Our Little Ski Trip

After Christmas the boys and I were invited to go up to Eden (up Ogden canyon) and stay for a couple of days with Brian, Morgan & Madi to meet all of his in laws. They have a tradition to meet up there after Christmas and spend the week skiing & hanging out together in a big house. All of Brian's in laws (mother in law, father in law, several brother and sister in laws and all the nieces and nephews) were so friendly, kind, nice and accepting of me and the boys. I'll admit I had been so nervous to go up and meet everyone like that (since it kind of is an awkward situation) but they didn't make it seem that way at all. Every single one of them were wonderful, including us in everything. They are a really neat family, full of fun and love. We had a great time!

So it was mine and Paxton's first time skiing (snowboards were all rented out or I would have tried that instead) & we sure enjoyed going out to Wolf Mountain and learning how to ski a bit. This was Parker's first official snowboarding excursion and he loved it. Brian says he is a natural and did awesome. As for me and Paxton, on the 2nd day we were going up the lift and down the big mountain (well it probably is a pretty mild mountain to most but sure seemed big and far down to me.) I am not going to even mention the number of times I fell down on the little kid magic carpet conveyor belt on the first day. I won't tell you how I held everyone who was "lucky enough" to be in line behind me up, or how I almost took the mesh fence down with me when my pole or ski got stuck in it. I don't think I'll mention how they had to stop the carpet from being magic so I could get some help being pulled back to my feet. No, I won't tell you about any of that since it's a bit too shameful and embarrassing for a 34 yr old to have that kind of a problem on a kiddie ride basically. :) Oh you are probably thinking "I'm sure Brian was right there to help her out since it was her first time and all." Well you are right in that he was right there......TO TAKE A PICTURE WITH HIS CELL PHONE OF THE WHOLE THING! Here I am saying "help" and Brian is saying "I've got to get a picture of this first." Neither of us could quit laughing as I laid there, I had tears running down my face from laughing so hard. It really was a wonderful time though, thanks for the invite Brian and everyone!

Christmas 2008

This year we spent the night at Granny and Poppy's house so we didn't have to be alone for Christmas morning. We just thought it would be more fun with a few more people around like Uncle Jonny & Granny & Poppy. On Christmas Eve we had a nice big dinner at their house along with John, Jerry, Amber & kids as well as Sam, Karisa & Maxwell. After dinner we opened some gifts. That night Uncle Jonny & the boys left cookies as well as a note out for Santa and went downstairs to sleep. The next morning the kids woke up to find Santa had come.

Parker was THRILLED with the snowboard, boots & bindings Santa brought, along with an IPOD shuffle. He had to call Brian and tell him that Santa had not only brought him a snowboard but had picked out a real COOL looking one.

Paxton saw Santa had brought him a new bike (no, he doesn't need the training wheels) but it was the Nintendo DS that made him happy & kept him occupied all day long.

After getting all their other presents open I took the boys over to their other grandma's house to open presents and spend some time with Grandma and Uncle Brent and the cousins.

The next day Brian, Morgan & Madi came over so we could do a gift exchange with them. The weather had been too bad on Christmas Day for them to come down.

Brian gave Parker some awesome aggressive skates (roller blades.) This is what Parker had asked Santa for so he was so excited that he did end up getting some.

Brian enjoys to skate as well so he can take Parker along sometime as well as teach him how it's done.

Paxton got this real cool remote control hi tech robot (called a tribot) that does all sorts of fancy things. Paxton thought it was pretty awesome.

As for myself Brian spoiled me with some awesome gifts. Things like gift certificates to various places, First Night passes (for just him & I on New Years Eve), a Coldplay CD, some DVDs, and some Victoria's Secret PINK clothing (a CUTE white quilted coat with fur on the hood, a pair of sweats with bling on them, and a t shirt.) Then a gag gift (at least that is what I call it since it was a ring from a pawn shop we had visited as a joke several weeks before.) Only Brian would pay that kind of money to buy a gag gift like that for someone. It totally cracked me up and I've been wearing it on my thumb ever since (since it doesn't fit any other finger.) Guess I should use some duct tape on it as Brian has suggested to make it fit right - ha ha! See how much fun he is!!! Brian & the girls seemed to like the gifts we got for them as well. Here is Brian with his favorite gift from me - a mannequin leg (don't you love its purple color?) with a "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" sock on it. (see, two can play this gag gift game.)

