Chirstmas Eve

We started the day by decorating our cookies for Santa. The kids had a blast from start to finish with these cookies. We baked them the day before, and Marcus loved slamming the cookie cutters into the dough, over and over, and everyone kept fighting over the snow man cutter, and no one wanted to use the bell cutter. When it came time for frosting, Alyssa was in charge of decorating the snow men,

and Ethan was in charge of decorating the Christmas trees.

Marcus just had a great time squeezing frosting all over everything.

And Ethan got a little too generous with the red sprinkles. (Yes, there is a cookie under that red mountain.) I used a spoon to distribute the sprinkles a little more evenly.

After decorating cookies we strated tracking Santa online. It was fun to see him get closer and closer to us, especially when it was bedtime and we were able to show the kids that he was getting closer, and they'd better go to sleep.

We baked homemade bread and cooked our Christmas ham, which Brian so lovingly picked up for us from Costco on his way home from work the day before. (You want me to go where? - two days before Christmas?!?) Apparently Costco was a little crowded.

And then we had Brian's family over for an early Christmas.

The boys had a fabulous time with the boat, I mean box that Grandma brought the presents in.

Then we opened the presents

and played and played and played. After everyone went home and we tucked the kids in bed, Brian and I kept checking to Santa's progress across the globe.

Apparently, he went through Spokane, Washington at 11:18, which was as close as he came to the Tri-Cities, and it was good enough for us.

And Here's The Yellow Scarf

The yellow scarf, in all its radiant glory

Marcus was fine sitting on Santa's lap

But Ethan was scared silly

To Alyssa, Love Santa

Last week Alyssa finger crocheted a scarf for Santa. It was a bright yellow scarf, about two inches wide and three feet long. She worked on it all afternoon, and kept adding yarn to make sure it would be "big enough for Santa." Then she brought it with her to the Primary activity and waited excitedly in line, until it was her turn to sit on Santa's lap. When she presented the yellow scarf to Santa, he was excited and had her wrap it around his neck, and she loved giving it to him. Her only Christmas request was to be able to go on a sleigh ride with him.

Yesterday I was checking my hotmail account, which I don't really use anymore, and while scrolling through the email, I noticed one that said, "Please give to Alyssa." It was an email from Santa, thanking her for the scarf. I thought it was so sweet that I printed it onto a Christmas card to give to Alyssa when she got home from school. She was thrilled!



The letter says, "Dear Alyssa, Thank you for the great scarf. You must know how cold it gets flying from house to house. I will always keep it for riding in my sleigh. I will wrap it around my neck, right under my beard and coat. You are a very thoughtful young lady. Love, Santa. P.S. Please tell Grandpa Jacks that he can e-mail me and we'll work on the details of that sleigh ride."

Oh What Do You Do In The Winter Time...

...when all the world is cold?

Ever since September when I was inspired by Katherine to try Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred, I've been doing really good about exercising every morning. And I really do love the workouts on that video, but a couple weeks ago I started to get really bored with them. So luckily, I had on hand a weighted hula hoop that I splurged on a few months ago, so I started watching a video each morning and hula hooping while I watched. And even that is getting a little boring, but just a little boring, though. The real problem is that even though I can feel it in my legs and stomach, it's not much of an aerobic workout, and I miss that. I've thought about alternating between 30 Day Shred and the hula hoop, but as it is right now, I don't want to get up at six in the morning to hear Jillian tell me, "Just think about all the reasons you bought this dvd in the first place..." and "...and next we're going to do..." shrug, "...jumping jacks...with weights..."

I'm wanting to mix things up so I don't get too bored and stop exercising during fudge/divinity/caramels/cookie season. So the question is - what do you all do to get exercise in the winter time?

Dinner With The Jacks

The other night, while we were eating dinner, Brian said something incredibly funny. Too funny for me to remember, apparently, because I have completely forgotten what we were even talking about. After he said it, he said, "You should put that on the quote blog," to which Alyssa replied, "No, Mom. You should put on your blog: I said this, and then Brian said that, so Alyssa said this, and Daddy said that, so I did this, and Alyssa did that, which made Daddy say that...." and this rambling continued for about three or four minutes. Brian finally interrupted her.

"Alyssa, you've got to think about what you're asking. Do you want Mom to be our maid and cook, or our stenographer?"

