Ooooooh, Christmas Tree

We put up our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving.  We have an artificial tree, and for the last few years, we have just kept the lights on each section of the tree when storing it. When we put the sections of the tree together and plugged in the lights, they magically worked! We could skip right to the fun part of putting up the ornaments. 

Not this time. 

When we put the sections of the tree together and plugged in the lights....there were about three strands not working. I told the kids they would have to wait for a little while for Preston to fix the lights before we could start putting the ornaments up. Preston unwound the first string and started testing the lights to see which one wasn't plugged in right. After testing nearly every single light on the string, Preston found the broken light and fixed it. He moved on to the next string. This one had quite a few lights that seemed to be causing problems, and he replaced quite a few while I put the little kids down for a nap, promising them that we would wait for them before we started putting up the ornaments. When I came back downstairs, Preston informed me that he was tired of testing lights and wanted to just buy some new strands since they only cost like $3 each. 

Okay. Preston and Arden were off to the store and returned with some brand new strands to replace the two that were still broken plus an extra one. He quickly put them on the tree and plugged in the lights....now a different strand wasn't working.

Preston started talking to himself in an unknown language (rickinfrickinfrackinstupidlights). My dad used to speak this same language on Christmas tree day!! Preston tried to unwind this strand, but it seemed to be wrapped around branches that weren't right next to each other and he was having a reallly hard time unwinding it. His unknown-language-talking got louder.

Next thing I knew, Preston had SCISSORS. I sweetly asked him if it was a good idea to cut wires with scissors while they are plugged in. He said he needed them to be plugged in so he could tell which strand he was trying to cut off the tree. He also told me that they cut all the lights down from Temple Square every year instead of unwinding them. I helpfully pointed out that they are probably not plugged in while they are cutting. He mumbled something about rubber coating and made his first cut. Nothing exciting seemed to happen, so I shrugged my shoulders and let him continue. The little kids were waking up by now and wanted a snack. I was peeling them an orange when I glanced over at Preston just in time to see him cut a wire that apparently was from the wrong strand, because a beautiful shower of sparks came from the cut wire and landed on the ground. 

Luckily, Preston was fine...or at least he wasn't physically hurt. But now he had ANOTHER strand that obviously needed to be unwound from the tree and replaced. He was not a happy camper. I had to go out to the garage to take out the garbage sack, and while I was in the garage, I heard Preston give an "AARRRRGHHH!" so loud that I heard it clearly. It was so funny, I couldn't help laughing all the way back into the house. He got all the strands off the tree and delegated putting the new lights up to me. I got them on, and we plugged in the lights....now a different strand wasn't working!  

I just took that strand off the tree and called it good.

So, about four hours after we first plugged in the lights, we got to put up the ornaments! Yay!

Ahhhhh...these memories that will last a lifetime.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving has come and gone. It was so great! We got to have Thanksgiving dinner twice this year...once at Preston's mom's house last Sunday, and again at my mom's house on the day itself. Lots of turkey was eaten, and I can't tell you how much pie I had. (I love pie, have I mentioned? I just polished off another piece right before doing this post. Oh well...I will be good starting January 1st!) I even got to watch quite a bit of football while Grandma and Grandpa and various aunts and uncles helped keep the kids entertained. The kids aren't football fans yet, but someday I hope they will be. Although, Dax does appreciate a good tackle and will watch longer than the girls. Which is about 30 seconds. Anyway.... 

Since we didn't have to do dinner at our house, Thanksgiving is a holiday that takes minimal effort on my part, which I LOVE. But sometimes it seems like it gets skipped over because it is such a low-key holiday. 

That is, UNLESS you are in kindergarten. 

They do Thanksgiving for the whole month of November! Arden loved it. I gotta admit, I was pretty suprised that Arden got to do a lot of the same Thanksgiving crafts in her kindergarten class that I remember doing in school when I was little. I thought for sure that in this politically correct world that there was no way that Arden would be bringing home some of this stuff! All month, Arden has been known as "Dancing Cloud," which is her supercool Native American name. She made bowls with clay, made necklaces with little beads (and macaroni), and check out her sa-weet grocery bag vest and feather headband:

Awesome. I remember making this same vest. Love kindergarten! I can't wait to see what they do for Christmas.

Dear Santa

Dear Santa -

First of all, love you!  Love.  I invoke your name at least a couple of times a day now that Christmas is approaching.  I gotta admit, "Remember, Santa won't bring you any presents if you are naughty!" is working a lot better than "Because I said so!"  However....

