They loaded!

Here is Christmas finally!!!  I think I got things mostly in order, but I did have some of the pictures loaded before they stopped letting me load, and my friend told me to update my blogger and see if that fixed my problem.  It worked!!  But you can totally tell which pictures were loaded before they are slightly different sizes. Oh well.  Here we go:



This is the only picture I had of Thanksgiving and hadn't posted it yet.  I thought it was just too cute not to share.  Everyone was gathered in the living room (I think watching the kids play Wii, I can't remember for sure since it was SO long ago) and Hunter just fell asleep.  He very rarely does that so we knew he must have had a really fun day!

Hunter hasn't figured out the whole wait in line thing (he's starting to now, his Sunbeam teachers have been teaching all the Sunbeams :) and Ben totally just left him up there thinking he would know what to do.  Nope the poor kid didn't know what was going on he kept getting in the way of all the parents taking pictures, then couldn't quite figure out why other kids were going around him to meet Santa (he had totally butted everyone in line, so they just kept going like he wasn't there.)  I felt bad for him but of course he was still just so excited and didn't seem to really notice.  Finally I got Ben to go help him.... well Ben's helping was just shoving him in front of the other kids.  What a helper.

 

 

Here he is finally getting to sit on Santa's lap!  He jumped of almost the second I put the camera down :) And I have no idea why this picture is to the left.  I could not get it to center, it says it's centered when I click on it but that sure doesn't look center to me! (This is why I hate updating things :)

This year all our weekends were busy so we ended up spur of the moment deciding to just go by a tree.  Hunter still enjoyed it, he wandered all around the different trees and kept telling us which ones he wanted.

And he loved decorating it!  He put several bulbs right close together... again.  He did that last year too.  And pretty much the same spot even.  Although this year he would put them in other spots too, just usually pretty close together.

So excited that it was all decorated!

Aspen loved holding the ornaments.  She kept throwing them and couldn't crawl yet, could only twist in circles, so she would twist and twist trying to find more to play with.

My mom brought a gingerbread house kit over.  Hunter had a blast!

The finished project.  He would talk about it almost everyday!

I searched and searched for a countdown calendar this year.  I couldn't find one that I really liked and was getting really bummed.  My mom told me I should just use baby jars and glue them together like a Christmas tree.  I told her no.  I really didn't like that idea.  Then I thought about it more and more and it grew on me.  Except I decided to just put the number of the day on each of the jars instead of making a tree out of them.  Since it was like the 9th or 10th before I even did this they weren't very cute.  But I plan on decorating them with cute Christmas paper and using them next year.  Once they are decorated I bet they will be really cute, and they fit perfectly along my counter!

 Here are the kiddos on Christmas Eve in their new jammies!

Christmas morning before the kids were up.  Ben was on call again this year so of course got up really early, did his rounds, and was back home before any of us even budged.  His coming in woke me up but not the kiddos.  I laid in bed for a while then we decided to wake them up.  It was like 8:00, and I think the wait was killing Ben.

Looking at what Santa brought.

Santa brought Hunter a choo choo train!  That's what he had asked for when he sat on his lap.  We didn't know he wanted one so had a last minute stop at Wal-Mart :)

She was so cute with this doll.  She sat there and talked to her for quite a while.

I hate this picture of me but had to put it on.  Look at how excited Hunter is for my toothbrush!

So happy!

He loved this and played with it tons!

Cheese!!

 

She totally has a snotty nose in this one but just looks so happy!

 

Well there you have it... Christmas in almost March :)

Now We Know Why...