Actually this was totally a joke his sister and brother in law had me in on. I guess Brian & Jed have been giving each other this same pair of millionaire socks for a few years now - back and forth and this was the way they wanted him to receive it. He was so surprised when he saw the sock, he didn't get for awhile that his sister had been in on it. He thought I raided his sock/underwear drawer to get it or something like that. Ha ha. It was funny to surprise him like that. If you drive by Brian's house at night you might see this leg sitting front and center of his living room window on display - no lie. :) We then went and spent the rest of the day with some of Brian's family sledding & having some dinner at IHOP. A great time was had by all this year, Christmas 2008!! Thanks for helping us celebrate it Brian, Morgan and Madi, it really made it a happy one for us.

Happy 10th Birthday Parker!

Today (December 23rd) Parker turned 10! It's hard to believe my oldest is now a decade old!! Where has the time gone? I still remember going to the hospital to be induced to have Parker 10 yrs ago. Eric made me dinner (just pancakes) since I was going to be induced. (I didn't want any big meal that would cause me to have to go to the bathroom. Ha ha, the thing I always worried about regarding delivery - there were no problems BTW in that area, phew! :) Not only did Parker turn 10 but it marked 10 yrs since Grandma H has been gone. She passed away on the exact day I had Parker. Not only did she pass away on this day but she was in the same hospital as me (I was on the 2nd floor, she was on the 3rd.) I had gone and visited her that night (she had had a stroke a couple days before while at church) and told her I was coming to have my baby. We were able to talk for a few minutes, little did I realize that would be the last time I would talk to my dear grandma. She passed away the following day around 2:10 pm (no one told me she had passed away since they didn't want me thinking about that since I was getting ready to deliver a baby.) Ironically right after 2pm was when I finally started dilating and making some progress. I had Parker at 6:43 pm and then learned from someone that my grandma had died. Some part of me believes one spirit had to go so another could come to earth. I know they passed one another and she got to meet Parker so that's a nice thought.

So for Parker's birthday we had the family over for a little party with snacks, cake & ice cream.

He enjoyed the attention and loved all the gifts everyone gave him - things like Guitar Hero 3, a remote control alien spaceship, a big NERF gun, clothes, a remote control truck, a safe to put his money in, and some games.

Since Parker is now 10 (he's sporting the double digits, apparently that meant he got to light all the candles on his cake my 12 yr old nephew informed me,) here are 10 random things I love or appreciate about Parker:

1. How naturally athletic the kid is - he quickly picks up on any sport or physical activity (the latest being snowboarding) and looks like a natural right from the get go.

2. His gift of gab. He will strike up a conversation with anyone. I always hear him talking to grown ups passing by saying something like "Hi Steve, how are you?" Etc....

3. His looks. People always commented on what a beautiful baby he was and that hasn't changed, he's just a goood looking kid with that great skin, eyes, hair.

4. His handyman skills. He's great with a screwdriver, etc. There were several things Eric showed him how to do just once and now that Eric is gone he totally remembers how to do them and is so helpful in doing things around the house for me, it amazes me. He also can just figure something out if it doesn't work right and fix it so it does work.

5. (He won't appreciate that I'm posting this one) but I like that he still likes to be tucked into bed and has to give me a hug and kiss each night, it's sweet and endearing. He also will come up behind me at random times to just lay his head on my shoulder or to give me a hug and tell me he loves me.

6. Parker always likes to lend a hand and help others. This can sometimes be a little annoying since he appears "too helpful" at times, but I put it down as something I like about him since teachers or church leaders will often comment on how much they appreciate the help Parker will offer them.

