How To Guide: The Naughty List

A "How to Guide" for the Naughty List
by self-proclaimed "Awesome Guy"...he's more awesomer than you! (at least that's what he tells us daily)
a.k.a Head Rascal #1

The following actions will result in direct placement on the naughty list:

1. Throwing legos at your older sister's head.

2. Throwing glass ornaments at your older sister's feet.

3. Slugging your brother directly in the middle of the gut and/or hitting your mother.

4. Shouting "NEVER!!!!" (in your best warrior voice) when asked to pick up your toys, clothes, or to go to your room.

5. Kicking the door over and over during timeout.

6. Proclaiming that you will throw rocks (maim with a fork and possibly inflict death on) Santa and his reindeer if you were placed on said NAUGHTY LIST.

7. Replying to various threats with, "who cares" or "I'll find my presents in the ditch".

EVEN if some of the above bring a hidden smile to your parents face, you still will be placed on said Naughty List. And no, just because Swiper and Dora found the 3 ornaments and got off the Naughty List...its not going to work for you....Awesome Guy.
**One of my favorite reason's for the season was the threat of the Naughty List...my older two would run and hop into bed without a peep. This 3rd child - head Rascal isn't even phased...man. What would Sue Sylvester do?? The threat of the snowy front porch doesn't even work!**

HoopSlayer

Indy came home the other day and told us he won a freethrow contest at school. I thought he meant during recess. Then I got a phone call from the PE Teacher explaining that he won the shootout for the entire school. So cool...especially since basketball is not "encouraged" in our house (baseball is the only thing that's of worth around here - according to his father). So he got to go to the citywide shootout. We now refer to him as "hoopslayer". He took 2nd place - way to go! (photo courtesy of Matt Holdsworth - I was busy feeding a baby)

Walk through Bethlehem

The Lutheran Church puts on this incredible "Walk Through Bethlehem". I've wanted to go every year but something seemed to always come up. Except this year - Taylor & Sheri were Mary & Joseph (for about 1.5 hrs :). So we loaded up the family - even Ashlee came to see us - and headed over to walk through Bethlehem. It was wonderful, they really did a great job at taking us through Bethlehem, letting us sample fresh bread (bread machines hidden ;) and dates, and grapes, and let us smell their spices...and it was so exciting to head into the "manger" complete with a live donkey and see Taylor & Sheri & their angels. McLaren is a little confused when we talk about the baby Jesus....he always says "you mean Lucy, right??".

Don't you think that Sheri is incredible as Mary??? Have another baby quick! so you can play it again next year!

Over the river & through the snow...

To her grandchildren's house she goes. I'm so glad that Grandma Kathy came to our house - even if she wouldn't stay LONGER...and that she missed the HUGE snowstorm that hit 2 days later. (Just a side note to all the little cars saving the environment - stuck on the hills...flash your lights twice as I plow by with my gas-guzzling SUV and I'll give you a tow! See-we can all help eachother out :)

Anyway - back to Grandma and her 1st annual Grandma's Workshop. (Really it was more like a desperate plea to come and help me do the one thing I despise - - DECORATING. Ugh . Ugh. Ugh. I had to do some seriously deep breathing as I watched her decorate my house!)


So Grandma & her little sister came and baked cinnamon ornaments and made snowmen cookies with the kids. They had a great time. And yes, I caught them doing a little side-decorating at the stove - Naughty!!

The Robot.

We had our last game a few weeks ago and Gma & Gpa Noble came up to watch AND take some pictures. My dad bought an extender to use with my 70-200L, which turns it into a 400 zoom. Its not possible to comprehend how far away he was when shooting these, but anyone who's every tried taking pictures on a huge field should be able to appreciate them. He was clear in the far corner and shooting images from the opposite end of the field! Totally killer. All Indy cared about (other than getting warm) was if he got the robot goalie. Nice work Gpa Wade...aka assistant #1.

(scroll to the right to get the entire dance movements)

Soccer Generations.

A year ago today...

