mid December to Christmas Eve morning

I know this post has been accidentally posted twice already, but it was mostly pictures without the explanations! If you are curious about our December outings, read on. If you only cared about the pictures and you already saw them, you may want to skip it. Sorry for the technical difficulties. And posts without my mom's grandkids. And posts about flamboyantly gay figure skaters. And for being so insanely behind on my blog.

Just, SORRY!

On to the post:

We did a whole bunch of fun activities in December. Tony took off work from December 14th-18th for a little Christmassy "staycation". On the 14th we saw "The Princess and the Frog" and then saw the rest of the Christmas village downtown Ogden with Tammy and Zach.

We visited with Santa there and Christian wasn't afraid at all.

We loved looking in all the little buildings.

On the 15th we rode Frontrunner into Salt Lake. The kids were superexcited to ride the train!

Some fun while waiting at the station--watch out for that left hook!

It's here!

Christian was enthralled the entire ride. Faith loved it for about five minutes and then proclaimed it "pretty boring."

By the time we got to Salt Lake we were starving so we ate first at Dee's, right next to Temple square. The kids both got the salad bar, Tony had an omelette and I got french toast with salad bar. After Buddy had eaten quite a bit of pasta and fruit, he asked me if he could have one of my "breads" becuase he was enthralled with the tiny syrup pitcher I had been brought. I figured he just wanted to play with it, but I was full anyway and cut up a piece for him. He was very careful with the syrup and ate every bit of the french toast. He then asked for and consumed another whole piece! I've never seen the kid eat so well. Faith loved the coloring page place mats there.

We loved walking all over temple square and seeing all the lights. The temperature was pretty mild and we didn't even freeze to death!

The kids in front of the temple, just before a nice couple took our family picture.

On the 16th we kept Faith home from school and headed down south in the morning. We stopped at Taffy Town in Salt Lake and then headed out to the Peppermint Place candy shop in Alpine. It used to be one of our favorite places to visit when the shop was in the same building as the factory. You could go upstairs and look through big windows at the people making candy canes and suckers (here are some pictures from their website) and through other windows at people making things out of frosting (like on these and these and these). It was so fun! I guess they outgrew that factory and built a new one and a separate, freestanding shop. Now I don't love it. Most everything's pretty expensive and it's more like a gift shop. But I did get some cute frosting gingerbread men that I later put on dipped pretzels, Faith got this gumball seal and Buddy got a gumball Dr. Seuss fishbowl (which was eaten before I could get a photo).

We then stopped in at Cabella's and enjoyed their giant aquariums.

The kids love to see all the taxidermied animals, but Christian was still wary of being eaten by one of the bears :)

We fed the fish that are swimming around the bottom of what I like to call "dead animal mountain".

These prairie dogs were Faith's favorite. The kids had fun doing the shooting gallery there, too.

We then went to our favorite duck feeding grounds and went through two loaves of bread. I told Tony that if they all bloat up and die from all that it would be on his head! He said that people stop by and feed bread to them almost constantly every day even all through the winter, so they should be used to that diet by now.

For dinner, we went to one of our favorites, Hickory Kist in Spanish Fork. (Unlike the new Peppermint Place) they have big windows where you can watch them make the bread.

Here's Buddy trying to fit his quarter of the ginormous sandwich in his mouth.

Here's what we get on it: turkey breast, American cheese (though I would probably prefer Provolone), mayo, regular mustard, cranberry sauce (don't skip this--it makes the sandwich!), onion, tomato, lettuce, and sprouts (another fave). I'm totally craving one of those now!

We then went through the drive through lights at the Spanish Fork Golf Course. They were great, but Faith's favorite part was that Tony let her sit on his lap and steer the car our second time through. We just hadn't had enough lights, so we then went to the Thanksgiving Point drive through lights which were also awesome. Outside the shops there they had some reindeer that we got to see.

We shopped there for just a few minutes and got an ornament to commemorate the visit. I think this will start our new family tradition of getting an ornament each year from our Christmas outings.

On December 17th Joy had a Unicorn pary for U week at their house. The kids played pin the horn on the unicorn.

Then they tossed the unicorn shoes (like horseshoes).

