Grandpa Tom's Visit

Grandpa Tom hopped on a plane to visit us this past weekend. Of course, the kids were beside themselves when I told them he was coming. They loved swimming in the pool at his hotel and spending time with him; they especially loved his stories.

Mike and I were so grateful that he was willing to make such a quick, last minute trip. The reason for his visit was to ordain Mike a High Priest on Sunday. Mike was called to serve as 2nd counselor in our Bishopric, and so he needed to be made a High Priest. Mike can now say his father has ordained him to every office of the priesthood. Thanks Tom for being here for Mike's special day.

Woo hoo Grandpa Tom is here. (Really this is Elliot hamming it up for G. Tom. She is being exercise girl, couldn't you tell?)
G. Tom and the boys played cards for 1-2 hours on Sunday. A mothers dream, could you come back every Sunday G. Tom?
Eating at Johnson's, our favorite local restaurant.
Before we could let him leave, we added G. Tom to our families growth chart. Now the boys can really try to live up to Grandpa.

Busy?

I haven't had a chance to post in a while, I guess we've been busy. Over the last month we've had a few haps. Lets see if I can remember most of them.
-last week the kids had winter break (who thought of winter break? the weather was awful) We stayed busy half of the week with our friends the Huntings. We also did a fun rainbow craft (check out my craft blog "partners in crafts" to the right(It might take a few days for me to post it). We didn't get to go to any museums like we planned, but did squeeze in some shopping. Elliot ended up getting sick one of the days and is still battling a cold.

-Two Sundays ago we said farewell to the beloved Elder Brown, a Missionary that has been in our ward for the last 9 months, we really got to know him, and he was Elliot's first crush. His mission had to end sometime, so we threw a farewell bash at our house in his honor. It was very fun to have our house full, it made me miss home.

-Mike has reached his goal weight and is keeping it off, by keeping up with his exercise and good eating habits. He has allowed ice cream and some sweets back into his diet. Hood "under the stars" ice cream is now a staple in our freezer. Which means I won't be reaching my goal weight anytime this month.-I am finishing up my winter shopping frenzy. For the past 3 months I have been on the hunt for good deals, for next years winter clothes. Luckily we live close (45 minutes) away from a great outlet mall and I have been scoring some major deals! It 's hard to keep 4 growing kids in clothes that fit, without breaking the bank, so I've adopted this early shopping routine.

-the kids continue to make me smile everyday.
Griffin ask for cereal this morning..."Mom, can I have some snap, crackle, and boom"

Elliot is battling a cold this week and has been extra snuggly. Mike and I love her crackly sick voice and hope she feels better soon, but keeps her cute new voice. Today she came up to me and asked, "Mom can you wipe my cute little nose?" So darn cute.

Cant wait to see what March holds.

Happy V-day (late, of course)

I had a wonderful time thinking of my "valentines" all month long. I made chocolate boxes for them, like last year. And my friend Emily and I got together and traded goodies for them. Yumm. I also included my mom's sugar cookie recipe. I'm not a huge sugar cookie fan (no chocolate in them) but, if I am going to have some, they HAVE to be this recipe. They turn out so yummy and soft.

Keeping up with Elliot.

Elliot is in full swing to becoming a "big girl." She keeps me so darn busy, I collapse at night after she goes to bed. Last week she decided, while I was blogging, that she was big enough to paint her own nails. Which I found her doing in my room, with 5 different colors all of their tops off and laying on my carpet!!! And the first thing I screamed at her..."this is a rental house" Which is probably my most famous saying these days with her, and the other kids. Anyway, the whole reason I found her, is because she was screaming, because she had painted her face and gotten nail polish in her mouth! I didn't feel too bad for her, but the poor carpet is ruined. And I am a little smarter about checking on this little girl.

Daddy Spa

What little girl wouldn't want her Daddy to paint her nails....well, Caleigh had to be talked into it, but I think she realized what a good thing she had when her Dad was done. Truly, Mike is the best choice, with his artistic abilities.

More Birthday Pics!

Birthday Boy

Our Griffin is 7 now. I teased him saying, "Griff, I just got rid of two 7 year olds, do you think you could stay 6?" He asked what was wrong with 7yr olds. Nothing, just means everyone is growing up.

Seriously though, Griffin is the BEST kid. He is a great listener, and rarely needs to be told twice to do something. He is kind and considerate, in fact, he told his brother and sisters all he wanted for his birthday was for everyone to be kind to each other for the whole day. He always seems to be happy and in a good mood. He takes such good care of Elliot when he's in charge of her. Which you can tell, since she loves to run to him when he gets home from school.

Griffin has been working really hard this year with learning to read, and in his speech therapy. He also has discovered a love for writing (I wonder where he gets that?) and his teacher says he often has to attach more paper to the end of his journal pages so he can finish his thoughts. He requested a journal this year, and writes in it almost every night. Then the next morning he has me help him correct all the misspelled words. He also loves spending time with Mike watching football. He asked Mike all the time, "Dad, is there a football game on tonight."

Happy birthday Griffin.

Griffin wanted to go Bowling for his birthday and he invited the Titus family to join us.

Announcement....

My friend Kata and I have started a craft blog together. The address is: http://partnersincrafts.blogspot.com/

Kata has been my dear friend since we were 3 and has always been my partner in many crimes. We played house as kids, drove our moms nuts with mischief, hung out through school, roomed together in collage, and have spent many hours on the phone. Kata is one of those Moms who makes is look easy, and she turns everything she touches to Gold. Truly, she can take a weed from her yard and it looks like it came from PB.

This blog is our creative outlet. My recent love for creating anything with my hands and Kata's constant creativity should make our blog a fun place to stop and get inspired.

31 years!

