For Better or Worse...

The cards are off (most of them anyway)....

and now our entire Christmas card list is about to know what you blog readers figured out a long time ago...

That I have a very odd sense of humor when I'm tired/hormonal/stressed/etc.

Silver Linings

In an attempt to see the bright side of things lately, I've put together the following list:

1.  Cold sores make my upper lip match the fullness of my lower lip.  Who needs botox? 
2.  I just opened a new box of tampons and found a bonus box inside.  Yippee!  
3.  Our new(ish) car officially feels like part of the family now that Cami spilled powdered sugar all over it.
4.  Young children staying up past 10:00pm doing their homework every night means that I have someone to keep me company until Glen gets home at night. 
5.  With today's batch of Gingersnap Whoopie Pies, I've successfully put myself and Spencer over the sugary edge and into craving spinach.  
6.  The over-sized pile of unfolded laundry is all-the-softer for flopping into. 
7.  Falling asleep at my daughter's choir concert, complete with head bobbing and drool, means that no one thinks I'm  underworked and overpaid anymore. 

Unlike her mother, at least she looked cute at her concert.

This weekend...

• At long last, I ordered our Christmas cards and now I can't wait to send them out.

• I ran 10 miles and it was HARD!  Despite the fact that I've kept up with running, I seem to have lost a lot of endurance in the month since running the 1/2 marathon. 

• I stayed up way too late, ate way too much junk, and woke up way too early. (maybe why my run was so hard)

• We went to tithing settlement and discovered that two kids haven't paid any tithing all year.

    

• Totally couldn't stop giggling when, right in the middle of teaching a lesson to the nursery kids about how Jesus wants us to be kind to each other, one kid started pelting another.  The other kid wasn't crying and it's not like anyone was looking at me anyway, so I didn't feel too bad about it.

• Took Rocky for a walk and a doberman pinscher charged across the street and attacked him. He's okay, but it was kind of scary for all of us.

• Didn't do an ounce of Christmas shopping, although I should have.

• Went to a cousin's baby's blessing and got to listen to a Tony award winner sing, "O Holy Night".   It was AWESOME!

Having Fun in the Kitchen

The kids and I have sure been having fun in the kitchen lately and although I imagine most of you dear blog readers also follow along with my recipe blog, I just couldn't help but share some photos of a couple of our latest (and favorite) creations.

These melting snowman cookies totally cracked us up...

And this gingerbread nativity was a labor of love.  I had to go to three different stores to find all of the ingredients, then it took as long to clean up from them as it did to make them, and the recipe post took even longer to put together than all that.  Yet, I harbor no ill will towards them.  In fact, I am in love and am still convinced that it's one of the coolest projects we've ever made. 

 Oy!   I don't know if I can stand so much kitchen cuteness all in one place!    I think I'm obsessed! 



So, do you all have any fun kitchen projects you think we should try?  I'm always looking for fun new ideas! 

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Decorating for Christmas

I'm not much of a home decorator, nor will you ever see our home featured in Better Homes and Gardens, but I just have to say...

I love our house at Christmastime! 

Sometime during Thanksgiving weekend, we break out our Christmas boxes from the attic and bedeck our house in Christmas splendor and today's post will give you a little tour of it all! 

Our beautimous Christmas tree!    We bought a real tree the first year we were married, but when Glen sneezed his way through that Christmas season, we knew we were destined for a lifetime of artificial greens.  This tree has now seen 16 Christmases in our family and is looking strong for the 17th! 

This heart-shaped ornament was a wedding gift, that reads "Our First Christmas Together 1993".  It's not really my style of decor, but it holds a place as one of my favorite ornaments nonetheless. 

The snowflakes were mostly made by my Grandmother Hepworth (and later supplemented with some storebought ones).  They're my very favorite feature of our tree and they make me smile each year when we cover our tree with them. 

Here you can see a glimpse of our mismatching stockings, including my awesome left-handed one I've had since I was a baby.  We've talked many times about getting matching stockings for the whole family, but each time the suggestion is heartily rejected by certain members of our family (both male) and so our mantle with personality remains intact. 

Here's a close-up of the Nativity on our mantle.  One my siblings brought it back for us after a Jerusalem study-abroad trip there.  The stable was a $5 consignment store find, which complemented it perfectly! 

