Trying to catch up...

It's been a season of fun things that I need to catch you all up on.  I mean, I took a whole trip to Disneyland and didn't post even once about that, for crying out loud!  But this is not a post to catch you up.  I figure if I wait until I have the time to sit and do all those posts, it will be summer again!  So this is just a right now post.  :D 


We have been spending the day after Thanksgiving shopping now for as many years as I've known Lee!  It used to be a big thing that Anna did with Kendra, who was 12 at the time.  They would go through the ads on Thanksgiving, make a list, and then hit the stores early in the morning to score the "Free" items!  And Lee always tagged along! (Hey...back then, the promise of a tasty breakfast could get him every time!)  I've never been a huge shopper, but I do love people...especially family...and tradition, so there you have it.  It just stuck.  We only hit malls and regular stores at obscene hours the first few years.  For most of the 15 years, we've been grabbing Chick-Fil-A (Chicken Minis...Yummers!) and heading up the outlet stores at Park City.  (After all these years, I'm still not convinced of the deals, but it is nice to find all those stores all in one trip!  And let's not forget about the Mrs. Field's Cookie store!) 


This year was no exception...We met up with Anna and Ryan, and Ma and Pa McAlister, and we shopped.  Chad and Kendra were absent this year...They are excused because of her ready-to-burst belly, but next year, no excuses!  We missed them.  Going from store to store, laughing, and just enjoying adult time.  It's a nice break...we rarely get together without all our kids.  We sure do adore those cute little ones...But sometimes it's nice to have the chance to miss them just a little!  ;D!


We spent the Saturday after Thanksgiving putting out all our Christmas.  I love how the house looks all decked out.  That "Oh, I forgot about THIS decoration!" feeling, looking around at the different ornaments and decorations the kids have made for me over the years...It's just NICE!  I'm just delighted the season is here.  A chance to think of all the people I'm thankful for and find a little something special that will make their eyes light up, even just a little bit.

Michael's Drawing...

Michael loves to draw.  When we started sending letters to Elder Uncle Cody, Michael would draw pictures to send.  I frequently will draw arrows on his pictures and he'll tell me what to call each thing/person in the picture.

I have labeled this picture according to Michael's specifications.

Sydney's Fake Birthday!

At midnight tonight, we are leaving for Disneyland!!  Sydney's birthday, as I have already mentioned, is on Wednesday.  She turns 13.  (Apparently, it isn't possible to cancel birthdays.  Who knew?)


Most of the things my big girl wanted were things for her bedroom.  As Lee and I were shopping, we had this fun idea.  Since he and I would both be home while the kids were at school on Friday, we should try to finish up her room while she was gone!  We had already painted, and then we picked up some fun accessories while we were birthday shopping.  Then this morning, we dropped the kids off at school and got to work.  (I wish I had taken before pictures...The difference is pretty staggering.  But we had just painted, and hadn't even moved the furniture back into place.  It was all sitting "hugged" to the middle of the room when she left for school!)


After I picked her up, I told her we needed to go down to her room and gather the stuff she would want to "play" with in the car:  DS, iPod, that kind of stuff.  She had a couple of math pages to do, and some reading for the week we are missing, and I told her that I'd help her gather so she could hurry up and get to work.


The bedding, curtains, canopy, and wall "stickers" she got for Christmas last year, but we bought the shelves, the colored metal work pieces, the dry erase board, the desk, and the blue lamp.

This is the view as you walk in the door...

And looking to the left as you enter...

Then turning around to look back at the door.

Dad was waiting inside to take pictures when she walked in! 

 She kept noticing new stuff.  "A desk!"  "Look...A lamp!"  It was so funny.  She was literally jumping up and down!

This is the new dry erase board.  (She uses small ones all the time for her own little "To Do" lists!)  I fell in love with this bigger, wall mounted version! 

Sydney has 7 of these porcelain princess dolls that she's had for a LONG time.  She didn't want to get rid of them when we moved, but she was worried that they were too "Little Kid" for her new room.  I told her we just needed to get her some shelves, so they'd be up for display.  So she's been asking me for shelves for 3 year now...Better late than never, right?

Cinderella is (and always has been!) her favorite princess.  (Even when she was little, and I tried to convince her that Belle was the best.  Her determined little toddler mind would not be changed from loving this shoe-losing blond!)

We decided that she deserved a whole shelf just for her!

 Sydney took this picture of herself on her camera.  I think she's happy with her room.

What do you think?

Da News...

*My phone just sent me a message reminding me that my daughter's birthday is in 6 days.  Whew...Lucky I got THAT reminder!  (Right...As if I could forget that in SIX DAYS my little baby girl is a TEENAGER!)


