Christmas Break Pt. 1

We started our Christmas off with a trip to Salt Lake to meet up with my family at Temple Square to see the lights and eat dinner at The Roof. As always....it was a SO much fun!. I love when we all get together, and eating at The Roof during Christmas has to be the best thing ever. So many fun Memories.


After our night at Temple Square we headed down to American Fork for my cousin Jonathan's wedding. I'm really happy for Jonathan and his new wife Lauren! They were so cute and it was of course awesome to see my favorite family from Texas!

Waiting outside the temple

At the Luncheon

And I'm Feeling.....Good

(This is for my journaling, not so much for reading pleasure)
It's been a hectic-fun-crazy-enjoyable-month. I can't believe how long it's been since I last blogged! But like I said, we've been quite busy, not to mention out of town. Christmas was a total hit for our little family. We were all completely spoiled even though I myself kept things small. It's just an accumulation of gifts from parents, siblings, friends, and grandparents that add up to so much. But seriously....who's complaining? Not me. It was just a good thing we brought our truck down because it was packed to the max (pretty sure I haven't said that since 1994) on the way home. I'll create a separate post about Christmas and other events from December later.
Right now I'm feeling so grateful. I love my life and everything it entails. I was just sitting here thinking about the last year and I cannot believe how much the Lord has bless us. Unlike most of our loved ones, we have remained unaffected by the poor state of this countries economy. Although we feel for those it has affected, we are so grateful that we are where we are. And we know it's due to the Lord answering our prayers and leading us to Idaho. I honestly still can't even believe we live here! I never in a million years would have thought I'd live in Idaho some day. Funny story- a couple months before the whole moving to Idaho thing came about, Beau and I were driving somewhere on the freeway and we were following a car with Idaho plates going ridiculously slow in the fast lane and we couldn't get around it for one reason or another. I was getting SO frustrated (surprise, I have road-rage issues) and started saying something like, "stupid Idaho drivers! I swear they are all raised on farms where they're the only ones on what ever dirt roads there are and have no consideration for other people! I hate Idaho!" haha...karma? Come to find out, non-farming people actually do live in this fine state, and they are great, especially the farmers! I LOVE the people here. They are so down to earth, conservative and friendly. But driving here really is probably one of the most frustrating things in life. For the most part they drive 15 mph under the speed limit unless they're in parking lots and then they drive at least 55 (not even exaggerating), they don't have right hand turn lanes so you have to sit through red lights even when you're turning right, and the stop lights are SO long!!!! I really love it here though, I'm even enjoying the winter.
For the last 2 months nights have been really rough with Joshua. He wakes up at least 3 times a night crying hysterically, not just a little whining. So I have to get out of bed and calm him down. It started 2 months ago when he had a really bad ear infection, and has never stopped. About a month ago I decided it was time to just let him cry himself back to sleep, and then he started teething (his top k9's, ouch!) so I felt bad and would go at least put his binki in and he'd go back to sleep for a few hours. Now here we are, still teething, and I'm still getting out of bed 3 times a night. I've never done well with that. I'm not the type that can get woken up and go right back to sleep. Sometimes I'm up, mind racing, for an hour after I put his binki back in. That's why I had a REALLY hard time when Josh was about 2 months old and I basically hadn't slept in 2 months because he was still eating every 2 hrs, so sometimes I would only sleep 15-20 minutes before he'd need to eat again. I wish I was like Beau. That guy can sleep anytime anywhere in about 5 seconds! I have NEVER fallen asleep in a car and only one time on a plane and it was on the way back from London so it was 11 hrs and I had 4 seats to lay across. I can't fall asleep if anyone is talking around me, if there is a light on, or if the TV is on. I hate it! So anyways....the last 2 months have really been wearing on me and I'm having a hard time being happy and motivated all the time. However, I am redetermined today to be better. I'm especially not going to take it out on Beau...poor guy. I think the last couple weeks have been rough on him too, just because of me. No more though, I'm going to be better. There is something about this time of year, although I've never actually set a new years resolution, the first of January always makes me reflect and refocus on being a better person. Maybe this year I'll try the goal setting thing out.
All 'n' all, things are going great for us. Beau starts school again this Wednesday, and he only has to go to Rexburg once a week. That will be nice. We have some HUGE changes come up in the next month or two. We are really excited and a little nervous about it all, but it will be good. I'll write more about them later as well. Right now I need to go get dinner started.

SNOW!

The other day while I was out shoveling the driveway Joshua got to play in the snow for the first time. I wasn't sure he would like it; I figured he'd get cold and want to go inside, but of course he loved it. I should have guessed. Before I brought him outside I cleared off a spot on the porch so he could just stand and watch, and maybe touch the snow a little, but he only stayed there for about 10 seconds before he was running as fast as he could in about 5 inches of snow! It was really funny to watch.

I took this picture when he had apparently gotten stuck because he didn't more from there for like 2 minutes! Long enough for me to realize he was stuck, start laughing, then run in the house and find the camera to take the picture before I got him out.


When he wouldn't stop trying to run into the road, I gave him our gardening shovel and he help me out a little.


I am loving the snow so far this year. I know about February I will be super sick of it and we'll still have like 3 more months of it after that, but for now, I'm enjoying it. I can't wait for school to be over so Beau will have time to play with us. I want to go sledding!

Lucky Girl

I Love being the Mom to this little guy!