I got some great action shots on these!

They had a snack of unicorn horns (Nacho Cheese Bugles).

And finally, a unicorn horn craft.

That night Tammy took us and Tina's family to Zoolights. We saw a lot more animals this year and we loved it!

We stopped by Krispy Kreme on our way home and had doughnuts and hot chocolate.

I got this pic of Dusty that night, just look at those chubby haunches!!

Faith has early out every Friday, so early afternoon on the 18th we got the kids in their comfy new Christmas jammies and headed north. Tony used to deliver in Logan and knows of some fun places to visit. We started out at Gossner Cheese Factory where we loaded up on cheese curds. They had been made that day and were extra squeaky!!

We then hit the Pepperidge Farm factory in Richmond and got giant bags of Goldfish crackers and some cookies. At the end of the evening we went north to the Middle of nowhere, Richmond to the Fatboy factory and ice cream shop. I'm not a fan of the Fatboy ice cream in their sandwiches and bars so I didn't order anything, but the kids and Tony had some scoops in waffle cones and cups. It was a pretty fun day, but the kids had had enough of the car so we'll have to remember to take that into account next year.

On the 19th was the Mitchell family Christmas/Birthday party. I love how Buddy's enthralled with Grandpa Mitchell for some reason in this picture :D

On the 20th the week of activities finally took it's toll and I found that Christian had fallen asleep on the kitchen floor after church!

On the 21st I had some surprises planned for our family home evening activity. Tony had been looking for a waving Santa cookie cutter that he had remembered from his childhood, but his mom didn't have it or any recollection of the thing. I finally found one at "For Your Kitchen" at Newgate mall.

I had also gotten these cute aprons for the kids from the dollar store.

Buddy seems pretty excited about his cookies!

On the 22nd, since we didn't have school, we invited Ann, Natalie and kids over for a Christmas pary. I had the kids make these cute wooden spoon reindeer. (My kids were too busy playing to bother getting in the picture)

My friend Brandy gave this to us for a neighbor gift and I thought it was so darling!

Tony and I stayed up wrapping gifts on the night of the 23rd until 3 am because I didn't trust Buddy with them. Unfortunately, I wasn't watching the little bugger close enough that morning of the 24th because Faith found this scene in our master bathroom:

I had kept the wrapped gifts in my bedroom instead of tempting Christian with them under the tree, but I hadn't noticed that instead of playing in the playroom he had slipped into my room. I, of course, freaked out on him but then, of course, felt bad since I knew he was not able to resist. Instead of having a relaxing Christmas Eve, Tony and I were up rewrapping.

His obsession is so serious that just the other day we discovered that Buddy had found a Christmas decoration of ours that has a family of bears next to a tree who sing when you turn it on. I had stashed the thing in my closet after hearing the songs seven hundred million times in December and then forgot about it. Having an intense desire to know what the little bears had in their packages, Buddy took scissors to the things only to discover that they were just hard plastic cubes wrapped to look like presents :( He was personally offended.

While Tony was doing some last minute shopping, he got this Santa pet hat. It has an attached beard that you can't see with all of Dusty's fluff, but he still looked adorable in it! You can just tell how much he loved it ;)

Johnny Weir Was Robbed On A Medal At The Olympics | The Frisky

Exerpt from--Frisky Rant: Figure Skater Johnny Weir Was Robbed! Posted by: Simcha Whitehill Filed in: news 9:30AM, Friday February 19th 2010
Have you seen “Be Good Johnny Weir,” the new Sundance reality show about the figure skating phenom who can do Lady Gaga and Victor Petrenko justice? Well, if your answer is no, you need more glam and ice bling in your life! Nobody brings it like Johnny, the booty-shaking bad boy ballerina with a heart of gold. He’s known for designing his own sparkly costumes—and his even more colorful sound bites. But he’s not all flash and talk; Johnny gave some seriously stunning Olympic performances in Vancouver!

The weird thing is, you’d think a guy who elevates athleticism to art and expresses himself with emotional performances and original costuming would be applauded in an individual, elegant sport like figure skating. But, as we saw this week at the Olympics, where he was robbed of a well-deserved medal, there seem to be invisible point deductions that “protect” the event from having a flamboyant face.

