California Dreamin'

Have I mentioned before how much I LOVE living closer to my sister? It's absolutely dreamy.

We got to have another weekend at her house recently. The fun was almost mind blowing. See?


We spent an afternoon at a nearby park with fun kiddie rides.

(Kids at the very back.)


Don't think Bryce was left out on any of this fun....what a fortuitous little accident of lunch!

"Hey, don't clean that up!!"


And one more...an awesome dress-up combo by Leah:


Throw in a date night on Saturday and it was pretty much the perfect weekend (for me anyway---Keith spent the day working on cadavers at a nearby conference. Ewww.)

We love love LOVE living so close to such fun cousins! We are looking for any excuse to go back again soon. :)

Cake Wrecks

Dalita Jones.

Poor Dalita Jones (name has been changed to protect the not-so-innocent) has been a legend in our house for years. We met Dalita shortly after we moved to Philadelphia (10 years ago now) and started attending church in a pretty seedy area of North Philly. Correction: it was The Ghetto. Our church met in an old building that was formerly a Jewish mortuary. We had many youth activities out in the hearse garage. We had Sunday School in one of the bedrooms above the chapel. Which room did they use to store the bodies? (shudder) Oh, the stories we could tell.....

Anyway, back to Dalita. Dalita was a classic. She was everything you would expect of someone that lived within walking distance of that church building. Although I never visited her home, I'm sure she lived in a bombed out row home among scores of drug dealers and gang bangers. It was a very, very rough part of town. And poor Dalita was tough as nails. She was a single mom and had to be as mean as they come to live where she lived. Man, she was a piece of work.

For our ward Christmas party that year, we had a service exchange. Everyone listed a service you could provide to someone in the ward on a Christmas tree ornament. Then you would hang your ornament and take another in exchange. How fun and full of Christmas spirit, right?

Dalita picked an ornament from the Bishop's wife. The ornament read that the Bishop's wife would be willing give away a cake. How thoughtful!

Well, a week or two later, Dalita woke up hungry. She called the Bishop's wife on Sunday morning and said she wanted her cake that day and asked if she could bring it to church that afternoon. The Bishop's wife, I'm sure, had to really hustle to get a cake ready so quickly in addition to getting herself and her kids ready for church while her husband was busy with church meetings. But, being full of love and service, she whipped a cake up as fast as her Mormon hands could bake.

Near the end of the meeting, Keith and I heard yelling in the hall. With our church in such a rotten area, and right next door to a Burger King (fries never smelled so good as during a fast Sunday!), we had our fair share of wacky stragglers that ended up hanging out in the foyer. But this sounded different. It was YELLING.

Keith and I walked out into the foyer and witnessed the end of a big, ugly brawl. There was a cake in the garbage can and two scrawny little missionaries were trying to hold back two big North Philly broads from beating the tar out of each other in the foyer of the church.

There was a lot of commotion but I did hear comments from Dalita such as "YOU CALL THIS A CAKE???!?!!!!" and "I DON'T WANT NO HOME MADE CAKE!!!!" and some other choice phrases that I'll keep tucked away in my mind, to be used in the event of a street fight or other self defense emergency. I'm not saying the Bishop's wife wasn't participating in the exchange either. There were accusations a-flyin'. And it wasn't pretty.

Poor Dalita wanted a store bought cake. She wanted sprinkles, you see. And her name written out in beautiful cursive. No, a Betty Crocker mix and a tub of frosting just wouldn't do. Dalita was so terribly offended by this massive offense that she even stopped coming to church for awhile.

Isn't that a great story? It just brings back such fun memories....

So this past week, we had a service exchange at our new church. I sat with a table of women at the beginning of the night and over dinner, shared with them the lovely story of Dalita Jones and the Bishop's wife. It's just such a classic!

After I shared the story, I declared that in honor of "Dalita Jones and the Great Cake Fight", I was going to offer a cake for my service exchange. I do make a mean cake, after all.

The service exchange that night involved each person blindly picking a card from the bowl and announcing what service they had picked from all the submissions. It was really a lovely night. People were offering free babysitting services, homemade cinnamon rolls, spring cleaning help, hand made scarves, knitted dishtowels, and all kinds of thoughtful and delightful fun.

