Christmas

Alan said Saturday night that this was a perfect Christmas. I think he might have been right. It started with a family hike the morning of Christmas Eve. It was a short hike but when we stopped for a short break the kids started playing and using their imaginations and were so animated in their play that John and I could bear to interrupt them to make them keep going. So our short rest ended up being a long play time.

That afternoon we dipped chocolates and the boys did some work on our "tree house".

Christmas Eve we did our annual reenactment of the Nativity.  John and I noticed that our roles never change.  The kids always switch back and forth between wanting to be Joseph and a shepherd.  That always leaves John and I to do Mary and the Angel.  Well since John really doesn't want to be Mary, I'm always Mary and John is always the angel.  And a wrapped up scooby doo always ends up being Baby Jesus.

Then we each got to open one gift before bed. The kids get books on Christmas eve, and Mom and Dad each got a gift that the kids made in school. I think those were John and my favorite gifts.

We did your Christmas dinner a little different this year.  I heard about a tradition of a friend of mine and decided to try it this year.  Instead of traditional ham and potatoes we tried to replicate how Christ might have eaten dinner.  I was a little worried about the foods but overall dinner was a success.  My brother and his family came over.  We ate sitting on the floor and used our fingers.  It was a neat experience that helped bring us back from the presents to remembering Christ.

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas too!

Concentration

Last night was Hyrum's winter concert.  The picture above is terrible but it gives you an idea of how Hyrum was during the entire thing.  His brow was furrowed almost the entire time.  Hyrum is a perfectionist and I think he was concentrating hard on remembering the words and getting the actions right.  It made John and I laugh watching him.  He was so excited to have it be HIS concert.  We've gone to many events for Alan but this was his first.  He was even asking if he could have the "You are special today" plate at dinner.

Another reason why I love this kid.

The other day after school he says he's going to make a sandwich for a snack and this is what happened.  It's a triple decker peanut butter, pretzel and cracker sandwich.

I love this kid.

Success!

It was every child's worst nightmare.  The invitations were sent, the cupcakes were baked, the decorations were set.  Then Alan got the stomach flu the day of his birthday party.  He took it pretty good when we told him we needed to cancel, but it was hard.  I had a hard time not crying.  John had a hard time not crying when I stayed up all night debating back and forth to him about what we could have done to save the day while John was trying to sleep.  But we rescheduled.

I was worried that no one would be able to come since December is so busy (it took us 3 weeks to find a weekend where we were free to have a party). But friends came, they all had fun, and Alan felt special. And THAT makes it a success.

It was a movie party filled with lots of candy and popcorn.

Progress

 My parents were in town last week and we took them to the Phoenix temple site.  It doesn't look like much from the street but they have been doing lots of work. 

 This is the best picture I could get of the hole in the ground, also known as basement excavation.  We've still got a long ways to go but we are very excited.

This weekend we took the kids and some friends to go on a carriage ride with Santa.  Alan just handed Santa a list of what he wanted.  Santa didn't quite get through the list but he did tell Alan that cell phones were reserved for those a little older.

 

Alan turned 9 a few week ago.  The birthday was fun.  Unfortunately Alan got sick the day of his birthday party and we had to cancel at the last minute.  We have it rescheduled but I'm afraid that many kids won't be able to make come since December is so busy.  Poor kid.  I think that is every kids worst nightmare.

Food Blog

I love food.  Not just any food but really good food.  I've toyed with the idea of a food blog for a long time.  I've posted some favorite recipes to a family food blog but since it was just family not many people read it.  I finally decided to do my own recipe blog.  It motivates me to organize my favorite recipes and is a good way to share them with others.  I decided to keep it completely separate from my personal blog so I can keep this blog, well. . .  personal.  I'll be adding to it regularly so check it out and let me know what you think.

http://thinklovesleepdine.blogspot.com/

Overheard

I'm wearing a sweatshirt and Alan is running around barefoot

Me:  Aren't you cold?

Alan:  No.

Me:  You're crazy!

Alan:  That's because I'm a MAN and you're a sissy.

Two Boys

I have two boys.

