Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving was so much fun!! I feel bad for only getting the pictures posted until now, but better late than never, right? (I also apologize in advance for the amount of pictures, but I thought they were all so good). And many thanks go to Granddad for always being ready with the camera.

My entire family was here for Thanksgiving. It was awesome!!! We played Rockband like crazy, watched Burn Notice every night (except for the night we watched Agent Smart and laughed ourselves silly), and had just plain old fun with everyone. We're so glad that we had 2 big playrooms for the 10 kids to run around in (mind you, 4 of them are 1-year-olds, and the oldest is 6. That'll paint a picture for you). One night the Corless kids went out and saw Twilight. Always fun. And then a couple nights later, the guys (and my mom- someone had to keep them in line) went to see Transporter 3 while us sisters giggled and ate cheesecake while playing silly board games. What fun!


What? What did I do?!?


Princess Rocker


Aunts are awesome.


The kids eatin' their big turkey dinner.


The big kids eatin' their turkey dinner. (Jeromy just told a really funny joke, can't you tell? :)


Cuddlin' with Grandma. Aaaw.


Some serious concentrating going on.


NOBODY told this kid you don't need a golf glove to play Rockband?!?!?!?


My Grandmother (91) stopped by for a visit. Back: Jacob, me, Shelly, Laurel, Heather. Front: Grandmother, Grandma, one of the twins (can't tell here, sorry), Kailey, Audrey, Kierra, and Abby. (Don't you like my sister's foxy new hairdo? I convinced her to see my gal and now I think she looks like Alice from Twilight, only blond. Cool, huh.)


I love my boy!!



We also went up to Temple Square via the train system to see the Christmas lights. It was beautiful and oh so fun.

This is in the children's section of the Church History Museum. The kids loved it.


This is at one of Temple Square's Visitor's Centers.


Emily? Ashley? No, wait, it's Emily, I'm sure. Right?




Making a wish.


We were trying to take a nice family picture, but some bum walked up and ruined it. AND THEN he started begging for money. Sorry John, I'm totally broke.


Stranger problem taken care of.


We hope you all enjoyed your stay, cuz we sure enjoyed having you! Love ya lots!!!

Silly Boy

Jacob was being so funny during lunch the other day. I just had to get the camera out. And, of course, he wasn't near as funny as before I got the camera on him. Oh well, maybe next time. He's still so unbelievably cute!

Christmas 2008

Hope you all had a great Christmas! We had a nice wintery Christmas day, complete with a 2-hour power outage while we opened presents. It was so nice to relax and stay in our pajamas all day and just focus on our kids. We were hoping we'd get snowed in (it'd make a good story, you know), but alas just got ice and wind. The kids were so excited for Santa to come that they fell asleep right as soon as their heads hit the pillow. And Audrey says she heard Santa on the roof ;). So fun!!


Santa brought Audrey an easel complete with all sorts of art supplies.


Her first drawing on her first easel.


Santa brought Kierra a playhouse,


and a Cinderella dress.


What an adorable princess!!


Jacob got some little boy stuff.




Hope you all had a pleasant holiday too! Have a Happy New Year!!

Moon Sand Mess

Today's message of the day from our Advent calendar brought us Christmas colored Moon Sand! What fun! The girls played with this for almost an hour, it was great. Audrey said, "I had so much fun, Mom. It was an amazing time!" Well cool kiddo. Glad you had fun.

Parental Note: They did play with this for over a half an hour, but then I spent the next half hour cleaning it up! At the store I thought, "Hmmm, this looks cool, and it says it cleans up really well, better than play-do. Hmmm, this sounds fun." So yes, it cleans up well, but after the kids get it EVERYWHERE (it is sand after all), you end up wiping all the counters and chairs, sweeping the whole kitchen, changing their clothes, and then wiping out the laundry hamper for a tablespoon or two of stray sand. I suppose I should probably vaccuum now too. Was it worth it? I suppose so, they did have an "amazing time." But I don't think we'll be getting it out again for awhile. :)





(This is the mountain where the Grinch lives. We have one in our backyard now too.)

