Mona Lisa

Awhile ago some of you regular followers may remember Carter's love of the Mona Lisa. Carter received a package this week of his own picture done by Grandma Mason. He was SO excited. He hung it in his room straight away and called Grandma to say a big, "Thank you!" Tonight he went and got it off his wall and had to see it while he ate dinner. Now he requested that he gets a picture of him with Grandma and Grandpa Mason drawn by Gma. She really has set herself for some pretty demanding requests. :)

Happy Birthday

Although my day started just like any other we were able to fit in a wonderful little Happy Birthday celebration at the end of our day. Apparently my day warranted a lot of Dr. Pepper and the fixings for some S'mores. That only was the preview to my tickets to Les Miserables in London on January 2. I am a little excited. :) Carter was our official photographer of the night and he did quite smashing. I LOVE the picture of Mason in the background of the candles being blown out. My mommy and daddy sent a little package of love. Complete with a new Chevron car, some cash, and Laffy Taffy ropes!! Also that cute little sign, it made me cry. Mindy, your gift was the first Birthday present I have opened before a birthday!! It is fabulous, thank you. Thanks to everyone who contributed to my day being fabulous. Love you all!!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year!!!

Christmas is never dull when you have a bunch of kids around. Although the chaos isn't quite as organized as my brain would like it. The kids started with opening up their traditional Jammie's on Christmas Eve. We then read the Christmas story and talked about the most important gift of all. Carter kept telling us this whole week when we would get grumpy or moody that Christmas was about love and having fun with our family. :) He is right! He gave me a little package of sparkly fake snow things and told me that was all of his love. So sweet!!!

Mason is always excited about Christmas. He loves seeing the presents under the tree and has a fabulous time unwrapping each item. He got a Curious George Jack in the Box, many Disney books, shoes and blocks. To bad he won't look at the camera with his gorgeous big smile!!! His favorite present may have been the Jelly Bellies from cousin Sahara. He yelled out loud when he opened those.

Carter is always pleased with what he gets. After each present you hear a quite or sometimes
loud, "Thank you Santa." Carter loves Christmas and loves giving his own little presents to people. He was pleased with his weapon selection this year and actually does quite well with his toy Bow&Arrow. Light up shoes, Light Saber, kitchen pots and pans to go with the new huge kitchen that I will post a picture of later..built by daddy of course.

Taylor followed her brothers lead and thanked Santa for every little item she received. She was thrilled about her softball mitt, Tinkerbell name plate, puzzle, and doll with wagon. At one point in the morning she was watching Carter open his gift and he got all excited, she leaned over and gave him a big hug because she was excited for him. That instantly reminded me of my childhood and how excited we would get for each other. Christy, remember when I got my Molly doll? You cried more than I did!!

Three words for Brennan; chocolate, sword, shoes. He couldn't decide if he preferred his slippers or his very own new Wellies! He is always walking around the house in Taylor or Carter's Wellies and I guess Santa thought it was high time he got his own. He learned on Christmas how to actually say, thank you and scissors. He couldn't get into one of his presents(the one he is trying to open with the sword) and he looked at Mike and clear as day said, "scissors." It was really cute that he caught on to the need for scissors with just the few boxes we had used them on.

Michael, Michael, Michael. Mike is like a kid on Christmas. Even if most of his stuff he didn't unwrap that day. Tools were needed for said kitchen. :) Mike was excited about his stocking items, a new watch, and a new sweater(if my opinion counts he looks real hot in).

What does one get Hollie to make her smile? Chocolate my friends, chocolate. I got just that with some fabulous chocolate from Belgium. Yummy yummy was the bottle of hot chocolate!! It still is, I have a little left. :) My new coat is fabulous!! I also was grateful for a few clothing items to add to my wintry sweater collection. Not anything Rug Doctor related was in that box...but my face just says, "this better not be an original box!" :) Love you babe!

