It's All About the Message

A few things happened this morning that I'd like to share. I mostly want to write them down so that I can look back and remember these things.

First: Moses was the first to wake up and get out of bed this morning. He came into the room and snuggled with me for a minute before he so sweetly asked if he could watch tv. This is something that actually happens pretty frequently. I love snuggling with that kid. He's so cuddly. I cherish it as much as I can, because I know someday he'll stop doing it.

Second: A few minutes later, Asher woke up and got out of bed. He came into the room first thing, like he always does. Instead of just climbing into bed with us, he picked up a balloon that he'd been playing with the night before, and threw it at my head and giggled. The balloon would bounce off my head and back towards him, where he would fetch it and throw it at my head again. I'm just glad it was a balloon and not a hard plastic toy. Asher is such a silly goofball.

Third: After a while, I made my way out of bed and into the living room. Moses was watching his show, Asher was wandering about, and Akiko was sitting on the couch reading a Friend. She asked if I would read some stories with her, which I obliged. She wanted to read to me the stories that real children send in about service they provided for others.

Now, Akiko loves to read and she reads really well. We're very proud of all the hard work she puts into it. When she comes across a hard word, she does the best she can to sound it out, before I will correct her and tell her what the word is.

Well, as she was reading, she came across the word "dispenser," which took her a moment, but she got it. I praised her and, without thinking, said, "Great job, Akiko."

She stopped reading, looked at me, and said, "Mom. It's not about the reading. It's about the girl doing service for someone else."

That girl makes me so proud.

Even if she is a bit silly sometimes.

Thanksgiving: The 2011 Edition

Six years ago, when I was pregnant with Akiko, I was working at a dry cleaner in downtown Salt Lake City, where we were living at the time. I had all sorts of local celebrity customers, including President Monson, who came in once a week.

The day before Thanksgiving, another of my celebrity customers, Carol Mikita, KSL's anchor lady (don't know if she is now, but she was then), came in to pick up her dry cleaning. We made some small chit chat about what we were doing the next day. She told me she was kind of stressed because it was her turn to host that year and she had tons of food to prepare. Then she asked me what I had to do to prepare. I told her that I still had tons of mothers, grandmothers and aunties that had everything under control.

"It will be years before I have to cook anything for Thanksgiving," I told her.

"You are so lucky," she replied.

Well, years it's been, though not as many as I may have thought then, and I cooked an entire Thanksgiving feast this year. I'm not counting last year, because I didn't cook the turkey and Chelsie and I split everything, even though we did pull off quite a feat.

There was talk, a few months back, that Mike and Chelsie would come down this year from Oregon, but then Chelsie ended up getting pregnant with twins, and then she was put on bedrest last week. Everyone else in the family was either stuck on Maui or going to their in-laws.

I was kind of bummed that we didn't have a whole lot of family to share the holiday with, but we did have Joseph's brother, Sam, with us.

We did invite some friends, but somehow managed to ask too late after they'd been invited elsewhere. Oh well. Maybe next time. Or maybe for Christmas.

The nice thing about not having to host people was that I didn't feel the need to make fancy decorations or anything to make things more festive. I'm crafty, but decor is not one of my strong points.

Onto the food:

I made the pies on Wednesday. Two pumpkin-butternut and two pecan. Yes, Asher is still allergic to nuts, however, in the test results that the doctor sent back to us he actually tested negative for pecan and walnut. And since pecan pie is my favorite pie, I decided to risk it and make some anyway. So far, no bad reactions, but that's also because we're still not letting him have any pecan pie.

Thursday morning got off to kind of a slow start. Since we didn't have anyone coming over, I didn't need to tell anyone what time we were eating, so I was able to take it easy. We ended up eating around 330p, which, in my experience, is pretty standard for Thanksgiving dinner. Right?

Anyway, I spent all day prepping and cooking and every step of the way, my wonderful six year-old daughter was by my side helping. She helped stir, roll out and roll up the crescent rolls. She sauteed the onions and apples for the stuffing. She put the cut potatoes in the pot to boil. She even helped me clean and butter the turkey, which was her favorite thing to do, even though she kept apologizing to the turkey that we were about to cook and eat "him."

I didn't take a single picture of prep time. I was way too busy for that and my hands were all all sorts of gunky. But now that I've bored you all with my writing, I'll let you all revel in my Thanksgiving feast awesomeness, with pictures and captions.

