ABC's of 2007

So my friend Lori sent me a cute letter of their family’s ABC’s of 2007, I thought it was such a cute idea that I wrote my own and I am posting it. It is a good summary and in case you are just visiting for the first time, it will sum up our year and if you want more details, most have a entire post that you can read for more details. ENJOY!

Accounting work for both Teri and Ray.

Blog – Teri started a blog in March, she has fun with it.

Connie Mac World Series – we kept our tradition alive and went to Farmington, NM to watch the baseball games and visit with family and friends.

Dolls and other "girl toys" have joined our toy collection. Kara especially loves her baby doll and feeding her with a toy bottle.

Enoch – spent a week there while Ray was at scout camp. The kids always ask Teri "When can we go to your mom’s house?"

Fun Family get-togethers - we attended several family reunions.

Grand Canyon – We went with Ray's family to Flagstaff for a week and enjoyed a day at the Grand Canyon as a family. Ray, his dad and brother, Randy, also hiked down to the river and back.

Hydration – We got our sprinklers in so now our front grass will have automatic water! We also laid sod in the backyard, it has been so wonderful!

Ink no more – Teri got a sweet deal on a laser printer so we said bye-bye to our OLD inkjet printer. Teri LOVES her printer! She also loves sweet deals and couponing.

Joy – from the dictionary – "to rejoice; happiness ; delight." All in All 2007 has been filled with JOY around our house. We are so thankful for family and friends that bring joy to our lives as well.

Kindergarten – Trent is enjoying his first year of school. He rides the bus everyday and has made new friends.

Legos – Trent and Tyler’s new favorite toys – they spend HOURS building things, who would of thought?

Merry Christmas! We had a great Christmas and we hope you did too!

Nuts – Walnuts that is – We spent an evening at Ray’s grandpa’s picking up walnuts and visiting with Ray’s siblings. The kids had fun playing with cousins and helping too.

Owlz games – Once again we spent many nights during the summer going to the Owlz baseball
games – it was lots of fun!

Preschool – Tyler started preschool at Miss Angie’s in the fall and really enjoys it!

Quarters – The boys will pretty much do anything for a quarter. They like to go to dad’s work and buy a pop with their quarters.

Riding scooters – Trent and Tyler enjoy riding the ones they got for Christmas.
Summer camp with the Scouts for Ray, he is enjoying working in the Teacher’s Quorum in our ward.

Teeth – Kara is finally getting some! She also started walking about two weeks after she turned one.

Underwear ninja masks – the boys like to put their undies on their heads and pretend to be ninjas!

Volunteering in Trent’s class, something Ray has been doing once a month, Teri will take over when busy season hits us!

Working on the basement. Ray has a goal to finish the WHOLE thing in 2008 – good goal Ray!

X – the twenty-fourth letter of the English alphabet. Trent and Tyler are both trying to learn all the names and sounds of the letters in the alphabet.

Yes, we are almost done. We can’t believe how fast 2007 has gone by! It has been a great year filled with many blessings.

Zucchini – the only vegetable plant that we planted this summer, next year we are hoping to have more of a variety of plants.

So this is the only picture we took of our family on Christmas day. We just wanted to say . . .



We WANT YOU to have a good New Year! (I really meant to be pointing at the camera so I could say that, I wasn’t trying to get Kara to look at the camera by pointing - :)

Christmas

We had a good Christmas. On Christmas Eve we were planning on going down to Ray’s brothers house to play games after dinner. Well, as we were just sitting down to eat Kara was being extremely ornery and she was pulling on her ears. I looked at her and her eyes just looked like she did NOT feel good. I told Ray that I thought she had a ear infection. I called our pediatrician and the recording said that the after hours was open until six, it was 10 minutes to 6, so I called that number and the girl said they were technically closed but would wait if I could hurry. So I grabbed Kara and away we went. It was kind of snowing and it was cold and windy. I got there at 6:10 and I just prayed that they were still there. Luckily the receptionist, nurse and doctor waited and so they took Kara back, looked in her ears and sure enough she had ear infections in BOTH ears. I was glad that they waited so that we could get her an antibiotic and get her on her way to getting better. Also, lucky for us Walgreens was open and I was able to get the prescription it took a ½ hour, so I just walked around the store. By the time I got home it was almost 8 p.m. and we didn’t really do much.
The kids enjoyed Christmas I think. They would have been happy with pretty much anything. We had a little get together here at our house at 1 p.m. on Christmas day and we ate some dang good food! Then we played our version of Balderdash, I surprisingly won, I usually can’t come up with very good definitions.


















Hope you all had a good Christmas!

