Family Get-togethers

Chris and Kristy came to visit. So what did we do for fun? We made dioramas of course!
Let's just say I was getting rid of a lot of shoe boxes. I have this thing about keeping the shoe box... I'm not alone right? Anyway, it's no fun to just throw all the shoe boxes away, you gotta DO something with them.

Here is the monumental mess we made, so fun!

This is Ethan's masterpiece, he called it "California Dreamin'"

Brian's was very abstract (and disturbing). He took the longest. Actually it wasn't disturbing, it was very interesting, and I loved it.

Here is my tropical paradise. I seemed to have a lot of flower papers and blue colored paper, so I went for it. Notice the tiki hut. Brian asked me, "What is a tiki anyway?"

Here is Kristy's work of art. Notice it is peaceful, uncluttered, well thought out, and very clean and neat. Also, the boy is reading his scriptures. It is very well-made.

So when is the last time you made a diorama? It is quite thereputic, and very very fun for the kids. Oh who am I kidding, I was the one having fun. The kids ran off and did something else about 20 minutes after we started. Go make a diorama, that's an order!

Hop-Scotch

We went to IKEA today, to get out. Here is a cute video of Nora learning to hop-scotch.




I love that girl!

Christmas Images

2009

I'd said I'd be back in the new year, and here I am. I know you missed me.... My kids have been saying a bunch of funny things lately, and I haven't been writing them down! So I forget! Aak.
Here are two I remember because I've retold them many times, but I want to write them down so I never forget:

Ethan
We were going out to eat for the first time in over a month (thank you Brenda for the gift card). And Ethan starts arguing with us about where we are going. Finally Brian says, "Ethan, that is enough, I don't want to hear anymore arguing from you." To which Ethan replies, "Dad, I started this confrontation, and I'm gonna end it!"

Nora
For the first time Nora was going to spend the night at grandmas house without Brian or I, she was VERY excited. She was telling me all about how it was going to be just her and nobody else going. Then she looked down and a bit concerned and said, "but mom, you're gonna hafta take me, cause I can't drive."

Christmas Break

Brian is done with finals (woo-hoo)!!! So I'm going to take a little Christmas break from blogging. See you in 2009.

Reader's Digest

I'm an avid Reader's Digest reader (I know you are so shocked). I love everything about it, but my favorite is the funny little stories and jokes they have spread throughout the magazine.
Over the years there have been many they have made me laugh myself silly, but there are two that are my absolute favorites. The first is a joke, and it's only funny if you actually imagine it (ok, a bit morbid too), and the second is a real story that made me laugh til I cried and my sides hurt.

Joke:
Q: What goes "Ho, ho, ho, thud."???
A: Santa laughing his head off.

Story:
For the holidays one year, rather than send gifts, my friend decided to enclose checks in her greeting cards. Inside each card she wrote "buy your own presents" and then sent them off.
A few months later, she discovered the checks she'd "mailed" under a pile of books.

Road Trip

So all of these babies were being born in Texas and I had to go and move to Utah. So, I decided that there was no other option than to load the kids up in the car and head to Texas. My dear sweet sister Emmeline agreed to go with me so that I would have some help and not go completely insane on a road trip of this magnitude with a 2 year old and a 4 year old. Here was the agenda:
Day 1 Drive to Colorado Springs
Day 2-3 PLay at Brother's house in Colorado Springs
Day 4 Drive to Dallas
Day 5-7 Hang out with family in Plano/McKinney, meet new niece
Day 8-10 Drive to Austin and hang out with sister and new baby twins
Day 10 Drive back to Plano/McKinney
Day 11 Drive to Colorado Springs
Day 12 Michael's (Nephew) birthday party
Day 13 Drive HOME to Utah

Total miles: 3150

Rest Stop cuteness

Nora taking it easy

Trying to get a picture with all the grandkids

Megan and Emmy (my sisters) holding the twins, James and Lincoln

Me holding the twins.

Nora and Graydon

Girls in curlers, so cute! Brian asked me what the point of putting curlers in Nora's hair is...

My niece Russia. See I told you there were a lot of babies.

Ethan took some photos.

A really cool sunset.

Well, we spent a lot of time in the car, but it was so worth it. The trip was so much fun. It was great to see everyone. I wish I could have went to my ward on Sunday, but Nora was very sick for a couple of days (puking and fever). I loved getting to meet my new niece and nephews.

