The Hylands-est. 1991

During this holiday season, I thought it would be appropriate to express my gratitude for a few of life's trivial things that I love. 

I've never ever done anything ahead of time.  I am a last minute, fly by the seat of my pants gal.  I thrive on seeing just how close I can cut it!  For some reason this past weekend I lost all sense of who I am and how I operate best, and decided to get some of the food ready early for Jacob's feast on Monday morning.  You see, I am his room mother and I don't like much help, because nobody does it how I want it!!!!  (one of my I want it perfect therefore, I need control issues!)  Well, feeling quite proud and confident, I went ahead and baked and frosted the chocolate cupcakes for the cute turkeys I was creating with cookies and licorice sticks.  Then I went ahead and baked the pumpkin tarts and the corn muffins.  On Saturday night I decided to go ahead and assemble the turkeys.  I went to bed feeling like I worked hard and it would pay off!  Well, when I woke up Sunday morning, half of the turkeys had molted!  Their licorice feathers were everywhere all over the counter!  One turkey even lost his head.  I was so mad, but knew I had to work with what I had because I didn't have any more supplies.  So, with a whole lot of frosting, I tried to glue the suckers back together.  I popped all my popcorn, put the turkey and cheese skewers together and went to bed.  This morning, when I woke up, two of the turkeys lost their heads but looked decent.  Off to school I went with all of my junk.  This is when the fun began.  I got the whole feast set up and carefully put a cute turkey cupcake at every child's desk.  I felt confident that the 2nd graders wouldn't notice the trauma the turkeys had been through.  Oh, how I was wrong.  One little boy asked me if I had made the turkeys.  After I said yes, he told me his looked awful and was falling apart!  I almost threw the cupcake at him, but instead I told him there were starving children in Africa and he needed to just shut up and eat it!!  Then another little boy, told me that his popcorn was the worst he had ever tasted!  Needless to say, I left the feast deflated and swore to never do anything ahead of time again.  

Maybe a hershy's kiss was not the best choice for a costume for Emily this halloween.  I thought it was cute and it was in Sarah's closet, so it was also free.  But after a neighbor and a friend mistaked her for an oompa-loompa, I felt bad for Emily and a bit flustered at my neighbor and friend.  After all what mother of a dwarf child would dress them up as a dwarf for halloween.  And if you happen to forget to use your brain, then perhaps you could just open your eyes.  It was quite obvious to me and others what Emily was.  So for clarification purposes only, here are a few more pictures of Emily as a Hershy's Kiss!!

We had a super fun Halloween.  It was pretty typical.  We spent lots of time getting our costumes on and makeup just right.  Next, we had to take photos of course.  Then without any arguments from the kids, it was off to collect the candy!  Emily made it to two houses and then she just wanted to sit down and eat her collections, so we went home and passed out candy together.  Bryan took Jacob, and they made it to every house in the neighborhood.  Sarah and Blake went trick or treating with their friends.  They didn't come home with much candy, so who knows what they did with their time!

I've been tagged by Jaime, and I really think these things are funny, but I've never had time to disclose my answers.  Emily is down for a quick nap, so I have a few minutes.  Here goes...

Emily has never been known for her happy disposition.  From the day she was born, I have had to stand on my head, bounce her around, walk, and offer candy to get her to stop whining.  Any normal parent can understand how emotionally and physically draining this can be.  Well, after this last weekend, I thought I was going to lose all control and pull out my hair.  We went to Dallas to see family and attend the horrible BYU game.  Emily cried and whined most of the 4 days we were there, not to mention stayed completely glued to my hip and wiped snot all over my shirts.  She even mentioned to fall several times and bang her head the few times she let me put her down.  Of course this led to more crying and more strings of snot!  So...out of desperation, I made an appointment with her pediatrician, because for some reason her own father, the doctor cannot figure out why she's crying.  When the doctor informed me that Emily had a double ear infection, I breathed a sigh of relief and almost felt a little giddy.  I also felt justified for wasting my $20.oo co-pay because her father doesn't have time to look in her ears!  I often wish Emily would be a happy bubbly girl, but if she cries because she's sick, then I will deal!  Now all I have to do is figure out a clever way to get her to take 20 doses of of "yucky" antibiotic.  Candy bribes don't work, trust me I've tried!

