Christmas 2008

I hope you all had a great Christmas. I would say this year was the best ever for us. I'm telling you I love this no traveling do our own tradition thing. We stayed at our house, wore our pajamas all day long, everyone got what they wanted and all was right with the world (yes I like that movie).

At about 6:30 Christmas morning I heard one of the kids get up and use the bathroom and I thought "Here we go, time to get up", then he went back to bed. I went back to sleep, and then at about 8 the kids came in our room asking if they could open presents. We were getting up and all the kids went into B's room and entertained themselves until about 8:30. Can you believe we got to stay in bed until 8:30 Christmas morning?

So then we went downstairs, and the kids looked through their stockings.

Then we went into the living room and read from Luke Chapter 2 (it's tradition). You can tell Baby Girl has been downing the chocolate (my kind of girl).

After that the kids finally got to tear into their presents, and we made them open them one at a time taking turns (it's tradition).

Even the dogs got in on it.

For breakfast we had cinnamon rolls (again tradition) eggs, bacon, and hot chocolate.

For the rest of the day we played games, played with Christmas gifts and watched movies. It was very low key, relaxing, and enjoyable to spend time together as a family. For dinner we had ham (you guessed it, tradition) and all the fixings. It was a great day.

What did you do for Christmas? This will probably be my last post for a little while. The kids and I will be visiting my family for the next week. I hope you have a great New Year celebration. Be safe, and don't do anything I wouldn't do!

Twas the night before Christmas...

And all through OUR house every creature was stirring, but thankfully no mouse.

The stockings were lined on the table with care, because we don't have a chimney (I know it's not fair).

The children were nestled all snug in our bed, waiting for the Christmas story to be read.

Whatever you're doing on this wonderful night, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!

Happy Meal

Today we met a friend at McDonalds for lunch (to let the kids play not because we love their food). Baby Girl got her first Happy Meal ever. In her Happy Meal was a My Little Pony toy - only Baby Girl hasn't been playing with it all day. These two have:

I have to say I'm a little dumbfounded. They usually won't touch "girly toys". But in the last hour, I have heard "Mom he won't give me the brush so I can brush her hair" and "Mom he isn't giving me a turn with the pony". I guess Baby Girl is softening us all up.

I love this little girl

I was holding Baby Girl the other day while I was brushing my teeth and getting ready. She is in a really fun stage where she repeats everything I say, and she has the cutest little voice. I was standing there holding her and saying every word I could think of that wouldn't be too hard for her to say. She would promptly repeat it and then laugh. Then I noticed that she was copying my every move. I would tilt my head, she would tilt hers, I clicked my tongue, she clicked hers, I smiled, she smiled. It was so darn cute. It melted my heart that she was trying to be exactly like me. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my boys, but this little girl brings out a side of me I didn't really know was there. She is so gentle, so sensitive, so girly, and sometimes moody, whiny and stubborn, but I love it. I'll take the good with the bad and I absolutely adore her.

It is humbling (and a little scary) to me to think that my children are watching my every move. When Baby Girl was copying me I thought to myself "Don't you be like me, you are going to be much better than I am." It was just a little reminder to me that on my worst and my best days I have four little sets of eyes that are watching and trying to be just like me.

It's BACK!!!

First read THIS.

We have passed this keychain back and forth many times over the last year. One time we found it in our dishwasher, one time I taped it to the Children's songbook so when Don sat down to play the piano he would find it. When John went to New York he left it at their house, and that is where it has been for a little while.

Yesterday my sister in law came over, it was late at night, and she came over to ask a question. After she left I thought "Well that was strange, she could have just called for that." but, whatever. Fast forward to this morning. I am looking out the window watching the kids walk to school when something in the tree catches my eye. Upon closer inspection I find this:


Apparently John's brother sent it to John's sister so that she could come over and sneak it onto our tree. Thus the reason for the late night visit and the strange question. I have to say we got a good laugh about it, and doesn't it look so pretty on our tree? We already have a plan in the works about how we are going to get it back to them.

You learn something new every day

Today I learned that a bottle of kids shampoo spilled on the carpet outside the bathroom takes approximately 47 minutes to clean up with a carpet cleaner.

I didn't know that before.

