Oh December!

Well, December has been so darn overwhelming that I have been doing my best to just make it through alive. As some of you know, both Ammon and Manessa had birthdays. One just two days before Christmas, and the other just two days after. I also took a turn to host Thanksgiving this year, which I have not blogged about either. So instead of trying to play total catch up I am just going to start now and run with it. The cute kids in the tub was just a cute picture that I wanted to throw in. Then I will go ahead and give the birthday and some Christmas deatails here as well.I let Manessa help me put stickers on the party invitations, and she was having a littel too much fun. I am still finding stickers in random places.

We had a joint birthday party for the kids on the 27th, (Manessa's actual birthday.) I made Manessa a Barbie cake and I was going to do a really cute cake for Ammon with a dump truck that my sister-in-law told me about but he insisted that he wanted a snake. So I returned the $23 truck and lined up a bunch of green cup cakes. It was way cheeper, but probably not as cute as it could have been. There were 16 kids here between the ages of 3 and 6, I'll tell you what, that was one of the dumbest things I have ever done. But the kids made out like bandits. Santa was a little out done by the birthday possee. Ammon got a small skatebord for Christmas, and this full size one for his birthday. Leland really likes both of them too.



Ammon also got a pair of roller blades, and a light up lazer gun that was from Grandma and Grandpa Whiting. (you can see the little skatebord in this one too.) He has even tried riding the skatebords with the roller blades on. We had to explain to him that it probably wasn't a very safe idea.
Manessa got a princess scooter that she has been riding all over the house. She has also grown attatched to the mask that was from the pin the tail on the donkey game. It was amazing the flood of relief that I felt after the party was over. I guess I just don't deal with stress very well. I am sorry that we went so long without any postings or updates. But now I gave you a big one, so there you go! ;o)

Crazy 8 Tag

Okay, here is another tag.  But I am too lazy to do anything original.  Though I did throw in a cute picture. 

8 Favorite TV shows in no particular order:
1-Burn Notice
2-House
3-America's Next Top Model
4-Starter Wife
5-In Plain Site
6-My Name is Earl
7-Reba
8-South Park

8 Things I did yesterday:
1-Vacuum Trix
2-Make Phone Calls (Work)
3-Taught Leland to say Ammon.
4-Bought Soda for Thanksgiving Dinner.
5-Call The DMV about registration getting hacked by my kids.
6-Listen to Wicked 
7-Read Wicked
8-Refill my med's.

Favorite restaurants:
1-Cafe Rio
2-Los Hermanos
3-IHOP
4-Spaghetti Factory
5-Mimi's
6-Blue Bird (Logan)
7-Sukuru
8-Asian Buffet

8 Things on my Wish List
1-FirePlace Mantle
2-Carpets Cleaned (Professionally)
3-Tummy Tuck/Booby Lift
4-A full day IN my home with NO kids.
5-See "Wicked"
6-A weekend away with Mike
7-King Size (Nice) Mattress
8-Happiness Without Chemicals

8 Things that I love about the Fall
1-The colors of the leaves
2-The chill in the air
3-Halloween
4-Thanksgiving
5-Drinking hot chocolate
6-Wearing sweaters
7-Thinking about Christmas
8-Watching the rain

8 People I Tag
1-Megan DeLange
2-Rachel Whiting
3-Priscilla Morgan
4-JoyLynn Gonzallas
5-Nina Renner
6-Shyanne Hathaway
7-Jenn Harbison
8-Celeste Bailey (Get a Blog Chica!)

HIgh-School Tag

SENIOR YEAR

1. Did you date someone from your school?
One guy from end of Sophomore to beginning of Senior year, then a bunch of casual dates.

2. What kind of car did you drive?
A blue 1979 Chevy Chevette AKA The Shove It AKA Smurfette.

3. Did you pass your driver's license test on the first try?
Yep

4. Were you a party animal?
I hung out a lot but never "partied"

5. Were you considered a flirt?
Yes!  Especially senior year.

6. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir?
Not just Choir, All-State Choir!

7. Were you a nerd?
I was on the Math Team, you tell me?

8. Were you on any varsity teams?
Drill Team, Drama, Debate,

9. Did you ever get suspended/expelled?
No, but I went to the principals office for "pantsing" a girl.

10. Can you still sing the fight song?
Sadly, Yes.

11. Who were your favorite teachers?
Scott O Bagley  (He taught Drama, Debate, and English.  He also gave Seniors a lot of extra privileges.)

12. Where did you sit for lunch?
With the cool kids, duh!  Okay, I don't really remember WHERE I sat at lunch time, it kind of varied. But after eating until class started again most of the seniors would hang out on the steps outside "Senior Hall"

13. What is your school's full name?
PIUTE HIGH SCHOOL

14. What is your school's mascot and colors?
Thunderbird Columbia Blue (not to be confused with any other blue), Red, and White

15. Did you go to Homecoming and if so, with whom?
Homecoming was not really a big thing. There was a dance, and I always went, but it was not a date type thing.

