Mr. Postman

Today Mr. Postman brought me my first Christmas cards! (I got 2 today!) That means I better get busy and get mine finished! Dang, so much for trying to be finished by December 1st, oh well, what can you do! You are so lucky to get a little sneak preview at my picture shoot for the card!

By the way, the two I got were very cute! Thanks Carla and Kathy!

Have You Noticed?

Am I the only one, or have you noticed? The only good clementines are the "Cuties." I have tried other brands from the store and they aren't so good. This year I bought a bag of Sunkist "Smiles" thinking that Sunkist must be good. Nope, not as good as "Cuties." So this December I am renewing my vow to only buy the real "Cuties." Thank You!

First Snowstorm

This post is officially "old news" as soon as I post it, but...This was the first snow storm (about 2 weeks ago) we had with enough snow to stick! It was the good sticky snow that is perfect for a snowman. My kids could hardly stand it and had to go out side Sunday morning before church in their pajamas for a few minutes to check things out! C-man and dad made our first "6-ball" snowman that they were both quite proud of! I few times I thought I was going to have to go out and heft a few balls up on top, but they got it!

Hmmm..I remember when I was younger winter definitely wasn't this cold!
On a side note, I have no clue why my husband has shorts on?!

You Gotta Check This Out

I am just passing along an exciting message,

If you have a preschooler who will start kindergarten in 2012 (or after) you need to check out Utah Upstart. It is the free Utah online preschool. It is being tested and researched right now. You have to put your child on the waiting list about a year before they will be 4 or 5.

I put C-man on the list last July and they called this July to tell us we were on the short list and then we found out we were in. The program is really neat and is meant for the children to use independently on the computer. They will even loan you a computer for a year if you don't have one! You can use it while your child does another preschool, or in place of another preschool. Another thing that is nice is that once you are accepted, other kids at your house can also use the program.

The site is Utahupstart.org It is worth checking and signing up, then you can change your mind later if you want!

Kids Know this Stuff?

C-man is 5 going on 16 I think. He is always saying these things that we can't believe and usually we are trying not to laugh at. (Like every child I'm sure)

The other morning Baby Brother was brushing his teeth (this is his new obsession; any dentist would be proud) and playing in the water at the sink in the bathroom. I was partially encouraging him because it gave me an extra 5 minutes to get ready, but I was saying something about how he was going to use all of the water and the fish wouldn't have any more water in the ocean. I think I even mentioned Nemo and his dad.

C-man was in the other room and I didn't even think he was listening to us when he pops in to tell me, "That couldn't really happen mom, hello, it's called the water cycle!"

I guess I was wrong!

I Wanna Go Back!

We recently returned from a week sailing around the Western Caribbean! We were pampered and spoiled, and I liked it! I wanna go back!


Our home away from home



What we wanted our room to be like




Mayan ruins in Costa Maya, Mexico


Our little family group that went, plus our new found friend from the Philippines! Thanks to him, we got lots of extra prizes from the cruise ship like flashlights, t-shirts and all of those other goodies that are great souvenirs for the kiddos!


Surprise! I got to have my birthday on the ship! ..and this is what our room really looked like, much less glamorous than the other picture.

It Works for Us

Thanks to a smart neighbor we started a new conference weekend tradition. Each October Conference for the past few years, I have found a fun and somewhat easy way to rotate the food in our 72 hour kits.

1. Remember to buy the new supplies a few days before
2. While watching Conference, everybody gets to take out the old food from their backpack (and look at all the other cool stuff in there!)
3. Put it all in a big bowl and have special goodies to eat during conference
4. Everyone packs new food into their own backpack for next year!

So far it has been kinda fun and worked out pretty good for us, plus it is an easy way to remember to rotate food.
*Bonus, it is usually case lot sale time!*

Is this going green?

One Saturday morning I opened the door and found a very large package on the front porch. I went and asked Bruce what big thing he had ordered from Kmart that I didn't know about. He looked out the door and couldn't think of anything it could be so we opened it excitedly. The kids dug through a mile of packing peanuts to find a relatively small Light Saber at the bottom!

I have to admit that I'm not always "earth-friendly." I mean don't get me wrong, I love the earth, and I recycle things that my city recycles, but other than that we only buy special products if they are cheaper than my regular choices and things like that. But I do have to admit that when I saw the shipping for the Light Saber that C-man got, I was a little surprised! I have pretty much assumed that 2 smart college kids at the shipping factory were making bets to see who could package the most ridiculous box! At least it provided us with a few days for good entertainment!

A Few of My Favorite Things

These are some of my favorite "household" items.


