Merry Christmas!!!

Dear Santa, Let me explain...

Christmas was soooo fun this year!! Zane's family came to visit us over the holiday and my only regret is that they weren't able to stay longer. The presents were overflowing and, of course, they were mostly for the kids. It was so fun to watch each of the kids open their presents. I think I had drilled it into Dalin's head that he wasn't allowed to touch the presents a little too well because I ended up opening most of his presents for him. He kept looking at me like, " are you crazy, I'm not supposed to touch those" He got a cozy coupe car from santa and has had more fun with it than I could have imagined! Ciara got quite a few elephants and several of the Barbie's and toys from the Diamond Castle movie and has loved playing with ALL of her toys. Dalin enjoys playing with Ciara's toys too but I think he's only doing it because it drives Ciara crazy, hehehe. Mom, George, Chantile, and Jasmine came over that evening and we had a great dinner and family home evening. It was great fun. We sang caroles and had a great lesson from Travis about the first vision. Here are some pictures from the crazyness.

New Blog

I've made it my New Year's Resolution to keep the family fitness journal blog up to date. We'll se how I do, try to keep me on top of it k? Anyway, if you want to check it out here's the link. I hope it helps and motivates you!
http://familyfitnessjournal.blogspot.com

Dalin's Big Day

I can't believe my little man is a year old. Here are some pictures of his big day. We had fun celebrating. Dalin had fun with the cake!! He was a little confused about the presents. I've been telling him NO any time he gets close the the Christmas presents so he couldn't figure out why I was letting him open some. He was quite hesitant so sister and I helped him. Enjoy the pics!

My Little Budding Artist

When we finished the basement we put our old kitchen table in the living room for Ciara to use as a "craft table". She has a lot of fun drawing and coloring and creating. I decided it would be fun to put all of her artwork on the wall above the table. I pulled all of her pictures that I've been keeping in a binder and we stuck them up on the wall. There ended up being a few more than I thought! Since taking the picture we have added to the wall. The art almost stretches all the way the the edge of BOTH walls.

Tis the season

It's been forever since I've blogged, it seems like I just updated it. So this is another catch up session. Thanksgiving was wonderful. We had so much fun in UT with all of our family. We did miss everyone that was here in MT. Ciara had more fun playing with her cousins that I thought possible. She wanted to go out everyday and jump on the trampoline, even if it was freezing out. Darci has some cute pics of the kids playing together. I tried to copy them to my blog but since they are in a slide show format it wouldn't let me. You can click on my link to their site if you want to see them though. We all, of course, ate too much and I even went shopping on "Black Friday" I didn't get up at O'dark thirty though, I'm not that committed.
When we got home we had a huge birthday bash for everyone. Matt's birthday was in November but we weren't able to get together. Zane and Jasmine's is the first, Griffin's is the fourth, and Dalin's is the tenth

Ciara addressed the card herself

Can you believe I'm married to a 30 year old?!

All the party goers

I can't believe my little man is going to be a year old in less than a week. This year has just flown by. At this time last year I was cursing the doctors for not inducing me...Actually my due date was a year ago today. Yes, he was late, just like his sister. But worth the wait.

Look at the toothy grin!

So, I'm gearing up for the holiday season, as I'm sure most of you are. I've been shopping and racking my brain for gift ideas for everyone on my list. The girls on the list are always easy, it's the guys that take forever. I never know what to get any of them. I've also been searching high and low for a nice nativity set that's not to pricey. I think I've ruined it though because I REALLY want the Willow Tree set so every other set is just not going to be good enough. The willow tree set is so expensive I can't bring myself to buy it. I need to just start with Joseph, Mary, and baby Jesus, but I'm kind of an all or nothing kind of girl so it'll just bug me to not have the whole set.

This isn't the whole set but it's would be complete enough. The entire set is like $280.00, I just can't rationalize spending that kind of money on something I only have out for 30 days out of the year. Anyway, I've got a pile of presents to wrap and it's late so I better get on it.

Catching Up

This post is going to be long and varied but we haven't had the internet for a few days because we were moving it to the basement so I haven't had a chance to post. So make sure you scoll all the way down for all of the goodies.

Fist things first...Zane's gum, this was gross but funny so I'll do it first and get it out of the way. Zane decided to shove, 28, yes, 28 pieces of bubble gum from Ciara's Halloween bag into his mouth and here are the results. I laughed so hard. Zane figures if Grady can post a picture of poop on his blog I can post a picture of ABC gum, lol.

The evidence...

The chewing process...

The joy of victory...

The end result...absolutely disgusting!

Travis, I think this rivals the Starburst ball, what do you think?

The Blue Twins
Dalin and Ciara both enjoy suckers, can you guess which flavor they both like???

