Football is fun. So are books. And embroidery.

It was another slow week. Monday was the college football championship game and we invited our friends, the Childresses, over to watch with us. Camber and I ended up chatting the whole time while the boys watched the game. We all had fun though.

I read another book this week--Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles. It as entertaining, but I wouldn't recommend it. It was rather badly done. Cliched and heavy handed.

I also finished outlining my next writing project, which is a huge step for me. Outlining is super hard, since plotting is not my strong point. I'm much better at characters. My friend Leah (one of the members of my writing-group-no-more) is a master outliner and she skyped with me yesterday for an hour helping get all the plot points ironed out. I'm so grateful for good friends who are willing to help like that. Steve helped this week, too. I had my characters figured out, but could not figure out anything with the plot. He helped me realize that the characters weren't really compatible and I needed to put them in two different stories. As part of that, he was impersonating characters. You know your husband loves you when he'll impersonate a 16-year-old black girl from the deep south in order to help you outline your novel. :D

Emilia didn't have school on Friday, so the girls had a blast playing together for most of the day. At 4pm we were supposed to go up to Nick and Wilda's to meet our new foster-cousins Flo and Sebastian. The Coombs' came up for a funeral, so we got to meet the little ones. They were super cute. Flo, who is 3, seemed to get along well with my girls. And Emilia and Mira always love playing with Haley, too.

While we were there, I worked on my embroidery. Steve needed some new handkerchiefs, so I hand-embroidered some new ones for him. I enjoy that kind of work. And I like how they turned out.

Today we get to go up to my parents' house for dinner. We'll be celebrating Haylee's birthday and we get the treat of seeing the Staleys who are in town for the week. Hopefully, tonight I will have some time to make and write down goals for the new year. I'm a big believer in writing down goals. I'm much more likely to accomplish them. But I haven't taken the time yet this year to do that and I hope to have that time tonight. That would be nice.

Reading and writing

I have no pictures this week. That means I should keep it short, I guess.

Steve got to role play this week.

My writing group had a retreat, which was rather disastrous. The group will not be meeting any more after this, so I'll have to go a different direction. I think it's for the best, though I'll probably mourn it for a while. It was really good for me as a person and really good for me as a writer.

I got to go thrift shopping on Friday and got some new clothes and a bunch of new toys for the kids (which, being a couple weeks after Christmas, was probably not necessary at all, but it was fun). I also got a few decorations, so it was a productive trip.

I read a lot this week, too. I finished two books -- Scarlet by Marissa Meyer, and Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. I also read about 300 pages of reading from my writing group. Reading the books was so relaxing! I haven't read an actual book in close to year. Most of the time, I listen to them while I exercise and while I drive without the kids (which happens rarely, but when it happens, it's usually for a long drive).

That's about it. Maybe that's why I don't have pictures. :)

TIE fighters relax with the Tooth Fairy and Snoopy

It was a good week. From Saturday night to Wednesday morning, we had cousins Jane and Meg and Kate staying with us. Steve was super worried that we would all lose our minds minds before it was over, but it turned out great.

Sunday, we took them all to church. It was interesting getting them all ready before nine o'clock, including doing their hair. (We didn't quite make it--but 20 minutes late isn't too bad, I think.) Then after church, we went to Nick and Wilda's for dinner and to give the girls a new venue to play in. They were very well behaved and even ate a pretty good dinner considering how picky the six of them are (except Cecily).

Nick kindly offered to take the girls to some activities on Monday and Tuesday and we took him up on it. Monday, we all went to the "leisure pool" at the Orem Rec Center. It has a small play structure for little kids, a large shallow area, and a big slide. To my surprise, my girls all LOVED the big slide. Everyone went down probably 25 times. Then, Tuesday, we all went to The Force Awakens and then to Chucky Cheese for lunch and to get some energy out. By the time Tuesday evening rolled around, I was feeling worn out. Not crazy--just stretched thin. I'm not used to paying attention to that many small people all the time. Tuesday night, while I was reading in the living room in an attempt to relax my brain, the girls decided they wanted to make X-wings and TIE fighters out of boxes. Luckily we had just enough large empty boxes leftover from Christmas to give everyone a box to decorate. They had a loads of fun coloring control panels and attaching canons, then "flying" around fighting each other.

Wednesday, we all relaxed. I did some Christmas returns after dropping off the girls to the next babysitter, but that's the only thing I remember doing that day. Steve did have friends over that night and I remember putting Christmas decorations away while they were here. I didn't finish though, so I have some bare shelves and a couple random decorations littering the rest. Thursday was kind of the same way.

Our New Years was boring. I didn't feel like hosting anybody with kids, and all our friends with grown kids were out of town. We ended up watching the new Mission Impossible after the kids went to bed. I actually liked it quite a bit. Except for Tom Cruise. But that's kind of a given.

We did more shopping Saturday and Steve cleaned out the Christmas tree while I did the budget. Mira and Cecily got new Build-a-Bear toys. I was surprised when Cecily chose to get Snoopy instead of a Toothless like she's been asking for for ages. She enjoyed the Peanuts movie a lot.

