Just couldn't wait

I still don't have my computer back, but I'm getting such a back log of pictures that I decided to post them. My lazy side said wait until you get your computer so you download pictures only once. My lazier side said if you don't do it now it will take you 3 hours to post them.

Sam and his cousins Adelle and Lilly attacking Uncle Hyrum. I think the red eyes in this picture are appropriate.
It's hard not to have Christmas cheer with such cute little elves!
The cast of the Clayton (etc) Family Live Nativity. All I can say is, kids are hilarious. I got a lot of video too, but that will have to wait (lazy). This was so funny...and there was a fairly minimal amount of crying.
Sam didn't want to be Joseph anymore. And he really didn't want me to take his picture.

Today was Emily's wedding, so there's still tons to post. Such a great day. Mike wants to go to bed though, so it will have to wait. We're so glad to have Charles in the family!

Turn up your speakers for some Christmas Eve FUN!

Dead

My computer doesn't work. We were having printer problems, so I tried to restart the computer (it helped once), but now we can't get it to turn back on. So frustrating, it's new. I would feel completely disconnected if I didn't have Mike's computer. I'll post new pics when I get my computer back. Yes, I'm that lazy. I'm not doing it twice.

We cooked a perfect turkey today in my amazing new oven. You stick the probe in the meat, set the desired internal temperature, and set the oven temp. As soon as the internal temp hits 100 degrees it displays the temp for you to watch, and once the set temp is reached the oven turns off automatically. You can't overcook it. We also used the bridge burner to make yummy gravy (no lumps) in the roasting pan. The meat was tender and moist. I even made stock for the gravy. Not bad for our first turkey. Now I'm going to use the leftovers to make soup. I have a recipe for homemade noodles that I'm excited to try.

I went to 20 minutes of church today. Will fell asleep at 11:30 and slept until 3:30. There was no way we were waking him up, especially since we were having Christmas with my family tonight. Mike and I traded off at church, and I ended up cooking all day. I also made a cake and bread, so I was very busy today. I'm exhausted. My present from my brother-in-law was the game Sorry (Simpson's edition). There was a mix-up and he thought he had Mike.

Poor Will hasn't been feeling very well. I'm sure it's because I've mostly been eating whatever I want lately. Tonight he puked all over my arm and Mike's leg at the same time. Car seat too. The smell on my sleeve is a good reminder not to eat any more cookies or toffee or chocolate dipped pretzels, or any of the other stuff I've been making all month. On second thought, I think I'll go change my shirt.

My thoughts right now are all very disjointed, which must be obvious. While I'm at it, there was a fun luncheon for my sis-in-law Emily on Saturday at the Salt Lake Country Club. Yum. I'm taking Eric and Renee to the airport tomorrow because they're spending Christmas in Idaho. I still haven't delivered the last of the neighbor gifts. They're sitting on the counter, lost in the cooking mess from today. I'm reading Eclipse right now, which is so fun. I also read New Moon (obviously), and a book called The Widow's Might. I saw it at the library and checked it out without even looking at it. Stories about how different women have handled widowhood. Still working on Life of Pi. I will finish it, but not until I'm done with the Twilight series. Disjointed would now be an understatement.

'Tis the Season

It's now 7:40 AM. I've been up since 5:19. Will was having some major gas issue or something, and after 50 minutes he was back in bed. I guess I was too, but then the alarm went off and Mike got up...so I did too. It's not even 8:00 and I really need a nap. I need to go inventory my new shipment of shirts that I have to embroider.

We have new neighbors!! We're so excited because they're our same ages, and they have babies! They have a 3 month old and a 4 month old, so at least one (maybe both, depending) of them will be the same grade as Will. They adopted a baby and then had a baby a month later. Talk about a surprise. They're so nice, we're excited to get to know them better.

Last night Sam and I went caroling with the Mia Maids for our YW activity. He was the loudest of all, mostly singing about trucks. There was also a lot of jumping. When Mike got home he asked Sam if he had fun caroling. Sam looked disgusted and said he'd been singing, not caroling.

