Christmas Day

Here are a few pics from Christmas morning. Jack was up early and Landon slept late. So Jackson got to open his presents and then once Landon was awake he did his. Of course Jackson ended up opening the majority of Landon's, because he just didn't have an interest until things were completely unwrapped.

He had this silent excitement for Big Scrambler.

He'll have to grow into this one, but he was excited regardless.

This is Landon's new face when he sees the camera

After the kids did their Santa stuff, Kenny's sister's and their families came over for breakfast and more presents. The kids got spoiled of course. (Thank you everyone) It was a fun time spent with family. Later on Kenny and I did gifts, and my wonderful husband surprised me with this!

Meet the newest member of our family, my very own digital SLR!I was so excited when I saw that box, I cried, and I don't even think I can blame it on the pregnancy hormones! I couldn't believe he had done that. He knew how bad I had wanted one. It was so sweet of him! Love you honey! I have been trying to become more knowledgeable in photography and I am so excited to have a camera to play with. I have so much to learn, I haven't ventured into manual mode yet, but hopefully soon I can start getting the hang of how this thing works. So here are a few of my subjects.

Hopefully by the time this little one comes I can have things down a little better so I can take some fun newborn shots. So if I am not blogging, it's because I am studying!

Our Very Merry Christmas!

Wow, I don't even know where to start. We had such a good time celebrating the Saviors birth with our families. This may sound cheesy, but I just love the warmth and spirit that this season brings! We spent the Saturday and Sunday before Christmas with my family. Jackson got to ride the snowmobile again, in the field, all by himself. I really wish I would have gotten a picture now, but we do have it on video. My dad on his snowmobile, and Jack on the little one, he just followed him through the field, cutest sight ever! When he saw my dad standing he even tried to stand up while driving. We put him and Landon on the tube to go down the little "hill" in the backyard. Landon just layed there sprawled out on the tube and absolutely loved it! Sunday we had a nice dinner with my siblings and grandparents. That night we went to my grandpas for the extended family party. There was quite a few of them in town so it was really nice to see everyone, that I haven't seen in a while. Monday we headed to Idaho Falls to see Kenny's family. We were worried about the weather but it wasn't bad at all until a little past Pocatello. The whole time we were there it seemed like it never stopped snowing. By the time we left on Wednesday they had so much snow.

Here's the boys Christmas Eve in their Christmas jammies.

I am going to make a new post with all our Christmas Day pics. Hope you all had a good one!

Merry Christmas!!

Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas! We are out the door for a busy weekend. I most likely won't be posting until after the Holidays. I hope you all have a good one, travel safely and enjoy time spent with family.

Christmas Thoughts
Some people think of Christmas

As sleigh rides in the cold

A tree that glistens of tinsel

And decorations of silver and gold.

Some people think of Christmas

As stockings dressed in red

A crackling glowing fireplace

And a warm and cozy bed.

Some people think of Christmas

As faces filled with glee

Sharing stories, fun and laughter

And gathering 'round the tree.

Some people think of Christmas

As gifts wrapped up in blue

Writing letters to their loved ones

And Christmas caroling too.

Some people think of Christmas

As snow falling on the ground

The hustle and bustle of shoppers

And the joy that's spread around.

Some people think of Christmas

As Christ on Christmas day

And families joined together

With heads bowed down to pray.

Some people think of Christmas

As the Lord who dwells above

Who sent His son to die for us

And gave the gift of love.

by: Marilyn Ferguson

It's a Party!

Some (okay a lot) pictures from Jack's birthday party! He wanted a snowmobile party, with a snowmobile cake. Not much out there to buy, so we improvised. I think he enjoyed it! I still can't believe he is three. Three seems so much older than two. It's like that leap into the preschool years. And he is going to be a sunbeam in a couple weeks too!

We went to Sizzler the night of his birthday. This is what they brought him! Mommy had to help a little :)

The cake The presents And the best thing, Grandpa brought the little snowmobile for him to ride in the front yard! He would have done this all day if he could have! Landon enjoyed it too!

I think he was worn out. He was watching a show after everyone left and this is what I found.(note: he had to put on his new snowmobile shirt over his other shirt)

Evil Eye

A friend emailed this to me. It is the cutest thing ever! It just makes you smile.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACKSON!

