I Love....My Mom!

My second day of things (and people) I LOVE is my MOM.

I have the greatest MOM--ever! She is beautiful, talented, smart, adventurous, the best grandmother (and mom) and most importantly....she puts up with my Dad! She is adored by all who know her; especially her grandchildren. She is Myka's absolute favorite! My Mom is musically gifted and can play fantastically on both the piano and the organ (I should never have stopped taking lessons). Her job is the coolest; she is the Executive Assistant to the CEO of a French Gaming Company. Her company manufactures the poker chips and dice for casinos around the world! (We have more dice and cards than I know what to do with)! Her job entails traveling to France and Mexico--what a tough job.

My mom has always been a huge supporter of all that I do. I've never heard her voice any disapproval for any of my crazy ideas or goals; she just goes along with them.

I LOVE my mom! She is so generous and giving--so much so that she is taking my sister-in-law and myself to London for a week in April. (Sorry for those of you who were under the impression I was going to London to run a marathon or something...not even. I'm going there to eat chocolates and 'mind the gap.')

I Love....

My very talented friend Nat inspired me to do something fun for the month of February. (She also made me a little more motivated to update my blog template. I need to fix some things, but I think I am finally learning a little more about Photoshop). Throughout the month of February, I am going to post something I LOVE each day.

To start off the month of LOVE here's something dear to my heart:

I LOVE....

My hot-air popcorn popper! What 8-year-old girl receives a popcorn popper for Christmas? Me. I have been a popcorn lover since my diaper days and have always owned my very own popper. I like to do it my own way (now that I am little more health conscious) I have swapped out the 'real' butter for some spray butter. Chad thinks it tastes like styrofoam, but I think it's the most delicious snack. I try to limit myself, but you can usually count on the popper being used at least three times a week in our house. (I suppose I could have worse food addictions!) Even Carsen requests "Mommy's popcorn."

Meet Buddy

Carsen has a new name; given to him by Myka. Meet 'Buddy'.

We have been trying for the longest time to get Myka to say 'Carsen.' She always gives us her little smile, runs away and says, "No."

The other day I said to Myka, "Tell Carsen goodnight." She waved to him and said, "Nigh Nigh Buddy." I was a little confused and then I realized what she had called him.

This morning when we asked her who should say the prayer, she pointed to Carsen, "Buddy."

They are the best little buddies. It's so cute to watch them play together (and fight) together.
Myka is quite the tease and loves to taunt her Buddy--But in the end they always make-up and give each other hugs. (Until she takes something away, breaks something or is just being her usual little stinker-self)!

A Run for Fun

This past weekend I joined my running buddies for the St. George Painter's 1/2 Marathon. It was a taste of spring (and quite a tease)! The weather was beautiful for a 13.1 mile run through the pristine terrain of sunny St. George. Both Leslie and Natalie are recovering from injuries; yet they still did amazing (talk about dedicated athletes)! I was just happy to be off the icy roads of Riverton and the monotonous treadmill.

Before the run


After the run


We left the hubby's at home and headed South for a 'girls-only' weekend. We stayed at Natalie's grandparents house; and they were the ideal hostess'. Natalie's wonderful mom also joined us for the trek down South--she's a riot! My parents came up to cheer us on and even treated us to lunch after the run at Texas Roadhouse (a personal favorite)!


After our run was out of the way we were able to focus on more important things; like eating, watching a flick, having some good laughs, and of course some more vegging.

Thanks to my wonderful friends and their nonstop laughter-invoking conversation--it made for a memorable weekend! And an even bigger shout-out to the best husband in the world for letting me go while he stayed home with the kiddos...(It was just a practice run for my New York excursion in March and a week long getaway to London in April.)

Who's 4!

(My amazingly talented friend Natalie made this invite for me. I told her I didn't have time to learn to be like her and would she just do it for me. Twenty minutes later this was in my inbox. Amazing! One of my resolutions is to learn to be a Photoshop wiz like Nat!)


Star Wars + 12 Kids + 12 Light Sabers + 25 Balloons = PARTY!