I still can't get the pictures to load.. grrrr. I pic the picture then hit the upload image button and it looks like it's going then the gray lines stop going around the circle and it just sits there. Dumb. But I did learn something today.... This is quite embarrassing to put on here, so don't laugh... too hard anyways.
So my friend, my sister and my sister in law all try continually to get me to go to Zumba with them (or really anything at the gym) and I refuse to all of them. I really hate the whole working out with a bunch of other people thing. I know that nobody else really ever looks at you but I still just feel very awkward and uncomfortable so I don't like it. I went with my sister to a kick boxing class once and it was really fun but I really just felt like a retard doing it with everyone else. Ben got me a bike for Christmas and we have P90X and Wii Fit and between those 3 I do get somewhat of a work out. Better than I used to be anyways. And I have been losing weight between that and watching my portion sizes so that's good enough for me. Ok back to what I learned, or I guess my husband and sister in law learned since I already knew it. We were at Ben's parents for the Superbowl today (by the way we rode our bikes there.) And Jos was trying to convince me to go to Zumba again. Well she ended up doing a kick and then showed us how high she could kick both of her legs. So what did I do. Yep I'm sure you guessed it, I had to do a kick to see how high I could do it too. Well the first leg was alright but it was my right leg. I really should have started with my left since it was bound to not go as high, but for some crazy reason I started with my right. So of course I had to try really hard with my left so that it wouldn't look quite as weak. I'm sure you are all seeing where this is going so I could just stop here.......

But I'm just not sure you could visualize it well enough :) I think I better mention that we were kicking towards Ben so that we could really tell how high we were kicking. Well I threw all my strength into kicking that left leg as high as I could. A little too much strength. And then landed flat on my back. With my head barely missing the wall, stool, chest, and couch. Somehow I knocked a pillow off the couch that landed on top of me though. Did I mention that it was on a hard wood floor? Too bad that pillow didn't decide to fall under me instead of on top. My butt, hip, and back wouldn't be hurting anywhere near as bad right now. Now we know why I shouldn't go to Zumba. I'm doubting Jos will ask me to go again, not now that she saw my "moves." I guess it probably would have helped a lot if I would have had shoes on, or at least taken my socks off. Stupid socks. But they are very cute. Lucky or I would consider throwing the stupid things away right now. Don't worry it's ok to laugh. I did. So hard that tears came out. Oh and did I mention that when I hit it was so hard that it knocked all the air out of me? Both ends. I'm really glad it was just us 3 in the room at the time. I'm hoping we were all laughing too hard for anybody else to have noticed that. Or maybe the crash of the landing blocked it out. Except now you all know. Oh well.
Now someone just needs to tell me why my pictures aren't wanting to load so you don't have to keep getting embarrassed for me :)

Backseat Driver

I was finally updating my blog! Then.... my pictures wouldn't load!!! I think my internet is struggling with how windy it is, but half of the pictures are loaded and I will try again soon (maybe Sunday since I am going to watch my little sister dance this weekend.) I promise I will get my Christmas pics on here! But I did have a funny story that I wanted to share, in the meantime:

Hunter is a total backseat driver. It gets kind of annoying at times. He is constantly telling us how to drive and where to go. In a 10 min trip he will ask you where we are going (even though he already knows) at least 10 times. And since he really does know where you are going he can tell you exactly where and when to turn, and it doesn't fail that he tells you (that part I think is really cute, just the constant asking where we are going gets very old.) He also will tell you what all the lights and signs mean as you drive past them. Also like his daddy he will yell at any car in front of you to MOVE! One of his favorite things to do is when he is supposed to be getting in his buckles (since he can did it himself but we end up doing it for him half the time since he goofs off too long and then gets mad when we do it instead) he will climb to the front and open the garage and then wait for the keys to start it.
Yesterday he was telling Ben to drive faster (he does this all the time) and Ben proceeded to tell him that he can't he has to go the speed limit (he hears this from us all the time) and instead of just ending with that like we usually do, Ben continued on with saying that if we speed a cop will pull us over, give us a ticket, and that costs money and we don't have a lot of money to spend on tickets. Hunter sat there quite for a minute then responded "I have lots of money dad, go FAST!!" We laughed pretty long and hard at that one :)

Why I've been MIA!

