Is It Naptime Yet

Yesterday the girls and I made pictures to decorate our front window. I cut out some snowflakes, Christmas trees and stars and they colored them.

Then last night we finally got to decorate the tree.

Lilah had been dying to decorate the tree since Jon put it up on Sunday and we finally got to it last night.
(Monday night we fixed the tree and it  got a little late to decorate so we just watched Shrek the Halls on TV.)

We had fun and Lilah loved decorating. Eden loved playing in the stockings.

Believe me when I say we don’t have enough ornaments to have 8 this close together.

It was Eden’s turn to put on the angel. Her mouth is full of a marshmallow that was in her hot chocolate, and it was a large one, not the small ones.

Since we only set up 2/3rds of the tree we had extra lights and I put some in our front window today. Lilah said I was the best at making Christmas fun.

Also, here are some pictures from us making a gingerbread house with Carolyn on Saturday so Jon could study.  She graciously let us give her company all afternoon, and into the evening,  at the house she’s watching since we had to wait 1 hour for the walls to dry and then another 2 hours to let the roof set. The girls played and watched Dora while we talked and took naps  waiting to decorate the house.

Eden eating candy.

Giving a big smile after eating candy.

Lilah eating candy too.

The girls also want to eat it right away, but I’m making them wait till after Christmas.

Besides putting up lights today I went over to my in-laws house to help with an Internet problem and give them their Christmas present a little early.

We gave them speakers to use with their computer. Poor mom as only been able to view our videos, but not hear the music if it’s a picture video, or more importantly hear what it being said, like in Lilah’s instructional video on how to make a sandwich. It seemed strange to buy the speakers now but not give them till Christmas, when they could use and enjoy them now.

I set up the speakers while there, which was a miracle in and of it’s self because I never touch the computer, but Jon said it was easy, and it was. After getting set up the girls wanted to show grandma all the interesting videos on my site and I mean all the interesting videos. We watched several before I said we needed to go. Lilah gave narration though all of them and distracted grandma from what was on the screen, though I’m sure it was no distraction for her.

It’s hard to think of gifts to give my in-laws, hence why shopping for Dara and Jason is usually our gift to them at Christmas. Most of what they need would not be considered gifts, like help shopping or organizing,  but they don’t need the usual trinkets or things and honestly I wouldn’t want to give them trinkets or things because they’re trying to downsize and get rid of things and giving fluff gifts would just be a burden on them. We want to give them something they can use and need, which means it’s not always the conventional gift.

Even though we gave them a physical gift, I still plan on shopping for Dara and Jason’s gifts this season. I like helping and giving service since it’s harder for mom to get out since she has so many other things to do and people to take care of. (She takes care of my aging FIL and helps my BIL Rawlin who has Parkinson’s not to mention herself in there.)

I admit it’s hard to think of gifts for most people, but I’m so happy that my in-laws take our tokens of service as gifts from us.

I hope we all can give gifts of service and accept service that is given towards us this Holiday season.

Really what is more useful than someone giving of themself, rather than giving of their wallet, especially at this turbulant time.

I put up the outside Christmas lights today and the fuses on two strands blew out, so I had to replace them. It took me a little bit to figure out why the lights worked and then would not work when I was messing with a light bulb but I figured it out and we have almost all working lights. A few light bulbs shorted for some reason when I took off the plastic hook thing that I was using to hold them up, it rubbed the wire or something so we now have four unlit lights on a  brand new string of lights, that I bought last year on clearance. I’m pretty proud of myself, except the whole blowing through two fuses thing, but I’m also pretty proud that I figured out the problem and fixed it all by myself.

We’re suppose to decorate the tree tonight, but I think we’ll be fixing it because a vital plastic piece that holds some branches in place broke, so the branches now just hang there because they are attached because of the pre-strung lights on the tree. I wanted to buy a new tree on sale at JoAnn’s, but Jon wouldn’t let me because we had a tree at home, but now it’s broken and we’ll make it work this year, but guess who’s going clearance shopping after Christmas for a new tree?

Anyways, we’re getting in the Christmas spirit and I’m loving it.

So shortly after I blogged about Eden being sick I called my parents to find out my aunt and uncle weren’t coming down, so it would only be immediate family. I called my sister Kristi to see if she would be offended if we brought Eden and her reply was “It’s Thanksgiving and we’re family and family should be together on Thanksgiving even if they’re sick.”  Since Eden was able to keep a couple small bowls of applesauce down before we left and I think she was more sick because she hadn’t eaten since 10 o’clock the previous day. so I think her stomach was just sensitive in the morning. Eden had no fever and behaved liked her normal self for the rest of the day.

So we all headed over to my parents house for our first dinner.