Cupcakes

I signed up to make cupcakes for our annual ward Christmas party. I found this recipe on Allrecipes.com for Self Filled Cupcakes. They turned out REALLY good, I substituted milk chocolate for the semi-sweet, but other than that I followed the recipe and they were super easy. I think I will be making them again - soon because none were left from the party.

We had a yummy dinner at the ward party and had fun visiting and letting the kids play. Ray and the ward choir sang as well. I can't believe that Christmas is in 4 days! I still have so much to do. OH WELL!

10 days later from my last post

It is taking me FOREVER to post these days. Today Tyler had his preschool Christmas program at a retirement community (AKA old folks home) They sang songs to the residents while they ate their lunch. It is always fun to go and watch. The residents seemed to enjoy them being there. The kids were really cute and they sang some cute songs.

This last Saturday we (my side of the family) went to the temple because John took out his endowments. He leaves in January to go to the MTC, and then he is off to the Czech Republic. My parents, Mitch, John and Tennille and Whit came to our house first, then they left and we watched Brett and Jack while Tennille and Whit did some Christmas shopping. I asked two girls in our ward (sisters) to come and tend all 5 kids, so when they got here we all left and met my parents, Mike and Ashlee and John and Mitch at the Mount Timp. Temple. It was SO cold and there were tons of weddings going on (Christmas Break). I felt bad for the brides, they all had on short sleeve dresses and looked cold. One girl did have a cloak thing on, that would have helped. I told Ray, that I would much rather get married in June/July in St. George than December in Utah! It was a neat day to have my whole family in the temple .I am so grateful that we have temples so close.

We spent some time together later that night when my parents got back from my uncle's wedding in Salt Lake. It was fun having everyone here. I should of taken pictures but didn't think to, dang! So I tried to "stage" a family Christmas photo, but we ran out of time on Sunday before church (we barely made it on time to church) and after church Ray had meetings then the sun went down and it was bad lighting, so it didn't work out. I might have to try again this week. It's a tradition!

I am trying to finish up everything for Christmas. It is craziness! I shop at Walmart A LOT but I do not like going there during December. I seriously don't know where all the people come from. I still need to find something to give Kara, so far she has a baby bottle that when you turn it over the milk looks like it is gone and a pair of pants - what else do you give a one year old girl? I am mostly done with getting stuff for the boys, I just hope they like what I got. When we were at the mall a couple of weeks ago, we went to see Santa and Trent didn't know what he wanted, so I told him he could just send a letter later. Which he never did. They both really haven't said what they want; I guess I can use that to my advantage and just get what ever. I did this with Trent's birthday gift. Tennille got it for me last year on clearance after Christmas (Star Wars Transformer Millennium Falcon) for like $10.00. I just hid it up in the closet all year long. So when the Toys R Us "wish book" came out they looked though it and I said to Trent, oh wouldn't this be neat and I really played it up. Then like a week later we were at Toys R Us and Trent saw it on the shelf and he said " mom this is want I really want", I told him I would write it down. (that is what I always tell them) Inside I was tickled to death (OK totally a phrase that my grandma would say) but I was excited that my little trick worked, that he actually WANTED IT and that it was normally at TRU $40.00 and I got it for 10 bucks! That just shows you what all the advertising does to little kids, it really makes them WANT it. It actually has turned out to be a cool toy and he and Tyler play with it a lot.

Well, I hope everyone gets all their Christmas stuff done and don't forget the true reason for the Season! Not only do we celebrate the birth of our Savior, we celebrate His life and what He has done for us. I am so thankful for all the blessings that I have.

Snowy weekends

We have had two weekends in a row of snowy weather. Last Saturday we got up early and drove to Cedar for me to go to a little "reunion" with some of my life long friends. Heather was in town visiting from New York so that is what brought us all together. I wasn’t sure if we were going to make it. When we woke up it had snowed and as we were leaving town it was still snowing pretty bad, and the roads were slushy - but once we got out of Utah County it wasn’t that bad. Luckily I had Ray to drive us all down. I got there just in time, right at noon, which was right when we were meeting at the Garden House for lunch. Ray dropped me off and took the kids out to my parents. We had a fun time at lunch catching up and reminiscing about old times. Thanks ladies for all coming! Here is one picture we took to commemorate the occasion.
Sundee, Kami, Heather, Talia , Jessica, Arynne, and me.

While I was at lunch Ray and my dad took the boys up to woods ranch to go sledding. I wish they would have taken a camera. They had fun. We had a good weekend and left on Sunday.

I have had a busy week as usual. I got the flu on Thursday, which is always no fun! I felt better by Saturday.

