Sledding and Riding the Light Rail

Today my brother, B., invited the whole family to the park to enjoy the beautiful weather and do some sledding.





The kids rode cardboard boxes down the hills of dry grass for an hour or two.

Wolfman loved hitching rides on his big brother's back.

Then I took the little ones over to the playground area so they could dig in the sand for a while. When the party at the park broke up, Crazymama and her hubby invited us to go with them for a ride on the new Light Rail Metro through Tempe.

We were so excited to "ride the train". Since they were testing the line this week, everyone gets to ride for free! And I do mean EVERYONE.

It was very crowded, but that just added to our excitement!

We went as far as Mill Avenue in Tempe and got off to take a short walk to the park. The kids played around for a while,
we all used the facilities, (I think they're getting ready for the Fiesta Bowl Crowds)

and then we headed back to the train.







On the way home it was even more crowded (above are some random strangers who looked like everyone felt - The Thrill was GONE) , and we were in a standing room only crowd. So my kids ended up sitting in the aisle.





But it was a really fun day! Thankfully, I was up late last night making dinners for the next week or two. We were able to get home, pick up a loaf of french bread and just heat up a pot of delicious potato soup in 10 minutes! Tonight I think we're all going to bed early.

Guest Photographer

My little Princess got a cool Pink Kodak Easy Share for Christmas. She is loving it and took tons of pictures on Christmas day. These were my favorites from our Arizona Christmas Day.

My pictures stunk. I haven't even had time to play with my Christmas presents yet. On Christmas night I began throwing up. I slept ALL day yesterday. Today, I felt better, but not 100% and the house showed the neglect of a Mom in bed while 7 Christmas Stockings worth of candy is consumed with no adult to monitor proper wrapper disposal. Fun.

Kitchen Accomplished!

TaaaDaaaa!!!! The glue is still drying (that is holding the shelves and tiles in place) but I'm calling it done!

and just in the NICK of time. (Hahahaha, pun intended.)

Want to remember it's humble beginnings as storage cubes? See Toddler Kitchen part 1 and Toddler Kitchen part 2. Here's a closer view of the tiles too. But they're not for sale anymore ;D

Merry Christmas To All, and To All, A Good Night!

Tonight may you...


Feel the Spirit of Christmas,

Enjoy Visions of Sugar Plums,

and wake to find that Santa brought you something special!

I'm so grateful for the gift of your friendship. Love to All!

Janie

Still workin' my elves

Wolfman finished making his soft "swords" for everyone. They are wrapped and under the tree. He can hardly stand it! But he's fully prepared to answer all inquiries with, "It's a surprise."

Today some good friends came to spend the day while their Mom worked. This guy (Big D) needed to make a gift for his uncle. The requirements were that it had to cost under $5, be handmade, and begin with the same letter as the recipient's name. Since Uncle S is into Spiderman and grilling, Big D decided to make him a spiderman apron! Big D traced the pattern and did the hard work of cutting out the spider, then I helped him by sewing around it. It turned out GREAT!

I will definitely be making more of these!

The Princess still hadn't made her gift for Bitt-E, so she and her friend Vee worked for a couple of hours creating felt food for BittE's new toddler kitchen.

They had so much fun and it all turned out really great. (Breakfast is pancake, egg, and sausage patty. They made a sandwich and Fries for lunch. Then for dinner she gets a bag of chips, pizza, and icecream! Ummm, nutritious and delicious.)

The Dreidle Game, Good Mail, and More Present Prep

Here's the finished sock monkey that the Princess made for Wolfman. If I have some extra time I may do some embroidery on his face and embellish him a bit, but since I'm just beginning to paint the KITCHEN I'm not sure if I'll get to that. Yes, you read that right. The first gift I started will most likely be the last to be finished. Ridiculous. Honestly, I started that sucker in August so that I wouldn't be doing anything crazy like painting on Christmas Eve this year. Hah. I guess it just wouldn't be Christmas without last minute gift making. At least not in this house.

I'm still doing the prep for Wolfman to make his gifts for everyone. He's making them soft swords. These are the hilts and the sword will be finished when he helps to slide a foam pool noodle and craft foam hand guard on them. I'm looking forward to sending everyone outside to beat each other with them for the happiest Christmas morning ever!

For Family Home Evening tonight we had a short lesson with Wolfman sharing the Christmas story, then I read them a story called "When Jesus was a Yeled" [It's a book I made with hebrew words for cool household stuff Jesus would probably have used (house, bed, mama, daddy, teacher) and eaten (fish, honey, dates, olives, etc.] Then we played a traditional Jewish game that he might have played - Dreidle! We play using pistachios. Playing dreidle every Christmas is one of our favorite family traditions.

and Woohoo! I got the best good mail from Michelle! She made this darling Missionary plaque for me. It made me cry! Soooo sweet! Thank you Michelle. You made my day! (Just in case it's too small to read, it says: Mis-sion-ary (noun) someone who leaves their family for two years so that others may be with their families for eternity.) I choke up every time I read it. Really. Thanks Michelle. I love it!

Last Minute Christmas List - Only 3 days left!

Tonight, after kids are in bed, I'm going to get a lot of the Christmas prep-work done:

Assemble stuff that needs to be assembled.

Buy Santa's wrapping paper (big tip-off).

Unbox Santa gifts and hide boxes in neighbor's trash (also the culprit for ruining at least two former-believer's Christmas mornings.)

Go through stocking stuffers and sort into a gallon ziplocs with everyone's names on them (so that Santa's helper can fill the stockings quickly on Christmas Eve.

What do you do to make Christmas Eve go smoother? Please, share your tips!

Love this song - 52 Blessings Lovely, Love My Family by The Roots

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVqniIe5CLg

The Elves are Busy at Our House

Making doll blankets...

Hair clips...

and Sock Monkeys!

The Missionary Training Center

Well, we delivered our boy to the MTC (Missionary Training Center) today. He'll spend 3 months there, learning to speak Russian and other important Missionary skills, before they send him out to the Ukraine, Donetsk Mission.

I can't imagine him being any more prepared than he is. He is unbelievably mature. He is so excited to serve the people of the Ukraine and teach them about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are so proud of this amazing young man. He will represent The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints well.

Want to know more? Email me at lotsostuff at hotmail dot com, or check out what we believe here.

Snow kidding

I swear that this boy just LOVES snow! It's almost 10 p.m. and he just came up to me and very politely asked...

"Um, Mom, May I go pee in the snow?"

My answer:

"No. But thank you for asking."

Trip to Provo (condensed version)

On our way to deliver Big B to the MTC in Provo: I make everyone hop out every 5 miles to take pictures in front of gorgeous rock formations.

Little people played and slept in the car.

We hit a storm going through Kanab that made everything out the window into a Winter Wonderland.

And the first thing our little man wanted to do when we got there was to go out and play in the snow.

A Christmas Card

(My Dad is the little blond boy. He was around 21 months old in these. My Grandpa did a little of everything and was always learning and doing new things. Photography was just one of the skills he worked on in his 100 years. I've been wanting to re-enact these with my little ones. Sooooo cute!)