Boys and Girls

I love getting to see the differences between they boys and girls in this house.  Mostly in the kids, after 8 years Shawn and I have become quite a lot alike.  Anyways the last few days I've noticed a few things or just thought they were funny.  

First, boys wear through clothes insanely fast.  Devin has had several pairs of jeans for a few months and almost each pair has a hole in them, even in the bum!  I have no idea how he got a hole in the bum of him pants but whatever. Caroline on the other hand has a pair of jeans and they still look brand new.

  

Second, boys are so clumsy! Today Graham was running up our driveway and fell down where it levels out and scratched up his face, I'm just glad he was wearing his helmet at the time.  

Third, Caroline loves making things for people, and more recently its been food.  She got a new cookbook for Christmas and is so excited to make things out of it.  We, well she, made deviled eggs last night and they were really good.  She felt so big and was so proud, so was I.  Graham on the other hand destroyed the puzzle I had been working on this morning.  He apparently loves destroying things.

They're quite different.

Caroline filling the eggs.  They were really good!

Graham insisted that we put a bandaid on his nose after he ate it up the driveway.  It was hilarious!

8 Already?

I feel like I just posted about our seventh anniversary.  Time really does go faster when you're older.  I think I said this last year but I'm starting to feel like we've been married a while now, eight years is nothing to scoff at.  We celebrated in high style as usual and I made chocolate cheesecake and Shawn proceeded to fall asleep at about 5 o'clock because he was post call.  So I ate my cheesecake by myself and watched the movie we (I) rented.  Shawn really knows how to go all out.  Just kidding I really don't care he fell asleep, it was what I expected.  He did wake up around 10 o'clock and we watched our movie (me for the second time) and ate more cheesecake.  It was a relaxing evening and maybe someday we'll be able to actually go out for our anniversary but for now watching a movie and eating cheesecake on our couch is pretty awesome.  We laugh a lot and I'm so glad I was crazy enough to get married so young.  Best decision ever.

Merry Christmas From the Funks!

Christmas 2012 was spectacular!  Probably the best one yet, it was awesome.  We caroled, baked an insane amount of food, and relaxed.  I loved every minute of it and I'm pretty sad its over but can't wait again until next year.  I"ll try and include all of the highlights so here we go!
1. Caroling is always one of my favorite things every year.  And I"m so glad that my kids love it too because I would be crushed if they didn't.
2. Spending lots of quality time with the kids and Shawn, I loved spending the last several days baking all day and hanging out with the fam.  Its the best.
3. Seeing how not excited the kids were about the bikes we got them.  It may be because they got up really early but I was slightly disappointed in their reaction and it was pretty funny.  They were pretty excited about their new socks they got in their stockings though.
4. Having a Christmas party with our friends here.  I loved having people over and I think they had a great time, I know I did.  We may have to do it every year.
5. Shawn being sweet and getting me a little something even though we said no gifts.  He's a liar, but I'm ok with that, at least this lie.
6. Watching Shawn and Devin build legos together all day.  It was the cutest thing ever.
5.  Seeing Caroline pour over her new cookbook and so excited to try with me.
7. Graham playing so hard he put himself down for a nap.  He's so cute.
8. Taking a huge tray of goodies to the hospital on Christmas morning, the residents were so grateful.
9. Caroline saying that it made her feel so good to see the people we went caroling to so happy.
10.  Every time we asked the kids why we have Christmas they always said to celebrate Jesus's birth and spend time with family and serve others.  It made me so happy.

Hanging out under the tree on Christmas Eve.

Caroline treats, the best ones yet.  Tarts, lemon snowflake cookies, eclairs, mint pillow cookies, chocolate hazelnut diamonds, and mini cakes (made from scratch this year)  It was so fun baking all this stuff!

The annual picture at the top of the stairs.  The kids love this tradition but I'm not sure they will when they're older.  

The kids got bikes from Santa and helmets from us.  Caroline was so cute and said, "I know Santa is real because he ate all the milk and cookies we left for him." I love that girl.

Devin opening his stocking.

Graham so excited about his superhero guys.  He couldn't wait to share them with his buddies Bryce and Ian.

The way to Devin's heart is through legos apparently.  These two were so cute, I love my boys.

