Pics finally

I have finally added pictures!!! I still have some more to put on here, but all the ones I've done is plenty for now. Every time I try to upload the video from Noah's preschool program, it takes a really really long time, so I end up just stopping it. I put pictures and I will try to upload the video again later. Enjoy!

Christmas Eve

We go to Chris's Oma & Opa's house in Ogden every year on Christmas Eve to exchange presents with that entire side of the family. It's pretty much the only time we all get together, so we really look forward to it and we always have a lot of fun. Noah especially looks forward to seeing Conner, and once they get together, they act crazy and just have the best of time together. Oma also likes to spoil the kids with lots of candy and treats and the cheesecake bites were AMAZING! I want to go buy some right now, actually.

Noah's preschool Christmas program

Instead of school on Monday, December 22 Noah's preschool had a Christmas program. All of the classes at the preschool got together to sing a bunch of Christmas songs. They sure were troopers for managing to sit still for so long, and I give them major credit. Noah, on the other hand, was one of the only ones who could not sit still, and kept hopping up and down in his seat. And pulling on the neck of his sweater. And pulling his hat down over his face. And singing in high-pitched voices or no voice at all, just mouthing along. It was really cute though and we were so proud of him! He sat next to his girlfriend Olivia and we didn't get a picture of it, or on film, but at one point Olivia gave Noah a big hug and it was really super cute. Chris did a good job of making sure they were both in almost every picture and on the video. Forgive me, but I don't know how to edit the videos just yet, so I just put the shortest clip of video on the blog and you are welcome to fast forward through any parts if you'd like, but make sure you watch Jingle Bells and the song at the very end, they're the best.

our tree

We were a little late getting our tree this year, so we didn't get to have it around as long as usual. It really made me sad to see it go! Last year we bought all new ornaments and lights the day after Christmas and our tree looked beautiful! I only wish we had bought more. 2 of the glass ornaments got broken, one of them happened to break after Christmas, so I was kicking myself a little for not taking them down earlier, but the kids had done so good up until that point, I figured I was in the clear... oh well. I went shopping again the day after Christmas this year and bought more decorations that will go with our "red" tree theme. We have 2 tree themes, the "red" and the "blue". This year was the blue, with a light frosty blue tree skirt and bluish/purple ornaments with similar-themed ornaments to match. We thought we had bought blue lights last year but when we unpacked the decorations, we remembered that we did not buy blue lights, but frosted white lights instead. It gave the tree a certain glow that I've never seen before and I thought it was beautiful! Next year will be the red theme and we will use our new ornaments in that as well, which will kind of turn it into a "red and gold" theme. I can't wait!!!

cRaZY winter weather

This holiday break has brought us some pretty wild weather. Winds have been so strong that Chris said a flag pole at the nearby car dealership was bending at the top so much he thought it was going to break off. At the Ford dealership not far away, but a few days later, an entire light post (and you know those MUST weigh a ton) actually did blow over and caused the power to go out. I didn't get a picture of that, but I got this picture of a tree blown down at the front of our condo entrance, and a picture of our snowfall, but this pic doesn't do justice for the amount of snow we actually got.

Cool Christmas display

My grandpa bill sent me this video and I think it's really cool. It would be so much fun to actually see it in person! There's a house just down the street from us that does something similar, but it's more of a jumbled mess, whereas this one in the video is really put together. It'd be awesome to do this one year. Turn the music off before you hit play on the video.

I've been tagged by Steph!

This is a fun tag where you can only use one-word answers! It's hard for me though because I feel like I have to explain more! This is the kind of tag that Chris would like, he thinks I take too long to get to the point!
1.Where is your cell phone? desktop
2.Where is your significant other? work
3. Your hair color? brown
4. Your mother? stressful
5. Your father? who?
6. Your favorite thing? children
7. Your dream last night? none
8. Your dream/goal? career
9. The room you're in? living
10. Your hobby? none
11. Your fear? tragedy
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? house
13. Where were you last night? Margie's
14. What you're not? showered
15. One of your wish-list items? clothes!
16. Where you grew up? SLC
17. The last thing you did? sign
18. What are you wearing? scrubs
19. Your TV? HUGE!
20. Your pet? Frenchie
21. Your computer? awesome
22. Your mood? stressed
23. Missing someone? Godparents
24. Your car? full
25. Something you're not wearing? contacts
26. Favorite store? Urban
27. Your summer? Eventful
28. Love someone? forever
29. Your favorite color? gray
30. When is the last time you laughed? earlier
31. Last time you cried? yesterday


