The Allens

Look! I took pictures!

2011-02-21T20:24:00.000-08:00

I have to start off by giving my husband props for coming through on Valentine's Day, especially after my earlier Valentine's Day post. When I got up Monday morning, there were Valentine's plastered all over the kitchen and a game I have been wanting on the counter. The were very nontraditional Valentine's. (for example "When the zombie plague comes I will love you enough to put you out of your brain eating misery." and "If you ever get mauled by a bear with chainsaw hands, I hope he stays away from your face…because I think you are cute." I just stood there laughing at all of them. It was perfect. Then on Saturday he installed a new stereo in my car (hooray, I now have an i pod connection!) Yeah, I am happy.

We had a great week, full of lots of fun happenings. Since September we have had a pass to the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum. I have tried to get us there once a week. Sometimes that happens, sometimes not. We did make it this week and I even went with camera in hand. We had fun, as usual. Kaylinn's favorite is the grocery store. Maddie has recently discovered blocks and balls. Anytime she can get her hands on those she is entertained.

Thursday my cousin Erin came over and helped me start painting Logan's room. I am so excited. We are finishing out the space theme that I have started. I am going to paint and hang up some curtains. I think that will really bring the room together. I will post pictures when we finish. I use the term we very loosely: Erin is the real artist in this partnership. I am totally lucky to have her help me with this project.

Friday night we went to a University of Utah Women's Gymnastics Meet. It was a lot of fun. I was surprised to find that it is very popular. There were 14,000 people there that night. We don't go to sports events very often, but I think we should start.

Saturday Logan and I went with family (pictured here are Brad and Spencer Humphrey--my brothers) to a board game convention called SaltCon. I know, kind of nerdy, but we had a lot of fun. They had a huge game library that you could just check games out of and play. Then when you got done with that one you could go get another. I think I learned how to play 6 new games that day. My brain was pretty well fried by the time we got home (at almost midnight!). We would go again next year.

Weeknight Sports

2011-02-13T10:10:00.000-08:00

Wednesday night is sports night for the Allen family. Most times the gymnastics and the basketball overlap, and it turns into divide and conquor. This week they didn't, so I left Mike home with the extra kids and grabbed my camera to take pics. Up above Kaylinn has on her excited thinking face as the teacher just asked her what she is seeing in the class' imaginary trip to Disneyland. Below is one of her favorites about gymnastics class: the balance beam. She has also started practicing cartwheels and forward rolls in her spare time at home. She absolutely love gymnastics.

Logan Basketball

The team consists completely of 3rd graders in a 3rd and 4th grade age division. So we don't exactly win a lot. And, basketball isn't Logan's strong sport. But, it gets him running around which is always a good thing especially in the winter with limited outside playing time. Plus his team is full of his friends so that is fun for him. Up above is a fight for the ball. Below is Logan screening the other guy on one of their teams plays. He excels in defense in all team sports that he plays.

Diet update: I have officially lost 20 pounds! Woohoo!

Maddie update: She can now get herself to a sitting position. Ah, the endless possibilities...

A week in the life...

2011-02-06T07:52:00.000-08:00

This week we spent mostly at home. Loki (the dog) is so young and had a tendency to get into trouble when left alone. Plus it was so FRIGID outside. Inside just seemed like the better option.

We did our normal things:
Monday night: FHE (from Logan's scout book this week)
Tuesday: Logan karate, me piano lessons, Mike scouts (Tuesday is also at this point officially Biggest Loser night)
Wednesday: I spent the morning at the dry pack cannery with some ladies from my ward. Actually my first time there, it was fun. piano lessons, Logan basketball and Kaylinn gymnastics
Thursday: I taught joy school (a make up for last week when Maddie was sick) piano lessons, Bunco (I won, woohoo!)
Friday: taught art in Logan's class (pretty exciting actually, we were making action paintings Jackson Pollock style. The kids flicked paint all over their paper).
Saturday: We finally managed to get in our weekly trip to the Children's Museum. Because Mike stayed home with the dog and the baby, I let the kids invite a friend each.

In other exciting news, I had clean out the freezer week this week. Between the cold and the dog and did I mention we are all just passing around colds (go winter) and this week Mike and I have the sick, I didn't feel like grocery shopping. So I just went through my freezer and pulled out bits of meat that are hiding in there and fixed something around them for dinner each night. The best one was a bag of shredded beef I had left over from a crock pot roast I did a couple of months ago. I sauteed up a bunch of bell peppers (thanks Costco) and some onion. Then I added the beef and some salsa. I served it with all the condiments (guac, sour cream, cheese, refried beans and corn) and we had it over rice. It was sooo tasty. Then, the next day I had the leftover of the leftover (oh yeah) in tortillas to make a fajita burrito. Again so tasty.

Diet update: yeah, not so hot this week, better get back on the wagon and the exercise was nonexistent except what I did with the dog.
Maddie update: Her crawling has been very slow in coming. She little by little has inched her way into getting around. Finally this week she started crawling actually using her hands and feet and really getting somewhere. The catch is (boy is she ever an emotional girl!) she mostly crawls far when I leave her alone and the whole time she is crying at me and looking so dejected like, "Why would you leave me alone over here? I just want to be with you." Silly girl.

I have been working on a long project of monthly embroideries. I have one frame that i have been switching out each month as I go along. I started with December,that makes so far a total of 3 down with 8 to go. I just slowly complete one each month and I figure I will be done in a year. With all the time at home I managed to finish February (only 4 days late, which actually beats the pants off of December which I finished 18 days late). I love how it gets me excited about what is coming up the next month.

Houseguest and Valentine's Rantings

2011-01-31T14:33:00.000-08:00

It's a dog...

...the cutest black lab. He is really gentle with the kids and very obedient. I just love watching dogs while people go on vacation. It gives me a taste of having a dog, without the long term commitment. Someday I will have a dog and it will be great, but for now I have three children that take up all of my time, energy, and patience.
This has been one fast January in my estimation. Normally it drags by with nothing exciting to do, but between Disneyland and now having a dog around it has not only gone quickly, it has also been very pleasant.

Already tomorrow is February. I have Valentine's Day on the brain. It is a bit of a sticky subject around here. I think it is awesome because it is the one day that I am guaranteed a bit of romance. And who can blame me when it is all the talk out there? You see pictures of flowers and candy in the aisles and cheesy Romantic sayings everywhere you look. My husband doesn't find the opportunity so inviting. To all those stick in the mud people who are convinced this holiday is only about businesses getting to sell flowers, cards, and candy, I say "so what?" I think it is awesome to spend a bit of time thinking about love. How is this any different than Thanksgiving being a holiday where we celebrate gratitude? Why not celebrate the loves in your life: spouse, children, parents, grandparents? Besides I am good with any reason to celebrate. Heck, I love St. Patricks Day and make a big deal out of that, too.

