Consider Yourself Christmas Carded

I have great intentions of sending Christmas cards out every year. Well, as you can tell, once again, it didn't happen. So, consider yourself included on the Christmas card list that is yet to exist. Maybe next year my good intentions will actually yield results. We hope you all have a Merry Christmas. We feel very blessed to have so many wonderful people around us. This truly is a magical time of year and we're grateful for all of the blessings that we have and the the opportunity to reflect on the birth of our Savior.

Go Cougars! (Even if it's in Las Vegas again)

In honor of today’s BYU bowl game, I thought I’d finally post the pictures of the BYU football games we’ve gone to this year. Landon, Easton and I went to the TCU game together. I think we put more effort into getting ready for the game then the team did. Big disappointment! Can you tell we had some fun with the face paint?

Easton’s a huge cougar fan. He knows the whole fight song and is always looking for Cosmo at the games.

Fortunately, the team redeemed themselves when Landon and I went to the BYU vs. Utah game. Talk about total blast. (well, if you’re a Cougar fan, that is) I hadn’t screamed like that for a very long time!

Landon’s trying to get some inter-ward rivalry going on, so we went around to the Ute fans in the ward “tagged” their houses and cars by writing I heart BYU. We’re already trying to think of ideas for next year. It's a good thing none of these neighbors are bloggers. I couldn't help but get a shot of Landon in action.

GO COUGARS!!

Walk Down Memory Lane

This weekend we went to see my awesome sister-in-law graduate from BYU-Idaho. (Congrats Shelly!!)

For those of you who don't know, I went to BYU-Idaho for 2 years and received my Associate Degree in Sports Medicine.

This the building I spent most of my two years in. I absolutely loved going to school there and have tons of fun memories. Freezing . . . well everything, great roommates and some not so great, lots of friends made and lots of things learned and let's not forget LOTS of miles put on the car going back and forth from home to school.

Riding to Rexburg was quite a bit different this time around with two kiddos hungry and sick of driving after ten minutes in the car. Easton was so excited to be going on "vacation." What have I done to my children? They think freezing your bummy off in Rexburg, Idaho is a vacation!

The Magical Doors

Please help me understand the magic of the doctor’s office doors. One minute, my daughter who has been acting miserable all day and has been screaming for over an hour, magically is just fine after we walk through the doctor’s office doors.

Sure Doc, I know she’s playing peek-a-boo with you and running around the room laughing and singing, but I really think something is wrong. Between bouts of giggles, can you just check to see if she has a sore throat or an ear infection? Do you ever wonder if the doctor believes that this child who is now playing underneath the exam table was minutes ago fa-reaking out?

I told the doctor that I’m going to move into their clinic until I can figure out how to get my doors as magical as theirs. He laughed and thought I was kidding. No, no. I’m totally serious. So, if you need me, I’ll be in exam room 3 at my kids’ pediatrician’s office.

Around Thanksgiving, there were lots of people facebooking and blogging about all they had to be grateful for. I resisted doing anything like that because I didn’t want to just go with the norm. I have decided that it’s time to swim with the current and give thanks like I should have from the beginning.
Tonight I feel like I’m being a little tempest tossed. Well, okay, let’s be real, I’m just a slightly stressed stay-at-home Mom who likes to have her Christmas decorations up by Dec 1 and a clean house and whose to-do list increases almost by the second. So, I guess I don’t really qualify for the tempest tossed thing, but none the less, I need to count my blessings.

• I am so grateful for the basics in life that I take for granted so often. A beautiful home, food, clothing blankets, a laptop and wireless internet.

• I have extended family close by and feel so lucky that my kids get to have so many aunts/uncles and grandmas/grandpas and great g-mas and g-pas.

• I am so grateful for my sweet, hard working husband who knows me so well and loves me despite of it. He treats me like a queen and I couldn’t feel luckier.

• I am so thankful to be a Mommy. I’m thankful that I get to snuggle my kids, kiss their owies, sing them songs and read them books. I am very thankful that Averie only has a couple more teeth to come in. I think teething is just as much torture for the Mom as it is for the child. At least the kid can have Ibuprofen.

• I’m thankful for a healthy body and although since Thanksgiving it feels a little softer than usual, I’m thankful to be able to do most things I want.

• I am thankful for the Gospel. I just finished the Book of Mormon again tonight and I’m so grateful for its influence in my life. I don’t know where I would be without the direction the Gospel brings into my life.

Sure I have my fair share of “moments”, but I really am so blessed with so many things in my life. Thanks for indulging me tonight. I know tomorrow will be a better day!!

Brotherly Love

This morning I was downstairs paying some bills online and Easton and Averie were playing upstairs. Easton came down and asked me if I would help him put Averie's shoes on because it was really hard when she was lying down. I was a little confused, since I thought she still had her jammies on. Well I went upstairs and this is what I saw:

Easton had taken Averie’s jammies off and had put on a pair of levis and was trying to put her shoes on. How cute is that! Well, cute enough for a blog post, I thought. I was all ready to blog about how cute my little boy is and what a good brother he is. As I began writing this very post, I looked in the backyard and no Easton or Averie to be found. Well, of course, I was a little panicked and went outside to look for them and here’s what I saw:

Easton had decided to go to his friend’s house down the street and he wanted Averie to play with them too. I fought the urge to send him right to time-out for not listening to me (he had asked me to go to his friend’s house earlier and I told him that he could go in a little bit) and did what my mother-in-law always tells me to remember: Take deep breath and then grab the camera. He really is such a cute brother and I love to see him interact with Averie. He is so good with her and she just loves him to pieces. I love both my kids so much and feel so blessed to get to be home with them.