I tag all my fellow girl bloggers:
Chelsea, Lindsey, Margie, Amber, Ashley Chelsea Cassel, Cassie, Mo

Its a no go

Sorry I haven't put up pics of our beautiful tree yet, I've been busy!! We took a few really cute family pictures in front of it, it was nice to finally get a family photo. One day we will have them professionally done. One day.

A couple of days ago Chris learned that his hours are being cut back and he really should not count on any overtime at all. Going from an average of 14 hours or more overtime a week to none is a huge chunk of change for us after we've been used to that income for the past 3 years! Needless to say, buying a home would make things extremely tight for us and we don't even know what the future of Chris's job will hold with the economy going the way that it is. We have until July 1 to close to get the $7500 tax credit, which is a really nice incentive, so we will work our butts off to pay down as much as we can in bills and try again in late spring/early summer. We will of course keep you posted.

Our beautiful tree!

Yesterday we finally went tree shopping. We decided to try Home Depot first, they've never let us down in the past! We found a beautiful 6' Grand Fir that is so full, you need 2 of me to wrap your arms around it. It was a steal too, only $32! We spent Sunday evening decorating the tree and even though we used more ornaments than we ever had in the past, I realized how many more ornaments we need to put on the tree! We purchased all of our ornaments last year the day after Christmas when they were on sale, so we won't be able to buy exact matching ones, but we will find some close enough when I go shopping again the day after Christmas this year. Target, here I come!!!

I will post pics soon.

housing update....

So we are under contract, but we are still going through the final underwriting process. We had to sign and submit another form today so hopefully that will go through quickly and we can still close on the 22. We are also hoping that the rates drop again before Wednesday, when we are set to lock in our interest rate. We were going to take a few family members out to the house to look at it on Saturday, but we had a freaking blizzard! Luckily the storm calmed down early in the day so we could make it to Ron and Mo's for a family get together. We couldn't stay for long, but the small amount of time that we get to spend with the family is always nice. When we get the house, we won't be making it out there often due to it is going to be a 2 hour drive! But anyone and everyone is more than welcome to come out and visit us once in a while to make it even :)

what a steal!

Chris and I went to Old Navy last night to pick up small presents for Norah and Ambrielle and ended upfinding this awesome coat for Noah for only $10! Bostyn got a really cute warm dress for only $5. I love good deals!

Buying A House?

Could it be? No.... there's no way! Are Chris and Cara finally buying a house?

Yes! That's right ladies and germs. We have officially started looking for houses. As a matter of fact we actually put an offer on our little piece of the "American Dream" yesterday! We won't know if they accepted our offer until Tuesday evening but things look very good.
If all goes well we will be closing on December 30. Or maybe sooner.
The only problem is it is way out in Eagle Mountain. Due to the "credit freeze" caused by "predatory lending", the only way for us to get into a house (because we have no down payment) is 100% financing. And the only way to get 100% financing is to find a house in a rural area like Tooele, Eagle Mountain, or Saratoga Springs.
So ya.... We love this house. It is AMAZING.
It was built in 2008, has 2600 square feet, has a perfect size yard for the kids (and maybe a dog), lots of upgrades throughout the house. Oh ya, it is actually a townhome, but you seriously cannot even tell. Here is a picture.........

