~This morning I was sitting on the floor in the closet trying to organize shoes and clothes when Matthew and Max started getting ready for school. They were singing songs from the radio. They didn't get a lot of the words right and it cracked me up. I didn't correct them, I just smiled as they sang their little hearts out. I just love them so much!
~Last night we had the last family shindig before Nathan and Heidi headed back to Florida. We ate, visited, the guys watched the big game upstairs. The kids played together. Isabelle (Nate's oldest daughter who's 5 and in kindergarten) said to Steph and J.J. that they could come to Florida to visit them on Valentine's Day or Easter. Then she told Brian and I and our kids that we could come visit them for her birthday in June. She described the birthday cake she'll have and other fun details about the party she'll have. She is adorable and had a wonderful, dramatic, excitement, and imagination about her. It was so hard to look at her beautiful little face and her pretty little eyes and try to explain that we can't afford to go to Florida to see her. I'm so afraid she's totally expecting us to show up for her birthday and will just be so disappointed when we don't show up.
When Izzy was born they lived in Provo. They came to Mom's for Sunday every week. They shared holidays, birthdays, dance recitals, births, baby blessings. They moved about a year and a half ago. My mom has been broken hearted ever since about it and poor little Josh (Steph's 5 year-old son) has missed her so much. They were best pals since he was born when Izzy was 4 months old!
I'm not big on goodbyes! There are 6 of us kids in our family and now Rob, Dana, and Nathan all live in other states with their sweet families. We all miss them so much! When I think about it I just don't know how my mom handles it!
They left for the airport at 3:00am so we had to say goodbye last night. We said our goodbyes and headed downstairs before they said goodbye to my parents. I guess Izzy just sobbed and said that she didn't want to leave. :'( Little Mikey is about a month older than my Gracie is. Tommy is about 14 months old. We'll miss them all so much! Gracie still didn't really know what was going on so she cried this morning when we told her they were gone.
It was fun to see what a cute little family they are. I love listening to my brothers talk to their kids. Heidi is such a good little mom!
Showing posts with label Gracie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gracie. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
This and That...
~I must say that I was rather embarrassed to HAVE to put up a whole end cap at Walmart that was solely devoted to Justin Bieber. I'm not a fan of the show, The Office, but Brian and Zack LOVE it so I just endure it each week. :) I will admit, though, that I laughed my butt off when Jim said something to Dwight about Justin Bieber and Dwight said, "What's a justice beaver?" LOL! So ever since then I call him Justice Beaver. It's not that I don't like HIM or anything, it's just that I just...don't "get" it. Last night Justice was on The Voice and his pants were so far down it was ridiculous. Seriously, below his entire butt. What is up with that? LAME!!! Just had to get that out...
~That baseball craziness has begun. Zack's games are so much fun to watch now that he's older. Add the kids are more competitive and more able to execute awesome plays and such. I'm so proud of Zack because he got hit with a pitch the very first time he was up for bat this season. I figured it would be a very crappy hitting season for him because of being afraid but he is awesome and has hit most pitches since he's been up to bat. Max and Matty are on the same team this year also so that will be a TREMENDOUS help!! Only problem so far is that a lot of the games are scheduled right during Y.W.. Tonight Zack has a game in a town really close to ours from 6:00-8:00 and has to be there at 5:30 and Matty and Max have a practice at a baseball field near where my parents used to live here in town from 6:00-7:30. And I visit teach tonight at 4:00 and 5:00. I don't have to work today like I did last week, which is so nice with all of this going on.
~Brian still hasn't found work. I am stressing so much! Ever since the Priesthood Blessing I had last week I've felt a lot better but it's just so very hard to deal with! We HAVE to figure out what we are supposed to learn from this so we can stop having this same trial over and over and over and over. It's so draining/exhausting/stressful.
~My house is looking more in order now that I'm not working so much. It will get crazy again closer to Mother's Day but for now it's been nice to have more time to devote to cleaning the house and more energy. I've felt so much better lately. I've had my share of pain here and there but for the most part I can deal with life better than I could before. Bending down to pick stuff up is getting increasingly difficult again, which I hate. Feeling like my head and face are going to explode is just not my favorite, call me crazy. I really can't complain though because it is so much better than before and I know it can always be worse. I really need to be more positive!!
~I am always so terrified when it's my turn to teach the Young Women's lesson. I seriously stress out for at least a good week over it. This week when the girls heard it was my turn to give the lesson they all were really happy that it was my turn and were like "Yay, it's Sister Freeman's turn to give the lesson". It just made my whole week! They are such amazing girls and I really hope that my lessons help them and that they I'm not just a blithering idiot up there. LOL!!! We were really early for Sunday School this week. We were actually REALLY late for Sacrament Meeting, but I'm trying to be more positive. :)
~So, when Gracie was about 2 months old or so, I bought at darling light pink tutu and some cute fairy wings to match, so that I could have her pictures taken in them. Well, she wore them for her Halloween costume when she was one year old, but other than that it has been hanging in her room waiting for us to be able to afford to have her picture taken again. The only time we had her pictures done was when she was a month old in her blessing dress. My parents had some pictures of them with their grand kids when Gracie was about 6 months old. Other than that, this poor little girl hasn't had her pics done in all that time. She will be 3 in May. Everyone thinks she looks like she's at least 4. I worry they'll expect more out of her. Trust me, she may look 4 but she acts like she's 2! :) Anyhoo, I finally got her pictures done a while back and I'm so excited to share them!!! I can't tell you how happy I am about it!! I'm sure Brian is happy he doesn't have to hear me whine anymore about it. LOL!! I usually only leave my kids' pics up for a couple of days because I don't want creapos to see them. :) I got the disc so prepared for a plethora of pics. Who can pic just one. I mean really... ;)
~Please excuse the grammer and incoherent sentences. I don't have time to proof read...
~That baseball craziness has begun. Zack's games are so much fun to watch now that he's older. Add the kids are more competitive and more able to execute awesome plays and such. I'm so proud of Zack because he got hit with a pitch the very first time he was up for bat this season. I figured it would be a very crappy hitting season for him because of being afraid but he is awesome and has hit most pitches since he's been up to bat. Max and Matty are on the same team this year also so that will be a TREMENDOUS help!! Only problem so far is that a lot of the games are scheduled right during Y.W.. Tonight Zack has a game in a town really close to ours from 6:00-8:00 and has to be there at 5:30 and Matty and Max have a practice at a baseball field near where my parents used to live here in town from 6:00-7:30. And I visit teach tonight at 4:00 and 5:00. I don't have to work today like I did last week, which is so nice with all of this going on.
~Brian still hasn't found work. I am stressing so much! Ever since the Priesthood Blessing I had last week I've felt a lot better but it's just so very hard to deal with! We HAVE to figure out what we are supposed to learn from this so we can stop having this same trial over and over and over and over. It's so draining/exhausting/stressful.
~My house is looking more in order now that I'm not working so much. It will get crazy again closer to Mother's Day but for now it's been nice to have more time to devote to cleaning the house and more energy. I've felt so much better lately. I've had my share of pain here and there but for the most part I can deal with life better than I could before. Bending down to pick stuff up is getting increasingly difficult again, which I hate. Feeling like my head and face are going to explode is just not my favorite, call me crazy. I really can't complain though because it is so much better than before and I know it can always be worse. I really need to be more positive!!