Starting Over

Remember when I started this?? I got to day 21 of the program and then had 2 friends who wanted to work out with me. So, we started the whole thing over, and on Friday we finished it. Someone told me I should post a picture of me when I finished it so here it is:




Yeah, okay it's not me. I'm not brave enough to post a picture of me dressed like that on the internet. I will say that I have noticed a big difference in the way my body looks though. My arms are a little more defined, and my abs look better than they have looked in years. So, if you want to get in great shape I definitely recommend this book. The workouts are hard (infact they will kick your butt every single day) but well worth it in the end.

Today we started over on day 1 except this time we are doing each circuit twice. It's a whole new level of pain. This morning was hard (we did 200 squats along with all the other exercises), but the best thing about it was knowing that when I first started I could barely get through the circuit and now I am doing each circuit twice. I am definitely stronger and have a lot more endurance. I guess I will take back all the mean things I have said about Jillian during the workouts!!

It's a major award...

First off you have to tell me what movie the title of this blog post came from. Wow! I've won my first award, and I didn't even prepare a speech for this moment. My awesome friend over at this blog gave me the "Your blog is fabulous!" award. It even has a cool picture to go with it that I can post in my sidebar. I don't know what to say, I'd like to thank all the people that made this award possible. Or maybe I should wish for world peace or something.

Ok, here are the rules about this award:

Firstly - I must list 5 of my fabulous addictions:

Twilight

chocolate

Survivor, Amazing Race, and The Biggest Loser

exercising

blogging

Secondly - I must pass this award on to 5 other fabulous blogs:

I am awarding this to people who I find inspiring, entertaining, or just flat out hilarious.

Spoiled Rotten (awesome college friend)

Next to the Walkman and Tab... (again awesome college friend)

Jasheen (best friend growing up)

Easily Amused (In my ward.. seriously she has the best thoughts and recipes on her site)

A Pocketful of Sunshine (friend in my ward)

Congratulations, one and all!

Thirdly - I must post the rules:

The rules of this award are:

1. You have to pass it on to 5 other fabulous blogs in a post.
2. You have to list 5 of your fabulous addictions in the post.
3. You must copy and paste the rules and the instructions below in the post.

Instructions: On your post of receiving this award, make sure you include the person that gave you the award and link it back to them. When you post your five winners, make sure you link them as well. To add the award to your post, simply right-click, save image, then "add image" it in your post as a picture so your winners can save it as well. To add it to your sidebar, add the "picture" gadget. Also, don't forget to let your winners know they won an award from you by emailing them or leaving a comment on their blog.

A Gingerbread Christmas

Yesterday was J's school play. His grade did "A Gingerbread Christmas". He was a toy soldier. He got to play the kazoo and had a line in the rap song. As far as school plays go, it was really good. Sorry about the picture quality here, the lighting in the school gym is HORRIBLE!


Here he is playing the kazoo.


And here he is rapping. Watch out Puff Daddy (or whatever his name is now). You can tell here that we are several rows back. We're not one of the good parents that get there an hour and a half early to get a seat in the front row. =)


And, speaking of Gingerbread, we made our gingerbread house the other day. We (gulp) bought one of the kits this year. I let the kids decorate it however they wanted and this is how it turned out. I think they did a pretty good job even though that Gingerbread man in the front looks a little like an alien.


The boys enjoyed decorating the house.

Baby girl enjoyed eating all the candy.

And my Christmas cards are almost done. I can't seem to get motivated to finish them, so they are going to be a little bit later than usual, but I haven't received a lot of cards so I'm thinking I'm not alone in this.

It's the most awesome thing EVER!!

We are now the proud owners of this bad boy!! One of the offices John works at closed down, and no one could reach the person who maintains this machine. After lots of phone calls, we found out that the guy is in jail and not coming out anytime soon. So, the office manager gave the machine to us...for FREE. Our kids think we are so cool now. It is fully stocked with all the caffeine free Dr. Pepper we bought in Utah. Next time you are in our garage, feel free to enjoy a nice cool beverage of your choice.

These boots were made for walking..

And if those don't stomp you, then the Nerf gun should take care of it. Can you tell she lives in a house full of boys?

