All I want for Christmas.......

A clean house.. That I didn't have to clean :)
The dishes done and put away.
My carpet cleaned
Nicholas to be potty trained :)
The kids quit telling me that they are bored
A bigger kitchen, where I actually have room for stuff
Someone to make dinner other than me!
The laundry done for at least more than a day.
Shawn to actually think and care about getting me a Christmas gift before Christmas Eve!
Shawn to write me a love letter instead of worrying on Christmas eve about getting me a gift.
The dog to not have any accidents in the house!!
A new kitchen table.
Donny to be my friend and actually know who I am
Donny to sing to me
My sister Lori to come and visit me!!
For everyone to stop telling me I need to go on biggest loser or that I need to have a gastric bypass.
My kids to stop saying that I am the worst mom in the world or that they hate me.
To be 10 years younger
My 20 year high school reunion not to be in 6 months
To be out of credit card debt
My hair to stop going grey so often
My kids to realize I have a life that isn't centered around them, oh wait I don't have one

I guess you could say for Christmas this year I am asking for a miracle!

Disneyland!!

I'm finally going to blog about my family trip. We had so much fun!!! the first day traveling down to Sunny California was quite an adventure. The freeway got shut down at the Nevada California border for almost 3 hours. Luckily it was by a mall so we went shopping. We got in California to late to try and go to the beach, so we just went to the motel and went out to dinner and found a target so we could get swimming suits to go swimming at the motel. anyway, the next day we wake up early to go into Disneyland, we had the early entrance tickets, and Nicky has a fever and threw up. I felt bad for him. We gave him Tylenol and took him anyway. The first ride we went on broke down so we were caught in the line for about 35 min. while we were there we ran into Shawn's sister, who had been there since Monday. My Mom bought us tiaras that she found at the mall and she made us wear them on the first day there. Ok I was embarrassed, but oh well I will never see these people again, so who cares right? That was the best day there. Not to many people just perfect. We didn't have to wait very long for any ride.
We ate dinner that night at the Blue Bayou. It's the restaurant inside of the pirates ride. It was so awesome!!! I would say that was a highlight of the trip. The food was so good. The dessert was shaped like a pirate ship and it came with a souvenir sail. The fireworks were amazing!! The made it snow after that was so cool! I totally loved the new Buzz Lightyear ride. It was fun shooting the targets. Friday and Sat were pretty much crowded there and cold. Shawn and Scott stayed til midnight one night. They had tons of fun. We came home on Sunday from California all the way to Kaysville. We left at 7 am and got home at 7:30 pm A long ride! We had DVD's to watch, so it wasn't that bad. My Mom and Dad came with us a brought my niece. We really had tons of fun playing and might I add SHOPPING at Disneyland. It is so beautiful there at Christmastime!! Ps My score is zero cause Nicky just handed it to me

Christmas at Disneyland

Well, we are off to Disneyland. We love to go to Disneyland at Christmas and see the beautiful decorations. We went there 4 years ago, so its time to go again. I can't wait to see Nicholas's reaction to all of the rides and characters. Hopefully we will have time to go to the beach and play in the sand. We are driving so we have plenty of movies to watch in the car. Ok I should stop blogging and pack the car up. We are just so excited, our two favorite things together, (MY 2 favorite things) CHRISTMAS & DISNEYLAND!!!!!

Happy Birthday !!

Happy Birthday Donny!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Well, we are off to go down to St.George for Thanksgiving! yeah. It has been awhile since we went down there. I love going down there to see my family. We always have lots of fun playing games after dinner. This year it is Nicholas' Birthday, so we will have a party after to celebrate it. We always go the craft fair that is going on that weekend. St. George is always crowed and
packed this time of year. trying to go to the after Thanksgiving day sales is a total nightmare. Maybe this year we should just hang out at grandma's house and have fun. We usually have a tradition to cut down a Christmas tree; however, everyone has a fake tree so I doubt we will go this year. I love Thanksgiving time! I have so much to be thankful for. My life has been so blessed. I hope you all have a great THANKSGIVING!!!