SPOILED!

Tonight while I was at a girls night out dinner with my Clayton sisters (in-law) to celebrate Emily's upcoming wedding, Mike was busy being my own personal Santa. I came home to...

The pictures are pretty bad, but you get the idea. My very own double oven!!! It is SOOO nice, I love it. It has pretty much every feature. It even has a built-in meat thermometer. You stick the probe in the meat and the other end plugs into the oven, and then it displays the internal temp of the meat as it's cooking. How amazing is that? I've been talking forever about having double ovens, and I always drool whenever I see a nice oven (yes, I'm a major weirdo). This will be my Christmas and birthday present for at least 3-5 years, but I'm so excited! I have a convection oven! We'll be cooking a turkey for Christmas (a Costco employee perk, thanks Eric!), so now we'll be able to (hopefully) cook a perfect turkey. Yay!!! Mike wins the best husband of the year award!

Break a leg...or a head

Today was Will's acting debut as baby Jesus in the ward Primary Nativity. When I was handing him to the cute girl playing Mary, I accidentally hit his head on the side of the stable (it was an awkward hand-off). Will was a pro, didn't make a sound. He was a perfect baby Jesus, and half the ward told me how great he was. It was so adorable. Santa came at the end of the party and Sam was excited to sit on his lap. He was a little apprehensive at first, but he was very brave. The picture doesn't look very happy, but he smiled right after I took it, and even told Santa all the names of the trains he wants for Christmas.

My cousin Eliza is here for Christmas, but she's moving back from Ohio in a few weeks. She and her boys came and played all day yesterday.

These are our neighbor gifts this year...ginger snaps, toffee (Sam keeps calling it coffee), and truffles. The truffles are yummy but a pain, I think I'll dip pretzels for the rest of the plates.
And my goal for today is to decorate my tree!

Texting?

I took this before the storm was even over, and then we got some more snow the next day. We have ice all over the driveway because it warmed up the day after and then went below freezing again. So much snow!
Sam was jumping on his bed and they both laughed and laughed. I love hearing brothers laugh together. Probably not good to let him jump on the bed, but it makes them both so happy.
Will managed to untie the corner of the bumper (the rocking chair is right there and he loves to grab the ties when I burp him). This was how I found him after his nap...exploring.

BIG NEWS! Will takes a binky. 3 days ago he started sucking on the binky. I still can't believe it. I'm not sure if I like it though. Sam never took one, so he has straight teeth and we never had to wean him off it. It's so convenient when I just need a minute to finish what I'm doing, but I don't want him to become permanently attached to it. What to do?

I made toffee today (yum!) and I had a bag of toffee bits leftover from the last batch (sometimes it's fun to throw them on top with the nuts). Sam took the bag and a scoop he found on the counter and set to work on the floor. When Mike asked him what he was doing Sam replied, "I'm texting." He didn't even look up. It took quite a lot of vacuuming to get all the texting out of the carpet.

I bought Sam a little nativity to have in his room, and when Mike was putting him to bed Sam backed Thomas the Train up to the manger and said, "I'm collecting baby Jesus."

I love my Sam

Yesterday I let Sam have some Cheetos with his lunch (I know). He didn't eat them all, but looked done, so I asked if I could have one. He picked one up and held it out for me, but as I was about to take it he pulled back slightly and told me, "Say please!" I laughed and said please, and then he gave it to me. He repeated this process several more times, always prompting me to say please. It was a very strange feeling to have a 3 year old teach me manners, but I'm glad he's getting it!

Daily Adventures

One of the hats I made for the Garden Center. This new machine is so cool!

I love checking on kids after they go to sleep. You never know how you'll find them. Honestly, I never put him to bed with a blanket on his face. That's just his comfort. Sam's the same way.

I was cracking this egg for my banana bread and the shell broke, but nothing happened. The membrane pulled away from the shell, so the egg was cracked and open, but still sealed inside. Okay, sounds lame, but it was really weird. Almost rivaled the time I got two yokes in one shell.

