On the twelth day of Christmas

I am thankful for
1. Good friends
2.Grandma Tinka
3.Grandpa Ralph
4.Alicia
5.Ralph
6.Wendie
7.Sister in-laws and brother in-laws (John, Bill, Kristina)
8.Nephews/Cousins (Dylan, Tasman, Benjamin)
9.Pat
10.Breanna
11.Connor
12.Hillary

Merry Christmas Everyone.

On the eleventh day of Christmas

The eleventh day is written by my dad Ralph:

On the eleventh day of Christmas Ralph is thankful for:

1. That we have only four year terms in this country.

2. Family visiting

3. Gasoline at less than 3 dollars a gallon

4. Federal pay raises and federal retirement plans

5. Diet coke with lime

6. That the Smithsonians are free

7. Warm weather and no snow

8. Grandchildren

9. Diet Mountain Dew

10. Mickie D's

11. Thomas the Train

On the tenth day of Christmas

On the tenth day of Christmas I was just too busy having family fun to blog. Sorry.

On the ninth day of Christmas

(today's thankful list is done by my sister Alicia)

On the ninth day of Christmas Alicia is thankful for:

1. Barack Obama

2. Christmas in Virginia when most of Fort Wayne, Indiana is without power and has been for 3 1/2 days.

3. My sister Heather (whose blog I read every day)

4. Tasman getting to spend Christmas with his cousins

5. Tasman's cousins who are being very understanding about him telling them repeatedly not to touch him.

6. Air mattresses

7. Christmas cookies

8. Husbands that participate willingly in family activites.

9.Christmas with and about family.....

On the Eighth Day of Christmas

On the Eighth Day of Christmas I am thankful for



1. Grocery stores that are close to your house.

2. Wrapping paper with lines on the back so you cut straight.

3. Reclining chairs so you don't have to sleep on the floor.

4. Washers and Dryers in your house.

5. Tylenol.

6. Grandpa's who are "playish". (A term created by Connor)

7. Nap time.

8. Bed time.

On the Sixth day of Christmas

On the Sixth day of Christmas I am thankful for

1. Good kids on airplanes.

2. Carts and people movers at the airport.

3. Delta's flight tracker. We were able to watch the progression of our flight on a map. Connor chose that over movies or cartoons.

4. Diet Coke.

5. A daughter who did her homework on the plane. Good job Bre.

6. Kyle. He is Hillary's new friend. And a good source of entertainment on the last leg of our journey.

On the Seventh Day of Christmas

On the Seventh Day of Christmas I am thankful for

1. Diet Coke
2. Slurpees.
3. Coke.
4. Coke.
5. Coke.
6. Coke.
7. Coke. (yes it keeps my husband pleasant)

On the Fifth Day of Christmas

On the Fifth Day of Christmas I am thankful for

1. That our government makes it safe to fly.

2. Portable DVD players and MP3 players.

3. Fruit roll-ups.

4. A good friend who is willing to drive us to the airport. Yea Mary!

5. That today is finally the day we are going and Hillary can quit bugging me about getting on a plane and going to Grandma's.

On the Fourth Day of Christmas

On the Fourth Day of Christmas I am thankful for

1. The fact that some of my kids are old enough to pack for themselves.

2. Lists.

3. That my Dad taught me how to pack and how to tape a box

4. Spreadsheets with columns for my clothing choices.

Fiesta Ware

***edit***I just realized this was my 100th post. Quite a milestone for me and all things said and done - not a post I'm really excited to have as my 100th. Oh well. Heres to 100 more.*****

Check this site out and enter to win some dishes!

On the Third day of Christmas

On the Third day of Christmas I am thankful for


1. My job. I like what I do and they pay me to do it.


2. The fact that I work well under pressure.


3. Frozen lasagna. It's good and easy to make and my kids love it.

On the Second Day of Christmas

On the Second Day of Christmas I am thankful for:


1. The fact that Hillary does not scream and cry when she sees Santa.

2. Cute little babies. I visited my friend Mindy today who just had her first baby. He was SOOOO cute. Just a perfect little round face, sooooo sweet and already a good sleeper. Didn't peep once while I was there holding him. Welcome to the world Bradley!

