Festivus
We have had a few parties recently and are enjoying seeing lots of family and friends. We had our Nettesheim family party on Saturday and really enjoyed the Festivus. The Ginger Bread Houses turned out as beautiful as they always do ( that’s a sarcastic beautiful.) The Ham was delicious. Present exchange was fun and the kids did a great job acting out the birth of Christ. I LOVE this time of year!!
On Monday Night we went to my Aunts house in Orem and represented my Mom’s part of the Johnson Family. Her Parents were there and their other 2 daughters. Six of my cousins were there with their families. We ate dinner, visited and then listened to Grandpa tell some past Christmas memories. A good time had by all.
And last night was the BYU vs Oregon State in the Las Vegas Bowl so we had to party with the Hancock’s – Â the obsessed Cougar fans! Dan Brown was hired out to grill some good meats and we all ate too much and enjoyed watching everything go BYU’s way in the game. Tonight I think we’ll take it easy and gear up for the Christmas Eve festivities and the Christmas is here!!!!
Ginger Bread House
Food Addicts
Cali and I had a rough morning. Cali needed a lot of attention and wouldn’t let me get anything done. I try to fold laundry and she shimmies inbetween me and the clothes and hangs on my arms. I try to bake and she tugs on my legs so I can’t move. Eventually it got to the point that she wasn’t even content with me holding her – I had to be standing and walking around with her! I tried putting her down for a morning nap – (she is deciding if she needs one nap a day or two). She screamed in her crib for 40 minutes. I went and got her at 11:15 and put her in her booster seat at the table. She then ate a hot dog and a banana and drank her bottle. She ate a lot of food and then she was ready to play!! She disappeared and played toys and wandered around the house and I was able to get everything done!! Was she really just hungry that whole time?? What baby is starving at 10am?Apparently mine was. Tomorrow I will give her a bigger breakfast and see if we have a better morning. She willingly went down for a nap at 1:30 but – 40 minutes later I am hearing her awake – – ahhh – what to do. A one year old needs more than a 1 hour nap a day to be functional.
On a side note – we played outside yesterday!! The snow is sticking around but the sun was actually out and Benji was having fun Shattering the snow ice. Cali played outside for a bit but I made her come in and watch from the window…
This morning I built a fort for the kids – they are loving it…
and the more annoying part of the Cali problem is that I have been trying to get her eating schedule figured out with the switch to real milk, trying to get the constipation and stomach aches under control. So today I was making sure not to give her her bottle too soon and I ended up with a hungry grouchy baby. Do I go get her out of bed or do I let her cry herself back to sleep?
Weekend Fun
We had a lot of fun over the weekend. I didn’t take as many pictures as I wish I would have but that is always the case when it is “local” fun. (that’s what I’m calling the non vacation, every day kind of fun like this weekend was.) Â Ben and I started the weekend with a Friday night date – The Blindside really is a good movie. I loved it. Saturday morning we met up with the Nettesheim group and took all of the kids to Cabelas to talk to Santa and tell him what they wanted for Christmas.This was the first year that we had to wait in line to sit on the big guys lap – seems like everyone figured out the free Santa and picture this year. When we finally made it up there: Â Packer Gave Santa a big hug, Cali cried her eyes out and Benji was shy at first but at the end of his visit with Santa he realized that he had better let Santa know what he wanted or else Santa might not know so he went back and asked for a scooter, Ben 10 Stuff, and Ninja Turtle Stuff.
This is all 4 families ready to drive to Cabela’s:
and all of the Cousins with Santa: 3 of the 4 families are missing their youngest child in the group shot – why are little ones always afraid?
After Cabelas we all had lunch together and then that night a group of us went to the Hale Center Theater in Orem and watched “A Christmas Carol” – they do a great job with that play – we all loved it – my husband loved it the most. He is a Christmas Maniac, his middle name should be Santa or Nicholas. Sunday we got together with some of my extended family for my cousins baby blessing. And then we were off to the Hancock Wassel party – where I got to drink Grandma Robertsons Christmas Punch and eat too much and visit with friends. That was our fun weekend. That 2 and half days always goes to quickly, then you throw a party or two in and it really flies by.
This is just a fun picture of Packer, Benji, Camry and Pacen – we hadn’t seen these guys in a week or two so they were happy to be back together last week and the fruit by the foot was obviously the cause for smiles in this pic.
O Christmas Tree
We got our tree and decorated it last Monday night. Cali was in bed before we got to the ornaments but the boys had fun pulling each one out of the box. Thanks to Benji and Packer we  have one of those trees where all of the ornaments are in the same spot , low, front and center 🙂 We love it.
Christmas Music
It’s socially OK to listen to Christmas Music now!!
Here are some tunes to try out… Â It’s a new link since yesterday – takes you to the online listening page…
http://bnetty.com/christmas-home/?page_id=99
and … we got our Christmas Tree!!