That's at least 8 or 9 inches (don't want to go outside to check for sure), and there's no sign of it letting up. I like snow, but this is ridiculous.

Food!

If you're in the mood for some fantastic ginger snaps, try this recipe. So yummy. She has tons of recipes that look awesome. I'll definitely be trying the buttery cinnabun cake. And this chicken recipe was great. She also has a fabulous recipe blog. I haven't eaten that much cheese since Will's allergy emerged. What a way to do it though! And if anyone can tell me what happened to the Pioneer Woman Cooks website, please share! I'm quite distraught, she had several recipes I was going to try, and now it's gone!

That boy

A boy in our neighborhood came by doing a fundraiser, so he was in our house for a few minutes. Sam talked to him and ran around for a second, but then went downstairs to where Eric was. After the boy left (Collin? there are 14 kids in their family, hard to keep track. btw, this family's last name is Herd. Really.), Eric came upstairs to ask who it was. He was curious because when Sam went downstairs Eric asked him the same thing and Sam said, "I don't know...the boy with the funny hair."

Will is taking his third nap of the day! Yesterday he only took one, and I was ready to pull my hair out. I gave him applesauce today. I should get some video...he shuddered with almost every bite, and he gagged several times. The gagging occured just as the food was entering his mouth, but then he was able to swallow it. (He did not choke.) I hope he starts liking solids soon. Maybe I should have Kimbur come and feed him. She fed Sam mashed potatoes when he was a baby, but he dry heaved a couple of times and then puked on her. I think my babies have serious texture issues. Sam, incidentally, will not eat mashed potatoes.

Samisms

The other day Eric was making french toast and Sam wanted some. Eric told him to ask me first, so Sam approached me and said, "Can I have some...waffle bread?"

Sam and I were reading a book that had some ocean animals in it. I pointed to the shark (with teeth showing) and asked him what it was. He thought for a second, smiled, and said, "A scary dolphin!"

One of Sam's favorite toys is his ambliance (ambulance).

Let it snow!

This was not even half way through our last snow storm. The little picnic table in the bottom right corner was almost completely covered. We got tons of snow...we had to shovel twice. We've even had our friends over a couple of times to sled down our hill. It's perfect for kids.

My newest job: embroidery! It's pretty cool, I need to take some pictures of stuff I've done. It's involved, but I've just about got the hang of it. Yesterday I made a couple of hats, and a cute little baby blanket. As soon as I learn the software I'll be able to do pretty much anything with it. I better hurry too, Mike has TONS of shirts for me to do.

Tagged by Kimbur

The rules when you are tagged:A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.B. Each player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves.C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1. I love trying new recipes and improvising old ones. I look forward to the day I can eat a normal diet again. Cooking with cheese may not be healthy, but it sure is tasty.
2. I love to read. Currently I'm reading three books, but New Moon is ready for me to pick up at the library. As soon as I get it life will be on hold for a few days. Sam's favorite place to go is the library. We love books at our house!
3. I was my high school valedictorian. Actually, there were eight of us, but I spoke at graduation as the valedictorian representative (I was invited to speak, but then had to try out). I also spoke at my junior high graduation. I'm a nerd.
4. The only show I watch on tv is Heroes, but we usually miss it (it has to be on a Monday), so we watch it on the internet when we have time during the week. Other than that I really don't watch tv...not even the news. Well, last night I watched part of the Jazz game with Mike, Eric, & Renee. Go Jazz. Except I don't really care. Good game last night though, they won.
5. I love getting a good deal! There's always something great at the DI, and I love my 50% off at Robert's. I always shop the grocery ads, and I love my coupons. Can you say Cafe Rio Free Meal? (Sidenote: tonight I'm trying some Cafe Rio recipes that I found on a couple of recipe blogs. I have very high hopes. And most of the produce for it was even on sale at Ream's this week.)
6. I am so blessed to have a great husband and two fun, adorable boys. I love my family so much...life is good. No, life is great!

