Making a list and checking it DONE!

This week was stress balls for me. It felt like it was hovering over me for over a month. I felt a little nauseous every time the first week of December was brought up. The first week of December I was supposed to teach Relief Society then throw our Relief Society Christmas dinner 2 days later. The dinner was more on the fun side but teaching...not so much. Teaching stresses.me.out. Bless all you Gospel Doctrine teachers out there, I might have seizures if I ever had to do that. I swear I spent hrs and hrs preparing that 30 minute lesson. After it was all said and done I always wonder why I freak out about it so much but that is something I will never get accustomed or used to doing.

I did love the topic though. Having a Christ centered Christmas. I feel like this year my mind has been wondering more towards the true meaning of Christmas instead of the commercialized side of it. I think it's because Lane is old enough to understand and grasp the concept. It's weird how they can grow and mature that much in just a year. Last year I was still wondering if he even knew who Santa was! It has warmed my heart to see him learn why we celebrate Christmas.

As we were putting up our nativity I explained to him who was apart of Jesus birth and why they belonged in the nativity. I quiz him every now and then to see if remembers and he does! He was even able to give his primary talk, wait scratch that. I was able to give his primary talk (that kid is so shy) of the story of Jesus' birth and how we can read about it in the scriptures. We brought the Nativity set and put each piece out as his talk unfolded.

I also found some great websites that have awesome FHE lessons on Christmas that focus on Christ.  I guess you do learn and grow from your church callings:)

So check,  church lesson DONE!

Christmas dinner, turned out wonderful! Well for me I thought it went good, I hope others feel the same. We have amazing people in our ward. Judy Cotter is one of them. We had the dinner in her backyard. She is the lady who has a-z when it comes to decorating and parties. We just asked to use her backyard and when we went to set up it was like walking into a Christmas themed wedding reception. Pictures do not give it justice.

We had a yummer dinner and a great program. There is a girl in our ward named Courtney Cotter. She is 20 and has an amazing voice. Last year she entered a radio contest where you had to write and perform an original Christmas song. She blew the competition out of the water. This song she wrote and sings brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it. The song is her feelings on how Santa is really a depiction of Christ.  She was so nice to perform it to us at our party. You can watch it on this you tube video but even better, you can buy it on itunes! She just released her 2nd album so I can't wait to buy one and put it in my car. Listen to her song, you won't regret it!

(I can't figure out how to get the actual video on here, urr)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7dHSsio1zE

Like I said, this was more on the fun side. Plus it I had wonderful help.
But check, RS Christmas dinner DONE!

We have been doing some fun non stressful things too.

We went to the temple lights.

Had FHE with grammy and papa and made gingerbread houses.

I saw this on pinterest and have had it on my to do list.

It is santa hat party mix. You can find the recipe on pinterest. I also saw it being named white trash mix, funny. There are not santa hats in the WT mix.

Oh , but in lieu of the craisens and dry roasted peanuts use peanut and peanut butter m&m's. You will thank me later.

Oh, Oh. Next time I am saving myself the extra hour of dipping the hats and just throwing the caramel bugles in the mix and letting the m&m's color it up.

Santa WT mix, DONE!

It is a tasty treat. Very sweet and salty. I still have a coating of sugar lining my tongue.

Double Holiday

Not only was it Thanksgiving last Thursday, it was Rusty's birthday too!

Our little turkey turned 2 years old!

( don't you just want to eat him up!)

Birthdays at our house aren't complete without balloons and donuts!

I am way lacking in manly birthday wrapping

We had our big Thanksgiving feast at Grammy and Papa's house.

I want to slather him in butter and eat him like that roll!

What a year to be thankful for!

                                     Happy Birthday Rusty boy, you bring our family lots of joy!Birthday Rusty boy, you bring our family lots of joy!!

High 5 baby, it was Lanes birthday!

This 5 year old boy ate every single ounce of his birthday up yesterday. Lane love, love, loves birthdays! Even when they aren't his own, for some reason it is such an exciting thing to him.

He was so easy to please. After we all woke up we headed to Dunkin Donuts for his birthday breakfast. This is a total side note but man I am sure disappointed in Dunkin Donuts. Their donuts are weak sauce, like half the size they used to be. Plus the frosting was barely there and at 99 cents a pop, I think Mid Western will be our permanent donut supplier for now on.

