That's Entertainment

I feel bad for December and I couldn't leave it with one measly blog post. So, with 2 hours and 17 minutes left, I give you the final blog post of 2012.

I have a lot to say and catch up on, but I will have to do that next year. I simply have not had time to blog lately. And sometimes, when I feel like writing, nothing comes to mind. I get writer's block. So when I sit down, the only thing that comes to mind for me to write to you all goes something like, "Well, today was another uneventful day. Dropped Akiko and Moses off at school and did three loads of laundry. Now I'm off to figure out dinner."

Most of the busyness that takes up my time is mundane homemaking stuff. And Christmas. I haven't even had much time to craft. It took me a good three weeks just to knit Simon a stocking, a project that would normally take me two or three days. Sparky's stocking got put on the back burner and will have to wait till next year.

I suppose this would be a good time to throw in a word or two, and maybe a picture, about Christmas. It was fun and relaxing. Our new place is a lot more fun to decorate than our house in Sunnyvale.

The banister in the front hall.

The 3rd graders in Akiko's class sold real mistletoe for a fund raiser.  It was full of nargles.

We even got lights to decorate the outside, something we've never done before.

I did cookies again this year (no pictures). We did the snowmen, minty candy canes and cocoa ginger crisps. I only had to do 13 plates this year, the smallest number I've ever done. I don't have a visiting teacher (that I know of) or anybody to visit teach, so we only had to make plates for the kids' teachers at church and school and Joseph's home teaching list.

We got a real tree again this year. I put the lights and tinsel on and let the kids decorate the rest. I think it turned out beautifully.

Proud of their work.

Making sure everything is in order.

Oh, I probably ought to mention that Simon is crawling now. He only scooted for about two weeks before he was up on all fours one day. He also pulls himself up to stand at furniture.

Akiko and I spent a couple Sundays cutting out 60 snowflakes to put up on the french doors that lead from the parlor to the formal dining room. They looked beautiful. We took them all down the other day and will be sending them to Connecticut for the Snowflakes for Sandy Hook project.

Christmas morning was just like it ought to be: the kids woke up way too early for us and pestered us to get out of bed so they could open presents. I neglected to take many pictures this year. I was too involved with Christmas morning chaos. I did manage to snap a few pictures, but they aren't very good.

Santa's helper stayed up till 4am blowing up this giant inflatable gerbil ball for the kids.

Simon received some refurbished toys that Santa "found".

Simon mostly crawled around and ate wrapping paper while the older kids ripped it off with gusto.

Asher got a bunch of new Thomas loot, including, but not limited to, new galoshes and a four chamber whistle.

The kids were really pleased with their haul. They mostly got what they asked for. Akiko, Moses and Asher got new galoshes. Akiko and Moses got new umbrellas to match their galoshes. Akiko got pants, socks, lots of clothes, and books. Moses got a Nerf gun. Asher got a shark Air Swimmer. Simon got one of his two front teeth. The other one is on its way.

Once we opened up presents, I had to get to work on dinner. We invited some of our new friends over for Christmas dinner and I had a lot of cooking to do. Akiko was a big help in the kitchen. I made roast beef, gravy, rolls, cream puffs (puffs and pastry cream from scratch), bacon wrapped asparagus, and Christmas cake. The other families brought the mashed potatoes and salads. And let it be known that I did all this with only one oven. That double oven in Sunnyvale is about the only thing I miss about that gross old kitchen.

I love that our new house is so great for entertaining. We pulled our tiny dining table into the formal dining room for the adults and set up folding tables in the kitchen dining room for the kids. It's nice because we can see and hear the kids without actually seeing and hearing the kids. We also have a cool buffet that can be accessed from either room. It also provides me with a nice place to store and show off some of my nicer pieces of dinnerware.

This afternoon, for New Year's Eve, we were supposed to do a progressive dinner between our house and two other houses. Our's was the first stop, with the salad. However, at house number two, the husband got really sick and at house number three, their furnace went out and nobody is willing to come repair it till Wednesday. So we just had everyone bring their food to our house and ate here.

It's nice to have a place where we can entertain like that. We couldn't really do that in Sunnyvale. That house just wasn't built for entertaining.

