After 20 years

After 20 years they stopped working. They were there with me through High School, traveled with me 1200 miles away to Ricks College, they stayed with me through my wedding and the birth of my five children. And then I guess they'd had enough. Suddenly one day they no longer got hot. I tried to rescue them by plugging them in to different outlets throughout the house but to no avail. I couldn't bring them back. So long.

Dog Pie

Danielle asked what we were having for supper, and I told her, shepherd's pie. A little while later I heard her complaining to Camie that she didn't want "dog pie". I listened in on the conversation before I realized she was referring to the yummy dinner I was cooking as "dog pie". With a name like that no wonder she didn't want it!

Welcome to Big City, USA

We've been living here several years, and we should be thankful that it didn't happen before.

As a work"perk", Evan gets to drive around this great 4-door truck. Evan tries not to act excited, but when he struts in the door after driving around and makes special trips just to give the kiddos a ride, you know he is excited.

Friday night he took Taneal and Camie to a birthday party at one of those places that has go-carts, etc. They stayed until 9:30pm, not too late.

When Evan put his key into the door handle of his new truck, the key turned to the left and to the right, but would not unlock the door. He tried calling me but I had already fallen asleep and the phone wasn't in my bedroom, so I didn't wake up. After a half hour of trying to get me, he gave up and called Becky (sister-in-law). She came and picked them up and brought them home.

Then, we loaded all five (3 sleeping and out for the night) into my car to see if another set of keys would unlock the truck.

No success.

Then Evan saw where someone had taken a screw driver, or something like that, to the door handle and tried to pry off the handle, thus breaking it. Security said they were after the rims. That's what we get for driving a cool truck.

Evan spent all day Saturday fixing it.

mispelled

Danielle is convinced we spelled her name wrong. It is spelled Danielle. She says that is wrong because of the "e" is on the end, it is pronounced Daniell "e" (Dan-yell-e). Thus, on all her school work and on anywhere where she writes her name, she is spelling her name the correct way, per Danielle, as shown in the photo. I guess teaching her to read gave her even more reasons to be strong-headed!

Danielle learns to read

Danielle has been working very hard, since June, and finally finished the 100 lessons that taught her to read. I am so proud of Danielle, because we had to sit down for about 15 minutes each lesson over the course of 5 about months, and learn to read. Most of the time she was excited to do it. It is one of those moments that makes me excited to see her succeed and be very pleased with herself. Way to go Danielle!

Nathan's talented tongue

Nathan does this really funny sucking on his lip. He has an unusual tongue, he can make it all pointy and twist it and do all sorts of interesting things with it. I'm sure it isn't unique, but so cute.

I'm a BIG boy!

Yes, Spencer is completely potty-trained! This is a very exciting moment for me as the mom. No more stinky diapers (except for Nathan of course), no more HUGE monthly diaper bills, and a happy boy who thinks the whole world revolves around him, which is great. Way to go Spencer.

I did take a picture of Spencer sitting on the toilet for this post, but decided otherwise. Too much information for the eyes and the public!

Lizards

My nephew, Tyler, loves animals. He has had many pets, which right now includes a family of lizards. We went to the ranch over the New Year and Tyler caught a few more to add to his collection. Spencer was very interested in them and surprisingly, not really afraid of them. Camie and Danielle were okay with the lizards on their jackets, but not anywhere else. Enjoy the lizard video, and a few pictures.

Snow, really?!?

Yes, it snowed in my neck of the woods (about a month ago, better late then never, right?). And, my kiddos don't really remember snow. Taneal vaguely, but that's it. Watch the video and you can see their excitement. I fugured they would be excited, which is why I had the camera out and ready for them to get off the bus.

Happy New Year

Troy and Becky invited us out to their ranch to spend the new year. We had a great time. Becky cooked us a very yummy dinner. Afterwards we had fireworks and then everyone went to bed! What's up with that? I couldn't. I just couldn't go to bed a 10pm on New Year's Eve. So, I happily grabbed my book, the 4th book in the Twilight saga, and read until midnight. I was very happy and did what I really wanted to be doing.

The next day was so much fun. We rode around on the 4-wheelers, canoed a little, the kids played with the tire swing, and we played games inside. While on a 4-wheeler ride, we saw a cow just minutes after giving birth. It was so cool! Troy and Evan fried a delicious turkey and while I was out canoeing, Becky made a very nice dinner with sweet potatoes, fruit salad, and pumpkin pie. I felt bad I didn't help, I didn't realize she was inside cooking up a storm while I was out playing. But, I was grateful. We stayed until after dinner and then headed home.

Spencer loved being on the tractor with Uncle Troy!

Christmas

We had an absolutely WONDERFUL Christmas. Evan and I stayed up until about 1:30am doing, ya know . . . Christmas stuff. Around 5am Taneal and Camie woke up ready to go downstairs and see if Santa had come. I wanted a happy Christmas morning, so I was afraid to wake Spencer up. He didn't quite "get" the Christmas thing yet. Would he be his normal extremely-grouchy-self-when-woke- up-too-early? or would he see the magic of Christmas morning and be able to be happy? I was too afraid to find out, so I told Taneal and Camie it was too early and sent them back to bed. That was not fair. But, not ten minutes later they were back in my room. I couldn't resist, so I had them go carefully wake Spencer and Danielle up while I got out the cameras. And, Spencer tried to be grouchy but couldn't resist the excitement he saw in his sisters. They headed downstairs and were so excited!