It was rainy Thursday, Friday and snowed on Saturday. We got a lot of snow in a short amount of time that day. The boys LOVED playing in it and Ray likes to shovel the walks, so he was busy. Ray helped Trent and Tyler build a snowman. They wanted to make two faces, one facing their window and one towards the road.
I took this picture before they were done.

Thanksgiving

We had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving weekend. We left here at 6:30 a.m. on Thursday and headed for New Mexico. The kids were pretty good and I was able to get in a short nap and read my book for book club. We are reading Twilight. It is SUCH a good book! I don’t have much time for reading, so I have been planning on reading it over Thanksgiving. I usually end up getting a little car sick from reading in the car, but it was worth it and it didn’t end up being too bad. Anyway, we arrived in Farmington about 12:30 p.m. Jenny and David and their kids were there (they came down Wednesday) and Brad, Ken and Louise were there. Randy and Keri had come earlier in the week and were in St. George with Keri's family for Thanksgiving. I read my book some more and then we ate. It was a wonderful dinner, got to love the traditional turkey dinner. Then we had yummy pie later. I love pumpkin pie with fresh whipped topping! Surprisingly the boys like pumpkin pie too. I spent the rest of the evening reading. I was warned by a friend of mine not to even start the book because I wouldn’t want to put it down; she was right.

That night grandma had a little party for 3 of the kids that have birthday’s in November – Trent, Ryan, and Kara. She had presents for them and a cake and so we sang three times each time to a different child, then they got to blow out their candles.

I planned on getting up bright and early Friday to head off for great deals, but Kara woke up at 12:30 a.m. and I couldn’t get her to go back to sleep until 4:30 a.m. – it was horrible! Of course there was NO way I was going to get up at 6 a.m. to go shop with crazies! When we did get up there was snow – I was really surprised. Then around 8:30 a.m. we all (kids and adults) headed over to the mall for grandma’s Christmas present to the kids. She took them to the build a bear workshop store and they each got to choose a bear/animal. They each got to push the pedal on the "stuffing" machine while the worker filled the bear with "Fluff". Then they got to pick out a little outfit to go on their animal. Trent and Tyler LOVE "puppies", as they like to call them, so they each got a dalmatian dog. Kara got a cute bear, I named it Honey - that was the example name at the store. The worker had the kids pick out a name and then they printed a little birth certificate with the animal’s name and the owner’s name. Trent and Tyler both named their's LUCKY. I think the kids had fun doing it – Thanks Grandma!
Here is a picture of all the kids with their animals.


I took Kara shopping with me after the mall to go try to get the things I wanted that were on sale. I got a couple of them, so I was happy. Then I went on a hunt looking for a craft punch for a project that I am working on. I ended up going to Hobby Lobby, and found it. That is a neat store, I could spend way to much time and money there. I finished reading my book this day so that was good.

Saturday I shopped some more and we went to visit some of our friends, Jeff and Britney.

On Sunday we went to Sacrament meeting then headed home. We had a great time, it is always so nice to just get away from home for a couple of days and to be able to spend it with family.

Trent and Tyler

I have been posting a lot about Kara, so this one is dedicated to Trent and Tyler.

The other day they came out from their room looking like this
They said they were Ninjas! Underwear doubles as ninja mask?


Then, this day they were a two headed monster - Trent won this 2XL shirt at a Jazz game. Ray is wearing his matching one.

Yesterday at preschool Tyler made pumpkin pie and made a Pilgrim hat.


Today at school Trent's class had a thanksgiving feast and they were all Indians.











We are off to New Mexico Thursday morning for Thanksgiving and my favorite holiday - Black Friday! (OK it really isn't my favorite, but it is a fun DEALS day for me)




Hope everyone has a SAFE, Happy Thanksgiving!

My baby is one

Well, the getting up at 6 a.m. thing hasn’t gone so good this week – Dang it! It was good while it lasted right? I am going to try harder next week. (YAH Right!)

I downloaded some cute digital scrapbook paper from Shabby Princess and I made this cute little collage of Kara. I need to find some cute "words" to put on the paper on the side. I could spend way to much time playing around with this stuff.

Kara celebrated her one year birthday this week. I only got her one thing – a baby doll and she loves it! I guess I should say I only wrapped up one thing. I got her a dress that she wore for her pictures and two pairs of shoes and other things that she needed before her birthday. She had no clue what was going on. The boys were excited though. They woke up and Trent remembered it was her birthday so we got out the present and they helped her open it then they wanted cake and ice cream at like 7:30 a.m. – they seriously don’t get it! Then all day they wanted to know when they could have it. Finally Ray came home and we had dinner then sang to Kara and she didn’t get how to blow the candle out and as I was trying to show her, I blew it out. Oh, well - maybe next year. Then we all got cake and ice cream. Kara liked it and didn’t get messy really. It is hard to believe that she is 1. This year has just flown by.

