Brandon and Whitney: January 2012

Monday, January 30, 2012

Faces, Surprise!, Leaping, Haircut & Sunday Clothes

Random compilation here; it was just what was new on my camera.

We've been doing a lot of funny faces lately, and Andrew's rendition is anything where his fingers are touching his face. I pulled out the camera because I thought Bubba's "cupholder" was pretty ingenious.

My parents spent a few days in Las Vegas with some of their closest friends from California, and then they headed down to Quartzsite, AZ to spend the day with my grandparents who travel via motorhome for most the Utah winter. Any way, last minute they decided to come stay at our house (2+ hrs away from Quartzsite) for the night, so the kids woke up with Nana & Papa at our house. Too fun! They just stayed a few hours, and then headed home. The kids had a blast - Andrew gave lots of hugs to Nana and Rachel's request was to play Littlest Pet Shop with her.

On Wednesday, all the Beehives (11 members + 2 friends who we consider part of the group) came to the activity, so I ran home to get my camera and this was the result.

Andrew was overdue for a haircut, and as you can see, he was not thrilled. Even with an otter-pop and candy, he cried lots. But now he looks so handsome.

Our family is one of those annoying stay-in-church-clothes-all-Sunday families, but I think it's just out of laziness. I guess Rachel is the exception since she still changes her clothes multiple times per day. And tonight, I took out my camera while we were playing in the yard. The weather this winter has been A DREAM!! It reminds me why we like living here (because talk to me in July and I sometimes wonder!).

Rachel always tells me to take a picture of her in this pose. Strange. Like I would ever say, "Ok, Rachel, go ahead and lay down on the chalk-covered cement so that I can take your picture." Funny girl.

My little handsome!

Monday, January 16, 2012

Tons O' Projects from Nov./Dec./Jan.

I want to remember all the little projects I had going on in November, December & January. (You should be able to click on any of them to make them larger.)

1. Prints

I decided a cheap way to give gifts this year would be to make prints for friends/family and frame them. I love the "My heart belongs in Arizona / Utah" prints, although it made me realize, I can't put one in my home because my heart is still confused. I'm still not sure where my heart is. I think I'll make myself a map of all the places we've lived (Orem, Chicago, Mesa) and that would be much more suitable for me because a piece of my heart is in all three places.

I made a print that says, "Your name is safe in our home." for my sister-in-laws. It's something that is special to us because Brandon's parents hang a sign that has that phrase right in their entrance, and they are good examples of living that. I made one for myself too.

I made an alphabet collage for my sister-in-law for her birthday, and I like it so much I'll probably change the colors and print one to hang in our office/toy room.

2. Invitations & Greeting Cards
I made a bridal shower, baby shower and a handful of Christmas cards for different families. It was fun, but I need to work on creating my own designs all by myself and not finding something I like and then just trying to copy it. (Don't tell, ok? ssshhh! I'm working on it!)

3. Photos for families

I'm by no means a photographer, but through trial and error, I'm just starting to figure out my camera. And I have good friends and family to practice on. I still feel like I get lucky, but the odds are in my favor when I take 100 pictures, I'm bound to get 5 or so that I like.

I hope these families don't mind me posting these!

Baby Miles (my nephew) wasn't supposed to come until January, but I think he knew we needed to meet! What a good boy to come 3 weeks early while we were in Utah!

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Happy New Year, 2012

My 2011 goals and evaluations ~
1. Read the Book of Mormon at least 5 minutes everyday * I tried and did pretty good and I can say I did better than I did in 2010, but it didn't happen everyday ... I justify not reading if I have spent over an hour+ on my church callings that day. I'll keep working on this one.
2. Run a half marathon (I've already signed up for Ragnar in Utah, June 17-18, which counts) * Yep!
3. Build an organized 3 month food storage *I made good progress, and have three months of meals and snacks all in a spreadsheet with total amount of ingredients needed, and I've done a couple shopping trips but I need to rethink some of my freezer items because I don't have a big enough freezer for what I want to store, so I'm going to keep working on this.
4. Build a stronger emergency fund * Yep!
5. Improve FHE night - do it more often and be more creative with it *Yep! We have FHE pretty much every week now and the kids love it, even though we keep it very simple.

2012 Goals. I'm writing these down so that I can refer back to them during the year.
1. Form a habit of having family prayer before we put the kids to bed
2. Focus on the relationships with the people in my home (i.e., be nicer to the ones I love most)
3. Finish reading the Book of Mormon and earn my YW "Honor Bee"award
4. Continue working on a realistic/useful 3 month food storage for our family
5. Catch up on my own family's history - organize pictures, edit home videos & make another blog book

I'm excited for a new year and what it will bring!

