They're FAMOUS!!!!!

Last week on Christmas eve, we took the boys downtown to go ice skating. While we were there, a photographer for the local paper took their picture and wanted to know their names. We got the paper for a few days but had given up on the fact that they would be in the paper. Well, this morning, our builder called to say that our kids' picture was on the front page of the local section!!!!!! We had to run out to get a paper right away!!!!!! Here are the famous boys!!!!!!
Doing the bunny ears on each other!
And here is the picture in the paper!!! Isn't it cute? Wow! Celebrities in our family!!!! Who would have guessed it?

Fluff and stuff!!

While I was out Christmas shopping, I couldn't resist the "fluffy" dresses that they had for little girls. Here is Amber in one of her new fluffy dresses!!! I think that it is so pink and frilly!!!!!!!! I just love it. (and by the way, this dress is a size 12 months!!! It is a little big, but she sure is growing FAST!)
This is so you can get the full effect of the fluffiness!!!
On another note, all the boys had haircuts last night including Aaron. His hair was over his ears. He did a great job of holding still so I could cut it! All boys were cut and bathed in a matter of about a half an hour!!!! Here is a picture of Aaron sporting his new haircut!

A Wonderful Christmas Day

We had a fantastic Christmas day with lots of fun and more than enough toys to sink a battleship!! Although we missed our family far away, it was still a good day for us. We had a nice mix of traditions this Christmas. We had the nativity on Christmas eve, since it was the last Monday (or FHE) before Christmas. This is a tradition in my family. After that, we had chex mix and watched the musical Scrooge, which is a Christmas eve tradition in Barth's family. The kids went to bed late, but it was fun to do things with our kids that we did as kids!! The boys had a great time. Amber did her usual thing of being cute as long as she was held and, overall, Christmas eve was a success. On Christmas day, after all the presents were opened, I made the traditional Christmas breakfast. This year we had cinnamon rolls, pancakes, eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns and orange juice. It was SO YUMMY!!! We got around to eating it at about 10:45. Then I made a Christmas dinner of Ham, roasted potatoes, salad, fruit salad, rolls, Christmas jello, corn and lemonade!!! (We ate at about 6) In between, the kids had a wonderful lunch of m&m's, skittles and smarties left by Santa!!!! I think that among the presents, the sleds that all 3 boys received, were one of the favorites. Let's just hope that we get lots more snow so that those sleds get some good use!!!! The picture above is of all the kids in their Christmas PJ's on Christmas eve!
Here they are on Christmas morning when we first went out to the tree!!! Oh, and I forgot to mention that on Christmas eve, we went ice skating downtown!!!! There is an ice arena outside at Fountain Square which is the main plaza area downtown right by where Barth works. The rink is outside and has cooling coils under the rink to keep it cold in the balmy weather that we have been having here. (It was 38 mid-day when we went!!) Barth stayed outside the rink with Aaron and Amber and I took Weston and Brian out on the ice. We were sure a SIGHT!!!!!! The boys had never been skating before and I made the mistake of renting skates myself. In hindsight, I should have just worn my shoes out on the ice.....it would have been easier to help the boys out that way!!! By about 10 minutes into our skating, Weston and Brian had made it standing up about twice and we had gone a grand total of about 3 feet!!!! There was a photographer there for the local newspaper who took some pictures of the wonderful falling. So far, we haven't seen any pictures in the paper though. :) I remembered the camera, but forgot the card, so sorry there are no pictures from us of this rather comical experience. I think that we finally made it around the rink about 3 times in the almost 1 hour that we were there!!!!!!!! Weston had a blast, but Brian was more concerned that he was all wet!!!!!! It is something that we will have to try again!!!!!! It was a great time!
And no post is complete without a picture of our cute little Bamber! This was taken on Christmas eve!!!!
What a happy little girl!!! We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas as well!

Oh.....and one more thing.......this is the first Christmas in years that we didn't have to go to the hospital AT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray for no asthma attacks or ear infections or anything like that!!!!!!!!!!!

From our home to yours..........

Merry Christmas!!!!
We hope that your Christmas is nice. We will miss you all, but will be thinking of you!!! We love you!!! The kids looked too cute today to not take pictures by the tree!!
Isn't she a cutie? She gets prettier every day I think!! (and chubbier too!)
Here she is in her bigger Christmas dress!! I had to buy another one (what a shame I know...a girl can't have too many cute dresses) because she outgrew the other one that I got for her!!!
Aaron was dying to take a picture, so I let him take one of me and then promptly got it back before he could break it!! Once again, Merry Christmas!!!