My sister, Kristen, learned how to make a succulent turkey that only stays in the oven for 1.5 hours. If she can do it, I can. Thank you so much, Kristen!! The turkey was perfect!!

The rest of the spread: pumpkin-butternut pie, pecan pie, homemade crescent rolls, mashed potatoes, stuffing (not homemade, but not Stovetop, it took more effort than that), corn, sweet potatoes, roast asparagus, homemade gravy, fresh cranberry relish, and sparkling apple juice. Don't you wish you'd spent Thanksgiving with us?

Moses eagerly awaits dinner.

The patriarch makes the first cut.

The kiddie table. I think Asher ate more than Akiko and Moses combined.

Loaded up and ready to be eaten.

It was delicious.

And then there was pie.

After the meal, Akiko and Moses played slap-jack under the table.

Then the kids came to snuggle on the couch with me and watch some tv while I digested. I love Asher biting his overalls with his teeth sticking out.

Things that I'm grateful for that made this Thanksgiving special for me:

Joseph and Sam took over for the last little bit in the kitchen and finished the sweet potatoes and gravy. I was kind of burned out in the kitchen and starving and decided to do set up instead.

Akiko was so cute and helpful. I love spending time with her like this. She says helping me in the kitchen is her favorite thing to do. I just hope that someday she'll actually eat the food she helps me cook. She only ate a tiny bit of turkey, mashed potatoes and crescent rolls. She can't wait to tell her teacher on Monday all the things she helped me with.

Moses. I'm just grateful for Moses. Period. I can't even begin to describe how much I love that kid. Sweetest boy you'll ever meet. Incredibly smart, too. He's just turned four and is starting to read and do basic math. I really wish we could put him in kindergarten next fall, but we have to wait a whole year more. Bleh.

Asher was super happy and cute all day. I'm sure it had everything to do with the fact that his favorite person in the world stayed home from work. He hardly got in the way and only tried to "help" a couple times. I love this spunky child of mine. He's a hoot.

And last, but not least, I'm thankful that, even though the task was daunting and there was a lot of stuff to do, including doing things I never before had tried, Thanksgiving was almost completely stress free. I had a lot of fun and spent the holiday with the people I love most in the world. Does life get any better than that?

I hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving. If you traveled, I hope your travels were safe and uneventful. If they were eventful, I hope it was the awesome can't-wait-to-tell-your-friends kind.

 Happy Thanksgiving!!

Remove Gum From Your Clothes Dryer!!

I don't know how our parents survived without the Internet at their constant disposal. I get wonderful stain remover tips from there all the time. Sometimes, when you read them, you're like, that seems like a really weird solution to this problem, but then when you read the comments below and everyone is singing its praises, you know you better try it.

Well, this morning, on a day when I had mountains of laundry to attend to, I came across this as I was just about to put the first load in the dryer:

Oh yeah. Gum. My favorite thing to find first thing in the morning. Please note sarcasm. Want a close up?

What a mess!!

What's a girl to do? I don't want all that all over the rest of my clothes.

To the Internet!

I opened the first three sites from my search. The second site had a lot of different ideas for getting gum out of the dryer. They involved WD-40, Goo Gone, acetone (nail polish remover), and an ice cube paired with a scraping device. They all sounded very messy, and with the exception of the ice cube method, they all said to wait at least a week for your dryer to air out so your clothes don't end up smelling like the chemical you used. The one with the acetone also warned against risking a fire with your dryer since it's a flammable substance.

Well, I didn't have a week to wait. I needed my dryer now! I also really didn't want to risk blowing up anything in my house. Particularly something as expensive as my much needed and used clothes dryer.

The first and third sites told me to try the following method, which, I admit, I felt a  little skeptical about. But, once I read all the comments praising how quick and easy this method was, I decided to try it out. After all, it did seem pretty safe and much less messy than everything else I'd read.

Guess what? It worked!! I was so elated I wanted to share it all with you and I even took pictures while I did it (in case it actually worked), to prove how well it works.

1. Soak a dryer sheet in water for 1-2 minutes. You want it fully saturated.

Step 1

2. Place soaked dryer sheet directly on top of gum. If you have more than one giant spot of gum, use another dryer soaked sheet on that one. I'm sure it'll save you time. I, thankfully, only had one spot. Leave for 10-15 minutes.

