not another elf post

I know it has been forever since I've posted anything other than elf dances. I'll admit that I got a little carried away with the elves, but I loved to hear Lucy laugh and at her daddy dancing and want me to play it again. Now it's Christmas and I'll be to busy to do much of anything, but...

I'll be back!

Political Christmas Greetings

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Cadence, Lucia, and Lucy

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

elf man and pirate

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

elf girls

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Elf 1

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

How the cowboy's talk...

Over Thanksgiving break, Hot Hubby took the three oldest kids back in the woods to look at the salt lick they had put up for the deer. On the way back home he pointed out a deer track to all the kids. Briley and Will looked at it and ran on ahead to the house while Elijah stood there contemplating it.

"That's a darn good deer track." he said, only he didn't say darn. He said the other word.

"What did you say?" asked a my Hot Hubby.

"I said, 'that's a darn good deer track." (again, not really using darn.)

Hot Hubby just kind of chuckled and said, "Elijah, that is not a word that we use."

Elijah just shrugged.

Hot Hubby then asked, "Where did you hear that word? Your mom and I don't talk like that?"

He replied, "That's how the cowboy's talk, and I'm a cowboy."

A few months ago Elijah also used THAT word while Hot Hubby was putting him to bed. When asked where he had learned that word he told us that Gran Jan, Hot Hubby's mom, had told it to him. He said that she was telling him bad words that we shouldn't say and "she wouldn't say them to me, only spell them. She tried to trick me a spell it wrong, but I figured it out."

Now take a minute and think about the spelling and how a child might think it was spelled wrong and then LAUGH!

Our little cowboy... what are we going to do with him?

Can't you just hear the song...

"Mama, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys!"

Will's Christmas List

Our 5 year old, Will told me AGAIN last night what he wanted for Christmas. He came up to me, after we had put him in bed, and the conversation went like this:

"Will, you are supposed to be in bed."

"But mom, I wanted to tell you what I wanted for Christmas."

I just looked at him and sort of rolled my eyes like any mom of 5 kids who has been waiting for this moment of peace when they are all in bed would do. He continued...

"I know you and dad will only get me one present, but I wanted to tell you what else I wanted so you can tell other people to get it for me."

"Ok, Will, what do you want, but I think most people have already bought your presents."

"I want Indiana Jones Legos because Elijah keeps taking the Lego man I play with and says I can't use him for Indiana Jones and I really need one that is mine."

"OK, and what else?"

"I need that skull set from Playmobil because it's pirates and has a skeleton and we use to have a skeleton, but remember when part of it got broken or something. So I really need that skull set."

"And..."

"Hmm, and I probably need a calendar."

"A calendar?"

"Yeah."

We wait for about 30 seconds and he adds

"Except what exactly is a calendar?"

I chuckle and say, "It helps you to see what day of the month it is."

He says, "Yeah. I need one of those."


I just thought that was cute and worth sharing!

The leftovers from Thanksgiving Dinner

Well, Thanksgiving is over. I've cooked. I'm done cooking. Forever.

OK, I'm back. We went out for pizza so I feel like I can cook again. Here are some pictures of what I made to take to my in-laws for our big family lunch. Of coarse I didn't think to take the pictures before we ate, so you get to see the leftovers.

First up, the scrumptious green beans cooked the southern way.

(Which means lots of sugar, salt, and time on the burner!)

Then I tried my hand for the first time on the Whiskey Glazed Carrots that The Pioneer Woman makes. The picture looks bad because they've been in the fridge and the glaze has thickened up. I hear they tasted very good. (I wouldn't know because I don't eat carrots unless they are in a soup or pot pie where you can't taste them.) In order to make this I had to go and buy some Jack Daniels. Here I am with my baby, in the liquor store, total lost. The nice lady helped me out and called me hon. I felt better.

Here is the mac and cheese. Homemade. From scratch. The best ever, next to my mom's. One of our family favorites. Try it and you won't go back to the box!

