A few more from Breakfast with Santa

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like....

Christmas!!

Along with the rest of my family we took the kids to breakfast with Santa at the beginning of December. The kids had a great time meeting with Santa, Mrs. Claus, the Grinch and a polar bear. They ate breakfast, did crafts and even Adam had a little bit of fun. Here is a lucky shot that I took of Jason and the Mrs. He is actually smiling because she told him that Santa owns a pink sweater that he sometimes wears, so he should wear his pink shirt with pride.

Thanksgiving Weekend

This year we tried something new. We started a new Frampton family tradition. We decided to eat out. Oh it was the best idea that we have ever had! Everyone enjoyed the food and the fun. I enjoyed the lack of dirty dishes and the extra time that I had on my hands on Thanksgiving morning. Here are the kids after lunch right before heading out to out other new tradition.

We went to the movies. I know lots of families that go to the movies on Thanksgiving, but had never gone. We went to see Fantastic Mr. Fox. I loved it but the kids just thought that it was so-so. After the movies we went to my brother's house for dessert and dancing. Yes the traditional Balmanno Family Dance Party did happen this year. It was as fun as always. Everyone got in on the action, including Adam who did the Worm for everyone. Her are all of the Balmanno grand kids with a pie or cake or crumble. On top of this we also had ice cream for the kids to top off the pies. We always have way too much, but that is one of the great things about Thanksgiving. Lots of food.

Happy Thanksgiving! I am thankful for all of you!!

After getting the kids to bed Lewis and I went out to see the Jazz game. It did not start until almost 9pm. We called our friends to come and meet us so they drove up to watch the game. I had a great time chatting with them and watching the Jazz win.

The next day on "Black Friday" Adam and I got up at the awful hour of 3:45am and went to Wal-mart with my mom, brother and sil. We had a great time. I did not buy anything for Christmas but we got to go to breakfast and then we were home by 6:30am; just in time for me to take Mojito to the Vet to get snipped! I dropped him off and headed home to shower and meet up with Jess and Sean my favorite newlyweds! We were going to go shopping but after getting In' N' Out the lines were so long that we gave up and went home.

Overall the weekend was great. We ate, shopped, visited and ate some more.

Notes of Note

• School is out for the year!!!! (Well the numeric year that is. We have to go and finish this school year 09-10 BUT for 2009 SCHOOL IS OUT!!!)
  
• I sent out Christmas cards so if you did not get one then I need your address so post it as a comment. (NO this is not my way of getting people to post comments. I like getting mail so this is my way of having you give me your address so I can send you a card and then you can send one back to me; getting me more mail!!!)
  
• My Christmas decor is lacking this year. I have the tree, hearth, and banister done but that is it. When you look from the kitchen into the living room it looks nice, but when you look from the living room into the kitchen it almost looks laughable. So plain. Oh well, next year will be better.



• Christmas shopping is done (for the most part). Santa will be bringing the kids what they asked him for (for the most part). The only one left to buy for is Lewis. Any suggestions?
  
• I will have lots of time over the holiday break to blog! (Maybe... if I get around to it, and if the Internet cooperates!) No really. I am going to try and finish my backlog of updates and keep you updated on the new stuff too. I think I can, I think I can....

Countdown Until Christmas!!

9 days until Christmas

8 bills to pay

7 meals to plan

6 teacher gifts left to buy

5 days of school left

4 impatient children

3 "Christmas" dinners

2 dentist appointments

1 overwhelmed mother!

I Love My Freakishly Adorable Kids!!

School Reports

Both Abigail and Jason had reports this past month. Abigail did hers with the help of Tori, her TA. Her report was on an Herb Farm. Jason did his report all by himself. It was about Walt Disney. He had to even dress up like the guy! They both did a great job!!

New Moon

When New Moon came out I saw it twice in 15 hours. Thanks to Lewis for hauling out of bed and going in the middle of the night with me to the first one, and thanks to Jyl and Sheila for the fun second night. And thanks to Utah Mama for hosting the second one and getting us all of the fabulous swag that you see in the top left picture. The girls loved the teeth and fought over them for a week.