16. If you could go back and do it again, would you?
Yes, but only if it were with the same people.

17. What do you remember most about graduation?
Changing into a comfy brown army shirt after I got out of the gown.

18. Where did you go Senior Skip Day?
We had a full Sluff Week, and we went to California and hit all of the sites. I actually almost got sent home, it is quite a story, if you haven't heard it you are missing out.

19. Have you gained some weight since then?
Lots, but I have also gained curves.

20. Who was your prom date?
The big prom was Junior year, I went with Eric Allen Sophomore and Junior Year. Then Senior year I went stag with a big group of friends.

21. Are you planning on going to your 10-year reunion?
If they actually have one.  It should be this next summer.

22. Did you have a job in high school?
I worked for my Daddy at Grass Valley Merc.

Halloween!

For Halloween this year we kept with the tradition of trick-or-treating in Grandma and Grandpa's neighborhood. Grandma Whiting made Manessa the most adorable witch costume and Ammon and Leland were a hit with their DI specials. Mommy even got into the spirit and dressed up a bit. Not sure if you would say that I am in costume, or just let my real self out this time.
Here is Manessa with Grandpa Whiting. She has him wrapped around her little magic wand.
This is Uncle Tyler with Leland the cutest little chili pepper north of the border. I was too lazy to figure out how to rotate the picture, so you will have to rotate your eyes to get the full effect.
The kids got way more candy then they should ever eat and have been on a crazy sugar high since the Wart Trunk-or-Treat last Wednesday. Hopefully it will all be gone and then out of their little systems within a week or two.

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results! 

You are straightforward, tenacious, and beautiful, but unfortunately aware of it.  You are

 attention loving, and people easily flock to you, but deep down you are mistrustful of

 people in general.  You can be judgmental and thoughtless, but you love deeply and are

 extremely protective of those that you hold dear.

I really hoped to be Alice, but I guess you just never know who you really are.

Fun Project

I just had to brag a little. I am so excited to print these up. I have cute little 4x4 frames to put them in and I am going to hang them from the iron rod that Cindy gave me for my birthday a few years ago.  I have been waiting for something worthy to hang from it and now I have it. YAY!

Recipies

Edible Peanut Butter Play Dough

1 cup peanut butter (creamy)
1 cup light corn syrup
1 1/4 cup powdered milk
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar

Mix it up and play! (If you want to store it in the fridge it will turn hard, but if you microwave it on low for a bit it will soften right up and work fine.) It is yummy enough that if you chocolate cover it then it makes an awesome candy. Just do that part before you let the kids play with it.

Ging-O-Lanterns?

Okay, so we were watching Super Why this morning, and it had the story of the Gingerread Man. I was feeling like doing a fun thing with the kids so I decided what the heck! I whipped out the Mrs. Fields Cookie book and found a recipe for Gingerbread Men. Then I started thinking...Isn't gingerbread men a Christmas thing? So I decided to make gingerbread pumpkins to go along with the men. I had a couple of friend come hang out while I made them and they brought there kids too. I didn't wan a bunch of kids getting into the dough so I made some edible peanut butter pay dough for them. They had a blast using the cookie cutters and eating the dough and it made my job much easier as well. Well the baking took longer then I expected so by the time they were ready to be decorated my friends had gone home so it was just me and the kids. They helped me do the first two while I was still trying to get the frosting to the right consistency, then they were distracted by eating. A lot of them got eaten before I even started to make the frosting. I got a picture of the ones that the kids helped with, but they had already started to eat them before I could get the camera. It was a lot of fun and I just had to show everyone that we still had family home evening. Even if it was during the day and Daddy was at school.

Lipstick!

I keep some lipstick in my purse that happens to be the all day, won't rub off, won't wash off, on you for life type of stuff.  Well Manessa is very into makeup like most little girls are.  I am pretty sure you guys get the point.  I just hope that it has worn off before church on Sunday.

Lame Post

Well, september was a rather crappy month so I just didn't post much.  Now we are in to October and I am feeling optimistic.  However, I am trying to find the USB thing to put a picture on here and Manessa is naked and crying that she hates panties.  So who knows.  Mike is as busy as ever with School and work.  He is taking more credits this semester and it is really wearing him out.  Ammon is loving preschool and playing with friends.  Manessa is potty trained, but a very emotional two year old.  Leland is the best baby ever.  He just smiles and plays with himself or anyone who will give him attention.  I must say that I definitely got lucky to have his sweet little spirit come to my home.  I am just trying to survive daily life without messing up my children too badly.  Sorry that this is a rather whiney post, but I figured if I didn't post soon everyone might think that we were all dead. 

