A Glimpse into my Life.

We went up to Salt Lake City to visit Temple Square over the Holidays. It's the first time we've taken the children up to see the lights and I think they enjoyed it.

City Creek Plaza right across the street. I really liked the lights and how they reflected on the water. It was a nice way to start out the evening.

It never ceases to inspire and amaze me every time we go to Temple Square. I always intend to go back more often and usually end up not being able to as often as I'd like. The peaceful Spirit is always calming and wonderful.

This is the best shot I could get of our family. We're all mostly looking the same direction, our eyes are open, and no one is making too awful of a face. Not sure about how my coat is making my skirt look like goofy pants though. Huh.

I love visiting the Temple, even if it's just to walk the grounds with my children.

Since I know I won't be on here much in the next few days, I am taking the early opportunity to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! We are going to be having a bit of an adventure this Thanksgiving, in at we are doing a mostly Gluten Free Dinner. On that note, a few things I am thankful for this year:

I know I keep swearing that I'll stop getting behind so I don't have to play catch up, but life has other plans for me right now so since the kidlet crew are playing together I'm stealing a few moments. This update is going to be done in bullet point style otherwise it'll be a novel. Also, no pictures on this one, otherwise it'd be even longer before it is updated.

• We pulled Rynie out of school after only a month of Kindergarten. We found out two weeks into the school year he was being beaten up by other Kindergarteners and the teacher knew about it and was 'observing the situation to know how to proceed further.' We didn't find out about any of this at first either. Every day we'd ask Rynie how school was and he'd tell us it was fine, but the day school started he became a different child. He is normally a very sweet, thoughtful little man and he was so volatile. He'd go from calm to furious so quickly, he was fighting with his sister and teaching her to hit and pinch. It was not a pretty sight. After two weeks of this we found out from Rynie that he was being pinched, having things thrown at him, whacked with a rubber stick, his fingers were being bent backwards, and he was being used as a human punching bag. We asked his teacher if he was instigating the beating in any way and she told us that he wasn't. His class was the most aggressive group of boys she'd ever taught, and he wasn't. We talked to the school to try and resolve things but although he wasn't the one being beaten after that, he was still having behavioral issues. We pulled him out of school and started homeschooling him.
  
• I spent the better part of a month juicing apples because none of the varieties were ripe at the same time. Thankfully we had room in the freezer to hold it all so we could mix the juice for syrup and jelly. I also ended up doing some peach jam too. We are really enjoying all the fruity goodness in this cold weather.
  
• My Mom came back into town at the beginning of November because my brother's wife had a little girl. She is a sweet thing with big blue eyes and a shock of dark hair. It's been an adjustment for Jake and Shannon, but I know they are enjoying the experience.
• Right after Mom came into town, she found out from her doctor that she'd need to have surgery and was under no fly restrictions for the next 8 weeks. Everything went well with her surgery and she got out the day before Thanksgiving. She was under lifting restrictions, and couldn't lift more than 5 lbs for the first 2 weeks, then 10 lbs for the next 6 weeks, and then 14 lbs. She wasn't allowed to pick up kids, do any housework, or anything of that sort.
  
• My dad came into town the day before Thanksgiving, after having his flight delayed because of snow and other issues. His mid day flight ended up not getting in for another 6 or so hours.
  
• I made Thanksgiving dinner. Shannon came to help with washing and chopping vegetables, and helping to make the pies and a few dishes. I can now say I have cooked a Thanksgiving meal pretty much on my own! :) I was even kind to Jake and saved him some of the left overs so he could have what he was used to since it was their year to go to eat with Shannon's family.
  
• We had lots of cousins come over to visit while my parents were in town, including doing dinners with a lot of them. I am becoming very proficient at preparing meals for 20-30 people at a time.
• My Dad came back into town right before Christmas and he and my Mom were here until the middle of January.
  
