Volcanoes and Chocolate

May 17 was National Idaho Day. We had a baked potato bar.

May 18 was Mount St. Helens Day. I took the leftover baked potatoes and made them into mashed potatoes for mashed potato volcanoes. 

Jet had a lot of fun helping put together our volcanoes with dino nuggets and green foliage (broccoli trees and green pepper bushes) and "those poor people" raisins. I put mine on the mountain. He put his in the crater. We had fun with the gravy lava, too. 

I also told Jet to say, "This means something," referencing Close Encounters of the Third Kind. 

 

May 19 was the Anniversary of the Rubik's Cube. Lucky got points to spend in his classroom store. He saved them up to get a bunch of things at the end of the school year, including rubber duckies and a Rubik's Cube. 

May 20 was Eliza Doolittle Day. I ate too much chocolate. The kids didn't eat a much. The song says, "Lots of chocolate for me to eat." Me, not us. 

Nichole drew chocolate for the holiday.

Jeremy was very impressed with how she was able to do the foil.

 

Everybody did have some chocolate later on in the day. Jr. was asleep but Jet didn't want him to be left out so he kept putting round pieces of wrapped chocolate on his ear but they rolled off so finally a wrapped chocolate coin was put on his head and stayed there for a while. I don't know if Jet did it or someone else, but the next day, Jet made sure Jr. got that piece of candy to eat. 

The Beginning of 2026

Happy New Year!

I was so tired by the time I finished my blog post yesterday but it was only half an hour until midnight so I stayed up long enough to toast the new year with the family with sparkling cider then the kids stayed up soooo late and Jeremy and I went to bed.

About 5 o'clock in the morning, Jet finally went to bed (unless he fell asleep in the living room earlier. I don't know. I slept with instructions for the older kids to watch after him. So I guess he finally went to his bed at 5 o'clock in the morning). 

 

I heard this from him, "Mom, go back to sleep."

He said it several times. 

My reaction? "What? Go back to sleep? Oh, thank you for waking me up in order to tell me to go back to sleep."

Oh, I love my kids so much. 

The Muppet Christmas Carol

We normally do our tradition of watching The Muppet Christmas Carol on Humbug Day (December 21) for obvious reasons. This year Humbug Day is on a Sunday and we choose not to watch movies in our home on Sundays (personal choice to help it be different from other days of the week) so we made a last minute decision to watch The Muppet Christmas Carol on December 5 which is Walt Disney's birthday (also appropriate).

I asked the kids to make guesses at which point in the movie I would fall asleep. One said the scene where Christmas Present says, "Come in and know me better man." One said during Christmas Past. One was generous and said I'd make it all the way to Christmas Future.

We had to pause the movie a few times (put food away because we ate dinner while watching). We did scripture study during one of the pauses. I ended up falling asleep at the very end of "that song" for those that have watched the extended edition. So at the end of Christmas Past right before Christmas Present.

My kids know me.  

Polar Express Party!

Last night we had our annual Polar Express Party.

My husband wore his Polar Express conductor hat (with foil decal by my sister) and read the book to us. This year everyone was assigned a sound to make when Jeremy pointed at them, from a train whistle "woo woo" to "Oh no" when the hole was found in the pocket. Lucky even got out his harmonica to make sounds. It was a blast.

Afterward we watched the movie and drank hot chocolate. 
I fell asleep, of course, as is my tradition. They paused the movie so we could do our Countdown to Christmas scripture study before I went back to my room. I was so tired that when Jet brought me my mint M&M somehow I didn't put it in my mouth and later they found it sitting on the couch. Jeremy put it in a bag for me to eat later.

This is a fun tradition to do as a family every year (though not necessarily the falling asleep part). 

P.S. We also had Chex Mix to munch on during the movie. Mmmm. My favorite holiday treat. It doesn't last long when we make it because everybody else in the family also likes it. 

P.P.S. Another thing I think is cute. Jet saw that Daddy's Polar Express cup was out on its saucer (so I could get that picture). I got Christmas mugs out of our Christmas crate to use for this event. Jet grabbed one of the mugs and a tiny plate and set out the mug on the plate, just like Daddy's cup and saucer. I love my children so much.

 

Catching Up on July Holidays

OK. Here we go. Sigh.

July 25 was National Chili Dog Day and National Refreshment Day. We had chili dogs (with homemade chili) and refreshments. Done. Blogged.

