Snow Day.

I know it is two days after Christmas and the logical post here would be to document the big day, however when I was downloading all the Christmas pics I discovered a few pictures my kids took on our Snow Day.

*A little side note to all my avid readers not from around here: School was canceled two days before our TWO WEEK Christmas vacation (seriously, are they trying to kill me? not like i had a gazillion things i was trying to finish up!) because it snowed about 3-4 inches...I hope all of you sitting in your 3-4 feet of snow are getting a good chuckle at the wimps who live in Utah's Dixie. Any who- I digress- back to my story:

Schools canceled, the kids are home acting wild and crazy 'cuz- hello? WE HAVE SNOW! Honestly my house was total mayhem and I was hosting the book club Christmas party that night. So what did I do? I did what any rational woman would do, I called my lovely husband and said, "I'm leaving. I simply can't sit by and watch them tear the house from stem to stern so I'm out of here for a couple of hours. Please come home two hours before my party and take these crazed maniacs outa here so I can clean and get this place whiped back into shape." Which he did. And I did. The party ,on a side note, was super fun as always- I luvs me my pack of chicks.

I have two babysitters at my house. Adam and Audrey. They don't do too well together; but they both have their strong points and they both like to babysit with a friend; which is great with me.

PHASE ONE

Audrey and her friend Jamie took the first shift babysitting during my snow day absence. All the kids went out and made a snow man. See cute pictures below:

Grant just loving the snow man.

Lucy putting the final touches on...

Who doesn't need a glamor shot with a snow man?





PHASE TWO

Adam and his best buddy Sam took the second shift. They fixed lunch, they laid Grant down for a nap, they let the girls go play at the neighbors and then they had a little fun in the snow of their own...

SERIOUSLY?

WHAT THE H-E-double toothpicks is wrong with my son?!?!?

There are a couple of things that jumped into my head when I saw this picture.

1. Does my son need some kind of counseling? Mike has tried to assure me that this is completely normal 13 year old boy behavior. This of course was after he was able to regain control of himself after nearly falling out of his chair laughing when I showed him this picture and told me he actually saw the above offense in person. He had to tell the boys to destroy or be destroyed by that nice lady you refer to as your mother. Which leads me to my second thought:

2. Does my son have a brain in his head? Not only is he dumb enough to modify the girl's creation into a she-male snow nightmare...he left it like that. And took pictures of it!! For his mother to find!!!

I am still questioning whether or not I will actually post this. It is both mortifying and hilarious to me at the same time- that ,my friends, is what being married to a Schoenfeld will do to you. Things that at one point in my life would have had my eyes cast down for weeks just crack me up. I am a broken woman, married to a fun loving man, raising children who press the edges of the appropriateness envelope. That is why I am blaming this entire incident on his father. Thank you very much.

Doing my part to make the world a better place one chocolate at a time.

My chocolates are finally done. Yippee!!! I still need to plate them(I have half of them plated already) and then deliver. Aahhh...delivering chocolates as a family event rivals putting lights on the tree (see previous post). I actually handed a plate out when some one brought a treat to my house tonight- no offense to any one- but how tacky is that?? That's just where I'm at- I'm considering posting on face book that I have thirty plates of chocolates available on a first come first serve basis. Those who run over here are the lucky ones that get them- to the rest? Well, maybe next year. That's just the exhaustion speaking...it's been a really long day. No worries--little bits of heaven are on their way to all my besties. All my besties that live in a 5 mile radius at any rate.

So I thought I would give a little blog-tutorial on chocolate making, since I don't have a whole lot of takers on getting up at 4:45 to come see the magic in action for themselves. I know, I know you are all dying to here about it.

Here I am beating my Almond Nut Roll (also known as nutty balls by my brother-in-law) center.


Mike and the girls shaping caramels. The kids are only too eager to help- Mike on the other hand does this solely out of duty. Have I mentioned before that he is a really good sport?


