December is flying by

We've been keeping busy, as I'm sure all of you are, too. We've baked a ton of cookies, gone to fun parties and loved getting Christmas cards in the mail. We've shopped and danced to our favorite holiday tunes in a kitchen that can actually fit us all!
Trent started basketball and he's on the Bull's. They've had a rough start to the season, but we're hoping it gets better after the break.

He's in the blue shorts.

Elise turned 7 on the ninth, and unfortunately came home from school early not feeling so well. Here's how we started the day, with her opening presents:

Here's how we ended the day, with her cake:

I took her to the doctor the next day and she had strep throat. She was miserable, and I was so happy the antibiotics started working right away. I am always so thankful for modern medicine when my kids are sick. I don't know how those pioneer women did it.
Here we are baking gingerbread men on Sunday. I've tried lots of new recipes this Christmas, some winners and some 'thanks, but don't make those again, mom.' I think we'll pass on these next year, but the kids had a great time. Rachel just thought it was playdough. Hailey was at a youth activity, so she missed all the fun.

I'm excited for my brother Kristopher to come down on Thursday and spend Christmas with us. It will just be us this year, which is a little weird, but it'll be good. To say the kids are looking forward to Christmas morning is a huge understatement, and I can't wait to see their faces that morning.

Merry Christmas to you and yours, and I hope you enjoy your holiday, like I know I will mine.

And here's a little extra I had to throw in. Rachel has been coming up with the best fashion statements lately, and here is what she treated us to tonight:

Halloween '09

Hailey looked at me in shock when I said I hadn't posted our Halloween pictures, so I'm being a good mom and getting them up, finally.

Greg and I were invited to an awesome couples party and we had to come as a famous TV or movie couple. We had a blast that night!

Group shot before they all took off.

Our UPS Driver. Can you see who the package is going to?

The best Transformer money can buy, Bumblebee.

Our pretty ballerina.

Cuter than Christian Bale.

Pablo the Backyardigan. She was supposed to be Cinderella but freaked out when I put the dress on her. Luckily Elise suggested Seth's old costume, and she was very happy. She loves the Backyardigans! Her favorite phrase is now, "I go trick or treat with Daddy! I Pablo! I like candy!", said in the cutest voice you've ever heard.

It was a Beautiful Day

I haven't posted in a month, and I'm sorry, Mom! Life has been insane and there is a lot I need to record, so I'll just get to it.
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October 23rd will now be known as U2 Day in our home. That is the day Greg and I went to see them in Vegas and there will never be another concert to top it. Our friends Ken and Katie Craig live in Vegas, so after meeting up with them, we headed to Sam Boyd Stadium. Our new best friend Jason had been waiting in line for all of us since noon. We had general admission tickets, so when the gates finally opened at 6 pm, it was mayhem, everyone running across the field, trying to get the best positions. This is the set up of the stage. Click on it to appreciate how massive it was.

Well, we ended up in the inner circle, about ten rows of people in front of us, and three behind us. On the picture above, see the person on the left side of the screen, inside the circle? We were a little bit closer than that. Perfect!

This is Ken. He and Greg have been friends since their freshman year at BYU. They had seen U2 in Vegas in '92, fresh off their missions; they had a lot of fun rehashing that night and complaining about how old they've gotten.

The Black Eyed Peas opened the show, and they were good. Not really my kind of music, but compared to most opening acts, they didn't suck. That Fergie can sing, even when she is singing about blankets.

The lights went out and the spectacle began. We were treated to songs from their new album, as well as classics. They played for 2 hours and they were amazing. There were two bridges that rotated, allowing the band to reach the outer circle. When the bridge stopped, where were we?

Yes, that is Bono. (It's not the best recording, but you can see how close we were.) The Edge also played a solo on 'End of the World', right above us. We could see the bracelets on his arms, the insane way his hands moved as he played. When we turned around to face the outer circle, you felt like you could reach out and touch them. Larry played bongo drums around the circle and it was great to see him out from behind the drums. Bono's commentary was great and they even incorporated bits of Coldplay and The Killers songs into theirs, as both Chris Martin and Brandon Flowers were there that night. Bono also pulled up a teenager from the audience, running around the circle with him and giving him his sunglasses afterwards. Talk about a memory that kid will have forever! By the end of the night I had no voice, and we couldn't hear properly for three days afterwards.

There are not enough adjectives to describe this show.Two nights afterwards they had their live YouTube show at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. It was the same show we saw. If you didn't see it, here is a link to the highlights of that show. (Though they left off some of my fav live ones; Mysterious Ways and Elevation, to name a few.) But it gives you an idea of the scope of it.

http://www.u2.com/news/title/rrrtest#

This pretty much sums it up.

