How another year is over. Looking back I really have to say 2010 was much better than 2007, 2008 and 2009...those were some interesting years. I'd happy to be able to say that I think I've been taught a few lessons over the last few years and hope to not have to repeat them. I love the new year time. It's like a re-birth a time to start anew. I love making new goals and looking back to see what goals were accomplished over the past year.

I've been thinking lately about what goals I want to set this year and that maybe I'll pick a theme that I want for myself or my family. Some word or phrase that will describe what we want accomplished by the end of the year.

Thanks to P90X and Mr. Tony Horton I'm happy to say that 2011 will be the first year in the last several years that "loose weight" won't top my list...although I think I've put on a few extra over the holiday season but I know how to get that off. I'm thankful I was able to workout almost everyday of my six day a week workout program. I feel like I really accomplished something and it feels great to have started a program, stuck with it and to see the end results.

And I am VERY thankful that the year has come to a close with this Blog. I know I will enjoy putting our year into a printed book and read the memories but I am ready to take a break and not post every single day (or almost every single day). There was a lot of details, feelings and emotions I left out or kept to myself but I still feel like I made our lives known to the public and I'm ready to be a little more private. I haven't decided how often I will post next year. Still thinking on that one.

2010...you were good to us. Thank you. Thank you for a break from some hard years. Thank you for the memories.

And now I am listening to lovely fireworks...I think I liked it better when the state banned them. They almost sound like gun shots. Lovely.

Today it snowed in Phoenix. That's not something you see everyday. It's crazy to be on the freeway and look out and see snowed capped mountains. Now I feel like singing Bette Midler's song "From a Distance" you know the line that says "...and the snow capped mountains white..." Anyhow the boys were defiantly excited to see snow. And it was literally freezing today. Yes, freezing. I was thankful to be reminded how being out in the elements can make you frigid. Like bone cold. I defiantly will take my hot summers over long, freezing cold winters. A day or two in the snow is fun but anymore of that just isn't for me. Plus I think I would put on 20 pounds each winter in the cold from drinking QT hot chocolate. That is good stuff.

We had pictures with all the cousins on Pops' side today. And despite being outside in the frigid air it went pretty well considering there were nine kids and Buster was the oldest of the group.

I told Pops it's date time again. You know, just the two of us. Ahhh, the thought makes me smile.

I've got a ton of pictures to download from the camera...I just never want to take the time to do it and then they get backed up and then it just takes more time...its like a never ending circle.

Today we did tons of laundry...and watched a movie. Pops was supposed to work a half day but it didn't quite happen. The boys and I had fun at a birthday party this morning until it turned frigid then we headed home. They picked up the playroom and vacuumed it. I was able to de-junk it a little again without them realizing what I was doing. They helped sort laundry and folded a little. Crate cried most the day because he wanted to go outside, however the grass outback is more like a swamp from all the rain so I wouldn't let him out. He did not like that at all.

Tonight I took the boys shoe shopping. I was tired of buying cheap shoes and having them fall apart in the first 30 days. I've never splurged on shoes for them. My neighbor always gives me her one sons clothes and shoes so I've always just used those. This last time she gave me Nike shoes that fit Buster and he has worn them every single day for four months and they are just now starting to shred. And he is REALLY hard on his shoes. So I was convinced to spend a little more and get each of them a decent pair of shoes. Luckily Famous Footwear was having their buy on get on half off sale so it worked out perfect. And each pair of shoes I bought was on sale. I'm hoping they'll last a REALLY long time. Now if I can just get Boss to wear tennis shoes...he only prefers flip flops and even wore them all day today...it's only 50 degrees and rainy. I was proud of myself that I didn't even walk to my side of the store and look for shoes for myself. Pops would have been proud too. :)

Speaking of Boss I have to say he likes to talk A LOT. And sometimes I want to shut off my ears. He's a fun boy but always has something to say or a question to ask. Oh man...and when he was little I was so worried about him not talking, he was in speech therapy for a year. I guess I shouldn't have been so concerned. Either that, or the speech therapy REALLY payed off!

Can't believe the year is almost over.