I had no idea how many details of your life I am supposed to be familiar with.  I really could use a study guide or something if you have one.  In years past, I got by on the basics pretty well. (You know, Santa is that guy beard with the white who lives at the North Pole and brings presents on Christmas Eve, but only if you are good.)  All the information I needed could be found in "The Night Before Christmas" or "Santa Claus is Comin' To Town."  But this year, Arden is five years old, and she wants a little more info.  And, if I don't know the answer to a question, she looks at me like I must be some kind of idiot.  So, if you could please answer the following questions for me, I would really appreciate it:

• What is Mrs. Santa Claus' first name?
• Do you have any kids?  If so, how many?  How old are they?  Any grandkids?
• What do the reindeer eat?
• Do you have any pets?
• Do you help the elves make the toys, or do you just oversee their work?
• How exactly do you know if the kids are being naughty or nice?  (I tried to tell her that the elves sneak around and watch the kids and then report back to you, but that only led to about a hundred more questions about why she has never seen an elf in our house and what she should do if she finds one in her bed)

There are lots, more, but I can't remember them right now...just send the study guide and hopefully it will answer them all.

By the way, Arden is being very nice!  Cora is pretty good too (for the most part).  Dax is having a little bit harder time lately.  Just for an example:  He didn't take a nap today, which always causes his "naughty vs. nice" judgement to be a little off for the rest of the day.  Right around the time he should have been waking up from his refreshing nap, he was running circles around the ottoman in the family room.  Lots of circles.  Then he ran past me and into the playroom, where I didn't hear any sounds for a couple of minutes.  Uh-oh.  Sure enough, Dax had had a little accident.  I quickly rushed him off to the bathroom so he could finish what he had started.   I ran upstairs to get a change of pants, and on my way I noticed that Cora was up from her nap.  I went into her room to get her and noticed she needed her diaper changed, so I started working on that.

As I was finishing up with Cora's diaper, Arden ran up the stairs and said to me, "Mom, you better come down and look at the bathroom.  Uhhhhhhh-oooooooh. 

The bathroom....was flooded.  Dax had apparently emptied the entire roll of toilet paper into the toilet and then flushed it as many times as he possibly could.  I grabbed the towels off the rack and started mopping it up, but there was a LOT of water.  I grabbed my sweet little boy and took him up to his room and told him he better stay in there, grabbed about six more towels out of the closet and ran back downstairs.  I fixed up the toilet and then Arden helped me wipe up the huge mess.  I ran back upstairs and started putting the towels in the washer.  Right about this time, I heard a huge "BANG!" coming from Daxton's room.  What the Wha???

After I got the washer on, I went to investigate.  He had taken his laundry hamper and thrown it against the wall, and it was now broken in several places.  As I sat down to see if I could fix it, I told Daxton that when I was done I was going to call you on the phone and let you know what he had been up to (as if you didn't already know).  Arden.  Was.  Horrified.  She begged me not to call you, Santa, little tears forming in her eyes at the thought of her brother on the dreaded Naughty List.   She ran out of the room while I finished fiddling with the hamper, but I soon gave up trying to fix it.  I went to see where Arden had gone, and I found her in her closet, trying to hide every phone in the house so that I would not be able to call you.  I laughed so hard, it almost made me forget how angry I was at Daxton.  But not quite. 

I brought Arden and Dax downstairs and found Cora coloring on her new shirt with a permanent marker that I had asked Arden to put away earlier....but that is another story.  And FYI, Dax was a VERY good boy for the rest of the day.

So, dear Santa, Dax is running at about 51% naughty, 49% nice right now, but hopefully with enough reminders about your imminent visit, those percentages will change significantly in favor of the "nice" before you give your list that final check. 

See you soon!  Love,

Chrystie

P.S. I will be looking forward to the answers to my above questions.  As soon as possible.  Please.
P.P.S. I have been a very good girl this year!  Are your elves good at making boots?

Arden's Crazy Wall

Arden loves to draw and color. A while ago she asked me if she could hang up some pictures on her wall. I said sure. Now her wall looks like this:The first time I saw it, it kind of freaked me out a little. Doesn't it look like those walls that the crazy people always have on TV? You know, someone appears totally normal all during the show, until the police get into their house and find their walls all covered with paper like this (usually all pictures or articles about the person/thing they are obsessed with), and then everyone who just found it looks at each other sideways as if to say, "Wow. Obviously only a crazy person would have put all this stuff up on a wall like this." But, since the pictures are of a variety of subjects (unicorns, bunnies, flowers, rainbows), I guess I won't worry.

Arden's other new favorite thing is to steal my iPod and dance around with headphones on. Here are some pictures that are a little bit blurry because of the dancing.

She sings with the headphones on too. It was hilarious. But sometimes she gets a little excited about the dancing and drops my iPod. Okay, a lot of times. Now it has a couple of little black lines across the top of the screen. I wonder where Preston's iPod is? :-)

First Snow!

We got our first real big snow last weekend. The kids were so excited to go out and play in it, it (almost) made me excited about the snow too. I took my slowly dying camera outside, and here were some of my favorite pictures:

My little angel making a snow angel! She was really good at waving her arms around, but not so good at the feet. Her angels are just wearing pants.

