It'll take your eye out!

Levi has gone and done it!  I no longer worry about a bb gun taking Tristan's eye out.  I only have to worry about him doing it with any toy he can get his hands on.  Today Levi was "knife" fighting with Tris.  Tristan's 'knife' was a CapriSun straw.  Levi had a hard plastic ninja knife.  He accidentally stabbed Tris in the eye.  When Tris came to tell on him he was crying.  I said my usual "stop crying, you are fine".  Then I saw that his tears were bloody and got a bit worried.  Well, the inside of his eyelid and a bit of his eye was cut.  Luckily it isn't going to affect his vision, but it sure looks ugly.  We are also lucky to have a good friend who is an optomotrist who will see Tris first thing in the morning.  Poor kid.  I had to buy $100 eye drops for him that cause him to cry blood some more.  Ugh!  It's always something.

Valentine's Fun!

Mike and I decided to celebrate Valentine's day last night.  He has a busy weekend working today and then chaperoning the stake dance tonight.  He talked some friends into going to Tucson with us to eat out at Flemings Steakhouse.  It is the best steak I've ever eaten.  We had so much fun visiting and getting a break from the world not to mention eating the best food.
Before we left for dinner Mike gave me my Valentine gift.  We don't usually give each other big or expensive gifts so I was a bit surprised to get anything.  I love my new bracelet!

I love my Mike even more.  He is the best.

Taylor is funny

Today Taylor had to take her final for her online class at the high school.  When I came to pick her up she says "Mom, today was not a good day for me to wear plaid!"  We didn't remember that today was the Cowboy Poets Gathering at the school.  She said that several people asked her if she was going to read her poem or what her poem was about.  I got such a laugh out of it that I had to take her picture and post it.  She is SO anti cowboy.  It didn't help that she was carrying a leather bag with thick leather stitching.  Funny girl.

What color will they be?

Jax is 15 months old now and I still don't know what color his eyes are going to be.  When he is in my bathroom, his eyes look really green.  Of course, my bathroom is decorated in green.  When he is in my family room they look like they could be blue or brown depending on how dark it is.  This morning I took a picture of him with the natural lighting from outside shining on his eyes.  I just don't know what color they are going to end up being!  I'm hoping green like his Nana.  What do you think?

My new favorite!

I really enjoy a good meal.  I mean, I've always loved food.  As a child, I was always hungry (I wish I still had that metabolism!).  I used to think about food a lot.  My mom still teases me b/c when I was in high school, I would call her from school to ask her what she was making for dinner.  As I got older, my tastes for food matured.  Now, one of my favorite things to do is to go out with Mike to dinner at a restaurant (not fast food thank you very much!) that serves food you just can't replicate at home.  We have eaten out a lot, and although I am not a very adventurous eater, I am a bit of a food snob.  I still like eating foods like my mom used to make, but I always wonder what it would be like if I added this, or that, or if I cooked it this way or that.  Now, after reading all this, you may think I am a great cook, but you would be wrong!  A good cook is someone who thinks those things and then acts on them.  I tend to follow the recipe, and "wonder" about it later.  That is why I love food blogs.  There are some really great ones out there.  My sister, who knows me very well and is one of my BFF's found a great one and had me making recipes from it about a year ago.  Well last week while Mike and I were browsing the local book store, I came across a recipe book by this woman who is an amazing cook and who gladly shares all her recipes online for free!  I was so happy, and even though I have all of her recipes that I love printed out and put in my own collection of favorite recipes, I had to have it.  It is my new favorite book!  I encourage all of you check out her blog and start cooking! http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/
The best recipes I've tried so far are the mashed potatoes, the beef brisket, enchiladas, and chicken spaghetti.
You are welcome!  Oh yeah, please send me some links to your favorite food blogs!  I would love to try any new recipes I think my family will like!

I really am his mom!

So, some of you read all about my "situation" last week.  I thought I would document the funny on here.  As a pre-side note, my brother in law says it figures that this would happen to me, one of the most unlucky women in the world!
Here is what happened.  Last week, while thrift shopping for a dresser for Tris, I went to the Salvation Army to browse.  I was only there for about 3 minutes as it is not very clean and I only wanted to look through the furniture.  I had Jax on one hip, and my purse in my other arm.  We walked in, walked in a circle around the furniture, and walked right out.  On the way out to the car, I passed a lady in her car who gave me a strange look.  She was on the phone with someone.  Jax started screaming just then b/c he didn't want to be put back in his car seat since he just got out.  I said "oh, baby!  Stop crying!".  Then I got in and started to back out.  The parking lot is really small, and not laid out very well.  An older man in his truck was waiting for me to back out so he could have my spot (I think!).  But, when I pulled out, he wouldn't move so I could leave the parking lot.  In my impatience, I gestured to him to move over so I could get out.  Just then, the lady in the parked car got out and ran over to the man in the truck and started rambling to him.  I slowly inched my way around the guy thinking he was a crazy old man.  I had to run a few more errands, but was home within 40 minutes of the "episode".