Well, at any rate our disagreement has gone through a number of incarnations. I have forced him to take me out against his will and pouted when he didn't choose to celebrate. I have tried to do all the planning myself and had all out discussions that failed to convince either of us. This year I am have given up. I keep telling him that I don't care if there is no romance on February 14 exactly, but there better be some at some point this year. We will see if that pans out. I am just going to focus elsewhere. I will work on fun Valentine's Day surprises and crafts and baking with my kids instead.

So Happy February Everyone.

DISNEYLAND!!!

2011-01-24T15:36:00.000-08:00

We had the most amazing week this last week. We went on vacation to California. This totally broke up the monotony of January and got us out of the freezing weather. It was so much fun.

The details: We drove all day Saturday and arrived at the Newport Beach Marriot Condo. After Sunday we spent Monday at the beach and the pool. It was a kickin' water day.

Tuesday and Wednesday were Disneyland days. Thursday we spent doing anything we wanted to (for me it was reading, talking pics of the sunset and letterboxing) and trying to recoup from the Disney days. Friday was our last Disneyland day, and finally we drove home Saturday.

Favorite Rides: Mike - Tower of Terror, Me - Space Mountain, Logan - Matterhorn, and Kaylinn - Alice in Wonderland

Maddie was a real trouper, being totally content to just hang out no matter what we put her through (waiting to eat, lack of sleep, lots of noise, really long time in the car seat). The kids were great and had tons of fun. They were really well behaved.

Three days later we had pretty much gone on every ride twice and met every Disney character.

My absolutely favorite thing was the warm weather. It was 75-80 degrees the whole time with hardly a cloud in the sky. I tried my best to soak it all in. While I may be burnt out on Disneyland after this week, I could have spent another month in the beautiful weather.

They had birds of paradise everywhere in full bloom!!

Now...if only my house was clean, and I didn't have a list of things to catch up on...

Eating this January

2011-01-09T10:01:00.000-08:00

Eating has been getting a lot of attention around here. Maddie has been eating solid foods. She loves cereal. I have never had a child eat cereal like she does. She will eat any fruit and vegetable, as long as it is mixed in with cereal. I just started feeding her lunch and dinner, so 2 meals of solids a day. She has a pretty quirky way of eating. She sticks her 2 fingers in her mouth after each bite and sucks on the for a few seconds. Then she pulls them out to let me know she is ready for another bite. She ends up having a pretty gunky face and hand by the time she is done eating. It gets even worse if she rubs it on the high chair or on her face.

I have been doing the January diet and exercise thing. Well, kind of. I spent some of the fall starting the healthy lifestyle, took a bit of a break for the holidays and this week I am back on track. I always feel so good when I eat right and work out, so why don't I do it more often? Oh yeah, because of the stupid physical draw of being lazy and eating tasty junk until I am over full. Well, at any rate I had an awesome week and hopefully I can keep it going. My biggest goal was a salad for lunch everyday. I have cut down my carbohydrates to one at breakfast, one at dinner, and a couple of pieces of fruit each day.

Kaylinn frustrates me with her eating habits. She would eat Ramen three meals a day if I would let her, and when I push her to eat something else, she usually chooses bread or pasta. I can usually get dairy down her, but fruits, veggies and proteins are nearly impossible. I actually have eating fruit and vegetables on her chore list. I find feeding that girl very emotionally frustrating. Tell me that someday she will have better eating habits.

In other Maddie news: she has started doing the army crawl (you know: knees and forearms). She is getting more mobile by the second it seems, which means I better start being better about cleaning the floors. She finds every little thing that hasn't been vacuumed up, and straight into the mouth it goes. She is actually my first baby that eats everything she sees. Kaylinn and Logan never really did that. She has also started sitting on her own. She has a few balance wobbles, so I have to stay close by when she is sitting, but she sure loves it.

Kaylinn spent the week sick. It ended up being an ear infection, but the first part of the week was a doozy (fever, chills, gunky cough, throwing up, ear ache). Now that we have the awesome pink medicine going on (Amoxicillin) things are getting much better. I just about went stir crazy, though. I am not a stay at home person. I like to be out and doing things.

We went to see the Carl Bloch Exhibit last night on a real, honest to goodness date. Between an hour in the car where we actually got to talk to each other, an awesome art exhibit, and dinner, it was so much fun I might do it again. They had i-pads to rent, and that was so worth it. It made a whole multimedia experience that was really interesting. It took us about 2 hours to go through the exhibit which was rather small, but I think it would have been way faster without the i-pads. After we drove through The Colony (where Mike and I met) and went out to eat at the Brick Oven (can we say carb overload for my body that is so not used to it at this point.) This was my favorite paining at the exhibit (by the way this picture doesn't do it justice...you've gotta go see it!)

Carl Bloch: Christ In Gethsemane - 1879

Before I go I have to leave you with my favorite new recipe this week: Microwave Risotto
Seriously tastes just like you spent all that time stirring in liquid, but you really didn't. It was a very fancy, but easy addition to a weeknight dinner.

Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011

2011-01-02T10:19:00.000-08:00

It must be new year resolution time, because here I am actually blogging and so far I have been eating right. If I start exercising tomorrow, it will be a trio of attempted good habits. Well, here's to hoping all goes well.

I really do love the beginning of January. I mean, I really don't like the January blahs, and I don't like the inversion and yucky weather. Here comes another New Year's Resolution (hereafter referred to as NYR's as this is getting ridiculous). I should spend at least 3 or 4 days up in the mountains this winter. Get some beautiful sunshine and mountain air. Where was I when I started this paragraph? Oh yeah, the beginning of January. I feel partied out. The house is one big Christmas explosion. I am so ready for a normal schedule and a clean house. I like the relative calm of January once it gets here. Of course pretty soon the shut in, non-social schedule gets old and I am so ready for the warm outside gardening of spring. That, of course, is the beauty of the year, Once I get tired of one thing, the next thing comes along. The traditions always bind it together without things getting old.