Thanksgiving was a cloudy day with some showers. Wednesday we had steady rain on and off the whole day, so the weather was slightly cold, but not that cold, and wet.

The dinner party at my parents house encompassed Carolyn, Kristi and her family, Howard, Howie, Kaitlyn and Adrienne,  Glenn and his new wife Ann Marie, my parents and my family. It was kinda nice to have it be a small group, which made bringing Eden along easier. We ate around 2 pm and left shortly before 3 pm.

We picked up a pie and my rolls to bring to Ann’s house and got there around 4.

Annie was busy picking up my mother-in-law and brother-in-law Rawlin when we arrived. My father-in-law wasn’t up to leaving the house, and my MIL does not like driving in rain and Rawlin’s car battery was dead.

We hung out and people arrived and we ate around 5 pm.

We stayed till 7:30 and had fun seeing and talking with family.

While there Lilah had the camera at one point so the first few photos are ones I took, while the rest are from Lilah’s point of view.

The apple pie I made with the filling I canned with Sam.
I’ve never made pie crust so I cheated and bought some. I did not want my first pie crust to be something I brought to a dinner party.

Eden on Jon’s shoulder. She’s too cute and I guess I need to have her wear a belt with these pants.

Lilah before she got free range with the camera. She looks so old to me in this picture, or like an actual five year old and not the young girl/ child that I think of her as.

Lilah’s pictures:

This is the chair she was just sitting on in the previous picture I took of her.

The wall to the left of the chair.

One of her muses.

Another muse, Uncle Rawlin.

He held this pose for nearly a minute while Lilah tried to get the camera to take the picture, sometimes it just does not want to take pictures.

One of the cards we made for Jon’s family members on Wednesday.

We enjoyed our day and hope that everyone else had a Happy Thanksgiving also.

Last night I spent the night with my sister Carolyn at the house she was house sitting. We talked and decided to do some Black Friday shopping and since all the stores were in Henderson, and she was in Henderson, and I didn’t want to drive to Henderson early in the morning, it just worked out better to stay the night there.

I had met her at her in-laws house. Derek had gotten off work late with it being a Holiday and they were playing games. I played Scene It with them and didn’t do too bad. I knew some answers that others did not, but I didn’t know a lot that they did. Derek is a huge movie buff, where as we watch movies from Net Flix and not all of them are in the main stream.

We left his parents house around 11 pm and then got to bed around 1am. You know girls, we like to talk and Carolyn and I can often talk about almost anything with one another. I really cherish the friendship I have with her and my other sisters. It’s nice getting older and being able to share one another’s burdens or talk about silly things that you think are ridiculous, or might make you a little weird, only to find out someone else is just like you!

We went to bed at 1 am and set our alarms for 5:30 am, and got up at 5:40 am. I didn’t want to hold her up so I was actually the one to get her up and startle her at 5:40 am.

We left the house around 6:45 – 7 o’clock and went to Kohl’s first. It was a bit of a bust and had the longest lines of all the stores we went to and the $20 that Carolyn was going to spend was not worth the wait.

We then tried to find Radio Shack but the first one we went to had had closed down. It looked like our Black Friday might not be very productive, but eventually we found a Radio Shack, thanks to Carolyn’s cool phone, and she was able to buy what she needed.

We then went to a less traveled Michael’s that was close by. I was able to get my chocolate for truffles for $1.29 a bag plus an additional 25% off my total purchase, so around $1.05 a bag with tax, the normal price at JoAnn’s is $2.59 or so, it was a total score. (Thanks Carolyn for noticing the ad!) They also had the cheapest gingerbread house kits so we bought some of those to put together with the girls also.

After Michael’s we went onto Old Navy to buy dresses for the girls, and I found a sweater for myself too.

We then stopped for a bite to eat and hot chocolate at Starbucks.

Then to JoAnn’s. Carolyn was buying a Christmas tree and the amount of people there was crazy. Nearly all the fabric was 50% off so the cutting lines were the worst I’ve ever seen. It took over an hour to cut all the fabric for one woman and she took out three cart loads of fabric! My poor mother was there buying fabric for my aunt, she grabbed a number right when she got there, #67, and when we left, around two hours after my mom got there, they were only on #20. It was nuts. Luckily the line for check out wasn’t too bad and Carolyn saved a  lot of money, while I just bought a few things I needed since I was standing in line with her.

We then went to Costco and I bought my final gift of the season for my little family. I still need to get something for my brother and his wife, my dad, and I probably will be doing the shopping for my in-laws once again this year. The girls will be buying gifts for one another, but that’s not anything I need to worry about for right now.

I dropped Carolyn off and before I came home I went to Target to get a blanket I desperately wanted and was on sale, along with a couple other things. I was able to get in and out very quickly, so over-all it was a pretty good day and I think we saved a bit of money on the items we needed/ wanted to get.