July 26 was Talk in an Elevator Day. A few of us got a picture of us talking in an elevator the day before. So we celebrated it observed. Done. Blogged.

 

July 27 was National Sleepyhead Day (in Finland). I totally missed it this year even though I was thinking about it just the day before. Sigh. Told you we were busy. Check out how we've celebrated that one in the past, though (starting with last year's celebration while we were in Washington). Done. Blogged.

July 28 was Milk Chocolate Day. We had chocolate milk. Done. Blogged.

July 29 was National Lasagna Day. We had lasagna. And I learned how to do "baked" mashed potatoes in the Instant Pot from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 3. Done. Blogged.

July 30 there were a lot of holidays I didn't celebrate but I should have. Paperback Book Day. International Day of Friendship. Father-in-Law Day. National Cheesecake Day. Sigh. I must not have been feeling well that day because someone made me breakfast and Jr. helped make dinner that night. 

He decided to gather all the ingredients needed for the dish in a bowl before making it. Heh Heh. Done. Blogged.

July 31 was National Avocado Day. We had avocados in our salad (yet another recipe from A Season of Family Meal Plans, volume 3, by Jordan Page) as well as cucumbers. 

Jr. took the bowl of cucumbers I had just cut up and made this comment:

"Man, this cereal's the best."

He doesn't particularly care for cucumbers so we talked about other ways to use cucumbers besides eating them like cereal (though I love eating cucumbers). Done. Blogged.

And just like that, I'm caught up on the rest of July holidays. Go me.

Done. Blogged.

Late Night Shenanigans

Jet's sleep schedule got all out of whack during Spring Break. Well, all the boys' did. They all stayed up too late and slept in too long. There were some late nights with Jet. Sometimes the boys stayed up to watch him, sometimes Jeremy, sometimes me. Sometimes we couldn't stay awake while he was running around in the middle of the night.

Two nights in a row he got up to some mischief- both when he got a hold of my phone.

The first night apparently he turned the camera on on my phone because we found several pictures like this-   

The second night, a text message in the middle of the night woke me. This is how it went.

From my father-in-law: Hi I think Jet might have your phone. We just got a call, Love you

My response: I am so sorry.

My father-in-law: It's not a problem. We were still up. I'm glad there is no problem. Love you

I'm so glad my in-laws have a sense of humor and are understanding.

Busy and Tired

We've been so busy lately and I'm so tired. I've been sitting here for maybe an hour intending to write a blog post and I keep falling asleep. Lucky knows. He's been sitting with me for most of it.

Jet was around as well then the older kids came home from their youth activities and Jr. Jr. came in to where we were. He started making faces at Jet and Jet took off to go play with him. 

O.K. That's enough of that. I need sleep.

The End

Then More Happened

We had that nice break in the weather then we had more storms.

Besides the storms, plenty of other things happened.

 

On National Bird Day, January 5, I watched The Big Year while folding laundry. I did not go out birding.

 

On National Cuddle Up Day, January 6, I got to cuddle up with a couple of my kids. Jet fell asleep while we cuddled up on the couch earlier in the day and took a nice nap. 

Lucky cuddled up with me that night and fell asleep on my bed.

 

Jeremy brought home French bread and we made it into French bread taco pizza with taco meat and refried beans for National Bean Day that same day.

Happy New Year's Eve

Happy New Year's Eve.

Making Guacamol-e! Making Guacamol-e!

 

Bacon Day 2022

December 30 is Bacon Day.

We had Bacon Pizza. I didn't want to do plain one-topping (besides sauce and cheese) pizza again. We do that too often. So I grabbed some extra items (green bell pepper and canned pineapple) and put them on as well. So nice.

And that is all I will write about that because I am literally falling asleep as I'm trying to write this blog post.

Christmas Day 2022

So let's talk about Christmas Day.

First of all, we got the star on the tree.

While I was working on Christmas Eve dinner, Jr. and Nichole made breakfast sandwiches to put in the fridge so that Christmas morning, we'd have something quick to eat before church. Thanks, kids.

Christmas morning we got to come out to see what Santa brought and what was in our stockings. 

I carried Jet out still asleep but after a while he woke to see what Santa brought him then had fun opening the wrapped presents in his stocking- dino cars! He was excited with each car and started roaring (as he does) but as soon as Jeremy handed him a new wrapped present, he immediately handed back the dino car so he could unwrap the next one.