I'm sorry this post is so discombobulated. I guess I'm trying to throw everything in at once and the clock  is ticking. 52 minutes left (got distracted watching BLR on Youtube). I better proof read now and post.

Happy New Year to you all! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as well.

A ragtag picture of my kids with Santa at the ward party. Didn't have my camera on me, so this year's picture is a crappy phone picture. Akiko and Asher need their hair brushed. Moses has a big bruise on his forehead. Simon's not looking. It's a keeper!

So Much To Do, So Little Time

Well, the good news is that we haven't dropped off the face of the earth. The bad news is that even though blogging and keeping you all updated since the move is high on my priority list, it is low on the "things-that-require-brainpower" list.

So, I think for this post I'm going to have to randomly bullet list what has happened in the last month as they come to mind. Maybe I'll throw in a quick picture or two if they're readily available.

• Simon turned 7 months old yesterday (the 6th, in case I don't get this done and posted tonight). He officially began scooting forward. This is in addition to his being able to scoot backwards, being able to turn in circles on his belly, and rolling. His moving has motivation now. Will I ever be able to keep the floor clear of chokeable objects? That talk at conference last October kinda freaked me out.


• TMI alert! Asher went on the potty today!! He's not quite 2.5 years old, but has been showing interest in the potty lately. I, for one, am not feeling ready to train. I mean, it's only been a year since Moses won the potty battle. I'm still kind of reeling from that. But today, as I was finishing up in there, Asher was adamant that he needed to go potty on the toilet, so I set him up and told him to tell me when he was done. A couple minutes later, I hear him yell, "Mommy! I all done!" Sure enough, he had gone. He even used a tiny piece of toilet paper to wipe himself. I was thoroughly surprised and proud. So, next time Asher tells me he wants to sit on the potty... well, you know...
  
  

  

  My kids have a knack for falling asleep in chairs.






Any chair.



• We drove up to Portland and had Thanksgiving with Mike, Chelsie, Liam, and the twins, Luke and Jude. It was fun to finally meet the babies, who were almost 11 months old already. Our kids had a ton of fun playing with Liam.
  
  I had fun cooking Thanksgiving dinner with Chelsie. I totally nailed the pies. I finally bit the bullet and bought myself a pastry mat, a pastry blender, and some crust shields. It totally made a difference in how my pies turned out. Wish I had bought those utensils five years ago.
  
  

  

  Chelsie and the three baldies: Luke, Simon, and Jude.

  

  I'm so proud of these pie crusts. The pie filling that went in them was superb, too. But aren't the crusts pretty?

  

  One side of the spread.

  

  The other side of the spread. Those pumpkin rolls in the front that Chelsie  whipped up at the last minute were sooo tasty. 

  

  The Thanksgiving chefs. Akiko helped with the turkey and the crescent rolls. Jude only helped eat.

  

  I love my brother and his family!



• Akiko and Moses are enjoying their new schools.
  
  Akiko was put into the 2nd/3rd split class. There are too many 2nd graders for one class, but not enough for two. Same with the 3rd graders. I really like Akiko's teacher. She's really sweet and has helped make the transition to a new school easy for Akiko. She told me that Akiko is capble of doing 3rd grade work (though she has to keep her with the rest of the 2nd graders) and is obviously beyond some of the 3rd graders, but I just had to throw that in there to brag.
  
  Moses just barely finished his first week of preschool today. He seems to enjoy it. He didn't want to leave today when I came to pick him up, so I think he likes it. He can't seem to recall what he learned on any given day, but I learned with Akiko, that it's just an age/developmental thing. He's the kind of kid who will just start talking to you and you just realize he's been talking to you for the last several minutes, so by the time you start listening, you have no idea what he's talking about. So, if he's been telling me about what happened at school, chances are, I missed hearing him say so.


• Our new house is really cool. A lot bigger than our old house. That translates into a lot more to clean. My routine for getting things done has totally been thrown for a loop. I'm trying to figure out where things should go and some of the stuff we have just doesn't fit.
  
