Christmas Questions

So my good friend Heidi tagged me with these Christmas questions. I'm usually game for a good questionnaire so here is my stab at it. I'd love to see them on anyone else's blog!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Both. Bags are way easier, but wrapping is still fun to do and to tear into on the big day.


2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial. I grew up with a fake one and we did the real thing the first few years of marriage, but when you can get a decent artificial one for the price of a fake one with a LOT less work, I will sacrifice the ambiance and smell of a real one for a plastic one.


3. When do you put up the tree? Sometime early December. I am actually getting a little anxious this year.

4. When do you take the tree down? A couple days after Christmas. This year probably after the new year because we are out of town so long.


5. Do you like eggnog? Not really, but Justin and my brother drink it and sometimes add sprite. A little weird I know.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? I remember a Barbie house that was pretty cool. Then I would coerce my brother into playing with me in exchange for playing He-man with him.


7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, several of them. Love them.

8. Hardest person to buy for? My dad and dad-in-law, hands down.

9. Easiest person to buy for? Elliot

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Usually mail. Debating this year on doing them at all. May send out a happy spring card later instead.


11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? A Christmas Story. (Although Christmas Vacation is a close second)


13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Depends, but this year I actually got started early....like before Halloween.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I don't think so, but I wouldn't put it past me.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Fudge!


16. Clear lights or colored on the tree ? Clear

17. Favorite Christmas song? O, Holy Night, The First Noel and Where are you Christmas sung by Faith Hill.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Always stayed home as a kid, but now travel to parents

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? I think so...Dasher, Dancer, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Prancer, Vixen, and Rudolph. Yeah!

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star that lights up.


21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning although we could usually convince whomever to let us open one Christmas Eve.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Everything is so busy. I am learning to do more online shopping. And snowy roads.


23. Favorite ornament theme or color? Nope, just all that we have.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Always order pizza for Christmas Eve. Crazy I know, but it's always the tradition and no one wants it any other way.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? No real wishes. Just excited to be with all my brothers for a few days.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great thanksgiving at Justin's parents house in Spokane this last weekend. It was great to get the cousins together again to play. No limbs were lost or too many tears shed, so all in all it was a successful gathering. Much thanks to Grandma Jana and Grandpa Snook for the great food and the new toy we all got to play with.

All the older cousins just love baby Grey and he loves the attention.

Then there was the Wii. Justin and Kyle conned Grandma and Grandpa into buying one on Thanksgiving so we could all play it that afternoon. Boy, did we have fun playing too. It was great because even the little kids could have fun doing it. They especially liked the boxing and the tennis. The adults enjoyed the bowling, especially watching Justin with his fancy leg kick out bowling technique. The kids play room turned into Wii central...and soon was more adults than kids. What a hoot!

Grey got to have his first taste of "real" food on Thanksgiving too. We tried a little rice cereal mixed with pear juice. He seemed a little confused by the whole scenario, but I think he will take to eating pretty well. He just has to figure out what to do with it once the food is in his mouth. Of course, Elliot wanted to help in the process, too, bless her heart.

Earlier in the week, Elliot had a little Thanksgiving program at preschool. Usually I am a very prepared mother, I think, but something went awry this morning and I got to the school without my camera. I was just sick. All the kids looked so cute in their little pilgrim hats and bonnets. They had about 5 songs to sing and really none of them sang. Miss Cheryl gave a great solo though for the parents! They were all a little shy and uneasy with all the parents there. We had cookies and juice afterwards and Elliot showed me her thanksgiving projects. As soon as we got home I made Elliot put her hat back on and hold up her projects so I could at least get that picture.



Hope everyone had a happy and safe holiday. Now it is time to gear up for Christmas! I am actually well on my way to being done with shopping this year. I can't believe it! Maybe 2 kids and working is making me be a little more on the ball than usual!

The Bathroom...

