To: Me From: Mae

It was just what I wanted too, an excuse to mop the kitchen floor.   Thanks Mae! 

She did try to clean it up, and that resulted in a bath and opening up new jammies from Grandpa Larkin early this evening.  Happy Christmas Eve.

Santa Cow 2011

Good Intentions for Christmas

I have always thought that I should have a good intentions list on the side of my blog.  I am a firm believer that it is the thought that counts.  There are a bunch of people I would like to invite over for dinner, but never do.  Many people are on my pie list, and I want to volunteer at so many different locations.  Time will catch most of them I hope.  Christmas Cards are a funny thing.  I have a love/hate relationship with them.  Sometimes they are a great way to catch up with people you haven't seen in a long time, but if people aren't careful, they can come across as a brag sheet.  It is a fine line.  (So far so good this year.)  I don't usually send them cause I have my blog, but this year I broke the mold and sent 4.  Yup, I managed to write out 4 before I got distracted.  So if you aren't one of Jeff's siblings or my grandma I'm afraid you're out of luck.  But don't be too sad, I didn't get a picture included like I had the good intention of doing.  I wanted to take a picture of the whole family, but I'm fat.  I would have settled for the three kids, but Mae wouldn't cooperate, so you'll have to settle for Spike.  Hmmm that didn't come out right, Spike is awesome and totally able to carry a photo all by himself.  So here is our Christmas Card for my casual readers.

2011- the year of the Rabbit

Bunny years can only be good and ours was pretty great. 

January-  Blizzards and record snow for Arkansas this winter.
February-  Mae started nursery and for two hours a week someone else has to deal with her!
March-  lots of flu, ear infections and I made a lot of progress on my yard.
April-  Jeff and I got away to Branson without the kids for a day & just about everything in our car broke.  (Never buy a Mazda!)
May-  I actually went to Time Out for Women & got my girl power on.
June-  My parents visited to help with the arrival of Spike on the 30th
July-  Blessed Spike, painted the dining room purple & suffered record heat for Arkansas.
August-  Max missed the cut off for kindergarten, (yup still bitter,) but started a great preschool.
September-  Jeff visited his parents when his dad was diagnosed with Cancer.
October- Max played soccer & the kids all dressed up as Spiderman for Halloween
November-  I visited my parents with Spike & gathered signatures to fight the local school board.
December- Discovered the joy of using a leaf blower & have almost cleared the yard and lot.

General Notes
Jeff's team was reorganized and now he is in charge of all the internal email for Walmart.  His pager is so busy they only carry it one day a week.  It has been a difficult adjustment, but he likes his new boss and is getting a lot of recognition at work. 

I have worked really hard to regain control of our massive yard.  It has been a lot of hard work and it looks great.  I get discouraged but then remember that I have years to get it how I want it.

Max is happy to play video games and play outside.  He has switched from Star Wars to Spiderman, which was reflected in his Birthday Party this year.

Mae is adorable one minute and a total stinker the next.  She will draw on every surface with any item, and has it out for my deodorant stick.  She loves shoes and lipstick.

Spike gives the best grins of any baby I have ever seen.  He is so happy to see anyone who will pick him up. 

Sick Bay

Everyone is vomiting today. The only thing worse then being sick with the kids, is being less sick then Jeff with the kids. Grrr. But we will survive. Max and I are already on the rebound after last night. It was odd to be the only member of the family awake at noon today. Unfortunatly I had a sleeping baby boy in my arms, so I couldn't really leave the couch.
Some random thoughts....
     I am still not a big fan of the holidays. I thought that having kids would put me more in the spirit of things, but really all it does is put more of a stress on the situation. I am trying really hard to get in the Christmas spirit. I have even done the unthinkable and tried to listen to Christmas Music. All that has done is make me hate Maraih Carey and want to watch Love Actually; (and make me sad that we don't have cable so I can catch the edited version.) (On a side note to all my Utah readers, if you can get your hands on an edited version for me I would love to reinburse you with extra.)
     I do love our decorations though. I got some garlands on black friday at Lowes for 5 bucks and they have brought back the fresh pine smell to my house. I have even decorated the outside, something I swore I would never do.

It always seemed to me that it was a waste of time, effort, and money to decorate the outside since we don't go outside in the cold christmas season. I suppose it is the, "for everyone else," spirit of the season. Well this year I did it because my house was just screaming for decorations. I have a foot bridge up to my front door and if that doesn't demand lighted attention I don't know what does. (I only plug it in right before Jeff gets home from work though.)
     I don't love having a fairly busy street, (Riordan,)in my backyard, but I do adore that when you pull up that big hill and turn a slight corner the first thing you now see at night is the light from our livingroom Christmas Tree. One day I may even string lights up on the back of the house, (Jeff and I are thinking maybe a glowing zombie thing for Halloween.)
    My most favorite Christmas tradition is fairly new to me. Jeff's amazing Aunt Marty knits stockings for each new family member. Spike got his in the mail last week and it is perfect. These stocking could eaisly be my favorite thing about the Larkins even more then Jeff himself. On a side note I would like to give a special thanks to Marty for knitting Spike instead of Jeffrey, she double checked with Jeff last fall, and Jeff said she still seemed a little hesitant.

