Jason, Julie, Lorenzo, Claire & Delia!!

21 days of crafting.

2010-11-22T15:01:00.007-07:00

While Jason was in China for 3 weeks I got busy making LOTS and LOTS of crafts!! Then my friend had a craft boutique at her house, so I decided to make even MORE crafts. The pricing is from the boutique.

Christmas watch band

$10.00

Patriotic band

$10.00

Pink zebra band

$10.00

Zebra band

$10.00

Crystal and white band

$10.00

Valentine's Watch band w/heart lock & key charm

$10.00

Brown flower headband

$8.00

Hot pink flower w/black rhinestone headband.

$8.00

Black flower w/green rhinestone headband.

$8.00

Kitchen Aid Decal

Flourish in Silver

$7.00

Cookies for Santa etched plate

$5.00

Kitchen Aid Decal

Subway tile in Lime Green

$10.00

Christmas Countdown blocks

kit $10.00

completed white or brown $19.95

Give Thanks decorative plate

$15.00

Give Thanks blocks

$15.00

Thanksgiving stacker blocks

$10.00

Glass blocks

$15.00 each

Sacrament activity bags

Gobble till you wobble decorative plate

$5.00

Halloween watchband

The kiddos are growing up!!!

2010-06-27T19:28:00.002-06:00

Lorenzo age 8...getting ready to be baptized!!

Claire is already SIX years old!!

Miss Delia is turning TWO on Wednesday!!

One YEAR oLDer and WiseR tOo!!

2010-06-05T06:54:00.003-06:00

So EIGHT years ago today at 10:37am Lorenzo Abbot was born! Boy have the years flown by ever since. He is a great little man that really does try to do his best in all he does. He is very curious and busy...but that is what keeps me on my toes! :o)

He just finished up the 2nd grade yesterday and is moving on up to 3rd grade next year. He is also so excited to be baptized in July and join cub scouts next week.

We LOVE you buddy!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Teacher gifts...

2010-06-03T10:42:00.009-06:00

So I found a cute idea that I added to for Teacher gifts this year...

Popcorn bucket was found by the microwave pop corn at Walmart. I bought 2 boxes of theater candy and threw in some small bags of Twizzlers. I added a "Things To Do" checklist, and a little money for pizza and a movie. It all goes along nicely with the A&W with the note.

Dry Erase Things To Do list

I bought one of those 5x7 frameless picture holders with the little stand in back. Cut out some cute scrapbook paper to be 5x7. Made a "Things To Do" checklist and printed it on cardstock and attached to the scrapbook paper. Slip the checklist into the picture holder. Using glue dots I attached some ribbon and a flower w/rhinestone center.

Little Caesars man I printed from online cut a slit in his mouth, glued to a piece of cardstock leaving a pocket for the money to slip into and cut out around him.

I LOVE my cricut and SCAL software...the sky is the limit with them. I re-created the redbox logo and cut it out of white vinyl. I attached it to a 2.5"x3.5" piece of red cardstock. I cut a little curve into the red cardstock, glued around the edges and added it to some white cardstock with a curved out end and made sure to leave a pocket for the $1.

Confessions of a DORK!!

2010-06-03T10:41:00.001-06:00

So I guess sometime last year when I was blogging more faithfully I changed my comments to have to be approved by me before publishing (don't remember doing that, but I guess i did.). So I kinda stopped blogging because I didn't think anyone was even checking it anymore since I never saw comments on my posts...sniff, sniff. So today I decided to blog, and discovered there were almost 60 comments awaiting approval for publishing from over the year, some from March of 2009! YOU ALL DO LOVE ME :o) So alas I will start blogging more religiously...I hate to disappoint!

Miss Fancy Nancy!!

2009-10-28T12:02:00.003-06:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, with GREAT pleasure (that is a fancy word for happiness) I present to you Miss FANCY NANCY!!!

Professor Quirrel

2009-10-28T08:15:00.004-06:00

So the kids school is not doing Halloween costumes, which is fine by me. Instead they are have Character Day where the kids dress up like a character from one of their favorite books. Lorenzo really wanted to be Harry Potter but we couldn't come up with an easy to make costume...so Jason suggested Professor Quirrel. With that said, may I introduce to you....PROFESSOR QUIRREL!

Frozen breakfast ideas!

2009-10-07T09:57:00.004-06:00

Breakfast burritos:

(makes 14 or you can stuff them more and get 12)

12 ct large eggs ($.99)

1 lb sausage bits (I use Honeysuckle White turkey breakfast links, and squeeze the meat out of their casing) ($2.42)

1/2 lb bacon bits (I use Lois Rich turkey bacon and cut into bit size pieces before cooking) ($1.25 for 1/2 lb)

8 oz shredded cheese ($1.25)

12-14 flour tortillas ($1.25)

Only $0.50 a piece if you make 14!!!

Cook sausage and chopped bacon in a hot skillet, can use a TB of butter/margarine to help prevent sticking. When sausage and bacon are cooked all the way through add in the 12 eggs cook all ingredients together until eggs are done stirring/scrambling often. Add shredded cheese in and mix through. When assembling burritos, microwave tortillas 2 at a time for 10-20 secs to help with flexibility while folding. Place some egg mixture into center of tortilla, fold up bottom 1/3 of tortilla over mixture, then fold in both ends and fold up final 1/3. Place burrito onto a square of foil and fold foil around burrito using same folding method. Freeze. Pull burritos out the night before un-wrap the foil and then re-wrap it loosely, this should prevent burrito from sticking to foil when it is cooked. Place in fridge to allow it to thaw a bit. Cook in preheated 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until warmed through.

First day of SCHOOL!!

2009-08-24T09:01:00.003-06:00

I think the kids look so cute in their little uniforms!! Claire is trying to patiently wait for PM kindergarten to start...she is watching Ice Age right now...Delia wanted to join in all the first day of school fun so I gave her Lorenzo's backpack from last year...it is as big as she is!!

Lorenzo is in the 2nd grade and has Mr. Lennox...he is so excited to have a "BOY" teacher!! He says he loves his name, his hair color and his glasses!!!

Claire is starting kindergarten with Mrs. Soto...she is so excited for school to start!

What will mommy do with 3 hours to herself? (hopefully Delia will nap!!) The possibilities are endless!!!

All the projects I've been working on...

2009-08-14T14:06:00.005-06:00

Pardon my absense for the last little while. Summer is always crazy with kids and projects!! So here is a glimps of what I have been up to...

Claire's Room

This is the lovely paint job done by previous owners...the triangles were never finished on the fourth wall.

I painted the top of her room a really pale lavedar color and then the bottom half is an off white.
Jason did the baseboards, my dad came and helped figure out how to do the chair rail on the reall bowed wall we have...and then I did the rest...yes the miter saw, nail gun and I are really good friends now. The miter saw was even so kind as to let me keep ALL my fingers!! :o)

Another angle of Claire's room. My dad had built her shelf a few years back. He and I also cut out the letters in her name.

You can't really tell it this picture but I put up trim around her windows and a window sill. Completes the look!

Delia's Room

I didn't get any before pictures of Delia's room because I wasn't planning on doing it so soon. But my mother-in-law was so brave to take all three kids over Pioneer Day weekend, so I hurried and got her room painted while she was away. It is a very, very pale green color...doesn't translate too well on the computer...but is it very soothing. Best of all it was FREE, my mom and dad had an extra can from when they painted my dad's office...makes the color that much more awesome!!

1970's dresser my oldest sister had growing up...

same dresser with a fresh coat of semi-gloss swiss coffee and some new hardware!! VIOLA!

Now to finish her room I am making a cute little bow organizer out of an old frame, white paint, cardboard, fabric and ribbon...pictures to follow!

Miss Delia is the big O-N-E!!

2009-06-30T22:58:00.004-06:00

Our little girl just turned ONE today. I can not believe how fast this past year has gone. She is such a joy and little doll to have. She is just such a happy little girl, yet is quite feisty and can hold her own when it comes to her big brother and big sister.

Delia has been sleeping through the night since late August...which made for one happy mama. She learned how to roll and scoot right on que and did the CUTEST little tiptoe crawl at 6 1/2 months. She would often look like she was doing a full blown push up. Once she started crawling there was no stopping her...she was fast and determined to get where she was going!

Delia is now trying her hand at walking. She discovered the art of standing herself up a couple weeks ago and LOVES to stand and either take a few steps or happily falls on her little diaper protected tushy!

She is just a delight to get up from her naps and bedtimes...always greets you with a SMILE. She loves to laugh and has the most adorable squeel and yet can do a mean scary monster impersonation too!!

We are so glad that she is our little energetic bundle of joy...and are super lucky that she is so darn kissable!

We love you Missy Deelers!!

Should I be scared or proud???

2009-05-02T14:50:00.003-06:00

So now that the weather is nice, it is almost time for gardening! We are trying to get and keep our garden area in the back yard free from weed...aren't we all?!? The kids get to help with this responsibility. We give them a plastic bag and they have the choice of $.10 a pound or 10 minutes of video games a pound. We're not out to make them RICH!! :o) So today, Lorenzo chose to get 10 minutes of video games per pound. After about 15 minutes (weed picking done in-between playing) he shows me how much he had done...eyeballing I guessed about 1 lb or 10 minutes. He decided to keep going...more playing with a bit more weed picking, 10 minutes later, the bag is still about the same. Impatient, he rolled his eyes, said "this will take FOREVER!" Suddenly all happy-go-lucky he comes back inside and proclaims..."I think this heavy bag will be like 100 minutes!" Wow, that was fast! He wanted to get down the scale and do it himself, but I took his grubby, muddy hands off my clean cabinets and got the scale myself. I took his bag that hadn't changed much in size since the first round and noticed it was abnormally HEAVY! I hesitantly say "to my surprise" because nothing that boy does surprises me, I found at the bottom of his bag a few descent sized rocks and a few handfuls of dirt. I'm not sure if I should be scared that he is so deceitful or proud of his intuitiveness! Needless to say...no video game privileges were earned today!

Cute little clip I found in the newspaper!

2009-04-25T19:58:00.002-06:00

Diaper deals

2009-04-08T04:51:00.002-06:00

I found an AWESOME site for discounted diapers...pampers, huggies, luvs etc. It is www.diapers.com. You can save $10 on your first purchase by using me as a reference! Just use JULI4115 as a promotional code!

I bought luvs at Walmart for $.20 per diaper. The same luvs at diapers.com were only $.15 per diaper (with promo code.) And they get shipped right to me!!!

I want my $3.47...give me my $3.47!

2009-03-19T20:43:00.003-06:00

Totally long I know, but don't you want to feel my pain?!?

So with Missy D now on the move, it became very necessary to accessorize our stairs with a little bling in the form of a gate. Not so hard...WRONG!!!

My sil Stacey had the perfect baby gate, and bonus...she has the same house that we have. I called her up, got the maker of the gate, Regalo, and the model number #1160. Next I ordered the gate via, Tooele's only shopping choice, Wal*mart.com. The gate came, whawhoo!! I put it up super fast, go me!! And it was too small...the pressure screws were fully extended and the gate would buckle if the kids leaned into it...I'm thinking that is NOT a feature we want. I tried to add the 6" extension piece, but that made it 2" too big. UGH!! So I left it up, better than nothin, and went back to the coutore store of Wal*mart and ordered the other gate that had 2 different sizes of extension pieces.

I waited 2 weeks and then voila, it came! Same problem...apparently even though the manufacturer swears no changes have been made to the gate in many, many, many years it is 2" bigger than Stacey's, hello I know how to use a tape measurer.

The solution? Get the #1165 model, apparently that is the only way to get the desperately needed 4" extension piece. I searched high and low and then the gate gods smiled upon me and there it was at Overstock.com for $52.99 plus $2.95 shipping and the icing I had a 10% coupon. (Insert angelic Ahhhhs here!) I ordered it on a Friday afternoon and thought all my wows were in the past.

