Elf on the Shelf & other Christmas fun

Have you heard of Elf on the Shelf?  I think the basic idea is that Santa sends an elf to your house.  This elf does silly (and sometimes naughty) things at your house while you're sleeping, such as toilet-papering your tree or maybe making a "snow" angel in flour/sugar.  The elf also visits Santa at night to tell him if the kids are being good or not.  I just didn't really like that idea for a few reasons.  For one thing, some of the "elf ideas" would make a huge mess that I would just have to clean up later.  Second, I teach my kids not to tattle - but the elf gets to do that every night?  Plus, on top of tattling, the elf gets to be naughty without any consequences.  So, I tried to find a way to combine Santa & Christ with our elf.  Last year, he did a few silly things and we were supposed to help "teach" him to be a good elf.  This year, I thought I would combine our elf (Elvin) with the scripture advent calendar Heidi gave us last year.  Elvin visits Santa each night and Santa sends him back with a scripture and activity for us to do.  This way, we can have some fun but still keep the focus on Christ.  Elvin is always found in a new place and the kids do love looking for him.  I think I've got an even better idea for next year, but you'll just have to wait for that!

The first night when Elvin came back, Santa suggested we go see the lights, so we headed to Thanksgiving Point.  We had a few pairs of holographic glasses from last year, which make the lights look like little snowflakes.

Some activities our elf has suggested: make paper stars (after reading scriptures about the star that appeared with Jesus' birth), watch the First Presidency Christmas devotional, hug everyone in your family, write your testimony of Christ, wrap Christmas presents, donate mop & bucket to the ward for our ward project, and more.  Each activity comes with a related scripture :)

We also had the Andrews family Christmas party.  They played "what's that great-grandkid's name" which most of us failed, and bingo.  The night ended with everyone getting a candy cane from Grandpa & Grandma Ruth.

 Ruth isn't a huge fan of the dark.  As in, she tells me "I can't sleep, I'm scared of the dark..."  She already has a nightlight, but it doesn't cut it for her.  I bought a glass block and a strand of white Christmas lights from Hobby Lobby.  I sprayed the front and back with frosted glass paint and cut out a Minnie head out of vinyl.  Add a bow, and you have a Minnie night light.  Ruth loves it.

This is how my boys usually fall asleep.  Tristan will have a comic book open on his pillow and a lot of the time, he's hanging off the side of his bed.  Ben has gotten better about turning off his lamp and taking off his glasses, but he still forgets sometimes too.

Thanksgiving and more!

It looks like I've missed a week - I better get caught back up with recent happenings!

My sister is in Arizona for master's school and she's all alone... :(  We sent her a box full of sunshine to keep her happy and hopefully tide her over until Christmas break!

I'm not sure what happened, but all of a sudden Ben lost 4 teeth within a couple weeks.  Including his 2 front teeth, just in time for Christmas.  Now I'll have to teach him the song!  He's asleep and I don't have a nice closeup shot, so I guess you'll have to wait until next week for that :)

Tristan is SUPER into regular Monopoly right now.  It's the strangest thing - he really doesn't have to concept of saving some money just in case you land on my high priced property.  He just spends as soon as he can and trades properties to get full sets.  I think I have beat him once in all the times we've played!

Ruth has a big personality as always.  She took the lid for a game and wore it as a hat.  Didn't want to go to the store without it!  Who am I to say no to that? :)

Wednesday before Thanksgiving it was Free Zoo Day at the Hogle Zoo.  We did get to see quite a few animals, but we had to go in the afternoon, and Ruth deteriorated pretty quickly...  My sister Brooklynne was here on Thanksgiving break from Snow College, and my mom & younger siblings were also out of school, so we made a big trip of it.  We even had Bostyn!  She's at that stage where the most interesting thing is the monkey's butt.  LOL.  Brooklynne is the one in the picture.

This year, with my mom doing her student teaching, I put myself in charge of organizing the Thanksgiving feast.  I brined a turkey, but the most frustrating thing happened.  Despite having thawed for 3 days in my fridge plus one day in a cooler of brine, it apparently still had some frozen parts!  We didn't realize it until we went to carve it and found a completely raw section :(  We cut off the outer layer and put the rest back in the oven - which ended up making the rest of the meat tough and dry.  I think part of the problem was getting a 20 lb bird.  I just really wanted some leftovers!  I didn't take any food pictures or even group table pictures.  I don't think anyone did to be honest...