Normally I do not participate in the whole Black Friday craziness, we honer Buy Nothing Day, but since we are in an stable situation, the economy is down, and there were deals to be had, it seemed like the right thing to do, plus I had someone to go with me and it makes it a lot more fun if you’re not by yourself.

I had a great day and to top it off I came home to a tidy home and Jon doing lots of laundry and dishes. I also took a way too long nap this afternoon thanks to my wonderful husband. ( I don’t function well on only four and half hours of sleep, especially when it happens two nights in a row. I am a person who needs sleep and I’ll admit it.)

Black Friday turned out to be pretty bright.

Last night I made rolls with my friend Beth. She’s attempted to make rolls two or three times and they’ve never risen, so I was there to tutor her step by step and to get the rolls I’m bringing to Jon’s family dinner.

After showing her how to make sure the liquid wasn’t too hot and what not we covered to let them rise, watched to see if hers were rising and I went home to give the girls a bath and enjoy an evening with Jon.

We watched Kite Runner and I baked the rolls. We got to bed really late, around 1:45 am.

At 5:20 am Eden came in saying her tummy wasn’t feeling well. I picked her up to here her kinda breath like she was going to throw up, but luckily she didn’t, at least not at that moment.
I gave her some food, she wasn’t eating it very well, and then she did throw up.
I gave her some crackers  and juice and she came to my bed while Jon got up. Later she threw that up.
We gave her a carrot that she hardly ate and some water, and she threw that up eventually too.
She also gagged at the applesauce and wasn’t able to even get it down.

What a fun Thanksgiving morning.

I was going to make a special breakfast, but decided I was too tired and to wait for a day where Eden can enjoy it too.

Jon’ll be staying home while Lilah and I go our family’s homes. Yes, I’ll even be going to his family’s dinner without him.

He’s not much of a socializer, so it’s not a big loss for him. I’d like to stay home and cuddle with Eden, but Jon’ll do that and I’ll instead get to eat a lot of food and gain 5 pounds, something he could stand to do, and socialize, something I like to do.

Happy Thanksgiving to us.

If you know my little family well, you know we don’t spend a lot of money on Christmas and gifts. We try to keep it to a minimum. Partially so it’s not some huge financial burden, partially because we want Christmas to be about more then just the gifts we receive, but mostly because I follow Jon’s wise counsel in not going into debt over a holiday. I admit the child in me wants a lot of things, but in reality the things I want, clothes and shoes, are not things my husband will ever buy for me and as the girls grow I get a little stumped on what to buy them.

Anyways, this year we decided to buy an XO laptop for Lilah. I saw it as a present for the girls, but I think it will be more Lilah’s laptop and when Eden is five, if they’re still  doing the program, we’ll hopefully be in a similar, or better situation, and will able to buy her one as well.

It arrived in the mail yesterday and Jon opened it up to check it out last night. We couldn’t do much with it because it asks for a name and we want Lilah to sent it up, blah, blah, blah. I so want to tinker with it, but I will just have to wait till Christmas.

Buy purchasing an XO laptop, we also give a laptop to a child in a poverty stricken area, so part of the expense is also tax deductible.

We thought long and hard about it, it’s not every day we drop $400 on one child, except the cost of hospital bills, if you want to count that, but decided it was a good investment and worthy charity.

Jon lists his reasons for liking the laptop on his blog. I think it’ll be fun for Lilah and I won’t have to share my computer so much. We bought a wireless Internet router since Jon will eventually be receiving a laptop for his work and so Lilah will have Internet access also. I joked that if we bought me a laptop we could get rid of our desk in front of the fireplace, but since this computer is only 2 years old, I don’t see a laptop in my future anytime soon.

I am excited for Lilah’s gift and I think she’ll have a lot of fun with it, the most challenging part being the touch pad mouse will be new to her, but it’s a real computer and it will have Internet access and different learning programs. I see it as a great learning tool for her and lots of fun.

This year Halloween fell on Nevada Day observed, or the last Friday of the month, so Jon got the actual Nevada Day off and was able to spend the day with us. He worked on his paper throughout the day and was nice enough to take pictures of us taking our the seeds and guts of our pumpkin and handed out candy that night while I took the girls around.

Our tradition is to carve our pumpkin Halloween day. So the girls helped me gut the pumpkin. Eden really didn’t like getting so messy, while Lilah sat there and played with the seeds and guts.

The poor pumpkin had no idea what fate awaited him.

The only Picture Eden was smiling. All the others she has that look of disgust.

Lilah drew a face, which I transferred to the pumpkin.

Eden chose a picture from the carving kit I bought. (Her expression here just made me smile.)

I came up with my face on my own.  (Lilah took this picture.)

