Happy Birthday Paul!

Sunday has it's pros and cons for a birthday: you don't have to work, but you can not just go out to eat. I was going to go ahead and make a big breakfast and then my very next thought was "it's fast Sunday". So NO breakfast for Paul. The other sad things is that the one thing that he had told me he really wanted was sold out at three different stores. So, NO new Mario game for the Wii for Paul.

The kids made lots of cards and gave him a few pieces of candy wrapped up with lots of tape.

I hope that he likes the drill that I got him. He may know that this gift is more for me than him. I have been complaining about our crapy drill for the last couple of months.

He doesn't get to open his presents until after church. When we can have a little party. So even though things haven't gone like I would have liked them to. I hope that all the little things we do will at least show Paul how much we love and appreciate him.

Happy Birthday !

Happy New Year!

I love the start of a new year. My brother is getting baptized tomorrow and it has caused me to reflect on my own baptism. I was baptized Jan 1 1989. My birthday is actually in November, but the ward building we were attending at the time was under construction so my baptism had to be post pond. Because I had to wait my Mother thought it would be nice to have my special day on the first of the year.

So here we are again at the start of a new year! The unknown, isn't it a little bit exciting. There are a few things you can anticipate: Holidays, birthdays, maybe a vacation or two, work days, and laundry days. Some of the same old same old, but without question there will be some surprises. Hopefully some surprises will be good inevitably some will not be so good, but this is life.

This last week of December 2009 has been the best! Paul took the week of work. It has been so nice to have my family home. We have played together and worked together. I love the memories we are building with our kids, and I am really excited to have another year to continue building wonderful memories together.

Some of my excitement for the new year is probably due to the fact that for the last two years we have been telling are kids that when Bonnie is Four years old we will all go to Disney Land. It is hard to believe, but my little one turns four this year! I have only been to Disney Land once myself so I am very excited to go back and share the magic with my kids.

2009 a year full of magic and memories!

Life!

Oh, how the weeks fly by. I knew that Christmas would come faster than I wanted it to. My favorite part of holidays is the preparation. I enjoy the decorations, the cooking, and the fun activities. At times I pack too much into one week or sometimes into one day, but I love it when the day is over and you can think about all the things you were able to get done in one day. I find that when life is busy I am able to accomplish so much more simply because I have to use every minute to get things done. I was delighted yesterday when I added the last bow to the last Christmas present. I will be a little more delighted when my house is clean. This month has been very busy.

I singed Hannah and Bonnie up for swim lessons. I really didn't think about how busy that would make our evenings but it was worth it. I loved siting down for 30 minutes and watch my girls turn into little fish. They both are becoming such great swimmers. After seeing the classes Connor decided that it is something he wants to try so he will have a turn soon too.

I love this time of year and the chance it gives me to really think about how blessed I am. At times I do the opposite and realize how unfair life is. Being raised in a large family one thing my mother always did her very best was to make life as fair as possible. As I have grown up I still expect life to be fair, but that simply isn't how things work. Sometimes life is hard, sometimes people that you love get hurt, and sometimes things simply don't go your way. But this is life, and as we go through life the hard things are usually the things that teach us the most.

Blessing in MY life...
Parents who love and want the best for me
Great in-laws
A WONDERFUL husband with rock solid pecks!
Three beautiful healthy children
A warm home
Clean clothes
Food to fill our bellies
Great neighbors (We have received so many fun and tasty treats this year.)
A sister who is my very best friend
Cars to get around with
Great jobs
My rainbow vacuum
A three foot Santa that puts a smile on my face every time I see him
The Gospel
A NEW day to learn something new.

Christmas will be here in just a few days. The presents will opened and decorations put away. I want to hold on to these few days before Christmas. I love the days of anticipation as we look forward to seeing our children with twinkles in their eyes as they open their gifts. I look forward to seeing family, and eating good food. As I try to enjoy the present I look forward to the future. Another year full of wonder,mystery and surely challenges. What a blessing it is to have this time of year simply to reflect and look forward to another year of learning and opportunity.

I am Still Not OLD yet!

Happy Birthday to ME! Today I turned 29! I am really excited for my last year being in my 20's. I have had a WONDERFUL DAY! Lots of phone calls. I found out this week that not one but two of my sister's boyfriend share a birthday with me. My first reaction was to be annoyed. I all ready share my birthday with my Mother in Law, who I love dearly, but I am a very selfish individual and can NOT understand how it is possible that I can not have ONE day of my very own. Then as my sisters called to wish me a Happy Birthday I realized this may be to my advantage. Having boyfriends that look like they may turn into husbands that have the same birthday will help them remember my birthday too. So, I get to share a special day with lots of other special people, and I am very spoiled to have a family that does so much for me to make my day special.



My day started with getting woken up by the phone ringing. My Mom called to be the first to wish me a happy birthday. Seeing that my life started because of my Mother that was a great beginning for today.



I received a email from my Dad. It's nice to know that you are loved. Even if you have to remind them.



Paul, took the day off work! He made a crepes for breakfast. We took Hannah out to school early so that we could all go to lunch at Olive Garden and the spend a couple hours swimming at the Legacy Center. We had dinner at McDonald (Not my favorite restaurant, but the kids love the toys and it was nice to be able to sit and talk with Paul while they played.) My kids have wished me happy birthday about a dozen times during the day, and they are super excited to give me presents. Bonnie is in the other room making something and every time I walk by she yells out "Don't LOOK!"

I love my kids, husband and family, Thanks for such a WONDERFUL day!

October

We had lots of fun together doing family things!We went to a pumpkin patch to find pumpkins, Mom went to get some pictures!

Paul helped the kids find the nice BIG pumpkins.

No matter how fun the activity may be Bonnie finds a way to pull off a great pouty face.

One perfect pumpkin

Two perfect pumpkins

Three perfect pumpkins

My Halloween costume for the gymnastics Halloween party. I only had one kids in tears.

Carving Pumpkins, A yucky job!

The finished Product!

For Halloween this year we had three adorable Chipmunks

Alvin, Simon, and Theodor

And Two scary Vampires!

How do you KILL a black widow?

So, I am just throwing this out there. How do YOU kill a black widow? I was not thrilled when one of my smart little gymnast pointed out that I had two black widows in my window well. Lucky for me there were "outside" but way to close to my house to get to stay alive. The only problem is that I don't like to kill little spiders the size of a pin head and these spiders were about the size of a quarter and black widows. I told Paul that I had two spiders that I really needed him to kill for me when he got home from work.

Well, he got home checked the bug spray that we had and it said that it did NOT work on black widows. So, the spiders lived another day, and I had a very hard time getting to sleep. Every time I closed my eyes all I could see was this spider and I believe in my head they were getting bigger.

Come the next day I finally came up with a solution. We could suck the spider up with my rainbow vacuum. This way we would be able to drown them in the water and once they were caught we could dump the water making sure they were dead.

It worked not only did we get the two spiders, but also a few white sacks that appeared to be holding lots baby black widows. I am sure there is probably a more common way to get rid of black widows, but for now at least our home safe from a couple of bad spider bites!

Hannah's picutres

It only took me three months, but I finally got around to getting Hannah's seven year ole pictures done. She had a fun time, and it is so much fun to see how beautiful my little girl is as she is growing up!