Jeromy's 30th!!!

Yup, Jeromy turned 30 this past week. I don't think he was all that thrilled about it, but we tried to have fun (I'm just glad that he'll always be older than me- he he he). He got a $30 gift card to iTunes since he's 30, and a $40 gift card to a sporting goods store to look forward to the next decade (and so I wouldn't have to go pick out sporting goods :). For his birthday dinner, he picked Eggsaroneous (boiled eggs, mashed up, inside a white sauce, on toast). I find it very funny that that is his favorite, but that was his request so I made it. He's so funny. And then we had Pumpkin cake for dessert! Yum!! Hope you had a good one, hon!!!!

Today's Highlights

What a day. Here's some highlights:

-Jacob played in the toilet water. That's a new one. And I'm sure it's another first for weird things boys do.

-Got the Christmas stickers out for the message of the day. Some were the kind you color yourself. Girls loved it.

-I found a mysterious medium sized puddle underneath my washer and dryer. Uh, not sure what to do about that. Or how to clean it up.

-I overheard the kids playing "Mary and Joseph" today. I heard Audrey say, "Come on, Joseph, it's time to go!" Too cute.

-I didn't get a shower till 2pm today. I guess that's not totally unusual. Oh well.

-I braved the storm to go help set up the church for our ward party tomorrow. On the way home, we stopped by Sam's Club for some milk and to eat pizza. YOU TOTALLY NEED TO GO TO SAM'S THIS WEEKEND!!! They are doing some kind of holiday sampler party or something because there were a TON of taste tests! The plan was to get a couple of things, taste a few foods, and then get pretzels at the deli. We were so full when we were done that I didn't even need to feed my kids dinner! Woohoo! Free dinner!!!

-On the way home, I thought how exhausted I was and glad that I could finally go home. Wrong! I then remembered that I totally forgot to get a Sub For Santa present to bring to the Ward Party at 9am tomorrow. Oops, turn around and go to Target!

-I found fresh coconut at Target! I've been looking all over for it for a certain recipe and I finally found it!! Woohoo!!

-Surprisingly, the kids were so good at both stores! Well, maybe for Jacob, he was getting a bit cranky and wiggly towards the end, but that's to be expected for a one-year-old.

-On the way home, I was prepping the girls. It was bedtime and my first priority was to get Jacob in his bed. So I asked the girls if they could be super big helpers and put themselves to bed while I put him to bed and put groceries away, shoveled snow, etc. And then I promised to read to them if they waited patiently in bed. To my astonishment, five minutes after we got home and I was still wrestling Jacob, Audrey came down in her pajamas, with her teeth brushed, had gone potty and everything!!! WOW!!!

-When I went to shovel the driveway when we got home, I noticed that someone did it for me! What a wonderfully nice surprise!!

-The kids were so tired from all that shopping, that they went right out. (sigh) If only that could happen every night. :)

-I got to do the dishes tonight listening to a new CD in a dark house with only the kitchen light and the indoor Christmas lights on (that is my FAVORITE Christmas decoration- to have that rainbow glow on the walls. Maybe I'll have to take a picture so you know what I've got going on.)

-Jeromy just called and is almost home from his business trip. He was only gone one night, but that's one night too many. He's my best friend, my anti-anxiety medicine, my sounding board, my problem solver (hey hon, what we gonna do about the washer?), my go-to guy.... I miss him.
OOh, he just pulled up. Gotta go.

Up To Date

So here is the post where I dump all the pictures taken recently in order to get caught up on the blog. So sorry. Is anyone else going crazy with how fast December is going by??? There's so much more I've been wanting to do, and it's halfway over!!!!!!!!!!!! Aaaaahhh!!!!