It's been a busy few days. Lots of family and lots of activities.

Today it was just me and the boys and some perfect weather. We decided to pack a lunch, load the truck with bikes and the stroller and head to a park we had never been to in Tempe. Three hours of hanging out together in the perfect 65 degree air made for a blissful afternoon. The boys got tons of exercise from riding all around. Crate enjoyed being outside as always and we played "Monkey in the Middle" with the Frisbee. If life could be like this everyday I think it would be heaven.

Tonight we had a family movie night and all hung out here on the couch. I love when there are no meetings, no school in the morning, no obligations and everyone is in a good mood. It makes for a great night. Now it's bed time...we'll see how easily this goes...

almost midnight must post

There is just something magical about Christmas morning. I think it's a combination of the excitement from the kids, the anticipation of the big day and the sweet spirit that comes from knowing why we celebrate.

Santa did indeed visit the boys and they were thrilled with their Star Wars the Clone Wars sheets and comforters they found on their beds. I swore my children would never have character type bedding but alas their desire out won mine. They were much more thrilled with the Santa gift than I had expected. Who new new bedding good be so cool?
Santa also delivered a "Xbox kinect"...let's just say it's been a really fun afternoon for the whole family and my arms will be really sore in the morning. But I still remain undefeated in boxing...even Pops can't beat me.

We had a fun filled afternoon hanging out together as a family. I made waffles, bacon and oranges for breakfast. They boys were thrilled to have bacon...it only comes around a few times a year.

More family over tonight which is always fun, a little chaotic but fun.

Now it's time to relax with Pops and enjoy a quiet evening.

Until next year...Merry Christmas.

The Eve of the big day.

Santa has come...stockings are hung and the boys are fast asleep. They were pretty excited for tomorrow.

I know people have lots of opinions about Christmas and Santa and the way it should be celebrated. We have our opinions too...I'm always excited for this time of year and try to keep a good balance between keeping the spirit of Christmas in the home and letting the excitement of Santa happen also.

Tonight in between our two family Christmas parties just our little family did our traditional service project and helped out with Christmas for another family. They were surprised and thrilled and found much joy in our giving. However I think we found more joy from the little adventure. And Buster and Boss were actually really good helpers at wrapping the gifts. I hope by doing this each year the boys remember the good feelings they get from giving and continue on the tradition with their own families. Some years were able to provide a bit more than other years but it always ends up that we get much more out of it than we give.

Our other tradition each Christmas eve is that they get to open one present which they are quickly catching on to...it's always pajamas. They were pretty excited with their pajamas this year. Thankfully. Then they get to make a bed in our room on the floor and we all sleep in one room. Tomorrow when they wake up we'll stay in our room, read Luke 2, have a family prayer and then head out to the Christmas tree together to see what Santa brought. It's always so exciting to see their faces. I'm glad Santa comes to our house...I think it's a part of childhood. It's memories. It's an exciting day.

I do have to say when you think about Santa and Christ you'll find they desire the same thing...that is to give. To think of others, not themselves. I like the fact that they go hand in hand. They offer us gifts, some tangible and some spiritual and expect nothing in return. They offer love, and a listening ear. They create miracles and bring hope. They brighten up the world around us. And all we're asked to do is believe. I believe in Christ. And I believe in the idea of Santa.

What a wonderful time of year.

Merry Christmas!

More family parties today.

Uncle Travis got his mission call to Paraguay today.

The boys both got to be wise men in the nativity scene with their cousins. I got some cute pictures.

Crate is becoming more and more independent each day. Lucky us.

Pops didn't go to the office today. That was nice.

I received a popcorn popper from my mother today for Christmas...I'm excited to use it.

I hope the boys don't have a breakdown from lack of sleep or too much sugar.

Christmas Eve is tomorrow! I think we're all excited around here!

Today marks Pops and mine 12th anniversary of our first date. I'll never forget it...Streets of New York for dinner then back to his place for a hockey game. We both checked each others drivers license during dinner because we both thought the other was older than we actually were. He thought I was older than 18 and I thought he was WAY older than 21. It was a fun night and look where it lead 12 years later.