I don't have a lot of time but I wanted to post a few pictures of Jack. He turned 3 today! My little baby isn't a baby anymore! I'll post more pictures after his party on Saturday.

Born Dec. 13, 2004 @ 3:06 pm 8 lbs 20 1/2 in.

1 Year old!
2 years old
And 3 years old!

Overcoming Fears

Jackson is a pretty adventureous little boy, not afraid of much.... except Santa. So we have been working on getting him ready to see Santa. It's not that I care that much if you goes and sits on his lap, but I think it's more about making him feel safe and trusting us as parents. I don't want him to grow up being afraid of things that are different or that he may not see that often. So for me, getting him to say hi to Santa is teaching him acceptance. So after much talk of him telling us he was going to tell Santa what he wants for Christmas, and that he's not "sary", the opportunity finally came. Where else but the ward Christmas party. What he wants dearly for Christmas and has been talking about for the last 3 or 4 months is "Big Scrambler" Yes your reaction is the same as Santa's would be. A what? Here is the infamous "Big Samber"

A remote controlled Four-wheeler from Bob the Builder. So we told Jackson he needed to say Remote Contolled four wheeler, so as not to get looks of complete confusement.

The excitement grew as we moved up the line, and I was beginning to wonder if he was really gonna do it. He marched up there with Kenny and plopped on his lap, told him he would like a remote controlled 4-wheeler from Bob the Builder, and he even smiled! Landon on the other hand didn't want much to do with him. I love this, cause Jack is looking at Landon like, what are you afraid of?
When he got down off of Santa's lap I will never forget the look on his face of complete pride and accomplishment! We are so proud of you Jack for overcoming your fears! Even if it is only because you really want that Big Scrambler!

Thanks

Thanks for all the well wishes. We are so excited to add to our family. Brooks's wife Kristina is pregnant too, and we are a few a weeks apart, so that is going to be so fun! My parents will get two more grandkids within a month. Some of you asked if I have been sick, and luckily no too bad. I am finally starting to get some energy back though, man it felt like I was hit with this wall of fatigue. This week has been my sickest yet but the fact that I have had a silly cough and constant tickle in my throat probably doesn't help the gag reflex. I think Jackson finally gets it now that other people ask him about the baby in mommy's tummy. He even drew a picture of mommy and the baby in church today. Landon of course doesn't understand really, but I am sure he will as my belly continues to get larger and I won't be able to hold him as often. Thanks again and I am glad I have such great friends and family to share our excitement with!

Sharing a cute video!

Here is a little video of Jack. You can scroll down to the bottom and pause or turn down the esnips music before playing the video.

Tis the Season!

With Christmas stuff everywhere I guess Landon is starting to pick up on it. He does this whenever he see's Santa or anything Christmas.

Hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend! We got to celebrate Thanksgiving twice, once with Kenny's family and once with mine. It was so fun! The food was fabulous and the company, even better. I am so grateful for such a wonderful family and support system! My inlaws are so great to just scoop me up as one of their own, and my family loves me regardless of all my flaws. My two boys are my life and I don't know where I would be without them bringing their smiles, giggles, and whines into everyday we spend together! I am grateful for my wonderful husband and the hard worker that he is. He leaves for work everyday and doesn't even bat an eye. He puts up with me everyday and still loves me regardless! Thank you, my little family! I love You!

I must share this! On Saturday my family all attended the Pickleville Christmas up at USU. It was undoubtably the most fabulous play I have ever seen! Seriously, if you can fit it in, you must go see it! It was so cute and so funny and both my boys just loved it! T.J. is so extremely talented, as are the rest of the staff.

Now I must get going and put up all my Christmas stuff. I have been a slacker since we were gone the whole weekend.

Address Request

I am trying to get my Christmas card list going and I need to make sure I have everyone's updated addresses, so if you are reading this and want a card, please send me your address. There is a place on the right side of my blog where you can email it to me if you don't have my email.
Thanks a bunch!