Having Children takes Christmas to a whole new level. If I could , I would have twenty more children just to keep the excitement of Christmas going. Of course that isn't going to happen. But I can capture the excitement as best as possible on video and try to remember their excitement and the magic that takes place.

Taneal is the best at showing her excitement. Santa brought us a Wii. I told her there was no way Santa would EVER be able to bring us a Wii. If he did bring us a Wii, there definitely wouldn't be any other presents, so don't even ask. Of course she did not ask, and after she had opened her other gifts, she found a gift under the tree with all the kiddos name on it. They all gathered together and she just couldn't hold her excitement in after the first of the wrapping paper was torn off. She was jumping up and down and screaming! She was so much fun to watch!

Camie was happy about getting what she calls an American Girl Doll. I'm not sure that it is that name brand, but she loves it and that is wonderful. After she opened the present with the doll in it, she kept asking to call her cousin, Audrey, to tell her the news because Audrey had an American Girl Doll also. I was hoping Santa would bring Camie one because I made her some clothes to go with it. And she loved those. Camie really appreciates gifts with thought into them, things made specifically for her, and she loved the clothes and the time I spent just on her. She was a happy girl.

Danielle was happy to be opening presents. She really didn't care what was inside. She is 4 so she understands Christmas morning very well, but she doesn't really care about the gifts other then she has some to open. She got things that she REALLY wanted and once she opened them she set them aside. She got Bella Dancerella which she plays with all the time at her friend's house and she hasn't even played with hers once. She got a kid-tough camera and took some pictures later that day and then hasn't used it much since. She's kind of funny that way. Gifts don't really mean anything to her. She did this with her birthday and last Christmas. I figured last Christmas it was because she was only three. Well, she did it again. I guess it is just Danielle. She was happy and excited, just didn't really care about the gifts. I think she could have got some lipstick and cheap make-up and a new outfit (she did get a sparkly outfit and wore it for three days straight afterwards) and nothing else and she would have been delighted.

Spencer, loved the gun he got at the Chinese Exchange the night before. He opened his gifts but kept going back to the gun. What is it with boys?

Nathan slept in until his normal 7am. After a while Camie helped him open his present. He just smiled, burped, and cooed. Cute little baby.

Taneal told me, more insisted, that I was to ask Santa for a present. I hesitated, knowing of course I was too old for presents from Santa. Taneal was persistent, told me how her teacher asked for things from Santa and got them. I decided I would try. What I really wanted was a new printer that could scan, make copies, and print in color. With Taneal being so insistent, I decided to try. And, guess what! It worked.

Evan, he was here. Back in November, Thanksgiving weekend, I remember him calling me and telling me he absolutely would not be home for Christmas. I was driving to Fossil Rim (the park with the giraffes and zebras) when he broke the news to me. After I hung up I had tears rolling down my cheeks. I was getting mad at myself for breaking down with all my children in the car watching me. I needed to be strong, but just couldn't do it. I missed him so much and then to find out he wouldn't be home for Christmas was too much. After a few moments I gained composure again. We had a great time in the park. And then on the way home, Evan called me again and told me the news had changed, he was being layed off. At first I didn't believe him. No way! Then, I got back to my parent's house and Evan confirmed again that he really had been layed-off. And the next day he was home, home to stay. I missed him so much during those four months away. I had such mixed emotions. I was dreading going through unemployment again, but I was so glad he was home. And, Christmas morning as I looked around at the happiness, I knew why. Evan was home. He was sharing this moment with me. Taneal even mentioned how blessed we felt that day. I pointed out to her that the only reason dad was home was because he lost his job. She got a mischievous grin on her face and said, "I'm glad he lost his job." Happiness is being together. Evan started working two weeks after he was layed-off, he found a job quickly this time. We really have been blessed. Our family is together again and we are happy.

Christmas Eve

We have a few Christmas Eve traditions. This Christmas Eve we headed over to Troy and Becky's house (Evan's brother that lives a few miles from us) for dinner. We had some of my favorite things: deviled eggs, mashed potatoes, ham, homemade rolls, and pumpkin pie! After the super yummy dinner, we had a Chinese gift exchange. Each person participating brings a gift, a fun gift. Everyone draws a number out of a hat and number one goes. Number two can wither take number one's gift, or pick a wrapped gift out of the pile. It continues on and is so much fun. Spencer ended up with a flash light, Danielle ended up with a barbie, and Becky's sister ended up with the Oreos. Everyone ended up with something fun.

We headed home and made it without anyone falling asleep. We opened pajamas. It was a little late, as you can tell from the pajama picture--Spencer was beyond willing to cooperate. We had a great Christmas Eve and the kiddos went to bed with a lot of anticipation of the coming morning.

As you can tell, I am way behind on blogging. I am caught up in the Twilight series. But, as I use this blog somewhat as a journal, I have to write about Christmas, just a little late. Those books sort of suck you in.