Even when he wakes me up 3 times a night for no reason for the last 2 weeks. And even when he starts screaming at the top of his lungs in Deseret Book because I wont let him put a little plastic ring in his mouth.
And even when he learns how to turn his Dad's razor on and takes a big chunk out of the side of his hair. (Nice step!)

I love it because we have SO much fun together.

And because he is SO cute!

And because he makes me laugh ALL the time.

But mostly because I LOVE him more than I ever imagined I could love anyone!

Just some random thoughts

• Today I was making bread and I remembered once again just how much I LOVE my Bosch! I know I wouldn't bake half as much as I do if I didn't have it. I certainly can't imagine making bread without it. By far the best gadget I own!

• Last weekend I got to spend 2 whole days with my husband just relaxing around the house, and for that I'm and SO grateful!

• I just got in the mood for Christmas, today, although I've been trying super hard since Thanksgiving to get excited. Now I just want it to come!
  

• Even though just about everything that could possibly go wrong today has (seriously, my hands are covered in superglue and I have half and eyebrow over my left eye), I'm in such a good mood. I think it's because the sky is bright blue and it is BEAUTIFUL outside! I love the first couple snowfalls of the season. Everything is so sparkly and clean. I love the quietness that the snow brings. And I love that the snow seems to make sunny days even brighter. The sun is going down now, but it's still so pretty.
  

Happy Birthday Baby Josh!

Joshua turned 1 on the third of December! I can't believe it! It really is a different feeling to have a one-year-old. We celebrated his birthday a couple days early while we were down in Utah over Thanksgiving so the whole family could be there. It was an awesome little (well huge) party, and Joshua had no idea it was all for him, but he did enjoy the cake and the fun new toys.


He got incredibly spoiled!

And had lots of help opening presents.
Although Joshua is one, he's still my little baby. He is such a happy little guy, always smiling and loves to laugh.
Some of his favorite things right now:

• Loves to play tag around the kitchen table and usually falls down laughing 100 times but gets right back up and starts running.
• He's always looking for something that's just the right height for him to sit on.
• He loves to wrestle with his dad.
• He's the best eater EVER! and it's about time. That's been the biggest challenge since he was born because he never liked to nurse or take a bottle, but now that he can eat solids, he'll keep shoveling until we take him out of the highchair.
• Playing with balls
• Makes the funniest noises with his mouth
• He knows the things around that house that he's not supposed to touch, so he'll always get them and bring them right to me.
• He shakes everything
• Unfolds clothes faster than I can fold them and thinks it's hilarious...SO helpful.
  
• Likes watching the dryer
• He fake coughs until I look at him and then he laughs.
  
• He actually likes to get tickled. If I'm sitting on the floor he'll come up to me and stick his tummy out for me to tickle.
  
• He'll ride anything!
• He loves his naps.
• And LOVES Toy Story!

All in all he's just a sweet boy and we love him to death.

Oh Where Oh Where Did November Go...

Wow! I don't even know where to start! I have so much to post about, and I haven't posted about anything worth while for over a month. During the month of November we were home for a total of 10 days and some of those weren't whole days. We started out the month with a fun visit from my parents. They came for a weekend and we had a good time just relaxing and my mom and I did some Christmas shopping. Then the day they left Beau and I started our week long babysitting adventure. It was an adventure for sure! Going from one to seven kids is quite an adjustment. I learned A LOT however, and it turned out to be a pretty fun week. We had a couple rough days though. Joshua was pretty fussy from the time we got there and I couldn't figure out why, so I passed it off as he was just having a hard time being away from home and not getting 100% attention from me. Then Wednesday night he went to bed for a couple hours but woke up at 10 just screaming, and didn't stop until 4 am when we took him into the ER....Well we didn't actually make it into the ER because on the way there he FINALLY fell asleep, so Beau decided to just drive around for a while until our pediatricians office opened. When we took him in we found out he had a really bad ear infection and it was causing a lot of pain. So all three of us got zero hours of sleep that night and had to get going at 6:30 in the morning taking care of 6 other kids. It was just a good thing that their kids were awesome! They were great kids.
A few things I learned during that week:

• You can really get a lot done before 8 am if you get up and showered by 6:30.
  
• Reading family scriptures in the morning is the way to go.
• Having six kids is so much fun (too bad I could never handle being pregnant 6 times).
• Spacing your kids out is totally ok. Even if they are over 3 years apart, they still play really well together.
  
• I love being busy all day!
• I want a Yukon bad!
• We will never have cable/satellite in our home while our kids are growing up. I was scared to death to even flip through the channels when the kids were in the room because every other one had something awful on it, like a woman in her underwear! When did they start showing stuff like that? No one needs those images in their head, especially not little boys. And the language on TV these days! What can't they say!? The world is getting more and more corrupt everyday, the most we can do is make our home a safe escape from its temptations. I know not everyone feels that way, and maybe as my kids grow up my opinion will change, but that really hit me hard while we were at the Hansen's. Alright, I'm finished.
  
• It takes a lot of money to feed 8 people 3 times a day.
• And A LOT of milk! I think we went through 2 gals. a day, at least.

A couple weekends ago we also went to a Jazz game. SO FUN! I think I already wrote about it, but I wanted to post a picture. We were so close, it was amazing. We're going again next weekend and this time we have box seats! I love Beau's job (sometimes).


THEN...there was Thanksgiving. We went home this year and spent Thanksgiving day with the Davis'. While we were down there we did some hardcore Black Friday shopping, went four wheeling and celebrated Joshua's birthday. It was a fun trip and we can't wait to go back again for Christmas!