MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Happy Birthday ZACHARY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO Z! One sweet little wonderful boy joined our family a year ago today. He was even thoughtful enough to break my water a day earlier than my c-section was planned so we could come home on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas morning. His sweet demeanor fills our house with a great spirit and we are so blessed to have him around. He's always good for a smile, a "gimme five," and a snuggle, but his favorite thing in the world is taking a bath. I have few pictures of these awesome moments because he splashes so high and makes such a mess, I fear for my camera!

Thanks for making 2009 extra fun, Baby Z. We love you!

'Twas the Nightmare Before Christmas

Harrison's party was a big hit and I think all the kids had fun. They played "Jack, Jack, Zero," got all dressed up like mummies, had Jack Skellington cupcakes, and watched a little of the movie so mom could transition from one activity to the next. The birthday boy was perfect and gracious, making sure he said thanks to everyone as he opened up their presents.

More family party pictures to come...

Happy Birthday Harrison!

I can't believe it's been four years since this little cutie joined our family. His birthday was actually Saturday and we partied all day. I have oh so many birthday party pictures I will post hopefully later today but I wanted to do a quick little tribute to the birthday boy. Saturday morning, he and Luke bounded down the stairs with excitement that Harry was now four. Luke said, "Mom, Harry comes all the way up to here (putting his hand at about his armpit) now, he is FOUR."

Since he's four now, I thought I would say four of my favorite things about the little guy.
1. He's passionate - this can be good or bad, but when he cares about something, he REALLY cares. This is especially fun when he's in a tickly, silly, or snuggly mood.
2. He looks up to his big brother. I love that these two get along so well. Harry waits for Luke to get home from school and practically has the rest of the day planned out for him.
3. I've posted this before, but the kid will try any food once, and I love that. His favorite food is still "snushi."
4. He's got the FUNNIEST sense of humor. Yesterday I made breakfast for lunch and with his little turkey sausage link on his fork, he exclaimed, "It's.....a......flying sausage!" Another favorite was on the way to the festival of trees, he told his Aunt Emily he was "walking like a dwarf." Where does he get this stuff?

We had a great day Saturday and can't thank his friends and family enough for making it a very special birthday. Happy Birthday Harry, we love you!

December

Last year I was pregnant at this time with Z, about ready to pop and it seemed like there were a million things in December. I remember there were something like 14 family functions in the month on one side alone and I keep wondering how I got everything done last year. Christmas Eve is one week from tomorrow and I feel so unprepared.

I did get my Christmas decorations up around Thanksgiving and I really like how they turned out this year. The funny thing is we don't have any Christmas functions scheduled here; we have a Nightmare Before Christmas party coming up this weekend for Harrison and I saved some Halloween decor to mix with Christmas stuff.

We just haven't had a million things to go to this month but thanks to Jon's sister, Emily who won tickets to the Jazz game on Monday night, we had a fun date night with them. The Jazz played like garbage and lost to the Timberwolves, but sitting lower bowl was nice and one of my highlights was that they now have Red Mango at the Energy Solutions Arena. Yum.

I said "relatively" busy and that's just it. I don't get why I feel so less capable of getting more done when there is less to do. I guess that's it. My mom always said if you wanted to get something done, ask a busy person. I guess I'm just not busy enough. Better go do the mountain of laundry or sink full of dishes. Gotta start somewhere I suppose.

Funny. Thanks from Tom and Amy.

Twilight Years from Tom on Vimeo.

Festival of Trees

Earlier this week Aunt Emily asked me if the boys would like her to take them to the Festival of Trees Saturday. I thought it sounded like fun too, so off we went. The crowds were huge, and a little less than polite at times - something I will never understand is literally pushing people out of your way to make your way through something like this - but oh well. We had fun, thanks for the idea Em!

Here are some highlights...

Santa Clause is Coming...

On Saturday after a barrage of fit-throwing, ungrateful, attitudes from two un-named little boys, I called Santa and told him to fly on by our house this year. It's true. I did it in front of the kids too. They sat there speechless, as I discussed their naughtiness with the big Christmas cheese.

Several days later, I am pleased to report my heart was softened, and we're back on Santa's Christmas Eve schedule.

I should do this every year. The boys have been fabulous the last four days.

Happy Holidays

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This silly video mysteriously stopped working and I'm having trouble re posting it - so you can check it out here if you want! Happy Holidays!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thankful for Little Miracles

Saturday night, Luke knocked my terabyte external hard drive off the desk and it broke. I can't even recount all the details because it still shakes me up, but it suffice to say that today I am thankful for Uncle Mike (Jon's sister Jenny's hubby) and his hardware expertise and tools. He saved the day and recovered almost everything on the drive.

Thanks Mike and Jenny for being available in our hour of need!

