Dinner of Champs

This post needs to start out with an explanation of my current eating habits. I mostly eat grapes, apples, oranges and occasionally a chicken pot pie. That is it. That is what I eat all day every day. It is all I can stomach without it ending up in the toilet. Unfortunately for my kids, I have a hard time cooking anything that isn't a "put it in the microwave" meal. I usually can get by during the day with chicken nuggets and PB&J's and then when Chris gets home he makes them an actual meal with some nutritional value while I hibernate upstairs to avoid the smells.

With Chirs's qualifying exams the last few weeks have been a little rough, he is rarely home for dinner time so the feeding of the children is up to me. It has been sad. One night we had a 3 course meal of fruit for dinner because I couldn't stomach looking at anything else.

Thursday night I was feeling better than normal. *this doesn't mean I felt good... I just wasn't gaging at the thought of chewing. I decided I would use this time to make the kids a dinner of their choice. MISTAKE! I said to Kaden, "you can choose whatever you want for dinner tonight." He thought for about .2 seconds and said with incredible excitement "hot dogs with Mac and Cheese!" I gaged on the spot. I had prepared myself for all sorts of options.... but not that. I was expecting something more like pizza, spaghetti, enchiladas (which are normally his favorite) but instead he chose hot dogs... those things make me nauseous when I am not pregnant.

But I couldn't say no, he was SO SO excited about it. He was literally jumping up and down and telling Taycee they were going to have hot dogs. So I swallowed down the bile growing in my throat and went to work.

Kaden watched every move I made. Then he sat by the oven for the entire 12 minutes they were cooking.

We didn't have real hot dogs because I haven't bought them in oh... 12 weeks. So I made pigs in a blanket, which he thought was even better.

He was in heaven.

She was happy to have anything dipped in ketchup.

I ate fruit... but if dinner time could be this happy every night.... I might consider hot dogs and mac and cheese more often.

You Passed

I have to write a little post to congratulate Chris on his great accomplishment. On Friday the 7th he passed his qualifying exam for graduate school. Since Dec 27th he has pretty much lived at the school in preparation of this. It's kind of a BIG DEAL... and I am so proud of him. This isn't your normal every day exam, this is a 3 hour grueling from 3 different committees who are putting your last 6 years of knowledge to the test to make sure you are smart enough to continue in the Chemical Engineering PHD program. Any question is fair game, there is no forewarning of what they will ask, so you have to try and know it all, only 25% of people pass their first time... and Chris did it. He is my hero.

I can't say enough how grateful I am for him. A lot of recent events have solidified my gratitute to have such a great man by my side for eternity. I have never had to question his commitment to me or our family or the gospel. I have never had a doubt in my mind that he will always be by my side through thick and thin. He is the smartest guy I know and I have no doubt that he will always provide a wonderful life for our family.

Congrats Chris!! You did it!

2011

2011?? Really? Where did 2010 go? Does life always go by as fast as it is going by right now? I hope not. Our New Years eve this year was MUCH MUCH better than our last years New Years Eve which we spent in Primary Children's Hospital. I am not sure I ever put the story up but New Years Eve day... does that make sense?... I couldn't get Taycee to wake up and be responsive to me. She would stay awake for maybe 2 or 3 minutes and then fall back asleep, I called the doctor who was very concerned and told me I needed to get her to Primary Children's asap to check for brain problems. We spent the rest of that day and all through the night doing MRI's and blood tests and answering all sorts of questions. The final decision was that she has neural encephalitis. ( An infection of the brain) there was nothing to be done but watch her closely and wait it out. So our New Year rang in while we sat beside her bed in the hospital watching her every breath. Not hard to beat that, and this year we certainly did.

We went to a party at my moms house with most of her siblings. The game of the night was bubble talk and if you have never played it I highly recommended you buy it right now and play it at your next party. Many people left the table with headaches from laughing so hard. It was a great party with WAY too much yummy food.

The new year has already been good to us. The greatest accomplishment of 2011 so far is Chris passing his qualifying exam for Grad School, I will dedicate a post just to that topic because it deserves it.

I have loved not being in school and not having anything pressing to do. Taycee and I celebrated by painting our toes.

We also got to spend New Years day with our favorite family the Egberts. We love getting together with them and no matter what we do we always have a good time. We are so lucky to have such GREAT friends. Now if they could just hurry up and move to Layton our lives would be complete :D

We were putting the girls to bed and they wanted to play "fort time" in the play pen. Joc was throwing the blanket over the top and the ripping it off. They both found it hilarious. Cute Girls.

Hope you all have a Great 2011.

