Great Balls of Fire

Goodness, gracious we have had a FULL past few weeks! I compiled everything from the week of Christmas until today in one post so watch out, its a doozy!!

Lane and Rusty enjoyed every Saturday of December at Grammy camp! They played, made Christmas crafts, and had yummy lunch each day. Let's just say that was the best Christmas present ever. Casey and I were able to spend those days shopping and quite frankly enjoying the peace and quiet. 

We had our Goodman progressive dinner and at the end the kids dressed up and acted out the nativity.

Christmas eve we ate dinner at the Goodmans then went over to my parents to make gingerbread houses. We didn't use those gingerbread kits so the frosting wasn't as hard as it should have been. Casey had a rough time making ours stay up. A few days later on pinterest I saw a pin about using hot glue to keep the graham cracker frame together and using the frosting to decorate. Duh! That would have saved some grief. Next year, if I can remember.

Grandma has an infatuation with dancing stuffed Christmas characters. Kind of fun when they are all going at the same time.

Bright and early Christmas morning. We opened gifts then headed off to 9am church with my parents. Can you tell Lane had been up for a bit and Rusty well, not so much.

After church was more presents time! Do you love the movies my mom got us?!

Cheers to the fathers amazing biscuits and gravy.

This year the adults played Christmas Minute to Win it. Casey and I came in dead last.

We went over to Goodmans in the afternoon for more gifts, a mexican dinner and some games of what's in my undies:) For some reason this is the only picture I have of over there.

That following week the girls spent the day out in Scottsdale shopping and fine dining at the Grand Lux!

New Years Eve! The boys came home from the dunes in time to celebrate with us. Just Dance, sushi and fireworks!

Being consoled after burning himself on the nose.

I think Lane thought we were going to sacrifice him to the fire.

I think my goals for 2012 is to wear more makeup and to actually wear real clothes.

Rusty goals are to try to only eat one popsicle at a time.

My mom was daring and decided it would be fun to take a family bike ride to Tempe Town Lake. It was way fun. We stopped in for dinner at 5 Guys and Yogurtland for dessert.

The last day Stephanie and Travis were here we heated up the hot tub. I need to get the picture of Travis saving Rusty in the (cold) swimming pool after Rusty decided to go down the slide. I am forever indebted to Travis for jumping in and catching him! If not I probably would have tried to scoop him to the side with the cleaning net. That water was cold!

My boys are going to miss their buddies. They left to NY this afternoon. I am sad. They are sad. We are all sad. We partied hard for 3 weeks straight. I think they saw each other almost every day they were here. Luckily they will be back in March for Marcie's wedding! Christopher and Jael move to UT on Friday, too. How come everybody is leaving? We must smell bad.

Ok, I think I am done now.

Christmas CHEER!

I love how in addition to old traditions, new ones get thrown in too! For instance, the adult Goodman party has made its second appearance this year and I hope it is here to stay!

This year we played a game in couples where you have to unwrap presents one handed... with a snow glove on to reap your reward. Of course there is always a bonus gift and this year it came down to the wire of sudden death. Valerie vs us. We came out victorious with some extra x-mas cash:) But let me tell you she is a tough cookie to beat!

We have been in cousin heaven! Collin and Weston are here from NY so it has been non stop play time. I don't think these boys ever leave each others sides when they are together.

We had our annual Udall cousin gift exchange and Lane was so excited to be in the big kid group and exchange presents! There is a rule that you must hug when you swap gifts.

Can you tell Lane had some anxiety over hugging a cute girl cousin. Hehe.

Ok, pressure is off. I can look at the camera and smile now.

 Thanks for having a birthday Craig so we could celebrate at Amazing Jakes!

I am happy to announce that these 2 love birds are engaged!! Whoop Whoop! (sorry your eyes are closed Austin)

I entered a blog give away a few weeks ago, totally knowing I wasn't going to win. Because I never do. ever. Much to my surprise I received an email that made my day. Scratch. Made my the rest of the year!

Check out what I won!!

We made arrangements to meet at Hobby Lobby so she could give me my prize. Um, I would have been happy with just the box!

I rushed home to open it up.

I think the banner adorns my "dinning room" quite perfectly.

I have the anthro card tucked into my wallet waiting to be used on our (new) traditional

girl Scottsdale shopping trip next week.

Pretty sure I am wearing the scarf tonight.

THANK YOU Jilly and Mia from

Girls with Good Taste!!!

Who loves Christmas cards? I do! I love walking by my card wall. I catch the boys stopping and checking them out daily.

CHEERS that:

Goodman progressive dinner is tonight. Smiles.

Rusty calls oranges peaches or pumpkins.

Lane play's the Mr. Grinch song over and over on you tube.

my new flat iron will arrive (hopefully) before Christmas.

It will all be over way too soon.

However:

I will not miss the TJ Max/Marshalls/HomeGoods commercial with the teens

who didn't make the Glee cast.

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!

.

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!!