A few of you heard our fiasco yesterday with our bathroom leaking, but here is the story and a couple pictures. I was giving the kids a bath upstairs getting ready for church and Justin comes up to let me know there is water coming from the ceiling in the downstairs bathroom (that is directly below the upstairs bathroom) and pooling on the floor. So Justin ended up staying home from church to figure out what the problem was. He started with removing the paneling and sheetrock from the area that was leaking and then realized that we would have to replace the whole ceiling so he exposed it all. Luckily the water wasn't too bad and the wood was just damp and not rotted or moldy. He figured out that the water was coming from the overflow valve on the upstairs tub so he replaced that and tightened everything up. By the time the kids and I came home from church, he was done and mostly cleaned up. We are going to leave the ceiling alone for a little while to let everything dry really well and make sure there aren't anymore leaks before sheetrocking it again. I am so blessed to have a handy husband that isn't afraid to get his hands dirty and figure out problems and has gotten very good at doing all kinds of handiwork around the house. Just another reason I love him! Here are the pictures of what he was dealing with.

BTW...the toilet is brand new as of a week or two ago. A simple "tighten the toilet bolts" project turning into "let's buy a new toilet" project. Justin has gotten very good at replacing toilets though and had that whipped out in no time.

Growing Too Fast

The other day I came home from work and saw the johnny jumper and exersaucer out and couldn't believe that my baby was big enough to go in either! I was figuring I would need to wait until he could sit up unassisted (which won't be long), but not true. He likes them both and is nice to have the variety. So today I waas making banana bars (a great way to use up a couple of expired bananas...let me know if you want a recipe) and put Grey in the jumper and took this little video. Elliot needed her time in the spotlight at the end too. What cute kids I have if I do say so myself!

Anderson 30th Wedding Anniversary!

This past weekend, Justin's parents celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary and they were so generous to invite us all to Hayden, ID to stay 2 nights and play at the water park and play place they have adjacent to the hotel. With 6 kids ages 5 to 4 months we were very busy and had a lot of fun. Friday we played mini golf and ate pizza and played arcade games.

Saturday we spent a couple hours in the water park in the wave pool and going down the slides (the adults had the fun there) and having all kinds of wet fun.

We bowled after lunch then had a couple of hours of well needed nap time.

We met for dinner at Tomato Street and had a fabulous feast there. Back to the pool until closing time and then crashed in bed. Sunday we got up and enjoyed breakfast together although everyone was looking pretty warn out by this time. We all had a great time. Thanks so much Granpa Snook and Grandma Jana!!! We love you!!!

Family Home Evening

Those of you with little ones know that it can be difficult to plan a worthwhile home evening. I love it when we have a new Friend magazine though because they have a little section in there for little people with a story and sometimes an activity. This month had a story about a girl that sent a letter to her grandma. So after reading the story, Elliot colored a picture for each of her grandmas and we put them in an envelope and into the mailbox. She was so excited to do this little project and hopefully will brighten each grandmas' day.

Then of course you have to have FHE treat. And for some reason I was craving a raisin pie. I don't think most people have even heard of a raisin pie, but it was one of my dad's favorites so we had it fairly often growing up. So I called up Mom today to find out how to make it. It actually is very easy, especially if you cheat on the crust, like I did, and buy a premade one. It got a thumbs up from Justin, but Elliot didn't really care for it. One bite took me back to my childhood. And tomorrow morning we can have it for breakfast, just like the clown arounds, right fam?

What's wrong with this picture?

So at first glance this would be just an ordinary picture of my little girl dressed in a rather unique looking choice of clothing. However, this was just minutes before leaving to go to church. Yeah. My mom always told me to pick my battles and that the funny dressed kids are the independent ones that dressed themselves, but really? Do I have to take Punky Brewster to church with me? If she really had her choice she probably would have been in ther "summer dress" (a sleeveless dress that is really thin and was cute in the summer, but it is barely 50 degrees out now- that dress is now put away in the garage with the other summer clothes) and flip flops (also now put away in the garage). Funny thing is that she wanted to wear jeans and long sleeved shirts all summer. Go figure.