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!