NA NA NA HEY HEY HEY GOOD BYE

As tradition dictates, we had the O'Donnals over for some fun! For those of you who don't know them, Tracy used to be our home teacher and usually his companions couldn't come, so he would bring his wife, then he started bringing the kids, and before you knew it we had SOS - or Sant O'Donnal Sunday going on. Larry got moved to High Priests several years ago but we kept up the visits. It just proves that anytime you have an acronym it's serious.

It's been a long time since we had an SOS because the O'Donnals also had family in town (the nerve!) and the kids were about to commit mutiny.

Anyway, their family FINALLY made it over and we were able to begin the festivities. We started with pizza:

I swear, even though he is seven, everytime I see those freckles I just want to give Joseph a squeeze! (Even with the pizza extras!)

The kids get Tombstone pizza, the adults get the real stuff later.

But these two cuties didn't seem to mind! (Sari and Journey)

Neither did this cutie.

After everyone was officially fed we started snacking playing games. One of many reasons we love the O's and the reason we CAN hang with them so easily is that our kids get along great. Seriously, I am sure you ALL know how hard it is to have friends were the grownups all like each, much less the kids. We feel very lucky!

I believe this is where Tracy was telling Ben a story about guzzling a punctured pop can. After listening to the story I realized that being over the Deacons at church is the perfect place for Tracy.

Let's call Tracy and Larry Papas Money Bags. My word of the night was "foldare" which sounds Italian for "fold". Which is what I did. Which is why I had to go to the loan sharks in the first place.

We were doubly blessed this New Year's Eve with a visit from MaryMary and her sweet mother-in-law, Sharon! MaryMary and Jared moved to North Idaho recently and we are so glad to have them closer. MaryMary will be popping out a baby girl in the next six weeks or so! We can hardly wait! And we did have to ban weapons from the game table as the night wore on. (Ben)

See what I mean? The little boys are all playing. Daniel and Foreigner are the same age, which right now, being 10 and 11 years old, is not the best match, but in 10 or 12 years, after their missions - well, we could only hope!

And yes, someone is missing. Rachel went to her friend's birthday party and came home about 1:30 (New Year's Eve only curfew). When they post some pics on facebook I will steal them and put them on here.

Last year we hit on this hair-brained idea to go sledding at midnight. The kids LOVED LOVED LOVED it and asked when we could go at least twice an hour. Starting at about 7 p.m.! ugh. It was a LONG night.

Matthew didn't make it. See how he has his feet tucked in the couch? That's a Hathaway thing.

Like last year, we started out on the hill in front of our house. And we are NOT lacking snow. Can you see the lightbulb glowing in the next to Daniel (dk blue) in the snow? That's in our front yard and is one of the those light fixtures on a brick box about 4 feet tall. The snow is WELL over it. The front yard was fine, but I was eyeing the LONG road down devoid of cars.

And so we started down the hill. You can see the sides are about as high as my seven year old. Joseph is walking up while AC (or DC) is headed down.

Few things does Sari love more than sledding. And going down the street is super fun because it is FAST and LONG and HAS A CURVE and did I mention FAST and LONG. The layout of the street meant that we could see any cars coming long before they made it to us and so we had plenty of time to hit the berms.

Waiting for the first of two cars in one hour to come up the road.

Sari and Journey head down the hill in a race. I just realized so much for my feet-first-we-already-have-a-brain-injured-child rule. Oh well.

Sari and Daniel head back up the hill. It's a long LONG walk.

Daniel liked it best when he was spinning. Preferably out of control.

See what I mean?

I just really like this picture. I think it's the man-sized gloves on little Joseph.

Larry watching the fun. Okay, I have to tangent here for a minute. I know, so SURPRISING (that I made it this far before I tangent.) See the BARN star above my garage door? A neighbor of ours stopped and asked why I had a Russian star on my house. Was I a communist? Because he fought the "Japs" in WW II and they all had stars like that on their stuff and it was from "Red Russia" and so forth. What????!!!!! Our next door neighbors (they're Canadian, so that may explain it) wanted to know why Larry was putting up the Star of Bethlehem in the summer? Was he decorating for Christmas already? IT'S A BARN STAR, PEOPLE! Please.

Ben and B.O. (as Ben calls him). Notice Ben is pointing to my Rusky Star. Hmmm...

Back to the sledding:

Larry and Joseph have a little race.

Daniel going down, AC (or DC) and Joseph heading up.

Sari is all smiles at the top of the hill. Oh to be young and have not-70-year-old-lady-lungs and all the cartlidge in your knees ...

And your tonsils in the back of your throat.

Charmaine took a little trip down. But SHHHH don't tell her mom. She promised her mom that she would go to bed early. She did go to bed early - early in the MORNING. She is the Relief Society president and for that reason alone could use all the sleep she can possibly get.

Sari playing Queen of the Hill next to our driveway and Meridian (or Foreigner) plays too.

Daniel had a great time at the bottom of the hill where he couldn't stop and had to roll off and into the sideberm.

At the bottom of the hilll, Joseph took out Tracy and this is them re-enacting it. (You know that I am all about re-enacting. Click here to see more.)

The reenacting wasn't so good because we had been outside for quite a while and the camera batteries were cold and sad and it just didn't work out. Next time I'll try for a floodlight.

Is it just me or is it a little sad that there aren't any pictures of Rachel? Sigh.

After about an hour of this freezing nonsense we headed back inside to more food, more games and more fun! Because the party doesn't end at midnight, right? It's just getting started at midnight!

The little boys (except Matthew) were still going strong at 1:30 a.m. We had to make them go lay down. They fell asleep in approximately .873 seconds.

At last! Rachel came home!

Welcome Home Baby-Girl! Ahhhh, at last, all my kids at home. NOW I can celebrate the new year!

Rachel brought Clayton and his sister Ann over too. Which is great! We love to have friends over! Ann sort of sat in for me at Tripoly when I was making the Butterscotch sticky buns that we had on Christmas Day. She did a good job. I think this is a fairly complex game and she picked it up just by watching.

I went to bed at 3:15. Charmaine around 4. The Stephenson kids left at 4:45. Larry went to bed at 5. Tracy at 5:30 and Ben at 6.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

MY LIFE IN COMICS - again

This boy should be named "Ben" not Jeremy.

THE DAY AFTER CHRISTMAS

This is what Larry and Ben worked on:

Note that thanks to the snow it has been two weeks since we've had garbage pick up.