Side note: In an effort to do something fun with the kids each day, I stole Mindy's idea and made an advent calendar of activities/fun things. Not hard since my mom just gave me the one we used when I was little. I just put a message in each one that says things like "Read the Polar Express" or "make sugar cookies" or whatever. We don't always have time for the Message-of-the-Day, but the kids don't let me forget.


Monday: FHE. Decorate the tree. Decorate cookies. Audrey: Can we stop all this picture-taking nonsense and make some cookies!?!


Kierra: Mom, shouldn't you be paying attention to how many sprinkles I'm putting on my cookie instead of worrying about having pictures for your blog?


The result:


Tuesday: Dad and kids go to Cabella's to meet up with Grandpa and have fun looking around at the free (stuffed) zoo. Mom goes shopping by herself since it's her only chance of the week.

Wednesday: Go to Thanksgiving Point to look at the lights. We got a mailer coupon for $2 off, so it was only $5, and well worth it I thought. The kids had a lot of fun looking at the lights, and got to see real reindeer at the end. After the light portion they had a section of just pictures of the Nativity and a poem that went with it. I was SO glad they did that since we've been trying so hard to spend equal amounts of time talking about Baby Jesus as we have Santa.

You can sense in this picture what our ears went through during this trip. Audrey belting out Christmas carols (well, carol really, she only knows Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer well) at the top of her lungs. We love ya, sweety, but please just sing, thanks.


Looking at the reindeer.


Up close. (Factoid: only female reindeer still have their antlers during the winter. Hmmm.)


It was FREEZING! And none of us really came prepared (ok, the girls were, the guys weren't) to go outside since we didn't know the reindeer would be there. So we just had to stop at the cafe and get some hot cocoa.



Hot cocoa can be very thought provoking, don't you think?


My cutie.


Thursday: Debate all day as to whether or not to go to the crummy Enrichment party. I'm still undecided if it was a good idea or not. The activity: drive around to several sisters' homes and look at all their cool Christmas decorations, like Parade of Homes at Christmastime. Woohoo, that'll really invite the Spirit of the Season. Sign me up! I want to go to the sister's home worth 2 million dollars (actually it could be just 1 mil but what's the difference, really) and see how she can buy all new decorations every year and has her own movie theater in her basement and yada yada yada. That'll get me in the Christmas mood. I know, I'm bitter and clearly have issues. But what happened to the good ole' Enrichment Christmas dinner where there's such a great feeling of comraderie? Oh wait, wrong ward, my bad. Sometimes I feel like an outcast in my ward. I know 2 sisters fairly well (no make that 3 of late) and none of them came that night so I just wandered around pretending to be interested in this or that cool decoration (I wasn't feeling too out-going as you can tell). After introducing myself to a member of the R.S. presidency for the THIRD time since we've moved in, and hearing for the FOURTH time that night, "Oh, you've lived here for 7 months? And I'm just now meeting you? Oh I'm so bad!" all I want to say in response is "Ya, this ward isn't really big into welcoming people, are they?" I didn't say it out loud, mind you, I can mind my manners! Overall, there were some good treats that night (like fudge and chocolate frosted cream puffs!) and I got to know one of my neighbors a little better. So I guess it wasn't a total waste. Still. Okay, rant over.

(Oh, and since I was still in kind of a bitter mood from Thursday night, I thought it was interesting that our R.S. lesson on Sunday was on unity. I almost had to stifle a laugh. "What is unity?" "Um, the 11th ward? Pam Watson? Kaylynne Lhorke? I give up. What is unity?" Ok, ok, I'm really not as bitter as I'm making it seem (or am I?;), it's just that I'm really missing my friends right now, so it's hard to walk into a small R.S. gathering and not compare what I used to have with what I have now. I'll get better with time. I hope.) Wow, sorry I've tainted this happy Christmastime post with my shallow, petty, selfish issues. I'll try not to do that again! Yikes!