Our week in review:
All about the family and the parties. We spent so much time with family and it was wonderful. It was Allen family heavy. This is okay though, because in 2 weeks we will be going to Disney Land with the Humphrey clan. MaryIrene and Jeff were here, so we were trying to get together with them as much as possible. We saw Tron with them (liked it). We had a dinner at Fuji with Mike's siblings and parents. For some of them it was the first time going to a Japanese grill so it was so fun to watch their reactions. We played Band Hero/Guitar Hero with Jeff and MaryIrene. We had a New Year's Eve party at Steve and Jen's (I made it to midnight). We had a New Year's Day Party with the extended Allen family (with a giant bounce house and slide...the kids were in heaven). In between it all, I did my first sewing project with my new sewing machine that I got for Christmas. I embellished a shirt and I think it turned out really cute: so proud of myself. We played with Logan's new Lego game, and with his new Lego sets. Kaylinn got lots of cats for Christmas mostly. She has been happily playing make believe with them.

Madeline update:
She is so close to crawling. Just in the last couple of days she started sitting almost completely by herself. She just has a bobble occasionally that send her over. But it won't be long until she can do it completely by herself. She has started pushing herself up to her side so that she can check things out from a higher vantage point. She can scoot herself quite a bit now to get at what she wants. My baby is almost a crawler. It also means she is finding less pleasure in just sitting and cuddling with me. I find each of these milestones to be bittersweet. I am so happy for the strides she is making. I love that she is growing right, but then I think how sad I am to reach these milestones for the last time.

I guess I better add take more pictures of the family to my list of NYR's as I have no pictures to post right now. I have been a very bad archivist this Holiday season. Yea for resolutions and the chance to start fresh in a new year!

My Christmas Letter

2010-12-04T10:49:00.000-08:00

I got about half way through my Christmas card when I decided it was too much of the same old boring stuff. So I switched gears. Before I did, though, I thought I would finish my standard letter and post it here in case you are interested in all the gory details of our past year. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas all! Of course the most exciting news of the year is the new addition to our family. Madeline Elizabeth Allen was born on May 25, 2010. She was 6 days late (we only have babies late in this family), but came about 8 hours before a scheduled induction. She came after all day labor (although not intense enough to bring her here until the evening). It has been a very pleasant adjustment. We just love having her in our family! She is a very happy baby. She loves to reward anyone who will pay attention to her with a smile or a big belly laugh. She loves to sleep and eat, which keeps mom happy. She should begin crawling any day now.

We have been a busy family this year. Logan was baptized in August and started cub scouts. In October he got his purple belt in karate. Also this year he has played soccer, flag football and basketball (all three sports with the same team of friends). Kaylinn had a ballet recital in the spring and played soccer for the first time this fall. We now have Kaylinn and Logan playing the piano. Between their practicing and Jessica’s piano students, it is always very musical at the Allen’s house. We spent the rest of our days swimming at great-grandma’s pool after our weekly lunches in the summertime, celebrating the holidays with family traditions, and visiting fun vacations around town: places like the hot air balloon festival, the canyon, Thanksgiving Point Gardens, a couple of musicals, and more.

With the birth of our new baby, vacations were sidetracked a bit this summer. We went camping a few times, including a memorable trip to Yellowstone over Labor Day weekend where we saw our first snow fall! We went to bear lake for a long weekend with the Allen family just in time to skip the 100 degree weather in Salt Lake City and enjoy the cool mountain air. We also spent a week in Park City this fall, hanging out with the Humphrey side of the family: playing games, swimming, crafting, letterboxing, shopping and riding the alpine slide.

We have been very blessed this year, and look forward to 2011 and the new adventures it brings!

Love, Mike, Jessica, Logan, Kaylinn, and Maddie Allen

Welcome Madeline

2010-06-01T14:01:00.000-07:00

Beautiful Madeline Elizabeth

Okay, I know I totally fell off the face of the earth. There were lots of things that I left out of my life while I have been pregnant. I just have very little energy so I readjusted my priorities, focused on things that I felt were most important and left everything else out. Besides I have never been really good at and consistent journaling.

I wanted to write down Madeline's birth story. She was 5 days late. As this is my third time being pregnant, as well as my third time going over my due date, I tried to be optimistic about the long and late pregnancy. I wasn't always successful, partly due to the pregnancy hormones. I would find myself being content with it one morning and upset later that afternoon. But I think I did a pretty good job. I didn't do much more than sleep at the end though. Being over thirty and having a job and other kids certainly took a toll on me this time around. My family was very helpful and understanding about everything.

So I had been having Braxton-Hicks contractions for weeks by the time she was born. They just kept getting more frequent and more painful. I kept thinking it couldn't go on much longer without me popping. At 5 days overdue, I woke up at 4 in the morning with pretty rough contractions. I usually have them mostly in the late afternoon and evening, so I was really surprised by the timing. It made me wonder if this was really it. I spent a couple of hours waiting for them to speed up to closer together than 15 minutes before I drifted off to sleep. When I woke up they were gone, but they didn't stay gone for long. I spent the majority of the day enduring painful contractions every 15 minutes apart, but they just weren't getting any closer together. I knew that I should wait until they were about 5 minutes apart before pulling my husband home from work and rushing to the hospital. So, without anything better to do, I just went about my day. I was supposed to be induced the next morning, so mostly I was just tying up a few loose ends and trying to pass the time. I went to my sister in laws house where they were tying a quilt, I played with Kaylinn. It was my last scheduled day for piano lessons and I toyed with the idea of canceling them all day long, but as the contractions wouldn't speed up, I just kept them. It was tough having a couple of good contractions through each lesson. I would try and turn the kids attention to the piano and as quietly as possible wince through the pain until it passed. I hadn't really eaten since lunch. I had no appetite. I had intended, to make dinner that night, but was feeling pretty worn out from the day. So Mike took the kids out to Carl's Jr. for dinner and I thought I would take advantage of the opportunity to take a bath. My core muscles had been taking a beating all day and I thought it might give me some relief. Turns out that was all that my body needed to really progress. By the time I got out of the bath the contractions had jumped from every 15 minutes to every 5. I had already sent Mike to young men's at that point so I called him to come back. My mom came and got the kids and we were at the hospital by about 8:00. The first thing I did was request an epidural. That came about an hour after being there and was so marvelous. Labor went pretty fast at that point, she was born at 9:49pm on May 25, 2010. She weighed a whopping 9 pounds and 3 ounces (my biggest one by a whole pound) and was 21 inches long. I have gotten the most comments about her chubby cheeks. She really does just look like Logan and Kaylinn did as newborns. You can tell they are siblings. I do think she has dark hair, unlike the other kids that had red hair from the beginning. And that's the story. So now I've had it all three ways...Logan was induced, my water broke with Kaylinn, and I went into labor with Madeline (just fyi it's pronounced with a short i).

