New Year's Eve 2011

The countdown:
1:00  Made noisemakers
2:00  Played a game called Scavenger Hunt (Kayleigh won!)
3:00  Made a treat (pointy sugar cone covered in chocolate and sprinkles -         to be eaten tomorrow because we're having rootbeer floats tonight) Yummy!
4:00  Read a book - Shante' Keys and the New Year's Peas - gave me a chance to explain the Southern tradition of eating black-eyes peas on New Year's Day to  bring good luck. We won't be doing that because I think they're pretty gross and don't even know if you can buy them in Utah.
5:00  Sing New Year's songs - some kids ones I found on the internet.
6:00  Call Grandma Cathy and wish her Happy New Year! (we had to leave a message)
7:00 Turn on the music and dance like it's 1999!...and rootbeer floats...fireworks from the neighbors...the old Disney movie "Gus."

8:00 Have a thumb war.

9:00 Tell a favorite memory from 2011. Kayleigh's was going to Eureka, UT, Matt's was our Tour de Utah, and mine was rafting in Moab. (Good thing we had to get up and pop that balloon because we were all snuggled in our bed watching the movie and were just about to fall asleep!)

10:00 Drink hot chocolate with marshmallows.

10:30...aaaaannnnnddddd...she's out!

Guess we'll finish up tomorrow. Happy New Year!

Christmas - 99.9999% done

I got all of the Christmas decorations put away yesterday. I would have gotten the tree down, too, but Matt had told Kayleigh that after I undecorate the tree, she could decorate it however she wanted (sigh). I did manage to talk her out of unpacking all of the ornaments I'd just put away. Instead, she put gift bows all over it. I let it be until this morning and told her that puppy's outta here today! She was cool with it.

Miracles and Dilemmas

First, the miracles...For the last several years, Matt and I have agreed that since I have to tell him what I want for Christmas and he just goes out and buys it, that I might as well just go buy it myself since I'm already shopping and he's so busy with work. If he's just getting what I tell him to, it's no surprise anyway, so why not? It works and I always get what I want. Well, this year, unbeknownst (sp?) to me, he bought me a present all on his own. He did a great job, too (a Kindle Fire!). The other miracle, and probably the greatest one is that he kept it a secret! He did break down on Christmas Eve and tell me that he had gotten something - which majorly put us over our Christmas budget.

Now for the dilemma...I'm not sure if I'm going to keep it. I love many of the features on the Fire...that it's in color, the touch screen in relation to reading, that you can use the internet and get apps and cool stuff like that. The cons, as I see them, are that it's way heavier than my current "olden-timey" (as Kayleigh would say) one, which I carry around with me everywhere. I also like to play Solitaire and do crossword puzzles on it, so use the keyboard a ton. I don't know if that will be much more difficult to do on a touch screen where you have to watch what you're typing - can do it by feeling the keys like on a regular keyboard. It's also not 3G capable, so I have to be where there is WiFi to use the internet, apps, and download books. I was all set to send it back and had started thinking that maybe I should keep my old Kindle and just get an Android phone where I could have the internet and apps and keep doing what I'm doing with my Kindle downloading. Then I had another idea that I should download Solitaire and the crossword puzzles tomorrow and try them out on the Fire. What to do, oh what to do? I really like the color screen. Stay tuned as I try to make the biggest decision of my life as of late.

Christmas 2011

December 23rd, we spent the evening at Richard and Karen's house with most of Matt's family. Karen really outdoes herself trying to make it fun for everyone. We had Cafe' Rio-type salads and cheesecake for dinner. Richard passed out parts and wrapped "presents" for everyone to participate in reading about the birth of Christ. At intervals during the readings, those with presents took turns opening them. Each contained a piece to a nativity set that they'd put on the table in the stable. I think Kayleigh really enjoyed being a part of it. After that, Richard bore his testimony and it was very emotional as he was very thankful to even be there and that Cristy was as well. They both came very close to dying this summer with staff infections they contracted at almost the same time. We passed out and opened presents from each other.

The next night, Christmas Eve, we went to my mom's house for my family's party. Everyone (living in-state) was there except for Sam and Brandon who had to work. It was fun. We had hotdogs, chips and dip for dinner and pies, cookies, fudge and caramel popcorn for dessert. Alyssa played some Christmas songs on her clarinet. After opening presents, some left and those that stayed played charades for a little while.

Jenny, Tara and Jaxon slept over that night and on Christmas morning Garrett and Brandon came over to see what Santa brought. After opening presents, we had muffins, fruit, and juice for breakfast. Matt, Kayleigh and I had church at 10:30 so the other kids left just before we did. Matt had to speak and did an excellent job. Sister Carlos was the other speaker and we sang Christmas songs a few times around those two talks. It was a very spirit-filled meeting. We only had Sacrament Meeting since it was Christmas. Cathy came over around 12:30 and we exchanged gifts with her. She's leaving on Thursday to head for Arizona, so we won't be seeing her again for awhile.