Oh! And how could I forget? The Toothfairy visited our house twice this week. Emilia's smile is decidedly different now. :)

Christmas and visitors

Last week we celebrated Christmas with my family on Sunday, which threw off my schedule, which made me forget to blog. Ergh. Holidays really throw everything off. But this week went smoothly, and I didn't feel like Christmas day was a chaotic mess, so I'll call it a good holiday and continue on.

The family, minus Megan's clan, in my parent's newly wall-less great room.

Emilia was half-way through this book before the night was over. It's her second time reading it.

I really enjoyed our Monday night FHE activity. Our oldest nephew, McKay, entered the Missionary Training Center (MTC) about ten weeks ago. He's preparing to serve a mission for our church in Russia and will leave in about two weeks. We get the emails he sends each week, but we hadn't written to him yet, so for FHE, we all wrote him letters, and the girls--who had each made him a Christmas ornament for a gift--wrapped their gifts to him. It was cute to see what they wanted to say to him and it was a good time to reflect for me.

I'm really liking my new haircut.

On Tuesday, we took the letters and ornaments, along with some chips and salsa and homemade goodies, put them all in a box and went it to him at the MTC. Since we live near Provo, where the MTC is, we just had to take the box to a nearby shipping store and they delivered it same day. It worked out nicely. Apparently, the food wasn't the best choice (he said in his next email that he had way too much food sent to him), but hopefully the letters and gifts from his cousins were appreciated. We enjoyed making them.

I love my goobers. This one should have been born in Old Hollywood.

Tuesday night through Thursday evening were sort of a blur. We had gifts to wrap and I embroidered a handkerchief for Steve. I ended up having to go to Walmart not once but twice. Once on Christmas Eve.

I know. I'm that person. The one who has to shop on Christmas eve. In my defense, it was for milk and bread and the items from you-know-who that Steve didn't think to shop for before Christmas Eve. Not my fault, really. Right?

Joseph and Mary

Mary pondering the baby Jesus.

The angel and the shepherd (who nearly whacked the angel in the head with that crook)

The wise man presenting the baby with myrhh.

The evening of Christmas Eve, we drove up to the Watts' and had a simple dinner and a sparse Nativity "play." There were only our three girls to play all the parts, so it was interesting. Especially when our shepherd (played by Cecily) heard the Angel (Emilia) and ran screaming from the room. Of course, she ran back again a few seconds later, because it's just fun to run while wearing a head covering and holding a cane.

It was a white Christmas.

Christmas Day, we opened presents from Santa, watched Return of the Jedi (so the kiddos would be prepared to watch The Force Awakens this week--and really, when is watching Star Wars not a good idea?), opened presents from each other, put together a new Lego set, and had frozen pizza for dinner--because not having to make dinner is an awesome Christmas present if you ask me.

Then we had Saturday to prepare ourselves for the Coming of the Cousins. Which is really just Nicole and Tristan's three girls coming to stay with us for three days while they head off to the Caribbean.

Today was interesting, getting six girls 8 and under ready for 9 o'clock church. The hair alone took me nearly 1/2 an hour. But they were all good at church and played like rock stars at Grandma and Grandpa's house the rest of the day, so I feel like we're off to a great start.

One of my Christmas gifts. Socks are always welcome for this cold-footed girl.

Cecily told Steve to sleep (on the living room floor) and then laid down by him.

Of course, Mira joined in soon after.

And then there were three. :)

Cutest elves ever

We're here at Nick and Wilda's and I'm glad to be done with another week. The month between Thanksgiving and New Years always seems to run me ragged. It seems to run most people ragged. Which makes me wonder, are we really honoring the spirit of the season by doing this to ourselves? Is there another way to celebrate that wouldn't require so much busy-ness and would allow us to focus more on the Savior? I haven't come up with an answer to those questions yet. I'd love to hear your ideas if you have more insight than me.

This last week, we had a couple Christmas-related activities. We decorated our tree for last Sunday. Steve was wise and decided to do it in the evening after we'd gotten PJs on. Then when Cecily decided to be a terror, we just stuck her in bed and went on with the decorating.  Wednesday, Steve worked from home so I could take Emilia to the Ballet West production of The Nutcracker at Capitol Theater in Salt Lake. It was an 11am mantinee for a bunch of schools. Surprisingly, the children all behaved themselves well and it was a beautiful production. Emila threw a fit at intermission that her cousins all got nutcrackers and she didn't (she brought one from home). She also was not happy to have to sit through the whole show or the drive home. But a stop at McDonald's for a Pokemon happy meal improved her spirits.

I also had writing group this week, with submissions to read. But since it's Christmas, I also made gifts for everyone. Below is a picture of a bookmark I made for them. I laminated them after this, but I forgot to get a picture of that before I gave them away.

Friday I got to hang out with a good friend, and Saturday, we did some decluttering and I got to write for a few hours. Writing was heavenly. And I'm so close to finishing this book! I'm excited to be done with a first draft so I can move on to editing.

