Where did all the trash go?

It's hard to believe that Christmas has come and is now gone. It's amazing to see all the boxes of presents around the tree and then to see the plethora of trash that goes out after the mayhem is over. We decided to take Christmas day a little different this year. We would let the kids open Santa's stuff, play, make a mess, get bored, open some more stuff, repeat process and then do our gifts in the afternoon. It was a good idea for a few reasons we didn't have mega disaster on our hands all at once, we could keep up with all the ribbon and paper pretty well each time. The other thing we realized is that our kids didn't need nearly as much as they got. They would have been just fine with their "first session" of gifts. (It seems that the best gifts are not the ones we give then anyway. They got some great stuff from grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. Santa doesn't always know best!!!We now know for next year, if you get the right thing you don't need 50 things, it's just a matter of figuring out what the right thing is. Anywhoo here we are-like Cam said he feels like George Banks on Father of The Bride shaking out the confetti from his shoe now that it is all over and he has a minute to breathe.



Here is a breakdown of the events.... We had the Ellingsons (great next door neighbors) and the Missionaries over for Christmas Eve dinner. We had a great dinner, potato soup in bread bowls, ham, green bean casserole, "Christmas salad", sparkling cider and a trifle for dessert. Dinner went well, it was fun and the kids had a good time. After dinner I had to scramble to make cookies for Santa, Claire had said Chocolate and Grant had said Sugar Cookies, luckily Grant ended up saying that Chocolate would be fine. I whipped some up and we attempted to get the kids down for bed. So here is where I have to explain a little. For the past 3 nights for one reason or another Grant has not slept well, on Tuesday he was up for a while coughing, he has been pretty sick. I had given him some Motrin and Delsyum to help his cough and help him sleep. I was not thinking at the time I did that that he had really had nothing to eat all day, around 9:30 up it came. Luckily he was sitting on the couch with me watching the classic White Christmas, he had blanket on so it caught it. We stayed up until around 11:30 and went to bed. The next morning at 5 he was WIDE AWAKE!!! Hello, I couldn't believe it, I was baffled. So we thought for sure he would sleep well last night (Christmas Eve) ya that's funny isn't it. A 5 yr old sleep well on Christmas Eve. We did all we could to get him down, Vicks on his feet and chest and Delsyum to sleep (we made sure he had at least a little to eat) We settled in for our Santa's helpers jobs, got it done and went to bed around 9:30. We were so tired I am surprised our eyes were not hanging out of our heads. So lo and behold here come Grant and Claire into our room this morning at 2:37!!!! I about died!!!! We told them Brig would not be awake for at least 5 more hours so they had to go back to bed, Claire went without a fight (gee I wonder if Grant woke her up?) Grant on the other hand played the "everything in the room is making dust and causing me to cough" routine. Cam and I were at our wits end. I pulled out the Dramamine and sat at the computer for a while trying to see if we would kill Grant if we gave him some with Delsyum in his system. (Mind you this is 3 AM in our freezing house in a COLD leather chair with not much on. I was ready for a dip in a warm bed ASAP. We decided not to give him Dramamine unless he came in again. Lucky for him he held out until 6:20. We told the kids Brig was still asleep and we weren't going downstairs without him. Grant and Claire went back to bed and Grant conveniently decide to kick his wall a few times (Brig is on the other side of the wall) I'm sure you can guess what happened next-you got it, CRANKY Brig here we come! Once I said Merry Christmas he seemed o.k. -check it out we've come full circle from the beginning of my post, now we sit, our eyes burning with tiredness watching silly TV, wondering why we are not it bed......who knows what tonight will bring...all I can say is there is a crapload of toys downstairs if anyone is up before 7!



p.s. Grant is awesome, he said before bed last night, it's o.k. if I just get coal in my stocking, I can use it at load it into my dump truck! What a kid!!



p.p.s. I am really working on being greatful I have my kids living with us, not in a hospital, or someplace else, and also that they have bodies that work so well too. I know too many times I take these sweet little spirits for granted when they are underfoot and more then willing to help with anything and everything. What a blessing to be a family and have such a great husband and kids too!! Enjoy the journey, it only comes around once.



last but no least, we are posting pics tomorrow morning so check back!

Merry Christmas To All!

Picaso's mother must have been a very patient woman...

Lunch gone incredibly wrong...

The boys helping in the kitchen...

