Here's more of Wyatt visiting with Santa on Christmas Eve. You might notice how all the poor Whetten children are being so polite to wait their turn, while my son refuses to get off Santa's knee! I think he could have stayed there and visited with Santa for hours!

The Whettens are my childhood nieghbors, and they are some awesome folks! Every Christmas Eve they invite Santa to come and visit with the childeren and they invite Wyatt to come and see him too! Lance Whetten even wrapped Wyatt's gift like all the other kids so all the gifts would be the same. So cool!

You know those crazy kids who get their friends to video tape them wiping out on their skateboard or bike and they end up in the hospital after some gnarly crash? I'm pretty sure Wyatt is headed that way, and I'm the camera man!

All I have to say is this...Kendall Tenney from Channel 3 News as Santa Claus and Judge Doug Smith singing "Grandma Got Ran Over By A Reindeer!" I love my new ward!

So my family was snuggled on the couch this past Sunday afternoon, drinking homemade hot chocolate and watching "The Year Without Santa Claus," one of those clay-mation movies from the 70's before Pixar and anything related to a computer. The premise of the story is Santa gets a cold, therefore he gets grumpy and thinks no one likes Christmas anymore. Because of this, Santa decides he doesn't want to do Christmas this year. So Mrs. Claus sends 2 elves and Vixen down to the children to try to find some hope for Christmas in order to encourage Santa to do his job this year. Well, problems start to happen, Vixen gets really sick, the elves get lost, its a big ol' mess! That's when the following conversation between my husband and I begins:

Byron: See, if Mrs. Claus would have known her place, these bad things wouldn't of happened.

Sommer (glaring) Are you blaming these bad things on Mrs. Claus? If Santa wouldn't have gotten lazy, none of this would have to happen in the first place.

Byron: Its totally Mrs. Claus's fault. She always has to step in and do things that aren't necessary!

Sommer: But once again, Santa has to be nagged into doing his responsibilities, and I'm sure Mrs. Claus got sick of that and so she had to take matters into her own hands.

Byron: Santa would have gotten it done eventually. Mrs. Claus just needs to relax.

Sommer: But Mrs. Claus couldn't of relaxed because when Santa gets a sniffle, then world shuts down. But if Mrs. Claus gets full-blown pneumonia, she still needs to feed the elves, make the toys, and bake cookies for Santa's caloric intake!

That's when I realize...I don't think we're not talking about Santa and Mrs. Claus anymore! ;)

Instead of Spring Cleaning, we are Winter Cleaning and getting rid of furniture and kitchen appliances so we can take advantage of the good deals out there. Soooo, if you need something or know of someone who does, take a look at this link and email me. Prices are very negotiable, and though we'd love to earn some money to pay for the new stuff, if you know of someone who really needs some of this stuff, let me know, and we'll donate it.
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When asked today how was nursery, this was Wyatt's reply:

Wyatt: "First of all, a baby bit the teacher's finger!"

Me: "What! Who?"

Wyatt: "I don't know that kid's name. A baby."

Me: "Was it a boy or a girl? Was she smaller than you?"

Wyatt: "Yeah, she was small, she was a girl too."

Me: "What do you think about that? Was it nice to bite the teachers finger?"

Wyatt: "No, she was a bad girl. That's what the teacher told her. She was a bad girl!"

Me: "Goodness, well, I'm glad you understand that it wasn't nice. What else happened?"

Wyatt: "Well, first of all, (yes he said it again. Must be the phrase of the day.) Rachel ate the playdough."

Me: "Oh no! That's not good."

Wyatt: "I know. Rachel's gonna get sick like when the doggies ate those berries in the backyard. 'Member that Mommy?"

Me: "Oh yes, I remember Duke getting sick. Did you have a good day, then?"

Wyatt: "Oh yes! You didn't even have to check on me!"

Me: "You're right, Wyatt. Looks like you did have a good day, first of all!"

We had a very traumatic moment this morning. The dogs needed to be walked, well, I also needed to be walked, and I offered that Wyatt ride his "Go Diego Go!" Big Wheel bicycle, rather than sit in the jogger stroller on our 20 minute route. Wyatt was very excited, since we've never gone that far before on his bike.
It seemed to take him forever to learn this whole bike thing. Those little knocked knees just wouldn't quite move the right way to get those pedals going. But recently he finally mastered it well enough that I thought he could handle a ride around the park. I explained the rules, "Stay on the sidewalk," "Wait for me," "If its too hard to ride up hill, then get off and push the back." Following that last rule, once we got up to the hill, that's when the torture began. Sitting down, standing up, no matter which way he tried, Wyatt struggled to move that bike. Oh the agony of a three year old's world! Crocodile tears began flowing as I tried to convince Wyatt just a little bit more of this hill and we were going to be ok. Finally we made it, and then we had to take a break and just try to overcome the strain we had just been through.
The next few steps were filled with a debate about using the pedals or not. "Wyatt, if you pedal your bike, instead of just pushing it with your feet, we'll go faster." "No! I don't want to pedal!" "But Wyatt, there are people behind us trying to walk, and I've got the 2 dogs that just want to walk. Why don't you pedal your bike." "No! I want to just go home!!!" Crying, sobbing, screaming begins. "Wyatt, we are going home, we're going this way. Just a few more steps and then its all downhill." (By this point, this whole outing was going downhill.) "No! No! No!" I sat down, and we took another break.
Finally after a little more rest, we finished the next little section of our walk, which went without incident and we made it to the last part of our walk, all downhill. "Perfect," I thought. "He'll just pedal down and we'll finish on a positive note. Wyatt might want to do this again!" And then it happened. A blister formed on Wyatt's fragile little thumb from the long, terrible bike ride. Oh the pain! The agony! Skin peeling off and stinging pain shooting through his hand! Oh the horror! Doing my best to mother my child, I tried to reassure Wyatt that a "Go Diego Go!" band-aid was waiting for him at the house. Picture this, Wyatt, still riding the Big Wheel, with only one hand, because clearly the injured hand was completely crippled, same big crocodile tears as before streaming down his face, and screams and wailing of the most terrible kind sailing down the street. At this point, that's when my child very firmly says to me, between sobs, "This was a bad idea!" Yes it was, Wyatt, yes it was! Thank you for sharing your opinion with me!

