I've come to a stark realization

Public school is the only thing holding me together.

Christmas break was fun for the first few days.  But I am now fervently praying that I will make it until January 4th.

This Christmas, I made stuff.

I decided to make one thing for each member of my family this Christmas.  First up, the small.  For the small, I made a play makeup kit. 

I can link you to the tutorial where I found the idea, but basically, you just clear out some old make up containers, then dump LOADS of nail polish in them and wait.  And, if you don't die from the fumes, in about a week, they'll be nice and solid and not stinky anymore.  Add a free makeup bag that Target sent, and a dollar store brush set and you are in BUSINESS!

And oh how the small adored!!!

This is a face of complete smuggery.  She has no idea that it's not real and she is PRETTY FREAKING HAPPY with her make up kit.  So happy that she can't smile, she can only be smug.

 

SO happy in fact, that everyone stopped with the present opening, and played with the makeup kit for quite some time.

And I do mean everyone (who was awake). 

That one might have been the most satisfying.  She is SO happy with it.  It cost me $1 to make (that was buying the brushes), and otherwise it was free, environmentally friendly, crafty, creative, just lovely.   Fun to make and I anticipate hours of fun for her. 

For the Code... anyone who has hung out with the Code recently knows that he is currently nurturing a grand Ghostbuster obsession.  He watches an episode of The Real Ghostbusters (the cartoon) on YouTube pretty much every day.  He loves it.  But, given that Ghostbusters went out of style sometime during the 80's, there isn't much Ghostbuster paraphenalia to be found.  And the 3 people that DO have some are charging $90 for them on Ebay.  No go.  But it is the perfect thing for a gutsy Mama to attempt...

1 cannibalized vacuum, 5 bucks at the thrift store and a few pages of printed Ghostbuster labels later, here's what I came up with:

It doesn't matter that it isn't all the way authentic.  It's Ghostbuster equipment, he can run around the house with his pack and his vacuum hose, and slay ghosts to his heart's content.  Happiness.

Nathan was hard to think of what I could make for him.  But recently, he's been wishing that he had a small stuffed animal that could fit in his pocket.  I'm pretty sure he's going for a Calvin and Hobbes thing... anyway, I thought, hey!  A small stuffed animal?  I could do that.  I settled on a soctopus.  Or in this case?  An octo-ninja.  It was unintentional, but once I started doing it, I realized that the argyle looked like a ninja mask, plus I thought that might encourage Nathan to like it better.  I didn't follow any tutorial for this (I know, you're shocked because the quality of the final product is so very very fine).  I just took an old sock of mine with dudely colors, sewed across the top, so the toe part would be on the inside, sewed eyes on, stuffed it with some scrap fabric, then tied the head together, cut 8 legs and then sewed them together. 

Let's not dwell on the poor bedraggled little guy too long.  He looks very... homemade.  :)  No pictures of Nater in action with it because he's too sick to force to pose for photos.

Now for the Ry, I made something of sentimental value.  So while it may not knock your socks off, I really kinda like how it turned out.

You get it, right?  It's all the places we've lived together.  Man.  It kind of hurts to look at all of that.  But in a good way, because I'm happy about where we are, and really, wherever I'm with this guy, I'm good.

 

So there's my attempt at homemade Christmas gifts.  Please comment and tell me you like one of them.   

We had a sick Christmas

2 seconds ago when I typed that title, I meant "sick" in only one way-in the throwing up not feeling good, waking up at 3 and not sleeping for the rest of the night, throwing up again Nathan coming in, him throwing up a few times, then Leah coming in SUPER early because somehow she hurt herself, etc, etc, etc Christmas.  But then in the two seconds it took me to click down to type the post, I realized that actually, we had a "sick" Christmas in the other way, too.  For those of you who may not be so super hip (probably none of MY actual readership, but you never know), "sick" also means "cool."  So, even though as the kids ran out to see their Santa gifts, I ran to the kitchen sink to hurl, and proceeded to do so all throughout the major excitement of Santa stuff, it still was a good Christmas.  (Ok, missing the Santa thing really stunk.  Let's just say that.)  (Also, missing out on eating the Christmas breakfast that I slaved over yesterday also really stunk.)  Ok.  Now we've got the truth out, let us proceed.

