Weekly Update

Oh man, I have a feeling my updates are going to be spaced further and further apart until I get through the end of the year. Crazy!

We had our ward holiday party on the 20th. It was great! Lots of food, beautiful music, and great talent from the members of my ward. Have I mentioned before how much I love our ward? We hit the jackpot 7+ years ago when we moved here. Fur realsies!

Pics from the night:






Thanksgiving was great this year. It's funny how the dynamics of the Sweet Family has changed over the years. When I first married into this family I was completely overwhelmed! I seriously made Sam right down his 7 siblings names, as well as their spouses and children, into a family tree. I NEVER thought I was going to memorize everybody's names and who they belonged to. When everyone got together I was a bit terrified to say the least....lots of people, lots and lots of little kids running wild, and they all had the same Sweet Eyes so they all looked the same to me! I would practically have to take a valium before big family gatherings.

Fast forward 11 plus years. The sweet Thanksgiving attendees are now around 40 instead of 70, and everybody is so much older. No more little hyper kiddos running around, now it's a bunch of hysterical teenagers that I love to laugh with. Some of the older nieces and nephews from 1998 when I first met them are now married with their own children. As the family gets older, people go their own ways, and the family gatherings are getting smaller and smaller. Surprisingly, I miss those old days of pure chaos! Thanksgiving is always held at a church and the tables are set up on one end of the cultural hall and everybody is playing basketball on the other end of the cultural hall. It was completely normal for a stray ball to fly across the gym and land on the table, all set for the turkey dinner. Nobody freaked out. Nobody told the kids to "knock it off". Somebody just walked over and reset that portion of the table and life went on. So funny!

During the morning as I was making pies, Carson sat with me at the counter and worked on some crafts. I'm really enjoying Carson's independent spirit (most of the time). He isn't afraid to figure out things on his own for the most part.


The dinner table was beautifully set, thanks in part to my nephew Dallin. He's in High School and when I was placing things on the table, he said "setting up a dinner buffet is how I used to make my living" and then he proceeded to rearrange things so it made more sense. I don't really know what his job used to be in his fulfilling High School career, but he made it work. So funny!

However, when Fern plopped the cranberry sauce out of the can, I wouldn't let her smoosh it down and make it pretty. Jellied Cranberry sauce....it keeps fancy dinners humble, don't you think??


The Sweet Family. I just love 'em to pieces!











After the Sweet Thanksgiving dinner, we went to my parents house. They hosted Thanksgiving dinner for my Aunt Sharon, Uncle Richard, and my cousin Kami and her son Kai. Kami has been living with her sister Nalani for almost a year while her husband has been serving in Iraq. The day after Thanksgiving, Kami moved back to Hawaii (rough life!) and her hubby comes home around Christmas. We are going to miss Kami so much! Don't mind the cackling laughter picture...I think we were re-living our Black Friday 2008 story. My dad wanted cheap peanuts from Shopko...as we get in line at 5am we realize the line goes the entire circumference of the store. Of course my dad wasn't in line with Darren and I because he wanted to wander and make us do the hard work of standing in line. Darren finally got fed up and went to find my dad...which left me holding like 8 cans of peanuts. Now, remember, most people have things like TV's in their cart, not peanuts! A few minutes later Darren yells across the store to me "Hey Carrie, dad says he doesn't need his nuts, we can go!". Pure mortification. I'll never forget the shame of holding peanuts next to the real shoppers. Anyway, we're gonna miss you Kami!


Here we are witnessing a tender moment (with a little coaxing)between 2nd cousins, Cameron and Kai.


And then they had to poke each others belly buttons for good measure. I dunno, it's a guy thing.


The days following Thanksgiving we hung out, shopped (yes, I did Black Friday again this year, got some great scores!), and decorated for Christmas. It was such a nice weekend. I need another one immediately I think.





Oh yeah, Sam took Parker to the Jazz game on Saturday night. Parker's response: It was fun, I got a balloon sword, a Jazz tattoo, and I got to play with dad's ipod! When asked if he would want to go again, he said "nah".



My sister-in-law made us the cutest advent calendar. Check it out!


