What do you give to Grandma's?

This is the toughest thing for me every year at Christmas time. We have amazing grandma's who spoil my children all year long. I've wanted to do something different and from the heart not just pictures every time. It's not that pictures are not a great gift, I am just giving them to them year round.

Anyways, I have some dish towels that my grandma made for me when I was very little. She passed away years ago and when they were cleaning out her house they found these with my name on them. (In the top right hand corner of the pink one) It still tickles me when I see her handwriting. I've never wanted to ruin them so I haven't used them yet. They are still sitting in my cedar chest. I love to look at them and smell them. They still smell like her house.




My sister has become quite the crafty lady. She is constantly quilting, sewing and creating all sorts of beautiful things. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the older look of things. I love vintage items. I love to collect old strollers, pocket watches, clocks, wash boards, pretty much any antique. So I decided to copy one of my sisters projects. She has been making these dish towels. They reminded me of the ones that I have. These are the ones I've made for the grandma's. I was going for a seasonal look, summer, spring, fall and winter. I really hope they like these.

I've got to get to bed if I'm going to make it to church tomorrow. Have a great Sunday!!

Calvin is such a great helper

So Calvin decided to help me get the snow off the driveway. Several of the neighbors had their snow blowers out. He decided to get out the lawnmover(I guess he thought it was a snowblower too). He doesn't know how to start it thank goodness. He wheeled it down the driveway and side walk. When the lawn mower wouldn't work on the driveway and sidewalk, he tried it on the grass. Love him!!

Thanks for the mastercard commercial idea, Ellen. Laughed my tush off.

Lawnmower $300

Snow suit $50

Using the lawnmower as a snow blower, priceless!!

He was so thirsty from helping he needed to eat snow. Yuck!!

I'm just glad that I have the opportunity to be home with my kids. I've always wanted them to feel so safe and secure that all they need to worry about is when or what to play. It's fun to see them just being kids.

Pay it forward

Hi friends! Allison did this challenge and I was a lucky recipient! Here it is. Respond to my post by Friday, Dec. 19 with your complete address. I will choose 3 "lucky" people out of a hat (from the ones who respond). To them I will give a surprise of some sort. No pranks! It'll be a fun surprise. This will help us all get in the "giving" mode. I may send it in the mail or drive it over. After you receive yours, you then, will do the same thing to others. Come on, you can do it! Also, any of you who want to give some fun suggestions on what to give (that won't break the bank), please send them my way! Have fun!

My Sweet Honey

My sweet honey came to my rescue today. He brought me home dinner from my most fav restaurant tonight after a horrible, tear-filled day. It was just what I needed. Not really the food, don't get me wrong it was great, but the fact that even though he couldn't help at home he was able to take the dinner load off tonight. He actually went to three different restaurants to please everyone. So sweet!!

Christmas Tag

Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends. Everyone who reads this is tagged. I'd love to get to know more about you. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I like to wrap and add ribbons with bows.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Love real especially the smell but artificial is more practical.
3. When do you put up the tree? Usually after Thanksgiving.
4. When do you take the tree down? Around New Years
5. Do you like eggnog? I like it but I don't crave it.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Baby dolls
7. Hardest person to buy for? My in laws.
8. Easiest person to buy for? The unborn baby boy. ;) Names??
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, it was my grandma's
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail, it's more personal to me.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I don't think I've ever been disappointed.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I have always love "White Christmas."
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I like to look for things all year except I forget that I have them. Then I find them the next March. Oops, sorry it's late. :)
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes, we play a white elephant game every year and some of the funnest gifts are the rewraps.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Peppermint Candy Cane Ice Cream, Curse you Dreyers!!! ;)
16. Lights on the tree? Yes, love white lights.
17. Favorite Christmas song? I love all the songs. I just love this time of year.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Travel the Salt Lake Valley. Uggg...I really dread that part.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixon, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blixon but do you recall, the most famous reindeer of all. Rudolf the Rednose Reindeer. Sorry, it's the only way I know.
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? It depends on what I have.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? We open PJ's on Christmas Eve. If we get back from part of our Salt Lake Valley travels in time.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Commericalism
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I love snowmen with white lights and red accents on a green tree.
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Round steak with mushroom gravy, real mashed potatoes, rolls, veggies, fruit, jello and desserts galore.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Peace between Calvin and and I year round.
26. What is your New Years resolution? I have to ponder about this still. I'll let you know after the Ward Christmas party is over.

