I told you so...

I warned you in my last post that it would probably be two months until my next post. Well, I almost made it. But SOMEBODY (Hi Kyla!) likes to harass me about not updating my blog. So here you go.

Alrightie now. Let's see what we can talk about. Well, we had Christmas. Yessirree we sure did. It was a wonderful day of relaxing, picking up scraps of wrapping paper, eating, picking up scraps of wrapping paper, napping, picking up scraps of wrapping paper, staying in our pajamas all day and picking up scraps of wrapping paper. Overall, it was a wonderful day. Before Christmas, Chris went AWOL for a day and snuck in to Best Buy and bought me something he shouldn't have. (A camera) and now I feel like a stupidhead because I don't know how to use it. But I'm having fun learning and I'll probably torture you with my attempts at photography. That is, IF I ever update my blog again.

Take this, for instance. Last night was a skate night for the kids' elementary school. (A fundraiser. Yippee! I just LOVE fundraisers!) I don't know how this picture happened and I know that there's no skill displayed in this picture, but I think it's cool. There were kids skating all around, but for some reason the only kids that really showed up were Carson and his friend Ryan. Everyone else looks like one of those ghosts in the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland, only blurry.

Here's Jantzen and her friend Morgan taking a breather. It was their first time skating and they did a great job. They reminded me of Bambi trying to walk for the first time, with their legs going in all different directions but there were no tears. Even after numerous collisions between the floor and their rear ends, they still had smiles from ear to ear. The skating rink is right around the corner from our house, so I think there may be more trips there in our future. It was fun for all of us.

And here's my double experiment. I was trying out the KitchenAid I got for Christmas AND messing with the aperture on my camera. How's that for some serious excitement? I know, I know. You may just have to walk away from my blog for a few minutes and calm yourself down. It's okay. Go ahead. I'll be here waiting when you're ready to come back.

More double experiments going on! I probably should have warned you. Homemade pasta with bad aperture experiments. A bit much? Probably.

Okay. I gotta get to bed now. Sorry for the lame post. I promise to update again soon with some real substance. Oh, who am I kidding. I'll see you in a couple of months.

Trips to Santa's lap

That's right, folks. Twice in one day.

Uh huh.

Noddin' my head like, "YEAH."

Movin' my hips like, "YEAH."

.

.

.

.

Oh wait, where was I?

I think I got carried away with my celebration.

I'm such an awesome blogger.

.

.

.

Now don't be surprised if it's another TWO months before I post again.

But.....

I almost forgot to mention our ward Christmas party that was last Friday night.

First on the agenda was the FOOD!

We have two bona fide CHEFS in our ward (mother and daughter) so any ward function is

a)guaranteed to have good food

b) guaranteed to draw a crowd because of the food

c)guaranteed to TOTALLY ROCK because I love food!

Second on the agenda was the visit from Santa. It's traditional for Santa to come at the end of the evening, sit on the stage and listen to all the kids' wishes for Christmas. He then gives them a bag of goodies and sends them on their way.

Apparently, Keaton doesn't feel like he's too old for this tradition because he gladly stood in line to sit on Santa's lap.

But when he sat on Santa's lap, he did the most believable imitation of a toddler who's scared of Santa and is trying not to cry. I was laughing my head off, but Santa totally bought in to it and was really worried!

So funny.

It kinda reminds me of the time about three years ago when he laid down on the floor and did "the worm" over to Santa.

Thanks, Keaton. You were the highlight of my evening. You were even better than the food.

To the 4th of July and beyond!!!

Oh my stinking heck!

We have had so much fun lately that I don't even know where to start.

It's been one party after another here at the Wrathall household. This is a picture from Keaton's birthday party. His birthday was actually in March, but since our house was totally torn apart in March we postponed it until June, when our house was only partially torn apart. Partial is so much better than total.

Then a couple of days later we had Carson's birthday party. His birthday is in December, but since it's so close to Christmas he always has his party in June. Don't you love how we celebrate our kids' birthdays at random? That's the thing about being parents. You can do whatever you want!

Next up we have our encounter with a snake on our front porch. Remember the sign on our front door that says, "Thou Shalt Remove Thy Shoes"? Well, he didn't. And this is what we do to those who don't obey. He is still in the freezer and he gives me a heart attack every time I try to sneak and get some ice cream.

I scream for ice cream!

Sorry, I just couldn't let that one pass.

Party number three is Daniel's going away party. We managed to pull off a surprise, which is always fun. I can't believe the year is already gone, and we put him on a plane yesterday to head back to Germany.

Goodbye Daniel! We'll miss you!

Don't forget to put schlupfer on your po!

So once all the parties were over it was time for a little trip.

We camped one night at Maryhill State Park in the Columbia River Gorge. That was fun until the sprinklers came on at midnight and then stayed on, hitting our tent every sixty seconds for the next three hours.

The next day we hiked the Eagle Creek trail to Punchbowl Falls and took a dip in the frigid waters. That was SO fun! There were a couple of cliffs to jump off of and the boys all did it several times.

Eagle Creek is one of our favorite places on earth. We go there almost every year and we never seem to get tired of it.

It's gorgeous!

And of course, we had to take a "more bars in more places" shot. Because we were about to lose our tallest bar.

For some reason, Jantzen wasn't excited about taking this picture.

She had a frown and she wasn't afraid to use it.

Then as if all of that stuff wasn't enough fun, we met up with my mom and sisters and headed to the beach for the Fourth of July. We got there early in the afternoon and just hung out all day playing in the water and the sand and the cooler full of food. Some of us ate more sand than food.

But I won't mention any names...

Jace!

Some of us ate more food than sand...

Me!!!

Some of us had weird battles on a log suspended over a fire. Some of us played with fire.All in all it was a great time.

Amen!

I just came across these pictures from Christmas. They were on a camera we don't use very often. I got a kick out of them.Every Christmas Eve we give the kids new pajamas. We call them their "magic pajamas" because they make Santa come. Here they are modeling them.

Aaaaaaand....I'm not sure what they're doing here.

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.



t

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.

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?

I guess it's time for an update on what we've been doing, lest you think we've fallen off the end of the earth.

First we have a follow-up on our girls night at the ballet. We had so much fun! Jantzen sat so still through the whole show, which lasted almost three hours. There were lots of little girls about her age there, all dressed up for a night out with their mommies. I was really impressed with all of these little girls and how well they behaved. We will definitely be going to more of these events when they come to Hermiston.

Next we have her birthday. I promise I DO HAVE other children besides Jantzen, but she's had a lot of excitement lately. We had a small party with a couple of friends and our family. I came to a new conclusion on her birthday. Kids love their birthdays! She was such a chatterbox all day long, and kept asking me jokingly, "How many sleeps until my birthday, mom?" When I would tell her none she would say, "RIGHT! THAT IS CORRECT!" And she would get all school teacher-ish on me, looking down her nose at me. It was pretty darn cute.

Last Friday was Carson's annual field trip to the corn maze and pumpkin patch. They go on this field trip EVERY YEAR, and somehow the kids never get tired of it. Carson and his buddies, Parker and Nick were so excited that they just couldn't stand still! They were determined to be the first group to make it through the maze, so we ran the whole way. I was really thankful for all the running I've done lately because that maze is kind of long. Especially when you take as many wrong turns as we did!
After the maze, we took a hay ride to the "pumpkin patch". And I use that term VERY loosely. Check it out:


Yes, they truck them in and spread them out on the ground for the kids to find. Hilarious, huh? But the kids didn't seem to care. They had a blast.