Thanks Santa!

What a wonderful Christmas we had, spoiled as usual.  For some odd reason Kinley did not get the memo that the anticipation of Christmas and Santa's arrival wakes you up early in the morning.  Instead, she chose to sleep until 8 which she rarely does.  Once she was awake and ran out to see her presents, she was sorely disappointed that Santa did not stick around to say good morning.  She was very confused and asked where Santa was numerous times.  Unfortunately the snow scared us off and we didn't make it to Utah to see family.  Luckily, we have been adopted by the Whites here and they let us hang out with them.  

Santa was kind enough to track down Kinley's last minute request of some snow pants.  He couldn't find any boots in her size but Mommy and Daddy came to the rescue to complete her "snow clothes" as Kinley calls them, and she is taking full advantage of all of this snow.  Her new Carter's light up boots are her most prized possession now.  Much to my dismay, she wants to wear them everywhere.  I'm having a hard time accepting that they match anything in her wardrobe, but Kinley assures me they look so pretty.  Kinley and I went to Target yesterday to find her some new dresses for church.  Everything I picked she told me was "yucky" and then she informed me that I have "bad taste". I, of course, informed her that she is just a bit mouthy for a 2 year old.

Thanks Santa!

Merry Christmas!

We want to wish all of our friends and family a very Merry Christmas!  We also wanted to thank everybody for the wonderful Christmas cards.  Big shock, but I was too lazy and uninspired to send out cards this year, I think next year I'll actually give it a try.  

At this house, we are definitely ready for Christmas to come.  Kinley and I found this super fun Christmas website, www.northpole.com.  We have had fun playing in Santa's village and checking Santa's progress with the Santa tracker.  Poor Kinley, she seems a bit confused by the holidays and keeps telling people Happy Halloween and sometimes she gets it right and says Merry Christmas.

While we have had fun with the lights, the trees, and talking of Santa, we are grateful for the time to reflect upon the birth and life of Jesus.  May you all have a a very merry and safe Christmas.

Love,

Rich, Marlyce, and Kinley   

Make it stop

Apparently we have done something to incur the wrath of Mother Nature, Old Man Winter, and Jack Frost.  It just keeps snowing and snowing and snowing.  On top of that, it's down right cold, luckily it's not Nebraska cold, but it's still plenty cold enough for me.  Poor Rich had to shovel the driveway 3 times yesterday due to the wind blowing all of the snow right against our garage leaving us a nice 2 foot drift.

Of course I'm totally lame and left a fair amount of Christmas stuff for the last minute.  Too bad the roads are horrible and I can't get anywhere to deliver or pick up what I need.  Luckily, no snow today, and the plows should be coming, so there is still hope.  If not, Santa, we need a tiny favor...I think you know the last things Kinley asked for. 

This is Rich in the backyard being so nice and posing so I can tell how deep the snow is.

Rich and his new best friend the snow shovel.  Don't you love the giant mountain of snow behind him?

Of course Kinley loves the snow.  She is such a freak, she never gets cold.  She mostly likes to eat the snow.  And notice how snowy her pants are....

Terrible picture, I know, but this is how Kinley gets around in the snow.  She just crawls and says stuff like, "I just love snow".  

Funny story

While teaching our adorable little Sunbeams at church on Sunday (the 3 and 4 year olds), I asked what they were doing for Christmas.  We have one little boy that likes to talk and says all sorts of funny things that I'm sure his parents would rather he kept to himself.  This is what he had to say.

"First we will go to Grandma Judy's.  She doesn't give very good presents.  Then we go to D.I. to drop the presents off."  For those of you unfamiliar with D.I. (Deseret Industries), it's just like Goodwill.

Hopefully Grandma Judy doesn't stumbled onto this.

Silly thoughts

Here are a few silly thoughts from Kinley to help brighten your day.

After being naughty and earning a timeout in her room, I hear Kinley yelling that she wants to be nice.  We then have the following exchange:

Me:  Kinley, do you know why you are in trouble?

Kinley:  Um, I ruined Christmas?

Me: No, you did not ruin Christmas, not yet anyways.  You were screaming.

Kinley:  That's right, I screamed, like this.  (then repeats the awful screaming that got her in trouble in the first place)

After picking Kinley up from Nursery, I asked her what she did in Nursery.  She says, "I screamed.  I cried.  I pushed."  I ask for some more details and she responds with, "I pushed Jace.  He fell down.  He cried.  I sat in the chair."  Nice, my kid is the bully in nursery.

After staring out the back door at the snow, Kinley announces she is going outside to play in the snow.  I say, "Kinley, you can't go outside, you only have socks on."  Kinley takes off her socks and declares, "now I'm ready."  Apparently she didn't get the memo that mommy hates snow.

For family night we made this stellar gingerbread house.  While decorating the house, Kinley had the following things to say.  "I eat all the candy.  This is so fun.  Echo give me this house.  I love this house.  My house is so pretty."  I have to say, considering who decorated the house, it's not too shabby.  Rich and I weren't really blessed with any crafty or decorating talent, but we enjoyed ourselves.

If you are wondering, I have no idea why Kinley can't open her eyes when she smiles, or why she looks like she is in pain.  I promise she is having fun.

The Real Santa...finally!

Due to some illness at our house, our trip to see Santa was postponed until today.  After finishing up at the Primary activity, we headed to the mall to see Santa.  We were pleased to see a fairly decent Santa helper working the booth this year.  His postives were that he had a decent beard and white hair and he did not wreak of alcohol or body odor, which made him a million times better than last year's Santa.  His negatives, well, he was just kind of "dullsville", not a lot of holiday cheer or jolliness to him.

