...sigh...

So much to blog, so little time.  Things have been crazy around here!  I had to quicky jot down a couple of funny things that have happened this December.

First and my favorite story, as I was putting presents underneath the tree, Hannah asked me, "We give presents on Christmas?"  (as opposed to getting them.)  WHAT??  Haven't I taught her anything?  We have much learning and teaching to do at our house.

I gave each of my kids an Advent calendar at the beginning of the month.  They have been a hit!  Hannah's is Littlest Pet Shop and Chance's is Lego.  Each day they are SOOO excited to open a new box and see what is inside.  Chance's is a little mini lego set each day that he is supposed to put together.  Hannah's is little toy pets with accessories to match.  The first two days or so, Hannah asked when she was going to find candy inside one of her boxes.  Oops.  The whole reason I got it was to avoid giving her sweet tooth another excuse for a fix!  But luckily the Stowers came through and gave each of the kids a chocolate Advent calendar!  So now they have the best of both worlds.  Opening their calendars each day is definitely a highlight for them. 

I gave my final Relief Society lesson for the year (and for the manual) on the martyrdom of Joseph Smith. It was one of those lessons that you have heard a million times - how do you portray it? I finally ended up showing a DVD for the last half of the lesson. The church has done such a great job of attempting to recreate and properly illustrate church history the way it happened. Put that to music, and me talking could not top the DVD. I think the message was portrayed well; however, I am definitely looking forward to teaching out of the Gospel Principals manual!  The "Teachings of Joseph Smith" manual was difficult for me!

Shawn's mom decided to do the 12 days of Christmas for each of her kids and their families.  There are four of her six kids who are married, and between the four of us, there are 11 grandkids.  Shawn's mom is a present wrapping maniac, and wrapped every single gift.  To put this in perspective, for the kids only, that is 132 presents she wrapped!  She has always wrapped every gift for her kids while they were growing up.  That is something I am just simply too lazy to do!  haha  But the 12 days of Christmas has been really fun.  The gifts have been spiritual but fun at the same time.  I can tell a lot of thought was put into each gift.  The kids also had their annual "grandma party" at April's.  They talk about that party all year long because all of the cousins get to sleep over together at Grandma's.  I don't know how Grandma does it, to be honest!

We went to Las Vegas during the first week of December to meet my sister Lindsay, her husband Jason, and their new baby Lily.  Jason was attending a pharmacy convention in Vegas, so it gave us a good excuse to go down and spend some time with them before they came home for Christmas.  That Lily is the cutest baby in the world!  She is so dang cute, I just loved holding her!  She is so alert and is always looking at something.  She knew she was in a new place, and she's only barely four months old!  We love her to death. 

We had so much fun in Las Vegas - we took the kids on their first flight!  I was able to find really inexpensive plane tickets ($25.00 each way!) so we thought what the heck!  We thought it would be fun to have the kids' first flight as a short one.  And they loved it!  They thought it was so cool.  Chance's favorite part was going through security.  why??  Don't ask me.  He thought it was great fun to take off his shoes and backpack and watch them go through the X-ray machine.  And he thought it was really great when the metal detector beeped and security officer had to stop me because I left my cell phone in my pocket.  Oops.  The kids RAN down the jetway to hop on the plane, and immediately wanted to pull their tray tables down for no apparant reason.  They had a great time.  The highlight of the trip (for me) was seeing the Polar Express movie in 4-D.  It felt like we were really riding the train, you could smell the hot chocolate, and it was snowing in the theatre!  So fun!  My kids loved Circus Circus (of course) and the M&M Factory.  We saw a pet show, where cats and dogs were trained to do funny tricks and stuff, but I think I liked the Polar Express better!  I love Las Vegas, I know it has an evil side to it but there is so much to do.  We missed my office party and our ward party by leaving town that weekend so that was kind of a bummer, but we had a fun time.  We stayed in our timeshare which is very conveniently located directly across the street from the outlet mall!  Yes!