They love video games.

And dirt.

And being loud.

They are definitely two little boys.  They are also two very different boys.

At our church Halloween party the kids were given candy as prizes for the carnival games.  As Alan got each piece I don't think he waited any longer than 30 seconds before putting it in his mouth.  Hyrum however made it through the whole carnival and the truck or treat, before eating a single piece of candy.

This year we have the kids in two different schools.  That means two fall carnivals which can set our family back about $60.  We wanted to support each of the kids equally but were not wanting to spend an arm and a leg.  We told the kids that they had to earn money for tickets at the carnival.  At our house when the kids do extra jobs they can earn a "dollar" that they can turn in for 10 minutes of video game time.  We told the kids that they could instead turn in a "dollar" for a carnival ticket. 

We gave the kids lots of opportunities to earn the tickets.  As soon as Hyrum would earn two or three "dollars" he would ask if he could go play the Wii.  We would remind him of the school carnival coming up to which he would immediately reply "I don't want to go!"  Hyrum wanting the immediate gratification could not wait until the carnival for his enjoyment.  Eventually we told Hyrum that we wouldn't go to his carnival but that we were going to Alan's (Hyrum was OK with this until we drove by his school on the day of the carnival.  Too late!).

When we went to Alan's carnival, Alan had diligently earned a lot of tickets.  He had 3 times as many as Hyrum.  However, as we approached each booth ready to show Hyrum how much fun Alan could have because he had saved his money, Alan kept deciding that each booth was not worth his hard earned tickets and ended up going home with tickets still in his pocket.  Hyrum was not to be deterred and spent the few tickets that he had within minutes.  Hyrum enjoyed every booth he could but we had to twist Alan's arm to get him to spend his tickets.

Two boys.

Two very different boys.

I was going through some old pictures putting together a blog book and I noticed that there were a lot of pictures that I had taken intending to blog about but I never did.  So here is my attempt to catch up.

John grew up in a town called Norco so when we were driving through Vernal, Utah and saw this sign we had to stop and take a picture.  John asked where they got the name from but the owner said that was what it was named when he bought it.

This next post would be titled

Protected at Home  

or  

Signs That You Live With Little Boys

This picture could also be titled "Signs That You Live With Little Boys"  I found this in the dirt in our back yard one day and decided I would rather just throw it away than ask my kids about it.

(I know this picture is at least two years old because it was taken in our last house.)

A Real Hero

A few weeks ago Hyrum was went out front to do something, when he hurriedly came back in and said "Mom! You've got to see this!" When your six year old son tells you this you never know what you will see but I was expecting something along the lines of a large bug. Instead I saw this.

 

I have no idea how they got into our cul-de-sac but it was 90 degrees outside and the poor things didn't have any water.  The ducks were actually panting.  Did you know that ducks pant?  I had no idea.  Along with another neighbor we flooded part of the yard so they could get a drink and cool off, but we knew it was only a temporary solution.  Worried about these little ducklings we decided to heard them down the street, around the corner, and across the street to the park.

Hyrum loved the herding.  He thought it was great that he was allowed to chase them.  We kept them marching through the park to the golf course, and down the green until finally . . .

 They made it safe to the pond.  We were so glad to see them safe at the pond.  Hyrum kept say "I'm a real hero."

Yes Hyrum you are.

Hooray for Fry's!

We just got back from vacation and I needed to run to the store. You know how it is when you've been gone for two weeks. We had no milk, eggs, bread, the basics. While at my Frys check out line I noticed something new. They did something that I have only ever seen in Utah. Their Cosmopolitan magazines, you know the ones that usually have mostly naked women on the cover, right at eye level for little boys. Well, they had the magazine covered up except for the title. Yea for Frys! I think they have become the only grocery store I will take my kids to.

Does your Fry's do this too? Let Fry's know that you appreciate this and ask them to do it in all their stores.

Overheard

Me:  Have you heard any other stories about Daniel?

Hyrum:  Oh yeah, Daniel and the Lion King

---------------------

Alan:  I can't find my sandals anywhere!

