Catching up

I have slacked majorly this Christmas season and have let my blog suffer, while I filled my time with other things. Well, I am now catching up with all the fun of the past week. I have added 5 posts under this one, so scroll down and enjoy them. Hope your Christmas was as great as ours. Love, The Langfords

Camping out in the Starwars Tent

For Christmas, Grandma Curtis got the boys this really awesome starwars tent. Case was dying to sleep in it last night, so we let the boys. They had a great time.
Here are a few pics of their adventure. Daisy had to be in the middle of it all.

Christmas at home

Can you believe that I did not take one picture of Christmas morning at our house. Daddy video taped the entire thing though. None the less, here is the tale of our Christmas day adventures.

Late Christmas Eve night, the kids put out 9 baby carrots on the planter border for the reindeer when the came, in hopes they would eat them. Then we tucked the kids in bed and we all geared up for a cold winter's night. Christmas morning, Case was the first to wake up. It was 7:15am. Not too bad, but considering mom and dad were up pretty late (2am), this wake up call was not great news. But he was so excited, we decided to put our desires for sleep aside and get up. He was shocked when he entered the living room. He looked around at the floor full of toys and exclaimed, "Santa really does love us." Then we went outside to check on the carrots. To our amusement, the reindeer had indeed come that night and they left reindeer dust all over the sidewalk. It was really cool. Case tried to sprinkle in on himself to fly, but I am pretty sure that dust only works on reindeer.

The boys were so excited to begin opening the presents under the tree that we let them tear into their stockings while mommy and daddy got dressed and geared up for the big event. Their stockings were filled with lego packs, puddy, matchbox cars, starwars playing cards and a little candy. Once mommy and daddy were ready, we began opened everything under the tree. Boy, all I have to say is Santa rocked this year. He and his elves hit the nail on the head. They left the boys wanting for nothing. They got a trampoline, a new Tractor to ride outside (to replace their jeep that finally died), Jesse got a mini quad. They also got more lego packs, guns, art supplies, games, books, motorcycles, moon sand and lots more. It was a great year. I don't think Jesse opened even one of his own presents. But that is okay because the other boys were happy to help.

After Christmas at home, we went over to Grandma/pa Langford's house for our annual Christmas brunch. Uncle Brad and Aunt Mary came in from Utah this year, so the kids had alot of fun playing with their cousins. Later that day, we went up to Grandma /pa Curtis's house for dinner and Christmas up there. The boys made out like bandits again. We had our Christmas party with Grandpa Whipple the Monday before Christmas. That was the only time we could get everyone together before Christmas because of people's work schedules.

Christmas was a success this year and I have my wonderful husband to thank who works so hard to provide for our family and makes things happen. I also want to thank my mother. She has been a major blessing in our lives, especially this year with the downturn of the economy. She has been our life preserver and for that we are deeply appreciative to her.

Christmas Eve with Santa and the Langfords

The coolest thing happened tonight. We went over to Grandma Langford's house for our annual Christmas Eve party, and would you believe it, Santa showed up. The kids were so excited. Here are the boys pic with the big guy. Blake wasn't there, so we didn't get his pic with Santa. Maybe next year.

Official Happy Birthday Case

Although you had your party already, we still tried to make your birthday special, by making this last minute cake. Luckily mommy had candles in the cupboard . By the way, whip cream tastes really good on cake. Case, you are finally 5 years old.

The gingerbread express

Kids are incapable of ignoring big bags of candy sitting on the counter. It taunts and teases them and seems to call out their name every time they are in it's presence. "Hey Case, come here," it says. "Look at me. Don't I look good. I guarantee you , I taste even better than I look. Go ask your mom if you can open me. If she says no, then give her your biggest and best whine ever. Be persistent. Don't stop until she gives in. If you have to, throw in some of those tears. That always works."