More Gratitude

That was a oretty short ride on the train to post something I am grateful for everyday. Owell. Today I am thankful for THIS.

Gratitude

I've noticed a lot of people posting on facebook or their blogs, something they are grateful for each day of November, so I'm jumping on that train too - a little late, but on the train nevertheless.

Today I am grateful for these four wonderful blue eyed guys. I'm so blessed to have such an awesome family.

A Better Marriage...

I taught the lesson in Relief Society this Sunday - lesson 42 in the Joseph Smith manual: Family, the Sweetest Union. So I thought I'd share a couple thoughts from the lesson. One of the sections is focused on the relationship between husbands and wives, and this list is basically a summary of that section. How wonderful would life be if we always followed this counsel?

13 Recommendations for a Better Marriage:
1. Love, cherish and nourish your spouse.
2. Cleave unto your spouse and none else.
3. Honor your spouse as yourself.
4. Regard your spouse's feelings with tenderness.
5. Do not act as a tyrant, fearful of losing face.
6. Turn to the scriptures for edification and the understanding for the salvation of your household.
7. Do not tease your spouse about weaknesses.
8. Let your spouse feel your kindness and tenderness.
9. Avoid quarreling with your spouse.
10. Show pure love and humility to your spouse.
11. When your spouse is troubled, meet them with a smile instead of an argument or murmuring.
12. Let kindness and charity crown your works.
13. Concentrate your faith and prayers and place confidence in your spouse, who God has given you to honor.

Vegetarian in the Works?

Luke said from the back seat of the car the other day, "I think I am going to be a vegetarian from now on."

"Really?" Jon and I chimed.

After a loooooong pause, "Nah, maybe not."

Halloween Cookies

Last Sunday we got together for some pre-Halloween fun with Grandma. She baked gingerbread men and the kiddos decorated them with spooky eyes, and black and orange sprinkles. Amy and I broke the heads off and decorated them with "blood." We like Halloween.

All Hallow's Day

Halloween is a big holiday with my family and when we realized it was on Saturday this year, my mom and I started thinking of fun things to do with the kids. She ran across some black jewels while she was in St. George and out of that came this story...she printed in on some parchment, burned the edges, and rolled it up as a scroll...she told the kids she found it in her parents' basement and it was a very very old story. Dad made a "forest floor" by the old corkscrew willow for the kids to search for the enchanted jewels.

THE GREEDY WITCH - by Lorelie Andrus and Kat Fuller

A very long time ago… before your great-grandparents were born, in a village just beyond the forest at the base of Mount Timpanogos, lived a very wicked, ornery and greedy witch who loved nothing more than her jewels. She used her magic to cast spells on the rich men and women of her village making them give her all their treasures of silver, gold and jewels. Because she was so greedy, it didn’t matter how much treasure she had, she always wanted more.

One day, admiring her treasure and wishing for more, she came up with a plan. Her plan would give her jewels unlike anything anyone had ever seen. She put her plan into action by training her loyal, but nasty black cat to allow all the mice in the field to come into her home and feast on cheese and other delicacies that she provided. It wasn’t easy for the cat to sit back and watch the yummy mice eating to their heart’s content in the witch’s house. But, as the mice enjoyed the food the witch had used as bait, she caught them and put them in a little cage. When she had trapped a good number of them, she completed her plan by casting a spell on all the mice…

Igga Bigga

Hunka Bunka

Dinka Danka Doo

And POOF! They turned into big, beautiful, perfect, shimmering, black diamonds.

The witch had never seen such exquisite jewels. No one had black diamonds like hers because they were a product of her special, greedy magic. She feared that someone would steal them from her, so she always kept them with her in a fancy satin bag.

The way the spell worked was to make the mice into black diamonds by day, so the witch could show them off and brag about her spectacular possession, but at night, they turned back into mice. To make sure the mice couldn’t escape in the night, she locked them in the cage.

The witch loved to take her jewels to town and showed them to anyone who would admire them, She so enjoyed making other people envious of her unusual black diamonds, and she would never tell that they were merely enchanted mice. One day, as she was making a particularly lavish show of her wealth, she suddenly realized that it was dusk. The sun had set and the sky was dark lavender. Soon it would be night and her precious diamonds would turn back into mice. She needed to be home before that happened. She climbed onto her broom while tightly clutching her bag of black diamonds. Suddenly something went wrong… her broom started to go down… It went down, down, down and spun around making it impossible for her to hold onto the broom and her bag of jewels. She said some magic words, tried to steady her broom, but the broom was out of control. The bag of jewels fell from her hand and plummeted to the forest floor. The broom seemed to have a mind of its own and continued to spin and fly, very close to the ground, toward her cottage. By the time she could climb off her broom and gather her composure, it was night.

