This is the year..I swear...

It's a New Year and everything is going to be different! This is the year I will do everything so right that God will have to take me back! There will be no excuse! They will be begging me to join them in the circles of Prophets and Saints! Okay, so it may be only as the waitress but I'll take it! I've got a list of changes that will last past Jan 5th this year! I'm not going to push myself too hard so I'll start small and work up throughout the year:

1. Crack open my scriptures! Yes, the maps count!
2. Say a prayer at least twice a week-dinner prayers do count.
3. Stop shoveling food down my pie-hole...now I want pie...
4. Learn how to budget-going to Maverick 4 times a day instead of 7 is a good place to start!
5. Pretend to like Family Home Evening.
6. Do Annie and Audrey's hair at least quarterly-that will require some earplugs, duct tape and heavy duty meds but I'm gonna do it!!
7. Invest in duct tape stocks (I seem to need a lot of that stuff!!!)
8. Get through an entire week without one of my children saying "I hate you" to me-that one will be tough!
9. Learn to say "NO"
10. Keep my house clean for longer than 4.07 minutes!

Good luck on all your goals for the new year and I hope it's better than the last for all!! Happy New Year!!

An Epidemic...

It's true, there is an epidemic! It has hit my house-specifically me! It can hit anytime and anyone but it seems to be stronger this time of year and it mostly hits women-teenagers, college students, stay-at-home-moms and career women alike (this could be that women notice the symptoms more than men but experts aren't quite sure)! It is not prejudice, it'll take down anyone! It's called Mypantsaregettingtootightis or more commonly known as "The Muffin-top Flu". Symptoms are a constant bloated feeling, depression, the ravenous need for more chocolate and baked goods and a snug pair of jeans-not just the jeans out of the dryer snugness, I'm talking "should there be an imprint of the zipper in my flesh?" or "how long must I wear these before I can put my sweats back on??" kind of snugness! For some reason it is mostly dormant throughout the year until around October 15th and then it becomes airborne or "cookie-borne" and more dangerous as the year comes to a close. The only known treatment involves duct tape, sedatives and a treadmill but it hasn't always proven effective since it's difficult to go to all the parties while doped up running on a treadmill with your mouth taped shut! If you or anyone you know is experiencing any of these symptoms, step away from the cookie and meet me at Weight Watchers! Together we can stop this widespread epidemic and fight for a cure so no one will have to go through next year's "Muffin-Top Flu Season"!

And the glass stands alone...

My sad and lonely glass.

You're brothers and sisters have gone the way of the clumsy housewife and curious little hands. How long will you last among these scary giants out to destroy and you and your kind? The plastic cups stand back and giggle at the fate of your family saying, "We may or may not cause cancer but at least we don't break at the slightest tumble to the floor!" The sippys won't even hang out with you but really, why would you want to? They always smell kinda funny and they leak! *eek*I know, they just don't understand! It's hard being sturdy AND pretty. Maybe someday there will be additions to your family once again but the forks and spoons are getting lonely, too! Their brothers and sisters go out to dinner and never return. So, be brave, little glass, one day you will have companions again! You will not always be the lone glass in the cupboard! Payday will soon come and so will your new friends and when they do you can get back at the plastics by taking their spots in the dishwasher so they come out so bent out of shape, they don't stand up right!

Your Day Will Come!!!

Pizza Snowmen and Graham Cracker Gingerbread Houses

I am pretty sure that "Family Fun" magazine is going to be calling me any day to ask me to be a consultant! When you ignore the swearing, screaming, silent treatments, panic attacks and random crying jags, I am the funnest mom ever!!! The advent calendar has been going pretty well, we missed a couple days but for the most part we've done each one. Every year I wish I had done Christmas better and while there are things I want to do better next year, I feel pretty good about this one!

The other night we had a "Fun Dinner Night" and we made pizza. But not just any pizza! That's right, we made a snowman! Audrey and Annie thought that was pretty cool and devoured that poor snowman. He never knew what hit him! Here he is:

Today we braved the Hap-Hap-Happiest Place on Earth- Wal-Mart, and got stuff to make Graham-Cracker-Ginger-Bread-Houses. It was a messy and quick project and a reason to have candy around. Have you noticed all my "fun" ideas involve food? No wonder my bum is jiggly!!

So now the trick is to figure out what the heck we will do for the rest of this time off. Everyone is home till January whatever and Audrey is off track till eternity! I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and that you all get the pony you asked for! No lumps of coal, well, unless you asked for it! Merry Christmas!!