BusyBusyBusy!!!!!

I thought that I would share a few lines from one of my all time favorite songs from the book and cd-Philapelphia Chickens by Sandra Boynton!!! It describes how I am feeling perfectly! Enjoy!!!

WE'RE
very very busy
and we've got a lot to do
and we haven't got a minute
to explain it all to you
for on SundayMondayTuesday
there are people we must see
and on WednesdayThursdayFriday
we're as busy as can be
with our most important meetings
and our most important calls
and we have to do so many things
and post them on the walls

THEN
we have to hurry to the south
and then we hurry north
and we're talking every minute
as we hurry back and forth
and we have to hurry to the east
and then we hurry west
and we're talking every minute
and we don't have time to rest
and we have to do it faster
or it never will be done
and we have no time for listening
or anything that's fun

Have a great day as you hurry around with your Holiday shopping!! I know I will!!!! Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!

Ummmm......

I have most all of my Christmas shopping still to do, but somehow I have to get my husband to be home long enough to go shopping without my kids. He has been a work horse lately. Yesterday he got home just before 11 and left this morning at 6 sharp. That meant he was only home for 7 hours. Isn't it supposed to be the other way around....gone to work for 8 hours and home the other 16? I may be shopping up until the last minute this year just like mom!!! I will be grateful for this next week when Barth will be home for a few days! Till then, wish me luck and hopefully I can get some shopping done!

AT LAST!!!!!!!

After months of working on trying to get Brian into the preschool program here with the school district, we FINALLY have a start date!!!!!!!!!!! I can't tell you how excited I am! Brian is very excited as well!!! He will start at the beginning of the new year! I am just so excited that I had to share!!

Our Exciting FHE

Last night for FHE, our plan was to take plates of cookies to various families in our ward and go caroling at the same time. We had six families that we were planning to carol. I had made cookies on Saturday when it was snowy and yesterday Brian helped me to make some more. I had the plates all wrapped up with a nice bow and card on top. Caroling went well. I had made up little jingle bell bands for the boys to shake as we sang "Jingle Bells" and then "We Wish You A Merry Christmas!" The boys had fun. It was a very chilly 20 outside but it was still fun going to the different houses. There was one family's home that we had already passed by twice, but they weren't home. To kill a bit of time before we tried one last time, we decided to stop at Blockbuster so that Barth could get gift cards for his team since his Christmas luncheon was the next day. Amber was asleep in the car, so we decided that Barth would just quickly run in rather than drag the whole family in to the place. As I sat there in the front seat, the kids were commenting on how small the baskets from Krogers looked in the parking lot. As I was looking around, I noticed a man standing outside a car about 5 spaces away from mine. He had his hood up and had a backpack FULL to the point of bursting. My first thought was that he looked mighty suspicious. He kept looking around and then noticed me looking at him. Since I thought that he was up to no good, I wasn't going to sit and stare at him. I was silently praying that Barth would just hurry up and even tried to call him on his phone. A few minutes later, the man got in his car that had the back window busted out. And there he sat. Again, I thought that it was odd. At that point I decided that, to be safe, I would move to the back seat. As I sat in the back talking with the boys and trying to calm Amber who was now screaming her little head off, I decided to look toward the store instead. All of the sudden, another guy, dressed in all red, came bursting out of the door with his arms full of what I assumed were videos. He jumped in the car where the other suspicious guy was waiting and off they drove. I got the license plate number and exclaimed to my kids, "That man just robbed the store!!!" At that same instant, an employee came running out to get the license plate number too. Shortly after Barth came out. I said, "Um, I think that Blockbuster just got robbed!" He said, "Yeah, they did. The guy stole a bunch of games." I went in to see if they needed me to stay for the police to tell them what I had seen, but they said that they had the description of the guy and had the license plate number and everything. WOW!!! That was sure crazy! I was just glad that there weren't guns involved or anything like that. After witnessing the robbery, we caroled our last family and went on home!! It had been a very exciting night for us!!! It is one that I am sure I will not soon forget!

Let It SNOW!!!!!!

