Never a Dull Moment

Although sometimes I wish there was! It all started New Years Eve. Emmitt helped me put the laundry from the washer into the dryer, and then we went to my parents for a little celebration. When we got home, I took out the load to fold it and there was a red crayon melted a little to the inside of the dryer. My heart sank. Red crayon was all over the entire load of whites!

Mila's brand-new unworn shirt! This is just a tiny example.

 It was too late to do anything about it and the next day was Sunday, so it had to wait until Monday. Well Monday came and I felt worse than I had in a long time. I had this horrible cold that my family had been passing around. I did not leave the house for days, and it took all the energy I had just to get us all dressed. My poor kids. By the weekend I was feeling better, but I had other things to do like getting Sharing Time ready for Sunday and getting things back to normal after being so out of it for a week. This Monday morning I woke up when Sam was going to work and just laid in bed thinking about what I wanted to get done. Physically and mentally I was finally able to tackle the crayon mess. When I went to the fridge to get breakfast for the kids everything in there felt cool-ish but nowhere near cold. I thought our refrigerator was broken. Upon further inspection, this is what I found...

I asked Mila if she had been playing with it, and she said yes. So the refrigerator and freezer had been off all night long! Almost everything in the freezer was thawed. I got to spend some time cooking meat and throwing things out. It did force me to clean it out. Is it pathetic that the thing I was most sad about throwing out was this... 

In my defense, this Whoopie Pie ice cream is splendid!

Being a mom is the most interesting job. But you probably know that ;)

Christmas!

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Christmas! I love the traditions, the lights, the decorations, the music, the treats, the planning, the secret surprises, gift wrapping, gift unwrapping, I love it all. It was nice to have Christmas on Sunday this year. I like going to church on Christmas to help us remember the real reason we celebrate the holiday. I always love the Christmas Sacrament meeting because it's mostly music. Sam was the only speaker. He did an amazing job (of course)! It was a beautiful meeting even though Emmitt spilled an entire container of cereal on the floor in the chapel.

A recap of the Festivities...

We went to see Santa at the Heritage Center in town. They always have a nice display and you can take pictures for free (unlike the stingy mall Santa). Mila actually sat on his lap this year all by herself! I think it helped that we went with our friends, the Whitacres, and their son is in Mila's class at church. They went first so I think it helped build her courage. Plus, she really wanted him to know that she wanted Squinkies :) Emmitt hated Santa! He really threw a fit. Then when Santa's helper, an older lady, tried to give him a candy cane, he smacked it right out of her hand onto the floor.  

For a couple of weeks Mila talked and talked about how she wanted to make cookies to leave for Santa. It was a disaster. Long story short, the recipe calls for 2 Tablespoons of lemon juice. I put in 2 Tbsp and I don't know how much more Mila added, but it was plenty. That was kind of how the whole experience was. We took the dough over to Grandma's and cooked and decorated the cookies with the cousins. I don't think they were very good, but they served their purpose and Mila was so happy to put them out. She still talks about how she left cookies for Santa.

On Christmas Eve, after we got home from our family party and the kiddos were sleeping, Sam and I wrapped presents and watched a movie. I felt like a kid myself because I was so excited for morning to come so the kids could see the presents under the tree. We didn't put any under the tree before because I knew Emmitt wouldn't leave them alone. Because of him, we also have ornaments on only the top half of the tree. Mila was so excited when she saw that Santa had come. It's funny to me how much she knows about Santa because I have never taught her about him. I think she picked up a lot from cartoons.

 This is actually the first Christmas tree we've ever had! We always just decorated our ficus tree because we were always at one of our parent's houses on Christmas morning. We didn't have many ornaments, a tree topper, or a tree skirt (I borrowed one of my mom's old ones), but I remedied that with Christmas clearance. I cleaned up! I got over $500 worth of stuff for $150. I am such a clearance junkie. I stalk stores after the holidays just waiting for things to go to 75% off, and then I pounce.

Before church we let the kids open their stockings and Mila opened her church dress. They also got the present I was the most excited to give them...

I love this picture of Emmitt. This was his first time down, and he gets going really fast.

Yes, I want it for indoor use. When I first told Sam I wanted to get them a slide he was a little skeptical because it's pretty big and we live in a tiny house, but I told him I am the one who has to keep them entertained all winter. He agreed. We used the kids' Christmas money from Sam's parents. Thanks Grandpa and Grandma Trulock!  They love it! Mila keeps saying, "Mom, do you remember how we got a slide for Christmas?"

This was the best picture I could get of them together in their church clothes. Of course it was at the top of the slide.

We changed out of church clothes, minus Emmitt, then it was present time. These are a few of the favorites...

 A giant Toy Story coloring book and coloring stuff.

 I made Mila a shirt with a crown and her name made of jewels.

 Cinderella Barbie. Modestly dressed, too. :)

Mila with her Squinkies and their cupcake house. Emmitt is playing with Chompin' Mike the Mower behind her. That one is a little too loud for me. The mower, not Emmitt. Well, sometimes Emmitt.

They also got the game Let's Go Fishin'. One of the fish got stuck on Emmitt's finger.

We had a magical Christmas! I hope that Christmas found everyone else well and happy, too. I can't wait for next year (especially because I'll get to use all of my clearance stuff)!

Happy New Year to all!

Update

Dad's surgery was a success! They completely removed the cancerous prostate, and so the cancer is gone. Just like that! As it turned out the prostate was very enlarged so the Dr. said he would have probably had to have some sort of procedure on it in the future anyway. So I guess they killed two birds with one stone, so to speak. His recovery has not been pleasant. His abdomen is stapled in about six different places, and he's had to have a catheter in since the surgery. Not fun. He was so uncomfortable after coming home that we didn't even get to see him for five days. He just didn't feel up to seeing people (and having noisy kids around, I'm sure). 