Friday: Wait for friends from Canada to visit, only to be interrupted by a storm. Rotten luck! I hope you guys have fun at Disneyland! And hope you can stop by on your way back through!

Saturday: Brave the mobs at Costco (for what? milk? we're crazy!), and have a McDonald's picnic in the living room and watch a rental movie. Oh, but first, help Daddy shovel the driveway. Too cute!



Can't forget our messy little boy!


Sunday: Only Mom and Audrey made it to church just in case the rest were still contagious from our little cold. Audrey sang a couple of songs with the Primary during Sacrament meeting, but she decided too late to change where she stood and ended up behind all the big kids. I couldn't see her at all except for the couple of times she leaned out really far just to make sure I was still looking. So cute.

Monday: Drive around and look at the Christmas lights in our neighborhood. Kids went ape over this idea. We might have to do it again before Christmas.

Wow, you're an allstar friend if you made it through this whole post. Just wait for the Thanksgiving one that's bound to show up soon! :)

Joy to Everyone

Have you seen this Joy to Everyone song from BYU? Pretty cool.

Toddling Jacob

As promised, here are some of Jacob's first toddling steps. And yes, my girls don't have shirts on. They're getting much better, this just happened to be in the middle of getting ready for bed. But isn't my little guy such a cutie!!

Candycane Cocoa

On a lighter note, have you tried Stephen's Candycane Cocoa? It has real bits of candy canes in it. Sooooo yummy!!!!!!!

Making Room

This morning as I was opening my fast with a prayer, I asked for an added measure of the Spirit, as I so desperately need it right now to be a good mother. The answer came: You know, Hilary, one of the best ways to fill yourself with the Spirit is to share your testimony. My begrudging reply: Ya, I know. So I fought it somewhat rebelliously all day until finally in church I realized I wasn't doing this small thing He asked of me, and yet I still wanted the blessings. If I really wanted an extra dose of the Spirit, I would do what was asked of me. Ugh. I gave in and shared a minute or two of my testimony (for the first time in over 3 years I might add).

Now, after listening to President Monson's message in the Christmas Devotional about the innkeeper that might've found Mary and Joseph some room had he known who they really were, I'm rethinking my attitude earlier today. Pres. Monson urged us all to find time in our lives and room in our hearts for our Savior. And here I was not willing to do that this morning because of petty insecurities and a hard heart. It's so hard for me to stay strong in my discipline with my children and be courteous and kind to them if I'm not in tune with the Spirit. And it's so hard not to get mad at Jeromy for trifle little things and get frustrated really easily when I'm not in tune with the Spirit. (Not to mention how I tend to get really down on myself and think I'm inadequate in everything when I'm not working to have the Spirit with me all the time.) I know these things. So why am I not working harder to have the Spirit in my life? That's the million dollar question.

I was blessed by the Spirit today as we went to our meetings, no doubt because I did do my end of the bargain and shared my testimony. But I can't help but think how different it would've been if I had done it with a glad and willing heart. So here's to my new goals of being willing to soften my heart and make room for the Savior and His Spirit in my life. Here's to reading and studying my scriptures even if I think I'll never be a scholar scriptorian. And here's to having more meaningful and sincere prayers, even if it means my kids are running amok downstairs while I lock myself in my closet. I NEED the Spirit if I want to be a good mother, wife, and person. So I'm promising now to try a lot harder.

Festival of the Trees

We went to the Festival of the Trees last night for the very first time. What fun! Okay, it was really hard to maneuver a stroller and 2 little ones in that crowd, but it was still very festive and fun, and hey we were in a way supporting Crew at Primary's, right?

I apologize in advance for the blurriness of the pictures. We forgot to bring our camera and had to rely on the cameras on our phones. And I'm sorry to say we failed to get a picture of Audrey with eyes glued to the children dancers performing. She was totally enthralled watching them. We have got to get her into some lessons!

