Upgrade

I love to read. Love it. Like most people, I don't get all the time I would like to just lounge and quietly enjoy a great book. So, as often as I can, I get a good book on CD and listen to it in the van. I don't necessarily trust much fiction to be appropriate for little ears so I usually stick with church books for that. The bonus is that it helps me teach relief society and it is spiritually uplifting to me.

Three months ago we sold our Honda Van and got the Dodge. I love this newer van but the one drawback has been that the CD player in it didn't work. I was kinda bummed. So for my birthday Brian got me a new one! It has an Ipod connector so that I can now listed to books on CD, without worrying about getting them back to the library on time. It is awesome!



I felt kinda guilty because it is really nice, but he told me that it was a black Friday special and he really did get a great deal on it. Then, as he pulled the dashboard apart to install it, he found $6! Then he pulled out the old factory CD player and he heard a metal rumbling sound in it. So he shook it, and coins started falling out. He shook it some more and about $1.50 in change came out of it. I guess the kids of the family who owned this before us do what kids do, which is put coins in the CD player. After Brian got all the change out, the old CD player started working! And I guess the factory one is worth more that what we paid for the new one. Even in used condition. So, I got a great upgrade! And now I can listed to my Ipod in the van. Bring on the Sheri Dew and John Bytheway!

Christmas!

Oh, I love the age my boys are. They are so much fun. Christmas was something they have been looking forward to and excited about for a while.

For Family Home Evening the week before we did a lesson about the meaning of Christmas, then played with Play-Doh. Can you tell what we made?


Then on Christmas Eve we had what is now pretty much a tradition. Everyone met at my house and we had a little nativity with the cousins.



What else could Blake be but a shepherd with his Lamb? It was chaotic and busy, but I loved every minute of it. It is so fun! These kids are each so special and I love them.

Since we each kind of do our own thing Christmas morning, we usually open the Grandma presents on Christmas Eve too. I love this face of Blake's, priceless!



Bummer of all, we ended up with a stomach bug. :( Dallin got it first, but of course it coincided with me trying to get him on milk. Every time I give him milk, he gets sick. So I figured it was the milk. Then, Blake got it, and I wanted to blame it on the two huge boxes of candy Aunt Dixie gave him, but I was a little suspicious. Then, I started not feeling so good Christmas Eve night. It was awful. Especially considering that Dallin, my usually good sleeper was awake from 1:00 until 4:30 am. Nobody slept that night. 7:30 am rolled around and we all got up excited anyway about presents. Here is what they woke up to! Lucky kids.




Maybe I don't get to do a lot of costly things with my boys during the year, but we always have a great Christmas. They will have great memories of this.

Anyway, the stomach bug was gone quickly. So my birthday was still fun. Tired as I was, we still took the sled out and put it to use right away.





The boys aren't the only ones who got spoiled, I did too. I certainly wasn't expecting it. But I got a beautiful new coat and an awesome printer/fax/copier among other things. Lucky me! Mostly, I am lucky to have my little family and home, and also to have my savior. He loves us all!

Merry Christmas!

Brian's Birthday

Brian turned 34! Wow, wierd. I didn't get him much, but I know that this is something that he will use and will like very much. Waders.
Here they are:


He didn't like that I snuck a pictures, so this is all that I got. Anyway, you get the idea.

Happy Birthday Brian!

Next Time

If it's quiet in the playroom and I think, "Oh, Dallin is being so good in there," I should be thinking, "Oh, Dallin is eating crayons in there."

Snow

The white stuff is here! I spent over 30 minutes bringing out snow pants, boots, hats, gloves and winter coats from storage. I got the kids all bundled up and out we went. After all that effort we were going to make it worth it.
Dallin doesn't remember snow from last winter. So this is really his first experience with it.




He wouldn't let me put his gloves on at first but quickly realized his hands hurt. Then he was happy to have them.

Sledding at the park! So fun. Well, not for Dallin at first:



I love that Dallin is bawling in this one! He quickly realized that it was really fun. He got into it after this and it was all smiles.



Dallin is the luckiest little boy ever, his big brothers love him and enjoy watching him do new things. Both Blake and Kyle were cheering for him and loved having him ride with them.




Look at Blake's face! He was pretty into it too. Though I thoroughly miss summertime and playing in the water, watching the boys have fun in the snow is pretty satisfying too. Maybe we'll have to do a snowman this afternoon.

Early Christmas Present

Our microwave has been making some pretty strange noises. Over the past year, the noises have been getting louder and louder. Then, it tripped the breaker. Twice. If the fear of radioactive food wasn't enough, then maybe worrying about the house burning down did it, because we finally got a new microwave.



