Farewell 2010

In just a few short hours the year 2010 will fade into the past.  I've found myself reflecting on this past year a lot lately.  I'm not sure why.  New Year's usually isn't a big deal for me.  It's just another day.  But this year, I've been trying to recognize my blessings and focus on the positive and what I have rather than the negative and everything that I wish I had.  
In my pondering I realized something.  We had a very good year.  Yes, it had its challenges, but it was also filled with blessings. 

• Nate got his tonsils and adenoids removed this year.  He used to get very sick all the time and he'd always just work through it without complaint.  He'd go to work with walking pneumonia because he knew we needed the paycheck.  Finally being able to get his huge, infected tonsils taken out has resulted in hardly any illness this year.  Even his allergies are less severe.  
• I went back to school.  In May I enrolled at Utah State University in their online family studies program.  Completing my bachelor's degree has always been a goal of mine, one that was put on the back burner when we got married and started our family.  It feels amazing to be on that path again and making it happen.  I love learning and progressing toward achieving one of my life's goals.  
• Nate completed his bachelor's degree in August.  What a feat that is!  It's a very long story, one I'm sure I've blogged about before.  This achievement has been years in the making, with plenty of challenges and biased professors standing in the way.  I'm so proud of  Nate for seeing it through.  
• Nate started a new job with Verizon Wireless at the end of September.  On days like today, when the snow is pouring down and the wind is relentless, I'm so grateful that he's not spending the day changing tires.  Also, my bathtub is no longer black and our house doesn't smell like rubber.  Always a plus.  
• The kids have been healthy and injury free.  We've had the odd cold or ear infection, but nothing major.  All three kids are thriving.  They love to explore their world, learn, and make new friends.  

There are plenty of other blessings and wonderful things that we experienced in this year of 2010, but those are the major ones.  As we say good bye to a year full of personal and family growth, we can only be optimistic about what lies in store for us in 2011.  

Happy New Year!  May it bring with it peace, hope, love, and adventure!

Let's Play Christmas Catch-up

Thanks to our busy December, I've been pretty M.I.A. as far as the blog is concerned.  Now that the hustle and bustle is dying down, I figured I'd better get things posted before I get too busy again.  So this post will cover three or four different outings/events.  

Temple Square Lights

A couple weeks ago, before all this crazy snow, my mom, sisters, the kids and I visited Temple Square in Salt Lake City to see the Christmas lights.  We started with some dinner and then enjoyed walking around.  The kids loved the fountains the best, as usual.  They each brought a couple of pennies so they could throw them in a fountain. 

Aunt Sarah, Grandma Laurie, Aunt Rachel and the kids

One of the many fountains that we had to stop at, and stop the kids from jumping into. 

Lilly insisted on having her picture taken in this spot.  I tried to get her to move so that we wouldn't have the fabulous view of the donkey's rear end, but she wouldn't cooperate. 

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir with David Archuleta and Micheal York

A friend of ours who moved out of state had received four tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Christmas concert featuring David Archuleta and Micheal York.  At the last minute, she and her husband weren't able to make the trip, so she called us and asked if we'd like to have her tickets.  We went with a couple of our friends. It was a wonderful concert!  We were sure to get there early, over an hour early actually.  It was a good thing though, apparently there were hundreds of people with tickets who couldn't get in because they weren't there early enough.  
The choir was amazing, as always.  I'm not a huge David Archuleta fan, but he's very likable and has an amazing voice.  He did a wonderful job.  I really enjoyed the telling of the story of the tabernacle choir by Micheal York.  I'd never known the history of the choir and he made it feel like an enchanting tale.  Another highlight of the concert were the bell ringers.  During my senior year of high school, our choir director managed to acquire a set of hand bells for us to learn to use for Christmas.  They are so fun to play, but they definitely require a lot of practice and the way these bell ringers at the concert were playing them was wonderful!  
It was a great night.  Thank you Erika for thinking of us.  This concert was the highlight of my Christmas season this year!

Christmas with the Barnums

Nate's parents and sisters were in town the weekend before Christmas.  We enjoyed having dinner together and opening presents.  And the kids had a blast playing with Aunt Emily, Aunt Amanda, and Grandma.  As one of our Christmas presents, we got a port-a-potty.  It's meant to inspire us to camp more, since Lilly is deathly afraid of outhouses.  Each of the kids had to sit on it and smile for the camera. 