Joker...Crazy? Or just likes KoolAide?

So...After Manessa went to town on her red punch, I noticed a striking resemblance to a certain Batman villain. This raised the question in my mind, maybe the joker isn't totally psycho. Perhaps he just really likes KoolAide! Ok, I know that I am just being lame, but I couldn't resist showing off my little villain.

Family Pics

By popular request I have decided to put a few more of the family pictures up here for everyone to see.  These have not been touched up yet so forgive the pimples and other offenses. ;o)

Manessa is going to be a supermodel!  She had a blast posing for the camera. Daddy had better watch out.

Leland is just my little Handsome!  I don't know how I got lucky enough to get such a happy baby.  There are so many pictures of the kids that turned out well I am going to have a hard time choosing what ones to develop.  None of my kids learned their photo taking skills from their Daddy.  (Anyone who knows him from his teen years will understand what I mean.)

Leland in Koosharem

Over the Labor Day weekend I went down to Koosharem for my Great-Aunt Lenea's funeral.  Mike was feeling extra generous and volunteered to keep the two older kids at home so that I could have a more pleasant experience down there.  The funeral was very spiritual and uplifting.  That is not to say that I didn't cry my eyes out though.  Grandma DeLange, who has been in the care center for a long time, has just been brought home to be on hospice care.  She seems to be so much happier now that she is back in her own home.  I am very grateful that she was there so that we were able to see her and spend some time with her while she was awake.  Leland loved to see her, but he wouldn't hold still enough for her to hold him.  The picture above shows Lincoln (Laura's baby) on her lap, and Leland standing above her in Vanya's arms.  I just can't express how grateful I am to have had the chance to spend some time with her while she was alert enough to remember who I was and know what we were saying.  I will sure miss her when she is gone, but I know that she deserves to go HOME and see Grandpa.

Here is a close up of Leland and Lincoln comparing foot sizes.  Leland is two and a half months older then Lincoln but is quite a bit smaller.  We had similar pictures of Manessa and Tia.

PreSchool and Two-Wheelers

Ammon is definitely growing up on us. He went to his first day of Preschool today. When I picked him up and asked him how it went he said "Um, it was terrific!." He was so proud in his little backpack.

He is also now riding a two wheeler with out the training wheels. We got him a smaller one so that his feet could touch the ground while he figured out how to balance. Then within fifteen minutes he had it down. He rides up and down the sidewalk all day. This is not to say that he soesn't crash sometimes. Infact his little legs are covered in bruises. No blood yet though. (knock on wood)

Been Slackin'

Well, I haven't posted in a while because I have been too big of a slacker to take pictures. But I decided that I can go ahead and post something with no pic's this time. We took the kids to Seven Peaks the other night for Mike's work party and they loved it. They couldn't go on any of the big slides, so that meant that neither could we, but they had a blast in the kiddie pool. Mike did do one of the big free fall slides, and I did one called Boomerang so I guess we did get a little shot of adrenalin. Manessa loved the wave pool, but Ammon was a little scared of it. We decided that if we were going to have to pay to go there we would definitely wait until the kids got old enough to really enjoy it. As it is they can have just as much fun at a regular swimming pool.

Scott Whiting Family Reunion

The Scott Whiting Family Reunion was this past week & we thought it might be fun to show some pictures of some of the activities!

We hiked up to Cascade Springs and Tyler carried Manessa most of the way there and back. Ammon was a real trooper, he hiked the entire thing by himself.

Here's Tyler, Mike, & Devin near the waterfall, it was really cold water.

Ammon and Manessa love to play in the water every chance they get (see flood post).

Manessa was just tuckered out with all the fun activities.

Tyler then took us a ways down A.F. Canyon where we did some rock climbing. Here's Angela just starting up the face of a cliff.

Here's a picture of Angela towards the top of the face, it was definitely a ways up.

Ammon had to get in on the action too!


Ammon & Manessa out cold in their sleeping bags.

While we were camping, Manessa tripped & fell right in the bed of hot coals we'd just been doing dutch oven on. Luckily daddy was standing right beside her and was able to quickly pull her out. She still got some pretty bad burns though.

FLOOD!

Well,

We woke up a couple of days ago & found that our children had left the hose on all night next to one of our window wells. We had just put down some cow manure a month or two ago, so all the water went through that before coming into our house. Here are a couple of pictures.

This is the level of the water above the bottom of the window.

New Wheels!

So, after selling our motorcycle about a year ago I have had the itch. Mike missed it but not as much as I did. We decided to go and look at scooters to see if that would satisfy our craving, and give us a fun toy that was easy on the gas. We took one for a test drive and learned that we are just not scooter people. So we went and got ourselves another bike. This one is a 2008 Shadow Aero 750, it is shaft driven instead of chain like the last one was. So that means less maintenance. This picture shows exactly what it looks like. We are pretty excited.