When I came home Jordan says "mom, a police man came over and wants you to call him as soon as you get home.  Mike says "What did you do now?", ha ha!  So, I call the police man and all the while Mike is gesturing "What?" to me.  The officer then tells me that an "anonymous older couple" called in to report a missing child and that they thought Jax was that child.  He wanted to come over and look at him and his birth certificate.  I assured him he could, but that I may have to search through my disaster of a closet to find it.  I told him he could come look at all his baby pictures, and compare him to his siblings since they all look alike too.  He said he believed me and didn't need to come over.
I was glad I didn't actually have to prove he was my child, and also appreciated that the police were so fast to respond to a tip about a missing child.  On the other hand, I wondered what made me look like I was such a hooligan!  I mean, lots of babies Jax's age look similar.  Was it that he doesn't look much like me?  Do I look like trouble?  Were the tipsters just frustrated with me for being impatient?  I'll never know, but I do know that he is my child through and through.  If there ever was a mommy's boy, he is it!
 

A new year

It's a new year which leads me to ponder on how it is a time to make changes to improve one's self.  I don't like making "resolutions".  I tend to be a bit of a flake when it comes to sticking to them.  Not because I can't make changes or that I don't want to do or be better, but because I am so forgetful.  I get caught up in life.  I spend way too much time taking care of my family and I get lost in what I am doing.  I'm not an adult with ADD either, I think I'm more pre-alzheimer.  Anyway, this year I've decided not to make any "resolutions", but rather to look back on the year and find ways to be more positive about my life experiences.

This year, we were able to see one of our good friends beat cancer!  We were all worried about him, and he has horrible scars to remind him of his scare, but he is cancer free.  He also got married and is expecting his 6th baby soon.  That was a great thing.

Jaxson kept us all busy learning how to roll, sit up, crawl, walk, drink from a cup, and so many other things.

Jordan had a birthday and turned 12.  She is almost 13 now!  That meant she was able to go to the temple and do baptisms for the first time.  She is officially a babysitter which is a huge help to our family!  She was also inducted into the National Junior Honor Society.  Oh yeah, and she got braces!

Levi lost and grew in two front teeth.  He also came in second in the ward pinewood derby!  He started piano lessons, and he is growing way too fast.

Tristan has become best friends with his little baby brother.  He really enjoys making him happy and taking care of him.  He got to start pre-school and we are finding that he is a smart kid if he applies himself and takes a break from the video games!

Taylor was able to have her surgery on her knee so she can finally be active without worrying about falling down in pain all the time.  She has recovered better than anticipated, so all those medical bills were worth paying!  She got to take an awesome vacation to Hawaii as well.  We are grateful she has a job to pay for things like that.

Mike and I have been able to spend a lot of time with our kids this year and we have learned to love them even more (is that even possible?).  We were able to spend more time with my family this year too.

All in all, it has been a great year.  We have had ups and downs, fun times and downright boring times!  Looking back on it all, I see where we have improved.  We are spending more time together doing things that matter.  We are trying harder to be better.  We will continue on in our journey to be a forever family.  My goal this year is to not wait til the year is out to find the positive in my life, but to find it in the here and now.  My goal is to bring more joy into my own life, and share that joy with my family.

Christmas stuff!

Christmas 2009 was another success!  We had so much to do before Christmas.  The boys got to go to a primary activity called "cereal with Santa" (although they had muffins instead of cereal!  Don't ask me why.) and got their pictures taken with Santa. 

Taylor and Jordan wanted to help out with the Christmas eve stuff so they did some major shopping with Mike on Christmas eve.  We let the kids open up their night before presents (or as Tristan would say "presidents").  The boys got pj's and the girls got snuggies.  Tristan got the flu and spent most of the day throwing up.  Poor kid just can't win!

Christmas morning came way too soon but not as early as I anticipated.  Around 7:30, we let the kids in to see what Santa had brought them.  They were surprised! 

We spent most of the day in our pajamas playing with presents.  We cleaned the house a  bit, had a wonderful ham dinner.  We open Christmas Crackers every year and everyone wears their paper crowns throughout dinner.   At dinner the I asked the kids what their favorite thing was for Christmas.  Levi said that having dinner together and being a family was his favorite.  He is so smart!!

