A Few of Their Favorite Things

I have been a tad on the preoccupied-side lately (Christmas break with three kids will do that to you), but here are the kiddies fav Santa presents:

Adi wanted a Kit Kittredge American Girl doll. Have you seen how much those things cost? It's a bit steep for a little girl who rarely plays with dolls. So I got the brilliant idea to get one of Target's off-brand dolls... I mean, she's five, she won't know the difference will she? Yeah right.

I shut off the camera and told her that sometimes Mrs. Claus designs special dolls for special girls, and that this one was made to look just her... it worked! She now loves it and named it Charlotte Harlot Merrill (she is really into rhyming and just says anything that comes to mind- we don't have the heart to tell her that harlot is not a very nice name).

Piper had been asking for these two since the movie came out, and luckily I grabbed them before all the stores ran out :)

And Porter-Bear got the trike that he has had his eyes on everytime that we've gone to WalMart for the past three months.

And I got a new camera- WAHOO!

Seven Years?!

On The Night Before Christmas,

the girls did a performance for our viewing and listening pleasure,

Porter did some active listening,

and some cookies and milk were left out for Santa and oats for his reindeer (we had no carrots).

We then watched the cartoon version of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and tucked all the kiddies into bed. Adi, however, had quite a difficult time staying in her bed, and Santa almost got caught quite a few times!

Merry, Merry Christmas!

All The Whos Down In Whoville

It was Grinch Day in Adi's class so Mommy got to get a little creative...

There isn't a good picture of the little Who-skirt I slaved over for hours (ok, just an hour) yesterday, but I asure you that it was adorable! And yes, I had to put a paper cone in their hair to get it to stay that way!

Yup, I gave up on the Days of Christmas

Sorry, but I gave it an honest shot!

We've been passing around a fun little case of croup around here, so not much time or effort has been put into taking pictures :(

I promise to take a few shots today and hopefully have them posted by tomarrow... maybe...

Well, I'll try, alright?!

Awwww... The Powder!

Thanks to the Winter Wonderland we were living in yesterday, OP got off of work early and we hit the local park for some serious sledding. Well, the fam did some serious tubing while I tried to do some serious ppicture taking (you try to take pictures while it is snowing against a completely white background- it's hard!).

All three kiddos loved it- even the lil' man. He went down the hill several time all by himself. The first time Orrin put him in the tube and pushed him, I about lost it! But Porter survived and had a huge ol' grin on his face at the bottom.

I'm pretty sure that Orrin enjoyed it more than the kids though, seeing as how he kept cutting in line ahead of them!

Lessons Learned

It is definitely a winter wonderland outside today. Which is absolutely perfect when you're inside, sipping hot cocoa and reading a good book with a blankie on your lap.

Not such a good thing when you have to drive in it without 4 wheel drive. Now, I know that it has been done before, and that there are probably millions of people who drive in the snow without 4wd, but, well, I'm a whiner.

Anyway, I had a bit of a difficult time getting my car into the garage after dropping Adi off this morning, so I decided to shovel the driveway. Now, please keep in mind that I can't even remember the last time I had shoveled snow, and apparently there is some mysterious technique to it (or else I'm just not that bright).

I got Porter and Piper all bundled up so they could play in the beautiful snow while I shoveled the annoying white stuff off the driveway. Porter immediately headed for the street, all the while yelling , "NO!" Which is Porter-talk for "snow".

Piper, after being warned not to lay down in the snow since she didn't have snow pants on, laid down in the snow and got some in her pants.

During this, I was trying to clear the driveway without slipping onto my behind (so maybe I did once).

I'm sure we put on quite the show for the neighbors :)



Oh, and I only got half of the driveway cleared before I threw in the towel.

Party On!

My sister was playing paparazzi with my kiddos at the family party- and the girls ate it up (couldn't get a decent one of lil' sleepy boy).

I snapped this one of Orrin and Adi- proof that Orrin will actually show up to some family functions!

Baked

To prepare for our big family party on Saturday, my mom, sis, Harmony and I spent Friday baking.

I am all baked out.

Never will I make another batch of caramels again (40 minutes constantly stirring while waiting for it to boil- are you kidding me?).

It was worth it, in the end.



I suppose....


Whit spent the time spoiling the pants off of this little boy:

Oh, and sampling the goods... love ya, Whit!

Singing It

Yeah Whitney and Chris for getting the girls the awesomest gift ever- Disney's Wii game Sing It! All three of the kiddos LOVE it... it is exactly what they all love to do. Sing and dance? Heck yeah!

Here's our lil' star in the making rockin' out:



*It also puts all of those useless DiSney lyrics that I have floating around in my head to use!