As luck would have it, my service card was the last in the bowl to be drawn. And as luck would have it, the response from the recipient was this (publicly, mind you):

"A cake from Andrea Card? What would I want a cake for?" Then she proceeded to roll her eyes and I think she even made a gagging sound while she stuck out her tongue, plus other comments that continued after she sat down.

A stunned group of women stared at me, aghast at what they had just witnessed. I had been publicly shunned!! I think she might have wanted to fight me in the foyer! My cake got the equivalent of being thrown in the trash by Dalita Jones! UNBELIEVABLE!!!

But I just had to laugh. Serves me right trying to give a cake away at a service exchange!

The moral of this story: NOBODY DON'T WANT NO HOME MADE CAKE!!!

There just could not be a better ending to this story. Way to stand up for your sprinkles Dalita Jones!

Quote of the Day

Bennett emerged from cleaning his room and announced: "Mom, when I am six, I am NEVER going to play again!"

Me: "Ok. Why?"

Bennett: "Because when I'm six, I'm going to be ready for big responsibilities."

Me: "Wow--what kind of responsibilities do you want when you are six?"

Bennett replies very seriously: "I am going to help my dad every day! I'm going to work in his shop and do my chores and help every single time my dad asks. I am not going to play anymore. Only if my dad wants to play, then I'll play."



The kid would give up all his toys just to be able to hang around with his dad. That is power.

Merry Christmas!!

We had a very merry Christmas, indeed.

We started off the fun on Christmas Eve. Some friends invited us to their Christmas Eve feast (wow, so good!). As we were enjoying dinner, the doorbell rang. And look who showed up!!!

Apparently, his runner broke on his sleigh and he stopped in Carson City for a while so it could be fixed. He hitched a ride to our party with the local Sheriff and even had a bag of gifts especially for the kids! I mean, really, how cool is that??


Once the kids were totally worn out from all the fun, we came home and sent them to bed. In the meantime, this happened...

And in the morning, this happened....

There's just nothing as fun and exhausting as the Christmas mess.

We spent the day putting together toys and enjoying the fun. Sadly, Keith was so sick all weekend. He even took medicine--that's when you know he's super sick and would rather die! He was a good sport about trying to have fun but he did spend a fair amount of time in bed.


And this....OH. MY. GOODNESS.


I love that Santa!! Bennett wore that same outfit FIVE years ago in my first ever blog post.

Fun story...on Christmas Eve, our friends commented on Bennett's level of excitement when he opened his toy from Santa. "NOOOO WAAAAAAY!!!!!! COOOOOOL!" His eyes were about to pop out of his head and he immediately went to work on his new toy and told everyone about how awesome and cool it was and that it was "EXACTLY what I wanted!!!!". I laughed and told our friend that he would probably have that same reaction if he had gotten a pencil.

The next morning, as he was pulling things out of his stocking (which was all Keith's doing), I heard this: "NOOOOO WAAAAAAY!!!! PENCILS!!!!!!"

The Christmas Tree

We had a fun Christmas Tree adventure this year. We bought a permit from the forest service for $10 and were able to head up to the mountains and chop down a tree. It was a really fun day. We took a scenic tour by the lake and ended up looking for our tree along an old wagon trail carved out by the Mormon Battalion near Hope Valley (thanks great-great-great(+?) grandpa).

Keith got out his trusty hand saw (and found a pair of Leah's glasses in the trunk while he was at it) and headed out--with a cute baby on his back no less!!


Can you even stand the cuteness? I'm telling you, this was family fun for everyone.


Once we hiked up on the old wagon road a bit, it became obvious that we needed to go off the beaten path to find a good tree. So Keith and Bryce hiked up the mountain to scout out the area. In the meantime, Bennett and Leah and I kept busy on a little sledding hill.



A little while later, Keith emerged from the woods dragging the perfect tree.


Although, once we got the tree to the car, we realized that it was a little bigger than we thought. It looked a lot smaller next to all the towering pines in the forest!


Today that very tree is among empty boxes, piles of paper, and all kinds of toys and Christmas fun. We are totally loving today. Up next: the evidence of said mess.

Christmas Fun

Christmas with kids is SO. MUCH. FUN.