• Jake, Shannon, and the Troll doll (Their daughter whose hair reminded me of a troll doll) came over on Christmas Eve and had dinner with us and spent the night. We had ten people in our house for Christmas. It was a lot of fun opening presents all together.
• My Grandma came up to surprise us on the 26th of December. We had no idea, it was a shock. She's almost 80 and doesn't like to travel in Winter, but decided since people were coming up from New Mexico that she'd hitch a ride with my Aunt Kristal and come on up. It was one of the best surprises. The ironic thing was we'd just sent her Christmas presents down to New Mexico so she had to wait to open them.
• Grandma ended up getting snowed in up here until after New Year's. It was so much fun to make Taquitos, fudge, and all sorts of yummy things with her.
• We spent New Year's Eve with some family friends. It was so much fun to see the little babies and spend an evening eating Huevos Rancheros and Taquitos, and chatting.
• We did family pictures right after the New Year. One more year's dorkiness captures digitally forever. There were some good ones, but I must say, we are a goofy bunch.
• The bunny was attacked by some varmint so we are bunny-less now. We buried the bunny, talked about the Plan of Salvation, talked about how we miss those that die, but we can remember them and how much we love them.
• We all got the nastiest colds we've had in a while. While we had the cold stuff going on, I got food poisoning. Oh Grand. :P
• I've had company 3 times since my Mom left town.
• My cousin Jeremy was hurt on the job, and ended up with Compartment's Syndrome. He had to have emergency surgery and his leg was left splayed open and packed with sponge things so the extra pressure and fluid could drain out of his leg so we tried to help where we could.
• Hubby's uncle who is Catholic needed help with music for Mass and enlisted the help of my Brother in law Tyler and myself. It was a very interesting experience. :) Tyler played the violin, I sang, and his Uncle played both the guitar and the mandolin. There was also another guitar and an electric piano. There was some beautiful music for us to do
• A friend and I are starting up a home based business! We've been working on products for it since before Christmas and slowly but surely we are getting stock built up and things ready to go. I'm not quite sure when we'll be opening up our store, but it'll definitely be online and lots of fun. Once we come up with a name for our store and finish working on product pricing, I'll post more about it here.
• In all this madness, the kidlets have grown like weeds, and it's almost time to switch out their clothes again. I'm in the process of making more clothes for them so that hopefully our budget doesn't get killed since we need to buy some school stuff.
  
• Little Dutch has cut two teeth with eight more right behind it. He is rocking, scooting, crawling and busy everywhere. He is also trying to stand on his own, has successfully figured out the stairs and is generally into everything! I love it!
• We are in The Netherlands right now visiting my parents. Since we've been here everyone has been sick. My Dad picked up something in his travels, and ended up sharing with us. We spent the first two and a half weeks of our trip slogging through the sickness since Shannon and Baby B came with us. Once they went home, we took a few sick days and are now feeling human again.

After seeing this Meme on Sarah's blog at Romantic History, I thought this was a fun one!

1. Eggnog or hot chocolate? Hot Chocolate! Not saying I don't like eggnog, but there is just something about hot chocolate that reminds me of curling up in front of the fireplace with my cat Princess as a girl.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Neither, but just setting them under the tree would be closest. They usually get set near the tree but it depends. When we had a lot of family visiting, we'd put them on the sofas and chairs for some reason. I really don't know but it works for us.

3. Colored lights on the tree/house or white? On the tree: white lights or oddly enough blue lights. Other colors are nice, but those two really remind me of Christmas. My mom loves multicolored strands so she does that but white, blue, or white/blue mix are Christmas lights to me. On the house: mainly white, but tastefully done accent colors look beautiful. NASA should not be able to see your house from space.

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No, but I wouldn't be opposed to hanging it if I found fresh mistletoe.

5. When do you put your Christmas decorations up? Anywhere from the day after Thanksgiving to two weeks before Christmas. Any earlier than that and I feel like Thanksgiving is overrun and forgotten and any later than that it just doesn't seem like the holidays.