Taboo. Since this blog is the closest thing I have to a journal, I hope to write in it more like a journal and less like a blog. And I know it's sort of "taboo" to talk about church callings on the blog, but for as much time as I spend on callings, I feel like I need to start writing about it so I remember the lessons I learn and the experiences I have. So I'm done not mentioning church callings.

I'm nervous how this year will go with said callings. I juggled 2nd Counselor (Beehives) in Young Women and Stake Girl's Camp 5th Year Leader last year and did an alright job, but it was s.t.r.e.s.s.f.u.l. In fact, I promised myself if they asked me again, I would say no. It felt like a lot for my family at the time. Especially since Brandon needs to spend a good amount of time on his calling too, and I want to be home and available for him to be able to spontaneously serve as need be. Brandon is and always has been so supportive of my church callings, I really want to return him the favor.

But yeah, so then they asked me to serve again (this time as Stake 6th Year Leader) and all I could say was, "Yes!". This means more work for camp, but I get to work with the same group of girls that I worked with last year, so that's a plus. And now I have 11 Beehives, which is a lot compared to last year (also more work), but the more the merrier, I keep telling myself. So to sum it all up, I'm basically screwed. But I couldn't say no to more blessings! We could use them! And I know that Heavenly Father will help me manage all the meetings and phone calls and text messages and emails and time, and that it's what I am supposed to be doing right now.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Last Week of 2011 at Home

I love this picture! They're in front of our kid tree and I love how it looks - even if there are 15 of the same ornaments all at the bottom of the tree on the same branch put there by the kids, that's what makes it great. I didn't want to decorate only the top half to keep the ornaments safe from the 15 month old, so I spent two days telling Bubba that we don't touch the ornaments, and then he understood and we enjoyed it the rest of the season. And now that I'm looking back at the picture, I see that he's technically "touching" but he knew not to take them off, you know what I mean.

The Christmas Season was really fun this year with the kids. I set up an advent calendar with Christmas-type activities to do with the kids, and we did a lot of them, but we were really flexible with the schedule. We also had an "Elf on the Shelf" lookalike (not the retro looking one) come to stay with us while we were in Utah and that was really fun for Rachel, and really helped her make good choices. Hallelujah.

The day we got home from Utah, it felt so warm that we changed into shorts and t-shirts and played outside with our new toys (my new toy is an iPod touch). I heard we missed some "cold" weather while we were gone, but we've been hanging out in the high sixties to mid seventies and it has been beautiful! On New Year's Eve we took the kids to Chick-Fil-A (I know, we eat there a lot) and then to Tempe Town Lake and rented a little paddle boat and cruised out on the lake. It was fun, and felt weird to be so comfortable outside at night on December 31st.

Brandon has been working hard setting up and taking down Christmas lights, putting toys together for the kids, packing and unpacking. I also asked him to give the garage door a new coat of paint before he played with all his Christmas tools. I did this because if I know my husband like I know I do, then as soon as he starts his next wood project, I know I'm not going to get him to focus on anything else! He's SO excited to start building us a mantle. But about the garage door - he tackled the huge project and was so thorough about getting off all the old paint and sanding it down (we have an old school wooden garage door); it made me so happy! And now he's knee deep in sawdust working on the mantle and having a great time.

Custest kids ever, if you ask me!

Tradition to visit the Mesa Temple Lights Display (and also see Daddy's volunteer efforts since he helped put some up)

Decorating sugar cookies - don't those look delicious.

Christmas crafts together

Outside lights - not a great picture, but you get the idea

"Mom's Tree"

Back in Mesa, and the weather is fine!

Lots of trampoline jumping with daddy!

New Year's Eve Paddle Boat Cruise

View on Tempe Town Lake

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Christmas "Vacation" in Utah

We left for Utah on December 16th and it was a little rocky getting out the door. The kids and I were all sick with colds, and two nights before we were supposed to drive through the night, Brandon had to work an all nighter at work (which gratefully doesn't happen too often). He worked all day Wednesday, then came home and watched the kids while I went to YW; then he changed his clothes, went back to work and we didn't see him until Thursday night at 6p. I was apprehensive to let him drive Friday night, but he assured me that he'd be fine (I am not a night-time driver!). Oh yeah, Rachel threw up on Brandon in Flagstaff and since everything was packed, he just took off his shirt and was wearing his garment top and jacket (important detail for the next part). Luckily the kids slept as well as we could expect in the car and we only saw a few deer, which is my only complaint for driving through the night. Around 2:30a we were almost to our exit (and complaining about the I-15 construction in Provo) when a cop car pulled us over. The cop had clocked Brandon driving 70mph (in 55mph construction zone, which he was just following the flow of traffic) and claimed that he was not staying in his lane. So here we were, 10 minutes from home, with Brandon smelling of throw up and him in his garment top and jacket, pulled over for a suspected DUI. If we could have deciphered which lane line we were supposed to follow, I think Brandon could have done a "better" job staying in his lane. THANKFULLY, he let us off without giving us a ticket (our Christmas miracle!). Brandon's comments later were, "With a face like this, how could he give me a ticket" and "The only thing I'm drunk on is Christmas Spirit." And he was also a little disappointed that he didn't have to do a field sobriety test.

