Marie Poulson

For anyone who hasn't heard, my very Brave mother-in-law is running as a state representative in Utah. She has never been in politics before, but has been an educator for the last 16 years and recently retired as a high school English and History teacher.
Marie decided that she really wanted to try and make a difference especially with the current Education system they have in her district.

She has spent the last few months out knocking on EVERY door in her district, some more than once to meet the people in her district and let them know a little more about her and what she hopes to accomplish.

A local news station ran a story on her and her opponent last night since they are both running for the first time.

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Please feel free to watch the video and post a comment.

We are so proud of her and hope that all her efforts pay off!

If you live in her district (cottonwood heights) or know someone who does, please tell them to vote for her on November 4th.
We love you Nana!

Perfect Pumpkin Pancakes

We have a tradition of making pancakes Saturday mornings. But today I decided to try something a little different.
I made some great pumpkin pancakes from a new cook book Corinne sent me. (thanks nannie)
Here is the recipe if you want to try them too! Happy Halloween.

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 T. brown Sugar, packed
1 T. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. ground ginger
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1 1/2 cups milk
1 egg lightly beaten
2 T. oil

Combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and spices in a large bowl; set aside. Combine remaining ingredients in a separate bowl: mix well. Stir pumpkin mixture into flour, pouring just enough to moisten the mixture. (you will have some of the liquid leftover.)
Pour batter by 1/4 cupfuls onto a lightly hot, greased griddle. Cook until bubbles appear on the surface; turn onto other side and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes, until golden brown. (makes 16 small pancakes.)
Optional:
Add 1/4 Cup semi sweet chocolate chips
Use chocolate chips to make pumpkin faces and any green sweet for the stem.
(recipe by Joyce LaMure)
ENJOY!

(Next week is going to be Caramel French Toast!)

If only we could get Freddy Kreuger to kill with mistletoe...

When I got home from work today my wife made me sit down and read her previous post, and as much as I respect her valiant effort to repent of her sins by confessing them to the known world, before I get characterized as a Scrooge for my current ruling on Christmas music let me make some qualifying statements.

Now, I love Christmas as much as anyone, and I do like Christmas music (however I despise the canned Christmas Muzak that annoyingly plays in every department store starting sometime in August). My position against early Christmas music is actually about increasing the enjoyment of Christmas. Let me explain.


Our years are broken into specific segments and seasons. Those
seasons all have their things (except March and February, which I think we can all agree are the most useless of all months. Yes, I am looking at you Valentine's Day. You know you only bring pain and suffering into the world. Your cherubic mascot does not fool me). Because they are divided, they help us pass the time, and possibly heighten the enjoyment of that specific season. Now, you can look at the two pictures above, and tell that one of these things is not like the other. This specific time of year we celebrate the pagan new year by hoping that some film can literally scare us to the point that we lose bladder control, and celebrate children in association with tooth decay. That's what make October tolerable.

But Christmas is not just about toleration; it literally is the best time of the year. I mean it's got it all. You get off from work. You get together with family (unless you are a repressed anesthesia resident, but even then you get to be with immediate family). The food is awesome, everybody is generally happy, and to top it off you get presents. I mean come on man, how could it possibly be any better than that? It is freaking awesome, no doubt about it. I love Christmas. That's why I am arguing against its dilution.

See, if you play Christmas music all the time, then you are trying to convince yourself that today is the most wonderful time of the year. It is not possible for every day to be the most wonderful time of the year. I mean take April 15th for example. That day sucks. It's the day that Uncle Sam robs you blind and you have to bend over and take it. That is clearly not a wonderful day, so why should we lie to ourselves?

So please friends, don't dilute Christmas. Let it maintain its purity. If you don't it ends up looking like this.




And no one wants that

Confession

I got Caught...
As long as I can remember I have always LOVED Christmas music. I don't know, I guess there is nothing better to get you into that spirit of giving, the spirit of being nice to people (even if they are from New York and decide to stop in the middle of the road causing you to slam on your breaks and then looking at their map while you wait, oh so patiently.)

When I was a kid it seemed like there was limited Christmas music played on the radio during the holiday season.
My Mom would put up the 2 page newspaper calendar of all the Christmas shows up on the fridge and we'd highlight our favorites: Rudolph, Frosty, Miracle on 34Th street...
But I couldn't wait for the "100 hours" of Christmas music on "Light FM 100 Soft Hits...Less Talk." They would start a few days before Christmas and play all your favorite non-stop Christmas music. Then, just like it came, it was gone the day after and they were back to playing Dan Folgelberg and Love songs after dark.

But now things have changed. They start to play Christmas songs earlier and earlier. In fact you can't wait to hear something other than Christmas songs, (Or an Adam Sandler lets celebrate Hanukkah.) By the time Christmas gets here.

