Christmas has come and gone!!

I can't believe that Christmas has come and gone already! It always goes by way too fast! We had a nice, but different than usual Christmas. This was the first year we didn't travel somewhere on Christmas Day or before. We stayed home for Christmas. We decided to let the boys enjoy and play with all of their new things. Christmas Eve we went to breakfast. Then I went and got the boys some sleds so they could sled on the mini hill at the park. I really mean mini, but they had a lot of fun! Then for dinner we cooked a ham and had a nice dinner. Christmas morning the boys slept in until 8 and so that was really nice. So of course they got up and opened presents. Jalen was happy to get a nintendo ds. Which was the only thing he wanted. Landon only asked for a buzz lightyear gun and a piano. We also decied to get him a kids digital camera so then maybe he would leave ours alone. It has been a hit! I think that he has taken about 200 pictures already. It also does little videos. He just loves it. His keyboard didn't work and so we had to exchange it. Landon was so excited about all his gifts he would squeal when he opened them. Jalen was much calmer. We asked him later on if he liked his ds because he didn't seem that excited when he opened it. He told us he didn't want to get too hyper! Kids are so funny sometimes! We had a nice Christmas morning and the snow kept coming. We have gotten a lot over the last week. Later on Christmas day after the kids played for a while we decided to go to the movies. The boys wanted to see The Tale of Despereaux. That wasn't our first choice, but anything for the kids right?? It was alright. The boys liked it. Apparently I was snoring. I woke up and Sean was laughing at me. Hopefully I didn't disturb the person next to me. OOPS! We spent the rest of the day at home. It was nice and relaxing and probably a good thing we didn't plan to travel because of all the snow! Today things have been better. The roads were clear and the snow had slowed down. We of course had to do some exchanges. I got Sean a pair of jeans that were apparently metrosexual! He tried them on and I think we both laughed and I told him to take them off quick. Now I know that Bootcut are not his style. Always go with the loose. Then to walmart for the boys to blow the gift cards they got from Grandma and Grandpa. Landon got a little einsteins rocket and Jalen got the club penquin ds game. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! Then off to take the piano back for one that worked and on to the mall! Tonight we took down the tree. I still can't believe how many needles were on the floor, and to the door and all over the sidewalk. The tree left a thick trail of needles all the way to the car! I had to empty the vacuum three times while vacuuming. We may be finding needles for weeks to come.

Here is a video of Jalens Christmas program at school. We hardly got to see Jalen the whole program because he had his song book in front of his face the whole time!!

This really doesn't show all the needles, but you get the idea!

This is the boys playing in all the snow we had. This was before the last storm. We got even more!

Here is one of the 200 pics Landon took with his new camera. Not bad!

Here is another of Landons pictures. Dad has been doing a lot of this lately!

Merry Christmas!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Our Big, Fat Tree

We finally got our tree up over the weekend. It was really quite the process! We went on Saturday afternoon to go and get it. We looked at every place in town. We started close to our house at a couple of tree lots. We looked all around at the first one in the freezing cold. It took us forever to decide on one and then we asked how much it was. When the guy told us 60 bucks I think that my mouth dropped a little. We have a real tree every year, but we have only bought it once. Usually Seans parents and sometimes Sean go cut one down in Idaho somewhere. Anyways we had to go to the bank to get cash before we could get the tree anyways, but I used that as an excuse so I didn't have to tell the guy I was way to cheap to pay that for a tree! I could pay for a couple gifts for people for Christmas with that amount of money. So on we went to the next lot. It mostly had dead looking trees so we didn't waste much time at that one. Although if we could get it for a decent price maybe we would take a half dead one. So now that everyone is cranky and the kids thought that we would never find a tree I heard that they had real trees at lowes and so we stopped on by. Well they didn't really have any that looked that great. So we were on to the next place. So our 4th stop on the tree hunt. Who would have thought that it would take this long to find a tree. I mean it is just a tree. Don't they all pretty much look the same. By this point we were thinking maybe we could do a fake one. We kind of joked about it, but we both have always grown up with a real tree and they smell so good. So here we are at "Joshuas Trees" Let me tell you we love Joshua! We found this cute fat tree. It is a different kind than we have ever had. Sean wasn't sure he would like it because it has flat needles and looks a little different than what we are use to. But it smells so good. You can smell it through out the house. We both love it! I was happy because we only had to spend 42 bucks. So 20 bucks less than the first place. Even though it was about an hour or so later of looking I think we got a cute tree. Now we had told our kids that we would get a tree on Saturday and decorate it. By the time we finally got the tree everyone was so cranky and hungry and it was late that we had to wait until Sunday night to actually put the lights on and decorate it. The kids were a little disappointed but they survived until Sunday.

