Back to life, back to reality!

Well, our Thanksgiving week has come to an end and we are back home.  I always hate coming home and having to face LIFE!  I just want to live in cabin land where I have no responsibilities and I get to accomplish projects.  I love having my Mom to help me with the boys.  She is so Awesome!  My boys love her and think she is the coolest person on earth.  Brody and Case often ask if they can move in with Sugar.  I guess I should be offended by this but I'm not, I love that they love her so much!

 Brody is starting at his new school tomorrow and the guilt I am feeling is overwhelming.  I hope that he will be happier at his new school.  I hope he will make lots of friends who he can play with after school.  I hope this is the right place for him! I've got a crazy busy day tomorrow so I'm off to bed (with alligator tears in my eyes).  Good Night! 

The Countdown Has Begun!

Well, Thanksgiving is over and it's time to start thinking about Christmas!  Today the boys made Christmas countdown chains. Here is how they work:

 Each night after good nights are said,

 tear off one chain and hop in bed. 

 When only the star is left to shine, 

then you will know it's Christmas time.  

The boys are so excited to start the countdown!  I'm a little less excited because I already feel behind and it's not even December yet!  I'm trying not to think about it because I want to enjoy my last few days at the cabin.  This Christmas will be lots more simple around our house!  Anyone else out there feeling worried about this unpredictable economy?  I know I am! Without family and ward parties to host, I'm looking forward to a calm and enjoyable Christmas holiday!

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

Guess what we did today? Actually I should say, guess what Jim and my boys did today?  They went out into the freezing cold and built this snowman cutie!  The snow is really wet but that didn't stop these wild boys from rolling snowballs out back! They all have runny noses but loved being out in the cold! What did you do today?  Any Black Friday deals out there?  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our Thanksgiving was so good thanks to my Mom's yummy cooking!  The snowy weather continued throughout the day which was fun.  It was a small feast this year.  Just the boys and I, Mom and Jim, Michel and Chris, Christian, Emily and cute Paisley.  After dinner, Brody, Case and I hopped in the car and headed to the lovely White Mountain Cinemas to see the movie Bolt.  I actually got to sit and watch the movie thanks to my awesome mom who let Ledger stay at the cabin with her, Thanks Mom!  It was a cute movie. The boys loved it (even though Case cried at the beginning when a bad man captured Bolt and put him in a doggy kennel).  Hope all of you are good and stuffed and enjoyed some time with your family and friends this Thanksgiving.  

It's a Snowy Thanksgiving!

Look what's happening here at the cabin!  It feels more like Christmas then Thanksgiving!  I've never had a snowy Thanksgiving but I have to say, "I Love It!"  We are shooting for a 1:00 Thanksgiving feast and I can hardly wait.  Brody and Sugar made pies yesterday and the turkey is cooking right now.  The cabin smells so good.  I love it here!  

Off To A Rocky Start!

We're off to a rocky start but I'm not letting 3 sick kids ruin my Thanksgiving.  Ledger threw up all night and now has a fever.  Brody and Case are so congested they can hardly function! I'm feeling a little sleepy and smelly after helping little Ledger throw up all night.  I'm so hoping Brody and Case don't start throwing up or even worse...ME!  Since Jeremy isn't here to help me, my poor Mom has been dealing with cleaning up and washing the throw up off sheets and stuffed animals, WAY TO GO SUGAR!  We made a quick trip to Wal Mart today for some feathers and googly eyes to make pine cone turkeys for the big day! Didn't they turn out cute?  It was fun making them! Hope you all are ready for the big feast tomorrow.  Keep your fingers crossed that the throw up is OVER!

We're Here!

Over The River and to the Wood's

The Wood Family Cabin (Sorry Presley, you're name isn't up here yet!)

Our Favorite place to relax...The Cabin!

After a week long countdown, we are finally at the cabin!  We are so excited to spend our Thanksgiving in a place that actually feels like fall (Or winter by the week's end!) We love coming up here to relax, play, and enjoy time together!  I love getting projects done and not having to get cleaned up each day.  I seriously stay in my sweats all day....I love it!  I'll keep you posted on what we do each day but beware, we will not look cute...HaHa!  Have a fun Thanksgiving week!

Oh what to do?