Saturday morning my brother David called and said that they were no longer going to use the gate anymore and wanted to know if I wanted it. Heck ya!!! I "chatted" with Overstock, no phone numbers for them, I was told it was too late to cancel, but I could return the item once received. DO NOT refuse the delivery, it will mess up the return. Okay, got it. Put up the gate from my brother and it fit like a glove!! Gates from Wal*mart were going back!

I got the gate the following Wednesday, placed the UNOPENED box inside by the front door. Got online tried to start a return, had a glich and had to "chat" with customer service again. Yada, yada, yada I got a prepaid UPS shipping label, taped it on the UNOPENED box. Jason then took it to work with him (Go UPS!) the next day.

Fast forward to today... I see that the gate was delivered on March 12th. I went to Overstock.com to check the status...CLOSED, No tracking info available...WHAT?!? I got on the "chat" and this is what unfolded:

Danny: Thanks for contacting Overstock.com, this is Danny, how may I help you today?
you: hello, i was checking on the return status of 74193845
Danny: Hi, I will be happy to check and help you with that.
Danny: Thank you for the order number.
Danny: For security purposes, could you please verify the name and complete billing address ( with the zip code ) on the account?
you: julie ward
you: address divulged here
Danny: Thank you for verifying the details on the account, Julie.
Danny: Just to confirm, are you referring to 'Easy Step Extra Wide Metal Walk-Thru Gate'?
you: yes, that is correct
Danny: Thank you for confirming the item.
Danny: Would you mind holding online for 3 to 5 minutes while I check on this for you?
you: that is fine
Danny: Thank you for staying online, I really appreciate your patience.
you: yes
Danny: Julie, I see that your return has been completed on 03/12/2009.
you: okay and how much was credited back to my discover card
you: are you there??
Danny: Yes, I'm here.
you: can you tell me how much is going back on my discover card please
Danny: Julie, our trained specialists at our returns warehouse will evaluate the returned items, since our specialists found that the item is Not Restockable and Excessive Signs or Wear.
Danny: That's the reason we not issued you the refund.
you: THE BOX WAS NEVER OPENED!!!

It when on back and forth for an HOUR with me YELLING through CHAT that the gate was in BRAND NEW, UNUSED condition!!! He offered me $30 in-store credit! WHATEVER!!! Then he offered $35 in-store credit...YEAH RIGHT! I told him something unethical was going on in their return depart and threatened to get our local tv's Consumer Investigator to look into this. Then finally he wanted to know why I returned the gate, so I gave him the rundown. Then this is what happened:

Danny: Thank you for staying online, I really appreciate your patience.
you: yes. and looking back at my chat it was Malcolm that gave me the return label
Danny: Julie, since we value your business with us I'll go ahead and issue you the full refund back to your card.
Danny: That sounds good?
you: not that you just value our business, but because the item was never opened in the first place
you: but yes i will accept a full refund to my discover card
Danny: I do understand your concern.
Danny: Thank you.
Danny: I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused in this regard.
Danny: I am happy to help. Do you have any further questions for me?
you: how long will it take to process this credit to my card
Danny: Refund will be issued to your account right away by Overstock.com , however it depends on your financial institution as when the refund is issued to your card.
Danny: The chat conversation reference number is 090304-007132.
you: thank you

Then 3 hours later, I get an email from some Derek guy saying that Danny "miscommunicated" the refund amount. I would not be getting back my $2.95 shipping, fine, but then he said they were unable to refund my $3.47 in sales tax because state sales taxes are not refundable....WHAT? I always get them back elsewhere...plus no where in their refund policy is this stated!!! They are very shady...which brings me to my title! I want my $3.47!

***UPDATE*** They just emailed and said that they would issue a refund of $3.27 for the sales tax.....I want my 20 cents, give me my 20 cents! J/K They can keep my 2 lousy dimes!

What do Renzo and Ralphie have in common??

2009-03-10T09:30:00.004-06:00

Here's a hint: It has nothing to do with a Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle with a compass in the stock, and this thing which tells time.

Apparently it is very typical for boys around 7 years age to give a bunch of attitude, but this mom is done with all the SASSIN' going on here and has turned to the assistance of a trusty assistant...It...it 'twas SOAP poisoning!

Lorenzo will soon be able to commiserate over the following adage "Over the years I got to be quite a connoisseur of soap. My personal preference was for Lux, but I found Palmolive had a nice, piquant after-dinner flavor - heady, but with just a touch of mellow smoothness. Life Buoy, on the other hand...” Only he will just have to settle for the fresh flavor of Irish Springs!

He is resisting to bow to the soap. After having a few licks of it last night he foolishly said, "That did nothing to me!" Which in turn got him a few more licks for good measure. Oh boy, we have our hands full...good thing we have a YEAR supply of the lathery goodness! :o)

You are no longer welcome in my home!

2009-03-05T23:33:00.002-07:00

Dear Misters Influenza, Sinus infection and Ear infection:

I would truly appreciate it if the three of you would pack up your belongings and exit my home IMMEDIATELY! We have accommodated some or all of you for the better part of a week now and as a sleep deprived MOM, I am commanding that you cut your stay short and leave. You have left me with no energy and here I am at 11:30 at night listening to my 4 year old daughter crying with an owie throat and a painful ear. Thanks a heap for the gifts, but really you could have kept these ones to yourselves! Tomorrow, with all the strength I can muster up, I will be cleaning, deep cleaning as to remove all signs of your unpleasant visit. So please, please, please leave us in peace!

Yours truly,
Tired, exhausted, delirious MOM

PS Please close the door quietly behind you as the 4 yr old FINALLY fell asleep.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T07:42:00.001-07:00

Daylight savings...

2008-11-05T16:49:00.005-07:00

How bout this for a bumper sticker; "I turned my clocks back and all I got were these bags under my eyes!" I know the saying goes that you are supposed to gain an hour of sleep when you "fall" back, try telling that to a 4 month old. Delia now thinks that 5:00 am is the new 6:00 am!! Ahh, that makes for a grouchy, cranky, sleepy mommy! :o) She wakes up for the day, ain't no feeding her and putting her back to bed. Then like clock work at about 6:00 am she gets sleepy, just in time for the two other to munchkins to be getting up. We are a Happy Family (as Claire starts throwing a hissy fit)!

Brilliant!!

2008-11-02T06:24:00.006-07:00

So last night was our long awaited, well kept secret from March, little rendezvous to Hale Center Theater's Into the Woods. Oh my goodness, it was AMAZING! I was told by all who have attended there in the past that because it was a theater in the round, there were no bad seats. Well that my be true, but obviously there are some seats that are bound to be better than others. With that said, I dare say that we had some of the BEST seats in the house!! Curtain 2, Row 1 seats C&D! Yes that is right, this early March ticket purchasing bird, had bought FRONT row seats...and had forgotten that she did until Jason mentioned it upon picking up the tickets at will call. (go ME!!)

The set was awesome! I had no idea how amazing they could dress a stage/theater. Leaves, vines, trees surrounding you. The center stage rotated in two directions giving the illusion that the caracters were walking miles into the woods. The stage also raised and lowered, hiding and revealing the casts. A tower rose over on one side to house Repunzel, and a beanstalk grew on the other for Jack's adventure. AWESOME, truly it was! The cast was fantastic. Well played, amazing voices. Repunzel's prince was HILL-AR-IOUS!!!! A true actor whose facial expressions could have told his part without the use of his incredible voice. The witch was so spookily dressed, quite creepy, complete with the crooked nose and pronounced chin. Red riding hood, played the part so well and had the facial expressions that tied the prince for 1st place. I used all the power within to contain myself to my seat and resist the incredible urge to join them on stage and sing with them. Very fun and thariputic for me, but quite scary for the other paying theater goers. You see I am no "closet" fan of Into the Woods. I saw the VHS (hee hee) recording of the broadway preformance back in 7th grade English with Miss...oh her name just left me. I loved it, LOVED it, LOVED IT!! When I was at Ricks, now known as BYU Idaho, I wisely joind BMG (a cd purchasing club). I happened upon the orginal broadway soundtrack of it and could not resist the temptation, I had to have it for my own listening pleasure.

Over the years I would BLARE the cd throughout the house, singing with all restraints let loose, actions included. A true performance enjoyed by all...Lorenzo, Claire and of course Me playing the parts of narator, Cinderella, the baker, his wife, Jack etc...I must admit that over the last 17 years since first watching the musical at school, I have unknowingly ommitted a good part of the performance. You see, the dialogue was not a part of the soundtrack. When I secured the tickets, I was basing the 7:30 pm showing on a 1 1/2 hour performance (the run time of the cd) and thought we would be out at 9:00 pm and home between 9:30 - 10:00pm. Oops, my bad. We got out at 10:30 pm and home by 11:15 pm (including the 15 minutes it took to just get out of the parking lot!) Our babysitter Sadie was a trooper! Luckily all three kids were angels (cup hands together and insert ahhhhh here!)

I seriously could go on and on about the night and the performance, but I won't. Just if you do happen upon the chance to see this show, take the opportunity. If you happen to walk by my home and witness me skipping and singing off key through my home, please resist the urge to stare and laugh, just walk away...I'm simply starring in my own production of Into the Woods, and tickets are NOT available at the door! :o)

FYI...

2008-11-01T08:31:00.005-06:00

I just noticed that a couple of new posts got bumped to "older posts" apparently I over blogged last night and prematurely aged some posts. I altered my settings and now they are back on the front page. I'm so nice :o) Make sure you scroll down and see "Halloween Day" and "4 months and counting!"

Shhhh do you hear that???

2008-11-01T07:59:00.001-06:00

Oh yeah, It's Christmas music on the radio!! Is there a better sound than that? I think not! So I will take this opportunity to change my backgroud, yet again...enjoy!

Pardon my absence

2008-10-31T23:09:00.012-06:00

I know many of you have missed me, and those of you that haven't, well probably don't even check my blog, so there you have it. Anyway this LONG post is dedicated for all you missers of ME!! So go raid your kids Halloween Loot and enjoy! Not that I do or anything!

Where have I been, you ask. I have been dusting off all my Mother of the Year awards and making room for 2008's! Oh, no wait, that wasn't me, never mind. The true answer would be actually quite boring so I will just move right along to the kids school Halloween Carnival.

School Carnival

2008-10-31T23:09:00.010-06:00

Lorenzo's school had their annual Halloween Festival on October 3rd. We had a fun time again this year! We played the little games as usual, this year Claire won the "top prize" on three of them and walked away with a stuffed pink snake, blue alligator and fuchsia fuzzy dice! Lorenzo also won a "top prize" and chose a dinosaur figurine whose head and arms fall apart when you push a button, tre cool!! The kids had fun on the ginormous bouncy toys on the playground. This year the school sold individual tickets and "unlimited bands" that allowed you do go on the bouncy toys as much as you wanted so the lines were extremely long, so Lorenzo went on the skater slide once and Claire chose the bouncy house. Q: And what's a Halloween Festival without the cotton candy that is as big as your head? A: Don't know, because we all had one!! :o) I dressed Delia up in a warm snuggly Winnie the Pooh jammie thinking we would be outside a lot, we actually headed indoors after about 15 minutes, so the poor thing cooked in it and got very irritable toward the end of it. Can't say that I blame her!

Dwyers come to town

2008-10-31T23:07:00.004-06:00

My sister Marianne and her family came to visit the second week of October from Omaha. It was great seeing all of them since it has been over 2 years since the last time we got to see them. Claire, Emily and Ashley had a blast with each other being princesses, playing house and being thrown in the air by Uncle Daryl. Lorenzo had a great time with Daniel Scott, even though he kept calling him Jacob, crazy kid!!

