This Christmas

Can you say….

CANDY!?!

We can.

I need to admit something here. A lot of things I try to do with the kids don’t work out, especially if it involves baking. For two years now we have baked and succeeded, so I’m thinking that’s a sign that this tradition is a keeper.

Not the prettiest house as far as gingerbread  homes are concerned….all about the journey, right?

Speaking of journeys. We found an awesome hike, and it was the perfect day….

A friend told me about this hike, but the directions were a little sketchy. We began the hike on what we hoped was a trail, but it was more like a  a rock slide down the side of the mountain.

Then we found the real trail, and all was right in the world again. Me and Bingham were hiking buddies, even though he doesn’t ask to be carried anymore he still holds my hand most the way. Occasionally he would still slip and hit himself on a rock and he’d say, “I’m ok, just a little pain.”  Cracked me up. Then he accidently hit a cactus with his hand and said, “I’m ok, just a little pain…..oh, now a lot of  pain!”  Poor kid, but he was a tuffy and kept movin’.

We hiked to a place called Temple Rock. The echo was amazing, you could get several words repeated clearly back to you. Of course the favorite was the mountain goat dialog from “Brother Bear”.

Which may have had something to do with Soni discovering her inner mountain goat. It was the perfect rock climbing hike and she kept saying how scared she was but she just kept climbing. I’m pretty sure she could talk her way through just about anything.

Even angel made it (look closely, she’s camouflaged). Tess made it across the river but couldn’t get her big and not so agile hinny up the rocks so she waited faithfully at the bottom.

This is the view back down the canyon from Temple Rock. It was pretty cool. It kind of reminded me of the hike we did with Sarah’s family to the Walls of Jericho, only shorter….and without Austin doing a cannon ball into the stream at the bottom.

It was so good just to be out in all this beauty with my family soaking up His love. This Christmas has been a little crazy, emotional ups and downs.  It’s made me question the phrase “Merry Christmas”….something I look forward to saying every year, and now whether Christmas is merry or not doesn’t seem to matter. But it has been a good Christmas, a peaceful Christmas, a full Christmas, a little crazy Christmas, and yes, even a merry Christmas; and I am so thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who knew exactly what I needed this season.

NINE

So Austin had a birthday this month. Actually, it was yesterday, but we celebrated it 2 weeks ago.



Nine years. That’s a lot to celebrate. Especially when you live your life like Austin does…10 feet off the ground and 90 miles an hour.  Now if we could just figure out how to apply that “zest” to his spelling homework….seriously….I’m open to suggestions. I made the mistake of telling him that I have always struggled with spelling so now he blames it on me; says it’s in his DNA.

But really, what a loveable kid, and our world would be a pretty quiet place without him….too quiet.

This year we’ve had warm weather all season…and have really missed the snow, but it sure made the wiener roast we planned for Austin’s party a lot more enjoyable. We had a few friends over, several different kinds of weapons, plenty of ammo and fire.

Good times for all.

We even got a hold of some of those mondo marshmallows to test out. The verdict is…WOW, so cool, but really…that’s a LOT of mallow. Very scientific, I know.



(here’s Bingham trying to eat a mallow all in one bite…and I’m guessing from the ketchup all over his face, this is how the hotdog went down too.)

All in all it was a great way to celebrate another year with Austin, and I’m so looking forward to whatever the 10th year brings.

Shooting babies

Bingham thinks Austin's BB gun is a baby gun, and it shoots tiny little babies (bb's).

Happy Trails

We usually go on a hike after Thanksgiving. This year the opportunity presented itself a few days early, so we jumped on it. I’m so glad we did, since Austin hurt his ankle the night before Thanksgiving and was “hobbling around like an old man” (his words, not mine) for three days.

We went to Florence Mountain Park and hiked up a canyon there. It was beautiful, perfect weather and all of the kids and dogs hiked every step on their own, with very little complaining and a lot of fun. It has been a long time since I’ve been on a hike with out a child strapped to my back our in my tummy…it was almost as good as not buying diapers anymore. Luckily, they still like to hold my hand as we hike….now that is something I never get tired of.

All of these fun little waterfalls, and the trail going back and forth across the stream, and NOBODY go wet…it was the strangest thing.

The ice skating across the frozen pond made me a little nervous, but mostly I just wished I was as carefree (and light) as these kiddos.

Once they had explored the ice surface, it’s only logical to wonder what was underneath.

We are wanting a good snow storm so badly, but I guess if the weather is determined to stay nice, we’ll put the hot chocolate back up in the cupboard and hit the trail.

Perfect Thanksgiving

I love being surrounded by loads of crazy family on Thanksgiving, but I also love just a simple quiet Thanksgiving with my kids and husband. This year we chose the later mixed with a little of the former crazy.