The family holiday fun is just beginning...more parties all week long.

We love coming home to find treats on our door step...but it means an extra workout if I'm not careful.

Looking forward to my bed tonight.

Well, you guessed it. Today was laundry day. And it has taken all day. It's 5:39pm and I'm still in my pajamas, I'm not sure if I've even brushed my teeth yet. However I will head off the the shower as soon as I'm done here. The boys had a day to themselves...they watched a movie, watched TV, played outside, jumped on the beds and who knows what else they did. They were entertained and happy cause I didn't ask them to do one chore today. Crate was easy as always...just followed his brothers around and loved it when they took him outside to play. If I would allow it I'm pretty sure he'd move his crib out there. He's says "side" now for outside and stands and knocks on the back door to go out.

I think Crate and I have the same sickness. We're coughing and have runny noises. I keep hoping it'll pass really soon.

The total count of laundry so far is 12 loads. And I still have one more for today.

I finished EVERYTHING for Christmas...if I can recall correctly I do not have one more thing to finish up or wrap. Wait I take that back, I just saw one project I need to finish but that should only take 5 minutes. Other than that it's done. Now I just needed to cook a few things tomorrow and all will be well.

I got the Christmas cards I ordered in the mail today! They came really fast. Hopefully I'll get around to sending them out before December of 2011!

Time to hit the showers.

Ran a lot of errands. Boys were good. Stores were busy. Tomorrow will be a laundry day. And I think it will take all day.

Early morning meetings with the boys..that didn't go well. Hopefully that's the last time that will happen. Had to be have all the boys and myself dressed for church and out the door by 7:15am. Not fun.

Awesome Christmas program at church.

Young Women's lesson went great.

Buster did very well playing the bells in church and at the Stake Christmas program tonight. Marmie came to watch along with Uncle Travis and Aunt Abby. He was very excited to have everyone there.

Not a bad Sunday...

Only one week until the big day arrives. The boys are defiantly getting excited and I'll admit it...I am too. Christmas cards are starting to arrive in the mail...I always feel guilty when this happens because ours aren't sent out yet and to be honest I'm not sure they will be sent out. I will do my best though.

I've felt pretty crummy all day today. I took a shower but never got to putting on the make up. Pops was so kind and took the boys out for several hours to run errands with him while I stayed home with Crate. I finished putting the finishing touches on the presents for the Young Women (we decided to add one more thing to it) and I finished the rest of the homemade Christmas presents. Now all I have to do is wrap them. Then I laid down and literally, right as I was about to dose off I hear Crate. I was really hoping he'd take another four hour nap but not today. He only lasted and hour. Oh well. Although we did have a lovely afternoon together. I pushed him on the swing out back, took him for a walk...I think he really likes the MC Hammer songs on my itouch. We played trucks and just hung out together. I thought back to those days seven years ago when it was only one child and I remembered how easy it was. Only one child to feed, clean up after, listen to cry. Oh, the memories. I was happy when the boys came back, not necessarily when the noise came back but you can't have one without the other.

Pops bought me a bunch of vitamin C and zinc. We have our big Christmas lesson in Young Women's tomorrow so I can't be sick. Not to mention it's vacation...and I refuse to spend it feeling bad. I will not be sick, I will not be sick, I will not be sick...

For some odd reason I can't write on this Blog if Pops is standing over my shoulder. I don't want him to see what I am writing...it's almost like he's reading my mind and I don't want him to. I know he can look for himself later what I wrote but I just get nervous when he's watching live. I just kicked him away from me for a few moments. Hopefully he doesn't take it personally.

So much for sleeping in...I woke up at 5:30am and was bound and determined to get a major workout in without being interrupted. I got a good hour in and the last half hour had only minor interruptions. From that point on the day didn't stop.

I got packages mailed out today. Huge major blessing to walk into the incredibly tiny "hometown" post office with three kids and not have one person in line. I was sooo thankful.

Baked and then baked some more. The only way this was possible was the fact that Crate (14 months old) took a four hour nap. H.E.L.L.O. can this happen every day please?

The boys had a friend over. When I delivered treats to the neighbor I felt like apologizing for all the ruckus this afternoon. I'll admit it. I knew they were WAY to loud outside but frankly...I didn't care. I was on a mission to get things done and they were happy so why fix something that's not broke? I can't imagine what my neighbor thinks of me. She probably thinks I the biggest white trash lady with all the crying kids and babies that locks them outside so I don't have to hear them. I'll admit...there might be a slight bit of truth to that. It probably didn't help that she saw and heard the boys friend that was over playing saying he was going to pee and see how far it can shoot as he was standing on top of the six foot block fence looking into her yard. Sad part is I'm sure she thought that was my kid. Lovely.

Tonight I worked on some more Christmas presents. I wasn't going to do them this year but I had all the stuff so I got it done. I'm REALLY glad there done. Now I just have to wrap them.

I thought I had kicked the "not feeling well" feeling but it's coming back. Time for bed.

YES!!! No more school for two weeks which means two glorious things:
1. No schedule but our very own!
2. No extra children!

We had an awesome family fun night tonight to kick off the break. We picked up Pops and headed over to Tempe Marketplace where we met up with the cousins and had dinner at California Pizza Kitchen then finished up just in time to walk outside and see the "snow" that falls every night for a few minutes. The cousins ended up playing around and having a blast together that we let them play while we hung out for an hour and stayed for the next snow fall. The boys were very tired and sweating by the time the night was over. However I was in my coat and had gloves on and enjoyed the light rain fall and cooler temps. And if I had thought to take the camera I would have some really great pictures to post...but at last I am only human. Shocker, I know.

I can't believe we're this close to Christmas...it's always comes way to fast and goes way to fast.

On another note...Boss' new favorite snack or meal is boiled eggs. I fixed some the other day and every time he is hungry that's what he asks for. Funny thing is that he likes them with no salt and he only likes the egg whites, not the yoke. Pretty nasty if you ask me, but I figure it's a pretty darn healthy snack.

And Buster declared last night that he only likes the kind of chicken that comes from a chicken. He doesn't like the turkey that comes from a chicken for the roast beef from a chicken. Only the chicken from a chicken. I guess we need to 1. stop calling very type of meat we serve "chicken" just so they'll eat it. and 2.Go over the food chain again and discuss what type of animal gives us what type of meat.

Big miracles come in crazy ways...

Last night after I laid my very sleepy head down the phone rang rather late...like 11pm. It was a friend who needed help right away. On my way to her house I heard the sirens of the fire truck...needless to say I was more than happy to help out last night but pretty tired throughout the day today. By 2pm I could have crashed but I needed to get to three different places before 4:30pm so I could get home and get dinner done and cleaned up by 6pm so I could get the boys in the bath and pj's on and scriptures read before the youth started arriving at 7pm for mutual. One of those places included Costco, which for the record, my boys HATE going to. Still can't figure out why on that one. Anyhow, just as I was about to leave to get Buster from school and head out on our errands my friend calls and invites Buster and Boss over to play with her two boys. This was such a HUGE blessing. I was able to get to Costco and do my other errands and stop by and get Pops' Christmas gift with only Crate in tow. The afternoon went smoothly, I wasn't frazzled, the boys had a blast playing and I got everything done in time and dinner made and cleaned up by 6pm. I felt like the Lord blessed me with energy despite shorter sleep and not feeling 100% still and blessed me by the invitation from a friend to take the boys. Normally I can handle my three children just fine but every once in a while it's nice to get things done with just one.

On another note...tonight for YW's we wanted to do a service project that could benefit the entire ward. The idea the girls came up with was to have ward members drop off a basket or box with gifts for their family members and wrapping paper and we would be the ones to wrap the gifts! It went pretty well...we all stayed busy and got the gifts wrapped and back to the families by the end of the night. I hope we were able to take a load off moms and dads shoulders and in doing so the girls got to hang out together and chat and have a fun time. Hopefully they learned how to nicely wrap presents too!

Now I must be off to slumber land.

What does one do when they don't feel good?