Dalin was so sticky I almost had to cut him out of his shirt to get him into the tub!

Peek-a-boo

The other day I laid Dalin down for a nap and it was quiet when I left the room, he didn't make a peep. I waited for about 5 minutes then had to go into the room to put some clothes on the bed. I quietly opened the door to toss the clothes in when I heard little giggles and cooing. I peeked around the dresser to see the following...

Peek-a-boo

I see you!

My New Treasure

So the other day I'm at Montana Rescue Mission (kinda like goodwill) looking for cheap halloween costume accessories for the Ward Carnival and they are playing old piano music over the speakers, or so I think. As I drift closer to the furniture section the sound gets louder until suddenly I come around a corner and there is the cutest old lady sitting at an old piano playing. I see the sticker on the piano and it says $199.00 so I asked her if she was going to buy it. She said no and I had instant dreams of having it in my house. I left the store wishing I could get it but thought where would I put it. I was planning on buying a chair to go upstairs after we moved the TV and desk to the basement. Then it dawned on me, why buy a chair when you can buy a piano. So I called Zane and asked him and he said if you really want I guess it's okay. So I promptly turned the car around and went back. I remembered what someone had once told Ronda about never paying retail, especially at a store like that so I offered the manager $115 and he agreed, I was so excited. When we went up to the register he said, just make if for an even $100. So for $100 and a lot of elbow grease on behalf of Zane, George, Curt, Duane, and LJ (my personal piano movers) I have this lovely piano in the living room. It needs a few cosmetic touch ups but it plays beautifully.

new living room layout

Ciara's bed...Finally done
I finally painted and sealed Ciara's bed. I still need to hang all of her artwork but other than that her "green room" is done and she is loving it.

The bed side table used to be stained a dark walnut so I painted it to match the room

Tender Mercy of the Lord, Saved the best for last.

Today Zane laid Dalin down for a nap. After listening to him scream for a minute or two Zane went into check on him only to find he had gotten his knee stuck between the bars of his crib. poor thing. I scooped him up from Daddy's arms, it's a mother's right to do that :) and I gave him a bottle Zane had made for him. After that he laid against my chest for quite a while. He isn't really a snuggler so I was feeling pretty lucky. Then all of a sudden I hear Zane at the piano playing his mission song that I LOVE! It was such a tender moment and I was reminded of a confrence talk in which we were told that motherhood comes in moments and I was flooded with the sweet understanding of that statement more than ever. Tears flowed freely from my eyes, and are starting to now as I think on it. I felt such joy at this little moment of comforting my baby while we listened to such beautiful music played by daddy. I'm grateful for all that I have. I'm not ashamed to be a stay-at-home mom, I'm proud of it, I feel it a privelage. I'm not ashamed that I am a member of the only true church on the earth, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I struggle though the hard times and live for the moments, because the moments by far outway the struggles.

In Progress...

We are working on finishing our basement and boy has it been work. Zane has been so awesome in this whole process. He wasn't to thrilled with my ambition because my ambition usually translates into work for him!! I'm so blessed to have such a handy man for a husband. As I type we are having the carpet installed, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! I've attached a bunch of pictures of the process and will post again when we've completed it. Ciara will be moving into the room we finished downstairs. I told her we could paint her room any color she wanted, any guesses as to what color she decided on??!!

This is where we put all of our stuff, it's a jungle in there!

Sheetrock phase

painting phase

Ready for Carpet!

Ciara was such a good helper! She had to mark her territory :)

Ciara's green room

P.S. I've posted a few things today so make sure you scroll down

Handsome little man

Dalin got a haircut the other day. After much debate as to how I should cut his hair my friend suggested that I just use the clippers and buzz him...so I did. Here is a good representation of before and after.

Before...

After...much better, don't you think!

Halloween Fun

We've had fun this last week getting ready for Halloween. Our ward hosted a Halloween Carnival that we took the kids to. Ciara invited her cousin Jasmine and Grandma Julie came along! She was a photographer for Halloween :) Jasmine was a pirate, Ciara...an elephant (what else!!) and Dalin was a cute little bat. I was asked to help out with the festivities so was obligated to dress up as well, I was a princess, along with my primary councelors. Last Monday we carved our pumpkins and had a lot of fun with everyone pulling out the guts and carving the perfect jaggety lantern! Here a few pics of our weekly adventures.