~I am always so terrified when it's my turn to teach the Young Women's lesson. I seriously stress out for at least a good week over it. This week when the girls heard it was my turn to give the lesson they all were really happy that it was my turn and were like "Yay, it's Sister Freeman's turn to give the lesson". It just made my whole week! They are such amazing girls and I really hope that my lessons help them and that they I'm not just a blithering idiot up there. LOL!!! We were really early for Sunday School this week. We were actually REALLY late for Sacrament Meeting, but I'm trying to be more positive. :)
~So, when Gracie was about 2 months old or so, I bought at darling light pink tutu and some cute fairy wings to match, so that I could have her pictures taken in them. Well, she wore them for her Halloween costume when she was one year old, but other than that it has been hanging in her room waiting for us to be able to afford to have her picture taken again. The only time we had her pictures done was when she was a month old in her blessing dress. My parents had some pictures of them with their grand kids when Gracie was about 6 months old. Other than that, this poor little girl hasn't had her pics done in all that time. She will be 3 in May. Everyone thinks she looks like she's at least 4. I worry they'll expect more out of her. Trust me, she may look 4 but she acts like she's 2! :) Anyhoo, I finally got her pictures done a while back and I'm so excited to share them!!! I can't tell you how happy I am about it!! I'm sure Brian is happy he doesn't have to hear me whine anymore about it. LOL!! I usually only leave my kids' pics up for a couple of days because I don't want creapos to see them. :) I got the disc so prepared for a plethora of pics. Who can pic just one. I mean really... ;)
~Please excuse the grammer and incoherent sentences. I don't have time to proof read...
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Easter clothes, girl's day out, and cute stuff my kids did...
I've been thinking lately about how much I hate to move. Today, though, I have been thinking of all of the different people I have met over the years, in all of the different places we have lived. We have truly been blessed. We have lived in some of the best wards in the whole wide world. Some weren't so great but they have just helped us to realize how wonderful it is to live in great wards. I am so grateful for Facebook and blogs! My wonderful friends are just amazing and I still can have them in my life, even though we've moved away. I have also been so blessed to be able to see Heavenly Father's wisdom in sending my children to me when he did, instead of when I WANTED him too!!! They are wonderful kids and I'm so blessed to be their mother! I know, without a doubt, that if I didn't have my children to care for each day, I would have just stayed in bed when I was in so much pain, instead of getting up and doing what needed to be done.
~I couldn't wait all the way until Easter for my kids to wear their new church clothes! They all look so nice! I don't know why Max's tie is so small, but whatev'. It's really hard to take pictures of 4 kids at the same time! I am so proud of Gracie's dress! I don't think the pictures does it justice. It.is.beautiful! Every bit as lovely and well made as any I have ever had for her from The Children's Place. And can you believe it...I got it from KMART! AND, they had so many pretty dresses to choose from that it was kind of tough to choose which one to get! I got the cute little knit shrug at The Children's Place. It was so much fun buying her pretty little Easter outfit. Gracie and I went to Spanish Fork on Friday night for Steph's daughter's 2nd bday party. The boys all had other things going on. Saturday, we just had a wonderful time. Just the 2 of us. We went to lunch with my parents and then she and I went to the mall and had so much fun buying her little earrings, shrug, and pretty pink bracelet. We needed some girl time! I just love her! Max broke her little bracelet right after church today. I was NOT happy! When I was in the kitchen I heard Gracie say to him, "It's ok buddy! (She got the buddy part from Steph's son, Josh. He's SO cute!) It was an accident. Just say, I sorry, DeeDee." She calls herself DeeDee still sometimes cause that's how she pronounced Gracie for the longest time. When Max said he was sorry, she said, "It's ok buddy." She is THE sweetest little girl! Yes, I'm biased, but she melts my heart.
~Max cracked me up on Friday. I noticed his shirt was on backwards and I told him he needed to spin his shirt around. He said, "I'm wearing it like this because the other side is dirty." I guess he figures that if HE can't see it, NO ONE can. LOL!!! I just love each of my kids so much! I don't know what I would do without them!
~I couldn't wait all the way until Easter for my kids to wear their new church clothes! They all look so nice! I don't know why Max's tie is so small, but whatev'. It's really hard to take pictures of 4 kids at the same time! I am so proud of Gracie's dress! I don't think the pictures does it justice. It.is.beautiful! Every bit as lovely and well made as any I have ever had for her from The Children's Place. And can you believe it...I got it from KMART! AND, they had so many pretty dresses to choose from that it was kind of tough to choose which one to get! I got the cute little knit shrug at The Children's Place. It was so much fun buying her pretty little Easter outfit. Gracie and I went to Spanish Fork on Friday night for Steph's daughter's 2nd bday party. The boys all had other things going on. Saturday, we just had a wonderful time. Just the 2 of us. We went to lunch with my parents and then she and I went to the mall and had so much fun buying her little earrings, shrug, and pretty pink bracelet. We needed some girl time! I just love her! Max broke her little bracelet right after church today. I was NOT happy! When I was in the kitchen I heard Gracie say to him, "It's ok buddy! (She got the buddy part from Steph's son, Josh. He's SO cute!) It was an accident. Just say, I sorry, DeeDee." She calls herself DeeDee still sometimes cause that's how she pronounced Gracie for the longest time. When Max said he was sorry, she said, "It's ok buddy." She is THE sweetest little girl! Yes, I'm biased, but she melts my heart.
~Max cracked me up on Friday. I noticed his shirt was on backwards and I told him he needed to spin his shirt around. He said, "I'm wearing it like this because the other side is dirty." I guess he figures that if HE can't see it, NO ONE can. LOL!!! I just love each of my kids so much! I don't know what I would do without them!
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Random stuff...
~Well, I'm over my bout with strep throat. NOT fun, by the way. Now poor Zacky has it. Matthew has croupe. Gracie has RSV. So, yeah, super fun times here at our house. Stay far, far away from our house!!! :0)
~We had our big revision with Hallmark at Walmart last Thursday. It looks great! We had a couple of nights of working til 1:20 and 2:00 a.m. in preparation of the revision. We had a lot of fun, giggled a lot. I just love working with Tamra! I found out my friend, Tiffani, who lived in my parents ward when we moved here, also works for Hallmark at Walmart in her town in Nevada. Fun!
~Last night we had rootbeer floats for our F.H.E. treat. For some reason Matthew and Zack used forks instead of spoons. They also ate theirs in the living room, huge no no. Then apparently one of them dropped the fork on the floor and didn't pick it up. Then Zack was chasing Gracie around and she was happy and laughing. Then she fell and landed on the fork. It gowged (don't know how to spell that) her cheekbone area with one of the tines. It was right under the corner of her eye. Scared me to death!!! It came way too close to her eye! I feel so incredibly blessed that today she still has an eye and that she was shielded from serious harm!!! Makes me sick to think about it. I made up a new House Rules chart, using some of the ideas I found on Pinterest. I made them recite it with me this morning and I'm going to make them do it every day right after we read scriptures. Maybe if they have to repeat it every day they'll start following the rules. Many a rule was broken last night that all added up to make one very scary accident. We used to recite a House Rules chart right after we read scriptures together when we lived in Pleasant Grove and then we would read an article of faith. One for each month. We've got to get back to doing that. We just get so caught up in every day life that we just forget that doing those "little" things make such a HUGE difference in our family dynamics. They have rules at school and they follow them so I think it's important that they realize there are rules in our home and family also, and that they are expected to follow them.Well, I hope it works out. I used a different font and a different size of font for each rule.