It all started out sweetly enough.  3 be-jammied kids, cuddly and warm. 

But, instead of a "silly" pic, they wanted to do a "scary" one.  That's it, kids.  Way to capture the ol' Christmas spirit.

..... The earliest parts of Christmas day are not documented.  I think it's better for all of us this way...

..... Oh, the Santa surprises are not documented either.  The gal with the camera was otherwise occupied...

So, on to the Grand Opening...

Before the carnage...

During the carnage...

I'm tellin' ya.  Nater and I had a rough night.  Poor kid.  Poor poor kid.  He still wanted to open (duh), but would take a "rest" between each round.  Finally, real sleep took hold and wouldn't let him go.  He's still asleep and has about 6 presents left to open.  Poor little guy.  He was a trooper about it, though.  Not much complaining and very businesslike about a fairly miserable experience.

Ryan modeling his favorite gift. 

And after the carnage.  Oh my lawsie.  And this is just the box pile.  And now that I look around, it isn't even all the boxes.  All of the wrapping paper is neatly bagged.  Craziness.  I feel like everyone got a few things that they are genuinely thrilled with, and I feel quite happy about that.  Well, Merry Christmas to all and hopefully tonight is a better night!  :)  

Now please stay tuned as I am working on a post about all of the things I made this Christmas.  And while I would appreciate your sympathy for our sickness on Christmas, I NEED your praise about the things I made.  So if you're choosing just one Christmas post to comment on, please comment on that one.  Thank you.  :)

It's an outfit. What?

These red boots are the defining item in Leah's closet at the moment.  She wears them pretty much every day, whether they match what else she's wearing or not.  And I guess they really do make an outfit.  And I don't mean, like, they "complete" an outfit, I mean they make an outfit, as in, just them, alone = an outfit.  At least, in Leah's world, they do.

What Child is This?

This is the child who comes to tell me multiple times a day how much he loves me.

This is the child who is always hungry.

This is the child who every evening instigates a poll amongst his siblings, "Who loves mama, raise your hand!"  (His hand is always the first one to shoot up.)

This is the child whose teacher told me could win class president of his preschool because everyone likes him so very, very much.

This is the child who never gives me a hard time when I ask him to do something (bless his sweet little HEART!)

This is the child, who is filled with sweetness and light, and yet loves the bad guy and loves to be scared.

This is the child who loves to do what his big brother is doing.

This is the child who smiles 97.5% of the time, and who, when he's not smiling for some reason, could break your heart into 3 million pieces.  3 million very small pieces. 

This is the child whose laugh could heal the world.

This is the child who hops into bed with me first thing in the morning and snuggles for as long as we can.

This is the child who is 5 years old today.

This child is Cody.

Speaking of that morning snuggle, this morning when we were snuggling, I started telling him about the day he was born.  I told him how my heart felt so happy as soon as I held him and how much I loved him.  I told him that I knew, on the first day that he was born, that we would be best friends.  He was beaming throughout my story, and when I finished, he said with shining eyes, "That makes me want to cry!"  Ok, that is darling.

Happy Birthday, sweetest Cody.  You bring so much joy and happiness into our house.  I can't imagine this place without you.

Wow. Just... wow.

So Nathan is on the "Christmas Team."  He's "crossed the wall."  He's... eaten of the Tree of Knowledge if you will.  And he's a good team member, constantly reinforcing the beliefs of the other team, if you know what I mean.  Anyway, so, imagine Cody's delight, when upon going to get the mail with Nathan, he found a letter addressed to him!  Guess what... it was from Santa!  Instead of describing it, allow me to just scan it in for you...

Let me also transcribe it for you, but I will leave it's original spelling.  For funsies. 

Dear Cody, Merry Christmas!  I will try to get everything on your list, but I would like you to be a bit more kinder to mabe your big brother for instance.  Be good

Sined,

Santa. C


Wow.  That's... just... wow.

Holiday Haps

I went to Cody's school to help with his Christmas party.  We made gingerbread houses together...

we were surprised when Santa walked in the door...

