McCall - Three Weeks

Christmas Day Festivities

Merry Christmas everyone! What a wonderful time of year, pair that with the beautiful snow falling and it is a indeed my favorite time of year. We were given a great Christmas gift this year, our boys slept until 8 am! Wow, what a great way to start the day. The boys thoroughly enjoyed opening presents and playing with their new toys. In fact, they have been trading back and forth and sharing and haven't even had any arguments yet! I know that won't continue but we count that as a great gift to us as parents as well. We enjoyed a leisurely morning together and then headed out to go to Grandma's house for brunch and more fun. Only to see how much snow we really got, WOW! The snow drifts at our house were a few feet deep and we quickly got stuck in a deep drift just off our driveway. With the help of great neighbors we were able to get back into the garage and be rescued by Ryan's great brothers, Brad and Curt. We had a wonderful day with all the McCoy family, it was nice to have everyone together. Amazingly the 12 grand kids played together without any problems all day. It was so very nice, there was fun to be had by all, not to mention all the great food. I love this time of year, my waist line might not, but what the heck, what else would I do for a New Years resolution if I didn't over eat at Christmas?

Christmas Eve PJ's

Our Christmas Eve tradition of new pajama's. The boys are always so excited to see what pj's they got, they quickly change into them for a quick photo before heading to bed for the much anticipated Christmas morning. Then they spend all day Christmas day in their new warm and fuzzy pj's. Connor woke up Christmas Eve morning asking when they could take naps to make the day go faster. They also wanted to go to bed early so they could get to Christmas morning early. But as the day progressed we ran out of time for naps and getting to bed early. Bedtime came around 9:30, two hours later than usual, pair that with no naps and we can't say it was the most pleasant day we have had, but it was memorable. The boys were so very excited this year and really enjoyed tracking Santa on the Internet. Fun, fun times!

Gage's Gift

Well, Gage gave Santa and the Elves the same gift that Tate did last year, his beloved blanket. For those of you who know Gage well know that he has a special blanket, thank you Gina, that he totes around with him everywhere! While taking the blanket everywhere didn't really bother me much, the state that the blanket was in (sorry Gina) did bother me. Gage loves to weasel his little finger through a few stitches until he can put in a few fingers, then his hand, eventually his foot, until he can finally pull the blanket over his head and wear it as a poncho! I can't number the times I have sewn the blanket back together, but he always managed to find his way back to pulling it over his head. So we made him the same deal we did with Tate, if he wrapped it up and left it under the tree the Elves would leave him a brand new magical elf blanket. He hasn't missed a beat yet, although he is not nearly as in love with his new blanket. Here are the pictures of the so far successful event!

Gingerbread Mania

I would love to say that this year we cheated by buying our gingerbread house and assembling it. But that would only partially be true, because IF we do a gingerbread it is always bought and then assembled. No baking and love and memories went into this besides assembling it together. Maybe one year I will be able to bake it from scratch and build those memories! But for now, here is what we came up with.

Merry Christmas!

Well, our cards are not addressed, our letter is not written, our act is not together, but our pictures are! So here they are! Gage was in quite a mood! We will send out our Christmas letter soon, via email of course due to our neglect, but we'll call it "we just had a baby"!

Handsome boys, pretty girl!

Okay, I love to take pictures of the kids and we have been pretty confined to the house so we have had a little time on our hands to take a few photos and I have some pretty willing subjects, as long as they can hold their sister and get their picture taken! It really is the most wonderful time of the year!

Playing Dress Up

Okay, I have to admit that this is fun! When we have a blow out it is exciting to pick out the next outfit to put McCall in. Even the boys are enjoying picking out clothes and hair bows and blankets to try on her. I wonder when the novelty will wear off? I'm going to have to keep the camera handy to capture all of her cute outfits! Thanks to Auntie Tara and Rachael and Rebecca for this adorable outfit and bows!

Surviving and Thriving

We have made it through 5 days now, yeah, small milestones. McCall is doing very well and is a pretty good sleeper, she wakes up about every three hours so we won't complain about that at all! She dropped 8 oz and is on her way back up now. She is doing very well, probably the best in the family. The day we brought her home was great, then things went downhill fast. Our boys got sick with the flu and Ryan has been dishing out Motrin and Tylenol like candy. Not to mention cleaning up nasty flu bi-products from the kids. Poor guy, I think he got more than he bargained for.
Then I ended up with a spinal headache, no doubt from the 6 tries it took to get the epidural in my back. I have to wonder at this point, was it worth it for only an hour and a half? Oh, well, not much I can do about it now. So I ended back up at the hospital for a blood patch to fix the hole in my back that was leaking spinal fluid and giving me great headaches. That got fixed with another epidural puncture and depositing my own blood around my spine, that fixed the head aches immediately. But I had to lay down for two days and not lift anything so I was another patient for Ryan. He has been a trooper through everything, took care of all the kids, meals, laundry, cleaning, etc. I think I will keep him around!
Today things are looking up though, I was able to do a load of laundry all by myself and feed the kids breakfast! It's great to be back to some kind of routine and it has made me very grateful for health!