~We had our big revision with Hallmark at Walmart last Thursday. It looks great! We had a couple of nights of working til 1:20 and 2:00 a.m. in preparation of the revision. We had a lot of fun, giggled a lot. I just love working with Tamra! I found out my friend, Tiffani, who lived in my parents ward when we moved here, also works for Hallmark at Walmart in her town in Nevada. Fun!
~Last night we had rootbeer floats for our F.H.E. treat. For some reason Matthew and Zack used forks instead of spoons. They also ate theirs in the living room, huge no no. Then apparently one of them dropped the fork on the floor and didn't pick it up. Then Zack was chasing Gracie around and she was happy and laughing. Then she fell and landed on the fork. It gowged (don't know how to spell that) her cheekbone area with one of the tines. It was right under the corner of her eye. Scared me to death!!! It came way too close to her eye! I feel so incredibly blessed that today she still has an eye and that she was shielded from serious harm!!! Makes me sick to think about it. I made up a new House Rules chart, using some of the ideas I found on Pinterest. I made them recite it with me this morning and I'm going to make them do it every day right after we read scriptures. Maybe if they have to repeat it every day they'll start following the rules. Many a rule was broken last night that all added up to make one very scary accident. We used to recite a House Rules chart right after we read scriptures together when we lived in Pleasant Grove and then we would read an article of faith. One for each month. We've got to get back to doing that. We just get so caught up in every day life that we just forget that doing those "little" things make such a HUGE difference in our family dynamics. They have rules at school and they follow them so I think it's important that they realize there are rules in our home and family also, and that they are expected to follow them.Well, I hope it works out. I used a different font and a different size of font for each rule.
House Rules
Always tell the truth
Use kind words
Keep your promises
Keep your hands and body to yourself
No yelling (that one is especially for me)
Say please, thank you, excuse me
Chew with your mouth closed (my sis Dana would laugh cuz she knows I'm a freak!)
Try new things
Forgiveness is mandatory
Always be grateful
Always be grateful
No Running
Ask first
No hitting
Offer to help
Count your blessings
Clean up after yourself
Stop eating when you are full
Encourage each other
Always be looking for ways to serve others
Dance
Food stays at the table
Have integrity
Be on Jesus' team
Laugh
Have faith
Have a good attitude
Pray always
Be happy
Don't forget to be awesome!!
~I'm feeling so inspired by the quotes that are posted on pinterest. It is so nice to read those positive things. And to see a lot of fun ideas for making crafts and organizational ideas for our home. I also love all of the recipes and ideas for giving homemade gifts. The food storage ideas and other preparedness ideas. Oh, and the outfit suggestions.I LoVe my clothes board!!! So much fun!! I haven't found anything I don't like about it, actually.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
MY littlest angel...
As many of you know, Brian lost a job 3 days before my sweet little Gracie was born. We have some rough times these past 2 1/2 years. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father sent me my sweet little angel! I simply adore her!!! I just don't know what I would have done without her and her preciousness! (Not sure that's a word) With every passing day that Brian doesn't have a job, I feel a part of me slipping away. It's so hard to be anything but worried, stressed, sad, discouraged...My children give me strength! Gracie is home all day and she just brings me PURE joy! She's "everything I never knew I always wanted!" (I love that line! Matthew Perry's character's line in Fools Rush In)
Some of my favorite things she says...
~That'th AWETHOME!
~Gracie loves to see the moon. Last night we were outside and she saw the moon and gasped excitedly and put her hands over her mouth and said, ”Mommy! The moon is back!” ♥
~She'll tell us something that her brothers said and at the end she says, "Like dat". It is the cutest thing!
Also, I'm still LOVING Pinterest!! I have found so many cute craft ideas, recipes, and darling outfits that I want to copy! It's just so much fun!!! I'm truly addicted! :)
Some of my favorite things she says...
~That'th AWETHOME!
~Gracie loves to see the moon. Last night we were outside and she saw the moon and gasped excitedly and put her hands over her mouth and said, ”Mommy! The moon is back!” ♥
~She'll tell us something that her brothers said and at the end she says, "Like dat". It is the cutest thing!
Also, I'm still LOVING Pinterest!! I have found so many cute craft ideas, recipes, and darling outfits that I want to copy! It's just so much fun!!! I'm truly addicted! :)
Friday, January 6, 2012
WOW! Long time, no post, huh!?!
I can't believe how long it has been since I last posted on here! Our life has been pretty hectic, to say the least. I worked quite a bit during December. Probably not nearly as much as most people I know, but a lot for me anyway. I have been so happy that Brian has been able to take care of our little Gracie but it makes me so sad to be away from her. Wednesday I helped my friend out with her preschool for 4 hours and then I did my Hallmark job for 2 hours. Brian said that at one point Gracie went to him and said that she was sad because I was gone. I miss just snuggling in the rocking chair in our p.j.'s in the morning while she watches Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. This time is slipping away so quickly and I just hate missing any of it. I've missed being home some days when my boys get off of the bus. Last week I worked 19 hours and this week I'll only work 4 1/2 hours. I guess the hours really calm down during January. I'm glad! It is still a fun little job that I really like and the money really helped us out. I am just so looking forward to a bit of a break and to be able to spend more time at home!
~We had a great Christmas! At my family Christmas party, we were able to visit with Nathan's cute little family by using Skype. It was so much fun to see them! We all miss them a lot! It was especially fun to see his new little baby boy, Thomas, who was born in October!
~We stayed home for Christmas. Traveling with our kids on Christmas is just not easy, not fun, and really not worth it! We had a nice quiet day. Our friend's, Mysti and Randy, invited us over to their house for dinner. We decided we would all still make our Christmas dinner to share and we would be able to spend time together to help make our day feel less lonely. Mysti made Roast and potatoes and carrots, and a veggie, and dessert. Brian made ham, yummy potatoes (otherwise known as funeral potatoes), and rolls. It was a delicious meal and everything just worked out great! AND, bonus, I got to hold Mysti's baby boy, Landon, who was born on ll/11/11 at 11:01! I just had to throw in his birth date cuz it's so cool! He is such a cute little guy!
~My Max made our Christmas extra special! He's 5 now, and turns 6 at the end of January. A lot of you will remember the many stories of my Max's craziness since he is definitely my craziest child, so you can imagine how pleasantly surprised I was when my "crazy" little boy was the one who kept our focus on our Savior, Jesus Christ. At church, they learned the song "Samuel Tells of the Birth of Jesus" for the Ward Christmas Program during Sacrament Meeting on Christmas Sunday. For weeks we heard this song practiced over, and over, and over again. Even when he played the Wii! That's HUGE! Even on Christmas Eve when most kids are singing about Santa Claus and his reindeer, our Max was singing about Jesus. Here are the words...
Said Samuel, "Within 5 years, a night will be as day, and Baby Jesus will be born in a land far, far away." Hosanna! Hosanna! Oh let us gladly sing. How blessed that our Lord was born. Let earth receive her King!