Sauerkraut Dinner

2008-10-31T23:07:00.003-06:00

October 25 we went up to the Sauerkraut Dinner in Providence, UT. (just outside of Logan) Sheri had reserved me a booth there to take another stab at selling my cards, and flower clips. I don't know if you remember but I went a little overboard last year when I went to the Pumpkin Festival last October and made 50 sets of Christmas cards and then a couple hundred misc. cards and sold a WHOPPING none!! :o) So things could only progress this year right?!? And I am pleased to say that they did, we had a 100% increase in sales...for all you mathematicians out there that means we sold ONE whole card!! No one really sold much, except for the jewelry people. Oh well, at least I have a 10 year supply of Christmas cards. Why are you laughing? I'm serious! The dinner was so YUMMY the turkey practically melted in your mouth, the stuffing was awesome and the sauerkraut was...skipped by me, Jason loved it! There was an incredible balloon man there that could literally make ANYTHING!! Lorenzo had tazer gun made, Claire a princess crown and me, Jason surprised me with a turtle...a TMNT that is, I think it was Rafael. How thoughtful and romantic is he!! Oh, I forgot to mention that Jason and I shared a brainless moment together. We had our suitcase all packed with church clothes, toiletries, Delia's clothes etc... there it was packed and laying on our bed, and there it stayed, packed and laying on our bed. Oops! :o) We made due, borrowed clothes, luckily Sheri had 4 extra toothbrushes and all was well and a fun time was had.

2008-10-31T23:06:00.006-06:00

Okay, you're almost done...you can do it!! Take a moment and restock your candy raid and come right back.

Happy Birthday Jason

2008-10-31T23:06:00.005-06:00

Jason had hit the big 30 on Oct. 29th. I can't really tease him about being "over the hill", "half way dead" or any of those "old" jokes seeing that I beat him to the punch line last December. Oh well, welcome to the "other side" of the hill old man!! :o) I bought ticket to Hale Center Theater for Into the Woods back in March and was able to keep my grande mouth shut about the surprise for 7 months, I am so good at secret keeping! If any of you out there with a secret you are dying to tell, you've got a secret with me!! ;o)

4 months and counting

2008-10-31T23:05:00.003-06:00

Miss Delia Grace turned 4 months yesterday. I CAN NOT believe how fast time has flown by since she was born. I must use the proverbal saying that I truly can not remember nor imagine life with out her. She is such a doll, an amazingly wonderful baby. She sleeps through the night, eats great and is so happy and fun!!! Finally I was given an "inocent by stander" rather than ANOTHER drama king/queen, I just pray I don't have to eat my words in the future!! She went in today for her 4 month well check and shots...Happy Halloween to Delia! She did great, she weighs 15 lbs and is 24 1/2" long. What a big girl she is!! We will be starting her on gourmet rice cereal in the next few days, YUM-O!!

Halloween day!

2008-10-31T23:04:00.005-06:00

Now here we are, finally to today! Jason had the day off and spent it ripping out our chain link fence, at least on one side of the house. Our lovely HOA is starting to bug about our fence that has been up for YEARS and put in by the orginal owners 8 years ago...BLAHH!!! We also had a first today...wait for it...we carved our first pumpkin!! How LAME are we, married 8 years, have 3 kids and have never carved a pumpkin prior to today!?! It turned out quite cute and we may just repeat this activity in the future. See you can teach an old girl new tricks!! :o) I took the kids T or T'ing, first we stopped by our neighbors home for a little Twilight Halloween gathering. We had some yummy chili and treats and were off on our Loot collection. Lorenzo was a zombie ninja and Claire was a barbie maripoza princess courtesy of Gma Melanie's birthday present. Holy cow did they get a TON of candy, so much that I had to carry their bags because they were "TOO HEAVY" I think I earned a 20% commission if you ask me ;o)

Well, tomorrow starts the beginning of Christmas music on the radio!! Hall-le-lu-iah!!!

Our adventures in Providence...

2008-10-04T12:05:00.005-06:00

On September 26th we headed up to Providence for Shaylee's 6th birthday party. We were able to take the new Legacy Parkway which made it smooth sailing! We got there about 5:45 pm and was able to have PIZZA and Yummy TREATS. Sheri's neices and nephews were over and the kids had a great time playing. Jason even ventured out and they all played Ghost in the Graveyard and KICK the CaN. A great time was had by all the "kids!" Claire, Shaylee, Rachel and Grandma Sheri STUFFED the pinata full of candy, I think it ended up weighing 10 lbs!! :o)

Jason, Delia and I slept out in the trailer. When we went to bed it was fine outside, but during the night temperatures DROPPED and poor Delia was not dressed effiently, but like a little trooper she still slept through the night even in the cold air and in her porta crib. We had fun the next day at Shaylee's party. The kids got spoiled with lots of candy, and cute party favors. They were able to decorate cupcakes that were made by Chef Kayson! The kids LOVED swinging in the GIGANTIC tree swing they have in the backyard. It was a great time in Providence!

It's the pits!!!

2008-10-03T13:04:00.005-06:00

Claire is a little silly goose! She has this thing about "pits." She obviously knows what arm pits are, well her thought is, if arms have pits then legs must too! When she washes herself in the tub she always cleans her "leg pits" behind her knees. The other day Claire asked me, "what are these?' pointing to the corners of her mouth. I told her they were the corners of your mouth, she said "No, these!" pointing at the same place. I tried again with "skin? lips? mouth?" She promptly told me, "No, they are mouth pits!" So there you go, a bit of anatomy for you all! :o)

The magic of Photoshop

2008-09-23T22:10:00.001-06:00

So as you can see by my changing background, and title header, I have rediscovered my love of computer graphics. I LOVED taking all of my art classes back in college and had forgotten the addicting and fun aspects of Photoshop. Now granted I am no pro and by all means I had bought Photoshop back in '98 so it is missing A LOT of the bells and whistles of the many, many, many newer versions. On that note, I hope you enjoy the different types of photos and such to come!

Our serene visit to a wide open field...

started out as a nightly T-ball game!

Ward camp out 2008!

2008-09-16T22:00:00.004-06:00

Ward family camp out that is! We decided to have one last hoorah while the weather is decent. Please ignore the random house in the background, I promise we went to an actual campsite! :o) The kids had a BLAST, we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows over an open fire, by we, I mean Jason! Might I add that he is quite the open fire chef, thanks for the yummy dinner. Jason and the kids slept out in the tent, while Delia and I had our beauty rest in a civilized manner. We took video of the kids sharing their versions of scary stories. I have not been brave enough to watch them yet, after I muster up the courage to view them, I will share them with you our faithful audience. Side note, I have to also figure out how to upload them too! :o)

Eureka and Rip Van Delia !

2008-09-15T18:23:00.005-06:00

Much like Claire, Delia never did take to a binky. I guess I will never get to make those cute little jeweled binky clips, so sad! :o( This brings me to the first part of the title; EUREKA. Without looking at the picture, I'm sure you can guess where I'm going with this.

*Just for the record she has not been given any nyquil, benedryl or any other sleep inducing medication!

I can hardly believe it myself, but little Delia has amazed me with her ability to sleep. I know by sharing her accomplishments I am jinksing myself into a sleepless night tonight! he he he Delia went to bed last night at 10:30 pm and got up today at NOON!!! I had to go in and wiggle her occassionally to make sure she was okay. She has taken really good naps today to boot. Can I just say how much I love this little bug! :o)

Olympics 2020!

2008-09-12T16:07:00.003-06:00

Start saving your money now so you can watch this gymnast at the 2020 Olympics! :o) Claire started gymnastics last Tuesday and really enjoyed herself. About 10 minutes into the class she proclaimed her tiredness, but she persisted. I'm sure it is apparent that she has developed a new way of coping with new situations...check out the ends of her sleeves! YUCK!!! Her little friend Megan will be signing up for the same class, so that will be extra FUN! Claire got to learn the 7 starter positions of gymnastics and is demonstrating a few in the photos. She already got to take a stroll on the balance beam and got to enjoy the trampoline. Thank you Grandma Rene for helping make this possible. :o)

Our little princess!

2008-09-12T10:55:00.002-06:00

I did a little photo shoot with Delia today in her blessing dress!
She looks like a little doll in her fancy dress. :o)

Delia's blessing

2008-09-10T08:55:00.005-06:00

We blessed our sweet little Delia this past Sunday, September the 7th. We had so fun with all our family that traveled to be here. Thank you all that came to support our family and bless Delia. Jason's mom made the GORGEOUS dress that Delia was blessed in, and I used ribbon from my wedding bouquet to make her hair bow, what a beautiful little girl she was! Sheri was an amazing help and held Delia all through Sunday school and Relief Society! After the block of meetings we had a yummy dinner. I had made shredded bbq chicken sandwiches. I cooked the chicken the night before and was so excited to be able to use the NEW roaster I had gotten for Christmas. To my great disappointment upon plugging it in, it started smoking and being really stinky, an apparent electrical problem. I ended up using my two crock pots and all was well in the universe! :o) However I cooked WAY TOO MUCH chicken, after collaborating with my sister, we decided to cook 10 lbs of chicken, nope, no typo there, I cooked 10 lbs. Needless to say it ended up being 5 lbs too much!!! :o) I was able to freeze the extra so I have two I don't feel like cooking dinners now!

Birthday Bowling!!

2008-09-09T07:22:00.004-06:00

This year we celebrated Dad's birthday at the Army Depot out here! We had it exclusively for 2 hours, which was AWESOME!! We had quite the BLAST!! The one bad thing about taking pictures while bowling is, if you want an "action" shot you have to take it from behind! Sorry folks! :o) We had a lot of fun and yummy munchies too. Claire couldn't get enough of my sisters guacamole, can you blame her? :o) I know Jason and Aaron really had fun bowling against each other, I think they are the only ones who actually looked at their scores. A few of the lanes were out of commission, they had a hard time returning the bowling balls, ANNOYING! My lane was very generous though and gave me a courtesy point for every gutter point, boy did those add up! ;o)

8 years ago today!!

2008-09-08T17:09:00.005-06:00

What happened 8 years ago today? Jason and I got married!!! These last 8 years have FLOWN by! It has been FABULOUS being married to Jason and I can't wait for another 88 years! Well actually I can because I would be 118 years old! :o)

Today we went into Salt Lake and had lunch at the Cheese Cake Factory! Yummy!!! :o) My friend Liz watched the girls for us while Renzo was at school. We had a lunch date seeing that Jason is already off to school up at the U of U. I can't wait for him to graduate next fall!!

Strike that from the record!

2008-09-04T10:00:00.002-06:00

So on Labor Day we went into my mom's and dad's for a bbq but we stopped by Mark and Melanie's before hand. When we walked in, Melanie said, "Hi Renzo, or should I say Isaac?" Renzo looked at me with a serious face and said, "You shouldn't have put that on the website." So I am officially striking the last post from the record...but it's too cute to actually delete!

Renzo has grown to like his name again with a little help from my friend Dianna. She shared that her husband, a police officer, works with a guy named Lorenzo. They have nicknamed him Snow for the same reason! After telling this to Renzo he said, "Coooool, I'm a police officer." All things are right in the universe again! :o)

The child formerly known as Lorenzo!

2008-08-26T09:05:00.002-06:00

So Jason shared with me this conversation he had with Lorenzo the other day.

Lorenzo: "So Dad, I want you to call me Isaac from now on."
Dad: "Why, do you want me to do that?"
Lorenzo: "Because all the kids at school make fun of me, they call me Lorenzo Snow."
Dad: "That's a good thing, Lorenzo Snow is a good person, he was a prophet."

Lorenzo left not being too convinced! It seems like no matter how hard you try kids always find something they can tease people over. I guess I should just be impressed that at this age they know who Lorenzo Snow is!! :o)

First day of SCHOOL!!