"Oh, now that's funny," I said, and looked over at Ethan, who was jumping a little piece of french toast up and over his plate and saying, in a little tiny voice, "I'm a rocket man!!" We don't know how long he had been involved in this activity, because we had been listening to Alyssa and wondering when she was going to stop rambling. Then Ethan took a good look at his piece of french toast and realized just how small it was, and while jumping it over his plate, oblivious to us all watching, he said in an even tinier voice, "I'm a rocket baby!!"

That's when I looked over at Marcus, who was playing his fork (complete with a bite of french toast on it) like a trumpet.

And now the question is: since I wrote all this down, who's doing the laundry and making dinner tonight?

Broadway's Award-Winning Best Musical

Yesterday we headed to Spokane to see "The Lion King." We dropped Marcus off at Kim and Brian's house, who happen to live just ten minutes from the INB Performing Arts Center, and he hung out with them for the afternoon. He had a wonderful time! I was a little worried that he would be upset with us for leaving him, but they said that he was happy the whole time, and he didn't even fight them when they strapped him into a grocery cart. He always fights me when I strap him into grocery carts.

Brian's parents got Brian and I tickets to go see "The Lion King" for Brian's birthday when it came to Portland when I was pregnant with Ethan, so when we heard that it was coming to Spokane, we decided to take them. So we met them at the hotel they stayed at, then walked across the street in the freezing cold to the INB center. We made sure everyone had gone to the bathroom (especially Ethan) two or three times before sitting down, and then we were treated to a spectacular performance.

The animals were amazing, the costumes were amazing, the music was amazing - everything was fabulous. There were times when the choir would sing a chord, and it would just hit you and you could really feel it. I loved watching the kids as they sat, completely enthralled. Brian's dad brought some binoculars, and Ethan loved looking through them to see the actors close up. He had them through most of the performance, and if anyone else borrowed them, he would soon ask, "Where are my by-noc-lers?" He actually went back and forth from sitting on Brian's lap to sitting on our pile of coats to make him tall enough to see, then he fell asleep when there was about twenty minutes left in the program. Alyssa sat in the row behind us, with Brian's parents. Every time I looked back at her, she was intently watching. She said her favorite song was "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" and her favorite character was Nala.

We splurged (big splurge!) and got the kids each a stuffed animal. We bought Nala for Alyssa, Simba for Ethan, and Zazu for Marcus. Alyssa loves hers, Marcus loves his, but Ethan is not happy with Simba. I think he might be a little afraid of it. He does claim it enough, though, to not want to hand it over to Alyssa. When she asks, "Ethan, since you don't want your Simba stuffed animal, can I have it?" he says, "NO!" But as you can see, he didn't even want to pose with it for the picture.

Christmas Decorations

A couple of Sundays ago we decorated the Christmas tree. Right after Thanksgiving I was thinking about getting a real tree this year (it would be our first one), but then I realized that in addition to buying the tree, we would need to buy new lights, because I didn't want to deal with destringing our fake one. We're trying to save every little bit right now to save up for a down payment on a house, so we decided to wait for another year to buy a real tree.

First job: fluffing the branches. Alyssa, Ethan, and Marcus did the lower branches while I worked on the top ones.


Alyssa did a fabulous job of placing the ornaments.


This is the tree skirt I made copying some of Sarah's. We've never had a Christmas tree skirt before. Up until now I've always draped some fabric around the bottom and called it good. But I decided that this was going to be the year that we would finally have a tree skirt! After I saw the ones Sarah made, I had a perfect vision in my head of what I wanted ours to look like, but I couldn't think of a time when I would be able to make it to the fabric store without kids, so I opted to raid my fabric tub of leftovers. The white is from a temple dress I made when I was pregnant with Ethan, and the red is from a belly dance costume. Our tree skirt is actually still not finished, because I ran out of ribbon and red thread. I'll have to make it to the fabric store soon!

Ethan and Brian had the privilege of putting the angel on the top when we were done.


And last week my neighbor and I went out in the front yard and put up our outside decorations. It was freezing cold outside, but we had a great time!

Christmas, Christmas Time is Here! Time For Joy, And Time For Cheer!