Across the sea, in Bethlehem, Lord Jesus came to earth, as Samuel had prophesied. The angels sang His birth. Hosanna! Hosanna! Oh let us gladly sing. How blessed that our Lord was born. Let earth receive her King!
What a wonderful song to hear over and over again! What a blessing it is to have Primary for our little children. To have wonderful teachers and choristers and Presidency members help us teach our children the principals of the Gospel. Our entire family was blessed to have the words of this song ingrained in our heads. We needed that! And it NEVER got old!
~Some of you will remember the posts I made last year about our Christmas Jar. (each of those 2 words goes to different posts about the Christmas Jar) Well, on Christmas Eve, Max found a couple of scriptures he wanted to read in addition to the one we would take out of the jar that night. I just thought that was wonderful! He just really surprised me with his focus on our Savior. I can't even express how happy that made me feel!
~I'm trying so hard to potty train Gracie. If we weren't already, for sure, done having more children, THIS would have totally made me decide to stop! I HATE potty training. I seriously think I have A,D.H.D or something. It is so hard for me to just take a whole day and focus my efforts on potty training. She tries so hard to go. She really does. She sits on the toilet and tries and tries but she just can't let it out. I know that if she would just be able to do it once she'd totally be fine but she just can't. Any suggestions would be really great! Heaven help me! If only there was potty training camp or potty training school that I could send her to....
~I shared this on facebook the other day. I absolutely LOVE her voice! I have also always really liked him and had no idea he could sing too. It's kind of fun!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcrd5vpUGyk&feature=related
~Oh and one more thing. We played the game called LOGO at my sister's on New Year's Eve. It was so much fun!!! I hope everyone has a wonderful 2012!!
~We had a great Christmas! At my family Christmas party, we were able to visit with Nathan's cute little family by using Skype. It was so much fun to see them! We all miss them a lot! It was especially fun to see his new little baby boy, Thomas, who was born in October!
~We stayed home for Christmas. Traveling with our kids on Christmas is just not easy, not fun, and really not worth it! We had a nice quiet day. Our friend's, Mysti and Randy, invited us over to their house for dinner. We decided we would all still make our Christmas dinner to share and we would be able to spend time together to help make our day feel less lonely. Mysti made Roast and potatoes and carrots, and a veggie, and dessert. Brian made ham, yummy potatoes (otherwise known as funeral potatoes), and rolls. It was a delicious meal and everything just worked out great! AND, bonus, I got to hold Mysti's baby boy, Landon, who was born on ll/11/11 at 11:01! I just had to throw in his birth date cuz it's so cool! He is such a cute little guy!
~My Max made our Christmas extra special! He's 5 now, and turns 6 at the end of January. A lot of you will remember the many stories of my Max's craziness since he is definitely my craziest child, so you can imagine how pleasantly surprised I was when my "crazy" little boy was the one who kept our focus on our Savior, Jesus Christ. At church, they learned the song "Samuel Tells of the Birth of Jesus" for the Ward Christmas Program during Sacrament Meeting on Christmas Sunday. For weeks we heard this song practiced over, and over, and over again. Even when he played the Wii! That's HUGE! Even on Christmas Eve when most kids are singing about Santa Claus and his reindeer, our Max was singing about Jesus. Here are the words...
Said Samuel, "Within 5 years, a night will be as day, and Baby Jesus will be born in a land far, far away." Hosanna! Hosanna! Oh let us gladly sing. How blessed that our Lord was born. Let earth receive her King!
Across the sea, in Bethlehem, Lord Jesus came to earth, as Samuel had prophesied. The angels sang His birth. Hosanna! Hosanna! Oh let us gladly sing. How blessed that our Lord was born. Let earth receive her King!
What a wonderful song to hear over and over again! What a blessing it is to have Primary for our little children. To have wonderful teachers and choristers and Presidency members help us teach our children the principals of the Gospel. Our entire family was blessed to have the words of this song ingrained in our heads. We needed that! And it NEVER got old!
~Some of you will remember the posts I made last year about our Christmas Jar. (each of those 2 words goes to different posts about the Christmas Jar) Well, on Christmas Eve, Max found a couple of scriptures he wanted to read in addition to the one we would take out of the jar that night. I just thought that was wonderful! He just really surprised me with his focus on our Savior. I can't even express how happy that made me feel!
~I'm trying so hard to potty train Gracie. If we weren't already, for sure, done having more children, THIS would have totally made me decide to stop! I HATE potty training. I seriously think I have A,D.H.D or something. It is so hard for me to just take a whole day and focus my efforts on potty training. She tries so hard to go. She really does. She sits on the toilet and tries and tries but she just can't let it out. I know that if she would just be able to do it once she'd totally be fine but she just can't. Any suggestions would be really great! Heaven help me! If only there was potty training camp or potty training school that I could send her to....
~I shared this on facebook the other day. I absolutely LOVE her voice! I have also always really liked him and had no idea he could sing too. It's kind of fun!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcrd5vpUGyk&feature=related
~Oh and one more thing. We played the game called LOGO at my sister's on New Year's Eve. It was so much fun!!! I hope everyone has a wonderful 2012!!
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Just Some Silliness...and a Trumpet
~Last night we attended Zack's first band concert. He plays the trumpet. He's in the sixth grade so this is his first year to play an instrument in a band. We waited in the auditorium for 45 minutes waiting for the concert to begin. That's a long time for an 8 year old, a 5 year old, a 2 year old, 2 grown people to wait for...anything! At one point Max's gum fell out of his mouth went right between the back of the chair of the woman in front of him and the woman's back. I about DIED!!! I had to tell her! What if it was sticking to her pretty sweater?! Thankfully she was really nice about it AND it didn't stick to her but fell to the floor. Max did not get another piece of gum!!! Well, the band finally started their concert. They played 4 songs. They did a great job...except one poor student that couldn't hit a single note right on their clarinet and always played an extra note when everyone else had stopped. The first 3 songs went so well! Unfortunately they did not stop while they were ahead and played ANOTHER song! It was very....entertaining. But bless their hearts they really tried, and Zack did a wonderful job of starting when he should, ending when he should, watching the band director's cues. The best part of the whole night, though, was that all 4 songs took about 8 minutes from start to finish. It was awesome!!! After the concert we decided to surprise the kids with some Little Caesar's Pizza. I can't remember the last time we did that. Of course, we had to watch the Biggest Loser season finale...after eating pizza! There is something really wrong with that!
Gracie says that Santa says Har! Har! Har! Cracks us up! When the boys heard that, they tried to correct her but she just still always says that Santa says Har! Har! Har! She also likes to drop the first letter off of words. Makes understanding her a bit difficult sometimes but it's awfully cute! Oothbrush-toothbrush, andy-candy, ood-food, Anta-Santa. Sometimes she just uses the wrong letter at the beginning of a word. For instance, she calls Zack's friend Tanner-Nanner, and mink-drink, nammies-jammies, Yack-Zack, Yacky-Zacky. She also says Grandpa for GrandMa and for Grandpa. That gets confusing! We love her 2 year-old speak! She is so much fun! She's in the 95th %-tile for height though, so people often expect her to act much differently. She won't be 3 until May but people already think she should be potty trained. She probably should but I can't get her to actually GO when she's on the potty. I think if she can finally figure out what she's supposed to do when I put her on there, she might actually just keep doing it and life will be good. She tries. Any suggestions???