I'm so thankful that he's ok! I really appreciate the prayers of friends and family on his behalf. Thank you again! I hope to post about more pleasant things than my dad's prostate soon ;) I hope everyone has been enjoying the Christmas season so far.

A Request...

Last month my dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer and is having surgery on Wednesday. Dad has been very good about having his checkups, so he is lucky and it was caught early. We have a close friend in our ward who has struggled for years and has almost lost his life more than once because of a botched routine gallbladder removal. I feel a little nervous now about any surgery. So, I was hoping to add more prayers to the prayers of my family. If you could, keep him in your prayers over the next few days. Thank You!

Thanksgiving

We kicked off our Thanksgiving festivities by making a Thanksgiving tree for FHE. Mila enjoyed putting the leaves on the tree. Emmitt, of course, enjoyed trying to take them off :)

My oldest sister came from Las Vegas for the week with her family. While they were here we took a trip to the Boonshoft Discovery Museum with all ten of the grandkids. It was a crazy couple of hours, but all the kids had a lot of fun. We went almost a year ago, but Emmitt was too small to do anything. It was so fun to watch him!

Doing some grocery shopping.



All of the grandkids looking for birds outside the treehouse.

Playing in the pizza parlor.

He obviously didn't know it was a microphone and not a snack.

Emmitt loved the dig pit. It was quite difficult getting him to leave!

The water table was a lot of fun for him, too. I think he couldn't believe that he could actually play in all this water without being scolded.

We had a wonderful feast with the family as usual. Sam had a few days off so it was beautiful to get some extra time together. I did some shopping on black Friday and got some really good deals. I also went to see Breaking Dawn with a friend. Not the next great American film, but entertaining enough. I read the books when I was pregnant with Mila. I was SUPER sick with her so they gave me something to do while I stayed still on the couch trying not to puke. Memories :)

I love Thanksgiving because it gives us an extra reminder of all the wonderful things we are blessed with. I wish I kept a more grateful attitude the whole year long. Something to work on, I guess.

Happy Thanksgiving!   

My Little Spooks

I LOVE HALLOWEEN! I'm not sure why I like it so much. In reality it doesn't have a whole lot of meaning to me except for seeing tons of cute kids in awesome costumes and using my kids to score free candy from strangers ;) Well, it is so fun to decorate for it and plan costumes. I think I started loving Halloween because when I was growing up Dad would leave to go to the Priesthood session of General Conference and Mom and me and my sisters would decorate for Halloween. Then when Dad came home he would see our spookified house. I just always thought that was so much fun. That was a good tradition.

Anyways, for better or worse, it seems like making holidays special is kind of the mother's domain. Now that I'm the mom, I get to do it. I love it! It's definitely in my top 5 favorites of being "Mom." It was pretty fun this year because Mila remembered Halloween from last year and so she was excited about it. Also, she picked out what she wanted to be. She started telling me like 2 months ago that she wanted to be a pink butterfly and she never changed her mind. I bought Emmitt's garden gnome costume last year after Halloween. Here they are...

 My little pink butterfly all ready to go.

 She was ecstactic about the jewels I put on her face. She talked about how we were going to put them on all day.

 I actually made her little skirt. I know there's the no-sew method, but I thought it would look better this way. I thought it turned out quite cute. She was thrilled with it so that's all that matters :)

 We only got the beard on him for about 20 seconds. It's not even totally on. He HATED it from the moment he saw it. He definitely doesn't look happy about it.

 Of course he slept through some of it. I was just glad that he was content enough to ride in the stroller the whole time. We definitely did not need E on the loose.

It was near to impossible to get a good picture of him. He was running through the house while I took these. I attempted the beard again. Wasn't happening.

They are so cute!

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween! 

How Do You Like Them Apples?

Another awesome thing about fall is that apples are crazy tasty and cheap. One of the grocery stores here has been having apples for 49 cents a pound. We've been buying a lot of apples. I was there the other day and they were 24 cents a pound! My bargain-loving heart was going wild! Anyway, I really wanted to make some apple butter while I could get the apples cheap. I ended up doing a shorter, easier method and just did it in the slow cooker. Incidentally, while trying to find a recipe to use, I found out that in Enon, a town right next to Springfield, they have an apple butter festival every year at the beginning of October. I just missed it! Next year, perhaps.

 I started by peeling, coring, and slicing about 9-10 lbs of apples. I used a bunch of different kinds of apples: Jonathan, Ida Red, McIntosh, Gala, Golden Delicious, Fuji, Jonagold, Cortland, and Rome. I think using different kinds made it really flavorful. I added about 1 1/2 cups white sugar, about 1 1/2 cups brown sugar, a couple teaspoons cinnamon, a couple teaspoons ground cloves, a bit of ginger, a few splashes of vanilla, and some pumpkin pie spice because I wanted some nutmeg flavor but didn't have any. My measurements were not at all precise because I didn't have any measuring utensils so I was using a plastic cup and a plastic spoon to measure things out. I let it cook on high for 2 hrs then let it cook on low all night and a good part of the next day. I ended up with this...

 My non-precise measuring left me with too-sweet apple butter that tasted more like sugar, cinnamon, and cloves than apples. So I peeled, cored, and sliced probably another 5 lbs of apples cooked them in a pan on the stove to break them down quickly and then added them to what I already had. The result...

 Perfection!

Hopefully, if you give this a try, the cooker part of your crock pot won't end up looking like mine. This is after I tried to clean it, too.

Totally worth it.

Two posts in a week? I'm surprised the universe didn't explode.