It was a clear, cold, starry night. The moon was full, which provided perfect hunting conditions for the owl that lived in a large corkscrew willow by the witch’s cottage.

The witch was extremely upset, not because of her wild ride, but because she had dropped her bag of jewels. She needed to return to the spot her bag had dropped, but her broom refused to fly. She quickly put on her pointy-toed witch hiking boots and went into the forest to find her unusual jewels.

She made her way through the trees and stickery bushes that pulled at her and grabbed at the hem of her dress. When she was very near exhaustion, she spotted the black bag on the forest floor. She let out a cackle of delight and ran to it. When she picked it up… it was empty.

It was night and the jewels had turned back into mice. Now mice are the favorite meal of owls, so the mice had become a feast for the owl that lived in the willow tree. The witch heard his satisfied, “Whoo-Whoo-Whoo” in the distance and she realized what had happened.

The greedy witch was so upset that she ran all the way home, missed her house and disappeared into the night… never to be seen again.

The owl was very satisfied with his meal, but when morning came, the mice turned back into diamonds and gave the owl quite a case of indigestion. The owl’s tummy rumbled. He gagged a big gag and continued to gag until the diamonds tumbled out of his beak and onto the forest floor. One by one, he coughed up all the black diamonds. He was very confused and went back to his tree to recuperate.

According to the story, the jewels still turn into diamonds every day, and back into mice at night. The only thing that will break the spell is if the diamonds have a new owner, a regular, kind, generous person… not a wicked, greedy witch.

Look closely and see if you can find one of the greedy witch’s black diamonds. But beware… there are many creepy crawly things that dwell on the forest floor….

The Characters of Halloween

Mom was a witch, Amy was a librarian, I was a contemporary vampire, Jade was the Corpse Bride, Luke was the Grimm Reaper, Ivy was a "scary" belly dancer, and Harrison was a skeleton vampire. We love Halloween!

The Little Dragon

Happy Halloween

Some Guys Dream, Others Do

Stole this from my brother's blog and after I picked myself up off the floor from laughing so hard, I decided I needed to share it. This is truly why I don't take jon shopping with me - he hates it so much, I fear he would resort to antics like this guy. Enjoy!

Our Little Preschool Group

I do a co-op preschool with five other moms and I have to say after teaching my first week, we have a pretty great little group. This picture is from a talent show my neighbor put on for the kiddos. They each got a star for performing. Aren't they cute?

This Tuesday we talked all about culture, learned how to say hi in lots of languages, ate some fun foods, and danced to all kinds of music. Today we celebrated Halloween and ate eyeballs and goblin fingers (photos soon!), played fun spooky games and made cute little ghosts and spiders.

I am enjoying this time with the kids and it's really all about fun!

Disneyland Day 3

You may wonder where Disneyland Day 2 is. Well, I haven't managed to download my mom's pictures from the beach or day 2 at the happiest place on earth. Tom, Anne, Kieran and Asher met us there on day 2 and it was a blast. As usual, more to follow.

For day 3, we spent some time at California Adventure, took some halloweenish family pictures, rode some of my favorite rides - Soarin' Over California, the California Screamer, and my latest favorite - the Tower of Terror. I could ride that ten times in a row and never get sick of it. I also rode the Maliboomer by myself. Guess I'm the only real thrill seeker of my little family - at least on this trip. The kids LOVED Toy Story Mania, and we may have to purchase the game for the Wii.

We rode the kids' favorite rides again at Disneyland that afternoon, in particular, harry loves the Matterhorn. He likes to scare the abominable snowman. Silly boy. Luke's favorite was the Haunted Mansion, all done up for Halloween Nightmare Before Christmas Style. Either that, or Splash Mountain, he'll tell you if you ask. Grandma and Grandpa also took him on Indiana Jones and he liked it, "because it's not fast, but it was kinda scary."

Mom and Dad took the kids back to the hotel at dark and let Jon and me spend the last evening in the park on a little date. We met a friend of his from work and hung out with them to watch the fabulous Halloweentime fireworks. We then rode a couple rides, watched Fantasmic, and said our goodbyes to a super place. Disneyland was "at capacity" and felt like a big party that night.

The last few hours at Disneyland always feel a little sad for me. I know the time there is coming to a close and soon life will be back to normal - dishes, laundry, school, housework - and so many other things it was nice to escape from this vacation. The last ride of the night for us, however, made our final minutes there a little more eventful than a peaceful farewell. We rode Indiana Jones, and the ride BROKE while we were in the middle of it! We sat for twenty minutes with the lights on, trying to find the hidden Mickey's in the skeleton room, then we got stuck again right before the big boulder almost falls! It was fun, and different, but when they asked if we wanted another uninterupted ride, we were responsible parents and said, "Thanks, but no thanks." It was almost Midnight and we would have missed the shuttle!