Then the big hit-Strawberry Pretzel Salad!

The kids went wild. You can here them cheering from your house right now, can't ya?

This chunk was taken away by the kids at the family lunch and this last half, finished off by my kids that night.

Here is a view of all the creamy layers. Actually one fruity, one creamy, and one sweet, sour, and crunchy.

Everybody likes strawberries!

All we have left is a teeny, tiny, bit of the carrots. It was hard work, but well worth it. Can't wait until next year!

Indiana Jones

We bought our nutcracker from Target the other day. It was the Indiana Jones one. As we were driving through town, Lucy saw a billboard advertisement for the Nutcracker Ballet. She pointed the picture of the nutcracker and started yelling, "Look, Indiana Jones! Indiana Jones!" It took me a while to realize that there wasn't a picture on Indiana Jones, but that all nutcrackers are not nutcrackers, but are called Indiana Jones' to her. Isn't that cute?

What Lucy thinks I look like

Lucy has started playing now where she picks a doll and says it's her and then the other dolls are her sister or me, etc. She has also started doing it with books. Anytime we read a princess story she'll point to the princess and say, "That's me mommy. That's Lucy."

Brad was reading her Beauty and the Beast the other night and she immediately said that this was her:

Lucy

Then she picked this one out to be Brad. (Not the one in the mirror. I'll get to that later.)

Brad

This one is Paw Paw:

Paw Paw

Now here is the one I'd have to disagree with. I don't know why on earth she would pick this character for me. Is this how I really look and act to her? Come on!

Mommy

Do you think this is fair? I don't.

The Other Kids' Tacos

My last post talked about how my son ate his taco. Once I brought out the camera, all the kids wanted to have their pictures taken eating their tacos. So...I thought I better make a post about them so that when they get bigger and read this blog they won't feel like I only care about their brother. Sound familiar?

So here is Will eating the cheese out of his taco.

Actually I think it is the cheese straight out of the bowl.

And yes, this is the way he wanted his picture taken.

Here is Briley biting into a meatless taco. (The meat is to spicy for her and I usually take a little bit out before I season it, but I forgot this time.)

Here is Lucy hiding behind her cheese triangle.

I think she ate about five or six of these. She loves cheese!

Here is Sweet Potato Mouth! He isn't eating tacos, just crackers. And sweet potatoes. And oatmeal with apricots and mixed fruit. And cheerios. Anything to keep him happy!

That wraps up the eating taco posts!

Elijah's taco

We had tacos for dinner the other night and I noticed Elijah munching kind of funny on edge of his taco. I asked him what he was doing and he said he had to make it even with the other side. He's a little OCD, just like his mom.

Here's the finished project. Do you call that even?

Charlie Brown and warm chocolate

We started a semi-new tradition this year. During the holidays, Charlie Brown always comes on. We watch it every year and it's so much fun to see how the kids look forward to it. They laugh the whole way through the show. This year we've added warm chocolate to our tradition of watching Charlie Brown. (We can't have "hot" chocolate so we have "warm" instead.)

So far we've watched the Halloween and Thanksgiving shows. The Christmas one comes on next week. I'm sure we'll watch that one too.

The Nutcracker

We started a new Christmas tradition four years ago. Each year we buy a different nutcracker.

This year we bought the Indiana Jones nutcracker.

It comes with his whip and satchel.

Here he is talking. "Snakes! Why does it have to be snakes?!"

I'll put up pictures of our other nutcrackers once I get the Christmas stuff out, but don't expect any pics until at least December 20Th. I've got a million other things to do, believe it or not.

Books we are reading

Hot Hubby is reading a book to Briley and Will at night. They are reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Maybe Hot Hubby is reading, or maybe he is sleeping. (Sorry about the picture, Hot Hubby!)

While they read their book, I take the other kids upstairs and read to them. I am reading The Coral Island with Elijah. Lucy brings me any book she can find. We love reading!

