Random Pictures

After downloading the pictures from my camera, I found a few that are blog worthy, and I had to share them. Most of them are Holden, but that is because he is the most mischievous in our house!

I was outside shoveling, and Austin brought Holden out to play. He was fine until he had to take off his mittens to drive his car, and then his hands got cold - we couldn't reason with him to put them back on.

Holden is my monkey boy. He climbs on EVERYTHING! One day he was up watching TV, so I grabbed the camera. He saw me with it, so he turned and said, "Cheese."

I just love this picture of his grin. You can just see the mischievous thoughts running through his head!

Clara hates to have to sit in her chair while she "eats." She gets so bored!

Holden was awfully quiet one day, so we went to investigate. He had climbed on the counter and found the butter. I guess he thought it was hair gel, because that is where he was putting it. He was having fun until he got caught.

I hope your 2008 was as fun as ours and your 2009 is even more so! Have a great new year!

(I think this post gets me current, until Christmas in MN next week)

Happy Birthday Clara!

5 things I love about my princess:
1. She gives the BEST hugs!
2. She is so easy to make happy.
3. She makes me stop what I am doing to relax with her.
4. Her spirit draws me and everyone else to her.
5. She goes with the flow easily.

Christmas

Christmas Eve was spent over at Austin's Aunt's house this year. We enjoyed food, family, and fun there. We played Chinese Auction and all got a fun gift. Then Carmen made felt puppets of the nativity story that the kids got to act out. Makayla got to play Mary. We opened a family game there as well. When we got back to Grandma and Grandpa's house, all our kids got to open their Christmas PJs, and then it was off to bed so that Santa could come.

Christmas morning started early with Makayla being the first one awake. Santa found us at Grandpa and Grandma's house, and he was super nice to us! He brought us a Wii with all the accessories. Holden thinks he is a pro with the guitar! We opened a few more presents from our family before heading off to Aunt Jana's for brunch and more family mingling.

When we got back to Grandma and Grandpa's, we hung out, played with our new toys and took naps. Christmas afternoon, all of Austin's siblings came over and we opened presents from Grandma and Grandpa. They spoiled us, of course - Thank You!!

We were having so much fun hanging out with Austin's siblings, we decided to sleep over another night. We were up late playing with the Wii and having fun being together! Holden didn't sleep at all that night, though, so the next day was a rough one for all.

We had a great time being with Austin's family this week, and now we get to head to MN to see my family next week.

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!

I always say that I don't get enough exercise in the winter when I'm inside more, but today that wasn't the case. It snowed pretty good most of the day today - wet, heavy snow. When it started to slow down, I decided it was time to head out with the shovel. We got a total of about 12 inches of snow and in order for Austin to get into our driveway and not stuck in the street, I had to clear off the driveway. We are definitely going to have a white Christmas here in Eagle Mountain!

Busy Busy

This had been a crazy busy holiday season for me. I am the Activities Chair in my ward, and that has me running. This week, we had 2 things that I was in charge of - the giving tree and our ward party.

I've had the most amazing experience being in charge of the giving tree for my ward this year. It is amazing the giving spirit that people have to help others when the need is there. I've enjoyed being a part of this and having it in my home so my children can be a part of the giving too. Makayla keeps telling me how many gifts we have in our front room. I tell her, "isn't it wonderful that all these families will have a good Christmas?" The people in our ward have been a wonderful example to Makayla what Christmas is all about.

Our ward party was last night. WOW, that one was a lot of work! I've never planned and cooked dinner for 300 people before. We ran out of room and had to set up tables at the last minute, nobody complained, they just jumped in and helped get it all up. We had plenty of food (except for salad dressing) - which is a good thing, I was worried about that one. We had a wonderfully spiritual program on the nativity and the meaning of the pieces we set out every year. And last, but not least, we had a special visitor. I was excited for this because then my kids could see Santa and I didn't have to go to the mall. We were standing in line and Makayla said she didn't want to see Santa, so we didn't. I have no picture of my kids with the big jolly this year. Oh well, worse things have happened.

I now have the freedom to relax for a few days before all the family parties start. In that time, me and Makayla are planning on making some Christmas goodies.

Us with our friends the Hardys at the ward party.

It's that time of year again...

Yup, you guessed it, it's time to Elf Yourself. This year they have even more options and fun things!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Apparently, I can only share the classic dance, so here are the links to the other dances featuring my family of elves!

Charleston
Disco
Country

Oh, Christmas Tree

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We started putting up our Christmas Tree on Friday, after I went shopping. I finally got my family to help me finish getting the ornaments on it on Monday for Family Home Evening. Makayla and Austin were a big help with that. Holden thinks it's fun to pull the balls until they come off the tops, breaking quite a few. I don't even want to know what Clara would do around the tree :) I love Christmas time, making my home all festive, and teaching my children the true meaning of Christmas.