Last year I made an Excel file of everyone's addresses so I could have a quick list to use to send Christmas cards this year, but every time I try to pull up that file, a window pops up that says, "Windows cannot find 'C:\Users\Carrie\Desktop\Home Manager\Addresses.xlsx'." So maybe sending Chrstimas cards this year won't be as easy and quick as I thought it was going to be.

Therefore, if you are reading this (and you know you are) please send me your address. carrielynnjacks@gmail.com. Thank you!

Mixin' It Up...Not So Good

Since we started homeschooling this year, I've had to put myself on a pretty rigid schedule. I found that if I didn't completely keep up with the dishes and laundry, Alyssa's school work fell behind. On Monday and Thursday I wash diapers, Tuesday is Brian's and my laundry day, Wednesday is the kids' laundry day, and Friday I wash sheets and towels (as necessary). I've been waking up at six o'clock every morning to exercise and shower, and hopefully be dressed and ready for the day by the time the kids get out of bed.

For a while things were working great. Then the kids started to realize that Mom got up way before them, and they decided to take turns getting up early to thwart my alone time. A couple weeks ago, when my alarm went off, I thought, "Why do I get up this early to be up before the kids, when the kids wake up anyway?" and I turned off my alarm, rolled over, and went to sleep. Five minutes later, Brian's alarm went off, and he promptly pushed the Snooze button (because that's what he does) and went back to sleep himself.

That morning I started a two-week run of not setting my alarm, staying in bed while Brian showered and got ready, getting up to say prayer with him and send him off to work, and then staying in bed until the kids woke up, which ended up being usually around seven-thirty. I started exercising with the kids either exercising with me, or watching me from the couch, saying, "Mom, you're supposed to have your feet in the air. Higher. I know it's hard, but you can do it." And then after pouring bowls of Marshmallow Mateys for the kids, I would run upstairs for a quick shower, then after I was ready we would start school.

Overall, it only put us behind our school schedule by a half-hour, but it really messed with my dishes and laundry schedule. Instead of sorting and starting laundry at seven o'clock, I was starting around ten, and that meant that it didn't always make it into the dryer or out of the dryer. After the first week the kids started living from a pile of clean clothes sitting in a laundry basket on top of Ethan's dresser. When one of them needed socks, I would run downstairs to another clean, but unsorted basket of clothes to hunt down a matching pair. Because I was getting lazy in other things, Alyssa and I started getting lazy with her school work schedule to where she was learning that she could argue and whine instead of doing her work, and if she whined long enough, eventually the time to get her work done would disappear and she wouldn't have to do it. And she's not the only one who's been lazy. Yesterday while Alyssa was at MCP, I didn't even start the laundry or clean up after breakfast. I read a book, and when the characters in the book made brownies, I decided to make brownies, too. Then I spent the afternoon on the computer dreaming about houses, and didn't even think about dinner until Brian called to say he was on his way home.

So last night I decided that we need to get back on a good schedule, but this morning when my alarm clock went off, I decided that it's going to be a modified schedule. I will stay in bed while Brian gets up to shower, but I've decided to get up to exercise when he leaves for work. That way I'll be sleeping in a little bit, but I'll still be up and getting the morning started early enough not to effect other things.

I don't know why I'm sharing this. It's not particularly interesting, but it's just been on my mind. Believe me, it is not in my nature to want to do laundry every day or to keep the kitchen constantly clean, but I've found that striving for that is necessary to my sanity. Funny, huh? And even though I generally keep the house clean during the week, I take the weekends off, and by Sunday evening it usually looks like a tornado came through, and then Monday morning I start all over again. Another funny thing I've found is that when I'm closely following our cleaning and school schedule, I actually have more time to work on my own projects and to spend fun time with the kids.

So Incredibly Thankful...Again

What is it with Marcus almost dying the day before Thanksgiving? Right now he's two for three.

This afternoon we were headed to my sister's house to participate in my niece's production of "Rikki Tikki Tavi," and like usual, when I told the kids to get in the car, Alyssa got on her scooter and started cruising up and down the side walk, Ethan ran around the grass, and Marcus got on his big wheel and joined Alyssa. I don't know why "Get into the car" translates to "Run around the neighborhood" in their language, but this always seems to happen.

I was able to corral Ethan into the car, and while I was strapping him into his car seat, I heard Alyssa say, "Marcus! Stop! Come back!" And when I ducked out of the van, I saw Marcus riding his bike straight into the middle of the busy street that our street is perpendicular to, with Alyssa running after him.