I love being not pregnant. I have my energy back and my appetite back. The heartburn and indigestion are gone. My back doesn't ache so much. There are no more weird cravings and aversions. From almost the minute they are born I feel so much better and just like myself again. I love the kids, but sometimes the process to get them here is a real pain.

A couple of weeks happenings

2009-11-15T08:52:00.000-08:00

Been an eventful couple of weeks. We spent the first week at home because Logan had the flu. He was sick with a fever, cough, sore throat, etc. for about 5 days. So I canceled all of my piano lessons and we holed ourselves up in the house and mostly drove each other crazy. Glad that's over and the good news is that no one else caught it.

It was also my birthday this week. Probably my favorite gift was a whole set of aprons homemade by my mom. They are all really cute. She made one for me and a matching one for Kaylinn. My mom took me out for lunch on my birthday and we we went out for dinner that night (Mike, Logan, Kaylinn and I) to a Hibachi grill. That was the kids first time and they really enjoyed the experience. It was a pretty low key birthday, but I thought it was perfect--just the way I wanted to celebrate.

I felt the baby move for the first time last week. It's starting to increase in frequency so that is exciting. I don't know whether to be happy about it or not. I am excited about the new development, but it gets old fast, so I'm leary that I am experiencing this for the first time at 14 weeks.

I watched the documentary Food Inc. this week. Really disturbing, but informative. So if you are interested in being disgusted about what you eat, but learning a lot I would recommend it. I wouldn't recommend it for the weak stomach, though, because it was pretty graphic at times. I had known most of the information already, but having a visual with it was pretty traumatizing. As a consequence I made my own bread this week (first time since I've been pregnant, so that was productive).

We had the Allen clan over last night for pizza and a UofU football game. The Utes got smashed, but it was still fun to hang out together. Speaking of large gatherings, I volunteered to host Thanksgiving dinner this year. It will be my first time so we will see how that goes. That means I get to cook the turkey (first time for that, too). I also get to organize everything else. Mike keeps telling me that I am crazy because I am pregnant and all, but it is a small group this year and I figure I can squish everyone in my house so I might as well right. Bring on the adventure. I will keep you posted on how that goes.

I was almost lost and gone forever

2009-11-01T06:24:00.000-08:00

Well, the most embarrassing thing about coming back to blogspot was looking and seeing that it has been almost 5 months since my last post. So here are my excuses. First: it was summer. The summer was so crazy busy, I didn't even have time to think (or rest for that matter), let alone blog. I had the kids signed up for everything possible (mostly it was a defense against too many video games). Five days a week we were going and going. So here is the abbreviated version of our summer activities. For June and July Logan went to Arts in the Park 2 days a week while Kaylinn was at Preschool Arts and Crafts. This is when I did my grocery shopping and also tried to squeeze in as many other errands as I could. We went letterboxing one morning a week with our Allen cousins (look it up if you are curious, it is lots of fun). Logan did track and field which was 3 afternoons a week plus track meets (He placed 3 times in the 1600m and the long jump). Kaylinn had a dance recital in June, I had a piano recital for my students in May. I trained to run a 5k in June--placed first in my age division. We had playgroups--Kaylinn on Friday mornings and Logan on Friday afternoons. By August I was starting to feel pretty run down. Some of those activities were over, but they were replaced by a solid month of swimming lessons every day and our vacation of the summer--a family reunion in Montana. Add into that mix both Kaylinn's (Fairy Party) and Logan's (Spongebob Water Party) Birthdays.

Kaylinn Swimming Lessons

Logan Track and Field

So that is my first excuse. And honestly, I had vowed to start blogging as soon as the fall came and things went back to normal calmness. And then I decided to work more. SO the fall promise got delayed a bit. I went from the 10 students I had last spring to 20 this fall. Logistically it was quite crazy. I spent a lot of time and the music store trying to straighten out materials for the whole crew. I spent lots of time on the phone trying to straighten out times and answer parents questions. It took a good month before that was all straightened out and things settled down.

And then came the morning sickness. About September I first started feeling really crappy. Okay, maybe I should back up and make the announcement: I'M PREGNANT! WOOHOO! I am 13 weeks right now...due May 10th. And I'm planning on not finding out the sex of the baby. I would like to have a surprise in the delivery room. Okay, back to the narrative. So I pretty much spent the last two months napping or laying around. I Read lots of books and watched a lot of TV. It's been the last couple of days that I've started feeling better(hallelujah!). I had my first appointment last week. I had an ultrasound and saw the baby and it's heartbeat. It is so amazing...even the third time around. The baby was laying on its stomach and kicking around a lot, it looked like a turtle. A cute turtle. My cute turtle. So the baby has received its first nickname.

Brekenridge 2nd Honeymoon

2009-06-01T06:48:00.000-07:00

Obviously I wrote this a while ago and it was just sitting around in my drafts folder forever!

Breckenridge Mining Hike

This is a special remote post from Breckenridge Colorado where Mike and I (with no children) are enjoying a relax, rejuvenate, and reconnect vacation. It has been so mellow and relaxing. We are loving it!

But I wanted to talk a bit more about the gardening. Mike suggested that I bring it out further and take out some of the existing lawn. I said sure, but I'm not sure why I did it. It's a lot of hard work to pull out grass, so that was quite a project and then I had all this space that I needed to fill. I about doubled the size of my vegetable garden. So I decided to intermix flowers and vegetables (mostly because I didn't know what the heck I was going to fill all that space with). Then I just kept planting more and more things. In the end I have 23 tomato plants (half of which are roma), 12 bell pepper plants, a few eggplants, some tomatillos, anaheim peppers, popcorn, beans, three types of squash, peas, beets, rhubarb, onions, and there are probably more that I am forgetting right now. Then I have marigolds and petunias, a good 100 gladiolas, a poppy, a wildflower mix, and a sunflower house. I also planted the beans, corn and one of the squash as a three sisters garden. I decided to make my garden more organic and interesting looking. Instead of a square, I made more of a B shape with the border flowing and curving. I took a gardening landscape class and talked to a professional about my design ideas. She rejected them. She told me I shouldn't do it...but I did it anyways. I have to admit that it was a little disappointing to me. I had spent all this time working on the garden and when I had pretty much finished planting I turned around a looked at all my hard work and it so far amounts to some small seedlings and clear dirt where the seeds have been planted. Not the big beautiful garden that I had in mind yet, but I will have patience and wait for it to grow and then I will be happy with the fruits of my labors.

