If You're Happy and You Know It. . . STOMP

The Turner's asked if they could take C&T to Stomp last week. It
turned into a grand adventure starting with some guitar jamming
followed by dinner at Kobe's Teppeyaki, Stomp, a sleepover, and some
romping around in the snow. They boys came home with story after
story after story. Fried Rice, flames, and Shrimp. Drums, Comedy,
Skits, and Music. Late night, laughter, sleeping bags, and silliness.
(we have a pretty firm No Sleepover Policy so this was a special
treat for them) The boys, and our entire family for that matter, are
blessed to have such great, kind, generous, lovable friends in the
Turners.

?

Eric:  14 degrees?

Me: Wasn't it 14?

Eric:  Oh, no, it was -10.

(okay, it was coming back to me. . . when we left the house it was -15 but Anchorage was -10. . . so I was thinking "balmy" because we had added 5 degrees)

Me: -10?  Okay, I'll change it on the blog.

Turns out those institute kids had 25 more reasons to complain that caroling was cold.  And kudos to the people that opened their doors and listened . . . 

Cookies and Caroling

Every December we load up the van and take the entire family to the
annual Institute Caroling Activity. This year Sister Hawkins spent
four hours making sugar cookies for the kids to decorate. While the
college kids made some spectacular creations, the Bacon Boys did their
best to keep up. . . perhaps not in artistic ability but rather in
their ability to pile their cookies high with frosting and sprinkles.
Warner especially LOVED decorating and came home with a plate full of
10 masterpieces. He spent most of the evening at a table with 6
college students just as comfortable and happy as could be.

The caroling this year, though a balmy 14, seemed colder than usual.
I happily stayed behind with the littlest four but heard account after
account about cold hands and feet and saw the red noses and rosie
cheeks. After a few cups of hot chocolate with marshmallows it seemed
to be all but forgotten.

Happy Spot

My heart smiles whenever I walk by the boys bathroom and catch a
glimpse of this. . .

Look Who Is Taking a Bottle. . .

Hmph! For months and months we've been trying to get Holland to take
a bottle.

And look at our progress. . .

[update: Holland is now taking a bottle and will happily stay at home
with the sitter while Eric and I spend a glorious week in Mexico with
family.]

Fav

My favorite ornament of the year. I love the textures and colors. Thanks mom!

Hy Guy

Self Portrait of sorts.

2 pictures for you

It is always those last minute fillers and turn out to the be the
favorites. On Christmas Even I had Christian, Tanner, and Sam stay up
and help me make boys and arrows for their little brothers. They each
picked a special little brother and designed and decorated a bow just
for him. It was the perfect little project. Even more special was
the love in which they were received. Amongst their piles of
presents, I think these three little boys have enjoyed their bows the
very most.

The big boys on the other hand, while they like their gifts, they LOVE
their candy. This year I bought them 12 packs of soda. Oh, my o my o
my, has that gift been savored sip by sip.

Eric carefully picked out some perfect games for the boys. I think he
concientiously wanted to give the boys the gift of his time and
togetherness. It has been fun to play the games together during the
break. I can see us really enjoying these for years and years to
come. We were talking about on eof the games last night and I
commented, "I'm so glad that Hyrum won Adventures last night. I can't
wait to play again, I'm determined to win. . . I feel like I'm playing
far beneath my potential." A game that delights both old and young is
a keeper.

Christmas Joy

Santa came through for this little friend. After opening his present
he kept hollering, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" It was so much fun to see his
eyes full of excitement and happiness.

Hy's Creations

Love this age. And their perception. And their creations. And the
magic that surrounds them.

Never a dull moment

Never a dull moment for Holland. He is constantly smoothered with
love and attention. One of my favorite things is when C&T get home
for school, the first thing they ask is, "Where's Holland?" Even
before food. Yes, it is amazing. And I love it.

13

I love having big boys. They are so helpful and kind and truly funny
(which if you ever heard them tell a joke when they were little you
know how wonderful this is for us). They are loving middle school and
basketball and scouts and food.

Aren't these shirts from our friends the Rockows the best?

7 stockings

Love my seven stockings and what they represent.

Sam

Got one of these under the tree for Sam.. . shhhh. He loves the
Ukelele and has been bringing one home from school each night to
saranade us with Christmas songs.

Sitting

My baby is sitting up. My, how time flies.

Boys Christmas

Sent this to a friend today:

I've really wanted to make my kids a few things for Christmas and
every single project has backfired in my face. Bought fabric for
super hero capes but bought it like 1/8 year too short. Eric bought
the wrong stuff for the Bows and Arrows. The pictures aren't working
for me. Sometimes I just think it is easier and perhaps better to
just let Amazon do all the hard work. :)

[still going to try and figure out a way to make these images work for
C&T room. . .may have to downsize from a 11x14 though. . . bummer]

Fwd:

WHEN I'M NOT SO EXHAUSTED, I'LL WRITE MORE ABOUT THIS QUOTE AND WHY HARRY AND I HAVE SO MUCH IN COMMON. . .

Richardson: You look exhausted. You should take a vacation when all this is finished. You've earned it.
Harry Mitchell: I'm not sure the kind of tired I am can be fixed by a vacation.

Fwd: library

BLESS Barbara at the library.  She saved my Bacon and my bank account.

I was horrified to realized that this was on Tanner's library card.  First time he's checked out since getting his own card in AK.  Last time he'll check out.  (It's not Tanner's fault as much as it is mine for not checking his account for these books that mostly belonged to siblings and the library that typed in our email address wrong so we never received any late notices)  Ms. Barbara made the whole thing just disappear.  Oh how we love her.

[Ms. Barbara is sweet on Talmage. . . I think those curly locks are worth at least $95 to us.  We'll have to have him start blowing her kisses every time we go to the library.  And no, we didn't loose those three books, we just didn't realize that they were still on the boys dresser.]

$20.00	LOST	10/6/2012	Passager : the young Merlin trilogy, book one	Yolen, Jane.	J YOLEN
$5.00	PROCESSFEE	10/6/2012	Passager : the young Merlin trilogy, book one	Yolen, Jane.	J YOLEN
$20.00	LOST	10/6/2012	Hobby : the young Merlin trilogy	Yolen, Jane.	J YOLEN
$5.00	PROCESSFEE	10/6/2012	Hobby : the young Merlin trilogy	Yolen, Jane.	J YOLEN
$20.00	LOST	10/6/2012	Merlin : the young Merlin trilogy, book three	Yolen, Jane.	J YOLEN
$5.00	PROCESSFEE	10/6/2012	Merlin : the young Merlin trilogy, book three	Yolen, Jane.	J YOLEN
$5.00	OVERDUE	10/19/2012	Railsea	Miéville, China.	Y MIEVILL
$5.00	OVERDUE	10/19/2012	Crazy dangerous	Klavan, Andrew.	Y KLAVAN
$5.00	OVERDUE	10/19/2012	Mister Monday	Nix, Garth.	J NIX
$5.00	OVERDUE	10/20/2012	The secret of platform 13