Breath of Heaven

One of my favorite Christmas songs ever, in fact, it's probably in my top 3 is Breath of Heaven written by Amy Grant and sung by many but my favorite version is the one by Vince Gill, singing as Joseph. Here are the original lyrics:

I have traveled many moonless nights,
Cold and weary with a babe inside,
And I wonder what I've done.
Holy father you have come,
And chosen me now to carry your son.

I am waiting in a silent prayer.
I am frightened by the load I bear.
In a world as cold as stone,
Must I walk this path alone?
Be with me now.
Be with me now.

Breath of heaven,
Hold me together,
Be forever near me,
Breath of heaven.
Breath of heaven,
Lighten my darkness,
Pour over me your holiness,
For you are holy.
Breath of heaven.

Do you wonder as you watch my face,
If a wiser one should have had my place,
But I offer all I am
For the mercy of your plan.
Help me be strong.
Help me be.
Help me.

Breath of heaven,
Hold me together,
Be forever near me,
Breath of heaven.
Breath of heaven,
Lighten my darkness,
Pour over me your holiness,
For you are holy.

Breath of heaven,
Hold me together,
Be forever near me,
Breath of heaven.
Breath of heaven,
Lighten my darkness,
Pour over me your holiness,
For you are holy.
Breath of heaven.
Breath of heaven.
Breath of heaven.

This song is one of the most REAL songs about the birth of the Savior. It is so personal, like reading a page out of Mary's Diary or listening to her pray! Mary did one of the hardest things in the whole history of the whole history. She was the Mother of the Son of God. I can't imagine what this young woman must have felt when she was told who she was and her role in history. I will say that Joseph is included, in theory, he could have walked away but he didn't! He was to be the Earthly Father of the Living Christ. I just think of the fear I feel in being a parent of my kids. I worry that everything I do or don't do will shape them into the adults they will be one day, the choices they may make and how they will feel about the Gospel and their relationship with their Father in Heaven. And here they are about to raise the Son of God! It puts everything into perspective! I think each and everyone of us has our moments of feeling inadequate or needing His Light because we are consumed in our personal darkness! We all have times of calling out for help or even a slight "Breath of Heaven". Every time I hear this song it makes me want to cry because on some level I can relate. I'm not saying I am of Mary's caliber-anyone who knows me well knows I am nowhere close! But I can feel her fear, her concern (or in Vince Gill's version, 'his') and her need for strength. It always reminds me where I need to go to get that strength when I am looking in all the wrong places. It doesn't matter if your concerned about being the Mother of our Savior, single and maybe lonely, struggling to do what's right, fighting to get out of bed each day, or just a mediocre mother. We can all call on God for that simple "Breath of Heaven" to carry us through and "lighten our darkness".

Lily has a rough day and gives herself a bath!

This is my sweet "Lilykins"! I know she doesn't look so happy in the picture but it was a dark room and a bright flash! She has had a rough couple of days! She is falling off things, running into things, falling down stairs and that was all last Friday!! Yesterday, I was in the kitchen with her and she was on the kitchen bench playing with something and all of the sudden there was a "boom" and she disappeared! She walked right off the bench! She then fell off another chair, tripped, bonked her head on the table and the worst one was while I was making dinner I went downstairs to get some beans. She was laying on the floor and I swear she looks like a doll when she does that! It's not real often that she will just lay still on the floor so it throws me off everytime because she really looks like a doll! Anyway, I came back upstairs and went to step over her, thinking she was just a doll or pillow (I wasn't really paying attention to what I was doing) and I kicked her right in the face!!! She sobbed forever while I rocked saying over and over again "I'm sorry! I am sooo SORRY!!" She was probably thinking, "What did I ever do to you?!?!" Later that night, I opened the fridge door and it hit her on the other side of her face!! Luckily that wasn't a hard one but she had a little red mark! It seemed like no matter what I did I somehow hurt my baby!!

Here she is that night, there is chocolate involved here but see the red line? Yeah, my shoe print! Mother of the Year Award right here!!

Today was just one of those days that you get to the end of it and you are amazed everyone lived! Annie was grounded by 8AM! Yes, that means morning!! I didn't even have my contacts in and she is grounded from friends and her V-Smile!! She hit Audrey on the head with it! I heard it from my bedroom in the West Wing when they were in the North Wing!! That girl drives me to drink!!! Let's just say that from there the joy continued with a lot of screaming, crying and "I hate you's" and that was just me!! No, that was really Annie! I was the one turning red in the face with the vein popping out my neck trying to keep my cool and not live out the pictures flashing through my head!! Then, Lily has discovered a new trick! If the bathroom door is open, she goes in, climbs on the toilet then pulls herself up on the sink and turns on the water! That is a major injury waiting to happen and of course with how often the bathroom is used by little people, the door is left ajar frequently! I heard the water running and knew what was going on this morning! This is what I found:

Annie was a climber but I really think she has met her match, which scares the bijeebers out of me!!! Lily is coming up on 18 months soon and I really hope she makes it to 2 years without a broken bone or serious damage! I hope I make it!!!