So it has pretty much been since Thanksgiving since we posted last. Time flies. The kids are getting excited for Christmas to come(Grant tells us everyday how many more days are left). Brig managed to pull off a stocking which was connected to a heavy stocking holder and got a quick lesson in gravity! It is a constant battle to keep Claire and Brig out from the tree. In other news Claire is potty training, Hooray!!! She is going to have her teeth rot out of her head with all of the treats she is getting for going though. She got a very beautiful dress for Christmas and loves to wear it!! Grant keeps us laughing. A few weeks ago, the kids were in bed and we heard Grant yelling something. We went in and he was saying, "Extolame! Extolame!" Appearantly he had seen a kids' show with some Spanish in it and Grant said the translation is Help! He had fallen down into the space next to his bed against the wall and was being silly. He says he wants to be a scientist...Ho Boy. Brig is pretty much a giant parakeet. He will repeat or copy words or actions shown to him by Grant and Claire, or his parents. Case in point, Audrey was driving the other day and the car was stopped at a Stop sign and Brig shouted, "Go people! Go people!", in a frustrated voice. Wonder who he got that from...The kids love Christmas songs and a favorite is Rudolph. Claire insists that it goes, "All of the other Raindeer used to laugh and call him Nate." Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

...all that and an Albino Turkey!

It all started a few months ago when we got the hare-brained idea of going to Hocking Hills for Thanksgiving. So we packed up the family and hit the road! We should have known we were in for a rip-roaring weekend when we stopped into Psychoville, Ohio, to make pit-stops and buy a bite to eat. This little town made Cleveland seem like paradise. It was just off the freeway, sort of in the country but the gag was on us when it was filled with some of the most wigged-out looking folks we'd ever seen. Must be the water. Anyway, we quickly returned to the car and Purell'ed everyone and drove the last leg to our cottage in the hills. Upon arriving, I thought it would be nice to make some cookies while Cam took the kids to explore the surrounding terrain. I set the oven temp to 375 and put the cookies in and then sat down to read my book. Not 10 minutes later, the smoke alarm was going off and charred, chocolated chunky cookies were coming out of the oven. Conviently, there was a thermometer in the oven which read well over 500 degrees! I reset the oven and retried again, only to meet the same fate. This is when Cam and the kids came in and I broke the horrific news that not only were the cookies burn beyond recognition, but I was cooking our only other food source, Dinty Moore which was on the boil! We did a quick calculation of pantry items and realized it would be a sad Thanksgiving without a turkey if we couldn't get the oven working properly. Throughout the rest of that day and into the evening, Cam fiddled with the oven hoping to unlock its secret. Around 8 pm, he decided it was holding steady at 325, so he put the bird in to cook for 3 1/2 hours. Midnight came and the bird was lukewarm!! So Cam decided to set his watch alarm for 1 hour increments to check the bird. We were not going down without a fight. At 3 am Cam threw the towel in and the turkey was put in the fridge due to its albino-like color and pink interior. The kids also had trouble acclimating to their new surroundings and were up at 5:30 am on Friday. Claire was adamant about staying in her PJ's all day including going on hikes! Whatever. We decided to give the turkey one last hurrah, it was going to be eaten...or burnt trying. We threw it in the oven and left and didn't look back. We hiked around some really cool places and came back to find a delicious, golden brown Thanksgiving turkey. We had a wonderful feast of turkey, potatoes, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, rolls, corn, cranberry sauce, cherry pie, etc. Don't forget the cherry 7 Up that was spilled about 15 times! Once we cleaned up we explored some more of Hocking Hills and came home and ate again. The kids watched Charlotte's Web and went to bed at 7:00 pm. Cam and I went to bed soon after...serenaded by the crazy fridge that made a recurring sound remenicent of the beginning of "Fur Elise" by Beethoven over, and over, and over again. Fun, Fun! Cam and I both awoke at around 2 am on our hide-a-bed mattress. We lit the gas fire to stay warm and waited for morning to rescue us from the faint wails of Brig occasionally, and the fridge and the furnace coming on and off, etc. Whew! We got up Saturday looking and feeling like we had survived a taffy pulling machine! We packed up and began the journey back to good ol' Cleveland. Home, sweet Home! P.S. It sounded horrible, but it really was an amazing trip. We would highly recommend Hocking Hills to anybody. Just leave your kids at home!

Beat the Blue!

Got up this morning and had to make sure that I let all who may be crazy enough to look at our blog know where this family stands on a day as important as this one is. So even though I am in Ohio today, I am still a Utah Man!!!!! Go Utes!