We spent lots of time the first few days wiping noses and covering our mouths with coughs. But we still managed to go to Brandon's cousin, Johnny's homecoming and hear Nana talk, have Christmas dinner with the Hale family, and see the lights at Thanksgiving Point.

Rachel was so excited for the Grandma sleepover with all her cousins, and it was a huge success! This was their third annual sleepover, and the festivities include: eating dinner together, swimming in Gma's hot tub, reading Christmas stories, new pajamas, watching the Nativity movie, and then trying their best to go to sleep. Even Andrew got to sleepover this year! Then Nancy and Val send the parents out to dinner. This year we ate at Riverside and tried to behave ourselves and fit in with the crowd. We missed Scott & Rachel who were at the hospital with new baby, Miles!! Rachel had her baby while we were in Utah three weeks early, but just in time for us to meet him. I was so happy about that, and he is so precious.

One night, we went with the Parker family to Riverwoods to see Santa. Rachel asked for a princess bike with training wheels and Andrew asked for a car. Then we went to Provo Beach Resort and watched Brandon and Cade surf. It took almost the whole hour for them to figure it out and get comfortable, but they said they had a blast. It looked super hard, and I don't love to do things that I know I won't be good at, so I was happy to watch my brother do it with Brandon.

Brandon and Kyle came up with another crazy Christmas greeting for their 20 or so fans. Here is last year's and the years before that. They made calendars this year and photoshopped themselves in 12 famous pictures from this year (i.e., Justin Bieber concert, Twilight, Obama Situation Room, Steve Jobs, etc.). I'm sure these calendars will get put to very good use, don't you?

Kyle & Brandon's Christmas Calendar Photos:

From top to bottom & left to right: 1. Justin Bieber Concert 2. Cardinals win World Series 3. Awkward Family Photo 4. Greece Riots 5. OHS 10 year reunion 6. Pepper Spray Controversy 7. Royal Wedding 8. Situation Room with Obama 9. Steve Jobs 10. Twilight - Werewolves Cast 11. Vancouver Riots 12. The 1st Christmas Card from 2001

We try to spend equal amounts of time at both of our parents house, and we try to go to every party possible. Christmas Eve included a brief dinner with the extended Hale family, where Brandon and I showed off more Christmas sweaters - 'tis the season! Then we went to the Parker's and did the traditional nativity scene with the kids and talent show, which I already did a post on (but next year, Chad, we want karate!!).

Christmas Eve was busy for Brandon and I, especially because Rachel had one of her "middle-of-the-night-coughing-fits-that-we-can't-do-anything-for" that usually last between 4-5 hours, and since I knew it wasn't croup (just asthmatic coughing), we just did breathing treatments and watched Christmas movies. This repeated again Christmas night, and then we were finally able to take her to the doctor and get her a steroid Monday morning. This is a normal occurrence for our family, it just meant that we were worn out!

Christmas morning was magical! Andrew got his car and Rachel got her bike from Santa! The kids had a fantastic time eating treats from their stockings for breakfast and opening present after present after present. Rachel especially loved her dollhouse and princesses from Nana, her pink helmet from Grandma, and ladybug pillow pet from cousin, Kennedy. Andrew loved everything, but my favorite reaction of the day was when Nancy gave him a new blue blanket! Andrew loves his white blanket, but it was getting so stinky since he chews on it (he never took a binky). He loves that particular one, and Rachel has a pink one just like it that Andrew tries to sneak every once in a while, so I knew he'd love a new blue one. Anyway, a child has never been so happy for a gift! He hugged it, chewed on it and layed on it in complete bliss for 5 minutes straight it seemed. He showed everyone and was so happy! It was the sweetest thing I have ever seen.

It was nice to be around so much family for Christmas! And I liked that it was on Sunday so that we could go to church and be reminded of the real reason of the day.

We headed home on Monday afternoon, but Brandon and I were both exhausted, so we decided to stay at the cheapest hotel in Page, AZ that we could find. He slept in a bed with Rachel, and I slept in one with Andrew - although both kids desperately wanted to sleep with dad, but Rachel wouldn't let Andrew sleep with them - blah blah blah. He's the favorite right now. It was very broken sleep, but it was sleep!

When we got home, the kids played by themselves without any trouble for at least two days straight. Between the new presents and being away from their own house/toys, they were completely entertained. Basically I let them do whatever the heck they wanted to do, while I did whatever the heck I wanted to do. This is just how the days following Christmas should be, and I loved it!