As for the movie I do have a small soft spot for Jacob now, but I am still and FOREVER will be an Edward girl. The Edward in the movie might not be my idea of Edward from the book, but they did what they thought best. Every one's idea of gorgeous is different and we should embrace those differences. Love you Edward!!

Ouch!

Haley fell at school. She was running and tripped over her own feet. Yikes!! Her teacher said that she fell straight onto her face. So we had to leave school and visit the doctor. She did not need stitches but she had to have her face scraped and she had some great bruises for a while. She has scars on her in each of the three spots but we are putting cream on them to hopefully make them go away. Poor baby!!

Four Freaks?

About a month ago I got together with a group of friends from West Point. I lived in New York during some of high school and these are my buddies from church. Kenny (the tall guy in stripes) came out to Utah for a short trip so we got together for dinner. They are the same as I remember them! I miss you guys!

PS. Adam says that Kenny looks like Edward from Twilight. Oh Kenny...OOPS I mean Edward!! I guess to Adam tall and skinny means Vampire Edward.

Haley's Birthday

Haley turned 7 in October. (I know, I am a bad mom! Sorry Haley. I am just really behind on blogging due to the slow computer!!) For Haley's birthday we went to Red Robin with Abigail, Sage and M.R. It was very yummy, and we got this giant piece of ice cream cake for free for Haley's birthday. We had a great time as you can see!!

Gardner Village

I took the kids to Gardner Village right before Halloween. They were off of school one day so we went down to see the witches and to have lunch. Here they all are with the hugging witch and our favorite "Witchy Poo".

Cotillion Class

Adam started Cotillion in October. He is learning how to be a polite, well balanced young man. They are learning how to dance, how to make a good first impression, and how to treat a lady. Here is his little friends group from the first night. Nobody really knew if they wanted to be there or not. Now after going 3 times they all are having a great time!

Halloween

Better late then never. :)

How Do You Spell Dream?

Lewis and I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Italy in October. Lewis made all of his goals at work so we got to go on an all expenses paid trip to Italy. It was amazing. Long lunches and dinners while sitting outside right on the ocean. Day trips to Capri and Pompei. Temps in the high 70's and low 80's in October! Heaven!!! Shopping, shopping, shopping. We had such a great time. I am not sure how you spell dream but this is how I spell dream:

And this is just the tip of the iceburg. We had such a great time!

UEA and Cornbellys

Our last event over UEA was to take the kids to Thanksgiving Point and go to the Halloween Festival called Cornbellys. We did the corn maze first and got lost (of course). When the kids were tired of walking around I took us to the end in about 60 seconds by cutting through the corn. Hey, we made it out right?

(Here is a picture of the allusive Miss Kendra and her crew of misfits!)

(Here is a picture of a tall hot guy that we met at the corn maze. The kids took a liking to him, so we kept him! And we let him buy us dinner.)

Afterward we walked around, smelled stinky pigs, shot pumpkins out of a cannon, took a ride on a tractor train, rode some mini petal bikes, walked through a haunted blow up monster and jumped on a huge moon bounce. By the time we were done with all of that it was dark and the kids were cold so we crossed the street and went to dinner at JCW's. Yummy. It was a great family night and everyone had a good time. It is nice that the older they get the easier it is for all of us to do something together and have a good time without fighting.

Haley Turned 7!!

Haley turned 7 over the UEA break. On Sunday we took the kids to breakfast for her birthday to Sweet Tomatoes (their favorite place). Then we took them to see Toy Story 1 & 2 in 3-D for our family party. It was great. Most of the kids do not remember seeing them because they were too little. We are all excited for the third installment to come out! For her gift she chose to get her ears pierced. FINALLY!! (Jess do you remember when we tried to take her?) She has gotten up in the piercing chair 3 times and chickened out 3 times! I was so proud of her when she did not even cry!

Then on Monday I took Haley and Abigail out to lunch with M.R. and Sage. We went to Red Robin (Haley's choice) for fries with ranch and birthday cake.
Happy Birthday sweet girl! I love you more then you will ever know!!

