December Wrap Up

I realize that I haven't been keeping up this holiday season.  My blog reading list tells me that I'm not the only one.  I like to have things blogged for my kids to read about later but sometimes I'm too busy living now.  And that's okay.
D had 2 weeks off of school for the holiday break.  It was UH-MAZING to be able to sleep in to 8:00 again.  Ah bed, how I love thee in the morning and yet avoid thee at night....
I was a little worried about what we would do to keep busy but we managed all right.  We went to the library and checked out a bunch of book so he could read.  He's read some but not too much.  Mostly, he disappeared into his room and built things with his Legos.  He did learn to tie his shoes and earned the $5 from his dad.
K and A have been playing pretty well together lately.  They go downstairs and color and play with the toys.  It makes my mama heart swell with pride until the crying begins.
Christmas was good.  We had a pretty low key Christmas Eve.  We spent much of the day cleaning to be ready for Christmas.  In the evening we did a little family Nativity re-enactment.  That's always fun.  We sang some songs and read a Christmas story before going to bed.
Christmas morning the kids got up early enough to open their stockings before we went to church.  That left presents to do after church.  I kind of liked having Christmas on a Sunday.  It was cool to go to church and sing and listen.
My parents came the day after Christmas to spend the week with us.  It is always so fun to have grandparents here.  We feel very lucky to have had both sets of grandparents visit this holiday season (between Thanksgiving and Christmas).
It was fun to be at home (the kids loved playing with the Wii Santa brought for Christmas).   But we did some fun outside things too.  We headed out to visit the local celebrity volcano (Mount St. Helen's) and do some sledding.  It was a good time other than the carsick 2 year old.  We have got to remember she does that before she throws up in the car.  The two big kids had fun sledding and D and K liked it okay too.  My mom and I were a little concerned about having to splint and carry Roy and my dad off the mountain when they broke their legs on the sleds but fortunately we didn't have to try.
There were a million little events and funny things said but as I said before, I was too busy living it to blog it.  Happy Holidays everyone!

How an Attorney's son learns to tie his shoes:

SHOE TYING CONTRACT

The Parties

1. Roy D. Pyatt, the Dad (“Dad”); and

2. D------- Pyatt, a seven year old boy (“D”)

Recitals

Whereas Dad desires D to learn to tie his own shoes, independently, and without the assistance of Dad or any other adult;

Whereas D desires to earn money to pay tithing, save, and have fun; and

Whereas D desires the aid of “Red Lace, Yellow Lace”;

The parties hereby agree to be bound as follows:

Agreement

The Recitals are intended to be part of this Agreement and are incorporated herein.  The parties agree that if D learns to tie his own shoes, as described above, on or before Christmas Day, December 25, 2011, Dad will pay D the sum of FIVE and no/100s dollars ($5.00).  The parties agree that said amount constitutes full and fair consideration.

D desires an extension beyond Christmas Day in order to fulfill his obligations under this Agreement.  D is concerned that the book “Red Lace, Yellow Lace”—which teaches children how to tie their own shoes, and upon which he has placed a hold with the Library—will not be available from the library in sufficient time as to allow him to both check out the book and learn how to tie his shoes.  The parties agree to extend the timeframe in which D must learn to tie his owns shoes to January 1, 2012.  In return for this additional consideration, D agrees to make Dad and Mom’s bed for seven days in a row, beginning Saturday, December 17, 2011, and ending Friday, December 23, 2011.  

If, for any reason, D fails to make Dad and Mom’s bed for the seven days described above, the original date of December 25, 2011 will be the time in which D must fully perform his obligation under this Agreement.

Dad agrees to issue payment to D within twenty-four (24) hours after D proves, to the satisfaction of an objectively reasonable person, that he has fulfilled his obligation under this Agreement.  For purposes of this Agreement, the parties appoint Sheena A. Pyatt to serve as the objectively reasonable person for evaluating D’s performance.  Should Sheena A. Pyatt refuse to serve as requested, the parties agree to appoint Jenn Harbertson or Ryan Harbertson to said position, in that order of preference.

DATED this 16th day of December, 2011 by the parties’ respective signatures.



______________________ ____________________
ROY D. PYATT D------- PYATT

Family Craft Night and Boogie Down

Tonight was Family Craft Night at D's school and we HAD to go.  It was pretty fun.  There were different crafts in each of the different grade areas.  The kids had a good time making reindeer and the like.  The best part by far was in the lunch room.  There were cookies and hot cocoa but there was also some music.  The dance teacher (D goes to dance once a week in addition to PE!) was leading dances that the kids have been learning.  It was great to watch D out there shaking his bootie to the chicken dance.  Not gonna lie, it was pretty great to see Roy out there too.  He's such a good dad to get out there and chicken dance and Macarena with the kids.  He later confessed to me that he had to watch D to figure out how to do the Macarena.  WHAT?!  Did you or did you not go to high school in the 1990's.  I was unaware that anyone who went to public school and attended at least one school dance could not know the Macarena.  Sometimes I'm surprised by just how opaque his bubble was.

Macarena conga line

Best shot of the flapping dragon formerly known as K.

Shake it chicken boys!

What a crappy day

I mean that quite literally.  It started with the splishy splash sound of urine dripping off my kitchen cupboard to the floor below; moved into a warm bath laxative for a slightly plugged up baby (I hate "fishing" in the bathtub"); and finished strong with a liquid suppository in one very plugged up 4 year old.  Bet you wish you were here today, huh?!