Draper Temple Open House

For anyone who may be interested, open house reservations for the Draper Temple are available. Go to www.lds.org/reservations to reserve yours or find out more information.

I am excited for this opportunity to take my family into the temple and explain to Makayla the importance of the temples!

Change

You've probably noticed that there are some changes on my blog. I finally got brave and decided that I CAN DO IT! It wasn't even hard! I also decided to change the name - I wanted something different.

I'm most proud of my banner. I was scared of Photoshop - it never did what I wanted it to and it was very confusing. I found some great tutorials that explained it in words that I understood. I got a really cute banner started, but my computer crashed, so I had to start all over. I liked where the first one was going, but I really love how this one turned out.

I can't wait to play with Photoshop some more and make my kids pics just pop! It really is a great tool. What took me so long to use it?

Happy Thanksgiving

(This is a Native American doll that Makayla made for school)

This year I have a lot to be thankful for!
-I have 3 beautiful children.
-I have a wonderful supportive husband.
-We both come from great families that help and support us in all we do.
-Clara's school and all the hard work they do for her there.
-Makayla is a great helper around the house, especially with her younger brother and sister.
-We own our home (well, the bank does, but you get the idea.)
-Austin works hard to support our family.
-Great friends that we've met along our journey.
-A wonderful ward family.
-Holden's spunky personality (usually thankful for this.)
-My family is healthy.
-My knowledge of the gospel and Christ's great plan for us all
-Christ's love
-The world and all the stuff that's on it (This is what Makayla is thankful for)
-My freedom and those who have sacrificed so that I may have it.
-Family (another of Makayla's, but also mine!)
-Food to eat
-Clothes
-My free agency

I could go on and on, there is so much that I am thankful for, but I'll stop it at that. I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving tomorrow.

Worn Out

The other night when Austin was watching the kids, I called to check on them. I asked him if the babies were in bed. He said Clara was. I asked where Holden was and he said he fell asleep downstairs in a laundry basket. He had found one of his baskets and was just too tired to go any longer. I guess that's the next best thing to a crib.

scrapbooking

This weekend was the Scrapbook Sleepover at the Lehi Legacy Center. Me and my friends - Leslie, Debra, April & Brittney - packed up all our stuff, and headed down there for a marathon 30 hour scrap. It was fun to get away for a while, hanging out with friends and being productive. I wasn't excited to sleep on the gymnastics mats, but it was only for a few hours. I can't wait for the next one in Fabruary, but for now I have to clean up the mess that my monkeys left me while I was gone!

Hope

I was given a book, "Changed by a Child" by Barbara Gill, from one of Clara's support groups. It is a compilation of excerpts on various topics related to having a child with a disability. I read this entry on Hope not too long ago, and since I'd already had hope on my mind from the talk given in October's General Conference by President Uchtdorf entitled The Infinate Power of Hope, this kind of hit me. President Uchdorf was talking about how you can't entertain both hope and fear. So while this isn't exactly the same type of hope, it struck me because I was already focused on hope before I read it, so I thought I'd share:

HOPE

If a patient stops expressing hope, iti s usually a sign of imminent death.

- Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Often others seem to feel a special responsibility to puncture our hopes. They say things like "You know she will never learn to read," or "You need to accept that he doesn't know what is going on around him," or "He's doing well now, but he will reach a plateau."

They would say we are in denial, that our dreams are "false hopes," from which we must be protected. God forbid anyone should go around entertaining false hopes! But, in certain sense, what other kind of hope is there?

Hope is the thing that is willing to take a chance on the future.And who is audacious enough to say what the future will bring! Hope is the capapcity to see something on the horizon that we are willing to move toward. If our hope gets us from today to tomorrow, and in taht new day we are ready to able to deal with something we thought we couldn't face, then hope has done its job.

There is a worse thing than false hope. It is no hope.

I have hope that my children will continue to progress in their abilities. I have hope that they will also continue to progress spiritually. I hope I will be there to lead and guide them every step of the way. I don't know how far any of my children will progress, but I have all the hope that however far they will get is going to be far enough!

Simply Fun Party

I'm having a PARTY, and YOU'RE invited. If you aren't familiar with Simply Fun, they sell fun different family games. They have some games that look fun to play and the quality of the games is top of the line. I'd love for you to come next Wednesday night (12/3) at 7:00, at my house to play games with us. Leave me a comment if you are interested so I can have a count. If you need to know where I live, let me know and I'll get you an address. Hope to see you there!

Dead

Our tarantula died this weekend. I can't say that I'm sad about that, but Holden will be when he realized it. I'm not sure how Makayla will take it because Austin told her we could have fish when the tarantula died, so she may ge excited about that. I think I will like fish a lot better than the spider, but they will take more work on my part. Bring on the fish!

