8 Big Ones

Well, hey there handsome.

8 years since that day, and all I can say is...

And I thought I loved you then.



{as originally sang by Mr. Brad Paisly}

Keeping up

I'm not going to lie to you.

I am having a very difficult time staying with Days of Christmas this year. I quit on day 17 last year, so I'm trying rally, really hard to stick with it.

But here's the problem: I can't seem to take the time to snap a pic of whatever activity that we may be doing.

Or, I am just so overwhelmed trying to prepare for the big day, that I am forgetting to slow down and enjoy the anticipation.

*Sigh* I am trying though.

Cross my heart.

Part of our nightly routine, after scriptures and a book, is letting each kiddo choose a song to sing. In December, we encourage them to choose Christmas songs.

Porter will choose "Itsy Bitsy Spider" every time. No matter what.

The idea behind this being that it is supposed to calm them down for bed.

It usually doesn't work out that way, but we always have a good time!

Anywho, last night, Piper ran to retrieve her antlers that she had made in class that day before we started singing, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". While we sang, she danced around and acted it out.

Hilarious.

So then Adi took a turn...

Yes, I know that it is an extremely fuzzy photo, but it really captured the essence of her jig.

Even I, grumpy old mom, took a turn in the silliness.

And did Mr. Porter Pot join in the jubilee?

Nope.

But he sure did show us all what he thought of the performance:

He is a master at non-verbal communication.

Sisters, sisters....

Yesterday, Church was filled with songs! The girls actually sat still through sacrament (a miracle in itself) and we left feeling pretty darn good about ourselves.

Where was Mr. Porter Pot and OP for all the singing funness? Porter has come down with a super fun bug that is tearing through our diaper supply (nope, haven't potty-trained the boy yet) and leaving with with tons of laundry.

*sigh*

But, at least he won't have it over Christmas.

If, you know, things work out the way I think they will...

Angelic

Occasionally, as a mother/wannabe photographer, you take a picture that amazes yourself.

This is one of those pics.

What are the chances of capturing this perfect little smile when I sneak into the girls' room to snap a quick pic? It's gotta be slim-to-none.

Right after the flash went off, a huge scowl covered her face and she hid under the covers.

I can only wonder at what she might be dreaming of...

Mail Bag

This was our Christmas card this year.

Back in July, Snapfish had special deal: a penny a print. Of course I didn't have our Christmas Pictures taken yet (even I am not that prepared), so I scrapped up this puppy.

I like it.

On another note, yesterday the kiddos painted some Christmas presents.

Don't you love the concentration on his face? He was so careful while doing this.

And don't you especially love his manprin? He had to borrow my apron since he doesn't have one.

I did, however, make him a John Deere one for Christmas.

Only five more days until Christmas! Yeah!

A Song For You

"Rudolph the Red-Nosed

Reindeer,

Had a very shiny nose

Like a Light bulb."

Thank you very much.

*Knock, knock*

I admit it.

I tried to bribe the girls last night.

I thought it would be cute if they sang "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" when they handed the neighbors their jars of yummies.

They tried it at the first house.

Then flatly refused.

*Sigh*.

And what did Mr. Porter Pot do while the girlies played Santa? Why, he drove his "truck" around the circle.



He rocks.

Don't Eat Santa!

How do you play "Don't Eat Santa!"?

First, you have your family artist create the gameboard:

Then one person is "it" and they close their eyes while everyone else chooses a number.

Place a skittle on every number.

Then "it" quickly begins shoving skittles into their mouth, until they try to eat the chosen number.

Then everyone screams, "DON'T EAT SANTA!!"

And they stop eating.

At this point, usually the kiddos have skittle spit streaming pretty steadily out of their mouths (look at the above pic of Porter).

And of course, the dog is hovering closely, waiting for a candy to fall.

Yum, yum!

As you may be able to tell, we've been baking up a storm 'round these here parts. The girls come and go while I'm mixing and chopping, but little PG is my constant companion. He loves stirring, but I think he most especially loves taste testing!

If your near us and have a sweet tooth, please feel free to drop in and request a bite, since I have no idea what I'm going to do with all these treats- you know, in a way that won't end with severe heartburn (yikes, I'm getting old!).

All Aboard!

I decided that it was now time for the kids to go see Santa.