After putting the boys to bed, Taylor, Mike and I went to the movies with Nana and Papa Leavitt and Uncle Ethan.  We saw Sherlock Holmes.  I really loved it.  


Today my parents came for dinner.  It's always fun to visit with them and talk about family history. 

All in all, we had a great time this week.  I hope all my friends and family had fun and memorable Christmases.  

Me and Mike

I've been thinking a lot about my marriage to Michael the last few weeks.  Many of our friends and family members have been going through difficulties in their marriages.  One of my friends even lost his wife a few weeks ago to cancer.  It has made me reflect on how lucky I am.  We stayed up late the other night talking about how easy it is to let a marriage go and not work on being best friends forever.  We work hard at getting along and even though we have disagreements and arguments at times, we always make an effort to show love and accept each other for who we are.  Mike told me he was glad he didn't marry someone "crazy"!  I guess that's a good thing (I've been successful in keeping him in the dark!).  I thought how fortunate I have been to be married to a man who sticks to his principles, who loves the gospel, who always wants to do what is right, and who loves me still, inspite of all my obvious flaws.  Tonight I get to go to a wedding reception for a girl in my ward who used to be one of my YW.  She is marrying a sweet boy from my home town of Chino Valley.  I will spend a bit more time thinking about my own marriage 16 and 1/2 years ago.  I love the man I married even more than I did then.  He is and always will be my very best friend.

Tis the season to be . . . BUSY!!

I love the holidays so much!  But, I can sure do without the business that naturally accompanies the festivities.  It feels like we have been running since before Thanksgiving.  Here is a bit of what my family has been up to. . .
We all returned home from Utah/Hawaii, and were back to school, work, and laundry galore!  Then the girls had YW in excellence.  It was great from what I hear (Mike had to go while I bathed and put the boys to bed).  Then later on in the week, the girls both had the Christmas parade to march in (they were great!)  I don't have pics of them since it was a night parade of lights.  It was freezing cold.  My boys would have insisted we go home if they weren't expecting to have candy thrown at them!

Then, we had a few days to get the house cleaned up for company.  One of Mike's mission companions from Australia was coming with his two daughters for a visit.  It took a lot of work, but we were ready for company just in time.  Since Chris and his daughters have been here, we have played a lot of Wii, watched too much Disney (they don't have it there), and a few other fun things.  One day, we drove them out to Willcox to my folks house to see and ride the horses.  Dad thought it would be fine just to put the kids up bareback on Sierra, and she did great.


Even Jaxson got a ride.  He thought it was so cool.
That same night we had Mike's office Christmas party at La Casita.  It was fun and the food was yummy.

Next day Mike took Chris out shooting.  No one is allowed guns in Australia so he thought it was really awesome.  Then we topped it off by going to Tombstone, the town too tough to die.  We didn't have time to do all the shows and see all the museums, but that's a good thing since we probably didn't have the money to do it all either!

Answer to prayers

Lately, I have been blessed to have my prayers answered.  I've been thinking a lot about the power of prayer.  A few months ago, I had the chance to go to my grandma's birthday celebration.  We also celebrated my great uncle's birthday at the same time.  Uncle Bill told us the story of when he was a young man in the navy stationed on a ship during the war.  The ship was attacked and began to sink.  He was lucky enough to get onto a life raft.  After a long time, the raft began drifting too far out, and the seas became very dangerous.  One of the men on the ship said "I think it's time we all start to pray".  Uncle Bill said that as soon as they all started to pray together, the seas calmed and they were soon rescued.  He bore his testimony that Heavenly Father loves us and will answer our prayers.  Not long after hearing his story, I was feeling depressed and upset.  It seems that whenever Mike and I save enough money to get a project around the house fixed, something comes up and our project gets put on the back burner.  Well, we've been talking about putting new flooring in for years, and finally had the money to do it.  A few days before I actually ordered the flooring, we found out that we needed the money for something else.  I was feeling fed up and frustrated.  I prayed that I could get over it and not fight with Mike about it.  Later that day I was reading in my scriptures and came across this passage:  3 Ne. 13: 25, 31, 34
  25 And now it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words he looked upon the twelve whom he had chosen, and said unto them: Remember the words which I have spoken. For behold, ye are they whom I have chosen to minister unto this people. Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
  31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
  34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient is the day unto the evil thereof.
I felt that this was an answer to my prayer, that I need to take no thought of material things, and take more thought of spiritual things and the things that really matter the most.  
I had two more experiences this week.  After a long trip home from Utah, I was feeling exhausted.  I don't even remember half the drive home from Phoenix!  We got home, and I took an instant nap.  After I got up, I went to get us some dinner, but couldn't find my wallet.  I searched every where.  I got angry, and searched every where again.  Then I made all the kids help me look for my wallet.  It was no where to be found.  I asked Levi to say a prayer that we could find my wallet (I was too upset to do it).  He was so sweet, and I was instantly relieved and the stress started to fade away.  Hours later, after I put Levi and Tristan to bed and sat down to relax, Jordan says, "mom, Jaxson found your wallet."  I don't know where he got it from, but there he was, sitting in the floor playing with my wallet!  Levi came out for a drink of water and I told him that his prayer worked.  He was pretty pleased with himself.  

