My tough day.

On the 20th of this month, I had my ultrasound to find out what we are having. By the title of my post, you can probably guess what the results were. I wanted a girl SOOOO bad. The moment our tech said it's a boy, tears just started streaming. The sobs came later. Jeff didn't really know how to handle my reaction because he was fine with having another boy. The tech didn't understand the depth of my want and continued to make me feel awful for crying. Comments like, there's no cleft-lip, two hands and two feet, two kidneys, four chambered heart, etc. -- made me grateful it was a healthy baby, but I was still disappointed. I felt like an incredibly unappreciative person. It took me a lot of kleenex and about 5 hrs. to be able to talk about it without crying.

I hope this doesn't lower anyone's opinion of me, especially my Father in Heaven. I believe that everything has a purpose and I know we're not done having kids, but I didn't want to worry about this every time. "Will it be a girl this time......the time after that? Will we ever have one?" Those of you who are wondering, I'm good now. That very same day, actually, I came to my senses and realized it was okay.

So....... to sum it all up, here's the official announcment:

It's a Boy!!!!!

Christmas in my mind is:

1. Gift wrap or gift bags? Gift wrap. I found this AWESOME paper last year that was reversible. So I only had to buy two rolls and I had FOUR choices!!!

2. Real or Fake tree? I like real trees. Have we had one yet since we've been married -- no. We had to stick with our 3 foot fake tree for different reasons each year. But someday...

3. When do you put up your tree? As soon as I can after Thanksgiving.

4. When do you take the tree down? Before February..... or the first time we have visitors in January.

5. Do you like eggnog? No way, Jose' ! I EAT sweet stuff with my milk...... my milk is not supposed to be sweet.

6. Favorite gift as a child? It was my refurbished banana seat bike. I'm pretty sure it was a garage sale buy, but my mom and dad fixed it up. It was painted white with neon flowers and my name in neon orange. Ahhhh, the 80's.

7. Hardest person to buy for? Parents and in-laws. They are always the last ones I buy for because it takes me so long to think of something.

8. Who is the easiest person to shop for? Kids.

9. Do you mail or email Christmas cards? Mail, when I actually DO them.

10. Worst Christmas present? These amazingly ugly, XXXL gym shorts that Jeff got me one year. They were pretty close to skorts because they were that flowy. His thinking was that I would, for sure, take them back and get something I really liked.

11. Favorite Christmas Movie - It's a Wonderful Life

12. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Because I am COMPLETELY against Christmas before Thanksgiving, as some of you could tell from a previous post, I don't start shopping until after then.

13. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Only the few white elephant gifts that seem to go around every year in our family: the Christmas toilet paper, a potty training video...

14. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas time- My grandma's sugar cookies! She used to send them to us every year. We tore into that box the second it arrived.

15. Clear or colored lights on the Christmas tree? I like clear with nicer decorations, but growing up I liked how we always had the colored lights with all of our individual ornaments.

16. Favorite Christmas song.- Ooooooo -- too many to choose from. I really like this album called "One Star" by Cherie Call. It has 3 original songs plus The First Noel. It's a must-have.

17. Travel or Stay home? I love being with family, I'll go wherever they are. Especially when money is tight and our kids might only have 3-4 gifts to open. Christmas morning lasts so much longer when you get to watch others open their gifts as well.

18. Can you name Santa's reindeers? Only when I sing the song in my head.

19. Angel or Star on top of the Tree? A star or a bow, as I have now...... angels, ehhh.

20. Do you open presents on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning? We used to get pajama pants from Jeff's grandma each Christmas Eve, but the actual "openings" happen on Christmas morning.

21. Most annoying thing about the season. Thinking of what gifts to give people.

22. Favorite ornament theme or color. My grandpa gave us an ornament each year of our lives, so those are really special to me. But for my bridal shower, my mom gave me a beautiful set of glass ball ornaments that were my wedding colors: lavender and light blue.

23. What do you want for Christmas this year? Some new clothes (as I am constantly growing these days), new close-toed shoes, and for my boys to be spectacular angels while in San Diego.