Magnets hold each day of the month on over the muffin tin cup, which holds the candy! I'm guessing it's candy. I haven't looked! I'll find out for sure on December 1st. I'm a FREAK about not spoiling surprises. Sam could leave my Christmas presents in a corner of the room, uncovered, unwrapped, and I would not even glance in that direction!

Finally, Fern made me get crafty. This is a bad picture because it's 11pm or so, but it says "Christ". The "I" is a stable and Mary, Joseph, and Christ are in front of the stable. I personally like the sheep, he's cute. Thanks Fern, for making me pretend I am crafty. :)

Heather Go Lightly

I have no idea what that title means, but look at this sign:


Sam says it's a guy holding a mirror under the dog's tail. So funny. Even funnier that he took a picture of it! Just one of the many reasons why I love Sam!

So my wonderful friend, Heather, got married this past Friday. Aren't they a great looking couple? Heather and Eric Light. So happy for them!


I got to hang out with some great friends...


And BOY was it windy!



At the luncheon, we enjoyed ourselves as always, and I love to see what random pictures Sam takes when nobody knows...





The brand of Eric's car is quite appropriate. By the time the luncheon was over I'm pretty sure they wanted to ESCAPE!

Happy Early Thanksgiving

My cousin's husband has been in Iraq for most of this year and he was able to come home and visit for 2 weeks. He had to leave before the Thanksgiving Holiday so we decided to throw together an early Thanksgiving Dinner in his honor.

It also helped that my other cousin and her family were in town from Oregon. And then my brother's family came down from Rexburg.

We had all the fixins for a great time: food, family, great conversation, and more food!

My parents were kind enough to let the festivities be held at their house. We fit 28 people in their dining room! That was some creative table arrangements. The rest of the kids just had a picnic on the living room floor. Something tells me they wouldn't have been refined enough to sit with the rest of us anyhow! By the way, I love how Parker is like "ya'll can kiss off, I'm not pausing to let anybody take my picture! This food is getting cold!!!"


Here's part of the group...


Here's some more...we had the most amazing spread! Can I tell you about it??


We had turkey, two kinds of stuffing, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, veggie tray, rolls, mashed potatoes, gravy, ham....and lots of pies. Oh my. I dreamt about those pies...especially this one. The crust was a chocolate rice crispy treat and the filling was like a peanut butter mousse with more chocolate on top! So rich, it made my nose sweat after about 2 bites but it was totally worth it!


After dinner, Ben showed us some picture of Iraq and we vegged out and let the turkey work its magic on our warm and fuzzy feelings. Overall it was a great night and I'm so thankful to everyone who participated to throw this together in less than a week.

Random shots from the night:







Finally...we had a really great snow storm here yesterday. I came home from a friend's bridal shower to this:


Carson made this snowman all by himself and then he played in the snow, by himself, for most of the day. Oh yeah, AND he shoveled our driveway! I'm loving the "older kid" stage! The possiblities are endless....he's able to contribute back to society now! I'm thinking he can mow my lawn next summer. Oh yeah, 2010 is going to be a great year!

PW Video

Here's a video I took of PW when I went to her book signing. She is just as genuine in person as she is on her blog.



See my post below for my experiences on Wednesday night with PW.

P-Dub Woman

For those of you not understanding what "PW" means, it's "Pioneer Woman" and she has a blog. Look at the right side of my blog, see the links under "friends"? You'll see one called "The Pioneer Woman Cooks!". I've been following her blog for a few years, she is incredible at everything she does because she's completely real and honest and super funny!

I thought everybody knew what I meant on facebook when I said I was going to the PW book signing...I was surprised at how many people questioned what I meant.

Here's the story...

The first thing I thought when I blog stalked into her blog one day was This is my kind of girl! She takes detailed pictures of every single thing she is cooking! It's impossible to screw up! Pretty soon I was checking her blog almost daily to see what amazing recipe she was sharing with the world. Then I noticed all the different tabs at the top of her page...confessions, cooking, photography, home and garden...she does it all!

She is called the Pioneer Woman because she used to live in the city and was happy in the city life. Then she met and married a cowboy and moved to a ranch in the middle of the mid-west nowhere. One day her friend called her a pioneer because she created a new life, which was out of her comfort zone. And was successful at it.

Anyway...she just had a recipe book published.

