This N That

West Elm. You speak to me. Start Fresh? Done.

Due to its sheer awesomeness Tiny Tower has been occupying my time. Granted I am building a tiny tower...but I am also...building a tiny tower that would put any tiny tower to shame.

I may have scoffed a little when someone told me it was a fun game. Seriously? You build stuff and that is fun? Is it like farmville for people?
But me and my Bitizens are quite happy together. Mock all you want. Speaking of little pixilized people. I was thinking of making something like this for the boys room. But using super hero's that correspond to the the letters in their names. Upon finishing Clockwork Prince I am once again reminded that finishing books makes me sad. Just so you know that nothing goes unnoticed at our house.
They are completely oblivious to the nudest sitting by them watching them play a game. Evidently the kids aren't the only ones not "In the Know." Gavin has brought home numerous notes like these...I must have missed the memo that said Gavin is a mack daddy. (Do people even say that anymore? Did I just out the fact that I am old and say things like Mac Daddy?)

And...and...I finally finished the Advent Calender I was making for the kids. Granted it is January. Now, we are ready to go for next year. I think by then the tips of my fingers will have healed from all of the hand stitching that I did for that bad boy. (no lie. 80% hand stitched. kill me now.)I got the idea from Pottery Barn because I originally thought something along the lines of "I am not going to pay $89 for something I could make. I'll show you Pottery Barn." Well, I had no idea when I started it that it was going to have to be hand stitched and was going to take me 2 months to finish.
1 point Pottery Barn, 0 points Hannah. Well played Pottery Barn. Well played.

January

How are you suppose to have a good start to the New Year when your morning bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios is sending you a warning? Two days before New Years Penny got a case of the pukes. Then on New Years day it was my turn, then Canon's, then Laney's, then Gavin's. Blake seems to have dodged a bullet...so far. We have done a lot a lot of laundry so far in 2012 and a lot of cleaning, and re-cleaning. I decided it was high time I taught Laney and Gavin how to earn their keep. Laney was a willing participant, we are still working on Gavin. So, the start of the new year for us was not the best. It mostly just left us tired. Really really tired.

Christmas

Let me break it down for you, real easy like.

Christmas Eve:

• open one present
• said present was pajamas
• take picture in pajamas
• read Christmas story and Jesus' birth out of the Bible
• Steal some of Santa's cookies on the not so sly.
  
  • 
• Go to bed dreaming of sugarplums.

Christmas Morning:

• Wake up to quite possibly the "best day ever."
• Notice that Santa has stuffed the stockings (including Penny's Addidas sock. Don't judge.)
• Santa had also eaten some cookies (or what was left over after Penny) and left a note
• Left some bikes for the older kids...
• and a spray bottle for Penny (once again, don't judge. She thinks it is the best ever.)
• Practical presents from Dad and Mom were open mostly including shoes, clothes, underwear, etc.
• Princess dolls that were intended for Laney but profited all.
• Blake got some Oakley's to replace some lost a while ago.The real treasures where left for me. Sure I got slippers, shoes, some new perfume but the real treasure was from the kids. They picked it up on our family shopping trip to the Dollar Store. Canon originally told me that he was going to get me a "milk mustache" for Christmas, but that seemed to fall through. So imagine my surprise when I got this beauty for Christmas.
  The snowman is from Gavin, Laney got me the base. And....wait for it...It changes colors. Shazam. Plus I got a bird one from Canon so that I could switch it up if I wanted to.
  

It's Begining To Look A Lot Like Something

I had good intentions of posting prior to Christmas. It didn't happen so now I am playing catch up. Such is life.

On our tree some of my favorite decorations are the old vintage ones. Every time I look at them I smile. Nothing says Merry Christmas like Kermit the Frog a la 1980. Last year my Mom gave us a bunch of Santas that she had collected over the years. I like seeing them all lined up on the shelf. They bring back good memories. The kids decorated their own tree this year. They did pretty good although, the ornaments have migrated as the month went along.

Advent Adventures

This year we decided to do an Advent Calender with the kids. Normally we spring for the chocolate ones that you open the little doors on but then they don't open. You know, the ones where you try to get the chocolate piece that isn't really chocolate out of the packaging only to have it not come out so you chisel it out with a knife which in turn makes the kids cry because their little not chocolate shaped as a Christmas ornament is now a pile of not chocolate dust? Not this year. This year we went big. Big meaning that we plan the days as we go and normally do stuff that we would normally do but now it is written on a card so that makes it more fun. That kind of big.

Some days included:

Making gingerbread houses out of graham crackers.

The color on the picture is not wrong. We used brown frosting. Blake asked if we should use white so that it looked like snow. I said "this is what we got." To which Blake responded with "I guess it will just be brown snow." Kind of gross but whatever. I knew that there was going to be more consuming of candy then actually decorating anyways. And, let me tell you Penny is bossy when it comes to the sweets. Canon tested the structural integrity of his house. Gavin took his decorating very seriously. He pulled a classic first child maneuver and asked me to judge who made the best house. I did a classic Mom and told him I liked them all. Even this one. We also made snow globes. I hate to say this was an epic fail so...I will go with, these are most definitely going to get "lost" when the Christmas stuff gets put away. The glitter floated. Laney burnt her finger and her water turned pink because of the glitter. Canon's also leaks.Went to get pictures with Santa.The wait wasn't too bad although these pictures would lead you to believe otherwise. The picture turned out good. One baby crying. Just how I like it. I didn't even have to pinch one. The kids requested of Santa the following:
Gavin: Ipad
Laney: Pink sparkly shoes with straps
Canon: Leapster Explorer
Penny couldn't get out of his lap fast enough.

Other things the kids liked:
Going to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner.
Handing out treats.
and going to see the Christmas Utah lights. (surprisingly their favorite.)