who's rulin' the roost?

ella is the ruler of the roost tonite. she isn't feeling well and is therefore being catered to. ryan just put her in our bed and then ran into the playroom to get a dvd for her to watch. in the meantime, ella yells...

"what's taking you so long????".

quickly jeeves, quickly!

favorite things (ryan's version)

as i was preparing dinner tonite, the thought occurred to me...we need to share with the world how much ryan loves velveeta cheese. he calls it "fancy cheese". he loves to make chip dip with velveeta and hamburger. he loves potato cheese soup with a 1/2 brick of velveeta. he is ecstatic if we're out of regular cheddar or american and he has to use velveeta to make grilled cheese. he told me, with a big smiley face, that he had an egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast the other morning...the cheese was velveeta. of course, his love of velveeta goes against everything i stand for. at least i can recycle the container. ry also loves those crazy little puzzles that i can never figure out. i try to find him one or two new ones every year for christmas. i think he has one that he can't quite get together, but for the most part, he figures them out in about 10 minutes. he loves the little metal rings that you have to take apart and then put back together. you know those ones? loves them.

a new favorite is mario kart. the girls got this game for ry for christmas. he's gotten pretty good over the last few days. the girls keep saying, "slow down dad! you're gonna crash!".

and last, but certainly not least, ryan loves chocolate. but please do not give him dark chocolate. he only likes milk chocolate. and wouldn't you think he'd like the movie, chocolat? he does not. my ryan is a complex character.

christmas highlights

thanks for the snuggly blankets grandma!!! a new marble game for ryan. he's a very good sharer. and very handsome in his new red sweater from aftie.

making cupcakes with the new cupcake frosting machine. high tech.

afton's first sephora merchandise. don't worry, just nailpolish and lipgloss. thanks, ella! high school musical slippers! i told afton she is lucky santa brought those, because i would never buy them.

ella scored with these twin babies, a swimming baby and a baby in a carrier.

afton is much, much happier than she looks here...this is alicia elizabeth and her dog coconut, aftie's new american girl doll.

burning letters and new jammies

one of our traditions comes from my dad. we burn our letters to santa. santa is able to read the smoke from the burning letters and then knows what each little person wants. another tradition, is new jammies on christmas eve. here's ryan...

amy...

and two little cutie-bugs...

christmas eve craziness

christmas eve was spent with 60 of our closest friends! we had soup, rolls and chocolate fondue!!!

we even had missionaries...

here, you see a few of the crazy chocolate lovers. they are actually waving, not raisin' the roof. we had the nativity play with 5 mary's, a female joseph, no wise men and a dancing bee. spencer was our dancing bee! isn't he the cutest thing in the world? (that is one of afton's old dance recital costumes)

'twas the week before christmas...

i was almost able to be in two places at one time the other day. ella and afton had their school parties at about the same time. this is what i was able to see...ella singing "santa claus is comin' to town, jingle bells and rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer"ella sitting on santa's lap. she said he wasn't santa, he was just a daddy. what a suspicious girl. afton's class decorating cupcakes at their "winter party". we respect all religions and non-religions at heim elementary.

afton and classmate playing "draw a snowman with your eyes closed". this was the most amazingly well planned school party i've ever seen. i helped plan it, but i was the one saying "oh, we can just pour the candies in a bowl when we get there", but the other mom's vetoed me and we measured 84 tablespoons of sprinkles, mini chocolate chips, etc into a thousand different bags. and a lot of other very well planned things. the agenda read like a financial report from a fortune 500 company. but, we had a great time and the kids loved everything. so maybe planning does work.

grateful

i know i've said this a few thousand times before, but i am so grateful for yoga. it's been a few days of craziness for me. nothing too stressful, but my mind tends to get cluttered with a lot of pointless worrying and it just wears me out, mentally and physically and emotionally. so, after the girls went to bed tonite, i rolled out my fancy new mat and went to work. also, the breathing techniques i've learned make such a difference. i am now feeling so calm and able to breathe nice and deep. i can always tell when i've had too much craziness, because my chest feels tight and my breathing is short. so, if you are feeling this way try a breathing technique. in fact, try this one...

close your mouth

breathe in through your nose counting to 4 or 5

now breathe out through your nose counting to 4 or 5

try to do this at about the same speed, so you reach five at the top of your inhalation and then five at the bottom of the exhalation.

repeat a few times

you'll feel better.