She announced a few months back on her blog that she was doing a book-tour and to my surprise, Salt Lake City was one of her stops! I knew right then that nothing would stop me from attending that book signing!

I just had one problem...at the time I had lost my job and was trying to be uber-careful about not spending money unless it was absolutely necessary. I wanted to pre-order the book on Amazon but didn't think it was life-or-death necessary. I was pondering it one day when Fern called me and said "happy EARLY birthday! I just ordered that book for you so we can go to her book signing in November!" Wasn't that thoughtful??!!?

So, the book arrived last week and on Wednesday night Fern picked me up, and away we went! Fern's daughter Jessica came with us as well as her daughter-in-law, Danielle.

We got there around 6pm. PW was doing a question/answer session at 7pm before signing books. When I saw the line, I knew there wasn't going to be room for us at the question/answer session. It was crazy! Of course, mostly women...mostly loud and over-eager women. At one point I looked at Fern and said "this is why I don't usually enjoy the thought of a girls night out...because this is how it looks to the rest of the world." ha ha!

At 6:30pm they started letting us into the art gallery. When we walked in the employee said "standing room only". I figured we'd have to go to the back and stand up. Fern immediately walked right up front and sat on the floor! I didn't even think of that! So we sat about 6 or 7 feet from the podium! Here is looking back at the rest of the room. This picture doesn't even show everybody that was there and standing around in the lobby. It was a mad house!


At 7pm, PW was introduced and the crowd clapped like crazy! She brought along her sister-in-law Missy, who stood right next to where I was sitting.

Here are the 4 of us. I know my head looks huge. I was holding my point and shoot camera a little too close I guess! See that freaky lady in the background with the glasses? I swear she was stalking
us! Everywhere we went...in line...in the gallery...outside the bookstore...in the bookstore...everywhere we went, she was right next to us. She was loud and opinionated and drove me crazy! Phew, glad I got that off my chest.


Here's PW, she kept saying she was nervous and sweating, but she looked comfortable to me!


This is a picture without any zoom. Nice seats eh?


After 30 minutes of answering questions (her husband's name is Ladd, on the blog she always refers to him as Marlboro Man) and doing a really funny Ethel Merman impression, it was time to start signing books.

While in line at 6pm we were given a card with a letter on it. Our cards said "J". There were 20 cards for each letter of the alphabet. So, the first 20 people in line got "A", the next 20 got "B" and so on and so forth. I had no idea it would take 45 minutes or so just to get through one letter! It was completely crazy!

We went and grabbed dinner at Arby's. While at Arby's, Jessica used something called "Bronco Berry Sauce" to dip her jalapeno poppers in. She then came up with a great idea to give some to PW to see if she could either re-create the sauce, or use the sauce in a recipe on her blog. I thought it was a great idea at the time, but I never would have had the guts to challenge her with it.

Several hours later it was our turn to see PW. We realized why it was taking so long....people were each bringing an armful of books to her for signing! Duh! Why didn't I think of that???? Oh yeah, money is tight. :)


We were told that we couldn't stand up and get a posed picture with her. So, I leaned on the table as she was signing my book and asked Fern to take a picture. PW said "tell me when she is about to take it" so I said "Now" and she looked up so we could get this shot:


She told me to email that picture to her because she is making a book tour scrapbook. So I did. Like a good kid.

Oh man, I got roots to boot. I swear I just colored my hair a few months ago! Oy.

So then Jessica hands PW her book to sign...as well as two containers of Bronco Berry sauce. I got so nervous and anxious, these things stress me out and make me very uncomfortable. :) She explains to PW that she wants her to use them in a recipe or maybe even recreate the sauce in her own recipe. Ummmm, sorry about the booby shot Fern! ha ha!


Here's PW saying "Are you giving me a food challenge?" Then she thanked Jessica and said she'd see what she could do as she placed the condiments into her purse! So funny! Jess, if Bronco Berry sauce shows up on her blog I am totally buying you dinner!

Here's my signed pages...PW and her sis-in-law Missy!



It was a blast and I'm so glad I was able to meet her! Definitely worth being surrounded by all the estrogen-filled frenziness for hours and hours! Thanks for the book Fern!!

