There's how many weeks until Christmas?

Five you say, well then, I may be in trouble. It has been really busy around here lately and shows no sign of stopping. In fact I need to kick it in to over drive for the next 20 or so hours. My darling husband set up a meeting in Provo on Tuesday, which means we are leaving tomorrow. TOMORROW. Now, in his defense I will say that he did tell me a couple of weeks ago he had to go to Provo on either a Tuesday or Thursday. In a moment of obviously poor judgement I said that the Tuesday before Thanksgiving might work out. Done and done. Next thing I know we are on our way tomorrow. I did talk him into waiting until late afternoon.

I failed to take into consideration that we had his family here all last week. Not conducive to accomplishing a lot of things. Then I found out I had to speak in Sacrament meeting today. Again- family all week- not conducive to accomplishing a lot. So after a week of not much getting done and a Saturday cram session to prepare a talk I am way behind on a whole bunch of stuff.

Tonight is a laundry/packing/present wrapping/list making frenzy. This is one of those Sunday nights were the line between appropriate vs. inappropriate Sabbath day activities is getting a little blurred. (I am really resisting the urge to clean my little heart out.)

And realizing that Christmas will be here like 5 minutes after we say amen on Thursday is kind freaking me out. I will say that I am actually really excited to go up for the big Holiday kick off. The best news is that for the better part of a week we get to just sort of hang out (one of the perks of not being in my own house). Sounds fabulous to me.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Check us out!

So my fabulous friend Robyn took our family pictures. Bear in mind, we have never had family pictures before. Just seemed like too much work and as I have already stated I'm a bit of a dud in the picture department. Can I tell you how much fun it was?

We spent weeks discussing 'the picture plans'. Good ole Robyn came over and helped me pick out clothes- she brought accessories and everything! She found a little known fabulous location. My kids were acting uncharacteristically like actual siblings instead of mortal enemies. (Okay so Adam and Audrey still didn't want to be all that close to each other...but no physical altercations ensued so we'll mark that one up as a success.) Robyn knows all my kids well enough that she knew just what to say to them and how to capture their true personalities.

I am just pleased as punch with the outcome. Who knew we had such a good looking family? Well- I did- but now it's here for all the whole wide world to see.

Score one for Team Schoenfeld. And score a bunch for Team Robyn.

So go check us out on Robyn's blog.....

Not of the majority.

As I check every ones blogs to see if they've updated-- I realize:
Why should I be expectant that others have updated when I haven't?
That's not really all that fair now is it?
So I guess what I'm saying is--I should really update this thing.
I do plan to.
We are currently trying to figure out how to get some pictures that are trapped in a phone out into the free world so that I can document the lives of my children.
It's not going so well.
If I were like every other mother on the planet and just remembered the dumb camera in the first place this would not be a problem.
I, however, am not.
I am really good at a lot of things.
Remembering to take the camera, remembering to take the pictures if I actually remember the camera is not among them.
I'm a bit of a dud when it comes to things like that.
That's just the kinda mom I am.
And I'm really okay with that.
I suppose I should focus on my positive attributes...

so I guess I'll go make a treat and then clean. :0)

Can we talk about....

Garage sales?
Should you ever have a garage sale and one of my children happens along, go ahead and refuse to sell any thing to them. Tell them you've labeled everything wrong and there is supposed to be a "1" in front of all the prices.

My kids have come home with some of the most unusual items. Being the generous little people that they are; garage sales are where they purchase many a gift. I was once given an ash tray. I know you are all thinking, "Did I miss something? Does Farmgirl smoke?" the answer is NO! I do not nor have I ever been a smoker. It was an ash tray made out of wood carved like an African mask...used mind you. It was one of the smelliest gifts I have ever received, to his credit the giver was only about six at the time.

Lest I sound too negative I should mention that there have have been some great finds. I'm not an anti-garage sale kind of a girl. In fact I am a lover of the trash-to-treasure mantra. However, they have also brought home some really weird things.

The latest and greatest being a pair of crutches. "Is someone hurt?" you ask. "Are we in need of crutches?" No, we are not. I received a phone call from the girls on Saturday letting me know they had visited a neighborhood garage sale. Audrey was very excited to tell me that she had purchased a pair of crutches. Why? I don't know, she thought they would be fun I guess.

Sure enough within a day she had seriously injured(stubbed) her toe and was in dire need of crutches. Luckily for us we are now the proud owners of just such an item. I have a sneaking suspicion that the foot/leg injuries in our house are going to be on the rise....here's to good health!

Well what do you know.

It isn't as hard as I thought...

Vampire Lucy, Skeleton Grant, and Minnie Mouse Elsie

Thief Audrey. Hobo Audrey. You decide, let's just say her costume was in flux throughout the day.

The BYU boys or the blue man group as they were referred to at the neighborhood party. Adam is the "B". In answer to the inevitable question: Yes, it was a pain to get off. (I guess I can't really speak for him, but I will say the blue specks left in the shower were a pain to get off.) I think his scalp is still a little blue. -I feel the need to throw in a disclaimer here. I am still an Aggie, despite the actions of my son.-

So there you have it. Halloween 2008. See all I'm learning? Enlarged the text and bold. Italics too! My oh my I am getting fancy!

After we down loaded these pictures it was obvious my camera has clicked it's little heart out. I'm afraid old faithful has seen it's better days. These pictures are quite foggy but I guess you get the idea. Let's just say the mistiness is there to add to the ambiance of the day.

One more of Grant enjoying his candy. Just cuz he is so darn cute.


Shout out to Mike for showing me one more time how to post pictures. Thanks babe!

A work in progress

Okay, so time for a new post before I forget how to do this. Yes, I am that lame. Now this is going to be exciting because I am actually going to attempt to put pictures on here. This could open up all sorts of possibilities for me. So here it goes.

Halloween 2008

Ummm.....first attempt- unsuccessful. I thought I was on to something and then all the sudden not so much. I would call in reinforcements but unfortunately my phone's not really working right, right now. It may just have to wait until my sweet husband comes to my rescue. He just LOVES showing me how to do things on the computer numerous times. Oh well, I guess I'll just leave all my avid readers in suspense as to what my children looked like on the big dia de spook-tac-u-lar. Stay tuned.....pictures to follow......

In the mean time I will tell you they all looked great. That, of course, is coming from their totally unbiased Halloweenie mother. So take it for what it's worth.

And for the record I know I'm fairly pathetic. I seem to have some very deep seeded and completely unfounded fear of "messing something up" when it comes to computers. I'll figure this out and be a blogging pro before you know it. I know you're all pulling for me- thanks guys!