I tagged: Lori, Christine, Steph, Andrea, Beth

Chow Time!

On Thanksgiving I tried giving Will rice cereal again, this time with a much warmer reception. In fact, I left for a second to get a burp cloth and he started crying. He was fine once the food resumed. I gave him more today and he ate it...but didn't love it. Funny baby.

Mom?

Yesterday we got to church and realized that for the second week in a row, Katie and I were wearing the same thing (last Sunday was white and brown). Last week we thought it was funny. This week our husbands made fun of us. We also had our hair done the same way, so I hope we didn't confuse Will too much. We had the Fishers come over for dinner and games, only Mike and Dan wanted cookies, so games lasted about five minutes. Now I have a bag of cookies I'm going to have to pawn off on neighbors.

I am Thankful

Another Thanksgiving under our belts (literally), and there are so many things for which I am grateful. A small random sampling of things at the tip of my brain include:

• My amazing husband, who works so hard for us


• Our beautiful boys, the joy of our lives


• Washing machines


• Good health


• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints


• Wonderful family


• Thanksgiving dinner wasn't at my house


• My comfortable bed


• Good food, especially when I can eat it


• Soap

This was my contribution to Thanksgiving dinner this year: 3 dozen rolls, a pan of breadtwists (minus four, Mike was hungry and they were hot out of the oven), stuffing, apple crisp, caramely nutty brownies, and butterscotch & spice cookies. And whipping cream that wasn't whipped yet. I spent many hours baking, but it's only once a year. I love good food. Every item I made had something off limits in it, but I ate it anyway. In fact, the only thing on the table that was fine to eat was the turkey.

The Garden Center's new Sandy store is open today! New pictures of the exterior are posted on the garden center blog, and as soon as I get new pics of the interior, I'll post those too. Check it out!

GNO

Tonight was girls night out. We went to Rib City for dinner, and then a few of us went and got an Italian Gellato. Why we got a frozen treat when it was freezing outside is still undetermined, but it was yummy.

I've been working at the Garden Center this week helping to get the new store ready to open on Friday! It's an awesome new building (check out the WGC blog for pics, link to the right), and everything is looking good. There's an insane amount of work to, but I'll put my 3 hours in tomorrow, so I'm sure everything will be fine. I also need to do as much Thanksgiving cooking as I can. It's a bit of a relief that I don't have a YW activity tomorrow, there so much to do!

I went to bed at 2:00 this morning for several reasons. 1) I had to stay up to finish reading Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale (Austenland). Guilty pleasure. 2) As soon as I was done with my book I heard a terrible cough coming from Sam's room. He was coughing and whimpering in his sleep, and it took 5 minutes to get some cough medicine in him. Poor kid. 3) As soon as I had Sam settled back in bed Will started fussing, probably woken up by Sam's cough attack. I had to feed him, and then settle him back in bed. Mike left before I wanted to get out of bed this morning (7:30), but he told me to stay in bed and sleep as much as I could. Ten minutes later Will was awake and hungry. I got about 5.5 hours of sleep last night, and I've been running around like crazy today. I'm getting tired. It's 9:40 PM right now and Sam is still out with Emily. Not sure what they're doing, but I'm sure he's having a blast.

This is the chair I bought for Mike today for Christmas. It was a bit of an ordeal. The box was huge, but I got it into my cart and carried Will in his car seat while pushing the cart one-handed to the checkout counter (with Sam in tow). The huge box was just barely too big to fit in my trunk, and the front seat. I had to take it out of the box to fit it. I would have taken another car to get it, but I had a raincheck for the sale price (which was 1/3 off the regular price), and they only had one left. Since we were married Mike has wanted an armless chair for playing the guitar. After all my drama picking it up, I hope he likes it.

