning" her and long story short, they are both being juvenile and petty about the whole thing. It got blown out of proportion and more siblings were involved which led to her not wanting to come to our family Christmas party.) We had decided to not let her off the hook that easily since we were not involved in the drama and our kids deserve to see Grandma and give her a gift on Christmas. So, we scheduled it for later that evening at Wingers. I quickly realized that her gift was still at a warehouse in SLC waiting for me to pick it up. So I quickly round up the children and make sure they have shoes and jackets this time. I had received a call that morning about the Provo Tabernacle burning down and was so upset about that-really made me sick to my stomach. I decide to call my mom on my way to Salt Lake to tell her the sad news. She is busily packing to get ready to come up here for Christmas so we are chatting about it and other things when she starts talking about my brother, Andrew.(Side note #2-He is currently in Jail for a number of things he has done related to drugs and other stuff) We start getting into a heated conversation about whether he deserves what he is getting, the right thing to do, my role in the situation-which, I don't understand why that was brought in because I don't have a role except for being his sister. Does that mean I am guilty by association or something?-Anyway, back to this discussion. She was definitely not going for the mother of the year award. I was shaking so bad from anger and disbelief that my foot was bouncing off the gas pedal and my heart was racing as if I was in a sprint race. I was seriously worrying that I could get into an accident in my current state. After a half hour of frustrating conversation that wasn't going anywhere and only causing hurt feelings, I kindly told her that I needed to get off the phone and end this conversation because I wanted to have a nice holiday with her while she was in town-especially since she is staying with me for part of the time-including Christmas eve! She continued on by telling me what I should do in the mean time and that is when I just hung up the phone. I haven't spoken to her since-yeah holidays!! So I walk into the warehouse with my heart still racing and fuming and have to practice breathing while I wait for my orders. When I got back in my car I called Gary and unloaded the horrible ordeal on him to which he wasn't too pleased about and validated me in my feelings regarding the joy of family and the holidays. I am talking to him on the phone as I am coming home and totally miss my bank cause at this point I am on autopilot. So I decide to just run into AF to our other branch and then stop into Target to buy a few birthday gifts that we had just received invitations for. I get about a mile away when I get a call from my kids who just got home. It's then that I remember that I forgot the house was all locked up and they have no way of getting into the house. So I turn around and rush home to get them. By the time I get home I realize that we are supposed to be at Wingers in Lehi at 7pm and that is less than three hours from now. So I make sure the kids are all dressed appropriately and we run back into AF to take care of the errands I still needed to get done. I call my girlfriend, Lessley, on my way to Target to find out about her dental trip and start telling her about my current drama after she told me she had read my drama from the day before. We sit on the phone laughing about it all-mostly because I didn't want to cry-as I drive to the bank. I told her that sometimes I wish that Christ could just come already and end all of this craziness. Or, if my whole family could just die in a fiery car accident where we all die instantly so there is no pain but so that we could all go back to heaven in and be together. (side note #3-I really am not suicidal, nor do I really wish any of my family dead, I just get tired of this world sometimes and long for the comfort and happiness that I am sure Heaven is like, but I don't want to be there without my family. I know this sounds morbid but in my mind it seems peaceful. I am tired of watching all the bad stuff happening all around us and look forward to when the Savior comes again. I think I just really need a long vacation sans telephones and internet and Cable.) She laughs at me cause she knows I am not being serious but admonishes me for saying things like that. I agree and finish up with the teller so I tell her I will talk to her later. I hang up my phone and pull out to the stop sign on State Street in AF across from Chic-fil-a (spell?) and wait for a break in traffic. As I am sitting there, I watch a 4-door silverado truck try to cross while a black Escalade is heading in his direction. He didn't see her and when he did, it was too late. They try to avoid each other but are unsuccessful. He was hit in his drivers side door by the front corner of her car and as they hit, they come right for me, both of them. I am watching this all unravel in front of me and am bracing myself with my steering wheel and my foot firmly on my brake pedal. Luckily, they are able to stop just inches from my bumper and I survive the wreck all together. I look back at my kids and they are all wide eyed and freaking out a bit. It's then that I realize Tanner had unbuckled while we were at the bank and was not in his seat belt. I use this as an object lesson of the importance of these safety devices-totally went through one ear and out the other. I got out of my car to make sure everyone is okay. They