review of the holidays

this is always a hard post, because i can never sum up all the fun we had into one neat little paragraph. but here's my attempt.

the friday before christmas was our kids christmas morning. this was the most fun christmas yet, as the kids were really into the presents and santa claus and just the magic of the moment. it was wonderful.

on saturday, we headed down to cory's folks. six of the seven siblings spent the night that night, so there was a house FULL. i think we added it up that there were 13 adults and 11 children (under the age of 6), so you can imagine how that was. but it was so fun. all the grown-ups had fun talking and catching up and the kids had a ball. his parents arranged for a surpise visit from santa claus, who came in and held each child on his knee and put on a really great show. the next day we ate, opened presents, and just enjoyed one another's company.

late that night we headed up the highway to my folks. we did some last minute wrapping and stocking stuffing, but mostly enjoyed more catching up with my brothers. christmas morning dawned bright and early. and yes, there was MORE present opening. every gift was very thoughtful and personal. great job by everyone. that night we made and decorated gingerbread houses. elise caught the vision, decorating one she & cory made and two that papa made for her. each one had various success and drama, but in the end they looked wonderful. the week continued with lots of games nights, family time, and visits.

yesterday we packed up and came home, along with my family, to start the new years celebrations. so here we are. we packed everything we could into each activity. i don't think we could have gotten anything more done than what we did. a fun time was had by all....

whirlwind

i guess it started tuesday with getting ready for ethan to come in. he and i had collaborated and switched his plane ticket to come in earlier than planned and surprise mama and daddy. i picked him up late that night and finally crashed into bed sometime after 12:30. the next morning continued the craziness with adam flying in around 10am. i picked him up--late--but picked him up nonetheless. we spent a few hours doing some last minute shopping and ended up back at my house around 1pm to wait for mama, daddy and logan to show up. they pulled in roughly an hour later and after hugs and tears from mama, we were standing around visiting when ethan just casually walked into the room. ethan said mama's face registered surprise, confusion, and then shock. and then she screamed--loud! we had a fun day talking, reminiscing, laughing, catching up, relaxing, and telling a good poop story or two for good measure. this morning started off early again, as we are hosting a caroling party with the barnetts tonight. so the kids and i spent the morning baking cookies for tonight, the afternoon cleaning and straightening up. we're also doing "our" christmas tomorrow morning, which the kids don't know yet. so i've been trying to make sure all the presents were wrapped and organized. i'm so excited i can hardly wait. i think the kids will love the things we got for them, i just can't wait to see their faces. its so hard not to say anything to them. but i am sooooooo excited.

in other odds and ends, elise has been a super duper helper today. she has cheerfully and tirelessly helped me with whatever job i was doing. she helped cook, clean, organize--the whole bit. she's really good at it too. she amazes me. when she gets a little bigger she'll be unstoppable. its a good thing she got her cleaning genes from her daddy! she's so sweet and good.

ian says this funny thing that i've been meaning to write down. i'm pretty sure it got started by cory and i asking him "if his tummy was hungry" or "is your tummy telling you its full..." and so on. but its progressed to where his tummy tells him all kinds of things. like his tummy tells him he wants to watch "go, diego, go" on tv or his tummy tells him he wants to go pick up lisy, or his tummy tells him he wants to sleep in my bed. its so funny. this morning he said, "my tummy says it wants to open a present. and my tummy's telling me to do that. so i need to do that."

well, i've taken a long enough break writing the post. so i'd better jump back in the whirlwind!

random thoughts

i was out really early this morning and caught a little segment on the radio about christmas music and it got me thinking: what are the best and worst christmas songs out there? i have a short list--a couple of my favorites are "o holy night" and "rocking around the christmas tree". two that i absolutely hate are "simply having a wonderful christmas time" and "the christmas shoes". do you guys have any others?

cory and i subbed in nursery yesterday. there are aproximately 15 kids, 12 of them being boys. it was fast, loud, rough, and crazy. the testosterone in the room was almost overwhelming. but we enjoyed it. ian has only a couple of weeks left before moving up to sunbeams. YIKES!

i've been doing laundry today. a lot of laundry. while laundry is not one of my all-time favorite things to do, i love, no, make that adore, getting stains out of clothes. i'm not always great at it, but i love working on it. ian has this white shirt with a daschsand on it. i've gotten ketchup, macaroni and cheese, dirt, spaghetti, and other various and assorted grout and grime from it and as i look at it on him now, it looks as good as new.

there you have it. random.

merry christmas

You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch
Author: Dr. Seuss

You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch.
You really are a heel.
You're as cuddly as a cactus,
You're as charming as an eel,Mr. Grinch.

You're a bad banana
With a greasy black peel.

You're a monster, Mr. Grinch.
Your heart's an empty hole.
Your brain is full of spiders,
You've got garlic in your soul, Mr. Grinch.

I wouldn't touch you,
with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole.

You're a vile one, Mr. Grinch.
You have termites in your smile.
You have all the tender sweetness
Of a seasick crocodile, Mr. Grinch.

Given the choice between the two of you
I'd take the seasick crockodile.

