It's almost December

Ok, so it's one day away from December and it's time for me to think about my Christmas photo card.  I've been brewing up an idea all year for this year's theme.  I think I have a good one, but when it comes down to taking a group photo shot of seven children ages 6 months to 9 years old, the task seems impossible.  Here is my plan:  First I'm going to attempt to take a group photo.  I am mostly expecting it to be a flop.  So Plan B will include taking an individual photo of each child.  I plan to get my photo cards at Shutterfly.  I love Shutterfly.  For the past five years I've been using Shutterfly for my Christmas cards, Christmas photos, and Photo Books.  One thing I love about Shutterfly's photo cards is that they have options for cards with multiple pictures which will allow me to go with my Plan B, if needed.  Shutterfly has a few options for your Christmas needs:

1. Folded 5 x 7  Greeting Cards.  It's kind of expensive, but if you consider that you don't have to buy Christmas cards, a good deal.
2. Flat Photo Cards.  I use these the most because they are the most economical.  
3. Flat Stationary Cards.  These come in 5 x 5 and 5 x 7. Remember that 5 x 5 cards require extra postage!

I can't wait to use this one someday. But instead of the names of the months, we'll have the names of our children.

Oh the choices!  So tonight is the photo shoot and I will likely be on Shutterfly late in the night editing and making the perfect Christmas Card to keep in touch with my family and friends this Christmas Season!  Yay!

Are you a Blogger and do you want 50 Free photo cards?  Click here and sign up.  Happy Christmas Carding!

Neglect

No, I'm not talking about neglecting my kids. I'm admitting to the fact that I've been neglecting the blog. I've been a little inundated with things right now. Last week my husband was out of town.  This week is Thanksgiving.  I need to do our Christmas card photo shoot and that always stresses me out a bit. We showed our house this morning at 10 AM which means that it needed to be cleaned. We worked on our 72 hour kits this weekend.  Tonight was Mopping Monday.  There's more to the list, but I won't bore you.

Tonight was also Family Home Evening.  I was in charge of the activity and I chose a dance party.  We turned on some Pandora.com and danced to Stray Cats and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.  It was good exercise and fun for the whole family, except for Rachel because she kept getting trampled and it made her cry. And except for George because he was sleeping.  Five out of seven isn't bad.  Here are some pics:

Tonight George joined us for the first time at the dinner table.  It was quite the milestone for him.  He was so happy that he cried the whole time he was sitting in his highchair.  He wasn't too thrilled about the torn up bread pieces.  He likes the bottle and only the bottle.

Comment Jackpot

So the other day I logged into my Blogger account and there was a message at the top of my dashboard that was recommending that I should check my comments that were awaiting moderation.  For the past five months I had been oblivious that I had comments on some of my blog posts that were apparently marked as spam.  I guess Blogger thought I couldn't possibly be getting 12 comments on one post so it flagged the comments as "spam."

It was fun to check them, because as some of you other bloggers might understand, comments can feel like a boost of self esteem or a big giant hug. Most of them were from friends and family when I posted about my mom dying. I just wanted to take this post to thank those who sent a comment.  I can't believe I missed out on the love all these months.  It was a nice surprise though,  and they were very kind and thoughtful.  Thanks!

In other news....

There is none.  My life is very boring this week.  I've been educating myself on the United States Constitution.  I came to realize that I know very little about it.  I don't like the way the country is heading and I want to be an informed American.  I want to teach my kids about it too.  I have class with my oldest two every day at 1:30PM after lunch.  I have the following alliteration schedule:

Math Monday
Constitution Tuesday (It's technically not alliteration, but both words have the "too" sound.)
Writing Wednesday
Theatrical Thursday
Fun Friday

So every Tuesday I post on a different blog called www.constitutiontuesday.blogspot.com.  You are welcome to join me there and learn about the constitution with my children and me.  Today we learned about the Constitutional Convention.

I think I am also going to start posting random photos on my boring days because posts are so much better when they include a photo.  So here is the random photo of the day:

September 24, 2010

This was on our drive back from CA. We stopped at some river in a forest in CO.  The water was freezing, but the kids enjoyed throwing rocks into it. It was navy blue shirt, khaki shorts, and pink shirt and white skirt day.

A picture with my dad.  Even my dad had on a navy blue polo. (But not on purpose.)

4th Annual Celebrate Day

Ok, so I think it's about time I post about our 4th Annual Celebrate Day which took place on October 27 this year.  If I don't post now, I will likely never will.  And since today was a rather uneventful day, aside from a good day at church, it's a good filler post.

What is Celebrate Day?  In 2007 as part of school, my husband had Emily and Bradley come up with their own holiday.  Bradley's was Celebrate Day to occur on the last Saturday of October.  It was a day to simply celebrate.  The only rule was that Mommy and Daddy had to spend the entire day with the kids.  No solo projects or work was to be done.  Over the past few years we have added some additional traditions to the day.  The only other strict rule is that we must eat French fries and a cold dessert.  The first year we also coincidentally listened to the song "Holiday" by Madonna because it came on the radio in the car, but I couldn't find my CD this year and we weren't lucky enough for it to be on the radio.

This year we spent the day playing games.  The kids woke up at 7:30 AM and we heard them thundering down the hall shouting, "It's Celebrate Day!!!"  It was like Christmas morning.  Here are some pictures of the games we played and the Wendy's Frosties we ate:

Jason picked Chutes and Ladders

Wendy picked Monkeys on the Bed

Sarah picked Apples to Apples.

Bradley picked Parcheesi and poor Emily didn't get a chance to pick a game because we had to go to Wendy's and grocery shopping.

