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!