Christmas Day 2007

Oh, how I love Christmas.  I love the opportunity to spoil my kids, we don't have any set numbers of gifts for each one, so that usually results in over spending and the like.  It is kind of crazy, but we try to keep things even.  My grandmas and aunts and uncles send money, and I like to put a gift under the tree from them so that the children have something to hold in their hands and say, this is from Great Grandma Cook.    I want my kids to know that their family that is far away is thinking about them too.  This results in gift crazyness,  but it is so fun!   We also have very little order in the mornings.  They do the stockings together, and they are excited to give their gifts to each other, but otherwise it is mostly paper flying and kids squealing.   This year the reactions over the barbie doll house were fun.  Liza just kept saying "oh my goodness."  over and over.  We put Chinook under the tree since he was a gift for the family from my Dad.  Katie, who of course had no clue what all the colorful boxes were ran straight to Chinooks crate and kept saying "hi puppy, hi puppy, hi puppy."  Like she does most mornings.  She sure loves her doggie.  The kids main gifts were, Liza:  Doll house, I pod (brents old one, repaired and with her tunes on it)  clothes, and boy bratz.   Alex:  Magnet set, and scooby doo stuff.   Tori:  Doll house  and baby in a bath tub.  Katie:  Doll house and Baby that cries when you take out her pacifier.  They got tons of other stuff, but those were the ones that they asked for the most.  (Short of Alex and Liza requesting a robot that does everything that you tell it to do????)  By listening to their conversations after Christmas, they are sure that the only reason they didn't get their robots is because they didn't give Santa enough time to build them.  They are pretty sure that next year they will have given him enough notice that they should be able to get their robots that will clean their rooms for them.  Maybe Santa will bring me one too.... I could use that. :-)  This year for Brent, he got an I Phone among other things.  I got a year membership at Massage Envy.  That is a Massage every month for a year!!!  Yipee!   I love it.  I also got a new Lens for my Camera, I am so excited to try it out.  I got spoiled.  We had a wonderful Christmas together.  A fabulous traditional dinner of turkey and all the fixin's  It was such fun!!!  Merry  Christmas to all!!

Sad Sad Day

Today Grandpa left.  :-(  sniff,  He has been so fun to have around and so helpful.  He loved to hold and rock Katie, and was almost sad when Brent was home to do that job.  He would take her and distract her while I made dinners/lunches, and would put her in her chair when she wanted to eat, open doors for her, and hold her and squeeze her and call her "lil punkin".  There were several times when she would reach out to him and call him "grampup".   Tori love having him here to play with too.  Grandpa will sit down and actually watch a movie with you, and even though you have to turn the volume up to drown out the snoring, it is worth it to have him there.  Alex finally got to play with someone who sees things his way!  He and my dad seem to think alike and so all of the toys that Alex got for Christmas were a hit with Grandpa too.  Grandpa helped Alex navigate his new Scooby Doo X Box game, they also played with Alex's magnets for quite some time.  They did a lot of figuring stuff out together.  I think Liza enjoyed just having another person around to talk to, and grandpa was better at acting interested then Brent and I are.  She loves to talk, I don't know where on earth she got that from.  Alex asked me the other day "Why does Grandpa give such shaky hugs?" ( A few years back my dad started shaking, I don't know why, just when he hugs you though, not while he is trying to do anything else.  ? )  We really enjoyed having him here, and he enjoyed being here.  Last night as we were getting ready for bed I said"Well dad, thanks for coming, we sure have enjoyed having you here."  He responded with  "Thank you for having me, I sure have liked being here, "  Then his eyes filled with tears as he said "I don't want to go home, it is so quiet there."  I said "yes, but you'll only be there for 2 days and then you'll go to Traceys (my sisters) House. "  "yeah, but then I still have to go home."  How sad.....  He enjoyed having chinook around too (my dad is a total dog person), I wish that he could have a dog, but he travels and works too much so it wouldn't be kind to the dog to have it.  The kids have missed him already   as have I.  I am so glad that he has come at Christmas for the past 2 years, he is nice to have around, and i know that he is much happier here then at home.  His mom is getting so bad with Alzheimers that when I talked to her on Christmas morning when I asked her how she was she said "I don't know how I am doing, I can't remember, Oh, the kids are here, so I must be good."  Then she asked me what we were going to do for Christmas, and asked if we were staying home or if we were coming to see her. This is sad for me, but really sad for my dad.  My dad only has one brother, and his father passed away about 14 years ago, that makes it even more difficult to go through what he has been going through with his mom and everything else.   On a happy note, my kids know him, and have good memories of this weekend, he took some awesome video for us, and we took a couple pictures of him with the kids.  Here is one that he took of Chinook,  from this point on we called Chinook snoopy.  :-)  