A few months ago we discovered that we LOVE the show, The Big Bang Theory. We watch the reruns at 10:00 most nights. Last night's episode was SO hilarious!!! I just have to share cause laughing is so much fun!!! If you don't know the premise of the show, they are all Geniuses (except Wolowitz of course, because he only has a Master's Degree HEHE). They are all a bit backwards but Sheldon is just totally socially inept it's ridiculous. He's always very serious and analyzes EVERYTHING. And he's a major germaphobe. Anyhoo, I hope you laugh!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqwPp--hy-c
Gracie says that Santa says Har! Har! Har! Cracks us up! When the boys heard that, they tried to correct her but she just still always says that Santa says Har! Har! Har! She also likes to drop the first letter off of words. Makes understanding her a bit difficult sometimes but it's awfully cute! Oothbrush-toothbrush, andy-candy, ood-food, Anta-Santa. Sometimes she just uses the wrong letter at the beginning of a word. For instance, she calls Zack's friend Tanner-Nanner, and mink-drink, nammies-jammies, Yack-Zack, Yacky-Zacky. She also says Grandpa for GrandMa and for Grandpa. That gets confusing! We love her 2 year-old speak! She is so much fun! She's in the 95th %-tile for height though, so people often expect her to act much differently. She won't be 3 until May but people already think she should be potty trained. She probably should but I can't get her to actually GO when she's on the potty. I think if she can finally figure out what she's supposed to do when I put her on there, she might actually just keep doing it and life will be good. She tries. Any suggestions???
A few months ago we discovered that we LOVE the show, The Big Bang Theory. We watch the reruns at 10:00 most nights. Last night's episode was SO hilarious!!! I just have to share cause laughing is so much fun!!! If you don't know the premise of the show, they are all Geniuses (except Wolowitz of course, because he only has a Master's Degree HEHE). They are all a bit backwards but Sheldon is just totally socially inept it's ridiculous. He's always very serious and analyzes EVERYTHING. And he's a major germaphobe. Anyhoo, I hope you laugh!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqwPp--hy-c
Friday, November 25, 2011
I survived Black Thursday/Friday at Walmart...
Well, Brian survived his first "Black Thursday/Friday experience. We went to Walmart in Payson. It was CRAZY! I've never seen anything like it and I've been going to these for years now. One chick's hand was bleeding from fighting someone over something. Not a fan of bumper carts! Had to ditch the cart to try to get through and I still couldn't get through. I thought I was going to have to punch a couple looney cart chicks when I still had the cart. My sister, KayTee would have totally mopped the floor with them! We were so excited though because we were able to get one of the $99 4-wheelers for Max. He will be over the moon excited! We were also able to get Matthew a pogo stick for $12 and 3 Barbies that were $5 each for Gracie and we were also able to find a Harry Potter Lego Wii game for $15 that my mom wanted us to pick up for her. There were lots of other things we wanted to get but they will have to wait until after Brian's payday. :) The lines seemed to be moving pretty well to check out so that was nice! I would much rather stay up later than get up at 4 a.m.! Unfortunately, so would everyone else! We were able to save about $150.00 and as cheap as we are and as much as we love a good bargain, it was totally worth it!. Fun times! Fun times!
We had such a nice Thanksgiving! The food was delicious, the company was wonderful, making gingerbread houses was so much fun, and the Black Thursday/Friday sale was very productive. We missed Rob, Jenise, Dana, Richard, Nathan, Heidi and everyone's adorable little children and grandchildren!!! I love Thanksgiving! It is such a wonderful time to reflect on all of the wonderful blessings we have! I hope everyone I know had a wonderful day as well! Later today my mom and sisters and I will go to the craft sale in Spanish Fork. Oh, I just love this time of year!!!
We had such a nice Thanksgiving! The food was delicious, the company was wonderful, making gingerbread houses was so much fun, and the Black Thursday/Friday sale was very productive. We missed Rob, Jenise, Dana, Richard, Nathan, Heidi and everyone's adorable little children and grandchildren!!! I love Thanksgiving! It is such a wonderful time to reflect on all of the wonderful blessings we have! I hope everyone I know had a wonderful day as well! Later today my mom and sisters and I will go to the craft sale in Spanish Fork. Oh, I just love this time of year!!!
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
A few thoughts
Sometimes if I ask Gracie if she wants to take a nap she'll say no and then a little while later she'll say she does want to go ni-nite. So I asked her today if she wanted to go ni-nite and she said, "No, dedo" and smiled really cheesy.
Max was playing with my hair today. I have my bangs pulled back in a couple of bobbie pins today. He had one of Gracie's hair flowers in his hand and said, "I'm just going to cover these up with a flower because when I see them I think they are kind of hideous."
I'm finally enjoying the summer. We're just kickin' back and havin' fun and I'm feeling very relaxed. In most ways I'm not looking forward to school starting. I am, however, looking forward to having a cleaner house. That's it. That's the only reason I'm looking forward to school today. Tomorrow if the kids start fighting I'll look forward to school starting then too. I'm really looking forward to having some one on one time with Gracie. She is such a sweetie and the poor thing is kid #4 so she pretty much just has to go with the flow. It will be nice to not have anybody in preschool. Being able to keep up with the house better will be nice. It will be nice to feel like things are more calm and relaxed. I really NEED some calm and relaxation in my life!
Can you believe I actually braved free swimming day at the pool for International Days? They said there were over 1,000 people there that day and I believe it! It was crazy! But we had fun! Gracie freaks out when the waves turn on but by the time we left that day she wanted me to take her to the biggest wave in the pool. She's so cute! I love spending time with my kids and feeling like I can actually feel like doing fun things like that with them by myself. I am really thankful for modern medicine!!!
Max was playing with my hair today. I have my bangs pulled back in a couple of bobbie pins today. He had one of Gracie's hair flowers in his hand and said, "I'm just going to cover these up with a flower because when I see them I think they are kind of hideous."
I'm finally enjoying the summer. We're just kickin' back and havin' fun and I'm feeling very relaxed. In most ways I'm not looking forward to school starting. I am, however, looking forward to having a cleaner house. That's it. That's the only reason I'm looking forward to school today. Tomorrow if the kids start fighting I'll look forward to school starting then too. I'm really looking forward to having some one on one time with Gracie. She is such a sweetie and the poor thing is kid #4 so she pretty much just has to go with the flow. It will be nice to not have anybody in preschool. Being able to keep up with the house better will be nice. It will be nice to feel like things are more calm and relaxed. I really NEED some calm and relaxation in my life!
Can you believe I actually braved free swimming day at the pool for International Days? They said there were over 1,000 people there that day and I believe it! It was crazy! But we had fun! Gracie freaks out when the waves turn on but by the time we left that day she wanted me to take her to the biggest wave in the pool. She's so cute! I love spending time with my kids and feeling like I can actually feel like doing fun things like that with them by myself. I am really thankful for modern medicine!!!