Carsen requested a Star Wars birthday party--and that is what he got. I have never seen any of the Star Wars films. (I'm not really into Sci-Fi, Fantasy...unless there's a hot vampire named Edward in it;) Carsen has never seen Star Wars either, but he somehow knows a lot of the character's names and that they fight with 'light savers.'

We invited 11 cute little friends over to celebrate his big day with him. I was new at this kid party thing, so I called on several of my friends for game suggestions and ideas on how to entertain 3-4 year-olds for an hour. They all said the same thing, keep it simple. They were right. The kids lost interest in the games after a few minutes, but they loved hitting with their light sabers, trying to crack the pinata and of course all the candy.

Carsen loved his Birthday and all his many many presents! He is so proud that he is four, and had a countdown going on until the big day, "Only 5 more sleeps until my birthday!"

Everywhere we went on his birthday he would whisper to me, "Tell him/her it's my birthday." He was so excited to have it be his big day. (It's funny, because last March Carsen went through a phase where he was convinced he was 4-years-old. He told everyone this when they asked him how old he was. So imaginative.)

We had planned to take him to the Jazz game and out to dinner after his birthday party, but he didn't want to go. He wanted to stay and play with his toys; so we did. It was like Christmas all over again.

Oh, and did I mention he is a four-year-old with a gray tooth. Ugh. He hit his mouth when we were in Vegas for the BYU Football game...I didn't realize at the time he had done damage to the nerve on his gum. Sure enough, the dentist confirmed my fear...gray tooth right in the front that is not going away until it falls out. The dentist said he could pull the tooth, but that the gray tooth would be less noticeable. Is he too young to use that whitening gel stuff on the one tooth? (ha!)

He is one smart, clever, sweet, handsome, fun-loving little man who is adored by all!

A New Day

A new year, a new me. Not when it comes to blogging though; in fact, quite the opposite. I am cutting back. (You laugh, because I haven't really been keeping up with my blog at all lately. That is just me sticking with my resolution!)

I am going to utilize my time by playing with my kids, developing my talents (more like finding some talents to develop) and not being a 'slave' to the computer.

That being said, the holidays were such a delight and my kiddos are too darling to not post about them. Plus...some pretty awesome parents got me a fabulous SLR Digital Camera whose fine images need to be displayed. (I know there are a lot of you out there who have the Canon Rebel. Please e-mail me tips and tricks. I am new at the whole SLR thing...and am in need of any info!)

I always feel a sense of sadness when the holidays come to an end. Another year until I can play Christmas music (that is all I listened to the entire month of December. Carsen knew every Christmas song! No lie. Even Myka knew when to chime in on the 'heys' when singing'Jingle Bells'.) I'm always sad wrapping up all my Nativities and Christmas Ornaments and putting them away in boxes for another year. On the positive side; it's always nice to have my house back in order.

Here's a little Christmas collage of all our Christmas Joys.

Grandpa

My dear Grandpa passed away last Wednesday...We knew the time was coming, but it was still a sad day. (We spent Thanksgiving at his home in Bountiful; and I was able to give him a hug and kiss and tell him good-bye). He was 88-years-old and such a healthy and spry man. He sprinkled flax on everything (and tried to do the same to all our food), believed soda pop was 'burp water' and ate more home-grown fruits and vegetables than any person I know.

We grandkids loved him for his sourdough waffles (known to us as 'orful worfles'), home-made fruit leather and singing the alphabit backwards. He was a man full of one-liners and always kept us chuckling about his responses to questions we'd ask him.

I found the saddest part of his passing to be that an end of an era had occurred....no more Christmases, Thanksgivings, river rafting trips, Easter campouts, tomatoes from his garden or rib-breaking bear hugs. However, what does make me smile is knowing he is now with my sweet Grandma who has been waiting for him for 12 years! What a happy reunion for them!

After attending his funeral on Monday I vowed to Chad that we are taking our kids camping more. We are ocassional campers, but I learned so many life lessons about my Grandpa and they all took place in the great outdoors. I believe a lot of character is built while 'roughing it.' Looking back on my own childhood some of the best times were when I was dirty, smoky and surrounded by family...I want my kids to grow up appreciating nature and loving the outdoors.