The day after her birthday I took her to her 12 month well-baby visit. She got 4 shots, poor thing, she cried so bad, she sure is a sensitive little gal - well and I'm sure it hurts. One interesting thing that the doctor brought up was that they are going to offer to do lead testing because of all the toy recalls – Our pediatrician will do it at age 1 and then again at age 2. I have to take Kara to the hospital, they just take a blood sample, but I figure it wouldn’t hurt to have it done. You should read Tennille’s blog about the plates with lead. SCARY!

Early to bed and early to rise . . .

Can I just tell you how much I love day light saving time! I used to get up around 7 a.m. (sometimes that was even hard) because that is usually when Kara wakes up. Anyway, since we gained an hour I have been getting up most of this week at 6 a.m. It is amazing what I can get done! I also walked with my friend Precia on Tuesday and Thursday. It is a bit chili outside at 7 a.m. but we bundle up and it is great to exercise and just chat. I hope I can keep it up. I also need to do some other form of exercise on the other days. I have this "Walkin with George (Forman)" DVD that is better than nothing, but I think I need more. Any suggestions? I have a big old belly I need to get rid of.

Anyway, so last week (Saturday) I FINALLY got a cell phone. It is so exciting! I haven’t wanted to shell out the extra cash for one each month, but it is about time I got one; especially with Trent and Tyler at school and me out running errands. I am on Verizon, because that is what Ray’s is with work. My sister and brother on with them as well and my friend Precia so it is sweet to have FREE mobile to mobile with them. I got a nice phone and only had to pay the tax, so that was awesome. I told Ray that I was cell phone illiterate, (because I was) and he set it all up for me. I still need to have him show me how to change the voicemail, and stuff. It already has come in SO handy!

I took the kids to get their pictures taken on Thursday. It went pretty good. The kids were good, but it sure is hard to get good smiles out of all of them ant the exact same time. I just took them to Target because they do a decent job and it is CHEEP, and unlike Wal-mart and Sears, if you do the package they take all the pictures and then let you choose which you want. For one of the poses she had Trent laying on his belly and Kara sitting on his back, Kara thought it was so funny. The last pose she had Trent and Tyler stand and hold Kara’s hands so she was standing, but she did not like that she tried to pull her hands away and just started to cry. I took some pictures before we went with my camera and here are a couple of them. I had to laugh at Tyler, he is just a bigger kid than Trent and he is wearing a shirt that is a 4/5 but the neck is way to tight, I could barely get the clip-on tie on him. He kept telling me that it hurt, poor kid! I don’t think that they make different neck sizes for kids, I guess maybe I just need to look for a different brand.


Kara is understanding things more, I think. If I ask her something, like do you want to take a bath, she rocks her whole body and kind of shakes her head yes, it is cute. I have this porcelain baby doll (Head, hands and feet are porcelain) that I keep in my closet. I have gotten it down for her a couple of times and now she knows where it is. She will crawl into my closet and point that she wants it. I get it down and she gets so excited. But she kindof is rough with it and bangs it against the door, so I usually have to take it away and she throws a fit! She also gets so mad when I take her out of the bath. Once again she just throws her head back and shakes her body (I guess to try to make me let go) silly girl!

Tag - thanks Tennille

This one was actually fun. Yes, I am a freak! Most of you already know that by now.

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.

B. Each player lists 6 facts/habits about themselves.

C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Here we go ......

1)I have Hyperhydrosis too. See Tennille’s bolg. It basically is overly active sweat glands. Mostly the palms of my hands and my feet, and sometimes my armpits – sick. Anyway, it is highly dependent upon the temperature of the room and the fabric that I am wearing. Rayon is horrible, just thinking about it makes my hands sweat. Also, I can NOT stand to have anything on my hands, especially lotion, it makes my hands sweat so bad! Sometimes, the sweat just beads up on my hand and will drip right off. Unlike my sister I still wear sandal type shoes, but last week at church this was almost a dangerous situation. I think I had some lotion residue on my hands from putting it on Kara, this causes a chain reaction, if my hands sweat, then my feet sweat. Anyway, I was unaware that my feet were covered in sweat until I stood up to exit with a crying baby and about slipped out of my shoes. My shoes only had a 1-½ inch heal but they were open-toed and my feet were sliding down to the end, while I tried not to fall. IT was crazy, I haven’t had that happen before. So if you ever see me at church with a hymnal fanning my hands (I hold the book and use my thumb to fan the pages) I am trying to cool down. I also silently clap my hands really fast, or move my hands really fast to the side of my legs to cool them down, Ray always asks me if I am trying to fly.

