Christmas Memory Tag

So Leah tagged me forever ago, and I had a hard time thinking about what to write about myself. Last night, I was drifting off to sleep and it came to me...I would share 5 of my favorite Christmas memories and/or traditions. I hope you enjoy!

1. When my sisters and I first became suspicious of the whole Santa thing, my parents hired the mayor of our little town to come dress up as Santa on Christmas Eve after we had gone to bed. They turned on the video camera and "caught" him eating the cookies we had left out for him and setting up our Christmas cache. The video was pretty convincing--I was a believer for several years after that. We invited every nay-saying neighbor kid over to watch our indisputable proof. Mom & Dad--thanks for keeping Christmas magical for so long!

2. Once the effects of the aforementioned video wore off, Jan and I became very sneaky. We once convinced a babysitter to pick the lock of the bedroom that housed our christmas presents so we could get a peek. One year, we discovered that the presents were hidden in the camper of my dad's truck, so Jan climbed through the window and held up all the goodies. That year we got caught when, after our escapade, Jan took out a toy magazine and pointed out to my mom which "jewelry making kit" she wanted for Christmas (my mom had apparently gotten the wrong one). My mom asked "Jan, were you peeking at your presents?" She responded "Summer!!!!!" I responded "Jan you are so stupid!" (not very sisterly I know). The next year I found all of the presents hidden and already wrapped, so I unwrapped mine, tried on my new clothes, then re-wrapped them. After that, I decided Christmas was more fun when you didn't know what you were getting. (before you feel sorry for my mom, I just have to say that she is a far worse present peeker than me!)

3. I have great Christmas memories with my friends. In grade school I wa sover at my best friend's house and we were listening to Christmas music and choreographing dances to them. The trouble was we didn't understand all of the words. For example: noel became no whale and the actions included us shaking our fingers no, and making and then making a diving motion like whales in the water--good times! In high school I had a group of friends that got together and read the forgotten carols every year. We also enjoyed festivities like seeing the lights at temple square, and of course singing in A Cappella and Madrigal choirs. Nothing puts me more in the holiday mood than music. A few years ago my friend Britt, taught me how to make my first quilt--a christmas one. I caught the bug and ended up making matching pillows, stockings, and a tree skirt.

4. Snow and I had a great first Christmas. His grandma gave us an artificial tree that she didn't like and we decorated our apartment (the attic, with the doorless-bathroom in the kitchen.) We used mostly hand-me-down stuff from our parents, but it was so exciting to decorate our first place, and lets face it, anything was an improvement. I also got to experience some of his family Christmas traditions. My favorite is mouse races. We take half a walnut shell, sand teh inside smooth, decorate it like a mouse, and race it down a track by using a marble--so fun! His mom also decorates paper sacks to look like Rudolph and encloses new pajama pants. We all get to open our Rudolph's on Christmas Eve and wear our new PJs to bed.

5. My favorite memories are the times when we did something nice for someone else. We used to like doing the 12 days of Christmas for our older neighbors, making care packages for humanitarian aid instead of getting presents for each other, or drawing names off an angel tree to get presents for a child in need. It always feels good to be a little more generous of spirit.

Honorable mention: Christmas in Hawaii with my family--It didn't really seem like Christmas when it was 80 degrees, but it was so much fun!!!

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and makes some great memories this year. I now tag Tiffany Lamb, Erica Lewis, The Headley's, & Matt & Laura Brady. It is your turn to share 5 little-known facts about yourselves, or whatever else you want to share.

Gingerbread with Grandma

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is decorating Gingerbread houses with My Grandma Chambers. She is an absolute artist when it comes to home crafts: she sews, quilts, upholsters, decorates cakes, and all kinds of other things. She bakes the gingerbread houses every year--she even sands them down so they make a perfect fit. Then all the grand kids and some of her kids come decorate them. Everything she does is so precise and perfect, I am sure it is painful for her to watch our shaking hands, and imperfect results, but she is always patient and we have so much fun.

This was the first time in 4 or 5 years that I have been here in Utah to participate and as a bonus my sisters were able to come decorate their houses at the same time. We talked, laughed, and ate way more candy than ended up on our houses.