One of our favorite Christmas things we did this year was the Santa train. There is a cute little train museum in town and a couple of times a year they pull out one of the restored steam engines and stoke the coal fire for some nostalgic fun. Anyone that knows Bennett knows he LOVES trains. I definitely couldn't pass that up.

There's something pretty awesome about holding a ticket in your hand.

The coach we were in was well over 100 years old.


And look who showed up!!!! There's was some mysterious gray hair behind that white beard but I don't think anyone else noticed. :)


We caught up with the conductor afterwards and he didn't disappoint. Seeing "Sir Topham Hat" was almost as cool as seeing Santa.


We also had another chance to see Santa at our library story time last week. This Santa was the real deal. Bryce even yanked on his beard to be sure.




The excitement is palpable at our house!! Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday Leah!

My baby girl is three. How is that possible?


I love her more than words can say. She is absolutely the sweetest thing--with some attitude thrown in for good measure. :)

It's amazing how much she's grown in the past year. She's tall--wearing 4T already! She practically potty trained herself this summer. One accident and that was it. Even at night. Sooooo easy compared to Bennett. She talks so much better than a year ago. It's amazing how that speech lightbulb just switches on and they seem to pick it up so fast. She and Bennett have really become buddies this year and it's so fun to watch them play together (plenty of fighting also thrown in for good measure...). They love sharing a room together and they follow each other everywhere. She's also a great big sister. She adores little Bryce and tries so hard to take care of him. Never mind that "helping" usually makes him cry. Her heart is sometimes bigger than her ability.

We had a fantastic day celebrating Leah today. We started the morning off with waffles and OJ for breakfast and let her open her first present....



A pink cowboy hat!!!



Leah has talked about being a cowboy lately. She has said that when she turns 8 and gets baptized, she wants to be a cowboy. How's that for a weird connection? Plus, I caught her like this the other day:
She was sitting on her horse and the baby's bumbo was her hat. So a real cowgirl hat was definitely in order for her birthday! She has hardly taken it off all day. Although, the cap guns were apparently over the top. Those got pretty much relegated to Bennett once she realized that they were noisy. I guess she's a quiet cowgirl.

We also decorated a gingerbread house (a birthday tradition 2 years running)-


And had fun decorating her cupcakes.

Three candles!! Happy Birthday to our sweet Leah!

Perspective

I had a bit of an epiphany over Thanksgiving.

As I sat in my sister's house with a table full of amazing food, I felt a little sorry for myself. First, my sweet husband was by himself that day (enjoying casino food, no less). I am sick of spending holidays alone! Plus, the fact that our house in Kentucky is still for sale has been a MAJOR sore spot for me. I have been a little obsessed with frustration about it lately. We are squished into a small rental house while continuing to pay for our sprawling lake house--which has a brand new kitchen, new carpet, and the smell of fresh paint. I HATE how much money we continue to dump into that house--the mortgage, the lawn guy, the cleaning lady, the bills of all the updates we did right at the end.... POOR ME!!! WAAAAAA!

And then I realized what an idiot I am. As I sat there at the Thanksgiving table with my adorable sister (only a couple hours drive away!!!) and watched my kids thrill at having cousins to play with, I thought back to last Thanksgiving.

Last Thanksgiving was a bad time in our lives. We had just ripped apart our kitchen for a major remodel. Our house was a complete disaster. I was suddenly transported back to standing in the cold, dark corner of our living room cooking over a little butane gas burner, eating one dish dinners from paper plates and plastic spoons, being hugely pregnant, and realizing that we were totally screwed. Keith hated his job. We had only recently come to the realization that we needed to find a new job for him by the time his contract expired in summer. Last Thanksgiving, we had just sent off a resume to a practice near Lake Tahoe and every night we prayed so hard that they would call Keith. The thought of putting our house back together in order to sell it, have a baby, find a job, move to who-knows-where, all within the next couple of months was so unbearably miserable. Life SUCKED.

Fast forward a year...

I have a beautiful, healthy baby and a happy family. Keith LOVES his job. Of all the jobs we were considering last Thanksgiving, this is the one that he wanted the most. A total dream job. We live barely 20 minutes from the beach! We go hiking, biking, climbing, and we can drive to see family in just a couple hours! He has a lot of respect for the people he works with and feels challenged and happy to go to work everyday. Today we are living the dream that last year we totally ached for.

