A Snowy, Snuggly, Chowdery Kinda Day

 It snowed all day Friday and it has snowed all day today.  This is what we woke up to this morning.  A winter wonderland.  Can you believe I had my windows open enjoying the lovely weather on Thursday?  Aubrey and Addy spent most of the day today outside playing in the freezing cold.  Like I'm not even kidding.  Most of the day.  I love the snow as long as I don't have to go outside.  It love the quiet peaceful sound of a field of snow.  I love looking out my windows while I am snuggled under a blanket.  The last two days have called for a lot of snuggling and a lot of hot chocolate drinking and a lot of Christmas music listening.  It has been wonderful!

 I decided that it was a chowdery kind of day. Which is kinda weird because I usually never eat chowder and I have never made chowder.  And I don't know the first thing about making such a thing.  But when the day calls for it, what can you do.  So I started throwing things in the pot.  I started with some melted butter, added milk, cut up some leftover baked potatoes, diced some leftover ham, threw in a bag of frozen corn and tossed in some dehydrated onions.  I wasn't sure how the whole thing would turn out.  Best dang soup I have ever made.  I'm so not kidding, and I have made some good soup in my lifetime.

After dinner we declared it family movie night.  We got all snuggly under blankets and turned on netflix.  I had added some movies to the queue that I thought would make good family movie night movies.  However no one was interested in them and I was defeated by Thor.  5 to 1.  I was so excited since the last family movie night movie was The Avengers and I was asleep by the 20 minute mark.  That is probably about as long as I lasted in Thor.  I couldn't believe it when I woke up at the end of the movie and thought it was 10:30/11:00.  But Emily informed us that it was only 8:15.  

It has been a delightful snowy snuggly Saturday.

Flashback/Flashforward Friday - Babies, Babies, And More Babies

 I don't know if you  have noticed, but I have been trying to be a better blogger lately. I have posted every day this week since Sunday.  Thankyouverymuch.  I'm trying to get all caught up on posts, and I have been doing a good job of that.  But today is Friday.  And that means Flashback Friday.  Lately I have been doing Flashback/Flashforward Fridays.  But I didn't have anything with which to flashback/forward with today.  So sitting in front of me on my desk is a box of pictures.  I told myself I was going to pick a pack of pickled peppers- I mean pick a pack of pictures and pull out the first picture in the pack and use that as my Flashback (without a flashforward).  Back to my old ways....Anyhoo!  The above picture was the first picture I pulled out, go figure.  I mean really.  Could it have been any more perfect?  My brother Sam, with my first child Zac?  My brother Sam who just the other day had his very first baby.  Well, his wife had his very first baby.  So look up and flash yourself back to September 1998 with Zac and Sam in my parents bed in Dallas Tejas.  Then look below and flash yourself forward to November 2012.  Sam and Alaina in Ohio.

Then I remembered that I had some of my parents old photo albums as my house.  I wondered if I could possibly find a picture of myself with Sam when he was a baby.  So flash yourself right on back to Galveston Texas sometime in 1987 or 1988.  Here I am with my brother Sam and my sister Lauren.  Back then they were collectively known as "The Babies".

In that same pack of pickled pictures, I found this picture of my dad, Earl, 

with Zac celebrating his first Birthday while we were in Dallas.

 And guess what?  In that same photo album of my parents, 

I found this picture of my dad celebrating Sam's second Birthday.

And I thought...I have a picture of Zac with his grandfather, maybe I can find a picture
of Sam with his.  And there it was.  Baby Sam with his Grandpa Snow in Houston Texas.

And then, since I have been luckin' out in the thinkin' department with this here post, I thought...I wonder if I go to Sam or Teresa's Facebook page, if I can find a picture of baby Alaina with her grandfather.  BAM!  Here it is!  Baby Alaina and her Grandpa Acosta.

 And here she is on her way home from the hospital this morning.

Crazy Socks = Crazy Girls

 Aubrey and Addy had

 CrAzY SoCk DaY

 at their school last week.

As you can see from the pictures, 

the socks weren't the only crazy things in the room.

Alaina Nicole

My baby brother (there is a 13 1/2 year difference in our ages) became a father in the wee hours of this crazy morn.  Little Alaina Nicole was born at 3:44 AM weighing 7lb 3oz.  Isn't she just precious.  I wish I could hold her in my arms.  Sam and Teresa, why did you have to up and move to Ohio?  Until just this past summer they have been living in Idaho, attending BYUI.  Our family loved having them so close.  And now they have this sweet precious baby girl and they live half way across the country.

Last week Addy was telling me something we could do to get a lot of money.  I can't remember the details now, but she was so excited about her plan.  She said, "And then, once we have all of that money, do you know what we can do???"  And I said, "Go to Disneyland?"  She looked at me like I was crazy and replied, "NO!  WE CAN GO TO O-HI-O".  My children are very upset with me because I will not buy us all plane tickets to go to Ohio for Thanksgiving.  They are all very anxious to meet their new cousin. 

Little baby Alaina decided to wait until her parents had a chance to vote yesterday before she started to make her appearance.  It wasn't long after they voted that they were on their way to the hospital.  Yesterday was an anxious day for me.  Waiting, waiting, waiting.  Waiting to see who would be our next President and waiting for Alaina to come.  I went to bed late last night knowing who the President was, but still not being able to see this sweet face.  It was nice to wake up to it this morning.

Her birth came at the perfect time.  She is a great reminder to me that no matter what, life and love and hope are eternal.

