Two by Two, Hands of Blue.

Call it an occupational hazard.  Call it a habitual habit.

But no matter how you label it…I still think its creepy.

 Steve likes wearing gloves while doing household chores….these creepy blue dental gloves.

Cleaning bathrooms, doing dishes, and the latest seasonal "chore" of preparing turkeys all are glove worthy.

 A few years ago we watched a movie where evil government workers wore blue gloves while killing people (great movie I know) and a crazy girl would quote over and over, "Two by two, hands of blue."  

Seriously the hands of blue creep me out and Steve knows it and milks it.

(Just looked at this picture closely and noticed my pantry door wide open along with my laundry cabinets too.  I wish I could say this was a rare occurrence, but it's not.)

But in Steve's creepy blue hand defense…the man knows how to cook a turkey.

 Way to rock the gloves.

We had our first turkey, smoked strictly for leftovers, Wednesday night.

He smoked another one Thursday for the official dinner with the Dixons.

Colby got into the eating action too.

What little boy wouldn't want to eat an entire turkey leg?????

Thursday afternoon we headed to Steve's brother's home with turkey, rolls and popcorn treats in hand.

We enjoyed dinner with Steve's parents, Mike, Chenele, Anavey, Emily, her fiance Mark, and the missionaries.

(proud of him for leaving the gloves at home)

Grandma and Grandpa along with Mike and Chenele sat at the "kids" table.

We sat at the grown up table and listened to the kids' conversation.  It was hilarious to hear Saylor tell everyone her ideas and takes on life.

Colby loved eating rolls, chips, meat, and drinking out of fancy glasses.

Grady be-bopped around and was the perfect 8 month old baby…as always.

It was a lovely Thanksgiving and each of the kids said what they were thankful for.

Saylor:  my family

Colby:  money for my needs (somebody been listening to his parents.  ha ha)

Carter:  Pigs…because we get bacon from them.

Andrew:  Turkey.

Is it proper to admit that I rolled my eyes over my oldest two childrens' answers?

Other things going on this Thanksgiving weekend???

We had an elf join our family.

Saylor named her Icy and she will be keeping tabs on us this Christmas season.

She is currently hanging off our dining room light fixture.

Grady is everywhere and into everything.

I am a little scared for his well being.

A dining room chair now covers this open space by the stairs.

I made gf ginger cookies with tons of ginger and then frosted them with a lemon frosting.

Nobody will eat them but me. 

Darn.  :)

Steve has been busy with a basement project.

 (work gloves are way less creepy)

He put up wains-coating in the basement family room.

Today his plan is to prime and paint.

I'm so excited and dreaming of new furniture to put infront of it.  (fat chance)

I've been up to a lot of this lately.

You can tell how Saylor feels about it.

Happy to report that "Christmas" is just about done and I don't have to grace a store except to buy food for the rest of the month.  Hallelujah.

emotional...

Tonight I am emotionally and spiritually exhausted.  This is due to many many reasons but I only feel like sharing one tiny part…the slightly funny part.

My second born child came up to me this morning with wide brown eyes and asked me a very important question.

"Mom, is Santa really real?"

"Do you think he's real Carter?"

"Well…I've been wondering because I don't really believe in the tooth fairy any more.  I saw Dad…"

So thinking this was the proper time to share the truth about a Christmas tradition with a fourth grader who "might" get teased on the playground for his childlike innocent wonderful beliefs, I asked Carter to join me and his dad in my room.

This is where I shared a Christmas truth.

His big brown eyes turned red and filled with tears with the news.

Yeah…in retrospect I don't think he was ready and I feel I ripped his childhood right from under him.

After a short pep-talk about how knowing is actually more fun (you know, the crap parents tell their children to make themselves feel better about dashing beautiful childhood hopes and dreams into a million pieces), Carter disappeared to the basement to discuss the "truth" with his all-knowing older brother.

I cried and said to Steve, "That was AWFUL!  I feel like the worst parent ever."  

Steve replied, "That was HILARIOUS."

blast

By accident I posted my Christmas card on the blog.  I didn't check my blog until this morning…blast.  I thought I had shut the window down that allowed my card to be uploaded onto blogger.  Oh well, such is life.  I removed the post…but appreciated the comments.  :)  Steve and I have decided we like to give out strange non traditional cards.  It suits us and makes us laugh.  