24. Does Santa wrap or leave the presents out? Wraps with his special paper, unless the gift is too big and it would look silly wrapped. His gifts have to look perfect.

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I guess I'll tag: Whoever needs something to blog about before Chrismas. :)

Christmas Plans....

This year, for Christmas, I am getting a gift for Griffin that most people wouldn't think of for a boy. However, each time he sees a commercial for one, he says, "Mom, I want that. That would be fun." So, even though there have been laughs from Jeff's friends when they find out, I'm sticking by my decision. Okay, here it is:

http://i.walmart.com/i/p/00/02/52/17/11/0002521711900_215X215.jpg

Yep, that's right. And he'll LOVE it too.!!!!

We're also taking a trip with my family to San Diego to go to this wonderful place:

I'm VERY excited!!! I haven't been to SeaWorld since I was little, and I'm sure it's just gotten better. It will be neat to see how the boys react to whales and sharks and dolphins. SO FUN!!

What are YOUR holiday plans?

OUR CRYSTAL STALACTITES

While the snow fall here has died down, the white cover remains. It's usually 30 degrees here at the warmest part of day, so there's not much chance of the snow melting completely. However, with the warmth inside the houses and the little bit of sun we get sometimes........ it creates this other beautiful winter gift. I am amazed each time I see them. I think they are gorgeous!

These lovely lickables are hanging right outside our bedroom window. How lucky are we? It's funny.......as a kid I would eat an icicle until my frozen hands couldn't handle it anymore. And only now do I wonder if they're actually the cleanest ice in the world. Does the top snow melt onto the edge of the roof, or is it the lower layer that creates an icicle? During childhood, was I really eating a piece of ice made from melting snow that flowed down the bird-pooped shingles of my house? Hmmmmm......

Well, since you got to see a great view from the front of my house, I'll leave you with a few from my back door. Enjoy.

What would I do without family....probably grow up.

Before I start blogging about all the snow we've gotten the past few days, I wanted to take a few steps back in time to remind you how cool my family is. Over Thanksgiving, while in Snowflake, we usually make a trip or two across the street to the softball field. There we play kickball and other superb games. However, because of the chilly air this year, too few people made the journey and they had to come up with new games. One of which is shown below:

Yep, that's my 26 yr. old brother, Brian, playing Red Rover with his wife and our cousins and brothers and sisters. None of which are younger than 15. The other line included my brother Allan (10) and my sister Shannon (11), so they were essentially the youngest ones there. But still.......

MY FAMILY IS AWESOME!!

Playing Dress Up

Once a month at work, we have a "Teen Night" where we're open from 1-6pm only and we try to make it fun with decorations and cupcakes, drinks, etc. Also, we dress up. A few months ago we had 70's Day, before that was 80's Day, and there was a Pirate Day somewhere in there. Although I am very proud of the outfits I came up with......I can't believe I'm about to show everyone.

Yes, that's a bell-bottomed denim jumpsuit.

Leg warmers made out of t-shirt sleeves.

Aaarrrrgggg! Did I scare you with my foam Lego brand sword?

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Thursday at work, we had a Hollywood Day, I guess you could call it. We were supposed to dress up as a movie star. They were originally calling it "Red Carpet Day", but when we opted NOT to roll out the fake red carpet we had for fear of people slipping on it all day, it was changed to Hollywood Day. Dr. McLaughlin was Rambo, there was a J-Lo, Ellen DeGeneres (spell?), Dr. Izzy Stevens (Grey's Anatomy), Catwoman, and Elle Woods (Legally Blonde).

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This will be a game for those who don't know what I dressed up as on this particular day. Whoever guesses my character correctly first...... ummmmmm........... I'll send you some candy in the mail. I'm talking like a few sweet-tart packets or something, nothing big. But you'll have the title of "WINNER" for this contest. So here you go:

What movie star did I attempt to imitate here?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEFFREY !!!