2008-08-21T08:59:00.006-06:00

In honor of the first day of school, I created this background, LOVE IT!! :o) So today is Lorenzo's first day of the 1st grade! He was so EXCITED to go, his buddie Oliver Grimes is in his class along with some friends from Kindergarten. His teacher's name is Mrs. Mason, she is new to the school, but I've been told that she is AWESOME!

Last night I was HORRIBLY sleep deprived!!! Delia woke up 3 times as opposed to her 1 time, and to top that off, Claire was up in the night with the FLU, AHHHHH!! I think in all I had 3 hours of sleep, not to mention that I am currently fighting a sinus infection. Oh well, life goes on!

Getting lost in a sea of people entering school.

Visiting Ms. Seiter (kindergarten teacher)

Lorenzo was more excited to show her his new shoes than to show her Delia!

Lorenzo at his desk, his friend Ollie sits right behind them...this could spell TROUBLE!! :o)

Sitting proudly at his new REAL desk, Mrs. Mason is in the black jacket.

Lorenzo showing Ollie the morning routine of writing the "popcorn" word of the day; today it is "the."

Making flossing EASY!!

2008-08-19T07:21:00.007-06:00

(WARNING: Some photos are NOT for the faint of heart) :o)

So I realized that I never posted about Lorenzo losing his first tooth. Back in May Lorenzo single handedly pulled out his first loose tooth. He pulled it out right before he and Jason went to the father and son campout so he didn't loose it while camping. (pics to come later, I can't find them on the computer)

Today, Lorenzo pulled out his second tooth! It flew out of his hand and hid itself in the family room carpet. Luckily I was able to put in my eagle eyes and find it, only to have to later repeat the search as he managed to drop it again in his room! Needless to say that if he is wanting a visit from the Tooth Fairy, his tooth is OFF LIMITS!!

This background brought to you by the letter J!

2008-08-17T21:51:00.007-06:00

So, pardon me while I toot my own horn. This cute picnic background has been brought to you by your's truly! Who knew I could cut my own hair and now create my own background, what will I discover next...oh the possibilities! :o)

Oh, and I have to share that I am now the Primary Choirister! I'm so excited, I've seriously ALWAYS wanted this calling! There is something just so special and exciting about the children's songs. If we were playing Go Fish I would yell "Got what I asked for!"

Playing catch up!

2008-08-16T14:24:00.001-06:00

Not that I have the best of excuses for not posting more often, but alas I have finally taken the time to update you on our summer's adventures! Go pop yourself some popcorn, get comfy and enjoy the many posts.

Almost 7 weeks old!

2008-08-16T14:07:00.004-06:00

It's amazing how fast time has flown since Delia was born. She is such a fun, cute, cuddly baby. We LOVE her so much!!! She is such a smiler, and very happy...as long as she is being held! Poor little thing had impetigo last Saturday which is a topical staph infection, it looked like really bad eczema but we couldn't clear it up. I finally took her into her doctor and got some anitbiotics for her and it cleared up in two days. When we took her in she weighed in a 11lbs 6oz which means she has gained almost 4 lbs in 6 weeks, apparently she is doing quite well! ;o)
We sure do LOVE this GIRL!

4th of July!

2008-08-16T10:24:00.004-06:00

We had a fun 4th of July! We had a bbq and my mom’s and dad’s house. Aunt Bea brought a slip and slide that the kids had a BLAST on! Stacey’s dad and his wife Angie came from Louisiana to visit and joined us. The kids had fun with the annual firework display. Delia and I stayed in the house to keep her out of the smoke!

My crazy brother Dave thought it would be fun to let the kids throw those Pop-its at his bald head to make them pop. It sure did work, but it actually left burn marks on him! That didn’t seem to stop him from doing it again and again.

On the way home, my sister, Kathryn, and her family got in an accident. The traffic lights were out, leaving the back roads pitch black and they found themselves in the middle of the intersection and got hit by another driver that did not treat the area as a four way stop. It was quite the ordeal, but all in all everyone is fine and only Kathryn is left with some whiplash. Thankfully nothing more serious occurred.

Roasting marshmallows

2008-08-16T10:07:00.004-06:00

Jason decided to build a make shift fire pit in our backyard. Now I'm sure you are thinking that we are nuts digging a hole in our lush green grass, well we tricked you! That is not lush green grass, but lush green WEEDS! The kids had fun roasting marshmallows, but boy was it too hot outside to stand around a fire. We will definitely be using this more as the weather cools off in the evenings!

The many owies of Claire:

2008-08-16T09:45:00.004-06:00

I know that I mentioned that Claire got whacked in the eye with a 2x4 by my sister's neighbor boy while I was in the hospital with Delia, but I never posted pictures. How sad! :o(
Then on July 23rd, she and Lorenzo were playing in his room, when she started howling and balling and came in saying she hurt her head. She was not kidding!! There was a stream of blood pouring from her head and she ended up needing 2 stitches. We went to her doctor for the stitches and it ended up costing us $80+, the doctor's office billed the insurance $539 for 5 minutes worth of work, REDICULOUS!! It actually would have been cheaper for us to go to the ER!! Dumb insurance!

Major League Renzo

2008-08-16T09:00:00.009-06:00

Watch our Major Leagues, here comes Lorenzo!! Lorenzo and a great time in T-ball this past summer, Jason had fun as the assistant coach too. Their team was the Kansas City Royals, coincidently enough Jason was sent to Kansas City for work and was able to get Lorenzo and pendant and some KC baseball magazines. Thanks to all the grandparents for coming to watch and support him, he loved performing for his fans! :o)

Blog problems

2008-08-02T03:54:00.001-06:00

For some weird reason, Internet Explorer will not support our blog site any more. It always says operation aborted, we are trying to fix the error.

2 1/2 weeks later!!

2008-07-17T19:02:00.009-06:00

Can you believe that Delia is now 2 1/2 weeks old? Time has definitely flown bye. She is doing great when we took her in for her 1 week appointment, it was actually at 9 days, she was up from 7 lbs 11 oz to 8 lbs 1 oz. Dr. Abarca was very impressed with her weight gain, he said that usually they like to see the baby back up to birth weight by 2 weeks and the fact that she has gained is great! She is really filling out, her little thighs are chunking up and she is getting a double chin, I think that this is the only time in life that these are good and welcoming things!! :o)

Lorenzo and Claire really love her, and at times are on the verge of smoothering her with loves. They have to always out do each other; if one gives her a kiss, the other has to give her 2, then the other has to give her 3 kisses and a hug etc... I'm glad that they love her so much, but at times it can get out of control!

I can only image she is thinking, "Man earth life is SCARY!"

She has so much dark fluffy hair!!

Meet Delia Grace!

2008-07-01T22:32:00.005-06:00

Monday morning we went in bright and early at 6:30 amto be induced. It was a long day, but by 4:10 pm our little Delia Grace finally came. She weighed in at 7 lbs 11 oz and was 20 inches long. She has lots of dark hair and is absolutely GORGEOUS!! Lorenzo and Claire love her so much, give her tons of kisses, love rubbing her hair and holding her. My sister Kathryn took the kids for us Sunday night through Monday and then again on Tuesday. The kids had a blast at her house. On Monday Lorenzo got bonked in the mouth with a toy lantern and now has a VERY wiggley tooth that he can't wait to pull. On Tuesday, Kathryn brought Claire to us at the hospital because she got smacked in the eye with a board by a little neighbor boy. Luckily her cut didn't need medical attention, just frequent changes of band aids. We came home from the hospital this evening around 5:30 pm. It is so nice to be home. Delia is doing great and is a little love bug!

Mommy and Delia.

Daddy and his second little princess!

Proud big brother!

Claire will be a wonder big sister!!

Birthday Boy!!!

2008-06-05T16:14:00.011-06:00

Can you believe that Lorenzo turned 6 years old TODAY! (side note: It is also the 6th anniversary of Elizabeth Smart's disappearance)

Lorenzo is such a ham and handful, it has been a long 6 years, but it has also flown by so fast! Lorenzo has graduated from Kindergarten and is greatly anticipating the 1st grade. He can't wait to have more recess time and eat lunch at school. I don't think he quite realizes that going to school 6.5 hours verses 2.5 hours doesn't quite classify as more recess! :o)

Lorenzo still LOVES/is obsessed with Star Wars, but now he has added Indiana Jones to the equation. He is definitely ALL boy! He talks about both of these things virtually all day everyday. We just got all new windows on Tuesday, and he talked the poor installers' ears off about Indiana Jones. I honestly think Lorenzo could see he had an occupied/captive audience and took full advantage of it! :o)

Lorenzo is LOVING t-ball. We have had a rainy season and have already had to have 3 games cancelled due to rain, bummer for him but great for the water bill! :o)

We sure do love this little guy and would definetly have a boring existence without him... :o)

Lorenzo got to go to the movies with my sister today. They went and saw Hoot. The movie theater has a summer movie program where you can go to 10 older movies for $1 each, she had an extra ticket and took the birthday boy!

Tomorrow we will have a small party for Lorenzo. I wasn't going to do a party for him this year, but came across a very low maintance MOVIE themed party. I decided to go ahead and give it a go. We'll watch Alvin and the Chipmunks downstairs with popcorn, licorice, soda and other fun treats. I made little Popcorn bags to send the party favors home in, such as mini popcorn bags, candies and capri suns. The invites were Admit One tickets that I made in one of my computer programs. I think it will end up being fun.

Final outcome of haircut!

2008-05-02T10:59:00.006-06:00

Okay, so I didn't keep my promise of no more snipping!! This is now how my hair looks, this time I really do think I'm done! ;o)

Spring Cleaning!

2008-05-02T10:59:00.004-06:00

Jason had a four day weekend and so we were able to get some Spring Cleaning and backyard repairing done! We decided to go ahead and get Jason an early Father's Day present of an edger! Wow, what a difference it makes with the lawn. The kids had fun helping clean out the garage, and except for the headboard I need to black, the garage is ready for me to park in. The yard is coming along, but it still has plenty for us to do in it, boy was it neglected!!

T-ball Opening Ceremony

2008-05-02T10:58:00.002-06:00

April 26th was the Opening Ceremony for the Babe Ruth league. Lorenzo got to get all dressed up in his T-ball uniform and go out on the field with his team. Here's to a fun season!!

Field Trip to Wheeler Farm

2008-05-02T10:57:00.002-06:00

Kindergarten Field Trip to Wheeler Farm:

On April 18th all the kindergarteners went on a field trip to Wheeler Farm. I went along to help out and ended up being in charge of a group of 5 CRAZY BOYS!! Part of me feels like Lorenzo's teacher was giving me a small dose of the medicine she takes on a daily basis with Lorenzo!! :o) We had a great time, although the buses were almost an hour late due to the fact that they sat at the WRONG school waiting for us. It was unclear wether the kids were more excited to go to the farm or ride the BUS! We got to feed the ducks, see all the animals, take a tour of the farm house and have a tractor ride. It was a great time for all!

My haircut!

2008-04-16T11:23:00.003-06:00

So I know there are not many pictures of me on the blog. Don't be surprised, but that is actually by design! :o) However, this post will contain 2 pictures of me, can you believe it? I got tired of my long hair and decide to take the plunge and get a haircut. Now I came to a dilema, who do I go to?? I asked people for suggestions on where to go and I got so many mixed reviews. After one month of debating on where to go, I finally just got it cut. What do you think??

So would you believe me if I told you I cut my hair MYSELF?!? I figured if I goofed up too bad I could always go to a professional for repairs. My only problem is I keep snipping a bit off each day. Jason fears that when he gets back from Kansas City I will be bald! I have declared my haircut done and will not let myself cut anymore...well atleast not big amounts! :o)

Playing catch up!