Thanksgiving and Arizona

It has been a while since my last post. This is what we have been up to the last week or so. We went to Rexburg for Thanksgiving to be with Seans family. A few days before Thanksgiving. Seans very sweet Grandma passed away. We still decided to go to Rexburg for two days for Thanksgiving. We came back earlier than planned so we could get ready to take a trip to Arizona for the funeral. Considering the circumstances Thanksgiving was as good as it could be. We had a yummy dinner! Everyone was busy finalizing plans to get to Arizona by Tuesday. On Black Friday I got up at 3:00 to go shopping with my sister, Keri. I am so glad that I finally talked her in to going with me. Thanks Keri! I got a total of 3 hours of sleep! It was so fun though. I was pretty excited about the sweet deals I got. We did all of our shopping and then of course we had to go to breakfast. The rest of the day I was quite tired! Sean and I and the boys spent the rest of the day with his sister and her family. The boys were very excited to see the cousins. We headed home late Friday night. We had to get home and pack up again to head to Arizona on Sunday. The drive to Arizona went well. It was about ten hours. We got to do some fun things while we were there. They had the lights at the Mesa Temple which were awesome. They had so many lights. It was cool to see Christmas lights in Palm trees. It was also fun because we weren't freezing while enjoying the lights. The weather was great while we were there. During the day it was 75-80. The boys were mostly excited to see all the cactuses and to go swimming! We got to visit with Seans family that we hardly ever see. We were sad to say good-bye (for now) to Grandma, but we know that she is in a very happy place and is happy to be with Grandpa again. Grandma kept journals and it is neat that we can read them and see what an amazing person she is. She had a strong testimony of the church and went to the temple several times each week all the way until the day she passed. She had great faith! We will miss her!

We decided since we were going to be in the area to stop at the Grand Canyon on our way back home. It was really neat. The kids and I had never been before and it had been a long time since Sean had been. I was really anxious thinking about it. I was so worried that one of the kids would fall in and I was so scared. Once we got to it I felt a little better, but I had death grips on them. I mean I couldn't believe it in some spots their was no railings. It was very scary, but it was really neat. We only spent a couple hours their. We had to be on our way home. I am glad we stopped because who knows if we will ever be back that way. It is something everyone must see at least once!

I am glad to be home, but now I need to get my tree up and my decorations up and start getting ready for Christmas. It is coming so fast!

The lights at the Temple in Mesa. I was having a hard time getting any good pictures because of all the lights.

Jalen and Landon at the Temple.

Here is everyone at dinner. I really need to figure out my camera. Once again the lights messed it up a little. We ate at this place called Charlestons. It was really yummy and the service was great. It guess it is a chain, but they don't have one around here. Amanda you will have to try it out I saw they have one in Indianapolis!

Gotta love being able to swim outside in December!

The boys were excited to get a picture by a cactus. This was actually in Seans uncles front yard. It is crazy how big they get!

They are so big!

Grand Canyon

This was one of the edges with no fences. Sean walked out on it a little ways, but no way was I. I had anxiety just seeing it.

Family Picture

The initial drop off the side is 300 feet! How scary! It really was pretty once I got over my initial fears. In some places you could see the colorado river. You could actually hear it if it was really quiet.

Another view

Here is Grandma Shumway when she came to visit. We will miss her.

42-7

Ohio State won! By a lot! It was a great game and the kids had a lot of fun with all the decorations and Ohio State stuff that Jen and Grandma sent! Thanks! We got to decorate the house with Ohio State streamers and balloons! The kids got to eat lunch with Ohio State stuff and we had an OSU cake. It was a lot of fun! I guess we will have one more game this year! Then it will be a long wait until next August.

GO BUCKS!

This is a big week in our house! Saturday is the big Ohio State vs. Michigan game! It is the "big" game of the year. We have our flag waving, music playing, and we are counting down until Saturday morning! This is the only week we are aloud to say "GO BUCKS, MICHIGAN SUCKS!"

