Sweet

Chad and I couldn't give Grace a sister, so we got her a doll instead. She has hair Grace can brush and they have matching dresses. Her name is Addie. She "talks" to me, calls me mom, and I have to kiss her goodnight.

The Present House

I bought Chad a rather large Christmas present. After my neighbor and I wrestled it into the house there was no hope of hiding it because it was so heavy I couldn't move it by myself (we barely made it up the stairs!). I made an executive decision to wrap it and leave it by the tree. It was, however, a big impediment to getting around so Chad moved it into a corner of the living room. It looked quite hysterical. The kids, however, thought it was the best thing ever and quickly realized that they could squirm behind it and hide. They made the corner where the present lived into a "house" complete with pillows for their comfort. They are quite clever, my little beasties.

They missed the present house after it was gone, but Christmas morning and it's toys made up for the loss...Grant got a robot...hello bed head!

Merritt got Witch Doctor...bed head redux!

Grace got a tea set...and lovely bedhead! I see a pattern here.

Joseph got a stacking toy. He would have bed head too...if he had more hair. Give it a year.

And Chad? Well, he finally got to open that huge present. It was...

a reading chair.

Take A Little Trip

Well, it wasn't a little trip...quite a big one actually. Salt Lake to Houston, Houston to Gulfport and then hello Jaime! It was just me and my lap baby who was the best little travel buddy one could hope a baby would be. I snapped a picture of Joseph while we waited to switch planes in Houston (we flew in a tiny little commuter jet...one aisle with two seats on one side and one on the other...we actually boarded on the tarmac!) and who knew that would be my only picture of the entire trip!! Somehow my camera got switched on in my backpack and the battery was drained. It didn't even occur to me to bring the charger cord. So that meant no pics of Jaime and her cute prego belly, no soon after pics of beautiful Dallin's welcome to the world, no pics of Nathan, Jocelyn, Caleb, and Chase's ecstatic little faces upon meeting their new brother and no pics of me holding that precious baby boy. Wah!! Despite the lack of photographic evidence, I was indeed there and had a wonderful time. Yeah for family and especially for adorable new nephews. Here's a pic I snagged from Jaime...

My Parents are Awesome

On Monday, December 5, my parents entered the MTC for the second time. They were slated for a week's worth of training before flying out to France (the Paris mission this time around). I decided to make the pilgrimage and went with

and

and

We got there before mom and dad so I was able to snap a fun picture of them coming through the doors. (I have to say that you usually say goodbye to missionaries in the parking lot but we got to go in the building because we were taking their car and needed to meet to get their keys after their luggage had been dropped off. Lucky us!!)

Then there was lots of this...

and this

and this

And then they were gone. That is why my parents are amazing...they love us enough to leave us. And what do they leave us? A legacy of service, love, testimony, faith, and obedience. Thanks mom and dad!

O Christmas Tree - 2011

We usually go to a tree lot for our annual Christmas tree and we usually go at night. This year we went to a store (Harmon's to be exact) in the middle of the day. Weird, I know, but we got a great tree at a great price plus lots of free samples in the store (eggnog cheesecake...yum!).

Merritt thinks his mom is super cheesy! Merritt's mom thinks he is super fantastic!

Contemplating Christmas trees is hard work!

Grant is having a good time. He also thinks his mom is super cheesy.

I couldn't resist snapping a picture of this genuine Charlie Brown tree.

Then it was back home for our traditional gingerbread men and hot chocolate!

I Survived the Wind Apocalypse!

On November 30th I had the stomach flu. It crept up quietly and then pounced and I was sicker than I've been since I was pregnant. As I heaved up my guts in the middle of the night, I listened to an almighty windstorm begin to brew. The wind howled around the house and I was able to feel grateful that at least I had had a warm and snug place in which to be sick. It was a small comfort, but a comfort all the same. When the sun came up in the morning, the wind blew on unabated. It was a first class gale! We woke up to an odd scraping sound in accompaniment to the wind and found that garbage cans were sliding down the road. Chad left for work after many fervent prayers for his safety and I couldn't be at ease in my mind until I knew he had made it there in one piece. His account of swerving cars, flying debris, toppled semis and treed trampolines made the hand of the Lord in his safe arrival at work very evident.

I was feeling vastly better but still had that loose-jointed, hollowed out feeling that comes after a bout of the stomach bug. I had been watching the news and knew that the schools were still open and after debating internally about whether or not the kids should go, I decided that they would be just as safe there as at my home and that with only the little ones to care for I would be able to rest and get my strength back. We piled into the van and drove to school without any problems but we could see evidence of the storm's destruction on every hand. Roof tiles were everywhere, fences were down, and four whole trees plus even more tree limbs were strewn every which way over houses, cars, lawns and on the street. I dropped off the kids and then, on the way home, a HUGE pine tree keeled over about 75 feet in front of us and sent sidewalk concrete slabs flying. We got around that terrifying obstacle and back to the house, only to find ourselves locked out of the garage because the power had been knocked out. I climbed the fence, let myself in the back and called Chad with my work cell to get directions on how to unlock the garage door and lift it manually. At about that point the wind actually got worse, if you can imagine that, and everything shook: the doors, windows, the whole house! Joseph, Grant and I climbed into bed and pulled up the covers, trying to shut out the windy world. I found that it was important for me to be upbeat so that Grant would not be overwhelmed by the sound and force of the wind. The winds finally peaked and things got better after that, but the power was off and on all day, with an outage after dark that helped us to realize that we really needed to put our candles and LED lanterns in a more accessible place. We were grateful that night to have heat and light where so many did not, and to have survived the wind apocalypse of 2011.

