#ELFIES

I haven't bought matching Christmas jammies for the kids in YEARS.  Mostly because no one ever wants to wear them and I don't want to waste the money.  But after finding these #ELFIE jammies for the baby at Osh Kosh B'Gosh this year, I couldn't resist buying some for the whole clan!!!  Hahaha.  After the younger half wore theirs to bed on Saturday night, I convinced Grace and Sophie to put theirs on the next morning, too, so that I could snap some pics of the whole group.  Ethan refused to join in the festivities {and can you really blame him?}, but promised to at least put them on for Christmas Eve.  And for a 13 year old boy to concede even THAT, I'll take it!!!  Hahahaha. 

Enjoy the following visual assault from my little Christmas elves.  ;)

Ho Ho Ho

We are getting into the Christmas-y swing of things around here! Over the weekend, Grace dragged me to two different Targets to find the perfect "ugly Christmas sweater" for her Christmas-themed math "breakout sessions" happening this Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  Meanwhile, Jane spent the better part of her Saturday morning cutting out Christmas decorations for her room, when she should have been cleaning her room.  Hahaha.

On the craft front, Sophie, Jane, and Alex have all decided on their ornaments for our exchange this Saturday, and a quick trip to Michael's this afternoon helped to procure the necessary Shrinky Dink material for Alex's Mario ornaments.  :)  The older two have not quite settled on what they want to do (or perhaps IF they want to participate this year), but I trust that they're crafty enough to knock something out last minute if that's what it comes down to.  Haha.

 Coloring in the carefully traced Marios with a sharpie...

 ... and then watching them shrinky dink it up in the oven.  :)

{We made ten, but half ended up curled up like this one and they never flattened back out. I don't know what the deal was!  I guess we'll be remaking a few tomorrow.}

At this point in time, Santa's workshop has pretty much finished up all the last minute little projects and that's a good thing, because Christmas is only a couple of weeks away!  And we're ALL looking forward to the holiday break coming up next week.  We're staying put this year, but we're excited for the revolving door of guests we'll have coming our way once the holiday is here.  My mom is flying in this Sunday and staying until Christmas Eve, and then Scott's parents will be driving over from the cousins' house for a couple of days during vacation as well.  For New Year's weekend, my dad might possibly be coming in town, and that will take us to the end of the year!  I really can hardly believe this year is almost over.  December in particular has been FLYING by.

With less than two weeks until the big, exciting day, things are only going to get more festive around here.  :)

Culture in a Can

Bedtime (and homework time) has been a zoobilee zoo for the last couple of weeks around these parts.  Something has been happening every night, right around 6 PM, that causes Alex and Jane to explode into a whirling dervish of giggles and silliness and uncooperativeness.  In writing that out, it makes it seem a lot more adorable than it actually is.  But rest assured that it is NOT.  Adorable that is.  Aggravating, yes.  And super challenging to get Jane to just sit down and focus on her weekly homework packet.  And for the past couple of weeks, she's had the added assignment of a research project to work on for their unit on cultures at school.  They were able to choose any country they wanted to find out information on various aspects of their culture, and then write up a report, color in a paper doll to represent the clothing of that country, make a flag, and fill a can with items to represent the country.  

 {I bubble-lettered out "THAILAND" on the construction paper to cover the can, and Jane colored it in to look like the Thai flag.}

Oh Jane.

Jane took the easy way out by choosing Thailand -- where Scott served a mission many moons ago -- and had his help over the weekend with filling out the research rubric.  I managed to finally wrangle her down this evening before dinner to make her sit down and actually write the "report" {and I use that term VERY loosely}, and helped her cover her "can" {a rubbermaid flour canister that we emptied for the occasion} with construction paper and fill it with her items.  Her treasures included some Muy Thai boxing shorts, baht (Thai money), an old train ticket stub, a small stuffed elephant, a baggie of rice, and a small photo album with pictures of Thailand from Scott's mission.

 A Thai girl.  ;)

Thai money and a train ticket.

I think she had a lot of fun with the project and thankfully, it didn't take NEARLY as much time and effort to get her to finish up this evening as I thought it would.  So I'll take it!  Hahaha.  I'll close with a "Multicultural Report" on Thailand by Jane...

This is about Thailand.  Asia is really hot, sometimes it is cold.  Here are some foods they eat rice, vegetables, chicken, and pork.  Many people are buddhist.  They wai instead of shaking hands.  Waing is something you bow when your hands are in front of you.  Here are some popular sports in Thailand soccer, takraw, dancing, and volleyball.  Some clothing they wear is skirts, dresses, and chut thai.  There are more than 8,000,000 people in Bangkok, Thailand.  Thailand is very different than the U.S.S  Some things are similar.  

Knick Knack Paddy Whack

I legit have no time these days.  It makes me so sad that I haven't been able to stay on top of blogging on a regular basis, but life is so busy.  And between taking care of 6 busy kids and trying to manage a household, I just don't have a whole lot of spare time.  And I'm so tired.  Isaac has only been taking one nap a day for the past few months, and since bedtime between all the kids is a LOOOONG drawn out affair from about 6-9 every night, that means I basically only have 2 hours everyday to get everything done that needs to be done.  Because trying to get anything done while the baby is awake is practically impossible, and by the end of the night I'm exhausted.  So.  This is a rambling and convoluted way of saying that I wish I were more on top of things, but I'm not.  ;)

For tonight, here's a quick recap of all the little things that have been happening around these parts.  And since it's late {and -- you guessed it -- I'm tired}, this is really going to be the Reader's Digest version...