The Tooth Fairy

Elijah lost another tooth the other day. It was one of his "fangs." He thought he would try and see if the Tooth Fairy was real so he didn't tell anyone that he had lost his tooth.




Well, sure enough, she came! When he got up in the morning there was a book about dinosaurs under his pillow. Now all the kids are working on trying to loosen up their teeth.

Thanksgiving Party!

We had the Thanksgiving party. Elijah dressed himself as a pilgrim. He didn't want to be an Indian. Thank goodness. It was hard enough making Will's Indian costume.

He put on Will's Jack Sparrow costume, Briley's tights, and yellow buckles on his church shoes. It worked! Here he is in the hat he made at the party.

Briley made a girl pilgrim hat. So now she's an Indian pilgrim. She lost her eagle before we even got to the party.

Lucy got to eat cookies, (that's what she's holding up,) so she forgot she was in an Indian dress that she didn't like.

Will made a pilgrim hat and forgot all about his pants. (Except for the 50+ times he came to me and asked me to pull up his pants for him.) By the way, the picture on the Indian pattern showed a little pouch with an eagle on it. I had saved enough material to make a pouch, but hadn't gotten around to it yet. Will left the room that I was sewing in and came back with his own pouch. He had taken my extra piece, cut it, fringed it, and wanted me to tie it on him. So instead of a pouch he had a cloth. It worked.

We had lots of fun at the party. We made hats, colored pictures, make thankful leaves, decorated cookies, had a thanksgiving feast, (I peeled and mashed 28 potatoes that morning,) make a Thanksgiving necklace, made a thankful snack, and we made our own butter! It was a great day.

Indians!

We had a Thanksgiving party with our homeschool group last week. We were allowed to dress up if we wanted to, so I decided to get out the sewing machine and see what I could come up with.

Will's costume looks pretty good for someone who's never REALLY sewed before. At least I think so. Will thought it was great the day before this picture, but the day of the party he realized that he was right when he said, "Grandma is a better sew-er then you, mommy." The crotch of hid pants hangs down really, really low. I tried to explain that if you just pulled the pants up to your shoulders then the pants would look all right and your belly would stay warm. He didn't really like my idea. Oh well, I tried.

Lucy's dress turned out way to big, but when I cut a good chunk of the sleeves off, I think it looked really cute. She would disagree with me. She was NOT happy about wearing her dress. But I made it and she had to. (There goes mean mommy again.)

Now Briley really liked her dress. At least she appreciates her mom's hard work.

And I'm telling you what. My thumb and index fingers are still sore from stringing the beads on the fringe and tying those knots. Ouch!

Elijah's Soccer Party

Elijah finally had his soccer party. There wasn't much to it. It was a Shoney's. Elijah got the buffet and had all the boys on his team grossed out because he was eating frog legs. Frog Legs! He is not my child. He can't be!

Here he is getting his trophy.

Chris has been his coach for three years now

and I can't say enough good things about him.

He is a great coach.

Here is the team all together.

So soccer is now official over for this year. Can't wait until next year.

(Well, may I can wait just a bit!)

Brighton's First Cracker

Brighton got a bite of his first cracker today. It's so nice when they can actually pick up things and put it in their own mouth all on their own. (Unless it is a Lego, penny, hair barrette, or some other no-no.)

Brighton picked it right up and took a bite.

"Hmm...what's this, mommy?"

"Are you sure about this? Do you realize I'm eating something?"

"Let me look it over really good.

You're not tricking me to get me to eat something healthy, are you?"

"Look what mom gave me Lucy! I bet you wish you had one!

If only my cousin Patrick could see me. Who's the big boy now?!"

"Oh yeah! That's hitting the spot!"

"I wonder how many pieces I can fit in my mouth at once?"

"Yummy. I love my mommy! She gives me crackers!"

Tutu

Briley's birthday is coming up and she wants to have a ballet party. I was trying to come up with things to do and came across a way to make tutus. I decided to try one out on Lucy to make sure I knew what I was doing. I think it turned out great. She loves it!