What it's truly all about

I'm sure we all struggle with the same problem this time of year: trying to remember what Christmas really means. Orrin and I have really tried to teach the kiddos that it's not all about getting gifts, but also giving yourself. It's about being with family and thinking about family. But most of all, of course, it's about Christ. His birth, his life, his death. Even when we're making an honest effort to convey this, the point seems to get lost a lot of the time.

To keep Christ in the center of this holiday, I made this humble little Advent calender two years ago. Every night, one of the girls takes a numbered heart and we read and discuss the scripture that is written on it. Then the same little girlie puts the heart on our teeny tree.

It is amazing how much these girls understand and remember when it comes to the scriptures (we try with Porter, but, well, it's Porter. Maybe next year). I just pray that we are building a solid foundation for their future...

Moostletoe

On December first, we put away our normal picture books and pull out my- I mean our- collection of Christmas books. Every night until Christmas, we read one all together. The kids love Moostletoe- it is kind of a different book, after all, they make a Christmas Tree out of his Moostache...

Making Snowballs

It started snowing again yesterday- not too much stuck to the ground, but it was a grand show while it lasted!

The fluffy snowflakes inspired the cookies we made that day. They are an old family recipe that goes by many-a-names: choke cookies, wedding cookies, lady fingers... you get the point. Yesterday I added a new name to that list: Snowflake Cookies. They are basically made of flour, butter and sugar (seriously, that's it) and when they are through baking, you roll them in powdered sugar while they are still warm.

So easy, so good!

Adi and Porter loved them. Piper, who is my sweet-addict, didn't much care for them. In fact, she popped a whole one into her mouth and then automatically spit it right back out.

Comfort Food...

Bet you're wishing you had breakfast at my house this morning, huh?

Recipe for Lazyman's Cinnamon Rolls:

Some frozen Rhodes Rolls (sorry, but I'm not the "exact measurements" types)
1/2 cup melted butter
Cinnamon-Sugar all mixed up
Chopped pecans
brown sugar

Butter & flour bundt pan. Sprinkle pecans and brown sugar on bottom. Roll a frozen roll in the butter, then in the cinnamon-sugar, then place it in bundt pan. Repeat until you have two layers of rolls. Cover with a towell and let rise overnight.

In the morning, preheat oven to 340 degrees and cook for 30ish minutes. Whip up some frosting and frost after they have cooled a bit.

They. Are. So. Good.

Feeling the Spirit... er, at least trying to

OK, so I've fallen a little behind on the whole Christmas Daily thing. Weekends are tough to get computer time (especially with OP home). I filled in the days below though, so keep on reading!

Last night for Family Night, we watched the First Presidency's Christmas Devotional. Or tried to. The girls were pretty good, they laid down on some pillows and listened (or at least they looked like they were). But Porter, there's a different story.

He was climbing all over the girls and I, sticking his fingers in our ears and eyes, then he tried jumping onto us from the ottoman. He kept bringing a book to read to him, finding any toys that make noise, flipping the lights on and off, on and off.... let's just say I didn't really get to focus.

It was still wonderful to see how cool the stand was set up (Adi really liked that) and to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing (Pipe's favorite) and, of course, to hear the First Presidency.

Kissing Frogs

Oh, Orrin, Orrin, Orrin... why must he torment me so?

Every year we have a tradition of each family member choosing a new ornament for our tree. This year we went to Hobby Lobby- holy hannah, talk about ornaments! The girls were going into overload with choices. OK, that was mostly me. I couldn't decide!

Anyway, Porter choice was obvious; a "gog", as he calls them.

Adi-Baby chose a carriage. She didn't even think of it as a princess carriage until the lady checking us out said that it looked like it belonged to Cinderella. So why did she chose it? "Because I liked it."

And Piper... well we never know what Piper will choose.

But this year, OP takes the cake on extreme ornament choices. A frog doing the hula? Seriously? But he said that every year is going to find the ugliest, most annoying ornament he can find to add to his collection. And he puts them on the front of the tree.

And what ornament did I get? It was an awesome snowman-snowglobe thing, but it met a sharp and sudden death against the wood floor last night :( Piper is making me a new one out of paper to replace it though.

Trees, Trees and More Trees....

We went to something called the Festival of Trees on Friday night (it was a miracle that I got Orrin to go!) We ate at Crown Burger first with my Auntie Leanne and her family, then walked across the street to look at all the Christmas trees... there were so many! People create a tree for someone they loved who have passed away. People then purchase the tree and all the profits go to Primary Children's Hospital.

Pictured above is my favorite tree: A Cullen Christmas! A Twilight tree, baby!!