Friday, July 22, 2011
I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me....., scripture marking, that dadgum tooth fairy!, Brian's delicioso burritos
~As a parent you I feel the magnitude of the responsibility I have to raise good, decent, humble, active participants in church, and successful, upstanding citizens of this crazy world. I realize that I have to be a good example to them in every way because they learn so much by watching others. Now that I have a daughter I feel this responsibility even more than before! What she sees and hears me do will shape the kind of person she will be, just the same as it will shape her brothers. But it will also shape the kind of wife and mother she will be. Kind of mind blowing for me! She truly watches EVERYTHING I do. She is so cute to watch as she does stuff I do. She loves to help me with every task. She is a hard little worker! Her favorite way to help is to hand me the clean dishes from the dishwasher. Today I got out a towel to dry the dishes with since I usually use plastic cups and they just never seem to dry in the dishwasher. Well, Gracie got herself a towel out of the drawer and came over and started drying off dishes too. Oh my goodness! It was adorable! She melts my heart! She.is.JOY!!!
~So I went to that little scripture marking class last month and the teacher gave us a piece of paper with all the scripture mastery scriptures on it. She said she figures that if the youth of the church need to memorize them she should probably at least have them marked in her scriptures. She marks them in a rainbow of colored pencils so she knows when she runs across them she will remember that they are scripture mastery scriptures. I have been marking them in my scriptures since Brian got them for me a few years ago and I haven't marked very many scriptures in them yet. Although, Gracie has done her fair share of marking them! ;) I have so enjoyed marking these scriptures because they are just wonderful, inspiring, faith building, thought provoking, scriptures! I don't really take time to read scriptures on my own. We do as a family and that is wonderful but I really feel like I need to make more of an effort personally to study the scriptures on my own. I am so grateful for the scriptures! What a wonderful gift we've been given by our Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ! The prophets in the scriptures had such courage, such faith, such obedience. We can learn so many things from them!!!
~K, soooo, my face had been feeling like I was having birthing contractions for a couple days. So intense and unbearable! I don't think I've ever cried from the pain I have there before. I just try to be tough but that pain had me curled up in a ball on my bed, crying like a baby!!! Then my last tooth on the top on the right hurt so badly it's ridiculous so I went to the doctor. The crappiest part was that my T.N. could be causing that pain or it could just be a rotten tooth. My dentist said the only way he could tell if it was the tooth was to remove the filling I had in that tooth and basically do a root canal which would cost like $1500 and it could just be the stupid nerve causing it in the first place and I would have wasted $1500. I just had him pull it. He said it's really not that important of a tooth anyway. So, now I've had 3 teeth pulled. And not once has that dadgum tooth fairy brought me so much as a penny! Can you believe that?!?! :)
~Brian makes these AMAZING pork burritos! I mean seriously TO DIE FOR!!! They are super easy to make too. And the smell fabulous!!! Ok, so this is what he does....
Brian's Delicioso Burritos
*Place a pork roast in the crock pot.
*Pour a can of that green chili verde enchilada sauce over it.
*Cut some onion up and throw that in. Brian cuts it into pretty big chunks so the kids can easily pick it out. :)
*Cut up an Anaheim pepper and throw that in too. We didn't have one last time and it was still fabulous!!
*Let it cook in your crock pot for like 6-8 hours from frozen.
*Put some on a flour tortilla and roll it up and ENJOY!!! We put cheese on the kids' meat in their tortilla because they'll pretty much eat anything that is covered in cheese! :)
~So I went to that little scripture marking class last month and the teacher gave us a piece of paper with all the scripture mastery scriptures on it. She said she figures that if the youth of the church need to memorize them she should probably at least have them marked in her scriptures. She marks them in a rainbow of colored pencils so she knows when she runs across them she will remember that they are scripture mastery scriptures. I have been marking them in my scriptures since Brian got them for me a few years ago and I haven't marked very many scriptures in them yet. Although, Gracie has done her fair share of marking them! ;) I have so enjoyed marking these scriptures because they are just wonderful, inspiring, faith building, thought provoking, scriptures! I don't really take time to read scriptures on my own. We do as a family and that is wonderful but I really feel like I need to make more of an effort personally to study the scriptures on my own. I am so grateful for the scriptures! What a wonderful gift we've been given by our Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ! The prophets in the scriptures had such courage, such faith, such obedience. We can learn so many things from them!!!
~K, soooo, my face had been feeling like I was having birthing contractions for a couple days. So intense and unbearable! I don't think I've ever cried from the pain I have there before. I just try to be tough but that pain had me curled up in a ball on my bed, crying like a baby!!! Then my last tooth on the top on the right hurt so badly it's ridiculous so I went to the doctor. The crappiest part was that my T.N. could be causing that pain or it could just be a rotten tooth. My dentist said the only way he could tell if it was the tooth was to remove the filling I had in that tooth and basically do a root canal which would cost like $1500 and it could just be the stupid nerve causing it in the first place and I would have wasted $1500. I just had him pull it. He said it's really not that important of a tooth anyway. So, now I've had 3 teeth pulled. And not once has that dadgum tooth fairy brought me so much as a penny! Can you believe that?!?! :)
~Brian makes these AMAZING pork burritos! I mean seriously TO DIE FOR!!! They are super easy to make too. And the smell fabulous!!! Ok, so this is what he does....
Brian's Delicioso Burritos
*Place a pork roast in the crock pot.
*Pour a can of that green chili verde enchilada sauce over it.
*Cut some onion up and throw that in. Brian cuts it into pretty big chunks so the kids can easily pick it out. :)
*Cut up an Anaheim pepper and throw that in too. We didn't have one last time and it was still fabulous!!
*Let it cook in your crock pot for like 6-8 hours from frozen.
*Put some on a flour tortilla and roll it up and ENJOY!!! We put cheese on the kids' meat in their tortilla because they'll pretty much eat anything that is covered in cheese! :)
Thursday, May 26, 2011
I'm not as good at it as my cousin is!!! But at least I tried! :)
My incredibly talented cousin, Becky, makes these AMAZING cakes. She lives in Utah County and has started a business making cakes for people. My sister Steph has asked her to make 3 different cakes. They are all masterpieces. I don't have a picture of the fabulous cake she make for my nephew, Josh, but it was so awesome!!! She made a Toy Story one and it was a moving day box and the characters were all coming out of it and there were packing peanuts and stuff. It was all edible except for a couple of the characters that she bought at the store but otherwise she made each character and everything herself. You can see it on her blog if you want. http://thecakemama.blogspot.com/
Gracie's party had a Hawaiian theme. I found this adorable Hawaiian Hula Girl cake idea online and copied it. You make it the same way you make the Barbie cake with the Pampered Chef Large Batter Bowl or you can use a Pyrex bowl. My friend Sherelle suggested to cut it in half and put some frosting in between so there isn't just a big ol' piece of cake without frosting. It was super easy and I think it turned out cute. It of course wasn't professional looking but still cute and fun! I'll post some more pics of her bday on my Word From the Zoo blog soon.
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the $1 store for cheap, cute, fun decorations!!! The only reason I chose a Hawaiian theme was because the $1 store had such cute Hawaiian decorations! So much fun!
She made this fun cake for my beautiful little niece's birthday.
She made this one for my mom's 70th birthday party. She was born in Kansas and lived there until I was 16 then we moved out here. This cake was perfect for my mom!!!
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the $1 store for cheap, cute, fun decorations!!! The only reason I chose a Hawaiian theme was because the $1 store had such cute Hawaiian decorations! So much fun!
I had so much fun with these cupcakes! Aren't they cute?!
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
A little catching up...