We went to grandma's house a little later to say hi and play for a bit, also so I could check out a boutique that was down the street:) Grandma bought him a Razor for his birthday! It brought big smiles to that face of his. Now he thinks he's the coolest kid on the block (actually he pretty much is the only kid on our block). I brought back some Ned's for lunch, a top contender of his favorite places to eat lunch at.

Randon came over in the afternoon for Lanes "party". Haha oh man, I am a crappy mom. Throwing any kind of party is not in my job description. My kids will probably never experience a really cool, fun themed birthday. I think the practical side of me has finally hit. Don't get me wrong I envy the moms out there that have their stuff together and can throw those intricate "milk and cookies" parties. Or the ones with the glass bottles where the colors of the soda match the plates and everything has a matching label print out with a cute saying on it. Seriously it's all adorable. Not for me though.

So now that you have the background in my party planning abilities we will que the party portion of the day.

One cousin friend to attend. Camo/army hats and plates. Shark birthday cake. And the best part of all is that there are 6 candles on his cake but it's his 5th birthday. Nice.

In keeping with the smorgasbord party theme we headed to the train park! They rode the carousel, train and played on the toys. Can you tell the train was their favorite?!

What kid party isn't complete without pizza! We went a little higher end than Chucky Cheese and tried out Spinatos. We had been hearing how good this place is so we had needed to try it out. Super good, another one to add to our favorites list. That man sitting at the other table with his back to us was SO NICE. You could tell he was a total kid person. Without him even knowing it was Lanes birthday he told the waitress to send the boys each a cookie and to put it on his tab! I love people like that who aren't all uptight and rude to little restless kids. If only Fry's had shoppers like him, I would shop there during the winter.

Grammy and papa came over when we got home and then even this morning my dad brought him a dozen donuts on his way home from the temple. He is so loved!

We love our little Laners to death! Happy birthday big boy!

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Foodies

Get in the car boys, we need to go the store (Fry's)

The one with popcorn and icee's?

No that's Target.

The one with hot dogs and juice?

No that's Sams Club.

The one with cheetos and string cheese?

No that's Walmart.

(note these are the items they eat while shopping at each store)

Sheesh.

They need to be referred to as snackies!

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BOOya for Halloween!

LETS HERE IT FOR:

Lots of Trick or Treating! 

 Rusty demanding to see and pet every dog at every house!

Casey refusing to not dress up!

Yummy homemade root beer and hot dogs at grammy and papas!

Carving pumpkins with the missionaries!

The Clouses rockin' Halloween party!

Coming home to water leaking out of the fridge all over the floor!

11pm bedtime for the kids!

Rusty barfing all the colors of the rainbow at 4am!
One child at school and the other napping so I can eat their loot while typing this!

We love ya Halloween!!



Octoba!

Wowzers, what a month... and it's not even over yet! No slowing down for a few months either.

One day during October break Valerie and I took 7, yep 7 kids to the Phoenix Science Center. I hadn't been there in years so it was fun to go back and the kids had a good time. 

My friend who lives down the street is my hero. Not only is she a cool friend who gives me all of her scrapbook stuff from her paper line that she owns. Or watches my kids on spur of the moment. Or gives me all of her super cute house decorations that she bought but it didn't work out in her home so here you can just have them. But most importantly (in my boys eyes) she is my friend who one night text me saying that she just dropped off a whole box of her sons Thomas the train set stuff on our front door because he doesn't play with them anymore! I am sure many of you know how expensive Thomas the trains are which is why I have never bought them. And there they were, a whole collection on my porch. Jackpot and score!

The boys were in the bath and Casey walked in the door from mutual with the crate of train goodies. They were out of the tub in a flash and we literally could not drag them away long enough to put on their jammies. Instead we watched them play straight naked for almost an hour! The next day they played with them ALL. DAY. LONG. You could say the trains are a BIG hit. Ginger, you will never know how much you are loved over here.

