Post-Christmas Fun to Tide Us Over

I know I have a ton of family pics from Christmas, but I'm still trying to dig out from under crumpled wrapping paper, plastic twist ties, and wet snow clothes. So, to hold us/you over until I can post something related to our family, here (http://www.holdman.com/christmas/) is a light display with video (enable your sound) that you have to check out. If you are in the Utah County/Lindon area, you NEED to visit it in person (until Jan. 5th). If you think it's impressive online, just imagine how it is live. Enjoy!

How did he keep his pants on?

So I (Leon) was browsing through my photos at work and came across this one. We had to have a picture of this - Jayden running and holding up his pants because then he was too tall for his age and everything that fit him length wise was too big in the waist. He is still pretty skinny for his pants, but is getting by.

Dallin's Metal Mouth

So, it's official - Dallin is a metal mouth. After more than a year of orhtodontic work widening his jaw, he finally has something to show for it. He was a little nervous this morning, but he seems to actually like them. I think he feels like a teenager. So far he's not been in too much pain other than getting used to them rubbing on his mouth. He chose "midnight glow blue" for those who are wondering.

Another Plug for My Jewelry

With the holidays coming up I have been trying to market my handcrafted jewelry. I have many new items listed in my Etsy Shop as well as on my jewelry blog (stephsjewelry.blogspot.com). There should be something for everyone - women, men, boys, girls, and infants. Take a peek and TELL SOME FRIENDS.

Free Child Labor

Don't tell my kids, but I consider "leaf raking time" as a chance to get some free child labor out of them. They think it's too much fun to consider it work, I guess.

Things I Love Today

Things I Love Today (in no particular order):

• That my husband made the bed this morning - pillow shams and all.
• Finding the last two cans of "milk chocolate" flavor hot chocolate after digging through the pile of all the yucky flavors no one ever buys. Felt like I had won the lottery!
• The nice people at Macey's grocery store gave me another gallon of milk after I dropped mine in the parking lot (an entire gallon of milk makes a huge mess, by the way).
• That there are still some radio stations who are playing regular (not Christmas) music.
• That all my dishes fit into the dishwasher - no straggling pile that never seems to make it in.
• That all my kids are safe and accounted for after Jayden got lost at the movie theater during a Scout activity last night.
• That we have a laptop as a backup computer since our main computer died yesterday. I would be going through computer withdrawls without it.
• A patient, honest sister who talked me off of a shopping ledge today, twice.
• I had no visitors today since my house is a total mess.
• That it's Friday and my carpool week is over.

So, what do YOU love today?

Clever Traders

Dallin came up with this candy trading idea. Each boy had their own candy area, and the center of the pillows was the "up for grabs" zone where unwanted candy was put up for trading. That "Fun Dip" was a hard one to get rid of.

Happy Halloween - Bah Humbug!?

I will have to admit, I am a Halloween "Scrooge". I don't really look forward to this holiday with all the scary, gory decorations, and the costume headache. I don't like spending time and money on costumes that will most likely only be worn once, and find myself in an onery mood whenever I think about it. The month of October usually goes by very quickly for me because I know Halloween is coming up at the end. I usually prefer to make the kids' costumes (which is where the stress comes from), and not knowing how to sew very well, I dread the job. I try to start gathering costume parts early to avoid the last minute scramble, but inevitably I procrastinate and am still finishing some last details the night before.

I have found the day of Halloween to be an overall busy day for moms. Before school you have all the costume business. Later in the morning there is usually a parade at the school, which means mom shows up with the camera, sits in the gym for over a half an hour waiting and waiting, while the preschool aged kids run around and around and around the gym. When the parade finally gets to you, you get to see your kid for a split second as he jogs by. You are lucky to get a picture, but most of the time you have to stop the parade for a second for a photo, which makes a gap in the line, causing the kids to run to catch up with their class, thus the jog-by photos. Then, there are the class parties that most moms end up helping with in one form or another. Some years are worse than others depending on which box you checked at "Back-to-School Night". After school the kids are constantly pressuring moms for dinner to get ready so they can go trick-or-treating. Chili has been our traditional Halloween dinner for years since this would be the only time I could get them to actually eat it with trick-or-treating dangling before them. Once dinner is finally ready (which usually takes longer than usual, for some reason), there is the whining and complaining and negotiating of the number of bites to be done. It's the worst feeling ever as a kid to be eating dinner while trick-or-treaters are coming to your door. After dinner mom and the kids are out the door for an hour or two. Or, mom stays home and passes out candy, walking to the door 50 times. Once the kids come home, it's candy, candy, candy, undressing everyone from their costumes, which usually involves washing off make-up, etc., then on to the regular night routine. By the time mom falls into bed, she has been on her feet all day going from one thing to another. It's one of the busiest holidays for moms. You would think Christmas would top the list, but most of the work is done before the actual day and you get to actually sit back and relax a little on Christmas Day.