2)I am coupon crazy! As you can tell by my "Sweet deals of the week" I LOVE couponing. It is my hobby. I have to admit that lately I have been a little obsessed and maybe have gone a bit over board. A couple of weeks ago Albertson’s had their Scotts toilet paper on sale 10 for $10, and there is a coupon out there for $1.00 off one, so FREE. I ordered some (ok 114) coupons off a website. On the site they say the coupons are free, you just pay a 10-cent handling fee per coupon. Anyway, I ended up getting 5 cases of t.p. – it will be good food storage! Not that we eat toilet paper at our house, but you know, to just have on hand. I justified buying the coupons because each Scotts t.p. package had a "box top for education" (turn it in for money for schools) so really the money I spent will go to Trent’s school. Yes, I am a little bit crazy.

3)Even though I don’t have much time for reading - I like science fiction books – Like Lord of the Ring and Eragon. Ray bought Eragon last year and read it to the boys and sometimes me. I love to sit with Ray and have him read, he has a good voice. This is something we have done since we first started dating. Anyway, we started re-reading Eragon a month ago or so, Ray or I usually read a chapter to the boys before bed. Anyway, last week Ray bought Eldest, the second book in The Inheritance Trilogy (Eragon was the first) anyway, he started reading it out loud, but it takes way longer to read it that way, so he has just been reading it himself and filling me in on it. The other night he read it to me though for at least an hour, we stayed up until midnight, even though I so needed to go to bed. Halloween night Ray stayed home and handed out candy to the trick-or-treaters and read his book, while I took the kids. Then he went to play basketball and I read some of it. It is a good read!

4)I have the hardest time getting up in the morning. Most of it is probably the fact that I don’t go to bed until at least 11 p.m. and I also still get up with Kara a couple of times a night – I need to just let her cry it out, but man it is hard because then I can’t sleep. She is almost one so once I quit nursing she will be forced to do it. Every morning is a frantic run around because it is like 8 a.m. when we get up and I am trying to get the boys ready and mostly just trying to get Trent to the bus on time. He almost missed the bus yesterday, partly because the bus driver came early. The bus driver said to him (but I think it was directed at me) this bus stop needs to be here at 8:35 a.m. – I’ll try harder!

5)I like to stock up on meat when it is on sale. Last week a local grocery store had their boneless, skinless chicken breasts on sale for $1.19 a pound – IF you bought 40 pounds. I got one box (40 #s) and I put 20 pounds of it in individual pieces into ziplock bags to freeze. The other 20 #s I pounded (meat mallet) to make it thinner and it makes it cook more even and then Ray helped me grill it. I seasoned it with garlic salt, black pepper, lemon pepper and All-Purpose seasoning and it turned out SO good. The boys loved it also. Then I froze that in individual bags as well. It comes in handy when I need some already cooked chicken. Like Halloween night when I pulled some out and made chicken enchiladas. YUM!

6)I am glad I can smile! – About 6 years ago (actually this time of year) I came down with Bell's Palsy. At first my right eye just hurt really bad. I thought it was my contacts bugging me, but even though I took the contacts out, it continued to hurt. I noticed that things didn’t taste right, especially high fat items, snickers, and butter on a roll – they just tasted like wax. Then it got worse, I went to blow my nose and I couldn’t keep my lips closed, they just flapped in the breeze (ha, ha). I also couldn’t swish mouthwash. I knew something was up, I just didn’t know what. A friend of mine told me she thought it was Bell's Palsy. I looked on the Internet, but I didn’t have a paralyzed face, so I thought, nah! Then things went down hill. I couldn’t lift up my forehead, or flare my nostril and my face "drooped". My contact also would get super foggy and dry. Anyway, I finally was able to get into the doctor and sure enough it was Bell's Palsy. He put me on an anti-viral medication and some steroids. It took about 6 weeks before I was back to normal. It was not fun! Basically what happens is the #7 nerve (what DR’s call it ) controls your whole side of your face from lifting your eyebrow, to blinking, to moving your lips and even your taste buds. When the virus comes out it gets inflamed and the "signal" from the brain doesn’t get through, do to the swelling and so that side of the face is paralyzed.