Goodbye For Now

Don't worry I'll be back! The kids and I are going to Colorado and Texas for the next 2 weeks. I'll come back with stories and pictures, I promise! There are babies to visit, a Nana to hug, cousins to play with, a sister and brother to hang out with (not to mention all the in-laws), and so many more fun things.

Miss me while I'm gone!

28

Happy Birthday to me! Here are some strange facts about how I was brought into the world. My dad was at work and my mom was up early doing the dishes cause her back hurt. Her water broke, so she called my dad and told him to get his tookus home. So he finished up what he was doing and went home. And when he got home he found my mom lying on the kitchen floor with a newborn baby laying on her. That's right, my mom had me all by herself, on the kitchen floor. Oh, and it was the day that Ronald Reagan was elected President.

That right there folks is a chocolate flan from Cafe Rio... My favorite dessert on the planet.

I'm not a huge fan of cake so for my birthday we usually have something different. This year we had blackberry cobbler and Brian brought me home the chocolate flan (he loves me).


I'm still learning how to share. I let the kids help me blow out the candles, but I drew the line when they wanted to share the flan with me. I'm not THAT nice.



Twenty eight doesn't look too bad on me. And I did have an extra day being 27 with leap year and all. So, happy birthday to me!

PS You better ALL go vote tomorrow!!!

Grand Finale

And since I started off this trip down memory lane with a picture of Brian as a child Halloween star. I'll end it with the only two pictures I could find of me on Halloween when I was a kid.

Raggedy Ann

Witchy-poo

Some finale, eh?

Halloween 08

Sorry to disappoint! Two posts earlier are pictures from this year! I didn't mean to give a spoiler. We had a trunk-or-treat, and I couldn't wait to put up pictures. We are Mama Witch, Daddy Zombie, Spidey, and Geisha...

Remember Last Year?

Just the coolest Star Wars family EVER!

Did I mention...

....that we love Halloween?!

First Halloween

Here are pictures from Nora and Ethan's first Halloween...

Lady Bug

Charlie Brown

And just for kicks... Here is "White and Nerdy" and Dolly.

Picture Tag

I got tagged, sorta. It's a tag from my friend chella's blog. It's fun, so I did it!

First, the rules: Go into your picture folders and find the 4th folder, then click on the 4th picture and post it, then tell the story about the picture!This is Nora when she was just barely 1 yr old. She has always had the best hair. But for about the first year of her life it grew straight up. My brother-in-law Jeff took this picture. It is February in TX, cold and rainy. That's our back yard. I love Nora's chubby cheeks and her beautiful big brown eyes, but the hair is what takes the cake every time.

Secret Identity

Betcha didn't know that Superman is actually just.....


Spiderman's secret identity....

Bear Lake

Brian had a few days off from school this week so I said, "Let's get away!". Brian's uncle has an unfinished (almost finished) cabin up at Bear Lake, and so we called him up and asked if we could please spend two nights there. This is Brian's very very generous Uncle Denis, and he of course said yes. The only thing is that the forecast for Bear Lake this weekend included snow, snow and more snow. And the cabin isn't yet hooked up for plumbing and electric... Who cares! And off we went. So there were 3 major power cords jimmy rigged from a source outside the house so we could plug in space heaters, TV, and the microwave. We filled the bathtub up with a hose from outside and used the water to flush the toilet (TMI?). We brought snacks, frozen dinners, milk, cereal, hot chocolate and drinking water. And you know what, we had a great time.

My kitty cat lying in the sun to get warm.

Couch potato

Static Electricity
So cute!


It took 20 minutes to get them dressed to play outside in the snow. They stayed outside in the snow for 7 minutes.



COLD.
This is a picture of the road on the drive home. This is when it started to get better. I was too scared to take a picture while the conditions were worse. But we made it home safe and sound.

Long time, no blog

Sorry.

Besides the fact I was deathly ill (ok, I'm exaggerating, but I wanted to die), I've been in a bit of a blogging slump. Not because I didn't have things to blog about, but because I'd rather take a nap or clean the house when I had a spare minute. So here are the posts I meant to get around to...I was gonna write about how I made stuff out of peaches too (only not with all my sisters)

We went to Cornbelly's. It was fun.

There are princesses at Cornbelly's.

I potty trained Nora.

Ethan went to a BYU football game with Brian where according to Ethan, "BYU totally scored!"

I fed my children nutritiously.

My other parents came from TX to visit us.


We had a lovely picnic in American fork Canyon.

The End