LOVE

Since February is the month known for love (at least for most), decided that my one post for this month would be on this topic. There are lots of things that I love. Here's my short list:

1. My husband. We spent our 15th valentines together. Went out to dinner and a movie. Neither one were the greatest, but it really didn't matter because we both still like each other and enjoy alone time together. Kerry has to rank pretty high when it comes to best husband. I'm not sure there's a better one out there.

2. My Kids. since the husband came first, the kids are listed second. I have three great kids. I began loving them the moment I found out I was pregnant. Nothing makes me happier than to see them happy. My kids are good to the core. Not to say they are perfect. They're not, but they really have a sense of compassion and respect for others. I LOVE that about them!

3. Animals. Always have. I have a few nieces and nephews that are petrified of animals since the time they were babies. I wonder, are you either born an animal lover or not? I'm sure there are some that are in between these two extremes. If I could make it happen, I would have more land so that I could have dogs, cats, goats, chickens and maybe a few others too. Right now, I'm settling for a dog and a cat. I'm not complaining though, because most days I do well to take care of my three kids.

4. Sports. OK I like to play some sports, but mostly I just end up watching them. My favorite to watch is college sports. I love it when I know a good game is coming on. I will look forward to that all day. The crazy thing is, my husband isn't much of a sports fan. I have friends that hate that their husband always wants to watch sports. Me, I usually watch by myself unless it's a golf tournament. Then Kerry watches with me.

5. Good Food. Who doesn't? I'll leave it at that. If I tried to list all the foods I enjoy, the list would be entirely too long.

6. Laugh. I love to listen to funny people. Laughing makes me feel good. My family sometimes says that I lack a sense of humor. That may be true, but I still love to laugh.

I have to end by saying that I Loved the weather today! The news has been reporting blizzard like conditions in other parts of the country. It's hard to even imagine that when you walked outside today.

A lesson for Claire.

Last week Jake and Haley came over to play with claire. While they were eating lunch, claire started teasing Haley about the fact that she did not get the pink cup. This is how the conversation went:
Claire: "nanny nanny boo boo I have a pink cup and you don't.
Haily: "Claire, that's bad words to say"
Claire repeats "nanny nanny boo boo.
Haily turns to Jake who is sitting in between them and says: "Jake, Claire is saying bad words to me."
Jake turns to Claire and says: "Claire, don't say that to my sister. Jesus will be mad."
Claire: "They're not bad words. I say them all the time."
Jake: "Yes they are and Jesus will not let you say them."
Claire: "No they're not and I say them all the time!"
Jake (getting very frustrated at this point) says "Claire, You're being like a wicked Lamenite! A VERY wicked Lamenite!"

Even though I was not happy with Claire's behavior, I just wanted to bust up laughing hearing this conversation. Jake said it better than I could have ever put it! Claire learned a good lesson that day from her little friend Jake.

catching up part 2

Here's some photos from the school play in December.
Brayden played the part of the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland.
Unfortunately he got sick the day of the play. He had to dig deep that day.
We thought he did very well in spite of feeling miserable.

catching up

Lots to say in the past month since I posted. Where to start? The kids had a six week break from school with both track and winter break combined. I knew the only way for both of us to survive it was to stay busy. We took them to Utah during the first part of Dec. Winter was making it's arrival there. It was beautiful! The best part about it was we managed to avoid driving through a snow storm. The kids went sledding with their cousins and had a blast.


We took the kids to see Santa at the University Mall in Provo. Claire sat on Santa's lap for the first time. Another evidence that my baby is growing up. I'm trying to enjoy each moment.



We had our annual family gift game party. We started doing this a few years ago and it's become a tradition. We hosted it this year. We had yummy soup in bread bowls and every one brought a gift. We have a few "gag" gifts that have circulated through each year. It's fun to see who will take home the famous coin belt buckle or the singing pooping reindeer. Of course, there's always a few good ones for the grabbing.





Christmas 2007 was yet another wonderful time for our family. We have all remained close and enjoy each other's company. We spent Christmas eve at Mom and Dad's. Mom has always prepared a spectacular Christmas Eve dinner. I wish I had thought to take a picture of the beautiful table she set. It was something out of a Martha Stewart magazine. Ever since I can remember, she has always gone out of her way to make every detail extra special. I'll have to take one next year so that we can preserve her hard work.
Santa made his way to our house. He made each of our three children very happy. Shelby assured me that it wouldn't be a problem to receive two large gifts for Christmas because Santa could bring one and We could provide the other. Her believing spirit won out when she woke up Christmas morning to find that Santa had brought her a Karaoke machine and a new bike from Mom and Dad. Brayden jumped for joy when his box began to ring as Kerry called his new cell phone. and Claire was most happy with her princess makeup. It's always fun to see the smiles on their faces as they open gifts. Making all the work of the saving, shopping and wrapping worth it. Travis and Ashlee invited us all to their house for breakfast. It was literally a breakfast buffet. We all got together again for dinner games and gifts at Mom's house on Christmas night. I wonder if there are times when my mom wishes that we lived a little further away. Now that they are close we make our way over a lot!


MERRY CHRISTMAS 2007!

I forgot to mention Brayden's play among other things, but I'm out of time for now. There will be more to come on catching up.

sleepover!

There's something about a sleepover that is so appealing to my kids. Kerry and I are not exactly keen on them and so most of the time we compromise and do what we call "late-overs". Occasionally, we make exceptions for sleepovers with cousins. Since Brayden had his first camp out a few weeks ago and was going to be gone overnight with his Dad, we invited Kayelyn and Delaney to came over for a sleepover. They made a big bed with blankets on the floor in the bonus room. Being the oldest of the girls, Shelby is admired by all her little cousins and baby sister. She's good to them and it makes them happy. Claire was so happy feeling like a big girl that night. Shelby, as usually happens, was the first to fall asleep. Delaney stayed up the latest until 12:30am! Pretty late for a 4yr. old. I hung in there, but was glad when she finally fell asleep. I'm so glad that my kids live so close to their cousins. They have a lot of fun together.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRAYDEN!

Today is Brayden's birthday. I can't believe I had my first baby 11 years ago today. The years have flown by.

11 things that we love about Brayden.

1. loves music and playing the piano.
2. Very smart and does well in school
3. figures out how to do things on his own
4. makes his own lunch for school everyday
5. shakes his hands back and forth whenever he's excited (done this since he was a baby).
6. Loves to surf the net for the next best hotel and vacation spot
7. very inquisitive. Watches the news every morning.
8. Has big brown eyes
9. loves to have fun and go on family vacations
10. likes to do crafty things
11. loves the church

Trick or Treat

The last hoorah for Halloween. Trick or Treating in the neighborhood for awhile. and then off to Grandma's house to see cousins. We had quite the busy neighborhood this year. The streets were lined with cars from people who had left there neighborhood to trick or treat in ours. We must have a reputation that I was unaware of. I felt bad leaving to go to my mom's with so many trick or treaters around, but a grandma wants to see her cute little grand kids all dressed up for Halloween. She was smart and bribed us with dinner.