I am tagging

Keri
Karen
Laurie
Leanne
Sally
Suzette

Kara Update

This past week it seems that things have just been clicking in Kara’s mind. She is closer to walking and takes a couple of steps to me if I sit on the ground and get her to come to me. Ray and I sat across from each other and we would just have her go to the other person, it is so cute and she gets so excited when she gets to the other person. She likes to walk around everything, and even down the hall holding onto the wall. I watched her do this today and she is quite fast. She also is standing but doesn’t realize it. She will stand and rest her backside against the wall or cupboard. She was doing this tonight but she had a toy in her hand and she was to interested in the toy to realize she was no longer leaning on the wall but was just standing. It scares her, I think, and she just sits down, as Ray would say - " she is naturally tentative" – it is from Over the Hedge.

She also is doing better around the stairs. I usually keep the gate closed, but we have been working on turning around and going down. She can turn around but usually just goes down one stair then just stands there. I think I will keep the gate up for a bit longer.

I think she understands sign language for milk. I have been trying to teach it to her forever. You hold your hand in a fist and squeeze kind of like you are milking a cow (you know, I know how to milk cows, - really I don’t) anyway, she waves "bye-bye" by opening and closing her fingers and the sign for milk is kind of like that just your hand is turned so your thumb is up. She has been doing it kind of and last night she woke up and I went in to nurse her and I said, "you want milky?" (nice grammar baby talk huh) and she held up her fist and did the sign. So I think she is catching on. YEAH!

She also has learned how to spit. She thinks it is hilarious. She was doing it in the car and it was making Tyler mad because apparently the spit was getting on him. Tyler told her to stop and to get back at her he started turning his head and spitting at her, (they are a seat apart so I don’t think it was getting on her – just more of the sound) she of course thought he was playing with her and she was laughing her head off and spitting even more. It was pretty funny.

She also loves to go into the bathroom. I try to keep the door shut, but it seems that her two older brothers don't always remember that she might go in there. Anyway, I could hear her throwing toys into the bathtub the other day(her favorite thing to do, put anything on the floor into the bathtub) and I knew she was in the bathroom when I walked in I found this:

Her IN the bathtub, with a red spot on her head but happy as could be! (ok there weren't any candy corns, this picture really showed how gross the seam is that we need to re-caulk in that bathroom) I couldn't believe that she climbed in there! Where is the parental supervision?

I also have been having issues with Kara’s hair. I was making a little ponytail on the top of her head, but lately she seems to HATE it; just as I am about to get it in she throws her head back and I can’t get it in. So, I came up with these cute little bows. I have seen them around but they are usually to big for her small amount of hair. So being the very ingenious person that I am I got out my trusty wire cutters and cut the "alligator clip" practically in half. Then I used my needle nose pliers to squeeze the clip so it is tight at the edge of the clip. Then I glued ribbon over the clip and attached a bow that has the edges "sealed" in Fray Check. So there you have it – a cute little bow that actually stays in, and is quick to attach before she has a fit that I am messing with her hair.

here is the fit picture.

No Trent

On Monday I waited for Trent’s bus to come and it was super late. Then when it did come it was a different driver and there was no Trent. The driver stopped because he saw me standing there but when Trent didn’t get off when I called, I stepped up on the stairs and Olivia (little girl in our ward) said Trent’s not on the bus. I said "Where is he then?" the bus driver explained that there are normally 4 routes and our normal bus driver and bus didn’t show up that day (she was sick) and so the other 3 buses divided up her route and somehow Trent didn’t get on with the rest of the kids in our neighborhood. He called on his cell phone to the other driver and sure enough Trent was on that bus. So I grabbed Kara who was sleeping and Tyler and headed over to the school. We had to wait about 15 minutes before the bus came. I watched as 4 other little kids ran in to the school (they had afternoon kindergarten) then I saw Trent get off and just stand there. I called to him as Tyler, Kara and I walked down the sidewalk, he recognized me after the 4th time I yelled "TRENT." I asked him when he realized he was on the wrong bus. He said he didn’t until I just mentioned it to him. I asked him if he wondered why the bus driver never took him home and he said NO. Then I asked him what he thought he was doing back at the school, and he said "don’t know" – Sometimes I wonder what goes through that kid’s head! Anyway, an hour later than he normally gets home we pulled into the driveway. (good thing I wasn't supposed to be anywhere and could just drop everything to run to the school to pick up my kid) I still am not sure how the mix-up happened. I told him in the future to make sure he is always on the same bus as Olivia, and if some adult tries to put him on another bus he is supposed to tell them that his mom said he has to be on her bus. Doubt he will remember that!
Here is a random picture I took about a month ago before I gave the boys buzz hair cuts.