Thanks Grandma for helping us to enjoy such a fun family tradition. I am proudly displaying the finished product at my house, and so far Saylor hasn't managed to break off a single icicle!

Decorating For Christmas

Victory in Cougar Town

I don't know how many of you say the BYU vs. Utah game on the 24th but it was glorious! Snow and I were lucky enough to score some tickets and it was freezing, but so much fun.
We knew it would be an exciting game, and we were not disappointed. We were trailing the Utes 10-9, and had control of the ball with 1:34 remaining on the game clock. All the folks dressed in red thought they had it in the bag, and Snow and I were pretty nervous. Max Hall was hit for an eight-yard loss on first down, followed by two incomplete passes to Dennis Pitta, which brought us to fourth-and-18. Hall connected with Collie for a 49-yard reception, putting the Cougars on Utah's 24 yard line. A personal foul and pass interference call against the Utes (which they are still complaining about) set up a first-and-10 situation for BYU. Manase Tonga gained three yards then Unga made a 14-yard touchdown run to put the Cougars up by five points. Opting for the two-point conversion, Hall and Collie connected once again for a catch in the end zone. Sadly for the Utes, they could not return the favor in the 30 seconds or so left on the clock so victory was ours!
Pretty much the whole stadium rushed the field to celebrate--I love BYU Football!

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. We had a great time with our family--here is a picture of us in the morning before we went into a turkey coma. I feel so grateful for all of the good things in my life especially my family and friends!

Happy Birthday Saylor

Saylor turned 2 on Thanksgiving day. I wanted to make sure that it was a special day for her--that it didn't get overlooked in favor of the big, busy holiday. Saylor loves butterflies so I made that our theme. I got butterfly plates, napkins and table clothes. I obtained a pair of wings for her to wear for the occasion. I made her a (hideous and nasty tasting) butterfly cake. And, in my best Martha Stewart imitation, I cut out a gazillion butterflies and glued them to her presents in the place of bows. We decided to celebrate the night before with my family so we could stay the night there and enjoy Thanksgiving with them too. It was a very long and stressful day for us. Between finishing up that loathsome cake, to wrapping up the B-day details, to packing for a weekend away, and getting stuck in traffic for 2 hours in transit to my parent's house--none of us were in a very festive mood by the time we arrived.

We let Saylor go play while we waited for pizza to come, but once she was down in her grandparent's play room, there was no getting her back. She threw a giant tantrum when we tried to get her to open presents.

She refused to have any cake and ice cream but did at least blow out the candle after some coaxing.

She did, however, like her new toys--In fact, she wanted each of them out of the package to play with right then.

I'm not going to lie, by the end of the night I was feeling frustrated. I had stressed myself out over this bash and the guest of honor was not duly impressed. Then I remembered, she was turning 2, not 22. The next morning she woke up at 5:30 so excited to play with her new toys--apparently she felt that the big event was a success. Mental notes: 1. two-year-olds don't care about coordinated party themes. 2. Leave the cake making to the experts. 3. Don't take ill-tempered toddlers personally.

Doggie Days

Snow: I thought kids only did that if they felt insecure--if their environment was chaotic.

Summer: No, I think it is normal for kids to have a favorite blanket to carry around, Saylor just chose something different.


Meet the object of this conversation, and the new bane of my existence:

Sure, he looks innocent enough in this picture, but he has a hold over our daughter that we never dreamed of. She refuses to go anywhere or do anything without him. She wakes up with him and carries him around wherever we go for the day. No matter what other toys she is playing with, you can be sure that doggie is in hand. She won't let me take him away when she eats, and goes into hysterics when I tried to pry him away afterwards to wash him off. It is almost impossible to change her clothes because, like a raccoon holding something shiny, she will not let go. I actually thought it was endearing until a couple of nights ago. She woke up 5 times screaming "Doggie, doggie, help! Doggie!" because he had fallen out between the slats of her crib. In my half asleep state it was quite the ordeal to find him. Let me tell you, I was none too pleased to see him in the morning! Oh well, like so many other funny stages, I am sure it will be fleeting, and I will probably even miss it!