K so I know I haven't blogged in a really long time, it's actually been almost a whole month! Crazy for me! But my medicine has been working REALLY well...most of the time anyway. I still have some really bad days, sometimes for several days in a row. But I'm definitely having more good days than bad days...I'll take it!!!! On the really good days I think of a zillion things to blog about but I'm running around doing all the things I can't do on the bad days. I still try to just work through life in pain on those days, I'm just a LOT slower! I have to sit down more often and rest. Thank goodness for recliners! I just try to find joy on those bad days by spending more time with the kids. Reading to them. We like to watch movies and eat popcorn together when it hurts too much. I love the chance that those bad days give me to just spend time with the kids, snuggling 1 or 2 kids on the recliner while we watch our movies. The good days have been like a dream come true! I can mow weeds, clean more deeply, run errands, organize our house better. When we moved in a year ago we just haphazardly put things away just to get rid of the piles boxes in the house. I have reorganized most closets, drawers, cabinets, to make them more functional. I just get so much more done on good days than I do on bad days for sure!!! I have caught myself feeling FANTASTIC many times and doing things I couldn't for so long and I just feel so incredibly happy that it always brings tears to my eyes to feel NO PAIN and I feel like myself for a change! Then when I go back to having my Trigeminal Neuralgia pain on bad days that brings tears to my eyes too. I am so grateful to have found a wonderful doctor who knew what was wrong with me AND how to help me! I am grateful to a wonderful friend who, when I mentioned I didn't have a dishwasher, gave us a dishwasher that they had in their garage that was from a different house they had. Her very clever husband build a cover for it since it is the kind of dishwasher that is meant to be built in to your cabinets. We had to have it as a portable one so he made it portable. He also came over to our house 2 evenings in a row hooking it up. I cannot begin to tell you how grateful I am to have a dishwasher!!! As you might imagine, we have a LOT of dishes around here seeing as how there are 6 of us and we eat out once or twice a month, if that often. So 3 meals a day for 6 people.....fun stuff!! I have spent more hours washing dishes this past year than I care to think about. What a time saver a dishwasher is! I feel giddy every time I close the dishwasher door and press the buttons to start it and walk away after spending a few minutes loading it! It's unbelievably freeing! And I am so incredibly grateful that they so generously gave us the dishwasher and that he sacrificed 2 evenings hooking it up!!!
Baseball season has been going on and tonight Matty has his second game at 7:00 and Zack has a game at 6:00 to make up for the game they couldn't play yesterday because of rain. Matty is a natural when it comes to hitting! He's awesome! Zack has been playing second base this year. He has always played third base before so it's a bit different but he likes it and does a good job! He's been hitting the ball, being pitched to him since he was 2 years old but he's been hit by the ball a couple of times from some wild pitches and he has not hit much at all for 2 or 3 years. It drives us nuts because we know he can do it he just needed to get past the fear of getting hit. I finally told him a couple of weeks ago to just forget everything his different coaches have told him about how to stand and stuff and just watch the ball. It doesn't matter how he stands or what he does if he doesn't watch the ball. I told him baseball is meant to be fun and if you aren't having fun then what's the point?! And I told him that the worst case scenario is that he gets hit by a ball. He's done that and he lived so don't worry! It did the trick! That night he actually hit the ball!!! We were so excited for him! He has been hitting the ball at games ever since! They had a tournament last week. Friday night his team won which meant he had a game Saturday morning at 9:00. That was Gracie's bday and I had a zillion things to do so I couldn't go to the game. He hit the ball way out to right field and made it to 2nd base and 2 of his teammates scored off of that hit! What a confidence boost for him! I was so happy for him! His team lost but they still have the best record in the league for the tournament with only one loss, so they play tonight again. They would have been finished last week but with all the cancelled games because of rain, the tournament is still going on. I can't wait to see how his team fares!
Can you believe Gracie is 2 now?! It just blows my mind! I'll try to post some of the fun pics of her bday. For now I have to go...busy, busy, busy!!! :)
Baseball season has been going on and tonight Matty has his second game at 7:00 and Zack has a game at 6:00 to make up for the game they couldn't play yesterday because of rain. Matty is a natural when it comes to hitting! He's awesome! Zack has been playing second base this year. He has always played third base before so it's a bit different but he likes it and does a good job! He's been hitting the ball, being pitched to him since he was 2 years old but he's been hit by the ball a couple of times from some wild pitches and he has not hit much at all for 2 or 3 years. It drives us nuts because we know he can do it he just needed to get past the fear of getting hit. I finally told him a couple of weeks ago to just forget everything his different coaches have told him about how to stand and stuff and just watch the ball. It doesn't matter how he stands or what he does if he doesn't watch the ball. I told him baseball is meant to be fun and if you aren't having fun then what's the point?! And I told him that the worst case scenario is that he gets hit by a ball. He's done that and he lived so don't worry! It did the trick! That night he actually hit the ball!!! We were so excited for him! He has been hitting the ball at games ever since! They had a tournament last week. Friday night his team won which meant he had a game Saturday morning at 9:00. That was Gracie's bday and I had a zillion things to do so I couldn't go to the game. He hit the ball way out to right field and made it to 2nd base and 2 of his teammates scored off of that hit! What a confidence boost for him! I was so happy for him! His team lost but they still have the best record in the league for the tournament with only one loss, so they play tonight again. They would have been finished last week but with all the cancelled games because of rain, the tournament is still going on. I can't wait to see how his team fares!
Can you believe Gracie is 2 now?! It just blows my mind! I'll try to post some of the fun pics of her bday. For now I have to go...busy, busy, busy!!! :)
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Good for them!!
http://ldsliving.com/story/63283-sister-missionaries-get-a-new-wardrobe
I think this is great!
P.S. Does anyone know what "de" means? Gracie keeps asking for it. Begging for it. And sometimes crying for it. It's not drink because she calls drink "me". I've tried EVERYTHING!! Usually she's pointing at the frig when she says it and yesterday I showed her everything inside hoping to unfold the mystery only to hear NO!!! over and over again!!! Wish me luck!!!
I think this is great!
P.S. Does anyone know what "de" means? Gracie keeps asking for it. Begging for it. And sometimes crying for it. It's not drink because she calls drink "me". I've tried EVERYTHING!! Usually she's pointing at the frig when she says it and yesterday I showed her everything inside hoping to unfold the mystery only to hear NO!!! over and over again!!! Wish me luck!!!
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Christmas and ringing in the New Year
We had a wonderful Christmas this year even though I almost totally ruined the whole thing and we had a little change of plans.
How I almost totally ruined Christmas (for Zack anyway): I put Zack's basketball goal he wanted on layaway at Kmart early in November. I was going to get it off layaway December 23rd and it was going to work out perfectly! Well, lots of Dr's appointments, pain, festivities, callings, and craziness in general and apparently somewhere in there I was supposed to remember to make a payment on the thing at the end of November...big OOPS!!! Brian was inspired one day in December to check out the status of the layaway online...it was...CANCELLED!!! WHAT!!! WHAT!!!!!! Total heart attack city for me when I got that lovely phone call! Thank goodness Brian was able to find one on walmart.com that was actually like $40 cheaper anyway. There weren't any left in the stores here in our little town and we weren't planning any trips to the big city anytime soon so we were so LUCKY (blessed!) to find that one online! And it was delivered 2 days later which was awesome!!! Thank goodness Zack has a great dad!!!