That's the amount of snow that fell on Christmas Day. After these pictures were taken Larry spent three hours SCRAPING every drop of snow off the three lane driveway and out a few feet into the street. A couple of hours later it began to snow again.

Did Santa bring you Wii Music?

No?

Go buy it. NOW. What these pictures don't show is the cute little bootie shake that goes on with the drumming. I also like that it makes everyone sound pretty good.

Here's a funny story. I bought this game three years ago and none of my kids would even try to play it with me. Even Larry was a little bit like, "Couldn't you get a COOL game?" So I sent it off to Goodwill. Well, Aunt Kathryn gave it to us this year and SUDDENLY the kids were SO EXCITED! This game is called Blockus and has been played AT LEAST 15 times a day. We are all addicted. When it's not being played it's intended way the kids make designs and try to figure out stuff with it. It's totally cool.

We also ate a lot of candy and fudge and cookies (neighbor treats) and popcorn. We watched movies (have you seen Journey to the Center of the Earth"? Cute!) and enjoyed not going anywhere.

CHRISTMAS DAY

You know, with eight people in the family, even the minimum of gifts looks like a lot! (And it looks like we need to check a light connection at the top part of our tree. Sigh. I just hate that.)

When I was a kid, my parents would have us line up on the stairs - oldest to youngest - just like this - before we went down to see the gifts (I don't remember what we did before we had stairs ...). My dad would always say something like, "Oh, it doesn't look like Santa came last night, we should just all go back to bed..." and we would all moan and eventually he would let us in, all this was AFTER we had some eggnog and toast. We do pretty much the same thing - everyone has to have something in their tummy (note that Ben is eating) to prevent low sugar melt downs and I say the same thing, with pretty much the same reaction. It makes me happy.

We open gifts one at a time, with everyone watching while the gift is opened. Gift opening takes several hours. During this time we had

butterscotch sticky buns cooking in the oven, for our official breakfast.

Daniel's big gift - a ripstick. The 17 feet of snow outside means that he will have to wait until spring (or late summer - when ever the snow melts) to try it out.

Joseph digging into his Indiana Jones dress up while Matthew looks on impatiently.

Matthew was so excited to open his sword from Joseph - he figured out what it was by the shape of the gift.

You know how all the rage these days is tulle skirts for little girls? I made one for Sari and Rachel in their school colors for spirit days and for Rachel being a Cross Country team captain next year and having to dress the part.

A content Ben in the Fraizer chair.

Rachel adores Sari's gift and grabbed it out of her hand, which resulted in the ONLY fight of the day. Seriously, the ONLY one. It was the best Christmas present I could have ever received.

Looks like I wasn't the only one who was behind on projects. Matthew's gift from Santa reads on the outside, "Dear Matthew, My elves told me that your Mom would be the best at putting this gift together. Here's what she needs. Love, Santa". Inside was a pattern for a Zorro costume, some fabric, and black gloves. I'll be getting right on that. Along with the other unfinished gifts (cough cough - Jon and Anna and Michael and Rayleen).

We spent the rest of the day hanging out.

Eating an excessive amount of butterscotch sticky buns. They are SOOOOO yummy!

We watched movies and ate the candy in our stockings.

Matthew was the only one who lay on the floor to play.

Ben worked out on his mack-daddy chin up bar.

We assembled legos.

And some more legos.

We played a few new Wii games.

Sari pimped her dress form.

Daniel experiments with his James Taylor ...

And his Neal Schon.

I think Rachel was in her bedroom texting Clayton and reading "Chicken Soup for Teenage Soul". She came upstairs all teary, so she had for sure been reading that book.

Larry and I pondered the icicles hanging from our back roof. Eventually, I talked him into taking a rake to them.

It was fun to knock them down, but we stopped before we would have a reason to be on "America's Most Stupid Ideas". (Those of you who don't know, the back bedroom windows are very high - one is three stories up and the other drops to the deck, two stories down. I am sure we had a couple of neighbors video-taping, waiting for the fall and the big bucks to come from selling the footage.

Christmas Day dinner we had ham, cheesy potatoes, and green beans. Again, not dressed up but 75% shirted, so that is a notch up for us.

We stayed in our pajamas ALL DAY and none of us left the house (we have so much snow - I don't even know - Larry estimates about 4 feet. We quit counting, but I think it has snowed EVERY DAY for more than a week). There was no fighting (except the one small one) and no cross words. Not an insult fell. The "Freaking Dumb Vacation" jar did not get any contributors. It was the best day. I seriously thought, about 100 times, this is heaven on earth.

What a great Christmas!

TWAS THE DAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS

Poor Larry (said that twice in as many days) had to work today. How badly does that stink? He got all his stuff done by early afternoon and made it home in "only" an hour.

The kids played outside for several hours. That was great so I could finish a few projects (more on those later).

Daniel and Sari, with a Jones kid in the middle make the trek across Antartica the backyard to get to the sledding hill:

Our front yard. Above we have Madi, Joseph, Sari, Daniel, and Matthew.

These pictures were taken from the comfort of my warm livingroom so some of them have my snow laden dogwood in the front yard.

We ended up with Adam (another backyard neighbor), and three youngest from the Jones', plus our youngest four in the front yard. This great sledding hill (almost) makes up for the fact that our laundry room is in the basement.

I had to laugh! One of my visiting teachers (who had seven kids in ten years but they are all grown now - here's her daughter's blog) came over to bring me some yummy homemade granola (!!!) and she said, "I told my husband I wasn't sure which house was yours, but I was sure I would recognize it. When I saw the garage door open, all the kids in the yard - burying someone - and the garbage can stacked high, I knew we were at the right house!" (We haven't had garbage service in two weeks because of the snow! YUCK!! At least it's frozen so it's not stinky!)

Larry made it home in time to run an errand or two - deliver our fabulous Christmas cards and/or neighbor gifts and drop the Christmas cards in the mailbox. Yes, I was really prepared this year.

If I don't have your mailing address, you didn't get a card. This is the picture we finally used. There was no brag letter attached, so you didn't miss much there.

For our neighbor gifts we made a collection of some of our favorite Christmas songs and assembled it on a cd. Pretty sure it's illegal, but my friend, Vicki, told me that she read in the paper that they don't prosecute that anymore. Here's hoping! In any case, we received several phone calls and text messages thanking us for our fabulous selection of Christmas music. That just warmed my heart!

