S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y morning

Another day of craziness has come and gone at the Emmertson house. Our ward is doing this 12 days of Christmas thing for the missionaries and we signed up for last Saturday. I only signed up to have one set over, though. I'm just trying to minimize the chaos. We invited them over for breakfast and had the works. They hung out and played dreidel and lincoln logs and colored with the girls while I made sugar cookies for everyone to frost. As you can tell from the pictures, everyone was having a good time. Their names are Elder Cornwell and Elder Wilson. Hayden has a not so secret crush on Elder Cornwell. And she said last time they were over that Daddy embarrassed her. So we tried to keep the silly comments about how much she loves him to a minimum. So here are the pictures with a little commentary.

Taylor's masterpieces

Payton striking a pose, as usual

These cookies have reached maximum sprinkle capacity

These girls worked hard and only ate a little frosting in the process.

She is just getting started.

Elder Wilson and his perfect tree. He said his mom makes hundreds of cookies every year to give to the neighbors.

Elder Cornwell

I just wanted one picture of them all together. But this is the silly one. I'm pretty sure the missionaries are thinking, "Please, stop inviting us over."

We wanted to get them a little Christmas present to remember us by. So, this was the obvious choice.

We had to include the missionaries in our new favorite tradition. Elder Wilson is quite the competitive dreidel player.

Bryan made the frosting for the cookies. It is the butter frosting recipe out of the red checkered cookbook. Anyway, it was delicious.

I did come to the realization, again, the making sugar cookies is not really a skill that I have. So I have added it to the list of things I am not good at. Have you seen my list? It is a piece of paper with lincoln logs and sugar cookies written on it.

Boycott over

Well, the boycott was effective. It only needed to last one day. Both mom and Lynne posted less than 24 hours after I started the boycott.

Yeah, now I can post more pics!

THe official blog boycott

The time has come. I know I have been threatening this for a while. So, now I must keep my word. I will not post anything (of value) on my blog until someone else in the family updates their blog. I mean, Lynne hasn't blogged since December 6th and her stuff is WEAK. You can't have a post be about the post right before it. She is going on 8 days now with nothing! And Stacey, if you are reading this then you are at your computer..so blog, baby, blog. Aren't you the one that started this whole thing, anyway. "Life is Good?" Then blog about how good, fantabulous, wonderful, etc. that it is. And Mom. The Mominator. Mommarino. Mommalommadingdong. I don't know what kind of "adventures" you and dad are having, but I'm sure they don't include being too far from your computer. You are about 6 days behind on your posting. Get with it. The rant is now over.
Au revoir, Auf Wiedersehen, Ciao, Arrivederci, Sayounara, Adios, do svidánja, goodbye.
Emmertson out.

What more does a 2nd grader need to know?

Well, it has been all Christmas, all the time for the past week or so. But not at ER Dickson. They are equal opportunity holiday people. Rabbi Silberman gave all the kids in the downstairs 2nd grade classes some chocolate geld in their goodie bags yesterday. And today, Taylor came home with a dreidel and the instructions on how to play the game. They played it at school today and Taylor is now hooked. (As a side note: I had no idea this game involved an ante and someone taking home all the winnings. I wonder if there are electronic dreidel games at the casinos.) So she came home and begged me to play with her. We had this heated game of dreidel going. There is quite a pile of candy in the center up for grabs. I spin that bad boy and start yelling for a gimel (that means I get everything in the pot.) I tell Taylor she is going down and I am going to win. She then informs me that I should not do that because the rabbi said not to. So.....
...the lesson for the day from second grade is...
Don't trash talk the dreidel game!

I love not being a room mom!

The girls had their class Christmas parties today. And it confirmed how glad I was that I did not sign up to be either of their room moms this year. This was the first time that I got to enjoy a class party with the girls without running around like a maniac and sweating like only a fat girl does. Being a room mom is a thankless job. I am just glad it is not my thankless job this year. Taylor class made visors and ornaments, played holiday bingo, and ate ice cream sundaes. Paytons class snacked on chips, fruit, and cookies, read a story and sang some songs. I did alternate between both classes. And when I went back to Ms. Baker's room to pick Payton up, the were playing "Doggy, Doggy, Where's your Bone?" I got some cute pics of the girls with all of their loot. Hayden scored big time because she made a visor and had an ice cream sunday in Taylor's classroom then had all the snacks in Payton's classroom. Cheesepuffs and ice cream count for lunch, right?

