Tubing

We went tubing with my brothers over Christmas in Logan Utah. About 10 minutes from my brothers, their is this housing development with beautiful homes, and their own neighborhood park. We all had so much fun together. Bailey and Jake braving it at the top of the hill

My crazy little brother Dave actually went down this hill, but the picture does not do it justice.

Our family

My big brother Rich, stacy and 3 of the 5 of their kids

My sister in law Brianna and baby Tiara (missing, my brother Aaron and 2 more of their kids)

Me and my sweet big baby Carter

Dave and Jen, posing engagement style

This guy would not wake up for about 20 minutes. I even layed him on top of the snow, but to no avail. He likes his zzzzz's. Plus, he couldn't put his arms down, so maybe that was the real culprit.

I love seeing my brothers and sister in laws. I have a ton of CUTE neices and nephews, but I really can't post each picture individually. But I still love you kiddo's.

After Christmas Haul

So I have never actually done the after christmas thing, but after the serious haul I made this year, I will be hitting the after christmas rush forevermore. Me and JG got up at the dang crack of dawn to some serious snow on the ground. Chris didn't want me to go, but there was no stopping the shopping monster within. So I rolled out of my driveway at 5:15 AM with the snow a-comin down, and picked up Jen. I couldn't even pull in her driveway because there would have been no escaping. Any how, long story short, here are a few of the pictures of my house finally decorated AFTER Christmas from my thrify purchases:

Okay, so I'm gonna stop with the photos, because now it just seems like I'm bragging. Sorry. But I got such a great deal on stuff, and I was in dire need of real grown-up decorations. All of my buckets were from the days of newlywed life, and it was high time to bid them farewell. I did get gifts for all of my activity day girls for the year for only $1.44. I was so dang proud of myself.

Because I was a first timer, I had to call the afterchristmasqueen herself for advice. One of my BFF's Emily had lots of great advice on what stores to hit. We shopped by phone together, so we were together in spirit. JG and I had my minivan packed to the brim, so had to call it quits. We had so much fun, and I highly recommend this experience to all.

Card Exchange

This is my card for this month for the card exchange. I used my Cricut again - if I knew how to put a little link on that word I would. I just love that machine!

Lady with the Aligator Purse

Mother, mother, I am ill

Call the doctor over the hill,
in came the doctor, in came the nurse,

in came the lady with the alligator purse...

Bailey had her first play at school this past week. It was so cute! She was the 'lady with the alligator purse, and I am so sad I didn't get a better picture of her full costume, which had huge crazy purple hair, and rather large glasses that wouldn't stay on her face. I was so impressed with how well all the kids did, and I just love her teachers. They put in so much effort to do this play. Love ya Mrs. Crane, Miss Lori, Miss Chris!

Alias

My friend Shelby posted this and it was funny to read. In all of my other circles, I am otherwise known as...

1. MY ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car)- Ellie Toyota. Wow how lame am I? This just proves I could never be a rock star.

2.MY GANGSTA NAME: (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie)-Baby ruth chocolate chip. Not very intimidating.

3. MY “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name)
J-coo

4. MY DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal)-Pink-dog

5. MY SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)-Christine Edmonds. Hey thats kindof hot. Or kind of old lady-ish come to think of it. Hey, maybe old man milton thinks it's hot.

6. MY STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first)-coo-je. This is so nerdy.

7. MY SUPERHERO NAME: (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink)-"The green lemonade."

8. MY NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers)- Ralph verne Carl

9. MY STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy)-
Heavenly chocolate'. I guess if I were a black stripper. Just proves I could never be a stripper either.

10.MY WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names )- Ann Brent. Dang, now my cover is blown if I actually ever have to go into witness protection. That is a good cover name!

11. MY TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter)- Rautenberg Rome

12. MY SPY NAME/BOND GIRL: (your favorite season/holiday, flower) - Christmas hydrangia.

13. MY CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”)-
Grape-hoodie

14. MY HIPPY NAME: (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree-) granola magnolia. Okay, I really ate fruit loops for breakfast, but I eat granola sometimes and that just sounded better.

15. MY ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME: (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”)-The Scrapbooking Rain Tour (Groovy!)

In Captivity

Here sits our lonely tree. I broke down and bought the mondo octagon gate due to one very busy 18 month old who will remain nameless. I thought I was outsmarting his roadrunner-like pace and super-stretchy-arms and whatever super-hero qualities he seems to be hiding from me, but to no avail. Super busy baby can climb inside of the gate, but that was before discovering that he could slide the gate to reach his own new private collection of ammunition (Christmas balls) to throw at the great big green target (afore mentioned tree in captivity). Did I mention my right eye has a twitch?

roadrunner with super hero powers

Every year since having the three musketeers, I have tried to make tree trimming night a fun family night together, in hopes of creating the same magical memories I had with my family as a child. This year was especially exciting for me because Bailey and Jake are old enough now to really remember this Christmas. We had decided to put up our tree the night before we left to Utah for thanksgiving so that when we got home it would be shining in all its Christmasy spirit and glory when we returned ready to start our Christmas season. This year I had grand expectations, and just a little bit too much on my plate it turns out.

As if packing for a trip with three small children (okay, just taking care of 3 small children) isn't chaotic enough, I wanted to finish getting packages together to take to Utah with me (which included baked goods and candies), I had started this whole 12 days of Christmas project to do with my 30 or so 8-11 year olds at church (which for starters included 6, no kidding 6 hours of cutting tags with my Cricut cutter) and of course I wanted a clean house for tree decorating night so we could get out the video camera and take pictures without toys and laundry running amuk (Carter loves to drag laundry all over, and socks, lots and lots of socks). And maybe this still doesn't seem undoable, but there are no words to fully explain the storm that brewed in my head.