UEA @ The Homestead

Over the UEA break Lewis surprised the whole family with a weekend at The Homestead in Midway. We went up on Friday afternoon. They had a scavenger hunt set up for the kids. Our kids were all set and excited to do it. There was a candy surprise at the end but when they got to the end they had run out of candy. Needless to say our kids were less then thrilled. So we decided to get our tennis shoes on and go get dinner. Well I had quickly packed for the whole family and I accidentally packed Abi's left shoe and Haley's left shoe (they have the exact same set of shoes) for Abigail to wear. Well she could not wear those so we drove to Park City and bought her some new tennis shoes. While we were there we stopped for some dinner before going back and hitting the pool. The next morning we went to a local diner for breakfast because I did not want to pay $18 a person for breakfast at The Homestead. After breakfast Lewis rushed us back so that we could participate in a secret activity that he had planned for all of us. He had a reservation for us all to go swimming in the Crater.It was one of the coolest things that we have done. Jason was scared to death because he did not know how the life jacket was going to hold him up in the 30+ foot deep water. Luckily for him we made him go in and we all had a great time.After the swim we went back to the cabin, got our stuff, checked out and then headed to Heber. We went to the park, went shopping, and had lunch before our second surprise activity of the day. Lewis took us to ride the Heber Valley Railroad. We have lived here for about 8 years and we have never done it. The kids had a great time! It was just short enough not to get bored and long enough not to want more.

When we all done we headed to Susan's to get Mojito and head home. The kids had a great time, and I was very happy to do something fun with them before we left for Italy.

Because of my last post I now know that people from Virginia, Tennessee and Mississippi read my blog! I love that! At least I know that the southern girls appreciate my type of humor! Now what can we do about you Utah ladies??? I guess I never have fit in well here. Maybe if I start blogging about my crafts... hmmmm.....

Maybe Everyone Everywhere Reads My Blog!

So this is what I found on my blog today as a comment. How is that for customer service? Problem is there is not much that they can do. I will be calling him tomorrow to see if there is anything at all that he can find. I need a faster connection!!!!!!

Hey there Miss Kendra, this is Brian with Qwest. I don't want to bug ya, but I read a part of your blog post here, and saw you mentioned your DSL is running slow with uploading/downloading pictures. I just wanted to offer to take a look at your line, and see if there is anything wrong that we can fix...maybe get it running a little faster. It sounds like you've already checked into faster speeds, which I'd be happy to see if there are any plans to deploy fiber or DSL upgrades in your area anytime soon as well.If you want me to do some digging for you on this, send me an e-mail to TalkToUs@Qwest.com and I'll be happy to help.

Thanks, B Consumer Affairs Manager
Qwest Communications
www.socialmedia.qwest.com
November 2, 2009 11:24 AM

FYI... Too far out in the middle of nowhere is only 1.5 miles from the highway...

Merry Christmas! OOPS!! I mean Happy Halloween!!!

The girls are Elves and Lewis is Santa. It is so cute!! Even Mojito got in on the fun and dressed up as a mini Santa.

Explanation

Yes, I am behind on blogging. Yes, there is a TON to tell all of you. Yes, it seems like I am being a slacker.

BUT!

Seriously. I know that is a giant but. There is a really good reason why I have not been blogging. I am pregnant!! NOT!!!! HaHa!!!! As if!!!

Okay the real reason is that we have moved into this big, wonderful new house. I could not have asked for more with this house. The inside is wonderful. The rooms are big. We have a huge yard with swings, room to run, a new zip line that we just put in, and much much more BUT this house does have a big problem. Something that almost makes me want to move. Almost, but not quite. We can't get Comcast here. Which means that we use Qwest for our Internet access. It is inexpensive and fine BUT (another huge but) it is so dang slow! It takes me 10 minutes to download one picture onto the blog and then half of the time it won't finish. It is horrible! They have a faster service but they will not bring it to use because we live to far in the middle of nowhere. Great. So then we tried to go with Digis which is a wireless network that uses radio waves or something like that. Guess what? Our trees in the backyard block the signal from getting to the house so that is out too. Freaking' Internet. So I am trying my best to do my blog but until I figure out a better way the posting are going to be few and far between. Sorry :(

So here is my first catch up for this month. At the beginning of the month my kids got a long weekend for UEA. It is a Utah thing. It is supposed to be Utah Education something but it is really so all the dads can go hunting. Anyway, we took the kids out for the weekend for a little staycation. We drove the 45 minutes up to Midway and Heber for Friday and Saturday. We stayed at the Homestead Resort. We got a cabin with 3 bedrooms and a kitchen. It was mucho chilly up there compared to here in the valley so the kids all brought their coats.