Can you see our song selections? If you can't and you want to know, just let me know.

For dinner we had Grandma Hathaway Powell's famous crepes! My cute cousin, Gel, had a formal dinner. I was sad I didn't do that, until I remembered that I have four boys and I don't think they would enjoy dressing up like her girls did. But we did use our china and all but one of the boys had shirts on. That there is dressed up at a Sant dinner.

I wish I knew what Ben said, everyone loved it!

Yep, that's our complex dinner all ready to go...

After dinner we put on the Nativity.

Here is Ben, the shepherd dresser making last minute adjustments.

Joseph is ready to roll!

Larry reads out of Luke chapter 2.

As always, Ben is the donkey, Rachel is Mary, and Joseph is Joseph. Every year we ask if they want to change and there is some discussion, but ultimately, no, everyone likes their assigned roles.

Who knew the donkey had guns like that? And Joseph, walking all that way barefoot...

Mary and Joseph at the inn.

This year Ben had two roles - once he wasn't needed as transportation, he became the manger.

Matthew was the shepherd. Can you see his little sheep?

Sari was the angle. Note to self - Sari has outgrown her white dresses. Might be time to sew the Nativity clothes I've had ready to go for ... eight years now.

Matthew, the shepherd being sore afraid.

Daniel (the bright purple lump) and Matthew (the lavender lump) fell down to worship.

And it was over.

The kids were particularly hyper and silly and obnoxious. But I guess that part isn't important right?

Next on our Christmas Eve traditions is the opening of one present. Pajamas from mom and dad. Even Joseph and Matthew have caught on to the fact that it is always pajamas. A couple of kids started to complain but quickly stopped once I reminded them that I didn't get to open ANY presents on Christmas Eve and we could always do it that way, if they'd rather. They did not.

Rachel squealed, "FOOTIES" and ran to change. Then she jumped on my lap. She really does love those footie jammies. I don't. It's inconvenient to pee.

The little boys love their "cool army like Jason" pajamas. They want to wear the shirts to school, because, "they almost don't look like pajamas, they only feel like pajamas that doesn't count".

All decked out in sleepingwear finery.

Something new to us this year - the boyfriend gift. Rachel couldn't wait until Christmas Day. She HAD to open it! She LOVES the boots and he even got the right size!

Rachel gave him a sock monkey/minky blanky that she helped make.

Being seven years old, Joseph is starting to get skeptical. This year, he decided that he would make extra care to be sure Santa was left some cookies and milk by the fireplace and if they were eaten, he would know that Santa is real. Joseph and Matthew confirmed in the morning that the cookies were eaten. Joseph said to me, "At first I thought it was you or dad who ate the cookies, but then I realized that it HAD to be Santa."

Back to sleepwear. Our hometeachers gave us this hot cocoa. The jar promises that it will make you sleepy for Christmas Eve.

The kids were eager for some calming help and sucked it down.

Rachel and Sari exercised some self control.

After drinking it, during family prayer, Joseph yawned and said, "this is strong stuff, it's already working!" Matthew agreed and they both fell asleep rather quickly.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

MY HUNNY'S BIRTHDAY

Today is the big

40

Read my award winning post here.

Larry started his birthday with an early morning stake meeting. All right!

Poor guy.

Add to that, it takes anywhere from 1 -2 hours to get the nine miles to work and home again. Division (think State Street, for you SLC people) is only plowed two lanes each way. It's insanity. We should get him snowshoes and he could walk there faster. But he would need snowshoes because we have POWDER. I lived in Utah for many, many years, so I am a bit of an authority on powder snow, and this is powder.

SO, while Larry was off slaying the dragon, Sari got the DREAM gig - puppy sitting.

And not just any ol' puppy (although puppies are so cute!) but the Stauffenberg's puppy named AUDREY (think Christmas Vacation) and Chancy, the 2nd best dog I have ever known. (Still partial to our Rodesian Ridgeback, Bo.)

After Sari had been there for a little while, we brought her and the dogs to our house to celebrate Larry's birthday.

I don't think Audrey was set down the entire night, except to go pee.

Here's Rachel and Chancy. Look at Chancy's smile. She may belong to the Stauffenberg's, but she LOVES our house. I know she does.

Even eating dinner, the kids couldn't say no to petting Chancy. She was eyeing Daniel's chicken broccoli bake.

I can't say no to one more picture:

But how can you resist dog love and a puppy asleep under your chair? (Looks like Chancy also likes fried eyes and syrup.)

OH WAIT! This is about Larry's birthday!

Okay, so he came home, finally, we had dinner, and then we opened presents.

One of his gifts is his very own salsa and chips. If you lived in our family, you would understand that having that for your VERY OWN is kind of fun. And guarantees that you will may actually have some available when you want it.

Oh, sweet. A little post present hug. Matthew was being smashed, but that's what happens when you are glued to your dad's hip, like Matthew is.

Larry reading his birthday cards while his adoring fans look on.

Kathryn, Larry's oldest sister wrote this one the outside of his card. I thought it was sweet. I really don't remember any of my siblings being born.

With this kind of fire power, you have to be careful not to burn down the house. I was totally surprised that the fire alarm didn't go off and when Larry blew the candles out. The smoke was certainly thick enough!

The top of the post has the sign Sari made, but here is a close up. I love the little "-40-"s all over it.

Happy Birthday Larry! Here are a few of our favorite things:
Tifani - Larry always thinks of others
Rachel - worthy priesthood holder
Ben - keeps mom sane and (with a lisp) he'th thexy too
Sari - always nice
Daniel - great dad
Joseph - shares his stuff and does Daddy Date Night with us
Matthew - he lets us use his whip

For the record - that would be his INDIANA JONES whip that he got at Disneyland.

"JIJRBRED DAY" a photo essay by Joseph

That's what Joseph wrote on the family calendar.

What it means is "Gingerbread Day". With the snow days the last two days of school, I was in high stress mode with unfinished projects abounding (sorry Michael and Jon and your respective families - I hope to get your stuff out early next week!) I wasn't in the mood to spend a small fortune on candy and I certainly didn't have time to make the houses. I refuse to buy a kit (or 10).

Monday morning, I realized that nothing would change and it was time to do gingerbread houses. We like to have gingerbread parties, but the snow and late date made it so only Rachel had two friends over. It was still fun!

