Sunday, December 28, 2008



J turned the big 30 on the 7th. It was fun, but it was a Sun. so we had to keep the Sabbath day holy instead of partying harty!! We had some friends over for pie and ice cream and it was a very nice time. Back in Sept we went home to WA and threw him a HUGE surprise birthday party. It was a "This is Your Life" theme and we were able to have a lot of family and friends there who J hasn't seen in a while. Thank you to all who helped out with that memorable time, it will be a birthday neither J nor I will ever forget!! We love you Jerrod, you are a wonderful husband and father who loves the gospel and his family. We are so thankful for you in our lives!! Happy Birthday!!

Monday, December 22, 2008

Whose kids are these???

When we went to see Santa the kids were running all over the place, Sis was getting hot and progressively taking off her coat, hat, gloves, sweater, etc. etc. until this is how she ended up at the end??!!!??!?!
Here's JJ sitting all cute for a little photo-op next to the snowman.
And here he is trying to drop the hammer on the snowman!!

I love my kids, they make me laugh and sometimes they make me crazy, by the end of this night I think there was a little bit of both going on!!

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Seeing Santa!!




Our neighbor asked the kids the other day if they've seen Santa yet and they replied "No." What!!! We've seen him up on campus (which are the above photos), we saw him at the library, and we saw him at the carousel. How can you just forget about all of those magical moments??!!??! All three kids did very well with Santa, they sat on his lap and told him what they want for Christmas. On campus they had hot choc and cookies so we stayed for a little while and the kids kept going over and laying down to try and sneak another peek and the jolly ol' fella!! Merry Christmas everyone!!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Decorating



While Clark W. Griswold was busy decorating the outside of the house, trying to beat out all the neighbors, the kids, Nana, and I were working on the inside. About once a week Jerrod has us all pile in the van to drive around the block and make sure our house is still the most decorated, I think the word you're looking for is, Obsessed!! He does a great job though and we love him for it!! JD found a Santa hat, and two decorative stockings that his Great-Gramma Ardy made and with his snowsuit he became Santa for the day!! I love getting out the decorations and remembering how we got them and what they mean to us, and also to put up whatever I purchased at the after-Christmas sale the year before!!

Monday, December 15, 2008

Our Christmas tree


Here's the tree!! Living happily in the beautiful forest among it's peers,until we came along and cut it down to have a decoration for our home just to discard it at the first of the year. I didn't really think of it that way until now and now I feel kind of bad, oops.
Here's Jerrod cutting it down! What a real man, destroying nature with tools and stuff!!
He had to use the ladder to put our Angel Moroni tree topper on top!



This year we got a permit to go to the forest and cut down our own tree!! Other than our near-death experience in our un-4x4 minivan, sliding down the hill towards the ravine- thanks to the Dunn family and the Jugganiakloo family for all the help!!! We had a great time!! Jerrod was having a snowball fight with Nick, all JJ wanted to do was eat the snow, and after about 5 min the rest of us were frozen!! But we ended up getting a great tree that we had such a fun time decorating together and reminiscing about the beautiful ornaments we've collected and have been given ever since Jerrod and I were little. One of our favorite parts of decorating for Christmas is the tree!!! We love to sit in our living room with only the tree lights on and enjoy the beautiful memories of Christmas!!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

The red-headed step-child!!



Not that I don't love red-heads (that's for you Uncle Goods) I just never thought I would have one of my own!!! JJ always gives us something to laugh about!!

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Thanksgiving

JJ enjoying the chocolate cream pie!!
Our holiday spread, I tried hard this year to make things from scratch instead of just out of the box, all in all it turned out pretty good!
He's even studly when he's carving a turkey!!
One of my favorite Thanksgiving must-haves, cranberry sauce from the can!! I love it!!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. Jerrod's Mom came for a week to visit and share the holidays. We had a great time playing games, watching movies, eating, and decorating for Christmas!! We love this time of year that we have to reflect on how grateful we are for all of our many blessings which include our family and friends who give us so much love and support, we love you all and hope you were blessed with a wonderful holiday as well!!

Friday, November 28, 2008

My new furniture!!!

Here's all the furniture together, a couch (against the wall), a love seat, an accent chair, and a throw rug!!
The couches are microfiber and have wooden arms/legs. The accent chair (below) matches perfectly w/our color scheme and is actually a really comfy chair!!

Whooooooo Hoooooo!!!! I finally have furniture for my living room. We had some friends over for dinner and they mentioned that another friend in the ward was selling some furniture from a model condo for a great deal. We went to check it out and found lots of great deals!!! It doesn't match perfectly (especially the throw rug, but it's very soft) but it's so great to be able to sit and talk, read, and just relax in our living room, I love it, thanks to the Patricks and the Stallings!!!

Oh boy



Sometimes I just have to look at my kids and laugh, that's usually when I grab my camera so I can blog whatever made me laugh, to hopefully make you laugh too!! The other night I turned around from the computer to find JD like this on the living room floor; don't ask me, I have no idea what runs through his head. We're all so proud of him!!!