I had a wonderful birthday thank you to all my kind friend and family who made it extra special. Mike took the kids on their traditional shopping trip and they spoiled me with two new CD's, MP3 player, season 1 of Glee, and a lemon zester( I really needed one.) Plus I was able to use some of my birthday money from family to buy a blue ray player. It is awesome!

The night before my birthday, me and the kids had a sleepover at my friend Mary's house, with her kids and the Tituses (minus Jeff of course, who was out of town).

Before the sleepover Mary watched all the kids so Emily and I could go to book club. We had an amazing dinner with potatoes in creme sauce, that I wanted to take a bath in, home made bread, pork, baked apples, and a triffle that was extra yummy with home made custard made from fresh milk from a local farm. Really I could have died and gone to heaven, thanks Sister Davis! After we rolled our selves out of book club, we headed back to Marys for our sleepover fun.

If you'll remember the ice storm last year, Mary and Steve were the ones who housed us when our power, and heat, were out. So our sleep over reminded the kids of that, and one of the kids asked if our power was out again. It was so fun to listen to the kid's giggles as they were "falling asleep." And it was so fun to just sit and talk. In the morning Emily made my favorite breakfast, french toast casserole, and they even put a candle in it for me to blow out. Then it was a relaxing day at home with the kids, with presents and ended with me making fried mac n' cheese balls (one of my fav's from Cheesecake factory).

Monday, when Mike had the day off, Emily watched Elliot for the day and Mike and I were able to go out to lunch and a movie. I'm so blessed to have so many people who love and care for me.

Thanks everyone!!!!

The man I married

Mike is amazing to me. He works full time, goes to school, teaches, and fulfills his calling as ward mission leader. He hardly ever complains, and he makes juggling all of his roles easy. Plus he's so fun to be around. So it doesn't surprise me that after a physical for school, and finding out his blood pressure was way too high, he made the goal to drop 30 lbs. Why not? He has nothing else to do, right?

Well, he didn't loose 30 lbs, he lost 43lbs over the last few months. His goal was to be at his goal weight by the first day of school. He has been a weight loosing machine, eating super healthy and working out on our treadmill(sometimes twice a day). He is such an inspiration to me, reminding me, I can loose weight too, if I'm willing to put in the hard work. Great job Mike, you look so fit and healthy.

This was taken a few Sundays ago, when people first started noticing Mike's weight loss, or at least when they started complimenting him on it.

First day of school and a good luck kiss from Elliot.

Say "Aaaaaaah"

Elliot had her first trip to the dentist this past month. She was SO excited to go. Thankfully all of my other children like the dentist and really talked it up for her, especially the prize cabinet. Since Griffin goes a lot (8 times last year). He was the biggest comfort for her, telling her how nice the Dentist was and what cool prizes she could look forward to. And we all practiced saying "Aaaaahh" with her a lot. She got a little apprehensive when they lowered the chair, but she stayed in it, so I'm happy. She felt so proud to find out she has 20 teeth, and they are all looking pearly-white after their cleaning. Good Job Elliot!

Fiesta Bowl

on Jan. 4th, we all dressed in our old Orange and Blue to cheer on BSU in the Fiesta Bowl. I don't know much about football, but the game wasn't terrible exciting. The kids stayed up to watch a little of the game, but were ushered off to bed before the end. The fun part for me though, was calling home and hearing the cheers of all my family in Boise, gathered at my Mom's house to cheer our team on. Go Broncos!

Sledding!!!

Winter is more than bearable, it's so much fun, when we are sledding. I feel so lucky to have a great sledding hill not more than 5 minutes from our house. We can run up and go after school even, it's so close. This year we got a new sled for Christmas, so we really have been looking forward to sledding. We got to go over the Christmas break a couple of times. This year Elliot was the biggest surprise. She is fearless!

Birthday Girl

I made Elliot's traditional Pink Almond birthday cake. We also always have Strawberry whoppers and strawberry wafer cookies for everyone to munch on.
She even wished everyone a happy birthday.


Elliot is one of my best friends! With the older 3 in school, we get a lot of "hangin out" time. She is the BEST 3 year old to take shopping. She loves to bring me things and say, "this is so cute, but were not getting it." As she shakes her head and puts it back on the shelf.

Elliot is so sincere, she Thanks me all day for the littlest things. Everyone who knows her well, knows she is pretty independant, she is determined to get her own way (what 3 year old isn't). But she is also getting better at sharing. I love to hear her say things like, "how bout we both get it." while she watching TV with Caleigh and they both want a toy. She is learning to trade, or wait her turn with her friends, and she reminds me to set the timer. She is very easy to reason with, and she rarely gets time outs any more. She still loves to get into everything, but her favorite, is to raid my purse. I've gone through 3 chapsticks so far this winter. And I don't even know how much gum. But she is always sorry when she is caught, which means there's hope for her yet.

Happy birthday, baby!

Happy New Year.

Our year in review with numbers:

97 number of posts on blog

9 number of lbs lost and gained, lost and gained, lost again...

30 number of lbs mike has lost in last 3 months.

3 number of tries it took to potty train Elliot

3 number of times Elliot pees her pants a week.

6 number of inches cut from Caleighs hair to be donated to LOL.

7 number of family members who could visit us this year.

30 estimated number of books I read this year. And I only counted the twilight series once!

2 number of times I was able to go to the Boston Temple. One was with the primary children, but that's still 2 times more than last year.

8 number of times Griffin visited the dentist this year, 8 more than Mike or I.

365 number of day's I yelled at my kids, then kissed them and said "sorry."

800 number of hours spent on the computer this year.

2 number of children baptized and confirmed members of the church.

and finally...

365 number of days I have thought of my wonderful family and friends. And thanked my Father in Heaven for my amazing life.