At first the kids didn't seem too excited about the bikes but they really do love them. I'm so glad we found them!  I hope everyone had as good of Christmas as we did.  I really loved spending time with my family and celebrating the real reason for this wonderful day, the birth of our Savior.

Favorite Visitors

We had some of our favorite visitors come the last few days.  Grandma and Grandpa Funk were able to  hang out with us for a few days and we enjoyed every minute of it.  We did as much stuff as we could think of, like gingerbread houses, Adventure Science Center, dinner, talking, looking at lights, and basically having a great time. Thanks for stopping by on your tour of the States!

Our awesome gingerbread house.  I love it and we had so much fun making it! 

The kiddos with Grandma and Grandpa.

Every time Steve sat down Graham would run and get all of his blankets and make sure he was comfy, or compy as Graham would say.  He sure loves his grandpa.  We can't wait to see them again in the summer!

Party Down

This weekend was party time for us.  Friday night we had our ward Christmas party and it was actually pretty fun.  The kids decorated cookies, made ornaments, and got to talk to Santa (which is their only chance because I'm not going to wait in a huge line at the mall to do so).  Saturday we went to a friends house for a RAK (random act of kindness) party and they had a blast there too.  We made cookies for the retirement home, wrote letters to soldiers overseas, and made bird feeders because hey, birds need food too I guess. After the party we went to deliver cookies at the retirement home and sing with the kids from Primary.  It was a great day to remember the true meaning of Christmas, and serve those around us.  Now this week we get to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa Funk!  So we may be mia for a few days. Enjoy the pictures.

Devin hanging out with Santa, he asked for LEGOS.  He won't be disappointed this year!

Caroline was a little unsure of what was going on.  I think she's up in the air about whether or not Santa is real.  She asked for an explorer kit.  I'm not sure what to do about that!

Graham had no clue what he wanted and Santa told him he would bring him a surprise.  That can be arranged.  Thank goodness he's easy to please.

Christmas Decor

I really love Christmas, the baking, parties, and decorating.  That being said I really don't like spending a fortune on decorating our house, but Shawn convinced me that it would be perfectly fine to spend a little bit of money to have more decorations.  So I looked on pinterest found a wreath I liked and one other thing and headed over to Michael's to get my supplies.  I love that I can make what I want and for at least half as much as buying it.  Someday I'll but things just not now.  Anyways I really like how they turned out and our house is much more festive this year, its great.

Here's the wreath.  I love projects that only require a little bit of hot glue.

And no I didn't make the stockings just the JOY letters above but I love them just the same.

The kids these days

There are so many little things the kids have done or said lately I needed to write down before I forget.

Caroline is going to be a great mom or at least that's what I thought when she was taking care of the boys when Shawn and me were sick over a week ago.  At one point she made peanut butter and jelly for lunch and there was some discontent among the boys and I heard her say, "Well peanut butter and jelly is the only thing I know how to make so eat that or you eat nothing."  Even in my dehydrated, sickened state I was so proud.

Devin loves to play and play, if he didn't like sleep so much he'd play all night.  More specifically he loves to build things.  We got out some old toys the other day and he hasn't put them down since.  He keeps on opening up more and more which we love.  Yesterday he had a nice long conversation with Shawn about Transformers and how they work and how do you know which ones are good and which ones are bad.  He then confessed to sneaking downstairs to get a drink one night while Shawn and I were watching Transformers and got distracted and watched a few minutes.

Graham is pretty insane. He can be yelling at the top of his lungs one second and then want to snuggle the next.  His most recent thing is wanting to wear shorts every single day even when its 50 degrees outside.  So we've kind of struck a deal he can wear shorts inside but if we're going outside he has to wear pants.  He still doesn't want to take his shorts off so he just puts his pants on right over his shorts.  I have no idea how he thinks this is comfortable but oh well.  I"m not willing to fight about it so I'll give this one to him.

Devin showing off the "guys" he built out of his turtles.

And Graham's obsession with shorts. Those are not boxers underneath, its shorts.  Like I said, he's crazy.

ICE!!!

The week after Thanksgiving Shawn had his week of vacation which I have already mentioned but now I need to post about it.  We really hung around and watched Star Wars (he got the complete saga for his b-day) every night, it was great and I wouldn't have changed anything about it.  One night we shook things up and went to an Ice exhibit at Opryland Hotel.  Every year they fly in ice sculptors from China to make a Christmas themed winter-land.  It was really fun and even better was that our tickets were free.  Oh Vanderbilt how I love thee.  We only stayed a short time because, well its ice so they keep it freezing and we really are not fans of freezing weather. It was a great family activity and hopefully we'll get to do it again next year.

