December Happenings

Here's a peek into what December's been like around here!

Bampa's Shirts: Miles loves wearing his "Bampa shirt". What's a "Bampa Shirt"? you ask? Well, that's what Miles calls a flannel/plaid shirt. My dad rarely wears anything else, so when I put a flannel shirt on Miles a while back, He exclaimed, "My Bampa shirt!"

Jack happens to have one, too. Miles was excited to see they both had "wewwo (yellow) Bampa shirts on the other day. (And yes, we're still working on his colors.)



Jack is eight months old: I can't believe my little Jack Attack is now eight months old. How time flies! We just adore this happy, little guy.





















Snow Shoveling: Yesterday afternoon, Tait asked if he could go outside. It's been FREEZING the past week, or so. Seriously, we wake up and temps are about 0-2 degrees and it doesn't get too much warmer throughout the day. I helped him bundle up, thinking he'd be back in the house within twenty minutes. Boy, I was surprised when he was out there for over an hour. It turned out he went next door to ask if he could borrow the neighbor's little, kid snow shovel. He then spent a good hour and a half shoveling the driveway. It snowed at the beginning of the week and Cameron hasn't had the time (or the daylight) to shovel. Well, my big boy, Tait did it! He was beaming with pride when Cameron got home and he got to show him the fruits of his labors.


There's a second part to the story I found out later that night. We were telling Tait what an awesome job he did and thanking him for his service.

"Well, I did something else, too, Mom!" He told me excitedly.

"You did?"

"Yep, I was a Secret Santa!"

"What did you do?"

"When I finished our driveway, I sprinkled some of that softener salt on Ryan's driveway to help them, too."

"Wow, that was really nice of you, Tait." I told him. Then what he said sunk in.

"Softener salt?" I asked him. Thinking of the three new bags of water softener salt sitting in the garage.

"Yep. I opened a bag of the Softener salt and put in on their driveway."

Sure enough, there's big salt pellets sprinkled on our driveway and the neighbor's driveway!"

And last but not least...

Miles strikes again: Yesterday evening I hear a small crash and this is what I saw when I looked around the corner. Luckily, there were only non-breakable ornaments on the tree.

Apparently, he was trying to sit under the tree and it fell on him in the process.


How do you like the "deer in the headlights" look on his face and his shoulder shrug when I asked him, "What did you do, Miles?"

And one more...

I Just Called to Say "I love you": If you get a random phone call from my phone but you don't hear my voice, but some quiet babbling instead, this is probably what's going on...


If I'm not careful to put my cell phone in my pocket, or up high, Miles finds it, hides, and makes phone calls. This is a picture of him from the other day, hiding under the kitchen table, talking to my dad.

Thanksgiving 2009

We enjoyed a warm, fun-filled Thanksgiving in Arizona this year.

Here are some highlights.

Cousins: The boys were able to play with all sixteen of their Skinner cousins.

Dirt: Grandma and Grandpa's new house doesn't have grass in the back yard yet. It was a boy's dirt paradise! There were days where they had to have multiple baths and/or clothes changes so they didn't look like Pigpen from the Peanuts cartoon.

Kyra and Miles had a grand ol' time in playing with each other in the back yard.

Eryn, Madison, Blake, and Tait enjoying some pie out in the shade of the front yard.

Dave, Da Hot Dog Guy: Dave is your local hot dog street vendor. He's known Cameron since he was a teenager when Cameron would stop buy during his work lunch break. I met him after Cameron and I got married. He would set up his hot dog stand outside of where I worked, so I got to know Dave too. We haven't seen Dave in a couple of years, so boy, was he surprised when we pulled up with a van-full of little boys!




Old Friends: We were able to get together with Cameron's high school buddies and thier families. Cameron grew up with these guys from elementary school all the way through high school. It was great to see everyone and thier growing families, and find out what everyone's been up to.



Christmas: We celebrated Christmas with the Skinners while we were all together. 17 children and 11 adults under one roof. It was wild and crazy! Cameron's poor parents have been remodeling their new house and had just moved in a couple of days before we arrived.