It is amazing how they obey the candy. They beg and whine and plead and beg some more and whine some more and plead some more. Finally, I agreed to let them do their gingerbread train for Case's birthday. It was Dec. 20th. So here are the boys having the time of their lives, decorating their gingerbread express. Even Jesse got in on the fun.I thought they were done at this point, so we did a quick outfit change. Then they decided it needed a little more. So we covered them in aprons and they went to town once more.
Here is the finished product. And there is only a few pounds of frosting on my chairs and newly mopped floors. Good job boys.

Joys of boys

As a follow up to my previous post, I observed an interesting phenomenon today, which led me to believe that maybe my boys are perfectly normal. I had gone to Case's school to bring in cupcakes for his birthday. While I was there, the kids had center time, where they get to play with toys. As I was walking around and watching the kids, I realized something very funny. Almost all of the boys were on the floor playing with legos. They were creating airplanes and fighting them and making sound effects and rolling around and... you get the picture. Then , I looked across the room and noticed that almost every single girl was seated around this one table coloring with stencils. Seriously. Now their talking was high pitched and continuous. It was a hillarious observation. No wonder my house is always demolished, no matter how many hours a day I spend picking it up. I am not going to feel so bad when my other friends, who have mostly girls, are able to keep perfectly spotless homes. I have boys. The picture of mud on my floor is an almost every day occurrence. Then you factor in that it has been raining for the past week and our entire yard is mud. Holy crap, I have no chance. Mud city for me. Joys of boys!

Repeat after me!

Repeat after me. I love my boys. I love my boys. I love my boys. I love my boys.......


Today, I decided to embark on the ever dreaded task of paying my bills. I had been working in the office and the boys were outside playing. They had been outside a while, when I heard them run inside and back out again. I looked out to see what was going on, and caught a glimpse of Case fleeing out the front door with a drinking cup filled with mud. That got me up fast. As I left the office and walked in to the front room, this is what I was greeted to, followed by a quick accusation from Case that Rail did it (even though the bottom of Case's pants were covered in mud). Don't let this picture fool you, the mud went into the kitchen, all down the hall and into the bathroom as well.I decided to go outside and investigate the situation. As I stepped out and called for the boys, I heard their echos from the side of the front porch. I rounded the planter to find the boys gorging themselves in a rain filled, soiled pot. Needless to say, there was mud (Well actually, wet soil. It is different) everywhere. On the porch, on the bench, on the boys, everywhere.


Right after I snapped this second picture, Case proceeded to pour his cup filled with mud all down his shirt. Why he did that, I have no idea. It was really random. At that point, the fun was over and they were all whisked into a hot shower. If you look closely, Jesse is hiding behind Rail. You can see a bit of his red shirt. So, to wrap up my investigation, I concluded that my trashed floors were a collaborative effort from all three boys. But remember... I love my boys. I love my boys. I love my boys!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Sweet Toys-R-Us Dollars

At Case's party last week, he got a Toys-R-Us gift card and some cash that he was dying to spend. We took him , and after about what seemed like an hour going through every isle in the store, he decided on a n Air Hog Remote Control Helicopter. This thing is awesome. The boys had a blast. In fact, it was so much fun that we ended up getting Rail and Daddy their own.The boys had their little routine down. Rail would sacrifice his hand, holding the helicopter, while Case learned how to keep it in the air. What would Case do without Rail? It was hillarious to watch them. They laughed and laughed and laughed. It is kind of hard to see, but Rail is again holding it in his hands.If you look closely in the middle left of the picture, you can see an orange little triangle thing. That is the helicopter. We tried to get better shots, but the thing was just too small. Once daddy got home, he was able to give them some pointers about how to fly it and keep it in the air. Apparently, it is easier to fly indoors. Lets just say, we all got clipped a few times from spinning blades. Not fun.

Weekend at the Langford Grandparents

Grandma Langford invited everyone over this weekend for dinner and to decorate sugar cookies. When we arrived, we were surprised with a newly build half pipe, courtesy of Grandpa Langford and the neighbors (The Larsons). Kolton and Kade were all over it. This is right up their alley. The cousins had a blast trying out their skills.

Rail was content to ride his scooter. Give him a year or so and he will have the half pipe mastered.
Case and Rhyane tried their hand at decorating the cookies. They did a really good job and had alot of fun doing it.