Then there is the other garden. My parents have a piece of land that my mom decided would make a great garden. So she and my dad cleared away 1/4 acre and she invited all of us to garden together as a family on the land. I like to call it the family plot (my mom keeps asking who is getting buried there, hehe). I have been out there a few times to work on it with my mom. We have done snow peas (4-75 foot rows) and corn (3, soon to be 6-75 food rows). We also have 3 varieties of watermelon, 3 varieties of pumpkin and 3 varieties of winter squash. So I am here to tell you that this is gardening in mega proportions. I may have possibly bitten off more than I can chew with this gardening business this year. When the late summer and fall comes and I am buried in produce you can all come back and say I told you so. But I am very happy with it. I have found great joy in my garden. It is nice to go out there and tend to the garden. I kind of get to step away from the craziness that is life and being a mother and find peace in my garden. I am very proud of it and of the hard work I have put into it. Also my new favorite author for gardening books is Sharon Lovejoy. They are fast reads bursting with great ideas so you should check them out.

My other big yard goals this year have been about furniture. Well first of all to get the deck finished. By fall last year, the floor was done, but Mike still had the stairs and the railing to go. As of Memorial day weekend the stairs are done. Mike's 2 brothers Fuzz and Steve came over and helped him get it done in one day. Their help was invaluable. Steve's family came over as well and the cousins played all day while Jen and I chatted. Then we topped the whole day off with a birthday party for Taylor. I also that same weekend became the owner of a porch swing. I am so excited about this. I am already loving just sitting and swinging. Plus I finally have a place to sit on the front porch. The next thing on my list is a patio set so that we can eat meals outside on our new deck. I have also been working on getting non-plant accents for the garden. My favorite place to shop for them has been DI. It's been a slow project, but that's okay because I have been getting things as I have been finding them and getting them really cheap. So yeah, things are moving forward well and on schedule and I am happy for what our yard is becoming.

Catching up...because I never seem to get around to posting...

2009-05-17T14:44:00.001-07:00

Yeah I'm really behind. I blame it on the garden. It has sucked up all my time lately. I seem to spend every spare minute caring for it or reading to improve it or shopping for it (sorry Mike...I suppose this is where all the money is gone to.) But it is making me so happy. I have just fallen in love with gardening this year more intensely then ever before.

But, I wanted to go back and post some pictures and talk about some of the things I have missed writing about. First I do have one Easter pic to post. This is the kids in their Easter outfits (courtesy of Grammy Humphrey). She makes Kaylinn and her little cousin Ezri matching Easter dresses each year. We go and get the girls picture taken together at a professional photographer's. Then she bought a new shirt and tie for Logan. My favorite part? Kaylinn's cute dress gloves. I found them at the consignment sale and absolutely love them.

Next we went on our first camping trip this season, two weekends ago. We stayed in Green River and spent one day at Goblin Valley and one day at Arches National Park. We went with some good friends of ours. They had never been any further south than Provo and they were just amazed at Southern Utah's beauty. I cooked dutch oven dinner and then breakfast. We had some interesting weather the second day (including an amazingly powerful cloudburst complete with hail), but there were some breaks in the storm and we got to see Arches. The kids had a blast. I think the highlight for them was climbing around Goblin Valley. I was out there with my camera, just soaking it all in. So maybe the weather wasn't perfect and I forgot to pack a few fairly important things (pancakes stick pretty badly without some type of grease on the skillet). But all in all I think it was a fabulous weekend.

Easter Festivities

2009-04-10T13:58:00.000-07:00

I should write about all the Easter things that we are doing this year. The Easter traditions in my family start with the first day of Spring. A few years ago, I decided that I wanted to be able to focus on Christ during Easter. So instead of an Easter egg hunt and the Easter Bunny coming on Easter, we shifted those activities to the first day of spring. And so we wouldn't be doing it alone, we invite our whole family to come over and search for eggs that the Easter Bunny has hidden. We also have a big brunch and a whole lot of fun. This year went really well. The early Spring weather was pretty chilly, but at least it was dry and sunny. Then on Easter we focus on Christ. We have daily devotionals, talking about his life. Typically we focus on the last week of His life. This year, however we have been learning about His visit to the Nephites after his death. We learn a song together as a family. This year we are learning "I Wonder When He Comes Again." We have a couple of special meals. The one we have every year usually we do towards the weekend where we have a leg of lamb and talk about Christ being the lamb and his sacrifice and resurrection. That one is served on my best china with candles and formal presentation. Even if they don't love the food, the kids feel so special with the formal dinner preperation. Then on Easter morning I love being able to talk about Christ's death and resurrection. We make resurrection rolls for breakfast. We can focus on the true meaning of the holiday that morning. The spirit that is in our house as we focus on learning about Christ. I always hesitate to tell people about this in that I am afraid that I am going to come across as being self-righteous. But really the reason that I share these ideas with everyone is that I want you to be able to have the same wonderful spirit in your house that we do when we study Christ intently and seek for the true meaning of Easter. If you are interested in this in your own family, a great resource is A Christ-Centered Easter.

Now this doesn't mean that we forgo all Easter Bunny related activities the week of Easter. If our friends or family are having Easter egg hunts, we are so there. In fact another tradition in my neighborhood that a few days before Easter we all get together in the small neighborhood park and a good 30-50 kids hunt eggs (plus the moms can get together to chat). We love it and have a blast. We just came from there this afternoon. The kids have been antsy all morning for it to be time to go hunt eggs. As usual it was so much fun and we came home with a good haul.

On why my house has (literally) gone to the dogs.

2009-04-10T09:23:00.000-07:00

Okay, I love dogs. I think they are really good for me emotionally. They make me get outside and get more exercise than I normally would. I enjoy their happy and forgiving personalities. There is something totally satisfying about teaching and training them. However, I am not done (hopefully) having babies. And I have learned that babies + dogs = too much stress for Jessica. So until my youngest is in grade school and I have the time and energy to spend on a creature that takes a lot of time and energy, I am not going to get a dog. I am happy to dog-sit for anyone pretty much anytime though. It's doable in short spurts. When my friend Anne told me that she was going on vacation and they didn't know what to do with their dog, I happily offered to take her. She is a five month old puppy with lots of puppy energy. She is a really good dog though, very trainable I think. Then my mom reminded me that I had said that I would take HER dog while they went on vacation over spring break. So that makes TWO dogs that I now have for the next few days. The funniest part of this whole thing is that both dogs are named Abby. Just call the one name and they both come running. Ah, good times. On the up side they keep each other entertained and neither of them need as much attention from me. On the down side they have lots and lots of energy. I am very afraid of the well being of my garden. I hope it can survive. But look on the bright side, right? It's fun and it gives my children exposure (and hence reduces fear) of animals. It sure mixes things up and keeps things exciting around here. And I think that the beginning of next week will seem soooo peaceful and calm. That should be nice.