Merry Christmas

Today is Christmas eve, we spent the day delivering gifts around to friends and visiting.  I think Tori liked the visit to Sister McCarthy the very best!  She was so excited to go to her teachers house.  :-)  We enjoyed seeing most of our friends in their Christmas preparations.  We went over to the Hansen's for Crabs, it was  quite fun, even though I don't like Crab, and when the crabs were dumped on the table my poor Tori lost her appetite.  She whispered to me "mommy, those stink. "  I said, "I know, try to eat anyway."  LOL, I hate sea food.  Liza will eat it, Alex occasionally, and Brent was feeding it to Katie, but I don't think you could convince Tori.  Anyway, we then came home and began our Christmas eve traditions of opening one gift, which is Always PJ's.  This year the kids were saying "mom, these ones are our Jammies, can we open them now??"  I said "how do you know those are Jammies?"  "We always get Jammies,"  said Liza.  "But now, there is no surprise."  I told them.  Then Liza said, "but we don't know what color they are."  Silly girl.  They got on their Jammies,  and so did Brent and Grandpa and I.  Then we all were getting ready to get together when the kids saw SANTA outside, he yelled "HO HO HO, Merry Christmas!!"   The kids ran outside and he gave them a candy cane each and then came over to see Katie.  They were so excited.  They saw Santa last year at this time and were checking out the window to see if he would be back this year.  Sure enough.  I think that our neighbors have a Christmas party on Christmas eve that involves Santa just before the end.  We sure like that we get to see him on the street.  Then we read the Christmas story and then sang some songs and went to bed.  This has been a great year so far, even though today the kids kept talking about what they wanted  from Santa and so far we got them none of the things they were talking about today.  I sure hope they aren't disappointed.  Well,  Merry Christmas.  

Christmas Baking

Today I did my Christmas Baking.  I have been so busy that this was the first chance to get it all done.  I made Butter Tarts, Shortbread Cookies, Fudge, Chex Mix, and a Cheese Cake.  I meant to take a picture of the kitchen when I was all done, it was pretty Crazy, but all is well now.  While I made cookies my Dad and Brent wrapped presents and Brent put together the doll house for the girls.  It is so cute!  All we have left to do is Stocking Stuffers, and we're ready.  Thanks again to hours and hours
of Grandpa wrapping gifts.  I think the man went through 4 rolls of tape, he is a very precise wrapper too, so they're tight.  :-)  It was a busy Sunday, but I feel relaxed and ready for the big day coming up.  Brent has to work tomorrow :-(, hopefully they will let him come home before too late.  