7. He likes to listen to all the songs I play in the car, like BNL, Michael Buble, Pink & Katy Perry (OK, I'm a bad mom to admit those ones) and even things like WICKED and Mama Mia.

8. His ability to make friends easily/quickly.

9. His loyalty to me or his dad.

10. His thoughtfulness. He had to buy me a Christmas gift with his own money & thought long & hard about what I really needed before buying something.

Happy Birthday Parker! We LOVE you!

Happy Holidays

Just wanted to let everyone know I'm a bit late in getting Christmas cards out this year. So if you don't end up getting one from me or getting one late here are some of the pics we took trying to get a decent one to go on a card so count it as your Christmas Greeting from the 3 of us. (The pics all ended up with red eye, oh well. I do like Paxton's hand on his hip in the one below.) Have a Merry Christmas!!!

Preschool Christmas Program

I have been such a slacker posting on my blog this last month. Is there anyone out there still reading my blog or have they given up due to lack of new material? :) I didn't have my camera during the Thanksgiving holiday so I missed out on taking some good pictures then of everyone. Then I just plain forgot it the night of the ward Christmas party (my friend Gina did take some pics so if I get those I'll post them.) So today was Paxton's preschool Christmas program. Finally I remembered to grab the camera on my mad dash out the door and was able to get a few pics of him and his friends.

They had prepared a cute little program of Christmas songs for the parents to watch. Now I'm used to Parker and how he doesn't like to sing or perform at all so I was expecting kind of the same type of a thing today with Paxton. Well I discovered Paxton is totally different. He knew EVERY word to every song and was such a ham up there, he grinned the whole time & loved performing for everyone. He was kind of shaking his stuff up there, it was pretty cute! (Hey, maybe he will follow in uncle Jonny's footsteps and make mom proud!! :)

Here are Austin, Michael and Paxton showing off the cute gingerbread houses they made today.

(Sidenote: today while cleaning off the kitchen counter my arm totally knocked Paxton's house onto the floor, destroying it. I felt so bad because he was so proud of it. Thank goodness last week I bought a gingerbread house kit so we can make that this weekend. Hopefully that will compensate for things in his eyes.)

Sorry buddy!!!

Viva La Coldplay

For Brian's bday one of the things I gave him were tickets to the COLDPLAY Viva La Vida concert. (Yes, I know we sound like total concert junkies, but everything just hit within a week of each other this month.) I told him he can take anyone he wants, but luckily he picked me and we went to this FANTASTIC concert on Saturday night. We hit one of my favorite places (Zupas - love their Nuts over Berries salad) on our way.

We had such a GREAT time at the concert!! Our tickets were in the lower bowl so we had good seats & view of the stage (although my brother Johnny had tickets way at the top and managed to get moved to floor seats somehow, the little turd! :) It took the group forever to come out so that part was a bit of a bummer. There was some startup band from El Paso Texas that opened for them and then we watched a long (OVER 20 MINUTES) and weird animation show. (I totally think you had to be smoking weed and high to understand what those animations were all about - I was a little worried when I found out Brian enjoyed some of that. ha ha :) There were some rope ladders hanging down from the lights and after these things a few people started to climb up those ladders and got up onto the lights. We thought we were in for some kind of trapeze type stunts when we noticed these seats hanging from the lights. These people were the light men (one was a woman) who had the job to strap themselves into these funky seats and each work one of the big spot lights. (Brian totally wanted to give up computer programming and have the cool job of being a "hovering light man." It did seem like a cool job if you aren't scared of heights and don't have weight issues (which I'm thinking the light "gal" was not so light and maybe needed to get out of this line of work as she had a hard time getting up there, and in and out of her chair. We were all waiting on her for the show to start! :) ha ha).

