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

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!

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...

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!!

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

A day in the life...

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

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!