Sick bug

So we've all been sick with the stomach flu. Wednesday night Margie made a whole turkey dinner for all of us and we were going to eat dinner over there. Bostyn hadn't been doing well all day and as soon as Chris got there, she laid on Chris's shoulder and just started throwing up (gross, I know, I'm sorry). Margie was nice to pack up dinner for us and we took it home. Chris and I are the only ones that ate, Noah only ate a little bit, although he was acting okay. I checked on Noah right before I went to bed around midnight and he was awake and told me his stomach hurt. He went back to sleep and I went to bed. Chris and I were woken up about an hour later to Noah freaking out, just screaming and crying at the top of his lungs. We ran in there to discover that he had thrown up all over his bed, his wall, his two stuffed monkeys, his pillow, and his hands. I think he was more freaked out that it was all over his hands. Chris gave him a bath (yes, at 1 am) while I cleaned up his bed and changed his bed sheets. We let Noah stay up to watch some cartoons and then he went to bed around 2. I stayed home from work the next day and I started to feel pretty bad about mid-day. I took both of the kids to the doctor where he said we all had a case of the stomach flu and that we've probably had it a while, considering that I had actually gotten sick suddenly at 1 am on Black Friday. I chalked that up to a full day of shopping and not much food or rest, but I guess it was worse than I thought! I felt the worst on Thursday night. Chris was a good husband and dad and took care of the kids and fed them dinner and got them ready for bed all by himself while I laid on the couch and didn't move. Last night we met Wade, Margie, Trav and Ma at IHOP for hot chocolate and pancakes. It was pretty late by the time we got there and Bostyn was acting really tired but I guess she didn't feel good again because she was just sitting there and suddenly threw up again. She didn't move afterwards, she just sat there and cried while I had to take off all of her clothes and clean her up. Chris came home early from work on Saturday due to the sickness. He only lasted about 45 minutes before he came home. He was a real trooper though and spent the day running errands with us and then spent hours house shopping before we finally got to IHOP. We hope that we have all finally kicked the bug and can start a normal week tomorrow so we can get in a full week of work before the breaks over the holidays. We will keep you posted if anything worsens and we hope that all of the Wilker's and Matich's are feeling great!

Chris & I

Here is Chris and I at the Melting Pot last Saturday for Matich's big 3-0 birthday bash. It was a lot of fun to hang out with the family and the Matich's. The kids had a lot of fun with Rob, Casey, Kaylie and Keegan. Here is also a picture of Bostyn loving Shy Shy (Rob's dog).

My life
charred remains of a flame that’s burned out
my lips move but they won’t make a sound
I stand motionless, eyes to the ground
back for more
with reopened scars i remain
battered savagely, knees start to shake
I just stand there, I take it, I wait
I’m just waiting for time to erase
and the world to change
until then I will strive for nothing more
I’ll just wait for my heart to break
and arise from ash, reborn
look at me
cut my eye and allow me to see
what my life has become on my knees
I hear the screams, I watch myself bleed
but ? can’t feel a thing
what am I
but a victim unwilling to rise
wretched shell of a man and his pride
why stop living, I’m just waiting to die
my life it’s so familiar
why lie when everything’s the same
but who am I, and what am I waiting for anyway
and I will die waiting to be reborn...

Game on!

Here are some cute pics of Bostyn bowling on our Wii. She actually did really good, with a little help from Chris. Noah slept through the game but woke up early this morning and him and Chris played Mario Kart for almost an hour. I, of course, was sleeping so I didn't get any pictures but I will next time. There are also a few pics of the kids that are just super cute and I couldn't resist posting them.

Here's a picture of Noah's foot on Bostyn's car seat and Bostyn was holding his foot.

Black Friday MADNESS!!!

Chris woke up at 3:30 this morning to go stand in line at Target. Crazy man. I slept in (but I also went to bed a lot later too) and got up at 5 am. I met Chris, Amber & Matich in line at 5:40, so I didn't have to wait long before we got inside. Poor Chris was soaked from all of the rain earlier however. I guess he had sent me a text at 4 am saying I might need to bring an umbrella. I don't remember getting that message, but my phone was in my hands when I woke up an hour later! Here's how our day mapped out:

Target
Wal-mart
Game Crazy
Einsteins
Home. I took a nap. Chris couldn't because his phone kept going off.
Back to Target to use coupon we forgot earlier
World Market
CostCo
Home. Kids came home!!
Pizza Hut
Home