Baby clothes

There are some pretty darn cute baby clothes out there. I've been looking around a bit because my stuff is six years old and has been passed around the cousins. I have to say that I love blue and brown together. Darling!!!! I couldn't pass up this Calvin Klein multi-pack.
I would love to buy everything new. Obviously I can't but wouldn't it be so fun. I would love to redo a whole nursery with all new furniture, clothes, toys, etc... The reality of it is that it would be too much work and money.

Anyways, I have to say that I am starting to feel good about all of this. I was still pretty leary but I think everything will be just fine. Brian thinks I've been a little too negative but I just don't think I could handle it if anything went wrong. So I will officially say that I am getting very hopeful and excited. I can't wait to have a cute, messy, sweet, silly and absolutely enjoyable little kiddo around again. Atleast until he starts talking back...about 2 years, right? ;)

Here it is Jen...

Ok Jen, here is your pic. I so need to wear make up or get a really good photo shop. Seriously, I finally after six months got my hair cut last night. My question for everyone is "Who do you have do your hair and what do you pay?"

I've had a few horrible experiences over the years from hair dressers. I've had one lady cut the underneath layer by my neck ultra short and not tell me. I found out about it when it grew in. The last one told other people that they didn't want to cut my hair anymore because they were afraid that Calvin would hurt her son. What??? He hadn't hurt him before.

My most favorite lady was Kathy. She used to live a few houses away and she was very expensive but so worth it. She did what was best for me and she pampered me....ahhh. I miss her!!!

It's a.......

BOY!! Everything looked great. I will have my 20 week full ultrasound later but for now we were able to see the needed parts. Calvin and Brian are so excited to be adding to the male count in our house. Brooklyn's worried about having another brother to pull her hair. That's what she told the doctor. I'm just excited that it seems to be going well and that we will actually make it to the end. :)

Today's the day....

we find out what the gender is. Wish me luck for a very cooperative baby. :)

California

We decided to surprise our kids with a trip to CA a few weeks ago. It was so much fun. We actually blitzed CA. We did as much as we could in six days. We spent 3 days in Disneyland, 1 day at Universal Studio's, 1 day at San Diego Zoo and 1 day at Sea World. It was so much fun.

Disneyland

San Diego Zoo

Sea World

Tagging

I am so proud: I have been awarded the "I Love Your Blog" award by Jen!! So I get to try to answer these questions in one word. It will be very tricky, but don't worry...we'll get through this together.

1. Where is your cell phone?charging
2. Where is your significant other? work
3. Your hair color? Brown
4. Your mother? lovely
5. Your father? wonderful
6. Your favorite thing? Running
7. Your dream last night? strange
8. Your dream/goal? patience
9. The room you're in? bedroom
10. Your hobby? soccer
11. Your fear? war
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? healthy
13. Where were you last night? Home
14. What you're not? zitless
15. One of your wish-list items? babies
16. Where you grew up? Utah
17. The last thing you ate? Soup
18. What are you wearing? pj's
19. Your TV? pokemon
20. Your pet? cat
21. Your computer? pc
22. Your mood? content
23. Missing someone? Katja
24. Your car? clean
25. Something you're not wearing? contacts
26. Favorite store? ????
27. Your summer? wonderful
28. Love someone? Many
29. Your favorite color? olive
30. When is the last time you laughed? today
31. Last time you cried? hormones ;)

I award the following all my blogging people with the "I love your blog award" and in so doing tag them to complete the above questions.

She's In

Brooklyn tried out for the Jordan Youth Orchestra last week and made it. She will be playing with the junior high kids. She is so excited. She had her first rehearsel on Monday. She was really nervous. Her stand partner, Cassidy, was so sweet. She helped her when she was lost and made her feel at ease.

As I was watching, I got really nervous. I was thinking that maybe this is a bit much for her. I finally asked her today and she said that she loves it. She is very excited and can't wait for next week.

They will be performing at the Festival of Trees, 3 Elementary schools, with the Jordan Senior Orchestra (high school orchestra), some kind of competition and for the School Board. She is very excited because they get to miss school and ride the bus.

I hoping that she is able to build her site reading skills. She does a great job but they expect them to read fast and pick up everything (sharps, flats, first position, third position, etc). They are very patient and encouraging with the kids.