The kids sitting on a nice ice made seat.

Caroline getting ready to go down the ice slide.  They were really fun!

Here is Graham going down the kiddie slide.  I'm pretty sure he could have stayed there all night.  He loved it so much.

Devin taking his turn.  

The ankle

I know this is weird but I'm posting because I secretly think its kind of neat to look at.  And in the future if anyones ankle ever looks like this you should probably have it looked at.

After I sent Shawn a picture of my ankle he rushed home to take me in to get x-rays. 

I got to wear this sweet boot for about 3 weeks.  Awesome I know.

A few days later the swelling went down and the bruising started.  Other than it being really painful I thought it was pretty cool.  My ankle has now returned to almost its normal size.  I'm also out of the boot and I'm able to do the elliptical but its still sore but about a million times better than a few weeks ago.  I think I thought it would heal faster because after talking to Shawn it "wasn't a big deal" but a month later I'm realizing while it wasn't a horrible break requiring surgery (thank goodness) I still did a number on it.  Here's to a continued rapid healing process!

Devin's Birthday

I'm really trying to get caught up here and I"m just about done!  While the cousins were here we decided to have Devin's birthday party.  And since Poodle's birthday was coming up I told her I'd make whatever cake she wanted and decorate it how Devin requested.  Again things were VERY low key and I think I successfully bored the pants of Mabel during the party.  Note to self folding and glueing a paper Lightning McQueen is not a fun activity for a 5 year olds party.  Luckily Shawn is great at coming up with quick and easy games that the kids actually enjoyed.

The Birthday boy and girl. 

Opening up presents, he loves cars and man does he have a lot of them. 

His big present was new glasses, exciting I know but these babies are pretty much indestructible so I can stop going to the eye place every week to have his glasses adjusted.  And yes he picked them out himself.

Happy birthday to my sweet Devin.  Thanks for not caring that I'm terrible at throwing a party and for being so funny.  We love you!

Thanksgiving 2012

This year Thanksgiving was awesome.  Two of my sisters came to town to celebrate and it was probably one of the best Thanksgivings ever.  We always keep it low key, baking, reading, going to Target, going to the park, and letting the kids play, decorating the tree but that's how we like it.  I don't know why but I don't have a ton of pictures but here are a few I managed to take.  And for some reason I didn't take any pictures of the food which may sound weird to some people but I just about ALWAYS take a picture, seriously you should see my phone it has pictures of my kids and food that's it.  I promise I have more pictures of my kids though.

Decorating the tree/

I'm pretty pleased with myself that not only did I get a picture of Leah but she's also smiling.  I may not be her favorite aunt.  That goes to Poodle.

Most of the cute kids.

Poodle being the favorite aunt and helping out Graham.  And yes he's in his underwear.

The finished tree.

Annie and Devin.  These two got along so well. 

And the best friends in the whole world.  Mabel and Caroline.  Caroline cried and cried the night before she left.  (and actually two nights before she left)

A few things I want to remember about the trip are.

1.  Seeing the kids that are the same ages have fairly similar personalities.  Mabel and Caroline are very motherly, Devin and Annie are sweet and easy going, and Graham and Leah, well they're spunky.  I love it.

2. Going to Target with Poodle and Bethy, sounds totally lame but we have lots of fun together.

3. Seeing Bethy and Poodle crack up after they saw Graham scream at the top of his lungs at one of his siblings. 

4.Mabel making Devin the sweetest card for his birthday.

5.  Going to the outlet mall with Poodle.

6. Having the kids wake up almost every morning BEFORE 6 because they were so excited to play with each other.  

I love that my sisters were able to come and we are so grateful that they do. (every year right?)  We miss being close by and love spending the holiday with them.

Shawn's Birthday

This is almost month late but better late than never right?  Shawn is EXTREMELY easy to please and just wanted a day of good food.  So we had stuffed mushrooms, chicken cordon blue, rolls and potatoes, and chocolate torte all day long.  It was really fun and his cake is my new favorite. Its really beautiful and tastes amazing.  Even though he had to work in the morning he had a great day.  He actually loves getting to operate so it was a fantastic day for him.  Thanks for being so easy to please and letting me spoil you with food on your birthday.  I can't wait till next year!