When Margie & Wade dropped off the kids, Noah was sound asleep in his car seat. Chris had to carry him inside, where he fell back asleep on the couch while Bostyn ran around screaming and played Wii. I took Noah into our bed so he could sleep and Bostyn could play in his room. 2 hours later, Noah was still zonked out and it was time to put a very cranky little girl to bed (not me, Bostyn) so I put Noah in his bed. At midnight I checked on Noah, who was still asleep but soaking wet from wetting the bed (it had been at least 6 hours, he held out a long time!). So I woke him up to change his clothes, give him a Huggies wipe bath and make him go to the bathroom. For being woken up and being moved around so much earlier, he was in a really good mood. When I took his shirt off he told me, good job! Of course he was hungry & he told me he wanted Mac & Cheese. He settled for a bowl of cereal instead and I let him watch some cartoons & we talked about his trip. He told me he had lots of fun & played with toys only a little bit. And he didn't eat a lot and uncle Trav got mad at him. That's how a 3 year old sums up a 3 day trip! Chris would like it if I only talked that much ;)

To sum it all up, it was really nice to have alone time with my husband, but we missed our kids so much and a few times it felt like we had no idea what to do without our children running around the house. We were truly lost without them. We got a lot of shopping done but we didn't finish all of it like we've done the last couple of years, so that means a few crazy weeks lie ahead, but if it means finding great gifts, its worth it.

Happy Turkey Day!

I know its a day late, but better late than never is my motto! Chris & I had a fairly uneventful Thanksgiving, but we caught some movies & spent the day together, and that's always nice. Wednesday night we stayed up until 2 am playing Wii. Chris was a good husband and let me sleep in until 10:30. When he was unsuccessful getting me out of bed, he shut the bedroom door and left to run errands. Frenchie did not like being shut in and managed to get me out of bed half an hour later with her whiny meowing. After Chris got home, we went to Jordan Landing to see some movies. While standing in line to buy our tickets, I managed to spill about half of my drink into my purse and it was dripping out of the bottom! I spent the previews and the first 10-15 minutes of Role Models in the bathroom washing my leather purse in the sink and trying to dry it with the hand dryer that shut off every 5 seconds even with my hands under it the entire time. After Role Models we snuck in to Four Christmases during the previews. We ate a lot of popcorn and no lunch, so I was starving and ready to grub by the time we got home but we cleaned up our house instead. When Chris helps it gets done so much faster! My mom dropped off sweet potatoes and fruit salad and Honeybaked Ham provided our delicious pre-cooked oven roasted turkey breast and rolls. The only thing I had to do was open a can of cranberry sauce, make honey butter and heat corn. It was strange not having our babies, but we knew they were having a good time with the rest of the family. Apparantly Noah decided that because it was a holiday, he could wear his pj's all day and not dress up. Whatever! I think its really cute that he thinks that. We'll see if tries it again for Christmas.

And away they go...

It took a lot of hard thinking and decision-making, but Chris and I let Margie & Wade take the kids to St. George for Thanksgiving. We will miss them terribly, but it will give Chris and I chance to spend time together and do some things around the house for a few days.

Noah had school today, where he made an Indian hat with a feather. Chris left work for a long lunch to pick Noah up from school and spend some time with Noah and Bostyn before they got picked up. When Chris came home from work we went to Five Guys Burgers for dinner. Not bad. Then we went to Honeybaked Ham Co and picked up our turkey for tomorrow just minutes before they closed (we're last minute, I know I know).

We will spend our first night together playing our new Wii game system that Chris bought really cheap from his friend, and then tomorrow we will spend our day catching up on movies in the theaters. I'll let you know tomorrow which ones we make it to. Then we will enjoy a special Thanksgiving dinner for two, and then up before the crack of dawn on Black Friday to get in (hopefully) the rest of our shopping, like we have done the last few years.

I give it a week, tops

The neighbors didn't take the kitten to the vet today. Now they will probably have to wait at least until Monday, not many vet offices are open on Saturdays. Margie said they took the kitten inside but set out food & water bowls outside. That seems like a weird place to put them after they told Margie it would be an indoor cat....

We just feel so awful that this poor kitten is not being taken care of. We don't want it to end up like the other cats that sit outside Margie's door, begging for food or sleeping in her car to escape the freezing temps. None of the cats are fixed either, so any one of them can have kittens of their own & they will go through the same thing.

Sooooo....