Volleyball

Volleyball is the one sport I enjoy playing. I'm not great at it, but it is fun. I've been playing on our church team for the past few months and this week was the regional finals. We came in 2nd for our region. I'm sad that it is now over, but I'm sure Austin is glad that it isn't taking up every Thursday night anymore.

4 steps!!!

When Clara got home from school today, this is the note that was attached to her wheelchair...
I picked her up, hugged her, danced with her, and then set her on her feet and let her walk to me. She is AMAZING!!! I'm so happy for her that I just want to cry.
**This almost makes us for pooping in the tub this morning :)**

Personality

While cleaning up my photo folders, I found this cute picture of Holden and Austin out in the snow a couple weeks ago. I love the face that Holden is making. He is a big ball of personality!

Holden LOVES our spider. He can spend hours sitting there watching it. Sometimes when I want a break, I'll put him on a stool by the spider and he will sit there quietly for a long time. He can't get down by himself, so I know where he is. When I ask him where the spider is he will point to it and laugh. Spider was his 4th word he would say. Who knew our pet we found in the yard would be so loved by Holden.

3 flu vaccines; 0 tears

Today was the flu shot clinic at my doctor's office. My kids have gotten one every year since Clara was born. I usually have to fight Makayla, and often times don't tell her why we are there until it is time for her shot because she makes such a big deal about it and frets about it from the time I tell her until she actually gets it. This year, when I made the appt, they asked me if I wanted the flu mist for any of my kids. I jumped on that one with Makayla. She was actually excited to get it and find out what it was like to have to sniff her "shot."

Clara was next. I held her hands and talked to her while the nurse was getting ready. Before I knew it, the nurse said she was done and I didn't even know she had given it. Clara had no change in expression at all and was just fine.

Last was Holden. This is the one I worried about. I laid him on the table and held his hands just like I did with Clara. I saw him get a confused look on his face when she poked him, and I kept waiting for the tears, but none came. He walked out of that room like nothing had happened. If only ALL dr. visits could be that quick and simple...

Halloween

So, I am a little slow getting up my Halloween pictures, but life has been nothing but crazy here. Plus, I set up our laptop downstairs, so I don't use my desktop computer much and that is where the pics are. Last night, Austin set up the laptop to network to the other computers (Thanks Hon) - so now I can post those pics from my couch!

So, without further ado - here are my kids all dressed up:

Here is Holden. He isn't dressed up, he is just showing his true colors :)

I like this picture of Holden - it is at Clara's school carnival. I kept calling for him, but he ignored me. I love that you can see the horns and tail here.

Makayla always wants to be something sweet and cute. This year she was an angel. She planned this costume all by herself. Her dad just helped make the halo.

I had a grand idea for Clara this year. She was going to be a butterfly in the grass. I had to change plans though (see post below). I found this Cinderella dress 1/2 off the day before Halloween, so I bought that. She truly looks like a princess in this picture!

Here's all 3 right before Trick-or-Treating. Clara didn't like the rain and didn't make it past the circle across the street. After that she helped Austin pass out Candy. This is the first year Makayla wasn't too shy to say "trick-or-treat" at the houses. She had fun running around with her friend Brynne. Holden actually said "trick-or-treat" a couple of times until he understood that he got candy at the houses. After that, he said, in a not very nice way, "CANDY, CANDY!!!" until they gave him some. Next year we will have to work on manners.

Signing Time!

This is one of my favorite songs from Signing Time (Clara's favorite show). When I planned on having Clara be a butterfly, this was where I got my inspiration. She was going to wear a grass skirt and be a butterfly in the grass. I made her antenea and taped the wings to her wheelchair. We tried this out at our ward Halloween party. She kept the antenea and wings on for all of 3 minutes and I probably picked them up and put them back on at least 1452 times. She had fun with it though. Maybe next year it will work better - who knows. Clara always does exactly what she wants to!

Goodies

As part of Clara's school carnival, they asked parents to make goodies for a bake sale and cake auction. These are what I made and I just had to share!

Frankenstein Brownies

Ghost Brownies

Spider Brownies

Triple Chocolate Black Cat Cake

Miscellaneous pictures

What a night!!! I'm trying to make goodies for Clara's school carnival, so of course everything goes wrong. First, my wonderful oven burns half of the brownies, so I decided to use the half that are usable and make a cake instead. While I am waiting for that to cool, Makayla gets sick and needs "the bucket." While I am downstairs fetching it, Holden reaches his little hands up onto the counter and starts grabbing a handful of my cake. Instead of doing something I will regret, I put him right to bed. It isn't too early and I'm trying to keep some sanity as Austin won't be home tonight (working all night). So, as I need to take a break from the parenting for a few minutes, so I thought I'd post some random pictures that I've taken and haven't gotten up here yet.

