Dead as a Doornail.....

NO! It's not the chickens! My children pray CONSTANTLY for those chickens!

I have started reading Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol" to the kids at bedtime. My friend, Kristine, let us borrow her BEAUTIFULLY illustrated copy. (Illustrations by P.J. Lynch.....gonna get my own copy someday!) Anyhow, if you have read the story, on page one it says "Old Marley was as dead as a doornail." Well, first my kids started to giggle because "there are no nails in doors!" Sure enough! Our door has no nails! So I explained it was just a phrase. Then they asked what it meant. (See why it takes so long to get thru a book?) Anyhow, we googled it....like we do everything else.....here is what we found:

In The Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins, a correspondent points out that it could come from a standard term in carpentry. If you hammer a nail through a piece of timber and then flatten the end over on the inside so it can’t be removed again (a technique called clinching), the nail is said to be dead, because you can’t use it again. Doornails would very probably have been subjected to this treatment to give extra strength in the years before screws were available. So they were dead because they’d been clinched. It sounds plausible, but whether it’s right or not we will probably never know.

Anyhow, that was pretty interesting to all of us! I know we asked that question at book club when we discussed the book, too! So maybe tonight I can get thru some pages without explaining things I DON'T know! We might have to have the laptop sitting next to us on the bed for quick googling!

I have been playing today!

So this post is mostly for my sister so she can see what I have been doing all day and part of the time I was talking to her on the phone. But I hope you enjoy it, too! I have had a Cricut machine for a while and just getting the time to use it a lot more! I have just (a few hours ago) started playing with vinyl! I LOVE IT!

So this summer while we were in Utah, this same sister introduced me to Provo Craft Outlet store! WOW! FUN! We both bought these blocks with "Spring" on them for like $3.25 or some ridiculous price! She told me she was going to put "FAMILY" on hers. I loved the idea and bought myself a set. Here is what I ended up with:





Different way to stack them!
This is the main reason I started playing with the vinyl. Kevin now has 14 close staff members to buy things for for Christmas. I usually make the present, this year was no different. There are Kisses in there and Almond Joy mini candy bars. The tag will read something about Joy this season and Kisses from the Lords' Family. Anyhow, here I cut out the snowflake on those.....whipped those all out in about an hour! 18 of them! SO EASY!

Baby It's Cold Outside......

I love that Christmas song (who doesn't love Dean Martin?!?!).....and it's been VERY appropriate for the last few days here at home! NEGATIVE 12 this morning! We got about 9" of snow Sunday night causing no school for Monday or Tuesday! It was fun to have a 4 day weekend. This morning we woke up to pogonip. For those not familiar with pogonip (I never remember this growing up....just ice and snow on trees.) Here is the Wikipedia definition:

Ice fog is a type of fog consisting of fine ice crystals suspended in the air. It can happen only in cold areas of the world since water can remain liquid down to -40 °C (-40 °F). It should be distinguished from diamond dust, a precipitation of sparse ice crystal falling from clear sky.

OK...so is it crystal clear now? (No pun intended!) Anyhow, here are a few pictures we woke up to this morning:

Our Christmas lights hanging from the house.

A cobweb I didn't even know was on the house until covered in pogonip. It is so pretty! I dont' know if the picture does it justice!

A tree branch close up.

Trees in our front yard.....notice ALL THE SNOW!

Bryce after he played outside. Snow on head and ears! He 'forgot' his hat!



Monday night, our friends had their annual gingerbread making at their house. We were grateful we were invited again. They just got split into another ward (boundary changes) and so my kids were very concerned we were not going to be invited! Anyhow, they look forward to this every year (as do I) and this year in keeping in line with our LOVE of chickens lately we did a chicken coop including gumdrop chickens, skittle chicks, chocolate chip chicken poop and crushed pretzel chicken scratch! R,C & B are the only ones that went with me as D & N were sick.



Canyou read the roof? "Eat Pork for Christmas"

In fact, D was at the hosptial, and Doctor's offices off and on Monday and Tuesday. 101.7 unexplainable fevers do sit well with a transplant patient! Anyhow, they did TONS of labs, and swabbing and peeing in variable things! Long story short he is on an antibiotic and labs yesterday showed his white blood cell count and absolutte neutrophil count (both detect when the body is fighting something off) are coming down. We thing he might be coming down with what N has - pharyngitis. We are just grateful that it wasn't a virus! Viruses, as you know, have to run their course! No drugs for them. But he is back to his old self and not lethargic like Monday!