She apparently wasn't feeling so hot today, either. She just laid around most of the day, well, until ElRey gave her some Motrin then she was back to her hold self which we all love even if she exhausts us all!! She is a sweet angel bumpkin cakes!!

Santa! Wait...I have to pay to see him...???

Yeah, so we went to see Santa at Southtowne last week. The girls were so excited! I've gone to this Santa because I just really like him and he looks like Santa for real! Plus, you could take a picture with him with your own camera, but no longer!! TOTALLY LAME!! They have the place set up really cool this year but apparently the economy is hitting them, too, because now if you want a picture with Jolly Ole' St. Nick you have to have them do it and pay an atrocious amount of money (I think) just for a 5x7! We were not impressed and if we weren't already in line and the girls so excited we probably would have bagged it. But, after the 30 or 45 min. wait, it was our turn. I don't know if it was the same guy they have used in the past but he was super nice!! Annie even talked to him! That is progress! We told him what Lily wanted-a 57 inch LCD TV with 2 year subscription to Direct TV. He said he would see what he could do! I HAVE FAITH IN HIM!!!
So, this was all the pictures we got since he is apparently copyrighted or something but the girls were happy and that's all that counts!

Busy Saturday~

This is just proof that Annie's hair does get done, once in a blue moon! I can barely brush her hair let alone get her to let me do something with it! This was a rare treat!

This past Saturday it seemed like we were running from one fun thing to the next! We started off at the Festival of Trees. Audrey's friend Erin had a birthday party there and I offered my help so me and Annie got to go, too. The kids went straight to the Kid's Korner (I've never understood why they speel things wrong when it's kids stuff! Aren't trying to teach them how to spell!?!?!) where they had crafts and little fun things to do. That is where we stayed! They kids were having a blast and I don't think we saw any Christmas trees except the ones we passed but the kids couldn't have been happier. We ended it with cake and presents. I'm telling you, to be a kid now, oh, to dream! They have the coolest stuff! Some of it was from my day reincarnated but Hannah Montana, and High School Musical-I would have been in heaven with that kind of stuff!!

The Giant Bubble Machine

Annie is talking to an elf

Spencer wanted to see what was going on:)

Manicure, of course!!

Gone Fishin'!

We then went to Audrey's first basketball game of the season. I love going to that stuff! She seems to have athletic talent and I am more than willing to encourage that! Her and Erin (I promise they don't live together...yet!!) are the only girls on their team this year, but my little princess isn't at all bothered by that! She loves the boys!

I think Erin was the tallest player on the whole court! Audrey is in the red pants.

After that, the girls with with ElRey to by our Christmas ornament for this year and then ElRey and I went on a much needed date! We went to his company dinner and then saw "Bond, James Bond". I know I'm a girl and all but holy good crap, I love that stuff! Bond, certainly doesn't hurt the eyes and I love a man that takes charge-even with a gun or a good fist fight! Totally reminds me of ElRey;)! So, yeah, I thought it was good stuff! I must be getting old though because I can hardly watch a movie without subtitles any more! You have jam packed action, fast talking AND you throw in ACCENTS!?!? I need a little help!! Needless to say, it was a busy but great day!

Oh, the Logic of Magic!

Just some funny magical moments with my kids.

~Audrey put this on her blog I copied straight over:
Crismas is fun to me cus we get presns frum sante nick he has majic if you don't hav a chimnee.

~ElRey was at the store with the girls and they walked by some Bratz stuff. I am not a fan and have a rule that they are not allowed in our home. For some reason this really bothers Annie and whenever she sees them she says something like "mom, why can't I have Bratz, you make me want them". Anyway, she's kinda obsessed. So, they are at the store, sees the Bratz, and Annie says, "We can't have Bratz, huh. Mommy doesn't like them, huh." Then she said to Audrey, "Hey, Audrey, maybe Santa doesn't know Mommy doesn't like Bratz and he will bring us one!" Daddy said, "Santa doesn't like Bratz either." Annie-"Oh, man!"