2008-04-15T10:44:00.006-06:00

Well, it has been a while since I have posted. What a busy few days we have had. (Side note, I added some pictures to older posts; Easter Celebration and Sick and Tired)

Jason is gone this week to Kansas City. We miss him, especially since the weather is fairly decent this week and it is perfect yardwork time! :o) We did however work in the yard on Saturday, we rented a cultivator to help break up all this stinky rocky dirt we have. We pulled out the pine bushes in the front and I started prunning/sawing the hedges in the back to clean up the look. This poor yard was very neglected!

After nearly 3 months since the accident and 2 weeks in the shop, my van is as good as new! Apparently the autobody shop painted all the pieces before piecing it back together and when they put the new panel on it was off by 1/2 inch so they had to redo everything again. I guess in auto work the saying should be "Measure twice, paint once!" :o) The shop ended up paying for the extra 4 days of car rental for me, so I really don't have anything to complain about!

Lorenzo has started T-ball for the season. He is doing really well in it, it helps that Daddy loved T-ball/baseball growing up. Jason is actually the Assistant Coach for his team, the Royals. We'll have to post the game schedule once we get it for all of you faithful Lorenzo supporters! :o)

Random events and happenings.

2008-04-04T11:56:00.002-06:00

So last night I was only up for 1 hour, so I got about 6 hours of sleep, Yeah!! I still have my nighttime cough and sore throat but feel pretty well during the day, I just have no voice.

Lorenzo is quite the LADY'S MAN, heaven help us all! When I helped out in his classroom on Tuesday, this little girl Kate came up to me and said, "I'm Lorenzo's girlfriend, I have a crush on him, my name is Katherine Marie Jackson." I was dying in side laughing! Then another little girl came up and said, "Do you remember me, I'm Sanovia, I used to be Lorenzo's boyfriend (she meant girlfriend)." Oh no! This boy is only 5 and he has had more girlfriends in his short life then I had boyfriends by the time I was married!! Ha Ha!! :o)

Our van is finally in the shop this week getting fixed from the Walmart incident back in January. I had a rental car for a few days, but luckily Jason and his office partner car pool and Dean drove yesterday and today. The car was supposed to be fixed yesterday but wasn't, here's hoping it is done today!

Sick and tired of being SICK and TIRED!!

2008-04-02T09:01:00.006-06:00

The day after Easter, Jason was off to Vegas for work. I just never quite did get a real chance to unwind from our trip! Jason will be off again to Kansas City on April 14th thru the 18th, I'm dubbing myself the "Brown-widow" get it, UPS, brown, brown-widow! HeeHee!!

Last week around Thursday, Claire developed croup and was up during the night several nights in a row. One night she came in around 1:30 am, and told me, "I can't bureave (breathe)." So I got up with her and sat in a steamy bathroom for about 30 minutes. Then Saturday evening it hit me, I have had a really bad sore throat, no not strep, and a painful and annoying cough. Claire and I had to miss church on Sunday, Jason spoke in sacrament, so I was sad I had to miss it.

Sunday night I got all of 2 hours of sleep, Tuesday morning I was up by 3:00 am and this morning I was up at 5:00 am. I am so tired, but everytime I lay down, the cough gets worse. Needless to say I am POOPED!!

Sunday night we played a game of Go Fish at Lorenzo's request. This little boy is INTENSE when he plays games. I know it is typical for kids to want to always win, but Lorenzo takes it to a new extreme. Here are just a few of the funny things he said during the game.

After giving up a few of his cards to both Jason and I, he got mad and said, "This game is so... I don't want to say a naughty word!"

He had all his cards all in dissaray, I asked him for a card, he quickly looked at his hand and told me to "go fish." I asked how he knew what cards he had with them all jumbled up, he simply replied, "I am wise."

When the game was coming to an end, Lorenzo was clearly winning, but Jason ended up getting a match with one of Lorenzo's card. Lorenzo bursts out, "This is WAY LAME!!"

How to teach a 5 year old to be a gracious loser, or winner in this case!?!

Easter Celebrations!

2008-03-22T21:41:00.003-06:00

After our trip to California, it was Easter! Boy did it come early this year. We had a fun barbeque and egg hunt at my mom's and dad's house. I'm so glad that they had an egg hunt planned, because our trip pooped me out and we didn't even color eggs this year! In fact our Easter dinner was spaghetti and salad!

California Adventures

2008-03-22T21:40:00.003-06:00

Thoughts still to come, but enjoy the pictures until then.
Since then, when Lorenzo tells people about Grizzly Rapids he keeps calling it "Grizzly Bunnies." I finally asked him why he called it that, and he said "I mean Grizzly Rabbits." Funny!!

Huntington Beach

2008-03-22T21:39:00.005-06:00

On Wednesday we drove to Huntington Beach. We pretty much just parked in the first parking area we found, not realizing how far it was from the pier. We had a fun picnic lunch and stroll along the beach as we made our way to the pier. We stopped at Baskin Robbins for a little treat before heading down the pier. It was a fun day, but not the relaxing one I had envisioned as I am sure we walked hundreds of miles!! :o)

We stumbled upon a ball of goo that come to find out was a beached jellyfish. No worries, we didn't touch it! Jason found an amazing sand dollar in the ocean, good eye! I found a few empty oyster shells, nope, no pearls! :o( I found a beautiful starfish, that was still alive, so I scooted it back into the water. There were many people walking around with these still living starfishes, I'm hoping that they were not keeping them, big meanies!!

We ended up being at the beach for 4 hours, longer than we had planned on. I walked away with really burned owie legs :o(!! We were so tired when we got back to the hotel that we scrapped our miniature golf trip we had planned on taking that evening, we hit the hay in preparation for CALIFORNIA ADVENTURES!!!

DISNEYLAND!!

2008-03-22T21:38:00.004-06:00

Well, we had a successful and exhausting trip to Disneyland! We took Monday, March 17th at 2:45 am. Our crazy kids did NOT fall asleep in the car, yes, that's right they were awake during the wee hours of the morning.

The drive went great, the kids were real troopers. We had purchased a DVD player which worked out AWESOME. We hit some snow showers near Cove Fort, which was not fun to drive thru during the night. All in all the drive was very uneventful which is not a bad thing. We got to our hotel at about 2:00 pm California time, so we made great timing. We went swimming in the hotel pool and spa which was a great treat after being cooped up in the car for 12 hours. We had Hawaiin Haystacks for dinner, I had prepared everything at home so it was an easy throw together meal, and then we were off to bed in preparation for "D-day"!!

Disneyland was very fun and very exhausting! For poor Claire, the theme of the day was "I'm sorry, but you're too tiny!" She was so excited to ride Splash Mountain with Daddy, only to find out the she was just a hair too short, she was so sad that she sobbed and cried and carried on. We did have a fun time riding the Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, exploring Tarzan's Treehouse, riding the Mark Twain Riverboat, Storybook Island and many other rides. Me being pregnant and banned from many rides spent most of the time taking pictures and patiently waiting! :o)

One big tip though, no matter how old your kids are, or how well they walk...ALWAYS bring a stroller!!

Lorenzo "Picaso" Ward

2008-03-13T21:53:00.005-06:00

Tonight Overlake Elem. had its Night of 1,000 Stars, showcasing artwork and writings of its students. At dinner Lorenzo was telling us all about Picaso, art and such excited to show off his masterpiece. The kids had profiles done of themselves that they then decorated and wrote a class poem. Very CUTE!!

The poem reads:

Fases
We aLL have fAses.
Owr fases hAve mowths.
Owr fases have ises.
We all are diffrent.
That Makes us speshl.

The final stretch before DISNEYLAND!

2008-03-13T21:47:00.002-06:00

I'm sitting here in denial that it is already the final days before we take off to Disneyland. I have to admit that I never thought we would really end up going. Back in December when I spontaneously suggested that we go "next year" I truly thought that somehow the whole thing would get swept under the rug and forgotten. Apparently I have two elephants for children and there was no way this was getting forgotten! We did finally break down and buy a portable DVD player for the car, I could only imagine the headache and frustration we would be facing with a 5 yr old and 3 yr old strapped in the car for 12 hours without one. We did a test run with it today, complete with the car adapter and headphones, I think (fingers crossed) that this will be a saving grace for the drive! We have a lot to do before 3:00 am Monday morning so I'm guessing this is the last post B.D. (before Disneyland!)

Our little trees!

2008-03-13T21:41:00.002-06:00

So our nectarine and peach trees have come!! We are soaking them for 24 hrs in some root vitamins before planting them tomorrow. I know that they don't look like much now, infact nothing more than twigs, but someday we will be having nectarines and peaches come out our EARS!!

The good weather streak has been broken!

2008-03-08T07:35:00.008-07:00

Yesterday we had a fun filled, full of kids day! We had Oliver Grimes over while his mom went to the temple with the other members of the RS Presidency. He has morning kindergarten with Lorenzo, he is in Miss B's class. The kids had a great time having lunch outside, the weather was GREAT! I made them lunchables which is TONS cheaper than buying the real macoy and they loved them just as much. I think I will make them again for our pitstop on the way to Disneyland! When they were out there Brynlee came out to play and joined them. We also had Timmy and Sabrina over for their regular Friday visit. It was a crazy fun day!

Well today was going to be yard work day, due to the original forcast of almost 54 degrees and sunshine. However, apparently we've had too many nice days in a row and woke up to a cold and dreary day! :o( I guess poor Jason is basement bound another Saturday! We are now to the drywall phase of Lorenzo's room!!

Last night my mom & dad were in the area to see my sister's new baby. They stopped by with some Sam's Club pizzas, YUMMY! They also picked up some long awaited frozen Tilapia for me. This is the one thing I miss about switching from Sam's to Costco! We had a lot of fun, the kids had a great time!!

Nesting or Spring Cleaning!?!

2008-03-06T10:33:00.004-07:00

I'm not sure what bug bit me, the Nesting bug or the Spring Cleaning bug, but I am on a cleaning MISSION! The added bonus is that when we get back from Disneyland our house will be in tip top shape! I've been doing all the small projects that have just been overlooked. I finally put up the second set of curtain holdbacks for our master bedroom curtains. I also shortened the blinds in our bedroom so there isn't 3" of extra blinds just sitting on the windowsill etc.

New Disneyland Counter!

2008-03-05T12:03:00.004-07:00

I did not like the last Counter we had for our Disneyland trip. It was the only one I could find on the web, but it would only count down in month increments which is totally lame and takes the fun out of the countdown. So, I decided to make my own!! I found the castle image through Google and tweaked it in Adobe Photoshop, found a free image hosting site, uploaded it and created my own counter in SpringWidget!! Like the saying goes, "If you want something done right, do it yourself!!" :o)

Dodge Ball!

2008-03-03T22:01:00.009-07:00

Friday night we had a little Family Dodge Ball night courtesy of our Elder's Quorum. Do to my aversion of flying balls (a bad experience at a single's ward volleyball game) I happily watched, cheered and took pictures. Claire got hit by a ball very early on in the kids round and opted to just play with the toys in the nursery room, maybe this aversion is genetic!! :o) Lorenzo had a fun time when he was NOT on the receiving end of a good aim and threw an awful fit when was, good to see that he has good sportsmanship!

A huge sigh of relief on our end, our dented car situation shows a huge light at the end of the tunnel. The son of the man that hit our car has given us money for a car rental and prepaid CST Autobody for the repair! We are set to have our car fixed March 31st! YEAH!!!

The countdown has officially begun for our Disneyland trip. We should be in the Magical land of Anaheim 2 weeks from tonight! We have our tickets to the park in hand and our hotel reservations made! The kids are so excited, they are happy that the hotel has an indoor pool and a "magic" sofa that turns into a bed for them. It's great that at the age they are at you can put the word "magic" or "secret" in front of anything and suddenly it becomes the most amazing thing EVER!!

My sister, Kathryn, had her 10th baby on Yesterday. Abigail Hazel was born at 2:10 pm and is such a tiny little thing, 5lb 10oz. I got to visit them today, what a cutie!! Only 5 more months until we have our own cutie pie to love! :o)

Spring FEVER!!

