CHRISTMAS FESTIVITIES: PART 3.1

All the presents are opened, the mess is all cleaned up and it's a new day to play and relax. Perhaps not relax but to at least have fun.  Why part 3.1 you ask? Because I don't have time to put in all the pictures and little tidbits from opening the presents but do have something funny(?) to share.  I guess funny is a debateable word.

With lots of wonderful gifts this year, 2 stand out in my mind. Background: I am still losing baby weight from Bacon and therefore clothing is somewhat of an issue at times. I own one pair of jeans, 3 loungy pants (that are not pajamas) and 2 pajama pants. Keep this in mind when you read the following story.

We were opening the last of the presents, the ones from Grandma and Grandpa Dutson.  I was sitting in the middle of the floor, holding Bacon, so all could see him via skype. Pach took off running to the bathroom.  I heard the toilet flush AND water running.  He had even remembered to wash his hands!!  I couldn't have been prouder of him...... or so I thought.  He came running back in and I grabbed him to open his present from Grandma and Grandpa.  I felt something wet on my leg and the following converstaion happened:

"Pach, did you wet your pants?"
"No mama."
"Are you sure because I feel something wet."
"Yes mama. I didn't wet my pants."
"OK."

He stands up and I look.  The entire back side of his shorts are soaked!!!

"Pachget upstairs! You did wet your pants."
He took off running and changed, as did I. There went one pair of clean pants.

FAST FORWARD TO A COUPLE HOURS LATER:

Tim was on the phone with one of his good childhood friend, Ben.  I was a few feet away on the couch holding Bacon, who was being pretty fussy.  I tried patting his back, rocking him, tickling him but alas, nothing seemed to be working.  He was just very fussy.  I even tried feeding the bottomless pit but that didn't even get him to stop fussing.  He was laying on his back across my lap as I was making one more futile attempt at making the poor little guy happy.  Finally I picked him up, with the intention of putting him in his swing, when.....I figured out why he was so unhappy.  HE HAD POOP HALF WAY UP HIS BACK!! I don't know how I didn't smell it but I didn't.  Tim quickly said good-bye to his friend to come help me clean up the poop, which ended up being a family affair.  Pach got me the wipes, while Tim got a bag to put all the wipes and diaper in and Pickle, being himself, stood over watching everyone saying, "That's gross! Bacon popped on mommy!" and then laughing hyseterically.  I looked down and there was a big wet spot on my leg.  Another pair of pants down.

I quickly cleaned Bacon up.  It was around a 20 wipes job, so pretty big.  The standard poopey diaper is usually a 2 wipes clean-up.  If it's really bad, then perhaps 3 or 4 wipes.  That should give you something to guage the grossness of this particular poop. 

I realized all the other pairs of pants (minus jeans) were dirty, pajama ones and all.  So what did I do? I wore shorts of course and was cold the rest of the day.  We did throw the poopey clothes and other stuff in the washer to wash.  And about 24 hours later, they have been re-washed (since they never made it into the dryer yesterday) and are once again sitting in the washing machine still.  Hopefully today they will make it to the dryer.  Meanwhile, I did find my 3rd pair of loungy pants and am happily wearing them!

CHRISTMAS FESTIVITIES PART 2: SANTA'S CHRISTMAS LETTER

Every year growing up we wrote a letter to Santa Claus and left it with a plate of cookies and carrots.  This is the first year we've done this as a family and here are some pictures from it.  The boys (Pach and Pickle) were really excited.  Bacon was just a loose canon.

The letter. Pach was so specific I had to help broaden his desires.
The two little purple blobs to the left of his name are "Miguel" and "Shu".
The 2 cars he specifically asked Santa for, from CARS 2.

All ready for Santa and the reindeer.

A picture of the VERY happy boys.

An attempt at more normal looking happy boys.

First attempt with all the boys.

The 2nd and last attempt of all 3 boys. Bacon knocked Pach over.
 Pickle wanted a turn holding Bacon but we nixed that.
Someone (Pickle) might have gotten hurt.

BLAST FROM THE PAST! GINGERBREAD HOUSES

Ok, so the post I wrote right before this was this years Gingerbread House.  We do them every year (or most) and thought I would let you all see the past ones we've done.  Mine are the crappy, ugly ones and Tim's are the amazing ones. 

2006: The first year.  I forgot to make angled pieces so I could have an angled roof.  As a result, I have a flat roof, so common in Arizona.

Tim's creation: front view complete with a pebble path,
fish pond and smoking chimney.

Top view of Tim's creation. The little green thing on the
bottom left of the picture is an army man crawling.

The say a picture is worth a thousand words.