Slowly but surely

OK, so it's time to blog again. Nothing really has gone on to blog about. The everyday life of a mom trying to raise a teenager, a tween daughter and a 2 year old, is quite full of drama and surprises, some good and some well, not so good, Especially if you add the naughty little puppy Shawn gave me for my birthday. So you would think I would have tons to blog about. Anyway, It is getting exciting that the addition now has a definite shape to it. The cement guy came and put the forms up to pour the concrete for the addition. I am looking at the size of it all and I am thinking my master bedroom is going to be a small room. Shawn spent hours digging a hole for the pipes to go in for the plumbing. I still think it will take about 2 years until its completely done. I am so glad that Shawn is so handy that he can do a lot of the work himself. I am also glad that he doesn't read my blog! :)

Bored, Nothing to blog.

Do you ever feel like you are stuck in a rut? I am feeling that way now, I have nothing to blog about. No fun events, other than play group, to talk about. Ok, there is the daily events that happen when you have a almost 2 year old a puppy and a cat running around. They love to drive me nuts all day and make so many messes for me to clean up. That is my life right now. I am so looking forward to YW tonight. I get to get out of my house and do something. Tomorrow the cement guy is suppose to come and pour the footings for the addition, we'll see if he actually comes. If he does, yippee I will have something to actually blog about and not go on talking about nonsense! Does anyone ever read my blog anyway? I always wonder if anyone does.

Pictures

My trophy from the chili cook off!

Kids at the pumpkin patch

Nicholas loves to ride on a horsey.

My sister Sarah and her kids.

Guess which one is who's.

Here are the halloween pumpkins that we carved. Can you guess whose is whos? Ok how the heck do you spell that? I ended up carving all of them, but the kids did the patterns on them.

Dreaming of Donny!!!

Yeah!!! I got my pillow case in the mail today. I am excited. Now I can take Donny to bed with me and into my dreams! :) I found this cute pillowcase on ebay, and you know I just had to have it. The picture above is not the real one, but i just made it look similar. My name is in the same print as the other writing. I wonder what Shawn is going to think of it when I take it to bed with me tonight. I love Donny, but Shawn is my biggest love of all!!!

Pat's bread bowls

Sunday we went to the Buchanan's house for dinner. We each had Chili left over from the Chili cook off, so Patrick said he'd make some bread bowls for our chili. yeah, I said Patrick. I wish Shawn knew how to cook. I mean I wish he could cook anything , ok besides toast. It would be nice not to have to cook day in and day night, for people who only complain about what you make. Ok I will stop now, for I could go on and on. Anyway, back to the bread bowls, they were so good. I like Patricks roll recipe, it the Lion House dinner rolls. Sorry Patrick if I just gave away your secret recipe. I dare say Holly is lucky to have someone who will cook for her. After dinner we played the WII and Holly and Pat played singing star on the playstation. They rocked out to the 80's. They were sonny and Cher! Hey no, They were Donny and Marie!

Chili cook off!!

I made some chili for the ward chili cook off . I cooked the chili all day long and I thought that my chili didn't turn out very good at all. I used beans that I had soaked the night before, and even with cooking them all day they still came out a little hard. I decided to take my chili anyway, I am glad I did because I won third place in the chili cook off! Yeah, I was so shocked, I still cant believe it. I wonder if the andes mint chocolate chip that Scott threw in the chili made the difference?!

Jenny DeCow's award winning Chili

3 cups pinto beans (soak them the night before)
2 15 oz cans petite diced tomatoes I used chipotle flavored
2 15 oz cans tomato sauce
1 15oz can of black beans
2 lbs Hamburger
1 onion (cook with hamburger)
2 pkgs chili seasoning
1 andes mint chocolate chip (optional)

Cook pinto beans on low for about 3 hrs, drain. Add tomatoes and tomato sauce and one pkg of seasoning. Cook on high for about 3 hrs. Add black beans and cooked hamburger, onion and chili seasoning. Cook until your ready to eat.

So, there you have it. That is how I made my chili. I didn't even get a chance to eat it.

Donny Time!!!

Yeah I am so excited!! It came today!! I got my Donny watch!! I bought it of ebay. So if you see me ask me what time it is so I can show of my watch and how cute Donny is!!

Goats are gone

Well, we had to say goodbye to the goats. It was pretty sad to see Madi and Scott say their final farewells. Nicholas just cried when the new owners came to get them. They will be living in Bountiful on a 7 acre home. I guess knowing they are going to a family with kids will be nice.