Now, we've had some really good years with gingerbread houses. One of my favorites was with the Stauffenbergs - GusGus made a trailer and another year a dog house with a bleeding postman (this year he made a dumpster, complete with a drunk peeing on the side). It was hilarious! But for the last three years or so, I find that by the time I've made enough house for friends and kids, I am not in the mood to make my own. That's okay. This year was very last minute, so it wasn't one of our more creative ones. I just did basic A frames houses, which the kids seem to prefer since it gives the most area for candy, and stacking on the candy seems to be the main goal.

I have fond memories of making gingerbread houses at my mom's house. My brother, Snookie, seemed to have a real knack for the darker side, with dead cinnamon bears as a main theme. It makes me proud.

So, I started with the dough, which is the BEST gingerbread house dough I have ever tasted. I love the dough. I eat the dough. I ate so much, I got a tummy ache.

Joseph was totally IN MY FACE and MY HAIR and MY EARS and MY HANDS and I knew I wouldn't make it. He might not either. So I gave him the camera. He took 91 pictures of me rolling out the gingerbread. Except for a few instructions ("Back up Mom, I don't want you in this picture") he was completely occupied.

He was very detailed. Here are A FEW of his shots. (Not every pictures makes the edit, right? You are welcome.)

The dough recipe is from a baker in our ward.

So I pound in the flour.

And then I roll it out with my broken rolling pin. I love my rolling pin. I wish it wasn't broken, but I love it and use it.

I cut out every piece with a knife by tracing my complex pattern.

Such as this one:

But I didn't make any outhouses this year. I just ran out of patience time.

Here they are cooling on the stove top.

At this point, I began to beg, "PLEASE GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY!" When Joseph realized that the gingerbread had to cool and there was no action, he consented.

THANK GOODNESS!! I was at the end of my rope! It's important for kids to get fresh air every day.

Matthew joined him.

Later that night, I assembled the gingerbread by melting sugar in a pan and dipping the sides in the liquid sugar and sticking it to the covered cardboard and to each other. Be careful, it's hot! It's also the most superior way for assembling gingerbread houses. It's fast and strong.

At last!

Joseph begins his assembly.

Rachel, Clay, and Daniel ponder the possibilities ...

Daniel is a story teller. I don't remember what he was saying, but Clayton looks amused.

Ben was the lucky recipient of the one of the "special" gingerbread houses with an open air ventilation system and sky lights. He was determined to fill it in with frosting. After the frosting filled the house (nearly) he finally broke down and covered the structural flaw with candy bars.

Daniel working on balancing his candy canes. We had a discussion about physics. It is impossible to stick two candy canes upright with a dab of frosting on the end. I wonder now, if the melted sugar would have worked ... note to self ...

Larry HATES sticky. So I was very proud of him for sucking it up and helping Matthew assemble his house.

Joseph worked a couple of windows in his A-frame. Being cursed blessed with a perfect memory, he pined a little for past gingerbread creations. Time to move on.

Hmmm... this design should be no surprise to anyone who knows Rachel - perfectly symmetrical.

This year was great because most of the kids were able to keep the frosting IN the squeeze bag. Trust me, not scraping up the frosting out the top and putting it back in makes a lot of difference in my frustration level.

Larry put the frosting on the end of the candy and Matthew stuck it on the house. Success!

Just as Rachel's house was symmetrical, Sari's is kicked up a notch. Their houses define their personalities. By the way, Sari went on to make a dog for her house and then she scattered mini chocolate chips all around it and Larry put a cling-on on the dog and Sari said she was inspired by GusGus.

Clayton impressed us all with his ability to spell his name on the side of his house

Matthew with his finished house.

Ben with his finished house (and Joseph still hard at work in the background.)

Later that evening, Rachel's sweet friend, Courtney came over and made her house. She missed the general party, but we were glad to have her when we did.

SNOW SNOW SNOW in SPOKANE

You gotta click on this song. Because, seriously, Spokane has like 4 plows and they rarely use de-icer.

SOMEONE IN THE PRIMARY PRESIDENCY HATES ME:

But that's okay because Jesus LOVES me:

We attend the NORTHPOINTE ward! (Singing: "Jesus loves me, this I know, For the email tells me so ..")


(P.S. Another snow day (last year was our first snow day in TEN YEARS - the kids had to go to school an extra week in June) - Christmas Vacation has started early - and the kids haven't realized that they missed their Christmas parties - yet - whew. We have about 28 inches on our deck, one of my friends reports 31 inches.)

THE DAY BEFORE SNOW DAY

Yesterday I was the lucky winner (!!!) who got to babysit this little love:

Mateo Lightsey is 3 1/2 months old. He is his mother's son and "talks" the whole time he is awake. I had to spend about an hour watching him sleep and smelling his new baby smell while the snow fell outside and the flames flickered in my fireplace. It was a difficult job, but I was up for the challenge.

I took him to Matthew's Preschool Christmas Program where I got a lot of strange looks when I said that Mateo's milk chocolate skin was so yummy I wanted to eat him (not like any of those women were going to be my friends anyway. I am the freaky mom with six kids who doesn't have a job). But seriously, you've had the urge to eat your baby, right? You know, just chew on those yummy thighs? Or in this case, just inhale the lavendar chocolate baby.

Anyway.

Matthew's program was really cute.

Can I hear a "Praise the Lord" with jazz hands? Yes, I can!

To the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus" we have "Jesus Was Ready to Be Born". The keeper of the inn said, "No more room, no more room, no more room." And so on. It was very cute.

The lighting is so strange in that room! I have a terrible time getting the flash to work at the right intensity.

After Matthew's program, we were pretty deep into a big snow storm but I wasn't worried because last week they promised us 10 -12 inches and we got maybe four. Promising us 4 - 6 inches meant the snow would be stopping any time.

I love our automatic snow movers. Although right now their fuel - hot chocolate - is more expensive than gas.

Back in the house, we were attending to the serious duty of Baby staring.

And arguing over who got to hold Baby.

And who had held Baby longest.

And whose turn was next.

And glad that the snow was making the commute to pick up Baby meant we got to love on him longer.

And don't tell Joseph we didn't get a picture of him with Baby. He loved on him too and held him and talked to him and played with him.

Mark arrived to pick up his son (fine, I guess you can have him back) but the fates deemed it past time to have a Sant Lightsey Party night, which we haven't had since Mark and Amy moved out of the ward many years ago. Mark's car got a dead dead battery and our Suburban couldn't jump it. He had to wait for Amee to get home from work, pick up the battery charger and bring it to our house and plug in his sweet Caddy named "Scarlet". We decided to play games and eat freshly baked bread with jam and hot chocolate. Yum!