Still alive

I am so behind on blogging its driving me crazy but just so you know we are still alive I thought I would post really quickly about the lack of posts.
1. Shawn has been on vacation and instead of blogging about the awesome thanksgiving with my sisters I decided to hang out with him instead. It's been glorious!
2. We finally got the stomach bug that has been going around for the past month and between cleaning up little kids "messes" and getting sick ourselves (me and Shawn got hit at the same time) I have not really had the desire to post anything.
That's it really but hopefully tomorrow will bring less sickness and more blogging.

A rollercoaster

This last week has been full of highs and lows.  And I really think I did some trauma to my head when I hurt my ankle because I have not been the brightest individual lately. Here's the breakdown of last week.
Low- Breaking my ankle and having to literally hop on one foot into the hospital because I wasn't bright enough to have Shawn drop me off at the entrance.
Low- Sitting at home not and watch my house get dirtier and dirtier as the day goes on and not being able to do anything about it.
High- Having Caroline stay home from school because she got a tooth removed and having her clean the entire downstairs.  That girl is the best oldest child ever, I love her.
High-Having Shawn take the morning off so he could take Caroline to the dentist because I couldn't drive.
Low-Paying the dentist $$ for getting her tooth removed.
Low- Being told that Graham drank a 1/3 of a bottle of tylenol in one gulp.
Low- Calling my mom bawling and then Shawn bawling while crawling up the stairs, because I couldn't bear weight on my foot, to see how much Graham weighs on our Wii Fit Plus (because its the only "scale" we own) to see if I need to take Graham to the hospital and get his stomach pumped.
High- Learning that Graham would be fine and I could finally stop crying.
Low- Graham hiding the ranch dressing in the couch.
High- Having my friend bring me her homemade egg rolls for dinner because she's so nice.
High- Getting flowers from my awesome in-laws.
High- Having one of the other resident wives make our family dinner because she felt bad for me.
High- Making pumpkin rolls for a Relief Society activity at church with my friend.
Low- Making  my friend drive back and forth to the store because I forgot I didn't have some of the ingredients.
High-Finally being able to walk without crutches. (ok maybe I only had to use them for 2 days)
High-Going to a movie with the whole family for free all because of Vanderbilt.
Low-Driving to church with my left foot in a skirt and an ugly boot.
High- Surviving the drive to and from church.
Low- At church today getting to hear people say they knew I must have been hurt really bad because I was crying after I fell.  That's just embarrassing.
High-Getting to talk to my mom without crying.
High-Eating awesome food all day because that was my gift to Shawn for his birthday.  Happy birthday Shawn!  (don't worry I'll post more about that tomorrow)
High-Looking back and being REALLY glad last week is over and knowing my sisters are coming in 3 days!

My Turn

You know how sometimes I complain that kids are expensive.  Well today its my turn to add to the bills.  At volleyball I jumped up to block the ball and landed on someones shoe and pretty much landed on my ankle.  Needless to say it hurt REALLY bad and I had to have my friends help me hop off the court and hopefully they'll soon forget me crying and begging them not to touch my ankle.  So I texted Shawn and he was able to come home early looked at it for about 30 seconds and decided I needed an xray.  About two seconds later we were on the way back to the hospital to get an xray,  Its really nice having Shawn around to get us in and out of the hospital remarkably fast.  I just have a small chip on my ankle bone and I"m in a walking boot for about 2 weeks and crutches for a day or so.  I did the exact same thing exactly 11 years ago playing basketball (just a smaller chip and a higher sprain) and while it wasn't such a pain then it really sucks now hobbling around trying to take care of the house and kids.  And to top things off I get to take Caroline to have a tooth surgically removed tomorrow, with the boys, on crutches.  Stay tuned it could get pretty interesting.

I'll post pictures of my oh so fashionable boot asap.   Good thing I usually wear jeans and a plain shirt anyways.

