Very Merry Indeed

This was our year to spend Christmas with Ma and Pa Idaho. We had so much fun and can't believe it's already over!

Christmas Eve was spent eating way too much food and making cookies for Santa. Addie chose gingerbread cookies cut out as dinosaurs and cowboy hats. Who says you have to make them look like little men?

The kids got to open one present before bed.

Pajamas of course!

Christmas morning we were able to open two stockings. One for breakfast with a little box of cereal, donuts, and an orange (a tradition from Davey's childhood), and one from Santa with tons of fun stuff (a tradition from mine).


Then the cousins came over and we were able to open presents. It was awesome that they all happened to get new watches this year. They thought it was pretty cool.

Brandon had a tough time sharing grandma's lap with Reggie. He was not happy with the fact that there was someone else big enough to sit on it. It was pretty funny to watch them figure each other out.

Addie and Brenna had a sleepover Christmas night. They had a fun time but poor Brenna woke up in the night and gave Davey and I the pleasure of cleaning up her puke. Luckily it was due to either too much candy or something she ate, not sickness. It was the perfect way to end a Christmas night (Rick and Jen you owe us).

Beaming With Pride

Some major accomplishments in our family this month. After a rigid five-day school week, Megan has finally finished another semester at the illustrious UVU. And we expect again that her grades will be the all-vowel combination of grades (A's for those too tired to think). She gives up so much and works so hard for it. We are so proud of her. Just another semester and a half to go for our soon to be college grad! And she's more beautiful every day that passes.

Adelaide advanced in her gymnastics class. She is still loving it, so she will be back at it after the new year. She is loving the balance beam and uneven bars. But the cartwheel is still proving to be her biggest nemesis, but I get a big smile every time I see her try. She is also loving to practice drawing, reading, and writing. This little girl just loves to learn and try new things. She wants her next adventure to be Kung-Fu. We will see how that works out. My goal was to never have a kid that could beat me up . . ..
Reggie? What has Reggie accomplished? Well, he still laughs and smiles at just about everything. He likes all foods and having said foods put into his mouth. He sleeps well enough that we are quietly maintaining a level of sanity. He thinks Adelaide is hilarious, and in him, Megan finally has a mama's boy. But new accomplishments? He still looks like this during belly time and crawling practice. He still goes to the bathroom on himself each day, and saddest of all, in our market and economy, he is still unable to find good employment. But we sure are proud of him for trying!

Breakfast with Santa

We went to eat breakfast with Santa a couple of weeks ago at UVU. The Snow family joined us with their three little girls and we all had a great time.

If you haven't been before I highly recommend it. There are tons of activities for the kids -- making ornaments, advent chains, ice fishing, pin the nose on the reindeer, and of course...Santa's lap.
Adelaide is loving Christmas so much this year. She really understands what's going on and is so excited about everything. Davey and I especially love using, "You better be a good girl or else..." as reinforcement. It must work really well because she has been a fantastic child and wants to make sure she will be getting that purple watch she's been asking for.

A little bird told me that Santa just might be putting one in her stocking. That is...as long as he gets those gingerbread cookies and milk he's been asking for.

A Hot Mess

We had the privilege of hosting a neighborhood party at our house last weekend. It was so much fun. Although, I don't know if the house had as much fun as we did.

I think every single toy was pulled out and spread across the floor. Snow globes and water balloons were broken, cupcakes smooshed in the carpet, and there was laughter galore. I guess that's what happens when you get approximately 24 children in a 1800 square foot house.


We played holiday Pictionary and exchanged white elephants. Some got "real lucky" with their gifts, if you know what I'm sayin'.

We ate yummy soup, dips, desserts and had an amazing night. Davey said it must have been a hit because we didn't mind cleaning up the mess. Thank you Ashley for hosting it with me and for everyone who made it a great party!

A Day of Thanks

Thank you to Heidi and Paul for hosting us at your house.
Dinner and dessert couldn't have been better.
It was so fun to hang out and to see Megamind on Thanksgiving night.

Grandma and Leslie, you were masters at cleaning up the kitchen.

Ma loves Reggie.

Adelaide was so excited to play in the first snow of the year.
Paige is her absolute favorite... she LOVES her.

Davey knows how to roll when it snows.
Is someone from California? I think so.

It was a wonderful day and an even more wonderful holiday weekend.
It was a much needed break...now on to Christmas!

TOFW

(Time Out For Women)

Back in July, my mother-in-law gave me a birthday present. It was to spend a sisters weekend with her at Time Out For Women. It turned out to be a much-needed, fantastic weekend. There were 8 of us in attendance: Mammy (aka Mom Saunders), my four aunts-in-law (Susan, Ann, Jane, Carol), and two awesome cousins-in-law (Holly, Jamie).


Wait, there are ten ladies in the picture...Staci and Heidi (two more cousins-in-law) joined us for dinner on Saturday night at Pagota. It was an awesome bonding mini-vacay that was fun, hilarious, scary, and unfortunately....stinky at times. We spent time at the conference, stuffing out faces, doing skits, hot tubbing, and getting to know each other a little better.