Not to sound like I think I am the greatest, but I am often pretty impressed with myself when it comes to multitasking and time management and get frustrated when it all doesn't work out how I planned. Well, I think the motherboard in my brain shorted out. It got fried. Too many details for one mama to keep up there. And I was so sad that our fun night didn't go as planned. For one thing, the kids ran around for close to two hours repeatedly asking me if they could put the "ordnamets" on the tree yet. You see, I was making batch after batch of lollipops, and various other stuff that I must have blocked from my memory. They were so patient. We finally got to the decorating part, and promised that we would all have a sleep over party in the living room that night by the tree. We were supposed to drink hot chocolate, watch a Christmas movie, sing Christmas songs, and read a Christmas book. Together. Well, the kids did all of it, minus mom and dad, who were running around in the mess of it until 12:30 that night when Bailey came into our room and asked for probably the 20th time if we were going to come in for the sleepover party now that the movie was over. Yes, Bailey, we will be there in a minute. We are liars. They fell asleep, and so did we in exhaustion - in our own bed. Bailey was so, so disappointed in the morning when she woke up and saw we never came in. I feel so bad! I ruined her tree night memories, and what's worse, she will remember for reals this year!!!

Our little devil

Our little angel

My personal super hero. Isn't he handsome? even lying there under that tree, rugged and taking charge. He should have his own calendar. Sorry ladies, this ones all mine.

I really did it to myself this time. I literally have walked around in a daze until this past week, that is one reason I haven't posted in so long! I know that I cannot be everything to everyone and still have fuel left over to put in my own tank. I definitely paid the price this time for trying to "do it all." I am learning through my own life lessons, that it is okay to set limits on what you can do with your time. I just had a real reality check this time around, and in the future, I plan to do things differently.

Thanksgiving a month later

We seriously contemplated going out to eat for thanksgiving dinner this year. We had finally decided we would probably stay in and have a little feast with just the five of us. We were actually really looking forward to a quiet turkey day, where we could just relax and decorate our tree. Usually Turkey day consists of 30 plus people, and with half of those being small children, it can get pretty chaotic, no matter who's side of the family we are visiting. Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love that Chris and I have big families. There is lots of love, lots of fun, and plenty of stories to tell, and when we all get together, we usually share all of the above.

But this year, because of the distance in between us and our respective families, we now had "options" and it was fun to think of the possibilities! Our good friends Jen and Dale Yancey (who live in Utah) called and talked us into thanksgiving with their family, so we ended up going there.

A little background on Jen and Dale: They were our neighbors in our first little apartment when we were newlyweds in Everett Washington. They were newlyweds too. Chris and I found some of our BFF's for the past almost 8 years now, and our belly's have ached from laughing our guts out ever since. Jen and I call Chris and Dale "the girlfriends" because they talk to eachother on the phone more than Jen and I do. We are not phone talkers. In fact, most if not 90 percent of our nights out with the Yancey's were coordinated by Chris and Dale themselves. We almost died a little inside when they moved to Utah (Where Jen is from) but recovered when we decided to move only 4 hours away from them less than 1 year later. We love you Jen and Dale!

We had a delicious meal at Jen's Aunt Trina's house, and went to her Grandma's house later for a little meet and greet.

Dale's 30th birthday was the day before, and Jen had gotten him a Yellow Lab puppy they named Oscar. Dale even got him a sofa to sleep on in the kitchen. I almost pee'd my pants when I saw him loungin on his little doggie pull out bed. He is livin the good life with the Yancey's as owners. Bailey and Jacob wanted to take him home with us to play with our dogs Brandi and Buddy. Did I mention that the little stuffed animal that Oscar carried around is a minnieme version of himself that was once Dale's childhood stuffed Dog? Cute.

I can't believe I didn't get any pictures of the four of us. I always kick myself for that. Next time I swear I will. I did however get some cute ones of Dale reading with the kids. He is going to be such a good Dad someday. Bailey, Jake, and Carter LOVE Jen and Dale.

The day after we all went to Provo to see Enchanted. We met up with my brother and sister in law. The movie was fun for all ages, and even Chris liked the catchy music in the movie. I enjoyed seeing a little bit of McDreamy. After the movie I enjoyed some much missed shopping while the kids played with Dale and Chris in the play area, and that is a sad story in itself.

Poor Jacob. As most of you know, he has some spontaneous barfing difficulties, and it can be unleashed anytime, anywhere, and if I am anywhere in the viscinity, my mommy barfsensor starts beeping and I can cut any conversation or activity short to catch the barf before it hits the floor. How sad for me, really. It is an acquired skill. But Daddy's barfsensor is not as highly developed as my own. Apparently, they were in this massive playarea, populated by many children while their parents basked in the frenzy of the day-after-thanksgiving shopping, and Jacob lost it all over the center of the play area. Chris panicked, scooped him up, and took off. He called me and asked if I thought he should attempt cleaning it or run away, and when I told him to find some janitorial people to clean it up, he was relieved at the thought. He did however make Dale hang out around the corner with the perpetrator while he reported the crime. He told them "hey, some kid just threw up all over the middle of the play area..." right as three other huffy mother's over heard him and threw in their angry two cents "yeah, we were just coming to tell you about the disgusting mess!" Such is the life of two parents with one barfing child. What can ya do?

Isn't Carter Cute?

All in all, we had fun, ate good food (Thanks Red Robin, we miss you) and we are glad that we went!