A few years ago Miss Regan was born on Larry's birthday, which is also Joseph Smith's birthday.

Peyton (Joseph's age) and Regan (a year younger than Matthew) Lightsey. They have grown up so much! Daniel used to be scared of Peyton. He would hide in the closet when she came over.

Here are my children playing respectfully in our livingroom while Peyton and Mateo observe.

Kaiya (Ben's age) and her papa in a slap fight. It was scary!

This photo was taken right after Mark told Peyton, "I'm strengthening my inner core". I swear he said it! And look, Mark is smiling. Mark also said, "I don't care who you are, you gotta love the chipmunks" referring to Christmas music. Very funny coming from a serious looking black man who has a lime green suit (with a knee length jacket) who works at juvie.

After hours of Tripoly, we were happy to introduce the Lightsey family to the happiness to be found in a little Rock Band. I think Amee was disappointed that there wasn't more R&B, but as Mark said, "it's called ROCK band."

Sari may look like a Sant, but she has the Hathaway (Harding) tongue tendency.

The Lightseys left about 11:30. I am assuming they made it home.

This morning we woke up to:

And still falling strong.

SNOW DAY!!

My friend Kristen has 22 inches on her glass topped table on her deck and I think that is more accurate than my deck with slats.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHICAMIA!

Last year I wrote an amazingly accurate, spell-binding, Pulitzer-prize winning blog post about my sister. It's all still true, except to add that she is another year older and another year more fabulous.

Check it out here!

*Photo by Missy Hancock

WEEKEND UPDATE - where the post is longer than the week

I know, you're saying, how is it possible that she has more to write about?! She posted almost every day! Well, it's quite shocking, but here a few pics of other things we did this past week:

Rachel's Choir Concert

She's on the back row, second in on the left.

She's in the same place on this picture. I did really like the concert. They have really improved and Mr. Saccamono has done an excellent job. They did Silent Night with real candles, where they surrounded the auditorium and the stage and the candles were lit at the back and they slowly turned and lit each other's candles. It was beautiful and very moving. BUT I just really, really, REALLY missed Mrs. Fennessy's (the previous choir director's) traditional Dona Nobis Pacem. They did do a version of Handel's Hallelujah chorus that had been arranged by Quincy Jones and it was pretty good.

Sari's Choir Play

Sari with her homegirls: Left to right - Iris, Kylie, Ellise, Samantha, Emily. Front row - Sari and Alyssa. (Mrs. Gallagher, Sari's English teacher has her head smack in the middle.)

Sari's in the front row, third in from the right. Ironically, Mr. Smith rotates through about 5 plays about Christmas so I saw this one when Rachel was in 7th grade, too. It's called, "Mrs. Claus Saves Christmas". It's fun and this 7th grade choir is really talented. Really.

Ward Party

I am the Ward Activities Committee Chairman. I have a committee technically (censored).

My sweet friend Joy told me that she had table clothes we could use, and by golly, she did! She not only brought them to the church, she put them on all 19 tables AND put little Christmas trees on the tables, too! I seriously got teary when I got to the church two hours behind schedule and that was already done.

Since a few of my faithful readers either go to the same ward as me, or used to be in my ward, I will post some pictures that Ben took of people eating. If you don't know these guys you might be really bored, so jut feel free to skip ahead to the next big red lettering thing. (That's a new topic clue.)

At this fine table we have the O'Donnals on the left (extremely unattractive and not accurate picture of Charmaine, sorry!) and the Ertel family - formerly known as Rachel Wells, her husband and their two and a half girls.

Hmmm... these people look familiar but I just can't place them.

The Kwon family! The twins just turned one! How cute are they! Hye Sean is SO pretty. She has the best skin I have EVER seen. I want Asian babies.

And here we have the Thorens (another unattractive shot - this time of Consuelo) and two boys that are not theirs - they have three girls. I don't know who the boys belong to.

A few of my favorite people are in this picture! First, we have Chad Pugh's head. Then going around clockwise is Phyllis and Terry DuPape (okay, seriously, we wouldn't have ward parties without Brother DuPape. He is fabulous at procuring whatever food you need at an unbeatable price!) and Minnie Wilkinson (the oldest in our ward and we LOVE her!) and then we've got the back of Rick Pugh's head. He was released from the bishopric when we got a new bishop and the Stake President put him in as the new high councilman - so now the Bishop is the Stake President and two of his bishopric councilors are now his high councilmen. Also, one of his counselors as Stake President was the bishop before him and President Larson was his counselor. It's like a family from Alabama. All that blood is so intermingled. Everyone is related to everyone else. One big happy family. (If you are not LDS and you are reading this paragraph, you are totally lost. I am sorry. Take comfort, most of the people who are LDS are probably lost too.)

I believe that this may be the teen boy table. The back of Jake Grover's head, Ben Pugh (Rachel's BFF), and James Larson (more of him later in the post).

Ahh, remember the angel named Joy who did the tableclothes and centerpieces? This is her family here. Her husband, Larry is a dentist, her twins Katie and Dustin (who was one of my Webelos!) and Miss Joy herself! Sainted Woman.

Blake Grimes (another one of my Webelos), Brady Jones, the missionaries - Elder Smith from Arizona (who told me told that BYU and University of Arizona were playing in some bowl game in Las Vegas, so it is game on with Elder Smith and the Sants. What to do... what to do...) and his companion Elder Hullinger. Then Austin Stoker's face. Upclose and flashed out.

Speaking of Stokers - here is Kenny and Julie. They moved back into the ward after a two year stint in Utah.

The lovely Joann Welch. Okay, I have the sweetest story about her and her scout-ninja husband. Joann is mostly blind - diabetes, I think - and we were at a Church thingie and we were singing. She can't read the words in the hymn book, so she sat close to her husband and he whispered the words in her ear before each line so that she could sing along. I know. I know. Right up there with the pumpkin pancakes from Amy and Joe.

A closer picture of Rachel Wells Ertel and her girls. Her baby, Josie, had spread chocolate ALL OVER her face. They are the most laid back young parents I have ever met. I also adore them because they remind me of Larry and I when we were young marrieds. They didn't wait to have kids, don't mind the small apartment living, etc. They are one of the few young couples I've met in the last 10 years who haven't delayed starting a family for many years. I admire that.

