This might help your diet . . .

Tuesday Jake grabbed a bite-size Milky Way from my desk drawer. He unwrapped it, noticed some of the caramel had squished outside of the chocolate. He handed it back to me with a disgusted look and said, "I don't want it Mom. It has boogers."

Yesterday Josh and I were on the way home from school listening to the radio in the car. A Toyota commercial came on discussing the recent recalls and Josh looked really confused. When I asked what was wrong, he said "A toy Yoda? Why would people worry about that?"

Jake

Jake and I spent the day at home today. I could tell he was getting a cold yesterday, but when he woke up today and sounded like a chain-smoking seal I decided to keep him home from church. I just can't get over how darn cute he is!

SOS

I need help. Let me rephrase that. I need chocolate chip cookie help. I can't make them and I don't know why! I can make amazing Reese's Peanut Butter chocolate chip cookies, homemade Oreos (thank you Kim), giant ginger cookies, brownies, cakes, pies . . . but the perfect chocolate chip cookies still eludes me. I've tried recipe after recipe and made all kinds of adjustments for altitude. And I'm starting to get ticked off! My kids deserve a childhood full of perfect chocolate chip cookies, right? What kind of mother would I be without providing this? This picture is of the cookies Jake and I made last night for preschool snack. I was actually kind of embarrassed to take them to school. I have a reputation to uphold. Anyway, if you have the perfect, NO FAIL recipe for chocolate chip cookies, please send it to me. I'll make you some lemon bars, or pb fudge, or Texas sheet cake, or cinnamon rolls . . .

New Year's Eve

OK--a full moon and new year's eve. Not a good combination. It just solidifies my decision to avoid the ward family new year's party. Who wants to be around my kids at midnight? Certainly not me. I see enough of them at 2 a.m. We partied hard tonight--bacon-wrapped TaterTots for dinner and letting the kids create makeshift beds out of couch cushions. They're supposed to be falling asleep during "Flushed Away" but they'll probably outlast me. Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas in Review

What a week! It was so much fun to have Mom and Dad and Susan come visit for Christmas. We had a great time going to the North Pole, taking (literally) freezing walks on the Arkansas Riverwalk, consuming massive amounts of calories, making graham cracker gingerbread houses, and of course opening presents! Josh said it was the best Christmas ever so we must have done something right. Between the four adults, we took over 600 pictures (you know Dad) so this is a bigger batch of pictures than normal, but it was so hard to pare it down to just these 15. The boys are just too much fun. Oh, and we're now signed up with Skype so if anyone wants to web chat with the cutest boys ever, just let me know!

Josh & Aunt Susan (she tickles!)

The perpetually frozen North Pole

Thanks for taking a turn, Dad.

Grandpa's hat

I couldn't wait to give this sweatshirt to Jake. It's my favorite!

Best buddies

The end.

A Little Christmas Spirit

This is how the Christmas Spirit has gone around our house. It's been a lot of fun--filled with lots of Batman smells and shouts of "poopy!" Merry Christmas!

20

After raking 2/3 of my front yard--interrupted only by one desperate call to my nephew to come help me bag the leaves--I have TWENTY bags of leaves for the trash man. And I still have the side yard (which was covered in snow) and the entire back yard! It just may be worth it to pay Yard Crafters $75/hour to come do the rest. Stinkin' aspen trees!