Gingerbread House

Today I took off early in the am to teach water aerobics and then tried to go to borders on my way home and found that the line snaked back and forth in front of the register and then all the way to the back of the store and around the corner.  It looked like the photos of the night of the Harry Potter release.  It was nutso in there!  I left my stuff and went to target to get cold medicine and come home.  Traffic wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.  When I got home, I kicked the kiddos in the buns and we got chores done... Well they got chores done, the only rooms that are still a mess are the Kitchen and my room.  Looks like no sleep for me tonight.  After jobs were done Grandpa took us out to Mc Donalds, where Katie surprised me with the amount of food she ate and when she said she was done, she quickly pulled her little happy meal box down to peek inside for her toy.  (I didn't know that she had been watching the other kids and seeing that this was the procedure)  She has really been talking SO much lately, I am swiftly loosing my little baby.  :-(  Good thing I bought that dog!  Anyway.....  We got home and the kids wrapped their gifts for each other, and then they got together and sniffed and shook gifts for a while.  We then broke out the gingerbread house kit (these things are so awesome, they make it SO incredibly easy and very low mess.  JUST MY STYLE)   The kids had a ball, they complained that Katie was eating all the candy, and I told them that I could stop her, but then she would scream and I would have to stop making the house and go and hold her somewhere else.  The opted to let her eat some candy, but I think that they were trying to get those candies on there fast before Katie ate them all!   It was a very fun afternoon.  We finished the night off with Baths, and a trip to CiCi's Grandpa has never been there and he quite enjoyed the cinnamon rolls (Surprise surprise!!  Those things ROCK!!!)  We had a good night, got home late, so kids didn't get to bed till 10am.... Maybe they'll sleep in.  Brent is on call tonight, so it would be nice to have an hour or so when he gets home in the morning before the kids get up and start needing stuff.  :-)  It was a fun day, I am so glad that my dad is here, he has been such a help, he ironed my mountain (and i mean mountain) of ironing, he has switched over and run more loads of laundry then I can count, and hauls heavy stuff up and down the stairs for me.  He has kept my kids home when I have gone to the gym, and has watched kids while I have gotten so many little things done that needed to get done (especially getting my blood drawn, which was something my doctor ordered in JULY!! )  Thanks Dad.  :-)  Well I am off to wrap presents, get a jump on that Christmas Eve Chaos!  

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Mommy Style

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the abode

Only one creature was stirring & she was cleaning the commode.

The children were finally sleeping, all snug in their beds,

while visions of X-Box & Barbie flipped through their heads.

Yes, and dad was snoring in front of the TV,

with a half constructed bicycle propped on his knee.

So only the mom heard the reindeer hooves clatter,

which made her sigh, "Now what is the matter?" 

With toilet bowl brush still clutched in her hand,

She descended the stairs, and saw the old man.

He was covered with ashes & soot, which fell with a shrug,

"Oh great," muttered the mom, "Now I have to clean the rug."

"Ho Ho Ho!" cried Santa, I'm glad you're awake."

"your gift was especially difficult to make."

"Thanks, Santa, but all I want is time alone."

"Exactly!" he chuckled, "So, I've made you a clone."

"A clone?" she muttered, "What good is that?"

"Run along, Santa, I've no time for chit chat."

Then out walked the clone - The mother's twin,

Same hair, same eyes, same double chin.

"She'll cook, she'll dust, she'll mop every mess.

You'll relax, take it easy, watch TV and rest.

"Fantastic!" the mom cheered. "My dream has come true!"

"I'll shop, I'll read, I'll sleep a night through!"

From the room above, the youngest did fret.

"Mommy?! Come quickly, I'm scared and I'm wet.

The clone replied, "I'm coming, sweetheart."

"Hey," the mom smiled, "She sure knows her part."

The clone changed the child and hummed her a tune,

as she bundled the small one in a blanket cocoon.

"You're the best mommy ever. I really love you."

The clone smiled and sighed, "And I love you too."

The mom frowned and said, "Sorry, Santa, no deal.

That's my child's LOVE she is going to steal."

Smiling wisely, Santa said: "To me it is clear,

Only one loving mother is needed here."

The mom kissed her child and tucked her in bed.

"Thank You, Santa, for clearing my head.

Sometimes I forget, it won't be very long,

before they'll be too old for my cradle and song."

The clock on the mantle began to chime.

Santa whispered to the clone, "It works every time."

With the clone by his side, Santa said: "Goodnight.

Merry Christmas, dear Mom, you'll be all right." 

Sometimes we need reminding of what life is all about.

Especially at times when the Holiday season shouts,

and all we do is clean, bake, and procure.

You get the picture -- I'm sure.

So stop for a moment and hug that little one so dear,

whether he/she is 2 or 22, or even older this year.

For they are the gift that God gave us from Heaven above,

and what a special gift to be treasured, with endless LOVE!

May The Real Meaning Of Christmas Be With You All Year.

Blasts from the past

I wanted to put some stories from years ago in print, so I decided to do it from my blog, so that when I print it, these stories will not be lost.

March 8th 2001

The other day for no known reason, Liza stood up on a stool and proclaimed "I am different!........ I am black."  Where in the world did this come from?  the only thing I can figure is she has a book called  "No Red Monsters Aloud."  That is about some blue monsters being mean to Elmo, and they talk about differences.  But why she thinks she's black, I have no clue! 