I have to say that I am beginning to feel like an over scheduled mom. It's so easy to do. :S Stop me before I commit to another activity!!!

We are making progress!!!

As you all know that we've had our struggles and trials with this one. Well, I was helping in his class today when the principal comes over the intercom to announce the "Students of the Week" and guess who is one of them? No, not Brooklyn, Calvin!!! He wasn't even listening and I said "Calvin, you get to go to the principals office and get a prize." He looked scared to death. He thought he was in trouble and didn't want to go. I had to take him down to the office and then he didn't want to go in. The principal came out and explained that it was a good thing and that he could come in and pick a prize. He thought that was pretty cool. The teacher came to me and said that she chose him because last week some boys had hit him and she was very impressed that he didn't (yep, that's right), didn't hit back. I am so happy for him!!

Way to go, Cal!!!

What would you do?

Summer Violin Concert 2008

Brooklyn had her summer violin concert on Saturday night. They have been focusing on fiddle songs. They are getting ready for a huge state wide fiddle play-in. They all played so well. The older kids play duets for the younger kids. Brooklyn absolutely loves to play the duets now. She worked hard to learn six duets from their traditional pieces and three fiddle pieces. She has three weeks to learn a few more. My absolute favorite is the "Orange Blossom Special." It's a song that sounds like a train. No kidding. It's so much fun and everyone was mesmorized by how well they did. Thirty kids and not one mistake. Phew...glad it's not me. ;)

I have to say that I always feel like I'm at a funeral. These kids are amazing but they never smile. They can be playing some of the funnest songs and never crack a smile. The audience was really involved also. We were clapping, whooping and hollering when they were playing the fiddle songs. Still straight faces. At their Christmas concerts, it's the same thing. They play some of the all-time favorite and fun Christmas songs and not one will smile. I guess they are just concentrating. :S

It's was really great though. Brooklyn received her 1st Level Federation trophy. It takes a minimun of three years to earn one. They have to have earned three superior ratings at Feredation, which is where they play for judges. They also give them great information about their technique and how to fix something they might be struggling on. It's a lot of practice, hard work, and tears but she decided it was totally worth it.

Google Earth

Google earth is so fun. Katja, my fab friend from Germany, had me find her home using this google earth. I've found her home, marked it with a thumb tack and followed her to the East Sea for her family vacation. I'm hoping that you can click on the url below and go right to her house. Check it out :)

http://maps.google.com/maps?t=h&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=51.328733,12.407527&spn=0.004746,0.008218&z=17

So Sad :(

I am so grateful that all of you came home from trek safe and sound. A 13 year old girl and a man were killed this morning while pulling their handcart during their trek. This is the story from ksl. http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=3994955

First Day of School

Can you believe that school has started again? It still blows my mind. I am so nervous because we had such a terrible year in preschool last year. I worry about Calvin all the time. Will he be able to keep up with his classmates? Will he make friends? What about his behavior? Is the teacher going to like him or hate him because he is a busy kiddo that doesn't sit still?

Does Calvin look nervous or what. He is so sweet and I hope that his teacher will see that side of him. He came out of school with the biggest grin in the world. He loved his first day of school. His teacher said he was great. Phew....Calvin was so excited to tell me everything. (That's a first) He talked about what they did in class and who sits at his table. He told me that a boy in his class got into trouble too many times and had to go to the principals office. I asked him if that made him want to be good all the time so he didn't have to go to the principals office. He had a very serious look on his face and said, "Yes, I don't want to go to the principals office." I hope it scared him enough to really try. We shall see.

Brooklyn loved her first day of school. We were nervous about her teacher because of situation another kid in our neighborhood had. So far so good. She said that she loves her teacher and that she is so nice. I am grateful that she has been so easy as far as school goes. I do know that she is struggling with playing with kids at recess. She is so tall and the girls in her class are shorter than her by a couple of inches. She said that they don't twirl the jump rope high enough for her. So she asked the sixth graders, who have recess at the same time, if she could jump with them. They said that they can't play with younger kids. One girl asked her if she wanted to jump with them and she said yes. Then the girl said, "Well, too bad, you are too young so you can't." Kids are so mean. How do you teach your kids to play nice, treat others kindly when this is the example they are getting. Do parents not know that their kids are behaving this way? Do they encourage them to treat others like that? I would hope not.

