Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Happy 6th Birthday! The for real one, not the party one.


We had cake for Mo's birthday on Sunday. Instead of risking another salmon patty colored cake, we went with the store bought mix. Which worked out well, because I only freaked out once, and that was because she blew out the candles the moment that I finished lighting them which didn't allow me time to grab the camera. After I finished yelling obscenities and berating her for her ignorance I lit them again and made her pose for pictures blowing them out. I felt much better after that, and I think she learned an important life lesson. I think it's essential to seize those precious teaching moments when you can.

Thanks for the dress, Grandma!

I think she likes it. No, really, just ignore her Planktonish behavior, she just prefers to punish me for my insolent behavior. How dare I ask her to smile for mommy? Or maybe she's just upset that Daddy appears to have put Mommy's tights on her. Those clearly are not her size. She's got elephant ankles, they're all bunched up at the bottom, resting in a pile of synthetic material on her shoes.

She won't smile, not even for Momo. NOT gonna do it.


She said NO!

I think I may have promised candy at this point.

Cute dress, punk child. Little turd. At least Mo is getting a kick out of her.

Friday, December 26, 2008

Christmas Day adventure

We celebrate Christmas a day early. As kids my family opened all of our presents on Christmas Eve, then we had stockings from Santa on Christmas morning. Now, as a blended family we have had to work out an arrangement that allows the two oldest girls to spend time with both of their families at Christmas. Some people alternate years, but I'm so glad that we didn't choose to do that. Knowing that it didn't matter to me growing up which day I opened my presents on, we offered to always have the 23rd and 24th in exchange for them going to their other homes on the 25th. We wake up on the 24tha and Santa has filled their stockings and we open all of our presents and we never remember that its not Christmas for everybody else. Then on the 25th we are always shocked that the roads are empty and the stores are closed. Christmas is over for us, where is everybody?

Now that we've added three more kids to our family we get to relax and let them play with their gifts all day that day. We might try to clean up all of the wrapping paper and packaging if we feel like it, but usually we don't. Generally we take turns napping and that's about as exciting as we get.

Kai leaves at 9pm on the 24th and Kiki has always left the next morning, but now her dad lives in Utah, so we have had her fly out there on Christmas day and spend time with her family there. She stays until New Year's and then we head to the cabin with the Thayers. It works out perfectly.

This year, though, we have snow. It's a first in my memory, having snow on Christmas. We were a little worried about the flight status, but the airlines assured us that everything was fine.

Getting out of the driveway proved to be the biggest challenge. We only had one chain on our tires, since one had broken and we hadn't put the replacement on yet. We couldn't even get moving, so we had to stop and put the missing chain on. Then we had to use all of the momentum we could build just to make it to the end of the driveway, where we were luckily able to stop before sliding into the road of death like we did a few nights ago.

We pulled over after a minute to check the chains and one had broken. To Kiki's credit she didn't say a word. Her breathing was labored, but she did not lose it, she held it together while we got the chain unwrapped from around the axle and got back on our way. Just as we reached the on ramp to the freeway we heard the other chain break. We had to find a place on the freeway to pull over and remove that chain. Still, she remained in control.

By this time we were about two hours out from her departure time. Our airport recommends arriving about an hour and a half prior to departure, and we were only 10 minutes away, so we're still looking good, but Chris dropped us off in front of the terminal just to be on the safe side.

As we entered the Southwest Airline doors Kiki questioned why so many people were standing outside. I thought it was odd that so many people were using the sky cab, but who am I to question? I knew soon enough, as we walked past the line of people waiting at the ticket counter and it seemed to stretch a bit far down the hallway. We just kept walking, trying to find the end of the line. It wrapped all the way past the Northwest counter, the Frontier counter, around the corner toward security for the C & D gates, then back all the way to the entrance.

I've never seen anything like it.

Neither had my daughter. She was pretty sure we were wasting our time standing in that line. We might as well go home, we're never going to make it now. I kind of had to agree with her, but I assured her that even if she missed the flight there was always another one. As we wrapped around our first big switchback in the line, I asked her why she was being so quiet. Why she wasn't FREAKING OUT like she does when she's seriously stressed about something at home. Why she didn't scream at her fellow line captives that this is SO RIDICULOUS, like she does to me. She said Because, mom, this isn't THEIR fault.

Then she saved her life by smiling sweetly and giggling at herself.

That mile long line moved in record time. Our plight seemed to shrink dramatically when the mom in front of us explained that she and her daughter had spent the last three days at the airport trying to get the daughter on a flight to Utah. Every time they thought she was leaving the flight would get cancelled again. It sure made the line seem like less of a burden. That and the new boyfriend I picked out that looked like a college football player. I'm pretty sure he loved me back. We shared a moment from across the terminal (call me).