Lane had his primary program in church. I was a tad nervous if he would even participate. Last year he wanted nothing to do with it. He cried during every practice. Luckily a year can do wonders. We bought him all new church clothes. He looked so handsome. He had his part memorized but he refused to say it by himself in the microphone. Little stink. I am fine that he didn't. I was happy he was even willing to sit up on the stand! Baby steps with this boy.

Here comes the eventful part of our month. Wednesday morning, 5am, Casey kissed me goodbye and headed off to work. Next thing I know I was woken to him back in the bed. He was complaining that the side of his stomach was hurting. On the drive to the yard was when the pain started and it kept getting worse with no relief. After getting gas (in the trucks:) he realized work was out of question so he came home to lay down. Well laying down was not helping at all. The pain was unbearable and he had starting throwing up and was drenched in sweat and pale as a ghost.

I kept asking him what I could do and was trying to help him anyway I could but quietly I was kind of freaking out. He finally obliged to getting a blessing and letting me take him to the hospital. Yep, he agreed to let me take him to the hospital. Now I was really quietly freaking out. Doctors or Urgent Care are always out of the question for him. I called my dad to come give him a blessing. We put him in the truck and off to the hospital we go. My mom was so nice and came over and watch the boys.

Luckily when we walked into the ER it was empty! The front desk lady could tell he was in deathly pain so she quickly slapped on an ID wrist band and whisked us back to triage. Casey's mom made it down and waited with us for the doctor. So after a much needed IV line with some pain killers and a CT scan we found out Casey was the proud father of a kidney stone. I think we were all relieved to hear that. Not that we were glad he had a kidney stone but we were all thinking (or at least me and him) that is was appendicitis and that he was going to have to have surgery.

They released him not long after saying that he should pass the stone on his own and to watch out for it. That day and the next were pretty rough for him pain wise but we think he has hopefully kicked that kidney stone to the curb!

So if you are interested in what a kidney stone looks like, here ya go!It's that little black pebble thing in the bottom left corner of the zip lock. It's amazing how such a little thing can cause so much pain! I am truly convinced that kidney stones are just as, if not more painful as child birth!

As for our little orphan children during the hospital episode, they got to spend the day at grandmas! Lane asks every day if we can go play at grandmas so I know they were in heaven. My poor mom. She mentioned that they were outside most of the day, and I don't doubt it. I think all 3 of them slept really good that night. They were also able to go to their ward Halloween carnival with them.

Lane had his Halloween parade at his school. He was very insistent on being Batman this year. I had to start hiding his costume because he would wear it everyday if he could. We have for sure gotten our moneys worth from it and it's not even Halloween yet!



I loved seeing him come home from school with all his different Halloween crafts. Unlike his Valentines costume (remember?) he was more than happy to sport the spider hat.

And this, hehehe. I have to hid this paci from him too because he prefers it over the normal ones! It's funny because as I was downloading these pictures I realized that he is sitting on his Mator toy that has bucked teeth. What a coincidence.

A lot of other stuff occurred that I could throw in but I would hate to bore you. However, I would like to mention a really fun date night that we did. If you are looking to do something different go to an Ipic movie in Scottsdale! It's a theater that has reclining leather seats and a waitress that serves you your food! Ya, it's awesome. Harkins wont ever be the same. I forgot my camera when we went but we will for sure be going back. The best part was when we were walking back to the parking garage and there was an older couple staring at the back of our car. When we got to them they asked  if our car was a Rolls Royce, haha. If only! That pretty much made my day.

Started out crazy. Ended happy...and still a little crazy

It is never a good sign to start your week off with getting stung by a scorpion! There it was the quiet of the night. Kids sleeping soundly, Casey on the computer being a good boy watching a talk by Elder Bednar. I was laying on the living room floor watching The Office. Definitely not as good as Bednar  teachings.  Watching tv while laying on the floor is my nightly ritual. My eyes and ears are going caput. If I sit on the couch, I can't see. I have to crank up the volume almost all the way up which will not only wake up the boys, it will wake up the whole neighborhood. Solution, lay point blank under the tv with 2 pillows and a blanket for added comfort.

I got a little hot so I lifted the blanket off of my feet when at the same time I felt a little prick and instant stinging. It was a feeling of you know exactly what is on you so you rip off the blanket, stand up faster than you ever have before and do a wild crazy thrashing of the body dance to make sure the little devil is off you!