Thanksgiving in Wisconsin
We had a great week in Indiana and Wisconsin with Ben’s parents, siblings, and extended family. It was great to spend time with his part of the family that we don’t get to see very often.
We really had a fun trip. Benji and Packer thought the airplane was pretty neat. Flying with 3 young ones wasn’t easy but we managed and survived and we learned that if you buy tickets for 2 people with the same name they will give away one of your seats and make checking in difficult! Thanksgiving dinner was in Wisconsin with Ben’s Grandmother. She takes us all to her country club so we didn’t cook or clean, we just enjoyed the food and the company and the Packer game of course. We spent Thanksgiving day with Grandma and some of Ben’s aunts and uncles and siblings. I caught a cold and Benji and Cali caught the pink eye that was going around – so we took it easy today and will jump back into real life in a few hours when Monday morning gets here and my alarm goes off for me to go running… ughh I shouldn’t have eaten so much pie!
My Arms are Sore!!
I spent my morning raking a few leaves! It was hard work but our yard looks much better and I feel like we are ready for snow now. Plus it will make the Hot Tub easier without leaves sticking to your feet on your way in and out. Now we’ve got to actually get the leaves out to the front yard and then into the truck. We bagged them one year and we had atleast 15 industrial size bags and it took us forever to dispose of them. We don’t do it that way anymore. So we will let the kids jump in them when Ben gets home from work and then carry them around to the front.
It feels good to accomplish things. Other good things I have done recently… Gone running a few mornings a week. It is hard to get out of bed but it is always worth it, especially when its done.
I finally got my bathrooms sparkly clean – they were literally beyond disgusting and I am going to not let them get to that point EVER again. I’m grounding myself from blogging unless I have clean bathrooms. We’ll see how that works.
My lesson on Sunday was just not flowing and then it all came together, everyone participated and it turned out to be my best lesson yet. I like when that happens.
We got our family picture taken. I don’t know why that is such a hard task but it is. And we got it done. Yipee for us. And that same day I took myself and all 3 kids to get Flu shots!
And Benji did great in his primary program. He stood and said his part loud and clear and he sang all of the songs. I could even pick out his voice amid the 70 other kids on a song or two. Way to go Benj – we are proud of you.
And some not so good things this week would be when I left the front door wide open when I took the kids out for a walk. It was the kids that used that door BUT still my fault, the mom is supposed to check those things.
And the insane amount of PUMPKIN that I have consumed by way of Cookie and Pie can go on the not good list – it’s as if I can only eat the stuff in November and I am not letting it pass me by this year.
Benji muttering to himself, “I hate when Mom says just a minute!” I must take more than a minute and I must say that often. I will work on that.
Not so good would also be the mandarins that I bought this week. They are horrible. No taste. 1000 seeds! They say California mandarins and I believed it. These mandarins do not compare to the real ones that I ate every year in California.
I almost forgot about our awesome night at the cabin mansion in Park City. We went for a night with some of Ben’s family. It was a fun get away. The kids were loud and crazy but the house was so big that we could barely hear them. Our boys are champion hot tubbers now. Cali cut her top teeth while there. I snuck out to the outlets. We played some games, relaxed and it was the PERFECT start to the Holiday season! Now I’m pumped for Thanksgiving. And to get to bed… after raking I did some packing, cleaning, playing at the park, 5 quarters of basketball, babysit cousins night and just finished the day with a soccer game. Good Night.
A Whole Lot of Nothin
We’ve had a slow week around here but I find that I enjoy those weeks a lot. Actually now that I think about it we’ve done quite a bit. I’ve been in and out of the Dentist trying to get my teeth right after fixing a cavity – right now I am feeling good so I’m hopeful that that is over. Ben had a sick bug yesterday and I had a touch of it so my brother Joel came over and entertained the kids for several hours – that was AWESOME! Ben and I went out to eat with some of his siblings and spouses on Friday – that was the busiest night that Fudruckers had seen in years and we started our Christmas shopping that night! I admit that we are listening to Christmas music sporadically already. We’ve had a few rough BYU and Packer football games so nothing exciting there. I’m doing Cali’s scrapbook in the few minutes a day that I can. And then a whole lot of the normal kid to school, Cali naps, try to only let the boys watch the same show one time a day -they are addicted to Monsters Vs Aliens and Over the Hedge right now. We are still fitting in a few park days before it gets to cold. Here are some of the random pictures of recent:
Here is our cute 11 month oldShe Loves to play Peek a Boo these days.
The View from my Hot tub!Packer is still our Fruit Eater – I love how he lined up all of his peels here and he gets them real clean.This is when Joel was entertaining the boys – we can almost get the rakes out, just a few more leaves need to fall.
Cute boys! They are posing with Flat Stanley who came form grade school in CA to visit and see what UT is like.
And this little Monster thinks that it is ok to eat the sand! arghhh