try not to get eaten by the bears displayed up and down the main drag.
try keeping up with the jones' & the town light display
just walk outside in the morning
food. glorious food.
dress up like an angel.
innkeeper,
sheep,
or wiseman.
get in on some ping pong action.
play with christmas toys.this year bobby & i got car tires for christmas. i know, i know, that tops everyone's wish list.
i wasn't a very good sport at first (yes, i cried) and then i gave myself a series of lectures about the spirit of the season etc. etc. and decided that my poor sport self better do something about it.
thus unfolded our december. i knew i wasn't going to be able to buy much for bobby, so instead, i wanted to make every day in december just a little bit of christmas.
each day the advent calendar held a clue for the day's activity. 
notice the significant improvement to our ceiling fan fiasco...
the drive to oregon was supposed to happen tuesday, but with a big storm about to blow in, and me not so much loving snow storms across nevada, we up and took off sunday morning. the more christmas the merrier right?
i felt like we were on the mystery route, surrounded by dense fog in the dark of the morning.
every once in a while, we'd ascend above the frozen tundra and see the beautiful day.
and then descend again...
the subie handled it well...
and then there were cows,
and stinson-faces,
and frozen lakes of the woods with impending rain storms, a sure sign we were being greeted by oregon.
alas, i have no pictures of the driving rain on the dark windshield, but i can tell you that we are here, and enjoying this non-white christmas.
besides, who can complain when i'm lying on a bed looking at this:
i should remember when asking excellent cooks for recipes, to not only include ingredients, but detailed instructions, like, " be patient, you may be stirring for more than a half hour"
or, "be prepared to wrap those caramels for the better part of a movie or two!"
but alas, they were quite delightful to package up.
and deliver to friends.
and hopefully they even tasted good!
sorry for the sad face... he has a monster cold in this pic!
does anyone else have their moments, when they do something they really know better and think it won't be a big deal this time?
i threw some new maternity jeans into the wash with some brights, darks, and *gasp a couple whites. i know, i know. what was i thinking? possibly that i was grouchy? and just wanted everything washed at the same time? especially since we have to give the dryer 4-5 rounds- not exaggerating here people- to dry a single load?
i admit it. i did it. and now i will pay the price. bad- can i repeat bad light blue dye job going on right now.
i have precious few fitting clothes, did i really have to learn this lesson right now? and on one of bobby's favorite, and cutest (strike that- most attractive) shirts?
lesson learned, let's hope. excuse me, i have buckets to attend too...
i gave to my true love...
his first black friday shopping experience.
and where did we go you might ask?
target? kohls? old navy? wal-mart? nope. though i could have crossed off much from my letter to santa...
home depot. yep. to get the husband a shop vac. i love him. yes, i do.
being the inexperienced one, (because i went last year with the sisters-in-law, and now am pretty much expert) bobby looked at the line outside the store, and was glum and disappointed that we only got there at 5:55am and could hear murmurings that everyone in front of us was also there for this 80% off wet-dry vac.
but look at this (much happier) face...
proud owner of a new shop vac. merry christmas bobby! (and in and out of the store by 6:08)
so if I had taken any decent pictures of thanksgiving, perhaps i could have caught:
faces of family i don't often get to see
our baby's first present
kids playing games
bobby playing long games of star wars monopoly with the teenage boys
4 dogs all in one house
4 adults totally amused and entertained watching 4 dogs play
the laughter and chatter of a lot of people cooking & preparing in a small kitchen
way more food than people can ever eat
the look of pain on my face after trying to eat even one plate full of food (my stomach had much different expectations than my eyes)
an outfit that actually showed the start of a baby bump
everyone helping with the dishes
chrystal surviving the overhead attack of a large pot hanger. luckily she and all china escaped unscathed.
wish i had some photos, but also glad i was just enjoying it.
what will it be for this thanksgiving.
i had a regular pre-natal appointment with the doctor. and it just so turns out that the very same morning i had the startings of a head cold. or so i perceived it.
by the time afternoon rolled around, i felt down right rotten, with chills and body aches kicking in to boot.
come 2pm, dr. appt. time. pregnancy induced paranoia (i'm blaming this and many other things of pregnancy. it just make me feel better!) had me worried about what i had caught myself.