Everyone helped cook, especially EVE, and it was fun conversation and creativity in the kitchen, except when it wasn't and I had to send everyone to their rooms.

We played cards and read books and it was nice and quiet, except when it wasn't and I had to send everyone to their rooms.

Austin played with Sonya and Bingham like a good big brother and had them squealing with laughter, except when the laughter turned to tears and I had to send everyone to their rooms.

Dinner was delish with gravy, potatoes, stuffing and turkey, except for the parts that didn't get fully cooked and had to be sent back to their rooms the oven.

And now the pies are cooling on the table, sweet goodness waiting to be had, except...hey, where's Bingham..OH NO!

Wincy Bincy Spider

Create a picture slideshow

Tim Tam Slam

We’ve been holding out on you all. We have a new family favorite and we haven’t shared. Not because we didn’t love you, there just wasn’t enough to go around, and who knew when our supply would be replenished??  But at last, after a lot of hard work and sacrifice on our part we have found a way…so here it goes….

 

ARE YOU READY?!?!?!

First you need hot cocoa mix, a cup of hot water, Tim Tams* and one Bingham…just for fun.

*a Tim Tam is not a cookie, but a chocolate covered chocolate “biscuit” that comes to smuggled to America in the suitcases of friendly Aussies.

Carefully open your hot cocoa packet….

..or just do whatever you gotta to get that cocoa out.

Pour your cocoa into your cup of hot water.

Get it all…no sugar should be wasted…then stir to mix.

Open the Tim Tams…discard wrapper, it will only be in the way.

Take a tiny bit from each of the shortest sides of the biscuit. Opposite corners work best.

Put one bitten end of the biscuit into the hot cocoa and suck the liquid through the biscuit like a straw. Feel the biscuit soften as the enriched cocoa douses your taste buds.

Savor the flavor.

Down the rest of the soaked biscuit for an explosion of flavor second to none.

 

Now, say you have no one to smuggle Tim Tams into America for you. Well, you can buy them on Amazon for a crazy amount, or just substitute with these. As a family we have sampled several different chocolate coated cookies on the American market and these are by far the best.

Of course you would still call it a Tim Tam Slam out of respect…but oh my….the goodness is indescribable.

…your welcome.

She did it. Another year...11 to be exact. We had both agreed that 10 was a perfectly wonderful age to be...but now that 11 is here, we can't help be a little excited about it all.

It's been a good year...I love this girl, and I love who she is becoming.....

There has been a little of this...

and some of this...

and a whole lot of this....

Happy Birthday Eve!



So Thoughtful

I know my kids love each other. The really look out for each other. For example, Austin went to a lot of work to make sure Bingham would be safe....

...when he threw a football at his head.

See the pillow behind him to cushion his fall from the blow...

these kids think of everything.

Is that an itch?

The idea of a week long trip to be with family is always an exciting idea and I am easily convinced. And then comes the week before such an adventure and the plan starts to lose it's luster. So many things to finish up or find someone willing to cover in my absence and I start to think it would be better just to stay home. But this time I had already paid the marathon fee, with cash and physical preparation, so crazy or not we hit the road Friday morning and made it to Mary's around 6 that evening. The hardest thing about the drive was trying to figure out what I could and should be eating the day before a marathon....traditional road trip snack food didn't seem like a good idea, but after my forth apple....I guessed a few crackers wouldn't hurt.

At Mary's we had a perfect pre race dinner, funny conversations (Jaran read what? The whole series?) and in bed and asleep by 10(ish). Phil flew in at 10:30 and I was so thankful to his parents for picking him up and dropping him off while I slept.

3:15 in the am came pretty fast but I was just excited enough that it didn't matter. Phil was kind enough to drop Denise (partner in crime) and I off so we could catch the bus out to Antelope Island. This was the first year for this marathon and it wouldn't win any awards for being well planned out, but it was pretty out in the middle of the lake in the dark; fresh air and the city lights reflecting off the water, it made the first 8 miles fly by. After that Denise and I split up and I was on my own. By this time my knee was really hurting me, as I knew it would be, and I couldn't help but feel a little doubt. I didn't doubt my ability to finish, just doubted the wisdom of running it in the first place...thoughts of limping for the rest of my life...blah, blah, blah...whatever worse case scenarios I could think of. Thankfully this didn't last long, because to be honest, I was really excited to do this, I wanted every step of it, even the ones that meandered through doubts and fears; it was good to just recognize this part of the race for what it was and just run it.

AND THEN....