Lindsay and Jason blessed Lily this past Sunday.  They had the blessing in Riverdale in the Relief Society room with just close family.  It was so nice, and Jason gave such a sweet blessing.  Lily looked goregous in her long white dress, but she was exhausted by the time everything was over!

Well, that's enough rambling for now.  I'll have to post more pictures at another time, hopefully sooner rather than later.  Merry Christmas!!

THANKSGIVING

My mom cooked Thanksgiving dinner this year.  It was amazing.  The turkey was tender and moist, the trimmings were absolutely delicious, and the desserts were incredible.  Everything was hot and on the table all at one time - a miracle, in my opinion.  I can never do that.  I always have something that is cold or not quite finished.  I told her after this year, she needs to enter a cook-off with my Grandma White because she absolutely nailed that dinner.  It was to die for.  Honestly. 

Even though Thanksgiving has passed, I wanted to list a few things for which I am grateful.  I was sitting in church yesterday and thought of a number of things that I typically take for granted, but I am so thankful to have.  

--A working, capable body.  It's far from perfect and larger than I prefer! but I do have working hands, arms, and legs.  I am so thankful that I am able to pick up my kids to give them a hug, or carry them into bed if they fall asleep in ours, without any sort of struggle.

--Acute senses of sight, smell, touch, sound, and taste.
--Smart, thoughtful, lovable, confident, healthy children.  They are the greatest.
--An extremely hard-working, gentle husband who is a wonderful example to our children. 
--The greatest parents and siblings. 
--The relationships my children have with their grandparents.  My kids love both of their grandmas and grandpas more than anything and I am so thankful that relationship is there.
--Food storage.
--Church.
--House.
--Car.
--Gas.
--Electricity.
--Technology.

I am so spoiled, and I am so thankful for it.

halloween

we had a fun halloween!  a couple days before, our neighborhood had its annual pumpkin walk.  here is what we submitted this year:

Chance's glow-in-the-dark skeleton

my snowman

Hannah's swan / goose / duck

Chance and Hannah each won a prize in the voting.  I think they won second and third places.  First place was a pumpkin that was dressed like a person who was mooning you.  Seriously, how do you top that??  I blame the fact that I didn't win a prize on Shawn and his poor product placement.  He put my snowman on the front porch where no one walks so no one really saw it.  Oh well, can't win 'em all!  haha  The kids won't let me throw their pumpkins away, so they are sitting in each of their rooms.  How long do pumpkins last before they go bad?  They want to keep them forever...gross.

The kids were excited to dress up on Halloween.  Except what happened to "power" trick-or-treating?  They were as slow as could be moving from door-to-door.  I remember running as fast as I possibly could to get as much candy as possible.  These kids were in slow motion.  At least they looked good, right?

Matt, Chance, Benjamin, Luke, Jake (I think...I can't remember which colors the twins were)

Beauty and the Beast

Hannah thought her blonde curls were so beautiful.  She kept flipping them over her shoulder while fluttering her eyelashes.  Why do they have to grow up??

basketball

Chance just finished his last game of the basketball season.  This was his first year playing, and Shawn was his coach.  After one particularly rough game, Shawn came home exasperated and declared, "I have a bunch of Jedi's on my team!"  He also stated that he knew he could have never been that bad at basketball.  However, toward the end of the season, the kids really improved.  I don't know if it was because Chance's grandma came to his last game or what, but Chance hit so many shots during his last game that we couldn't even keep track!  Shawn told Chance to make sure to check around and see who was open and pass them the ball.  Chance replied, "But Dad, the basket's always open!"  It reminded me of Shawn's old motto when he played high school basketball:  "Dribble 'till you're open."  Like father, like son!  But I am very proud of both of them.