*We get to leave for Vacation in just two days!  This trip has quite a few firsts for us:  1) Spending more days at Disneyland than we ever have before when we've gone! 2) Touring the USS Midway...Should be cool to walk through the aircraft carrier!  and 3) All my kids are old enough that I don't need a stroller!  (But I haven't figured out where I'm going to put all the "crap" I need to carry!)


*Sometime tonight, or tomorrow, I'm going to have to put my kids into their Halloween costumes so I can take pictures of them...We will be out of town, so their whole Trick-or-Treat experience was the ward party last week...We had them all dressed up, but I forgot to take pictures.  I get a re-do!  (Seems like I need a LOT of those...re-do's!)


*Lee and I decided that with the long list of things we needed to so to get ready for our vacation, we should probably spend some of the weekend, well; NOT working on the list!  :D  We spend the better part of our free time working on getting some wood trim hung in some of the kids bedrooms and then painting those rooms.  (I've only had the paint for about 14 months...Is that bad?)  It's not quite done, but close.  I'll post pictures.  Sydney's room, in particular, turned out SO cute!  I'm pretty excited!


*I cannot believe it is almost the end of the year already!  How did this whole year just FLY right by???  CRAZY!

A First For Me...

This week Tory's Lacrosse team had a party at Classic Skating.  I decided (since it was $2 Tuesday!) that I'd take the other kids, too.  Aside from the fact that this mean mom didn't feed her kids before they went, OR buy them any food at Classic, we still had a good time.  (And don't get all "judge-y"...I bought them food on the way home, okay?  Sheesh.)  


And me?  I'm always up for skating.  We skaters all rented regular skates this time instead of blades, and guess what?  They're a little trickier than I remember!  I ended up scooting around the rink like a 7-year-old.  (Which was actually pretty okay, since I was skating with Spencer, an ACTUAL 7-year-old.)


Anyway, the "first" I wanted to tell you about was watching one of my kids get "asked out" for the first time.  I've watched cute little boys flirt with Sydney before, and even made our way through the elementary boyfriend/girlfriend thing, but this was different!


We were getting ready to leave Classic...Megan, Michael, and Spencer were "playing" the video games (I didn't actually give them money...See?  I AM mean!) while we waited for Tory to say goodbye to his team.  Michael and Spencer were on the motorcycle game, rocking back and forth, and Megan was sitting in a race car game...When this kid sauntered up (I'm saying sauntered...but he may have rolled.  He was probably wearing skates of some kind...!) and leaned against the side of the machine Megan was sitting in.  He smiles at her, and asks "Are you going to be here for the Snowball?"  (For those of you who don't know what that is, at a set time, they play a song...the Snowball...where they tell you to skate holding hands with someone...)


Megan, without looking up at him, just answers, "No."


And he left.


I did it!  I taught her to "Just say no."


And I, the proud mother, just smiled quietly to myself.  Oh...And texted Dad to tell him about it!  :D

Junior High Stress...

I went downstairs to clean my girl's bathroom, and I found a sheet of paper on the counter:

It is a little bit hard to read, but basically, Sydney, my great big girl, in order to lift some of her own stress at having to get ready for JUNIOR HIGH decided to plan out her mornings.

What you see here is a calendar of sorts, with her hair style selection already made.  Examples:  "high ponytail (clips and lots of hairspray)" or "nerdy rassys (high rassys)" or "a bun (like Meg's) lots of hairspray"

And, as a side note, when I told her I wanted to take a picture of this, she said she needed it.  So not only did she plan it out, she is totally sticking to her plan.  She's so organized that way...

(Can I just say...I love this cute girl?)

Pinewood Derby...!

Last week was the Pinewood Derby.  We weren't sure we'd be going, and so we put off the actual making of the car for longer than we should have! Then by the time we decided we could make it, we were sort of scrambling to finish it in time!

I should have taken a picture of his car sitting on a table.  It tricky to see Tory's complex design here.  His is the dark blue car.  Tory's "on paper" design had a nice steep arch between the wheels, and then he wanted it to be skinny through the body.  The tool we had to work with was a hack saw.  This was the best we could do! :D  He cut and sanded, and in the end we thought it turned out pretty cool.

(But don't you just LOVE the Perry the Platypus care next to Tory's car?  Genius.)  

One of Tory's 2nd place races... 

I like this smile...It reminds me of BABY Tory!  (You know, a REAL smile!)  But don't tell him that.  He'll stop doing it!

Looks like first place to me...!

And there's my boy...very proud of his 2nd place standing!  :D  Way to go, bud!  Love you!

(And phew...!  All done for another year...!)