"Psycho" Saturday"s

We thought Saturdays would be calm and down right boring since soccer ended. Wrong!! Last Saturday was a clothes trip to too many stores-our poor little kids looked like orphans with what they had to wear. Why do they have to grow so fast(and why does Brig have to be so FAT! He doesn't fit in to Grant's church pants he wore at that age) little stinker. So last Saturday we started out at Toy's R Us to get a great deal on some costumes for NEXT year! Grant had no luck but Claire is set. We headed over to Target picked up a pair of pants for Claire(She only had 3 pairs and I do wash every 4 days, you do the math) We were then FORCED to go to the "W" store I can't even write the whole name it's a swear word as far as I am concerned. Here's my tangent-get a cup of hot choco and relax- So I had bought Cam a pair of pants there last week-the real reason I went was to get Claire some pants since Target didn't have any. Well I should have know that "W" wouldn't have any either. They were either funky jeans with too many designs all over them, pencil pants or the best were the ones for like 4 dollars that the crotch was so low it would be down to probably the kids knees-and ya wonder why those aren't selling don't ya? So on my way out I found some jeans for Cam for like 16 bucks! Wahoo, I thought even though I knew in the back of my mind I would be taking them back-follow your instincts. So here we are to last Saturday again. I stood in their STUPID customer "service" line for like 20 minutes-two women were behind the counter one was helping customers but the other was SO concerned about moving CRAP around the counter that she couldn't be bothered to help any of the 500 people in line! I finally made it out of there and what a relief to be done. It was about 11:00 and our crasins and pretzels were getting low. (luckily we still had our stash of Halloween candy) The real reason we had to take this adventure was to get Grant new church pants also-he had a serious case of floods! We decided to head out to the Aurora outlet mall about 40 minutes away. We did but on the way made a quick stop to Wendies for refueling ( I don't know why we by kids a meal from a resturant, we should just by 1 meal for the three of them instead of wasting all that food) We got our stuff-pants for Grant and Claire and a few shirts. By the time we were done it was around 3:00. Brig really had a hankering to go to the zoo so off we went-in the opposite direction of the outlets. We got there around 4 and had a great time, it was cool but there were hardly any people there. We made sure to see all the highlights the giraffes, zeebas (as Brig calls them) and the bears (polar, black,brown). As we were walking up to the Gorilla and aquarium place we were "briskly" told that the Zoo closed at 5 and it was 5:15. That ended that trip. It was a crazy day but we really had a good time. I am glad we did what we did because it was daylight savings that night. We wore our kids out so well that they slipped nicely into the time change!

Onto this weekend if you are still reading. So every Saturday Grant has really enjoyed the idea of Saturday morning cartoons. I don't know who enjoys them more the kids or Cam and I becuase we go back to bed for another hour.In our pic the kids are watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as you can tell they are freezing and completely enthralled in the show. Cam had the great idea of going to the beach! (Why not its a balmy 39 degrees outside) We bundled up-big time and headed out. The kids had a great time walking along the shore despite the STIFF constant wind. We couldn't be done with our day yet, we thought about going to Pattersons Fruit Farm for some fritters but we decided to go Lake Farm Park instead. It's like Wheeler farm. They were having dry land dog racing. Brig couldn't get enough of the dogs, he was just laughing as they licked his face and hands. We saw the other animal and decided to head home-did I mention it was COLD? I headed out to a baby shower and Cam took the munchkins shopping. The great thing about Giant Eagle where we shop is they have the Eagles Nest where 3 years and older can go play while parents shop(Brig could pass for 3 couldn't he?) But sure enough as Cam was shopping he hears Cameron Beck please come to the Eagles Nest in so many words they told him they had a dancing child who needed to let out some bodily fluid in the VERY near future or they would have a major accident on their hands. So Cam took Grant to the "potty" and went on shopping. That reminds me that we didn't have time to go shopping last Saturday so we went Monday. I don't know if people just had butter fingers or what but there were spills all over the store. Some poor girl dropped her pickle jar right as we were walking in (no she wasn't expecting) there will spills all over the store, to add to it we were on our way to check out and I tossed Cam's Diet Pepsi onto the bottom of the cart well we added to the mess, one of the cans exploded in the box I just started laughing so hard, all we could do is take it off the cart, put it on the floor and walk away. Those store janitors were sure to have an uphill battle that night! Enough of the ramblings-it's Sunday night the kids are asleep, and my AWESOME bed warmer that Cam's WONDERFUL parents gave us last year is on and ready for me to sleep warm tonight!! Until next time.....

Halloween Update

Just another one of our hodge podge, potpurri of pictures! Enjoy!

Here is our bunch of trick or treaters!

Claire's fashion taste takes a sophisticated twist....shinguards and heels.

Brig the friendly dragon.