Busy Busy

2009-03-22T11:59:00.000-07:00

Been too busy to blog it seems like lately, which actually translates to there are exciting things to blog about. First of all, I finally finished Kaylinn's room. It is very bright pink, but I think I like it. It is a very girly room and now has the distinction of being the only room in the house that I have decorated. Hopefully more will be to follow, but right now I have switched gears to the outside of my house.

I am not a great gardener, and I get tired of it very easily, but I am really trying to be more motivated. I want a garden I can be proud of so this year I will jump in again and try (as I do every spring). Last year was a particularly bad year. I was very neglectful of it. I have started stronger than most years and it helps that its been very popular among my friends this year (indeed the news reports that it is popular for all Americans this year). I have taken 2 garden classes this year, I have been reading books and magazines like crazy. I have been writing and taking notes, making a plan for my garden on paper. Then I have been out there more than usual this year, although the real test is to come when gardening season has been going for a while. It has been spring here. All the flowers are beginning to come out and the trees are beginning to blossom. It has been flipping back and forth between winter and spring. We have been having beautiful warm days, followed by days of snowing. I have been trying to be outside whenever possible and working. The kids have also been spending every possible minute outside. Kaylinn has decided that her activity of choice is riding scooters and trikes and such. She just constantly wants to be doing that. She's still a little awkward, but if she keeps doing it as often as she is, she will have to get better. Logan got his first sunburn of the season this week being outside and playing.

So the first thing that needed to be done was to amend my garden. My amending material of choice is horse manure. There is a fairly large horse farm just a couple of miles from my house. They rotate their manure, so you are actually getting last years poop. That is a good thing because it isn't as hot (compost literally gets hot from a chemical reaction and then can burn your plants) and also it gives seeds a chance to die so that you won't be planting weeds in the garden along with your manure. The best part is that it is free. The stable hand will charge you $5 to load it into your truck or trailer. That is about as cheep as amendment will come. My mom and I both needed loads. This year we are actually doing a plot of land that my parents own with a HUGE garden. (she just planted 4-75' rows of sugar snap peas. So we needed multiple loads for that. Then I took a load to a friend (she took Kaylinn for a long time that afternoon, so I felt good about having "paid" her for that). Six trailers full of manure and none of our menfolk could take time off work so we decided to do it ourselves. Anyhow, we did 6 loads of manure that took us about 6 hours. I felt so sore and dirty by the time we finished. I named us the manure mamas. We laughed and had such a good time all day. Plus the weather was beautiful, which always makes things more pleasant. I am so glad that I get along so well with my mom. It is awesome to be her friend!

Yesterday Mike and I dropped the kids off at his parent's house and then spent pretty much the entire day going to the Draper Temple Dedication. We actually went to the temple. We had to arrive about 2 hours early and spent quite a while waiting for our session to start. President Monson gave the dedicatory prayer and President Eyring was conducting and spoke and also Elder Christofferson was there and spoke too. We got to watch it via monitor in a sealing room. Just getting to sit in the sealing room for a good 2 hours was an amazing experience. The sun was shining through the windows, making the room sparkle. It was amazing.

We came home and Mike rototilled the garden and lashed me some poles for peas to climb up (yeah for boy scouting!) I got some seeds into the ground. I have also started some seeds inside (first time) and they are doing marvelous (okay yes I have been talking to my plants). I'm pretty excited about it.

Then our church was canceled today. Apparently they did that for everyone who is in the temple district. Instead, today, they offered 2 sessons of the temple dedication that were broadcast to our stake center. Mom took the kids to church at her ward (because they couldn't just skip church today she said) and since her church is 8:30 am this year they actually took the kids last night. Mike and I enjoyed a nice night alone and then met everyone for sacrament meeting today.

Mike seems to be pretty busy lately with work and church and school and helping me rototil. (Right now he's busy watching college basketball--hehe).

My Little Ballerina

2009-03-05T13:22:00.000-08:00

I figured that since I had given Logan the spotlight with basketball that Kaylinn deserved some blog time as well. Today at her ballet class I went equipped with my camera. I know she's my kid and so I'm supposed to brag and everything, but she sure is the cutest thing! She begged and begged for ballet lessons as we were coming up to her 3rd birthday. Honestly I was a little nervous about the whole thing. I figured she would be so young and maybe not be able to keep up and figure it out so it would just be a waste of time. But it's pretty hard to say no to Kaylinn and she was really persistent. So 1 day before her 3rd birthday we went to the local rec center and signed her up. I asked the teacher if she thought she would be okay and the teacher reassured me that she would do just fine at this age. So we were off. She's not always on task, (although I'm not sure how much of that to blame on age and how much to blame on personality) but she sure loves it.
Yes this is a picture of her today posing for me instead of following her teacher like she was supposed to--the stinker!
She is about a head shorter than pretty much all the other dancers. She is just a petite girl. All the mom's are always telling me how cute she is and wondering if she is really old enough for the class. Right now they are working on their recital dance for the recital in June. The theme is dancing around the world and her class is doing Ireland. They have these fun green dresses. I watched them go through their whole routine today to some beautiful Irish music. It brought a smile to my face to see all those 3, 4, and 5 year olds struggle with the choreography. I loved it. One of my favorite things is that she always comes home with new ballet terms and in that sugary-sweet little voice she lists off all the French ballet terms. "Today we did bourret." "Mom, do you want to see my jette?" These are for sure the moments that you want to savor and enjoy. This is what makes being a mom such an incredible experience and so worth all the sacrifices.

Writing about Food

2009-02-26T16:21:00.001-08:00

Okay, so I have to admit that since I have started this blog, what I have really wanted to blog about is food related stuff. So I decided to start another blog, this one totally devoted to cooking, recpies, eating and such. Anyhow I just finished my first post on my new blog so check it out. Hopefully I can send some great recipes and food ideas your way! Check out my new blog here.

Mike's first post :)

2009-02-25T20:48:00.000-08:00

Well, Jessica said I was free to blog about stuff anytime I desired. She has been doing a good job of keeping up on the kid’s lives and stuff so here’s something a little different.