So to make up for my deleted post, here is a picture of my (as of today) eight month old.

He is fully mobile and making me realize how dirty my house is as the moment.  

He picked up cornbread crumbs under the table that were a day old.  It was a little sick…along with the piles of dusty lint that had collected there too.

Bummer.

He also started playing with every electrical cord he can get his chubby little fingers around.  I'm doing a mad dash baby proofing session constantly the last few days.  His eye level is obviously not mine.  

Yesterday I walked into my bathroom to find him perfectly planked on this little blue stool.

His tummy was in the middle with his arms and legs parallel to the floor.  He was screaming.  

I caught him two seconds before I'm sure he would have gone head first on the bathroom floor.

Poor kid has a slightly neglectful mother who's honestly trying her best.

Oh yeah…and he pulled himself to a standing position two days ago.  I'm in so much trouble.

Other troubling news around my home.  I over heard my beautiful daughter singing a lovely primary song the other day.

She was singing the sweet words of, "Lead me, guide me, walk beside me."

But then it took a turn for the worse.

"Help me find the way…and shake your booty!"

The words were accompanied with a little booty dance.

I had to turn my head so she wouldn't see my laughter.  It was a shameful laughter though.

What. In. The. World.

The Princess Turned Four

Saylor Kate Dixon turned the ripe old age of four yesterday.

But her birthday celebrations started early the day before and were continued until late last night.  This girl was partied to the point of dirty rotten stinky.  

She is one adored pampered little girl.

Her first present came all the way from Seattle from a loving uncle who happens to share her same birthday.  He sent her a pony/hair braiding/hair dryer accessory set.  HEAVEN!!!!

Thank you Uncle Jon for the amazing girly gift!  

Saylor was then spoiled by Grandma Walker (with some fashion sense from cousin Whitney!) in the form of super cute gray boots and sparkly jeans!  Oh My…could a girl get more lucky?

Grandma also made her a scripture bag and gave her a princess castle card along with tons of hugs and kisses.

Yesterday Saylor was allowed to open one gift from Steve and I before breakfast.

"Jeggings!  It's what I always wanted Mom!"

I've been saving those jeggings for a while now and it about killed me to wait.  This girl loves her clothes.  

Carter and Colby emptied their Halloween bags and filled an envelope with licorice for the birthday girl….because she wasn't sweet enough I guess.

Posing for mom in front of her presents.

Yep.

She's four!

She specifically asked for a white cake with rainbow skittles.

How could I say no to that??

For her "party" we invited two friends and their moms to join us for a super girly lunch at Cafe Rio per Saylors request.

 

Halfway through lunch, Steve showed up with flowers for all three princesses.

"Oh Dad!  You brought me roses?"

She was impressed…as was I.

(We might be setting a very dangerous precedence here.  I hope it doesn't bite us in the hind end in about 10 years.  However- Saylor with her dad and her roses has to be the cutest thing I have ever seen.)

Princess Preslee, Princess Saylor and Princess Jada.

Three absolutely gorgeous little girls.

After a Dixon family dinner at Chick- Fil- A, we went back to our house for cake, ice cream and presents.

Grandpa and Grandma Dixon DID NOT disappoint!

Girl Legos!

(Saylor prepped Grandpa Dixon for this gift about three weeks ago.  She knows how to work the system!)

Grady got into the present action.

And so did Colby!

Cake time!

We love Grandpa and Grandma Dixon!

The rest of the evening Saylor spent time trying on each and every dress up item that came in the huge trunk of girly fun.

Dresses, scepters, slippers, wings, crowns, jewlery…the works.

Her entourage helped.

The rest of us just tried to keep mobile Grady from choking himself to death on little bits and pieces of dress up jewelry and wrapping paper.

It was a little nuts.

Saylor was spoiled, the boys got loads of sugar, Grady survived, and everyone was happy.

I consider the evening a success.

Happy Birthday my Saylor Girl!  You are a delight and a force in our home…and we wouldn't have it any other way!