Translation: "I'm so happy!"

Misc.

*I love the way Rachel throws her arms around my neck to give me a hug. It is so full of love, and she squeals when she does it. Sometimes it's like she's taken all the energy she has and throws it out at once, and I'm the lucky recipient.

*We have been here long enough now to say that we love our new ward. It's full of nice-fun-crazy people with problems, just like us!

*It's supposed to be 80 degrees today.

*Even though it's part of their daily chores, some of my kids still freak out when I ask them to unload their portion of the dishwasher. I have this conversation at least once a day: "Do you realize that if you just did it, you'd be done in a minute; instead of throwing yourself on the ground and causing a scene, which takes about five minutes to get over, and just makes me mad." (My portion of the conversation is usually said at a high volume to be heard over the wailing.)

* "It's not rocket science anymore, hon." -Greg
"What isn't?" -Me
"Figuring you out." -Greg

The Big 1-3

Well, even though I asked her not to, Hailey went ahead and turned 13 last Saturday. What's a mom to do? Throw her a surprise 13th birthday party, I guess! Since we went to see the Jonas Brothers in concert in August, it was understood that she wouldn't be having a party or presents this year. She was OK with that, and she knew that was the deal when we bought the tickets. But as her b-day grew closer, I started feeling bad. This is 1-3. A big one. So Elise suggested on the 13th that we throw her a surprise party and it was chaos from that moment on.

I figured this was the last year I could get away with a big theme, and so I decided to go with Project Runway. Hailey loves fashion design, and even wants to major in it in college. So I bought a bunch of fabric, and on the invitations I asked each girl to bring an old piece of clothing that they could redesign. Here's what the family room looked like. (It was 1 am when I did the poster, and you can tell! It had glitter all over it, you can't see it in the photo.)

So the day had been pretty boring for Hailey. She didn't complain, but I know she was going a little crazy. Greg took her to get a treat at 4 pm, and I then went crazy trying to get everything decorated before her friends arrived at 5:30 pm. The plan was for me to stand near the garage door and when she walked in I'd say "Hi hon!", and then they'd jump out. Her friends were so cute, totally excited to be surprising her. She walked in the door and she says she saw the streamers I'd hung up and thought "Oh that's nice." And then everyone jumped out, and she screamed "AHHH!" and ran and hugged one of the girls. It was so fun to see her totally surprised. Here's right afterwards, I forgot to have the camera out when she first got there:

l to r (back): Kenzie, Miranda, Raquel,Becca
front: Abby (her cousin), Hailey

I explained to her what we were doing and she was so excited. Everyone worked on their clothes while we had the Jonas Brothers playing, of course, and while we let the hot glue dry we had dinner. Since she didn't know about the party, she had picked Yoshida chicken and rice for dinner. Not wanting to tell her that really isn't party food, and she's not a big fan of pizza, we went ahead and made a big batch.

Kenzie, Miranda, Becca and Raquel

Abby checking out the fabric; hot gluing their clothes

After dinner we opened presents. Her friends said it was easy to buy for her, with her JoBros obsession. She scored!

Miranda's cute wrapping paper; Jonas flip flops

Two Jonas bags! How is she going to choose???

She also got a gift certificate for a manicure, some yummy popcorn and soda and a cute necklace Abby made for her. After presents, it was time for the fashion show. The girls got on their clothes, and accessorized with hats, shoes and bags. I asked my neighbor Sherie to come be one of our celebrity judges, and Greg had to ham it up as the other judge, of course.

He was in full-on 'designer' mode, if you know what I mean. He was hilarious! Each of the girls came down the runway and modeled their outfits, and they then came out together. Greg asked each of them about their outfits, what their motivations were, and basically just made them laugh. We had three categories for prizes: wearability, creativity and overall look.

Miranda and Becca

Raquel and Kenzie

The back of Abby and Hailey

The winners were Kenzie (wearability), Miranda (creativity) and Abby (overall). They wanted to pick Hailey for wearability, but since it was her party, they decided not to.
After this we ate eclair squares and it was time to go home. I'm glad Hailey has found a nice group of girls to hang out with here. She misses her friends in Lehi so much, but is getting more and more acclamated to life down south.
It was fun to surprise her with this party, and she swears she had no idea. Later that night she started piecing clues together saying, "So when you told me you were delivering stuff for scouts, was that when you took the invitations around?" etc. And then we laughed at how many times the secret was almost blown.
I am so lucky to be her mom, and I hope this year brings her great joy. She brings it to me each day, just by being herself. Thanks Hailey, for being such an amazing daughter.

