The Leatherwoods: December 2009

Thursday, December 3, 2009

New Family Pictures

Our friend Cindi took these pictures for us a few weeks ago. The day we chose was FREEZING and SO WINDY. I love this spot in Eagle Mountain but somehow forgot that it is almost always windy out by the highway. My hair doesn't do well in the wind and the kids (and Dave) were kind of grouchy about being cold, but you know what, we made it work, and I love these pictures! Thanks Cindi! If anyone needs her contact info, let me know. She lives here in Eagle Mountain, and you can get to her photography blog from my list of links on the side.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Thanksgiving

I'm not sure why, but we didn't manage to get any pictures of Thanksgiving this year so I had to "steal" one. Anybody who knows me knows the above picture could never be associated with anything I've done. There are several problems with it actually. First of all, there is stuffing inside of that turkey to which I very strongly object. Also, garnishes ... seriously? I don't think so. Our turkey itself looked almost that good, but I had absolutely nothing to do with it. That was all Dave and about four cubes of butter. Good grief.

Dave and I hosted Thanksgiving dinner at our house ... and yes I did just hear all of you gasp. Very funny. Truth is, we survived and so did everybody else. Nobody got food poisoning. Everybody was happy. We all ate until we were sick. Seems like a success to me.

This was our year to spend Thanksgiving with the Leatherwoods, and since Dave's parents were leaving at like 5:00 a.m. the next morning for a tour in Jerusalem and John and Angie have a darling new baby (who happens to not love sleeping for long periods of time yet), we volunteered our house and our finely tuned cooking skills for the celebration. Truth is, when Dave and I started planning and going over the menu items, we discovered we had technically not made anything on the Thanksgiving menu ... ever. Yeah yeah ... I hear you laughing. Whatever. No turkey had ever been cooked in my oven, no homemade stuffing, no homemade mashed potatoes, no homemade pies, no cranberry anything, no yam anything, no homemade gravy - NONE of it. I know. I'm a slacker. Cooking is not my friend. Now Stove Top and Rhodes frozen dough, those are my friends. Before you start to worry, none of my family is starving. Trust me.

Thanks to some help, we survived. I'm not embarrassed to say that Jason came over, roasting pan in tow, and put the turkey in the oven for us in the morning and showed us what to do with it. As soon as he started pulling stuff "out" of the turkey, I was officially done, and and Dave took over. Kathy and Angie made the rolls, pies, potatoes, relish tray, and gravy. Laura didn't even eat dinner with us, but she sent her yams and cranberry sauce with Kathy ... that was awfully nice of her. Thanks to my mom for teaching me, via text messaging mind you, how to make Dixie salad, which happens to be my FAVORITE thing on the Thanksgiving menu. Dixie salad is apples, pineapple, golden raisins, pomegranates, bananas, grapes, celery, mandarin oranges, and whipping cream all mixed together... you can't go wrong with that. Yum! So we survived hosting our first Thanksgiving. We spent the day eating and playing games and of course remembering the things we are grateful for.
Saturday night was the annual BYU-Utah football game and we had a full house as usual. We had a great time watching, eating, laughing, stressing, and then CHEERING! Go Cougars! What a great game! It was a fun weekend spent with family and friends. No shopping though. I'm not much of a Black Friday shopper. I prefer online and empty stores. I think I'm too grouchy, and I'm definitely NOT a morning person. So no Black Friday shopping for me. I better get busy though ... Christmas is only 24 days away, and before that are our anniversary and Dave's birthday and about a million other things. I did get my Christmas/Anniversary present early on Saturday thanks to the KSL Classifieds (my favorite!). I have wanted an elliptical forever, and since I have joined a "Biggest Loser" competition, I figured I better get it now and get busy. Wish me luck!

