Love At Home

iPad 2 giveaway!

2011-11-18T17:05:00.001-07:00

There's this great little company called Zagg (whose headquarters happen to be in SLC) that we love. We found their awesome iPod screen covers and with the way Kyle tends to ruin screens, it seemed perfect for us. We also use them for our phones. Amazingly strong covers with a lifetime warranty. Totally worth it.

Anyway, they are doing a Black Friday giveaway of iPads. Here are the details, from their site:

On Black Friday, November 25, 2011, starting at midnight (MST), we’ll be giving away an iPad 2 every hour. 24 iPad 2s over 24 hours. Each hour is a new opportunity to enter the giveaway. So yes, you need to go to the giveaway page each hour and enter.

Entering the giveaway will be simple. To enter, just submit your email address. For additional entries, you can share on Facebook and Twitter. A Facebook share is worth two additional entries and a Twitter share is worth one additional entry.

The website for more info is:

Zagg giveaway

Our Anniversary Trip, day one

2011-09-19T20:07:00.002-06:00

In July, Kyle and I took a trip, just the two of us. This is a rare occasion for us. We had our honeymoon, a couple of times we have spent one night in a bed and breakfast, and I just remembered a weekend in St. George for a pharmacy conference about 8 years ago. I have taken a few girls only vacations in the last few years. But never anything with just Kyle. Anyway, all this to say that a kid free vacation has been long overdue!

We drove the kids up to Utah to stay with both sets of grandparents and then we flew to Seattle.

Mt. Ranier as seen from the airplane. Quite impressive!

We got to Seattle, hopped in our rental car, and searched, and searched, for a parking spot so we could make our lunch at the Space Needle.

The view from the rotating restaurant really is quite impressive. This colorful house really popped out at me as we spun around and was one of my favorite parts of the view.

After lunch we walked down to the pier and the Pike Street Public Market, best known for...

...the flying fish!

If you know where to look you can also find this amazingly gross gum wall.:)

The produce is super delicious and just huge!

One of the common sights we saw were these hanging flower baskets. They are all over Seattle and Victoria. It was so lovely, but probably impractical for arid Santa Fe.

A highlight of our trip was getting to see family we haven't seen in years. My cousin Lara introduced us to her fiancé Jesse.

They also took us on a tour of the outdoor art exhibit nearby.

After a long day of travel and fun, we headed off to our hotel across the river and learned a lesson. Making a reservation for a non smoking room doesn't guarantee a non smoking room. I still don't understand why they make more reservations than they can handle. But we were tired and just gave in and stayed the night anyway.

Not all those who wander are lost

2011-06-11T18:25:00.000-06:00

Bettie, Katie and I went backpacking this weekend. It took a lot of convincing to get me to go...I am not a huge fan of camping. But Bettie has some awesome powers of persuasion and I went. It was a very relaxing and fun 3 days. We always knew exactly where we were (Right here! What more do you need to know?), even if we didn't always know how to get to where we had planned. But in then end, we made it to our original destination.

Our first destination: an unplanned but decidedly perfect detour to Nambe Lake. Great waterfall on the way. The lake was surrounded by impassible mountains so we knew it wasn't the lake we expected. But we loved it.

That night we spent in a nearby meadow. It got kinda frosty and the next morning we considered cutting our trip a day short because our toes (and everything else) were freezing in our sleeping bags.

But after we got up, ate, and packed up, we decided we could handle it and were ready for another day of hiking. That is Katie, me and Bettie. We found some friendly hikers to take our picture for us.

This is the sign that caused our detour. The path we wanted was not labeled except for the no camping sign. There were not nearly enough signs to point the way. Also, our map didn't even come close to showing all the paths we passed by. But we never felt despair and we found our way.

This lake was our favorite of the three we saw. We missed the lake Bryce told us to find but found this one instead and we loved it.

Our second night was in a field full of so many kinds of trees, plants, flowers, and bugs. This was my favorite tree, which we camped under.

And this picture shows the answer to why anyone would want to backpack:

There were so many butterflies and flowers. (Lots of bees and flies too, but we'll just forget that part.) So many butterflies, big and small. And lots of amazing flowers.

This was the end of our trip. (I'm in the blue shirt.) We were supposed to have a car waiting here for us so we could drive home. Our husbands were worried because they hadn't heard if we ever found the right trail (the only time the cell phone worked was when we were camping that first night) so they were waiting around in hopes of our contacting them to tell them where we ended up. When we didn't find a car waiting for us, we continued on our way and hiked almost 5 miles until Bettie got the attention of a couple of cute guys ;) with cars full of kids and they pulled over and picked up these three dirty hitchhikers.

The end. :)

Me...then and now

2011-05-26T10:27:00.000-06:00

Thanks to Google, this week I found two people from my high school years that I have been trying for years to reconnect with. One is my friend Anna and the other is my favorite high school teacher Ms. Schultz. It took some work but I found them with some pretty random information about each of them. Go google!! I thought it would be fun to show what I looked like in high school when I knew them compared to what I look like now.

Then (10th grade?):

Now:

And as an added bonus, my cute family:

This photo is from last summer, but the current stats on my kids: Ben is 11, Courtney is 9 and Johnny is turning 6 this weekend.

Ben's movie making debut

2011-05-23T21:18:00.000-06:00

For Christmas we gave Ben the Klutz book of movie tricks. Yesterday, he tried it out and made this film: The Neat Fairy. Hope you like it!

Courtney is adapting quite well to this broken arm

2011-04-22T15:36:00.002-06:00

(Thanks to our awesome new iMac, photo and video posts are now a piece of cake and I will hopefully be blogging more because of it.)

So, on Wednesday, Courtney collided with a soccer ball and this happened:

That day, Courtney was very quiet and melancholy. I think it was pretty scary for her. But since then, she has been happier than usual. This morning she came knocking on our door and asked:

(She is very quiet, but she says: "Can I have some medicine?")

Which, if you know Courtney, is absolutely a. maz. ing. She has also figured out how to make do with one hand in many situations. Today she changed her shirt on her own, with only a little help from me. More examples of learned independence:

That is a Beyblade, the biggest craze around our house right now. It took a bit, but she figured out to turn it around backwards and pulled the rip cord with her thumb. The most impressive act yet of her one handed achievements is that she can now play violin one handed:

She will not let this broken arm get in the way of playing the violin. This is her first year taking violin at school and it has made quite an impression on her. Her teacher says she is one of the more advanced students she has and that she will miss her. Courtney will not be able to play in the year-end concert, but her teacher is letting her keep the violin over the summer. She has already pulled it out 4 or 5 times since Wednesday to practice. :)

Disney photos...at last!

2011-04-13T20:21:00.000-06:00

Taking the easy way out, here is a slideshow of some highlights of the Disney part of the trip. Enjoy!

Santa Fe in photos

2011-02-16T17:46:00.002-07:00

My wonderful husband took two days off to celebrate my birthday. Today we went downtown to try out our new photography skills. Here are the end results of our day. And just think, if you came to visit us in Santa Fe, you could see these places in person. hint, hint :) Enjoy! (If you want to see a particular photo larger, just click on it.)

Really, Johnny?

2011-01-30T19:29:00.000-07:00

Johnny: Mom, how many years are we dead?
Mom: Well...
Johnny: I mean, how many years are we dead before being a Grandpa?
Mom: Johnny, none of your living grandparents have died yet.
Johnny: Not even once??

Juanito

2010-12-08T20:16:00.000-07:00

Johnny is in a spanish immersion Kindergarten class and is learning quite a bit...but not enough apparently. Kyle and I were talking in Spanish, you know, so the kids wouldn't understand. Ben and Courtney immediately called Johnny, the 5 year old, to come translate for them. "Johnny, Johnny, what are they saying?" Johnny calmly informed them that he didn't know because his teacher hadn't used those words yet. :D

Update...

2010-11-09T10:22:00.001-07:00

You may or may not be wondering if Courtney and her sling got all the attention at school today. I drove the kids instead of sending them on the bus so I could help Courtney with carrying her things. As soon as we walked in the classroom, all the kids were asking her, "How are you doing Courtney?" "Did you break anything?" "Are you OK?"

It worked! :)

By the way... it is true that Courtney wasn't feeling great yesterday but even more true is that she knows how to play up a situation. When I pull out the camera to get a picture of how miserable she looks, she puts on her best sad/in pain face. She really is doing OK. In fact, after we changed her bandages this morning and then let her get dressed, she told me that people weren't going to know she hurt her knee because she was wearing long pants. She was still limping a bit so I reassured her that the limp would clue people in. Of course, when she isn't thinking about it, she doesn't limp. Silly girl.

