Nerds

Paige and Carson just had a little treat from the treat basket. Paige picked Nerds. She did a ballerina spin and nerds went everywhere! She is such a little stinker, but she keeps us all laughing!

Deck'n The Halls

I am joining the Blogging Bandwagon and adding a festive background to my blog. We'll see how long I can stand being all cute and trendy! I think backgrounds always look really busy on my blog that is why I have never done them, but my old template is really boring and ten million bloggers use that template. So here is the new look. What do you think? Should I go back to my old one or keep up with the blogging trend and change it up every so often? Whatever...

We got our house all decked out for Christmas. We are getting our big tree tonight. My brother is bringing it back from Utah. They cut it down for us. I love the smell of live trees. Sorry to all you tree huggers out there, the Christmas tree candle doesn't do it for me. We'll probably decorate our other tree tomorrow. We already put up the kids tree. That is the tree I don't get all crazy about. The kids can rearrange the ornaments fifty times a day and hang all sorts of home made (we'll just call it stuff) all over it. Two trees makes everyone happy. I get my pretty tree with my do not touch ornaments with white lights and the kids get to have the fun colored lights and mismatch ornaments.

Mario Pary

 

Here are a few pics from Carson's Mario Party. We played Mario Soccer, Duck Duck Goose (with Mario Caracters of corse), Mario soccer, and had a Mario theamed treasure hunt. It was a lot of fun. Carosn even dressed up at first. That halloween costume is stil coming in handy!

Thanksgiving

I documented the entire day with pictures. This is our first Thanksgiving with just our family. I was a little sad at first that we weren't going to visit family or have family here, but then we did some planning so we could make it special. It has been a great day!

It all started last night. Trevor came home an hour early from work and we went to get Carson his book it from pizza hut, rented some video games and Wall-E. Then we came home and he opened his Birthday presents...



When the kids went to bed last night, I started to prepare for dinner today. I made pomegranate jello. Then I made pumpkin muffins for breakfast. Those are becomeing a tradition on Thanksgiving morning. I must say they turned out wonderful.


Today we had a little turkey drama. Is it really Thanksgiving with out turkey drama? Our bird was still a little frozen and I couldn't get my hand inside to take out all the "stuff". After a few phone calls for help and a hot water bird bath we were in business. When I bought our turkey last week they only had HUGE ones left. It was a 22.5 pounder. Yeah, that is bigger than Garrett and just 3 pounds shy of Paige.

Here are some pictures of how the kids spent the day while I was cooking. They had tons of fun with daddy! I really enjoyed cooking dinner with my family around me, hanging out, and having fun.


While the kids played video games with dad, and colored pictures of what they were thankful for I made rolls, stuffing, potatoes, and a cherry pie. Then it was time to take the turkey out...Oh NO! I put it in upside down, and so it was not all the way done. Trevor worked some magic and fliped the buring hot turkey over so it could cook the rest of the way. Amazingly, everything was still finished right on time!


I was quite pleased with our Thanksgiving feast. My kids even liked most of the things we made. The stuffing was by far the best dish. The turkey was really moist, probably because it cooked upside down in the juices! My rolls were perfect. (Thanks for the recipe Cherise I made the white roll version!) Trevor made the potatos. Of course those were excellent. My gravy was sorta yucky, but we are used to my nasty gravy around here. We still have to try the cherry pie, but it looks really good. All and all everything turned out great.





Even Garrett had some Thanksgiving dinner. We gave him a tiny bite of potatoes. He loved'em!



Happy Thanksgiving!

Counting Backwards

Paige and I are doing a little pre school at home while Carson is at school. She loves it! We do work book pages, coloring activities, practice letters and numbers, and play games. The other day we were counting to ten with some number magnets and when we finished counting from one to ten I asked her to count backwards. She turned around and counted to ten with her back to the magnets. She counted "backwards" to ten! I love this girl!