Johnny revels in what is typically considered an effeminate skating style, and apparently, some narrow-minded people still feel that degrades the sport. This anti-ladylike argument suggests that all qualities normally associated with being a woman are just not good enough for a high score in athletic competition. Clearly, we gals lose when men are held to a ridiculously limiting gender standard too. And you know, I’d really like to watch those same judges try to make that same argument with hard-hitting hockey powerhouse Jessie Vetter or even snowboarding bada$$ Lindsey Jacobellis!

Aren’t the Olympics about putting aside our differences and coming together to reward those talented athletes who inspire us all? Not that embracing your feminine side equals being gay, but in this case, Johnny’s sexuality has been the big elephant in the rink. Weir hasn’t officially come out, but as he told Outsports.com, when asked about his sexuality, point-blank:
“To me, there’s no importance to making a show out of something that’s just you. I promote Johnny Weir and I’m as ridiculous as they come, but that’s what I want people to see … It’s not like anyone goes up to Michael Jordan asking, “Hey, are you black?”

And let’s face it: If the friggin’ U.S. Military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff can say “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is unfair, you’d think some Olympic figure skating judges wouldn’t be ashamed to have Johnny in their ranks. What are they even protecting this figure skating image from: the fans, the athletes? Let’s call a spade, a spade—the thinly veiled judicial preference for “macho” men is nothin’ but plain old homophobia.

Well, Johnny always knows what to say. So, let’s give him have the last word in the argument he’s been living out in real life. Here’s his answer to “HBO Real Sports” when asked if “ ... the fact that some people dismiss figure skating as ‘gay’ hurts the sport?”
“I know that for the men’s population of the Unites States, figure skating is a ‘gay’ sport and that’s a misconception. There are so many straight athletes in figure skating. But I think it’s the music and the costumes that turn most men off. Because they want to see, well, they want to see spandexed men hitting each other’s a$$ and throwing a ball. It’s very different.”

Ha! Johnny, medal or not, you and your Olympic performances are unforgettable. Don’t worry about the figure skating community; the world is better because you aren’t afraid to be yourself. And your determined character is truly what future generations of Olympians deserve to have as their role model.

New Moon

On November 24th Faith and I had a "Twilight" girls' night with (from left): Chelsea (Tina's stepdaughter), Tina, Lana and Tammy. We started with dinner at Olive Garden and then went to "New Moon" together!

Faith and I made shirts for the occasion. Here's the graphic she helped me create for hers:

and mine:

(On the back it also had a pawprint said, "Jacob, you can imprint on me anytime!")

We all loved the movie. If I were in the Academy, I would have nominated the costume designer for an Oscar for all the male shirtlessness!

It was a great night out and Faith loved being big enough to be one of the girls.

Love it!

mid November to mid December

On November 14th we got our first real snowstorm of the winter! On the 16th, Christian couldn't handle it anymore (we'd been away from the house doing things the previous two days) and had to go play in it. Unfortunately, all the snow had melted but a bit on the patio furniture. Didn't stop him from enjoying the heck out of it, though!

The next day I got some cute shots of my cuties:

On the 20th we had a Thanksgiving party with Ann, Nat & kids. Unfortunately, I'd dropped my camera at preschool a few days before, and it wasn't focusing correctly. I managed to get only three relatively clear pics: the cute treats we made,

and my kids with the cute crafts Natalie had them make (filled plastic glove turkeys).

On the 24th I helped at the school for a Thanksgiving party. The whole second grade gets together for this every year and the teachers plan it instead of room mothers. They had the kids split up in groups and did six or so stations. I helped run the station where we did a "run while balancing a cranberry on a spoon" relay race!

On December 7th, a surprise package came for me. . . a new camera! A new Cannon Elph that Tony had ordered as my early Christmas present. To test it out, I got a shot of this very angry boy (poised to hit me with a toy car, but it's all just a threat--we need to help him work out acceptable ways to deal with anger)

and Crumpet having a crazy hair day!