6. Favorite holiday dish? I really don't know, I just love all the traditional foods that come up during Christmastime.

7. Favorite holiday memory as a child? Cooking in the kitchen with my Grandma, Mom, and Aunt Kish. We made a LOT of food every year and it was so nice just to cook, bake, sample, and listen to Christmas music while we were at it.

8. When did you learn the truth about Santa? I really don't know. I think it was a natural evolution of things. After we got to a certain age, we just knew it was more about the spirit of the season and not about getting stuff for YOU.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? A small one.

10. How do you decorate a tree? Mainly with things that are kid friendly. I have some ornaments that are treasures from when I was younger, but those are not going to be pulled out while I have extremely young children and a wild and crazy cat. We do a lot of garlands, bows, and we are amassing quite the collection of jingle bells. There is a popcorn and cranberry garland on our tree right now and Spitfire is in love with eating the popcorn. We still have a few more decorations to make and put up though.

11. Snow! Love it or dread it? Love it! It makes winter worth it.

12. Can you ice skate? Yes I can! I love it even though I haven't done it in years.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? A round, metal disc sled. It was sky blue and wonderfully fast! It lasted about a decade until one rather untimely rock put a massive dent that couldn't be hammered out. My brother and I had a blast on it.

14. What is the most important thing about the holidays to you? Spending time with my family, reflecting on the blessings in our lives and how blessed we are to have a Savior who loves us so much that he was willing to Atone for our sins and die for us.

15. What is your favorite holiday dessert? Chocolate fudge. Again, it's a nostalgia thing. My Grandma and my Uncle Randy taught me to make it, and now, if there is fudge and sugar cookies, it really is Christmas Time at our house. (Sugar Cookies are courtesy of my other Grandma)

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? On Christmas Eve, we have a Mexican Feast (literally) and after everyone is completely stuffed, we go into the family room and read one of the Gospels about the Savior's birth and talk about what Christmas really means in context to life and in our own personal lives. We sing Carols and Hymns, it's one of my favorite evenings of the year.

17. What tops your tree? Usually an angel. She isn't up right now because we got distracted in decorating the house and need to finish.

18. Which do you prefer-Giving or Receiving? Giving. I almost can't stand it, just ask Hubby. I almost have to forget I have gifts for people or else I want to give them to said people as soon as possible.

19. Favorite Christmas song? Either No Golden Carriage, No Bright Toy or Candlelight Carol. They are so evocative of the meaning of Christmas to me.

20. Candy Canes-Yuck or Yum? In small quantities, YUM. I like to take a miniature one and stir hot chocolate with it.

21. Favorite Christmas show? I don't really have one. Shamefully I haven't seen a lot of Holiday movies. It is something I intend to rectify this year though. My friend just about died when she heard I had never seen White Christmas or any of those old ones.

22. Saddest Christmas song? Any of the intentionally tear-jerker-ish ones that really (to me) do not convey the meaning of Christmas and who Christ is and what He did for us.

We have the house decorated for the Holidays, and are in the process of wrapping presents. Hubby is having to check before entering the sewing room since random presents can be laying about. Can't have peeking at presents now can we? ;) I can't wait until after Christmas since I know Hubby will love his present.

Rynie, pseudonym for the eldest, is adorable and 'cooking' with a saucepan. He has craisins and a spatula and is stirring them around calling it 'eggnog.' I love to watch his little imagination at work.

The Pink Princess, pseudonym for the youngest, is working hard at being cute and chubby. She is trying to roll over and can do it, but not consistently. She tries so hard and cannot do it, then she will be trying something else (not sure what) and end up rolling over.

I just got some beautiful green and ivory plaid silk in the mail today and am itching to make a skirt. Now to go and pull out some patterns and figure out what type. Whatever it is, I'm hoping for enough to make the Pink Princess a skirt too!