For some background, I have a bucket in the bathroom which I keep water and borax in (a tip from the queen of clean)  In this bucket we soak training pants.  Generally the bucket is kept in the tub when it is not in use.  So this morning, I got out of the shower, put the bucket of soaking pants,  some peed, some not, into the tub and went to my room to get dressed.  As a general rule, ZU ZU is not aloud to go in the bedrooms, and she was out and running, so I closed my door.  As I was dressing I could hear Liza gleefully laughing, and didn't think much of it.  A few minuets later, I came out and looked in to see what was so much fun.  In the bathroom.  "Zu Zu have a bath"  Liza squeals as she dunks the ferret over and over into the bucket of dirty pants and pee water!  Poor Zu Zu is trying to catch her breath between dunks and then gets out of Liza's grasp and starts to run for it spreading water everywhere.  I grabbed a camera and took a picture.

The other day I was getting Liza's bath ready, so she stripped down and started chasing Zu Zu around the house.  She finally got her cornered and was straddled over her when she crouched down to pick her up.  As she crouched she tooted, and then looked up at me in amazement and said "Zu Zu honked my bum!"  Then she picked her up and took her in her room and then came out and shut Zu Zu in her room.  I said "Liza, where is Zu Zu?"  She said "I put her in my room."  I asked why and she said, "Cuz she keeps honkin' my bum!"

Whenever we clean up the house Liza gets jobs to do, and usually she is a pretty good helper.  Yesterday however, she showed us a little of what she is "Made of".  Her job was to pick up the Crayons that she had dumped onto he floor earlier when she was coloring.  She didn't think that she  should have to do this and tried every trick in the book to get out of it.  "Mommy, you do it."  "Mommy help please."  She even at one point chose to sit in time out rather then clean it up.  For the first 20 min or so I kept trying to get her to pick them up, with threats and the like, but nothing was working so I just made it very clear that she was to do nothing else until she did her job.  Two Hours and fifteen minuets later, she picked up her crayons.  in that two hours, the crayons were 1/2 in the bucket over 4 times, they were used as drumsticks, and as the insides of her bucket maraca.  She kept herself busy in that time and even took two potty breaks.  Just a little Stubborn!

For a little background so the story makes sense, Liza insists on sleeping with a billion toys, and then gets out of her bed to play with other toys.  Some nights she is up for and hour and a half to two hours.  So in efforts to get her to stay in her bed, one night I told her that if she got out of bed I get to come in and pick a toy from her bed and take it with me.  She understood what I said and stayed in her bed.  This worked for two nights.  Then on the third night Brent went in and took a toy and she tried to bargain with him to  get him to take  a toy that she didn't want as much.  He took the bargain.  Then she stayed in her bed.  On the fourth night, mean old mom went in twice and wouldn't strike a deal with her so she cried about it.  But we were happy with our success thus far because she was going to sleep faster and wasn't up and down so much.  Then on the fifth night she threw us a curve ball, she came to the door with a payment.  I heard her calling me and I could tell that she was at the door, when I came around the corner she was waving a toy out a small crack in the door.  "Mommy, take a car"  then later she called Brent, "Daddy take a lamb."  A "Hall Pass" if you will.  She was just letting us know that she was up and she chose what we could take as her punishment.  It was too funny.  Quite a Character this girl.

3rd Annual Christmas Tea

Every year since we moved into this house I have hosted a "Christmas Tea" in December.   I really enjoy doing this,even though it is much preparation, I very much enjoy having friends gather for some Christmas snacks.  We don't actually drink any tea, but we do eat all the treats etc that go with Tea.  :-)  Today's spread included:

Lemon water and Wassail to drink.  Meat Balls, yummy salad, Tamales, cream cheese and chillies dip w/chips, Hummus and pitta bread, yummy peppermint Oreos, black bottom cupcakes, brownies, chocolate dipped graham cookies, chocolate dip

ped pretzels, pumpkin bread, Poppy seed bread, Golden Graham goodies, Various candies and chocolates,  chocolate dipped Ritz with crushed candy cane, and the list goes on....   It was so nice to get together with friends that I have made here in Maryland and celebrate the birth of the Savior.  I am so grateful for my Friends here and enjoy throwing this little p

arty every year to gather them together.  Things went so well, and the mood was just right.  The kids had a ball spreading toys and popcorn around the basement as the mommies talked and ate yummy food.  Merry Christmas to all!!