Now these girls are a bit of a puzzle for me. Jeff found them in the attic two years ago, and since I have no way of contacting the old owners of the house, I am stuck with them. The thing is I am not sure what to do with them. It seems like there should be a whole nativity right? Just two angels seems a bit unfinished. So here they sit waiting for inspiration, but atleast they made it out of the garage this year.

I am on the constant look out for the perfect advent calendar. The perfect one in my mind was my grandmothers. It may be the only Christmas tradtion from my childhood I remember and miss. It was a wooden tree that you added an ornament to each day. I really need to scour more craft fairs to find one, but then I would have to go to craft fairs. A friend suggested making one, but you all know how my DIY projects turn out. (By the way if you were wondering, yes, the mailbox is still messed up.)

I hate it when Christmas is on a Sunday cause then not only is everthing closed, but then even the stuff that would be open you can't go to cause it's Sunday. Then to add insult to injury the shorten church-the one time to get it. Effectivly it the LONGEST DAY EVER! Grrr..

My Point Exactly

Elf on a Shelf Must Go!

My To-Do List

So the same item has been on my to-do list for the last month and a half;

 1. Take pictures of the kids in their Halloween Costumes.  

Yes, I should have done it on Halloween or at one of the many parties we attended, but it never worked out.  There were either battery problems, or Mae was a total crab.  The costumes were pretty adorable if I do say so myself.  Max wanted to be Spiderman and when we were discussing costume options for Mae he suggested she be Spiderman also.  I asked him several times and he was sure he wanted her to be Spiderman.   As luck would have it about a week before the first of the parties they had a girl Spiderman costume at the Associate Store in Mae's size.  You can't say no to half price.  Max's costume I got from a new lady in the ward.  I didn't know it at the time but she actually went to high school with Jeff.  Small Mormon world.  I saw Spike's costume in September and paid full price cause it was just way too cute.  I mean come on, a blue crayon.  We attended preschool parties, the Walmart Candy-a-thon, which was a bit different this year cause they were hoping no one would notice that they cut the company picnic if they threw in a few funnel cakes with the Halloween party.  Nope, I noticed, but the funnel cakes were good.  I skipped the ward party cause my ward is mentally retarded when it comes to scheduling and set the trunk or treat for the same day as the elementary school carnival therefore deciding to make it super late at night.  (I could do a whole blog post about the stupid scheduling decisions my ward makes.)    We did take the kids to a few houses in the neighborhood and I used the time to get my neighbors to sign a petition against the school board.  (post about this to come later.)  All in all it was a busy time.  We ate a lot of candy and had a lot of fun, we just didn't properly document it, until now.

P.S.  Spell check does not accept Spiderman as one word but does accept Superman as one word.  What's up with that?

Things That Must Go XVI

1.  Jeff's drawer o' cords.  I think the above picture speaks for itself.

2.  Elf On a Shelf.  It is not cute it is creepy!  They have a word for that and it is called peeping and is illegal in most states.  And even more creepy then the whole concept of someone watching you is the actual ugly doll that accompanies the book.

3.  Keep Calm and ... Now don't get me wrong I am all about the original WWII message of Keep Calm and Carry On, and the idea of persevering through tough times, but it is now popularized and twisted to fit so many different ideas and most of them stupid.  It is so over used in crafts that I have to be a hater and say that it belittles the sacrifice and struggle of the British people during WWII.

4.  Entitlement.  Not the idea, the word.  I am so sick and tired of people complaining about how entitled my generation feels.  They throw around this new buzz word to diminish younger people who are brave enough to stand up and say something is wrong with the world.  Now are there some people who are spoiled and idiotic? You bet.  But reducing all of us to our lowliest stereotype is lazy and demeaning.  Every generation feels they had it harder then the ones who come after them, "When I was a kid I walked ten miles to school, in the snow, uphill both ways."  Everyone has their own trials, Heavenly Father has made sure of that, but while youth has the disadvantage of solving new problems, i.e. the digital age, they also have the advantage of learning from the past.  I could do a whole series of posts about Occupy Wall Street and how I support the basic ideas behind it, but I won't because I try to keep my blog clear of politics. ( Mostly because I know that I am greatly separated on the political spectrum from most of my readers.) I just want everyone to think about the people you know in their 20's and 30's, those out in the mission field right now, and really ask yourselves if those people seem extraordinarily entitled to you.