Gateway Discovery Museum Field Trip

I spoke with someone in the know today about the look of my blog. She suggested I make my pics bigger and not run text on both sides, so I'm going to try that in this post. I would love comments so I know if you like it better or not. :)

First of all, the MRI was all right. I didn't die or anything although I was wishing I had taken the Valium about 10 minutes sooner. When she put me in the tube I thought my heart was going to pound right out of my chest. Thankfully, after a few minutes it settled down and I got through it. If you are not claustrophobic, you really wouldn't understand.

I was looking back through my pics and I realized I never got a chance to share the field trip Baby Doll and I took to the Discovery Gateway museum. I had been there before, but it was a whole new experience for Baby Doll; even riding the bus was new. Yeah, we went with her entire kindergarten class as well as 3 other classes. It was pretty crazy, but you already know I like crazy.

Last time I rode on a school bus I swore I would never do it again. I was SO carsick! This time it was much easier; not sure if that was the driver or what, but I was grateful. We arrived downtown about 9:30 and we were the first school there. The kids were placed in groups and each group was given a colored vest to wear. Our group was red and I only had two kids to watch, Baby Doll and the little guy who is totally smitten with her.

She loved the museum and he loved following her around. It was super cute watching them interact. She was mostly patient and kind and he was never far away from her. Our favorite part was the Primary Children's exhibit with an actual life-flight helicopter. She also loved the farm, the music station, pretty much everything.

I would love to go back when we have all the time in the world instead of just slightly over an hour, but I will have to get Sam's phone number because it just wouldn't be the same without him to follow Baby Doll around.

Deck the Halls

Baby Doll was so excited to help!

Time is just flying by! The kids were talking yesterday about how in 4 weeks, it would be Christmas. That made me a little nervous so I did some shopping today. I got something cute for my Girl Scouts and nearly all of the elements for something fun I'm doing for my older kids. How did we ever survive without the internet?

Mostly I've been trying to get through this massive pile on my desk while I prepare for the next round of excitement including Christmas, the dance recital, and the beginning of basketball. Dog Walker and I attended the coaches meeting tonight. The snowstorm was terrible and at 12 minutes, I think it was the shortest meeting ever!

We also got our Coaches' Certifications done (online, of course), and moved furniture around so we can put in the tree in a day or two. My sweetie got it soaking in a bucket tonight, so that's a good sign.

I also spent half an hour with Crafty, Baby Doll, and Fajita decorating the Cupcake Club Hall. Who knew being the president of a club would be so much work?! Thankfully, the girls did most of the prep work last night while my sweetie and I took Prima Donna back to Ogden. Now Crafty has to come up with some kind of service project to raise money for True Blue (which is really Sub for Santa).

At first it was fun to make a hundred tape rolls...

I'm not anxious for sleep tonight like usual. I'm headed for another MRI tomorrow to see if things are changing in my back before they shoot me with more Cortizone. I have a real problem with being trapped in a tube; I would rather have surgery or a root canal. Lying flat on my back is another issue. Last time they had to redo all of the final set of pictures because I kept shifting slightly to try to relieve the pain.

But enough of that.

By the end of the week things will be awesome!
They better be, because our first basketball practice is on Saturday...

Finishing Up Thanksgiving Weekend

Today was another fun and eventful day. After church, we all congregated at Bossy and Gamer's church so we could witness Taco's ordination as a deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood. He was so excited!

Then we all headed back to our house for Scout's 11th birthday party. If you remember, her birthday was actually the day before Thanksgiving and I think sometimes she feels lost in the holiday craziness. My sweetie made her favorite, baby back ribs, and I did the birthday cake.

After the festivities were over, my sweetie and I drove Prima Donna back to Ogden since she has school tomorrow. Weber has been good for her. She is happy and I'm sure she has dropped at least 20 lbs. Amazing what not having a car will do for your thighs!

Last night, she and I and Scout took my friend's dogs for a walk and we sang Christmas carols the entire time. I love hanging out with my kids except that they each had a leash and I was on poop duty.

I hope you had a lovely and fulfilling Thanksgiving weekend with family and friends. I sure did.

Finding a Christmas Tree

It's been about 8 years since we went up Ephraim Canyon with my extended family and cut down Christmas trees on Thanksgiving weekend. The kids have always had last-minute Nutcracker rehearsals, but this year our ballet company opted to perform a different ballet in January, so that left our weekend free.

You already know we spent Black Friday tying quilts, but that didn't stop us from getting up at the crack of dawn and heading for Sanpete County. We split our family and Bossy's family into 3 vehicles and Grandpa brought his own truck. We needed the trucks to bring the trees home.