It really was such a great vacation and we can't thank my mom and dad, and brother and sister-in-law enough for helping make it so great. Until next time....maybe we could do this again in six months?!

Disneyland Day 1

This is just a little taste of the Disneyland pictures....feel free to click on the picture to see all of them bigger. I have had such a busy week since we came home, and this week isn't shaping up to be any less busy, so I just made a collage to feel like I posted something "Disneyland." Still to come, lots more pictures, stories, funny quotes, and more pictures. It really is the Happiest Place on Earth. I LOVE Disneyland, and I am so glad my kids do too!

Welcome Baby Scarlett!

Rob and Nicole were blessed Monday with the birth of sweet and perfect baby Scarlett. She is the first baby girl and first cousin to our boys on Jon's side, so we're a little extra excited! Poor Nicole endured 29 hours of induction/labor, two hours of pushing, and ended up with a c-section - another example of why I think my planned c-sections are way easier and less scary than labor!

Anyway, congrats to the new parents; we are DYING to see her and will be heading that direction as soon as possible!

The Perfect Birthday

My 34th was pretty awesome. I woke up early, hung out with the fam a little, then I took a nap here: Yep, that's the ocean from my brother's back patio. Then we went and ate on the Malibu Pier.
I do have the best brother ever, before the day started, he presented me with a bunch of ideas to do for my birthday. I decided on the nap, lunch on the pier, surfing/boogie boarding, tide pools, and take out Thai for dinner. Yum.

My folks went to So Cal with us this trip and it was so great having the time to spend with them.

After lunch, we went boogie boarding and played on the beach - my mom has all those photos, so I will have a separate beach post later. After all that fun, Anne picked up Kieran and Asher from school and met us at the tide pools, where the kids had a ball exploring all the little creatures of the sea. Notice no Harry? He crashed in the car on the way to the tide pools, so he and grandpa had a nap in the car!

I love the ocean and it was a beautiful day to play.

I have the greatest brother ever - strangley it seems I manage to position myself in their company for my birthday often....and they always make it fantastic! Anne and Tom both rolled with whatever we wanted to do regardless of their crazy, busy lifestyle with the two teenagers and two little kids!

Exploring...

Luke fell on a little rock and scratched his leg, but he was a trooper.

King of the Rock!

The little prince of the rock!

Grandma's always good for some help with uneasy feet.

Z and Daddy had a ball with Asher on the sand.

Z thinks sand on his little toes is so funny!

Pretty girls.

Baby Z crashed on his cousin Dax that evening. What a perfect day.

Thanks Tom, Anne, Mom, Dad, Jon, and all the kiddos for making my birthday so wonderful. It really was the perfect way to spend the day.

Warning...

Getting my DISNEYLAND pictures uploaded and organized, finally - many posts to follow!!!

A Nice Thought

My sister-in-law, Anne, just had a brithday - we share the excellent month of October- and this summer while they were visiting, she left me a list of quotes and scripures she would like to have displayed around the house. My job is to make them more pleasing to the eye.

This is the first one I've done so far. I printed an 8x10, and framed it in one of the Ikea "Ribba" black 11x14 frames. I was very pleased with it and I think it will look great in their house. It was fun to get to hand deliver it last week while we were on our vacaiton. Happy birthday Anne!

Me and My Guys

Here are just a couple more pictures from our little drive up the canyon Sunday. It was such a pleasant evening.

Fall Ride Preview

I feel like all I ever post is "more to come" and perhaps one dark, dreary, winter day, I'll sit down and get all caught up on this blog. Some is better than none, right? We went for a nice drive up the canyon Sunday and everyone had a great time, especially Tiera - I took this as she was sticking her little head out Daddy's window.

Happy 9 Months!

Nine pictures of my sweetest little nine month old. And just for fun, here are nine things I love about the little goofball (corresponding to the pictures):

1. His sweet little songs he sings while he sits.
2. How he gets stuck under the couch and happily stays there until someone helps him out.
3. His silly little faces. He really is such a ham.
4. I love the look in his eyes just before he cries. He makes sure I'm watching before letting the tears flow.
5. "Soooooo Big!"
6. His look when he is determined to get somewhere.
7. That he endures countless photoshoots for his trigger-happy mom.
8. He puts EVERYTHING in his mouth, but always with a smile.
9. His super sweet, peaceful, happy demeanor. He is such a pleasure to have in our little family.

I'm Just That Kind of Girl

Why I even tried to grow out my hair, I still don't know. My friend Gayelynne cut it last week and I'm feeling much more like myself again! I'm just a short haired gal, what can I say?