Our former bishop and now Stake President takes a try at holding the Derby's new baby, Charlie, (see Tim hovering protectively) while Dawn, the First Lady of the Stake, watches. I must say, we LOVE babies in our ward. It is kind of a fight to hold them.

We did a live nativity with some of the Junior Primary kids acting it out and reading it and the ward members, primary, and/or young women singing some Christmas Carols in chronological order. Here is a picture of Rachel and Sari waiting for the rest of the girls to get in place.

If you used to be in our ward, you are saying, where did they get all these girls? Our Young Women used to have about six girls. Now it has ... a lot. And they are all Beehives. Only three of the girls up there are not Beehives. Cut from the picture is Courtney Grover who played the violin with them. Rachel is standing behind Sari. No clear shot of her, really.

Oh wait, I did get a picture of Rachel, after all!

When Matthew is at home with me he spends the day singing. He will sing, "Please get me chocolate milk Mommy Mommy" or "tie tie tie my shoe shoes shoes who boo blue too you moo" and so on and I sing back ... whatever I feel like and so on. BUT tell Matthew to sing and he won't. Stubborn child. Daniel is standing behind him. He will sing grudgingly, if he has to.

Here's the only clear shot of the Nativity. Cara Smith Derby was Mary and Cruz Crosley was Joseph. They were so cute. They are seven years old which is the perfect age to do this. Before they walked out I heard Cruz say to his mom Pepperlie, "I might forget what to do" and she said, "No you won't. Your only job is to take care of Mary." I thought that was so sweet. He did a great job at that.

Noah Jones as Samuel the Lamanite, Joseph as a wiseman and Jared as a wiseman. The boys were all so reverent. They did such a great job and were really quiet and listened and it was simple and very sweet. I thought the etched vase that Jason brought us from Afganistan was perfect. And WHY did I not remember to get something from Israel out for this? Duh.

Afterwards we assembled the cast in the Primary room to take one more picture. The stacked chairs look great don't they? The kids from left to right are - Joseph Sant, Jared Branson, Sloan Krauss, Kallee Liljenquist, Cara Smith-Derby, Cruz Crosley, Noah Jones, Spencer Larson, Tanner Stoker (kneeling), and John and David Demke (standing).

My Activities Committee was primarily my family. Ben cooked up some trouble with Matthew in the kitchen.

After the dinner and clean up we went home, put the little ones to bed and then played Tripoly with Rachel, Clayton and Ben. It was hilarious! We were laughing our guts out! My face hurt from laughing.

When Rachel shuffles she looks like a bird about to take flight. As she would shuffle and then deal, her hands and arms would get exhausted and she'd have to stop half way through to massage them. This is a girl who doesn't think twice about running three to five miles a day.

Ben won in the end by 20 chips. Larry had gone out (and to bed) two hours earlier, Rachel had two chips, and I was all out (on the last hand I threw it all in with a pair of 6's). It was so much fun!

First Snow

We finally got to experience some snow. The kids loved it but the snow was so wet and heavy that they came in as soaked as if they had taken a swim. Dripping wet down coats. Our house smelled like wet dog, or ... goose.

I really need a new camera. Can someone tell Santa. Of course I'd LOVE a Canon SLR but at this point I'll just take something with a good zoom and a working flash.

Joseph and Matthew take a turn down our front yard hill.

Sari helped the boys make a snowman.

I made some of this to warm them up when they came in. Yummy! You don't have a cocomotion? Get one. Now. Get two. We wear one out every year. You'll want to have a backup on hand. Especially once you start making your own hot drinks. Like steamed raspberry. Oh, that is just good.

Matthew liked combining the hot chocolate and the tomato soup. Yuck. That is the trick to get my kids to eat tomato soup - I give them a straw and they GULP it down. Cups of it. So good for them!

Rachel also went sledding:

Christi Mauri and Rachel in the back of James Larson's car on their way to Holmberg Park to go sledding.

Cassie Bingham was also there and took this picture of James (another one of my Webelos - how fast they've grown up!), Christi, and Rachel.

Rachel told James she didn't want to walk up the hill anymore so James pulled her and Christi. What a guy!

One more of Christi, Rachel, and James. Doesn't that look like SO MUCH fun?! Brady Jones went too but decided it was too cold, so he stayed IN THE CAR, without it being turned on and texted on his phone. How is that more warm? I don't know.

Matthew's Christmas Dreaming ...

We caught Matthew catching up on his Wish List. He was saying, "Okay, I want this and I want this. I don't want that. I like that."

The Sants Attempt a Photo for the Christmas Card

This was the best one of the bunch, so I am going to call this extremely unsuccessful and try again tomorrow. Not mention that all the stripes in the front row make me dizzy. I just wanted ONE picture with everyone looking at the camera and looking ... normal. It was not meant to be. The photo shoot ended about 40 pictures later with Joseph crying and Ben saying, "What?! I didn't do anything."

I am determined to do Christmas pictures and cards this year. For one reason, I know SO MANY people who aren't this year, so it makes me all the more determined. Second, a card without a picture is like cake without ... well, cake because I don't like frosting so that's not a good analogy, but you know what I mean. I am DETERMINED. I will try one more time and then I'm just gonna pick one and do it. Everyone may have pimples, wrinkled clothes, dirty faces and unbrushed teeth, but dang it, I will send it out for the world to see!

Yes, we did all this AND saw the Color Purple AND Larry taught early morning Seminary every day this week.

I'm tired. But I am also ready NOW to start getting ready for Christmas!

AND a little update about Larry. First, he did a REAL trial! Clear through deliberations! They found the guy guilty of violating a restraining order. My sister pointed out how it is interesting that I wanted to know every little detail of the court (who was it, what did he wear, what did they ask, who was on the jury, blah blah blah) but if this had been a church court, or when Larry has done church courts, I don't want to know anything. Nothing. NOTHING. NOT. ONE. THING.

Today his assignment in High Council got changed. Now he is over Missionary Work and Retention. After his training tonight I think it is safe to say that he won't be home much anymore and that his days of "hanging out" with this calling are over (not that he was hanging out or doing nothing, but it wasn't as time intensive as being in the Bishopric). He is no longer over Brentwood Ward or Temples and Family History. They told him he doesn't have a ward because he does the missionary work in all nine wards. It was nice seeing him. I'm glad we're done procreating since we won't be seeing each other for a while...