All of this being said, I will have to admit that I had a good time this year. I dressed up for the first time (as a witch, what else?), which the kids really got a kick out of. After the initial costume headache had subsided, I actually enjoyed making the last minute details. This year our school told parents to come to the gym a half hour after the parade stared to avoid the long wait, Dallin's class party went better than I had imagined, and I bagged the chili and made Potato Cheese Broccoli soup, which my kids love and takes a fraction of the time to make. There was still the negotiating of bites for dinner to be done, but not nearly as bad. Leon took the kids trick-or-treating while I stayed home and passed out candy. Not wanting to go up and down the stairs to answer the door every ten minutes, I stayed in the kitchen and cleaned. At the end of the night, my kitchen was SPOTLEESS, with no clutter piles or anything! Trick-or-treating ended earlier than usual since they had gotten an earlier start. They dumped out all their candy, sorted it into piles, did the usually trading, and ate their fair share. (What's great about them being little is they prefer "Tootsie Rolls" and anything that resembles an eyeball over "Snickers" or "Reece's Peanut Butter Cups". With it being Friday, we let them watch a movie before bed, with their candy bags by their side.

I can't wait for them to go back to school on Monday so I can raid their candy bags while they are gone. Now that Halloween is over, it's on to the next holiday!

Jayden the Pirate, Cameron the Bat, Dallin as Indiana Jones, and Landon the Ninja.

The End of An Era - Sympathy, Please

Okay, so most of you who know me know that I LOVE a good bargain. And, you would also know that my entire wardrobe and that of my family has come from Mervyn's. Having a friend who works at Mervyn's, I get the inside scoop to all the great sales. I have been able to clothe my family for next to NOTHING for the past 9 years. Truly, you can get an entire outfit for a toddler boy (pants and a shirt) for $3.00. I became a master at combining discounts and sales and looked forward to Mervyn's clearance sales like they were holidays.

That being said, it was devastating to learn that Mervyn's is going out of business and is closing EVERY store for good. Our store will be open until December 31st. After that I will have to find another source of bargains to clothe my family. I cannot tell you how heavy my heart is and how desperate I am to find another store with deals as good as Mervyn's. I think it will be very hard to top the deals I was able to get at Mervyn's. I've had friends and family tell me about other "great deals" they get at other stores, but seriously, Mervyn's topped them all. Any suggestions? Where do you get your best bargains?

Dinosaur Park

Okay, with UEA weekend came a bit of pressure to go and do something fun. Leon did not take any time off of work, so we pretty much stayed at home and played. But, Saturday we decided to bag yard work and go somewhere. Being such beautiful weather, we picked the outdoor dinosaur park in Ogden. It was a bit of a drive, but that made it seem like more of an outing.

A Leon classic.

After the dinosaur park we found a couple of geocaches in a park nearby. The kids sure love geocaching. It's like a treasure hunt where you have no idea what the treasure will be or what it will look like. Another group found these same geocaches earlier in the day and left some LAME, girly stickers, so the "treasure" wasn't all that exciting this time. But, the kids always enjoy the thrill of the hunt just as much as the "treasure" at the end.

The Simple Things

Sometimes it's the simple things in life that bring the most frustration and the most joy. My "toy room" is case in point. I try to be an organized person, but with four boys, it's an uphill battle. I have given up and generally try to avoid the toy room. When the going gets really tough and I've had just about enough frustration, I call in reinforcements by the name of "Robyn" (name may or may not have been changed to protect her identity). I've used "Robyn" a couple of times in the past and know she has a way of setting me straight with her BRUTAL honesty. Everyone needs a friend who isn't afraid to tell you what's what and doesn't judge you for the AMOUNT OF TOYS you have or the dust bunnies and DEAD FLIES in the window sill.

My goal was to get EVERY toy in the house organized into one room. It has been a major irritation of mine to try to put a toy away when its home could be in one of five different rooms. With "Robyn's" help we managed to transform the chaos into order. The boys have actually played in this room and with toys they haven't played with in a long time because the pieces weren't all together. At night (now, I know the novelty of a clean, organized toy room hasn't worn off yet), the boys are happy to clean up and put everything away where it belongs. (If you noticed I made labels with words and pictures to make it easy for everyone.)