On the First Day of Christmas

On the First Day of Christmas I am thankful for:


1. Being able to celebrate the holidays with my family. But mostly that my Mom is still around to celebrate with us.

new look

We didn't get our Christmas decorations out this year. We'll be at Grandma's house for Christmas and they have saved an entire tree for my kids to decorate so don't feel bad for them. But I realized this morning that I COULD decorate my blog. Way easier to put up and take down :) Hope you like it.

She ROCKS our world

Isn't she CUTE!!!

Ho Ho Ho

We had our family Christmas party on Saturday. We were lucky enough to be visited by Santa. They kids had a great time and all enjoyed sitting on his lap. Well almost all of them did....

Tis the Season...

It's that time of year when I panic that I haven't bought enough presents for my kids. I think a lot of us are that way. Especially this year when many budgets are tighter than ever. Then I go to the store and see the giving tree and remember that there have been years where I've been on that tree and was eternally thankful that someone decided to donate. So I pull off ornaments for each of my kids and take them shopping so some little boy will have a better Christmas. I urge everyone to remember what the season is really about. Remember to give as much as you get. Let your kids see that while you don't have a lot there are people who have way less. And remember that sometimes the best gift you can give is joy. Then watch this video and smile. I did.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

YUMMY!

The day before Thanksgiving the little grocery store in Springville has a moonlight madness sale. We've gone for a couple years now to get great prices like 44 cent frozen vegetables, 50cent cream cheese, 99cent Lays potato chips and 45cent lunch meat. However I think I'm safe in saying that EVERYONE in Springville also goes as well as everyone in 3 surrounding cities. So we go a half hour early and park 2 blocks away and stand in line for an hour all to get a great deal. Plus it's fun. They do tons of samples and have people handing out tons of candy all over the store. And I love to support my local grocery store. Yea Reams!! This year they were doing lots of trivia contests - one every 5 or 10 minutes. I happen to be just finished checking out when they did one so I was right there. The question was "When did Reams first open?" Well right on the wall above my head is the giant 3 foot tall Reams logo that includes the words "Since 1945". So I yelled out the answer and won this GREAT basket. So if you're in Springville, shop at Reams. Plus they have the BEST produce in Utah County and great prices.

TWILIGHT - no spoilers involved

We went and saw it. And when I say we-I mean me and Breanna. Bre refused to read the books because she is anti-love story. So I was way surprised when she begged to see the movie. But can I just say....

WE LOVED IT!!!!

Despite all the bad things people told us about it we both loved it. One who'd read the books and one who hadn't. Bre liked it so much she asked to buy it when it came out on DVD.

So just to touch on all the bad stuff I heard. One thing that made me really love the books was the way she is able to make you live in the story with her descriptions. Obviously all that can not translate into a 2 hour movie. I thought the liberties they took in the movie to get from point A to point B more quickly were pretty good. And the characters were pretty close to what I had pictured in my mind. I didn't think the acting was too bad either. Of course I'm no critic - but all things considered I was not disappointed like other people were. I can't wait for the next movie to come out and we will buy it on DVD. So go see it despite what you've heard.

Yet another FABULOUS outfit from Grosgrain plus a bonus

Grosgrain: Downtown Holiday Jacket and Pant GIVEAWAY!!!!
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Then check out this giveaway (just scroll down or click here.) I'm no professional but I want one anyway! Erin and Camie - check this out as you ARE professional and could use a cool strap like this.
Grosgrain: Custom Camera Strap GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Connor is multi-talented

Connor has been asking for weeks for one of those round knitting looms you knit hats with. While I was in Virginia we found one so Grandma and Grandpa bought it for him. He now loves making hats. Here is his first hat which was actually made for Hillary but he wanted to try it on for the picture.