Visit from Grandpa

This week my Dad came to visit from Ohio. My sister also came to visit from Idaho for a few days while he was here. I have a brother that is at BYU and a sister and her husband and baby that live in West Jordan and so we had a lot of fun all week long getting together. My Dad kind of has a tradition of coming to visit in October. We also always have to go to Brick Oven when he comes. Which we did on Monday and it was delicious! There was this guy at Brick Oven making these sweet balloons things. He made an Indiana Jones one for Jalen and a football one for Landon. They were really sweet! I thought that it was really nice of this guys to just make balloons for kids at the restaurant. I didn't know he expected money! Good thing Grandpa was their to step in! Of course we drug my Dad around shopping a couple of days and then out to lunch. Jalen was feeling a little bad and like he was missing out since he was in school and so I took him out early on Thursday! He was very excited. Another tradition my kids are liking is Grandpa taking them to Boondocks while he is here. Last year just Grandpa and the boys went and it was cold and so they just did the inside things. This year my sister and I went along with. It was really nice when we went and so the boys were excited to play putt-putt golf for the first time. Yesterday of course was all about Halloween, candy, parties, costumes and trick or treating. My boys of course had parties at school and got to dress up! Then went trick or treating! They have so much candy! Between school, 2 trunk or treats, grandparents, and trick or treating they have so much. I feel sick when I see the amount of candy they got. Today we went to breakfast for our last outing with Grandpa. He had to leave today! We are sad and miss him already. We had a great visit and look forward to next October. Thanks for everything Dad!

The boys had a fun time playing soccer, football, and basketball with Grandpa in the back yard! I think that they had Grandpa sweating!

The boys playing putt-putt at Boondocks! Grandpa giving Landon some pointers!

The boys got some bug that they had to put together in a kids meal. Grandpa worked on them for a while to put them together. We thought it was kind of funny that they came in a kids meal and it took Grandpa so long to figure them out and put them together. Good job guys!

Playing at the park!

Going for a walk!

All ready to go get some candy!

Jalen and Landon with their cousin Kaden.

Itty Bitty Football

Landon played itty bitty football at the rec center. He had lots of fun. I think that he liked it better than when he played soccer. Here is just a little clip of him running the ball.

The Long Weekend

My boys have been out of school for a long weekend. They had fall break. So they were out Thursday, Friday, and Today. We did some fun things while they were out. Thursday we met my sister Emily and her baby Kaden for lunch. Then we planned to go to see the witches at Gardener Village afterwards. Well seems everyone was going to see them also. It was so busy we didn't think that we would even be able to get in and park let alone see any witches. So we decided to go to the park instead since it was really a nice day. Jalen was very sad. He really wanted to see the witches. I felt bad because we had been talking about it for days. After we went to the park we went for ice cream. Then after my sister and I split up and I was on my way back to Lehi I decided to drive back past Gardener Village to see if it had calmed down yet. It wasn't quite as busy and so I decided to take them to see the withches. Of course I had forgotten my camera and so I didn't get to take any pictures. The boys had fun though. They had a scavenger hunt of all the witches you had to find and so they liked finding the witches and checking it off the list. Then I let them take a pony ride while we were there.
Tonight for family night we made haunted houses. The boys loved it. They had a fun time decorating them.

Here they are just getting started.


Here is Jalen doing a candy corn roof.

Here is Landon tweaking his neck to get a piece on.

Here is Jalens finished.

Here is Landons finished. He really didn't hold back.

Eight

My friend Kim tagged me so here it goes....

Eight Favorite T.V shows
1. Greys Anatomy
2. E.R.
3. Amazing Race
4. 48 Hours
5. Americas Funniest Videos
6. The First 48
7. Wife Swap
8. Dr.Phil

Eight Favorite Restaurants
1. Cafe Rio
2. Zupas
3. Chilis
4. Pei Wei
5. Golden Dragon (Chinese Restaurant Back home)
6. Woodys (Root Beer stand I worked at growing up)
7. Red Robin
8. Cafe Rio (counts for two because I eat it so much!)

Eight things I did yesterday
1. Went to a customer service meeting for work
2. Went to Jalens flag football game
3. Went and got a diet coke
4. Visited with my in-laws
5. Went and got take out from cafe rio
6. Cleaned up
7. Went to Kohls
8. Gave my boys a bath

Eight things I love about fall
1. The leaves on the trees
2. Halloween
3. Getting dark earlier
4. Season Premieres
5. Football (I'm struggling here)
6. Crockpot meals
7. The smell outside (except for the mink farm and the other farm behind my house)
8. Shopping

Eight things I look forward to
1. Family coming to visit
2. Going to visit family
3. The holidays
4. Thursday nights- my favorite night of t.v
5. Saturday mornings (I get to sleep past 5:40.)
6. Putting my kids in bed for the night
7. Chocolate and a diet coke ( I know it is so bad for me Liz, but it is so good!)
8. Day after thanksgiving shopping

Eight things on my wish list
1. unlimited skymiles so I could go visit family anytime
2. New carpet/flooring
3. Trip to Disneyland
4. A six pack (not talkin diet coke this time)
5. A maid
6. Or maybe a personal chef (that is why they are called wishes!)
7. My kids actually listening to me
8. Winning the lottery

SNOW

This is what we woke up to this morning. SNOW! I am not ready for this already. I was hoping to get past Halloween before the snow rolled in! My boys are sure excited though. They just wanted to get out and play in it.