Now, when I walk past this room, I get a little bit of joy and satisfaction - thanks to a friend I like to call "Robyn."

First Snow of the Season

Waking up to snow on the ground was exciting for most of the boys. However, Landon was a little confused and upset by it. He has been asking about upcoming holidays and has been confused to see Halloween and Christmas decorations both at stores. We've been telling him that first it's Halloween, then Christmas. Upon seeing the snow Landon said, "Oh, did we miss Halloween?" and starts to cry. I guess he thought snow meant Christmas and that he had missed Halloween. (And, yes, it was Sunday. No judging, please.)

Conference by the Fireside - Ahh...

Isn't this just the perfect picture?

Four boys listening to the prophet by a cozy fire. Ha!

(Skittles and candy corn work wonders.)
Whoever invented "General Conference Bingo" should get the Peace Prize. My boys actually look forward to Conference and sit quietly (well, relatively quietly) listening intently. The deal is they can either eat the candy on each "Bingo", or go for "blackout" and eat the whole board at once. For some reason, they all thought "blackout" sounded like a better deal. It was literally the last 30 seconds of President Monson's concluding remarks when Dallin heard the word "obey", giving him a "blackout." I tried explaining to them that eating each "bingo" would give them more candy in the long run, but they didn't believe me. Oh, well. It kept them entertained for two hours. Maybe I should come up with "Grocery Store Bingo" to get all four boys to behave through Macey's. Hmm.

Sticky Floor & Liquid Gold

I've been slaving away in the kitchen for two days and I'm finally set free! We had a bumper crop of grapes this year, which meant I actually had to do something with them. Last year we only got one small bucket of grapes - the birds ate the rest. But, after some pruning advice from Dad and little more water, we ended up with several bushels of grapes from our one grape vine. We were not prepared for so many - we had expected the birds to take care of them again this year. I guess there were too many for the birds to keep up. This picture is only about half of what we actually picked. (I hadn't thought of posting my grape adventure on my blog until I was already halfway through the juicing process.)

I was given the job of juicing and canning the grapes. Now, I'm not a die hard canner, so I actually had to purchase jars (gasp) and borrow a juicer and canner from a friend (double gasp). I've helped my mom do grape juice, have done it once before on my own, and have memories of a hot, sticky, messy job. Robyn and I did grape juice years ago. One or both of us must have been pregnant, so I may remember it worse than it really was. But, I was not looking forward to the job.

This is the set up. No, I'm not brewing beer. It really is grape juice. For those who have never done grape juice, it's really not that hard. The juicer has three sections. The bottom section is full of water, the middle section collects the juice and has a tube to drain the juice into jars, the top section is where the grapes go. The top section is like a colander where the grapes steam and the juice drips through to the middle section. All you need to do is wash the grapes and chuck the grapes, stems and all, into the juicer. After letting it steam for a bit, just fill the jars. I do squish the grapes a little at the end just to make sure all the juice is out, but other than that, it's pretty hands-off. I was extra careful in handling the hot jars, which if dropped, can be a disaster. Robyn can attest to this. We (probably me) dropped a full, hot jar of purple grape juice on the floor, splattering the cupboards, counters, oven, and us. Being in a rental, I thought for sure my rental deposit was a goner. After a lot of "Clorox Clean-up", the kitchen survived, but my memory was scarred. Thankfully, my grapes now are white Concord, so no staining factor - just sticky.

After juicing comes the processing/sealing of the jars. I ended up with 35 quarts of this liquid gold - not bad for one grape vine. It's always a satisfying feeling to see sealed jars sitting on the counter. Now all I have to do is tackle my sticky floor.

I May As Well Just Get a Puppy

So, I feel like I need to make an update on the potty training. After a week of being PERFECT, Landon has regressed. The novelty has worn off and he has become a little resisitant. He would rather play than use the potty - a very common occurrance, I know. I'll admit, it has been hard for me to go from him being perfectly independent to having to remind and help him use the potty. He might be good for a couple of days, but then there are some days when he makes more messes than not. I should just keep the "Resolve" carpet cleaner in my back pocket.

Lagoon - "It's What Fun IS!"

(Notice Jayden has been "shot" by the little girl behind them.)

