A 'Sweet' Night

There aren't many words to say about what I did Friday night. The pictures speak for themselves. "Mmmmm. Ohhhhh, yeaaaaah. Oooooooooh." That's just about what they have to say.

Below are the ones I made. My very first made-up-from-my-own-brain cookie recipe, well, second, I guess. I have a few "secret ingredients" I use in my chocolate chip cookies. I felt so proud! Oh, and are they addicting! You are going to have to wait for a minute now while I go get myself one..........mmmm...munch...gobble...smack...liiiiiick! OK, moving on.

My friend Adri and I planned a little "sweet and greet" as a "see you later" party for our friend Shaina who is moving about 20 minutes south, to Fountain, CO, before Christmas. Everyone brought a treat and the recipe to share and swap. We thought it was a perfect way to celebrate our friendship with Shaina--friends: because she's a fantastic friend; and food: because, boy, can she cook! Every one of the cookies/brownies/sweets were...well, words can't describe how joyous my mouth was, and my belly was stuffed full of sugary happiness. But in the words of my friend Kerri (who because of her occupation as a nurse knows exactly which body part makes insulin), "My pancreas hurts!" But the part that bested the cookies in a battle of "favorite part of the night" was the part where I got to spend it all with the fine women in the picture below. I love them, each and all.

(Back to Front, Left to Right: Kerri, Me, Shaina, Margaret, Adri, Paula, Kristi, Heidi, Ashley K., Jen, Chalene, Katie, Jenny B., Ashley B.)

I'm a little jealous of last-night me. I'd like to be her again right about now, because eating all these leftovers by myself just doesn't feel quite as acceptable to my love handles as doing it with friends.

A Two-Fer

Two nights of fitful sleeping.
Two groggy and sleepy parents.
Two days of not-like-our-Tommy Tommy.
Two nostrils full of nasty, goopy boogers.
Two crackly, congested lungs.
Too much coughing.
Two days of too-short naps.
Too many tears.
One-oh-two temperature.
Two peeks into ear canals by the doc.
Two ears, red, swollen and infected.
Two kinds of fever-reducer/pain-reliever to aid in the recovery.
Two teaspoons of antibiotic per day.
Two times two doses later...
Two-iffic!
**This is completely unrelated to ear infections or Tommy, but if you want to read a post that made me feel like a rock star click on this link. Boy oh boy! I think my preschool kiddos (and their parents) are pretty fantastic!

Our Halls Are Decked and This Year We're Fakin' It

Adam was home from the Wednesday before Thanksgiving through the weekend. I love having him home. {deep sigh} Ah, to be independently wealthy! But I digress. With an extra adult around to keep the crazies to a minimum, we were able to get the house decorated and together for the Christmas holiday by the Saturday following Thanksgiving. We've got to get the most out of all the extra, festive, Christmas-themed decor, right?! I so love this time of year!

Adam had put the lights on the house the week before Thanksgiving. We never know when the weather is going to turn here (although it looks like it might not at all this year! grrrrr.), so we wanted to get the house done on a nice, warmish Saturday, but the house was all he did. The trees/bushes still were wanting, so following Thanksgiving, Adam, with much help from Ben (who loves all things manly and daring), got the trees all wrapped in their colorful robes while I worked on the interior lighting around the windows. Growing up, Adam's mom always did the bushes and trees each in one solid color but with a different color on each. Adam always loved the way that looked and has carried on that tradition to our yard. My parents always just did white lights, and I loved the quiet, pure brightness of it, so we carried that tradition on to our house. Our traditions have mingled. We are slowly making the transition to all LED, so for now we've got some "yellow" white lights and some "white" white lights. Maybe they are a little clashing, but oh well! I think it all looks great.

While in the tree "helping" dad put up the lights, Ben and Josh turned the tree into a house. Each branch was designated a specific room. My favorite was the limb that Josh is perched upon in the photo. That's the work-out branch. Best used for pull-ups, as Josh is demonstrating.

Here's the house, all lit up! Please excuse the annoying Subaru wagon in the driveway. It's battery had died so it had no way to move itself into the garage. The battery has now been replaced and the Subaru is happily parked in the garage again, but I'm too lazy to leave my chair and don't want to get cold, so I'm not going out to take a second picture. Just imagine it's not there. :) Plus, the lights are off in the second upstairs window because that's Josh and Luke's room and they won't sleep with the lights on, too much like a party. But you can get the idea well enough. Ooooh, pretty!