So our Thanksgiving break officially started today at 3:00 when I picked Brody up from Kindergarten.  I am so happy he has all of next week off.  I love having my kiddos home with me!  Speaking of Kindergarten, I am having a little dilema with the school Brody is attending.  It is a great school...nice teachers, nice friends, great academics, but every day when I pick Brody up, he is like a whole different kid.  He is grouchy, moody, unhappy.  He starts yelling at Case and I about random things.  He acts so unhappy!  I've tried talking to him about it, asking lots of questions but he doesn't say much, other then he likes his teachers and friends.  I have really taken his attitude as a sign that he is just not happy.  Is it just his age, or is something going on at school that is making him so stressed out?  I have been feeling like I need to move him to our home school because I think it will be less stressful for him academically and I think he will find that he will have lots of friends there who could play after school and on the weekends.   The problem I am having is that every time I mention going to a new school, Brody gets all sad and says he likes his school and wants to stay there.  I don't know what to do.  I don't want to make him sad or stressed out, but I think if he goes to our home school, he might find he really likes it (or not).  What if I get him to the home school and he hates it, then what? I can't keep moving him everytime he is having a difficult year.  And how do I break it to him that today could have been his last day at his school?  Do I tell him before hand so he can say goodbye to his teachers and friends, or do I just prep him for it all week and then start at the home school after Thanksgiving?  I've thought of putting the "blame" on myself...the drive is too far, Mom wants to be able to help in your class, I want to be able to bring you lunch every once in a while, etc. etc. Oh what to do?  If any of you Bloggers out there have any suggestions for me, let me know.  I'm really stressed about this and need help.  For now I'll keep thinking and praying and hoping I get some kind of feeling on what to do.  

Today was super fun for three boys and a husband!  We came straight home from school and played played played.  Our cute and super sweet friends Jackson and Jefferson came over which was great fun for us.  They rode motorized vehicles, skateboards, bikes... you name it they rode on it!  Then the rest of the neighbors joined us for a neighborhood play date.  To end the afternoon, we jumped in the car and got dinner at El Charro with Bishops.  We had 6 kids (between the ages of 7 and 8 months) and 3 adults trying to eat chips and salsa...you should have seen the looks! When we went to leave, Juli and I had so much rice stuck to our butts that we could have fed our kids lunch for a week! It was hilarious!  It was the perfect start to a Thanksgiving Break!   

By the way, the salad dressing did not go over so well with my Italian dressing kiddos.  They only wanted the same ol' Newman's Own on their salad.  Can I even complain about this...my kids eat salad!  

Salad Dressing Obsession

So today my friend Juli called to ask if Case could come play with her little man.  She ended up keeping him for most of the morning even though I called an hour into the play date to see of she wanted me to come get him.  While Case was gone I had some free time and decided to make some salad dressing to go with my dinner tonight.  Well, I pulled out the ol cook book and went crazy.  I ended up making 3 salad dressings for my little family who probably won't want any of them. (I know, I need to get a hobby!)  I made a Cumin vinaigrette which I'm not so sure about, a Ridgefield dressing that is a really pretty green color, and Thousand Island for my Thousand Island loving husband.   We'll see how well they go over with this boring Italian Dressing family! Stay tuned for the results of my salad dressing kid test.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Sweet Peppers

Red Bell Pepper

(Almost) Orange Bell Peppers

Broccoli

Roma Tomatoes

One of the perks of being a stay at home Mom is being able to do things you've always wanted to do but haven't been able to because of work! Well, I've always wanted to have a garden and I finally DO!  In early October I planted a vegetable garden in the long planter in our backyard.  It is really doing well.  I have lots of varieties of tomatoes, lettuce, onions and peppers.  I also have broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, pole beans, and garlic.  My garden is looking so colorful and yummy!  I love it and can't wait to start eating some of my harvest!  

(If any of you Bloggers out there know how to get rid of ants, let me know!  They are attacking my beans and heading toward my peppers!)

Just Call Me Martha!

O.K. I know what you're thinking...three pictures of bread?  This is not just bread, they are rolls and I made them from scratch TODAY!  Sorry about the horrible pictures but I'm so excited that these actually turned out that I don't even care!  I have been experimenting with bread and roll making and I am really getting good at it!  My house smells so good right now. I just want to make hot chocolate, crank the air down to 50 degrees and wrap up in a blanket.  It smells so "fall like" and yummy!  Sorry you all aren't here to enjoy it, but you're missing out!  Not only do these rolls look good, they taste delicious.  I am seriously so proud of myself right now! Yeah for ME! 