You're a foul one, Mr. Grinch.
You're a nasty, wasty skunk.
Your heart is full of unwashed socks
Your soul is full of gunk, Mr. Grinch.

The three words that best describe you,
are as follows, and I quote: "Stink. Stank. Stunk."

You're a rotter, Mr. Grinch.
You're the king of sinful sots.
Your heart's a dead tomato splot
With moldy purple spots, Mr. Grinch.

Your soul is an apalling dump heap
overflowingwith the most disgraceful assortment
of deplorablerubbish imaginable,
Mangled up in tangled up knots.

You nauseate me, Mr. Grinch,
With a nauseaus super-naus.
You're a crooked jerky jockey
And you drive a crooked horse, Mr. Grinch.

You're a three decker saurkraut and toadstool sandwich
With arsenic sauce.


are there any better poems that this one? my favorite stanza is, "you nauseate me, Mr. Grinch, With a nauseaus, super-naus. You're a crooked jerky jockey and you drive a crooked horse, Mr. Grinch." Anytime you can include these lines in a poem, its a good one! Dr. Seuss rocks.

christmas party

last night we had cory's office christmas party. it had been sort of a lot of work getting the time, place, and baby-sitting worked out, but by last night at 6:30 cory's mom and dad were baby-sitting seven of their grandchildren and we were sitting in the Outback.

there are only three people at his office: cory, neal (his brother), and jacob (his brother-in-law), and then us wives who also do side work for them as well. so it was almost more a family dinner, than an office dinner, but either way, we had a lot of fun. cory, surprisingly, kept us entertained throughout the night with his "awards" and "bonuses". for example, amanda and i won the "big spender" awards. it was hilarious. however, they did actually surprise us with gift certificates to our favorite spa and nail salon. there was such a feeling of kinship and friendship throughout the night as we talked, laughed, shared memories, and hopes for the future. it was such a fun, relaxing, companionable night, it was hard to see it end. it made me happy to be a part of such a great family and such a great company.

boys are made of...

a few days ago the kids and i were in the car. out of the blue ian said, "when i ate that chicken, i thought i was going to throw up. but i not throw up." a little confused about what chicken or when he ate it, i asked him a couple of questions, first: "when did you eat some chicken?", to which he replied, "right now." this is where i start to become alarmed, because i know we have not gotten chicken nuggets today, and honestly can't remember the last time we might have had chicken nuggets in the car. so my next question was, "where did you find it?" apparently, he found an old chicken nugget hiding in some crevice in the car or his booster seat and ate it. the very thought of it makes my stomach turn. so then i wonder if i need to take some kind of action--i mean, what happens to you if you eat an ancient chicken nugget? that can't be good for you. the upshot is, he ate the nugget on monday, and all is still well. i noticed no ill effects at all, much to my relief. so we can add a new catchphrase to the old saying, "boys are made of snakes and snails and puppy dog tails." they're also made of old chicken nuggets. ;)

self-esteem....

elise was so funny this morning. she picked out one of her sunday dresses to wear to school, her shoes, a wide pink headband, and a white blazer for her jacket. i was helping ian with something in the bathroom when elise walked in, climbed up on the stool and looked at herself in the mirror and says, "Wow!!! I look adorable! This is the cutest outfit ever!". She continued to grin and admire herself for a couple more minutes. She knew she looked good!

it reminds me of a story i heard growing up about a couple in our ward. when they were teenagers, he had come to her house to pick her up for one of their first dates. as he was walking to the bathroom, he realized she was in there, getting ready. he waited outside the door for just a moment when he heard her look at herself in the mirror and say, "Jenny Bowman*, you beautiful thing, don't you ever die!!!" He said that was the moment he fell in love.

I love it that elise can think she looks beautiful when she looks in the mirror. I certainly think she is. However, there is such a culture of looks, beauty, and physical appearance in our society, that I don't want her to get sucked into the trap of never feeling 'enough'--whether its her face, her size, her shape, her feet, her bellybutton, or whatever else there might be. I hope that she can feel good about who she is and realize that that is enough. There is a wonderful story told by President Monson that sums up my feelings very well. He says, "Many years ago, at a Church magazine awards banquet, we sat with President and Sister Harold B. Lee. President Lee said to our teenage daughter, Ann: “The Lord has blessed you with a beautiful face and body. Keep the inside just as beautiful as the outside, and you will be blessed with true happiness.” This master teacher left with Ann an inspired guide to the celestial kingdom of our Heavenly Father."

That is the message of beauty I want to instill in Elise.