The Christmas Tree through the front window...so lovely!

On the subject of Christmas Trees, imagine it's Christmas, 2004. Provo, Utah. A family of five living in a tiny little 850 square foot apartment. That was us, the Conlin Chaos, during Adam's second year of MBA school at BYU. We had traveled home to Washington for the first Christmas we had out there, but the second year Josh was just a teeny two-month-old and I wasn't up for the drive. So we stayed put, and my mom and dad and sis and "the ex" flew out to see us for a wonderful, snowy Utah Christmas. Our apartment was so small that we had very little room for a tree. In addition, the student housing complex we lived in would not allow real trees due to the fire hazard they present. But with family coming, we had to have a tree!

Fortunately we had some friends who were traveling for the holidays who had a fake tree we could borrow. The best part, we only put the front half of the limbs on so we could push the other flat side back against the wall. The half-tree fit perfectly...and it began Adam's love for "the fake tree." Ever since then he has not-so-subtly dropped hints that he would like to one day have a fake tree instead of a real one; hints such as, "Let's get a fake tree this year."

But no. I love going to live tree lots for the hunt! Walking around, choosing just the right one. Then cutting them down, letting the boys take turns at the saw. And two years ago when we got to go to the woods for a tree...amazing! I loved that adventure! Even if the tree was a little sparse.

But here, in CO, things that were once living don't last long, no matter how much water you give them. The temperatures on any given day swing so much, super cold, then super hot. Especially for a tree sitting in a window space. And it's SO dry here living things practically mummify in the winter. So if you put your tree up in early December, by the time Christmas rolls around the tree isn't looking so hot. As a matter of fact, it looks awful, and is dropping needles like crazy. Which wouldn't be too bad, because come Christmas the tree's use is over. But my biggest fear is that it might catch fire and burn our house to the ground.

And that's kind of what sold me. Yes, I gave in. This year Adam got his fake tree. And I have to admit. It looks pretty nice! (as long as you don't look too closely)

There was a proviso to this little fake tree agreement. We are getting a small real tree for the basement. We are hoping to go up to the woods again, but we have to find the time in the busy (but fun!) December weeks. It will probably be the weekend before Christmas, which means the tree will not be a tinder box by the time Christmas arrives. And my sense of tradition and the joys of family tree hunts will be satisfied. But at the same time I don't have to worry about my house burning down. Hey, don't judge me. :)

My fears realized: Will the new tradition be matching the proper color tape on the fake limb to the same color on the fake trunk? Nooooo! Seriously though, the boys loved assembling and fluffing out the fakie!And as always, decorating the tree was steeped in memories and laughter, questions of "where did I get this one again?' and exclamations of "I made this for you!" Real or fake...THAT is what a Christmas Tree is all about!

Our First {Lame} Snow

I know many of you are being blasted by winter weather, and on the first of December, as I write this, you are cursing all things snow and thinking streams of wicked thoughts about it, but here in SUNNY and almost-warm (the high tomorrow is supposed to be 60!) Colorado, I am feeling jealous. We FINALLY had our first snow on Monday...it was only two inches deep...it was freezing-windy outside and so quite unpleasant to play in...and it set the new record for latest snowfall of the season in recorded history in Colorado Springs. Lame. I know. And it's not like there's an up-side in that we are getting the kind of pleasant sun that keeps things alive and growing, everything is already brown and dead, so it might as well be covered in beautiful white, right? :) And the forecast isn't promising anything exciting. Long, Brown Winter, I'm already feeling annoyed by you.

Josh was the only one on Monday to brave the snow earlier in the day with the wind blowing like it was. He bundled up like an arctic mummy, and was outside for about 5 minutes, max. But in the late afternoon there was a wee break in the wind and the kids got to go outside and enjoy the snow for just a bit before dark.

OK, my whine fest is over. Thanks for enduring. :) Let it snow!!!!

Here's a few pictures, because even a lame little snows make for cute shots.

You can still see the remnants of hot chocolate on Luke's face--Isn't that really why we love snow so much? It almost REQUIRES hot cocoa...with marshmallows.

Tommy generously shared his bottles so we could fill them with colored water to "paint" the snow, Luke LOVED it!