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

We spent Christmas Eve at my mom's house with all my brothers and sisters and my Grandma Bennett.  It was a fun night, albeit short, full of delicious food and laughter.  My mom asked if my family would do the nativity this year.  Lilly was Mary, Jayne was the Angel, Nate was Joseph, Jonah was a wise man and I was the narrator.  We had to recruit my sister, Sarah, to be a shepherd.  It was a less than perfect telling of the Christmas story, but it was fun to watch.  

Lilly aka Mary

Our Angel Jayne

Nate helped our Angel take flight to make the scene more realistic. =)

Jonah, the wise man

All the kids got new "softies" or blankets from Grandma Great.

Lilly giving the camera some "Chubby Bunny" love.

About a week ago, Jonah asked me if we could do something special on Christmas morning.  He said that before we open any presents, he wanted us to kneel down together as a family and say a prayer to thank Heavenly Father for sending us the gift of His son, Jesus Christ.  Isn't it amazing how a 6 year old can put things in perspective for you?  So on Christmas morning, we did just that.  Before any gifts were opened, we had a family prayer to give thanks to the Lord for sending His son to Earth.  
The kids loved all their goodies from Santa.  

Jayne the pirate with her pillow pet.  I think she was still a bit groggy.

Lilly and her unicorn pillow pet.

Jonah's jellyfish lamp. 

All the kids got books from Cathy and Loron.

A few years ago we started our strict "stay-at-home-on-Christmas-day" policy.  It's been our favorite tradition.  We don't go anywhere.  If family wants to, they can come see us, but we spend our day at home.  The kids get to play with all of their new toys and Nate and I get to just relax.  Then in the evening, we take a drive to find Christmas lights together.  This year, we decided to make a turkey dinner for Christmas.  Nate took over the turkey and it turned out so delicious!  I've informed him that it will have to be a new tradition, Daddy's Turkey on Christmas Day.  He says he's up for it and wants to try new recipes every year. 


Well, I think that's about it.  We had a wonderful Christmas and we hope all of you did too! 
 

Our December Family Letter

Dear Family & Friends,

It's that time of year again. You know, the time for snow, wish lists, Christmas lights, baking, caroling, partying, and stressing out. But, most importantly, it's time for our yearly recap of life as a Barnum. Don't worry, I'll keep it short and sweet!

Jonah is in 1^st grade this year. He loves school. He's reading way above his grade level and excelling in everything else as well. Jonah loves to read the Zoo Books magazines about crocodiles, sharks, snakes, etc. Jonah played soccer this last spring. It was his first experience with organized sports. He wasn't a big fan of it. He would get easily frustrated when he didn't kick the ball just right(that's the perfectionist in him). But since he got a trophy at the end of the season, he keeps talking about playing again next year.

Jonah favorite thing to do is to make a “project”. He'll get out paper, scissors, glue, staples, crayons, string, straws, pencils, paper cups, plates, napkins, utensils, and pretty much anything else he can find and spread them all across the table and begin creating. He comes up with some pretty interesting stuff. It can get frustrating when he uses up all of my scotch tape on his catapult or duct tapes all the pencils in the house together, but I just keep reminding myself that one day he may be creating new inventions, or building beautiful bridges or buildings or something like that.

Lilly turned 4 this year and is going to preschool four days a week. Lilly is learning to read. She knows all her letters and sounds and is working on sight words. Lilly loves to watch Scooby-Doo and she really enjoys playing with her friends. Lilly's quite the social butterfly at school. Her teachers tell me that she is a friend to everyone and it's easy to see. Whenever I pick her up she has to say goodbye to and hug all of her friends. Lilly's not too happy about winter time. She's more of a summertime girl. Several times in the last month, she's come out of her room all dressed up in her swimsuit and wanting to play in the water. I finally had to hide that thing until next summer.

Jayne just turned 2 in October. She is such a fun little girl! She talks like a pro and loves to sing songs and “ballerina”. That's what she calls dancing. Her favorite thing to do is put on her sparkly shoes and her little tutu that her Grandma Barnum made her and run around the house dancing and playing. Lately she's really into watching the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and reading “Pinkalicious.” She's definitely girl through and through.

Nate had a big year this year. He finished his bachelor's degree in Spanish and criminal justice through Weber State University. I'm so proud of him for sticking with it and seeing it through to the end. Nate also recently started a new job. He's a sales representative for Verizon Wireless in West Valley. He's only been there for a couple of months and he's already ranking among their top sales reps in his area.  It's been such a blessing to not have him doing such hard labor out in the elements, especially now that it's winter. Nate just got called to serve as assistant scout master in our church ward. He's excited to go on the camp outs with the boys. They'll be doing a winter camp in January.