My three little snow buddies, rolling around in the white stuff:

Daxton, trying to see if tackling still works in the snow. It does.

Daxton's favorite thing was trying to throw snowballs at me. Unfortunately for him, I was much faster at making snowballs and was winning our little snowball war pretty convincingly. Before long, though, this cute little guy talked me into making snowballs for HIM so that he could throw them back at ME.

Another snow angel making snow angels. Arden is pretty good at these! I tried to take a picture of one of her better ones, but it just looked like a blank white screen. You will have to just trust me on this.

Cora picked out this snow hat herself. I don't know why she wanted a lamb on her head, but I decided that if she is willing to wear a snow hat, I will just have to deal with it:

Dax actually has two monster hats to choose from, but he of course, likes the green one best. Such a cute little monster!

We tried to make a snowman, but the snow was too powdery. We wanted to go sledding down the front yard, but the power was out and so we couldn't get the sleds out of the garage because our automatic garage doors wouldn't open (and I didn't want to go all the way through the house, trekking snow all the way, to go get them). So we threw snowballs, looked at snowflakes, made an army of snow angels, and slid down our backyard slide (which is much faster when you are wearing snow pants) and just ran around until we were wet and cold.

Then we came inside, and took off our coats, hats, gloves, snow pants, boots, etc. I forgot what a mess all this wintertime stuff can make! I am doomed to a messy entryway for the next 5 months. *sigh* I consoled myself in a big mug of my first hot chocolate of the season. Hot chocolate is awesome because I like it HOT and the kids are too afraid of hot things to beg me to share with them.

Hopefully this snow will melt and we can get back to some of that cool, sunny fall weather that I was enjoying so much. Christmas has already taken over the stores early, so hopefully the Christmas-y weather can wait its turn!

Halloween 2011!

Well, Halloween 2011 is in the books, and it was a GREAT one. The weather was perfect, the kids all had a great time, and now we are ROLLING in the candy.

First of all, here are the all-important costumes. Arden was Rapunzel from Tangled, of course. She actually did get a wig with her costume, but it was so messy and tangled (no pun intended) that I told her she should just use her real hair, which was only a teeny bit shorter than the wig anyway. Luckily, she agreed pretty easily, so here is my pretty blond princess: Cora pulled double duty costumes this year. Here is her nice, warm, Trick-or-Treat costume. In case you can't tell, she is a cupcake with a cherry on top. I just want to eat her!

Can anyone guess what Dax wanted to be? Anyone? Shockingly, he wanted to be a T-Rex. Here he is! He didn't like to have his hood on, but you get the idea:

I took about 10 pictures of all three kids, hoping that one would turn out with all three of them looking at the camera and smiling. No such luck. Here is two out of three, which is the best I could do. I am not sure what Corbie is doing...smiling really hard? Oh well.

Preston kind of slacked out in the costume department this year. Here he is, wearing his "I'm Evil" shirt, which he said WAS his costume. And Cora is wearing her "other" costume, which is Tinkerbell. She really wanted to be Tinkerbell using Arden's costume from a couple years ago, so she wore this costume to the Zaugg family party and to Preston's work party.  She makes an adorable Tinkerbell, but that costume isn't warm enough for trick-or-treats, and it is hard to put a jacket on over those wings:

This year, I was Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas:

Here is a picture Arden took of me and the little kids. I LoVe HaLlOwEeN!

After we got back from Preston's work party, where we ate pizza and donuts and got a head start on the candy, Dax and Cora took a nap (sort of).  After that we were off trunk-or-treating over at the church parking lot. Preston feels STRONGLY that old fashioned, real life, door-to-door trick-or-treating is an essential part of the Halloween experience, so even though we had TONS of candy from trunk-or-treats, Preston took the kids around trick-or-treating too.

Arden asked me why Dad is always the one who takes them trick-or-treating.  The truth is, Preston has been looking forward to these golden Trick-or-Treating years for a long time.  During those Halloweens before Arden finally came into our lives, Preston would dream about the Halloweens to come when he would finally get to be a dad and take the kids around trick-or-treating.  He loves doing it, and I don't mind staying at home and watching not-too-scary movies in the temporary peace and quiet.  This year was perfect for trick-or-treating.  Clear skies, a crescent moon, and nice warm weather.  The kids didn't have to wear their coats over their costumes or anything!  It was awesome.

While the trick-or-treaters were out gathering candy, I took a picture of our 2011 Zaugg family pumpkins:

Preston's is the big smiley one, and mine is the white ghost one. Daxton, predictably, wanted a dinosaur (specifically, T-Rex) face on his pumpkin, but I wasn't quite sure how to do that, but I did my best. Cora wanted a spooky little pumpkin, and Arden drew the smiley face for her pumpkin herself.  

Cora had a hard time understanding why we couldn't go trick-or-treating again tonight.

Can't wait for next year!