Old McKevin had a farm.......

So we finally got our tree up and here are a few pictures of that. Boyz had fun doing that!





Old McKevin had a farm.....E-I-E-I-O!




We are sad to have some dear friends moving in a few weeks, but the one bright side is we 'inherited' some chicken! 9 to be exact! The kids say they finally have pets! I am glad! Chickens are productive and lay eggs! I'll take those kind of pets! So we have some Banties, Rhode Island Reds and Leghorns. There are a few others we haven't figured out yet. Ryan is going to join 4H so he can learn all about these things! We are pretty excited....kids ALL went out in 21 degree weather this morning to water them! They were happy no coyotes ate them. I keep reassuring them they are safe, but when you hear them howeling at night it still makes them nervous. But they included the chickens in their prayers.....good teaching moment of answered prayers! :-)

Happy Thanksgiving! (this is 3 of 3)

We can't believe it has been a year since we came home from Palo Alto! We spent Thanksgiving last year in Salinas, CA with my sister-in-law and her family....this year we were here in Nevada! We had a great Thanksgiving and hope you did, too! We went to spend it with Kevin's family. They are amazing! We had so much fun! Good food! Lots of laughing and games and visiting! He has an amazing family and that was one of the many things I was grateful for (and always have been!)
Anyhow, here are some pictures of our weekend: (I thought I took more....but apparently forgot to get the camera out as often and I intended!)

Here is they typical basketball game! Notice Kevin is the oldest one out there! His nephew's and nephew-in-laws are getting to be a 'threat'! They are growing up!

We had a ping-pong table to play some games on. The kids really liked that.....so much the adults didn't get to play very much!

We did play a LOT of games this weekend! Learned some new and really fun ones like Bohnanza, Ticket to Ride and our favorite 'Nines'.

Here are the tables we ate at. Nathan patiently waiting at the kid's table (which I sat at to keep some of my kids in line) and then there is the adult table. Ryan and I made little pilgram hats out of fudge cookies and mini peanut butter cookies with a tick-tack as a buckle. I never did take a picture of it....sure tasted good! Kind of see them on the plate!


We had the traditional kick ball game for the little guys. Sammy and Daniel are really getting into it. Sammy even gave me 'thumbs up' on the last picture! He loved it!



Here Sammy and Daniel are both on base with hands on hips....can tell they are twins, huh?

Grandpa was reading to Daniel and I just loved watching them interact.


Anyhow, we had a great time! So good to see everyone there!

Ryan and Comptyn's pack meeting

So we had our first pack meeting in Cub Scouts since Comptyn joined in June. He really loves scouts! He was 3 requirement away from finishing his Wolf badge (which we have since finished). But to get his Bobcat I guess it's tradition to hold the child upside down to pin it on and then he has to do a good deed to get it turned around. Anyhow, this picture is of me pinning his Bobcat on. So next meeting he'll get his Wolf badge and a gold and 2 silvers at least! He was pretty happy!


Here is Ryan receiving his Bear badge and pinning the mother's pin on me. He was pretty excited to start the electives in the back of the book.

They are really cute about being Cub Scouts! They sure have a great love for their scout leaders which make a HUGE difference! So I am grateful for them! They have developed that love because of them. Thank you!

Daniel's Tube......

Many of you know that Daniel has been getting weaned off his feeding tube. Last Saturday (9 days ago) we took out his tube to try nights without any liquids! We had a little cutting up party....see the pictures below. (Ryan had to have his penguin in the pictures!) Anyhow, Wednesday morning Kevin took Daniel in for labs for the final results! If his creatinine level stayed at 0.5 we were done! On our way out of town for Thanksgiving we picked up the lab results and......0.5!!! We are done with the tube! We were all screaming in the van we were all so happy! Daniel was a little embarrassed and hid his face in his blanket, but has LOVED being able to get completely dressed by himself....shirt and all! Too much tape and things before! Anyhow, we had yet ANOTHER wonderful thing to grateful for this year!