New years eve

It has been quite a month! I haven't posted but I will. I have some highlights from the month that I certainly want to record! For now- Happy New Year! From Disneyland!

We surprised the kids with a trip to Disneyland, Universal Studios and Sea world. It has been fun but very very tiring. It was a poor choice of timing. The Disney parks have been at capacity all week. That means too many people. LONG LONG lines.

Happy New Year!!

December is here!

It is 12:42 am. I can't sleep. My sweet hubby has had four nights of terrible congested misery. He has ended up in the chair for part of the night since Sunday. I am sitting here in his chair, wrapped in my new cozy robe(early Christmas), with the fireplace going , while enjoying the lights of our darling little tree.

We have always gone and cut down a real tree. It is tradition. We have been busy this year. We were gone the days that our favorite farm was open. So, I pulled out our tiny little artificial tree and we started to decorate it. The Little man was so darling! I think that he must have put all the ornaments on himself! Em did help a little at the end, but really, Justin worked on this little tree for almost two hours. It turned out just perfect! I am not sure if we will still go and get a real tree, we still have tons more ornaments. I am not stressing about it at all.

It is hard to believe that it is already December! I always want to do a little December Daily mini scrapbook. Maybe this year I will. I took a picture tonight of a moment. A moment that I had to capture in my heart as well as on film. Emily and Justin were sitting together all scrunched up on the couch while Em read Justin a Christmas book. It seems like they are bickering ALL THE TIME! To see them sitting there all cozy together just melted my heart. I knew that I had to absorb that moment into my soul. I want my children to grow up and enjoy each other. I want them to be able to spend time with each other and not have to guard themselves from each other. I pray that they will learn to enjoy each other. These little moments are treasures for this Momma's heart!

We spent Thanksgiving in Idaho with my Mom. It was a lovely, bittersweet weekend. For the majority of at least 30 years we have had Thanksgiving with my Uncles family. It is now time for a passing of the guard. There are just too many people and it has gotten to be just too much for my Mom. Strange feeling. Sometimes these life changes are hard, sometimes they just happen naturally. I actually feel okay about the change.

I remember when we no longer could have Thanksgiving with my grandparents. I was sad. I had always loved that tradition. I remember sitting next to my Grandpa Dalley. It was my favorite place to be! I also remember sitting at the kids table, I hated that table! My grandma made rolls in muffin tins. Her rolls tasted like love.

We had one year that we had dinner at my Aunt's house and then it has been at my Mom's ever since. There have been a few years here and there that I haven't been there. Two while I was at school in Hawaii and a few when we were first married, when we still switched back and forth. My Mom has always done way too much of the work. I know that she could have asked for more help. It isn't her way. I love the turkey, her stuffing, her gravy. I also love that generally, she always wanted to use her beautiful china and glasses. Even knowing that it created a lot more work for her. A few years here and there we needed to use paper plates. That was all right too, being together was what mattered. My Mom's Thanksgiving tasted like love.

I am OK with the changing of the guard, however, it is still a reminder that time keeps marching on. Change happens. Hopefully, I can handle the tradition as beautifully as my Mom has for the next thirty years! I hope that someday my children will think that my dinner tasted like love!

Thanksgiving beginnings!

On Saturday we hosted the Carrigan Family Thanksgiving dinner. We generally go to Idaho to spend the holiday with my Mom, so we try to plan a Thanksgiving feast a bit earlier with Dave's parents and sister's family.

A couple of weeks ago we hosted the Stake Presidency and their wives for dinner. In preparation for that dinner I splurged and bought my new dishes. Taipan had a great sale on white dishes so I decided that I have been married long enough that I can have some nice dinner dishes! When I set the table for that dinner my children came in from school amazed at how pretty the table was. Mitch asked if it could look like that all the time!

The following Sunday I asked Emily to set the table for dinner. I had started by sitting the plates out. She asked if we could use the chargers. I agreed. She was so happy to be able to set out the chargers, the goblets and the cloth napkins.

