Updated Entry

I updated THIS POST with Brandon's entire Christmas calendar photo collage & a video of him surfing.   I also added a video of Andrew getting a new blanket for Christmas.  :)

Funny kids!  

Routines

Andrew naps around 1:30 - 3:00p (sometimes more, sometimes less) while Rachel has a little quiet time, then a movie to give her some down time.

I rarely take pictures of my kids sleeping (for fear they will wake up!), but this day was unique since he fell asleep in my lap while in the rocking chair, so I snapped a quick one.  

Then we play out back, pretty much every afternoon during the winter months.

Trampoline. Bikes. Sandbox.  Repeat.  I guess we only play in the sandbox if it's a bath night.

Gma & Gpa come to visit

I love February, because it brings beautiful weather, Valentine's day, visitors from Utah and it means January is over!

Brandon's parents are wonderful guests, and always very helpful and generous.  On Friday, they took the kids to the park in the morning while I stayed home and did something of my choice (which on that day was a shower and to get ready, go me!), then the boys headed off to the Phoenix Open.  They had a roaring good time (especially at hole 16), but the craziest part of their day was figuring out where they parked, and after two shuttle/bus rides to the wrong lots, I think it took them an hour and a half to find their car.  I'm laughing now as I write this, but it wasn't so funny at the time.  Nancy sent me off to do some shopping, and I was happy to and found new accessories (thank you, Ross - you are one of my favorite stores) for our custom-built fireplace mantle (more on that later).

On Saturday the boys went golfing, while Nancy and I took Rachel to dance class and then to a birthday party (Ella's 4th, one of Rachel's friends in her Sunbeam class).  That afternoon, Brandon got really sick so he stayed home while I went with his parents to Amazing Jakes with the kids, which we found out was not-so-amazing, particularly on a Saturday night (apparently draws a rougher crowd).  I could only laugh about it.  It's an all you can eat buffet with lots of games, arcades and little rides.  The kids loved it, and Nancy was a trooper to accompany Rachel on the teacup ride (Rachel had no problem spinning the teacup very fast while Val and I laughed on the sidelines wondering if Nancy would make it without getting ill - she made it - what a good grandma!).

We had a relaxing Sunday together and took full advantage of Grandma being there, so after Sacrament Meeting, we sent home Andrew and Grandma so we could actually enjoy the rest of church.  Countdown to Nursery:  1.5 months

I must say that it was a huge blessing that the kids were healthy and as well behaved as they were while we had them here - praises we sing!!

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!

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!  

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.  

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