~Audrey lost another tooth this week just before bedtime one night. We put them to bed, Audrey made sure her tooth was under her pillow, the Tooth Fairy went and got cash to take care of the tooth and completely forgot to make the exchange!! The next morning we realized what had happened just as she was waking up so we were trying to get a hold of the Tooth Fairy to get her neglectful winged butt over here and Audrey was telling me she hadn't come. I was saying things like, "Maybe your name didn't get on the list since you lost it so late." Her reply, "No, your name goes on the list magically!" *crap* "Well, maybe you woke up before she could get here!" Audrey, "No, it's already morning!" As I was trying to come up with another excuse for the Tooth Fairy Audrey says, "Maybe she's just really old!" As though that explains everything! Considering my kids think I'm really old I found that rather rude! I was trying so hard not to laugh and wet my pants I think I pulled something! Needless to say, the crazy Fairy realized her mistake, she apparently had the 'sniffles' and gave Audrey an extra dollar for the mistake.

I love their explanations of how things happen and I love that magic is apart of it! It's hard to break through such logic!!

'Tis the Season~

It's time for the best time of year! I love Christmas time! It's the only time of year I listen to Johnny Mathis, Alabama, and Vince Gill, oh yeah, and the Osmond's OF COURSE!! It's the only time I want snow and the only time I spend GADS of money just because! I love it! Growing up we had great Christmas'! My parents always did so good! So good, in fact, we are still wondering why they aren't giving us gifts for 12 days of Christmas, boxes of cold cereal as presents and we are still all looking for our Easter baskets...but that's another story! I want my kids to look back on their Christmas' with that same joy! I have been trying out different traditions each year to try to get going. So far, we have putting up the tree the day after Thanksgiving and gingerbread houses sometime during the month. Audrey had a little helper

I love this picture even though me and Lily are cut off. My girls are so cute!!Lily knew just what to do!

I don't want it to just be about getting presents, I want it more about family time and love. So this year I am more on top of it (a little) and I found a wooden Advent calendar and I put an activity in each day with a small ornament to hang on it (it's a Christmas tree). That is pretty ambitious of me and I hope we can keep it going. So far, the girls have been pretty excited to see what we are doing that day. They aren't all big things, there is reading Christmas stories and watching Christmas movies but there is also going to Temple Square, shopping for each other, seeing Santa etc. Today's activity was making reindeer cookies. They weren't as big of a hit as I thought they might be but they are cute! Aren't they sooo cute?!? The reindeer, too!!:)Audrey need nourishment after all that hard work!

Yesterday we read a Christmas story

This is what happened....

ElRey found us all dead to the world when he came home! On the 1st we talked about doing this. I used the scripture in Helaman where Samuel the Lamanite is telling the Nephites what signs to look for that will tell them that Christ is born and then said that these activities are 'signs' of His coming birthday that we celebrate. I thought that was a pretty good idea, I'm pretty proud of that one! So, if any of you have cool tradition ideas you want to share feel free! I am always looking! It's amazing to think how hard our parents worked to make it special when we just expected it. Now its our turn and its harder than it looked!! So thanks, parents, for making awesome memories for us that we all hope we can continue with our kids!!

Thanksgiving Rocks!!

Thanksgiving, the precursor to the one of the best times of the year! What I great day we had! I started off with the Human Race 5k in Draper. It was wet but fantastic! Last year it was 21 degrees so I will take the rain and 40 degrees! I took a van full of buddies and we rocked that race!! I was shooting for a personal best. That fastest I've gone on a 5k is about 30 mins. This time I did it in 28 mins and 15 secs.!!! I was so excited to know I did that!! It made me giddy!! I saw some friends there, too! Richel was there with her sister and brother and I saw a friend from the Logan days- brad and his wife Liz and a friend from my childhood, Erika! It's so great to see old friends! Some of my Running Peeps- Erin, Amy, me, and Alison! This was Erin's first 5k and she did awesome! Alison kicked all our trash with 26 mins.! Go Alison!!We had to get a pic with the big turkey-do you think he knows we are going to eat his cousins later?? MAHAHAHA

Later, that day we went to my parents for some good eats! All my brother's were there, that live here so it was a lot of fun! I love hanging with my family! They are some of the funniest and greatest people I know!!

Lily wasn't feeling so hot so she just laid in my lap. She had a fever from an ear infection, I think. Poor baby!!

Audrey with her cousin buddies! They just love each other!!

Ben, Jacob and Audrey.

One have my handsome and talented brothers, Mike and his daughter Allison. He is much happier than he looks!:) Cute, little baldy!!
This is Lily AFTER we found some Tylenol for her! She was much happier!