2007:

Not sure what happened to more picutres, but this is
two story with a porch roof in red.  Overacheiver.

This is mine and the only one I really like. It was premade but I bought
all the candies. I think it turned out well.  I really like the roof!

 2009:

Front view of Tim's creation. Drive way, snow and
Christmas tree.  Snow on the roof too.

An off-center view.

The back complete with a balcony and small patio. He even put in a garden area.
That's the brown section on the bottom left of the picture.

Side view.  Such the overacheiver.

My pathetic little house. There are a couple of
snowmen and even Christmas lights this time.

2010:

This is mine. I think it turned out ok. We didn't have a lot of time and
hadn't planned much, so it was a little plain.

Tim's fun one. I used the same pattern to make both ours
but his is just more spectacular.

POLL QUESTION:

Looking back at my sad attempts at Gingerbread houses, would you ever guess I am the daughter of an amazing artist?  Feel free to leave your answer in the comment section.  My comment would be something like this: "Heck NO!! He has more artistry in his pinkly nail that I have in my entire body!! The mad skills definately skipped me!" Don't be shy.

CHRISTMAS FESTIVITIES!!! Part 1: Gingerbread Houses

Every year we do Gingerbread Houses.  It's been a fun tradition of ours.  We have made them with friends and with family.  This year we were a little slow and lazy.  Normally we plan out, make the dough from scratch, design our house and then cut it out and bake.  Tim goes all out on his while mine are a little sad looking next to his. Oh well.  This year we just couldn't seem to get in gear, so I finally just bought a pre-cut one that came with all the candies and frosting.  Tim took charge of Bacon while I put everything together and decorated with Pach and Pickle.  They had a lot of fun and the house doesn't look to bad either.  We even had enough candy to make it look good! I wasn't sure since they kept eating it as we went.

Tim said, "You have a mad face!" I replied, "I was just concentrating!"
I think my mouth looks like my Grandma's Meyer's in this picture. 
Her little disapproval frown (or mock disapproval). 

Pach decorating his side of the roof. He kept complaining he needed
 more candies but he kept eating them!

Not sure what Pach's doing but Pickle decorating his side of the house.

Not sure what Pickle is doing but Pach is decorating his side of the house.

Pickle's side of the house but Pach's side of the roof.

The front, which we all decorated. They wanted a fancy pink door like
the picture on the box. I didn't have any fondant and didn't want to do
that much work anyway. Pach did the candy "lights" on the left side
and Pickle did the lights on the right side.

Pickle's side of the roof and Pach's side of the house.

The back of the house which we all did.
Pach did put the candy "lights" on the left side
 and Pickle did the ones on the right side.

A view of the roof. I think it looks pretty good.

JINGLE TRAIL RUN!

I really like to run.  When we moved out here I started running in races more.  There is a guy named Steve Taggert who, not only lives out here but organizes a bunch of races each year.  And the great thing about those races are: they are really close.  There are a couple at the high-school we live by, one a few miles away and others within 30 minutes of our house.  All the races are walker friendly and they are just fun!

Today was the 6th annual Jingle Trail (5K) and Santa's Little Helper (1K) runs.  I ran the 5K by myself.  I bested my last weeks time by 1 min and 18 sec.  Which was amazing because it was super windy today!!  Tim came by a bit later with the boys.  Pach and Pickle ran the Santa's Little Helper run with me.  We started out together but when it became quite clear Pach was fine running but Pickle needed some help, I told Pach to follow the person in front of him.  When we got to the track, I told him to run in the 1st lane.  And he did not deviate from that lane.  He rounded one corner and crossed the line into lane 2 and went right back into lane 1. 

Official Results:
Me (5K) 32.46 (according to my watch)
Pach (1K) 11.46
Pickle (1K) 12.00

They did a great job! We all got bells to wear on our shoes, we all got t-shirts (which they will be wearing for the next 2 years before they grow of them, possibly 3 years) and we all got bibs too!  The boys got special ribbons and a toy just for running. 

Pach, Mom and Pickle before the Santa's Little Helper Run.

Friends: L to R: Peter and Perry Thornley, no idea, and Pach and Pickle.

And we're off! We didn't hold hands the whole time.

Pach pulling away. Pickle needed some mommy help.

We're almost done! I did hold Pickle's hand most of the way. The wind was blowing him backwards.

Crossing the finish line! 11 min. 46 secs.  What a champ!

Almost there: Pickle ran in 12 min. flat

With their ribbons and reindeer toy at the end.

Pach's Joy School Play

Pach and his Joy School group put on a performance of the Nativity for us.  Pach played a Shepherd/Wiseman.  Here are a few pictures before the performance.