Change of plans: We were planning to go to my parent's house for Christmas dinner but my mom and my sister Katie got sick with a stomach virus that morning that they got from my adorable niece, Emily. I feel so bad for them that they were sick because that would be a totally rotten way to spend Christmas. And my brother in law Chris who is married to Katie has his birthday on Christmas day. So he spent his big day watching Katie be sick. Fun stuff! Well, we obviously stayed home and it turned out to be an awesome day!!! I was worried how the kids would react to having a slimmer, but still, very nice Christmas gift getting experience this year compared to last years major over indulgence. They LOVED it! They were so happy with everything they got! They were disappointed to not be going to my mom's and we were too but it was SO awesome to just watch our kids relax and enjoy their gifts and enjoy the day. We haven't traveled for Christmas in several years because it just doesn't work for us anymore but we thought it would be nice to go for Christmas dinner. I'm thinking while our kids are still young enough to really enjoy the magic of Christmas this may just have to be the way we do it from now on. It was a great day! I had a lot of energy that day which is highly unusual for me so I cleaned a lot and accomplished a lot of things I had been wanting to get done so it worked great for me. I kept getting teary thinking about not getting to see my sister Dana and my brother Rob that day. I knew we'd see the rest of my family in a few days anyway but I was really sad to think I couldn't see Rob and Dana! We did enjoy just being alone for the day though and realize sometimes a change of plans isn't such a bad thing after all. We spent New Year's Eve with my family and had our belated wonderful Christmas dinner and exchanged gifts and had a great time!!! It's all good!
Here are some of our pictures from the fun and crazy month of December...
Great things that have come from this year:
~A stronger testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ and a greater feeling of closeness to Him, our loving Father in Heaven, and the precious gift of the Holy Ghost.
~A stronger testimony of the power of prayer.
~A closer family unit seeing as how we are so CLOSE in our tiny house. They say love grows best in little houses and boy are they right!
~The joy we feel in watching our children grow and enjoying the precious gifts of being their parents is truly a blessing!!!
~Our children have been really healthy this year and we are so very grateful to our Heavenly Father for that amazing gift as well!
~Our gratitude to our Heavenly Father for all He has provided us with in our lives has grown tremendously this year!!!
~Brian has a great job with great benefits. We have a roof over our heads. We have food on the table. We have clothes on our backs. We have cars to drive. We have the gospel in our lives. We have friends. We live in Utah in the United States of America. We have people to love. We are blessed!!! And we are grateful!!!
So GOODBYE 2010 and HELLO 2011!!!!! Please be kind to us!!! :)
How I almost totally ruined Christmas (for Zack anyway): I put Zack's basketball goal he wanted on layaway at Kmart early in November. I was going to get it off layaway December 23rd and it was going to work out perfectly! Well, lots of Dr's appointments, pain, festivities, callings, and craziness in general and apparently somewhere in there I was supposed to remember to make a payment on the thing at the end of November...big OOPS!!! Brian was inspired one day in December to check out the status of the layaway online...it was...CANCELLED!!! WHAT!!! WHAT!!!!!! Total heart attack city for me when I got that lovely phone call! Thank goodness Brian was able to find one on walmart.com that was actually like $40 cheaper anyway. There weren't any left in the stores here in our little town and we weren't planning any trips to the big city anytime soon so we were so LUCKY (blessed!) to find that one online! And it was delivered 2 days later which was awesome!!! Thank goodness Zack has a great dad!!!
Change of plans: We were planning to go to my parent's house for Christmas dinner but my mom and my sister Katie got sick with a stomach virus that morning that they got from my adorable niece, Emily. I feel so bad for them that they were sick because that would be a totally rotten way to spend Christmas. And my brother in law Chris who is married to Katie has his birthday on Christmas day. So he spent his big day watching Katie be sick. Fun stuff! Well, we obviously stayed home and it turned out to be an awesome day!!! I was worried how the kids would react to having a slimmer, but still, very nice Christmas gift getting experience this year compared to last years major over indulgence. They LOVED it! They were so happy with everything they got! They were disappointed to not be going to my mom's and we were too but it was SO awesome to just watch our kids relax and enjoy their gifts and enjoy the day. We haven't traveled for Christmas in several years because it just doesn't work for us anymore but we thought it would be nice to go for Christmas dinner. I'm thinking while our kids are still young enough to really enjoy the magic of Christmas this may just have to be the way we do it from now on. It was a great day! I had a lot of energy that day which is highly unusual for me so I cleaned a lot and accomplished a lot of things I had been wanting to get done so it worked great for me. I kept getting teary thinking about not getting to see my sister Dana and my brother Rob that day. I knew we'd see the rest of my family in a few days anyway but I was really sad to think I couldn't see Rob and Dana! We did enjoy just being alone for the day though and realize sometimes a change of plans isn't such a bad thing after all. We spent New Year's Eve with my family and had our belated wonderful Christmas dinner and exchanged gifts and had a great time!!! It's all good!
Here are some of our pictures from the fun and crazy month of December...
Gracie had so much fun tormenting our poor tree this year. Eventually we had almost all of our ornaments on the top of the tree and only indestructible ones down low. I gave up trying to rearrange them to look halfway decent. I took this picture on Christmas Eve. Poor pathetic tree!!! I didn't want to put the gifts out until Christmas Eve because of our sweet little tornado but Brian talked me into it on the Sunday before Christmas and sheesh...we should have waited. She unwrapped like 6 gifts. You can see that Brian's exercise bike he got was unwrapped. Silly girl! P.S. I wasn't trying to send Brian a message by giving him that bike or anything! That's what he wanted!!! Just wanted to make it clear that I didn't say here's an exercise bike fat a.. USE IT! He would just have said ditto!!
Brian made us each a hat for Christmas. Love them!!! We usually do Christmas pjs for Christmas Eve but didn't this year. Oh well, we survived! !
Apparently Gracie agrees that being surrounded by presents and chocolate = pure bliss!!!
Cute little Lucy on our way to Spanish Fork. Thank goodness Katie and Chris let her sleep over at their house with Sam and Sia when it's too cold to leave her home!!!
We came to Spanish Fork for our New Year's celebrations a day early on Thursday so we could go on a date while my parents watched all the kids. What I won't do for a date night! Even driving through white out conditions in the canyon couldn't stop me from cashing in on that prize!!!
So, 2010..not my favorite year I must say!! A lot of trials and bumps in the road! Also many, many blessings! 
Great things that have come from this year:
~A stronger testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ and a greater feeling of closeness to Him, our loving Father in Heaven, and the precious gift of the Holy Ghost.
~A stronger testimony of the power of prayer.
~A closer family unit seeing as how we are so CLOSE in our tiny house. They say love grows best in little houses and boy are they right!
~The joy we feel in watching our children grow and enjoying the precious gifts of being their parents is truly a blessing!!!
~Our children have been really healthy this year and we are so very grateful to our Heavenly Father for that amazing gift as well!
~Our gratitude to our Heavenly Father for all He has provided us with in our lives has grown tremendously this year!!!
~Brian has a great job with great benefits. We have a roof over our heads. We have food on the table. We have clothes on our backs. We have cars to drive. We have the gospel in our lives. We have friends. We live in Utah in the United States of America. We have people to love. We are blessed!!! And we are grateful!!!
So GOODBYE 2010 and HELLO 2011!!!!! Please be kind to us!!! :)
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