Some day we'll laugh about this...

But it ain't gonna be today.  This is how we spent our Sunday evening.  Come on a tour with me and see what met my eyes as I decended after a paint-covered little girl.

That's our cooler and the back of a light fixture we were saving for the basement when we add the bathroom.  Not no more! 

That is my good folding chair.  Yeah, I'm mad about that one.  And the time out chair.  That seems fitting to have them sit on the chair they defiled. 

Like the 3 little handprints on the wall?  Maybe their calling card? 

My storage room got it, but hopefully nothing inside it did. 

That's the brand new Spiderman back pack Brighton got for his birthday from Aunt Patti.   

These are the master painters.  Oh, they had great fun slipping and sliding in the 4 cans of paint and primer they opened.

I don't know why Waverly has it on her mouth. 

And this is the mastermind/instigator/can opener.  Look at that expression; he knows he's in deep.  Those are a new set of pants.  Oh yeah.

Our solution to the whole mess was to strip the 3 monsters, and shut the basement for 3 days while the paint dries.  Then we'll tackle the mess and evaluate the damage.  To be positive, at least it wasn't finished space.  And paint comes off skin really easily in hot water.  Not so much the hair; poor Waverly is pink and gray for a few days.  I hope Brighton gets a child just like him one day.  And that we live a thousand miles away.

Dear Santa...

Thanks to a link from a friend, the kids typed up letters to Santa this weekend, and we dropped them off in the special mailbox at Macy's department store.  If you go to their website, you can decorate, type, and print letters to Santa.  If you then take them to their store and drop them off in their North Pole mailbox, they will donate $1 per letter to the Make-a-Wish foundation, which we absolutely love.  Before mailing them, I took some photos.  The twins had some help filling out their letters.

Irelynd's is hard to read.  It says "I want at least 10 petshops, 2 webkinz, an ipod, cute clothes, a camera, and a new bike." 

The Last Straw FHE

A few years ago, I saw this idea in the Friend and decided to adopt it.  Every December, for the first FHE of the month we read The Last Straw.  I found it online, but it's in book form, too.  Then we draw names and do secret service for that person for a week until we draw a new name.  We continue this until Christmas and see how full we can get the manger to make a soft bed for Baby Jesus.  Our girls copy the kid in the story and eat their papers every week.  We used to use a basket for the crib, but Scott made me this awesome manger this year to use.  He used some old tomato plant stands that we inherited from my in-laws.  They were falling apart after the summer.  I love the weathered look it gives the manger.

I love the attitude in our house when we do this.  I won't say all fighting stops, or even drops noticibly, but I love to see the acts of service my children perform for each other, and to see how excited they get to do something in secret.  It helps me understand Commandment #2 better, to love thy neighbor as thyself, and how our Heavenly Father must feel when His children love and serve one another.  It's been a great way to help put the focus of Christmas back on Christ.

Stained glass ornaments

I love blogging; there are so many creative, talented, amazing women to borrow ideas from.  My friend Janessa is one such women.  I saw this idea on her blog a few months ago, and we tried it one Saturday.  Because I really want to be just like her.  (She thinks she copies me, but it's really the other way around!)

We peeled all the broken crayons in Christmas colors and grated them into a bowl.  What a tedious, tough job!  Maybe our grater was really dull, but the kids all bailed on me and I had to finish it.  We did it though!  At the first we had 4 little sets of hands that wanted to help.  The twins thought it was wonderful that Mom was finally letting them touch crayons, and make a mess with them.

We ended up having to take turns grating because there were too many turf wars going on over the small space being used. 

After much tedium and a few grated fingernails, this was our finished product.  Kinda cute.  Thanks for letting me copy you, Janessa!  Keep the ideas coming!

Toddler Time

Today we did a toddler time activity, and I got really adventurous and included the twins.  We all lived to tell about it.  With inspiration from toddler boredom busters, we made these poinsettia pictures.  Brighton kept calling them "Christmas devotional" pictures, I'm guessing because we watched the First Presidency's Christmas devotional service on Sunday, and it's still fresh in his mind.  They were fast, easy, and the twins loved the green light to rip things.  That's usually a no-no that gets mom all red in the face.

Here's Brighton's finished masterpiece....almost.

And the twins'.  We had to add a lot more petals/leaves in order to accomodate all the tissue paper they ripped up.  When it's this fun, why stop with just 6? 

Keaton took his job very seriously.

Please notice the protruding tongue on Waverly.  See?  What'd I tell you?  Family trait. 

After Brighton was done, he had to "bam it".  Everything Brighton does involves bamming. 

Next was snacktime, so borrowing another idea from the same site, we made apple wreaths.  Here's Keaton's.

Again, very easy and fun for them to do.  Even the twins were able to do this.  Keaton was very meticulous in placing his cereal, and stuck with it until he was satisfied.  Waverly was less so, and had it eaten before it was halfway completed. 

Clean up is always fun. 

Trimming the tree

When we first moved into our house, Scott and I were so excited at the prospect of having a huge, tall Christmas tree.  The first year we got one that we estimated was probably close to 18 feet tall.  With the topper on, it nearly brushed the ceiling.  Gradually, every year it got shorter.  This year we are down to a 7 footer--short enough to put in the front room, which is what we did so it doesn't look so dwarfed by the tall ceilings in the Great room.  I miss our tall trees, but I tell ya what, it was nice to wrap up the lighting/decorating in a few hours.

In our house, our tradition is to collect an ornament every new place we visit.  I started this when I was still in high school, and we continued it as a couple after I got married, picking up ornaments from our honeymoon, and other pre-kids trips.  I'm not sure how many we have now, maybe 25?  It's fun to pull them out every year and see a visual reminder of the places we've been, and the conversations it sparks about them.  Savannah seems to love it most.  Of all my children, she's shaping up to be my most sentimental.  She loves to hang the ones commemorating her birth, and the star she got from Make-a-Wish foundation the year they sent us to DisneyWorld.  One day I will have a tree worthy of the Festival of Trees, but while my kids are still at home, I love this tradition.

The shortness of the tree also allowed me to turn over the decorating to my kids this year, after I wrapped the lights on, which I loved doing, so I could take photos. 

No, Brighton is not singing the Halelujah chorus.  After the Dinky photos, he was camera-shy.  This is the only photo I managed to get of his face.   See the "oh no" expression?  He fled behind the chair after he caught me.

Dinky Little lives here

While the girls decorated the tree and I was taking photos, Brighton was hard at work.  Building something with his "safety goggles" on.  Scott and I thought he looked like Dinky Little.  Remember the crazy airplane pilot/uncle from the kids' books, The Littles?  Betcha haven't thought of him in years.

Heard around the house

Some of our recent conversations around the house:

Brighton: "Mom, quick!  I need a piece of paper!"
Mom: "What do you need a piece of paper for, Brighton?"
B: "I need to write a construction song!"

Brighton again,"Mom, we had our special hats on, so now all our dreams will come true."
Brighton, a few days later," Mom, blow the fingernail {that I pulled off} off my finger and all your dreams will come true.  Do missionaries dreams all come true?"

Irelynd "What do you think Santa wants for a Christmas present?  He probably has all the pencils he needs."