Anyways, I will be helping out in their classes this year almost everyday. With kindergarten, I'll be driving 30 miles just for school drop offs and pick ups every day. Hopefully this will help with the crappy, crappy, crappy gas prices. Arggg...

I hope and pray that we all have a wonderful school year!! I am so grateful for the opportunities and freedoms that we have here in America. It's truly a blessing that I tend to take for granted. This is going to be a great year!!!

Wildlife

We spent another weekend camping at my parents property. It was a blast. We had a family reunion with around 66 people. The time just flew by with so many people there. Anyways, we checked out the baby birds. There were only two, sad. But they have grown so much and they are getting more feathers. Also I just happen to see this butterfly on the thistle plant and I think it's decent.

What do you think??

What do you think of this background? I'm debating on which on that I want. Thanks for letting me know.

Meet "Chester", I mean "Lolita"

We had a visitor while we were camping this last week. This little critter decided to join us for lunch. Calvin had tossed his hotdog bun on the ground. Along came Lolita to eat it for him. She is a big squirrel and a new mom. It was fun watching her. The kids had to be very still which was very hard them. She hung around for about an hour.

We also have new baby birds. The last two weeks we have been watching this nest. The first week it had three eggs, the second week it had four and now there are four baby birds. It has been very fun and the kids have loved it. The pictures aren't very clear because it was really hard to angle myself up on a ladder and point down in a small spot. Also the mom and dad would swoop down at us when we'd get close. It was so fun to watch the parents. They actually took turns feeding and sitting on the nest. The nest is in the window inside my parents bowery storage. The birds were so sneaky. They'd sit in an opposite corner of the storage room and swoop at us. They didn't like us at all. I probably wouldn't like nosey humans either. You'll have to count the beaks because it's almost too blurry.

This is the dad watching us from a tree by the bowery.
The Bowery

This has been a work in progress for my parents. It's taken about six years to finish. Well, I think that this is about all that will get done, atleast this summer. We finished this last wall over the last two weeks. I have a new appreciation for my house. I've spent the last two weeks measuring, cutting, nailing, and balancing on ladders. It's is physically exhausting. I can't even imagine what the pioneer women had to do. I am so grateful that I didn't have to build my own house.

Jen, Jen, Jen...Thank You!!!

I absolutely love the pics you've done for us. This is one of my favorites because we actually look like a happy, eternal family. Somedays I wonder if I'm doing a good enough job but when I see pics like this, well it's reassuring. I love you and appreciate you tons!!!

More FAVeS!!!

Happy Birthday Brian!!!

Brian's birthday is tomorrow. We decided to go to dinner tonight instead of tomorrow. It was so nice. We only had Calvin with us and believe it or not, he was absolutely wonderful. He sat and talked with us the whole time. He didn't get up and run around or cry because he didn't like his food. I think it's the first time we didn't leave a restaurant fuming and wondering why we decided to bring the kids.

I don't give the guy enough credit. Brian works so hard to keep me home. He is much more patient than I am. He plays with the kids more than I do. He jokes with them all the time. He makes them feel so special. I wish I was more like that.

He is the guy who knows all the useless facts. He is brill. I shouldn't say they are useless, he'd probably do very well on Jeopardy. He is quite the history buff. He and my dad love to chat history especially the strategies of the World Wars.

He also loves sports. I love sports. Great combo don't you think!? Just wait until football season. He has actually calmed down quite a bit. He is quite the Ute fan. He really gets into it and loves to go to the games. We camped out for Utah/BYU tickets when we were first married. All of his brothers and their friends came out to be with us. It was so much fun. I don't think I'd do it again though. It was freezing:) My favorite was his talk he gave on forgiveness. He had the whole congregation sold on Tivo. He could pause the game to listen to what I was saying. This way he was avoiding times when he would need to ask for forgiveness. It was awesome.

Thank you for loving me. You are the greatest, Brian!! I love you!

Hiking

Our little family

Grandma and Grandpa with most of their grandkids.

Brooklyn with her cousin, Ben.

Where does he get his energy?



I love, love, love the out doors. I love to hike. It's peaceful, beautiful and calming. We hiked about 1&1/2 miles up and down. The kids, of course, started running which didn't last long. They were worn out. It was wonderful!!