The kids opened stuff from aunts, uncles and cousins so fast that not many pictures were taken. We added many movies to our collection and were pleased with each one. The Elders came over that night and hung out with us. They were able to talk with their families and seemed very upbeat afterwards. Mike is holding up some PJ's that are suppose to be size 8/10--seriously?? Who's kid is that big!!?? :)

Taylor helped the missionaries open their gifts from us and she made sure they did it just right. It was pretty funny to watch. Mike thought it would be nice for Brennan to hand out a gift to Taylor. Brennan didn't want to give the gift, Taylor took it anyway, Brennan was crying. Then he got his own and life was better. :)

Thank you to all of our family who sent lovely packages. Sorry we didn't get pictures of everything. The kids did help themselves to one box while mom and dad were still sleeping the day after Christmas. :) We hope all of our friends and family had a wonderful Christmas.

WE LOVE YOU!!!

Baklava

Four words, "Yummy to my tummy!" The Elders came over for their Personal Day and hung out and cooked. It was so yummy once done. Although it is slightly time consuming it will be something I make in the future for sure!! To celebrate myself completely these last posts I will go eat some. Goodnight!!! Thanks Elder K for cooking for us. These guys go above and beyond the call of duty for us. Thanks to Elder A for putting up with our children that get a kick out of trying to crawl all over him.

SNOW!!!

Taylor is getting old, that seems to happen with all of them. For how quiet she was as a baby she sure makes up for it now. She has many English terms and corrects me sometimes on how to say something. She loves school and never wants to stay here. That part is sad, she does love it at home once we take Carter and she is fully awake. So for now she still loves me. I really need to change my side thing about her because it actually doesn't describe her at all. She is anything but feminine and no longer cares about shoes. In fact she hardly wants them on, inside or out. She loves to wrestle and play fight with Carter. She also loves to write her name. Toooooo (translated to Taylor) Love this little fireball of "my way or the highway attitude!!"

First snow of the year. This was the beginning of a few inches here in England. Which is a big deal here...yes i know, we did come from ND. All amount of snow comments can back off. :) Yes, our baby has bare feet and couldn't have cared less about how cold it was.

Brennan's first snowball. He thought it was great. Then he dropped it and said, "Hot!" So I think we need to work on that concept. He didn't want to pick it back up regardless of how much we tried to persuade him.

Ornament

He is getting so old all of a sudden. I like this age a lot, so I am enjoying it. :)

Every year we make ornaments for our kids' teachers. The kids love this little project and as they grow(mostly Carter right now) you can just see how much time and effort is spent on each one for each teacher. It is really lovely to see them mature. Mason is unfortunately becoming more and more camera shy.

Christmas Programs

Carter had his Christmas Program and this year we could take pictures. :) YIPPEE!! He is so cute winking at you and just being so pleased that you are there. Daddy had to miss it and so I saw it twice to make him feel better. They had an evening performance and an afternoon. It was called, "The Gift Bringer" and was talking about Babushka. Who is the gift bringer for Christmas in Russia. :) Very cute and well done. Good job Carter!!

The Hoover :)

Brennan has a small obsession. The hoover is his friend. He had to have it on and he wanted to make sure no one touched it. :)

Sorry that his nose is gross, but darn it he was being my little helper while daddy was gone and I love this little guy, we needed a picture together. :)

a little late

I have been a very poor keeper of the blog this month, I do apologize. I do believe most of you probably didn't notice and were continue your normal lives without knowing about mine. :) We opted for a real tree this year and it was fun to go stand in the cold and rain to choose it, really it was. Then we got it home and discovered that we had many ladybird friends in our home. We also now have many small spiders.

Mason was watching a movie and decided helping decorate wasn't nearly as important as watching the movie. What ever makes you happy man!

Carter, Taylor and Brennan on the other hand couldn't get enough helping. We play a game called, "Look High, Look Low" This enables us to make sure the tree is decorated beyond their two foot height. :)

I love this one, Brennan was so excited and amazed by this new fabulous thing in his home. After weeks of messing with it he finally leaves it alone. He pulled it over only once. :) This month we also had Mike gone for about 8 days which went just fine. It is weird to me that even though it has been 3 years you just kind of jump right back in to single parenthood and survive with structure and routine. :)

Really, how cute is this? He loves to feed himself, what's a parent to do?

We have a winner!!!

Broccoli-Cheese Calzones

new recipe and the family loved it. Mike didn't love it the first night, but then with the leftovers and Alfredo he changed his mind and liked it after all. :) Thought we would share. We know how difficult it is to try new things and not know how they will turn out. We love to find new recipes that have been tried and tested. This was 6 thumbs up.