The best gift of the night though?

I darling little box wrapped up with this card from a "secret" admirer.

(You know who you are and we love you to pieces.  Thank you for being so wonderful to Saylor and the rest of our children.  I treasure your love and friendship!)

It contained this beauty.

Wowsers!  Could Saylor be more doted on?

She truly is a princess!

Sundays are stressful

Last night I had a small panic attack over thinking about today and the rest of my week.  I find Sundays to be the hardest day of the week, even though they should be the most restful.  But a day of rest for any mom is an oxymoron.  Day of rest…ha ha ha ha ha.

Around 9 pm I was trying to get the oldest four kids in bed and as we knelt down for family prayer my brain started thinking of all the things I was suppose to get done in the next seven days.  (Really?  Like just one day of stress isn't enough so lets just do seven?  My brain needs an overhaul.)

I wanted to cry and roll around on the floor like a three year old.

But I didn't thank goodness.  I decided I was too tired to cope so I started a batch of clothes so the kids wouldn't look like orphans at church the next day and got ready for bed.  Why I didn't get in bed until 11 pm is beyond me, but I sure tried to quit worrying.

Things this morning look a little more up.  I deal with long daunting lists better when I've slept.

What gets done is what gets done.

So what if I'm totally going to wing the primary class I'm teaching today???

So what if the youth family history training meeting I'm supposed to moderate tonight is also winged??

So what if my kids each cheese and tortilla chips again???

So what if I'm doing my best to stay afloat and my best is not good enough?   Oh well.  Such is life.

In celebration in my lack of motivation and perfectionism here are a few totally inconsequential pictures from last week that made me happy.

Failed mint popcorn.

Note to self.  Do NOT use mint chocolate chips.  They are WAY too minty and your treats look like toothpaste.  

The garbage ate this concoction.

Mint popcorn done the right way.

The garbage didn't get this batch.

This makes me very happy.

Let the holiday season begin…I'm ready.

This face also makes me happy.

By the way, he is crawling as of this morning.   (I better start vacuuming more often or he might die.)

I'm trying to learn a new skill.  French braiding is not easy for me, but I would like to be better at it.  I'm  grateful Saylor is patient with me and my many attempts to make her braid look presentable.

(I think in 6 more months her short ends will be long enough to really fit and we wont have to cover the one side of her head with a HUGE bow.)

Even big kids need flu shots.

Lined all the kids up at 8 am yesterday to be vaccinated.

Colby is complaining today that his arm "Hurts like nuts."  I'm not sure what that means…but can't seem to get him to stop saying it.

Newtons 1st law of motion

Last night Andrew was all sorts of nervous as his science project deadline mysteriously had been moved up by a week.  (His teacher claimed the honors science class needed to own up to their name.  I cried fowl.  I'm positive that somehow the truth of the whole story is in the middle somewhere…but it still didn't help the mood in our house.)  

I won't go into the frustration that Steve and I felt about this unfinished project becoming somehow our responsibility.  

But…I will say that once Andrew had the proper materials, he worked his little fanny off the finish his atom model of the element Zinc without any help from Steve or I.

Working away.

(yes…three separate trips to Walmart were made in the finishing of this project.  Grrrrr.)

Finished product hanging from my light fixture this morning.

Because of our science-y mood I decided to teach my children a few physics terms on the way to school this morning.

First was centripetal force.  They might have a few bruises on their noggins, but they now understand what it means perfectly.  Tomorrow I think they will have how to balance this force while sitting in the car down pat, bruise free.

The second physics term they learned was Newtons First Law of Motion.

My kids have a firm grasp on how objects in motion tend to stay in motion…as in when mom slams on the brakes when she drops you off (laughing the entire time mind you) you will fly forward almost hitting your previously bruised heads on any objects in front of you.

Now really, who said science wasn't fun?

Now switch subjects shall we?

Colby's painting project from last weekend.  I needed the clutter off my fridge, but couldn't stand the thought of throwing it away.  My favorite in the picture is the sunken boot on the lower right side.

This kid know his sunken treasure.

 Lastly...

Here is Colby the termite queen from yesterday morning.

(I was too lazy to upload pictures until this afternoon.)