Fun Friday

Our Relief Society had a Fun Friday 2 weeks ago.  And it totally was way super fun.  I wasn't the only one having fun that night, it turns out.  When I left for the church, Zac and Ethan were out back trying to train the chickens.  I tried to explain to them that no matter what they did, the chickens simply do not have the ability to learn.  They could not have cared less what I had to say on the matter, and when I left they were still faithfully at it.

After the whole Fun Friday ordeal was done and over, there were 5 of us left at the church.  Jamie's car wouldn't start.  We were trying to jump it, but her car battery was all funkyfied.  So everyone had out their iphones and were googling her type of battery.  I said, "I could go inside and ask that guy who is playing basketball to come help us."  To which 4 women yelled a collective

 "NO!"

Well excuse me!  Apparently some people have issues.  

Not long after that we had it all figured out and we were merrily on our way home.

I arrived home to the following.  First of all you will notice Ethan's eye is a little more battered than it was when I left.  You might wonder what they are doing.  I did.  They were putting Tabasco sauce on crackers. 

 Then they were eating them. 

 Every time one of them finished a cracker, they got to punch the other one on the arm.

(the matter of his battered eye is totally unrelated to this little stunt)

 Zac was winning.

 And surprise!  I found this in my game room:

What 17 1/2 Years Of Marriage Does To A Perfectly Normal Person

Apparently being married to this man:

 for 17 1/2 years has the following effect on me: 

 Yeah, that's right.  I ate a hot dog last week.  

With sauerkraut. 

Who ever would have thought that would have happened in like, a million years?  I mean, the first hot dog I ate in my whole entire life wasn't even eaten that long ago.  It was on Tuesday, July 31, 2007 to be exact.  So who knew sauerkraut would be so soon to follow?  When you have a last name like mine, I guess it's only a matter of time.  Steve was working at home last week and I talked him into taking a "Walking Dead" lunch break with me.  So while I was taking Addy to school, Steve cooked up the dogs.  And for some odd reason, I put sauerkraut on mine.  Stranger things have happened.  Like this:

Apparently being married to yours truly:

 for 17 1/2 years has the following effect on him: 

He actually used the word bootatta last week.

In a sentence.

We were getting in bed one night and Addy came in our room to tell us something.  She left to go back into her bed and Steve told her to close the door.  So she backed up into the room and proceeded to try and close the door with her, well, bootatta.  And that's when he said it.  He really actually said, "You can't close the door with your bootatta!"  And I about fell outta the bed with shock. 

 But I didn't.

I heart you babe!

How We Managed To Celebrate Halloween For An Entire Month And Live To Tell About It

I'm about as bah-humbug as you can get when it comes to Halloween.  But I have children and so we acknowledge the "holiday".  As soon as they are grown up and outta the house though, my Halloween observance will come to an abrupt end.  I'm totally gonna be like my old grumpy shirtless lawn mowing neighbor and be the only person on the street with all the lights in my house off.  And I will yell at any kids that dare ring my doorbell.

 So nowadays Halloween is celebrated for an entire month. 

 yay.

 Here is a look at our month of Halloween:

It started way back so far I can't even remember when this was.  My camera says this picture was taken on October 5th.  We went to the grocery store and they had all kinds of stuff going on, including Halloween crafts for the kids.  Aubrey and Addy made a mummy and a ghost.

Earlier in the month we had a Halloween carnival at the church.  

Addy decided (all on her own, mind you) that she wanted to go as a hobo.

 Aubrey went as a goth

With friends

Zac went as himself and Emily didn't go because she had a soccer game 

that night and Steve went with her to that.

The Saturday before Halloween we went to a car dealership for a trunk-n-treat.  The main reason we went is because at school Aubrey got a coloring contest page and the prize for winning the contest was an ipod.  Aubrey worked very very hard on her picture and we went to turn it in.  After we left there, I figured we were dressed up (for the second time that month and it still wasn't even Halloween) so we might as well make the most of it.  The shopping center by our house was having a big Halloween shpamoozle and we went there and the girls got this picture taken.  Then we went trick or treating to all the stores.  Because if we are gonna dress up before Halloween, we better be getting candy.

The Monday before Halloween for Family Home Evening, we carved pumpkins.

 Our finished products belonging to the following (left to right): Emily, Addy, Aubrey, Zac

  And Addy and I made doughnuts for the treat

The morning of Halloween Addy and I went to the school to see the Halloween parade.  

Then we helped with Aubrey's party in her class.

And at looooooooooooooooong last the looooooooooooooong anticipated night had arrived.  After several costume changes, tantrums and some incredible disrespect towards her mother- Emily decided to be a zombie baby.  She wore her footie pajamas (which are now footless pajamas) and after several more tantrums and disrespect I did her makeup which she hated but I think looks way zombie awesome.  (This look was brought to you by my many hours of the Walking Dead viewing.)

Addy was a witch and Aubrey was a spider princess.  Zac and Em ditched us and Steve was still working so these girls and I went to our annual neighborhood potluck dinner and then hit the streets.  Steve met up with us not long after that.

After trick or treating we took the girls to see my mom and Lauren.  Then we picked Em and Zac up.  At Zac's friends house we were able to witness this amazing masterpiece.  His friend's mom carved all these pumpkins (she said her boys and her husband carved a few but she did most of them) and she had just started it the morning before Halloween!  Now that is some dedication.  You can't see anything in this picture but I wanted you to see how many she carved.  I took a few close up pictures below.

Thor and his hammer

Her Hunger Games section

YAY!  Halloween had a successful end and now we can get on with the real holidays!  I have already started playing Christmas music.  Now to put the tree up!  Don't be a hater.  It is after all the most wonderful time of the year!