Two days later, I took the boys to Tucson.  We were in Costco shopping, and just as we got in the checkout to pay, I reached in my pocket for my Costco/Amex card.  It wasn't there.  I searched all through my purse and pockets, and knew it had fallen out somewhere in the massive store.  I asked Levi to say another prayer real quick while I searched again.  In the middle of the crowded store, Levi bows his head and folds his arms,  and prays that we will find my card.  We re-traced our steps, to no avail.  Then we went to customer service where someone had turned it in.  Levi said he knew his prayer would be answered, and so did I.  I'm grateful that the Lord has given me a chance to teach my sons that prayer works, and that my testimony about it could be strengthened.  

Christmas time is here!

This has been a hectic holiday season so far.  I am about done decorating for Christmas, but what normally takes me 1 day has taken me 4 so far and I'm not completely finished.  It's not that I have a lot more decorations, it's that I'm also trying to get the house ready for some visitors next week.  Mike's old mission companion from Australia is coming next week with his two daughters.  So, we are trying to get everything decorated and cleaned up before next Wednesday!
               Tris loves putting ornaments on the tree.

                                 Jax really loves un-decorating.

Levi just loves doing things together as a family.

Jax will keep me on my toes through out the Christmas season.  He tried to unwrap the presents under the tree today.

Vacation!

So, this was an interesting Thanksgiving.  Taylor's high school band planned a trip to Hawaii for six days, and we thought it would be great if Mike went along as a chaperone.  Since I didn't want to leave all the other kids with someone else during the holidays, I decided to stay with them and head out to Utah to visit my sisters and brother.  We knew it was going to be an interesting trip when Tristan threw up the whole way to Utah.
This was the kids after we landed in Salt Lake  Utah was cold and covered in snow.  I loved it!  So did Tristan.  He just wanted to play in it all day.

After a delicious turkey dinner, we played a game of family soccer.  My brother and nephew schooled us all.  It was fun.  My dad challenged all the little kids to a race.  Levi was certain he would win.  Papa was the winner though, with Lauren coming in second and Levi third.  Levi consoled himself by saying that Lauren is older, and he just decided not to finish fast because he didn't really want to win anyway.  We were all worried that Papa would keel over, but after a short rest, he joined in on the soccer game.

The next day, we went Black Friday Shopping!  I've never done it before, and I had so much fun laughing at all the crazy women shoppers.  I did find some good deals too, but I don't know if it was worth getting up at 4:00 in the morning and waiting to get into Target in the 20 degree weather.  But, spending time with my sisters and niece made up for the sheer exhaustion.  I love them so much!

The next day we took all the kids to the discovery museum for kids.  They had a ball.

Jaxson loved all the attention he was getting from his cousins, and to be honest, SO DID I!!

After that we went to the temple square to let everyone see the temple lights and take a tour of the conference center.


Me and my siblings finally found time to get a picture together.  They are fun to be around.


Although I missed Mike and Taylor so much, I loved visiting my family.  And I know that Hawaii was a fun trip for them too.  I will post pics when I get them loaded.  I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving holiday as well!

Terrific Table!

Last month we bought a bit of new furniture.  One thing we really wanted was a new table.  One where we could all sit down together and have a nice meal together.  We are usually very casual about dinner.  Even though we all eat at the same time, we rarely sat at the table together.  We found a great table that seats 8 and is comfortable for us all.  I decided that it was high time we made a tradition of having a formal dinner once in a while.  Namely for the holidays.  Our old blue dish set didn't match so great with the new table so I went on a search for affordable dishes that would be good for formal or casual dining.  I found a great deal!  Can you guess where I got it and estimate how much?  Yes, it includes the silverware, napkins, table runner, glasses, mugs, plates, bowls, and salad plates . . . for 8!

Here is my new table all decorated for our Thanksgiving feast which we will have tomorrow since we are going to be out of town for the actual Thanksgiving day.