Bad Mommy!

To quote my friend Nat, "Bad Mommy!".

There have been several episodes in the past where my kids get home from school and I've noticed something a bit "off" regarding their appearance. Cut me some slack though, making sure 3 kids are ready for the day by 8am gets tricky sometimes.

Parker came home from school yesterday. He was home for a good 2 hours before I realized why his shirt looked a little odd.


So, I took a picture with my phone and fixed his collar. I was a little embarassed that he looked like that at school, but oh well.

Then about an hour later I realized why his shirt STILL looked a little odd.


So, I took a picture with my phone and re-buttoned his shirt so all the buttons were in the right hole. Now I'm really embarassed that he looked like this at school...tucked in collar and misaligned buttons. At least the teacher knows he dressed himself! Well, hopefully that's what he thought!

Cast Off!

We decided to cast off the demons of Halloween and get Parker's cast off today!

Let me back up...normally I wouldn't care that my pumpkins were stolen on Halloween night, however, last year we threw our pumpkins off our roof into the garbage can in the street around Thanksgiving time. It was tremendous fun, and now I only have a few remaining pumpkins left. Hmmmm, I'll have to think about this one...maybe we can throw dirty diapers off the roof instead? Oh puh-lease...I'm not THAT trashy! We'd make sure they were only gently used diapers....

Anyway, Parker got his cast off today.

He was nervous and he kept asking me how bad his arm was going to stink. Well, that's my fault actually. For 3 weeks now I've been taunting him and telling him that his cast is going to smell ROTTEN when they saw it off! Oh that's another thing! I've been telling him they will saw it off with a huge saw and it might hurt, but only for a few days!

Just kidding, sort of...I was way more subtle in my terrorizing....but I did tell him it would stink!

He was nervous but super brave. The doctor got out this cool saw and busted right through the cast. I was so surprised at how bruised his arm was. I thought it was dirt at first but the doctor told me it was bruised at the break site. Crazy! It's been a month since he broke it, I can't believe it's still bruised!


But guess what? His arm didn't stink. Huh. Maybe I was just a dirtier kid when I broke my arm some 30 odd years ago! Or maybe they have better casting supplies now than what I received...yeah, I bet that's it!

Poor Parker, he keeps protecting his arm like it's still broken. He won't use it. I told him he better start working those muscles again or his arm is going to shrivel up and die like that witch's legs at the beginning of the Wizard of Oz. He hates that movie so I'm not sure it's healthy to compare his arm to those legs... Cut me some slack, he's my first child to have broken a bone. I don't know the etiquette yet! Now, getting stitches is something I understand, I'm brilliant when it comes to getting stitches!

Check out the awesome moon tonight. This was taken from my point and shoot camera as Sam was driving So big. So yellow. Just how Parker's bruise will look in about 4 days. Hork.

Halloween Two-Oh-Oh-Nine

We had a fun Halloween at the Sweet household! The day was so crazy I don't know how we ever pack all the activities into the day when it's NOT on a Saturday! Sam and I both agree: Halloween should always be celebrated on the last Saturday in October. I should write my congressmen...

On Friday the kids had a Halloween parade at school. We dressed Cameron up too so he wouldn't feel left out, he was a cute little fat frog.


Parker was Bumblebee from Transformers. This was the only shot we got of him at the parade. He was too nervous to slow down for a picture so we got him on the run! It was so funny! By next year he'll be a seasoned veteran at the annual parade so maybe we'll capture his personality more. ha ha!


You really got to hand it to those Walmart costume designers....If you look closely at Carson's Clone Trooper costume's mask, you'll see that his nose is TOTALLY smooshed up against the plastic! Oh my gosh, I laughed my guts out every time he put that mask on!


Saturday we made cinnamon sugar doughnuts...well, really I just cut hunks of canned roll dough and tossed them in really hot oil. They were surprisingly tasty!


We then went to work on carving pumpkins.


Parker is thinking...that looks easy, I'm pretty sure I can do that!


While Parker lost interest real fast....here are the end results.

Carson gutted his pumpkin by himself and he drew the face. Sam helped him carve the face, but it's exactly what Carson drew. I thought he did great!


Here is Sam's pumpkin. Perfect fit!


