I love Christmas time

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving up in Arizona. It is so much fun for me to see my kids playing with their cousins. I love that they will have that bond their whole life.

I wimped out of black Friday and ate waayyyy too much food. We just had a great time. Thanks Paula and Steve for letting all of us converge on your house for the week!

Now the Christmas season can officially start.

Kabob-a-dog

The other day Cali took out 2 wooden kabob sticks from our pantry to play the "drums". Being the great mom that I am, I was just ignoring it. Derek came in and said 'that is a bad idea, those are used to stab through meat," so I cut of the tip and said have at it(wonderful parenting). After she was done I told her to throw them away and not use them again. Since she is five, she waited a day and then took a new pair out when I was doing the laundry. She got bored and dropped it on the ground, and wandered off.
I was in the middle of folding a shirt when I heard this horrific howling. I looked in the hallway and somehow our 4 lb. Papillon had managed to stab this stick through his body. I ran and grabbed him and tried to figure out how in the world this happened. Cali and Sawyer were upstairs and I could not fathom how Wiley had managed to stick a 12 in stick through his 6 inch tall body. Derek walked in about 30 seconds later with Soren and looked at what was going on and took Wiley to the vet. They were pretty amazed at what had happened and that he had miraculously had missed all his organs. So he his home, the kabob sticks have been thrown away and we have all learned our lesson about kids, dogs and sharp sticks.

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NOT A GOOD COMBINATION

Lazy Blogger...Busy Life

I am feeling a little guilty because I have not updated my blog and I have come to the realization that I am just a lazy blogger. Things actually have been really busy. Lets see, where did I leave off, oh yes, after Soren's birthday we had Derek's birthday and then we went to Hawaii with all of Derek's Family (12 adults and 16 gran kids 8 and under. fun plane ride) My parents also met us over there and we had just so much fun! When we came back we had Cali's 5th(!!) birthday party she wanted a Hawaiian puppy party so that made for an interesting cake. Lots of fun. Cali is one feisty 5 year old and we love her so much for keeping our lives interesting. She loves to dance and sing and at least 5 times a day we are privileged to watch a performance.School got out in May and we loaded up the kids and headed up to Park city. We had rented a condo up there so that we could get out of the heat. We had a ton of fun up there and got to visit with my brother josh and Lisa and my cute nephew Jack. July 4th was tons of fun as some families came up to the "Chalet". We had food, air soft rifle wars, food, fun games, food and fireworks. I LOVE the 4th up in Midway. At the end of July we went for our annual beach week in Newport, sun and cousins and California. We loved it so much that we decide to move here!!! So now we are unpacking and having fun in a new town. I will try to be a better blogger, and keep you updated about our new life in CA!!

Lucky # 7

It's party time !!!

Soren had his 7th birthday!! I cannot believe how fast those years went by. He has been such a blessing for us. Here are 7 things I love about him;

1. So loving towards his family

2. He is a great playmate for Derek!

3. He is very adventursome

4. He gets me my cereal in the morning (this one is from Cali)

5. He says the most wonderful prayers and his sweet spirit shines through

6. Very good at math (he did not get that from me)

7. He acts so grown up, I love when I still get those glimpses of my little baby

For his birthday he wanted an Army theme party. so we set up an obstacle course at our park and I was the Drill seargant. I had 16 boys running as fast as they could through the course. After they finished they were given a personalised dog tag stating that they graduated in defensive manuevers and covert ops. We then had cake and presents, as the sun began to set , I split them into 2 teams and gave one team orange glow bracelets and the other side greeen. we then had them play capture the flag. The boys had the best time with this. practically every kid cried when their parents came to get them. I was completely hoarse by the end of the night. Soren has told me that his friends from school all where the "Army" shirt I made for them. It was a very fun day.

New Addition

Our persistent Cali wore us down and in a moment of insanity, Derek and I agreed to get her a "small" dog. I drove an hour each way to a breeder and picked out her little papillon puppy.

We surprised her on Valentines day. She was so excited. We named him Wiley, and he is a cutie. He is 2 lbs and my great dane does not know what to make of this tiny thing running in between his huge paws. Cali has kept up her end of the bargain and has been taking excellent care of him. Sawyer just wants to drag him everywhere and so we have to remind him to be soft. I have never had a tiny dog before and it is a whole different experience. He is so tiny that you feel like you have to carry him everywhere. i have had to be pretty firm about him having to walk a lot of places. If Cali had her way his feet would never touch the ground. About a week after we gave him to her, Cali and I were in the car and she said "When I was in Heaven, I asked Jesus to give me the funnest dad, the best mom, the nicest older brother, a fun baby brother and a the smallest dog ever. Now I don't need anything else!............I mean, I still want presents for my birthday and Christmas." She keeps us entertained that is for sure!

Christmas 2008

Christmas craziness

Lately I have been going with the saying "A picture is worth a thousand words" I have been lazily just posting pictures without any narrative. Partly it has been because i have been really busy and also, I feel like sometimes my writing does not do our activities or my emotions justice. Anyway, here goes the rundown for our holiday month. It has been a whirlwind of parties, crafts, candy and family.


The kids had such a fun time circling EVERY toy in every catalog, and calling me in for every commercial and telling me to put that "on their list."


Christmas day was everything it should have been. The kids woke us up around 7:30 (we were very firm about them not opening anything) we learned last year that sometimes kids like to open presents without their parents around.


We went in and read the note Santa left and then we opened the presents. The kids got way to many toys and Derek gave me more than I needed. We spent the rest of the day in a blur of playing and putting things together.


On the 27th we headed out to Utah. We had so much fun in the snow. We went skiing and made snow tunnels and forts. Soren and his cousin made machine guns out of icicles. Cali learned how to ski and Sawyer just wanted to be outside in the snow. I brought up a puzzle and stayed up way to late. Luckily Derek and my Sister in law took pity on me and helped. We finished the night before we left around 11:00. The kids all got sick and that was kind of chaotic, but otherwise it was so much fun. I do have to admit that I was pretty worn out. For about 2 days after the kids started school I was pretty comatose. I guess that is what the holidays are all about.