Monday, November 24, 2008

Mr Roboto

Sis and JD found one of Daddy's birthday cards that played "Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto" and told me to come watch them. I went in and they opened the card and started dancing, it was so hilarious I asked them to do it again so I could get it on video and post it on our blog for all to share!!! Enjoy!!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Pizza Man



Sis is learning all about pizza in preschool, how to make it, how to order it, what foods you can put on it, the shapes, she got to deliver it to people in the class, eat it for snack, etc. She made this hat and was so proud of it, on the way home from school she said, "Mom, when I grow up I want to be an artist and a pizza man!!" It was adorable, both her and JD have so much fun there!!

Monday, November 17, 2008

JJ strikes again!!


You'd think I would learn my lesson by now-- but sometimes I just can't resist sleeping in a little. This morning J left for work after giving Sis and JJ breakfast and letting them start a movie, JD was still asleep so I thought, what could it hurt, and went back to sleep for another 45 min. I awoke to JD telling me JJ had done something naughty, of course!! He found Sis' glittery pink nail polish, gave himself-fingers and toes; JD's Lightening McQueen car; and my carpet a makeover!!!! Well, that's all we've found so far anyways. Never a dull moment around here!! If anyone has any suggestions for taking nail polish out of carpet it would be much appreciated!!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Cocoa-motion!!



Our family LOVES hot cocoa!! Years ago for my birthday, my wonderful husband bought me the BEST GIFT EVER!! It is called the Cocoa Motion. It blends up the yummiest hot cocoa; it is so creamy and smooth and we always like to spice it up by adding yummy mix-ins like peppermint hershey's kisses, mint melt aways, candy cane, etc. Here's our family enjoying nice warm cocoa after a really cold walk!!

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Halloween!!!

The reward!!

This year we had Barbie Mariposa, A cute and scary spider, and Buzz Lightyear
J with all the kids at Boo @ the Zoo!!

From reading all your blogs, it sounds like our week was the same as everyone else's: We had Preschool parties, library parades, free pics around town, Boo at the Zoo and trunk or treats-which by-the-way, whoever thought of that deserves a big fat smooch, my kids hit 30 spots in 45min with no worries of scary dogs, cars running over them, doors to knock on, getting colder and colder walking from house to house, etc. etc. etc. so thank you to the Trunk-or-treat genius!! Happy Halloween!!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Painting Pumpkins




For Family Home Evening we had Cassi & Gavin over to paint pumpkins, I wasn't up for carving this year, who knows what JJ would do when sharp knives are within reach!! We had a lot of fun and our pumpkins turned out great!!

Monday, October 27, 2008

HSM 3!!!



We took the two big kids to see HSM 3 on opening night on Friday!! We loved it, it was a sold out show, we had to sit in the fifth row, we got popcorn and treats and we had a blast!! We cheered after our favorite parts, we all agreed that the 3rd one is the best out of all of them and we were sad because we know there will be no HSM 4!! The first one had a "Dirty Dancing" style to it (even though it was extra clean, that's one reason we love these movies, no swearing, no violence, nothing inapropriate, I think between all three movies there are only two kissing scenes) and this third one made me think a lot about the "Grease" style!! We definately recommend it to all and can't wait until it comes out on video!!!! Laugh at us if you must but Jerrod has learned some sweet dance moves from Troy Bolton!!!

Friday, October 24, 2008

Chewing Gum


These boys love to chew gum!! If I leave my purse sitting out on the counter they will get into it and steal all the gum they can find!! They are so adorable chewing it, I had to get some pics even if they are thieves!!

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Our fruit harvest



We also planted some fruit with our veggies this year- cantaloupe and water melon. The watermelon got overpowered by the pumpkins and the cantaloupe was pretty shocked with the transplant so we weren't sure if it was going to do anything but we ended up with these adorable teeny melons, we put the apple in to give you some perspective on the size!!!

Monday, October 20, 2008

1st Day of Preschool



Sis and JD are both attending the preschool up on campus, they are in different classes but get to have outside time together!! They love it and learn a lot. They have already gone on two field trips this year, to Miss Hattie's farm to learn about potatoes and animals and also to an apple orchard when they were learning all about apples!!

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

We did the Puyallup!!

Auntie Aimers, Uncle Greggers, Papa & Grammie
Sis & Bella
The Boys
Our crazy family!!

The kids each one a blow-up hammer or dolphin at a $3 win everytime kids game

How cute!!
Wow, check out these pumpkins, are we back in the great state of Idaho??!!
Riding the rides
Riley & Nicholas


We lovvvvvvvvvvvvvvve the Puyallup Fair. For the past two years we've been able to go on JJ's birthday and have tons of fun!! Both Jerrod and I have such fond memories of going when we were young and in school that it's been so great to take our children to enjoy it. We love the food, the rides, the games, and of course, all the free samples!!! This trip we even got to see Carrie Underwood in concert, only through the fence and just for a minute but it was fun!! Thanks so much for everything Papa & Grammie, we love you!!