Funny, funny Mother

Ha ha, I got this poem at our Relief Society party and thought to post it after spending 3 hours going to the DI to pick up a service project and going to Wal-mart. Hopefully your Christmas has not been like this mother's:

See Mother. See Mother laugh. Mother is happy.
Mother is happy about Christmas.
Mother has many plans. Mother has many plans for Christmas.
Mother is organized. Mother smiles all the time.
Funny, funny Mother.

See Mother. See Mother smile. Mother is happy.
The shopping is all done. See the children watch TV. Watch, children, watch.
See the children change their minds.
See them ask Santa for different toys.
Look. Look. Mother is not smiling.
Funny, funny Mother.

See Mother. See Mother sew.
Mother will make dresses. Mother will make robes.
Mother will make shirts. See Mother put the zipper in wrong.
See Mother sew the dress on the wrong side.
See Mother cut the skirt too short.
See Mother put the material away until January.
Look. Look. See Mother take a tranquilizer.
Funny, funny Mother.

See Mother. See Mother buy raisins and nuts.
See Mother buy candied pineapple and powdered sugar.
See Mother buy flour and dates and pecans and brown sugar and bananas.
And spices and vanilla.

Look. Look. Mother is mixing everything together.
See the children press out their cookies.
See the flour on their elbows.
See the cookies burn. See the cake fall.
See the children pull taffy. See Mother pull her hair.
See Mother clean the kitchen with the garden hose.
Funny, funny Mother.

See Mother. See Mother wrap presents.
See Mother look for the end of the Scotch tape roll.
See Mother bite her fingernails.
See Mother go. See Mother go to the store ten times in one hour.
Go, Mother, go. See Mother go faster. Run, Mother, run.
See Mother trim the tree. See Mother have a party. See Mother make popcorn.
See Mother wash the walls. See Mother scrub the rug.
See Mother tear up the organized plan.
See Mother forget the gift for Uncle Harold. See Mother get the hives.
Go, Mother, go. See the faraway look in Mother's eyes.
Mother has become disorganized. Mother has become disoriented.
Funny, funny Mother.

It is finally Christmas morning. See the happy family.
See Father smile. Father is happy. Smile, Father, smile.
Father loves fruitcake. Father loves Christmas pudding.
Father loves all his new neckties.
Look. Look. See the happy children. See the children's toys.
Santa was very good to the children.
The children will remember this Christmas.

See Mother. Mother is slumped in a chair.
Mother is crying uncontrollaby. Mother does not look well.
Mother has ugly dark circles under her bloodshot eyes.
Everyone helps Mother to her bed.
See Mother sleep quietly under heavy sedation.
See Mother smile. Funny, funny Mother.

A wonderful Sunday

The girls sang in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday. I think they sound like angels!

This is for the grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins & friends that missed it!

We love you! Merry Christmas!

TOP TEN

....reasons to move. Okay, I'm going to be positive about this- thanks, Jill for being a ray of sunshine, as usual! Here we go.....
10. Deseret Industries sees an increase in donations.
9. My children clean (out) their rooms.
8. I organize my sock drawer.
7. Lots of exercise.
6. Dejunk, dejunk, dejunk.
5. A chance to make new friends and keep the old- (thanks bloggers and Facebook!)
4. We know that wherever we move, we have an instant family in the ward there.
3. The Relief Society is going to bring us dinner the night before!
2. I get to see lots of service in action- yeah for family, visiting teachers, and friends.
1. We're making this adjustment so John can get his MBA! Yeah!

Now, don't you want to move, too? :)

She's done it again!

My cousin, Laura, just posted another beautiful entry on her blog, and I wanted to share it- it may mean something to someone else. Especially those that deal with loss at Christmastime. Click here to read! Thanks, Laura!