My bet is that most people probably won’t know what happened on February 20^th 2009. It started on September 13 of 1993 and after 16 years Conan O’Brien’s run on Late Night is over. During the monologue of the last show he said they have run 2725 shows of which “42 of them were quite good.” I guess 42 is pretty decent for a show running this long ;) Conan’s brand of self-depreciating and physical humor has made him my favorite late night host. He has had some excellent pieces and some of his funniest moments were during writer’s strike in 2008 when he did several shows by adlibbing and playing different situations off the cuff. This is in addition to the full beard he grew. Fear not though, Conan will be replacing Leno on the Tonight Show on June 1^st. Anywho, I thought I’d include some of my favorite clips and skits from the show. Enjoy, hopefully they aren’t too questionable. :)

Who knew, Conan is an auto buff.

Funny - video powered by Metacafe

Martha and Conan... best buds

Conan With Martha Stewart - Click here for funny video clips

Mr. Norris

Conan's favorite clip replayed on his last show.

Travels with Conan
Part 1

Part 2

If any of the above have been too questionable, you should probably avoid Triumph.
Part 1

Part 2

Well that's all for now from me... I'll post again later, if Jessica is still letting me post. :D

Sunshine makes me happy

2009-02-22T09:37:00.000-08:00

Hooray, I took some pictures! Actually it wasn't as difficult as I thought, I think partly because we had a really yummy taste of spring this week. Things have been near 50 (yeah I know, I'm pathetic to be excited about 50) and so we have been outside some and I opened up the house yesterday and just tried to air out winter. It has been really nice and good for my soul.

Okay, I start with Monday. It was President's Day, so Logan was home. Back in August at Logan's birthday he had his party at Chuck E. Cheese. As a gift from them he got 100 free tickets. We came home with those tickets and ever since then he has been bugging me to go back and spend them. So I caved and we went on Monday. He says "If I can just get 100 more tickets while we are there it would be awesome," on the way over. We get there and start playing. The kids are having a great time, I'm mostly following Kaylinn around when Logan come running up, so excited with a huge fistful of tickets (in total about 300). He said he got the jackpot, but I think the machine just malfunctioned. All told we ended up with about 600 tickets. We literally could not find enough things that the kids wanted to spend the tickets on. We could not get rid of them. Logan mostly ended up with bugs and other creepy crawly things. Kaylinn went for the jewelry. After that we went and got free personal pizza (thank you Pizza Hut Book It! program) and called it good.

Friday morning, with the beautiful weather outside, I dropped Kaylinn off at my sister-in-law's, and my mom and I went for a hike. We went to Bells Canyon and hiked for about 2 hours. It was just glorious in the sun and breathing the fresh air and just generally getting out in nature. We took snowshoes with us, but for the most part they weren't really necessary. There were actually some parts of the path that was just dirt. The whole experience was good for my emotional self, I think.

Mike took me out last night to Market Street Grill. I had some yummy crab ravioli. It was very tasty and a good date night.

As for my winter projects, I got my pictures hung over the fireplace (by the way thanks for the mirror MaryIrene--I know it took me like 3 years to actually hang, but I think it looks good) and my next project this week has been the hall along the stairs going down. I have 4 panoramas that I have been working to frame for that space.

What? So I think I'm a movie critic now?

2009-02-14T15:38:00.000-08:00

I keep trying to write once a week and then I look at the last entry and realize it's been 2 weeks or 3 or 4. And I would like to post pictures, but there is nothing to post because I am not taking pictures. I think that is on account of the winter blahs. We aren't doing much, so there isn't that much to report. I did get under my stairs cleaned out, but I haven't painted Kaylinn's room. I went to tape and started marking up the walls. I was way off in my measurements. I think that I just don't have enough perfection in me to do a project like that. So I think I'd better recruit some help. I have moved onto another project, this week however, so it hasn't just been a total loss. This is project fill the walls. We have lived here for 5 years and I am just now for the first time getting the decorating bug. So I've started trying to hang thing up on my walls. I hung up some things in the dining area and I am just waiting on Mike to hang up another group of things over the fireplace. I'm actually excited about these pictures because they are photographs that I took. It's amazing how professional the pictures that I took look in a frame with matting and all. This is one of my goals for this project: to get some of the pictures that I have taken that I love off of my computer where I never see them and onto my walls where I can enjoy them.

Valentine's Day was yesterday. Mike and I played it casual, we went to dinner at Kneaders and then went to see Coraline in 3-D. I really liked Coraline. It is a kids movie from a kids book. I read the book first and it is wonderful. The book and the movie, however are both a little dark, so I don't know that it's apppropriate for little kids, maybe older kids. Anyhow, the story is really creative, and filed with lots of great characters. The animation was very well done, and I really liked the soundtrack. The night before that Mike was gone at a Scout campout (brrrr....). When he's gone, whether it's for scouts or work, the kids and I always try and really do something fun. It helps pass the time. So we got Igor (fun, but I liked Coraline better). We played games and had popcorn. Then the next morning I made heart shaped pancakes for breakfast. We cleaned the house together (okay maybe not so much fun, but at least the house is clean and it passed the time). Then I took the kids to McDonald's. Mike hates McDonald's, so we go there when he's not around. I took my book and we stayed for almost 2 hours. I just let the kids run around and we pretended it was outside and we could actually go to a playground (sigh). I'd say it was a really good weekend.

I've really been into reading lately. I do have a goodreads account, if you want more details on what exactly I have been reading. I usually pick one leisure activity and do it almost exclusively when I have free time. Reading has been it recently. I have been reading 1-2 books a week, especially fantasy. I've actually found a niche of fairy tale books. It's been a nice and cozy winter activity.

Well, I will try and take pictures this week so I have something visual to post next time. Maybe by making the commitment in writing I will have to actually do it. Hehe.

January Blahs

2009-02-01T08:28:00.000-08:00

I'm getting so tired of winter! I'm starting to feel that the constant chill to my bones is permanent and spring won't even be able to chase it away. I long to be out in the warm and gardening. But the ground is too hard and there still is no warm. Well enough of my pity party.

So an update to my winter project (Kaylinn's room). Now that the bulk of the moving is done things are kind of fun actually. I have gotten a comforter and curtains and thus a color pallet. I have started the painting. Well at least I have patched and primed the wall. I am going to leave the chair rail up with the bottom half of the wall still brown. On the top I am going to leave it white and just add big pink stripes (to the top only). I got sheer pink curtains and a pink and brown comforter. So yeah, that's exciting and I'm hoping to get painting this week. Tomorrow I take a deep breath and try to clean out the storage space under the stairs. I have been frightened to death of that project, it just seems like way too much work, but it will give me a place (hopefully) to put the rest of the homeless office refugees. That is a very good thing.