church callings and other ramblings...
Shawn's dad was called to be bishop of his ward today. I wasn't going to tell Chance why we were going to grandma and grandpa's ward, so I just told him we were going because something special was going to happen to Papa Bryan. "So, he's going to be the new bishop?" Chance replies. "Uh...yes," I respond, "but don't tell anyone." So during the entire first part of sacrament meeting, Chance is continually asking me, "Is grandpa bishop yet? When is he going to be bishop?" I'm hoping no one around us can hear him, as Chance lacks the physical ability to whisper! Finally, Bryan is sustained as bishop. Chance leans over to tell me, "from now on, I'm going to give my tithing to Grandpa Bryan instead of our bishop." Then he asks, "how do I become a bishop?" It's crazy the questions I have to try to answer for this kid! In family home evening we were talking about apostles, and Chance asks, "how do I become an apostle?" Seriously, how do you answer a question like that? We just told him to keep being a good kid. He is so funny.

I can't imagine being called to the bishopric. Of course, I will never have that opportunity, but the weight of the ward on my shoulders would be something I don't think I could handle! When the bishop was released, he bore his testimony and mentioned that as he was released, he felt, physically, as if a vest or coat was lifted from his body. Bryan now has that weight, or coat, put upon his shoulders, but I know he will do the best job he possibly can. Right now I am serving as a teacher in the Relief Society. It is very, what's the word...humbling. I enjoy the call because I have learned a lot, but I always feel most comfortable hiding behind the piano! Oh well.

My friend Lori's dad passed away this last Wednesday. He died suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack. He was the coach for Bonneville High School's football team for over 30 years, so Friday night they had a game at Bonneville in honor of him. We went to the football game and it was a lot of fun! It was so neat the way they remembered Coach Budge - after half-time all of the fans watching the game who had ever played football for Coach Budge went out to the field to welcome the team back to the field. Shawn and his brothers went out on the field, along with a bunch of other guys. Just last week at Chance's football game, Shawn was reminiscing with Coach Budge about some of his plays/interceptions that he had while playing for Bonneville. It's hard to believe the number of lives this man touched. I was reading the blog comments in response to an article about Coach Budge on ksl.com, and not one person who commented had a bad thing to say about him. I've read a lot of blogs where comments have been ruthless - mean comments have been made about people who have died. This was not the case with the article about Coach Budge, and it was quite touching.

Coach Budge's death, in close proximity with the unexpected death of another friend's father, has me thinking about being prepared for the day when I will leave this earth. I only hope that I will be as prepared as these two great men were, because I do not believe they had an indication that their lives would be cut short. I am going to rededicate myself to making an effort to living each day to its fullest, and serving others, including, most importantly, my family. After all, that is what life is about.

touch 'n' brush

I shouldn't admit this, but my kids watch informercials on Nick and are always telling me about things I need to buy, from "snuggies" to "bump its" for my hair. However, the one recurring item they have talked about has been "touch 'n' brush". Hannah said she wanted one for her birthday, which I thought was hillarious! Seriously, a toothpaste dispenser? Well, after seeing it in a catalog, I gave in and bought one for the bathroom. After I put it up, I told Chance it was for his birthday but that he had to share it with Hannah. (evil laugh) So far, not kidding, it's been his favorite present! It's a hit - I put it up yesterday and I bet between the two kids they've brushed their teeth 10 times in less than 24 hours.

hannah's first day of preschool!

it's hard to believe she's old enough, but hannah had her first day of preschool today!

flag football
Chance LOVES football! Such a difference from soccer. He said after his game on Thursday, "I didn't even look at you and dad the whole time, I was just concentrating on the game." Much different from soccer when he wanted to take breaks all of the time. But the one who is most excited is Shawn! He's been waiting almost seven years for the day that his son would play football and we could go to the games and cheer. It's been so fun!! Go Tigers!!

uncle wayne

My Uncle Wayne is a member of the Osmond Brothers. He is married to my mom's sister, which makes him my uncle. No, there's no blood relation, which is why my smile doesn't dazzle and why I don't see Donny and Marie on a regular basis! Anyway, I wanted to post about him for a couple of reasons. First and funniest, because my kids are so fascinated by him. He is such a jokester - here he is at a family party. His shirt reads "I'm a fun guy" with a picture of a mushroom on it! Get it, "fungi"? haha I loved it!