Kinley was super excited to see the "Big Man" and waved her hello's while waiting in line.  I am just stunned at the cost of a picture with Santa.  The cheapest package was $12.99.  Whatever happened to the old days where you just got a polaroid picture?  We went the cheap route and took our own photos, lame I'm sure, but at least I still have my $12.99 in my pocket and the creepy picture lady didn't shake her bells in our faces.  Once Kinley walked up to Santa she got a bit nervous and needed her mommy to sit with her.  I, of course, was ill prepared to have my picture taken, but sat down anyway.  Santa could have earned some bonus points by scooting over or possibly by being friendly, but he chose to just stay put and keep personal contact to a minimum.  Here is the exchange between Santa and Kinley.

Santa:  Have you been nice this year?

Kinley:  No, I'm mean.

Santa:  Well what would you like me to bring you?

Kinley:  I want a baby doll.

Santa:  Is there anything else you want?

Kinley:  I want to slide Santa.

Santa: (looking straight forward and not saying anything)

Kinley:  Ok, bye bye Santa.  Ho ho Merry Christmas

Santa:  Here's your book

And that sums that up.  I guess it was kind of a let down.  You wait all that time and hype Santa up, and it's over in 30 seconds.  I think I'll make a suggestion that during the Santa screening process, they take a second to check for actual holiday spirit...seems like a key factor in being the big man.

Soft Scrub

To the makers of Soft Scrub...

Let me start by saying that I truly enjoy your product, it's really one of my favorites.  I must ask the question, if your product is so good, why have you made it so very difficult for me to get to it? Do you realize that the squeeze bottle you have your product in has just won the award for "World's Worst Squeeze Bottle"?  I mean, honestly, I wanted to do some cleaning, not combine a serious cardio workout with weight training, all while trying to clean my stove top and sink.  After applying my body weight to the bottle and squeezing with all of my might, imagine my surprise when I only managed to get a tiny little stream of liquid to come out of the bottle, not even the size of a penny.  So, I took a deep breath and repeated the whole fiasco only to have an explosion of Soft Scrub come flying out of the bottle.

I now have a sparkling kitchen sink, kitchen countertops, stove top, and then had to search for things that needed to be cleaned so that I didn't waste the rest of my mound of Soft Scrub.  I'm not sure if I should thank you for making such an effective product, or rip your stinking head off for the trouble you have caused me today.

Sincerely,

One confused customer with a really clean kitchen

Dear Santa...

Hi Santa, it's Kinley again.  I know, I know, I better get my act together if I want to make it on the nice list.  My mommy said that we could come see you today.  I am hoping that you took my suggestions from last year to heart, and that when we make it to the mall I will find a decent looking Santa there.  I couldn't help but notice that you snubbed me in the store the other day.  I was the cute little girl in the shopping cart waving like a maniac and yelling "hi Santa".  You were the man with the really long white beard, white hair, suspenders, and using a giant candy cane to walk with.  Oh, if that wasn't you I'm going to be soooo embarrassed.  I did notice some bad body odor when we walked by you, so if it was you, you might want to consider sprucing up your personal hygiene for the holiday season.

So, when we get there tonight, I most likely will change my mind and become a little chicken and not want to go anywhere near you.  If that does happen, I have been telling my mommy for about a week that I would like a little turtle.  Mommy always makes a funny face when I say that and then makes a comment that turtles are yucky, so I'm guessing she doesn't want me to have one.  I'm sure the elves will make something for me that I'll really love.

Just remember Santa, I'm not naughty, I'm just stuck in my terrible two's.

Love,

Kinley

Black Friday

All I can say is, wow!  What a crazy experience it is to get up and hit the early morning sale.  Luckily my parents live in rural Utah so our only option was to hit Walmart.  As seems to be the norm when my family gets together, we were talking and laughing and let time get away from us.  Around 12:30 it was decided that if we went to bed we would never get back up in time to hit the early sale, so we just decided to pull an all nighter.  So crazy, I know.  The upside to this was that the longer we stayed up, the more people that decided to come with.  The early morning gang ended up being all of my sisters, Shawna, Richelle and Nicole, and we even drug along my nephew Keenan and niece Katie.

Around 3:30 a.m. we realized it was silly to just sit up and talk in the living room when we could just get in the car and be at the front of the line.  Imagine our surprise when we show up before 4:00 a.m. and the line is already filling the majority of the parking lot.  So we get out of the car and stand in the freezing cold for an hour waiting to get into the store.  Now my sisters and I are pretty funny, at least we think we are, but at 4 in the morning with no sleep, we're just down right hilarious.  I had an absolute blast and I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.  Here are my top 10 favorite moments of our first ever early morning sale shopping.

1.  Keenan offering to "chest bump" everybody out of my way

2.  Asking Shawna what was on her shopping list and hearing her reply with "just egg nog"

3.  The look on the ladies' face in front of us after Shawna said "egg nog"

4.  The look of sheer terror on the worker's face as they passed out the carts to the charging mob of people

5.  Being pushed and shoved until I finally cracked and just started grabbing stuff because I couldn't get to the stuff I actually wanted.

6.  Watching people try and drag their giant TV's around the store

7.  Placing an item in my cart and accidentally knocking Nicole's Power Ranger helmet on the floor and having to physically wrestle it out of some ladies' hands as she tried to steal it from me...dang lady cut my finger open

8.  After Nicole's unsuccessful attempts at a Nintendo DS and Batmobile, watching her excitement when Keenan and Katie found them sitting on the floor in front of the milk.

9.  Having a mini high school reunion while running around the store like a mad woman

10.  Watching some crazy lady stuff her arms full of $5 Hot Wheels while shouting at people to get away.  Honestly, is that even a good price for those???

To my fellow Walmart shoppers, good effort this year, but watch out, we're coming back next year, and we'll be better prepared!