I was woken up this morning by Brian and Weston at 8:30 (it was my morning to sleep in) who were SO excited that it was snowing!!!!! By 10:30 it had snowed several inches and so all the boys went out to play. They had a great snowball fight and built a snow fort! Here are some pictures of them playing!
Not long after these pictures were taken, it started to sleet. Then it began to rain and melted quite a bit of it. It is supposed to freeze overnight and then snow another 5 inches tomorrow!! How fun!
Building the fort!
Aaron throwing a snowball at me!!!! It was so fun to come in and have a nice cozy fire in the fireplace after all the fun in the snow!

Happenings

Here are some recent happenings around our house. Amber is now 3 months old!!! I can't believe it! She can now roll from her back to her tummy. I had no idea she could do this until I put her on the floor the other day on her back and when I came back 2 seconds later from getting a diaper, she was on her tummy! WOW!!! Also, my little chubbo has gone up in clothes sizes to the 6 to 9 month size!! It just seems like she grows every day!!
Aaron now has a "big boy" bed!! At first he wasn't sure about it, but now he is loving it!!! He likes having a pillow, but keeps taking the pillow case off. The first night that he was in his new bed we found him in the doorway to Weston and Brian's room in the middle of the night. It seems that he thinks he should be in with the big kids now that he is a big boy!!!!
Weston and Brian now have their beds bunked!! Thanks Grandpa!! They are loving this new arrangement and are great boys as usual!! Just a few more days of school left for Weston and then he will be changing schools after the winter break! He was worried about it at first but now seems to be okay with the new arrangement! We are still waiting on a start date for Brian's preschool, but we should be hearing anytime. In the meantime, Brian loves being the big kid around the house during the day!

Our tree fell over AGAIN!!! It fell while Weston and I were hanging the last ornaments last night. Luckily I caught it so Weston didn't get hurt. It is now being held in place by a dumbbell and rope (Barth's idea). I am not going to decorate again until he gets home tonight so that he can catch it this time if it falls!!!

Here today!!! Gone overnight!!!

Last night we decorated the tree. We got it on Monday night for FHE, but since it was wet and late, and our home teachers came over last night, we decorated it late yesterday afternoon instead. Barth came home early from work and got the lights all on the tree. The boys had lots of fun getting the ornaments on! Here are some of the pictures of the tree trimming.
Such cute little boys!!!
Amber was very good and laid on a pallet on the ground for quite a while watching the proceedings!
Aaron the Barron.
Bri Bri our fry guy!
Weston thought that the bottom looked bare so he hung things at the bottom.
Hanging up the bells for Santa.
Aaron got to put the star on top. The tree was a little too prickly for him, so he mostly sat on the sidelines watching and handing out ornaments.

Sadly, I must say that at 3 this morning, we heard a loud CRASH!! Barth went downstairs to find that the tree had fallen over and there were broken ornaments all over the place. It took him about an hour and a half to get things cleaned up enough to not have lots of glass all over the place and then get the tree back in the stand. This morning when I woke up, I got everything vacuumed up and we will re-decorate again tonight. It is the decorating that never ends I guess!!

At LAST!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday was a BEAUTIFUL day! It got up to almost 70 (about 30 degrees above normal for this time of year) so we took full advantage of the afternoon and busted out the bikes!!! I have been waiting for this day for well over a year. We have missed having a yard and our bikes so much!!!!! The boys got used to riding their bikes in the driveway for a bit and then I loaded up Amber and Aaron in the trailer and we all headed out for a little ride. It was heaven!!!!! Today it only got up to 38 and rained a little, so we didn't get to ride today, but I can't wait until we can get out and ride again. Here are some pictures of us enjoying our afternoon! Weston loved riding around!
Aaron was in 7th heaven too!
Since Brian was just learning how to ride 16 months ago when we left, he had to have his training wheels on still, but he is determined to get them off soon. He was begging to have me move the van out of the garage today so that he could ride. That is on our list of things to do tomorrow!!!!!!

Our New Table Set

Here is our new table and bench set to go in our eat in kitchen. I must say that I am VERY excited about it!! Since we have been married (a little over 9 years) we have never gone to a furniture store to "buy" furniture. Most of our things have come from family members or we have bought them at garage sales. I have enjoyed all of our furniture so far and we have gotten some amazing deals, but this is our first thing to have bought new ourselves. We got this beautiful table from the Macy's furniture clearance center (oh, how I love a bargain!) a few weeks before we closed on our house, but there were no chairs to match. We had been looking for a while and found some benches that we really liked a few weeks back that would match perfectly. We went and paid for the benches on Saturday and they were delivered today. I just love them and I love how it looks. I am excited to have the benches because I think that they will be great for kids. Eventually we would like to get some chairs for the ends of the table, but for now, we like it just the way that it is!! I hope you enjoy the pictures! I had to get one from each side!! :)