At this particular party, Hannah runs over to me and whispers, "I want that guy up there to come down here and chase me." Why? I have no idea. So when Uncle Wayne climbs down, Hannah (who is usually shy around people she doesn't know very well) goes up to Uncle Wayne and asks him to chase her. Uncle Wayne had to decline because he has a bad knee, and he felt SOOO bad! It just made me laugh that she wanted him to chase her because it's really unlike her!

Chance has realized that Uncle Wayne is a performer. We took the kids down to one of the Osmond Brothers concerts down in Layton, and we told Chance that Uncle Wayne was singing. "What else does he do?" asks Chance. I reply, "Well, he plays the guitar, and he tells jokes." Chance pauses, then says, "Wait a minute. Uncle Wayne sings, plays the guitar, AND tells jokes? He's the whole show!!" Well, in our eyes, he is! Then Chance asked, "What does Uncle Wayne sing?" I said, "Well, he sings a lot of songs. I'll have to get one of his CD's and let you listen to it." Chance's eyes grow even larger than normal and he slowly says, "He has a CD!!???" He was amazed! So, to say the least, he had a great time at the concert. We were even able to go backstage afterward. I made sure to get a picture of Chance and Uncle Wayne together.

Lately, Chance has expressed to me his confusion - when he talks about his famous uncle to the neighbor kids, to his surprise, none of them have heard of the Osmond Brothers! He can't believe it. If you don't know about the Osmond Brothers or Wayne, click here for his website.

I had the opportunity to take my Uncle Wayne's picture for his new book, which came out on his birthday, August 28. I thought the picture I was taking was going to go on the back cover, likely in black and white, kind of as the "about the author" blurb. Here is how it turned out:

Augh! Cover shot? Scary! My cousin (Wayne's daughter) Amy published the book. It's available for sale on her site (click here) and I believe will also be available in LDS bookstores. I haven't read it yet but knowing Uncle Wayne, I'm sure it's entertaining!

baby lily
My baby sister finally had her baby - Lily Claire. She was born on August 13, 2009 - 8 days overdue!! Their cute fam is living in Hawaii so I haven't even been able to hold the little cutie pie yet!! We (specifically me and Hannah) are just DYING to see her!! Hopefully soon... We just stare at her pictures every single day. These are a few of my favorites - especially the first family picture!! How priceless.

first day of first grade

The day finally arrived - the first day of school! About two weeks before school started, Chance became excited about school again, asking when it was going to start. Mostly, he was excited to wear his new school shoes. They are DC's. Yeah, I hadn't heard of them either, but I guess they are pretty dang sweet. We met his school teacher, Mrs. Pitcher, at back to school night. She approached Chance and said to him, "Chance, Mrs. Judkins (his kindergarten teacher) has told me all about you and what a good student you are!" Talk about making someone's day - he lit up like a lightbulb!

The night before school started, I asked Chance if he wanted me to walk him into his class on the first day of school. (They built a brand new elementary school, and this is the first year it was open. Noone really knows their way around.) So Chance said yes, he'd like me to walk in to school with him on the first day. Being the obsessive photo taker that I am, I took my trusty camera with me. Little did I know I was going to embarrass my first grader by not only taking his picture in front of the new school, but by also taking his picture in class!!! Check out that expression, if looks could kill...

teeth

Maybe I should put it this way, Chance has a "low pain tolerance". So does his mother. So when his top front tooth became loose, he wouldn't wiggle it, let alone allow someone to pull it out! It was cute at first, because he would tell me that he didn't want his teeth to fall out because he didn't want to grow up, and he wanted to live with me and Shawn forever. Awwwww. HOWEVER, when the tooth started turning GRAY (how gross!!!) I had to put my foot down. We had to get it out, especially before school starts! On Sunday (well, two Sundays ago), we had Papa Bryan pull out the trusty pliars. Shawn tried to to pull it out, but the thing wouldn't budge! After much kicking and screaming by Chance, we decided to have a professional do the job - Chance's hero Uncle Mark. During the operation, Mark discovered that not one, but two of Chance's front teeth were loose! I gave him the go ahead to yank both of them at once! I refuse to go through another gray tooth episode! Here are some before and after (and during!) pics of the ordeal.