Step 2

3. Using the dryer sheet, start scrubbing away. Fingernails come in handy in this step.

Step 3

Check it out! My first big chunk of gum came off pretty quickly!

And it kept coming off!

What a relief!!

It took some elbow grease, but I only had to scrub for about five minutes. Then after the biggest mess was gone, I scrubbed the little splotches of gum that were scattered all around the drum. I didn't even have to soak those ones. They came off pretty easily.

 4. Wipe with a clean, damp cloth.

Step 4

5. Jump for joy, breathe a sigh of relief, or do whatever it is you do when you claim a homemaking victory! Me? I blogged about it.

There you have it! Clothes from the washer can go right in!

   O frabjous day! Callouh! Callay! 
   (S)he chortled in [her] joy.

                                ~Lewis Carroll, from the poem Jabberwocky, from the book Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There

Brilliant poem. One of my favorites. The dryer sheet was my vorpal blade. Please click the link to read the rest of the poem.

Now on to more laundry! I just heard the dryer beep.

Mr. Roboto

Well, after one postponement and another that came thisclose, Moses had his birthday party with his friends last Saturday.

I had to delay the party a week because he was sick. Then Asher and I got really sick. Joseph and Akiko also got sort of sick. We were kind of a mess for a couple weeks.

The night before the delayed party it looked like Moses' fever was back. He just fell asleep early and was covered in warm blankets. Scared me for a minute. I, however, felt like garbage. I decided to wait till the morning of the party to see how I was feeling before I called things off again. I felt slightly better when I woke up. Only slightly.

Because we'd all been feeling so terrible for the last while, I barely got things done in time for the party. In fact, I was kind of glad I had the extra week to get ready. I decided to keep it low key and simple. I mean, we were entertaining four year-olds, so it worked out really well.

Moses has themes planned for his birthday parties for the next several years. I suppose this has to do with the fact that, for the first time in the history of our little family, Akiko had a themed party with all her friends over earlier this year (which I failed to blog about, sorry!) and it was very successful. We've always just had a low key have-the-family-over-for-dinner-and-presents affair. Both the kids had so much fun at Akiko's party, that Moses immediately started planning his next several themed parties.

I talked him into having a robot theme this year. I thought it would be easy to find cute decorations and trinkets for the goody bags and stuff and was finding tons of cute ideas online. But, since Halloween was over, the stores already had all their Christmas stuff out and I had trouble finding much of anything robot-y. I managed to eek by and find what I needed, though, after many trips to many stores while this sick mama towed her sick kids along.

I didn't take a whole lot of pictures during the party because I was really busy helping and playing with the kids, but I'll show you what I got.

We started out with robot coloring pages and decorating cardboard robot forms while we waited for everyone to arrive. When the kids were done coloring and I was sure nobody else was showing up, we played a few games.

I've got a cute little robot stamp and put him under a projector to blow him up and traced him onto a posterboard. I left his cassette tape blank and made other colorful ones out of cardstock so the kids could play "Pin the Cassette onto the Robot." I couldn't find any of my bandanas, but found that a black beanie pulled over the face works just as well. I also made nuts and bolts out of cardboard for extra decoration.

As the Birthday Boy, Moses got to go first.

Some of our friends got a little turned around.

I opted not to give prizes to game winners and it turned out just fine. Four year-olds are perfectly fine receiving lots of praise for a job well done.

Now that the robot had his music, we turned on some robot-like techno music and played, what I'll call, "Dance Robot Freeze" where the kids dance to the music and when the music stops they have to freeze. If they keep moving, they have to sit out. We played a few rounds of that. It was fun watching these little kids try to robot dance. One kid got really into it and was a pretty good robot dancer.

After that, we played musical chairs, since we already had the music cued and everything. No explanation needed there, right?

Then it was time for cake and ice cream. Now, I love to bake, but my cake decorating skills are lacking. Thank heavens Parenting had me covered. They've got all sorts of cute and easy cakes that you just have to follow the directions for. Here's how our guy turned out:

I'm sure I could have done a better job, but I was a little pressed for time. I am still pleased with the outcome, though.

Afterwards, we opened presents, where my camera, which actually hasn't totally died just yet, started acting wacky again. Once presents were done, we let the kids run loose in the house till their parents came.