Nate got his tonsils taken out this year, which has made a huge difference in his health. Usually he's had some walking pneumonia or tonsillitis by this time of year, but so far.....nothing. When they took them out, the doctor was surprised by how large and infected they were. He couldn't believe we hadn't had it done sooner. I'm so glad we finally got those monsters taken out!

As for me, Ashley, I guess my biggest news this year is that I'm back in school. I started in the summer working on my bachelor's degree in family studies through Utah State University's online program. I'm really loving it so far. I've been taking two classes per semester, but I'm going to bump it up to three in the spring. I'm also serving as a Webelos den leader in our cub scout program, which is fun. It definitely helps keep me busy. I've also been doing a bit of babysitting, which is totally uncharacteristic of me. I've never been big on babysitting, but I'm enjoying it and the extra money is always helpful. We watch a friend of Lilly's after preschool twice a week and we just started watching a little two month old baby girl this week while her mom works part time.

And there you have it. That's our 2010 in a nutshell. We hope you all have had a happy, healthy, and prosperous year! Have a wonderful holiday season!

Love,

Nate, Ashley, Jonah, Lilly, & Jayne

My Favorite Holiday Treat

To me, Christmas is synonymous with delicious treats!  Every year while I was growing up, my mom would make cookies, divinity, fudge, and my favorite...caramels at Christmastime. 
I have such fond memories of sitting in front of a Christmas TV special or listening to Christmas music while sitting at the kitchen table cutting and wrapping caramels to give as gifts to neighbors and friends.  It always seemed to take quite a few batches to have enough to go around.  That probably had something to do with us having more than our share of "tastes" during the wrapping process. 
 I remember one Christmas when my mom had made her caramels early and put them in large popcorn tins out in the storage room that was in the garage.  I thought I was so sneaky going out there when no one was around and having one or two caramels.  I figured that she had made so many, she'd never notice just a few missing.  Little did I know that my dad and older brother had both been doing the same thing.  My mother was none too happy when she went to pull out the caramels and there were only a few remaining.  Now that I've made them myself, I can totally understand her frustration. 
I never fully appreciated the effort that this particularly delicious little morsel of joy requires until I was all grown up and decided to make them myself.  Ever since Nate and I got married, I've made caramels for Christmas.  I make other treats, sure, but caramels are by far my favorite. 

So what's your favorite holiday treat? 

Winter Fun

Well, not fun for me, but the kids had a pretty good time.  We recently got a couple of big snowstorms at our house.  We're talking a foot of snow falling in about 24 hours.  

Nate's Jeep had been parked on the front lawn as he often does. (sigh) He had a great time getting it out though.  He was excited about the big rooster tails of snow coming up off his back tires.

The morning after one of our big storms.

I sure am glad Nate was home to help shovel us out.  Even with both of us working on it, it took  us an hour to get the driveway and front sidewalk cleared.  I'm seriously considering investing in a snowblower.  It would definitely save us from all future chiropractor expenses we're going to have if we have to shovel this stuff every year.

 
The first thing Jonah said to me the next day was, "Can we go play in it mom?"  After putting it off as long as possible, mostly because it was insanely cold outside with highs in the 20's,  we dug out the boots and snow pants and gloves and took some time to play in the snow.  

Jonah just had to build a snowman first thing.  About half an hour later, he pulled the carrot nose out and ate it for a snack.  Funny kid.

The kids thought it would be fun to climb on top of the mountain of snow.

Lilly likes to make snow angels.....on her tummy.  She says the wings look better this way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's something about holding a baby....

...that just makes everything feel right in the world.  A friend of mine just dropped by with her two month old baby girl. I could have held her forever!  Don't start getting any ideas(Mom).  I'm done having babies.  As wonderful as it would be to have a sweet little baby to cuddle and feed and rock to sleep, I have to remind myself that they don't stay babies for very long.  Soon, they turn into toddlers.  Precocious, adventurous, can't-keep-up-with-them-for-anything toddlers.  And those beautiful little creatures require a whole lot of time and care and money.  Plus, I already have three to keep up with, throwing another one in the mix wouldn't bode well for my sanity. 
It was great to just sit and reminisce with my friend about being a new mother and  remember all my sweet little babies.  I'm grateful that now that mine are growing, I still get to hold other mothers' babies and feel that amazing warmth and spirit of a new child. 
Motherhood definitely is the greatest and most challenging adventure I've ever undertaken, but it offers such amazing rewards! 