Then there is Jesse. He just runs around and smiles all the time. He is a hoot.

Case's 5th Birthday Party

Case is finally turning five. His official birthday is December 20th, but b/c it is so close to Christmas, I try to host it earlier to avoid the busy holiday season. This year, we had his party at Jump and Shout! Play Center at the Mesa Riverview Shopping Center. What a blast. The kids ran and ran and ran. I have never been to Bounce U, but I really liked this one because there are tons of tunnels for the kids to run through. They spent most of their playtime running around the different levels and only a little time on the bouncers. Here is Case, running around way up high. As the kids were playing, I noticed one of the workers had dressed up in an elf suit. She was walking around for a while and then all of a sudden, the big man shows up. The kids were so surprised (and so was I). Apparently, on Thursdays, Santa flies down for a special appearance at Jump and Shout! They all got their pics taken with Santa and surprisingly, most of the kids were mum when they sat on his lap. I expected, being this close to Christmas, that they would already have a huge mental list ready to rattle off. Not the case.When the kids were finally tuckered out, they called us back in to the party room. You never heard a group of 5 years olds so quiet. The hostess was trying to get the kids to yell an answer to a question she asked them. She had to repeat her question like 3-4 times to get the enthusiasm out of them. They played their hearts out.In the party room, the kids ate popcorn and drank sodas. When planning his party originally, I had grand plans to bring in pizza and cupcakes, but upon making the reservation, I discovered that you can not bring your own food in. You have to use their services. So, being the cheapskate that I am, I opted to move the party a little earlier in the day, have the popcorn and sodas and then, as the kids were leaving, we'd go out to the burb and have the cupcakes that I was going to make.

Now that is a funny story in itself. Earlier that day I had made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting and sprinkles, just as Case had asked. I almost filled them with vanilla pudding, but at the last minute decided not to. Luckily, I didn't because as I was loading up the suburban to leave for the party, somehow, the cupcake pan did a triple flip out of my hands and all the cupcakes went flying to the ground, upside down of course. Luckily, Jeanette was at my house and was able to run to the grocery store and buy some replacement cupcakes.
I would say, all in all, that the party was a success. Case was happy and that is all that matters.
Happy Birthday Sweetheart.

Mmmmm.....Chocolate

Everybody knows kids love chocolate. The way it melts in your mouth, oozes out and down your chin to find its final destination on your clean white shirt. That is one of the joys of childhood. Now, don't worry all you chocolate stain phobic moms out there. It's not chocolate Jesse was eating. It was actually dirt. So much of it in fact, that when he opened up his mouth, it was completely black (as you can see). For some odd reason, he loves eating dirt. Never in a million years would I have let my first child and maybe not even my second child eat dirt, but by #3, as long as I did not directly see a cat peeing in the spot he is eating, then it is fair game(much to my mom's dismay).

Mezmorizing

So, we were at Grandpa and Grandma Langford's last night for our usual Sunday night dinner. The adults were chatting away in the kitchen and the children had congregated in the front room. When we went to see what was going on, we walked in on this. All the children had gathered around the Christmas Tree and were watching the train go around and around. It captivated all of them; from toddler to teenager.

A masterpiece complete

The true Allen in Case is coming out. Trevor, you would be proud. Case spent quite some time meticulously arranging his lincoln logs. The tall ones are adults and the small ones are kids (so he tells us) Despite a few setbacks from the two younger brothers, Case was finally able to call his masterpiece complete.As Case was putting the finishing touches on his masterpiece, Rail came over to inspect what Case had done. You could see that Rail was fighting an overwhelming urge to destroy the whole stinking thing. It would bring him so much satisfaction. But in a moment of restraint, Rail decided to only wreck one little corner of Case's creation, luckily only causing minor damage. Ya for Rail for showing some restraint, and ya for Case for not pulverizing him. This picture captures what Case might have looked like had he done it. He gets the need to squeeze from his mom.