Me:  Maybe you should try looking in your closet.  That's where they are supposed to be.

Alan:  Well It's pretty obvious to me that I never put my sandals in the closet.

Motivation

They always started out in a serious racing position but I think it
always pretty much ended with them falling in the pool.

 The kids did swim team this summer.  Hyrum could hardly swim at the beginning but it was good for him to practice a lot.  They were excited about it and enjoyed going to practice.  The kids didn't really understand what a meet was or really what it meant to compete at first.  About half way though they realized that they were getting last in all of the races, but got ribbons anyway.  When it was over the kids weren't particularly sad but Alan said that he didn't want to compete the next week.

Being the sensitive mom that I am I told him that they were going to compete anyway.  Of course I gave them the lecture that the only person they were competing against was themselves.  The next week I told them that if they
beat their time in all of the races we would go out to ice cream afterwards.

The first week Hyrum looked like this a lot. 

Every few feet Hyrum would stop and hold onto the lane line to catch his breath.  After the promise of ice cream the next week he looked more like this.

Hyrum would start heading over to the lane marker and we would all yell at him to not stop and keep going.  For the first time ever Hyrum made it across the pool with out stopping.  You should have seen the look on his face when we told him he knocked 40 seconds off of his time.  In the end both of the kids improved their time in every single race.  I was so proud of them.  And best of all they were so proud of themselves.

Here are the proud boys with their ribbons.  Now I want to now where my ribbon is
for sitting out in 95 degree temps watching them.

On a Grand Scale

 Last weekend we went with John's work to their annual clean up at the Grand Canyon.  This is our families third trip to the Grand Canyon so it is nice to be able to go up there for just a few days and take our time seeing what we want to see and not feel like we have to hurry to see everything.  Every time I go I come to appreciate it's beauty even more.

I went to the Grand Canyon when I was 16.  My best friend had a family reunion there and they planned to hike rim to rim.  Being 16 (meaning young and stupid) I was thrilled to go along.  It is a completely different experience being in the canyon rather than looking from the rim.  I thought I was ready for the canyon.  The year before I had gone on a 15 mile backpacking trip.  That was easy.  Never mind that it was 15 miles spread over 3 days, all down hill.  The Grand Canyon was 14 miles down the North Rim and then a very steep 9 miles up the south.  The hike down was long and exhausting but not too bad over all.  I wasn't prepared for the rest of the trip however.  At the bottom of the canyon the low temperature was 80 degrees (now that I live in Phoenix that is such a common occurrence I don't even think about it but to a California girl that was insane).  The one truly smart thing we did was making our packs as light as possible.  That meant no tent for us.  Everyone else in our group was worried that it would rain on us but we ended up being the only ones that were able to stay cool and sleep well that night.  Everyone else was too hot in their tents.

The heat however completely wiped out my appetite.  I did remember to keep drinking but I hardly ate at all.  Combine that with the very steep 9 mile hike the next day, it was a miracle I made it out at all. I felt exhausted and sick.  I don't think I ate for a week after that.  That being said, it was an amazing experience that I'm glad I had.  Also, and experience that I don't want to have again.

Just a couple of picture of my cute little boys while we were there.  I tried to post a picture of me at the bottom of the canyon from when I was 16 but my scanner is being cranky.  Oh well.

Dad

It's a day late but I was out of town on Sunday and I still wanted to pay a small tribute to my Dad.  Sports weren't played much in my house growing up, but when I was in the 4th grade I played soccer for a total of one half of a season.  I was certainly the worst on the team.  Though I don't think I have any pictures of my soccer playing days to post, I do remember my Dad going to all my games and cheering me on.  Thanks Dad for supporting me and helping me feel better despite my less than stellar performance.

Phoenix Temple

We are so thrilled that work is starting on the Phoenix temple.  We were out of town for the ground breaking and were unable to watch (boo hoo!).  I've decided to occasionally post pictures of the progress of the temple.  This is our first shot taken a few days before the groundbreaking.  Note the bunny ears.  It was too hard to see through the camera so I didn't notice until now.  Oh well.