So what if my house is still for sale? So what if we are cramped into a small house? I don't care if my house doesn't sell for 5 more years. I don't care how poor those mortgage payments make us feel.

All things considered, we are living the dream! Life feels so beautiful since that change in perspective. My small house doesn't drive me crazy. I would be happy to live here forever if we have to. I didn't even wince when paying my last mortgage payment. I'll gladly do it considering everything else I have to be thankful for.

I will go, I will do

"I will go, I will do
The things the Lord commands.
I know the Lord provides a way
He wants me to obey."
Nephi's Courage, LDS Children's Songbook #120

We had big plans for Thanksgiving. For days the kids had been counting down to our visit to my sister Shannon's house in San Jose, a 4 hour drive away. They were completely beside themselves in anticipation. I, on the other hand, was probably just as excited, without all the jumping up and down. Shannon and I had spent several phone calls ironing out the details of our Thanksgiving feast. Which recipes, best turkey cooking method, narrowing down our long list of pies, and double checking our shopping list.

We were planning the feast of all feasts.

Not only that, we had big plans for the rest of the holiday weekend. In addition to our cooking frenzy, we had considered black Friday shopping, running a 10k, taking the kids to the zoo, and leaving the kids with my oldest niece and having a date night(!!!!). Keith had also planned a 30 mile trail run that was to be the highlight of his week.

We spent all morning on Wednesday packing and loading up the car. Keith had worked out his schedule so that he was done at noon. Since his office is on the south end of town and close to the road we were using to get outta dodge, I drove to his office and picked him up then left the caddy in the parking lot. We couldn't wait to be on the road!! We spent just a few minutes putting gas in the car, then stopping at the nearest fast food joint so we could eat and run. Woot! Let the fun begin!!!

We were just getting our bag of tacos handed to us from the drive-thru window when the phone rang.

It was the hospital.

Can you hear the disappointment?

Since we were still technically in town (even though we were literally 1 minute away from driving 65 mph out of town) Keith took the call. He told them he would be there right away.

So we went back to his office, picked up the other car and drove back home. Boo.

As I followed Keith home in the caddy, I hoped that the patient had a minor issue that could still get us on the road in an hour or so. I should know better. That has NEVER happened!!!

Keith, on the other hand, already knew that this was putting a big hole in the weekend plans. He knew he was going to have to do surgery, which would also mean that he needed to round on the patient daily until they were discharged. He wasn't leaving town. This certainly wouldn't be the first holiday he's spent working and he came to terms with that reality years ago.

As he drove home, he explained to Bennett and Leah that he needed to go take care of a sick person and that they were going to have to go to Aunt Shannon's without him.

When we pulled into the driveway at home, Keith immediately insisted that I get on the road so that I could drive over the Sierra's before dark. I refused. There was NO WAY I was leaving him for Thanksgiving. Besides, he hadn't even seen the patient yet. Maybe the person wasn't that bad, I reasoned. Maybe the person could wait until we got back for surgery. (Four days?? Yeah right. Get a friggin clue, Andrea.)

With me refusing to leave town without him, Keith left for the hospital. I sat home with the kids and waited anxiously for a phone call (saying, of course, that Keith had magically fixed the person in a record 15 minutes and we were free to go anytime).

Meanwhile, the kids were still ready to get outta town. They had cousins to see! Toys to play with! Fun to be had!!! They didn't care who was or wasn't coming and couldn't figure out why I was still sitting on the couch.

"Mom! Let's go!!! Dad told us we have to go without him!" complained Bennett

"I'm not going without your Dad. Sorry guys. We have to wait until he calls us."

"But moooom! He said we have to go without him!"

"Bennett, we might not be able to go. We can't leave Dad home alone for Thankgiving. He would be so sad."

"Mom. Dad said we have to go. And I will go, I will do the things my father commands!"

Well, at least we know our Family Home Evening lesson had an impact.....



Fast forward...the phone call came. Keith was taking the patient to surgery. He insisted we go to Shannon's without him and not crush the kids excitement of spending time with cousins.

We did go. We had fun. We cooked and ate lots. The kids played and loved every minute of it.

Keith spent a (or should I say another) lonely Thanksgiving at the hospital. But he did manage to get a turkey dinner.