Quality time

Here is daddy and the boys spending some quality time together. You would think by the looks of the picture that we planned the black shirt thing. We didn't. We must have all been in the same mood that day.

Since daddy has been working so much lately, he tries to spend as much time with his boys as he can. Here they are playing one of their favorite games, race cars.

Oh happy day

Once again, Life is good. Not only did we find Case and Rail's lightsabers, but we finally got Jesse his own. Now they can have Star Wars fights to their heart's content. It was good timing because I think they were running out of things to use for lightsabers.

When the cat is away...the mice will play!

Last week, the kids and I were gathering all our ingredients to make cookies. Then I made a fatal mistake. I needed more flour so I went to the outside fridge to get another bag. When I returned to the kitchen, this is what I found. Now by the looks of the pictures, you would be inclined to blame the child covered in flour for making the mess, however, pictures can be deceiving. The clean one actually did it. (No big surprise there...ha ha) The dirty one was just reaping the benefits.

I was cleaning out my house this weekend and I found this mirror. Here is me standing infront of it. Don't pay attention to my red carpet. It hides the stains. I had no idea that I lost so much weight. Who needs mirrors when you look like a model. That is why I have decided to auction it off to the highest bidder.

Mud and dogs. They are both dirty.

Mud, Mud, Mud, Mud, Mud. Any chance they get, the boys get in the mud. I must say that I was pretty impressed with the size and roundness of Rail's mud ball. He was pretty proud. Jesse is just happy to be dirty.
People say that a man's best friend is his dog. I have to agree. Daisie and Rail have a special relationship. It is really cute. (Sometimes though, it's like, "Okay Rail, that's enough")Right before this picture was shot, they were both laying on the floor with their arms around eachother (Yes, Daisie had her arms around Rail too). I couldn't get my camera fast enough before she moved. Rail kept trying to get her back into position for the shot, but she wouldn't have it. He likes to come up with his own ideas for a "cool picture".

Why Why Why??? says Case

Everyone knows that kids get to a certain age and they begin to wonder about the world around them. Part of that wondering comes in the form of the infamous "why" questions. Case is in that phase and often times surprises me with the deepness or complex nature of his questions. Well, tonight, the kids and I were returning home from a quick trip to Toys-r-us so we could scope out some of their favorite toys for Santa. On the car ride home, we were listening to "Walking in a winter wonderland." After the song was over, Case began his barrage of questions. It went something like this.
Case: What is a winter wonderland?
Mom: It is a place filled with snow and christmas decorations and Santa Claus, and all the other things having to do with Christmas, kind of like at Bass Pro Shop when we went to see Santa (Lame explanation, I know, but I couldn't think of a simple explanation)
Case: Why does Santa give us presents?
Mom: (I paused for just a brief moment, and before I could respond, he asked the bomb shell question)
Case: Why did Jesus make Santa?
Mom: (Thinking to myself.....what the crap? Where did that come from?....
How am I going to answer that one? .................Uhmm....Thinking.....
Nothing coming.........)
Case: I know! He was born as a baby, then he grew up and decided he wanted to be Santa Claus.

OKAY then. Whew, not even close to the kind of answer I was thinking he wanted. Boy did I get lucky on that one. He asks the funniest questions about Jesus. Like, Why did Jesus make food? Why did Jesus build the roads? Why did Jesus make our house? Most of these questions I can explain by saying that these things are made by people. Jesus made the earth and everything living on it like people, animals and plants, and people take these things on the earth and build what they need. It may be a little complex, but he gets it. He is a bright child.

Random sampler.

Today was full of a little of this, a little of that and alot of errands, so I thought I would give a few random samples of our day at home.