both asked if I was hit, but I assured them they had missed me. The woman in the escalade asks if I would stay to be a witness since it was clearly the other guys fault. I agree and wait for the cops to come. They finally show up 30 minutes later, and I waited in my car until they needed me. After waiting another 30 minutes, they got in their cars and left without even saying anything to me. What a waste of time!! I sat on the side of the road with my 5 kids for over an hour for no reason. Lesson, don't be a witness; or just give them your name and number and tell them to call you if they need your testimony and LEAVE!!! So it is now after 5:30 and I still have to go to Target for presents for the birthday parties happening on Saturday. We head over to Target and I spend the next half hour fighting with my kids over what they can buy for their friends. They want to get them items that cost over 40 dollars. I explain to them that the more money I spend on their friends, the less I have to spend on them. Kaleb's friend really wanted Lego's, and I see that they have a sale on some that were buy one get one 50% off. I happen to find one under this deal that is also discounted an extra 3$. So I ask Kaleb if this would be good? He agrees that it would after I explain how expensive the gift is but the great deal we would get from it. Then I turn to Karly to see if she agrees on getting a second set of the same Lego's for her friends party this Thursday. She then tells me that he doesn't want Lego's. He told her he wants anything but Lego's cause he already has a ton. I smell a lie, so I start fishing and tell her I don't believe her and she has an opportunity to tell the truth. She continues on with this concocted story cause she didn't want to get this toy for him cause she hadn't picked it out. She stands there with her eyes open wide and her arms at her side with her hands straight and rigid, like a robot, at her side. Apparently this is the posture of those telling the truth in her mind. I stood there, arms folded, and stared at her with my eyebrows raised-because this is apparently the posture and expression people make when they don't believe you in my mind-waiting for her to crack. I really didn't think she would go back on her story. She is really good at putting these things together that sometimes I question if she may be telling the truth. It's rare for her to confess her lie. She finally admitted that he hadn't said any of this and that he probably would enjoy these Lego's. Heck, two boxes of Lego's that usually cost 20$ each for only 25 for both?! DEAL! We quickly found Tanners present for his friend and head for the front. As we reach the checkout and I am pulling things out of the cart, I notice that the gift bags we picked out from the dollar stand have dirt clods on them from Evans shoes. So I grab them and hand them to Karly, asking her to run the 25 ft or so to the stand and exchange them for clean ones. She takes them and leaves and Kaleb starts commenting to me about Ryan's finger.(side note #4-He has had this funky infection on his finger for over a month now and when I took him to the doctor, he prescribed Augmentin. I only used it for part of the time because it caused a huge yeast infection on his diaper area. So I took him off and am currently using acidophilus powder and Dr. Christopher's X-ceptic tincture to get rid of it.) It was then that I remembered I needed bandaids and gauze and tape to help with his treatments. So the lady at the checkout stand tells me she will suspend my sale while I go get them. I thank her and head over to the area Karly should be at, a bit ticked that it is taking her so long. She is not there. We wait there for about 5 minutes and meanwhile I am calling her name at random times; finally she comes walking down the aisle with the bags in her hand. I am upset cause once again, instead of coming back and asking where to go, she wanders around aimlessly and she didn't pay attention when I pointed out the area a short distance from where we were waiting. So I haul all my kids back through the store to the pharmacy area and find the bandaid aisle. I am looking at the shelf, trying to find the gauze rolls and finally find all that I need. I turn to put them in the cart and announce that we are finally done and can leave when I notice that Evan has very quietly climbed out of the cart and taken off. It doesn't help that Kaleb and Karly kept walking away to look at things. Great examples! Luckily, his shoes are so covered in mud that has dried that I can follow his dirty shoe prints down the aisle and away from where we were. I had an idea that he was heading to the back where the toys were, but since I couldn't see him, his tracks had disappeared and we were pretty far from there, I decide to enlist the help of the Target team. I have only had to do this once before and that was with Tanner-he was found in the toy section as well. So I am escorted to the front doors to make sure no one tries to steal him. We get a call on the walkie and they in fact have located him in the toy area. After getting him back he starts to throw a tantrum because he doesn't want to be in the cart, nor does he want to be told what to do. I quickly get all my stuff together, checkout and then hurry to the restaurant, arriving late. Seriously! Dinner was fine except that the kids kept running off and needing to go to the bathroom repeatedly. Thank goodness for the popcorn and the short stretch of sanity we got from that. Driving home in the beautiful snow was a great end to the day.

Saturday, we got up at 5am and went to the temple. We bought Shirley's cinnamon rolls for Breakfast and I spent the rest of the day reading the Hunger Games. I refused to drive anywhere except to kids birthday parties and back. I was determined to have a less stressful day. Hopefully this coming week will be better. Cross your fingers!

Tortillas can really ruin a day!

So my day started out with me getting up at 5am to go to my neighbors to watch her kids. She gets home at 7 am but her husband has to leave at 5 for work-so I occasionally go over to help. I went over and stood at the door knocking with no answer. So I trudged back home and tried to go back to bed-was somewhat successful but not completely. Gary had had a bad day the day before and today was not looking much better. We were having friends over to dinner and needed to pick up tortillas. I had asked him to do it, but could see that it was going to be an issue. So I told him I would drive into Provo and do it. I decided that it was just one store, so I stayed in my yoga pants splattered with paint and my long sleeve grey shirt with no bra, threw on my sweater and boots and headed out. On my way to Provo, I remembered that I wanted to get more apples from Good Earth cause they were on sale, we were out, and it was right there. So yes, I stopped and went in in all my glory. I got a few looks. Part of the problem may have been that two of my boys were not wearing shoes and one of them looked like he was homeless cause he was wearing one pink shoe-Karly's-and one brown croc, hair in desperate need of a cut, and face not especially clean. Yes, I was showing our true colors to the world today!

After that jaunt, I remembered that I needed to get a picture cd from my sis-in-law, the awesomely talented Allison with Pretty Pictures and her studio was two blocks away. The photo needed to be printed and framed as part of my parents Christmas gift. We sifted through CDs and found the ones we were looking for. She told me that Myron had a callback on a job that afternoon in SLC, but he was in Provo helping Reid and Gary. Reid had picked him up and she was stressed about him getting back in time to get to his interview. So I added that to my plate by offering to take him back since it was on my way. I also took Addie with me so she and Tanner could play together on the errand runs. I left her place and noticed an Allens camera on my way so I stopped in quickly, uploaded the photos and ordered them. I got back on the road and headed to Yulia's to pick up my Azure order. Stopped in and picked up my items and then went to pick up a check for Gary from a customer-who wasn't there. Looked at the clock and realized that Addie would not be back in time for lunch so I picked up lunch for her and the kids and Gary and Reid. Went to pick up Myron and headed back to AF to quickly get Addie to pre-school and Myron home. During this time from Allison's studio and back to the pre-school I was on the phone with multiple people for work-suppliers, customers, etc. Did you notice something I missed? The tortillas! Yes, I forget to get the tortillas in my rushing and working by phone. SO I dropped off Myron at home and then ran back to AF to get my photos and stopped back at the studio to order some more frames for these adorable shots! Left there to come home and remembered that I had arranged a play date for Tanner with his friend Reid that he had been trying to get together with all week. So I call them on my way home and offer to pick him up. As he is getting in the car, Evan starts to get upset about not having a friend, so I offer to see if his friend from Nursery can come play. Now I only know the moms name, and she is the nursery teacher but I don't know her daughters name. so I knock on the door and ask if her daughter wants to come over and play. She does, and her mom, Rebecca, tells me she will come up after when her son wakes up. So I get home just after 3 with all these kids in tow, and start picking up. Kaleb calls me from school and asks if his friend Thomas can come over. SO I tell him that is fine as long as he finishes his chores as soon as he gets here. I had called Gary and he said he would get the tortillas. I am busily cleaning up when Rebecca knocks on my door.

Now I need to take a break here to explain something. I feel like I am so blessed. This beautiful big home I live in, in a magnificent location, a wonderful husband that I am so in love with, most of the time, and five-yes, five awesome and amazing kids. Not to mention that we have a business that is providing a comfortable living for us and we have our health. There are so many blessings that I feel so fortunate for and I feel the need to do all that I can to show my gratitude for them. So I feel like one way I can do that is by serving others and fellowshipping. I feel like it's a calling. Like I need to befriend all those that have moved into the ward and let them know someone is thinking about them and interested in getting to know them. So I have people's kids over to give them a break, I have people over for dinner to get to know them and help them ease into the ward easier, and find other ways that may help them. This way, I feel like I am showing my gratitude to Heavenly Father and hopefully am worthy of the blessings I have and may continue to receive.

So, I feel like Rebecca is one of these people. She and her husband moved in this summer into their new home that they built on a street with no one else around. There are vacant lots surrounding them. Since they were put into nursery, they don't have as many opportunities to meet people. She is super nice, so I wanted to take some time to get to know her. Anyway, she came over and stayed over to chat until 4:30. At this point, I realize it is time for wrestling. I had received a call from Carrie-who was coming over for dinner that night-informing me that Canyon, her son, had a tummy ache and would not be going to wrestling but they were still planning on dinner. This was fine, but now I had to take Kaleb myself. So I jumped in the car and had Reid and Thomas jump in so I could drop them off on the way back from dropping off Kaleb. I didn't put my shoes on cause I was in a hurry and I figured I was just dropping him off. So I head out with my car full of children and I get a call from Gary. He tells me where he is at with the schedule and informs me that he is trying to get home in time for dinner with our guests. Then he asks if I can get the tortillas so that he can get home sooner. So I say sure. I get off the phone and realize that Ryan is asleep and because I don't have shoes on and do have a car full of kids-two not being my own- that I need to send Karly into the store to get them. So I drop off Kaleb and head over to Smiths. I parked the car and gave Karly specific instructions about where the corn tortillas were, how to ask a worker for help and general instructions about only getting the tortillas, not talking to strangers or going anywhere else except to the checkout stand. I was totally nervous the whole time she was gone and began stressing after 15 minutes passed and she had still not come back. I was almost ready to ask a random mother with kids to sit in my car while I ran in barefoot with my painted capri's and bra-less top ensemble. Finally after 25 minutes she came out with a plastic bag in hand. I called to her and she ran to me and asked,"You wanted tortilla chips?" I was so relieved that she was okay but so angry that I still had no tortillas. I was so frustrated. It was 5:45, I still had kids that needed to get home-I had texted there moms and told them I would drop them off after I took Kaleb-and I was no where ready to have people over for dinner at 6:30. I looked in the grocery bag and she handed me back a dollar and some change from the six dollars I had given her. There in the bottom was a kit kat and a pack of gum. I asked her what this was and she informs me she got them for Dad. I was livid cause now I have expensive tortilla chips and not enough cash to buy a bag of tortillas. I told her that she can't buy things with other peoples money without permission. I was so angry but I was more angry at the situation, my day, and a bit at Gary. I apologized to Karly for asking her to do something she was obviously not old enough to do yet. To this she replied, "I forgive you mom." Oh, I was so mad cause not only did she waste my time and my money but I was still tortilla-less, and I bit my tongue to avoid saying something to hurt her feelings. So I drove all the kids home and when I got home I ran inside and started the rice. It was 6:05 and I needed to leave to get Kaleb but I needed to get this on the stove so it had time to cook before they got there. So I quickly threw the rice together and then got all the kids back in the car to go get Kaleb. We picked him up 20 minutes late but he was okay, thank goodness. He had gone back into wrestling to watch the older kids for a while. I drove home quickly, called Carrie to let her know we were back, and ran upstairs to throw on some deodorant and actually get dressed with a bra before they got there. When they came in, I apologized profusely for not having dinner ready for them and the house still being a bit messy. Carrie was a sweetheart and quickly helped Kaleb de-bone the chicken while I threw things across the counter and speedily chopped up toppings for tacos and cooked beans and tortillas. Gary took over tortilla making when he got home. Oh, you wonder where the tortillas came form? Well, I had the Costco flour tortillas that you have to cook, in the fridge. We were supposed to have tostadas for dinner and that requires corn tortillas and frying. So I had to alter the menu, but it all worked out in the end. Canyon still wasn't feeling well when they came over and threw up at the dinner table. That was fun. I felt worse for him and his family than the fact that he threw up. It didn't bother me. They quickly got him taken care of and her husband and I and Gary were all cleaning up the throw up. She grabbed a cup of sprite to bring him in the bathroom and Karly ran into her and knocked that all over the floor right after the other mess was cleaned up. I thought it was pretty comical and kind of was a fitting end to the day I had. We had a lot of fun getting to know them and spending time with their family. After they left, we piled the kids in the car and ran down to Payson to look at a fridge Gary had been working on. We got back at 11:30 and I went upstairs and crashed hard. This was my day. And there are still no corn tortillas to show for it! I did get my parents present finished and now I just have to finish wrapping it! Chalk up one more super long post for Lisa!! Aah, memories.

Slower than some . . . but faster than others!