The Nugget Casino. $9.99.

Ahhhh.....Nevada. :)

Brothers

The definition of awesome=

Halloween

A bumblebee, a pumpkin, and spiderman. There's nothing better.

Especially when they bring home buckets of candy.



And there are just no words for this:

Smiles

Is there anything cuter???!!!


I'm dying right now. Those smiley cheeks are taking a nap and I'm about to go wake him up just to smother him with kisses!


Five months!!! He's growing up too fast!

Soda Mom

So, this whole public education thing is new ballgame for me. Since being a stay-at-home mom, I have loved the freedom of doing what I want, when I want (excluding nap times, of course). Now, life revolves around 12:10 (drop off at school) and 3:19 (bus arrives). I'm learning to conform but darn it, sometimes I just want to stay in my pajamas all day and have no reason to leave the house!!

Plus, I don't really love having my parenting on display. Take for example the two straight weeks that Bennett wanted nothing on his feet besides his fireman rain boots. Who cares that it was 85 degrees outside? Those boots were cool to him. But was the teacher thinking I was a careless parent for letting him wear rain boots when there was no RAIN? Or today's example...I had some church meetings this morning and knew that I would be short on time before school started. The solution was to let the kids eat in the car while we went from the church meeting to the carpool stops to the school. Somewhere along the way, Bennett had a mustard covered pickle fall out of his sandwich, roll down his shirt, and plop all over his lap. Lovely. Possible teacher reaction: "Why does this kid show up looking so dirty? Doesn't his mom look at him before he leaves the house?"

Bennett does love kindergarten though. I love watching him get off the bus with a big smile and having him pull treasured art projects out of his backpack.

The best day of the week--by far--is FUN FRIDAY. We have a countdown for it all week long. See, on Fun Friday, they have DOUBLE recess AND they have snacks!! What could be cooler??? Not only that, if you are the person assigned to bring the snack, they call you a SNACK MASTER. Anything with the word master in it is super, super cool.

So last week, Bennett was assigned to be a Snack Master. Excitement was palpable at our house in anticipation of his Fun Friday! At the start of the school year, his teacher sent a note home explaining the snack schedule and encouraged parents to help the kids chose healthy snacks to share.

The problem is...Bennett was assigned to bring a drink. In my book there is no healthy drink besides water or skim milk. Any other flavored drink is reserved for parties, picnics, or happy meals. What to do? You can't buy milk in kid-sized portions and water seemed like a completely lame idea according to Bennett.

His answer....soda!!! He said that they had had juice boxes every single week and he wanted to bring something different. He knew the kids would love to have soda! He talked about it for days and kept asking to go to the store to buy his soda. What could I do?

Look, the truth is there's not a lot of difference between a soda and a juice(less) box. But for some reason there is a perception of good health when there's a drawing of a piece of fruit on the package.

I say if the kid wants to bring soda, let him bring soda. I bought the little mini cans--90 calories each--and let Bennett load them into his backpack on Friday. His knees were almost buckling under the weight of 24 mini Sprites. But he was so excited!!!

"She let him bring soda?" I knew that would be a likely reaction from some juice box purists. And rumor has it that a friend of mine had to explain the striking similarities of soda and juice boxes to one such parent.

Does that make me a bad mom? I let my kid take soda (gasp!!) to school! What's next? Drinking parties at my house? It's such a slippery slope!

To a lifetime of bad parenting on display for teachers and judgemental parents alike....Cheers!

Catching up

I haven't blogged nearly enough lately.

It's not because I haven't had anything to write about. We have definitely been busy lately. The problem is that I'm rarely two-handed at the computer these days. Usually, I'm busy holding my sweet baby boy. But when he's asleep and Bennett is at school, I'm usually busy entertaining Leah. The days of a perfectly quiet naptime are quickly coming to a screeching halt. Leah has realized that forgoing naptime means she gets one-on-one time with mommy. I know I'll miss these days when she's old enough to not want to sit on my lap and read books and watch movies together. But for today, I kinda want to take a nap!

So, I'll try to squeeze in more updates on this here blogeddy blog. For now, here's a couple of recent favs of the kiddos.

Bennett's mad face:


Is there anything cuter than girl with princess gear?


Lounging by the pool: