Holy cow! Time literally flies by and sometimes it feels there are just not enough hours in the day. A quick recap of life.

Last week we took a last minute quick trip to Carlsbad, CA and visited Legoland.(We left Monday afternoon and came back Wednesday.) The boys of course had a blast. When I ask Crate what the best part of the trip was his response is "ruff, ruffs" which translated means "waffles". The kid is obsessed with waffles and the hotel we stayed at had big huge ones for breakfast. He was in heaven. I do have to admit they were really good.

The best part of the trip for me was the drive to and from California. I drove the entire time both ways cause Pops had to work and prepare some big upcoming church assignments. I'm thankful for technology that allowed us to take this trip and that Pops didn't have to miss much work. Is it wrong though that he walked around Legoland with his ipad? I say, "heck, if that's what it takes for a get-a-way I'm game!" I'm just grateful he has business to take care of...it could be the opposite. Anyhow the drive made it great for me because I did absolutely nothing except drive for 5 hours. Pops had to deal with the issues of "I want a snack" or "when are you going to be there?" There may or may not have been issues such as "he's touching me" or "that's not the movie I want to watch" or "he can see better cause he's closer to the screen..." I just sat there with my ear phones in and listened to the entire general conference session for October 2011 once again. I also listened to the Priesthood session...man that's some good stuff. It was like 10 total hours of complete bliss. The stinky part was though that Pops had it relatively easy...the boys were almost perfect during the ride over there and back. For some reason when I'm the one not driving and tending to them it's not the case. Go figure. The ride home was blissful though because Crate and Lumber Jack both fell asleep about 10 minutes into the drive and literally did not wake up again until we got home. We didn't stop the entire way home. The gas tank was on E but we made it. We got home late Wednesday night...just in time for thanksgiving.

(Is this not the best site for a parent to see during a road trip?)

My assignment for Thanksgiving this year was to bring the rolls and potatoes. I tried two new recipes for these and luckily they both turned out great! The potatoes came from
Pioneer Woman and the rolls were homemade crescent rolls with a cran-raspberry butter...recipe courtesy of my friend. I have to admit I thought they were divine and enjoyed more than my fair share. But what's new...when it comes to food, especially carbs I tend to always enjoy more than my fair share. I'll take almost any type of bread over chocolate any day. We had a enjoyable afternoon with Pops' side of the family and ate our little hearts out.

In other news, we were invited to a surprise 30th birthday party for a good friend. Since she was born in the 80's the theme was an 80's theme...thus we got to dress up. Pops was calling around to some more "mature" friends of his in the stake to find a "members only" jacket to wear. I didn't know what one was but he said they were the bomb in the 80's. Well no one had one...I wonder why :)... so we took a quick trip to Goodwill and low and behold what was hanging there...A members only redish jacket in his size. By his reaction you would of thought he won the lottery. He's not one to show a ton of emotion about things but this made him pretty darn excited. It was kind of funny. Anyhow he happened to find some nasty white washed jeans and an original Tron shirt. FYI the original Tron movie came out in 1982...it's funny that he remembers that but I have to remind him of the kids birth dates...
Anyhow I picked up a few things myself, slapped on some blue eye shadow and looked like I was ready for a Sinead O'Conner concert. Remember her?...one of her songs brings back great memories of my 5th grade recess. That's another story. Anyhow...guess who won the prize! Nope, not Pops with his cool "Members Only" jacket but yours truly! Like totally rad, huh!


(To bad you can't see Pops' pegged pants with his matching red high tops...and yes, he did grow a nasty mustache for this...it worked out that he didn't have any church meetings that week so he was able to grow it. I'm glad he shaves.)

We had a great time at the party and once again I am grateful for good friends who accept you for who you are and for fun games.

The tree is up and the house is decorated. This is how Lumber spent his time while we decorated... (He loves his thumb)


But then he joined in on the fun!


We still have the dog...not quite sure what I was thinking by wanting to keep her. Anyone know of someone missing a dog here in the area? She's awesome with the boys, quiet and pretty obedient but is still a dog and does shed hair. Luckily it's short hair.

Monday I felt like this house was smelling like dog and it desperately needed to be cleaned. If I wait during the day to tackle the major cleaning I feel like I ignore the boys and then it literally takes me all day. So yesterday morning I set the alarm for 3:30am got up, did all the sweeping, mopping, bathrooms laundry, dishes, dusting and finished up just prior to 7am in time to get the boys ready for school. It was awesome. I wasn't interrupted at all, no distractions and I had the whole day ahead with everything here at the house caught up on. I think this will be my plan of attack once a week until I can hire someone. :) I would highly recommend it, I got a 40 minute nap on the couch in the afternoon and was good to go until bed time.

However...it's now 24 hours later and you would never know I was cleaning...Thanks to the dog though the floor has stayed cleaner than normal. Maybe it's worth keeping her just for that reason, a personal broom that doesn't argue or give excuses when they're asked to sweep the floor. I'm sure my kids are the only ones that would care not to sweep a floor ever again in their lives. I hope their wives LOVE to sweep, because they don't.

Speaking of bedtime...it's about that time now.