Should Cam be worried about this sly young chap?

Claire is such a pill. She has absolutely no desire to be potty trained. I got the potty training book from the library. If only Claire could read, maybe she could toilet train herself. HELP!!!

Ramdom thoughts of late.....

Strange but true, I woke up last night because I was having such a BORING DREAM-how weird is that! When I woke up I had the feeling of just being bored, it was so boring I can't even remember what it was about. I have never had that happen before and I hope it never happens again-it wasn't bad, just annoying to wake up in the middle of the night to get yourself out of a boring dream!


Claire announced to me the other day that she is going to go "stinks in the potty" when she is a mom!! Gee GREAT-like my friend Melinda said she is going to have a hard time getting married-dating scenario"can you excuse me for a minute while I go change my DIAPER" I don't think she will get many dates with that one:) So I was telling my sister Jenny about Claire and her decision and she said give her a baby doll and say "Congrats, you're a mom, you can now go stinks in the potty!" I might have to try that one. I checked out a potty training book from the library by the America Academy of Pediatrics- it said some children are not potty trained until they are 4 and 1/2-the sad thing is Claire is already in ELEPHANT SIZE diapers from Costco and they don't make a WHALE SIZE!!!:)-dang it!


Life with Cam is a hoot! For those of you who don't really know him he has such a great sense of humor and really knows how to have a good time. Last Sunday night (10:30 p.m.) as I was downloading our fall pics on the blog Cam decided he was going to try and make a donut recipe he had seen on Food Network. It started with a ready made pizza dough. Cam had bought some at Alescies. All was going well until he some how managed to start burning the oil. It was a chilly night and I really didn't like the idea of windows being open so we suffered through the acid smoke. Our eyes were burning so bad we didn't know what to do. I now wish we would have taken a picture of us. We were both sitting on the couch, with our eyes completely blood-shot and watering like crazy, this went on for a while, we finally decided to go to bed.(Cam was torqued because the recipe was a flop!) We went to be but laid in PAIN for a while, trying to figure out if it felt better to have our eyes closed or open. We were both lying there thinking to ourselves "I hope I can see when I wake up in the morning" We survived and I don't think we will do that one again.

Claire, Brig and I had gone to the Zoo and after I decided to vacuum out the van. While I was doing that Claire and Brig were having a ball in the backyard making themselves as dirty as possible in the "mud" pile and just running around. I had told them to take their shoes off if they went inside because they were so muddy. I finished up the vacuuming and went in to grab the broom. I was inside for a few minutes and came back out. The gate was open (it is usually locked) so I went out to find the kids. I could hear noised in the garage, I opened it and there was Claire, I asked her where Brig was and she said she didn't know. I 'rounded the corner of the yard and headed East (it's the way we always go on our walks) the first thing I saw were two cars stopped oddly in the street, for a second I thought maybe it was an accident. There was a lady out of her car and the other people in their car were talking to her. The next thing I saw was Brig!!! Standing on the corner, no shoes, just socks-holding a butter knife!! Oh boy. I ran over there and said, I am so sorry. The lady who was out of her car said they just wanted to make sure he was o.k. (Sure he's fine, standing with no shoes on and a butter knife!) I am surprised the DCFS hasn't come to see me yet. At least I looked half decent-not like some strung out freak-maybe they let me off for that one!!! I know I have no one to blame but myself. I am sure glad Brig does such a good job of staying on the sidewalk-I have brainwashed him well!!

Grant is such a pill when it comes to clothes! He is sooooo picky. We bought him some jeans at Target like a month ago, he had given his approval that he would wear them, so what doe he do. He takes the tags off tries them on and said he wont' wear them because they are brown people pants (African American)! O.K. Whatever Grant!!! Poor kid I hope he makes it through life without having a serious breakdown before he is 10! His class has a field trip on Wednesday to the Holden Arboretum. He doesn't want to go because he doesn't want to ride on a school bus. I asked him why and he said because of all the things the teachers at school told them about what to do in case the school bus get in an accident! What other 5 year old would even think twice about that? He is doing excellent in school. He is the ONLY kid in his class that has gotten a green sticker every day since school started. Green means you are doing well, they have various other colors too for various degrees of problems. He said today that only he and 1 girl got green the rest of the class did not. What a good kid:)

FALL!!!!

This is a fun tag!

I got tagged by Jamie Lamb who used to be our great next door neighbor here in Cleveland. Anyway, the tag works by posting the 4th picture in your 4th folder of your pictures on your computer. How fun!! Mine is a picture of Claire-obviously exhaused,sad and done for the day, becuase granny has been with her while mom and dad were at the hospital having Brig. Brig is that tiny thing and you can see part of me too!!