  This was a stressful move for me. We have twice as many kids as last time and, it seems, twice as much stuff. But now we're here and I can take my time unpacking and organizing. The laundry schedule has been totally messed up. And having bedrooms upstairs and downstairs has me going up and down and up and down all day because I forgot something or other. At least I'm getting my exercise.


• Originally, Akiko and Moses had their own rooms downstairs, while the little kids were upstairs with Joseph and me. We had to move Asher downstairs with Moses. Asher, like his sister at age two, has a hard time going to bed, and he kept waking up the baby with late night tantrums. He also liked to climb into the crib and yell, "Good morning, baby!! Wake up!!" So, he's back to sharing a room with his big brother, who happens to sleep like a rock.
  
  

  

  Asher looks so innocent, doesn't he?



• I cut my hair short. Just a bob, not a pixie. I've been at odds with my hair ever since I was pregnant with Asher. I've also sported the same haircut, more or less, since high school. I needed a change. I also needed a way to better camouflage the horribly frizzy new growth from Simon's pregnancy. This is just one small victory in my war with my hair. Now that I've bored you all to death with hair talk...


• I can't think of anything else right now, so I'm leaving the biggest news for last. We got  Joseph got us a cat!! His name is Sparky. Joseph was trying to get the kids to name him Jiji, but they didn't catch on to his hints. Akiko's first choice was "Snowflake", but since he's a black kitty... So, Sparky it is. He's a sweet kitty. Just a few days younger than Simon.
  
  The kids are nuts about him. My favorite thing so far is Asher going around the house looking for him, or else walking up to him while he's napping and yelling, "CAT! CAAAAAAT!" Asher does a lot of yelling, if you hadn't noticed.
  
  

  

  Meow.

This kitty gets no alone time. Then when he does, like at night when we're all asleep, he gets lonely. Silly kitty.

And as promised, here are some pictures of our new town. I apologize about the Main Street pictures. They were taken from the dashboard as we drove down it. The other pictures are from the baby's window.

Quick Post - No Pictures

I love our new house! There is still a ton of work to do, so I may not have time to post much, but if you have my contact info, I'd be glad to text, email, or talk to you individually about it.

The older kids love having their own rooms. I love my kitchen and laundry room. (How domestic of me. Tee hee!) I love our new town. Everyone has been super helpful and really friendly.

Well, I've got to go unpack now. We have so much stuff, it's ridiculous.

Will post beautiful pictures later!!

Moses' Birthday Party

Guess who turns 5 on Tuesday?

I took a cue from Andy's mom from Toy Story and threw him an early birthday party before we move.

Moses wanted a Lego party, but me being the sneaky mom, I convinced him that a Halloween cookie decorating party would be way more fun (and much less planning for me). And it was!

When I was done inputing all the email addresses for the evite, I realized I had invited almost 20 families! All I wanted to do was invite the kids from Moses' CTR and preschool classes, but his preschool class consists of almost all the sunbeams in our ward, too. They're both huge classes.

I did have the brilliant idea to invite parents and siblings, too, so even though that meant more kids, it also meant more adults to help out. Sometimes I have really awesome ideas, and that was one of them. All in all we had 10 adults and 24 kids at the party.

Big crowd. Little table.

A bird's eye view of the cookie madness.

I made all the cookies and frosting, but I asked everyone to bring a bag of small candies or sprinkles for decoration. Everyone stepped up. It was a ton of fun.

Working hard.

Check out that concentration.

I decided at the last minute to make certificates and have a contest for most creative cookies. I have six cutters, so I did six certificates: Beastly Bat, Creative Cat, Silliest Skeleton, Tastiest Tombstone, Punniest Pumpkin, and Goopiest Ghost. These kids were the winners:

The Hallow-winners!

I didn't want to give my kids prizes, because I would rather have given them to the guests, but after careful consideration, I just had to give "Punniest Pumpkin" to Akiko.

Check out those white chocolate fangs!

After we did prizes and presents, we did cake. My amazing friend, Kim, and her daughter weren't able to make it to the party, but she still offered to make Moses' cake for me. I was sooo glad she did, because I was trying to figure out how I was going to bake 120+ cookies and make a cake at the same time.