Funny kids

A new road just opened up by us called Pioneer Crossing. T.J. and I were on it the other day when he asked where all the pioneers were. I explained that they lived a long time ago and talked a little about the pioneers to him. He said, "Well, if the pioneers are dead, how can they be crossing the road?"
At the Qquirrh Mountain Temple Open House, there was a player grand piano playing hymns as we exited the temple. T.J. wanted to know who was playing the piano, so of course Dave told him it was a ghost. T.J. wanted to know, "Dad, is it the Holy Ghost?"
T.J. was changing himself out of his wet swimming suit today and into his pajamas when he took a few laps around the living room completely naked. I chased after him and said, "T.J., you can't run around naked. Get some clothes on!" He gets all indignant and says. "Mom, I'm NOT naked ... I have sunscreen on."
T.J. came running up to me this morning and said "Mom, I want to play knock-knock joke." I said, "Well good luck with that. You should probably wait until your father gets home becuase he's better with the whole knock-knock joke thing." T.J. said, "No I'll do it." I said okay, and he ran off. So a few minutes later there was a knock at the door. I answered it and it was T.J. laughing hysterically. I was a little confused and said, "What's up T.J.?" To which he responded, "We played it mom. We played knock-knock joke, and it's so funny." Apparently knocking and then laughing when people answer is now called "playing knock-knock joke."
London wanted me to buy her a new movie at the store today and I told her "no." She, of course, started in with the "Why not?" and "How come?" and all of that. So I just said, "London we don't have enough money to buy every new movie that comes out!" So she said, "Well, why don't you do some jobs and save up your money?" To which I responded, "London, are you serious? You want me to do jobs and save up my money so you can have a new movie?" She said, "If you work hard mom, you could do it."
I told T.J. the other day that he had to clean up some toys he had gotten out before he could have the piece of candy he wanted. So I said, "Come on, let's just hurry and clean it up. I'll help you." So he comes over for a minute and we pick up a few things and then he just walks away. I said, "Hey! Where are you going?" And he said, "You don't need my help mom. You're a big girl. You can do it all by yourself."
T.J. always wants me or Dave to lay by him at night while he falls asleep. Sometimes we do and sometimes we don't. Tonight, we were busy with other things, and T.J. was in there calling for me, "Mommy, come lay by me." I said, "T.J. I can't right now but I love you." So he said, "No Mommy, don't love me ... just lay by me."
I think my kids might be getting a little too much "election" exposure this year. We were at Partyland the other day having fun looking at costumes. Dave found a Barack Obama mask and put it on. London was not amused and told Dave, "No Daddy! Don't be him. He makes bad choices." You got that right London.
T.J. got into trouble yesterday and I got after him for it. He says to me, "Don't get mad at me or I'll call you a big red chicken." Huh?
I've been thinking about going back to school, and we were asking the kids what they thought about it the other day. So Dave says to Austin and Jackson, "What do you think mom should be? What should she study in school?" Austin gave some perfectly reasonable responses like "teacher" and "writer." Jackson says, "Mom, can you be a really famous football player?" You bet Jacks. You know what Dave's response was? "Jackson, have you ever seen mom run?" How rude!
So T.J. is pretty much potty trained, but we're having a few issues with number two. So, I walk into the room today and clearly caught him in "the act." So I say, "Uh oh T.J. Guess what?" And he says, "Uh ... I don't know. Maybe you smell something?" I definitely smelled something.
I went to put T.J. in his car seat the other day, and he said it was too hot. I said, "I'm sorry. What should I do?" So he thought about it and said, "Can you blow on it for me?" So I did, and then he said it was only warm and happily got buckled up.
Austin needs to have a wart burned off his finger. Jackson happens to be an expert on the subject after much experience a few years ago. So he reassures Austin by saying, "It doesn't hurt too bad ... maybe like London scratching you about 5 times .... or maybe 10." Thanks Jacks.
In the midst of a Saturday full of errands, we agreed to take the kids to McDonald's to play on the playground and have some lunch. They were all excited, but I think London most of all. She jumped out of the car at McDonalds, ran over to me, and in her most dramatic fashion ever said, "Oh thank you mom! I just knew we were a happy family."
We always tease London about eating like a bird, and she really does. But it may be getting a little out of hand. Last Sunday when I handed her the sacrament tray of bread, she said matter of factly, "No thanks mom. I'm full."
The week of London's 5th birthday, Austin, in family prayer, makes a heartfelt plea that London will "understand the reponsibilities of being 5." What a good brother. Now if someone could just explain what these "responsibilities" are ... maybe I'll ask Austin.
Jackson broke the personal, family, and possibly world record the other day by thoughtfully saying in his prayer NINE TIMES: "Please bless us to have a good time." Wow! This kid is seriously concerned about having a good time.
London was playing her computer game this morning and after passing off a level, she was really proud of herself. I was happy for her and told her "Wow! Good job. You are really good at that." She was really excited about her accomplishment and my praise and exclaimed, "Mom, I did such a good job. Maybe I should be in a parade."

The Leatherwoods

Thursday, December 3, 2009

New Family Pictures

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Thanksgiving

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