Me and My Lover

Friday, Travis and I went Lava Hot Springs for a little get away to celebrate 9 years of married bliss. Well 9 years married anyway, blissful or not. We stayed in this really nice Bed and Breakfast called The Lions Gate Manor. It was so nice to get away together, even though it was only one night. I truly married my best friend and I always have a good time with him. He makes me laugh every day and I love him so completely. He is a wonderful Daddy and I am grateful for his partnership. I am a happier person with him and a better person because of him. Thanks Trav, for a great life and a wonderful forever to look forward to.

Grr!

I don't have any pictures, but I need to write this down so that I can get it off my chest and relax. It is 7:27 p.m. on what could have been a normal Tuesday night. All my kids are in bed. "How nice," you might say. Well, let me tell you the circumstances in which they all ended up there so early, and you may change your tune.

I got done doing my weekly bracelets early, had to take Harlee to a dentist appointment and then run over to a Parent Teacher Conference. All was going well right up till dinner. I had all three kids at the bar eating lasagna. I went to my bedroom to relax for a minute, catch up on some emails and then start my nightly "put the house back together" routine. I was in my room for maybe 10 minutes, when I hear laughter and excited talking coming from the kitchen. Never a good sign when Jax is the source of the noise. Sure enough, I go in to find him flinging his bowl of lasagna on the floor, fork and all. Bodie is laughing, Jax is laughing, and now I have a mess. I gently (no, really) encourage him to get down off the stool and clean up his mess. I scold Bodie for the encouragement of naughty behavior and resume my wife and mom chores. This is when it gets REAL bad.

I went downstairs to a very potent smell of Vick's vapor rub. I knew that I had used it with Jax the past couple of nights, but I didn't expect the smell to linger like that. I found the bottle in the middle of the family room floor with the lid in tact. I immediately looked to our 9 month old couch for any sign of foul play (when Bodie was 2 he smeared nearly an entire bottle of Vick's on our brand new couch upstairs). . .nothing. Then why the smell. I went to move a blanket to see if it was smeared on the nearly new carpet. That is when I found the source, I was lucky (considering what it could of been) There were tiny finger swipe marks all over the blanket. Fixable. The culprit, none other than my soon to be 5 yr old, Bodie. In my exasperation I chewed out Bodie (no, not gently) and sent him straight to bed (7:15 p.m.). And quickly started a load of laundry. I was just finishing up when Harlee came downstairs to tell me that Jax had just broken my keyboard on my 6 week old laptop. "No!" I yelled. I ran upstairs to, sure enough, find my keyboard missing a space bar. Grrrr......I am practically in tears at this point, because I am a girl and when I am mad and exasperated and well, ya know, I cry. I don't like to cry, but that's what happens. I spent the next 10 minutes piecing my space bar back onto my keyboard. I was lucky enough to fix it with no see able damage. Thank goodness! Jax promptly to bed (7:25 p.m.). So, Harlee was a casualty of war. Poor thing was sent to bed with the boys only because I just couldn't handle children anymore. So, there ya have it. I actually do feel better getting that off my chest. Thanks for listening...

Look Who's 2

Today was my baby's birthday. I can hardly believe that he is already 2. Jax has actually been pretty excited about his "Happy Cake" day. On my Calendar on the fridge. Little bday cakes mark a persons birthday. I showed Jax his birthday the beginning of January and ever since then he had been talking about his Happy cake. It has been pretty cute. So today I took him to Wendy's for chicken and bought him a "happy cookie" and then we went to Pizza tonight and then had a party for him. He had picked out a train bday cake and so I made that up for him. That was fun for me and he loved it! It was a great day for him. He got lots of loot and attention.

Bodie got him a weird little squishy ball and he hated it. He was scared of it and wouldn't hardly touch it. Thus the pic on the bottom left.

New Years Resolutions......