I'll spare you all the drive details, like when Taco threw up in my car, or the deer we spotted near the road, and just get to the fun stuff.

We got up the mountain about 11:00 and it only took us a short time to find the perfect tree. Then we all had hot chocolate and donuts. There were about 40 or so of us in our group.

Some went sledding while others had a turn on my sister's four-wheelers. I had never been on a four-wheeler before, so my nephew offered to take me for a ride. It was super fun! Curly rode with my brother-in-law and he might tell this a little different, but we definitely beat them in our race up the hill...

After saying goodbye to the family, we spent the rest of the day with my sweetie's mom. It was a fun, happy day full of love and family. Just my kind of day.

Black Friday

Today is Black Friday and it is also post #2000 for Twelve Makes A Dozen. That's a bunch of my life I have shared with you!

My girls decided to go shopping about midnight last night, but I didn't go with them. I was still busy piecing a quilt for Bossy. We decided a couple of months ago that we were going to make quilts on Thanksgiving weekend for all the coming babies. Then Bossy and Princess both lost their babies and so did my excitement about making the quilt tops. Fortunately, I managed to get my act together.

Remember a couple of years ago when Beauty and The Beast were planning to get married? We made them two quilts at their wedding shower and at the time I promised Bossy that we would try to make one for her and Gamer when they were sealed in the temple. It never happened.

Until today.

I was up late finishing the top, so I didn't get it on the frames until nearly 1:00. We had invited our girl scout troop to help and some of the girls were here for a couple of hours tying and talking. Most of my kids were here at one time or another and they each put a knot or so in Bossy's quilt. She is so happy to have a sibling quilt. The kids were young when she was married 12 years ago, so we never made one for her; Grandma did.

We also had a chance to make one for Teach and Twiz's baby girl that is due in February. I love the way it turned out! What do you think?

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a beautiful relatively quiet day of chaos here at our house, and I'm thankful for that. Dog Walker has been so upset all week about the fact that he had to work that it has been difficult to plan anything, but we finally got it together.

14 Layer Jello

Our annual Charlie Brown Thanksgiving luncheon started at 1:00 because the Dog Walker had to be to work by 2:00. Curly played the role of Peppermint Patty with some help from Drama Queen. We added something new to our jelly beans, toast, popcorn, and chocolate pudding. Apparently one of Twiz's Thanksgiving traditions has been macaroni and cheese and he gladly brought over some to share. The kids loved it!

We had everyone here today except for Princess and The Frog and we will see them tomorrow. I've spent most of my free time today working on the quilt top for Bossy. We are planning to have a quilting bee tomorrow and that would be pretty difficult without any quilts to tie.

Something else different this year was that our older kids all helped out with the meal. Can you believe I didn't have to cook anything? Drama Queen took on the pies, Teach and Twiz did the macaroni and cheese and sweet potatoes, and Beauty and The Beast smoked a turkey and made apple crisp. After things were rolling so well, we just assigned out everything, and Drama Queen did rolls while Teach and Twiz made potatoes, you get the idea. I think it's a great way to go!

Bossy took on most of the clean up and spent hours washing dishes. After running 4 loads through the dishwashers, she washed all the big stuff in the sink. The kids watched Christmas movies and I went back to my sewing. The quilt top is ready to be put on now, but I will wait and show it to you tomorrow after it is tied.

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Gratitude Day #5. I am grateful for tape. When we set up the tables for lunch, the Dog Walker taped brown paper over all of the tables to keep us from having to use the real tablecloths twice. I used tape to close up the frosting bags for the cute Oreo turkeys we made while the food was cooking. Princess used colored duct tape yesterday to decorate a box and I taped up a different one to make it more sturdy. 

It's just one of those things I always take for granted... unless I am out.

Scout's Swim Party

I've been so tired today. I didn't sleep well and my neck and shoulders were just aching when I got up so I took a muscle relaxant. That was probably a bad idea.

Today was Scout's 11th birthday and we had planned a party with her friends. She wanted to have a pool party, so my sweet neighbor, Lori, offered her indoor pool. We started at 2:30 and I was worried about attendance. All that Scout could remember was that so-and-so couldn't come... or somebody else was leaving town... We invited her entire school class of 27 and according to Gamer's count, we had about 25 there. That included the grandkids, of course, and a few from the neighborhood, but maybe having it the day before a holiday was a good idea.