Here's a cute pic of Jacob actually cuddling with mamama (how he says my name). It doesn't happen often, so it was nice to get a picture of it! Poor guy, he isn't feeling very well, so one of us had to hold him most of the time. I didn't mind, especially since I got so many cuddles!


He's totally mine, is he not? Ooh, I could just squeeze the packin's out of him (as my Nana would say).


I didn't realize that they had gingerbread houses there too. They had some really cool looking ones, like this GINORMOUS castle, complete with a big W on it. He he he.


And of course I had to take a picture of this gingerbread house. It's Chief Swan's house, complete with mossy trees, a red truck, and a dark figure (hmmm, who could that be?) in the tree outside one of the bedroom windows. What fun! There were also a few Twilight inspired Christmas trees, but I didn't really like any of them enough to stop the crew to take a picture.


There were also a ton of cheap little crafts for the kids to do. They made some little stained glass window drawings, a jingle monster thingy, some other things, and these cute reindeer hats. They had a blast.


We had so much fun, that I think this might become a tradition. Oh, and I forgot to tell you about the fudge! Mmmm. I think my favorite part was listening to the bag pipe parade at the end. There's something about that instrument that gives me chills. Good chills, that is. Anyway, we had fun and hope all the rest of you are enjoying this wonderful time of year!

First Steps

Jacob took his first steps tonight!! He only took a few, and then got really frustrated that we weren't giving him his toys and putting them farther and farther away from him, so he quit trying. So, I'm off to give him his milk and his bed, I'll keep you posted (hopefully with video). Thanks cousin Parker for showing him how it's done!

Trip

Great. Jeromy just found out (minutes ago) that he has to leave in the morning for a business trip and will be gone for a couple of days. Yuck. Well, at least we had a nice 6 month break from business trips, I just hate it when they're so sudden.

Anyway, all our company is gone now :( so once I tackle the rest of the mountain of laundry (seriously, a mountain- I've done 8 of the 12 loads I need to do- that's what 20 guests for Thanksgiving will do to you- and we loved every minute of it!) and get the house a little more ready for Christmas, I'll be able to really blog. Heck, I might even post our Halloween pictures! I know, I know, don't get ahead of yourself, Hilary. First things first, get Jeromy packed and laundry finished. Oh, and don't forget to feed the kids. Then, maybe, just maybe, I can really blog for the first time in over a month! Ok, kids, coming....

Jacob's First Birthday

Our rambunctious little boy turned one! (Actually it was 2 weeks ago- on the 7th) The first birthday is always a little bittersweet for me: it's a very exciting time, yet it's so sad to say goodbye to the baby days and look back and see if I paid attention enough to remember 20 years from now what he was like when he was a bouncing baby boy. Thank goodness for blogs!!

Both Grandmas came down for the festivities (and Aunt Laurel too!). Boy, did he LOVE all the attention!!! Whenever we were all looking at him (which was a lot as you can imagine) he would bounce up and down and do this little jig, all with his scrunched-up-breathing-out-of-his-nose face he does whenever he's happy, which is quite often, thankfully. So fun. I have GOT to get that on tape!

He's still not walking, but that's totally fine with this mama! He's already getting into everything, I don't need his extra mobility to add to that. But he's such a fast furniture walker (for the past 2 months!), and the other day I caught him crawling onto the top of the couch. And whenever we change his diaper we have to make sure the gate is up otherwise he's all the way upstairs before we're finished taking the diaper out to the garage. That boy is fast.


He had his arms up in the air for awhile. Silly guy.


Jacob LOVED his cake! He went to town! I tried to upload the video cuz it was so cute, but oh well.


Grandpa Wilson gave Jacob his very own football from Jeromy's high school. I think it was Jacob's and Jeromy's favorite gift.


He makes some really funny girgley kind of noises (sounds like "golly-golly-golly-golly" really fast) that nobody can imitate, and we tried to get it on video, but he was enjoying his spoon too much.