We were through checking her in before it was even time for her to head through security. We fed her some fast food and warned her that she might be stuck on the plane for a while before take off, but they got her flight boarded right away. She texted me that they were taxiing down the runway and she'd call me when she got there. Then she texted me that they stopped. Then they turned around. The snow had started again and they needed to apply more deicer. They waited and waited for the other planes to get sprayed, then they finally got their turn. They were taking off again. Then they were stopping again. And turning around again. Now the runway was too snowy and all of the plower people had gone home, so they had to wait for them to come back and plow the runway. At this point I figured I might as well take the family home and wait there to see if she needed to be picked up again or if she was really going to Utah. Finally, three hours later, her flight really did take off. I'm glad she took a book.

She arrived safely and I'm sure she's having a great time. We had a great time trying to get up our driveway with no chains. Chris ended up pushing, after he moved some trees that had fallen across the road. I think we're stuck here for awhile unless there is some serious melting.

Have a great trip, Kenzie, we miss you!

Thursday, December 25, 2008

Morgan's "best gift ever in her life"

Dear Aunt JennyPenny -

Thank you for the cupcake maker set. It is the best present I ever got in my whole life. I love it very much and I love you, too. Thank you so so so so much. I love you.

Love, Morgan




















Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Christmas 2008

We had the family Christmas at the Komp house this year with lots of snow. Uncle Josh built an AMAZING sledding trail for all of the kids. It was AWESOME. Grant was fearless and laughed the whole time, even when he fell off Dad's sled he got We barely made it up their driveway, but it was worth the whole 2 hours of driving in the snow. We all loved all of our gifts (especially our hotel/dinner night from the Komps!).




And the award for best surprise face goes to Avery while opening her dress from Grandma and Grandpa!











Then we got up this morning and opened our gifts and our stockings.


We surprised the older girls with tickets to the musical Wicked. That was quite a reaction. Mackenzie broke down in full-on tears. I think they liked that gift.
The girls are wearing the scarves that Morgan made for them. She asked me if I think that she'll be a good knitter when she grows up like Grandma is. I think she will, she did a great job and it was her first try.





I thought Chris and I weren't getting each other anything. He went and got my temple picture framed behind my back. It was a great surprise and it looks so beautiful in our living room.







Monday, December 22, 2008

The Return of Top Ten Tuesday

With thanks to Lars and her sister for some fresh topics!

Top ten Multi Level Marketing you’ve tried/thought about doing

1. Amway 1993. I wanted to die just thinking about approaching people, so I never did. That worked out real well.
2. Mary Kay. I didn't do it but only because I knew I'd have to talk to people
3. I always wanted to do Pampered Chef
4. and Creative Memories
5. I accompanied my sister when she went to do a Intimate stuff party for some people she didn't know. I think one of them asked for my phone number. Really.


I think that's all. Mainly because the thought of talking to people about my "business" makes me want to curl up in the fetal position and rock back and forth moaning. Here are the regular jobs I have done:

1. Burgerville
2. Skateworld
3. Nike
4. Pioneer Valley Hospital medical records room
5. American Express new accounts
6. FNBA customer service
7. US Bank personal banker
8. US Bank customer service
9. US Bank Sales assistant
10. US Bank Sales and Service manager
11. US Bank vault teller
12. Stay at home mom
Hey, free blow dryer at Walgreens today only. I managed to get to Walgreens (the closest store to us) and get mine. There were none left on the shelf, so I asked a manager who kindly directed me to another batch of them!

I WILL leave this house today!

We just finished getting chains on the van. This required finding the old set that had one broken one and combining the one good one from this year with the one good one from last year. Uncle Jeff would be soooo proud of us for being able to get the chains on. We finally seem to know what we're doing. And with no fighting, if you can believe that! Well, no fighting today. There was plenty of fighting Saturday when we couldn't get them on in the dark. My personal favorite part was the Bishop driving by and stopping to see if we needed help. Chris said we were ok. Then the Bishop saw me kneeling in front of the tire getting the chain on and he said, "Oh, you've got Amy there, looks like you're fine."

Oh, yeah, hers manly, hers manly. Don't forget to shake your butt in a circular motion when you sing that. It adds to the effect.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

I've gone back and posted snow pictures for each of the last four days in their appropriate spots if you want to see them just scroll through the posts. Nothing exciting, just more snow each day.

Sunday, December 21st

Last night the ice started, so we woke up to more snow with an inch of ice on top. Watching the kids try to take off across the top of it was amusing. It took them a little while to learn the proper technique that allows you to get where you want to go without breaking your shins open.

We're so tired of being stuck here. Our neighbor, Steve, came by on his snowmobile and checked on us. It was the high point of our day.

Here are pictures of the children breaking off chunks of ice. And eating it.






Avery never once asked to play in the snow. She knows it's miserable out there. She's so smart that way. She decided to tear apart the Christmas decorations instead. Here she is pulling the pieces off of the Advent calendar.






This morning after watching my kids fall on their faces trying to walk through the ice, I thought I'd try to embarrass myself. I was very successful.

Kai catching some serious air.