Call Home!

It’s February 1st already, I can’t believe it. I’ll blame my lack of blogging on: #1 the holidays (we loved every minute of it—being around family so much, sledding at Dad’s for his b-day, the kids playing with their presents and spending lots of time with cousins) #2 being pregnant (20 weeks now, up 15 lbs, and SO excited—and still a little bit in disbelief about it), #3 having a new puppy (Cooper or “Coopy Coo” as we’ve come to call him, who loves to snuggle up at my feet when I’m on the computer—and who is already potty trained, I might add), #4 living close to Rachel, Irene, and Afton (we—Rachel, Irene, and I—still work out at least 4 times a week together and of course, end up spending time chatting and having the kids play afterward, and we also have the 3/4-year olds together once a week for preschool—which is when we see Afton), #5 having fun with friends (bowling, out for lunch, temple, etc.), #6 attending Mark’s awesome field trips (this month ice skating and snowshoeing), #7 having Kim and Mom visit for a week (late nights up talking and meeting Becca and Frosty for lunch), #8 reading some good books (just finished the Kingdom and the Crown series and now reading The Undaunted), #9 being a mom of three (doing laundry, cleaning, cooking, carpooling, keeping up with schedules—piano lessons, scouts, therapy, b-day parties, performances, doctor appointments, etc.—playing/reading to the kids, washing faces, wiping tears, and giving loves!), and #10 being ME (going out with Dave—movies, dinner, MUCH needed home improvement planning that we can start on as soon as tax return comes in—chatting on the phone, facebooking, reading others’ blogs, visiting friends/visit teaching, planning and attending relief society activities, cutting/highlighting my hair, attending showers, being “home-room mom” for Mark’s class, scrapbooking, planning family vacation—to Disneyland and Sea World this spring, and in general keeping it simple and loving every minute of it! :)

Good Reads #2

I posted last February that I was going to read The Kingdom and the Crown series by Gerald Lund. And, I've finally finished the 3rd and last book. . .soooooooooo good. It took me the whole past year to get through the first two, though. They were a little harder to read than books I'm used to, so I kept putting them down while I'd read other books here and there. But, in the end, I'm so glad I kept going because the last book was so good I couldn't put it down. There was a lot of backgroud that needed to be set up in the first two to make the last one easy to understand how Jesus came to be crucified! What an experience! I learned so much and would recommend this historical fiction series to everyone. I have to specifically thank Jenny for telling me how good they were, it was because of her comments that I kept on reading. . .everyone else I asked about them had either not read them or had only read the first, or half of the first, etc! So, THANKS Jenny!! :) I loved them.

Also, I finished Alma, by HB Moore that came out a couple months ago. It was Awesome! If you haven't read her series, you MUST! The first four are Out of Jerusalem, and then she has Abinadi and Alma. I can't wait for her next book. Let me know if you read these after seeing my post last February. . .I hope I inspired SOMEONE to read them!!! :)

Hair cut and countdown!

I still can't really believe I got my hair cut off! I love it, I just can't believe I actually FINALLY did it. It's been a long time coming. . .I've had long hair since 1992! Differing lengths of long, but nonetheless LONG! My sister Kim (who has also had long hair for years) came to visit and we decided we'd at least get bangs (which I've not had since 1995). Then we got a little more daring as we looked through pictures, and decided to go a little shorter than normal. When we got to the salon, we told the lady our pathetic background and asked her opinion. . .she was so excited that she got to be the one to cut our hair off! The minute we sat down she cut our pony tails off and said "there, now you can't change your mind--let's go wash your hair!"!!! Talk about SHOCK! I couldn't quit smiling the whole time. She was hilarious and totally assured us that we'd love it. She also said she'd continue to encourage us to go shorter, but that baby steps were good. hee hee

Kimmy is also pregnant (which could explain our impulsiveness), 10 weeks behind me. I'm 16 weeks now and almost as big as I was on Halloween! :)

Christmas 2009

Our kids were SO excited to see a puppy under the tree on Christmas morning!! It was fun to have the cousins pop over to welcome him too.We're just a little worried he won't get enough attention and love around here: 

Kyra said she didn't care much for her other gifts as "all she wanted for Christmas was a puppy". :) Darci, on the other hand, hasn't quit playing with her vanity (and all the jewelry and make-up that came with it) yet! And, Mark, of course, LOVES his new transformers!

My mom made up cards with pictures of all the people in our family and taught us how to play a few games with them. What an awesome idea--since we have nearly 60 people just on my side of the family! The kids and I loved it.

