And I thought Christmas was over!!!

This Morning I was standing in the kitchen over my favorite heating vent reading a bit, when my cutie little Paige came over to me. I had made a little pallet on the floor over our other favorite heating vent, where she had been laying all covered up and until that moment I thought, sleeping! She had her little hands up to her mouth, and was snickering into them! "Mommee, I got a supwise fur you!" I asked her what it was, thinking it was another imaginary animal in her hands or a birthday cake she wanted me to blow the candles out on! She smiled and said "you havfa come here!" So I took her hand and she lead me over to the pallet on the floor and pulled back the covers and yelled "Supwise! Wook what I did fur you! A bit confused at the surprise ( cause all I saw was a big mess of crumbs on her blankets) I asked, Paige is the mess you made me the surprise? She beamed up at me, with all her 3 year old sleepy eyed power and proudly announced "Yess!!! I did it! wook diden I do susha' good job!" I asked her how she had done it? She replied "I got da mini muppins and den I squish em up wike dis, (showing me a crushing motion with her hands) and den I smashem' down here!" pointing down to the stuff on the floor. I couldn't help but laugh, since she was truly very proud of herself! I then lifted up the blanket and saw just how busy she had been! The picture up top gives a very small idea as to the "present" she left me! Hey one man's mess, it another man's present to their mommy! 

We came, we saw, we conquered!

The day after Christmas, the whole crew loaded up and headed to Dallas for the BYU bowl game, which if you live under a rock or something and haven't heard yet....... We WON!!!!! Which was good cause it would have been an extremely long flight home otherwise! So the families and players all stayed together in one hotel and it had a great hospitality suite for everyone to go hang out in! The best part of it was chock full of all the goodies, video games, board games, and treats you could ever dream of! The kids were in hog heaven! So most of the time we kinda chilled down there or went to the pool! On last nite there I needed to get all our packing done so I told Carter he could go down by himself for a bit! And when I say by his self, I really mean no mom and dad but under the eye of The Webers super cute daughter KC! So about and hour later Carter is pounding at our room door and I open it up to find him totally red faces and dripping sweat! I asked him what in the world had he been up to? He trudged into the room and dropped himself on the bed, and informed me that him and his little friends were playing tag, but he all the sudden felt like I was probably missing him so he booked it up to the room! I told him to change into his jamma's and lay down to cool off! When I came back into the room he was sitting under the covers with his jammie bottoms and no top cause he was still to hot! I asked him if he wanted a cool rag for his face? He nodded weakly and replied " Mom, look at me! I'm sweating like a beaver !" Then tonite while I was tucking him into bed he was saying his prayers and it went a little like this.... Dear..... Thanks for this day please help us gets home safety,( at which point he looks up a me with a funny grin on his face and say's) "hey wait we are already home safe, so do i need to ask Jesus to just forget what I said or will that Carry over to the next time we travel? " not waiting for my answer he goes on, "and please bless the food and the drink, Umm, that we will be eating tomorrow and, well just bless us that we can sleep good and sound in our beds tonite!" Amen! He then slaps his forehead and says "mom, can i get a mulligan, I did that all wrong!"

all I want for christmas is??????

This afternoon on the way back from the Dinosaur museum the kids and I were talking about some of the things they were hoping to get for christmas. Carter bolted upright in his seat and exclaimed "mom, i'm in serious trouble! I never made my list for the elves, and I haven't even gone and sat on Santa's lap yet! How are they going to know what I want for christmas?" I told him that it was ok, because they have elves that there only jobs it to write down christmas wishes when they hear little kids say them out loud! I'm not sure if he believed me or not but it at least calmed him down at bit. Then he began to yell into the air a few last minute toys he was wishing for. The last, but not least on his list was...... A Million Dollars! I laughed and told him that Santa didn't usually fill monetary wishes, so he pondered that for a minute and looked back and me and replied, "oh your right, that's the tooth fairy!"

On the 12th day of christmas, Carter said to me.....

As we all know and our wallets can feel, Christmas is just a short 12 days away!!!! So in case anyone is feeling overly stressed about the holidays Carter has graciously supplied us with the antidote! Here are a couple quick stories to hopefully put a new spin on your day!

Over the weekend we had Rob's families Christmas party. We decided to do presents a bit different this year. So instead of everyone buying for everyone we broke it down so the kids each drew a name, as did the adults. Therefore leaving Vicki (my mom-in-law) free to buy just for the grandkids and save the money she would have spent on the adults! As the presents from G-ma and G-pa start flowing the kids very rapidly start losing their minds! *don't you wish as an adult you still felt that way about a pillow pet* Each kid would get to  open while the others watched. Which worked pretty well for the first few presents until the almost rabid children could wait no longer. Then the presents started coming out a couple at a time. Which is when it got really funny, the boys got lego sets and pillow pets, the big girls got an assortment of clothes, makeup and books. Then came out the little girls, they got a big bag which contained everything you need to be a fairy princess! Within minutes Paige, Claire and Lily were stripped down to undies and begging to be wrapped in their glittery wings and tutu's! Everyone was delirious! The air was littered with shouts at octaves only dogs can hear, for their parents to see what they got! At that point Carter must have looked up from his lego's that he had been salivating over and noticed what the little girls had on, to which he exclaims, "Hey, that's not fair! How come only the girls got princess uniforms?"                   ........ Really? 

As per our usual weekend torture, the cleaning of the playroom was underway! I was helping the kids and we were moving along at record speed, when I noticed that Carter had a big ole' bump on his forehead. I asked Carter what happened ? He reached up and felt it and said he wasn't sure? I came a bit closer and realized that it was in fact a pimple! His first pimple! Immediately he became worried that something was very wrong with him. 