Announcing....

She's here! Announcing McCall ________ McCoy. We have yet to decide on a middle name for our little bundle of joy. Everything went very well and we are so proud to add her to our family. McCall is a whopping 6 lbs 12 oz and 18.5 inches long, our smallest baby. She arrived at 4:30 this afternoon, the doctor made it just in time for her arrival. Thank you all for your love and support on this exciting day for us. Can't wait for you all to meet her!

I apologize to Amy and all the Kennington clan for missing the shower held this evening, I know I missed out! I'll bring her down soon to meet you all!

Oops he did it again!

Well, yesterday I decided to a nap, besides I had Gage and Tate asleep, dinner was actually made, the house was clean (enough), etc. I figured I deserved it! I fell asleep quickly and was awakened by the glorious phone ringing, which I ignored. I quickly fell asleep again, ignoring my cell phone ringing now. Immediately afterwards our home phone rang again and I figured that someone must really want to get a hold of me so I rolled myself out of bed, hobbled to the phone and answered.
"Hello Mrs. McCoy, this is Daybreak Elementary calling. Connor has had an accident."

"What? Again?!"

YES! He was crab-walking backwards down a hill, who doesn't do that? Then slipped and hit his head on a metal grate. They thought he might need stitches so could I please come see what I thought and bring him a clean shirt as his had blood all over it. Are you kidding me? I just got his brothers to sleep and I really wanted a nap! Being a parent is such an inconvenience! Oh well, maybe I'll nap today. He did need stitches, staples actually. I took him into instacare and he got two nice staples on the back of his head. He was brave and didn't cry at all, but I am afraid they are going to start keeping detailed notes on his accidents and making sure that they are happening at school. The kid is a little accident prone. I asked him what he had planned for second grade, as he has been sent to the hospital from both Kindergarten and first grade, he thought maybe he would just throw up in class. Good idea Connor!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Well, I can't wait any longer. I love Christmas decorating, and to me Thanksgiving has already occurred, plus I am very thankful for Christmas! Well, that's what I'm going to say since Canadians enjoy Thanksgiving in October...so I get two Thanksgivings! Ahhh....to be a duo-citizen, have your pie and eat it too, twice!

We have started decorating trees at our house and so far have all the kids trees done. They each have their own small tree and get an ornament each year to go on it. This year I even got to do one that would be okay for a girl! So we went with the "candy tree" for the baby, Gage has the "cowboy tree", Tate has the "great outdoors tree", and Connor gets to have the "s'mores tree". This year we added a new one for the boys room, the "BYU tree". Most of the candy canes have already been eaten and the trees have been re-decorated several times, agggghhhhh.... but the boys love to have their very own tree. Each year they want Santa to leave presents under their very own tree, but alas, their mother has not yet given in! Merry Christmas, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Advent Calendar Take 2

Okay, you asked for it! Here is how to make this fun calendar.

You will need: cookie sheet/pizza pan, coordinating scrapbook paper 4-6 pieces, 2 pieces of coordinating card stock paper, 24 tin containers (varying sizes if you want), 24 magnets and modge podge glue.

I found all of this at Walmart, the pizza pan was only $3 and the tins were $18, sometimes you can find those cheaper at Roberts by using their 40% off coupon, they are in the wedding aisle as they are mainly used for wedding favors. You do not have to use a pizza pan, a cookie sheet, or a sheet of metal or even your refrigerator will work to just put the tins on during the season.

Step 1: Modge Podge your paper to your pizza/cookie pan. Make sure to use the modge podge on the pan and then again on top of the paper. Smooth out paper and set aside to dry.

Step 2: Cut out circles to fit the tops of the tins in coordinating scrapbook paper. I used my Cricut cutter which was super easy and quick, please come play and borrow mine if you are close by!

Step 3: Modge Podge circles to tops of containers, set aside and let dry.

Step 4: Cut out numbers 1-24 for the tops of the containers. Again, I used my Cricut for this as well, again, super easy! If you can't get your hands on one there are several other options, you can purchase number stickers, use chipboard numbers, buy scrapbook paper with numbers and cut them out, write the numbers on the circles before you modge podge them on to the tins, etc.

Step 5: Modge Podge the numbers on top of the tins, this will be over top the circles after they are dried. Allow to dry again.

Step 6: Glue, I would use super glue, magnets to back of tins.

Step 7: Decorate and embellish as you desire. You can use Christmas stickers, die cuts, ribbon, buttons, anything your little heart desires.

Step 8: Adhere ribbon to the pizza/cookie tin so you can put it up on the wall. I chose to drill a hole on each side of the pizza tin and thread my ribbon through that thinking that it would hold better than gluing the ribbon directly on the tin. But you are free to do whatever you like.

Step 9: Fill the tins with goodies, I am going to use some to put slips of paper in that have some of our traditions on them, i.e. bake Christmas cookies today, visit Temple Square, trim the tree, etc. Have fun with this and get creative. Maybe fill one with marshmallows and a slip of paper saying to have hot cocoa and read your favorite Christmas story together around the tree. Just use whatever you like!