I don't know that I will always want to set such a fancy table but it certainly was lovely for our Thanksgiving dinner. We put out our big table and added two more tables. In all there were thirteen of us. I have felt lately that my children don't ever sit at a table with pretty dishes. They have the fourty year old mismatched Correl that I was given, mismatched glasses and usually a gallon of milk on the table. This isn't necessarily bad. We are so blessed to have these things, however, I feel like everywhere we go we eat on paper plates and drink from plastic dixie cups. Dinner is almost always buffet style, never passed from person to person. I know that it is easier to use these convenience items. I just feel like my kids should feel like there are special occasions. I love that my Mom has almost always used her china for special dinners. I know it is a lot of work because these dishes are old and can't go in the dishwasher. However, I love the tradition that it is. I love that we sat at the table and passed the dinner for most of my life. I want to pass that to my children.

We were missing our Ashley, she will also be missing from Thanksgiving. She has to work early on Friday.

On Saturday I had some extra time while the turkey was cooking(my second turkey!). I decided to get out our Christmas dishes! In the process I wiped down the shelves. They were disgustingly dirty! I have no idea how long it has been since I wiped them, that in and of itself is gross!

These Christmas dishes are starting to show a lot of wear. Between being banged in the sink and banged against each other in the dishwasher they are starting to have chips here and there. I don't care. I want them to be used the entire season, not just for one meal on Christmas day. Little Justin was so excited to see them. Miss Emily pulled out a bowl this morning and said , "I just love these dishes!" These are traditions that I want my children to remember. I want them to know that THEY are worth the GOOD dishes. Not just company!

Ruby came out today !

I used my Ruby mixer today! She sits patiently on my counter. I look at her beautiful shiny red color daily. I often think I should pull her out.

Today was the day! We are having an early Thanksgiving celebration tomorrow with Dave's parents and sisters family. They are coming to our house!

In honor of our celebration, I pulled out Ruby! I made two pumpkin rolls , two pumpkin pies and a family favorite-raspberry jello!

I am excited to have our family here! We are setting our big table with a lovely tablecloth, my new white dishes ( I bought myself some new dishes! After twenty two years I thought it was about time I was able to set a pretty table!) and my new pretty goblets! We are even using real fabric napkins and lovely chargers under the plates.

I have decided that generally most of us take the easy way. We never get out the "good" dishes. We opt for paper plates. Buffet style always. I think there are times for convenience, but it feels like we never want to take the time or put in any effort to make things a little extra special.

I hope that my children will start to recognize and appreciate little traditions. Perhaps setting a pretty table will mean a little to them! I hope so!

Braces off!!!

Miss Emily got her braces off yesterday!!!!

It is amazing how much more grown up she looks!

Keep smiling!!!

Please Eat!

This is what Mitch looks like when he forgets to eat for twenty four hours! He went into the pantry to get something and totally passed out and hit the tile with his face. His tooth went through his lip!
He was a little bit loopey. I think he got a slight concussion!

Moral to this story?: Eat occasionally

Justin's 7th Birthday Party!

We finally managed to get Justin's birthday party! We took the boys bowling! It was fabulous!!


They always have to pull a silly face!




Pizza, soda and cupcakes! All the decorating we needed!


Justin had wanted me to make a Frankenstein cake we saw in a book. I then found this cupcake monster and knew it was perfect!!

The boys were totally fascinated by where the ball comes up through the floor to be returned.

This little man's smile makes it all worth it!

Happy Halloween!

The Cutest Jack Sparrow Ever!!!

These two--this is why we keep remembering that Halloween is fun-for the little guys!!!

Dracula's family-and a pirate for good measure! I was so impressed that Uncle Dave got dressed up! Little Josh was so excited!

Emily started out as The Corpse Bride but ended up also looking like the Adams family Mom!

We are so glad that we live in a little town where we know all the neighbors. Our kids go door to door and all the neighbors just love having the kids come. When Justin came home and spread out his loot it was amazing to see the candy! It was all really good stuff! I think he had six full size candy bars and the other two thirds was good chocolate bars.

I have to keep reminding myself that the kids just love the entire thing! Mitch had some friends over and ate pizza and played video games!