Game Day!

Here are my boys in all their Buckeye gear! They like to show their team spirit! Jalen had a flag football game in the morning and it was so cold. I am just glad it wasn't windy. Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Tam came to see him play. It was his second game this week. He had one on Thursday night and it was very windy and cold. Aunt Emily came to see him play that night. He has had lots of supporters this week! Thanks everyone for coming to see J play. Landon is playing itty bitty football at the Legacy Center I will have to take my camera and get him in action. He is having fun!

Tag

I have been tagged by Suzette! Here it goes-

What's your husbands name? Sean

How long have you been married? A little over 8 years. We got married in 2000 and so it is easy for Sean to remember how long!

How long did you date? Well we went on our first date the end of January, got engaged in May, and got married end of July. So about 6 months and and 2 of them I was in Ohio and he was in Idaho.

How old is he? He just celebrated the big 3-0! He is feeling old!

Who eats more sweets? That would be me! Although I have really gotten him into my bad ways. I love my junk and candy!

Who said I love you first? Well Sean did and I wasn't quite ready yet and so I said thanks! He won't let me forget that one.

Who is taller? Um have you seen us? Sean by far! He is over a foot taller than me.

Who is the better singer? I love to sing and I don't know if Sean has ever sang loud enough for me to hear. So I don't know who is better.

Who is smarter? I would have to say Sean! We took the same class after we got married and we would study together and he did way better than me.

Who does the laundry? That would be me unless I am out of town and he has to do it so he has some clean underwear.

Who pays the bills? That would be Sean. Unless writing a check constitutes as paying the bills.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Sean

Who mows the lawn? Definately Sean. I tried it once. That sucked. I always tell him if I started doing it he would start expecting it. Can't have that!

Who cooks dinner? I do every now and then.

Who drives? Sean. I am a paranoid passenger. I am getting better and so is he!

Who is the first to say they are wrong? Sean. I have never been wrong before. (anyone believe it?)

Who kissed who first? Sean

Who asked who out first? Sean We went to the movies. He looked the times up online and they must have been wrong because we got there really early and went in and saw the end of the movie in the first row. Thats okay we watched the rest of it and since we were so early we got the best seats for the first half. I actually noticed the times were different when we got there but I didn't say anything.

Who wears the pants? Good question. I am not sure either way. I am sure Sean would say me.

TO GO OR NOT TO GO???

One of the hardest things for me as parent is trying to decide when to take my kids to the doctor. Sometimes I feel like I am crazy! Sometimes I have taken them to the doctor and thought I don't know if they really even need to go and it will be something like strep or pneumonia. Other times I am sure they have an ear infection or something serious and then it is just a cold and nothing can be done about it. So Jalen has this rash on his back and chest and up his neck. He also had big water blisters on the tips of all his fingers that broke open and he peeled them off. Well I look on the internet and try to diagnose it myself and see if he needs to go to the doctor. Some of our neighbor kids that he plays with have had strep lately and so I was trying to figure out if it was the rash you get from strep. Anyways I decided to go ahead and take him to the doctor. Well he actually sees a nurse practioner which Sean gives me a hard time about. He thinks they need to see the doctor. So the nurse said that he had this reaction or rash and that it is most likely viral. It will clear up in several weeks and they don't do anything about it. He didn't think the blisters had anything to do with it. I still think the whole blister thing is weird! His condition if that is what you would call it even had a name! pitysoriasis rosea. what is that? I think it is all made up. They give it a name so moms like me don't feel stupid that they took there child to the doctor for it. Am I that crazy mom that takes their child to the doctor when they sneeze? I know a few that we have dealt with at the daycare that are actually crazier than me! I guess I am not completely convinced with the "diagnosis" but I will just see how it goes!

The Weekend

So we didn't have a very eventful weekend as usual. It mostly consisted of shopping for me and watching football for the boys! Saturday we did haircuts and went a little shorter than usual which is okay because it always grows back really fast. The boys had there primary program at church today. It was the first time for Landon. The boys did a good job! While we were doing haircuts I heard some noises over by the gate. I had to attach a picture of what the noises were. Our neighbors cute dog is always trying to figure out ways to get under the fence. I had to take a picture because it was so cute!