2008-02-26T15:05:00.005-07:00

We have had such a beautiful day yesterday and today! The kids have been having a blast outside. Our bishop's cute little girl, Brynlee, was out in her backyard and came to join Lorenzo and Claire in playing in the yard! We LOVE having a real YARD!

Jason and I have had a great time picking out and ordering shrubs, flowers and trees for our yard. It was too hot last June when we moved in to do much to the yard so we are "going to town" with it this spring! We have ordered 2 butterfly & hummingbird gardens for the front yard, hydrangeas, roses, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, nectarine tree, peach tree and kiwi bush just to name a few!! :o)

Being Clowns!

2008-02-26T14:46:00.003-07:00

Every Friday I watch my niece and nephew while my sister-in-law volunteers at the elementary school, she watches Claire on Tuesdays for me. This past Friday we only watched Sabrina since Timmy wasn't feeling well, come to find out he had strep. Lorenzo and Claire had so much fun with her, they were being so silly, dressing up and being clowns! Hopefully they will have as much fun with little Delia too!

Snowed in on Valentine's Day!

2008-02-14T13:50:00.002-07:00

When it snows it DUMPS!!

So apparently 8" is just a dusting of snow compared to what we woke up to this morning! Jason wasn't able to go to work due to the 21" of snow on the ground! Here it is almost 2:00 pm and our roads still haven't been plowed. The kids' school was cancelled so we are all just having a nice quiet day at home.

Last night I cut out a bunch of hearts and placed them on the back of Lorenzo's and Claire's doors for them to wake up to this morning. The kids really wanted a fun Valentine's lunch and Lorenzo actually went down to the basement into the food storage room to find our cookie cutters. I know you all are probably thinking, boy that lunch sure looks like the one posted on Halloween, but I assure you that it is quite different. Today we had Cheesy Grilled Heart sandwhiches with liquid Love and purple balls, see not at all like the creepy lunch in October!

Happy Valentine's Day to all, we love you!!

The weather man didn't say it would be THIS bad!!

2008-02-13T22:04:00.003-07:00

So yesterday was so absolutely wonder weather wise, I was totally spoiled the house actually reached 75 degrees inside! I knew it was supposed to snow about 1-3 inches today so I braced myself from doing the Spring Fever Dance!! But HOLY COW in 6 hours we got over 8 in. of snow!!

Our sleeping little Girl Cow!

2008-02-11T22:15:00.000-07:00

Tonight Jason called in to me from the living room, telling me that he could hear Claire crying, she had been in bed for about an hour and a half. I went in and asked her what was wrong and she told me, "Nothing, I'm being a girl cow." I asked her what she was doing and she said, "Moo, moo." So there you have it, she wasn't crying, she was mooing!!

Unfortunately our computer ate a bunch of Christmas pictures from our camera card. I am in the process of taking pictures of the kids playing with their gifts as opposed to the ones of unwrapping them since they were "eaten." :o(

Lorenzo playing with his K'nex "dune buggy" car that he and Dad built with his Christmas present from Grandmommy & Grandaddy!

Claire playing with her My Little Pony Tea Pot Palace that she got from Grandmommy & Grandaddy for Christmas!! I had a My Little Pony Nursery playset when I was little 7 or 8. How I wish I still had some of my toys, they would be well played with!

Our baby Girl!

2008-02-07T21:13:00.000-07:00

So the ultrasound told us that we will be having another little GIRL. So meet our little Delia Grace :o)

If you click on the above picture, you can see that she is "shhhing" us!

Look at her big beautiful eye!! :o)

It's a girl!!

Coming out of the woodwork in 2008!

2008-02-03T21:34:00.000-07:00

(Jason finally was able to get the camera and computer on speaking terms!)

Okay, so it is officially 2 months since I posted last. Sorry!! I know that it appeared that the mere fact of turning 30 made me keel over, but I am alive. :o) Wow, where to start with the ultra busy 2 months that has past!

Tonight we get to go for our ULTRASOUND! We are very excited. Claire thinks the baby is a girl and Lorenzo thinks it is a boy, go figure! :o) Atleast one of them will be right. Part of me thinks it would be fun to not find out until the birth, but Jason thinks that is silly! I guess he's right, plus I am no good with surprises so the suspense WOULD kill me!

Well, the time for us has finally come to join the 21st century and get...cell phones! We will be getting a cricket phone, no contract and unlimited minutes for just $30 plus tax a month. We will be losing our landline, sorry Qwest, but keeping our same number! Jason will be getting a Tracfone just for emergencies. We will no longer be the only living people without a cell phone!

Jason has been working like a mad man since school started the first part of January. He is CRAZY busy! He is working 10 hrs a day with UPS and then comes home and reads, reads and reads. He has at least 2 quizes and a paper due each week not to mention 100's of pages he has to read for upcoming assignments. Then on weekends he is working down in the basement, dividing our long room into 2 rooms. We will be moving Lorenzo down there when the baby arrives. It was funny, yesterday Lorenzo was down in the basement with Jason and told him, "You know Dad, I think it's time that we spend some quality time together, you know, just me and you." Sounds like a "Family, it's about time" commercial that the church puts out! (funny boy)

January 15 was a lame day for me! I was putting groceries in the back of our van at Walmart when this guy in a HUGE white truck tried to park to the left of me and WAY over turned and smacked the back of our van. This is what led us to finally breakdown and get a cell phone! Ends up that Jack Ellis' insurance policy expired in October, so of course, he was uninsured. With much debate back and forth and in an attempt to keep this post less then 10 pages, his son, Jake has agreed to pay CST Paint and Body to have our car fixed and mail us a check for car rental. Keep your fingers crossed for us! :o)

Lorenzo is just really growing up and wanting to take on some responsibility, not to be confused with "chores." He has learned a new skill of making his own PB & J sandwhiches and apple. I think we have gone through a jar of PB and a jar of jam since this first part of January! I'm sure that more lands on his tongue by way of knife licking than makes it in the actual sandwhich!

We have decided to take the kids on a trip to DISNEYLAND!! We will be going March 17 - March 21. We will probably only be spending ONE day a Disneyland and the other days going to the beach, relaxing and DRIVING, blah!! I got us a room at La Quinta in Santa Ana which is newly renovated and has a king sized bed and a sofabed, hopefully it will be a nice experience. We were trying to win a trip via KOSY radio station, until I saw that we would have to claim the winnings on next years taxes and have to pay gift tax on it...NEVERMIND THAT! Every weekday in January the radio station called the winner at 7:00 am to let them know they won. One morning Jason got up at 5:30 am for work, when he went out to the family room Lorenzo was up playing his leapster. Jason asked him what he was doing up so early. Lorenzo told him. "I'm waiting for Disneyland to call!" Too funny.

December 29 Jason took Lorenzo skiing up Alta resort. The towrope is free all day and they got half price off ski rentals for a few hours in the afternoon. I gladly stayed home with Claire in our nice warm house! :o)

December 25 was great day! The kids, Jason and I had a wonderful Christmas. The kids were well taken care of by ALL their grandparents and great-grandparents, THANK YOU to all!

The kids had a couple opportunities to visit with Santa. We went to Tooele City Hall December 1 after the parade (we skipped this, too cold and snowy!). We then saw him again at our Ward Christmas breakfast, what a blast!

I actually survived the shock of turning 30! I felt so yucky that we didn't do anything special, however Jason did surprise me with some store bought cinnamon rolls and peppermint ice cream.

Feeling crummy, tiny heart beat and turning 30!

2007-12-05T21:51:00.000-07:00

So sorry that my blog has become very boring. I do have so much to catch up on, the kids have done some pretty fun, funny and crazy things! I have been feeling so tired and so yucky that blogging is not quite at the top of my priority list. Jason has been an absolute lifesaver and has been making dinner and doing the dishes every night without fail and without complaining! :o)

I went to the doctor yesterday, Tuesday, and I got to hear the tiny heartbeat of our little baby. We will find out around Valentine's Day if it is a boy or girl, my money says it's a girl for the mere fact that this pregnancy seems to be mirroring Claire's. I had to get my blood drawn, standard procedure, but the gal didn't get the needle in so great and had to wiggle it around to get some blood. Finally she had to go to my hand to get the blood and by then it was 130 degrees in the room, the room felt like it was on a rocking boat and shooting starbursts were all around me. I was not doing so hot and almost passed out! I hate needles!!

So here I sit less than 8 hours away from the BIG 3 0!! I'm not quite sure how I feel about this milestone. Sorry Mom and Dad that your baby is turning 30, I tried to hold off as long as I could but the calendar just was not cooperating with me! :o) Life seems to be zooming by, especially this year! I can not believe that 2008 is a bit over 3 weeks away! CRAZY!!

Well, tah tah for now. I promise as I start feeling better I will be more faithful and dilligent in letting you peek into our lives!

Thanksgiving Day!

2007-11-26T08:24:00.000-07:00

Turkey drumsticks! YUMMY :o)

This cute picture is courtesy of Lloyd's daughter Amber! Thanx!

More to come!

Santa's little helpers!!

2007-11-23T08:50:00.000-07:00

Jason found this website last night, we love it!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9579101800

Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

2007-11-21T10:47:00.000-07:00

Our little Star!!

I just wanted to post pictures from Lorenzo's debut performance at his kindergarten Thanksgiving Program! He did so well and was just a cute little pilgrim! (check back later when Jason puts up some video of the program!)

Lorenzo nailed his poem that he had rehearsed time and again! Happy Thanksgiving, hooray hooray hooray! Aren't you glad that you're not a turkey on Thanksgiving Day! He practiced it with some actions and did most of them, but I think he was focusing a bit much on the microphone!

We are heading up to Evanston this afternoon to have Thanksgiving with Grandma Dorene and Grandpa Lloyd. We will post pictures of the yummy feast and good times when we get back!

Happy Birthday Grandma Dorene!!

2007-11-13T16:53:00.001-07:00

Today is Grandma Dorene's birthday!!! We love you, have a great day!!

Oh what clever kids!

2007-11-08T22:26:00.000-07:00

You can teach an old Tooth Fairy new tricks!

So Lorenzo comes in the family room Wednesday evening smiling. He told us that he was going to play a trick on the Tooth Fairy. He said that he put a penny under his pillow to see what the Tooth Fairy would do. "Lightbulb moment!" When I was sixteen I had some teeth pulled and for some morbid reason I have held on to these teeth. When Lorenzo was asleep I took the penny and put the tooth in it's place! He was so shocked the next morning and begged me to let him take it to school. Claire thought his "bone" was so "cool" too.

When Lorenzo came home from school he put the tooth under his pillow to return it to the Tooth Fairy. I asked him if he thought she would give him his penny back. He said he hoped she gave him a toy like she gave this kid at school. I told him she was too tiny to carry toys, but he insisted she had a wand and could zap a toy. "Lightbulb moment!" Jason had requested a free lego helicopter toy from some free website and we hadn't given it to Lorenzo yet and I could give him that. Seeing that Lorenzo would see this experience very profitable and would likely repeat it, I typed up a note letting him know the Tooth Fairy was too busy to come to his home again unless he lost a real tooth and put it under his pillow along with the helicopter. I put some stickers under Claire's pillow so she wasn't left out. They thought the whole thing was awesome!!

Way to go Tooth Fairy!!

Lorenzo never ceases to bring a smile to my face...most of the time!

Wednesday night we went to our very first parent/teacher conference! Lorenzo is doing really well in all his subjects, but is having a tinsy bit of touble listening to the teacher...I feel her pain! :o) She said he is a joy to have in class, he cracks her up...big surprise, and adds a lot to the class. She then told me that when Lorenzo is waiting after school for me to pick him up, he always tells her that he is waiting for his "taxi" to pick him up. She said she asked him if it was that big blue taxi and he said it was. I guess I need one of those "Mom's taxi service" bumper stickers!