Okay, I didn't post this picture just becuase I was in it too. I honestly couldn't find a picture of just Jeff or one that I could crop small enough to be JUST of him. So there you go.

I just wanted to say publicly, "Happy Birthday" to my wonderful husband. He is an amazing father and so very patient with me and the boys.

Thank you Jeff for putting up with all my "stuff" and for helping me be a better person. You're the best. I love you tons!!!

BBUUUURRRRR !!!

After a freezing cold Thanksgiving in Snowflake, ( I had to pull out the big coats).... I'm a little more prepared for the winter I can expect here in Flagstaff. Although, weather here is so "fickle" as a girl at work puts it. Some days it will be quite nice -- like today. It's mildly cold, but no wind to bite us. Other days we will stay inside for as long as possible because it's so windy. We wait for the absolute last minute to go anywhere. When we do leave, it's a fast run to the car, another hustle into church or the store, and then back home.


While we were gone, there was a really bad wind storm I guess and the foam mats I had placed in the backyard.......

.......had blown up against the backside of our house, despite the bricks I had placed on each corner to hold it down. Griffin's beloved tent, however, was not so lucky. A week past before Jeff asked me where it had gone. I figured Jeff had put it away before we left. It was then, we realized the space tent was ours no longer. Hopefully it made it into the hands of some homeless person. Or perhaps it will be the hibernating station for some lucky animal up in the mountains. Griffin hasn't asked about it yet...... cross your fingers.



We put up our tree this past Home Evening:

Griffin loved helping this year.

Kai, on the other hand, was constantly pulling off the ornaments and driving his Lightning McQueen car all through the branches. That's what he's doing in this next picture:

And, NO, Griffin is not peeing on the tree. Even though his pose might suggest otherwise.

We also went out with some friends and had family pictures taken. It was too dark for most of them to turn out and SO RIDICULOUSLY COLD!!!

(notice Griffin's "I'm freezing" fake smile)

OH, yes, it's definitely winter.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING !!!

I know it's not until tomorrow, but seeing how we'll be in Snowflake.... I might not be able to post. We made these shirts for FHE on Monday and thought they turned out super cute. (They're handprint turkeys.)

JACKPOT !!!!

Okay, so last night we went out to dinner. Griffin and Kai ........ did pretty well. The restaurant of choice was called "Casa Bonita". Their portions were HUGE, so with all the chips and salsa, we took tons of food home. However, we still figured there was room for a little ice cream. I suggested that we stop by Bookman's first to let our stomachs settle a bit and allow the boys to pick out a new book each. Along with the two kids books, we selected some puzzles for ourselves. When Jeff got up to the cash register, the worker rang up all our purchases and hit enter. The Bookman's computer randomly picks two customers each day to receive their items for FREE. AND IT WAS US !!!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? -- I never win anything! Well, technically it was Jeff who won....... but it was MY idea to go there, shouldn't I get some credit? We were the second pick that day and didn't pay a penny. We could have bought a hundred dollars worth of stuff, but Jeff asked the cashier and they told us we weren't able to go back and get more stuff. Oh well, we'll take what we can get.

Any other big/lucky winners out there? What did you win?

I love memories....

So, I had one of those days yesterday and just the smallest thing made me pretty mad. Griffin, Kai, William (Griffin's friend), and I, were all standing outside Jeff's NAU building where all of his classes are held. We were waiting for Jeff's class to be over so we could go home. There was some "Rock Band" canopy-set-up thing outside playing music and Griffin was having a ball dancing on some... metal, water access cover...thing. Oh man -- if only you could see his dancing. It was to the point where I was half laughing, half proud of such an outgoing child. Yet embarrassed.

ANYWAY -- Jeff came out and I was trying to round up the kids and corral them to the car. Well, Rock Star Griffin did not want to leave his stage, so I grabbed his arm and guided him that way. The next thing I know he's BITING MY HAND!!!! What the heck? I thought we had gotten over the biting stage a year ago. So yes, I got mad (because it freakin' hurt) and handed him over to Jeff, who usually can handle him.