Anniversary dinner at Benihana

Roy and I have been married for 9 years.  Can you believe it?  We had a gift certificate for Benihana that we bought at a charity auction many months ago.  We decided to save it for our anniversary, so last night we got a sitter and went to dinner.
It was so much fun!  I've never been to a Benihana restaurant but I've been to similar styled places.  For anyone who doesn't know, Benihana is a Japanese style grill where they cook your food at the table.  I've gotten to where I like to try foods I don't normally like when I go out.  So when Roy asked if we should share a sushi appetizer I said, "Sure!"
I first tried sushi in college when I had a Japanese roommate make some for us.   I did not like it.  But it seems like every few years I try it just to make sure I really don't like it.  So Roy ordered a nice safe Philly roll sushi.  When it came, I put a little dallop of avocado wasabi on it a popped the whole thing in my mouth.  After the initial desire to promptly spit it out and down my water, I began chewing.  I was doing everything I could to not gag, hurl or otherwise disgrace the table.  I was trying to enjoy it while pondering ways to not swallow it.  Curse you cloth napkins!  I finally managed to swallow most of it except the seaweed wrapper.  That is the worst part in taste and texture.  By this time I'd reached the conclusion that I would have to excuse myself and go to the bathroom; however I did not want to look like I had a mouth full of sushi.  I hid it in my cheek, politely excused myself, and pretended like I didn't know I looked like a lopsided chipmunk until I reached the privacy of the bathroom stall where I could safely dispose of the remainder of my sushi.  I think I still don't like sushi.
On a side note, Roy really does like sushi but was unaware that the green stuff was wasabi and the white stuff was pickled ginger.  He piled both onto his first sushi.  He cut the ginger in half for his second because he thought it was horseradish.  He later confessed that he thought he was going to cry after his second bite.  Somehow he pushed on through and managed to eat 7 of the 8 sushi.  Now he knows better.
Our chef came to our table.  It seems a bit odd to go to a Japanese restaurant to eat food made by a Hispanic chef.  He was very good though.  He made jokes about the juxtaposition of his ethnicity to the restaurant and food style.  He did a great job providing dinner and a show.  Roy and I ordered the noodles to go with our dinners but he let me try some of the chicken fried rice.  Definitely ordering the rice next time!
Every meal came with shrimp.  In the spirit of trying things I tried my shrimp.  I told Roy not to tell anyone but I actually kind of liked it.  Of course, I was really hungry and it tasted mostly like chicken - not much fishiness to it.  Good thing too because I still only had a cloth napkin and I'd already used my bathroom break!
At the end of the meal a few of the Japanese waitresses came to our table to sing a Japanese happy song and light a candle on a Buddha for good luck.  Our waitress comped us some ice cream and we headed out.

It was a great night.  I had so much fun with Roy.  I'm lucky to be married to him and to be celebrating 9 happy years.  Here's to an eternity more!

Visit with Santa

Our dentist's office had a rockin' Christmas party tonight.  We have the coolest dentist office in the entire world.  My kids actually get excited to go to the dentist... even D.  So they were double excited to have a PARTY at the DENTIST!  It was great.
There was a big tent in the parking lot with a DJ, cookies and milk and some kiddie games (beanbag toss, sand pit etc.).  Behind the tent was a small array of animals to pet.  K held a ferret and A pet it.  D declined.  I held a large ball of fur they told me was a rabbit.  There was also a calf, a pony and a llama that the kids got to feed.
After playing the games, eating cookies and milk for dinner, and petting the animals we headed in the office to see Santa and Mrs. Claus.  The kids were very excited!  They all went right up to Santa - even A.  In fact, I think she was the first one up there.  She let Mrs. Claus pick her up (Mrs. Claus, "Ooof"  Me: "Hehe, she's more than she appears...")  Hopefully, one of the doctors (who also happens to be our bishop) will be sending me the picture on email.  It is cute.
We walked through the rest of the office.  They had a bin of fake snow the kids could play with, Christmas tattoos, a raffle and at the very end a karaoke area.  D and K sang "Jingle Bells" and it was awesome!

We had a really good time!  And we got to see Santa Claus.  I think this will be a new tradition for our family.

Randominity: Catch-up Edition

I was going to write a nice braggy post about how awesome my Thanksgiving dinner turned out.  I mean seriously, I spent 2 days in the kitchen and created some amazing food.  That ought to be worth a few lines of bragging right.  It seems a little anti-climatic now that it is December....  Still, thinking about the food makes my stomach growl....  Okay, I talked myself into a post.  If you want to see it, click here.

We went to get our Christmas tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  The kids had a great time scattering through the trees and shouting about "perfect trees" and the like.  We got it set up with significantly less trouble than last year.  Here's hoping things go better this year!

Roy and I finally got new cell phones.  One small step for the technologically impaired, one large step for us.  Roy's phone is so new fangled it even connects to the internet!  

I got a flu shot on Friday.  Friday night I had body aches so badly I was waking myself up moaning.  I also had a nightmare that I was being stung repeatedly by hornets.  When I woke up I had stabbing nerve spasms running up my shot arm.  What's up with that?

Last night was the ward Christmas party.  The kids did a little program after dinner.  D was a wise man and K was an angel.  K came out on stage when it was her turn the first time but opted to lay on the floor behind the curtain during the finale when everyone was supposed to be out.  D did a great job of wandering with his fellow wise men and giving his gift to the baby Jesus.  

Sorry about the pictures.  My camera is not treating me well, plus it was a dim church gym.

These = crack.  So.Good.  Especially the ones with Kosher salt on them.  Salted Chocolate-dipped Caramels, my new favorite addiction.

I found this recipe for homemade fingerpaints.  They are not edible but they are safe to eat.  We used it in preschool this week to the great joy of all.  Another perk, since it is mostly water and cornstarch it is easy to wash up!