What is a girl to do?

What is the average life of a pair of nylons for you guys? Mine used to last quite a while, but the last year or so I have only been able to wear them once or twice before they are looking thrashed.

The real problem is little shoes that snag and rip the material while little people climb all over my lap throughout Sacrament Meeting.

I bought three pairs of nylons at the beginning of the month and every single one has either a run or a hole and most of the time both. Are there any indestructable nylons out there that are actually affordable? If not I may have to start wearing tights indefinitly because bare legs aren't cute in the winter (for me at least).

It's that time of year again!

MEME

I've been hit by Ms. Kristen.....so here it goes!

ABC Tag, Watch out you might be next!!

A- Attached or Single? Happily Attached

B- Best Friend? Jer, and too many names to list, I take the forever in BFF quite literally.

C- Cake or Pie? Coconut cream pie is a serious weakness.

D- Day of Choice? Fridays

E- Essential Item? clothing

F- Favorite color? RED

G- Gummy Bears or Worms? Worms

H- Hometown? Edgewood, NM (slightly east of ABQ for the rest of you)

I- Favorite Indulgence- Full body massages

J- January or July? July hands down.

K- Kids? Two for now

L- Life isn't complete without? crazy kids and an understanding husband to rescue me.

M- Marriage Date? May 19, 2000

N- Number of Brothers and Sisters? 1 bro and 7 sisters

O- Oranges or apples? oranges (especially when they are Julius'd)

P- Phobias or fears? driving off a bridge or being a widow for 20 years after Jer has croaked

Q- Quote? “The secret to having it all is believing that you already do."

R- Reason to smile? Our home is filled with love and laughter.

S- Season of choice? Fall

T- Tag three friends or family. I'm going to continue with a theme. I was tagged by Ms. Kristen so in turn I will tag Kristen, Kristen, and Kristen (they are all different, I promise)

U- Unknown fact about me? My BFF April and I "borrowed" the family station wagon when we were 14 and she accidentally drove it into the side of her house. Luckily we found a bucket of pre-mixed stucco and patched it up nicely, or so we thought.

V- Vegetable? Summer Squash

W- Worst habit? Never saying no... and procrastinating like none other. These two do NOT go hand in hand.

X- X-ray or ultrasound? I've never had and x-ray so lets say ultrasound!

Z- Zodiac sign? Gemini

Randomly Random

* I got a new calling in the ward. Primary Pianist. This will be my 3rd time performing this calling during my married life and I'm excited to do it again (especially because I <3 the chorister).

* Jeremy and I did the Cable Bridge Run last Saturday. It was fun despite the facts: my time stunk, and Jeremy beat me. I immediately called Jessica in the car on the way home to inform her I need her as my pace setter in future races.

* I got a serious set of new pots and pans from Santa. The previous set were the $40 set from Wal*mart that we purchased with some leftover wedding money... it was time to upgrade.

* My tree is still up. A few other people have said their is already down. Does anyone keep theirs up till New Year's, or is that just a crazy tradition my family had???

Question

If you were dropping your child off for me to watch (this is all hypothetical, of course) and upon handing me the baby I politely say to you "I think he might be stinky."

Would you:

a) change the obviously neglected and seriously potent diaper

or

b) in one breath say, "Oh he must have done that on the way over here. I have to run and go get in the shower."

I'm just wondering...

Google Reader

For those of you who have asked, I don't think google reader will update you to new posts on my family blog since it is private... so you'll just have to check there periodically. Unless there is someone who knows something I don't- and if so, PLEASE share!

The Great Escape

Holiday Photos

The Holiday Tradition continues, complete with homemade dresses and vests.

Feliz Mommy Dog

Kaden has been asking me to post his favorite Christmas song on the blog. If you get a chance to come over and hear him sing along with this you won't be disappointed. Feliz Navidad!

Tis the Season for Stuffing

Last Sunday we had our church meetings beinging at 11 am. Truly a miraculous event for our family. However, I found myself with a load of extra time that afternoon that I wasn't sure what to do with. So, I began baking.

