Mom’s little helper

Kara is starting to understand things much better. She has become my little helper. She likes to help me put the clothes in the washer (it’s a front loading one) and then she has to shut the drawer thing that I pour the soap into, half the time she tries to shut it before I get it all poured in. She also will take things to the laundry room for me if I ask her to.

She likes to make sure things are shut, drawers, cupboards and doors. If I have left them open she shuts them for me. Now all I need her to do is clean up the house and put away all my cups (yes we still live in cup land).

Her favorite thing to say is Mama! This is how she gets me to do what ever it is that she wants. Yesterday at breakfast time she came walking down the hall with her booster seat saying Mama and shaking her head yes. She has been eating pancakes for breakfast and I just cut them up on a plate and she will usually feed herself with a fork, sometimes she has issues getting the pieces on the fork, she will hold out the fork to me and say Mama and shake her head. It is funny and cute.

Today she started saying blanky and baby – they basically sound the same, but one time she was holding the blanket and the other time her baby so she is getting it.

I was cooking and had my apron on and so I put her apron on her, she looks so cute, she doesn’t like it on though and wouldn’t hold still for the pictures so I had to hold her in place.

I'm going to work my ticket if I can . . .

We had a good week last week. On the 13th we went to our ward’s scout banquet. I didn’t have to make anything they just fed us dinner, the priests actually made it and they did a great job! We had dutch-oven beef stew with potatoes and carrots, rolls and salad. For dessert they had dutch-oven peach cobbler, and a cheery chocolate cobbler with ice cream- yummy! – I was so excited to NOT have to cook dinner. Ray had to conduct the meeting, so that meant I sat alone with the three kids. Kara is obsessed with running around in the halls at the church (she also loves to do this during church) so she did NOT want to stay in the cultural hall where we were eating. Trent, who normally will eat most things, did not want anything but rolls (great dinner for him = 3 rolls with butter – that’s nutritional) Then they had the program, it got to be quite lengthy, then the reason we went arrived, Ray received his Wood badge beads. I tried to take pictures and Kara wanted to go up front to be with Ray so that didn’t help, and the boys kept walking in front on everyone while the presentation was going on, it was kind of a fiasco! The lighting was HORRIBLE at the church I had the flash on but because I zoomed in this is the best one I got - grrr! After he got his beads and sang the Gilwell song it was around 8 pm (it started at 6:30) and it still wasn’t over. Ray excused those "who needed to go" and so we came home. My title is for those who know the Gilwell song - see this about Ticket.

The next day was valentines. Ray got me flowers – what a wonderful husband! I made a little scavenger hunt for the kids and hid a little gift at the end (under the kitchen sink) along with presents and cards from the grandparents. I think the kids had fun. Trent had his valentine’s party at school and Tyler had his the day before. They both had fun exchanging valentines. I am not sure why I didn't take pictures - dang!

Kara had her 15 month well baby visit this week. For some reason she FREAKED out when the nurse tried to measure her head and length. Then when the doctor came in she didn’t want him touching her either and just fought to get off the table, you would think he pinched her the way she was screaming. Then the most lovely part of the visit, the three shots. She wouldn’t hold still to even get her legs cleaned with alcohol, so I held her arms and the nurse held her legs and gave them to her, so sad! The nurse commented that she sure was strong – Kara is still super small, in the 2% for weight, that girl will not eat. On a brighter note she is understanding more each day. She can give kisses, it is so cute! I tell her to kiss her baby doll and she does. She can say ball, bye-bye and ba-ba (for bottle) not that she drinks from a bottle (at this point I wish she did) but she holds up her fake one to feed her baby and says "ba–ba" – it is cute. She also is finally getting some more teeth, you can see her 4 teeth kind of in this picture.

pictures of 3 kids kind of impossible!

Today I wanted to take some pictures of the kids together to send to the grandparents for Valentines. I didn't end up getting ONE where they were all looking at me and smiling. We were by the stairs first but Trent said that the sun hurt his eyes so then we moved to Kara's room. Kara was the hardest one to get to sit still and look at me and smile - to much to ask of a 15 month old? The boys started being silly and there was one that almost worked but for some reason it was all blury. Then I wasted probably an hour trying to edit the pictures (putting new faces on what ever child didn't smile) then it just didn't look good so, I ended up making this with the best picture of each kid.


Trent's fake smile kills me. I need to get him to laugh because he really has a cute smile when it is real. I also am so glad for my digital camera because I would of wasted a whole roll of film and not gotten a good one!

Kara's hair was a little WILD, I tried to make it curly but it is still rather thin. I did have fun though, and once again I did things like this instead of clean my house and do the laundry. Maybe tomorrow will be the day.

Spread LOVE not GERMS!