8 Things...

My friend Ashli tagged me, I don't usually do these but I thought, what the heck, here goes

8 Shows I like to watch
*Scrubs
*Biggest Loser
*What not to Wear
*Myth Busters
*Eli Stone
*America's next Top Model
*Friends
*Extreme Makeover Home edition
(that was hard, I'd rather read than watch TV)

8 Things that happened Yesterday
*Got the kids ready for church
*Fed the kids lunch
*made a pasta salad for the church potluck
*wrestled crazy kids in Primary
*Talked on Skype with my Family
*Watched Extreme Make over
*checked everyones blogs for updates
*stayed up way to late (regretting that this morning)

8 Favorite Places to Eat
*Cafe Rio
*Wingers
*Olive Garden
*My mom's house
*my mother-in-laws house
*Mackenzie River Pizza
*IHOP (after hockey games with the family)
*Applebees

8 Things I'm looking Forward to
*Having the basement done!!!
*Moving Dalin into his own room (again waiting on the basement finish)
*Going to UT for Thanksgiving
*Dalin's first birthday
*Picking out the perfect Christmas tree (one of my favorite parts of the season)
*Paying of School Loans (that'll be a while)
*Christmas (the kids are at such great ages for Christmas right now!)
*the house being clean (love the end result, hate the process to get it there)

8 Things on my Wish List (or Christmas List)
*Ipod or MP
*New robe (silk not the big fluffy ones)
*New Camera with higher MP
*New Crib for Dalin
*New Dresser for Ciara (I'm deciding if asking Zane to build one would get me killed or not he hates it when I ask him to build stuff 'cause it makes his garage messy)
*Church clothes
*warm slippers with rubber soles (the nice expensive ones)
*Lots of Scapbooking stuff
*gift card to Borders or Barns and Noble (spend way to much money in books!)
okay so that was nine but everyone always asks me what I want for Christmas and I never know what to say so there it is a whole list in writing and everything!

8 Things you might not know about me (I added this one, thought it would be fun)
*I have a very vivid imagination
*I was married at 18
*I was born in California
*I met Zane at a youth dance when I was 15
*I'm fasintated by egyptian and greek mythology
*I love to read urban fantasy books
*I would love to learn how to golf
*my mom is my hero and shining example-if only I could grow up to be like you mom!!

8 People I Tag
*Darci
*Jenise
*Karen
*Rikke
*Mom
*George (mom you'll have to ask George, i.e. beat the answers out of him ang post along with yours)
*Chantile (you can just email them or post it in the comments)
*Ronda (ditto, comments or email)

O Christmas Tree

This afternoon my mom and I were looking at some pictures of the trees she had taken last weekend after the snow storm. They made me think of a funny story about George and myself so I thought I'd tell you about it. A few years ago Mom, George, me, Zane, Matt (my bro), Chantile (my sister-in-law), and the kiddos got permits and drove out to Red Lodge to cut us down some Christmas trees. The snow in some places was knee deep. Matt and Chantile set off on a mission of their own to find the perfect tree and mom wanted to stay close to the car with the dog because the snow was to tall for him. Zane was on sled duty with the girls so it was up to me and George to find the perfect tree for us (this was back when we were staying with mom and George shortly after we moved back.) So we set off down the snow packed road looking for a good tree. Let me just preface this story. State law says you can't cut down a tree that is taller than 15 ft. Anyway, moving on, off the road about 50 feet we saw a beautiful tree but the bottom was a little sparse and it was a little tall. George and I guesstimated that is couldn't be more than 20-25 ft. so we decided to fudge on the rule and cut it down anyway. Well by the time we got to the tree we were both up to our thighs in snow...very very cold wet snow. George started sawing at the tree with our hand saw, that's right no power saw for us, we were going old school. After he got tired I took a turn. It was a little harder for me seeing as how George had started cutting it at a comfortable height for him the cut was a little high for me. Finally when the tree fell, after much hard work on both of our parts, we realized that the tree was probably closer to 35 or 40 feet tall, just from were we had cut it down at. Making the entire thing probably 40 or 50 feet... oops. Anyway, we cut the "tip" off of the tree thinking it was about 10-12 ft. When we lugged it back across the deep snow to the road and got it in the truck we headed home, wet socks and all. when we got home we ended up having to cut another 3 ft. off of our 15 foot tree. After the hassle it took to get it up the stairs and string all of the lights George ended up just chopping it up after Christmas, lights and all, and tossing it out the window. Mom just went out and bought new lights after the season when they were on sale. Needless to say, next time we do that we'll take a tape measure our someone with a better internal gauge of height with us.

From Summer Sun to Winter Wonderland

This pic was taken on Sept. 15th. The kids had so much fun playing in the water... fast forward to today...

That's Montana for you. Ciara had so much fun outside playing with Daddy. They built a snowman and made snow angels.

Free Advertising

My friend Jasey is very talented at all things craft related. I wanted to put up a plug for her online shop. I've seen these blocks that she is selling and they are so cute. I'm going to have her make me some for the kids' rooms. I've posted the link here and on my side bar. They are so cute, check them out!

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6073865