Getting Settled

Grandma and Grandpa left this morning to go back home!! It was WONDERFUL having them here and I was able to get SO MUCH accomplished!!!!!! I know that I would still be swimming in boxes had they not come to help out! Our garage was full to the brim with boxes, but thanks to mom, we are now able to park in the garage. Dad did all the grunt work of moving things and when he wasn't moving boxes, he was holding Amber and playing with the boys!!! I am sure that they are both beat (as much so as I am....if not more) but I am so thankful that they could help out. Our house is looking like a home and there are only a few boxes left to wade through! Here is a picture that we took last Sunday of the kids with Grandma and Grandpa!! So cute!
Weston loved a good cuddle with Grandma. He was feeling under the weather when they first got here, but was better by the next day!
Amber was smiley and loved her Grandpa!!!
Brian thought that the little step-stool for the kitchen made a great chair!!

Nothing like sitting on boxes and enjoying a bowl of cereal!!!

A GLORIOUS sight!!!!

Look at that!!!! That is OUR moving truck!!!! What a glorious sight! I can't even tell you how excited I am to see my stuff again!!!! Oh happy day!!!!
And here is the inside! There are 6 crates on this truck and there are 3 more crates coming on another truck that will arrive later on today!!!!! Barth is holding down the fort with the movers and the builder that is finishing up last minute things and I am holding down the sickie fort here at the apartment!!!!

Closing sickies!

Here are the sickies from yesterday! You can tell that Brian doesn't feel good can't you? He is doing better today though and no one woke up last night!!
Amber isn't actually too bad. She is stuffed up and has been a little sick, but not too bad!
Here is Aaron. He is still running a fever today, but is feeling better too!! I am hoping that everyone is on the mend!!!

HOORAY!!!!!!!!!!

Yes!!!!!!!! WE HAVE A HOUSE!!!!!!! It is now official!! We closed this afternoon and it is officially ours. The movers come tomorrow with our things. It has been almost one full year since we sold our house in FL. We sold our house there on Dec. 8th! Wow! What a crazy year and a half (almost) that we have had. We moved to NC the first of August of 2006! I am grateful to be settling into a new and stable phase of life and can't wait to have a yard again!!!!!!!

It has been an interesting and hard day today. Aaron is sick but finally feeling better this evening. Amber now has yucky diapers and Brian is throwing up!!!! The only well child is Weston!! Everyone should feel lucky that we are not around to spread this nasty virus to them. I am hoping that it is short lived so that Mom and Dad won't catch it when they come. I will post some pictures tomorrow of the sickies waiting in the car today while Daddy signed the papers at closing. He then came out to the car while I went in and signed. Weston got to go inside where the closing took place (since he was well) and was a perfect angel!! What a day! I am EXHAUSTED!!!!!! But very excited too! I think I'll go celebrate by sleeping!!!!

Oh me, Oh my!!!

Alright well, you all know that Aaron is sick. Here is a quick snapshot into how our night played out last night....

*5pm- Aaron throws up 3 times
*7pm- more of the same
*9pm- fever is up to almost 103, he gets tylenol and heads to bed
*10:30- all is quiet and I am ready to head to bed.....so naturally Amber wakes up!!!!
*Midnight- Amber is finally fed and back asleep, so I try to go to bed again.....no go.....Aaron wakes up with a yucky diaper.....he gets it changed, and then he throws up multiple times.
*2am- finally everyone is back asleep. Barth has Amber on the couch sleeping and Aaron is finally in his bed asleep.
*2:30- after 30 whole restful minutes of sleep, Amber is awake again and ready to eat.
*3am- Aaron is awake again and throwing up some more
*4am- Time for Amber to eat again
*5:30- Aaron is awake again, but gets tylenol and is feeling well enough to go back to sleep without much fuss
*6 am- Time to feed that baby again
*7am- everyone is awake and it is now time to get the kids' breakfast and get Weston off to school

Don't you feel rested? I sure do!!! We will be a motley crew today at the closing. We are all going since I wouldn't dare pawn my sick kids off on someone!!! About 30 minutes ago Brian came out and said his stomach is hurting!!! And he has a fever of 100!! Here we go again................

Keepin' our fingers crossed!!!