Happy Birthday Scott!!!!

Can you believe I have a 14 year old!! It seems like just a short time ago I was taking him to kindergarten for the first time. Now he is in 8 th grade and determined to make a 4.0. Where has the time gone! Let me tell you, it is way harder to buy presents for a teen that it was when he was younger. The presents get bigger and more expensive. He got a machine gun airsoft riffle and a lego set. I hope he had a good birthday. It was actually Monday, but I was busy trying to get his presents. Tonight he has a choir concert at the high school. He looked so cute in his choir tux this morning. He was holding his machine gun this morning, he looked like a character from a James Bond movie. He is a funny boy and lots of fun. I enjoy watching Star Trek with him every night. He is such a good big brother too. I appreciate all that he does for me. Happy Birthday Scott!!!

Goodbye Goats :(

OK, I have some rather sad and frustrating news to tell. Some cowardly Self-Righteous person called the Davis County Animal Control on us to report our goats. The Animal Control lady came over yesterday and informed me that we must get rid of our goats because our property was not big enough for them. Get Real!!! what a lame excuse! If they were dogs, even regular sized or large dogs it doesn't matter how big your yard is. The goats are very small and have plenty of room. The neighborhood has enjoyed having them here. We are always getting people over to come see the goats. (or so we thought!) We have never had anyone complain about them at all. So to that cowardly person who called the DCAC to complain, I would like you to come to my house and tell my kids that they have to get rid of their pets that they have come to love, and see how you are breaking their hearts! Just because you were jealous or thought you were doing your civic duty, but really your just butting into someone business and you didn't even have the courage to come and tell me what you thought of the goats yourself. Thanks a lot!!! oh yeah, thank you to my neighbor (Pat) who broght me 2 boxes of my favorite cookies, that helped a little. :)

Gotta love Build A Bear!!

Confession time!

I love to go to Build a Bear. I tell the kids the bears or whatever we pick to make are for them, but secretly I love to go to build a bear! Something about picking out your cute little fury friend, stuffing him and putting in a heart, bathing him, just makes me feel like a kid again. I would have loved to go to Build a Bear as a child, but as a so called grown up, I can go as much as I want. Well, I have to do something while Scott is at the planetarium. I am always getting 5 dollar off coupons and you get parking validations for buying something, so I am really saving money, right? Here are some cute pictures of Nicholas at Build A Bear.

Madison sings at the conference center!

Madison has spent the last couple of Sundays practicing with the kaysville region children's choir. They will be singing in the saturday afternoon session of General Conference. I was able to watch her practice this past saturday at the conference center. We were not able to get close, so unless you had a very good camera you didn't get that great of pictures. I did get a couple though. When I walked into the conference center, I immediately knew where Madison was standing. She was wearing a pink shirt, almost a hot pink shirt. She really stood out in the crowd. Needless to say they "vetoed" her outfit. Its funny though, because they had like two other outfit inspections and they never said anything. That's okay though,it just meant I get to go shopping!!! After the dress rehearsal we went to the gateway to go shopping. Oh and of course Scott had to make a b line straight to the planetarium. I don't know how he can spend so much time, he goes there all the time but he love it. Anyway, we found Madison a soft pink blouse to wear for the conference. Now it will be harder to find her in the choir. She is in the middle section somewhat by the organ. She is looking forward to singing, I'm looking forward to seeing her on TV. :)

Houston we have a lift off!!

Finally!!! We have started to demolish and get ready to build on to our house! I think Shawn is having to much fun demolishing. I am not looking forward to this project, but the end result will be worth it. I'm guessing it will take Shawn about 2 to 3 years to complete this. (I really hope he never reads my blogs) Ok, Well it took him about two years to build a bathroom downstairs, and its a tiny bathroom!

Goodbye to Summer

We had a lot of fun this summer. We went to the Gateway a lot, thanks to Scott and his wanting to go to the planetarium... all the time!! I am so tired of that place, we go there all the time. I do like to go shopping there and going to Build A Bear is always fun. We went to Cherry Hill a lot too, that is always fun. Nicholas loves to swim and just float around in the lazy river. I love fall and winter so I am getting excited for the seasons and holidays. I love decorating my house.