I haven’t posted FOREVER! We have been super busy! About a month ago Ray got called to be the 2nd councilor in our ward’s bishopric. I think it will be good for our family and we will receive lots of blessings. The first blessing was I got released from being the 1st councilor in the R.S. – it was bound to happen. As a presidency we had been in for 3 years, and I guess they will be in for sometime longer, but I think it would just be to hard for me to continue. I didn’t ask to be released but, it was what needed to happen. I am SUPER excited about my new calling, I am the V.T. coordinator. It won’t be to time consuming and I like to have things organized and right, so it will be good. Sundays are a little tough, mostly sacrament meeting. My boys just don’t seem to know how to be quiet, whisper is not part of their vocabulary. Kara is pretty good, even though she sure is loud and knows what she wants and when she doesn’t get it she sure lets me know. I have only been "alone" for two weeks during sacrament because one week the boys were sick so I stayed home with all the kids. We have been doing great about getting to church early. It really helps that we have the 11 o’clock time and the fact that Kara takes a nap around 8 or 9 so I can get myself and the kids ready while Ray is at his morning meetings.
I can’t believe it is February already! February is a hard month for us. It is the month where Ray is the busiest with work and add bishopric stuff to that and basketball -- so we don’t see him much. I also am swamped with work; trying to get year-end stuff done – I hope to get it all done this week – YEA!

The kids are just getting older. Kara is learning and growing everyday. She doesn’t know how to say much but she does say mama, and dada and mimics thank you. I think she is really starting to understand things better. I said out loud that I needed to take some pictures, and then she wanted down from her highchair and walked over to the computer and pointed to the camera. I asked her if she wanted me to take her picture and she shook her head yes, then she stood still and I took a couple, then she wanted to see them in the viewfinder. She gets real excited when she sees herself. She also remembers things, I asked her if she wanted to take a bath and she shook her head yes, then I got distracted and had to do something, then a few minutes later she got mad at me and started crying, I said what do you want and she took off to the bathroom – she wanted her bath!

Kara’s hair is getting longer on top. I usually pull it up into a little ponytail. This day she pulled out the elastic and her hair was just sticking up so I had to take some pictures. It is funny when she walks because it bounces as she walks. Ray likes to call her Cindy Lou Who (from the Grinch who stole Christmas) – sometimes I call her Kara Lou Who. She is a funny little girl. She is finally getting her bottom two teeth. When she smiles you can just see the one on top, it makes me laugh, it is a funny tooth.
The boys will be glad when it warms up around here. We have gotten so much snow this winter, it is crazy. It seems like it snows almost everyday! They got scooters for Christmas and hadn’t even taken them outside until Saturday. I was at the church doing the V.T. report, and Ray went outside with them, they both wrecked on the walk way, great! I was surprised that they wrecked because they ride them around the kitchen table all day – I don’t know if it is bad for my hardwood floors or not, but hey it keeps them entertained and I do need to get the floors resurfaced sometime, so I figure it won’t hurt the floor.

As for me I seem to have issues with keeping my house clean. There is just always toys everywhere, laundry to do and put away, dishes in the sink and a big clutter mess. I have got to do something – maybe I will try flylady again, I read some of the stuff a while back and "shined my sink", but never established good flylady habits, I have got to do something! Goals would probably help.

We went visiting teaching today, I am so proud that we got some visits in the first part of the month. We didn’t do good getting out last month, so it was good. I took my ladies some hand sanitizer with a note that said – "This Valentines’ season spread LOVE not germs", I thought it was funny and yet useful because there really are a lot of germs floating around this time of year!

SEE you in 2 years JOHNY

Today my parents, John, Mike and Tennille (and kids) all came to my house around 10 a.m. so we could visit a while before we took John to the MTC. We drove down to Provo around 11:40 because John was supposed to be there at noon. We waited in the lobby for him, then when he came we took some pictures and went to the chapel. We barely missed the 12:30 session and were seated on the first row in the following session. We sat and watched Mormon ad commercials for a while then when the meeting started we sang a very lively rendition of Called to Serve and heard from the MTC president and his wife, they shared really good messages. Then we watched part of the Called to Serve movie, said our quick good-byes and we went out the "family exit" and John went out the "missionary exit" – SEE you in 2 years JOHNY!

We then came back to my house and hung out for a while. My Dad had to go up to Salt Lake to get his work instrument fixed. Around 4 p.m. my friend, Linda, who volunteers at the MTC (she takes the new missionaries pictures) called so say that she had met John and that he was in a threesome companionship – I guess there was an odd number of Elders arriving today to go to the Czech Republic. She said he was happy as could be, so my mom was happy to hear the news of his companions and that he was fine. It was a good day!

90 years old

We had a good weekend. Ray went on a camp out with the Teacher’s quorum Friday and Saturday up to Strawberry Reservoir (COLD!) and I hung out with the kids. I went though all the kids closets to clear out clothes that no longer fit and make room for all the stuff that I bought at the Old Navy sale (they had their clearance marked down an additional 50%, you know I love deals!)