Who needs pesticide?

Today Saylor and I were enjoying what could be the end of our nice weather in the backyard. She found a group of ants that she kept taking a look at. We would play ball; she would look at the ants. We would gather leaves; she would look at the ants. We would spin in circles; she would look at the ants. Finally, it was time to go inside. She walked over to the ants and said "goodbye 'lil ants...see you in minute." I thought to myself--she is so cute. The next thing I know she is stomping all over them. I guess she didn't want to "see them in a minute" after all.

Top 5 Ways to Tell Your Kid Watches Too Much Dora

I was never going to be one of those moms that let the TV babysit their child. I try to set reasonable limits, but most of the time it is the only way I can get a shower or cook dinner. Saylor is obsessed with Dora The Explorer. I am beginning to think she is watching too much...What do your think?

5. She names each character as they come on the screen. From anywhere in the house I hear the joyful Cry: "It's Tico, It's Issa, It's Boots, It's Swiper, It's Benny."

4. She occasionally tells me to Vamonos.

3. She does the "we did it" dance complete with swivel hips and bobbing head.

2. Whenever we drive by a particular mountain she points at it and says "Highest Hill!!"

1. She tells her toys to "Stand up please."

Fun in the Fall

We enjoyed our first Utah fall in 4 years and it was wonderful! Saylor will be two on Thanksgiving so she was at an age to appreciate all of the Harvest fun. Some of our favorite outings were: visiting the witches at Gardiner Village, going to a pumpkin patch, carving pumpkins, haunted houses, and of course trick-or-treating. I wanted to share some photos of our good times.

Saylor loved playing in the leaves. She never saw anything but cactus needles in Tucson so this was a treat. She loved having Snow pour them on top of her chanting, "gin, gin" ("again" for those of you who don't speak Saylorese). She even enjoyed helping us bag up the leaves we had raked.

I took Saylor, with a group of moms to a pumpkin patch that was really fun. They had slides, a train, a kiddie corn maze, jumping castle, and of course the pumpkin patch itself, but her favorite thing was a sandbox filled with corn. Lets just say I found stray kernels in some pretty interesting places!

We had a lot of fun carving our pumpkin. Saylor had to be in the middle of it all, of course! She thought the pumpkin guts were super disgusting. Her favorite part was putting the "lid" on and then taking it off again. We even went so far as to roast the pumpkin seeds for munching (thanks for the idea Kelly). By the way, we aren't sure when her sweet little smile turned into a big fake cheeser, but that is pretty much all we get unless we take a sneaky candid.

Saylor was a butterfly for Halloween. My mom was strolling her around the mall one day and Saylor saw iteh costume in a store and fell in love. She carried it around the house for a week and I finally had to hide it in the top of her closet so it would survive until October 31. Sadly, Saylor had a yucky cold on Halloween. She was not excited to put on her costume, and even less excited to pose for a photo shoot. We were lucky enough to have Snow home with us to go trick-or-treating, and once Saylor realized that people were giving out candy, she made an amazing recovery. She obligingly said "trick-or-treat", "thank-you", and "happy Halloween", and she was not shy to double fist the candy bowls. It was a fun night!

Why the Silly Name?

So I have finally decided to jump on the blogging bandwagon. As I perused the blogs of my friends, I decided that a catchy title was mandatory. I spent the better part of a day thinking about it--embarrassing I know--when it finally came to me: Slushy Stories. Many of you know that Snow and I met as EFY Counselors. One week at BYU, (before we had gone on any dates, or really knew each other at all) our groups of kids noticed our names and thought they would play a little joke. We arrived at a banquet and the kids were carrying around signs that said "Snow +Summer =Slush". Yes, we both had exceptionally witty youth that week! And, more that 7 years later, we still get comments when we introduce ourselves..."Are those your real names?"..."Are you going to names your kids Rain and Spring?" Anyway, with a little alliteration, I came up with Slushy Stories. Most of you are probably thinking that I really wasted a day, but I am happy that I am lauding our beginning.