Christmas Traditions

Between Mark's interviews all over the country (he is in Texas as I write this) and his 2 week commute to Salt Lake at the University of Utah we have still managed to fit in some traditions round here. :)

Lots of love

Sugar Cookies and Gingerbread Men

Sunday evening relaxing

Mmm, Christmas bread for the neighbors.  Grandma Judy and Kaitlyn came over and Grandma taught us the tricks to Christmas bread.  The best one being deliver it while it's hot!  I LOVE Grandma Judy's Christmas bread!

Temple Square!  We drove up to Salt Lake with all the Thomas clan and had dinner at the Lion House and then enjoyed temple square.  It was pretty crowded and cold but still fun!  Sorry the picture quality is so grainy. :(  Here's to getting my 3 camera's fixed. :)

Time with family!

Dancing to the music.

Me: "Wilson, do you have to pee?  Run to the bathroom quick!"

Wilson: "No, I'm just dancing to the music nobody else can hear."

Well we all have our struggles don't we?

So I'm not sure what my body is trying to tell me but I think my immune system has gone on Christmas vacation.  Before my 5 cold sores could heal up I started itching all over my legs where I discovered hive galore.  They soon spread to my abdomen, arms, neck, hands - pretty much everywhere except for my face.  I've been having lots of fun learning the self control of ignoring the pain and itch everywhere.  It's been about a week of hive central around here and in the middle of the week I got some kind of virus and spent the day in bed with aches and chills.  That was super fun. Aches, chills, and itching!  Wed. was the day I spent in bed with the chills and right around 4pm I was feeling a little better so I got up and made some bread and dinner.  I was feeling bad that Mark was going to come home after a long day in Salt Lake to a disaster house, needy kids, sick wife and no dinner.  I was super grateful that I felt good enough to get up and take care of a few things.   While dinner was on the stove I sat down for a bit to rest since I was feeling kind weak and tired and I had the following conversation with Zina:

Zina: "Mom how are you feeling now?"

Me: "Better.  Just a little tired and weak."

Zina: "Would you like to know why you are feeling better?"

Me: "Sure."

Zina: "It's because I prayed for you three times today.  Once this morning and then later on too.  That you would feel better and so it wouldn't be such a boring day."

Me: "Thanks, Zina.  That really means a lot to me.  I'm glad that you have the faith to pray for me."

Zina: "How is your itching?"

Me: "oh I'm still pretty itchy?"

Zina: sigh, "well we all have our struggles don't we."

I thought is was such a grown up conversation to have with my 6yr old.  And her last comment and the way she said it made me laugh out loud.  When it comes to prayer she is a shining example in our family.  The faith of children is so great!  And this past week has made me SO grateful for the health that I have enjoyed my whole life and my trials aren't even that big - just super annoying!

Fall Leaves & Silly Kids.

Some cute random pictures of our lives while Mark was in upstate New York.

Oh Christmas Tree 2011!

Now that we have mountains in our backyard we resumed our tradition of hiking into the wilderness and cutting down a Christmas tree. I failed to secure us a tree tag early enough so we ended up having to drive to Price to get one but it was worth it.  Beautiful drive, almost perfect kids... :), yummy picnic sandwiches, eggnog cookies, and Christmas music...we were SO ready to find the perfect tree.  On our way back up Spanish Fork Canyon it started to snow and by the time we were up into the Uinta national forest where we could cut down a tree the snow was really coming down.  

It was beautiful and perfect.  

Sam inherited Zina's purple snow pants...I've been meaning to dye them black but haven't got around to it yet. :)

If you look closely you will notice I have 5, 5!! cold sores.  I think my immune system took a hit with my lack of sleep over our Arizona trip.

Cutting down our tree!

We had a hard time finding the right kind of pine tree. So while Mark went hunting through the mountains the kids and I found shelter under a giant evergreen and pretended we were orphans that had run away.  It was fun to see the kids eyes light up with imagination.  And equally fun to hear their squeals and giggles when Papa came tromping through the snow to find our hiding spot. :)

The baby always gets to ride the tree back to the vehicle. :)

This was my attempt at a Christmas card picture of the kids. 