An even closer close-up, so you can see some of the beautiful detailing. 

Here's a Nativity that my sister AnnaLisa made for us in the style of a Finnish nativity she'd seen before.  I love that it's hand-made and totally unique! 

Here's a little Nativity one of the kids made...

This is our kid Nativity--the one I don't mind if the kids play with.  It's cute, mismatching, and sturdy (just like me). 

 I think that the word JOY sums up what Christmas is all about...

Here's the porcelain Christmas tree we got as a wedding gift.  It's lost the star and a few lights in the 18-years we've had it, but we're thrilled that it's long enough to be a part of each year's Christmas decor!

Another wedding present that just makes me smile...

The Mary and Joseph figurine are another gift from Jerusalem, while the Silent Night cross-stitching was from Glen's mom.  I'm not sure if she made it or not, but it's been a part of our Christmases for 18 years now!

and I'm not quite sure what's wrong with this Christmas elf's tongue, but I find him strangely debonair and I hope he won't mind if I pinch his cheeks and keep him around for a while.  :)

 

Wrapping it Up

Ever since Cami won this contest a few years ago, my kids have been interested in replicating her success by entering other contests found in the Kids' Post section of the Washington Post.  Most of the time, it never progresses past just the thought of entering, but then came the annual wrapping paper design contest. 

Emma had read about it in the Kids' Post and couldn't stop talking about it.  I decided that it sounded like a fun little Thanksgiving week project, so I went ahead and got out the paints and paper and let them go to town. 

We studied wrapping paper designs in our house, talked about some ideas, and then encouraged them to do their best.  I was rather surprised at how seriously they took it and although the process of creating was mostly fun for them, we still ended up with a few tears of frustration over some perceived errors along the way.

After several days of work, everyone was finally happy with their creations and we eagerly went to the post office to send them on their way. 

I think we would have already heard by now if they had won, but nonetheless I feel that it turned out to be a fun, festive, and time-consuming project for them on a vacation from school and the kids are already talking about their ideas for next year's contest.  I guess that means it was a success all-around. 

And all this got me to thinking....wouldn't that be a cool future job? 

"Nice to meet you, Adam.  What do you do?"

"Well, I'm a cardio-thoracic surgeon by day and a wrapping paper designer by night."

Yahoo! 

Free wrapping paper for life!


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Thanksgiving Blessing Box

As a parent, I feel like I am always struggling to help the kids understand how blessed they are.  How just because their mom makes them clean their room, doesn't mean they live tortuous lives.  And how having a healthy well-rounded, but never-before-tried meal is not a punishment from on high. 

It seems like every November I come up with some grandiose idea of helping us to be more grateful in our daily lives and usually it lasts a week or so (if I'm really on top of things) then it fades back to business as usual. 

This year we decided to try a Blessing Box.  On November 1st I set it out in the living room, with some slips of paper and told the kids we were going to daily write down something we were grateful for and add it to the box.

As I mentioned, usually this type of thing doesn't last long at our house, but this year it caught fire  and we each added a slip daily to the box.  A couple of times that we skipped a day, we would make up for it the next day with adding an extra slip. 

In the end we ended up with a full box and now we've spent the last week, going through the box and reading them aloud.  Some of them are cliche.  Some are silly.  But some are also really touching. 

After we read each slip, the rest of the family will yell out, "Yay for taking a walk with a friend" (or whatever the slip happened to say).  It added a little humor as well as some family involvement. 
I decided that it's kind of cool when you stick with something for a while and I hope that we can find similar traditions for other holidays that will add meaning, like this one did. 

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Here is a random sampling of some of the slips (written exactly as they are on the slips):

I am grateful for hair dye.
I'm thankful for chess.
Vacation.
My boots.
I am grateful for sunny skies and awesome 5-mile run.
Im gtfl tat i got to play. (sic)
The gorgeous weather.
Strong youth program. 
I'm grateful to eat a dinner I didn't cook myself.  Thanks Daddy!
Squirrels
Math test
I Im gtfl tat I had fun. 
I'm grateful for wonderful and inspiring talks at Stake Conference.
I'm thankful for the visitor center.
Taking a nap in homeroom.
I Im gtfl tat I got to rll dan the hll (roll down the hill).
My bed
Homework (?!) 