This is Makayla at back to school night trying out her desk.

Holden is enjoying a sucker. He loves going to the bank with me because he knows where to get a sucker once he gets in the door.

One day I was upstairs working on the computer and it got quiet downstairs, all of a sudden. I went to check it out, a little afraid of what I would find once I got there. I was pleasantly surprised that Holden was asleep in the doorway rather than writing on the walls, or some equally destructive behavior that he is well known for.

My friend Leslie likes to come over and scrapbook with me. She brings her daughter, Macy, who is Makayla's age, when possible. Macy is the youngest in her family, so she thinks playing with Holden and Clara is the best thing ever. Clara especially likes to snuggle with Macy. Sometimes a little too much!

This is just a candid shot of Makayla and Holden in my laundry basket.

Big Helper?

Holden LOVES to help me unload and load the dishwasher. The only problem with that is that he doesn't really help me. So I decided to let him play playdough while I did the dishes. He was happy and so was I!

She lost it!

Makayla finally lost her 1st tooth. It was barely hanging on for quite a while, but she wouldn't let anyone pull it. She was so excited when it finally came out! She set it on her table and went back to get it and it was gone, so she wrote a note to the tooth fairy. She did get her 4 quarters - boy the tooth fairy is sure nice!

So...I've raised a MONKEY

Holden is NOT a little boy - he is a through and through MONKEY! He likes to climb on anything that he can. We have a stool in our kitchen that he likes to wheel around and get up to the counters to get the M&Ms that I wouldn't let him have. He can get the cups of water that I put up there - for me to drink - and dump them all over my floor. He climbs on the couches, end tables, toy bins, baby gates (yes, they won't keep him out much longer). He climbs out of his high chair onto the tray (where did I put that seat belt?). He tries to climb out of the shopping cart at the store. He constantly climbs out of the stroller (when it is moving). Well, you get the picture.

Today we hit a new one. He climbed out of his CRIB! It is on the lowest setting, but he can still get out. Today, I put him down for a nap and a few minutes later, I heard some knocking. I couldn't figure out who would be knocking, so I went to investigate. I peeked in Holden's room and I didn't see him standing in his crib, so I figured he was asleep. I started to shut the door when some little fingers wrapped themselves around the door and pulled. He walked out like nobody's business and went on to find something to play with. Gone are my peaceful naptimes, which means gone is my sweet happy well rested little boy. I now have a whole new challenge to deal with. Keep your fingers crossed that we will both make it through this challenge unscathed!

8 things about me.

1. Post the rules on your blog
2. Answer the six "8" items
3. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving them a comment


8 Favorite TV Shows:
1- Survivor
2- The Office
3- Heros
4- Amazing Race
5- Bones
6- Fringe
7- Lost
8- Numbers


8 Things I Did Yesterday:
1- Made bread and caramel/cinnamon rolls.
2- Made breakfast for Austin and those he went hunting with.
3- Went for a playdate with a friend in my old neighborhood.
4- Picked up the house and vacuumed.
5- Talked to my sister on the phone.
6- Put together one of my many scrapbooks that are in pieces.
7- Fought with Holden over the M&Ms.
8- Had some friends over for scrapbooking and chatting!


8 Things I Look Forward To:
1- Being with friends and family
2- Scrapbooking
3- Christmas
4- Monday when all the kids are back to school
5- Vacations - Austin keeps talking about a cruise that we haven't been on yet.
6- Watching my kids grow and learn and gain understanding.
7- Payday
8- Twilight movie on November 21st :)


8 Favorite Restaurants:
1- Chili's
2- Rhumbi
3- Olive Garden
4- Any mexican restaurant
5- Applebees
6- Paradise Bakery
7- Costa Vida
8- Winger's


8 Things On My Wish List:
1- Finished Basement
2- Vacation - that cruise I mentioned above that Austin keeps talking about
3- Patience
4- That my kids will always stay strong in their beliefs and in the gospel
5- An interior decorator to tell me how to decorate my house and the money to do it.
6- A self-cleaning house (or just a maid to do it for me)
7- To be able to see my family more
8- Willpower to loose weight and keep it off.


8 People To Tag:
1- Anyone who wants to.
2-
3-
4-
5-
6-
7-
8-

Meet Pete

Last week, I found a furry friend in our yard. I told Makayla to get dad so he could take a look at it and help us know what to do with it. He decided that we needed to keep it for a pet. So, I would like to introduce you all to our new pet. He isn't tame and I'm not very excited about him, but he is here to stay (I guess).

Here he is in our grass.

Makayla and Holden helping Dad make him a nice home.

Makayla and her new pet.

Close up of the furry guy.