I have to admit, I love that toothless grin!

happy anniversary to us!

Oh boy, I am WaY behind on my blogging! All kinds of fun activities I need to catch up on! But first I want to remember that 10 years ago tomorrow my cute hubby and I were married. We joke about how it's been the longest 10 years of our lives, but really, it's gone by pretty fast! I truly can't imagine my life without him. I had the biggest surprise today - not only did he call me at work and ask me if I wanted to go to lunch with him, but after lunch I walked back to my office and found this gorgeous bouquet of my favorite flowers! Then, after work, I found a very sweet note he left for me. (He is at a scout campout right now which is probably why he's making such an effort! haha) Then there's me - completely unprepared, thinking we would celebrate later. I think he'll forgive me. After all, he's had 10 years of practice...

Independence Day 2009

We spent the 4th of July in Star Valley, Wyoming (our tradition). This is our third year of pulling our trailer up to stay in it, rather than staying inside the cabin. Shawn's family is growing and there is no more room! It works out perfectly though, because I have terrible allergies and I think sleeping by the dog (Annie) would make them even worse. And the kids love it. Speaking of allergies, I made a big mistake and took an Allegra with a Benedryl on the evening of the 4th. OOPS! I couldn't keep my eyes open, fell asleep after dinner, and didn't see one firework! I honestly could not move! Poor Shawn had to take the kids by himself! Luckily we had a lot of fun the rest of the time, but I will definitely not do that again!

Top Row: Autumn (6) * Chance (6) * Gracie (almost 8) *

Brielle (10)

Bottom Row: Ireland (3) * Cienna (1) * Porter (3) * Hannah (4) * Jace (3) * Garrett (5)

Very Bottom Row: Annie (7 in dog years)

Missing due to nap: Hugh (1)

Other than allergies and the millions of mosquitos (and mosquito bites! poor hannah...those 'skitos just love her!) we had a great time. Between fishing in Uncle Lance's pond, attending the Star Valley Ranch 4th of July Kids Carnival, swimming, golfing (Shawn, not me), and 4-wheeling, we kept very busy! We didn't run the river because it was too high, and we didn't make it to Jackson this time, but I think we all considered it as another successful cabin trip!

fathers day

I am so grateful for all of the fathers in my life! Happy fathers day!

Leela and Chance

Just a quick post about the fam before I forget these funny things. On Sunday, Hannah's imaginary friend began living here. Her name is Leela. Hannah wanted to pick out a dress for Leela to wear to church, so I helped her find a cute dress. Suddenly, Hannah decides that she wants to BE Leela. So now Hannah IS Leela. She would not respond to anything other than Leela all day Sunday. Leela is five years old, obeys her mom, and goes potty in the big girl potty without accidents! I'm really starting to like Leela. Leela aka Hannah goes to church and tells her primary teacher that she is five years old, which confuses Hannah's friends in her class, because everyone knows that Hannah is four. Hmmm, multiple personality disorder symptoms here?

Another kinda funny story - Chance was outside the other day and his friends began fighting with one of the neighbor boys. I guess the fight escalated into rock throwing and hitting. I overheard the neighbor boy telling one of the moms about the fight, but I never heard Chance's name mentioned. When Chance came inside, I asked him about the fight and asked what he was doing while the fight was going on. He replies, "I just sat on the swing and kept saying prayers that everything would be okay." I smiled, thinking, okay, do I get mad at him for not sticking up for the boy that was getting picked on because he was saying a prayer? It was a catch-22. So I decided to just give him a hug. When Shawn came home that night I told him the story to see his reaction. His response was classic: "For as wimpy as that sounds, it's kinda cool."