Beware Mondays...

2010-11-08T22:12:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday night (on Halloween), Courtney hurt her finger. She had her old car booster seat in the house and sat in it on the floor, but her pinkie was under it and it got hurt. Monday I took Courtney to the doctor because her pinkie now looked like this:

It's a little hard to see, but she has bruising all along her pinkie. It's her right hand, but she is still managing to write and play violin. The right hand is the bow hand, so this isn't as debilitating as a left hand injury would have been for her violin lessons. She got an x-ray and came home looking like this:

It looks like a probable longitudinal fracture in the distal end of the phalynx. :) That means it is not a serious break. I guess Courtney was enjoying the attention or something, because today, one week later, I got a call from the school nurse that I needed to come pick up Courtney from school. I showed up to find her looking like this:

No, she didn't get in a fight. Not with a person anyway. She got in a fight with the blacktop on the playground during P.E. class.

I think her finger brace actually protected her right hand from further injury.

And this is how she looked when we got home from the hospital this time. Luckily, no break this time. But she does seem to have a sprained elbow. Two Mondays in a row. I hope "three's a charm" doesn't apply for Courtney. Please. We'll see how violin goes tomorrow...

On a side note: I think her popularity might take a bigger jump with this injury, right? A finger splint is one thing, but a sling? Much more visibility, much bigger must equal a higher coolness factor. I remember breaking my arm at her age. I had a cast and I didn't care that my arm was broken. I had a cast and that was awesome! Kids are so silly.

Side note #2: I do have to say how extremely grateful for Kyle's job. We can use the Indian Hospital's services and not have to go to the local large hospital. We get in and out pretty quick and the x-ray is right there. I am also grateful that his job provides for our family so I can be a stay at home Mom. It makes days like these a lot easier to handle.

A quick Johnnyism...

2010-06-29T11:16:00.001-06:00

Johnny just said: "Mom, I hope Isabella's dog (the one that bit him) doesn't come out. Teeth chatter!"

No really. He said teeth chatter and then made his mock scared face and chattered his teeth. Love it!

New crafty projects on my scrap blog!

2010-05-04T09:25:00.000-06:00

Click on over to see what I made this weekend. It was national scrapbook day and I actually stuck with it and made all 12 challenges from over on My Pink Stamper. It was a lot of fun! (But Mom and Dad...maybe you should wait until I am there. Unless you want to ruin the surprise of what I made you.)

Why do we love Grandma's house?

2010-04-08T22:43:00.000-06:00

Benjamin had a writing assignment at school and the topic was "Who I would like to trade places with for a day." It was the last day of two weeks of testing and he decided to have fun with the essay assignment. I'm going to try to get him to tell it in his own words, but until then, this is what he told us he said. He would like to trade places with his Uncle Nathan because then he would get to live at Grandma and Grandpa's house and drink orange juice for breakfast. Hmm.

I asked Johnny why he never takes a nap during the day when I always get tired in the afternoon. He said it is because he thinks about Jesus. At night he doesn't think about Jesus because then he would stay awake all night. Hmm.

Courtney decided that we don't have any more babies being born into our family because Jesus decided our family is just the right size. Ahh. Now there's reason!

Talk about a making you feel guilty...

2010-02-15T17:57:00.001-07:00

Last night Johnny wanted to play Crazy 8s. We were setting up Apples to Apples Jr so we could all play a game together...but Johnny hadn't played before and just wanted to play his game. We told him to give it a try, but he didn't want to. "No! I want to play my game. God and Jesus would play with me!"

I should change this blog to "guess what Johnny said"

2010-02-13T20:04:00.001-07:00

Courtney got baptized today. It was a beautiful day and we were blessed to have family here to help celebrate. Grandma Sevy gave the talk about baptism and was talking about how Courtney was being like Jesus in this choice to get baptized by authority. "By John!" yelled out Johnny. Right after Courtney came up out of the water, Johnny jumped up and down and said, "Go Courtney!! Wahoo!!" Seems to want to get all the attention.

I think he redeemed himself at dinner tonight. After the prayer, everyone started eating. Johnny said, "Wait! My Holy Ghost is telling me something! We forgot to wash our hands." I guess he really was listening today and really is trying to understand it all.

Johnny says...

2010-01-09T18:39:00.000-07:00

When Johnny was getting his pajamas on tonight, he was having some issues with buttons. When asked if he needed help, he said, "I can do it. I know how to do EVERYTHING, except swim in a big deep hole where there's water. Or climb rocks. Or climb a house." Where do they come up with these?

Funny quote of the day

2009-12-21T20:59:00.001-07:00

The kids got a perfect day today. They spent about 7 hours with all their grandparents at the same time. We went out to lunch, made Christmas cookies, and acted out the nativity with everyone taking part. Three kids and seven adults means we all got to have a major part. As soon as we were all decked out in our costumes, there was a knock at the door. Mind you, we were all in the living room so there was no chance of secrecy. Mom took off her angel costume/towel and opened the door. It was Mom and Dad's next door neighbor delivering goodies. She said "Merry Christmas" and then asked if Dad (Joseph in a bathrobe) was feeling ok.

As a bonus, here is Kyle's hippie wise man mama bearing a gift of chocolate to the baby Jesus.

Packing for Christmas

2009-12-17T20:55:00.000-07:00

We are going to Grandma's house for Christmas and the kids are pretty excited. They couldn't wait until Saturday to start packing and Johnny told me he was ready to go. I am glad I checked...here is what he had packed:

3 ties (he never lasts more than a half hour with a tie on)
1 Sunday shirt
6 pairs of underwear
1 pair of socks
5 pairs of pants

Yup. But to his credit, I think he ran out of room for shirts. He had a whole pile of t-shirts in the middle of the floor. Silly kid.

Beatle Mania at our house (post #4 now, is it, for today?)

2009-11-04T20:02:00.002-07:00

Johnny is sitting next to me doing "homework" and singing along to Dad playing Beatles Rock Band. "She's got a ticket to riii-iide.....My baby don't care." Now he's singing his questions to me in the tune of the songs. "Mom what does this say?" and of course I've got to sing my answers back. Earlier, and the reason I grabbed the computer to blog, he was singing along to "I wanna be your mother baby, I wanna be your man." Bwahaha! I think I'd rather he said that than lover. Not a word I'd expect to hear from a 4 year old, kwim? He knows a lot of these songs now. Super cute to listen to. He's actually a very good singer with an awesome memory for music! As you can see, though, drums is his instrument of choice. He can't read well enough yet and guitar is pretty challenging. Drums you just to bang really loud. Nice looking band, dontcha think?

One more Johnny-ism for the day: at the library today Johnny got a ruler. On the way home he was measuring things and said, "Look! This weighs 6 months." You gotta give him credit. He used a term for measuring size and gave a unit to his number. This kid's a genius. Mathematical AND musical!

Blog post #3 for today (don't forget to scroll down to see the other new entries)

2009-11-04T16:24:00.000-07:00

While we were at the hospital today, the X-ray tech asked Johnny, who is 4 years old, what he wants to be when he grows up. J thought and thought and finally had the answer. "Five!"

Oh yeah, Halloween pics!

2009-11-04T16:01:00.000-07:00

I guess while I'm at it, I might as well post our Halloween pics, eh? First of all, Kyle and I try to find a costume that goes together for the two of us. Last year we were the weather:

Kyle was a tornado and I was cloudy with a chance of rain. If you asked me I made it rain on you.

This year, we thought about being Monk and Natalie (no, Debbie, I don't think I could pull off Sherona). But everyone we told it to thought we were talking about a Monk, not Mr. Monk. Too much explaining to be done with this one. We finally found an idea online that was super easy and a fun joke. But, it still required explaining. It was interesting because when we told what we were, you could tell people either got it or they didn't. Here it is:

Kyle is a lower GI and I am an upper GI. Ba dum bum. :)

Now on to the cute kids:

Magnet Man. Ben came up with this idea with his gifted teacher. The day before Halloween at school. So Thursday afternoon was spent cutting and painting and getting his costume ready. Courtney, the Snow Princess, designed her costume around her pajamas and we had it made a couple months ago. She had a special place to store her costume all summer long just waiting for Halloween. Last of all is my little Red Power Ranger. Grandma gave him the costume for his birthday in May and since it still fit, I strongly encouraged him to just use it for Halloween. He relented and did just fine...he loved showing off his muscles to everyone. :)

Luckily the weather warmed up just in time to not need winter coats for the Trunk or Treat. Happy Halloween...time to start thinking about Christmas now!