We got Lorenzo's school pictures back, his teacher said she had to peek at them and they made her smile because they were "Sooo Lorenzo" ultra cheesy!! Unfortunately they sent us the wrong package and we have to request the missing photos, bug!!

Roadtrippen to Draper and the IKEA adventures:

I have been on the hunt for a cute little table and chair set for Claire to go with her kitchen she is getting for Christmas. I found a cute little pink table on IKEA.com but would still need chairs. After talking with my dad about making some chairs to match I decided it wouldn't be any cheaper than buying a set. So I took the to KSL.com and seriously found the perfect Disney Princess table w/2 chairs for $20.00 out in Draper. I called the lady and made arrangements to pick them up Tuesday afternoon. We got out to her place and the table and chairs were in awesome condition and she had a perfect condition Disney Princess sleeping bag that I got for $7.00! As we left her place I realized that I had to go to the bathroom PRONTO and decided to make a pitstop at IKEA. I swear that IKEA needs a sign on the door warning not to enter if you do not have atleast 1 1/2 hour to spend, that is how long it took us to roam the store, it is so big that it actually has arrows on the floor to help you find the EXIT.

We had dinner at my mom's and dad's, yummy hamburgers with ALL the fixins. Mom and Dad let us take a huge portion of their butternut squash about 15 or so! I LOVE squash. When it was time to go, Claire threw herself on the ground and played dead, complete with eyes closed and tongue haning out, we all busted up laughing, what a character! When we left Lorenzo said that he wanted to drive home with Dad, Jason met us at Mom's and Dad's after work. Claire then decided that she wanted to go with Dad too, I was totally okay with the prospect of a quiet drive home, but then sweet little Lorenzo decided that he did not want me to drive home alone and insisted to come with me. My little tender heart! :o)

Where to start??

2007-11-06T22:19:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has been a month since I posted. For awhile there in October Jason and I were over at my sister's a lot helping to get her house in moving condition. With almost 10 kids, they are in need of more space!

Soon we'll be FIVE!!

Well, first things first, we found on Saturday, Oct 27th that we are finally having baby #3!!! We are soooo excited. Lorenzo is convinced that it will be a boy baby, Claire is just so excited that she doesn't care if it a boy baby or girl baby. Both Jason and I feel that it is probably a boy, but a girl would be equally as exciting! This baby is due early July just like Claire. We'll see if it comes early giving us yet another June baby!

SPOOKY and Fun filled October!

Our Den: Cooper Wolfley, Xander Kinsey, Martha Johansen

Brennan Wozab, Noah Brite, Ian Vokt, Nate Johansen, Renzo

Riley Jensen and Claire

Boy was our October packed full of F-U-N!! I'm one of the Bear den leaders in our ward so of course we have many adventures with 9 9year boys! On Oct 11th we had scheduled to go to a JV football game at Tooele High to pass off the Sports achievement, but when we got there we found out that they had changed the schedule and the game and been played the day before. Lucky for us on our way home, we found a swim meet in progress that we were able to watch. It was quite a coincidence to see that it was between Tooele High and Copper Hills, my alma mater!! I had a hard time deciding who to cheer for, so I just decided to cheer for whom ever won!

Carnival O' Fun!

On October 12th we went to Lorenzo's school Halloween Carnival. The kids were so excited to sport their costumes and start Halloween 2 weeks early. Claire was a beautiful...can you guess...PRINCESS and Lorenzo was a karate ninja. The kids had fun playing on the blow-up bouncy toys outside and playing the little games inside. And of course what is a carnival without cotton candy? I believe I once saw on a package of cotton candy that a serving size is "bigger than your head." Looks like Claire and Lorenzo got their recommended serving for the day! :o)

Pumpkin walk or was it Pumpkin FLOP!!

All my hard work, many hours and multiple paper cuts all lead up to this day, Oct. 19th, the Pumpkin Walk. I wish I could say it was a HUGH success and that Jason is now retired, but not so much. I sold a total of, are you ready for this?, 3 cards. No, I did not forget any zeros, and no I did not even use one complete set of fingers. Needless to say, I was bummed! You no it isn't a good sign when you come home with more cards than you went with. To help pass the time I made a few cards, four to be exact, and seeing that I only sold 3, you do the math! The kids however had a blast, they played in the maze with their friend Preston Johnson, and even took a hayride, and Claire played in the little tee pee on display. I ended up packing up a bit before 7:00pm to head home, it officially ended at 9:00, but stick a fork in me, I was DONE. The weather on the 20th was bad, and I did not go back the second day, but it wasn't the crummy weather that kept me away.

Anyone in need of some cute Christmas and other occasional cards? I'm pretty sure I know where you can get some! :o)

Ward Trunk or Treat:

Sheri, Kayson, Shaylee, Marick and Makinzy came for the weekend of the 27th. Sheri and I had to run to Les Schwab to get a new tire, since unfortunately she got a flat on the way down. Bummer! They were able to come with us to our ward Trunk or Treat activity. We all had so much fun, and the kids got way too much candy! We had dinner there, it was a chili cook off! Yummy!! The kids all slept down in the basement, Lorenzo and Claire were up until 11:00 pm with the others already asleep. Claire ended up getting tucked into bed in her room for the night and Lorenzo finally fell asleep too. We had a nice Sunday, Lorenzo's teacher sure had her hands full with 3 visitors! Sorry!! We had delicious lasagna that Sheri made for us and then celebrated Jason's 29th birthday. We had strawberry shortcake, his favorite! Sheri was so kind and bought some of my card supply! Thank you, thank you!!

Creepy food for Halloween!

In the second picture, Claire is saying "goblin guts" in her spookiest of voices!

Lorenzo is saying "Monster fangs!"

For Halloween I made our traditional breakfast of gooey Goblin guts with blood, ghost toast, boo juice & monster fangs. For lunch we had slimy pumpkin sandwhiches, blood soup and eyeballs! Doesn't that just make you hungry thinking about it?!?

Echo location:

In kindergarten, leading up to Halloween, Lorenzo learned about bats. They made this adorable bat out of an old black sock. The following is what Lorenzo told us about bats.

"Bats use echo location because they don’t have big eyes, they have littler eyes than most animals even they can hear better than us because they have bigger ears even that they hang upside down. Echo location tells them that if they go boink to the wall then they have to go someplace else. Vampire bats drink blood and stay up in the night and sleep during the day they kill animals that kill our plants and that they eat insects that eat our plants and that bite you."

There you have it. Hopefully it doesn't take you a month to read down this far, but if it does, maybe you'll be finished in time for my next post!! Ha Ha! I'll try to be more consistent in the future!

Here I am!

2007-10-09T23:00:00.000-06:00

After much anticipation, I'm back. I have great news; tonight I finished my last Christmas card of 250 that I have made in the last 3 weeks for the Pumpkin Walk. I still have some misc. cards that I will be making and selling individually, but my necessary cards are complete! (doing the happy dance!!) And more great news, I beat my sinus infection with only doing my nasal rinses, yeah no antibiotics needed!! Bear with me here, you are about to enter my week in review. If you don't have 10 minutes on your hands to catch up with me, you may want to check back later! :o)

CONFERENCE WEEKEND:

Boy what a cold, dreary day it was on Saturday. It was 61 in the house that morning. He set up the space heater to warm up the family room and it sure did work!

Jason and Lorenzo started off conference weekend by taking our ward's turn to clean our church. They were in a class room cleaning when Renzo saw pictures of the First Presidency on the wall and point and said "That is President Hinckley." Then a little while later they were down the hall of the other ward's bishopric. My brother David and brother-in-law Greg are in the bishopric in that ward. Renzo was looking at pictures on their bulletin board pointed to a picture of David and said, "Hey, he is not a president; he is just a silly guy that can take his thumb off!" So now we know that having the ability to take your thumb off is not as important as being president of the church!

It was so nice having a stay at home day; the kids really enjoyed it too. Jason and Lorenzo played The Game of Life, and Lorenzo stomped Jason. Lorenzo ended up with $1.165 million dollars, twin boy & girl and then another boy, Jason had $620,000 and had boy, girl, boy, boy. Lorenzo, a millionaire at age 5, top that one Bill Gates!! :o)

I spent the day...can you guess??...making cards!! I always am able to pay attention better when I have something hands on to do while listening to conference. I was touch most by the talks from the Elder that spoke before Elder Holland, Sister Beck and Elder Eyring.

It was really cute. Claire would lead the music during conference. I got a few pictures of it; I just wished our camera wasn't on the fritz. It seems like whenever I get a cute shot ready to go, it loses focus and then I have to wait for it to refocus and then the shot is gone! Phooey on it!

RED RIBBON WEEK/COLUMBUS DAY:

Monday was to start of red ribbon week. Lorenzo got a cool drug free red and purple bracelet to remind him to be drug free. He was a bit confused and thought anything that was "unhealthy" was a drug. He told me that his teacher said he couldn't have any of our candy corns because he was drug free. I had to explain a little more what drugs were, I think he gets it a little better now. He and Claire decorated the pine tree outside with berries for the Red Ribbon Festival they were planning.

Renzo also learned about Christopher Columbus on Monday. He told me he was a discoverer and had 3 boats. He remembered the Santa Maria and with a bit of coaxing he recalled the Nina and Pinta too. He is such a smarty pants.

I do kid swapping with my sister-in-law Stacey. I watch Timmy and Sabrina on Monday mornings while she volunteers at school. She in turn watches Claire on Tuesdays while I either clean Pat Treadway's house or volunteer in Renzo's class.

TODAY IS TUESDAY:

Here we are back to TODAY! Claire played at Timmy's while I helped in the Math center in Renzo's class. Wow, kindergarten teachers have so much PATIENCE! I do really great with other peoples little kids, but I couldn't do it all day everyday. I loved being in the Primary, but that was only for a couple hours once a week. Hats off the teachers!

Well there you have it. You are now updated! I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but I can always blog that another day.

whoopsy Wednesday

2007-10-03T21:48:00.000-06:00

So I feel bad. I found out this afternoon that TODAY was the schoolwide walk to school day with a "lite breakfast" at Parker's Park. I totally thought it was next week and Lorenzo was so disappointed that we missed it. My brain has been in card making mode and I have become quite spacey lately.

The kids and I went to Cub Scouts today. We had Bro. Reid come and talk about scouts back in his day, we then scrapbooked pictures from their day camp this past summer. Boy those boys are EXHAUSTING!! Lorenzo sure loves being around all the boys.

Sorry nothing more exciting happened, but as they say- no news is good news.

Typical Tuesday!

2007-10-02T22:22:00.000-06:00

Today I surprised Lorenzo by picking up his friend Preston from the old neighborhood after cleaning Pat Treadways house. I didn't tell Lorenzo he was coming over, so Preston hid in the backseat of the van when we picked Lorenzo up from school. It was really cute, when Lorenzo opened the van door Preston popped up and said, "Surprise!" Lorenzo said "Oh, Preston what are you doing here?" What a funny little boy he is.

Lorenzo, Preston Johnson and Claire having lunch.

Claire loves her babies. She often suggests that we go to the store and buy a real baby.

If it was only that easy! :o)

What a scary velosorapter !

Lorenzo got to check out a book from the school library and was so proud of himself. It was a book about dinosaurs, and he was so willing to demonstrate them for the camera. He actually wanted me to take of one of him eating Claire, but I talked him out of it.

Lorenzo handed me a piece of paper from school this evening. He explained, "On Wednesday, (next Wednesday) we all need to go to Parker's Park and walk to school together, and there will be a lite breakfast served." I couldn't help but laugh when he told be about the "lite breakfast" at least you can see that he was listening to the teacher as she read the note. He cracks me up!

My little porcupine!