*name has been changed.

updating

first, an update: the not eating sweets is not going so well. i think going cold turkey might be a little much for me. but i have cut back. i don't like feeling like i want to eat sweets every minute of every day. but i love desserts. so i'm doing sweets in moderation. that's working pretty well. for example, i would normally eat dessert after at least lunch and supper. on my new plan, i only eat it after supper. so we'll see how it goes.

elise is so cute. she makes up songs all the time--just words describing what she is currently doing or thinking about set to music. the other night she was eating some pepperonis (one of her favorite snacks), all the while singing along. i was sort of in and out of paying attention to what she was singing about, when all of a sudden i caught this snippet, "pepperonis--i'm sorry that i ate your friends..." i still giggle when i hear the tune to that line in my head.

our cat, maria, has created some drama around here this week. she (well, he) is a really nice cat, and we like having him around. but he's strictly an outdoor cat and roams around quite a bit. we only see him from time to time as he comes to eat his food. our neighbors across the road are quite taken with him, having fed him sometimes when we're out of town. they've even started feeding him when we're here and made a bed for him on their front porch on these cold nights. needless to say, maria spends a good deal of time with them. on monday, our neighbor came over and said that maria had gotten hurt--probably from a fight with another tomcat--and wasn't walking on his back leg. she also thought he was running a fever. she thought he should probably be seen by the vet. cory & i had a slightly different take on it, and weren't a big hurry to rush off to the vet. we thought we'd give it a couple of days and see how she did. well, on wednesday, our neighbor came back over and now really thought maria needed a doctor's attention. i had been dreading her coming back over, knowing that we had differing views on when a pet should be taken to the vet. i just didn't really want to deal with her about it. i was kind of hoping she would just mind her own business. but when she came over, instead of an awkward situation or a confrontation, she offered to take maria to the vet and pay for her dr. bill. i was overwhelmed with her kindness. here i had been hoping to avoid this woman, who ended up doing an extremely generous thing for us and little maria. it was a true christmas gift. there was only one minor catch to the whole scenario: maria did indeed need anitbiotics and would have to be kept inside for a week. did you catch the part earlier about how maria was strictly an outdoor cat? but cory & i did not want this kind lady's generousness go to waste or in any way seem ungrateful by us letting maria roam free. so maria has been in our laundry room for 24 hours. as i type this, however, cory is in the process of organizing the garage so maria can have a home in there for the next 6 days. we are definitely not cut out to have a cat in the house.

in other news, merry grace is crawling very well and has started what we have dubbed the "crab crawl". she moves along, but instead of crawling on her knees, she gets up on her feet. its very cute. but pretty much everything she does is cute. =)

ian is getting more "boy" by the day. sometimes the testoterone just overwhelms me. he's so cute, though. his new favorite activity is playing in the "sandbox" in the driveway. technically its just a spot that is more dirt than gravel. but he takes this green rake out there and digs and digs. he makes slides for his cars and trucks to drive on and adventures for spiderman and stingray. even though its pretty cold out, he still loves playing out there.

all in all, life is pretty good around the barnett house...

here and there

okay. my sweets addiction is out of control. i love sweets and like to have a "sweet bite" after every meal. life is just wonderful with sweets around. but today i decided to take a break. i'm going to go one week without sweets. i'm scared. i love sugar. but i know i will be healthier. i don't want to go without them forever, but i would like to have some moderation with them i'll let you know how it goes. a week is a long time. i even threw out two halves of pie. a half of a chocolate chip pie and half of a cherry pie. that is committment. a couple of times i've thought of going to the trashcan and digging them out, but have decided against it. just too many germs....;)

i burned my arm this week. i cooked spaghetti on monday night and at some point i reached over the front burner with the pot of sauce to the back burner. a drop of sauce splashed up on my arm and burned a spot on me. it was instant pain and and i jerked my arm back. i saw the sauce drop, so i quickly wiped it off with my other hand. when i did i wiped off the top layer of skin on that one spot. YIKES! it hurt pretty bad and it looks gross. all i can think about is people who are severly burned and wonder how they make it.

ian and i made a potpourri christmas tree. it is very cute and we had fun making it. ian got burned on the hot glue. not badly at all, but just enough to hurt. after he did he wanted to get off a piece of our aloe vera plant to put on it. only he called it the "planet". he pushed his chair over to the cabinet and said, "i need to get some of that planet where i got burned." it was so cute.

lisa, you will appreciate this. you know that weird burping thing we do? do you still do that? i do sometimes, although i don't think its as much as i used to, or maybe i'm just not as self-concious about it. anyway, tonight elise was sitting beside me and i heard her make that noise. she just looked at me and goes, "i always burp like a frog." i thought i would die laughing. i guess its hereditary. ;) i told her sometimes i burp like a frog too. i wonder which ancestor we have to thank for that?

Christmas time

One night this week we finally broke out the Christmas tree and decorations. It was lot of fun for all of us. I think the older the kids get, the more fun it becomes for us grown-ups, too. Merry Grace and Ian played in the Christmas tree box for a long time. Ian would hide and surprise Merry Grace and she would laugh and laugh. It was so cute!
Elise found the Santa hat and tried in on. She loves unpacking all the Christmas decorations.
Cory got a good start on the tree. He loves those Santa oranaments that Mama & Daddy shared with us our first Christmas when we didn't have any ornaments. He's also hanging up on of the stars that Grandma Delia made. Those are special ones.
Elise decorating the tree. She's very meticulous. 

The finished products

Here was our Christmas tree with everything on it. It looks so pretty. It may be the best one yet.
Here is our mantle with FIVE christmas stockings. We're starting to fill it up. It looks so nice. The stockings are made by Grandma Jarrell and are the prettiest ones I've ever seen.