Halloween Party Two

Last night we went to Randy and Keri’s for our monthly "brothers and sisters" get together. Once a month we try to get together with my brother and his wife, Ray’s sister and her husband and kids, Ray’s brother and his wife and kids and my sister-in-law’s sister and husband. Got that! We each take a turn "hosting" it. Last night was a Halloween costume party. I got the boy’s costumes from my mom when we were down there a couple of weeks ago. I think both of them were Mike’s when he was a kid, so they are probably 20+ years old, and still in great shape. I had fun drawing a mustache and beard (complete with sideburns on Trent the cowboy) They each had their accessories, but at the last minute Tyler decided he didn’t want his (peace pipe and tomahawk) Ray and I dressed up as a "50’s couple", he was my accessory – my Fonzie! I also got my poodle skirt while at my parents. My mom made it for me when I was 10 or 11 – seems like 5th grade (?) anyway, as you can probably guess, I am not the same size I was back then and so I couldn’t zip it up – AT ALL. I was barely able fit it over my hips! It was long enough though and I just made sure my shirt covered up the zipper in the back. We had a great time, the kids ran around as usual playing with their cousins, and we (adults) visited and ate dinner.
We also decorated sugar cookies – which the kids loved! It was a fun night.

Randy, Keri and kids

Jenny, David and kids

Kara is kind of a little bully when it comes to Jenna. She kept pulling on her yellow bow, making her fall down and kept trying to take things from her. Here she is trying to take away Jenna's necklace. They are 4 months apart; My great hope is that they will be good friends like I am with my cousins that are my age.

This morning we woke up to snow! I should of taken a picture -dang! We probably only got 1 – 2 inches but it covered the grass. It didn’t stick to the road or side walk, so no shoveling yet! The boys wanted to play in it, and so they did – in their church clothes. I could see that their hands were getting red so I got them each a pair of gloves, I guess they forgot that we had gloves.

Today the primary children had their sacrament meeting program. It was really good. They have been working on it for a long time. Not just learning the songs, but as a class they have been practicing their parts. Usually the boys bring home their part and we work on memorizing it. Well, last week Tyler brought home his part and I forgot about it until Friday. I told him we better work on it and I said I think it starts with "my faith grows" and then he finished the sentence. I then realized that he already knew it. I also wondered if Trent had forgotten his piece of paper with the part, but he didn’t bring one home because he already had it memorized. They both did a good job.

This week’s "deal of the week" is free candy at Kmart – see coupon link to the right. It is limited to one, but hey – free candy is free candy!

Halloween party in Enoch

Last week Trent and Tyler didn’t have school (Thur-Friday) so we decided to go down to Enoch. Tennille came and brought her boys also. We had a fun time. The boys love to go to grandmas. Tyler told me 3 or 4 times on the way there that he loved me for taking him to grandmas. They were good most of the way down, but Kara cried the last ½ our of our trip. I had bought a Sense and Sensibility book on tape (CD) so I listened to that on the way there and back, it is amazing how that makes the time fly.

While at my parents we decided to have a Halloween party. We dressed up the kids and took pictures outside. My mom made a Spiderman Head piñata and the boys had a blast hitting it. It took them several turns each to get it open. But in the end they got candy so they loved it. Then we went inside and they decorated Halloween cookies.

Kara was not really very good at my parents. As my dad would say, "she is bossy". She definitely lets me know when I am not doing what she wants me to do, like not getting her food fast enough, or holding her when she wants to be held. She just screams a lot and is quite LOUD. She also didn’t really want anyone else to hold her, including grandma. Kara gets her feelings hurt easily, like when she is out of my presence. Several times she was being perfectly fine and then she would notice that I walked into the room then out which made her start to cry; I guess she thinks I am leaving for good. She still hasn’t gotten any teeth so I keep thinking any day they are going to cut through then I will know why she has been unhappy! She is getting so big and is now 11 months old. She isn’t walking yet but is getting more daring at walking around things and will stand for a couple of seconds then she just sits down. But, I still think she is the cutest little girl ever.

We came home Saturday afternoon and Ray surprised me by replacing the kitchen facet. It looks really nice and I am so glad to be able to turn the water on and not have the handle fall off (it seriously fell of every time I turned it on) Ray also did a good job cleaning up the house.

Not up to much, yet so busy

These last two weeks are a blur. I really haven’t done much, yet it seems I have been so busy! I did get some bushes from Wal-Mart, because they were 80 percent off – I was so excited! I bought 13 and I even got them all planted, then I went back to get more and they were only 50% off so I didn’t get anymore. The bushes are small, but give them a year or two (maybe more) and I think they will look great. I also spread some steer manure over the dirt around the bushes – it comes in a bag and is more of a compost not just plain manure – that would be sick. Anyway, I took some pictures of them so you can see. Yes, they need to grow way bigger, but it is better than weeds. Our dirt is so sandy so I am hoping that the compost will help.