Tonight Lorenzo was sitting on the couch looking at his dinosaur book. Jason was being silly asked Lorenzo, "Why do you smell like a porcupine?" Lorenzo responded, "Because I'm a porcupine boy." He then paused and said, "You're right, I do smell like a porcupine!"

Jason has been a very hard worker both at home and at work. Today he got an amazing compliment from his boss. Faye told Jason that when she was doing the interviews back in June for his now position she was hoping to get someone good, and that he has far exceeding her expectations and would love to start giving him more responsibilities and opportunities. Yeah Jason!!

Random thoughts from a Monday

2007-10-01T20:45:00.000-06:00

Lorenzo thought the message from Santa was great. He got so excited that Santa saw his pictures that he started to draw him some more. I'll post them when I have a minute to scan them in.

So today was just your typical Monday. Claire and I went grocery shopping while Lorenzo was at school. Lorenzo went over to Garion's house to play for a few hours which was nice for me, I was able to continue the work on my Chirstimas cards while Claire napped.

Speaking of Christmas cards how ambitious am I? I have set a goal for myself to sell 50 sets of 5 Christmas Cards and 75 occasional cards at the Pumpkin Walk. HOLY COW, what am I thinking? That is a total of 325 cards I need to make by Oct. 19th. I have all my paper and supplies all over the kitchen table, today Lorenzo asked me. "When are you going to be done with your crafts so you can clean up your messy table?" So Lorenzo, it won't be for a couple more weeks. From all the cutting I have gotten scissor hand, I have permanent markings/dent on my thumb now. It will all be worth it right?? Power of positive thinking- if I make them they will sell! :o)

I'm a bit bummed. I have that little scratchy stinging thing going on in my throat. Ahhh!! I hate this "sick" time of the year. Every year I get colds that keep turning into sinus infections. They seem to be never ending. Last spring I was on antibiotics 3 or 4 times in 3 months. I learned about nasal cleansing and that is how I finally healed, lets see if I can be antibiotic free this year!

It's beginning to look a lot like...Christmas!?!

2007-09-29T22:47:00.000-06:00

I feel like Rip Van Winkle. I went to bed last night having had a nice warm summery day and woke up 3 months later in December! Where on earth is Fall??

It was a very fun snowy day though. I worked on making my Christmas cards for the Pumpkin Walk. Jason set up our food storage room (currently the unfinished bathroom in the basement) and also worked on the backsplash, Claire played and Lorenzo drew. With all the snow Claire kept saying, "It's Tismis time, it's Tismis time!" To kids snow=Christmas!!

I got GROUNDED!! :o(

I went out front to take a picture because I could not believe how much snow was coming down and that it was actually sticking around. When I got back inside Lorenzo told me I was grounded. What? Apparently Lorenzo watched me taking the picture out front and told Jason, "Mommy is in the street without hands, and she's wearing flipflops!" It is a rule that the kids don't go in the street without holding our hand. Busted! :o)

Santa these pictures are for YOU:

This is Santa and Lorenzo holding hands with a reindeer next to them.

It reads "reMBer Me I AM LoreNzo"

This is Lorenzo running downstairs Christmas morning to see his presents.

This is Santa and Lorenzo again with 2 reindeer and the sleigh they got loose from so they could play with Lorenzo.

There is a stamp in the upper left corner because Lorenzo wanted to mail this to Santa.

Also notice that Lorenzo drew himself in his SuperMan jammies!

All day Lorenzo kept drawing pictures for Santa and wanted me to mail each one to him. I told Lorenzo that we didn't need to mail things to Santa anymore because he has access to our blog and we could just post them there for him to see!

Do you want guacamole on your Claire burrito??

Claire was pretending to be cold all day (the house didn't get below 71) so she could drag her Dora blankie all over the house and swing it around. She kept asking me to wrap her up so finally I did and turned her into a lifesized burrito. Yum-o!

Ahhh a not so hectic day!

2007-09-27T22:40:00.000-06:00

Claire and Jason racing. If you look close in the first picture, Claire is suspended in air!

Today was a welcome break from the last 3 days. After dropping off Lorenzo, we came home and Claire took an hour long bubblebath and I enjoyed the silence.

After school, we had lunch and the kids took rests. Claire ended up napping for over 3 hours, these last 3 days must have taking it's toll on her too. I have decided that we will do the friend thing at most every other day, just to ensure my sanity.

I have reserved a booth at the Pumpkin Walk out at the Benson Grist Mill on Oct. 19 &20. I will be selling handmade Christmas cards and other occasional cards. The last week I have turned into a card making machine. I am determined that these cards will be a success!

The Great Berry War!!

We all had fun this evening in the great Berry War. Jason and the kids were picking the little berries off our trees and bushes and pelting each other with them. It was great enjoying this fleeting moment of Fall before it turns into snowball fights and building forts.

I went with my friend Liz to the bookclub our previous ward has. I'm not a big reader, unless it has big print and colorful pictures. Infact I jokingly say, "If the book is good enough, they will make it into a movie!!" :o) The book was The Secret and technically I have not "read" the book, but apparently it was really good because they did make it into a movie and I have seen it multiple times. I really like the book/movie and the concept it brings, but I would much rather base any validity on a quote from Howard W. Hunter.

Beings of Power
As a being of power, intelligence, and the master of his own thoughts, a man holds the key to every situation, to make his life what he chooses it to be. When he discovers the divine power within his soul, he can lead his life to a God-like nature. If one dreams lofty dreams, so shall he become. There is magic in the way one thinks. If we expect the worst, we will get the worst. If we expect the best, we will receive the best. If we train our minds to have faith in God and ourselves, we are using one of the great laws of life. If we think and live righteously, happiness will find its place in our lives. It is amazing when we expect the best how forces are set in motion which cause the best to materialize. (83-02)

Our thoughts more than circumstances determine the course of our lives. Outward circumstances do not determine the course of our lives as much as the thoughts that habitually occupy our minds. These thoughts carve their impression on our faces, in our hearts, and on the tablet of our eternal souls.

(Howard W. Hunter, The Teachings of Howard W. Hunter, edited by Clyde J. Williams [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1997], 74.)

It's just another day...

2007-09-26T22:24:00.000-06:00

Lorenzo drawing detailed people, he even knows to draw people small in the back because they are far away! Brilliant!

Holy cow, busy day today!! We took Lorenzo to school this morning, as usual. Then Claire and I headed back to Walmart to exchange all her "too big" clothes. While at Walmart I happened to go back in the Christmas area, and saw that there were a couple of aisles of clearance toys. Then I came across a beautiful find, Crayola Wonder Explosion sprayer AND spinner regularly $19.96 on clearance for $9.00 a piece. Lorenzo and blossomed into my little artist and I knew he would LOVE these. These were such a good deal, and with Christmas on it's way I could not pass it by, meaning I picked up the phone and let Santa know about this amazing find. (wink, wink)

Claire modeling her new winter jammies. She LOVES them...they say PRINCESS on them!

After Walmart we came home and then ran out again to get Lorenzo and then over to our moderately distant neighbor's home, Liz King. She was our across the street neighbor over on Crystal Bay and now she is our 533 steps East neighbor in our new home! We chatted with her for a couple hours, Claire was running to go up to the playroom where the fun play kitchen is, when she tripped and bonked her lip on the wood banister. OUCH!! She got a bit of a fat lip from the experience, which she didn't know how to handle. (funny!) She kept stretching her top lip over her teeth feeling the strangness of it.

My Cheesy kids! Claire is blowing kisses.

We came home, ate lunch, wrapped Tevan's birthday present. Tevan is our little friend that also lived across the street at Crystal Bay, and has since moved to the opposite end of Grantsville. He had his 4th birthday party today. I drove the kids to it early because I also had Cubscouts I had to be back for. At cubscouts we learned about our environment at Sister Johansen's home. We planted some flowers, picked tomatoes, collected garbage and checked for leaky pipes. Boy those 7 boys can be exhausting!! When it was over I then picked up the kids from the birthday party, came home, made dinner, ate and was finally done for the day!!! Hooray!

Happy Birthday Shaylee!!

2007-09-26T22:14:00.000-06:00

Today Jason's littlest sister, Shaylee, turns 5 years old. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

A day in the life...

2007-09-25T22:40:00.000-06:00

So, it is no surprise that Lorenzo is a HUGE Star Wars fan. He role plays characters every day! He is dressed up here like Anikan Skywalker on his pod racer (a 5 gallon paint can and our air compresser that is housed in our living room until we are done with it in the kitchen.) "What's that behind his ear?" you ask. Some rope from one of our Bear Den meetings that is playing the part of Anikan's braided hair. Who needs to buy expensive costumes when all the making of a true Jedi lay around the house!!

It is also no surprise that Lorenzo is quite the ham. In Primary on Sunday they practiced for the Sacrament Program that will be coming up here in the next little while. "Miss Reader, my music teacher" as he refers to her, promised to leave each child a treat on their doorstep if they would sing their very best each week, at least that is what he told me. So through out Sunday afternoon and evening he would open the front door to see if there was a treat there, each time nothing. I finally told him that she must have meant she would bring one after the Program as a big thank you, he agreed. Then at 7:45pm the doorbell rang, it was Sister Reader, Lorenzo was already in bed so I went and got him up. She gave him his treat, which we put safely in the fridge for the next day. What she told us, cracked Jason and I up, and even today we laughed about it. Apparently after she made the treat announcement on Sunday, Lorenzo went up to her and said, "Now I'm the one that lives over on Colavito" making sure that she didn't not forget nor get confused at where his treat could be delivered.

Claire took a nap with her panties on today, and no accidents!! She was so happy and was so excited when Daddy got home so she could tell him the great news. Lately Claire has been cooking up a storm on my sofa, she is currently kitchenless. I am on the hunt for the perfect kitchen for her for Chirstmas. We have some friends that have one of those adorable Step 2 Deluxe kitchens that she obsesses over whenever we go over. Today her speciality menu included hot chocolate water, pssghetti and pizza, all you can eat. After 3 platefuls and 2 cups I was stuffed! :o)

With all this sudden cold weather I decided it was time to buy some warm clothes for the kids. Unfortunately I came away with only 3 items in the right size. Looks like I get to head to the customer service desk tomorrow.

Today was my first day volunteering in Lorenzo's kindergarten class. I hadn't told him I was coming, just that there would be a special vistor today. The suspense killed him, and I don't think that mom as the HUGE surprise lived up to his expectations. Lorenzo has a new buddy at school, Garion Cox. He went over to Garion's yesterday, and then visa versa for today. The two of them have it all worked out that they would just switch every other day, but somehow I don't see that materializing.

The beginning of the beginning

2007-09-22T00:13:00.000-06:00

So, I set this site up about 2 months ago, and let it sit. I have been so kindly nudged to actually post something it this site, so here I begin.

Isn't it crazy how kids grow into their own seemingly overnight? Lorenzo started kindergarten the end of August and has been LOVING it. I noticed something though, on a lot of his papers from school and church he has his name as LORENS (he makes his "z" backwards). I finally asked him about this last Sunday when I saw it written on a primary picture. I said, "You know love, there is another "o" at the end of your name." He informed me, "I know, but the kids at school call me Lorenz not Renzo." So there you have it, my little Renzo is now my little Lorenz!

Miss Claire is getting to be such a big girl...she goes potty in the toilet! Hallelujah!!!! Now we are only having to buy diapers for bedtime, I can do that! :o) She is also my big helper and loves to help put laundry away, she actually asks if she can help me. Heck yeah, I'll take her help, she actually puts things away in there right places.

Our kitchen is coming along, at times it feels like the pace of a turtle with a broken leg, but hey we don't have a looming deadline that we have to rush for. The backsplash, crown moulding and baseboards is what we have left. It is functional and already looks GORGEOUS but I just want to wrap up our first "new" home project and be able to move to the next one.

So there you have it, the beginning has officially begun!