Our Grandma Curtis is the best. If it weren't for her, our cupboards would be in sore shape. She surprised us with more than 30 cans of cream of ckn soup for our year supply. Case decided to play store, with me as the shopper and Case as the clerk. I would buy so many cans and he would give me a price. I then matched his price in change ( i.e., if my bill came to $37 dollars for 4 cans, I would pay him 37 cents). He thought it was great. He lined up every cent in the bottom of the box that the soup came in. Then we played with cans of Mushrooms and then thread. We would have played longer had the game not erupted in a fight between Case and Rail. That is usually how most games end unfortunately. They are so competitive.
This is our dog Daisy (Boxer) with the Slade's dog Bubba. They are best friends. Bubba comes over to our house to play every day and Daisy goes over to the Slade's house to play(probably every day). They jump the fences to get to eachother. Truely a sight to see. Jesse loves to get in the middle of their rowdy play. One of these days, he is going to get plowed over.
Any opportunity the boys get to make a mess out of the items in the pantry, they will, as you can see by this poor roll of trash bags strewn all over the floor. While stunts like this use to be Rail's domain, they have now been taken over by Jesse. I guess he is learning from his brothers.
What good is a tree if you can't climb it. The boys are beginning to get interested in climbing trees. Maybe shoes would make it a little easier.
When one bud gets to do something, the other two must be allowed the same privilege or else WW3 breaks out. Heaven forbid they be left out. What is the appeal with sitting on the counter?

...Cause Obama president naw (sp intentional)

While I am on the political subject, I guess I will vent my issues now and be over with it. I have seen on the news the latest leaks about Obama possibly chosing Hillary Clinton as his Secretary of State. One theory being that she could do less damage as his secretary of state than she could as a senator. Then it hit me tonight. Holy crap! As if one of these Democratic candidate in the white house is not bad enough, now we may end up with both of them. How much worse can this get? I probably shouldn't have said that out loud because I may have single handedly doomed our country to another cabinet choice like of Jesse Jackson or Bill Maher, or worse yet, a hollywoodian. Where are the morals that this country was founded on? What happened to people working for their livelyhood-a little theory called self-sufficiency. Cory said he heard a clip on the radio where this ladywas being interviewed about Obama being president. She responded, "I don't have to worry about my mortgage anymore, cause Obama president Naw" (Misspellings and incorrect grammer intentional) Unfortunately that attitude embodies a large majority of Obama supports. Where do they think this money is going to come from? I would love to see their faces in 4 years when the reality of American under Obama sinks in to these people and they realize they have been deceived. I hope with all hope that I am wrong, and God willing, may we survive these next four years with a few of our freedoms still in tact. That is all I have to say about the matter.

Vote for me

I don't know if it has been the ringer of a campaign that we have just been through or my age, or being a mother and trying to make a better world for my children, but all of a sudden, I really care about issue. I watch CNN daily (something that would have made me gag 10 years ago). I am starting to branch out my interest of government from the presidential race to now, all of the affairs of public policy. Tonight I went to the annual Lehi Community Meeting where they talk about all the issues facing our little community. I was impressed because our Mayor, Scott Smith came, along with our city councilman, Dave Richins, 2 of the Mesa police chiefs and numerous other city officials. I couldn't believe our little community would bring out the big guns, but we did. The meeting itself was not really noteworthy, but the bi-product of it is what I am writing about. The members of the Lehi Community Board talked about next year being the first year that they will hold elections for the Board. All of a sudden a light bulb went off in my head. Ever since I got interested in the presidential race I have been feeling a big pull to do something, to stand up for what is right and make a difference, but I have felt so insignificant. I realized that I could start locally, in Lehi, maybe a position on the PTO, then city government, after that state, then who knows, I could be the next Sarah Palin (ha ha). Who knew she would be such an inspiration. Anyway, I'm thinking that might be a good start. What do you think? Should I get involved in politics???

Flakey

This post is dedicated to our Flakey (As he is known at our house). You have become a man overnight it seems. When your dad and I first met you were a mere 12 years old, unsure of what teenage years were all about, just about to embark on your first days of junior high, where spongebob ruled and the movie theaters were the place to be. The next thing we know, you are this tall, handsome young man who has graduated from Highschool, is attending college, has an incredible girlfriend(whom we love as well) and is just beginning to carve his own way in this world. How proud we are of you Flakey. How much we love you. Thanks for being so amazing. Love, Dad & Lisa