A teenager is coming

I am going to have a teenager on Saturday. How did that happen? I just found out I was pregnant with her a few months back. Six weeks ago I felt her kick for the first time . I found out she was a girl last month. A couple of weeks ago she kicked my sciatic nerve and made me fall down the stairs. And just yesterday they placed her in my arms. So why does she keep saying she's turning 13?

Six months, pork and a confession

-We've been here in St George for six months now, I can hardly believe it. It feels more like home than I ever thought it would. I've gotten used to the red mountains instead of green ones. That's not to say that I prefer the red, I've just grown accustomed to the lack of greenery around here. It really is pretty in it's own way. How can you not be blown away when you drive through Zions Park? (I didn't take this picture.) It's finally started to cool down, and it's been an awesome 80 degrees the last few days.

-It's Conference weekend (when we get to listen to our Prophet and church leaders) and it's always a challenge to keep the little ones from not going crazy. This year I brought the little table into the family room and had coloring for the kids to do, along with some yummy treats if they'd be quiet so we could listen. It lasted for about half an hour. Thank goodness for TiVo.

-I found this fantastic recipe for Cafe Rio sweet pork, and it's very close to the real thing. (Cafe Rio is an awesome mexican restaurant that charges way too much for their food. Though it's worth it.) I also found the salad dressing, and it's the best I've tried so far. Only make these if you're prepared to have your husband say 'This is freaking awesome!' at least a dozen times during dinner. It makes a lot of pork, so you'll need to freeze some. I've used it for burritos, salads and quesadillas.

Cafe Rio sweet pork
Marinade a pork roast in a can of Coke overnight. (Do not use diet.)
Put in crock pot with Coke and cook on low for 8 hours. Drain off any liquid after cooking.
Shred pork and add:
1 can enchilada sauce
2 cloves minced garlic
3/4 small can diced chiles (you can add the whole thing, we just don't like chilies that much.)
1 cup brown sugar

Let cook for another hour, then it's done!

http://realmomkitchen.blogspot.com/2008/05/lauras-version-of-cafe-rio-sweet-pork.html

Cafe Rio House Salad Dressing

1 pkg Hidden Valley ranch dressing mix
8 oz salsa verde
2 med garlic cloves
3/4 cup mayo
3/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup fresh cilantro
fresh lime to taste (I used about 1/4 of one)

Mix in blender. Needs to chill for several hours before serving. It's thick, so you can thin it with buttermilk if you want, but we like it like this.

-Confession: There are times I want to sell my kids. Does that make me a bad Mom?

This week

In the Poulton house this week:
-H went to a marathon birthday party and made some totally cute flip flops. Yes, made them. I'm not intimidated to throw a party here or anything now.

-T went to day camp for scouts and totally loved it. He came home smelly and dirty, just like you would expect.
-E had picture day and was very excited to wear a new dress for it. (Or new to her. Thankfully she still thinks hand-me-downs are cool.)
-S made some kickin' applesauce at preschool. I got to help in his class that day and it was really fun to see him interacting with his new friends.
-R dumped an entire canister of pepper onto her plate while I was dishing up dinner. I was laughing so hard she probably thinks it's ok to do it again!

-Dad worked very hard in the yard and garage yesterday and the place looks fantastic. He also groaned a lot with football scores, but cheered when UW beat USC. Go Huskies!
-I..... What did I do? Supervised the chaos. Took the dog to get a bath. Washed 15 loads of laundry after the kids decided it was time to get their winter clothes out. Never mind that it's still 90+ degrees outside, they were tickled to be trying on turtlenecks again. Made umpteen meals and did the dishes too many times. Was happy to have my hubby home for the weekend, not just because of how hard he worked yesterday, but because it feels better when he's here. Read 'Austenland' again, and liked it even more the second time. Anything else? Ah yes. Some gory things you don't want to know about. :)
Hope your week was as good and eventful as mine!

Thoughts from a Mom

I always knew I would love my kids, but I had no idea how in love with them I'd be. Does that make sense? I didn't know that a simple smile would melt my heart, or that their laughter could make my heavy heart a little lighter. That an "I love you Mommy" would be all the payment I would need at the end of the day. That spending Saturday night playing Go Fish, being skunked by a four year old, would be such a blast.

How blessed I am to have so much love in my life. There are those that struggle their entire lives to have what I got without even trying. I should know better than to question the Lord and what He has planned for me. He has given me more joy than I knew it was possible to have. More love than I knew one heart could hold. I am going to try and cherish each moment while I have them here. Because in the entire span of their lives, I only get them for a small moment. I'm not trying to say I'm going to be perfect, perish the thought. I am just going to try a little harder to not be in such a hurry to 'get through' this stage of my life.

This is their Easter picture, but I love it, so I posted it again. And the title from my last post was from What About Bob, good job!