I was so on top of my blog for quite a while there and lately have been horrible! But I'm about to reveal why! After my Grandma passed away all of us Granddaughters and our mom's were going through some of her stuff. Someone found some handkerchiefs that she had crocheted the edges on. There were 6 and that is also how many of us Granddaughters there are. So we all picked one to keep as a reminder of Grandma. When we were little I think she tried to teach all of us to knit. I made a rag and 1 slipper. Yes only one. Then she chewed me out for starting something and not finishing it :) If you read my post about my Grandma then you will know that in her little English accent I mostly just thought she was funny when she would get mad. But being the sweet lady she is, she finished the other slipper for me. She also taught me how to latch hook. That one I took to. I really enjoy it and have made several rugs and even a couple of pillows out of latch hooks. I always thought growing up that I would make enough character rugs that when I had a house I would have a play room for my kids and make the carpet out of all the different rugs I had made. I don't think that's going to happen now, but I do have several rugs that I may put in the kids rooms when the basement is finished.
After I got the handkerchief I realized she had never showed me how to crochet. I felt kind of bad that I had never learned it or even had her show me how to do it. Well I have a friend that I know crochets so I decided to ask her to show me. Sorry Tami I have to admit that at first I really wasn't all that excited about it, I was just doing it because I felt bad I hadn't ever even had my grandma show me how to do it. Well I fell in love with it! I am now obsessed with it! After Tami taught me how I found a pattern for some flowers (they are the "roses" a few pictures down) and made tons of them! I have even kept some of them and hook them to headbands for Aspen. Then I searched and found this cute pattern:

I absolutely love it! I think Aspen looks so cute and it keeps her nice and warm!

The pattern was actually supposed to be for adults and it was originally going to be for my little sister but it fit Aspen instead :) So I started making an adult size one (this was at Thanksgiving) and my little sister ended up asking me to make some for her friends for Christmas! So of course I said yes and had a blast making them:

The "roses" on the left have clips so you can wear them in your hair. These headbands ended up the right size :)

Tami let me look at her patterns and she had this really cute one that I thought would be fun to make for my nieces for Christmas:

I loved how this one turned out. It was perfect for just a few lip glosses.

And this one I made a little bit bigger since this niece is a little older. Her favorite color is green. And she carried it around most of Christmas!

I had a blast making all of these but the last one I actually finished Christmas Eve. So it was a bit rushed and stressful. And since I was trying so hard to get them done before Christmas I kind of slacked on work too. So since then I haven't gotten to do any crocheting :( I've been getting caught up on work! I'm back to about where I usually am with work (I would always like to be more caught up) so I think now I will be able to get some blogging done and get from Thanksgiving to now updated! So start looking for some more posts soon!!

And Tami I just want you to know THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!! I'm so lucky you know how to crochet and are such an awesome teacher so that I was able to learn this one last thing that brings me a little closer to my Grandma! You are an awesome friend and thanks for enduring my late night texts asking you to explain a pattern for me!

Pictures??

I have been meaning to get on here and post for several days now. But I wanted to load my pictures before I did... Well for some reason it just seems so far to walk to get my camera and bring it in to my computer. Wow. That's pretty sad to admit but yep that's why I haven't posted. And nope I didn't go get my camera. So there are no pictures on this post. Sorry. But on a brighter not so pathetic note, we had a great Thanksgiving! We were with my family this year and had tons of family it was awesome! Three of my mom's sisters, and a sister in law and their families, plus all but one of my siblings was there. It was a fun weekend! For the past few years me and my sisters have been going to black friday, but this year I only had 1 night to stay in Kanab so I chose to stay and have a game night with my aunts that I very rarely get to see anymore. My sisters still went and they were awesome and got me all the stuff I wanted! My list was mostly just movies and a couple toys so not too bad, but still braving the crowds for me! I must admit I have some pretty awesome sisters! And I am proud to say that I am pretty much done with my Christmas shopping! I am always a last minute shopper but this year I was determined to get it done early so there wouldn't be stress during the Holidays, and I did it! I have a couple of presents that I'm crocheting (story and pictures of that to come) but other than that I'm ready! Bring on Christmas!!!

Homer and a clean house

I now have profound understanding of this yellow man:

Because today I felt like doing this:

And yes also to my son.