I got the girls ready a little before dark so we visited Beth’s house and Eden’s old nursery leader.

We then came back to our neighborhood and took the girls to the other four houses on our little block that were participating. Jon stayed home and handed out candy. We went through about 6 of the 8 bags and I will have Jon take some candy to work because we have plenty of candy from the girl’s adventures.

After going down our block I took the girls to my parents neighborhood. I took them down the cul-de-sac my parents live on and one more. We hit around 20 house but still came home with so much candy. I’m not sure why I took them down the second street. Lilah was just so into trick or treating and I guess the child in my wanted as much candy as we could get. Lilah started complaining about her bag being too heavy and I had to carry Eden’s bag for her towards the end. We have way too much candy for our house. I only let the girls choose one piece a day at lunch and I’m actually trying to not eat that much due to watching my weight, and Jon only eats a piece maybe once a week. I’m thinking I may put some in the freezer for Christmas. “I don’t know why you got gum with a jack o’ lantern on it or that gummy spider.”

Candy from our previous adventures.

Candy from Halloween night. (I don’t know if you can tell, but this bowl holds more than the 1 gallon bucket. )

I’ve noticed that even in my parents neighborhood, where there are a lot of families, there are not a ton of kids running door to door and only about 1/4 of their neighborhood participates in handing out candy. When I grew up there were kids everywhere swarming the streets and you rarely had a house that didn’t hand out candy. I feel like they miss out on some of the excitement I had has a kid.

Lilah still loved trick or treating and even though her bag was “getting so heavy” she persevered. Too bad she as a once piece of candy a day mom rather than a pig out on candy one night mom.

Wednesday night was our final Halloween event.

It was a carnival type affair at a local recreation center. Sam signed Britta up and I signed Lilah and Eden up. We met there in the chaos of Halloween fun.

They had lots of different activities for the children to wait in line for and attempt to try and all the children got candy whether or not they succeeded.
There was digging for treasure in a box full of shredded paper, throwing balls into a small blow up coffin with a skeleton, knock down the cans, and the like.

Eden was very weary of the evening. All the people and the high noise level had her clutching my hand all night, especially after we had the fire alarm go off for around 20 minutes. It was a false alarm, and mostly annoying, but not tremendously loud, though Eden covered her ears has much as she could since she only had one hand, like me.   I got so use to her holding my hand it began to feel strange if she wasn’t grasping it.

Lilah loved it and said it wasn’t too loud. I love that she loves Halloween this year. I think it’s adorable. She even wanted to go into the haunted house, but the line was too long and I was nervous about Eden. Instead they did the jumper obstacle course, which was Eden’s favorite. I think the night air and the lack of loud jarring music made it a lot of fun for her.

They had a cake walk and Lilah won our first time around! She was kind enough to share her cupcake with us. We played once more, but did not win.

It was a fun night, even though it was very busy and crowded. It wasn’t to the point that I felt like it was a waste of time and all the employees were very nice.

We’ve already filled up our gallon ice cream bucket with candy. I’m not sure if we can take much more candy.

Here are the girls doing the jumper obstacle course.

Add they’re off.

There was a mesh siding so I couldn’t take any pictures till the end.

Lilah having fun jumping while we waited for Eden.

Eden finishing. She had landed funny before this so she was a little hurt in this picture.

Tomorrow is Halloween and Nevada Day observed so Jon is at home with us. (Yay!)  I can’t wait to carve our pumpkin and maybe I’ll start cutting out the table runners. I’ve really been avoiding them for some reason, though I need to get over it no later than Monday.

Yesterday we had the Halloween party with Lilah’s preschool friends.  I helped Sam put the party together and we invited all of the moms that we use to have the preschool with.

We had:
bobbing for apples- video at the bottom.
Fishing for their prize.
bean bag toss (Toss bean bags through holes on a cardboard cut- out)
Make a jack o’ lantern place mat.
decorating sugar cookies
pumpkin toss (Toss plastic pumpkins into a bucket.)
clothespin drop (Try to drop clothespins by holding them to your nose and then trying to get them into a jar.)
spooky haunted playhouse

It was a like a carnival setup. We had each station and the kids could go and do what they wanted. Some stations had specific times but for the most part it was a free for all. We had everyone bring sack lunches and Sam provided a witches brew for drink. (Apple juice with dry ice to make it smoke.)

The kids seems to have lots of fun and they all enjoyed seeing one another.

Fun moments- Lilah being silly as she bobbed for her apple. Eden bending over as she did the clothespin drop and practically having the clothespin in the jar since her nose was so close. Seeing my friend Emilie B.’s new baby boy and just hanging out with the other moms that were in our old ward.

I forgot my camera, but Emilie S. brought hers and loaded this video onto google for us to view.