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What about you?  Are you good at sticking with long-term "projects" like this?  Or do you prefer things that can started and finished on the same day?

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Why Lara Doesn't Arm Wrestle

After 16+ years of parenthood, 3+ years of being a food blogger,  and 2+ years as a nursery leader, it's certain that I look a little sturdier (aka pudgier) than I did a few kids ago...

but I am sad to admit that with all my sturdiness of build, there's no two ways around the fact that I am officially WIMPY armed!!!!

I held a cute little 18-month-old in nursery for a while on Sunday (he actually wasn't a big kid at all) and now two days later and I still can't straighten my aching arms. 

Thanksgiving by the Hour

7:00am--Daddy and Spencer get up and go to the annual ward Turkey Bowl--Young Men vs Old Men.  Both my men come home uninjured and I take advantage of this fact and send Daddy to the store for a couple of last-minute ingredients. 

7:30am--kids come to snuggle in bed with mommy (a favorite weekend tradition of ours) and end up playing on the computer

Google's Thanksgiving turkey graphic proved to be entertaining for the kids (and adults)

9:00am--I finish baking the last of our four pies

11:00am--Glen puts the turkey in the oven

12:30pm--Matt, Karey, and Lincoln arrive and the kids play outside and enjoy the beautiful day

4:00pm--Pete, Mika, Lauren, McKenzie, Bridgette, and Davin arrive and so we run outside before it gets dark to take some group shots. 

4 out of 8 Crain siblings (sans Lara the photographer), 10 out of 12 Crain cousins (please come to visit Andrew and Madeline!)...

And the girls wanted to try out  a jumping photo just for fun! 

4:20--go inside, socialize for a few minutes, say a family prayer...

4:30pm--time to eat!  Green beans and 2 varieties of mashed potatoes made by Mika.  Homemade rolls and sweet potatoes made by Karey.  Turkey made by Glen. Cranberry sauce and 2 pies made by Lara. More pies made by AnnaLisa and Sue (our neighbor). 

4:45pm--Eat, laugh, and try to hear over the happy din of cousins playing!  (I threw this picture in mostly because I wanted there to be at least one picture of me in here, but there were several children hiding behind my chair and randomly jumping up that AnnaLisa was trying to capture in this picture.)

5:00pm-- The tryptophan didn't seem to work on the kids and they proved to be a little on the hyper side throughout the evening.   AnnaLisa attempted to calm them by showing them her webcam, but it proved to have more of a riling effect than calming. 

6:20pm--Our neighbors, the Tapps, arrive and we eat dessert.  AnnaLisa made  coconut cream and pecan.  I made apple and lemon meringue.  Sue brought Boston Cream Pie and Pumpkin. Everything was delicious-o!

6:30-8:00pm--Decibel level reaches record breaking heights in our home.  Thankfully it's all of the happy sort of noise. 

8:20pm:  Everyone's gone home, the dishes are done (thanks to my Hunny), and we break into the "Blessing Box" (a post to come on that later).  We then attempt a quick game of Pit, but don't even make it two rounds before someone is in tears.  We quickly put the kids to bed and RELAX!!

Never:  I'm proud to announce that I did not spend even 1 minute of today looking at Black Friday ads.  I'm sure I'll get some online shopping done tomorrow, but I am definitely not setting foot in a store tomorrow.  :)

It truly was a wonderful day and I was happy to spend it in the company of family and friends. 

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, dear blog readers! 

It's Autumn Time!

What's so great about raking up 30+ bags of leaves on Saturday? 

Well, for one thing, autumn leaves provide great inspiration for art projects....

Plus all that raking gives them a big itch.....


to run and jump  geronimo-style into them....


and that itch never is quite satisfied, until someone starts tossing the leaves up into a giant leaf storm.

Then there's the fact that autumn leaves make a great backdrop for pictures...

which means that Lara gets to go crazy with the camera!                                       

And one last thing:  Let's not forget that bags of leaves make a perfect setting....

for an impromptu Barefoot Clarinet Concerto on the Sidewalk.