How we spent our day today

2009-11-04T15:24:00.002-07:00

As soon as Johnny and I walked in the door after preschool, we got a phone call that kept us away until about 1 1/2 minutes before Ben got off the bus this afternoon. The school nurse called with the report that we needed to come pick up Courtney from school. She'd gotten two of her fingers smashed in her classroom door on the way to lunch and was in such shock that she threw up. Johnny and I climbed back in the car and went to pick her up. She was pale but much calmer. No blood. And after 2 1/2 hours at Daddy's work (the Indian Hospital) we discovered there are no broken bones, either.

(If you are into gross, you can click on the pic to see a great close up of her injury).

But hey, the three of us got to go out to lunch at McDonald's before we went to the doctor. There's one highlight to the day. And C and J came home covered in stickers (after we took advantage of the surprise trip to the doctor and they got their H1N1 shots).

I'm just glad we barely beat Ben home.

How old did you say I am???

2009-10-16T13:47:00.000-06:00

So, we were talking about Kyle's birthday this Sunday. He's going to be 33, and I'm 35.

Johnny: "So you're 26, right Dad?"
Me: "Yeah, sure. How old am I, kiddo?"
Johnny: "Um, 50?"
Kyle: "You're right, son!"

Oooooooh, guess who's getting coal in HIS stocking. Yep. Both of 'em!

Check out these crazy shoes!

2009-10-10T16:56:00.001-06:00

On My Organized Chaos I found this crazy shoe site she is having a giveaway for: Must Have Shoes. I linked it right to the section where they have "irregular shoes." I have never seen any shoes like these in my wildest imagination. Check them out for fun! Some of them don't even look like shoes!

Good news, bad news

2009-09-30T08:16:00.003-06:00

So, the good news is that tonight Ben is going to receive his Bear at cub scouts! He's pretty excited.

The bad news, well that story is a bit longer. Last night we had the missionaries over so we could feed them dinner. We always like to have them give us a scripture message after dinner and before they go back out to get to work. Are my kids the only ones that get super worked up (aka...hyper) when the missionaries or home teachers or repairman comes over? I don't know if that is the explanation or if it was too similar to our nightly scripture time that Johnny doesn't know how to sit still for either. Whatever it was, Johnny was running around, despite warnings to stop. I reached out to stop his running and he ran straight into my outstretched hand. It crunched. Think falling off your bike and stopping your fall with your hand. Yeah that. What I did back in college some 15 years ago with my other hand. This time though, it doesn't feel broken. Maybe a sprain, maybe nothing. But it is my right hand and I'm getting pretty good at left handed now. By keeping my wrist straight I'm able to type, with only a little difficulty.

So that's the story. As my friend Susannah responded when I posted on Facebook about this, the word of God can be HARD to take sometimes. And boy was it ever!

For those who care...

2009-09-23T13:12:00.004-06:00

I updated my scrap blog today with 10 or so projects I've made over the last 6 months. Sooooo, if you are in the mood, click on over and let me know how talented I am! LOL

Cricut gypsy giveaway!!

2009-09-18T12:52:00.002-06:00

I know this belongs on my scrapbooking blog (and it is there already), but I think this blog gets more traffic and wanted to get the word out about this awesome giveaway. Here's the info again!

I found a great new blog named Cutting Above. It focuses on scrapbooking, especially for those of us with Cricuts or other electronic die cut machines. They are currently having a Gypsy giveaway to celebrate the blog's debut and the gypsy grand opening on HSN. It will be airing on September 24th, starting at 12:01, I believe. Here's a link to the post on that blog with more info: clicky Good luck!

Decluttering your life

2009-09-17T09:35:00.003-06:00

I found this quote today over on Ali Edward's blog. It is from Leo Babauta's new ebook called The Simple Guide to Minimalist Life.

This is a misconception about minimalism — that it’s necessarily monk-like, empty, boring, sterile. Not at all. Well, it can be, if you go in that direction, but I don’t advocate that flavor of minimalism. Instead, we are clearing away all but the most essential things — to make room for that which gives us the most joy. Clear away the distractions so we can create something incredible. Clear away all the obligations so we can spend time with loved ones. Clear away the noise so we can concentrate on inner peace, on spirituality (if we wish), on our thinking. As a result, there is more happiness, peace, and joy, because we’ve made room for these things.

I love that concept of clearing out life's clutter. I enjoy getting rid of clutter, but I also often accumulate it more quickly than I can deal with it. This quote is a good reminder of why decluttering life is worth the effort.

Branson vacation

2009-08-31T08:58:00.006-06:00

I admit it. At first I was not too thrilled with the idea of a vacation to Branson. All I knew was that it had to do something with country music. And a long drive from home. But, we all had a great time, we're glad we went, and want to go back sometime. Grandma and Grandpa, along with Uncle Clayton and cousins Trenton and Emillie, arrived Friday night in time for a little birthday cake for Emillie.

Then on Saturday Kyle and I took his parents down to the Santa Fe Farmers Market for some sampling and more red chili raspberry jam.

Sunday morning found us on our way. One 14 hour drive + no stopping for food to try in some way to keep the Sabbath holy + searching for a church meeting in a decent town (sorry Amarillo) and at a decent time = a long, messy, but not too bad car trip.

Monday we went exploring and ended up at the fish hatchery. It doesn't take too long to feel the difference between the dry heat of Santa Fe and Utah and the humidity of Missouri. Luckily there was an air conditioned visitor center to stave off the complaining.

Ben and Trenton found my camera and had a lot of fun. I'm glad I can trust them in controlled environments with my pride and joy camera!

Next stop, just for Clayton...the Titanic museum. We were able to use Kyle's military discount in a few places to save us some money. The museums and shows are pretty pricey in this town (unless you are willing to sit through numerous time share presentations). My favorite part of the Titanic exhibit was the interactive room where they had platforms you could stand on at different angles showing just how hard it would have been to hang on when the ship was sinking. There was also a tub of water iced down to what the temperature of the water was that the passengers had to float in waiting to be saved. I could only last about 10 seconds with my hand in the water. It was a well done exhibit and really helped me understand a bit of what the people went through.

Ticket booths on every corner and a million shows to choose from. Kyle and I and Pam and Dale went to see Shoji Tabuchi (check out the bathroom pics!) as recommended by Grandma Great. Well done and a lot of fun! We took everyone to the Kirby VanBurch magic show and we were all astounded at some of his tricks. Especially the women sawed in half and put together in the wrong order. Most of us went to see Jackson Cash in a very well done Johnny Cash tribute, a free show gratefuly because the kids didn't appreciate it at all. Kyle and I chose one show to see just the two of us. Six. It is an a capella group made up of 6 brothers. We loved this show and the music was right up our alley.

The highlight of the trip for the kids was the swimming pool at the resort. Pam and Dale bought this time share off of ebay and invited us to go with them. There was free breakfast every morning, but being that it was mostly donuts and other bready foods, it did get a little old. And contributed to our packing on a couple extra pounds on the trip. But the pool was what called to the kids and they went swimming every day. The adults took turns going swimming with the kids too and it was a great way to cool off on those hot hot days.

The other highlight for the kids was the Pirate Cove mini golf course. Kyle beat me by 2 or 3 strokes, I believe. Nobody else kept score, though.

Part of the entrance fee included a gift bag for all the kids. We let Clayton be a kid, too. :) Everyone put on their pirate faces:

Even Grandma and Grandpa got in on it:

The resort provided different activities daily for the kids. We were usually off doing something else, but we did decide that $5 a shirt for making tie dye sounded like a great investment. Here we are sporting our artwork!

The day we drove into Branson I spied a Crocs outlet. This was my contribution to the schedule for the week...a trip to get new shoes for all at Crocs. When you can get Crocs for $10, who can pass that up?? They also gave all the kids a free Crocadoodle paint kit. The paint comes off with soap and water so you can redecorate whenever you want. We came home with at least 10 extra pairs of shoes!

Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa, for a fun trip! We can't wait to do it again!

First day of School!

2009-08-31T08:09:00.003-06:00

Today was a momentous occasion. Johnny started preschool! People have been asking me what I'm going to do with all my time. Well, let's see. Drop the kids off at 7:40. Pick up Johnny at 10:50. About one week a month, Kyle can drop off on the way to work. Other weeks, he doesn't leave until 8:30 or 9:00, depending on his work schedule. So that leaves me, what, an hour and a half or two hours to myself most days. That's SOOO much time to myself, don't you think? How am I ever going to fill that time? (Sarcasm intended.)