...the party began. Becky's family, Mary, Joie and Eve (Mary, thank you so much for bringing her!) Were at the earliest point they could to cheer me on, and boy did they cheer, I felt like a total celebrity. They sang "We are the Champions" or other funny, made up running songs every time I went by and even came and ran with me for a while.



They were hilarious and wonderful. As I trained for this I had mentally prepared for the lonely miles and was ready for many of them, but this was such a welcome reprieve. At one point Eve, Joie, Jordan and Syd all came out and ran with me for a bit and I physically felt a forward, upward lift as they surrounded me and ran. DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THESE KIDDOS...THEY ARE POWERFUL AND HEADED IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION! I was completely honored to have them run with me.

After I got back to the mainland, Phil, his mom, Austin, Soni, and Bingham were there to cheer me on too. Austin was straight to the point and told me to get my butt movin'...just what I needed after 18 miles...haha.

This picture was actually just less than a mile from the finish, and my intestinal tract wasn't being very kind to me...not real pretty, but it was pretty real.

When it was all said and done it was the little things, just having people I love there, hugs, holding my son's hand, chocolate milk, seeing Denise come in strong with a smile on her face, and oh yeah, I got 3rd in my age division...didn't see that one coming, but it totally topped off the day.

Now here I am two days later and no permanent limping, (hmm, who knew?)  in fact, I'm feeling pretty chipper and almost itching for a run.

Here's a video awesome Becky did...did I mention she's awesome?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoT0KThZwc8&feature=player_embedded

No! ...ah...well...ok

I'm not a dog person.

I mean, I have a dog, and I think she's cool. I like to have her as company on my runs, or when she follows me around the yard, and I love it when she takes down a gopher or two....

but I'm not a dog person.

So, when this beast wandered into our yard the other day, (after momentarily freaking out)  I told the kids to stay away from it...not to feed it...and tried to shoo it away.

It just ignored me and slurped down Angels water.

So when Phil got home he chased it away with a lot of banging of sticks and manly dominant behavior....three times. When it was still hanging around the next day I sprayed it with the hose and it just trotted to the edge of the yard and waited for me to put my hose away.

At this point I started to feel sorry for the gal. We have a lot of wandering dogs around here, but this one clearly wasn't wandering....she wanted to stay.  So, I fed her and gave her more water and patted her on the head, thinking I'd put some signs up around town and see if any one was missing her. I took some pictures and asked her to sit. She did willingly and I buried my fingers in her furry thick neck and tried to think of the huge amounts of dog food she could probably eat. No worries though really, surely someone would call and claim her sweet BIG mug.

The phone didn't ring and I bought a collar...she didn't have one and she needed a walk. We've narrowed the names down to two...just in case, and she rolls on her back for the kids to scratch her tummy and lounges her big self on my front porch and I can't help but think dark morning runs wouldn't be near as scary with her trotting by my side.

But no way is she coming in my house cause

I'm not a dog person.

Sum, sum, summer time...

I think that after getting so far behind on my pictures this summer I just avoided my camera for a while. This last week it has slowly been making a reappearance in our lives and so...

Yep, Soni lost another tooth. It has been loose all summer and finally I just reached in and grabbed it. She thought it was extremely painful until she saw the tooth in my hand. Now I get such a kick out of her lisp. She is going to a surprise princess party next week and every time she asks about it I have to tease her a little bit.

Austin and Phil ran another 5K last Saturday, I was planning on running it too until my friend talked me into running a marathon this fall so we did 12 miles before the race. That's my friend's kid that's running with Austin. They're both so dang competitive, but they really worked together and planned a tie at the end. They came in at 26:42...speedy boys.

We went to the reservoir last week and took Sam and Joe. Their older sister was the one killed in the auto accident and they spent most of the week at our house. It was good to have them here and I just wanted to help anyway I could....the problem came when Eve and Sam floated away from the creek and out into the reservoir. They can both swim, but there was a pretty strong current and they both panicked. Phil and two other boys jumped in to get them back to the shore. It was a little scary there for a minute, but my biggest fear was telling the mom who had just lost a daughter that I just about drowned another. I mentioned it as casually as I could and I'm pretty sure she was so emotionally wiped out it didn't even click on her register...and she let me keep the kids several times since then, so I think we're all good.

So....next week school starts and again I ask myself..."why do I send my kids away all day?" Yes, they drive me crazy, but it's a good crazy and things are awful quiet when they're gone.

Inner Runner

When Eve was little she loved to run, but as she has gotten a little emotional older she has been hesitant to really try. I keep teasing her about finding her inner runner...that when she does, she will just take off and never look back. Well, it took the zoom lens on Trevor's camera, but I think we found it...

...check out that form....

....maybe her inner runner is a sprinter instead of a distant type.

Watch out world......