Since I flaked out and missed the open house for the Draper temple, I made sure we made the trip down to see the Oquirrh Mountain temple before it is dedicated. We drove down last Thursday. Chance was so funny - we were getting ready to go and he says, "Mom, I'm a little nervous to go to the temple. I've never been inside of one before." I told him there was nothing to be nervous about, and that we just needed to be sure to be reverent while we were walking around. I pulled out a white shirt and some cordoroy pants for him to put on. The next thing I know, he's changed out of his cordoroys and put on his Easter suit! He wanted to look his best! I thought it was pretty cute. The kids loved the temple, and came home and drew pictures of it (their own idea) . . .

Chance's picture is below, Hannah's is above.

preschool graduation
(an overdue post)

mikaela * hannah * esi * gracie

We had a little joyschool for the girls in the neighborhood this year. Even though they "graduated", at least three of them are going to another round of preschool next year!! haha I have a feeling they won't mind.

hannah's first dance recital
I was really nervous about this performance, due to the fact that approximately two weeks ago at dance picture time Hannah clung to my leg and did not let go. Needless to say, I was upset, and Hannah is in ZERO dance pictures. I was thinking, "If she is a nervous wreck at dance pictures, how is she going to behave on stage?" I was honestly expecting a disaster. But yesterday, up on stage, the girl was in her element! Her class had two dances "Me and My Teddy" (ballet duet with a teddy bear) and "Ain't She Sweet" (tap with attitude). The entire class completed both dances without even blinking an eye, and after they were over, Hannah asked if she could do another one! Her dance class is the cutest thing I have ever seen. I was so proud of her!



We were bad parents and forgot to buy flowers to present to Hannah after the recital. She noticed all of the girls receiving flowers and kept asking "Where are my flowers?" Shawn and I just stared at each other blankly. So after the recital, Shawn took Hannah to Smith's and let her pick out some flowers. The sucker dad he is, Hannah received a dozen roses in her favorite color.

mothers day happiness

I had such a nice Mother's Day yesterday! I was given the cutest cards, a portrait of me made out of construction paper by Chance (am I hot or what?), and beautiful yellow flowers! The kids (including the big one) made me an omlette (my fav), and even cooked the bacon outside so our house did not smell like bacon! [That is one of my biggest pet peeves, to smell like food -- ESPECIALLY prior to going to church or somewhere in public!] It was so nice. I had already received my "big" mothers day gift -- a Wii Fit. Yes, I bought it for myself for Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to me! If you don't want to be disappointed, buy your own present! I played it one day, and I haven't been able to get on it since because my kids (specifically Chance) have overtaken it. But that's just fine.
A highlight of the day occurred while I was putting Chance to bed, beginning our nightly routine. I asked him if he had chosen a story for me to read to him. He said, "Mom, since it's Mother's Day, I thought you could pick the story tonight and I'll read it to you. You just relax." So I chose one of my favorites -- Are You My Mother? (appropriate, right?) I kicked back on his bed and he read me the entire story. It was so sweet, one of those moments I did not want to end. He is such a thoughtful boy. Another highlight of the day was reading the paperwork the kids had filled out during Primary. They were supposed to answer questions about their mom. To the question "What is your favorite meal that your mom makes?" both of my kiddies answered "Chicken Nuggets."

Maybe because that's the only meal I make! It made me laugh. Chance stated that I have "a very cool job." I am wondering if he is referring to my job as a mom, because I don't think he has any idea what I do as a paralegal! And knowing Chance, in his mind, what could possibly be cooler than taking care of him all day? And by the way, that's a 31, not a 37 -- but both are wrong!

I am so grateful for my own mother. As one gets older, the sacrifices and trials your own mother has made for you seem to stand out and become more obvious. I am so thankful and lucky to have such a great mom who did, and still would, do anything for me. I love you, Mom!