So Cody told him what he wanted

and laughed when Teacher Genia sat on Santa's lap, too.

And here's Cody's only boy pal in the whole class.  Class of 8 kids, only two boys.  These two fellas gotta stick together. 

And, for your Christmas merriment and enjoyment, here are a few of the songs they sang in their little Christmas program.

Untitled from Bethany Weed on Vimeo.



And this next song has a story.  We went out as a family to look at Christmas lights this last Monday.  As we drove, we sang Christmas songs.  Everyone had a chance to choose their favorite.  Cody requested that we sing this song and was totally disgusted with us that we didn't know it.  Maybe you know more about Moroccan culture than we do...?


Untitled from Bethany Weed on Vimeo.

Oh you already know that that's what Moroccan children sing when they're excited for Christmas?  Yeah, yeah, I mean, me too...

And straight from Cody's party, we jetted over to Nathan's school to hear his Christmas singing performance.  We were in the back, though, so not very good photo or video opportunities...

He gave me one very confident wink when he saw that I was trying to take a picture, then he turned back to the matter at hand.  And do you realize that that kid is in the tall row?  Yep.  He's the tallest of the tall row.  The tree at the end of the tall row.  :)  Oh, and note the menorah on the side?  Yeah, well Nathan's choice for a Christmas song during our family night lights drive was something about the candles on the menorah... of course, this was right after the Moroccan Christmas song incident... I was like, "Uh, Nate?  That's not a Christmas song and we don't know that one either."  Our kids think we are uncultured idiots.  But don't any teachers teach regular Christmas songs anymore?  You know, Jingle Bells?  Jolly Old Saint Nicholas?  Anything?

Shhhh, my kids don't know what time it is...

Ok, so we got tubbed tonight a little earlier than usual, and since Ryan has 10 minutes between coming home from work and going to scouts, we did our scriptures and prayer earlier than usual, and then they just scampered off to bed!  Ha ha!  At 7:10, they were all in bed!  I told them they could have longer than usual quiet reading time, and now it's 7:24 and the house is     q    u    i    e    t.       Glorious, blissful quiet.  Just what I need on my SingleParentWednesday.  Single parent?  Why B!  I know your husband and he's a lovely man, very helpful around the house and with the kids, why would you say single parent??  Well friends, you are right to say that, he is lovely and helpful in all areas.  BUT.  He's gone before anyone wakes up on Wednesday, due to some extra meetings in the morning.  He has (at best) 10 minutes when he gets home from work to shovel some sort of dinner, change clothes and run back out the door to go to scouts on Wednesday.  Since Nathan now has cub scouts on Wednesday, plus Cody's school plus of course you know laundry day, well, Wednesday turns into a pretty busy single parent day.  So.  To have those smalls in bed and     q    u    i    e    t      by 7:10 is a blessed, gorgeous miracle.

So I take the time to write to you, dear reader.  :)  I thought you'd like to know that Cody got his cast off today!  Yay!  And he healed so well that we don't have to go in ever again!  I am certain that this is due to Cody's continual badgering of us not to forget his arm during our prayers.  He'd sit there with his eyes closed and emphatically point to his broken arm, silently reminding us not to forget to bless his arm and he was very disappointed with us if we did. 

I loved his doctor, so if you ever need a recommendation in B-town (and I hope you don't), just ask.

After the best bath he's had in weeks!  We didn't even bother to brush his hair or make him wear matching jammies!  The glory of a full body, full splash, all your body actually gets washed bath was too great to worry about anything else. 

Awwwwww, this kid, man.  He's the best.  He was a trooper throughout the whole broken arm ordeal.  About half an hour after getting it off, he goes, "Mama, I think it will be good to have my cast off because sometimes?  In the mornings?  I like to stretch both my arms and I haven't been able to stretch this one for a long time."  As though his morning stretch was the worst inconvenience of the whole thing.  Who knows.  Maybe it really was.  But this was the first I heard about it.  I never heard any other complaint.  Just a tried and true tough turbo trooper.

Now off to fold and wrap in peace... and    q    u    i    e    t.