Ryan is probably one of my slower kids to start walking. Tanner was by far the fastest at 8 and a half months (He had started crawling before 6 months). Kaleb started at 9 and a half and Evan I believe was at about 9 or ten. Karly was my slowest at 10 and a half months. So my boys have always been fairly quick to get up and go. Friends have been teasing us about Ryan and how he is "slow" for his age being a Christensen. I am proud-maybe not proud, maybe more reluctantly proud-to announce that Ryan has begun to attempt his first steps. He has conquered the standing on his own thing for some time now. At seven months he would climb to a standing position while holding onto something for support. Now, He stands in the middle of the floor without any help getting up. On Saturday night, Gary witnessed the first attempt to walk with a total of two steps. Since then, he frequently tries to take at least one. He hasn't figured out that he needs to go in a straight line and tends to try to step and turn at the same time. He is so cute and I love him to pieces! Especially his constant, "Gop" that he says throughout the day.

The kids and I made our gingerbread house last night. It was a lot of fun! I basically added all the frosting and they did the decorating with the candy. Although they did frost the gingerbread people themselves. They are so much fun. I have been a bit grumpy lately and I blame it on lack of sleep combined with children ignoring me combined with me not being patient. It's not normal for me to get frustrated with them so easily but I get tired of the same routine everyday where I am cleaning everything five times and asking them over and over to help out and they don't. The zones has been somewhat helpful but it is still in the infancy stage. I am trying to be a more loving mom. I love my kids more than anything but they also scare me to death. I worry sometimes that I'm not doing enough or that I am doing too much; that I am being too strict or not strict enough. What choices will they be forced to make in the future and will I have taught them enough or built them up enough to help them make the right choice?! Will they be the kind of kids that have to learn for themselves rather than learn through example? I have to trust that I am doing all that I can and continue to make an effort to do better. I know most moms can relate to this. If all else fails, they at least know that I love them, right?! Hopefully I won't fail. My little rant. There, I am done.

I'm getting a blender for Christmas!

Blendtech has had this friends and family promo all this week on their blenders. They retail for around 400, but we can buy them for 250. So knowing the procrastinator that my husband is, I told him to get one for me and that was all I wanted. I knew he hadn't bought anything yet, so it worked out. Now a few months back I had told him that I wanted to keep the gifts for each other under 50.00. He was not happy about this but said okay. Later he told me he was going to spend more, but still not too much. So when I asked him for this, he gave me a hard time. I tried to make a better argument on my side by explaining that it wasn't just for me. The whole family will benefit from a blender like this. He wasn't buying that statement. He told me he wasn't going to use it-I doubt that. He told me to just "own it". It was my blender for me and I want it. So I came up with my own gift for him. Something that I know he wants but that isn't really a present for him as much as it is for the whole family. He will be the one to use it the most, but "the whole family will benefit from it." Before we moved, our waffle maker broke and Gary was really bummed. So I found a really nice double Belgian waffle maker on eBay and he is getting that from me. I can't wait to tell him it's his and to "own it" cause he is the one who wanted a new one and he is the one who will use it. For those of you who don't know, I don't like breakfast very much and rarely cook anything except biscuits and gravy or hot cereal like cracked wheat, oatmeal or farina. I can't wait to see the look on his face. It's going to be awesome! Hopefully he will like it and see that I was just trying to even the playing field. He still has a hundred dollars on me with the blender, so I will have to come up with something else.

A house of order is not my house. . .but maybe it could be?

Gary is frustrated with the fact that the kids don't listen to me when I ask them to clean up and do their chores. I get frustrated as well. The kids often pray that mommy won't be angry. What I don't get is that Gary gets angrier at them than I do and I am so much more patient, but they never pray for Dad to not be angry. Well, when you ask someone to do something in a kind and patient manner over and over . . .maybe ten. . .or fifteen times. . . . and they continue to pretend that you aren't really there or that you didn't really ask them or that you speak Greek or some other form of ancient language that no one can comprehend anymore. . .I know this is a run-on. . .than eventually the volume of your manner of speaking is going to increase. I think this has been proven scientifically. So I decided the other day that I wouldn't raise my voice after being ignored repeatedly and went about my day calmly while continuing to remind them kindly of their waiting chores. When dinner came, they all sat and ate and immediately after, I informed them that it was bedtime. They all protested immediately after checking the clock and seeing that it was only 6pm. I continued by letting them know that I was aware of the time and that it was indeed time for bed. If they chose not to get their chores done when I asked them to in a timely manner, than they would need their sleep cause I would be waking them up at the butt-crack of dawn to complete the chores they refused to do. So they all went to bed and the next day, I got them up and told them to get to work. It seems that when kids are told to clean a room with no specifications, it is too overwhelming for them. They can't figure out how to do it, where to start. So I always start them off by giving them something specific to do. Of course, they still fiddle-fart around and it takes them five times as long as it should, but eventually they get that specific job done. They can't seem to get past that, though, so they never really finish the whole room unless you tell them what to do next.