normally, i'm not very good at being sick. i'm not very good at not working, not doing everything while i'm sick. (remember that time when you were trying to call clients when you had no voice and were coughing and your boss actually had to send you home. yes, that was you- stubborn one.)
but all the campaigns for staying home when you are sickly, plus the thought of the little one i was taking down with me = paranoia.
only aided by the doc who immediately prescribed me for tamiflu, told me all signs pointed to the swine flu. directed me to pick up the rx on the way home, and start swallowing them the second the fever set in.
umm... did i mention i don't need any help with being paranoid at the moment?
i suffered though chills all evening, but never quite hit fever. woke up the next morning, feeling what can only be described as, an amazing amount better. what can be much more rationally interpreted as just a bit of a cold.
phew. i'd much rather have turkey than swine this time of year.
sunday morning it was decided that crepes would be the breakfast of champions.
and bobby, he is a champion.
so even though he does bite stunningly impressive holes in his crepes, this post isn't really about that.
its about how he loves his tools, and loves a reason to use them even more.
while i was pouring and flipping these this little cakes. the husband decided that he was going to officially hang the calendar (yes we know it is november) that had previously been stuck up with layers of tape and fallen many times.
so up the hook went, and then we realized that the little hole on the calendar was dinky, and not going to work with the hook. and we also realized a serious lack of hole punches in our residence.
then he said, "guess i'll have to go get the dremel."
yes, we own a dremel, and no hole punch.
and he proceeded to dremel a larger hole in the calendar. power tools on paper.
yep, that's my man.
approximately .33 days before halloween, i started the "hmmmm.... what should we be for halloween" debate.
i started to recall random articles of clothing that always seem to survive the closet purge sessions.
example 1: the husband's furry hat. i don't really know how to continue to explain here. it is a baseball hat, half covered in fur with writing on it that doesn't make sense at all. go korea. but almost every time we are cleaning the room, one of us ends up wearing the hat during the task, completely amused.
example 2: those of you who have history with me will recall the overall phase. i believe it was more of an overall period really, it lasted so long. i even believe some of my senior photos were even taken in black cord overalls. yes. those pictures will never be dated! i have a certain pair of men dickies in a size i never should have owned or wore (ode to that lovely time in my history.)
i asked bobby, "if we were too design a costume around your furry hat, what would it be?" "trucker." he responded. done and done. enter me with a drawn on beard.
so i thought it was only appropriate bobby's costume be from my closet. the husband must love me. he wore my overalls and let me draw freckles on his face with eyeliner.
anyone else singing "this is halloween, this is halloween" over and over again in their heads?
this is me every Saturday this summer (and into a few of the chilly fall Saturdays) hanging out at the farmer's market in provo. i was peddling ChicoBags, my personal favorite reuseable grocery bags.
full disclosure, until this summer i always thought it was dumb and slightly annoying to go to the farmer's market and see all the craft booths. "produce," i thought, "i'm at the FARMER'S market because i want farm fresh produce." not so much embroidered pillow cases. but when i found out that because i live approximately 3.5 houses away from the market, it was free selling for us in the neighborhood, the dollar signs of entrepreneurship flashed before my eyes.
not only is chico my hometown, but my sister-in-law works for the fabulous green company, and i happen to agree that this product is pretty great. i felt like even frugal (okay sometimes cheap) provo, could see the light and fall in love with this product.
so there i sat, saturday after saturday. luckily debby had also caught the entrepreneur spirit, and I had a partner in crime for my saturday shift.
truth be told. i should never be an entrepreneur. its not in my blood. and if i add up the time i spent sitting there and the amount of money made in 4 months of saturdays, well, let's just say i really shouldn't do the math. it will just make me sad.
but!
we decided early on that i was just aiming at earning enough to buy us something that we would ordinarily not splurge for.
yes, a robot. totally not joking here. as a youngster, i asked for a robot for christmas several years in a row. my brother, jared, and i even bargained with the parents that it could be our joint christmas present. no such luck.
so when we found a robot that would sweep our floors for us, and keep them stinson hair free, so we could have a dog and not feel like our house looked like we had a dog... sold! the perfect splurge! is this a commentary on our state of laziness? Wall-E anyone?
last saturday was my last posing as a farmer. and- i earned, to the dollar, enough for this bot, yet to be named, to be welcomed into our home.