I screamed "Stop! Stop!" while running up the side walk. I don't know if I was talking to Marcus and Alyssa, or to the cars who were passing them as they stood in the center of the right lane. I counted four cars that went by while I ran, screaming, and when I reached them I scooped Marcus into my arms as Alyssa pulled the big wheel to the sidewalk. Then, once I had everyone safe in the car, I dumped the scooter and big wheel over the fence into the back yard, where they will stay. Forever.

So once again, we are incredibly thankful to have three beautiful, healthy, and alive children this Thanksgiving season.

Cabin Fever

On Thursday we headed to Brian's parent's cabin for the weekend where we:

ate lots of yummy (easy to prepare) food,

hung out with a blue marshmallow,

saw some deer,

read a little bit, and watched a ton of movies.
It was fabulous!

Monthly Review

Yesterday Alyssa had her first group monthly review at MCP. Each month we meet with our advisor to report on how things are going and where we are in our lesson plans, but every few months we have a group show and tell, where each child can report on something they've been learning about. Alyssa made a ziggurat (ancient Mesopotamian temple) out of blocks and talked a bit about it. She also shared a book she wrote a couple of weeks ago (all on her own) about her new Moxie doll that she was so excited to finally earn enough money to buy. She was so excited to share her ziggurat, and she practiced what to say about it, but when it came time for her turn, she just said, "I made a ziggurat....And here's my book..." and then she read her book.

(For the life of me, I can not get this picture to not be sideways. Sorry!)

All of the kids were so cute. Most of them shared poems they had either memorized or written themselves, a couple shared reports they had done on animals, and there was one little boy who read a story he wrote summarizing most of the story of Star Wars. He also had a stack of papers with him that turned out to be recipes for Strawberry Waffles. From the amused look his mom had, the recipe idea was all his own. He actually drew and wrote on each paper, instead of making copies. The recipe had a picture of a brown square with lines in it (the waffle, of course) with a big, bloody looking smear across the top of it, and across the top of the paper it said to get a waffle, put strawberries on it and whipped cream on it. I can't find the paper, but I wish I could so I can copy it - his spelling was so cute!

Up and Running

I started setting up another blog a few months ago to post videos to, but then I never did anything to it. I know a lot of people just put videos on their normal blog, but I don't want to do that, because I don't want to have to edit the written content of video posts when I have my blog printed. Yeah, it might not make sense, but when do I ever really make sense? So now, Jacks Family Movie Productions is now officially in use, if you're interested in seeing our family in action.

Sorry For The Fuzziness

This is what happens when Brian helps get the kids ready for bed.

And they love it!

Happy Birthday Marcus!

Marcus celebrated his second birthday Friday (and Saturday). For only having one other birthday before, this kid knew exactly what to do. We had a pile of french toast with a candle stuck in the top for breakfast, sang him happy birthday, and the second I set the plate in front of him, he blew out the candle. He was a pro unwrapping presents - definitely a pro at being excited about the presents. Brian's grandma even gave him two loaves of banana bread, which he loves, and he opened them up and screamed, "Nana bud! Nana bud!" and danced around the living room.

He also got a Spiderman boppy thing that he loved even before it was unwrapped, a Fisher Price "cd player," a train track set to supplement Ethan's train track set so they don't keep fighting over the curvy and straight pieces, and a semi-truck car carrier. Between us, grandmas and grandpas, and aunts and uncles, the kid made out pretty well.

He actually took a nap right before his party on Saturday, and then woke up, and went back to sleep, spending the first half hour of his party sleeping on Brian's lap.

He loved his cake. Ethan suggested the dinosaur cake, and he was quite happy with that. He also loved his cupcakes with chocolate frosting. Before I could frost them, he got to one and ate the top off of it. So I frosted that one last, and took some of the leftover frosting from the dinosaur cake to put an "M" on the top of his special, half-eaten cupcake. Then, when I left all of the cupcakes on the counter until the party, with specific instructions to everyone to leave them alone, I found Marcus reaching for globs of frosting from his cupcake, even though it was on the second row from him. I just thought it was hilarious that he left all of the other cupcakes alone.

