Nesting, a Real Snowcone, the Black Sweatshirt, and More

Oh, I just remembered something, and I am typing it after everything else . . . Josh lost a front tooth, and I think it's adorable. Also very roomy in his mouth.

I am really trying to nest for the upcoming arrival of . . . the Legislative session. We must fit in this house before I lose my support. Gary has built shelves and done a marvelous job on the pantry. Both of us have been working on it. It takes forever to get through all of these papers and stuff with all of the rest of life going on, but we may just get there. Gary already had two late-nights this week, poor guy. It's winter . . .

Thanksgiving I will update later (if I'm lucky), but we had a great time in sunny St. George, and I never wanted to come back. Fortunately it was great weather here this week, so it wasn't too bad getting back into life. We also got to meet lots of family-people at City Creek/Temple Square on Monday night, so the Thanksgiving party had a great extension. It was much warmer than previous years, and less crowded, so we thoroughly enjoyed the lights, and felt the peace the season brings. The kids especially enjoyed being in a food court with cousins, and the next day Josh told his friends in the car, "All the kids wanted McDonald's, except Christian, he ate at that s-o-b place." (Sbarro's)

Also, to continue the Syphus-love, we left a bunch of crap in St. George, and had to accept dinner at Allison's to get it back. YUM! So fun to see them, and also Holly. Holly and Lissy speak the same wookie language. You know, that noise Lissy makes that I can't do. Anyway, Holly can do it, so they are BFF's.

You would have loved to have seen the ward Christmas program - it featured the kids of our street singing Picture a Christmas. It was very cute. They are energetic boys, but it turns out also great as a singing group. The kids saw Santa, also. Josh asked for Beyblades, Andrew asked for a cat (nice Andrew, the one thing we have positively identified you are allergic to), and Noah asked for a rubber snake. Santa asked him if he'd like anything else, but he knows he's only allowed to ask Santa for one thing, so he stuck with it. Santa was visibly amused. (He wants to whip the snake like Indiana Jones, I found out. Sweet. Santa can find the dollar store.)

Speaking of Noah, Piggy broke a few weeks ago. His head popped off, and I haven't figured out how to fix him. Piggy is like a drug to Noah, though, he buries his nose into his fur when he's tired and gets all relaxed. I made Piggy sleep on my dresser for a few days, but that was all Noah could take. Now he sleeps with both pieces. Creepy? Yes, but I have plans to fix the sitch . . .

Cindy and her chillins came a couple of weeks ago to par-tay while Nate was away. We chatted, ate food, kids played in the snow, Cindy and I turned old sweaters into 48 Huggies diapers (via the used childrens' clothing store), and just enjoyed them being here. Also she folded my laundry and I wish I didn't let her. It was the big snowstorm weekend, and the kids really wanted to get out there, fully equipped or not. They had fun, and later on I discovered that the snow was red. Why? I didn't know . . . until I found the empty snowcone syrup in the garage. They say they just poured it all over the snow and all the kids in the neighborhood stuck their faces in it and partook.

A couple of weeks ago a girl threw up on Josh at lunch in school. However, I didn't know until he came home in an oversized black sweat shirt that isn't his. Yeah, they didn't call me. Poor Josh. The office just issued him a sweatshirt and threw his other shirt in a bag and called it good. Gary and I have laughed about that sweatshirt. It was plain black, and looked new. Too big for Josh, but seemed about right for a third grader. Gary said, "I wonder if they just stock up on standard issue sweat-shirts in a medium size. I guess on average, it fits everyone just fine."

It is becoming very obvious Lissy is a girl. She has some very high-pitched squeals she uses when she is happy, and some very shrieky tones for when she's upset. She won't let the boys play keep-away from her, she just shrieks. She's so huggy and lovey, we just love it. Last week the boys devised a volley-ball-like game with a small ball and a large toy for a "net." The boys and Gary were all into it. Lissy just walked around with various stuffed animals and tried to get people to hug them. She loves it when people hug stuffed animals. She also likes to play the ring-stacking thing and play with blocks. Like she's a kid. As if.

And that's all, folks . . . I feel like our temple exchange was just barely, but it was two weeks ago. Ah, well, it was lovely. Also, Elder Nelson came to our stake conference today. It was a super-wonderful meeting, but we had some noise in our area that caused me to miss a lot of Elder Nelson's remarks. He was great, though, as was his wife. He taught us about the Nativity.