On Christmas Eve I gave Dave and the kids my FIRST digital scrapbook! I'm so excited to have finally finished one and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I plan to have this become a tradition. . .I'll finish one full scrapbook every year to give them for Christmas. :)

We really enjoyed having Doug and Evelyn with us first thing in the morning and to have our parents stop by throughout the day to see us. The kids loved having so much time to just play with everything and each other. And, we loved just being here to watch them!  What a beautiful Christmas!

Santa Claus is coming to town. . .

We had a lot of fun writing letters to Santa! The kids love this tradition and each year can't wait for the day after Thanksgiving so they can get on with letting Santa know that they've been good kids throughout the year and therefore they would like. . .for Christmas! :)

Oh the excitement! Here they are mailing their letters!

Yesterday we were very excited when we saw Santa at the Festival of Trees! The kids couldn't wait to tell him that they'd already sent him a list of things they'd like for Christmas, but that they'd thought of a few more things. . .

I LOVE this time of year!

Family Pics

We just had our family pictures taken and I'm not totally sure what to think. Does anyone else think I/we look a little vampirish in a couple of them?!! Please let me know what you think. . .and if you think it would be "rude" to ask her to redo some of them?!!

I think I can. . .I think I can. . .

For some reason I haven't been able to get myself to sit down and summarize the past month, or even the previous one for that matter. I think it's because I've been doing so many things that I don't know where to start, what to leave out, and how to post all the pics I want to share. So, I decided I'll just sit and write from memory and leave the rest for--I don't know what, where do all the unblogged activities go?!! Oh well, I can't worry about that now, hopefully they'll all get scrapbooked some day.

The kids are so excited for Halloween tomorrow--I am too, I love getting together with family to carve pumpkins, trick-or-treat, etc. and to watch the kids have so much fun dressing up and running from house to house to get treats. Kyra and Darci are going to be witches and Mark is going to be a skeleton. Well, maybe. . .today Kyra told her friend she was going to be a mean green witch. Then Darci said "ya, and I'm gonna be. . ." when she didn't finish I said "a cute purple witch". She said "no, I've changed my mind, I'm gonna be Spiderman now." To that Kyra said "well, that's a boy costume, but I guess that's OK if you want everyone to give you BOY candy!"

I had a wonderful time visiting with Missy, my BF from HS at the end of September. I flew to SD and spent three days with her and her family. My visit was really way past due! I loved chatting and catching up with the past 15 years! They took me to the beach and taught me how to surf! :) I loved every minute of it! It's amazing how close friendships don't deteriorate over time.

Dave went to California for the US Open Jiu-Jitsu competition. A bunch of his students from the gym went with him as well. They all did great and had a good time. Dave came home with TWO GOLD medals! We are so proud of him. Now he's training for the PanAmerican competition in April.

Mark and Kyra are doing well in school. Mark is enjoying Montessori. He has a "field trip" to Yellowstone for a week in the beginning of November. I'm excited to go along and experience it with him. I've been able to go on two field trips with his class so far: hike to Cecret Lake and biking around the neighborhood. I also volunteered to be his room mom and to keep up his class blog. Kyra likes kindergarten. . .especially the part where she comes home with a treat every day. Her teacher says she's doing great and she's learning to read pretty well now. Darci loves having "preschool" with her cousins Elizabeth and Forest once a week and "playgroup" with some little friends in our neighborhood once a week. She still loves playing house with her friends and babies.

Mark and Kyra are taking piano and doing well. They love to play, I don't ever have to remind them to practice! I love watching them and hearing the songs. . .I'm amazed at how fast they've learned some of their songs!

We are SO excited that I'm pregnant. The kids ask about the baby every day. Yesterday after I threw up, the girls said they didn't feel very well. I asked them if they had babies in their tummies too. They said "no, we have puppies in our tummies"! They want a puppy almost as much as a baby! :) I've been really tired and nauseus, but I'm sure it'll only last another month to 6 weeks. . .maybe by Christmas I'll get some energy back. Meanwhile, Irene and Rachel are keeping me honest with working out, I'm excited to try and keep it up through this pregnancy.

Last night I got to go out with all my "sisters" for Kari's b-day dinner (my step-mother-in-law. . .hee hee, sounds funny, right?). We had a great time just chatting/laughing for hours. Irene and I also went to a Halloween party with some of our neighborhood friends a week ago and we had a fun night chatting, eating, and playing games(I LOVED announcing my pregnancy to my friends that night with my preggo-belly-costume)! I had a bunch of my friends over for scrapbooking last weekend, and as always, we had a lof of fun! I live for nights like these. . .thanks to all my sisters/girlfriends for providing me with such good times!