Marcus is the sweetest little guy. He is still such a cuddler, and he loves to give hugs and kisses. Brian's dad is one of his favorite people. He adores "Bampa" and can even recognize his truck when we're traveling around town. He loves to help me cook. He always pushes a chair into the kitchen so he can stand beside me and help put ingredients in or stir for me. Sometimes he won't give up the spoon for me to have a turn. Oh, he also loves books. He loves to sit and look at the pictures of any book. We are extremely glad to have Marcus in our family!

Ruffles and Stuff

I stumbled upon a new blog this afternoon. It's called Ruffles and Stuff and it's written by a lady named Disney. This woman is a genius! She buys frumpy clothes at thrift stores and turns them into adorable clothes for herself and her daughter. I've spent the last hour just drooling over each post, thinking, "I want a dress like that" or "Oh, I want to make something like that so bad!" We actually had a very productive morning, but it doesn't look like it, because I let the kids raid the Halloween candy bucket after lunch while I was skimming through post after post, and the dining room looks like a sugared-up tornado blew though. You think I would have noticed Ethan and Marcus coming to me every five seconds, asking, "Mom, could you open this please?" and "Momo! grunt," respectively.

But no, I was too busy looking at things like:

This dress made out of a thrift store skirt

This lamp shade

A scarf made out of a t-shirt

A bolero made from a shirt that had gotten too short for her


This picture, made form an old frame and twigs from her yard

And this cute shirt made out of dollar store thermal underwear

I want to spend a few more hours on her site, getting ideas for ways to make my life more "ruffly," recycled, and pretty, but it's going to have to wait until later. Brian just called to say he's on his way home (early today!) and I have to clean up all the candy wrappers and lunch dishes so it doesn't look like I've been loafing for the past hour and a half.

edited to add: And from her site, I found Wardrobe Refashion, where everyone makes a pledge to recycle and refashion their old clothes, instead of throwing them out and buying new ones. I don't know if I'll be hard core enough to take the challenge, but it would be fun to try. I've actually got a bag of clothes that have been waiting to go to Goodwill for a month or so. I think I'll go take a look at what I can do.

Thankful Tree

{2009}
Some of the things on the list: friends, Dad and Mom, our family, our ward, fishing, computers, good food, Book of Mormon, our swing set, to have Brian live with us, sleep, music, exercise, we have such good kids, date night, Jesus, America, home school, our car, the Gospel, work, happy people. There's also a lot of scribbly leaves that the boys did which could mean anything.

Halloween Fun

Last night we went to a carnival and trunk-or-treating at the church. Alyssa went through the maze four or five times, and she loved running around with her friends. She went around the parking lot with Emily McShane.


Brian and I went as the Queen of Hearts and the Mad Hatter. It was fun wearing that costume again.

Marcus loves trick-or-treating. What? All I have to do is walk around the parking lot and people give me candy? Okay! He wore his eye patch last night, and he looked so cute!

Friday Halloween Fun

We went trick-or-treating at Brian's parent's house on our way to a carnival put on by the city of Richland.

Alyssa is a sun princess. Ethan is a Transformer. We took the boots off of him after a little while, because it was hard for him to walk in them. We tested them several times while we were making them, and he could easily walk around our house, but I guess tests are never quite like the real thing.

Marcus ended up being a pirate. He did not want to take his costume off at the end of the night. He threw such a fit and fought like crazy to get his arms back into the vest.

The carnival was a lot of fun. We took my nephew, Michael, because he was to be babysitting the kids while Brian and went to the Ransom's Halloween party afterward. At the carnival there was a hayride through Howard Amon Park, a maze, and a ton of games in the community center. The kids had a blast!

Brian and I went to the Ransom's party as a winged, but not-winged demon and a gypsy, respectively. Brian was winged, but not-winged, because I got him some rockin' demon wings from Value Village, but he couldn't get past the whole "fairy" thing associated with wings, so he didn't wear them after going to his parent's house. We painted his face dark, and he was wearing red eye contacts, which looked really cool.

We had a ton of fun at the Ransom's. Brian and NaDell kicked everyone's rears at Apples to Apples, then we played boys verses girls Catchphrase. I was really hungry, so I had two turkey sandwiches (sorry to anyone who didn't get one!) and a ton of NaDell's yummy pumpkin cookies.