1 15 oz container of Ricotta Cheese

9 0z of frozen broccoli florets cut and thawed ( just used a bag which was 13 oz)

1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese

2 eggs

1 Tbsp fresh basil chopped, or 1 tsp dried basil

1/4 tsp garlic powder

1 loaf(1 lb) frozen wheat or white bread dough (or one batch pizza crust recipe below)

1 can pizza sauce (or Alfredo which we had on the left overs and they were even better!)

Preheat oven to 375

mix all except crust and sauce

roll out crust ( I got 8 but it calls for 6) into 6 inch circles. Add mix on the one side and then fold over other side. Seal it with a fork by pressing the edges.

Cook for 15-20 minutes or until dough looks light brown and done.

Top with heated Pizza or Alfredo sauce and enjoy!!

Pizza Crust

3 cups flour

1 1/4 cup water (warm)

2 tsp yeast

1 tsp salt

1Tb oil

dissolve yeast in water

add salt and oil

add flour until stiff dough

I let rise while I make the rest of the stuff (about 15 minutes).

Thanksgiving

The two vacuum boys in our house.
The table all set and ready

The effects of great food!

The men get to clean....

More food...yummy pie. Mike found a new favorite with Hollie's invented Lemon. :)

Mike 'cleaning' shame on him making the missionary do all the work. Thanks Elder K.

The food started to take over, it had the opposite effect on them.

Too much???

I need some more opinions here. Carter has been going on and on about a black ninja that some of his friends see at the school. He has special stones that the ninja has been after, it really goes into much detail. Long story short, his teacher approached me today about how they are a little worried. Then his other teacher walked off and the main teacher said, "I'm not to worried, but Ms. ### is(they one who had left)."
I wasn't really worried about it either until now. Should I be? Carter is only 6 years old. Unless it is the time to break all other news to him about certain holidays etc....then who am I to judge. He is one of the few children now a days who are allowed to have an imagination and let it run. When I try to say that it is pretend and it's okay to say so then he gets all offended and feels bad that I don't believe him.
I don't exactly know what I am asking other than advice/opinion on the matter. At what age do you start breaking down that real vs. pretend world. Also, when I told him that he could always use his imagination to write a book about this pretend ninja he responded, "Well mom, I could but it would be non-fiction because it is real, mom." What do you say to that???

To open or not to open, that is the question?

I would like a blogger opinion on the following. Do you still find value in men opening doors for the ladies? I had three men open a door for me while I was out and about today. I didn't have the kids, it was just me. I tend to get more doors opened when I do have the children. I have noticed that on the bases I get more doors opened verses being out in civilian world. Is this kind of gesture a thing of the past? I will admit to you my feelings on the matter. I teach Carter that it is respectable to be a gentleman. He opens doors, lets the girls go first etc. I try to teach him that although the girls do not NEED him to do these things it is a way to show respect. I myself open doors for all people coming and going if I am right there and find it a way to show people I care. I don't feel this is just a man duty. Although today when this was happening I had men going out of the way to get to the door to open it for me. Each time I thought to myself, that is really kind and accept it as a gesture of kindness. So what are your opinions??