I tag

Sherrie Thurnagle

Ashlee Jenks

Lisha Hoops

Jackie Sanders

Kids

For you mom

My mom is trying to find some craft ideas to do with her YW in New Zeland so this post is for her! It's the easiest way to get her pics-their e-mail takes like 45 minutes to download 1 pic.

Mom if you have any questions let me know.

Love you mom! Good luck!!!!

The joy of being a dental student wife......

So I went down to the dental school again today. Cam said I have 11 cavities that need to be replaced/filled and 4-yes you read that right 4 crowns-gold ones!!! By the time this year is over I am going to know the dental school as well as a dental student. The thing I hate the most about going to the dentist is-why do I bother to do my hair? You always walk out with bed-head! The back of your hair is always smashed and it seems your neck is cranked one way or the other so you always have a flat side of hair too. Cam does a great job and I guess if it's the only way we can be on a date without kids I will take it. Oh, I am also his guinea pig for his dental camera!

p.s. at least I get a cool t-shirt with the CASE logo on it!!

Is it here yet?

Halloween can't come fast enough around here! Our kids are too excited. Last Sunday they got into our old costumes and were firefighters for a day. They sure had tons of fun. We set up our Halloween decorations for FHE on Monday night. We have about 50 lbs. of spider web hanging from our plant strung across the front room to the stair rail! Grant sure can decorate!

The dress-ups are HERE

Abe brought Claire's dress-ups Lis had found for her! The only way I could get her to try some of them on was to tell her it might make Brig laugh if he sees her in them. She did it and we got a few shots. Claire is so funny, she does not like dress-ups by herself but when some friends come over it's what they want to play. Claire is really into Tinkerbell right now. We got her a Tinkerbell color-wonder coloring book and she colors all the time in it. Christmas will be a challenge for all of our kids:) What to buy?!

Thanks again Lis and Abe!! We couldn't have done this without you!

Abe the BABE!!

We got to meet my GREAT brother Abe and his fun traveling companion Ron in Erie PA last Friday night. Abe and Ron were in NY for some business they were doing in some elementary schools. We thought it would be fun to get together for dinner. They drove for almost 3 hours to meet us at the Cracker Barrel. We had a really fun time. It was so great to see Abe!!!

Triple Trouble Sundae with a Cherry on Top

We decided Saturday to go the Lake Farmpark up by Kirtland for the Fall Fest they had going on. There was music, apple cider sampling, a corn maze and other fall related stuff. It was another one of our hairbrained ideas for a Saturday activity which ended up being pretty fun.

Grant grinding up apples. Go muscles!



This was the corn maze which was pretty cool. The corn stalks were taller than the adults. Grant was a little concerned about being able to find our way out at first, but then had fun running around with Claire. All in all another memory made in Cleveland...we're gonna miss this place!

Dress-ups! The life of a 3 year old girl

I know you are starting to wonder if this blog is just about Claire-well it's not! She is just the one who I have things to talk about. (Like changing 8 stinky diapers between her and Brig today!) That's for another post. Yuck!!

Claire has caught the dress-up bug with her little friends. It seems the first thing that happens when little girls come over is, off go the shoes and on go the heels, rings, bracelets, and dresses. We were fine for a while until like a month ago. Background-since we moved here the closet in Brigs room has REEKED of something horrible, well the dress she is wearing in this pic somehow took the brunt of the smell since it hung in that closet for a while. We tried everything we could to get rid of the smell, washing it, letting it air out, you name it, we tried it, nothing worked. We finally had to throw it away because it made whatever room the dress was in stink to high heaven! It was bad!! After bombing the dress we were down to one-you do the math one dress and two girls doesn't work so well. So for like the last month I have been an e-bay freak!! I have been trying to find Claire some dress-up clothes, the problem is not the lack of clothes on e-bay it's a matter of being faster with your bid then the person you are bidding against.(And not wanting to pay 150.00) After loosing too many times I called my awesome sister-in-law Lis and told her my plight. She is as crazy as I am when it comes to Thrift Store shopping, as it happens she was on her way to one and said she would look for me! Wahoo!!! She called later and said she had found some stuff for Claire. I don't know who is more excited Claire or me!! Thanks a Million Lis!! I can now unglue my fingers from the computer keyboard and move on with my life! Moral of the story don't have me bid on anything on e-bay for you-I'm no good!

p.s. if anyone is getting rid of girl dress-up stuff we will gladly take it off your hands:)