Here are a few pictures that I took. My one of the gas station with all its east facing windows blown out didn't turn out well so I didn't include it. :( The first two show downed trees in front of houses. You can see how shallow the roots of pine trees are...they popped out of the ground in large circles at the base of the trees. In the third picture there are four pines on the left side off the house cut and stacked, ready for a landfill run. The last two pics are on my boss' family farm. The wind picked up that barn and rolled it 20 feet from its foundation.

Prima Ballerinas

Sister Sandra and cute family came to visit. They'd been at the house about 30 minutes when our girls went for a quick change. It was so much fun for Grace to have someone to play dress up with!

In the Leaves

Someday soon, it will snow and the snow will stay...maybe. It's been so weirdly warm lately. Well, we'll just work on the premise that it will snow. So before that happens, I want to celebrate fall in the best way I know how...with pictures of Grant playing in the leaves.

Ack!

Oh November...where did you go? The days have passed in a whirlwind and I have to admit that I've been in a pie induced coma since Thursday. I made 5 pies...does it make me weird that I did it mostly for fun? We had lemon meringue (my fave), key lime (oh-so-close runner-up), chocolate cream, pumpkin-eggnog, and coconut cream. I also made three different types of pie crusts to see which was best (all shortning as your fat makes for a super flakey crust but it is a pain in the tail to roll out). I also bought a flavor injector this year and laughed maniacally while injecting chicken broth into the turkey. It really did make me feel like Dr. Jekell as I watched the turkey plump up before my eyes. So fun!!! Anyhoo, now that December is upon us the crazy will really start! Before then, however, I will finally post a picture of my kids in their Halloween finery. Enjoy!!

My Dinner Looked At Me!

I am terribly grateful that there are such clever people out there in the blogging world because I had a ball copying all their ideas. This was the last of our Halloween theme dinners (FHE week 4) and it was hilarious AND tasty. The reaction from the kids had me snickering up my sleeve, even Chad did a double-take when he sat down and saw his dinner staring at him. We ate our meatball people?/aliens?/scuba divers? with great gusto and enjoyed the bone-shaped breadsticks as well. After FHE we had...
Spiderweb Brownies and all rejoiced because Halloween is so much stinkin' fun!

A Present for Mummy

Merritt made this at Scouts and he was pleased as punch to give it to me. I actually squealed because I thought it was so adorable. He told me, with an air of great excitement, that it was full of candy, but even the temptation of Peanut M&M's couldn't make me tear it open. After a few weeks I carefully cut open the bottom and retrieved my treat, but I am totally saving this mummy forever!

I Grew This!

And these as well!

Aren't they adorable? I like to try new things in my garden every year and this was my experimental plant for 2011. I had a bunch more than I have pictured and am using them as decoration. Fun, fun, fun!

Joseph, the King of Babies

That's what the kids call him at any rate. He certainly is treated like royalty around here...Merritt even made him a throne.

Here Merritt bows to His Majesty...

Well, I think Joseph is the King of Babies. I also think he's darn cute. Case in point...
Nuff said!!

Mummy Fun

The first Monday of October was our annual Welcome Halloween party. We had donuts and apple cider floats with guests to boot! My brother Chris, his wife Jennifer and their two fun boys Ben and Isaac were here to visit and they were game for all my Halloween weirdness. Of course, being totally lame, I forgot to take pictures. :( Apple cider floats are good though...yum. The second Monday in October brought our Monster Cups, which were deeeelicious! Week Three was The Day of the Mummy! Merritt helped me make Mummy Dogs, which were very tasty and which I couldn't get a good picture of to save my life.
Don't ask me why they are orange instead of white. It's some kind of camera overexposure or underexposure thing...whatever. The mummy dogs were good and the kids were excited.

Our after FHE treat went with the mummy theme:
The pictures I had seen online were so cute and the bandages were done with a basket-weave icing tip...whatever that is. Obviously I don't have one, but I wasn't going to let a little thing like that stand in my way. I frosted the cookies and "drew" bandages on with a toothpick. Voila! My kids thought I was a genius! The eyes are mini-chocolate chips. I thought they looked so fun! Yeah Halloween!

September Birthdays

Chad and Grant had birthdays in September...a week apart. We know how to stack birthdays in this house. For Chad's birthday we had ice cream cake. It almost gave me a stress heart attack, ice cream cakes are tricky, but I learned a lot for the next time I make one, which may be never. :) Anyway for whatever reason, almost every picture from that night is anywhere from minimally to severely out of focus which makes me sad. It was a fun night though and I count my lucky stars every day that I am married to such a fantastic man. I would talk about how great he is but he reads this blog and hates when I write about him; it makes him embarrassed. I'll just say this: I LOVE YOU CHAD!

The tricky, but tasty, cake.

Out of focus fun (and why is everything orange?).

On to the next big day! Grant's cake looks lots more complicated than Chad's but couldn't have been any easier. It was so fun to see his requested frog cake come together so well!

Ribbit!

Holy cow...somebody give that kid a trim around the ears! Oh, wait; that's my job. It was either make the cake or give a haircut and I knew Grant didn't want a haircut for his birthday! Grant was so excited about about his cake, especially since it was his favorite color; GREEN!

Blowing out the candles...I can hardly believe my little Grant is 4!! Wow!

Grant got lots of fantastic presents, but one of his favorites was one we picked up on a whim; this whatchamacallit that does imprints of whatever you press into it...including Grant's face. Happy Birthday big guy! We love you so much!