For most of the 2 1/2 hours the kids stayed in the pool. I kept falling asleep in my deck chair. It's a good thing we had other adults around, because I wasn't a very good lifeguard. Bossy and the Dog Walker were in the water with the kids as was Sport.

It took about 10 minutes for them to each eat a cupcake and for Scout to open the gifts. Then they were right back in the pool and we couldn't hardly drag them out when their parents got there. Back at the house, Drama Queen was running the pie-making party. I think this is the first year in at least a dozen when I have not had to make a single pie crust.

Instead I have been working on piecing a quilt for Bossy and Gamer. We are having a quilting bee on Black Friday because shopping is not really my thing and my sweetie hates crowds. So since I have been sewing, I was thinking about just how grateful I am for my seam ripper.

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Gratitude Day #4. I wish I could say that I am the perfect seamstress, but that would be far from true. Even tonight when I was just piecing 9-patch squares, I sewed one of the pieces in upside down. It would have been possible to remove it with a pair of scissors, but much more difficult than running the seam ripper down and breaking all the overcast threads. Yes, today I am definitely grateful for my seam ripper. It's sort of like an eraser, but for sewing.

I'm sensing a theme here...

Pinewood Derby Day

This was it, the day of the big race!

Curly was super-excited. He and my sweetie had put in tons of time sanding wheels and smoothing cars. I think it was a little overkill, but they even waxed the cars with real and actual car wax. They had so much fun working together.

We arrived at the church a few minutes before 6:00. I was awarding two boys their Arrow of Light and we needed to set up the sound system. Unfortunately, the cd player swallowed my cd. So we scrambled trying to figure out a Plan B.

In the meantime, Curly got his car all checked in. The only problem was the missing track. It eventually arrived and the guy was setting it up the entire time we were trying to give out awards. Then he spent nearly 30 minutes with all the boys watching while he tested each and every car on the track.

Things finally got underway. Curly's car performed well in all but one race. He was convinced that he was going to win the 2nd place medallion. When the winners were finally announced, he wasn't the 2nd place winner as he had hoped, he was FIRST place!!

I guess all that work and effort was worth it; the grin on his face shows it all.

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Gratitude Day #3. I am grateful for good pencils. Not the cheap ones; give me a Ticonderoga with a good eraser any day. I love writing with a pencil because when I make a mistake, I can quickly redo without a huge splotchy blot of ink. That said, I much prefer a pen to a mechanical pencil. I tend to push down when I write and I can go through an entire lead without ever accomplishing anything. My kids have finally learned the value of a good pencil and I have given up on buying them the holiday ones at the dollar store. They just leave them in the can and take all the Ticonderogas anyway.

Can't Wait to Get My 3D Deco Light

The girls will love this!

It has been so fun to work with US Family Guide. They come up with some of the most bizarre and interesting items to review; things I might never buy on my own until someone points them out. Take, for example, the 3D Deco Light from 3DLightFX.

They sell them at Target and Target.com Twiz even works at Target and is constantly telling me about new products and his wish list that he and Teach want to buy, but he has never mentioned these super-fun and amazing lights.

Baby Doll has never been scared of the dark, but Scout still struggles a bit and I have to turn off their overhead light almost every night when I pass their room. But what if they had Pinkie Pie staying with them? My little girls are definitely "bronies" and I'm so excited to see if this unique night light will work for them.

It is cool to the touch, cordless, battery operated, and it even includes a crack sticker so it looks like the picture is actually coming right out of the wall!

Drama Queen, I thought of you and your classroom.

This review requires that I use their words exactly, so here goes. "3DLIGHTFX 3D Deco Lights are the perfect gift this holiday season. They have a full range of comic book, super hero, Disney Princess, sports and car lights that look as though they are popping right out of the wall! They are battery operated and cool to the touch so you can place them any where in the room! Your kids will loves having these in their rooms and they're also the perfect editions to a den, family room, man's cave or office! Find all of these amazing products here."

I might need this one.

Whew! I much prefer to use my own words, and if I didn't think my kids would love these, I might not have signed up for this one. These cute pics are from the Target website. I can't wait to get mine and then I will show you what it looks like in Scout and Baby Doll's room.

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Gratitude Day #2  I am grateful for ice cubes. I love cold water and I'm always disappointed when I can't get my water cold enough to give me a brain freeze. I have to confess that even though we have an ice maker in our fridge, I still spend that $1.69 at Sam's Club for the 20 lb bag of cubes just so I have that option in my freezer in case we run out.

A Typical Sabbath Day

Not much rest on this Sabbath Day.