Zach was pouting because he had stayed home from school for a stomach ache and I wouldn't let him go outside. I know, I'm mean, but there you have it. He got over it quickly once we started working on our graham cracker candy houses. But I am not the only one hoping for more snow, he's desperate for it!

But Snow, that right now I love, miss and enjoy so much, this message is for you: if you mess with my family arriving for Christmas, I'm moving to Quito, Ecuador, right smack dab on the equator, so I never see you again.

Life on Candy Cane Lane

Monday night we did a family night lesson on "The Parable of the Wise Man and the Foolish Man." I realized, two seconds in, as the kids repeated the story to me practically verbatim, that we've done this lesson many times, but, I guess if you're going to repeat a lesson...again...and again...it's a good one! :) This lesson included a discussion on what kind of "foundation" our "houses" should be built upon. The boys came up with fantastic answers such as faith in Christ, love, hope, service, obedience, kindness as well as some great ideas for what they can do to "build" that foundation in their lives right now. But, although it was a recent repeat, we just had to do it again, because it was the obvious lesson to lead into the building of our own houses, Candy Style.

Adam's family built graham cracker candy houses every year when he was growing up. But the tradition kind of fizzled out when we started our own family. We've done the store bought already-cut kits with the boys a few different times, and I made a {beautiful masterpiece of a} gingerbread house from scratch when I was in a cooking class in high school, but this is the first time we've done these with the kids, and I could tell Adam 1) really knew his stuff when it came to graham cracker house building, and 2) loved sharing one of his family traditions with his own family.

**Indeed: much refined sugar was consumed in the building of these houses.

L to R: Adam's, Tommy's and mine; Zach's; Josh's; Ben's; Luke's

They came out great! Zach did all the building on his own, and the others all chose their house style (long or short) and decorated on their own, including using the icing bags. Luke's the only one who didn't do his own icing. We all enjoyed the building and the sampling so much that I think this tradition is a keeper.

How We Celebrated Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving preparations began the day before Thanksgiving. See, I had a little problem this year. I found too many yummy pie recipes online!!! So I had to make four of them. Well, five, really, because I always make 2 pumpkin pies, so there is one just for Adam. It's one of his favorites. Fortunately, while I enjoy cooking very much, I LOVE baking, so the task wasn't daunting at all. Wednesday, I pulled out nearly every baking item in my arsenal and got going. Oh...yeah.

I ended up with the two pumpkin pies {the beloved standby}, one pumpkin cream pie {it's like eating pumpkin flavored whipping cream in a graham cracker crust--quite literally}, one dreamy apple pie {it's not just a catchy name} and one chocolate bourbon pecan pie {I had to call my sister and ask if "bourbon whiskey" was just the long name for "bourbon"}. The answer is yes. And don't worry if you think I'm going rouge-Mormon, it's cooked after you add the bourbon, so the alcohol all cooks out. And I even made my own deeeeelicious crusts. I don't usually like crust, so I eat the pie filling and leave the crust, but this crust was too good to leave behind!

Thursday morning we woke to a crisp 10 degrees and after only a few degrees of warm-up we headed out for one Trot and one Bowl of the Turkey variety. Ben and I ran the Turkey Trot together, with Tommy riding in the jogger. Well, we were supposed to run together, but I had to go back to start with the stroller group--nearly in the very back, just walkers behind us--but Ben wanted to start with the 9-minute-mile pace group. While Tommy and I waited with the other strollers, the channel 5 News came and interviewed me. I'm not cut out for a life of fame; I felt very awkward the entire time. :) Just for you, Mom, you can see the clip here. My 10 seconds of fame are right in the middle of the 2 minute clip.

It was a big race with 2,500 runners, so it took a couple of minutes to get to the starting line once they yelled, "GO!" The race went quickly because the entire time I was just trying to catch up to Ben, which I finally did just a bit before mile 3. Ben's shoe chip didn't work, so he didn't get his name on the results list, which bummed him out terribly. But he finished just in front of me, and only two others in his age group, 0 to 8, finished before me, so he would have placed third. After a pep-talk and the discovery that the top finishers in each age group didn't get medals, only the top three overall men, overall women and stroller finishers got awards, he felt much better. Amazingly, and thanks to Ben, who I was desperately trying to catch up to, I placed second in the stroller group and got a nice gift certificate to the Boulder Running Company, which I will spend happily.