Lovely Day

Well champs, it was an all around good day today.  First and very foremost, this exceedingly handsome young man

got baptized today.  Very exciting for everyone, but most of all for him.  He is a wonderful boy.  I am really very lucky to have him as my son.

A few pictures from the day:

 The boys in their whites

And the family afterwards.

Additionally, it was my birthday, which was very lovely.  So, all in all, a lovely lovely day.  :)

*NOW* Christmas can begin

NOW is the time for the Christmas wreaths, for the holiday music.  Let's do this thing!  So, in honor of Christmas REALLY starting, I have made a holiday video.  But I can't figure out how to put it ON the blog.  So I think the best I can do is link it for you so you can participate.  Of course you can come on back here to comment on how much you like it.  ;)

Go here.  Watch us dance.  Merry Christmas!

There Once Was A Girl

who had a little curl

right in the middle of her forehead

And when she was good, she was very very good

but when she was bad,

she was horrid.


(Ok, so I know that her "horrid" only looks sad in this picture, but let us all PLEASE believe me when I say that she. can. be. HORRID.)

Let this be a lesson

Well, Cody got his arm cast today.  Everything went great, the doctor was great and Cody was super brave.  Not a whimper, not even the shadow of a tear.  AND the doctor even did a procedure that he said should hurt Cody but would speed his recovery in the long run.  He put pressure on the spot and Cody barely blinked.  The doctor was very impressed and said that Cody was tough as nails.  And so he is.  He's really quite chipper now and feels somewhat invincible.  So all the worry seems to be gone for now.

So now that we're out of the woods a little bit, I can finally say what I've really been wanting to say.  I don't know if you noted in my original post on this matter, but Cody and I were playing a game.  We were racing and he took a head start.  He cheated.  None of this ever would have happened if that kid hadn't cheated. 

So I am taking this opportunity to put out a public service announcement to all of my children, and anyone else who might ever consider cheating me in a game.  I think I'll frame it:

Think it over before you try to slip a card up your sleeve 'cause I'll break that arm soon as look atcha.

Nate the Great is Eight!

That title really worked out well for me today.  Yes.  It is true.  My firstborn is eight years old.  Who can believe it?

Isn't he handsome?  The only picture I took-outside before I let him off to school.  Today he requested apple pancakes for dinner, and chocolate cupcakes with creme filling and strawberry frosting for dessert, and he received a whole lot of snake-y presents.

This boy is a joy.  This boy is wonderful.  This boy is so obedient, so good, so kind.  He always wants to do the right thing.  Does he always?  No, not quite.  He's not perfect, but the desire is there.  He's sweet.  He's smart.  He's such a good big brother.  In fact, I think Cody has been just as excited as Nathan has been for his birthday.  Here's a letter Cody begged me to write for him (gimpy arm, you know) a few days ago:

Transcribed exactly, of course.  Doesn't that just melt your heart?  A little?  It does mine.

Nathan, I love you.  Thank you for being such a good big brother and such a great member of our family.  Happy Birthday, buddy!

In the which a perfectly well intentioned day turns tragic

It all started out so innocently, so happily, in fact.  I looked outside and saw a beautiful fall day just waiting to be taken advantage of.  Ryan worked in the morning and when he got home, I proposed that we be good parents.  That we take our kids and go as a family to a little bounce house fun center.  Wouldn't that be fun.  Wouldn't we be the nicest parents just to surprise our children with this little enjoyment?  Ah yes.  Yes, we would.   Then, Nathan was scheduled to attend a birthday party at the Discovery Center, so we thought we'd take the other two there as well and let them play around for a few hours.  Hours upon hours of fun, right?  Fun fun fun fun fun aren't we fun parents?  So, we went from this kind of fun:

Bouncing on the blow up toys at Bounce... never quite got around to taking any pictures of the boys...

To this kind of fun:

Watching Scooby Doo in the waiting area of the doctor's office, waiting to get Cody's broken arm looked at. 


Sigh sigh sigh and double sigh.  Cody and I were racing down the bouncy slide.  He took a headstart, arrived at the bottom a second before I did, and my feet collided with his arm.  I heard the snap. 