Giving Thanks

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day and I don't intend to spend any of it on my computer, so I'm posting this today.  I love Thanksgiving. I love enjoying good food with family and reflecting on what I am blessed with.  Here are a few, well maybe more than a few, of the things that I am thankful for this year...

• My children---they bring me joy on a daily basis
• Nate---of course.  He's my best friend and my world
• That Nate won't be spending this winter changing tires all day everyday in the cold and the snow.  
• Flannel sheets
• Our Jeeps
• Good friends
• Extended family
• Chocolate, as always 
• Being able to continue my education
• Temples
• My calling with the cub scouts---I think I'm learning more than they are
• Good health
• Pumpkin pie
• A place to call home, shelter from the cold
• Modern conveniences---I never would have survived before electricity, indoor plumbing, modern medicines, and diet coke
• Wonderful neighbors
• Books---even though all I get to read right now is textbooks.  Hopefully soon I'll pick up a good novel. 
• Denise Austin---Yes, I know she's a bit cheesy, but her workouts get the job done and I don't have to leave my house to do it.  
• Being able to stay home with my children everyday to share in their joys, triumphs, and challenges
• Bubble baths
• My testimony, especially of the plan of salvation---we lost two grandmothers this year and the knowledge that we will see them again one day is a blessing we cherish
• That Nate finally finished his bachelors degree
• Sweaters
• Hot chocolate
• Christmas lights
• Music

I could literally go on and on and on and on.  I hope you all have a wonderful holiday surrounded by those you love!  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Winter has arrived and I am less than thrilled.

 Yesterday morning we awoke to 12 inches of snow outside and no power.  What a way for winter to make it's debut.  "Hey everybody!  I'm here to make you cold and miserable and NO! you can't even use your microwave or stove this morning to make some hot chocolate so that you feel better about all the snow I brought with me!"

The power went off sometime in the night, I think around 2 or 3am.  Since my kids are such tossers and turners, we had to get up a few times to make sure they had their blankets over them to stay warm.  One look out my window in the morning had me burrowing back under the covers.  We all kind of slept in a bit.  
At 10:00am, when the power still wasn't on, we decided we'd better get dressed for church so we could be on time.  When we arrived at the chapel, we noticed no power there either.  Luckily there were enough of us in the chapel to generate a bit of heat and enough light coming in through the windows for the pianist to see her music.  Despite the lack of power, the meeting was wonderful.  I left feeling so grateful for my blessings and looking forward to spending the day with the ones I love the most.  
The power did come back on about fifteen minutes before the meeting ended, but we were all told to go home rather than continue the block.  It probably had something to do with the fact that the rest of the church was still freezing cold and it takes a while to get that heater going.  



They say that when you live with a person you begin to take on some of their characteristics.  Nate and I have been living together for over seven years now and for the past seven winters I've listened to him tell me just how much he hates the snow and the cold.  I regret to announce that he has finally brought me over to the dark side.  I don't like snow.  Sure, it's pretty.....for about a minute.  Then you have to shovel it and drive in it and try to keep from freezing your nethers off.  Winter? No, thank you.  Give me sunshine and balmy breezes any day. 

I miss my body

I am nowhere near old.  I'm not exactly a young filly anymore either.   In my last post I mentioned a few things that no one ever tells you about growing up and becoming a parent.  Today, thanks to my adventure in running this morning(yes, running), I am reminded of one thing that nobody ever tells you about pregnancy and childbirth:  During pregnancy your body changes in ways you never thought imaginable and some of those ways NEVER GO BACK TO NORMAL!!!  So young women beware! 
A few of the doozies include, but are not limited to...

