Christmas Pictures

Ivy is so happy with her Ponies

Adelaide loves her new stroller & baby
Emilie and her new Wii game.
How much fun is she having?

Mother & Daughter

or

Great Grandma & Grandma

The giant mass of presents

we had to wait all day to open

Brandon's Talent...

Dancing instructions

Sharee's Talent...

Tounge Tricks

The faithful father

assembling the gifts

Goodbye Old Friend

I am struck with a little sadness today. It has finally hit me that Mervyn's is gone. the department store my amazing mother has worked for, for nearly 30 years is closing all their doors forever. Mom has already left and found her new home at Home Depot, but I think it is with a little sadness that she left.

I am realizing how much of my life has been spent inside of and revolving around Mervyn's. As a kid I loved to go look at the toys. I could spend hours looking at all the Barbies and Ponies. I loved to hide in the round racks of clothes with my brothers, and I always felt (even as an adult) just a little special to walk past the "employees only" sign as I headed into the break room.

As I sit here typing I am wearing my Mervyn's bought shirt, socks, and bra. Jason left the house today in his Mervyn's dress slacks, and shirt, I would wager his socks are Meryvn's too. As for Emilie, and Ivy, I know the everything from their clothes, and underwear, to their socks and shoes are Mervyn's bought. I think over the years, my family almost singlehandedly kept them in business.

I would like to thank my mom for all her years of service to that store. I would like to thank her for putting up with all the crazies, all the crabbies, and all the down right nasty people she has helped over the years. I would like to thank her helping all the truly kind and friendly people that have graced her store, and for helping everyone in between. I would also like to thank her for always doing her best. For killing herself for the sake of the store, and more importantly her department. The Men's Department.

I am really going to miss this store. I know that may be silly, but I pretty much grew up in Mervyn's, and every time I would walk into a store, be it on Meadows Lane in Las Vegas, or Utah, or anywhere else, it always felt like home.

Goodbye.

Feeling a Little Crazy

For a while now I have been wanting to do something a little crazy with my hair. All my life I have been rather timid with my hair; I never wanted to mess up the color. Well today I threw caution to the wind.

I would like to thank Mary Sullivan for enabling my crazy idea, and for cutting and dying my hair blue. Not completely blue, mind you. I haven't totally lost it. I have dark blue streaks throughout, as well as some blond, and purple. She did a fantasic job. I highly reccomend her to everyone. Pleas keep in mind I wanted it this color, she did not mess anything up!

I am totally in love with it. Jason is in love with it. Ivy keeps saying " Mommy your hair is blue!" Emilie thinks it is totally cool, and wants to do her hair red and green for Christmas. I told her maybe.

Okay, I now open the floor for comments and critiques. I want to know what everyone thinks, even the lurkers who never comment. You know who you are!

Spelling with Ivy

Since Ivy has decided to teach herself how to spell, I thought I would start a new segment of the blog... Spelling With Ivy. As Ivy spells new words I will add them to her list.

Today she spelled B.I.N.G.O. and said "that spells NO."
She's got the spelling down, now if we can only match up to the right word...

Ivyism

no-o spells NO!

One Year Old!!!!

Happy Birthday Adelaide

Birthdays and Baptisms

The last 2 weeks were big ones for Emilie. She turned 8, she had her first big slumber party, and she got baptised. It was kind of a whirl wind around here especially with my parents visiting too. Here are a few pictures to document the craziness...

We did a spa night, the girls painted each others toe nails

Astyn Alexander tried really hard to dodge the camera, but I got her!

10 Things I love about being a grown-up

1. I don't need permission to borrow the car.
2. It's my house and my rules.
3. I can eat candy any time I want to.
4. I clean my room when I feel like it.
5. I don't have to eat my veggies, before dessert.
6. My parents make so much more sense now.
7. Don't have to wonder whether I'm going out Friday night.
8. I'm allowed to sleep in the same bed as Jason.
9. My brothers don't pick on me anymore.
10. I'm in charge!

Happy Birthday Emilie

Emilie is a whopping 8 years old today. It doesn't seem that long ago that she was just little toddler learning to walk and talk. Now she is soon to be baptised. I'm so proud of my big girl.

Chores?

Like most parents I ask my children to do things around the house for me. Aside from regular chores like keeping their rooms clean, and putting dishes away; I often ask them to throw things in the garbage, or put their shoes away. Little things really.
Well, lately Emilie has been asking me to do little things for her. Things she can't seem to find the time in her busy schedule for. For example, "Mom will please line all these Barbies up on the piano for me? I don't have time before school." and "Please dress these dolls for me while I'm gone. I don't want them to be naked all day." Oh, and my personal favorite "Make a fort out of all the pillows while I'm gone, I want to play in it when I get home."