(I don't think he know's what a pimple is!) He followed me around for a bit and kept telling me, "that it wasn't a zit, that it couldn't be!" Then with deep concern in his voice he asked, "Mom, are you sure it isn't actually a brain tumor?" That was a new one for me, next time I have a big pimple I'm going to tell everyone that it's really just a brain tumor! 

In our family we are like Christmas music junkies! As soon as thanksgiving is over the Christmas tunes start pumpin'! We were sitting a dinner one night listening as usual to our favorite playlist, which at the moment happen to be playing the old classic "Santa Baby" sung by the glamorous Maralyn Monroe, when Carter chimed in with an observation. Very proud of himself he declared "Hey, guys I know who's singing this song to santa!" Rob and I both smiled, looked at each other very curious to see who he thought was singing the song when he answered! "It's Mrs. Claus! Do you know how I know? Cause' she keeps calling him baby!"

Deck the halls with bells and Hollers!

It really is a good thing we have children! Because they not only make us laugh, but they also help us to remember what Christmas is really all about! For example, Rob and I decided tonite we should fulfill the annul tradition of putting up the tree, hanging the stockings by the chimney with care (aka the switch lit fireplace) and hoping that we don't kill each other or our children before the tree is even up! When Rob and I first got married we purchased a lovely fake tree, now 10 years later it is probably less than lovely and becoming increasingly the bane of Rob's existence! This tree is assembled in alphabetical order starting with "M" at the bottom and ending of course with "A" at the top. Rob had the stand up and already to "L" when Carter looked at him and the "tree" and asked "why don't we get a real tree this year?" that prompted a fast run down to the local Smith's to pick up our ohh so real, pine needles and the works, Christmas Tree!!!! The children were Jubilant! Music bursting from the background, and then came out the lights! Which were the beginning of a very long tirade of words not generally associated with the Christmas season. Once the lights were on the tree and they all finally worked we stood back to look at the sight before us..... which if one was being honest would say that it looked rather skimpy! So I told Rob as much, and asked if he could just add a few more. In my mind more twinkling is never a bad thing. Apparently the ones we had left over were outside icicle lights and turned out to be the straw that broke the camels back! Rob jokingly shouted out "That's it! Christmas is cancelled!" (A Morris family tradition)) but it sent the children into absolute silence! Really if that's all it took to shut them up I might have yelled it years ago! But Carter being Carter, walked up very calmly and put his hand on Rob's shoulder and asked him very softly " But dad, if Christmas is canceled, then why did we go through all that trouble to get that tree?"

A Scout is always pre......what?

Since turning 8, Carter has now been going to scouts! Which he of course loves and can't wait for each week! Today when I picked him up he was rattling off some of the things he had learned and when we got home he flatly refused to take off his uniform. I was getting his dinner ready and had it nicely nuking away in the microwave. It beeped and I went to take it out, but was cut off by a scrambling Carter who informed me, "I'm a scout now, and we know how to take things out of the microwave safely!" I backed off and let him proceed. A bit later I was shredding some cheese and walked away to go change out the clothes in the laundry. Again when I came back I found Carter where I once was, happily grating away. I told him to be really careful since it's sharp and didn't want him to cut his finger. He again replied "mom, I already told you, a scout is aways careful and aways prepared!" I let him finish and sorta chuckled to myself, wondering how long it would be before he came and asked for a band aid. But in the middle of grating the cheese he suddenly sprinted out of the room. I called after to him and asked what was the matter? He yelled back that he needed to go to the bathroom really bad!!! About an hour later I was going to put Paige in the tub when I noticed the all to familiar smell of urine and a nice big puddle on the floor directly in front of the toilet! I told Carter he needed to come into the bathroom and bring some paper towels with him. He was not altogether happy with the fact that he was the one that would be cleaning up the ominous yellow puddle on the floor. He complained that he was not equipped to be cleaning this sorta thing up! So I smirked and said "I thought a scout was always prepared for anything?" He looked up from his unhappily crouched position on the floor and said, "Mom, they don't cover cleaning up pee in our handbook!"

I have something to say to the big yellow thing in the sky!

Paige has a very strong love-hate relationship with the sun! She loves to play outside and really enjoys a nice warm sunny day (although a cold, snowy one doesn't seem to dampen her that much either).  Every morning on the way back from dropping Carter at school, Paige and the sun have a showdown! It's always at the exact wrong place in the sky for her eye level, so no matter how I fix the shades in my car it won't ever quite block the sun for her.  This morning, because of traffic, we had to take a different way to school so while the sun is usually behind her on the way to school, today it was shining in from the side and blasting her in the face. I was alerted to this when all the sudden Paige lets out her usual cry of agony, (much like the Wicked Witch of the West when she gets doused with water).  At this point Paige lets out her usual stream of unpleasantries towards the sun.  I knew that if we could just make it to the end of the  street that the sun would drop back behind her again.  I kept telling her that we were almost there and the sun would be gone. Then I hear Paige in the back, "OK come on jussa few more minutes, we gonna make it and than u sun be gone, almost dare!" We turned right and phewww! Paige also let out a sigh of relief and then said "mommee we made it!" We then drop off Carter and head up the dreaded hill to return back home, which is where the sun usually peeks it's beams on us. It's was really funny, but also sorta pitiful because Paige thought she had already had her dose of blasting for the morning! She was singing "B-I-N-G-ohhhhhhh  NO! IT'S BACK! Mommeee, I don't fink I can do dis again!" I did my best to block as much as I could but it just wasn't enough.  "Sun, u get away, i don't wike u doday! u weeve me awone!" Finally as I turned back on our street where the suns relentless rays can no longer touch her, she quiet's back down. Then in a very small voice I hear, "Sun, we going to Tracie's house, but pwease don't come dere! Ok?!"