Christmas Eve

I've neglected my blog a little. I knew I would be busy since we were traveling to see family. But now that we've been here for a few days,the boys have finally adjusted to the time change. It's Sunday, and I thought I might have some time to get down some thoughts. The last couple of nights I have been out caroling with my family. The boys have really enjoyed it, and I'm so glad. We have one more night to go. What I love most about caroling is when we see the joy on people's faces. We've been told that it's not Christmas without the R* Family coming to sing. While we usually start with an upbeat song ("Jingle Bells" or "Deck the Hall")and end with "We Wish you a Merry Christmas" and song in the middle is often what ever is requested. My favorite is "Silent Night". It amazes me how many times I can sing that song and every time I get teary-eyed. I always feel the spirit when I hear that hymn. I love that we can share that spirit with our neighbors who are not members of our church . One lady requested "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" and it was so great to bring the spirit into her home.

David woke up this morning to fog (very common in the Central Valley of CA) He was excited that it was a "foggy Christmas Eve" and was glad that Santa had Rudolph to led the sleigh. I hope he also remembers the real reason we celbrate Christmas. I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have of our Savior, and that he was born to the virgin Mary in a humble stable. I am thankful he came to the Earth to redeem us. And I love to celebrate his life as well as his birth. Merry Christmas.

Numb3rs

Let me explain about my Pounds of Food post. I am a numbers freak! I love numbers (the show included!) I am not a math genius -I'll leave that to my BIL Nathan. My dad says that when I was younger I loved to count. And at some point I would say, "When I am 6, Eva (my older sister) will be 8 and Daddy will be 35." He still doesn't know how I figured out how old he was when I so young. I loved my Math teachers. Math was my favorite subject, until I took Calculus. I love to play number games which is probably why I like Sudoku . So I don't know why I love numbers, but that post was more for me than anything else!!! I know I'm kooky, oh well!

"I Spilled"

Timothy has figured out how to take off his diaper. During the day it's not usually a problem. But at night when he is in his crib he will strip down. He can take off his pajama bottoms and rip it right off. He can even unsnap a onesie. He can't take it off over his head yet though. For a while if I put a onesie underneath his pajamas that would stop him. But last night as I was going to bed very late I heard him calling for me. Aaron had put him to bed because I went to enrichment. I hadn't checked on him like I usually do to make sure he was dressed when he fell asleep. So it was after 11:00 and I went into his room, he was standing in his crib with only a onesie on. He said, "Mommy, I spilled." His sheets were wet, his blanket and pillow were wet, and his onesie was soaked. So I pulled him out of his crib and put a cloth diaper on him (He can't undo those if they are pulled tight enough), wrapped him in a blanket and put him to sleep on the couch. The irony: The diaper was sitting in the crib completely dry!!!
I'd keep him in a cloth diaper at night, except that I'd have to change it in the middle of the night, or wash the sheets every day!!! One piece of advice I got was to cut off the feet of zippered PJs and zip him into them backward! Any other good ideas?
The other funny thing about the situation was the words he chose: "I spilled", because those are the same words David used when he would have an accident while he was potty training.

Pounds of food

I am just about done with all of my cookie plates and I was thinking about how much sugar I have used, and butter and eggs... So I decided to count. I have used:
*26 eggs
*11 1/4 cups white sugar
*5 1/2 cups brown sugar
*4 lbs powdered sugar
*1 3/4 cup shortening
*3 1/2 lbs butter
*23 1/2 cups flour
*10 bananas
*2 1/2 lbs cream cheese
*15 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
*3 bags of chocolate chips
and other various ingredients for each recipe.
Wow. I'm glad I'm not eating all of that!!! It has been a fun and exhausting couple of days. And I still need to deliver some of the goodie plates.

David and Timothy loved to help with the sugar cookies because they could roll out the dough and use the cookie cutters. David also had a blast frosting the cookies, but he put it on really thick and wanted to eat the ones he frosted. While David was helping me make one batch of cookies, another batch was sitting in a plastic container without the lid. Timothy pushed a chair over and snatched a cookie. I said, "Timothy, what are you doing?" He smiled and stuffed the whole thing in his mouth. I had to laugh. I moved the cookies to another counter. Soon enough he figured out where they were and scooted the chair over and grabbed another cookie. I again asked him what he was doing, and again he stuffed the whole thing in his mouth. I then decided the best place to store the cookies was in my bedroom, where I can lock the door!!!
Here are my two boys, helping me with the cookies! I haven't quite figured out how to get the pictures where I want them. So this will have to do for now.

Baking and Singing

So today starts my annual Christmas cookie bake-a-thon. This year I think it will be more fun. In years past I have sat the kids in front of the TV for a few hours while I baked furiously. David has recently become very interested in helping me cook. I take that back. He has been interested for a while, he just hasn't been very "helpful" until recently. We started with gingersnaps. He wanted to know what every ingredient was, and what it smelled like. It may take a little more time this year, but I think it will be worth it.

Tomorrow I should have a little more time to bake. Today we went to church and tonight is our Stake Christmas Concert. I am excited to sing tonight, but I will be so glad when it is over. I love to bake, and I have made it a policy, that I won't bake something unless I plan to give most of it away. Otherwise I end up eating almost all of whatever it is that I bake. So this gives me an opportunity to bake a tone and not worry about eating too many, because they are mostly all given away. I do have to try at least one of everything though....

So I have a 1/2 hour to make dinner now before I need to leave for the Stake Center, so I'd better go. Singing and Baking, two of my favorite Christmas traditions!!!!

Thank-you

I'm still trying to figure out how to do everything here, but I wanted to give Tara M a big Thank-you for helping me figure out how to access my blog, and find the right browser etc. Hopefully soon I'll figure out how to post some pictures.

Okay, Okay, Okay

So, I have finally been convinced to start my own blog. I have had enough people ask me, that I decided to forget that anyone in the world can read this and just start posting. I still have to figure everything out. And since it's so close to Christmas, I may not get much posted. So I hope I think of things to say. This is mostly for me to get my thoughts out, document the little things that happen day to day, and to share them with my friends. I am excited, and hope my friends find this worthwhile.