an effort to catch up

Sorry about the lack of blogging for the past couple of months. Here is my one effort at catching up and then we'll try to move forward. (Warning: this could be rather long and boring. I'm going to skip fancy formatting and witty themes in the interest of just getting this done.)

In November Oliver did a lot of crafting. It seems every time I try to distract him by suggesting he go read a book or watch a show, it results in more craft ideas. There were Christmas count-down chains, cars & boats made out of shoeboxes, and animals made out of paper towel rolls. Here he is inspired by the book Fast Food making transportation vehicles out of produce.

Really I promise I try not to encourage this. But a mom can only say "no" and "later" and "hold on" and "i'm busy" so many times. He moves forward and insists and seems undeterred until I have to finally give in a go buy him some cucumbers and mushrooms.

He saw these Thanksgiving Turkey cookies on Nickelodeon and decided we had to make some too.
Again, see how I was trying to just plant him in front of the tv for a while -- and it totally backfired on me.

Another day I needed to make some brownies for a church activity and I thought June and I could have a nice mother-daughter bonding cooking experience together. I let her help pour and mix, but it wasn't long before she realized the batter was yummy.

Rather than fighting her, I thought I could just out-run her and worked as fast as I could to get it into the oven. Indeed we did bond well during bathtime.

We spent Thanksigiving in California with the Wileys, and convinced Rachel & Chrsitine to join us.
On Thansgiving morning we participated in the La Canada Run for the Hungry (the boys did the 1-mile, Rachel the 5k).
Scott went and picked up his grandparents in Apple Valley while Rachel & Christine and I helped with the meal (we were in charge of the apple pie, pumpkin cheesecake, and mashed potatoes)

and the kids played with their cousins.

4-generations of Wiley men

We're considering finding an agent and offering their services to play a character aging from about age 9 through age 80 -- don't you think it's amazing how much they look alike?

I found this list folded up like an airplane in Brenden's backpack. I'm not sure if he made it at church or at school, but we found it quite humorous to read what he's thankful for. My guess is the assignment was to list 30 things you're thankful for. His teacher must have given him an example to prompt #1 on his list, and several of them must have come from him just looking around the room to try to fill it in.
Be clear that Mom & Dad got #26 & 27, far below #1 Low gas prices, and #5 hangman. But at least we beat #29 pencils.


We helped Webb set up his new Santa & Reindeer display, which made us excited to go home and usher in Christmas at our house.

We've been having a very snowy winter here in Utah so far. Luckily we knew it was coming and managed to get the Christmas lights up before it hit. It's cold enough and consistently snowing enough that it stays on the ground, and we have snowbanks growing along the sides of the roads. We are grateful to live on a cul de sac with two snow blowers and a snow plow, so we regularly come out to find our driveway and sidewalks already cleared. Brenden and Scott have worked to keep the front walk and steps clear and salted.


The boys have been sledding almost every day with neighborhood friends.
They found a couple great spots in the nearby where they can go on their own, and then we've taken a few trips to the ultimate sledding hills at Rock Canyon park (yes that is where Oliver crashed into the picnic table last year, but they're careful to avoid that now).

(I realize now in looking at these pictures that it appears we are not dressed well for the snow. I assure you that we have full snow gear for every member of the family and most days do dress warmly from head to toe. Only a couple of times have the boys been out sledding for a while before I've realized they are wearing their sneakers and low-socks.)

Brenden had his holiday piano recital and performed Jingle Bells and Um Pa Pa. Now that his allowance is tied to practicing, he was very well rehearsed and did a great job.
In November I also got rather busy at work and tried to start my Christmas shopping early. I did do quite a bit ahead of time, but didn't really know when I was supposed to stop. I think all it did was prolong the shopping period and increase the amount purchased. We'll have to figure out how to improve the strategy next year.