Saturday was Nick's birthday, so for our dessert tonight, I made his favorite: carrot cake. I still have carrots in my garden because my kids won't eat them if they're not baby carrots from the store. Here's a monster one I picked. Crazy thing.

I got these flowers from a friend for my birthday. I also got a bouquet from Steve, which I didn't get a picture of. I love having beautiful flowers around the house at any time of year, but it's a special treat in the middle of winter.

Since we got all the Christmas decorations out, we of course found the "stylish yulecaps" as Steve calls them. The girls have had a lot of fun wearing them this week.

Surprisingly, I'm not freaking out about Christmas gifts this year. I have a few more to purchase. Mostly for Steve. I have an idea of what I want to give him, though, so hopefully, I can continue with the calm in that department, because I don't seem to be calm in many other areas.

Next Sunday we're having the Frohlich family Christmas celebration since Megan will be in town from Colorado. So the girls will have lots to entertain them after that. I'm looking forward to the new entertainment. The mess, not so much.

Let's see if this one works

I didn't realize that none of you were getting my posts for the last few weeks. I had the emails all set up and did the posts, but this new web host that Steve got us broke things again. SO...you should get multiple emails from me today that cover the last few weeks.

I told you last Sunday we went to my parents' house for Thanksgiving dinner (again), but I didn't get any of the pictures up. So here are the three I took. :) I didn't get everybody in the pictures. Our family was there, Ben's family, Alison and her boyfriend, Justin, and my parents.

The rest of the week was super crazy. I needed to make meals to take to a family in the neighborhood who is struggling financially and just had a baby. I also wanted to make meals for Nick and Wilda because Wilda was having her (2nd) knee surgery on Thursday and didn't have anyone coming to take care of her this time. Since I was already making meals, I figured I might as well make enough for my family, too, so I didn't have to cook for us separately. I didn't have the ingredients for all that, so I had to shop Monday morning for those, and then I just did a cook-all-day marathon and made 9 meals that afternoon.

before

after

I had a presidency meeting on Tuesday, and I got a drastic hair cut/color which took about 2 1/2 hours. I worked on processing wedding photos that day and on Wednesday. The wedding I did a few weeks ago needed to get their pictures. The girls were really cute that night, wanting to give me a "spa day" to help me be ready for my birthday. (It's from a Fancy Nancy book we own.) So they set up a chair in the bathroom, and made a spa menu. They gave me a "soothing face mask," a manicure, a foot bath, lotioned my hands and arms, and did my hair.

Wednesdays are always crazy, since I have to take Emilia to school at 8:30, then Mira to preschool at 10, pick Mira up at 12:30, Emilia at 2pm, and then Emilia has an art class at 4pm. Driving around alone takes up most of the day! Steve had a job interview that day, and had his game night as well. But Wednesday was also my birthday. I tried to have a stress-free day, despite all the running and other stuff, but I didn't quite make it. I bought us Papa Murphy's for dinner, but the Christmas tree fell over four times that night before I figured out how to weigh it down properly. Luckily it wasn't decorated yet, so at least I didn't have to worry about ornaments, just TONS of pine needles.

To make up for my rather stressful birthday, Steve took Thursday off and we had a fun day. The Scholastic warehouse sale started that day, so we all drove up and met Nana and Grandpa at the warehouse. We had fun picking out lots of new books for the new year. Steve let me write for a few hours and cooked dinner. Then the whole family went down to the church to help set up tables and decorations for our ward Christmas party which was Friday night. It went smoothly, but was unimpressive. Nothing to talk about except I was surprised by how excited the girls were to sit on Santa's lap and tell him what they wanted for Christmas. In past years, they've cried and been scared of Santa.

We also had a fun Saturday night. Steve and I had bought a Groupon for a Paint Nite, which is where you sign up to paint a particular picture (they have a different picture each night that you can sign up for), and then you go to the venue and they provide everything you need to make that particular painting--paint, brushes, canvases, easels, aprons, and an instructor who walks you through the steps. We picked reindeer for our painting. It was a lot of fun to be creative together!

We also had an "opening reception" for the Christmas Lambs exhibit that Emilia was selected for at the Springville Museum of Art. She thinks it's funny to call it the SMA. She received an Honorable Mention for her work. But it's so fun that she has art in an established art museum! I'm proud of her and how hard she works on her pieces. And for her putting up with my hovering while she works, too. :) I hope that these opportunities are giving her confidence and faith in herself and her abilities.

Today, we didn't go to Nick and Wilda's because of her knee surgery, so we went to church and then spent the afternoon/evening here. I was hoping it would be quiet and relaxing, because I had to teach the lesson in Relief Society today and for some reason it was a hard lesson to teach. It had me nervous all morning. But, no. The kids were on one tonight. Crying over everything, whining, fighting with each other, yelling at us. It was terrible. We sent them all to bed early. Hopefully tomorrow will be less tumultuous in the kid department.

This week coming up seems like it should be less crazy. But I'm not really good at mundane and slow, am I?