HOUSE FOR SALE!

My friend Amanda has her house for sale. They are moving and need to sell it soon! So take a look and pass it along to your friends or anyone who is looking. Here is a link to her webpage with information and pictures of her house.

http://lthome.blogspot.com/

It is a beautiful house! So pass it along to any friends! You never know who might be interested. Thanks.

Saturdays in the Fall

Today Jalen had his second flag football game. We were so excited he scored a touchdown and of course I didn't have the camera with me this time! Go Jalen! The bad news for the day was Ohio State lost against USC bad! We will be in mourning tomorrow! We will have our OSU flag at half staff.

Jalen's First Football Game

Jalen had his first flag football game on Saturday. His first time playing was his first game because they didn't get a coach until last minute and so they weren't able to hold a practice before the game. He had a fun time and enjoyed playing. We are excited for his first season! Here is a video clip of our future Buckeye! He is wearing the red shorts. He got a flag towards the end of the clip! Way to stop them. Go Jalen!

Parents of the Year!

Well this morning Jalen said his tummy hurt and that he didn't want to go to school! He says that often and I always tell him he needs to go and that if his tummy keeps hurting he can tell his teacher. I always think he is just trying to get out of school. He kept laying around and saying he didn't want to go. Sean and I are saying you are going. I am saying if you don't go to school you can't play with friends or play video games or have movie and treat night. I never know when they are really sick and I hate it when my kids tell me they don't feel good to get out of church, school, etc. Well we got him ready and in the back of my head I am thinking about how a few days ago he came home from school and was saying this girl by him at lunch puked all over and he had to move his lunch so puke wouldn't get on it. He was telling me how it filled up all the squares on her lunch tray and on her cookie! Yuck! I was wondering why he brought his whole lunch home that day untouched. Anyways I am thinking that, but still making him go to school! Sean drops him off at school at 8. Then on my way to work at the daycare at about 8:05 I decided to stop by the school to make sure they have my cell phone number just in case since I wasn't going to be home. They did and so I was off to daycare. I go to daycare until about 10:40. When I was leaving I was going to run to the store. I checked my phone to make sure I didn't miss any calls and I noticed that I had no service and normally I always have service. So I turned it off and messed with it and then turned it back on. Then a minute later it beeped that I had a message. I listened to the message and it was the school calling to say Jalen had puked and was sick and they had him in the office. So I called the school to tell them I was on my way and to see how long he had been down there. The school started calling at 8:28! So they had been trying to call for 2 hours!! They called our house, my cell (that wasn't working and I didn't know) sean at work(he wasn't at his desk and missed the call) then they called my emergency contacts which are my sister and seans sister who are both at work! I seriously felt so horrible. I sent him in the first place and then they try to send him home and can't find anyone to come get him! The poor thing got sick, went to the office, then they couldn't get a hold of anyone and so they thought he was feeling a little better and they had him go back to class. Then he started to feel sick again and then went back to the office and they still can't get a hold of us. So when my sister and sister in law get off work and see they have messages from Jalens school I am sure they will be calling and I am so embarressed! Well he is home now and I am taking very good care of him because I feel so bad. So how am I going to know when he really doesn't feel good?? I am just glad he made it to the toilet so he didn't have to be "that kid". Aren't we totally the parents of the year??

Labor Day Weekend

My sister Bridget came to visit from Ohio over Labor Day weekend and my sister Keri came from Idaho. We had such a fun time. We celebrated Seans 30th birthday on Thursday night. We made him gray and red(scarlet) cupcakes in honor of Football season starting! GO BUCKS! And of course we had to get take out from Cafe Rio. The rest of the weekend we spent hanging out, playing games, and eating! Of course the girls went shopping on Saturday while the guys watched football. On Monday we took my sister Bridget to temple square and to see the Joseph Smith movie. She hadn't seen it yet and neither had Sean. I love that movie! We had a lot of fun and I was sad to see her go, but I know that she probably missed her kids (right?) and they were very excited for her to get home!

Me, Bridget, Keri, Andy, Emily

Bridget (Landon was taking pictures. I thought it wasn't too bad)



Bridget, Kaden, Landon

Here are my boys loving on Kaden. They love their baby cousin Kaden!

I can't believe my brother would pose like that when he knew I would totally put it on my blog! I think the doctor staightened out his nose well! And he was so worried about getting a Michael Jackson nose!

Me and my sisters! I had already changed into my p.j.s before the pics.