So our day of fun ended up being not so fun, especially for little Cody.  After the doctor's office, and after we picked up Nathan from his party, we were exhausted and headed for the Pizza Hut for dinner.

Pretty chipper for a kid who's got to walk around with a broken arm in a splint for the next few days before we can get a cast on it...

He really was a trooper about it, though.  Oh he cried and cried, and it hurt, but he didn't freak out.  I kept telling him how brave he was.  Later on, Nathan told me he'd been wishing that he could switch Cody bodies so that Cody wouldn't have to be in pain anymore.  Awwwwww, the sweetness.  He is his brother's keeper.  For sure.  And he kept right on being so this evening, when we put everyone in bed at 7.  Leah immediately conked, but we let the boys have some quiet reading time.  Cody was feeling a little sad that he couldn't turn the pages of his book, so sweet Nathan hopped right in with him, giving up his own reading time (precious for that boy) to read to his little brother.

It's Time for the Annual Swagbucks post

Yep, once a year I let you know what I have gotten this year for free or cheaps with my swagbucks account.  This year, I shopped a lot more at Amazon before the holidays-like, for diapers and wipes and stuff, so a lot of the stuff I got this year is already gone, but I got a few large packages of wipes and a few boxes of diapers for free with my swagbucks.  And I have $5 left that's waiting to be spent on Amazon, but I decided to post this now because now through November 17th, you can get an extra 80 swagbucks, in ADDITION to the 30 you would normally start off with.  SO, if you sign up before November 17th, you start with 110 swagbucks (lucky.)  And when it only takes 450 swagbucks to earn 5 REAL bucks on Amazon, well, that's a pretty sweet deal. If you do sign up, just enter the promo code SBPAYSFORME to get the extra 80 bucks. 

And, a very basic explanation of swagbucks-if you use their search engine to do your regular internet searches, that's how you earn swagbucks.  And, if you happen to sign up through my link, I get some bonus points.  But, as I always say, I'm not just doing this to earn the bonus (though that's nice), it's because I dig getting free stuff for something I'm going to do anyway (like search the internet.) 

Speaking of something you're going to do anyway, if you're shopping online, you should really start from a website that gives you some cash back.  (Mom, I am talking to you.)  For example, if I plan to order something from an online retailer, I first start by going to the Ebates website.  Then, I find the store that I actually wanted to shop at (say, Old Navy), and click on their link.  That's it.  It'll take me to Old Navy's website, I'll complete my purchase as usual, and within a few days, a percentage of my purchase goes into my Ebates account.  Whenever I want, I can have them send me a check for whatever cashback I've accumulated.  One major time when I use this is for printer ink.  Man that stuff is spendy.  So I've found a few online ink shops who have good prices AND are on Ebates.  As an additional bonus, every day Ebates advertises one site where you'll get double cashback if you shop there that day.  So, when I buy ink, I always do it on a double cash back day, and I end up getting about 32% cash back from my purchase of ink.  It's good, right?  So hey, if you're not signed up for Ebates, do yourself a favor and do it before the end of this holiday shopping season (Mom.)  You'll get an automatic $5 in your account after you make your first purchase through them.  If you're going to be shopping online anyway, you might as well get some of your money back, right?  Right.  (And yes, again, I do get a bonus if you sign up through my link.)

Alright, compadres, that's my yearly push for you to get some free stuff.  Cheers!

Art is the Soul of Man

No one famous said that.  I just made it up because I was too lazy to search for some famous person quote about art.

So apparently, my kids are sick of the way I haven't decorated our house (still).   So they've taken matters into their own hands, creating artwork for every available space around this house, inside and out...

Let's zoom in a little on this one.  This one has some people of note drawn into it.  I wonder if their own mothers will recognize them...

He told me it's Logan on the left and Baby Gabe on the right.  Upon further review, he noted that he forgot to draw Logan's legs.  It's kind of an artistic statement, you know.  Think about it deeply... what does it say about the subject... what does it say about the artist... hmmmmmm....

Let me just zoom in on this fridge pic for a second... Cody drew this for me one day before school, presented it ceremoniously, and said, "This is so you don't forget me while I'm at school."  Yeah right.  Like I could ever forget that kid.