Happy Belated Halloween

Okay, so I'm just getting back in the game, so none of you should be surprised that I'm just getting to posting for Halloween. If you are surprised, I guess you don't know me as well as you thought. :)
We had a wonderful Halloween. Easton was a ninja-turtle, and yes, he knew that his turtle name was Raphael. He has already decided what he wants to be for the next five Halloweens. He tried to change his costume between parties on Halloween, but I told him he chose to be a ninja-turtle and that although he looked cute in his levis, cowboy boots and khaki jacket cinched with a belt to hold his sword, he could be a “Star War’s man” another year.
Averie was the cutest pumpkin ever. She didn’t want anything to do with the darling hat that went with the costume, so the black bows had to be sufficient. I was a witch and Landon was a scarecrow. The plan was for us to be Elphaba and Fiero from Wicked, but as you can tell by the pictures, we didn’t quite pull it off. It was fun anyways!

Back with a bang!

Well, we just barely got the internet back at our house last week and I’ve been excited to dive back into the blogging world. Not so much for any of my loyal readers (thanks Mom), but more to use it as a way of journaling and recording the amazing times I have with my awesome kids and handsome hubby. Anyway, I felt pressure to make the first post after such a long break a good one. I can’t go for eight and a half months without posting and then post about what I had for breakfast. Well, no worries. This post is a lot more exciting than the scrambled eggs and hash browns my husband made for me this morning.
After canning applesauce all day with my fab sister (Thanks Tiff) I was putting my last batch on the stove to process when I hear beeping upstairs. I knew it couldn’t be my smoke detector because it wasn’t loud enough. I went upstairs to look around and the carbon monoxide detector was going off. I don’t know much about the CO detector, but I knew enough to get out of the house. Thankfully, the kids were already outside playing while Landon was doing some yard work because it was such a gorgeous fall day and Tiff had left with her girls a couple hours earlier. I went outside and told Landon what was going on. I decided to call the non-emergency police line. I told them what was going on and they transferred me to dispatch. It was then when I started to get a little concerned. The dispatcher got my info and said that they would send a unit to my house. Mind you, I watch CSI and Law and Order as much as the next person, but I didn’t know that a ‘unit’ included a policeman, a fire truck AND an ambulance. By the time I saw all that pulling up by my house, I started to get a little freaked. (I know, Daddy, we don’t say that word in our house, but I can’t think of another word to better describe my feelings) Back to the story. . .
The fire chief started talking to Landon and me while two firemen went inside our house with some kind of a sensor. Well, I knew it wasn’t good when they came out and that little sensor was beeping like crazy. The firemen didn’t say much. They just went to the truck and proceeded to get in their full fire suits, masks and oxygen tanks. They went back in the house and the fire chief starting asking some questions about what I had been doing during the day and about how we felt. I had a small headache, but I had figured that was because I had a 15 month-old who was teething and had been super cranky all day. Well, they wanted to check us out anyway. So, Easton and Averie and I had to get checked out in the ambulance. I’d never been in an ambulance before and I’m certainly not in a hurry to go back in one any time soon. The paramedics checked our CO levels and although they were slightly elevated, they weren’t high enough to warrant going to the ER or anything. They said the best thing was just to breath in as much fresh air as possible. The paramedics were really cute with Easton and Averie and even gave them stuffed animals for being brave.
After we got out of the ambulance, the fire chief explained that the elevated carbon monoxide level was caused by using my gas stove all day. Because the stove wasn’t venting anywhere except in my home, the levels continued to increase until my detector went off. After opening all the windows and letting the house ventilate, the firemen tested it again and said it was safe for us to go back in. It was quite the spectacle in our neighborhood. I am so grateful that we had a carbon monoxide detector. We just barely got it in January. They talk about carbon monoxide being the silent killer, but I didn’t ever really understand why until now. I didn’t smell, see, or sense anything out of the ordinary. I figured my headache was from trying to can applesauce on such a crazy day. Obviously now, I know different. I hope that whoever reads this will make sure that they have a carbon monoxide detector in their homes, especially now that the colder months are coming. I feel very blessed that my family is safe and nothing serious happened as a result. I know the Lord is aware of me and my little family and I’m grateful for His constant care and love. Please, get a carbon monoxide detector!

Self Portraits

I found Easton with the camera the other day and didn't think much of it until I went to download some pictures and saw what he was actually doing with the camera. He was pretty busy boy and here's the end result. These are some of my favorite pictures he took.

The bottom of a glass. Pretty absract, eh?
His lunch for the day!!

My faves!! What a personality!

Internet Time Anyone???

It’s pretty sad that it takes something like this for me to update my blog. Actually it’s not time, but access to the internet that I lack. Right now, I am in the waiting room at the hospital waiting for Landon to get out of surgery. It’s nothing really serious. He started having abdominal pain yesterday morning and it has been getting worse and worse. We went to the Dr and they said he had classic appendicitis symptoms. So, here we are and next time I see him, he will be void of a completely useless “organ.” Thanks to IHC’s internet access I finally get to blog and update my facebook. Pretty pathetic, huh? I’m sure Landon will be fine, but we would sure appreciate your prayers. Thanks!