Gypsies

Hello all- the title of my post describes my family. John thought of the perfect name for our family. Can you guess?? Yes, unfortunately, we are MOVING! .....again. Just call us the gypsy family. We are not excited, but it must be done. Are the kids excited? Well, we try to tell them that they'll have the chance to make new friends! Where are we moving to? That is yet TBA. We'll let you know.
Sorry, I try to keep all my posts positive- sorry if this has a sour tone. I wanted to let you all know before we're MIA, and you wonder where we are!! We will be moving either the week after Christmas, or soon after the new year. We would appreciate your prayers and thoughts at this busy time of year!!

O Christmas tree...

This is my favorite- our 6 stockings. We bought a stocking for Matthew last year, knowing we would need it soon! We will fill it with notes this year, telling Matthew what we will do to make sure that we can live with him forever one day.

My three cuties, making the neighbor Christmas gifts! I love free labor. They seriously love helping, and they had 16 jars of cookie ingredients filled in no time.

Our tree- this is just to fulfill Lorenne's request! This pic looks a little out of focus?? We fill our tree with every ornament we can find, but it's so fun- we have lots of memories from all our childhoods! If you haven't posted your tree yet, please do it!

What I've learned...

I haven't been much of a blogger lately. I am recovering from having the whole Relief Society at my house last night as part of a progressive dinner. They had appetizers here (I actually held back and didn't make any, I really wanted to make my sister's amazing cranberry salsa) and we had a special "program" of a sweet little children's choir. I decided that it's very difficult to accompany a choir and lead them as well. We used the beautiful music they have on the children's songbook CD's and I chose to lead. It was wonderful! The kids sang "Christmas Bells" with chimes included, plus 3 more Primary songs about the birth of the Savior.

So now my house is clean and decorated for Christmas! Phew! It's great to be finished- now I can back to blogging, etc. Marianne did this on her blog awhile ago and I wanted to use her idea to list a few things I've learned recently. It is amazing that we do actually learn new things everyday!

1. I learned that scholars (Susan Easton Black, for one) believe that Jesus was born in a limestone cave above Bethlehem, not in a stable. I remembered someone telling me that there is no mention of a stable in the scriptures. Check Luke's account- it's true! He was laid in a manger, but there's no mention of the stable, animals, etc. that we picture with the traditional Christmas manger scene. How will this fact change our songs, manger scenes, etc.? "Once within a lowly cave....?" I think we'll stick with tradition, even though it may be historically incorrect.

2. My Relief Society President is the same age as me.

3. Mandarin oranges are delicious in smoothies.

4. Emilee makes the best sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner. And she is a more amazing mother than I thought. The patience she has for her little insomniac toddler! You're awesome, Emilee. Allison is getting a lot of compliments on her haircut.

5. Tommy loves, loves, loves playing with all the boy cousins on the Blackwell side. There's quite a big pack of them these days. They love Tommy, also. They love the same things: Superman, Batman, Transformers, Pirates, etc. Can it get any better than that?


6. Becca is going to insist that she gets the drumstick every year.


6. If I hold my ground, Becca will wear her puffy blue coat to school. I'll bet she's glad I did, it snowed today!

7. You can send a preschooler on the bus with some food if you are running late, or if they are running early (which is usually the case). They do, however, draw the line at pancakes with syrup. BTW, I was not the mom that attempted this.

8. I'm so grateful for my wonderful parents (this isn't just something I learned recently)... they are so kind, patient, forgiving! I'm glad they have overlooked my shortcomings, mistakes, and just love me! Thanks Mom and Dad! You really are the best.

Draper Temple Open House

Hey all, you may know about this already, but you can click here to make reservations for your family to go to the open house for the Draper Temple starting next month! I'm so excited for my kids to see the inside of the temple!

Peter Pan

Here are some images of Daybreak Community Theatre's Peter Pan. The girls had a blast! This play was all about fun and I decided there's nothing funner than watching your children doing something that they love!!

"This is my daughter, Jane."

"I know, I've been waiting for you."

"Think lovely, wonderful thoughts..."

"...and up you...."

"...go!"