I must admit I did humor her at first, and yes, I did line the Barbies up on the piano for her. Now however, I wonder if that wasn't a mistake...

SHOUT OUT!

I WOULD LIKE TO GIVE A SHOUT OUT TO ALL THE POOPY DIAPER CHANGERS PAST AND PRESENT. ESPECIALLY THE ONES WITH POOP ON YOUR HANDS, ARMS, OR OTHER LOCATIONS, AS THE CASE MAY BE. YOU ARE ALL WONDERFUL INDIVIDUALS. YOU SHOULD BE WORSHIPED AT YOUR FEET BY THOSE WHOSE DIAPERS YOU HAVE CHANGED. MAY YOU ALL LIVE LONG AND DIARRHEA FREE LIVES.


SPECIAL SHOUT OUT.....
TO JULIEANN HANSON WHO WAS SO KIND AS TO ASSIST IN THE DIAPER EXPLOSION OF OCTOBER 2008 AS IT WILL COME TO BE KNOWN. AND YES THAT IS WHY MY CHILD WAS NAKED AT CHURCH ON SUNDAY!

I WISH EVERYONE WHO READS THIS A POOP FREE DAY!!

Ghosts, Ghouls, and Jason

Saturday was our first annual Halloween Party. Jason told the girls we could have one before talking to me first, so when he finally asked me if I wanted to do one, I said "sure honey, you and the kids can throw a Halloween Party." I really liked taking a back seat role on this one. Usually I am the party planner, and host, but Jason stepped up and really shined. We had 23 kids ranging in age from 2-12, and he managed to entertain them all at the same time, with very little chaos.
His activities included a spider race, cake walk ( I did make the cupcakes and cookies), tricks for treats, a bubble blowing contest, a parade, ghost stories, a short Casper the Friendly Ghost movie, and a soap carving contest. Not to mention a small treasure hunt. The kids had a great time. We had them hopped up on candy and soda, and by the end we were so ready to send them all home. I pretty much just did what Jason told me to and let him run the show. I am amazed at how great he is with kids. I typically lose my patience and have a headache about half way through any party, but not my guy. I can really see why he's such a great school teacher, he has so much energy, and the kids love to be around him. He is already talking about next years party what he will keep, and what he will do different. I think he even wants to expand and have more kids. Technically we only gave out 8 invitations. I'm not sure I want to go bigger, we both crashed after everyone left. We were so tired we missed the adult party we were supposed to go to that night. Sorry no pictures, I forgot to take any, I'll try to get some from my sis in law. I know she got some.

Barf Bowl

When I was a kid my mom had this big plastic bowl she would bring out anytime one of us had the flu. We had dubbed it the "barf bowl". I was reminded of the bowl last night when Emilie Suddenly puked all over the floor of her room. I yelled to Jason to grab a bowl and get in here. So he grabbed a large plastic bowl, not unlike our old childhood barf bowl, and handed it to Emms. She used that bowl all night long, we just kept rinsing it out and giving it back to her.

The interesting thing about the old barf bowl was that it was not only used for barf. We put popcorn in it, made brownies and cookies in it, basically it was a well used bowl. It didn't bother me as a kid that it was multifunctional. Now however I am a little disturbed that my bread and Carmel corn bowl has a new use.

pictures from a 5 year old

Ivy has recently become an amateur photographer. She loves to walk around with my digital camera and take pictures of things. Other than the fact that she is wearing down my batteries, I love that she is doing this. It is so funny to see the world through her eyes for a change. So without further ado. Ivy's pictures...

Now I know how she sees me.

I'm surprised I don't frighten her!

Our living room

A self portrait

I call this one "Cup in Red"

She got super close to a red cup to capture this little masterpiece

Out front yard

watch out national geographic

this her attempt at an action shot

we'd like to thank Emilie for allowing us to use a photo of her Tushie.

Conference Weekend

can i just say how much i love conference weekend! i really enjoy listening to the talks from the prophet and apostles, and not having to wrestle my children into church clothes. and not listening to jason complain for the 6000th time how much he hates to get dressed up and/or wear a suit.

we had a great time together as a family. we had our niece callie spend the night on saturday. we played the wii until the wee hours of the morning, and got really good at mario kart. i made wheat bread made from wheat i ground in my very own wheat grinder. it turned out really good this time. (the last 2 attempts were not so successful)




we had dinner at brandon and sharee's house. (thank you for a great time, and delicious lasagna.)




it is so fun to be with family. the kids just love to be with their cousins. we took some cute, and one pretty gross picture while we were their. you can decide for yourself which is the gross one. (hint...ivy)




i really loved this conference. i really felt like the overall theme for me was love and patience. and being a peacemaker really hit home. these are things i have been struggling with lately, and i really needed to hear how important these things are. i hope everyone enjoyed this weekend too.

one last thing... i apologize to all the people i have annoyed by not capitalizing during this post.