Mom

I took some cake decorating classes a few years ago with really one purpose in mind.  To emulate my mother.    When I was a kid my Mom took a cake decorating class.  I really think it was only one class, and then kept practicing at home.  That was one thing I really admire about my mom.  Her willingness to develop new talents---gardening, cooking, painting, cake decorating.  She learned them all.  I especially remember the cake she made for my eighth birthday.  A three tier cake.  Wow!  I felt like a princess getting such a fancy cake.  It was the highlight of my birthday party.

Thanks Mom for making me feel so special.  And Thanks Mom for being someone that I want to be like.

It's All about Me--Take Two

Last year on my 30th birthday I attempted to make a list of 30 things about me.  I didn't get very far so I put some more thought into it and now I have a few more this year.  Without more delay . . . .

Little Known Facts about Me

6.  I prefer cottage cheese to ricotta in lasagna.  I know cottage cheese is a substitute that you are only supposed to use if you don't have ricotta, but I think ricotta is too dry.

7.  I bought my first ever pair of earrings at age 30.

8.  I used a flash drive for the first time just a few months ago.

9.  We can't have any more kids.  Most of you probably know this one or have at least guessed it (since my youngest kid is 6 years old).  We've known for a few years.  We cried about it, now we are getting on with life.

10.  I went rollerblading for the first time a little over a year ago.  My goal was to get good enough to take Buddy on walks rollerblading.  A few months later I went down a path at the park.  There was a slope down and I got going too fast and the only way I knew how to stop was to run into railing at the bottom.  I scraped up my arms, bruised my ribs, and got a giant ugly who knows what on my shin that apparently still hasn't healed up completely because I still have the mark on my leg over a year later.

I haven't gone rollerblading since that day.

Don't judge me.  I'll get back on that horse when the scar on my leg goes away (or my emotional scars, whichever one happens last).

11.  Going out to Italian or French restaurants is kind of boring in my opinion.  If you want to impress my taste buds think Indian, Thai, or Mexican.

 12.  I love cilantro!! If a dish has cilantro in it I probably love it.  That might be one of the reasons I love Indian, Thai, and Mexican food.  They all use cilantro!

Tune in next year for more random facts about ME!

Much Ado About Carrots

A few weeks ago there was a pack of fun sized candy bars on the counter.  Alan noticed them before school and of course begged to have one.  I told him he could have one in his lunch.  On our way to the bus stop however Alan realized that he left his lunch box at home.  I told him to run and get it and if the bus came I would ask the driver to wait.  Well the bus came, and waited, and Alan still wasn't back.  I told the bus driver to go on ahead and I would take Alan to school.  Of course as soon as the bus started to leave Alan rounded the corner, the bus stopped again and Alan ran to catch up.

Alan took much longer at home than was needed to grab his lunch which was right by the door.  Being Alan's mom though, I was pretty sure I knew what took him so long.  When I got home I confirmed my suspicions when I saw that Alan hand snuck more candy bars.

I smiled pleased with myself.  Not because Alan had taken extra candy, but because you see, the day was April Fools Day.  The night before I had taken the candy bars out of their wrappers, replaced them with carrots, and resealed the wrapper with double stick tape.  So all Alan had managed to do was steal himself some extra carrots. 

Sometimes being a mom is really fun.

Mr. Hot Wheels

Alan made his first pinewood derby car this year.  I think it went as well as anyone could hope. He won a few races, he lost a few races and had a lot of fun.  Next up . . . learning how to button his shirt.

Outside my house right now.

Having a lemonade stand is kind of a right of passage isn't it?  Except this isn't a lemonade stand.  It's an orange stand.  Originally he wanted to sell the tangerines that I had bought at the store, but later it changed to the oranges from the tree.

He has all the signs of a great childhood, Sitting in the sun, faithful dog looking on (faithful because he is tied up), and really nice neighbors who take pity on our kid.  

Oh, and I've giving free cookies to whoever buys an orange from my son.  A thank you gift from me for making my child's day.

Traditions

Picture is from 2009.  Drawing by Alan of President Monson.