"How sweet!"

"Please Mother, it's only for spring cleaning time."

"Off we go to Neverland!"

Attention former young women!

Hey all, I'm asking for your help, once again! I have an awesome friend from my mission that is now a counselor in a Stake Presidency in Idaho. He sent me the following message and I thought it may be helpful to get your awesome insight, also. He is speaking at a Young Women's fireside tomorrow night. If you're too embarrassed to leave on comments, you could e-mail it to me, or leave it "anonymous." I have some ideas, but I'd really like to help him out on this and get more perspective! You are all awesome!

Try to think back to when you were 15 or 16. Ready? Okay, I want to know "What do you wish your young women's leaders knew?" Either something about your life, the gospel, anything really. Maybe something you're too embarrassed to tell them or isn't "cool" to talk about?

Amazing lady

This is an amazing article about author, professor, historian, mother and grandmother, Susan Easton Black. I thought you would enjoy it, it is really inspiring!

Creative friends

Hello all my wonderful creative friends/family:
I am seriously considering starting my own little preschool and I think John is actually on board! I wonder if you could help me come up with a creative name?? My left-brainedness needs some help here! I need something fun, friendly, and maybe brainy? I want to do the little "prize give away" thing, also. If I choose your suggestion, winner gets... let's see... some freshly baked bread and homemade jam! Yummy!

Okay... time to edit here- coming up with a name is hard work! And I tried to let you all do it for me! So, John helped me tonight and here's a few we came up with. We decided not to get too creative (that will be obvious), or it may be hard to remember or spell! Could you help me out by voting??

ABC Preschool

Three Cheers Preschool

Small World Preschool

Super Kids

Superstar Preschool

Thanks y'all! (not a choice here)

Word up!

You're tagged! Lindsay and Emilee- answer in only one word.

1. Where is your cell phone? purse
2. Where is your significant other? TV
3. Your hair color? blonde
4. Your mother? amazing
5. Your father? commissioner
6. Your favorite thing? eating
7. Your dream last night? none
8. Your dream/goal? CK
9. The room you're in? office
10. Your hobby? pictures
11. Your fear? Non-CK
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Millennium?
13. Where were you last night? date
14. What you're not? Crazy
15. One of your wish-list items? baby
16. The last thing you did? dessert
17. Where you grew up? Marysvale
18. What are you wearing? skirt
19. Your TV? projector
20. Your pet? none
21. Your computer? John's
22. Your mood? hopeful
23. Missing someone? yes!
24. Your car? Forerunner
25. Something you're not wearing? necklace
26. Favorite store? Macey's
27. Your summer? running
28. Love someone? yes
29. Favorite color? red
30. When was the last time you laughed? Tommy
31. Last time you cried? church
32. Music? MoTab

Get 'yer tickets!

Get your tickets for Peter Pan here. Only if you'd like to see the cutest little lost boys and Jane you've ever seen- and no, I'm not biased! Call or e-mail me if you'd like to know the dates and times of their performances. Love ya!!

Try, try again...

TA DA!!!!

Yeah! I made this loaf of bread! And three others just like it!!!

Some of you may say, "Yeah, so what? I do that every other day."

This was huge for me, because I have never, ever, in my life made a decent loaf of bread.

Today was my first! My past failed attempts were more like, let's see..flaky bricks? I was so proud of myself I already gave a loaf away.

Anyway, if you need a good recipe, I finally got one that works for me- it's J.J.'s recipe, you know the awesome gardener, canner, baker, piano teacher from Marysvale? And if you would like the recipe, I'll send it on! BTW, it helps to have a wheat grinder, Kitchenaid, dough enhancer, instant yeast, and a couple free hours!

Halloween!

Donuts on a string! Classic game that the Ryans love to play- my daughters would not give up! Here they are getting really messy and looking silly!

Ryan family costume party. John and I came unprepared, Mom and Mary helped us find a few "accessories." Check out Mary and Josh and Henry- the lion, the witch and the wardrobe! Josh had that box on as "the wardrobe." Very creative!