Baby-stepping

I haven't been posting lately, but that doesn't mean life hasn't been happening all around me. I've been thinking about my life and contemplating a lot of things. Things I want to change, and know that need to be changed.
Why is change so hard? I hate it. It can be for the better, and yet it is still gut-wrenching. So I'm going to take it one step at a time. That's all I can do. Have patience with me, friends. I'm still here, and so is our family. We're growing and learning and all of that good stuff. I'll keep you posted. :)



P.S. Can anyone tell me where I got my title from?

Cranberryfries rocks my socks

Debbie is having an awesome contest in honor of her 3rd year blogging, go check it out!

http://www.cranberryfries.blogspot.com/

Hailey and Mom head to Vegas

It's been three weeks since out Vegas trip, and here are the details.
Hailey and I headed out around 11 am on Saturday and got to Vegas at 12:30. We parked at Bellagio and explored the gardens and lobby, which are gorgeous. We then walked over to the Forum Shops and oooooed and ahhhhhhed over all of the beautiful things. We especially liked Tiffany's. After lots of walking, talking and fun being had, we headed to Serendipity for dinner. The portions were huge, and the food was divine. It was the best ceasar's salad I've ever had, hands down. We also shared a frozen hot chocolate and were happy to find it lived up to the hype!

Then it was off to the car to change and head to the Mandalay Bay to see her beloved Jonas Brothers in concert. It was complete pandemonium as 12,000 girls and their mom's were trying to get in. I even saw a few dad's there, and told them they were very brave.

I'm going to make a slide show from the actual concert, those boys were awesome. They played for over 2 hours and put on an amazing show. No, I'm not a Jonas Brothers fan, but I will say that I can respect talent, and those guys have it, playing and writing all of their own music. Can their voices mature a little more? Yes, especially Nick's. It's a little whinny at times, I think Joe sings better. (Hailey will kill me for saying that, so it'll stay just between us.)
The main stage was circular, and rotated, and the middle came up and down. At one point they had a trampoline over the opening and the boys were flipping off of it. It looked like they were having fun up there. When they came up the first time, I really thought the roof would come off the place. Have you ever been in a medium sized arena with that many screaming girls? My ears rang for three days afterwards.

I hope Hailey remembers this day forever. I can't describe how happy it made me to see HER that happy. When they came on stage, it was like she was going to come out of her skin. We had great seats, and could see every expression on their faces, which made it even better for her. She kept saying "I can' believe it's really them!". (Her friends have named her OJBF, meaning Obsessed Jo Bros Fan, and is she ever!) She was hoarse by the end of the night, but so happy. She was on a high for the next week and I hope she knows how much I loved sharing that day with her. She is such a blessing in my life and this was an experience I will always treasure.

Love Bug Video

This is Hailey's favorite song by her Jonas Brothers. She asked me to post it to 'try and convert some of your friends to their awesomeness.'

July review

As I called myself a TSM a few weeks ago, I think I'd better live up to it and summarize the month of July for posterity, instead of doing little posts about each one.
It was hot. We baked every time we went outside. We had fun while the cousins were visiting for the 4th. I'll post some pictures from that fun weekend, and anything else from July that I want to remember. Honestly, it's been a hard month and I'm looking forward to the normalcy school will bring in a few weeks.

L to R: Elise and Ali at the carnival, Trent and Seth going down the slide, Elise and Ali on the swing.

At the top of Foremaster hill, to watch the fireworks. L to R, front row: Ali, Elise, Lily, Joseph, Trent, Chase and Seth. Back row: Abby, Ethan, Sabrina and Hailey.

"All the Singles Ladies" has been playing in our house a lot lately, ever since Rachel decided she likes to groove to it. Here are some pictures of dancing in the kitchen. I wish I could have gotten one of her doing 'put your hands up!', because it's her favorite part, but she wouldn't cooperate.

Greg took the boys for a drive to see where they are building the new airport here in St George.

Chase Bank opened a new branch in Santa Clara (northeast of St George) and they had a big opening. The kids got their faces painted, ate too many cookies and got a tour of the firetruck. Elise was going to a tea party afterwards, so she is a little overdressed for the occasion.

Christie Hardy and Cami Young were in town with their families, it was so great to see them! I am very short next to Amazon Woman, as you can see. ;) I don't know why we stood in front of this boring wall and not outside by the brick. Oh yeah, because it was 110 degrees. The kids had fun running around and I loved getting to chat for a little bit.

Kids L to R: front row-Whitney H, Jackson Y and Rachel. Back - Kyle H, Reagan Y, Trent, Nate H, Seth, Ally H, Elise and Hailey.

Before they came over that day, a door at church attacked Elise while she was standing next to it. Here is the result the next day:

There you have it, a sliver of life here the last month.