Oh, what's that? You want to know about Sam's zombie costume??


Okay, here you go! Ha Ha, so funny! Best internet find EVAH!


We then headed to Fern and Russ' house to check out their digs! Fern was a sumo wrestler and Russ was a ninja who was dealing some crack! Hysterical!


And just to pack in a few more activities on this crazy day, we decided to have dinner with some friends before the trick or treating began!

Sam snapped some good candids. Not sure why I was cackling/laughing so hard but somebody must have said something funny! Russ Adams did homemade root beer inside a pumpkin. Might sound weird, but it tasted just fine! They also did mummy hot dogs with the kids, huge hit!







By 6pm Cameron was DONE. I took Cameron home and put him to bed and waited for the trick or treaters. Sam took the other two boys around the neighborhood to beg for candy. Sam, this should be your new profile pic on FB!


My friend came over and we sat on the front steps passing out candy, it was much nicer than sitting inside all by myself, waiting for the doorbell to ring! We definitely didn't get as many trick or treaters this year. Well, let me clarify: We did't get as many kids ages 8 and under. We got loads and loads of OLD KIDS! We are talking ages 14-17. It really irritates me. They aren't in a costume and they have Walmart grocery bags for their candy. How old is too old??? I would say next year would probably be Carson's last year. He will have just turned 10 before next Halloween.

The pumpkins all a-glow:


Satisfaction.


Here


Comes


The


Sugar Rush!!!!!!!!!

Surprises

Every day is full of surprises...usually in the form of kids.

Sunday morning I was getting ready for the day when I heard Cameron in his room saying "ewwww" over and over. Usually this is code for "I just pooped my pants and my room smells like a friggin sewer, come change me!" I needed about 10 more minutes before I was ready so I chose to ignore the "ewwww's" just a little longer. I finally walked into his dark room. I wasn't hit with the stench of death AKA dirty diaper smell, but Cameron kept saying "ewwww". So I flipped on the light to this:


Of course, this picture was taken after I had removed the bloody pajamas and bloody blankets.

I don't know how, but Cameron got an awesome bloody nose at some point during the night. It was pretty gross and almost hork-worthy, but I kept my jaw set firm. Into the tub for him! Unfortunately, while he was in his bath, his bloody nose kept roaring to life again and again. He was in the water for a good 40 minutes. I figured that was the safest place for a baby with an unlimited blood supply.

I just kept adding more hot water so his experience would be nice and cozy. Even after I got him ready for church I would look at him and he would have blood running down to his lips. Crazy kid! Luckily it didn't start up at church!

Speaking of bloody noses...
My kids are back on track after having 3 weeks off school. I gotta admit, this was the first time ever that I DREADED my kids going back to school. I think I'm finally learning to appreciate the comedic timing of my kids and the constant entertainment!

As I picked Parker up from school today I said "how was school?" Now, just to let you know, we've had blizzard-type conditions ALL DAY today! Parker said the following:

Well, you know how the ground is really slick? Well, I fell down....but then I got up....so I KNEW I was okay. But then I fell down again and got a bloody nose....AND my lips felt like they were pushing into my teeth!" I guess that means a bloody nose and a fat lip?? He never talked about it again, but that's Parker for you. He never makes a big deal out of anything!

Tonight at dinner time Carson was telling me about a scary movie he saw at school today. I don't know why, but I grabbed the video camera and I'm so glad I did...Parker's answer to my question is priceless!

This Product Makes Me Happy

It's just so gross that I love it!

Fabulous Flag Football

Our 1st ever flag football season ended tonight. We are done with fall sports...yay!

Carson did really well. I was worried he wouldn't really get into the different plays, but he did! I swear, he is growing up faster than my brain can comprehend these days!


I mean, I SWEAR he grew those praying mantis arms overnight!


I also loved watching Sam grow into the "coach" role. He did AMAZING!


Here's some of Carson's friends from his team: Tanner and Josh


Their trophies are made of rubber so those little football figures are bendy. I made the arms go straight up as if they were saying "touchdown!". Carson moved them back down, and then looked at me like I was an idiot. Pssshhhhaw, I may not know football, but I know what the sign for 'touchdown' is! Besides, why am I arguing with these clowns?