Birthday Treasures

26 years ago today a very special gift was unveiled....

Little, pink, detailed, beautiful, with hand-painted red roses.... every little girl's dream.
A treasure handmade by mom of precious porcelain, so special, so beautiful, that it was whisked away before it was ever enjoyed, to the top shelf of a closet so as not to be broken by eager little fingers.
Occasionally the treasure was gently brought down to simply look at and dream about.... or an adventurous climb was made to that top shelf just to steal a peak...

Until now.
26 long years later.

The treasure was finally given over to do with as intended.

And now, it will be the star of another little girl's dreams of tea parties with cookies, friends, and family.
But no longer will it just be part of a dream, on a shelf. It will be used, enjoyed, and loved.
And the party begins as eager little hands reach out...The time for tea parties and the use of the treasure has finally arrived, and it's even better than I ever imagined, as I could never have dreamed up better company!

Nor could I have imagined what a real "treasure" really is....I have the best treasures in the world right here.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Catching Up

It is hard for me to find the time to up-load pictures, edit and shrink them, and then write a blog post between my 11 hour work days and many other things I have going on. So, on a snowy Saturday like today, when I don't want to leave the house, I'm playing catch up. Some things may be a bit out of order because you can't add posts in between posts, but you'll get the idea. Edits have been made back through my Thanksgiving post where I added a bunch of pictures of our trip that weekend to the old post...so enjoy catching up on us!

Getting Ready for Christmas

First: Deck the Halls
Then, visit with Santa.
And last, make some sugar cookies and be sure to save some of the good ones for Santa! (But really, it's still early so I had to do a lot of convincing that we would make more for Santa the day before Christmas and these could just be enjoyed now!)
The anticipation builds.... only 11 more sleeps until Santa comes.Silly girl...I don't think waiting for Santa in the closet will make him come any faster...

Letters to Santa

No Christmas is complete without letters to Santa.
Dear Santa,
Please bring me some.... (then he, with some help from dad drew a hammer, batman symbol, hulk, cheetah boy - who we think is a super hero he invented, and a drill.) love, TysonDear Santa,
Please bring me a kitty and a teddy bear. I have been a very nice girl. Love, Savvy
p.s. and Dora stuff

Fall Family Pictures

We attempted to have a friend take a few pics in a park one day. None of them turned out very well. Out of about 50 pics, these few were the best. I FINALLY got around to up-loading them... making them very much out of order from the last few posts, but there is nothing I can do about it now.

Let it Snow

Finally a winter storm has hit...and fortunately it is Saturday. I will do what should be done when every snow storm hits and stay in all day, drink hot chocolate, play with my kids, read by the fire, listen to Christmas music, cuddle, watch movies, and enjoy the winter landscape through my window. (Oh, and update my blog!)My view of the valley during the storm.My view of the valley after the storm.

Rhetorical Question

Savvy: coughing
Mom: "Oh my Savvy, where did you get that bad cough?"
Savvy: "Uumm...2 bad guys came and gave it to me."

Yeah, wasn't REALLY expecting an answer on that one...but got a pretty funny one anyway. I forget everything is taken literally when you are 2.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is a time to be grateful for the things we have been given, and to overeat... what a brilliant holiday!
This year we enjoyed the holiday in Boise visiting with Grandma Smyth, Grandma and Grandpa Sullivan, Uncle Pat, Uncle Joe, Aunt Michelle, (Great)Aunt Marilyn, and her family.

Here is Shannon, Ty, Savvy and Uncle Pat.
We braved the Thanksgiving Parade... not a very exciting parade, but for some reason the kids were thrilled nonetheless.


We raked leaves for Grandma Smyth... Ty liked jumping in the piles and kicking them around more than he liked raking them, making the job take much longer, but we enjoyed watching the kids play in the leaves.

At the end of our trip we got into the Christmas Spirit by visiting the Festival of Trees - and for some reason (I'm sure because Tyson tried to barge in without a ticket and was so distraught when the girl told him to go out, and he is SO very cute) they let us all in FREE, saving us like $30! Hooray.... Now that Thanksgiving is over, let the Christmas season begin!

WHAT THE....?

So, I was just on facebook chatting with one of my boys and he was telling me all about the new car his mom just ordered for him... a mercedes g550 - they spent $150,000 on it - it has diamonds in the rims and 7 TV screens... WHAT?!!!!! INSANE!!!! Are you kidding me? WHO DOES THAT? WHO HAS THAT KIND OF MONEY? And no, I don't think he is lying or exaggerating. (Although part of me prays he is because that is just WRONG.)

It almost made me cry to talk to him about it as I thought how we about broke the bank putting $1,300 into my piece of crap car last week. If I had 1/10th of his car my life would be so much easier. Maybe just one of those #%@* diamond rims of his...? It's not fair. And he's just barely 18!

Enough of my ranting...I'll just go back to my life of a normal person who works to make ends meet...and try not to think about "fair" because I know life is NOT and is never FAIR - I was actually telling one of my boys that very thing today and a co-worker said that "fair" is the F-word in her house because it doesn't exist.

So off I go to pull my head back to my reality and to be grateful that I have a happy life and a crappy car, and I wouldn't trade places with his life for all of the $150,000 cars in the world!

First Hair Cut

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Hmmmm..... what exactly just happened?