Nu Skin reserved Lagoon for its employee party again this year. You can't beat free Lagoon with no one but Nu Skin and their families - we love it! They even have door prizes just to sweeten the deal. Last year Leon won a 20" flat screen TV. So, needless to say, Leon and the boys were super anxious to get there on time. We ended up being more than a half an hour early and stood in line with about 50 other people waiting for the gates to open. A few people remembered that Leon had won a prize last year, and teased him about winning again. If you've ever seen Leon win anything, it's pretty memorable. Being as early as we were, I kept telling Leon that he wouldn't be as lucky this year. What are the chances of winning two years in a row and so soon after the gates open? Well, if luck would have it, Leon won AGAIN this year. Not even knowing what he'd won, he jumped up and down screaming. Of course, people were staring and laughing at him, and I was pretending that I didn't know him - staring and laughing, too. He ended up winning a mini-fridge, which sent him into more jumping and screaming - classic Leon enthusiasm.

The boys were eager to start on the rides, so off we went - Leon and the older ones to the thrill rides, me and Landon to KiddieLand. Landon was a little put off that he had to ride by himself without a friend, but was soon beaming ear to ear when a little girl sat next to him. From there it was ride after ride - nonstop fun.

Thanks, Nu Skin!

Diaper-Free After 11 Years

Anyone who knows me, or has heard me gripe about it, knows that I HATE potty training (who doesn't?). I also admit that I am terrible at it. You would think that after doing it three times already, that I'd have it down. However, I'm not consistant, I get lazy, and find it easier to tote around a diapered kid than run from restroom to restroom (my germ-a-phobia also plays in here). Landon has been asking/begging to use the potty for about 6 months now. I'd sit him on the potty and he'd never produce anything. After about 20 times of doing nothing, I got lazy and started telling him "no" (really, what mom would discourage potty training - me). We were headed to California in July and as it got closer I didn't want to deal with a newly potty trained kid across Nevada. I kept telling myself (because, afterall, potty training is as much for me as it is for the kid) that when we got home from California, I would potty train Landon. I gave a half-hearted effort in August and let him wear "big boy underwear" for a couple of days, but all I got from it was a lot of wetting accidents. I got lazy and feeling house-bound, and let it go. He would ask to sit on the potty every now and then, but never produce a thing! He just wasn't getting it and I was in denial.

Last week I was innocently reading a book and Landon came up to me and told me that he needed to go potty. My first thought was, "oh, come on, we both know what a waste of time this is, and I'm trying to read." But, I figured that I should be supportive and at least let him sit on the potty for the 101st time. Standing there, waiting for him to decide to get down, he says, "I'm doing it!" I look down, and holy cow, he WAS doing it! I was shocked. We celebrated, high-fived, and praised galore. Since then he has wanted to go potty every ten minutes. So much for being lazy. Where are the diapers when I need them? I decided that there was no going back now that he has the hang of it - big boy underwear from here on out - NO MORE DIAPERS! It has only been 4 days and he has had NO wetting accidents, has been dry all night, and insists on going to the potty all by himself with no potty seat and no help. Okay. (We did have a #2 incident on Sunday, but I'll spare the details.)

So, for the first time in 11 years, I have no one in diapers and I have potty trained my last person.

Dry Spell

It's that time of year again - the dry spell. Summer is over, school is back in session, and there have been no recent holidays. All of this means that I haven't used my camera for a long time (Craigslist stuff doesn't count). Flipping through my scrapbooks you would notice pages and pages of summer, then about four pages to sum up fall and winter. I have purposely tried to take more pictures in the fall - raking leaves, apple picking, pumpkin patches - but it always seems staged and the same every year. Once winter hits you would see the token "playing in the snow" pictures and a few at Christmas. For some reason we have used the video camera more than the still camera during Chirstmas. I think I like hearing the kids' reactions. However, our video camera is broken, boo hoo. Then, once spring comes along the photos seem to pick up. We have all the boys' birthdays in the spring, there's Easter (my favorite holiday), and then it's summertime from there. So, now that you know about my photo dry spell, you will understand if my blog comes to a screeching halt for awhile. Who knows, maybe having the pressure of a blog will cause me to find things to take pictures of - dry spell over?

Cousin Derek's Birthday Party

Derek turned 6 this weekend, and Natalie threw him a "Blue Party" (because blue is his obsessive, favorite color) up in the canyon. Everyone wore blue, we ate on blue plates, drank blue punch from blue cups, and ate blue cake. We played on the grass, roasted hot dogs and marshmallows, and played by the river. Cameron said it was the funnest birthday party he has ever been to and wants to do that for his birthday - we'll see.