So I am inspired by my friend (thanks Lace) to post some new years resolutions. I hear the more people we tell the more likely we are to keep them. So here goes. This actually started with our Christmas tradition of gifts to Jesus. On Christmas eve we give a gift to Jesus. Something that we promise to do for him. I don't remember what all was said by everyone that night, but I do know what my goals are. First off, the superficial one, I made the goal to lose 20 lbs and keep it off this year. A year from this February Trav and I are going on a cruise and I would like to have all my extra weight off by then. I also want to read the Book of Mormon AT LEAST twice this year. Attend the temple every month, and attend all my meetings at church. This last one will actually be easier to do now that I teach in Primary every other week. That will keep me on track. So there ya have it. I am really taking these serious too. I really feel that time has gotten away from me and continues to do so the older I get. Harlee will be baptized next month, Bodie starts kindergarten in the fall and my little baby will be 2 the end of this month. It just all flies by so fast and I feel that I haven't made the time for the important things. So I guess I will end with that......I will make more time for the important things!! I hope all of you do too.

Bringin it Back!

No, I am not bringing sexy back, I am bringing RAD back! So, for the past year I have been on a solo mission to bring rad back from the archives of lost words. I have recently recruited a few others to my cause. Thanks to those who have supported me in changing their vocab in order to help bring back a word that had no business becoming extinct. Please note, that "radical" is not a word that is coming back. Just RAD! For those of you who would like to join the cause, it is easy, just start sayin Rad whenever you would normally say Cool. That's it.

So, please, join the Cause, Bring it Back!

All I want for Christmas is.......

Ahhh...the joys of Christmas. I get so excited for my kids for Christmas. It is a different excitement than when I was a kid, but excited enough that I can't wait for them to wake up and therefore, Christmas eve is just as long a night as it was when I was a kid.

We do the usual tradition of Christmas pajamas. Here are the three in their new jammies.

Christmas Morning Harlee was so surprised to find a new (new to her,anyway) desk. And (what you don't see) a walkie talkie so that she can converse with her best Friend across the street, a pillow pet (if you don't know what one is, consider yourself lucky).

Bodie was elated to find a Lightning Mcqueen race track and a barn with all the cowboys, cattle and ranch equipment to play ranch with.

Jax opened his noisy tractor and played with that until Bodie got all his stuff opened and spent the rest of the morning taking Bodie's loot and playing with it. He was happy to get a 4-wheeler in his stocking, a motorcycle and a couple of tractors to push around. It's just always more appealing to see what the other kid has.

Travis gave me this beautiful painting by Clark Kelly Price. I have wanted it ever since I first saw it 8 years ago or so. The caption at the bottom says, "It's true sir, all present and accounted for." I love it! It brings tears to my eyes each time I look at it. Just thinking of what a blessing it was to have all these boys protected from harm. As a mom, I can only imagine how hard it would have been to see my son go into battle and what joy I would have felt to see him safe and sound.

I didn't get pics of Travis opening his stuff, I was too busy filming him on the camcorder. But he got some tools and a portable air tank, some Mt.Dew and donuts. Since he claims he starved himself after that diet he put himself on, he asked for junk food. All the things he missed. I did get a couple of pics holding Tayah, his sister, TIffany's baby. She is so adorable! And so is he holding her.

So that was our Christmas. We were able to spend time with both families. I think it is such a blessing that we live close to both sides of the family. I love that our kids are so close to their grandparents. I didn't have that growing up and so I am glad that my kids have that opportunity. I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and that your new year is especially HAPPY!

Temple Square and Christmas Party

The first weekend in December, we went down to SLC to my annual family Christmas party. We have also made the tradition of always going to see the lights at temple square the same weekend. We make a weekend of it and the kids have a fun time walking around AND staying in a hotel. It was fun to have Jax walking and talking. All he could say was "witty wights!!" It was cute! The pic isn't great, I took it with my phone, but it is better than nothing. Y'all know my track record with bringing my camera to stuff :)