The kids and Orrin disagreed.

And yet, seeing as how I am the most "strong-willed" (read: stubborn) person in the family, we went to the mall to see Santa.

We waited in line for 55 minutes.



And then, we were there. Right there! Next in line to see the Big Guy.

Who was dressed in a snowman pajama top and red velvet pajama bottoms. Strange? Yes.

But who cares? We were there.

And then, one of the "elves" came to the line and announced that Santa was going to break.

"When?" I asked, confident that at least we would be able to squeak through.

"Now."

I am pretty sure that steam came out of ears like in the old-time cartoons.

"He's not taking anymore? Not even one?" I believe that I deserve a medal for my calmness.

"No. He will be back in 45 minutes. You may choose to wait here in line."

Well, thank you very much, ornery elf lady. I will choose not to wait in line with my impatient, disappointed and just plain cranky kids for nearly another hour.

Grrr.

Luckily, OP spotted the Christmas Train driving throughout the mall and we hitched a ride on that.

P.S. Have you ever taken a bunch of photos without paying much attention to the result and only realize later that your hubby turned off the flash, causing said photos to all turn out fuzzy?



Well, I have.

Better late than never!

On Sunday I decided to venture forth into the land of cookie-cutter pancake making.

It is not a kind land.

If you ever decide to do this for the first time, my greatest recommendation to you would be to use Pam. A lot of Pam.

Then, just to make Sunday morning as unhealthy as humanly possible, I let the kiddos decorate their "trees" with green (food dye, thank you very much) whip cream and yellow sprinkles (for the twinkling lights).

Piper was very careful about evenly spreading them out, but Miss Adi (as can be seen above) just dumped them on.



And Mr. P.G. just plain enjoyed eating them.

I am going to attempt to make

this from here:



This little buddy for church:




And just about everything from this site. This girl is amazing with a sewing machine.

I'm hoping to get those things made for our long old car ride down to AZ after Christmas.

Wish me luck (I'm gonna need it).

Ahhhhhhh!

So yesterday, I decided that it would be a good day to go grocery shopping.

The next time I want to go shopping on a Saturday this close to Christmas, please bind me in tinsel and keep me home until Monday, please.

So many people! So many rude people I should say. I think the girls were nearly ran over or squished by impatient shoppers welding a deadly Walmart cart about 123 times.

The good news was that after we hit the sample tables at Costco the kids were pretty much full and didn't need much lunch (stay away from the french truffles. Not. Good.).

Anywho, the plan was to hit the mall and see Santa. But when I told the girls that the line would probably be long and that we'd have to wait a very long time, Piper said she didn't want to go, and Adi refused. Seriously. She told me no.

I might have gotten upset about that, but I didn't really want to wait either. So I let it slide.

We ended up watching Home Alone last night (we've been watching a lot of movies lately). I guess "watching" isn't the best way to describe it though. We had sticky popcorn (meaning I had to constantly wipe up the kids sticky prints), regular popcorn (spilled 3 times), and water (knocked over 5 times). The kids were running around acting insane (or just mimicking the famous Kevin scream):

At the end when Kevin's funhouse plans come out, we cracked open the forbidden bag of markers (I am not kidding about the forbidden part) adn drew up some plans of our own.


By the time the movie was over, Adi and Piper were barely able to make it to bed, seeing as how it was eight o'clock and an hour past bed time.

Oh yeah, you read that right. Their bedtime is 7. I believe that since they get my tired behind out of bed at 5 AM they can go to sleep early.

It works for us all (for now).

Kissing Frogs

Ok, I have a confession.

The Princess and the Frog isn't exactly a Christmas movie. I know, I know.

You see, I planned on taking the girls to see A Christmas Carol, but as I was perusing the movie selections, I saw that the newest princess installment had come out, and I squealed in excitement.

I am somewhat of a little girl when it comes it Disney movies. I admit it.

Anywho, I thought that I *ahem* the girls would prefer to see Tiana, so we went to that instead.

And I am glad that we did.

Even though Piper knocked over the entire bucket of popcorn before the movie started, and then the entire cup of fruit punch.

I feel a bit bad for the person who had to clean up after us.

Keeping Focus

Today was a long day.

LONG day.

And right before bedtime, I realized that I hadn't taken any pictures for my little countdown.