Sunset

Last night was so nice and peaceful. I sat out on my front lawn with Emilie and Adelaide and watched the sunset. I can't think of a nicer way to spend my Sunday night. Except maybe if Jason had turned off the TV and joined us.

Over Extended???

Did you ever have one of those weeks where you are busy. I mean really busy. Constantly running from place to place, hardly have a moment to yourself, even to pee busy! The last 3 weeks have been this way for me. This week was esp. bad. After looking at the calender for next week, I can tell I'm heading into another one. As I surveyed the house this morning I could tell I have been neglecting my huswiffery duties in a big way. I am still neglecting them even now as I write this. But I need a few moments to myself to collect my thoughts and regain some sanity. I know I have brought most of this on myself. I'm the one who decided to go back to school. I'm the one who signed both girls up for girl-scouts. I'm the one who agreed on a babysitting swap (which frankly is working out beautifully). I'm also the one who volunteered to babysit every Tuesday night so another over worked mom and friend could go to institute. The latter is actually my favorite thing I have going on. I really need the warm feeling I get from doing a service. That has been sorely lacking in my life for far too long.

I think I am heading into a time of life that is just generally busy. My kids are getting older, which means more extracurricular goings on. Our callings are more demanding of our time, and if I want to graduate from college, again, my life is going to be full. I am going to accept that this is the way. I am going to pray for strength that I can manage my time better. As soon as homecoming is over I am going to request more help of Jason. Did I mention that his life is crazy busy right now also.

Okay, enough whining, and stalling. I'm going to go clean my house now!

labor day

Okay, I know I'm a week late, but better late than never. I did start school again this semester, so I'm just going to have to give myself a break.

We went to visit Jason's parents at their wonderful lake house. We had a great time, even though we didn't go till Sunday to cut down on Jason's asthma attacks. I even managed to get Jason out on the boat this time. He usually sticks to the house and makes me take the kids out.

It was Adelaide's first time on the boat. She had a great time... until she fell asleep. I guess it wasn't exciting enough for her!

I just love going there and being with the family. I have the best time talking with my sisters-in-law. It was great to have Dane and Christie there this time. I love the energy their family brings with them.

Thank you Paul and Carol for supplying all the food and fun. We love you!

Where's the baby?

A question I asked myself just a few short minutes ago. I left her in the family room playing with toys and watching pbs with the big kids. When I came back to check on her a few minutes later she was no where to be found. Now I had to ask myself, "If I were a baby where would I go."
Well, here is the answer to both questions... IN THE BATHROOM!
Playing with the toilet paper of course.

OUR NEW LOOK

While Jason's parents so kindly took Emilie and Ivy to their house for a week, Jason, Paul, and I got down and dirty and painted the main rooms of our house. The living room, family room, and the hall that connects them.After 2 days of painting, and one day of touching up, and replacing furniture, and decor. the house looks wonderful! Jason and Paul talked me into more shades of gold than I had planned on, (four shades total) but I must admit, they were right. The color in the family room is more of a bronze color, I'm not sure you can tell by the picture. I am loving it.

Now everyone, tell me what you think.

Breaking Dawn & the Birthday Party

Breaking Dawn
Well, first things first. On Friday Aug. 1st I went out to dinner with my church friends and fellow Twilight enthusiasts, and then to the Breaking Dawn party at Borders. We had a great time being silly and discussing the ins and outs of Bella, Edward, and Jacob. Of course we ended up buying it at Walmart cause we didn't want to stand in the gianormous line at Borders.

At dinner, which was at a fantastic Italian restaurant ,I tried fried calamari for the first time ever. Now this is huge for me. I don't eat anything that came from an ocean, lake, or stream as a general rule. However I was coerced, and I actually liked it. And I have the pictures to prove it!

Surprise Party!

On Aug. 2nd, I threw Jason a surprise party. It was so much fun for me to do this. I am usually a horrible secret keeper, but I managed keep this one to myself. Jason was totally surprised, and a little confused when he walked in. Thank you to Shawn for keeping him busy for 2 hours while I hurriedly got everything ready. and thank you to Janet and Paul (my brother) for helping me.

Jason was kind enough to humor me and read some of his poetry to us, and his parents were wonderful and brought the karaoke mic for our musical enjoyment. Thanks so much to everyone who came. We had such a great night, and Jason is so honored that everyone came to see him.