Remember to use whatever color combinations you would like and have fun with it. My boys had a blast "helping" me make this calendar and it was a memory making day in and of itself. We didn't do anything else that day, the house was not cleaned, I did not go to the gym, I didn't even make dinner, but we had a great time together and now we have an advent calendar that we can use every year! Have fun and feel free to call if you have any questions. Or we can plan a get together to make it together, how fun would that be? But it would have to be soon!

Advent Calendar

The boys and I made this advent calendar together yesterday and had so much fun doing it. Well, at least I did, they had fun making a huge mess and pestering me! But all in the name of family fun right? It was super easy to do and so much fun, now we can put our own treats in each container and the boys will get to open one container a day until Christmas. I had so much fun with it that I bought more stuff to do another one! Not sure for who yet! You can do it on a pizza (like this one) or a cookie sheet, or a plain sheet of metal, or even put the containers right on your fridge, so versatile and you can put good chocolate in it! Hope you like it!

We were wondering....

I received the following letter on my front porch yesterday and thought it pretty priceless.

"We were wondering if Connor wanted to join a club we were making. If he does these are the rules:

• Taryn is the president
• Carter is the vice-president

Saturdays 10:00-11:30

Wednesdays 4:00-5:30

People in the club: Taryn and Carter and 5 other people.

Rules:

1. Obey the president
2. No screaming
3. No hitting or shoving
4. No bossing around
5. You can pick what you want for snacks but no complaining
6. No complaining about the activity we are doing

I thought that to be a pretty good club to be invited to, so well thought out and planned for 6 year olds. But the rules are the best part. I may have to institute those in my house and deem myself the president, maybe then things will get done in a timely fashion and without complaining and screaming. I wonder if I need to be elected president or if it is by popular vote...I'll just promise change and see where that gets me! Change to bed time, change to chores, change to dinner rules, change your underwear daily...

Three More Weeks!

Well, only three more weeks now so I have decided to kick it in gear and get things done. I decided to try a quilt for the baby, now I am not a quilter, but I can use a sewing machine for simple projects. Of course mine was decimated by the last quilt project I undertook and it is in the repair shop for another two weeks, not sure what I did, but I am sure it will be time consuming and expensive to fix! OOPS! But my mother-in-law was nice enough to lend me her machine, showing great confidence in my poor abilities! But alas, the quilt is finished and no damage done to the machine, whew! Here is the finished product, the only kind of quilt I know how to make, but it will be warm and clean and serve it's purpose! And it is pink, the most exciting thing about it! Now if only the baby comes out pink...I've been having dreams to the contrary...

What?

Lately I have been laughing so much at my boys. Gage has decided he has a sense of humor and loves to tease me all day by saying funny things and joking around. Today I asked him for a hug and kiss, which he usually is very excited to share. Well, not today, I was told instead, "no way, then I will have disgusting girl germs!" What? Since when am I a girl? and disgusting? Last I heard I wasn't a girl, "just a mom". He also told me today at lunch that he couldn't eat his lunch because "his biscuits were burning". Unbelievable!

Tate informed me today that although he loves me he will not go to a girl movie with me where people kiss in the movie because that is also disgusting, he also may not kiss me anymore, even though he loves me still.

Connor informed his carpool buddies that Barrack Obama will be a horrible president because he will make a huge bomb and blow up the whole world. Hmmmm...not sure where he got that one. So we had to have a discussion on politics with our 6 year old and explain that he is not a bad man, just not our first pick for president. Apparently we need to be very careful what we say around the boy, not that we said that!

Another very funny thing happened last night at YW. One of the girls I work with there had her two boys there and her four year old kept poking my belly and laughing. His mom explained to him that there was a baby in my tummy and that is why it stuck out like that. He was intrigued and proceeded to lay on the floor by my feet and look up my dress to catch a peek at the baby. I laughed so hard, he was a little disappointed, as I am sure most people would be!

Halloween

Well, we had another successful Halloween of fun and tricks. The boys were excited about their costumes, except for Gage. He threw a royal fit when I sprayed his hair and put his makeup on for his costume. He was not impressed at all, until...about three houses into the trick-or-treating when he realized that he was getting a TON of attention from everyone in the neighborhood who went on and on about how cute he was. You really can't even tell who he is, only he was the littlest guy with the McCoy's. Then he suddenly realized how great it was to trick people, and the candy was of course a bonus! He has since begged me to "paint his hair and face again".

The boys had a great time with their cousins Zachary and Yakuna trick-or treating around the neighborhood. They went for almost two hours and then over to Grandma and Grandpa's house for some more candies and hot dogs. It was perfect weather, warm and clear. Now bring on the snow so I can get ready for Christmas! A fabulous night was had by all!

Which is more than mom can say! I wasn't feeling very good all afternoon and got worse quickly. I ended up with the flu, but at least it deterred me from the candy! But I was well taken care of by the boys and Ryan, even got a nap in on Saturday and spent the day on the couch, watching football because that was what everyone else voted for, I was vastly outnumbered. But I didn't do anything else, so I won't complain!