I made one of our family's favorite desserts and since it makes an 12x18 pan, I decided to invite a few friends over to enjoy it. Well, only one family could make it. But between us 4 adults and 3 kids half of the pan was consumed that evening- and I'm not exaggerating. The other half didn't make it much further. I think it was devoured by Tuesday afternoon...

So I thought I would share one of the many seasonal treats we enjoy in our home with you!

Pumpkin Dessert

1 can pumpkin (or 3 cups fresh)

1 can evaporated milk

3 tsp pumpkin pie spice

3 eggs

1 tsp salt

1 cup sugar

1 yellow cake mix

1 cup melted butter

chopped nuts (I use pecans or walnuts)

Mix together first six ingredients. Pour into a greased 12x18 pan. Sprinkle yellow cake mix on top and pour melted butter over. Top with chopped nuts. Bake at 350 for 35 mins. If you don't have a 12x18 pan this can be made in a 9x13 with the baking time increased to about an hour.

Top this with freshly whipped cream and you will be in heaven, guaranteed!

Trimming the Tree

Seriously, does it get any cuter? She was totally playing the French Horn!

WANTED: Some Creative Juices

My creative juices aren't flowing so well, but my friends seem to have no problem in that department. Here you will find a SHAMELESS (those are her words, not mine) yet GUT-BUSTING post that will reveal to you one of the many reasons I'm proud to call her a bloggin buddy.

And now on to "Vern's" blog...

Christmas Miracles

If you haven't heard the wonderful news ...

The New Face of Desperate

Have you ever gone back to the movie store in your pajama's and slippers to exchange a movie because you didn't bother looking to see what it was rated? That was me Saturday night. After watching about 15 minutes of the movie Jeremy turned to me and said "What is this rated?"

Totally mortified I said I didn't check, so I had no idea. I just remember we both said it looked like a good movie when we saw the trailer in the theater.

So I headed out the door with receipt in hand. Needless to say, the people looked at me like I was crazy when I asked if I could exchange the movie because I didn't bother looking at the rating before I rented it. Especially since that is "not their policy." Ok, yeah, whatever can I just return this movie I rented 3 hours before because I promise I didn't watch it.

And normally I wouldn't have even done that since we get all our movies free with our online subscription, but this one I ACTUALLY had to pay for... so there was no way I was losing my 5 bucks.

SO, here's forewarning. Check the ratings.... otherwise you'll look like a crazy PJ wearing housewife with nothing better to do on Saturday nights than try to get a two-fer-one on the movie renting.

Christmas Tree Hunt

This year was a family first. We decided to cut our own tree. We found a place just north of Pasco that lets you do this. It was a lot harder finding a good tree than I think we all anticipated. In the end Kaden chose which tree we should bring home and I think he did a great job.

We had to go later in the evening and it was really dark, but Kaden and Brynnlee both loved shining their flashlights all around. When it was all said and done I asked Kaden if he had fun. He said, "Yeah, but next year let's just go to Fred Meyer."

"I think we should get this one."

Jeremy with the saw.

Little helpers make the job more fun.

Two trees CAN fit up there.

Baby, Oh Baby

If you want to read what I have dubbed as

THE FUNNIEST BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENT ON THE PLANET

click here.

I'm so glad I know these people in real life- because it doesn't get any better than this. I wonder if Jared will consider writing my Christmas Letter for me this year. It would be so much more entertaining than what I'm gonna slap on paper.

Glimmering Moment

Last night as I was driving one of the YW home we were talking about the very different dynamics of our new ward opposed to our old ward. For a 15 almost 16-year old she had some serious depth in her observations and thoughts. I listened and was so amazed at how she has grown up in the last few years since was one of "my beehives". I complimented her on her maturity and the strength of her ever growing testimony. And you know what she said??

"It's because I had great leaders, starting with you."