So we gave the kitten back. The previous owners promised to take it to a vet (which they told Margie they would do first thing this morning but as of noon she hadn't even been home to pick up the kitten to take it to the vet...) and we hope they will take good care of this kitten. Margie has given them 2 other cats and they already had a cat, and all 3 of them run around in the wild and guess who feeds them? Margie. So I'm sure that Banjo (Noah named the kitten) will be outside running around, getting knocked up with the rest of them. Margie said that if she ends up taking care of that cat more than her neighbors do, then she will just bring it over. It's bound to happen, what makes this cat different than the other 3 that the neighbors claim to have? So she'll be home in the next week or so, still sick with worms I bet. Poor little thing.

Pajama day

Noah's preschool did a pajama party today. Noah got to bring 1 stuffed animal (his monkey, of course) and they watched a movie and ate popcorn. *sigh* I miss being a kid.

Thanks guys...

So apparantly people haven't been able to read my postings for a while due to the font color fading into the background. Thank you Steph for telling me! I've changed my background so I have a more holiday-appropriate blog anyway. There a few things that are hard to read still but I will try to figure out how to change that font color soon!

A new member of the family?

Monday night Chris picked the kids up from Margie's after work. As he was there, he found one of the freaking cutest little kittens we've ever seen wandering around outside in the freezing cold. He didn't tell me, but he decided to bring it home for just the night so we could play with it & love it. I think something might be wrong with it's stomach because the cat is like a furry balloon with 4 legs attached to it, its belly is swollen to about twice the size it should be. The kitten is really super cute & playful with both of the kids, which is great because Frenchie can barely stand to even be in the same room as anyone but me. She usually only likes to coming out when she can have me all to herself. Or when she needs to beg for food. She doesn't like having another cat in the house, but she was the same way with Gucci, and they quickly became best friends & slept together every night. When Chris came home he announced that he wanted to keep the kitten, but apparantly Margie's neighbor came over today & asked if she had seen the baby cat anywhere, it was their's. We honestly don't feel like they deserve to have the cat back after they left it outside in freezing temps & there is obviously something wrong with it & needs to be looked at by a vet. Pretty much the rest of the family agreed but we haven't decided what to do yet. What do you think?

New 'do

after months & months since Noah's last haircut, I finally put my foot down & took him in to get it cut yesterday. He ended up with a mini mohawk & steps in the back. It's awesome! I asked him if his head felt smaller afterwards & he said yes. That's pretty sad but I'm glad to see that poof ball off of his head!

family movie night!

Hopefully everyone knows that Wall*e came out on DVD today! I went all out & bought the special 3-disc edition with tons of bonus features & a digital copy to download onto our computer. Chris & I decided to have the family over for make-your-own bagel pizzas and movie night! It was a lot of fun seeing wall*e on our new HD tv too. Who knew we were missing out on so much on our almost 7 year old tv! I can't wait for when all the stations switch to digital. They should've done that a long time ago.

Disney On Ice

Disney on Ice was this past Friday! Most of the girls from my work went, along with Lindsey's, Soraya's and Hilda's daughters. We all met up at Applebee's for lunch before but I couldn't resist buying a gigantic bucket of the saltiest popcorn I've ever eaten in my life... but it was SO good. Well worth 5.75. Noah kept yelling out, asking me questions and wanting to sit next to Rosy. He spent a good amount of time sitting on Chelsea's lap, and Bostyn couldn't keep her eyes off of the show when it was Beauty and the Beast. She also loved the guy sitting in front of us and his daughter that was dressed as a princess. She kept pulling on his shoulder and "talking" to him and his little girl loved playing with Bostyn. It was cute. Noah got Mickey Mouse binoculars and Bostyn got a Belle doll that is covered in glitter, which means that everything else got covered in glitter too. She loved it so much that she carried it around everywhere with her and even gave it a kiss or two. As we were leaving, we got to say hi to Cassie, Brandon and Norah for a second. Poor Norah looked like she didn't even know who I was! I grabbed my camera but of course the battery was out of it. So I did the best I could with my phone's camera and Chelsea's going to email me some of her pics, so I can post some later. Today Noah asked if we could go to Disney On Ice again with daddy. It was cute.