Fundraisers

If Carson brings home one more paper the word with FUNDRAISER any where on it I'm going to lose my mind! I did well with the first wrapping paper fundraiser. You know the one. The school turns your child into a peddler selling ridiculously expensive wrapping paper and nasty chocolates for the holidays. I just tossed it into the trash ignoring the, "But momma, if I just sell 200 things I can go to Disneyland, or get a robot!" I wasn't even nice enough to purchase one roll of paper so my poor kid could get the oriental trading company, piece of garbage, dog tag that everyone got if they suckered their parents into buying one thing. Next is the yo yo fiasco. They take students out of class for a yo yo assembly. They see this guy do amazing things with a yo yo. Then he tells them they can learn to do tricks like that too. Just take home this order form to mom and dad. What do you think all the kids are talking about at recess? That's right yo yo's. Carson just had to get one, I mean everyone had one, but him! (I said no to the $20 yo yo the school was selling and found one in the dollar spot at target.) Then they bring home another fundraiser a week later informing parents that they are going to have a special Christmas store fundraiser. Oh, but this one is really a service to the parents. This way students can purchase inexpensive dollar store garbage for the entire family, at ten times the dollar store price. How nice! Let me get my check book. Yeah right, are you kidding me? Then the next week they send home another fundraiser that's suppose to help the school get needed school supplies. What happened to the back pack full of supplies I sent in at the beginning of the year? (Yeah, they were hitting me up for money and supplies before Carson's first day!) Then the next week they send home a flier asking for canned foods for needy families and pennies for a penny drive. OK, this one I can deal with. But I pose this question, how many families do you think over extend themselves buying this stuff because they feel obligated or because it is too tempting to say no? Maybe that is why we have so many problems in our country with people over extending themselves and needing canned food. OK maybe I'm exaggerating just a little in my thought process...but I might be on to some thing. Do I sound like Glenn Beck?

On to my problem of the day. Carson came bounding off the bus today all excited about yet another fundraiser. He didn't know it was a fundraiser. He brought home a package with punch out Christmas ornaments and gift tags that have his school picture on them. If the parent wants them they are suppose to send back a check for $10. The teachers didn't explain to the children not to open them or punch them all out. They didn't mention that their parents were suppose to buy them first. They just sent them home with excited little kids who are thinking about who they will give these great treasures to for Christmas, and how fun they are to punch out. It's like giving a child a big cookie and then asking for it back. I called the school after I explained to Carson that we had to pay for the tags and that I didn't want to buy them. He was disappointed, of course. Well, the school didn't seem to care in the least about my concerns. They seemed annoyed that I had a problem with the fundraiser. The principal was like, "Don't you know that we are facing a $120 million in potential reductions this year." I can't believe this. Each student in NV is alloted ten thousand dollars in education. What are they doing with the money? I guess they must be spending a ton paying these fundraiser companies to get our kids selling stuff. Where is the logic? I would rather give them $50 at the beginning of the year then have all this junk brought home. I'm sorry but there is no way Carson is receiving a ten thousand dollar education. I'm so sick of this and he is only in Kindergarten! OK I'm done ranting and raving. I feel much better.

First Hair Cut

We cut Garrett's hair. It was falling out on top and he looked like a little old man. He's still cute as can be. Carson said, "Mom he has a Luke (Lainhart) haircut!"
We have shaved all our kids heads when the hair starts falling out. I think it helps it to grow back faster and thicker. I might be wrong but at least he looks like a baby and not a grumpy old man.

Before


After


Look at that grin!

Namiste

Some of you might be wondering why I am just sitting here posting for like two hours. Well, I started a yoga class yesterday and now I am in a great deal of pain. Here's the story. I have this great friend here in Vegas (her name is Stephanie) that loves to work out. I really do mean LOVE. She does all sorts of amazing things like running marathons (yeah that's 26 miles!) and teaching spinning classes and yoga classes. She's totally buff and could kick my butt in a hear beat. She invited me to one of her yoga classes and so I went. At first I must say I had a hard time not laughing, but by the end I was digg'n it. Today I am feeling the work out, ouch! The thing I liked the most about the yoga class is that you can feel the difference right away. You really tune into your body. I'm excited to start getting back into shape after nine plus months of the baby mama body. I am also speed (that's right speed) walking two nights a week. I tried running but it didn't stick.

Spicy Salsa

I bottled some homemade salsa the other day. I am really getting into this personal preparedness stuff. It's fun and you have a great feeling of accomplishment when you see all of the neat little jars in a line ready to put away in your food storage. I made 7 quarts, that's a lot of salsa! I got my tomatoes at the mexican store 3lbs for $.99. It was very cost affective and really fun. I did think it would be much faster than it actually was. I started at 4 and thought I would be done by 6, wrong. It was more like 8 pm but that is only because I had to brake for fussy kids and dinner. I am excited to make more next year. I am trying to think of more things I can bottle. Right now we have salsa and peach jam coming out of our ears. Maybe I'll learn how to do tomato soup or something next year! All I need now is a garden.

The Sling's the Thing!

I love my sling. My friend Marianne Trotter sent it to me when Garrett was born. It is an amazing invention. I can do so much with free hands and a happy baby. On Sunday after I had Garrett in the sling Paige thought she should have a turn. I was surprised at how easy it was to hold her. Carson on the other hand was a different story. I maybe smiling in the photo but I could only sling him for a few seconds! I tell ya the sling's the thing! I would recommend this to anyone with a baby.

it's finished

The bridge is finished! Our lives are now connected to I15 without having to drive an extra 15 min around on the 215!!! We will now hear the constant buzz and flow of traffic out our back bedroom window instead of BEEP BEEP BEEP every morning at 5am!!! Oh it's the little things in life!