ElfYourself

This was too funny!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9551633747

Ugghhh! Laundry

Why is doing the laundry such a chore for me? I always think about doing it, but I push it aside and keep putting it off until it is not only overflowing out of the basket but making it's way out the closet door. So why is this? Is it because whenever I drag it out to sort it, I have a 2 year old and a 1 one year old unsorting it? Is it because when I put a load in it doesn't quickly go into the dryer as soon as it is done, but rather sits and sits until I remember it is in there, and then I have to wash it again, which makes washing take double the time. Maybe it's when I go to fold it that frustrates me, cause you see I have two "helpers" and I end up folding everything over and over again, because for some reason, when you see clothes in the basket it means, scoop them in your arms and just throw them creating a rainfall effect. So you are probably saying, "Well, your kids nap, why not just do it then?" But you see that would interrupt my blogging ;) So here I am rushing to try and get all the laundry done today so we can actually have clothes to wear while we go up to visit Kenny's family this weekend. I don't think jammies would fly for the whole weekend.
I know it's my own fault, so I ask, anybody have any laundry tips? What works for you? How can I get myself motivated?

Tagged!

Wow, I didn't realize I hadn't posted in so long! Probably cause I don't have anything extremely interesting to post about lately. But my good friend Tiffany has tagged me, so Here are 7 things you may not know about me! This is really hard for me so hopefully I can come up with some that are somewhat interesting!

1. I am the biggest procrastinator! Sometimes I try to plan way ahead but I just don't work as efficiently, for some reason putting things off to the last minute helps me work faster and better!

2. My brother ran over my head with a snowmobile when I was three. 'nough said.

3. I like Hannah Montana. It will come on after one of Jackson's shows, and I don't change it and try to convince myself that he is watching it. (An almost three year old little boy watching Hannah Montana?) He does sing the opening song though, and he does know who she is, so maybe he doesn't mind.

4. I love building and making things. Wood, sewing, painting, anything! I just love a project and a challenge. Like seeing something and thinking, "I could make that!" Now if I could just find the time to do it more.

5. I don't like change. My furniture is always in the same place. Growing up, my bed stayed in the same place, the thought of rearranging things made me uneasy. Friends would change there stuff around and I always wondered how they did it!

6. I can drive a tractor, granted it has been awhile, but I was probably in 6th grade when I started baling hay in the summers for my dad.

7. I love Vacations! It doesn't even have to be that far away. Whenever I get back it isn't long before I am ready again. I think a lot of it is being able to be with Kenny everyday when we are on vacation and not having to send him to work. And just leaving a lot of cares behind. My kids are pretty decent travelers too, so they make it easy to go places.

Well there you have it. Hope I didn't bore you all too much. It was really hard to think of things!

Spreadin' The Love...

A couple of my friends have posted about the launch of a new online magazine they are contibuting to, so I checked it out. It's great! It's for women, by women and they have some wonderful articles that cover a wide variety of topics. It might just give you that daily dose of encouragment that you have been looking for. I know I enjoyed reading them and so I thought I would spread the love. Here is the link. http://www.lovelifemagazine.blogspot.com/

Best Friends

Last night I was laying on the couch and Jack came up to me, layed by me and gave me a hug.
Jack: You my dest siend.
Me: I'm your best friend?
Jack: Yes
Me: Oh, thanks Jack you're my best friend too.
Jack: Your welcome.

What a great best friend to have!

October's Gone!

Yeah, I know I am little late but here are pictures from Halloween night. For those of you anticipating what Kenny and I were going to be, our costumes weren't fabulous, but they were still cute. My mom had her wild party, and it was a lot of fun. If you didn't know, my mom loves Halloween, she starts planning her costumes a year in advance and she does some crazy ones! If you don't go to the Halloween party you are disowned from the family. It's okay if you are not there at Christmas, but miss Halloween and you are in trouble!
Jackson is going to have a hard time saying goodbye to Halloween. He says, "It sill Howieween time, mommy". I guess I have to get him excited about turkeys now.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Monday some friends invited us to family night and to carve pumpkins. Jackson and I worked on one, while daddy did another. Landon was busy getting into everything! Well, actually, Jackson kept running to play while I carved the pumpkin, except for the guts part, he thought that was pretty cool, and Landon was trying to eat it. Yuck! He got very upset when I wouldn't let him.