Thank you to the Rose sisters for including me in their sisters weekend and for making me feel like I am a part of the family. I love you guys (scents and all).

Halloween

Thanks to Megan for bearing a second child so now I get double the candy...
Also looking forward to taxes next year...
:)

Birthdays

I am finally getting around to posting about the plethora of birthdays we have in October in our family. This includes Adelaide, my sister Anna, my father, Davey's father, and Davey. If you count nieces and nephews, cousins, etc..... you get many, many more.

Adelaide was spoiled and spent her birthday at Sea World. On our way home from California we dropped Anna off a gift of Trader Joe's goodies for her special day. We treated my dad to dinner at Ruby River on his birthday. We had a joint birthday party for Addie and Davey on the 23rd where we presented Davey's dad with his gift. We decided form now on that the kids are going to pick what they want to give their grandfathers for their birthday. Adelaide chose fingernail clippers. Yes, I said it, fingernail clippers. It was very exciting to see the reaction on her grandpas' faces when they opened their gifts:)

I went very domestic this year and made birthday cakes from scratch (this is a big deal for me, ok!)

All Adelaide wanted in the entire world was a unicorn cake with purple frosting. I think it turned out pretty great and she loved it which was all that mattered.

Davey's request was for yellow cake and chocolate frosting. I thought the party hat was a fantastic cake-topper (insert inside joke, hehehe).



Thanks to all of our family members who could make it and thanks for all of the amazing gifts. It was a fantastic day.

P.S. Adelaide gave her daddy fingernail clippers, too:)

Her and Him

Adelaide 6 months old
Reggie 6 months old

I believe that if we gave Reggie a scowl and darkened his eyes, they would be twins.

Davey, How Was California?

Thanks to everyone that made our trip possible. I love going home. It will always be a home for me. And so I am grateful to all those who help make this trip such a success.
Thanks to the Soules Family for housing us a night in Victorville and meeting us at Sea World.
Thanks to the Easton Family for hooking us up on a Pre-Disneyland night in Lake Forest.
Thanks to Adelaide for hitting 29 rides at Disneyland and for letting me carry you on my shoulders for at least 11 of those 12 fun hours.
Thanks to the Brown Family for the sweet condo in San Diego for a couple nights and for letting us meet your new beautiful baby girl.
Thanks to Cousin Staci for the plane flight for Megan and Reggie and to Jil for being the airport shuttle.
Thanks to Reggie for being such a good traveling baby.
Thanks Tony and Jay for a great BBQ night and the stroll down adolescence lane.
Thanks to Uncle Newel for awkward hugs and to the Price family for making us feel welcome.
And thank you Salisbury Family for inviting us each year to spend a week with you at the Beach House. Your hospitality is only out-done by your love to ROCK!
PS- If any of you, or your children, suffer from fear of roller coasters, send them my way. This is my 4 year-old at her best. That's right. Big Thunder Mountain 3 times! Only Sleeping Beauty's walk-through castle got as much attention from Adelaide and me. And yes, those two attractions are about as different as it gets. But what do you do when you are the World's Best Dad? (Well, I am at least in the top ten, right?) Edited for your viewing pleasure, Addie's first time on Big Thunder Mountain.

My Big Girl

This goes out to my best girl ever. She turned 5 on Wednesday and I can't believe it. Five years ago she made me a mother and my life hasn't been the same since. She is amazing, smart, funny, sweet, loving, feisty, beautiful, and the best big sister ever. I'm so thankful that she is my daughter and a part of my life.

Her favorite things are her new unicorn pillow pet, gymnastics, barbies, computer games, cartoons, macaroni and cheese, chicken nuggets, chocolate milk, candy, candy, and more candy. She loves to pick out her own clothes and her brothers clothes as well. She loves being in the bath (sometimes bath time lasts hours), Disneyland, and snuggling with me on the couch.

She can now spell her name, recognize all letters and has an intense desire to read. She loves to sing, make necklaces and bracelets for her friends and cousins, paint her own toenails, get dressed from head to toe in my clothes, and wear my bathrobe when she gets out of the bath.

I write these things mainly so I don't forget the amazing accomplishments she has made in five years time. I love you Adelaide and I hope you had the best birthday ever!

Countdown Is On

(courtesy 2009)

Poor Megan. October is not her month. Besides having 'oct' for a prefix and being the tenth month of the year; go figure, octopus, octagon, octomom..... (8 anyone?), here are the top three reasons it's hard on her.

1) I talk in my Dracula voice for a good majority of the month.

2) October is the month of her dad's, my dad's, her sister's, our daughter's and her husband's birthday. Not to mention most of my friends growing up had October birthdays too. (Adam, Laura, Jacob, Tony, The United Nations, etc) Don't even get me started on extended family birthdays in October (Hi Nora, and Nora's soon to be new sibling)

3) I get so excited for our annual California road trip that I blog at 3:00AM instead of sleeping.

