home sweet home...

we are home and it literally looks like a bomb went off in just about every room...the christmas chaos, good but slightly daunting. i've packed up grown out of children's clothes, to make room for new ones. i need to do the same with toys...maybe i'll wait until we've had our Wilson family christmas exchange of gifts. we are doing that tomorrow. so that'll be great:) we are so excited to be home. ethan has said, about 8 times, "i'm so happy to be home mom" "i'm glad we are here mom" "i'm glad daddy and you are here mom"

so sweet.
welcome home.

happy anniversary...

this was us, our engagement picture. today is our 6 year anniversary!!! happy anniversary, kendall. i cannot think of anyone else i would rather have shared the past events with, no one else i'd rather be with now, and no one i'd rather head into the future with. you work so hard, are so patient and kind and have loved me as long as i've loved you:) we also just celebrated the anniversary of our first date, yesterday, it was 10 years ago. we've known each other for 11 years...and i have loved every minute of it. thank you for being a wonderful person, and for making me a better person by being with you...here's to a million more great years:)love you honey!

(ps...this is also my 200th post!)

Wishing you...

a very Merry Christmas and a hApPy NeW yEAr!

Love,

The Wilsons

the cell phone...

i am realizing how many ways i use my cell phone these days.
not only does it:
-store telephone numbers
but it can store other important info. as well.
not only does it:
-have a calculator
but it has a TIP CALCULATOR...invaluable.
not only does it:
-have an LED light that allows you to see who is calling you in the dark
but that light can also be used as a flashlight when trying to go into the room where your daughter is currently asleep.
not only does it:
-have a special ring you can assign to each person
but you can also have a dance party with your children because of all the sounds it makes.
not only does it:
-act as a watch
but it also has that cool airplane mode thingy
and last but not least:
it makes my children happy because they pretend they are calling handy manny, bob the builder and grandma sharon (kara, kay, papa kyle, lewi and jerry) all in one day!

and it's not even an iPhone, it doesn't have a touch screen, or take pictures...that's a whole different post.
i am very thankful for my phone!

snow...

it's just a fact that it IS going to snow and KEEP snowing here. and it's okay, because i have kendall who will brave the cold and play with ethan outside. i just don't do that sort of thing. i don't like to be cold. and i kept avery inside with me...because i just couldn't imagine taking her out in that.

we made it!

we made it to snowy utah today, safe and sound! we wish you all a merry christmas...i'm not sure how often i'll be able to update while i am here...so party on until we write again!

um...packing.....????

riiiiiight.

we leave for Utah in about 48 hours and i don't have luggage out or anything....*sigh* pray that i don't forget any presents!

separation of liquid and solid....or how my toffee went wrong...

warning: this post is very long and has a lot of pictures!

including (but not limited to):

How did the show go, jen?

Tragic Toffee

and

Cute Children

first: How did the show go, jen?

really great, thanks for asking! i was able to get a good spot under some beautiful trees, it was kind of chilly...but a nice change. it was actually a perfect day to be outside all day, i thoroughly enjoyed it! i made more than i made last time, with fewer people total at the show, i think. but i am extremely happy with how it all turned out! yay!

(one lady had to pay me with all ones for a nursing cover and ethan saw the stack of bills yesterday and picked them up and said,"mom, i'm just going to take these, okay?" um, that would be a NO mister, no!)

me being happy with the results of the show

second: tragic toffee (or how to NOT make toffee)

and let me tell you, it was indeed, really bad! i have never made toffee before so i thought i would try it for our cookie exchange we were having today. (it went so well, everything was DELICIOUS! my spoils pictured here. thanks to audrey for hosting and putting it together!) so i get real butter, and have all my ingredients and i am all ready to go and i even got a candy thermometer...i am going to do this thing right! so i am starting out and my ultimate goal of heating this sugar/butter/liquid mixture is hard crack which is 298 to 310 degrees approximately or something like that and the recipe says to heat until 300 degrees...(which takes like 30 minutes to do....)so i am very vigilant because i am determined to make this work. i had it on low heat, i kept it constantly moving, it did not burn the pan at all....but something went really wrong....

just boiling
coming up to soft ball
toward hard ball and we are still okay
soft crack...something isn't right...looking dicey...

hard crack and GROSS(abort abort...not good, not good!)

and i am here to tell you....all my plans just didn't work. it started out so promising and somewhere along the way...it just turned into YUCK! i don't know what happened! do you?

here are some hypotheses....my candy thermometer is cheap and therefore, not that reliable. maybe i need higher quality butter. perhaps my recipe wasn't that great (but it was betty crocker people!) maybe i need to take a class in candy making....any or all of these could be and probably are true. this does not discourage me though. i am going to become a great toffee maker....just not today:)

nasty first toffee try

third: cute children

there are many cute children in the world, and everyone thinks their kids are cute and i am no exception. i think my kids are cute. here are some pictures because i think my kids are cute. thanks for indulging me.

hmmmm...

in our house, i hear this a lot..."i don't want to take a nap mommy, i just want to have quiet time..." riiiiiiight, like little man is actually going to sit there for an hour, being quiet. i tell him, every single time he says this, "you know, quiet time is just as long as a nap, at least an hour, so you might as well go to sleep anyway..." we go back and forth for a while. and then he eventually falls asleep.

keep that in mind.

kendall is home today...he is basically done with his work at school, which is loads of fun. i said to him, "why don't you take a nap?" i think he shot back, "why don't YOU take a nap?" funny. then we were talking and he said, "okay, see ya" and i went and looked for him about 15 minutes later....and where is he?????

taking a nap.

wonder where ethan gets it? i don't wonder anymore:)

saturday the 6th

TOMORROW IS THE HOLIDAY SHOW i am involved in! come one come all! check out the website (all sewn up) to see the type of things i'll be bringing! get an idea of what you'd like to buy;)

922 N. Gilbert, Mesa

we picked a winner...

ethan and avery helped me pick a winner this morning for the giveaway and i think, I THINK...they had a lot of fun. and got to make a big mess...what is more fun than that right?

thanks again to all those who participated who read this blog...i felt all that love and loved it! thank you thank you!

good heavens!

i am participating in the giveaway day with sew mama sew and good gracious!!!!! that list is SO LONG! but i clicked and looked at every one! amazing. this is an amazing amount of people giving! so cool to be participating HERE

now i think i need to rest my clicker finger...man....that's a long list!

Tag Lovies Giveaway

at All Sewn Up....don't comment here...comment there it's so cute!

the ants go marching....

ethan and kendall and avery were playing outside the other day when, apparently ethan was playing too close to an ant home...not a hill, it was just a hole in the ground really. but kendall got him to the door and i heard him crying really loudly so i took avery and he rushed into the bathroom with ethan to put him in the tub. he was wearing sandals and long pants and short sleeves...he had welts all over his feet, on his fingers and they were starting to swell some. his arms were red/rashy looking. he had ants crawling up the leg of his pants. not good folks. they were super tiny ants, but these blisters were huge and bright white with red around the edges. the pictures were taken the day after...so they are all red now. even in between his toes...is there no justice? poor kid. pretty itchy. we have him on benadryl and some hydrocortisone cream for the itch. it doesn't seem to bother him TOO much. but it was pretty traumatic for him. we went and bought some ant killer today in case we have introduced some new "friends" to our house...we'll see.