Then we didn't open any presents from around the tree but got dressed, ate our quick breakfast, and went to church where there was a beautiful musical program with special words from the bishop. Lucky got to sing with the Primary and I was able to sing with the choir.

It was what I needed and wanted that morning. I'll be honest that Christmas Eve was rough. I had a nice breakdown. Well, it wasn't so nice. There has definitely been some stress lately. But Christmas Day was just right.

 

At home we were able to Zoom with Jeremy's parents while opening presents (later that day, I called my parents and had a nice chat with them and two of my brothers).

One thing we found out about Jet is that he really likes unwrapping presents whether they belong to him or not. The kids helped bring out some presents Christmas Eve and one present had to be rewrapped. Then during our main present opening Christmas afternoon, we took turns opening presents and Jet was practically launching himself at the presents to try to tear the paper off them. In some ways that determined what present would be opened next when it was the recipient's turn. Three year olds are fast, man.

Nichole was sweet and made this for Jet for Christmas:

 

Christmas Day was nice.

Now we're dealing with the aftermath.

I'm Tired

I'm tired. I want to blog but I also want to sleep.

Last night I was so tired, I fell asleep with my head on my folded arms on the table in the middle of a game of Dreidel. Joshua had to finish the game for me.

Then tonight we were watching A Christmas Story and I fell asleep and missed the whole end of the movie- the family's Christmas, the presents, the turkey, everything.

 

Yesterday before the sleepy game of Dreidel, we ate latkes and challah bread again.

I love making new traditions for our family. We've been doing latkes and dreidel for quite a while now. It's been fun to add challah to the tradition.

Catch of the Day

 Sweet sleeping baby with a velociraptor in his hand

Christmas is Over

And just like that, Christmas is over. Well, not the real reason for the season. We all need to continue following Jesus Christ and trying to be more like Him, serving others, showing love. But the present unwrapping (and last minute wrapping) is over. 

It was interesting. After staying up so late Christmas Eve (I was exhausted with a sick child for a few days leading up to Christmas and ended up with a headache and taking a nap that evening while Jeremy and Jr. finished making dinner so we ate late, did our little Christmas Eve program, let the kids open their PJs from Grandma and Grandpa, and got pictures of them wearing their PJs before sending them to bed so Jeremy and I could finish wrapping presents, etc., while Jr. tried to get Jet to sleep), I finally got Jet to sleep so Jr. could go to bed himself and then went to sleep myself. Christmas morning another child woke up sick. When it was time to go to the living room for presents and to Zoom with Jeremy's parents, Jet didn't want to get up. I picked him up and made it as far as the door before he pulled me back to my bed and made me lie down. 

Eventually I convinced him to come out to the living room for presents but he protested again when I wouldn't let him take a toy with him from our room. I assured him there would be something else but he was upset until I brought him all the way out and set him down where he could see the dinosaurs that Santa had brought him. There were a bunch. He was very happy after that and went around saying, "Dinosaur. Rarr. Rarr."

This was the first year in a long time I didn't make handmade gifts for the kids (not even bookmarks). Nobody complained, though. Lucky made handmade gifts for us, though- a cute card, two ornaments with his picture on them, and a cute snowman ornament made out of an electric tea light with light up nose and earmuffs. Soooooo cute. 

Poor Lucky, though. We paused from time to time throughout the day because he had to go be sick in the bathroom.

We still had nice Zoom meetings with Jeremy's parents that morning and my parents and two of my brothers later in the afternoon. 

Jeremy and I were still so exhausted and ended up taking naps that afternoon. Then I couldn't believe how much more I slept that evening and even that night. I'm so grateful for my family looking out for each other because I went to rest just a little and it turned into a whole lot. I woke up well rested this morning but still ended up taking a nap this afternoon. I guess dealing with all the... everything... leading up to Christmas took a lot out of me. Preparations, sickness in the home, life. We'll have to see how this next week goes.

There's also the possibility that changes in the weather could have affected me, tired-wise. That sometimes happens to both Jeremy and me. We didn't have a white Christmas, but it was white when Nichole and I went to Sacrament Meeting while Jeremy watched from home with the boys. That option is a blessing since we've had so much sickness this school year. Blech.

Anyway, so obviously since I slept so much on Christmas, I didn't blog that day but I've blogged every other day this month so that's not too bad.

So I hope you had a Happy Christmas and are enjoying National Candy Cane Day on December 26.

Keeping finding reasons to celebrate.