• wider hips---I knew they'd spread a bit to make room for the babies, but I honestly didn't realize that they would spread more each time and then stay that way.  We're talking the bones people, not just fat.  
• forgetfulness---when you're pregnant some hormone or something causes the neurons in your brain to be a little farther apart which causes the whole absentmindedness thing and no, they don't go back either.  
• loose joints---over the course of three pregnancies, I became so good at dropping things that I am now not to be trusted with anything of value that may break upon impact with the ground.  Also, my hip joints are much more loose and are aching like crazy right now.  Yes, they were my inspiration for this enlightening post.  
• saggy breasts---I had to say this one.  Sure, they get all full and nice while you're pregnant and during breastfeeding.  But beware the deflation!  It will happen as soon as that milk dries up.  Oh, and the deflation times 3?!  Yeah, my ladies look a bit tired.  Thank goodness for the miracles they can work with bras nowadays. 
• skin---skin changes in weird ways when you have kids.  I have three times as many freckles now as I did before venturing into motherhood and a lovely(feel the sarcasm?) mole on my chin that appeared while pregnant with Jonah and only increased in size with Lilly and Jayne.  I'm saving some pennies to get the sucker lopped off one of these days when I don't have more important things to spend the money on.  
• You grow hair in places you  never thought it possible---Yes, I'll admit it.  I never had to pluck ANYTHING before having babies.  Now I get these annoying black hairs on the sides of my face and sometimes my chin that I have to yank out on a very regular basis.  
• Battle Scars----Thanks to the lack of elasticity of my skin and the wonderful weight gain of pregnancy, no amount of lotions or creams could prevent the gigantic stretch marks that now decorate my body.  They may fade, but those puppies don't go away.....ever. 

 I could probably go on some more, but you get the idea.  I miss my pre-baby body.  But I must admit, those three cute little creatures that are now my world were worth the sacrifice.  

So I will take my achy hips, stretch marks, and saggy breasts and slip into a hot bath....if I can remember where I put the bubbles. 

Changing Your Dreams

It's funny how the things you want most can change over time.  Growing up, we may have had dreams of being professional athletes or musicians or changing the world.  When you're young, everyone encourages you to choose a "dream" that you want to work to achieve.  The sad reality is that most of those aspirations are exactly what they are named, dreams.  They almost never come to fruition in the ways we imagine.  
When I was a girl, my friends and I would play that M.A.S.H. game.  Don't pretend you didn't play it too.  You would write down your top four choices for things like who you would marry, how many children you'd have, what job you would have, where you would live, what kind of car you would drive,....the list could be endless.  Then through random counting and crossing out and circling, you would arrive at your destiny---Married to a movie star, driving a brand new convertible, working as a professional singer, living on the beach, and raising eight beautiful children. 
No one tells you about the realities of life.  No one tells you that your chances of being rich and famous and never having to have a "real" job are slim to none.  No one tells you how hard it is to raise one child, let alone the numbers on your little M.A.S.H paper.  No one tells you that once you have those children, you're going to have to rearrange every priority in your life and more than likely, your "dreams" will change in the blink of an eye.  
Before I got married and had my first child, I was a music major, vocal performance to be exact.  I don't mind saying that I was pretty good, and getting better thanks to amazing professors.  I had my little dreams about auditioning for opera companies, even if I was just in the chorus, and eventually having my own studio.  I loved to perform.  
Enter marriage.  I still was going to school.  I was a bit distracted, but still focused on my dream.  
Enter baby.  Jonah was born in January.  I attended full time at college the semester before he was born.  Even performing in several concerts, recitals, and juries in December.  My pregnant belly would bounce with my breathing and I had a very hard time with the long phrases.  I looked pretty silly, but sounded pretty good.  
After Jonah was born, reality sunk in.  Going to school full time and taking care of a new baby while your husband also goes to school full time and works full time is no easy task.  So I "took a break".  This is where the dreams begin to change.  
All of a sudden I'm thinking more about financial aspects of my chosen path.  Music isn't exactly a sure thing business to get into and I want to be able to contribute to our family if I need to.  We'd decided that I would be a stay at home mom, but I wanted to be prepared should the situation change.  We found that both of us going to school full time and Nate working full time wasn't working out, so I stopped going to school.  Not before I'd taken some family studies courses and gotten interested. 
It took five years before I was able to continue my education.  I'm so grateful for online degree programs.  But now, my dream has changed from being a performer to being a good mom.  I love my major, family life studies, because it applies directly to my life.  When I'm finished, depending on our situation at the time, I'd like to pursue a masters degree, possibly in marriage and family therapy.  
It's funny how my dreams have changed to much simpler things...healthy, happy kids, a good marriage, a career helping others.  These are my new dreams.  My wonderful, attainable, fulfilling dreams.  
I know this post is incredibly long, and I didn't initially mean for it to be.  It was inspired my recent events in our home.  Nate has changed his dreams.  He always dreamed of working in law enforcement.  He loved the idea of chasing down the bad guy, driving the police car, and carrying his gun everyday.  He's worked toward this for a long time.  He finally finished his B.A. and recently he applied for border patrol.  It was his "dream".  He could use his Spanish, carry his firearm, and have exciting work days.  He passed his test and was given a tentative offer of employment.  We filled out all the paperwork and he passed the next hiring phase.  Then he got his job with Verizon, which has been going really well.  When the cards came for us to get his fingerprints done and mailed in and to schedule his interview, he made the hard decision.  He said, "Border patrol may be perfect for me, but it's not perfect for our family."  I'm so proud of him for putting our family first. He recognized that it would mean a lot more time apart, dangerous work, and a drastic lifestyle change for our family.  While we mourn the loss of Nate's dream, we rejoice in the blessings we have.  His new job is working out wonderfully so far and shows lots of promise.  