Tommy's "Mr. Pumpkin Head"- another classic of the season.

We carved one pumpkin this year- our gigantic one! Becca and Allison worked hard to get out all the goop!

Another Ryan tradition- sugar cookies! Tommy loves to help me, we're just finishing off the frosting here. We love Halloween!!

Is this the beginning of the end? (of childhood)

So, Allison came into my room last night and said very seriously, "Mom, can I ask you some questions about something I've been thinking about all week?" I told her of course, but was wondering???? She said, "Mom, does Santa really have reindeer that fly?" I could tell that she's been suspicious of the whole Santa/Easter Bunny/Tooth fairy thing for awhile and knew this was inevitable. I talked to her about how these things are just a fun tradition for little kids, but Mom and Dad take care of Christmas, Easters, etc. She found us out! She said there were just too many stories: is it the elves make the toys, you have to help pay Santa for the toys, or the toys come from the store? I guess our stories just didn't wash in the end..... She also noticed that the tooth fairy's handwriting looked a lot like mine... oops!

I found some letters I've been saving to give to Allison that she wrote to Santa over the years- I thought you might like them!

No, she didn't get the puppy, but she got the pink robe she'd been dreaming about!

The Barbie castle request for her sister.
(Our favorite)

Week in review

MONDAY- It's amazing to think of all that happens in one family in one week!! Since I'm a little slow at posting lately, I wanted to post the last week in review. Above is Tommy's "new" room! Actually, just a new paint job. He moved into a bright yellow room when we moved to this house. We thought he needed something a little more "boyish." We think he really likes it!

TUESDAY- I went to a "training" just to volunteer with Allison's class. I had no idea, really, what I was getting into. They are participating in "JA Biztown"- the JA stands for Junior Achievement and it looks so fun! The training was on the top floor of the Gateway Discovery Museum. It's set up like a mini-town or community- the students go there on an all-day field trip and work at their jobs, collect paychecks, go to the bank, take out loans, pay for health insurance, etc.- All the fun things we adults get to do! It should be interesting and fun for the kids!

WEDNESDAY- You'll have to check on SATURDAY for the results of this day. Allison's activity day leader called at 12:30 p.m. to "remind" Allison that their Halloween party was today! That was news to me! I frantically got out the pattern and material we had picked out for her witch dress and went to town cutting and sewing. The result? Like I said, check out SATURDAY. I will say that I got finished at 4:00 p.m.-- about 5 minutes before Allison got home from school. (4 p.m. was also the time that the party started... that's cutting it a little too close!)

THURSDAY- Tommy earned all his "stamps" on his chart for being such a good boy and for being a perfect little potty user!! We frequent this dollar store a lot to reward the little guy. His favorite items are: pirate play sets, Spiderman cars, Spiderman flash cards (not to learn numbers, but to look at "the mean guys!"), he also thinks the plastic pirate knives and guns are cool, but they are off limits!

FRIDAY- This is Tommy at his Grandpa's office waiting for his flu shot. You can tell that he doesn't know that! I actually told him beforehand that he was going to get a "little poke" and he started freaking out a little bit. So I had to change the subject and pretend like I didn't know why we were there. Sorry, Tommy! He was brave and only cried for about 1/2 a minute!

We also took the kids to the 'Gale Museum' today and they loved it! I didn't even know it existed until the girls had their Peter Pan auditions there. They have mini rooms to depict life at the time of the settling of South Jordan. Perfect place to take kids- and best of all? FREE! Tommy is pretending to eat a plastic steak in this picture.

Becca's gathering eggs

Fishing

Cute little house!

In the teepee.

SATURDAY- Ready to 'trunk or treat'! Like I said, we seem to celebrate Halloween all month long! The kids had a great time at this ward activity and I'm just happy that all their costumes came together and they like them! Happy Halloween (month) everyone!