Casey hopped up off the computer chair just as fast as I went from laying on the floor to standing position in point zero seconds flat. He knew without even asking what had just happened. He told me to go wash my foot while he hunted the little sucker down. Casey found it underneath the entertainment center almost 10 minutes later.

 I got violated on my middle toe and luckily the venom never went up into my foot. My toe just felt like it was 3 times it size and tingled like your mouth feels after you get your teeth worked on at the dentist. After I washed it, I poured super silver on it then rubbed magnesium oil on the sting and I really think that helped keep the "poison" from traveling. I seem to be the tastiest in the house because I am the only one that has gotten stung by a scorpion. This makes it the second time for me. Of course I would feel horrible if the boys got stung so I hope it never happens. But Casey I think your turn is next;)

The next morning I can't find my deodorant, just the lid. You see Rusty likes to throw my shoes off of the shelves and climb up and play with all of my lotions, jewelry and that morning I guess my deodorant. It drives me beyond crazy when he does this! For the past month my shoes have not stayed in their designated spot for more than a few hours. If I can't find him or its really quiet I know straight where to go!

So no deodorant anywhere. Whats a girl to do? Steal her husbands. Yes, I sure did. I had recently bought Casey a new scent from Old Spice for when the stick he is using now runs out. Holy canoli I smelled hot that day! And when I say hot I mean the best smelling cologne on my man that I could smell and snuggle with you all day long, hot. It's called Komodo. Go buy it for your husband, boyfriend or the boy you sit next to at school or at work TODAY.

A few hours later after sporting men's anti-perspirant I go to fold the laundry. Low and behold my Lady Speed stick. Nicely nestled in the pile of clean clothes. How thoughtful Rusty.

Rusty is a good boy, he is just getting more mischivous. He is very quick to catch onto things. He is talking really good these days. He is still my cuddler and loves to read books. He picks out his favorite one and knows the characters names and helps me read it.

He still loves his paci more than ever. I have slowly started to try to detach him from it each day. And I mean literally detach him since he has it clipped onto his shirt 24/7. I take it off  and tell him to go put his paci in his bed. He is really obedient about it but after 20 minutes I cant handle the whining of "paci, paci. where it go". I cave. However, yesterday before church I had him throw his paci in his bed before getting in the car. I secretly went and got it and put in my purse just in case of a melt down. On the way to church he was crying about not having it but I kept telling him that it was in his bed, remember? He totally knew it was a lost cause be he knew where it was at home. He came to grips with it and went the whole 3 hours with NO PACI!!!

Lane is still my shy boy but is slowly breaking out of his shell. I pray hard for this every night. Next year he will be in kindergarten so I am really hoping that this year he can figure out that new people and situations are not scary! He is just something else. I love him to death. He really is so sweet and tender hearted. He is ridiculously smart and so assertive.

Last week we were driving in the car and all of a sudden he was crying about something (which is not unusual) . I kept asking him what was wrong and finally he broke and told me that he didn't want hair on his legs. What?! I told him that everybody has hair on their legs and he said, well my hair on my legs are super long. I was trying so hard to keep from laughing because unfortunately he kind of does have hairy legs. He inherited that from his uncle David I think. With lots more coxing, I think I convinced him that hair on legs is not a big deal!

I was cutting potatoes thinly to bake and to look like french fries for dinner the other night.  Lane walked in the kitchen and asked what was for dinner. I told him french fries all excitedly. He took one look at them then said those are potatoes, not french fries. I told him that french fries are potatoes. He said nuh huh, french fries are french fries.

I did sneak in some fun. I look forward to going to the relief society broadcast every year with my mom. Afterwards we meet up with the Udall girls for dinner. I love my family! We ate at Tia Rosas, caught up with each other and had some good laughs.

Lastly we conquered 2011 family pictures! I do professional pictures every other year so this year Marcie was kind enough to be our photographer. I think she snapped 400 of us but of course only 10 were decent and the others turned out like this ↓

or this ↓

 or this ↓

I love them all, crazy or smiling! It is interesting to compare these pictures to last years. Both boys have grown up so much. Every September when it's time to do pictures, it seems like we just did them. I better enjoy these ones because before I know it it will be time to do them again!

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