I love you Nate.  Thank you for being such an amazing husband, father, friend, and example.  

Church Volleyball

I've always enjoyed playing sports.  Among my favorites are soccer, volleyball, softball, and basketball.  I've never really excelled at any of them.  I played softball and soccer growing up, but never on the school teams or anything like that.  I've never quite developed the skill level for it.  That's why I love church sports! No one really cares about how good you are as long as you show up.  
This year I played volleyball with the women in our ward.  I really enjoyed it.  The games were always kind of late, around 9pm, but that worked for me because Nate was actually home to watch the kids so that I could go play. 
We did pretty good this year.  We were first in our stake, only losing one game and that was because we were one player short and had to forfeit. 
So last Saturday, we got to play in the region tournament.  Wow!  That was an eye-opener.  Our ward basically comes to have fun and we do have some talent, but we never had time to have real practices or anything like that.  The other teams that we played were very, very, very serious about volleyball.  We played three teams, two games each in three hours and lost every single one of them.  We did pretty good though, we didn't get totally clobbered, and we got better with every game.  I'll tell you one thing though, I was feeling muscles that I didn't know I had when I woke up the next day. 
And most important of all....we had a lot of fun!  So if your ward participates in sports, go for it.  Don't worry that you aren't a superstar.  Half the battle is getting enough people for a full team and you never know, you might learn something knew, make new friends, get some good exercise, and enjoy yourself. 
Thanks to all the wonderful women of the Parkside Ward who came out to play this year!  I really enjoyed hanging out and playing and getting to know you all a little better. 

Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween festivities this year included a family party with Nate's parents and sisters, carving pumpkins, and our ward trunk-or-treat which turned into an inside activity due to the rain.  We didn't do any door-to-door trick-or-treating this year because of the weather, but the kids didn't really even notice.  They got plenty of candy and had a great time dressing up!
I made Lilly's "Princess Bat" costume.  Jonah had wanted to be a robot and we were planning to make it for him, but he changed his mind and wanted to be a knight instead.  We found all the items for his costume at the dollar store.  Jayne was given her pretty angel costume for her birthday from my grandma. 

My Princess Bat, Angel, and Brave Knight

 The ward activity was a costume fashion show for the kids.  They played music while the kids walked down the runway to show off their costumes.  Lilly and Jonah loved it.  I tried walking Jayne down the runway, but as soon as everyone started clapping for her, she chickened out.  But everyone got to see how cute she looked before I had to pick her up. 
 

Lilly on the runway.  She had no fear and flapped her wings for everyone to see. 

In his own words, Jonah "knocked their socks off!" He did his knight moves all the way down the runway. 

Jayne LOVED the "trick-or-treating"!

Jonah getting some of the good stuff. 

These are our pumpkins.  We had three, but one was stolen off our front porch before we could carve it.  Lilly's is on the right and Jonah's on the left.  They drew the faces on pieces of paper and then I carved them.  Nothing fancy, but not too bad, if I say so myself. 

 We hope you all had a wonderful Halloween!  Now on to Thanksgiving!  Mmmm....I can almost taste the pumpkin pie!

The Witches of Gardner Village

On Nate's day off last week we decided to take the kids to Gardner Village to see the witches. I'd always heard about the witches, but hadn't ever gone to see them. So this year we thought it would be fun to check it out. The kids loved looking for witches everywhere and of course, we had to take plenty of pictures. 

The kids loved these pink hats in the Way Out West store.

 

One of the first witches we spotted.  She would peek out her window and then go back inside.

This witch recently became a member of the fire brigade.

Lilly decided that she needed her picture taken in this chair...

...and on this bench.