Daddy's Pumpkin

Mommy's pumpkin

We tried for a family shot, this is the best we got. Landon looking at the pumpkins, and me pinning Jackson down trying to get him to smile.

Here are the spider cupcakes Jackson "helped" me make

All lit up on the porch.

And, last picture, I promise, are Halloween activity today. I dyed the noodles orange for the whole Halloween effect, and after I realized that orange probably wasn't the best color choice. It's now a bag of Mac and Cheese!

Crazy, busy weekend!

We had a lot going on this last weekend, but it was such a fun one. Thursday I went up to Cache Valley to take the kids to stay until Saturday! My mom and dad were so great to watch them while we had our couples party on Friday night. It was very strange to not have them in the house for two whole nights! We took advantage of having no kids and went to the temple Friday morning, which was so fabulous! I honestly cannot remember the last time we went, it just never works out. I didn't believe it was actually going to happen, until I was sitting in the temple. And of course I was reminded of how wonderful this gospel is and am so grateful that it is a part of my life and I have the opportunity to receive such fabulous blessings!

We then went to lunch. Which was very relaxing, being able to eat my food and not worrying about if there is food in front of the kids to keep them happy. The rest of Friday I had to get ready for the party uninterrupted! It is a lot quicker to clean your house when you don't have two little ones uncleaning everything you have just cleaned. Friday our party was so fun! Here is the invite.

We played a version of the newlywed game. But all the questions were about hair. Like, what is the name of your wife's hairdresser?, What kind of shampoo does she use?, Does your husband wash his hair last in the shower or first? etc. It turned out really funny. Then we blind folded all the women and lined up the guys with one arm extended. They had to feel all their arms and guess which one was their husbands. Then we switched and did the men. Most of the people were in our ward, so it just made it funny! I haven't come that close to peeing my pants since our laughing fits in high school! It was a such a fun party and I am so glad we did it, I really needed that fun adult interaction. I wanted to get a group picture of everyone with their crazy hair, but I didn't, so here is a snapshot of eating the "hairy" food!

Saturday Ken went to meet my parents in Brigham to get the kids, while I went to a baptism for a little girl in the ward. It was so good to see them when they got home! It was a refreshing break, but man do I miss my bubba's while they are away. Then Saturday was the Trunk-or-Treat. This was Jackson first experience with the whole "trick-or-treating", He was just in awe that all these people were giving him candy!

Checking out the loot!

So all that partying is over for the weekend, but it continues this week. I think we have something going on everyday. If we are this busy at Halloween, I can only imagine what the month of December is going to bring!

1 year pics

I finally got around to getting Landon's one year pictures done. I am only a month late. But that's okay because I was able to get some cute ones of them in their costumes too.

Aren't they just the cutest things!

Tiny Tumblers

Jackson takes a little tumbling class once a week, and they had there Halloween party earlier this week. It was so stinkin' cute to see all the kids in their costumes. I usually try to not share pictures of our Halloween costumes until after Halloween, just for the surprise aspect, but I am giving in, cause I have to post these.

They stood up to say what their costumes were. We got sound effects and all! (He's the elephant)

Pin the nose on the pumpkin. With his teacher Miss Lacy.

He could totally see.

And here is a little video of his class.

Four Little Pumpkins

Friday we went to the pumpkin patch. We took a hayride out to the field and then got to pick our own pumpkins. On the way out, they had a kid with a mask that jumped out and scared us. I am very easily startled, so I jumped out of my seat. Landon was in my lap and I don't think he even flinched. Jackson was sitting next to me, and the rest of the way out to the field he kept saying I don't wanna see him again. I had to try and tell him that it was just a silly kid with a mask and we won't see him again. I was hoping there weren't anymore, for his and sake and for mine!

After browsing through the patch we came home with four perfect little pumpkins!

Watching the tractors.

Jackson showing me his pumpkin. I am surprised we didn't bring home a cracked in half pumpkin. He is so careful and slow to pick it up, but when he is done, he's done. Drop. I guess good thing is it doesn't have too far to fall to the ground.