This being said, there is a "rule" in the Nate Poulson household that there will be "NO playing of Christmas music until Thanksgiving day." That's fair right?
Well the other day I had just talked to my family in Utah and heard it had snowed then I saw that they are putting up the Christmas lights display for "Sweet Lights" and I just couldn't help myself.
I popped in Jewels Christmas CD and had fun teaching Liam Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer while I sang the Harmony.

I had totally forgotten about this "infraction" and went about my business as usual. That is until we all got into the car and as soon as the car turns on, you hear Oh Little town of Bethlehem blaring from the speakers and Liam screaming "It's Christmas moosic Dada it's Christmas Moosic Shhhh don't tell Dada..."

BUSTED!

I of course pleaded the fifth and pretend that Liam had asked for it, and explained to him how disgusted I was that someone would be listening to Christmas music mid-October. The NERVE!

The problem is I can't get it out of my system. It's like the constant smell of chocolate has made me all loopy and all I think about is Hot Chocolate and chestnuts roasting on an open fire. (has anyone really roasted Chestnuts? Or is that a family tradition I was robbed of?)


(And yes this picture is straight out of the 80's with that awesome hair-do my mom is sporting and my awesome perm!
And yes we matched on purpose. I won't even go into detail about the time I wore our tree skirt as an actual skirt...)


So if you happen to pull along side me and hear Garth singing Christmas in country or Jewel yodeling Rudolph or the angelic opera sound of Josh Groban and O Holy Night...Just turn the other way or better yet sing right along with me.





Just to help you all get in the mood a little early. ENJOY!

(I had to remove the music box cause it was driving Nate and a few others crazy!)

9 Month Comparison

So here is a picture for Flash back Friday, (except that it's Saturday...)
I found these pictures of the boys, wearing the same outfit. (one of my very favorites. Thanks again Aunt Amy. A second time around!)
Maybe they gave me the wrong baby at the hospital? Or maybe because I am with them all I time and they are so different, they look different to me?
Anyways here are my beautiful little guys.

What would you do for a klondike bar???

So, Nate was so lucky and got the whole weekend off. Something that doesn't happen all too often especially lately.
I took full advantage of this and crammed in a bunch of my "TO DO's". Much to Nate's chagrin I'm sure, but he put on a brave face. He might have even enjoyed some of it!
First on the list: Family pictures. They turned out awesome! Thanks Annie. But you won't get to see it until I send out my Christmas card.
Second: Take pictures of my favorite row of tree's in the Fall. (check)
I'd promised to get some last year and the next thing I knew, a rain storm came through and in an instant they had all fallen off the tree's and my window of opportunity had closed until this year. These pictures don't do them justice so plan a trip to Hershey next year to see them in person. Totally worth it!




Third: Go to a local Orchard for Apple/pumpkin picking with the Banzhafs. (check)
The Banzhaf's asked if we wanted to join them on their traditional Paulus Orchard run. I of course said YES!

We got a little lost and happened to park in front of a good Samaritan, who took us to the Orchard personally. (Shame on me for thinking his true intentions were to take us to a remote location, kill us and take the boys...Ha who in their right mind would want 3 three years olds, a 9 month old and a 5 month old. Two of which are still nursing.)

The kids had an awesome time, but to tell you the truth, I think Nate and Mike enjoyed it the most.
They really wanted some of the Golden Delicious apples which had been really picked over, except for the tippy tops. So here is a clip of our "BIG" geniuses getting those apples...



Poor Owen. I think most of his pictures have the same background. (The green stroller) Sorry Kid! But he really enjoyed gumming this Cameo. Mmmmm





Liam on the other hand caught on and went right to work. Those apples are screwed on pretty tight!

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Here are some of the other photos from the days activities. We had a great time. And the Apples are delicious. I'd make a pie, but I'm a weirdo and I hate cooked fruit. Yuck!

Owen 8 months and counting...

So Owen has hit a few more milestones as of late. He got in his lower incisors, and the uppers seem to be coming in right behind. He still won't eat baby food, but any table food he can get his hands on, makes him extremely happy.

He also learned to drink from a straw. Both he and Liam learned this little trick at 8 months. It's so funny to see someone this small drinking from a straw. It makes it nice for transitioning purposes though.

But most importantly, he has started to Crawl, well more like commando crawl, where he drags himself across the floor with his elbows. He's actually pretty quick at it and we've had to start the baby proofing. The stairs are now blocked by the gate, and the doors to all the bathrooms must be closed at all times.
Like I said before, the time has seemed to fly by with this little guy. It makes me a little sad that he is getting big so fast, but at the same time I love how fun he is getting. He loves to play with Liam and Nate and wants to be doing whatever Liam is doing.

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