Moses was super pleased that he finally got to celebrate his birthday and have his robot cake. On the day of his actual birthday, we were all sick and stayed home from church, but we still tried to make it as special as we could. Akiko really wanted to make gyoza for dinner, but we just didn't have it in us. I made curry instead, which Moses loves, but Akiko hates (Gasp! Is she really my daughter?!). Joseph made him a chocolate cake. Moses was really upset at the time that it wasn't the robot cake that was promised to him. It took many minutes to reassure him that he would get his cake when his friends came over.

I wanted the cake to be a surprise for Moses and tried to keep him out of the kitchen while I worked on it. We tried to send him outside or let him play video games, but he kept coming around to the kitchen and hovering. I finally let him see it while Akiko was putting on the finishing touches. He was thrilled.

At times, it felt like this party wasn't meant to happen. You know, like, when everything seems to be going against you when you're trying to accomplish what should be a simple task. But we did it, and it worked out. And as far as I know, nobody that came to our party got sick because of us. Let's hope it stays that way.

By the way, we're all feeling much better this week.

This is Halloween: 2011

We've been taking turns being sick for the last several days. That's why I'm finally getting around to posting our Halloween day. Excuses, excuses.

Like I'd mentioned before, I procrastinated real bad this year. We always bake and decorate cutout cookies, and about half the time, I bake two or three batches worth and invite friends over to help us decorate, but this year, it was just the kids and me.

On a normal year, I would have done my baking on Saturday, or even Sunday. Carving the pumpkins would have been done at this point as well. This year, it just didn't happen. So, Monday, Halloween day, it was.

Unfortunately, I found out too late, that I was totally out of sugar. So, the time I took to get the boys ready, and run to the store to get sugar, was time that was needed to be spent mixing, rolling and baking. I wanted to get this all done while Akiko was at school so that we could just start decorating as soon as she had her homework done. What's a girl to do?

I decided to cheat and buy the pre-made sugar cookie dough and hopefully save some time. Big mistake.

They looked great going into the oven...

... and should have turned out looking like this...

Cookie batch 2010

... but came out as big, ugly, shapeless blobs. You can still kind of tell that they're suppose to be pumpkins and kittys.

In retrospect, I'm sure that if I'd added some flour to the dough, they would have turned out fine. I've never baked with pre-made dough though, so, you know, lesson learned. At least they still tasted good in the end.

Traditionally, I color the Halloween frosting purple, orange and leave one white, but I let the kids decide what colors to use this year. They chose blue, green and white.

Pantsless McMose. Notice, he's not in a diaper anymore? Oh, yeah!

Akiko is very serious about her cookie decorating.

Some of the finished cookies.

While the kids decorated, I jumped on getting the pumpkins carved. I mean, we only had about three hours after school to get all this stuff done and get ready for trick-or-treating.

When it was time to pull out the pumpkin guts, I let the kids do their own.

Unlike last year, Akiko thought it was so much fun getting her hands gooey. This is also where my camera started acting real funny before it totally wigged out.

Moses thought this part was so cool.

Even Asher got his turn. He wasn't so sure about it though.

Last year, we bought a carving kit, which worked out fabulously. The little carving knife, broke, however, which was a bummer. And then I couldn't find the rest of the kit anywhere. It wasn't with the rest of the Halloween stuff. *shrug*

I looked and looked for another kit anytime I'd go out shopping, but they either decided not to sell them this year, or else they sold out super early. So I was stuck with my best paring knife and a regular old spoon. Old school!

So, I had to tell the kids that we couldn't carve anything fancy and their designs had to be straight lines. So, this is what we got this year (which I had to take with my camera phone):

All three lined up and lit for the photo op.

Akiko chose stars, which I thought was cute and clever and super easy to carve.

Moses wanted a robot face, which I was happy to oblige.

Asher got a traditional face, because he didn't have couldn't express his opinion.

Bring on the kids in costumes! We're ready for you!

Right after we got the cookies and pumpkins done, I got the kids ready just as Joseph got home from work to take them out. They had lots of fun getting candy. I stayed home and passed out... the candy.

There's a street just down from ours that gets really into Halloween (think Christmas Street in SLC). Akiko was more brave about it this year than two years ago. Moses got pretty scared. Asher just wanted to run around and didn't care much about collecting the candy.

I'd say this year was pretty successful... except that Moses had a fever by the time he got home and it ended up being croup. I had to postpone his birthday party for this weekend. Now Asher has it. Yay.

Four!!

Happy Birthday Moses!!