1. ZOUT stain remover
When I worked at ZCMI (a long time ago) in the lingerie department, women would buy this by the gallon, and we were always out of it! I had forgotten about until I saw it recently at Wal-mart! It takes out every stain I've tried! Works great on blood, ketchup and those types of stains. Last time I needed more my Wal-mart didn't have it. I found it at Walgreens though.

2. Finish Dishwasher Tablets
My dishwasher isn't that great and I have super hard water and every other kinds of regular dishwasher powder or liquid leaves my dishes kinda "filmy." These work so much better and gosh dang it they are so much more expensive too! Every once in awhile I buy another thing and try it out and I am always disappointed!
3. Lime A Way
I love to clean my glass shower door with this. It kinda fizzes or something on the hard water and soap scum!




4. Kirby Vacuum
I love my Kirby! It was expensive but worth it! After listening to a few 2 hour plus demos (this was when I was nicer and didn't pretend to be gone when the salesmen come to the door) I really wanted one, but they were selling for like $1200 or something ridiculous. So, we found a new one on e-bay for way less money!

Whoa! I better stop before people think that I have a really clean house or something! Do you have any favorites in your closet?

Lookin Good

One of Bruce's brothers got married this weekend and I couldn't stop taking pictures of my cute boys in their matching ties I made for Father's Day!

I used this tutorial and my limited sewing skills!

What more American than cornflakes?
The fourth of July and Uncle Sam?
What's more American than baseball?
I am, I am, I am!And I might add:
Backyard fireworks,
Neighbors and cousins!

Summer Romance?

The perfect company party; rent out the movie theater for everyone to see Toy Story 3. This eliminates the need for the awkward conversations with your husbands co-workers that you don't even know!

Who doesn't love a movie that is funny for kids and parents!


I have to admit, I got a little teary eyed over this one!

Summer is Starting!

We have had a busy few weeks and I think things are only going to get busier, in a good way I hope.
Our latest adventure was a weekend reunion in Heber Valley.


4 cousins having much more fun on the air mattress than Bruce and I did trying to sleep on it!


We even had a little lake adventure on the paddle boats! It is amazingly green in the mountains right now.


Everyone was tired and happy on the way home! Actually some weren't happy until they got up from a nap, then things were better!

Happy Birthday!

Happy First Birthday to the little guy that keeps us laughing!

A Date?

I think I may be the last one to stumble onto these great websites (Love, Actually and The Dating Divas) about...dating your husband! Around our house dates without kids are few and far between but it is something that we are going to start being better about! If anyone wants to do a fun date with us sometime, give me a call!

**Disclaimer! some of the ideas about dressing up crazy and going to town looking funny seem a bit High-school-ish **

In My Opinion...

Sorry but there isn't much cuter than these legs in those shorts!

How about something Nice and Cold!

I've been looking at different ways to do freezer dinners, freezer dinner clubs, and once-a-month-cooking. It sounds like a great idea. It is always nice to have something in the freezer to just pull out for dinner; quick and easy!
This is a great website; Once a Month Mom where they have instructions, shopping lists, and recipes to do once a month cooking.
I need some recipes that freeze well, any suggestions?

Our Angel is 2!

This is my newest treasure that my neighbor did for us. It has Jayden's real hand molds so Mommy can always remember.

The birthday party was a bit cold and windy! We sang and ate in the car where it was warmer!

Our Angel Baby turned 2 a few days ago! I can't believe how fast time goes by. We had a little birthday party at the cemetery; but ended up in the car for most of it because of the wind and rain. (The rest of this gets a bit long, but I wanted to tell the story. Every once in awhile some unsuspecting friend at the grocery store or the Pumpkin Walk asks an innocent question like "How many kids do you have?" and they get the "whole" story. Sometimes I don't feel like just saying that I have 2 boys, so I tell them I have 3 and I'm sure they get more of an answer than they wanted! --Oh well huh?)

When I was 17 weeks along with Jayden I started to have some bleeding. My doctor checked a few things and we didn't know the source but the Dr. said that often times light bleeding isn't too serious. So we waited a few more weeks and got more and more nervous. After the course of several days and several special ultra-sounds we determined that it was probably a placental abruption (a spot where the placenta detaches from the uterus wall.) We could never see the exact spot on any ultra sounds but we found out that a lot of women have an abruption and bleeding through their whole pregnancy and are fine.

At 21 weeks I started to have contractions early one Monday morning. We went to the hospital and got all admited. Within a few hours of being there the contractions stopped and nothing had happened. We did find the abruption site and find out it was a boy! There was no dialating and so they sent us home.

The next day we went to the Dr.'s office to talk with him and he was so positive. He wanted me to see a specialist from Salt Lake that would be coming up in about 3 weeks and he told us the baby would probably come early, but not too early. We left there so optimistic! I called Bruce's mom and mine and told them that things would be just fine.