Well, little guy, it's been an exciting year. We're starting to see how everyone says boys are rambunctious yet so delightful. We love you! Happy Birthday!!

Thoughts

I've been trying for the last few days to put into words my thoughts and feelings of the sweet funeral I attended on Saturday. But, alas, I am not good with words, and much of it is too personal to share anways. Suffice it to say, that I am constantly amazed by my dear friend, Megan, who is going through some unexpected trials right now, and yet she has such great perspective. I think we all (myself very much included) could use a little more perspective in our lives, as we go about our daily tasks, to remember that we have a loving Heavenly Father who's looking out for us and our families because he wants us to come back. He places such great special love in the hearts of mothers for a reason, and he won't take that away, but will make it last forever. May God be with you and your family always Megan, and may the Lord continue to bless both your precious twins through their missions, here and there.

A Favor

I really should be cleaning instead of posting this, but I thought it was so funny.

Audrey: Mom, can you do a really important thing that I'd like? A really important favor for me?

Mom: What is it?

Audrey: Um, could you clean the whole house before Grandma gets here? Because I really don't want her stepping on all our stuff.

Mom: Well why can't you help me clean?

Audrey: Oh, cuz I'm very busy.

Uh huh. Coloring is so much more important than cleaning the house to a presentable level for company. Uh huh. Whatever.

Eternal Beauty Makeup

My sister came across this while shopping for makeup:

http://www.beautifulgirlminerals.com/item_195/Eternal-Beauty-Kit.htm

So cool!

Our Beautiful Basement

Ah, the spoils of my labors with coupons!

This is how our food storage side of our basement looks. I tried to get everything in these shots, left to right. It's just so nice to have everything organized and waiting for use!!

This Coupon Gal Is Back!

I took a break from couponing when we moved, and it was really hard for me to get back into it. I know, shocker!! I'm not totally back up and running (i.e. cutting coupons monthly if I'm lucky instead of weekly), but I have done some coupon shopping lately. I forgot what a high it can be!!

My favorite shopping trip was Rite Aid's freebie deals last month: they had a bunch of cold medicines, etc. for free after rebate. So I got about $70 worth of medicine for free, I just paid $5 in tax. Awe-some! Even more awesome that we had to use some of this the following week when we all got colds, and I didn't have to venture out and get medicine. Yipee!

Of course, all the case lot sales were way fun. We were down to our last dozen boxes of cereal (wow for us), so it was nice to be able to stock up (80 boxes) on our favorite healthy cereals for .50 to 1.20 a box. I'll post pictures soon. (I know, you can't wait;)

And Walgreens last month had some fun stuff too. I got:

Loreal facial cleanser
Nivea body wash for men
Halloween stickers and puzzles and pencils to keep kids busy
3 things of Pepto (including for kids)
3 name brand toothbrushes
2 Puffs tissues
2 boxes of envelopes
4 small notebooks
4 things of Trident gum
3 Children's Tylenol
3 Infusium shampoos
Huggies big refill wipes
2 small Huggies diapers
5 Softsoap bodywashes
3 Tylenol cold medicines
3 Herbal Essences shampoos

All for $60 (after $95 in coupons and $35 in rebates)!!! It should have been about $190 normally (or about $150 if bought at Wal-Mart), so I figure I saved about 60-70%!!

Woohoo! I'm back in the game! And loving it!!!

Mom Tricks

Thank you, Bethany, for giving me something to blog about:) My friend put some great tips and tricks for Moms on her blog, and I highly recommend checking it out! Awesome!!!

Nothing

Maybe it's just me. But do you ever feel like there's nothing really to blog about? Nothing going on that's blog-worthy? The longer I go between posting something, the higher my standards get about bloggable stuff in my life. I guess I could post old pictures that I never got around to posting, or (shoot) Halloween pictures. I just hate uploading photos. Maybe it's good that nothing's going on right now, no drama. I'll come up with something. Jeromy's gone all week, so some drama is bound to happen.