~Have extra children for most the day.
~Do a MAJOR grocery shopping trip with two one year olds and a four year old.
~Clean out and organize the pantry.
~Go visiting teaching
~Take the boys on a bike ride
~Wrap gifts
~Stay up way to late
~Clean out and organize the fridge
~Fix a really good chicken and roasted potatoes for dinner
~Bathe the children
~Have a husband leave for work at 8am and come home at 7:53pm.
~Do the dishes
~Read scriptures with children
~And change A LOT of stinky diapers.

What did one NOT do today?
~Laundry
~Clean up the entire bag of beans spilled by one red-headed child. (yes, they are still scattered ALL over the kitchen floor...raw, black beans. It's a lovely sight.)
~Pull weeds (it's getting to be like a jungle out back)
~take children visiting teaching. (Is it OK to leave children with a 9 year old? Luckily it worked today)
~Sleep
~Get Pops his present. (I didn't have enough energy to tackle more stores than the grocery store.)
~Rest
~Take a shower
~Make my bed
~Fix more than just one side for dinner. (I wanted to do a spinach salad too...but it just didn't happen.)
~Finish making the Christmas presents.

I hope tomorrow I can feel better. It's no fun being sick...life still must go on.

What happens when a fourteen month old gets a hold of confetti?

Three days later you're still picking up pieces of it all around the house. I guess the good part to this is that they are tiny silver stars so it's like we have "stars of Christmas" all round the floor. Lucky us.

I went to make spaghetti for dinner tonight and I was all out of jarred spaghetti sauce. Luckily I had enough tomatoes that needed to be used up so I improvised and with some fresh tomatoes and lots of mixed dry seasonings I made a pretty darn good sauce.

I think Crate and I both might be coming down with something. Hopefully we can both have a good nights rest and kick it out of our systems by morning.

If I could call in sick tomorrow I would...that's one thing I miss about having a job outside the home...sick days and you can still take your kids to the sitter and have the whole day to yourself. But once again, I wouldn't trade this career for anything.

Can it seriously be about the middle of December and at 3pm in the afternoon I'm outside sweating while playing with the boys? Hello, where did this 83 degrees come from?

If I feel like this in the morning I might have to skip my workout. That bites. I hope I'm not grouchy all day because of it.

Buster whispered to Pops tonight that they need to go Christmas shopping for me. Needless to say I put a bug in Busters ear of what they should look for. I like the fact that Buster feels like it's a tradition now for Pops to take him and Boss out shopping for me for Christmas...I hope this tradition always continues :)

So much for Sunday being a "day of rest." Today the day went something like this:
Church at 9am, hung around for an extra hour so we could do tithing settlement at 1pm.
Presidency meeting at 2pm. Buster had bell practice at 2:30pm. 3:45pm presidency meeting over. 3:50pm pick up Buster 4pm start dinner. 5:15pm Pops leaves for AP/YW meeting. 6:15pm meet Pops at church and switch cars and stay at church with Buster for the "It's great to be eight" night. 6:30pm Pops gets home and hosts the Zion's Camp meeting here at our house. 7:40 I get home with Buster. 8:30pm Pops' meeting is done and the boys are in bed. Now it's time for the real "Sunday rest"...I think Pops and I might watch a movie. I give myself 30 minutes before I fall asleep.

Only four more days until school is out for winter break! That means parties and late nights with the boys. Hopefully a little sleeping in too.

Crazy computer was having issues last night so I couldn't post until today.
Speaking of today it's starting out just lovely...Crate woke up at 6:10am after going to bed at 10pm. The two older boys woke up at 6:45am after going to bed at 10:30pm. I made waffles for breakfast and Crate dumped his syrup-filled plate on the floor and it's still sitting upside down on the tile with waffle pieces surrounding it. Pops was supposed to have the day off until yesterday afternoon when clients wanted to see houses today. I woke up feeling under the weather and we're all tired. But I do have the annual friends Christmas party to look forward to tonight! I booked the babysitter almost three weeks ago and can't wait for a fun night!

