Dances and Darlings

Yes, it is true. I did the Napolean Dynamite dance at our Ward Talent Show with 3 other moms. And it was hil-ar-i-ous. Actually, we all thought the most fun was having an excuse to get together and jabber and do a little dancing. The other moms were- Melanie Daw, Reesha Mitchell and Kali Later, probably 3 of the coolest ladies around!! Oh, we had so much fun! The talent show was on Saturday, and we got together for the first time on Monday to try and learn it. Which gave us a total of 4 days to learn it and get all in-synch ad everything. Was it a challenge?? Ha! We're Moms! We can do anything! (Haley was supposed to do it with us, too, but got too sick. :( That was very sad, but I'm sure we'll find some excuse to do it with her. Like at her ward's talent show!!) We all wore our snow boots and Vote For Pedro shirts. When it actually came to the performance, I think half of the people thought it was hilarious and half didn't know what to think!! When it was over, one friend of mine's little 8 year-old boy said, "Mom, that was creepy, creepy."  Success!! It really was soo much fun to practice together and die laughing watching each other and then to perform it all together. On a sad note, Danny actually never pushed record on our camera, and our video camera wouldn't work!! I think this is the curse of my life!! Someone else got it with their phone camera, so the next Monday we had everyone and their families over here (16 kids in all!) and had brownies and ice cream and watched it from their phone to our tv somehow. It was hilarious to watch it for the first time all together. And I had the ratio set wrong on our tv, so we all looked like dwarves!! But it was still so funny to watch. I have to say, I think we represent the wives of some of the coolest husbands out there. They just let us practice away and thought it was so funny and were just cool about it. It makes me snicker every time I remember it. So, even though I still don't have any video, here is a picture of us doing our "fancy hands." You will have to fill in the rest with your imagination and I will keep trying to get a video. I think you will die laughing if you see it.

Also at the Talent Show, Alex sang "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'" and did such a great job!! He sang all the verses and was right on pitch. And Alaina and a bunch of other little girls sang a funny version of "I'm a Little Teapot" and all wore their poofy tutus and leotards and were so cute and at the last minute Tristan decided he wanted to sing with them, too. But he didn't wear a tutu. Did Danny get any pictures or video? No. I'm going to have to fire him as my videographer and reduce his overall pay. But, the night was still a hoot and was lots of fun. Also, Alex is going to sing at the Stake Talent Show, so we will try and tape that. But it's not like you haven't seen him sing before. But still, he's so cute when he does it!

Here's a picture of a lady who sang Mele Kaliki Maka and had the bishopric dress-up and dance in the background. Do you see them all wearing their shower caps and hawaiian shirts? Gotta love it!!

A corny picture of Kattie and I laughing while watching someone else's performance.

Linda and two other ladies played their clarinets and did really well. But it was also really funny for two reasons. One, Linda literally had not picked up her clarinet in 20 years until the day before she played. And two, her clarinet was bright green! I didn't even know they came in that color. She's in the middle here. They really did do a great job!!

Silly pictures Alex took of Alaina and Tristan. Every time I download pictures, I have to spend a long time erasing all the weird ones Alex took. And there is always one in there of me looking horrible. That always makes me feel good.

I have been very sick, and so there are a lot of Kleenex boxes around. After I loaded the dishes yesterday, I came into the room to find someone was happily pulling out all of the Kleenex!

Tristan, being a good big brother. Yea!

And some cutie-patootie videos of Emme to show how big she is getting!! She will be one on Sunday!! Oh, when I watch these I want to squeeze all her squooshiness and tickle her twinkle toes!!

Once Upon a Time....

Once upon a time, there was a lovely, wonderful Mother, who loved to take pictures of her adorable children and all of their adventures. Unfortunately, she was held captive by a evil curse, put on her by the wicked Computer Overlords. So every day, in order to share her pictures, she was forced to endure hours at her kitchen chair, downloading pictures on a computer that was invented the same year as the toothbrush. As the years went by and her life slowly wasted away, as all hope seemed lost, she knew in her heart that someday, someone would come and release her from her prison....

So, if I post about Christmas, will you think I'm crazy? I'm only two months behind. I think most of the pictures speak for themselves. And since I have spent most of my morning performing my daily devotions and rituals to the computer gods just to get the pictures on here, I won't spend much time explaining them. Or I may never get caught up!!! 

