Sleep

Christmas morning:

Doug: Tyler, how did you sleep last night?

Tyler: Terrible.

Doug: Why?

Tyler: I slept with one eye open all night.

Tis the Season . . .

 For Herman the Elf and Jason the Nutcracker to spend a little quality time together.

 For these three to head off to the zoo on Christmas Eve in super frigid temperatures so that mom could get Christmas stuff ready at home. Tiger was extra thrilled about this outing.

 For the kids to wear their animal hat/gloves/scarves that Aunt Sandy sent.

 A bear and leopard?

 A panda?

For Tiger to spend Christmas day in his new Iron Patriot costume and then spend the evening at Grandma and Grandpa's house eating tasty food, opening presents, and playing Apples to Apples. Grandma even got out her teacups for an impromptu hot chocolate tea party. It's been a good season.

5 Things

I am feeling very whiny today. I'm not ready for Christmas, my house needs to be cleaned, I've been eating junk for days and so I don't feel the best, and I am having issues with my thumb. You don't realize how much you use your thumb until it hurts to use it. Plus, It's my right thumb. The one with which I do everything. So, since I am feeling so whiny I have challenged myself to think of 5 things for which I am thankful. Here it goes.

1. Granite counter top. Cooking, and especially making bread, on a granite counter top is heavenly. I can never go back to any other material.  Tis the season for baking you know.

2. The winter solstice has passed. That means the days are going to slowly get longer and that one day my sunshine will return.

3. Tiger has been in a good mood all day. He woke up so cheery and didn't fight at all when it was time to go to church. He was also so proud of himself after church and told me that he focused so good in Primary. Sweet boy.

4. The weather today was delightfully warm and I was able to throw all of the kids outside to play. They kept trying to come back in, but I wouldn't let them because this is the last warm day we are going to have for quite awhile and they needed to get their energy out.

5. A husband who is home from work all this week. I love it when he is home.

Checkin In

It came to my attention today that I have not been blogging. It's true. I have felt a distinct lack of things to say and of things I want to share. Sometimes when life is not going the way you want it to you have to step back a little bit and be thankful for what you have. That's where I'm at. I am trying to focus on the positives of my life, take care of my little family, and just do the things I am supposed to do. I haven't even been taking any pictures, so I don't even have that to fall back on. But, here's what I have been doing.

1. Painting, painting, and more painting. Every inch of my entire house (minus the siding) has now been painted. It has been a year and a half of non-stop painting. Thankfully we are almost done with just a few touch ups to worry about. Apparently I haven't let my children know how much work this has all taken because the other day I noticed distinct markings on my newly painted banister caused by a pair of size 12 jeans sliding down this said banister. When the boy was confronted he nonchalantly stated, "Well, can't you just re-paint it?" I think the fire shooting out of my eyes at him let him know very clearly what I thought of that comment.

2. Lots and lots of time fixing things throughout the house. This, along with the painting, has taken all of our free time and weekends for the last year. I am done. Done, I say!

3. Being overcome with the challenges of raising a couple of kids with ADD, one more so than the other. It is exhausting and it is something that I don't understand at all. My girl is pretty good about it all. She can be pretty easily redirected and she can cope fairly well, at least on most days. My little man on the other hand is not coping well and it is very challenging for all of us right now, but he has always had his challenges and so we are just adding this to the pile and trying our best to help the poor kid out.  After all, it could always be worse and we're very grateful it's not. However,  ADD + Anxiety = Exhausting.

Since we are pretty much done with the house, and we aren't moving right at this moment because it is winter, I am trying to get back to doing the things that I like to do. Hopefully blogging will get thrown in there more often.  We'll see. First I have to get through Christmas. This time of year is insanity.

To end, here are the 5 photos that I have taken in the last 2 months.

 Learning how to knead dough.

 Tiger has a severe dislike for church. Here he is at his baptism preview one Sunday night. I think his face clearly shows how he felt about that.

 "Hey mama, take a picture of me with my Lego guys."

 These brothers are the best and they just love each other so much. Here they are snuggling on the couch and watching a little "Elf".