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS........

We HAD to download the song from i Tunes.  What fun that this happened at this time of year.

  

Alexs story

"When I was little, before we had a dog, I was sitting at the table eating dinner and I felt something furry on my foot and I thought, what was that?  Then the furry thing went by my foot again, and I thought, okay this is weird.  What is that, so I looked under the table and it was dads foot."

We laughed so hard, he told this at dinnertime and we were all into his story wondering what he was going to find under the table.  It was SO funny

Challenge

It seems that my challenge as a mother is to learn how to parent like Our Father in Heaven.   I really have a hard time parenting the way that I want to parent.  I know how I should handle situations, but I constantly find myself reverting back to the ways that I remember being parented.  Now, don't get me wrong, I think that my parents did a pretty good job.  Both my sister and I turned out pretty good, I think, but their ways were not always in conjunction with the way that Heavenly Father parents.   Sometimes I think that I turned out well because I feared my mothers disapproval more then anything in the world, her reaction and withdrawing in anger from me was more then I was willing to face.  I chose the right, most of the time because I couldn't bare to feel like she thought I was lesser of a person.  Until of course I was old enough to understand that she loves me unconditionally and that I need to make choices that please my heavenly father.   So my parenting style tends to fall into this realm of do as I say, or I will withdraw from you, be it withdrawing of your favorite things, or your favorite time, and sometimes even withdrawing me (in the same angry reaction as my mom).  Our Heavenly Father doesn't withdraw himself from us, he never would, He stands at the door, and waits.  I know that this is how I should be, and I try so hard to resist my first reaction to situations.  When I read books and articles from leaders, and members in the the Church (Read this months Presidency Message in the Ensign, it's very good)  on parenting, I am always faced with this inner battle, Like the  battle in heaven.  The Saviors plan of free agency and Satan's plan of controlling our destiny.  I love my kids so much and want for them to excel so much that I want to make their decisions for them, and control them right into adulthood in what ever way that I can, and if that means making them fear me, it was done out of love.  However, I love them too much to take away their agency!  I know that the Lords way is the right way, I guess what it comes down to is control issues.  I don't know when to let them make their own decisions.  A  4 year old for example, she needs some controlling, because she is not old enough just yet to know the consequences of her behavior, however a 9 year old needs much less.... or should need less..... it seems that I really struggle with Liza and her understanding of right and wrong, maybe she understands, and just doesn't care.  What ever the case may be, it seems that she isn't doing so well in the choices department, which brings me to my next issue.  Controlling my tongue.  No I don't curse like a sailor, well not all the time ;-)  I just react in a loud voice..... hummmm sometimes a far too loud voice. I am not a patient woman either, always in a rush.... rush rush rush.....  how annoying to live with!  I have really been working on this lately as I know that it is not right, our lessons/ meetings for the past 2 Sundays  have been on Controlling your tongue.   I have a girlfriend who I admire, and she has a little check list for thinking before you speak....  she always asks herself before she says something....

1. Is it true?

2. Is it kind?

3. Is it necessary?

I love this, I just have to get into my mind to go through them before I open my mouth and start rambling.  I am better at it with adults then i used to be, but still need work, and I really need work with my kids.  They pretty much get what ever pops into my head most of the time.  Usually not too terrible, but not the best either.  I am trying really hard to be a bit more rational and not engage in childish arguing (especially with Alex, he is my debater, and Liza has learned from him how to negotiate.)  I struggle with trying to prove to my kids that I am right, rather then letting it go.  Silly, I know, I usually realize this after the fact.

 

I have to say that i also look at large families in general, you find that as the parents relax with the last children,  those are the kids that fall away, or are lazy, or just stinkers, and that puts the fear in me that if I relax even a drop, one of them will fall away. :-(  I guess I just need to find a good balance, I know that it is out there, I feel like I am on the brink of some major discoveries as I dive into this world of Christ like parenting.  I am going to order some books that were suggested by a friend and wonderful example (thanks Kellie) and we'll see how it goes.  I studied this in school, because I went to Ricks we had a class on "Teach the Child" which is about the Savior way with children, but I never considered that I would have such a hard time applying it with my own children.