Saturday, when Ray got home we went over to his Aunt and Uncles’ house for a open house for Ray’s grandpa who turned 90! Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Can you imagine all the changes in the world in the last 90 years, he has seen a lot. He likes to joke about dying, I heard one of Ken's cousins say to him "when I saw you at the reunion, you told me the next time I saw you would be in a pine box!", to which he replied, "someone better call the mortician." He is a funny man!

We had fun visiting with family. Ray’s parents came up from New Mexico and his two uncles and their families were there. Ray’s sister, Jenny, had baby Ethan two weeks ago and she was there with him. Kara LOVES babies, sometimes I don’t know if she understands that they are real. She loved Ethan and wanted to hold him. I thought this picture was cute of her hugging him. She also wanted to hug Jenna.

We attempted to get a picture with all the grand kids with great-grandpa, they were not to co-operative, this is what we got.

That night we went to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate Andrew’s birthday (nephew) the kids LOVE Chuck E. Cheese, Kara even had fun riding the rides.

First part of January

Well, we haven't been up to much. Tyler had his first day back at school yesterday so I went and ran errands. It was nice to not have the Christmas crowds everywhere I went.

So Kara is still nursing and I was getting up with her several times a night, mostly out of convenience and I would just get her and nurse her in bed so then I didn't loose to much sleep. Then she was sick forever and I told myself that once she got better she was going to just have to learn to sleep through the night - AKA - cry it out. Sunday night was the first night that I decided to give it a try. I nursed her around 10 p.m. then she slept until around 3 a.m. . She cried and cried then finally went to sleep, Ray thought I should go check on her, and when I did she was on top of her blankets weird so I tried to fix her and woke her up - DANG IT! So then I just held her and rocked her and she poked me on my chest telling me she wanted to nurse, I told her no and she cried like I had hurt her feelings, even though it was kind of a fake cry. She was awake off and on until 5 a.m. It was a LONG night. In the morning Ray referred to it as her torture night. But last night (night #2) she did really good. She woke up once around 5 a.m. and I got up and went to the bathroom and by the time I got out she had quit crying so I think that we are on the road to her sleeping through the night. YEAH!!

In my cleaning out the basement I came across long lost treasures, not really but I had forgotten about this little bike thing that we got Trent when he was one. Kara loves it and the boys like to push her on it, and Tyler likes to ride it which makes Kara cry.

This picture shows very well what Kara play with all day. She puts her purse on her arm and carries her baby and the baby's blanket everywhere, It is so cute to see her walking around with all her stuff.

What did the pioneers do without rubber gloves?

So here is one I wrote last week.

Well, today has been a very poopy day – literally! I tended a little girl that was potty-training and at the first buzzer (1/2 at my house) I took her in to go potty and she had pooped in her underwear, it was gross! Lucky for me I have my trusty yellow rubber gloves, so I put them on and twenty wipes later she was good as new. I then cleaned the toilet and for a special germ killing touch "lysol"ed everything – toilet, doorknobs, sink and even the light switch. About a ½ hour later I went back in the bathroom and there was a can of aerosol hairspray on the counter, I did a double take, I didn’t use the hairspray instead of Lysol did I, YEP, I did, so now I have hairspray on everything – nice – I bet it kills germs though!

Second reason it is a poopy day, Kara has had diarrhea since she started her antibiotic, we go through at least 12 diapers a day, it should be ending soon, she only has one dose left.

Third reason it is a poopy day, Tyler has had diarrhea too, must be a little bug he has, he said he needed to go poop and then I hear him say – Darn, I didn’t make it to the toilet. I go in there and he took off his undies and instead of just letting them slide to the ground he flipped them over to me by the toilet (he was in the entrance), as they flipped across the room they hit the door and splattered poop on the door and floor. SICK! Once again lucky for me I have rubber gloves so I cleaned it all up.

Sorry no pictures :)

It was a poopy day, but I can do anything when I have rubber gloves on!

Last week of Dec 2007

So sometimes I write things in a word document then plan to post them but never get around to it. So, this one is kind of old but I wanted to post it anyway.






















I spent the days after Christmas cleaning up the basement. Ray has been framing under our living room and I needed to move all the toys and JUNK out of there so he could do the "furnace room". I got a lot done, but I still have so much more to do.






We went down to Enoch Sunday (Dec. 30th) morning because my brother John is going on a mission to the Czech Republic and he spoke in church. We left here around 8:45, we got there in time for the kids to play a bit and for us to change our clothes and get to church by 1 p.m. John gave a really good talk and so did the other speaker who was just returning from his mission. After church we ate a ton of yummy food back at my parents house. It was fun to visit with family and friends. Ray took a lot of pictures but the one good picture of John was fuzzy so this one has him in the background.We didn’t get to stay long because Ray had to be at work on Monday, so we left around 5:30 for home. I think that is definitely the shortest trip to Enoch ever. I was sad that we couldn’t stay longer and so were the kids. I told them that dad had to work and their idea was to go back to grandmas when he got off work – good idea if we could stay but dad has to work the rest of the week and Trent had school on Wednesday.

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!