Sassafrass makeovers

Yesterday was the finale for the weeklong birthday extravaganza. I took the girls to Sassafrass after school for makeovers. We were the only people there so they got all of the attention. They all got their hair, make-up and nails done. They each changed outfits several times, walked the runway and sang kareoke with Hannah Montano and the High School Musical soundtracks. We really had a great time and stayed for about an hour and a half. They all got to pick their hairdos, the color of the spray and the color of the makeup. But they were each doing their individual "thing." You might notice that Taylor has her uniform shirt on under her costume. It was too itchy for her. She was the last one to get dressed because she couldn't find one that wasn't too itchy. Payton changed several times and tried on every shoe in the place. When I got my camera out, she had all of her poses ready. She didn't want her hair fixed though. She just wanted to wear it down because I never let her wear it down. Hayden ran around like she owned the place. When she was singing, she was cracking me up because she was staring at the screen the whole time acting like she was reading the words. It was pretty funny. Hayden is already planning to have her birthday there. We had a great time. They can't wait to go back.

Happy Birthday, dear Payton!

Payton's birthday is turning into a week long birthday extravaganza. On Friday, she brought birthday treats to school. We decided on Jello cups because sweets like cupcakes and cookies are not allowed. I sure would hate for some kid to become obese because he/she ate a cupcake to celebrate Payton's birthday. I was sure to get the sugar-free cups. You know I am a healthy eating advocate. (just a hint of sarcasm) Saturday started with a breakfast date with Bryan. After attending a wedding reception and taking pictures for the Christmas card we went to LibbyLu's to make body spray and lip gloss. Then, we had dinner at Sonny's with Aiti and Grandpa and came back to the house for cake and ice cream. Payton wanted a death by chocolate cake from Brunos and neopolitan ice cream. And what the birthday girl wants, the birthday girl gets. Who am I to enforce my healthy eating standards on a poor girl on her birthday? Of course today is the actual birthday so we had more cake and ice cream. I can't think of a better after-church binge.
Tomorrow we are taking the girls and Nathan and Noah (friends from school) to the movies to see Mr. Magoriums blah blah blah. And Wednesday all the girls will be getting makeovers at Sassafrass. I will post pictures of those, too.

Death by chocolate cake with a side of lip gloss and body spray.

A elf costume for Caroline (a build-a-bear pony) from Aiti and Grandpa.

Fancy Nancy book from Mimi and Opa that accompanied Payton to the bathroom after too much cake and ice cream.

Coordinating sweater, gloves, hat, doll and tights from Mom and Dad. Payton accessorized the outfit with her hot pink skirt and some of Taylor's much envied black velvet shoes.

The ever popular Hannah Montana t-shirt. And yes, she is sleeping in it tonight.

The happy birthday girl and her doll.

Coming soon to a Christmas card near you!

You will not be getting this one, though.

Gingerbread fun

We had Aiti, Jill and Addilyn stop by for a visit this evening. I figured this would be a good opportunity to decorate our gingerbread house. I also bought the little gingerbread man kit. While Bryan and Jill tried to build the house (using runny icing and a hair dryer,) Aiti and the girls decorated gingerbread people. I think they all wound up being girls with some pretty sophisticated hair-dos and clothes. We had a good time and as you can see I got a couple of cute pictures. And I get to check something else off my list of Christmas traditions that we have completed for this year.

St. Nick and a little decor

I finally got the tree decorated and the rest of the Christmas stuff put out. I was trying a little experiment with the tree decorating. Out of necessity, I decorated the tree while the kids were at school. I was thinking that it would be a fun surprise for them to come home from school and have everything all done. You know, a little makeover of the living room. I knew they would either love it or whine about not getting to help. Guess which reaction they had? Yup, they whined. I think there was even a tear or two. Needless to say, they will be putting the ornaments on the tree next year. Who cares if only the bottom half of the tree gets decorated. To add insult to injury, Hayden kept telling them that it was okay because she had set aside some ornaments for them to put on the tree. I didn't know anything about this and I thought that the little pile of ornaments sitting on the dining room table was just part of the mess and I had already hung them several hours prior to the girls getting home. So in the matter of 5 seconds, I successfully upset all three of the girls. Wasn't the first time and it certainly won't be the last, I'm sure. So here are the pics of the tree, mantle, fisher-price nativity, and the book basket. I couldn't take a picture of my Willow Tree nativity because it is in the china cabinet and the flash kept washing everything out. But, I LOVE my little display.






Oh, and we had a little visitor last night. But that wasn't without drama. The girls couldn't agree on which shoes to put out. Payton wanted all left shoes. Hayden wanted Taylor to use her school shoes but Taylor didn't want to take them off her feet. So Hayden went and got one of Taylor's other shoes. Taylor didn't like that shoe. Payton put a croc out. Hayden didn't like that shoe. Blah, Blah, Blah.