My Goals......

1. Use a kind voice and kind words.

2. Love them after discipline

3. Slow down.

4. Hug them more.

5. Be patient as they learn

The Elf on the Shelf

I had to share....

I read about this cute little book on my sisters friends blog and it sounded so cute, I rushed out to buy it.  I will warn you that the price is a little steep, but so cute and worth it if you use it for years to come.  So the book comes with this darling little "traditional style" elf.  The story is about this little elf and his job in your home.  In the book it tells the children that this little fella will go to the North Pole every night and report your behavior to Santa.  He is under strict rules that he is not to speak to you, but you are welcome to tell him what you want for Christmas, and he will deliver your message to Santa.   He tells Santa, about all that you did that day, especially the good stuff.  When he returns, he hides in a new spot, so that you have to find him when you wake up.  On Christmas day, he is gone and will see you again next year.  He also can not be touched, if you touch him, his magic rubs off and he won't be able to report to Santa.  (I like that one cuz then he can't become a toy)  It is really quite a darling little idea.  The kids have loved it so far, and it is nice to make a little reminder comment here or there about what "Dingle" is going to tell Santa today.  The kids seem to like the idea, and they buy it too.  I just thought it was so cute

Fall Pictures

Of Course these were taken before the snow flew.  I have been holding on to them so that I could practice my new photo shop skills on them, but I am tired of waiting for myself, so here are the raw images of my kiddos in the fall leaves in our yard.  BTW, we picked up another 15 bags of leaves for a total of 40 bags!  There are still some in the back that are hanging on to the tree back there.  We'll get em though.

Liza enjoying the fall leaves
Alex was seen once burrowing though the pile of leaves on the driveway, he actually disappeared into the pile head first and tunneled through.  :-)  It was really funny.
That's a pretty cool tongue trick Katie is doing here....  She is so much fun!  She even helped with the leaves, on the first day, but on the second day it was too cold and she and Chinook sat inside with each other watching out the window.  They looked really cute together.
And my ever photogenic Tori, I have so many good shots of this girl.  She loves the Camera and the camera loves her.  I wanted to photo shop her scar, but I guess it tells part of her tale.  She is loosing her curls and that makes me sad.  :-(  But she is still so beautiful.

First Snow

This morning as the girls and I were getting breakfast Alex came running down the stairs in just his pj top, trying to stretch it down so we couldn't see his underwear,  as he announced that it was snowing outside!  We were all so excited to see the seasons first snow fall.  Alex is convinced that if he wears his pajamas inside out and back wards and sings jingle bells out the window, that it will snow.  Up until this morning, it kept "not working", but today, he told us all... "see, it works!"   (From what I understand, one of the teachers at school, I believe it was the music teacher, told the kids this.... odd...)  Anyway,  we had a normal day, with the exception of trying to drive around all these people who think that the sky is falling every time it snows.  When the kids got home from school they played outside for quite some time.  The snow was perfectly sticky, so Alex  got to make his snow balls that he has been waiting to make.  Chinook didn't know what to think.   Although we only got a few inches of snow, it comes right up to his little under belly and mats in his hair on his legs and his tummy.  I can only imagine how cold that is on your bare belly.  He has been good to go potty outside anyway today.  He enjoyed running around the yard with the kids, but got really cold really quick.  He and Tori lasted about the same amount of time.  

The kids are really hoping for a late start tomorrow morning, and to be quite honest so am I.  I don't want them to have the whole day off, but a nice slow morning would be a nice change.  

I am excited for our enrichment christmas deal tomorrow night.  I had to get a sitter so that I could go since Brent is on call.  Friday night I have a date with my sweety, and then Saturday i get to go shopping and to lunch with Tracy.  I am so looking forward to a girls day.  :-)  Boy my night just really perked up as I realized what a great few days I have coming up.  Oh, how I love this season.  :-)  

I couldn't resist posting my puppy.

Come on, wouldn't you let him poop on your floor??  He has been such a joy to me.  Sometimes he annoys the crap out of me, like when I can't even let Katie sit on the floor because he will attack her and pull her clothes off and eat the banana in her hands, but then you just see his little sweet face and forgiven.  AWWW...