Thursday evening I went to Walmart with my mom and little brother Tanner to try and get a big Lego brick set.  The deal was quite good - about 3x the normal amount of Legos.  We finally made our way around the store to where they had about 20 of the sets and probably more than 20 people in line.  We thought we'd try our chances anyways and got in line.  It was about 5:50 and the deals were supposed to start at 6:00.  Tanner said he'd be right back and went to go look for something else.  Just after he left, an employee starting tearing off the plastic wrap on a pallet of toys next to us, and it was seriously pure chaos after that.  People figured it must be time, and they charged the Legos.  I ran up there and tried to get my hands on a red box of Legos, but as I reached in, the last 2 were grabbed.  They did have a couple of Duplo sets in green boxes but I really wasn't interested in those larger Legos.  I just kinda stood there, a little disappointed, and waited for my brother to come back.  The Lego line disappeared as they (I assume) dashed off to get other deals.  One guy walked down the aisle towards me and my mom with a cart full of 6-8 Lego boxes.  As he walked past, he handed me the red box I wanted.  I am still shocked that he did that!  I thanked him very much and now I've got an awesome set of bricks for the kids to create with!  It's just another one of those tender mercies to remind me that Heavenly Father knows not just what I need, but what I want too :)

Tender Mercies

I'm grateful for some tender mercies this past week.  With Neil being a tax accountant, most of our income happens by May and almost none of it happens in Nov/Dec.  Adding to that the (necessary) purchase of a ground floor office this year, and I was getting worried about this Christmas.  We are switching to the 4 gift system this year, which will definitely help with our budget.  The 4 gift system is: something you want, something you need, something to wear, and something to read.  It seems like I've given my kids too many toys and not spent enough time really thinking about what will be useful or helpful to them.  It's already been amazing this year, really thinking about what gifts to give them in each category.  Ruth for sure will need a new winter coat, so I went to check the thrift store to see what I could find.  She's small enough that I can still get clothes in really good condition from thrift stores.  I found a really cute everyday coat as well as a good winter coat.  On top of that, I found a "construction fort kit" by Discovery Kids for $4 (new is $35) and a Minnie Mouse doll with clip-on clothes/shoes/hats.  It is quite literally the PERFECT gift for Ruth.

I had been stressing about having enough money for the extended family on my list, plus my kids, without having to sacrifice Neil's gifts too.  Gifts is one of his love languages and while we both agree that we'd rather make sure the kids are covered, I didn't want him to end up with nothing.  2 weeks ago, it really did look like he wasn't going to get anything for Christmas, and since his birthday comes in January and tax season doesn't really start until February, I was really upset at the thought that he wouldn't get either gift this year.  I'm a crier, big time.  So I'm crying and I say something like "What if you don't get any gifts for Christmas and I still can't get you anything for your birthday?" right when Ben comes in the room.  He immediately left - to get his wallet, so he could give me all his money so we could get Dad a birthday present.  It was the sweetest thing :)

Early last week, I remembered I had a love seat, a heavy-duty shelving unit, and a foosball table that don't get used anymore that I'd been intending to sell on KSL.  I posted them, and they all sold within 24 hours, which gave us some extra funds for Christmas.  Between that and finding some really great things from the thrift store, I think we'll be in GREAT shape come Christmas :)

At Walmart this week, Ruth and I were in the checkout line and one of those really awesome guys came up behind us in line.  He had a nice round belly and a white beard.  He saw Ruth and said "Oh ho ho ho!  Have you been a good girl?"  I don't think she was totally sure what was going on, but then I told her it was Santa.  The rest of the time in line, she kept saying "Santa, what you doing here?" or "Santa look at Ruthie!"  It was really cute.

Today marks the beginning of tithing settlement, which is usually the day that we try to get in and get it done :)  It also means it's the day of the year that I actually WRITE my tithing check.  It was kind of funny last year, we paid just before going in to sit with the bishop.  He asked if we were full tithe payers, and we said yes.  And he stared, kinda confused, and the tithing statement that he had (which wasn't updated) showing $0 paid.  We set aside our tithing with each and every paycheck that we get, and I have never touched that money during the year, but I choose to pay it annually rather than monthly.

Reading and Fun

One thing that all my children enjoy doing (although at varying degrees of interest) is reading.  Ben is my biggest reader, and constantly causes his glasses to loosen because he falls asleep with a book on his chest and his glasses on.  I caught this cute picture last week when Ruth asked to read a book and Tristan was happy to help :)

For dinner one night, I did roast and potatoes.  My roast comes from bottled roast, and it's super tender and falls apart into little pieces of deliciousness.  I love it :)  Ruth wasn't so excited about it though...  she showed me her fork which had a "snake" on it (or a strand of meat, as you can see below).  I picked it off and ate it, and she said "thanks for eating the snake mom."  She wouldn't eat any more of the roast/potatoes.