Help!! I'm getting sucked back in!!

ok, school has been going now for 2 weeks and I am already getting sucked back into the world of soaps. I just love looking at Sonny and Jason on General Hospital. I am doing good though, I'm not watching as many as I use to. I would say only the ones between 1 and 3 p.m . I just can't help it, I really need to know who Sonny really loves, and if Jason will ever be with Elisabeth. How is Johnny going to be acquitted of murder, and will Lulu confess? Then on Days you have Stephano who came back from a coma, who knows what he has in store for the town of Salem this time. It really isn't fair to Shawn cause I want him to be romantic like the cute guys on the soaps. I really shouldn't get started back watching them again, but come on, I need a little romance in my life. :)

It Came!! I Love Donny!!

I Have been waiting for 5 weeks for my package I ordered from Donny.com. Today the wait is over! I got my Donny tote bag and CD!! I love it! the tote bag is a little big, but who cares, I love it. It has Donny on it! He is so cute!!

Swiss Days!

This weekend I went to Swiss Days in Midway. First off I want to say, I love that little town. I like the houses there. Midway is so pretty and green I love that. I liked how they decorate for the Swiss days. Now to the Swiss day festival, It was so crowded! I must say there were probably 3000 people there. Most of them in line for food when we went to get food. We just decided to forget eating there and just look at the booths. My parents came up and my sister Sarah was with us. It is so hard to go in a group when it is crowded, because its hard to stay together. It was so hot. Anyway, the booths were cool and they had a lot of cute and should I say, very expensive stuff. We looked at the booths very fast cause of all the people. I ended up getting a dinky little bracelet. The verdict, driving all that way to Swiss Days and trying to see the booths with 3000 other people, uh that's not worth it. I can't wait til next year! :)

PS
I can't wait til the craft fair at the country Barn here in Kaysville, its this weekend.
I did find some great deals at Fashion Bug Monday. I got me some cute clothes! :)

Hapy Birthday Madison!!!!

Today is Madison's b-day!! She is now 11 years old. Oh how the time passes by so quickly!! One year til she is in young womens. Hopefully I can still be in it with her, that would be loads of fun! She wanted an earth cake so I just finished making her one. She loves to do crafts, (I wonder where she gets that from) and she loves to read. Here she is with my mom. Isn't she the cutest!!

Enterprise Corn Festival!!

We woke up Saturday morning and decided to go down to Enterprise to the corn festival. My sister Annette lives in Enterprise. It was a long ride for a one day trip. When we got there we went to the school where the festival was. We made it to late for the car show, but we saw the booths. My niece Jandi took us to her booth, the cheerleaders were selling snow cones. After we went to the festival we bought 2 dozen corn. You cant go all the way down to the corn festival and not get corn! Anyway, we had another reason for going down, my sister gave me her old piano. we only spent like a couple pf hours there then we had to head for home. On the way home, I realized I had left the corn I bought in my mom's car! I was so mad. Poor Shawn got nagged at for a good hour. It was a fun day to see my family and go to the festival, but it was a long day of riding in the truck.

16 Years!!!! Together Forever!!!

Shawn and I were married 16 years ago today!!! Can you believe it?! 16 years. That is a mighty long time. We have gone through a lot together, some good times and some not so good times. I am so lucky to have a great and way cute guy like Shawn. He has stayed with me even though I haven't been such a wonderful wife, mother or housekeeper. He is so cute with Nicholas. I wish more people could see that side of him. I love Shawn's sense of humor, he is always trying to make me laugh. Shawn can fix anything, he has saved us so much money by fixing our cars and house. I love that Shawn is not into sports! I don't have to watch football or basketball all the time. Last year for our anniversary he went to a Donny concert with me. Him actually going with me, Now that is love. I am bummed, this year Shawn has inventory at work so we won't even be able to celebrate our anniversary. I guess I will celebrate it with the best three things I have gotten from our life together, our kids.

Candy!! Candy!! Candy!!

Tuesday we went to the Sweet's candy factory. We had to wear hair nets, which Nicholas loved. It was really cool to see how they make the candy. My favorite part was going into the chocolate room. It smelled delicious! Along the tour they would give you some samples of the candy. YUMMY! I wanted to take pictures but they would not allow cameras. At the end of the tour they gave us each a bag of salt water taffy. There was a store there too, so you know I had to stalk up on candy, especially chocolate orange sticks!! Talk about YUMMY!!!