PS: While I was trying to update my cousins blog address on my blog role...I accidentally deleted the whole thing. So don't think I've ex'd everyone out of my life - I just don't have time today to put all those addresses back in. Maybe tomorrow:)

Fall in Virginia

When I left Utah on November 5th to visit my mom it looked like this:

When I arrived in Virginia it looked like this:

I think I might live in the wrong climate.

Utahn or Utard

I am lucky enough to be able to visit with my Mom and Dad for the next 5 days. I arrived LATE last night and aparently my luggage decided it needed more time in Vegas so it did not arrive with me. Oh well. I did find the best shirt in the airport yesterday,however, I refuse to pay twenty dollars for a t-shirt so a picture will have to suffice. Sometimes I'm torn between what is funny and what makes Utahns look like "Utards" as my brother says. You judge.

Last month my Brother Ralph, his wife Kristina, and their son Benjamin came to visit us. Benjamin is SOOOOO cute. The kids had a great time playing with him, especially Hillary. She is such a little mother. Thanks for coming guys.

Lettuce and Tomaotes

The other night we were making taco's and Pat was in charge of cutting up the lettuce and tomatoes. Hillary REALLY wanted to help so I figured why not? So we set her a cutting board up next to him and gave her a butter knife. She actually did pretty good and they had a blast working together.

BOO!

So we had just about the most perfect Halloween I've experienced since I had kids. The weather could not have been more perfect. It was warm enough that we didn't have to put jackets on - but not hot. All my kids were just the right age this year too. Hillary understood what was going on and was able to walk all night without a stroller. Bre is almost too old - but managed to get a lot of candy despite her age. Connor started to understand people and figured out if he acted shy and quiet - he got tons more candy. I was way lazy in the pumpkin department this year and got these Mr. Potato Head type decorations. It only took about 5 minutes to do (four of those were spent deciding who would get what eyes, nose, mouth etc). So enjoy the pictures.

The turkey pumpkin was what Hillary made at pre-school this week. Cute huh?

Did you ever have one of THOSE days...

Have you ever had one of those days where you wished with an unparalleled desperation that you could climb back in bed and start over? All the things you'd do different are screamingly obvious? You'd pay better attention to the "signs" and take action early to avoid just being able to react. I've had a month like that. My boss told me the other day if I didn't have bad luck I wouldn't have any at all. Boy is that right. Not that anything has happened directly to me - but one thing or another has affected just about everyone I love this last month. And not in a good way. So here I am still trying to pick up the pieces and put them back together. I won't go into details because those of you who know me well enough know them already and those of you who don't - trust me you don't really want to know anyway. But in my attempt to start putting everything back to right - I'm determined to get back to my blogging. I have so much to share with you, where to start. I'll start way back before everything went sour. My sister and her husband(Bill) and son(Dylan) came for a visit. We all went to the Dinosaur museum and had a blast. They have Great hand's on things and pretty good fossils.

So here's to catching up on the blogging. See you tomorrow.

GROSGRAIN MINI STORE OPENING NOVEMBER 6!!!!! AND BIG PREVIEW GIVEAWAY!!!!

GROSGRAIN MINI STORE OPENING NOVEMBER 6!!!!! AND BIG PREVIEW GIVEAWAY!!!!

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Who couldn't use another handbag...

Go enter to win a free handbag from Handbag Planet. One free bag every hour for 24 hours. Plus they're cute too.

Good Times

We got out on Saturday and did a bunch of free stuff (the kind of stuff I love). We went to Kids Day over in Provo. We actually stumbled onto it by accident - it was in the same park as the farmers market we go to. But Connor had fun on the rock wall. Plus he usually only gets about 1 foot above the ground so getting this high was especially exciting for him.

We also went over to see the Radio Station at their remote broadcast. They had a clown that was doing face painting and balloons. Hillary wanted a butterfly and got more than she could have ever asked for. I was impressed and she loved it.