These are the moments when you look back and say that all the time, effort, planning, running around, organizing and in general being crazy while in Young Women's is worth it. Those tender mercies are what give me the strength and determination to keep going even when I think I have nothing left to give. Maybe I'll tell the Bishop to sign me up for another 4 years... maybe.

Christmas Cheer

I still need to write our Christmas Letter.... I'm considering using this one and just changing the names. It pretty much parallels our life, don't you think?

Dear Friend,

It is that time of year again to share with you our adventures in this journey we call life. 2007 has been another year of magic and wonder...

Lori almost 3, is quite a talker. She continues to amaze the professors at the University with her intuition in foreign languages. It was fun for her to serve as Official Translator for Warren Christopher at the Bosnian-Serbian Peace Talks. She intends to spend this Holiday transcribing War and Peace into Arabic and Cantonese.

Chris, now 5, is growing in leaps and bounds. When he got his first set of building blocks he seemed quite interested in large buildings. This year he designed his first skyscraper and ground was broken in Hong Kong for the new "Little Man" Towers. It is great to have a budding architect at home as he made a new addition to the house and a wonderful gazebo for our garden. Martha Stewart will be filming her next show here in April.

Betsy had a very busy year. In between her work as President of the American Cancer Society and Senior Partner of Goldman Sachs, she introduced a line of children's novels and hand made active-wear. She remains occupied with the children and has introduced them to Yoga and power walking this year. We are particularly proud of Mom as a starting forward representing the United States in the World Cup.

Dave was immersed with his Graduate School studies, and managed to co-author a paper on Multidimensional Customer Attribute Analysis by Conjoint Survey and accept a Nobel Prize for his discoveries in Quantum Physics. Along the way Dave took three startups through their IPO. We are proud of his work serving on the Board of Directors of IBM, Coca-Cola, and Walt Disney.

Dad was also active with the kids teaching Lauren Ballet and helping to lower Chris' handicap to 5. We were able to squeeze a little traveling in this year. We started in Aspen, went to Belarus, the Congo, Denmark, Ethiopia, the Falklands, Greenland, Holland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Venezuela, and Zaire. Our trip sailing our new boat around the world was a great experience for the kids, we learned to communicate with Dolphins and discovered a new region of deep water volcanoes.

And Sergeant, our German shepherd, learned to speak. Latin. Other than that, it was a very quiet year. So from our household to yours, all the Blessings of the Season and may your New Year be prosperous. We found out yesterday that we won the $150 Million Powerball Lottery.

The Wannabes,
Betsy, Dave, Chris & Lori

Excitement is in the Air

I'm so excited that Lins' new bundle of joy most likely will be sporting PINK! I so can't wait to get to the hospital and see her "chubber cheeks".

Snow Day

Making History...

Our Bishop mentioned quite a few times yesterday that we were "making history".... ya know because its a brand spankin' new ward. I get it, and I think it's cool. There were lots of firsts yesterday.

However, I wish I didn't have make history by being "the first mother to haul her screaming child out of the otherwise reverent 1st EVER 9th Ward Sacrament meeting."

Not So Familiar

I thought that I wouldn't totally feel akward going to church, because I knew most of 3rd ward already.

WRONG.

I think there were 4 families from 3rd that looked familiar... and since our ward is like 1/4 old 6th and 3/4 old 3rd it was a really weird place to be yesterday.

But, I'm excited. I was invited to ward council yesterday and I was so impressed with our new bishop, actually everyone. I can't wait to get the ball rolling in our new ward.

In other news, I have been officially replaced in my 6th ward calling... which is sort of weird cuz I'm still doing it in our new ward. I was so sad when I heard the news. I really am replaceable. :)

Puter Boken

In case you don't have a two year old to translate..... our computer is at Best Buy awaiting some technical love. Who knows when it will be back or when I'll get to post again (I'm currently posting on Jer's work computer...)

So, if you feel like you are missing me.... my phone still works, as does my front door.

PS we are in 9th ward, and love that our bishopric is all comprised of 30- somethings, well technically the whole ward probably.

I'm excited to get back with the OLD 6th warders.. should be fun, right?