I buy a 10 lb. block of chocolate. Yes, I said 10 POUNDS. And yes, that is the end of it. I need to buy more next year, that was barely enough.

Mmmm...melted goodness in a pan.

Here's the actual dipping. I must say that I love doing this. It is a LONG standing family tradition. One that I am hoping to pass along to the next generation...


From the look on her face I think it's going to stick.


This is what you would call "Chocolates as far as the eye can see" --or at least to the end of the counter.

There you have it folks. Now won't you all enjoy them just a little bit more this year?

Husband Tag

Here it is two weeks before Christmas already. I still have much to do. Topping the list is making chocolates. That is on the agenda for the next several days and will become more and more time consuming in the very near future. Right now I am waiting for my carmel to cook so I thought I would do a tag my friend gave me. Sure, there are plenty of other things to do. Like, oh say...laundry, cleaning, Christmas cards, spending quality time with my chiltin's just to mention a few--but I'm gonna opt to blog. That's right, blog. Here goes:

1. Full name: Michael Edwin Schoenfeld. His middle name is also his dad's, his grandpa's and Adam's.

2. How long have you been married? 15 years this coming June (holy crap! that's along time!!)

3. How long did you date? We met at the beginning of the school year and we were married at the end, so I guess about 8 months.

4. Who eats the sweets? Yah-that would be me. Mike like's treats okay...I have a minor obsession with anything warm, gooey, tasty and chocolate. Mike still laments about the year I was off chocolate while I was nursing Elsie. The treat production went down drastically. He claims he gets a little chocolated-out. I know, I know- how is that even possible? I do make a mean chocolate chip cookie that he has a weakness for.

5. Who said "I love you" first? Mike. And for the record--it was waaayyy too soon, but apparently it worked out for him cuz here I am.

6. Who is taller? Mike. He's got about 4 inches on me.

7. Who is smarter? Here's the thing- I consider myself a fairly intelligent person, but Mike knows A LOT of stuff. He is just so knowledgeable about so many things. I did take a few years of Spanish in high school so when he asks me to translate something I feel really smart. To be completely honest my skills aren't that great-I don't really know how I learned any Spanish at all, Miss Snow was not the brightest bulb in the box.

8. Who does the laundry? Well, now how could I be the domestic goddess that I am if Mike got involved with such things as laundry?

9. Who pays the bills? This task has bounced back and forth over the years. Right now it's Mike.

10. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I sleep on the side closest to the door, which ever side that is. It's a residual habit from needing to get up with nursing babies.

11. Who mows the lawn? Adam does. Older kids are just so durn handy.

12. Who drives? Mike. He has an awesome sense of direction. But mostly he doesn't want my job of dealing with the kids and handing things back to them.

13. Who admits they are wrong? Neither one of us likes to freely admit when we are wrong. Mike is much better about letting it go when I am wrong. I tend to want to do the whole "told ya so, told ya so, told ya, told ya, told ya so!"

14. Who kissed who first? He kissed me-how could he resist a hottie such as myself?

15. Who asked who out first? He asked me. We did a fair amount of 'hanging out' together before our first official date. He took me to go see Forgotten Carroll's. In his mind we were already steadily dating at that point. Yes, I was very naive.

16. Who wears the pants? Hmmm...that's a tough one. I'd like to think I do, but really Mike just lets me think that until I don't want to deal with something and he steps right in. He's really nice that way.

So there you have it. My dear old darling hubby in a nut shell. He is by far the most fun I've ever had- he tells me quite often how boring my life would be without him and how boring his life would be without me. I guess that means we are perfect for each other.

Thanks for the tag Kelli. These are really fun to do!

Happy Holidays!

From my dancing elves....



It's nothing short of a small miracle that I did this- being the technologically challenged genious that I am.
I'm actually pretty impressed with myself!
And the end result cracks me up- my kids think it is hilarious.