I just love taking pictures

While we were on vacation my family was nice enough to let me take pictures of them. It's something I really enjoy and I feel like I am bothering my husband and kiddos all the time to pose so I can snap something of them. It's nice to have fresh meat (not quite sure if that is the right phrase, but oh well). Here are some of my favorite pictures, and I will be posting more on my photo site as I get them cropped and edited.

Right now, my entire focus is on lighting and composition (which I don't always get right). Perhaps when I get better at that I can work on things like posture, posing, how to place hands, etc. etc.

I've become one of them...

I remember when I got accepted to BYU. I remember telling my church leaders the good news and they would say how much I was going to love it there. Their eyes would gloss over while they talked about all the fun I would have and then I would realize they were in an entirely different place. While we were driving around in Provo I realized I have become one of those people. I can't help it. Almost every street corner and building held a memory for me. We drove past the apartments where John and I first lived after we were married, past the hospital where one of my children was born. We drove past a restaurant where our friends told the Indian cook that his food was not spicy and the cook took his plate to the back brought it back out and watched with a satisfied expression while our friend's face turned red and tears streamed down his cheek. We drove past Stover Hall where I lived my freshmen year with my best friend, past the apartments where John and I met, past the softball field where we used to play intramurals every year...

There are so many good memories in that city. If there was a way to travel through time there are a couple of college years I would love to repeat, they were just so fun. And, I know when my kids ask me about BYU I will get all glossy eyed remembering all the fun I had.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!

We will be out of town for the rest of the week, so I probably won't be blogging for a while. I just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!!

Right now I am starving and am thankful for food. I have been dreaming about the Thanksgiving Feast for the last couple of days now. I am grateful we have food when we are hungry and that John's job provides us with the things we need. On Thursday I will be especially thankful for turkey, mashed potatoes, and homemade rolls. YUM!!!

Because everyone deserves a second chance...

Despite my former sentiments about the movie Twilight, I went to see it again today. I have to say I actually liked it the second time. Maybe I did have my expectations set too high when I went yesterday. I loved the baseball game, and I think James, Laurant, and Victoria were my favorite actors in the movie. I listened a little more to the sound track this time, and I absolutely loved the music. Infact, some of the songs will be added to my playlist if I can find them. So, here's my advice, go in to the movie telling yourself that you aren't going to like it, and you'll be pleasantly surprised. I was.

Disappointed

Today I saw this movie:

I absolutely LOVED the books. I went in to the movie knowing that I would not like it as much as the books (movies are never as good). But, I was still disappointed. I just don't get Hollywood, I guess. If you have a book that people love, why change it up? Stick to the script people, is that so hard???? I don't want to ruin the movie for anybody who is going to see it, but there were several parts from the book that the movie butchered. My favorite part of the book is the whole "Edward in the sun" meadow scene. That was the worst part of the movie I thought. Anyway, I won't sit here and gripe anymore. Has anyone else seen it? What did you think?

Today I am thankful for time out. I love my kids, but I relish the time I have away from them also. It is good to get out with friends, recharge a little bit, and have adult conversations. I think it makes me a better mother. I always come home feeling refreshed.

Grateful

I cannot let today pass without writing something about my Mom. It was 10 years ago today that we said goodbye to her as we attended her funeral. As you can imagine, that Thanksgivng was hard for our family. That Thanksgiving and the several following were very hard for me each year as we came upon the anniversary of her death. My Mom was my greatest supporter, my sounding board, the person I called when I was sad, happy, or needed advice. I missed her dearly then and still do now. It was hard when each of my children were born to not have her there with me. It was hard when she was not there at my brother's wedding or my oldest son's baptism. Yes, there have been hard days and sad days but I do not wish to dwell on that today.

It took many years before the grieving at Thanksgiving started to turn into a celebration of her life and the wonderful memories I had of her. Today I was thinking about some of the memories I have of her and these are a few I thought of:

We were making dinner together once and a song came on the radio and my Mom started dancing. I was a teenager and thought "My Mom is being a dork". Pretty soon though I couldn't help but laugh and soon I was dancing like a dork too.