Pancake Breakfast

Our neighborhood (translated "Stake") held a Saturday morning breakfast/activity this weekend. Thinking it would be fun for the kids, I decided to go. When we pulled up, the line for the food was incredibly long. I was tempted to just turn around and have cold cereal at home. But, they had bounce houses and an inflatable slide, so I figured the kids could play for an hour while I waited in line for food. It really only took about a half an hour in line, but still! They had just about every breakfast food you could think of - pancakes, sausage, ham, eggs, burritos, bagels, fruit, and even cereal. The way I look at it is, "Hey, it's free breakfast, fun for the kids, and it gives me something else to post on my blog."

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

Our orthodontist gave us tickets to an Orem Owlz baseball game. The game was fun and the kids enjoyed the peanuts and root beer (can't get more American than that). The Owlz hit several home runs, which excited the boys, and ended up winning easily. It was a great summer night family outing.

Hiking 'Y' Mountain

One of the boys (probably Cameron who hears a lot about BYU from the Brock cousins) has been asking to hike to the 'Y'. So, we took advantage of the last Saturday before the boys' school and BYU starts and finally did it. It was steep, but everyone made it on their own with minimal falling. We were able to find a couple of geo-caches on the way down, which was very cool. The boys get a kick out of seeing the 'Y' on the mountain knowing that they have actually sat on it.

Thanksgiving Point

Okay, since it was "Two-Dollar Tuesday" at Thanksgiving Point, we (along with half of Utah) decided to check it out. Originally, we had set out to visit the dinosaur mesuem, but seeing the line wrap around two sides of the building, we aborted mission and hit the gardens instead. There were a lot of people, but also a lot of fun. I was actually surprised to see the boys as enthusiastic as they were to see the gardens after being told we were going to see dinosaurs. They loved the water fountains, hedge maze, bear cave, big waterfall, fish, and the feature gardens throughout. In all, we were there 3 hours and saw most of it - skimming through the big gardens toward the end since Landon had hit his limit (tired and hungry).

A couple of videos of the kids enjoying the gardens.

My Etsy Shop

Okay, so I'm doing something that I would consider bold - I've started an Etsy Shop. Now, I know most of you reading this wouldn't consider an Etsy Shop as a bold move, but for me who is so self-conscious of what I make and don't know if people are just being polite when they say they like my jewelry, it's big. I also have a fear of failure, but "nothing ventured, nothing gained," right? Besides, selling online seems less confrontational - I don't have to hear people's comments when they are browsing. If my Etsy Shop is successful, I'll write about it. If you hear no more about my Etsy Shop, you'll know it was a dud. Hmm.

Pioneer Day

Here's actual proof that I ran the race. Not pretty - but I did it.
We started Pioneer Day with Stephanie's first ever (and maybe last) 10k race. The race started off with a massive hill named "Goliath". Everything said about this hill was true - "challenging", "huge", "nasty", and "intense." It was a very short but steep hill, and thankfully, nearly every runner ended up walking up the last part of the hill. I made it 3/4 of the way, just couldn't take it anymore, and had to succomb to peer pressure and walk, which was something I didn't want to do in my first 10k. The rest of the race was a series of small hills and a lot of downhill. My legs were like rubber the first 3 miles, but once I got over the trauma of "Goliath", it wasn't so bad. My goal was to finish the 6.2 miles in under 60 minutes, which I wasn't sure I would do after "Goliath" slowed me down. But, I managed to finish in 59:07, a 9:30 minute/mile average. It wasn't a pretty race, but I did it. The best part was winning a $15 gift certificate to Ruby River Steakhouse in the raffle afterward.

Our neighborhood had a small children's parade with decorated bikes and pioneer cotumes. We did the best we could with what we had around the house and the kids had a good time. Well, except for Landon. At the end of the parade he fell off his scooter and came crying back to me with this nice bump on the side of his forehead and said, "I'm not 'bery' good at this race." I guess he thought he was supposed to go as fast as he could and beat all the other kids. Not quite the right concept, but cotton candy and a balloon made it all better.

We ended the day with our own, less intense, version of the Knowlton's 4th of July "Cul-de-sac of Fire." We invited a few neighbors and let Leon do all the work.

Only watch the following video if you are willing to endure 2+ minutes of random kids in the neighborhood children's parade. Halfway through you can hear Landon being brought to us crying. Good times.