Ya right mom.  Although I LOVE the smiles that Sam and Zina are sporting. :)

Wilson thought it would be cool to be doing a ninja high-yah for our Christmas card this year. 

And Wilson got the honor of putting the star on top!

We're calling our tree "Scrawny Johnny"after Uncle Johnny whom we all love and adore. :)

I think it's actually my favorite tree of all time. :)

Thanksgiving

I think it's safe to say that the thing we were most grateful for this thanksgiving was that we were all together!  It was so great of Wells and Emily to host us all week long.  Morgan (Mark's niece) drove down to Phoenix with the kids and I on the Friday before Thanksgiving.  Mark had the weekend off so he drove up from Tuscon.   Wells was off to a Rugby tournament in CA and Emily was leaving with the kids to visit her sister in Tucson so when we pulled in we stopped at our good friends the Larsen's.  (Emily wasn't gone yet and she was sure that her kids wouldn't want to leave for Tucson if they knew we were staying at their house so we crashed Tiff's house until they were gone.)  Seriously Tiffany is one of the coolest people I know.  She is one of those friends that you just wish you could plan your life around so you could always be neighbors.  Seriously she was about to pop with her 4th baby (in a beautiful sort of way.  For real she's super cute pregnant. :) but didn't even bat an eyelash when I called her to see if we could come and visit for a few hours.  And it helps that our kids are the right ages and right genders.  Except now she's got me beat because she had sweet baby Amelia right after we came home. :)  Now if I could just follow in her footsteps and have another baby girl!

Eric, Sam, Ellie, Zina, Wilson, Charlie

  Ok.  this post is about thanksgiving.  So that night we had pizza with the Larsen's and enjoyed the visit so much. Thanks guys!  Then we went to Wells and Emily's.  They were so gracious to let us stay there while they were gone.  Sat.  we took Morgan up to the Anthem outlets and had a picnic at the Anthem city park.  Mark and the kids had a riot going up and down all the slides and the kids were in HEAVEN with park on the playground with them.  Sadly that was also the day I realized my camera was broken.  So any and all pictures were taken with Mark's Iphone.  I hate not having a camera!  Sunday we went to church at our old ward.  It was bittersweet.  So nice to see everyone and so weird because it felt like we had just been on vacation and were now home.  Seriously that's how we felt all weekend.  Sunday night Wells, Emily and co. came home and the kids were so excited to see their cousins.  Sadly Mark had to go back to Tuscon to finish up his rotation.  We spent the next couple of days visiting old friends, playing with cousins and having a girls night out.  It was really great to see everyone!  We woke up Wednesday  to Joel and Angela having arrived in the wee hours of the morning and then the party really got started!  Actually it was a big prep day for the next day.  Joel brought his bbq so we made a couple of trips to the store to make sure we had everything we needed for thanksgiving and just hung out together.  Thursday was the day we spent ALL day in the kitchen. Seriously at about 5pm I commented that I couldn't believe the day was almost over and Emily said it was because we were slaving in the kitchen all day and we were!  Well the girls were anyways!  The boys had a great time playing flag football at Thunderbird.  They came home and said they had rocked the pitch.  I guess their team won by 6 touchdowns or something.  anyways they had fun. :) We had roasted turkey, Joel's smoked turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, grandma's green jello, fresh rolls, broccoli, corn and cheese sauce, green beans with crispy onions, spinach strawberry salad with candied almonds and creamy dressing, Angela's yams, and I'm sure I'm missing something!

Joel carving his smoked turkey. y.u.m!