I asked her to make a Lego cake for Moses, since that's what he really wanted, so I drew out a plan for Kim, and she produced this perfectly adorable masterpiece:

The nubs are Oreos covered in fondant.

This party ended up a huge success. Moses had tons of fun, got to be with all his friends, and got lots of fun presents. The kids' cookies were all super adorable. Clean up wasn't as daunting a task as I imagined either.

I'm glad I was able to do this for Moses. He's such a special little man in my life. I love him so much. I'm probably not going to be able to do the traditional birthday blog on his actual birthday. We move on Wednesday.

So, Moses, my wonderful biggest boy, Happy 5th Birthday. I love you to the end of the universe and back!

Halloween 2012

Halloween got spread out over the course of a week and a half or so this year. Our ward party was kind of early, but I got our costumes done in time. I'm really pleased with Akiko's and Moses' costumes. They turned out fantastically.

My Kiki and Tombo

Joseph was worried that nobody would recognize Akiko and Moses. Most people didn't, but there were about a dozen or so that knew who they were. A lot of people thought Moses was either Waldo or Harry Potter. I mean, the only fake round glasses I could find were "Harry Potter" glasses, so I don't blame them. They looked super cute though and loved their costumes. I love that they turned out so well.

I actually got Joseph to dress up this year. We didn't do a family theme this year. We coupled off; Akiko and Moses, Simon and me, and Joseph and Asher. I asked Joseph if he'd be willing to be a pharaoh to go with Asher the mummy, and he surprised me when he agreed to it right away. I didn't have the time or the talent to come up with something on my own, so I just purchased Joseph's costume online. Joseph even let me put eyeliner on him. What a great sport!

My hot pharaoh and my cute little mummy.

Asher's costume was just a hand me down from Moses, who wore it three years ago. We moved to the Bay area right before Halloween that year. I fretted for a long time over whether I should make the kids' costumes before we moved, but I eventually decided to just buy costumes after we'd moved.

When we got here, though, I couldn't justify the cost for the quality that was available. I threw the kids' costumes together at the last minute. I just tore an old sheet into strips and hot glued (because it was faster than sewing) the strips to some gray Garanimals basics that you can get at Wal-mart for a couple bucks. I also wrapped some around an old beanie for the cap. This costume is one I'm really proud of.

The happiest mummy I've ever met.

Asher was kind of upset when he saw himself in the mirror once we got his costume on. He kept saying, with a frown, "I not a moster. I a good boy." He eventually forgot he was dressed up and went on his merry way.

I told Joseph to give me a "stern, authoritative" look. This is what I got.

Simon just wore Asher's old mouse costume from a couple years ago. I was a black cat, but we didn't get any pictures of me until Halloween night.

My scrumptious little morsel.

Asher liked to run away from Joseph and hide.

Halloween morning, we woke up early, got everyone dressed and headed to the elementary school for Akiko's parade.

Two peas in a pod.

There's a Japanese girl in Akiko's class. Her parents got such a kick out of our costumes, they kept taking pictures of them. They may have taken more pictures of Akiko and Moses than they did of their own daughter.

Asher just played on the playground the whole time. Well, he ran off once or twice, too.

I sneaked Moses into Akiko's parade, since technically he was part of her costume.

Immediately after Akiko's class had paraded, we had to leave to get Moses to school on time. I dropped him off, ran a few errands with the little kids while donning my costume, and returned for a quick parade at preschool.

Moses' twin friends were Thing 1 and Thing 2.

I love these kids!

Once everyone was home from school, we finished carving pumpkins and watched The Nightmare Before Christmas until Joseph got home, so we could trick or treat.

This picture was the 8th try to get everyone (Asher) to cooperate.

Four little jack-o-lanterns all in a row.

My tasty treat and me.

Joseph got stuck on the train from SF. Our World Series champions had their big party Halloween night, so SF was packed and the trains were all running late. He finally made it home and we headed out.

Asher got the hang of trick or treating right away.

Our candy tax is 25%, so we just collected it in a bucket that Simon carried.

Up and down and up and down with Asher, all night long.

We had tons of fun this year. I think Joseph is starting to get more into the holiday now that the kids are older and there are more of them. I'm looking forward to next year, since I've already got a costume idea.