Yeah.....we pretty much rock as parents....

That's what Lewis and I were saying to ourselves in bed last night. We were giving ourselves a huge pat on the back, because really, who's better parents than we are? (Don't really answer that question.) In all of our awesomeness, we surprised our kids on Saturday with a trip to the Happiest place on Earth (which I've been told is different for some people) but for us it spells DISNEYLAND. And get this.....this is how we told them. (Because again, all super cool parents, raise your hand. Hollah!)

After we had our weekend ritual of Chinese take-out, we gave our kids their "Special" fortune cookies. (Not those kind of "special" cookies....jeez you sickos.) These fortune cookies were specially prepared by dear old me, and as you can see, made it very clear where we were going to be headed this week. After much screaming, jumping around, and near wetting of underpants, the kiddos calmed down enough to shower us with praises.

"You're the best Mom and Dad ever!"

"We love you so much!"

"You should be given the "parents of the year award." (Okay, this is maybe a stretch, but that's how they made us feel.)

Nothing, and I mean nothing, beats having your kids think that you are the bomb.com.

So, my fellow bloggers, try not to think of me this week as I walk around Disneyland in the 70 degree weather, holding a hand- dipped corn dog in one hand and a Mickey Mouse shaped ice-cream in the other, while I ride on Space Mountain and get Mickey's autograph. With my diet out the window I will not eat anything that (in my words of my bro-in-law, Dave) is not deep-friend and is and/or rolled in sugar. That's just how I roll. I will report my adventures when I return.

Peace out Peeps!

***P.S Blah, blah, blah, blah....I know I've been gone awhile from blogging. Please don't remind me of this fact....I am deeply aware of it. Blah, blah, blahedy freakin' blah....I'll be better in the future....I promise.

Withdrawals

It's never good coming down from a high. I gots me a serious case of the Thanksgiving withdrawals and it ain't purty. It's almost as bad as a case of shaky legs ( don't mock me, 'cause unless you've had shaky legs you have no room to judge) but not quite. I have recently returned from a glorious, wonderfilled, laugh -your- arse -off holiday weekend in St. George and here are some of the things I'm suffering withdrawals from:

(In no particular order. I am not biased in any way, shape, or form.)

1. Eating. What? The Nuttall's love to eat??? That's a surprise. (My tone is dripping with sarcasm, in case you didn't pick up on that.)

2. Staying up until the wee hours of the morning playing games. Some of the funniest moments EVAH. I don't care if I'm playing catch up on my sleep until next week.....TOTALLY worth it.

3. Swimming. Who doesn't love swimming in late November. Although it was not too warm outside, nothing beats a pool heated to a nice, balmy 90 degrees. Heaven.

4. Sleeping in....oh wait, that never happened. Silly me.

5. Bonding with baby Will. (Seriously, cutest.baby.ever. And I'm not just saying that because I'm the favorite Aunt. Which I am. (The favorite Aunt that is. Just don't tell the other ones.)

6. Laughing till I thought I was going to puke.....and sometimes I wanted to puke, but that was for other reason which shall not be name publicly. I will only say this : "Hey Todd, what's that on the ground down there?" You get my drift. Thank heavens for turtle necks.

7. Running with my kick A**bro-in-law, Todd. Let's do it again soon, K?

8. Having not a care in the world.....except maybe what we were going to eat next. Seriously, it was sick and wrong.

9. Spending the day with my parents and brother (and his family) on the day of his 33rd B-Day. Thanks again, Dan and Ivy.

10. Spending one of the most wonderful weeks with some of my very favorite people in the entire world.

So, withdrawals and all, good times people........good times.

I have a lot to be thankful for.

Now whens the next trip????

Bah Humbug......

Bleh.....I woke to snow covering my ground this morning. The first thing out of my mouth? "Yuck. I'm not ready for this." Lewis asked me just what my whole "problem" with Winter was anyway? "Do you want me to make a list?" I responded back. And I could. Make a list that is. Of all the things that I hate about this dreaded Season. As a matter of fact, Spring and I still haven't made up. I haven't forgotten how it snowed clear into JUNE. We got jipped. And now? Here we start the long, cold winter. BUT, I don't want ya'll to think I'm a total hater. (Plus, we did just teach the kiddos in FHE on Monday about gratitude. I don't want to be hypocritical.) SO, to honor the first snow of the year, I will think of FIVE things that I LOVE about the winter season. Here goes:

1. Well duh? Christmas, Baby! Who doesn't love this Holiday, that's what I wanna know. Snow is a vital part of the Season.

2. Drinking hot chocolate with my kids. A couple years ago I asked for a hot chocolate maker for Christmas and it has been, hands down, one of the best gifts I have received. I love that dang thing! If you ever mosey down by my hood, I'll make you a scrumptious cup.

3. I'm looking forward to FINALLY being able to stay in the house and complete some projects. Can you say scrapbooking? Can you say Six years behind? Yeah. Enough said. I will also use this time to hone up on my Wii skills. I will bowl a 300. I will play MarioKart until I am number 1. I will finish Mario Galaxy. I will learn to play "Talk Dirty to Me" on an expert level.....yah know, all those REALLY important things in life.

4. Two words.....JACK BAUER. I will spend all Winter long watching the love of my life as he saves the world from more peril and strife. (P.S Why didn't we elect Jack Bauer as President of the US.????)

5. When else but the Winter can we get awesome photo ops like this one? Yeah, this is Braden, outside with the pumpkins covered in snow (mental note: throw pumpkins in the garbage), in his winter hat, sans coat, but wearing his FLIP FLOPS. He's my kinda kid. Way to stick it to the man, B......the Winter man, that is!

P.S. This was HARD.....coming up with five things I love about winter. Again, just in case you forgot, I DON'T LIKE WINTER. Somehow I will persevere. Somehow.

Story Time

Who wants to hear a lovely little story? One that involves a four year old who clogged up my toilet, repeatedly flushed it, and caused a quasi-major flood in my bathroom. Let me warn you, this story involves a mother screaming for HELP as POO WATER rushes two inches deep all over the bathroom floor and closely borders flooding the bedroom. It also involves a flustered Mom, who when forced with the chore of turning off the water in the toilet, doesn't do so great a job, but eventually gets er' done. It also involves using every darn towel in the house to clean up the mess, therefore necessitating the fact that I will be doing "towel" laundry for the next six days. (And P.S, have you every had to carry sopping wet towels to the washing machine with poo water leaking all over everything? Not my finest hour.) And all the while......getting four kids ready for church BY MYSELF (which I do every week, but still,no small task) and having to re-shower after my first shower because ewwwww.....POO WATER! Doesn't that sound like such a lively little tale? Yeah, I thought so too.

Oh, and as I final note: I woke up this morning silently cursing the woes of daylight savings time....writing a blog post in my mind on it's nastiness. But, now I am silently grateful for the fact that my children woke up at 6:00 a.m (that's right, peeps, 6 bloody 0' clock) because I would have had to skip church all together......and I still might. I don't think I'm feeling very good....the thought of POO WATER is making me feel a little queasy......I think I have to go lie down now....

The End

Screw Diamonds.

I think I found the {new} girl's best friend.

After {almost} one full day of doing the dishes by hand ( trust me, not my finest hour), I was more than pleased to receive this little ditty. Look at how it sparkles.......look at how it shines. My new BFF and I are totally compatible.

It's a pleasure working with you, Mr. Dishwasher.

Disclaimer: This doesn't mean that I wouldn't be more than happy with a nice diamond tennis bracelet. It also doesn't mean that I will always be so giddy about receiving appliances as gifts. What it does mean is that washing dishes for a family of six BY HAND made me want to lose my mind. Who has time for that crap anyway? That's what I wanna know.

A Horror Story.........

Just in time for Halloween!

If this doesn't give you nightmares......then you must be a stronger man than I. (And by man, I really mean WoMan.) This is not for the weak of heart. Look at your own risk......yada yada yada.....and all other sorts of ominous warnings. Scroll down to see something truly terrifying....

That's right, Baby! Holy-Freakin'-Crappola! This is what I found lurking behind my BBQ when I pulled it out. All I wanted to do was grill up some nice steaks for dinner, but after viewing this monstrosity I had to run into the house to change my pants. Does this not creep the junk out of anyone but me??? At first, I thought I had come across some rare breed of "crab-like" arachnid. BUT, upon closer inspection (And by closer I mean aprox. 12 feet away from the actual critter, but using the zoom on my camera) I discovered that what I actually had come across was a soon-to-be "Mommy" spider. That's right folks....this ones ready to pop! So, instead of inviting her into my abode, having her put her feet up to reduce swelling, and rubbing lotion all over her pregnant abdomen, ( Trust me. Been there. Done that. Pregger four times, thank you very much) I ran for the nearest bottle of Raid and had Lewis squirt the ever-lovin' crap out of that horrible little creature. I don't care if we just exterminated an entire population of spiders and committed spidercide. Can you imagine? CAN YOU IMAGINE? If that spider had delivered her spiderettes all over my back deck! Yeah.....ponder on that for awhile.

Sweet dreams.

This girl knows how to party

Last week we partied like we were rock stars. But how? you may ask. Well, how does four parties in four days sound to you? (To me it sounds like I now need a vacation, but somehow we survived.) How fitting that our darling Savy got to celebrate FOUR times on the very year that she turned FOUR. It will definitely be a year to be remembered.


On Thursday we had Savannah's very first "friend" party. She invited 10 kids (I know, I just might be crazy to have let her do that) and we partied like it was 1999. My sister-in-law asked me what the "theme" of the party was. I told her that the "theme" of the party was this: "Survive an hour with 10 kids, hopped up out of their minds on sugar, play games that bore them in about 3 minutes, give them prizes that their parents will want to throw in the garbage that very day, eat a little ice cream, and send them on their merry way with more goodies in a bag that will make the parents want to rip their hair out (ie whoopie cushions and whistles.)" And that was the theme of Savy's very first B-Day party. Aren't I just the best mom????

Just Look at this wild bunch. Have you ever seen so many kids (outside of an episode of John and Kate plus 8) in your entire life?

Savy took a minute to ask for a little "guidance" from above to help her dear Mother survive that hellish hour. (Okay....really....she's just playing button, button....but HA. I fooled you.) P.S.....This is what I was really doing in the corner. Shh....don't tell anyone.

On Friday, Savy got to celebrate her birthday at school. She got to bring treats (Ding Dongs) and was the queen for the day. This entails being the "helper" the whole day at school and getting this spectacular crown.....of which she has not stopped talking about how the teacher put too many candles on her birthday hat........DUH.....she's not five.....oops.

Saturday was the day of her actual Birthday. We started the day with some lovely presents that included........none other than a Candy Cane Jar. YES!(Said in your best Napoleon Dynamite imitation.) And she was excited.....even though she totally knew she was getting it. And when I asked her how many candy canes it looked like she had in her in her jar she said, "Like a million!" Close Savy..... 30 is VERY close to a million. Didn't I do pretty good? (for a CC Jar that is.)Then later, because I'm pretty much the best Mom in the whole wide world, we took the chillin's to the ol' Chuck E Cheese. You may or may not know the deep "love" that my husband has for this place......(and by love, I mean really, really intense hatred.) Quite frankly, I'm shocked he didn't use his VETO power to nix the whole idea. Surprisingly enough, he had the nerve to say that he would rather have surgery on his foot 15 times before he stepped foot back into that place.! (Like that surgery was hard on just him. Do we not remember the summer?) But alas, Savy had a blast....which is what it was all about. Maybe Lewis would have had more fun if they let him ride the Ferris wheel......Sorry Lew....it's for kids 8 and under. Too bad.

And last, but not least, dinner at Nana and Grandpa's on Sunday, with a birthday cake roughly the size of a small pony. ' Cause it's just not a birthday until you stuff your pie hole with massive amounts of sugary goodness.....and trust me, I did just that. Mmmmm....Cake.....

And as an end result of partying like a rock star.....Here's Savy peaced out on the couch after her four- day- long birthday shindig. I guess some people just aren't cut out for that "rock star" lifestyle....thank heavens.

And finally, to my Savannah: I love you dear daughter. I love you more and more each day. I love you more than you know. Thank you for making me laugh, for being so sweet, for being my helper, and for keeping me on my toes. Each day is an adventure with you and I love every minute of it! I hope you had a spectacular FOURTH birthday.

Love,
Mom