Grandpa Skinner: Miles adores Grandpa Skinner. He was Grandpa's shaddow most of the week. Miles especially loves to sit in Grandpa's "truck" (Excursion) and listen to music and pretend to drive. Miles also weasled his way into Grandpa's arms anytime he found a chance.




Rainforest Cafe: Blake heard about Rainforest Cafe while watching Curious George on PBS and asked to go. We don't have one in our neck of the woods, but there's one by Grandma and Grandpa's. The boys looked forward to our dinner there all day. Thier attitudes changed as soon as we entered the dining area. Our little pansies were scared of the animatronic animals and the fake thunderstorms. Cameron's and my attitude changed about the place when we got our food, but especially when we got our check. We ordered a small appetizer platter, two kid's meals, and two drinks. Our check came to $40!! So not worth it!!









We had a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend.

The Reason for the Season

I was just on the Church's website to find out when the First Presidency Christmas devotional would be on. In the process I stumbled upon an awesome resource.

It's got FHE ideas, stories, coloring pages, videos, music, etc. all about bringing Christ into your Christmas tradtions and teaching your family that Christ is the real gift of Christmas.

Check it out and pass it on!

Click on the link below, or the widget on the top of my sidebar.

Christ: The Real Gift of Christmas

We're Still Alive

We're still alive.

We've just been busy having fun in Arizona for the Thanksgiving holiday. (More on that when I have more time.)

Now we're busy unpacking and "decking the halls".

The boys decorated the "kid's tree" last night before they went to bed.



Gotta go. There's lots to be done...

Hand-Me-Downs

Clothing gets a lot of milege around here.

My Name's Amanda, and I'm A Mean Mom

I'm a "mean mom."

If you don't believe me, just ask Blake.

Or you can ask anyone that happened to be at the pediatrician's office yesterday afternoon.

Yesterday, I ventured out of the house for the first time since we've been quarantined to the house with the flu. I took Tait and Blake in for their yearly check-ups and to get all four boys a seasonal flu shot. Going into this experience I knew I would have to dig deep and find every ounce of patience I possessed. Taking all four anywhere by myself usually has me taking several deep breaths and saying innumerable prayers, and sometimes, if all four of the boys are really on their game, I even utter a cuss word under my breath.

I think I uttered more than one yesterday.

Not only did we end up at the doctor's office for two hours, but Blake had a full-on meltdown. He was terrified to get a shot and get his blood drawn. If there is a word that means terrified times 50, that's what he was. He watched Tait go first. Tait was a champ. Didn't cry a single tear. Blake, on the other hand, was crying. Not just little whimpers, no, full on emotional, terrified crying.

While I had Blake on my lap, trying to calm him down and reason with him, Miles was running around the room, in true Miles fashion, opening drawers and cabinets, trying to hide in one of the cabinets, then proceeded to take off his shirt, all while sporting a diaper that smells like it's in desperate need of a change. And Jack's in the stroller, making it known to the world that he needs to be fed. (If only I would have brought my nanny with me yesterday.)

Finally it was Blake's turn.

I had to physically put him up on the exam table as he kicked and screamed and struggled. Let me tell you, there really is something to be said about adrenaline kicking in when you're scared. It took a total of three adults to restrain all 36 pounds of little Blake while he received three shots and had a minute amount of blood drawn (from an area on his arm that had been numbed by some "numbing cream"-- he couldn't feel a thing!)

And that's not all.

While he was being restrained, receiving shots, and having blood drawn (A process totaling all of about two minutes.) With wild eyes, he screamed at the top of his lungs,

"YOU ARE A MEAN MOM! YOU ARE A MEAN MOM! I NEVER ASKED FOR THIS! YOU ARE A MEAAAAAN MOM! I NEVER ASKED FOR THIS!"

I didn't know if I wanted to cry or laugh.

He was screaming this so loud that other nurses were poking their heads in the door to find out what was going on.

When it was all over with, he didn't want me to hug or comfort him at all. He wouldn't even look at me.

He cried, and cried.

Then the nurse came in with a $10 gift certificate to Toys R Us for him. Suddenly the tears dried up, and all was well with the world. He even told me he loved me later on.