On the 9th I went to help Faith's class paint a set for their upcoming opera performance. Yes, her teacher, Leslie Bertram, is so amazing that she helped the children write their own opera which they will be performing in February or March. She even had a set designer from the Utah Festival Opera there to show us what to do!

Faith was in charge of the lettering on the title banner.

Other than some chalk outlines for the fence and the tree trunk and telling them in general what should be included, the kids pretty much drew and painted the set by themselves!

Isn't it wonderful? I only got about one third of the set in this picture, I'll have to get more photos of it onstage when the kids perform.

On December 12th we had Ann & family and Natalie & family (minus Scott who had to work :( ) over for a Christmas party. We ate clam chowder, chicken noodle soup, amazing sugar cookie bars (brought by Nat who got the recipe here) and goodies dipped in the chocolate fountain. I'll let you guess what the hit of the party was for the kids:

The adults chatted and ate while the kids attacked the chocolate, and then some Halo games were played between Tony & Mike and Brody & Faith. We had so much fun! I am so thankful to have such wonderful friends.

Faith's birthday party

Faith's birthday was November 1st, but we planned a party with friends for November 13th. Faith decided that she wanted a hamster birthday party this year after going to her friend Brooklyn's and becoming obsessed with the cute little pets. I nearly went crazy trying to find hamster themed trinkets for the gift bags and finally decided to make my own after seeing a Sculpy clay hamster model on the internet. Faith was inviting eleven (!) girls to the party, so I had a tall order. Also, I'm no artist and I've never worked with Sculpy clay before. As I worked on them, the kids had to get in on the act and make their own. Faith let Christian paint some of her creations,

and she helped paint some of mine.

In the meantime, we had fun at the park one afternoon.

Faith created each envelope individually, but I thought this one was especially cute!

Here is the army of hamster sculpture pendants just before I sprayed a clear coat on them.

I thought they didn't turn out half bad! We put them on some sheer white ribbon and made them into necklaces.

Instead of a cake, Faith decided on cupcakes for the party. It just about killed Christian to wait until it was time to dig in. (Love the expression in this pic!)

I made toppers with the cartoon pictures of the Zhu Zhu Pet hamster toys from thier website.

Faith drew this great game all by herself!

And that is what we played first, "Pin the hamster on the wheel".

Next we raced to see who was the fastest climbing through the "hamster tubes".

And played "hamster toss" (except the hamster was really a Webkinz guinea pig).

Present time! Faith received absolutely wonderful gifts from all her friends.

Next, we did our craft. We made these cute pompom hamsters in plastic ornament "hamster balls". We even made removable Santa hats for them so they could double as Christmas tree ornaments!

I worked one of three hot glue stations to help put them together, but many of the girls assembled the craft theirselves. I heard some of them remark that they had never used a glue gun before, but nobody got burnt--not even me and I usually burn myself every time I use one! It was even Friday the 13th! I joked with my friends Ann & Natalie when they came to pick up their girls that had I known that we'd be so lucky I would have had them do a chainsaw craft instead of a hot glue craft. Ann teased back, "Or a toothpick craft!" but I told her that I wouldn't push my luck that far! (Just a few weeks before, my neice impaled her foot on a toothpick she had brought home as part of a gumdrop geometric craft from my preshcool. One week after that, one of Ann's children did the same from a toothpick we were eating Little Smokies with, minutes after sharing my neices grim tale. We all have toothpic phobia now!)

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They turned out absolutely darling, but I didn't get pictures of any because of being so busy helping glue, and then getting the next thing started. Some turned out like the internet photo above, but many had creative twists like white pompoms for cheeks, pompom ears, felt tails, etc. These girls were definitely creative and talented!

.

Our final activity was making hamster treats with Twinkies, melted white & brown chocolate, coconut (in white, yellow & brown), chocolate chips, mini marshmallows, and pink Jelly Bellies. I sent the girls' awesome creations home with them in little cello bags.

This picture is blurry, but I had to document the rousing impromptu game of "chuck the stuffed animal" up and down from the balcony!

The gift bags were brightly colored paper sacks with the hamster necklace, a baggy of granola labeled "hamster food" and their Twinkie hamsters. Faith loved her party and several of her friends were kind enough to tell me that it was the best party they'd been to!