First Love

I've never had a kid who has had any interest in stuffed animals until now.  I'm pretty sure Ledger has found his first love, and it's not ME!  It's Minnie Mouse or MeMe as Ledger calls her!  He sleeps with her and kisses her nose all day long.  He gets so happy and giddy when he's with her.  It's adorable and so funny to see my tough guy act so sweet!  She is pretty cute and I guess for a first crush I can't complain!

It's Veterans Day!

This is my Grandpa, the World War II veteran.  He was a tail gunner in the war. Because he was so small, his job was to sit in the tail of the plane and shoot at the enemy.  He is an amazing person to talk to because of the stories he can still recall about this time in his life.  If you haven't been to his office, you should!  It is a shrine of memories from his war days to his days as Mayor.  My boys were in awe of all his pictures and memorabilia.  It's hard to believe he lived through the war considering his plane was shot down while he was recovering in an army hospital from an earlier gun shot wound. What's even harder to believe is that we are at war right now and that men and women are fighting for us, so that we can enjoy our daily freedoms.  Here's a big thank you to my grandpa and all the other men and women who love our country like I do and want to keep my kids and me safe!  Happy Veterans Day!   

Does It Get Any Better Then This?...I Don't Think So!!

Good Sunday evening to you all! Are we all ready for a new week? 

 Here we go!  Saturday Jeremy took Brody and Case scouting for elk again.  I'm not sure who has more fun on these "guy" outings...the boys or Dad!  The day started at 4:00 a.m. with a long drive to Mormon Lake.  As you can see, the boys saw lots of Elk, or should I say elk rocks, elk logs, and elk trees!  Brody claims to have seen lots of elk but for some reason no one else saw them...weird huh!!  They loved the Ranger ride through the trees and brush as well as eating lunch with their pocket knife fork and spoon.  I have had so much fun hearing about the fun adventures these little hunters had on Saturday.  I'm so happy Jeremy is able to find time to make so many memories with these boys.  They love it and so does he!

Backyard Picnic!

This is the life!  Today the weather finally cooled off so we headed outside for a picnic lunch.  We spread a blanket on the back patio and enjoyed a sandwich, Doritos, apples and  of course juice boxes.  This is exactly what I love about being a stay at home Mom.  I am so lucky!

May The Force Be With You!

Happy Sunday Evening to you all!  Sorry it took me so long to post a couple of pictures from our fun filled Halloween day!  It seems like I've had a "Halloween Hangover" all weekend!  We had the best Halloween ever this year.  I got to help at Brody and Case's Halloween parties during the day and then got to go to Sugars super fun party Halloween night! Sugar sure knows how to throw the parties!  So as you can tell, my boys are obsessed with Star Wars...not good for the Mom who knows nothing about Star Wars!!! Brody decided to be a Trooper, Case was Obi Wan Kenobi, Ledger was Yoda, Jeremy was Darth Vader, and I was Princess Leia (is she the only girl in the movie?)  We had so much fun going down the big slide at Sugar's house and playing with our friends.  The best part of the night was going trick-or-treating in Sugar's house.  That's right, every year Sugar takes the boys trick-or-treating from one candy bowl to the next in her house.  She makes them say, "ding-dong!"  Then she pretends to open a door while the boys yell, "Trick-or-Treat!"  Oh do they think it's fun!!  Can you believe my boys have never actually been trick-or-treating?  They've never asked cause they have so much fun at Sugar's.  They never want to leave...even at 11:00 at night!  I wish Halloween would last another month cause I love it so much!  I'm actually looking forward to Thanksgiving hoping it will bring some cooler fall like weather.  Hope all of you little spooks out there had a great Halloween too!  

So here we are Darth Vader and Princess Leia.  Do you like my wig?  We had so much fun coordinating our costumes to match our Star Wars obsessed boys.  Jeremy's costume looked so real that kids of all ages kept asking him if they could get their picture taken with him.  It was so fun to watch the kids stare at him in amazement.  He was the star of every party we went to.