Late that night the contractions started again and we waited for them to just go away. They didn't and so we called the Dr. He told us to come to the hospital if they didn't go away soon. Well, the contractions got really irregular and we didn't want to go to the hospital just to be sent home again. Finally things were getting pretty painful and we went to the hospital.

After being there for awhile and getting settled the nurse came to check me and said that I had started to dialate. Within minutes of that she told us that Jayden would be born and that we needed to start thinking of a funeral home we wanted to work with! I was completely blown away. I still figured that my contractions would stop and we would go home. I think Bruce and I were both in shock. My doctor called within minutes and talked to me on the phone for awhile before he came over.

Without being too dramatic or depressing, Jayden was born a few hours later. We was alive for about 15 minutes in the hospital where we held him, loved him, and kissed him. Our parents and family were able to hold him and we gave him a name and a blessing in the hospital room. My favorite memory was while I was holding him I brushed his forehead with one of my fingers and he scrunched up his tiny forehead that cute way that babies do. Being born at 21 weeks he was just too small to survive and so he returned to his Heavenly Father until we get him again.

We really felt like our Doctor and nurses were the best around and we were so glad we lived close to family. It makes it easier to think that we will be able to see our little Jayden again someday. Having two wonderful boys on Earth makes it a little easier but we never forget our angel baby!

Fighting Heart Disease

One Saturday Bruce and I were trying to decide where to get some lunch. C-man piped in from the backseat that he wanted pizza at Sam's Club. Since we hadn't had pizza for awhile we gave in. As Bruce, me and Baby Brother shared one piece of pizza, C-man had his own 3-meat pizza.

If you have been to Sam's Club for pizza you know this slice was literally about the size of his head and it was loaded with pepperoni, sausage and lots of bacon! Bruce and I were laughing about the number of fat grams that must be in one slice and commenting on how much of it C-man has eaten.

Out of the blue, C-man starts jumping around on the floor and doing strange things on the bench. We asked him what he was doing. His innocent reply was, "I am exercising so my body can eat more pizza."

(P.S. He did eat the whole piece, but don't worry, it was healthy since he exercised! ;if only it worked that way for me!)

9-Months!

Holy Cow! A few weeks ago Baby Brother turned 9 months! He was 22 lbs. at his check-up. I forgot how fast babies grow. He is just starting to walk and he has this great little personality. Sometimes I look at him and he has more of the "little boy look" instead of a "baby look." He is such a sweet and happy little guy!

He is in the super-curious stage (unfortunately for the rest of the family!) Let's just keep it between us that in the last few weeks we have found him sucking on the cheese grater, playing in the toilet, sucking C-man's Wii-mote, and eating leftover breakfast that was on the floor under the table; plus a bunch of other things that keep up busy all day long. I promise we really do watch him!

Check It Out!

The Help is #2 on the New York Times best seller list and the authors first novel! I love it when someone writes a first book that turns into a huge success! So run to your library and put your name on the waiting list for this one!

The Help is about a group of black maids in Mississippi during the Civil Rights era. It basically tells the story of what everyday life is like for them, good things and bad. The maids bravely begin to tell their "stories" to a young white girl who just graduated from college and wants to become a writer. It gets the point across without being too "in your face." Plus it was a fun read. It makes me wonder which character I would have been like had I lived in that time and place!

Just Around the Corner

Found this idea for a Valentine Chair Backer from "Crap I've Made"

Or these Lovey Bundles from "Kojo Designs"

And a new-sew version of the chair backers from "No Fuss Fabulous"

What a fun tradition! They are pretty much like Christmas stockings for Valentines Day. They might be do-able!

The Final Straw

Monday was just one of "those days!"
*Baby Brother is getting teeth / not sleeping at nights!
*Bruce is recovering from surgery / on the couch and only walking a few steps at a time with crutches
*I had a headache and wanted a nap!
*I'm supposed to be on a diet and not eating anything good!

Lets just say that when I realized I had washed an entire deck of UNO cards in the washing machine I was practically in tears!
A whole deck makes a BIG mess or the washing machine and the clothes!
The picture only shows the big pieces I could get out by shaking all of the wet clothes out! What you aren't seeing is all of the little bitty pieces that are stuck all over all of the clothes!

I'm better now! I had a nice bath with bubbles, watched a RedBox with Bruce, and had a good night sleep! Thank Goodness for a new start each day!

Our After Christmas Vacation

Crazy but Fun
Long drive, but good kids
Lots of relaxing and lots of playing
Las Vegas and St. George
Warmer than home,
My whole family together
Mom, Dad..When is the next trip?