I was at a Relief Society activity recently that mentioned planing traditions.  In my experience traditions can not be planned.  We've tried a few in our marriage but they really didn't take.  Traditions in our family seem to just happen.  General Conference was this weekend and we definately have a few traditions for General Conference.

Our first tradition is one that I'm sure we share with many others.  Cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  I made them once for conference, and the kids have never forgotten, and always insist on the cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  In fact for the last month Hyrum has been telling his Primary teachers about the cinnamon rolls every week for a month.  The secret to my cinnamon rolls by the way, brown sugar, instead of white.  And don't even think about serving them with out cream cheese frosting.

Our second tradation is our Reverence Tent.  A few years ago there was a story in the Friend Magazine that told about a family getting ready for conference.  The had studied about King Benjamin in The Book of Mormon and how the people had come and set up tents to hear him speak and the kids in the story decided to set up their own tent to hear the prophet speak.  Our kids love this tradition.  Really any excuse to build a fort is good for them.  We never have to remind them but every conference we have a fort set up in front of the TV.   I'm just glad that they look forward to conference.  Never mind that half way thought conference Alan is loudly declaring how boring it is.  At least the six months between conferences is long enough for them to forget the boredom but remember the fun things.

Luv

I had big plans for Valentines day. It was going to start with special breakfast for my three favorite boys. Heart shaped pancakes, strawberry syrup, strawberry smoothies, the works. Followed up with a heart shaped lunch, and of course a love note. And a valentine themed dinner. The plan was to decorate after the kids went to bed the night before and get up early the next morning and surprise them. Then Sunday, I got the flu. There would be nothing special for Valentines day. For once I was going to get the mother of the year award, but no, I'm not that great. I instead went to bed hoping the kids could get themselves ready for school the next morning.

Monday morning however, I woke up to two kids who were WAY more excited than they would have been if I had made them breakfast. They made me breakfast! Heart shaped pancakes with strawberry syrup and orange juice. As Alan said, "I didn't actually cook any of it, but I planned the WHOLE thing" And to top it off I got love notes too.

Do I keep it or not?

Dec 4

Feb 20

Greatest accomplishment this year

Before:

After:

See the difference? Yes the grass has gone downhill a little. That isn't an accomplishment to be proud of. I'm talking about retaining wall. There is a 7 foot gap in the top picture. I fixed that yesterday. I have a close up picture so you could see how good it looks but blogger won't let me post it. So you'll have to admire from afar.

- John

Joy

Almost three years ago President Monson announced that a new temple would be built in Phoenix.  We were thrilled.  We sill are.  It's taking a long time getting started but it's looking like it will get going soon.  You can learn more about this temple and see pictures and plans here. 

A few weeks ago we got to go hiking near where the temple is going to be built.  I snapped this shot with the temple lot in the background.  I'm looking forward to taking many more pictures in the future to note the temple progress.

These are a Few of My Favorite Things-Backyard Edition

Though my backyard has a long way to go it's given me a few things to smile about these last few months.

 

My first ripe tomato. 

I think I finally figured out tomatoes in Arizona.  Pots.  It's too hot in the summer so you need to grow in the winter in the pot.  During our freezing nights I can just pull them inside and I don't need to get upset that even though I covered them they die anyway. 

Beautiful leaves!

We don't get a lot of color in the fall here in Arizona, but I was thrilled this year when my Ash trees turned a beautiful bright yellow.  What makes trees change color?  Last year they did not turn color but fell to the ground green.  Oh I hope that it will turn color next year.  You can almost see my next favorite thing in the photo here but it is covered by the beautiful leaves.

 

We have grass!

Here it is better.  We finally have some grass in our house.  No we sill haven't finished the clean up, but getting it in was such a big job that we are just glad that it's done.  Clearing away rock and prepping the ground that has laid dormant for decades was a lot of work, but it's nice to have a little more green in the back yard.

 

Ripe Lemons! 

You might remember our disastrous crop from last year.  We've enjoyed quite a bit of fresh squeezed lemonade this year.  We have tons of oranges on the tree but they aren't quite ripe yet so we are still hoping for them.