This is Johnny...so excited to be in school. There were kids crying and parents hovering over nervous kids. But not our Johnny! He went right in, said hi to his teacher, and started playing with the toys. Not nervous at all. Yesterday after church he went right up to his room and picked out his school clothes. He's been asking forever if it was Monday yet!

In the second picture, it shows his teacher's assistant in pink, Miss Sara, and his teacher, Teacher Andranette. (No promises on the spelling of those names, however). Yep. She said they are to call her Teacher Andranette. We'll see if that lasts! I find it a unique title. I've got 2 1/2 hours until pick up. I'd better get going and not waste my precious time! I think I'll start by talking to Kyle for 10 more minutes until he leaves. I think I made him feel bad this morning when I made the observation about getting the short end of the stick as far as class times, wishing I'd chosen the afternoon class. He said he was glad we'd have time for ourselves in the mornings and I was wishing I had more time for just myself. It's only the first day. I'm sure we'll be just fine!

I guess I can let them grow up...

2009-08-14T18:27:00.002-06:00

Today I decided to let the kiddos grow up. Just a little. I've got a lot of things I'd rather do myself than let the kids learn how to do. Mostly because of the potential mess or potential for not doing it the way I like it. For example: cracking eggs. I let Ben crack the eggs for our Family Birthday cake (we call our anniversary our family's birthday...11 years today!) I let him do it and he did a marvelous job. He's 9, I guess that's old enough, eh? I let Courtney use a cookie scoop to scoop the cake mix into the cupcake papers. She actually did it without making much more mess than I would make. Hmm. Seven year olds can do a pretty good job I suppose. I got out the vacuum and asked Johnny, age 4, to vacuum the living room. I gave him a little tutelage and he did a great job, considering the size and weight of the vacuum. It's not perfect, but he did it by himself! The kids loved doing the jobs I gave them and all proved themselves worthy. I need to remember this and keep letting them try new things and greater responsibilities. That's much more important than a perfectly clean house or messless cooking, I'd say.

While watching the meteor shower...

2009-08-13T11:13:00.002-06:00

...we were discussing what meteors are and lots of other space related topics. Mostly it was Ben spouting off facts that Kyle and I knew nothing about! We saw airplanes and we were discussing the schedules they usually keep, like how they usually have their last flights around 9 or 10 at night. Courtney then asked....he he he.... "Is that 9 AM, PM, or FM?" Kyle and I could not stop laughing! She said, "If it's nighttime, then it's FM." What a cutie patootie!

Kid-isms

2009-07-30T09:04:00.002-06:00

On his way to bed last night, Johnny said, "I love you Dad." I love you too, Johnny. Then he said, "I love you Mom." I love you too Johnny. Then he said, "I love my adults!" What a funny way to put it!

Courtney and Ben have both been thinking about the Second Coming lately. Courtney wants to be a Mom before then and Ben wants to have a job in the medical profession before then. He thinks being a doctor won't do him much good then. We reminded him that all knowledge is good and helpful. After all, I'm sure Heavenly Father has a pretty good grasp on how the human body works, wouldn't you say? And we also reminded Courtney that even if she doesn't get her wish, she can make up for it later.

I love the cute things my kids say, but I'm horrible at keeping track of them. At least I'll remember these now!

Kenny G concert

2009-07-28T16:49:00.003-06:00

Kyle and I went to Albuquerque overnight for a concert and a lovely stay at a Bed & Breakfast. This home was beatiful! It is called the Mauger estate. We highly recommend it if you ever have the chance. The rooms were quaint and the breakfast was super yummy.

When we drove to Sandia Resort (& casino) for the concert, Kyle had to bring his saxophone, of course, and play some tunes beforehand.

The concert was actually very fun and I'd go to one of his concerts again! Kenny G walks around and plays all over the place. It was just a lot of fun.

And here is the piece d'resistance...Kyle played his saxophone while we were waiting in line to get an autograph and Kenny G said, "Hey sounds great! Thanks for playing my melodies!" and then he signed Kyle's sax!!!

And on a totally unrelated note, the next day we went for pedicures. Kyle was totally diggin' the massage chair and foot spa. Look how cute my toes turned out! There's a mini rhinestone in the middle of the flower.

Well, that's it for now. I'm trying to get this done quickly, but I'll have Kyle come back later and fill in more details. Thanks, Bryce & Bettie for taking the kids so we could have this awesome experience!

My kids really ARE listening to me!

2009-07-24T19:46:00.003-06:00

My three kiddos are in the other room taking turns playing Wii. I heard some whining from Courtney and the Ben lecturing Johnny: "Johnny, you don't need to take the remote from her. Use your words." That's a phrase I use with the kids all. the. time. Go Ben!

Thank goodness for warranties...

2009-07-08T12:57:00.004-06:00

This is what I saw when I went in Johnny's room this morning:

When we were negotiating the terms for buying this house, at the recommendation of the home inspector, we had the owners do a roof upgrade with a 2 year guarantee on the roof. The roof guy just came and said that even though this was caused by the swamp cooler, it is still 100% covered. I'm not sure if they fix the interior walls, too. Here's hoping! I was a little worried because Kyle and our friend Bryce hooked up the swamp cooler a week ago (directly above Johnny's room) and being their first time we hoped they did it right. The guy said everything looked fine, but there was some condensation or leakage problem or something. But all I care is that it is covered. Phew!

Zero Desire

2009-07-02T08:18:00.003-06:00

Bettie sorta tagged me to do this 10 things I have zero desire to do or be or try or whatever. She sorta tagged me because she told me in person I had to. I don't usually do the blog lists, but this one seems like fun.

I have no desire to....

1. Have a pet dog or cat or anything else except a fish. I have 3 kids...who needs pets?

2. Own a business. Not my kinda fun!

3. Run a marathon. Good one Bettie...I'd have to agree with you on that one. My knees and lungs are thanking me already.

4. Be famous. It's hard enough for me to know what to say when I get a compliment now...can you imagine people always hounding you and telling you how wonderful you are? Ugh!

5. Run for office. I hate making big decisions. Isn't that what politics is all about?

6. Be a chef. Um, no. I'd rather eat it than slave over cooking for everyone else.

7. Go scuba diving...and for that Kyle, I am so sorry. I know you love it. But telling me how cool it is to have fish swarming around you is NOT the way to convince me to do it!

8. Eat tripe. Or tongue. Or any other non-normal animal part. I've tried liver (Mom made us when we were kids), chicken toe (just a bite in Spain) and pig cheek (again in Spain). That's as crazy as I get.

9. Bungee jump. Or skydive. Or paraglide. I have this thing for heights. And edges. And safety equipment possibly failing. Yeah, I think I'll pass.

10. Be a doctor. Bodily fluids, gross wounds, looking at body parts that aren't meant to be looked at, trying to remember all the names of said body parts or sicknesses or medicines to prescribe. So many reasons to not do this!

Beginning the process of painting our house

2009-06-20T15:05:00.003-06:00

The whole house is white. It could be worse I guess. When we were looking at houses we saw one that had pastels all over the house done with faux finishing. In every room. So at least white gives us a blank canvas. We aren't in love with painting, but it is kinda fun. Mostly it is my project. Apparently, Kyle would rather let me do the bulk of it than risk making a mistake and facing my wrath. Hmmmm. That's ok. I enjoy it. I especially enjoy that we don't have to remove painted over wallpaper borders, or any other wallpaper. Ugh. So, without further ado...here is the almost done (it's done now, but I don't have pics) master bathroom. The window in the bathroom is frosted and the way the light comes through at different times of day makes the wall color change all the time.

This first is what it looks like a lot, mostly blue. There is grey stone tile on the floor and bath surround and it is a good complement.

And this color is more what I was going for. But it's all good. I like it!

Now the kids are excited to get their rooms painted. Ben wants black, Johnny wants bright green and Courtney wants polka dots. We'll see what actually happens!

How we stopped our child from finger sucking in one easy step...

2009-06-17T18:05:00.005-06:00

Johnny always sucked his two middle fingers. Perfect strangers would see him and tell me that their child sucked their fingers like that until they were 11. Great. We had never had a finger/thumb sucker so we wondered how were were going to deal with this. We took him to a gastro doctor because we were worried about the sucking and the rumination that came with it. No, thinking isn't a bad thing. I mean rumination like a cow ruminates...chewin' their cud, so to speak. We tried some medicine for awhile, but didn't stick with it.