Shepherd/Wiseman

L to R: Wiseman/Shepherd x3, Mary, Joseph, an Angel and the Innkeeper

The performance went really well.  They all did a great job and they even sang a few songs at the end.  The most exuberant of them all was Jingle Bells.  That one included some jumping and VERY loud singing.  They also gave us cards they had made, gave their Secret Santa a present and we learned some really nice things they did for each other.  Pach got a little box with markers and 80 small CARS 2 coloring pages.  He was so happy!!

Tim's Creations

I thought since I put stuff about them in the Christmas Letter I should put them on the blog!  Tim's is very creative and loves to work with his hands.  It started with a fun soccer cake for one of my birthday's a few years ago and has grown from there.

My birthday cake: 2006

Pach's 1 yr cake. It is his beloved Dino.

Pach's 2nd yr cake. Tim carved the cake, used fondant and everything!

Pach's 3rd yr cake. All the kids at his party screamed and swarmed the table over this one! 
He used fondant, melted chocolate and got out exacto knives for the blocks!

Pach's 4 yr. cake. He LOVED this one. He'd just seen CARS 2, so this was awesome!

Pickle's 1 yr. cake. He loves balls and dug right into this one.

Pickle's 2 yr cake. All the trucks are cake.

Tim's sister's cake.

The wedding cake! He took a cake decorating class in preparation for it.

 His next big adventure is making his brother's wedding cake in March.

Thanksgiving Holiday

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! This year for Thanksgiving we had Aunt Sarah and Uncle Fred (a.k.a. SarahFred) over for Thanksgiving.  It was a busy day cooking wise since I didn't make anything the day before.  I made the apple pie in the morning and everything else pretty much at the same time.  It got a little crazy in the kitchen as Fred was making stuffing, Sarah was making corn pudding and candied yams and I was making mashed potatoes and rolls, all at the same time.  The turkey was cooking through most of that but the gravy was being made too.  It all turned out and shortly after 1:30 pm we sat down to eat.  It was so yummy!!  I am so thankful for all the food we had and all the leftovers we have!  Aside from the above mentioned goodies we also had cranberry walnut pudding, cranberry sauce, olives, regular corn, pumpkin pie and ice cream!  Bacon even got in on the Thanksgiving spirit with his sweet potatoes and oatmeal mixture. 

I took a long nap after clean-up while the others watched a movie, well only Zach, the others all napped too.

Later in the evening we had pie and ice cream while we visited and cleaned more of the kitchen.  I think we ran the dishwasher 3 times maybe 4 that day.  Tim decided to pull all the Christmas decorations down and bring them inside. The result: 2 little boys were up WAY later than normal and the tree and quite a few decorations were up a day early.

BLACK FRIDAY: Yep, I braved black Friday but not alone.  Sarah, Fred and Bacon joined me in the festivities.  We stopped by Joann's, Performance Bike, Sports Authority, Sears Appliance Outlet, K-Mart, Fred Meyer Jewelers, Bath and Body Works (perhaps my favorite store ever), lunch at the mall, Sears, Ornament Kiosk (to purchase our annual family ornament), Chicago Music Company, Home Depot and finally Office Max. 

It wasn't too bad as Joann's wasn't horrendously busy and I used the express cut line.  In and out in 1 hour. Actually with the exception of K-Mart, all the lines were quite quick.  Bacon did a fabulous job.  It helped he slept a great portion of the time and had 3 people to hold him.

While we were gone Tim, Pach and Pickle decked the house out in decorations.  I was in trouble for not bringing home candy to put in the Advent Calendar pouches. Who knew I could get spankings for that??  We upgraded to new LED outside lights since it was cheaper than buying old replacement bulbs, especially since we couldn't find any to match the lights we had.  The house isn't done but all the Christmas shopping is (ok, 1 present to go). The boys are loving it and enjoyed helping me put the candy I got today in the Advent Calendar pouches.  I anticipate the candy in the bottom row will be gone by Tuesday of this week as both Pach and Pickle can reach those pouches.

Below are some pictures of Thanksgiving lunner (lunch/dinner) and Christmas tree decorating.  This year Tim decided he was going to leave the ornaments where the boys put them on the tree.  That means it's a little odd looking since some branches have 3 to 4 ornaments on them or there are clusters of ornaments but it's also fun to see how the boys decorate.

The Oreo Turkey Pach made at school.

 

L to R: Pach, Tim, Sarah, Fred, Pickle, Bacon's head.

Bacon and the turkey.  He swatted it a few times and then coughed on it.  Extra yummy for us!

Pach and Pickle decorating the tree. We didn't move the ornaments this year.

The Star Wars M&M ornaments all ended up right next to each other again this year.