Cookie Day

Sam helped me make cookies the other day. I turned around to put a pan in the oven, and when I turned back around Sam had already started on the second pan.
When he was done helping (and anxiously waiting for a warm cookie) he practiced his numbers. He traced those all by himself.
A few minutes later we heard Will waking up from his nap, so Sam went into his room. A second later I heard both of them laughing. This is what they were doing when I went in. So cute.


Mary Jane is at our house right now. She was downstairs playing with Sam, but decided she was hungry. She came up and asked for breakfast. She saw the picture of Will and wanted to look at it while she ate her healthy pumpkin muffin. She said, "Look at those tiny, little pictures! They're so cute!" She'll be in the same grade as Sam (and they'll be in preschool together), but she's about 9 months younger and at least a head shorter.

Renee (my sis-in-law living with us) loves Will. She told me he isn't a birth control baby (meaning he's not the kind of baby that makes you want to stay childless). He's such a happy, good-natured baby...and pretty much irresistable when he sleeps with his hands like that. His allergy seems to be lessening a little bit too. Lucky for him, I've been so naughty the last couple of days. Although, last night I avoided all salad dressings, creamy soups, and desserts at a baby shower because I ate things earlier like pumpkin cookies and a sandwich bun. The only thing I could eat was salad...dry. It actually wasn't that bad though.

Time to go, the kids want to go outside to play!

Greetings and Salutations

Grandpa Gar's funeral service was yesterday, and it was really nice. We had a small family service, so it was intimate and personal. There were several musical numbers by my sister-in-law Kimbur and two of my cousins. There is some amazing talent in our family! If you've never heard Kimbur sing, you should. My cousins Mike and Celestia are incredible too. Grandpa served in WWII, so some people from the Navy came and did their flag folding ceremony. It was really neat. Grandpa was born in 1914 and was the youngest of many (10 or 11 I believe) siblings. He outlived everyone by many years (I can't remember ever having met any of them), so I think he had a warm welcome by them and by Grandma Georgia when he crossed to the other side.

Grandpa Gar passed away early this morning. He was 93.

Finally!

I traded in my computer for a new one, so I'm back after nearly 3 days of an empty computer desk. The last few days haven't been terribly eventful. Probably the most important thing was that I finished Twilight (loved it). I put the next book on hold, but I was the 587th person to have that idea. I decided that with the holidays coming up it might be a good thing, seeing that it will likely be 2-3 months before I get it. When I read a good book I get tunnel vision, I have to keep reading until I'm done. I finished Twilight in 2 or 3 days (thank goodness for naptime and quiet time!)

Tonight we went to dinner with the Fishers. We left the kids (except for Will, he was having a really weird night...refused to nurse) with Eric & Renee and headed to Johnny Carino's. I think our server hated me, I kept asking for bread. We had a really good time though. Plus Katie is in love with Will, so she insisted on holding him while I ate.

Sam wanted to snuggle with Will. This is about as snuggly as Sam gets, and he's been that way since the day he was born. Will doesn't necessarily like to cuddle, but he doesn't fight and push away like Sam always did, so it's almost like he's a snuggler.
A momentous occasion. Will took a binky long enough for me to get a picture. I think his record is 20 seconds. My babies just don't like binkies. Sad in some ways, but so nice in other ways.
Will is now 5 months old (as of Sunday), and we tried to start him on rice cereal. After 2 more attempts he started crying, so we gave up. He stares at us when we eat and he always tries to grab our food, so I thought for sure he'd love starting solids. Wrong. He better start liking it soon, I'm cutting him off eventually. He's been totally unsupplemented (won't even take of bottle of mommy milk), so he probably can't fathom food coming from another source.

Halloween!

We had a very exciting Halloween. Sam finally got to go to LaRae's house. We saw her about a month ago and she told Sam to go to her house on Halloween. All month long he talked about going. She is one of the cutest, sweetest people I've ever met. Plus she gave us 3 king size snickers. We love LaRae! Sheriff Jane is one of the most photogenic people I've ever known.