 The Frosties

If you are wondering what holiday Emily created in 2007, hers was "Kid Parent Day".  It was a day when the kids are the parents and the parents are the kids.  That one didn't work out so well.

Quick Post

I'm going to write a quick post because I feel badly for not being diligent with blogging. Today I think I finished getting the kids' wardrobes winterized.  I did the girls winter clothes last Friday.  Now as of today, Bradley has long sleeved shirts and pants (or as Wendy would call them "long sleeved pants") in his dresser.  Jason is now wearing 4T clothes and I put away all the 3T.  All the children have winter church shoes available.  The girls have black shoes and Rachel has shoes that fit her.  (She was wearing a pair of black patent leather shoes that were 2 1/2 sizes too big for her to church every week.)  Thank goodness for people who hand down clothes to us!  I don't think I even have to buy much this year for my kids.

I have some leadership training to go to tomorrow morning for church at 8AM.  That's early.  Time for bed.....

Tuesday

Our local grocery store had Barilla pasta on sale this week - Buy Two Get Three Free.  That's seriously an awesome deal and it makes it $0.60 a box.  I noticed the deal on Saturday evening doing my regular grocery shopping and I loaded my cart with 60 boxes of pasta of all shapes and sizes.  The cashier rang me up and the cash register only took off 6 free boxes, because in the small print there was limit of 10.  They should really put the fine print on the sale tag by the pasta.  However, they didn't and she had to proceed to void off 50 boxes one by one. Then we did 5 more transactions with only 10 boxes of pasta each.  Since today is the last day of the sale, I went back this evening and bought 60 more boxes of pasta.  I would've bought more, but my cart was quite full.  I'm pretty sure they thought I was quite weird.  So that is about as exciting as my week has been so far.  It would be great if I could post a picture of all my pasta, but it's still in the car.

Satisfying Sunday

So this weekend was a good weekend.  I think I snapped out of my funk.  On Saturday I went to a women's conference thingy at church.  I wasn't really in the mood to go.  Sleeping in an extra hour sounded more enticing, but I went.  I always walk away from those events feeling uplifted with a boost of energy and spiritual power.  That evening I prepared a lesson to teach at church.  It was based on a talk by President Uchtdorf at General Conference this past October.  His talk was titled, "Of What Matters Most."  So what does matter most?  This:

God
Family
Fellowmen
Ourselves

If we take time to slow down our busy lives and focus on these four relationships (including a relationship with ourself) things have a way of working out and functioning more smoothly.  It all boils down to the Gospel of Jesus Christ as being the center of our life.  When it's at the center of our life, things fall into place.

We can nourish our relationship with God by praying and reading our scriptures.  We nourish our relationship with our family by spending time with them.  We nourish our relationship with our fellowmen by serving them.  We can nourish our relationship with ourselves by taking time to get to know ourselves better.  For example going for walk in nature, watching a sunrise (or I prefer a sunset), and pondering as we enjoy God's creation.

I love when I can snap out of a funk.  This week is going to be less busy, thank goodness.  This is a good week for me to slow down and focus on these things.

On another note, George is miserable.  He was born in May, it's 30 something degrees outside, 69 degrees inside and I think he's miserably cold.  All he wants to do is sleep snuggled up to me in my bed.  He cries when I put him in his crib.

On Wednesday my husband took the kids to Target and the candy was half price.  Since we didn't go trick or treating on Sunday, he let them all choose their favorite:

 Tootsie Rolls for Sarah

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups for Emily

Caramel Covered apple flavored suckers for Jason

Smarties for Rachel 

 Double Bubble for Wendy

Hershey Bars for Bradley

Bradley's Best Baptism Birthday

How is that for alliteration?  I love it.

So, yes, Bradley turned 8 today.  For his birthday he wanted to get baptized.  As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we believe age eight is the age of accountability and the age when a person is first eligible for baptism.  Basically children are innocent before they reach this age which can be a confusing concept for a parent because children of all ages can be quite naughty and annoying.  However, there is something about eight year olds that changes.  I think it's an age when the mind matures and is able to make more conscious decisions between right and wrong.  I noticed it with Emily.

Bradley had a great day.  I have to say, having a boy baptism is so much easier than a girl one because you don't have to worry about a white dress and what to do with the wet hair after.  Here are some pictures:

It was the kitchen floors.

So, I conclude it was totally the kitchen floors that was putting me in a bad mood.  My mood has improved greatly over the past couple of days, but it's been a busy week and I neglected to blog Tuesday.  I voted yesterday and I was glued to the TV watching the election results.  I love election day.  I think it is so fun to see Americans voice their opinion and make a difference.  I bet my mom would've loved yesterday.  I miss talking to her about politics.

Tomorrow is Bradley's 8th birthday and he will be getting baptized.  Woo hoo! I'm tired, but just wanted to let you know I am still here.  Pictures still to come....

I should blog, but...

I just don't want to blog right now.  I was in super-grump mode today for no apparent reason.  I have noticed a correlation between my mood and the cleanliness of my kitchen floor.  I haven't mopped my kitchen floor in over two weeks because I was sick last Monday and I only mop on Mopping Mondays (because I like alliteration.)  I mopped it this evening, so we'll see how my mood is tomorrow. It should improve. Or....it may have nothing to do with my floors and I might just be grumpy because it's nearing that time of the month and I have a lot to do this week.  Sigh.  I vote for clean kitchen floors to solve the problem because being grumpy is hard work and exhausting.  So this is my attempt tonight.  I have lots to talk about.  We had our 4th Annual Celebrate Day on Saturday.  Pictures later....