I was given a new assignment in church last week.  After playing 20 questions on the phone with my mother last night, she finally gave up and started laughing hysterically when I told her I am now teaching the 12 and 13 year old's Sunday School Class!!!  Why me?  There are 10 boys in that class, one of which is mine!  I tried to explain to the nice man that asked me to this that I have very little patience for idiotic behavior and he just gave me a smug grin.  So, after a lot of thought of how to best teach these cute boys, I prepared a nice lesson with lots of stories, and nice object lessons mingled with scripture, only to find out that burping verses of scripture is super cool!  To top it off, I am bringing a can of febreez next week to rid the room of their amazing farts!  Just to be on the safe side, I am thinking of subscribing to Sports Illustrated and reading that with the class each Sunday.  I'll even throw in some popcorn and candy.  After all that is exactly what my Sunday School teacher did when I was growing up and it didn't hurt a bit!

Before this month is over, I just wanted to share a few of Emily's birthday highlights!  It is hard to believe that we have actually had her for two years!  She is definately turning into a very demanding and stubborn two year old.  But her cute smile and funny tricks usually make up for her naughtiness!

Why do these things always happen when Bryan is out of town?  Yes... this nice laceration occurred due to yet another disagreement between Jacob and Sarah.  Obviously Sarah won!  This all happened Saturday night while the kids were swimming!  I was mowing the lawn and asked the kids to get the leaves out of the pool.  After only 5 minutes of diving for leaves, both of the kids came screaming to me.  (I should have clued in when Sarah just kept apologizing...she never does that!) I was so mad that I sent them both in the house to sit there and think about what they had done.  About 10 minutes later, Sarah came outside again and asked me if I knew that blood was running down Jacob's neck. At that point, a certain level of guilt and panic set in and I decided to take a look at the poor boy's head.  When I nicely explained that he was bleeding ALOT Jacob began to scream and panic.  I cleaned up his head as best I could and then took this photo!  Nice red highlights!  I knew he probably needed stitches, but I couldn't face the ER lines if I didn't absolutely have to!  So after a few calls to neighbors, I located an ER physician and friend that was home and he walked over to assess the damage.  After nicely cleaning up Jacob's cut in my kitchen sink, he glued him back together as good as new.  Whoever knew doctors still did house calls?  Thanks Dr. Baum...you are awesome!

I guess my parents never watched television when I was a child, because we never packed up the car and headed north due to a hurricane or any other natural disaster.  I know Houston was hit hard by at least two hurricanes that I can remember growing up!  According to the most recent weather reports, Hurricane Ike should be heading directly for Tyler after it runs over Galveston and ransacks Houston tomorrow morning.  People here in Tyler are pretty much in a state of panic.  It's pretty fun to watch.  There is no more gas in certain parts of the city and according to reports there are no "D" batteries to be found.  YIKES!  Bryan came home early from work to hook up the sump pump in case our pool overflows and the back porch floods.  Don't worry he also found some bungee cords in the garage to secure other miscellaneous outdoor objects like the fence!!!  I just sat and rolled my eyes.  Poor Jacob has stored food and water in his closet in the event that IKE somehow takes off with our years supply of dehydrated delights in the storage room!  I'm trying not to make fun, but please folks, sit back, relax, and come get some wheat if you need some! 

No more sleepin in until 9am or watching the olympics until midnight! It's time to get up at the crack of dawn, make lunches, and sign my name 1000 times to the endless amounts of paper work the teachers send home! I am gearing up for my projects and book reports. Anyone have a good idea for science fair?

This will be our Christmas Card 2008...NOT!

When it's this hot, it's just easiest not to wear clothes!
I have no idea why I live in Texas (except for the fact that Bryan has a good job here and I really like all my friends here!) I hate the weather. I know that is strong language, but my feelings about the weather are strong! I went outside tonight at 10p.m. and it was still in the 90s. The humidity was so thick and the frogs were so loud that I felt like I was suffocating and going deaf at the same time. I would just like to say that I am thankful for my 3 air conditioners and my nicely insultated home. I must apologize to Bryan for the outrageous electric bill in July and August, but I refuse to sweat in my own house! I wonder if there is still snow on the mountains in Utah?

After our family reunion, we stayed at my brother's house for another week. We had so much fun. The kids played and hung out and I basically shopped. I would really recommend taking your 12 year old son on vacation with you because when you ask if he wants to go shopping with you or watch the kids he always picked the latter. Thanks Blake. You're great!

Our most beautiful stop was temple square. My flower beds look similar in my yard!!!
It's hard to believe Bryan and I stood in this same spot almost 17 years ago on our wedding day!
Emily just likes to be cute!

We are finally home from our fantastic vacation to Utah and Aspen Grove. We had such a great time.. It has taken a little while to adjust to temperatures and routines (or lack thereof) back home, but we are glad to be sleeping in our own beds again. After hours of sorting through literally hundreds of photos we pulled out a few to show some of the highlights of our trip.


These are just of a few of the mandatory family photos that had to be taken for Grandma. It wasn't nearly as painful as previous years!