We took the kids to the park and Wells played some mini football with them while we all visited.  When we got home we had pie!  Sour cream blackberry, sour cream apple, pecan, and pumpkin.  It was so good and there were lots of leftovers.  :) The boys and Emily and Morgan headed over to Walmart at 10pm to see what deals they could get their hands on.  Mark sent me a text at about 9:56 saying,
 "This is INSANITY!" 
He still ended up getting me a nice griddle for $10 and some 600 thread count sheets for $20. Thanks honey!  Friday morning Angela, Emily, Morgan and I woke up at 6am and hit the stores.  We shopped till we dropped! 8 hours to be exact and had a great time.  Although now I need to return a few things. :):)  We left 4am Sat. morning (which also happened to be Mark's 29th birthday) for home and made it all in one piece!   Grandma Judy came to the birthday rescue and served up some delicious dinner with Mark's requested cream cheese brownie cupcakes and a BYU basketball?  football? game on t.v.  Good thing too because Mark flew out Sunday night for interviews in Syracuse NY and Bethlehem PA.  That is whole other post though.  Thanks Wells and Emily for hosting such a fun Thanksgiving!! And Happy 29th birthday Mark. Phew what a whirlwind!

All is right in the world again.

at least in our world. 

:)

Couple of things on my mind.

1. Being a single parent is hard.  I have gained a whole new appreciation for parents who carry the tremendous load of raising their children by themselves.  It is emotionally, and physically draining.  Although, I have not found it to be spiritually draining.  Probably because I have been so humbled.  Parenting, I find, is humbling by nature.  Single parenting - multiply that humbling 10 fold.  It is impossible to do this job alone.  So grateful for the knowledge that I am not alone.

2. I am so grateful for the women in my life.  My emotional needs have been met by a sweet mother who takes time to skype with me, listen and offer counsel, and a sister who is willing to skip planned parties and come gab with me until 1am instead.  Sometimes I just need to talk....a lot. Women need women. There's just no way around it. 

Zina on the 50th day of school dressed up like the 50's.

  This also happened to be 11.11.11

3. I was pretty homesick for my Canadian Remembrance Day.  I am usually homesick for the farm.  For the family and grandpa's farm.  But this day I was homesick for Canada.   For the red poppies, and "In Flanders Fields,"  For the hometown to slow down to a stop, gather together and remember with a moment of silence.

I was not just a little disappointed with Zina's school.

Remembrance day was SUCH a big deal growing up.

I'm sure it is a big deal here.  Veterans Day.  

I guess I just thought that having a school aged child would warrant....something akin to my childhood.

Since I failed to find, or make it to (since I know programs and such were happening) anything that satisfied my cravings of remembrance I bundled the kids up and hauled them to the veterans memorial at the Spanish Fork cemetery.

We talked about our freedoms and what people sacrifice and have sacrificed so that we can be free. 

I am eternally grateful that I was able to enjoy those freedoms as a child and that now my children can enjoy those freedoms.  I hope they and I always remember and not take them for granted.

3.  Only 5 more days until I get to hang out with my best friend again while enjoying the Arizona weather.   There are no words.

Pleased as punch.

She's been saying "Chrithmath" over and over and over and over.

:)

School Pictures!

Sure do love my kindergartener!

Home again Home again...and some Halloween!

And then he came home!! Can we get a hallelujah chorus!!

When the kids saw him at the airport they ran and gave him a great big hug!  I wasn't sure how Sammy would react but he wiggled out of my arms and ran and wrapped his little arms around Mark's neck and laid his head on his shoulder and seriously did not move for 15 minutes.  It was very tender. 

We missed our daddy!

We spent Mark's week home just enjoying each others company.  We went for bike rides and runs along the river bottom

Hiked up to a very chilly grotto and had a picnic in the fall leaves of Payson Canyon.

snuggled

snuggled

and snuggled.

Joel and Angela watched the kids one night for us.  

We went and finally got life insurance (woot woot)

and then just went home and made dinner together. 

It was seriously awesome and I realized that I really

love doing stuff with my hubby. 

Um that sounded really ..... duh!

But I think I got a revelation (after 7yrs!) that while some girls like flowers, 

snuggles, or words of affirmation, (um..honey..I still like all those things too!!) 

that I like

working on projects with Mark.  Like working toward and running races together, doing yard work together etc.  I loved just being in the kitchen with him making our dinner.  It was the best part of the evening.  He had the menu all planned out and made us tortellini with prosciutto, Parmesan, buttercup squash and Pepita's. So good! except I couldn't find the Pepita's so we used hazelnuts.  (I may have found the Pepita's yesterday in the bottom of the freezer)  I made a spinach strawberry salad with candied almonds, red onions and poppy seed dressing.  It was delicious.

and romantic. :)

For FHE that week we got in some stellar pumpkin carvings.