One time I got a curling iron stuck in my hair (it was one of those curling iron brush things they used to make). I was distraught over it and was sitting on the floor almost in tears because I thought I was going to have to chop my hair off. My Mom was untangling my hair and every few minutes would turn her head to hide a chuckle. I didn't see what was so funny about it, but my Mom had a way of turning every situation into something funny.

Everytime we went somewhere - on a date, to a dance, to a school activity, etc - we would have to go into my Mom's room when we got back and report to her about how everything went. I remember several chats with her late at night about which boys I liked, how tennis was going, and how my friends were.

I could go on and on, but the last one I will share was the last time I saw her. It was for my wedding. We had many special experiences that week. A few days before my wedding we got the opportunity to go through the Mt. Timpanogos temple - me, My Mom and My Dad. When we got to the celestial room, the three of us were standing together when my Dad burst into tears. My Mom started crying also and of course I did too. They hugged me and said "You don't know how long we have been waiting for this." As I am a mother now, I comprehend better the feelings they had and what they were conveying in that statement. I am sure that when I have that opportunity with my children it will be a very sweet experience.

On my wedding day, my Mom and I were in the bridal room together and I went in to change into my dress. I came out and my Mom gasped and said "You look beautiful!!" I felt like a princess. Then she said "I never thought you would look more beautiful than me, but I guess you're allowed on your wedding day." Again, her sense of humor always made me laugh.

I am thankful that I know that families are forever. That death is not the end. I am grateful to a loving Heavenly Father who had a plan in place for me to return to him and be with my family forever. I am grateful to my Savior for his atonement that made this plan possible. Neal A Maxwell said "The cavity which suffering carves into your soul will one day be the receptacle of joy". I know that this is true and that one day I will be with my Mom again. I look forward to that glorious day.

It almost made me cry

I like to write little notes for my kids. I leave them on their pillows, in their lunchbox, and various places around the house. It is something my Mom did and I still have a few of the notes she left for me. I left a note on J's bed about a week and a half ago, and to be honest I completely forgot about it until I found a letter from him on my bed. It was sealed in an envelope and was addressed to me, and had his name and address in the upper left hand corner (they are working on addressing envelopes in school). This is what it said:

Dear Mom,

I haven't wrote to you at all, so I'll take this opportunity. I got your letter you left on my bed, I read it every night before I go to bed. do you have a good time wen I'm at school? I'm always happy wen I come home. I love your home made food. hope you write back.

Love J

It almost made me cry. I loved it and will most certainly write him another letter. Maybe I'll even put it in an envelope and address it to him.

Today I am thankful to be loved. Yesterday I came home from church and various meetings and was exhausted. As soon as I walked in the house I literally had 4 little rug rats hugging my legs. Honestly I wanted to collapse and take a nap, but how can your heart not skip a beat when you come home to something like that? It made my whole day. I love my children and am grateful they love my unconditionally even though I am not always the best Mom. I love the hugs, the slobbery kisses, and the "I wove you's" they shower me with, it makes up for the fingerprints on the windows and the peanut butter and jelly wiped on my pants. I know all to soon they will be grown up and someday I might even miss the dirty clothes and tiny handprints on the glass.

GO BYU!!!

We went to the BYU/Air Force game today. All I have to say is:

BYU ROCKS!!

It was awesome!

Houston, we have a climber

John poured some cereal today, went to get the milk, came back and Baby Girl was on the chair eating out of his bowl. He moved the bowl farther away, and Baby Girl got up on the table. I saw her and said "Great, now we have to make sure the chairs are all pushed in."


"That won't stop her," John said "watch this."


He then pushed all the chairs in, took Baby Girl's toy away from her, put it on top of the table and stood back. Baby Girl pulled out the chair, climbed up, and then got on the table.



Apparently he saw her do it yesterday. What a stinker!!



I don't like it when they start to climb, it makes me so nervous.



Today I am thankful for John's parents. I am grateful that he was raised in the church and taught by loving parents. I am thankful that his Mom taught him how to treat a lady and taught him that family was important. I am thankful his Dad taught him the value of hard work and earning a living. I am thankful they both taught him to honor his priesthood, and planted seeds of testimony that would grow and develop as he matured. I am thankful that they welcomed me with open arms into their family and they support us in our decisions now, and love our children. I couldn't ask for better in-laws.

New Lens!!

