Daniel Redeems himself at the Wrathall family ski resort

We had another try at our homemade ski run. It was much more successful this time.

We also found another way to amuse ourselves, thanks to our beloved family dog, Kamber. You may want to turn the music off so that you can get the full effect of Carson's screams. By the way, that's a dog biscuit that he's throwing.

Don't worry. No animals were harmed in the making of this movie.

Even the snowmen are cold! Lately we have had some crazy weather! For the first time in my life (that I can remember), we will be having a white Christmas. In the past week we have had about a foot or more of snow, and school was cancelled three days this week. Crazy!
I took this picture last Sunday, when we had about 4 inches of snow. That was monumental for us, so I forced the kids to brave the cold for a snapshot.

Little did I know that there was so much more to come. Since then we have had temperatures down below zero and tons more snow.



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This is the view from our front porch a few days ago. I wasn't willing to go too far from the warmth of the fireplace.

But today we built a big ramp in the front yard.

We had visions of riding it all the way down the front yard, but it wasn't as successful as we'd hoped.

On Sunday we also went to Daniel's Christmas concert in Echo. I thoroughly enjoyed the music, and it was extra fun because the "Weather outside was frightful." That makes all things Christmas just that much more fun.

They played the music from the Nutcracker, which Jantzen loved. She had heard the songs on an educational website that she plays on called starfall.com. She didn't realize that the music was from a ballet.

So now Christmas is in full swing. We finished our shopping yesterday, the kids are out of school and all that's left to do is to start eating until we gain the mandatory 10 pounds. Wish us luck.

Another Christmas Tree Post

So I was thinking about posting pictures of our Christmas Tree Decorating evening and I thought, "Every blogger in the world is probably doing a post like this." Why? Is it because we only do it once a year? Well, we clean the gutters once a year and you don't see any posts detailing THAT activity, do you? I clean my blinds once a year and you haven't heard about that! How about winterizing the boat? Nope. Well, I guess Christmas is sorta special, and Christmas trees are pretty to look at.

Except mine.

Some parents feel guilty because they don't let their kids help decorate the tree. Or if they do, they end up rearranging the ornaments after the kids go to bed.

Let's just say that I don't have that guilt.

I really don't care about it. What is WRONG with me? We went to a parking lot where Boy Scouts were selling trees. Let's just say that they weren't the prettiest trees I've ever seen. And the shortest one was about 20 feet tall. So we chopped one in half, took the top and away we went with our Charlie Brown tree.

When people come over it seems as though they are trying not to look directly at it, kinda like you do with the sun. We have a very eclectic collection of ornaments from kindergarten projects, cub scout projects and the like. (Notice the one-eyed snowman?) But I don't care anymore.

Does this mean I am older and wiser now?

Or just lazy?

Wait. Don't answer that.

The Frying Pan Rap

So that you can join in the fun, when you see the words "bang, bang", bang your head on the kitchen counter, OK?

My name is Jodi and I'm here to say
I bought a new frying pan the other day.
The box, it said Cuisinart
So I thought it would be better than Wal-Mart

I hate my pan (clap, clap)
I hate my pan (clap, clap)
I HATE MY PAN! (BANG, BANG)

But every time I try to cook
The pan it has a very bad look.
The food , it sticks and it makes a mess
One might think that I paid less

I hate my pan (clap, clap)
I hate my pan (clap, clap)
I HATE MY PAN! (BANG, BANG)

So everyday I soak it in water
And soap and vinegar and baking soda
But now my arm is starting to ache
Because I scrape and scrape and scrape

I hate my pan (clap, clap)
I hate my pan (clap, clap)
I HATE MY PAN! (BANG, BANG)

And now it's time for me to get a life
One might think I'm a desperate housewife
If about my pan I write a rap
Well, it really is CRAP!

I hate my pan (clap, clap)
I hate my pan (clap, clap)
I HATE MY PAN! (BANG, BANG)

Mmmm. Something smells GOOD!

Scentsyland!!!

The happiest place on earth!

Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but my Scentsyland is a great place to be because I just got promoted to director! What does that mean, you might ask? Well, I don't really know for sure, but I do know that Scentsy is paying for Christmas this year! And that makes me happy. Really happy.Last Wednesday Jantzen was sick so she and I decided to just hang out in our pajamas. Things here have been very busy (see above pictures), so it was a welcome break. I knew that UPS would be bringing this very LARGE shipment that day, but they usually don't come until about 2:30. I think you can see where this is going. Yes, UPS was here at 1 o'clock, I was in my pajamas, and there was not ONE, but TWO good looking brown-clad guys on my front doorstep. They probably thought that I'm some lazy housewife that sits in her pajamas eating bonbons all day. Next time they drive past my house you can bet I'll be in the front yard doing push ups or something to try and redeem myself.

