O Holy Night

Probably the worst, I mean, (ahem) best, version I've ever heard. Just when you think it can't get any worse (or better) it does. He goes there.

Our Christams Prep

So...Brad and I have been trying to figure out how to teach our young children about the real meaning of Christmas while still trying to make it fun. I remember Christmas feeling kind of two-faced as a kid, all the fun of Santa and gifts, but all the seriousness of Christ and reverence. So we decided that we would have a birthday party for Jesus. I've seen the Oriental Trading Company ads and that they have banners, plates, cups, etc for such events, but ours is going to be a bit different. We are having our party this coming Monday, the 8th. We decided that the thing that Jesus wants most for us is to be happy. He cannot just make us happy though. He respects our free agency. It is up to us to choose to be happy and to choose to help those around us be happy. So, for our party our kids have to come up with a goal of service or something else that could make someone happy and then make sure that they perform that act before Christmas and that's their gift to Jesus.

So we were at Target yesterday and I stopped on the party isle to look at party favors for Hy's party next week and Asher picked up some pirate plates and said, "He wants pirate plates." I said, "No, Hyrum doesn't want pirate plates. Put them back." He said, "No, Jesus needs pirate plates!"

Then completely off subject, but still cute, last night I pulled Samara's shirt off to get her jammies on and her skirt was covering her belly button a little. Asher said, "Oh no Mom, we left her belly button at Target!"

And randomly, here's a picture of Brad's turkey on Thanksgiving. We fed over 40 people at our church. It was delicious!


And lastly, this squirrel was outside my front door today. They are huge this time of year!

A Whole New Somethin'

This is for REAL!! Check out some of his other stuff on youtube. His Mariah Carey/Boyz II Men Duet is rather impressive also. And Somewhere Over The Rainbow. It's quite amazing. Or somethin'.

Halloween 08

I love Halloween!!! We decorated the house, we got the costumes and we got/ ate tons of candy. This year, Brad stuck with the same costume that he made several years ago. Here he is feeding Samara peaches with his costume.

Oh, and BTW it was 70 degrees on Halloween. Hello?!?!?! This is Michigan!! But it was great!

Hyrum was Batman and Isaac was Spiderman (again) - my little super heroes. Asher was Pablo (again) and Samara was a frog.
And then there's me. Brad had a bunch of old-ish underwear that needed to be disposed of so I cut it all up and made a mummy costume.
The kids look thrilled, huh? They were a little T.O.-ed that we wanted to take another picture, especially when there was candy to be handed out, just for being cute!

When night came, we turned on the black light and really became the place to be. There were some kids that saw us though and said, "I don't want to go over there." The worst part was I had lost my voice due to allergies, so I couldn't reassure kids that it was just me. I told most kids that it was my spooky Halloween voice.
The only sad part was when it was over. Brad's parents were here for it and took our kids Trick-or-Treating. They pooped out pretty soon - the kids AND the grandparents. :)

Lou'ville

Brad had a conference in Louisville, KY a few weeks ago. Since they were paying and we had a sitter for the kids, I decided to tag along. We drove the 5 1/2 hours and stayed in downtown Louisville. It was so much fun. We ate at a place called Bootleg BBQ. It was pretty good.We also ate at Lynn's Paradise Cafe, a place that was featured on Throwdown with Bobby Flay on Food Network. It was so good that we ate there for dinner (I got a fried green tomato BLT) and then 2 days later for breakfast. It was honestly some of the best food I've ever had. And since Brad is my personal chef, that's really saying something! The decor was crazy. If I could look inside Isaac's head and create a room, I would create this restaurant. If you're ever in Louisville, it's worth it!!


This stuff was inside the store part of Lynn's. Such silly stuff.

Samara is 1!!!!

Hello all. Sorry the long respite from blogging. Samara turned 1 a few weeks ago.

Cupcake #1.

Cupcake #2.


Cupcake #3.

After three, she was finally done!!. So of course we put her down and let her play in the fall leaves.

Oh, this girl melts my heart!!!

It was a great day and all a 1 year old could want - sugar and dirt.

Now on to Texas

We left Utah on August 5th and drove to Texas. These are 2 of the rock formations in Southern Utah that were my favorites as a kid. The one on the left, I called The Turtle, and the one on the right, my family always lovingly referred to as The Fat Lady.These were always so exciting to see on the way to Utah because that meant we only had 4 hours left!!! How pathetic, huh? Of course, I didn't even stop long enough to get a good picture. These are from my cell phone...

THE BORDER!!!! And yes, it says Drive Friendly, the Texas Way!

We arrived. And what else is there to do in Texas other than spend all your time cooling off in the pool!!
We spent literally hours in the pool. We went swimming every day (except Sundays and rainy days). It was delightful! I taught myself how to do a back dive. It's not great, but I don't flop.


When you swim that much, you kind of get creative in the games you play. My brother, Bryan, and I would try and be 'like Ariel.' We're dumb...and we know it...that's just the tip of the iceburg.

He was so good at it. That was his first try!! Not so much for me.


Wow, I give that an F!!!!!


D+


D-, worse than before!


AWFUL!!!

I had to go to the shallow end to finally get close.

The favorite other thing that is always memorable is going to Six Flags!!!
This is a face that Samara started pulling while we were in Texas. She did it TONS while we were at Six Flags.Us on a ride in Kiddy Land.

Finally...our trip

OK so I finally uploaded all the videos and pics from our vacation. Today I will do our Utah part, then next time, hopefully tomorrow, I will do the Texas part.

Brad's parents thought that we were arriving on July 17th, but we arrived on the 13th. We told Brad's brother and his wife, but no one else. We just asked that they get all the family there on that Sunday night. Here's the video of us leaving Samara on the doorstep to surprise them.



We spent the 24th of July there. We went to the parade. My Aunt Bev went downtown around 4am to get our spot. Then we had a BBQ at Brad's grandma's house. That's where Samara discovered ice.


Then we went to fireworks at Liberty Park.


We also went and spent time at the Valley Home that my mom's cousin owns and it's become the family cabin. Of course Hy found tons of bugs.And we could always find Samara playing by the mirror.Oh, that smile melts my heart!!
AAhhhh, kisses.Uhhhh...

Hy's choice

So today after church, Hyrum was playing the Nintendo DS and Isaac was watching. I asked Hyrum to stop, but Isaac told him to keep playing. When I checked on the boys a few minutes later, Hyrum was still playing.

I said to Hyrum, "So is Isaac your boss now?"

Hyrum said, "Yes, I want Isaac to be my boss for the rest of the day!!"

I didn't really care if they kept playing as long as they weren't fighting, so I said, "OK, for the rest of the day, Isaac is your boss."

About 10 minutes later I said that it was time for someone to set the table. Isaac piped up and said, "Hyrum will do it."

I turned to Hy and said, "Well you did choose to have Isaac be your boss for the rest of the day."

Hyrum was a good sport about it and set the table. We ate a yummy dinner - Brad made borscht, a Russian beet soup that everyone in our family loves and I made homemade bread.

After dinner it was time to clear the table and clean up, so I asked, "Who's gonna clean up dinner?"

Isaac again piped up and volunteered Hyrum. At this point, Hy burst into tears and said that Brad and I were just sitting there letting Isaac be mean to him. We said that all this was because he decided to make a choice to have a 5 year be his boss instead of his parents who at least try to make things fair(ish). He said he was done having Isaac be his boss, but we still made him clear the table.

I don't think he'll want any other bosses for a while, except for the ones he's used to.