FIRST SNOW

We missed the snow over Thanksgiving so this is our first snow this year!

That's right, he's checking out the snow in his bare feet, no shirt, no gloves.

JURY DUTY

Larry was summoned to jury duty this week and next. After reporting in every morning, working late every night to finish the work he has, even though they have a billable time thingy for jury duty (which is so great that he doesn't have to take personal time) Larry still has projects to do, getting a parking ticket AND making nightly phone calls to see if he has to go in, he IS AT TRIAL. Right now. Even as I type.

I am so excited for him!
I've never been called to jury duty.

I have no idea what court is really like, but I love Law and Order (especially when these guys were on it):

so I am sure it is fascinating, with beautiful people, even the bad guys are beautiful, in great clothes, and although my TV isn't THAT hi-def (not at all, in fact) , I am certain that no one has bad breath and the court room smells like cinnamon-cloves.

CLUELESS, BUT LOVES HOT CHOCOLATE

Tonight Larry and I went to see "The Color Purple" traveling Broadway production.

I was roughly familiar with the story line. I watched most of it on TV once. You know, the show with Whoopie, Oprah, and Danny Glover that Hallmark channel shows once a year? I got bored, but I watched some, I know.

I didn't know Celie and Shug were lesbian. I just didn't. I missed that part somehow. Before I missed that part. Now that I've seen the musical, I don't think I CAN miss that part.

It was disappointing.

Because I LOVED the rest of it. The music, the dance, the beat, the humor, the sadness, the triumph. The singing. LAWS! Celie had pipes. That girl could SING!! But when they kissed, boy was I surprised! I just didn't see it coming!

And I did enjoy the hot chocolate:

In fact, this is the place to go for hot chocolate in Spokane this week.


Random thought - is this book why purple is the color of gay pride?

Another random thought - is this post like Rachel asking, "Is Alaska a state?" Meaning, is this stuff the rest of the world knows and I am just whistling my way through without a care in the world?

Wouldn't be the first time. Nope. Not at all.

I'M GONNA NEED MORE CHEESE FOR ALL THIS WHINE

Yesterday Joseph started puking in the middle of the night. We got about 2 hours of sleep.

He whines. OH how he whines. (That is not a Hathaway trait, and that's all I'll say about that.)

"Mommy, did you forget you are supposed to be rubbing my feet?" (while on the couch)
"Mommy, did you forget you are supposed to be rubbing my back?" (while kneeling to the porcelain throne)
"Mommy, I want my mommmmmy!" (while I go potty, get a sip of water, walk my numb legs back to life, take ibprofen for the muscle cramps in my hands and brain)
"OHHHHH, I'm gonna throw up!"
"Mommy, call the priesthood to come fix me."

I was ready to throw myself off a bridge.

Later in the day he started to whine, "I'm not gonna be able to fulfill my obligations or meet my responsibilities."

Note to self- do not laugh at that, it just increases the whine.

Today he is fine. Back to bouncing off the walls and grinning from ear to ear. Able to meet his responsibilities and fulfill his obligations. Being in 1st grade and all.

I don't recover as quickly.

Last night I found this picture he made in school. I love it!

(Yes, Joseph's whine and cheese love affair has been written about before. For more on this click here and scroll down past the picture of a bunch of people on couches.)

OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF BABES - some jewels from Matthew

He's had some good ones, like these from February:

"I don't miss you mommy, betause I see you every SINGLE day!"

"I hate church! I don't want to go to church! Church is BAD for wittle boys."

But my favorite was just yesterday:

Matthew, "Mommy, what song are you singing?"
Me, "Samuel Tells of Baby Jesus."
Matthew, "Can you sing it different?"
Me, "Sing it different? Like how?"
Matthew, "Like in your head, so I can't hear you."

JOSEPH'S 1ST GRADE CHRISTMAS PROGRAM

Since Larry and I have his work Christmas Party tonight we are unable to go to Joseph's Christmas Program. Matthew and I went to see the performance earlier today. It was really cute! One thing that was different this year, I don't think they sang any songs about Jesus and they ALWAYS have in past years.

All ready to sing!

Joseph was a baker in one of the songs. If he had been at the evening performance, he would have taken cookies out to the parents in the audience. Sadly, he was unable to perform his duties at cookie man for the parents.

Most of Joseph's first grade class. I put a box around his head - you might have to click to see it. He is in a light blue polo, middle, right side.

Matthew has been going to Farwell his entire life, for one reason or another. I think when he finally starts kindergarten next year, he will just think of it as a natural extension of what he has already been doing.

REASON #714 WHY I STINK AT PARENTING

Rachel - cello, piano, flute - QUIT
Ben - saxophone - QUIT (2 months after we BOUGHT him one)
Sari - ukulele, saxophone - QUIT
Daniel - piano, bass, drums - QUIT

Considering my deep and thorough LOVE for music I wonder how on earth I allowed this to happen. I want my children to feel the same way about music that I do. To be able to hear the different parts (notice the key change frrom major to minor, can you hear the bass?, notice the bassoon taking that part?, etc), FEEL the passion, drown in the emotion, be brought to tears, to feel their pulse race or slow.

I am certainly NOT a music expert. I know VERY little. But I love it and I love that I appreciate it like I do.

At least Rachel and Sari can sing. Hopefully some of the other kids will get Larry's (fully unappreciated and unused) talent for singing too and they will be able to learn some of this stuff in choir.

I know that you don't have to play an instrument to appreciate, but knowledge increases appreciation. More than that, I feel like the talent in my family is ebbing and decreasing with each generation. I have not been doing my part to keep the skills taught to me taught to my children.

This is one (of several) things that I wish I would have done differently

PANCAKES

You all who know me, know that I am not a good cook. I don't really enjoy it. I even took a cooking class at BYU once in an effort to have 12 credits to qualify for my Pell Grant learn some skills so I would enjoy that aspect of homemaking more.

That really didn't work AND I got a B. Which really ticked me off.

For one year, a few years back, we had a law school family in our ward named Amy and Joe. They were a cute, busy young couple. So cute! But then they moved. Thanks to blogging, we have stayed in touch. About a year ago Amy wrote a post with this recipe. As I recall the story, she was home sick one day, when she was still in high school. Joe, her crush, who would someday become her dear husband, made her these pancakes.