Adam, Zach, Josh and Luke spent the morning at our ward's Turkey Bowl. Adam and Zach played, while Josh and Luke sat shivering and cheering on the side-lines. Well, Josh was cheering. Luke started whining about 30 minutes in because he was cold and didn't let up until he was back in the warm car. I had bought Josh and Luke hand warmers just for the occasion, and they were bundled like Eskimos, but that didn't seem to be enough. I think for Luke, just the idea of being cold is too much to handle sometimes! But Adam and Zach had a blast playing. Neither of them came home injured at all, but of the two plays Josh tried to get in on, the second did him in. Josh has a lovely raspberry on his side from an accidental tackle. Also, one of the other men playing ended up with a broken nose and a cut that needed stitches from a collision with another player. Thankfully, the boy he crashed into was mostly OK! That's the Turkey Bowl for you!

We spent the rest of the morning cleaning the house and getting ready for dinner. Last year we met up with our wonderful family down in Arizona, but this year we stayed put and shared our day with a couple other friends and their families who were staying here in The Springs for the holiday. So many of us out here in Colorado are transplants and don't have family near, so we've become kind of a "Springs family." It makes spending holidays and birthdays here much easier to know we are going to be with some of our favorite people.

After brining the turkey all night, it smelled SO good cooking. I've only made turkey a few other times and it always seems to take much longer to cook than planned, so I got up at 6am to put it in the oven. Well, it was done an hour and a half earlier than I planned on, I think my convection oven helped that along, so it got to "rest" for a nice long time, but we kept it covered and it stayed warm so it worked out just fine. Adam got tips from Iron Chef Bobby Flay on how to cut it to keep it nice and moist. And oooooh, boy! It was so-oh-oh good! I LOVE home-roasted turkey. Not kidding at all, I had a bad dream last night that the leftovers were all gone. I felt so sad! I was happy to wake up and find it was just a dream! I also made sage stuffing, which is to-die-for {probably because of the 1.5 pounds of butter in it}, and roasted Brussels sprouts and carrots. Oh my dear, sweet Thanksgiving dinner, you are the best dinner of the entire year!

Our friends Vern and Jen joined us with their four kids, Spencer (one of Zach's favorite buddies), Rachel, Anna and Heber; as well as our friends Dave and Paula, and their four kids, Emily, Samuel, Michael and Ian (who is just a teensy newborn), as well as Dave's parents. It was a crowd, but the kids got along so well, and we grown-ups all had a wonderful time talking and just hanging out together. And everyone brought such tasty food to share! After dinner we turned on a football game and relaxed while the kids played...and then we ate pie...and then cleaned up a bit...and then ate some more pie. I didn't take any pictures other than the two below of everyone who was at our house for the celebration, and they aren't great photos and are missing people (Dave, Paula, Ian, Tommy and me). But I was so busy eating and chatting and enjoying the company, I forgot to take pictures, darn! But at least the excuse is a good one. :)

While we missed our families, spending the day with our fantastic friends really made it a wonderful Thanksgiving we will not soon forget!

On This Thanksgiving Day

"We can only be said to be alive when our hearts are conscious of our treasures." Thorn Wilder

Tommy is thankful for......Milk. I've had to increase my purchase of whole milk, that Luke also drinks, from one gallon per week before Tommy weaned {and even then we were pushing to get through it before it went sour} to two gallons every five days. Tommy is quite the milkaholic.
...Binky. We've tried to keep him from using his binky during the day, only for naps and sleep times now that he is one, but boy, that's tough! He loves it so much! Its greenness, its squishyness, its suckability, its lulling goodness, its je ne sais quoi.
...Dad. Tommy is crazy for his Dad. His favorite time of the day is when Dad arrives home from work. Mom's good until about 5:30pm, but after that, Dad's number one.

Luke is thankful for......The Toy of the Day. Every day it seems that Luke finds some great toy to play with. He plays with it all day, quietly, loudly, imagination juices flowing all day long all focused on one toy (or one toy theme, like mini dinos). It doesn't matter if the toy is his or not. If it's not his, and actually belongs to a brother, in his mind it is his for that day! And when the day is over, it may, or may not, become the toy of the next day. But if it belongs to a brother it is much more likely to be chosen again and again.
...Chocolate Milk and Yogurt. Luke still happily drinks his thick chocolate milk shakes made with 7 oz whole milk, one packet Carnation Instant Breakfast, 1 oz heavy cream. He deeply loves them, his treasured "comfort food." Happy, sad, mad, hungry, his first ask is for his chocolate milk. And since the rule is that he has to have food with it, he asks for yogurt...in a tube. NOT in a bowl.
...The Cat In The Hat Knows A Lot About That. Oh, PBS! How we love thee for creating this funny, clever, intellectually stimulating show that, for 30 minutes, is the bliss of Luke's day. Not a day goes by without Luke asking to watch this show, and more than a few tears have been shed when it is time to turn it off. Martin Short, you rock our world.