(This is Emme and Leto, sharing their lunch. ) 

Christmas morning!! Yeahhh!!! We had lots of people, including, but not limited to- our family, Justin, Phillip, Mommy and Doc and Leto. We tried to convince Seth to come, but he was already all planned out in Pocatello. :(   Do you see all the stockings? That was fun!

This is Alex, after refusing any packages that weren't shaped like a Bigfoot box. He knew what he was looking for! And yes, I did comb his hair while we were waiting for Phillip to come upstairs. Danny thought I was silly, but why should I just stand there when I could be brushing their hair?!

 Princess clothes!! Yeah!!

 

 There were lots of people and lots of presents and it was just a really fun time!! Afterwards, we went to the Campbells for dinner and everyone else went to Ben and Linda's for food. It was too long ago now for me to remember enough details. But I remember the kids were all super excited and fun and it seemed like everyone had a great time!

This is the sad part later in the day when we had to tell Grandma and Grandpa bye for a while. You'll notice Alex isn't giving any hugs. I think he just waved and said, "Bye, Grandma!"

So, on to New Year's Eve. We had Chris and Laura and their kids over for a few days, and then on New Year's Eve Phillip and Brock and Kattie and Josh came over, too and Haley and Dallin. We had food and played games and talked and then watched Inception. It was really fun, but we were all so tired by the time we got to the movie!! At some point someone said, "Hey, it's 12 o'clock!" We all just kind of said, "Oh, yeah," and went back to snoozing or watching the movie. But I do wish I had gotten some pictures!!

The next day we took all the kids sledding at Freeman Park. I prefer to call it "Kid Bowling", as that seemed to be the main point of it. No matter how many times we told them to walk back up on the side, they always walked up the middle, and then sure enough, like a magnet to metal- Swoosh!! They would get their feet knocked out from under them!! I tried to get a picture of it at least once, but could never capture it. Too bad, it was funny!!

The human chain- This was FUN!!

 Yes, Alex is wearing pink snowpants. They were the only ones we could find for him. And, it did make it really easy to spot him!

 We all looked rather dorkish in our winterwear, but Kattie somehow managed to still look stylish and rather "magazine photo-sessionish".

This picture is exactly what I remember about Tristan that day. He was all business and would go down all by himself, walk back up and then go down again. He hardly talked or asked questions. (Which, if you know him, is unusual.) But you could tell he was really having fun.

 This is Laura with Avonlea on her lap. It takes a lot of muscle to hold a kid on your lap and keep your feet off the ground while you sled!

Afterwards, we came home and made hot chocolate and lunch. Yummy!!

I think it was the next night, Phillip wanted Danny and me and Justin to go see Tron: Legacy with him at the movies. I wasn't dying ot see that movie, but it sounded fun to go with Phillip, so we got Kattie to come over and be here while the kids were in bed. As we were getting ready to leave, Danny picked up this hat of Alaina's and just being silly put it on his head. Phillip said, "I dare you to wear that to the movie." Well, Danny has some standards, so of course he said, "No way!" Then Phillip offered to pay for his ticket. Then he offered to pay for both of our tickets if Danny would wear it. By now, I was telling Danny that he would just have to wear it, as I couldn't pass up free tickets!! Then Phillip sinched the deal by offering to get both of our tickets and drinks and popcorn. I think Danny would have worn a purple velvet suit for that! So this is how he went to the movies. I could not stop laughing!!

 He got some very strange looks, but the movie was a late showing, so luckily for him there weren't too many people. It was in 3-D, which is always fun, so I had to get a picture of how "cool" Justin, Phillip and Danny looked! Haha! I think next time Phillip comes, we should do it again, but go to a movie that has just come out and is packed!!

 To end, here is a picture of Kittle-Litty, who went missing after Christmas for like 3 weeks. We were sooo sad and missed her so much and called all over and put fliers up. Then suddenly she just showed up again one day, looking fine and all cuddly and snuggly. She has a new collar now, with our phone number on it. Here is a picture of her looking like we felt after the holidays- tired, but happy!!

Big Time Rewind!!

Sooo....... our camera is still missing, our laptop is officially on the fritz, and I'm sorry, because I know how hard this has been on all of you. The waiting, wondering if I am going to write, hoping every day that you will get on your little computers and there will be a new title by my blog name. So here are some happenings from about forever ago that I have been trying to write about and put on here. I hope it makes you happy. :)

For Thanksgiving, we decided to have all of our family get together the Sunday after Thanksgiving, so that there weren't conflicts with in-laws, etc. Danny decided this was the perfect time to try making a Turduckin, which he has talked about making for a long time. It is a chicken, inside a duck, inside a turkey, all with stuffing and suasage and other stuff inside. This was a good time to try it, since everyone had already had their turkey, so if this was horrible, we didn't ruin their turkey fantasies.