Rachel has just recently discovered true romance and she LOVES that story. She also loves a post Amy did once about how Joseph always gives her a kiss goodnight. Rachel has a whole set of expectations based on Joseph Lee. He once told me I was of "advanced years" but since I live with my foot in my mouth, I understand that he doesn't realize that I am 25 on the inside.

Here's a picture of the darling family. My friend, Sue, will recognize Joseph as the son of her friend from Salem, and the brother of one of her young women, Michal Lee. It's a small world.

Back to not liking to cook - pancakes are right up my alley and I love the weekly occasional breakfast for dinner idea. I also love pumpkin. When the kids asked what we were having they were skeptical. They were scared. They were suddenly not hungry. I made them all try one. My Joseph ate NINE. In short, we all LOVE this recipe! We titled them the AmyJoe Lee Pancakes (which is a play on Amy's middle name, Jo, and her husband's name Joseph. Get it?) or True Love Pancakes which a is a play on the fact that we LOVE them and Joe made them for Amy and that is true love too (let's remember he was in high school!)

AMYJOE LEE Pumpkin Puff Pancakes
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup cooked pumpkin
1 3/4 cup Bisquick
1/4 cup vegetable oil
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp. soda
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ginger

In small mixing bowl, beat eggs on high speed for 5 minutes or ubtil thick and lemon colored. Stir in remaining ingredients. Pour batter from 1/4 cup onto medium hot ungreased griddle. Bake until puffed and bubbles begin to break.

AMYJOE LEE Apple Cider Syrup
1 cup sugar (I actually put very little sugar in, maybe 1/4 cup or less, we think the cider makes it sweet enough, do what you like
2 T. cornstartch
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
2 cups apple cider
2 T. Lemon juice
1/4 cup melted butter

In saucepan, mix sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and nutmeg; stir in apple cider and lemon juice. Cook stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir for 1 minute. remove from heat, stir in melted butter. Makes 2 1/2 cups syrup.

Because Sari and Joseph have hollow legs and can eat more in a meal than some small countries do in a day For my size family I times the pancakes by 5 and put the leftovers in a tupperware pitcher to make individual pancakes as liked. I also 2 1/2 times the cider syrup recipe and that seems to be almost the right ratio. We LOVE the cider syrup! I recommend tasting your cider first to determine how much sugar you need to add. Ours was made with less sweet apples than we usually get, so I added the full one cup of sugar. They really do get super puffy and are light as air. If you prefer waffles, like Larry does, just add another egg white or two and a smidge more vegetable oil.

Do NOT wait a year like I did to make these pancakes. Make them NOW. Tonight. Tomorrow morning. But do it soon. You'll be thanking me!

DANIEL IS ELEVEN

Look who is eleven! (I have to pause.)

Of course, Sari made the sign!

Daniel picked crepes for his dinner. Thanks to Grandma Powell for introducing these to me. My kids LOVE them! The first time I remember eating them was the day the Teton Dam broke.

Just before dinner Matthew and Joseph started to sing to Daniel a birthday song that they made up as they went. It went something like, "Happy birthday" sung in many different keys and levels of loud.

Matthew giving Daniel a hug.

Let's see how this leather work set works out for Daniel. I love the scout shop!

Last year Daniel got a "free" iPod from the orthodontist. He lost it. (Rather, I believe he was talked out of it by some conniving little demon classmate.) He has been REALLY REALLY wanting a new one. Rachel just bought herself an iTouch so she gave Daniel her old Nano. He was THRILLED! REALLY REALLY HAPPY!

Ben gave Daniel a sleeping bag for scouting trips. Matthew tried it out and declared it great. (Sorry for my white Jabba leg in the background.)

Daniel really wanted an Avatar cake. I went to every store in a ten mile radius and couldn't find any figures. So he got a Star Wars Clone War action figure cake. He was happy anyway. I was happy because for the first time since we moved to Spokane the cooked chocolate icing set up. The cake was DIVINE.

Our favorite things about Daniel are:
Larry - my favorite thing about Daniel is all the questions he asks during his weekly PPI. Every time he has so many questions. I think he saves them up.
Tifani - Daniel is a peacemaker and a missionary. He does what is right and is kind to others. He makes me want to be a better person.
Rachel -
Ben - Daniel will do anything for anyone.
Sari - Daniel can draw really good and is really nice.
Joseph - What I like about Daniel is that he does stuff with us. He is a great brother and I really like him.
Matthew - My favorite part of Daniel is that he shares his toys.

This really has nothing to do with Daniel's birthday, I just think it is funny that Ben got a picture of it.

CHRISTMAS TREE SET UP

We like to set up our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. This year we lounged a few extra days in Richland and so we didn't set up our tree until Monday night. Then, we did it for Family Home Evening.

Our tree is decorated with sentimental ornaments. There is no theme. Someday maybe I will do a theme tree, but right now, this is what we do:

Nearly every ornament has a story behind it and we tell the stories and then the kids hang them up. If you look closely, you can see a green dinosaur, Tonia sent that to Larry and I the first year we were married. (She also sent me a box from Victoria Secret. Larry was like, "YES!" When I opened the box, I totally laughed! The box contained jammies. Purple and green paisleys. Long sleeve and pant, turtle neck. Perfect for our cold basement apartment. But not so much what Larry was hoping for, I think.)

See? Lots of stories!

My grandma Harding used to give us ornaments every year for Christmas. My mom has sort of taken over on that for us. Thanks mom. In the picture above, Ben is holding a glass ornament from many years ago. Only three have survived and Ben is VERY protective of it.

Can you see Daniel's laminated gingerbread man? It is ginormous. I love it.

Joseph carefully considers his placement.

This year I did throw away the ornament Joseph is hanging up. Pitiful toilet paper pressed stuff that you let dry and then decorated. Remember when everyone was doing this? Yeah. I'm over it. It doesn't have a story. I have other ornaments from Homemaking days. Like the pig from a pop can, you can see it in the picture below:

I love this picture of Matthew balanced precariously on the chair. See the red stocking about knee height? That came from this awesome family in Hayden Lake when I was a missionary. Denise and Paul Sysesski. I totally can't remember how to spell it. They were awesome. Oh! And the white circle hanging by a green thread is from Cindy Ott in Hayden Lake, too.

Turns out we didn't get ANY pictures of Daniel putting an ornament on the tree.

Our tree isn't matchy-matchy but it is the story of our lives.

A new record! We decorated the tree and at the end no one was crying! Yay us!

Still to come - we need to put the train up around the tree and wrap some presents.