On Friday:
Tristan (working on homework, picks up school folder): WHAT?  Who poked holes in this?
Mom: I don't know... you?  Someone at school?
Tristan:  And who poked holes in this paper?  And there's a hole in the couch too.
Mom:  UGH!  Ruth....
Tristan: Well can we go to the school tomorrow and get a new folder?
Mom: No, no one will be there.
Tristan:  (blank face) You mean Mrs. Vander doesn't live there??
Mom:  Uh... no.
Tristan: Well then can you text her and ask her to meet us there so I can get a new folder?
Mom:  No!  (explains how it's like dad going to work at the office - she will be at home on Saturday and won't want to come in - besides I don't even have her number)

Ben has a BIG crush on the cutest little girl at school.  She's in his class but she is a full head shorter than he is.  Some things he's said:

"I don't want to take a sandwich for my lunch because Eve is allergic to peanuts."
"I told Eve a joke and she laughed and I like that."
"When I saw Eve today she smiled and HUGGED ME."
"Can I take 2 treats because I want to share with Eve."
"The shorter the girls are the more I like them."

And last, here a couple pictures from our family session with my aunt.

Happy Halloween!

Every year around Halloween time, my aunt Angie sets up a Halloween scene in her studio and offers free portraits to anyone who wants to come!  We love taking advantage of this :)

We were planning on doing the pictures on Wednesday at 4:00 and then heading to the Traverse Mountain outlets (at the point of the mountain) for stories, a craft, and trick or treating around the stores there.  That meant on Tuesday I was frantically trying to get Neil's costume in a good place.  I should have ordered a good beard for him off of Amazon weeks ago, but I kept thinking I didn't want to pay $10-15 for one small part of his costume if I could make one out of yarn.  At some point, I had to admit that I also just don't have time to make EVERYTHING.  I mean, I made wands for the boys, and Gryffindor patches for their robes, and an owl eyes headband for Ruth...  something had to go.  So I went to Zurchers, which had a decent beard for $10, but it ended up being the same color as Neil's robes and it was just... bleh.  So I returned that beard and went to Halloween City.  I had looked up their beards online and they had a good long white one.  Sadly, the store didn't have that beard, nor any white beard.  They recommended I get a different beard and some of the white hairspray.  You can see in the pictures how well that ended up working.  

I already had the fabric for my robe, and the felt for Ruth's owl feathers.  The boys robes are made of DI men's shirts and Neil's costume was made from $1/yard clearance fabric from Walmart.  I think I probably spent $25 on our costumes.  I feel very blessed that I have the ability to make my own costumes every year and save so much money!

Halloween day, we stopped by Cabelas for a little bit more trick or treats - they had about 8 stations set up through the store.  I probably wouldn't care to go, but since they also have a big fish tank and other (stuffed) animals in the store, it's a more interesting place to go.  Last year, they hid small pumpkins around the store that could win you big prizes.  We didn't find any, and they didn't do it this year.  Oh well.  

Ruth was really getting the hang of the trick or treating deal.  She wasn't even upset that we weren't eating the candy yet.  The only problem we had was that some houses have dogs.  She's not scared of the dogs, she just wants to go into people's houses and pet the dogs.  And not everyone's dogs are the "petting" kind...  so we started having meltdowns when we tried to get her to leave the house.  Eventually, Neil took her back home and I kept going with the boys until they started complaining about wanting a drink and being tired of walking.  They got quite a haul though.  2 houses in my mom's neighborhood were giving out full sized candy bars, and most people in my ward give 3-4 of the small candies.  

Tristan came down with a stomach bug yesterday, and I'm just grateful it happened the day AFTER Halloween so he didn't have to skip trick or treating.

October 26th 2014

This past week we didn't do anything out of the ordinary.  It was just one of the regular, busy weeks.  Well, I guess I shouldn't say "out of the ordinary" because we've been working on quarterly payroll filings, which don't come up EVERY week, but it's definitely not something we're taking pictures of to share with you! :)

I've also been working on the kid's costumes (and the adult's too) but I don't have any pictures of them yet.  They all still need some finishing touches before I'm willing to share.

I do have family pictures though!  My amazing aunt is still working on touching up the photos I chose, but you can see the unedited photos here: http://sweetmemorygarden.pixieset.com/baxterfamily/

Next week you can look forward to some Halloween pictures!! :)

Cornbelly's!