That's right. It's time.
10 days.
9 nights.

Friday -> Victorville (Like an opening night teaser)
Saturday -> Beach
Sunday -> Church, then Beach (Don't judge, it balances out)
Monday -> Disneyland
Tuesday -> Beach
Wednesday -> Sea World
Thursday -> Beach
Friday -> Beach
Saturday -> Beach
Sunday -> Beach, then cry eight hours back to Utah

I am excited because Adelaide's birthday is on the 13th. So when we leave Friday we will give her her first present. The Unicorn Pillow Pet she has been asking for for over a year now. "PJs fit right inside," she tells me just after the commercial announces that fact.

Then, before Megan and Reggie fly down on Monday night, I will sneak Addie into Disneyland where she will finally be tall enough, using some tricks I've taught her, to ride the bigger rides like Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain. She's gonna love it.

Now I know why we had kids. Without Adelaide, I never could have sold Megan on all these things. I am still trying to figure out how to get her to get me a Pillow Pet for MY birthday. Garments fit right inside.

Best Movies Ever

Now that Adelaide is almost five years old I figure its time to introduce her to movies without Shrek in them. First was The Burbs. She didn't really get it. So I tried The NeverEnding Story. She loved it. She said its one of her favorites. It was rough at parts but she pulled all the way through.

Best Lesson:
It's OK to cry when the Swamp of Sadness consumes Artex.
Or else, you're a total jerk.

PS- She wants a Luck Dragon for Christmas.
PPS- Artex is alive at the end of the movie and it's OK to cry/cheer when you see him then too.

My Poor Heart

(Feel free to enjoy the WIKI links in the story)
Yesterday morning I drove myself to the ER. I had tried, unsuccessfully, to sleep through the night feeling a tightness and a pain in my chest and shortness of breath. After nearly five hours, I rolled out of bed and got showered up. Then I Laid back down to recover from expending all my strength to just shower and dress myself. After a bowl of Cocoa Puffs (this fact is important) I drove to Orem and checked myself in with an expected lung problem.

First they drew some blood from my apparently over-zealous vein which leaked all over my bed sheets and shirt. Then they did an EKG to check my heart signals. Then I was off for X-rays of my chest. The chest X-ray came back showing swelling around . . . my HEART?

So, next they wheeled in a machine to run an ECHO on my heart. Of course they need me to lay on my side (which kills) and the tech is teaching a newbie how to run the machine (which makes the procedure take twice as long and become almost unbearable).

The ER doctor came back to go over the results. He said,

1. I had serious swelling around the heart.

2. Of the 100 people that come in with this condition, 99 go home, and I was the 1 that needed to stay.

3. The wall movements of my heart were irregular and did not look good.

4. I could be IN or ON THE VERGE of a heart attack.

5. They wanted to do an angiogram to check for blockage and fluid in and around my heart.

Hmm. I'm 31 years old. Never sick. Healthy. Active. Extremely good-looking. None of this made sense. I scrambled for my phone looking for support. I just manage some text messages to Megan, Randy, and Mike and a blubbery barely audible call to my PA brother Jef who works on an open-heart surgery team before they are moving me downstairs and prepping me for my procedure. So now, I'm alone.

In case you are NOT reading the WIKI links (which I have already told you to feel free to read ), an angiogram starts with an incision in your groin so they can access the femoral artery and send a catheter up into your heart to have a look around. Many emergency heart surgeries are performed as a result of angiograms gone wrong, i.e. puncturing the vein and damaging something with the catheter on its way or while it's in your heart.

After they shave my special zone (groin entry, remember?) and dope me up, I find myself in a recovery room. Randy is waiting outside. My chest still hurts and now my leg is sore. They tell me it went well. There was no blockage or build-up of fluid. My blood results show good cholesterol , but high blood sugar (thanks Cocoa Puffs). Mike and Megan show up. I am given some anti-inflammatory and [pain meds.

And now I am home recovering. Still not sure of the cause. They say bacterial and viral infections usually spark something like this. And so here I am, I fought off a heart attack under my own power and I survived Pericarditis. The pain and swelling are slowly going away and I am home recovering.

The only question now is, do I let the hair grow back in awkwardly and uneven, or shave the rest down there and start from scratch?
PS - Happy Birthday Kip.

Labor Day Weekend

We had the privilege of having Rick, Jen, the kids, and Ma and Pa Idaho come down for the weekend. We went to the Treehouse Museum in Ogden on Saturday, Sunday we went up to Payson Lakes, and Monday to Hogle Zoo.

Cousins are the best.

These girls are two peas in a pod.


We discovered that there are wild Jimmys at the zoo.


We stopped at Hires for burgers (chicken strips for me) after the zoo.

It was a fun weekend! I can't believe we are at the end of summer, it's gone by entirely too fast but this was a great way to send it off:)