Here they are in the sled that sits in front of the lobby.

Stay tuned for more about UEA, Haley's birthday, Italy, our new house, Halloween and more!

Much to tell.

Way too tired.

Must go to bed.

I leave you with a sneek peek of Pompei:

We had a great time!! I will tell you more later!

ps. Haley kicked a girl at school today not once, but twice. Welcome home Kendra, welcome home.

Italy!!

I am going on a trip tomorrow
Don't feel sad and blue,

I know that you will miss me,
I will miss you too,

I be back in 6 more days
with stories for all of you.

Who wants to see my cute kids?

If you want to see a sneak peek of my cute kids go here:

http://shannonhaddenphotography.blogspot.com

Shannon took the cutest shots of my little kiddos. This was our second session with her and as always she was fabulous. She has much more patience with my kids during pictures then I do! If you know my kids then you know that at least one of the 4 of them do not cooperate when it is time to get things done. I literally had to walk away because they were making me frustrated, but she was a calm cucumber. I highly recommend her for all of your picture needs!

P.S. Just ignore the pictures with me in them. She is a great photographer, but she can't perform miracles.

Boys, Bugs, Beef

BOYS

Tonight Lewis and I took 5 kids to the movies and left 2 boys (who did not want to go) home alone for about 2.5 hours. The boys that were left home alone are both 11 and have stayed home many times just long enough for us to go to the movies and come back. I fed them before I left, told them that they could have a snack but not another dinner, gave instructions on what they were allowed and not allowed to do, and I felt completely comfortable leaving them. When I got home I could have screamed. Maybe I did a little. They had made a full on meal. Toaster over pizza things and drinks. Wait! It gets better. They were eating it in the living room, which is a really big NOT ALLOWED in the new house. They had a whole picnic set up with trays and chairs and everything. Yeah, it bugged me but I did not yell yet.

BUGS

I did not yell until I saw the 10,000 (no exaggeration at all!!) bugs covering my ceiling, kitchen table, doors, windows and walls. I gagged. No really, I did. (If you know me, then you know that I do not like bugs. The don't scare me but I think that they are disgusting and I want nothing to do with them. It is the only reason that I regret moving into this house. The bugs from the woods!) So anyway, they were everywhere. And I got pissed. Of course the boys have no idea how they got into the house, they did not leave the door open. Yeah. Okay. I can tell you this, if I am not around to tell kids to shut the door then it will not get shut. But they assured me that it was not them. (It must have been Mojito. Yeah because he can open doors and leave them open while he goes outside.) So these bugs are everywhere. Flying around landing on me, on the floor, counter everywhere. Lewis gives Adam the vacuum to suck them up and he is mad that he has to do the job. Whatever kid, get over it. You made the mess now deal with it. I ended up doing it myself after he "tried". I really do not know what happened but I can say that he will never leave the door open after he goes in and out ever anywhere again.

BEEF

We took the other 5 kids to see Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs tonight for a fun night out. The movie was funny and all 5 kids liked it, and Lewis did too. Lots if funny food jokes and with Mr.T doing the voice of a crazy security guard in tiny tight shorts made for a great time for both kids and adults.

Overall a good night. The beef was good, but the boys bugged me. :)

P.S. I still feel like the bugs are crawling all over me!! AAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Things I Hate About You (Work Addition)

That is right kids! It is time for another addition of Things I Hate About You...

This is my third installment of the ever changing list of things that I hate about you. Basically I hate everything about everyone for different reasons.

(Not really, but I can find a way to hate everything if you really want me too, but it would take me a long time, so this is for fun writing purposes only. Well and a little bit to vent about how I feel. I am in NO way talking about MY place of business. Just about people I know and things that they do.)

1. I HATE that you can call into work every Monday or Friday (depending on the week) sick because you have a runny nose or a scratchy throat. Listen, we all want a 3 day weekend every week but we just can't have it. If I have to be here then so do you. Suck it up and take some Pepto.