Orrin started throwing a Piper-esque fit about the twenty rows of trees, so we went and watched a singing and dancing group (Vanessa's was soooo much better) and then left. Poor girls didn't get to play any games or sit on Santa's lap. Next year I think I'll take the kids by myself and leave Mr. Scrooge at home!

Melts My Heart

Today, it began to snow. The first snow of Christmas. The flakes, as you can see, were georgous- the soft, fluffy kind that you see on movies and think "that is so fake". But they were real.

Then I blinked, and they were gone. They only fell for maybe ten minutes, but while they did, Porter and I were entranced.

On another note, I went this morning to Parents and Pastries at Adi's school (this is an evil scheme the PTA came up with to get all of our parental-booties out of bed early to get to the elementary before the sun was up in order to get a doughnut-and pay extra if you want something to drink it down with so you can read with your child. I read every night with my child, must I do it in their loud lunchroom before my brain is fully functioning?).

Anywho, I met one of Adi's little friend's mom. We were trying to arrange a playdate, and the mom asked me if I worked. I told her no. Adi then said, "Uh-huh, she works inside our home."

Who needs more of a lift than that?

Messy, Messy, Messy...

No holiday would be complete in our family without the ceremonious making and frosting of sugar cookies.

Messy, Yes.

Fun, Oh Yes.

Most of the cookies are never eaten, since the girls lick their knife, frost a cookies, lick their knife, put more frosting on it, lick their knife, frost a cookie.... you can see where this is going.

Today was the first time little Porter got to "frost" the cookies. He ended up frosting himself.

The girls ended up eating more frosting than they put on the cookies.

A jar of sprinkles met a watery death in Porter's sippy cup.

And I ended up laughing the entire time (not so much while I was cleaning up, but hey, we're only young once ;)

Here's how Porter looked when he finished:

Letters to Santa

The Kiddos have been itching to write their letters to Santa (in fact, they have written several rough drafts), and Mom has wanted them to hurry and write them so that they couldn't change their minds after the gifts had already been bought :)

Days of Christmas

Now that it's December, I'm back to doing the Days of Christmas that I tried out last year.... wish me luck! I'm trying to do a mini scrapbook page each day to capture our Christmas Activites, plus it helps me to bring the spirit of the season into our home. Here's Day One:

It was Porter-Pot's turn to put the star on top of the tree this year. Orrin helped (or put it on himself... we might have staged this picture). Afterwards we watched White Christmas (a tradition) and the girls giggled when Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye dressed up and performed like sisters:



Gotta love that movie!

Christmas Decor...

Got my blog decorated, but I haven't begun in my home...

Tagged

8's
8 Shows I like:
1. The Office- that's what she said :)
2. Ugly Betty
3. Clean House
4. Wizards of Waverly Place
5. Phineas and Ferb (Not kidding, I have every episode of this and #4 saved on my DVR)
6. Criminal Minds
7. Monk
8. Psych

8 Restaurants I like:
1. Applebees
2. Chik-Fil-A
3. Olive Garden
4. Texas Roadhouse
5. Ummm... I don't eat out much....

8 things that happened yesterday:
1. Am I supposed to remember yesterday?
2. Was up by 4 am (thanks Porter-Pot)
3. Got myself and three kids ready by 6
4. Went to Target-to for diapers and a few other not-quite-neccessities
5. Activity Days meeting
6. Had friend for lunch
7. Helped said friend digi-scrap her Christmas card
8. Broke up 52 fights between my three children

8 things I am looking forward to:
1. Going to Salt Lake Temple Lights next week
2. My sis coming in December
3. Sleeping in sometime this weekend and letting Orrin take the morning shift :)
4. Seeing Twilight again this weekend
5. Being with friends and family tomarrow for Thanksgiving
6. Black Friday shopping
7. OP getting home from work so we can go see Four Christmases
8. All the Christmas Festivities that are coming!!

8 things on my wish list:
1. That a magical fairy would come and finish my laundry and ironing
2. And my vaccuming
3. I could get a magic wand that would silence all screaming immediantly
4. We could go to Arizona for Christmas (that one might come true)
5. OK, so this one is harder than I thought!!

Maybe I didn't do so well, but it was fun trying!

I tag anyone who wants to play along!

An Inquisition at Breakfast

Would you like to see just how smart my boy is?

OK, so he's not exaclty a linguist, but doesn't he wear his food well?

*Toot, Toot*

We've been working on learning the Articles of Faith as a family for the past six months. The girls learned the first eight at lightning speed, but the last few have been a bit of a struggle. Last night, I was trying to say #10 without looking, and my girls corrected me and then finished it without my help:

That's my girls!!

