So here's how the week of Christmas went down...

On the Sunday before Christmas, Schmoo woke up, said he didn't want breakfast and then asked to go back to bed. Um, EMERGENCY! That has never not once happened. I sent Honey to church (and made him take care of all our obligations) and Schmoo started to vomit an hour later. Poor guy, he's never had a fever that high before, either. He got up over 104 and we were so worried! He missed a few days of school but was able to go back for the last couple of fun days before Christmas. (yeah, they went to school here until December 23rd!!!! That's nuts!)


We were glad that Schmoo got sick before the holiday this year as he has been sick the last 2 Christmases.

We used our Storybook Land season passes one last time to go see Santa and ride the rides bundled up in all our winter finery. They really deck the halls at Storybook land. Kinda reminds me of how they do Temple Square in SLC :)











We made our Gingerbread house


For Christmas eve, we were invited over to our good friends' home. We had a lovely dinner, and a great family night talking about the Savior's birth. Then we watched Mr. Krueger's Christmas and were surprised by their generous Christmas gifts to Schmoo and us. It was such a great night and we all went home content in so many ways.

We made cookies for Santa and left carrots for the reindeer



Santa left a note and presents for Schmoo! (The big purple box was for me :) Finally got the bedding set I always wanted!) On Christmas morning, Schmoo came tearing into our room at the very conservative hour of 7am to tell us that Santa had left him presents and a letter!

Aftermath of stocking


We were sad that we were going to be at home with no family around for Christmas, but we ended up having such a great day! We had a happy morning opening presents and having breakfast. We played all day, made a delicious Christmas dinner and then played all evening. It was just perfect! Late Christmas night we realized a blizzard was heading in and we hunkered down! Most of Church was canceled the next day and we spent it as a family doing a repeat of Christmas day: play, eat, play, eat, play! There was a 'state of emergency' here and Honey's work was actually canceled bc of the road conditions that Monday. It was a wonderful 3 days of Christmas!






Our fun family present is this little cotton candy maker that makes cotton candy out of any flavor of hard candy. We've had fun with this! In my opinion, Werther's cotton candy is the best! (Butterscotch and tropical lifesavers also AWESOME!)


Sad, but true, Christmas ended and two days later Schmoo was sick again. This time with the dreaded cough and all of its complications, but at least it wasn't on Christmas, right?

I need to blog more frequently! The grandparents are suffering! On to the good stuff...here are the things that Schmoo has said/done recently...

*Just found a bunch of pine needles under our Christmas tree. Would be normal except we have an artificial tree. As I sat there wondering why the needles fell off, Schmoo says, "Mommy, I *trimmed* the Christmas tree! Isn't it beautiful?" I just couldn't be mad. But we had to talk about what trimming means. And Homonyms.

* The cable 'Guide' function is not working and Schmoo just asked, "Is 'to be announced' a good show for kids?

* Mommy, I love you longer than the pickles.


He's been singing a lot. His favorites right now are the Kid's Bop version of "I gotta feeling" and Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas is You". Sooo funny to watch!


Lots of play dates after pre-K.


We had "Buddy Bear" visit us from Pre-K. Each kid takes him home for a week and you have to take him everywhere you go and take pictures to put in his journal.




We have a real-live friend in our building! They are so nice and invited us upstairs to decorate cookies :) This is some very SERIOUS cookie decorating!




Finally a real smile! I think it took 37 tries to get this picture!


And this one!

James got a video from SANTA!!!!! Here he is watching it on the computer. I love the look on his face in the second picture :)



You can (and should!) watch James' video from Santa using this link:

http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/WjMXNlS2jqwL3wJseZAy-g


We made the cutest Rudolph cookies for the Ward party. So easy, fun and yummy!

Holy Halloween!

So Halloween this year was a bit crazy with all of the events...Wednesday was the Church party and trunk or treat, Thursday was the party at the public library for all the kids who go to storytime, Friday was the Preschool parade and party, Saturday we trick or treated and played at Storybook Land, Saturday night was the 57th annual Mays Landing Halloween parade and Sunday we delivered special cupcakes to friends. (Note on "special cupcakes": THEY ARE NEVER HAPPENING AGAIN! Shmoo got a hold of one of my magazines, saw the cupcakes in September and INSISTED that we make them for 6 weeks. "Worse" yet was my dear husband's enthusiasm to make them with Shmoo. I do admit they are cute, but after chasing down ingredients ($$$) and spending all that time baking and decorating, I'm done!)

Shmoo specifically wanted to be "Toad" from Super Mario Brothers, and nothing (I did or said) changed his mind. So we have 5 days of pics with that silly costume!





At the Church trunk or treat



At the Preschool Parade



In his preschool classroom seated next to Lady Gaga. Don't even get me started.



At StoryBook Land

At the parade. The pretzels were unbelievably huge.

Shmoo being "unimpressed" by the firetrucks :P

My cute honey in a hat :)

Fall Trip

Ok, so granny and papa go to New England every year to see the fall foliage. Since we are yankees now, they flew out to Philly for Columbus Day weekend and we went along. The main parts of our trip were in upstate New York and Vermont, but we also drove through parts of New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut. That makes 5 new states for me!

Papa and Shmoo planning the trip.

Mom showing off her apple cider donut.

No apples from the ground!

Apples abound!

A real-live one lane covered bridge in Vermont :)

Shmoo wanted to take a pic :)

At Joseph Smith's birthplace

Ben and Jerry's factory!

On the ferry from New York to Vermont.

Mmm, more apple cider donuts!

King Shmoo was sick for a lot of the trip, but had fun anyway.

Recent pics

On the hayride at Story Book Land

In the hay/corn maze

Homemade strawberry jam, homemade apple butter and homemade wheat crescents!

A popcorn ball that would smell so sweet :)

The coolest Spongebob shirt ever. From Jamaica, of course :)

Huh?

A perfect example of the all too frequent narcissism displayed lately by a certain 4 year old:


Daddy: Only one perfect person ever lived on the whole earth. Who is it, Shmoo?

Shmoo: That's me.


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A perfect example of the freaky food preferences of that same 4 year old:

Sunday

Shmoo: Can we please have brussel sprouts tonight?

Me: Sorry, we're having green beans tonight

Shmoo: YAY! Green beans!

Monday

Shmoo: Can we please have brussel sprouts tonight?

Me: Sorry, we're having carrots tonight.

Shmoo: YAY! Carrots!

Tuesday

Shmoo: Can we PLEASE have brussel sprouts tonight?

Me: Sorry, can't you just be happy with broccoli?

Shmoo: I guess. Broccoli is only my second favorite though.

Wednesday

Shmoo: Can we PRETTY PRETTY PRETTY please have brussel sprouts tonight?

Me: I guess.

Shmoo: YAYAYYAAY! It's the best day ever!