So anyway, we started to notice that he was always holding his blanket when he was doing this. So we wondered which came first: the chicken or the egg. I mean--the blanket or the fingers. Which was triggering which? The answer came to us rather quickly. About a year or so ago, I don't really remember when it happened, Johnny stopped taking his blanket everywhere. Then he started forgetting it when he went to sleep. (This happened to be very good timing, by the way, because we were down to two blanket burp cloths and apparently this specific fabric is no longer sold in stores...and no other fabric was good enough for his tastes. But that's another story.) We realized that the finger sucking had all but disappeared, along with the rumination. Turns out the blanket had become the trigger for the finger sucking--when he found his blanket after a few months he picked it up and stuck his fingers in his mouth to pretend to suck. We could tell he did it automatically but the sucking was no longer a comfort and was just for fun.

So, how did we stop the finger sucking? Throw away the blankets and never look back!

Wow...that was a quick change of plans!

2009-06-16T16:58:00.002-06:00

I got a call today that Johnny made it onto the class roster for the fall. Yea!!!! His class will be held from 7:30-10:30. That seems awfully early, but I can drop all three kids off at the same time so it will work out well. That is the second time in the last few month when I have been given time to get used to a difficult situation only to have a resolution to the situation after I decided to accept it and be happy about it. I guess I must have problems with change!

A lesson I need to learn again

2009-06-12T10:36:00.002-06:00

So just yesterday I did a scrapbook page about one of life's little lessons. Here's an exerpt:

I'm not in charge of what happens in life. I know that. Mistakes happen, cars break down, people die, houses don't sell, pregnancies fail. I've gotten pretty good at trusting in the Lord that it will all be for the best. But I've still got a lot to learn. When I got my mission call I was disappointed that my start date was a month after my birthday...meaning I was going to get home a month too late to start school in the fall. But, there was a purpose to these things. Kyle's first semester back at school ended up being my last semester of school. If I had gotten my wish, I would have graduated without meeting him. I've always remembered this as a prime example of trusting in the Lord's timing and decisions.

Fast forward to this morning and the phone call I just received. The kids' school is going to have a small preschool next year with just 32 spots. They were using a lottery system to choose who got in. There were about 45 kids signed up. We got the phone call today to let us know that Johnny is #4 on the waiting list for the morning class. Joy. That means our name was one of the last chosen. She said not to hold out too much hope of getting in with that place on the list.

Ever since we found out about the preschool, I have been saying that if he didn't get in I wasn't going to worry about getting him in somewhere else. There aren't many free preschools in town. But now that this has happened, I'm feeling let down and distraught. I'm forgetting what I just figured out yesterday. The Lord is in charge. It is up to me to be a wise steward of what I am given. If Johnny needed school that badly, I'm sure he would have gotten in. Perhaps he and I need more time together. Whatever it is I need to find the faith that this is what we need. But can I just mope for a little while first?

Free food from KFC!

2009-05-05T18:23:00.003-06:00

You can get a free meal from KFC (I think I heard you can print it four times). Here's the link:

http://www.unthinkfc.com/

Yummmm! Looks like you have to print before May 6th.

Kool Aid

2009-05-04T10:35:00.001-06:00

While enjoying a glass of kool aid today Johnny asked me:

"Mommy, what animal gives us kool aid?"

Hey, at least give the kid credit for knowing that cows give us milk!

The grass is always greener...

2009-04-27T10:48:00.003-06:00

...when you actually have grass! When we found out we were moving to Santa Fe, we joyously got rid of our lawn mower. Lawncare is definitely on the bottom of our list of how we want to spend our time. Now we have a gravel yard, front and back. Easy peasy to take care of. On Friday Kyle and I wanted to go to the temple, so we took our kids to our friend's home in Albuquerque. They have a grass yard, front and back. The kids squealed with joy and went straight to the back yard to play, with one word escaping their lips: GRASS!!!

My poor kids.

(Albuquerque isn't very green by any means, but I think they have less restrictions on planting grass and they are allowed the real deal if they want it...lush and green and soft on the toes. Lots more grass than you see here in Santa Fe.)

One more amazing video...

2009-04-13T16:55:00.002-06:00

This is from Britains got Talent (or something like that). It won't let you embed the video, but here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Amazing talent. Just amazing. And Simon is nice, too!

Fun at the train station

2009-04-09T10:16:00.003-06:00

This is just so fun to watch. Made me cry, don't know why. Enjoy!

Here's another that is hilarious:

My kiddos are growing up...

2009-04-08T07:50:00.002-06:00

A couple Genereal Conferences ago we started a tradition. After reading about King Benjamin and the tents facing the temple, we decided the kids could build their tent facing the computer screen for conference. It's amazing how well it worked...Courtney and Ben stayed and listened for at least 80% of the 8 hours of talks! When it was all over, Ben said, "That was a very spiritual conference, wasn't it?" Well, that's what happens when you stop to listen, kiddo! Courtney said, "I wish we could watch conference every day!" Johnny actually listened off and on and he said, repeating what one speaker said, "He needs ME??? Oh....He needs me and Daddy and Mommy and my brother and my sister!"

The cute things Courtney has said this week...

2009-04-04T19:33:00.003-06:00

I asked the kids if they wanted to stop at the store with me or wait til I could go by myself. Courtney voted to go shopping...because it is one of her "hobbies." SHE'S ONLY 7! Aaagh!

We were at the children's museum playing at the bubble table. There is a sink next to it to wash you hands. Courtney washed her hands and came over to me complaining that she couldn't figure out how to get the paper towels to come out.

Umm, you pull, silly. (Johnny asks me this all the time in various public restrooms. Since he is recently potty trained (yea!), public restrooms are much more interesting to him now. All the time I'll find him waving his hand or looking for something to turn to get the paper out.)

There was a missing cat poster in the grocery store parking lot. "It's a good thing we didn't find their cat...they want $100 for it!" :)

It's the little things...

2009-03-30T09:33:00.002-06:00

My kids are best friends...best friends who like to bicker. A lot. Yesterday, however, they were the picture of cuteness. We were sitting in church and Courtney, as usual, had her drawing supplies to keep her occupied. She made a very simple note that said, "Ben, I love you." When she handed it over, he looked at it and I looked at him. He was starting to cry! I leaned over to Courtney to ask her what she did to him, as if this were an apology note. She said she did nothing, just wanted to write him a note. Ben wrote her a note back with a heart that said "You fill me with joy." Then they hugged and I cried. He is so cute when he lets himself feel the spirit and show love. I love my kiddos!

San Francisco!

2009-03-24T09:43:00.001-06:00

So, the trip was a blast. My BFF Bettie blogged all about it, complete with pictures, so I'll just let her tell the tales:

San Francisco by Bettie

What a waste of time!

2009-02-24T21:36:00.002-07:00

I'd heard bad things about the hospital here in Santa Fe, but luckily hadn't had to experience them yet. Until tonight. Benjamin has this toe that has been discolored and swollen since at least last Thursday, but not painful until someone stepped on it...and then it killed for a couple hours. This afternoon before I picked him up from school, I called his doctor and they said we should get him seen today, but they didn't have any openings so we should try the hospital.

I thought we would save time by going to the Indian Hospital where Kyle works. Apparently no one (Kyle, the triage nurse...) thought to tell us that their x-ray machine was broken. So we wasted about an hour with that appointment, which ended with the doctor telling me that his toe looked bad and we should get an x-ray. Thanks. That was my intention.

Then it was 5pm and silly me decided to try the ER at the city hospital, St. Vincent's (which some call St. Victims). Three hours after we signed in, I finally found someone willing to help us figure out how long until our turn...but then she saw we hadn't even gone to triage and, well, we just left. Such a stupid waste of time. I sure hope we never have to go there with a real emergency.

Beatiful and inspiring video on the importance of Creating

2009-02-23T22:39:00.003-07:00

I just watched this video and I loved it. Just wanted to uplift any who need it...

LDS Church now on You Tube

2009-02-07T21:06:00.003-07:00

With all the junk there is on You Tube and the internet in general, it is always nice to find some good, wholesome, inspiring content. I just added on my sidebar the MormonMessages you tube channel for your enjoyment! The is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

(When I was installing this on my sidebar, a couple times I had some non Mormon videos showing up. Let me know if this happens to you and I will find another way to post this. Thanks!)