We had choir practice at 9:00 and I have to confess that I didn't drag myself out of bed until 8:46. I put on yesterday's clothes and Crafty and I got there just in time. Back home we had barely enough time to get dressed up for Sacrament Meeting and prepare snacks and a lesson for nursery.

After church we had a quick sandwich and then the youngest 3 had choir practice. Somewhere in there I managed to wrap gifts and get the birthday cake together for Taco. My sweetie mopped my sticky floor and made bread. Bossy was in charge of the lasagna.

At 5:00, Crafty and I showed up for the stake camp meeting. She has been chosen as a Junior Camp Committee Specialist. There are two girls from each ward that will be helping plan this huge summer camp for about 200 girls. She is on the Communications and Budget committee. Thankfully, most of that doesn't start up until after Christmas.

Taco's party began at 6:00 and once again we had all the kids here but Prima Donna. She will finally be coming home on Tuesday. I think if the train ran on Sundays we would see her much more often. She always calls me on Sunday because that is the day she is usually missing us a little.

The kids ran around and we all enjoyed the food. Taco was excited about the watch and remote controlled car we gave him, but even more so about the phone he got from his parents. I don't think I told you that one of their foster kids, Hot Sauce, was pulled back into the system last week. That was pretty traumatic since it is the first time it has happened to them. Taco didn't mind too much because that meant he got a phone for his birthday.

Time to sleep now. Thanksgiving week is upon us. I thought it might be fun to list one thing every day this week I am thankful for and maybe you could share yours in the comments.

My obvious would be my family or my church, but instead I want to list things that I don't typically think about. Like today I'm thankful for pony tail holders. We never seem to have enough of them around here and I think I have finally figured out why a lot of women cut their hair as they age. It is hot!! Being able to pull it back is the only thing that keeps mine off the chopping block.

What are you grateful for?

It's Over

It's over.

I'm so sad, glad, relieved...

Yeah, I'm talking about Baby Doll and Prima Donna's play, but I'm also talking about football and the volleyball tournaments. These are all good things, but just so consuming.

My morning started out at 7:00 when I headed out for the church to set up nets for the tournament. I got back home just in time to bundle up for Curly's football game. They played on the big field at Jordan High School and after last night's heart-breaking loss, he was pretty nervous. We were all freezing, but thrilled with the 47 - 6 win.

As soon as we got back to the house, I headed over to the church to help finish up the volleyball tournament. After lunch we got the girls all packed up for the Oquirrh Community Pinewood Derby. They had 88 cars in competition. We realized pretty quickly that we would have to leave for Ogden directly from the race. None of the girls placed, but Scout won the "Most Realistic" award which is a pretty big deal. Only a handful of girls won anything.

We left for Ogden a little late, and the traffic was terrible. Baby Doll was upset that we were 15 minutes after call time, but it all worked out. We even had time to grab Chinese food before going back to the theater for the performance. Both of my girls were fabulous. The director gave Baby Doll a nice gift and told her to come back to visit.

The drive home from Ogden took us until nearly 11:00 and then my sweetie and I ran to Kohl's for a gift for Taco's birthday. We are having yet another party tomorrow.

Then I had a long phone conversation with Prima Donna (she always needs to talk after she finishes a show) and now it's the wee hours once again.

Maybe next week will be a little more calm.

Some Days are So Hard

I know I said last week was hard, but this one is proving to be equally as difficult. There is just so much going on and I don't feel like I'm doing a very good job staying on top of things. Let's look at Thursday, for example. My morning was spent prepping for the Cupcake Club meeting, making taco fixings for dinner, and running to the store for pinewood derby weights. To get enough weights for everyone using coupons at Hobby Lobby, I had to pick up Chips and Burrito, along with Baby Doll. Then Bossy wanted us to run an extra errand. After I dropped her kids back off, I rushed home.

I arranged a ride for Sport for his team banquet at Airborne Trampolines, filled out his online waiver, and then he was good. I left for the Cupcake Club meeting with my arms full of supplies at 2:20. Crafty is still a bit timid about running these meetings by herself, so I helped her get things together, split up her group and get them all cooking. She now has about 17 kids, which is a great size for her. Princess's newly-founded club never had that many members.

After they got their cupcakes almost ready, I had to leave to open the church doors for our scout leaders, then run home for my boys and take them back to the church. Then I left scouts and ran back to the high school to pick up Crafty and Fajita. They were the only two left. We stopped at a local nursing home to deliver a dozen cupcakes as a service project and then I ran the girls home. Back at the church, I just had time to catch the last little bit of things before we gathered up and took the boys to the recycling center.