Pops was invited at the last minute to go with the boy scouts to the Suns game last night and was able to Buster and Boss. They were sooo excited and thought it was cool to hang out with all the scouts. They even got to get in a few hours early and watch the players warm up. Boss was especially excited to be able to go and hang with the big kids. As for Crate and I? We got to go help Marmie move more. All I have to say is that Crate was perfect. Not a cry or whine from the boy. And we were there for five hours. He just played around with whatever he could find. Had a smile on his face and fell asleep 5 minutes after getting in the car 2.5 hours past his bedtime without making a sound. I LOVE his easy going personality.

Long day...didn't go as planned. Missed the enrichment I wanted to attend tonight. Busy afternoon. Ready for bed.

My house is almost clean. I did get up this morning and have been going all day. The best part was listening to my play list at 5am and rocking out to a little AC/DC and Vanilla Ice while cleaning the kitchen and the rest of the house was quiet. The even better part was waking up to see a chunk of the "picking up" part of cleaning up already done. Spouse did it last night after I went to bed. I told him that is the greatest Christmas present ever...and a present he could give all year long. I don't think that made him too excited.

Tonight we took the young women and young men to the temple lights. Note to self...if your between the ages of 12-18 and looking to meet people of the opposite gender that is the place to go on a Wednesday night! If your older than that...STAY AWAY on mutual night. Holy cow it was busy but I think the youth had fun and that's all that matters.

I wanted to get a few Christmas presents wrapped tonight but I still gotta read scriptures and it's getting late. Hopefully I can get to it tomorrow night.

I told Pops it's time for a date again...

My plan was to clean the house tonight after the boys went to bed.
My new plan is to go to bed now and clean at 4am tomorrow morning before the boys wake up.

A couple of the YW were in there school band/choir concert and they invited me to come listen to them. I was more than happy to go and really glad to be invited. The boys liked coming along too and sat pretty darn quiet for the most part.

Pops got to go on splits with the missionaries tonight...I think he was excited to go.

Dinner swap saved us from purchasing crap food tonight. Love dinner swap.

I got to reading a few past posts the other night and really liken remembering what took place over the last year. Part of me wants to continue to post every day and the other part of me longs for some privacy. I guess come January we'll see which part of me wins the fight...

Pops surprised us and got home shortly after 5pm so he could get the Christmas lights on the house tonight. The boys loved being able to help him and they also loved climbing up the ladder. I didn't want to watch that part so I came in the house with Crate. We had FHE together and then did one of our family traditions of lying under the Christmas tree looking up to the top and talking about our favorite parts of Christmas. Of course, Boss pretended that the lights were missals...not surprising. He had all the sound effects to go along with it.

Poor Crate still has a major red rear-end. So red in fact that it's bleeding. I feel bad for that little guy. One nice thing about Crate is that 90% of the time when I go to lay him down for a nap or for the night he lunges for his crib and then once I lay him down he waves and says "bye, bye." The kid loves to go to bed, he must be like his mother in that regard.

Buster stayed home from school today. We needed to help Marmie pack some more so I took the three boys and our little girl friend with me to help out. Four kids while packing could have been a disaster but they actually did pretty well and I think considering, a lot got done.

We got a sneak peak of some of the family pictures that were taken. I have to say I LOVE them so far! Can't wait to see the rest.







I love this one of the boys...


And Crate just melts my heart.


Since we have pictures now we MIGHT...and key word is "might," get around to doing Christmas cards this year. We'll see...

And if you're looking for awesome photographers I'll give you the contact number for Aaron and Shanan Durda, they are awesome!

We had Pops at church with us for the entire block today, it was so nice. He took Crate out when he got restless...I could get used to this!

Family pics got done today. I can't wait to see them!

Hung out with some friends and watched the First Presidency Christmas devotional tonight. It was fun to hang with them. I miss having them in our ward.

Poor Crate has something going on in his body...his diapers have been pretty bad today. OK...diapers are the only thing I can think writing about. It must be time for bed for me.

Why does Crate and Boss have bruises on their faces right when we're about to have our family pictures taken? This should make for lovely memories.