Camping

We went camping last weekend at Hawkins Reservoir in Idaho, its about an hour and half away. We didn't leave the house until 7pm on Friday. Lets just say we put the tent up in the dark. It really wasn't to bad though, with the full moon that night it really seemed light. We had the campground all to ourselves, which was nice. I like to sit around the fire and watch it burn and just talk and have fun. I like the peace and quite and just being around nature and seeing squirrels. I like roasting marshmallows and making smores. If that was all there was I would love to camp all the time, but with camping comes the not so fun parts. I hate sleeping on the ground. I hate the bugs. I hate the toilets that are just the hole in the ground. I hate that there was no water. I mean no water in the bathrooms no faucets and no water at the campground. When you camp with Shawn you might as well camp alone, he will be fishing the whole time. Then, he thinks it would be so fun for me to sit there and watch him fish. Yeah right, He didn't even catch anything. Me and Madi were so bored she started to sing into her water bottle and act silly. I guess you could say the kind of camping I like is camping at Yellowstone. Yellowstone has campgrounds with showers, or even cabins and cute gift shops and even little diners. Shawn could go fishing all day, cause I could go see the hot pots and go shopping! Now, that's my kind of camping!!

Are You Kidding Me??!!

I went to the fair on Friday to enter Nicholas in the baby contest. Last year I put him in, but when there are so many cute little girls all dressed up, a boy has no chance of winning. This year they separated the boys from the girls. Nicholas went on stage and while he was walking across the stage he was waving at Scott and Madi and the crowd. He really did look so adorable. He was holding his number and waving it. There were a lot of cute little boys, some with cute curls and some dressed so cute. The Davis county princess's were the judges. when they announced who won, I couldn't believe who the girls had picked. No, not my cute precious adorable Nicholas, but some boy who I must say, was not all that cute. OK, sounds like I may be a little prejudice. we did get a certificate and a ribbon. I did have someone come to me and say Nicky so should have won. Well, he is a winner in my book!!!

2008 Olympics

Is anyone watching the Olympics? I have been enjoying watching them. Ok, I so love to watch men's gymnastics. Girls, you gotta love those muscles!! It was fun to see them get so excited when they won the bronze medal. Now, for the girl's gymnastics, the were less then happy to win the silver medal. They were so close to getting the gold, but a few mistakes kept them from taking the gold from the Chinese. Ok, I totally think that the Chinese team is cheating. Helloo, their girls look like they are 13 or 14 years old. The legal age to be in the Olympics is 16.
Anyway i am just saying if they would have a little girl lip sync to a song she isn't singing, because the real girl singing isn't cute enough, they totally would lie about their girls ages. I am so amazed at how fast Michael Phelps can swim. He is so amazing and fun to watch. My favorite thing is to watch how excited they get when they win.

Science Expedition!!

We drove up farmington canyon for a little science expedition. Scott was told that the mountain was actually a volcano. We have had discussions whether it was true or not. My friend Julie said she'd take us up to the top to see what kind of rocks we could find. I was totally freaked out. I hate narrow windy roads, especially when there are these massive cliffs. I must say I did pretty good and didn't EEK (as Julie would say)to much. Are you kidding me, I was screaming inside. I didn't want Nicholas to see me scared so I kept quiet. The pictures I took of the cliffs do not do it justice. I was not going closer to get a better picture. When we got to the top it was like going to the clouds, all you could see were massive clouds. The view from the top was so beautiful and it was cold. So refreshing after these hot days. Scott found a bunch of rocks he brought home with him, to study and see what kind they are. On the way up we saw 2 baby deer. They were so cute. The drive was fun. We were serenaded the whole time by Nicholas, who I must say was having the time of his life. He loves to be in a car and ride in them. We took the back road that takes you to the bountiful mountains and came home through Bountiful. The Bountiful side was almost as scary as farmington, especially Dead Mans Curve. There are a lot of cars at the bottom of the cliff where people have fallen of. We had a lot of fun on our little adventure, but I am glad to be safe and sound on the ground.