Curly got exactly 2 minutes to break all of his glass bottles in the recycling bin before we jumped in the car to get him to football practice on time. Thank goodness it was all in the same park. After driving back to the recycling area to pick up Sport and a couple of the cub scouts, we made the rounds and dropped everyone off. We also picked up Scout as she was walking home from Activity Days.

Scout made cute turkeys at Activity Days.

Drama Queen came in just right for last minute evening instructions. She was taking the kids and Grandpa to see Shrek, the Musical at West Jordan High School because the kids had won free tickets in their coloring contest. I grabbed a taco, changed my clothes, dropped Scout at the dance studio, picked up Curly from football practice, dropped him at the house, and then sped across town for the volleyball tournament. We started at 5:45 and I finally got home about 9:30.

Homework, scriptures, kids to bed, kitchen to clean up, laundry, a cake for Taco's birthday, a blog post and I finally fell into bed just before 2:00. By 4:00 I could no longer sleep. My back and sciatic were killing me and I was up for another hour and a half trying to settle them down.

But kids still had school and I was so grateful my sweetie had the day off for Curly's football game so I could sleep in a bit. Sure love that man.

We Are the Champions!!

On Wednesday night, Curly and I headed for the Pizza Pie Cafe for his football team banquet. It was a rowdy, crazy place with a big room in the back where the boys could be noisy without worrying about other customers. Although I'm pretty sure there weren't very many other customers.

I had to pay $8.25 to get in (Curly was paid for by the team fees), but it wasn't about the food. After we ate, his head coach had a chance to stand up and say something good about each boy. In the yearbook (yeah, they had a yearbook...) they said, "He played on the O-line and the D-line. He was someone you could always count on to do his job." I love that! One of the most important things to me is following through when I say I will do something, and apparently, my boy feels the same way.

They had a highlights film where the boys watched footage from each game. I've never heard so much hooting and hollering in a restaurant before.

Then it was time for my favorite moment. When they presented the league championship trophies; the moment when it was all worth it.

Foster Farms Corn Dogs Make Life Easier

You remember on Sunday when we had a birthday party for The Frog? We had some nice side dishes left over, but the kids had devoured all the chicken. I had a volleyball game and not much time when my 8-year-old asked what we were having for dinner.

Unfortunately, this happens way too often in my life. I don't like to cook and I can't afford to eat out, so I put things off hoping that someone else (Drama Queen or my sweetie) will bail me out.

Then I remembered those free coupons my friend, Jason, from Foster Farms sent me. It wasn't exactly gameday for everyone, but it definitely was for me, so that would have to count. I needed a quick solution that would go with afredo and green beans and after my busy day, I didn't need the kids complaining about dinner. Foster Farms Corn Dogs sounded perfect (and I would have thought so even without the free coupons).

I ran to the store while the Dog Walker heated the oil in the fryer. I didn't have much time. When I walked in the door, Sport started complaining about his stomach. Curly pinned me down before I could even get the cardboard box open, but it wasn't long before they were all munching happily.

One more meal down with relatively little pain. Bump, set, spike!

Seriously though, we have always been fans of the honey crunchy corn dogs made by Foster Farms and that's saying something. Curly is very particular about the kind of hot dogs he will eat and these are on his thumbs-up list. The price is great; here in Utah only $4.99 for 16, and sometimes they are on sale even cheaper. I prefer tossing them in the fryer, but the oven or microwave works too. The kids are all ketchup-only, but my sweetie and I are mustard fans. The website says they have other flavors available, like Chili Cheese and Cheese & Jalapeno, but they didn't have any of those where we shop. My kids don't really like the heat, but we are always up for a good chili cheese dog, so I'm going to keep my eye out for them.

Remember last month I told you about the Foster Farms Gameday sweepstakes and how you could actually win prizes by posting it on social media? Well, it is not too late. Here are the details and a link for you.

Foster Farms Gameday Sweepstakes

How you do gameday with Foster Farms Corn Dogs?... post a photo or video (less than 2 minutes) with #FosterFarmsGamedaySweepstakes and you could win a $100 retailer gift card this week, plus be entered to win a $1000 GameDay Party or VIP trip for 4 to the Foster Farms Bowl in Santa Clara, CA. For Foster Farms Game Day Sweepstakes official rules visit https://www.fosterfarms.com/fosterfarms-gameday-sweepstakes/

***We received free corn dogs coupons for our honest opinion of this product and a plug for their gameday sweepstakes.***