Tomorrow is the day!!!! At 3 pm, we should have a house again!!! We are keepin' our fingers crossed and praying something mighty over here!!! Our new washer and dryer were delivered today and we have the blinds all ready to be hung. Now we just need a smooth closing and we will finally be homeowners again!

In other news, Aaron is sick! He threw up all over the foyer floor when we went to the house this afternoon. At least it hit the hard wood floor and not the carpet!! (I cleaned it up the best I could with his and Brian's jackets and then went back and mopped the entire floor after Barth got home from work!) Poor baby! I am really praying that whatever he has is the same thing that Brian had last week when he had his fever and not something new! I will be sure to post tomorrow after all is said and done with the house!

I've been tagged!!

Okay, so I have been working on this for about a week....sorry it took so long!! :)

1. Best thing you cooked last week:

ummm...It would have to be breakfast for dinner. I think that it was about the only thing that I fixed last week! Can we say, I have a fussy baby and Barth has been either working late or at church till late all last week!!!......I wrote the previous stuff before Thanksgiving.....I did make a yummy turkey and all the fixings!!!

2. If money, time and babysitting were no object, where would you go and with who?
A trip to the beach would be nice and it would be with Barth!!! But right now I would just love to go to Tx and have a nice long visit!

3. When was the last time you cried?
Oh, who knows?!! I am "sensitive" and I cry all the time. I would have to say that the last time I can recall would have to be when I gave my lesson in RS on Sunday.

4. Five things you were doing 10 years ago:

Barth and I were just newly engaged and had just announced it to our families...that was exciting! I was in college and so that means that I was a sophomore and working hard on my studies. I was the RA (or resident assistant) for Rogers Hall at BYU. Made Thanksgiving dinner for my roommate, Miranda's, grandparents....that was a lot of fun. Talking to my mom on the phone!!!!

5. Five things you were doing 5 years ago:

Just had a brand new baby....Brian. We were living in TX!!!!! We were getting ready loose our job....or so we thought....it actually got extended until almost a year later!!! I was enjoying life as a mommy of a 2 yr old and a baby, although Brian was really fussy. I was just finding out that the reason Brian was crying all the time was because he wasn't getting anything to eat!!!! Once we figured that out, he was still fussy, but much better!!! I was enjoying my life living in TX where I thought I would be forever!!!!!

6. Five things you were doing 1 year ago:

Selling our house in FL......finally! Living in NC and looking for a house. I had just been called as the Laurel Advisor and I really enjoyed it (although I was a bit intimidated at first!) Living in an apartment that I was sure was only going to last for 3 months....boy was I wrong! Doing a little preschool with Brian and enjoying all that life had to offer in this new place that I was living! Talking to my mom on the phone!!

7. Seven of your favorite hobbies:

Swimming, cross-stitching, playing the piano, singing, bike riding, playing with my kids, spending time with Barth, talking to my mom on the phone!

8. Five favorite foods:

Oh my......I miss everything with wheat, but here are my favorites...... spaghetti, milk, bread, PB&J sandwiches (yes, I still love them), did I mention milk and bread?

9. Five places you've been:

Provo, UT; The Colony, TX; Jacksonville, FL; High Point, NC; Florence, KY ~ oh wait....those are the places that I have lived!! I guess that they will do! Hmmm.....I sure have moved a lot!

10. Five Favorite Memories:

Hmmm....that one is hard! I have so many good memories!! Some of my favorite are: Camping when I was growing up, going to Disney World with my little family, getting married to Barth, doing anything with my Momma.....especially our late night shopping trips, and many, many more!

I tag Momma and Melissa!!!!

Festive Pictures

I got the boys cute matching shirts the other day and they wore them to church today!! I got this cute little plaid dress from a friend of mine here before Amber was born. Since everyone was plaid, I decided to get a picture. This one was the best of the bunch. I think I took about 20 before I got one that was okay. Enjoy some of the pictures from our little photo shoot!
This one turned out pretty good too, although Brian is saying something. Upon further inspection of these pictures, it looks as if I should have done something to Brian's hair!!!
When I first started taking the pictures, Amber was wailing in my arms and Aaron was wailing beside the couch and wanted nothing to do with the pictures at all. So, I took a few of Weston and Brian making funny faces!!!!!
Brian felt that he needed to hold Amber's binky in. Other than the fact that Amber is screaming her holy head off, it is a pretty good picture!
Aaron is pouting and Amber is screaming. This is pretty typical of what happens about 90 percent of the time here at my house!! Hope you enjoyed the pictures!!!