Yeah, my new lens arrived yesterday!! It is a prime lens which means it doesn't have any zoom (my feet are the zoom), but the thing I love about it is the aperture opens really wide. That gives pictures the nice blurred background (called bokeh). Like this:



You pick the focal point and that is in focus and the rest of the picture is not. Here is a practical application:


See how J is in focus and the background is fuzzy? Please tell me you can see it.

You have to be really careful what you focus on though or you blur things you don't want to like this:

Her face is all fuzzy. I can't wait to test this out some more. I posted a few more pictures on my photo site, click on "A Thousand Words" in my blog list if you want to check them out.

Shame on me, I have been forgetting to write something I am thankful for with each post. These last few weeks I have been complaining about the kids being sick so often this year. Today I am thankful for our health. We are a relatively healthy family. We have friends that watched their son struggle with cancer for three years before he finally passed away. I am so thankful that we don't have to experience that. We have nothing chronic or serious to deal with. I'll take the occasional colds and stomach flu any day over something like that.

It's finished!!!

Remember the scarf I started a while ago in the knitting group?? Well it's done, and I made a cute little hat too. I think they are darling (that might be the first time I have used that word), but tell me what you think. I am going to make a little brown flower to put on her hat and scarf, I think that will make it even cuter.

Of course, I would love anything on this girl.

Happy Blogiversary!!!

It all started one year ago today. That's when my obsession with blogging began. In that year I have connected with old friends, kept up with family members who live out of state, and chronicled the sometimes exciting, sometimes mundane happenings of our lives.

I have a tracker installed on this blog (bet you didn't know I was spying on you) that tells me who visits and what they look at. It is interesting to me how people sometimes end up on my blog. So, in honor of my blogiversary I am proclaiming today a holiday and I thought I would post the top viewed blog entries on this site. Perhaps you will find it interesting as well.

My top viewed blog entry with 87% of the votes(meaning 87% of the people who came to my blog viewed it) is this (go ahead and click on it):

Classical Conditioning?

Really?? I didn't think that post was that exciting, but statistics never lie, right?

The second most viewed blog entry( with 46% of the votes) was this

Crazy Balloon Animals

There was a tie for third place. Both of these posts got 34% of the traffice on this site:

Maybe we're not so cool anymore
Oh the inhumanity!!!

My favorite post? This:

Rockband anonymous??

And just for fun, these are some of the words people have done a search on and been directed to my site:

navel heron (hmmm, don't know what they were looking for or why they would find it on my site)

baby girl labor ballons (no I don't sell those, sorry)

creasy balloon (don't know how to get the wrinkles out)

is he married to a computer or me? (Yes someone searched on that and was directed to my site. Either they need some help or I need some help)

And the weirdest:
punishment soap in butt (not even going to touch that one)

Well, thanks to all of you for reading my blog and commenting. I love reading your comments and staying in touch with all of you through the wonderful world of blogging.

When in trouble, when in doubt...

Run in circles, scream and shout!!

But be careful not to fall down!!

I'm grateful for:

My husband of ten years, John. We've been through good times, and we have been through bad times. Through it all he has been by my side. What a great example he has been to me of patience, humility, and seeing the bright side of things. He's a wonderful husband, an excellent father, and hopefully the next ten years are as wonderful as the last ten have been.

Thunk!

Yesterday I gave Baby Girl her lunch and then was going around the house doing other things. I heard a soft thunk and went to check on her and found this:

She's out

Another thing I'm thankful for:

Today John and I went to the temple. It was a special experience. We did sealings and I distinctly felt the impression that someone had waited a long time for this work to be done. I am so grateful for the temple and my knowledge that family relationships go beyond the grave. I am grateful for the feelings of peace and hope that come to me as I walk through the temple doors. I am grateful for the increased feelings of love I feel towards my family after I have been to the temple. I love to serve there and to do work for those that cannot do it for themselves. What a blessing it is to have a place of refuge and peace in these times.

Check It

Okay, so maybe I am tooting my own horn here, but everytime I pass through my front room I have to stop and look at these pictures.



I took all these pictures myself except the one in the middle (hard to take a picture of yourself). I even MADE the vinyl lettering above the pictures myself!! I love it. I could sit in my front room all day and look at these (does that make me vain?). Anyway I just had to post it.