I wasn't supervising cause I was out late the night before and then Gary and I sat up, um, talking. So Gary was getting frustrated listening to them and I had gone back to bed and left them to be responsible for finishing the playroom. After an hour Gary informed me that he would be bagging up their toys in a trash bag and putting it away for a while. He went in there-and I have to say it wasn't very dirty to begin with and should have taken maybe 5 minutes if they both worked the whole time-and began throwing things away. They had picked up what I asked, but were playing and ignoring the rest of the stuff. He threw away the stuff they even picked up-all the legos!! They are not really gone but Gary wants them to believe that they are. He was trying to find something that he could throw away of Karly's to help it sink in with her and settled on a bag of crayons. He went into their bedroom and picked up things to toss and Tanner, very nonchalantly said,"I don't really like those toys anyway Dad." Gary kept his cool but this didn't sit well with him. As he went downstairs to "get rid" of the toys, I heard Karly start crying over her crayons. Kaleb told her,"Stop crying Karly, we're going to get in more trouble. It's just crayons." He was so brave about losing his prized possessions. I was proud of his attitude about it, though.

The next morning I got up with the kids and helped them clean up the whole upstairs -excluding my bedroom which is currently laundry and Christmas wrapping central-so that I could vacuum. It has been so nice walking up there and seeing clean rooms, playroom, hallway and even the bathroom isn't too bad! That night Gary and I had a talk about the chore situation. He asked if we could try something new. We have changed our strategy to Zone Defense! The kids are given an area of the house that they are responsible for, for 7 days. In that time, they have to make sure it stays clean. If it needs to be vacuumed, then they do it, if not, they don't need to. If someone else makes a mess in their zone, they need to get that person to clean it up or else they will have to. This is the basic explanation for the plan. Gary and I oversee and have the rest of the house. We just started but I am hoping it teaches them more responsibility and accountability on their part. Kaleb is doing pretty good but Karly has the kitchen and she is struggling. I had to do part of her job today while she was at school so that I could eat at the table. She will be getting an extra little chore this afternoon to make up for it. We'll see how it goes!

Kids say the darndest things . . . .

The other day Gary was up skiing with the kids at Sundance for their season opener. They were having a blast and enjoying the snow when they noticed some people giving away free samples of products. Gary went up to the ones giving away red bull and asked for one. They gave him a 24oz bottle instead of the normal small one-maybe they thought he needed more cause he is so big? So he decided there was enough to share. He headed back to the kids to show them and Karly was the first to see so she blurts out, "Kaleb, Dad got beer!" This story is told second hand so hopefully I got it all as close to accurate as possible.

I was present for this wonderful conversation- Kaleb and Karly were in my bedroom while I was folding clothes and we were having a normal conversation. Ryan was crawling around and making a mess of my folded clothes and standing up against the basket when Karly says,"You're so chubby Ryan, such a chubby boy!" Then she asked,"Mom, is chubby another word for fat? (It is against our house rules to call anyone fat because it is unkind and they have been caught doing it on a number of occasions) I told her it was, and she asked if it was okay to call Ryan chubby? I told her that was fine. Then Kaleb pipes up and says, "Dad is chubby! He and mom should be on the biggest loser." Karly then said that mom didn't need to but Dad did. I then explained that the show was for people really overweight, by hundreds of pounds. He asked me how much I weighed and I told him. Then he asked how much dad weighs and I told him to which he responded,"See, Dad should be on the show cause he weighs more than two hundred pounds." I tried to defend my husband but it made me realize that we just need to get into better shape.

Last one was from Tanner at Breakfast. Gary started making eggs by cracking them into the bowl and Tanner yelled out-"OOOOh dads making baby chicken butts!" I don't know where he got this but it sure made us laugh!

Enjoying the holiday season with no more shopping to do and plenty of family around to share the spirit of Christmas with!