Courtney is feeling old

2009-01-25T09:16:00.004-07:00

Courtney, have a treat.

--I don't want to eat right now.

Why?

--Three more days till my birthday. I've got to act SERIOUS. Well, I'll eat one thing, then I'm done.

Big news at our house!! (warning: potty talk)

2009-01-23T16:26:00.003-07:00

I am pleased to announce that yesterday we took Johnny to McDonalds for a happy meal!! Backstory: about 6 months ago when Johnny was in his first stages of potty training (he started going pee in the potty when we were staying at a hotel on a business trip) we promised him a happy meal for his first time pooping in the potty. His potty training waxed and waned with illness and vacation and moving...then last week he decided to just do it. He has only wet his pants 3 times since then.

Out of desperation after Christmas we told him that we'd get him what he coveted, Indiana Jones Lego for Wii, for him to play when he pooped. Once we bought it and had it sitting out he wanted to hold it and look at it every day. Then yesterday was the day he got over his fears and just did it. Today I found him sitting on the potty for about 10 minutes and he was successful again! Knock on wood, I think we are actually at the end of this thing! Hallelujah!

Spelling Bee Champ!

2009-01-15T10:35:00.003-07:00

Benjamin competed today in his school spelling bee. It was for the 3rd-5th graders. There were 10-12 students from each grade. Benjamin ended up in the top 7 of the school and was the top of his grade. The word that won him the best 3rd grade speller was "encyclopedia". He got lots of ooohs and ahhhs for that one (he stayed up there a couple extra seconds to soak in the praise). The word that stumped him was "language". He left out the "u". I think if he had stopped to write it down on the whiteboard they provided for just such an occasion, he may have gotten it right. I'll have to ask him when he gets home. I am so proud of him for doing so well. He prepared well and enjoyed it. Random thought--his voice is lower than I realized. :) Way to go, kiddo!

Curling with my flat iron...more info

2009-01-05T09:43:00.003-07:00

Since I've had questions about this, I thought I'd give you info in case you wanted to do this. I thought it sounded crazy too, when someone told me I could use a flat iron on my super straight hair. But I love it! The curls hold so much better than when I try a curling iron. It's a lot easier with Courtney's hair since she has fine hair, but my thick hair works great too. Here's a video that shows how to curl with a flat iron. I just googled flat iron curling videos and found a bunch. For what it's worth, I have a GHD flat iron.

New haircuts for Christmas

2009-01-04T17:02:00.001-07:00

I got my haircut the week before Christmas and Courtney had me cut her hair after that. With a little love from my flat iron to give us some curl, this is what we look like. We are both loving our new do's!

Music video by friends from Maryland

2008-12-18T19:59:00.003-07:00

For those who know them, the Gale sisters have formed a musical group and this is their first video. It is a remake of a song by Celtic Woman (an amazing performing group I've seen on PBS). They do a very good job...just be aware that they are having some technical issues with the video and the end of the video is missing. Enjoy!

All I want for Christmas...

2008-12-09T20:20:00.002-07:00

Is to be done with moving, unpacking, cleaning the old house.... Bah humbug. On the bright side, we did put up our Christmas tree last night and the living room and kitchen are done!

Moving update

2008-12-05T21:50:00.002-07:00

Right now I am sitting on a blow up mattress in the living room of our new house and the kids are tucked in their blankets on the floor upstairs having a sleep over. We decided since most of the food and all of the dishes are over here we might as well be here too! I am loving my new house...not so cramped in the living area as it was before. We have room to breathe here! I'm sure once it is filled up with furniture it won't quite feel the same, but maybe remembering the nice open feeling now will motivate me to keep our furnishings simple and decluttered.

Going back a couple days, on Wednesday morning we signed our papers and got the keys to the house. For some reason buying a house this time around was a more pleasant experience. Maybe it was the fact that our realtor actually worked to earn her money and that we got repairs done on the house before we closed. In Oklahoma I don't think the realtor did much more than schedule the closing date. We have been very very pleased with how it has all turned out. And we love our house! Did I say that yet? The neighbors are super nice, too.

Tomorrow we have men from church coming to help move all our furniture, and the Relief Society president volunteered to take my kids away to have fun while we work. It should be a good day.

Elaine and the Girls

2008-12-02T19:20:00.001-07:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Tom & Sons, part 2 (my other fave)

2008-12-02T17:44:00.002-07:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

More info...

2008-12-02T12:57:00.003-07:00

Here's a link to the dance below on their website. If you go to the website you can watch these 5 do 3 other dances too. Disco and Country are my favorites! I was laughing out loud!!

http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/zZJsJH5LcWrzmlPaAohf

Tom & Sons (takes a bit to load, but it's worth it!)

2008-12-02T12:37:00.003-07:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Elf Yourself!

2008-12-02T00:06:00.002-07:00

Well, it's that time of year again. Go to www.ElfYourself.com and go crazy! They've made it even more fun this year. I'll post when we make one of ourselves. Be sure to send me a link to the one you make of you!

Cool way to eat out for cheap!

2008-11-18T12:34:00.003-07:00

I don't usually like to advertise on my blog, but I found out about this great way to get $25 gift certificates for $2 each! Restaurant.com has occasional offers for these cheapo gift cards. The catch is that your total dinner must be $35 or more. You buy it online and then print out the certificate. I just got one for the only restaurant in Santa Fe that is participating. SLC has a lot more participating restaurants, I noticed, but I don't think we'll have time while we are there. The current discount offer lasts until 11/20. Use the coupon code SURPRISE for your 80% off. Have fun eating!

(BTW Bettie, I got you one, too! I hope they have something you can eat...)

Kids say the darndest things

2008-11-07T21:58:00.002-07:00

I had nothing better to do after dinner, so I actually cleaned up. I usually save it for morning. I also cleared the eternal junk pile off the end of the counter. Ben walked in the kitchen before bed and said, "What happened to all the stuff on the counter?" Hmph. It's like Courtney asking what happened to Ben's room because his was messy and hers was clean...not like she had anything to do with it.

Courtney twice tonight used the word "wonky" in two different, but very appropriate, contexts. She was sitting on the couch eating fruit snacks and wanted to dump them out so she could sort them and wanted a book to put them on because if she put them on the blanket they would get wonky. I know she got it from hearing me use the word, but I don't know where I picked it up. I must use the word often for her to use it like it's a normal word. I had to ask her to repeat herself because it was so funny to hear.

New home update

2008-11-05T11:42:00.003-07:00

So we turned in our objections to the home inspection. They are working on resolving everything we objected to. We're still on track (but you wouldn't know by looking at my house that we are moving...)

Another gorgeous sunrise in Santa Fe

2008-11-05T11:37:00.004-07:00

This one was so amazing. It just kept changing but was still beautiful. This first photo was actually the second one. I loved the colors on the clouds. I hope you can click on the photos to get a close up. Just beautiful!

Happy Birthday Kyle!

2008-11-05T11:32:00.002-07:00

The 18th was Kyle's birthday and we had a lot of fun. The balloons came from Sam's Club (the free ones for the kids) and Courtney made a crown for daddy and wrapped up a stuffed alligator in the samoan lava lava skirt. Kyle got an ipod dock clock radio and a new wii game: outdoor challenge. It's very cool with a mat you can run on and do lots of other games.

Unfortunately, on Monday this week the red went out on our tv so now it is practically black and white tv. Mostly black. We have been wanting to upgrade our tv, but not in the middle of buying a house! If anyone has a tv they want to get rid of, we'd love to take it off your hands. A hand me down would work just fine until we can afford to get the kind of tv we want but can't afford right now.

Kyle's decorations

2008-11-05T11:27:00.002-07:00

These cute little guys were a big hit. Kyle didn't design the skeletons, but he did cut them out. The kids each painted one. From left to right: Johnny's is Funny Bones; Courtney's is Jack Skeleton; Ben's is Spookley. At least that's what I call them. The bones rattle and shake and are a lot of fun in the wind. But I just had to take them down today...we had a brief blizzard with super strong winds. I was afraid the skeletons would blow away!

Our costumes this year

2008-11-05T11:06:00.004-07:00

Happy Halloween! Once again, we had a party at church with carnival games and Trunk or Treating outside. Here is what we looked like this year:

Benjamin received this costume from Bettie. She wanted to make it for his 8th birthday when he got baptized, but she ran out of time. Two days before Halloween, she finished. It was funny because Ben never really pegged down what he wanted to be, so it worked out well to be surprised with a costume. We used acrylic paint for his lightning bolt scar.