In the last 2 weeks, we had our last filing deadline for tax returns.  It looks like we were actually in better shape this year than we were last year, so that's good!  Last year I think we had 31 to still complete ON the filing day, and this year it looks like we only had 23.  Still more than we'd like, but it seems we are improving!

We had a Friday off of school 2 weeks ago, so we went to Cornbelly's for some fun.  I love doing this every year and I can always find a good deal on tickets.  They have big bouncy houses/pillows, a corn pit (like a sand pit, but with corn kernals), mini mazes, big wooden toys to play on, and tons more.  We were there for as long as we could be while Ruth was still cooperating.

We also got some free tokens, so we used them to shoot some corn out of air cannons.  The kids loved it.  They had a couple metal cow cut-outs and some broken down cars caged off to shoot.  I shot some apples out of a bigger cannon and managed to tip over one of the cows!

This last weekend was fall break, so we had Thursday and Friday off of school.  Bostyn came over to play on Thursday and we did some Halloween hand/footprint painting.  Ruth can apparently unscrew the lid from the paint though...

On Friday we met my amazing aunt Angie up AF Canyon for family pictures.  We are so lucky that she is willing to take our family photos for free.  I always bring her a thank you gift and we keep trying to get her to let us do some tax work for her in exchange.  I wish I had some previews to share but it was only a couple days ago so I guess you'll have to wait until next week :)

Apples and Grapes and Workshops, OH MY!

I don't think I realized how busy my life was until I tried to really keep track of it!

Last Monday, we had dinner at Bart & Jaclyn's house and picked apples from Afton's tree.  We should have gotten a picture of me climbing around way up there in my flipflops!

Fast forward past the "boring, everyday busy stuff" to Friday.  We went back and made 66 pints and 2 quarts (plus a little for a tupperware) of applesauce!  Tristan and Ben loved helping!

We also picked all the grapes before we left on Friday because some of them were shriveling and some were falling off and we were worried we wouldn't get to them in time.  I took the jars of applesauce home and sealed them all on Friday, and processed the grapes while watching conference on Saturday and Sunday.

To close out our Friday night, we tried out Pizza Cake.  It was delicious!  Ruth couldn't wait for me to finish taking a picture before she tried to dig in!

Saturday morning before Conference started, we headed over to Home Depot for their free Kid's Workshop.  This month: build an EMS truck.  It's a really cool truck with doors that slide on and off so you can actually put someone in the back!
They had a real fire truck there too for the kids to look at, and a firefighter at a table to ask questions to the kids.  My favorite:
Firefighter: What do you do if your clothes are on fire?
Ben: Take them off and put new clothes on.  And call 911.
Tristan: NO!  STOP DROP AND ROLL.  I learned that in my Kindergarten class. (said with the tone of "are you really that dumb?").

That's my literal Ben.  If your clothes are on fire, take them off and put new ones on.  Seriously.

Last bit of fun:  Ben has a cute little female friend at school and he says he loves her "on the inside, because I don't want anyone to know."  He told me he likes her more than Grandma.  :)

A year later...

Well, it looks like almost another year has passed before I came back to blog again.  I post on Facebook sometimes, and I guess I didn't realize it had been a whole YEAR since I tried to actually blog something!

This time my renewed commitment will be due to Steve & Afton Baxter's mission.  I figure if they are going to write us once a week to keep us updated, I should try to do the same.  In reality, "write blog post" has been on my recurring Sunday to-do list for a few months now, but I really don't look at my to-do list on Sundays!  Maybe this will be the time that sticks??

This last week I've felt more accomplished than usual.  I got some projects off my list that I've had for a long time, including Ruth's princess towel.  I think I need to go back and add some jewels to the crown though, since it doesn't look as good as it did in the tutorial online...

Most elementary schools have a special playground that is just for Kindergarten, which I think is great.  Except Tristan's school didn't have the rubber flooring installed until last week.  It was KILLING him.  He'd get in the van every day when I'd pick him up from school and say "Had another GREAT day... but the playground isn't ready yet."  He was VERY excited when I picked him up today because it was the first day they actually got to play on it!

I also got school pictures back last week.  I don't pay for them because I can get individual shots of the kids when we do family pictures, but I loved what came back this year.  Tristan was "star student" during the week of school pictures, and I guess he forgot to take off his crown.  And I have no idea what's up with Ben's smile.

Last Saturday we went hiking on the Bell Canyon trail with some ward members.  We didn't go very far because it was very steep and hard to carry a 40 lb child.  We stopped at a large pond (small lake?) and some of the kids took off shoes and waded in a little bit.  When they got out, we discovered leeches.  Luckily there weren't too many to pick off the kid's feet.