I am pretty excited, it's real nice (real nice said like cousin Eddie). I like it a lot! It was a big pain to install this. The over the range fan that we had was hard wired in, which we didn't know until we took it out. That meant that this microwave could not just be plugged in to an outlet. Brian had to wire an outlet in and hide it in the upper cabinet. So thanks Brian for spending your day off working on the house!

This thing has a lot of room inside. I can't really imagine a time when a small microwave won't cut it, but with three boys it is quite possible I get there before I know it. So the exra large space inside is good. It also makes a cute beeping noise, way better than the old loud one. But the best thing about this microwave? Since it is above the stove, I get to reclaim a corner of my kitchen.



I covet space in my little house, and so this is a great perk. Brian says it is just one more corner to fill up with paper and junk, but I am going to try to keep it clean and nice. Anyway, early Christmas here at our house.

Halloween

So many people just love the newborn baby phase and all that comes with it. They talk about how they just hold their babies all day and when they get older, they miss it. I love my newborns and love holding them and marveling at how perfectly formed they are. I have that overwhelming sense of gratitude. But, I have to say, having older kids is better! This is so much fun! Halloween, basketball games, having friends over, talking with them! Love this phase.

Each year Kyle's school does a little parade, where all the kids march through the school and parents come to ooh and aah over their cute little ones. That is just what we did. It was so fun! Each kid had great unique costumes.



Kyle was Annakin Skywalker. I am telling you, he still doesn't quite look like himself. He looks a little tired from that virus he has last week. It sure took its toll on him. But other than being tired, he felt great and we had a good time!

Then there is Annakin's trusted companion! R2D2!







Ever since I saw this costume, I have been looking forward to Dallin wearing it. I knew that Blake and Kyle were doing Star Wars so I had to follow suit and am so glad I did.
Getting these pictures was a bit of a struggle. It consisted of me looking ridiculous on my knees in the muddy grass making wierd faces/noises at Dallin to get him to make eye contact and smile. This represents over an hour of work, but finally!



He probably just gave in and smiled for me so I would finally leave him alone. :) Dallin totally figured out trick or treating within the first 2 houses. He would go grab himself a piece of candy and run off with it in his little fist. He was great!



On our way to trick or treat! "Mom, can we go yet?" and finally the answer was "Yes! Let's go!"

Oh Blake you handsome kid!



It's Bobba Fett! He even has the gun!





Thanks for coming Gma Bonnie. It is now a tradition to have you here! The boys loved that you came. Dallin especially. I told him earlier in the day, "Grandma will be here." He stopped, and looked right at me, and looked at the door. He understood and got excited! He loves you too!



Wish my pictures turned out better but I just have to accept that, with older kids, they don't always want to stand for long periods of time while I take picture after picture. After all, it's more important that we actually experience Halloween rather than just keep taking pictures, right?

Anyway, as a kid myself, I didn't ever like Halloween. But now that we do dressing up, and actually trick or treating, I love it! And I love my three little Star Wars boys. Happy Halloween!

Discovering Pumpkins

Dallin, you are so precious! I love you.

Pumpkins Finally!

Halloween is only a few days away and we finally got our pumpkins picked out.


Poor Kyle has been so sick! It took so much out of him, but he is finally better and I am happy to see him smile.


Blake picked this cute little baby one for Dallin. We got another that could actually be carved too.


Dallin pretty much wanted to just run around...


He sampled some of the pumpkins but they don't taste good. :)


Dallin was pretty mad at this point that he couldn't just run off. So this is the best picture I got. It is not too bad considering.






Finished products! I made a kitty for Dallin, he loved it! He kept pointing at it squealing happily and saying "di-tee! mow!" Pretty fun. They all turned out cute.
Happy Halloween!

Love the Chunk

Cute little baby legs!

18 months old! Cutie pie. My little chunky monkey.

I wanted to wait until evening to take some cute pictures of the baby, but he fell down and hurt himself. :( His little mouth is a little swollen so no real great pictures yet. But I was able to get some on his actual 18 month bday before he fell down...





When his mouth heals up I will take some more pictures and post them later.

Love you Dallin!

Project

We decided to redo the playroom, or the closet under the stairs.

Before:




I have been letting the kids just color on the walls in there which has been really fun. But they are out of fresh drawing space, so we repainted.


All of the toys got dumped into the dining room. I was feeling a little overwhelmed at this point. There are too many toys in this house. 2 whole garbage bags full are going to DI. Also, one big box went to the garage to rotate out for a while.


Before all that was laid down on the floor was a really thin fabric-like material. So we got some carpet pad and remnant to put down. So much nicer and softer for the kids.


Handy Brian and the helpers.


All done! Wow, what a difference the carpet especially has made. The kids play in here more. The goal now is to keep it more organized. We can do that, right?