So the show started at 7:30, finally around 9:15 Coldplay came out!!!! The crowd went wild. The stage looked cool and Coldplay sounded AWESOME!! They started with Violet Hill (Was a long and dark December.....) I love that song, their newest album is so great!!! (That reminds me, let me get sidetracked for a minute and just say how wonderful Brian is!! There are MANY reasons why, but the one coming to mind right at this moment is this - he knew I didn't have their latest album so on Friday night when we met up to go out with some of his mission buddies he handed me a little present. It was their latest album. The guy is always doing thoughtful and sweet things like that, aren't I so lucky? So we listened to it on Fri and again on Saturday to get ready for the concert!! Thanks for the great CD Bri!)

Any ways back to the concert, they did such awesome things with the lights and screens. There were some cool paper butterflies they released during one of their songs and under the lights they looked all neon like and cool. They had these world globe looking lights suspended from the ceiling that changed different colors and did different things. I also enjoyed how the band was all dressed (in revolutionary, old fashioned type jackets, loved the ascot the drummer was wearing, ha ha.) Chris Martin is such a great performer. He really seems like a cool, down to earth guy. I also love how he dances around. It's dorky, yet strangely cute and so "Chris Martin." I remember first seeing him like that when their Speed of Sound song came out & he performed on MTV and was strangely attracted to him and his spastic moves. :)

They had 2 catwalk stages set up on each side of the main stage that they used a bunch and for one of the numbers (The Scientist) they even went up into the audience and played right there, how cool is that? Coldplay performed all the songs I love and did an encore with Yellow. My only complaint is I could have listened to them for another hour and felt the show ended too soon! Loved the concert but LOVED the company I was in even more (Brian!!!) Fun times with him as usual!

Pink Floyd - The Wall

So last night I gave up my Twilight premiere movie tickets (yep, this must be love :) & went & saw the Australian Pink Floyd concert at the E Center with Bri & his old college buddy & friend. We went to the Texas Roadhouse to eat before the show & then headed to the concert. The crowd was a bit different from last week's (at the TSO concert.) I had a really great time at the concert. Granted I only recognized 3 of the songs they played but the sound of almost all their songs was really cool and the crowd's excitement contagious. We were on the floor, row 11 so very close up to all the action (my ears were still ringing when I woke up this morning. :) This aussie group sounds exactly like the real Pink Floyd. Listening to this classic rock took me back to my high school days a bit so that was fun, do any of you remember "We don't need no education....." Well that is Pink Floyd, the song is actually called "Another Brick in the Wall." (Hey, I believe we have a double negative going on there so yeah, you need some education guys, at least English 101...) If anyone wants to enjoy some Pink Floyd music you need to go check out the awesome laser show that the Clark Planetarium puts on. We saw the "Dark Side of the Moon" show a couple of months ago there. It was so cool so it was fun to see them do "The Wall" performance at the concert (although they did end with some cool songs from "Dark Side of the Moon".) I think my favorite song was "Comfortably Numb." You guys would also recognize that one if you heard it (since I didn't know what it was called before now, just recognized it as one of those songs we listened to back in high school.) I think the show was a religious experience for a lot of people. To give you an idea of the crowd we were surrounded with I'll mention Brian's favorite part of the night. We were leaving the show & there was this guy standing on top of something outside the E Center shouting his review at 1000 decibels “…that’s what we f'ing came here for…” Then he'd take a drag on his cigarette & yell the F bomb again & "preach" some more. Brian and I just looked at each other and laughed. Thanks Bri - I had such a wonderful time as usual with you!

Paxton Then and Now

Since Paxton just turned 5 this week I got looking through at the pictures I had of him on the computer and thought it would be fun to post some pics of him from when he was younger. He's always been such a cutie! As a baby he was such a chunky monkey, just like Parker had been (there ain't nothing small about the babies that come out of me let me tell ya! :) And of course he went through that "old man stage" where he lost the hair on the top of his head so it was just around the sides/back with a bald, shiny top. Hard to believe 5 yrs have passed since he joined our family! We sure do love and enjoy the cute little person he has become!

Newborn - 2 wks old

6 wks old with daddy & big brother

2 months old

3 months old

11 months old - 1st Halloween

18 months old & already helping dad

2 yrs old

3 1/2 yrs old