And while we were singing the Halloween song some wily ghosts snuck some ghost food (muddy buddy's) into our fridge!

Wilson was so enthralled that we had to have a little family home evening lesson after on how it wasn't really ghosts but really it was a tricky papa.  And then it led into whether or not ghosts were real and we were able to give a sweet little lesson on the devil and his followers and the power of obedience and Jesus Christ.  It actually turned into a great teaching moment and the kids were right with us.  So grateful for the gospel!

Our ghost food with a note.

"To Zina, Wilson, and Sam. From the Ghosts. Don't be scared!"

We were also able to go to our very first PARENT/TEACHER conference! Wow.

Grandma came and tended the boys and it was so fun for both Mark and I to be there.  Can you tell Zina's the 1st child! :)  I am really loving how Zina's school is helping the kids take charge of their work. She came with us and was the one to show us what she's been working on and talk about her progress.  I have been a little concerned that her teacher hasn't really been pushing her. (her homework consists of learning the alphabet.. really!?)  Her teacher addressed that and said that Zina is the only one in her class who knows all of the sounds including short and long vowels and really should be reading. (Mark and I  exchanged knowing looks at this point..she read's scriptures with us every morning before school and reads words like behold and consciousness)  Her teacher admitted to being behind on pushing Zina because she has kids who are on the opposite end of the spectrum so hopefully we will see a little bit more action out of kindergarten now! (if not I guess we'll just keep reading the scriptures!)  Zina is the only one in her class who gets to start bringing reading books home from the library!  She was pretty excited about that. :)

Mark and Zina had a little Daddy/Daughter date one night because I was asked to be on a committee for our R.S Mother and Son's Halloween party.  It was a little stressful getting it all put together at the end but it turned out to be a great success. So much so that I had to call Mark for an emergency run for more pizza.  We had a great crowd and all the boys had fun bonding with their moms.  I felt a little bad that it wasn't really "bonding" time for me and Wilson and Sam, but I guess someones got to be in charge!

A monster, a doc, and a mummy!

Love these boys! 

Even if they do drive me completely crazy sometimes!

We made it to our first annual Thomas Halloween party. 

Where the kids all beat up on poor Aunt Trisha the angel.

My little vampire-ess.

The newest sweetest little Thomas - Marley Joel the ladybug.

And our only bit of Halloween with the resurrected Captain Hook!

He drove off Sunday morning to his next month long expedition in Tuscon.

:(

Aunty Liz came to hang out on Halloween night.  We had a quick and crazy dinner with Marilyn and kids and then they ran to their ward trunk'or'treat and Aunty Liz
 let Zina do her makeup for trick'or'treating. 

:)

My little monster, mummy, and vampire!

And it's always more fun if mom dresses up too!

Zina and her best bud Aidan at our ward trunk'or'treat.

Seriously needed some tips from our ward in AZ  We

 were just a little(or lot) disappointed. 

It's a good thing we got to trick or treat to Grandma's after to make up for it. 

And it was nice to catch Grandma's reaction too. :)

We went around to a couple of Grandma's neighbors and then to Uncle Travis's and then called it a night.  It was a good Halloween.  Great would have been to have our Papa with us but we'll take what we can get. :)

And Grandpa's pretty close. :)

The day after Halloween we headed back to Grandma's to do some more canning. Hurray for free apples because my kids were already going through the apple sauce so fast we only had 6 bottles left.

Funny story.  

Wilson was helping me with the strainer.  He was turning the wheel to make the applesauce while I was pushing the apples down.  All the sudden he paused, looked and me and said,"Mom will you turn the crank for awhile?  I have to go save the world!"

Then he jumped down and proceeded to "save the world."

Oh the imagination of a 4yr old!

I bought these costumes for the kids when they went on sale after halloween.  I think they have worn them everyday this week. :)

But I have to admit.  

I would have preferred to buy a "Captain Canada" costume instead.

:)