It was one of those "Ahhh man" moments.

So I snapped one of Miss Adi hanging our scripture tag on our mini Advent tree.

Every night on December, to keep us focused on what this holiday is truly about, we read a scripture story about Christ.

Sometimes it gets a bit tough with Porter's squirming and tendency of yelling out at the most inappropriate time, but still we soldier on.

And you know what?

I do believe these kiddos are actually learning something.

Believe

As you can see, we watched Polar Express last night for family movie night (oh yeah, we have those). These are the nights when we eat in front of the TV (very American) on paper plates (no dishes- yes!), and let the kiddos just have fun.

Adi loved the idea of a giant train appearing outside and getting to ride it to meet Santa. I'm pretty sure that she was listening for a whistle after we put her to bed last night.



Piper just wanted to play "Models" (her favorite game lately), meaning I had to take a million pictures of myself and her.

And I hate taking pictures of myself.



Porter enjoyed reenacting all of the awesome train parts with his Little People train.

Complete with sound effects.



And Op read a book. I got a few pictures of him doing so, but he was giving me his, "Take one more picture of me and I shall break your camera" look, so I didn't post one...

A Christmas Read

December first, out comes my bin of Christmas books (I have exactly 25 this year, wahoo!). Every night the kiddies take turns choosing a different one to read.

This usually turns into full-on warfare, but, I digress.

One of our favorites is The Polar Express. I love the meaning behind it ('cause in this house, if you don't believe, you don't receive), the girls love the idea of visiting the North Pole and getting a bell from Santa's sleigh, and Porter just likes the pictures of the train.

For your viewing pleasure, I have been keeping a list of the books we have read on the side of this blog... just in case you ask yourself at night what book the Merrills read that day.

Now you can know.

I have down a page on Christmas reading all three years that I've done this fun little Days of Christmas thing.

Here is 2007's:

And here's last year's:

Notice a couple of trends in these pages?

And can you believe how tiny and sweet Mr. Porter once was? And how extremely bald the child was? Now-a-days he needs a haircut about every other week!

Vexing me

Doesn't he look so proud here?

Why, you may ask?

Well, last year when we went to Hobby Lobby for our annual Pick-Out-A-New-Ornament trip, OP searched long and hard for the ugliest one possible.

No kidding. He actually said, "I'm looking for the ugliest ornament ever made."

This year, as soon as we stepped onto the ornament aisle, what to his wondering eyes should appear, but the husband to his hula-dancing sweetie.

And then he grinned a grin that reminded me eerily of the Grinch.

Yup, that's the smile.

Twinkling

On Sunday night, we ventured out of our safe, warm house and into Salt Lake to see the temple lights. It actually worked out pretty well, since it was the Christmas Devotional and there weren't too many people there.

It was, however, cold.

Very, very cold.

Did I mention cold?

Cotton-Headed Ninny-Muggins

Yeah! We finally made it to the store! Note to self: always avoid the Dollar Store on a Saturday night. ALWAYS.

We had a bit of a difficult time trying to divide up the kids between OP and I, since Porter wouldn't leave Orrin's side (and they had drawn each other's name). Adi and Piper couldn't go together since Pip's had Adi, I couldn't take Piper since I had her name, and Adi couldn't go with me since she had my name.

We tried on some pretty elusive moves last night, but I'm pretty sure that everyone saw their gifts. But that's ok since the fun is in the choosing of the gifts, and not in the getting. Right?

When we were driving home, OP started rocking out to Journey. Yup, Journey.

Afterward, we picked up some din din, and then had movie night.

What did we watch, you may ask?

Elf, of course.

Will Ferrell is a genius.

Late Nights

Orrin didn't get home from work until late last night again (and he came in a Popsicle). So, again, we had to put off our shopping expedition. Instead we drew names for gifts.

Let me explain how we all do the gift buying for each other. We draw names (duh), and then we take an inexpensive little trip to the Dollar store.

Yup, you read that right, I said Dollar store.

We then divide into teams and gather about five little gifts for that person and then run home and do some awesome wrapping.

Anywho, we're planning on doing the shopping trip tonight since OP has school and should get home at a reasonable time.

Until then, I have rooms to clean, laundry to fold, and kiddies to feed. Oh, and secret Christmas stuff to get done!