Pumpkin Carving

Dave is such a good sport about pumpkin carving. However, for the past four years he hasn't had to actually do any carving! We did them at his ward activity and then last year Tim came and helped us again! With Tim getting married and moving far away it was just us again. So-out came the power tools. I thought I got a shot of the saber saw but I didn't! Is has been probably thirteen years ago that he decided to pull out the power tools to carve the pumpkins. Makes quick work!


EewwH!!! Pumpkin guts are gross!

The Pumpkin Patch!

Saturday we headed out to Patch's Pumpkin patch! We have always picked up pumpkins for Emily and Justin. Usually from a farmers front yard where they are laid out in huge mounds. Sometimes we have picked them up at the grocery store.

This year I wanted to take them to a field where they can wander and pick their own out of thousands of choices. I remember taking Mitch and Ashley when they were really little.

These two little boys were so excited when they saw the acres and acres of pumpkins to choose from!


Little cousin Josh is starting to really hang out with us a lot. They all call him Joe! He was almost overjoyed with all the pumpkins. He really took his time selecting just the right one.

We told the kids that they had to be able to carry the pumpkin that they chose. Josh picked one but couldn't quite pick it up. He and Justin had a team effort to carry it to the cart.

Justin had no trouble carrying his pumpkin of choice.

This shot of the two of them pulling that pumpkin cart just melts my heart. I think I know what a certain Grandma is getting for Christmas!

Beautiful Miss Emily-not such a little kid anymore!

Pumpkins are just such a happy plant! That bright orange color popping out when everything else is turning dead and brown. Pumpkin orange is one of my favorite colors!

These two little boys, both little bonus babies on the end of our families. We are both pretty lucky to be able to have little people around a bit longer.

Fall Break-Sand Hollow Oct 20-22 2011

Even with his cast Mitch caught some good air!


The sun was so amazing during the "golden hour" before it gets dark!




Em's getting better and better!





It is still very surreal to look up at that big boy and realize he is MY CHILD! How did he get so big? I was having trouble getting the board off the boat and into the water-he just picked it up and dumped it in!

Nothing graceful but I was up momentarily!!

Ash is a natural at the slolum ski!

Remember when you were a young tween and you wrote in your journal-"I haven't written in a long time"? That is where I constantly feel I begin here. I recently read a post over at 71 toes about how she has had to only allow herself fifteen minutes on her blog posts because she has so much to do. Perhaps that is what I need to schedule myself. Perhaps fifteen minutes, just enough to get the details. I guess that I can always do fifteen one day and fifteen the next finishing the photos! They seem to take forever to upload.

Our family went to Southern Utah last week for Fall Break. It was absolutely gorgeous weather! We could not have asked for more beautiful or lovely conditions. We went to Sand Hollow Reservoir and just had a ball. Miss Ashley came over from college a couple of times and we took her to dinner once. It was good to see her. She is loving college life. I don't know how much she is loving the actual "college" part but she certainly is enjoying the single life. I am certain she hasn't gone to bed before midnight(being conservative) since August 15 when we left her there!

Mitch was able to go wakeboarding! We had requested a water proof cast when he got the full one changed to a half cast.

I never did write about his half cast--He was able to play the last two games of the football season!! It was so great!! I will add some pictures of that later!

The temperature was lovely! The water was a bit chilly for me, about 66 degrees but it didn't slow Mitch and Emily down. I actually did put on the full wet suit and tried wakeboarding!(imagine a European swimming athlete--not so pretty!) I had only tried one other time about four years ago before we got the smaller girls board. I crashed and crashed but I did finally get up for a few seconds! I will have to try again more often. I just have to suck it up and put on the wet suit!

Little Justin is like me, he gets so cold, so he was in the water but not as much as when it is warmer.

Emily is starting to get better at the wakeboarding. She really struggled to get up this time. She has done it numerous times. However, finally after about ten tries she finally did it! She will probably start to be a natural next year.

I took over two hundred shots of Mitch jumping the wake. It is so hard taking moving pictures! I get so frustrated because I just don't understand the connections between aperature, shutter and exposure! I am trying. This is the winter that I am going to just really focus some time on learning to shoot in manual and figure it out!! I did get a few(maybe ten) awesome shots of him in the air.