Moving on...


This is our nephew Jace. We got to see him and smooch on him at Thanksgiving. The good thing in my family is that babies come along only every 4 years or so, so there's plenty of attention for each of them. We had so many cameras pointing at him, I think he probably thinks he's a movie star. But the funny thing is...

Whenever you press the shutter button he goes to this "deer in headlights" look.



See? We were trying to capture a smile, but as soon as we would snap the picture, the smile would disappear. Maybe Jantzen could give him some lessons.

Or maybe not.

Thursday was Carson's Christmas program at school. Jantzen (obviously) was not excited about it. This year they decided to hold it at Carson's school rather than the much BIGGER (and better suited for 3,886,048,127,459 parents, grandparents and neighbors) high school. But this was actually good news for us. Because the third graders sang first. Then we went home. Then we went back 30 minutes later for the grand finale. Carson was none the wiser. But I think he suspected something because he kept quizzing us on which songs he sang, and in what order. "Mom, which song did we clap our hands and stomp our feet on? Did you see me in the kick line?"" We passed with flying colors. Oh, the benefits of living next to the school!

Friday was the PAX (Program for Academic Exchange) Christmas party. We spent about 30 minutes lost in West Richland, but we survived the big city and were treated to a middle school Calypso band. They were so awesome! They ALMOST inspired me to start fundraising for one in Hermiston. Then I remembered how much I hate fundraisers. And how I sneak anything with the word "Fundraiser" into the garbage before my kids see them. But anyways, all the exchange students were given a chance to try the steel drums. The rest of us were jealous.

Daniel, being the music dude that he is seemed to really enjoy it.

And after their time was up the real band played one more song. I don't know the name of it, but it goes like this: Duh da da da da da da duh da da da da da. Oh, forget it. It inspired an international kick line.


Hey, I never said they were the Rockettes!
Here's all the exchange students in the area that are here with PAX. All of them except for us live in the Tri-Cities, which is a bummer. But once in a while they get together for things like... A Crispy Kreme fundraiser this weekend!
I will not eat any donuts.
I will not eat any donuts.
I will not eat any donuts.
Deep breath.

New subject, please.
Saturday we went to the Irrigon skate park. For a town so small that they don't even have a McDonald's, they sure do have a cool skate park.


It was a gorgeous day, a balmy 50 degrees.Which means that we could stay outside for more than two minutes.It was a LARGE time had by all.

Does that mean anything?

Or is that just rodeo talk?

It's kind of hard to feel like you have anything exciting to say after you've blogged about such exciting things as jungle zip lines, surfing and deep sea fishing. But I thought I'd make an attempt at SOMETHING. But beware this may be kind of gross and a tad bit on the mundane side.
Wednesday was the day that we planned on going to my sister, Dana's house for Thanksgiving. Tuesday night was the night when my children started puking. Last time we tried to go to Vancouver (only a month ago!) they did the same. Do you think there's some sort of conspiracy here? Luckily, it turned out to be a very short lived illness and by Wednesday afternoon we decided that we were well enough to hit the road. But first we had to hit McDonald's because we were hungry. And to be sure that Carson would have plenty of food in his stomach to hurl in the back of the car as soon as we were stuck in Portland traffic. Aahhh, good times. Good times. But those McDonald's cups did come in handy at that blessed moment of upchucking. He and Daniel happened to be sitting in the third seat of our car, which is approximately 3 miles from where I was sitting in the front seat. So I could do nothing except pass cups, napkins and water bottles to our nurse, er, Daniel. I bet when he decided to come to America he didn't envision holding McDonald's cups for a puking child, did he? But he was great and luckily he isn't a sympathetic puker. That could have been bad. After it was all over, he put the lid on and passed the cups up front. Eeeew! Something about the warmth of those cups still haunts me.
End of story. You can all breathe a sigh of relief now. You survived the gross. Now it's time for the mundane.
You know how you sometimes write about the funny things your kids do? Well, I'm gonna do that now. Except it's about my husband. (Hi honey! Please don't kill me.)
So I got a little behind on the laundry and Chris found himself with no -uhem- underclothes to wear yesterday. So we gathered up some laundry and put it in the washer. But we decided not to start it yet because we were all trying to shower for church. Later on, he put the clothes in the dryer and then took what he needed to wear when they were done. Last night we decided to fold our Everest of Laundry, and when we were almost done I noticed a sock with a little bit of food stuck to the bottom of it. So I started to inspect all the other clothes and guess what...We had just folded a bunch of clothes that had been dried, but not washed. Doh!
Another fine example of the craziness that takes place behind these four walls. Sometimes I wonder why God thought I could handle three kids.