I haven't done a good cleaning of my bathroom since the Halloween hairspray incident. I have cleaned like the toilet one day then the tub a few days later, you get the picture. But since then I haven't been able to do a full cleaning of the bathroom. Well today I was determined that today was the day that it was finally going to get fully cleaned! And it did but I'm not so sure it was worth it.... Hunter and Aspen have been playing pretty good now and she's getting older to where I figured she would be fine for a little bit with him. Well she was kind of tired (she woke up at like 6 and never really went back to sleep) so she wasn't too happy when I left her in Hunter's room. But I got her some different toys and she was alright so I figured I would just try to hurry and she would be fine.

Well since it hadn't had a thorough cleaning for a while, it kinda took a while. More of the red had settled so I ended up just throwing away 2 rags that were just covered in red. I also went through 3 different cleaners, 1 was almost gone, 1 was for tough soap scum, and 1 was just the normal one I use if I stay on top of cleaning. Well I was on the tub, which I do last, and working with the tough soap scum stuff when Aspen starts crying even louder. So I yell to Hunter to have him come to me and ask what is going on. He of course wouldn't tell me, but as I was trying to get him to tell me I realized that her cries were kind of muffled. So of course I ran to his room! Which luckily I had rubber gloves on and could just rip them off and not worry about cleaner all over my hands. Which this was amazing that I had them on, I never use them. I think I have 1 other time and that's it. So why I chose today to wear them I don't know. Maybe Heavenly Father new it was going to be a rough cleaning so let me know I should have them on for just this situation. Hunter had put his blanket over her head. I think he must have put it on her and then she tipped over because she couldn't hardly move, it was so wrapped around her. Poor girl. Well what does a good mom do? Probably stop cleaning and take care of the kids. What does this mom do? Shows her son what it was like to be Aspen stuck under the blanket. Well he didn't like that very much, and I explained to him that Aspen didn't like it either and that it was really scary for her cuz she doesn't know how to get it off.

After that I went back to cleaning. I was almost done, just the tub left. Well just a little bit later I hear her muffled crying again. When I get in the room he had wrapped her up in his play mat! It's a rug that has Lightning McQueen and tracks on it. So again what does this mom do? Shows her son again what that was like for his sister. He didn't like that either. So I explained that it was the same as the blanket, don't do it!!

I like to do the cleaning during the day so that I can shower right after. It gets me cleaned off and does a final rinse of the tub before the kids take their baths so they don't get any left over cleaner on them. I may have to rethink my cleaning though. I use bedtime and nap time for either work or reading. But I think after today I'm going to have give up a little of my reading time. It was a bit of a rough morning for little miss Aspen. But other than my "teaching" Hunter nobody got strangled... yet.

Not your average Thankful post

I realized a few days ago that I am thankful for.... drum roll please.... my inability to throw things away! I bet you never saw that one coming :) I was getting ready the other day, blow drying my hair and all of a sudden my blow dryer just stopped working. Luckily I had my old blow dryer that I hadn't thrown away yet even though it would sometimes send sparks at me. And several weeks ago my flat iron just wouldn't turn on and luckily I still had my old one that would only sometimes randomly decide to turn on. Yep. I kept those broken things even after I got new ones. Lucky for me! The most annoying thing is that I haven't had my new blow dryer or flat iron for very long! They really just don't make things like they used to! My parents still have the washing machine that they got when they got married. That's like 33 years ago!!! The dryer did die on them like 10-15 years ago but that is still a long time too!
When I go in our basement (it's unfinished) sometimes I really hate my inability to throw things away. We still have TONS of boxes that we haven't unpacked. Most of them I don't know what is in them. One of them I do know what's in it.... it has my old shoes. I know one of the pairs in it is broken. I tried to fix them several times and none of my fixes lasted. But yet I still refused to thrown them away. And honestly I have no idea what any of the other shoes are, but it's a big box. Someday it will be taken to the DI, with the exception of the broken ones. Don't worry I'm not thinking of still keeping them, they will go in the trash.
Ben just walked by and asked me if I was writing a novel. I realized I've been rambling on about nothing. If you read my crazy nothings I hope you at least laughed :)