We had to start two days before de-boning all the meat, then on Saturday we started assembling all the parts. It was quite the labor of love.

 The future of cooking. This is Danny watching a clip on his iTouch of how to make a Turduckin.

We called him Frankenbird, Frank for short, because he was so..., well, you can see why. This was after we sewed him up with all of his layers inside. It felt kind of weird when we were shoving stuffing up the back end. Tasty! 

I think it cooked for 12 hours, and you can see it is much improved after that. 

We had Tyler and his family over, Benda and kid, Dalley and kid, the Darringtons, Kattie and Josh and Seth. Here are some of the other sides.

This is just like Bro. Darrington to place himself at the kids' table! 

Alex just ate chips and potato salad. And yes, he is wearing a Santa costume.

Chillin' out afterwards, always my favorite part. 

Oh, and how did the turduckin turn out, you ask? Really, quite good. It was really moist and you could taste all the different meats inside of it. But, it did take a lot of time and cost more. So, I think it will be a rare occasion when we make it again. The best part of the day was just getting together with everyone and being together. I love fun friends and family!!

Then not too long after that was the Ward Christmas Chalet, which Misty was in charge of with Melanie and I helping. It was a huuge job, but it all went soo great! I am just kicking myself that I didn't get pictures of the decorations. The whole theme was a gingerbread/ candy wonderland. The centerpieces looked like big suckers and lollipops and there were large gingerbread boys and girls all around and big candy canes. We had at least 4 full sized Christmas trees and a gazillion little ones, with soooo many other decorations, hung on the walls, in each cormer, on the stage, everywhere. We brought in all the velvet chairs and had big fake presents and lights everywhere and poinsettieas on the piano and it was absolutely magical. I don't think I have ever seen it that full- and we didn't rent a thing!! We either made it or brought it. (Misty and I both have a ton of Christmas decorations and we combined with the other ward, too, which was great!)

We really shook things up this year and had it for all ages, instead of 16 and over. It was still Sunday dress and we had a place set up on the stage for families to get their pictures all taken together.

We had two tables for appetizers and there were lots, thank goodness! We left them out all evening and people came back to it throughout the night.  We also had someone playing Christmas music on the piano throughout the night.

This was behind the scenes. The other ward serves us and we serve them the next night. It is always really fun to trade off with them and they are really great! 

I was so glad Mommy and Seth were there, but mostly Doc!! We flew him in from Las Vegas to oversee our kitchen and we looved him for it! He was so great! Misty thought it was so cool and kept telling people, "We're flying in our cook," in her smuggest voice.

Proof that Seth was there!! He helped us a ton!

 I wish that this would rotate! But this is Kattie and her friend Joe who were so totally wonderful and came dressed as Mr. and Mrs. Claus' cousins, from the South Pole. They were so funny and used funny accents and stayed in character all night, plus they did a skit, that added so much fun to the night!! Kattie said soo many kids told them their Christmas lists for them to give to Santa! 

 See, I did sit down at one point, at least.

We had a table set up for people to bring their gingerbread houses to display.

 For dinner we had appetizers, then caesar salad with grapes and apples on the side, and then lasagna with green beans with onions and bacon and garlic bread, and then a dessert buffet table with all kinds of different desserts on it from the stores and that people brought. It was all soo super tasty!!

For entertainment we had the skit from Kattie and Joe, then we had the choir from Idaho Falls high school, who were really good. Then the Bishopric was going to do a special reading of the Christmas story from the Book of Mormon and the Bible, but it was getting late fast, so we decided to skip it and get right to what everyone really wanted.

 SANTA!!!!! It was soo fun to see the kids reactions when he came out! They had all the kids gathered up around the front and asked them if they were good this year, etc. Almost funner than seeing the kids was seeing the older people there watching the kids! A lot of them probably don't get to see that very often any more. In fact, I had comments from people later that that was really fun for them to see.

 He was a great Santa and took time with each kid and they each got a sack of candy. Yea!!  

 I thought it was such a fun night and just seemed like a great Ward Christmas Party. There was a lot of good food, and lot of fun people, and Santa. What more could you ask for? Maybe just better pictures of how great it all looked, too!!