 

Lead Up to Halloween

I'm going to take us back in time and post what I should have posted before yesterday.

Two weeks ago, I took the kids to Half Moon Bay to the pumpkin patch. I realize there are tons and tons of pumpkin patches a lot closer to Sunnyvale, but this one has become our tradition. The one we go to is nothing particularly fancy, as far as decorations or rides are concerned, but they have a huge selection of pumpkins and, because it's so much simpler than other patches in the area, it kind of takes you back to a time when things really were less complicated. If you're wondering, it's the 4-C's, which is the first one on the left as you head into HMB from San Mateo.

I had forgotten to bring my camera, so I took pictures with my phone, which has a delay. So, it was frustrating when I had a really cute shot of Asher, touched the button, and lost the shot because of the delay.

Can you find Asher?

Unlike last year's 55° and overcast weather, this year it was a cloudless 80° day. Beautiful, but it made me sweat hauling those pumpkins in the wheelbarrow.

Strike a pose!

Can he get any cuter? Actually, yes, he can.

Asher loved riding in the wheelbarrow.

Darn that delay! Asher was looking at me two seconds earlier.

So, this year, I severely procrastinated, and anyone who knew me in school knows I am a master procrastinator, and I barely got stuff done in time.

I was going to make Akiko's whole costume for Red Riding Hood, got all the material, and failed horribly when I tried to make the dress. I found a nerdy website that had instructions to make a lady's chemise, but I didn't read the part where it said that it was perfect for the "off the shoulder wench look." Oops!

So, I tried adding a yoke at the top to cover her shoulders and it ended up looking more like ghetto 'Little House on the Prairie' and less like Bavarian fairy tale. Then I remembered she already had the perfect dress for Red.

Oh well, lesson learned: Rifle through daughters wardrobe before buying fabric. The plus side is that I have tons of really cute fabric to make something else. I think I'm going to try making a purse, actually.

The cloak pattern was also found on a nerdy role-playing costume website and it turned out perfect. I was able to do it in about two and a half hours from first cut to finish. I'm super pleased with the result. As soon as it was done, which was last Thursday, Akiko didn't take it off all weekend long.

Friday was the school Halloween parade. So I dressed up the boys and we watched Akiko skip around the playground in the parade.

At first I thought that there was too much backlight, so I tried again...

... then the sun was in his eyes.

Little Red ready for the show!

All lined up and ready to go.

She's having fun!

So, the student body council was passing out slips of paper for "most creative," "best homemade," "funniest," and so on. I was bummed Akiko didn't get one for "best homemade." I guess my handiwork is just too good.

Looks like Red caught the "Little Cute Wolf."

I was supposed to be Grandma, but didn't get my costume in time.

Face painting wasn't allowed, so I didn't draw Moses' beard. I later learned that it was "scary" face painting that wasn't allowed. I wish they'd been more specific in the note they sent home from school. "Weapons of any kind" were also not allowed at the school, though I considered the ax more a tool than a weapon. I suppose it was ultimately used as one in the story. Whatever.

I don't know which picture is cuter. This one...

... or this one.

Really, how much cuter can this guy get? Wait till you see him in his beard.

Saturday was our ward party, trunk-or-treat, and parade.

In the car and ready to go.

My little sweethearts!

Akiko helped me pass out candy after she was done making the rounds.

Getting ready for the parade.

Oh! The little wolf succeeded in swiping the basket of goodies!

My camera started acting funny. It died on Monday right before trick-or-treating commenced. Sorry for the fuzzy.

This picture just kills me!

Moses won the "scariest costume" award in the 0-4 year old category. I honestly don't know how Moses could be scary in any way. He got a mini pumpkin for a prize. He kept saying he won "first place" because it happened to be the first prize that was given out.

Sometime between trunk-or-treat and the parade, Akiko started not feeling well. You can see it in her face in the "getting ready for the parade" picture above. When we got home she had a fever. I felt bad for her. I stayed home from church with her the next day.

The last time we went to a ward party, last Christmas, Akiko started not feeling well in the middle of that one, too. She ended up having strep. This time, however, it was just a 24-hour thing and nothing more than a fever. She was better by Sunday evening and went to school and trick-or-treating on Monday.

I'm going to stop this post here and talk about Halloween day later. I've got a robot birthday party to plan for this weekend. Somebody in our family is having a birthday on Sunday!