Top Ten Tag

Angie tagged me awhile ago and I am now getting around to it. Here goes:
Top Ten Things I Love About My Kids.

10. Singing "Happy Trails" (thank you Van Halen) at the end of just about every road trip. Mike introduced us to that little gem years ago and it has stuck. We are not what you would call a vocally inclined bunch but we can belt out this one with some gusto.

9. Sunday dinner. You know the old stand by--roast beef, mashed potatoes, corn, and biscuits. It is the one meal that they all love. That means no one is complaining that they don't like it! It's a little Sunday miracle for me every time.

8. Family swims in the back yard. This is our FHE most of the summer. They love it when we all get in the pool. This could be because Mike is very fair in his dunking of everyone and doesn't leave me out of it.

7. Camping with them. They are like different kid's out there. I suppose I'm like a different Mom out there, too. We all turn into pioneer people, we can deal with being dirty, we are happy with what ever food we have, and throwing rocks is all of the sudden a fabulous pass time. I love to camp and I love that they love to camp.

6. The way they all treat Grant. That kid is so loved.

5. Laughing with them. I mean when we really get going- tears streaming down everyone's faces, nobody can stop, it hurts- laughing. It doesn't happen all that often and usually when it does it is during scripture reading...I'm not totally sure what that says about us.

4. Watching them wrestle with Mike--all of them at the same time.

3. Seeing Adam with a brother after waiting so many years for it and loving the way Grant has basically become the mascot for Adam and his friends.

2. All three sisters playing American Girl Doll's together, including the "set-up" stage of creating houses for the girls and their doll, watching them be mom's to their dolls.

1. The number one thing I love about my kid's is they made my dream come true. I can never remember a time when I didn't want to be a mom. The old song "When I grow up I want to be a mother. One little, two little, three little babies of my own"...that was me! Except I was blessed with five little babies of my own. Without them I wouldn't be complete- so thanks guys, I love you all.


There are a million things I love about my kids, these were just the first to come to mind. There are those days when coming up with two reasons would be a struggle-that's just how it is here in the trenches, luckily those are just a few days in a whole lifetime. I would suggest this tag for any mother...what good therapy!

Nothing says...

Love at home like decorating the tree for family home evening. This annual event is so painful. Each and Every Year. Husband has his grouch on before the thing is even out of the box. I never can decide if it's best to give a little advance warning to warm him up to the idea ahead of time or just spring it on him the second he walks in the door. I opted for advance warning this year. I thought two days was ample time to gear up- I was wrong.

There are a few reasons he puts the lights on the tree. First of all, he is a perfectionist when it comes to things like that. It always looks fantastic when he's finished. Secondly, I don't want to do it by myself...it's a huge pain. The good news is that we now have a child old enough to take over my job of holding the string of lights. This is a really good thing, he doesn't take it nearly as personally as I do when we're mad simply because we are standing in front of a tree holding lights.

The rest of the kid's are banned from the room, let me rephrase that, not just the room- the entire area. Considering the level of frustration emanating from the front room; it's not such a bad idea.

Knowing how much my dear husband hates putting lights on the tree and the fact that he does it every year any way is a real testament to how much he loves us. He really is such a good sport. I suppose if I wanted to reciprocate I would go buy a pre-lit tree. Unfortunately for him I'm a firm believer in the old "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" saying.

Once the lights are on it's time to decorate. I sit with all the ornaments in my lap and pass out each one individually to it's rightful owner who then places it on the tree. The trouble comes when I get to the ornaments from my childhood. Well, you know I determine who puts on what according to who my favorite children are. Or so you would think.

In the end they always say, "What- that's it? I thought we had more than that."

This scenario is basically the same every year. And yet my kids are excited about it. Every year. That fact alone tells me it's much more painful for me then for them-- we must be doing something right. (Sometimes I'm really glad kids have such a selective memory.) I guess a little Christmas music in the back ground, reminiscing about the history of each ornament and a treat at the end goes a long way.