Well, later that night I was thinking about how lucky I am because he really is a good kid. A couple months ago, I got SUPER sick. Stomach flu kind of thing. It, of course, came upon me while Jeff was gone so I was struggling. A friend in the ward heard I was sick and had some brethren come over and give me a blessing. After they left, I turned yet another show on for the boys and went to lay down. Five minutes later, they were both sitting next to me. Griffin said, "Do you have owies Mommy? I'll help you." He then placed his hands on my head, like he had seen, and proceeded to give me his version of a blessing. He's the best.

It's not Christmas yet, stupid stores!!!!

THANKSGIVING!!!!!!

Only 14 days until Thanksgiving!!! I am SUPER excited! This is MY family's big holiday. Each year, except one, ever since I can remember....... we've been going to Snowflake, AZ to meet up with all the family that can. We enjoy an AMAZING weekend/reunion with neverending food and laughs. The one year we celebrated Thanksgiving in Mesa, AZ was because I got married the day before and since family was already in town for the wedding/reception..... it just made sense. However, I think there are a few who resent me because of that particular year. No, just kidding. My family LOVES me.

This year, Jeff is trying to find a ticket (for little or no cost) to go to the Thanksgiving game at ASU. Which means he'll have to find a ride down to the valley and then possibly borrow a car from my family to take back up to Snowflake the day after. We'll see how it works out, but it's not looking good.

Sometimes I feel bad because we never spend Thanksgiving with Jeff's family, but I told him from the very beginning....... this is how it is. We can do Christmas Eve and Christmas morning every year with his family, as long as I get Snowflake. Selfish? Nah. Tradition takes all. I can't wait!!!

This is about how many pies my aunt makes each year -- Okay maybe only half this many, but it still seems like a lot. She makes the BEST pies! I don't know how she has time to do all she does, but they're always made with love, and taste spectacular!!

Happy Day After Halloween !!!

Okay, so I promised pictures. I have quite a few. Now, for those of you that aren't family, you might get bored after the first few. But remember, this is a link between mine and Jeff's family whom we couldn't be with for this holiday. So, here we go:

We have a friend who's a limo driver and took us all in a ride before he turned the car back in. Griffin looks ECSTATIC......doesn't he?

(Griffin -- Buzz) (Kai -- Woody) (Carolyn -- Jessie) (Jeff -- Emporer Zurg)

Griffin's costume was perfect for a Halloween outside in Flagstaff. However most of the parties we went to were INSIDE. So this is how Griffin ended up after 10 minutes of running around at our first party:
Yep.....instead of Buzz Lightyear, for most of that night he turned out to be dressed as: Super Skimpy Spiderman.....man. Now isn't that WAY more scary?

This is Steve and Jenny Kempton and Ben, Emily, and Charlie Cox (some friends from school)

Tonight was our last party and I got some cool pictures of Griffin and Kai dancing in the disco light. They definitely stole the show!

Oh yes -- and I have to show you the pictures of my boys showing their candy. Kai posed for us very well standing like a true cowboy with his pumpkin bucket.

Griffin, on the other hand............ He had, of course taken off his costume the second we stepped in the door and this is how he wanted to pose with his........... Disney Princesses candy bag. I know, I know -- I'll get a lot of crap for that one from my brother Brian, but THAT'S THE BAG GRIFFIN WANTED, OKAY?!

Alright, just a few more. This is one of my favorites because Kai, first of all looks like he's cross eyed. Second, it brings back the picture in my head of him walking all the way from the car to the house, very slowly, with the bucket between his legs like this. Looking down every now and then to make sure his overflowing bucket was safe. He acted like it was soooo heavy and delicate. It was hillarious!!!

Okay, I'm done......almost. Just one more of Griffin, so tired without a nap today and probably a little sick of dressing up 4 nights in a row. And then one more of my amazing costume, a pretty good "Jessie" if I may say so myself.

To finally end this ridiculously long post, I will give a shout out to Jeff........."Thanks for dressing up with us.....even though you don't enjoy it as much as I do. Love ya!"