Progression

If you don't mind I am going to have one of those moments where I spew off some thoughts and hope they make sense. I had a great day today. I just had Mason and Brennan (the van was very quite). Maybe that is what provoked so many thoughts. We had to run a few errands and then go on the ultimate experience of a serious commissary run. I am talking the huge load that weighs 5 tons and you pray you will be able to push the cart again after your momentum has been stopped by someone who is obviously in a bigger hurry than you and cuts you off.
We had been to the BX and the BXtra already. Mason had successfully tried his best to get me to buy some Cinnabon and I diligently refused. He helped with getting the items needed and walked out nicely. That is a HUGE achievement for Mason. At the commissary we had the opportunity to wait for a cart that Mason can sit in. You know, the one with the attachment at the back with two sitting portions. Mason likes to sit and that is fine with me. Mason was touching every few people and wanting to say, "Hi." It was funny to see him actually reach out and attempt some communication with people he did not know. This is again something that is out of the norm. Mason sat the whole time, helped with the shopping some. :) Mostly he just wanted to be there and observe people. On the way home Mason and Brennan were watching Signing Time. That is a favorite in our home and something that has helped Mason and the family with communication. Although Mason can't really do any of the signs perfectly he knows them and tries to do quite a few.
This gets me to my point, I think. At the end of the DVD there is a song about doing things in your own time, about everyone shining at some thing and that they are fabulous for what they do. I met a mother just a few months ago who's son was born without a femur bone. That portion of his leg had to be amputated and she was just so sad that this all was happening.(they had been tol deverything was fine from the ultrasounds) I took my four kids over to meet her and just spend some time with her so that she knew someone else went through that, "Trip to Holland when you expected Italy moment with having a child." She was visiting her sister here in England at the time. My kids were crazy for the 5 hours that we were there that first visit and I didn't know if I helped or just made things worse. She went back to Scotland and we hadn't talked since. However, she came down again this last week and saw me again. I do need to say that her boy has this smile that is fabulous and just this happy spirit about him. I adore him and have since the first time we met. He is almost 6 months old and is really doing great. She looked SO much better, so much more alive, smiled and laughed with me, it was so great. I had the best time just being with her and her son. Her and I were talking about the sting of other mothers 'bragging' about their children's accomplishments. Please do not take this wrong. I am so tickled when my kids do something, I brag and have to say a few words. I enjoy hearing about others milestones as well. It is when conversations steer in that direction of, "My kid did that at 5 months and hers was 10 months, he is so good blah blah blah." I do know most of you that read this, I think, and I can say that I really don't think any of you are that mom, but never the less they are out there. This song I was listening to really made me appreciate Mason for all he can do and all he can't do yet. He is fabulous for who he is. Carter amazes me with his mental abilities to get things that some adults don't get. Taylor blows me away with her need for independence and to be a free thinker from the pack. Brennan has this sweet loving personality and is always giving and always thinking. I have realized that my children are so individual and unique. They are truly separate from one another in who they are as human beings. I hope that I can foster in each of them their uniqueness and their talents. That they will stand proud of who they are and what they can do. They will each shine in their way and their time. I always believed this, but today I guess I finally came to know it.

**it is now 2am and if this didn't make sense and you actually had to read it all..well done. :)**

Aggresive Female Driver...

In my defense I honestly did still think it was 60mph, I was lucky I wasn't even going that fast. Apparently it had changed to 30mph. Seriously, not everyone has the priviledge of having evidence of their speeding. :) This is what happens when Hollie is on her way back from a RS Pres. meeting and she just can't stand that long drive.....
Mike calls me an aggresive female driver..whatever that is suppose to mean. :) Dad, I want no comment from you. :) Because I have an idea of what is going through your head right now. I sure as heck can't deny this one, that is without a doubt my little head behind that steering wheel. At least it gave me something to blog about other than my children.

Mr. Postman

Another Muscial Number with the family. Mason, Mike and Hollie participated in this one. Royal Mail has been on strike, with that in mind you can understand this video a bit better(at least part of it). Mason was so excited to play a part in this and so were the kids to help him be included. He made a handsome postman. However, after the number you see him being led off by a friend. At the top of the stairs he decided to escape and make his own way out. He walked towards the stage front, being blinded because the curtain was covering his face he walked right off the stage! So he sprained his ankle and didn't walk on it that night. He is doing much better tonight and I'm sure it will be totally fine in a couple days. We are very lucky that he didn't do anything more severe. Despite that it was a fun night and pretty entertaining as well.

Life Could be a Dream

Ipswich Stake Music Festival. Mike was part of this fabulous number. The guys sounded fabulous and looked even better. It was great fun to see them perform.

My sister is awesome.....

So this is a small shout out to my family for my November 3rd blog post. I wanted to brag that Mindy is my sister. Everyone looks fabulous, however, Mindy you are awesome. She made her and Kevin's costumes and a little Ariel costume for Sahara(Jamie and Mike's little baby). I was so impressed with these and what a fun family I have. I love to see pictures, but it does make me homesick for them. Chili cook offs and costume contests. Skye, you scared me...geez...no wonder Joshua is crying..you are great!!

King Triton and Ursela...Mindy you are one talented lady!!!
Cards, sewing random costumes with NO patterns, creativity of 10 people, you are amazing.