This witch seems to be fishing the old fashioned way, with good ol' TNT. 

The kids loved chasing watching the ducks.

Lilly found another chair and recruited Jayne for a picture.

The Frog Witch

This time, Lilly's sitting place was already occupied. 

Jonah showed us his best scary face.

And Jayne showed us how she likes to suck on her bottom lip.  Not sure when that started. 

Ah, Lilly found a new place to sit.  

There were lots of other witches.  Some were playing baseball, another was flying on her bicycle, and yet another was directing traffic on the rooftops.  We didn't get pictures of all of them, so if you want to see them, you'll have to head to Gardner Village yourself.  It makes for a fun little family activity.  You can even print out a scavenger hunt list from the Gardner Village website to find all the witches.  

Happy Witch Hunting!

Jayne Turns 2!

Today is Jayne's 2nd birthday! We celebrated last Saturday with my family. Jayne got lots of wonderful gifts and she loves them all!
Some of Jayne's favorite things right now are....

• Baby dolls. She has one in particular that she likes to carry everywhere and wrap up in a blanket.
  
• Her "softy" which is her blanket that she sleeps with every night. She got a new one for her birthday, so now she has to have "softy" and "new softy" before she'll go to sleep.
  
• Dogs--or as Jayne likes to call them, "Woofys". Jayne loves dogs. One of the boys in Lilly's preschool class has a chihuahua and his mother brings it everyday to drop him off and pick him up. We cannot leave the school until Jayne gets to pet the "woofy".
• Chocolate milk---definitely Jayne's drink of choice.
• Shoes---especially sparkly ones. She just got a new pair for her birthday and even though they are too big, she insists on wearing them everywhere. She loves to steal Lilly's pink glittered shoes and wear them around the house.
  
• Gum---Yes, I know. She's way too young for gum. Don't look at me, we can blame this one on Daddy.

Now for the obligatory then and now pictures.....

Then.....












and Now.

They grow so fast, don't they? =)

So, I want to wish my sweet Jayne a Happy Birthday! We love you sassy-pants!

Arctic Circle's Halloween Horror

Last Friday, Jonah received a certificate from school for a free ice cream cone from Arctic Circle. I decided to take the kids over that day after a trip to the park.
We went inside because three young children with ice cream cones inside a moving vehicle is a disaster in the making. As soon as we walked in the door, I wanted to walk right back out again. There were bloodied knives and bones hanging from the ceiling. The entire place was draped in black plastic. They had a large skeleton along with a display of various body parts in jars. Oh, and there was also plenty of gory looking fake blood on the walls and ceiling. Jonah called it Halloween Horror and I must say that I agree. We ate our ice cream cones as quickly as possible and I was sure to try to keep the kids' eyes on anything but the decor. Is it just me, or does this type of gory, violent decoration not belong in a family friendly fast food restaurant?
Am I the only one who is disturbed by the way Halloween keeps leaning more and more to the violent, bloody, and almost satanic? I was on my morning walk around the neighborhood with Jayne this morning and I made it a point to notice the Halloween decorations on people's homes. Most had the murderer from Scream on their front door holding a bloody kitchen knife. Several had body parts and fake blood plastered across their windows. And, of course, we had plenty of the scary skeletons dressed as brides or waiters or whatever. What happened to cute Halloween decorations? Trick-or-treating children don't need to be greeted by severed heads and bloody weapons in their faces. Come on People! On Halloween night there will be cute little kids dressed as fairies and firemen coming to the door and your "cool" decorations just might give them nightmares or scar them for life. Think about it before you hang up your next dangling body part by the front door.

We're so glad when Daddy comes home!

As you can guess from the title of this post, Nate is home from his training in Denver. He flew in late Friday night. It's been SOOOOO nice to have him back. The kids were clinging to him for the entire weekend, especially the girls. Jayne had to have him help her with everything from changing her diaper to getting dressed to putting her to bed. Every time I went to help her with something she would look at me sternly and say, "But Daddy never helps me!" Lilly still would get out of bed several times to make sure Daddy was still home. We had to explain to her that he won't be going for long trips anymore right now. She was really worried last night because we had been talking about Nate going to work today and she thought he was leaving for a long time again.
It was so nice to spend the whole weekend together and now we're getting back into a routine. This whole "husband-less" experience was good for us. It challenged us and it helped us grow our relationship even more. I think Nate and I both appreciate each other more than we did just a few weeks ago.
So, that's all. I just wanted to say that it's good to have "Daddy" back at home again.