"What a loser!"

Any other time of year, that's what people would be saying about me wearing the same outfit 3 or 4 nights in a row. Last night we had a Halloween Party with some of our friends from school. Tonight was our ward's party. Tomorrow.......a tri-ward-trunk-or-treat. Then on Thursday, the NAU Physical Therapy gathering.

Like I'm going to buy or make 4 different costumes!!!

Good thing I really like our costumes this year. I'll get some pictures up soon.

Travel Agent Needed

I'm sending this question out to all my 15 readers...... if I even have that many.

Does anyone know a website or agent or secret way to get crazy good deals on airfare and cruises?

We are thinking about trying to go with some friends. We've already been on one with Jeff's family down the West Coast of Mexico, so we'd like something different if possible. Although, that's probably our best bet at the cheapest trip. Anyway -- thanks!

Got Gas ?

I LOVE my gas stove! For some reason, before I moved into this house, I pictured gas stoves as the ones you have to hold a match up to the element in order to light it. I was a little nervous. So when I actually started cooking with them, I fell in love. When you start to burn something and want the heat turned down, it goes down. Unlike electric stoves where you turn the heat down but you still have to remove the pan from the area of heat because it takes so long to cool down. And one of the best things you can do --- make INDOOR SMORES !! I just made some last night and the marshmellow was perfect every time. PLUS, your arm hairs and face stay safely away from harm. It's not quite the same, but for convinience, I use the cookies that have the chocolate layer on the inside and the chocolate stripes on the outside. Although, you could probably use the chocolate covered graham cracker cookies as well. Both would be good for a quick fix.
I probably should have named this blog -- INDOOR SMORES, but I thought Got Gas was more eye catching. :)

Rocky Point

My trip south of the border was more fun than expected. The place we stayed was amazing and had swimming pools where we spent most of the time. The ocean water wasn't too cold, but because of my kids, our water time ended up in the baby pool or the lazy river. Here is Griffin dancing in the baby pool and my sisters with they boys in the lazy river.

Griffin had fallen and scratched his knee the first day we were there, so we only went down to the ocean happily once. Every time after that, the salt water was too unbearable for his "owie". So I turned my hopes to Kai. Thinking he would like the beach more than the pools. But my other crazy kid can't stand the feeling of the sand beneath his feet. He did okay on the wet, packed sand close to the water, but if we ever put him down to walk on the dry sand....... he'd just stand there, freaking out:

It was a good trip. One that got me interested in the "Twilight" books that my sister was reading there. I'm sure most of you have heard of them. I read the first one fairly quickly and now I'm debating whether or not I can wait until my sister is done with the second one and have her send it to me, or just go out and buy it. I'm pretty hooked, so I'll probably end up at Barns & Noble later today. Oh, brother.

Jilly Bean

I just wanted to let everyone know how awesome my sister is. Some of you may remember Jill. She is traveling up here to Flagstaff tonight so that her car will be available for Jeff to drive down tomorrow after his classes. Jeff is flying out Friday morning for a weekend trip to a Notre Dame game with his brothers and Dad. However, MY vacation this weekend consists of a drive down to Rocky Point with my brothers and sisters......and my two kids. (How come all MY vacations include kids??!!) Anyway, my family is leaving tomorrow morning and in order for me to go with them, we needed an extra car for Jeff to take down later -- make sense? So, I was just wanting to state publicly how glad I am to have her as my sister.

And from the looks of this picture, she thinks she's pretty cool too. Just kidding!! I took this picture after telling her to "Be serious Jill. We're at the Pearl Harbor Memorial for heaven's sake!!" -----These pictures are no comparison to the Jill in real life, or even the Jill in others' photos. For some reason, I didn't have a great one of her.

Ode to Sadie

This is Griffin's cousin that we love and miss so much!!!

Come visit us Sadie !!

Getting cozy at Westwood Pool

Lovin' life at Aspen Grove

Giving hugs at Tempe Beach Park
Riding in style at the zoo

Fishin' for ducks........and a modeling agent