Courtney changed her mind about 20 minutes before we left for the Halloween party. She decided to be a fortune teller and came down with the dresses on. I helped her find the headbands and necklaces and belts. She had fun and looked cute, so, whatever.

Johnny chose again this year to be Superman. This year he wore a cape I made a couple years ago, so it was a little different. That and he was busting out of the costume which was tight last year. Two of his friends matched him so it was easy to lose him in the crowd.

Kyle and I went for weather costumes. He was a tornado (complete with fences, windows, cows, horses, and more).

I was cloudy with a chance of rain (and everytime someone asked they got squirted!)

This was Courtney's original costume. She came up with the idea and designed the whole thing herself. She had a book that told how to make the hat. I made the hat and she painted and decorated it herself. Courtney wore this for the cub scout party and at school, but changed her mind when it came to trick or treating. Said she was embarrassed to wear the wig.

And at the end of the night, we got two huge bowls full of candy. At least one bowlful is all chocolate!

Updates: Courtney's room and The House

2008-10-28T17:29:00.002-06:00

Drumroll please.....Courtney has actually been keeping her room clean! And she has been doing it on her own with no reminders, persuasions, punishments, yelling, loss of toys, or loss of privileges. Mindboggling that "a place for everything" actually works!

On Saturday we went under contract for buying The House. Today we had the home inspector come. Funny, it took $450 to meet our neighbor...he lives about 6 houses away from us right now. There were a couple issues, the main one being a roof in need of repairs. The owners will take care of that and a broken window. The owners have kept very good care of the house and it shows. We'll see about getting the few issues fixed and we should be good to go for moving in on December 4! Our landlord told us he will prorate our rent for us since we wont be in this house for much of the month. If everything keeps going well we will get a new home for Christmas!

(We did find and kill a black widow outside the garage, but we'll just hope he was an orphan...)

What happened?!

2008-10-20T16:13:00.003-06:00

Kyle was home from work today and he helped me work on cleaning out Courtney's room and the toy room. We didn't make it to working on the boys' room yet(but I did their room about a week ago...so you'd think you could tell.) When the kids got home from school, they went upstairs and Courtney was ecstatic. We made the organization very simple in her room (and got rid of lots of clutter toys) so she can keep it up on her own. The first thing she said was: "What happened to Ben's room??" Ummm, nothing chica. The difference is that YOUR room is now clean! Benjamin took one look at his room and said: "Did you leave my room like this to teach a lesson?" No. It took all day to do the other rooms!

Any votes on how long Courtney's room will look this good? She has a couple friends that are over all the time and the three of them together can make quite a mess super quick! (Although Courtney can definitely hold her own, too.)

House update

2008-10-20T07:46:00.002-06:00

So this morning we are placing an offer on The House. We feel good about it this time. Before I guess it just wasn't the right time for us to offer, but now we feel ready. Nervous, but ready. We'll see how this goes!

Johnny says...

2008-10-18T00:14:00.003-06:00

I told the kids that when they clean up their rooms we can decorate for Halloween. We've had numerous kids visit the house and that doesn't help the cause any, so it is taking awhile. We've been discussing this for a few days...so now when we drive around and see a house decorated for Halloween, Johnny says, "Look! They are ready for Halloween! Their rooms are clean." And of course, he says the opposite too about unadorned houses: "Uh oh. They aren't ready for Halloween. Their rooms are a mess!" LOL! We are decorating tomorrow.

Huh...no sooner did I post

2008-10-16T09:03:00.001-06:00

...and our realtor emails us that the house is back on the market. Now what do we do???

House shopping update

2008-10-16T07:58:00.003-06:00

Someone has placed an offer on our "dream house". But we're ok with that. We just weren't ready to buy a house yet. We want to wait a little longer and save some more money first and find a house we are head over heels for. I liked this one a lot, but I didn't feel a great urge to place an offer...unfortunately. We are trying to let the Lord help us decide which house to get and when. That's why we started looking in the first place!

I'm just glad we don't have to rush the process, like we did in Oklahoma. We still own that house, but we have had renters and they will be there for another year. They are taking extremely good care of the house and I feel good with that. I still hate the thought of owning two homes, but at least one isn't empty and we are receiving rent payments.

Now if only we could find Broken Bow prices on Santa Fe homes, we'd be in heaven!

2008-10-11T11:32:00.000-06:00

OK. So Debbie didn't like that last one so much. How 'bout this one? Not bad, I say!

Crazy Uncle John

2008-10-10T15:39:00.003-06:00

This is my first video upload direct to my blog (I think). Thought John's kids might enjoy this lovely view of him in case they are missing him.

Sparkle the Pumpkin

2008-10-10T15:35:00.002-06:00

Courtney went to the pumpkin patch this week and got this pumpkin. The stem fell off and she was distraught....so we decided to take advantage of the situation so she glued hair over the top where the stem used to be. Uncle John (who is with us for a few days) thought his boys would like to see Courtney's crafting because they like to do things like this too. He actually suggested a video of Courtney showing off her work, but she vetoed that idea!

2008-10-03T10:53:00.002-06:00

I don't usually get much into political discussions, but this one made me laugh:

The Daily Show

Putting a new spin on active kids

2008-09-24T10:50:00.002-06:00

I just received an email from our realtor regarding our house hunting last night. We had all three with us and they were in true form. She said:

"Your children are so sweet, and curious and enthusiastic! It's nice to see that. So many kids are very subdued and apathetic, it's great that yours are so intrigued with life and full of joy!"

Love it! I've actually been thinking the same thing about them lately, that they are intrigued with life and full of joy. What a wonderful way to put it!

No house yet

2008-09-24T09:01:00.002-06:00

Last night we went and looked at 6 houses. Well, 5 plus our favorite from the other day with the awesome office. The kids all came with us this time. It's a good thing they aren't in charge of choosing our house--they liked ones with good nooks for crawling in and big closets for playing in. We prefer houses that fit the needs of our family. When we went back to our dream house, we no longer had on our rose colored glasses...but we still like it the best so far.

It's nice to be looking for a house without being in a hurry.

Yummy treat!

2008-09-19T13:32:00.002-06:00

Bettie and I discovered this tasty treat:Here is a quote from their website about the flavors:

Jelly Belly, maker of America's favorite gourmet jelly bean, has teamed with gourmet ice cream shoppe Cold Stone Creamery to present this blend of five authentic Cold Stone creations.

Each bag contains a blend of Chocolate Devotion (chocolate ice cream, chocolate chips, brownie and fudge), Our Strawberry Blonde (strawberry ice cream, graham crackers, strawberries, caramel and whipped cream), Birthday Cake Remix (Cake Batter ice cream, sprinkles, brownie and fudge), Apple Pie (French Vanilla ice cream, cinnamon, graham crackers, apple filling and caramel) and Mint Mint Chocolate Chocolate Chip (mint ice cream, chocolate chips, brownie and fudge.

You have to try these if you find them. Totally yummmm-o!

And she lost yet another one...

2008-09-18T10:52:00.002-06:00

Last night while brushing her teeth, one of Courtney's lower teeth came out. Silly girl turned our drum upside down on her bed and put the tooth in there. Good thing we were able to pass on the message to the tooth fairy!

The best part of the story is that this morning she decided that for Halloween she wants to be the tooth fairy. They are pretty good friends by now, you know. And I think there is one more tooth that could easily come out by Halloween. We keep telling Courtney that she is going to be down to just pudding and applesauce at the rate she is going with losing her teeth. :)

We found the perfect house!

2008-09-18T10:22:00.008-06:00

This morning we met our realtor for the first time and got to see our dream house in person. We found it online and have been drooling over it. Now that we have had more time to research other houses and other neighborhoods, it makes this house even more appealing. The price is amazing (for Santa Fe) for the size. And it has an amazing office with built ins that would be perfect for scrapbooking! It has been on the market for over a year. Just waiting for us, I guess! Kyle had to run off to work after looking at houses this morning so we haven't had a chance to talk. We saw three, but this was the only one that would work for us. Plus the move would be super simple. It is only .3 miles away. We still need to talk and pray and (maybe) look some more. But I'd hate to lose this one, if it is the one meant for us. (I hope, I hope, I hope....) By the way, my wonderfully artistic sketch above is upside down. I know. Just click on it to make it bigger and turn your computer upside down. LOL

Here's the link if you care:

http://www.santaferealtypartners.com/mlsproperty/mls_707280/

I'm a working woman!