All in all, it was a very, very Merry Christmas!

Moving Out

Kayleigh said she can't wait until Matt and I get old and move out of the house so she can have our big bed all to herself. We thought it was supposed to work the other way around. Silly us.

Puppet Show

K, Sidney and Shannon having a "puppet show" with their gingerbread men. I exhibited some Christmas spirit and let the girls play in the house...but only for 45 minutes. It was painful for me. In the first 15, Sid and Shan both had to go to the bathroom. Shan needed help washing her hands and kept coming downstairs to talk to me leaving the water running. Then she told K that her toothbrush was on (her Spiderman Spinbrush). Well, it wasn't on when she went in there...hmmmm...I wonder who else's she touched while in there? I can't wait for warm weather again!

Charlie Brown Tree - Almost

Our Christmas tree is so sad and pathetic this year. It's not as bad as a Charlie Brown tree, but it certainly isn't worthy of a memorial picture. We didn't intend to get such a homely tree, but both agree that it's definitely the worst one we've ever had. It looked good at the store, but has gradually gotten worse as the days go by. Good thing we aren't having any extended-family parties at our house this year. It would be way too embarrassing!

5th Annual Hales/Spencer/Vanbuskirk Holiday Extravaganza

We had a great time today! We started off bowling at Davis Lanes in Layton. After, we came back to the house, had Texas Tacos, made gingerbread houses (with graham crackers instead of gingerbread) and had brownies with peppermint ice cream on top for dessert. I was so glad all the kids were able to come (and B's girlfriend Hilary).



Up on the Housetop the Reindeer Pause (Paws?)

Conversation with Kayleigh (who was in her room in time out):
Kay: What's that noise?
Dad: It's birds. (There were a ton on our roof.)
Mom: It's Santa's reindeer coming to see if you're being naughty or nice. What do you think I'm going to tell them? (It really did sound like hooves.)
Kay: I believe Dad.

Holiday Cooking

Kayleigh got to go to a Holiday Cooking class for kids put on by our neighbor, Aimee Krey. She loved it and wants to now go every Saturday! The best part is that she paid for half of it herself. Her bank is now bone dry, so she's going to have to start doing some extra work around here.

2012

I love buying planners. I don't really use them (my life isn't that complex), but I do love to buy them!

Zoo Lights 2011

We had a good time at Zoo Lights with Grandma Cathy. I think I liked it better than seeing the lights at Temple Square. It was much more interesting. At the beginning, Santa and two tiny reindeer paraded through the common area by the entrance gates over to a building where kids could go see him and sit on his lap. It was way cold out, but they had lots of moving light displays and you could go see some of the animals. Kayleigh had promised that she'd see Santa if Jaxon was with her, so it was even nicer that he was able to go with us. She actually spoke to Santa! She's never liked seeing Santa as he's not the "real" one. We might have to make Zoo Lights a new tradition!

Ranting

I'm really struggling with the use of acronyms lately. Not my use of them, but of others...usually in texts or on facebook. People who I know to be good upstanding members of the church (and others who aren't) have been using acronyms for, what I consider to be, highly offensive language, yet are trying to pass it off as something else. Take OMG, for instance. It's become practically a universal acronym for Oh my God! - right? Offensive. Isn't it an example of taking the Lord's name in vain? Am I wrong here?

I gave a Primary lesson a few weeks ago about speaking reverently about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. One of my eight-year-old kids said that it's okay to say and write "OMG" because you're not really saying the "bad word." NO! It's not okay. In my mind, you still mean the same thing. The person hearing or reading it is ingesting the spelled-out meaning. Abreviating it doesn't make it okay!

Another example I came across was someone who said, "Well, I mean 'Oh my gosh.' Anyone who knows me knows that's what I mean." Well, I know you and I didn't know that's what you meant. Come on. If the whole world thinks it means one thing, why would "those who know you" think you mean something else? Do we really need to be so much like the rest of the world that we are willing to stoop to such a low level? Are we so incredibly lazy that we can't spell out a four-letter word (g-o-s-h) to avoid any confustion whatsoever? Do we really want to put "those who know us" through the mental exercise of "Let's see...it's her who said it...and she's LDS...and from Utah...so surely she meant, "Oh my 'gosh.'"

I say, "WTH?!" (What the heck?!)

Santa's Little Elf

The Windy City

This wind is insane! We've lost two sections of our fence (no surprise there), and at least three shingles. Probably more than that that just didn't happen to land in our yard where I could snag them. I've had to bring in the Christmas decorations that I just put out the other day so they don't blow away or get hammered. I'm just so thankful that we still have power. I feel sorry for those who are going to be days without. Sounds mighty cold.