Logan has been playing basketball this winter. It has been pretty funny. Logan is not an athlete. He is great at video games and school. But sports? Never been a strong point. I keep him in sports to keep him well rounded and to get him exercising more. As far as sports go he is definitely better at the individual sports than the team sports. We love karate. But it's good for you to make weak things stronger right? So we keep playing the soccer and the basketball and such. This has been his first time playing basketball and the poor kid can't dribble or make a basket to save a life. He knows this too so he keeps a fair distance from the action and I think he might be praying the whole time that the ball doesn't get passed to him. In general, it's funny to watch this age group because they break all the rules: traveling, double dribbling, double teaming, fouling. Plus they probably make 10% of all the shots they throw. Well at least it's been an entertaining experience and he runs a lot.

On Moving

2009-01-06T17:28:00.001-08:00

Okay, admittedly I have been a slacker. But I did warn you that I was really questioning my consistancy with the blogging thing from the beginning.

At any rate, here I am...Let's see what have I been up to the last while?

So the big January project has been getting Kaylinn her own room. That means I have to say goodbye to my office. Which is actually quite a conundrum as the office is my dumping zone. In fact I would argue that the office is the space that holds the most stuff of any room in our house. This is also the room that things get thrown into when people come over. Some of it finds it's way back, some of it doesn't. I guess it's all just part of the carefully controlled chaos that is my house. Probably what I should be worried about is what I am going to do with things when I don't have that room as a junk drop anymore. It took about a week to move everthing out. While I was going through the filing cabinet and I found receipts and statements that went back to the year Mike and I were married (that's 1999). Actually the last things that I had filed away were from 2006. Since then it has gone into a pile on the floor, that although I would go through from time to time, never actually made it into the filing cabinet. I went through the stuff pulled out a lot of what was unnecessary. That created a huge pile of stuff that needed to be shredded on the floor that Kaylinn and Logan were happily throwing into the shredder. So I generated large piles of garbage and DI donations. I still have 3 large boxes which have no home so I guess I need to get into some storage space and clean that out. I took a break to pay attention to the rest of my life and house and I have as yet to be ready to jump back in. Things that still need to be done include getting Kaylinn a bed (right now she is on one of the bunk bed mattresses on the floor), and painting and decorating her room. Of course things were very miserable that first week while Kaylinn was getting used to the new arrangements, but I am happy to announce that things are running smoothly right now and we are all sleeping well now. Hooray for sleep and personal space.

PS We are inbetween computers and I'm not sure I have access to pictures at the moment so when I figure that out I will post with some pictures...you will all just have to hold your breath until then.

Christmas Festivities

2008-12-24T12:43:00.000-08:00

Ah, the Christmas fun. We just finished doing the neighbor gift gamble. You know: where you take gifts to neighbors and hope it's the neighbors who were planning on giving something to you. Then comes that moment when you have run out of gifts and someone you didn't plan one for shows up at your door with a plate of goodies. Then you just feel bad. I do enjoy making the gifts though. I decided a few years back that I wanted to make something to eat, because I like to cook and share food with others. The other criteria is I don't want to give just a plate of treats (since that is overdone each year) and it would be nice if it is something that has a decent shelf life. That way they can enjoy it in a few weeks after the Christmas binging is over. Last year I gave jalapeno jelly with an appetizer recipe. The year before that I did loaves of whole wheat bread. This year it's granola. As we were running around I saw 3 other people I know out running neighbor gifts too. I guess that means we were right on time. Also under the heading of Christmas fun was Logan's first (and probably last) Christmas party. Okay, so granted I started out by inviting too many boys, but by the time I had finished the guest list was at 14. Yes, you read that right. I invited 14 6- and 7-year-old boys to my house at the same time. Oh yeah, did I mention that the party lasted 2 hours? We had made it through the organized activities (which by the way were good...frosting cookies, bingo, pin the nose of Rudolph and snowflake ornament crafts), and there was still 45 minutes left before their moms came to pick them up. Thankfully my mom came to help out (she took pity on me when I told her that I'd gotten myself in way too deep). But still it didn't take long for the swords and guns to come out. It was an all out epic battle in my basement. The boys would go up to each other "Are you good? Well I'm evil." The good news is no one got hurt and the house came up unscathed. Probably the only casualty was my emotional state. It took a good 48 hours to calm down and relax. Oh well, what are you gonna do? Laugh I suppose.

My Favorite Christmas song this year

2008-12-09T15:32:00.000-08:00

Straight No Chaser - 12 Days of Christmas

So I swore I would never do a blog...

2008-12-09T12:04:00.000-08:00

...but here I seem to be anyways. I guess I had a few conversations that changed my mind. But listen people: don't expect me to actually write frequently. I'm just gearing up for Christmas, probably the same that everyone else is doing right now. Last night we got our Christmas tree. Both Mike and I feel very strongly about live Christmas trees. So it is one of our family traditions to spend a Monday night picking out a tree then going home and setting it up. I also buy the kids new ornaments each year, something that has to do with their life or interests that year (I haven't yet gotten this year's ornaments so don't ask). We spend a fair amount of time reminiscing about the ornaments. My absolutely favorite part? The smell. There is nothing like the fresh, woodsy, scent of a real tree. It's the holidays and family camping trips and memories all rolled into one. Other holiday traditions in our family (I love them so I keep a lot.) Counting down to Christmas: the kids always do one of those chocolate advents. This is their favorite because it's the only time of the year that they get to have chocolate before breakfast. We also do whatever Christ-centered countdown is in the Friend this year. Finally, probably my favorite, is books. I have been working since Logan was old enough to read with me to amass Christmas books. At this point I have 22. I wrap them all and put them in a basket and then each night the kids get to pick one book, open it and we read it together. Some are fun or silly, some are about Christ and some about Santa. Then when Christmas is over I pack them all away with my Christmas decorations until next year. One of the best things is the kids get to unwrap a gift every night and it really takes the edge off of waiting to open all the tantalizing piles under the tree. And finally if I am going to talk about Christmas traditions, I'd better talk about food. There are those foods that just seem to come out this time of the year. And I don't think the holidays would be complete without them. For me it is angel flakes (the best chex mix ever), biscattini dolu (homemade shortbread jam sandwiches), thick sugar cookies with frosting in festive holiday shapes, spinach dip with sourdough bread, shrimp and cream cheese dip with crackers. Oh, there are more, but I'm starting to drool on my computer. This year Logan is supposed to share a family tradition with his first grade class. Parents are invited to listen to the kids and I think I will go to that one. I'm a sucker for traditions and I'm always looking for new ones...