We mostly just trick or treated in our neighborhood, and we met up with our friends the Fishers. Now we have a large stash of candy, and I can't eat it :( I think Will is improving though. He's been spitting up a more normal amount the last couple of weeks. Some days he doesn't spit up at all! His eczema is also getting less severe. There's hope!

Tonight was our Stake Women's Conference, and I'm glad I went. Our Stake RS goal was to read the Book of Mormon in 6 months (which goal I didn't make, but at least I started!), and tonight was the culmination of all that. One woman was telling about some of the trials she's gone through, and she had me in tears. She was unexpectedly divorced with 5 small children, one of which is multiple-disabled (he's 14 years old but has the physical and mental capacity of a 3 month old). She's had to work full time to support her family. She's been fighting breast cancer for 10 years, and it recently spread to her bones, lungs, and liver. And she's grateful for these trials because they've made her turn to the scriptures and the Lord. Wow.

Will LOVES his feet now, and they're even more fun with socks. Every diaper change starts out with feet in the mouth as soon as I put him on the changing table. He's almost 5 months old, I can't believe it! We're going to start solids pretty soon. It will be fun to give him something in addition to his drink (as Sam calls it), but I'm still in mild shock that he's old enough for rice cereal. It's going so fast, I wish it would just slow down a little bit. Maybe it's because he's such a happy baby, but I just wish he'd stay like this forever. (Okay...not forever, but a little longer)

Last Friday Sam went trick-or-treating at my sister's office. Eric took him (furnace guys were still installing the furnace) and they met up with Adelle and Lilly (cutest fairies I've ever seen!). Sam will soon have lots more girl cousins than boy cousins since the girl count is nearly doubling this winter (on the Clayton side).
Emily came over that night and carved a pumpkin while Sam and I watched. She didn't tell me until she was done that she's allergic to pumpkin. I toasted the seeds in some sugar and spice, and they were really yummy! I've never really had pumpkin seeds (that I can remember anyway), so I'll be making them again!
We finally did it...something we've wanted to do for three years now. We got a new furnace!! The old one was about 30 years old and the motor was really squeaky, so we're happy to be warm and quiet at the same time.
The new furnace is pretty high tech. We also got a humidifier because I don't like severely dry air. Plus it had a rebate, as did the furnace. It should also pay for itself in 4.5 years. So far everything seems to be working (knock on wood). The installers were here from 10-6, so I imagine they were thorough. We don't always have great luck after workmen leave (it took 5 repairmen for the fridge, and we had to have the plumber come back once).

And I've started reading again! A few weeks ago I read Austenland (fun), and I'm currently working on Twilight. So far I'm really enjoying it. I started reading another book, but it was so dumb I had to take it back without finishing it. I still have several other books I've started but won't finish until I'm done with Twilight. So...Life of Pi just hasn't grabbed me. Right now he's in the boat (the ship just sank). Is my mind just too used to constant entertainment? I've heard it's a fabulous book, but thus far I find it only mildly interesting. Is it worth finishing?

itsy bitsy spider

I finally figured out why the vacuum (my new one) wasn't releasing from the upright position. The range of motion is severely restricted when 23 cents are mysteriously deposited into the release button. I guess I should show Sam where I keep his piggy bank.

Will loves his fingers more than ever, but I think he's teaching himself to whistle (sans sound).
No distraction, not even dad, is enough to get the fingers out of the mouth. What a face. It still just makes me melt.
The most exciting moment of the day came when I was walking out the door to my YW activity. For our combined activity each class was performing a dance (type thing) to music from The Singles Ward movie. Ironically, my girls chose the itsy bitsy spider. So, as I'm walking out the door I see something black and spidery moving across the floor. At first I thought maybe I dropped a spider ring, but spider rings don't walk. It was a gigantic black widow. By far, the biggest one I've ever seen.
Mike flicked it out onto the garage floor. It landed on it's back so we got a nice shot of it's red hourglass. This was moments before it met its fate. Spiders never look as big in pictures as they really are. This spider was enormous!