Thanksgiving Point

We spent one Saturday at Thanksgiving Point's fall festival for kids. They have a variety of little kid friendly activities for a good price, such as a wagon ride, little games, a movie, pony rides, etc. The kids loved it.
The pony rides were the biggest hit. I think Savanna rode 3 timesHere she is anxiously waiting her turn.
Ty loved it too. Last ride of the evening... time to go my little one. We'll be back next year.

Fun, and Funny Fall Day

First there was the making of the best sugar cookies ever...
Yum... so good.
Then the trip to Gardner Village....Where we looked around at the shops, the witches, the costume parade, and the kids made their own witch hats and brooms (which we didn't get pics of because we did that at the end and they were too grumpy for pics).

We also did the petting zoo - which the kids LOVED! Tyson just ran around in there like a wild man and Savanna ran from animal to animal petting and talking to each one.
Once we finally got them out of the petting zoo, I grabbed Savanna to wash her dirty, animal germ covered hands and then tried to get Ty to do the same, but he took off. As he ran he had threats that if he didn't listen it would be time to go, but he did not respond. So dad chased him down, picked him up and headed to the car with him wailing and protesting all the way. Savvy and I followed as Dave lectured Ty in a frustrated way on listening and the importance of washing away germs. As soon as Ty got in his seat and found his blanket the thumb went right to the mouth, I shrieked, Dave pulled it out - lecturing some more, and I ran up with the wipes and hand sanitizer.

Finally, hands were clean, everyone was settled and we were on the road. After a few minutes of silence, out of the blue Savanna suddenly exclaimed in a loud, amazed, yet distraught way, "WHATTT?!!! TYSON LICKED A PIGS BUTT????!!"

Dave and I looked at each other confused and busted up laughing... "WHAT did she just say?!"

Savanna then repeated, "Tyson licked a pigs butt?!! EEEW!"

I then realized that when Dave pulled Ty's thumb out of his mouth he had said in frustration without thinking, "Ty! Disgusting! That is just like licking a pig's butt because you havn't washed your hands!"

We then explained to Savanna that Ty had NOT done that and apologized for using the word "butt", which is a no no in our household.

Pretty funny.

Happy Halloween

On Halloween we were very busy. I got the kids dressed and we went to our wards Trunk or Treat while Dave worked, then we headed to Provo to a friend's Halloween party, then went Trick-or-Treating in our old neighborhood. The kids had a great time, although by the time we got around to taking pics they were exhausted and grumpy.
This is seconds before Savanna accidentally dumped her bubbles all over Tyson's head and arm and we had to deal with traumatized shrieks of, "Savanna! OOHHH! You are so rude! You got bubbles all over my head and my batman costume!!" That was our cue that it was time to go home for the night....

Making a Difference

There are days I grumble and complain about my job, just like most people... and then there are days I am so grateful for the opportunity to touch lives and make a difference, as well as the blessing to have others LET ME into their life and their stories. I have been thinking about the things that matter most in life, and it always comes down to relationships - relationship with God, relationships with family, relationships with friends, relationships with others.

Life is about loving, giving, serving, and supporting others. It is about letting others love, serve, give to and support you.

I am grateful every day for the great blessing it is to make a difference in the lives of my own children and hope and pray that I can love them and teach them in every way they need.

And when I really stop and think about it, I am grateful for my job, my profession and the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of my clients, their families and even my co-workers.
I had a boy graduate from our program on Friday and it was truly inspirational to see the changes he has made, the values he has grasped onto and incorporated in his life, and the healthy and meaningful relationships he has formed. He has gone from a life of trauma and pain, deceit, anger, drug use and running away from everything and everyone, to a life of confidence, leadership, friendship, and integrity. At his ceremony I think there were only a few dry eyes in the room (yes, in a room full of adults and teenage BOYS) as people shared wonderful stories about the changes he has made and the lives he has touched.

What an inspirational experience it was for us all. I am so grateful for the chance I had to touch his life and help him find himself, and so grateful he let me in to be a part of his journey.

He even wrote a song for me and his principles coach about his experience... which I will post here if I can figure out how.... What an amazing journey for us all!

General Conference

For conference weekend, my mom will usually fly from Seattle to Boise to see her mom and sister and watch the conference with them. Occasionally a few of us will drive up from UT or Holly may fly in from Vegas to see them as well. This year we ALL happened to go - even Jennifer from Michigan whom we rarely see - and my cousin Melanie and her daughters came too! It was wonderful to have a weekend with all of us girls! I don't think we have all been together for 7 years! We'll have to do it again.

Sitting on Grandma's porch with Jennifer, Marilyn, Michelle and Holly.

All of us in front of Grandma's. See the resemblance? OK, not so much with me... we all wonder how I missed the height gene and where the blond hair came from.

Here we are with Grandma, Mom, and Aunt Marilyn.

Me and Mom.

Fun times!

Catching up

Hey all -
I havn't really posted any pics in the last 2 months as life has been too busy to upload pics, shrink them for the intranet, and type the posts... so anyway, this is what we were up to Aug. and Sept.

Enjoying Fall

September 2008
The kids and I went up Little Cottonwood Canyon to take advantage of the beautiful fall weather and changing leaves. I love fall! Please snow... STAY AWAY FOR A WHILE!