Christmas in November

Tomorrow Chris and I are driving out to the wonderful town of Wendover for Capitol Building Material's annual Christmas party. We actually really look forward to it every year since it's our one big getaway from the children to spend time with each other for 1 whole night and 2 days. Chris's work pays for everyone's room and a buffet dinner for 2, so it's free for us except gas to drive & $13 movies to rent in our room, gambling and breakfast in the morning. Oh and not to mention all of the Starbucks and RockStar to keep us up past 2 am!

That last paragraph was written before we left for Wendover but it didn't post. So I'm adding on to it to say that even though we did lose money (!) we had a great time and it was a lot of fun. Usually we want to go back almost right away to try and win our money back but I think it's pretty safe to say that we have no desire to go back until next year, and we won't take quite as much money with us this time!

Happy Birthday my man!

So this post is after midnight, so it's going to say that today is Chris's birthday, when in fact, it was yesterday! I can't believe I didn't think to post this birthday wish earlier...

To my wonderful husband:
You're getting old!!! Just kidding, I'm only 6 months younger than you, so if you are getting old, then that means that I am getting old too. You are a fantastic husband and incredible father to our two most beautiful children in the world. Everything you do is for the three of us and you always just give and give of yourself and work yourself silly to give us the things that we need and want. You don't take any time for yourself and are even reluctant to accept a present from me and the kids. But you deserve the world and you could rule it too. You are so incredibly smart and funny and although you are always a jerk, usually, (wink wink) you are the best at making me smile and laugh, even after 7 (!) years. You deserve a great day and I know that for the first half of your day you didn't get one, but I hope that your entire family was able to make up for the crappy part of your day and make it an incredible one.

I love you!
The kids love you!
Frenchie loves you too!

Halloween days

Halloween has been a bold;">blast this year! Having kids is a really good excuse to partake in Halloween-related festivities without seeming creepy. But having kids also lets you do a lot more things that you normally wouldn't do, like make tutus or try to plan a central theme to all of our costumes (I didn't think of the theme until last minute, so we ended up all doing our own thing, but there is always next year!). All of the activities that we did this year are as follows:

Buy lots of Halloween merch, such as towels, skeleton shower curtain, skeleton bath rug and doormat, wicked cool skull candy bowl that we didn't even get to use yet, shoes to turn into Dorothy's sparkly red heels, skull & crossbones table runner, witch's hats lights, and skull candle holders. I don't think that was even half of what we bought!
Spent a day with the witches at Gardner Village
Made Bostyn's tutu
Searched frantically for an under shirt to match Bostyn's costume, with no luck
Went Trunk-or-Treating
Halloween party at Dr. Boyack's house
Dressed as a hippie
Dressed as Dorothy
Almost got Chris to dress up
Carved pumpkins at Ron & Mo's
Had pictures taken of the kids in their costumes
Walked around our condos to check out decorations
Ate lots of candy
Noah's party at his school
Made cupcakes and spiders

Make a Smilebox scrap pages

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Halloween craft

Yesterday (fri) the kids and I went to Margie's after Noah got out of school and we decorated cupcakes!!! We also made cute little spiders, and today, the kids and I went to Gardner Village and made Bostyn a tutu. It was just for fun, but now I think we may return her fairy costume and just use her tutu and a long-sleeve shirt or something. Haven't decided, because her fairy costume has wings on it already, and I don't know where to buy wings small enough for a 15 month old. I can barely even find shoes small enough to fit her! But we have matching tights and a wand, so we're halfway there. Tonight we'll be going back to Gardner Village to walk around, do the scavenger hunt, take pics of all the witches, and just have lots of fun. Will put pics up later. Boo!!!

Funny pics

I've gotten quite a few pictures in my email recently, and lots of them are so funny, that I wanted to share them with you guys. Enjoy!

Why I love Utah

The mountains in Utah have always been one of the top things I love about Utah. They're a HUGE part of why I never want to move far away. It's been a long time since we've gone for a drive up the canyon, but we picked the perfect time to do it, because the leaves were gorgeous! I don't remember ever seeing them so bright. Noah was quite the mountain climber, he's a natural! Pretty soon he'll be snowboarding down them. Bostyn wanted to walk around too SO bad, but she didn't have shoes. She kept getting so mad at me. When Chris and Noah climbed up further and I was taking pictures of them, she got scared and was freaking out. As soon as Chris came down, she hugged him so tight. It was cute!