It was a great day! The food was AWESOME and the company even awesomer! There is nothing like starting off the day with great friends doing something you love and finishing the day with family and food! I hope your Thanksgiving was just as great! If you feel like it, share what you did!!

BEWARE of too much turkey and pie- this could happen to you!!!!

No, it's all about ME ME ME!!!!

I was tagged by the lovely Rachel so the deal is I have to share 8 things about me for your reading pleasure (or boredom, or sleeping aid, whatever you use my blog for). So, let it begin....

1-I love non-sugary cereals like Grape-nuts and Puffed Rice! I know, it's like eating Styrofoam but I love it! When we were growing up we never had cold cereal except for the one box we get the night before Christmas-we each got WHATEVER kind we wanted! My bro.s were getting Cookie Crisp or Sugar Bombs or some other disgusting sugary muck and I picked Puffed Rice! Also, the first 'solid' thing I ate after having my wisdom teeth out was a bowl of Grape-nuts...dumb idea! I hurt my mouth so bad since I hadn't been chewing ANYTHING for 3 days! If you have never had Grape-nuts, they are probably they hardest cereal out there! It's like chewing gravel! Oh, how I love it! I thought I was going to die!!!

2- When I was a kid, my older male cousin thought it would be wicked-cool to get a perm. We were at some family thing, a baptism maybe, and he walked in with this silly perm and just as I pointed at him and said, "who let that girl in!?!", a lady I didn't know walked in right in front of him and looked at me like I was talking to her! That is still one of my more humiliating and stupid moments of my life!

3- I think Xanadu is one of the greatest movies EVER!! Michael Beck in short short skating with only one button fastened on that awesome Hawaiian shirt is HOT!!! I really do think it's one of the greatest!

4-I am a treasure chest of useless information! I have a photographic memory for all things unimportant and stupid! Try to get me to memorize a scripture or important facts and you've lost me but I can play "6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon" with the best of them! Or give you a description of Michael Beck's (who knew that guys name but the one and only Mindi!!) awesome outfit in Xanadu in the "I Take The Fall" skating scene!

5- I love exercise! Yes, there are days when I have to talk myself into it but I love it! I would exercise vigorously for 2 hours a day if I could! I don't do so well on the eating part all the time but I do love to move it!

6- I love novels! I am a novel junkie! I'll read most anything but novels are my fave! I don't know what I would do without a novel around-in fact I am in that position now and I feel very naked and afraid without something to read!!!

7- I have always been active in the church, some times not so into it and I have made some really dumb choices but I have never really faltered on what I know to be true and I plan on keeping that way-even if taking 3 kids under 7 sucks right now! If I can make it through this I can probably make it through any faith shattering event...maybe I shouldn't say that out loud...

8- My mom was a health nut when we were growing up before it was 'cool' to be one. I mean that woman was up at the crack of dawn till she went to bed cooking and preparing food, grinding wheat, making bread, pasta, we never ate real candy or soda and we never had a frozen dinner or cold cereal as already mentioned. My aunt and uncle thought that was bad parenting and took it upon themselves to show me and my 3 older brothers what we were missing. While my parents were on a CES Jerusalem tour, Aunt Connie and Uncle Karl took us to Yellowstone and let us eat anything our little hearts desired! Each and every one of us ended up "marking our territory" with vomit throughout Yellowstone! I am pretty sure that when my parents found out about that, they had a nice chuckle over it!

The 8 people I tag are: Ruth, Jana, Heather, Carlee, Tristan, Stephanie, Tamara, and Brooke! If you've already done this or you just don't wanna, no worries but I had to come up with 8 or the Blogging Gods would make my water taste like chlorine and set a mouse loose in my house....oh, wait that's already happened..well whatever! Enjoy!!

"Climb Every Mountain!"

EEK!! We have offcially entered the climbing stage!!! Woe is me!! It was nice knowing you all, I am now too busy pulling Lily off of chairs, tables, the computer, the toilet, the end table, and soon I am sure it will be the ceiling fans!! Remember me, talk of me, send me chocolate and Diet Coke at the Funny Farm. I will either be going there or I will need to ductape Lily to the wall just to keep my sanity!!! Heaven, save us all!!!

"I knew I could fit here!!"

"HELP! I am so stuck!!"

I wonder who is in charge at this house?!?!

"Do you mind, I'm working here!!"

This is me at the end of the day. Don't ask me about the hand...I don't have an answer except maybe it's comfy!? Will you buy that?!?