And for those of you who know I actually have 3 kids - Breanna was asleep during the kids day and refused to have her face painted. But she was there with us.

A GREAT CONTEST

Check out this website and enter her contest to win the great Frog Pod. Also check out the website for Boon. I went there and it's great. Not a company I'd heard of - but instantly loved after seeing their stuff.

What makes me feel old....

Today's small talk topic over at Sherrie's blogaversary party is "What makes you feel old?". I figured I'd participate since I have TONS of things that make me feel old. So here goes. Feel free to participate - click the button on my sidebar or just post your own list.

• It makes me feel old when my office partner doesn't know who Gary Coleman is and I do.
• It makes me feel old when I realize that I have a teenager.
• It makes me feel old when I realize that my second child is about to hit puberty.
• It makes me feel old when the music I loved growing up is called "old school" and it has it's own time slot on the radio called "the resurrection lunch".
• It makes me feel old when I think actors who are over 60 are HOT.
• It makes me feel old when I realize I've been out of high school longer than I was in high school.
• It makes me feel old when my teenager tells me I can't use words like "tight" because I'm too old.
• It makes me feel old when people think I am my mother's sister.
• It makes me feel old when I try to sit on the floor. And even older when I try to get up.
• It makes me feel old when I realize I no longer enjoy McDonalds.
• It makes me feel old when I go to the mall and realize I would never wear anything those stores sell. Nor could I fit into most of it.
• Making this list is making me feel old. Oldness is easier to take in small doses. Don't think about it all at once.

Here kitty, kitty, kitty...

Hillary is helping the neighbor while she is away this week. Her job is to play with the kitty's. Yesterday was her first time and she did great. Too bad I hate cats or I might get one for her she's so cute with them.

Peaches, Peaches, Peaches

We put up peaches last weekend. Thanks to wonderful Hubby for peeling all the peaches. I love the way they look all lined up when the work is done and the mess it cleaned up. It went so smoothly that Hubby wants to do more this weekend.

A couple weeks ago Connor, Pat and I went fishing. We invited the girls - but they didn't want to go. We went up to Deer Creek Resevoir. It was really pretty up there and I got some good shots of the scenery as well as Connor. Connor as usual spent more time looking for stray wieghts and hooks than tending his pole (that's my job). The water is pretty low this year so he found a lot of stuff that had been lost in the lake in previous years but was on dry ground this year. He thinks after one more trip up he'll have enough stuff he can open a store.

We didn't catch a thing - but the HUGE fish felt free to tease us by jumping almost constantly not too far from shore. We are going to try to make it up there one more time before it's too cold for us.

Snakes on a boat....

I know I'm a little late in posting - but Connor had his raingutter regata a few weeks ago. He was very proud of his boat. He was just convinced that everyone would be jealous of his boat because it was so cool. I think a few of the boys actually were. He didn't win however, but came in 4th place. I didn't take very good pictures so I'll give you more details about the boat. It has a shark mouth painted on the front part and bloody scratches down the sides. There is a sword stabbed into the fron top and gold, snakes, and skulls on the top. The sail has a skull painted on it too. He came up with all of that by himself. Even I was afraid of it.

We're still alive....that's something I guess

We survived our first Boy/Girl teenager party this weekend. It was rough though.

Breanna finally got me to commit to a date and had her party. She was promised a party as a reward for her AWESOME grades last year and I had been putting it off. Then summer came and she wasn't interested in having it and I thought I was off the hook. But she remembered and I gave in. She invited a bunch of her friends and I think almost everyone came. I think at one point we had 16 teenagers in the basement. They played video games and listened to music. Pretty basic stuff. I tried to talk her into a craft corner - but she sank that idea pretty quick. They did eat junk food and drink soda. I think she considered it a raging success. We tried to stay upstairs and ignore the mayhem. Hillary and Connor were in charge of chaperoning. They went downstairs every 10 minutes or so to make sure no one was up to anything they shouldn't be. I snuck in a couple shots - but I could tell they weren't into my picture taking - so I gave it up.