18 Months Later

Remember when I thought it was cute when Devin used to sleep on the floor next to Caroline when he was little?  Well I did and when we took the front off of Graham's crib he did the same thing and slept right next to his big brother, only he never stopped.  For the past 18 months Graham has been sleeping on the floor next to Devin when he has a perfectly good bed to sleep in.  The cuteness wore off after about 6 months and we had an extra bed that was not being used, and taking up lots of space.  Then when Caroline slept in the boys room most of the summer, well lets just say I had a few moments when I contemplated getting rid of the two extra beds not being used by my kids.  Finally last night for some reason Caroline convinced Graham that his bed was awesome made it look nice and comfy and he finally for the first time in a year and a half Graham finally slept in a bed!  Its a miracle and he's doing it again tonight!  I don't know what Caroline told him but its nice to know he'll listen to her.  This information may come in handy in the future.  I love that girl!

Butter

Does anyone remember the line from Julie and Julia when Juile Powell says, "If we only had 10 days to live I'd spend them eating butter."  Well I do and I think its the best line of the movie by the way but in all seriousness that's pretty much what we're going to be doing around here for the next month.  I just bought EIGHT pounds of butter at the store today.  Yup 8.  It was on the best deal I've ever seen for that brand and cheaper than Costco so I had to stock up and honestly part of me is worried I'll need more before the month is over.  Shawn, Devin, and my sister Poodle have birthdays this month and Thanksgiving so I feel pretty justified in the quantity I bought.  In fact I'm really excited about this month, its going to be awesome.  In fact I think I need to go watch Julie and Julia to channel my inner baker.  I know totally nerdy but instead of judging me for 1)being a dork or 2)buying that much saturated fat in one trip to the store, think really hard about how great butter is and and how if anything tastes good it usually means butter is high on the ingredient list then maybe you'll come to your senses and realize you should actually be jealous that we get to eat all the yummy cakes, pies, and various savory goods and you don't.  I LOVE NOVEMBER!!!

And I"m doing a good deed for Caroline's school, because those little box tops just got her school 80 cents.  My purchase is now totally justified.

BOO!

According to Caroline this year was the "BEST HALLOWEEN EVER!"  Need I say more?  We stayed around our house and went trick or treating with our neighbors, almost filled our baskets to the brim, then came home and watched The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.  At some points I had to run with Graham to keep up with the bigger kids.  They had a great time and seeing them so excited is the best thing in the world. Halloween was a success! Now let the holidays begin!  Only 18 days until Poodle gets her and 20 until the Petersons are here, we can't wait!

My incredible little trick or treaters.

This is Caroline's pose for Violet.  

Little Graham as Jack Jack.

And Devin as Dash.

Pumpkins

We finally got around to carving our pumpkins last night.  I usually have lots of ideas of fun baking things to do with the kids this time of year but its just not happening so I'm glad we at least carved pumpkins.  Even though the kids had no part in the actual carving they had a great time. I'm excited for trick or treating tonight and watching some Charlie Brown!  Happy Halloween!

We did let Caroline decorate her pumpkin before carving it.  

The boys loved watching Shawn at work an loved feeling the nasty goo inside. which somehow became my job to clean out.  

This was the best one we could get even though you can barely see Graham's face. 

We're all ready to hand out candy now!

Boys are WEIRD

There is a VERY big difference between boys and girls.  My boys love to wrestle, talk about poop all the time, and wrestle some more.  At times it can be a little overwhelming.  They are good hearted little boys just a little weird.  Graham just came downstairs with a shirt shoved into his underwear making his bottom about 5 times its normal size.  I have no idea where they come up with this stuff but its a little gross.  And maybe a little funny too.

1st Grade Performance

Caroline had a a cute Halloween recital a few days ago at school.  The first graders learned a few Halloween songs and dressed up in their costumes and sang for the parents.  It was so fun getting to hear the songs Caroline has been randomly singing for the past few weeks.  And the cherry on top was that Shawn even made it to the last half of it.  It was a great night and I love getting to see this sweet girl grow up.  She may be tone deaf but man she's cute.

All dressed up and ready to go.

She was all the way at the end of a row which made it hard to see but I managed to get just one picture.

Caroline and her buddy Xavier.  He is in her class at school and is in our ward and these two got to dose doe in one of the songs.  She was so excited to be one of the few kids to twirl around.

On a different note I am terrified for this girl to turn into a teenager.  She spent at least 30 minutes this morning debating what to wear to church and complaining about the clothes she had.  I don't know how my sister that has 3 girls does it.  I still love her but wow she can really be a girl sometimes.