Nap time is in Peril!

I love nap time! For almost seven years now, there has been at least an hour, sometimes two, in the afternoon where one or more of my children is sleeping and the other(s) are quietly watching a video or playing in their room. Something has been happening the last few days, however, which makes me fear for the future of this precious ritual to which I owe my sanity. Jayne is climbing out of her crib and coming out of her room! I've known this was coming for a while now. She'll be turning two next week and I've been putting off converting her crib into a toddler bed, but I don't think I can delay any longer.
Yesterday, she laid down for her nap just fine. About an hour and a half later, she comes toddling out of her room to tell me, "I wake up all by myself!" So cute, but so sad at the same time. So today, she decided that she didn't want to nap at all. Each time I put her in her bed, she climbs out and comes out into the living room and tells me "I all done nap." How do I effectively tell her that Mommy's not "all done nap"?!
I remember this transition with Jonah and Lilly too. It's one of my least favorite of the baby to big kid rites of passage, going from the crib to the bed. With Jonah, I had to lay on the floor next to him and pretend to be asleep until he would fall asleep. Effective, but time consuming. Then when Lilly made the change, I had to do the same thing. Then we put Lilly and Jonah in the same room and nap time became this impossible feat that would taunt me all morning long making me hope for an hour to myself where my two darling children would just lie down in their beds and drift off into a peaceful slumber. Sadly, this was never the reality. The ONLY way I could ever get them to nap was to lie down next to them so they would hold still. Sometimes this would take an hour, but it was totally worth it when they would start snoring away and I could spend an hour eating my lunch and watching "Friends" reruns in peace.
Now we're at the point where Jonah never naps (he's at school) and Lilly only does on very rare occasions. Jayne's daily nap is the whole reason that I can even get Lilly to do "quiet time" so I can have a little "Mommy Time".
To complicate things further, we're planning on making a room switcheroo in the next couple of weeks, putting Jayne and Lilly in one room together and Jonah in his own room. I fear that my two giggling girls will never nap again! I know Jayne won't nap if she knows Lilly's not napping in her bed and Lilly won't nap unless Daddy's home and the whole family is napping at the same time and even then she and Jonah usually just sneak out of their beds and read books or play blocks or something which leads me to conclude that the days of the afternoon nap at my house are numbered! Numbered, People! Not a big number either.

On My Own

Nate has been in Denver for his training for an entire week now. It feels like an eternity! He calls home at least once a day. The kids love talking to him on the phone, especially Jayne. Whenever I'm on the phone now, she'll look up at me and say, "Daddy?" and if I say yes, then she starts pulling on me and yelling, "I talk, I talk, I talk!" She's a real chatterbox with him.
The kids are really starting to miss him a lot. Of course, they missed him right from the get-go, but now they're starting to ask more often when he's going to be home.

I'm trying to keep myself productive to help the time pass quicker, but I don't think it's working.
I've cleaned out the basement bedroom so the landlord can rip out the carpet and the baseboards and clean up the mold. Yeah, that's a whole other post just waiting for me to write it.
I've gotten ahead on my school work by an entire week.
I've been walking with Jayne almost every morning.
I cleaned the entire house. Not that it stayed clean very long. Three kids have a tendency to create clutter.
We put out the Halloween decorations, meager as they may be.
Went to Relief Society volleyball and I'll go again this week. It's a lot of fun. Thank goodness for Ciera, who lives two houses down and comes to stay with my kids so I can go play at 9:00 at night.
Went to cub scouts last week and am working on planning out this month's activities including one for this Wednesday. Yep, some major procrastinating went into that one.
Rented a couple movies and discovered that they're not as fun to watch by yourself.
Took the kids to the library.

I never realized how much I depend on Nate. He saves my sanity on a daily basis by making me laugh and giving me a precious bit of time to myself. He has a way with the kids that makes them happy and fun to be around. Not to mention, he makes a perfect bed buddy. Pillows just aren't the same.

I definitely wasn't made for this. I could never be a military wife. I don't know how you wonderful, strong, amazing women do this for such extended periods of time. You are my heroes!

He gets to come home this weekend, then he'll fly back to Denver for another week of training. Needless to say, I'm really looking forward to this Friday at 10:05pm. Not so much looking forward to this Sunday at 5:07pm and I am really, really, really, REALLY looking forward to Friday the 15th at 10:05pm.

I'm such a wimp.
The End.