Found killer deals at Macy's today. Needed to return some items and found $89 jeans for $9.99 and a sweet coat that was regularly $100 I got for $20. Then I had a 25% off coupon. I was super excited. I now have more than one pair of jeans...it's about time. And it's killer to find the prefect jean. I wouldn't call these perfect but for 10 bucks they'll work great.

Ward Christmas party was tonight, a big success as usual. Buster got to be a Shepard in the manger scene...which he was actually excited to do.

We went to the Poinsettia festival today...I think we're good to not visit it again for 10 years.

We were happy that Pops spent a chunk of the afternoon with us, he did have to work this morning and in the evening but it was nice having him hang out with us in the afternoon. We all like to have him around.

Pops was off to basketball before the sun rose and the boys all slept in til 8am. That was a Christmas miracle! I stayed in bed until they came in the room and then we hung out in bed for a little while this morning. It's been a long time since I stayed in bed that late and I have to admit I really enjoyed it. I am looking forward to a little later start time for church so I can do that more often.

Went to bed way to late last night...like midnight. I stayed up and watched the ASU/U of A football game with Pops. Then got up to exercise and by the time I picked up Buster from school it had caught up to me. Luckily Crate was ready for a nap too so we both went down while the the two older boys played a video game. All of us at our favorite spots, perfect.

Then I braved a trip to Wal-Mart at 5pm with the boys...those workers on the Wal-mart advertisements must be good actors because the workers at our store aren't necessarily like that. We picked up a Christmas movie at Redbox and we're going to have a mother-sons date night since Pops is out working late tonight.

I think it's safe to say that if I took a nap every afternoon and I would be a new mother...I should some how fit that into the schedule...

The Christmas stuff is up. Except the lights for the outside of the house. Hopefully those will go up soon. The boys decorated the tree. Not exactly my idea of a Martha Stewart tree but they had fun doing it. Of course the bottom 24 inches are empty so Crate can't destroy anything. It's fun to have everything up.

We played outside a lot today. Crate would live outside if I let him. He hates when it's time to come inside.

Tried a new marinade for the chicken for dinner tonight. Everyone loved it except me. I was hoping it had more of a kick to it. Oh well.

Boss got Tabasco sauce in his mouth today for yelling. I haven't had to give that to him for about a year. I felt bad doing it but he knows better than to yell like he did. He cried and cried but I think he learned his lesson. It's sad to have to discipline the boys but I know it's for there good. Yelling in the house is one thing I cannot handle. It drives me crazy. Hopefully it won't happen again for a long time.

Our YW's progressive dinner was a success. This is the third year in a row we've done this. I wonder if the tradition will continue on when I'm released, the girls seem to really like it!

We have absolutely nothing "Christmas" up yet. I told Pops that everything is going up tomorrow with or without him here. If tomorrow ends up being like the last several nights, it will be without him. I just hope I am strong enough to move the Christmas tree into the house by myself. I'm confident I can get the lights on the house by myself.

I just heard an odd noise and when I went to see what it was I found Buster peeing in the hall closet. Gross...this is not one of those "fun" parenting moments. He is obviously asleep cause when I asked him what he's doing he replied "the people making the movie asked me to help them write some parts for it." What the heck is he dreaming? Our suitcases now smell like pee and Pops isn't going to be to happy to come home and see that Buster peed on our emergency light and radio. The closet door is right next to the bathroom door so I'm sure it didn't even click with him what he was doing. This is disgusting to clean up. I think I would have preferred for him to pee his bed.

I love taking the kids to the park and being there all of five minutes and hearing older kids use language that only sailors use. It's just wonderful and makes me want to return to the park real soon. Grrrrr......

Crate now says "Hi" as plain as day and waves his hand and says "bye, bye." Although when it comes out it sounds like "buh, buh." He's really into turning the light switches on and off and will push a chair to any light switch and try to stand on the chair to reach the switches to play with them. He can almost say "light." Man, he's growing up way to fast.

The boys declared they want a puppy for Christmas. I told them that wasn't going to happen. Buster then proceeds to tell me "fine, I'll just ask Santa for it." To which I replied, "I'll tell Santa not to get it for you." He didn't like that answer. I'm glad Santa and I are on a first names basis.