Here is a story I can tell. The day that I went to Wal-Mart to get more bushes I was driving back and Sandhill looked open. If I haven’t mentioned it, Sandhill road has been closed since like August, and I have had to drive up and around to get to Walmart, what used to take literally 2 minutes has been taking 10+ minutes and it is the biggest frustration for everyone that I know that lives here. Anyway, I was coming back from Wal-Mart and where there used to be a HUGE "road closed" barricade and yellow "do not enter tape" it was open and other cars were driving on it. I was so excited to think that it was finally open to drive home on. I had some stuff in my car that I had been meaning to get to two sisters in my ward that lived on Sandhill, so I decided to drive to their homes. In all my excitement, I somehow missed the turn off and the next thing I know there is a police officer flashing his lights and "beeping" at me. I pulled over the best I could (which was really me just stopping right in the road) He came up to me and said the road was closed and I was NOT supposed to be on it. I explained that I thought it was open and that I was going to my friend’s house. He wanted to know where she lived and I said, "I think I passed it". I wasn’t lying, that road confuses me. He told me they had a lot of complaints and that people driving on the road were messing up what the workers had done. He wanted to see my licensee, and I said, "you’re going to give me a ticket?" practically about to cry. He saw where my address was and told me to not drive on it anymore. No ticket, thanks Mr. Officer – I am no longer Teri Ticket (Cedar City cops were not as nice to me!) I was more embarrassed than anything. I was talking to my friend later that night and she said "Guess what? Sandhill is open, I said – uh, only if you want a ticket!" Having the road closed has cut down on the number of trips I make each week to Wal-Mart, but I will sure be glad when they reopen it (scheduled for end of Oct. YEA!)

If you haven’t already checked out the Sweet deal of the week to the right of my blog (come on it’s been there for two weeks) You can print this coupon from Kashi and take it to your local Wal-mart (if their price is the same as ours) you can get a box of crackers for 50 cents. You could use it at any store. http://www.kashi.com/connect

In case you are new to printing coupons off the Internet, most sites allow you to print it twice, (it will always tell you when you have reached the print limit) anyway, and it is also ILLEGAL to make copies - so don’t! I have updated my blog with the newest coupon, a $1.00 off any package of Mission tortillas, chips or wraps and this one lets you print it 10 times – Awesome! After you print it the first time click on the screen behind the one that pops up and click "print coupon" after ten times it tells you that you have reached your limit. Now look for them where ever you shop and if you hold on to them for a bit someone just might have a sale and they would be cheaper!

The kids

Trent has been going to kindergarten now for almost two months. I think he likes it even though he really doesn’t tell me much about what they do. Pretty much everyday when I ask him what his favorite part of school was that day he says "recess". Isn’t that how it always goes. I ask him what they do and he said the girls chase the boys around the playground – who teaches them this? He told me about this girl that said she was really fast, then he told me that she couldn’t catch him because he did what Ray told him to do, and I said what is that "I move my arms so I can run fast". He still likes to do "crafts" as he calls it. He is very creative. He made this last night.

Tyler goes to preschool 3 times a week and really likes it. His teacher told me that she sees a huge difference between him and Trent. She said he pays attention and is right with her as she is teaching – Trent was kind of off in his own little world. She also told me that she tested him on his "sounds" and he knew all but 4 , I was surprised. He likes to do his "letters" on this website = www.starfall.com At this rate he might be reading before Trent. He also still likes to have battles and wear his helmet. He put his helmet on over his coat – nice.

Kara is a little wiggle worm and just can’t hold still. She is always on the go, crawling, walking around furniture , pushing her walker toy and getting everything. I found her in the bathroom the other day and she had unrolled the whole roll of toilet paper. I am also at a loss as to what to do with her hair to make her look more like a girl. I think she got my ears, and her hair kind of pokes out over it. I am tempted to cut it , but I want it to grow longer. I tried to put little pigtails in it but it was hard because she will NOT hold still. I think it looks kind of cute. She also HATES having anything on her head, hats, headbands, etc. Her hair has come in the most right down the middle of her head and Ray thinks she looks like she has a mow-hawk – hopefully it will grow in thicker. She is a pretty happy baby and thinks things are funny especially when I play with her. I try to get her to walk to me and she gets so excited. She also LOVES to stick out her tongue. She really has done this since birth. Most of the pictures I take she has her tongue sticking out. Here is one with her tongue!