Porter is a good sport (and no, I haven't taken away his bottle but his time with it has been cut back). I'm hoping he is learning these subconsciously and one day, after he starts talking, of course, he'll be able to prattle them off with the girlies (it's a wish, ok?).

You only wish you could dress like this...

Instructions for creating this fabulous look:



1. TEAR APART Mom's closet looking for just the right skirt (even though Mom has told you about a million times to STAY OUT of her closet.



2. Find something to cinch the waist- anything will work, really. As you can see, Adi is sporting a darling headband that she refuses to wear on her head but loves as a belt; and Piper has a pair of heart leggings wrapped around her a couple of times.



3. Try to hurry and get your waist tied before skirt falls... scream after three failed attempts. Big sister will then come and tie it for you.



4. Put on church shoes that Mom has warned you and warned you and warned you not to tough excepting Sundays. They're scuffed now anyways from previous adventures, so Mom doesn't get as mad anymore.


5. Demand that Hish School Musical 3 songs be played and have Mom sing Troy's part.

Now you're dressed for success and ready to rock!!

A Dose of Reality

Scene: I was doing Adi's hair for school at six o'clock in the AM (yep- I got morning kids). Adi is acting as though I am methodically pulling out each and every hair on her head.

Adi asks, "How many days do I have left of school?"

Me, "Three days till Saturday." I'm too busy trying to pull her hair into an even ponytail while she is busy trying to pull out every ribbon in my ribbon jar to reach the bobby pin on the very bottom... don't ask.

Adi, "No! How many days till I don't have to go to school anymore?!" May I insert here that Adi is not a fan of school. Already she says that her favorite part of kindergarten is recess.

I chuckle. "You have twelve years left of school and then there's college..."

Adi bursts into tears.

"I'm done going to school!!!!!!"

She then went to school.

The Taking of the Christmas Pics

So, I have done it. The dreaded photo shoot. Me versus my three little monkeys. Getting the three of them to hold still is almost as hard as getting the three of them to look at the camera at the same time.

I think that I have one photo I could possibly use.... it isn't exactly what I wanted (at all) but I do not want to subject myself to their torture again! I'm serious.

To prove the difficulty which I faced, I caught a moment on camera:

See... now do you believe me?

Here are a few of the rejects that I love but they just don't work:

Ya gotta love Porter's face in this one!

Alright, look carefully at Piper's face and what Porter is about to do to her arm....

I really love this photo... Porter's eyebrow, the background, but the darn girls weren't looking!

YUM-MO

Need I say more?

Let It Snow

I'm not a big fan of cold. At all.

Especially when it involves bundling up three extremely stubborn children, all of which hate their winter coats.

But, ahhh... the first real snow of the season. It is a beautiful thing. And it was fun to watch Porter's reactions to it (he just didn't really get what it was, but he did keep saying snow)!

The girls were determined to make a snowman, which then turned into a slide, but they didn't get very far before they decided they were just too cold and came inside for a hot shower and a mug of hot cocoa.

They're Animals!

Unfortunately, none of my Trick-or-Treating pictures turned out :( But I did get this video of Porter-Pot trying to figure out why he had to put his first candy into a dumb old bag:

For the rest of the night, Porter would get upset whenever we tried to get him to put his candy in there...

We visited the Hogle Zoo on Saturday- and let me tell you, it was the perfect day. It was overcast (but no rain) so the sun wasn't beating down on us, and the temperature was just perfect! So, there are some benefits to living in Utah.


(That's Pip's ticket sticking out of her pocket)

Porter didn't much care for this pose...

And this one is my favorite pic of the day.

Now, you might be asking why I always have pictures of the back of my family. I'll tell you: my children are animals and I am extremely lucky to get a picture of even their backside! Porter automatically turns away from the camera when he sees it, Adi puts on a cheesy grin and Piper strikes her sae ole pose of tilting her head to the right side and smiling. So, to get one good picture I usually have to snap at least 20. No joke.

Let's just say that my kiddos are little celebrities with their own personal papparazzi stalking them...

The Lil' Pumpkins

We finally carved our pumpkins. I've been putting it off since I hate gutting the darn things, but, thanks to the unrelenting insistence of Adi, we carved 'em up for Family Night. Adi drew her own face on and I cut it out for her (although she was fully prepared to do the cutting herself). Piper insisted on a heart somewhere on the Jack O Lantern, and Porter just wanted to play with the top.

I most especially love the picture of Pipes since it is a rare occurence when I can get a pic of her without all of the attitude!

And this one is for Porter's Dad:

He is SO the next Troy!