We're so lucky to have friends that think to invite us to their fun little shin digs. The staff at Candil Hall, my old stomping ground, invited up to their carnival. We got all gussied up in our pirate gear and Wyatt and I headed down for some good old fashioned fun with carnival booths and goodies. It was great seeing old friends. I miss the staff at Candil Hall, but the having to work every day, um...not so much!
Then our awesome friends down the street, the Corbetts, invited us over for some yummy chili with family and friends, before trick or treating. I love the "Trunk "R Treat" thing and I get the safety of it all, but growing up, we loved going from neighborhood to neighborhood, seeing our friends and family and all the costumes. So I love the fact that we live in a neighborhood that we can do that. We kind of know the houses to stay away from,but we've really started making friendships with our neighbors and its fun to see them on such a great night. After making a quick stop to see my parents at their Trunk R' Treat, we were super happy to come back home and find the party still going on with our friends down the street. So we hung out the rest of the evening stealing our kids candy, just visiting with neighbors, enjoying our little block party!






How cute are the little pirate buddies! I think a photo shoot at the Treasure Island is in order!

Ever since Wyatt could walk, we would dress up in costumes as a family, with a theme based on what Wyatt was for Halloween. One year, Wyatt was a train conductor, and we were the train. Last year, we we're all "animal rescuers." This year, we were PIRATES! Thanks to some great friends, we borrowed some beautiful costumes for Byron and I. And you already know the story about Wyatt's dreadlocks! We attended our ward's "Trunk R' Treat" and were known as the "Classy Pirates!" So much fun. And I think we look pretty good, if I do say so myself!

I was feeling bad that I didn't do as many Halloween projects with Wyatt as I've done in years past. It seems like Halloween came up on us so fast. But in the long run, with Halloween being on a Saturday, it worked out nicely to carve our pumpkins that morning. No where to be, Byron was home, we put on "The Nightmare Before Christmas," which is one of our favorites ever since we rode the New Holiday Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. Saturday was just a relaxing morning with KNIVES! Ha!

Woo Hoo! My computer is back! Let the Halloween blogging begin!

We started out this Halloween season with a visit to the good ol' carnival/pumpkin patch with its tooth missing "carnees" and rickety, unsafe amusement rides! Still, we had a good time. I made my mother ride most of the rides with Wyatt. I'm not sure if she appreciated that gesture or not. I think Wyatt's highlight, as it is every year, is riding the ponies. He loves those horses! How do I convince his Pappa to buy him one of those?

I am blogging from my blackberry. We have three computers in my home and I don't have access to any of them. It makes me sad. The cons of no computers is obvious. I can't print anything! I had to teach a lesson in church this week and all my reading assignments had to be handwritten. Between all the writing and texting on my phone, my hands are beginning to cramp up into old lady witch hands. Which would have been good for Halloween, but now, not so much. What's really killing me is that I can't download my Halloween pictures. But I have noticed some pros in all of this. More is getting done at my house. Items are being organized, and my list of things to do is shrinking. Most importantly, I'm spending more time with Wyatt. Our school lessons are better and we seem to have more fun. I was recently asked to be one of the counselors in the RS presidency at church. I pleaded with the Lord to help me have more time with Wyatt if I did my best to sacrifice time for this calling. Then my computers crashed. Hmmm, not quite what I had in mind,but ok. And so it worked. Things have fallen into place and I have had more time with Wyatt. This freaks me out. What will happen when the computers come back? We shall see.

It doesn't look like it in this picture, but we are very excited about our Halloween costumes this year. We're all pirates. Wyatt will be the captain, and therefore needed to look the part! I knew I needed to create my own little Jhonny Depp, so dreadlocks were in order. But a wig was out of the question. The hair is just too scratchy, so I needed another material. What looks like dreadlocks? A mop! Here's how I did it...






I needed a mop head, dark brown dye, and everything else required from the dye manufacturer.

This is what happens when Byron leaves his laptop with us for the weekend! Happy Halloween! Enjoy one of our favorite Halloween stories, The Little Old Lady That Was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda Williams, retold by the very scary, very green Monster Wyatt!