I'm working up the courage to tell him he's got to go back in four weeks to have his **blood drawn again. You can bet I'll be having Cameron come with me that time!


**Blood draws were part of a study we opted to be apart of for a new flu vaccine that is thimerosal-free. And for the record, I asked both the boys if they wanted to be a part of the study. I explained they would each receive $40 each time their blood was drawn, and their arm would be numbed where they draw the blood. They decided they wanted to buy a Wii game and/or go to Pirate Island Pizza with the money, so they BOTH decided to do it. But they were so thrilled with their $10 gift certificates, I may pocket their blood-draw money as payment for my emotional pain and suffering. We'll see.

I'm not a mean mom who chose to inflict unnecessary pain on my children... Just so ya know!

Happy Halloween (With THe Flu ? On The Side)

We had a happy-ish Halloween. Each of the boys was either sick, just getting over being sick, or just starting to get sick.

Blake started it all of with a fever last Tuesday. He was sick with a fever and just plain not feeling well for a few days. Tait came home from school on Thursday with a fever. They both had to miss their school Halloween parties on Friday because, even though they seemed to be feeling much better, I wasn't sure if they had the dreaded Swine Flu and kept them home just in case.

Miles started feeling poorly Wednesday, with a slight fever, but he was still running around and acting perfectly fine. Thursday night rolled around and it was a different story. Cameron and I were up all night with him. He had a horrible, barking cough and if breathing sounded terrible. I took him in to see the doctor first thing Friday morning, and we left with the diagnosis of "croup". He laid around, slept, cried, and whined all day. I was glad Cameron stayed home from work to help me comfort all of our little sickies.

As hard as we tried to keep Jack from getting sick, he is now suffering from a fever, cough, runny nose, diarrhea, and general irritability. We were up all night trying to sooth and comfort him last night and the night before.

In spite of all the inconvenient coughs and sickness, we tried our best to still enjoy Halloween.

Here are our little ghouls.


Tait was a scary vampire. Look at how different he looks with black hair. Miles got a little mileage out of the Elmo costume that we bought for Blake three years ago, but Blake never wore because he was afraid of it, Jack was a little lion, and Blake was a very grumpy army man.

We were invited down the street to our friend, Lindsay's house. She does the weather for channel two here in Utah. She's able to do the weather anywhere she wants on Saturday nights, so invited all the kids in the neighborhood to come to her front lawn in their Halloween costumes so our awesome neighborhood could make their TV debut.



We all had our ten seconds of fame. She even asked Blake what his favorite kind of Halloween candy is. In a little, timid voice, he responded, "Chocolate." He watched that little portion of Saturday's weather over and and over again yesterday.

Thanks Lindsay! What a fun job you have. We all had a lot of fun!

After our little TV debut, Cameron took the boys around the block to trick-or treat. It was probably the least amount of candy the boys have ever received because they were ready to call it a night after that.

Tait and Blake are now doing perfectly well. And just when I think Miles and Jack are over it, they spike a big fever, have a bout of diarrhea, or throw up their guts on the carpet.



I was also lucky enough to join in on all the fun. At this point I'm wondering if it's really the croup. I looked up "H1N1 flu symptoms" on good old "Dr. Internet" and this is what it said on the CDC website:

You may have the flu if you have some or all of these symptoms:

fever *
cough
sore throat
runny or stuffy nose
body aches
headache
chills
fatigue
sometimes diarrhea and vomiting
*It’s important to note that not everyone with flu will have a fever.

Miles, Jack, and I have had every, single symptom except sore throat.

I've had ENOUGH!! I never minded too much being sick when I was a kid (I got to stay home from school), but it's one of the worst things when you're a mom. No one takes care of the Mama, the Mama has to take care of everyone else. I'm lucky enough to be married to the best guy in the world. Cam stayed home Friday and and a half a day today.

I'm just hoping a sleep better night than I did last night. Between fever, cold chills, body aches, and getting up with Jack and Miles several times, I didn't get more than four or five hours of less-than-restful sleep.

So don't come over anytime soon, and if you do, just know that's the reason my house is a wreck and my kids may, or may not be wearing dirty clothes.