• Alex had his second dentist appointment last week and totally rocked it!  I guess second time's the charm, because he had the exact same thing done (on the opposite side this time) and he didn't make a peep.  He happily played on the iPad and breathed in his grape scented "happy gas," and the extraction and pulpotomy were done in no time!  Of course, it didn't hurt that he brought elephant along for moral support, too.  Hahaha.

• Scott, meanwhile, became handyman extraordinaire last week after putting the dishwasher back together following a bit of an accident with a shattered glass on the top rack over Thanksgiving break.  In order to get all the glass out, Scott had to take it apart to vacuum up the pieces.  Putting it back together proved MUCH more difficult, but in the end, he got it done!  

• Jane has settled on her ornament for the kid exchange!

• Shoo shoo loves a good dance party.

• Ethan tackled all the outside lights over the weekend; Grace is going through a My Little Pony phase {yes -- you read that right, she's spent the last week watching almost every episode on Netflix; Apple Jack is her favorite, in case you were wondering}; and Sophie has just finished her very first Nancy Drew mystery.

And that covers everyone!  Thank you and goodnight.  :)

Things I Love That Also Drive Me Nuts

Jane was up at 6 this morning.  She had roughly an hour and 45 minutes to get ready for school, and yet she still had to run to catch the bus and was the last kid there.  Why was that, you ask?  Because Jane LOVES a project.  And as much as I love her love for all things artsy craftsy -- and I really do -- I do NOT love it when she starts her projects at inopportune times.  Such as before school.  Or right at bedtime.  Or any other time where she's supposed to be staying on task and getting other things done.  It pretty much drives me nuts!  Hahaha.  She was so distracted by her jar decorating this morning that she left her sandwich on the counter and never got around to packing anything else in her lunch bag before she jetted off to the bus stop the first time.  After yelling for her to come back and get her lunch together and change out of her summer sandals while she was at it, she made it back in the nick of time for the bus.  Oh Jane!

The inspiration for Jane's Christmas jar this morning was the one Grace made yesterday while we were putting together our goodie jars.

I'm sure I could go on to list all kinds of other kid traits that I love that also drive me nuts, but it's late, I'm tired, and it's been a LOOOOOONG day.  Here's to a nice and relaxing weekend!  :)

'Tis the Season

Our Christmas prep began on Sunday morning, when an antsy Ethan brought up all the bins from the basement.  Son number one is my project boy, and putting the tree together and setting up the decorations kept him nice and busy all morning long. Grace contributed to the Christmas cheer by setting up her OWN decorations in her room, complete with a snowman door and Christmas cards from 3 years ago up on her wall.  

Aside from the decor, other Christmas preparations are in full swing, as we've finally pinpointed a date for our kid ornament exchange, I've spent the past week working on a Bethlehem city scene for the ward Christmas party tomorrow night, and Santa and his elves have been busily completing their work.  ;)  Scott's parents have also  helped to jump start the festivities by setting up a "12 Days of Christmas" surprise for the kids.  Needless to say, they are super stoked to be receiving a package from Amazon every day for the next 11 days.

 "O Little Town of Bethlehem" -- I sketched out the silhouette on 15 feet of white muslin, and then painted in the night sky and star over the city.

 My attempt to get the kids involved in a "fun Christmas activity" this afternoon was only semi-successful.  They all jumped at the chance to work on it, but it may have created more contention than I was trying to negate, and Isaac kept ripping it off the wall when they were done.  

Gift for Day One

Tonight we kicked off our December advent with a family service project in the form of some "random acts of kindness."  I am loving the idea of celebrating the birth of the Savior -- the light of the world -- by helping to make the world a brighter place.  The kids (minus Ethan) each chose two friends to "ding dong ditch" with a jar of Christmas goodies.  My little elves helped assemble the jars after school, and once Scott got home from work, we drove around the neighborhood, leaving treats on doorsteps and hopefully helping to brighten someone's day.

To close I'll leave you with one completely non-Christmas-related anecdote that I discovered just this evening as I was driving to the church with Ethan and Grace to help set up for the party.  Apparently Ethan "allows" himself to have one day each week where he doesn't have to make his sandwich for lunch because he's just too exhausted in the mornings.  And apparently today was the day for THIS week.  Which explains SO MUCH about his behavior and mood after school today.  Hahahaha.  I guess a bag of pretzels and some Oreos just don't have what it takes to get him through the day.  Go figure.  Hahahaha.  Maybe one of these days he'll learn.

{This "note" was shoved under my bedroom door on Sunday morning while I was getting ready for church.  Grace helped Alex write a letter to Santa...

"Dear Santa, Hi, it's Alex.  I want a Mario action figure for Christmas.  I also want a Mario Robe.  one more thing is some type of Mario book.  Love, Alex"

Are you sensing a theme here?  Hahaha.}