Continuing my "thankful" theme:
I am thankful for the 4 little children that live in my home. I love nothing in the world more than them. You might be asking "What about John?" John pulls at a different set of heartstrings. There are only 4 people in the world who have shared a body with me. There are only four people I have physically helped bring into this world. There are only four people I have sometimes woke up every 10 minutes during the night to check on and make sure they are okay. There are only four people who have showed me how unselfishly I could love another human being. I love being a mother. I love the things my children are constantly teaching me about life, about how I should be, and about how much my Heavenly Father loves me. I am indeed grateful for the opportunity I have to call myself their Mother.

Halloween Stuff

I found my camera, so here are the halloween pictures I promised.



Since we have moved to Colorado, I have bought the kids costumes a couple of sizes too big because, without fail, it is freezing that night and the kids have to wear about three layers of clothes and their coat underneath their costume. This year was different. We had unseasonably warm weather (I think it was 70 degrees during the day). It made for a pleasant night of trick or treating. Here are the kids in their costumes:



We also made caramel apples




This guy couldn't stay away from them.

And of course we carved pumpkins.

John's puking pumpkin. Nice, right?

I have decided to start writing something I am thankful for with each of my posts to celebrate the season of Thanksgiving. So here it goes:

With the election over, I can't help but be thankful that I live in a country that is a democracy. Even if the candidate I supported did not win, at least I had the option of researching the candidates, choosing the candidate I thought would do the best job, and then voting for him. I am so thankful that I have that right. When I look at other countries around the world, I am very, very grateful that I live in the good old U S of A.

My life since Friday...

The glass object in the foreground of the picture?? The candy dish. See the sad deprived look on her face?? If someone leaves the candy dish on the island, this girl cries and reaches for it until she gets a piece of candy. Or two. Or three.

The championship belt, and finally a first

I haven't posted Halloween pics yet, they are on my other camera and I seem to have misplaced that. So, look for those in the next couple of days.

First, let me say that I know I am a dork. We are Settlers addicts, and play quite often with our friends. I think we all mentally keep track of who wins the most and we have joked about making some kind of "championship belt" to pass from winner to winner. Well, the other day I won and decided that it was time to make the belt (this is where the dorkiness comes in). So here it is, in all of it awesomeness. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the coveted "Ruler of Catan" championship belt (photo courtesy of my son):

You all want it, don't you???

And, look at this picture! Baby Girl finally has enough "hair" to put a bow in. Do you know how long I have been waiting for this day? The bow is staying in place mostly due to the velcro that is on the clip, but I'm going to pretend it is because she has hair. Either way, she looks cute.


I'm sitting here trying to come up with something else to write about mostly because I don't want to go down in the basement and do Jillian's workout. Guess I've run out of things to say. Unless you want to hear my political views, or my joke about monkeys in the trees?? Do you??? Off to the basement I go.

He approves this message

I thought it was just so cute, so here B is saying "I approve this message". He says it everytime he hears it on the commercial.

Too many political ads??

Yesterday B (my three year old) and I were driving in the car. Out of the blue he said:

"Mom, Barack Obama lives at church."

I was astounded that he even knew the name, and perplexed at why he thought he lived at our church. It took many questions from me to get to the bottom of the church issue, but it came down to the fact that he "wears church clothes".

I then said "Do you even know who Barack Obama is?"

He said "He approves this message."

Ha! I thought it was hilarious.

Treasures

This morning was a bad one, infact I would venture to say that it was awful. I have had little sleep for the last several days so I woke up grumpy, the kids were pushing every button, and I have a million things piling up that are beyond the scope of this blog (yes there are SOME things I keep personal). I sat down at the computer ready to throw in the towel, moved the mouse and Photoshop came up with these pictures which I have recently been editing:





And my heart melted. I thought of all the things that have been pulling my time - exercise, scrapbooking, taxes, cleaning, bills, laundry, planning activities, blogging, dogs - and it was a reminder to me that my treasure lies in none of these things. What matters most to me are the four little children who live in my home, my husband, and the gospel. With the right perspective, life can be very beautiful. Really it can, and I say that not to remind you, but me.