2. I HATE that you get to go out to lunch on your lunch hour. My whole day is lunch. I make the deposits. I run the lunch system. I scan the lunch cards. I open the lunch milks. And then I eat the same thing that we give to the kids. We eat and we talk about lunch; what went well and what we need to change. Just once I want to be able to go to Zuppas and sit for 45 minutes and have a salad and soup. But until then I will eat lunch in the Staff Lounge with everyone else and dream of a lunch hour away talking about shoes and handbags or some other girly crap like that.



3. I HATE that you get to talk crap about your bosses! So not fair!!! I can't even post on Facebook or my blog without everyone seeing my every thought about everyone! Not that I hate my boss, actually the opposite (Hey Sanford! Actually I think he stopped reading my blog months ago...), I just wish I could vent and not get called into the bosses office to "explain myself". Humpf!



4. I HATE that you judge me for working outside of the home. I have two words for you on that subject. Bite Me. My kids are better behaved, smarter, and better cared for then yours, and you stay home. (This is not about anyone who reads this so stop being all offended!)



5. I HATE that you think my job is easy and that I don't do anything. I really do not feel like defending myself to you so I won't. Let me just say to all of you who think my job is cake: you try it for a month and then you can let me know what you think.

Well, that is it for tonight. I hope you enjoyed this addition of

The Things That I Hate About You!

Things I Hate About You, But That I Would NEVER Do

So here is my second, yet slightly different installment in my Things I Hate About You series. I wanted to do a full 5 more things that I hate about you that I also hate about me, but alas I am tired and do not have much time to think tonight before bed so this will be a short and sweet post.

I HATE when people invite you to do something hoping that you will pay for them to do it too!

WHAT?!?!

I know! What is up with that? I had an acquaintance (would not really call them friends) call and ask if we wanted to go to the movies, just to say that they were hoping that we would go online and get the tickets and that they would "Get the next one". Again...

WHAT?!?!

It is not like I am made of money, and at the same time it is not like I mind getting a movie this time, if they get it next time, but good grief!! I got the last movie!!! And the popcorn! If this keeps going they are going to owe us a years worth of movies by October.

Glad I got that one off of my chest.

Until the next installment...

P.S. Don't ask who it was, because I am not gonna tell. No matter what. Well, unless you wanna pay for me to go to the movies..... :)

Happy Labor Day!!

This was the fruit of my labors today. I put these together for my back porch. They sit right outside of my bedroom door. Ahhhh.....

When I was opening the hardware packaging for the table I pulled too hard and the washers and screws flew everywhere and fell down the tiny cracks in the porch. I screamed, "Oh Fudge!!"

No, really. I said fudge.

Then I had Haley and Jason crawl under the porch to get the washers that flew underneath. Everything got put together and I did not get any spider bites. Thanks kids!

P.S. Lewis put the trampoline that you see in the background together today. Good job honey!

Don't you love it when you catch the kids playing nice together and they don't ever have a clue that you were there?

Doggy Paddle

Mojito jumped into the local pond and had a swim. He loved the water, but he was disgusting after he was done. We had to take him home and have his first home bath. He was so cold afterward that he ran and covered himself up completely with the blanket in his bed. I had to uncover him a little to take this picture. So cute!!

Sneak Peek

I know that there are no curtains, and I have put up pictures since I took these, but I have had so many people ask me to see pics of the house I thought that I would give you all a little sneak peek!!

Gymnastics

First Day of School (for the rest of us)

Abigail started all day kindergarten this past month. She is so grown up! She was so excited to get to school and be there all day with the big kids. Look at how cute she is in her little uniform! I had the hardest time finding her school clothes. She is still so tiny that even extra small is too big and falls off of her. I ended up getting her clothes in the baby section at Target and Walmart. She is wearing 4T pants and skirts with 5T shirts from Old Navy. With that said I took her to the doctor last week and she is on the charts! She is in the 4th percentile for weight and the 14th percentile for height! Yeah!!! She has never been on the charts before. (And guess what? She is actually TALLER then one other kid in her class, even though she is the youngest!)