We had to leave Hollie dog home. She is allergic to Southern Utah. We don't know what it is but she has gone with us two times and about died. She just can't breathe--it is horrible to watch her suffer. She stayed with Grandma and Susie dog!

Letters

Oftentimes I feel like I want to write and then I just don't make the time to do it. This week has been one of those weeks. Numerous things have happened that I have felt I should write about.

A week ago my sweet friend and neighbor Michele's sister passed away. She was only 37 years old. It was sudden. There was no illness or accident. She played with her family during the day and that evening told her husband she hurt and then was gone.

I am blessed to know Michele and her parents. I have met this sister a time or two. However, this loss has just shaken me. I really didn't know Natalie. Yet I know that Natalie has left behind a husband and three very young children. The youngest is only two.

My heart just aches for these little children. Will they ever truly know how much their Momma loved them? Will they always wonder what she felt about them?

A few years ago when Anne Peterson died I had many of the same feelings. Her family was so young. They knew she was going to die, however. I wonder if that made it so that she thought about saying those important things. I know that she made a point of having pictures with her children.

If I died tomorrow would my children know how I feel about them? Would they know that I would do anything to help them? Do they know that I love them more than life itself? Would they be able to find a picture of me with them? All the little stories that are locked inside my heart-are they written down anywhere? I have work to do.

If I am very honest I don't think that my children would really understand how I feel about them. I don't know that a child can understand that until they have children of their own. However, during this last week I have had the impression more than once that I need to write letters to my children. These are letters that I will not give them now. Hopefully, they are letters that they can all have when I am old, old. I am going to start writing my children letters and putting them into a special box. I hope that they don't ever have to grow up without me, but if they do, I want them to be able to have a letter from me telling them what treasures they are to me.

As I write this I feel like maybe I should write them more letters that they can read now. The problem that I have with this is that often my children look at me like I have lost my mind when I talk about emotions and feelings. They also react to me telling them what I feel is important by saying I am preaching to them.

Not quite sure what or how, but I know that I must write down these feelings for my children. I know that I would love to have one letter from my Dad that told me how he felt about me.

For now I get another day with my children and husband. Every single day needs to be treated as a blessing. These people in my life need to know that I feel that THEY are MY BLESSINGS.

Justin is 7!!!!!

Happy Birthday to you!

Justin stayed home from school with a fever. A bit sad because he was planning to go with Grandma Janet to Salt Lake to Build a Bear. He will get to do that later!
After a few hours he started to feel much better and was able to go outside and try out his new bike!

Justin picked out his cake yesterday--loves some football! He was excited to have friends and family over to celebrate with him!

Happy Birthday, sweet boy. Don't get too big to give me hugs and kisses! Love, Mom

1. Justin loves Lego's.

2. Justin loves listening to music at night.

3. Justin is learning to read.

4. Justin is a sweet morning boy-lots of loves and kisses.

5. He thinks his big sister Ashley is pretty special-misses her while at college

6. wants to be a lawyer when he grows up!

7. His favorite colors are blue and hot pink(perhaps his big brothers cast helped him decide!!)

Happy 7th Birthday! Sweet Justin

Happy Happy Birthday to you!
October 10, 2011
Poor little Justin. As I was showing his VIP poster at school he got sick. He didn't even get to enjoy his raspberry filled powdered donut! He was sick again in the car, at the store and then many more times at home. Poor little guy! He got out of bed long enough to open his presents. A new bike!!! Lego's and hot wheel cars as well.

His birthday cake will have to wait!(it is waiting patiently on the counter)

General Conference

Twice a year our church has General Conference where all the members get instruction and guidance from our leaders.

We are blessed to be able to watch the sessions of conference on television. This year however, Dave was able to get us tickets to attend in the conference center. We hadn't been for over 20 years and never in the new center.

We took the kids( Justin was too young) and Parker. The Sunday morning session is preceded by the Tabernacle choirs "The Spoken Word". It was lovely.

I always enjoy conference but it was wonderful to be in the room with our leaders.

As we were leaving the building we ran into Elder Perry. I was shocked at how big of a man he is! He shook Mitch's pink casted arm and asked him if it was from football! He asked him if he played the line and told him "tough guys play the line". It was a neat experience.