Josh is thankful for......Kindergarten. Josh enjoys being a kindergartner so so SO incredibly much. He loves the learning part, the friend part, the specials part, the recess part, every.single.part.
...Company. He loves having people around; brothers, friends, parents, grandparents, aunties, it doesn't matter what he's doing, as long as he's got a buddy to do it with.
...Treats. The first question I get from Josh after breakfast is "Can I have my breakfast treat?" Wha? The answer is always no, but that doesn't stop him from asking! This question is repeated after lunch and dinner as well. He sure loves his sweets! But don't we all? :)

Ben is thankful for......Collecting. Ben loves his little collections...rocks, shells, baseball cards, elephant erasers, silly bandz, Bakugan, Legos. Really, anything he finds could become the"first" in a new collection. Of all the boys, his pockets are the ones that I always find full of things on laundry day. And he is so passionate about every collection he has!
...Running. Ben has enjoyed his foray into the world of running this year, from Land Sharks to the Creepy Crawl to today's Turkey Trot. He knows he has a talent for it. He knows it's a special thing he and I can share. And it brings him such joy! Now if only we could get him to eat enough to counter all the calories he burns doing it!
...Folding. Give Ben a piece of paper and you are likely to end up with an origami something, a paper airplane or possibly a pop up picture (if scissors are involved too). He regularly uses books and YouTube to increase his folding knowledge. Add all the folding he does with his love of collecting, and you will find that I have a mini paper museum going on here at Casa de Conlin.

Zach is thankful for......Sport. Zach absolutely loves athletics. He loves to get out and move; working hard, showing his stuff. Right now he is in basketball bliss, and behind and ahead is sweet soccer. He also loves rollerblading, {touch} football, skateboarding, bike riding and is now asking for a rip stick. Good thing he's a fabulous athlete, coordinated and able, because I think this is a love that will last.
...Being Oldest. Yes, it has its drawbacks, but its perks outweigh them. He relishes the extra responsibility and likes to be in charge. He loves to help and be recognized for it. He also tries to do a good job of setting the best example he can.
...Books. Zach is often found reading (or re-reading, or re-re-reading) a good book, snuggled into the corner of the couch or under the blankets of his bed. It's his way of unwinding, of escaping the busyness of the day, of imagining, of passing the time. And he loves to write them too.

Ruby is thankful for......Runs with Mom. Her endurance has finally caught up with the altitude so that she can actually accompany me on my shorter runs.
...A Good Brushing. Need I say more?
...Visitors. It means the likelihood of extra attention increases, and Ruby is all about getting every bit of attention she can get.

Adam is thankful for......His wife. I said, "So, what do you want to say about this? I'm expounding a little;" and he said {with a deep sigh of resignation}, "You know you're my everything."
...A Good Job. While the politics and culture of his job can drive us bonkers sometimes, it is such a blessing. It is our support and allows our family live as we do. There are some wonderful people he has the opportunity to work with. And in times like these we are especially thankful, when there are so many people out there without one.
...Our Friends. They are what keep us wanting to be here in Colorado, when so many people we love are in Washington. They are caring and accepting, they are plain ol' good peeps.

I am thankful for......Birth Order. I am constantly amazed at how perfectly our sons' personalities fit into where they are in the order of our family. The way they are in their brotherly roles just makes our family tick all the better. They lead each other or follow, they help or ask for assistance, they are patient with each other and teach each other. Each of their spirits joined our family, I am convinced, purposefully and with intent at the specific time they did.
...Adam. He completes my soul, is my strong foundation and the possessor of my heart. And boy does he make me laugh!
...The three F's. {Is this cheating? :)} Family, my dear, treasured family who walk this road of life beside me, lifting me, supporting me, enriching me; friends, how rich I am because of them; faith, without it, I am hollow, with it I am whole.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!
*Photos taken on last Sunday's walk.