Earlier this week I was talking with my mother on the phone -trying to get her to extend her microscopic visit OR to give ME her visit to Tia's next week - and as she deftly sidestepped my pleading and redirected the conversation towards how well I was doing now - considering this time last year I was holed up in a chair with a spit rag - I immediately started to cringe. Ugh. The thoughts make me shudder and cause my mind to go numb (lucky for her I gave up on my pleading). The spit rag was awful. I had excess saliva the likes of which I had never before experienced and the only way to combat it was...the SPIT RAG. It would sick everyone out (including me, which just caused me to produce even more spit). Matt hated it when he'd walk by and grab a towel for something only to find out that it was a wet spit rag. :) :) he...he... okay even though its sick - it was still kinda funny. Even funnier was the run to the store when he realized all of our kitchen towels were used up. So now (a year later) we have like 50 kitchen towels shoved in our little towel drawer.

Last week at Thanksgiving, I talked my brother-in-law Ray (a.k.a. Uncle Ray Firedance) into snapping some pictures of Ella and I. I was totally obsessed with the Blue walls at Jon's house...I knew they'd make for some killer color once I got my hands on them.

Ella - 5months:
-refuses to sleep past 5:45am (case in point this morning...I gave up after fighting it for an hour...and we started the day at 5:30am...and she's happy and giggling and rolling all over my concrete floor in the office--on a blanket of course.)
-SCREAMS at dinner time insisting we put something in her mouth. It's like a little bird - without the parental regurgitation. (Consequently all the kids feel that its open season now and would like to give her some of their dinner :(
-Smiles the second you make eye contact with her - and sometimes even gives you a little scream of excitement, hoping to lure you into picking her up.

Who would've thought a year ago today that I would have this sweet, precious, adorable bundle of joy (who continues to pack nuts in her cheeks)?

Holy CALORIC Intake! - Year of the MOTHER part 11

Man...talk about gut-buster....fat pants wearing holiday.

We had a great time basking in the gorgeous Phoenix weather with Matt's oldest of oldies brother - Jon. He hosted us beautifully...and provided a wonderful location for the family to descend upon. I brought sweet potatoes by Nic (I swear you will never EVER think of sweet potatoes as a vegetable EVER again after eating that dish AND I made it my mission to convert everyone at dinner to be a sweet potato eater - I think I was 100% successful - young children not included). I also brought stuffing - which I love to make and love to eat and think that my family would be happy if we just had a big bowl of stuffing to eat for dinner - it has sausage and nuts and celery and cherries and all around yumminess. We spent the night there and the little boys got to hang out with Grantos in the "MO-HO" (motor home)...I was surprised that the little girls were able to leave Grant's side. He and Ian played with the kids all day long. I promised them that when they're adults :) and have children of their own that I'll step it up and play with their kids so they can take a break. (I hope I remember ;) Since the kids got in sooo much awesome playing time - I'm counting it as my "Year of the Mother - Part 11" (yes...we're getting desperate here...talk about pressure mounting...I see Christmas lights and Christmas trees up and decorated and I start having some anxiety shakes!).

So all in all, Thanksgiving Day was full of football games (I got in on the huddle), food, video game DELUGE and tons of family pictures! I also stumbled upon the 3 sections of our Holdsworth Family - The OLDIES, The MIDDLES, & The LITTLE'S.


I now must move on to Friday. Black Friday. I have never ever ever ever ventured out on Black Friday. I usually hide in my pajamas all day long (don't worry I did that on Saturday). But for the first time in my life - I found myself awake at 5:45am (okay...who am I kidding...it was more like 3:30am and on) with a little baby who was NOT going back to sleep...in a house FULL of sleeping people. SO. What do you do on Black Friday when you're awake at 5:45am and nothing to do - nowhere to hide? You pack your precious bundle of joy up (how are they so happy when they've been fussing since 3:30am???) and get in your car and just do a drive-by of Old Navy. It looked nice and empty so I went for it. I walked out around 7am...picked up breakfast for everyone (ANOTHER YEAR OF MOTHER - Part 11) and walked back in the door about 8am and started the morning wake-up--its just not fair that all those teeny-boppers get to stay up late and sleep in! And that completed my first (and probably last - because I'm sure I'll be sleeping next year) Black Friday.