2008-09-16T11:43:00.004-06:00

I worked for a whole hour and fifteen minutes this morning. And again next week. Woohoo...look at me go. I'm being a spanish interpreter for my friend who works with deaf children. We had a little problem with me forgetting to be just an interpreter, but we'll work on that. She is doing the kind of assessments I did as a social worker. She needs to just jab me a few more times to get me to not say too much and I'll get it figured out. Now that we've had our first visit I'll know what to expect and what to do and not to do a little better.

It's supposed to only be 3 or 4 visits, as needed, a month. The babysitting situation is what worries me a little, but it should all work out. The good thing is that this will help me keep up with my Spanish. And I get paid to spend time with my friend!

Cowboys and Aliens?

2008-09-14T17:38:00.004-06:00

Ben and Johnny were playing with these:

Not these:

I had to go take a look...Johnny kept talking about the aliens. I guess we'd better get that one straightened out before he tells people daddy works for the Alien Health Service. (He works for the Indian Health Service.) Oh well, this is New Mexico!

Blog housekeeping

2008-09-10T10:07:00.001-06:00

For what it's worth...I have moved my scrapbook related blogs and webisodes over to my scrap blog. That is all.

Dusk in our backyard

2008-09-10T08:54:00.005-06:00

Our backyard faces east, so this is just the reflection of the sunset in the front yard. So stunning...we're sad that when our families came to visit it was so overcast. You were really missing out on some gorgeous skies.

All I want for Christmas is...

2008-09-09T10:12:00.004-06:00

Just in time, before the one tooth came in too far, she has both top teeth missing. (Another week or so and one of her bottom teeth will come out too!) We tried many things to help the tooth out--we were very surprised Courtney was willing to try the string around her tooth again! (You may remember that with her first tooth out many months ago not even she would wiggle it.)

And look at her now! Too too cute! I love the way she thoundth when she talkth.

2008-09-07T00:28:00.001-06:00

Check out these hilarious cakes. Apparently all of these cakes were purchased from and decorated by professionals.

Crazy...

cakewrecks

A look at what I might have looked like through the decades

2008-09-05T15:10:00.004-06:00

Here's the website: yearbook yourself. Here are my photos (reading from L to R, they start at 1950 and end at 2000 going every 2 years). Don't look too close, the website program is far from perfect in getting the photos to mix together. At least I finally figured out I could change the angle and zoom on each photo.

First Day of School!

2008-08-28T11:06:00.004-06:00

Wednesday was the first day of school in Santa Fe. The kids were excited to start school...which we expected of Courtney, but Ben hasn't always liked school. They have to wear uniforms, and this year we bought them in enough time to be able to get what we wanted. Last year we learned not to wait until the last minute to shop for school uniforms because apparently the stores only carry them once a year.

You'll also notice all three kids have backpacks on. Johnny sooo wishes that he could go to school too. I took the kids into the school yesterday so we could find out their teachers and deliver the bags full of supplies. (I woke up this morning with very sore shoulders...two kids' supplies are quite heavy.) First we walked to Courtney's first grade room and met Mrs. G (Ms. Garcia). There are 4 kids in her class from last year. Ben's third grade class was next. He was hoping for Ms. Natalie who he had for math last year, but he got Ms. Powell. This is the teacher recommended to me for him because she is experienced and has a very organized and controlled classroom. I didn't make a request but he got her anyway. There is only one kid from his class last year, but it is someone he got along with.

Johnny was distraught that we didn't then find a classroom for him at the school. Two more years, kiddo. Once we got outside, we walked a bit and he stopped and looked up at me and said, "Look mommy, I'm happy now!" And gave me the biggest cheesiest grin.

When we picked up the kids after school, they were both just jumping for joy happy! They had an awesome day and loved their new classes and being in a new grade and wahooooooo!!!! In a couple weeks, we'll see if they are both still super thrilled to be back at school. Courtney will be, I'm sure. But I don't know about Ben. The first half of the school year is usually really hard for him, adjusting to the classroom and teacher and finding friends. I hope he continues excited. Apparently his teacher has a codeword which he finds hilarious: SALAMI. That means: Stop and Look at Me Immediately. MUSTARD is the code word for get back to work. LOL

Oh, and inspired by Debbie I tried a back to school cake too. After I frosted it I realized I should have cut the top off to look more like a bus. Oh, well. It was fun to make anyway. We went to Long John Silvers for dinner and then came home for cake and root beer. Somehow all loaded up with sugar they managed to go to sleep at a decent time.

Viva Las Vegas!

2008-08-28T08:43:00.012-06:00

We took a trip to Las Vegas to celebrate the end of summer and our 10th anniversary. Our first stop was Hoover Dam which really is quite impressive...that thing is huge!

One of our traditions in Las Vegas is to get some hot donuts at Krispy Kreme...we found out that they stop making them hot at 11, so if you arrive at 10:55 and see the last few donuts going down the belt, don't wait 10 minutes for your kids to watch the cinnamon rolls go down the conveyor belt and under the glaze waterfall. The hot donuts won't be hot anymore and they don't make anymore until 5pm. Just sayin'....
We took the kids to the Mandalay Bay casino shark reef aquarium. We saw some pretty cool fish and even got to pet a sting ray (Kyle, Ben and I did--the other two opted out). I liked watching the jelly fish swim around.
The sting ray felt pretty squishy. Believe it or not I was the first brave soul and had to convince Kyle to take a turn!
The kids spent many hours on the trampoline in Janet's back yard. We enjoyed the grass and got few good jumps in too (I didn't realize how much I'd miss grass living in Santa Fe). Kyle still does back flips on the trampoline...I hope he figures out when he is too old to flip before he breaks something.
Angie and her fiancee Trent. They are a cute couple and he is a great guy. I can't believe how grown up little Angie is!
We were excited to help John celebrate such a big birthday. We can't be there for his baptism, so the birthday was a good option. He is a hoot--he kept telling us how glorious all his presents were and he thought he might leave them in their packaging and not take them out yet just because they were all so glorious and he wanted to enjoy just how glorious they all were. LOL
It's hard to see the beautiful sights of the Las Vegas strip without having to walk through the smokey gloomy casinos...but we did our best. Kyle and I left the kids with Janet and had a mini vacation on the strip. This is the fountain show outside the Bellagio. We lucked out on this one because it started just as we were walking by. The fountains are coordinated to music and it was quite impressive.
Definitely the highlight: we went to the Blue Man Group show. It was an amazing experience!
A weakness for us (mostly me): beautiful pastries. I love beautiful food!
We meant to leave Las Vegas on Friday, but Mark found out we had never tried real sushi (just california roll which doesn't count) so we postponed leaving and he took Kyle and I out to lunch. Raw fish is really a gross thought, but we both tried it and actually liked it! Kyle said it's not something he'd want often, but once a year or so he could handle it.
This was in the middle of nowhere, Arizona. Luckily our van carries a full size spare...because our car troubles ALWAYS happen Friday evenings (aka...when there is no chance of finding a repair shop open). My excellent strong man Kyle took care of the tire and we were on our way. Luckily there was a gas station just a few miles away to fill up the slightly flat spare tire.
Not too much later we saw this beautiful double rainbow. Not a bad way to end a (mostly) wonderful vacation!

Three's a charm, right?

2008-08-16T10:01:00.003-06:00

I guess I'm a feast or famine kind of blogger. I'm sitting here with the A/C off, the window open, and my feet are freezing. The kids are outside playing with their coats on! It is the middle of August and only 56 degrees at 10 am. Crazy!

There's something else I like about Santa Fe--the nights are never sweltering. We are a desert at 7000 ft elevation. It gets hot, but rarely above 100, and it's a dry heat. The downside? We are close to the sun and hence can burn easily. The nights are cool. The downside? That's good in the summer months, but in the winter it is frigid in the mornings when we send the kids off to school!

We learned last winter about supercooling with the water bottles we keep in the van, so I guess there was some sort of benefit to so many mornings below freezing! (There are some pretty cool videos on youtube on supercooling. Just google it to find them.) It's pretty weird the first time you find a bottle of liquid water in your car when it's so cold outside. You'd think it would be solid ice. So I picked it up and turned it over, just to be sure it was liquid. Then the ice crystals started forming and in seconds the whole bottle was ice. It only works, as far as I remember, with pure water like Dasani in an unopened bottle, and when the water has been cooled to below 27 degrees. Since the water is pure it doesn't have imperfections to start the crystallization. When you agitate the cooled water it gives it the push to crystallize. Very very cool process!