I love you Grandpa and will always remember the good times we had together! I look foward to a big bear hug someday!

Santa, I want......

My sister-in-law Kelly has a family tradition of making gingerbread houses and receiving a visit from Old St. Nick....right to her parents living room chair. Joyce (Kelly's mom) is one of the nicest people I know; she is always inviting my family to come and join in their family festivities. (I think she feels bad for us, because my kids grandparents' are all so far away). Whatever her reasoning, we love being part of their family get-togethers! Carsen even calls her, "Grandma Joyce."

Carsen was so excited to see Santa Clause. I kept asking him throughout the day, "What are you going to tell Santa you want for Christmas?" His reply was, "I'll decide when it's time." (I was hoping I could receive some hints so I could start planning...beings that the Black Friday shopping escapade was an absolute FLOP).

Sure enough, he told Santa, "I want a shotgun." (Last year he asked for a gun too. My Dad is so proud).

Santa and Mrs. Clause were so cute with the kids; they sang songs and ready them a story. At the end of each kids turn they received a candycane and a big hug....


Myka would have absolutely nothing to do with Santa. She did give him a little wave, but that was it...Myka was much too intrigued with the table full of gingerbread candy and my cell phone.

Anyone guess what I need for Christmas? (A cell phone. Myka's favorite toy is my phone. It has to be turned on. She calls it, "Pa.")

Family Time

We had a fun-family-filled Thanksgiving. This was the year we went with my mom's side of the family--all 80+ people to my Grandpa's home in Bountiful. It was a crowded house (with ridiculous amounts of food) but all the people is what makes it a holiday!

The weekend consisted of very little shopping (I will never EVER do early-morning Christmas shopping ever again. I am not skilled and do not plan for it; and of course I was very disappointed. Oh well, that's an entire blog post all in itself. Ba-Humbug to Black Friday!)
My mom and I saw "Twilight" (my second time, her first)! The boys went shooting clay pigeons (Carsen now wants a shot gun for Christmas), ate loads of leftovers and made our way downtown to see the lights at Temple Square.

What an eventful time of year! It's especially fun this year because 'the spirit of Christmas' is alive in our house. (There are a lot of threats going on about Santa's elves being near and reporting their seeings to the Jolly Old Man!) 'Oh what fun!'

I just got Photoshop...so there will be a lot of weird looking pictures! There's a huge learning curve!


Seeing the Lights at Temple Square.




If Myka had it her way, she would spend all her days snuggling her Grandma GG...

Halloween!

I'm not really in much of a blogging mood....but it must be done (for the grandparents and familiy afar!) And. I cannot figure out why in the world the font is so big at the bottom...Oh well, it's late and this is good enough.

Preparing for Halloween

What better way to prepare for Halloween than to test the Halloween candy. Approval from everyone!

Carsen's preschool had a fun Halloween party; and I volunteered to play pumpkin bowling with the kids. Really, it was just an excuse for me to put on my Super Woman costume (sorry, no picture!).....Ha! Actually, I wanted to find out who all the kids were Carsen keeps talking about! They were all so great in their costumes!

Carsen loved pumpkin carving this year. He really wanted a "Tarantula" on his pumpkin. He got what he wanted (or something close too).

Cornbelly's! We've made this a tradition; and I think I enjoy it just as much as the kids. The weather was perfect (crisp fall evening)! And of course the company always makes it extra enjoyable as well!

Carsen wanted to make sure his costume still fit....And Myka...well.....she just wanted to be a part of the fun. They are so cute together!

Halloween!
We began the Halloween evening by enjoying some delicious Navajo Tacos at the Olson residence. (Scrumptuous!) The kids ran around the yard in their costumes; acting out their characters...(As you can see Myka is on the ground being a cat. Oh wait, she was just throwing a small tantrum).

Chad took the kids trick-or-treating while I handed out the candy. Myka LOVED it! She climbed up every doorstep and held her little bucket out to be filled with treats! (That's my girl!) She was so excited to show me all her loot when she got home. (Her face is covered in sticky candy).