Guess we'll see

I did it. I'm done. I went back to school and graduated with 2 small kids and a husband in graduate school. Hard? Yes. Exhausting? Absolutely. Do I have a few more gray hairs, dark circles, and stress wrinkles? Without doubt. But I did it, I did the thing that I never thought I could do and actually I enjoyed parts of it. I love to learn, I love to sit in a classroom and gain more knowledge about things that intrigue me. I could do without the papers and studying and tests, but the learning I enjoy.

For now, I am done. I might go back again someday to learn some more. Someday... not now.

For now I will concentrate on being a better mom to my kids who were probably more neglected the past while then I would like to admit. For now I will work on getting ready to make our little family of 4 a family of 5 ( yes that is an announcement, 12 weeks... guess we'll see who actually reads this) For now I will try to take my zofran and not reject every morsel that enters my body. For now I will enjoy the calm and predictability of life because in July.... things at our house will get a little bit crazier.

Family Pics

While we were all together we did family pictures. Family pictures with a large group is hard, especially with a 2 year old who HATES sitting still and refuses to do anything but whine. However, with the exception of Taycee we ended up with some good group shots.

I hope he never ever loses those dimples. The very first thing I remember them saying when Kaden was born was, "look at those huge dimples!" They show when he laughs or frowns, or pretty much makes any movement with his face. I love them. I love him.

Is it boastful to say that I have the most wonderful husband in the world? Because I do. Seriously, I do. He is the most kind, giving, generous, dedicated man that I know. And I love him more every single day. Getting to spend time with him always solidifies one thing to me. CHRIS IS THE BEST DECISION I EVER MADE. Period.

My beautiful baby.

I love this look. It is such a typical Taycee look. Whenever she wants something or is concerned this is the look I get.

So grateful for this little family.

Christmas

Christmas Eve the Clayton family has a tradition to go out to eat at whatever restaurant is open and tip the waitress and cooks good money for having to work. This year it was I-hop.

Chris and Kaden in their new matching pjs... ha, can you tell Chris's were about 6 inches short and 6 inches too wide. We all got a good laugh before he took them off and we returned them. :)

This was Christmas eve in our new matching PJ's. We are missing 4 of the kids in this pic but they were with other families.

You haven't really seen present overload til you have done Christmas at the Clayton home. I don't even think this picture does justice to the MOUNTAIN of presents under the tree Christmas morning. Kaden literally called it a mountain when he came downstairs. I believe his words were "WOAH mom, is that my mountain?" Needless to say we were all very spoiled. It was a fun morning filled with lots of laughs and excitement. Having 13 people unwrapping presents at the same time makes for a little bit of crazy and a lot of fun.

It was all he talked about, and all he asked for. It was also one of the first things he found in his stocking... Thomas the Train. He was over the top thrilled about it. :) Ah the simple joys of being a child.

Tacyee enjoyed opening presents until she got to the present with all the baby things ( stroller, crib, swing) at that point she just layed on top of that present refusing to move. Maybe she though if she kept opening someone would steal it.

I think the most exciting thing for Taycee was all the candy she got in her stocking. She asked for another piece about every 10 seconds. Needless to say it didn't last too long.

Can you just feel the excitement from this picture. He had to have this game opened the moment it was unwrapped. The best part about Christmas with Kaden is that he was this excited about everything... seriously... everything. It didn't matter if it was a miniature candy bar, a tie, shoes, or the huge train tracks he got with each new reveal he squealed with joy and excitement. It made us all smile and feel pretty good.

This was the after.... it always makes me a little sad to see it all unwrapped and over.

We hope you all had a WONDERFUL Christmas.

SNOW!

We finally got enough snow to go play outside in our yard. Chris had been waiting for weeks for this to happen. Every time it snowed it was either too dark outside or a Sunday or the snow had melted by the time he got home from work. So when we woke up on a Saturday to a few inches and nothing planned he jumped on the opportunity. I am not sure who was more excited about tubing down our own little hill, Chris or the kids. All thoroughly enjoyed it.

Chris and Kaden decided to make a snow man. Chris thought it was a great idea to start the snowball at the top of the hill and push it down so it could collect snow on its own. It worked well... too well. Chris wanted the snowman to be in front of the house and by the time he rolled it around to the front it was too heavy to push.
Taycee loved playing outside. She took a few face plants in the snow and didn't even flinch.
This is the beaut of a snowman we ended with, it looked more like a frog and as you can see took up most of the snow in our yard. Our fun neighbors came over to join in the festivities, my kids are obsessed with Stella and ask for her almost daily.

I think our day in the snow was a success. It was followed by hot chocolate gingerbread men and Pinocchio.